[Wikimedia-l] Endowment Discussion

2015-11-30 Thread Lisa Gruwell
Hi all-

For several years, the Wikimedia movement has been having discussions
 about whether and when to begin
building an endowment. I put an essay up on meta recently in an attempt to
rekindle this conversation with the community.  We included launching an
endowment in the FY 2015-16 annual plan.  We also plan to have this
conversation as a part of the larger strategic planning process because
building an endowment means prioritizing some future needs over some
current needs.

Before we can begin to support an endowment, there is strategic groundwork
that should be completed to ensure that the effort is both thoughtful and
successful. To help get the conversation moving, I seeded the discussion
page with a few questions that we are hoping you will help us answer.
Please add the questions I didn't think to ask, too. We'd appreciate
hearing your thoughts on this and your help in thinking through some of the
strategic questions.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay
Best regards,

Lisa Gruwell
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Endowment Discussion

2015-11-30 Thread Brion Vibber
Thanks!

I added a section to the talk page asking about how we would actually go
about investing... the purpose of an endowment is to let it grow and just
spend some of the interest, but that growth doesn't happen in a vacuum.
Investment happens by putting money into other peoples' businesses and
letting them pay you back with interest.

So we'd be asking donors for tens of millions of dollars to invest in
third-party businesses -- a fundamental change in our fundraising
proposition. Thinking about our social responsibility as an investor is
probably worthwhile.

-- brion

On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 9:09 AM, Lisa Gruwell 
wrote:

> Hi all-
>
> For several years, the Wikimedia movement has been having discussions
>  about whether and when to
> begin
> building an endowment. I put an essay up on meta recently in an attempt to
> rekindle this conversation with the community.  We included launching an
> endowment in the FY 2015-16 annual plan.  We also plan to have this
> conversation as a part of the larger strategic planning process because
> building an endowment means prioritizing some future needs over some
> current needs.
>
> Before we can begin to support an endowment, there is strategic groundwork
> that should be completed to ensure that the effort is both thoughtful and
> successful. To help get the conversation moving, I seeded the discussion
> page with a few questions that we are hoping you will help us answer.
> Please add the questions I didn't think to ask, too. We'd appreciate
> hearing your thoughts on this and your help in thinking through some of the
> strategic questions.
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay
> Best regards,
>
> Lisa Gruwell
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Endowment Discussion

2015-11-30 Thread Lila Tretikov
Lisa,

Thank you for sharing these exciting news and all the work the team has
completed so far.  I know I have spoken with many of our community members
in the past about this important milestone in protecting our community's
work long-term. I am looking forward to hearing more from everyone as we
make this real.

Lila

On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 9:09 AM, Lisa Gruwell 
wrote:

> Hi all-
>
> For several years, the Wikimedia movement has been having discussions
>  about whether and when to
> begin
> building an endowment. I put an essay up on meta recently in an attempt to
> rekindle this conversation with the community.  We included launching an
> endowment in the FY 2015-16 annual plan.  We also plan to have this
> conversation as a part of the larger strategic planning process because
> building an endowment means prioritizing some future needs over some
> current needs.
>
> Before we can begin to support an endowment, there is strategic groundwork
> that should be completed to ensure that the effort is both thoughtful and
> successful. To help get the conversation moving, I seeded the discussion
> page with a few questions that we are hoping you will help us answer.
> Please add the questions I didn't think to ask, too. We'd appreciate
> hearing your thoughts on this and your help in thinking through some of the
> strategic questions.
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay
> Best regards,
>
> Lisa Gruwell
> ___
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> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Endowment Discussion

2015-11-30 Thread Pine W
That's a good question.

Alternatives to private sector equity investments include public-sector
bonds, as well as commodities and currencies. While I wouldn't recommend
that WMF do either of the latter two, there might be some reasonable
choices for WMF in the public sector bond market.

In the private sector, I hope that WMF would be very careful about the
ethics of the companies and industries in which it chooses to invest.

Pine
On Nov 30, 2015 10:01 AM, "Brion Vibber"  wrote:

> Thanks!
>
> I added a section to the talk page asking about how we would actually go
> about investing... the purpose of an endowment is to let it grow and just
> spend some of the interest, but that growth doesn't happen in a vacuum.
> Investment happens by putting money into other peoples' businesses and
> letting them pay you back with interest.
>
> So we'd be asking donors for tens of millions of dollars to invest in
> third-party businesses -- a fundamental change in our fundraising
> proposition. Thinking about our social responsibility as an investor is
> probably worthwhile.
>
> -- brion
>
> On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 9:09 AM, Lisa Gruwell 
> wrote:
>
> > Hi all-
> >
> > For several years, the Wikimedia movement has been having discussions
> >  about whether and when to
> > begin
> > building an endowment. I put an essay up on meta recently in an attempt
> to
> > rekindle this conversation with the community.  We included launching an
> > endowment in the FY 2015-16 annual plan.  We also plan to have this
> > conversation as a part of the larger strategic planning process because
> > building an endowment means prioritizing some future needs over some
> > current needs.
> >
> > Before we can begin to support an endowment, there is strategic
> groundwork
> > that should be completed to ensure that the effort is both thoughtful and
> > successful. To help get the conversation moving, I seeded the discussion
> > page with a few questions that we are hoping you will help us answer.
> > Please add the questions I didn't think to ask, too. We'd appreciate
> > hearing your thoughts on this and your help in thinking through some of
> the
> > strategic questions.
> >
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Lisa Gruwell
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Redirect blog.wikipedia.org to the Wikimedia Blog

2015-11-30 Thread Joe Sutherland
I've created a Phabricator task for this at
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T119888, if anyone would like to track
this there, add your thoughts, etc.

Joe

-- 
*Joe Sutherland*
Communications Intern [remote]
joesutherland.rocks | @jrbsu 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Free Bassel

2015-11-30 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

Quick update for those interested.

The poll closed this weekend - as scheduled (it was a faster timeline given the 
urgency of the case/request). Right now, we await assessment and closure of the 
straw poll by a Steward (request has been made on their Noticeboard).

At the time of closing, the banner campaign had 158 in favor (62.45%) and 95 
against (37.55%).

Again, thank you to everyone that participated.

As we await closure and possible next steps, reminder that there is info on 
what actions you can take at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Bassel

-greg (User:Varnent)

> On Nov 28, 2015, at 3:14 AM, Gregory Varnum  wrote:
> 
> Reminder that the current discussion on the banner will be continuing on 
> Meta-Wiki for another 12 hours:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Bassel/Banner/Straw_poll 
> 
> 
> As of this email, 142 people have shown support for the banner campaign and 
> 84 have opposed the banner campaign.
> 
> Thank you to everyone that is participating in the poll and discussion.
> 
> -greg (User:Varnent)
> 
>> On Nov 26, 2015, at 12:55 AM, Gerard Meijssen > > wrote:
>> 
>> Hoi,
>> As this is not a Wikipedia article, it is more of an advertisement, a call
>> to action. Urgency is key. This is not about the well known patterns of a
>> Wikipedia article.
>> 
>> This is not understood, it results at this late stage in an edit war.
>> Either we have a point and make it or we have a Wikipedia style article
>> which is to long to read. It will not be read because there is nothing
>> urgent, nothing that demands attention.
>> Thanks,
>> GerardM
>> 
>> On 25 November 2015 at 11:20, Gerard Meijssen > >
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hoi,
>>> I have looked at the article. It does not have the necessary urgency. He
>>> is likely to have been sentenced to death and the article reads like a
>>> Wikipedia article. This is Meta, it is not Wikipedia and it needs urgency.
>>> We appeal to the world to get involved to let his death not happen. That is
>>> imho what the message needs to be.
>>> Thanks,
>>> GerardM
>>> 
>>> On 25 November 2015 at 02:57, Asaf Bartov >> > wrote:
>>> 
 FYI: User:Odder has now created [[m:Free Bassel
 >]], as a landing page to
 link
 from the banner.
 
 If anyone would like to help with a design for the banner (I concede not
 everyone shares my taste for 10pt-black-on-white text), we would be able
 to
 move ahead.  There is, so far, nothing but support.
 
   A.
 
 On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Katherine Maher >
 wrote:
 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Thank you for raising this issue here on this list. I wanted to share
 some
> more information about how we’ve been working to support Bassel to this
> point, in public and behind the scenes. Unfortunately, some efforts are
> sensitive, so can’t be shared in full on public mailing lists. But we’re
> committed to supporting next steps or decisions by the community, and
> keeping you updated going forward.
> 
> Working with some other colleagues at the Foundation, we have been
 tracking
> Bassel's case for some time now, in direct contact with the organizers
 of
> the #FreeBassel campaign > 
> [1], and Bassel's
 family.
> The actions we have taken to date have been in coordination and approval
> with the #FreeBassel campaign, including:
> 
>   - Coordination and communication with related organizations, such as
 the
>   Electronic Frontier Foundation and Amnesty International. (ongoing)
>   - Regular contact and updates with senior human rights officials at
 the
>   U.S. State Department. (ongoing)
>   - Outreach to the press around Bassel’s arbitrary detention and
>   contributions to the free knowledge movement. Please see this WIRED
> story, “A
>   Jailed Activist’s 3-D Models Could Save Syria’s History From ISIS
>   <
> 
 http://www.wired.com/2015/10/jailed-activist-bassel-khartabil-3d-models-could-save-syrian-history-from-isis/
  
 
>> .”
>   [2] (Although we did reach out to WIRED, we cannot say for certain if
> that
>   story was the direct result of our efforts or others within the
> #FreeBassel
>   coordination community). (10/21)
>   - Raising Bassel’s case in public speaking opportunities, including
>   Lila’s 

[Wikimedia-l] Revision scoring as a service launched

2015-11-30 Thread Dario Taraborelli
(cross-posting from wikitech-l)

Today we published an announcement on the Wikimedia blog marking the official 
launch of revision scoring as a service 
 and I 
wanted to say a few words about this project:

Blog post: 
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/11/30/artificial-intelligence-x-ray-specs/ 

Docs on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ORES 
 

First off: what’s revision scoring 
?
 On the surface, it’s a set of open APIs allowing you to automatically “score” 
any edit and measure their probability of being damaging or good-faith 
contributions. The real goal behind this project, though, is to fix the damage 
indirectly caused by vandal-fighting bots and tools on good-faith contributors 
and to bring back a collaborative dimension to how we do quality control on 
Wikipedia. I invite you to read the whole blog post 
 if 
you want to know more about the motivations and expected outcome of this 
project.

I am thrilled this project is coming to fruition and I’d like to congratulate 
Aaron Halfaker  and all 
the project contributors 
 
on hitting this big milestone: revision scoring started as Aaron’s side project 
well over a year ago and it has been co-designed (as in – literally – 
conceived, implemented, tested, improved and finally adopted) by a distributed 
team of volunteer developers, editors, and researchers. We worked with 
volunteers in 14 different Wikipedia language editions and as of today revision 
scores are integrated 

 in the workflow of several quality control interfaces, WikiProjects and 3rd 
party tools. The project would not have seen the light without the technical 
support provided by the TechOps team (Yuvi in particular) and seminal funding 
provided by the WMF IEG program and Wikimedia Germany.

So, here you go: the next time someone tells you that LLAMAS GROW ON TREES 
 you can 
confidently tell them they should stop damaging 
 Wikipedia.

Dario


Dario Taraborelli  Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org  • nitens.org 
 • @readermeter 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] In Solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-hub

2015-11-30 Thread John Mark Vandenberg
On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 1:32 PM, Milos Rancic  wrote:
> May we actually stop having anything with these pest?
>
> http://custodians.online/

I dont believe we can stop using closed access journals, as that would
reduce the quality of our projects, but we can use links to them as an
opportunity to educate the public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28idea_lab%29#Solidarity_with_Library_Genesis_and_Sci-Hub

However WMF should discontinue its relationship with Elsevier and
Taylor & Francis via the 'Wikipedia Library'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Elsevier_ScienceDirect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Taylor_%26_Francis

--
John Vandenberg

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[Wikimedia-l] In Solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-hub

2015-11-30 Thread Milos Rancic
May we actually stop having anything with these pest?

http://custodians.online/
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[Wikimedia-l] Community Wishlist Survey - voting open

2015-11-30 Thread Danny Horn
Hi everyone,

The Community Tech team's Wishlist Survey is now open for voting; come on
over and upvote your favorites. We're looking for the most important
features and fixes that our team can work on to help the core contributors
on Wikimedia projects.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2015_Community_Wishlist_Survey

We've got more than 100 proposals to choose from, organized on
easy-to-browse category pages. As a taster, some of the contenders include:

* Improve diff compare screen
* Migrate dead links to the Wayback Machine
* Enhanced per-user, per-article blocking
* Cite : Share : Export tools
* Improve SVG rendering
* Cross-wiki watchlists
* Pageview Stats tool

And if anything on that list makes you excited, outraged or -- well,
honestly, any reaction besides a blank stare -- then you need to come and
vote for the ideas you like best. Once the voting is over, the prioritized
list becomes the Community Tech's backlog of projects to investigate and
address.

We'll be posting invites to as many village pumps as we can find tomorrow,
to make sure that everyone has the chance to vote. All of the voting pages
are marked for translation, and we would welcome any volunteers to help
translate a proposal into a language of their choice.

Thanks for checking it out; I'm looking forward to seeing your votes.

Danny

Product Manager, WMF Community Tech


(I'm cross-posting this to Wikimedia-l, Wikitech-l, and the WMF staff list
-- apologies to people who subscribe to all three for the duplicate spam.)
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