Re: [Wikimedia-l] California drought and WMF

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
When the WMF is to consider the environment, investing in green energy is
the most obvious priority. As it is the locations do use standard grid
energy. Most of the big boys on the Internet, Google, Apple, Microsoft,
Facebook have committed themselves to going green. The Internet if it were
a country would be the eigth country in the world comparatively...

This is only for our servers..

As we are moving into endowments, why not invest in green energy worldwide?
The objective being in two.

   - Invest money
   - offset the use of our projects by our servers and our user communities

When we do this in a collaborative manor we build a large body of knowledge
on green energy and green energy investment opportunities. In the process
we will expose many scams that abuse subsidies for green energy and do not
have the desired positive effect. We would also demonstrate that old ideas
about energy are no longer true. Among them the need for oil from the North
Pole.

Yes, we will make a profit that IS the purpose of an endowment fund.

Thanks,

  GerardM

On 15 September 2015 at 23:41, James Salsman  wrote:

> One thing the Foundation could do to help with climate change and
> water issues other than move office locations, and which is on topic
> because the Foundation has chosen to purchase renewable energy through
> contracting with suppliers in the past, is if the Foundation attempted
> to secure desalinated water from electrodialysis through contracting
> with San Francisco Public Utilities:
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B73LgocyHQnfV1Q4VE45RmFFeFlPSDlKalctVS1nRlYyY3lR
>
> There are two benefits: first, electrodialysis is much less expensive
> than reverse osmosis, in which almost all existing desalination
> companies have a huge amount of institutional inertia-causing
> investments of expert personnel, time, money, tooling, and effort;
> secondly, the same process can directly remove carbon from seawater:
>
> http://talknicer.com/co2extraction.pdf
>
> That is the least expensive method of removing carbon from the
> atmosphere other than collecting it at the smokestack, flare, exhaust,
> and tailpipe. And it pays for itself because it produces fresh water
> as a side effect.
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Universal Design (for learning)

[Nick Wilson (Quiddity)]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 6:48 AM, Juan de Vojníkov 
wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> I am looking for someone/institution which is applying a Universal Design,
> by the means of removing all barriers for people with disabilities. Could
> you give me any contacts, case studies or links?
>
> Thank you very much!
>
>
> Juandev
>
>
>
CCing design list.

Hi Juandev, could you give us a few more details on what you're aiming for,
as a goal?
Are you looking for something to help MediaWiki development become more
accessible, or simply for anything related to online accessibility?  Or
offline, too?

If MediaWiki: There's a compilation of the core links at
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Accessibility_and_usability_cleanup

If general online accessibility: You might be looking for something like
the work by FLOE and GPII and IDRC. eg
http://www.floeproject.org/prefsEditors.html (click the top-right "Show
display preferences" button, and watch the video) plus everything linked
from there..

If general accessibility: I'm not sure, beyond googling for it.

Hope that helps,
Quiddity
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] California drought and WMF

[James Salsman]

One thing the Foundation could do to help with climate change and
water issues other than move office locations, and which is on topic
because the Foundation has chosen to purchase renewable energy through
contracting with suppliers in the past, is if the Foundation attempted
to secure desalinated water from electrodialysis through contracting
with San Francisco Public Utilities:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B73LgocyHQnfV1Q4VE45RmFFeFlPSDlKalctVS1nRlYyY3lR

There are two benefits: first, electrodialysis is much less expensive
than reverse osmosis, in which almost all existing desalination
companies have a huge amount of institutional inertia-causing
investments of expert personnel, time, money, tooling, and effort;
secondly, the same process can directly remove carbon from seawater:

http://talknicer.com/co2extraction.pdf

That is the least expensive method of removing carbon from the
atmosphere other than collecting it at the smokestack, flare, exhaust,
and tailpipe. And it pays for itself because it produces fresh water
as a side effect.

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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Eligibility for 2015-2016 Round 1 Annual Plan Grants confirmed

[Winifred Olliff]

Dear Wikimedia Colleagues:

As you may know, Annual Plan Grants are funds allocated to support an
organization’s annual plan to achieve Wikimedia objectives, and the Funds
Dissemination Committee (FDC) is a group of Wikimedians who make
recommendations to the WMF Board about Annual Plan Grant (APG) proposals.
Proposals to the APG program are accepted twice each year, in April and
October. You may read more about the APG process and upcoming milestones
here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Information.

Today, we are pleased to confirm that fourteen of eighteen organizations
that submitted letters of intent for 2015-2016 Round 1 of the APG process
are eligible to submit proposal forms for 2015-2016 Round 1 by the upcoming 1
October 2015 proposal form due date. Only eligible organizations that have
already submitted letters of intent will be able to submit proposal forms
using their proposal hub pages that were created at the time the letters
were submitted.

The eligible organizations are:

Amical Wikimedia

Wikimedia Argentina

Wikimedia CH

Wikimedia Czech Republic

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.

Wikimedia Eesti

Wikimedia España

Wikimedia Israel

Wikimedia Nederland

Wikimedia Österreich

Wikimedia Serbia

Wikimedia Sverige

Wikimedia UK

Wikimedia Ukraine

Wikimedia Eesti is provisionally eligible pending the submission of
complete financial data for 2014 by the application deadline on 1 October
2014. You may view a detailed summary of how eligibility was determined
here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Eligibility/2015-2016 round1
.

Proposal forms for Annual Plan Grants will be due by 1 October 2015. Here
are some upcoming milestones:
* Eligibility confirmed: 15 September 2015

* Proposals due: by 1 October 2015

* Community review: 1 October 2015 - 30 November 2015

* Staff assessments published: by 8 November 2015

* FDC deliberations: middle of November 2015

* FDC recommendations published: by 1 December 2015

* Board decision: by 1 January 2016

* Start of new grant terms: 1 January 2016

All eligible organizations must continue to comply with any agreements with
WMF and meet all requirements listed in column (T) of the eligibility
checklist in order to maintain eligibility until and after a grant is
received, and the organization may not be able to receive a grant (or funds
may be withheld) if the organization stops being eligible at any point. Once
proposal forms are submitted, a 30-day public review period will begin on 1
October 2015, when comments on the proposal forms are considered as an
important input into the FDC process.

We encourage you to contact fdcsupp...@wikimedia.org with any questions
about the eligibility process or the proposal process. If you have general
questions or concerns, you may also post them here on Meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Comments.

Best regards from FDC staff!

Winifred Olliff

Program Officer
Wikimedia Foundation

-- 
Winifred Olliff
Program Officer
Wikimedia Foundation




-- 
Winifred Olliff
Program Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
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[Wikimedia-l] Eligibility for 2015-2016 Round 1 Annual Plan Grants confirmed

[Winifred Olliff]

Dear Wikimedia Colleagues:

As you may know, Annual Plan Grants are funds allocated to support an
organization’s annual plan to achieve Wikimedia objectives, and the Funds
Dissemination Committee (FDC) is a group of Wikimedians who make
recommendations to the WMF Board about Annual Plan Grant (APG) proposals.
Proposals to the APG program are accepted twice each year, in April and
October. You may read more about the APG process and upcoming milestones
here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Information.

Today, we are pleased to confirm that fourteen of eighteen organizations
that submitted letters of intent for 2015-2016 Round 1 of the APG process
are eligible to submit proposal forms for 2015-2016 Round 1 by the upcoming 1
October 2015 proposal form due date. Only eligible organizations that have
already submitted letters of intent will be able to submit proposal forms
using their proposal hub pages that were created at the time the letters
were submitted.

The eligible organizations are:

Amical Wikimedia

Wikimedia Argentina

Wikimedia CH

Wikimedia Czech Republic

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.

Wikimedia Eesti

Wikimedia España

Wikimedia Israel

Wikimedia Nederland

Wikimedia Österreich

Wikimedia Serbia

Wikimedia Sverige

Wikimedia UK

Wikimedia Ukraine

Wikimedia Eesti is provisionally eligible pending the submission of
complete financial data for 2014 by the application deadline on 1 October
2014. You may view a detailed summary of how eligibility was determined
here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Eligibility/2015-2016 round1
.

Proposal forms for Annual Plan Grants will be due by 1 October 2015. Here
are some upcoming milestones:
* Eligibility confirmed: 15 September 2015

* Proposals due: by 1 October 2015

* Community review: 1 October 2015 - 30 November 2015

* Staff assessments published: by 8 November 2015

* FDC deliberations: middle of November 2015

* FDC recommendations published: by 1 December 2015

* Board decision: by 1 January 2016

* Start of new grant terms: 1 January 2016

All eligible organizations must continue to comply with any agreements with
WMF and meet all requirements listed in column (T) of the eligibility
checklist in order to maintain eligibility until and after a grant is
received, and the organization may not be able to receive a grant (or funds
may be withheld) if the organization stops being eligible at any point. Once
proposal forms are submitted, a 30-day public review period will begin on 1
October 2015, when comments on the proposal forms are considered as an
important input into the FDC process.

We encourage you to contact fdcsupp...@wikimedia.org with any questions
about the eligibility process or the proposal process. If you have general
questions or concerns, you may also post them here on Meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Comments.

Best regards from FDC staff!

Winifred Olliff

Program Officer
Wikimedia Foundation

-- 
Winifred Olliff
Program Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Departure

[Maria Cruz]

I'm sorry to see you go, Garfield.
I wish you the best.



*María Cruz * \\  Communications and Outreach Coordinator, L&E Team \\
Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc.
mc...@wikimedia.org  |  :  @marianarra_ 

On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 12:14 PM, Michael Peel  wrote:

> Hi Garfield,
>
> I'm very sad to hear this news. You've made a big impact on the Wikimedia
> organisations (not just the WMF!) over the last few years, and I'm sure
> that many community members will be using the phrase 'narrative' for years
> to come! I particularly appreciate the work that you've done to review the
> financial systems that the various Wikimedia organisations use, and your
> work helping the FDC assess the financial aspects of proposals.
>
> I wish you all the best with your new job!
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
> > On 10 Sep 2015, at 22:53, Garfield Byrd  wrote:
> >
> > All,
> >
> > For the last four years, I’ve led the Wikimedia Foundation’s finance,
> > administration, and office IT teams. I've had the opportunity to work
> > closely with many of you through collaboration with the Wikimedia
> > affiliates. They have been remarkable experiences, and I am grateful for
> > all I’ve learned from you during my time here. Therefore it is with some
> > sadness that today I am letting you know that I’ve decided to take a new
> > opportunity outside the WMF, at a California-based foundation focused on
> > public education.
> >
> > It has been a privilege to work with so many exceptional people over the
> > years. I’ve watched the WMF mature and take on many new challenges, and
> our
> > community grow and diversify. Our commitment to our free knowledge
> mission
> > is as strong as ever, and now shared by even more people. While I’ll no
> > longer be on staff, I plan to find ways to stay involved in the Wikimedia
> > community. I look forward to seeing the movement continue to do its
> > important work.
> >
> > My last day will be September 30. I look forward to staying in touch and
> > continuing to support our mission.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Garfield
> >
> > --
> > Garfield Byrd
> > Chief of Finance and Administration
> > Wikimedia Foundation
> > 415.839.6885 ext 6787
> > 415.882.0495 (fax)
> > www.wikimediafoundation.org
> >
> > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
> > the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
> >
> > *https://donate.wikimedia.org *
> > ___
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> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] California draught and WMF

[ÀlexHinojo]

Sent from my Casiotone

El 15/09/2015, a les 14.32, Milos Rancic  va escriure:
For the last few years I am thinking about this issue, and as I didn't see
anybody talking about that, I think we should start a kind of low level
discussion, as it doesn't require immediate action.

From what I read, Bay Area is not particularly endangered (although it
could be in the future). Even so, I am sure all WMF employees have enough
money to buy bottled water. I know, of course, they are not in the same
position as Google or Facebook employees, but I think the whole story is
not about water safety of our headquarters.

It's about responsibility. WMF shouldn't spend resources unreasonably if it
doesn't have to. And it's not just about possible "fund for water", which
could become a standard for every Bay Area employer, but also about the
environmental harm of the attitude of keeping yourself in hostile place if
not necessary.

United States don't have the same climate everywhere. There are many places
not that endangered because of the climate change. And I am sure you could
find a good place for the office somewhere else. (OK, Florida is the second
worst option because of floods, but there are many better places.)

I know it doesn't sound solidary. We have a number of friends in Bay Area,
not working for WMF and not willing to move. However, WMF's responsibility
is far beyond local patriotism.

Keep in mind that it's better to move in a year or two and be able to
choose the place, than to do it in five years, when Google decides to move
it's own headquarters.

And we should start talking about this. We need to analyze the risks and
then WMF should make the best possible decision at the best possible time.
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[Wikimedia-l] Universal Design (for learning)

[Juan de Vojníkov]

Hello folks,



I am looking for someone/institution which is applying a Universal Design,
by the means of removing all barriers for people with disabilities. Could
you give me any contacts, case studies or links?



Thank you very much!


Juandev
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[Wikimedia-l] [CIS-A2K] August Newsletter

[Subhashish Panigrahi]

Dear all,

Centre for Internet and Society' Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) program
would like to share with you the newsletter below for the month of August
2015. We look forward to hear any feedback or input you might have.

Odia Wikipedia (available at or.wikipedia.org), an Indian-language
Wikipedia project, celebrated thirteen years of free knowledge contribution
in June 2015. It was one of the first four Indic Wikipedias (Assamese,
malayalam and Punjabi being the other three)to have started in 2002. The
first edit on the Wikipedia was made on 3 June 2002. Currently the project
has over 8,900 articles and about 17 active editors (also known as
"uikiali"). The voluntary editor community has put its efforts into
acquiring valuable content, re-licensing them under Creative Commons (CC)
licenses, and building tools for acquiring more encyclopedic content from
various sources.

Odia Wikipedia community assessment survey June 2015. It gives an overview
about the various hindrances for the growth of Odia Wikipedia and the
community.

During the thirteenth anniversary celebrations, the community came together
to assess community needs, address issues that had been identified earlier
via irc and mailing list discussions, and identify priority areas to focus
on in the future. Odia Wikipedia administrators Mrutyunjaya Kar and
Subhashish Panigrahi designed a needs assessment survey. (
https://or.wikipedia.org/s/tnp) Participating Wikimedians were asked to
discuss various problems they face in editing and outreach two major areas
that ensures quality standards. .

Two-fifths of participants said that problems with the rendering of Odia
characters in different operating systems, ignorance or lack of more
documentation about enabling encoding for Odia, input methods and keyboard
layouts, and other font- and keyboard-related issues as the major reason
for low readership and contribution on Wikipedia.

. . .Read more in the Wikimedia blog at:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/08/21/odia-wikipedia-celebrates-13/
== Event organized/participated ==

(CIS-A2K events page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events)

⬤ Telugu Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Annamacharya library (
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource
):

On 6 August a Telugu Wikipedia edit-a-thon was conducted at Annamacharya
library to preserve rare Telugu literature text. Annamacharya library has a
rare collection of the religious and historical works in Telugu language.
This event was conducted by Telugu Wikipedia Community and the Centre for
Internet & Society's Access To Knowledge program. The second iteration of
the event was organized on 31 August.

⬤ Tamil Virtual University workshop (
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/workshop-on-digital-collaborations-in-tamil-language-tamil-virtual-university-chennai
):

On 8-9 August, a two-day long workshop on digital collaborations in
Tamil-language was organized by Tamil Virtual University, Anna University
Campus, Chennai. U.B.Pavanaja, on behalf of CIS-A2K, participated in this
event. Four major topics discussed during the event were: Digitization,
Research and Development, e-learning and Open source and Outreach.

⬤ SDM Ujire Kannada workshop:

(
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-at-shree-dharmasthala-manjunatheshwara-sdm-college-ujire-karnataka
)

CIS-A2K has ongoing partnership with SDM College, Ujire. The college's
academic year started on 12 August. It was followed by a one-day workshop
where the students were introduced to editing in Kannada Wikipedia. The
head of the journalism department of the College Bhaskar Shetty and others
supported the event.

⬤ Tulu Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Mangalore (
http://cis-india.org/openness/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-in-mangalore-to-bring-tulu-wikipedia-live
):

A three-day edit-a-thon was organized between 14-16 August in Mangalore for
bringing good quality content in Tulu Wikipedia. This event, organized in
collaboration with the Tulu Sahitya Academy and Ramakrishna Pre University
College, saw 30 Wikipedia editors participating and creating about 89 new
articles. 12 of these 30 participants crossed more than 10 edits. Some of
the new participants faced problems with using the input methods and the
Wiki-markup. It is important to note that because of the lack of addition
of Tulu-alphabet code points in the Unicode chart, and the speakers being
well conversant in Kannada, they are using Kannada script for Tulu
Wikipedia Incubator project. There is a plan to organize a monthly meetup
and/or edit-a-thon to continue the momentum these editors have brought in.

⬤ Kannada Wikipedia workshop at DSERT (
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/edit-a-thon-to-improve-kannada-language-science-related-wikipedia-articles-1
):

A Kannada Wikipedia workshop was organized between 18-20 August at the
Department of State Educational Research and Training to improve
scienc

[Wikimedia-l] California draught and WMF

[Milos Rancic]

For the last few years I am thinking about this issue, and as I didn't see
anybody talking about that, I think we should start a kind of low level
discussion, as it doesn't require immediate action.

From what I read, Bay Area is not particularly endangered (although it
could be in the future). Even so, I am sure all WMF employees have enough
money to buy bottled water. I know, of course, they are not in the same
position as Google or Facebook employees, but I think the whole story is
not about water safety of our headquarters.

It's about responsibility. WMF shouldn't spend resources unreasonably if it
doesn't have to. And it's not just about possible "fund for water", which
could become a standard for every Bay Area employer, but also about the
environmental harm of the attitude of keeping yourself in hostile place if
not necessary.

United States don't have the same climate everywhere. There are many places
not that endangered because of the climate change. And I am sure you could
find a good place for the office somewhere else. (OK, Florida is the second
worst option because of floods, but there are many better places.)

I know it doesn't sound solidary. We have a number of friends in Bay Area,
not working for WMF and not willing to move. However, WMF's responsibility
is far beyond local patriotism.

Keep in mind that it's better to move in a year or two and be able to
choose the place, than to do it in five years, when Google decides to move
it's own headquarters.

And we should start talking about this. We need to analyze the risks and
then WMF should make the best possible decision at the best possible time.
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