Re: [Wikimedia-l] Call for feedback about Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws changes and Board candidate rubric

[Benjamin Lees]

The original email here said "We welcome your input through 26 October."  I
don't think a three-week comment period was appropriate to begin with for a
dramatic overhaul of our most formally powerful institution--particularly
at a time when the board has determined elections need to be put on hold.
But now that Jimbo has clarified that this was not intended as a power grab
and that it needs to be redrafted to make that clear, does the board intend
to extend the timetable?

One of the important lessons that I thought the board had learned with its
rebranding efforts is that conducting processes in a way that makes people
feel that they are under siege leads to them acting like they are under
siege.  You are currently forcing the affiliates to hold meetings the day
before their input will no longer be welcome.  Can you guess what the
result of those meetings will be?

--
Emufarmers

On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 11:12 AM Nataliia Tymkiv 
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Today the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees starts two calls for
> feedback: on changes to our Bylaws[1] mainly to increase the Board size
> from 10 to 16 members, and on a trustee candidate rubric[2] to introduce
> new, more effective ways to evaluate new board candidates. These proposals
> are part of the governance improvement process announced on 28 April[3].
>
> The Foundation’s work is wide-ranging, focused on areas including product
> development, technical infrastructure maintenance, community support,
> grantmaking, public policy advocacy, and fundraising.  In addition, the
> Foundation is charged with administering the operations of an international
> nonprofit organization responsible for a more than 500-person paid
> workforce and an annual budget of over US$100 million. Its ambitious
> mission is to support the sharing of knowledge amongst every single human
> being in partnership with Wikimedia communities across the globe.
>
> To provide sufficient strategic guidance and oversight over such a broad
> scope of work and constituents, Board members should reflect a similarly
> broad scope of expertise, experience, and backgrounds. Expanding the number
> of board seats from 10 to 16 will move us closer to this goal, supported by
> a Board candidate rubric that will help us all evaluate potential trustees
> and ensure that they can provide what the Board, Foundation, and movement
> need. The Foundation will work with the broader movement to formalize this
> rubric. Currently, trustees have to serve on more than one Board committee
> (as voting members, alternates or liaisons). This overlap is a significant
> burden, as it limits the amount of work that can be done—and the volunteer
> trustees are overworked.
>
> == Bylaws revisions ==
>
> We have published the planned revisions to the bylaws on Meta-Wiki and we
> welcome your comments through 26 October[1]. The Board has carefully
> considered the published revisions and we believe that they are a positive
> step toward accomplishing our governance reform goals. We are publishing
> these so that they are transparent to the communities before the Board’s
> final vote to adopt the revisions, and we will be responding to questions
> about the revisions on the talk page. We shall consider any suggested edits
> that would further the Board’s governance needs and goals.
>
> The revised Bylaws would maintain the current general structure of trustee
> seats, with half (8 of 16) sourced from candidates identified through
> community selection processes, one reserved for Jimmy as Founder, and the
> rest (7 of 16) selected by the Board directly. The revisions would
> eliminate the distinction between trustees selected by affiliates and
> trustees selected by community voting. This offers more flexibility for
> adjusting community selection processes if necessary, while also not
> requiring any particular process changes. We hope to discuss possible
> changes with our communities in early 2021.
>
> == Board candidate evaluation form ==
>
> In addition to expanding in size, the Board is considering ways to improve
> our overall process for selecting trustees. The Board Governance Committee
> (BGC) has drafted a Board candidate rubric as a tool to show and help
> evaluate the relevant effective candidates for the Board[2]. The rubric is
> still a draft, and we want to hear what all of you think is missing,
> overrepresented, underrepresented,  confusing, or could otherwise be
> improved. The goal of the rubric is not only to aid us in evaluating
> potential trustees but also to clearly and openly communicate how we are
> evaluating candidates. We welcome your input through 26 October.
>
> == Impact on postponed trustee selection process[4] ==
>
> Following development of the rubric, we will work to further improve the
> selection of Board candidates by adapting the community-sourced trustee
> selection processes to fill 8 seats instead of 5. Any changes to current
> selection processes will be preceded by t

[Wikimedia-l] Announcing the WikiCite grant and eScholarship recipients

[Liam Wyatt]

I am pleased to announce the 23 recipients of the *WikiCite* project grants
and eScholarships. The WikiCite initiative focuses the development of open
citations and linked bibliographic data to serve free knowledge.

There is impressive diversity among these recipients in terms of:
- the types of activities (content creation & upload, outreach & training,
software development, and documentation/localization),
- the topics (everything from Balinese palm-leaf manuscripts, to Brazilian
legislation, to Nigerian newspapers...)
- and the recipient locations (15 countries, the majority of which are in
the global South).

Combined these grants are valued at $69k USD, yet we received more than
double the number of excellent applications than the budget could support.

To learn about each recipients’ project see this blogpost:
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/10/22/wikicite-awards-23-grants-escholarships-to-improve-open-citations/

And while I’ve got your attention...
The WikiCite 2020 Virtual Conference is happening on Monday-Wednesday.
Sessions will be live-streamed on several platforms, in time zones across
the globe, and with presentations in English, French, German, Indonesian,
and Portuguese.
Please come and join us.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite/2020_Virtual_conference
-- 

*Liam Wyatt [Wittylama]*
WikiCite  Program Manager & Okapi
 Community Liaison
Wikimedia Foundation
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, 

[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia 2030: Mark your calendars! We are meeting on Nov. 21-22

[Kaarel Vaidla]

Hi everyone,

The date is set for the global discussions that will kick off implementing
Movement Strategy, and everyone’s invited to attend. [1] Say hi to old
friends, meet new people, exchange ideas, and take part in discussions for
transformation. Calls will take place on November 21 and 22 at different
times to maximize global participation. You are welcome to attend any or
all. More information to come very soon.

How to participate

* Express your interest on Meta [1] and watch the space for registration
information, we’ll also make sure to keep everyone updated by email.

* Join our Telegram group [2].

In September, we asked the movement to look at the recommendations and
identify initiatives that we should work on together in 2021. [3]
Communities and affiliates have been meeting and discussing, and we are
excited to see what initiatives emerge as priorities for implementation.
[4] Whether you did this work and have your priorities in hand, are just
thinking about them, or want to learn what this is all about, join the
global conversation.

The time is now to be accountable for growing and nurturing the movement
together. We have 10 recommendations to guide the way. [5] What is
something you’d like to do in 2021? What are things we should all work on
together? The outcome of our discussions will be an 18-month movement-wide
implementation plan that we will create together.

Whether you’re a seasoned Wikimedian or a new contributor, an established
chapter, or a new user group, join the discussions. The community-led
Design Group [6] stressed the importance of continuous on-wiki engagement
and options for offline participation for those that cannot attend the
meetings. We’ll be sure to communicate these options far in advance.

What comes after?

* Another set of global meetings will take place on December 5 and 6.

* The purpose of the second set of meetings will be to take the
conversation further, coordinate the way forward, and provide an additional
opportunity for people to get together and identify their priorities in
between the meetings.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us on Meta, via
Telegram, or by email . Looking forward to
engaging with you all on November 21 and 22, it’s been a while.

On behalf of the Support Team,

Kaarel

[1] Event page on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transition/Global_Conversation


[2] Link to group on Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/NV8jtxZkQB7aN8spsaWtYg


[3]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2020-September/095685.html


[4] Preparation and Prioritization events:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transition/Prioritization_events#Scheduled_events


[5] Recommendation all-in-one:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Movement_Strategy_Recommendations_one-pager_with_graphics.pdf


[6] Community-led Design Group:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transition/Design_Group#Design_Group

-- 

Kaarel Vaidla (he/him)

Movement Strategy 

Wikimedia Foundation 
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[Dr. Manavpreet Kaur]

This is amazing. This gives motivation to so many who have been working
tirelessly to provide Covid information on Wikipedia projects. Thank you
and Congratulations to all who made it possible.

Regards,
Manav

On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 9:36 PM Frederick Noronha <
fredericknoro...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Is it possible to convince more international non-profits and government
> organisations (especially taxpayer-funded research organisations) that it
> would be in their interest as well to share the findings under some
> Creative Commons licenses? FN
>
> SEE:
> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/wikipedia-who-coronavirus-health.html
>
> On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 20:14, Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> *fantastic*.  Thanks all for this, and thanks Jorge for the update.
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 9:32 AM Jorge Vargas 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> Following up on my earlier thread about this, we are excited to announce
>>> a new collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and the World Health
>>> Organization (WHO). The collaboration will initially focus on releasing WHO
>>> content such as public-health related infographics, videos, and other
>>> COVID-19 resources under a free license (CC BY SA 3.0) to be shared on
>>> Wikimedia Commons. We are hopeful that these resources will be useful for
>>> volunteers writing about COVID-19 across language wikis and further expand
>>> access to knowledge about the pandemic to people around the world.
>>>
>>> You  can read more about the collaboration announcement in the press
>>> release we published earlier today [1], and see the first batch of content
>>> uploads from WHO on Wikimedia Commons [2]. If you want to help share the
>>> collaboration news on social media, please retweet the Foundation’s account
>>> [3] or share your own post using this toolkit [4].
>>>
>>> I want to give a major thank you and shout out to the volunteers
>>> (including Doc James, Dr. Netha Hussain, John Cummings, and many others)
>>> who have been moving these conversations with WHO forward for years, as
>>> well as to the many Wikimedians providing accurate and relevant coverage of
>>> COVID-19 on the projects that this collaboration hopes to support. We are
>>> so excited to finally reach this milestone with WHO.
>>>
>>> In the coming months, Alex Stinson, from our Community Programs team,
>>> will be working with volunteers to continue sharing details of the WHO
>>> content available on Commons and collaborating with volunteers to
>>> understand how WHO resources might help address information needs and gaps
>>> about COVID-19 on the projects. We need your help identifying the most
>>> useful content. Please join us on the project page on Commons to request
>>> WHO materials, and ask questions or give feedback on the project [5].
>>>
>>> We are excited to celebrate this important achievement in making more
>>> knowledge about COVID-19 freely available to everyone in such a critical
>>> time in the world. Thank you to all who made this possible!
>>>
>>> Feel free to reach out on this thread or to Alex and I directly in case
>>> you have further questions about this collaboration.
>>>
>>> Jorge Vargas
>>> Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships
>>>
>>> [1]
>>> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/
>>>
>>> [2]
>>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Health_Organization_COVID-19_Disinformation_Infographics
>>>
>>> [3] https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1319263874303037442
>>>
>>> [4]
>>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SCc0uXewzL5CUD2JPQYSYIDs3B63KxdLjprSBsn4kvA/edit?usp=sharing
>>>
>>> [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:World_Health_Organization
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:41 AM Zana Strkovska <777.z...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
 The same video translated on Macedonian language is on national
 television
 in my country several days already.
 Regards,
 Zana

 On Thu, 12 Mar 2020, 19:30 James Heilman,  wrote:

 > I have been asking WHO to release COVID19 content (specially videos)
 under
 > open licenses since since Feb 2020.
 >
 > I have spoke with Aleksandra Kuzmanovic who has been involved in their
 > collaboration with Facebook and Twitter etc.
 >
 > They say maybe. But despite a bunch of follow up emails have not
 seemed too
 > keen. It is really a lost opportunity for both of us :-(
 >
 > James
 >
 > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 9:47 AM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
 > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
 >
 > >  Some of us sent an email when it was (only apparently) less
 serious but
 > > we got no reply, as far as I know. It was sent by the UG of
 Washington DC
 > > and I contacted WMCH doing that, because they might reach their
 central
 > > office quickly in Geneva if necessary.
 > > Changing some licenses was one of the things I hope

Re: [Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[Frederick Noronha]

Is it possible to convince more international non-profits and government
organisations (especially taxpayer-funded research organisations) that it
would be in their interest as well to share the findings under some
Creative Commons licenses? FN

SEE:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/wikipedia-who-coronavirus-health.html

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 20:14, Samuel Klein  wrote:

> *fantastic*.  Thanks all for this, and thanks Jorge for the update.
>
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 9:32 AM Jorge Vargas 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Following up on my earlier thread about this, we are excited to announce
>> a new collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and the World Health
>> Organization (WHO). The collaboration will initially focus on releasing WHO
>> content such as public-health related infographics, videos, and other
>> COVID-19 resources under a free license (CC BY SA 3.0) to be shared on
>> Wikimedia Commons. We are hopeful that these resources will be useful for
>> volunteers writing about COVID-19 across language wikis and further expand
>> access to knowledge about the pandemic to people around the world.
>>
>> You  can read more about the collaboration announcement in the press
>> release we published earlier today [1], and see the first batch of content
>> uploads from WHO on Wikimedia Commons [2]. If you want to help share the
>> collaboration news on social media, please retweet the Foundation’s account
>> [3] or share your own post using this toolkit [4].
>>
>> I want to give a major thank you and shout out to the volunteers
>> (including Doc James, Dr. Netha Hussain, John Cummings, and many others)
>> who have been moving these conversations with WHO forward for years, as
>> well as to the many Wikimedians providing accurate and relevant coverage of
>> COVID-19 on the projects that this collaboration hopes to support. We are
>> so excited to finally reach this milestone with WHO.
>>
>> In the coming months, Alex Stinson, from our Community Programs team,
>> will be working with volunteers to continue sharing details of the WHO
>> content available on Commons and collaborating with volunteers to
>> understand how WHO resources might help address information needs and gaps
>> about COVID-19 on the projects. We need your help identifying the most
>> useful content. Please join us on the project page on Commons to request
>> WHO materials, and ask questions or give feedback on the project [5].
>>
>> We are excited to celebrate this important achievement in making more
>> knowledge about COVID-19 freely available to everyone in such a critical
>> time in the world. Thank you to all who made this possible!
>>
>> Feel free to reach out on this thread or to Alex and I directly in case
>> you have further questions about this collaboration.
>>
>> Jorge Vargas
>> Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships
>>
>> [1]
>> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/
>>
>> [2]
>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Health_Organization_COVID-19_Disinformation_Infographics
>>
>> [3] https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1319263874303037442
>>
>> [4]
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SCc0uXewzL5CUD2JPQYSYIDs3B63KxdLjprSBsn4kvA/edit?usp=sharing
>>
>> [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:World_Health_Organization
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:41 AM Zana Strkovska <777.z...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The same video translated on Macedonian language is on national
>>> television
>>> in my country several days already.
>>> Regards,
>>> Zana
>>>
>>> On Thu, 12 Mar 2020, 19:30 James Heilman,  wrote:
>>>
>>> > I have been asking WHO to release COVID19 content (specially videos)
>>> under
>>> > open licenses since since Feb 2020.
>>> >
>>> > I have spoke with Aleksandra Kuzmanovic who has been involved in their
>>> > collaboration with Facebook and Twitter etc.
>>> >
>>> > They say maybe. But despite a bunch of follow up emails have not
>>> seemed too
>>> > keen. It is really a lost opportunity for both of us :-(
>>> >
>>> > James
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 9:47 AM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
>>> > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > >  Some of us sent an email when it was (only apparently) less serious
>>> but
>>> > > we got no reply, as far as I know. It was sent by the UG of
>>> Washington DC
>>> > > and I contacted WMCH doing that, because they might reach their
>>> central
>>> > > office quickly in Geneva if necessary.
>>> > > Changing some licenses was one of the things I hoped to discuss, but
>>> in
>>> > > general we knew it was already serious and we were trying to gain
>>> some
>>> > time.
>>> > >
>>> > > In the end, WHO changed their attitude only after the last week-end,
>>> > > probably because people started finally to be worried in the USA,
>>> but the
>>> > > pandemia should have been declared weeks ago or at least last week,
>>> IMHO,
>>> > > when also the data of anot

Re: [Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[Samuel Klein]

*fantastic*.  Thanks all for this, and thanks Jorge for the update.

On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 9:32 AM Jorge Vargas  wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Following up on my earlier thread about this, we are excited to announce a
> new collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and the World Health
> Organization (WHO). The collaboration will initially focus on releasing WHO
> content such as public-health related infographics, videos, and other
> COVID-19 resources under a free license (CC BY SA 3.0) to be shared on
> Wikimedia Commons. We are hopeful that these resources will be useful for
> volunteers writing about COVID-19 across language wikis and further expand
> access to knowledge about the pandemic to people around the world.
>
> You  can read more about the collaboration announcement in the press
> release we published earlier today [1], and see the first batch of content
> uploads from WHO on Wikimedia Commons [2]. If you want to help share the
> collaboration news on social media, please retweet the Foundation’s account
> [3] or share your own post using this toolkit [4].
>
> I want to give a major thank you and shout out to the volunteers
> (including Doc James, Dr. Netha Hussain, John Cummings, and many others)
> who have been moving these conversations with WHO forward for years, as
> well as to the many Wikimedians providing accurate and relevant coverage of
> COVID-19 on the projects that this collaboration hopes to support. We are
> so excited to finally reach this milestone with WHO.
>
> In the coming months, Alex Stinson, from our Community Programs team, will
> be working with volunteers to continue sharing details of the WHO content
> available on Commons and collaborating with volunteers to understand how
> WHO resources might help address information needs and gaps about COVID-19
> on the projects. We need your help identifying the most useful content.
> Please join us on the project page on Commons to request WHO materials, and
> ask questions or give feedback on the project [5].
>
> We are excited to celebrate this important achievement in making more
> knowledge about COVID-19 freely available to everyone in such a critical
> time in the world. Thank you to all who made this possible!
>
> Feel free to reach out on this thread or to Alex and I directly in case
> you have further questions about this collaboration.
>
> Jorge Vargas
> Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships
>
> [1]
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/
>
> [2]
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Health_Organization_COVID-19_Disinformation_Infographics
>
> [3] https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1319263874303037442
>
> [4]
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SCc0uXewzL5CUD2JPQYSYIDs3B63KxdLjprSBsn4kvA/edit?usp=sharing
>
> [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:World_Health_Organization
>
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:41 AM Zana Strkovska <777.z...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The same video translated on Macedonian language is on national television
>> in my country several days already.
>> Regards,
>> Zana
>>
>> On Thu, 12 Mar 2020, 19:30 James Heilman,  wrote:
>>
>> > I have been asking WHO to release COVID19 content (specially videos)
>> under
>> > open licenses since since Feb 2020.
>> >
>> > I have spoke with Aleksandra Kuzmanovic who has been involved in their
>> > collaboration with Facebook and Twitter etc.
>> >
>> > They say maybe. But despite a bunch of follow up emails have not seemed
>> too
>> > keen. It is really a lost opportunity for both of us :-(
>> >
>> > James
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 9:47 AM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
>> > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > >  Some of us sent an email when it was (only apparently) less serious
>> but
>> > > we got no reply, as far as I know. It was sent by the UG of
>> Washington DC
>> > > and I contacted WMCH doing that, because they might reach their
>> central
>> > > office quickly in Geneva if necessary.
>> > > Changing some licenses was one of the things I hoped to discuss, but
>> in
>> > > general we knew it was already serious and we were trying to gain some
>> > time.
>> > >
>> > > In the end, WHO changed their attitude only after the last week-end,
>> > > probably because people started finally to be worried in the USA, but
>> the
>> > > pandemia should have been declared weeks ago or at least last week,
>> IMHO,
>> > > when also the data of another "not small" country, that is Spain,
>> started
>> > > to be quite out of control (if Italy was already not enough after
>> China,
>> > > Iran and South Korea).
>> > >
>> > > They seem to have taken more slowly than necessary. Let's hope they
>> > > finally reach out.
>> > >
>> > > Regards.
>> > > Alessandro
>> > >
>> > > Il giovedì 12 marzo 2020, 16:29:34 CET, Andy Mabbett <
>> > > a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> ha scritto:
>> > >
>> > >  WHO have a great video on COVID-19 ("Coronavius"):
>

Re: [Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[James Heilman]

An amazing partnership. Great to see the work of so many volunteers over so
many years resulting in a huge step forwards :-) And thank you to the WHO
for joining the free and open access medical community.

J

On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 8:00 AM Subhashish  wrote:

> Thanks for sharing this, Jorge. This is a news that is positive but not
> the scary kind! WHO resources have been already used widely across
> communities and have helped create localized resources. This initiative
> will strengthen many Wikipedias and Wikimedia projects across the movement.
>
> Subhashish
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 7:02 PM Jorge Vargas 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Following up on my earlier thread about this, we are excited to announce
>> a new collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and the World Health
>> Organization (WHO). The collaboration will initially focus on releasing WHO
>> content such as public-health related infographics, videos, and other
>> COVID-19 resources under a free license (CC BY SA 3.0) to be shared on
>> Wikimedia Commons. We are hopeful that these resources will be useful for
>> volunteers writing about COVID-19 across language wikis and further expand
>> access to knowledge about the pandemic to people around the world.
>>
>> You  can read more about the collaboration announcement in the press
>> release we published earlier today [1], and see the first batch of content
>> uploads from WHO on Wikimedia Commons [2]. If you want to help share the
>> collaboration news on social media, please retweet the Foundation’s account
>> [3] or share your own post using this toolkit [4].
>>
>> I want to give a major thank you and shout out to the volunteers
>> (including Doc James, Dr. Netha Hussain, John Cummings, and many others)
>> who have been moving these conversations with WHO forward for years, as
>> well as to the many Wikimedians providing accurate and relevant coverage of
>> COVID-19 on the projects that this collaboration hopes to support. We are
>> so excited to finally reach this milestone with WHO.
>>
>> In the coming months, Alex Stinson, from our Community Programs team,
>> will be working with volunteers to continue sharing details of the WHO
>> content available on Commons and collaborating with volunteers to
>> understand how WHO resources might help address information needs and gaps
>> about COVID-19 on the projects. We need your help identifying the most
>> useful content. Please join us on the project page on Commons to request
>> WHO materials, and ask questions or give feedback on the project [5].
>>
>> We are excited to celebrate this important achievement in making more
>> knowledge about COVID-19 freely available to everyone in such a critical
>> time in the world. Thank you to all who made this possible!
>>
>> Feel free to reach out on this thread or to Alex and I directly in case
>> you have further questions about this collaboration.
>>
>> Jorge Vargas
>> Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships
>>
>> [1]
>> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/
>>
>> [2]
>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Health_Organization_COVID-19_Disinformation_Infographics
>>
>> [3] https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1319263874303037442
>>
>> [4]
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SCc0uXewzL5CUD2JPQYSYIDs3B63KxdLjprSBsn4kvA/edit?usp=sharing
>>
>> [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:World_Health_Organization
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:41 AM Zana Strkovska <777.z...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The same video translated on Macedonian language is on national
>>> television
>>> in my country several days already.
>>> Regards,
>>> Zana
>>>
>>> On Thu, 12 Mar 2020, 19:30 James Heilman,  wrote:
>>>
>>> > I have been asking WHO to release COVID19 content (specially videos)
>>> under
>>> > open licenses since since Feb 2020.
>>> >
>>> > I have spoke with Aleksandra Kuzmanovic who has been involved in their
>>> > collaboration with Facebook and Twitter etc.
>>> >
>>> > They say maybe. But despite a bunch of follow up emails have not
>>> seemed too
>>> > keen. It is really a lost opportunity for both of us :-(
>>> >
>>> > James
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 9:47 AM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
>>> > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > >  Some of us sent an email when it was (only apparently) less serious
>>> but
>>> > > we got no reply, as far as I know. It was sent by the UG of
>>> Washington DC
>>> > > and I contacted WMCH doing that, because they might reach their
>>> central
>>> > > office quickly in Geneva if necessary.
>>> > > Changing some licenses was one of the things I hoped to discuss, but
>>> in
>>> > > general we knew it was already serious and we were trying to gain
>>> some
>>> > time.
>>> > >
>>> > > In the end, WHO changed their attitude only after the last week-end,
>>> > > probably because people started finally to be worried in the USA,
>>> but the

Re: [Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[Subhashish]

Thanks for sharing this, Jorge. This is a news that is positive but not the
scary kind! WHO resources have been already used widely across communities
and have helped create localized resources. This initiative will strengthen
many Wikipedias and Wikimedia projects across the movement.

Subhashish


On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 7:02 PM Jorge Vargas  wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Following up on my earlier thread about this, we are excited to announce a
> new collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and the World Health
> Organization (WHO). The collaboration will initially focus on releasing WHO
> content such as public-health related infographics, videos, and other
> COVID-19 resources under a free license (CC BY SA 3.0) to be shared on
> Wikimedia Commons. We are hopeful that these resources will be useful for
> volunteers writing about COVID-19 across language wikis and further expand
> access to knowledge about the pandemic to people around the world.
>
> You  can read more about the collaboration announcement in the press
> release we published earlier today [1], and see the first batch of content
> uploads from WHO on Wikimedia Commons [2]. If you want to help share the
> collaboration news on social media, please retweet the Foundation’s account
> [3] or share your own post using this toolkit [4].
>
> I want to give a major thank you and shout out to the volunteers
> (including Doc James, Dr. Netha Hussain, John Cummings, and many others)
> who have been moving these conversations with WHO forward for years, as
> well as to the many Wikimedians providing accurate and relevant coverage of
> COVID-19 on the projects that this collaboration hopes to support. We are
> so excited to finally reach this milestone with WHO.
>
> In the coming months, Alex Stinson, from our Community Programs team, will
> be working with volunteers to continue sharing details of the WHO content
> available on Commons and collaborating with volunteers to understand how
> WHO resources might help address information needs and gaps about COVID-19
> on the projects. We need your help identifying the most useful content.
> Please join us on the project page on Commons to request WHO materials, and
> ask questions or give feedback on the project [5].
>
> We are excited to celebrate this important achievement in making more
> knowledge about COVID-19 freely available to everyone in such a critical
> time in the world. Thank you to all who made this possible!
>
> Feel free to reach out on this thread or to Alex and I directly in case
> you have further questions about this collaboration.
>
> Jorge Vargas
> Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships
>
> [1]
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/
>
> [2]
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Health_Organization_COVID-19_Disinformation_Infographics
>
> [3] https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1319263874303037442
>
> [4]
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SCc0uXewzL5CUD2JPQYSYIDs3B63KxdLjprSBsn4kvA/edit?usp=sharing
>
> [5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:World_Health_Organization
>
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:41 AM Zana Strkovska <777.z...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The same video translated on Macedonian language is on national television
>> in my country several days already.
>> Regards,
>> Zana
>>
>> On Thu, 12 Mar 2020, 19:30 James Heilman,  wrote:
>>
>> > I have been asking WHO to release COVID19 content (specially videos)
>> under
>> > open licenses since since Feb 2020.
>> >
>> > I have spoke with Aleksandra Kuzmanovic who has been involved in their
>> > collaboration with Facebook and Twitter etc.
>> >
>> > They say maybe. But despite a bunch of follow up emails have not seemed
>> too
>> > keen. It is really a lost opportunity for both of us :-(
>> >
>> > James
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 9:47 AM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
>> > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > >  Some of us sent an email when it was (only apparently) less serious
>> but
>> > > we got no reply, as far as I know. It was sent by the UG of
>> Washington DC
>> > > and I contacted WMCH doing that, because they might reach their
>> central
>> > > office quickly in Geneva if necessary.
>> > > Changing some licenses was one of the things I hoped to discuss, but
>> in
>> > > general we knew it was already serious and we were trying to gain some
>> > time.
>> > >
>> > > In the end, WHO changed their attitude only after the last week-end,
>> > > probably because people started finally to be worried in the USA, but
>> the
>> > > pandemia should have been declared weeks ago or at least last week,
>> IMHO,
>> > > when also the data of another "not small" country, that is Spain,
>> started
>> > > to be quite out of control (if Italy was already not enough after
>> China,
>> > > Iran and South Korea).
>> > >
>> > > They seem to have taken more slowly than necessary. Let's hope they
>> > > finally reach 

[Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[Jorge Vargas]

Hi everyone,

Following up on my earlier thread about this, we are excited to announce a
new collaboration between the Wikimedia Foundation and the World Health
Organization (WHO). The collaboration will initially focus on releasing WHO
content such as public-health related infographics, videos, and other
COVID-19 resources under a free license (CC BY SA 3.0) to be shared on
Wikimedia Commons. We are hopeful that these resources will be useful for
volunteers writing about COVID-19 across language wikis and further expand
access to knowledge about the pandemic to people around the world.

You  can read more about the collaboration announcement in the press
release we published earlier today [1], and see the first batch of content
uploads from WHO on Wikimedia Commons [2]. If you want to help share the
collaboration news on social media, please retweet the Foundation’s account
[3] or share your own post using this toolkit [4].

I want to give a major thank you and shout out to the volunteers (including
Doc James, Dr. Netha Hussain, John Cummings, and many others) who have been
moving these conversations with WHO forward for years, as well as to the
many Wikimedians providing accurate and relevant coverage of COVID-19 on
the projects that this collaboration hopes to support. We are so excited to
finally reach this milestone with WHO.

In the coming months, Alex Stinson, from our Community Programs team, will
be working with volunteers to continue sharing details of the WHO content
available on Commons and collaborating with volunteers to understand how
WHO resources might help address information needs and gaps about COVID-19
on the projects. We need your help identifying the most useful content.
Please join us on the project page on Commons to request WHO materials, and
ask questions or give feedback on the project [5].

We are excited to celebrate this important achievement in making more
knowledge about COVID-19 freely available to everyone in such a critical
time in the world. Thank you to all who made this possible!

Feel free to reach out on this thread or to Alex and I directly in case you
have further questions about this collaboration.

Jorge Vargas
Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships

[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/

[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Health_Organization_COVID-19_Disinformation_Infographics

[3] https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1319263874303037442

[4]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SCc0uXewzL5CUD2JPQYSYIDs3B63KxdLjprSBsn4kvA/edit?usp=sharing

[5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:World_Health_Organization

On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:41 AM Zana Strkovska <777.z...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The same video translated on Macedonian language is on national television
> in my country several days already.
> Regards,
> Zana
>
> On Thu, 12 Mar 2020, 19:30 James Heilman,  wrote:
>
> > I have been asking WHO to release COVID19 content (specially videos)
> under
> > open licenses since since Feb 2020.
> >
> > I have spoke with Aleksandra Kuzmanovic who has been involved in their
> > collaboration with Facebook and Twitter etc.
> >
> > They say maybe. But despite a bunch of follow up emails have not seemed
> too
> > keen. It is really a lost opportunity for both of us :-(
> >
> > James
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 9:47 AM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
> > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >
> > >  Some of us sent an email when it was (only apparently) less serious
> but
> > > we got no reply, as far as I know. It was sent by the UG of Washington
> DC
> > > and I contacted WMCH doing that, because they might reach their central
> > > office quickly in Geneva if necessary.
> > > Changing some licenses was one of the things I hoped to discuss, but in
> > > general we knew it was already serious and we were trying to gain some
> > time.
> > >
> > > In the end, WHO changed their attitude only after the last week-end,
> > > probably because people started finally to be worried in the USA, but
> the
> > > pandemia should have been declared weeks ago or at least last week,
> IMHO,
> > > when also the data of another "not small" country, that is Spain,
> started
> > > to be quite out of control (if Italy was already not enough after
> China,
> > > Iran and South Korea).
> > >
> > > They seem to have taken more slowly than necessary. Let's hope they
> > > finally reach out.
> > >
> > > Regards.
> > > Alessandro
> > >
> > > Il giovedì 12 marzo 2020, 16:29:34 CET, Andy Mabbett <
> > > a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> ha scritto:
> > >
> > >  WHO have a great video on COVID-19 ("Coronavius"):
> > >
> > >   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APwq1df6Mw
> > >
> > > Now would be a good time for the WMF, local chapters, other
> > > affiliates, and individual, to publicly call on them to open licence
> > > such material, as I have done, here:
> > >
> > >   https://twitter.com/pigs

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcing the Wikidata Query Service Tutorial

[Camelia Boban]

Hi Revital,
congratulations, great work.
As a developer in love with SPARQL and seeing that WikiDonne uses Wikidata,
creating lists of missing women biographies
 &
some query examples
, we are
interested in translating this tool into Italian. Can you please indicate a
way to contact you and your team?

Thank you,
Camelia


--
*Camelia Boban*

*| Java EE Developer |*

*Affiliations Committee - **Wikimedia Foundation*
Wikimedia Diversity Ambassador
*Interwiki Women
 | **Wiki
Loves Sport  | Wiki Loves
Fashion *
WMIT  - WMSE
 - WMAR
 - WMCH
 - WMNY
 - WMDC
 - WMBE
 Member

M. +39 3383385545
camelia.bo...@gmail.com
*Aissa Technologies* * | *Twitter
 *|* *LinkedIn
*
*Wikipedia  **| **WikiDonne
UG * | *WikiDonne Project
 *











Il giorno mer 21 ott 2020 alle ore 23:17 Alex Stinson <
astin...@wikimedia.org> ha scritto:

> Wow! So cool -- there have been so many different trainings on the query
> service -- its great to see such a large set of documentation.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alex
>
> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 6:06 PM Toni Ristovski 
> wrote:
>
>> Wow, impressive. Thank you for sharing this.
>>
>> Additionally, I'm very interested to translate this into Macedonian.
>> Please share details about translation.
>>
>> This will be very helpful and useful for smaller wikis as we have many
>> members with little knowledge into Wikidata.
>>
>> Best,
>> Toni
>> Shared Knowledge
>>
>> On Wed, 21 Oct 2020, 21:59 Asaf Bartov,  wrote:
>>
>>> Wow, what an excellent tutorial!  The detailed outline is really helpful
>>> for people who just want a reminder of syntax, and the embedded queries are
>>> great for trial and error.
>>>
>>> I encourage everyone who hasn't yet learned how to query Wikidata to
>>> give this tool a try, and if you speak a language other than English or
>>> Hebrew, to contribute to translating this excellent resource!
>>>
>>> Kudos to Wikimedia Israel for the initiative and execution!
>>>
>>>A.
>>>
>>> Asaf Bartov (he/him/his)
>>>
>>> Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities
>>>
>>> Wikimedia Foundation 
>>>
>>> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share
>>> in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
>>> https://donate.wikimedia.org
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 10:44 PM Revital Poleg 
>>> wrote:
>>>
 In 2019 Wikimedia Israel (WMIL) decided to develop instructional
 material for the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS). The background for this
 decision was that we see audiences to whom we introduce Wikidata become
 especially enthusiastic when we present the *Wikidata query service
 tutorial  *, which offers quite
 a unique feature within the landscape of information services available
 today. This enthusiasm often dampens when audiences discover that querying
 is not done using natural language but rather requires learning SPARQL.

 We believe learning SPARQL is not rocket science, even for audiences
 with no programming background. We created a step-by-step tutorial website
 to give users an introduction and some basic lessons on how to use the
 query service. While WDQS has a great Help section, this section might not
 be so helpful to users who are new to Wikimedia platforms. We therefore
 built the tutorial website on the WordPress platform which has a more
 familiar design to most users. We believe this website will make the WDQS
 more accessible, and hope this will be a way to expand Wikidata to new
 audiences.
 Currently the site is in English but we are open for collaborations to
 add the tutorial in other languages.
 We are also keen to hear feedback from those involved in Wikidata
 Outreach.

 We hope you'll find it useful.
 All the Best
 Revital Poleg
 Executive Director, WMIL

 Revital Poleg

 Executive Director, WMIL




 ___
 Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidel