Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Shlomi Fish]

On Thu, 7 Feb 2019 21:50:52 -0800
Info WorldUniversity  wrote:

> Thanks so so much for your great contributions to the Wikimedia Movement,
> Erik!
> 
> Regards, Scott
> 
> - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scott_WorldUnivAndSch
> 

Thanks, Erik!

-- 
-
Shlomi Fish   http://www.shlomifish.org/
http://is.gd/KNvczZ - The FSF Announces New Versions of the GPL

Chuck Norris read the entire English Wikipedia in 24 hours. Twice.
— http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Chuck-Norris/

Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Info WorldUniversity]

Thanks so so much for your great contributions to the Wikimedia Movement,
Erik!

Regards, Scott

- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scott_WorldUnivAndSch

On 8:46PM, Thu, Feb 7, 2019 Michael Snow  On 2/7/2019 7:41 PM, Erik Moeller wrote:
> > Thank you, Erik, for helping Wikimedia to know itself! I've always
> > appreciated the incredibly rich detail in your reports, your
> > willingness to unpack the awesome complexity of the wiki-verse, and
> > your insistence that this knowledge should be as free and open as the
> > Wikimedia projects are. I've learned a ton from you, and I am looking
> > forward to reading more about your new adventures as a volunteer. :)
>
> Indeed, one of the great insights that Erik's work embodies for me is
> that providing a framework for approaching knowledge (about the
> movement, or about anything) is essential to making it truly free. Raw
> data with no context is free as the air, but lungs are required to
> breathe. Thank you, Erik, for helping us appreciate how the wiki
> breathes by showing its patterns and rhythms.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
>
> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Erik Moeller]

Thank you, Erik, for helping Wikimedia to know itself! I've always
appreciated the incredibly rich detail in your reports, your
willingness to unpack the awesome complexity of the wiki-verse, and
your insistence that this knowledge should be as free and open as the
Wikimedia projects are. I've learned a ton from you, and I am looking
forward to reading more about your new adventures as a volunteer. :)

From one Erik to another - my best wishes!

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Risker]

I wish you a lot of joy in your retirement, Erik.  We will miss you and all
of your work to help us become a more transparent organization.

Risker/Anne

On Thu, 7 Feb 2019 at 05:42, Magnus Manske via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Erik,
>
> thanks for your great work on stats, and welcome back to the volunteer
> force.
> Where the real work is done :-)
>
> Magnus
>
> On Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 10:31 AM Sandra Rientjes - Wikimedia Nederland <
> rient...@wikimedia.nl> wrote:
>
> > Dear Erik,
> >
> > Many thanks for all the help and support you gave Wikimedia Nederland and
> > myself over the past years. Whenever we had tricky stats-related
> questions,
> > we knew we could turn to you.
> >
> > I hope to see you at many WMNL-events in the future.
> >
> > Enjoy the freedom!
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Sandra
> >
> >
> > Sandra Rientjes
> > Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland
> >
> > tel.(+31) (0)30 3200238 <+31%2030%20320%200238> (ma, di, do)
> > mob. (+31) (0)6  31786379 <+31%206%2031786379> (wo, vrij)
> >
> > www.wikimedia.nl
> >
> >
> > Mariaplaats 3
> > 3511 LH  Utrecht
> >
> >
> > Op do 7 feb. 2019 om 11:22 schreef rupert THURNER <
> > rupert.thur...@gmail.com
> > >:
> >
> > > Many thanks erik and all the best!! One sentence in eriks blog post
> > cited i
> > > found surprising. What type of modesty you guys were talking about?
> > >
> > > "At Wikimania London (2014) I talked about how we should err on the
> side
> > of
> > > modesty. That message never came across. I started to have a discussion
> > on
> > > this within WMF but failed to bring this to fruition. My bad."
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 22:18 Dario Taraborelli <
> dtarabore...@wikimedia.org
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > “[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older
> > > layers,
> > > > which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by
> > > vandals
> > > > can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
> > > > historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei.
> > > Likewise
> > > > view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and
> > > what
> > > > wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
> > > > preserved for a long time.”
> > > >
> > > > Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post
> > > > <
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20171018194720/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/
> > > > >
> > > > almost
> > > > ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he
> > > gave
> > > > us. Erik retired 
> > this
> > > > past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to
> work
> > > with
> > > > him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
> > > > celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.
> > > >
> > > > His Wikistats project —with his
> > signature
> > > > pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
> > > > <
> > https://web.archive.org/web/20060412043240/https://stats.wikimedia.org/
> > > > >—has
> > > > been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
> > > > attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and
> > make
> > > > sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history,
> > driven
> > > by
> > > > curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the
> communities
> > > that
> > > > most needed it.
> > > >
> > > > Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data
> describing
> > > the
> > > > growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
> > > > projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the
> very
> > > > center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors"
> > that
> > > > defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and
> the
> > > > academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
> > > > retention issues
> > > > <
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214507/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/
> > > > >
> > > > the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by
> > > nearly
> > > > a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
> > > > Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like
> elections
> > > > <
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20160405055621/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/sarah-palin/
> > > > >
> > > > or public health crises
> > > > <
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20090708011216/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-or-new-flu-or/
> > > > >.
> > > > He has created countless
> > > > 
> > > visualizations
> > > > <
> > > >
> > >
> >
> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Magnus Manske via Wikimedia-l]

Erik,

thanks for your great work on stats, and welcome back to the volunteer
force.
Where the real work is done :-)

Magnus

On Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 10:31 AM Sandra Rientjes - Wikimedia Nederland <
rient...@wikimedia.nl> wrote:

> Dear Erik,
>
> Many thanks for all the help and support you gave Wikimedia Nederland and
> myself over the past years. Whenever we had tricky stats-related questions,
> we knew we could turn to you.
>
> I hope to see you at many WMNL-events in the future.
>
> Enjoy the freedom!
>
> Best,
>
> Sandra
>
>
> Sandra Rientjes
> Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland
>
> tel.(+31) (0)30 3200238 <+31%2030%20320%200238> (ma, di, do)
> mob. (+31) (0)6  31786379 <+31%206%2031786379> (wo, vrij)
>
> www.wikimedia.nl
>
>
> Mariaplaats 3
> 3511 LH  Utrecht
>
>
> Op do 7 feb. 2019 om 11:22 schreef rupert THURNER <
> rupert.thur...@gmail.com
> >:
>
> > Many thanks erik and all the best!! One sentence in eriks blog post
> cited i
> > found surprising. What type of modesty you guys were talking about?
> >
> > "At Wikimania London (2014) I talked about how we should err on the side
> of
> > modesty. That message never came across. I started to have a discussion
> on
> > this within WMF but failed to bring this to fruition. My bad."
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 22:18 Dario Taraborelli  > wrote:
> >
> > > “[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older
> > layers,
> > > which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by
> > vandals
> > > can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
> > > historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei.
> > Likewise
> > > view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and
> > what
> > > wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
> > > preserved for a long time.”
> > >
> > > Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post
> > > <
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20171018194720/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/
> > > >
> > > almost
> > > ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he
> > gave
> > > us. Erik retired 
> this
> > > past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work
> > with
> > > him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
> > > celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.
> > >
> > > His Wikistats project —with his
> signature
> > > pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
> > > <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20060412043240/https://stats.wikimedia.org/
> > > >—has
> > > been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
> > > attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and
> make
> > > sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history,
> driven
> > by
> > > curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities
> > that
> > > most needed it.
> > >
> > > Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing
> > the
> > > growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
> > > projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very
> > > center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors"
> that
> > > defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the
> > > academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
> > > retention issues
> > > <
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214507/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/
> > > >
> > > the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by
> > nearly
> > > a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
> > > Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections
> > > <
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20160405055621/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/sarah-palin/
> > > >
> > > or public health crises
> > > <
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20090708011216/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-or-new-flu-or/
> > > >.
> > > He has created countless
> > > 
> > visualizations
> > > <
> > >
> >
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/27/new-interactive-visualization-wikipedia/
> > > >
> > > that show the enormous gaps in local language content and
> representation
> > > that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia
> for
> > > and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts
> > > <
> > >
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20141222073751/http://infodisiac.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/piechartscorrected.png
> > > >,
> > > which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards.
> > >
> > > Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Sandra Rientjes - Wikimedia Nederland]

Dear Erik,

Many thanks for all the help and support you gave Wikimedia Nederland and
myself over the past years. Whenever we had tricky stats-related questions,
we knew we could turn to you.

I hope to see you at many WMNL-events in the future.

Enjoy the freedom!

Best,

Sandra


Sandra Rientjes
Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland

tel.(+31) (0)30 3200238 (ma, di, do)
mob. (+31) (0)6  31786379 (wo, vrij)

www.wikimedia.nl


Mariaplaats 3
3511 LH  Utrecht


Op do 7 feb. 2019 om 11:22 schreef rupert THURNER :

> Many thanks erik and all the best!! One sentence in eriks blog post cited i
> found surprising. What type of modesty you guys were talking about?
>
> "At Wikimania London (2014) I talked about how we should err on the side of
> modesty. That message never came across. I started to have a discussion on
> this within WMF but failed to bring this to fruition. My bad."
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 22:18 Dario Taraborelli  wrote:
>
> > “[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older
> layers,
> > which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by
> vandals
> > can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
> > historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei.
> Likewise
> > view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and
> what
> > wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
> > preserved for a long time.”
> >
> > Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post
> > <
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20171018194720/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/
> > >
> > almost
> > ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he
> gave
> > us. Erik retired  this
> > past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work
> with
> > him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
> > celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.
> >
> > His Wikistats project —with his signature
> > pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
> >  > >—has
> > been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
> > attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and make
> > sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history, driven
> by
> > curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities
> that
> > most needed it.
> >
> > Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing
> the
> > growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
> > projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very
> > center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors" that
> > defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the
> > academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
> > retention issues
> > <
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214507/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/
> > >
> > the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by
> nearly
> > a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
> > Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections
> > <
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20160405055621/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/sarah-palin/
> > >
> > or public health crises
> > <
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20090708011216/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-or-new-flu-or/
> > >.
> > He has created countless
> > 
> visualizations
> > <
> >
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/27/new-interactive-visualization-wikipedia/
> > >
> > that show the enormous gaps in local language content and representation
> > that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia for
> > and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts
> > <
> >
> https://web.archive.org/web/20141222073751/http://infodisiac.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/piechartscorrected.png
> > >,
> > which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards.
> >
> > Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been cited over
> > 1,000 times
> > <
> >
> https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en_sdt=0%2C5=stats.wikimedia.org
> > >
> > in the scholarly literature. If we gave credit to open data creators in
> the
> > same way as we credit authors of scholarly papers, Erik would be one of
> the
> > most influential authors in the field, and I don't think it is much of a
> > stretch to say that the massive trove of data and metrics Erik has made
> > available had a direct causal role in the birth and growth of the
> academic
> > field of Wikimedia research, and more broadly, 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[rupert THURNER]

Many thanks erik and all the best!! One sentence in eriks blog post cited i
found surprising. What type of modesty you guys were talking about?

"At Wikimania London (2014) I talked about how we should err on the side of
modesty. That message never came across. I started to have a discussion on
this within WMF but failed to bring this to fruition. My bad."



On Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 22:18 Dario Taraborelli  “[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older layers,
> which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by vandals
> can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
> historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei. Likewise
> view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and what
> wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
> preserved for a long time.”
>
> Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20171018194720/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/
> >
> almost
> ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he gave
> us. Erik retired  this
> past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work with
> him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
> celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.
>
> His Wikistats project —with his signature
> pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
>  >—has
> been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
> attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and make
> sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history, driven by
> curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities that
> most needed it.
>
> Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing the
> growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
> projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very
> center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors" that
> defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the
> academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
> retention issues
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214507/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/
> >
> the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by nearly
> a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
> Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20160405055621/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/sarah-palin/
> >
> or public health crises
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20090708011216/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-or-new-flu-or/
> >.
> He has created countless
>  visualizations
> <
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/27/new-interactive-visualization-wikipedia/
> >
> that show the enormous gaps in local language content and representation
> that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia for
> and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20141222073751/http://infodisiac.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/piechartscorrected.png
> >,
> which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards.
>
> Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been cited over
> 1,000 times
> <
> https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en_sdt=0%2C5=stats.wikimedia.org
> >
> in the scholarly literature. If we gave credit to open data creators in the
> same way as we credit authors of scholarly papers, Erik would be one of the
> most influential authors in the field, and I don't think it is much of a
> stretch to say that the massive trove of data and metrics Erik has made
> available had a direct causal role in the birth and growth of the academic
> field of Wikimedia research, and more broadly, scholarship of online
> collaboration.
>
> Like I said this morning, Erik -- you have been not only an invaluable
> colleague and a steward for the movement, but also a very decent human
> being, and I am grateful we shared some of this journey together.
>
> Please join me in celebrating Erik on his well-deserved retirement, read
> his statement  to learn
> what he's planning to do next, or check this lovely portrait
>  Wired published a
> while back about "the Stats Master Making Sense of Wikipedia's Massive Data
> Trove".
>
> Dario
>
>
> --
> *Dario Taraborelli  *Director, Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation
> research.wikimedia.org • 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Philippe Beaudette]

Like so many others, I was blown away by wikistats. I can’t begin to count
the number of times I turned to it in my years at the WMF.  And it goes
without saying that Erik was an exemplary colleague, and a true gentleman.
Enjoy your well earned retirement.

Philippe


On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 9:27 PM Leinonen Teemu 
wrote:

> Hi Erik,
>
> When I saw the Wikistats the very first time in mid 2000 (?) I was very
> impressed. After meeting with Erik, I respected the project and him even
> more. The impact of the Wikistats to researchers and students around the
> world, but also to the open data movement in general, has been incredible.
> I hope the future historians will notice this.
>
> Thanks Erik. Your new project looks very interesting.
>
> - Teemu
>
> ---
> Prof. Teemu Leinonen
> http://www.teemuleinonen.fi
> + 358 50 351 6796
>
> On 6 Feb 2019, at 23.17, Dario Taraborelli  > wrote:
>
> “[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older layers,
> which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by vandals
> can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
> historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei. Likewise
> view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and what
> wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
> preserved for a long time.”
>
> Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20171018194720/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/
> >
> almost
> ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he gave
> us. Erik retired  this
> past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work with
> him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
> celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.
>
> His Wikistats project —with his signature
> pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
>  >—has
> been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
> attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and make
> sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history, driven by
> curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities that
> most needed it.
>
> Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing the
> growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
> projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very
> center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors" that
> defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the
> academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
> retention issues
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214507/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/
> >
> the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by nearly
> a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
> Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20160405055621/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/sarah-palin/
> >
> or public health crises
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20090708011216/http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/05/h1n1-flu-or-new-flu-or/
> >.
> He has created countless
>  visualizations
> <
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/27/new-interactive-visualization-wikipedia/
> >
> that show the enormous gaps in local language content and representation
> that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia for
> and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts
> <
> https://web.archive.org/web/20141222073751/http://infodisiac.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/piechartscorrected.png
> >,
> which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards.
>
> Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been cited over
> 1,000 times
> <
> https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en_sdt=0%2C5=stats.wikimedia.org
> >
> in the scholarly literature. If we gave credit to open data creators in the
> same way as we credit authors of scholarly papers, Erik would be one of the
> most influential authors in the field, and I don't think it is much of a
> stretch to say that the massive trove of data and metrics Erik has made
> available had a direct causal role in the birth and growth of the academic
> field of Wikimedia research, and more broadly, scholarship of online
> collaboration.
>
> Like I said this morning, Erik -- you have been not only an invaluable
> colleague and a steward for the movement, but also a very decent human
> 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Leinonen Teemu]

Hi Erik,

When I saw the Wikistats the very first time in mid 2000 (?) I was very 
impressed. After meeting with Erik, I respected the project and him even more. 
The impact of the Wikistats to researchers and students around the world, but 
also to the open data movement in general, has been incredible. I hope the 
future historians will notice this.

Thanks Erik. Your new project looks very interesting.

- Teemu

---
Prof. Teemu Leinonen
http://www.teemuleinonen.fi
+ 358 50 351 6796

On 6 Feb 2019, at 23.17, Dario Taraborelli 
mailto:dtarabore...@wikimedia.org>> wrote:

“[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older layers,
which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by vandals
can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei. Likewise
view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and what
wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
preserved for a long time.”

Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post

almost
ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he gave
us. Erik retired  this
past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work with
him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.

His Wikistats project —with his signature
pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
—has
been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and make
sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history, driven by
curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities that
most needed it.

Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing the
growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very
center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors" that
defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the
academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
retention issues

the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by nearly
a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections

or public health crises
.
He has created countless
 visualizations

that show the enormous gaps in local language content and representation
that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia for
and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts
,
which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards.

Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been cited over
1,000 times

in the scholarly literature. If we gave credit to open data creators in the
same way as we credit authors of scholarly papers, Erik would be one of the
most influential authors in the field, and I don't think it is much of a
stretch to say that the massive trove of data and metrics Erik has made
available had a direct causal role in the birth and growth of the academic
field of Wikimedia research, and more broadly, scholarship of online
collaboration.

Like I said this morning, Erik -- you have been not only an invaluable
colleague and a steward for the movement, but also a very decent human
being, and I am grateful we shared some of this journey together.

Please join me in celebrating Erik on his well-deserved retirement, read
his statement  to learn
what he's planning to do next, or check this lovely portrait
 Wired published a
while back about "the Stats Master Making Sense of Wikipedia's Massive Data
Trove".

Dario


--
*Dario Taraborelli  *Director, Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation

[Wikimedia-l] Farewell, Erik!

[Dario Taraborelli]

“[R]ecent revisions of an article can be peeled off to reveal older layers,
which are still meaningful for historians. Even graffiti applied by vandals
can by its sheer informality convey meaningful information, just like
historians learned a lot from graffiti on walls of classic Pompei. Likewise
view patterns can tell future historians a lot about what was hot and what
wasn’t in our times. Reason why these raw view data are meant to be
preserved for a long time.”

Erik Zachte wrote these lines in a blog post

almost
ten years ago, and I cannot find better words to describe the gift he gave
us. Erik retired  this
past Friday, leaving behind an immense legacy. I had the honor to work with
him for several years, and I hosted this morning an intimate, tearful
celebration of what Erik has represented for the Wikimedia movement.

His Wikistats project —with his signature
pale yellow background we've known and loved since the mid 2000s
—has
been much more than an "analytics platform". It's been an individual
attempt he initiated, and grew over time, to try and comprehend and make
sense of the largest open collaboration project in human history, driven by
curiosity and by an insatiable desire to serve data to the communities that
most needed it.

Through this project, Erik has created a live record of data describing the
growth and reach of all Wikimedia communities, across languages and
projects, putting multi-lingualism and smaller communities at the very
center of his attention. He coined metrics such as "active editors" that
defined the benchmark for volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the
academic community to understand some of the growing pains and editor
retention issues

the movement has faced. He created countless reports—that predate by nearly
a decade modern visualizations of online attention—to understand what
Wikipedia traffic means in the context of current events like elections

or public health crises
.
He has created countless
 visualizations

that show the enormous gaps in local language content and representation
that, as a movement, we face in our efforts to build an encyclopedia for
and about everyone. He has also made extensive use of pie charts
,
which—as friends—we are ready to turn a blind eye towards.

Most importantly, the data Erik has brougth to life has been cited over
1,000 times

in the scholarly literature. If we gave credit to open data creators in the
same way as we credit authors of scholarly papers, Erik would be one of the
most influential authors in the field, and I don't think it is much of a
stretch to say that the massive trove of data and metrics Erik has made
available had a direct causal role in the birth and growth of the academic
field of Wikimedia research, and more broadly, scholarship of online
collaboration.

Like I said this morning, Erik -- you have been not only an invaluable
colleague and a steward for the movement, but also a very decent human
being, and I am grateful we shared some of this journey together.

Please join me in celebrating Erik on his well-deserved retirement, read
his statement  to learn
what he's planning to do next, or check this lovely portrait
 Wired published a
while back about "the Stats Master Making Sense of Wikipedia's Massive Data
Trove".

Dario


-- 
*Dario Taraborelli  *Director, Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation
research.wikimedia.org • nitens.org • @readermeter

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