VisualEditor, endowment, science, and news in brief

News and notes

VisualEditor, endowment, science, and news in brief

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Science and Wikipedia: Wikimedia UK published a blog post this week summarizing recent research on the place that Wikipedia has as an information directory in the scientific sphere. The post is worth reading in its entirety for anyone interested in information science, academic open access, and Wikipedia in medicine. The Wikipedia Science Conference is happening soon; see also previous Signpost coverage. R

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The current publication model for medical research “needs a kick up the bum” in the direction of openness. New research appears at a torrential rate that overwhelms any human reader ... this requires the scientific community to tear down barriers to access. Wikipedia, Wikidata and related projects are increasingly showing us what that transformed world of open science will look like.

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VisualEditor: A discussion of interest occurred on the wikimedia-l mailing list this week, the topic of which was VisualEditor's much-improved usability for chapter-organized editing workshops. VisualEditor is now on slow roll-out on the English Wikipedia and elsewhere. R

For more Signpost coverage on VisualEditor see our VisualEditor series.

Endowment director: The Wikimedia Foundation published a call for candidates for an endowment director, fulfilling board and executive-level discussions about the creation of an endowment as a future financial security for the Foundation that have been ongoing for some time. Fundraising department concerns about future campaign returns, continued decline in community participation metrics, and a large-and-growing WMF cash pile form the backdrop. R
Netherlands conference: Wikimedia Netherlands has published a call for speakers for their annual conference. R
German chapter progress report: Wikimedia Germany is far and away the largest of the movement affiliate chapters, and so it publishes equally mammoth progress reports, as per the requirements of the annual plan grants funding process. These reports are now available for review. Such reports, published regularly, are indexed at Reports. R
Wikimedia Bangladesh: Wikimedia Bangladesh published a post to the Wikimedia Blog highlighting the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Bangla Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales was in attendance. R
Ada Initiative closing: The Ada Initiative, a non-profit organization that sought to increase women's participation in open source technology and culture, announced it would be shutting down because of their inability to find a suitable new executive director. A number of their efforts focused on Wikimedia projects, most recently the Ally Skills Workshop at Wikimania 2015. Former Wikimedia Foundation director Sue Gardner and current WMF conference coordinator Ellie Young were members of their board of advisors. G
Arb case closed: The English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee case Kww and The Rambling Man closed on August 3. The Committee removed the administrator and edit filter manager rights from Kww and urged the community "to establish a policy or guideline for the use of edit filters". G
This Month: In Education has been published. R