Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/In the media
In a pre-Wikimania technology blog update Brion Vibber relayed a number of technologies news items, the most significant of which include test wikis for Flagged Revisions and Reader Feedback and the release of a Wikipedia iPhone app. He also lays out an ambitious list of projects to work on during the Wikimania Codeathon this week.
Two wikis are being populated with featured articles in order to test configurations of the Flagged Revisions and Reader Feedback extensions, in preparation for enabling the extensions on English Wikipedia:
A number of other Wikimedia projects already use Flagged Revisions, including the German and Polish Wikipedias and English Wikinews and Wikibooks. Reader Feedback is being used to generate quantitative feedback on individual proposals on the Strategic Planning wiki.
The first version of the official Wikipedia iPhone app was released this week. Although the app currently does little more than the mobile version of the site itself, it is open source and is expected to become more powerful in future versions.
The Image Annotator Javascript extension was enabled on Wikimedia Commons this week, allowing users to append notes to arbitrary regular regions within an image (examples: 1, 2). Lupo developed the extension.
Three bots were approved this week:
Critically, a BRFA for date-delinking was opened this week, in line with ArbCom's guidelines. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Opinion
On the Wikimedia Foundation blog this week, head of communications Jay Walsh announced a new unrestricted grant:
The Wikimedia Foundation has received a $500,000 grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to expand its work bringing free educational content to everyone on the planet. With this grant, the Hewlett Foundation acknowledges the important role Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects play in making educational information freely accessible.
"The enormous popularity of Wikipedia and its collaborative premise make the Wikimedia Foundation an ideal vehicle for spreading the open educational resources movement," said Barbara Chow, director of the education program at Hewlett. "We look forward to a fruitful relationship."[grant 1]
Wikimedia Foundation deputy director Erik Möller, writing on the foundation-l mailing list, said the grant was "designed to advance the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation as a whole".[grant 2]
The Associated Press reported on the grant and The Register offered an analysis of Foundation funding.
Wikimedians have begun reporting their first impressions—generally positive—of the city of Buenos Aires, the site of Wikimania 2009. The conference will run Wednesday through Friday (26–28 August), with registration, the Wikimania Codeathon, and a presentation by Richard Stallman kicking things off on Tuesday. Many conference attendees are active microbloggers, and there is likely to be considerable discussion of the goings-on under the hashtag "#wikimania" on Twitter and identi.ca.
The winners of the Wikipedia Loves Art event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK in February this year were announced last week. The winners were:
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/In focus
The Arbitration Committee did not close any cases this week, and opened two new cases, leaving four cases open.
A request for arbitration concerning administrative actions on the Bosnian Wikipedia, filed by Sephirotix, is being declined by the Committee due to a lack of jurisdiction.
The Noloop case was opened this week. The case involves mutual allegations of disruptive conduct by several parties, and is expected to address the conduct of all the editors involved. A draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Carcharoth, is expected by 6 September.
The Lapsed Pacifist 2 case was also opened this week. The filing editor, Steve Crossin, alleges that Lapsed Pacifist has engaged in advocacy, original research, and edit warring, as well as various other improprieties, over a wide range of articles. Lapsed Pacifist has so far refused to enter a statement or respond to the allegations.
Shortly after the opening of the case, the Committee enacted a temporary injunction which prohibits Lapsed Pacifist from editing articles related to the Corrib gas project for the duration of the case. Evidence and workshop proposals have been submitted by a number of editors, but no arbitrators have commented on the material at this time. A draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Wizardman, is expected by 1 September.
The 194x144x90x118 case has entered its second week of deliberations. The filing editor, Erik9, alleges that 194x144x90x118 has engaged in a variety of disruptive conduct, despite an RFC on the matter. 194x144x90x118 has so far refused to respond to the allegations. Evidence has been presented by several editors, but no substantial drafting of proposals has taken place. A draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Wizardman, is expected by 24 August.
The Abd-William M. Connolley case has entered its sixth week of deliberations and its first week of formal voting. 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.
The proposed decision, prepared by arbitrator Stephen Bain, would place the cold fusion article under discretionary sanctions, remove William M. Connolley's administrator status, place Abd under mentorship, and issue several admonishments and reminders. An alternative proposal, presented by arbitrator FloNight, would only remove William M. Connolley's administrator status for three months, but impose several restrictions on his use of administrative tools following their restoration. Voting on most remedy proposals is split, with only the imposition of discretionary sanctions and two of the proposed admonishments passing at this time.
The Committee has enacted a motion in response to Greg L's request to amend the Date delinking decision. The motion reduces the various editing restrictions related to style and editing guidelines imposed by the decision to apply only to topics specifically related to the linking or delinking of dates.
Arbitrator Risker has proposed a motion to rescind the six-month ban levied against Locke Cole as part of the Date delinking decision; the motion provides for a reinstatement of the ban should Locke Cole be blocked for edit-warring.
A request filed by Olaf Stephanos that the six-month topic ban imposed on him by the Falun Gong decision be rescinded has received a negative response from the Committee, with six arbitrators stating that no change to the sanction is necessary.
The Committee has rejected as frivolous a fifth clarification request concerning the Ryulong decision filed by Mythdon.
The motion proposed by arbitrator Carcharoth in response to a request for clarification regarding the Obama articles decision filed by Wikidemon remains open for voting. The motion would extend ChildofMidnight's topic ban to include related discussions in all namespaces. The motion currently stands at five arbitrators supporting and one recused, with seven votes necessary for adoption. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Humour
