[Wikimedia-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] Re: Re: Re: Uplifting the multimedia stack (was: Community Wishlist Survery)

[Samuel Klein]

I asked on th talk page, but posting here as well:
 -- what's the intended interaction b/t proposals from past years and the
current list? Do people need to find and repost older proposals they want
to see included? Is there a mechanism for refactoring sets of related
proposals?



On Sat., Jan. 22, 2022, 8:08 a.m. Szymon Grabarczuk, <
sgrabarc...@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hello, I'd like to refer to the original subject of the discussion -
> tomorrow is the last day for submitting proposals for the Community
> Wishlist Survey 2022.
>
> Apart from that, everyone is welcome to translate, promote, and discuss
> proposals:
> https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/10/what-improvements-in-wikimedia-platforms-would-you-like-to-see-help-the-wikimedia-foundation-to-grant-the-communities-wishes/
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Szymon Grabarczuk (he/him)
>
> Community Relations Specialist
>
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 2:43 PM Strainu  wrote:
>
>> În mar., 11 ian. 2022 la 08:01, Kunal Mehta  a scris:
>> >
>> > So I think the status quo can be changed by just about anyone who is
>> > motivated to do so, not by trying to convince the WMF to change its
>> > prioritization, but just by doing the work. We should be empowering
>> > those people rather than continuing to further entrench a WMF technical
>> > monopoly.
>> >
>>
>> Counterexample:
>>
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org/message/G2QTRJFAUKLE45SFTFUHOOTOBR6G3DP3/
>> (this was the situation that I quoted in my first email on this thread
>> as the WMF refusing to even do reviews).
>>
>> Maybe it's just the multimedia part that it's in this desperate
>> situation, but I can totally see volunteer developers getting
>> discouraged quickly if their patches are outright ignored.
>>
>> Strainu
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Wikimedia Foundation Research Award of the Year - Call for Nominations

[Samuel Klein]

My post was sharded to just the wikidata list, copying the others :)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 12:59 PM Patricio Lorente <
patricio.lore...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you, SJ. I fully agree with your recommendations.
>
> El jue, 13 ene 2022 a las 14:55, Samuel Klein ()
> escribió:
>
>> Kay, bless your heart.
>> Galder, Gereon, Xavi: I would be *particularly* interested in research
>> in other languages, since it's harder for me to run across that in my
>> regular feeds. (that may also be true for some of the reviewers :) but
>> they're also lang and time limited)
>>
>> Recommendation that might conceivably be implemented for this cycle:
>>  -- Update "can submit" to "encouraged to submit" in any languages
>>  -- If in a language other than {core langs} <-- which may be only
>> English this year, ask submitters to recommend a reviewer who can share a
>> review of the work in English
>>  -- To Andy's point, confirm the license of the research is one that is
>> open (so that it can be independently translated)
>>  -- Have a two stage award: the first stage, based on a quick review for
>> significance and interest, identifies finalists which are, if not already
>> in one of the {core langs}, translated into one of them. (at least in
>> abstract + summary; we facilitate this translation by supporting /
>> sponsoring community translation; it's a universal benefit for researchers
>> around the world)
>>  -- Second stage is as currently imagined: review of finalist papers in
>> {core langs}.
>>
>> <3.  SJ
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 10:27 PM KAY WOODING via Wikidata <
>> wikid...@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>>>  I SPEAK ENGLISH  THABKS I APPRECIATE IT  JESUS LOVES YIU I LOVE YOU GOD
>>> BLESS YOU  HAVE A BLESSED DAY
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 09:55:21 PM EST, Leila Zia <
>>> l...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> We gave the option of accepting nominations in more languages some
>>> more thought. I want to be very honest: I don't have a good solution
>>> to accommodate more languages in this cycle. We considered the option
>>> of allowing/encouraging nominations in other languages, and not doing
>>> the broader search we do in English in those languages. However, even
>>> this option is not really guaranteed to work because we consider
>>> "scholarly publications" which can be papers of a few pages or books
>>> that can be hundreds of pages. We cannot guarantee that we can
>>> translate the scholarly publication (independent of its length)
>>> in-time for the review.
>>>
>>> Given the above, my suggestion to you is that if you know of a
>>> scholarly publication that is in another language than English and you
>>> think we should consider it, still nominate it. We will consider it,
>>> even if I can't guarantee that we review it.
>>>
>>> I'm sorry that I am not able to offer a better solution for this
>>> cycle. We will continue thinking about this point for the future
>>> cycles.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Leila
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 12:46 PM Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga
>>>  wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Hi Leila,
>>> > I have read it, that's why I'm confused.
>>> > 
>>> > From: Leila Zia 
>>> > Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 9:40 PM
>>> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
>>> > Cc: wiki-researc...@lists.wikimedia.org <
>>> wiki-researc...@lists.wikimedia.org>; Discussion list for the Wikidata
>>> project. 
>>> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: [Wiki-research-l] Re: The Wikimedia
>>> Foundation Research Award of the Year - Call for Nominations
>>> >
>>> > Hi Galder,
>>> >
>>> > Please see below.
>>> >
>>> > On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 12:26 PM Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga
>>> >  wrote:
>>> > >
>>> > > Thanks, Leila, for answering the question raised.
>>> >
>>> > Anytime.
>>> >
>>> > > I'm a bit confused with this, I supposed that the Wikimedia
>>> Foundation Research Award was an initiative from the Research team of the
>>> WMF (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research), but I read in
>>> your answer that "WikiResearch is primarily in English and about research
>>> published in English". I under

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Luis Bitencourt-Emilio Joins Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

[Samuel Klein]

020, MIT Press,
> z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data
> <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb=en>
>  (2020,
> Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge?
> <https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010> (2014, Stanford University
> Press)
> *Ostatnie artykuły:*
>
>- Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech
>Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most
>Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak
><https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/>, *Journal of Medical Internet
>Research*, 23(4)::e26331
>- Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich
>(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of
>Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study
><https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9>,  *Journal
>of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9
>-   Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej Wilamowski
>(2021)  Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’
>Impact by Wikipedia Citations
>
> <http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf>
>,  *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836
>- Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk
>governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and
>credibility
>
> <http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf>,
>Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008
>
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-- 
Samuel Klein  @metasj   w:user:sj  +1 617 529 4266
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Is (Wikipedian-in-residence, a proposal) to update?

[Samuel Klein]

ZB -- Just seeing this excellent idea.  Yes, it is a good time to revisit
and envision what might be possible if this were a much broader and more
universal practice, with a wide range of templates.

I would suggest combining it with a global scholarship program for younger
students -- a multilingual internationally known wikimedia scholarship
program, with matching funds and support via regional partners, would
elevate the principles, the focus on improving public knowledge, and the
practice of self-organization and learning-by-participating that makes us
tick.

SJ

On Wed, Dec 22, 2021 at 1:28 AM Željko Blaće  wrote:

> Before this last 21st day in the 21st year of 21st century
> is globally over, I try to re-initiate re-thinking
> on this 15 years old proposal for a Wikipedian-in-residence
>
> http://original-research.blogspot.com/2006/12/wikipedian-in-residence-proposal.html
> but also articles in (only) 27 language Wikipedias,
>
> Meta, Outreach wiki and elsewhere
> for updating the notion of WIR and roles it performs in Wikimedia,
> an ecosystem of diverse entities, dynamics and relations.
>
> As Wikimedians with wider perspective than a single wiki project, often
> more than a single language and for sure more than single community, gear
> up to discuss and act on 2030 strategy, that includes new initiatives, new
> formations of decentering resources, new content, forms and methods of
> working, with new priorities, conditions, tools, services and what
> not…there is also a value in reflecting and reimagining what is already
> established but often overlooked practice.
>
> Some of the WIR practitioners have been self-reflecting on and off
> publicly https://wikistrategies.net/5-things-wikipedian-in-residence/ and
> engaging with communities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc9YgFm2eso
> there was also network establishment.
> 3 years ago WREN UG (Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network User Group)
> was recognized with the aim to protect the common elements of the role and
> for creating a peer support network of new and experienced WIRs for
> collaboration and to encourage a global professional environment which
> inspires institutions to appoint persons to engage with Wikimedia.
>
> In recent times Wikipedian-in-Residence, is more often
> Wikimedian-in-Residence, in rapid growth of Commons and Wikidata (but also
> in 2021 first one in Wiktionary) and sometimes Wikimedian-at-Large, in more
> generalized practice of strategy or direction setting work.
> Additionally in time of pandemic when doing physical events is challenging
> and many of the (potential) partner organizations are closing down or
> limiting public events to bare essential, short and transient it is more
> important than ever that individuals (rather than cohorts of editathon
> enthusiasts) keep revisiting institutions and work with them in a most
> flexible mode and scale.
>
> Finally to start both re-visioning and maybe even re-positioning WIRs in
> Wikimedia we should think of what this network of ‘free agents’ can bring
> towards 2030, beyond what WMF, affiliates, UGs, HUBs, WikiProjects and
> other organizational forms can. Also think how much more useful this
> initial inspiration of artists, writers and researchers in residence could
> be if these creative and critical roles in the art and cultural sector get
> embraced and encouraged more often and more intentionally.
>
> Z. Blace
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] Re: Uplifting the multimedia stack (was: Community Wishlist Survery)

[Samuel Klein]

I appreciate all of the comments; still unsure where to more persistently
host the conversation, but for now I posted this still-arbitrary list on
Commons .  (adding
other items mentioned in this thread)  SJ


- *File formats*: Support high-demand formats – e.g. CSV, CML
, + hundreds of other
 open tickets
- *Uploads*:  Improve bulk, large, and video uploads.
   + *Bulk conversion* for video uploads (videoconverter /
video2commons are broken)
   + *Upload Wizard* upgrades (timeouts
, batch renaming, batch imports
)
- *Downloads*:  Fix multi-download (Imker
 is
broken)
   + Make public dumps  (stale
since 2013)
- *Video playback*:  Debug + roll out the videojs
 player
- *Search*:  Bring CQS back up .
Implement a noauth option  for
tools
- *General*: Move to a blazegraph alternative (for wqcs)
   + *Images*: Update thumbor 
 and librsvg   ||  redesign
 the image table
*- Curation*: Simpler content assessment workflow, like en:wp's
 (QI/VP doesn't
scale)
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[Wikimedia-l] Uplifting the multimedia stack (was: Community Wishlist Survery)

[Samuel Klein]

Separate thread.  I'm not sure which list is appropriate.
*... but not all the way to sentience
.*

The annual community wishlist survey (implemented by a small team, possibly
in isolation?) may not be the mechanism for prioritizing large changes, but
the latter also deserves a community-curated priority queue.  To complement
the staff-maintained priorities in phab ~

For core challenges (like Commons stability and capacity), I'd be surprised
if the bottleneck were people or budget.  We do need a shared understanding
of what issues are most important and most urgent, and how to solve them.
For instance, a way to turn Amir's recent email about the problem (and
related phab tickets) into a family of persistent, implementable specs and
proposals and their articulated obstacles.

An issue tracker like phab is good for tracking the progress and
dependencies of agreed-upon tasks, but weak for discussing what is
important, what we know about it, how to address it. And weak for
discussing ecosystem-design issues that are important and need persistent
updating but don't have a simple checklist of steps.

So where is the best current place to discuss scaling Commons, and all that
entails?  Some examples from recent discussions (most from the wm-l thread
below):
- *Uploads*: Support for large file uploads / Keeping bulk upload tools
online
- *Video*: Debugging + rolling out the videojs
 player
- *Formats*: Adding support for CML
 and dozens of other
 common high-demand file formats
- *Thumbs*: Updating thumbor 
and librsvg 
- *Search*: WCQS still  down
, noauth option
 wanted for tools
- *General*: Finish implementing redesign
 of the image table

SJ

On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 6:26 AM Amir Sarabadani  wrote:

> I'm not debating your note. It is very valid that we lack proper support
> for multimedia stack. I myself wrote a detailed rant on how broken it is
> [1] but three notes:
>  - Fixing something like this takes time, you need to assign the budget
> for it (which means it has to be done during the annual planning) and if
> gets approved, you need to start it with the fiscal year (meaning July
> 2022) and then hire (meaning, write JD, do recruitment, interview lots of
> people, get them hired) which can take from several months to years. Once
> they are hired, you need to onboard them and let them learn about our
> technical infrastructure which takes at least two good months. Software
> engineering is not magic, it takes time, blood and sweat. [2]
>  - Making another team focus on multimedia requires changes in planning,
> budget, OKR, etc. etc. Are we sure moving the focus of teams is a good
> idea? Most teams are already focusing on vital parts of wikimedia and
> changing the focus will turn this into a whack-a-mole game where we fix
> multimedia but now we have critical issues in security or performance.
>  - Voting Wishlist survey is a good band-aid in the meantime. To at least
> address the worst parts for now.
>
> I don't understand your point tbh, either you think it's a good idea to
> make requests for improvements in multimedia in the wishlist survey or you
> think it's not. If you think it's not, then it's offtopic to this thread.
>
> [1]
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/WMPZHMXSLQJ6GONAVTFLDFFMPNJDVORS/
> [2] There is a classic book in this topic called "The Mythical Man-month"
>
> On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 11:41 AM Gnangarra  wrote:
>
>> we have to vote for regular maintenance and support for
>> essential functions like uploading files which is the core mission of
>> Wikimedia Commons
>>
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Community Wishlist Survey 2022 is coming. Help us and prepare

[Samuel Klein]

Szymon: neat, thanks.  How do past suggestions carry over?

We should definitely make more use of community-curated priority lists
(annotated with how separable / hard they are; where they sit on the 'new
solution <--> pay off tech debt' spectrum).  And see if we can support a
broader range of technical hubs + community groups tackling some of them.

Core challenges like Commons stability + capacity deserve their own thread!
I believe the wishlist is traditionally for something else.

NBB: An interesting idea (below).  It would be good for us to develop
patterns w/ more shared creative leeway for experimenting with a collective
call to action around major initiatives.  Mozilla has some approaches to
this. Including bounties, grants, outreach campaigns to recruit new
contributors, awards for essential tools, workshops to train people in
related toolchains so they can help move the space forward.

S.

On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 6:52 AM  wrote:

> This is a proposal that would need to be included in next year's funding
> plan. It also would involve an obligation for the other teams within the
> Foundation.
>
> **Part 1: Funding redistribution and Big Ticket team**
> I propose that we stand-up a 2nd community wishlist team... to handle the
> "Big Ticket" items, beyond the capacities of the current team.
> **Part 2: blocked item obligations**
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Fwd: Meta, WikiMedia, and the Hewlett Foundation partner with Africa No Filter

[Samuel Klein]

into
>>>>> multiple African languages.
>>>>>
>>>>> The Meta and Wikimedia Foundation projects will offer funding,
>>>>> mentorship, and capacity building. They will be launched through grant
>>>>> callouts on Africa No Filter’s usual platforms.
>>>>>
>>>>> Moky Makura, Executive Director at Africa No Filter, says: "We are
>>>>> incredibly honoured that Africa No Filter has been identified as a trusted
>>>>> partner and custodian of these projects. Each partnership supports the
>>>>> creation of content that is more representative of what is happening 
>>>>> across
>>>>> the continent, which fuels our mission. New partnerships and funding allow
>>>>> us to increase our reach and impact and ultimately bring awareness of the
>>>>> importance of which story Africans are telling. It means we can do more –
>>>>> it’s an exciting time for Africa No Filter. "
>>>>>
>>>>> Media enquiries: ler...@africanofilter.org
>>>>>
>>>>>  *About Africa No Filter  *
>>>>>
>>>>> Africa No Filter is a donor collaborative shifting stereotypical and
>>>>> harmful narratives within and about Africa through research, grant-making,
>>>>> community building and advocacy by supporting storytellers, investing in
>>>>> media platforms, and driving disruption campaigns. It is funded by Ford
>>>>> Foundation, Bloomberg, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Luminate, Open Society
>>>>> Foundations, Comic Relief, the Hilton Foundation, the British Council and
>>>>> Hewlett Foundation.
>>>>> *About the Wikimedia Foundation*
>>>>>
>>>>> The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates
>>>>> Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a
>>>>> world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all
>>>>> knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute
>>>>> something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to
>>>>> access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia 
>>>>> projects,
>>>>> build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing 
>>>>> Wikimedia
>>>>> content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia
>>>>> possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free
>>>>> knowledge to thrive.
>>>>>
>>>>> *About Meta*
>>>>>
>>>>> Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities,
>>>>> and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way
>>>>> people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further
>>>>> empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens
>>>>> toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help
>>>>> build the next evolution in social technology.
>>>>>
>>>>> *About Hewlett Foundation*
>>>>>
>>>>> The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation advances ideas and supports
>>>>> institutions to promote a better world. For more than 50 years, the
>>>>> Foundation has e supported efforts to advance education for all, preserve
>>>>> the environment, support vibrant performing arts, strengthen Bay Area
>>>>> communities, make the philanthropy sector more effective, and foster 
>>>>> gender
>>>>> equity and responsive governance around the world.
>>>>>
>>>>> Remember to like our Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and to follow us on
>>>>> Twitter and Instagram at @Africanofilter.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Share <https://africanofilter.cmail20.com/t/t-fb-chkudkl-wthuildtj-j/>
>>>>> Tweet <https://africanofilter.cmail20.com/t/t-tw-chkudkl-wthuildtj-t/>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Jorge Vargas
>>>> Director, Regional Partnerships
>>>> Wikimedia Foundation
>>>> jvar...@wikimedia.org
>>>> +1 415.404.9536
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> GN.
>> *
>>  2021*
>> *Celebrating 20 years of Wikipedia*
>>
>>
>> Wikimania: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnangarra
>> Noongarpedia: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Main_Page
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
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> +1 415.404.9536
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: December 14 Conversation hour about organizing for #WikiForHumanRights 2022

[Samuel Klein]

What's the latest estimate, for different parts of the movement?
Who has the best model report card for this?

On Tue, Dec 14, 2021 at 2:25 PM Philip Kopetzky 
wrote:

> Maybe we should also fill the knowledge gap on how Wikimedia's footprint
> could be reduced, if that isn't too complex ;-)
>
> On Tue, 14 Dec 2021 at 17:14, Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> Thanks for organizing this again.  'Getting more complex' is right...
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 14, 2021 at 8:00 AM Alex Stinson 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Reminder that the conversation hour for #WikiForHumanRights starts in 2
>>> hours at 1500 UTC. If you are interested in organizing for this next year,
>>> we hope to see you there,
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Alex Stinson
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 1, 2021 at 2:39 PM Alex Stinson 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> *TL:DR --* Join us for a Conversation hour December 14 at 1500 UTC to
>>>> learn how to organize for WikiForHumanRights 2022.
>>>>
>>>> Hello Everyone!
>>>>
>>>> #WikiForHumanRights: Right to a Healthy Environment  2022 [1]is back!
>>>> From April 15  through to June 14 2022 we encourage local affiliates,
>>>> individuals or organizations interested in the campaign to organize
>>>> activities around the intersecting themes of human rights and the
>>>> environment.
>>>>
>>>> If you are interested in organizing your community for the campaign,
>>>> please join us for a conversation hour on December 14 at 1500 UTC [4]
>>>> (more details below) to learn how you can participate.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Why the Right to a Healthy Environment?
>>>>
>>>> This October, the Right to a Healthy Environment was formally
>>>> recognized [1] by the United Nations Human Rights Council. According to
>>>> Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
>>>>
>>>> "A safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is the foundation
>>>> of human life. But today, because of human action – and inhuman inaction –
>>>> the triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and nature loss
>>>> is directly and severely impacting a broad range of rights, including the
>>>> rights to adequate food, water, education, housing, health, development,
>>>> and even life itself."[2]
>>>>
>>>> The environmental crisis is getting more complex. Humanity needs to
>>>> make thousands of big and small decisions to address it. As the UN
>>>> Environmental Program described it, we need to make “Peace with Nature”[3]
>>>> and protect the human rights of the most vulnerable.
>>>>
>>>> Wikipedia and other platforms need to fill the knowledge gaps at the
>>>> intersection of sustainability and human rights in every context and
>>>> language.  The world needs access to reliable information about the link
>>>> between environmental sustainability and human rights.
>>>>
>>>> What can you do? Help us organize!
>>>>
>>>> We need your help! The campaign will officially launch on April 15 (one
>>>> week before Earth Day), but we need your help now to begin preparing this
>>>> global call to action.
>>>>
>>>> Last year we had 24 community-led editathons, workshops, webinars, and
>>>> writing contests, with contributions to over 2000 articles in more than 40
>>>> languages. To match (and hopefully exceed) these impacts, we need your help
>>>> to organize your local communities!
>>>>
>>>> Activities related to human rights and sustainability are good topics
>>>> for local communities to both a) identify new partners, b) recruit
>>>> enthusiastic participants and c) fill key topics for impact in their own
>>>> language or context.
>>>>
>>>> Join the Conversation to learn more!
>>>>
>>>> Join us for 1.5 hours of conversation Tuesday the 14th December 2021
>>>> 15:00 UTC on Zoom <https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/84871090509> [4], to
>>>> learn more about:
>>>>
>>>>-
>>>>
>>>>How you can participate in this campaign and organize local events
>>>>in your community or region.
>>>>-
>>>>
>>>>Which topics this campaign will target, and h

[Wikimedia-l] Re: December 14 Conversation hour about organizing for #WikiForHumanRights 2022

[Samuel Klein]

/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27443
>>
>> [3] https://www.unep.org/interactive/making-peace-nature/
>>
>> [4] https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/84871090509
>>
>> [5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights
>>
>> [6] https://t.me/joinchat/k_W9SVMG5K44YjJh
>>
>> --
>> Alex Stinson
>> Senior Program Strategist
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> Twitter: @sadads
>>
>> Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
>> Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
>> through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
>>
>
>
> --
> Alex Stinson
> Senior Program Strategist
> Wikimedia Foundation
> Twitter: @sadads
>
> Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
> Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
> through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Approval of Human Rights Policy

[Samuel Klein]

Hi Richard, thanks.  Keen to see what the team is planning.

- Are there any notes from the session earlier today?
- Can you post the policy to Meta, and link it to the [[m:Human Rights
Team]]?
- You might seed its discussion page with the current FAQ; people may have
other questions.  This would be a better place to gather + respond
to movement-internal questions, even if a clean static version remains on
the foundation-wiki
- The FAQ currently says the policy will be translated (by whom? through
the translation dashboard?) and posted on the Governance Wiki.  Not
everyone realizes that foundation.wikimedia.org was renamed to that so it's
a bit confusing -- you might just link to the page where translations will
be added.

My primary question: Most of the language of the policy is about freedom
*from* threats, rather than freedom *to* (create, share, learn,
self-govern, protect one's own rights, ). The free knowledge policy agenda
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019/Global_advocacy>
is
linked to, but that more often focuses on freedoms *to*.   I'd like to hear
how you are thinking about this.

For instance, we could focus all available energy and resources staffing a
defense league to protect those who are under threat; or focus on training,
empowering, and unblocking active community groups; or on providing them
with new avenues for educating individuals and networks so they have the
skills and resources to do all of the above.

James + Bodhisattwa:

The stated scope does include starting at home, w/ the rights of community
members, staff, and users of the projects; as well as those who might not
be able to engage in any of those ways.  I encourage you to share ideas you
have on how to build a stronger movement, supporting contributors and
identifying approaches to and successes in unionization (or other workplace
practice) for staffed parts of it.  Perhaps here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Human_rights>?

On Thu, Dec 9, 2021 at 10:26 AM Richard Gaines 
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> The Wikimedia Foundation’s Global Advocacy team is excited to announce the
> approval of the Human Rights Policy
> <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Policy#Frequently_Asked_Questions>
> by the Board of Trustees on 8 December 2021. Please read our blog post
> <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/12/09/what-the-wikimedia-foundations-new-human-rights-policy-means-for-our-movement/>
> about the policy and what it means for the Wikimedia Foundation’s work in
> the coming years on Diff. We invite you to join representatives of the
> Foundation’s Global Advocacy and Human Rights teams here
> <http://meet.google.com/wio-vdkw-phd> for a conversation hour tomorrow,
> 10 December, at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 UTC) to address any immediate concerns,
> questions, or suggestions regarding this policy or how it will be
> implemented. The session will be recorded for later viewing and you may
> submit questions by email to myself (rgai...@wikimedia.org) and Ziski
> Putz (zp...@wikimedia.org) ahead of or following the conversation hour.
> Additional conversation hours on this policy will be made available in the
> coming weeks.
>
> Best regards,
> --
> *Ricky Gaines *(he/him/his)
> Senior Manager, Advocacy Audiences
> Wikimedia Foundation
> rgai...@wikimedia.org
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Auction at Christie's

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks for the post; I appreciate finding out from an internal list before
social media / the news.

Adam, agreed this list isn't a good place for general discussion about it,
bit a heads-up seems fine (and a longer thread on wiki appropriate)




>> *I’ll be around for the next 8 hours or so to answer any questions but to
>> keep it all centralized, let’s keep it on my English wikipedia talk page,
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jimbo_Wales
>> 
>> 
>> *
>>
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Small gratitude to our fellow wikimedians

[Samuel Klein]

I'd like us to consider a more serious set of obits, after the fashion of
the astronomers <https://baas.aas.org/obituaries>.

On Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 6:25 PM Gnangarra  wrote:

> In some ways we do https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2021:In_Memoriam
>
> On Tue, 9 Nov 2021 at 04:46, Camelia Boban 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi everybody.
>>
>> Today, on the social media channels, we received the news about another
>> wikimedian who is passed away: Steve Suleeman (User:Stephensuleeman from
>> idwiki). As others in the recent or distant past: Spasimir Pilev
>> (User:Спасимир Пилев from bgwiki), Pier Luigi Rocco (User:Moroboshi from
>> itwiki), Elena Sanz Queiruga (User:ElsaBornFree from
>> eswiki), User:SlimVirgin from enwiki, Krzysztof Machocki
>> (User:Halibutt from plwiki).
>>
>> For these losses, I think we - as a community, through the Wikimedia
>> Foundation - need to set up a fund to build a commemorative plaque to
>> remember all the wikimedians we have lost.
>>
>> I would suggest it to be a thought from the community, extended also to
>> all other major events of a wikimedian's life (marriage, birth of a child).
>> We know a wikimedian often sacrifices the free time, dedicating a large
>> part of their own real life to our projects and the movement. Would be a
>> recognition from the community for the work done and a memory for the
>> families, a "small gratitude to our fellow wikimedians" as someone said.
>>
>> I know that some affiliates are already doing this (eq. Wikimedia
>> Indonesia), would be a lovely idea to do it in a centralized way at the
>> level of the whole movement.
>>
>> What do you think?
>> Camelia
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>
>
> --
> GN.
> * 2021*
> *Celebrating 20 years of Wikipedia*
>
>
> Wikimania: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnangarra
> Noongarpedia: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Main_Page
> My print shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Gnangarra/shop?asc=u
>
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Meet the new Movement Charter Drafting Committee members

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you Kaarel, and kudos to the committee; may the work get off to a
solid start.

Bodhisattwa Mandal  writes:

> Coming from South Asia and looking at ESEAP, I am not at all excited
> considering the geographical representation of the committee as per
> Wikimedia regions[1], excluding WMF appointed candidates who will represent
> WMF instead of the regions itself
>

Hi Bodhisattwa,

I don't believe the idea is for anyone to explicitly represent their
geography, affiliations, or organizations -- rather to draft a meaningful
and empowering starting point for us all.

Of course broad geographic and project backgrounds, and good language
diversity (within the drafting group and through available tools to support
work with others) are important for this work.  But please don't exclude
any participant from that, based on the experimental mix of selection
processes.  We are all wikimedians.  Runa and Jorge for instance have been
advancing the global movement towards free knowledge, culture and tools for
a very long time.  And having a translation expert actively involved should
help amplify different voices :).

SJ.

PS - There are still many, many systemic gaps and biases in our communities
and our knowledge.  The focus on elevating and connecting regional hubs may
help address this, and I dearly hope to see thriving hubs in Asia. But I
wouldn't say the next billion participants, editors, and learners will come
from any one region; rather from underserved communities everywhere in the
world! (And by stats like readership
,
communities in Africa are still the least reached, including proportional
to connectivity.)
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Manavpreet Kaur's role in AffCom's issues

[Samuel Klein]

Michal,

Don't be absurd.
*Do not use this list for personal attacks*.

You seem to be forum-shopping an ethical disagreement

with
others at WMSVK, and now extending that to attacking anyone who has
interacted with you about it.

Manavpreet is a saint and an excellent communicator, who we are fortunate
to have in our movement. She no doubt responded to your concerns with
kindness -- unlike those who steered clear. For you to attack *her*
character as a result is ridiculous. When you come to your senses you owe
her an apology.

We must all take care of ourselves in mentally trying times.
Find ways to cope that do not involve lashing out.

SJ

(PS - Since this subject line is itself unkind targeting -- if anyone wants
to comment further on-list, please use the previous thread, "*Investigation
of possible AffCom*...")
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Movement Charter Drafting Committee elections are now open!

[Samuel Klein]

Risker writes:
> To the best of my knowledge, the Elections Committee has had no
involvement in the MCDC election,
> and there's no indication at all that the Board asked them to assist or
to manage the election.
> I would really like to see a couple of stewards acting as scrutineers for
this election, simply because they are
> really experienced at identifying the kinds of problems that turn up on
elections like this

I do hope there are scrutineers of that sort.  Can someone involved w/ the
process advise on how that is happening?

I'd like to see us have an explicit standing group that keeps up with all
of these large-scale selection processes, shares best practices from a
range of variations implemented on different projects, and can discuss them
publicly in a number of languages. Running polls + votes is broadly useful,
so we should expand the pool of people fluent in their implementation.

It is good to have staff support and complement this work, but it would be
a loss five times over (in cost, delay, warmth, capacity, communal
knowledge) to remove this work from active community maintenance and
oversight.

On Tue, Oct 19, 2021 at 4:28 AM Chris Keating 
wrote:

>
> Agreed.  Is this something that the Election Committee
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee>,
>> as a standing committee not tied to a single election, can help with?   SJ
>>
>>
> I would like the answer to this to be 'yes', but the Elections Committee
> doesn't seem to do anything except supervise the community elections to the
> Board (which are, in effect, now run by WMF staff). They did not, for
> instance, appear to be particularly involved in the work that led to the
> changes to the Board election structure. They do not publish any
> information about what they are doing, and they don't appear to be
> particularly responsive to inquiries even when there is a Board election
> on. Making the elections committee a 'standing' committee does not appear
> to have resulted in anything changing, and suggests this committee is not
> the right group to take any further changes forward.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Movement Charter Drafting Committee elections are now open!

[Samuel Klein]

l bias into 
>> use
>>   of the tool, so we have chosen the select all approach as default. 
>> Overall,
>>   it is the number of candidates that is creating the bulk of the 
>> navigation
>>   and comparison issues and we are open to feedback on how to improve 
>> this in
>>   the future.
>>   - The length of the statements made by the candidates in the
>>   compass tool was capped to prevent us from creating another wall of 
>> text.
>>   While it helps to better understand the position of the candidate, it 
>> would
>>   create a further barrier for voter engagement, if the expression is not
>>   clear and concise. I believe that the word limits will be an essential 
>> part
>>   of the future elections and candidate statements, because it reduces 
>> the
>>   access barrier for voters and also facilitates translations to a wider
>>   range of languages, which makes the information even more accessible. 
>> What
>>   can be discussed is the exact limit size and also what information is 
>> the
>>   most helpful to collect from candidates.
>>   - The tool that we used is Open Election Compass
>>   <https://open-election-compass.com/>. We did not do a full code
>>   review for this, but we did not experience any anomalies in weighing 
>> of the
>>   votes during testing. If there are people who are interested in doing 
>> the
>>   code review, here is the link to the tool in GitHub
>>   <https://github.com/open-election-compass/client>.
>>- We are truly grateful to the community members who have stepped in
>>and tried to make the information regarding the candidates more easily
>>digestible. This goes a long way in supporting informed voting in this
>>process! Thank you Dušan Kreheľ and Andrew Lih for your proactive and
>>constructive approach!
>>
>> I apologize for the length of the response - I have tried to break it up
>> so the single points are more clear. I am available to respond to any
>> further questions and specifications, as well as happy to receive any
>> further feedback.
>>
>> Wishing everyone a great week ahead!
>> Kaarel
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 18, 2021 at 10:44 AM Mario Gómez 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 18, 2021 at 3:57 AM effe iets anders <
>>> effeietsand...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> This is a horribly problematic election. Not only does it take hours to
>>>> go through the candidates if you actually want to rank them, but you would
>>>> also need to be willing to spend about a lot of time to enter them into the
>>>> broken voting interface (which works great for up to 5 candidates - not for
>>>> 70).
>>>>
>>>
>>> I filled about 14 candidates and it was not extremely bad, but for
>>> anyone looking to rank more candidates, I guess it might have been
>>> daunting. I agree that the dropdowns are a very inconvenient UI for this
>>> kind of votation. I can imagine something more efficient like having chips
>>> for every candidate (no dropdown), and then sequentially click on them to
>>> add them to the ballot in order, then maybe supporting drag and drop to
>>> re-order. Changing the order of candidates once the ballot is prepared is
>>> particularly cumbersome.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Mario
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Kaarel Vaidla (he/him)
>>
>> Movement Strategy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/2030>
>>
>> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: 100$ million dollars and still obsolete

[Samuel Klein]

Luis writes:
> For what it is worth, I think the current mobile app is pretty good and I
regularly finding pleasant surprises

Yea, the mobile app is sweet, editing and all.

Responding to two specific earlier comments:

1. *Galder* - "It is 2021 and we still can't edit by mobile phone."

-->  Safe to say this is not true :)  But you could say that about your
later comment on the ability to "*write simultaneously ... upload videos
...** autosave*", each of which are common in online collaborative spaces,
and which we do need to make standard for our wikis.  But the bottlenecks
aren't primarily design, but rather coordinated vision and focus -- or at
least unblocking and supporting one another as we design and implement
prototypes.  We need new social norms and clear community use cases
for simultaneous
editing  (resolving
attribution and revision history for multiparty edits), video uploading
 (how to note
the original upload if we only save a transcode), and drafts
 (rallying support behind a
specific client-side use case to realize).

2.* Jonathan* -
   "[In my new sw company] we have the autonomy to make the changes in the
first place, see what happens, and then build from there..."
   "WMF product teams work in an environment where [...] one set of end
users (editors) has a great deal of both *soft* and *hard* power to block
changes, even when those changes are intended for--and indeed, primarily
affect--a different set of end users (readers)."

--> These comments highlight a common misframing, about autonomy and
curation of the reading experience, worth addressing.  (Likely deserves its
own thread!)

Much of the friction and tension in our movement stems from different
understandings of autonomy; and the impedance mismatch

of a step function between the norms (of communication, delegation, and
planning) of a) broad community wikiocracies and b) narrow staff
hierarchies. Our community has thousands of designers; the staff has
scores, who may feel constrained to work on only their particular projects.
There is abundant talent.

Most active editors and curators are not "end users" of the site, any more
than developers are -- they are involved before the end, up and down the
design and implementation stack, building bridges, interfaces,
translations.  They are project stewards, schedulers, templaters,
designers, and maintainers.  So when interface designers deploying a new
language-selector design are talking with layout designers maintaining
article flair like geo-coordinates

and article status indicators
, they should
feel they are on the same team: improving the site skin together.

This is a solved problem in some corners, but the solutions are not evenly
distributed.  Within Wikimedia, and within the WMF, there are groups and
projects of all sizes that have developed without this sort of contention.
But we spend most of our time and energy talking about the ones that fail
to do so.  [*The article always ends on the wrong version
; confusion is always
due to the other person* :-]   Let's learn from the successes, and not fall
into stereotyping any parts of our nexus.

Wishing all a beautiful week's end,
SJ
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: 100$ million dollars and still obsolete

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks Galder for the provocative thread and Jonathan for your reflections
(in this thread and in issues elsewhere, past and present).

Galder -- I'm thinking about how to refactor your observations to make them
less personal, more general, easier to work with.
This issue and these patterns are not specific to {design | the foundation
| a developer/user feedback loop}, but the example you raise makes it
tangible.  Design is often an area that amplifies them - there's a reason
that *barn-raising* and *shed-painting* are analogies for very
different human tendencies...

You might call this class of interactions *feedback tropes* – like fiction
tropes , there are thousands of
common ones, not just a handful. They are mostly not "excuses" [other than
what you numbered 5.x].  Many tropes which you mention but did not number
("don't change anything", "better than nothing [don't take forever]", "this
doesn't even scratch the surface [so why bother]", "what have you done for
us lately", "you are bad at this") are part of their own cycle.

Naming more of these tropes might help defuse tension and avoid spiralling
– most tropes have known and relatively straightforward resolutions.

I can also see how these two cycles can amplify one another, though it
doesn't need to be that way.  For instance, in the thoughtfully
detailed Phab tickets you linked, where both you and others participating
feel fed up for different reasons.

SJ
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Toolhub 1.0 is launched! Discover software tools used at Wikimedia

[Samuel Klein]

ug reports, ideas and questions are more than welcome on the talk
>> page of the project <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Toolhub>, or
>> in Phabricator <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/3224/>.
>> Bryan (tech lead) & Seve (our new Product Manager) will be there to chat
>> with interested folks and help with any questions. We are looking
>> forward to evolving this project step-by-step and jointly with everyone!
>>
>> Birgit – on behalf of Technical Engagement & our Toolhub project team
>>
>>
>> --
>> Birgit Müller (she/her)
>> Director of Technical Engagement
>>
>> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Wikimedia Endowment reaches initial $100 million goal and welcomes new board members

[Samuel Klein]

Wonderful news, and an amazing set of board members. Thanks to the team for
making the endowment a steady and growing pillar of support, and tending to
its governance too with care :)



On Wed., Sep. 22, 2021, 10:58 a.m. Lisa Gruwell, 
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Today I am very happy to announce the Wikimedia Endowment [1] has reached
> its initial $100 million goal. The Endowment was started in 2016 as a 
> permanent
> fund to support the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity [2].
>
> My deep gratitude goes out to our generous donors, the Endowment board,
> Foundation staff, and volunteers who made this possible. I am grateful to
> the future-focused community members who began considering the idea of an
> endowment years ago, to those who participated in community conversations
> on Meta [3] to help us think through initial decisions regarding its
> launch, and to all contributors whose work creating Wikimedia content has
> brought free knowledge to the world.
>
> As part of this milestone, the Wikimedia Endowment Board has also welcomed
> three new members: Phoebe Ayers, Patricio Lorente, and Doron Weber,
> bringing in important expertise of the Wikimedia movement and priorities as
> well as in nonprofit management.
>
> You can read more about this milestone, what it means for the movement,
> and what comes next for the Endowment on Diff [4] and the Endowment Meta
> page [5]. We invite you to share any questions or feedback on the Endowment
> talk page [6].
>
> Thank you to everyone who has made this incredible achievement possible.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Lisa
>
> [1] https://wikimediaendowment.org/
>
> [2] https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/mission/
> 
>
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay
>
> [4]
> https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/22/the-wikimedia-endowment-reaches-100-million-milestone-and-welcomes-three-new-members-to-its-board-more-on-what-these-developments-mean-for-the-projects-and-movement/
> 
>
> [5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Endowment
> 
> [6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Endowment
>
> --
>
> Lisa Seitz Gruwell
>
> Chief Advancement Officer
>
> Wikimedia Foundation 
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming the new Wikimedia Foundation CEO

[Samuel Klein]

Hello Maryana!  This is superb news.

Brad 'OG' Patrick  wrote:

> Congratulations and welcome to the best job in the world!
>

You're not wrong :)

Access to knowledge seems to becoming more unequal these days in new ways,
with the volume of convincing un-knowledge increasing much faster than the
modest pace of the real thing.  So our work is not getting easier.  But
humor, joy, and a commitment to empowering one another across the varied
texture of our planet, is as good a foundation for it as any I know.  Thank
you Maryana, for sharing your thoughts and wishes.

Sending a warm welcome,
Sam.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming the first round of grants from the Equity Fund

[Samuel Klein]

Broadly agreeing with Gergő — our central challenge in this arena is that
the Foundation's total investment in things outside of staffing its own
growing org has historically been quite small — even though we recognize
that WP itself needed well under $1M to take off, and that we need a wide
range of innovative ideas - and recognition for the most creative community
efforts - to have a chance of repeating that in other arenas. The amount we
invest in new outside projects and regional affiliates was modest a decade
ago, and since then has grown more slowly the internal budget.

So I was glad to see these funds earmarked last year, and the results seem
healthy; at the same time the Foundation seems to be increasing
community-overseen grantmaking, which is essential. The two are not
mutually exclusive.

S.



On Sat., Sep. 11, 2021, 3:14 p.m. Gergő Tisza,  wrote:

> One can argue about whether it was a good idea to give 15% of the
> Foundation's annual grant budget to largely-unrelated charities as a snap
> reaction to a wave of US political protests. But assuming it was - this
> happened in the middle of the pandemic, with the WMF operating on extremely
> restricted resources (with many staff working half-time, see [1]), and was
> trying to react to an unexpected event quickly, so I doubt it could have
> been done in a significantly more transparent or participatory manner. And
> the community was also stretched pretty thin, there were constant
> complaints of being consulted about too many things at the same time, with
> the movement strategy discussions, board election discussions, code of
> conduct discussions, branding discussions etc. going on, while people's
> personal lives were in disarray due to the lockdowns and other
> virus-related disruptions; some consultations had to be delayed, even the
> board elections had to be delayed. So I doubt the community would have had
> the capacity to practice oversight, had it been invited to.
>
> That's not to say those we shouldn't ask for more transparency and
> participation *going forward*, as those circumstances are now largely
> behind us (at least in the Global North; not sure about community capacity
> in the countries which would be the most logical beneficiaries of an equity
> fund). But we should acknowledge the severe constraints the WMF was under a
> year ago.
>
> (disclaimer: I work at the WMF, in a non-grantmaking-related position. All
> of the above is my personal opinion as a long-time community member.)
>
> [1]:
> https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/wikimedia-coronavirus-response-people-first-8bd99ea6214b
>
> On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 10:21 PM Yair Rand  wrote:
>
>> I haven't yet had time to look over the grantee organizations, and the
>> general issue of funding non-Wikimedia efforts has been fairly well-covered
>> by statements from all four recently-elected trustees, so I'm just going to
>> take a moment to bring up some points about the specific process used here:
>> * This was not participatory. Neither the community nor any
>> community-elected group were invited to look these over even to give
>> advance feedback, much less make a decision.
>> * This was not transparent. Even after the fact, no notes were given on
>> what the WMF used to judge the options; no metrics, no pros-and-cons
>> analysis of each, no general review. Nor was a list of rejected applicants
>> made public, as far as I can see.
>> * COI concerns: Given the lack of any mentioned standards about this (I
>> haven't seen anything resembling the FDC's COI rules, and the WMF's general
>> COI policy seems quite lacking for something like this), and given the
>> problematic history this Fund in particular has in this area, I must ask:
>> Did any staff, trustees, or committee members involved in this process have
>> any personal associations to any of the grantee organizations, and if so,
>> were they (/would they have been) required to recuse themselves from the
>> relevant decisions?
>> * The Committee appears to have committed to sharing "terms of each grant
>> and updates on their progress" on Meta, per the FAQ. I don't see any links
>> to the grant terms. Should we still expect these things?
>>
>> (A few excerpts from answers given by the recently elected, at the Q on
>> the topic of funding non-Wikimedia efforts in general:
>> "I don’t think WF has any money to spare for any other causes
>> irrespective of their worth. There’s an NGO or 100 for any cause, and WF
>> cause is exclusively Wikimedia movement support." - Victoria
>> "At this time, I'd be reluctant to start funding projects entirely
>> unrelated to Wikimedia projects." - Pundit
>> "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to support and empower the
>> communities of the Wikimedia projects and the projects themselves. Among
>> the many worthy goals that one can set, we choose to pursue this one. [...]
>> The Wikimedia Foundation looks relatively big and well-resourced (in terms
>> of 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Paid editing dashboard and metrics?

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you Mario!  I'll ask further there. S

On Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 4:29 PM Mario Gómez  wrote:

> You might want to discuss this topic at
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikiproject:Antispam
>
> This page is watched by many people working against UPE in various
> projects. Many are familiar with large-scale UPE operations. Some of us
> already work with tools for automated and semi-automated detection. So it
> might be more fruitful to discuss it with contributors experienced in that
> area.
>
> Best,
>
> Mario
>
> On Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 7:22 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> Hi Steven :)  Good points.  I agree with Adam that this is a major energy
>> and enthusiasm drain for eitors.
>>
>> As to how we could start with data collection:
>>
>> * Monitor the market.
>>   a) Work with groups that are in the market and completely transparent
>> about their work to maintain a sense of rates and volume
>>   b) Search general contracting sites, general search engines, and
>> specific reputation brokers for new options; maintain a catalog
>>   c) Spot-check and commission work. As with Böhmermann
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_B%C3%B6hmermann>'s show - he spent
>> under 500 Euros and identified two networks of UPE.
>>
>>  * Build better tools for tracking and countering undisclosed paid editing
>>   a)  Tracking: automated scoring, as with ORES
>>   b)  Countering: As you say: tools to help people coordinate work,
>> making it more fun and collaborative to take on UPE. Especially for
>> often-targeted categories -- politicians + companies..
>>   b)  Both: Focus on tools for detecting large farms over time, and
>> cleaning up the mess left by a farm.
>>
>> You're right about community size being a defense.  But only for a time
>> -- the growing demand for this actively subverts community members. Olaf
>> was one!  So we also need to think of ways to reduce and divert that demand
>> into constructive channels.
>>
>> SJ
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 11:11 PM Steven Walling 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Given that it’s completely trivial to make new pseudonymous accounts how
>>> would you propose even remotely accurate data collection to measure paid
>>> editing?
>>>
>>> If we are worried about the impact of paid editors on the integrity of
>>> content, we are much better served investing even more in efforts to
>>> dramatically strengthen our volunteer community’s ability to defend the
>>> projects. That means better software to help each editor do more, making it
>>> fun, easy and welcoming for new contributors, and fighting the attrition in
>>> admins and other functionaries. If our volunteer community was larger and
>>> healthier, the threat of paid interference would be less scary.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 7:20 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Aha -- I was pointed to en:wp's List of paid editing companies
>>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_paid_editing_companies>.
>>>> (thanks!)  This is a great resource and deserves to be better linked.   The
>>>> page is semi-active - 4 additions in the last month, including the Olaf
>>>> case. I've cleaned it up a bit and linked it to the German page. This
>>>> really needs some automated scripting and tracking, at the scale of ORES...
>>>>
>>>> Is there any routine analysis / stats compiled of edits associated with
>>>> these orgs, or of their activity online?
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 2:19 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Jan Böhmermann <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_B%C3%B6hmermann>
>>>>> published an amazing expose on political WP editing in Germany; it gets
>>>>> good around 15 minutes in
>>>>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNsTaKwyAzI=900s>. In the video he
>>>>> exposed the workings of a paid editing farm run (by Olaf Kosinsky (
>>>>> Wikidata <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30108329>; CheckUser
>>>>> discussion
>>>>> <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Umgang_mit_bezahltem_Schreiben/Verdachtsf%C3%A4lle/Olaf_Kosinsky>
>>>>> ; archived PR-services site
>>>>> <https://web.archive.org/web/20210416110100/https://kosinsky.eu/>),
>>>>> an excellent long-time editor with over 3 million edits.
>>>>>
>>>>> *We need to distinguish paid editing from general COI editing*.  Paid
>>>>&

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Paid editing dashboard and metrics?

[Samuel Klein]

Hi Steven :)  Good points.  I agree with Adam that this is a major energy
and enthusiasm drain for eitors.

As to how we could start with data collection:

* Monitor the market.
  a) Work with groups that are in the market and completely transparent
about their work to maintain a sense of rates and volume
  b) Search general contracting sites, general search engines, and specific
reputation brokers for new options; maintain a catalog
  c) Spot-check and commission work. As with Böhmermann
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_B%C3%B6hmermann>'s show - he spent under
500 Euros and identified two networks of UPE.

 * Build better tools for tracking and countering undisclosed paid editing
  a)  Tracking: automated scoring, as with ORES
  b)  Countering: As you say: tools to help people coordinate work, making
it more fun and collaborative to take on UPE. Especially for often-targeted
categories -- politicians + companies..
  b)  Both: Focus on tools for detecting large farms over time, and
cleaning up the mess left by a farm.

You're right about community size being a defense.  But only for a time --
the growing demand for this actively subverts community members. Olaf was
one!  So we also need to think of ways to reduce and divert that demand
into constructive channels.

SJ

On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 11:11 PM Steven Walling 
wrote:

> Given that it’s completely trivial to make new pseudonymous accounts how
> would you propose even remotely accurate data collection to measure paid
> editing?
>
> If we are worried about the impact of paid editors on the integrity of
> content, we are much better served investing even more in efforts to
> dramatically strengthen our volunteer community’s ability to defend the
> projects. That means better software to help each editor do more, making it
> fun, easy and welcoming for new contributors, and fighting the attrition in
> admins and other functionaries. If our volunteer community was larger and
> healthier, the threat of paid interference would be less scary.
>
> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 7:20 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> Aha -- I was pointed to en:wp's List of paid editing companies
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_paid_editing_companies>.
>> (thanks!)  This is a great resource and deserves to be better linked.   The
>> page is semi-active - 4 additions in the last month, including the Olaf
>> case. I've cleaned it up a bit and linked it to the German page. This
>> really needs some automated scripting and tracking, at the scale of ORES...
>>
>> Is there any routine analysis / stats compiled of edits associated with
>> these orgs, or of their activity online?
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 2:19 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
>>
>>> Jan Böhmermann <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_B%C3%B6hmermann>
>>> published an amazing expose on political WP editing in Germany; it gets
>>> good around 15 minutes in
>>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNsTaKwyAzI=900s>. In the video he
>>> exposed the workings of a paid editing farm run (by Olaf Kosinsky (
>>> Wikidata <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30108329>; CheckUser discussion
>>> <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Umgang_mit_bezahltem_Schreiben/Verdachtsf%C3%A4lle/Olaf_Kosinsky>
>>> ; archived PR-services site
>>> <https://web.archive.org/web/20210416110100/https://kosinsky.eu/>), an
>>> excellent long-time editor with over 3 million edits.
>>>
>>> *We need to distinguish paid editing from general COI editing*.  Paid
>>> editing is COI editing by professionals, who have strong external
>>> incentives to persist, no leeway in the outcome they are aiming
>>> for, experience in doing this in dozens of cases, and may have colleagues
>>> who can drop in as 'uninvolved' editors to forge consensus or social
>>> proof.[1]
>>>
>>> This is one of our great recurring challenges, siphoning off both our
>>> reputation and our community.  There are many things we can do about paid
>>> editing, starting with maintaining *paid-editing metrics and a
>>> dashboard* of known and estimated paid editing.  We can estimate its
>>> prevalence by the availabiity of services online[2]; and look for patterns
>>> of such editing on wiki.  Even with large error margins, this would be a
>>> step above simply waiting for outbreaks to be discovered and reacting to
>>> the visible bits of the iceberg.
>>>
>>> What sort of metrics like this do we have already?  Who is working on
>>> such things?
>>> Since the above video came out, de:wp started a table of WP editing
>>> services
>>> <https://de.wikip

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Paid editing dashboard and metrics?

[Samuel Klein]

Aha -- I was pointed to en:wp's List of paid editing companies
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_paid_editing_companies>.
(thanks!)  This is a great resource and deserves to be better linked.   The
page is semi-active - 4 additions in the last month, including the Olaf
case. I've cleaned it up a bit and linked it to the German page. This
really needs some automated scripting and tracking, at the scale of ORES...

Is there any routine analysis / stats compiled of edits associated with
these orgs, or of their activity online?

On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 2:19 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:

> Jan Böhmermann <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_B%C3%B6hmermann>
> published an amazing expose on political WP editing in Germany; it gets
> good around 15 minutes in
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNsTaKwyAzI=900s>. In the video he
> exposed the workings of a paid editing farm run (by Olaf Kosinsky (
> Wikidata <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30108329>; CheckUser discussion
> <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Umgang_mit_bezahltem_Schreiben/Verdachtsf%C3%A4lle/Olaf_Kosinsky>
> ; archived PR-services site
> <https://web.archive.org/web/20210416110100/https://kosinsky.eu/>), an
> excellent long-time editor with over 3 million edits.
>
> *We need to distinguish paid editing from general COI editing*.  Paid
> editing is COI editing by professionals, who have strong external
> incentives to persist, no leeway in the outcome they are aiming
> for, experience in doing this in dozens of cases, and may have colleagues
> who can drop in as 'uninvolved' editors to forge consensus or social
> proof.[1]
>
> This is one of our great recurring challenges, siphoning off both our
> reputation and our community.  There are many things we can do about paid
> editing, starting with maintaining *paid-editing metrics and a dashboard*
> of known and estimated paid editing.  We can estimate its prevalence by the
> availabiity of services online[2]; and look for patterns of such editing on
> wiki.  Even with large error margins, this would be a step above simply
> waiting for outbreaks to be discovered and reacting to the visible bits of
> the iceberg.
>
> What sort of metrics like this do we have already?  Who is working on such
> things?
> Since the above video came out, de:wp started a table of WP editing
> services
> <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Umgang_mit_bezahltem_Schreiben/F%C3%A4lle#Wikipedia-Web-Agenturen_auf_dem_Markt>.
> It currently includes an initial dozen examples, with no estimate of
> activity (the 1 account known to be associated with each is in most cases
> blocked; but most have active websites soliciting work) This would be
> useful in all languages.
>
> SJ
>
>  [1] as Melmann wrote
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)/Archive_167#Limiting_the_scope_of_COI_edit_requests>
>  recently:
> "*in my experience, **all the most difficult edits are WP:PAID
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PAID>**. Most non-paid COI comes
> from a place of desire to make things better, and often can be relatively
> easily guided towards a better place... [or] it is relatively easy to use
> existing enforcement mechanisms to to correct and ultimately control their
> behaviours. PR professionals, on the other hand, are subtle and sometimes
> downright deceptive, and it takes lots of effort to check their edits when
> most of the time you lack context and expertise and you really have to
> research in depth to see their edits for what they really are. I think that
> one of the fundamental mistakes of the current policy is lumping paid
> editors with general COI editing as paid editors are fundamentally playing
> on a different level in terms of PR expertise and incentives*"
>
> [2] Just searching for this online led to ads from dozens of services.
> The first 10 below seem to be clones of the same service (perhaps run by
> the same farm)
>  Elite Wiki Writers
>  Wiki Curators
>  Wiki Genies
>  Wikipedia Legends
>  Wiki Page Writing
>  Wiki Page Creator
>  WikiProfs
>  Wiki Specialist LLC
>  Wiki Writers Workshop
>  Wikipedia Publisher
>  Wikipedia Services
>  360 Ghostwriting
>  Contentfly
>  Otter PR
>  Premium Content Writing
>  ReputationX
>  Upwork
>
>
>

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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Results for the most contended Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election

[Samuel Klein]

Congratulations to Rosie, Victoria, Dariusz and Lorenzo!

This system offers a helpful way of seeing whether there is a natural break
in the election results.
In this case there was a growing gap between 5th and 6th place results as
the process resolved.

Looking at the gap between (1 + 4), (4 + 5), and (5 + 6) as the # of
remaining candidates dropped:

# left   | 1st-4th | 4th-5th | 5th-6th |
19   |  185 |27 |  141 |
 9|  131 |25 |  223 |
 6|   97  |50 |  313 |
 5|  146 |19 |–   |



On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 3:40 PM Chris Keating 
wrote:

> I too am disappointed (but not surprised) that STV had almost no effect at
>> all on the outcome of this election
>>
>
> This may be true, but if it's true, it was only true very narrowly. The
> margin between the 4th and 5th placed candidates was 12.27 votes in a
> situation where 1,188 were needed to win.
>
> Had that gone very marginally differently, we'd all be talking about how
> amazing it was that a black African woman had been elected to the Board for
> the first time in history.
>
> We can observe a few other things about how it worked out:
> - by and large votes did not seem to transfer between Global South
> candidates - when one Global south candidate was knocked out their votes
> did not usually go to other Global South candidates
> - most votes ending up counting; of 6,800 or so initially there were 6,000
> counted in the final round, that is a fairly low dropout rate
> - also, if all 8 Board seats had been elected at the same time rather than
> in 2 batches in 2 years, we'd have 2 Global South candidates in the final 8
> and probably be pretty pleased with the results. (Is it still an option for
> the Board to do this and appoint Eliane, Mike, Pascale and Ivan and then
> skip next year's planned election?)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chris
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[Wikimedia-l] Paid editing dashboard and metrics?

[Samuel Klein]

Jan Böhmermann 
published an amazing expose on political WP editing in Germany; it gets
good around 15 minutes in
. In the video he
exposed the workings of a paid editing farm run (by Olaf Kosinsky (Wikidata
; CheckUser discussion

; archived PR-services site
), an
excellent long-time editor with over 3 million edits.

*We need to distinguish paid editing from general COI editing*.  Paid
editing is COI editing by professionals, who have strong external
incentives to persist, no leeway in the outcome they are aiming
for, experience in doing this in dozens of cases, and may have colleagues
who can drop in as 'uninvolved' editors to forge consensus or social
proof.[1]

This is one of our great recurring challenges, siphoning off both our
reputation and our community.  There are many things we can do about paid
editing, starting with maintaining *paid-editing metrics and a dashboard*
of known and estimated paid editing.  We can estimate its prevalence by the
availabiity of services online[2]; and look for patterns of such editing on
wiki.  Even with large error margins, this would be a step above simply
waiting for outbreaks to be discovered and reacting to the visible bits of
the iceberg.

What sort of metrics like this do we have already?  Who is working on such
things?
Since the above video came out, de:wp started a table of WP editing services
.
It currently includes an initial dozen examples, with no estimate of
activity (the 1 account known to be associated with each is in most cases
blocked; but most have active websites soliciting work) This would be
useful in all languages.

SJ

 [1] as Melmann wrote

recently:
"*in my experience, **all the most difficult edits are WP:PAID
**. Most non-paid COI comes
from a place of desire to make things better, and often can be relatively
easily guided towards a better place... [or] it is relatively easy to use
existing enforcement mechanisms to to correct and ultimately control their
behaviours. PR professionals, on the other hand, are subtle and sometimes
downright deceptive, and it takes lots of effort to check their edits when
most of the time you lack context and expertise and you really have to
research in depth to see their edits for what they really are. I think that
one of the fundamental mistakes of the current policy is lumping paid
editors with general COI editing as paid editors are fundamentally playing
on a different level in terms of PR expertise and incentives*"

[2] Just searching for this online led to ads from dozens of services.  The
first 10 below seem to be clones of the same service (perhaps run by the
same farm)
 Elite Wiki Writers
 Wiki Curators
 Wiki Genies
 Wikipedia Legends
 Wiki Page Writing
 Wiki Page Creator
 WikiProfs
 Wiki Specialist LLC
 Wiki Writers Workshop
 Wikipedia Publisher
 Wikipedia Services
 360 Ghostwriting
 Contentfly
 Otter PR
 Premium Content Writing
 ReputationX
 Upwork
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Voting closes for the 2021 Board of Trustees election with a record participation

[Samuel Klein]

On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 3:26 PM Jackie Koerner 
wrote:

> Diversity was an important goal with these elections. Messages about the
> Board election were translated into 61 languages. This outreach worked
> well. There were 70 communities with eligible voters voting in this
> election for the first time. With your help, next year’s Board of Trustees
> election will be even better.
>

Thank you Jackie + all involved.

This is impressive.  I'd love to see more of an analysis of those
communities + participants.

What do we know about the distribution of community activity among voters,
across communities?
(I would imagine activity was higher on Wikidata because of how edits are
counted)
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Wikipedia issues in UNDARK.org #Opinion article to check...

[Samuel Klein]

We do need, among other things, the sum of all Wikipedias.  :)
A shared commons, wikidata, global templates, abstract WP! are all ways to
get there.  The suggestions in this article are not...

In particular, as long as reliability and verifiability and research norms
are siloed by language -- with the barrier of translation making it much
more difficult to parse and evaluate claims made in a mutually
incomprehensible language -- articles about a topic T in language X will
depend on reliable secondary sources in that language about T.

But we can move towards making this more possible, with
- better on-wiki / inline translation options [G! Translate is a step in
that direction, but only one]
- better options for multilingual review and consensus [some languages and
Meta have tried some versions of this in the past, so far w/o great
success]
- better translation-linkage tracking between articles: indicating which
parts of article in one language are synched/branched from parts of the
same article in another language.  [there is research + practical
literature on approaches to this in other media]
- (many more...)



On Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 12:18 AM Željko Blaće  wrote:

> ...considering recent discussions on Wikimania and here, this is maybe a
> useful opinion piece from  https://
>  UNDARK.org/2021/08/12/wikipedia-has-a-language-problem-heres-how-to-fix-it/
>
> It is packed with good insights and while I do not agree with all this,
> the final sentence feels kind of brilliant: ... to achieve its stated
> mission to “help everyone share in the sum of all knowledge,” they might
> first need to create the sum of all Wikipedias.
>
> Best Z. Blace
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Fwd: FW: Professor Jing Wang (1950–2021)

[Samuel Klein]

Rh1iIwgFcYzyHQ/aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvQ3JlYXRpdmVfQ29tbW9ucw>
> for China.
>
> Having lost her daughter, Candy
> <http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AMwAAKqL8X0AAcrqnbA83MsAGqoAJUNBAAiQzwBhAsSMSUNopTskT0CMncxamYYExAAIIWc/5/YywrXXH3sLfXXVKFpK5TLA/aHR0cDovL2NhbmR5d2VpLm9yZy8>,
> tragically two decades ago, Jing was keenly attuned to the struggles of
> others. Warm, caring and generous, she was a gifted cook who made sure that
> students from far away had a welcoming place to go for Thanksgiving.
>
> May we honor her memory by making room at our own tables – and by reaching
> out now to the many friends, colleagues and students grappling with her
> loss.
>
> With sympathy,
>
> L. Rafael Reif
>
>
>
>
>
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> 77 Massachusetts Ave | Cambridge, MA 02139
>
> This email has been sent to psay...@mit.edu.
> You received this email because you are a member of MIT's faculty or
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> Report an issue with this email .
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Samuel Klein]

¹ OK, the existence of the Good Governance Kodex, and its Good Governance
Gremium <https://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Good_Governance_Kodex>, may be the
best thing I learned all day.  Thank you, WMAT!

Some precedents:
~ As Florence noted, in 2007, Erik made a similar transition.  (A bit
contentious; there was a long internal-l thread).
~ In 2013, Ting stepped down from the Board to apply to the ED search; and
addressed concerns at the time. (Discussion on this list
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2=7f4d33b442=lg=msg-f%3A1433039687338740686>
)

Since then we've thought more intently about this sort of transition across
the movement, and shared many excellent learning patterns
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Learning_patterns/Governance_Codex>,¹ but
I haven't seen a resulting global rule of thumb honoring that work. This
feels like a good moment to develop such a lightweight overview.  E.g.,
"orgs over size X should review this list of [[common patterns]], and
consider implementing a version of each [links to global + regional
WM-wide examples]".

SJ
--
topnoting >> topposting
*the community that norms together, warms together*, 

On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 4:18 PM Philip Kopetzky 
wrote:

> Hi SJ!
>
> The 12 month waiting/cooldown period is something that was implemented in
> the Good Governance Kodex of Wikimedia Austria in 2014, see
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_%C3%96sterreich/Good_Governance_Kodex,
> with an independent committee consisting of a staff, board and community
> representative deciding cases that do not fulfill the 12 months waiting
> period.
>
> Best,
> Philip
>
> On Thu, 24 Jun 2021 at 16:28, Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> Jan-Bart: Spot on.  It is always uplifting to see one of your measured
>> notes come over the wire.
>>
>> Jan-Bart de Vreede  writes:
>>
>>> The Foundation is supposed to be an example of good Governance for our
>>> entire movement. We (as a movement) have come a long way in the past 20
>>> years (and that is important: as our organisation and budget grows, so do
>>> our responsibilities and the critical questions we get from the world)
>>>
>>> It is NOT good governance to have a current board member suddenly resign
>>> and then create a situation where that person receives compensation for a
>>> position that seems to have been created specifically for that board member
>>> (or at least was not publicly posted?).
>>>
>>
>> The impact of this increases as the movement grows, and clear
>> communication is at a premium. How can we use this moment to model the
>> norms we want for the future?  Any *particular* moment can feel like a
>> special exception when you are close to it, but the WMF's actions set a
>> standard, translated across time and context, more instantly and
>> effectively than words.
>>
>>
>>> It is a good practice to create a 12 month waiting period before board
>>> members of non-profits can become a staff member/paid contractor/consultant.
>>>
>>
>> A few people mentioned that their own orgs or committees have norms or
>> policies around this (Chris, Philip, Tito); could you describe specifics
>> that are in place now around the movement?
>>
>> SJ.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Samuel Klein]

Jan-Bart: Spot on.  It is always uplifting to see one of your measured
notes come over the wire.

Jan-Bart de Vreede  writes:

> The Foundation is supposed to be an example of good Governance for our
> entire movement. We (as a movement) have come a long way in the past 20
> years (and that is important: as our organisation and budget grows, so do
> our responsibilities and the critical questions we get from the world)
>
> It is NOT good governance to have a current board member suddenly resign
> and then create a situation where that person receives compensation for a
> position that seems to have been created specifically for that board member
> (or at least was not publicly posted?).
>

The impact of this increases as the movement grows, and clear communication
is at a premium. How can we use this moment to model the norms we want for
the future?  Any *particular* moment can feel like a special exception when
you are close to it, but the WMF's actions set a standard, translated
across time and context, more instantly and effectively than words.


> It is a good practice to create a 12 month waiting period before board
> members of non-profits can become a staff member/paid contractor/consultant.
>

A few people mentioned that their own orgs or committees have norms or
policies around this (Chris, Philip, Tito); could you describe specifics
that are in place now around the movement?

SJ.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sharing more details about the Equity Fund

[Samuel Klein]

Lisa + all -- Excellent to see this take shape.  It pairs well with a
vintage CSB

...

Thank you for putting out a call for potential projects to support.  I'll
think more on it before filling out the form
; some categories that come to mind
that can't happen on-wiki projects today:
 * Reliable secondary sources that write prolifically about
under-documented people and projects
 * Reliable interlocutors that record and index oral and other histories,
and under-documented languages (cf Rosetta and PanLex)
* Making representative subsets of essential collections available
digitally (ex.
)
+ under a free license. (ex.

)

Sam.

PS - some thoughts on your comments, Geni:

Geni writes:
> 3 [internet access] isn't really viable at our kind of funding levels and
has significant enviromental concerns.

Efforts to get libraries online, in regions whose lit + historical + public
records are underrepresented on the searchable web, is quite impactful as
part of digitization + mirroring efforts.  Many regional groups work in
collab w existing infrastructure-efforts providing the bandwidth [such as
Giga ]

> 4 [digital literacy]  Again not really viable at our funding levels

Not my experience; especially as knowledge propagates like a taper flame.

> (also english language lessions would have more impact).

I imagine this is not meant to be limited to the english-speaking world and
projects.

> 5 [non-traditional records of knowledge] runs into the issue that the
community has not historicaly proven accepting of attempts to lower RS and
notability standards for non western areas.

This comment seems a bit off-topic.  These grants as described are not
constrained by what is accepted by current wiki projects; archiving and
indexing non-traditional records allows them to be cited and allows the
archives to become recognized as reliable sources; only a few
project-language-editions to my knowledge have been prickly about engaging
with oral histories, and such records exist in every culture and part of
the world.





On Wed., Jun. 9, 2021, 1:15 p.m. Lisa Gruwell, 
wrote:

>
> This is a $4.5 million USD fund to address racial inequities that impact
> the work of free knowledge. It was created to provide focused grants to
> organizations that are advancing knowledge equity, one of two key pillars
> of our 2030 strategic direction of becoming the essential infrastructure of
> free knowledge. Specifically, the fund is meant to support organizations
> working to address the racial injustices and barriers that prevent
> participation in free knowledge.
>
>
> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund
>
> [5] https://forms.gle/gzqRH7yMFEGgZb4e6
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: June WMF Board meeting update

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you -- good to see these updates shared to the list.
I also appreciate that the mid-year recalibration
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Board_Priorities_Mid-year_Recalibration_FY20-21>
was
shared as a public resolution.

Warmly, SJ

On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 1:55 PM María Sefidari 
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> On June 1st and 2nd, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees had our
> regular meeting for Quarter 4 (April – June) of the Foundation’s fiscal
> year. We will have more details about what transpired at the meeting once
> the minutes have been prepared and approved, but we wanted to quickly
> release this brief update on some key topics and decisions:
>
>- We have unanimously approved the Call for Candidates for the 2021
>selection process for Community-and Affiliate selected Trustees. There is a
>revised timeline that accommodates the implementation of single
>transferable vote in the SecurePoll extension, as follows:
>
>
>- June 9 - 29:  Call for candidates
>- June 30 - July 2:  Announcement of confirmed candidates
>- July 7 - August 3: Candidates campaign and answer questions
>- August 4 - 17: Voting
>- August 18 - 24: Vote counting and processing
>- August 25:  Announcement of vote results
>- August 25 - 31: Foundation vetting of selected candidates
>- September: Board appoints selected candidates
>
> More information on the process will follow over the next few
> weeks.
>
>- We have unanimously approved a committee evolution plan to maintain
>and improve the Board’s effectiveness, to be implemented in stages.
>- We have unanimously approved the donation of $5 million in FY
>2020-21 to the Wikimedia Endowment.
>- We have reviewed the proposed Annual Plan for the Foundation for
>2021/22, and unanimously authorised the Audit Committee to approve minor
>adjustments to the 2021-22 fiscal year budget in response to Board input
>during the June meeting. More information on the Annual Plan will follow
>once the Audit Committee has met.
>- We also unanimously approved the minutes from the previous Board
>meeting, to be published on Foundation-Wiki.
>
> On behalf of the Board,
>
> María
>
> --
>
> María Sefidari Huici
>
> Chair of the Board
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Thank you. And keep up the good work!

[Samuel Klein]

Dear Abraham, it is wonderful to have you in the movement; thank you as
ever for all of your inspiration and support, and the work you have done +
enabled in others.

> Wikimedia is one of the strongest and last-standing proponents of the
free and open internet,

Just so. Let us make sure it continues to be a support and model for future
proponents as well.

And to Christian, wishing you congratulations and success.--SJ

On Mon, May 31, 2021 at 1:03 PM Abraham Taherivand <
abraham.taheriv...@wikimedia.de> wrote:

> Dear Wikimedians,
>
>
> As you know, today is my last day as the Executive Director of Wikimedia
> Deutschland.
>
>
> What an incredible journey it has been. When I started in 2012, I couldn’t
> have even dreamed of all the things I would experience, what I would do,
> whom I would meet, where I would go, and what I would learn. And then it
> all turned out to be even more intense, more magical, and more fulfilling
> than I had thought or could have imagined in my boldest dreams.
>
>
> In 2012, when Pavel Richter brought me into the organisation to build up
> the Wikidata team and to bootstrap the project together with Denny
> Vrandečić, I already had a slight notion that something huge that was about
> to emerge; “Wikidata, the next big thing” still echoes in my ears today.
> The vision of this free and open knowledge base excited and inspired me
> from day one. It was an honour for me to establish the initial Wikidata
> team and later to build the software development department at Wikimedia
> Deutschland. I could really follow my passion to bring people together,
> empowering them, promoting their strengths and challenging them to be
> innovative, to try new things off the beaten track.
>
>
> Then in 2016, a whole new phase began when I was appointed as Executive
> Director. Over these four and a half years, Wikimedia Deutschland has grown
> considerably: our staff has doubled to 150 and we now have over 85,000
> members. Together with a large and successful community, we work as a
> strong and respected partner together with educational and cultural
> institutions, politics, media and digital civil society to liberate
> knowledge. Alongside these audience groups in Germany, the Wikimedia
> Movement - you! - has always been one of the most exciting and relevant
> stakeholders. I am therefore particularly pleased that we and our members
> unanimously decided in 2017 to support the 2030 Strategic Direction and its
> implementation, that we were able to play a strong role in the development
> of the recommendations, and that we are now continuing to pursue the
> implementation with all our might.
>
>
> I have had the great privilege of getting to know and learning from many
> of you personally. The vast array of experience that Wikimedians bring to
> the Movement, the rich ideas, and the people at the heart of it all are
> truly extraordinary. In each Wikimedian I’ve met, I’ve felt the passion for
> the overarching theme of our common vision. The spark in your eyes when you
> start speaking about your favourite topics, be it the encyclopedia,
> technology, governance, photos, food, commas, fondue, karaoke – it’s
> impressive and a memory that I am glad will remain with me forever. What
> each of you bring to this Movement is inspiring and truly special - and
> that’s what makes this movement more than the sum of its parts.
>
>
> It never gets boring in the wikiverse. There is always something new
> coming along, be it in movement strategy, in our programs, or in how we
> work together and grow our reach. At times, it can take awhile to get
> things done. But that is often because we want to make sure everyone has a
> say and has the opportunity to shape how we do things. It is a testament to
> the respect Wikimedians have for each other and each other’s perspectives.
> Wikimedians are very thoughtful: we take care of each other and treat each
> other's needs and opinions as one of the highest goods.
>
>
> Wikimedia is one of the strongest and last-standing proponents of the free
> and open internet, one that continues to work toward making digital society
> better for the sake of humanity.
>
>
> Don’t give up this fight, don’t lose hope, be bold, unite – the world
> needs you!
>
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Abraham
>
>
>
> --
>
> Geschäftsführender Vorstand / Executive Director
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
> Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
> http://wikimedia.de
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Announcing an academic conference on Wikipedia translation

[Samuel Klein]

This looks lovely, thank you for organizing it Mark.
You can submit a rapid grant request
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid> for support for
online participation.

This seems like something of interest to developers of Translate
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate> + Content Translation
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation> + translatewiki
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translatewiki.net>, the current WMF language
& translation team <https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/staff-contractors/>,
and the people working on Lexicographical data
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Lexicographical_data> in
Wikidata :)  You might want to explicitly invite some of those networks.

SJ

On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 1:48 AM Mark SHUTTLEWORTH 
wrote:

> Dear friends and colleagues
>
> Further to my message at the end of last month and the queries that one or
> two of you made, I'd like to notify you of the following:
>
> 1. the conference will now be 100% online
> 2. the deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 30th June
> 2021
>
> Full updated details and Call for Papers can be found on the conference
> website at https://ctn.hkbu.edu.hk/wikiconf2021/.
>
> Best regards
>
> Mark Shuttleworth
>
> On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 12:13, Mark SHUTTLEWORTH 
> wrote:
>
>> Dear friends and colleagues
>>
>> Please permit me to publicise an academic conference that we're holding
>> at Hong Kong Baptist University on 15-17 December 2021.
>>
>> The conference will be an ideal forum in which to discuss research
>> methodologies, issues of collaborativity, theoretical frameworks that have
>> proven valuable for the study of Wikipedia translation, the use of
>> Wikipedia in the translation classroom and by translation professionals,
>> and the nature of Wikipedia translation and how it differs not only from
>> other more traditional types of translation but also from other newly
>> emerging types. While the conference's main focus is interlingual
>> translation within the online encyclopaedia, we are also interested
>> in research into the multilingual Wikipedia that makes no explicit
>> reference to translation issues.
>>
>> The conference will be online, face-to-face or mixed mode, depending on
>> prevailing circumstances. Please see the conference website at
>> https://ctn.hkbu.edu.hk/wikiconf2021/ for full details and the Call for
>> Papers.
>>
>> I hope to see some of you there!
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> Professor Mark Shuttleworth 夏致遠
>> Department of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies
>> Hong Kong Baptist University
>> Phone: +852 3411 6641
>> http://www.tran.hkbu.edu.hk
>> https://ctn.hkbu.edu.hk/wikiconf2021/
>>
>
> --
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>
> This message (including any attachments) may contain confidential
> information intended for a specific individual and/or purpose. If you are
> not the intended recipient, please delete this message and notify the
> sender and the University immediately. Any disclosure, copying, or
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> prohibited as it may be unlawful.
>
> In addition, the University specifically denies any responsibility for the
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Movement funding questions

[Samuel Klein]

Adam: well put.

We may want to translate '*Service and equity*', from recent strategy
discussions, more widely: into a range of contexts as well as languages.



On Thu., May 20, 2021, 3:19 a.m. Adam Wight, 
wrote:

> In case there really is a question about whether we should be working
> towards greater equity, please see the Wikimedia Foundation's vision
> statement [1],
>
>  > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
> the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment
>
> and in more detail [2],
>
>  > ... our goal is to impact the largest-possible number of readers and
> contributors, and to eliminate barriers that could preclude people from
> accessing or contributing to our projects ...
>
> Since sj's point is in the context of Wikimedia, "goals of increasing
> equity across the world, and supporting underrepresented communities"
> should be understood as "goals of increasing equity [to read and
> contribute to Wikimedia projects] across the world, and supporting
> underrepresented [Wikimedia] communities".  Please correct me if I've
> misunderstood these affiliate review suggestions.
>
> Regards,
> [[mw:User:Adamw]]
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vision
> [2]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Guiding_Principles#Serving_every_human_being
>
> On 5/20/21 7:34 AM, Alexander N Krassotkin wrote:
> > Dear Samuel,
> >
> >   Just a note...
> >
> > "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage
> > people around the world to collect and develop educational content
> > under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it
> > effectively and globally".
> > https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/mission/
> >
> >   But not "increasing equity across the world".
> >
> >   You can create separate funds for this and other good purposes.
> >
> > sasha.
> >
> > On Wed, May 19, 2021 at 12:05 PM Julia Brungs 
> wrote:
> >> Dear SJ,
> >>
> >> Thank you very much for your questions here and on meta. We are working
> on answering them and will post the answers on meta (don't worry I will
> reply to this thread again when the answers are live so people can go and
> find them).
> >>
> >> Best wishes,
> >> Julia
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 7:32 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
> >>> :)   Dimi, do you know of reports on subsets of this, for groups and
> projects in Europe?   I discovered to my delight a beautiful summary of WMF
> grants made up to 2020 -- thanks Guillaume! -- which partly answers the
> first question. But this does not include donations + external grant
> funding that directly supports affiliates.
> >>>
> >>> One other point -- It was noted that 3a and 3d seem similar.  I
> updated these Qs on meta to be clearer.  I meant:
> >>>
> >>>   3a:  What groups do we envision making individual funding
> recommendations?  [timing, who decides, what constraints]
> >>>   3d:  How do we envision reviewing how things are going?   [peer
> feedback on budgets and plans, reflection on the overall balance of funding
> across the movement.]
> >>>
> >>> These inform one another, but are distinct.   And the first is more
> than just updating current processes: major gaps to fill include funding
> for projects under $500, and multi-year funding for infrastructure and
> projects -- among the most common requests.
> >>>
> >>> SJ
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 6:52 AM Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <
> dimitar.parvanov.dimit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> Hi Samuel,
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks for structuring these questions regarding funding and
> fundraising. I just wanted to pitch in a +1.
> >>>>
> >>>> It would be very useful to have answers to some of these for our
> public facing work. Such questions pop up naturally in conversations and
> the more granular we can be in our answers the better the reaction we get.
> >>>>
> >>>> Cheers,
> >>>> Dimi
> >>>>
> >>>> На пн, 17.05.2021 г. в 21:13 ч. Samuel Klein 
> написа:
> >>>>> Dear list,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Risker posed an excellent question in the AffCom thread about review
> and development of movement funding, which could use its own dedicated
> thread.  Riffing on the theme, here are a dozen questions for anyone who
> knows part of the ans

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Movement funding questions

[Samuel Klein]

:)   Dimi, do you know of reports on subsets of this, for groups and
projects in Europe?   I discovered to my delight a beautiful summary of WMF
grants made up to 2020
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking/Reports/2019-2020> -- thanks
Guillaume! -- which partly answers the first question. But this does not
include donations + external grant funding that directly supports
affiliates.

One other point -- It was noted that 3a and 3d seem similar.  I updated
these Qs on meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:MSIG> to be
clearer.  I meant:

 *3a*:  What groups do we envision making individual funding
recommendations?  [timing, who decides, what constraints]
 *3d*:  How do we envision reviewing how things are going?   [peer feedback
on budgets and plans, reflection on the overall balance of funding across
the movement.]

These inform one another, but are distinct.   And the first is more than
just updating current processes: major gaps to fill include funding for
projects under $500, and multi-year funding for infrastructure and projects
-- among the most common requests.

SJ


On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 6:52 AM Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <
dimitar.parvanov.dimit...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Samuel,
>
> Thanks for structuring these questions regarding funding and fundraising.
> I just wanted to pitch in a +1.
>
> It would be very useful to have answers to some of these for our public
> facing work. Such questions pop up naturally in conversations and the more
> granular we can be in our answers the better the reaction we get.
>
> Cheers,
> Dimi
>
> На пн, 17.05.2021 г. в 21:13 ч. Samuel Klein  написа:
>
>> Dear list,
>>
>> Risker posed an excellent question in the AffCom thread about *review
>> and development of movement funding*, which could use its own dedicated
>> thread.  Riffing on the theme, here are a dozen questions for anyone who
>> knows part of the answer -- particularly those who helped develop the 2019
>> recommendations on resource allocation
>> <http://Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Resource_Allocation#Recommendations>
>>  ,
>> the 2020 approach to hubs and participatory resource allocation
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Ensure_Equity_in_Decision-making#Participatory_resource_allocation>,
>> and the grants strategy relaunch
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunch_2020-2021>
>> .
>>
>> We can move this discussion to meta
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MSIG> if the thread becomes unwieldy.
>> (:
>>
>> *1. Current state of movement funding*
>>
>>  1a. Roughly what % of global fundraising is currently allocated to
>> affiliates, or other entities + projects not run by the WMF?  (*my poor
>> guess*)
>>
>>  1b. Roughly how much regional fundraising goes directly to major
>> affiliates?
>>
>>  1c. Which affiliates with annual plan grants have been growing over
>> time, and how is the expansion of existing budgets approved?
>>
>>  1d. Which affiliates have gotten their first APG in the past five years,
>> and how has that developed over time?
>>
>> *2. Current review process*
>>
>>  2a. How is funding by WMF of movement affiliates (general operations,
>> and large specific projects) currently determined?  Does the Board engage
>> with this?
>>
>>  2b. Is the funding of affiliate work linked to goals of increasing
>> equity across the world, and supporting underrepresented communities?
>> If so, how / how is this visualized?
>>
>>  2c. What other mechanisms for focusing and allocating resources are good
>> examples to replicate?
>>
>>  2d. What other bilateral projects (such as joint projects, and grant  or
>> microgrant programs), run by large affiliates and hubs other than the WMF,
>> currently exist?  Which seem like examples to replicate?
>>
>> *3. Desired futures!*
>>
>>  3a. What movement bodies are expected to play any role in
>> recommendations about funding (extending, withdrawing, denying funding) to
>> new and existing affiliates, now that the FDC is inactive?
>>
>>  3b. Is there a possibility of the FDC returning? How do past FDC members
>> have about this? What was found to be good and bad about the FDC process?
>>
>>  3c.  What elements of this is the global council expected to take up in
>> its first year? What elements are hubs expected to take up, now and in the
>> future?
>>
>>  3d. What roles do we envision each of {WMF, hubs, affiliates, community
>> members} to play in reviewing mov

[Wikimedia-l] Movement funding questions

[Samuel Klein]

Dear list,

Risker posed an excellent question in the AffCom thread about *review and
development of movement funding*, which could use its own dedicated
thread.  Riffing on the theme, here are a dozen questions for anyone who
knows part of the answer -- particularly those who helped develop the 2019
recommendations on resource allocation

,
the 2020 approach to hubs and participatory resource allocation
,
and the grants strategy relaunch

.

We can move this discussion to meta 
if the thread becomes unwieldy.  (:

*1. Current state of movement funding*

 1a. Roughly what % of global fundraising is currently allocated to
affiliates, or other entities + projects not run by the WMF?  (*my poor
guess *)

 1b. Roughly how much regional fundraising goes directly to major
affiliates?

 1c. Which affiliates with annual plan grants have been growing over time,
and how is the expansion of existing budgets approved?

 1d. Which affiliates have gotten their first APG in the past five years,
and how has that developed over time?

*2. Current review process*

 2a. How is funding by WMF of movement affiliates (general operations, and
large specific projects) currently determined?  Does the Board engage with
this?

 2b. Is the funding of affiliate work linked to goals of increasing equity
across the world, and supporting underrepresented communities? If so, how /
how is this visualized?

 2c. What other mechanisms for focusing and allocating resources are good
examples to replicate?

 2d. What other bilateral projects (such as joint projects, and grant  or
microgrant programs), run by large affiliates and hubs other than the WMF,
currently exist?  Which seem like examples to replicate?

*3. Desired futures!*

 3a. What movement bodies are expected to play any role in recommendations
about funding (extending, withdrawing, denying funding) to new and existing
affiliates, now that the FDC is inactive?

 3b. Is there a possibility of the FDC returning? How do past FDC members
have about this? What was found to be good and bad about the FDC process?

 3c.  What elements of this is the global council expected to take up in
its first year? What elements are hubs expected to take up, now and in the
future?

 3d. What roles do we envision each of {WMF, hubs, affiliates, community
members} to play in reviewing movement budgets/plans and the volume and
focus of future funding [re]allocation?
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: COVID-19 second wave and protection of our most valuable movement asset

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you for this.  How is it coming?  SJ

On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 11:38 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <
bodhisattwa.rg...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Today, we have opened up the Google Form for Indian volunteers to fill up.
> Here is the link -
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYcjEeuT7vUxP3NJg7KfIiZaude9IXLyCagsDarTx11J4ymA/viewform
>
> There are still some logistical constraints to be fully operational, but
> we are trying to figure those out as soon as we can. Hopefully, all will be
> set by next week.
>
> Regards,
> Bodhisattwa
>
> On Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 21:54 Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> Thanks Biyanto, wonderful to see.  Have any other groups done something
>> similar?  S
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 4:53 AM Biyanto Rebin <
>> biyanto.re...@wikimedia.or.id> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I just want to share that Wikimedia Indonesia has started the initiative
>>> since last year. We have disbursed a healthy package - we call it, wellness
>>> package - to our active community members. They are indeed very valuable
>>> and most of them are vulnerable. Vaccine is another story, since our
>>> country still prioritizes the most needed first.
>>>
>>> Read more of the story in here:
>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2019-2020_round_2/Wikimedia_Indonesia/Progress_report_form
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Pada tanggal Kam, 29 Apr 2021 pukul 14.08 Rajeeb 
>>> menulis:
>>>
>>>> Hello everyone,
>>>>
>>>> Hope my mail finds you all in the best of health and spirits. I like to
>>>> thank Tito and Bodhi for coming up with this initiative and starting the
>>>> conversation. Now, WMF has permitted CIS-A2K to allot funds to reimburse
>>>> vaccines, send COVID protection kits and provide counselling for Wikimedia
>>>> volunteers in India.
>>>> A noble initiative for humanity has begun and I am sure the days
>>>> are not too far where we all will be healthy and happy with our families,
>>>> relatives and friends.
>>>>
>>>> Last but not the least, I am always there for my Wiki Community, for
>>>> anything and everything, anyone wants to speak with me, please feel free to
>>>> contact me.
>>>>
>>>> Wishing everyone and their families a healthy and happy life.
>>>>
>>>> Namaste,
>>>>
>>>> Rajeeb.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 20:55, Samuel Klein  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Something like this could definitely make a real difference, GN --
>>>>> either enhancing and focusing pages on WP, or standing up a COVID-19
>>>>> dedicated site that could draw from other projects.
>>>>>
>>>>> At the same time we could also set aside funds to ensure that
>>>>> communityresources is well staffed at this time.
>>>>> A federated approach like this
>>>>> <https://losaltoscf.org/lacf-2020-nonprofit-relief-fund/> to
>>>>> explicitly support regional partners, in coordination with other regional
>>>>> sponsors, could work. (Candid has a catalog
>>>>> <https://candid.org/explore-issues/coronavirus/funds> of similar
>>>>> efforts).
>>>>>
>>>>> SJ
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 7:04 AM Gnangarra  wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Our best skill is collecting, collating, and sharing knowledge, we
>>>>>> have connections deep into communities and countries across the globe.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In a small way we have networks and we could get limited support
>>>>>> medically to a handful of volunteers, in some ways that will have made 
>>>>>> feel
>>>>>> as if we have done some to help then we can go back to our meetings, our
>>>>>> events, our adding a few more articles.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Perhaps its time we took our big stick and put the right knowledge
>>>>>> where it can be found quickly, turn over the main pages to Wikimed get 
>>>>>> more
>>>>>> useful support information about reducing transmission risks. We can use
>>>>>> our resources to get knowledge about 

[Wikimedia-l] Flourishing of the Endowment

[Samuel Klein]

(Retitling this thread, which is now focused on the endowment)

As a meta note, it is a true delight that our primary concerns surrounding
the endowment, 5 years in, are that it is flourishing well beyond
expectations*.  An extremely warm *thank you* to everyone who has made that
possible, it sets an anxious part of my mind at ease :)

Andreas writes:

> So according to the financial statements for the last five years, the WMF
>>> had a revenue surplus of over $100 million over that time period (measured
>>> as increase in net assets, from $77.8 million to $180.3 million). But over
>>> the same period, the Foundation also accumulated $100 million in Tides
>>> Foundation funds (i.e. the Endowment, reported[6] to have passed $90
>>> million in early February, and the $8.7 million in Tides Advocacy).
>>>
>>> This means that the Foundation has actually had a revenue surplus of
>>> more than $200 million over the past five years, averaging over $40 million
>>> per annum.
>>>
>>
That's not usually what revenue surplus means!

A key reason for a strong endowment, and the primary one that many of us
have wanted one, is as a source of long-term support (specifically: for
critical operations) that is managed independently, and can not be simply
used as a cash reserve.

As explained on Meta, it is inaccurate to think of the endowment as "an
investment that the WMF is the beneficiary of". The endowment is there to
support the Projects, rain or shine.

To quote from my initial proposal
 (*NB: past proposals
may not reflect current or future endowment goals; among other things I
don't know that we've ever tried to narrowly define and optimize core
services ;*) :

"The endowment should be large enough to sustainably support the basic
operation of the Projects (see iii. below), able to grow with inflation
while supporting any needed central server farms and technical support with
its interest, and of a size that we can raise."

2. Would it be possible to provide, say, monthly updates for the Endowment
> on Meta?
>

Once a year is standard and would suffice here, I should think.

3. Could a mention of the Endowment, and the fact that the posted expenses
> include $5 million paid to the endowment, be added to the FAQ?
>
> (The FAQ refers to the most recent audited accounts, and thus is still a
> live document. For Awards and grants, which includes the $5 million paid to
> the endowment, the FAQ summary is: "We increased our awards and grants as
> we continue our commitment to support our Affiliates, Organized Groups, and
> Community Members."
>

I agree with clarifying the 'Awards and grants' category.  I try to keep
track of the % of total global donations that are redistributed as awards
and APG or other grants (*current guess: 9%
?*),
and must remember to subtract the endowment transfer each year.  It would
be excellent if that were called out as its own line item.

Wikilove,
SJ.

* I remain of the opinion that the endowment should be doing even better,
as a hedge against the growth in complexity and maintenance cost of our
toolchains and services -- that we should implement a policy assigning a
minimum % of all windfall gifts or donations over the expected target to
the endowment.  But it may make sense to revisit that in earnest once the
Endowment org & what it supports are more crisply defined.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] COVID-19 second wave and protection of our most valuable movement asset

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks Biyanto, wonderful to see.  Have any other groups done something
similar?  S

On Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 4:53 AM Biyanto Rebin 
wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I just want to share that Wikimedia Indonesia has started the initiative
> since last year. We have disbursed a healthy package - we call it, wellness
> package - to our active community members. They are indeed very valuable
> and most of them are vulnerable. Vaccine is another story, since our
> country still prioritizes the most needed first.
>
> Read more of the story in here:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2019-2020_round_2/Wikimedia_Indonesia/Progress_report_form
>
> Best,
>
> Pada tanggal Kam, 29 Apr 2021 pukul 14.08 Rajeeb 
> menulis:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> Hope my mail finds you all in the best of health and spirits. I like to
>> thank Tito and Bodhi for coming up with this initiative and starting the
>> conversation. Now, WMF has permitted CIS-A2K to allot funds to reimburse
>> vaccines, send COVID protection kits and provide counselling for Wikimedia
>> volunteers in India.
>> A noble initiative for humanity has begun and I am sure the days are not
>> too far where we all will be healthy and happy with our families, relatives
>> and friends.
>>
>> Last but not the least, I am always there for my Wiki Community, for
>> anything and everything, anyone wants to speak with me, please feel free to
>> contact me.
>>
>> Wishing everyone and their families a healthy and happy life.
>>
>> Namaste,
>>
>> Rajeeb.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 20:55, Samuel Klein  wrote:
>>
>>> Something like this could definitely make a real difference, GN --
>>> either enhancing and focusing pages on WP, or standing up a COVID-19
>>> dedicated site that could draw from other projects.
>>>
>>> At the same time we could also set aside funds to ensure that
>>> communityresources is well staffed at this time.
>>> A federated approach like this
>>> <https://losaltoscf.org/lacf-2020-nonprofit-relief-fund/> to explicitly
>>> support regional partners, in coordination with other regional sponsors,
>>> could work. (Candid has a catalog
>>> <https://candid.org/explore-issues/coronavirus/funds> of similar
>>> efforts).
>>>
>>> SJ
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 7:04 AM Gnangarra  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Our best skill is collecting, collating, and sharing knowledge, we have
>>>> connections deep into communities and countries across the globe.
>>>>
>>>> In a small way we have networks and we could get limited support
>>>> medically to a handful of volunteers, in some ways that will have made feel
>>>> as if we have done some to help then we can go back to our meetings, our
>>>> events, our adding a few more articles.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps its time we took our big stick and put the right knowledge
>>>> where it can be found quickly, turn over the main pages to Wikimed get more
>>>> useful support information about reducing transmission risks. We can use
>>>> our resources to get knowledge about how bad it is to wider audiences,
>>>> importantly link our volunteers into other organisations and help this
>>>> knowledge with support to wherever ground zero is.  We can put our skill
>>>> sets to translations and knowledge distribution so everyone can learn.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, 25 Apr 2021 at 02:38, Chris Keating 
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Personally I feel, insuring individuals against COVID-19 or helping
>>>>>> people to get vaccines or sending other supports can be better handled
>>>>>> locally by local affiliates (or local committees as proposed by Tito,
>>>>>> whichevers seems fit) instead of a central organization like WMF. Local
>>>>>> affiliates have better information about the vulnerable section of the
>>>>>> community, government orders concerning the available vaccines, local
>>>>>> market value of insurance premiums, vaccines, disinfectants etc. 
>>>>>> Sometimes
>>>>>> they even have the money and/or the intention to extend this kind of
>>>>>> support too, all they need is just a permission from the donor i.e. WMF
>>>>>> Grants team

Re: [Wikimedia-l] COVID-19 second wave and protection of our most valuable movement asset

[Samuel Klein]

Something like this could definitely make a real difference, GN -- either
enhancing and focusing pages on WP, or standing up a COVID-19 dedicated
site that could draw from other projects.

At the same time we could also set aside funds to ensure that
communityresources is well staffed at this time.
A federated approach like this
<https://losaltoscf.org/lacf-2020-nonprofit-relief-fund/> to explicitly
support regional partners, in coordination with other regional sponsors,
could work. (Candid has a catalog
<https://candid.org/explore-issues/coronavirus/funds> of similar efforts).

SJ


On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 7:04 AM Gnangarra  wrote:

> Our best skill is collecting, collating, and sharing knowledge, we have
> connections deep into communities and countries across the globe.
>
> In a small way we have networks and we could get limited support medically
> to a handful of volunteers, in some ways that will have made feel as if we
> have done some to help then we can go back to our meetings, our events, our
> adding a few more articles.
>
> Perhaps its time we took our big stick and put the right knowledge where
> it can be found quickly, turn over the main pages to Wikimed get more
> useful support information about reducing transmission risks. We can use
> our resources to get knowledge about how bad it is to wider audiences,
> importantly link our volunteers into other organisations and help this
> knowledge with support to wherever ground zero is.  We can put our skill
> sets to translations and knowledge distribution so everyone can learn.
>
>
> On Sun, 25 Apr 2021 at 02:38, Chris Keating 
> wrote:
>
>>
>>> Personally I feel, insuring individuals against COVID-19 or helping
>>> people to get vaccines or sending other supports can be better handled
>>> locally by local affiliates (or local committees as proposed by Tito,
>>> whichevers seems fit) instead of a central organization like WMF. Local
>>> affiliates have better information about the vulnerable section of the
>>> community, government orders concerning the available vaccines, local
>>> market value of insurance premiums, vaccines, disinfectants etc. Sometimes
>>> they even have the money and/or the intention to extend this kind of
>>> support too, all they need is just a permission from the donor i.e. WMF
>>> Grants team.
>>>
>>
>> The more I think about this, the more I come to think that we should at
>> least attempt it.
>>
>> It might be unusual for a nonprofit to provide this kind of support to
>> its volunteers, but this is a truly exceptional situation. And while the
>> entire world is struggling with Covid, the nature of the struggle is deeply
>> different in most wealthy countries compared to what India is going through
>> now. And India will probably not be the last nation to see its healthcare
>> system not just threatened but entirely overwhelmed.
>>
>> Of course the WMF is not going to be able to start airlifting
>> Wikimedia-branded vaccines or oxygen supplies, but there must be some form
>> practical help that can be given to support Wikimedia volunteers.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Chris
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>>
>
>
> --
> GN.
>
> *Power of Diverse Collaboration*
> *Sharing knowledge brings people together*
> Wikimania Bangkok 2022
> August
> hosted by ESEAP
>
> Wikimania: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnangarra
> Noongarpedia: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Main_Page
> My print shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Gnangarra/shop?asc=u
>
>
> _______
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Logo of MediaWiki has changed

[Samuel Klein]

I love this.  It looks great on the site.  Thanks Serhio and all :)

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 7:28 PM Amir Sarabadani  wrote:

> Hello,
> After more than one year of design, discussion, vote, iteration, and
> months of legal work, I’m happy to announce that the logo of MediaWiki has
> been officially changed. This applies to both the software and logo of
> https://mediawiki.org.
>
> The old logo of MediaWiki was adopted slightly more than fifteen years
> ago. This logo was featuring the nice concept of a sunflower representing
> diversity, constant growth and also wilderness.
>
> However, with years, the logo became outdated and we realized that it had
> several problems, including but not limited to:
>
>- It was a bitmap picture so it’s unusable in large sizes
>- Its high details (“too realistic”) made it unusable in small sizes
>- Its fixed and realistic style made it hard to have variations or
>adaptations
>
> Most, virtually all, software products use a simpler and more abstract
> form following basic logo design guidelines and best-practices to avoid
> above (and more) issues. For example, docker, kubernetes, Ubuntu, Vue.js,
> React, Apache Kafka and many more.
>
> You can find the discussion of changing the logo in
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Proposal_for_changing_logo_of_MediaWiki,_2020
> . As you can see on this page, a lot of interesting practical and
> theoretical exchanges happened, leading to the final vote and decision.
>
> The new logo represents a collection of projects built on our engine: each
> petal is one of the many wikis that we support, and the lack of an explicit
> core shows that we are part of these projects, as well as and they are part
> of MediaWiki. The new logo also reflects the fact that evolution never
> stops, and like the petals of a flower, the development of each project,
> the growth of each community built on our engine allows everyone else to
> grow.
>
> The designer of the new logo is [[User:Serhio Magpie]]. With the nice
> abstraction baked-in, you can use it in large or small sizes or you can
> adapt it for different usecases (there’s one already for mediawiki on
> docker: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T274678). There is a logo
> guideline for MediaWiki now:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:MediaWiki_logo_guidelines
>
> We already deployed changes to mediawiki.org and landed related patches
> on master, meaning from 1.36 release onwards, it’ll come with the new logo.
> You can follow the work of rolling it out in
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T268230.
>
> I humbly ask Wikimedians to update their wikis, for example usages on the
> main pages, Wikipedia articles, templates, and more. You can use the logos
> in this category on Commons. The files are already protected against upload
> vandalism.
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MediaWiki_logo_(2020)
>
> A big thank you to all who helped this project to finish. From designers,
> community members, people who voted and discussed it intensively for
> months, Wikimedia Legal for doing all the necessary work for transferring
> the rights, clearing it and filing it for trademark. And many many more
> people.
>
> Best
> --
> Amir (he/him)
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Report of grants given out by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2019−2020

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks for calling this out and working on this aspect, Kassia!

A critical bottleneck for supporting emerging communities is a plan for
comprehensive regional microgrant programs, run through affiliate groups.
We should set these up where they don't exist so as to cover the world.

S

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 1:58 PM Kassia Echavarri-Queen <
kechavarriqu...@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Dear Wikimedians,
>
> The report created by my colleagues in the Advancement Team is useful for
> providing aggregated data on the distribution of grants since 2016 and has
> helped the Community Resources team understand where we stand today in
> terms of equity. The current grants have seen an increase in access from
> emerging Wikimedia communities. However, the distribution of funds to those
> communities is still lagging far behind. With the relaunch of the Grants
> strategy
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunch_2020-2021/Proposed_programs>
> we will work towards overcoming this challenge and shape an equitable
> future for the distribution of grants resources across the movement.
>
> The information from this report has been analyzed and already
> incorporated into the current grants strategy relaunch process. In the
> newly proposed grants strategy a priority is to substantially increase
> funding in emerging communities also taking into account the need for peer
> learning and knowledge sharing. The feedback period is still open, please
> help the grants relaunch process by letting us know how to adapt and
> improve the strategy.
>
> The new grants strategy is aligned with the strategic direction of the
> movement and is founded on the principles
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Movement_Strategy_Principles#Subsidiarity_&_Self-Management>
> of Subsidiarity & Self management, Equity & Empowerment, Collaboration &
> Cooperation, and People Centeredness, as well as efficient data and
> iterative practices. This has grounded our approach in the values
> identified by the movement.
>
> We are grateful to all the community members who have already helped to
> enrich this strategy relaunch. Please come to the grants meta page to
> engage, learn more about the proposed changes, and to provide your
> feedback.The month of feedback on the new grants strategy proposal will
> come to a close Monday April 5th, 2021.
>
> All the best,
> Kassia Echavarri-Queen
>
> On Behalf of the CR team
>
>
> [1] Grants Relaunch Meta Page
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunch_2020-2021
> [2] Movement Strategy principles -
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Movement_Strategy_Principles#Subsidiarity_&_Self-Management
>
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 10:25 AM Guillaume Paumier 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I wanted to share the link to a report covering grants given out by the
>> Wikimedia Foundation during the 2019−2020 fiscal year. This was inspired by
>> the Fundraising reports that fundraising teams have prepared for many
>> years. The intent is to publish similar yearly reports for grantmaking
>> going forward.
>>
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking/Reports/2019-2020
>>
>> Questions and comments are welcome, preferably on the talk page.
>>
>> --
>> Guillaume Paumier
>> (he/him)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] The Wikimedia Enterprise API project

[Samuel Klein]

ommendations
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/FAQ
>
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Principles
>
> [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise
>
> *Liam Wyatt [Wittylama]*
> WikiCite <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite> Program Manager & 
> Wikimedia
> Enterprise <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Okapi> Community Liaison
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Research Showcase] March 17: Curiosity

[Samuel Klein]

I was *so* hoping this was going to be about the Machine Queen of Mars
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover)>.
But this looks amazing too...

On Thu, Mar 11, 2021 at 3:50 PM Janna Layton  wrote:

> In this showcase, Prof. Danielle Bassett will present recent work studying
> individual and collective curiosity as network building processes using
> Wikipedia.
>
> Date/Time: March 17, 16:30 UTC (9:30am PT/12:30pm ET/17:30pm CET)
> Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw2s_Y4J2tI
>
> Speaker: Danielle Bassett (University of Pennsylvania)
>
> Title: The curious human
>
> Abstract: The human mind is curious. It is strange, remarkable, and
> mystifying; it is eager, probing, questioning. Despite its pervasiveness
> and its relevance for our well-being, scientific studies of human curiosity
> that bridge both the organ of curiosity and the object of curiosity remain
> in their infancy. In this talk, I will integrate historical, philosophical,
> and psychological perspectives with techniques from applied mathematics and
> statistical physics to study individual and collective curiosity. In the
> former, I will evaluate how humans walk on the knowledge network of
> Wikipedia during unconstrained browsing. In doing so, we will capture
> idiosyncratic forms of curiosity that span multiple millennia, cultures,
> languages, and timescales. In the latter, I will consider the fruition of
> collective curiosity in the building of scientific knowledge as encoded in
> Wikipedia. Throughout, I will make a case for the position that individual
> and collective curiosity are both network building processes, providing a
> connective counterpoint to the common acquisitional account of curiosity in
> humans.
>
> Related papers:
>
> Hunters, busybodies, and the knowledge network building associated with
> curiosity. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/undy4
>
> The network structure of scientific revolutions.
> http://arxiv.org/abs/2010.08381
>
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase#March_2021
>
> --
> Janna Layton (she/her)
> Administrative Associate - Product & Technology
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Idea of a new project: Wikifacts ?

[Samuel Klein]

Teemu: you might start making a demonstration of this idea + workflow
*on* Wikinews
pages in the language(s) you care about, before moving to something new.
And link to that from the new project proposal.

On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 6:25 AM Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <
galder...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> But you can do that on Wikinews!
> --
> *From:* Wikimedia-l  on behalf
> of Leinonen Teemu 
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 9, 2021 12:21 PM
> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List 
> *Subject:* Re: [Wikimedia-l] Idea of a new project: Wikifacts ?
>
>
> Jimmy has a project that does exactly that.
>
>
> I like Jimmy’s project but do not see it progressing to the direction what
> I was imagining.
>
> Having said that, what we could do is have a project investigating the
> missing information in Wikidata.
>
>
> Wikidata is great, but I do not see how it could serves the purpose, I was
> thinking about.I was visioning a wiki site where one could start a page
> with the title:
>
> General Min Aung Hlaing's[1] speech on TV Feb 8th 2021[2]
>
> On this page people could edit transcript of the speech and do fact
> checking on the claims he make.
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Aung_Hlaing
> [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55975746
>
> - Teemu
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Thanks for all the fish! / Stepping down April 15

[Samuel Klein]

ommittee,
>Raju Narisetti, and María Sefidari as Board Chair, will launch the search
>for a new CEO. They’ll work closely with the executive Transition Team on
>organizational operations, and with the broader board on an open candidate
>call. The Board is working with the goal of onboarding a new CEO by Q2 of
>the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
>- We’ve been working on succession planning for the CEO role since
>2019 as a matter of best practice, and the organization is well-prepared
>for a thoughtful search for the next phase of our mission. The Board has
>decided to work with Kathleen Yazbak of Viewcrest Advisors[1] for the
>executive search: I’ve worked closely with Kathleen on a number of
>occasions, and she is a true Wikimedian at heart.
>- I’ll be drawing back from day-to-day operational work to transition
>interim responsibilities starting February 8th. A C-level Transition Team
>of Jaime Villagomez, Amanda Keton, and Robyn Arville, our two board
>officers and chief people leader, will take up key responsibilities and
>decision making around planning, community, and people, and work closely
>with the broader C-team and VP leadership cohort.
>- I’ll spend the next three months supporting the Foundation in
>readying itself for a transition. I’ll spend February preparing with this
>group and other organizational and community leaders on movement strategy
>and institutional knowledge transfer, sharing lessons learned, and
>supporting the organization in developing the next year’s strategic plan.
>- I look forward to celebrating with you in March and April!
>
> I'll be around for a bit, so feel free to reach out, and after that, I'll
> see you on the wikis!
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Katherine
>
> [1] https://viewcrestadvisors.com/
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> [image: Image removed by sender.]
>
> *Katherine Maher *(she/her)
>
> CEO
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
>
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board Ratification of Universal Code of Conduct

[Samuel Klein]

Excellent!  My brother in Chile sent me a news story about this, so... word
is already getting around.
Thank you Maria + all who worked on this.   S

On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 6:59 AM María Sefidari  wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I’m pleased to announce that the Board of Trustees has unanimously
> approved a Universal Code of Conduct for the Wikimedia projects and
> movement.[1]  A Universal Code of Conduct was one of the final
> recommendations of the Movement Strategy 2030 process - a multi-year,
> participatory community effort to define the future of our movement. The
> final Universal Code of Conduct seeks to address disparities in conduct
> policies across our hundreds of projects and communities, by creating a
> binding minimum set of standards for conduct on the Wikimedia projects that
> directly address many of the challenges that contributors face.
>
> The Board is deeply grateful to the communities who have grappled with
> these challenging topics. Over the past six months, communities around the
> world have participated in conversations and consultations to help build
> this code collectively, including local discussions in 19 languages,
> surveys, discussions on Meta, and policy drafting by a committee of
> volunteers and staff. The document presented to us reflects a significant
> investment of time and effort by many of you, and especially by the joint
> staff/volunteer committee who created the base draft after reviewing input
> collected from community outreach efforts. We also appreciate the
> dedication of the Foundation, and its Trust & Safety policy team, in
> getting us to this phase.
>
> This was the first phase of our Universal Code of Conduct - from here, the
> Trust & Safety team will begin consultations on how best to enforce this
> code. In the coming weeks, they will follow-up with more instructions on
> how you can participate in discussions around enforcing the new code. Over
> the next few months, they will be facilitating consultation discussions in
> many local languages, with our affiliates, and on Meta to support a new
> volunteer/staff committee in drafting enforcement pathways. For more
> information on the process, timeline, and how to participate in this next
> phase, please review the Universal Code of Conduct page on Meta.[2]
>
> The Universal Code of Conduct represents an essential step towards our
> vision of a world in which all people can participate in the sum of all
> knowledge. Together, we have built something extraordinary. Today, we
> celebrate this milestone in making our movement a safer space for
> contribution for all.
>
> On behalf of the Board of Trustees,
>
> María Sefidari
> Board Chair
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Draft_review
>
>
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Bylaws amendments and upcoming call for feedback

[Samuel Klein]

Yair, thanks for looking it over carefully.

On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 6:35 PM Yair Rand  wrote:

> Those "loopholes" people mentioned are still there, with the addition of
> at least one new one.
>

Hm.  Maria, an easier-to-read diff like the one Laurentius made for the
proposal, would be most welcome.

For each of these loopholes, could you be explicit about the intent, and
whether or not the new apparent loophole is desired, or a bug to be fixed?

* "As many as" eight community/affiliate seats -- under what conditions
would there be fewer?  Are there conditions where a term might expire or be
vacated without replacement?
* No mention of voting -- just the promise of "a series of options [for]
strong community processes to select representatives". How are these being
developed / is there a long-list of potential options under consideration?
* The change from "majority community-selected" to "at least half
community-selected"  - intentional, and if so to what end?
* The loophole where "shall not appoint" still allows the Board to become
minority community-selected  - intentional, and if so to what end?

Warmly,  SJ
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF transfers $8.7 million to "Wikimedia Knowledge Equity Fund"

[Samuel Klein]

This is great to see.  Thank you for helping to ensure continuity of
support in a tense time.  SJ

On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 3:11 PM Lisa Gruwell  wrote:

> Hi Chris-
>
> I am happy to answer your questions about Tides.  No, Tides is not picking
> the grantees.  The docket of grantees and the specific of the grants comes
> from us.  Tides provides legal and administrative review of the
> grants,  approves them, and processes the grants(i.e. wires the funding to
> the grantees).  It is rare that there is ever a problem, but if Tides were
> to see one, we actually appreciate the outside review and would be open to
> hearing their reasons.  There is no change for the reporting and
> transparency requirements for APG grants. Tides will also not be making
> recommendations for the grants for the Knowledge Equity Fund.  They will
> play a similar role as I described for the APG grants. Again, I know there
> will be more info on the Knowledge Equity Fund in the new year.  I ask your
> patience for the folks initiating this and trust that they will share more
> soon.
>
> Best,
> Lisa
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 10:18 AM Chris Keating 
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Lisa. That statement makes a lot of sense, though I do have some
>> questions still.
>>
>>>
>>> Our first priority was to ensure that we had enough funding to support
>>> community grants. We transferred the full amount for Annual Plan Grants
>>> (APG) for FY20-21 over to Tides to ensure that all funding for
>>> affiliates for this year was secured, regardless of how fundraising
>>> performed. It also gives staff at affiliates and the Foundation more time
>>> to work together to make thoughtful grants, instead of an end-of-year rush.
>>> All affiliates who will be receiving funding through Tides were informed of
>>> the arrangement last summer. All other grantmaking (Community Grants,
>>> Rapid Grants, Project Grants) are still being funded through WMF directly,
>>> as usual. There is a round of APG grants set to go out via Tides this week.
>>>
>>
>> Are Tides simply administering these funds at the WMF's direction, or
>> will Tides start to take over decisions about who gets these grants and
>> what amount different entities are eligible for? Has there been any change
>> to the reporting and transparency requirements that go with the APG grants?
>> What is the intention about how APG grants will work, since the FDC was
>> abolished a couple of years ago and there is unlikely to be any
>> community-driven replacement for it until at least a year or two's work has
>> gone into the implementation of the strategy?
>>
>>
>>> As of now, this is a one-time commitment of approximately $4.5 million.
>>> We are still working on the specific initial objectives of the fund and how
>>> it will operate. As a pilot initiative, we’ll be learning and adapting as
>>> we go.
>>>
>>
>> Funding knowledge equity sounds like a great idea, but I have not
>> previously heard of an organisation making an irrecoverable $4.5 million
>> transfer without knowing what that money will be used to fund. Is there
>> anything more that can be shared apart from "it'll be used to fund
>> knowledge equity somehow"? And as above - is this going to be a WMF-led
>> process (maybe even involving the community), or will Tides be actually
>> making recommendations about who and what is funded? If the latter, how are
>> Tides going to adjust to the Wikimedia community's expectations about
>> transparency?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Chris
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>
>
> --
>
> Lisa Seitz Gruwell
>
> Chief Advancement Officer
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Save the date! Coolest Tool Award 2020: December 11th, 17:00 UTC

[Samuel Klein]

What a great series.  Thanks for maintaining this.

On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 1:59 PM Joaquin Oltra Hernandez <
jhernan...@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> Final reminder, the Coolest Tool Award
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Coolest_Tool_Award> event will happen
> tomorrow (22 hours from now). You can save the Coolest Tool Award 2020
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYM4k_LD_9w> Youtube link, and if you
> want a notification reminder subscribe to the MediaWiki channel and click
> the bell.
>
> For chatting, feel free to use the livestream chat in the Youtube video,
> Twitter #CoolestToolAward
> <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CoolestToolAward=live>, or #wmhack
> Telegram group <https://t.me/wmhack> / Freenode IRC #wmhack
> <https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wmhack>.
>
> See you tomorrow!
> Joaquin, for the Coolest Tool Academy 2020
>
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 5:23 PM Joaquin Oltra Hernandez <
> jhernan...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi Everyone!
>>
>> A reminder that the Coolest Tool Award
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Coolest_Tool_Award> event will happen
>> online this Friday 11 December 2020 at 17:00 UTC[^1].
>>
>> Here is more information about the venue:
>>
>>-
>>
>>The event will be live streamed on Youtube in the MediaWiki
>><https://www.youtube.com/user/watchmediawiki> channel
>>-
>>
>>The following venues can be used for socializing:
>>-
>>
>>   Youtube live stream chat (MediaWiki
>>   <https://www.youtube.com/user/watchmediawiki>)
>>   -
>>
>>   Twitter #CoolestToolAward
>>   <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CoolestToolAward=live>
>>   -
>>
>>   #wmhack Telegram group <https://t.me/wmhack> / IRC #wmhackconnect
>>   <https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wmhack>
>>
>> See you on Friday!
>>
>> Joaquin, for the Coolest Tool Academy 2020
>>
>> [^1]: 17:00 UTC is 9:00 PT, 18:00 CET, 22:30 IST. More timezones in
>> timeanddate.com
>> <https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20201211T17>
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 30, 2020 at 6:01 PM Joaquin Oltra Hernandez <
>> jhernan...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Everyone!
>>>
>>> The second edition of the Coolest Tool Award
>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Coolest_Tool_Award> will happen online
>>> on Friday 11 December 2020 at 17:00 UTC[^1].
>>>
>>> The awarded tools will be showcased in a virtual event, with broadcasted
>>> video and chat channels for socializing. We will send more details soon.
>>>
>>> Save the date, and join us celebrating the great work volunteer
>>> developers do for the Wikimedia communities.
>>>
>>> We hope to see you there!
>>> Joaquin, for the Coolest Tool Academy 2020
>>>
>>> [^1]: 17:00 UTC is 9:00 PST, 18:00 CEST, 22:30 IST. More timezones in
>>> timeanddate.com
>>> <https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20201211T17>
>>> --
>>> Joaquin Oltra Hernandez
>>> Developer Advocate - Wikimedia Foundation
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Joaquin Oltra Hernandez
>> Developer Advocate - Wikimedia Foundation
>>
>
>
> --
> Joaquin Oltra Hernandez
> Developer Advocate - Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Please join Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation for an English Wikipedia community conversation

[Samuel Klein]

Looks interesting, thank Lucy.
Are there other EN-WP  community conversations planned?

On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 2:36 PM Lucy Crompton-Reid <
lucy.crompton-r...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> *English Wikipedia Preparation/Prioritisation Event on Tuesday 17th
> November*
>
> Many thanks to those of you who have signed up to the movement strategy
> prioritisation event for the English Wikipedia community next Tuesday, via
> the Google Form
> <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6h49tEmEMGBwa4EIcPGmw6j3aGNeXWh2t9Le2esumI-pbrw/viewform?gxids=7757>
> shared in my previous email. There is now a page on meta for anyone who
> would prefer to sign up there (although there's no need to do both):
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK/Events/Discussion_about_priorities_for_the_English_Wikipedia
>
> All best wishes
> Lucy
>
> On Mon, 9 Nov 2020 at 12:00, Lucy Crompton-Reid <
> lucy.crompton-r...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> Join Wikimedia UK and Katherine Maher for a community discussion on our
>> priorities for 2021
>>
>> Tuesday 17th November from 5 to 7pm UTC
>>
>> In 2017 the Wikimedia Foundation facilitated the creation of a strategic
>> direction
>> <http://kiskeacity.bmetrack.com/c/l?u=B2712F1=113E0B7=77108=0=1320A9BA=VT85Y%2BMiOAU%2Fr%2FYvJCytmncGnDpkDc0NowUqtZzPSRwe2757PeXmYw%3D%3D=1>
>> to guide the global Wikimedia movement into the future. The goal is that by
>> 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem
>> of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join.
>>
>> Over the past three years, people from across the global Wikimedia
>> movement have come together to discuss how we can work towards this. The
>> result is a set of underlying principles and ten recommendations, each with
>> accompanying initiatives and actions.
>>
>> We are now in a transitional stage between the creation of the strategy
>> and its implementation. This is a crucial moment to explore how the English
>> language community can contribute to the implementation of the strategy,
>> and have a say in how the recommendations are prioritised.
>>
>>
>> Inspired by the Movement Strategy's 10-year vision, Wikimedia UK would
>> like to hear from volunteers based anywhere in the world who contribute
>> to English Wikipedia about where the movement should focus its efforts
>> in 2021.
>>
>> The meeting will be held over Zoom on Tuesday 17th November from 5 to
>> 7pm UTC. We will be joined by a number of Wikimedia Foundation staff
>> members including:
>>
>> Katherine Maher, Executive Director/CEO
>>
>> Ryan Merkley, Chief of Staff
>>
>> Mehrdad Pourzaki, Community Relations and Communications, Movement
>> Strategy
>>
>> Kaarel Vaidla, Lead Movement Process Architect
>>
>> Please sign up to the event through this Google Form
>> <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6h49tEmEMGBwa4EIcPGmw6j3aGNeXWh2t9Le2esumI-pbrw/viewform?usp=sf_link>
>> (or email me, if you would prefer). The zoom link will be sent out in
>> advance of the call. In the meantime you can find out more about the
>> movement strategy and the ten recommendations here
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations>
>> .
>>
>> I look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting!
>>
>> With best wishes
>>
>> Lucy
>>
>> --
>> Lucy Crompton-Reid
>> Chief Executive
>> Wikimedia UK
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Lucy Crompton-Reid
> Chief Executive
> Wikimedia UK
> +44 (0) 203 372 0762
>
> *Wikimedia UK* is the national chapter for the global Wikimedia open
> knowledge movement, and a registered charity. We rely on donations from
> individuals to support our work to make knowledge open for all. Have you
> considered supporting Wikimedia? https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk
> Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered
> No. 6741827
> Registered Charity No.1144513
> Registered Office Ground Floor, Europoint, 5 - 11 Lavington Street, London
> SE1 0NZ
>
> The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
> Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Wikimedia UK is an independent
> non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility
> for its contents.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcing the Wikidata Query Service Tutorial

[Samuel Klein]

 Bartov (he/him/his)
>>
>> Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities
>>
>> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>>
>> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
>> sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
>> https://donate.wikimedia.org
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 10:44 PM Revital Poleg 
>> wrote:
>>
>> > In 2019 Wikimedia Israel (WMIL) decided to develop instructional
>> material
>> > for the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS). The background for this decision
>> was
>> > that we see audiences to whom we introduce Wikidata become especially
>> > enthusiastic when we present the *Wikidata query service tutorial
>> > <https://wdqs-tutorial.toolforge.org/> *, which offers quite a
>> > unique feature within the landscape of information services available
>> > today. This enthusiasm often dampens when audiences discover that
>> querying
>> > is not done using natural language but rather requires learning SPARQL.
>> >
>> > We believe learning SPARQL is not rocket science, even for audiences
>> with
>> > no programming background. We created a step-by-step tutorial website to
>> > give users an introduction and some basic lessons on how to use the
>> query
>> > service. While WDQS has a great Help section, this section might not be
>> so
>> > helpful to users who are new to Wikimedia platforms. We therefore built
>> the
>> > tutorial website on the WordPress platform which has a more familiar
>> design
>> > to most users. We believe this website will make the WDQS more
>> accessible,
>> > and hope this will be a way to expand Wikidata to new audiences.
>> > Currently the site is in English but we are open for collaborations to
>> add
>> > the tutorial in other languages.
>> > We are also keen to hear feedback from those involved in Wikidata
>> > Outreach.
>> >
>> > We hope you'll find it useful.
>> > All the Best
>> > Revital Poleg
>> > Executive Director, WMIL
>> >
>> > Revital Poleg
>> >
>> > Executive Director, WMIL
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>> -- next part --
>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>> URL: <
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/attachments/20201021/2fdce6b1/attachment.htm
>> >
>>
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>>
>> Subject: Digest Footer
>>
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>> End of Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 199, Issue 33
>> 
>>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New collaboration with the World Health Organization

[Samuel Klein]

HO,
>> > > when also the data of another "not small" country, that is Spain,
>> started
>> > > to be quite out of control (if Italy was already not enough after
>> China,
>> > > Iran and South Korea).
>> > >
>> > > They seem to have taken more slowly than necessary. Let's hope they
>> > > finally reach out.
>> > >
>> > > Regards.
>> > > Alessandro
>> > >
>> > > Il giovedì 12 marzo 2020, 16:29:34 CET, Andy Mabbett <
>> > > a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> ha scritto:
>> > >
>> > >  WHO have a great video on COVID-19 ("Coronavius"):
>> > >
>> > >   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APwq1df6Mw
>> > >
>> > > Now would be a good time for the WMF, local chapters, other
>> > > affiliates, and individual, to publicly call on them to open licence
>> > > such material, as I have done, here:
>> > >
>> > >   https://twitter.com/pigsonthewing/status/1238124060145483777
>> > >
>> > > [much of their published material is under NC restrictions -
>> > > https://www.who.int/publishing/copyright/en/ ]
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > Andy Mabbett
>> > > @pigsonthewing
>> > > http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>> > >
>> > > ___
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>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > James Heilman
>> > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
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>
>
> --
> Jorge Vargas
> Sr. Manager, Regional Partnerships
> Wikimedia Foundation
> jvar...@wikimedia.org
> +1 415.310.5922
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Call for feedback about Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws changes and Board candidate rubric

[Samuel Klein]

eta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/October_2020_-_Call_for_feedback_about_Bylaws_changes_and_Board_candidate_rubric
> > <
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/July_2020_-_Call_for_feedback_about_Bylaws_changes_and_Board_candidate_rubric
> > >
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
> >
> > Vice Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
> >
> > [1]
> >
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/October_2020_-_Proposed_Bylaws_changes
> >
> >
> > [2]
> >
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/October_2020_-_Board_candidate_rubric
> >
> >
> > [3]
> >
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Updates_from_April_28,_2020
> >
> > [4]
> >
> >
> https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Postponement_of_Community_Selection_of_Trustees_and_Extension_of_Community_Selected_Trustee_Terms_until_next_selection_process
> >
> > *NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal
> working
> > hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
> > should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
> > advance!*
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Call for feedback about Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws changes and Board candidate rubric

[Samuel Klein]

The replacement of an explicit voting process with an unspecified process +
schedule seems unnecessarily vague. Especially since the current ElecComm
does not seem to have been party to the decisions around this year's delay.

Drawing from the current Bylaws language, it would be better to add
something like this to IV.3.c.1:
  "*The process will be conducted according to a procedure determined by
[the Elections Committee] and approved by the Board*"

And to make ElecComm a standing committee with the same level of support
that others have.
==
(i) As many as eight (8) Trustees will be sourced from candidates vetted
through a community nomination process. This process will be held according
to a schedule determined by the Board of Trustees to fill open
Community-sourced Trustee seats. Off-cycle vacancies may be filled normally
as described in Article IV, Section 6 below.(ii) The Board of Trusteesshall
convey its priorities and requirements for members, as set forth in Article
IV, Section 3(A) above, and shall determine the dates, rules and regulation
of the approval procedures.==
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Updates from Wikimedia Foundation Board

[Samuel Klein]

Dear Nataliia  --

Any update on the first two points?

Does the BGC

recommend a Bylaws update or an election this calendar year?
Posting minutes  for the
last 3 meetings would be, as ever, welcome.

Warmly, Sam
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Moving the technical infrastructure out of the US

[Samuel Klein]

We should have technical partners in multiple other jurisdictions that
could help in a crisis, and load bearing infrastructure in at least one of
them, and a plan for how and when to switch. (The walkthrough of what would
be needed for a smooth transfer send most important, and useful for general
reliability planning)

We should also fully support and realize Wikimedia-on-ipfs, similar to what
the internet archive had been doing. (Santhosh has some excellent ideas
there)



On Wed., Sep. 30, 2020, 5:35 a.m. Dan Garry (Deskana), 
wrote:

> On Wed, 30 Sep 2020 at 09:49, Erik Moeller  wrote:
>
> > I hope that some preliminary contingency plans exist or are being
> > developed, and I'm sure that the movement-wide debate will widen if
> > the US continues its downward slide into authoritarianism.
> >
>
> I agree with Erik. Even under the Obama administration, there were threats
> to the existence of the movement, such as SOPA [1] which lead to a blackout
> [2]. One can extrapolate from current events that these threats could well
> get larger and more frequent, rather than smaller and less frequent, should
> someone in the US Government decide to focus their attention on attacking
> Wikipedia and free knowledge. It would be prudent to create a contingency
> plan which includes an exploration of other options for a location of
> operation for the Wikimedia Foundation and/or its servers, with their
> advantages and disadvantages. I personally wouldn't necessarily advocate
> for making the plan public; that would be ideal, but I'd be comforted
> merely to know it exists.
>
> On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 23:36, Joseph Seddon 
> wrote:
>
> > I believe options are going to be explored for sustainability but right
> now
> > legally speaking the US is the best jurisdiction for hosting us now and
> the
> > foreseeable future.
> >
>
> I agree with this too. For now, the United States remains the best place
> for the organisation to operate out of, and a move should not be actively
> considered.
>
> Dan
>
> [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
> [2]:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA#Wikimedia_community
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [feedback requested] Taxonomy of knowledge gaps

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you Leila -- I appreciate the reflection and the update here.  The
paper is thorough and methodical in its approach, which makes it easier for
me to see a problem (for my own ideas):

I don't see a focus on the primary tremendous *gaps *-- which for content
is depth + breadth + freshness, and for contributors is reach, and for
readers is reach in much of the world.
I do see an excellent discussion of systemic *bias*, but mostly treated as
*static* bias of what is there, and less *dynamic* bias of what we exclude
or disallow or discourage.

I left detailed feedback on meta
.
I would welcome any help in aligning the way I think about this w/  your
work (if that's desired).
Perhaps best to address there, since it is all about refactoring and may
benefit from that.  But I am posting the heart of it below for completeness:

===
Here are the first things I think of around coverage gaps.  Only the 0th
item seems to directly fit the current taxonomy...

0) exclusion via lack of awareness, interest, or expertise
1) exclusion via deletionism
2) exclusion via topic notability norms (including pop culture + current
events)
3) exclusion via source notability + limiting source formats
4) exclusion via license pessimism
5) exclusion via file format (!) and codec pessimism
6) exclusion of dense specialist knowledge via review bottlenecks
7) exclusion via knowledge type [model, dataset, map layer]
8) exclusion / rejection via behavior on the projects
9) exclusion / rejection under 1-4 via differential application of policy

Some of these, like file-format and review-bottleneck exclusion, are
primarily technical restrictions.
Some of these, like the first ~4 above, are social+regulatory+technical
restrictions that could be alleviated with simple tools (including
extensions, alternatives, and sandboxes) -- just as nupedia's social
restrictions were alleviated w/ the technical solution of a wiki for the
drafting stage.
And the last two are purely social restrictions, projecting systemic bias
in the community of practice onto who joins and what contributions are
welcomed. I'd like to see that subset of gaps addressed directly, and not
split up across other parts of a taxonomy.

===
Wiki♥, Sam.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board of Trustees elections, membership, quorum, and

[Samuel Klein]

Can anyone from the elections committee comment?  What is the current
plan?//S

On Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 8:05 PM Bill Takatoshi 
wrote:

> How long can the Foundation legally postpone Board of Trustees elections?
>
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2020#Postpone
> ?
> has a comment from April saying, "Once things get moving again,
> appopriate [sic] date for the election will be decided and an
> announcement will be made."
>
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees#Current_members
> suggests that five board members terms end on "Wikimania 2020" -- but
> is that accurate?
>
>
> https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Term_Limit_Proposal_for_Bylaws
> is clear that "All Board terms are three years" and "the term of each
> such appointment shall not exceed three years."
>
> Who are the current members of the Board of Trustees?
>
> Can the board achieve a quorum in its present state?
>
> Who is the Chair currently?
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Covid-19] Introducing a new risk assessment tool and guidelines for in person gatherings

[Samuel Klein]

d to the day when we can all gather again and celebrate our work
> and our communities.  Until then, stay safe and take care.
>
> Janeen Uzzell,
>
> Chief Operating Officer
>
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> PS. A copy of this message is available on Meta-Wiki for translation:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=6726
>
> [1] Meta-Wiki page:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Risk_assessment_during_COVID-19
>
> [2] Eligibility criteria:
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hi5DpUOf10OcWiWWh3_RhyNquubLbeMkVMjWDnUCFkY/edit?usp=sharing
>
>
> [3] Risk Assessment Tool:
>
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B96k62CHCFcFvoLVo7Fy0oxH751hY6sV3mVKWgArJR4/edit?usp=sharing
>
>
> [4] Matrix results framework:
>
> https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12wdqo2vwcdSwHQsfH_Ox5W9pgjdjEpOOu4IrEctj_xA/edit?usp=sharing
>
>
> [5] Grants Main Page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start
>
> [6] Checklist of guidelines :
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1biJh-dxu_Wj3Qbm_wGiGVRcnCLtbnneLzG381KPYA3c/edit?usp=sharing
>
>
> [7] Meta-Wiki talk page:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Risk_assessment_during_COVID-19
>
>
> --
>
> --
>
>
>
> *Jáneen Uzzell*
>
> Chief Operating Officer
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
> @janeenuzzell
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [feedback requested] Taxonomy of knowledge gaps

[Samuel Klein]

Wow.  Thanks for doing this.
 a) did you mine emijrp's subconscious yet?
 b) what meta-gaps are you aware of (areas where the gap analysis itself
might have blind spots)
 c) this seems appropriate for a wikijournal
 of knowledge...



On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 6:48 PM Leila Zia  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I hope this email finds you well.
>
> I'm reaching out to let you know that the Research team [1] at the
> Wikimedia Foundation has been working on developing a taxonomy of
> knowledge gaps for the Wikimedia projects. We now have the first draft
> of the taxonomy ready and we're seeking your input to improve it.
>
> ==Why are we contacting you?==
> The taxonomy of knowledge gaps aims to be a high level representation
> and grouping of the different knowledge gaps Wikimedia projects face
> today. Each of you, whether you are a volunteer editor, patroller,
> organizer, affiliate, etc. have valuable on the ground knowledge of
> the different types of knowledge gaps. We believe it's important to
> hear from you before we finalize the taxonomy.
>
> ==Material==
> The material you may need to review is listed at
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Knowledge_Gaps_Index/Taxonomy#Learn_more
> !
> . I will list them below as well, for archive completeness:
>
> * A summary of the taxonomy and motivation:
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Knowledge_Gaps_Taxonomy_Summary-and-Motivation.pdf
>
> * Full paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.12314
>
> * A video presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP3uXA9bfvU or
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knowledge_Gaps_Taxonomy.mp4.webm
> (same video on two platforms)
>
> ==Feedback==
> Please provide your feedback by answering the 6 questions posted at
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_talk:Knowledge_Gaps_Index/Taxonomy#Feedback_collection_September_2020
> .
>
> We're collecting feedback until 2020-09-30.
>
> ==Talk with us==
> If you have questions about the taxonomy and you'd like to talk with
> us in a synchronous set-up, we invite you to join us in the upcoming
> Research Showcase
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase#September_2020
> . We will have a very short presentation about it and will leave 15-20
> min for any questions you may have. We are also happy to set up more
> time to answer your questions if there is demand for it.
>
> ==Disclaimer==
> As you're going through the material we have shared with you, you will
> see imperfections and rooms for improvement. I acknowledge that they
> exist and they may be numerous. We could spend another month and
> improve the documents. We made the call to not let perfect be the
> enemy of good. Please keep that in mind, assume good faith, and ask
> questions if any part of what you read is not clear to you. We're here
> to engage and answer your questions, and ultimately learn about your
> perspective.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Leila, on behalf of
> Martin Gerlach, Research Scientist, WMF
> Isaac Johnson, Research Scientist, WMF
> Miriam Redi, Senior Research Scientist, WMF
> Leila Zia, Head of Research, WMF
>
> [1] https://research.wikimedia.org/team.html
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] A Universal Code of Conduct draft for review

[Samuel Klein]

Dear anonymus,

The problem starts when the administrators who are called to
> perform those rules are the harrashers themselves and don' t get punished.
>

A code of conduct should preempt this.


> For example [users who can] fly under the rader and be likeable.

[users who] run the annual contests in wikipedia or doing other wikimedia
> jobs...

is the code of contact going to apply as well?


Yes.  That is the point.

S
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] A Universal Code of Conduct draft for review

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks Patrick + all.  It looks like most discussion is happening on Meta,
which seems fitting.

On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 4:18 PM Patrick Earley  wrote:

> Hello, everyone.
>
> We are excited to share a draft of the Universal Code of Conduct
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct>, which the
> Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees called for earlier this year
> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/May_2020_-_Board_of_Trustees_on_Healthy_Community_Culture,_Inclusivity,_and_Safe_Spaces
> >,
> for your review and feedback. The discussion will be open until October 6,
> 2020.
>
> The UCoC Drafting Committee
> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committee
> >wants
> to learn which parts of the draft would present challenges for you or your
> work. What is missing from this draft? What do you like, and what could be
> improved?
>
>
> Many thanks to the Committee, and everyone who has helped with translations
> so far.
>
>
> Please join the conversation
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Draft_review>
> and share this email with others who may be interested to join, too.
>
> To learn more about the UCoC project, see the Universal Code of Conduct
> page
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct>, and the FAQ
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/FAQ>, on Meta.
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct
>
> [2]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/May_2020_-_Board_of_Trustees_on_Healthy_Community_Culture,_Inclusivity,_and_Safe_Spaces
>
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Draft_review
> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/FAQ
>
> --
> Patrick Earley
> Policy Manager, Trust and Safety
> Wikimedia Foundation
> pear...@wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New essay on the ambiguity of NC licenses

[Samuel Klein]

+100 to what Alessandro said.

Erik, to your point — yes, this should also include old books that are in
the process of relicensing, if those books have been uploaded to us by or
on behalf of a license holder, and we are confirming that and working
through related steps.

There should be no 'collaborative and transformative work' done on this
archive -- it would be for literal archiving of the materials and
clarification / updating of their metadata, until they can be moved to a
free + collaborative commons.

It helps our work to have a persistent public place (not randomly deleted
from time to time!) to discuss determining their license status, getting
formal and informal license clearance, discussions with the contributors to
refine their understanding of options, debates among ourselves about
whether a license grant was sufficient and how to obtain more clarity, 

S



On Fri., Aug. 7, 2020, 9:35 a.m. Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l, <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

>  We have an archive mixing different licenses now, one is Commons ranging
> from CC-0 to CC BY SA, and other ones are local Wikis sometimes including
> in their spectrum of situations many non-free files in fair use. this is
> proof that an archive hosting non-free files with other free-licensed
> information has nothing special per se. A new archive might simply be more
> clear and linear than those, since it would be designed specifically to
> handle the matter.
>
> I work in outreach the whole time, you can give me all the money you want
> to improve my productivity, but I would still use it more efficiently if I
> could have a more integrated infrastructure specifically for this issue.
> A.
>
>
> Il venerdì 7 agosto 2020, 08:52:31 CEST, Erik Moeller <
> eloque...@gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
>  On Sun, Aug 2, 2020 at 3:52 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
> > I don't think we should mix NC with free-knowledge licenses .
> > I do absolutely think we should maintain an archive, visible to the
> public
> > with at most a simple hoop to jump through, of material that is offered
> to
> > us in any legal way but not yet free.
>
> Such an archive would _unavoidably_ "mix NC with free-knowledge
> licenses" -- because all collaborative and transformative work
> happening in the archive itself would be released under free knowledge
> licenses. Worse, any meaningful transformations of the archived works
> would result in derivative works that remain nonfree, directly
> enlisting volunteers in the creation of nonfree knowledge.
>
> In any event, why create an archive for works under borderline terms,
> while ignoring more restricted works that could be plausibly released
> under a free license tomorrow? Works that are nonfree for simple
> economic reasons (e.g., some old but useful textbook) may often be
> easier to "set free" than those which are nonfree for reasons of
> longstanding policy (e.g, the WHO example). Why amass the latter and
> ignore the former? I don't see how this would strengthen Wikimedia's
> free knowledge commitment, but I can easily see how it could weaken it
> considerably and very quickly, whether or not that's the intent.
>
> To be clear, I think creating free summaries and descriptions of
> nonfree works (from traditional textbooks and scientific papers to
> Khan Academy videos) is very much in line with the Wikimedia mission.
> I don't think it requires hosting the works. To the extent that there
> is concern about losing access to works that are currently available
> via public URLs, the use of Internet Archive enabled citation URLs
> provides a great example for how to avoid such link rot.
>
> I'm sure there are also plenty of tech and non-tech ways Wikimedia
> could support volunteers and chapters that work on outreach to set
> more educational works free, none of which require the creation of a
> nonfree archive.
>
> Warmly,
> Erik
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcing a new Wikimedia project: Abstract Wikipedia

[Samuel Klein]

I applaud this idea. Preferably a language family with a large community of
practice, 'minority' in the sense of coverage and support by modern tools
and scaffolding, not in the sense of limited use.

We used to have a roughly weighted list of major world languages by
(spoken, written; primary, secondary) and how well covered they were by wp
(articles, contributors).  Is there something like that still?

//S



On Wed., Aug. 5, 2020, 3:19 p.m. C. Scott Ananian, 
wrote:

> Sorry I'm coming to this discussion a bit late, but I'd like to underline a
> slightly different aspect of the concern that Phoebe raised:
>
> > It concerns me that, at least in the high-level project proposals I've
> > seen (I haven't been tracking this closely, and haven't read the academic
> > papers) I have not yet seen discussions of ethical data, or how we might
> > think about identifying bias, or even how to recruit contributors and the
> > impact on existing contributors.
> >
>
> Using the terminology of Ibram X. Kendi (and others), I'd put this as:
> "it's not enough to not be racist, you must actively be *anti-racist*."
>
> Abstract Wikipedia is a "color blind" project.  Indeed it is often
> described as advancing WMF goals by improving the amount of content
> available for minority languages.
>
> However, it is built on a huge edifice of ML and AI technology which
> advantages majority languages and the already-powerful.
>
> As Phoebe mentioned, the subtle biases of ML translation toward majority
> views (selecting the "proper" gender pronoun for someone described as a
> "doctor" or "professor", say) are well known, and certainly deserve to be
> foregrounded from the start, as Danny has pledged to do in his response to
> Phoebe.
>
> But the infrastructure of this project is built this way from the ground
> up.  Language models for European languages are orders of magnitude better
> than language models for minority languages (if the latter exist at all).
> The same is true for ontologies and every other constructed abstraction,
> down to choices of what topics are significant enough to include in an
> abstract article---but that ground has been ably covered by Kaldari and
> others.  So let me concentrate solely on language models in the remainder
> (with some parenthetical asides, for which I hope you'll forgive me).
>
> I would like to challenge Abstract Wikipedia not only to be "not racist" or
> "color blind", but to be actively *antiracist*.  That is, instead of
> passively accepting the status quo wrt language models (& etc), to commit
> to actively supporting a language model in *at least one* minority
> language, treating it as a first-class citizen or (better) the *main*
> output of the project.  That means not just looking for "a good enough
> language model that happens not to be a European language" but *actively
> developing the language model* so that the Abstract Wikipedia project *from
> inception* has a positive effect on *at least one* community speaking a
> underrepresented language with a small Wikipedia.  (Again, WLOG this could
> apply to general AI/ML support for many many minority groups, but I'm
> sticking with "at least one" and "language model" in order to make this as
> concrete and actionable as possible.)  This of course also means committing
> to hire a speaker of that non-European language as part of the core team
> (not just an "and translations" afterthought), committing to foregrounding
> that language in demonstrations, and doing outreach and community building
> to the language group in question.  (All the mockups I've seen have been in
> German and English, and have been pitched to an English-speaking audience.)
>
> I don't think it is wise in 2020 to pretend that "colorblind" business as
> usual will advance the goals of our organization.  We need to actively work
> to ensure this project has effects that *work against* the significant
> pre-existing biases toward highly-educated speakers of European languages.
> It is not enough to say that "someday" this "may" have an effect on
> minority language groups if "somebody" ever gets around to doing it.  We
> must make those investments proactively and with clear intention in order
> to effect the change we wish to see in the world.
>   -- C. Scott Ananian
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New essay on the ambiguity of NC licenses

[Samuel Klein]

I don't think we should mix NC with free-knowledge licenses .
I do absolutely think we should maintain an archive, visible to the public
with at most a simple hoop to jump through, of material that is offered to
us in any legal way but not yet free.
This would include: material currently under a CC or other non-fd license,
material that can be reasonably assumed to belong to the uploader but has
not yet been so demonstrated and (c) cleared by our various processes, free
material whose use and classification is otherwise under debate.

Primary uses of such an archive:
~ Capturing the first step of any freely-licensed sharing: having a
persistent copy of the work, with initial license + uploader information,
and a nominal contact to pursue
~ Centralizing subsequent public discussions about how to make interesting
materials free : by relicensing, recreation, or other method
~ Preserving work done to annotate/classify works where license turns out
to be ambiguous
~ Simplifying other deletion and license discussions that are inefficient
and confusing now

If there are motivational reasons to make the result of such archiving "not
as visible online" or "not as convenient as Commons", that's easily done
without restricting public access or {item name resolution}.

S




On Mon., Jul. 13, 2020, 2:24 a.m. Pete Forsyth, 
wrote:

> Erik, thanks for posting the essay here. Glad to see the interest in this
> topic.
>
> I wrote this because I have found that when somebody asks me about the NC
> provision, I often want to point them to a simple webpage (rather than
> "reinventing the wheel" every time it comes up). There are some pages out
> there (I listed some in the "See also" section), but I have yet to find
> somewhere this particular point -- the need of a general license to issue
> clear guidance -- articulated anywhere in a concise, accessible way.
>
> I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) to see that the possibility of
> Wikimedia generally accepting NC-licensed work is being discussed. But
> apart from that discussion, I think many of you in this discussion have, at
> one time or another, wanted to help guide someone toward using a more
> permissive license, rather than a NC license.
>
> For those who have, do you have favorite webpages you find helpful to
> share? Does this one seem like a useful addition? I'd appreciate any
> feedback or constructive edits to this essay; I also think it would be
> useful to have some of the other arguments, currently collected in longer
> documents, expressed in more "bite-sized" pieces like this, which could be
> linked together. Do others agree, and if so, are you inclined to help draft
> some complementary pages?
>
> -Pete
> [[User:Peteforsyth]]
>
> On Sun, Jul 12, 2020 at 3:23 PM effe iets anders  >
> wrote:
>
> > The question is however as well: how many open licensed content creators
> > would switch to NC if they were aware that this would be 'good enough'
> for
> > Wikipedia - even if that means in reality only English Wikipedia (but who
> > cares about other languages) and without actually allowing to build on
> top
> > of it?
> >
> > I have found the argument 'don't use NC because then it can't be used on
> > Wikipedia' rather convincing in the past. It will not always work, and I
> > also wish it would convince /more/ organizations. But then, I would also
> > wish that enwiki wouldn't use fair use exceptions - so maybe I'm not the
> > benchmark you'd be looking at anyway.
> >
> > Lodewijk
> >
> > On Sat, Jul 11, 2020 at 5:32 PM James Heilman  wrote:
> >
> > > Yes one of the stronger reasons to reject all use of the NC license is
> > that
> > > it increases incentives for other organizations to actually adopt open
> > > licenses. I simply wish that such a position would convince more
> > > organizations. WHO has repeatedly told me that we, as a non-profit, are
> > > already free to use their work and if we chose not to, that is on us.
> > >
> > > James
> > >
> > > On Sat, Jul 11, 2020 at 6:19 PM Erik Moeller 
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi James :)
> > > >
> > > > (This is my last reply for today, given the recommended posting limit
> > > > on this list.)
> > > >
> > > > > We all agree that NC licenses are exceedingly poor due to the
> reasons
> > > > > listed, yet we leave a lot of useful content (such as Khan academy
> > > > videos)
> > > > > less accessible to our readers because we disallow any such use.
> > > >
> > > > I completely agree. I'm wondering if efforts have been made at the
> WMF
> > > > or chapter level to partner with these organizations on new
> > > > initiatives, where a more permissive license could be used? This
> could
> > > > perhaps help to introduce CC-BY-SA/CC-BY to orgs like Khan Academy,
> > > > and help lay the groundwork for potentially changing their default
> > > > license.
> > > >
> > > > > This is a balance between pragmatism and idealism.
> > > >
> > > > I disagree with your framing here. There are many pragmatic reasons
> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Paid API?

[Samuel Klein]

+1 This sounds like an ideal approach. !

Else: surprised that noone mentioned public cloud options running on
OpenStack. Is there no obvious place to start there?



On Mon., Jul. 20, 2020, 3:19 p.m. Victoria Coleman, <
vstavridoucole...@gmail.com> wrote:

> +1 Kunal! The WMF Cloud Services team can totally provide the needed
> support. The Foundation would have to invest them to build up the team
> which is over stretched but that should easily pay for itself as revenue
> starts flowing in from the paid API.
>
> Victoria
>
> > On Jul 9, 2020, at 1:38 PM, Kunal Mehta  wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > On 2020-07-09 13:15, Dan Garry (Deskana) wrote:
> >> Which cloud provider would you recommend?
> >
> > Wikimedia Cloud Services, which incidentally, has the fastest network
> > connection to Wikimedia sites by virtue of it being hosted *inside* the
> > cluster.
> >
> > -- Legoktm
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcing a new Wikimedia project: Abstract Wikipedia

[Samuel Klein]

Best news all year. Thank you for moving swiftly on this :)

It has been a fine thing too, to see WikiLambda experiments on Wikispore.
https://wikispore.wmflabs.org

I hope this may Herald a new wave of new and complementary projects.  There
are yet so many types of knowledge that have not found a home in our
wikiverse -- we are devising more every year (here's looking at you,
thingiverse & ML model hubs) -- and most of them do not naturally end up
with free knowledge platforms of their own.

SJ



On Thu., Jul. 2, 2020, 12:04 p.m. Katherine Maher, 
wrote:

> (A translatable version of this announcement can be found on Meta [1])
>
> Hi all,
>
> It is my honor to introduce Abstract Wikipedia [1], a new project that has
> been unanimously approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
> Abstract Wikipedia proposes a new way to generate baseline encyclopedic
> content in a multilingual fashion, allowing more contributors and more
> readers to share more knowledge in more languages. It is an approach that
> aims to make cross-lingual cooperation easier on our projects, increase the
> sustainability of our movement through expanding access to participation,
> improve the user experience for readers of all languages, and innovate in
> free knowledge by connecting some of the strengths of our movement to
> create something new.
>
> This is our first new project in over seven years. Abstract Wikipedia was
> submitted as a project proposal by Denny Vrandečić in May of 2020 [2] after
> years of preparation and research, leading to a detailed plan and lively
> discussions in the Wikimedia communities. We know that the energy and the
> creativity of the community often runs up against language barriers, and
> information that is available in one language may not make it to other
> language Wikipedias. Abstract Wikipedia intends to look and feel like a
> Wikipedia, but build on the powerful, language-independent conceptual
> models of Wikidata, with the goal of letting volunteers create and maintain
> Wikipedia articles across our polyglot Wikimedia world.
>
> The project will allow volunteers to assemble the fundamentals of an
> article using words and entities from Wikidata. Because Wikidata uses
> conceptual models that are meant to be universal across languages, it
> should be possible to use and extend these building blocks of knowledge to
> create models for articles that also have universal value. Using code,
> volunteers will be able to translate these abstract “articles” into their
> own languages. If successful, this could eventually allow everyone to read
> about any topic in Wikidata in their own language.
>
> As you can imagine, this work will require a lot of software development,
> and a lot of cooperation among Wikimedians. In order to make this effort
> possible, Denny will join the Foundation as a staff member in July and lead
> this initiative. You may know Denny as the creator of Wikidata, a long-time
> community member, a former staff member at Wikimedia Deutschland, and a
> former Trustee at the Wikimedia Foundation[3]. We are very excited that
> Denny will bring his skills and expertise to work on this project alongside
> the Foundation’s product, technology, and community liaison teams.
>
> It is important to acknowledge that this is an experimental project and
> that every Wikipedia community has different needs. This project may offer
> some communities great advantages. Other communities may engage less. Every
> language Wikipedia community will be free to choose and moderate whether or
> how they would use content from this project.
>
> We are excited that this new wiki-project has the possibility to advance
> knowledge equity through increased access to knowledge. It also invites us
> to consider and engage with critical questions about how and by whom
> knowledge is constructed. We look forward to working in cooperation with
> the communities to think through these important questions.
>
> There is much to do as we begin designing a plan for Abstract Wikipedia in
> close collaboration with our communities. I encourage you to get involved
> by going to the project page and joining the new mailing list[4]. We
> recognize that Abstract Wikipedia is ambitious, but we also recognize its
> potential. We invite you all to join us on a new, unexplored path.
>
> Yours,
> Katherine Maher
>
> Executive Director,
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract
> Wikipedia/June 2020 announcement
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract_Wikipedia
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Denny
> [4] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/abstract-wikipedia
> --
>
> Katherine Maher (she/her)
>
> Executive Director
>
> Wikimedia Foundation 
>
> ___
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> directed to 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board update on Branding: next steps

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks WSC; elegantly put.

On survey process: seconding what others have said,
if you have gotten ~1000 of a desired 4000 responses, and haven't asked two
questions that you realize are essential, yes it is absolutely worth
running a new survey w the new options.

You can even identify cross-survey-iteration correlation : after drafting
an updated survey (and a banner for it) you could randomly offer 20% of
participants the _old_ survey and use correlation there to infer a way to
jointly interpret both versions.

S.

On Mon., Jun. 29, 2020, 4:35 a.m. Ariel Glenn WMF, 
wrote:

>
> I understand that good faith efforts were made to investigate the usability
> of the terms "W" and "Wiki". [1] Once these wiki-related terms were off the
> table, the options were narrowed to "Wikipedia plus some term" for survey
> purposes. While the survey is thus useful to see which Wikipedia-based name
> community members prefer most, it excludes the options "no change" and
> "change but not to a Wikipedia-based term".
>
> It is possible that people crunching the numbers already know what
> percentages of the community(ies) support the other two options based on
> rfcs and so on. If this is so, it would be great for that information to be
> made public.
>
> If however those numbers are not known, I would urge that an addendum to
> the survey be run that asks people to select one of the following; "no
> change", "new name containing the term Wikipedia", "new name not containing
> the term Wikipedia". I believe that even if this would cause the timeline
> to slip a little, it would be worth it.
>
> Ariel "Wearing sporadic-volunteer hat" Glenn
>
> [1]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_movement_brand_project/Naming_convention_proposals/Naming_FAQ#Were_there_other_naming_convention_proposals_that_did_not_end_up_in_the_survey?_Why_were_they_eliminated
> ?
>
> On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 12:06 AM WereSpielChequers <
> werespielchequ...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear Natalia,
> >
> > I wouldn't say that it was a badly designed survey, more that it was a
> > survey designed to constrain responses to three specific options. The
> > problem is with the choice of those options and that the survey seems to
> be
> > designed to push the community into a particular direction, rather than
> > find out what direction if any the community wanted to go in.
> >
> > "No name change is necessary" is not the only missing option. I'm sure I
> am
> > not the only person who accepts that Wikipedia and Wikimedia are
> > sufficiently similar that it causes confusion, or who knows that some
> > people assume that we are connected to WikiLeaks. Changing the name of
> the
> > WMF to something that is a suitable parent for all the projects, not just
> > Wikipedia, and that reduces confusion with WikiLeaks should be a
> relatively
> > harmless thing for the WMF to do. There are only a limited number of
> > projects that the WMF can take on at any time, and this wouldn't have
> been
> > my priority. But if you are going to rebrand, then doing so without
> > differentiating yourselves from WikiLeaks, and without maintaining some
> > sense of being a parent for multiple projects not just one favoured
> child,
> > does seem to me to be a mistake. So "if you want to change your name,
> don't
> > change it to Wikipedia, Wiki or to something you can't trademark" is
> also a
> > position, I suspect it is stronger than "no name change is necessary".
> >
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > WereSpielChequers
> >
> >
> >
> > Message: 1
> > > Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2020 02:27:11 +0300
> > > From: Nataliia Tymkiv 
> > > To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
> > > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Board update on Branding: next steps
> > > Message-ID:
> > > <
> > > cakt1n5oks9e_vaez4lkizjrv_9p4oqjscc26fvyvykip13y...@mail.gmail.com>
> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> > >
> > > Dear all,
> > >
> > > I want to share with you the next steps of the Wikimedia Foundation
> Board
> > > of Trustees about the Brand Project.
> > >
> > > Originally the Board meeting dedicated to the brand project was
> supposed
> > to
> > > happen no earlier than October. The expected outcome from the project
> > were
> > > the recommendations on what the rebranding should look like - from
> > changing
> > > fonts/logos to renaming. And if there is going to be a renaming - to
> > what.
> > > Of course, the Board’s role is not in approving a change in fonts, but
> > if a
> > > recommendation to rename was to be made - the Board’s role would have
> > been
> > > to make a decision on that recommendation. The timeline has now been
> > > changed, and the renaming part of rebranding will be discussed in our
> > > August meeting.
> > >
> > > Moreover, the Board will meet in early July to receive a briefing about
> > the
> > > project and talk about the process between June 2018 - June 2020. The
> > > consolidated materials on what the brand project team has been working
> on
> > > for a 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board Update on Branding

[Samuel Klein]

Brad: this was brilliant, thank you.

I have been thinking about how to phrase this all week, and you touched it
with a needle.

The Foundation's one undelegable role is to protect the community identity
through its marks.
That is a foundation upon which all else rests.

There are many ways we can improve our visibility and use of marks in
different regions.
This is a task facing all of us in our own communities. (And in this,
passion and persistence can be as important as a great concept.)

But it is self-destructive for our mark-protector to repurpose a project
name against the wishes of its community.  It is no better to circle the
question, saying "we are only considering it. of course we have the
unilateral right to do this, the project name is *our* mark and not *yours*".
That cuts deep — like carving out one's own heart to realize one of its
passing desires.

Brad wrote:
> Protection of the [marks] is an incredibly important function that cannot
be carried out by the community, legally.
> The Foundation's job is to hold these marks and the identity of the
community sacred.
> If I may be direct, that's where you screwed up. The Board has a lot of
work to do now to return to the idea
> that you need to be a fiduciary for the community. You need to hold the 
> community's
interest and identity sacred.
> Now is the time to pause before even more tremendous damage is done.

Our ethos includes self-governance, collaboration, and public iteration.
Let us embody that in this discussion. We should also be always prepared
 to rebuild the encyclopedia (or
any aspect of free knowledge) from scratch.  Let us not rest on our
laurels, and continue building anew.

Sam.

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 12:25 PM Brad Patrick  wrote:

> Today, the community is everywhere around the globe, and the structural
> dichotomy
> remains the same, but at scale.
>


> If the Foundation is leaving money on the table by not exploiting its
> Brand, so be it. "The Foundation" as a commercial organization has utterly
> lost sight of who it works for if "the Brand" is the subject of the
> conversation. YOU ARE TRUSTEES OF A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS, AND THAT MEANS
> PEOPLE - THE COMMUNITY - FIRST. Stop acting like a hedge fund.



> Rethink the sacred obligation you have to the people
> around the world who pour their souls and blood into free culture and the
> aspiration of free knowledge. That's who you work for. The Foundation
> doesn't protect "its" brands. It works for the community, as trustees of
> their cultural contributions.
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Deutschland: general assembly and new Supervisory Board

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks for this update, Lukas and all.
Congrats on the well-attended virtual assembly, I'm curious how it was
handled.

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 12:26 PM Lukas Mezger 
wrote:

> Dear fellow Wikimedians,
>
> On Sunday, Wikimedia Deutschland held its 25th and first-ever virtual
> general assembly with over 250 members attending.
>
> Our members elected a new Supervisory Board, which consists of 7 elected
> members:
>
> * Lukas Mezger (chair, re-elected)
>
> * Daniel Reisener (treasurer, re-elected)
>
> * Sabria David (re-elected)
>
> * Kilian Kluge (re-elected)
>
> * Christina Dinar
>
> * Valerie Mocker
>
> * Alice Wiegand
>
> Christina Dinar and Valerie Mocker are new to the board, so please join me
> in welcoming them as well as in welcoming back Alice Wiegand. We are
> particularly pleased that our measures to increase gender diversity have
> been successful and that our elected board now consists of four women and
> three men.
>
> I would like to wholeheartedly thank our departing elected board members
> Harald Krichel, Peter Dewald, and Marcus Cyron, and our departing appointed
> members Helene Hahn and Mirjam Stegherr for the great work and their
> commitment to Wikimedia Deutschland over the past years.
>
> Sabine Zepp and Lenia Zinßer were elected as auditors. I would like to
> express my gratitude to our departing auditors Daniel Baur, who has been
> serving the association over so many years, and Lena Stammler.
>
> The general assembly also changed our bylaws to allow for virtual board
> meetings and remote board votes. Additionally, our members added a new rule
> concerning appointed officers to ensure that at least one third of the
> board is of non-male or non-female gender. The general assembly also
> approved changes to our strategy and formally approved of the board’s and
> the executive director’s actions for 2019.
>
> The new board will reconvene shortly to discuss Movement Strategy matters,
> among others, and I am very much looking forward to working together with
> the new team.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Lukas
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] 3, 000, 000 Wikidata Infoboxes in Commons categories

[Samuel Klein]

Truly wonderful.  And the underlying tools have been useful even more
widely... thank you for sharing the milestone.

On Sun, Jun 21, 2020 at 6:23 AM Michael Peel  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We’ve just reached a milestone with the deployment of Wikidata Infoboxes
> in Wikimedia Commons categories: there are now over 3 million uses! [1]
> These infoboxes are completely multilingual, and they automatically expand
> as more information is added to Wikidata.
>
> (I think enwp has around 3.4 million infoboxes [2], which we’re getting
> close to - does any other Wikipedia have more?)
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
> [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Uses_of_Wikidata_Infobox
> [2]
> https://templatecount.toolforge.org/index.php?lang=en=10=Infobox
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Paid API?

[Samuel Klein]

t on. I was involved in the strategy process
> > and helped write the recommendation snippet Yair quoted upthread; I'm not
> > involved in the API gateway project.)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] IMPORTANT: Entire list on moderation and notes on conduct

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you, Asaf.

On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 11:03 AM Asaf Bartov  wrote:

> Dear Wikimedia-l subscribers.
>
> I write to you in my volunteer capacity of list-admin, to inform you that
> the entire Wikimedia-l mailing list is now under moderation, meaning all
> posts will have to be manually reviewed and approved by one of the admins.
>
> Here's why:
>
> Comments on the thread titled (and seeking to remove) "Promotion of
> scientific racism in Wikipedia articles" have upset a large number of
> people, quite a few of whom wrote to the list-admins requesting that the
> thread be shut down.
>
> Reviewing the thread, we see some comments that AT BEST (assuming good
> faith) are ignorant, insensitive, and tone-deaf, especially in the current
> moment.  As always when ASSUMING good faith, the assumption may not be
> correct, and some of the comments may be deliberate trolling, i.e.
> calculated to upset people.
>
> Be that as it may, people are indeed upset, and the prospects of
> constructive conversation about Fae's original topic -- which was
> essentially an instance of a well-known systemic problem of Wikipedia, viz.
> its susceptibility to relying on outdated or debunked sources, and the
> difficulty to dislodge some such sources -- seem very poor.
>
> Shutting down a single thread is not technically possible on a plain
> mailing list, so we have moderated the entire list as a stopgap measure.
>
> Our goal is to restore unmoderated list access AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.
> Toward that end, we ask the following:
>
> 
> 1. Make no more responses AT ALL on that thread started by Fae.
>
> 2. Recognize that the list is for coordination and discussion of matters
> related to our work as Wikimedians in service of the Wikimedia mission.  It
> is *not* the appropriate venue to debate content issues, including the
> concept of "race", various racial theories, etc.
>
> 3. If you would like to pursue work around this systemic issue, I encourage
> you to create an on-wiki task force or WikiProject, where you would be able
> to clarify methodological questions and plan the on-wiki work.  If you
> start such a project, announcing it publicly on this list to let people
> know it exists would be permitted.
>
> 4. Recognize that whether or not you are personally feeling anything
> special is going on, *a lot* of people around the world are undergoing a
> trying time right now -- over and beyond the already-trying pandemic
> conditions -- specifically involving the diverse phenomena of racism and
> bigotry.  People experience it in many different ways, but quite a few are
> hurting, quite a few are raging, quite a few are frustrated and upset, etc.
>
> Whatever your opinions about these complex and charged issues, it would be
> an act of empathetic kindness and collegiality to your fellow Wikimedians
> who *are* experiencing an exceptionally trying time if you *avoid* choosing
> this time to air out those opinions.
> 
>
> We shall do our best to monitor the moderation queue at closer intervals,
> to support regular list activity on all other topics.  People who would not
> heed our requests above will remain on moderation after the entire list is
> unmoderated. (We will announce when that happens.)
>
> Your list moderators.
> --
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Trust and safety on Wikimedia projects

[Samuel Klein]

> A former steward fellow and I
> discussed this topic at the Safety Space at Wikimania. Due to the nature of
> the space, the discussion have not been documented but you can find the
> presentation with backgrounds of the situation and open questions on
> Commons
> <
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2019_%E2%80%93_Do_we_need_a_global_dispute_resolution_committee%3F.pdf
> >.
> Maybe it can give some ideas how to proceed with this.
>

Yes -- I was just thinking of your discussions of this while reading the
thread. I hope these steward reflections are considered as people move
forward.

The case of disputes that embroil an entire community and their admins
should (also) specifically be addressed.
S
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Commons

[Samuel Klein]

Yes, agreed.  I also actively avoid using Commons sometimes, because the
average life expectancy of a freely-licensed image is... shorter than one
would hope.

If only for efficiency's sake, we absolutely need somewhere for newbies to
upload images which "
1a) won't be deleted out of hand
1b) won't be deleted simply for lack of demonstration of notability or
bulletproof (c) clearance, when it's reasonable to guess that the uploader
may have such rights
1c) won't be deleted after being used on other projects, without an
explicit takedown request (but may be hidden, as per d)
1d) conversely, won't be made easily accessible for transclusion on other
projects until issues are resolved, or can easily be 'hidden' from
transclusion by a templated concern, while not deleting the upload so that
there is no longer a place to discuss + resolve

And we should also have
2a) a cross-wiki space for images used on any project, under whatever
license, that don't fit current Commons policy
2b) ...that may require a more explicit method of calling the files to
include them, so they can't be accidentally used in an inappropriate
context.

1 and 2 don't have to be Commons itself.  That would be a conceptually
simple solution, but they could also be a separate project, with bots that
migrate things to Commons once current C-policies are fully satisfied.



On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 12:48 PM Strainu  wrote:

> My2c on the original question: Commons does a lot to discourage people from
> uploading to Commons. Everything from not allowing non-free formats (even
> automatically converted to free equivalents) to asking for cross-wiki
> uploads to be disabled and repeatedly proposing the same file for deletion
> is discouraging uploaders.
>
> That's still anecdotical evidence I guess, but when one sees established
> users deliberately avoiding Commons because of these shortfalls one should
> probably take them  seriously.
>
> Pe duminică, 17 mai 2020, Benjamin Ikuta  a
> scris:
>
> >
> >
> > Anecdotally, it seems people sometimes don't upload their photos to
> > Commons because they don't realize that the scope of Commons is much
> > broader than that of Wikipedia.
> >
> > Has there been, or should there be, any research into this, or why people
> > don't contribute more broadly?
> >
> > ~Benjamin
> >
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Commons

[Samuel Klein]

Commons needs iterative workflows that tag problems and modify what reuses
/ transfusions are supported, rather than making everything a crude
delete/keep decision.  Else it will always struggle w scaling to these uses.



On Mon., May 18, 2020, 9:48 a.m. Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l, <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

>  in the past "99% unproblematic" was true, because most of the things were
> obvious and standard (panorama of towns, ancient portraits), it's not
> nowadays.
> You can upload tons of unproblematic pictures because they are easy to
> find, but you don't need them really. So they mostly clutter the workflow.
> There are a lot of images of kittens that we can upload, good luck
> categorizing them. Of course, you can switch to very specific projects like
> "documenting all small rivers" but the core issue are also high-quality
> upload. And everything is potentially problematic there: the right of an
> important person to privacy, the right of the manufacturer of an
> instruments, how creative is the lighting of an object? if I upload an
> image of a town it's probably a very nice one, taken by a competent
> photographer who clearly show them on line as well. You are in a dimension
> where you need to study, learn, ask around, find a balance. Instead we have
> people acting randomly and superficially, because they do not care about
> the long-term effect of their actions.
>
> This impacts the maintenance of course, because very specific issues
> requires sophisticated categories, processes and metadata. The effort there
> is quite high, you are always the first one to arrive. the first one to
> clean up,the first one to explain to a third party. If you add on that more
> unnecessary stress than required, people reduce this job as much as they
> can as a necessary balance. But that job has an important effect in the
> overall maintenance, so at a certain point you start to see the effect when
> it is not there.
>
> It's not a big surprise, we tried to explain this fact for years, but the
> community is designed to ignore these aspects and encourage other work
> attitudes. It's just like that.
>
>
> Il lunedì 18 maggio 2020, 15:28:51 CEST, Yaroslav Blanter <
> ymb...@gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
>  To be fair, in most cases to use Commons for uploading files is totally
> unproblematic as soon as one has basic understanding of copyright. I am
> pretty sure 99% of my uploads can not be deleted (I had my files
> mass-nominated for deletion, once with the claim they are not mine, and
> once with the claim they are holiday photos and out of scope, but both
> cases admins were reasonably enough to speedy close the nominations). Of
> course there are always potentially problematic cases, for example I can
> imagine for one could start requiring "publication" dates for painting,
> which is copyright paranoia but some people take it seriously etc. But if
> one uploads something sufficiently far from the grey area it normally
> should be ok.
>
> (I am still a Commons admin, but I reduced my admin activity to a minimum
> and I am not planning to increase the activity level).
>
> Best
> Yaroslav
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 3:12 PM Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
>
> Hello Alessandro,
> Thank you for your post and its insight. I recognized the same with me: I
> only make use of Wikimedia Commons in lessons if I have enough time. Also I
> would introduce it only to students with a solid knowledge of English.
>
>
> Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l 
> schrieb am Mo. 18. Mai 2020 um 13:08:
>
> > In the end, it's more like inducing order from other projects than caring
> > about the order on Commons because there clearly can't be with people
> > acting the way they do.
>
>
> This is a great observation! And this phenomenon contributes to the
> on-going chaos, to the work-around-culture you need to adapt to if you want
> to make use of Wikimedia Commons. :-(
>
> Kind regards
> Ziko
>
>
>
>
> They are also not caring for it: if you spend your time starting
> > unnecessary deletion procedures instead of cleaning up categories or
> > description, you obviously have your priority, so we also have ours.
> >
>
> > About the main page, we need to focus more on media files IMHO, and of
> > course search is complicated but I am sure metadata can improve it.
> >
> > A.
> > Il lunedì 18 maggio 2020, 11:33:46 CEST, Robert Myers <
> > robert.my...@wikimedia.org.au> ha scritto:
> >
> >  Well some people do, but it is when they get trolled by other
> contributors
> > and/or overzealous Admin comes along and deletes the file. They quickly
> > lose interest, in turn telling other people not to bother.
> >
> > I just had another lot of photographs tagged by a troll, in which an
> Admin
> > deletes (
> >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log=File:Rachel_Priest_after_the_Sydney_Thunder_vs_Adelaide_Strikers_WBBL_game_at_Robertson_Oval.jpg
> >
> >
> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Proposal for a multilingual Wikipedia

[Samuel Klein]

Great!  The time seems right.  Is the idea to begin with P1.1 and P1.2, on
a test wiki, and have a branch of abstracttext that anyone can submit
functions to, while working on the proposal and setting this up formally as
a sibling projet?

Is there anything Wikispore could do to help get something like this
underway?  //S

On Tue, May 5, 2020 at 3:28 PM Denny Vrandečić  wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> after talking about it a few times here, the official proposal for creating
> the multilingual Wikipedia proposal is now on Meta.
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilambda
>
> The idea is to create abstract, language-independent content in Wikidata,
> and then translate it into natural language using function. These functions
> will be defined and maintained in a new Wikimedia project, which I
> preliminary called Wikilambda.
>
> Wikilambda will be a new Wikimedia project that allows to create, maintain,
> catalog, and evaluate functions about all kind of things. You can find a
> lot of further details in the link above. If you have any questions, I am
> happy to answer them.
>
> The official project proposal process basically says, make the proposal
> here, and then go and tell everyone, and at some point, the Board might
> look at this and say, yes good idea.
>
> So I would love to collect many of your voices and support signatures, so
> that I can go to the Board and tell them look at this :) So please sign
> here:
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikilambda
>
> Thank you,
> Denny
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annoying ads

[Samuel Klein]

>
> This is a complaint about multiple banners on the same page.



> I believe it would be better to put the add on the lower part of the
> viewport, for all users, and for a limited time. Posting ads at random
> locations


I couldn't figure out how to experience this feature -- can you share a
screenshot?
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Annoying ads

[Samuel Klein]

>
> If you're browsing in a private-window, this means the browser cannot
> remember (save in a cookie) that you clicked "close" or saw the banner
> already, hence you might be seeing more banners than most readers would.
>

Worth mentioning each time it comes up:
This seems like an instance of where tracking interactions w/ a given {IP,
day} or {hash of browser fingerprint+IP+daily salt} would vastly outweigh
the challenges.  We can support private browsing, or any kind of browsing,
without creating a painful experience [which is also... not likely to
result in a donation].
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Is the Wikimedia-movement apolitical?

[Samuel Klein]

Very well put.  S



On Sat., Apr. 25, 2020, 10:06 p.m. Gnangarra,  wrote:

> Kaya
>
> From my perspective we have always been political, from the moment we
> started with the concept of Free Knowledge,  Eduardo listed many of the
> aspects that go with it.  We are doing so much more we  want
> anyone/everyone to contribute regardless of social standing, we spend
> millions on addressing bias against women, we have and openly support an
> active LGBTI+ community, we make the projects accessible in many
> languages.  As for Earth day we cant deny our support of it just look at
> how we dedicated a whole Wikimania around the concepts.  Even our pillar of
> Neutral POV is political we dont spin we tell it as it was from every
> perspective. We've taken many stands  in regards to censorship. and
> copyright we even once went dark to send a message, Earth day was not a
> shift in our ideals.
>
> Boodar-wun
>
> On Sun, 26 Apr 2020 at 09:13, Eduardo Testart  wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > There isn't such a thing as just one politics, therefore, the subject
> line
> > question is really broad.
> >
> > We are not apolitical about free knowledge, no doubt about that. On the
> > other hand, we as a movement can be or become apolitical in other
> political
> > fields. All this discussion, in my opinion, has to be addressed from the
> > correct political field that we are standing (or not). Which is the
> > political field of the question proposed then? (this is just a rhetorical
> > question.)
> >
> > In the free knowledge political field, I repeat, we are not apolitical
> from
> > the moment we advocate for free knowledge, free content, free licenses,
> > free software, etc. I also do not wish that we ever become apolitical
> about
> > that, even if mistakes are made in the way.
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 7:44 PM Tito Dutta  wrote:
> >
> > > Greetings,
> > > It is asked: "are we apolitical?" A spin-off question: "are we
> unbiased?"
> > > On Wikipedia, we (are to) provide and serve knowledge/information, not
> > any
> > > particular view(s)
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Tito Dutta
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sun, 26 Apr 2020 at 00:34, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l <
> > > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Agreed. There is no way to get around the fact that some people
> oppose
> > > our
> > > > message of free access to our projects for everyone, and the actions
> we
> > > > make in favor of that goal are often political.
> > > >
> > > > However, there is a very large gap between publicly supporting such
> > > > policies as a less regulated internet, copyright advocacy, etc., and
> > > Earth
> > > > Day Live's endorsed viewpoint.
> > > >
> > > > If they were solely about Earth Day, we'd have no issues, as the few
> > > people
> > > > who oppose Earth Day are probably living in the mountains somewhere
> > with
> > > a
> > > > half dozen solar panels and tinfoil hats to protect themselves from
> the
> > > > flying saucers surveying the flat earth.
> > > >
> > > > The problem I have with Earth Day Live is that, were the Wikimedia
> > > > Foundation to publicly endorse those views, it would inherently be
> > > > isolating of people who do not share them. For example, there were
> many
> > > > people on the endorsed streams advocating for all industries to have
> > > unions
> > > > and a universal $15 minimum wage. Ignoring the fact that it's
> > > specifically
> > > > American and was shown to everyone globally, I do not support either
> of
> > > > those policies for various reasons (primarily that much of my work is
> > > done
> > > > for under $15/hr, and I would likely lose some of those jobs), and
> > should
> > > > not be forced at odds with the WMF's party line.
> > > >
> > > > If the Foundation begins publicly endorsing certain policies or
> > > viewpoints
> > > > that are not directly a part of the mission which we all agree with
> and
> > > > work towards, people who disagree with those viewpoints would be
> forced
> > > > into opposition of the foundation intended to represent the work they
> > > > volunteer for Wikimedia projects. Our intention is to deliver
> unbiased
> > > > information to people, and if the Foundation has a declared political
> > > > stance other than our mission statement, it also opens the Foundation
> > to
> > > > legitimate criticism on claims of bias.
> > > >
> > > > There is also the argument of timelessness. Two hundred years ago
> there
> > > was
> > > > a very different political landscape with very different arguments
> > taking
> > > > place. Two hundred years from now, provided humanity still exists,
> > would
> > > > likely be very different than today. Assuming that the WMF and
> > Wikipedia
> > > > will still be around, is it better to attempt to remain out of
> > political
> > > > advocacy (with the exception of our mission), or to take distinct
> > > political
> > > > stances whenever the political field shifts? I fall in the former
> > 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism

[Samuel Klein]

Everyone supports Earth Day.
Earth Day Live was confusingly different... in a strange time.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 10:42 PM Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Adding onto this, it appears the WMF is proudly and publicly displayed on
> the participants, which may as well be endorsements, page for Earth Day
> Live: https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/get-involved/
>
> I'm simply astounded by this. Never would I have expected the WMF to take
> such a strong political position on the American left.


Ah yes, alongside such noted pillars of the American left as...  
KDE, Vivaldi, Tumblr, Imgur, and Mapbox*.*

Benjamin Lees writes:
> I think we should avoid keeping "campaign" banners (even those which
aren't expected to be controversial)
> hidden away until the last minute.

Good point.

SJ
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] COVID-19 & EduWiki response: Wikipedia & Education User Group Open Meeting

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks Lianna, it's good to read about this.  SJ

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 1:48 PM LiAnna Davis  wrote:

> (usual apologies for cross-posting!)
>
> The board of the Wikipedia & Education User Group invites you to attend our
> user group's next Open Meeting, one week from today, on Thursday, April 2,
> at 15:00 UTC, as always via Zoom. We'll be discussing the Wikimedia &
> Education community's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Guest speakers
> include:
> * Nichole Saad and Melissa Guadalupe Huertas from the WMF Education Team
> will talk about their strategy and how you can help. (
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/education/2020-March/002511.html)
> * User:TiagoLubiana, a graduate student in Computational Biology from the
> University of São Paulo, and a leading editor at Wikidata:WikiProject
> COVID-19, will discuss Wikidata's work around COVID-19 and how the
> Wikimedia and education community can help. (
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_COVID-19)
>
> Per usual, the board will provide an update on user group activities, and
> we'll offer an opportunity for others to briefly share what they've been up
> to in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us!
>
> What: Wikipedia & Education User Group Open Meeting
> When: Apr 2, 2020 15:00 UTC
> Where: https://zoom.us/j/759620545
> Meeting ID: 759 620 545
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Message to readers from the Wikimedia Foundation regarding COVID-19

[Samuel Klein]

> "The article has been read more than 30 million times, in English alone. "

Can you run the count for everything in that category, and across all
languages?
Should be a good deal more!

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 4:27 PM Joseph Seddon  wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> Given the unfolding global events, the Wikimedia Foundations feels it is
> important to reassure readers across the globe.
>
> We'll be displaying a short message at the top of the projects reaffirming
> our commitment to keep Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects online, open
> and free for all. Readers often turn to Wikipedia for neutral information
> in times of stress. This is a critical moment for students who can't go to
> school, people who have to stay home with their families, and anyone who
> needs a trusted source of unbiased information.
>
> We also want to take a moment to acknowledge the invaluable work of all the
> medical contributors on Wikipedia. Thank you for keeping a close watch and
> keeping misinformation at bay. Coronavirus topics have received tens of
> thousands of edits by thousands of editors since the start of the pandemic.
> The article has been read more than 30 million times, in English alone.
>
> The message will be displayed just once to readers, and you can preview the
> banner [1]. The draft is in English but we want this message to be
> multilingual. If you have a moment, please help translate this banner into
> your language [2]. Thank you all, for your work and efforts.
>
> Stay safe, and wash your hands!
>
> --
> Seddon
>
> [1] - Banner Preview:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA?banner=programmatic_mlWW_rsp_covid19=1=US
>
>
> [2] - Translate link:
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Translate=Centralnotice-tgroup-Programmatic_translations_2020=view=%21translated=translate
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WikiProject COVID-19 (English Wikipedia) is started

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks for starting this!  And the Wikidata project is awesome also.
Hopefully we can get more of this data into wikidata itself...

On Sun, Mar 15, 2020 at 6:01 PM Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

>  I took images of an almost empty Milan Central train station even before
> i think there were any specific social distancing rule
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Milano_Centrale_train_station_during_2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Italy
> ... and created few days later
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Social_distancing
> but overall I think the topic will be covered, on line there are always
> many images with the right licenses.
>
> I am more interested in people taking nice images of empty towns now that
> it's possible. For example when you walk for basic chores, stop for few
> minutes.
>
> Alessandro
>
>
>
>
> Il domenica 15 marzo 2020, 22:53:59 CET, Paulo Santos Perneta <
> paulospern...@gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
>  I photographed the COVID-19 isolation room at our local university (it's
> precisely in front of the cabinet I usually work in), and created the
> category for COVID-19 isolations:
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:COVID-19_isolations
>
> Best,
> Paulo
>
> Yaroslav Blanter  escreveu no dia domingo, 15/03/2020
> à(s) 21:46:
>
> > Just to remark that I went today to a supermarket to take a picture of
> > empty shelves and eventually to upload it to Commons. Which I did (and
> > eventually I added one of the photographs to an English Wikipedia
> article),
> > just to discover that several people had the same idea before me,
> including
> > one in my city. Still, the number of relevant pictures is laughably
> small,
> > and now it is good time to take pictures for example of places which are
> > normally overcrowded by tourists and now are empty. Or queues at the
> > airports due to cancellations, We need to document the event (obviously
> not
> > compromising on the safety), and anybody with a cell phone can easily
> > contribute.
> >
> > Best
> > Yaroslav
> >
> >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empty_chips_shelves_in_AH_Delft_02.jpg
> >
> >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empty_butter_shelves_in_AH_Delft_01.jpg
> >
> > On Sun, Mar 15, 2020 at 10:12 PM Pine W  wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > May I suggest that the discussion regarding the name take place
> > > somewhere other than Wikimedia-l? I think that a talk page of one of
> > > the relevant articles on English Wikipedia, a WikiProject Medicine
> > > talk page, or the WikiProject Medicine Mailing List, would all be
> > > reasonable venues.
> > >
> > > Pine
> > > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
> > >
> > > ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Brand Project: Who are we as a movement?

[Samuel Klein]

Hello Essie,

Given all of the feedback so far, it seems we need a strong brand *network*,
more than a struggle over a single brand; and strong shared identity
*within* the communities and their contributors.

I am glad that recent discussions seem to be grounded in identity and
clarity.  If we want to start leading more with Wikipedia in outreach, in
every language of the world, *nothing* is stopping us.  But a* re*branding &
the resulting ongoing turmoil would have a predictable cost, at a time when
we have many other things to focus on, that needs to be balanced with
obvious gain.



Thank you (all) for your extensive work on this.  It would help to be even
more exquisitely clear about the expected outcomes in May and beyond.*

Wikilove, SJ

* I still think of the Wikidata newsletter as a model of regular clarity in
terms of setting expectations.



On Fri., Mar. 13, 2020, 1:33 p.m. Essie Zar,  wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
> There are some new updates and opportunities to engage with the Brand
> project. Thank you to Lodewijk for bringing some attention to a few of
> these opportunities. We were actively drafting this update for this group
> when your email went out.
>
> As Zack indicated in September,[1] we have been regularly discussing with
> the members of the brand network (which people can still join )[2] ideas
> around an evolved brand system with "Wikipedia" as a center point. To
> assist in this evolution of the movement brand, we chose to partner with
> Snøhetta,[3] an internationally renowned design firm known for working on
> complex and multi-stakeholder projects like the modern Library of
> Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina) and the 9/11 Memorial in New York
> City. Snøhetta has been tasked with figuring out precisely what this
> improved brand system will look like. They will release a proposed naming
> convention for movement-wide feedback in April, and a proposed design for
> movement-wide feedback in May. [4] The result of this process will be a new
> branding system that will be opt-in for affiliates.
>
> In order to have enough knowledge and context to arrive at these proposals,
> Snøhetta is reviewing feedback from the many points at which it has already
> been given, and has created a process with built-in community involvement.
> The
> process thus far has included workshops in Norway, India and online with 97
> volunteers from the brand network (movement affiliates, volunteers,
> foundation staff, and board members) reflecting 41 nations. At the
> workshops, community participants were asked to break into small groups to
> answer the question "Who are we?". Through these workshops, groups
> developed rich concepts* that they think best represent who we are as a
> movement.
>
> Now, we would like to invite you to review the 23 concepts that came out of
> the community workshops by “liking” and providing feedback on the one(s)
> you think best represent the Wikimedia movement. You can click on any
> concept to see an expanded explanation and photos of the actual concepts
> built or selected by workshop participants.
>
> Approximate time to complete this exercise is around 10-15 min.
>
> https://brandingwikipedia.org/concepts/
>
> Feel free to leave feedback directly on Snøhetta’s website, on the project
> talk page on Meta [5], or on the Brand Network [2], which will also be
> available on Meta starting next month.
>
> Snøhetta will use the feedback from the concepts to develop one single
> concept to act as a tool that will help guide the proposals around naming
> (expected for April) and around design (expected around May). They are
> scheduled to begin reviewing feedback on Tuesday, 17 March, but can
> continue taking feedback for a few more days if there is interest.
>
> We also invite you to share what free knowledge means to you in Snøhetta's
> open exercise. Please take a moment and share your thoughts in any of the
> channels mentioned.
>
>
> https://brandingwikipedia.org/2020/02/17/what-does-free-knowledge-mean-to-you/
>
> Finally, we want to acknowledge that we have feedback, from various points
> in this process so far, from several communities and in several areas of
> the wikis, including Meta. We understand that some people believe that we
> don’t need this project. Our shared vision is for every single human being
> to freely share in the sum of all knowledge -- and that means billions of
> people. There are many people and cultures we still need to reach and
> include. We will need a strong well known brand to achieve the goals the
> movement has set for itself and we have a lot of work to do to get us
> there.
>
> Want to learn more? Check out the project hub at brandingwikipedia.org and
> the project page on Meta [5]. Participate in discussions on the project
> talk page, or by joining the Brand Network [2]. Also feel free to drop us a
> note at brandproj...@wikimedia.org if you have questions.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Essie Zar
>
> (from the movement brand identity 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] April could be our Wikimedia month of kindness

[Samuel Klein]

What a great idea!  Thakn you for sharing.  We could also strongly
encourage shutting down most bitey aspects of tools and scripts.

This can be a nice sanity check to see if we discover, as wikihow did, that
talking to people by hand rather than via cold template increases
participation significantly over time.  ///S

On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 10:40 AM Fæ  wrote:

> Wikimedia Commons is proposing that April becomes a Month of Kindness.
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Proposals#Votes,_month_of_kindness
>
> The pandemic is affecting everyone and is likely to be very stressful
> for many. This proposal aims to remind everyone throughout April to
> make extra efforts to be kinder in their interactions, making our
> Wikimedia project a kinder and more supportive space as our default.
>
> Do any other projects fancy joining this initiative?
>
> Fae
> --
> fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Why renaming to Wikipedia will wreak havoc on other projects

[Samuel Klein]

Thanks for this clarity Paulo.
Is there a way to move more of the underlying policies onto a public wiki
rather than a closed one, to limit some of this confusion?



On Wed., Feb. 26, 2020, 5:36 a.m. Paulo Santos Perneta, <
paulospern...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The OP is misleading. The issue is not with Commons at all, but with OTRS.
> As far as I know, Commons never, ever, deleted a file which was in use in
> any Wikimedia project, with the notable expectation of copyvios. Otherwise,
> use in *any* wikimedia project = on scope for Commons.
>
> Apparently some OTRS volunteers follow some outdated procedures - including
> that one related to selfies, which was mentioned - but that is a problem
> exclusively with OTRS. I'm part of that team, and I always had the freedom
> to decide which looked like a genuine selfie, and which was problematic at
> that (e.g., with a copyright notice at the metadata). And, as far as I
> know, anyone willing to help fixing those problems at OTRS is very much
> welcome there. When the volunteers are very few, and the ones complaining
> do not volunteer themselves, it only adds up to the pressure on the few
> existing volunteers, making everything worse.
>
> Best,
> Paulo
>
> Peter Southwood  escreveu no dia quarta,
> 26/02/2020 à(s) 06:04:
>
> > This does seem unreasonable. Do they have an explanation at Commons?
> > This is happening without standardising in one label Wikipedia, so it is
> > jumping to quite a conclusion to assume that the issue is related.
> > For the record, I am also opposed to rebranding to Wikipedia, but I do
> not
> > think this issue is necessarily related.
> > Cheers,
> > Peter
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> > Behalf Of Gerard Meijssen
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 6:10 PM
> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Why renaming to Wikipedia will wreak havoc on
> other
> > projects
> >
> > Hoi,
> > Apparantly at Commons they have standardised themselves to only support
> > Wikipedia.
> >
> > At Wikidata we have people who are notable according to our standards. We
> > are actively asking them for images to illustrate our information. The
> best
> > suggestion we get is: do not ask for images because they are deleted at
> > Commons.
> >
> > When this is what awaits us when we standardise on one label Wikipedia,
> it
> > is obvious that this is the worst scenario for the "other" projects. The
> > projects who operate to different standards who have notability criteria
> > different from English Wikipedia.
> > Thanks,
> >   GerardM
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> >
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Treatment of newbies with mild CoI

[Samuel Klein]

It would be nice to have a tool for long standing editors to clean up a
newbies talk page for them, leave messages for the overeager templaters,
and help them out / welcome them in untemolsted language.

Then a little ML could go a long way in guessing which newbies are in this
situation and generating a queue for newbie-care. ~~~



On Wed., Feb. 19, 2020, 4:35 p.m. Andy Mabbett, 
wrote:

> I have just come across a case on en.Wikipedia where the daughter of
> an article subject added details of his funeral (his death in 1984,w
> as already recorded) and his view about an indent in his life.
>
> Her six sequential edits - her first and only contribution to
> Wikipedia - totalled 1254 characters, and were conducted over the
> space of 30 minutes. They were no the best quality, lacking sources,
> but were benign, and exactly what one might expect an untutored novice
> to do as a first change.
>
> As well as being reverted, she now has three templates on her talk
> page; two warning her of a CoI, and sandwiching one notifying her of a
> discussion about her on the COI noticeboard. These total 4094
> characters or 665 words.
>
> How do other projects deal with such cases?
>
> --
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Next steps on Wikimedia Space

[Samuel Klein]

Phase V confirmed! -- I hope this means related features (a calendar +
forum :) are getting included in mediawiki propre...



On Tue., Feb. 18, 2020, 5:31 a.m. Quim Gil,  wrote:

> Last year, the Wikimedia Foundation launched Wikimedia Space to experiment
> with new ways to connect volunteers, increase movement participation, and
> showcase community stories. While we remain committed to this important
> goal, based on lessons learned through the Space prototype, the Foundation
> has decided to close Discuss Space. The Space blog, which continues to fill
> a need to share news for the movement by the movement, will continue in a
> new home. Please continue to submit community-focused stories [1], so that
> we may share them with the movement.
>
> To learn more about the next steps, check the full announcement at
> https://space.wmflabs.org/2020/02/18/next-steps-on-wikimedia-space/
>
> We have learned a lot from this initiative and want to thank all Space
> users [2] for their time and contributions. We also invite everyone
> interested in documenting lessons learned and discussing next steps to join
> us in taking this effort even further, either at the About Wikimedia Space
> category in Discuss [3] or the Space talk page in Meta [4].
>
> [1]
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Space/Editorial_guidelines#How_to_get_started
> [2] https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/u?period=all
> [3] https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/c/about-wikimedia-space/2
> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Space
>
> --
> Quim Gil (he/him)
> Senior Manager of Community Relations @ Wikimedia Foundation
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Qgil-WMF
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Café - Saturday 25 Jan 2020 4:30 PM UTC...

[Samuel Klein]

Aha, very nice -- thanks for the invite Lane :)
We need a wiki audio+transcription server toolchain named Harmony...

On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 5:12 PM Lane Rasberry  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am writing to invite anyone to join the next online meeting of Wikimedia
> Café on Saturday 25 Jan 2020 4:30 PM UTC. Details for joining are at
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Café
> > (video room open at that time) https://virginia.zoom.us/my/wikilgbt
>
> The agenda for this month includes discussing Wikipedia holidays, Wikipedia
> video tutorials, and the Wikimedia Strategic recommendations.
>
> Wikimedia Café is a modest, one-hour, monthly online meeting which for the
> past few months has had fewer than 10 attendees. At these meetings anyone
> can propose to discuss any topic of broad Wikimedia community interest, as
> if we all were able to meet in person over coffee. The meetings themselves
> are an experiment in small group Wikimedia community conversation with
> video chat, phone access options, and online shared notetaking.
>
> Anyone interested in joining may.
> Anyone interested in reading notes of past meetings can find them on the
> meta page.
> If there is anyone who wants to get their ideas published in the wiki
> world, consider looking at how this Café works, because voice chat with
> notetaking could be a way to organize your own wiki community.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Lane Rasberry
> user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
> 206.801.0814
> l...@bluerasberry.com
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Snøhetta and Wikimedia

[Samuel Klein]

Interesting to see -- thanks for the pointer John!
I like what I've seen of Snøhetta + their work, would love to hear more.

On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 1:56 PM John Erling Blad  wrote:

> … and people immediately went ballistic. Calm down and discuss the topic!
>
> The news reporting seems to be that Snøhetta has been awarded a full
> design project, while the page at Meta says it should act as some form
> of facilitator. It could be interesting to know what is correct, as
> these two descriptions are pretty disparate.
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] .org TLD for sale?

[Samuel Klein]

Thank you (all!) for doing this.  A necessary backdrop for whatever comes
next.  SJ



On Wed., Jan. 8, 2020, 8:23 p.m. Katherine Maher, 
wrote:

> Hey folks,
>
> Quick update here. You may have seen some press coverage already, but this
> week, a group of technologists, non-profits, policymakers, and internet
> governance folks filed in California to create a cooperative membership
> corporation, whose purpose would be to administer the .ORG domain and its
> revenues on behalf of global non-profits and in support of the open,
> multistakeholder internet. The intention of the filing body is to
> demonstrate to ICANN a viable, economically and technically sound
> alternative to private commercial ownership. The name of the new
> organization is the Cooperative Corporation of .ORG Registrants, or CCOR.
>
> I've been asked to be one of the seven filing directors. The other filing
> directors include the Executive Director of Packet Clearing House, a
> non-profit internet research institute, the founding president of ICANN and
> a former chair of ICANN, a former Member of the European Parliament and
> digital rights advocate, among others.
>
> We believe that this co-op structure is a good alternative to the intended
> sale, which we believe has the potential to degrade the integrity and
> stability of .ORG domains. It is an opportunity for the .ORG community to
> create a representative governing entity, formalize stewardship of a key
> piece of internet infrastructure, directly guide the allocation of .ORG
> revenue, and improve the integrity and independence of the non-profit
> internet. It aligns with the same values and governance that animate our
> global Wikimedia communities, and our friends at organizations such as EFF,
> the Internet Archive, and Mozilla have played key roles in its development.
> The Foundation's Board of Trustees has also given their support as part of
> our broader commitment to the non-commercial, open internet.
>
> I also wanted to make sure to clarify the Foundation's commitment and my
> own role in CCOR. The Wikimedia Foundation not funding this effort, and my
> participation does not entail longer-term financial or other resource
> support from the Foundation or movement. My own involvement would be a for
> limited-term: if the effort is successful, my temporary directorship would
> end after a period, I’ll rotate off and the co-op will elect someone new.
> If the effort is not successful, the corresponding responsibilities are
> null.
>
> They're still working on getting the website up and will publish the
> articles of incorporation once they do, in case folks want to take a look
> for themselves.
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> Katherine
>
> On Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 7:03 AM Florence Devouard 
> wrote:
>
> https://savedotorg.org
>
>
>
>  Message transféré 
> Sujet : Re: .org TLD for sale?
> Date : Sun, 24 Nov 2019 13:44:08 -0500
> De : Samuel Klein 
> Répondre à : Wikimedia Mailing List
> 
> Pour : Wikimedia Mailing List
> 
> Groupes de discussion : gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation
> Références :
> 
> 
>
> I wrote up a short summary.  who other than ICANN has to approve this
> sale?
>
> http://blogs.harvard.edu/sj/2019/11/23/a-tale-of-icann-and-regulatory-capture/
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 23, 2019 at 6:13 PM Erik Moeller  wrote:
>
> > Thanks for sharing this, Andy. This appears to be a major governance
> > failure on the part of ICANN (sadly, not for the first time). I'm glad
> > Wikimedia is among the first orgs on this list.
> >
> > I don't think it's too late to stop this, especially as all evidence
> > points to corrupt inside wheeling-and-dealing. I would normally not
> > link to El Reg, but the connections Kieren has dug up deserve further
> > investigation by more reputable outlets.
> >
> > https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/20/org_registry_sale_shambles/
> >
> > Utterly unacceptable attempt to enclose the commons. Please do help
> > continue direct attention to this.
> >
> > https://savedotorg.org/
> >
> > Warmly,
> >
> > Erik
> >
> > ___
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>
>
>
> --
> Samuel Klein  @metasj   w:user:sj  +1 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Donating to Wikipedia

[Samuel Klein]

I think the current messages are quite good and clear, the ones I've seen
get better each year.
I don't find the messaging alarmist or misleading.  But perhaps subtle cues
can change how they are perceived.

[I also don't usually get this feedback from people outside our community
(last: in 2012), so it might just be random walks through feedback space.]




On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 7:30 PM Michel Vuijlsteke  wrote:

> This discussion comes back every year. Every year we get the same
> reassurance that it's being looked into, that we'll try to do better, that
> things have been tested, etc.
>
> The reality of the matter is that the alarmist and misleading stuff
> *works*. And that it's most probably not going anywhere. Just like last
> year and the year before.
>
>
> On Wed, 18 Dec 2019, 22:58 Samuel Klein,  wrote:
>
> > I've heard this asked this by 3-4 people recently
> > * A family member (checking in to make sure things were ok)
> > * A local grantmaker (who likewise has supported WP at least once before)
> > * A couple undergrads (on phones, asking eachother what to do if WP went
> > down during finals)
> >
> > All worried either that there had bee some sudden change, or that
> knowledge
> > or access would be lost in the near future. Perhaps there's a way to
> reach
> > the same people while highlighting our commitment to persistent access to
> > knowledge across time.  And maybe a way to measure interpretation or
> > reaction to a banner in addition to its conversion rate.  [Some banners
> are
> > so delightful that they are a welcome improvement to a page without; and
> > I've occasionally thought we should run some of those, w/ low
> probability,
> > continuously year-round.]
> >
> > Wikilove,
> > SJ
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 4:38 PM Fæ  wrote:
> >
> > > Sadly I had a similar experience only this weekend.
> > >
> > > We were enjoying a going away lunch with friends who are out of the
> > > country over Christmas, when one of them asked about Wikipedia's
> > > problems, knowing that I often volunteer time to it. He claimed that
> > > the site was spamming screen-sized pop-up banners trying to raise
> > > money because they were going bust. I had to advise him how wealthy
> > > the Foundation was, with hundreds of staff and extra cash in an
> > > endowment fund.
> > >
> > > Isn't it about time that the Wikimedia Foundation came to terms that
> > > /plenty/ of money is made through sensible fundraising, without every
> > > year embarrassing the whole Wikimedia Community by promoting the
> > > impression that Wikipedia is about to close down if the public don't
> > > give them enough money to keep their servers powered up over
> > > Christmas? Making 10% more money every year is growth for the sake of
> > > it unless we can understand in an accountable and transparent way
> > > where that extra 10% is needed; preferably right there in the
> > > fundraising banner so folks don't get the impression that Wikipedia is
> > > about to vanish.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Fae
> > >
> > > On Wed, 18 Dec 2019 at 20:34, Jacob Jose  wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I also felt like how Benjamin's dad did..  If one is viewing using
> the
> > > > mobile app, the red banners fill the entire screen and one has to
> > scroll
> > > > down to get to the content. I think the fund solicitation ads need to
> > be
> > > > much less loud than it's now..
> > > >
> > > > Background: I have been an active Wiki contributor for over 10 years
> > now.
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 2:27 PM Benjamin Ikuta <
> > benjaminik...@gmail.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > My dad recently said to me:
> > > > >
> > > > > "I was solitated by them after looking something up.  I thought it
> > > strange
> > > > > the way they were pleading for donations. They made it sound like
> > they
> > > > > might be shutting down if we the general public didn't donate."
> > > > >
> > > > > Has there been any research into how common it is for readers to
> get
> > > the
> > > > > wrong impression from the marketing messaging?
> > > > >
> > > > > I've heard of this sort of thing happening before, and I think it's
> > > highly
> > > > > antithetical t

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Donating to Wikipedia

[Samuel Klein]

I've heard this asked this by 3-4 people recently
* A family member (checking in to make sure things were ok)
* A local grantmaker (who likewise has supported WP at least once before)
* A couple undergrads (on phones, asking eachother what to do if WP went
down during finals)

All worried either that there had bee some sudden change, or that knowledge
or access would be lost in the near future. Perhaps there's a way to reach
the same people while highlighting our commitment to persistent access to
knowledge across time.  And maybe a way to measure interpretation or
reaction to a banner in addition to its conversion rate.  [Some banners are
so delightful that they are a welcome improvement to a page without; and
I've occasionally thought we should run some of those, w/ low probability,
continuously year-round.]

Wikilove,
SJ

On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 4:38 PM Fæ  wrote:

> Sadly I had a similar experience only this weekend.
>
> We were enjoying a going away lunch with friends who are out of the
> country over Christmas, when one of them asked about Wikipedia's
> problems, knowing that I often volunteer time to it. He claimed that
> the site was spamming screen-sized pop-up banners trying to raise
> money because they were going bust. I had to advise him how wealthy
> the Foundation was, with hundreds of staff and extra cash in an
> endowment fund.
>
> Isn't it about time that the Wikimedia Foundation came to terms that
> /plenty/ of money is made through sensible fundraising, without every
> year embarrassing the whole Wikimedia Community by promoting the
> impression that Wikipedia is about to close down if the public don't
> give them enough money to keep their servers powered up over
> Christmas? Making 10% more money every year is growth for the sake of
> it unless we can understand in an accountable and transparent way
> where that extra 10% is needed; preferably right there in the
> fundraising banner so folks don't get the impression that Wikipedia is
> about to vanish.
>
> Thanks,
> Fae
>
> On Wed, 18 Dec 2019 at 20:34, Jacob Jose  wrote:
> >
> > I also felt like how Benjamin's dad did..  If one is viewing using the
> > mobile app, the red banners fill the entire screen and one has to scroll
> > down to get to the content. I think the fund solicitation ads need to be
> > much less loud than it's now..
> >
> > Background: I have been an active Wiki contributor for over 10 years now.
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 2:27 PM Benjamin Ikuta 
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > My dad recently said to me:
> > >
> > > "I was solitated by them after looking something up.  I thought it
> strange
> > > the way they were pleading for donations. They made it sound like they
> > > might be shutting down if we the general public didn't donate."
> > >
> > > Has there been any research into how common it is for readers to get
> the
> > > wrong impression from the marketing messaging?
> > >
> > > I've heard of this sort of thing happening before, and I think it's
> highly
> > > antithetical to our values to be deceptive.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ___
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>
> Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote.
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] The wikisites looks like 1996

[Samuel Klein]

Nice find, thanks for sharing!

Amir: yes, we need global templates -- a framework for them and incremental
way editors and tools can migrate to that.  What's the latest overview of
where that work sits?   What can we all do to help?




On Thu., Dec. 12, 2019, 8:37 a.m. John Erling Blad, 
wrote:

> Seems like Marius Hauken delivered the thesis in 2012.[1]
> A short video is available on YouTube.[2]
> He got several awards, at most three in one week. [3]
> A few of them are listed here.[4][5]
>
> [1] Hauken, Marius Aa., and Kunst- Og Designhøgskolen I Bergen. Same
> Shit, Different Wrapping (2012): Ca 200. Print.
> [2] Wikipedia-concept for smartphones and tablets
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-xI-mPDLBo
> [3] Tre designpriser på en uke
> https://www.bt.no/nyheter/okonomi/i/eagk4/tre-designpriser-paa-en-uke
> [4] REDESIGNING WIKIPEDIA FOR MOBILE & TABLET
>
> https://europeandesign.org/submissions/redesigning-wikipedia-for-mobile-tablet/
> [5] Masteroppgave, redesign av Wikipedia for touchenheter ”Same shit
> different wrapping”
>
> https://www.grafill.no/visuelt/vinnere/2013/interaktiv-design/studentarbeid/masteroppgave-redesign-av-wikipedia-for-touchenheter-same-shit-different-wr
>
> On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 2:01 PM John Erling Blad  wrote:
> >
> > I wrote 1996 in the subject field because that was the year I made a
> > wikisite with tabbed interface, and experimented with a paper-like
> > design in Xt. More or less what designers today would call a material
> > design. The present design is what I would call Monobook 2.0, and that
> > imply a 15 year old design. Monobook was rolled out in 2004-2005 if I
> > remember correctly.
> >
> > At nowiki we had a discussion with a designer from The Oslo School of
> > Architecture and Design around 2009, and he come up with a really nice
> > design. The design at SNL (the other Norwegian lexicon) starts to look
> > more and more like it. The design proposal was deemed to radical and
> > to simple for Wikipedia. He got several awards for the design.
> >
> > No, I'm not a designer, but I do like good design.
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 1:34 PM John Erling Blad 
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Thank you, but discussing how your site or any other specific site
> > > looked like in some year is an distraction.
> > >
> > > On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 12:30 PM Shlomi Fish 
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi John!
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:47:21 +0100
> > > > John Erling Blad  wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Could we please update them with a slightly more up-to-date skin?
> > > > >
> > > > > Take a look at our Norwegian competitor in the lexicon field.
> > > > > https://snl.no/kunstig_intelligens
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I took a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and it
> doesn't look
> > > > anything like a geocities/etc. site from the 90s, and I feel it
> doesn't look
> > > > bad.
> > > >
> > > > For the record that was my site at around 1998 -
> > > > https://old-1998-site.shlomifish.org/ and people complained enough
> that my
> > > > current site looks like "[insert  year here]" that I added a FAQ
> entry:
> > > >
> > > > https://www.shlomifish.org/meta/FAQ/site_looks_old.xhtml
> > > >
> > > > See https://everybootstrap.site/ for how many contemporary sites
> look like.
> > > >
> > > > Someone on freenode told me he thinks plain black-on-white sites
> look great.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Shlomi
> > > >
> > > > > John Erling Blad
> > > > > /jeblad
> > > > > ___
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> > > > --
> > > >
> > > > Shlomi Fish   https://www.shlomifish.org/
> > > > https://www.shlomifish.org/lecture/C-and-CPP/bad-elements/
> > > >
> > > > As it turns out, compiling a C program from more than 20 years ago
> is actually
> > > > a lot easier than getting a Rails app from last year to work.
> > > > — https://passy.svbtle.com/building-vim-from-1993-today
> > > >
> > > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post -
> http://shlom.in/reply .
>
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