Re: [Wikimedia-l] Timeline of recent events at the Wikimedia Foundation

2016-02-22 Thread Charles Gregory 
That's a great wrap-up - thanks Molly!

For something a bit different, here is an outsiders view.  I found this on
reddit, posted by a user named Ken_Thomas (I don't know who this is, but it
seems to be someone vaguely aware of, but not heavily involved in, the
off-wiki side of things).  I thought it was worth sharing - even if there
are some factual inaccuracies and savage opinion - because it offers a much
different point of view from everyone here.

(Note that this is a copy of his post verbatim, and is *not my opinion)*

















*"From reading through the various articles, following the story for
awhile, and picking up data nuggets here and there, this is what I think is
going on.Wikimedia is a non-profit. Salaries there are pretty low for the
tech sector, and the workload is high. People who end up working there do
it because they believe in the mission. Over time, this has created a
pretty unique culture. The place is saturated with purists and idealists
who have good intentions but can be pretty insufferable about the whole
thing. They are also, generally speaking, not particularly disciplined and
not great business people.Tretikov was brought onboard to tighten things
up, basically. She comes from a business background. When she was hired all
the stories were about how she was going to 'save' Wikipedia by putting it
on a firm financial foundation and cracking the whip with the workforce.
I'm sure she admires the mission and thinks it's important and all that,
but I wouldn't put her in that 'purist and idealist' category at all.So
you've got this culture clash at the top, and the frustration from that has
been building for awhile.Some people had this idea to build a search engine
that would only search sites that offered 'free' information, probably
public domain or CC images, that sort of thing. Other people were irked
that Google is snagging Wikipedia's content and pasting it on their search
result pages. You get the impression that these two ideas came together and
they started some preliminary work on a search engine, saw how expensive it
was going to be, and applied for a grant to do it. The grant they got was
like 1/20th of what they requested, so they pretty much shut the project
down but were still noodling with the concept.None of that is really the
problem. Well, it was probably a dumb idea, but the search engine is kind
of the red herring here. The problem is that it was being done in
secret.Why? Because if you're from the business world, that's how things
are done.If you're a purist Wikipedian, it means you're literally
Hitler.Now it's coming out in the open and everybody is mad and no one can
understand why the other side is mad.Did that help?"*

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/comments/46rz1i/the_wikimedia_foundation_in_crisis_how_fast_is_it/d07tv95


Regards,
Charles / User:Chuq

On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 11:43 PM, Steven Crossin  wrote:

> minor correction - the ? in my reply was meant to be a period. I'll be
> keeping an eye on this timeline and watch the events unfold.
>
> *Steven Crossin*
> *cro0...@gmail.com *
>
> On 22 February 2016 at 23:37, Chris Keating 
> wrote:
>
> > Yes - very handy - thanks GorillaWarfare!
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 12:31 PM, Steven Crossin 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Thank you Molly. This is indeed helpful?
> > >
> > > *Steven Crossin*
> > > *cro0...@gmail.com *
> > >
> > > On 22 February 2016 at 23:20, GorillaWarfare <
> > > gorillawarfarewikipe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Recent discussion of the Knowledge Engine/Wikimedia Discovery
> project,
> > > > issues with senior leadership, lack of transparency, and the like has
> > > been
> > > > fairly well spread across several Wikimedia projects and mailing
> lists,
> > > as
> > > > well as on Facebook, in the media, and in other venues.
> > > >
> > > > I just published an attempt to aggregate some of the events that I
> > think
> > > > are particularly informative given what's been going on:
> > > > http://mollywhite.net/wikimedia-timeline/
> > > >
> > > > I hope it's helpful, and please feel free to suggest changes if it's
> > > > incomplete.
> > > >
> > > > – Molly (GorillaWarfare)
> > > > ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Warning: Wikimedia-l Google Group

2015-01-09 Thread Charles Gregory 
I believe the problem occurs if you use a gmail (or domain with google
apps) email address which differs to the email address you were subscribed
to the list with.  Being a Google service, the group interface tries to use
your gmail account.  MZ's email method works well!

If you need the direct link to report the group, you can use
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/wikimedia-l/abuse.

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq




On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 5:43 AM, Thyge ltl.pri...@gmail.com wrote:

 My experience is the same :-(

 2015-01-09 19:28 GMT+01:00 Ricordisamoa ricordisa...@openmailbox.org:

  Thanks for the notice. I unsubscribed some hours ago and got resubscribed
  again...
 
  Il 07/01/2015 19:26, Austin Hair ha scritto:
 
   You may have already received a message indicating that you've been
  added to the Wikimedia-l Google Group; if not, you likely will soon.
 
  In case it's not clear, this Google Group is in no way affiliated with
  Wikimedia-l, the Wikimedia Foundation, me, or anybody you'd ever want
  to be friends with.
 
  If you do find yourself subscribed, I strongly urge you not to engage
  in any way. Report it to Google (not to me or the list) as an abusive
  subscription using the link at the bottom of the message, and leave it
  be.
 
  If you find yourself being impersonated or wrongly implicated in this
  latest round of troublemaking, don't fret. Nobody will hold it against
  you, and in fact you'll have everyone's sympathies.
 
  Austin
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising in the UK

2014-12-08 Thread Charles Gregory 
Russavia (and everyone),

I've asked about, and from I can find the WMF has contracted out collection
of BPay payments to a third party merchant (an Australian business).  This
has been the case since the first fundraiser that WMAU was not involved in
payment processing (2011 I think).

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq
Wikimedia Australia


On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Russavia russavia.wikipe...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Lisa,

 Thanks for your reply and clarification.

 When one clicks on the fundraising banner from the UK, they get taken
 to this site.[1] As you can see there is no prominent link about gift
 aid on that page. There is, however, a link at the bottom under Tax
 deductibility information which takes you here.[2]

 It will certainly be interesting to see the figures in February which
 you said you'd provide, so that we can see for ourselves just how the
 figures from the UK compare to previous years when the gift aid was
 obviously more prominent (from what I am lead to understand).

 Another interesting thing I noticed. When you go the landing page for
 Australia,[3] I see the option there to pay via BPay.[4] And sure
 enough, the Wikimedia Foundation has a BPay biller code.[5] Most
 Australians would be familiar with BPay, so it's a great feature to
 have. But, upon looking at their FAQs[6] it states:

 Can an overseas business become a BPAY biller?

 Unfortunately, if your business is based overseas you can’t become a
 BPAY biller. BPAY is only available for businesses in Australia.

 How exactly is the WMF utilising BPay here in Australia? It's not
 registered in Australia.[7]

 More info on that would be awesome. Sorry if it's been answered before.

 Cheers,

 Russavia

 [1]
 https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPagecountry=GBuselang=enutm_medium=sidebarutm_source=donateutm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org
 [2]
 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Tax_Deductibility/en#United_Kingdom
 [3]
 https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPagecountry=AUuselang=enutm_medium=sidebarutm_source=donateutm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org
 [4] http://www.bpay.com.au/
 [5]
 http://www.bpay.com.au/Personal/Find-Biller-Codes-or-Financial-Institutions.aspx?find=373456
 [6]
 http://www.bpay.com.au/Business/Small-Medium-Business/Help/BPAY-Services-FAQs.aspx#faq-question-790
 [7] http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByNameAll.aspx?SearchText=wikimedia


 On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 5:08 AM, Lisa Gruwell lgruw...@wikimedia.org
 wrote:
 
  Hi Russavia-
 
  Thanks for clarification. There is a lot of room for confusion here and
 I sure I have not been as clear when talking about this as I needed to be.
 Here are the details: The pricing structure is based on cumulative
 donations.  We paid 20% on the first £100 in donations (which was covered
 with our very first donation), 10% on the next £9899, and 1% on every
 donation after that – which is the fee assessed on any donation made during
 this December campaign that requests Gift Aid.  We will share the totals
 after we receive our quarterly statement toward the end of February.  Sorry
 for the confusion.
 
  Thank you,
  Lisa

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banners (again)

2014-12-04 Thread Charles Gregory 
Just for reference, John is correct - our website has been having technical
issues lately, which sometimes results in old revisions being made
visible.  I can confirm that John is not on the board of WMAU:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters#.5BAU.5D_Wikimedia_Australia_.28Australia.29

Regards,

Charles Gregory / User:Chuq
Wikimedia Australia



On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 5:14 AM, John Mark Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com
wrote:

 On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 12:48 AM, Yaroslav M. Blanter pute...@mccme.ru
 wrote:
  On 04.12.2014 02:30, John Mark Vandenberg wrote:
 
  On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 7:46 AM, svetlana svetl...@fastmail.com.au
 wrote:
 
  John Mark Vandenberg wrote:
 
  i.e. specifically asking
  previously highly productive volunteers who have stopped contributing
  whether they feel the increase in funds has not resulted in their work
  being adequately supported?
 
 
  Thanks for your great wording, John.
 
  ...
 
 
  Have you looked into the funding situation of your local chapter?
  Does it have large cash reserves and large predicable revenue flows?
 
 
  John, you do realize she is most likely talking about the same chapter
 you
  belong to, right?

 I was aware that svetlana might be referring to Wikimedia Australia,
 but didnt know whether she had disclosed her locality (I now see she
 is using a .au email address..)
 Contrary to their webpage http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Committee
 (https://archive.today/5r3TH), and my enwp user page until a few
 seconds ago, I dont belong to that chapter.

 --
 John Vandenberg

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banners (again)

2014-12-03 Thread Charles Gregory 
I don't think anyone is surprised when the Reg publishes a negative article
about Wikipedia/Wikimedia.  Someone there seems to have had an axe to grind
for years.

But in this case, we certainly need to stop giving them the ammo.

Regards,
Charles



On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 10:05 PM, Andreas Kolbe jayen...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 9:13 AM, Martijn Hoekstra 
 martijnhoeks...@gmail.com
 wrote:


   I know I used to write an email internally every year, saying our
 banners
   are getting out of control, but that's because every year they get
 bigger
   and more obscuring of the content. This year, as usual, is not an
  exception.
   However, this year the banners didn't just get bigger, the copy seems
 to
  be
   more fear inducing as well.
  
   Today I had a coworker private message me, worried that Wikipedia was
 in
   financial trouble. He asked me if the worst happened, would the content
   still be available so that it could be resurrected? I assured him that
   Wikimedia is healthy, has reserves, and successfully reaches the budget
   every year. Basically I said there wasn't much to worry about, because
  there
   isn't.
  
   The messaging being used is actively scaring people. This isn't the
 first
   person that's asked me about this. When they find out there's not a
 real
   problem, their reaction quickly changes. They become angry. They feel
   manipulated.
  
   My coworker told me that he donates generously every year, which is
 rare
  for
   him because he doesn't often donate to charities. He said this year's
 ads
   are putting him off. He doesn't feel like he should donate.
  
   I understand that efficient banner ads are good, because they reduce
 the
   number of times people need to see the ad, but it's not great when
 people
   stop posting funny banner memes and start asking Wikimedia to switch to
  an
   advertising model (seriously, do a quick twitter search).
  
   - Ryan Lane
  
 
  Excuse the cynicism, but maybe automating the message to go out every
 year
  on the first week of December will save you frustration and effort. I
 know
  how this will end. It'll end like last year, and the year before, etc.
 etc.
  Where we conclude, yes, what we did now really cross the line, we have to
  tone it down a bit, with thank yous to those concerned, and apologies for
  taking it too far. I have no doubt it's exactly the same next year. So
  please see the email below I'll automate for the first week of December
 for
  now on.
 
  Dear fundraising team. Thank you for your efforts to make the fundraiser
 as
  quick as possible. I understand that effective banners allow us to keep
 the
  yearly donation drive as short as possible.
 
  Yet the banners I'm seeing this year leave me troubled about the
 appearance
  and the message presented. For the appearance, it is the size and
  obnoxiousness that bothers me. They seem to be designed to annoy the
 reader
  as much as possible. I know they only work when people notice them but do
  we really *have* to (select one from list:  play audio/ obscure our
 content
  forcing a click through / use animated content / take up the majority of
  the screen above the fold). It annoys our users, the people we do it all
  for, to no end. Take a look at Twitter, it's not just one or two people.
 
  Secondly I'm alarmed about the content. That should come to no surprise
 to
  the fundraising team, because I can't imagine this content hasn't been
  written to evoke the maximum amount of alarm.
  But it crosses the line towards dishonesty. Yes the WMF can use the
  donations, and yes they generally spend it well. But the lights won't go
  off next week if You don't donate Now. The servers won't go offline.
 We're
  not on immediate danger. Yet that's what this year's campaign seems to
 want
  the message to be. But don't take my word for it, take a look at the
  messages accompanying the donations. People are genuinely worried. They
  will be angry if they find out they're being manipulated, and they would
 be
  right. Generally I'm proud of what we do as movement and proud of much of
  the way we do it. These banners make me ashamed of the movement I'm part
  of. And frustrated that I seem to be unable to change it in the long
 run, I
  think I may have send out a similar email to this one last year.
 
  For now, two requests.
  # could you please stop misleading the reader in our appeal?
  # could you please make the banners a little less invasive? So that the
  don't obscure content unless dismissed, and so that they take up more
 than
  50% of the space above the fold.
 
  I know you work hard for the fundraiser to be successful, and as brief as
  possible, but please take in consideration the dangers of damaging our
  reputation for openness and honesty, and the impact on our volunteers.
 
  Kind regards,
 
  --Martijn
 
  I will automate this message for the first Tuesday of December, around
  10:00 a.m. UTC. If others could automate

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banners (again)

2014-12-02 Thread Charles Gregory 
Just as an aside - tweets about the fundraiser don't appear to be the best
source for informed commentary:

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtimeq=wikipedia%20donationssrc=typd

Examples:
Wikipedia is begging for $3 donations? That screams 'Hey, we're in a
little trouble over here'.
Silly Wikipedia. A service is no longer free once donations are needed to
keep it free.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to reply to some of the comments via
official accounts?

Regards,

Charles (User:Chuq)



On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 9:21 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote:

 Wikipedia begging for donations per usual. Advertising isn't evil
 they say as they throw a second nag at me as I scroll down.

 https://twitter.com/enemyplayer/status/539180814739988481

 Obnoxious banners *really do damage the brand*.

 What are the fundraiser metrics? If they don't include effect on the
 brand, they'll be motivating damaging behaviour.


 - d.

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

2014-09-11 Thread Charles Gregory 
On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 8:34 AM, Isarra Yos zhoris...@gmail.com wrote:

 On 11/09/14 22:06, Pete Forsyth wrote:


 Personally, I have no problem with the existence of the conference, but I
 find its name alienating. Not everyone agrees with that assessment, but
 clearly some others in this thread do.


 What Pete said.

 We could go into issues with the exclusionary nature itself, such as that
 it would exclude representatives of groups who ran into trouble becoming
 official - despite such a conference likely being one of the best venues
 for them to bring up and discuss with relevant others how to actually
 address or resolve that trouble that excluded them in the first place...

 ...but that sort of thing is much harder to resolve/address. The name, at
 least, is simple, and should also make a lot of the other problems less
 glaring in the process.


Assuming the issue of the name is the sticking point ...

What about the Wikimedia Meta-Conference? Or Meta-Wikimedia Conference?  Or
MetaWiki Conference?

It's more about the organisations in the background than keep the movement
going.  It doesn't seem (from my second-hand knowledge of the event) that a
regular editor would get a lot out of it?


Regards,

Charles (User:Chuq)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

2014-09-11 Thread Charles Gregory 
... but the conference has been running for a few years, and has gradually
evolved over that time, from primarily chapters, to other affiliate
organisations, AffCom itself, FDC in recent years, etc.  I don't think
anyone is suggesting any revolutionary changes for the next one?  Just a
change in name to suit the current audience.

What's the problem with the name Wikimedia being used?  It is, after all,
a conference involving Wikimedians.  It appears the main complaint is the
over-generic title Wikimedia Conference.

Charles (User:Chuq)

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 9:59 AM, Richard Symonds 
richard.symo...@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:

 What I'm saying is, let's plan a conference before we argue over the name.
 On 12 Sep 2014 00:57, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote:

  We do have a community centre.  It's called Meta.  It may not be a very
  elegant one, and there are definitely parts that can be improved, but
 it's
  our virtual community centre.
 
  Risker/Anne
 

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Commons and OCILLA

2014-06-11 Thread Charles Gregory 
Michael, I assume it is Ray Saintonge of Wikimedia Canada
(User:Eclecticology)

Regards,

Charles (User:Chuq)
Wikimedia Australia




On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 11:09 PM, Michael Maggs mich...@maggs.name wrote:

 Hi Yann

 This is a really useful resource.  Who is looking after it now, and how is
 it being funded?  I don’t know who ‘Ray’ is.

 Michael


 On 8 Jun 2014, at 17:43, Yann Forget yan...@gmail.com wrote:

  Hi,
 
  2014-06-08 21:56 GMT+05:30 rupert THURNER rupert.thur...@gmail.com:
  Would it make sense to deploy a server in another country under a domain
  not owned by the foundation? E.g. Switzerland?
 
  I already started that in 2005. It is called Wikilivres:
 http://wikilivres.ca/
  In 2010, I could not continue to manage it and pay for the bill, and I
  looked for volunteers to take over.
  To my surprise, I found nearly noone willing to do that.
  Finally Ray accepted to take charge. I am quite sure, he would welcome
  help to manage it.
 
  Regards,
 
  Yann
 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Goodbye as the German president of the Dutch chapter

2014-03-31 Thread Charles Gregory 
Farewell and good luck Ziko!  You have the dubious notability of being the
first Wikimedian I met outside my home country!  Hopefully you'll still be
active in the community and I'll see you around again!

Charles / User:Chuq
Hobart, Australia



On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 6:30 PM, Jon Davies jon.dav...@wikimedia.org.ukwrote:

 Very sad to hear this - you have done so well. Hie to see you in London.


 On 30 March 2014 18:59, Ziko van Dijk vand...@wmnederland.nl wrote:

  Dear colleagues, collaborators and friends of free knowledge,
 
  After three eventful years I left the board of Wikimedia Nederland;
  yesterday was the General Assembly in Utrecht. This means a 'goodbye'.
 
  In this time, I had the privilege and pleasure to work with many great
  people in many different organisations. We saw a lot of small steps
  and some bigger ones directed to our common goal, the support of free
  knowledge. Certainly, not everything we as a movement or parts of the
  movement was achieved, though.
 
  Between many WMNL members and me, there were two grades of separation:
  coming from the humanities, my geekiness differs a little from the
  average Wikipedianess; having the German Wikipedia as my home wiki, I
  was never a very active or 'true' part of the Dutch editing community.
  And when I quoted in my speeches from medieval quests or Prussian
  literary realism, I received therefore some strange looks from some
  members.
 
  But I remain firmly convinced that good governance and respect have no
  nationality. Indeed, stroopwafels do have, and so I adopted the Dutch
  custom to bring them with me to Wikimedian meetings abroad.
 
  Wikimedia Nederland has experienced and overcome a difficult period of
  transition. Office space and employees, more members including more
  members without Wikipedia background, more activities, more money,
  more responsibility; more need for an association to mature and focus
  on what is necessary (and not always easy, cool or fun). We achieved
  that as a collective, slower than previously expected, but with the
  appropriate pride and good feelings about the future.
 
  Goodbye - and Hello: I am looking forward to see many of you again at
  whatever wiki, chat or real life meeting.
 
  Kind regards
  Ziko
 
  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland
 
 
 
 
  Dr. Ziko van Dijk
 
  Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland
  Postbus 167
  3500 AD Utrecht
  http://wikimedia.nl
 
 
 
 
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 tweet @jonatreesdavies

 Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
 Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
 Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
 United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
 movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
 operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
 Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.

 Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
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[Wikimedia-l] Over 20000 maps released as CC0 by NY Public Library

2014-03-31 Thread Charles Gregory 
From the NYPL's blog - http://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/03/28/open-access-maps

The Lionel Pincus  Princess Firyal Map Division is very proud to announce
the release of more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution
downloads. We believe these maps have no known US copyright restrictions.
To the extent that some jurisdictions grant NYPL an additional copyright in
the digital reproductions of these maps, NYPL is distributing these images
under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The
maps can be viewed through the New York Public Library's Digital
Collections page, and downloaded (!), through the Map Warper

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method

2014-03-10 Thread Charles Gregory 
Hi everyone,

I thought it may be worth pointing out that this conversation has be
re-opened by Jimmy on
reddit: 
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/

On it he states I'm planning to re-open the conversation with the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Directors at our next meeting (and before, by
email) about whether Wikimedia should accept bitcoin.  More info at the
thread itself.

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq



On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 10:44 AM, Katie Horn kh...@wikimedia.org wrote:

 That very rough number that Matt threw out there has far less to do with
 the cost of applying human brainpower than it does with the cost of taking
 the available brainpower away from things we know are going to
 significantly increase our efficacy. We have several of those things
 looming on the horizon, and we choose to concentrate new development on
 what we know will be the biggest earners out of those.

 My understanding (I am no analyst) is that we continue to have a difficult
 time finding hard evidence that bitcoin is currently anywhere near the
 other top candidates, so it remains off the roadmap in favor of
 concentrating on solid numbers. If anybody would like to supply us with
 hard figures, we'd certainly be interested in seeing them.

 The main reason the expected earnings  one dude's salary calculation of
 worthiness doesn't work here, is that there are four people in fundraising
 engineering. The four of us support and maintain all existing payments
 functionality, ensure integrity of the donation pipeline, and do all new
 code development and review. For the sake of the foundation and the
 movement, each one of us has to do significantly better than individually
 break even.

 As the fundraising tech lead, I definitely appreciate any outside interest
 in potentially helping us out by modifying fundraising code in order to
 support more payment methods, and I would be happy to outline the general
 process of integrating with a new gateway in a way that is consistent with
 our current code.

 Before I get in to the nitty-gritty, though, I want to be completely clear
 on this one point: Even if I had the authority to do so (I do not), there
 is no universe in which I am willing to enable new functionality simply
 because the switch exists. Matt has already done a pretty good job
 outlining the scope of the collective distraction that bitcoin represents,
 and that scope extends well beyond tech. In fact, it seems to me that
 producing the actual integration code is the most trivial issue regarding
 bitcoin integration that has been brought up thus far, and I would not be
 pleased to see well-intentioned volunteer time go to waste over hastily
 dismissed blocking issues which exist well outside the purview of the
 fundraising tech team.


 That said, here is a very general 30,000 foot view of a typical new gateway
 integration from a purely technical standpoint:

 * Donation Interface[1]: This is the mediawiki extension that initiates
 payments. A new gateway adapter child class will need to be created, which
 will run in parallel to the existing enabled gateway adapters, and not
 short-circuit any of the class constraints that have been deliberately
 built in to the gateway adapter parent class. Then, an appropriate form (or
 redirect) should be created to handle the user experience, which uses the
 RapidHTML templating system. At the end of it all, after a successful
 donation has been made, an internal donation message should be queued.
 Happily, examples of all the things I just mentioned already exist in other
 gateway adapter objects; New gateways are rarely so unusual that we haven't
 nearly done it before.
 * Payments Listener[2]: Most payment gateways worth even brief
 consideration, have an optional near-realtime notification system. This
 system tells us when we receive new payments, and existing payments change
 status (cancels, refunds, chargebacks). We would need to create a listener
 to receive realtime payment updates, process them securely, and queue
 donation messages when appropriate. Though a realtime message listener is
 usually not strictly required in order to get paid through a new gateway
 integration, I have recently decided to require them wherever possible.
 * Nightly reconciliation / auditing[3]: Every payment gateway we integrate
 with provides a daily downloadable list of all the transactions we should
 have on record. So, a job needs to be created that will download the daily
 file and chew through our records to make sure we have all the relevant
 data, and rebuild anything we may have missed. This job needs to be set up
 to run daily.
 * Queue consumer module for civicrm integration[4]: The donations queue
 consumer will need to be modified, to accept and correctly process donation
 messages from the new gateway, in a way that is consistent with our

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Statement for the police about the fundraising?

2014-02-07 Thread Charles Gregory 
In Australia, we (Wikimedia Australia) had to get fundraising approval
before the 2010 fundraiser (when the chapters accepted and processed the
payments and then passed a share back to the Wikimedia Foundation).  This
was made more complicated due to the fundraising laws being a state issue
rather than national and so we had to seek approval from each state, some
with different requirements than others (for example, some needed a member
in that state willing to act as a contact person).

When this arrangement ended and Wikimedia Foundation took on the
fundraising themselves, this was no longer a requirement due to the WMF not
being an Australian organisation.  (Although we advised WMF to seek their
own legal advice to confirm this)

Your situation appears to be different for several reasons:
1) Your situation involves a group of users, not a chapter (the donation is
to a non-Finnish organisation)
2) The donation information is in a language specific to your country - and
so by targetting Finnish speakers, they were targetting Finland residents -
whereas the same language is spoken in Australia and the United States.

With #1 - given the number of smaller websites with a Donate via Paypal
button in the corner, I don't think this should be an issue.

The only thing that would shift this in the Finnish police's favour is #2 -
suggesting that Finns were involved in the fundraising - and as others have
said, this could quite easily be a person (or people) who the Finnish
government has no jurisdiction over (a national of another country who has
learned Finnish, for example).  Unless the Finnish Government has some sort
of strange ownership or legal connection to the Finnish language...

(Dislcaimer: IANAL of course)

(BTW - I was amused that even Google translate failed to translate Nemo's
link the first time around!)

Regards,

Charles Gregory
(User:Chuq)



On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Leinonen Teemu teemu.leino...@aalto.fiwrote:

 Hi,

 I just got a message that the Finnish Police have asked the fi.wikipedia,
 by sending an email to the wikifi-ad...@list.wikimedia.org, to give a
 written statement about their possible violation of the laws that regulate
 fundraising in Finland. There is a little news about this already online in
 English. Here:


 http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/02/07/finnish_police_probe_wikipedia_donation_requests

 I chat about this with a lawyer friend and he was afraid that the police
 msy go after the volunteers that have participated in the fundraising, e.g.
 by translating the fundraising messages.

 Is there any equivalent cases from other countries?

 In Finland one needs a pre-given permission to do fundraising.

 - Teemu

 --
 Teemu Leinonen
 http://teemuleinonen.fi
 +358 50 351 6796
 Media Lab
 http://mlab.uiah.fi
 Aalto University
 School of Arts, Design and Architecture
 --


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Statement for the police about the fundraising?

2014-02-07 Thread Charles Gregory 
Of course it's not a strict 1:1 ratio!   But I was comparing it to (for
example) English or Spanish, which the country of origin represent a
minority of all speakers worldwide.

Charles


On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 12:54 PM, Kevin Gorman kgor...@gmail.com wrote:

 I would dispute the suggestion the Finnish Wikipedia is specific to
 Finland; I read it regularly and have never been to Finland.  There are at
 a bare minimum something like 300,000 fluent Finnish speakers who don't
 live in Finland (and I don't think that's counting the portion of Swedes
 who speak Finnish,) so although the fundraising banner probably primarily
 attracted donations from people in Finland, it likely attracted plenty of
 donations from other countries as well.

 Best,
 Kevin Gorman


 On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 5:38 PM, Charles Gregory wmau.li...@chuq.net
 wrote:

  In Australia, we (Wikimedia Australia) had to get fundraising approval
  before the 2010 fundraiser (when the chapters accepted and processed the
  payments and then passed a share back to the Wikimedia Foundation).  This
  was made more complicated due to the fundraising laws being a state issue
  rather than national and so we had to seek approval from each state, some
  with different requirements than others (for example, some needed a
 member
  in that state willing to act as a contact person).
 
  When this arrangement ended and Wikimedia Foundation took on the
  fundraising themselves, this was no longer a requirement due to the WMF
 not
  being an Australian organisation.  (Although we advised WMF to seek their
  own legal advice to confirm this)
 
  Your situation appears to be different for several reasons:
  1) Your situation involves a group of users, not a chapter (the donation
 is
  to a non-Finnish organisation)
  2) The donation information is in a language specific to your country -
 and
  so by targetting Finnish speakers, they were targetting Finland
 residents -
  whereas the same language is spoken in Australia and the United States.
 
  With #1 - given the number of smaller websites with a Donate via Paypal
  button in the corner, I don't think this should be an issue.
 
  The only thing that would shift this in the Finnish police's favour is
 #2 -
  suggesting that Finns were involved in the fundraising - and as others
 have
  said, this could quite easily be a person (or people) who the Finnish
  government has no jurisdiction over (a national of another country who
 has
  learned Finnish, for example).  Unless the Finnish Government has some
 sort
  of strange ownership or legal connection to the Finnish language...
 
  (Dislcaimer: IANAL of course)
 
  (BTW - I was amused that even Google translate failed to translate Nemo's
  link the first time around!)
 
  Regards,
 
  Charles Gregory
  (User:Chuq)
 
 
 
  On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Leinonen Teemu teemu.leino...@aalto.fi
  wrote:
 
   Hi,
  
   I just got a message that the Finnish Police have asked the
 fi.wikipedia,
   by sending an email to the wikifi-ad...@list.wikimedia.org, to give a
   written statement about their possible violation of the laws that
  regulate
   fundraising in Finland. There is a little news about this already
 online
  in
   English. Here:
  
  
  
 
 http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/02/07/finnish_police_probe_wikipedia_donation_requests
  
   I chat about this with a lawyer friend and he was afraid that the
 police
   msy go after the volunteers that have participated in the fundraising,
  e.g.
   by translating the fundraising messages.
  
   Is there any equivalent cases from other countries?
  
   In Finland one needs a pre-given permission to do fundraising.
  
   - Teemu
  
   --
   Teemu Leinonen
   http://teemuleinonen.fi
   +358 50 351 6796
   Media Lab
   http://mlab.uiah.fi
   Aalto University
   School of Arts, Design and Architecture
   --
  
  
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimania-l] Selection of winning bid for Wikimania 2014: London

2013-05-01 Thread Charles Gregory 
Congratulations WMUK and the London 2014 team!  Thanks also to the Arusha
bid - hopefully there will be another opportunity in the future!

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq


On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 6:30 AM, Markus Glaser markus.gla...@wikimedia.dewrote:

 Congratulations, London and WMUK! Looking foward to a Wikimania in a city
 I already lived in ;) And my respect and many thanks to Arusha / Tanzania.
 I would have loved to go to Africa this time and I really think the
 Movement should make some efforts to make something like this happen in the
 future.

 Best, Markus

 Am 01.05.2013 22:22, schrieb Patricio Lorente:

  Congratulations, London! See you there!

 Patricio

 2013/5/1 Dhaval S. Vyas dsv...@gmail.com:

 Congratulations UK! So happy with the news, after all wikimania is
 coming at
 our doorstep...


 On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 7:19 PM, Katie Chan katie.c...@wikimedia.org.uk
 wrote:

 Congratulations to everyone who's been involved with the London bid.

 Looking forward to seeing many of you in London next year!


 On 1 May 2013 18:10, James Forrester jdforres...@gmail.com wrote:

 Dear Wikimedians,

 On behalf of the Wikimania 2014 selection Jury, after review and
 evaluation of the two final bids, we have awarded the conference to
 London. Congratulations to the London team, and to the Arusha team who
 also put forward a solid effort.

 We were concerned this year to see that both bidding teams put forward
 proposals which were costly and complicated, in contrast to the
 Wikimania tradition. The Jury briefly considered re-opening the bid
 for other teams, and asked both bids to present a simpler core budget
 and lower-cost options for attendees.

 The London team took our comments to heart and decreased their core
 budget to 20% of their initial proposal, and have committed to finding
 ways to reduce the cost for community attendees.

 We encourage future bidding teams to not give up their dreams, to keep
 aiming for the stars, but at the same time, to not forget the spirit
 of Wikimedia: a volunteer movement that makes creative use of limited
 resources. We look forward to the proposed Wikimania Committee setting
 out clearer guidelines on these principles.

 The process to bid for hosting Wikimania requires a substantial time
 investment, and we thank both candidate teams for their submissions
 and hard work.

 Yours,

 James Forrester
 Moderator, Wikimania 2014 Jury
 For the Wikimania 2014 Jury
 --
 James D. Forrester
 jdforres...@gmail.com
 [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|**James F.]] (speaking purely in a
 personal
 capacity)

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 --
 Katie Chan
 Volunteer Support Organiser
 Wikimedia UK
 +44 (0) 20 7065 0990
 +44 (0) 7885 980 534

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

 Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
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 Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.



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