Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
I took a look at the survey and it is seriously unclear. Is there supposed to be an explanation which explains what it all means before filling in? Cheers, Peter - Original Message - From: James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:50 AM Subject: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey In order to address issues with previous volunteer community surveys which may not have included options able to maximize volunteer attraction and retention, I have drafted a revised volunteer community survey which includes new items and top-scoring components of the previous community survey: http://demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=wmfcsdraft It is in English only at present. Translations and other internationalization of the responses are most welcome, because at least a few are overly US-specific at present. The draft version will accept responses from anyone for two weeks. The Foundation can select a random sample of long-term volunteers from email registrations. Alternatively, recent changes can be used in conjunction with editor histories for random samples which volunteers could use to confirm official results as a matter of best practices, or if the Foundation fails to act. A detailed rationale for this revision is at: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/advocacy_advisors/2014-March/000420.html Best regards, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
Is there ... an explanation which explains what it all means? It's an attempted improvement on the policy survey at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Survey A survey about the importance of various policy issues ... given the highest priority by our community. If you are having trouble working the preference ballot at http://demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=wmfcsdraft then please try the demonstration, instructions, and background material at http://demochoice.org/ The ranked-preference ballot makes respondents consider choices pairwise, which has an accuracy advantage over approval (yes or no to each) or Likert scale (e.g. 1 strongly agree to 5 strongly disagree) responses when respondents are not familiar with all the options. Approval on an issues survey can have problems with relatively disproportionate numbers of responses with only a few options or all or almost all options selected, and the Likert scale gets fewer responses on issues less familiar to respondents than ranking. Best regards, James ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
On 13 March 2014 05:13, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Is there ... an explanation which explains what it all means? It's an attempted improvement on the policy survey at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Survey A survey about the importance of various policy issues ... given the highest priority by our community. If you are having trouble working the preference ballot at http://demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=wmfcsdraft then please try the demonstration, instructions, and background material at http://demochoice.org/ The ranked-preference ballot makes respondents consider choices pairwise, which has an accuracy advantage over approval (yes or no to each) or Likert scale (e.g. 1 strongly agree to 5 strongly disagree) responses when respondents are not familiar with all the options. Approval on an issues survey can have problems with relatively disproportionate numbers of responses with only a few options or all or almost all options selected, and the Likert scale gets fewer responses on issues less familiar to respondents than ranking. Best regards, James ___ I don't think this would be a very useful survey, and I would not participate in it. The shopping list of causes - many of which have little or no correlation with anything even vaguely related to the operation of the WMF, its core philosophies, or its purpose - is very americo-centric. Just as importantly, it says that 12 topics will be elected. Elected for what? Why 12 of them? What about if lots of people think one of these topics is really important, but for different reasons? Mostly, thoughthis just really feels like it is trying to take the Wikimedia community down a path that has nothing to do with our core objectives, and to turn us into just another advocacy group. I'm not interested in that. Risker/Anne ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
In addition to Risker's comments, which I agree with 100%, I would further request that any future survey of users be designed and supervised only by someone with extensive expertise and experience in the field of survey methodology. Many previous surveys that have been done by the Foundation have, despite a lot of hard work and effort put into them, suffered from methodological flaws, either in the form of the questions asked or the way that the user sample was selected. The results have therefore not only been useless in some cases, but in some cases actually misleading and thus potentially damaging to the movement. This is something that the Foundation has gotten better at over the years, and since we're on the topic it's something I'd like them to stick to! Cheers, Craig On 13 March 2014 21:32, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote: On 13 March 2014 05:13, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Is there ... an explanation which explains what it all means? It's an attempted improvement on the policy survey at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Survey A survey about the importance of various policy issues ... given the highest priority by our community. If you are having trouble working the preference ballot at http://demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=wmfcsdraft then please try the demonstration, instructions, and background material at http://demochoice.org/ The ranked-preference ballot makes respondents consider choices pairwise, which has an accuracy advantage over approval (yes or no to each) or Likert scale (e.g. 1 strongly agree to 5 strongly disagree) responses when respondents are not familiar with all the options. Approval on an issues survey can have problems with relatively disproportionate numbers of responses with only a few options or all or almost all options selected, and the Likert scale gets fewer responses on issues less familiar to respondents than ranking. Best regards, James ___ I don't think this would be a very useful survey, and I would not participate in it. The shopping list of causes - many of which have little or no correlation with anything even vaguely related to the operation of the WMF, its core philosophies, or its purpose - is very americo-centric. Just as importantly, it says that 12 topics will be elected. Elected for what? Why 12 of them? What about if lots of people think one of these topics is really important, but for different reasons? Mostly, thoughthis just really feels like it is trying to take the Wikimedia community down a path that has nothing to do with our core objectives, and to turn us into just another advocacy group. I'm not interested in that. Risker/Anne ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Argentina report: February 2014
Dear Wikimedians, Here is the monthly report of Wikimedia Argentina for February 2014. You can read the full report (in Spanish and English) here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Argentina/Reportes/2014-02 Also, the full reports of past months are available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Argentina/Reportes 1. New Executive Director 2. New publication: Gender issues in Wikipedia 3. New scanner at our office 4. Open letter from Wikimedia Argentina on the URAA issue == New Executive Director == After a selection process that was held during the first two weeks of February, with several outstanding applicants, the board and staff of Wikimedia Argentina hired Anna Torres Adell to be our new Executive Director since March 1st, 2014. Anna holds a BA in Political Sciences by the Pompeu Fabra University. She has two postgraduate diplomas from FLACSO: one on International Cooperation, Administration and Monitoring of Public Policy; and another diploma in Local Development and Social Economics. She lived and worked in Guatemala and Mexico, and she set residence in Argentina a couple years ago. Before joining our organization, she worked as a coordinator of PROEM Foundation, an institution that dedicates its efforts to work training and enhancing new businesses. At Wikimedia Argentina we are very happy with the applications received, as well as hiring Anna, who was very welcomed within our community. We believe her professional profile will allow us to take our organization up great roads. == New publication: Gender issues in Wikipedia == After a couple months of work, we have published the document «Gender issues in the digital world. Wikipedia and other communities» (only available in Spanish), that brings together a selection of presentations held at WikiGénero. This congress was held on May 26, 2012, in Buenos Aires. The meeting seek to debate the possible reasons of low women engagement in the free encyclopedia, as well as reduced content of important women in the history of Mankind. The presentations and discussions touched on these topics, but also went further: subjects such as communication of science and gender representation (in its wide spectrum) were also addressed. With this publication, we hope to take back some of the valuable discussions that took place back then, and put it at anyone's service, with an aim to continue the discussion around these issues. Through these actions we seek to improve Wikipedia's content ad expand its community with new collaborators. The document is available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_cuesti%C3%B3n_de_g%C3%A9nero_en_el_mundo_digital._Wikipedia_y_otras_comunidades..pdf == New scanner at our office == We now have available, at Wikimedia Argentina's headquarters, a DIY scanner to digitalize books. The equipment is similar to those taken on loan by several Argentine cultural institutions during 2013 that have made possible to upload more than 100 books to Wikimedia Commons. Among the benefits of this scanner are the preservation and care of old books: the manual functioning prevents any binding from being hurt. In the weeks to come, we will enable a schedule for our community to book the scanner and use it for free culture promotion purposes. == Open letter from Wikimedia Argentina on the URAA issue == The board of directors of our organization wrote a letter to give an official answer on behalf of the chapter, regarding the multiple conflicts originated by the application of URAA by the Wikimedia Commons community. The board decided to address the conflict in a more active way when several Argentinean collaborators of Commons received massive notifications that their images were soon to be erased, based on URAA regulations. Among the different exchanges that stem from this conflict, the Wikimedia Foundation also expressed its position in a statement suggesting to stop massive deletions of images. We hope to see an end to this discussion soon, not without finding a solution that mirrors the prevailing rights on every jurisdiction. --- Kind regards, *Osmar Valdebenito G.* Director Ejecutivo A. C. Wikimedia Argentina ___ 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, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC
Dear Wikimedia contributors, please help spreading this call for Google Summer of Code candidates in your projects, chapters, and surroundings. Thank you! -- Forwarded message -- From: *Quim Gil* q...@wikimedia.org Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014 Subject: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Please forward this email wisely. Yes, we need your help getting the word out. So far, all our GSoC candidates come from only two (neighbor) countries: India and Sri Lanka. While we are very happy seeing how popular Wikimedia is among technical students in the Indian subcontinent, we are concerned about the lack of candidates from anywhere else. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014#Candidates GSoC 2013 had accepted students from 69 countries [1], and we have participants from eight.[2] We can discuss about the deep causes of this situation but... Considering that we have less than 9 days before the GSoC deadline for students (March 21 @ 19:00 UTC) we should focus on finding new candidates. There is still time to become a strong GSoC candidate for Wikimedia. Many project ideas in our GSoC page (linked above) have mentors available and no candidates yet. Go for them! Also, since our evaluation of candidates is based on their proposals published in mediawiki.org, Google's deadline is not a hard stop to keep improving your plans together with your mentors. April 7 is when we need to decide how many slots we will request, meaning how many teams (candidates and mentors with a common plan) we believe that can complete GSoC 2014 successfully. That date is more than three weeks from now. Diversity is an important factor for Wikimedia. We are putting a lot of effort promoting gender diversity in our outreach programs, and we are seeing good progress. It would be surprising to realize that a global project like Wikimedia has a serious problem with geographical diversity. Your ideas and actions to fix this situation are welcome. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/ProgramStatistics [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013 PS: in comparison, FOSS OPW is doing a lot better, with five candidates from four countries https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FOSS_Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_8#Candidates-- coincidence? -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Join the Grant Advisory Committee!
Hello Everyone! We're sending out another call for new Grant Advisory Committee (GAC) members! The GAC are community volunteers who are explicitly invited[1] to review and evaluate grant proposals made in the Wikimedia Foundation Project and Event Grants Program[2], and offer advice to both grant applicants and the Foundation. Read all about it on the Candidates page[3]. New members will be inducted by the end of March 2014, so be sure to step forward before then. Please help this message reach as many people as possible, by relaying it to appropriate lists and village pumps. And many thanks to our current and former GAC members! Cheers, Alex [1] _everyone_ is implicitly invited! [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grant_Advisory_Committee/Candidates -- Alex Wang Program Officer Project Event Grants Wikimedia Foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home +1 415-839-6885 Skype: alexvwang ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC
I would suggest blogging about GsoC and maybe posting about it on the wp discussion pages. There is only one week left! On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 9:41 PM, Quim Gil q...@wikimedia.org wrote: Dear Wikimedia contributors, please help spreading this call for Google Summer of Code candidates in your projects, chapters, and surroundings. Thank you! -- Forwarded message -- From: *Quim Gil* q...@wikimedia.org Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014 Subject: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Please forward this email wisely. Yes, we need your help getting the word out. So far, all our GSoC candidates come from only two (neighbor) countries: India and Sri Lanka. While we are very happy seeing how popular Wikimedia is among technical students in the Indian subcontinent, we are concerned about the lack of candidates from anywhere else. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014#Candidates GSoC 2013 had accepted students from 69 countries [1], and we have participants from eight.[2] We can discuss about the deep causes of this situation but... Considering that we have less than 9 days before the GSoC deadline for students (March 21 @ 19:00 UTC) we should focus on finding new candidates. There is still time to become a strong GSoC candidate for Wikimedia. Many project ideas in our GSoC page (linked above) have mentors available and no candidates yet. Go for them! Also, since our evaluation of candidates is based on their proposals published in mediawiki.org, Google's deadline is not a hard stop to keep improving your plans together with your mentors. April 7 is when we need to decide how many slots we will request, meaning how many teams (candidates and mentors with a common plan) we believe that can complete GSoC 2014 successfully. That date is more than three weeks from now. Diversity is an important factor for Wikimedia. We are putting a lot of effort promoting gender diversity in our outreach programs, and we are seeing good progress. It would be surprising to realize that a global project like Wikimedia has a serious problem with geographical diversity. Your ideas and actions to fix this situation are welcome. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/ProgramStatistics [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013 PS: in comparison, FOSS OPW is doing a lot better, with five candidates from four countries https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FOSS_Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_8#Candidates-- coincidence? -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Etiamsi omnes, ego non ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC
I guess we should share on Facebook as well as Twitter. (MediaWiki / Wikimedia Foundation) Thanks Harsh On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 2:19 AM, David Cuenca dacu...@gmail.com wrote: I would suggest blogging about GsoC and maybe posting about it on the wp discussion pages. There is only one week left! On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 9:41 PM, Quim Gil q...@wikimedia.org wrote: Dear Wikimedia contributors, please help spreading this call for Google Summer of Code candidates in your projects, chapters, and surroundings. Thank you! -- Forwarded message -- From: *Quim Gil* q...@wikimedia.org Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014 Subject: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Please forward this email wisely. Yes, we need your help getting the word out. So far, all our GSoC candidates come from only two (neighbor) countries: India and Sri Lanka. While we are very happy seeing how popular Wikimedia is among technical students in the Indian subcontinent, we are concerned about the lack of candidates from anywhere else. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014#Candidates GSoC 2013 had accepted students from 69 countries [1], and we have participants from eight.[2] We can discuss about the deep causes of this situation but... Considering that we have less than 9 days before the GSoC deadline for students (March 21 @ 19:00 UTC) we should focus on finding new candidates. There is still time to become a strong GSoC candidate for Wikimedia. Many project ideas in our GSoC page (linked above) have mentors available and no candidates yet. Go for them! Also, since our evaluation of candidates is based on their proposals published in mediawiki.org, Google's deadline is not a hard stop to keep improving your plans together with your mentors. April 7 is when we need to decide how many slots we will request, meaning how many teams (candidates and mentors with a common plan) we believe that can complete GSoC 2014 successfully. That date is more than three weeks from now. Diversity is an important factor for Wikimedia. We are putting a lot of effort promoting gender diversity in our outreach programs, and we are seeing good progress. It would be surprising to realize that a global project like Wikimedia has a serious problem with geographical diversity. Your ideas and actions to fix this situation are welcome. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/ProgramStatistics [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013 PS: in comparison, FOSS OPW is doing a lot better, with five candidates from four countries https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FOSS_Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_8#Candidates-- coincidence? -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Etiamsi omnes, ego non ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Harsh Kothari Intern at Google Summer of Code, Wikimedia Foundation Follow Me : harshkothari410 https://twitter.com/harshkothari410/ ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC
On Thursday, March 13, 2014, Harsh Kothari harshkothari...@gmail.com wrote: I guess we should share on Facebook as well as Twitter. (MediaWiki / Wikimedia Foundation) Yes, you were faster than me. :) https://www.facebook.com/MediaWikiProject/posts/264324327074526?stream_ref=5 https://twitter.com/mediawiki/status/444215890104434688 https://plus.google.com/b/103470172168784626509/103470172168784626509/posts/6ERaAtT8oev (I hope FB and G+ URLs work for you as well) -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Optional changes to the Terms of Use amendment on undisclosed paid edits
Hello, In response to some community comments on the proposed amendment to the Terms of Use on undisclosed paid edits, the WMF's LCA team has suggested two optional changes to the scope of the amendment. The aim is to address concerns regarding reactions against editors who are suspected of violating the disclosure requirements, and protecting good-faith contributors (such as professors, students, and Wikipedians in Residence). These options are not mutually exclusive - both of them, either, or neither could be adopted, depending on your input. These new options are available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and other languages. Please review these options on the Terms of Use amendment page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/Paid_contributions_amendment#Optional_changes And please share comments or feedback in this discussion page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Terms_of_use/Paid_contributions_amendment#Discussion_for_Optional_Changes Many thanks for everyone's participation in the ongoing discussion on the Terms of Use amendment. Best, Stephen Laporte -- Stephen LaPorte Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation *For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity.* ___ 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, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC
I have shared this with several fellow coders and have asked them to pass it on. On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 2:24 AM, Harsh Kothari harshkothari...@gmail.comwrote: I guess we should share on Facebook as well as Twitter. (MediaWiki / Wikimedia Foundation) Thanks Harsh On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 2:19 AM, David Cuenca dacu...@gmail.com wrote: I would suggest blogging about GsoC and maybe posting about it on the wp discussion pages. There is only one week left! On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 9:41 PM, Quim Gil q...@wikimedia.org wrote: Dear Wikimedia contributors, please help spreading this call for Google Summer of Code candidates in your projects, chapters, and surroundings. Thank you! -- Forwarded message -- From: *Quim Gil* q...@wikimedia.org Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014 Subject: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Please forward this email wisely. Yes, we need your help getting the word out. So far, all our GSoC candidates come from only two (neighbor) countries: India and Sri Lanka. While we are very happy seeing how popular Wikimedia is among technical students in the Indian subcontinent, we are concerned about the lack of candidates from anywhere else. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014#Candidates GSoC 2013 had accepted students from 69 countries [1], and we have participants from eight.[2] We can discuss about the deep causes of this situation but... Considering that we have less than 9 days before the GSoC deadline for students (March 21 @ 19:00 UTC) we should focus on finding new candidates. There is still time to become a strong GSoC candidate for Wikimedia. Many project ideas in our GSoC page (linked above) have mentors available and no candidates yet. Go for them! Also, since our evaluation of candidates is based on their proposals published in mediawiki.org, Google's deadline is not a hard stop to keep improving your plans together with your mentors. April 7 is when we need to decide how many slots we will request, meaning how many teams (candidates and mentors with a common plan) we believe that can complete GSoC 2014 successfully. That date is more than three weeks from now. Diversity is an important factor for Wikimedia. We are putting a lot of effort promoting gender diversity in our outreach programs, and we are seeing good progress. It would be surprising to realize that a global project like Wikimedia has a serious problem with geographical diversity. Your ideas and actions to fix this situation are welcome. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/ProgramStatistics [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013 PS: in comparison, FOSS OPW is doing a lot better, with five candidates from four countries https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FOSS_Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_8#Candidates-- coincidence? -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Etiamsi omnes, ego non ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Harsh Kothari Intern at Google Summer of Code, Wikimedia Foundation Follow Me : harshkothari410 https://twitter.com/harshkothari410/ ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Srikanth Ramakrishnan Treasurer, Wikimedia Chapter [India] Donate to the Wikimedia India Chapter todayhttp://wiki.wikimedia.in/Donations ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
Hi Craig, On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 4:42 AM, Craig Franklin cfrank...@halonetwork.net wrote: In addition to Risker's comments, which I agree with 100%, I would further request that any future survey of users be designed and supervised only by someone with extensive expertise and experience in the field of survey methodology. Many previous surveys that have been done by the Foundation have, despite a lot of hard work and effort put into them, suffered from methodological flaws, either in the form of the questions asked or the way that the user sample was selected. The results have therefore not only been useless in some cases, but in some cases actually misleading and thus potentially damaging to the movement. Agree about the importance of careful survey design. But, without revisiting the dispute about the question in previous editor surveys that asked Wikimedians to rate the performance of Wikimedia chapters, which I know well you had concerns about, let me point out that the Foundation's 2011 reader survey and the two 2011 editor surveys (whose questionnaires and methodology were largely reused in the 2012 editor survey) were designed and supervised by a PhD with extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research, who had been conducting surveys in several countries even before she joined WMF. Of course that doesn't mean that the questionnaire and methodology can't be criticized or improved in each case - I recall that community feedback about specific issues led to various improvements - , just wanted to set the record straight. This is something that the Foundation has gotten better at over the years, and since we're on the topic it's something I'd like them to stick to! Thanks, and please do continue to hold WMF to high standards ;) Cheers, Craig On 13 March 2014 21:32, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote: On 13 March 2014 05:13, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Is there ... an explanation which explains what it all means? It's an attempted improvement on the policy survey at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Survey A survey about the importance of various policy issues ... given the highest priority by our community. If you are having trouble working the preference ballot at http://demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=wmfcsdraft then please try the demonstration, instructions, and background material at http://demochoice.org/ The ranked-preference ballot makes respondents consider choices pairwise, which has an accuracy advantage over approval (yes or no to each) or Likert scale (e.g. 1 strongly agree to 5 strongly disagree) responses when respondents are not familiar with all the options. Approval on an issues survey can have problems with relatively disproportionate numbers of responses with only a few options or all or almost all options selected, and the Likert scale gets fewer responses on issues less familiar to respondents than ranking. Best regards, James ___ I don't think this would be a very useful survey, and I would not participate in it. The shopping list of causes - many of which have little or no correlation with anything even vaguely related to the operation of the WMF, its core philosophies, or its purpose - is very americo-centric. Just as importantly, it says that 12 topics will be elected. Elected for what? Why 12 of them? What about if lots of people think one of these topics is really important, but for different reasons? Mostly, thoughthis just really feels like it is trying to take the Wikimedia community down a path that has nothing to do with our core objectives, and to turn us into just another advocacy group. I'm not interested in that. Risker/Anne ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Tilman Bayer Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications) Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [feature suggestion] Be able to include/exclude certain page fragments based on the geographic area
Le lundi 10 mars 2014 21:03:20 (CET), Yuri y...@rawbw.com a écrit : On 03/10/2014 11:30, Seb35 wrote: Another point of view is that the knowledge doesn’t (shouldn’t) depend in any way of the local government -- possibly it can be viewed differently from a culture to another but that’s a cultural question not related to censorship. Moreover it would be a censorship practice close to the Ministry of Truth in 1984 where the newspapers are re-printed afterwards to modify the past History. This is exactly the point: when local governments attempt to twist the truth, they are currently able to do this for all readers, regardless of the location. This feature would allow to explicitly twist the truth in specific areas where this twisting is legally required, while preserving the real version for everyone else. In a way, it will also keep the registry of altered information, while now there is no such way and alterations are just swallowed. I’m not convinced by this method (quite difficult technically as said on the bug) because of the abuse ti could lead: if a government doesn’t like a version of an article (example given by Austin Hair), it would be too easy to find a random volunteer in the country to hide the unwanted parts. As a real example in the DCRI affair last year, if such a feature would have existed I guess the affair would have received a smaller attention from the international movement and the censorship would have worked better. I understand your intention with this system, but I find it’s not a good response to the problem; I find a better response is to encourage and help the free speech associations, like what was done during SOPA/PIPA. ~ Seb35 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
... list of causes - many of which have little or no correlation with anything even vaguely related to the operation of the WMF, its core philosophies, or its purpose If the Trustees have decided that we should pay advocates, why not advocate on the issues most likely to increase the number, persistence, and availability of our volunteers? What proportion of past Wikimedia volunteer surveys asked about any issues which would tend to attract new editors, retain existing editors, or increase the time availability of potential editors? I know of three, and only one was produced by Foundation staff. Just because Foundation staff avoid advocacy questions out of an abundance of caution concerning their nonprofit organization restrictions, there is no reason to censor the assessment of volunteer opinion on those topics. On the contrary, the restrictions cause a clear systemic bias in the formal statistical sense, and I would be professionally negligent if I did not recommend countering that bias. If there are actual reasons to believe that the additions I have chosen have little or no correlation with such factors then I would like to read them, because they can be expected to improve the ability to attract, retain, and ease the contributions of volunteers for concrete reasons in the most reliable sources. very americo-centric If there is some reason to say more than 4 out of 32 of the items are US-specific, I would be surprised. Some of the items can easily be internationalized further, and I will endeavor to do so. For better or worse, the Foundation is in the US, and Foundation employees have to live with, e.g., the US healthcare system, US tax incidence, US working hours, US public education, US infrastructure, US national security eavesdropping, etc. Therefore all of those issues affect all of our volunteers. Just as importantly, it says that 12 topics will be elected. Elected for what? Why 12 of them? The cut-off is arbitrary and was intended to be roughly proportional to the number of issues listed in the abstract of the most recent EU survey. What about if lots of people think one of these topics is really important, but for different reasons? Advocacy staff should have access to volunteer opinion data in ways which would allow them to tailor advocacy opportunities to those which are considered most important by the largest number of volunteers, and also in ways where the subset of volunteers who consider less popular issues important can still help to act on them when the evidence suggests the outcomes would justify the effort. Best regards, James ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
On 13 March 2014 22:38, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: snip If the Trustees have decided that we should pay advocates, snip Link to the board of decision to pay advocates please. Risker ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
Link to the board of decision to pay advocates please. The most recent seems to be the approval f the Annual Plan as per http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2013-2014_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What_is_included_in_the_.E2.80.9CLegal.2C_Community_Advocacy.2C_Communications.2C_Human_Resources.2C_Finance_and_Administration.E2.80.9D_spending_in_the_Annual_Plan.3F ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
On 13 March 2014 23:56, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Link to the board of decision to pay advocates please. The most recent seems to be the approval f the Annual Plan as per http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2013-2014_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What_is_included_in_the_.E2.80.9CLegal.2C_Community_Advocacy.2C_Communications.2C_Human_Resources.2C_Finance_and_Administration.E2.80.9D_spending_in_the_Annual_Plan.3F It's the name of a department Legal and Community Advocacy or LCA for short. That's not really the same thing. Risker/Anne ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] draft revised volunteer community survey
Ah. Yeah. The job of the Community Advocacy bit of Legal and Community Advocacy is, as I understand it, to advocate for the community's need within the Foundation, and act as a conduit to the community for legal stuff. Their job is not to advocate for reduction in public school class sizes or more steeply progressive taxation. Indeed, these things are not the job of anyone at the Foundation, and never should be. I'm kind of bemused as to why these are even being brought up. On 13 March 2014 21:04, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote: On 13 March 2014 23:56, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Link to the board of decision to pay advocates please. The most recent seems to be the approval f the Annual Plan as per http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2013-2014_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What_is_included_in_the_.E2.80.9CLegal.2C_Community_Advocacy.2C_Communications.2C_Human_Resources.2C_Finance_and_Administration.E2.80.9D_spending_in_the_Annual_Plan.3F It's the name of a department Legal and Community Advocacy or LCA for short. That's not really the same thing. Risker/Anne ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Oliver Keyes Product Analyst Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
