Year: 2008 Week: 21 Number: 95

Technical news

• [Sighted revisions] – a system to hide edits made by certain groups of users from visitors as long as the edit is not approved by a user who has the user rights to approve the edit – This is now active on the German language Wikipedia. “Surveyor” is the title of a user who has approval rights.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2008-05-12/Sighted_revisions
• [Special:GlobalUsers] – on this special page you can see who has a global account. Works on all wikis, not only Meta.
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:GlobalUsers

Request for discussion

• [Wikibooks logo] – For the last 2 years Wikibooks is in the process of selecting a new logo for Wikibooks and Wikijunior. Community involvement and feedback, discussion is requested to move things forward.
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks/Logo
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikijunior/Logo

Foundation

• [Board election] – one seat on the Board of Trustees is open for election. Candidates can submit their candidacy until 22 May.
  • http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2008
• [Board restructuring]  – the WMF board of trustees will increase from the current 8 to 10. The board will be comprised of: 3 elected community members, 2 members selected by the chapters, 1 board-appointed ‘community founder’ seat and 4 “specific expertise” seats (also Board-appointed).
  • http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/28892
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2008-05-02/Board_restructuring
• [Exit Anthere] –  Florence Devouard, Chair of the WMF board of trustees, will not seek reelection for a seed in the board. As a result after the conclusion of the current board election Anthere will not longer be a member of the board and chair of the board. Anthere is a board member since June 2004.
• [WMF bylaws] – the WMF passed a resolution to update the bylaws.
  • http://tinyurl.com/66krxt
• [Wikimania 2008] – registration is open. The price is $45 until 30th of May. After that it is $60.
  • http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration
• [MS MediaPlayer needed]  – Based on the current information users who wish to view parts of Wikimania 2008 online will need to get access to a Windows system with MS MediaPlayer to be able to view the video content.
  • http://webcast.bibalex.org/home/home.aspx
• [Wikimania security] – a FAQ is posted regarding security concerns regarding Wikimania. Also an “Egypt Country Profile prepared by Clayton Associates” that can be useful reading for all who go to Wikimania is online
  • http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2008-April/041624.html
  • http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/29647

Media

• [Good reading]  – Article about Wikipedia and Britannica
  • http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080516/0916211136.shtml
• [OMG! WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDEREN??!!] – Some people are concerned about pictures of (parts of) people without clothes that can be found in Wikipedia.
  • http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=63590
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2008-05-12/Pornography

Stats

• [MediaWiki stats] – some stats of several wikis, also non WMF wikis, who use MediaWiki.
  • http://s23.org/wikistats/

Other news

• [Google Translate] –  the translation function of Google is expanded with many new languages (and even identifies the language for you!). This can be useful to solve the babel problem when you try to communicate on a projects whose language you do not know.
  • http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-translate-becomes-best-online.html
• [Wikibook2pdf] – online tool to create a pdf-book of a wikibook book.
  • http://blogpaper.com/mediawiki2pdf

Did you know …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil_sharpener

Quote

“My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet airplane. His son will ride a camel.” — Saudi Arabian saying