Dear Erik, Many thanks for all the help and support you gave Wikimedia Nederland and myself over the past years. Whenever we had tricky stats-related questions, we knew we could turn to you.
I hope to see you at many WMNL-events in the future. Enjoy the freedom! Best, Sandra Sandra Rientjes Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland tel. (+31) (0)30 3200238 (ma, di, do) mob. (+31) (0)6 31786379 (wo, vrij) www.wikimedia.nl Mariaplaats 3 3511 LH Utrecht Op do 7 feb. 2019 om 11:22 schreef rupert THURNER <rupert.thur...@gmail.com >: > Many thanks erik and all the best!! One sentence in eriks blog post cited i > found surprising. What type of modesty you guys were talking about? > > "At Wikimania London (2014) I talked about how we should err on the side of > modesty. That message never came across. I started to have a discussion on > this within WMF but failed to bring this to fruition. My bad." > > > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 22:18 Dario Taraborelli <dtarabore...@wikimedia.org > wrote: > > > “[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older > layers, > > which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by > vandals > > can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like > > historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei. > Likewise > > view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and > what > > wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be > > preserved for a long time.” > > > > Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post > > < > > > https://web.archive.org/web/20171018194720/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/ > > > > > almost > > ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he > gave > > us. Erik retired <http://infodisiac.com/back_to_volunteer_mode.htm> this > > past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work > with > > him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful > > celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement. > > > > His Wikistats project <https://stats.wikimedia.org/>—with his signature > > pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s > > <https://web.archive.org/web/20060412043240/https://stats.wikimedia.org/ > > >—has > > been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual > > attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and make > > sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history, driven > by > > curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities > that > > most needed it. > > > > Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing > the > > growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and > > projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very > > center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors" that > > defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the > > academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor > > retention issues > > < > > > https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214507/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/ > > > > > the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by > nearly > > a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what > > Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections > > < > > > https://web.archive.org/web/20160405055621/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/sarah-palin/ > > > > > or public health crises > > < > > > https://web.archive.org/web/20090708011216/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-or-new-flu-or/ > > >. > > He has created countless > > <https://twitter.com/Infodisiac/status/1039244151953543169> > visualizations > > < > > > https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/27/new-interactive-visualization-wikipedia/ > > > > > that show the enormous gaps in local language content and representation > > that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia for > > and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts > > < > > > https://web.archive.org/web/20141222073751/http://infodisiac.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/piechartscorrected.png > > >, > > which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards. > > > > Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been cited over > > 1,000 times > > < > > > https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=stats.wikimedia.org > > > > > in the scholarly literature. If we gave credit to open data creators in > the > > same way as we credit authors of scholarly papers, Erik would be one of > the > > most influential authors in the field, and I don't think it is much of a > > stretch to say that the massive trove of data and metrics Erik has made > > available had a direct causal role in the birth and growth of the > academic > > field of Wikimedia research, and more broadly, scholarship of online > > collaboration. > > > > Like I said this morning, Erik -- you have been not only an invaluable > > colleague and a steward for the movement, but also a very decent human > > being, and I am grateful we shared some of this journey together. > > > > Please join me in celebrating Erik on his well-deserved retirement, read > > his statement <http://infodisiac.com/back_to_volunteer_mode.htm> to > learn > > what he's planning to do next, or check this lovely portrait > > <https://www.wired.com/2013/12/erik-zachte-wikistats/> Wired published a > > while back about "the Stats Master Making Sense of Wikipedia's Massive > Data > > Trove". > > > > Dario > > > > > > -- > > *Dario Taraborelli *Director, Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation > > research.wikimedia.org • nitens.org • @readermeter > > <http://twitter.com/readermeter> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
