Re: [Wikimedia-l] The fact-checked encyclopedia

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Not just English Wikipedia. All of the projects are hostile to "outsiders" 
Those not in English might even be worse for several reasons

Enviado desde mi LG de Telcel

-- Original message--
From: Robert Fernandez
Date: Sun, Apr 15, 2018 9:17 AM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List;
Cc:
Subject:Re: [Wikimedia-l] The fact-checked encyclopedia

Considering the barriers to entry, growing thicket of policies,
organized group harassment, and open hostility on the English
Wikipedia, I'm not sure we can even call it "the encyclopedia anyone
can edit" anymore.  So I'd say fact-checked is a more accurate and
relevant claim these days.

On Sun, Apr 15, 2018 at 8:53 AM, Anthony Cole  wrote:
> I just googled “wikipedia” and the first result was a Google ad linking to
> wikipedia.org.[1] It calls Wikipedia the fact-checked encyclopedia. We used
> to call it the encyclopedia anyone can edit. The latter seems more honest
> than this new formulation which to me implies a degree of reliability and
> oversight I'm not sure we can ethically assert. I missed the discussion
> about this new self-description. Did it happen on meta? Is anyone else
> uncomfortabe with this?
> --
> Anthony Cole
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Austin Hair is gone

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I didnt know him well, just on Facebook and reputation... but whoa! Will put my 
condolences up


From: Wikimedia-l  on behalf of Andy 
Mabbett 
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 9:17:09 AM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Austin Hair is gone

On 18 December 2017 at 13:51, Asaf Bartov  wrote:

> I regret to have to inform this list that veteran Wikimedian and longtime
> volunteer administrator of this mailing list, Austin Hair (User:Austin
> Hair), has died, after prolonged health complications.

Though I didn't know Austin, I'm sad to hear this; condolences to all
those who did know him

Please will someone write something suitable at:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deceased_Wikipedians

and can an admin protect his user page?

--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I can see how it can attract AND repel volunteers overall, just as we see it 
attractive and off-putting to people discussing on this list.


From: Wikimedia-l <wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of James 
Salsman <jsals...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2017 6:17:19 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 5:49 PM, Leigh Thelmadatter <osama...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Equally James, how is this advocacy "extremely helpful"? How does it help the 
> building and maintainence of Wikimedia projects? How does it help the many 
> volunteers who work on these projects?

Taking a stand for personal freedom attracts volunteers in support of
free culture, just as supporting scientific consensus opposed by money
in politics attracts those who value accuracy.

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Equally James, how is this advocacy "extremely helpful"? How does it help the 
building and maintainence of Wikimedia projects? How does it help the many 
volunteers who work on these projects?


From: Wikimedia-l  on behalf of James 
Salsman 
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:53:29 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"

Yair,

Would you please explain what you mean by damaging?

> To have a huge banner placed over every article on
> the whole project linking to 43px-font blatant political
> advocacy which can't be reverted, is really damaging.

My opinion remains that 43pt blatant advocacy in support of both
personal freedom of movement and scientific consensus disputed by
fossil fuel interests is extremely helpful to the Foundation, its
Mission, and in attracting additional volunteers, especially because
those issues have been disfavored by recent political trends brought
about by political leveraging of xenophobia and lobbyist money.

Why do people think it is reasonable to claim that such advocacy is
damaging without presenting any evidence in support of their opinion?
Clearly many people do, but why?

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Yair is right because messages like this "empower" only those who agree with 
them. Taking sides in the name of the Foundation, which has the money and 
therefore power, is not inclusive. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On 01/03/2017, at 12:58 p.m., Yair Rand  wrote:
> 
> An unscheduled CentralNotice just started running, linking to a rather
> bizarre page [1]. Purporting to be the WMF's 2016 Annual Report, it starts
> off with some text about refugees. "FACT: Half of refugees are school-age",
> followed by some completely unencyclopedic text about the topic: "That
> means 10 million children are away from their homes, their communities, and
> their traditional education. Each refugee child’s experience is unique, but
> every single one loses time from their important learning years. Many of
> them face the added pressure of being surrounded by new languages and
> cultures." The linked page goes on to detail some of Wikimedia's vision and
> how Wikimedia projects aid refugee populations. Following that, we have an
> entire page on climate change and some of its effects, similarly written in
> a style that is not befitting the movement: "In 2015, [Wikimedian Andreas
> Weith] photographed starving polar bears in the Arctic. As the ice
> declines, so does their ability to find food. “It’s heartbreaking,” he
> says." After all that, we finally have some pages on interesting statistics
> about Wikimedia, mixed in with some general odd facts about the world,
> followed by a call to donate. There are also letters from the ED and
> founder linked.
> 
> So, this could be a mix of coincidence and bad stylistic choices, and not
> politically motivated at all, but it is getting increasingly hard to assume
> good faith on this, especially with the blog post a month ago specifically
> calling for a change in refugee policy.
> 
> Using Wikimedia projects to push politics is not okay. If the WMF does not
> accept this, I suspect many projects will simply block CentralNotices,
> avoid associating with WMF statements, and quite possibly fork/leave.
> 
> This is a serious problem.
> 
> -- Yair Rand
> 
> [1] https://annual.wikimedia.org/2016/?pk_campaign=
> WikiBanners_kwd=AR2016_dsk_short
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

1) I work for free for what I would like to think of as a non-profit 
educational organization. The rest are businesses looking for cheaper labor.
2) We have a number of policies (such as no advertising) to distance the work 
of creating and maintainin content from commercial concerns. Working 
hand-in-hand politically with for-profit companies is just as undermining to 
the supposed purpose of Wikimedia projects.
3)You are the company you keep. All those signatories are from the same narrow 
worldview.


From: Wikimedia-l <wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of Gerard 
Meijssen <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2017 7:55:51 AM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

Hoi,
What is your point? These companies have the same problem we face. Are
companies bad because they are companies?

NB we have it worse because many of our contributors cannot come to our
only office either.
Thanks,
  GerardM

On 7 February 2017 at 15:41, Leigh Thelmadatter <osama...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> And yet, here is the amicus brief signed by the Wikimedia Foundation,
> along with, not nearly 100 non-profit organizations but Silicon Valley tec
> companies.
>
>
> http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2017/02/06/
> 17-35105%20amicus%20tech%20companies.pdf
>
>
> 
> From: Wikimedia-l <wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of
> Robert Fernandez <wikigamal...@gmail.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2017 7:09:07 AM
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics
>
> >The world is not San Francisco.
>
> That's rather dismissive of those of us who have nothing to do with
> San Francisco.   You complain about the WMF not listening to voices in
> the community but you ignore a large part of that community who
> disagrees with you.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 7:49 AM, Leigh Thelmadatter <osama...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> > The
> > people who are loudest in their demands for consensus do not represent
> the
> > Wikimedia movement.
> >
> >
> > The voices loudest for the WMF doing something against the Trump
> administration are not representative of the Wikimedia movement either...
> they have been WMF employees and those closest to them. This is maybe why
> most non-profits hire EDs from outside the organization then from within.
> As you show, Gerard, there has been no effort to find out what the movement
> thinks, and that may have been those behind the statement and amicus brief
> just assumed everybody would agree with them. The world is not San
> Francisco.
> >
> >
> > 
> > From: Wikimedia-l <wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf
> of Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com>
> > Sent: Monday, February 6, 2017 10:51:24 PM
> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics
> >
> > Hoi,
> > As far as I am concerned, the WMF is not democratic. It does not matter.
> > What does matter is that people only care about their own arguments and
> are
> > not willing to entertain the considerations of others. While to some
> extend
> > policies are worthwhile at the same time they prevent people from
> thinking.
> > The consequence of the conversation being in English and the location of
> > many of the "policies" is that English Wikipedia is over represented. It
> is
> > however less than 50% of our traffic and you would not consider this from
> > the demands put forward by this community. At the same time my perception
> > is that all our communities think they are inherently superior and
> because
> > of their policies refuse to collaborate with others. Wikidata is what I
> > most closely associate with and they refuse to collaborate with non
> > professional communities because there are errors in their work.
> Obviously
> > self reflection is lacking.
> >
> > Similar observations are possible for all the Wikipedia communities I
> know.
> >
> > When we consider the world outside of our movement; we have been quite
> > happy to condemn actions by the Chinese government. Now that the US
> > American negatively impacts the WMF workforce and the ability for people
> to
> > come to the WMF office people object that they are not consulted. Again,
> we
> > are not a democracy and the "policies" have to function in the real
> world.
> > In the real world our director and our board are allowed and do as the
> > situation requires. In the real world two lawyers with experience in this
> > field

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

And yet, here is the amicus brief signed by the Wikimedia Foundation, along 
with, not nearly 100 non-profit organizations but Silicon Valley tec companies.


http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2017/02/06/17-35105%20amicus%20tech%20companies.pdf



From: Wikimedia-l <wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of Robert 
Fernandez <wikigamal...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2017 7:09:07 AM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

>The world is not San Francisco.

That's rather dismissive of those of us who have nothing to do with
San Francisco.   You complain about the WMF not listening to voices in
the community but you ignore a large part of that community who
disagrees with you.


On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 7:49 AM, Leigh Thelmadatter <osama...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The
> people who are loudest in their demands for consensus do not represent the
> Wikimedia movement.
>
>
> The voices loudest for the WMF doing something against the Trump 
> administration are not representative of the Wikimedia movement either... 
> they have been WMF employees and those closest to them. This is maybe why 
> most non-profits hire EDs from outside the organization then from within. As 
> you show, Gerard, there has been no effort to find out what the movement 
> thinks, and that may have been those behind the statement and amicus brief 
> just assumed everybody would agree with them. The world is not San Francisco.
>
>
> 
> From: Wikimedia-l <wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of 
> Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 6, 2017 10:51:24 PM
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics
>
> Hoi,
> As far as I am concerned, the WMF is not democratic. It does not matter.
> What does matter is that people only care about their own arguments and are
> not willing to entertain the considerations of others. While to some extend
> policies are worthwhile at the same time they prevent people from thinking.
> The consequence of the conversation being in English and the location of
> many of the "policies" is that English Wikipedia is over represented. It is
> however less than 50% of our traffic and you would not consider this from
> the demands put forward by this community. At the same time my perception
> is that all our communities think they are inherently superior and because
> of their policies refuse to collaborate with others. Wikidata is what I
> most closely associate with and they refuse to collaborate with non
> professional communities because there are errors in their work. Obviously
> self reflection is lacking.
>
> Similar observations are possible for all the Wikipedia communities I know.
>
> When we consider the world outside of our movement; we have been quite
> happy to condemn actions by the Chinese government. Now that the US
> American negatively impacts the WMF workforce and the ability for people to
> come to the WMF office people object that they are not consulted. Again, we
> are not a democracy and the "policies" have to function in the real world.
> In the real world our director and our board are allowed and do as the
> situation requires. In the real world two lawyers with experience in this
> field indicate that action indeed needs to be taken now. Hallelujah.
>
> The WMF is not a member organisation. Chapters are. Chapters however do not
> represent our projects and consequently they have no direct impact on the
> WMF itself. Consensus while admirable does not mean representation. The
> people who are loudest in their demands for consensus do not represent the
> Wikimedia movement. As it is, the current situation where we have a board
> that reflects the international composition of our movement does really
> well. They do consider the thoughts of the community but if anything they
> are also stifling what we do with too many well meant policies that are
> seen as law.
>
> Rules, guidelines even laws are a necessity. But they have a tendency to
> empower those with the loudest voice and they favour the incumbent. The
> current US government has a disdain for the law and as a consequence this
> invalidates the normal use of rules, guidelines and even laws. They are
> invalidated because the attention to what happens is as immediate as the
> pace whereby new ukazes are issued.
>
> If anything we are blessed with a board and a director who seek to inform,
> to connect to our communities and stay as close as possible to our general
> practice. They think and they react to a different world.. Again we face a
> world where much of our accomplishments are squandered to benefit

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

The
people who are loudest in their demands for consensus do not represent the
Wikimedia movement.


The voices loudest for the WMF doing something against the Trump administration 
are not representative of the Wikimedia movement either... they have been WMF 
employees and those closest to them. This is maybe why most non-profits hire 
EDs from outside the organization then from within. As you show, Gerard, there 
has been no effort to find out what the movement thinks, and that may have been 
those behind the statement and amicus brief just assumed everybody would agree 
with them. The world is not San Francisco.



From: Wikimedia-l  on behalf of Gerard 
Meijssen 
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2017 10:51:24 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

Hoi,
As far as I am concerned, the WMF is not democratic. It does not matter.
What does matter is that people only care about their own arguments and are
not willing to entertain the considerations of others. While to some extend
policies are worthwhile at the same time they prevent people from thinking.
The consequence of the conversation being in English and the location of
many of the "policies" is that English Wikipedia is over represented. It is
however less than 50% of our traffic and you would not consider this from
the demands put forward by this community. At the same time my perception
is that all our communities think they are inherently superior and because
of their policies refuse to collaborate with others. Wikidata is what I
most closely associate with and they refuse to collaborate with non
professional communities because there are errors in their work. Obviously
self reflection is lacking.

Similar observations are possible for all the Wikipedia communities I know.

When we consider the world outside of our movement; we have been quite
happy to condemn actions by the Chinese government. Now that the US
American negatively impacts the WMF workforce and the ability for people to
come to the WMF office people object that they are not consulted. Again, we
are not a democracy and the "policies" have to function in the real world.
In the real world our director and our board are allowed and do as the
situation requires. In the real world two lawyers with experience in this
field indicate that action indeed needs to be taken now. Hallelujah.

The WMF is not a member organisation. Chapters are. Chapters however do not
represent our projects and consequently they have no direct impact on the
WMF itself. Consensus while admirable does not mean representation. The
people who are loudest in their demands for consensus do not represent the
Wikimedia movement. As it is, the current situation where we have a board
that reflects the international composition of our movement does really
well. They do consider the thoughts of the community but if anything they
are also stifling what we do with too many well meant policies that are
seen as law.

Rules, guidelines even laws are a necessity. But they have a tendency to
empower those with the loudest voice and they favour the incumbent. The
current US government has a disdain for the law and as a consequence this
invalidates the normal use of rules, guidelines and even laws. They are
invalidated because the attention to what happens is as immediate as the
pace whereby new ukazes are issued.

If anything we are blessed with a board and a director who seek to inform,
to connect to our communities and stay as close as possible to our general
practice. They think and they react to a different world.. Again we face a
world where much of our accomplishments are squandered to benefit those who
are the real people / organisations behind the current US government. I am
happy that I still may vote in the Dutch elections I hope for a different
outcome in the Netherlands.
Thanks,
  GerardM

On 6 February 2017 at 18:13, Adam Wight  wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> As wonderful as it is to see this discussion unfold, showing how many of us
> care deeply about humanism and the movement's impact in the material world,
> I'd like to observe that it also demonstrates how underdeveloped our
> movement-wide political processes are.  To my understanding, our tools
> consist of: a small group interested in participating in this mailing list,
> a small group who attends to metawiki, and an infrequent meeting of
> chapters.
>
> It seems that all of these venues are frustrated by a lack of real power,
> and Wikimedia-l in particular has the character of a pirate radio station
> or underground newspaper rather than a place where we can build consensus.
> There's certainly some value in the oppositional and antiestablishment
> perspective that comes out of this arrangement, but perhaps we're missing
> out on the benefits that would come from a fully-developed democracy?
>
> One alternative approach 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I voiced my opposition to the statement on Facebook but Yair states the case 
far more eloquently. Many acts by many countries could be a possible threat to 
Wikimedia, where do we draw the line?
Why was there no community discussion prior to the statement? 
Sent from my iPhone

> On 02/02/2017, at 3:37 p.m., Yair Rand  wrote:
> 
> The Wikimedia movement is both global and very ideologically diverse, and
> has many contributors who have strong opinions in one direction or another
> on certain political issues facing their area of the world. Many of these
> contributors find it difficult to avoid using Wikimedia forums and
> institutions to discuss or advocate for issues they feel very strongly
> about. Recently, political advocacy on Wikimedia forums has risen
> substantially, especially on this mailing list.
> 
> While I sympathize with the difficulties these contributors face in
> remaining silent, it is important to consider the substantial damage such
> actions can cause to the movement. We will be much worse off if half of any
> given country's political spectrum can no longer cooperate in our mission
> due to compunctions against supporting a community which hosts those who
> use the community to advocate for positions that some may find
> unacceptable. The issue of inadvertently alienating participants because of
> politics has a self-reinforcing element: As we lose contributors
> representing ideological areas, we have fewer willing to advocate for an
> environment which allows them to participate without being bombarded by
> hostile political advocacy. We are precariously close to the point of no
> return on this, but I am optimistic that the situation is recoverable.
> 
> As an initial measure, I propose adding the names of a certain country's
> top political leaders to this list's spam filter. More generally, I think a
> stricter stance on avoiding political advocacy on Wikimedia projects is
> warranted.
> 
> We face a somewhat more difficult situation with the Wikimedia Foundation
> itself. Partly as a result of being relatively localized within a
> geographic area and further limited to several professions, I suspect the
> Foundation tends to be more politically/ideologically homogeneous. With the
> WMF, we risk much more than just alienating much of the world, we risk our
> Neutrality.
> 
> How far we must go to maintain neutrality has been a contentious issue over
> the years. Existential threats have twice been responded to with major
> community action, each with large prior discussion. (SOPA included an
> extensive discussion and a poll with more than 500 respondents.) A previous
> ED committed to firing everyone but part of the Ops team rather than accept
> advertising, should lack of funds require it. (Whether to let the WMF die
> outright rather than accept ads is as of yet unresolved.) More recently,
> the WMF has taken limited actions and stances on public policy that
> directly relate to the mission. A careful balance has been established
> between maintaining essential neutrality and dealing with direct threats to
> the projects.
> 
> Three days ago, the WMF put out a statement on the Wikimedia blog
> explicitly urging a specific country to modify its refugee policy, an area
> that does not relate to our goals. There was no movement-wide prior
> discussion, or any discussion at all as far as I can tell.
> 
> It is the responsibility of the Board at this point to set a policy to
> place firm restrictions on which areas the WMF can take positions. While we
> value the important contributions of the staff, they should not be able to
> override our commitment to neutrality. Our donors, editors, and other
> volunteers do not contribute so that resources and influence can be spent
> towards whatever political causes are popular within the WMF.
> 
> It is the responsibility of the community to ensure that our projects
> remain apolitical. A neutral point of view is impossible if participating
> requires a certain political position.
> 
> It is the responsibility of the mailing list administration and moderators
> to act against this list's rapid slide into unreadability.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> -- Yair Rand
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of WikiConference North America

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

How do you sign up to be a member of the group?


From: Wikimedia-l  on behalf of Maor 
Malul 
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2016 12:36:07 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of WikiConference North America

Dear all,

I am pleased to announce the recognition of another Wikimedia User
Group, this time based in the USA: WikiConference North America [1]

At the end of WikiConference North America 2016, celebrated last month
in San Diego, the organizing team announced the creation of a permanent
group that will focus on the planning and hosting of WikiConference
North America in future years, as well as documenting best practices and
experiences learned with other affiliates planning and hosting
conferences and similar events. And some outreach, too :-)

Welcome!

1: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_North_America


--
"*Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua
junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain."
Maor Malul
Socio, A.C. Wikimedia Venezuela | RIF J-40129321-2 |
www.wikimedia.org.ve 
Member, Wikimedia Israel | www.wikimedia.org.il 

Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee
Phone: +972-52-4869915
Twitter: @maor_x
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New partnership and expansion of Wikimedia Israel's Education initiative - WikiCampus

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Congratulations!


I agree this is the way to go with education, as it gets administrative 
support. This has been crucial for our program, as it tells teachers that their 
school supports what they do. For us, such an organizational effort has given 
us access to resources that individual teachers might not have otherwise.


(interestingly enough, we are using "Wikicampus" to indicate students who do 
general Wikipedia work for community service hours).


From: Wikimedia-l  on behalf of Anna 
Torres 
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 7:18:33 AM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Cc: Karine Nahon
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] New partnership and expansion of Wikimedia Israel's 
Education initiative - WikiCampus

Congrats!!! Always a great model to follow!!

Hugs!

2016-10-11 11:15 GMT-03:00 Itzik - Wikimedia Israel 
:

> Dear friends,
>
>
> On behalf of Wikimedia Israel, I'm pleased to announce a new partnership
> and expansion of our Education initiative - WikiCampus.
>
>
> WikiCampus it is a new initiative by Wikimedia Israel and the
> Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC) [1]. As part of the
> collaboration, during the upcoming academic year, dozens of courses (and a
> total of hundreds of students) will take part in the Wikipedia assignment
> program.
>
>
> Until now, we ran many Wikipedia assignment collaborations directly with
> teachers in universities and colleges in Israel. For the first time, this
> pilot will be lead directly by the Rector’s office, and teachers will be
> encouraged to integrate article writing assignments into academic writing
> assignments.
>
>
> In 2015, some 150 articles were written or expanded by students (not
> counting programs with high schools). In the first half of 2016, students
> added 583 articles to Hebrew Wikipedia - more than a 300% increase (!) and
> we hope to see another major increase in the upcoming year thanks to
> WikiCampus.
>
>
>
> This is the first time that an academic institution is embracing this
> program with great motivation and enthusiasm. We hope that this
> collaboration will be a model for other chapters and academic institutions
> to adopt.
>
>
>
> Many thanks to Prof. Karine Nahon [2], WMIL's board member and an associate
> professor in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the
> IDC for her help with initiating this collaboration!
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdisciplinary_Center_Herzliya
> [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karine_Nahon
>
>
>
> *Regards,Itzik Edri*
> Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel
> +972-54-5878078 | http://www.wikimedia.org.il
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment!
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--
Anna Torres Adell
Directora Ejecutiva
*A.C. Wikimedia Argentina*
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[Wikimedia-l] Wiki Learning Tec de Monterrey annual report

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

As per the request on the Reports page on Meta, we hereby announce our very 
first annual report as a Wikimedia user group (sorry its late! we lack 
hands)

https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/M%C3%A9xico/Tec_de_Monterrey/2015-2016_Wiki_Learning_Tec_de_Monterrey_annual_report

  
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] What it means to be a *volunteer* organization

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I have to agree here. The WMF and its employees have forgotten that the mission 
is to support the work done on the various wikis, not make work for fireworks 
for themselves.
Nothing we are dealing with here is new. It is just the eruption of some very 
long-standing problems with the WMF and the tone it sets for the rest of the 
movement. While some might be celebrating now, Lila was not the problem.  IMHO, 
the problem is a lot of hidden hierarchies (denied of course). Add to that, 
that the lack of transparency allows the growth of hidden agendas.
Remember this blew when a community selected board member was tossed off the 
board unceremoniously. We find out through this that the community (or 
chapters) have no real voice on the board under the current set up. 


> From: dacu...@gmail.com
> Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2016 17:52:30 +0100
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] What it means to be a *volunteer* organization
> 
> I am starting a new thread because I disagree with the idea that the WMF
> should be a high-tech organization as the other thread by Brion seemed to
> suggest. Yes, technology is a tool that we use in our mission to gather and
> process all forms of human knowledge, but in the end the driving force is
> volunteership.
> 
> Without volunteers there wouldn't be any movement and there wouldn't be any
> need for tools, or any donations whatsoever. It is the concept of working
> for free for the common good that allows us to exist and fulfill our
> mission. The WMF is instrumental in providing the tools for it to happen,
> but those tools are not only technological, they are also legal,
> educational, and social, however when talking through computer screens we
> seem to forget that.
> 
> A hi-tech tool can work for a given task or not, but there are more
> important topics like trust, commitment, empowerment, motivation, and joy
> that cannot be assessed so easily, and that are at least as crucial as any
> software. What is the point of having a perfect tool Z if I don't enjoy
> working with my fellows on a common mission?
> 
> The role of nurturing volunteers is not exclusive of affiliate
> organizations, the WMF offer grants to volunteers and organizes several
> gatherings. Is that enough to strengthen the volunteer community? Then I
> look at organizations like WOOF or workaway that thrive with full-time
> volunteers and I wonder if more opportunities could be opened for our
> volunteers.
> Is there anything holding us back to try new things besides old patterns of
> participation?
> 
> It is a challenge to do more for the volunteer community without resorting
> to grants or payment, but that is the key to succeed as a volunteer
> organization, to provide an ecosystem where personal growth is possible.
> 
> I am interested in hearing what others have to say about it. Maybe it is
> possible to gather ideas or even a team of people who wants to research
> more information about the topic.
> 
> Cheers,
> Micru
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] What kind of ED would you like to see?

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Should only the staff have a say in this vision?  Almost all, if not all, of 
this talk is about what the staff wants.  




> From: yastrak...@wikimedia.org
> Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 03:45:28 +0300
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] What kind of ED would you like to see?
> 
> Greg, agree 100%, but that's not how I understood the question and the
> results of the staff survey. It seemed the staff expected the vision from
> the ED/Management.
> 
> On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 3:31 AM, Greg Grossmeier  wrote:
> 
> > 
> > > Subbu, one of the chief complains I heard about Lila was that she did not
> > > provide a clear vision. Yet, if we choose stewardship over leadership,
> > > that, at least in my mind, implies more of a mediator than a leader,
> > > without providing any clear vision themselves.  So is vision no longer a
> > > requirement from the ED?
> >
> > Vision shouldn't be a one-person created thing.
> >
> > Greg
> >
> > --
> > | Greg GrossmeierGPG: B2FA 27B1 F7EB D327 6B8E |
> > | identi.ca: @gregA18D 1138 8E47 FAC8 1C7D |
> >
> > ___
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> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] What it means to be a high-tech organization

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

As a humanities person myself, I did read into Lila's post that the 
non-engineering aspects of Wikimedia would take a back seat... perhaps a far 
back seat to all the shiny new things happening in Silicon Valley. This may not 
be the case, but if it is, I can understand it as to an engineer, everything is 
a tech issue.
I have been a college professor for 20 some-odd years and despite my linguistic 
and humanities background, don´t hate technology. I dont love it as much as 
others, but simply the fact that I will touch it has made me something of the 
technology "expert" in the various colleges and universities language 
departments I have taught.
Brion touches on something very important here... especially with the words 
"user disconnection."  Integration computer technology has been the buzzword 
for decades, but we are still in many ways no closer to effectively using 
technology in educational institutions than we were in the 1990s.  Some of it 
is how fast technology changes, but most, IMHO, is a lack of understanding of 
how to best use the tools that we have and will be invented.
Teachers and administrators, in my area at least, either swing toward 
"Technology is useless." to "If we buy stuff, it will solve all our problems."  
Heck, I had to laugh when MOOC's got introduced as a way to have large classes 
with only one lecturer. We have learned nothing from the first online classes 
in the 1990s, mostly because adminstrators still pray for 1000-student classes 
paying for only one professor. I exaggerate, but not by much.
Perhaps the most difficult thing is matching technology with the needs of end 
users, often because computer people and the rest of us look at the technology 
so differently. Unlike a doctor, who can tell patients what is good for them 
(or rather their bodies), engineers often understand what we non-techie end 
users need about as much we understand how to code.
This is one reason why schools waste so much money when it comes to technology. 
We have teachers who understand their classes but not the technology, and 
technology experts that do not know how to teach writing, history, philosophy, 
foreign language etc. 
Finding someone to bridge the gap, IMHO is crucial. 
It could be tempting for a Foundation in Silicon Valley to work solely on the 
technology end, but the end users (readers and editors) see Wikipedia/Wikimedia 
as a reference first. The technology serves the goal of informing and 
educating.  Not all technologies do help this. For example, in the 1990s and 
part of the 2000s, early research seemed to indicate that the immediate 
feedback from foreign language practice software was a benefit for students, as 
they could do more practice in less time. More recent research seems to 
indicate this benefit is limited at best. Fast and superficial feedback seems 
to get ignored, especially after the novelty has worn off.
My point is that it is necessary to monitor trends and make sure Wikipedia does 
not get so aniquitated that is it left behind. But on the other hand, blindly 
chasing new tech fads can tear the organization and the humans still very much 
needed to add to, improve and update a huge gathering of data. Any new 
technologies we want to explore must conform to the main purpose of Wikimedia, 
the free dissemination of information. I have no problem with, say, Wikipedia 
content be reused for other formats (it is already.) but that encyclopedic 
basis needs to remain intact and accessible to all, not just those who know all 
the new tech gizmos.


> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 13:29:17 -0800
> From: bvib...@wikimedia.org
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] What it means to be a high-tech organization
> 
> I think there are many different interpretations of what it means to "be a
> high-tech organization", which makes it a difficult label to base arguments
> around; readers will interpret it very differently depending on their
> personal experiences and biases.
> 
> One view might concentrate on notions of "innovation", "excellence", or
> "return on investment" achieved through super-smart people creating unique
> technology -- this view associates "high-tech" with success, competitive
> advantage, brand awareness/marketshare, and money (profit for traditional
> corporations, or investment in the mission for non-profits).
> 
> Another view might concentrate on other features considered common to
> "high-tech" companies such as toxic work environments, lack of diversity,
> overemphasis on engineering versus other disciplines, disconnection from
> users' needs, and a laser-focus on achieving profits at the expense of
> long-term thinking. This view associates "high-tech" with social and
> economic inequality and exploitation of employees and users for their labor
> & attention to the detriment of their physical and emotional health.
> 
> And there are many, much subtler connotations to be found in between.
> 
> 
> I believe a high-tech 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reducing the net cost of Wikimania

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I have to disagree. money for WMF employee attendance is still WMF money... 
still coming from donations.
I find it very interesting that so much more is spent on employee attendance 
then volunteer attendance.


> From: meta...@gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2016 20:06:28 -0500
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reducing the net cost of Wikimania
> 
> Chris & Ellie:  I don't think I would include 'WMF Travel/Accomodation' or
> general Wikimedia PR in the Wikimania overhead.
>   * Staff have a budget for travel to events of all kinds; the Board has a
> budget for its meetings wherever they are held; and similarly the few
> committees that meet in person have a budget for those meetings.
>   * The fact that these things happen to take place at Wikimania is, if
> anything, a slight cost savings: some of the logistics of scheduling and
> finding venues can be shared, it allows coordinating press events, 
> 
> 
> Lodewijk, I agree: we should be able to find ways to limit direct expenses,
> and increase sponsorships.  We could also increase the number of people who
> benefit from scholarships, or are otherwise able to attend.
> 
> Focusing on direct expenses from recent Wikimanias:
> * 2014 budget:  $250K revenue + a $150K WMF grant.  Actual: $280K revenue,
> needed $320K from WMF to cover direct expenses
> * 2015 budget:  $150K revenue + a $300K WMF grant.  Actual: $100K revenue,
> needed $380K from WMF to cover direct expenses
> * 2016 budget:  $290K? revenue + a $250K WMF grant.
> 
> Itzik, what were the equivalent budgets for Haifa?  From the post-mortem on
> Meta it looks like a $280K budget, and a $100K WMF grant. This included
> paying for the event coordinator, which is now budgeted separately. That
> was for the finest event one could hope for.
> 
> 
> Lodewijk writes:
> > 'wikimania direct' is quite expensive, to be honest, and much more than I
> > would have expected. However, it does include catering, which is always
> > an expensive chunk...
> 
> Registration fees should at least cover the marginal cost of the event:
> catering & materials per person.
> 
> 
> > looking at these figures, I can agree that it should be possible to do it
> for
> > less, I'm less certain though whether the proposed splitting up would
> > significantly reduce the total costs for everything that is included here.
> 
> The greater part of money spent on attending Wikimania is the out-of-pocket
> cost of flights and hotels.  The cost of this for non-local attendees is
> 10-50x the cost of registration.  Running many simultaneous local events
> has a greater total budget, if you look only at the budgets of the
> organizers; but a much lower cost per person.  There are many more options
> for free venues and low-cost lodging when you're not scrambling to fit 1000
> people in a small region of a city.  And a smaller fraction of money spent
> goes towards jet fuel.
> 
> For this reason, the same pool of scholarship funds would go farther.
> 
> Finally, I don't think we should oversell the current Wikimania as a
> universal connector.  I too want there to be a community thing that builds
> interpersonal connections and is accessible to every community member at
> low cost.  But that thing cannot be a $2,000-net-cost week-long
> conference.  Many people could never attend such an event, even if it were
> free.  It is a long time commitment, and is inevitably mono or bilingual.
> 
> Sam
> (who loves the current Wikimanias, and thinks they should continue! but
> doesn't think they are the pinnacle of what movement-gatherings could be)
> 
> 
> On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 5:52 PM, Sam Klein  wrote:
> 
> > That's most helpful, thank you both.
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 5:14 PM, Pharos 
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Thanks, Ellie and Chris, this historical experience should be very helpful
> >> for future discussions!
> >>
> >> Best,
> >> Pharos
> >>
> >> On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Chris Schilling <
> >> cschill...@wikimedia.org>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hey folks,
> >> >
> >> > Ellie has put together a summarized budget including revenue and
> >> expenses
> >> > from Wikimania 2014 in London[1] and Wikimania 2015[2], which I've gone
> >> > ahead and posted to the summary pages of these conferences on meta.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks,
> >> >
> >> > Chris
> >> >
> >> > [1] 
> >> > [2] 
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 1:15 PM, Samuel Klein 
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > Itzik writes:
> >> > >
> >> > > > If we want to talk about the cost of Wikimania it will be great if
> >> the
> >> > > WMF and the local team will share the costs.
> >> > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014/Budget
> >> > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015/Budget
> >> > > > Maybe I missed something, but it's strange that such discussion
> >> takes
> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community Engagement reorg - the official announcement

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Im curious to see how this might affect Wiki Learning Tec de Monterrey, as we 
are both an education program and an affiliate.


> Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 16:19:17 -0800
> From: mc...@wikimedia.org
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community Engagement reorg - the official  
> announcement
> 
> Hi all,
> to follow up on Maggie's email, I wanted to share that Program Capacity and
> Learning team is reaching out to community members to comment on our draft
> roadmap [1]. In this coming year, we look forward to our shared learning
> and support to leaders across the movement.
> 
> Importantly, we could use some help in defining what that year looks like!
> Between now and February 19th, we are asking for your input in prioritizing
> support to program leaders and affiliates through our newly integrated
> Program Capacity and Learning Team. Our new team, in addition to supporting
>  education programs, libraries, and learning and evaluation, will also
> support GLAM and Affiliate Partnerships. We have been consulting with
> different program and community leaders and have developed a few ideas for
> which we would like your input [1].  Please share your views on our
> criteria for resources as well as concepts for support. Your input will
> help guide our 2016-2017 Annual Plan submission. We will host office hours
> on IRC on Tuesday, February 16, at 8 am PST. Sign up to the event via
> Google [2] or Facebook [3].
> 
> Hope to see many of you on Meta!
> 
> Best,
> 
> 
> *María Cruz * \\  Communications and Outreach Coordinator, PC Team
> \\ Wikimedia
> Foundation, Inc.
> mc...@wikimedia.org  |  :  @marianarra_ 
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Capacity_and_Learning
> [2] https://plus.google.com/events/c2u2adh301qqtdp137glrl09qqk
> [3] https://www.facebook.com/events/970720156351099/
> 
> On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 7:15 PM, Maggie Dennis  wrote:
> 
> > Hello, all.
> >
> > As some of you know, Community Engagement had a small realignment last
> > quarter. Now that it’s further along, we thought it was a good time to
> > formally share. :)
> >
> > So, welcome to the reformed Community Engagement!
> >
> > What’s the major change?
> >
> > We've restructured Community Engagement, to four primary groups:
> >
> >-
> >
> >Program Capacity and Learning (integrating Learning & Evaluation,
> >Education, and Library), under Rosemary Rein, tasked with supporting
> > community partnerships, programs and learning.
> >-
> >
> >Resources, under Siko Bouterse, tasked with supporting community-led
> >impact through grants and other resources.
> >-
> >
> >Support & Safety (formerly known as Community Advocacy), under me
> >(Maggie Dennis), tasked with helping improve trust, safety and
> > collegiality
> >within our projects as well as facilitating communication and
> > understanding
> >broadly between the WMF and contributors,
> >-
> >
> >Technical Collaboration (grouping Community Liaisons and Developer
> >Relations), under Quim Gil, tasked with improving collaboration between
> >software development teams, Wikimedia contributors, readers, and
> > volunteer
> >developers.
> >
> > Four people within Community Engagement have changed which teams they
> > report to: Floor and Jake (to Program, Capacity, and Learning), Haitham (to
> > Support and Safety), and Sati (to Resources). This will more closely align
> > their leadership and reporting structure with the work they’re doing.
> > Rachel will also be stepping back from leadership of the Liaisons team and
> > supporting Quim in annual plan and strategic work.
> >
> > Why did we do this?
> >
> > For most people outside of the department, this will have very little
> > impact on your day-to-day relationships with Community Engagement, but
> > we’re hoping for major impact within our department! The main goal of the
> > reorganization was more responsive leadership, decision making and improved
> > lines of communication within, into and out of the department, with a
> > strong secondary goal of giving the affected teams more flexibility and
> > clarity around their missions, so that they can adapt better to our
> > evolving work. When we began this transformation last quarter, we expected
> > that it would mean most teams (and especially the affected leaders) would
> > be more engaged, receive more day-to-day mentorship, and that they'd be
> > able to work more constructively with peers to better craft shared goals
> > and projects. At the same time we hoped that the team executive would be
> > able to put more into handling upcoming planning efforts like the strategic
> > and annual plans. While we are still fine-tuning, this seems to be bearing
> > out, and we hope that it will continue.
> >
> > Our ultimate goal, of course, is to figure out the best ways to serve our
> > communities and our movement through better 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Monetizing Wikimedia APIs

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

If we are concerned about Google taking unfair advantage of Wikipedia, one 
simple solution is to allow content donations with a non-commercial 
restriction. Right now, the concept of "free" include commercial use. An added 
bonus to this is that we would get a lot more institutional donations of 
content if we allowed an non-commercial option.
My problem with allowing for paying for "premium access" is that we are 
allowing Google to have a priviledged position.  There is no way around that.
What is the impetus behind this proposal? Its not like we are lacking money.  
And limiting growth of the Foundation is not a bad thing... at least not to the 
community.


> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> From: ricordisa...@openmailbox.org
> Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2016 14:13:06 +0100
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Monetizing Wikimedia APIs
> 
> "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freemiumly share 
> in the sum of all knowledge." XD
> 
> Il 16/01/2016 10:23, Pete Forsyth ha scritto:
> > I'm interested to hear some perspectives on the following line of thinking:
> >
> > Lisa presented some alternative strategies for revenue needs for the
> > Foundation, including the possibility of charging for premium access to the
> > services and APIs, expanding major donor and foundation fundraising,
> > providing specific services for a fee, or limiting the Wikimedia
> > Foundation's growth. The Board emphasized the importance of keeping free
> > access to the existing APIs and services, keeping operational growth in
> > line with the organization's effectiveness, providing room for innovation
> > in the Foundation's activities, and other potential fundraising strategies.
> > The Board asked Lila to analyze and develop some of these potential
> > strategies for further discussion at a Board meeting in 2016.
> > Source: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2015-11-07
> > -Pete[[User:Peteforsyth]]
> > ___
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> > 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Number of new User Groups

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

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
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Early Bird Registration Open for Wikimania 2015!

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I have already registered, but the fee is steep (1460MXN, ~100 USD), quite 
out-of-reach of students and more than a few teachers here in Mexico.



 From: eyo...@wikimedia.org
 Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 10:15:26 -0700
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org; wikimani...@lists.wikimedia.org; 
 wmf...@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Early Bird Registration Open for Wikimania 2015!
 
 Early Bird Registration Open for Wikimania 2015
 
 https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration
 
 Note: If you are a WMF-sponsored attendee (e.g., WMF staff, Board, 
 Scholarship recipient) please do not register until you are contacted by  WMF 
 staff with instructions.  
 
 Wikimania 2015 will be held in Mexico City July 14-19, 2015 at the conference 
 center in the Hilton Mexico City Reforma Hotel Juárez 70, Cuauhtemoc, Centro, 
 06010 Ciudad de México, D.F., Mexico.*  This hotel is located in the 
 historical center of Mexico City, across from Alameda Central park.  The 
 conference, hackathon, meetups, and pre-events will be held there. Most of 
 the WMF personnel and scholarship recipients will be housed there as well.   
 Notifications to people who have submitted to the conference and 
 confirmations are almost complete.   The conference program will be updated 
 in the coming weeks, so please check there.  
 
 https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programme
 
 The WMF has arranged for discounted rates with two hotels adjacent to the 
 Hilton--- just 200 meters away.  Delegates can book directly at these two 
 hotels and receive special  rates.
 
 Information about these hotels is at:
 
 https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Accommodation
 
 If you have any questions with regard to the conference, please contact :
 
 https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Contact
 
 Please join us in Mexico City this summer!
 
 Ellie Young
 WMF Conference Coordinator
 
 * WMF and WM-MX are grateful to Conaculta and the Biblioteca Vasconcelos for 
 their kind offer to host the conference at the magnificent Biblioteca.  
 However, due to logistical issues, we had to  change the venue  to the Hilton 
 Hotel La Reforma. We will continue to work with both Conaculta and the 
 Biblioteca Vasconcelos to leverage the experience and capacity of all 
 institutions to generate and disseminate content that guarantees free and 
 open knowledge to the whole of society.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board of Trustee elections

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

+1 

 Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2015 10:51:25 -0400
 From: aleksey.bilo...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board of Trustee elections
 
 My two cents: no, no, no, absolutely not, by all means no, never.
 
 I am strongly, strongly, strongly opposed to such a move. The chapters
 already elect two members of the Board, and that's quite enough. When it
 comes to matters concerning strategic direction chapters are the movement
 equivalent of a political interest group. The Board is the entity
 ultimately responsible for the funding reigns, and I strongly suspect that
 such a move, *especially given the weakness of community response in
 elections*, would immediately result in an influx of chapter junkies who
 will vote as a nearly-united political bloc for whatever candidate promises
 a freer flow of money.
 
 The ramifications would be immediate. This is absolutely the wrongest
 possible direction to go in.
 
 

  
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editing Wikipedia for school community service hours

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I understand, but when you are selling this idea to an outside agency (in this 
case the Mexican education system) you have to focus on what they deem worthy 
to get their support/cooperation. Few educational institutions would argue that 
writing articles about art, history and science have impact on society but more 
than a few would raise eyebrows on articles about pop music or video games 
(although yes, there is always a portion today's junk entertainment that 
becomes tomorrow's classics.) There is so much that needs to be done on 
Wikipedia that there is a corner for just about everyone, but not everyone will 
see every topic area as worthwhile of course.

One issue I have now with a couple students is that they want to do all of 
their hours with Wikipedia but they cannot. Because one thing the authorities 
want is for students to spend time with people outside the university, 
especially the under-priviledged, the classic idea of community service. Im 
working of ways to work with this. I hate losing experienced Wikipedians any 
sooner than I have to!

Leigh



 Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2015 19:38:51 +0100
 From: rich...@farmbrough.co.uk
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editing Wikipedia for school community service 
 hours
 
 Content about businesses is potentially useful to people who need jobs.
 Television shows *are* cultural topics.
 
 I am uneasy about well intentioned attempts to define worthy and
 unworthy content.
 
 On 14 April 2015 at 02:28, Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com wrote:
 
  I agree that any community service type editing would have to be planned
  and done carefully as the type of work being done is everything. Obviously
  adding content about businesses and television shows would have no
  community impact, but documenting cultural topics, marginalized peoples,
  and the like very well could. Not to mention academic topics to the same
  communities as Wikipedia Zero serves. No sense students having free access
  if they information they need does not exist.
  Servicio social for Mexican universities also has an academic component,
  relating the service to their majors. María José has written a blog post,
  which is in the draft queue, about her experience which I hope gets
  published eventually.
  Leigh
 
 
 
   Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:03:50 -0400
   From: aleksey.bilo...@gmail.com
   To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
   CC: wikimedia-casca...@lists.wikimedia.org;
  wikimediau...@lists.wikimedia.org
   Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editing Wikipedia for school community
  service hours
  
   If editing Wikipedia counted as community service my school ought to
  start
   handing me plaques.
  
   Alas, it does not, for a host of legitimate reasons as I see it, ranging
   from academic uncertainty about the usefulness of doing so when it comes
  to
   community impact, to the sheer difficulty of actually measuring. More
   meaningful (and, in the spirit of things, selfless) to volunteer at a
  local
   Wikipedia editing event then to sit back in an armchair and do the whole
   first-world-netizen-at-a-computer thing.
  
   On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 8:57 PM, Pine W wiki.p...@gmail.com wrote:
  
Hi all,
   
Many schools in the United States encourage or require students to
  perform
community service hours, such as by cleaning up parks, caring for the
disabled, or tutoring younger students. Sometimes more specialized
requirements apply, such as university schools of education or health
  which
may require experience that is applicable to a student's desired
coursework. Contributing to Wikimedia is one form of accepted community
service in a multi-campus Mexican university, and the practice seems
  to be
gaining momentum (see
   
  https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/04/13/wiki-learning-edit-a-thon-mexico/).
   
These community service programs are different from in-class
  assignments
that require Wikipedia editing. Wikipedia can  benefit from both kinds
  of
activities.
   
I am wondering, have other Wikimedia affiliates had success with
encouraging students to complete community service requirements by
contributing to Wikimedia? I am thinking that here in Cascadia, we
  might
encourage schools to allow this option, and other affiliates also might
want to explore this possibility.
   
Thanks,
Pine
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editing Wikipedia for school community service hours

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I agree that any community service type editing would have to be planned and 
done carefully as the type of work being done is everything. Obviously adding 
content about businesses and television shows would have no community impact, 
but documenting cultural topics, marginalized peoples, and the like very well 
could. Not to mention academic topics to the same communities as Wikipedia Zero 
serves. No sense students having free access if they information they need does 
not exist.
Servicio social for Mexican universities also has an academic component, 
relating the service to their majors. María José has written a blog post, which 
is in the draft queue, about her experience which I hope gets published 
eventually. 
Leigh



 Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:03:50 -0400
 From: aleksey.bilo...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 CC: wikimedia-casca...@lists.wikimedia.org; wikimediau...@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editing Wikipedia for school community service 
 hours
 
 If editing Wikipedia counted as community service my school ought to start
 handing me plaques.
 
 Alas, it does not, for a host of legitimate reasons as I see it, ranging
 from academic uncertainty about the usefulness of doing so when it comes to
 community impact, to the sheer difficulty of actually measuring. More
 meaningful (and, in the spirit of things, selfless) to volunteer at a local
 Wikipedia editing event then to sit back in an armchair and do the whole
 first-world-netizen-at-a-computer thing.
 
 On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 8:57 PM, Pine W wiki.p...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Hi all,
 
  Many schools in the United States encourage or require students to perform
  community service hours, such as by cleaning up parks, caring for the
  disabled, or tutoring younger students. Sometimes more specialized
  requirements apply, such as university schools of education or health which
  may require experience that is applicable to a student's desired
  coursework. Contributing to Wikimedia is one form of accepted community
  service in a multi-campus Mexican university, and the practice seems to be
  gaining momentum (see
  https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/04/13/wiki-learning-edit-a-thon-mexico/).
 
  These community service programs are different from in-class assignments
  that require Wikipedia editing. Wikipedia can  benefit from both kinds of
  activities.
 
  I am wondering, have other Wikimedia affiliates had success with
  encouraging students to complete community service requirements by
  contributing to Wikimedia? I am thinking that here in Cascadia, we might
  encourage schools to allow this option, and other affiliates also might
  want to explore this possibility.
 
  Thanks,
  Pine
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of Wikimedia Community Brazilian Group of Education and Research

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Welcome!  Im definitely interested in what you all are doing!

 Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2015 06:28:49 -0500
 From: ma...@wikimedia.org.ve
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of Wikimedia Community Brazilian Group of 
 Education and Research
 
 Dear all,
 
 The Affiliations Commitee has approved the recognition[1] of the 
 Wikimedia Community Brazilian Group of Education and Research as a 
 Wikimedia User Group. The focus[2] of this new group is the integration 
 of the Brazilian and Lusophone academic community into the Wikimedia 
 movement, thus supporting the development of new projects, research, 
 contests, events and other activities.
 
 Please, join us in welcoming the newest member of the family!
 
 Parabéns e tudo de bom!
 
 Carlos
 
 1: 
 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Wikimedia_Community_Brazilian_Group_of_Education_and_Research_-_Liaison_approval,_April_2015
 2: 
 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Brazilian_Group_of_Education_and_Research/User_Group_Proposal
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Ciritical level for addiction to Wikipedia

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

uy!  I have 77617. Can I excuse myself by saying that much of that is combined 
with my work as a teacher using WP with students?

 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 18:19:24 +0100
 From: ricordisa...@openmailbox.org
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Ciritical level for addiction to Wikipedia
 
 Il 04/03/2015 17:44, Anders Wennersten ha scritto:
  On svwp there has over the years been 45 individuals who have each 
  made more then 38000 edits.
  Of these 45, 44 are still active, only one has  left (in 2009) making 
  97,7 still around. For the users with less then 38 000 edits, only 
  about 6 out of 10 is still active.
 
  Is this a global valid number, that when you have made 38000 edits you 
  are fully addicted to Wikipedia (until death do us part)?
 
 
  Anders
 
 
 I've just exceeded 38000 global edits 
 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Ricordisamoa. I'm 
 done for!
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] 200 000 articles on Slovak Wikipedia

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Congratulations!

 Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:48:57 +0100
 From: michal.matu...@wikimedia.sk
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] 200 000 articles on Slovak Wikipedia
 
 Dear community,
 
 On February 5th 2015 the Slovak Wikipedia reached 200 000 articles and 
 is the 35th largest Wikipedia by number of articles.
 
 Chapter-to-be Wikimedia Slovakia send press release and it was 
 republished by TASR (Slovak press agency) - 
 http://www.teraz.sk/magazin/slovenska-wikipedia-dvestotisic-clankov/119561-clanok.html
 
 Especially nice was interview for new but famous journal Denník N with 
 lots of details about everyday editing and preview of future of 
 (especially Slovak) Wikipedia: 
 https://dennikn.sk/46502/slovenska-wikipedia-ma-22-milionov-zobrazeni-mesacne/
 
 Cheers!
 
 -- 
 Michal Matúšov
 [[:w:sk:Redaktor:KuboF]]
 Wikimedia Slovenská republika
 Dom služieb ALFA
 Februárová 1478/2
 958 01 Partizánske
 predseda / president
 Web: http://wikimedia.sk
 Facebook: www.facebook.com/WikimediaSK
 Twitter: https://twitter.com/WikimediaSK
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Record for edit-a-thon production?

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Thanks for the info. The reason I am asking is that Tec de Monterrey is holding 
an edit a thon on three campuses March 4-6. The reason it is so long is that 
these days are set aside for major project work. Students work on one of 
various projects options as part of a program called Experiencias Retadoras 
(Challenging Experiences).  With luck, we can break or set a record for the 
number of bytes added or # of articles or # of participants as a way to 
motivate students.

I dont know yet how many students will be participating(but it will be higher 
than anything Ive seen in meta), but they will all come from rhetoric and 
foreign language classes.  To prepare, students in these classes will have 
already done either a photo upload/a translation/creation of a new article 
before the 4th of March (several classes have already finished this). 
Essentially, they will do another round of the same or similar during the 
edit-a-thon, but at a higher level since they are already familiar with how 
Wikipedia works. Most students will be uploading photographs or translating 
featured or good quality articles into es.wiki but some will be working on the 
creation of new articles.

We have a page on es.wiki at 
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editat%C3%B3n:Experiencias_retadoras



 Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 20:30:52 -0800
 From: wiki.p...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Record for edit-a-thon production?
 
 Just noting here that I'm looking forward to seeing the results from this
 year's program evaluation reporting, since this information will be useful
 for setting goals for projects and campaigns.
 
 Cheers,
 
 Pine
 
 *This is an Encyclopedia* https://www.wikipedia.org/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
 our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
 must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
 which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
 fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
 know.*
 
 *—Catherine Munro*
 
 On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:08 PM, Jaime Anstee jans...@wikimedia.org wrote:
 
  Hi Leigh,
 
  We know for some editathons which have been voluntarily reported.  You can
  see what was reported to us in the first round of programs evaluation
  reports at:
 
 
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/Evaluation_reports/2013/Edit-a-thons
 
  The learning and evaluation team is currently in the middle of filling-in
  data gaps and pulling metrics for a second round of programs evaluation
  reporting this year that will include more data.  You can read more in our
  recent blog at:
 
  http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/01/29/fill-in-the-gaps/
 
 
  Best,
 
  Jaime
 
 
  --
 
  Jaime Anstee, Ph.D
  Program Evaluation Specialist
  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 https://donate.wikimedia.org/*
 
 
  On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 5:12 PM, Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com
  wrote:
 
   Is there any record for the number of articles/bytes added to Wikipedia
   from an edit-a-thon?
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[Wikimedia-l] Record for edit-a-thon production?

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Is there any record for the number of articles/bytes added to Wikipedia from an 
edit-a-thon?  
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement regarding Host for Wikimania 2016

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Congratulations on the official annoucement. I very much look forward to 
helping out with the education programming!
Leigh


 Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:15:38 +0100
 From: q...@wikimedia.org
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement regarding Host for Wikimania 2016
 
 On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 7:34 AM, Ivan Martínez gala...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 
On the recommendation of the Wikimania 2016 selection Jury Committee,
  we
   have accepted the proposal from the Esino Lario Italy team.
 
 
 Congratulations to the bold candidates and to the bold jury that accept
 them!
 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esino_Lario
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Esino_Lario
 
 Esino Lario looks like a perfect location for an event like Wikimania, for
 a community like Wikimedia. Decentralization is a key aspect of our
 movement, and having events out of the usual global hubs is a necessity.
 
 -- 
 Quim Gil
 Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
 http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Why WMF should reconsider the 3-month gender gap project-related decision

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I dont think the issue is the idea of encouraging projects that increase the 
participation of women, but rather the message that everything else is getting 
shoved aside.  

I dont see this as sexism and playing that card is counter-productive.  

What I suggest is that instead of saying that for three months everyone else is 
 sidelined, focus on inclusion.  If there arent enough or good enough projects 
for addressing the number of women participating in Wikipedia, perhaps we 
should look into why. Perhaps also look into the Foundation directly reaching 
out to women's groups for collaborative purposes.

But the OP does have a point. By telling certain groups we are not interested 
in you right now you are playing an us-against-them game and quite probably 
causing more harm than good.


Leigh


 Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 09:03:40 -0500
 From: nawr...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Why WMF should reconsider the 3-month gender gap 
 project-related decision
 
 You certainly put a lot of time and effort into being wrong. Any first year
 undergraduate writing course will tell you that to make an argument you
 need to address the counter-arguments, which you have failed even to
 mention. Diversity of contributors isn't a social justice goal, or even a
 cultural engineering goal. It is aimed squarely at increasing the diversity
 and caliber of content. Not only does the small proportion of women mean
 that millions of them with huge amounts of expertise to contribute are
 unheard, it also means that their perspective and approach are
 underrepresented or missing entirely.
 
 And yes, the same is true for others - not only African-Americans, but
 Africans. Not only people of Indo-Asian descent, but the people of the
 Indian subcontinent itself. This is not an American movement, yet the
 global south is deeply under-represented, and the WMF has been working
 for years to address this issue. This is, again, because diversity of
 contributors matters for the breadth and depth of coverage in our projects.
 The goal of the Wikimedia movement is the sum of all human knowledge, not
 the sum of knowledge held by white men between 15 and 35 living in Europe
 and North America.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Organizational effectiveness tool (for Wikimedia organizations)

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I assume this survey is only for organizations that have been recognized by 
AffCom? We are still struggling to get ours (despite the fact that we are one 
of the most productive educational groups), so I thought Id at least answer the 
questionnairre, but under name of organization the only option is to select 
from a group of pre-determined names. This even though the instructions say 
that they welcome responses from informal groups.


 Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2014 13:31:00 +0100
 From: claudia.ga...@wikimedia.at
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Organizational effectiveness tool (for Wikimedia 
 organizations)
 
 Thank you for this initiative and all the hard work that went into 
 creating these tools and resources! I'm really looking forward to the 
 results and learnings of the next steps.
 
 At the moment, from our perspective the biggest challenge of the planned 
 process is to overcome the language barrier: If we want to include our 
 volunteers, especially the non-Board members, we'll have to translate 
 the questionnaire and some general information first.
 While this is probably doable for German or French quickly enough to 
 meet the deadline on December 21, it might be a major challenge for 
 smaller langugage communities.
 
 Would it be possible for interested organizations to get in touch with 
 the Foundation in order to get help in this regard?
 
 Best
 Claudia
 --
 Executive Director
 
 Wikimedia Österreich - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
 Siebensterngasse 25/15
 1070 Wien
 Austria
 +43 699 141 28615
 www.wikimedia.at http://www.wikimedia.at/
 
 
 Am 01.12.2014 um 22:56 schrieb Anasuya Sengupta:
  tl;dr Request for Wikimedia organizations to take a survey on
  organizational effectiveness, that will help us understand and support each
  other better: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OEQuestionnaire
 
 
  Dear friends and colleagues of the Wikimedia movement:
 
  The Wikimedia Foundation's Grantmaking team has initiated a project with
  TCC Group - a consulting firm focused on social impact - and the larger
  Wikimedia communities, to help Wikimedia organizations of all shapes and
  sizes (including user groups, chapters, and thematic organizations), to
  improve their effectiveness and their ability to have impact for the
  movement. The project was initiated in response to growing interest and
  conversations by volunteers and organizations, to better understand how
  organizations in particular have impact in the Wikimedia movement, which is
  unique in that it is online, growing extraordinarily fast, and created and
  supported almost entirely by volunteers.
 
  The project seeks to help Wikimedia organizations better understand 1) how
  impact is defined from an organizational perspective in their contexts, 2)
  what strategies Wikimedia organizations use to achieve that impact, and 3)
  what resources and skills Wikimedia organizations may need to be more
  effective in the strategies they choose to pursue.
 
  In the first “impact” stage of the project, TCC interviewed several
  organizations, administered an impact survey to all organizations, and
  attended Wikimania 2014 in London where the project was discussed with
  AffCom, an informal organizational effectiveness working group, the FDC and
  other grantmaking committees, as well as many other individuals in the
  movement. TCC also conducted in-depth research on three organizations,
  resulting in case studies illustrating different organizational models
  leading to impact. Many thanks to those of you who took your valuable time
  to participate in one or more of these exchanges; Wikimedians around the
  globe created the foundation for this work.
 
  The second and third stages of the project involve development of an online
  organizational effectiveness questionnaire, a user guide to help
  organizations interpret their results, and an organizational effectiveness
  learning center, which may help organizations think about the different
  strategies they are using and how they could build specific capacities to
  be more successful with those strategies.
 
  *Learning center:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_effectiveness/Learning_center.
 
 
  *User guide:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_effectiveness/Tool/User_guide
 
  *Questionnaire text:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_effectiveness/Tool/Questionnaire
 
  *Link to take questionnaire (can be used once per IP address, but more
  links can be requested): https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OEQuestionnaire
 
  The learning center is intended to be a base from which Wikimedia
  organizations can grow their knowledge and share their own experiences and
  best practices. TCC worked closely with a handful of Wikimedia volunteers
  from different organizations to design the Questionnaire you are about to
  take.
 
  Wikimedia Foundation has provided funding for this project and has
  consulted closely 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Organizational effectiveness tool (for Wikimedia organizations)

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

OK I see now the box for other not as an option for a name (which is how 
these things are usually set up) but underneath the original question.

From: osama...@hotmail.com
To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: RE: [Wikimedia-l] Organizational effectiveness tool (for Wikimedia 
organizations)
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2014 06:27:14 -0700




I assume this survey is only for organizations that have been recognized by 
AffCom? We are still struggling to get ours (despite the fact that we are one 
of the most productive educational groups), so I thought Id at least answer the 
questionnairre, but under name of organization the only option is to select 
from a group of pre-determined names. This even though the instructions say 
that they welcome responses from informal groups.


 Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2014 13:31:00 +0100
 From: claudia.ga...@wikimedia.at
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Organizational effectiveness tool (for Wikimedia 
 organizations)
 
 Thank you for this initiative and all the hard work that went into 
 creating these tools and resources! I'm really looking forward to the 
 results and learnings of the next steps.
 
 At the moment, from our perspective the biggest challenge of the planned 
 process is to overcome the language barrier: If we want to include our 
 volunteers, especially the non-Board members, we'll have to translate 
 the questionnaire and some general information first.
 While this is probably doable for German or French quickly enough to 
 meet the deadline on December 21, it might be a major challenge for 
 smaller langugage communities.
 
 Would it be possible for interested organizations to get in touch with 
 the Foundation in order to get help in this regard?
 
 Best
 Claudia
 --
 Executive Director
 
 Wikimedia Österreich - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
 Siebensterngasse 25/15
 1070 Wien
 Austria
 +43 699 141 28615
 www.wikimedia.at http://www.wikimedia.at/
 
 
 Am 01.12.2014 um 22:56 schrieb Anasuya Sengupta:
  tl;dr Request for Wikimedia organizations to take a survey on
  organizational effectiveness, that will help us understand and support each
  other better: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OEQuestionnaire
 
 
  Dear friends and colleagues of the Wikimedia movement:
 
  The Wikimedia Foundation's Grantmaking team has initiated a project with
  TCC Group - a consulting firm focused on social impact - and the larger
  Wikimedia communities, to help Wikimedia organizations of all shapes and
  sizes (including user groups, chapters, and thematic organizations), to
  improve their effectiveness and their ability to have impact for the
  movement. The project was initiated in response to growing interest and
  conversations by volunteers and organizations, to better understand how
  organizations in particular have impact in the Wikimedia movement, which is
  unique in that it is online, growing extraordinarily fast, and created and
  supported almost entirely by volunteers.
 
  The project seeks to help Wikimedia organizations better understand 1) how
  impact is defined from an organizational perspective in their contexts, 2)
  what strategies Wikimedia organizations use to achieve that impact, and 3)
  what resources and skills Wikimedia organizations may need to be more
  effective in the strategies they choose to pursue.
 
  In the first “impact” stage of the project, TCC interviewed several
  organizations, administered an impact survey to all organizations, and
  attended Wikimania 2014 in London where the project was discussed with
  AffCom, an informal organizational effectiveness working group, the FDC and
  other grantmaking committees, as well as many other individuals in the
  movement. TCC also conducted in-depth research on three organizations,
  resulting in case studies illustrating different organizational models
  leading to impact. Many thanks to those of you who took your valuable time
  to participate in one or more of these exchanges; Wikimedians around the
  globe created the foundation for this work.
 
  The second and third stages of the project involve development of an online
  organizational effectiveness questionnaire, a user guide to help
  organizations interpret their results, and an organizational effectiveness
  learning center, which may help organizations think about the different
  strategies they are using and how they could build specific capacities to
  be more successful with those strategies.
 
  *Learning center:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_effectiveness/Learning_center.
 
 
  *User guide:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_effectiveness/Tool/User_guide
 
  *Questionnaire text:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_effectiveness/Tool/Questionnaire
 
  *Link to take questionnaire (can be used once per IP address, but more
  links can be requested): https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OEQuestionnaire
 
  The learning center is intended to be a base from 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Best promo videos?

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

They are rare because they are not easy to make!  

 From: a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk
 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:40:59 +0100
 To: wikimediau...@lists.wikimedia.org; wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Best promo videos?
 
 [NB: cross-posted]
 
 I'm in need of a couple of short videos, promoting Wikipedia and its
 sister projects, to show at an event. It's surprisingly hard to find
 them!
 
 We have lots of videos in:
 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_project_videos
 
 but many, while no doubt useful for their educational content, are not
 the kind of things to show to a lay audience - either the quality is
 not high enough, or the content is too specific.
 
 I'm looking for things with impact, like
 

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AOpen_Letter_for_Free_Access_to_Wikipedia_-_three_months_later%2C_MTN_responds.webm
 
 Suggestions, please! 
 
 -- 
 Andy Mabbett
 @pigsonthewing
 http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Best promo videos?

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Very true, Andy.  

I should mention here that although its not a Wikimedia community video, 
documentary filmmaker has a really nice clip on a primary school class in Peru 
which wrote the Wikipedia article for its village. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOUOnIabrRE  Tec de Monterrey had the filmmaker 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kleiman) present the entire documentary 
to our campus, but this clip served as inspiration for the Mati Wiki pilot 
project 
(http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/M%C3%A9xico/Tec_de_Monterrey/Mati_Wiki)
 which is going on right now. The project has my campus collaborating with 
three Mexico City primary schools to create articles and other content related 
to the colonias (official neighborhoods) where the schools are located, with 
Tec providing technical and other support.

So videos can have an impact!



 From: a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk
 Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 15:24:26 +0100
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Best promo videos?
 
 On 22 October 2014 13:58, Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com wrote:
 
  They are rare because they are not easy to make!
 
 All the more reason to make the ones we have easier to find!
 
 -- 
 Andy Mabbett
 @pigsonthewing
 http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] translation by importing articles

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

this is cool, I can easily see that at least some of my articles are being 
translated to German!

 Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2014 16:33:52 +0200
 From: nemow...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] translation by importing articles
 
 Amir E. Aharoni, 04/10/2014 15:09:
 
  Is it a usual practice in the German Wikipedia?
 
 Yes.
 
  What is the reason for it?
 
 GFDL
 
  Is there a policy page about it?
 
 Probably in the neighbourhood of 
 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Importw%C3%BCnsche
 
  Are there are Wikipedia projects that do this?
 
 No, only German projects.
 The list of projects which make special use of import is at 
 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Importer
 
 Nemo
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

For what its worth, I just added another 2 cents over at 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Future_of_the_Wikimedia_Conference



 From: e...@wikimanialondon.org
 Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:58:00 +0100
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015
 
 The name of a conference is typically a descriptor of the contents of the
 programme rather than of the attendees :)
 
 *Edward Saperia*
 Conference Director Wikimania London http://www.wikimanialondon.org
 email e...@wikimanialondon.org • facebook
 http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia • twitter
 http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia • 07796955572
 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
 
 On 12 September 2014 13:49, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  It's not the word Conference, is the word Wikimedia that address people to
  consider it as an event for the Wikimedia movement.
 
  On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Chris Keating chriskeatingw...@gmail.com
  
  wrote:
 
   The word Conference doesn't in itself imply that an event is open or
   closed.
  
   C
   On 12 Sep 2014 13:06, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com wrote:
  
But Wikimania is not only a Wikimedia Conference.
   
It's a conference open to all people outside the Wikimedia movement.
   
If the name should be as much as possible explicative, the switch
  from
Wikimania to Wikimedia Conference is inappropriate.
   
On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 12:17 PM, Wil Sinclair w...@wllm.com wrote:
   

 We can be both more sensible and sensitive by calling this conference
 something else. As has been suggested, Wikimedia Conference (maybe
 WikiCon for short) would be more appropriate.

 ,Wil

 On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 1:41 AM, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com
  
 wrote:

  I would really appreciate if the discussion can move in other
   questions
  concerning for instance the cost saving and the participation
  instead
of
  speaking of a name.


   
--
Ilario Valdelli
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Wikipedia: Ilario https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ilario
Skype: valdelli
Facebook: Ilario Valdelli https://www.facebook.com/ivaldelli
Twitter: Ilario Valdelli https://twitter.com/ilariovaldelli
Linkedin: Ilario Valdelli 
   http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6724469

Tel: +41764821371
http://www.wikimedia.ch
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  --
  Ilario Valdelli
  Wikimedia CH
  Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
  Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
  Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
  Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
  Wikipedia: Ilario https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ilario
  Skype: valdelli
  Facebook: Ilario Valdelli https://www.facebook.com/ivaldelli
  Twitter: Ilario Valdelli https://twitter.com/ilariovaldelli
  Linkedin: Ilario Valdelli http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6724469
  
  Tel: +41764821371
  http://www.wikimedia.ch
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

AHEM  it is *NOT* easy to create a user group, especially if a chapter is 
against it.  Look at how long the Wiki Borregos application has been left in 
limbo by Aff Comm and Ive saved some real doozies of emails from several 
members of said committee.

Just a small taste... one of the first objections they had to our application 
was that the term Borregos (ram in Spanish) was a trademark of the Tec de 
Monterrey... and we are a group of students and faculty from the same 
institution!






 Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:26:24 -0400
 From: risker...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015
 
 I'm with James and Isarra here.  Only a small minority of Wikimedians are
 part of chapters and affiliated groups; being a member of an organized
 group has nothing to do with being a Wikimedian, or even directly with
 Wikimedia itself.  This is an exclusionary conference - not only do you
 have to be a member of one of these groups (or otherwise receive an
 invitation based on role within the WMF structure or as a speaker) to
 attend, but the conference isn't even open to all members of those groups.
 
 Please do not call it the Wikimedia conference.  It may be many things,
 but it's not that.  Wikimedia Affiliates Conference will do fine.
 
 Risker/Anne
 
 On 11 September 2014 15:12, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  On 11.09.2014 20:48, Isarra Yos wrote:
 
 
  I'm part of the Wikimedia movement, but there are no chapters nearby, nor
  are there any user groups that I know of relevant to my interests as yet.
  Thus there is nobody to represent me but myself.
 
  If this is Wikimedia, why can't I go to a Wikimedia conference?
 
  -I
 
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  You may create your own user group and participate.
 
  I suppose that all people participating in Wikimedia conference don't
  represent their own (personal) interests (or they should not).
 
  If you participate in a project it's not so hard to create an user group.
  All projects are based on collaboration of individuals, so it should be not
  hard to find other members sharing the same interests.
 
  Wikisource created its own, for instance, and they don't need a single
  chapter to represent their position.
 
  Regards
 
  --
  Ilario Valdelli
  Wikimedia CH
  Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
  Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
  Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
  Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
  Tel: +41764821371
  http://www.wikimedia.ch
 
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

If it is to be limited to certain people, why not just have a pre conference 
with Wikimania? 

 Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 23:36:36 +0200
 From: zvand...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015
 
 There is  no reason to change the name, and no reason to invent a second
 Wikimania. Also because of finances, the Spring meeting should be really
 limited to people who make the movement work better.
 I repeat that, in my opinion, some newer or smaller organisations don't fit
 really in, or should not be represented with as many people as an older or
 larger organisation. For newcomers I could imagine regional meetings with a
 special focus to their needs.
 It is certainly possible to improve the meeting by some better planning.
 For a jolly Let's come all together and have a nice chat about anything
 it is just too expensive...
 Kind regards
 Ziko
 
 
 
 Am Donnerstag, 11. September 2014 schrieb Alice Wiegand :
 
  Is this really a discussion about the name of a conference or is it more a
  discussion about inclusion and exclusion with the underlying question if
  this conference, which once was set up as a meeting for the organizations
  within the Wikimedia movement, should be open for non-organized Wikimedians
  as well. Which would probably be a different conference.
 
  Alice.
 
  On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 10:27 PM, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com javascript:;
  wrote:
 
   On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 4:13 PM, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com
  javascript:; wrote:
  
The name could be changed if the participants/organisers want to change
   it.
As I tried to point out, I don't see the name as the underlying problem
people really have, and changing it will not solve the problem of
   exclusion
people see.
   
We can make a conference that has a participants list that involves
   people
that *should *or at least the people that really *want* to be there, we
   can
also rename the conference for the people that *are *currently there
  and
forget about those that want and should be there. I'd rather focus on
  the
former.
   
Regardless, I do feel an emotional connection to the name and I expect
   many
people that have participated or organised it might feel this and I
appreciate that those who have not been there can see it as a minor
  thing
that can be changed without any cost. It might not be perfect, but it
   does
have history and I do contend that the people that first started using
  it
are Wikimedia, and they should not feel guilty about having come up
  with
the idea first. Indeed, at this time, resources have been invested into
   the
name and confusion is ebbing around the Wikimedia Conference name due
   to
the years of history behind it.
   
But in closing, I will once again point to my statements that names are
symbolic and they can be changed. If the participants change the name
   that
sends a totally different vibe than if the change is imposed on the
participants, even if the end result is the same new name.
   
Best regards,
Bence
  
  
   If the as-yet undetermined organizers choose to name it Wikimedia
   Conference, then I suppose no one will act to force them to stop. But we
   are Wikimedia as much as the organizers and participants are, as much as
   hundreds of thousands of volunteers are. In a Wikimedia Conference you
   might expect it to be open to those Wikimedians. With a  narrower theme
  of
   governance, I doubt the prediction of it morphing into a second Wikimania
   would come true.
  
   And while I accept your assertion that the name has history and meaning
  to
   those who have participated there, I remain skeptical at the power the
  name
   holds for you and others. It is, as you'll agree, a fairly generic name.
   And less than a handful of events over as many years does not a venerable
   tradition make. So I would hope that the organizers, whoever they turn
  out
   to be, will make the simple gesture of adding a single word to the name
  of
   the event. It is still Wikimedia; it's just aimed at affiliates, those
  who
   organize and have attended the event up through now.
  
   Indeed, the conference of affiliates that you've attended in the past is
   valuable and worthy. I'd suggest you allow others interested to attend if
   resources permit, but I wouldn't ask you to fundamentally alter the
  nature
   of the event. Merely make it clear whom you represent, so that others
  don't
   feel you claim to represent them when you do not -- as Ilario seemed to
   with his principle of delegation comment.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Catching copy and pasting early

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I dont know if we have to work with Turn-it-in per se. Given that most 
copy-paste is from digital sources, we could start with a program/tool to 
search the web, which could lessen the burden on editors significantly by 
itself. (Speaking as a writing teacher, I can tell you this is how I find proof 
of the majority of plagiarism instances... people are often not-too-smart when 
they are cheating).

If this works, I bet we could then work with some of the databases to allow the 
access needed to check, as it would require only excepts from the text, not the 
entire text... enough to justify a revert.

Granted this would not catch everything (no system does) but it would be a very 
good step in the right direction.



 Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 10:15:44 +0200
 From: rupert.thur...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Catching copy and pasting early
 
 hi james, this sounds interesting. the only obstacle i see is that neither
 the service nor the software nor the database are open. by using turnitin
 we would give up on the principle of opening contents, at least in this
 area. this might be perceived bad for opening content, editor retention,
 and gaining new editors.
 
 from a turnitin standpoint this might be marketing until they are well
 known. as soon their goals are reached there is danger this will be
 discontinued or the terms changed to be not acceptable any more.
 
 technical and license obstacles do exist. to properly check wikipedia
 editors would need access to restricted content. either content is copied
 somewhere in the open, permission granted for all, or in the worst case, a
 restricted number of editors.
 
 not to forget is potential link spam. turnitin would put links to a site
 not in control of the movement all over the place. they could without
 problems put other content behind the links at any time.
 
 but, i do think one could find a less risky and more open way to do check
 for plagiarism. one might find better ways to access wikipedia dumps,
 better access to recent changes, permission to automatically report back
 issues, nitification of contributors and admins. all in a kind of
 standardized way (i.e. well defined interface), and most important, usable
 by everybody, for free.
 
 rupert
  Am 21.07.2014 04:05 schrieb Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com:
 
  This is one of the best ideas Ive read on here!
 
 
   Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:00:28 -0600
   From: jmh...@gmail.com
   To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org; eloque...@gmail.com;
  fschulenb...@wikimedia.org; ladsgr...@gmail.com; jorlow...@gmail.com;
  madman.enw...@gmail.com; west.andre...@gmail.com
   Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Catching copy and pasting early
  
   Come across another few thousand edits of copy and paste violations again
   today. These have occurred over more than a year. It is wearing me out.
   Really what is the point on collaborating on Wikipedia if it is simply a
   copyright violation. We need a solution and one has been proposed here a
   couple of years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Turnitin
  
   We now need programmers to carry it out. The Wiki Education Foundation
  has
   expressed interest. We will need support from the foundation as this
   software will likely need to mesh closely with edits as they come in. I
  am
   willing to offer $5,000 dollars Canadian (almost the same as American)
  for
   a working solution that tags potential copyright issues in near real time
   with a greater than 90% accuracy. It is to function on at least all
  medical
   and pharmacology articles but I would not complain if it worked on all of
   Wikipedia. The WMF is free to apply.
  
   --
   James Heilman
   MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
  
   The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
   www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Catching copy and pasting early

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

This is one of the best ideas Ive read on here!


 Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:00:28 -0600
 From: jmh...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org; eloque...@gmail.com; 
 fschulenb...@wikimedia.org; ladsgr...@gmail.com; jorlow...@gmail.com; 
 madman.enw...@gmail.com; west.andre...@gmail.com
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Catching copy and pasting early
 
 Come across another few thousand edits of copy and paste violations again
 today. These have occurred over more than a year. It is wearing me out.
 Really what is the point on collaborating on Wikipedia if it is simply a
 copyright violation. We need a solution and one has been proposed here a
 couple of years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Turnitin
 
 We now need programmers to carry it out. The Wiki Education Foundation has
 expressed interest. We will need support from the foundation as this
 software will likely need to mesh closely with edits as they come in. I am
 willing to offer $5,000 dollars Canadian (almost the same as American) for
 a working solution that tags potential copyright issues in near real time
 with a greater than 90% accuracy. It is to function on at least all medical
 and pharmacology articles but I would not complain if it worked on all of
 Wikipedia. The WMF is free to apply.
 
 -- 
 James Heilman
 MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
 
 The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
 www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Interference in workshop for professors

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Thank you... there is a message on Hahc21's talk page.

 Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 01:21:44 -0430
 From: hah...@gmail.com
 To: wiki.p...@gmail.com
 CC: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Interference in workshop for professors
 
 How can I help?
 
 
 2014-07-04 0:20 GMT-04:30 Pine W wiki.p...@gmail.com:
 
  Sounds like a local issue for ES wiki. I'll ask Hahc21 to look at this.
 
  Pine
 
 
  On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 3:21 PM, Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com
  wrote:
 
  es.wiki creating user pages
 
   Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 00:20:26 +0200
   From: nemow...@gmail.com
   To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
   Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Interference in workshop for professors
  
   Risker, 04/07/2014 00:15:
What project(s) are you working on?
  
   Bibliotecarios = es.wiki crat-sysops.
  
   Nemo
  
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[Wikimedia-l] Interference in workshop for professors

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I am, at this moment, trying to give a workshop on Wikipedia to professors and 
they are having their own user pages being speedily deleted by  Tarawa1943   
and Taichi   We have sent polite messages to them and bibliotecarios (admins) 
but the deletions continue.  Suggestions

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Interference in workshop for professors

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

es.wiki creating user pages

 Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 00:20:26 +0200
 From: nemow...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Interference in workshop for professors
 
 Risker, 04/07/2014 00:15:
  What project(s) are you working on?
 
 Bibliotecarios = es.wiki crat-sysops.
 
 Nemo
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Israel received the Roaring Lion Award for the Hebrew Wikipedia 10th anniversary PR

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Felicidades!!!

 From: gerard.meijs...@gmail.com
 Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 01:35:15 +0200
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Israel 
 received the Roaring Lion Award for the Hebrew Wikipedia 10th anniversary PR
 
 Hoi,
 Congratulations..
 
 Many awards are known at Wikidata and, the Roaring Lion Award is now one
 of them. Given that the Israeli chapter received this award, the item for
 the chapter has been updated with this fact. Also added were its creation
 date and the fact that it is a chapter.
 
 It turns out that many chapters are not known on Wikidata.. Have a look [1]
 if your chapter is known and maybe you want to create an item for your
 chapter..
 Thanks,
  GerardM
 
 [1] http://tools.wmflabs.org/reasonator/?q=15924535
 
 
 On 3 July 2014 17:55, Itzik - Wikimedia Israel it...@wikimedia.org.il
 wrote:
 
  Hey,
 
  I'm very excited to share that last night, we received the award at an
  event presence with of hundreds of guests (Picture of the award:
  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roaring_Lion_2014_award_to_Wikimedia_Israel.jpg
  )
 
  The Roaring Lion competition is an award for excellence within Israel's
  communications and public relations industry awarded by the Israel Public
  Relations Associations. The campaign was chosen among many, judged by a
  committee of public relations executives, academics and public figures.
 
  Last July the Hebrew Wikipedia celebrated her 10th anniversary. The
  celebrations were followed by massive press coverage - TV radio, internet
  and print. You can give a look on some of them in our Press Book:
 
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9iobJg3Vpp0bDdKaDExNmU2VEU/edit?usp=sharing
 
  The strategy was to show the volunteers – the people behind the projects,
  so each cover presented another volunteer. To show the power of Wikipedia
  we collected a lot of numbers such the most viewed articles of the last 5
  years, numbers of edits, words and many others – which leads to many items
  covering the history of HEWP.
 
  But besides arranging massive coverage for the celebrations we were
  looking for a special way to celebrate – to do something that has never
  been done before. The result was a unique collaboration with TV Channel 2,
  the most viewed channel in Israel! For an entire week, five of the most
  senior Channel 2 reporters, who learned to edit Wikipedia by our
  volunteers, wrote or extended an article on Hebrew Wikipedia. Then, each
  recorded a one minute video, explaining why they have decided to write on
  this specific topic. Every day, just before the evening news broadcast, the
  video was broadcasted and while the anchor presented the project, he
  explained we wanted to celebrate Wikipedia’s 10th anniversary and show
  that everyone can write an article on Wikipedia. Happy Birthday Wikipedia!”
 
  Due the success of the project Channel 2 decided to broadcast it all over
  again on the week after. According to the ratings records 2.033 million
  people (cumulatively) watched the project. On the celebrations month pages
  views on Hebrew Wikipedia showed increase of 12% (compare to 1%
  internationally) and increase of 12% in new articles (compare to 14%
  internationally decrease).
 
  You can watch them the videos (translated to English) on our Youtube
  Channel:
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuQcXKjU3rwJ-TOL8lyru7oHvoufnWtED
 
  I wish to thank all the volunteers who take part making this happen, to
  the Wikimedia Israel team, and to Gidoen Amichay who supported and helped
  lead the Channel 2 cooperation.
 
 
 
  *Regards,Itzik Edri*
  Chairperson and Spokesperson, Wikimedia Israel
  +972-(0)-54-5878078 | http://www.wikimedia.org.il
  Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
  sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment!
 
 
 
 
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] WMF Board of Trustees: Minutes of April 2014 meeting

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I am very happy to see the discussion of user groups and the concern about 
their lack of formation.  Hopefully, the process can be amended to fit better 
to what was originally envisioned.


From: slapo...@wikimedia.org
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 01:49:53 +0200
To: wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] WMF Board of Trustees: Minutes 
of April2014 meeting

Hello all,
 
We have published the minutes from the Board's April 2014 meeting in San
Francisco, which you may find here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2014-04-25
 
-- 
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
 
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer.*

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

 Obviously, having more user groups would be great, but we do not currently
 know how many are not being created due to the process.
 It is entirely possible, that the creation of active user groups (without
 further investments and interventions into seeding communities) is
 currently maxed out already. 
This cannot be true because we know of at least one group with established 
contact, a web page and a history of projects which is NOT recognized. If even 
one group, especially one with a track record, is being marginalized under the 
current process, that process needs to be looked at.

If I understand the rest of Bence's email, the issues seem to be that 1) 
approving more groups may mean a higher rate of failure and 2) more groups 
means that resources (time, money) will be taken from established groups.
If these are the main concerns, why create the categories of thematic groups 
and user groups in the first place?   Why does AffComm place a higher priority 
on already-recognized groups over those looking already working but lacking the 
same status?  Is anyone on AffCom not already part of a chapter or other 
recognized affiliate?  If not, who speaks for those who are still outside the 
system?









 From: bdamo...@gmail.com
 Date: Sat, 31 May 2014 14:17:13 +0200
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Samuel Klein s...@wikimedia.org wrote:
 
  On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 3:48 PM, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   Also, somewhat unfortunately in my view, there is a requirement for user
   groups is to have a history of projects, which was not further defined
   but in theory makes it impossible to form a user group before there has
   been a history.
 
  I see, thank you for explaining.  I believe this refers to the language in
 
  https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Recognizing_Models_of_Affiliations
 
  Would it be more helpful if the clause you mention were changed to
  read an established contact person and a wikipage describing the
  group's activity?  I believe that is equally representative of the
  thinking behind the resolution.
 
  If the the Board can remedy unfortunate wording that is slowing things
  down, I will propose a change right away.
 
 Yes, that would be an improvement and closer to the current interpretation.
 
 
 
   In any case, the more automation and simplification we can introduce into
   the process, the better.
 
  Agreed.  :)
 
 
  Greg writes:
   Bence describes it a bit more, but basically a request comes in, someone
  is
   assigned it, we ask them some questions, if that person feels okay or
   doesn't have questions, they send the info to the group, post a
  resolution,
   and we vote.
 
  If the process can't be done in a single pass, it's probably too
  complicated.
 
  Compare the process of forming a Meetup group.  There are basic
  standards of behavior and usage -- applied via review after the fact,
  soft-security style -- and measures of activity.  But as soon as you
  finish filling out a form describing your group, it has been created +
  is visible online + has its events included in a global calendar, and
  starts to get updates and support.
 
 I might be mistaken, but meetup.com groups cost money to maintain, don't
 they? (And that might itself be a security feature.)
 
 Obviously, having more user groups would be great, but we do not currently
 know how many are not being created due to the process.
 It is entirely possible, that the creation of active user groups (without
 further investments and interventions into seeding communities) is
 currently maxed out already. Even in the case of review after the fact, we
 might just be shifting the burden on volunteers down the line in time to
 prove that they have measured up to the requirements. (On the other hand,
 it is also a possible hypothesis, that there is a ratio of active to
 inactive user groups that is natural, and just by increasing the numbers,
 we can maintain the ratio and grow the number of active ones.)
 
 As there is not enough evidence to suggest that user group status in itself
 can act as a catalyst where there is not a strong seed of community in
 place, or that we are failing en masse in recognising those communities
 that actively seek recognition (we may be slow, but the failure rate should
 be within normal levels), simply opening the gates will not necessarily
 going to result in more Wikimedia activity in more places of the world (the
 ultimate end goal of the exercise).
 This is not to say that there is no need to simplify the process -- there
 is lots -- but there should be a holistic picture: there is need for
 helping communities be created, for helping communities grow, there is need
 to provide recognition to volunteers, there is need for providing support,
 resources and advice to existing groups, there is a need to provide some
 level of oversight 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Compare the process of forming a Meetup group. There are basic
standards of behavior and usage -- applied via review after the fact,
soft-security style -- and measures of activity. But as soon as you
finish filling out a form describing your group, it has been created +
is visible online + has its events included in a global calendar, and
starts to get updates and support.
Wiki Borregos has been operating in this manner for some time. See 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Borregos_CCM_Student_User_Group
We originally put our info as a student club, but when it became obvious that 
the program to support such an organization had died, we put in to be a user 
group.


  
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Borregos means rams the mascot of the Tec de Monterrey.

 Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 16:17:49 -0400
 From: nawr...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 4:06 PM, Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com
 wrote:
 
  Wiki Borregos has been operating in this manner for some time. See
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Borregos_CCM_Student_User_Group
  We originally put our info as a student club, but when it became obvious
  that the program to support such an organization had died, we put in to be
  a user group.
 
 
 Out of curiosity, what does the Borregos in the name mean?
 
 ~Nathan
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I think this is a good idea, but Im interested in knowing if AffComm intends to 
have a more responsive way to address petitions for affiliation. There are a 
number of applications stuck in limbo with no indication of how and when they 
will be resolved.



 Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 08:36:09 -0400
 From: sydney.po...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 Thank you AffCom committee members for taking on this important new role.
 
 I'll be very interested to see the type and amount of support that
 affiliates find useful.
 
 It will make for extra work but I hope you can document the work you all do
 with affiliates and publish the information.
 
 Sydney Poore
 User:FloNight
 On May 29, 2014 3:21 AM, Gregory Varnum gregory.var...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Greetings,
 
  Based on continuing changes to Wikimedia's approach to movement affiliates
  (chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups), input from the
  community, and discussions with WMF board and staff - the Affiliations
  Committee has begun work on expanding our support of affiliates once the
  recognition process itself concludes.
 
  An early step that we are taking is to provide each Wikimedia movement
  affiliate with at least one liaison from the Affiliations Committee to help
  with communications, finding resources, answering questions, and supporting
  successful contributions to the Wikimedia movement.
 
  Each member of the Affiliations Committee is assigned as a liaison to
  multiple affiliates. Each affiliate will be assigned a primary liaison, who
  will be their main contact, and a secondary liaison, who is available if
  the primary is not and able to help with more complex situations. While an
  affiliate's liaisons may change over time, they will always have at least
  one liaison assigned to them. We will soon be adding more members to the
  committee, so there are a few liaison assignments not yet filled.
 
  Liaisons will be making initial contact in the coming weeks - and will then
  be in contact periodically, or affiliates may contact them at any time. We
  welcome any feedback or ideas on how we can help support your chapters,
  thematic org, or user group moving forward.
 
  More info - including specific liaison assignments:
  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Liaisons
 
  -greg aka varnent
  Vice-Chair
  Wikimedia Affiliations Committee
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Edit #1 and Challenge #1

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Ok! I have a training session with Tec de Monterrey students doing community 
service on Sat. This will be part of their introduction!

 Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 01:24:33 -0700
 From: l...@wikimedia.org
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Edit #1 and Challenge #1
 
 I wanted to share my first editing experience and ask for your help. Here
 it is:
 
 Today I have made the first edit on English Wikipedia. As I said in my
 first meeting -- I believe in traveling the path of our editors, so I can
 better understand them and so taht we can make their experience more
 natural.
 
 I have edited in private wikis before and I have edited the talk pages. I
 used the Visual Editor, even though I am well-versed in the syntax. I had
 the advantage of a very very experienced user by my side and it went pretty
 smooth -- so this report is not entirely fair. Even though, I did stumble
 in a few places, however, and this is a learning experience for me and for
 our team.
 
 Overall I wish I had this on video. It is a bit like an experience of a kid
 making their first goal. Exhilarating.
 
 So now I have a challenge back to you:
 
 
- Please pick a friend who has never edited before.
- Ask them to make an edit. Any edit in any language.
- Please have them write one paragraph about their experience.
- Have them send it to lila at wikimedia with the subject: #1
 
 
 Thank you!!!
 Lila
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

One has to keep in mind, that we encourage groups to contact us as early
in their group creation phase as possible, which means that the process'
time will include time spent by the applying group on figuring out who they
are and what they want to do.That has not been our (Wiki Borregos) experience. 
In fact, responses from AffComm have been quite negative even though we have 
been very active and very clear on who we are and what we do. We have been 
stuck withits complicated since last year.





 From: bdamo...@gmail.com
 Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 21:18:24 +0200
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:52 PM, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   Hi Sam,
  
   If all the steps could happen at the same time, and decisions were made
  by
   a single person, then the process could indeed be done in 30 minutes
  under
   ideal circumstances (a person being 24/7 online, and all information
  being
   available at the time of application).
  
   However, currently there are a number of checks and procedural safeguards
   in place that add to the process and utilize the knowledge and wisdom of
   the whole AffCom.
   After taking into account such practicalities as limited and
   non-overlapping volunteer schedules (i.e. non-work time, non offline time
   across different time zones) of both the applying group and the group
   processing the application, a few weeks seem to be the ideal we can aim
  for
   at this point without giving up guarantees of due diligence.
  
   As a breakdown of this idealised process, see:
   https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/meta/9/97/User_group_process.svg
  
   Best regards,
   Bence
  
   P.S.: I myself have argued for the 30 minute recognition process many
   times, but at the same time understand that the movement relies on the
   Affcom seal of approval to mean something, which in turn requires a bit
   deeper due diligence somewhere along the line.
  
  
  Is it necessary for the full committee to weigh in on user group decisions?
  If you have a relatively straightforward rubric for assessment, couldn't it
  be completed by a single member of the committee? Given the low weight of
  consequences anticipated by user groups, you could either permit an
  individual member to issue a decision on behalf of the group or ask them to
  distribute the completed rubric for up/down votes by the body.
 
 Yes - I wasn't entirely precise in my description - the process is  lead by
 the one or two person (confusingly also called liaisons) assigned to the
 case and the rest of the committee allowed to weigh in if there are any
 ambiguities or there are any concerns. In extreme cases at the end of the
 process, but generally at the various intermediate stages.
 
 In practice, the final resolution phase is where most time could be saved
 as that is mostly a structural legacy of housing the process at a committee
 that makes public decisions via resolutions;but we try to work out most
 issues and concerns beforehand. Making sure that everyone had a time to do
 the extra due diligence in addition to the liaisons themselves adds some
 time, but can help us avoid recognising groups that are not made up of long
 term Wikimedians, are possibly more interested in gaining money, respect or
 padding their CVs than furthering the mission or groups that are not going
 to stay together as a group for any meaningful amount of time.
 
 (One has to keep in mind, that we encourage groups to contact us as early
 in their group creation phase as possible, which means that the process'
 time will include time spent by the applying group on figuring out who they
 are and what they want to do.
 And also, that my fellow AffCom volunteers are doing a lot - not
 necessarily all inside AffCom -, often having multiple responsibilities
 inside the movement, in addition to having demanding jobs or families. This
 means a couple of things, including the fact that time is limited --- e.g.
  if a volunteer sends an e-mail in the evening before going to bed, even if
 there is a very quick reply, they will only be able to react the next
 evening [~24 hours later] ---; the shared desire to simplify our processes,
 and that we can use all the help we can get to achieve the goals we set
 ourselves.)
 
 
 Again, a fuller picture with roles is given at the graph I shared in the
 previous e-mail, which is as of now  non-narrated, but part of the project
 to increase transparency around the process and to use as a sort of metric
 to aim for and improve over time.
 
 Best regards,
 Bence
 
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

We have been doing all of that including the board members for a year now. This 
is the first bit of information Ive had from you in months.  This seems to work 
a lot faster.



 Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 15:28:49 -0400
 From: gregory.var...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 As Leigh and people who follow this list and others know, the Wiki Borregos
 application has more complications. I do not think rehashing that on this
 public list is the best way to resolve that. Leigh, we are discussing it
 actively now, and you are welcome to email us for an update. You are
 welcome to CC a couple of board members if you feel that will help the
 process along.
 
 -greg
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

OK so then why no action, no communication until I write something here?

 Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 22:52:40 +0300
 From: ma...@wikimedia.org.ve
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 Hi Leigh,
 
 As Greg just said it, we are all aware that your application has more 
 complications. We are doing the best we can to speed the process up, but 
 the AffCom is not the only actor involved in our investigations, as it 
 is with other cases. We also know that you have included the WMF Board 
 on your communications, and let me remind you that WUG recognitions do 
 not depend on the WMF Board, as the AffCom has a mandate from it to 
 recognize those groups seeking to affiliate. -and more than that, there 
 are two Board Liaisons on the AffCom mailing list, so all the 
 communication between us has been read by them. I don't think is 
 necessary to send two copies of the same e-mail to the same people :-)
 
 M.
 
 El 29/05/2014 10:31 p.m., Leigh Thelmadatter escribió:
  We have been doing all of that including the board members for a year now. 
  This is the first bit of information Ive had from you in months.  This 
  seems to work a lot faster.
 
 
 
  Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 15:28:49 -0400
  From: gregory.var...@gmail.com
  To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
  Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
  As Leigh and people who follow this list and others know, the Wiki Borregos
  application has more complications. I do not think rehashing that on this
  public list is the best way to resolve that. Leigh, we are discussing it
  actively now, and you are welcome to email us for an update. You are
  welcome to CC a couple of board members if you feel that will help the
  process along.
 
  -greg
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 *Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua 
 junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain.
 Carlos M. Colina
 Vicepresidente, 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] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Wonderful! I look forward to hearing something in the next weeks.

 From: bdamo...@gmail.com
 Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 00:18:02 +0200
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
 
 Hi Leigh,
 
 Actually, we were discussing your group's application even before your
 writing here. I do apologize for the lack of communication or clarity,
 although there was no news to communicate.
 
 In general, I would advise everyone to be bold in following the
 recommendation that is on the Meta page to send us a friendly reminder if
 they are waiting for us to respond. It helps us keep on top of things, and
 can speed up the process. (Bringing up the issue repeatedly on public
 mailing lists, and involving further WMF bodies usually slows down the
 process even if it might seem like a good idea, and even though it might
 actually be a good idea in a very small minority of cases.)
 
 Best regards,
 Bence
 
 
 On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 11:35 PM, Leigh Thelmadatter osama...@hotmail.com
 wrote:
 
  OK so then why no action, no communication until I write something
  here?
 
   Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 22:52:40 +0300
   From: ma...@wikimedia.org.ve
   To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
   Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
  
   Hi Leigh,
  
   As Greg just said it, we are all aware that your application has more
   complications. We are doing the best we can to speed the process up, but
   the AffCom is not the only actor involved in our investigations, as it
   is with other cases. We also know that you have included the WMF Board
   on your communications, and let me remind you that WUG recognitions do
   not depend on the WMF Board, as the AffCom has a mandate from it to
   recognize those groups seeking to affiliate. -and more than that, there
   are two Board Liaisons on the AffCom mailing list, so all the
   communication between us has been read by them. I don't think is
   necessary to send two copies of the same e-mail to the same people :-)
  
   M.
  
   El 29/05/2014 10:31 p.m., Leigh Thelmadatter escribió:
We have been doing all of that including the board members for a year
  now. This is the first bit of information Ive had from you in months.  This
  seems to work a lot faster.
   
   
   
Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 15:28:49 -0400
From: gregory.var...@gmail.com
To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia movement affiliates liaisons
   
As Leigh and people who follow this list and others know, the Wiki
  Borregos
application has more complications. I do not think rehashing that on
  this
public list is the best way to resolve that. Leigh, we are discussing
  it
actively now, and you are welcome to email us for an update. You are
welcome to CC a couple of board members if you feel that will help the
process along.
   
-greg
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   *Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua
   junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain.
   Carlos M. Colina
   Vicepresidente, 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] A personal note.

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Ive been watching this conversation and I have to agree with Will here. These 
calls for banning/restriction of access to the list and admission that 
Wikipedia is full of landmines is troubling.  If we have such grave problems, 
we should be confronting them. If Will is just stirring the pot, ignore him and 
it will go away.



 From: w...@wllm.com
 Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 16:10:49 -0700
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] A personal note.
 
 If this list chooses to block me for any amount of time, it might as
 well be forever. I'm responding to other people's mails here; I'd
 prefer to mail less as well.
 
 In any case, you'll be blocking someone for asking relevant questions
 and replying to relevant concerns. I think that is pretty
 self-evident. If I do get blocked on this list, I will be taking my
 discussion to Wikipediocracy where I have never been so much as
 encouraged to be quiet beyond the matter I mentioned before, and
 anyone who is interested in it is welcome to join me there.
 
 This is getting *really* scary. Think about what you do in full sight
 of the entire community before you act, please.
 
 ,Wil
 
 On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 3:56 PM, Kevin Gorman kgor...@gmail.com wrote:
  ... I wish I kept more up to date on this set of threads and had stepped in
  to say something sooner.  I'm going to go ahead and say that I agree with
  Pete that at this juncture the most beneficial course of action would
  probably be for Wil to back this set of discussions for at least a few
  days, if necessary even by putting Wil on temporary moderation as bizarre
  as that sounds.  Wil: I'm going to type a private email after I send this
  to you, and I promise the last thing I desire is to shut you up - you're
  just currently running through a minefield with no map, and it would be
  much better if you had a map before continuing.
  
  Kevin Gorman
 
 
 
  On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Wil Sinclair w...@wllm.com wrote:
 
  You *can't* be serious. Now I'm *really* starting to get the idea that
  you guys just want to shut me up. And you're using the fact that I'm
  actually being very open about something to justify it. This is
  extremely worrying if everyone else on this list agrees with you.
 
  ,Wil
 
  On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Pete Forsyth petefors...@gmail.com
  wrote:
   l:
  
   I don't know the first thing about the alleged safety concerns discussed
  on
   IRC, but the following quote is troubling to me:
  
   On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 2:51 PM, Wil Sinclair w...@wllm.com wrote:
  
   She replied a WMF employee emailed me that there are safety
   concerns,
  
  
   It seems that Wil has chosen to repeat something that was said privately,
   about personal safety, in a public forum. It seems likely to me that this
   kind of choice would tend to *increase* potential danger, not decrease
  it.
  
   I'd like to suggest that Wil's access to this email list be blocked, at
   least as a temporary measure. I think his behavior here has been reckless
   in a number of ways. This is no judgment on him as a person, but I do
  think
   we need to protect this list from further flooding.
  
   I don't know much about the precedents for list access removal, but I
   suspect that consensus among active Wikimedians would be pretty strong at
   this point. Can anybody comment on what would be necessary to make this
   happen?
  
   Pete
   [[User:Peteforsyth]]
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Participating on Wikipediocracy

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Its a very bold move on your part Will and it will be interesting how this 
develops over time. I dont participate at Wikipediocracy but I lurk regularly. 
Perhaps because I have some long-standing issues that no one addresses and its 
useful to know others have problems too.

 From: w...@wllm.com
 Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 16:06:32 -0700
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Participating on Wikipediocracy
 
  OK, can you explain why you participate on Wikipediocracy?
 
 Thanks, Edward! I was starting to worry that no one would ask.
 
 I participate on WO because I think every voice deserves to be heard.
 And I will go wherever people feel comfortable speaking freely to hear
 them. Some of us feel comfortable on this list; others are more
 comfortable on a criticism-oriented site like WO. That social pattern
 is not uncommon, and in these situations I usually feel comfortable in
 both environments.
 
 The trash talk. . . Most of the concerns I've heard about WO involve
 the snarky, personal comments that are front and center in the forums.
 I know this makes it very difficult for many people to listen to
 anything else they have to say. I've called them out on this a few
 times, but I was reminded that everyone is there for different reasons
 and the trash talk somehow works for a few of them. What can I say?
 The great thing about free speech is that everyone is free to say
 anything. The only thing I can think of that might be better is that
 everyone is free to ignore anything. ;)
 
 Beyond the trash talk are some very real concerns from some very
 insightful people. If you're concerned about whether I'm getting
 accurate information, I don't take for granted anything said there
 without a secondary source- just like anything said here. Some of the
 concerns I've heard there seem to be taboo in the mainstream WP
 community. It's very interesting that WO was brought up when I asked
 about Child Protection Policies, for example. Harassment Policy is
 another issue that seems to be unwelcome in some forums. But there are
 also concerns that I've seen come up in this forum, too, like how to
 improve the quality of articles. That's not too surprising, since I'm
 not the only person who is active in both communities. There are more
 concerns than I can go through here, but I started a relatively
 trash-free thread there to get an understanding of their concerns:
 http://wikipediocracy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14t=4531. Maybe it
 would help others, too. If it would be welcome here, I'd pose the same
 question to understand the greatest concerns in this community.
 
 Finally, I ask everyone to respect my own right to free speech. I am
 not just Lila's partner; I am a person with my own opinions, my own
 motives, my own interests, and my own needs. I have no professional
 affiliation with WMF, and Lila and I have gotten pretty good at
 keeping our professional lives to ourselves at home. For those of you
 who work at the WMF and have voiced concern over my participation on
 WO, you can rest assured that I have absolutely no influence over your
 professional lives. For everyone in the WP community, I'd like you to
 know that I form my personal opinions of people on my direct
 interactions with them- not what someone says on a forum somewhere.
 Please, feel free to interact with me. :) There were also some
 concerns about my mentioning that I communicate with some of the
 people at the WMF about WP stuff. I stopped mentioning any employees
 of the WMF- including those in my immediate family- and I've come to
 the conclusion that it isn't in anyone's best interests to discuss
 anything related to WP in private with WMF employees. I'm kinda
 learning as we go here, so I apologize for any brainfarts like that.
 Ultimately, I'm asking you to treat me as you would any new WP
 contributor, because, at the end of the day, that is all I am.
 
 I'm hoping to get to know all of the people in this forum better. It's
 harder for me to follow along here because a lot of the stuff is very
 specific and often discussed with little context. I'll catch up. In
 the meantime, I'll continue asking questions, some of which may be
 inconvenient. Like I said, I am not Lila; I'm that guy who asks stuff
 while everyone else is hoping he just keeps his mouth shut. :P Please
 respect my right to free speech; I'll be respecting your right to
 ignore me.
 
 ,Wil
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia and Universities

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

 Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 20:46:23 +0200
 From: mathias.dam...@laposte.net
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia and Universities
 
 Le 06/05/2014 20:15, Leigh Thelmadatter a écrit :
  Where chapter support is wanted and helpful, no problem.  What I mean here 
  is that universities should not be required to work under a chapter 
  just because one exists.
 
 I mean that universities should be able to work with a chapter when 
 it exists, because it's the most convenient way. :-)
 
  Date: Tue, 6 May 2014 20:08:58 +0200
  From: mathias.dam...@laposte.net
  To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
  Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia and Universities
 
  Le 06/05/2014 16:24, Leigh Thelmadatter a écrit :
  (...) There is even the assumption on the part of many that this is the 
  purview of chapters.
  Why shouldn't it be ?
 
  -- 
  Mathias Damour
  https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Astirmays
 
 -- 
 Mathias Damour
 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Astirmays
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] simple and effective creation process for chapters

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

I would settle for an open process, rather than a secretive AffComm.

 Date: Sat, 3 May 2014 10:08:22 +0200
 From: nemow...@gmail.com
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] simple and effective creation process for chapters
 
 rupert THURNER, 03/05/2014 09:02:
  requirements to be a chapter in the bylaws:
  * support the mission of the wmf
  * be a membership organization, i.e. the highest body is
 the assembly of members
  * be a member must be possible for everybody who
 contributes (i.e. edits, writes software used by wmf projects)
 at zero cost (or low cost, e.g. price of one meal?)
  * meet the tax exemption criteria. justification needed
 if not possible, reviewed regularly.
  * an audit committee, consisting of members, who are also
 allowed to seek professional help
 
 Considering that 4 of your 5 proposed requirements don't make sense to 
 me, I question the ability of your proposal to reach the declared goal.
 
 Nemo
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] simple and effective creation process for chapters

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

If this process is indeed really being revamped, may I ask why we give 
established chapters such dominance, even to the exclusion of the creation of 
less formal groups (user groups). As it stands, a chapter can (and in the case 
of Mexico, does) marginalize people and at least one educational institution 
which has issues with the way the chapter is run. This long-running saga has 
even resulted in COI problems with AffComm. These issues have not been 
addressed adequately (or at all) despite three years of what one board member 
called  some friction.


 From: bdamo...@gmail.com
 Date: Sat, 3 May 2014 19:49:20 +0200
 To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] simple and effective creation process for chapters
 
 Thanks Rupert for thinking about this. The chapter creation process[0]
 is indeed under-going review following the Board's November decision,
 and all comments, input is welcome.
 
 There are some reasons that make it a bit difficult to enact your
 suggestions or to come to the results you suggest in the chapter
 creation process. Just to take one practical limiting factor, setting
 up an incorporated entity takes some time and money[1] even if
 Wikimedia itself did not add any further burdens.
 
 This was one of the reasons the non-incorporated user group concept
 was envisioned largely following along the lines you draw. (Membership
 organisations with wide trademark use rights, etc.)
 
 Best regards,
 Bence
 
 [0] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Step-by-step_chapter_creation_guide
 [1] http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/starting-a-business
 - not sure if there is an equivalent easily accessible study for
 membership organisations, but this is a good proxy
 
 On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 9:02 AM, rupert THURNER rupert.thur...@gmail.com 
 wrote:
  hi,
 
  out of the experiences of creating 50 chapters, and the recent
  frustrated feedback from persons involved in the creation of new
  chapters, e.g. belgium and ghana, could we please find a simple and
  effective way to organize the chapters creation process? existing
  chapters not meeting the requirements have 3 years to adjust their
  bylaws.
 
  target and purpose of chapters:
  chapters match a country as defined by the league of nations defined
  in 1939 and reaffirmed by the united nations in 1945 [1], to follow
  local jurisdiction. they are membership organizations.
 
  requirements to be a chapter in the bylaws:
  * support the mission of the wmf
  * be a membership organization, i.e. the highest body is
the assembly of members
  * be a member must be possible for everybody who
contributes (i.e. edits, writes software used by wmf projects)
at zero cost (or low cost, e.g. price of one meal?)
  * meet the tax exemption criteria. justification needed
if not possible, reviewed regularly.
  * an audit committee, consisting of members, who are also
allowed to seek professional help
 
  this means chapters can created within days, not years. the rules are
  clear right from the beginning. measures are already in place if
  something goes wrong.
 
  problems addressed:
  * creating a chapter is possible immediately one
finds the legal minimum number of contributors in a
country, most of the time 2 or 3.
  * the bylaw requirements guarantee contributors can
easily join any time and no lockout can happen.
negative example: german football federation,
allowing a red bull club (rb leipzig) with 7 members, exorbitant
membership fee, existing rb leipzig board decides who can
become member.
  * proper names may be used immediately, current negative
example: planning wikimedia ghana registers facebook, and
other social accounts with a temporary name to gather
people. the risk is that it is planning forever. later change
of such accounts is nearly impossible without breaking history.
  * bank accounts with limited liability are used immediately,
allowing to properly pursue misuse in local jurisdiction. negative
example: kenya, where money disappeared from a
personal account.
  * the bylaw requirements allow the inclusion or lockout of people
not contributing at the chapters discretion. example: germany,
switzerland allowing persons and even legal entities to become
member.
  * it allows to organize itself in some federal way within a country,
at the discretion of a chapter.
  * it guarantees to have the highest level of local jurisdiction control
by meeting tax exemption criteria. examples: germany, uk.
there critieria are in place which can be fulfilled, austria. criteria
exist what cannot be matched, but discussions are ongoing to
change the law.
  * initial signing of policies and contracts with the wmf is not required.
using trademarks without approval is easily controlled by established
procedures (legal, fdc, etc). the movement is used to deal with
people and organizations trying to do that every