[Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism

[Fæ]

OPEN LETTER

Dear Katherine Maher,

The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org)
yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally
to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal
political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.

Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please
explain exactly how this happened?

There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse
of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is
certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The
decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in
conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the
charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.

If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political
lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political
organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the
Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by
the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant
operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for
the CEO.

Thank you in advance.

Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.

Fae

On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey  wrote:
>
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
>
> On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l
>  wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh...
> > When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped it
> > and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit, for
> > the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the
> > webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of propaganda
> > promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
> >
> > The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly  on the American
> > left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American
> > political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that link
> > has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the
> > host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism
> > organization.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Vermont
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > > I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is
> > > strange, there are no general elections here before 2021...
> > > An explanation about this link would be interesting.
> > > Kind regards
> > > Ziko
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand  > > >:
> > >
> > > > The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a
> > > > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will
> > > > you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign
> > > on
> > > > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
> > > congress
> > > > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal,
> > > and
> > > > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to
> > > vote
> > > > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
> > > >
> > > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I 
> > > > don't
> > > > think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately
> > > > take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen
> > > > again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate
> > > > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action
> > > to
> > > > fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
> > > >
> > > > -- Yair Rand
-- 
fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism, yet again

[K. Peachey]

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508

On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l
 wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh...
> When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped it
> and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit, for
> the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the
> webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of propaganda
> promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
>
> The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly  on the American
> left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American
> political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that link
> has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the
> host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism
> organization.
>
> Regards,
> Vermont
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> > I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is
> > strange, there are no general elections here before 2021...
> > An explanation about this link would be interesting.
> > Kind regards
> > Ziko
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand  > >:
> >
> > > The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a
> > > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will
> > > you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign
> > on
> > > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
> > congress
> > > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal,
> > and
> > > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to
> > vote
> > > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
> > >
> > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't
> > > think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately
> > > take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen
> > > again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate
> > > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action
> > to
> > > fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
> > >
> > > -- Yair Rand
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > 
> > ___
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> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism, yet again

[Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l]

Hi,

It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh...
When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit, for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the
webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.

The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly  on the American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American
political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism
organization.

Regards,
Vermont

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk  wrote:

> Hello,
> I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is
> strange, there are no general elections here before 2021...
> An explanation about this link would be interesting.
> Kind regards
> Ziko
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand  >:
>
> > The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a
> > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will
> > you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign
> on
> > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
> congress
> > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal,
> and
> > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to
> vote
> > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
> >
> > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't
> > think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately
> > take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen
> > again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate
> > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action
> to
> > fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
> >
> > -- Yair Rand
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Café - Sat 25 April 2020...

[RhinosF1 -]

Hey,

2 meetings would be fine with one at an alternate time.

Thanks,
Samuel

On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 20:54, Pine W  wrote:

> Hi RhinosF1,
>
> The Café previously has been held on weekday mornings (US Pacific
> time). The schedule was moved to its current time after a suggestion
> that more people from India would attend at the new time. The average
> attendance has been significantly higher at the new time slot, so I
> think that the current time is likely to remain constant. (The
> majority of the participants have been from Europe and North America,
> and we have had some participants from Africa and Asia, primarily
> India.) I've suggested having an additional time slot for the Café
> that is offset by 12 hours from the current time slot so that people
> from other time zones can more participate and so that there would be
> two Café meetups per month.
>
> So far we are having one meetup per month, and I would want
> Bluerasberry to agree to to two meetups per month before moving ahead
> with that. Two possibilities are that Bluerasberry and I would not
> both attend every Café session but at least one of us would be present
> for each Café, and/or we would find someone who is experienced with
> the Café's format to host a meetup without us. How does that sound to
> you?
>
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 11:29 AM RhinosF1 -  wrote:
> >
> > Would it be possible to run one at an alternative time?
> >
> > Maybe on a weekday morning?
> >
> > Samuel
> >
> > On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 10:29, Lane Rasberry 
> wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I am writing to invite anyone to join the next online meeting of
> Wikimedia
> > > Café on Saturday 25 April 2020 4:30 PM UTC. Details for joining are at
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Café
> > > > (video room open at that time)
> https://virginia.zoom.us/my/wikilgbt
> > >
> > > The agenda for this month includes discussing maps on Wikipedia and
> > > Wikimedia community fundraising outside the Wikimedia Foundation.
> > >
> > > Wikimedia Café is a modest, one-hour, monthly online meeting which for
> the
> > > past few months has had fewer than 10 attendees. At these meetings
> anyone
> > > can propose to discuss any topic of broad Wikimedia community
> interest, as
> > > if we all were able to meet in person over coffee. The meetings
> themselves
> > > are an experiment in small group Wikimedia community conversation with
> > > video chat, phone access options, and online shared notetaking. Please
> see
> > > WikiProject Remote Event Participation for more information about this
> > > general style of online event.
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation
> > >
> > >- Anyone interested in joining may do so.
> > >- Anyone interested in reading notes of past meetings can find them
> on
> > >the meta page.
> > >- If there is anyone who wants to get their ideas published in the
> wiki
> > >world, consider looking at how this Café works, because voice chat
> with
> > >notetaking could be a way to organize your own wiki community.
> > >
> > > Thanks Pine for performing as host in this and thanks to anyone who
> submits
> > > topics for discussion or who is able to join.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Lane Rasberry
> > > user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
> > > 206.801.0814
> > > l...@bluerasberry.com
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > 
> > ___
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> 
>
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-- 
Thanks,
Samuel
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism, yet again

[Ziko van Dijk]

Hello,
I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021...
An explanation about this link would be interesting.
Kind regards
Ziko






Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand :

> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a
> full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will
> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign on
> to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress
> and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal, and
> Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to vote
> for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
>
> Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't
> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately
> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen
> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate
> political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action to
> fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
>
> -- Yair Rand
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism, yet again

[Yair Rand]

The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a
full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will
you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal, and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".

Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't
think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately
take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen
again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate
political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.

-- Yair Rand
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Early thoughts regarding a global code of conduct and a GCC committee

[Pine W]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments here. I'm busy with off-wiki activities today
and can't respond with as much specificity as I would wish. I request
that you copy these comments to the talk page on Meta for discussion
there.

Please keep in mind that this process is in the early stages. There
are probably months of discussions ahead regarding this and any
alternative proposals, and it is possible that in the end nothing will
change, but I think that there could be some benefits from my draft
proposal or one that is similar to it.

I'm aware that positions of power often attract the wrong kinds of
people, and I'm interested in proposals for how to make it likely that
any people who end up in power will have a public service mindset, not
be authoritarian or power-hungry, and will be competent.

Thanks,

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Café - Sat 25 April 2020...

[Pine W]

Hi RhinosF1,

The Café previously has been held on weekday mornings (US Pacific
time). The schedule was moved to its current time after a suggestion
that more people from India would attend at the new time. The average
attendance has been significantly higher at the new time slot, so I
think that the current time is likely to remain constant. (The
majority of the participants have been from Europe and North America,
and we have had some participants from Africa and Asia, primarily
India.) I've suggested having an additional time slot for the Café
that is offset by 12 hours from the current time slot so that people
from other time zones can more participate and so that there would be
two Café meetups per month.

So far we are having one meetup per month, and I would want
Bluerasberry to agree to to two meetups per month before moving ahead
with that. Two possibilities are that Bluerasberry and I would not
both attend every Café session but at least one of us would be present
for each Café, and/or we would find someone who is experienced with
the Café's format to host a meetup without us. How does that sound to
you?

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 11:29 AM RhinosF1 -  wrote:
>
> Would it be possible to run one at an alternative time?
>
> Maybe on a weekday morning?
>
> Samuel
>
> On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 10:29, Lane Rasberry  wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am writing to invite anyone to join the next online meeting of Wikimedia
> > Café on Saturday 25 April 2020 4:30 PM UTC. Details for joining are at
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Café
> > > (video room open at that time) https://virginia.zoom.us/my/wikilgbt
> >
> > The agenda for this month includes discussing maps on Wikipedia and
> > Wikimedia community fundraising outside the Wikimedia Foundation.
> >
> > Wikimedia Café is a modest, one-hour, monthly online meeting which for the
> > past few months has had fewer than 10 attendees. At these meetings anyone
> > can propose to discuss any topic of broad Wikimedia community interest, as
> > if we all were able to meet in person over coffee. The meetings themselves
> > are an experiment in small group Wikimedia community conversation with
> > video chat, phone access options, and online shared notetaking. Please see
> > WikiProject Remote Event Participation for more information about this
> > general style of online event.
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation
> >
> >- Anyone interested in joining may do so.
> >- Anyone interested in reading notes of past meetings can find them on
> >the meta page.
> >- If there is anyone who wants to get their ideas published in the wiki
> >world, consider looking at how this Café works, because voice chat with
> >notetaking could be a way to organize your own wiki community.
> >
> > Thanks Pine for performing as host in this and thanks to anyone who submits
> > topics for discussion or who is able to join.
> >
> > --
> > Lane Rasberry
> > user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
> > 206.801.0814
> > l...@bluerasberry.com
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
> ___
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> 

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation

[David Gerard]

I'd like to stress - I can see a case for renaming it all as
"Wikipedia". I could even make that case!

I'm not inclined to advocate such a change myself - and I'm not
convinced that branding is a problem we have - but it's not an
unreasonable *position*.

But pre-deciding the outcome, then feeding the community nonsense in
this manner, is bad business, and can't possibly go well.


- d.


On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 16:56, Steven Walling  wrote:
>
> I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with Fæ as well.
>
> Having been on the inside at some companies that underwent controversial
> rebrands, I can see how this might be a very early stage thing to help
> guide and shape thinking about how to approach a rebrand by unifying around
> a high level concept. I can see how in the name of transparency the team
> might be sharing very early stage work like that with the community, but if
> that's truly what it is (early exploratory thinking, not finished work) it
> would probably help to explain that this is not anywhere close to finalized
> work. People who don't do brand design tend to have little patience or
> interest in hand-wavy concepts without a concrete expression, Wikipedians
> maybe least of all.
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 2:30 AM Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l <
> wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> > As it appears my earlier email was not approved by the moderators:
> >
> > I'm in agreement with Fæ on this.
> >
> > The text and videos given on the subject of the new "interconnection" focus
> > is all extremely vague. I don't see how this is a change from previous
> > branding, or how the idea of "interconnection" will change anything.
> > Specifically in regard to the video, I was surprised by the vagueness.
> > Obviously, everything is connected. We are all humans with a majority of
> > similar characteristics and a high potential for similar experiences.
> > Putting together a few videos of people from different cultures
> > collaborating and some videos of nature doesn't make a branding strategy.
> >
> > I am very happy that, in the presentation, a timeline was addressed and
> > that there will be ample time for feedback on the proposed naming
> > conventions. I am looking forward to that; this project has been quite
> > vague for a while, and I hope there's some great ideas we can, as a
> > community, discuss.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Chris Gates
> > (User:Vermont)
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 1:44 PM Anders Wennersten <
> > m...@anderswennersten.se>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I have a background in a telecom supplier, and we were proud to talk of
> > > us "connecting people" and with 5G (where things also gets connected)
> > > "interconenctivity" would be a great brand concept for that company.
> > >
> > > But for Wikimedia I have never felt this as a relevant brandconcept. To
> > > "share and spread knowledge"is the core word as far as I see it and have
> > > been all the time.
> > >
> > > Anders
> > >
> > >
> > > Den 2020-04-18 kl. 18:44, skrev Peter Southwood:
> > > > I agree. It did not seem to say anything much.
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Peter
> > > >
> > > > -Original Message-
> > > > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> > > Behalf Of Fæ
> > > > Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2020 3:06 PM
> > > > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > > > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation
> > > >
> > > > Have now watched "interconnection". It did not seem to say anything
> > > > tangible apart from stuff like you find 'interconnection in nature' in
> > > > the 2 minutes. It was produced to a good standard.
> > > >
> > > > Sorry, it was not encouraging. The question remains of how much this
> > > > is costing the movement in WMF funding and valuable Wikimedia
> > > > community time without any clear outcomes being defined that the
> > > > Wikimedia community wants or could use to benefit the core value of
> > > > adding to the sum of human knowledge. Why the "rebranding" project
> > > > continues at this time remains an enigma.
> > > >
> > > > We have gone ahead and added the video to Commons. If superseded it
> > > > will remain useful as a snapshot as of 16 April.
> > > >
> > >
> > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Our_unified_concept_interconnection.webm
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Fae
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 09:57, Samir Elsharbaty
> > > >  wrote:
> > > >> Hi everyone,
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >> Yesterday, the 2030 Brand Movement Project presented the unified
> > concept
> > > >> that will guide the upcoming branding proposals. Thanks to the 224
> > > >> attendees who watched the presentation live! Participants brought a
> > > great
> > > >> stream of comments and questions (averaging 8 per minute!) that helped
> > > >> clarify important points.
> > > >>
> > > >> The unified concept, “interconnection”, was arrived at after many
> > > community
> > > >> workshops, exercises, and conversations. “Interconnection” dist

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation

[Steven Walling]

I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with Fæ as well.

Having been on the inside at some companies that underwent controversial
rebrands, I can see how this might be a very early stage thing to help
guide and shape thinking about how to approach a rebrand by unifying around
a high level concept. I can see how in the name of transparency the team
might be sharing very early stage work like that with the community, but if
that's truly what it is (early exploratory thinking, not finished work) it
would probably help to explain that this is not anywhere close to finalized
work. People who don't do brand design tend to have little patience or
interest in hand-wavy concepts without a concrete expression, Wikipedians
maybe least of all.

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 2:30 AM Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

> As it appears my earlier email was not approved by the moderators:
>
> I'm in agreement with Fæ on this.
>
> The text and videos given on the subject of the new "interconnection" focus
> is all extremely vague. I don't see how this is a change from previous
> branding, or how the idea of "interconnection" will change anything.
> Specifically in regard to the video, I was surprised by the vagueness.
> Obviously, everything is connected. We are all humans with a majority of
> similar characteristics and a high potential for similar experiences.
> Putting together a few videos of people from different cultures
> collaborating and some videos of nature doesn't make a branding strategy.
>
> I am very happy that, in the presentation, a timeline was addressed and
> that there will be ample time for feedback on the proposed naming
> conventions. I am looking forward to that; this project has been quite
> vague for a while, and I hope there's some great ideas we can, as a
> community, discuss.
>
> Best regards,
> Chris Gates
> (User:Vermont)
>
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 1:44 PM Anders Wennersten <
> m...@anderswennersten.se>
> wrote:
>
> > I have a background in a telecom supplier, and we were proud to talk of
> > us "connecting people" and with 5G (where things also gets connected)
> > "interconenctivity" would be a great brand concept for that company.
> >
> > But for Wikimedia I have never felt this as a relevant brandconcept. To
> > "share and spread knowledge"is the core word as far as I see it and have
> > been all the time.
> >
> > Anders
> >
> >
> > Den 2020-04-18 kl. 18:44, skrev Peter Southwood:
> > > I agree. It did not seem to say anything much.
> > > Cheers,
> > > Peter
> > >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> > Behalf Of Fæ
> > > Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2020 3:06 PM
> > > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation
> > >
> > > Have now watched "interconnection". It did not seem to say anything
> > > tangible apart from stuff like you find 'interconnection in nature' in
> > > the 2 minutes. It was produced to a good standard.
> > >
> > > Sorry, it was not encouraging. The question remains of how much this
> > > is costing the movement in WMF funding and valuable Wikimedia
> > > community time without any clear outcomes being defined that the
> > > Wikimedia community wants or could use to benefit the core value of
> > > adding to the sum of human knowledge. Why the "rebranding" project
> > > continues at this time remains an enigma.
> > >
> > > We have gone ahead and added the video to Commons. If superseded it
> > > will remain useful as a snapshot as of 16 April.
> > >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Our_unified_concept_interconnection.webm
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Fae
> > >
> > > On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 09:57, Samir Elsharbaty
> > >  wrote:
> > >> Hi everyone,
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Yesterday, the 2030 Brand Movement Project presented the unified
> concept
> > >> that will guide the upcoming branding proposals. Thanks to the 224
> > >> attendees who watched the presentation live! Participants brought a
> > great
> > >> stream of comments and questions (averaging 8 per minute!) that helped
> > >> clarify important points.
> > >>
> > >> The unified concept, “interconnection”, was arrived at after many
> > community
> > >> workshops, exercises, and conversations. “Interconnection” distills
> the
> > 23
> > >> distinct concepts generated in workshops into a single word that links
> > >> together the insights and definitions from the participants, and at
> the
> > >> same time adds more meaning to the answer to the question who are we?
> > This
> > >> concept will not be a public or visible part of branding, but rather a
> > >> guiding idea.
> > >>
> > >> Take a look at the video explaining interconnection as a unified
> concept
> > >> [1].
> > >>
> > >> You can watch the full presentation video, together with the lively
> > >> discussion that accompanied it [2]. Most of the questions were
> answered
> > >> during the prese

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Café - Sat 25 April 2020...

[RhinosF1 -]

Would it be possible to run one at an alternative time?

Maybe on a weekday morning?

Samuel

On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 at 10:29, Lane Rasberry  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am writing to invite anyone to join the next online meeting of Wikimedia
> Café on Saturday 25 April 2020 4:30 PM UTC. Details for joining are at
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Café
> > (video room open at that time) https://virginia.zoom.us/my/wikilgbt
>
> The agenda for this month includes discussing maps on Wikipedia and
> Wikimedia community fundraising outside the Wikimedia Foundation.
>
> Wikimedia Café is a modest, one-hour, monthly online meeting which for the
> past few months has had fewer than 10 attendees. At these meetings anyone
> can propose to discuss any topic of broad Wikimedia community interest, as
> if we all were able to meet in person over coffee. The meetings themselves
> are an experiment in small group Wikimedia community conversation with
> video chat, phone access options, and online shared notetaking. Please see
> WikiProject Remote Event Participation for more information about this
> general style of online event.
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation
>
>- Anyone interested in joining may do so.
>- Anyone interested in reading notes of past meetings can find them on
>the meta page.
>- If there is anyone who wants to get their ideas published in the wiki
>world, consider looking at how this Café works, because voice chat with
>notetaking could be a way to organize your own wiki community.
>
> Thanks Pine for performing as host in this and thanks to anyone who submits
> topics for discussion or who is able to join.
>
> --
> Lane Rasberry
> user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
> 206.801.0814
> l...@bluerasberry.com
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comment Open on U.S. Open Access Policy

[James Salsman]

Yaroslav,

How do you feel about the system of compulsory royalties they have to pay
for both academic journals and news journalism in Germany? See e.g.
https://www.vgwort.de/die-vg-wort.html

In the U.S., we pay musicians for their works played on the radio, in
public venues, and pirated, all out of taxpayer funds. Does anyone
understand why we don't pay journalist and scientists the same way?

Best regards,
Jim


On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 1:52 PM Yaroslav Blanter  wrote:

> As an actively publishing researcher, I just know that mandating open
> access publishing would mean that the author pays the (huge) publication
> fee rather than the library pays the subscription. In an ideal world, the
> universities would refund the fees, and will get subsidy from the
> governments, In our real world, the researchers will have to pay everything
> out of their own pocket, with some of them losing all possibilities to
> publish, for the lack of funds. I tried to raise this before, and the
> universal reply was that this is my problem, not the problem of the
> society. I do not expect anything else this time.
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:34 PM Shani Evenstein 
> wrote:
>
> > Jake, well written and nicely put.
> > Is this online somewhere, where we can share it further?
> >
> > Best,
> > Shani.
> >
> >
> > ---
> > *Shani Evenstein Sigalov*
> >
> > * Lecturer, Tel Aviv University.
> > * EdTech Innovation Strategist, NY/American Medical Program, Sackler
> School
> > of Medicine, Tel Aviv University.
> >
> > * PhD Candidate, School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
> > * Azrieli Foundation Research Fellow.
> > * OER & Emerging Technologies Coordinator, UNESCO Chair
> >  on Technology,
> > Internationalization
> > and Education, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
> > .
> >
> > * Member of the Board of Trustees
> > ,
> > Wikimedia
> > Foundation .
> > * Chairperson, The Hebrew Literature Digitization Society
> > .
> > * Chief Editor, Project Ben-Yehuda .
> >
> > +972-525640648
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 11:27 PM Pete Forsyth 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Jake,
> > >
> > > How can we most effectively support your excellent effort with this?
> > >
> > > -Pete
> > > --
> > > Pete Forsyth
> > > User:Peteforsyth on Meta, English Wikisource, English Wikipedia, etc.
> > >
> > > On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 1:22 PM Tito Dutta 
> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > > Very well-written and well-supported by statistics. Thanks for
> sharing.
> > > > Regards.
> > > > User:Titodutta
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 1:41 AM Jake Orlowitz 
> > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > My Letter to the U.S. Office for Science and Technology Policy
> > > regarding
> > > > a
> > > > > proposal for federally mandate open access to publicly-funded
> > > research...
> > > > >
> > > > > ---
> > > > >
> > > > > Wikipedia is one of the ten most popular websites in the world.
> Each
> > > > month
> > > > > 200,000 editors improve over 6 million articles. This vital public
> > > > > information is viewed on 1 billion unique devices as our pages are
> > > loaded
> > > > > by people around the globe 7,000 times per second.
> > > > >
> > > > > Wikipedia is the "free encyclopedia", both in its open CC-BY-SA
> > > licensing
> > > > > as well as the unpaid contributions of its volunteer editors. Yet
> > > > > Wikipedia's hundreds of thousands of editors struggle to access
> > > scholarly
> > > > > research. And, if they are able to read and cite it, then hundreds
> of
> > > > > millions of readers cannot verify or explore it for deeper
> research.
> > > > >
> > > > > Citations are the bridge between Wikipedia articles and a broader
> > > > landscape
> > > > > of reliable, secondary sources. Citations not only allow readers to
> > > > verify
> > > > > the reliability of the facts they find in Wikipedia; through
> > citations
> > > > > readers can also deep-dive into any given topic by exploring the
> > books,
> > > > > scholarly publications, and news stories referenced in an article.
> > > > >
> > > > > A recently released dataset of all citations with identifiers in
> > > > Wikipedia
> > > > > found that less than half of the official versions of scholarly
> > > > > publications cited with an identifier in Wikipedia are freely
> > available
> > > > on
> > > > > the web. This chasm of for editors and for readers is a tragedy of
> > > public
> > > > > education and digital literacy.
> > > > >
> > > > > Just look at the most recent global catastrophe with Coronavirus.
> By
> > > > April
> > > > > 2020 the main articles on COVID-19 had received 50 million views.
> > > > > Wikipedia's medical content--made up of more than 155,000 articles
> > and
> > > 1
> >

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation

[Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l]

As it appears my earlier email was not approved by the moderators:

I'm in agreement with Fæ on this.

The text and videos given on the subject of the new "interconnection" focus
is all extremely vague. I don't see how this is a change from previous
branding, or how the idea of "interconnection" will change anything.
Specifically in regard to the video, I was surprised by the vagueness.
Obviously, everything is connected. We are all humans with a majority of
similar characteristics and a high potential for similar experiences.
Putting together a few videos of people from different cultures
collaborating and some videos of nature doesn't make a branding strategy.

I am very happy that, in the presentation, a timeline was addressed and
that there will be ample time for feedback on the proposed naming
conventions. I am looking forward to that; this project has been quite
vague for a while, and I hope there's some great ideas we can, as a
community, discuss.

Best regards,
Chris Gates
(User:Vermont)

On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 1:44 PM Anders Wennersten 
wrote:

> I have a background in a telecom supplier, and we were proud to talk of
> us "connecting people" and with 5G (where things also gets connected)
> "interconenctivity" would be a great brand concept for that company.
>
> But for Wikimedia I have never felt this as a relevant brandconcept. To
> "share and spread knowledge"is the core word as far as I see it and have
> been all the time.
>
> Anders
>
>
> Den 2020-04-18 kl. 18:44, skrev Peter Southwood:
> > I agree. It did not seem to say anything much.
> > Cheers,
> > Peter
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> Behalf Of Fæ
> > Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2020 3:06 PM
> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation
> >
> > Have now watched "interconnection". It did not seem to say anything
> > tangible apart from stuff like you find 'interconnection in nature' in
> > the 2 minutes. It was produced to a good standard.
> >
> > Sorry, it was not encouraging. The question remains of how much this
> > is costing the movement in WMF funding and valuable Wikimedia
> > community time without any clear outcomes being defined that the
> > Wikimedia community wants or could use to benefit the core value of
> > adding to the sum of human knowledge. Why the "rebranding" project
> > continues at this time remains an enigma.
> >
> > We have gone ahead and added the video to Commons. If superseded it
> > will remain useful as a snapshot as of 16 April.
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Our_unified_concept_interconnection.webm
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Fae
> >
> > On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 09:57, Samir Elsharbaty
> >  wrote:
> >> Hi everyone,
> >>
> >>
> >> Yesterday, the 2030 Brand Movement Project presented the unified concept
> >> that will guide the upcoming branding proposals. Thanks to the 224
> >> attendees who watched the presentation live! Participants brought a
> great
> >> stream of comments and questions (averaging 8 per minute!) that helped
> >> clarify important points.
> >>
> >> The unified concept, “interconnection”, was arrived at after many
> community
> >> workshops, exercises, and conversations. “Interconnection” distills the
> 23
> >> distinct concepts generated in workshops into a single word that links
> >> together the insights and definitions from the participants, and at the
> >> same time adds more meaning to the answer to the question who are we?
> This
> >> concept will not be a public or visible part of branding, but rather a
> >> guiding idea.
> >>
> >> Take a look at the video explaining interconnection as a unified concept
> >> [1].
> >>
> >> You can watch the full presentation video, together with the lively
> >> discussion that accompanied it [2]. Most of the questions were answered
> >> during the presentation (including questions about the project scope,
> the
> >> upcoming naming convention proposals, and the RfC), but there wasn't
> enough
> >> time to answer them all. Questions are being compiled on the Brand
> Network
> >> talk page on Meta [3].
> >>
> >> The team will be hosting a follow-up office hour next week to answer the
> >> rest of the questions. Participation details will be shared on the Brand
> >> Network talk page. The session will be recorded and shared, and answers
> >> will be covered on the project pages. If you have a different question
> >> you’d like to ask, feel free to add it to the page or bring it to the
> >> office hour.
> >>
> >> PS: As soon as these videos are ready for Commons we will upload them
> >> there, and we will notify about this on the Brand Network talk page as
> well.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Samir & the Brand Project team
> >>
> >> [1]
> >>
> https://brandingwikipedia.org/2020/04/16/our-unified-concept-interconnection/
> >>
> >> [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS72O6Si94Q
> >>
> >> [3]
> >>
> https://meta.wikime

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Summary of the Brand Project presentation

[Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l]

I’m in agreement with Fæ here.

I just checked and wikipedia.org’s Alexa ranking is 13. That’s very
different from the 5 last time I checked, but it could be due to a number
of temporary factors. If there is evidence of a marked decrease in traffic
independent of the Coronavirus and other issues, I understand seeking a
branding change and trying to engage more readers.

However, that does not justify feeding marketing nonsense to the Wikimedia
community.

I’m currently watching the presentation, and just read/watched the bits on
Interconnection at the branding website.

From the text:
“The concept is a creative tool that will inform the naming convention and
design system. Through input, collaboration and validation with the
community the concept will guide us in a direction that reflects who we
are.”

This is patently unintelligible, vague beyond belief, and utterly useless.
The only insight this sentence offers a reader on what “Interconnection” is
that it’s a meaningless buzzword marketing departments of tech firms like
to fabricate. Please remember that this is the Wikimedia community, and
that stuff like this isn’t appreciated. We’re here to build helpful
projects for billions of readers, and if you don’t have something remotely
useful to say, please don’t take people’s attention away from editing with
it.

I’ve been following this project for months and have yet to find a single
useful statement about this project, and the aim seems to be changing every
other day.

For example, on the 9th of this month, in response to a comment I wrote:
“Now, Wikipedia is envisioned as a concept, among many concepts and
criteria, that are informing the thinking around naming and design
proposals.”

Similarly vague. I can’t support a project that is nothing other than a
collection of marketing speak and invented buzzwords with no tangible
information on it.

Regards,
Vermont





On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 09:06 Fæ  wrote:

> Have now watched "interconnection". It did not seem to say anything
> tangible apart from stuff like you find 'interconnection in nature' in
> the 2 minutes. It was produced to a good standard.
>
> Sorry, it was not encouraging. The question remains of how much this
> is costing the movement in WMF funding and valuable Wikimedia
> community time without any clear outcomes being defined that the
> Wikimedia community wants or could use to benefit the core value of
> adding to the sum of human knowledge. Why the "rebranding" project
> continues at this time remains an enigma.
>
> We have gone ahead and added the video to Commons. If superseded it
> will remain useful as a snapshot as of 16 April.
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Our_unified_concept_interconnection.webm
>
> Thanks,
> Fae
>
> On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 09:57, Samir Elsharbaty
>  wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> >
> > Yesterday, the 2030 Brand Movement Project presented the unified concept
> > that will guide the upcoming branding proposals. Thanks to the 224
> > attendees who watched the presentation live! Participants brought a great
> > stream of comments and questions (averaging 8 per minute!) that helped
> > clarify important points.
> >
> > The unified concept, “interconnection”, was arrived at after many
> community
> > workshops, exercises, and conversations. “Interconnection” distills the
> 23
> > distinct concepts generated in workshops into a single word that links
> > together the insights and definitions from the participants, and at the
> > same time adds more meaning to the answer to the question who are we?
> This
> > concept will not be a public or visible part of branding, but rather a
> > guiding idea.
> >
> > Take a look at the video explaining interconnection as a unified concept
> > [1].
> >
> > You can watch the full presentation video, together with the lively
> > discussion that accompanied it [2]. Most of the questions were answered
> > during the presentation (including questions about the project scope, the
> > upcoming naming convention proposals, and the RfC), but there wasn't
> enough
> > time to answer them all. Questions are being compiled on the Brand
> Network
> > talk page on Meta [3].
> >
> > The team will be hosting a follow-up office hour next week to answer the
> > rest of the questions. Participation details will be shared on the Brand
> > Network talk page. The session will be recorded and shared, and answers
> > will be covered on the project pages. If you have a different question
> > you’d like to ask, feel free to add it to the page or bring it to the
> > office hour.
> >
> > PS: As soon as these videos are ready for Commons we will upload them
> > there, and we will notify about this on the Brand Network talk page as
> well.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Samir & the Brand Project team
> >
> > [1]
> >
> https://brandingwikipedia.org/2020/04/16/our-unified-concept-interconnection/
> >
> > [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS72O6Si94Q
> >
> > [3]
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:B

[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Café - Sat 25 April 2020...

[Lane Rasberry]

Hello,

I am writing to invite anyone to join the next online meeting of Wikimedia
Café on Saturday 25 April 2020 4:30 PM UTC. Details for joining are at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Café
> (video room open at that time) https://virginia.zoom.us/my/wikilgbt

The agenda for this month includes discussing maps on Wikipedia and
Wikimedia community fundraising outside the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikimedia Café is a modest, one-hour, monthly online meeting which for the
past few months has had fewer than 10 attendees. At these meetings anyone
can propose to discuss any topic of broad Wikimedia community interest, as
if we all were able to meet in person over coffee. The meetings themselves
are an experiment in small group Wikimedia community conversation with
video chat, phone access options, and online shared notetaking. Please see
WikiProject Remote Event Participation for more information about this
general style of online event.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation

   - Anyone interested in joining may do so.
   - Anyone interested in reading notes of past meetings can find them on
   the meta page.
   - If there is anyone who wants to get their ideas published in the wiki
   world, consider looking at how this Café works, because voice chat with
   notetaking could be a way to organize your own wiki community.

Thanks Pine for performing as host in this and thanks to anyone who submits
topics for discussion or who is able to join.

-- 
Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
206.801.0814
l...@bluerasberry.com
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,