[Wikimedia-l] The reader, who doesn't exist

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

MZMcBride, I agree with you, but let me split out one thing:

On 20 August 2014 04:09, MZMcBride wrote:
> the one complaint I _never_ hear is that
> Wikipedia has a readership problem.

Then you'll hear it from me.

First, let's make one thing clear: the reader doesn't exist; it's just a
rhetorical trick, and a very dangerous one. For more:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stupidity_of_the_reader

Page views, however brute a concept, exist; and I think they're telling
us we do have a readership problem. For it.wiki, in the last year I see
a suspiciously similar decrease in desktop pageviews and editing
activity (possibly around –20 %). It would *seem* that every user
converted to the mobile site is a step towards extinction of the wiki.
Long story:

The page above is just a collection of pointers that I probably won't
be able to pursue in the coming months, to study an unprecedented
collapse of editing activity and active editors on it.wiki. However,
there /are/ several things worth looking into and we do have a huge
problem (or several).
Can anything be done about it? I don't know. In its brief history, WMF
software development has always been irrelevant for the increase of
editing activity and reach. Let's hope for a counterexample.

Nemo

P.s.: Yes, this message is focused on one small thing only. That's just
about what we are/were already doing, while most opportunities lie in
what we're not doing, see the sister projects and [[strategy:List of
things that need to be free]]; we like to think otherwise, but our free
culture projects are still very marginal.

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] @WikipediaZero Twitter account

[Tomasz Finc]

It's up to Carolynnes team to figure out if they want to use it or not.

--tomasz

On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Dan Garry  wrote:
> I could be mistaken, but I think Tomasz is the owner. CCing him.
>
> Dan
>
>
> On 13 August 2014 11:19, Andy Mabbett  wrote:
>>
>> Who owns the @WikipediaZero Twitter account? It's only ever had one
>> post, and that seems a missed opportunity.
>>
>> --
>> Andy Mabbett
>> @pigsonthewing
>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>>
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>
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> --
> Dan Garry
> Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
> Wikimedia Foundation

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikidata-l] Compare person data

[Magnus Manske]

Thanks for this.

You might want to filter it, though: For example
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q85256 states "born in 1606" (no month or day
given), but your report at
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Ladsgroup/Birth_date_report2/26 gives it
as 1606-01-01, which then conflicts with the date given in Wikipedias
(1606-03-18).

Wikidata is less precise than Wikipedia here, but not actually wrong. Maybe
these cases should be treated separately from the potential errors.

Cheers,
Magnus


On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 3:54 PM, Amir Ladsgroup  wrote:

> I started this report, you can find it here
> .
>
> Best
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 3:27 PM, Amir Ladsgroup 
> wrote:
>
>> It's possible and rather easy to add them  .just several regexes and list
>> of months in that language are needed. but the issue is no major wikis
>> except these three are using a person data template (Almost all of them
>> have the template but almost none of them are using it widely) If any other
>> wiki is using a person data template widely, I would be happy to implement
>> it.
>>
>> Best
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 2:29 PM, Amir E. Aharoni <
>> amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
>>
>>> Can we join more Wikipedias to the comparison?
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
>>> http://aharoni.wordpress.com
>>> ‪“We're living in pieces,
>>> I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬
>>>
>>>
>>> 2014-08-19 10:38 GMT+03:00 Gerard Meijssen :
>>>
  Hoi,
 Amir has created functionality that compares data from en.wp de.wp and
 it.wp. It is data about "humans" and it only shows differences where
 they
 exist. It compares those four Wikipedias with information in Wikidata.

 The idea is that the report will be updated regularly.

 The problem we face is: what should it actually look like. Should it
 just
 splatter the info on a page or is more needed. At this time we just have
 data [1].

 Please help us with something that works easily for now. Once we have
 something, it can be prettified and more functional.
 Thanks,
  GerardM

 [1] http://paste.ubuntu.com/8079742/
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Amir
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Amir
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Accounting software for thematic orgs

[Richard Symonds]

Hi Pine,

I started off doing the accounts at WMUK several years ago and looked at a
fair few different systems, including open source.

Initially we used Gnucash, I believe, but because no-one else used it -
including our auditors - it was not very useful when we needed to create
year end accounts. I also considered CiviCRM after viewing a talk from the
Swedish chapter in 2012. However, the talk was not encouraging - CiviCRM
needs a *lot *of work to be useable as an accounting system. I would not
therefore recommend Gnucash or CiviCRM or any other open source system: you
will find it almost impossible to find an accountant who uses them, and
also almost impossible to find a CiviCRM developer who is also an
accountant! Your auditors will not know how to use the data and will not
have the programs to access it, so in the end you will have to pay extra
for the "free" software.

In short: open source programs are good for small charity accounts, but the
moment you start hiring staff (of any sort), or have fixed assets or
non-cash donations, the system does not scale and as a result you will
incur large overheads trying to get it to work. You might run into a
problem with CiviCRM if you need to generate invoices for a conference you
run in three or four years time - will your system be able to handle it, or
will you need to upgrade everything at much greater cost?

We also looked at Quickbooks, Sage, and a few others. In the end, we picked
Sage - not because it was cheap, or because it was ethical - but because it
is the UK standard and practically all UK accountants know how to use it.
It has a huge support network, and it is scalable from a self-employed
person up to an organisation with many thousands of employees. Sage is not
used much in the USA though, so Quickbooks may be a better idea for you.

My advice to you would be:

   - Plan for the future - ten year's time. Your solution needs to be
   scalable with little fuss.
   - Use something that has a proven track record - don't got for anything
   like a startup, because you need it supported in future and you can't take
   the risk.
   - Cloud-based is good, but the Treasurer really needs to understand
   what's happening - things should go through him where possible.
   - Don't be afraid to spend money if money needs to be spent.
   - Don't be afraid to ask the WMF directly for their advice. They know
   their stuff and it'd be good if your accounts were run on a similar system
   to theirs - cheaper in the long run, and you've got someone to turn to if
   it all breaks.

I hope this helps! Feel free to drop me an email if you have any more
specific questions.





Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992

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).

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


On 20 August 2014 10:57, Manuel Schneider 
wrote:

> Hi Pine,
>
> you may want to evaluate CiviCRM.
> It is not perfect but supports accounting (rather than just recording
> donations as before) about a year.
> The advantage of CiviCRM is the fact that it integrates membership
> management, mailings, donors management and that it can be used
> centrally by all the committee members.
>
> The setup and customization is not so easy with CiviCRM but there are
> plenty of people in the movement who gathered some experience with that.
>
> /Manuel
>
> --
> Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
> Lausanne, +41 (21) 34066-22 - www.wikimedia.ch
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Accounting software for thematic orgs

[Manuel Schneider]

Hi Pine,

you may want to evaluate CiviCRM.
It is not perfect but supports accounting (rather than just recording
donations as before) about a year.
The advantage of CiviCRM is the fact that it integrates membership
management, mailings, donors management and that it can be used
centrally by all the committee members.

The setup and customization is not so easy with CiviCRM but there are
plenty of people in the movement who gathered some experience with that.

/Manuel

-- 
Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Lausanne, +41 (21) 34066-22 - www.wikimedia.ch

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Accounting software for thematic orgs

[Craig Franklin]

Hi Pine,

When I was treasurer of WMAU we invested in Xero (mentioned in that
article).  Our primary motivators were allowing all the committee members
to be able to examine the books or enter receipts at any time, as most of
us were separated by hundreds of kilometres.  It worked very well for us,
and chopped away a lot of the overhead and risk of maintaining everything
on our private Wiki and in Excel spreadsheets and the like.

Cheers,
Craig Franklin




On 20 August 2014 14:54, Pine W  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> There are online small business accounting software packages. Do any
> thematic orgs have experience with them? Any recommendations? I am thinking
> about proposing Quickbooks Online for the Cascadia user group, but as this
> Forbes article says, there are competitors:
>
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2014/01/06/why-your-company-may-dump-quickbooks-this-year/
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pine
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[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Accounting software for thematic orgs

[Seb35]

Forwarding to the to-be-revived treasurers mailing list. ~ Seb35

--- Message réexpédié---
De: "Pine W" 
A: "Wikimedia Mailing List" 
Cc:
Sujet: [Wikimedia-l] Accounting software for thematic orgs
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 06:54:41 +0200

Hi all,

There are online small business accounting software packages. Do any
thematic orgs have experience with them? Any recommendations? I am thinking
about proposing Quickbooks Online for the Cascadia user group, but as this
Forbes article says, there are competitors:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2014/01/06/why-your-company-may-dump-quickbooks-this-year/

Thanks,

Pine
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[Wikimedia-l] Brevity

[Austin Hair]

With 11 days remaining in August, I'd like to remind everyone that
Wikimedia-l's guidelines[0] ask that subscribers keep their post count
below at most 30 per month. This guideline exists to help curb the
temptation to weigh in on absolutely every point raised, turning what
could otherwise be a carefully considered debate into a rapid-fire
argument. (If that's what you're looking for, fear not—I'm sure IRC[1]
has you covered.)

I know that this month has seen a few contentious topics, but if you
see yourself nearing 30 posts (Erik Zachte's ScanMail tool[2] is very
helpful, here), perhaps it's worth sparing a moment for pause before
clicking "reply." In fact, that's probably worth doing even if you
aren't topping the charts. Less is sometimes more.

Thanks for your attention,

Austin

[0] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels
[2] http://www.infodisiac.com/Wikipedia/ScanMail/Wikimedia-l.html

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Next steps regarding WMF<->community disputes about deployments

[Anders Wennersten]

Pine W skrev 2014-08-20 09:32:

Erik,

I am curious to hear your thoughts about the proposed Technology Committee.
That idea has some community support and had been discussed at some length
on the WMF Board Noticeboard.

I second that question

The mediaviewer has never been an issue on the Swedish community. After 
our layout expert stated it was a good feature for the readers, we 
editors quickly learned to opt out and continue our editing


I also have no problem accepting that the communities do not decide over 
the UI to our readers. I also see very promising statement from Lila.


But i am missing the insight from both Erik and Lila that behind what is 
being discussed is a key concern. Who decides over the development. And 
here I believe, as I stated before, that a properly set up Technology 
Committe is needed in order to ease the tensions in the movement 
independent of iany mproved processes


Anders






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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Next steps regarding WMF<->community disputes about deployments

[Pine W]

Erik,

I am curious to hear your thoughts about the proposed Technology Committee.
That idea has some community support and had been discussed at some length
on the WMF Board Noticeboard.

Pine
On Aug 19, 2014 11:55 PM, "Erik Moeller"  wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 11:48 PM, Erik Moeller  wrote:
>
> > [1] http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Task_force
>
> I meant to say - the one example where we've tried targeted task
> forces that I can think of was this one, as part of the strategy
> process years ago. IIRC some of the task forces were pretty
> productive, though the integration of their work in the final end
> product was inconsistent. If product-related task forces actually were
> part of the process of influencing the backlog, examining
> data/findings, adding potential requirements, etc., that might be a
> compelling way to work together.
>
>
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
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