Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimania-l] Selection of winning bid for Wikimania 2014: London

[Charles Gregory]

Congratulations WMUK and the London 2014 team!  Thanks also to the Arusha
bid - hopefully there will be another opportunity in the future!

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq


On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 6:30 AM, Markus Glaser wrote:

> Congratulations, London and WMUK! Looking foward to a Wikimania in a city
> I already lived in ;) And my respect and many thanks to Arusha / Tanzania.
> I would have loved to go to Africa this time and I really think the
> Movement should make some efforts to make something like this happen in the
> future.
>
> Best, Markus
>
> Am 01.05.2013 22:22, schrieb Patricio Lorente:
>
>  Congratulations, London! See you there!
>>
>> Patricio
>>
>> 2013/5/1 Dhaval S. Vyas :
>>
>>> Congratulations UK! So happy with the news, after all wikimania is
>>> coming at
>>> our doorstep...
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 7:19 PM, Katie Chan 
>>> wrote:
>>>
 Congratulations to everyone who's been involved with the London bid.

 Looking forward to seeing many of you in London next year!


 On 1 May 2013 18:10, James Forrester  wrote:

> Dear Wikimedians,
>
> On behalf of the Wikimania 2014 selection Jury, after review and
> evaluation of the two final bids, we have awarded the conference to
> London. Congratulations to the London team, and to the Arusha team who
> also put forward a solid effort.
>
> We were concerned this year to see that both bidding teams put forward
> proposals which were costly and complicated, in contrast to the
> Wikimania tradition. The Jury briefly considered re-opening the bid
> for other teams, and asked both bids to present a simpler core budget
> and lower-cost options for attendees.
>
> The London team took our comments to heart and decreased their core
> budget to 20% of their initial proposal, and have committed to finding
> ways to reduce the cost for community attendees.
>
> We encourage future bidding teams to not give up their dreams, to keep
> aiming for the stars, but at the same time, to not forget the spirit
> of Wikimedia: a volunteer movement that makes creative use of limited
> resources. We look forward to the proposed Wikimania Committee setting
> out clearer guidelines on these principles.
>
> The process to bid for hosting Wikimania requires a substantial time
> investment, and we thank both candidate teams for their submissions
> and hard work.
>
> Yours,
>
> James Forrester
> Moderator, Wikimania 2014 Jury
> For the Wikimania 2014 Jury
> --
> James D. Forrester
> jdforres...@gmail.com
> [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|**James F.]] (speaking purely in a
> personal
> capacity)
>
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 --
 Katie Chan
 Volunteer Support Organiser
 Wikimedia UK
 +44 (0) 20 7065 0990
 +44 (0) 7885 980 534

 Wikimedia UK is a Charitable Company registered in England and Wales.
 Registered Company No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
 Registered Office: 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
 London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom.
 Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The
 Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
 Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

 Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
 over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.


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>>
>>
>
> --
> Markus Glaser
> WCA Council Member (WMDE)
> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Statement for the police about the fundraising?

[Charles Gregory]

In Australia, we (Wikimedia Australia) had to get fundraising approval
before the 2010 fundraiser (when the chapters accepted and processed the
payments and then passed a share back to the Wikimedia Foundation).  This
was made more complicated due to the fundraising laws being a state issue
rather than national and so we had to seek approval from each state, some
with different requirements than others (for example, some needed a member
in that state willing to act as a contact person).

When this arrangement ended and Wikimedia Foundation took on the
fundraising themselves, this was no longer a requirement due to the WMF not
being an Australian organisation.  (Although we advised WMF to seek their
own legal advice to confirm this)

Your situation appears to be different for several reasons:
1) Your situation involves a group of users, not a chapter (the donation is
to a non-Finnish organisation)
2) The donation information is in a language specific to your country - and
so by targetting Finnish speakers, they were targetting Finland residents -
whereas the same language is spoken in Australia and the United States.

With #1 - given the number of smaller websites with a "Donate via Paypal"
button in the corner, I don't think this should be an issue.

The only thing that would shift this in the Finnish police's favour is #2 -
suggesting that Finns were involved in the fundraising - and as others have
said, this could quite easily be a person (or people) who the Finnish
government has no jurisdiction over (a national of another country who has
learned Finnish, for example).  Unless the Finnish Government has some sort
of strange ownership or legal connection to the Finnish language...

(Dislcaimer: IANAL of course)

(BTW - I was amused that even Google translate failed to translate Nemo's
link the first time around!)

Regards,

Charles Gregory
(User:Chuq)



On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Leinonen Teemu wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just got a message that the Finnish Police have asked the fi.wikipedia,
> by sending an email to the wikifi-ad...@list.wikimedia.org, to give a
> written statement about their possible violation of the laws that regulate
> fundraising in Finland. There is a little news about this already online in
> English. Here:
>
>
> http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/02/07/finnish_police_probe_wikipedia_donation_requests
>
> I chat about this with a lawyer friend and he was afraid that the police
> msy go after the volunteers that have participated in the fundraising, e.g.
> by translating the fundraising messages.
>
> Is there any equivalent cases from other countries?
>
> In Finland one needs a pre-given permission to do fundraising.
>
> - Teemu
>
> --
> Teemu Leinonen
> http://teemuleinonen.fi
> +358 50 351 6796
> Media Lab
> http://mlab.uiah.fi
> Aalto University
> School of Arts, Design and Architecture
> --
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Statement for the police about the fundraising?

[Charles Gregory]

Of course it's not a strict 1:1 ratio!   But I was comparing it to (for
example) English or Spanish, which the country of origin represent a
minority of all speakers worldwide.

Charles


On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 12:54 PM, Kevin Gorman  wrote:

> I would dispute the suggestion the Finnish Wikipedia is specific to
> Finland; I read it regularly and have never been to Finland.  There are at
> a bare minimum something like 300,000 fluent Finnish speakers who don't
> live in Finland (and I don't think that's counting the portion of Swedes
> who speak Finnish,) so although the fundraising banner probably primarily
> attracted donations from people in Finland, it likely attracted plenty of
> donations from other countries as well.
>
> Best,
> Kevin Gorman
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 5:38 PM, Charles Gregory 
> wrote:
>
> > In Australia, we (Wikimedia Australia) had to get fundraising approval
> > before the 2010 fundraiser (when the chapters accepted and processed the
> > payments and then passed a share back to the Wikimedia Foundation).  This
> > was made more complicated due to the fundraising laws being a state issue
> > rather than national and so we had to seek approval from each state, some
> > with different requirements than others (for example, some needed a
> member
> > in that state willing to act as a contact person).
> >
> > When this arrangement ended and Wikimedia Foundation took on the
> > fundraising themselves, this was no longer a requirement due to the WMF
> not
> > being an Australian organisation.  (Although we advised WMF to seek their
> > own legal advice to confirm this)
> >
> > Your situation appears to be different for several reasons:
> > 1) Your situation involves a group of users, not a chapter (the donation
> is
> > to a non-Finnish organisation)
> > 2) The donation information is in a language specific to your country -
> and
> > so by targetting Finnish speakers, they were targetting Finland
> residents -
> > whereas the same language is spoken in Australia and the United States.
> >
> > With #1 - given the number of smaller websites with a "Donate via Paypal"
> > button in the corner, I don't think this should be an issue.
> >
> > The only thing that would shift this in the Finnish police's favour is
> #2 -
> > suggesting that Finns were involved in the fundraising - and as others
> have
> > said, this could quite easily be a person (or people) who the Finnish
> > government has no jurisdiction over (a national of another country who
> has
> > learned Finnish, for example).  Unless the Finnish Government has some
> sort
> > of strange ownership or legal connection to the Finnish language...
> >
> > (Dislcaimer: IANAL of course)
> >
> > (BTW - I was amused that even Google translate failed to translate Nemo's
> > link the first time around!)
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Charles Gregory
> > (User:Chuq)
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Leinonen Teemu  > >wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I just got a message that the Finnish Police have asked the
> fi.wikipedia,
> > > by sending an email to the wikifi-ad...@list.wikimedia.org, to give a
> > > written statement about their possible violation of the laws that
> > regulate
> > > fundraising in Finland. There is a little news about this already
> online
> > in
> > > English. Here:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/02/07/finnish_police_probe_wikipedia_donation_requests
> > >
> > > I chat about this with a lawyer friend and he was afraid that the
> police
> > > msy go after the volunteers that have participated in the fundraising,
> > e.g.
> > > by translating the fundraising messages.
> > >
> > > Is there any equivalent cases from other countries?
> > >
> > > In Finland one needs a pre-given permission to do fundraising.
> > >
> > > - Teemu
> > >
> > > --
> > > Teemu Leinonen
> > > http://teemuleinonen.fi
> > > +358 50 351 6796
> > > Media Lab
> > > http://mlab.uiah.fi
> > > Aalto University
> > > School of Arts, Design and Architecture
> > > --
> > >
> > >
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedi

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method

[Charles Gregory]

Hi everyone,

I thought it may be worth pointing out that this conversation has be
re-opened by Jimmy on
reddit: 
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/201fa6/hello_from_jimmy_wales_of_wikipedia/

On it he states "I'm planning to re-open the conversation with the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Directors at our next meeting (and before, by
email) about whether Wikimedia should accept bitcoin."  More info at the
thread itself.

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq



On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 10:44 AM, Katie Horn  wrote:

> That very rough number that Matt threw out there has far less to do with
> the cost of applying human brainpower than it does with the cost of taking
> the available brainpower away from things we know are going to
> significantly increase our efficacy. We have several of those things
> looming on the horizon, and we choose to concentrate new development on
> what we know will be the biggest earners out of those.
>
> My understanding (I am no analyst) is that we continue to have a difficult
> time finding hard evidence that bitcoin is currently anywhere near the
> other top candidates, so it remains off the roadmap in favor of
> concentrating on solid numbers. If anybody would like to supply us with
> hard figures, we'd certainly be interested in seeing them.
>
> The main reason the expected earnings > one dude's salary calculation of
> worthiness doesn't work here, is that there are four people in fundraising
> engineering. The four of us support and maintain all existing payments
> functionality, ensure integrity of the donation pipeline, and do all new
> code development and review. For the sake of the foundation and the
> movement, each one of us has to do significantly better than individually
> break even.
>
> As the fundraising tech lead, I definitely appreciate any outside interest
> in potentially helping us out by modifying fundraising code in order to
> support more payment methods, and I would be happy to outline the general
> process of integrating with a new gateway in a way that is consistent with
> our current code.
>
> Before I get in to the nitty-gritty, though, I want to be completely clear
> on this one point: Even if I had the authority to do so (I do not), there
> is no universe in which I am willing to enable new functionality simply
> because the switch exists. Matt has already done a pretty good job
> outlining the scope of the collective distraction that bitcoin represents,
> and that scope extends well beyond tech. In fact, it seems to me that
> producing the actual integration code is the most trivial issue regarding
> bitcoin integration that has been brought up thus far, and I would not be
> pleased to see well-intentioned volunteer time go to waste over hastily
> dismissed blocking issues which exist well outside the purview of the
> fundraising tech team.
>
>
> That said, here is a very general 30,000 foot view of a typical new gateway
> integration from a purely technical standpoint:
>
> * Donation Interface[1]: This is the mediawiki extension that initiates
> payments. A new gateway adapter child class will need to be created, which
> will run in parallel to the existing enabled gateway adapters, and not
> short-circuit any of the class constraints that have been deliberately
> built in to the gateway adapter parent class. Then, an appropriate form (or
> redirect) should be created to handle the user experience, which uses the
> RapidHTML templating system. At the end of it all, after a successful
> donation has been made, an internal donation message should be queued.
> Happily, examples of all the things I just mentioned already exist in other
> gateway adapter objects; New gateways are rarely so unusual that we haven't
> nearly done it before.
> * Payments Listener[2]: Most payment gateways worth even brief
> consideration, have an optional near-realtime notification system. This
> system tells us when we receive new payments, and existing payments change
> status (cancels, refunds, chargebacks). We would need to create a listener
> to receive realtime payment updates, process them securely, and queue
> donation messages when appropriate. Though a realtime message listener is
> usually not strictly required in order to get paid through a new gateway
> integration, I have recently decided to require them wherever possible.
> * Nightly reconciliation / auditing[3]: Every payment gateway we integrate
> with provides a daily downloadable list of all the transactions we should
> have on record. So, a job needs to be created that will download the daily
> file and chew through our records to make sure we have all the relevant
> data, and rebuild anything we may have missed. This job needs to be set up
> to run daily.
> * Queue consumer module for civicrm integration[4]: The donations queue
> consumer will need to be modified, to accept and correctly process donation
> messages fro

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Timeline of recent events at the Wikimedia Foundation

[Charles Gregory]

That's a great wrap-up - thanks Molly!

For something a bit different, here is an outsiders view.  I found this on
reddit, posted by a user named Ken_Thomas (I don't know who this is, but it
seems to be someone vaguely aware of, but not heavily involved in, the
off-wiki side of things).  I thought it was worth sharing - even if there
are some factual inaccuracies and savage opinion - because it offers a much
different point of view from everyone here.

(Note that this is a copy of his post verbatim, and is *not my opinion)*

















*"From reading through the various articles, following the story for
awhile, and picking up data nuggets here and there, this is what I think is
going on.Wikimedia is a non-profit. Salaries there are pretty low for the
tech sector, and the workload is high. People who end up working there do
it because they believe in the mission. Over time, this has created a
pretty unique culture. The place is saturated with purists and idealists
who have good intentions but can be pretty insufferable about the whole
thing. They are also, generally speaking, not particularly disciplined and
not great business people.Tretikov was brought onboard to tighten things
up, basically. She comes from a business background. When she was hired all
the stories were about how she was going to 'save' Wikipedia by putting it
on a firm financial foundation and cracking the whip with the workforce.
I'm sure she admires the mission and thinks it's important and all that,
but I wouldn't put her in that 'purist and idealist' category at all.So
you've got this culture clash at the top, and the frustration from that has
been building for awhile.Some people had this idea to build a search engine
that would only search sites that offered 'free' information, probably
public domain or CC images, that sort of thing. Other people were irked
that Google is snagging Wikipedia's content and pasting it on their search
result pages. You get the impression that these two ideas came together and
they started some preliminary work on a search engine, saw how expensive it
was going to be, and applied for a grant to do it. The grant they got was
like 1/20th of what they requested, so they pretty much shut the project
down but were still noodling with the concept.None of that is really the
problem. Well, it was probably a dumb idea, but the search engine is kind
of the red herring here. The problem is that it was being done in
secret.Why? Because if you're from the business world, that's how things
are done.If you're a purist Wikipedian, it means you're literally
Hitler.Now it's coming out in the open and everybody is mad and no one can
understand why the other side is mad.Did that help?"*

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/comments/46rz1i/the_wikimedia_foundation_in_crisis_how_fast_is_it/d07tv95


Regards,
Charles / User:Chuq

On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 11:43 PM, Steven Crossin  wrote:

> minor correction - the ? in my reply was meant to be a period. I'll be
> keeping an eye on this timeline and watch the events unfold.
>
> *Steven Crossin*
> *cro0...@gmail.com *
>
> On 22 February 2016 at 23:37, Chris Keating 
> wrote:
>
> > Yes - very handy - thanks GorillaWarfare!
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 12:31 PM, Steven Crossin 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Thank you Molly. This is indeed helpful?
> > >
> > > *Steven Crossin*
> > > *cro0...@gmail.com *
> > >
> > > On 22 February 2016 at 23:20, GorillaWarfare <
> > > gorillawarfarewikipe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Recent discussion of the Knowledge Engine/Wikimedia Discovery
> project,
> > > > issues with senior leadership, lack of transparency, and the like has
> > > been
> > > > fairly well spread across several Wikimedia projects and mailing
> lists,
> > > as
> > > > well as on Facebook, in the media, and in other venues.
> > > >
> > > > I just published an attempt to aggregate some of the events that I
> > think
> > > > are particularly informative given what's been going on:
> > > > http://mollywhite.net/wikimedia-timeline/
> > > >
> > > > I hope it's helpful, and please feel free to suggest changes if it's
> > > > incomplete.
> > > >
> > > > – Molly (GorillaWarfare)
> > > > ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banners (again)

[Charles Gregory]

Just as an aside - tweets about the fundraiser don't appear to be the best
source for informed commentary:

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=wikipedia%20donations&src=typd

Examples:
"Wikipedia is begging for $3 donations? That screams 'Hey, we're in a
little trouble over here'."
"Silly Wikipedia. A service is no longer free once donations are needed to
keep it free."

Perhaps it would be a good idea to reply to some of the comments via
official accounts?

Regards,

Charles (User:Chuq)



On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 9:21 PM, David Gerard  wrote:

> "Wikipedia begging for donations per usual. "Advertising isn't evil"
> they say as they throw a second nag at me as I scroll down."
>
> https://twitter.com/enemyplayer/status/539180814739988481
>
> Obnoxious banners *really do damage the brand*.
>
> What are the fundraiser metrics? If they don't include effect on the
> brand, they'll be motivating damaging behaviour.
>
>
> - d.
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banners (again)

[Charles Gregory]

I don't think anyone is surprised when the Reg publishes a negative article
about Wikipedia/Wikimedia.  Someone there seems to have had an axe to grind
for years.

But in this case, we certainly need to stop giving them the ammo.

Regards,
Charles



On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 10:05 PM, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 9:13 AM, Martijn Hoekstra <
> martijnhoeks...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> > > I know I used to write an email internally every year, saying our
> banners
> > > are getting out of control, but that's because every year they get
> bigger
> > > and more obscuring of the content. This year, as usual, is not an
> > exception.
> > > However, this year the banners didn't just get bigger, the copy seems
> to
> > be
> > > more fear inducing as well.
> > >
> > > Today I had a coworker private message me, worried that Wikipedia was
> in
> > > financial trouble. He asked me if the worst happened, would the content
> > > still be available so that it could be resurrected? I assured him that
> > > Wikimedia is healthy, has reserves, and successfully reaches the budget
> > > every year. Basically I said there wasn't much to worry about, because
> > there
> > > isn't.
> > >
> > > The messaging being used is actively scaring people. This isn't the
> first
> > > person that's asked me about this. When they find out there's not a
> real
> > > problem, their reaction quickly changes. They become angry. They feel
> > > manipulated.
> > >
> > > My coworker told me that he donates generously every year, which is
> rare
> > for
> > > him because he doesn't often donate to charities. He said this year's
> ads
> > > are putting him off. He doesn't feel like he should donate.
> > >
> > > I understand that efficient banner ads are good, because they reduce
> the
> > > number of times people need to see the ad, but it's not great when
> people
> > > stop posting funny banner memes and start asking Wikimedia to switch to
> > an
> > > advertising model (seriously, do a quick twitter search).
> > >
> > > - Ryan Lane
> > >
> >
> > Excuse the cynicism, but maybe automating the message to go out every
> year
> > on the first week of December will save you frustration and effort. I
> know
> > how this will end. It'll end like last year, and the year before, etc.
> etc.
> > Where we conclude, yes, what we did now really cross the line, we have to
> > tone it down a bit, with thank yous to those concerned, and apologies for
> > taking it too far. I have no doubt it's exactly the same next year. So
> > please see the email below I'll automate for the first week of December
> for
> > now on.
> >
> > Dear fundraising team. Thank you for your efforts to make the fundraiser
> as
> > quick as possible. I understand that effective banners allow us to keep
> the
> > yearly donation drive as short as possible.
> >
> > Yet the banners I'm seeing this year leave me troubled about the
> appearance
> > and the message presented. For the appearance, it is the size and
> > obnoxiousness that bothers me. They seem to be designed to annoy the
> reader
> > as much as possible. I know they only work when people notice them but do
> > we really *have* to (select one from list:  play audio/ obscure our
> content
> > forcing a click through / use animated content / take up the majority of
> > the screen above the fold). It annoys our users, the people we do it all
> > for, to no end. Take a look at Twitter, it's not just one or two people.
> >
> > Secondly I'm alarmed about the content. That should come to no surprise
> to
> > the fundraising team, because I can't imagine this content hasn't been
> > written to evoke the maximum amount of alarm.
> > But it crosses the line towards dishonesty. Yes the WMF can use the
> > donations, and yes they generally spend it well. But the lights won't go
> > off next week if You don't donate Now. The servers won't go offline.
> We're
> > not on immediate danger. Yet that's what this year's campaign seems to
> want
> > the message to be. But don't take my word for it, take a look at the
> > messages accompanying the donations. People are genuinely worried. They
> > will be angry if they find out they're being manipulated, and they would
> be
> > right. Generally I'm proud of what we do as movement and proud of much of
> > the way we do it. These banners make me ashamed of the movement I'm part
> > of. And frustrated that I seem to be unable to change it in the long
> run, I
> > think I may have send out a similar email to this one last year.
> >
> > For now, two requests.
> > # could you please stop misleading the reader in our appeal?
> > # could you please make the banners a little less invasive? So that the
> > don't obscure content unless dismissed, and so that they take up more
> than
> > 50% of the space above the fold.
> >
> > I know you work hard for the fundraiser to be successful, and as brief as
> > possible, but please take in consideration the dangers of damaging our
> > reputation for openne

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banners (again)

[Charles Gregory]

Just for reference, John is correct - our website has been having technical
issues lately, which sometimes results in old revisions being made
visible.  I can confirm that John is not on the board of WMAU:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters#.5BAU.5D_Wikimedia_Australia_.28Australia.29

Regards,

Charles Gregory / User:Chuq
Wikimedia Australia



On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 5:14 AM, John Mark Vandenberg 
wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 12:48 AM, Yaroslav M. Blanter 
> wrote:
> > On 04.12.2014 02:30, John Mark Vandenberg wrote:
> >>
> >> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 7:46 AM, svetlana 
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> John Mark Vandenberg wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> i.e. specifically asking
> >>>> previously highly productive volunteers who have stopped contributing
> >>>> whether they feel the increase in funds has not resulted in their work
> >>>> being adequately supported?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Thanks for your great wording, John.
> >>>
> > ...
> >>
> >>
> >> Have you looked into the funding situation of your local chapter?
> >> Does it have large cash reserves and large predicable revenue flows?
> >
> >
> > John, you do realize she is most likely talking about the same chapter
> you
> > belong to, right?
>
> I was aware that svetlana might be referring to Wikimedia Australia,
> but didnt know whether she had disclosed her locality (I now see she
> is using a .au email address..)
> Contrary to their webpage http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Committee
> (https://archive.today/5r3TH), and my enwp user page until a few
> seconds ago, I dont belong to that chapter.
>
> --
> John Vandenberg
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising in the UK

[Charles Gregory]

Russavia (and everyone),

I've asked about, and from I can find the WMF has contracted out collection
of BPay payments to a third party merchant (an Australian business).  This
has been the case since the first fundraiser that WMAU was not involved in
payment processing (2011 I think).

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq
Wikimedia Australia


On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Russavia 
wrote:

> Lisa,
>
> Thanks for your reply and clarification.
>
> When one clicks on the fundraising banner from the UK, they get taken
> to this site.[1] As you can see there is no prominent link about gift
> aid on that page. There is, however, a link at the bottom under "Tax
> deductibility information" which takes you here.[2]
>
> It will certainly be interesting to see the figures in February which
> you said you'd provide, so that we can see for ourselves just how the
> figures from the UK compare to previous years when the gift aid was
> obviously more prominent (from what I am lead to understand).
>
> Another interesting thing I noticed. When you go the landing page for
> Australia,[3] I see the option there to pay via BPay.[4] And sure
> enough, the Wikimedia Foundation has a BPay biller code.[5] Most
> Australians would be familiar with BPay, so it's a great feature to
> have. But, upon looking at their FAQs[6] it states:
>
> "Can an overseas business become a BPAY biller?
>
> Unfortunately, if your business is based overseas you can’t become a
> BPAY biller. BPAY is only available for businesses in Australia."
>
> How exactly is the WMF utilising BPay here in Australia? It's not
> registered in Australia.[7]
>
> More info on that would be awesome. Sorry if it's been answered before.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Russavia
>
> [1]
> https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPage&country=GB&uselang=en&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=donate&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org
> [2]
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Tax_Deductibility/en#United_Kingdom
> [3]
> https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPage&country=AU&uselang=en&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=donate&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org
> [4] http://www.bpay.com.au/
> [5]
> http://www.bpay.com.au/Personal/Find-Biller-Codes-or-Financial-Institutions.aspx?find=373456
> [6]
> http://www.bpay.com.au/Business/Small-Medium-Business/Help/BPAY-Services-FAQs.aspx#faq-question-790
> [7] http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByNameAll.aspx?SearchText=wikimedia
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 5:08 AM, Lisa Gruwell 
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Russavia-
> >
> > Thanks for clarification. There is a lot of room for confusion here and
> I sure I have not been as clear when talking about this as I needed to be.
> Here are the details: The pricing structure is based on cumulative
> donations.  We paid 20% on the first £100 in donations (which was covered
> with our very first donation), 10% on the next £9899, and 1% on every
> donation after that – which is the fee assessed on any donation made during
> this December campaign that requests Gift Aid.  We will share the totals
> after we receive our quarterly statement toward the end of February.  Sorry
> for the confusion.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Lisa
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Warning: "Wikimedia-l" Google Group

[Charles Gregory]

I believe the problem occurs if you use a gmail (or domain with google
apps) email address which differs to the email address you were subscribed
to the list with.  Being a Google service, the group interface tries to use
your gmail account.  MZ's email method works well!

If you need the direct link to report the group, you can use
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/wikimedia-l/abuse.

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq




On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 5:43 AM, Thyge  wrote:

> My experience is the same :-(
>
> 2015-01-09 19:28 GMT+01:00 Ricordisamoa :
>
> > Thanks for the notice. I unsubscribed some hours ago and got resubscribed
> > again...
> >
> > Il 07/01/2015 19:26, Austin Hair ha scritto:
> >
> >  You may have already received a message indicating that you've been
> >> added to the "Wikimedia-l" Google Group; if not, you likely will soon.
> >>
> >> In case it's not clear, this Google Group is in no way affiliated with
> >> Wikimedia-l, the Wikimedia Foundation, me, or anybody you'd ever want
> >> to be friends with.
> >>
> >> If you do find yourself subscribed, I strongly urge you not to engage
> >> in any way. Report it to Google (not to me or the list) as an abusive
> >> subscription using the link at the bottom of the message, and leave it
> >> be.
> >>
> >> If you find yourself being impersonated or wrongly implicated in this
> >> latest round of troublemaking, don't fret. Nobody will hold it against
> >> you, and in fact you'll have everyone's sympathies.
> >>
> >> Austin
> >>
> >> ___
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> >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> >> 
> >>
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Goodbye as the German president of the Dutch chapter

[Charles Gregory]

Farewell and good luck Ziko!  You have the dubious notability of being the
first Wikimedian I met outside my home country!  Hopefully you'll still be
active in the community and I'll see you around again!

Charles / User:Chuq
Hobart, Australia



On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 6:30 PM, Jon Davies wrote:

> Very sad to hear this - you have done so well. Hie to see you in London.
>
>
> On 30 March 2014 18:59, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
>
> > Dear colleagues, collaborators and friends of free knowledge,
> >
> > After three eventful years I left the board of Wikimedia Nederland;
> > yesterday was the General Assembly in Utrecht. This means a 'goodbye'.
> >
> > In this time, I had the privilege and pleasure to work with many great
> > people in many different organisations. We saw a lot of small steps
> > and some bigger ones directed to our common goal, the support of free
> > knowledge. Certainly, not everything we as a movement or parts of the
> > movement was achieved, though.
> >
> > Between many WMNL members and me, there were two grades of separation:
> > coming from the humanities, my geekiness differs a little from the
> > average Wikipedianess; having the German Wikipedia as my home wiki, I
> > was never a very active or 'true' part of the Dutch editing community.
> > And when I quoted in my speeches from medieval quests or Prussian
> > literary realism, I received therefore some strange looks from some
> > members.
> >
> > But I remain firmly convinced that good governance and respect have no
> > nationality. Indeed, stroopwafels do have, and so I adopted the Dutch
> > custom to bring them with me to Wikimedian meetings abroad.
> >
> > Wikimedia Nederland has experienced and overcome a difficult period of
> > transition. Office space and employees, more members including more
> > members without Wikipedia background, more activities, more money,
> > more responsibility; more need for an association to mature and focus
> > on what is necessary (and not always easy, cool or fun). We achieved
> > that as a collective, slower than previously expected, but with the
> > appropriate pride and good feelings about the future.
> >
> > Goodbye - and Hello: I am looking forward to see many of you again at
> > whatever wiki, chat or real life meeting.
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Ziko
> >
> > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland
> >
> >
> >
> 
> > Dr. Ziko van Dijk
> >
> > Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland
> > Postbus 167
> > 3500 AD Utrecht
> > http://wikimedia.nl
> >
> >
> 
> >
> > ___
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> > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
>
>
>
>
> --
> *Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*.  Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
> tweet @jonatreesdavies
>
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
> Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
>
> Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
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[Wikimedia-l] Over 20000 maps released as CC0 by NY Public Library

[Charles Gregory]

From the NYPL's blog - http://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/03/28/open-access-maps

"The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division is very proud to announce
the release of more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution
downloads. We believe these maps have no known US copyright restrictions.
To the extent that some jurisdictions grant NYPL an additional copyright in
the digital reproductions of these maps, NYPL is distributing these images
under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The
maps can be viewed through the New York Public Library's Digital
Collections page, and downloaded (!), through the Map Warper"

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement regarding Host for Wikimania 2015

[Charles Gregory]

Hi all,

Just to provide a bit of perspective to the crime concerns, I had a look at
the Australian Government's smart traveller page for travel advice (
http://www.smarttraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/)

They mark nations and regions as green (normal), yellow (exercise
precautions), orange (reconsider travel), or red (do not travel).

On their list, all proposed host countries - Mexico, South Africa,
Indonesia, Tanzania and Tunisia - are marked "yellow".  Some parts of
Mexico, Indonesia and Tunisia are "orange" (see the site for specifics) but
the host cities/proposed host cities are fine.  So taking into account the
fact that Italy withdrew, there isn't really a risk of any one host over
another.

Regards,

Charles / User:Chuq



On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 8:28 AM, Andy Cruz y Corro wrote:

> Hi Steven!
>
> Thanks for your comments. I'm part of the WMMX bidding team and I happen to
> live in the Centro Historico area (only a few bus stops away from the
> venue). Even though it's anecdotal, I can say that *a good deal of my free
> time is spent in this zone and I've never experienced crime here*. I do
> take precautions, but they are nothing out of the ordinary (no flashing of
> valuables, hailing a cab after hours, avoiding dark alleys, etc.)
>
> I will not say crime doesn't exist: it's a real risk, strongly considered
> when making our bid. As Ivan said, we don't want to take chances and will
> have additional support from the authorities (Ivan is our superstar in this
> regard). We believe the venue is safe and we're sure our guests will enjoy
> their stay here. The zone is safe for (part of) our team to live there.
>
> That said, our team (myself included) are looking forward to your questions
> and comments. Rest assured we will do our best to make of this the best
> Wikimania experience for everyone.
>
>
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 23:46:30 -0500
> > From: Ivan Martínez 
> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement regarding Host for Wikimania
> > 2015
> > Message-ID:
> > <
> > capftejnfyqh5xxz-6j8gr23b4o1u9fyotz-kjlgah6yglfr...@mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> >
> > Thanks to all for your kindly regards and comments :)
> >
> > Steven, concerning to the public safety, our city are different from the
> > known issues of the northern states of the country. In the link you quote
> > for United States citizens are properly pointed for Mexico City: "no
> > advisory is in effect". Also, the Centro Historico area (the venue are in
> > the north of this Downtown area) is safe for tourism. But we will have in
> > addition the special support and coordination with the Mexico City
> > authorities for more vigilance and a special operative for reduce any
> risk
> > to the minimum in the venue and their perimeter.
> >
> >
> >
> > 2014-04-21 22:55 GMT-05:00 Philippe Beaudette :
> >
> > > On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 6:08 PM, Steven Walling <
> > steven.wall...@gmail.com
> > > >wrote:
> > >
> > > > it would be comforting to hear how we've assessed the bid
> > > > regarding the safety issue, and how we're going to be prepared in
> case
> > > the
> > > > worst (robberies, kidnappings) do happen.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Not a small concern.  But, I should point out, one that we've dealt
> with
> > > before.  We had laptops stolen in Argentina, and physical safety
> concerns
> > > in Alexandria, as I recall.  I say this not to put a panacea of "oh,
> > there
> > > there, it'll be fine" in place, but to assure people that this is
> > something
> > > that I know that Garfield and Elle, and the rest of the WMF team
> working
> > on
> > > this will consider and keep in mind. :-)
> > >
> > > pb
> > >
> > >
> > > *Philippe Beaudette * \\  Director, Community Advocacy \\ Wikimedia
> > > Foundation, Inc.
> > >  T: 1-415-839-6885 x6643 |  phili...@wikimedia.org  |  :
> > > @Philippewiki
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> > > 
> > >
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Commons and OCILLA

[Charles Gregory]

Michael, I assume it is Ray Saintonge of Wikimedia Canada
(User:Eclecticology)

Regards,

Charles (User:Chuq)
Wikimedia Australia




On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 11:09 PM, Michael Maggs  wrote:

> Hi Yann
>
> This is a really useful resource.  Who is looking after it now, and how is
> it being funded?  I don’t know who ‘Ray’ is.
>
> Michael
>
>
> On 8 Jun 2014, at 17:43, Yann Forget  wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > 2014-06-08 21:56 GMT+05:30 rupert THURNER :
> >> Would it make sense to deploy a server in another country under a domain
> >> not owned by the foundation? E.g. Switzerland?
> >
> > I already started that in 2005. It is called Wikilivres:
> http://wikilivres.ca/
> > In 2010, I could not continue to manage it and pay for the bill, and I
> > looked for volunteers to take over.
> > To my surprise, I found nearly noone willing to do that.
> > Finally Ray accepted to take charge. I am quite sure, he would welcome
> > help to manage it.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Yann
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

[Charles Gregory]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 8:34 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:

> On 11/09/14 22:06, Pete Forsyth wrote:
>
>>
>> Personally, I have no problem with the existence of the conference, but I
>> find its name alienating. Not everyone agrees with that assessment, but
>> clearly some others in this thread do.
>>
>
> What Pete said.
>
> We could go into issues with the exclusionary nature itself, such as that
> it would exclude representatives of groups who ran into trouble becoming
> official - despite such a conference likely being one of the best venues
> for them to bring up and discuss with relevant others how to actually
> address or resolve that trouble that excluded them in the first place...
>
> ...but that sort of thing is much harder to resolve/address. The name, at
> least, is simple, and should also make a lot of the other problems less
> glaring in the process.
>
>
Assuming the issue of the name is the sticking point ...

What about the Wikimedia Meta-Conference? Or Meta-Wikimedia Conference?  Or
MetaWiki Conference?

It's more about the organisations in the background than keep the movement
going.  It doesn't seem (from my second-hand knowledge of the event) that a
regular editor would get a lot out of it?


Regards,

Charles (User:Chuq)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2015

[Charles Gregory]

... but the conference has been running for a few years, and has gradually
evolved over that time, from primarily chapters, to other affiliate
organisations, AffCom itself, FDC in recent years, etc.  I don't think
anyone is suggesting any revolutionary changes for the next one?  Just a
change in name to suit the current audience.

What's the problem with the name "Wikimedia" being used?  It is, after all,
a conference involving Wikimedians.  It appears the main complaint is the
over-generic title "Wikimedia Conference".

Charles (User:Chuq)

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 9:59 AM, Richard Symonds <
richard.symo...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> What I'm saying is, let's plan a conference before we argue over the name.
> On 12 Sep 2014 00:57, "Risker"  wrote:
>
> > We do have a community centre.  It's called Meta.  It may not be a very
> > elegant one, and there are definitely parts that can be improved, but
> it's
> > our virtual community centre.
> >
> > Risker/Anne
> >
>
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