[Wikimedia-l] Re: The new Signpost is out!

2022-10-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
The Meta-Wiki based tech newsletter is available in a fair number of languages. Perhaps a Meta based truly cross-project newsletter could utilize Meta-Wiki?s translation setup to avoid an English-only usage?-greg___Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.On Oct 3, 2022, at 9:09 PM, Gerard Meijssen  wrote:?Hoi,Be realistic. A newsletter across the Wikimedia Movement would promote existing newsletter that mostly in a language people do not understand. It does not change my point that I do not want to read promotions for a product that is not representative while it assumes that it does reflect 
 a relevant opinion. An opinion that is mostly negative in its aspirations.Thanks,       GerardMOn Mon, 3 Oct 2022 at 20:28, Rexogamer  wrote:It might be worth creating a unified "Newsletters across the Wikimedia movement" email, consisting of the Signpost and any other newsletters/publications produced/released by community members that month - are there any other "newspapers"/publications created by Wikimedia communities and released on a regular basis?- Sophie (User:Remagoxer)On Mon, 3 Oct 2022 at 19:2
 3, Risker  wrote:Hi Gerard (and everyone else) - I join with others in saying that links to other newsletters published on our various projects, and in various languages, would be a really valuable addition to this list.  Many of us would really like to learn about what different projects consider to be important. I'd really like to encourage that other newsletter links be posted on this list.  Risker/Anne  On Mon, 3 Oct 2022 at 07:31, Gerard Meijssen  wrote:Hoi,The problem with the arguments made in the Signpost is that they represent English Wikipedia and adhere to what some consider what the pov of Wikipedia should be. As a pov it is fine but I do consider it not a publication that is representative. As such I do not need the advertisements for its publication.Thanks,      On Mon, 3 Oct 2022 at 06:50, WereSpielChequers  wrote:While the Signpost is hosted on the English Wikipedia and started as very much an EN Wiki venture, it aspires to be of more general interest. Looking
  at that specific issue, yes there is much that is mainly English Wikipedia focused, including a small contribution of mine. But some of the content, such as about the WMF elections is of general community interest, and at least one story is about Wikimedia Commons rather than Wikipedia.WSC 

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2022 16:35:35 +0200
From: Gerard Meijssen 
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: The new Signpost is out!
To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
Message-ID:
        f...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
        boundary="c55e2e05e9fa0636"

Hoi,
De Signpost is een publicatie van de Engelse Wikipedia. Waarom wordt de
Wikimedia mailing list daarmee lastig gevallen?
Vriendelijke groet,
       GerardM

On Sat, 1 Oct 2022 at 14:26, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
 
Name: not available

End of Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 613, Issue 1
***

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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Update from the Wikimedia Foundation Board chair

2021-06-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
This information is also available (in growing number of languages) on 
Meta-Wiki and Diff:
*  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/3_June_2021_-_Update_from_the_Wikimedia_Foundation_chair
*  
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/06/03/update-from-the-wikimedia-foundation-board-chair/

María - thank you for your leadership and wisdom over the past several years. I 
look forward to seeing how you engage with the movement next! :)
-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Senior Strategist, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

> On Jun 3, 2021, at 12:41 PM, Nataliia Tymkiv  wrote:
> 
> Dear María,
> 
> First of all, thank you for all the work you have done over the past 8 years 
> - it is not always easy to be a Trustee and sometimes the work is far from 
> gratifying. I know it was not a quick decision for you to stay on for an 
> additional year to help us see Wikimedia Foundation and the board through 
> some challenging times, and I am personally grateful for your accepting the 
> challenge and putting yourself on the line.
> 
> There was quite a bit of turmoil when I joined the Board - and no one really 
> had time to onboard me back then. And I *needed* onboarding and support. You 
> offered to mentor me if need be, invited me to shoot any questions and 
> concerns at you, any time of the day. Things like that - going above and 
> beyond when needed and really meaning it - are a pattern with you. And I 
> deeply appreciate your dedication to the cause.
> 
> You were in the room when the Board decided to embark on a long journey to 
> support the creation of the Movement strategy, and saw it through all the 
> hardships we had along the way. I do hope that being able to help in 
> implementing it will somehow account for all those mishaps on the way here, 
> and you will seriously consider the advisory role where you can support the 
> Movement Strategy from the trenches, so to say.
> 
> You have been one of the strongest voices for making sure our projects 
> diversify and are more equitable, helping direct the Wikimedia Foundation to 
> a direction of increasing readers and donors and raising editing numbers from 
> when they were declining. Your energy and readiness to participate in 
> hundreds, maybe thousands of conversations on the future of Wikimedia and 
> ensuring its stability and sustainability is really something, and I think 
> this deserves recognition on our part.
> 
> I believe you will remain involved in the movement with the same drive and 
> passion you have always shown. And our paths will cross again even though we 
> do edit different-language Wikipedias, but we still reside in the same 
> Wikiverse :)
> 
> With thanks and appreciation,
> 
> antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
> Vice Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
> 
> NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working 
> hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You 
> should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in 
> advance!
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 10:40 PM María Sefidari  <mailto:msefid...@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> There is one last bit of news I would like to share following the Board 
> meeting update.
> 
> After ~ 8 years on the Board of Trustees at the Wikimedia Foundation - a long 
> time! - I have notified the Board that I am stepping down as Chair and 
> trustee, effective end of day today. 
> 
> As all of you know, the community-selected seats were due to expire last year 
> and were extended at the request of the Board to see through these difficult 
> and unprecedented times. Now, after chairing the last meeting of the fiscal 
> year and having the call for candidates for the upcoming elections approved, 
> it is the least disruptive moment for me to step down. The Foundation has 
> asked me to consider an advisory role to support Movement Strategy and the 
> onboarding of new trustees and the new CEO/ED, to help support leadership and 
> this strategic transition. Nataliia Tymkiv, currently Vice Chair, will act as 
> Chair until a new one is elected by the Board ensuring continuity.  
> 
> Hopefully this news will not come as too much of a surprise. I am grateful to 
> the community members who lent me their trust and support to become a trustee 
> on two different occasions, to the staff, and to the trustees for their 
> confidence in me in the different leadership positions I have held within the 
> Board - first as committee chair, then two terms as Vice Chair, and two terms 
> as Chair. 
> 
> Together we have accomplished many things during this time, 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Surveys using third party tools on Wikimedia projects

2021-02-17 Thread Gregory Varnum
dors who will 
be processing and handling data on our behalf. All of this reduces the risk to 
everyone's privacy and security; and also provides the infrastructure for 
effective and ethical responses to a wide range of possible threats.

This work is critical and never-ending - and these discussions are important. 
We are working to make the above information easier to locate. I appreciate the 
thoughtful questions people have posed on this mailing list and elsewhere in 
regards to a realistic approach to managing risks. 

Thank you again,
-greg

[1] https://doc.wikimedia.org
[2] https://ilga.org/maps-sexual-orientation-laws
[3] https://ilga.org/trans-legal-mapping-report
[4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Security_Team
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/Legal_Policies#Defense_of_Contributors

---
Gregory Varnum
Senior Strategist, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

> On Feb 17, 2021, at 7:36 AM, Gnangarra  wrote:
> 
> Kaya
> 
> Have we put the ostrich back, where does this go from here? Have we decided 
> to learn and make an effort or have we reached the inevitable impasse where 
> everyone hopes the issue has been forgotten about.  
> 
> There was a reasonable (though I think unlikely) possibility that 
> contributors in Australia could lose Google as a platform, 
> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-16/google-search-departure-devastate-australian-small-business/13156958
>  . While that looks even less likely google is already offering pay for 
> services and limiting "free" services like gmail and google docs. 
> 
> The only assurity the WMF can give about equity, privacy, and access is 
> through its own services, or services that it hosts.   The movement needs to 
> be looking at its sustainability in the face of increased government impact 
> on the ultra large corporate services we are using to operate 
> 
> On Mon, 15 Feb 2021 at 20:10, Tomasz Ganicz  wrote:
> Well, both ZEUS and CiviCRM works well in many NGO-ses. It is just a subject 
> of proper maintenance. Actually, a piece of free software called MediaWiki is 
> probably more complicated to maintain than CiviCRM or Wordpress but WMF is 
> able to maintain it pretty well :-)  I believe that organization able to 
> successfully maintain the largest MediaWiki based projects on Earth could 
> also manage to organize free software based survey system... This is a 
> subject of priorities rather than resources...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> pon., 15 lut 2021 o 02:08 Łukasz Garczewski  
> napisał(a):
> With respect, Fae, if you're going to propose banning an existing solution, 
> it is on you to propose a suitable alternative or at least a process to find 
> it before the ban takes effect.
> 
> I write this as a signatory of Free Software Foundation Europe's Public 
> Money? Public Code open letter. I am wholeheartedly a proponent of open 
> source software.
> 
> At the same time, I am a firm believer in using the best available tool for 
> the job. 
> 
> Our mission is too important to hold ourselves back at every step due to a 
> noble but often unrealistic wish to use open source solutions for everything 
> we do.
> 
> Last year, because of my drive to use proper open source solutions, WMPL 
> wasted hours and hours of staff time (mostly mine) and a not insignificant 
> amount of members' time because:
>   • Zeus, a widely used, cryptographically secure voting system is 
> impossible to setup and maintain and has very sparse documentation,
>   • CiviCRM, the premier open source CRM solution for NGOs, refuses to 
> work correctly after the Wordpress installation is moved to a new URL, and 
> documentation isn't helpful.
> To my knowledge there are no suitable open source options that would be 
> easy-to-use and robust enough to support our needs in both cases and be 
> comparable to commercial counterparts.
> 
> I have wasted a ton of time (and therefore WMPL money), before I decided to 
> use state-of-the-art commercial solutions for the needs described above. 
> Don't be like me. Don't make other people think & act like I did. Be smarter.
> 
> Should we use an equivalent open source solution when one is available? Yes.
> Should we have a public list of open source tools needed? Yes.
> Should we use programmes such as Google Summer of Code to build those tools? 
> Yes.
> 
> Should we waste time using sub-par solutions or doing work manually? Hell no.
> 
> So here's a constructive alternative idea:
>   • Let's gather the needs and use cases for tools used by WMF and 
> affiliates,
>   • Let's build a list of potential open source replacements and map what 
> features are missing,
>   • Let's put the word out that we're 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism

2020-04-23 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hi all,

I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement 
communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.

As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, 
from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters 
which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values 
as an organization.

Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had 
understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. 
However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more 
political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, 
and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.

We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the 
Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other 
values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.

I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued 
health and safety.

Yours,
-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

> On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 -  wrote:
> 
> Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
> 
> Samuel
> 
> On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ  wrote:
> 
>> OPEN LETTER
>> 
>> Dear Katherine Maher,
>> 
>> The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org)
>> yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally
>> to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal
>> political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
>> 
>> Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please
>> explain exactly how this happened?
>> 
>> There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse
>> of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is
>> certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The
>> decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in
>> conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the
>> charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
>> 
>> If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political
>> lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political
>> organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the
>> Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by
>> the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant
>> operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for
>> the CEO.
>> 
>> Thank you in advance.
>> 
>> Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner:
>> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
>> CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
>> 
>> Fae
>> 
>> On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey  wrote:
>>> 
>>> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
>>> 
>>> On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l
>>>  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh...
>>>> When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
>> it
>>>> and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
>> for
>>>> the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the
>>>> webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
>> propaganda
>>>> promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
>>>> 
>>>> The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly  on the American
>>>> left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American
>>>> political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
>> link
>>>> has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the
>>>> host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism
>>>> organization.
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Vermont
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk 
>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>> I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
>> Which is
>>>>> strange, there are no general elections here before 2021...
>>>>> An explanation about this link would be interesting.
>>>>> Kind 

[Wikimedia-l] Announcing the inaugural members of our new Communications Committee

2019-12-02 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

I am thrilled to announce the inaugural members of the new Wikimedia
Foundation Communications Committee have been selected. These eleven
community members were chosen from an impressive group of applicants. We
carefully reviewed each candidate, and made our final selections based in
part on the overall diversity and skillset of the group as a whole.

Please join me in congratulating our inaugural members:

1. Fawaz Tairou (User:Fawaz.tairou) - Benin
2. Anne Clin (User:Risker) - Canada
3. Justice Okai-Allotey (User:Owula kpakpo) - Ghana
4. Paulina Lordméndez (User:Paulina Lordméndez) - Mexico
5. Maiken Hagemeister (User:Maiken Hagemeister (WMDE)) - Germany
6. Itzik Edri (User:Itzike) - Israel
7. Mohammed Sadat Abdulai (User:Masssly) - Ghana
8. Nahid Sultan (User:NahidSultan) - Bangladesh
9. Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (User:KCVelaga) - India
10. Habib Mhenni (User:Dyolf77) - Tunisia
11. Virginia Díez (User:Virginia Díez (WMES)) - Spain

The inaugural committee will begin working with the Wikimedia Foundation
Communications department in the coming months to develop key goals and
processes toward better collaboration between the department and community
leaders. We are hopeful and excited that this group will open new avenues
for discussion, sharing and highlighting the work of the movement. You can
find out more about the committee, its progress, and how to engage directly
with members via their Meta-Wiki page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ComCom.

We also want to encourage folks interested in movement communications to
join the Movement communications group (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MoveCom), which has replaced the space for
large group discussion of movement communications served by the previous
iteration of this committee.

Again, congratulations to our inaugural members and thank you to everyone
who showed interest in joining!

-greg

-- 

Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)

Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Paid translation pilot underway - seeking additional German, Chinese, and Russian translators

2019-11-26 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

The Wikimedia Foundation's new “Organization communications translators
group” pilot is now underway. We are ready for additional translators to
join! In particular, we are in need of additional German, Chinese, and
Russian translators.

We are looking for 3–5 translators in each of the target languages (Arabic,
Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish) to join this pilot for paid
translations, which will last for the remainder of this fiscal year.

Individuals interested in participating should apply via this Wikimedia
Foundation position posting:
https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/1795900


== More information ==

This is a new translation model we are testing for Wikimedia Foundation
materials primarily used in external communications (such as the
Foundation's website, transparency report, and organizational policies).
These tend to be much longer than the materials for which we generally seek
translations, and demand more stringent requirements with respect to
precision, quality, and deadlines. For translations of this nature, fair
paid compensation is often necessary.

This model was developed based on experiences with past translation efforts
and feedback from community translators, affiliates, and staff within the
Foundation. It is not a replacement for existing translation work, and will
not be used for materials such as project articles, fundraising, or other
content which has an existing translation model in place.

We will be testing this model over the coming months, and will make changes
based on feedback and what we learn.

For more information, please visit this Meta-Wiki page:  https://w.wiki/CkV


Thank you!
-greg

-- 

Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)

Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation Chief of Community Engagement to leave the Foundation

2019-11-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

Aron - I have posted a response to your inquiry on Wikimedia Space - thank you 
for sharing it there as well: 
https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/wikimedia-foundation-chief-of-community-engagement-to-leave-the-foundation/2194/3

Thank you to everyone for your feedback, offers of support, and keen insights. 
We will share more information in the coming months as we complete this 
transition.

-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His


> On Nov 17, 2019, at 1:56 PM, Aron Manning  wrote:
> 
> Katherine Maher wrote:
> 
>> Valerie and her team drafted
>> an ambitious new vision for the work of Community Engagement—focused on
>> decentralization of power and resources, safe and welcoming spaces,
>> equitable collaboration, increased language and cultural fluency, dedicated
>> programs for groups such as women and young people, and expansive
>> partnerships in service of free knowledge.
> 
> 
> 
>> With this vision in hand, Val and I both see this as the right juncture
>> for
> 
> her to move on to her next professional challenge.
> 
> 
> I'm sorry to hear the news of her leaving. I wish her good fortune in her
> next endeavour and I wish success for the WMF in implementing the vision of
> her team.
> 
> 
> Katherine Maher wrote:
> 
>> We will not be starting a search for a new Chief of Community Engagement.
>> Instead, over the course of the next few weeks, the seven teams currently
>> within the Community Engagement (CE) department will be integrated into the
>> Foundation’s other departments.
> 
> 
> I believe this change might give a new chance to improve community
> engagement with the WMF teams.
> The Movement Strategy community conversations
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations>
> and the office actions consultation
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Office_actions/Community_consultation_on_partial_and_temporary_office_actions/09_2019>
> was
> a step in the good direction, but the community is looking for a more
> engaged, real-time, person-to-person discussion with team members, besides
> the unidirectional flow of these plans. As Valerie's ted talk states:
> "Think Circles, Not Pyramids". We very much appreciate the contributions of
> the few working group members, who joined the discussions, but hoped at
> least one member of all working groups would join.
> I hope as a result of this restructuring all teams and members will take
> part to some extent in "community engagement". Direct communication is the
> most effective way to achieve community goals. With the strong divide
> between the WMF and the communities, I see direct communication as the only
> way to bridge those gaps and create healthy cooperation between the
> communities and the WMF.
> I believe if engagement with the communities increases, the communities
> will be more trusting and helpful to the teams, thereby paving the road to
> success for the Movement's goals.
> 
> 
> Katherine Maher wrote:
> 
>> For example, if you need something from Trust & Safety or Community
>> Resources,
> 
> they’ll continue to be here to work with you.
>> 
> 
> I appreciate the time invested by Karen (KBrown) and Samuel in the partial
> bans consultation. In other matters however it is very hard to gain the
> attention of T I assumed it's the T team's purpose to address
> community health issues, but I might be wrong. When I've reported an issue
> of tool abuse and possible harassment to the T - that previously received
> no response (not even acknowledgment
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Procedures#Incoming_mail>)
> from the ArbCom -, almost 2 months (sic!) later I've received the following
> response: "The issues you have described in your communication to us are a
> local community governance matters, which fall outside of the Foundation's
> remit. We respect the autonomy of the Wikimedia communities and, as a rule,
> do not interfere."
> This was at the time when Fram was temporarily banned by the T for
> harassment.
> I've clarified in a response that the issue involved Terms of Use
> violation, which is the policy of the WMF, not the community. There was no
> answer in the last 3 months.
> 
> As the community health research projects revealed in previous years,
> editors are occasionally bullied, harassed; often this is done to influence
> decisions and silence different POVs.  Established editors are part of a
> social network of fellow editors, who can protect them from harm, but new
>

[Wikimedia-l] Membership now open for Movement communications group (MoveCom)

2019-10-18 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation Communications department has completed the
transition of the old Communications committee to the Movement
communications group. The members of the original group were invited to
rejoin, and more than half have done so. We are now ready to open
membership up to new members from across the movement.

The Wikimedia movement communications group is an opportunity for members
of the Wikimedia community to discuss topics related to movement
communications. Topics of discussion can be raised by any member of the
group, including those from the Wikimedia Foundation Communications
department. Conversations in the group may range from brainstorming
opportunities to advance the movement to chatting about a problem faced by
a specific community to coordinating communications efforts on major events.

The Movement communications group is open to anyone in the Wikimedia
community working on communications for Wikimedia activities or communities.

For more information or to join, visit the group's Meta-Wiki page:
https://w.wiki/7x7

The signup form is available on Meta-Wiki:  https://w.wiki/7x6

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you!
-greg

-- 

Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)

Communications Strategist

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] "The Foundation does not care so much of the French-speaking contributors

2019-09-23 Thread Gregory Varnum
I am not entirely sure how this connects to the topic of the thread.

However, I feel I should note that we are indeed interested in translating
into other languages, and have been seeking people to help with translation
of the website and other organization materials:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Organization_communications_translators_group

I do not want to derail this conversation, so will leave it at that and
encourage you to utilize that page or the website's Meta-Wiki page to
discuss this further, as this thread seems to be about other topics.

-greg

On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 9:28 AM Ferdinando Traversa <
ferdi.trave...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Please note that Foundation website is translated in French, but not in
> many other languages (including Italian, mine)...
> I don’t know why they don’t give the chance to translate.
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Join us tomorrow for the FINAL Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting

2019-08-28 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.

You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc

And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office

The agenda will include:
- Wikimedia movement strategy update
- Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
- Wikimedia Space

More information on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact.  In addition,
interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.

Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website, discussed at last
month's meeting, has a greater ability to communicate across languages and
is already helping us reach more people.[1] We are discussing ways to
further expand this support. The new Wikimedia Space project that will be
discussed at this month's meeting provides a central, real-time space to
have discussions and share information on activities across the movement.[2]

We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.

Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.

-greg

[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/
[2] https://space.wmflabs.org/

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[Wikimedia-l] An update on the ECHR filing to lift the Wikipedia block in Turkey

2019-07-22 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

I am writing to provide an update on the status of the petition that the
Wikimedia Foundation filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
in May to lift the more than two-year block of Wikipedia in Turkey.[1]

As you may know, many petitions brought before the ECHR are not granted a
hearing by the Court, and, even when the hearing is granted, the process of
reaching a resolution can take years. We understood these considerations
when we filed the petition, but were hopeful that the Court would recognize
the public importance of the case.

The ECHR has acted extremely quickly in this case. On July 2, the Court
responded to the petition by giving the case “priority treatment”, and
sending official correspondence to us and to Turkish authorities with
notification of this designation. The Government of Turkey now has until
October 24 to respond by submitting their own observations on the case to
the Court. We feel this is a clear indication that the case is being taken
seriously.

You can read more information on the Wikimedia Foundation website:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/07/22/our-legal-case-against-turkeys-block-of-wikipedia-has-been-expedited-heres-what-that-means/

We invite you to join us in sharing this news within your networks. You can
do so on social media by retweeting @Wikipedia and sharing messages of your
own. We have also posted a social media toolkit on Meta-Wiki with hashtags,
draft messages, and graphics (coming later today) for folks to utilize:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Unblock_campaigns

We are optimistic about this development and look forward to sharing any
future updates with you.

-greg

[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/05/23/wikimedia-foundation-petitions-the-european-court-of-human-rights-to-lift-the-block-of-wikipedia-in-turkey/

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] An updated design for the Wikimedia Foundation website

2019-07-12 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello Andy,

Thank you for raising this concern! We take accessibility very seriously and 
have worked specifically to improve accessibility with this designversion of 
website to the past version.

We performed two audits to compare and improve accessibility:


1. Google Lighthouse 

https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/

a. Lighthouse checks if all ui components have aria-* attributes and all 
interactive elements have correct labelling for Screenreaders. 
b. Lighthouse also checks color contrast ratios for all elements on website and 
flags the ones that do not pass WCAG guidelines
c. It also checks for proper navigation methods throughout ordered and 
unordered lists

The new website scored 94/100 on Lighthouse Audit. It passed 18 tests and 
failed 2. 

There are 3 more fixes we need to do which we are planning to submit to bring 
that score to 100/100. Those involve modification to 3rd party extensions that 
are used on WordPress and thus taking a bit of time to get around. 


2. aXe 

https://www.deque.com/axe/

aXe is a testing tool to perform similar audit but can catch some other kinds 
of accessibility issues like page landmarks. 

The previous design had 146 accessibility issues with aXe audit and we brought 
that number down to 43 issues, most of which are WCAG contrast issues which are 
contextual because of line colors or ornamentation that is not essential to 
websites function. However, we are working to improve things to bring it down 
to 0. There are some known easy fixes for this too which we are working to 
deploy.


3. The new Firefox version released this week also has some interesting 
accessibility tests 

We plan to run those as well, it was just released on July 9th.


That was just the audits we performed, but you bring up a good point about 
autoscrolling element. We should definitely include the mechanism to pause/play 
the sliding mural so we pass that test. We will take this into our workboard 
and work towards fixing this.

Accessibility for us is a never ending effort and we always find ways to 
improve it wherever possible. We will keep track of these issues and fix them 
on priority.

- greg and Design team



> On Jul 10, 2019, at 1:59 AM, Andy Mabbett  wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 10 Jul 2019 at 02:31, Gregory Varnum  wrote:
> 
>> Today, we are  thrilled to share an updated visual design style on the
>> Wikimedia Foundation website (wikimediafoundation.org)!
> 
> Thank you. This is a vast improvement on the previous design.
> 
> However, I'm troubled that there is a scrolling background image, and
> I cannot find a way to stop it moving. This is in breach of this WCAG
> 2 web accessibility guideline:
> 
>   https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/time-limits-pause.html
> 
> and, if that guideline is breached right on the home page, then I am
> concerned that insufficnt thought has been given to accessibility in
> general.
> 
> What kind of accessibility audit was undertaken on the new design?
> 
> -- 
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] An updated design for the Wikimedia Foundation website

2019-07-09 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

Today, we are  thrilled to share an updated visual design style on the
Wikimedia Foundation website (wikimediafoundation.org)!

This updated design was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Product
design team. We worked on feedback from Meta-Wiki, emails, Phabricator, and
hundreds of conversations paired with user testing with people in the
target audiences for the website. We are incredibly appreciative of the
great care that team has taken in making strategic, data-led design
decisions and really helping us amplify the website's ability to convey our
story to people generally unfamiliar with Wikimedia.

We have also expanded on the information about the website on its Meta-Wiki
page,[1] and updated the public mirror of the code base to reflect the
technical changes made to the site for this updated design.[2]

Thank you to the now hundreds of people that have been involved in helping
us build a website for the Foundation which we can be proud of!
-greg & the Wikimedia Foundation Communication team

= A bit more about the site =

== How is the site doing? ==

Since the site's soft launch in July 2018, traffic has continued to
increase. There has also been a significant increase in donations collected
via this website. Two key audiences, potential staff and partners, have
shared positive feedback on the site’s content and organization, enabling
them to find jobs and contact key teams respectively. Additionally, user
testing has shown a positive response to the content and overall
architecture of the site.

== What brought us here ==

The Wikimedia Foundation Communications department has been collecting
feedback on the Foundation's website since late 2016 and beginning in
early 2017 has been working on addressing the backlog of issues related to
the website. The original Foundation site, launched in 2004, did not have a
clear audience, and as a result was not effectively serving any of the
hundreds of uses people saw for it. Maintaining the site's content beyond
English had become a growing problem - leaving visitors with different
information, depending on which language they were using, on basic details
like our address and executive staff. Additionally, the site had over
17,000 pages - a vast majority of which were either out of date or no
longer in use.

In 2017-18, the Communications department ran a "Discovery" process to help
inform our decision making. This process included reviews of methods used
by other organizations, assessment of our current communication channels,
collecting feedback at Wikimania, and interviews with dozens of volunteers,
donors, contractors, and staff. The resulting report[3] and recommendations
helped identify the objectives and audiences of the website,[1] and were
utilized throughout the initial design and development of the new website.

Shortly after the soft launch, the department began working with the
Product department's design team to perform user testing, process feedback
collected in the weeks following the soft launch, and collect additional
feedback to help us make informed decisions. They helped us collect and
process feedback from hundreds of individuals within and outside of the
movement.

Based on feedback, they conducted user testing and developed the updated
design we deployed this morning. We will continue to use a data and
feedback informed decision making in managing the site. Given the external
audience nature of the site, it has consistently proven important to take
the time to collect feedback and data from a wide variety of sources -
including volunteers, press, donors, partner organizations, and readers of
the projects.

== What comes next ==

More languages! The Communications department will continue to work on
content development and expanding translations to additional languages. If
you are interested in our plans for translations, please check out the
information shared recently about the Organization communications
translators group.[5]

== Providing feedback ==

The Communications department will continue to monitor the talk page for
the Foundation's website on Meta-Wiki.[6] Additionally, I will be attending
Wikimania in Stockholm and available to chat with folks.[7]

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_website
[2] https://github.com/wikimedia/wikimediafoundation-org
[3]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1b/Wikimedia_Foundation_website_-_2017-2018_update_-_Discovery_brief.pdf
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Organization_communications_translators_group
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_website
[7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimania_2019

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[Wikimedia-l] Spots available in next week's monthly activities meeting

2019-06-20 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

We have some spots still available for presentations at next week's
Wikimedia monthly activities meeting on 27 June 2019 starting at 18:00 UTC.

If you have anything you are working on which you would like to share with
the wider movement, here is your chance! :)

Signup on Meta-Wiki (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up)
or ping us via email (activitiesmeet...@wikimedia.org) if you are
interested.

Thank you!
-greg

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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Invitation to the May 2019 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, May 30th, 18:00 UTC

2019-05-30 Thread Gregory Varnum
Correct link for live broadcast (apologies):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzSfyWUIjUY

-greg


Hello everyone,
The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
May 30th, 2019 at 18:00  UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCFzA3PEaQ
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCFzA3PEaQ>
We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.

Agenda
Facilitator: Samantha Lien, Wikimedia Foundation Communications Manager


   - Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
   - Movement update - 3 minutes
   - Structured Data on Commons: the first GLAM pilot projects! - 10 minutes
   - The Wikidata Infobox on Commons - 10 minutes
   - Wikimedia 2030 status update and opportunities to participate - 15
   minutes
   - Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
   - Wikilove - 5 minutes

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

The June 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday, June
27, starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up to
participate, please visit:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

Thank you!

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[Wikimedia-l] Seeking members for a paid translation experiment

2019-05-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking community members to join a new
“Organization communications translators" group.

We are looking for 3–5 translators in each of the target languages (Arabic,
Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish) to join an experiment for
paid translations which we project will last for the remainder of 2019.

This is an experimental translation model we are testing for Wikimedia
Foundation materials primarily used in external communications (such as the
Foundation's website, transparency report, and organizational policies).
These tend to be much longer than materials we generally seek translations
for, and with more stringent requirements on languages, quality, and
timeline. We have heard that for translations of this nature, fair paid
compensation is often necessary, so we have designed this trial around
lengthy organizational-message oriented materials. We are asking
translators to be responsible for the translations in a way that we simply
can not ask of volunteers.

This model was developed based on experiences with past translation efforts
and feedback from community translators, affiliates, and staff within the
Foundation. It is not a replacement for any existing translation work, and
will not be utilized for things like project content, newsletters, or
fundraising materials (as those have existing translation models in place).

We will be testing this model out over the coming months, and will make
changes based on feedback and what we learn. We may also be making changes
to things like the pay model and process before the model is implemented as
we collect additional feedback from applicants and others within the
movement.

For more information, please visit this Meta-Wiki page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Organization_communications_translators_group

Individuals interested in participating should contact Gregory Varnum (
gvar...@wikimedia.org) in the Wikimedia Foundation Communications
department by 16 May 2019 and provide:
1. On-wiki username
2. Languages which you have high proficiency in and are interested in doing
translations for (must include at least one of the target languages)
3. Examples of past translation activities (can be links to wiki pages you
have translated)
4. A brief statement on how you manage quality when translating
5. A brief statement sharing why you are interested in participating in
this experiment
6. Acknowledgement that this model is an experiment, subject to change,
does not apply to all content produced by the Foundation, and requires
translators to assume responsibility for the accuracy and quality of their
translations

Thank you!
-greg

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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Invitation to the April 2019 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday 25 April, 18:00 UTC / Call for future proposals

2019-04-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

As you perhaps noticed, the email for this month's meeting is coming out
late. We had some last minute cancellations, are forging ahead, but need
your help with this and future meetings.

*Next meeting*

For tomorrow's meeting, we are going to try a small experiment. We are
asking people in the audience to share 1-2 activities you are working on
and excited about, as well as 2-3 activities others are working on and you
are excited about.

You do not need to share details on the activities, it can be as simple as
the name of the activity or a quick one sentence description. We will
collect these via IRC, attempt to do so from the YouTube chat, and from
people attending in person. You may also email them directly to us if none
of these options work for you: activitiesmeet...@wikimedia.org

The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday
25 April 2019 at 18:00 UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMZWX0bvnw

*Future meetings*

For future meetings, a reminder that the agenda of this meeting is meant to
belong to all of us, and we need your help to do that! If you (yes you!)
have a 3-15 minute presentation or update you would like to share with the
movement, please sign up on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

*Agenda:*

Facilitator: Gregory Varnum, Communications Strategist, Wikimedia Foundation

   - Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
   - Movement update - 3 minutes
   - Call for proposals for future meetings - 5 minutes
   - Movement strategy update - 15 minutes
   - Experiment activity (see above) - 15 minutes
   - Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
   - Wikilove - 5 minutes

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

The May 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday
23 May starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up
to participate, please visit:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

Thank you!

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Invitation to the April 2019 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday 25 April, 18:00 UTC / Call for future proposals

2019-04-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Apologies for outdated subject line. :)

-greg

On Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 2:57 PM Gregory Varnum 
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> As you perhaps noticed, the email for this month's meeting is coming out
> late. We had some last minute cancellations, are forging ahead, but need
> your help with this and future meetings.
>
> *Next meeting*
>
> For tomorrow's meeting, we are going to try a small experiment. We are
> asking people in the audience to share 1-2 activities you are working on
> and excited about, as well as 2-3 activities others are working on and you
> are excited about.
>
> You do not need to share details on the activities, it can be as simple as
> the name of the activity or a quick one sentence description. We will
> collect these via IRC, attempt to do so from the YouTube chat, and from
> people attending in person. You may also email them directly to us if none
> of these options work for you: activitiesmeet...@wikimedia.org
>
> The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday
> 25 April 2019 at 18:00 UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
> #wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
> broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMZWX0bvnw
>
> *Future meetings*
>
> For future meetings, a reminder that the agenda of this meeting is meant
> to belong to all of us, and we need your help to do that! If you (yes you!)
> have a 3-15 minute presentation or update you would like to share with the
> movement, please sign up on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up
>
> *Agenda:*
>
> Facilitator: Gregory Varnum, Communications Strategist, Wikimedia
> Foundation
>
>- Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
>- Movement update - 3 minutes
>- Call for proposals for future meetings - 5 minutes
>- Movement strategy update - 15 minutes
>- Experiment activity (see above) - 15 minutes
>- Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
>- Wikilove - 5 minutes
>
> Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
> the meeting and how to participate:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
>
> The May 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday
> 23 May starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up
> to participate, please visit:
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up
>
> Thank you!
>
> --
>
> Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
>
> Communications Strategist
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
>
>

-- 

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Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Invitation to the March 2019 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, March 28, 18:00 UTC / Call for future proposals

2019-04-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

As you perhaps noticed, the email for this month's meeting is coming out
late. We had some last minute cancellations, are forging ahead, but need
your help with this and future meetings.

*Next meeting*

For tomorrow's meeting, we are going to try a small experiment. We are
asking people in the audience to share 1-2 activities you are working on
and excited about, as well as 2-3 activities others are working on and you
are excited about.

You do not need to share details on the activities, it can be as simple as
the name of the activity or a quick one sentence description. We will
collect these via IRC, attempt to do so from the YouTube chat, and from
people attending in person. You may also email them directly to us if none
of these options work for you: activitiesmeet...@wikimedia.org

The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday
25 April 2019 at 18:00 UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMZWX0bvnw

*Future meetings*

For future meetings, a reminder that the agenda of this meeting is meant to
belong to all of us, and we need your help to do that! If you (yes you!)
have a 3-15 minute presentation or update you would like to share with the
movement, please sign up on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

*Agenda:*

Facilitator: Gregory Varnum, Communications Strategist, Wikimedia Foundation

   - Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
   - Movement update - 3 minutes
   - Call for proposals for future meetings - 5 minutes
   - Movement strategy update - 15 minutes
   - Experiment activity (see above) - 15 minutes
   - Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
   - Wikilove - 5 minutes

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

The May 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday
23 May starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up
to participate, please visit:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

Thank you!

-- 

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Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Reminder: We are seeking a diverse group of volunteers to work with Foundation on movement communications

2019-04-11 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

Do you or someone you know have some great communication skills or ideas to
offer the Wikimedia movement? If so, this might be an exciting opportunity
to engage with some high-level work for Wikimedia communications!

As we mentioned last month,[1] the Wikimedia Foundation's Communications
department is seeking 10-15 individuals to work with us over the next three
years to deepen our department's work with the community and increase
overall support for communications work across the movement.

If you are interested in joining the new 10-15 person Communications
committee, please send an email to gvar...@wikimedia.org by 17 April 2019
and include:

1. Acknowledgement that this is a three-year appointment and you are indeed
interested and able to serve.
2. Your community and staff (if you have any) usernames which you use on
Wikimedia projects. Also any information on other roles you may have within
the movement (please include both staff and volunteer roles). Please note
that you must be in good standing (ie. not blocked) on the wikis to
participate.
3. A brief statement on why you would like to serve on the Communications
committee, and in particular what you believe you can bring to the group
and what you hope to gain from the experience.
4. A brief statement on what ideas, if any, you have for what the new
Communications committee could do or how the Foundation could help support
its efforts.

If you are interested, but need a little more time to get your responses
together, no problem - just send me an email (gvar...@wikimedia.org) before
17 April 2019 so I know you are interested.

The inaugural committee will be selected by the Communications department
in the coming weeks.

We are hoping to find a diverse group of individuals from around the world
to bring their regional, cultural, and language expertise to our
communications work. Please share this invitation with others in your
Wikimedia networks and communities who you believe may be interested.

Thank you!
-greg

[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications_committee/Call_for_members_-_March_2019

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Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Call for members for new Communications committee

2019-03-21 Thread Gregory Varnum
Tl;dr: We are launching a new Communications Committee (ComCom) and
replacing the existing ComCom list with a new Movement Communications mailing
list.

Hello!

After much discussion and brainstorming with the members of the current
Communications committee, the Wikimedia Communications department is
implementing changes to the Communications committee and how we
collectively support each other's communications efforts.

*Specifically, we are:*
Putting out a call for members of a new Communications committee (ComCom)
which will work on more focused and long-term projects together.

Replacing the current list with a new Movement Communications (MoveCom)
mailing list to continue to facilitate wider discussions.

*What does that mean exactly?*
This new Communications committee will be composed of 10-15 volunteers
serving 3-year terms, work closely with the Wikimedia Foundation
Communications department, and be empowered to support communications
efforts across the movement. Over the coming weeks, the Communications
department will seek out and select potential members who will work with us
to further establish the group's initial plans, scope, and activities. See
below for more information on this selection process.

The new Movement Communications mailing list will allow the 200+ people on
this current mailing list to engage in new and more transparent
discussions. Current members will be asked to rejoin using a new process
which allows us to publicly display who is involved with the mailing list
discussions. More information on how to join the new list will be shared in
coming weeks.

*What will these new groups do?*
The new Communications committee will work with the Communications
department on implementation of movement-wide communications projects and
support the development of communications capacities within movement groups
and affiliates. How the group does that and what specifically that includes
is something we are hoping to discuss with the inaugural committee.

The new Movement Communications mailing list, which will be facilitated by
the new Communications committee, will be able to discuss topics brought up
by members of the mailing list, Foundation's Communications department, or
Communications committee. These topics may range from brainstorming
solutions to a problem faced by a specific group on the list to
coordinating communications efforts across groups on major events.

*How do I join the new groups?*
We will be sharing information on joining the new Movement communications
group mailing list when it is fully setup and ready.

If you are interested in joining the new 10-15 person Communications
committee, please send an email to gvarnum[image: @]wikimedia.org by 17
April 2019 and include:

1. Acknowledgement that this is a three-year appointment and you are indeed
interested and able to serve.

2. Your community and staff (if you have any) usernames which you use on
Wikimedia projects. Also any information on other roles you may have within
the movement (please include both staff and volunteer roles). Please note
that you must be in good standing (ie. not blocked) on the wikis to
participate.

3. A brief statement on why you would like to serve on the Communications
committee, and in particular what you believe you can bring to the group
and what you hope to gain from the experience.

4. A brief statement on what ideas, if any, you have for what the new
Communications committee could do or how the Foundation could help support
its efforts.

The inaugural committee will be selected by the Communications department.
Additional and future members will be selected by the committee, with
support from the Communications department.


If you have any questions about these changes, the new groups, or the
selection process for the new Communications committee, please feel free to
reach out to me.

Thank you!
-greg

PS. Please help us with translating and sharing this update and call for
members:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications_committee/Call_for_members_-_March_2019

-- 

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Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Next Wikimedia monthly activities meeting will be on 28 February

2019-02-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
So this was a typo on my part. :) The next meeting is actually 28 February.
Apologies for that confusion.

Also, we still have one more slot open for this month if you are
interested:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

-greg

On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 4:59 PM Gregory Varnum 
wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Our next Wikimedia monthly activities meeting will be on 22 February 2019.
> More information will be available on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
>
> But wait?!? What about January? Good catch! We are cancelling this month's
> meeting due to scheduling issues. In short, there is a lot going on this
> month for the Wikimedia Foundation and other planned presenters. As a
> result, we did not feel we could put on an effective meeting.
>
> If you are interested in presenting at a future meeting, we want to hear
> from you! Please visit the sign-up page on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up
>
> -greg
>
> --
>
> Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
>
> Communications Strategist
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
>

-- 

Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)

Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Lisa Lewin joining Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

2019-02-01 Thread Gregory Varnum
The reason why her photo had not yet been uploaded to Commoms is rather simple. 
The staff that were going to do it (thank you for doing it) are attending the 
organization’s All Hands event. Getting the information out was our focus, and 
we will be updating other places early next week. I hope folks can appreciate 
our desire to focus on the event and immediate dissemination of information. :)

For what it is worth, we do make an effort to ourselves take and make available 
a freely licensed photo of board members. However, photo shoots are not always 
the best use of our in-person time with board members. We are looking into ways 
to expedite the process and do them outside in-person gatherings.

I will pass the comment about page design to our design folks. Thank you for 
the feedback and I hope the above helps answer your questions. :)

-greg

___
Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.

> On Feb 1, 2019, at 9:10 AM, Andy Mabbett  wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, 1 Feb 2019 at 13:58, María Sefidari  wrote:
>> 
>> El vie., 1 feb. 2019 14:30, Andy Mabbett 
>> escribió:
> 
>>> Unfortunately we don't seem to have a free image of Lisa; the one used
>>> on the Wikimedia blog is the same as her long-standing Twitter profile
>>> image and, despite the footer on the WMF post about her appointment:,
>>> which uses the image, saying
>>> 
>>> 
>>> https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/01/31/wikimedia-foundation-announces-lisa-lewin-as-new-trustee/
>>> 
>>> saying "Except where otherwise noted, the content of this site is
>>> licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
>>> license.", there is no explicit indication that it has (nor indeed has
>>> not) been released under an open licence.
>>> 
>> 
>> I'm not sure I follow Andy - there is a Photo Credits section, did you see
>> it?
> 
> Thank you. I didn't; I stand corrected, and apologise.
> 
> However, I think the reason that I didn't see it is that it is
> disconnected from the body of the page by two very long sections; one
> (more than a screen deep on my machine) being a pink-backgrounded
> solicitation for donations; the other an entreaty to join a  mailing
> list. Neither relates to the subject of the article, and once I
> reached them I assumed the article had ended. The large version of the
> image, at the head of the page, neither mentions nor links to the
> credits section.
> 
> Perhaps the page design needs to be revisited, to make the credits
> section more apparent? Has any user testing of this aspect been
> undertaken?
> 
> Is there a reason this open-licensed image had not been uploaded to
> Wikimedia Commons? (I've now done so, as:
> 
>   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lisa_Lewin.jpg )
> 
> -- 
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] Next Wikimedia monthly activities meeting will be on 22 February

2019-01-22 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

Our next Wikimedia monthly activities meeting will be on 22 February 2019.
More information will be available on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

But wait?!? What about January? Good catch! We are cancelling this month's
meeting due to scheduling issues. In short, there is a lot going on this
month for the Wikimedia Foundation and other planned presenters. As a
result, we did not feel we could put on an effective meeting.

If you are interested in presenting at a future meeting, we want to hear
from you! Please visit the sign-up page on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

-greg

-- 

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Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] We want to hear about what you did this year!

2018-11-29 Thread Gregory Varnum
We have a couple slots still open for the upcoming Wikimedia monthly
activities meeting next Thursday (6 December 2018) at 18:00 UTC.

Unlike most months, the end-of-year meeting utilizes a lightning talk
format, so you do not need to have as detailed a presentation ready as
usual. :)

This is a great chance to get a 1-3 minute update about something you or
your group accomplished this last year which you are particularly proud of
- and / or feel the movement could learn from.

If you are interested, please sign up on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

-greg

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 3:36 PM Gregory Varnum 
wrote:

> Hello!
>
> What happened this year in the Wikimedia movement? We want to hear about
> it at the 6 December activities meeting!
>
> Submissions for lightning talks at next month's Wikimedia monthly
> activities meeting (formerly known as the Metrics meeting) are still being
> accepted on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up
>
> Thank you to folks that have already reached out with your submissions -
> we have room for more!
>
> End of year lightning talks are 1-3 minutes presentations on a topic or
> project you or your group worked on within the Wikimedia movement this past
> year. The talks will be given during the Wikimedia monthly activities
> meeting on 6 December 2018 at 18:00 UTC.
>
> For more information about the meetings, please visit the info page
> Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=1446937
>
> Thank you!
> -greg
>
> --
> Gregory Varnum
> Communications Strategist
> Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
> gvar...@wikimedia.org
> Pronouns: He/His/Him
>


-- 
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[Wikimedia-l] Submissions for end of year lightning talks at December activities meeting

2018-11-21 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello!

What happened this year in the Wikimedia movement? We want to hear about it
at the 6 December activities meeting!

Submissions for lightning talks at next month's Wikimedia monthly
activities meeting (formerly known as the Metrics meeting) are still being
accepted on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up

Thank you to folks that have already reached out with your submissions - we
have room for more!

End of year lightning talks are 1-3 minutes presentations on a topic or
project you or your group worked on within the Wikimedia movement this past
year. The talks will be given during the Wikimedia monthly activities
meeting on 6 December 2018 at 18:00 UTC.

For more information about the meetings, please visit the info page
Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=1446937

Thank you!
-greg

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[Wikimedia-l] Invitation to the October 2018 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, October 25th, 18:00 UTC

2018-10-22 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello everyone,

The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
October 25th, 2018 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86J8N1gExk. We’ll post the video recording
publicly after the meeting.

During the October 2018 meeting, we will have an update on the movement,
Wikimedia 2030 status update, a presentation on values, principles and
methods, and more.

Meeting agenda:
Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
Movement update - 3 minutes
Values, Principles, and Methods, oh my! - 10 minutes
Wikimedia 2030 status update and opportunities to participate - 20 minutes
To be announced - 5-10 minutes
Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
Wikilove - 5 minutes

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

The November 2018 and December 2018 monthly activities meetings will be
combined and will take place on Thursday, December 6th, starting at 19:00
UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). If you would like to sign up to
participate, please visit:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_up


Thank you,


-- 
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Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Invitation to the August 2018 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, August 30, 18:00 UTC

2018-08-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello everyone,

As I mentioned last month, we are making some tweaks to the monthly activities 
meeting to help better reflect the meeting's current purpose.

We will be discussing some of the changes at the next meeting. In short, we are 
working to make it easier for anyone in the community to sign up to give a 
presentation. We are also changing the name of the meeting from "Wikimedia 
Foundation metrics and activities meeting" to the "Wikimedia monthly activities 
meeting". This new name better reflect the meeting's scope beyond just the 
Wikimedia Foundation and reality that the metrics discussed during this meeting 
several years ago have long-ago moved to more frequently updated and accessible 
platforms (such as the online report card and related analytics reports).

The next Wikimedia monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday, 
August 30, 2018 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is 
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be 
broadcast as a live YouTube stream.[1] We will post the video recording 
publicly after the meeting.

Meeting agenda:
* Welcome and introduction
* Movement update
* Update on mobile personas work with Logic Department
* Introducing the Wikimedia Product Principles
* Update on Wikimedia monthly activities meeting
* Questions and discussion
* Wikilove

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about the 
meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

We will be making some updates to the Meta-Wiki page in the coming weeks, and 
discussing those changes during the upcoming meeting.
The September 2018 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday, 27 
September, starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time).

Thank you,

-greg

[1] https://youtu.be/yZPZmRQnkXU 


---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His
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[Wikimedia-l] Invitation to the August 2018 Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting: Thursday, August 30, 18:00 UTC

2018-08-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello everyone,

As I mentioned last month, we are making some tweaks to the monthly activities 
meeting to help better reflect the meeting's current purpose.

We will be discussing some of the changes at the next meeting. In short, we are 
working to make it easier for anyone in the community to sign up to give a 
presentation. We are also changing the name of the meeting from "Wikimedia 
Foundation metrics and activities meeting" to the "Wikimedia monthly activities 
meeting". This new name better reflect the meeting's scope beyond just the 
Wikimedia Foundation and reality that the metrics discussed during this meeting 
several years ago have long-ago moved to more frequently updated and accessible 
platforms (such as the online report card and related analytics reports).

The next Wikimedia monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday, 
August 30, 2018 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is 
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be 
broadcast as a live YouTube stream.[1] We will post the video recording 
publicly after the meeting.

Meeting agenda:
* Welcome and introduction
* Movement update
* Update on mobile personas work with Logic Department
* Introducing the Wikimedia Product Principles
* Update on Wikimedia monthly activities meeting
* Questions and discussion
* Wikilove

Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about the 
meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

We will be making some updates to the Meta-Wiki page in the coming weeks, and 
discussing those changes during the upcoming meeting.
The September 2018 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday, 27 
September, starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time).

Thank you,

-greg

[1] https://youtu.be/yZPZmRQnkXU 


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New Wikimedia Foundation website has soft launched!

2018-08-10 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

Thank you to everyone that has sent in productive feedback and bug reports! In 
the interest of having this conversation more transparently and succinctly, we 
have answered a number of questions on the talk page of the Meta-Wiki page for 
this site:  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_website

We will continue to monitor feedback, address bugs during soft launch, and let 
you know when the translations are in place and we are ready for the full 
launch of the site.

Again, thank you all for your patience during the soft launch of this site.

-greg

---
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Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

> On Aug 8, 2018, at 8:28 AM, attolippip  wrote:
> 
> It also does not seem to work correctly on mobile (android):
> 
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMFnewsiteonandroidmobile.png
> 
> Best regards,
> antanana
> 
> On Wed, Aug 8, 2018, 17:47 Andy Mabbett  wrote:
> 
>> On 8 August 2018 at 15:23, Shabab Mustafa 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I had to turn off my anti-tracking extension to see this site properly.
>> 
>> This is how it appears for me, in Firefox (current version) with
>> AdBlockPlus enabled:
>> 
>> 
>> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Screenshot_-_2018-08-08_-_Wikimedia_Foundation_blog.png
>> 
>> AdBlockPlus is reportedly active on 100 million devices.
>> 
>> --
>> Andy Mabbett
>> @pigsonthewing
>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New Wikimedia Foundation has soft launched!

2018-08-01 Thread Gregory Varnum
There is a page on Meta-Wiki with a talk page:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_website

There is also a Phabricator project:  
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/wikimediafoundation.org/

-greg

___
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> On Aug 1, 2018, at 7:56 PM, Yair Rand  wrote:
> 
> The new website highlights "Advocacy" as one of the three areas that the
> Foundation deals with, along with Research and Technology. From the page
> linked, it promotes the WMF's misguided and unauthorized venture into
> trying to influence US immigration law, now claiming it to be something the
> WMF does "routinely". These statements do not belong on the WMF website.
> 
> (Also, there is no longer any way to inform people responsible for the site
> about errors, like "do not write you own bio". Or the fact that the header
> is in German, despite saying that the page is in English.)
> 
> Is there any intention to have somewhere where edits can be at least
> proposed?
> 
> -- Yair Rand
> 
> 2018-08-01 21:51 GMT-04:00 Gregory Varnum :
> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> After many months of work by over 100 individuals around the organization
>> and movement, the Wikimedia Foundation's new website soft launched this
>> week!
>> 
>> You can check it out for yourself here (you may need to clear your
>> browser's cache):  https://wikimediafoundation.org/
>> 
>> 
>> So what comes next?
>> 
>> Throughout this week, the Communications department and core website team
>> will be doing final tweaks and quality assurance testing in preparations
>> for translations.
>> 
>> Over the coming weeks we will be working with affiliates and contributors
>> around the world to make the site in available in Arabic, Chinese, French,
>> German, Russian, and Spanish - in addition to the English version soft
>> launched today. Once the translations are completed, we will be doing a
>> more public announcement regarding the new website and begin more formally
>> implementing usage of it.
>> 
>> Additionally, we will be holding office hours in the coming weeks.
>> 
>> 
>> What about the old website?
>> 
>> The old website (aka Foundation Wiki) will be given new life in the coming
>> weeks as the Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki - where it will continue
>> to house important documentation for the Wikimedia Foundation like
>> policies, board resolutions and minutes, legal documents, etc. Additional
>> information on the changes coming to that wiki and the plans for migrating
>> archived content to Meta-Wiki will be available in the coming weeks.
>> 
>> 
>> What else should I know?
>> 
>> There is a lot of great things about this new website we are excited to
>> share with all of you! More information about office hours will available
>> in the coming weeks. Until then, we encourage you to take a look and
>> contact me directly if you find any bugs, typos, or have any comments.
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you!
>> 
>> The Communications department greatly appreciates all of the discussions,
>> work, and patience everyone has put into this gigantic undertaking. We are
>> very close to the finish line, and today marks a significant step which was
>> only possible with the help of the 100+ people involved.
>> 
>> On behalf of the Communications department and core website team (Heather,
>> Zack, Katherine, Mel, and Greg),
>> 
>> -greg
>> 
>> ---
>> Gregory Varnum
>> Communications Strategist
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> gvar...@wikimedia.org
>> Pronouns: He/Him/His
>> 
>> 
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[Wikimedia-l] New Wikimedia Foundation has soft launched!

2018-08-01 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

After many months of work by over 100 individuals around the organization and 
movement, the Wikimedia Foundation's new website soft launched this week!

You can check it out for yourself here (you may need to clear your browser's 
cache):  https://wikimediafoundation.org/


So what comes next?

Throughout this week, the Communications department and core website team will 
be doing final tweaks and quality assurance testing in preparations for 
translations.

Over the coming weeks we will be working with affiliates and contributors 
around the world to make the site in available in Arabic, Chinese, French, 
German, Russian, and Spanish - in addition to the English version soft launched 
today. Once the translations are completed, we will be doing a more public 
announcement regarding the new website and begin more formally implementing 
usage of it.

Additionally, we will be holding office hours in the coming weeks.


What about the old website?

The old website (aka Foundation Wiki) will be given new life in the coming 
weeks as the Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki - where it will continue to 
house important documentation for the Wikimedia Foundation like policies, board 
resolutions and minutes, legal documents, etc. Additional information on the 
changes coming to that wiki and the plans for migrating archived content to 
Meta-Wiki will be available in the coming weeks.


What else should I know?

There is a lot of great things about this new website we are excited to share 
with all of you! More information about office hours will available in the 
coming weeks. Until then, we encourage you to take a look and contact me 
directly if you find any bugs, typos, or have any comments.


Thank you!

The Communications department greatly appreciates all of the discussions, work, 
and patience everyone has put into this gigantic undertaking. We are very close 
to the finish line, and today marks a significant step which was only possible 
with the help of the 100+ people involved.

On behalf of the Communications department and core website team (Heather, 
Zack, Katherine, Mel, and Greg),

-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
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Wikimedia Foundation
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation Inc. working with Go Fish Digital, a company that whitewashes Wikipedia

2018-07-27 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

Thank you to everyone that has provided thoughtful and constructive input on 
this discussion, and to the volunteers who are investigating the possible 
policy violations. We have some additional information on this vendor 
relationship and on steps being taken that we believe will be helpful to this 
discussion.

The Wikimedia Foundation entered into a short-term contract with Go Fish 
Digital to conduct a search engine optimization (SEO) audit on Wikipedia. They 
were contracted to provide information needed by the Audiences department to 
improve how our sites communicate with search engines and services which 
provide data to devices like artificial intelligence (AI) assistants. Overall, 
SEO performance is a strength of our projects, but we were able to identify 
areas for improvement, and the audit was helpful for Audiences to more 
effectively focus their efforts. During discussions about Wikimedia values and 
activities that were held in selecting the vendor, they did not disclose 
anything which raised suspicion, and we failed to identify this specific 
concern and question them about it more.

The Foundation's Legal department received the proposal after it had been 
approved by Audiences and drafted a contract for this agreement following 
standard procedures. This included a privacy review, which resulted in the 
inclusion of extra privacy and security protections in the contract. Their 
activities did not involve reputation management services, and they did not 
request or receive access to any Wikimedia user data. The contract concluded 
last month.

As we are now aware of the vendor's possible violations and feel they should 
have shared this information with us during discussions, we will not be 
pursuing any future working relationship with Go Fish Digital and will be 
requesting that they honor our contractual agreement by not discussing their 
past relationship with us for promotional purposes. Additionally, we are 
reviewing the way that this vendor was selected in an effort to see if we can 
identify what led to this issue and better identify these types of concerns 
when identifying future vendors and executing agreements with them. Finally, as 
they regularly do, our Trust and Safety team in Community Engagement are 
working with the functionaries investigating the possible policy violations.

Again, we appreciate the attention provided to this by the functionaries and 
others who raised these concerns. We agree that the Foundation should avoid 
working with vendors who violate our policies, and hope the discussion around 
this will help reduce the chances of this happening in the future.

Thank you,
-greg

---
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Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His


> On Jul 27, 2018, at 12:32 PM, Mario Gómez  wrote:
> 
> I have gathered more evidence and opened a sockpuppet investigation,
> omitting any parts involving personal data:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/BurritoSlayer
> 
> Personal data sent to functionaries-en@ is still relevant to verify some
> details, but I think that it is not crucial anymore to prove Go Fish
> Digital ongoing and undisclosed paid editing.
> 
> On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 12:36 PM, Mario Gómez 
> wrote:
> 
>> I will not post actual evidence to this mailing list. My notes as of
>> Sunday are already sent to functionaries and I'm sure they will act on it
>> themselves. As I collect more evidence, I might open a sockpuppet
>> investigation on English Wikipedia anyway if there is enough of it to
>> continue even without personal data, which is just a small part.
>> 
>> On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 11:29 AM,  wrote:
>> 
>>> Without getting into whether an outing policy exists/applies here, please
>>> bear in mind that if redaction is required, it is rather difficult to do
>>> it
>>> on a mailing list, especially a mailman mailing list like this one.
>>> 
>>> i.e. Please avoid posting something here which may need redaction.
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 16:00 Isaac Olatunde 
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi Mario,
>>>> 
>>>> I don't think it will be considered harassment if the information is
>>> posted
>>>> here. I believe the WP:OUTING applies to the English Wikipedia and this
>>> is
>>>> not English Wikipedia mailing list.
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> 
>>>> Isaac
>>>> 
>>>> On Jul 22, 2018 5:43 PM, "Mario Gómez"  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> There, is at least, one user that works for Go Fish Digital with a
>>>> sockpuppet account in English Wikipedia and has denied conflict of

[Wikimedia-l] No July Metrics and Activities meeting

2018-07-25 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

Due to the timing of Wikimania travel, upcoming remote work time in the office, 
and planned changes to the meeting - this month’s Metrics and Activities 
meeting will not be taking place.

We will return with some changes next month on 30 August 2018 starting at 18:00 
UTC (usual date and time).

If you have any questions - please let me know. Enjoy the rest of your July and 
we shall see you next month!

-greg

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation Inc. working with Go Fish Digital, a company that whitewashes Wikipedia

2018-07-23 Thread Gregory Varnum
Just a quick note that the Foundation will be replying to this soon. However 
the people involved were participating in Wikimania and currently traveling - 
so it may take us a few days to collect the information necessary for an 
informed response. Thank you everyone for your patience. 

-greg

___
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> On Jul 23, 2018, at 2:44 AM, MZMcBride  wrote:
> 
> Mario Gómez wrote:
>> There, is at least, one user that works for Go Fish Digital with a
>> sockpuppet account in English Wikipedia and has denied conflict of
>> interest or paid editing disclosure even if he was asked too, since some
>> user was suspicious. Should I send this privately? I don't want to incur
>> in spurious ousting/doxxing.
> 
> Just to be clear on my end, I don't have any firsthand knowledge of Go
> Fish Digital's Wikipedia editing, I'm only aware of what the company
> advertises as a service or product to customers on its Web site, which
> appears to be directly incompatible with Wikimedia's values.
> 
> It appears someone at Go Fish Digital or related to them is ch[ao]mping at
> the bit to be able to advertise its relationship with Wikipedia, according
> to :
> 
>> [...]
>> Our clients range from large corporations like GEICO, the New York Times
>> and Marriott to startups you haven't heard of (yet). ((Hopefully you'll
>> be able to add Wikipedia here shortly)).
>> [...]
> 
> MZMcBride
>> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Israel joins the nationwide strike to protest the exclusion of gay couples the right to become parents

2018-07-20 Thread Gregory Varnum
I think you misunderstood my point there. ;)

I was speaking to your comment that it was incorrectly labeled a LGBTQ issue 
because of adoption. I did not mean to suggest no one is against surrogacy or 
that they are not promoting adoption as an alternative. I was indicating that 
to my knowledge those organizations are not telling non-LGBTQ people that the 
laws are not of interest to them because they can adopt. Looking at their 
sites, they seem to want all people (LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ) to see it as related 
to their lives and rights.

Again, I am not commenting here on if organizations should engage, just 
pointing out that regardless of someone’s stance on the issue or this action, 
the issue remains one of relevance to LGBTQ rights (and others) and WMIL 
labeling it as a LGBTQ rights issue was accurate. :)

-greg

___
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> On Jul 21, 2018, at 3:25 AM, Mario Gómez  wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 2:56 AM, Gregory Varnum 
> wrote:
> 
>> As far as it being an alternative, that is usually true, but it is also
>> true for non-LGBTQ families and I am not aware of viable political
>> movements successfully suggesting non-LGBTQ families should not worry about
>> surrogacy laws as adoptions are an alternative option for them.
>> 
>> 
> Well, so you just met someone who suggests exactly that for non-LGBTQ
> families and who actively participates in campaigns against legalization of
> surrogacy in his country.
> 
> This is actually a position held by many organizations, just to name a few:
> the "National Network Against Wombs for Rent" and the  "We are not Pots"
> campaign in Spain or the "Mexican Feminists Against Wombs for Rent" in
> Mexico.
> 
> These positions are also held by some feminist authors such as Kajsa Ekis
> Ekman, Sylviane Agacinski or Silvia Federici.
> 
> My point is not trying to convince you of my position. I do not think this
> is the right forum to debate politics beyond WMF mission. My point is that
> if the WMF or its affiliates take such positions beyond its mission, it
> will be extremely damaging to the community, since this is just alienating
> to all members of the community whose political positions do not match
> exactly WMF's framework (heavily influenced by US narrow ideological
> spectrum).
> 
> I'm not asking for the WMF or its affiliates to be against surrogacy, just
> the same way I don't ask for them to condemn apartheid policies against
> Muslims in Israel or the genocide in Gaza. I'm just asking the WMF and its
> affiliates to acknowledge that we are a global and diverse community united
> for a mission, and that entering into political advocacy beyond its mission
> is detrimental to this global perspective and diversity.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mario
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Israel joins the nationwide strike to protest the exclusion of gay couples the right to become parents

2018-07-20 Thread Gregory Varnum
Taking off my “staff hat” and not weighing in on WMIL taking this stance, but 
did want to correct one claim and offer some context on this issue overall. :)

Having worked on LGBTQ issues most of my professional career, and being a gay 
man planning on having a child one day, I feel confident I can say surrogacy 
laws very much relate to LGBTQ rights (as well as others). I spent a fair 
amount of time working on the topic for LGBTQ organizations around the world. 
It is also an issue often intentionally used to target LGBTQ families 
(according to the laws’ authors). The issue came up just last year in the USA 
as an effort to “minimize the impact of same-gender marriage victories”. 
Incidentally some versions discussed in the US could have financially punished 
employers that treated LGBTQ employees with children the same as non-LGBTQ 
employees with children.

In short, adoption is not the only route and for some it is not a comfortable 
or sometimes viable option (for personal or sometimes complicated reasons). As 
such, surrogacy is indeed an option many LGBTQ families pursue. As far as it 
being an alternative, that is usually true, but it is also true for non-LGBTQ 
families and I am not aware of viable political movements successfully 
suggesting non-LGBTQ families should not worry about surrogacy laws as 
adoptions are an alternative option for them.

Regardless of how you feel about this particular action, I believe it is 
important we talk about it factually. WMIL’s claim that this issue has to do 
with LGBTQ rights is accurate - if we are to believe the claims of LGBTQ 
organizations around the world and lawmakers who over the years have sponsored 
the types of laws in question.

However, unless you are suggesting your opinion on the actual action WMIL took 
would have changed if they had instead talked about the audience you personally 
believe it impacts most - I am not sure how it relates or matters.

-greg

PS. For what it is worth, as a LGBTQ employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, I am 
proud and better able to focus on my work as I personally feel the Foundation 
has been supportive of its LGBTQ employees, direct volunteers, and recruits. 
Having worked elsewhere in jobs where that was not always the case, I am keenly 
aware of the impact a silent, unsupportive, or “tolerant” environment can have 
on productivity, morale, quality, retention, and recruiting efforts for both 
LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people within the organization. I am also glad that at this 
moment the US government is not financially punishing the Foundation for 
employing me as I grow my family simply because I’m gay (or alternatively 
forcing the Foundation to make me pay more in taxes than my non-LGBTQ 
colleagues) - that has historically not always been the case, and may not 
always be the case in the future.

___
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> On Jul 21, 2018, at 1:51 AM, Mario Gómez  wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> "a legal change on that would have given the LGBT community the right to
> become parents"
> 
> If I read correctly, this is simply not true. It denied the right to use
> gestational surrogacy. They can adopt though.
> 
> Note that gestational surrogacy is not a simple issue and it is highly
> political. I'm sure many wikimedians oppose it, among which I include
> myself. Surrogacy has nothing to do with LGBT rights, and everything to do
> with exploitation of women, and more particularly, women of less advantaged
> social classes.
> 
> It is sad to see a Wikimedia chapter to take this official position. I hope
> WMF never follows these steps.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mario
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 9:57 AM, Itzik - Wikimedia Israel <
> it...@wikimedia.org.il> wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> A few days ago, the Israeli parliament, with the support of Israeli Prime
>> Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blocked a legal change on that would have
>> given the LGBT community the right to become parents. The new law denies
>> state-supported surrogacy to LGBT couples and single men.
>> 
>> In response, Israel’s LGBT Task Force called publicly for a strike on
>> Sunday, "The LGBT community is calling upon you, the LGBT and community
>> supporters, to join us in a one-day nationwide strike on Sunday, July 22,
>> Tisha Be’av".
>> 
>> During the last few days, a huge list of big companies and organizations in
>> Israel *publicized *their support and joined the strike by allowing their
>> employees to take a paid day off work to join the nationwide protest.
>> 
>> This morning, the board of Wikimedia Israel, alongside with other
>> organizations joined this call and published this announcement:
>> https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaIL/posts/1716487061739276
>> https://twitter.com/WikimediaIL/status/1020214512392302592
>> 
>> 
>> *"Wikimedia Israel supports the just struggle for full equality, led by the
>> Israeli LGTBQ community.*

[Wikimedia-l] Recognizing the one-year anniversary of the Wikipedia block in Turkey

2018-05-02 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

Today the Wikimedia Foundation, in cooperation with a number of volunteers
who attended the Wikimedia Conference, have posted on Twitter and Facebook
a video message speaking to the one-year anniversary of the block of
Wikipedia in Turkey.

The video re-enforces our message that this block is a lost opportunity
both for the people of Turkey and the rest of the world. Any assistance
that you all can offer in terms of helping circulate the video amongst your
networks would be greatly appreciated!

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhrsnqvmhxg

Tweet:  https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status/991663606856077312

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/videos/vb.33138223345/10156176050713346/

Blog post:  https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/05/02/we-miss-turkey/

We have also made the video available on Wikimedia Commons if you would
like to help us with translating:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_year_without_Turkey.webm

This is a part of our ongoing efforts around the block in Turkey, and done
with input from members of the local community in Turkey. We GREATLY
appreciate the help of everyone involved in the development and all of you
who are sharing these messages. If you have any questions, please let us
know.

-greg

-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
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[Wikimedia-l] Notification of data disclosure from two Wikimedia Foundation mailing lists

2018-04-12 Thread Gregory Varnum
This weekend the Wikimedia Foundation was notified by an outside security
expert that they had discovered public access to what was intended to be a
private mailing list. External access to the mailing list was immediately
disabled, and our Office IT team began assessing which other private
mailing lists may have been publicly accessible. The two mailing lists we
ultimately found to have been publicly accessible for a period of time had
been and are utilized by Wikimedia Foundation staff as intake email
addresses to facilitate processing of the now-deprecated Project & Event
Grants (PEG) program and the current Project Grants program.

We have no indication that the emails were accessed and misused by third
parties. However, we will shortly be contacting everyone who interacted
with these lists to provide them with more specific information about how
they may have been affected, and recommend precautionary steps they may
wish to take. Multiple departments within the Foundation are also reviewing
potential internal procedural changes to prevent future incidents, and
sharing additional information on secure mailing list management with the
staff.

-- 
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Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
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Pronouns: He/His/Him
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Seeking your feedback on future Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meetings

2018-04-05 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

A reminder that we are accepting your suggestions on topics and highlights
for future Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meetings!


You are invited to share your ideas on presentations we should seek out or
a presentation you would like to make available. You can also share ideas
or information on activities to include during the monthly highlights.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings/Future_meetings


We are also continuing to take feedback via email and on-wiki regarding the
future plans for this meeting, which plans on sharing in a few months our
findings and planned changes.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings/Request_for_comments_-_2018


Thank you!
-greg

On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 3:49 PM, Gregory Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> At last month's metrics and activities meeting, the Wikimedia Foundation
> Communications department gave an update on the logistics of the actual
> meeting itself and put out a call for your feedback.[1] The department has
> been working over the past year to help determine what the next evolution
> of the meeting should be, and have taken steps to expand the meeting for an
> audience beyond just people within the Foundation.
>
> Thank you to everyone that has already emailed us with feedback! We will
> continue to collect feedback over the coming months, and we have also
> posted a Meta-Wiki page to collect feedback if you would prefer to post it
> on-wiki.[2]
>
> Based on the feedback we have already received, we have added some
> additional pages on Meta-Wiki to help with communications around the
> meeting:
> 1. A page that outlines the basic process the Communications department
> follows in planning the meeting.[3]
> 2. A page for you to request or suggest future meeting topics.[4]
>
> The most common question I receive about this meeting is from people
> interested in presenting, or with a suggestion for a highlight to mention.
> So, I want to point out that the new future meetings page is now our
> preferred location for making those suggestions and requests.[4] Keeping
> them in that central on-wiki location will help us with tracking requests
> and long-term planning.
>
> Again, we appreciate all of the feedback, and hope that you will join us
> for future meetings (or check out past recordings) as we continue to
> experiment and make adjustments.
>
> -greg
>
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
> metrics_and_activities_meetings/2018-02
>
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
> metrics_and_activities_meetings/Request_for_comments_-_2018
>
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
> metrics_and_activities_meetings/Process
>
> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
> metrics_and_activities_meetings/Future_meetings
>
> --
> Gregory Varnum
> Communications Strategist
> Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
> gvar...@wikimedia.org
> Pronouns: He/His/Him
>



-- 
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Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/His/Him
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[Wikimedia-l] Seeking your feedback on future Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meetings

2018-03-21 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings!

At last month's metrics and activities meeting, the Wikimedia Foundation
Communications department gave an update on the logistics of the actual
meeting itself and put out a call for your feedback.[1] The department has
been working over the past year to help determine what the next evolution
of the meeting should be, and have taken steps to expand the meeting for an
audience beyond just people within the Foundation.

Thank you to everyone that has already emailed us with feedback! We will
continue to collect feedback over the coming months, and we have also
posted a Meta-Wiki page to collect feedback if you would prefer to post it
on-wiki.[2]

Based on the feedback we have already received, we have added some
additional pages on Meta-Wiki to help with communications around the
meeting:
1. A page that outlines the basic process the Communications department
follows in planning the meeting.[3]
2. A page for you to request or suggest future meeting topics.[4]

The most common question I receive about this meeting is from people
interested in presenting, or with a suggestion for a highlight to mention.
So, I want to point out that the new future meetings page is now our
preferred location for making those suggestions and requests.[4] Keeping
them in that central on-wiki location will help us with tracking requests
and long-term planning.

Again, we appreciate all of the feedback, and hope that you will join us
for future meetings (or check out past recordings) as we continue to
experiment and make adjustments.

-greg


[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings/2018-02

[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings/Request_for_comments_-_2018

[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings/Process

[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings/Future_meetings

-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/His/Him
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Notification about problem identified with a recent CentralNotice banner

2018-03-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
Thank you to folks that responded for your comments and questions.

There are staff from multiple departments within the Wikimedia Foundation 
reviewing both this incident and possible improvements to prevent similar 
incidents in the future. Since security discussions can sometimes reveal 
vulnerabilities that some observers may seek to exploit, those conversations 
are happening in private spaces for now (including a private Phabricator 
ticket). We are discussing how to best share additional findings and possible 
improvements.

We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.

-greg


> On Mar 17, 2018, at 10:55 AM, Strainu <strain...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thank you for letting us know early on. I would also want to see a 
> post-mortem on this and I hope the steps taken to mitigate the risk will be 
> consistent with the ones taken on the recent fa.wiki criptocurrency case.
> 
> Strainu
> 
> În 17 martie 2018 03:57:28 EET, Gregory Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org> a 
> scris:
>> On 14 March and 15 March 2018, a CentralNotice banner appeared to some
>> logged-out users viewing English Wikipedia pages. The banner contained
>> JavaScript hosted by Facebook, which allowed Facebook to collect
>> traffic data from those who visited a page with a banner. The banner
>> was prepared by the Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation turned the
>> banner off as soon as we learned how the script was running, and its
>> potential scope. We have also removed all references to the code in
>> question from CentralNotice on Meta-Wiki.
>> 
>> The code utilized in this banner was based on an unused prototype
>> created by an outside vendor. Because the prototype was never enabled,
>> the vendor’s prototype code was not subjected to our standard quality
>> assurance process. However, we made the mistake of reusing the code for
>> a different purpose, and implementing it based on recommendations in
>> documentation from Twitter and Facebook to improve the appearance of
>> shared links. At the time, our understanding was that the platforms
>> would only receive traffic data if the user clicked on the link.
>> Although this was true for Twitter, the Facebook code operated
>> differently.
>> 
>> We discovered the problematic link configurations during our ongoing
>> monitoring of live banners. The recommended code enhanced not only the
>> appearance of links, it also enhanced Facebook's ability to collect
>> information on people visiting non-Facebook sites. As soon as we
>> realized these banners were sharing information without even having to
>> click the link, we disabled them and began an investigation. Staff in
>> multiple departments are collaboratively reviewing the incident as well
>> as procedural and technical improvements to prevent future incidents.
>> 
>> While this sort of tracking is commonplace today across most of the
>> internet, it is not consistent with our policies. We are disappointed
>> that this type of hidden data collection is routinely recommended by
>> major platforms, without clearer disclosure.
>> 
>> These practices are why we all must regularly take routine steps to
>> maintain a secure computer and account. As the Wikimedia Foundation
>> continues to explore ways we can do that within Wikimedia's platform,
>> we encourage you to consider tools which block unwanted third-party
>> scripts like the one provided by Facebook.
>> 
>> We apologize for sending this late on a Friday (San Francisco time).
>> However, we wanted to provide this information as quickly as possible.
>> ___
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> 
> -- 
> Trimis de pe dispozitiv Android cu K-9 Mail. Rog scuzati mesajul scurt.
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[Wikimedia-l] Notification about problem identified with a recent CentralNotice banner

2018-03-16 Thread Gregory Varnum
On 14 March and 15 March 2018, a CentralNotice banner appeared to some 
logged-out users viewing English Wikipedia pages. The banner contained 
JavaScript hosted by Facebook, which allowed Facebook to collect traffic data 
from those who visited a page with a banner. The banner was prepared by the 
Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation turned the banner off as soon as we 
learned how the script was running, and its potential scope. We have also 
removed all references to the code in question from CentralNotice on Meta-Wiki.

The code utilized in this banner was based on an unused prototype created by an 
outside vendor. Because the prototype was never enabled, the vendor’s prototype 
code was not subjected to our standard quality assurance process. However, we 
made the mistake of reusing the code for a different purpose, and implementing 
it based on recommendations in documentation from Twitter and Facebook to 
improve the appearance of shared links. At the time, our understanding was that 
the platforms would only receive traffic data if the user clicked on the link. 
Although this was true for Twitter, the Facebook code operated differently.

We discovered the problematic link configurations during our ongoing monitoring 
of live banners. The recommended code enhanced not only the appearance of 
links, it also enhanced Facebook's ability to collect information on people 
visiting non-Facebook sites. As soon as we realized these banners were sharing 
information without even having to click the link, we disabled them and began 
an investigation. Staff in multiple departments are collaboratively reviewing 
the incident as well as procedural and technical improvements to prevent future 
incidents.

While this sort of tracking is commonplace today across most of the internet, 
it is not consistent with our policies. We are disappointed that this type of 
hidden data collection is routinely recommended by major platforms, without 
clearer disclosure.

These practices are why we all must regularly take routine steps to maintain a 
secure computer and account. As the Wikimedia Foundation continues to explore 
ways we can do that within Wikimedia's platform, we encourage you to consider 
tools which block unwanted third-party scripts like the one provided by 
Facebook.

We apologize for sending this late on a Friday (San Francisco time). However, 
we wanted to provide this information as quickly as possible.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Records Retention and Destruction Policy

2018-02-20 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hi Andy,

Great to hear you are doing this work with Charity Navigator. Very cool! To 
answer your question about the Foundation’s 990, the policy you linked covers 
user data and does not apply to this specific 990 question. However, we do now 
have an internal policy. It was not finalized in time for periods covered by 
past 990s, but we will be reporting this policy in future filings.

Thank you for checking!
-greg


---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His


> On Feb 20, 2018, at 11:12 AM, Andy Mabbett <a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> I'm liaising with Charity Navigator, to import data about US charities
> into Wikidata.
> 
> As an example, I've been looking at their page about the WMF
> 
>   https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary=11212
> 
> and note that their otherwise excellent rating of the foundation is
> reduced by four points (the maximum is 100) due the apparent absence
> of a Records Retention and Destruction Policy, "as reported by the
> charity on its Form 990".
> 
> However,
> 
>https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_retention_guidelines
> 
> suggests that this is an error. Is the policy really missing from the 990?
> 
> -- 
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation January 2018 Metrics & Activities Meeting: Thursday, February 1, 16:00 UTC (WMDE edition)

2018-02-01 Thread Gregory Varnum
REMINDER: This meeting starts in 30 minutes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On 26 January 2018 at 18:08, Nicole Ebber <nicole.eb...@wikimedia.de> wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> We are excited to host the January metrics and activities meeting next week
>> and invite you all to join! It will take place on Thursday, February 1, 2018
>> at 4:00 PM UTC (8:00 AM PST) in our office in Berlin. You can join in
>> person, tune in via a live YouTube stream[1] or via the IRC channel
>> #wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net.
>> 
>> During the January metrics meeting, we'll hear from different presenters
>> about past, present and future endeavours, each with a specific
>> movement-relevant angle. We will not only present successes but strive to
>> also talk about things that did not go so well – and what we learned from
>> these setbacks.
>> 
>> Meeting agenda draft (subject to change):
>> * Introduction and welcomes
>> * Coding da Vinci
>> * WMF topic (tba)
>> * Wikidata/Wikibase (tbd)
>> * Guest speaker (tba)
>> * To wiki or not to wiki
>> * WMCON sneak preview
>> * Wikilove
>> * Questions and discussion
>> 
>> Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
>> the meeting and how to participate:
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities_meetings
>> 
>> We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
>> 
>> All the best,
>> Nicole
>> 
>> [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzqTxTfq2Y
>> 
>> 
>>> On 24 January 2018 at 02:09, Gregory Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hello everyone,
>>> 
>>> The currently-scheduled January metrics and activities meeting is
>>> scheduled
>>> to occur during the Wikimedia Foundation's annual meeting for staff and
>>> contractors (known as All Hands). Given this, we have a need to
>>> reschedule,
>>> and decided to use that change to experiment.
>>> 
>>> So, I am very excited to share that the January metrics and activities
>>> meeting will be hosted by Wikimedia Deutschland on February 1 from 16:00
>>> to
>>> 17:00 UTC (8:00-9:00 PT).
>>> 
>>> Please stay tuned for more details from Wikimedia Deutschland in the days
>>> to come! I hope that you will turn out and support our friends in Germany
>>> in this experiment as part of our ongoing efforts to make the monthly
>>> metrics and activities meetings representative of our global movement.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Greg and Sam
>>> --
>>> Gregory Varnum
>>> Communications Strategist
>>> Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
>>> gvar...@wikimedia.org
>>> ___
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>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Nicole Ebber
>> Adviser International Relations
>> Movement Strategy Track Lead: Organized Groups
>> 
>> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
>> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
>> der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
>> Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Nicole Ebber
> Adviser International Relations
> 
> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.
> V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts
> Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig
> anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
> Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] January Wikimedia Foundation Metrics & Activities meeting

2018-01-23 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello everyone,

The currently-scheduled January metrics and activities meeting is scheduled
to occur during the Wikimedia Foundation's annual meeting for staff and
contractors (known as All Hands). Given this, we have a need to reschedule,
and decided to use that change to experiment.

So, I am very excited to share that the January metrics and activities
meeting will be hosted by Wikimedia Deutschland on February 1 from 16:00 to
17:00 UTC (8:00-9:00 PT).

Please stay tuned for more details from Wikimedia Deutschland in the days
to come! I hope that you will turn out and support our friends in Germany
in this experiment as part of our ongoing efforts to make the monthly
metrics and activities meetings representative of our global movement.

Best,
Greg and Sam
-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
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[Wikimedia-l] Updates on the new Wikimedia Foundation website

2018-01-23 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings!

As mentioned in the Annual Plan and past Metrics and activities meeting
updates, this year the Wikimedia Foundation has been actively working to
refresh the organization’s website (wikimediafoundation.org).[1] It has
been a long time coming, as the current version was created more than 13
years ago. We are incredibly excited about this new opportunity to help us
speak more clearly and easily to donors, new partners, future employees,
members of the media, and the public.

The Communications department has been working since June 2017 with Mule
Design, who specialize in helping nonprofit organizations utilize online
channels to educate the world about their work. We are still a few months
away from a new website, but wanted to share the research we have been
using to inform our decision making and an update on our overall progress.

The current Foundation website—which contains more than 4,500 content pages
and 19,000 pages overall—has remained largely untouched in scope and
overall design since its initial launch as a wiki in 2004. We have grown a
tremendous amount during that time, but this particular communication
channel has not been revised to match those changes and support our
objectives. Many of us have discussed for years about how we not only could
do better, but needed to do better.

Mule began by speaking with people across the movement to determine the
needs of our site. This work, known as Discovery, involved interviews with
dozens of staff, volunteers, donors, and movement partners. It was one of
the largest Discovery processes we have ever undertaken for a
communications project. Those initial findings and recommendations were
used to make decisions around the design, content scope, platform, and
target audiences. We are posting Mule's summary of the Discovery process on
Meta-Wiki if you are interested in reviewing it more in-depth.[2]

So what will this new website be? We hope something that helps each of you
in clearly conveying both our work and the mission of the Wikimedia
Foundation. This is not just a rearrangement of the existing wiki, it’s an
entirely new site with new intentions and content. Specifically:

* Audience-centered design meant to improve navigation for people
unfamiliar with Wikimedia or the Wikimedia Foundation
* Expressive content (photos, type, and articles) that clearly communicate
our mission and impact
* Multilingual switching to allowing reading and navigation across many
languages

The new site will be built on WordPress—a free and open-source content
management system that many in the movement have been using with great
success. We will be archiving pages which are no longer active and have
caused confusion. We will also be moving some content to more collaborative
places like Meta-Wiki. We will continue to rely on MediaWiki to support
on-wiki documentation and collaboration.

With our technical, content, and design scopes finalized—we are beginning
to build the new site. We have reached out to department leaders within the
Foundation to help identify who we will be working with on the site’s
content strategy and creation. Up next:

* We will be developing a content strategy through this and next month
* We will proceed to content creation later next month followed by
translation
* We are working towards a formal site launch before the end of the fiscal
year (June - July 2018)

Thank you to the dozens of staff, volunteers, supporters, and partners from
around that world that have already been involved in this process, and to
the dozens more who will be involved in the months to come!

-greg

[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_website/2017-2018_update

[2]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_website_-_2017-2018_update_-_Discovery_brief.pdf




-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Sharing sad news about Bassel

2017-08-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
A complete statement from the Wikimedia Foundation, made by Katherine, has been 
posted on the Wikimedia Blog:  
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/08/03/bassel-khartabil/ 
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/08/03/bassel-khartabil/>

We are also asking for people’s assistance with translating this message into 
other languages given the global impact of these events:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Bassel/Wikimedia_Foundation_mourns_the_loss_of_Bassel_Khartabil
 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Bassel/Wikimedia_Foundation_mourns_the_loss_of_Bassel_Khartabil>

The plan is to make additional information about the Foundation’s efforts to 
honor Bassel’s contributions and values will be available during Wikimania.

I want to join Katherine and others on this list in offering my personal 
condolences to all impacted by this tragic outcome.

-greg


-------
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org

> On Aug 3, 2017, at 2:26 AM, Isaac Olatunde <reachout2is...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Extremely sad news. May his soul continue to rest in perfect peace.
> 
> My condolence to the family.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Isaac Olatunde.
> 
> On Aug 2, 2017 9:57 AM, "Richard Farmbrough" <rich...@farmbrough.co.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> Very sad news  indeed.  Frustrating that we could not gain more social
> media traction, when there is such nonsense that does.
> 
> On 2 Aug 2017 08:37, "kayode yussuf" <kayusyus...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> This is a very sad news.
>> 
>> Bassel will continue to be an hero in our hearts and we will take solace
>> in his activities in the Open movement.
>> 
>> Kayode Yussuf
>> 
>>> On Aug 2, 2017, at 00:19, David Gerard <dger...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On 2 August 2017 at 00:00, Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org>
>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> at his article [2], and at https://freebassel.org.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> This is giving an SSL error ...
>>> 
>>> 
>>> - d.
>>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wmfall] Sharing sad news about Bassel

2017-08-02 Thread Gregory Varnum
Bassel’s wife has confirmed that she received word and confirmation of his 
death. A number of organizations which follow these protocols, such as Amnesty 
International and Bassel’s own organizations, have sadly all indicated they 
believe confirmation has been met. We are relying on Bassel’s family and 
closely affiliated organizations working with them to determine the situation 
as best we can.

Unfortunately the Syrian regime has been ignoring requests for two years for 
information on Bassel’s status and whereabouts. I am not confident we will get 
public and official word from them anytime soon, if ever. They have made it 
clear they do not respect international protocol. I trust the family would not 
make this announcement without being confident it was true - especially after 
the false rumors in years prior. Additionally based on my own past experiences, 
I do not see any benefit in questioning the family’s judgement or wording in a 
matter like this - especially given the people involved (his wife is a human 
rights activist and shown familiarity with the complexities of a case like 
this) and organizations I believe are providing assistance (although cannot 
offer citations on that).

-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org

> On Aug 2, 2017, at 2:54 PM, Ivan Martínez <gala...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear all. Sad and terrible news for the movement.
> 
> Just want to be sure about if Wikimedia Foundation and/or Jimmy Wales
> Foundation have proofs of Bassel's death. Some international conventions
> about forced disappearance have protocols to talk in public and confirm
> this terrible cases. One of that protocols is talk about "forced
> disappeared" victims until families have a scientific confirmation from an
> official source. In many cases around the world governments or other
> persons use rumors to undermine morale of the families of the victims and
> organizations around them or force to the victim to be abandoned.
> 
> While we don't have that kind of confirmation for respect we must insist to
> refer our colleague as "dissapeared".
> 
> Best,
> 
> 2017-08-02 12:02 GMT-05:00 Marti Johnson <mjohn...@wikimedia.org>:
> 
>> Such heartbreaking news.  Thank you for sharing it, Katherine.
>> 
>> It's supportive to know he will be remembered and celebrated at Wikimania.
>> I'm grateful that's happening.
>> ᐧ
>> 
>> 
>> *Marti JohnsonProgram Officer*
>> *Individual Grants*
>> *Wikimedia Foundation <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home>*
>> +1 415-839-6885
>> Skype: Mjohnson_WMF
>> 
>> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share
>> <http://youtu.be/ci0Pihl2zXY> in the sum of all knowledge.  Help us make
>> it
>> a reality!
>> Support Wikimedia <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>
>> 
>> On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 9:49 AM, Ravishankar Ayyakkannu <
>> rayyakka...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> I am crying :(
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 10:04 PM, Shlomi Fish <shlo...@shlomifish.org>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 19:00:19 -0400
>>>> Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am very deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of our
>> fellow
>>>>> community member Bassel Khartabil, also known to some as Bassel
>> Safadi.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Bassel was detained on March 15, 2012 amid arrests on the one-year
>>>>> anniversary of the Syrian uprising. He had been missing since October
>>>> 2015,
>>>>> when he was removed from the Syrian prison where he was being held.
>> His
>>>>> wife, Noura, confirmed earlier today in a statement on Facebook that
>> he
>>>> was
>>>>> executed by the Syrian government shortly after his disappearance.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Sorry to hear that.
>>>> 
>>>>-- Shlomi
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> -
>>>> Shlomi Fish   http://www.shlomifish.org/
>>>> Beginners Site for the Vim text editor - http://vim.begin-site.org/
>>>> 
>>>>  Time flies when you’re using Linux.
>>>>  Yeah, infinite loops in 5 seconds.
>>>>  Has anyone re-tested that with 2.2.x ?
>>>>  Yeah, 4 seconds now.
>>>> 
>>>> Please reply to list if it's a 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Affiliates] June 23: Update on Wikimedia movement strategy process (#19)

2017-06-28 Thread Gregory Varnum
Pine,

A proper response would take the Wikimedia Foundation some time to prepare. As 
Anna has tried to indicate, and as evidenced by a number of things, there are 
indeed a number of financial oversights. 

Regarding costs, as has been previously stated by the Foundation and Board, the 
Board approved a spending resolution last year for expenses related to the 
movement strategy of up to $2.5 million over Fiscal Year 2016-17 (July 2016 - 
June 2017) and Fiscal Year 2017-18 (July 2017 - June 2018).

On the topic of how resources are spent, I would like to share more on the cost 
of your request. Because you escalated in your language (e.g., calling our 
financial practices lax and asking to speak to a member of the Board), three 
senior leaders and two Board members have now spent time on this. I imagine 
that your concern is genuine, but the speed with which you went from asking for 
financial details when we have ample financial oversight, to hinting at fiscal 
malfeasance was a bit quick. 

You may not know this, but these kinds of requests are costly, particularly 
when it escalates with a strongly negative comment and a demand to speak to a 
Board member. I share these figures on the cost of this request thus far in the 
service of transparency. 

• 6: Number of staff involved in responding, including 3 senior leaders
• 2: Number of Board members now involved
• 1.5 hours: Estimated amount of Board time spent thus far
• 10 hours: Estimated amount of staff time spent thus far
• $1,500: Estimated cost of staff time (considering expenses beyond just 
salary) 

Providing the detailed answer you have requested would require considerably 
more time and increase the cost more. We have decided not to provide that 
response because we have ample financial oversight and we would like not to set 
a precedent of spending resources discussing this level of detail on financial 
matters. You are a valued member of this community, and this is not the best 
way for us to work together. That is why we have established processes. 

We appreciate your passion and dedication to the vision and our communities and 
hope you will read this response in the good faith that it was written. 

Greg and Anna (2 of the 6 staff involved)



> On Jun 27, 2017, at 3:38 PM, Pine W  wrote:
> 
> Hi Anna,
> 
>>> * How much is this timeline extension projected to cost, and from what
>>> source are the funds being drawn? (Note that this doesn't assume that the
>>> decision was a bad one, but I very much want to know the source of the
>>> funds and how much is likely to be drawn from it.)
>> 
>> 
>> We've got this covered, Pine. We are fiscally managing this process and all
>> of our contracts well. Thank you for your concern.
> 
> Please answer my question: how much is this timeline extension projected to
> cost,
> and from what source are the funds being drawn?
> 
> 
>>> * Could you elaborate on the benefits of this timetable change for people
>>> who are not involved with affiliates? We've seen some responses from
>>> Strainu and Yaroslov (thank you both!) and I would like to hear WMF's
>>> perspective.
>>> 
> 
>> The benefits of the change in the timetable are that 4/4 stakeholder
> groups
>> told us that this was a meaningful exercise, that they are earnestly
>> engaged in thinking about the future, and that they need more time for
>> translation and conversation on this important subject. 3/4 tracks are non
>> affiliates (on-wiki, new voices, experts).
> 
>> We agreed with them. These are meaningful conversations. We are learning a
>> lot and we need to hear what people have to say and they need more time to
>> say it.
> 
> OK, that makes sense.
> 
>> 
>> * Could you also discuss what measures are being taken to control costs in
>> the strategy process?
>> 
> 
>> We have plenty of measures in place to monitor costs (e.g., we don't need
>> to control them because they are not out of control, we are within our
>> budget). Also, describing financial metrics at any lower level of detail
>> would be a waste of the strategy budget since we are within it.
> 
> I disagree with that assessment. Simply because expenses are within
> budget don't mean that all expenses which were charged to the budget
> are reasonable and accurate, and I am disappointed to hear that WMF's
> standards for its finances are so lax. This convinces me all the more
> that my original request is important for WMF to answer: please discuss
> what measures are being taken to control costs in the strategy process.
> The level of detail that I now think WMF should provide is much higher
> than the level of detail with which I previously would have been satisfied.
> My level of concern here is high enough that I am asking the WMF
> Audit Committee chair, Kelly, to comment on this situation. Something seems
> very wrong here, and I am concerned about WMF's financial integrity.
> 
> Pine
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 8:33 PM, Anna Stillwell 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [PRESS] Turkish authorities block Wikipedia

2017-04-30 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

We wanted to share with you all a blog post and more detailed statement we have 
just published: 
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/04/30/turkish-authorities-block-wikipedia/ 
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/04/30/turkish-authorities-block-wikipedia/>

Thank you, everyone, for your patience!

-greg



---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org

> On Apr 30, 2017, at 9:51 AM, Isarra Yos <zhoris...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This is a great way for them to ensure the rest of the world sees those 
> articles. Sort of. Bit inconveniencing to everyone actually IN Turkey...
> 
> -I
> 
> On 30/04/17 12:40, geni wrote:
>> FWIW the two articles the Turkish state is apparently complaining about are:
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism#Turkey
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_involvement_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War#Turkey
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wmfall] April 12: Update on Wikimedia movement strategy process (#13)

2017-04-12 Thread Gregory Varnum
Apologies - correction to last link, should be:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Updates/12_April_2017_-_Update_13_on_Wikimedia_movement_strategy_process

-greg

On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 7:26 PM Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> *Summary: The first cycle of strategy conversations is ending soon.* We
> hope you will contribute your answer to this question: "What do we want to
> build or achieve together over the next 15 years?" -
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=10152617
>
> This phase has been an opportunity to come up with new ideas. The next
> phase is about refining these ideas to reach some consensus on the most
> important ones. This means that there will still be opportunities to
> contribute in the future! It also means that the focus of the conversation
> will change. If you are interested in generating creative new ideas about
> the future of our projects, *now is the time to share your thoughts!*
>
> Participating is easy. Check out the participation page on Meta-Wiki's
> movement strategy portal for more information. Find online discussions,
> local meetups, and a survey here:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=10152617
>
> One note: In consideration of the Passover and Easter holidays people
> around the world are recognizing this week and weekend, we have moved the
> closing day for this discussion cycle to the end of April 18 (23:59
> UTC).[1]  That means you have a few additional days to share your ideas -
> big and small - for Wikimedia's future.
>
> Once this discussion cycle ends next week, we will be gathering common
> topics from across all the global discussions and posting them on
> Meta-Wiki. That includes conversations from the wikis, meetups with
> experts, discussions from affiliates, and anywhere else we have
> documented.[2]
>
> The next phase of the discussion will begin by May 1. We’ll be working
> together to prioritize the thematic statements. More information on that
> cycle is available on Meta-Wiki,[3] and we’ll share more when that cycle
> gets started.
>
> I have already seen and heard some fantastic ideas from our first
> discussion cycle these past few weeks. I look forward to seeing what ideas
> emerge in the final days of this cycle!
>
> Un cordial saludo (Spanish translation: “Best regards”),
> Katherine
>
> PS. A version of this message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.[4]
>
> [1]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Participate
> [2]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Sources
> [3]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Process
> [4]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Updates/7_April_2017_-_Update_12_on_Wikimedia_movement_strategy_process
>
> --
> Katherine Maher
>
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 149 New Montgomery Street
> San Francisco, CA 94105
>
> +1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635 <(415)%20839-6885>
> +1 (415) 712 4873 <(415)%20712-4873>
> kma...@wikimedia.org
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-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] LGBT+ safety considerations for conference venues

2016-11-10 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

I wanted to take off my Wikimedia Foundation hat for a moment and offer
some thoughts as a fellow volunteer.

Without feeling physically/emotionally/mentally safe and free from
prosecutorial persecution, it is nearly impossible to actively engage.
Therefore, no goals can be achieved if creating a safe space is not a
consideration.

I mention prosecutorial persecution because the discussion thus far seems
to have focused on citizen based peer violence. The problem is that for
many communities, in this case the LGBT community, there are many other
elements involved as well. Holding Wikimania in a country where simply
being LGBT is a crime presents more than just a physical safety risk, it
presents the threat of prison or death sentence. There are additional risks
that LGBT people would take by being in that country even if we were
absolutely confident the police were going to stay away. For example, if a
LGBT person travels to a country where it is illegal, against the advice of
their government, their health insurance may not be willing to help them
should something happen (even if what happens has nothing to do with the
laws criminalizing LGBT people). Again, these risks and situations apply to
other communities as well, I am simply using this as an example.

Also, having engaged in conversations like this professionally for over a
decade, I want to encourage us to avoid ranking or comparing people's
experiences. The reality is that when you are the victim of discrimination,
harassment, or violence, that someone else may have had it worse than you
is not an especially helpful or even relevant factor. Additionally, it
cannot really be proven (facts matter), and more importantly here - does
not encourage productive dialogue.

I believe this is an important discussion to be having, and I am pleased to
see people engaging in it. However, I think it is important that we
accurately convey the scope of the topic, and avoid emotional triggers that
will derail dialogue. Given the emotional level for many, especially in the
US, following the election - I would also encourage people to consider
pausing and allowing things to calm down before re-engaging.

-greg (User:Varnent)

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 6:41 PM Gnangarra  wrote:

> "Foreigners" are at an increased risk regardless of where they travel thats
> the reality of international travel, additionally each persons individual
> circumstances will affect those risks.  What we shouldnt be doing is
> engaging in a contest as to whos circumstances gives them the greater risk
> and thus a greater value as a contributor.  Sitting at a keyboard improving
> content we are all equals everyone is important.
>
>
>
> On 10 November 2016 at 23:40, Pax Ahimsa Gethen <
> list-wikime...@funcrunch.org> wrote:
>
> > It is correct I have yet to attend a Wikimania conference, but was
> > planning to after my positive experience presenting at WikiConference
> North
> > America.
> >
> > Please note the "Muslim" and "LGBT" are not mutually exclusive. Same with
> > any other marginalized groups you might name.
> >
> > FYI my preferred pronoun is "they" not "he".
> >
> > To clarify what it is I actually asked, here is a copy of my original
> post:
> >
> > Hello all. I had a positive experience at WikiConference North America
> >> last weekend, where I gave a talk on transgender issues and
> Wikipedia.[1]
> >> I'm posting because there's an active discussion in Wikipedia Weekly on
> >> Facebook about choosing a host country for Wikimania 2018.[2] I am
> >> concerned that some of the suggestions are not taking into account the
> >> safety of LGBT+ people; not just those attending the conference, but
> also
> >> those living in the host country.
> >>
> >> As a queer trans atheist in a same-sex marriage, there are a number of
> >> places where I am considered a criminal for just existing or going
> about my
> >> daily routine. This applies to some parts of the U.S. as well, by the
> way;
> >> I won't be visiting North Carolina as long as it's illegal for me to use
> >> the men's restroom there. Please keep these considerations in mind when
> >> planning meetups and conferences. Thank you.
> >>
> >> - Pax aka Funcrunch
> >>
> >> [1] http://funcrunch.org/blog/2016/10/12/making-connections-at-
> >> wikiconference-north-america/
> >>
> >> [2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediaweekly/permalink/
> >> 1114259788621851/
> >>
> >
> > - Pax
> >
> >
> >
> > On 11/10/16 12:00 AM, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> >
> >> Hoi,
> >> You do not get it. Wikimania is first and foremost about spreading the
> >> word
> >> about what we do and who we are.
> >>
> >> I have read Pax's original post. He did not go to Wikimania. He asks for
> >> consideration that any Wikimania will be in a place where he feels safe.
> >> It
> >> is OK for him to ask this but it is not OK for us to give away what
> >> Wikimania stands for.
> >>
> >> There is no safe place and in my experience you are 

[Wikimedia-l] Seeking feedback on Communications Resource Center

2016-10-27 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings!

The Wikimedia Foundation Communications department has been working on the
development of the Communications resource center (started thanks to
Wikimedia Deutschland as the Movement communications skills library). The
goal of this center is to help share resources related to movement
communications with interested volunteers across the movement. We
appreciate the feedback that people have shared with us since its launch.

We are excited to share that we have completed improvements based on your
feedback, and included content from many of the trainings done by the
Communications department into the resource center.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Resource_center

In a few months, we will be more formally introducing the center, but
wanted to do a round of feedback with those of you who are interested. In
addition to hearing your overall feedback, we would be interested in
hearing more about if this type of approach is helpful, what resources you
would like added, and how we can make it more usable.

Please feel free to post your feedback here, emailing it to me (
gvar...@wikimedia.org) or posting it on the center's talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Communications/Resource_center

Also, a reminder that you are invited to contribute resources to the center
as well. It is a wiki - be bold! :)

Finally, for some additional context, the Communications resource center
will be integrated into a broader organization-wide resource center which
the Learning and Evaluation team is currently developing.

Thank you!
-greg
-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Board appointment of Executive Director

2016-06-24 Thread Gregory Varnum


Nope - even with my wild imagination - it is simply not possible for me to be 
more pleased and excited by this news!!!

Congratulations, Katherine! I think this is fantastic news for the Foundation 
and movement!

-greg (User:Varnent)


> On Jun 24, 2016, at 4:56 PM, Peter Southwood  
> wrote:
> 
> Looks like a good choice. 
> 
> Good luck, Katherine
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Peter
> 
> 
> 
> From: WikimediaAnnounce-l 
> [mailto:wikimediaannounce-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of 
> Patricio Lorente
> Sent: Friday, 24 June 2016 11:16 AM
> To: wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia Announcements] Board appointment of Executive Director
> 
> 
> 
> Dear all, 
> 
> 
> 
> It is our great pleasure to share that during the Board meeting at Wikimania 
> 2016 in Esino Lario, we unanimously voted to appoint Katherine Maher as 
> Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. This is effective as of our 
> resolution dated Thursday, 23 June. 
> 
> 
> 
> Katherine served as interim Executive Director for the past three months, 
> during which time she consistently and repeatedly demonstrated the kind of 
> leadership our organization needs. She is deeply committed to our movement’s 
> values, and brings expertise in civic technology and international 
> development that will be an asset to the Wikimedia Foundation and the 
> movement.
> 
> 
> 
> We came to this conclusion after an intensive discovery process led by the ED 
> search committee. Our decision was also informed by direct feedback from 
> staff and community, and our own experience working closely with Katherine. 
> 
> 
> 
> In March, we assembled an Executive Director search committee[1] consisting 
> of four Board members¹ who were chosen to represent different perspectives 
> and capacities.² Additionally, the Board asked the Foundation’s Chief 
> Advancement Officer Lisa Gruwell to represent the executive team, and 
> Foundation staff member Katie Horn was selected by her peers as someone who 
> could represent staff perspectives. The committee was charged with keeping 
> the process on track and on time, engaging important stakeholders, and 
> facilitating transparency in communications. Their first tasks were to 
> identify a search firm, and define the position description. You can review 
> the committee’s updates on Meta.[2]
> 
> 
> 
> The committee recruited Viewcrest Advisors,³ to identify our leadership needs 
> and design a hiring process. Kathleen Yazbak of Viewcrest worked with the 
> committee to conduct interviews with every Foundation department, the 
> executive, the Board, and nearly 20 additional one-on-one interviews with 
> staff. Kathleen attended the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, collecting 
> feedback from community members and affiliates. The committee launched a 
> community survey in June, receiving more than 1,600 responses about the 
> qualities needed in the next ED; they also asked for feedback on Meta.[3] 
> Taking all of this into account, the transition team developed a profile and 
> requirements for the next Executive Director that reflect our values and our 
> communities.
> 
> 
> 
> Throughout this process, the Board and the transition team received very 
> clear and often unsolicited feedback from both staff and community members 
> that Katherine embodies the values of our movement and the traits needed in 
> our next ED. This feedback was only reinforced by the latest Foundation 
> engagement survey results, which showed a strong shift toward renewed trust 
> in leadership. After taking this all into account, and considering what the 
> organization needs at this moment of transition, we moved to appoint 
> Katherine now. 
> 
> 
> 
> In just three months as interim ED, Katherine worked with the organization 
> and community to make huge strides in management, execution, and 
> transparency. She brought much-needed clarity to our strategic direction, and 
> mobilized the organization to clearly communicate that direction through this 
> year’s annual plan. 
> 
> 
> 
> After her appointment, she worked with the leadership team to swiftly 
> identify the organization’s priorities during the transition period and 
> execute against them, setting ambitious but reachable targets. Under 
> Katherine’s leadership, the Foundation submitted its annual plan to the Funds 
> Dissemination Committee, leaving ample time for community feedback and 
> discussion.
> 
> 
> 
> Katherine is an excellent fit for our movement. She is longtime advocate for 
> global open communities, culture, and technology. She was the Foundation’s 
> Chief Communications Officer from April 2014 until she was appointed interim 
> ED in March. Throughout her career she has focused on freedom of expression, 
> access to information, and digital rights; supporting the efforts of people 
> around the world to deepen participation, advance transparency, and 
> strengthen their communities through 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki

2016-05-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the Wikimedia 
Foundation's Form 990.

Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling 
US$1.7M) which were conducted by Jones Day (page 61 - Part VII): As our global 
reach has grown over time, we felt it was important to strengthen the trademark 
portfolio and solidify the protection of Wikimedia’s marks globally. In 
December 2013, we began working with Jones Day on our global trademark filings, 
registrations, and oppositions. During the 2014-2015 fiscal year we filed 
1,500+ new trademark applications for 35 different trademarks in 100+ 
countries. A significant portion of the legal services expenses in 2014-2015 
went toward the mandatory government trademark application filing fees. 

These new trademark applications contained expanded coverage and revised 
descriptions to ensure better protection of Wikimedia's marks and projects, 
including countries where readership was growing through targeted programs or 
distribution (such as Wikipedia Zero and mobile readership). Going forward, we 
anticipate (and are beginning to realize) a decrease in trademark expenses year 
over year, now that we have this initial foundation is in place. This 
investment immediately benefits Wikimedia and its communities by ensuring that 
our trademark portfolio reflects the maturity and breadth of the Wikimedia 
movement, and protects us against certain forms of infringement or misuse. 

Regarding Lodewijk's question about compensation to the 'ED team': The 
Foundation regularly discloses compensation information for Foundation 
leadership through our Form 990 filings. The 990 disclosure is an approach 
widely relied on by many different stakeholders: it is clear, transparent, 
consistent with other charitable entities, and a matter of public record. As 
such, we have chosen to use it as our primary means of disclosure. 

The Signpost recently also reached out with a similar question about the 
special advisor role. Here is the response Patricio shared:

"In May 2014, Jan-Bart announced that Sue would stay on as a special 
advisor,[1] which he confirmed again in June that year.[2]

The Board felt that Sue Gardner's knowledge and experience in our movement was 
valuable to support the Foundation as it went through that ED transition. In 
general, it is good practice to make sure that there is the ability to draw on 
the expertise of an experienced former executive - in this case, someone who 
grew the organization from a few people to more than 200.

We felt this was an important leadership change, perhaps one of the bigger ones 
in the Foundation’s history. This was a practical means of ensuring the 
handover went as smoothly as possible, and key institutional knowledge was 
preserved during an important period of transition."

As for the question about why the Wikimedia Foundation spent $317,490 fighting 
"cybersquatters" that offered to donate the domain in dispute: We’re not sure 
where this question comes from, as we haven’t dealt with a case that fits this 
description. We do not fight cybersquatters who offer to donate their domains 
(especially if they are community members), and, to date, we have not spent 
anything approaching that much money on this type of case.

In answer to a question that was asked on Facebook:

"i'm curious about the investment of cash in corporate and municipal bonds. is 
there an investment policy? no sign of working capital needs and how to manage 
cash. no sign of endowment preparation."

Our investment policy, which is the guidance being used today, is available on 
Foundation wiki.[3] The investment policy for the endowment will be set by the 
Wikimedia Endowment Advisory Board that we are forming right now. We are 
recruiting Advisory Board Trustees with significant investment expertise, from 
a diverse set of backgrounds. We announced the appointment of Annette 
Campbell-White last week as one of the founding board members. You can read 
more about her here.[4]

Again, thanks for your questions and feedback both on this list and elsewhere. 

-Gregory Varnum
Wikimedia Foundation

[1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-May/071458.html
[2] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-June/072372.html
[3] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Investment_Policy
[4] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/05/11/annette-campbell-white-endowment/

> On May 24, 2016, at 11:17 AM, Lodewijk <lodew...@effeietsanders.org> wrote:
> 
> I do hope btw that the unfortunate derailing doesn't mean the questions
> won't get an answer... I hoped those would be fairly obvious and easily
> clarified.
> 
> Lodewijk
> 
> 2016-05-20 0:52 GMT+02:00 Neil P. Quinn <m...@neilpquinn.com>:
> 
>> I totally second this. I apologize for engaging with him earlier; I didn't
>> realize at the

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wmfall] REMINDER: Invitation to upcoming office hours with WMF interim Executive Director

2016-05-13 Thread Gregory Varnum
One additional follow-up on the video-based session.

The notes are on Meta-Wiki:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours/Video-based_session_notes

Additionally, the video recording has been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. We 
edited out the unrelated parts mentioned earlier, and attempted to improve the 
audio. Thank you to Brendan in WMF Office IT for his help with this.  
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Interim_Executive_Director_May_2016_Video_Office_Hours.webm

As Katherine said, thank you to everyone that participated, and we look forward 
to talking with folks at the IRC session later this month.

-greg

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org <mailto:gvar...@wikimedia.org>
> On May 12, 2016, at 4:15 PM, Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> Thanks for the feedback, and a few thoughts:
> 
> 1. This is the first time we've done a video office hours and we have some
> things to learn about how to produce them effectively. I'm sorry the audio
> on the YouTube recording wasn't great - we can make that a priority in the
> future. I know I also tend to speak quickly, which can be difficult for
> people who do not speak English natively, for example. This is something I
> will keep working on. We might make other tweaks to the format - for
> example, we might do a smaller room next time, or closer to the webcam.
> 
> 2. Time stamps would definitely make it easier to skip around in the video.
> Perhaps we can work something similar out for the future. Solid suggestion.
> 
> 3. Noted on licensing. We can see what the options are there.
> 
> 4. BrillLyle, rest easy! We have an excellent tean here at the WMF,
> including people in both formal and informal leadership roles, from
> individual contributors to executive team members. Some of them are well
> known to community, others are strong internally in the Foundation. I hope
> community members will increasingly see these leaders engaging publicly,
> through greater participation at events and conferences, in metrics
> meetings, and on-wiki and elsewhere. On the current executive team alone, I
> believe we have more than 25 years combined experience at the WMF, which I
> expect compares favorably to past teams. I am very grateful to know many
> colleagues well through our work together over the past two years, and have
> great confidence in their skills and judgement.
> 
> Yesterday was an experiment, and we'll do another, more traditional IRC
> office hours next week following the May metrics meeting. It should be
> different in style and speed; I'm looking forward to it. A reminder of the
> details:
> 
> *IRC session*
> This session follows the May monthly metrics meeting
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings>. Like
> other office hours, it will be held in #Wikimedia-office
> connect
> <https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#Wikimedia-office> on
> irc.freednode.org .
> Thursday, 26 May 2016 - 19:00
> <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=19=00=0=26=05=2016>
> -20:00 UTC
> <http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20=00=0=26=05=2016>
> |
> 12:00-13:00 PDT
> 
> Cheers,
> Katherine
> 
> 
> On Thursday, May 12, 2016, Brill Lyle <wp.brilll...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 1. The sound quality was fine from what I saw and heard. I was on a desktop
>> computer using the Blue Jeans thing (which had the YouTube video playing)
>> and IRC chat -- and etherpad
>> 
>> 2. Session notes were done live in Wiki Markup format on the etherpad which
>> resulted in a truly great cooperative effort to list detailed minutes. It
>> allowed a super quick publish to Wiki which was ideal. I was really happy
>> to see that and hope it can be a model going forward. I would suggest
>> having a "template" of information pre-filled out to facilitate the notes
>> going forward.
>> 
>> Having a timekeeper would probably necessitate having one person designated
>> to put time-stamps on main points. I think if there's consensus then
>> cooperatively this could be done? It seems like babysteps here -- having
>> transparent, detailed notes that are quickly turned around -- might be the
>> priority over the time-stamps but this is a logical and reasonable request,
>> I agree.
>> 
>> 3. Agree on licensing default for published videos. Ideally the video
>> should be embedded on the Minutes page as a supporting resource.
>> 
>> An additional comment:
>> 
>> I'm

[Wikimedia-l] SOON: Video office hours with WMF interim Executive Director

2016-05-11 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

The first office hours with Wikimedia Foundation’s interim Executive Director, 
Katherine Maher, will begin in about 80 minutes.

Apologies for confusion on the time, here is the time for the first session, 
being held via video:
Thursday, 12 May 2016 - 00:00-01:00 UTC | Wednesday, 11 May 2016 - 17:00-18:00 
PDT

You can join us and ask questions during the session via Blue Jeans:  
https://bluejeans.com/198076339

The session will also be available for streaming on YouTube:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XazXyL-Ybjo

Etherpad that has been setup for notes:  
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/May_2016_-_WMF_ED_May_2016_video_office_hours

More info:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours

We look forward to talking with folks soon!
-greg

Translation notice - This original message is available for translation on 
Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours/Announcement

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation
gvar...@wikimedia.org

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Gregory Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org>
> Subject: REMINDER: Invitation to upcoming office hours with WMF interim 
> Executive Director
> Date: May 10, 2016 at 1:22:24 PM EDT
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia 
> developers <wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia Movement Affiliates 
> discussion list <affilia...@lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc: "Staff (All)" <wmf...@lists.wikimedia.org>
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> A quick reminder that the first office hours with Wikimedia Foundation’s 
> interim Executive Director, Katherine Maher, is coming up in the next day 
> (roughly).
> 
> Apologies for confusion on the time, here is the time for the first session, 
> being held via video:
> Thursday, 12 May 2016 - 00:00-01:00 UTC | Wednesday, 11 May 2016 - 
> 17:00-18:00 PDT
> 
> You are invited to ask questions and offer suggestions to Katherine on this 
> Meta-Wiki page (which also has additional information on the office hours):  
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours
> 
> You can join us and ask questions during the session via Blue Jeans:  
> https://bluejeans.com/198076339
> 
> The session will also be available for streaming on YouTube:  
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XazXyL-Ybjo
> 
> We look forward to talking with folks soon!
> -greg
> 
> Translation notice - This original message is available for translation on 
> Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours/Announcement
> 
> ---
> Gregory Varnum
> Communications Strategist (Contractor)
> Wikimedia Foundation
> gvar...@wikimedia.org
> 
>> On May 4, 2016, at 8:47 PM, Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> **Summary: I am delighted to invite you to join me for two upcoming office
>> hours, where I’ll answer community questions and share updates on the
>> Foundation’s work.**
>> 
>> It’s been a busy few weeks around the Wikimedia Foundation offices. We
>> shared our 2016-2017 annual plan, finished our quarterly reviews, and
>> attended Wikimedia Conference 2016 in Berlin with the Wikimedia affiliates.
>> [1]
>> 
>> In Berlin, I had the chance to do one of my favorite things: sit with
>> Wikimedians, listen, debate, and plan for the future. Of course, Berlin is
>> just one gathering, and there are thousands of other perspectives out
>> there. I want to hear more of these perspectives, and so I’m looking
>> forward to hosting two office hours over the coming weeks.
>> 
>> We plan to hold a traditional office hours on IRC, and will also experiment
>> with a video Q We hope these different formats will make it easier for
>> more people to participate using their preferred communications channels.
>> We’ve chosen two different time zones, with the goal of reaching as many
>> people as possible. They are as follows:
>> 
>> *Video session*
>> *This session will be recorded, and the video will be posted on
>> Commons/Meta. Due to video conferencing limitations, we encourage advance
>> questions.*
>> Wednesday, 11 May 2016
>> 00:00-1:00 UTC | 17:00-18:00 PDT [2]
>> 
>> *IRC session*
>> *This session follows the May monthly metrics meeting.[4] Like other office
>> hours, it will be held in #Wikimedia-office on Freenode.*
>> Thursday, 26 May 2016
>> 19:00-20:00 UTC | 12:00-13:00 PDT [3]
>> 
>> We’re also collecting questions in advance for those 

[Wikimedia-l] REMINDER: Invitation to upcoming office hours with WMF interim Executive Director

2016-05-10 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

A quick reminder that the first office hours with Wikimedia Foundation’s 
interim Executive Director, Katherine Maher, is coming up in the next day 
(roughly).

Apologies for confusion on the time, here is the time for the first session, 
being held via video:
Thursday, 12 May 2016 - 00:00-01:00 UTC | Wednesday, 11 May 2016 - 17:00-18:00 
PDT

You are invited to ask questions and offer suggestions to Katherine on this 
Meta-Wiki page (which also has additional information on the office hours):  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours

You can join us and ask questions during the session via Blue Jeans:  
https://bluejeans.com/198076339

The session will also be available for streaming on YouTube:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XazXyL-Ybjo

We look forward to talking with folks soon!
-greg

Translation notice - This original message is available for translation on 
Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours/Announcement

---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation
gvar...@wikimedia.org

> On May 4, 2016, at 8:47 PM, Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> **Summary: I am delighted to invite you to join me for two upcoming office
> hours, where I’ll answer community questions and share updates on the
> Foundation’s work.**
> 
> It’s been a busy few weeks around the Wikimedia Foundation offices. We
> shared our 2016-2017 annual plan, finished our quarterly reviews, and
> attended Wikimedia Conference 2016 in Berlin with the Wikimedia affiliates.
> [1]
> 
> In Berlin, I had the chance to do one of my favorite things: sit with
> Wikimedians, listen, debate, and plan for the future. Of course, Berlin is
> just one gathering, and there are thousands of other perspectives out
> there. I want to hear more of these perspectives, and so I’m looking
> forward to hosting two office hours over the coming weeks.
> 
> We plan to hold a traditional office hours on IRC, and will also experiment
> with a video Q We hope these different formats will make it easier for
> more people to participate using their preferred communications channels.
> We’ve chosen two different time zones, with the goal of reaching as many
> people as possible. They are as follows:
> 
> *Video session*
> *This session will be recorded, and the video will be posted on
> Commons/Meta. Due to video conferencing limitations, we encourage advance
> questions.*
> Wednesday, 11 May 2016
> 00:00-1:00 UTC | 17:00-18:00 PDT [2]
> 
> *IRC session*
> *This session follows the May monthly metrics meeting.[4] Like other office
> hours, it will be held in #Wikimedia-office on Freenode.*
> Thursday, 26 May 2016
> 19:00-20:00 UTC | 12:00-13:00 PDT [3]
> 
> We’re also collecting questions in advance for those who can’t make either
> of those sessions. We’ve created a page on Meta where you can leave
> questions or comments, check the details on the location of each session:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours
> 
> Please share this invitation with others you think may be interested!
> 
> I look forward to speaking soon,
> Katherine
> 
> Translation notice - This message is available for translation on
> Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours/Announcement
> 
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016
> [2] Time converter link:
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=0=00=0=12=05=2016
> [3] Time converter link:
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=19=00=0=26=05=2016
> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings
> 
> 
> -- 
> Katherine Maher
> 
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 149 New Montgomery Street
> San Francisco, CA 94105
> 
> +1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
> +1 (415) 712 4873
> kma...@wikimedia.org
> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] What should the board do *now*? [was Re: Account of the events leading to James Heilman's removal]

2016-05-10 Thread Gregory Varnum
Having worked with SPLC on records issues before, I feel it should be noted 
that their efforts are focused on government. Governments have legal 
protections that nonprofits (as corporations) do not, so the considerations are 
rather different.

I'm not commenting on the topics beyond that, just wanted to point out that 
important distinction. ;)

-greg

___
Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.

> On May 10, 2016, at 12:00 PM, Ben Creasy  wrote:
> 
> Luis Villa  writes:
> 
>> 
>> tl;dr: the board did not effectively perform one of their most important
>> roles (managing the ED); the board (and board candidates) should be talking
>> about how they will fix that.
> 
> I think one of the key takeaways from this affair is that people should be 
> careful about talking the law. There are bright line rules 
> written in statute and then there are "duties" (duties of loyalty, duties of 
> care). In this case, it appears that the bright line rule of law (absolute 
> right of directors to inspect corporate books and records) was probably 
> violated while more tenuous legal rules were given heavier weight. I'm also 
> not sure that a few board members discussing something together unofficially 
> without the entire board is a "conspiracy" as Denny described it, although 
> I suppose that opens up a grey area about whether that's some sort of 
> official meeting and the rights of board members to know about 
> corporate business.
> 
> As far as I'm aware, there aren't too many bright line rules regarding 
> abstract 
> duties, although some statutes provide some good guidelines (e.g., Uniform 
> Prudent Investor Act). After spending several years as a fiduciary for a 
> couple different nonprofits and reviewing directors & officer's liability 
> insurance as a regulator, I've found that it's no joke that the business 
> judgment rule provides significant protection for board members from 
> liability. 
> Board members should be thinking more about right and wrong and what makes 
> sense rather than abstract legal notions.
> 
> Any good legal opinion should be written and cite specific statutes and case 
> law. And finding a case where a jury found someone, somewhere, in some 
> specific 
> situation was found to be liable for doing or not doing something is not 
> necessarily persuasive.
> 
> I winced a bit when I saw a while back that Anne/Risker responded to a 
> request 
> for more details on the Executive Director's performance by saying that such 
> information was basically sacrosant and something to the effect of how it 
> might 
> even be protected by some sort of UN human rights law. Maybe she knows 
> something
> more than me, and certainly it is typical for these to be kept private, but 
> many, many Americans have their performance evaluations subject to public 
> scrutiny. See 
> [http://www.splc.org/article/2015/04/accessing-personnel-records 
> Accessing personnel records: A balancing act between privacy, public’s right 
> to know] (2015) for some examples. It is true that California is 
> aggressive about employee rights; when I was looking at actuarial analyses 
> for 
> employer's liability, California received a multiplicative factor of 3 versus 
> the rest of the country.
> 
>> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Invitation to upcoming office hours with interim ED

2016-05-05 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hi Risker,

You are correct, and I apologize for that confusion. When the message was 
originally drafted, there were PDT based times, and the date change was 
accidentally missed when UTC was added.

The pages for the session have been updated to reflect the dates more 
accurately:
Thursday, 12 May 2016 - 00:00-01:00 UTC | Wednesday, 11 May 2016 - 17:00-18:00 
PDT

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours
 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours>

Thank you for pointing that out. :)

-greg

PS. I personally continue to dislike time zones. ;)


---
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org <mailto:gvar...@wikimedia.org>


> On May 4, 2016, at 10:01 PM, Risker <risker...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Just noting that 1700-1800 PDT on Wednesday May 11 is -0100 UTC on
> Thursday May 12. Based on the link given, this seems to be when the meeting
> will be held. Please verify.
> 
> Risker/Anne
> 
> On 4 May 2016 at 21:28, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Forwarding.
>> 
>> Pine
>> -- Forwarded message --
>> From: "Katherine Maher" <kma...@wikimedia.org>
>> Date: May 4, 2016 17:47
>> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Invitation to upcoming office hours with interim ED
>> To: <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>, <wmf...@lists.wikimedia.org>, <
>> wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org>
>> Cc:
>> 
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> **Summary: I am delighted to invite you to join me for two upcoming office
>> hours, where I’ll answer community questions and share updates on the
>> Foundation’s work.**
>> 
>> It’s been a busy few weeks around the Wikimedia Foundation offices. We
>> shared our 2016-2017 annual plan, finished our quarterly reviews, and
>> attended Wikimedia Conference 2016 in Berlin with the Wikimedia affiliates.
>> [1]
>> 
>> In Berlin, I had the chance to do one of my favorite things: sit with
>> Wikimedians, listen, debate, and plan for the future. Of course, Berlin is
>> just one gathering, and there are thousands of other perspectives out
>> there. I want to hear more of these perspectives, and so I’m looking
>> forward to hosting two office hours over the coming weeks.
>> 
>> We plan to hold a traditional office hours on IRC, and will also experiment
>> with a video Q We hope these different formats will make it easier for
>> more people to participate using their preferred communications channels.
>> We’ve chosen two different time zones, with the goal of reaching as many
>> people as possible. They are as follows:
>> 
>> *Video session*
>> *This session will be recorded, and the video will be posted on
>> Commons/Meta. Due to video conferencing limitations, we encourage advance
>> questions.*
>> Wednesday, 11 May 2016
>> 00:00-1:00 UTC | 17:00-18:00 PDT [2]
>> 
>> *IRC session*
>> *This session follows the May monthly metrics meeting.[4] Like other office
>> hours, it will be held in #Wikimedia-office on Freenode.*
>> Thursday, 26 May 2016
>> 19:00-20:00 UTC | 12:00-13:00 PDT [3]
>> 
>> We’re also collecting questions in advance for those who can’t make either
>> of those sessions. We’ve created a page on Meta where you can leave
>> questions or comments, check the details on the location of each session:
>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours
>> 
>> Please share this invitation with others you think may be interested!
>> 
>> I look forward to speaking soon,
>> Katherine
>> 
>> Translation notice - This message is available for translation on
>> Meta-Wiki:
>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Executive_Director/May_2016_office_hours/Announcement
>> 
>> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016
>> [2] Time converter link:
>> 
>> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=0=00=0=12=05=2016
>> [3] Time converter link:
>> 
>> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=19=00=0=26=05=2016
>> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Katherine Maher
>> 
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> 149 New Montgomery Street
>> San Francisco, CA 94105
>> 
>> +1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
>> +1 (415) 712 4873
>> kma...@wikimedia.org
>> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] election for 2 seats on WMF board of trustees ends May 7...

2016-05-04 Thread Gregory Varnum
Given the quickly approaching deadline, and the general support for affiliates 
voluntarily sharing if they voted (not who they voted for) - I went ahead 
(after chatting with folks that attended WikiCon) and setup a Meta-Wiki page to 
allow folks to voluntarily report back over the next couple of days:  
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Voted 


-greg (User:Varnent)


> On May 4, 2016, at 10:30 AM, Gerard Meijssen  
> wrote:
> 
> Hoi,
> There is a difference between your formality and what actually happens. The
> board is unlikely to not accept a chosen representative. I wonder if it
> ever did. Given the quality of the people who can be chosen from, do you
> really expect this to happen and consequently what is it what you want to
> achieve except for airing your formality?
> Thanks,
> GerardM
> 
> On 4 May 2016 at 12:58, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, May 3, 2016 at 12:43 PM, Lane Rasberry 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> As of now, 13 of 42 eligible organizations have voted in the 2016
>> chapters'
>>> election for 2 of 10 Wikimedia Foundation seats on the board of trustees.
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Lane,
>> 
>> A procedural question: Is the chapters' vote binding on the board, or is it
>> the same as for the three community board seats, where the community
>> members selected in the community vote are merely recommendations that the
>> sitting board is free to accept or reject?
>> 
>> If the winners' actually joining the board is dependent on the sitting
>> board's approval of these candidates, then it's not really a chapter
>> "election" for those board seats: it would be more precise to speak of the
>> chapters' vote as a vote to identify chapter-recommended candidates for
>> those two board seats.
>> 
>> While that's more clunky – if that's what it really is, then I think it's
>> important that we use language that accurately reflects the process by
>> which community- and chapter-selected candidates end up on the board.
>> 
>> Best,
>> Andreas
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] election for 2 seats on WMF board of trustees ends May 7...

2016-05-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
I can appreciate chapters wanting their vote to be confidential. However, 
publishing who has voted seems reasonable - and in line with our other 
elections (where you can see who voted, but not how they voted).

Since before I served on AffCom, I have heard from affiliates how important it 
is to them to have a voice in WMF Governance. This is a great opportunity for 
that, and I am a little disappointed the turnout is, so far, rather low. 
Seeking these opportunities is less than half the effort, actually utilizing 
them when offered is perhaps even more important (IMHO).

-greg (User:Varnent)


> On May 3, 2016, at 8:32 AM, Lane Rasberry  wrote:
> 
> It is possible to self disclose now - it is a wiki. The problem is that
> there is no table set up for anyone to do it, and then it is confusing to
> tell people to report in two places.
> 
> We could ask now, "who wants to self-disclose?" then copy those votes into
> a public space.
> 
> The ideal way would be to have a way to note intent to self disclose in the
> one voting location, then anyone on the chapters wiki could report those
> votes publicly. I think it is too much to ask to have voting organizations
> take more than one action to vote. I do not want voting to be complicated.
> 
> On Tue, May 3, 2016 at 8:09 AM, John Mark Vandenberg 
> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, May 3, 2016 at 7:03 PM, Lane Rasberry 
>> wrote:
>>> ..
>>> For the next election (in three years) I will propose a change. I want it
>>> to be easier for chapters to self-report their votes in a public way, if
>>> they choose to do so. Even if the election is closed, enough individual
>>> chapters seem to want to self-disclose.
>> 
>> This is a bit odd.  I vaguely remember that in previous years that
>> some chapters held discussions with their members online, and publicly
>> published the chapter decision before it was recorded on chapters
>> wiki.  Is that no longer possible?
>> 
>> --
>> John Vandenberg
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lane Rasberry
> user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
> 206.801.0814
> l...@bluerasberry.com
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[Wikimedia-l] Release of FY2015-2016 Q2 Quarterly Report

2016-03-13 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

I am pleased to announce that the Quarterly Report for Fiscal Year
2015-2016 Quarter 2 - covering October-December 2015 - is now
available on Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Quarterly_Report,_FY_2015-16_Q2_%28October-December%29.pdf

A blog post outlining some highlights from the report and a wiki
version of the report are coming soon. However, given the report
itself is already behind schedule, we wanted to get the final PDF
version out as quickly as possible.

We are already working on improvements to the Q3 report process to
address these delays. Some of the delays, to be honest, were related
to the recent challenges the organization has been facing. I am
personally confident that the delay with this report will not be an
ongoing issue, but did want to both offer apologies and confirmation
that we are working to fix the problem.

I should also note that this particular report is an aggregate, which
is why emphasis was placed on getting the Quarterly reviews content up
sooner. So put another way, this report summarizes and makes available
more conveniently information which we prioritized getting up first.
If you find this report interesting, I encourage you to look over the
quarterly reviews which this report is based off:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews

You are invited, as always, to provide feedback on-wiki
(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_reports),
and I am also available to hear feedback.

-greg

-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation
gvar...@wikimedia.org

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Open and recorded WMF Board meetings

2016-03-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
Speaking from my non-Wikimedia experiences with nonprofit boards, I think 
Risker makes some good points.

Even a very good notetaker is going to make mistakes. There are things said 
they accidentally didn’t hear, they misunderstood what someone was saying, or 
simply summarized a point using wording that doesn’t sound quite right to the 
person who said it. Note taking is a different skill from dictating ever word, 
and when a non-messenger is summarizing for messengers, things tend to need 
edits before they are considered “final”. However, that said, I do agree that 
our Board should be striving to do this faster than has been done recently.

Regarding recording meetings, I have seen this tried before, and do not believe 
it is what we are really looking for. In reality, as Risker noted, it changes 
the behavior of participants - and usually not in an effective way. A lot more 
time is spent in meetings pondering the “right” way to say something before you 
say it. When it’s not being recorded, people are more inclined to offer early 
and incomplete thoughts. Perhaps it is good for people to pick their words more 
carefully first, but in my experience, usually makes the meetings less 
effective, and just results in a lot more “behind the scenes” dealmaking and 
conversations. I believe these types of meetings are most effective when they 
are a safe space to talk through complex problems. Additionally, I feel I 
should note there is a very real difference between Wikimedia Foundation and 
the governments we are sometimes compared to. WMF does not enjoy the same legal 
protections as governments do, and our movement’s or Foundation’s public 
meeting documentation are not free from threats of defamation/libel lawsuit 
threats (which Govt. meetings are free from). The end result for organizations 
I have seen try this is that a lot less gets said in meetings out of fear of 
being sued. The only way to really offset that would be to create a large legal 
fund to prepare, but even then, who wants to the Board member that has dipped 
into the legal fund half a dozen times in their terms? Also, is a legal fund 
defending potentially offensive things said during Board meetings the best use 
of our donors’ dollars?

I absolutely 100% agree that work needs to be done to help both the 
organization and our Board rebuild trust, and some of that needs to be either 
putting information out in better ways, and making sure info IS out there. I 
also understand and have seen this particular set of ideas come up as solutions 
for similar problems elsewhere. However, I do feel I should point out that like 
some ideas that sounded good and logical on paper, when it was tried out, the 
results were disappointing. It is entirely possible we’ll be the exception, but 
I’m not personally very confident in that. As such, I think we should ponder 
ways to make the notes posting process better, and ways that the Board can 
improve communication outside of their official meetings. Plus, let’s be 
honest, the meetings are not where everything is happening anyway. I want to 
know about the whole picture, not just that part of it.

-greg (User:Varnent)


> On Mar 3, 2016, at 10:36 AM, Brion Vibber  wrote:
> 
> On Mar 3, 2016 7:00 AM, "Risker"  wrote:
> Those who think it's an easy task that should be
>> able to be done practically after the meeting is over tend to have no real
>> experience with writing and managing minutes at the international
>> non-profit board level and may not fully understand why it it is important
>> that they are correct before they're published.  Publicly presenting an
>> early, uncorrected draft will lead to nothing but tears, but there are 9
>> board members (plus individual presenters) who have to read, correct and
>> approve [sections of] the minutes.  The WMF Board is not and should not be
>> the most important person in the lives of any of our board members.
> 
> What sort of problems are envisioned from public drafting of minutes lead
> by a dedicated secretary/minute-wrangler (ideally a professional staff
> member with experience doing this and enough time to dedicate to it rather
> than double-booking a trustee or a C-level)?
> 
> -- brion
> 
>> 
>> Risker/Anne
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Katy Love to direct WMF Resources team

2016-02-26 Thread Gregory Varnum
I am delighted to see Katy stepping into this role, which IMHO needed to be 
filled urgently.

Congratulations, Katy! You are going to do amazing! :)

-greg (User:Varnent)


> On Feb 26, 2016, at 10:54 AM, Maggie Dennis  wrote:
> 
> Hello, Ruslan.
> 
> Yes, Katy is stepping into the role in a permanent, full-time basis.
> 
> Determining HR direction is not my role. :) Stating how the Board feels
> about open hiring is also not my place (and I don't know). But I am happy
> to share my own opinion.
> 
> While some roles will and should be filled in an open, public search, some
> roles may be appropriately filled by promoting existing staff with a proven
> track record. The costs of hiring are not small, both in the amount of time
> it takes to recruit and fill a position and the amount of time it takes to
> onboard a new person. The leadership of our resources team needs to be
> filled quickly. Stability is important in the work they do. And we have a
> person at hand who has been well trained for the role and successfully
> worked with community on this basis for years. She is not being hired, but
> promoted - a promotion she has amply earned.
> 
> That said, the role Katy had previously filled will be an open new hire,
> with opportunities for all to apply. It'll just take a little bit of time
> to put the hiring packet together. We are also getting ready to open the
> search for the replacement for the leadership of Community Engagement,
> which I have taken in the interim - and for which I hope to see many
> community applicants.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Maggie
> 
> On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 3:01 AM, Ruslan Takayev 
> wrote:
> 
>> Maggie, et al
>> 
>> Is Katy "stepping into" the role on a full-time, permanent basis?
>> 
>> I ask this question, as questions I asked relating to the "new, open
>> approach" towards recruitment at the WMF are yet to be answered[1] and I
>> don't recall there being any advertisements as a call for applications to
>> fill Siko's position.
>> 
>> TBH, this doesn't sound like a "new, open approach" towards recruitment at
>> the WMF, but more of the same..."jobs for the boys".
>> 
>> Comment would be welcome Maggie.
>> 
>> Warm regards,
>> 
>> Ruslan Takayev
>> 
>> [1]
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-February/081677.html
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 7:02 AM, Maggie Dennis 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello, all.
>>> 
>>> I am delighted to announce that Katy Love has agreed to step into the
>> role
>>> of Director of Resources in the Community Engagement department, picking
>> up
>>> the baton so ably carried by Siko Bouterse before her. Katy has been with
>>> the Wikimedia Foundation since January 2013, beginning as the first
>> program
>>> officer to work with the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC). I’m
>> grateful
>>> to her for moving into this role and am looking forward to collaborating
>>> with her closely in WMF’s Community Engagement department.
>>> 
>>> We will be hiring her replacement to oversee the FDC/full annual plan
>>> grants program in the weeks ahead.
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> 
>>> Maggie
>>> 
>>> P.S. Their page! https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Maggie Dennis
>>> Interim Sr. Director of Community Engagement
>>> Director, Support and Safety
>>> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
>>> ___
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Maggie Dennis
> Interim Sr. Director of Community Engagement
> Director, Support and Safety
> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation report, July-September 2015

2016-02-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hi Nathan,

These reports are indeed still being released. However, I do want to note that 
Communications is taking the lead this time, and Tilman has provided a lot of 
helpful guidance to support that transition.

Generally, we are aiming to release them about a month after the quarterly 
review meetings (which are available on Meta-Wiki: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews
 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews>).
 The Quarterly Report itself is basically a collection of the Key Performance 
Indicators (KPIs) from those meetings, and some additional statistical data 
(generally available on many metrics dashboards).

I am currently taking lead on compiling the report, and we plan to have the 
report on-wiki very soon. We are continuing to consider feedback from the 
community and staff on ways to improve both the process, quarterly reviews, and 
quarterly reports. I apologize for not sending out an update sooner, but will 
be sure to keep this list more informed of the process moving forward.

-greg

-- 
Gregory Varnum
Communications Strategist (Contractor)
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>
gvar...@wikimedia.org <mailto:gvar...@wikimedia.org>



> On Feb 24, 2016, at 3:59 PM, Nathan <nawr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Tilman, are these quarterly reports no longer being released?
> 
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 7:58 PM, Tilman Bayer <tba...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> please find the Wikimedia Foundation's report for the first quarter of
>> this fiscal year at
>> 
>> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Quarterly_Report,_FY_2015-16_Q1_(July-September).pdf
>> .
>> 
>> Quoting below the foreword by Terry:
>> 
>> We are pleased to bring you the Wikimedia Foundation’s Quarterly
>> Report for Q1 of the 2015/16 fiscal year, a comprehensive summary of
>> how we did on the objectives defined earlier in our quarterly goal
>> setting process. We are continuing to optimize the report’s format and
>> the organization’s quarterly review process based on the feedback that
>> we have received.
>> 
>> This issue includes some new pieces of information and a few format
>> changes. Teams have been starting to highlight one key performance
>> indicator (KPI) each - with ongoing efforts to identify the best
>> possible metrics - and to estimate how much time fell into each of the
>> three categories from the 2015 Call to Action (strengthen, focus and
>> experiment). We have reorganized the content to present all the
>> information that is related to a particular objective in one place
>> (description of the goal, measures of success, how we did on achieving
>> the objective, and what we learned from working on it), and changed
>> these slides to a cleaner, more effective layout.
>> 
>> As before, we are including an overview slide summarizing successes
>> and misses across all teams. In a mature 90-day goal setting process,
>> the “sweet spot” is for about 75% of goals to be a success.
>> Organizations that are meeting 100% of their goals are not typically
>> setting aggressive goals.
>> 
>> Terry Gilbey, Chief Operating Officer
>> 
>> --
>> A wiki version should become available on Meta-wiki tomorrow, and we
>> will also announce the report in a blog post.
>> 
>> --
>> Tilman Bayer
>> Senior Analyst
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> IRC (Freenode): HaeB
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Affiliations Committee appointments, January 2016

2016-01-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Congratulations to the newly appointed and reappointed members! Also, thank
you to Lodewijk and Bence for their kind words. :) I would also like to
join them in thanking Josh for his work over the past few years.

Not surprisingly, I have a great deal of respect and affection for the
AffCom and their work. I think this is an especially interesting time for
the committee, and am excited to see what comes from them in the coming
months. :)

-greg


On Jan 24, 2016, at 2:08 PM, Tito Dutta  wrote:

Congratulations everyone. :)

On 25 January 2016 at 00:32, Mardetanha  wrote:

congratulation all new members


Mardetanha

On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 10:00 PM, Kirill Lokshin 

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia France] Certification by IDEAS

2015-12-17 Thread Gregory Varnum
Congratulations to WMFR!

-greg

___
Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.

> On Dec 17, 2015, at 3:19 PM, Xabier Cañas  wrote:
> 
> Great news! Congratulations!
>> On 2015 abe 17 20:38, "Jaime Anstee"  wrote:
>> 
>> Great news indeed! Congratulations to Wikimedia France and thank you for
>> sharing this accomplishment.
>> 
>> Wishing you further success in step two.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Jaime
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> Jaime Anstee, Ph.D
>> Senior Strategist
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> +1.415.839.6885 ext 6869
>> www.wikimediafoundation.org
>> 
>> 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 Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 10:54 AM, Risker  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Excellent news, Christophe and everyone else at WMFR!
>>> 
>>> Risker/Anne
>>> 
>>> On 17 December 2015 at 11:41, Christophe Henner <
>>> christophe.hen...@wikimedia.fr> wrote:
>>> 
 Hi everyone,
 
 A quick email to share with you a good news on our side.
 
 A few month ago, Wikimedia France started a process to apply for a
>> third
 party certification called IDEAS. This certification is the first step
>>> for
 us in a process to get recognized Wikimedia France as a serious
 organisation that can be formally trusted by donors.
 
 IDEAS label is hard to get as you have to reach high criterias on 3
>>> grounds
 :
 * Governance
 * Accounting
 * Actions effectiveness
 
 The process took a little over 6 month, and required us to provide them
 with documents, interviews and explanations of what we are and what
>> we’re
 doing.
 
 I’m proud to say that thanks to the work of many, and especially our
>>> staff,
 we received it with flying colors. Usually, IDEAS grant the label and
 includes recommendations for the organization to even do better.
 
 They failed to provide any recommendation in our case and expressed
>> large
 congratulations for exceeding their expectations.
 
 Second step, starting now, is to get formal recognition of Wikimedia
>>> France
 as a General Interest organisation by the french government. Around 10
 non-profits get such recognition every year, and right now only 633
 organisations have it.
 
 We hope to get it in the coming month.
 
 All the best,
 
 Christophe HENNER | Président
 ---
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Branislav Jovanovic, User:BraneJ in critical condition

2015-12-11 Thread Gregory Varnum
Tragic news. Condolences to all that knew him.

-greg


> On Dec 11, 2015, at 8:42 AM, Mardetanha  wrote:
> 
> :(( Rest in peace Brane
> 
> Mardetanha
> 
> On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 2:57 PM, Tito Dutta  wrote:
> 
>> Oops, terrible news. :(
>> 
>> 
>> On 11 December 2015 at 16:42, Asaf Bartov  wrote:
>> 
>>> What terrible news!
>>> 
>>> I have started a condolences page here:
>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:BraneJ
>>> 
>>>   A.
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 2:19 AM, Milos Rancic  wrote:
>>> 
 Brane died today. He read your messages and it mattered to him. I am
 content as we sent him the message while he was alive and able to feel
>>> it.
 
 Thanks to all of you who made him feel better during the last days of
>> his
 life.
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>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>>Asaf Bartov
>>>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
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[Wikimedia-l] Something fun to share - Jimmy jokes about his "stare" fundraising photo

2015-12-01 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

I have chatted with a number of folks over the years about ways to help promote 
the annual fundraising appeal - but in ways that did not feel so serious that 
it was out of our character to post on social media.

Good news - it appears this year Jimmy has participated in a video that serves 
this purpose very well. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njHebJTM0nk

Entertaining way to help kick off the fundraising appeal, and one that I am 
already having fun sharing on Twitter and FB. Given how seriously many of us 
take and talk about the campaign, this was a bit of levity I appreciated. :)

Enjoy!

-greg (User:Varnent)
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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 <gregory.var...@gmail.com> 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 
> <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 <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com 
>> <mailto:gerard.meijs...@gmail.com>> 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 <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com 
>> <mailto:gerard.meijs...@gmail.com>>
>> 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 <abar...@wikimedia.org 
>>> <mailto:abar...@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> FYI: User:Odder has now created [[m:Free Bassel
>>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Bassel 
>>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/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 <kma...@wikimedia.org 
>>>> <mailto:kma...@wikimedia.org>>
>>>> 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 <http://freebassel.org <http://freebassel.org/>> 
>>>>> [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 wit

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Free Bassel

2015-11-28 Thread Gregory Varnum
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 keynote to the Creative Commons Summit. (10/15)
   - Blog post #FREEBASSEL: Free culture advocate who built 3D
>>> renderings
   of Palmyra missing in Syria
    [3].
   (10/08)
   - Ongoing participation in #FreeBassel social media campaigns on
   Facebook and Twitter.
 
 Bassel is in a situation known as arbitrary detention
 <
 
>>> http://en.alkarama.org/1763-syria-un-calls-for-the-release-of-freedom-of-speech-advocate-bassel-khartabil
> 
 [4]. Arbitrary detentions are characterized by uncertainty, lack of
 information, and volatility. They’re scary because we don’t know what’s
 happening, and often we are making decisions without a lot of
>>> information.
 Our goal is always to support Bassel to make sure our efforts help him
 without putting him at greater risk. So we’ve been working with
>>> experienced
 human rights campaigners, including the #FreeBassel campaign, to
>>> understand
 the best actions to take at different times over the past two months.
 
 We’ve been in touch with Bassel’s family, who would support 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] FDC recommendations for 2015-2016 Round 1 APG grant requests

2015-11-27 Thread Gregory Varnum
Personally - I favor third party and community review to a committee of the 
board - unless the entire board is on that committee along with some skilled 
community members.

IMHO, all of the tasks Pine mentioned the board members on the committee should 
do are things I would hope all the board members are doing. Their primary legal 
responsibility is financial oversight of the organization. I would hope they 
are making VERY informed financial decisions, and that they are all actively 
engaged in the process. Frankly, if they are not spending that time as a group, 
I would much rather they find a way they do that as a whole group rather than 
create a committee where only a few of them are doing their their colleague’s 
due diligence for them.

-greg (User:Pine)

> On Nov 27, 2015, at 2:19 PM, Lila Tretikov  wrote:
> 
> One of the things proposed during our FDC conversation was a 3rd party
> review of the WMF annual plan. This could avoid the "circular" nature of
> Board->FDC->WMF and also provide us with another perspective from an
> organization that has a similar scale.
> 
> Lila
> 
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 5:50 AM, Dariusz Jemielniak 
> wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 3:50 AM, Pine W  wrote:
>> 
>>> Perhaps there should be a new Budget Committee of the board, with a
>> similar
>>> composition to the Audit Committee in that the membership would include
>>> some WMF board members and some community members. The Budget Committee
>>> could do FDC-like reviews of WMF's Annual Plan proposals each year.
>>> 
>> 
>> It is an idea worth considering, but setting up yet another committee gives
>> me goosebumps...
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> I personally would prefer to avoid the "core" and "non-core" division of
>>> the WMF budget, since I feel that the whole budget and the performance of
>>> the whole organization should be reviewed at least annually. The Budget
>>> Committee could look at the big picture in more depth than the Board as a
>>> whole and the FDC would have the time to do.
>>> 
>> 
>> I understand this view. My concerns are related to scale (the most common
>> FDC applicant has a budget 1000 smaller than the WMF), FDC's competence to
>> review such budgets with the same professionalism in a highly limited time,
>> and also mixing the cashflows (after all, the FDC's allocation is also part
>> of WMF's budget), but these issues can probably be addressed somehow.
>> 
>> In general, I strongly believe that the WMF should lead by example - it
>> will be much easier for other organizations to prepare strategy, goals,
>> budgets, plans, etc., if they have a clear good example set by the WMF.
>> 
>> Dariusz
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] FDC recommendations for 2015-2016 Round 1 APG grant requests

2015-11-27 Thread Gregory Varnum
I meant User:Varnent.  :)

I blame the turkey chemicals. :p

-greg (User:Varnent)

> On Nov 27, 2015, at 2:53 PM, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Personally - I favor third party and community review to a committee of the 
> board - unless the entire board is on that committee along with some skilled 
> community members.
> 
> IMHO, all of the tasks Pine mentioned the board members on the committee 
> should do are things I would hope all the board members are doing. Their 
> primary legal responsibility is financial oversight of the organization. I 
> would hope they are making VERY informed financial decisions, and that they 
> are all actively engaged in the process. Frankly, if they are not spending 
> that time as a group, I would much rather they find a way they do that as a 
> whole group rather than create a committee where only a few of them are doing 
> their their colleague’s due diligence for them.
> 
> -greg (User:Pine)
> 
>> On Nov 27, 2015, at 2:19 PM, Lila Tretikov <l...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> 
>> One of the things proposed during our FDC conversation was a 3rd party
>> review of the WMF annual plan. This could avoid the "circular" nature of
>> Board->FDC->WMF and also provide us with another perspective from an
>> organization that has a similar scale.
>> 
>> Lila
>> 
>> On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 5:50 AM, Dariusz Jemielniak <dar...@alk.edu.pl>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 3:50 AM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Perhaps there should be a new Budget Committee of the board, with a
>>> similar
>>>> composition to the Audit Committee in that the membership would include
>>>> some WMF board members and some community members. The Budget Committee
>>>> could do FDC-like reviews of WMF's Annual Plan proposals each year.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> It is an idea worth considering, but setting up yet another committee gives
>>> me goosebumps...
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I personally would prefer to avoid the "core" and "non-core" division of
>>>> the WMF budget, since I feel that the whole budget and the performance of
>>>> the whole organization should be reviewed at least annually. The Budget
>>>> Committee could look at the big picture in more depth than the Board as a
>>>> whole and the FDC would have the time to do.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> I understand this view. My concerns are related to scale (the most common
>>> FDC applicant has a budget 1000 smaller than the WMF), FDC's competence to
>>> review such budgets with the same professionalism in a highly limited time,
>>> and also mixing the cashflows (after all, the FDC's allocation is also part
>>> of WMF's budget), but these issues can probably be addressed somehow.
>>> 
>>> In general, I strongly believe that the WMF should lead by example - it
>>> will be much easier for other organizations to prepare strategy, goals,
>>> budgets, plans, etc., if they have a clear good example set by the WMF.
>>> 
>>> Dariusz
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Changes in operational management.

2015-11-05 Thread Gregory Varnum
Thank you, Terry, for your service - and best wishes on your next adventure!

-greg (User:Varnent)


> On Nov 5, 2015, at 12:08 PM, Lila Tretikov  wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> I’m writing to let you know that Terry Gilbey will be leaving the WMF. As
> Interim Chief Operating Officer this year, he helped us improve operational
> processes across the organization during an important time. I thank him for
> completing this service.
> 
> During this time WMF teams became stronger, with more freedom to make right
> decisions in support of our communities. The Team Practices Group will
> continue to carry forward maintaining and helping improve the
> organizational processes we put into place.
> 
> With improved processes in place, I see the need to focus our attention on
> WMF culture. With this change, we will take the first step: Boryana will
> join the C-Level team, representing HR and employee voice at the top level
> of organizational leadership.
> 
> Our search for a new Chief Financial Officer is well on its way. Until we
> have a new CFO on board, the Finance team will report to me. The Office IT,
> Administration, and the Team Practices teams will report to Boryana. The
> Technology team that was co-managed by Terry and Wes will continue to be
> managed by Wes until we fill the leadership role internally or externally.
> 
> 
>  Lila
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-11-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
I have not seen any moderated messages - but will check. That is not 
intentional.

Perhaps the moderated message you are referring to is from your email to AffCom?

-greg

___
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> On Nov 3, 2015, at 6:31 PM, Gnangarra <gnanga...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> just an observation, I tried responding to a discussion on that list, now
> I've already jumped through the ID hoops and shown I'm part of an affiliate
> yet my messages are moderated, to me that seams kind of point;less, like to
> cause disjointed discussion, give the impression that the list is censoring
> and cause people just to not bother with it.
> 
> On 3 November 2015 at 22:10, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> We are still contacting affiliates to invite them to join. So far we have
>> used mailing lists and MassMessage to contact affiliates. Since many of
>> them are not on this list, it is tricky tracking them all down (partly why
>> this list is being created). As it turns out - more heard from the
>> MassMessage and Signpost than this list (which - sort of speaks to why WM-l
>> is not a good method of reaching the affiliates). We do not have one good
>> place to reach all of the affiliates without this list, so it is taking a
>> bit to track everyone down. Basically every couple days I am finding more
>> affiliate leaders who have not yet heard about the list (again - speaking
>> to one reason why we agreed this list should be created).
>> 
>> However, we are steadily getting requests to join and I believe personally
>> we are making good progress.
>> 
>> Generally, I do not yet consider it “active” and many folks are still
>> holding off starting threads until there are more affiliates brought
>> onboard.
>> 
>> My personal guess is that it will be at least another few weeks before
>> we’ve been able to track everyone down, and the list can be considered
>> active.
>> 
>> -greg
>> 
>> 
>>>> On Nov 3, 2015, at 3:17 AM, Laurentius <laurentius.w...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> At the end, is that mailing list currently active?
>>> If it is, are you asking affiliates to join, or are affiliates expected
>>> to contact you?
>>> 
>>> Laurentius
>>> 
>>> Il giorno ven, 16/10/2015 alle 00.04 +0300, Carlos M. Colina ha scritto:
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> 
>>>> On behalf of the Affiliations Committe, I am pleased to introduce the
>>>> launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a
>>>> place for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user
>>>> groups) to discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to
>>>> other affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide
>>>> events. The idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across
>>>> our movement, plus collaborative discussions like community-wide
>>>> activities, joint edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts,
>>>> or other communications from affiliates.
>>>> 
>>>> Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the
>>>> mailing list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to
>>>> request additional spots if needed.
>>>> 
>>>> Please find a bit more information on Meta:
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates/Affiliates_mailing_list
>>>> and do not hesitate contacting us if you have further questions.
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Carlos
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-11-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
My fault for reusing the subject line. :)

-greg

___
Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.

> On Nov 3, 2015, at 6:39 PM, Gnangarra <gnanga...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> appologies, yeah its the Affcom list not the Affiliates list, multiple
> email from you on both this morning didnt notice the email address change
> so my appologies again
> 
> On 4 November 2015 at 07:33, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> I have not seen any moderated messages - but will check. That is not
>> intentional.
>> 
>> Perhaps the moderated message you are referring to is from your email to
>> AffCom?
>> 
>> -greg
>> 
>> ___
>> Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.
>> 
>>> On Nov 3, 2015, at 6:31 PM, Gnangarra <gnanga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> just an observation, I tried responding to a discussion on that list, now
>>> I've already jumped through the ID hoops and shown I'm part of an
>> affiliate
>>> yet my messages are moderated, to me that seams kind of point;less, like
>> to
>>> cause disjointed discussion, give the impression that the list is
>> censoring
>>> and cause people just to not bother with it.
>>> 
>>> On 3 November 2015 at 22:10, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> We are still contacting affiliates to invite them to join. So far we
>> have
>>>> used mailing lists and MassMessage to contact affiliates. Since many of
>>>> them are not on this list, it is tricky tracking them all down (partly
>> why
>>>> this list is being created). As it turns out - more heard from the
>>>> MassMessage and Signpost than this list (which - sort of speaks to why
>> WM-l
>>>> is not a good method of reaching the affiliates). We do not have one
>> good
>>>> place to reach all of the affiliates without this list, so it is taking
>> a
>>>> bit to track everyone down. Basically every couple days I am finding
>> more
>>>> affiliate leaders who have not yet heard about the list (again -
>> speaking
>>>> to one reason why we agreed this list should be created).
>>>> 
>>>> However, we are steadily getting requests to join and I believe
>> personally
>>>> we are making good progress.
>>>> 
>>>> Generally, I do not yet consider it “active” and many folks are still
>>>> holding off starting threads until there are more affiliates brought
>>>> onboard.
>>>> 
>>>> My personal guess is that it will be at least another few weeks before
>>>> we’ve been able to track everyone down, and the list can be considered
>>>> active.
>>>> 
>>>> -greg
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>>> On Nov 3, 2015, at 3:17 AM, Laurentius <laurentius.w...@gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> At the end, is that mailing list currently active?
>>>>> If it is, are you asking affiliates to join, or are affiliates expected
>>>>> to contact you?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Laurentius
>>>>> 
>>>>> Il giorno ven, 16/10/2015 alle 00.04 +0300, Carlos M. Colina ha
>> scritto:
>>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On behalf of the Affiliations Committe, I am pleased to introduce the
>>>>>> launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a
>>>>>> place for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user
>>>>>> groups) to discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to
>>>>>> other affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide
>>>>>> events. The idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across
>>>>>> our movement, plus collaborative discussions like community-wide
>>>>>> activities, joint edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report
>> posts,
>>>>>> or other communications from affiliates.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the
>>>>>> mailing list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to
>>>>>> request additional spots if needed.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Please find a bit more information on Meta:
>> https://meta.wik

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-11-03 Thread Gregory Varnum
We are still contacting affiliates to invite them to join. So far we have used 
mailing lists and MassMessage to contact affiliates. Since many of them are not 
on this list, it is tricky tracking them all down (partly why this list is 
being created). As it turns out - more heard from the MassMessage and Signpost 
than this list (which - sort of speaks to why WM-l is not a good method of 
reaching the affiliates). We do not have one good place to reach all of the 
affiliates without this list, so it is taking a bit to track everyone down. 
Basically every couple days I am finding more affiliate leaders who have not 
yet heard about the list (again - speaking to one reason why we agreed this 
list should be created).

However, we are steadily getting requests to join and I believe personally we 
are making good progress.

Generally, I do not yet consider it “active” and many folks are still holding 
off starting threads until there are more affiliates brought onboard.

My personal guess is that it will be at least another few weeks before we’ve 
been able to track everyone down, and the list can be considered active.

-greg


> On Nov 3, 2015, at 3:17 AM, Laurentius  wrote:
> 
> At the end, is that mailing list currently active?
> If it is, are you asking affiliates to join, or are affiliates expected
> to contact you?
> 
> Laurentius
> 
> Il giorno ven, 16/10/2015 alle 00.04 +0300, Carlos M. Colina ha scritto:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> On behalf of the Affiliations Committe, I am pleased to introduce the 
>> launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a 
>> place for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user 
>> groups) to discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to 
>> other affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide 
>> events. The idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across 
>> our movement, plus collaborative discussions like community-wide 
>> activities, joint edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts, 
>> or other communications from affiliates.
>> 
>> Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the 
>> mailing list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to 
>> request additional spots if needed.
>> 
>> Please find a bit more information on Meta: 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates/Affiliates_mailing_list
>>  
>> and do not hesitate contacting us if you have further questions.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Carlos
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board Recruiting Update

2015-10-29 Thread Gregory Varnum
Thank you for your work on this important process and the update.

-greg (User:Varnent)


> On Oct 29, 2015, at 2:10 PM, Anna Stillwell  wrote:
> 
> Well done. A solid process and great communication.
> Thank you.
> /a
> 
> On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 10:55 AM, Boryana Dineva 
> wrote:
> 
>> Hello everyone,
>> 
>> I wanted to share an update on the new board members search.
>> 
>> The search is progressing well. We asked for and received nominations
>> from the board of trustees, the advisory board, WMF staff, the WMF
>> executive team, and the community, with a total poll exceeding 70
>> candidates. The pipeline of nominees was extremely diverse. Our
>> recruiting team also did an extensive search based on the role
>> description criteria and sent in a list of candidates that had all the
>> characteristics, skills and experience we are looking for.
>> 
>> Having narrowed down the number in several rounds of review (basing on
>> criteria prepared by the staff, as well as the criteria proposed by
>> the Board Governance Committee), we are meeting with finalists to
>> collect more information and get acquainted over this week and next.
>> After that, all finalists will interview with Lila, and finally with
>> our panel comprised by the BGC (and likely also the Board Chair). The
>> BGC will decide and present recommendations of chosen candidates to
>> the whole Board.
>> 
>> We have weeks of work yet ahead of us, but I am happy to report that
>> we have made great progress to date. I am copying Dariusz, our BGC
>> chair, in case he would like to add anything also.
>> 
>> Warm regards,
>> Boryana
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Number of new User Groups

2015-10-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
All affiliates are required to follow local laws, and that is checked when we 
are asked or it is needed.

Our affiliates are increasingly diverse, so much of this really applies more to 
chapters and thematic organizations than all user groups. A majority of user 
groups are not legal entities.

Manuel was speaking to the user group requirements set out in the affiliation 
models, which as he said, are meant to be easier and less time consuming than 
the requirements for chapters and thematic organizations. That is separate from 
the requirements involved with doing some types of activities. The programmatic 
need for one user group may far easier to manage than the programmatic needs of 
another user group, and the model is designed to allow for that diversity.

-greg


> On Oct 19, 2015, at 1:45 AM, Gnangarra <gnanga...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Every country is different, in Australia you cant have a bank account for a
> User group without being registered, you cant work with GLAM without having
> public liability insurance for which the UG needs to be registered to
> obtain. If you operate unregistered all members are personally legally
> liable for the activities of any person who operates under the name. Even
> grants from the WMF could be taxable as income if your not part of a
> registered organisation
> 
> I think care should be used when chosing terms to describe affiliates and
> their requirements especially terms like liability which have legal
> implications,
> 
> Does the WMF/Affliiates committee check if due diligence is done on the
> local legal aspects for UGs before recognising them?
> 
> On 19 October 2015 at 13:27, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> It is limited liability on both parts, meaning that user groups are not
>> required to become legal entities, or maintain the higher reporting and
>> capacity requirements that chapters and thematic organizations are required
>> to maintain.
>> 
>> The considerations that you are mentioning are tied to your activities and
>> not your status as a user group. It is a misleading and discouraging to
>> others to imply that running a user group in the United States requires all
>> of that liability and workload. User groups are not required to become
>> legal entities (which Cascadia has opted to do), and can be as simple as a
>> student club at a university. In other words, not all user groups are
>> alike. The level of liability is tied to the activities the group engages
>> in, not the affiliations model.
>> 
>> -greg (User:Varnent)
>> Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee
>> 
>>> On Oct 19, 2015, at 12:56 AM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Manuel,
>>> 
>>> Can you clarify what you mean by "limited liability" for user groups? I
>>> think you mean limited responsibilities as far as WMF is concerned. As
>> far
>>> as the United States authorities are concerned, we have plenty of
>> paperwork
>>> that we're expected to deal with, particularly if we're handling funds
>>> and/or hosting public events. Most of the paperwork is the same whether
>>> there are 5 people or 500 people involved, so it's a pretty complex
>>> operation, particularly if volunteers are dealing with all of this with
>> no
>>> paid help. I had some experience with business law prior to my
>> involvement
>>> in Cascadia Wikimedians, and even with that background I'm finding that
>>> there is a lot to learn and a lot of paperwork to deal with in order to
>>> keep our user group on solid legal ground.
>>> 
>>> Pine
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Oct 18, 2015 at 10:05 AM, Schneider, Manuel <
>>> manuel.schnei...@wikimedia.ch> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi Ilario,
>>>> 
>>>> it is the will of the board to make it easy to start a recognised body
>> to
>>>> do work and it is totally acceptable if these bodies also die after
>> having
>>>> fulfilled their purpose - or grow and develop into other affiliation
>>>> models. So the criterium for us is easy entry.
>>>> 
>>>> Anyway the user groups have limited liability and responsibilities,
>> access
>>>> to ressources is controlled on a case by case basis eg. through the
>> Grant
>>>> Avisory Committee and every year user groups must be renewed, for this
>> we
>>>> want so see a simple report. So every ug with the minimum of activity -
>> a
>>>> report written, having responded to our follow-up e-mail - is renewed.
>>>> 
>>>&g

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
Again - I do not feel comfortable making this decision on behalf of the 
affiliates. I will pass all of this along to them when we have a list going 
enough to discuss such things.

If the consensus from the community is that a change be imposed on this list, 
which I agree is the right of the community, my personal hunch is that a new 
list will be created elsewhere and used instead. Keep in mind that chapters-l 
was maintained off WMF servers in part to protect privacy and prevent it from 
being subject to such changes. Again, if the goal is for the list to be used by 
affiliates, I question the reason to impose change on them, especially when it 
was something they specifically requested.

-greg

> On Oct 19, 2015, at 2:54 PM, Ed Erhart <the.e...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> You've set up a strawman argument, Greg, and your solution is suboptimal.
> This is a community issue, as SJ correctly notes, and it should be
> discussed with the community. Leaving it private "for now" and polling the
> list affiliates (or going back to a virtually unknown Meta page) is going
> to result in the list staying closed—do we really believe that anyone there
> is going to vote to publicize their own discussions?
> 
> Are there specific examples of these "affiliate-specific issues" occurring
> in the past? There are very few things that I can think of that should be
> private, and one of those is privacy issues, which shouldn't be discussed
> on any mailing lists (open or closed). Leaks can and do happen.
> 
> If a chapter needs private advice "on discussing an issue with the broader
> community", they might want to look into breaking down the walled garden
> they're already in.
> 
> --Ed
> 
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> There has already been discussion amongst some affiliates about this issue
>> (including one on Meta-Wiki) - which is where this comes from.
>> 
>> I suggest we leave it private for now and see what the affiliates on the
>> list would like to do.
>> 
>> I disagree with your sentiment that none of the 10 points require privacy.
>> One of them is discussing affiliate-specific issues - which might include
>> financial or privacy issues facing an affiliates, an interaction with the
>> WMF, or advice on discussing an issue with the broader community. My
>> understanding is that there is a fear people may be more reserved in
>> discussing topics if their comments are up for public discussion.
>> 
>> If private lists or wikis were a new concept, I think the expectation
>> might be something more fair to proceed with. However, there are several
>> private lists already in use, and as stated, this is in response to
>> requests from affiliates. That request included that the list be made
>> private, which seems reasonable.
>> 
>> Ultimately, I do not feel comfortable making this decision for the
>> affiliates, and since they initially requested it be private, I would like
>> to respect that and allow them to discuss it more.
>> 
>> I agree that having a discussion about how we achieve transparency is
>> worth doing. However, starting that discussion (or restarting it I suppose)
>> by imposing a new measure that was specifically not wanted by the target
>> audience of that resource is not the best way to move things forward. The
>> end result would likely be that they wind up not using the list as much, or
>> create a separate list to fulfill their initial request. I would like to
>> avoid that.
>> 
>> -greg
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 19, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Sam Klein <sjkl...@hcs.harvard.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> +1 for public archives to start.  Private lists are almost never made
>>> public later, even where there's no need for privacy.
>>> 
>>> A more transparent alternative is to make any list publicly-archived
>>> (archives world-readable, even if membership and ability to post to the
>>> list is restricted), while setting it up and discussing its purpose.  If
>>> list members have specific uses that would require privacy, that purpose
>>> can drive a decision to make it private. Then at least those founding
>>> discussions and the reason for list privacy are visible to others.
>>> 
>>> The converse doesn't happen.  The only people whose voices count in a
>>> decision to make a list public are generally those already on the list.
>>> And they have access, so they have no pressing need to review whether its
>>> archives should be public.
>>> 
>>> Gregory Varnum writes:
>>>> the 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
There has already been discussion amongst some affiliates about this issue 
(including one on Meta-Wiki) - which is where this comes from.

I suggest we leave it private for now and see what the affiliates on the list 
would like to do.

I disagree with your sentiment that none of the 10 points require privacy. One 
of them is discussing affiliate-specific issues - which might include financial 
or privacy issues facing an affiliates, an interaction with the WMF, or advice 
on discussing an issue with the broader community. My understanding is that 
there is a fear people may be more reserved in discussing topics if their 
comments are up for public discussion.

If private lists or wikis were a new concept, I think the expectation might be 
something more fair to proceed with. However, there are several private lists 
already in use, and as stated, this is in response to requests from affiliates. 
That request included that the list be made private, which seems reasonable.

Ultimately, I do not feel comfortable making this decision for the affiliates, 
and since they initially requested it be private, I would like to respect that 
and allow them to discuss it more.

I agree that having a discussion about how we achieve transparency is worth 
doing. However, starting that discussion (or restarting it I suppose) by 
imposing a new measure that was specifically not wanted by the target audience 
of that resource is not the best way to move things forward. The end result 
would likely be that they wind up not using the list as much, or create a 
separate list to fulfill their initial request. I would like to avoid that.

-greg


> On Oct 19, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Sam Klein <sjkl...@hcs.harvard.edu> wrote:
> 
> +1 for public archives to start.  Private lists are almost never made
> public later, even where there's no need for privacy.
> 
> A more transparent alternative is to make any list publicly-archived
> (archives world-readable, even if membership and ability to post to the
> list is restricted), while setting it up and discussing its purpose.  If
> list members have specific uses that would require privacy, that purpose
> can drive a decision to make it private. Then at least those founding
> discussions and the reason for list privacy are visible to others.
> 
> The converse doesn't happen.  The only people whose voices count in a
> decision to make a list public are generally those already on the list.
> And they have access, so they have no pressing need to review whether its
> archives should be public.
> 
> Gregory Varnum writes:
>> the whole point of creating it would be defeated.
> 
> Well, Carlos mentioned 10 uses for the list, none of which need private
> discussion. It sounds like you're saying an 11th is "encouraging affiliates
> who don't currently write about their work and experiences, to do so" and
> you think a significant number will only do so if their messages are not
> publicly visible or archived.
> 
> The downside is that you defined the list very broadly, also encouraging
> people who currently write about their work publicly to start using this
> new list: so now those thoughts will be lost to the larger community
> forever.  And the majority of outreach projects, event organizers, local
> communities, and groups (which aren't interested in going through a formal
> recognition process) will be walled out.
> 
> SJ
> 
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 1:18 PM, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Our current plan is to bring this up with the list once there is a good
>> number of people on it.
>> 
>> Given that the list is for affiliates, our feeling is that it is best for
>> them to decide how they would like to use the list. If a structure is
>> imposed on them, it is less likely they will use the list, and the whole
>> point of creating it would be defeated. Since there were requests for the
>> list to be private, it seemed easier to start from that point and make
>> changes based on the consensus of those we hope will utilize the list most.
>> 
>> -greg (User:Varnent)
>> Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 19, 2015, at 1:10 PM, Ed Erhart <the.e...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I too question the need for a private mailing list. We should require
>> more
>>> than a just a "consistent request" before we reduce transparency and
>> create
>>> yet another walled garden away from the community.
>>> 
>>> --Ed
>>> On Oct 16, 2015 12:07 AM, "Pine W" <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Got it. Thanks Varnent.
>>>> 
>>>> Regarding the privacy question: I'm sort of thinking that if we

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
Chris - and I suspect others - who are already welcome to join this list - are 
why I think it is not a foregone conclusion that it will be kept private.

Remember that we have a diverse group of 80+ affiliates. It may in fact not be 
that the will of the ones who requested it represents the will of everyone. 
However, I am not personally comfortably declaring that on their behalf. I 
would prefer to allow them to discuss it and go from there.

-greg

> On Oct 19, 2015, at 3:12 PM, Chris Keating <chriskeatingw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Looking at the current (private) chapters' list, for at least a year 90%+
> of the traffic has been announcements that were cross-posted to
> Wikimedia-l. The other 10% is invitations and requests addressed to
> "chapters people" that might be boring to most people on wikimedia-l but
> could have been publically archived with no problem.
> 
> The last "private" thing to happen on that list was discussion of the 2014
> Affiliate Selected Board Seats process - actually not so much the process
> itself but how to deal with an intemperate email from someone from the
> English Wikipedia Signpost who was threatening to write an article about
> the process being an undemocratic sham.  Apart from that we are stretching
> back into 2013 and the death throes of the WCA before anyone said anything
> interesting on the list.
> 
> On the subject of email lists, internal-l which is meant to be "chapters
> plus WMF staff" has had virtually no traffic for literally years. There was
> at one point a limit on the number of representatives of chapters that
> could be on internal-l (and IIRC on the chapters list) but that never
> really served any purpose (it certainly didn't improve the signal to noise
> ratio...)
> 
> What does all of this mean? I think it's pretty clear that broad-based
> private-access lists aren't serving any purpose. My preferred option would
> be to either ditch the Chapters mailing list or make it announce-only,
> scrap Internal-l entirely, and have an "affiliates" list that is open.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 7:21 PM, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> There has already been discussion amongst some affiliates about this issue
>> (including one on Meta-Wiki) - which is where this comes from.
>> 
>> I suggest we leave it private for now and see what the affiliates on the
>> list would like to do.
>> 
>> I disagree with your sentiment that none of the 10 points require privacy.
>> One of them is discussing affiliate-specific issues - which might include
>> financial or privacy issues facing an affiliates, an interaction with the
>> WMF, or advice on discussing an issue with the broader community. My
>> understanding is that there is a fear people may be more reserved in
>> discussing topics if their comments are up for public discussion.
>> 
>> If private lists or wikis were a new concept, I think the expectation
>> might be something more fair to proceed with. However, there are several
>> private lists already in use, and as stated, this is in response to
>> requests from affiliates. That request included that the list be made
>> private, which seems reasonable.
>> 
>> Ultimately, I do not feel comfortable making this decision for the
>> affiliates, and since they initially requested it be private, I would like
>> to respect that and allow them to discuss it more.
>> 
>> I agree that having a discussion about how we achieve transparency is
>> worth doing. However, starting that discussion (or restarting it I suppose)
>> by imposing a new measure that was specifically not wanted by the target
>> audience of that resource is not the best way to move things forward. The
>> end result would likely be that they wind up not using the list as much, or
>> create a separate list to fulfill their initial request. I would like to
>> avoid that.
>> 
>> -greg
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 19, 2015, at 1:56 PM, Sam Klein <sjkl...@hcs.harvard.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> +1 for public archives to start.  Private lists are almost never made
>>> public later, even where there's no need for privacy.
>>> 
>>> A more transparent alternative is to make any list publicly-archived
>>> (archives world-readable, even if membership and ability to post to the
>>> list is restricted), while setting it up and discussing its purpose.  If
>>> list members have specific uses that would require privacy, that purpose
>>> can drive a decision to make it private. Then at least those founding
>>> discussions and the reason for list

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
There was already a discussion on this list and its privacy:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network#Mailing_list_request_for_comment
 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network#Mailing_list_request_for_comment>

I suggest building on that rather than starting a whole new one.

-greg


> On Oct 19, 2015, at 3:24 PM, Keegan Peterzell <keegan.w...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 2:17 PM, Gregory Varnum <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Chris - and I suspect others - who are already welcome to join this list -
>> are why I think it is not a foregone conclusion that it will be kept
>> private.
>> 
>> Remember that we have a diverse group of 80+ affiliates. It may in fact
>> not be that the will of the ones who requested it represents the will of
>> everyone. However, I am not personally comfortably declaring that on their
>> behalf. I would prefer to allow them to discuss it and go from there.
>> 
>> -greg
> 
> 
> ​I feel it's now time for the obligatory "Please discuss this on meta if we
> want to talk about transparency" post.
> 
> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_movement_affiliates/Affiliates_mailing_list>
> ​
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ~Keegan
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan
> 
> This is my personal email address. Everything sent from this email address
> is in a personal capacity.
> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-19 Thread Gregory Varnum
Our current plan is to bring this up with the list once there is a good number 
of people on it.

Given that the list is for affiliates, our feeling is that it is best for them 
to decide how they would like to use the list. If a structure is imposed on 
them, it is less likely they will use the list, and the whole point of creating 
it would be defeated. Since there were requests for the list to be private, it 
seemed easier to start from that point and make changes based on the consensus 
of those we hope will utilize the list most.

-greg (User:Varnent)
Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee


> On Oct 19, 2015, at 1:10 PM, Ed Erhart <the.e...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I too question the need for a private mailing list. We should require more
> than a just a "consistent request" before we reduce transparency and create
> yet another walled garden away from the community.
> 
> --Ed
> On Oct 16, 2015 12:07 AM, "Pine W" <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Got it. Thanks Varnent.
>> 
>> Regarding the privacy question: I'm sort of thinking that if we really want
>> to keep the new list private for legal or other reasons, it should be run
>> outside of WMF servers like the chapters list is. On the other hand, if the
>> purpose of the new list is to facilitate discussion among affiliates in a
>> smaller and less public group while still being open to WMF employees to a
>> limited degree, then the hosting proposed here makes sense. Personally, I
>> get the sense that the affiliate and WMF relationships have generally
>> (there are exceptions) warmed a bit over the past couple of years as
>> affiliate governance and leadership have evolved and as WMF's evaluation
>> capacity has improved, so I'm fine with the new design. Thanks for working
>> on this.
>> 
>> Pine
>> On Oct 15, 2015 8:55 PM, "Gregory Varnum" <gregory.var...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hey Pine,
>>> 
>>> As you know, AffCom started looking into this list after some discussions
>>> with affiliates in Berlin, Wikimania, and at that page you referred to.
>> We
>>> did talk with that list’s moderators about potentially reusing that list
>>> (largely why the creation of this list took awhile). However, ultimately,
>>> we decided to proceed with the creation of this list.
>>> 
>>> The old list is not on Wikimedia servers or officially connected to
>>> AffCom, so I cannot speak to its future. However, it has becoming
>>> increasingly inactive, is limited to chapters (so excludes a majority of
>>> our affiliates), and not something we have promoted recently. My personal
>>> hope is that this new broader list replaces that one over time, but that
>> is
>>> not something we can “force” as it’s not a resource we officially help
>>> manage.
>>> 
>>> -greg (User:Varnent)
>>> Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Oct 15, 2015, at 5:19 PM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi Carlos,
>>>> 
>>>> Can you clarify how this list relates to the existing chapters mailing
>>>> list? (Also, please see the discussion at
>>>> 
>>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network#Mailing_list_request_for_comment
>>>> ).
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Pine
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 2:04 PM, Carlos M. Colina <
>>> ma...@wikimedia.org.ve>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>> 
>>>>> On behalf of the Affiliations Committe, I am pleased to introduce the
>>>>> launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a
>>> place
>>>>> for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user groups)
>>> to
>>>>> discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to other
>>>>> affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide events.
>> The
>>>>> idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across our
>> movement,
>>>>> plus collaborative discussions like community-wide activities, joint
>>>>> edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts, or other
>>>>> communications from affiliates.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the
>>> mailing
>>>>> list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Number of new User Groups

2015-10-18 Thread Gregory Varnum
It is limited liability on both parts, meaning that user groups are not 
required to become legal entities, or maintain the higher reporting and 
capacity requirements that chapters and thematic organizations are required to 
maintain.

The considerations that you are mentioning are tied to your activities and not 
your status as a user group. It is a misleading and discouraging to others to 
imply that running a user group in the United States requires all of that 
liability and workload. User groups are not required to become legal entities 
(which Cascadia has opted to do), and can be as simple as a student club at a 
university. In other words, not all user groups are alike. The level of 
liability is tied to the activities the group engages in, not the affiliations 
model.

-greg (User:Varnent)
Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee

> On Oct 19, 2015, at 12:56 AM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Manuel,
> 
> Can you clarify what you mean by "limited liability" for user groups? I
> think you mean limited responsibilities as far as WMF is concerned. As far
> as the United States authorities are concerned, we have plenty of paperwork
> that we're expected to deal with, particularly if we're handling funds
> and/or hosting public events. Most of the paperwork is the same whether
> there are 5 people or 500 people involved, so it's a pretty complex
> operation, particularly if volunteers are dealing with all of this with no
> paid help. I had some experience with business law prior to my involvement
> in Cascadia Wikimedians, and even with that background I'm finding that
> there is a lot to learn and a lot of paperwork to deal with in order to
> keep our user group on solid legal ground.
> 
> Pine
> 
> On Sun, Oct 18, 2015 at 10:05 AM, Schneider, Manuel <
> manuel.schnei...@wikimedia.ch> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Ilario,
>> 
>> it is the will of the board to make it easy to start a recognised body to
>> do work and it is totally acceptable if these bodies also die after having
>> fulfilled their purpose - or grow and develop into other affiliation
>> models. So the criterium for us is easy entry.
>> 
>> Anyway the user groups have limited liability and responsibilities, access
>> to ressources is controlled on a case by case basis eg. through the Grant
>> Avisory Committee and every year user groups must be renewed, for this we
>> want so see a simple report. So every ug with the minimum of activity - a
>> report written, having responded to our follow-up e-mail - is renewed.
>> 
>> /Manuel
>> 
>> --
>> sent from mobile phoneAm 18.10.2015 4:46 nachm. schrieb Ilario Valdelli <
>> valde...@gmail.com>:
>>> 
>>> I personally think that the main concern, in this proliferation of
>>> groups, is an lack of the implementation of a "good governance".
>>> 
>>> A user group is like a body, it can born, can develop and can die.
>>> 
>>> At the moment there is an unclear guideline about the monitoring and the
>>> development of these groups: they can only born.
>>> 
>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups
>>> 
>>> Basically the affiliation committee creates these entities, but don't
>>> monitor them and don't evaluate to retire (or the best would be to
>>> freeze) some old entities when they become essentially inactive or
>> silent.
>>> 
>>> In this case the balance would be compensated and the proliferation of
>>> these groups would have a sense.
>>> 
>>> Kind regards
>>> 
>>> On 18.10.2015 16:48, Gregory Varnum wrote:
>>>> The Affiliations Committee (AffCom) has been preparing for the
>> increased momentum since the user group model was implemented, and it
>> follows a pattern that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of years. In
>> 2013, we approved 10 user groups, last year we approved 19, and so far this
>> year we have approved around 20. That number will likely increase next
>> year. This growing momentum is why we have continued to tweak the approval
>> process to be faster and able to handle the growing momentum. So, from our
>> perspective, this is something we have been preparing for from the start,
>> and not a surprise.
>>>> 
>>>> Personally, I think further complicating affiliate classifications is
>> a bad idea. “Small” and “larger” are very culturally relative, varies
>> across the models (there are user groups “larger” than chapters), changes
>> over time, and implies that “large” affiliates do work “small” affiliates
>> cannot, when we continue to see that is in f

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Number of new User Groups

2015-10-18 Thread Gregory Varnum
The Affiliations Committee (AffCom) has been preparing for the increased 
momentum since the user group model was implemented, and it follows a pattern 
that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of years. In 2013, we approved 10 
user groups, last year we approved 19, and so far this year we have approved 
around 20. That number will likely increase next year. This growing momentum is 
why we have continued to tweak the approval process to be faster and able to 
handle the growing momentum. So, from our perspective, this is something we 
have been preparing for from the start, and not a surprise.

Personally, I think further complicating affiliate classifications is a bad 
idea. “Small” and “larger” are very culturally relative, varies across the 
models (there are user groups “larger” than chapters), changes over time, and 
implies that “large” affiliates do work “small” affiliates cannot, when we 
continue to see that is in fact not the case at all. The current criteria for 
WMCON is active and inactive, which seems far more appropriate. Additionally, 
dividing them will not save much money, if any, as there would still presumably 
be a gathering for the “small” affiliates.

I agree with Leigh and others that affiliates should receive more support, but 
I do not think those efforts will be served well by further dividing them.

-greg (User:Varnent)
Vice Chair, Wikimedia Affiliations Committee

> On Oct 18, 2015, at 10:08 AM, Gnangarra  wrote:
> 
> Any process that divides the community isnt good for the community, we
> already seeing the effects of poor decisions being taken by groups and
> individuals acting in isolation
> 
> On 18 October 2015 at 20:02, Leigh Thelmadatter 
> wrote:
> 
>> Im not sure now is the right time to divide affiliates. Thematic
>> organizations and user groups are still new and there is still a heavy
>> preference towards chapters. User groups are not necessarily small, and
>> chapters are not necessarily large.
>> I hear what you are saying about resources being stretched thin. Wiki
>> Learning was one of the first to get approved as a user group after years
>> of trying, but we have not received any mentoring as of yet. Fortunately,
>> we are already pretty well-organized and receive support from the Tec de
>> Monterrey.
>> Im worried that separating affiliates would marginalize groups that just
>> now got some kind of recognition and voice.
>> 
>> 
>>> Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 03:00:31 -0700
>>> From: wiki.p...@gmail.com
>>> To: ma...@wikimedia.org.ve; Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>>> CC: khar...@wikimedia.org
>>> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Number of new User Groups
>>> 
>>> It's nice to see the recent momentum in the formation of user groups. Can
>>> Affcom shed some light on what may be causing the burst of announced
>>> formations?
>>> 
>>> Relatedly, I'm wondering if the number of UGs is now so high that the
>>> budget and/or programmatic capacity of WMCON will be a bit stretched to
>>> accomodate all of the UGs in addition to the larger affiliates. I was
>>> thinking that it would be good to have a track at WMCON devoted to small
>>> affiliates, but now I'm starting to wonder if there are so many of us,
>> with
>>> interests and concerns hopefully now more visible on WMF's radar due to
>> our
>>> increased numbers, that it would make sense to have separate conferences
>>> for the large and small affiliates so that undivided attention from WMF
>> can
>>> be given more evenly to both size classes of affiliates for the duration
>> of
>>> a conference. Any thoughts about those options, from Affcom, WMF, WMDE,
>> or
>>> others?
>>> 
>>> Pine
>>> ___
>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
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>>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> GN.
> President Wikimedia Australia
> WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra
> Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-15 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hey Pine,

As you know, AffCom started looking into this list after some discussions with 
affiliates in Berlin, Wikimania, and at that page you referred to. We did talk 
with that list’s moderators about potentially reusing that list (largely why 
the creation of this list took awhile). However, ultimately, we decided to 
proceed with the creation of this list.

The old list is not on Wikimedia servers or officially connected to AffCom, so 
I cannot speak to its future. However, it has becoming increasingly inactive, 
is limited to chapters (so excludes a majority of our affiliates), and not 
something we have promoted recently. My personal hope is that this new broader 
list replaces that one over time, but that is not something we can “force” as 
it’s not a resource we officially help manage.

-greg (User:Varnent)
Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee


> On Oct 15, 2015, at 5:19 PM, Pine W  wrote:
> 
> Hi Carlos,
> 
> Can you clarify how this list relates to the existing chapters mailing
> list? (Also, please see the discussion at
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network#Mailing_list_request_for_comment
> ).
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Pine
> 
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 2:04 PM, Carlos M. Colina 
> wrote:
> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> On behalf of the Affiliations Committe, I am pleased to introduce the
>> launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a place
>> for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user groups) to
>> discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to other
>> affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide events. The
>> idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across our movement,
>> plus collaborative discussions like community-wide activities, joint
>> edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts, or other
>> communications from affiliates.
>> 
>> Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the mailing
>> list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to request
>> additional spots if needed.
>> 
>> Please find a bit more information on Meta:
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates/Affiliates_mailing_list
>> and do not hesitate contacting us if you have further questions.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Carlos
>> --
>> "*Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua
>> junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain."
>> Carlos M. Colina
>> Socio, A.C. Wikimedia Venezuela | RIF J-40129321-2 | www.wikimedia.org.ve
>> 
>> Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee
>> Phone: +972-52-4869915
>> Twitter: @maor_x
>> ___
>> 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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> 


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Help

2015-10-15 Thread Gregory Varnum
We are getting emails at it. Try: affiliates-ow...@lists.wikimedia.org - there 
was an extra p in the address you posted.

-greg

___
Sent from my iPhone - a more detailed response may be sent later.

> On Oct 15, 2015, at 5:46 PM, reachout2is...@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Hello Wikimedian Colleagues,
> 
> I tried to send a mail to affiliates-own...@lists.wikimedia.org but all to no 
> avail. It seems the e-mail address is currently not working. Any help?
> 
> Olatunde Isaac. 
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org
> Sender: "Wikimedia-l" Date: Thu, 15 
> Oct 2015 21:19:10 
> To: 
> Reply-To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 139, Issue 49
> 
> Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to
>wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>wikimedia-l-ow...@lists.wikimedia.org
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Wikimedia-l digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Re: Q1 Fundraising Update (Erik Zachte)
>   2. Recognition of Iraqi Wikimedians (Carlos M. Colina)
>   3. Recognition of Wikimedians of Uzbekistan Community
>  (Carlos M. Colina)
>   4. Please upload Wikiconference USA presentations toCommons (Pine W)
>   5. Recognition of Wikimedia Digitization User Group
>  (Carlos M. Colina)
>   6. Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list
>  (Carlos M. Colina)
>   7. Re: Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list (Pine W)
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2015 15:13:22 +0200
> From: "Erik Zachte" 
> To: "'Wikimedia Mailing List'" 
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Q1 Fundraising Update
> Message-ID: <007901d1074b$45c539f0$d14fadd0$@infodisiac.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset="UTF-8"
> 
> I also feel disheartened about this yearly controversy, which seems to go 
> nowhere.
> I also am scared by even considering 
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising#/media/File:Sept2015BannerEx.png
> 
> In my opinion this very ambitious budget (maybe too ambitious if such extreme 
> doomsday measures are needed to reach our goals),
> may well be putting our reputation at risk, and perhaps even alienate part of 
> our community.
> "Trust arrives on foot but leaves on horseback"
> 
> So who should we address to bring about change, and set more modest goals?
> I belief fundraising is doing as they're told, the best they can.
> The Wikimedia Foundation gets a lot of flak in these discussions.
> But isn't WMF operating within limits set by the Board of Trustees?
> Lila can propose a budget, but the Board is ultimately responsible, needs to 
> approve that budget, and can amend it.
> 
> Erik Zachte 
> 
> (disclaimer: I'm speaking in my role as volunteer, not as contractor for WMF) 
>  
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf 
> Of Peter Southwood
> Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 12:38
> To: 'Wikimedia Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Q1 Fundraising Update
> 
> +1
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf 
> Of Andreas Kolbe
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 October 2015 7:01 PM
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Q1 Fundraising Update
> 
>> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 9:56 PM, Leila Zia  wrote:
>> 
>> I saw that banner and I want to do all I can to help you not use it 
>> even if it performs 20% better. I put my story in p.s. so it's easier 
>> to skip for whoever chooses to skip. This is a true story. :-\
> 
>> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 10:58 PM, Pete Forsyth  wrote:
>> 
>> I agree, that banner does not reflect the values of this movement. 
>> Pure and simple; it's not a grey area, and not worth my time to 
>> discuss for the 97th time.
>> 
>> Personally, I long ago gave up participating in these discussions, for 
>> the most part -- because the same valid points get made over and over 
>> again, and the same *AWFUL* errors are made year after year in the 
>> fund-raising campaign.
>> 
>> Leila's post here is heartening, and I'm glad that somebody has the 
>> energy to articulate the concerns so well. I, myself, do not; I have 
>> simply lost faith in the integrity of the Wikimedia Foundation's 
>> fund-raising operation. I am, honestly, ashamed to tell people that I 
>> used to work in the fund-raising 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Introducing the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list

2015-10-15 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hey Neil,

I’ll let Carlos add his thoughts, but basically, this was a consistent request 
from affiliates. So the short answer is that the target audience requested it, 
and we want them to use it. :) The page that Pine mentioned 
(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network#Mailing_list_request_for_comment
 
)
 is one example of where this request came up.

Slightly longer answer, and I am interpreting and summarizing what I heard from 
affiliates, is that they would like a space to privately discuss issues - 
sometimes sensitive in nature - with each other. As Carlos mentioned, the first 
mentioned goal is a space for affiliates to discuss issues specific to their 
work. I think the concern is that if it was up for public review (not that 
affiliates fear public debates), they might be less willing or even able to 
discuss some issues that might, for example, involve financial matters, privacy 
issues, or embargoed communications.

Hope that helps answer your question.

-greg (User:Varnent)
Vice Chair, Affiliations Committee

> On Oct 15, 2015, at 8:59 PM, Neil P. Quinn  wrote:
> 
> Carlos,
> 
> Is there a reason why the list is private? The topics you mentioned—general
> affiliate discussion, regional conferences, blog post announcements, and so
> on—don't seem particularly sensitive. (I'm just curious. My WMF role has
> nothing to do with affiliates and I wouldn't subscribe to the list even if
> it were public.)
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 2:19 PM, Pine W  wrote:
> 
>> Hi Carlos,
>> 
>> Can you clarify how this list relates to the existing chapters mailing
>> list? (Also, please see the discussion at
>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network#Mailing_list_request_for_comment
>> ).
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Pine
>> 
>> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 2:04 PM, Carlos M. Colina 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear all,
>>> 
>>> On behalf of the Affiliations Committe, I am pleased to introduce the
>>> launch of the Wikimedia Affiliates mailing list, which is basically a
>> place
>>> for all the affiliates (chapters, thematic organizations, user groups) to
>>> discuss issues related to affiliates, make announcements to other
>>> affiliates, and collaborate on activities and community-wide events. The
>>> idea is to help facilitate the dialogue affiliates across our movement,
>>> plus collaborative discussions like community-wide activities, joint
>>> edit-a-thons, regional conferences, blog/report posts, or other
>>> communications from affiliates.
>>> 
>>> Each Wikimedia movement affiliate is allocated three spots on the mailing
>>> list. All affiliates may contact the Affiliations Committee to request
>>> additional spots if needed.
>>> 
>>> Please find a bit more information on Meta:
>>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates/Affiliates_mailing_list
>>> and do not hesitate contacting us if you have further questions.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> Carlos
>>> --
>>> "*Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua
>>> junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain."
>>> Carlos M. Colina
>>> Socio, A.C. Wikimedia Venezuela | RIF J-40129321-2 |
>> www.wikimedia.org.ve
>>> 
>>> Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee
>>> Phone: +972-52-4869915
>>> Twitter: @maor_x
>>> ___
>>> 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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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Neil P. Quinn ,
> product analyst
> Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimania 2017 Montreal - scooped by Signpost

2015-10-06 Thread Gregory Varnum
Given that enWP alone has 123,540 active editors as of this morning,[1] it’s 
not exactly a stretch…

-greg

[1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias


> On Oct 6, 2015, at 3:14 PM, MF-Warburg  wrote:
> 
> Do you really believe the community consists of several 100.000 people?
> Am 06.10.2015 21:01 schrieb "Joseph Fox" :
> 
>> On Tue, 6 Oct 2015 at 17:27 Steinsplitter Wiki <
>> steinsplitter-w...@live.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> To be honest: I am not surprised at all.
>>> 
>>> Wikimedia Foundation is becoming moor and moor centralized. They no
>> longer
>>> care about the community, even if there is huge community consensus about
>>> something.
>>> 
>>> Why is there a secret committee needed? It is easier to ask the
>> community.
>>> 
>> 
>> While I agree it's important to sort things with the community (since that
>> is the lifeblood of the projects), are you seriously suggesting that it's
>> easier to gauge the consensus of hundreds of thousands of people rather
>> than make a decision in a smaller committee, secret or otherwise?
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> I am disappointed
>>> 
 Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2015 18:13:13 -0400
 From: nawr...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimania 2017 Montreal - scooped by Signpost
 
 Evidently the Signpost has scooped the WMF by revealing that Montreal
>> has
 been selected for the 2017 Wikimania host city in a secret process that
 completed this past August. [1]
 
 It seems like the community could have been looped into this new method
 before it was a done deal.
 
 ~Nathan
 
 [1]
 
>>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-09-30/News_and_notes
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Departure

2015-09-10 Thread Gregory Varnum
Garfield,

I always enjoyed talking with you and greatly appreciated your support at some 
challenging moments.

I am sad to see you go - but hope your next adventure treats you well - you 
absolutely deserve it.

-greg

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> On Sep 10, 2015, at 5:53 PM, Garfield Byrd  wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> For the last four years, I’ve led the Wikimedia Foundation’s finance,
> administration, and office IT teams. I've had the opportunity to work
> closely with many of you through collaboration with the Wikimedia
> affiliates. They have been remarkable experiences, and I am grateful for
> all I’ve learned from you during my time here. Therefore it is with some
> sadness that today I am letting you know that I’ve decided to take a new
> opportunity outside the WMF, at a California-based foundation focused on
> public education.
> 
> It has been a privilege to work with so many exceptional people over the
> years. I’ve watched the WMF mature and take on many new challenges, and our
> community grow and diversify. Our commitment to our free knowledge mission
> is as strong as ever, and now shared by even more people. While I’ll no
> longer be on staff, I plan to find ways to stay involved in the Wikimedia
> community. I look forward to seeing the movement continue to do its
> important work.
> 
> My last day will be September 30. I look forward to staying in touch and
> continuing to support our mission.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Garfield
> 
> -- 
> Garfield Byrd
> Chief of Finance and Administration
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 415.839.6885 ext 6787
> 415.882.0495 (fax)
> www.wikimediafoundation.org
> 
> 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 *
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Imminent block of access to Wikipedia in Russia

2015-08-24 Thread Gregory Varnum
Does anyone know more about the article on an illegal drug they are referring 
to?

Sounds like it’s just Russian Wikipedia and not the other languages or 
projects. Anyone able to verify?

-greg


 On Aug 24, 2015, at 11:43 AM, Mathias Schindler mathias.schind...@gmail.com 
 wrote:
 
 Greetings,
 
 there is a note online at the Roskomnadzor (the russian agency in
 question) web site referring to the block:
 http://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news34253.htm
 
 Mathias
 
 On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter pute...@mccme.ru wrote:
 Today, the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom,
 Information Technologies and Mass Communications instructed all Russian
 internet providers to block all user access to Wikipedia. All involved
 parties are aware of the development. I am not sure whether only
 ru.wikipedia.org will be blocked, or all WMF projects. In the latter case,
 if you are going to travel to Russia, you will need to gen an IP exempt flag
 in advance in the projects you are going to edit.
 
 Cheers
 Yaroslav
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Board of Trustees Chair and Vice Chair positions

2015-07-16 Thread Gregory Varnum
Congratulations (and condolences) to Patricio and Alice! Good news. :)

Thank you Jan-Bart for your service as Chair and for staying for sticking 
around for the transition. :)

-greg

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 On Jul 16, 2015, at 5:04 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org 
 wrote:
 
 Hello Everyone
 
 I am happy to inform you that the Board has unanimously appointed a new Chair 
 and Vice Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
 
 Patricio Lorente will be the new Chair and Alice Wiegand will be the new 
 Vice-Chair. Both have several.years of experience on the board and we are 
 confident that they will help the board grow and be successful in the coming 
 years.
 
 Personally I am looking forward to helping them get acquainted with their new 
 role in the coming months as my time on the Wikimedia Board ends in December. 
 
 I hope you can join me in congratulating them on their new position and wish 
 them success in the challenges facing them.
 
 Jan-Bart de Vreede
 Wikimedia Board of Trustees
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell

2015-06-18 Thread Gregory Varnum
Thank you Fabrice for all of your work over the years! We will miss you -
but hopefully will still see you around the project wikis.  :)

-greg (User:Varnent)

On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 12:25 PM, Fabrice Florin fflo...@wikimedia.org
wrote:

 Hello everyone,

 After three great years working at the foundation, the time has come to
 say goodbye.

 I will be leaving WMF at the end of June, to spend more time with my
 family, focus on personal art projects and consult part-time on worthy
 causes.

 I would like to thank all the community and team members I have had the
 pleasure to work with over the years. It has been an honor to serve our
 movement together — and to help our contributors share free knowledge with
 each other and the world.

 I’m particularly grateful to Katherine Maher and our WMF communications
 team for being such wonderful collaborators. I really enjoyed working with
 them to manage and edit the Wikimedia blog, help grow our team and publish
 some great stories together, to celebrate the heroes of our movement.

 Going forward, WMF's Juliet Barbara will manage the Wikimedia blog, in
 close collaboration with Ed Erhart. As many of you know, Ed is the former
 editor-in-chief of the Wikipedia Signpost and has now joined our team for
 the summer. I've worked with him for nearly a month now and find him
 uniquely qualified for this project. Starting today, please contact them
 directly with any questions about the blog (they are Cc:d on this message).

 After June 30, you can reach me at fabriceflo...@gmail.com — or follow
 me on Twitter ( @fabriceflorin ) or on my blog ( http://fabriceflorin.com
 ).

 The last three years have been an incredible experience for me, and I am
 grateful for all that I have learned from so many of you. You’ve been an
 inspiration to me and I have many fond memories of our time together. I
 wish you all the best with the next chapter of the Wikimedia movement and
 can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with next.

 Best regards,


 Fabrice

 ___

 Fabrice Florin
 Movement Communications Manager
 Wikimedia Foundation

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] While Election committee counts the votes...

2015-05-31 Thread Gregory Varnum
There were a lot of factors that went into the vote turnout. Some of it we
should be able to build on going into the next election, others are likely
snapshot moment in time factors that we may not be able to capture again.

James has pointed out a number of key technical considerations, and there
were additional barriers we are asking the developer staff to look into
that will hopefully make the next one even better. Clearly the work that
Philippe and James putting into preparing for this year's election paid
off, now we need to set the cycle again for improvements to continue based
on what we learned this year. Some of those have already been entered into
Phabricator.

My colleagues on the elections committee have also done a fantastic job
this year, and brought a lot of unique ideas on how to get out the vote.
There are a lot of ideas we are still discussing and will be capturing in
our committee post mortem report. It also seems likely that we will be
discussing the idea of a standing committee as a possible method of
continuing work on these efforts, and removing some of the time hurdles
this committee faced.

There is also reason to believe that people in general are just more aware
of what Wikimedia is vs. Wikipedia (press around new ED, NSA case, SOPA
blackout, etc.) - which certainly could have been a catalyst in other get
out the vote efforts. Also, the affiliates have increasingly done a good
job of engaging their core audiences in the community elections. The board
was also very engaged this year in helping get out the vote, and recruit a
diverse set of candidates. The diversity of candidates may have inspired
more attention from communities that do not typically vote.

I believe the committee is indeed interested in trying to provide as much
data as reasonably possible to help with these discussions, and the
requests made are helpful to us figuring out what to share. I want to
encourage folks to share their ideas, comments, and concerns on the
community post mortem page - that is our best chance at having a broad
community discussion that is maintained in the easiest way for volunteers
working on future elections to see:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/Post_mortem

The committee's ideas and discussions will be documented on the committee's
post mortem page. That will likely begin in a more noticeable way once the
vote counting concludes:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/Committee/Post_mortem

-greg (User:Varnent)
2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 6:20 PM, James Alexander jalexan...@wikimedia.org
wrote:

 Ukraine has done great this year! Your work clearly paid off, currently
 11.74% of the eligible users on ukWiki have voted (making it one of the
 highest % wikis, and the highest if you only count medium/large wikis some
 of the smaller ones get an advantage when % is factored in). It also
 accounts for 2.58% of the total votes compared to less then 1% (.99%) of
 the whole electorate.

 James Alexander
 Community Advocacy
 Wikimedia Foundation
 (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur

 On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 3:14 PM, attolippip attolip...@gmail.com wrote:

  There were only 9 votes from Ukrainian community in 2013, I believe
 
  So this year we just made sure that our community REALLY knows about the
  elections, thus we:
 
  - translated the candidates statements into Ukrainian
  - prepared a short table with the essence of these statements in
 Ukrainian
  and posted it in the Village pump [1]
  - created a list of everybody eligible to vote from Ukrainian Wikipedia
 and
  sent them a message with invitation to vote and with the links to read
 more
  about the candidates via talk pages
  - and just talked :)
 
  [1]
 
 
 https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%96%D1%8F:%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8_%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%96%D0%B0-2015
 
  Best regards,
  antanana
  ED of Wikimedia Ukraine
 
  2015-06-01 1:00 GMT+03:00 Johan Jönsson brevlis...@gmail.com:
 
   2015-05-31 22:57 GMT+02:00 Milos Rancic mill...@gmail.com:
  
... it would be good to talk a bit about the state of our community
and movement.
   
Initially, I was quite positively surprised by the fact that this
 will
be the best WMF Board elections ever in the terms of turnout of
voters. It will beat 2007 elections and it will be likely 2.5 times
better than previous one.
   
I would really like to know what's so different than in 2013. Also,
 if
this is the sign of the community health, how come that we are now
better than we were at the peak of our movement?
   
  
   There's a fair chance the difference says far more about the amount of
   effort spent getting the word out about the election, than about how
 much
   the movement cares about it compared to previous elections.
  
   //Johan Jönsson
   --
   

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of North Carolina Triangle Wikipedians User Group

2015-05-28 Thread Gregory Varnum
Wikimedia user groups are required to have a wiki page of some sort.

The NC group is listed on the main affiliates page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates

Here is a direct link to their page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Groups/North_Carolina_Triangle_Wikipedians

-greg

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 On May 28, 2015, at 11:57 AM, Jason Moore anotherbelieve...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 Congrats!
 
 Does the group have a page at Meta? I was going to update some of the
 US-related pages and navboxes/templates to reflect this change, but I'm not
 finding much about the North Carolina Triangle Wikipedians User Group.
 
 Jason
 
 On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 3:24 PM, Frodo Baggins frodobaggins...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
 Welcome I am from nc as well
 
 - Frodo Baggins: Hobbit, Wikipedia editor (blackhat999
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Blackhat999), Linux freak, and hacker
 extraordinaire.
 
 
 On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 6:15 PM, Raymond Leonard 
 raymond.f.leonard...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 Congratulations and welcome!
 
 Yours,
 Peaceray
 Cascadia Wikimedians User Group
 
 On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 2:17 PM, Carlos M. Colina 
 ma...@wikimedia.org.ve
 wrote:
 
 Dear all,
 
 On behalf of the Affiliations Committee, I am honored to announce the
 recognition [1] of a new User Group in the United States - the North
 Carolina Triangle Wikipedians. As their name implies, they are mostly
 active in the region known as the Research Triangle, or simply The
 Triangle. They have already organized activities in the region,
 especially
 at Duke and UNC related to MediaWiki, edit-a-thons and the Education
 Program. We'll see more of that in the near future :-)
 
 So please, let's welcome the newest member of the family of affiliates!
 Congrats!
 
 Regards,
 Carlos
 
 1:
 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/North_Carolina_Triangle_Wikipedians_User_Group_-_Liaison_approval,_May_2015
 --
 *Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee
 wayuukanairua
 junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya
 junain.
 Carlos M. Colina
 Socio, A.C. Wikimedia Venezuela | RIF J-40129321-2 |
 www.wikimedia.org.ve
 http://wikimedia.org.ve
 Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee
 Phone: +972-52-4869915
 Twitter: @maor_x
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Priority languages

2015-05-27 Thread Gregory Varnum
For reference, these are the languages which were prioritized for the
elections. Additional translation support was utilized to help with the
48-72 hour deadlines:

   1. العربية (ar)
   2. বাংলা (bn)
   3. Deutsch (de)
   4. español (es)
   5. فارسی (fa)
   6. français (fr)
   7. हिन्दी (hi)
   8. Bahasa Indonesia (id)
   9. italiano (it)
   10. 日本語 (ja)
   11. Nederlands (nl)
   12. português do Brasil (pt-br)
   13. русский (ru)
   14. Kiswahili (sw)
   15. Türkçe (tr)
   16. Tiếng Việt (vi)
   17. 中文 (zh)

-greg (User:Varnent)


On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 6:44 PM, Richard Symonds 
richard.symo...@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:

 Milos,

 The formatting has been stripped from the email because the list software
 doesn't like HTML, so the table at the bottom is illegible. Is it available
 elsewhere?

 Richard Symonds
 Wikimedia UK
 0207 065 0992

 Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
 Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
 Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
 United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
 movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
 operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

 *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
 over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*

 On 27 May 2015 at 22:04, Milos Rancic mill...@gmail.com wrote:

  Below is the list of the languages sorted by the number of L2 speakers
  (more than one million of them).
 
  L2 speakers appear in two occasions:
  * First and important to us is about languages used for wider
  communication. For example, French is L2 among educated people of West
  Africa.
  * The second type is related to the native languages in not so good
  position (either dying or reviving). For example, English is L1 language
 of
  the most of Native Americans, as well as Russian is L1 language of the
 most
  of ethnicities of former Soviet Union, while their own languages are L2
  ones. (They are important in other cases, but not for this purpose.)
 
  I omitted English (there is no sense, as we are communicating in English
  and English is default for all the localization) and few spoken languages
  (our content is [mostly] written).
 
  I also removed some languages which belong to the second category (Irish
  Gaelic and Scots, for example), but it could be the case that some of the
  languages from the list belong to that category, as well (though I am
  pretty sure they don't).
 
  There are languages inside of this list with well developed Wikimedia
  projects and without particular need to promote work on Wikimedia
 projects
  among them: French, Spanish and German are the examples. There is no
  Russian inside of the list, as it's usually L1 language, as mentioned
  above, but it belongs to the category of the languages with well
 developed
  Wikimedia projects.
 
  There are also languages spoken in countries with low level of internet
  access and issues much more important than writing an encyclopedia, like
  Congo Swahili is. Those are the areas not yet ready even for the projects
  like OLPC is and we don't have a lot to do there.
 
  But there are a number of languages in between with active chapter(s) or
  user group(s) inside of relevant countries. Those languages should be the
  priority in promotion collaboration.
 
  They are: Arabic (Arabic user groups), Indonesian (WM ID), Hindi (WM IN),
  Urdu (Pakistani user group), Thai (Thailand UG), Bengali (WM BD), Zulu
 (WM
  ZA), Hausa (West African user groups), Xhosa (WM ZA), Afrikaans (WM ZA),
  Kannada (WM IN), Telugu (WM IN), Tsonga (WM ZA), Malay (WM ID and
 Malaysian
  Wikimedians), Marathi (WM IN).
 
  The priorities for those languages should include (but likely not limited
  to):
  * Translation of MediaWiki messages should be 100%.
  * Those languages should be priorities for every document which should be
  translated. For example, ongoing Board elections; but also various Meta
  pages.
  * We should have the pool of literate people in those languages for
 various
  purposes, not just for translation. For example, if we want to create
  projects in languages of Pakistan, we should have a number of literate
 Urdu
  speakers, willing to help newcomers speaking Urdu as their L2 language.
 
  Will be back with other languages-related data :)
 
 
  LanguageCodeL1 speakersL2 speakersStandard
  Arabicarb206,000,000246,000,000Mandarin
 
 Chinesecmn847,808,270178,000,000Indonesianind23,200,480140,000,000Hindihin
  260,333,620120,000,000Spanishspa398,931,84096,990,000Urduurd64,035,800
 
 
 94,000,000Frenchfra75,916,15087,000,000Thaitha20,396,93040,000,000Bengaliben
 
 
 189,261,20019,200,000Zuluzul11,969,10015,700,000Hausahau25,109,00015,000,000
  Xhosaxho8,177,30011,000,000Afrikaansafr7,096,81010,300,000Bamanankanbam
  4,072,04010,000,000Burmesemya32,035,30010,000,000Congo Swahiliswc1,000
  

[Wikimedia-l] Voting open for Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections 2015

2015-05-17 Thread Gregory Varnum
Greetings,

Voting has begun for eligible voters in the 2015 elections for the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Questions and discussion with the
candidates for the Board will continue during the voting.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing
authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many
diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

If you would like a translated ballot, you can change your language for
Meta-Wiki on the Universal Language Selector or in your Preferences before
clicking the 'jump to next wiki' button on SecurePoll. You may also click
the vote banner from your home wiki or select your preferred language from
the language box above the ballot.

The voting phase lasts from 00:00 UTC May 17 to 23:59 UTC May 31.

To vote:  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SecurePoll/vote/339

More information on the candidates and the elections can be found on the
2015 Board election page on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/Board_elections/2015

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Volunteer Coordinator, 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Translations of this message:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/MassMessages/Board_voting_has_begun
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