Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

[Marcin Cieslak]

On 2016-01-01, Andy Mabbett  wrote:
> On 28 December 2015 at 23:29, Patricio Lorente
> wrote:
>
>> This decision creates an open seat for a community-selected Trustee. The
>> Board is committed to filling this open community seat as quickly as
>> possible. We will reach out to the 2015 election committee
>> 
>> to discuss our options, and will keep you informed as we determine next
>> steps.
>
> There needs to be a change in the terms used; it has become clear that
> this will not be an election, and that the trustee eventually approved
> by the rest of the board will not be "community selected", but
> "community nominated".

Until now many of us were under impression (supported by the Florida statutes 
it seems)
that they were "community elected".

Saper


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Free Basics

[Marcin Cieslak]

On 2015-12-31, Milos Rancic  wrote:
> Today I've learned about it. And I think WMF is the perfect prey for such
> initiative.
>
> I hope nobody sane is taking that seriously.

You might want to check out some discussions surrounding the Wikimedia Zero 
initiative.

Saper


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

[Marcin Cieslak]

On 2015-12-29, George Herbert  wrote:
> I do think the Foundation legal staff need to review and some fix to
> this needs to be made to the Bylaws for the future, either overriding
> 617.0808 (1) (a) 2. explicitly or by making community vote explicitly
> the recall mechanism for trustees elected by the community.

I think that bylaws are pretty coherent with the statute; what
might need an adjustment is the following wording from the resolution
appointing new members:

> Resolved, that the Board of Trustees ("Board") approves and authorize the 
> election of (...)
to fill the Community-selected seats on the Board for the coming term.

> Resolved, that (...) is/are appointed to the Board, for a term of two
> years beginning on X, and continuing until Y until approval and
> authorization of the selection process in Z to fill these positions,
> whichever comes first.

Section 1 is clearly appropriate for the elected board members.
Section 2 is only appropriate for the appointed board members.
Even the bylaws do not use the term "appointment" when referring
to the board member selected according to the article IV,
section 3, subsections (C) and (D). The appointment comes
into play when there is a vacancy ("appoint the candidate receiving the
next most votes").

Saper



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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

[Marcin Cieslak]

On 2015-12-29, Michael Peel  wrote:
> From what I understand, the community elections don't directly elect/appoint 
> WMF board members, but essentially provide a recommendation that the WMF 
> board then approves. Have a look at the text of:
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:James_Heilman_appointment_2015
>  
> 
> and the phrasing at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015#Process 
> 
> specifically, "The candidates with the highest percentage of support will be 
> recommended to the Board of Trustees for appointment."

The statute in 617.0803(3) stipulates that
> (3) Directors shall be elected or appointed in the manner and for the
> terms provided in the articles of incorporation or the bylaws.

The bylaws use a wording like "The board will approve [the community-selected 
candidates]"
which lists specified conditions when the community choice can be approved,
and the board cannot refuse approval unless some specific conditions are met.

Section 3 of the bylaws has subsections (C) "Community-selected Trustees."
(D) "Trustees selected by Chapters and Thematic Organizations", 
(E) "Board-appointed Trustees. " and (F) for Jimmy Wales, who
is also Board-appointed.

It is obvious that (C) and (D) do not belong to the category (E).
Therefore directors of category (C) and (D) are not appointed
by the board.

> So the "class" here would be the WMF board, not the community.

Bylaws, article III:

> The Foundation does not have members.

Statute 617.0601(1)(a) stipulates that 

> A corporation may have one or more classes of members or may have no members. 

but (1)(b) adds:

> (b) The articles of incorporation or bylaws of any corporation
> not for profit that maintains chapters or affiliates may grant
> representatives of such chapters or affiliates the right to vote
> in conjunction with the board of directors of the corporation
> notwithstanding applicable quorum or voting requirements of this
> chapter if the corporation is registered with the department pursuant
> to ss. 496.401-496.424, the Solicitation of Contributions Act.

This is what Section 3 of the WMF bylaws is doing - it grants
a right to vote to non-members of the Foundation (as there are none).

617.0808(1)(b) goes beyond classes of members, but includes
> (...) chapter, or other organizational unit, or by region or other
> geographic grouping, the director may be removed only by the members
> of that class, chapter, unit, or grouping.

so this read in conjunctin with 617.0601(1)(b) and bylaws section
three establishes a pretty clear picture to me.

Saper


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[Wikimedia-l] Anyone from Wikimedia community going to OSCE Freedom of Media conference "Internet 2013" in Vienna? (Feb 14-15)

[Marcin Cieslak]

Hello,

next week OSCE Freedom of Media Representative
holds "Internet 2013" conference in Vienna:

http://www.osce.org/event/internet2013

I was wondering who from Wikimedia
community will be coming to the event?


Marcin Cieślak
saper at plwiki

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia, top Internet brand in Germany

[Marcin Cieslak]

>> Tobias  wrote:
> On 01/17/2013 02:08 PM, Quim Gil wrote:
>> Wikipedia has debunked Google as top Internet brand in Germany,
>> according to
>>
>> http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/yougov-brandindex-2012-das-sind-die-lieblingsmarken-der-deutschen/7643120.html
>
> We're almost as popular as chocolate and skin cream (Ritter Sport, Nivea)!
>
> > Maybe someone is capable of finding the actual index (not me at 6am,
> > apparently).
>
> I found another source for this story, but apparently "YouGov", the 
> company behind the ranking, hasn't made any press release yet or put the 
> actual ranking online 
> http://www.markenartikel-magazin.de/no_cache/unternehmen-marken/artikel/details/1004363-beliebteste-marken-der-deutschen-canon-vorn/
>
> Kudos Wikipedia!

Here it is:

http://research.yougov.de/presse/2013/pressemeldung-yougov-topperformer-brandindex-2012/o

Posted https://twitter.com/saperski/status/291927761281486849

//Saper


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[Wikimedia-l] 15% off merchandise today at the Wikimedia Shop

[Marcin Cieslak]

Hello,

I just wanted to share my feelings: I went to en.wikipedia.org today and
I saw this message on top:

Happy Birthday Wikipedia!
15% off merchandise today at the Wikimedia Shop

My first impression was: I think I mistyped the URL...

//Saper


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Tech/Product] Engineering/Product org structure

[Marcin Cieslak]

> To avoid fear and anxiety, and to make sure the plan makes sense, I
> want to start an open conversation now. If you think any of the below
> is a terrible idea, or have suggestions on how to improve the plan,
> I’d love to hear from you. I’ll make myself personally available to
> anyone who wants to talk more about it. (I'm traveling a bit starting
> tomorrow, but will be available via email during that time.) We can
> also discuss it at coming tech lunches and such.

Erik, 

just a quick note without going too much into substance - I think
it's a great way to handle the issue like this! Thank you for
posting this!

//Saper


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[Wikimedia-l] Next generation wiki by Ward Cunningham: After "edit" comes "fork"

[Marcin Cieslak]

Ward Cunningham, the inventor of wiki, has implemented "Smallest Federated 
Wiki".

The most important change is that it is not only easy to
edit the content, also forking is considered a natural
part of the workflow.

Besides, I really like the user interface:

Videos:
http://wardcunningham.github.com/

The code:
https://github.com/WardCunningham/Smallest-Federated-Wiki

Not very difficult to install if your Ruby packaging works.

//Marcin
saper@plwiki


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Report to Board: Chinese Internet Research Conference

[Marcin Cieslak]

(...)
> The other high-light for me I had already mailed you. It was the keynote
> speech by Jenova Chen [3]. Jenova is a game designer and some of the
> most remarkable games he designed were Flow [4], Flower [5] and Journey
> [6]. Especially the design principle of Journey impressed me most. So
> Jenova said in online games in most cases gamers try to kill each other
> or try to group with each other to kill something. And he thought this
> is a very poor social interaction. He thinks that most games explore
> only one emotion: the power, to be a superhero is in most cases the
> motive of a game. But the human emotion is more complex. To be able to
> explore and induce the complex emotion of an attendee for example is the
> difference between a good movie and a bad movie, or a good book and a
> bad book. He thinks that the emotion of want to be powerful is a very
> adolescent one, that is why most mature adults won't play games any
> more, because they are beyond that level of emotion. So he has two
> design principles, the first one is to explore the emotional
> possibilities of a game. The second one is the to create a special
> environment of communication between the gamers. He says that internet
> (game, forums, Twitter, whatever and villege pumps>) are mostly hostile. And he wanted to create an
> environment where gamers can interact with each other, but don't have
> the possibility to be hostile to each other. So for example by designing
> Journey he decided to not give the gamers the possibility to chat with
> each other, but only to interact with each other in a non verbal way.
>
> When he was talking I could not help as to think about Wikipedians and
> how they interact with each other. Naturally, language is the essential
> of our projects we cannot avoid Wikipedians talking with each other. But
> then again, people always thought that games can only be successful if
> they are violent, and Jenova proved that this is not the case. And what
> his speech told me is, even when we always think that something have to
> be done in a certain way and only in that way, there are always chances
> to explore other possibilities. And we should not stop to think about
> those trying and being innovative, and being innovative in an
> unconventional way.
>
> This is why I think we should invite him as a keynote speaker of
> Wikimania, or at least for the staff retreat. And why I was so excited
> after his speech that I mailed you immediately.

Ting,

thank you for posting this. This can actually go beyond the village pumps
- it can even affect ways we design our user interface (like making
scripting and templating more available to the rest of us).

I would really happy to meet Jenova in Washington, if possible.

//Saper


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] TomTom does a Britannica

[Marcin Cieslak]

>> Yaroslav M. Blanter  wrote:
> On Tue, 29 May 2012 13:23:25 +0100, Tom Morris wrote:
>> On 29 May 2012 13:08, Anthony  wrote:
>>> The difference is that Wikipedia is usable in the real world, 
>>> whereas
>>> OSM, for the most part, is not.
>>>
>>> Yes, TomTom is dying.  But it's because of Google, not because of 
>>> OSM.
>>>
>>
>> I'd say OSM is beginning to be pretty usable in the real world. It's
>> usable for a lot of things where there's not so much commercial
>> interest in the map data...
>>
>
>  From my personal experience: Twice per year I travel into middle-size 
> towns of Russia, usually visiting several of then on a single trip. 
> Google maps suck badly; Google's Russian counterpart, Yandex Maps, are 
> better, but they suck as well; TomTom is nonexistent, and OSM had for 
> all places I visited in 2010 (with one exception - for the record, this 
> was the city of Tayga, Kemerovo Region in Siberia) reasonably good maps, 
> often with reliable house numbering.

I can confirm this too - even in a large city of Kiev my coworkers
tried to explain to each other how to reach something using
very inaccurate Google Map. We tried openstreetmap.org (they
didn't now it even exists) and we all were amazed by the level
of detail the city was described. Even all traffic lights and
bus stops were in place as they should.

//Saper


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[Wikimedia-l] ISOC, OECD, UNESCO: Relationship Between Local Content, Internet Development, and Access Prices

[Marcin Cieslak]

Hello everyone:

Internet Society, OECD and UNESCO have published a report:

The Relationship Between Local Content, Internet Development, and Access Prices

http://www.internetsociety.org/localcontent

http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/The%20Relationship%20Between%20Local%20Content%2C%20Internet%20Development%2C%20and%20Access%20Prices.pdf

I think the report is worth reading (there are interesting
case studies there as well). Here are the main findings as posted
on the website:

MAIN FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

1. Societies have a rich heritage and knowledge base that should be
recognised, recorded and shared for the benefit of people throughout
the world. 

Much of the world’s content remains inaccessible even to the local
population, not to mention at a broader level. There are many reasons
for the existence of this “content divide”.

2. The content that is most important to people is typically in their
own language and is relevant to the communities in which they live and
work.

These communities may be defined by their location, culture, language,
religion, ethnicity or area of interest and individuals may belong
to many communities at the same time. Further, communities evolve so
what is relevant will change over time. This relevant content is often
referred to as “local content”. The term community is used in a
broad way to include not only local professional communities (public and
private), but also non-professional content creators and users.

3. Technology can help support the recognition, creation, preservation,
dissemination and utilisation of local content and there have
been several important technological advancements in recent
history.

Technological developments such as the printing press, the
phonogram, telephony, radio, television, photocopying machines,
recording media, mobile phones and personal computers, among others,
have greatly increased our ability to create and disseminate content.

4. The Internet represents another historical advancement in the
development and dissemination of content. It has, first and foremost,
helped empower users as content creators.

The Internet has provided a platform for crowd-sourced content creation
and community-developed and peer-reviewed knowledge bases such as
Wikipedia. It has also allowed individuals to exercise greater choice
and control over the content they consume, in contrast to the limited
channels of traditional broadcasting. It plays a key role in all steps
from content creation to its distribution but perhaps its largest
contribution is the potential it gives to creators to disseminate
information their content widely and nearly instantaneously at a very
low cost.

5. Policy makers around the world in ministries of culture look for ways
promote the creation and preservation of cultural heritage, including
element that are tangible, oral and intangible. 

At the same time, policy makers in communication ministries focus on
ways to ensure that information and communication technologies and
services, such as Internet access, are available and accessible to the
population. This research confirms that the goals of these two important
government entities are intertwined.

6. This empirical research shows there is a strong correlation
between the development of network infrastructure and the growth of
local content, even after controlling for economic and demographic
factors.

The statistically significant relationship is evident using several
different measures of local content (the number of visible top-level
domains in use per country code, per capita; Wikipedia articles per
language per capita; and blogs per capita) and several measures of
Internet development (broadband penetration rates, autonomous systems
per capita, international bandwidth per capita and routed IPv4 addresses
per capita).

7. In addition, this research finds a significant relationship between
the development of international bandwidth and the price of local
Internet access.

The results indicate that more developed local Internet markets tend to
report lower international prices for bandwidth and vice versa: markets
with more intense international Internet traffic tend to report lower
local prices for Internet access. A similar relationship was detected
between the degree of development of local Internet networks and the
level of international prices in developing economies. In particular,
countries with a more developed local market also tend to report lower
prices for international Internet connections. This relationship is not
visible in developed economies that tend to have much more developed
Internet infrastructure.

-- 
Marcin Cieślak


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