Year: 2009 Week: 7-22 Number: 106

Technical news

• [dumps] – Dumps are becoming more regular now and are actually working, thanks to Foundation developer Tomasz Finc.  Two new mailing lists were created to discuss dumps.
  • http://dumps.wikimedia.org
  • https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xmldatadumps-l — discussion list for the dumps
  • https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xmldatadumps-admin-l — admin list (Failures / Upgrades / Changes)
• [Abuse Filter] – After all the research done by the English Wikipedia, many other wikis have reached consensus about activating the Abuse Filter and are now carefully exploring the possibilities (including: alswiki, arwp, elwp, fiwp, hewp, nlwb, nlwp, ruwp, svwp, zhwp).
• [Books & PDF] – In April a new function was enabled to make “books” of pages of the wiki. The added pages can be stored, exported as PDF or OpenDocument. Also is there the option to order your “book” (= collection of wiki-pages) in print. It is enabled on most projects and wikis but not on all. Look for a book toolbox in the side menu.

Request for help

• [wikizine] – Wikizine is planning on becoming more regular and to do that, we need your help.  Please post news tips or even help us with writing by joining the editors mailing list.
  • http://report.wikizine.org — tip line
  • http://mail.wikizine.org/mailman/listinfo/editors_wikizine.org — editors mailing list

Foundation

• [new board members] – The chapters have finally selected their choices for the board, choosing Arne Klempert (akl) and Michael Snow.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-May/052037.html announcement on foundation-l
• [usability] – The usability project published a sneak preview of their research results.  The project is also still looking for a software developer.
  • http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/24/usability-study-results-sneak-preview/ — blog pos
  • http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Software_Developer_(project) — job opening
• [strategic planning] – The board announced that they are starting a long-term strategic planning process to lay out the next 3-5 years.  The foundation is currently hiring 3 people to work as a part of that project.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-April/051565.html — board resolution
  • http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings — job openings
• [auditcom] – The audit committee is currently looking for volunteers.  The only requirement is to be financially literate.
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-May/051977.html — call for volunteers
• [BLPs] – The Board released a statement about biographies of living people.
  • http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Biographies_of_living_people — resolution/statement
• [Public outreach] – The public outreach hub on Meta-Wiki was recently revamped.  Among other things, the Foundation is seeking a volunteer for the bookshelf project and tips from public outreach/Wikimedia-related presentations.
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_outreach/Get_involved
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Best_practices_in_giving_a_Wikipedia_presentation

Legal

• [licensing update] – The licensing update vote results are now available. 75% has voted in favor of the license update (with 14% remaining neutral). 43% of all votes came form the Enlgish language Wikipedia.

Agenda

• [Maker Faire-SF] – The Wikimedia Foundation is planning to have a booth at the San Francisco Maker Faire again this year.  If you’re near SF, stop by and say hi or volunteer to help out with the booth!
  • http://makerfaire.com/ — Maker Faire home page
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/San_Francisco/Maker_Faire — volunteer signup
• [Wiki Loves Art/NL] – In collaboration with Creative Commons NL, the Dutch Wikimedia chapter, Wikimedia Nederland, is organizing Wiki Loves Art/NL this June.  More than 30 museums and other inheritanc-agencies are cooperating with volunteers to free their collections, amongst them the well-known Van Gogh museum.  More information: www.wikilovesart.nl

Community

• [embassies contest] – Norwegian & Estonian embassies sponsor article-writing contests in three languages (Norwegian: nb/Bokmal & nn/Nynorsk, et/Estonian).
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-05-18/Multilingual_contests
• [japanese conference] – a one-day Japanese conference is currently being planned for November 22 in Tokyo, planning is on Meta.
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_Japan
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_Japan/en
• [Wikimania 2009] – The scholarships and program committees are currently reviewing all the submissions they received; more information should be given by the end of May.
  • http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/
• [Wikimania 2010] – It is official, Wikimania 2010 will be held in Gdansk, Poland, Europe on July 9-11, 2010. The event site is beautifully located on Ołowianka Island.
  • http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/
  • http://www.epgd.net/grafika/wilga/images/37.jpeg — air picture of Ołowianka (Bleihof) island
• [Picture of the Year] – Wikimedia Commons held their annual Picture of the Year election. The votes have been cast, and now we’re waiting for the final results to appear. The unofficial results can be found at http://is.gd/CKHG

Awards

• [webware] – Wikipedia was one of the Webmare 100 winners, which recognizes the best Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications on the Web today.
  • http://news.cnet.com/8301-13546_109-10237659-29.html
• [WMIT award 2009] – Wikimedia Italia, the Italian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, issues an Award for people who gave significant contributions to the open projects supported by Wikimedia Foundation and/or Wikimedia Italia.  The winners were announced on May 23 at the Digital Freedoms Festival.
  • http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Premio_Wikimedia_Italia_2009/en — description page
  • http://www.libertadigitali.org/ — festival webpage
  • http://wikimedia.it/index.php/Vincitori_del_Premio_Wikimedia_Italia_2009 — winners list

Media

• [ta.wp] – Tamil Wikipedia got a nice article in “The Hindu”.  New account creations on that wiki doubled on the day the article was published.
  • http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2009/05/21/stories/2009052150760100.htm
• [Censors of Wikipedia?] – an article with comments from our General Counsel, Mike Godwin, about the censorship of Wikipedia in the UK a few months back.
  • http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2009/05/features/the-hidden-censors-of-the-internet.aspx

Stats

• [de.wp] – The German Wikipedia has reached 900,000 articles.

Other news

• [Marriage for CTO] – Brion Vibber, the Chief Technical Officer for the Foundation, got married this weekend.  Congratulations to Brion & Marti!

Did you know …

… that there are also browser, operating system (and more) statistics of the projects available? 

http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/VisitorsSampledLogOperatingSystems.htm

Quote

“Man will not fly for fifty years” – Orville Wright, 1901