gmane.org.wikimedia.textbook

Book (collection) feature for Wikibooks

Aashish Mittal — 2012-02-14T14:00:33

Hello devs,

I am Aashish Mittal and am currently working on a project for creating a
'Book' extension for Wikisource/WikiBooks. There is a bug filed for this
feature (check bug 15071<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15071>)
by the wikimedia community developers.

This extension would enable the users to group selected pages into logical
'books' and use these books as per their needs. We are currently working on
defining the scope of this project, but an initial thought to this project
defines the following deliverables for this extension:

1. Create a book
2. Page addition wizard (also containing search filters for finding
particular pages)
3. Import book metadata (where user can directly add set of pages from
his export list)
4. Export book metadata (export the book details containing all page
links to a file which can be saved by user, similar to MetaBooks)
5. Add to a book option for every page
6. Table of contents for a book
7. Read a book (navigate through pages or some kind of an ajax based
book reader)
8. Recent changes for each book
9. Create chapters
10. Arrange order of pages in a book
11. Protect/watchlist/move/delete all pages of a book
12. List books
13. Search for a book
14. Search in a book
15. Automatic Bookshelves, where the books of a wiki could be organized
according to their metadata (examples:
English<https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/en:Wikibooks:Departments>,
Portuguese <https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/pt:Wikilivros:Biblioteca>, ...)

This feature is an extension of
Collection<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Collection>and
BookManager <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BookManager> and
intends to add additional functionalities described above to them. It would
be great if I could get some suggestions from the Wikibooks community
developers about their requirements, the features they would like to see
and any implementation ideas. I have created a
topic<https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Reading_room/Proposals#Book_feature_for_Wikibooks>in
the Reading room for the same. Kindly add your valuable suggestions
for
this project.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Aashish

Call for image filter referendum

Casey Brown — 2011-07-01T19:55:22

/Please distribute this message widely/

*Call for referendum*:  The Wikimedia Foundation, at the direction of
the Board of Trustees, will be holding a vote to determine whether
members of the community support the creation and usage of an opt-in
personal image filter, which would allow readers to voluntarily screen
particular types of images strictly for their own account.

Further details and educational materials will be available shortly.
The referendum is scheduled for 12-27 August, 2011, and will be
conducted on servers hosted by a neutral third party.  Referendum
details, officials, voting requirements, and supporting materials will
be posted at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image_filter_referendum
shortly.

For the coordinating committee,
Philippe (WMF)
Cbrown1023
Risker
Mardetanha
PeterSymonds
Robert Harris

Publications we should support hosting and sharing

Samuel Klein — 2011-06-26T08:21:01

Here's an example of a remarkable publication that we should support
capturing, in its elements and its final layout, to support reuse and
sharing in other sorts of documents:

http://skateistan.org/skateistan_blog/out-now-student-mag-arts-skateboarding
http://www.skateistan.org/PDFs/Bridge-Final.pdf

We need to improve automation for adding these sorts of things to
wikisource: scripts to request and capture license information, and to
batch upload PDFs, extracting individual images and text from source
files, uploading them separately, and approximating the original
layout.

Sam.

[Fwd: Five-year WMF targets exclude non-Wikipediaprojects]

Federico Leva (Nemo — 2010-10-10T10:50:38

I suppose this may interest you.
Sorry for crossposting; please join the discussion on foundation-l, if 
you wish.

Nemo

-------- Messaggio Originale  --------
Oggetto: Five-year WMF targets exclude non-Wikipedia projects
Data: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:33:07 +0200
Da: Federico Leva (Nemo)
A: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r< at >public.gmane.org>

Despite repeated assurances at Wikimania, on lists and on strategywiki,
that the strategic plan was going to consider all Wikimedia projects as
important, now at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Five-year_targets the
second target, «Increase the amount of information we offer» considers
only the number of Wikipedia articles.
«We're aware of the challenges around bot-created articles, articles of
low quality, etc., and the limited focus on Wikipedia, so this metric
shouldn't be seen in isolation, but is an important indicator.» Yes, but
a wrong one.

I'm, very, very disappointed: I have to conclude that all the words on
community participation etc. were only empty rhetoric.

Nemo

Wikimania 2010: Call for Participation Extended

Casey Brown — 2010-05-22T21:50:11

Due to numerous requests we have extended the submission deadline for
Wikimania 2010 as follows:

* Abstract Registration: May 24, 11.59 p.m. (Pacific Time)
* Notification for workshops: May 29, 11.59 p.m. (Pacific Time)
* Notification for panels, tutorials, presentations: June 3, 11.59
p.m. (Pacific Time)

See the Call for Participation for more details:
http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/wiki/CFP

Thank you for helping make Wikimania 2010 a successful event. :-)
See you in Gdansk, July 9-11!

With best regards,
 Wikimania Team

Are you a Wikibookian? Invitation to Online Interview

Amal Hanna — 2010-02-15T02:54:48

Dear Wikibook Contributor,

Thank you for those who participate in the online questionnaire which aims to assess the motivation of Wikibooks' contributors.

I am pleased to advise that the analysis of the data from the completed online questionnaires has been finalized. The analysis provides some initial insights into the reasons Wikibookians contribute to Wiki textbook projects. However, some of these results require further investigation to gain a better understanding of the motivation of Wikibooks' contributors.

Now, I would like to invite you to participate in the online interview. The interview will take from 30 to 45 minutes. This interview will be in the form of text chat. I have attached a 'Research Information Sheet', which provides more detailed information about the research and interview. This research project has been approved by the University of South Australia's Human Research Ethics Committee.

Could you please reply to this email with the appropriate local time for you to meet with you online?
Date & Time: ----/----/2010 < at >---- AM or PM?
City: --------------------

Your reply will be considered as your consent (agreement) for the interview. When I receive your reply, I will add you to my messenger contact list, and you will then receive an invitation from InterviewonWikibooks

I look forward to meeting with you online

Thank you

Kind regards

Amal Maher

PhD Candidate

School of Communication

University of South Australia

Email: Amal.Maher-rhSrxyXshqXfbukzYdBW+w< at >public.gmane.org

Office hours this Friday, October 9

Cary Bass — 2009-10-06T18:57:14

Hi everyone,

This Friday's office hours will feature Mike Godwin, the Wikimedia
Foundation's Legal Counsel.  If you don't know Mike Godwin, you can
read about him at <http://enwp.org/Mike_Godwin>.

Office hours this Friday are from 2230 to 2330 UTC (3:30PM to 4:30PM
PDT).  Mike will also be taking the following Thursday from 1600 to
1700 UTC (9:00AM to 10:00AM PDT).

The IRC channel that will be hosting Mike's conversation will be
#wikimedia-office on the Freenode network.  If you do not have an IRC
client, you can always access Freenode by going to
http://webchat.freenode.net/, typing in the nickname of your choice and
choosing wikimedia-office as the channel.   You may be prompted to click
through a security warning. Go ahead.

Wikimedia Staff office hours

Cary Bass — 2009-09-30T23:12:16

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Hi all, this is a reminder that office hours will be tomorrow, Thursday,
October 1, at 1600 UTC (9:00 AM PDT) and feature Rand Montoya.

The IRC channel that will be hosting Rand's conversation will be
#wikimedia-office on the Freenode network.  If you do not have an IRC
client, you can always access Freenode by going to
http://webchat.freenode.net/, typing in the nickname of your choice and
choosing wikimedia-office as the channel.   You may be prompted to click
through a security warning. Go ahead.

The channel is also available through the Wikizine site at
http://chat.wikizine.org/
and picking one of the two gateways, while choosing "wikimedia-office"
from the dropdown on the next page.

- -- Cary Bass Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free
Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
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Wikimedia Staff office hours

Cary Bass — 2009-09-28T21:41:52

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Hello all!

This Thursday, October 1, 2009 between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM PDT (UTC
16:00 and 17:00) Rand Montoya, Wikimedia's Head of Community Giving will
be joining us for office hours.  Rand will be online to answer your
questions and talk about the role of fundraising for the Wikimedia
Foundation and the upcoming Fundriaser.

The IRC channel that will be hosting Rand's conversation will be
#wikimedia-office on the Freenode network.  If you do not have an IRC
client, you can always access Freenode by going to
http://webchat.freenode.net/, typing in the nickname of your choice and
choosing wikimedia-office as the channel.  You may be prompted to click
through a security warning. It's fine.

- --
Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

PS: I'll be sending a follow up email to start a thread to discuss the
times of the office hours.

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REMINDER: Wikimedia Staff office hours

Cary Bass — 2009-09-25T18:51:21

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Just a reminder about today's office hours with Sue Gardner.  Just as a
note, we're planning alternating the Friday 22:30 UTC office hours with
Thursday 16:00 UTC, which is much easier on our European participants.

Cary

- --------

As a result of the success of the Strategy planning office hours and the
recent "meet the board" presentation on the #wikimedia channel on IRC,
we've decided to do regular office hours featuring a Wikimedia
Foundation staff member.

And to kick things off, this Friday, September 25, 2009, between 15:30
and 16:30 PDT (UTC 22:30 to 23:30), Sue Gardner, the Wikimedia
Foundation's Executive Director, will be online to answer your questions
and talk about her role in the Foundation and plans for the future.

The IRC channel that will be hosting Sue's conversation, and all future
WMF staff office hours, will be #wikimedia-office on the Freenode
network.  If you do not have an IRC client, you can always access
Freenode by going to http://webchat.freenode.net/, typing in the
nickname of your choice and choosing wikimedia-office as the channel.
You may be prompted to click through a security warning. It's fine.

- --
Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate



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Wikimedia Staff office hours

Cary Bass — 2009-09-21T18:18:55

Hello all!

As a result of the success of the Strategy planning office hours and the
recent "meet the board" presentation on the #wikimedia channel on IRC,
we've decided to do regular office hours featuring a Wikimedia
Foundation staff member.

And to kick things off, this Friday, September 25, 2009, between 15:30
and 16:30 PDT (UTC 22:30 to 23:30), Sue Gardner, the Wikimedia
Foundation's Executive Director, will be online to answer your questions
and talk about her role in the Foundation and plans for the future.

The IRC channel that will be hosting Sue's conversation, and all future
WMF staff office hours, will be #wikimedia-office on the Freenode
network.  If you do not have an IRC client, you can always access
Freenode by going to http://webchat.freenode.net/, typing in the
nickname of your choice and choosing wikimedia-office as the channel.
You may be prompted to click through a security warning. It's fine.

Another #wikibooks meeting: April 09, 2009 21:00 UTC

Mike.lifeguard — 2009-04-04T22:28:55

generally felt to be worthwhile, so I'd like to have another
meeting on Thursday April 9 at 21:00UTC. That's 5PM in
Philidelphia, for example.
Once again, I've started a section on
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks/Community-building for
this session with 2 topics to discuss: changing FlaggedRevs
configuration and coordinating feedback about Collections.
Hopefully people will be able to make it, especially those who
couldn't last time. We'll be meeting in #wikibooks on
irc.freenode.net as usual. Anyone who's interested can come -
listen, participate, whatever!
See you there
-Mike
----
  Mike.lifeguard
  mikelifeguard-97jfqw80gc6171pxa8y+qA< at >public.gmane.org

Tech updates: code updates going live to Wikimediasites

Brion Vibber — 2009-03-25T13:22:42

After a few weeks of bug fixes, we've caught up with MediaWiki 
development code review and I'm pushing out an update to the live sites. 
This fixes a lot of little bugs, and hopefully doesn't cause introduce 
too many new ones. :)

* Change logs: http://ur1.ca/2rah (r47458 to r48811)

As usual in addition to lots of offline and individual testing among our 
staff and volunteer developers, we've done a shakedown on 
http://test.wikipedia.org/ -- and as usual we can fully expect a few 
more issues to have cropped up that weren't already found.

Don't be alarmed if you do find a problem; just let us know at 
http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ or on the tech IRC channels 
(#wikimedia-tech on Freenode).

We should be resuming our weekly update schedule soon -- I won't be 
doing a mega-crosspost like this every week! -- and will continue to 
improve our pre-update staging and shakedown testing to keep disruption 
to a minimum and awesome improvements to a maximum.

I'd also like to announce that we've started a blog for Wikimedia tech 
activity & MediaWiki development, in part because I want to make sure 
community members can easily follow what we're working on and give 
feedback before we push things out:

* http://techblog.wikimedia.org/

I'd very much like to make sure that we've got regular contacts among 
the various project communities who can help coordinate with us on 
features, bugs, and general thoughts which might affect some projects 
distinctly from others.

Wikimania 2009: Call for Participation

Casey Brown — 2009-02-22T15:20:08

Apologies in advanced for the cross-posting. :-)

Please circulate this call among Wikimedia communities, researchers
and other people that may be interested! This call is also online at
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation

== Call for Participation ==
Wikimania is an annual global event devoted to Wikimedia projects
around the globe (including Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikisource,
Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikiversity, Wikiquote, Wikispecies, and
Wikimedia Commons). The conference is a community gathering, giving
the editors and users of Wikimedia projects an opportunity to meet
each other, exchange ideas, report on research and projects, and
collaborate on the future of the projects. The conference is open to
the public, and is a chance for educators, researchers, programmers
and free culture activists who are interested in the Wikimedia
projects to learn more and share ideas about the Wikimedia projects.

This year's conference will be held from '''August 26-28''' in Buenos
Aires, Argentina at '''San Martín Cultural Center'''.

For more information, please visit the official Wikimania 2009 site at
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org.

We are accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels,
posters, open space discussions, and artistic works related to the
Wikimedia projects or free content topics in general. Please carefully
follow the submission guidelines below.

=== Important dates ===
* '''Submissions will open on:''' March 1
* '''Deadline for submitting workshop, panel, and presentation
submissions:''' April 15
* '''Deadline for submitting posters, open space discussions, and
artistic works:''' April 30
* '''Notification of acceptance of workshops, panels, presentations:''' May 15
* '''Notification of acceptance of posters, discussions, and artistic
works:''' May 31
* '''Conference dates:''' August 26-28

=== Themes and tracks  ===
There are two tracks for submission: the '''Casual Track''', for
members of wiki communities and interested observers to share their
own experiences and thoughts and to present new ideas; and the
'''Academic Track''', for research based on the methods of scientific
studies exploring the social, content or technical aspects of
Wikipedia, the other Wikimedia projects, or other massively
collaborative works, as well as open and free content creation and
community dynamics more generally.

Submissions to either track should address one or more of the following themes:

* '''"Wikimedia Communities,"''' including the topics of conflict
resolution and community dynamics; reputation and identity;
multi-lingualism and languages and cultures.
* '''"Free Knowledge,"''' including open access to information; ways
to gather and distribute free knowledge, use of the Wikimedia projects
in education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality
and usability.
* '''"Latin American challenges,"''' centering on efforts and
limitations for expanding the reach of Wikimedia projects in Latin
America; promotion of projects in Native American languages; specific
problems of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Wikimedia communities.
* '''"Technical infrastructure,"''' including issues related to
MediaWiki development and extensions; Wikimedia's technical
infrastructure; and new ideas for development.

Papers should be of interest to members of the Wikimedia communities,
and fit within one of the themes above.

=== Types of Submissions ===
We are seeking submissions for:
* '''Presentations''' (10–30 minute talks with discussion afterwards)
:* This type of submission is appropriate for presenting substantial
research or community projects

* '''Workshops''' (60–120 minute session with a discussion leader and
more audience involvement)
:* This type of submission is appropriate for sessions designed to
teach a specific subject or explore it in depth

* '''Panels''' (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss aspects of a topic
with audience questions, 45-90 minute sessions)
:* This type of submission is appropriate for discussions on a topic
of wide interest among community members, with several participants
who may be presenting their work. For less formal discussions of
limited interest, consider an open space discussion instead.

* '''Open space discussions''' (informal discussion on a specific
topic; the discussion leader helps moderate the conversation but the
session is open to anyone interested to join in)
:* This type of submission is good for a topic that several
participants want to discuss or brainstorm about in an informal
setting

* '''Posters''' (printed visual displays that can stand on their own,
with no associated presentation)
:* This type of submission is good for presenting research in
progress, or smaller community projects

* '''Artistic works''' (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations,
displays or other representations of some aspect of the projects)
:* This type of submission is good for showing creativity or
showcasing beautiful work about the projects.

In addition there will be the chance to give lightning talks, which
are 5-minute short presentations. Lightning talk sessions will be
organized on the Wikimania 2009 wiki shortly before the conference
begins, without any need to submit them via the submission system.
These talks are best for those who want to quickly present an idea or
project without giving a formal presentation. These are informal talks
that are open to everyone to participate in.

=== Submission Guidelines ===

Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us minimize
wasted effort by submitting via the submission system and following
these guidelines. All submissions MUST include the following:

# '''Event title:''' an English or Spanish title.
# '''Abstract:''' a short English or Spanish abstract of your event in
50 to 100 words. The abstract will be used for the public schedule.
# '''Themes and track:''' list the track you wish to submit to (Casual
or Academic) and the single theme you think your submission fits in
best (Wikimedia Communities, Free Knowledge, Latin American
challenges, Technical infrastructure). Note that posters and artistic
works have their own track in the submission system.
# '''Information about the speaker:''' full name, email, and a short biography.
# '''Submission file:''' A plain text, PDF or OpenDocument file, in
English or Spanish, containing:
#* '''A long description of the submission''', in English or Spanish
that can be used for reviewing, not to exceed 1000 words. Please give
an overview of the areas to be covered or taught. State clearly the
relevance to the Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a
specific wiki project. You can also include links, Include graphics an
diagrams if they do not exceed one page.
#* '''Event type:''' please state if the event is a presentation,
workshop, panel, open space discussion, poster, or artistic work; if a
presentation or panel, whether the presentation is expected to be a
certain length.
#* '''For panel submissions only:''' name of a suggested moderator and
short biographies of each suggested panelist
#* '''Language:''' list the language you plan to present in. The
conference will be bilingual in English and Spanish.
#* '''Special requirements:''' list any special requirements,
including any equipment.

In the "Comments for conference director" field you should tell us
whether you will attend to Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c)
only if your submission is accepted, or (d) only if we provide travel
and/or accommodation. You can also add yourself to the public list of
attendees at the Wikimania 2009 wiki:
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees

Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later ''and'' the Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 3.0! By submitting for Wikimania
2009 you agree to this condition.

===Submissions===
Once you are sure you have included all of the required information,
please send your submission before the respective deadline through our
'''submission system''':
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission

If you have further questions, email wikimania-program-AeOJrEpdGNeGglJvpFV4uA< at >public.gmane.org
(in English or Spanish).

Wikimania 2008 - Call for participation

Mark (Markie — 2008-02-23T18:00:12

Hi
Sorry for the spam like email but this is just an email to let you all know
about the Wikimania 2008 Call for Participation.  I have included this
below, and the page can also be found on the Wikimania wiki < at >
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation. Please do
forward this onto any local project mailing lists or anyone else who may be
interested in this.  Also there are translations in the following
languages: de/Deutsch<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/de&uselang=de>
es/ <http://tr_1203787823173>Español<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/es&uselang=es>
fr/ <http://tr_1203787823178>Français<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/fr&uselang=fr>
ja/日本語<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/ja&uselang=ja>
pt/Português<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/pt&uselang=pt>
sv/Svenska<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/sv&uselang=sv>
zh/ <http://tr_1203787823208>中文<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Call_for_Participation/zh&uselang=zh>.
More translations are always welcomed and appreciated, so please see the
translation page<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Translation/Call_for_Participation>to
help out.

Many thanks

Mark
(User:Markie)


Call for Participation

[image: Image:Wikimania logo with text
2.svg]<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Wikimania_logo_with_text_2.svg>

Wikimania <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimania> is an annual global event
devoted to Wikimedia
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page>projects around the
globe (including
Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_page>,
Wikibooks<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/b:en:Main_page>,
Wikisource <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/s:en:Main_page>,
Wikinews<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/n:Main_page>,
Wiktionary <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikt:en:Main_page>,
Wikiversity<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/v:en:Main_page>,
Wikiquote <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/q:en:Main_page>,
Wikispecies<http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page>,
and Wikimedia Commons <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page>) and for
its editors and users to gather, meet each other, exchange ideas, and report
on research and projects. It is a community event, which is also open to the
public and to researchers. This year's conference will be held from *July
17-19, 2008* in Alexandria <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria>,
Egypt<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt>at the new Library of
Alexandria (Bibliotheca
Alexandrina <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina>).

[image: The Wikimedia Foundation
projects]<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_logo_family.png>

For more information, please visit the Wikimania 2008 Home page at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org

We are accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels, posters,
open spaces, and artistic artifacts. Please carefully follow the submission
guidelines below. Submissions can be sent via the following link:
https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission/wikimania2008

 Important dates

   - 1 February – 16 March : Submission
   - 17 March – 30 April : Review, feedback and notification of
   acceptance
   - 17 – 19 July 2008 : *Wikimania*

 Conference Tracks

Submissions should address one or more of the following themes:
Wikimedia Communities Interesting projects and particularities within the
communities; policy creation within individual projects; conflict resolution
and community dynamics; reputation and identity; multi-lingualism, languages
and cultures; social studies. We explicitly invite you to discuss your local
Wikimedia project's community. Free Knowledge Open access to information;
ways to gather and distribute free knowledge, usage of the Wikimedia
projects in education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality
and usability; copyright laws and other legal areas that interfere with
Wikimedia projects. Free Content in the Middle-East/Africa. Technical
infrastructure Issues related to MediaWiki development and extensions;
Wikimedia's technical infrastructure; new ideas for development (including
case studies from other wikis or similar projects). Scientific track Academic
papers about massively collaborative work, open and free content creation,
community dynamics, the social or economic aspects of the Wikimedia
projects, and other topics related to Wikimedia projects. Papers submitted
to the scientific track will be peer reviewed by a reviewing committee
regarding their novelty, rigour, and estimated impact, and accepted or
rejected based on these reviews. The papers will be published in proceedings
afterwards, and depending on the number and the quality of the submissions,
a journal special issue may be pursued. Scientific track papers must be in
English, and must not exceed 7,500 words (or 15 pages LNCS).

Your topic must be related either to the Wikimedia projects and their
communities, or to the creation of free content in general.

Types of Submissions

We are seeking submissions for

   - presentations (10–30 minute talks with discussion afterwards)
   - workshops/open discussions (60–120 minute session with a discussion
   leader and more involvement of the audience)
   - panels (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss on a specific subject)
   - posters (printed presentations or visual displays that can stand on
   their own)
   - artistic artifacts (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations, or
   other representations of some aspect of the projects)

In addition there will the possibility to give lightning
talks<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lightning_talks>(5
minute short presentations). These will be organized on the Wikimania
2008 wiki without need to submit via the submission system.

Submission Guidelines

Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us minimize wasted
effort by submitting via the
submission<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission>system
and following these guidelines. All submissions MUST explicitly
include the following:

   1. an English "Event title"
   2. a short English "Abstract" of your event in 50 to 100 words. The
   abstract will be used for the public schedule.
   3. the "Track" your submission fits in best (Wikimedia Communities,
   Free Knowledge, Technical infrastructure, or Scientific)
   4. the "Event type" (presentation, workshop, panel, poster,
   artistic...)
   5. information about the speaker (full name, email, a short
   description of at least 2 sentences...)
   6. for submissions to the scientific track: set "Submission of paper
   for proceedings" to "yes" and upload a paper instead of the "Description"
   below as "Attachment". Papers must be in English, and must not exceed 7,500
   words.

In addition you can add some more information like a a subtitle of the
event, an image (will be resized to 128x128px) and private "Submission
notes" for reviewers and conference organisation. In particular you should
give:

   - a more detailed "Description" of your event in English or Arabic.
   The description is essential for review: please give an overview of the
   areas to be covered or taught. The better you describe your submission, the
   more likely it will get accepted. State clearly the relevance to the
   Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a specific wiki project.
   You can also include links. The description will later be used for the
   public schedule but you can edit it before.
   - special requirements (such as equipment for a workshop or panel) if
   needed
   - the language used for presentation
   - whether you want to submit a paper for proceedings
   - whether you want to submit presentation slides
   - whether the presentation is intended to be a specific length
   - the target audience you are going to reach and what previous
   knowledge is needed
   - images or sketches of the poster or artistic artifact if available
   - for panel submissions a suggested moderator and short biographies of
   each suggested panelist

In the "Submission notes" you should tell us whether you will attend to
Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c) only if your submission is accepted,
or (d) only if we provide travel and/or accommodation. You can also add
yourself to the public list of attendees at the Wikimania 2008 wiki:
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees

Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU Free
Documentation License version 1.2 or later *and* the Creative Commons
Attribution License! By submitting for Wikimania 2008 you agree to this
condition.

For more information see the submission guidelines at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission

Submissions

Once you are sure you have included all of the required information, please
send your submission before the respective deadline through our *submission
system*:
https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission

See also

   - About the venue: http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Venue
   - Brainstorming page for program ideas:
   http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_ideas
   - Editable list of attendees:
   http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees

quality.wikimedia.org and wikiquality-l launched

Erik Moeller — 2007-09-17T20:58:27

[Please translate this announcement into other languages.]

Wikipedia's roots in the more conservative Nupedia project are reflected by
many in-depth discussions we've had over the years about quality assurance,
filtering, and labeling.

In her "4 wishes for the year 2007" [1], Wikimedia Foundation Chair
Florence Devouard also identified "reliability" as a key goal for the
Wikimedia Foundation. Today we're taking two small steps towards that
goal:

* the launch of http://quality.wikimedia.org/ as a portal targeting
readers and volunteers to summarize key information about current
quality initiatives, combined with
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiquality as a more in-depth
description of our plans,

* the opening of wikiquality-l as a mailing list for related discussions:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikiquality-l

Notably, these pages describe our current plans with regard to the
"FlaggedRevs" extension, a MediaWiki extension developed by Aaron
Schulz and Jörg Baach (with financial support from Wikimedia
Deutschland e.V.) which makes it possible to identify revisions of
articles that are known to be of a certain quality, and to change the
default view based on that information.

The public beta of this feature (initially on dummy websites, i.e. not
production environments) will begin as soon as a security review of
the current code has been completed (expected later this month). In
the meantime, please give your feedback on the quality.wikimedia.org
portal, add translations, and subscribe to wikiquality-l to join
future discussions about the specifics of any particular initiative.

[1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/4_wishes_for_year_2007

Sincerely,
Erik Möller
Board member, Wikimedia Foundation

Please, add links to your village pumps...

Milos Rancic — 2007-04-09T14:05:16

... at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikimedian_pubs

Of course, if such thing already exists, let me know that.

Wikimania 2007 - Call for Submissions

Erik Moeller — 2007-04-08T00:18:57

I'm (re)sending this to lots of lists -- people, we need more
submissions! Please be bold in sending us your papers -- we'd love to
see you in Taiwan this year. :-)

Please forward to other relevant lists as well! See
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation/distribution
for the ones we've already covered.

Erik

- - - -

Wikimania is an annual global event devoted to Wikipedia and the other
Wikimedia Foundation projects. It is a community event, which is also
open to the public and to researchers. This year's conference will be
held from August 3-5, 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan at Chien Tan Overseas
Youth Activity Center. For more information, please visit the
Wikimania site:

http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/

Send your submissions through:

http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission

We are accepting submissions for posters, presentations, workshops,
and discussion groups. We are also accepting nominations for speakers
and speaker panels, and suggestions for other activities. Please note
the details below and be bold in your submissions!

== Important dates ==

    * 1 March – 30 April: Submission
    * 1 May – 31 May: Feedback and notification of acceptance
    * 3 – 5 Aug 2007 : Wikimania

== Conference Themes ==

Submissions should address one or more of the following themes:

    * Wikimedia Communities – Interesting projects and particularities
within the communities (we explicitly invite you to present your local
Wikimedia project's community!); policy creation within individual
projects; conflict resolution and community dynamics; reputation and
identity; multilingualism, languages and cultures; social studies.

    * Free Content – Open access to information; ways to gather and
distribute free knowledge, usage of the Wikimedia projects in
education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality and
usability; copyright laws and other legal areas that interfere with
Wikimedia projects.

    * Technical infrastructure – Issues related to MediaWiki
development and extensions; Wikimedia hardware layout; new ideas for
development (including usable case studies from other wikis or similar
projects).

Your topic must be related to Wikimedia projects and its communities
or to the creation of free content in general.

== Types of Submissions ==

We are seeking submissions for

* presentations (10–30 minute talks with optional short or full papers)
* posters (printed presentations or visual displays that can stand on their own)
* workshops (30–120 minute session with more involvement of the audience)
* panels (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss on a specific subject)
* Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) (45-60 minute informal meetup of group
discussion on a particular topic)
* artistic artifacts (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations, or
other representations of some aspect of the projects)

== Guidelines ==

Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us to minimize
wasted effort by following these guidelines carefully before
submitting and be sure not to forget anything that is mentioned here.
All submissions must explicitly include the following:

* an English title
* a short English abstract of 50 to 100 words. The abstracts should be
provided as plain text, and not as file attachments. This abstract
will be used as public description of your submission in the
conference program
* a detailed description (or full paper) of at least one page (300
words or more). This description will not be published unless you want
it, but used for reviewing your submission. Give an overview of the
areas to be covered or taught. State clearly the relevance to the
Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a specific wiki
project. You may use any language, but we strongly suggest English or
Chinese. Full descriptions may include a link to a full paper or
slides in HTML or PDF, if available.
* full name, email address, and a short bio of 1–3 sentences for each
author. You may also add wiki usernames and nicknames.
* the type of submission (presentation, poster, workshop, panel, BoF, artistic)
* the language(s) you are going to talk in (or the language of your poster)

Please tell us with your submission whether you will attend to
Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c) only if your submission is
accepted, or (d) only if we provide travel and/or accommodation.

Additionally, please specify:

* the target audience you are going to reach and what previous
knowledge is needed
* special requirements (such as equipment for a workshop or panel) if needed
* images or sketches of the poster or artistic artifact if available
* for panel submissions short biographies of each suggested panelist
* whether the presentation is intended to be a specific length.
* BoF proposals should describe the significance of and community
interest in the topic, and name the proposed discussion leader(s).

For poster sessions there are additional guidelines:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Poster_session

Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later and the Creative
Commons Attribution License.

== Submissions ==

Once you are sure you have included all of the required information,
please send your submission by the respective deadline through our
submission system:

http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission

Please do not send submissions by email. If you need help for
translating your work please visit our translation help page.
Questions, but not submissions, may be directed to cfp-AeOJrEpdGNfrp6ohCe41Og< at >public.gmane.org

== Hacking Days ==

Before the main conference there will also be informal Hacking days
for MediaWiki developers who are familiar with the software, If you
are interested in joining it, please visit:

http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planning/Hacking_Days_Extra_2007

== See also ==

* About the venue: http://www.cyh.org.tw/
* Brainstorming page for program ideas:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Ideas
* Editable list of attendees: http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees
* WikiSym 2007 (October 21-23, 2007, Montreal), an alternative wiki
conference: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/

Wikimedia's Open Source Toolset

Erik Moeller — 2007-04-02T03:46:30

I've started the following page:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Toolset

to collect a list of open source tools & open formats that are
commonly used to support Wikimedia projects. Mainly, this is for
external tools, rather than those developed within our community,
though I don't mind if it is expanded to cover both.

The purpose of having this page is to better inform decision-making
processes on all levels:
* directing volunteers who want to help us to work on particularly
useful open source projects
* directing editors to tools that help them with their day-to-day work
* possibly, even (when the Foundation is a bit more sustainable)
considering awarding development grants to some of them, or at least
helping them to pursue them by endorsing their grant proposals to
other organizations
* identifying key "missing pieces" that are not covered or not covered
well by the existing toolset (this might be a separate list).

I know many of you use specialized tools that are not well known.
There are also sure to be glaring omissions in the current list. I
would therefore appreciate all help to complete it.

[FR] De Wikimédia France et des projets non Wikipédia

Guillaume Paumier — 2007-03-27T13:00:21

Bonjour,

Des critiques sont régulièrement faites aux Wikipédiens et à Wikimédia
France à propos du traitement inégal entre Wikipédia et les autres projets
francophones, à savoir Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikiquote,
Wikisource et Wikiversity. J'aimerais éclaircir un peu les choses.

1. Wikipédia est célèbre, les autres projets pas.

C'est un constat, pas un point de vue. Wikipédia est le 10e site le plus
visité en France. Wikipédia est cité dans la presse écrite, des émissions
lui sont consacrées à la radio et on en parle à la télévision. Pourquoi ?
Parce que le projet intéresse, soulève des questions. Et surtout, parce que
le sujet est polémique et qu'il fait vendre. Une candidate socialiste
invente un mot qui se retrouve dans l'encyclopédie ? Un /College/ américain
interdit à ses étudiants la citation de Wikipédia comme source ? Un hoax à
propos de la mort d'un acteur américain has-been circule grâce à Wikipédia ?
C'est de l'événementiel. Ça intéresse la ménagère de moins de 50 ans. Ça
fait vendre. Ça intéresse les journalistes.

2. Wikipédia aussi a du mal à communiquer sur les sujets qui l'intéressent.

Lorsque l'on souhaite communiquer à propos de Wikipédia sur la difficulté de
trouver des images libres, sur la loi DADVSI, sur Gallica qui est peu
coopérative, sur un projet de loi sur la délinquance qui interdit à un
reporter non professionnel de filmer des violences policières, vous croyez
qu'on arrive à se faire entendre ? Ce qui intéresse les journalistes, c'est
le comité éditorial (qui n'existe pas), le comité d'arbitrage (qui n'est pas
le comité éditorial, non) et les administrateurs (qui ne sont pas non plus
le comité éditorial, non...). Ils veulent savoir si (non, pardon, il veulent
savoir « que ») « Wikipédia va manger Google » et que « le cofondateur de
Wikipédia lance une encyclopédie validée et sécurisée. » Le jour où on a une
affaire Seigenthaler sur Wikibooks, je vous assure que la presse parlera du
projet...

3. Wikimédia France promeut tous les projets.

Wikimédia France a pour mission de faire connaître et de soutenir les
projets de diffusion libre de la connaissance, notamment les projets
hébergés par la Wikimedia Foundation. Et c'est ce qu'elle fait du mieux
qu'elle peut. La liste des présentations faites par les membres de
l'association témoigne d'un engagement qui ne concerne pas uniquement
Wikipédia : < http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Presentations/fr> L'association
profite des interviews pour tenter de parler des autres projets, mais (cf
1.) ça n'intéresse pas les journalistes. J'aimerais toutefois que les
efforts faits par les membres pour promouvoir tous les projets soient
reconnus.

4. Une association est le reflet de ses membres.

Et la majorité des membres de Wikimédia France sont des Wikipédiens. Si vous
estimez que les efforts qui sont faits pour promouvoir les autres projets ne
sont pas encore suffisants, je vous invite vraiment à adhérer à
l'association pour dynamiser la promotion du projet qui vous tient à cœur.
Nous serons ravis de vous y aider. Par contre, refuser de s'impliquer et
critiquer a posteriori, je suis pas d'accord. Quand on décide de ne pas
participer à quelque chose, on assume son choix et on ne vient pas se
plaindre ensuite que c'est mal fait.

5. « Engagez-vous ! »

Si vous avez des idées, des suggestions, des projets pour faire connaître et
soutenir les projets francophones, contactez l'association Wikimédia France
(par exemple sur sa liste de discussion <
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediafr-l>) qui sera ravie
de vous apporter son aide.

Planet Wikimedia: Add your blog feeds

Erik Moeller — 2007-03-11T02:20:30

We have just launched http://planet.wikimedia.org/ , which is an
aggregator for all on-topic wiki-related weblog (blog) posts by
participants in Wikimedia projects. The planet can be found at:

http://planet.wikimedia.org/

To get added, please follow the instructions at:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planet_Wikimedia

This is a kind of beta test, and right now, the planet is in the
English language; however, I have prepared a process for requesting
new languages to be set up here:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planet_Wikimedia/New_language

So please add your support if you wish to aggregate blog posts in
another language.

Again, this is for on-topic posts, not for diary entries. All feeds
must either point to a blog which is almost exclusively about wikis,
or filtered (WordPress, Blogger and other common blog engines all
support filtered feeds by categorizing your posts, e.g., adding the
"wiki" category to all posts which you want to be included in the
planet). If this makes you feel uncomfortable, you can (in addition or
in substitution) add your blog to http://wikiblogplanet.com/ , which
does not filter posts for on-topicness. WikiBlogPlanet is run
independently by Nick Jenkins.

I hope that this new tool will allow us to share useful and
interesting information, as well as opinions, more effectively across
project boundaries.