Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Community Tech: New Format for 2020 Wishlist Survey

2019-10-05 Thread Gerard Meijssen
Hoi,
The disappointing you show and the grotesque conclusions are imho based in
a sense of entitlement. You had it your way for so long and they are now
robbing you from your cookies... It is easy to "forget" that a program
where a majority decides what is on a "community wish list" favours the
biggest projects. It is easy to forget that the WMF has many projects and
your Wikipedia is only one out of over 250 and, there are the "other"
projects as well. So I understand your disappointment and let me give you,
as a solace, my Wikipedia projects that are unlikely to be considered but
will have a positive impact on the quality and usability of Wikipedias

   - Wikidatification of blue red and black links [1] This will improve
   quality on the biggest projects by a 4 to 6% particularly in lists
   - Importing the uncontroversial data from DBpedia [2] This will have a
   quantitative and qualitative impact on the ability of Wikidata to serve
   - Improve the usability of the Wikidata UI [3] This will make Wikidata
   more friendly to other languages then English kick starting labelisation of
   items.
   - Research the effect of Listeria list as a tool to promote diversity of
   content [4] There is another project on Indian Wikipedias that works in a
   similar way but here having the same content in multiple Wikipedias is key.
   - Introduce the "one page wonder" [5] Citations are not read, provide a
   way to read more about subjects and particularly what we have not written
   at the WMF.

I do agree that a one off project is not the best of ideas. A cash rich
organisation like the WMF can afford it to have both a non Wikipedia and a
Wikipedia wish list project a continuous feature of its support.
Thanks,
  GerardM

[1]
https://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2016/01/wikipedia-lowest-hanging-fruit-from.html
[2]
https://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-lowest-hanging-fruit-in-dbpedia.html
[3]
https://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2019/10/what-data-is-wrangled-is-obvious-when.html
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GerardM/Africa
[5]
https://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2019/08/there-is-much-more-to-read-introducing.html



On Sat, 5 Oct 2019 at 01:44, Yuri Astrakhan  wrote:

> Ilana, restricting wishlist to non-Wikipedia this year is a very sad news.
>
> For many years, wishlist survey was the best way for the community to talk
> back to the foundation, and to try to influence its direction. WMF mostly
> ignored these wishes, yet it was still a place to express, discuss,
> aggregate and vote on what community needed. Big thank-you is due to the
> tiny community tech team that tackled the top 10 items, but that's just ~3%
> of the foundation's employees.
>
> WMF has been steadily separating itself from the community and loosing
> credibility as a guiding force.  Take a look at the last election -- almost
> every candidate has said "no" to the question if WMF is capable of
> deciding/delivering on the direction [1].  In **every** single conversation
> I had with the community members, people expressed doubts with the movement
> strategy project, in some cases even treating it as a joke.
>
> This is a huge problem, and restricting wishlist kills the last effective
> feedback mechanism community had.  Now WMF is fully in control of itself,
> with nearly no checks & balances from the people who created it.
>
> I still believe that if WMF makes it a priority to align most of its
> quarterly/yearly goals with the community wishlist (not just top 10
> positions), we could return to the effective community-governance.
> Otherwise WMF is risking to mirror Red Cross Haiti story [2] -- hundreds of
> millions of $$ donated, and very few buildings actually built.
>
> With great respect to all the people who made Wikis what they are today,
> --[[User:Yurik]]
>
> [1]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Questions#Do_you_believe_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_in_its_present_form_is_the_right_vehicle_for_the_delivery_of_the_strategic_direction?_If_so_why,_and_if_not,_what_might_replace_it
> ?
>
> [2]
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Red_Cross#Disaster_preparedness_and_response
>
> On Fri, Oct 4, 2019 at 5:18 PM Ilana Fried  wrote:
>
> > Hello, everyone!
> >
> > My name is Ilana, and I'm the product manager for the Community Tech
> team.
> > We’re excited to share an update on the Community Tech 2020 Wishlist
> Survey
> > . This
> > will
> > be our fifth annual Community Wishlist Survey, and for this year, we’ve
> > decided to take a different approach. In the past, we've invited people
> to
> > write proposals for any features or fixes that they'd like to see, and
> the
> > Community Tech team has addressed the top ten wishes with the most
> support
> > votes. This year, we're just going to focus on the *non-Wikipedia content
> > projects* (i.e. Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Commons, Wikisource,
> > 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Community Tech: New Format for 2020 Wishlist Survey

2019-10-05 Thread Johan Jönsson
Den lör 5 okt. 2019 kl 22:46 skrev Chris Keating :

> the wishlist only reflects
> the needs and perceptions of highly active contributors [at present I think
> it only accepts submissions in English ,which is another obstacle, but that
> could be addressed].

The wishlist has explicitly accepted wishes in any language.

//Johan Jönsson
--

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Community Tech: New Format for 2020 Wishlist Survey

2019-10-05 Thread Chris Keating
Hi Yuri,

I just wanted to respond to this as I think there are two levels of issue
here, and on one level I agree and on another I disagree!

On the more immediate level about "ok, there's a technical wishlist, what
should we do with it" - I think it's a reasonable decision for the WMF to
opt to have a year where the wishlist focuses on non-Wikipedia projects.
Certainly if you talk to people who are mainly active on Wikisource or
Commons or somewhere else they feel Wikipedias get all of the attention,
and it seems to me that this decision is based on people at the WMF hearing
that and finding a way to act on it.

However I agree with most of the rest of your email, particularly the issue
about overall alignment of priorities between the community and the WMF. I
think your question about "what if all the WMF's efforts were focused on
the results of the wishlist?" is quite thought-provoking. I imagine a large
part of the reason this doesn't happen is that the wishlist only reflects
the needs and perceptions of highly active contributors [at present I think
it only accepts submissions in English ,which is another obstacle, but that
could be addressed]. Of course highly active contributors are not the only
audience the WMF is building products for, but "community input" isn't
sought in prioritising projects that mainly affect e.g. reader experience.

Which poses some questions about what a more collaborative approach to
setting priorities for product across the piece might look like - which is
something you can see some of the strategy process recommendations moving
towards. Probably a vote on a wishlist wouldn't be the right way to do it,
because it's a challenging task to try to prioritise e.g. something that
makes life easier for readers in Nigeria vs something that makes life
easier for editors in Germany, and there probably isn't a really simple
solution. However there is almost certainly a better solution than all of
that prioritisation being done within the WMF staff, part for the certain
amount of resource that gets dedicated to the wishlist...

Thanks

Chris

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 12:44 AM Yuri Astrakhan 
wrote:

> Ilana, restricting wishlist to non-Wikipedia this year is a very sad news.
>
> For many years, wishlist survey was the best way for the community to talk
> back to the foundation, and to try to influence its direction. WMF mostly
> ignored these wishes, yet it was still a place to express, discuss,
> aggregate and vote on what community needed. Big thank-you is due to the
> tiny community tech team that tackled the top 10 items, but that's just ~3%
> of the foundation's employees.
>
> WMF has been steadily separating itself from the community and loosing
> credibility as a guiding force.  Take a look at the last election -- almost
> every candidate has said "no" to the question if WMF is capable of
> deciding/delivering on the direction [1].  In **every** single conversation
> I had with the community members, people expressed doubts with the movement
> strategy project, in some cases even treating it as a joke.
>
> This is a huge problem, and restricting wishlist kills the last effective
> feedback mechanism community had.  Now WMF is fully in control of itself,
> with nearly no checks & balances from the people who created it.
>
> I still believe that if WMF makes it a priority to align most of its
> quarterly/yearly goals with the community wishlist (not just top 10
> positions), we could return to the effective community-governance.
> Otherwise WMF is risking to mirror Red Cross Haiti story [2] -- hundreds of
> millions of $$ donated, and very few buildings actually built.
>
> With great respect to all the people who made Wikis what they are today,
> --[[User:Yurik]]
>
> [1]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Questions#Do_you_believe_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_in_its_present_form_is_the_right_vehicle_for_the_delivery_of_the_strategic_direction?_If_so_why,_and_if_not,_what_might_replace_it
> ?
>
> [2]
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Red_Cross#Disaster_preparedness_and_response
>
> On Fri, Oct 4, 2019 at 5:18 PM Ilana Fried  wrote:
>
> > Hello, everyone!
> >
> > My name is Ilana, and I'm the product manager for the Community Tech
> team.
> > We’re excited to share an update on the Community Tech 2020 Wishlist
> Survey
> > . This
> > will
> > be our fifth annual Community Wishlist Survey, and for this year, we’ve
> > decided to take a different approach. In the past, we've invited people
> to
> > write proposals for any features or fixes that they'd like to see, and
> the
> > Community Tech team has addressed the top ten wishes with the most
> support
> > votes. This year, we're just going to focus on the *non-Wikipedia content
> > projects* (i.e. Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Commons, Wikisource,
> > Wikiversity, Wikispecies, Wikidata, Wikivoyage, and Wikinews), and we're
> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Affiliates] Recognition of the Wikimedians of Saint Petersburg User Group

2019-10-05 Thread Paulo Santos Perneta
Hi Farhad,

Very interesting, thank you very much for sharing your insight.
The advantages at an organizational level are quite obvious, indeed, and
it's a smart way to deal with those membership limitations.
I'm glad that the WMF & Wikimedia is abandoning the very rigid chapter
model as the preferred one, and is evolving into more flexible and nuanced
options and varieties, such as those confederations.

Best,
Paulo


Фархад Фаткуллин / Farhad Fatkullin  escreveu no dia
sábado, 5/10/2019 à(s) 15:38:

> Hi folks,
>
> I can probably comment this, as a member of both Wikimedia Russia and a
> Tatar language-specific UG.
> On top of participation in Wikimedia Language Diversity initiative on
> meta, I am also contemplating and working towards starting a
> territory-specific UG for my region + an incubator UG for more
> language-specific UG in the languages of Russia.
>
>
> Wikimedians of Russia seem to see the matreshkas of (1) "global conference
> - regional conference - topic-specific conferences"  & (2) WMF & affiliates
> general meeting - national chapters - UGs" as natural structures, each
> addressing different tasks, having different priorities, whilst cooperating
> in various projects.
>
> * Wikimedia Russia legal requirements (in-person quorum for
> decision-making, etc.) doesn't allow us to accept into membership all
> members of all our regional, language or topic specific UGs. So our chapter
> is evolving towards a mixed confederation status, selectively welcoming
> some members from various groupings around Russia (which themselves can't
> be neither cells nor branches of WMRU).
>
> * SPB is not purely a city, but a one of 85 provinces (read states) of the
> Russian Federation (like my home Republic of Tatarstan, neighbouring
> Republic of Bashkortostan with its Bashkir Wiki-grandmas, or a city of
> Moscow).
>
> * Once we will spin out UG MSK, we will complete transforming Wikimedia
> Russia into a collective entity for join tasks, working on national-level
> advocacy & other projects.
>
> * We currently have 5 existing UGs, have two more filed & at least one
> more at the preparation stage - as this is a good way to engage locally or
> topically interested public into Wikimedia universe.
>
>
> regards,
> farhad
>
> --
> Farhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan /
> Wikipedia:frhdkazan / Wikidata:Q34036417
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Affiliates] Recognition of the Wikimedians of Saint Petersburg User Group

2019-10-05 Thread Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga
Thanks for the clarification and the insights. This could be a really 
interesting organizative model for huge countries, even for countries with more 
than one chapter but not a country level one, as happens in the USA.

2019 urr. 5 4:38 PM erabiltzaileak hau idatzi du (Фархад Фаткуллин / Farhad 
Fatkullin ):

Hi folks,

I can probably comment this, as a member of both Wikimedia Russia and a Tatar 
language-specific UG.
On top of participation in Wikimedia Language Diversity initiative on meta, I 
am also contemplating and working towards starting a territory-specific UG for 
my region + an incubator UG for more language-specific UG in the languages of 
Russia.

Wikimedians of Russia seem to see the matreshkas of (1) "global conference - 
regional conference - topic-specific conferences"  & (2) WMF & affiliates 
general meeting - national chapters - UGs" as natural structures, each 
addressing different tasks, having different priorities, whilst cooperating in 
various projects.

* Wikimedia Russia legal requirements (in-person quorum for decision-making, 
etc.) doesn't allow us to accept into membership all members of all our 
regional, language or topic specific UGs. So our chapter is evolving towards a 
mixed confederation status, selectively welcoming some members from various 
groupings around Russia (which themselves can't be neither cells nor branches 
of WMRU).

* SPB is not purely a city, but a one of 85 provinces (read states) of the 
Russian Federation (like my home Republic of Tatarstan, neighbouring Republic 
of Bashkortostan with its Bashkir Wiki-grandmas, or a city of Moscow).

* Once we will spin out UG MSK, we will complete transforming Wikimedia Russia 
into a collective entity for join tasks, working on national-level advocacy & 
other projects.

* We currently have 5 existing UGs, have two more filed & at least one more at 
the preparation stage - as this is a good way to engage locally or topically 
interested public into Wikimedia universe.

regards,
farhad

--
Farhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / 
Wikipedia:frhdkazan / Wikidata:Q34036417

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Affiliates] Recognition of the Wikimedians of Saint Petersburg User Group

2019-10-05 Thread Фархад Фаткуллин / Farhad Fatkullin
Hi folks,

I can probably comment this, as a member of both Wikimedia Russia and a Tatar 
language-specific UG.
On top of participation in Wikimedia Language Diversity initiative on meta, I 
am also contemplating and working towards starting a territory-specific UG for 
my region + an incubator UG for more language-specific UG in the languages of 
Russia.


Wikimedians of Russia seem to see the matreshkas of (1) "global conference - 
regional conference - topic-specific conferences"  & (2) WMF & affiliates 
general meeting - national chapters - UGs" as natural structures, each 
addressing different tasks, having different priorities, whilst cooperating in 
various projects.

* Wikimedia Russia legal requirements (in-person quorum for decision-making, 
etc.) doesn't allow us to accept into membership all members of all our 
regional, language or topic specific UGs. So our chapter is evolving towards a 
mixed confederation status, selectively welcoming some members from various 
groupings around Russia (which themselves can't be neither cells nor branches 
of WMRU).

* SPB is not purely a city, but a one of 85 provinces (read states) of the 
Russian Federation (like my home Republic of Tatarstan, neighbouring Republic 
of Bashkortostan with its Bashkir Wiki-grandmas, or a city of Moscow).

* Once we will spin out UG MSK, we will complete transforming Wikimedia Russia 
into a collective entity for join tasks, working on national-level advocacy & 
other projects.

* We currently have 5 existing UGs, have two more filed & at least one more at 
the preparation stage - as this is a good way to engage locally or topically 
interested public into Wikimedia universe.


regards,
farhad

-- 
Farhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / 
Wikipedia:frhdkazan / Wikidata:Q34036417

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[Wikimedia-l] She Did It — Writing Challenge Devoted to Ukrainian Women

2019-10-05 Thread Anton Protsiuk
Hi all,

Wikimedia Ukraine is organizing an international Wikipedia writing
challenge aimed to improve worldwide coverage of Ukrainian women —
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/She_Did_It.

The marathon has already started and will run for a week — by the end of
October 11th.

Please help counter the gender content gap on Wikipedia and showcase the
achievements of Ukrainian women. You can create and expand articles in any
language (other than Ukrainian as there's a separate marathon for Ukrainian
Wikipedia).

The rules and the scoring system are inspired by WikiGap Challenge, so they
might be familiar to some of you :) Prizes are premium Grammarly
subscriptions for most active contributors (and, of course, our warm love
and deep gratitude for everyone who participates).

Please join the challenge and, of course, help spread the word about it.

Thanks!

Best Regards
Anton Protsiuk
Project Manager at Wikimedia Ukraine
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