Re: [Wikimedia-l] Ting's resignation, Thank you for five great years
Someone has to break silence ;) so let me say that I'm quite disappointed that a community elected board member resigned in a way that rushed the board into changing the bylaws with little thought about quorums and required majorities, making them even more exposed to dramatic changes in control/scope of the WMF by very few (potentially 3) members. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/May_2013_-_Article_IV_Section_6_%28Vacancies%29#Minimum_number.3F https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_board_manual#Votes_vs._resolutions.2C_quorum_and_required_majority (problems already reported in 2010, only Sj answered and legals apparently don't consider them problems). Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Ting's resignation, Thank you for five great years
Hi Jan-Bart, I would like to join you in thanking Ting for his work over the last 5 years (man, what a long time, and what a great commitment). @Ting: Thank You and Vielen Dank! I am very confident that you will stay part of our great movement in the future, in whatever capacity suits you best. And I am looking forward to hear from you, to get your advice and your input in all things related to Wikimedia. Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Pavel Richter Vorstand Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Tel.: +49 - 30 - 219 158 260 Twitter: @pavel 2013/5/5 Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org Hi Everyone, As today is the day that Ting's resignation from the Board of Trustees becomes effective I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for the tremendous contribution he has made to the board over the past five years. I did not know Ting when he joined our board but from what I heard we were lucky that the community elected him. And that certainly proved to be the case. In my opinion a board functions best when there are many divergent opinions at the table who are able to discuss matters in a sensible and constructive way in order to come to creative solutions. Ting certainly contributed his uniqueness to that mix over the past five years, and I am grateful that he was able to make as much time available as he did in order to remain on the board for such a long time. Apart from being a really really nice person Ting has a lot of wisdom (something which he will probably deny ;) As some of you might know I ran against Ting for the Chair position of the Board of Trustees in 2010 and lost. At that time I thought that I was definitely the better candidate but the following two years proved me wrong. I was happy to serve as his vice chair during the second year. His diligent way of going about things made sure that a lot of things got done during his tenure as chair and also ensured that all the voices at the table got heard. Ting was always willing to go and visit a local chapter or a Wikimedia event in order to represent the board and Foundation. His unwavering principles and spirited way of discussing topics about which he is passionate (of which there are several) are an inspiration. At the same time he was more than willing to listen to all the different viewpoints and able to change his mind if others presented valid arguments (something which sounds simple but with which a lot of people, including myself, have difficulty with ;) During several different discussions Ting managed to convince me of the fact that his viewpoint was the correct one, and I will miss his input in the future. As is tradition Ting will attend the next Wikimania (Hong Kong here we come!) and we will take that opportunity to formally thank him for his efforts for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees. I hope you will all join me in this :) Thank you Ting! I am not sure how or when, but I hope that our paths will cross again in the coming years! Jan-Bart de Vreede Vice Chair Board of Trustees Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] OSM iD Editor: how a nice editing interface could engage users
Yesterday, OpenStreetMap launched iD, an in-browser editor so that you can edit the map. You no longer need to download JOSM, the desktop application, or use Potlatch, a Flash-based application. When you start using iD, it gives you an introductory guide on how to edit. The app is designed to let newbies start editing very quickly and easily, without having to go and read documentation or a load of other cruft. It's an amazing bit of open source work and has the potential for making it dramatically easier for new users to jump in and make their first edit, and then get utterly addicted. There's a site about it here: http://ideditor.com/ Blog post about it from the official OSM blog: http://blog.openstreetmap.org/2013/05/07/openstreetmap-launches-all-new-easy-map-editor-and-announces-funding-appeal/ My off-the-cuff reactions: http://tommorris.org/posts/8264 ;) Now the Foundation just need to do the same for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects with VisualEditor, right...? -- Tom Morris http://tommorris.org/ ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
Hi all, I think it should be noted that the Russian Wikipedia is having more and more problems with the state-maintained Internet blacklist (an idea that they heavily opposed, and which made them go on strike last July). Apparently, the infamous cannabis smoking article was put back on the said blacklist two days ago (May 6)[1] due to a decision of the Federal Drug Control Service which doesn't like the current wording of the article. The blacklist now includes fifteen (15) articles related to drugs and suicide: thirteen (13) from the Russian, and two (2) from the English Wikipedia[2]. This is the second time that the Russian Wikipedia is having trouble with the blacklist in the past 30 days, something that has unfortunately been missed over the DCRI controversy that occurred in the first days of April. shameless promotion For those of you who haven't heard of this yet, I prepared a short summary at http://twkozlowski.net/roskomnadzor-strikes-back/; the previous episode of the Wikipedia vs. Roskomnadzor story is described at http://twkozlowski.net/wikipedia-censorship-attempts/. /shameless promotion I'm quite sure that it is a mere coincidence that the Russian and French controversies occurred around the same time, but it's nevertheless a bit worrying to have to watch our communities being forced to edit the contents of articles to please the authorities take them off blacklists. == References == * [1] http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130507/181016379/Wikipedia-Cannabis-Article-Put-Back-on-Russian-Blacklist.html * [2] http://tiny.cc/e7urww -- Tomasz ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] OSM iD Editor: how a nice editing interface could engage users
On 8 May 2013 08:38, Tom Morris t...@tommorris.org wrote: Yesterday, OpenStreetMap launched iD, an in-browser editor so that you can edit the map. You no longer need to download JOSM, the desktop application, or use Potlatch, a Flash-based application. When you start using iD, it gives you an introductory guide on how to edit. The app is designed to let newbies start editing very quickly and easily, without having to go and read documentation or a load of other cruft. It's an amazing bit of open source work and has the potential for making it dramatically easier for new users to jump in and make their first edit, and then get utterly addicted. There's a site about it here: http://ideditor.com/ Blog post about it from the official OSM blog: http://blog.openstreetmap.org/2013/05/07/openstreetmap-launches-all-new-easy-map-editor-and-announces-funding-appeal/ My off-the-cuff reactions: http://tommorris.org/posts/8264 ;) Yes, the iD editor is fantastic and OSM (with the Knight Foundation's help) should be proud of themselves. Now the Foundation just need to do the same for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects with VisualEditor, right...? Well, we'll do our best. (Note, BTW, that it's not just WMF that's involved in the development of VisualEditor and we're delighted to take on volunteers! Don't give WMF all the credit.) I don't think we'll have the time to make a whizzy introduction like iD has before the beta launches, but we're keen to do something similar in the short-term after that, probably working with the E3 team to extend the Guided Tours tool. J. -- James D. Forrester Product Manager, VisualEditor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. jforres...@wikimedia.org | @jdforrester ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
These days I just say this report - Less than 14% of World Lives in Countries with Free Press http://gijn.org/2013/05/07/less-than-14-of-the-world-lives-in-countries-with-a-free-press/ It would be interesting a global comparison on how these States with less freedom deal with Wikipedia. We could have a page with a table of countries where Wikipedia is partially/totally blocked, among other things. I wonder how it will be when we begin to use Internet for real. Tom 2013/5/8 Tomasz W. Kozlowski tom...@twkozlowski.net: Hi all, I think it should be noted that the Russian Wikipedia is having more and more problems with the state-maintained Internet blacklist (an idea that they heavily opposed, and which made them go on strike last July). Apparently, the infamous cannabis smoking article was put back on the said blacklist two days ago (May 6)[1] due to a decision of the Federal Drug Control Service which doesn't like the current wording of the article. The blacklist now includes fifteen (15) articles related to drugs and suicide: thirteen (13) from the Russian, and two (2) from the English Wikipedia[2]. This is the second time that the Russian Wikipedia is having trouble with the blacklist in the past 30 days, something that has unfortunately been missed over the DCRI controversy that occurred in the first days of April. shameless promotion For those of you who haven't heard of this yet, I prepared a short summary at http://twkozlowski.net/roskomnadzor-strikes-back/; the previous episode of the Wikipedia vs. Roskomnadzor story is described at http://twkozlowski.net/wikipedia-censorship-attempts/. /shameless promotion I'm quite sure that it is a mere coincidence that the Russian and French controversies occurred around the same time, but it's nevertheless a bit worrying to have to watch our communities being forced to edit the contents of articles to please the authorities take them off blacklists. == References == * [1] http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130507/181016379/Wikipedia-Cannabis-Article-Put-Back-on-Russian-Blacklist.html * [2] http://tiny.cc/e7urww -- Tomasz ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom) OKFN Brasil - Rede pelo Conhecimento Livre http://br.okfn.org ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
Any details translated in English about what are the specific wording on the articles that pushed the Russian State to blacklist those articles? Thanks, JP aka Amqui 2013/5/8, Tomasz W. Kozlowski tom...@twkozlowski.net: Hi all, I think it should be noted that the Russian Wikipedia is having more and more problems with the state-maintained Internet blacklist (an idea that they heavily opposed, and which made them go on strike last July). Apparently, the infamous cannabis smoking article was put back on the said blacklist two days ago (May 6)[1] due to a decision of the Federal Drug Control Service which doesn't like the current wording of the article. The blacklist now includes fifteen (15) articles related to drugs and suicide: thirteen (13) from the Russian, and two (2) from the English Wikipedia[2]. This is the second time that the Russian Wikipedia is having trouble with the blacklist in the past 30 days, something that has unfortunately been missed over the DCRI controversy that occurred in the first days of April. shameless promotion For those of you who haven't heard of this yet, I prepared a short summary at http://twkozlowski.net/roskomnadzor-strikes-back/; the previous episode of the Wikipedia vs. Roskomnadzor story is described at http://twkozlowski.net/wikipedia-censorship-attempts/. /shameless promotion I'm quite sure that it is a mere coincidence that the Russian and French controversies occurred around the same time, but it's nevertheless a bit worrying to have to watch our communities being forced to edit the contents of articles to please the authorities take them off blacklists. == References == * [1] http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130507/181016379/Wikipedia-Cannabis-Article-Put-Back-on-Russian-Blacklist.html * [2] http://tiny.cc/e7urww -- Tomasz ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
On 8 May 2013 16:52, Tomasz W. Kozlowski tom...@twkozlowski.net wrote: Hi all, I think it should be noted that the Russian Wikipedia is having more and more problems with the state-maintained Internet blacklist (an idea that they heavily opposed, and which made them go on strike last July). They folded the first time. Were they foolish enough to think that there would not be a second? -- geni ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
Russian is an/the official language in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Moldova, and Romania, and spoken in yet other parts of the world. If Russian was only spoken within the borders of Russia, then tailoring the articles to that country's censorship laws would be pragmatic - at least they'd get something about marijuana smoking. But I think the significant number of Russian-speakers outside Russia kind of obliges us to just write good NPOV articles and let the Russian authorities do what they want. On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 3:19 AM, geni geni...@gmail.com wrote: On 8 May 2013 16:52, Tomasz W. Kozlowski tom...@twkozlowski.net wrote: Hi all, I think it should be noted that the Russian Wikipedia is having more and more problems with the state-maintained Internet blacklist (an idea that they heavily opposed, and which made them go on strike last July). They folded the first time. Were they foolish enough to think that there would not be a second? -- geni ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
Amqui wrote: Any details translated in English about what are the specific wording on the articles that pushed the Russian State to blacklist those articles? The community-maintained list of all blacklisted articles http://tiny.cc/e7urww has all the necessary information; apparently the articles are blacklisted because they contain information on the use of the drugs, methods of their development and production, and in the case of articles on suicide — information about methods of suicide. That list is very informative; it has links to all decisions in PDF format, dates, and numbers. Of course Google Translate doesn't provide an exact translation, but it does all right. -- Tomasz ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
2013/5/8 Anthony Cole ahcole...@gmail.com: Russian is an/the official language in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Moldova, and Romania, and spoken in yet other parts of the world. You might want to update your info. The only official language in Romania and Moldova is Romanian. Strainu ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
Correction: in Moldova, the official language is Moldovan ;) this is a pandora's box one really doesn't want to open xD However, Russian is an official language in Pridnestrovie, and also every-day language in Gagauzia. Back to scheduled programming.. On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 4:18 AM, Strainu strain...@gmail.com wrote: 2013/5/8 Anthony Cole ahcole...@gmail.com: Russian is an/the official language in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Moldova, and Romania, and spoken in yet other parts of the world. You might want to update your info. The only official language in Romania and Moldova is Romanian. Strainu ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
2013/5/8 Russavia russavia.wikipe...@gmail.com: Correction: in Moldova, the official language is Moldovan ;) this is a pandora's box one really doesn't want to open xD Right, one might always read the English Wikipedia article and find out we were both right (funny, huh? :) ) Totally agree that we don't want to reopen this, though. Let's just say that Russian is NOT an official language in Moldova. However, Russian is an official language in Pridnestrovie, and also every-day language in Gagauzia. Please use English names where available, I had to google to find out what Pridnestrovie is. I've never ever heard that name before. Like Anthony said, there are many other places where Russian is currently spoken, throughout Eastern Europe. Strainu ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
Right, one might always read the English Wikipedia article and find out we were both right (funny, huh? :) ) Totally agree that we don't want to reopen this, though. Let's just say that Russian is NOT an official language in Moldova. Nice to work with you on this mailing list to reach a mutually advantageous and NPOV position on this issue. :) Russavia ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Please send this to the list, thanks: Subject: Program Evaluation and Design Workshop - Apply to attend! - June 22-23, Budapest
Forwarding per request. Alex -- Forwarded message -- From: Sarah Stierch sstie...@wikimedia.org Date: 2013/5/8 Subject: Please send this to the list, thanks: Subject: Program Evaluation and Design Workshop - Apply to attend! - June 22-23, Budapest To: wikimedia-l-ow...@lists.wikimedia.org [please pardon this crossposting] Hello everyone! I am pleased to announce the first Program Evaluation and Design Workshop! - *When*: 22–23 June 2012 - *Where*: Budapest, Hungary The application process is now open. We have only 20 slots available for this workshop and the application deadline ends on May 17th. This two-day event will be followed by a pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013. Ideally, applicants would commit to attending both events. *Why are we offering this workshop?* Over the next couple of years, the Wikimedia Foundation will be building capacity among program leaders around evaluation and program design. A better understanding of how to increase impact through better planning, execution and evaluation of programs activities will help us to move a step closer to achieving our mission of offering a free, high quality encyclopedia to our readers around the world. *What will take place at this and the following workshops?* Our long-term goals are: 1. Participants gain a basic shared understanding of program evaluation 2. Participants will work collaboratively to map and prioritize measurable outcomes, beginning with a focus on the most common program activities 3. Participants will gain increased fluency in common language of evaluation (i.e. goals versus objectives, inputs outputs versus outcomes impact) 4. Participants will learn and practice how to extract and report data using the UserMetrics API 5. Participants will commit to working as a community of evaluation leaders who will implement evaluation strategies in their programmatic activities and report back at the pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013 6. …and participants will have a lot of fun and enjoy networking with other program leaders! We will publish a detailed agenda for the event in Budapest soon on meta. *Which programs activities are we going to focus on?* During the workshop in Budapest, we will only have a limited amount of time. Therefore, we will be focusing on the some of the more common programs activities: - *Wikipedia editing workshops* where participants learn how to or actively edit (i.e. edit-a-thon, wikiparty, hands-on Wikipedia workshop) - *Content donations* through partnerships with GLAMs related organizations - *Wiki Takes/Expeditions* where volunteers participate in day/weekend events to photograph site specific content - *Wiki Loves Monuments* which takes place in September - *Education program/classroom editing* where volunteers support educators who have students editing Wikipedia in the classroom - *Writing competitions* which generally take place online in the form of contests, WikiCup, and challenges – often engaging experienced editors to improve content. *Who should apply?* Community members who play an *active role* in planning and executing programs activities as described above in the Wikimedia community. Your experience and knowledge will make this workshop a success! *What about the costs for travel and accommodation?* Hotels, flights and other transportation costs will be on your chapter; the Wikimedia Foundation will provide the venue, handouts, breakfasts and light lunches, and a dinner for all participants on Saturday. If you're not affiliated with a chapter and cannot afford to attend the event, please send me a private email – we have a small amount of money set aside for those cases. Applications are open until May 17. You can apply via this Google Formhttps://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/forms/d/11yCoOls5ae8FqAXIdp9Tua76ilVQGUNKWMVSktCQBRU/viewform . Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to a great group of participants! -Sarah -- *Sarah Stierch** Wikimedia Foundation Program Evaluation Design Community Coordinator *Donatehttp://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Donate/enutm_source=utm_medium=utm_campaign=language=enuselang=encountry=USreferrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CDMQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdonate.wikipedia.org%252F%26ei%3DYpsET93HN6isiQLIoJjSDg%26usg%3DAFQjCNG-7hzT9rkEvAjlNqBIOQ1ZDIpdYAtoday and keep it free! Visit me on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Please send this to the list, thanks: Subject: Program Evaluation and Design Workshop - Apply to attend! - June 22-23, Budapest
And that should be 2013 :P (Because I *know* someone here will point that out 3 ) Sorry about that :) -Sarah On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 2:10 PM, J Alexandr Ledbury-Romanov alexandrdmitriroma...@gmail.com wrote: Forwarding per request. Alex -- Forwarded message -- From: Sarah Stierch sstie...@wikimedia.org Date: 2013/5/8 Subject: Please send this to the list, thanks: Subject: Program Evaluation and Design Workshop - Apply to attend! - June 22-23, Budapest To: wikimedia-l-ow...@lists.wikimedia.org [please pardon this crossposting] Hello everyone! I am pleased to announce the first Program Evaluation and Design Workshop! - *When*: 22–23 June 2012 - *Where*: Budapest, Hungary The application process is now open. We have only 20 slots available for this workshop and the application deadline ends on May 17th. This two-day event will be followed by a pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013. Ideally, applicants would commit to attending both events. *Why are we offering this workshop?* Over the next couple of years, the Wikimedia Foundation will be building capacity among program leaders around evaluation and program design. A better understanding of how to increase impact through better planning, execution and evaluation of programs activities will help us to move a step closer to achieving our mission of offering a free, high quality encyclopedia to our readers around the world. *What will take place at this and the following workshops?* Our long-term goals are: 1. Participants gain a basic shared understanding of program evaluation 2. Participants will work collaboratively to map and prioritize measurable outcomes, beginning with a focus on the most common program activities 3. Participants will gain increased fluency in common language of evaluation (i.e. goals versus objectives, inputs outputs versus outcomes impact) 4. Participants will learn and practice how to extract and report data using the UserMetrics API 5. Participants will commit to working as a community of evaluation leaders who will implement evaluation strategies in their programmatic activities and report back at the pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013 6. …and participants will have a lot of fun and enjoy networking with other program leaders! We will publish a detailed agenda for the event in Budapest soon on meta. *Which programs activities are we going to focus on?* During the workshop in Budapest, we will only have a limited amount of time. Therefore, we will be focusing on the some of the more common programs activities: - *Wikipedia editing workshops* where participants learn how to or actively edit (i.e. edit-a-thon, wikiparty, hands-on Wikipedia workshop) - *Content donations* through partnerships with GLAMs related organizations - *Wiki Takes/Expeditions* where volunteers participate in day/weekend events to photograph site specific content - *Wiki Loves Monuments* which takes place in September - *Education program/classroom editing* where volunteers support educators who have students editing Wikipedia in the classroom - *Writing competitions* which generally take place online in the form of contests, WikiCup, and challenges – often engaging experienced editors to improve content. *Who should apply?* Community members who play an *active role* in planning and executing programs activities as described above in the Wikimedia community. Your experience and knowledge will make this workshop a success! *What about the costs for travel and accommodation?* Hotels, flights and other transportation costs will be on your chapter; the Wikimedia Foundation will provide the venue, handouts, breakfasts and light lunches, and a dinner for all participants on Saturday. If you're not affiliated with a chapter and cannot afford to attend the event, please send me a private email – we have a small amount of money set aside for those cases. Applications are open until May 17. You can apply via this Google Form https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/forms/d/11yCoOls5ae8FqAXIdp9Tua76ilVQGUNKWMVSktCQBRU/viewform . Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to a great group of participants! -Sarah -- *Sarah Stierch** Wikimedia Foundation Program Evaluation Design Community Coordinator *Donate http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Donate/enutm_source=utm_medium=utm_campaign=language=enuselang=encountry=USreferrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CDMQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdonate.wikipedia.org%252F%26ei%3DYpsET93HN6isiQLIoJjSDg%26usg%3DAFQjCNG-7hzT9rkEvAjlNqBIOQ1ZDIpdYA today and keep it free! Visit me on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comments on compliance and the FDC Round 2 decisions
Hi Pine, My apologies for the tardiness of this reply; I've been away in India with family and am only just back. It's an important question to ask, because the Grantmaking team's programs - including the FDC process - have and are being set up with a strong self-evaluation component. We exist to support our movement through grants and shared knowledge as key resources, and we can only do this well if we're good at listening and learning ourselves. Overall, we're looking at multiple feedback mechanisms (including surveys and discussion groups at conferences like WMConf, Wikimania). As an example, we did a survey of the FDC Round 1 process which we shared in Milan, and used as a way to get more face-to-face feedback. This helps us know both broad and specific areas that we need to improve on and to do so quickly and appropriately. One thing to keep in mind with grantmaking programs is that process feedback is easily and quickly incorporated (like wiki-tables that made life miserable for FDC Round 1 applicants and we could improve for Round 2 applicants). However, substantive feedback (like the nature of questions, or entirely new sections of inquiry) need to be incorporated at the end of the year for the new year, so that the nature of the proposal doesn't change dramatically over the year, or from one round to the next: it's not fair on either the new folks applying, or the committee reviewing the proposals. We intend to do surveys of all our major grantmaking programs over the next few months, so that we have a good baseline against which to measure our progress as a team. Again, it's useful to remember that our proposal processes might seem 'heavy' to many in the movement, but they're pretty light-weight (with the possible exception of wiki-tables) in comparison to other grantmaking processes that are far more demanding for far smaller grant amounts. As a comparison, in the human rights and social justice grantmaking world, most grants are in the range of 5,000-50,000 USD. For the FDC in particular, the FDC Advisory Group will assess the first year, and towards the end of the second year (March 2014), give the Board a recommendation on whether the mechanism works (or not) and should continue (or not). The FDC Ombudsperson also gives an annual report which is independent and autonomous on the FDC process.[1] With these various inputs, the staff and FDC will create a report for Year 1 which we hope will be shared back with the community at Wikimania. Other forms of external or independent assessments will also be part of our process: Kevin Gorman's retrospective of the grants program so far, for instance, was really useful and we've already incorporated several of his recommendations.[2] With the Program Evaluation team, we're also going to get much better at sharing the good and best practices that already exist in the movement, and at pointing out work that's relevant from other movements. Finally, we're planning some internal and external research to better provide guidance to grant applicants on issues like potential growth trajectories and useful ways of thinking about moving from entirely volunteer to staffed groups. We're obviously not working on this in isolation - there has already been some good thinking within the movement on this - and we'd be glad to be in conversation with anyone who wants to work with us on these issues. The Grantmaking team is a work in progress - we didn't exist in our present form last year, we've essentially restructured and reconfigured ourselves over the past few months, set up the FDC and IEG processes, and learnt rapidly about what works (and what might not) - and we're always open to feedback. If people are uncertain about who to reach out to, please do get in touch with me: as the person who heads the Grantmaking team, (some element of) the buck does stop with me. :-) thanks, Anasuya [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_the_Creation_and_Initial_Operation_of_the_FDC#FDC_Ombudsperson [2]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Retrospective_2009-2012 On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 9:34 PM, ENWP Pine deyntest...@hotmail.com wrote: Asaf, Thank you for sharing your perspective. This situation is complicated. I think it should be reviewed by an uninvolved third party, probably the FDC ombudsperson. I think it would take significant time and a lot of emails in this thread to accomplish what a review by the ombudsperson could accomplish in a faster and more thorough manner. Would you or someone else from the Grants staff please address the more broader questions that I raised earlier? I realize that these may have been easily overlooked due to the high volume of email on this list recently, so I'll repeat here. Several interesting comments have been made in this thread regarding the value of a more holistic evaluation of the FDC and GAC processes with regards to chapters especially regarding the hiring of a
[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] This Month in GLAM: April 2013
*This Month in GLAM* is a monthly newsletter documenting recent happenings within the GLAM project, such as content donations, residencies, events and more. GLAM is an acronym of *G*alleries, *L*ibraries, *A*rchives and *M*useums. You can find more information on the project at glamwiki.org. *This Month in GLAM – Issue IV, Volume III – April 2013* -- From the team: Some personal thoughts on GLAM http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/From_the_team Australia and New Zealand report: Wikipedia in academia and libraries in Australia http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Australia_and_New_Zealand_report Denmark report: Upcoming Edit-a-thon 1864 http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Denmark_report Finland report: WLPA; GLAM Sessions; Funding http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Finland_report France report: Brest http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/France_report Germany report: Hamburg Museum; Museum August Kestner http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Germany_report Hungary report: Article writing contest about statistics and related sciences http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Hungary_report Italy report: Wikipedia workshop; Editathon on women's biographies http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Italy_report Mexico report: Fotofestín activities; DIY scanner project progress and Winners of the Holy Week in Mexico photo contest at ITESM Campus Ciudad de Mexico http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Mexico_report Netherlands report: GLAM WIKI UK; Wiki loves Sound; Wikipedian in Residence; Wiki loves Libraries; Wikipedia Training National Museum of Ethnology http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Netherlands_report Spain report: Longest edit-a-thon ever at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Spain_report Sweden report: GLAM handbook version 3; conferences; hackathons and Wiki Loves Public Art http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Sweden_report Switzerland report: Swiss Federal Archives looking for a Wikipedian in Residence http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Switzerland_report Taiwan report: Taiwan Government Data Portal Launched http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Taiwan_report UK report: GLAM-Wiki; new and departing Wikipedians in Residence http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/UK_report USA report: First GLAM Boot Camp; Consortium meeting; GLAMout; plus workshops and editathon http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/USA_report Special story: Intersections between GLAM and Wikinews http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Special_story Open Access report: Featured content; Wikimania sessions http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Open_Access_report Calendar: May's GLAM events http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Contents/Events -- Single page view http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2013/Single Twitter http://twitter.com/ThisMonthinGLAM Work on the next edition http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/Newsroom -- The *This Month in GLAM* team http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter ___ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Comments on compliance and the FDC Round 2 decisions
Following-up with a few more pieces of material: *FDC Frequently Asked Questions: Process of Continuous Improvement[1] *2012-13 FDC Round 1 survey results[2] [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Frequently_asked_questions#FDC_Process_Continuous_Improvement [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuous_improvement_of_the_FDC_process/Process_Survey/2012-13_Round_1 On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 3:43 PM, Anasuya Sengupta asengu...@wikimedia.orgwrote: Hi Pine, My apologies for the tardiness of this reply; I've been away in India with family and am only just back. It's an important question to ask, because the Grantmaking team's programs - including the FDC process - have and are being set up with a strong self-evaluation component. We exist to support our movement through grants and shared knowledge as key resources, and we can only do this well if we're good at listening and learning ourselves. Overall, we're looking at multiple feedback mechanisms (including surveys and discussion groups at conferences like WMConf, Wikimania). As an example, we did a survey of the FDC Round 1 process which we shared in Milan, and used as a way to get more face-to-face feedback. This helps us know both broad and specific areas that we need to improve on and to do so quickly and appropriately. One thing to keep in mind with grantmaking programs is that process feedback is easily and quickly incorporated (like wiki-tables that made life miserable for FDC Round 1 applicants and we could improve for Round 2 applicants). However, substantive feedback (like the nature of questions, or entirely new sections of inquiry) need to be incorporated at the end of the year for the new year, so that the nature of the proposal doesn't change dramatically over the year, or from one round to the next: it's not fair on either the new folks applying, or the committee reviewing the proposals. We intend to do surveys of all our major grantmaking programs over the next few months, so that we have a good baseline against which to measure our progress as a team. Again, it's useful to remember that our proposal processes might seem 'heavy' to many in the movement, but they're pretty light-weight (with the possible exception of wiki-tables) in comparison to other grantmaking processes that are far more demanding for far smaller grant amounts. As a comparison, in the human rights and social justice grantmaking world, most grants are in the range of 5,000-50,000 USD. For the FDC in particular, the FDC Advisory Group will assess the first year, and towards the end of the second year (March 2014), give the Board a recommendation on whether the mechanism works (or not) and should continue (or not). The FDC Ombudsperson also gives an annual report which is independent and autonomous on the FDC process.[1] With these various inputs, the staff and FDC will create a report for Year 1 which we hope will be shared back with the community at Wikimania. Other forms of external or independent assessments will also be part of our process: Kevin Gorman's retrospective of the grants program so far, for instance, was really useful and we've already incorporated several of his recommendations.[2] With the Program Evaluation team, we're also going to get much better at sharing the good and best practices that already exist in the movement, and at pointing out work that's relevant from other movements. Finally, we're planning some internal and external research to better provide guidance to grant applicants on issues like potential growth trajectories and useful ways of thinking about moving from entirely volunteer to staffed groups. We're obviously not working on this in isolation - there has already been some good thinking within the movement on this - and we'd be glad to be in conversation with anyone who wants to work with us on these issues. The Grantmaking team is a work in progress - we didn't exist in our present form last year, we've essentially restructured and reconfigured ourselves over the past few months, set up the FDC and IEG processes, and learnt rapidly about what works (and what might not) - and we're always open to feedback. If people are uncertain about who to reach out to, please do get in touch with me: as the person who heads the Grantmaking team, (some element of) the buck does stop with me. :-) thanks, Anasuya [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_the_Creation_and_Initial_Operation_of_the_FDC#FDC_Ombudsperson [2]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Retrospective_2009-2012 On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 9:34 PM, ENWP Pine deyntest...@hotmail.com wrote: Asaf, Thank you for sharing your perspective. This situation is complicated. I think it should be reviewed by an uninvolved third party, probably the FDC ombudsperson. I think it would take significant time and a lot of emails in this thread
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again
I was relying on the infobox in English Wikipedia's article, Russian language. Is it safe to say Russian is spoken in many regions outside Russia? On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 4:42 AM, Russavia russavia.wikipe...@gmail.comwrote: Right, one might always read the English Wikipedia article and find out we were both right (funny, huh? :) ) Totally agree that we don't want to reopen this, though. Let's just say that Russian is NOT an official language in Moldova. Nice to work with you on this mailing list to reach a mutually advantageous and NPOV position on this issue. :) Russavia ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
