Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/In the media
In the first of a series looking at this year's eight ongoing Google Summer of Code projects, the Signpost caught up with developer Harry Burt, which wasn't too tricky, given that he is also the regular writer of this report. Burt explained what his project was about, his success so far – final submissions are due in a month's time – and what impact it might have on the Wikimedia community:
| “ | On 9 July 2011, South Sudan declared independence, and during that buzz, an Italian Wikimedian found his map showing the borders of the new nation had been translated into a dozen other languages, among them English, Greek, Catalan, and Macedonian. These copies were then uploaded onto Wikimedia Commons as separate files. Of course, one would expect the map to change significantly over the next decade. More often than not, these kinds of change are picked up first by editors of the larger projects, who rapidly update their own versions of the map. To do so takes, say, 20 minutes; but to replicate that same change across Catalan, Greek, Macedonian? Hours of work – and dozens of separate uploads.
My project, named "TranslateSvg", changes this workflow – for SVG format files at least – firstly by making it easier to translate those files (thus reducing the all-too-common sight of English-language diagrams in use on non-English wikis), and secondly by embedding the new translations within the same SVG file. When boundaries change, a single update will propagate to all language versions instantly. It's the smaller projects that will benefit the most, picking up those image updates that are performed every day by users of larger projects, but there are gains for larger wikis too from the reverse process. I would say that progress has been good so far: the main hurdle remaining is code review, and it's during that period that the project will either sink or swim. If the latter, TranslateSvg could find its way onto Wikimedia Commons before the end of the year. |
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Burt's blog following development on TranslateSvg is syndicated on planet.wikimedia.org.
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Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for several weeks.
&action=info?: An old system for supplying human-readable metadata about a page could be reinvigorated if a formal Request for Comment (RFC) receives support from developers (wikitech-l mailing list). The &action=info system, which would complement existing pages such as &action=history, could eventually list dozens of pieces of information about a page, including such details as creation time, creator and number of revisions. Enabling the page would still require local community consensus; the current discussion relates to having such functionality in the code should projects then wish to use it.Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/Opinion
The Russian community's action was the third protest of its kind, after the SOPA/PIPA shutdown on the English Wikipedia last January and the Italian Wikipedia blackout last October over a new privacy bill. The English-language shutdown played a major role in the dumping of the Congressional proposal, and while the Russian and Italian bills still passed, the community-led protests in those two countries appear to have exerted influence in making them less objectionable to the movement's goals of achieving internet freedom.
The Wikimedia Foundation's head of communications, Jay Walsh, posted a message of support to the volunteers of the Russian Wikipedia: "... many in the Wikimedia movement recognize that this legislation is similar to other bills being proposed or passed around the world that could hinder free speech and produce situations where governments could censor information. Non-censorship and freedom of speech are core values of the Wikimedia movement and the Wikimedia Foundation."
Among the questions now are how effective the blackout was and where we go from here in terms of internet freedom in one of the world's biggest and most influential countries. The head of Wikimedia Russia, Vladimir Medeyko, told the Signpost that despite the passage of the law, the blackout had gained wide publicity. "It was reported in newspapers and on all major domestic Russian TV channels, as well as on the Russian CNN channel, Ukrainian TV news, and the Mir company, which also broadcasts in Kazakhstan. Overall, they took a fairly even-handed angle in their reporting."
But Medeyko anticipates no more blackouts in Russia: "I think it would look too political. One action is fine—it's effective. But if we did it again, in the Russian political culture it would be laughed at as an overtly political ploy."
There are two immediate aftermaths, he says: first, some changes were made in the wording of the bill that do slightly reduce the likelihood of misuse; and second, senior government officials gave Wikimedians assurances that the law will not be used to suppress freedom of speech on the internet, and agreed to make efforts to improve the situation by further amending bills or regulations. Further amendments may be scheduled for November and will be considered by two government committees before then—one instigated by Elena Mizulina, a member of the Duma and one of the main authors and proponents of the amendment; and one by Nikolai Nikiforov, the Russian minister for information who, like all ministers, reports to president Putin through prime minister Medvedev, and is not a member of the Duma.
The Russian Wikipedia community has been invited to make submissions to both committees. Medeyko told us, "I caught up with Mizulina immediately after the voting for the bill, during which she assurred us we would have input into the process. Mizulina is the head of the Duma's committee on family, women, and children—one of the overt concerns of the bill was to act against child pornography on the internet. "Both Nikiforov and Mizulina use the Russian Wikipedia as far as I know," he says, "but are unlikely to have edited it."
On a scale from 1 (no freedom) to 10 (complete freedom), Medeyko rates internet freedom in Russia around 5, down from 6 before the amendments. Given this, we asked what he believes are the minimum, politically realistic changes to the law that would give the country acceptable internet freedom. "There should be a clear definition of the reasons that would justify shutting down a site; there should be a feasible procedure to quickly restore a site after fair and open judicial review; and we need independent and just courts—but the last requirement may involve complex issues that are difficult to resolve in the short term." The Russian community will be discussing their input on-wiki, which will be formally put to the government committees by the chapter.
How powerful is the bureaucracy compared with the politicians themselves? Do the bureaucrats make the real decisions? Medeyko says "I think it's a mix. The policians tended to express pro-Wikipedia, pro-internet opinion as a reaction to the blackout, since it's not in their interests to alienate online users in Russia. This is a good start in our negotiations with the bureaucrats."
Medeyko's overall take is optimistic. "The chapter hopes that this phase in our relationship with the government will be productive and will reinforce both freedom on the Russian-language internet and the independence of Wikimedia projects in our language."
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/Serendipity
There has never been a better time to improve the behavior of marketing professionals on Wikipedia. For the first time we're seeing self-imposed statements of ethics. Professional PR bodies around the globe have supported the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) guidance for ethical Wikipedia engagement (not to directly edit articles). Although their tone is different, CREWE and the PRSA have brought more attention to the issues. Awareness among PR professionals is rising. So are the number of paid editing operations sprouting up and the opportunity for dialogue.
We have an opportunity to shape this relationship, influence behavior, establish processes, set policy and improve administration. If we can establish a beneficial relationship with companies, we can improve Wikipedia's credibility by reducing overt advertising, while reducing the burden of policing disruptive COIs. We can transform disruptive editors into helpful ones and maybe even turn some PR people into volunteers. To get there, we need to identify a more natural and productive relationship between PR people and Wikipedians.
Our approach to COI often tries to transform PR people into Wikipedians. We ask COIs to write as if they don't have a conflict of interest (but we do), try to avoid bias (but we are) and learn Wikipedia's rules (but most of us don't want to). It's unnatural for any independent news and information source to ask PR professionals to play the role of journalist to cover their own story. This is our instinct as Wikipedians - to share and teach our culture, process and rules.
Rather than putting PR professionals in the role of reporting on themselves, while simultaneously cautioning against it, a more natural relationship would be to encourage companies to do public relations on Wikipedia, instead of paid editing. Public relations is about helping journalists (citizen journalists in this case) cover the story with resources, expertise and content.
For example, imagine the range of circumstances, where doing PR on Wikipedia is universally helpful and less controversial:
This is a more natural relationship analogous to the non-controversial ways PR works with professional journalists. We respect a journalist's autonomy, their right to publish the article how they please and the expectation that they will write in a tone that serves their readers. However, the journalist finds value in working with a PR professional, who makes it easier for them to write the story by being a resource.
It would be a positive thing for Wikipedia to see a day where we could go to the article on any major brand, find their PR person on the Talk page and ask them for sources on their latest acquisition or technical help understanding their latest standard.
I suggest we take a proactive role in discouraging bad behavior. We can raise our content standards, investigate undisclosed paid editing, and embarrass companies for clear censorship attempts in situations where we can't reasonably AGF.
On the other hand, instead of merely throwing cautions everywhere for PR editing, we can give them clear instructions on how to contribute in ways that are generally accepted, helpful and less controversial. There's an essay in the works along these lines of providing advice for participation that has broader acceptance and is less controversial. Whatever your opinion is on COI, most of us can agree that companies donating images, sharing sources and answering questions are helpful ways to improve Wikipedia's coverage of companies that should actually be encouraged.
We can also improve the clarity of the COI guideline, create an AFC-like system for {{edit COI}}s, give companies a method to voluntarily block their IP address and improve templates. Let's give companies a better opportunity to contribute in ways that are helpful and make disruptive and promotional behavior less appealing. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/In focus
For the second time this year (and the fourth in the history of the committee), there are no open cases, as all three active cases were closed last week.
The case concerning alleged misconduct by Fæ has ended. For violations of common wikipractice and policies Fæ was indefinitely banned from the English Wikipedia. Michaeldsuarez was indefinitely banned for his creation of an external attack site targeting Fæ. For his role in posting undisclosed personal information on an external site, Delicious carbuncle was severely admonished and warned that should future instances occur, s/he will face sanctions up to and including an indefinite ban.
Fæ is limited to one account and denied the option of a clean start. If he wishes to change the username of the one account he may use, he must seek prior permission from the committee. He must make a list of all previous accounts to the committee for public listing. Should he object to the listing of any of these accounts, the committee will advise him as to whether or not they should be omitted. Given his resignation under "controversial circumstances", Fæ must start a new request for adminship should he wish to regain the tools and must link to the committee's statement during his RfA.
The case concerning behavioural issues related to Ohconfucius, Colipon, and Shrigley has ended. Homunculus and Ohconfucius are banned for one year and indefinitely, respectively, from the discussion and editing of topics related to the Falun Gong movement, across all namespaces. Homunculus, Colipon and Ohconfucius have been placed on mandated external review—in the case of Homunculus and Ohconfucius, if their ban were overturned—requiring these editors to seek consensus for major edits beyond grammatical and aesthetic changes. Once consensus has been established, the discussion must be reviewed by an uninvolved editor, after whose approval these editors may proceed.
The case concerning wheel-warring on the Perth article, after a contentious requested move discussion, has ended. For using administrative tools while involved in the dispute and undiscussed reversion of the move, Kwamikagami has been desysopped. For reversing a legitimate administrative action without prior discussion, Deacon of Pndapetzim was admonished; Gnangarra was admonished for reinstating the reverted decision without discussion. JHunterJ was advised to respond civilly to queries regarding his conduct and administrative actions.
Arbitrator Kirill Lokshin has proposed a motion requiring the alteration of any instances of an editor's previous username in arbitration decisions to reflect their name change(s). Any instances appearing within the:
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-23/Humour
