Re: [Foundation-l] Newsletter in German language: Infobrief Wiki-Welt
Good work Ziko, thank you very much. Ting Ziko van Dijk wrote: Hello, Just a few minutes ago I have sent the second edition of my Infobrief Wiki-Welt. It is meant for people who are interested in Wikipedia and related subjects, but are no Wikipedians, for example journalists, teachers, other professionals, or just Wikipedia fans. We often talk to those people in seminars, courses, on Wikipedia Academies, but mostly there is no follow-up, the contacts get lost. This newsletter exists to tell them every one or two weeks about Wikipedia and Wikimedia, to keep them in touch. If you know such people who understand German, please inform them about the Infobrief Wiki-Welt. It is arranged at Google Groups, but you can also mail me and I add addresses manually. Kind regards Ziko van Dijk http://groups.google.de/group/infobrief-wiki-welt/about ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Volunteer Appreciation
Welcome, Jennifer. The current foundation-l traffic isn't quite as vibrant an intro to the community today as it was in 2005 or so. I hope you will share your thoughts, even unformed! For a historical taste, don't forget to visit the nostalgia wiki: http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org ...and even http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiPedia Trends across the life of the projects are important; a lot of us spend time reflecting on what was best, whether changes since then have been good or bad for coherence, growth, quality, and fun. I wonder in particular why we haven't developed new projects lately - there are many out there that fit naturally into the original wikiethos, and the newer foundation mission. SJ ps - It is disconcerting to hear Wikipedia and sibs referred to as 'educational products' and materials. I mean, do we have products? I don't think the projects see themselves as such; though there are occasional products that emerge (such as 3D wiki globes... TC/Theo: can we get another run of those?!) pps - A general note - it would be nice to see links to people's user accounts when they are introduced, whether they are advisors, staff, friends of the wiki, or Editors of Unusual Size... On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 7:12 PM, Jennifer Riggs jri...@wikimedia.org wrote: This being Volunteer Appreciation week in the US, I thought it was a great chance for me to post to this list and post a Wikimedia blog http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/20/volunteer-appreciation/. I want to thank everyone for being so welcoming. I am very excited about this organization and this job working to support such an amazing group of volunteers! I've been reading along on some important community issues discussed here and am learning so much. I look forward also to hearing perspectives on the list about issues around diversifying and further globalizing Wikimedia's free educational products and material. I am very volunteer-centric when it comes to my big thinking about direction, activities and products. So, I will be relying on you to help frame the Foundation's volunteer support in a way that will be most beneficial in your efforts to achieve our community's goals. I look forward to meeting you as individuals as I go. Jennifer Riggs - CPO Wikimedia Foundation ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] NPOV as common value? (was Re: Board statement regarding biographies of living people)
On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 6:57 PM, Anthony wikim...@inbox.org wrote: Here's the NPPA Code of ethics: 1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects. 2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities. 3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one's own biases in the work. 4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see. 5. While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events. 6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects. 7. Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation. 8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage. 9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all deal with neutrality. Should they apply to photos made for commons? I think most of these do not really apply for Commons. They are mostly based on the situation of journalists making pictures about some specific event. On Commons, even if you are at a specific event, many of the pictures may say little or nothing about the event, but still be useful pictures because of what they DO depict. Our 'subject' can easily shift this way or that, making rules 1 and 3 mostly vacuous. Going through the list: 1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects. Since for many pictures the subject is what happens to be represented on the photograph, this is mostly vacuous. As an example, a journalist going to a protest march of 1000 people among which 10 are typical punks, would be breaking this rule if he made half the photographs he made of the protesters of those 10. A Commons photographer would just have to call them photographs of punks rather than photographs of that typical protest, and all would be fine. 2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities. Staged photo opportunities are little good for journalism, but they are good for getting portrait-like photographs. Journalists are not very interested in those, we are. 3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one's own biases in the work. The first half to me seems hard when we get to the level of single photographs, which is on Commons how the work usually goes. The second part could well be a good rule, though at the same time when going to single photographs it is too restrictive - should every picture of a drinking Irishman be forbidden? I don't think so. 4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see. A good rule, but not related to neutrality. And one that Commons photographers are much less in a position to break than real journalists anyway. 5. While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events. Again a rule that is good for photo journalism, but not for general photography. If I want a picture of a dog swimming, I throw a stick in the water when my brother's dog is near. But even in citizen journalism, this is not a good rule like it is in professional journalism - getting the 'inside view' is interesting. I would not want the rule Do not contribute photographs you made during events in which you were involved yourself - which is more or less the same rule. 6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects. Now, this one I can agree with. Any editing beyond the trivial should be made clear to the viewers. 7. Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation. I don't think any Commons photographers would do so, being volunteers themselves, but where they do, they might well have good reason. 8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage. Not applicable. 9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists. Of course not, but has nothing to do with neutrality. -- André Engels, andreeng...@gmail.com
Re: [Foundation-l] Usability Study Results (Sneak Preview)
On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 2:08 AM, Parul Vora pv...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hi all! The Wikipedia Usability Initiative conducted a user research study with SF based Bolt Peters in late March to uncover barriers new editors face. We are in the process of completing a full report on our methodology, process and analysis, but wanted to share with you some of the major themes and findings in the meantime From what I read, the main problem is that new, eager, serious contributers surrender between our markup and an overwhelming flood of descriptions. I know a new GUI is being worked on. For the moment I hacked the following JavaScript suggestion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Magnus_Manske/newbiehelp.js This adds a how? link into the edit tab, and launches a floating panel with some extremely general content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edit_how.png Never mind the wording, the color scheme, or important points I missed :-) If that were added for all anons by default, it might save the willing and able some grief. Just a thought. Cheers, Magnus ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Usability Study Results (Sneak Preview)
Will the final report include a note about how unwelcome User:NawlinWiki made the study participants feel when he indefinitely blocked their accounts for abusing Wikipedia? http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Logpage=User%3AUsability_Tester_3 ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Volunteer Appreciation
SJ, thanks for sharing the nostalgia.wikipedia.org link. I've been a Wikimedian for four years, and not once stumbled across that. You learn something new every day... As for the educational products phrase, my feeling is yes, the community on-wiki doesn't tend to think of the projects *literally* as products. But, from my experience, the use of the phrase is simply part of a larger trend of referring to websites and families of sites as a product. As in, the point of a primarily Web-based institution being to deliver the site/sites as a product to visitors. That spirit has already been something that marks Wikimedia projects as different from most wikis I think, whether or not we literally refer to them that way. [[User:Steven:Walling]] On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 12:51 AM, Samuel Klein meta...@gmail.com wrote: Welcome, Jennifer. The current foundation-l traffic isn't quite as vibrant an intro to the community today as it was in 2005 or so. I hope you will share your thoughts, even unformed! For a historical taste, don't forget to visit the nostalgia wiki: http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org ...and even http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiPedia Trends across the life of the projects are important; a lot of us spend time reflecting on what was best, whether changes since then have been good or bad for coherence, growth, quality, and fun. I wonder in particular why we haven't developed new projects lately - there are many out there that fit naturally into the original wikiethos, and the newer foundation mission. SJ ps - It is disconcerting to hear Wikipedia and sibs referred to as 'educational products' and materials. I mean, do we have products? I don't think the projects see themselves as such; though there are occasional products that emerge (such as 3D wiki globes... TC/Theo: can we get another run of those?!) pps - A general note - it would be nice to see links to people's user accounts when they are introduced, whether they are advisors, staff, friends of the wiki, or Editors of Unusual Size... On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 7:12 PM, Jennifer Riggs jri...@wikimedia.org wrote: This being Volunteer Appreciation week in the US, I thought it was a great chance for me to post to this list and post a Wikimedia blog http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/20/volunteer-appreciation/. I want to thank everyone for being so welcoming. I am very excited about this organization and this job working to support such an amazing group of volunteers! I've been reading along on some important community issues discussed here and am learning so much. I look forward also to hearing perspectives on the list about issues around diversifying and further globalizing Wikimedia's free educational products and material. I am very volunteer-centric when it comes to my big thinking about direction, activities and products. So, I will be relying on you to help frame the Foundation's volunteer support in a way that will be most beneficial in your efforts to achieve our community's goals. I look forward to meeting you as individuals as I go. Jennifer Riggs - CPO Wikimedia Foundation ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Volunteer Appreciation
Steven, You're welcome. There's also this, which I still long to turn into a proper report with excerpts and screenshots : http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WQ/Retro You are right that wikipedia has a website-product as one of its major outputs. And the focus on this important large-scale product has helped channel energies into a common goal. But I wouldn't say that any set of products alone embodies the essential idea. If we can get every person on earth connected to an overview of the world's knowledge, contributing the things they have to teach, and reviewing the things they care about, the ongoing process and project that involves would be more important to me (and to my view of WM) than the constellation of products -- web mobile references, search question interfaces, offline printed collections, talmudically annotative widgets -- that would exist. If you see WM as a collection of static products, then sure, you could find other ways to produce that... and you implicitly are embracing certain limitations on scale. If you see it as a community of 100k people, more like the fabled city, laying its Foundations within a community 10,000 times larger -- well, then you have your own culture, an engine for future growth, a destination for those not yet part of it. Describing a city by its monuments is fine for a tourist guide [and to attract new residents], but those monuments don't define it, nor are the reason for its reason for existence or (one hopes) its most lasting legacy. SJ On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 2:00 PM, Steven Walling steven.wall...@gmail.com wrote: SJ, thanks for sharing the nostalgia.wikipedia.org link. I've been a Wikimedian for four years, and not once stumbled across that. You learn something new every day... As for the educational products phrase, my feeling is yes, the community on-wiki doesn't tend to think of the projects *literally* as products. But, from my experience, the use of the phrase is simply part of a larger trend of referring to websites and families of sites as a product. As in, the point of a primarily Web-based institution being to deliver the site/sites as a product to visitors. That spirit has already been something that marks Wikimedia projects as different from most wikis I think, whether or not we literally refer to them that way. [[User:Steven:Walling]] On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 12:51 AM, Samuel Klein meta...@gmail.com wrote: Welcome, Jennifer. The current foundation-l traffic isn't quite as vibrant an intro to the community today as it was in 2005 or so. I hope you will share your thoughts, even unformed! For a historical taste, don't forget to visit the nostalgia wiki: http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org ...and even http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiPedia Trends across the life of the projects are important; a lot of us spend time reflecting on what was best, whether changes since then have been good or bad for coherence, growth, quality, and fun. I wonder in particular why we haven't developed new projects lately - there are many out there that fit naturally into the original wikiethos, and the newer foundation mission. SJ ps - It is disconcerting to hear Wikipedia and sibs referred to as 'educational products' and materials. I mean, do we have products? I don't think the projects see themselves as such; though there are occasional products that emerge (such as 3D wiki globes... TC/Theo: can we get another run of those?!) pps - A general note - it would be nice to see links to people's user accounts when they are introduced, whether they are advisors, staff, friends of the wiki, or Editors of Unusual Size... On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 7:12 PM, Jennifer Riggs jri...@wikimedia.org wrote: This being Volunteer Appreciation week in the US, I thought it was a great chance for me to post to this list and post a Wikimedia blog http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/20/volunteer-appreciation/. I want to thank everyone for being so welcoming. I am very excited about this organization and this job working to support such an amazing group of volunteers! I've been reading along on some important community issues discussed here and am learning so much. I look forward also to hearing perspectives on the list about issues around diversifying and further globalizing Wikimedia's free educational products and material. I am very volunteer-centric when it comes to my big thinking about direction, activities and products. So, I will be relying on you to help frame the Foundation's volunteer support in a way that will be most beneficial in your efforts to achieve our community's goals. I look forward to meeting you as individuals as I go. Jennifer Riggs - CPO Wikimedia Foundation ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Usability Study Results (Sneak Preview)
I know a new GUI is being worked on. For the moment I hacked the following JavaScript suggestion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Magnus_Manske/newbiehelp.js This adds a how? link into the edit tab, and launches a floating panel with some extremely general content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edit_how.png Never mind the wording, the color scheme, or important points I missed :-) If that were added for all anons by default, it might save the willing and able some grief. Just a thought. Great suggestion. One of the repeated sentiment from the study participants was what is the editing process. This will give a quick overview to anons. Will you post your idea to our project page? :-) http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Best, - Naoko -- Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Usability Study Results (Sneak Preview)
On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Gregory Kohs thekoh...@gmail.com wrote: Will the final report include a note about how unwelcome User:NawlinWiki made the study participants feel when he indefinitely blocked their accounts for abusing Wikipedia? We, the usability team, with lots of help from stewards and admins, worked behind the scene not to expose such blockage to study participants. I am sure NawlinkWiki was doing his part in protecting Wikipedia. We notified this list and WikiEn about the usability study and described the usage of these accounts in the user page, hoping to avoid such blockage. But some folks are double-cautious and I think that is a good thing. We confirmed that it is really the usability team of WMF doing the test, and could clear the concern. So it was not a problem. Best, - Naoko -- Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
