Year: 2009 Week: 41-42 Number: 120

Technical news

• [Wikimedia data sets] – Wikimedia XML data sets have been released on Amazon Public Data Sets.  This should help Wikimedians who do analysis on project data.
  • http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/wikimedia-xml-data-sets-released-on-amazon-public-data-sets/

• [Media Features Gadget] – there is a “New Media Features” gadget on Commons.  When it is enabled, you can test out the new media developments from the Kaltura sponsorship.
  • http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/new-media-features-gadget/
  • http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/07/23/kaltura-sponsors-michael-dale-open-source-video-developer/

• [Click Tracking Deployed] – click tracking has been deployed for the edit toolbar.  This collects information about which buttons are clicked on the toolbar during editing for the Usability Initiative.
  • http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/click-tracking-on-edit-toolbar-deployed/

• [Babaco: Now ready] – preview of the second set of usability features, Babaco, is now available through user preferences.  Be sure to try out the new tools.
  • http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/babaco-is-ready-for-tasting/

• [Book creator updated] – the new version of the Book creator interface has been deployed within the Wikimedia projects.  The extension is now a lot more intuitive and useful.
  • http://blog.pediapress.com/2009/10/create-books-easily-new-version-of-book.html

• [WP Mobile Update] – Hampton Catlin, the Wikipedia Mobile developer, posted a blog entry detailing the updates done to the Mobile interface this month.
  • http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/october-mobile-update/

• [en.wp: FlaggedRevs update] – two people, William Pietri and Howie Fung, have been signed on as contractors to help with the deployment of Flagged Revisions on the English Wikipedia.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2009-October/104938.html

Request for help

• [Perspectives from other projects] – the Wikipedia Signpost is calling for editors active in one or more non-English Wikipedias to write accounts comparing governance, process and policy, and editing culture across languages. The key questions are: how is it different working on another Wikipedia?; and what could English Wikipedia learn from that project—and vice versa?
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-10-12/From_the_editor

Foundation

• [Bookshelf Project: Manager Announced] – Frank Schulenburg (Head of Public Outreach) announced that Wikimedia’s Bookshelf Project will be led by Marlita Kahn.  The Bookshelf project aims to develop a slate of basic educational materials — print, online and video — to attract new authors and editors to Wikipedia.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055518.html

• • [Office hours] – the log of the Office Hours with Mike Godwin, the Foundation’s General Counsel, has been published.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055517.html
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2009-10-09

• [Job openings] – two job openings are now open:  Chief Development Officer (a fundraising-related position) and Code Maintenance Engineer (a technical position).
  • http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Chief_Development_Officer
  • http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Code_Maintenance_Engineer

• [Wikimedia Report Card] – Erik Zachte has published the first Wikimedia “report card” that aims to help everyone get a quick overview of trends in the Wikimedia projects.
  • http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/10/the-wikimedia-report-card/
  • http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/RC_2009_08_detailed.html

• [Multimedia Usability: Product Manager] – Guillaume Paumier (“guillom”) has been announced as the Project Manager for the Ford Multimedia Project.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055659.html

• [Report to the Board August 2009] – Sue Gardner, the Executive Director, has published her Report to the Board for October 2009.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055639.html

• [OpenMoko Launches WikiReader] – OpenMoko, a company that previously created an open source smartphone, has just launched The WikiReader, a dedicated reader device with an offline copy of the entire English Wikipedia (without images) stored on a small chip.
  • http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/13/openmoko-launches-wikireader/
  • http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.community/51135/focus=104640

Community

• [Nobel Prize] – when announcing the recipients of its Nobel Prize, the Nobel Prize committee used free photos from Wikimedia Commons to depict two of the prize winners.
  • http://bit.ly/2BWN4Q

• [German ArbCom dissolves] – the German Wikipedia has dissolved its Arbitration Committee.  On projects that have them, the Arbitration Committee (or “ArbCom”) is the final step in on-site dispute resolution.
  • http://bit.ly/3hg64n

• [Wikinews: new Main Page and skin] – in addition to selecting “Vector” (the Usability skin) as its default skin, Wikinews has also created a new Main Page design.  There are even “copy us” and “social networking” links on the page, like other news sources.
  • http://bawolff.blogspot.com/2009/10/wikinews-gets-new-main-page.html
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikizine/feedback#English_Wikinews_-_New_Main_Page
  • https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19865

• [Academy: Telugu wiki] – on October 6, the first Telugu Wikimedia Academy was held in Chirala, India.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2009-October/000209.html

• [Wiktionary lookup gadget] – A new gadget is being developed on English Wikinews and slowly being spread to other wikis.  The gadget looks up the wiktionary definition for the language of the wiki you are reading, but what it returns is the definition in your user-preferences language.
  • http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/WN:WiktLookup

• [Bing search] – Bing.com, the Microsoft search engine, is offering “Bing Reference”, a way to search “enhanced Wikipedia articles”.  The Wikipedia Signpost has a detailed story on this.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-10-12/Bing_search

• [WikiTrust demo now live] – demos of WikiTrust are now up on some Wikipedias.  WikiTrust is a Firefox add-on that changes the color of the text based on how reliable or unreliable it seems to be.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikiquality-l/2009-October/000560.html

Media

• [Encyclopedias + China] – CNN published a very good article about the situation in China with regards to Wikipedia and other encyclopedia sites.
  • http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/14/wiki.china/

• [Meet Jimmy Wales] – the newspaper of Yale, a prestigious university in the United States, recently interviewed Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia).
  • http://www.yaledailynews.com/scene/interview/2009/10/09/meet-jimmy-wales-founder-wikipedia/

• [Real fight becomes Wikipedia War] – a rivalry fight on a college campus turned into a big edit war on the English Wikipedia.
  • http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2009/10/10/war-over-bladderball-extends-wikipedia/

• [Wikipedia + Olympics Committee?] – Wikipedia seems to be at the center of a recent copyright battle between a photographer and the International Olympics Committee.
  • http://ragesoss.com/blog/2009/10/09/wikipedia-and-olympics-committee-heading-for-collision/

Did you know…
…about the proposal for global sysops on Meta-wiki?
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_sysop