[Foundation-l] Announcing Wikimedia Education List
Hi All, We would like to take this opportunity to announce the new Wikimedia Education list. During the past Wikimania conferences we seen incredible examples of educational use of Wikimedia Projects or Content. During the recent chapter conference in Berlin we saw some more. These are often not related to a specific project and often have subject matter which involves a different audience than the other general mailing lists. Thats why we decided to start a new mailing list which will hopefully foster creative discussion on the topic at hand. So what would we like to discuss on this list: * Educational use of Wikimedia content or projects * Best practices * Educational Licensing * Educational Outreach * Other Open Educational Resource Projects * Anything else that is education related :) Everyone is welcome to post to the list. You can subscribe to the list at https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education .The list will be moderated by Cormaggio, Jan-Bart and Louriepieterse. Hope to see you there! Cormaggio, Jan-Bart and Lourie PS: Small disclaimer: although Jan-Bart is a member of the Board of Trustees, this is not an offical WMF initiative, but a community initiative. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
[Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
Dear community, on the IRC board meeting at April 8th 2011 the board approved unanimously the following resolution: We, the Wikimedia Foundation Board, believe that the continued health of our project communities is crucial to fulfilling our mission. The Wikimedia projects are founded in the culture of openness, participation, and quality that has created one of the world's great repositories of human knowledge. But while Wikimedia's readers and supporters are growing around the world, recent studies of editor trends show a steady decline in the participation and retention of new editors. As laid out in our five-year Strategic Plan, and emphasized by these findings, Wikimedia needs to attract and retain more new and diverse editors, and to retain our experienced editors. A stable editing community is critical to the long-term sustainability and quality of both our current Projects and our movement. We consider meeting this challenge our top priority. We ask all contributors to think about these issues in your daily work on the Projects. We support the Executive Director in making this the top staff priority, and recommend she increase the allocation of Foundation resources towards addressing this problem, through community outreach, amplification of community efforts, and technical improvements. And we support the developers, editors, wikiprojects and Chapters that are working to make the projects more accessible, welcoming, and supportive. The Board resolves to help move these efforts forward, and invites specific requests for Foundation assistance to do so. We welcome and encourage new ideas to help reach our goals of [[strategy:Openness|openness and broader participation]]. We urge the Wikimedia community to promote openness and collaboration, by: * Treating new editors with patience, kindness, and respect; being aware of the challenges facing new editors, and reaching out to them; and encouraging others to do the same; * Improving communication on the projects; simplifying policy and instructions; and working with colleagues to improve and make friendlier policies and practices regarding templates, warnings, and deletion; * Supporting the development and rollout of features and tools that improve usability and accessibility; * Increasing community awareness of these issues and supporting outreach efforts of individuals, groups and Chapters; * Working with colleagues to reduce contention and promote a friendlier, more collaborative culture, including more thanking and affirmation; and encouraging best practices and community leaders; and * Working with colleagues to develop practices to discourage disruptive and hostile behavior, and repel trolls and stalkers. ;Resources : [[strategy:Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary|Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary]] : [[strategy:Editor_Trends_Study|2011 Editor Trends Study]] ([[strategy:March_2011_Update|Executive Director's summary]], [[strategy:Openness|ideas]]) -- Ting Chen Member of the Board of Trustees Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. E-Mail: tc...@wikimedia.org ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
Hello, This resolution is a very positive step. I hope we will soon be updated about practical steps to implement it. Two such practical steps that are easy to implement and would make a significant difference, in my opinion: (1) Administrators' decisions about bans, sanctions etc. should be made more public. They are, of course, accessible to anyone as a policy of all projects, but they are often hidden in many pages with non-intuitive titles (for detailed analysis of the problem, see Ayelet Oz's presentation in Wikimania 2009 http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:149). Had someone followed the administrators' decisions on the biggest projects, and publish a monthly newsletter with copies of the most prominent decisions about bans and sanctions, it would increase transparency and make administrators much more careful about checking cases and providing justifications for their actions, especially in what concerns treatment of new users. It would also give a better picture about disruptive behaviors of users. (2) Appealing sanctions should be made much easier. I would even go as far as opening a special small wiki for such complaints. Reply should be provided within a limited period of time, and refer specifically to the new user's arguments. This may sound trivial, but projects often fail to do so. Dror K בתאריך 08/04/11 22:35, ציטוט Ting Chen: Dear community, on the IRC board meeting at April 8th 2011 the board approved unanimously the following resolution: We, the Wikimedia Foundation Board, believe that the continued health of our project communities is crucial to fulfilling our mission. The Wikimedia projects are founded in the culture of openness, participation, and quality that has created one of the world's great repositories of human knowledge. But while Wikimedia's readers and supporters are growing around the world, recent studies of editor trends show a steady decline in the participation and retention of new editors. As laid out in our five-year Strategic Plan, and emphasized by these findings, Wikimedia needs to attract and retain more new and diverse editors, and to retain our experienced editors. A stable editing community is critical to the long-term sustainability and quality of both our current Projects and our movement. We consider meeting this challenge our top priority. We ask all contributors to think about these issues in your daily work on the Projects. We support the Executive Director in making this the top staff priority, and recommend she increase the allocation of Foundation resources towards addressing this problem, through community outreach, amplification of community efforts, and technical improvements. And we support the developers, editors, wikiprojects and Chapters that are working to make the projects more accessible, welcoming, and supportive. The Board resolves to help move these efforts forward, and invites specific requests for Foundation assistance to do so. We welcome and encourage new ideas to help reach our goals of [[strategy:Openness|openness and broader participation]]. We urge the Wikimedia community to promote openness and collaboration, by: * Treating new editors with patience, kindness, and respect; being aware of the challenges facing new editors, and reaching out to them; and encouraging others to do the same; * Improving communication on the projects; simplifying policy and instructions; and working with colleagues to improve and make friendlier policies and practices regarding templates, warnings, and deletion; * Supporting the development and rollout of features and tools that improve usability and accessibility; * Increasing community awareness of these issues and supporting outreach efforts of individuals, groups and Chapters; * Working with colleagues to reduce contention and promote a friendlier, more collaborative culture, including more thanking and affirmation; and encouraging best practices and community leaders; and * Working with colleagues to develop practices to discourage disruptive and hostile behavior, and repel trolls and stalkers. ;Resources : [[strategy:Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary|Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary]] : [[strategy:Editor_Trends_Study|2011 Editor Trends Study]] ([[strategy:March_2011_Update|Executive Director's summary]], [[strategy:Openness|ideas]]) ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Announcing Wikimedia Education List
Hi, On 8 Apr 2011, at 20:12, Jan-Bart de Vreede janb...@wikimedia.org wrote: We would like to take this opportunity to announce the new Wikimedia Education list. Sounds good! I'm now subscribed. :-) Isabell. (ENWP User:Issyl0) ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Announcing Wikimedia Education List
Excellent. Thanks Jan-Bart, Cormac and Lourie for getting it started.--SJ On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 3:12 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede janb...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hi All, We would like to take this opportunity to announce the new Wikimedia Education list. During the past Wikimania conferences we seen incredible examples of educational use of Wikimedia Projects or Content. During the recent chapter conference in Berlin we saw some more. These are often not related to a specific project and often have subject matter which involves a different audience than the other general mailing lists. Thats why we decided to start a new mailing list which will hopefully foster creative discussion on the topic at hand. So what would we like to discuss on this list: * Educational use of Wikimedia content or projects * Best practices * Educational Licensing * Educational Outreach * Other Open Educational Resource Projects * Anything else that is education related :) Everyone is welcome to post to the list. You can subscribe to the list at https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education .The list will be moderated by Cormaggio, Jan-Bart and Louriepieterse. Hope to see you there! Cormaggio, Jan-Bart and Lourie PS: Small disclaimer: although Jan-Bart is a member of the Board of Trustees, this is not an offical WMF initiative, but a community initiative. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -- Samuel Klein identi.ca:sj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
While I am all about openness and journalism, I had a recent incident which made me re-think something on these lines. I had a few years back, started creating an open visible search-indexed index to ArbCom proceedings. Some editors however edit using their real names, not something I would necessarily recommend if you end up at ArbCom and then a search on your name, get's a top Goog because of an index like mine. People will common names could simply say it's someone else, but people with rare names like Dror Kamir for example, might have some intrepid employer say, Oh Gee you were involved in that whole versus big controversy in Wikipedia, I don't think your personality would be a good fit here I can see it happening in this connected age, I have done it myself when propositioning a new client, to see what's out there on them. I decided to make my index invisible temporarily while I mull this over more. Will Johnson -Original Message- From: Dror Kamir dqa...@bezeqint.net To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Fri, Apr 8, 2011 1:16 pm Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness Hello, This resolution is a very positive step. I hope we will soon be updated about practical steps to implement it. Two such practical steps that are easy to implement and would make a significant difference, in my opinion: (1) Administrators' decisions about bans, sanctions etc. should be made more public. They are, of course, accessible to anyone as a policy of all projects, but they are often hidden in many pages with non-intuitive titles (for detailed analysis of the problem, see Ayelet Oz's presentation in Wikimania 2009 http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:149). Had someone followed the administrators' decisions on the biggest projects, and publish a monthly newsletter with copies of the most prominent decisions about bans and sanctions, it would increase transparency and make administrators much more careful about checking cases and providing justifications for their actions, especially in what concerns treatment of new users. It would also give a better picture about disruptive behaviors of users. (2) Appealing sanctions should be made much easier. I would even go as far as opening a special small wiki for such complaints. Reply should be provided within a limited period of time, and refer specifically to the new user's arguments. This may sound trivial, but projects often fail to do so. Dror K ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
While I am all about openness and journalism, I had a recent incident which made me re-think something on these lines. I had a few years back, started creating an open visible search-indexed index to ArbCom proceedings. Some editors however edit using their real names, not something I would necessarily recommend if you end up at ArbCom and then a search on your name, get's a top Goog because of an index like mine. People will common names could simply say it's someone else, but people with rare names like Dror Kamir for example, might have some intrepid employer say, Oh Gee you were involved in that whole versus big controversy in Wikipedia, I don't think your personality would be a good fit here I can see it happening in this connected age, I have done it myself when propositioning a new client, to see what's out there on them. I decided to make my index invisible temporarily while I mull this over more. Will Johnson I've noticed that old crap from years ago doesn't show on on your eBay feedback rating. I appreciate that. And, frankly, if someone is doing good work on Wikipedia now, who cares about some big blowup years ago? Fred ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
Fred Bauder wrote: While I am all about openness and journalism, I had a recent incident which made me re-think something on these lines. I had a few years back, started creating an open visible search-indexed index to ArbCom proceedings. Some editors however edit using their real names, not something I would necessarily recommend if you end up at ArbCom and then a search on your name, get's a top Goog because of an index like mine. People will common names could simply say it's someone else, but people with rare names like Dror Kamir for example, might have some intrepid employer say, Oh Gee you were involved in that whole versus big controversy in Wikipedia, I don't think your personality would be a good fit here I can see it happening in this connected age, I have done it myself when propositioning a new client, to see what's out there on them. I decided to make my index invisible temporarily while I mull this over more. Will Johnson I've noticed that old crap from years ago doesn't show on on your eBay feedback rating. I appreciate that. And, frankly, if someone is doing good work on Wikipedia now, who cares about some big blowup years ago? Fred An excellent point. Someone please let ArbCom know this. User:Rodhullandemu ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
on 4/8/11 3:35 PM, Ting Chen at tc...@wikimedia.org wrote: Dear community, on the IRC board meeting at April 8th 2011 the board approved unanimously the following resolution: We, the Wikimedia Foundation Board, believe that the continued health of our project communities is crucial to fulfilling our mission. The Wikimedia projects are founded in the culture of openness, participation, and quality that has created one of the world's great repositories of human knowledge. But while Wikimedia's readers and supporters are growing around the world, recent studies of editor trends show a steady decline in the participation and retention of new editors. As laid out in our five-year Strategic Plan, and emphasized by these findings, Wikimedia needs to attract and retain more new and diverse editors, and to retain our experienced editors. A stable editing community is critical to the long-term sustainability and quality of both our current Projects and our movement. We consider meeting this challenge our top priority. We ask all contributors to think about these issues in your daily work on the Projects. We support the Executive Director in making this the top staff priority, and recommend she increase the allocation of Foundation resources towards addressing this problem, through community outreach, amplification of community efforts, and technical improvements. And we support the developers, editors, wikiprojects and Chapters that are working to make the projects more accessible, welcoming, and supportive. The Board resolves to help move these efforts forward, and invites specific requests for Foundation assistance to do so. We welcome and encourage new ideas to help reach our goals of [[strategy:Openness|openness and broader participation]]. We urge the Wikimedia community to promote openness and collaboration, by: * Treating new editors with patience, kindness, and respect; being aware of the challenges facing new editors, and reaching out to them; and encouraging others to do the same; * Improving communication on the projects; simplifying policy and instructions; and working with colleagues to improve and make friendlier policies and practices regarding templates, warnings, and deletion; * Supporting the development and rollout of features and tools that improve usability and accessibility; * Increasing community awareness of these issues and supporting outreach efforts of individuals, groups and Chapters; * Working with colleagues to reduce contention and promote a friendlier, more collaborative culture, including more thanking and affirmation; and encouraging best practices and community leaders; and * Working with colleagues to develop practices to discourage disruptive and hostile behavior, and repel trolls and stalkers. ;Resources : [[strategy:Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary|Wikimedia_Movement_Strate gic_Plan_Summary]] : [[strategy:Editor_Trends_Study|2011 Editor Trends Study]] ([[strategy:March_2011_Update|Executive Director's summary]], [[strategy:Openness|ideas]]) Thank you, all, for this. This resolution is great news; and a great commitment of support for the Wikipedia Project, as well as for the individual Community Members who are at the heart of it. Marc Riddell, Ph.D. Clinical Psychology/Psychotherapy ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 5:02 PM, Marc Riddell michaeldavi...@comcast.net wrote: Thank you, all, for this. This resolution is great news; and a great commitment of support for the Wikipedia Project, as well as for the individual Community Members who are at the heart of it. That's welcome feedback, Marc. Half of the board meeting in Berlin two weeks ago was devoted to discussing ways to better help the community and contributors; this point was important enough to have a separate meeting about it today. There is now a page on the strategy wiki to summarize and link to related proposals and essays. Please feel free to add to it: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Openness_and_Participation Sam. PS - I would like to give props to the Audit Committee, which does great and sometimes less visible work -- they compile an annual risks assessment, which thoughtfully addresses things far outside the realm of financial risk. Declining participation was the top risk in late 2009, and helped drive related strategic research and discussion. Thanks to that group for helping to focus attention on this. (http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Top_risks_2009) -- Samuel Klein identi.ca:sj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
