Re: [Foundation-l] Movement roles letter, Feb 2012
Beria, You're behavior is simply unacceptable. Are you going to apologize to Jan-Bart or simply continue with your baseless justifications on why you are calling him this and not that? Abbas. > Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:14:55 -0500 > From: nawr...@gmail.com > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Movement roles letter, Feb 2012 > > On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 11:09 PM, Béria Lima wrote: > > > Gomà called him Jan at least 3 times today and no one complained. > > > > Everyone in Brazil calls me "B" (yah, just the first letter) and here is > > VERY common to shortening people's names. Is more a way to write it fast > > than to offend anyone. I can call him Mister de Vreede if you all find this > > ok, but that would be even more condescending (In my country we only threat > > people we really dislike by their last name). > > _ > > *Béria Lima* > > > > > Jan-Bart and others have asked that you call him Jan-Bart. What part of > that is confusing? You can ascribe your first error to different custom; > continuing to ignore his wishes is simply arrogant and offensive, which of > course I'm sure is not your intent. > ___ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Movement roles letter, Feb 2012
> From: berial...@gmail.com > Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:52:24 -0200 > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Movement roles letter, Feb 2012 > (And besides if someone would complain about misspelling, the Russians, > Arabs, Japanese and Indians should be the ones since no one here can even > write their real names in the original languages) No one? Really? My name is an Arabic name and even though I'm not an Arab, I can write Arabic names perfectly well. Your assumption is merely stereotypical. --Abbas. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia Foundation Mid-Year Presentation to the Board of Trustees
Liam, Regarding the word convening, WMF has held one with the Arabic Wikipedia folks in Qatar. Check this blog to better understand the term/context: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/23/arabic-wikipedia-convening/ --Abbas. > From: liamwy...@gmail.com > Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 09:57:27 + > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia Foundation Mid-Year Presentation to the > Board of Trustees > > On 3 March 2012 10:34, Chris Keating wrote: > > > > > > > 23, 2012 at 8:43 PM, Erik Moeller wrote: > > > > Hi folks, > > > > > > > > on February 3, the Wikimedia Foundation senior staff gave a > > > > presentation to the Board of Trustees as part of its Board meeting in > > > > San Francisco, recapping the fiscal year so far (our year begins July > > > > 1) and looking ahead. The slide deck is now available here: > > > > > > > > > > > > > https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Mid-Year_Review_February_2012.pdf > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for this - very interesting :-) > > > > For me, the most reassuring part is at the end. (It feels a bit odd > > highlighting this, given the amount of cool stuff in the report, but I > > suppose it's cool stuff I already knew about). I am very glad to hear that > > these issues are on peoples' minds and I think identifying them is a really > > helpful step. > > > > ● Everybody at all levels of the WMF needs to stop spending > > social & political capital accidentally, or on stuff that doesn't > > matter; > > ● We need to stop surprising the community: we need to > > acknowledge that time works differently for volunteers, and > > they need lots of advance notice for everything. Overtransparency has never > > harmed us, but lack of transparency > > has; > > ● Internally in the organization we need to shift from the > > assumption that our scarcest resource is money, to the > > acknowledgement that it's time. We need to get better at > > conserving energy, focusing and saying no; > > > I too agree that this was a very interesting reading. Much of it I knew > from being an avid reader of the Signpost but it's very good to be able to > see an overview like this. I appreciate the honest about the failure of the > Indian Education Program (slide 37) and learned a lot from the Technology > section (slides 9-22). I, like Chris, found the three points on slide 56 > (quoted above) under the heading "stop doing this" to be very enlightening. > There are also some related points on the subsequent slides (under the > leading "start doing this") that are also related, which include: > ●Assign other resources to explicitly earning social & political > capital for the org, so it can be spent on editor retention; > ●Actively monitor the bank balance (social & political > capital); > ●Assess community views and factor them into the total cost > of projects before green-lighting. In some cases, community > opposition will be a dealbreaker; > ●Develop easy routinized methods for assessing community > sentiment (RfCs, polls) in multiple languages, and routinely > dedicate resources to community input-seeking and > facilitation of discussions (TOU, AFT); > ●Better support editors along language lines and activity lines > (e.g., page patrollers, ArbComs, OTRS workers): find out what they need and > give it to them; > > In all the focus on reversing the downward trend of new-user retention > (which I wholeheartedly agree with, don't misunderstand me), I've been > feeling a bit like the WMF has seen the existing community as "the problem" > rather than part of "the solution". I think that these points that Chris > and I have quoted are pertinent because they seem to be aimed at trying to > reverse that feeling. They argue for the WMF to dedicate resources > specifically to support the existing community, to make their work easier, > and to take the time to bring the community along with changes rather than > announcing 'surprises'. But most of all, I'm interested in the repeated > phrase "social and political capital". If I read the text cynically that > phrase could look manipulative, but I don't believe that to be the case. > Rather, I'm pleased to see that the WMF is overtly addressing the fact that > *trust* is the most valuable form of currency in a volunteer project - and > that Chapter-WMF-Community trust levels have been less than ideal lately... > So - I look forward to seeing this proactive effort to build "social and > political capital" with the existing community put into practice :-) After > all, there's no point in increasing the number of new users if the existing > community is so frustrated that they're unwilling to train and acclimatise > the newbies. > > However, on a different note, I note with interest (though not surprise) > that it seems the exec have decided that the recent fundraising debates > between Chapters-WMF have already been concluded and that the decision for > the WMF to centrally manage all future
Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia India Program Trust
Hi Hisham, > From: hmun...@wikimedia.org > Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:00:30 +0530 > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia India Program Trust > From a practical perspective, I'd say the Trust would have - by virtue of > (eventually) having a full-time team - the required capacity and capability > to undertake programs with a level of intensity that the Chapter would find > challenging (at the present time) - again, largely because the Chapter > (currently) does not have a full-time team in place. Why didn't the WMF professionalize Wikimedia India and let the Chapter have full-time staff to do these projects? Why did you have to start another organisation from scratch whose aims and goals seem to be similar to WMIN? Couldn't it have been better to nurture the pre-existing organisation(WMIN) and make it capable enough to run India programs? /Abbas. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] MENA Education Program?
Some brief notes about the MENA trip can be found here: http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Education_Program/MENATrip //Abbas. > Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:39:14 -0800 > From: bnewst...@wikimedia.org > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] MENA Education Program? > > Hi Katie, > Just to build on Moushira's response to tackle your questions a bit further. > > On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 5:26 AM, aude wrote: > > > Erik, Sue, Frank, et al, > > > > Can you please say more about the plans for a Middle East education > > program? (yes I have read notes from the recent trip on outreach wiki) > > > > What is the timeframe? Who is going to run it? Will you establish a > > "trust" there? Where will the office be? > > > > We are planning a pilot in Cairo, but have not yet firmed up the details. > Frank, Annie and Moushira will spend a week in Cairo in December to > investigate the opportunity further and see when it would make sense to run > a small pilot. We are hoping for February, but want to make sure the > conditions are right for success. > > > > > If the program is to be duplicated, I certainly hope there are not the > > same issues with quality, as has happened in Pune. What lessons have > > you learned and what will you do differently? > > > > We do not plan on duplicating the Pune experience. For one, we want to do a > much smaller pilot. We also want to dig into questions regarding copyright > and student writing ability in Arabic before we start the pilot. Nitika > has captured a series of lessons on the pilot [1] and we are doing further > detailed evaluation work to ensure we mine the pilot fully. > > > > > Knowing that there is quite a backlog, last time I checked, with > > pending changes on Arabic Wikipedia, I am very concerned for the > > ability of volunteers there to handle a massive influx of new content. > > > > This is a concern we share...and we discussed this with the community > members in Doha as Moushira mentioned. No easy solutions here and we'll > need to innovate. > > > > > I am also concerned if you setup a trust in, say Egypt, that will put > > a damper on any efforts to form a chapter, which I know has been > > discussed. > > > > We do plan on setting up a regional entity to support our program work in > the region. It is premature as to the actual structure. I really don't see > this as being a damper on the formation of a chapter, but we don't really > have any evidence either way. > > > > > If done carefully and well, I would be very delighted to see outreach > > programs be a success for Arabic Wikipedia, and hope that will be the > > case. > > > > This is exactly the intention of the work in Arabic and was the spirit we > all came out of our Doha convening with. We are all united in this > goal...recognizing that it will take a lot of effort by a lot of people to > truly reach the full potential of Arabic Wikipedia! > > > > > Cheers, > > Katie > > > > ___ > > foundation-l mailing list > > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > > > > > [1] > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Education_Program > > Best, > Barry > > -- > Barry Newstead > Chief Global Development Officer > Wikimedia Foundation > > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in > the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! > > http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate > ___ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
[Foundation-l] Wikipedia Account Creation
Hello, Last month I was in Qatar and introduced some people to Wikipedia. While they were creating their accounts, some of them had their initial suggested username taken, so they had to repeat it a couple of times until they finally found an available username. One of them had repeated it around 3 or 4 times until he had gotten frustrated. Which is why I'm asking if it's possible to add search type-ahead suggestions for available accounts. //Abbas. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Visual Editor Prototype
The first link to the blog is not working. Here's one that works: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/help-test-the-first-visual-editor-developer-prototype/ //Abbas. > From: liamwy...@gmail.com > Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:34:56 + > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: [Foundation-l] Visual Editor Prototype > > For those who've not seen the announcement, the WMF tech team have launched > the first prototype of the visual editor, "perhaps the most challenging > technical project ever undertaken in the history of MediaWiki > development.": > http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/help-test-the-first-visual-editor-developer-prototype/Congratulations > to everyone who's been working on this so far - more power > to you! > > The Economist has already picked this up and called it "the most > significant change in Wikipedia’s short history." > http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/12/changes-wikipedia > > You can play with the new system in the sandbox here: > http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:VisualEditorSandbox > As mentioned in the announcement, it's by no-means fully featured (doesn't > yet allow editing of templates/tables, saving edits etc.) and they're > looking to June 2012 for first production use at scale. Feedback left via > that sandbox gets published on MediaWiki.org here > http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Visual_editor/Feedback > > [Sorry if this was already announced on this list! It's just such > significant and unambiguously good news that I wanted to shout it from the > rooftops.] > > -Liam > Peace, love & metadata > ___ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation's 2010-11 Annual Report
> From: tba...@wikimedia.org > Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:35:18 +0100 > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation's > 2010-11 Annual Report > Just a quick note that the final proof has not been sent to the > printer yet; last-minute corrections to the printed version are still > possible today. I had set up an Etherpad to collect these at > http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/Ar201011fixes - at the moment, it only > contains the "Janvier" typo and one concerning the Arabic name for > Wikimedia Israel. Were you aware of other examples? Corrections to the > wiki versions will continue to be most welcome - it's part of their > raison d'être. Hi Tilman, I do have something to add. I can't make the edit on etherpad via my mobile, my apologies in advance: One of the donors is listed as Abdulla Al-Thani (whom I suppose is from Qatar). Unfortunately, this name is quite confusing for me since there are many people in the Qatari royal family who have the same name. Some include Abdullah (bin Khalid) Al Thani and Abdullah (bin Khalif) Al Thani -- both of whom are part of the Qatari government. I'm guessing that the person who donated this money is Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani (from Qatar Foundation). It might be good to indicate his middle name as well in the donors list, to avoid confusion. --Abbas. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] 30 min. reminder: IRC office hours this week with Sue Gardner
Hi Steven, Could you please post the logs? Thanks, Abbas. > From: swall...@wikimedia.org > Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:58:10 -0800 > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: [Foundation-l] 30 min. reminder: IRC office hours this week with > Sue Gardner > > This is happening in about 30 minutes in #wikimedia-office. > > -- Forwarded message -- > From: Steven Walling > Date: Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 11:07 AM > Subject: IRC office hours this week with Sue Gardner > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > > > Hi everyone, > > This is just a note that on Thursday the 12th, at 22:30 UTC, WMF Executive > Director Sue Gardner will be in #wikimedia-office to answer your questions. > We haven't set a topic as yet, so feel free to come prepared with what is > of interest to you right now. As usual, time conversion links and other > documentation is on Meta.[1] > > Talk to you then! > > -- > Steven Walling > Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation > wikimediafoundation.org > > 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours > > > > -- > Steven Walling > Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation > wikimediafoundation.org > ___ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Changes to the CFOO department
So will a new CFO be recruited or will that position remain unfilled, like what happened to the Volunteer Coordinator position? - Abbas Mahmood t | +254722215101 f | www.facebook.com/abbasjnr s | abbasjnr Wikimedia Kenya Member "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's our commitment." Please donate: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en > Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 17:54:40 -0500 > From: renataw...@gmail.com > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Changes to the CFOO department > > Ditto Michael. > You have done a great job the past 3 years and you will be missed. > > Renata > > On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 3:53 PM, Michael Snow wrote: > > > On 3/3/2011 12:41 PM, Veronique Kessler wrote: > > > Thanks to everyone who is part of the fantastic projects of Wikimedia > > > and keep up the good work! > > And thanks to you, Veronique, for all of your contributions. I have > > enjoyed getting to know you and working with you. You will be greatly > > missed, and have my best wishes for your future endeavors. The one > > consolation is that as a movement built around online volunteers > > worldwide, we are easy to find and never far away, no matter where you go. > > > > --Michael Snow > > > > ___ > > foundation-l mailing list > > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > > > ___ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
