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| Volume 5, Issue 32 | 10 August 2009 | About the Signpost |
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Tropenmuseum to host partnered exhibit with Wikimedia community
The Tropenmuseum, an anthropological museum in Amsterdam, has announced plans to host a partnered exhibit, "Art of survival: Maroon culture in Suriname", with the Wikimedia Foundation and WMF Netherlands. This will be the first collaborative exhibit where Wikimedians work with a major museum. It is scheduled to run in the museum's physical space from 6 November 2009 through 9 May 2010.
Wikimedians will assist the exhibit through article building, translation, categorization, and media restoration. Gerard Meijssen (User:GerardM), who has been spearheading the project, expressed hope that the English Wikipedia community—in collaboration with Tropenmuseum staff—could produce a Maroon-related featured article in time to present it as Today's Featured Article on the opening day of the exhibition.
In addition to putting on the museum exhibit, the Tropenmuseum and Wikimedia Netherlands will be uploading over 2100 related images from the museum's collection to Wikimedia Commons. An English version of the joint press release is posted on the Wikimedia blog. The Tropenmuseum-Wikimedia partnered exhibit has attracted considerable media attention, including coverage by two Dutch newspapers: Brabants Dagblad and Parool.
- Historical images from the Tropenmuseum restored by Wikimedians will be part of the exhibit.
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Restored image
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Tech news, strategic planning, BLP task force, and more
Technical news
Brion Vibber announced plans to split his CTO role into two positions, Senior Software Architect and Chief Technical Officer. Plans are in the works to hire another person to fulfill the CTO role, which will include managing staff and budgeting.
Also according to the Wikimedia Technical Blog, "A testing configuration for Flagged Revisions on English Wikipedia will be deployed on a test site soon." The extension is currently being tested on the help and manual pages of the MediaWiki wiki.
In usability news, the Usability Project's Vector skin is being made available to all Wikimedia users by means of the "try Beta" link in the upper-right-hand corner. Clicking on the link switches the user to the new "Vector" skin (whether one is logged in or not); the editing window also features a simplified editing toolbar. After the skin is switched, you can go back to Monobook by clicking a "leave Beta" link that appears in the upper-right hand corner; clicking this link leads to a small survey about the skin that users can fill out.
Strategic planning update
The Call for Proposals on the Strategy Wiki is open. There are 22 proposals so far, and more are being added every day; all community members (as well as interested outside parties) are invited to submit a proposal about areas or projects the Wikimedia Foundation should focus on in the future. The strategic planning team is also continuing to hold IRC office hours; the hours this week are Wednesday from 04:00–05:00 UTC on the Freenode #Wikimedia channel.
BLP taskforce being formed
Cary Bass (User:Bastique), the Volunteer Coordinator of the Wikimedia Foundation, is forming a taskforce to deal with biographies of living persons. He described the motivation for and purpose of the task force in a message to the WikiEN-l mailing list:
Given the recent Board Resolution on BLPs, I'm in the process of
structuring a Biographies of Living Persons task force, to work together to come up with some firm recommendations and guidelines for dealing with the issue, to be made to the Wikipedia community, Foundation board and staff.
In that respect, I'd like to solicit members of the community to take part in this project. If you are interested, please send me a brief email summarizing what your involvement in BLPs in the past has been and your own opinion as to why BLPs are such a problematic area. You can email me direct at cary at wikimedia.org. Initially, this task force should focus on the English Wikipedia, but its recommendations may also be applicable for other projects; so anyone with an interest may be appropriate.
I'm putting this out there now, because my availability over the coming weeks before Wikimania will be somewhat limited, so forgive me if you respond with interest immediately and I don't get back to you right away. I expect development of this task force to go into high
gear in September.
Translation Sprint
The translatewiki.net project to translate the MediaWiki software and extensions is holding a translation rally with prizes. According to the site,
Among all users contributing 500 or more new translations for MediaWiki (or its extensions) and eligible for a cut, we will divide 1,000 Euro (approximately 1,400 US Dollar). The money comes from a 2,000 Euro grant by Wikimedia Nederland, the Dutch Wikimedia Chapter as a part of their spendings on International Projects, to Stichting Open Progress based on a grant proposal to boost MediaWiki localisation through translatewiki.net for which we are very grateful.
The contest runs between 9 August and 18 August 2009.
Estonian meetup
Editors of the Estonian language version of Wikipedia (Vikipeedia in Estonian) met at the Mihkli Farm Museum, Viki village. The place was chosen because of its name. The meeting was held on 6 and 7 August. Eight Wikipedians attended: Adeliine, Andres, Avjoska, Epp, Iffcool, Jaan513, Mmh, Taivo.
The event also garnered media attention. Iffcool gave interviews for two radio stations on 6 August, and on 8 August there was an article in Saare county newspaper Oma Saar: "Eesti vikipedistid kohtusid Vikil", Raul Vinni, 8 August 2009
Briefly
- Wikimania is now 2 weeks away; registration is still open.
- Voting in the Wikimedia Board of Trustees Election was open until 23:59, 10 August 2009 (UTC). Results are expected this week.
- Video of a talk about the OTRS system by Cary Bass at Wiki-Conference New York has been posted on the Internet Archive. More videos are expected.
- The Wikimedia Conference Japan has been announced for 22 November at the University of Tokyo. This is planned as a community event, focused on all of the Wikimedia projects in Japanese, with between 150-200 people attending. The conference website contains more information.
- The Wikimedia Foundation now has a profile on Guidestar, an American guide to non-profits. The profile contains information about the Foundation; any user can add a review of the Foundation as well.
- English Wikizine issue #114 came out on 6 August. It includes a number of items that were not covered in either this issue of the Signpost or the previous one.
- Episode 3 of the satirical BBC radio series Bigipedia came out this week; it is available online until 13 August, when the fourth and final episode airs.
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Shrinking community, GLAM-Wiki, and more
Research on where the newcomers went
New Scientist reports on research by the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on the reduced rate of new article creation and casual editor participation since 2006.[itn 1] PARC argues that a move from adding new content towards refining existing content has resulted in more content disputes, in which established editors can overwhelm casual or new users by wikilawyering. One of the people leading the Wikimedia Foundation strategic review stated this was only one of several interpretations of the data, noting for example that the increasing use of spam bots may explain the observed increased rate of reversion.[itn 2][itn 3] (See 2007 Signpost article on PARC's WikiDashboard and 2009 Signpost article on the decline in editing activity.)
The Age combined the PARC story with coverage of the GLAM conference in Canberra. Framing the PARC argument as "new contributors were being pushed out by the rusted-on Wikipedia elite," Users Liam Wyatt and Mathias Schindler were interviewed explaining the conference goals and factors behind the PARC results.[itn 4]
GLAM-Wiki conference
In addition to the above-noted story from The Age, several other press outlets covered the GLAM-Wiki conference (GLAM = Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums). Before it began, stories from iTWire—"Wikimedia: Conference seeks open cultural content"—Computerworld—"Wikimedia event seeks to open up Australian culture"—and an interview on ABC Radio National described the purpose of the conference and featured perspective from conference organizer Liam Wyatt (User:Wittylama).
During the conference, many participants relayed the conference goings-on via Twitter (using the hashtag #glam-wiki and several others), and a number of reflective blog posts have appeared since the conference ended. For more news coverage and more on the perspective of the conference participants, see the Wikimedia Australia website, which cataloging blog posts and other media.
In brief
- Softpedia picked up the announcement by Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that it was representing User:Dcoetzee, who has been accused of various wrongdoings relating to his downloading of images from the website of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG).[itn 5] (See previous Signpost article.) The EFF also made available its letter of July 20th to the NPG's lawyers.[itn 6]
- The Karnataka Knowledge Commission has declared its priority of starting "an online encyclopedia in Kannada, like Wikipedia in English."[itn 7] The article does not mention the existence of Kannada Wikipedia, currently ranked 99th in size among Wikipedias.
- Wikipedian Pamela Morris wrote a letter to the editor about the article Rosewood massacre, which appeared in the Cedar Key Beacon: "Acknowledging Rosewood will lead to healing". Morris points to the continued significance of the racially motivated 1923 massacre for the residents of Levy County (including the communities of Sumner and Cedar Key). She expresses her hope that the renewed publicity for the incident—the article was Today's Featured Article for 4 August—might be a positive opportunity for the affected communities to "personify the human ability to redeem themselves if the will is strong enough", by "declar[ing] the truth about what happened, and cast[ing] a new identity for the area."
References
- ^ "PART 1: The slowing growth of Wikipedia: some data, models, and explanations". The Augmented Social Cognition Research Group at Palo Alto Research Center. 22 July 2009.
- ^ "After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?". New Scientist. 4 August 2009.
- ^ Also picked up by "Is Wikipedia on the wane?". Wired. 5 August 2009.
- ^ "Wikipedia's on the wane: study". The Age. 7 August 2009.
- ^ "Electronic Frontier Foundation to Represent Wikipedia User After NPG Legal Threats". Softpedia. 4 August 2009.
- ^ "EFF Defends Wikipedian's Right to the Public Domain". Electronic Frontier Foundation. August 3, 2009.
- ^ "Kannada Wikipedia soon?". The Times of India. 6 August 2009.
Reader comments
Approved this week
Administrators
Two editors were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Killiondude (nom) and Cobi (nom).
Featured pages
Eleven articles were promoted to featured status this week: Stanford Memorial Church (nom), Volcano (South Park) (nom), Huntington's disease (nom), Doug Ring with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948 (nom), Victoria Cross for Australia (nom), North Road (stadium) (nom), Ashton-under-Lyne (nom), Joel Selwood (nom), Fertilisation of Orchids (nom), Siward, Earl of Northumbria (nom) and Tropical Storm Faxai (2007) (nom).
Seven lists were promoted to featured status this week: List of tallest buildings in Singapore (nom), List of Copa Libertadores winners (nom), List of number-one Billboard Top Latin Albums from the 1990s (nom), Marine Corps Brevet Medal (nom), List of CMLL World Trios Champions (nom), List of Second World War Victoria Cross recipients (nom) and Timeline of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season (nom).
One topic was promoted to featured status this week: The Simpsons (season 5) (nom).
No portals were promoted to featured status this week.
The following featured articles were displayed on the Main Page this week as Today's featured article: Rosewood massacre, "Premiere", Phagocytes, Opera, Maiden Castle, Arena Active Protection System and Vagrant Story.
Former featured pages
Seven articles were delisted this week: Meteorological history of Tropical Storm Allison (nom), Aramaic language (nom), African American literature (nom), Krag-Petersson (nom), Names of the Greeks (nom), Rail transport in India (nom) and Anne, Queen of Great Britain (nom).
One list was delisted this week: List of first-class cricket quadruple centuries (nom).
No topics were delisted this week.
Featured media
The following featured pictures were displayed on the Main Page this week as picture of the day: Louis Armstrong, Yellow-Faced Honeyeater, Excavation, 2008 South Ossetia War, Austins Ferry, Tasmania, Resignation letter of Richard Nixon and Mount Rushmore.
No featured sounds were promoted this week.
No featured pictures were demoted this week.
Nineteen pictures were promoted to featured status this week and are shown below.
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The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee did not open or close any cases this week, leaving one case open.
Requests for arbitration
The Committee acknowledges (i) Bishonen's recognition that "The way I spoke to [the user] was wrong, especially for an admin" and (ii) Jimbo Wales' permanent abdication of the use of the blocking tool. In light of the foregoing, the committee need take no further action at this time.
Four requests for arbitration were dismissed or withdrawn this week:
- Two incomplete requests regarding category naming and various associated issues were filed, and then withdrawn, by William Allen Simpson.
- A request concerning edit-warring on the carabinieri article, filed by Bibiki, was declined as a content dispute.
- A request filed by Allstarecho requesting review of several administrative sanctions which had been imposed on him was declined as premature.
Following a request for comments concerning 194x144x90x118, Erik9 filed an arbitration request alleging that 194x144x90x118 had engaged in further disruptive conduct on several articles.
Open cases
The Abd-William M. Connolley case has entered its fourth week of deliberations. The case was filed by Abd, who alleged that William M. Connolley had improperly banned him from the cold fusion article; William M. Connolley denied these allegations, and stated that Abd's conduct had been inappropriate.
Evidence in the case has been presented by eighteen editors, and several have made proposals on the case workshop, which have attracted limited comment from the Committee. As yet, no arbitrator has posted proposals to either the workshop or the proposed decision pages for the case. A draft decision, written by arbitrator Stephen Bain, was scheduled to be published on the 8th; this target date will likely be delayed.
Clarifications, amendments, and motions
Following a second request for comment regarding administrator Aitias, the Arbitration Committee passed an open motion removing his administrator status. The terms of the motion permit Aitias to reapply either through a normal request for adminship, or to the Committee directly.
Two separate requests for clarification were filed regarding the Obama articles decision. The first, filed by Bigtimepeace, concerned a set of topic bans and revert restrictions whose wording appeared contradictory to their subjects. The second, filed by Wikidemon, concerned the restrictions prohibiting various editors from interacting which had been imposed by the decision. Most of the Committee has not yet responded to either request.
In response to Everyking's request to amend the Everyking 3 decision to remove the remaining sanctions against him (notably, a restriction on interacting with Phil Sandifer), arbitrator Carcharoth has proposed a set of three mutually exclusive motions, one accepting the request, one rejecting it and limiting further appeals, and one rejecting it but providing for an automatic expiration of the sanctions in two years.
A lengthy series of requests for clarification was filed by Mythdon regarding numerous clauses of the Ryulong decision, to which he was a party. In response, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion which extended the various restrictions imposed on Mythdon by the decision. Mythdon later filed another request regarding two further points in the decision.
Ncmvocalist filed a request for amendment to the Ryulong decision to move the enforcement clauses of the "conduct probation" remedy to the enforcement section. A number of arbitrators have responded that the requested change is a procedural matter, and can be made without a formal motion.
In response to Greg L's earlier request to amend the Date delinking decision to reduce the sanctions imposed on him, arbitrator Newyorkbrad has proposed a motion, applicable to several parties, which would reduce the various editing restrictions related to style and editing guidelines to apply only to topics specifically related to the linking or delinking of dates.
Other announcements
Arbitrator Cool Hand Luke has replaced his colleague Roger Davies on the Ban Appeals Subcommittee.
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