Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2014-02-12
WikiVIP; Art Feminism; Medical articles; PR manipulation; Azerbaijani Wikipedia
Wikipedia adding celebrity voices to wiki pages to preserve them for future generations
As reported in various media outlets this week, including The Next Web and The Daily Dot, this past week, Wikimedia Commons and various language Wikipedias are working together to encourage subjects of Wikipedia articles to record a 10-second clip of their voice to be appended to their Wikipedia article. The goal of the project, which was originally proposed by Andy Mabbett, is for posterity to have the ability to know what someone's voice sounded like, as well as to have a definitive pronunciation of their name. Thus far, Charlie Duke and Stephen Fry are among the relative few that have participated. There are some concerns, not the least of which is sound quality, however, The Daily Dot perhaps aptly pontificated,
| “ | As for Fry's inaugural voice sample, well, there have been some gripes about quality. But what's more important, a crystal-clear recording, or the preservation of that perfectly British "um" for posterity? Besides, things really sound more historical when they're this grainy. | ” |
Art Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thons
In case you had not yet heard, there is a major gender gap amongst Wikipedia editors, and consequently Wikipedia articles. On Saturday, 1 February 2014, Wikipedians new and old congregated on college campuses, libraries, or their own homes seeking to improve that gap and bias. They worked on articles with topics ranging from female artists to feminists themselves to important events in the women's rights movement, and as evidenced by the results, it was a success, with dozens of new articles being created, and subpar articles being improved.
Several involved Wikipedians expressed optimism and satisfaction with the event. Daniel Case noted that efforts such as this edit-a-thon are important because "having a diverse array of viewpoints represented among editors ensures that we will be able to write more comprehensive articles." He also expressed optimism on how the event attracted and mentored new users, commenting, "I think it helped a few new people get over the mystique and realize that they, too, can edit this thing." Girona7, another experienced Wikipedian, made the following comment in regards to the event she attended:
| “ | We had a lovely turnout considering we weren't even sure we were going to be able to hold the event on short notice. Our hosts from the SMFA were fabulous; I would love to hold events there again should the opportunity arise. Our eight attendees were split between established editors and newbies… I spent a good amount of time tutoring individuals who needed assistance and basic introductions to Wikipedia markup. In all we created two new articles and improved four others during the event—mainly these were biographies of individual artists. I was definitely proud to be a part of this well-coordinated event. It is high time that more women in the art world get the recognition they deserve … we look forward to continuing these efforts as the year progresses. | ” |
| “ | In Portland, I estimate there were at least 40 participants who attended the event, which was six hours long and was held at Portland State University. Nearly a dozen Wikipedia articles were created, and more than twice that number were improved. Participants had many of their questions answered and were supplied educational brochures created by the Wikimedia Foundation. There was great interest in organizing similar events in the future, and I've heard there are already plans to host another arts edit-athon in April. | ” |
Interested readers can find full results here.
Below is an non-exhaustive list of publications that covered the event:
- Hudson Valley Almanac Weekly
- The Coast (Halifax)
- Halifax Media Co-Op
- The Brooklyn Paper
- City Pulse (Lansing, MI)
- Campus Reform
- The St. Cloud Times
- The Daily Caller
- The Link
- The Daily Dot
Wikipedia the top source of healthcare information for doctors, patients
IMS Health, a large United States-based health communications organization, recently published an report asserting that half of physicians have, at one time or other, consulted Wikipedia for information on various ailments that may afflict their patients. Similarly, patients have also consulted Wikipedia for information on what may plague them. Perhaps most shocking, there is a correlation between the amount of views on Wikipedia pages, and treatment courses of action physicians have pursued:
| “ | The top 100 English Wikipedia pages for health care topics were accessed an average 1.9 million times over the course of the past year. And analysis of prescription drug sales found a correlation between page views and medicine use.
"Increasingly, patients are turning to social media as an essential forum for obtaining and sharing information related to their health," Murray Aitken, executive director of the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, writes in the report. |
” |
Consequently, some doctors, professors, and medical students are seeking to ensure that Wikipedia's medical articles are stocked with information from reliable sources so that people do not obtain incorrect or potentially harmful information. ITM consulted WMF spokesman Jay Walsh for comment pertaining to the issues that Wikipedia can have with medical articles, as well as this new initiative from medical academics. In regards to a recent proposal to append a disclaimer to all medical articles, he noted that while he "is glad to see that this is an important conversation within Wikipedia", WMF "does not think additional disclaimers are legally necessary", but appreciates the conversation that ensued on both sides on how to best serve readers. While he did not comment specifically on the latest endeavor by some medical professionals and students to improve medical articles, he did note,
| “ | The Foundation is always happy to see more subject matter experts get involved with Wikipedia, particularly when those new editors are getting solid guidance on the principles and policies of Wikipedia and norms and best practices of collaborating with the community. You can look to several years of great work by the Wikipedia Education Program to see how much the Foundation supports initiatives such as this. | ” |
Several newspapers and publications covered both the report, and ensuing initiative. Herein lies an unexhaustive list:
Manipulation of Wikipedia a "problem for democracy"
A Monitor TV programme on German television on 30 January 2014 (transcript) highlighted covert PR work in Wikipedia, describing such manipulation of a website that has a de-facto monopoly on providing information to the internet public as a potential "problem for democracy".
The programme featured an interview with Malte Landwehr, a PR consultant who stated that he knew of a number of PR agencies who had Wikipedia administrators on their staff and said that the use of sockpuppets to alter articles and manipulate discussions was widespread.
Another PR consultant interviewed for the programme expressed satisfaction with a Wikipedia article on a particular building style, "Schwedenhaus", that she had placed in Wikipedia to promote the business of a company specialising in prefabricated houses of that style, under that name. The article featured several pictures of the manufacturer's products, with the company's name and website noted on the image description pages in Commons. Shortly after the broadcast had ended, the Wikipedia article—which had existed for close to two years—was nominated for deletion (the article was eventually kept, although in much shortened form, and without the manufacturer's pictures). The user who created it was blocked by an administrator the same evening.
Pavel Richter, the head of Wikimedia Germany, and Dirk Franke, who for the past year has been conducting a paid-editing study funded by Wikimedia Germany, also appeared in the programme. The programme has been discussed at length in the German Wikipedia, in particular on the talk page of the German Wikipedia's Kurier newsletter.
The topic of PR editing is currently in the public eye in Germany, after a study published by German investigative journalist Marvin Oppong last month asserted that PR manipulation in Wikipedia is widespread.
Other media outlets reporting on the issue in recent days included the Berliner Zeitung, which in this context also mentioned Wiki-PR (covered extensively in recent issues of the Signpost), Main Post, Badische Zeitung and T-Online.de.
Azeri government reaching for Wikipedia?
Azeri news site news.az reported on 24 January 2014 that IRELI, a youth organization that recently won a "Best of the Best" award from the Azeri government, will "launch WikiDays project in partnership with Wikipedia Azerbaijan." The announcement said,
| “ | Professional trainers will hold training and seminars about how to create and edit Wikipedia articles, to protect Wiki-articles, Wikimedia fund, principles of propaganda in Wikipedia and other issues as part of the project. The project aims to encourage the youth to use Wikipedia in a correct manner, to protect interests of Azerbaijan in Wikipedia and prevent distortion of information about Azerbaijan. | ” |
This initiative should raise concern in the Wikimedia movement, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, has been named a "predator of freedom of information" by Reporters Without Borders, who say that unauthorised coverage of the president and his family is "completely off-limits for the media". In this week's release notes for the new 2014 World Press Freedom Index, developments over the past year in Azerbaijan are summarised as follows:
| “ | More repression is also the strategy being adopted in Azerbaijan, where the very survival of media pluralism is in danger. The TV stations are under government control, the main foreign radio stations are banned, and the main opposition newspaper barely circulates except in the capital and is on the verge of financial extinction. At the same time, recalcitrant journalists and bloggers are exposed to physical attacks, death threats, smear campaigns and abduction. Will the emergence of new alternative exile media save pluralism? | ” |
The situation is similar in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan—the other three ex-Soviet countries described by Reporters Without Borders as being run by "oil and gas despots" who escape international censure because of their countries' mineral wealth and strategic importance. Azerbaijan is now listed at no. 160 in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index.
In brief
- Programming languages in Wikipedia: i-programmer.info looked at the information contained in Wikipedia infoboxes as to which programming languages influenced which, creating a graph of the data and suggesting that some of the information in Wikipedia was in need of improving. (26 January 2014)
- Ezra Klein's new Wikipedia rival: The Washington Post, Salon, Politico and New York Magazine covered "Project X", a planned hybrid journalism/encyclopedia site about to be launched by Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein. (27 January 2014 – 3 February 2014)
- What I learned while editing Wikipedia: Indian Wikimedian Noopur Raval shared her experiences of editing Wikipedia on opensource.com. (27 January 2014)
- Ethical Wikipedia tactics for marketing and PR: Ethical Wiki, a "professional services firm focused on helping companies contribute to Wikipedia ethically", announced its introduction of the Wikipedia Academy for Marketers on prnewswire.com. A subsequent article on prweekus.com explained that the goal was "to teach professionals how to engage the Wikipedia community in a way that is compliant with its disclosure laws, community policies, and established best practices". The Academy includes "guides on how to submit an article to Wikipedia's editors for consideration, request corrections, and approach unfair content using tools and templates". (27/29 January 2014)
- Wikimedia comms unit in flux: prweekus.com reported that the Wikimedia Foundation comms unit is in flux after several staffers have left. General Counsel Geoff Brigham is the interim leader of the comms unit. (28 January 2014)
- Wikipedia at the Kolkata Book Fair: tech.firstpost.com reported on Wikipedia's presence at the Kolkata Book Fair. (29 January 2014)
- Digging for the real facts about Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton: straight.com featured an interview with Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton. In the interview, Paxton pointed out that various facts in his Wikipedia biography were untrue, but suggested he was not bothered: "... leave it up there, I like it. Yeah, the more bullshit, the better. Long as they know I didn't write it, I'm fine." (29 January 2014)
- Wikipedia editing service now accepts Bitcoin: WikiExperts.us, the "premier Wikipedia visibility agency", informed the public that the company now accepts Bitcoin as a method of payment. The company is currently banned from Wikipedia. (29 January 2014)
- MediaWiki vulnerability: The Register, ZDNet, Network World and the Wall Street Journal reported on a recently identified MediaWiki vulnerability. The vulnerability, discovered by security firm Check Point, was fixed by the Wikimedia Foundation, and a patch released. (29–30 January 2014)
- "Detractors are trying to distort my Wikipedia profile": Indian actress and model Payal Rohatgi told The Times of India reporter Vinita Chaturvedi that recent vandalism to her Wikipedia article was part of an effort by "detractors" to hurt her and her boyfriend, Indian wrestler and reality show star Sangram Singh, connecting it to "fake profiles" and other attacks on the couple. An IP editor inserted a fake birth year in two places in the article on January 11, which were corrected by two other IP editors on January 22 and January 27. Rohatgi said that she attempted to edit the article herself but said the page was "locked", though there is no record of any protection on that article since 2008. Rohatgi said, "The sad part is that anybody can edit Wikipedia, making a fake profile. That is why it is easy to post anything there. It should not be allowed." (30 January 2014)
- Wikipedians in the media: Two Wikipedians had profiles in the media: Theo Patt on the website of Memphis news channel WREG-TV, and Evangeline Han in The Star (Malaysia). (30–31 January 2014)
- Former WMF community officer tells India to stand up to US domination of the Internet: Zack Exley, former Chief Revenue Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, told India in an interview in The Hindu to stand up to "US domination of the Internet". (31 January 2014)
- Wikipedia and new forms of collective intelligence: Don Tapscott in the Huffington Post discussed forms of collective intelligence that might soon make Wikipedia seem "primitive". (31 January 2014)
- Biggest losers hoax: The Daily Mail and news.com.au reported that Australian TV Network 10 had to field "calls from frantic fans after Wikipedia published what was claimed to be the final results of The Biggest Loser Australia online just over one week into the series premiere of the ninth season." The information in Wikipedia was incorrect and subsequently removed. (3 February 2014)
- Fuck on the main page?: The Daily Dot reported on the recent discussion about whether the Featured Article Fuck (film) should have a stint on the Wikipedia main page. Also covered a week later by The Houstonian. (3, 10 February 2014)
- The New York Times has been editing Wikipedia: BuzzFeed reported that New York Times computers had been used to edit the biographies of various New York Times reporters. The matter was also reported by UPI. (3 February 2014)
- Serbian politician's biography vandalised: InSerbia News had a piece on recent vandalism to the biography of Aleksandar Vučić. (4 February 2014)
- Vengeance via Wikipedia?: The Daily Dot reported on a dispute between Wikipedian Erik Haugen and Jack Anderson, the founder of science journal blog Scholarly Kitchen. The dispute led to the temporary deletion of the Scholarly Kitchen article on Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article had been created by Anderson's co-workers and contained wording from the Scholarly Kitchen site's "About" section, raising a potential copyright concern. (5 February 2014)
- "Bridgegate" article: nj.com reported that the New Jersey "Bridgegate" scandal now has its own Wikipedia page, Fort Lee lane closure scandal. (5 February 2014)
- Wikipedia in the Outernet: IT Pro Portal published an article on the "Outernet", a proposed free Wi-Fi system "beamed to earth from tiny satellites placed in low earth orbit." The system would allow free access to certain websites from around the world, including Wikipedia, Khan Academy, Coursera, Open Streetmap, Ubuntu, and blockchains for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The project is led by Syed Karim, an employee of Digital News Ventures, a subsidiary of the non-profit Media Development Investment Fund. (5 February 2014)
- Wikimedia Foundation hires lobbyist: Politico reported that the Wikimedia Foundation has hired a lobbyist, Thompson Coburn, to monitor copyright legislation. The account will be handled by James Burger and Kenneth Salomon, formerly of Dow Lohnes. (6 February 2014)
- Motorbikes: cycleworld.com looked at WikiProject Motorcycling. (6 February 2014)
- Finnish police probe Wikipedia fundraising: News site afterdawn.com reported that Finland's Police Ministry had contacted the Wikimedia Foundation for information on its fundraising drive. In Finland, charity donation drives require prior police approval, as a way to prevent fraud. It appears no such approval was obtained. The matter has been passed over to Wikimedia Foundation lawyers; the Foundation is required to provide information by 21 February 2014. The matter is being discussed on the Wikimedia mailing list. Also covered in an English-language article by Yle, Finland's national broadcasting company, as well as by RT and numerous Finnish-language media outlets. (7–8 February 2014)
- Wikipedians in the European Parliament: France Télévisions reported on this week's photography project at the European Parliament, in the course of which Wikipedians took pictures of the parliament's 766 members. The 38,650 Euro project led by Olaf Kosinsky was funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, which contributed 10,000 Euro ($13,650), and several European Wikimedia Chapters. (7 February 2014)
- Jimmy Wales interview: Carole Cadwalladr interviewed Wales for The Guardian (UK). (7 February 2014)
- SBM Offshore hit by bribery allegations in Wikipedia: Reuters reported that the share price of Dutch maritime engineering group SBM Offshore fell after allegations of bribery were published in Dutch business magazine Quote and in the group's Wikipedia article. The article's edit history shows several insertions of very detailed material, partly unsourced, by a British and a Dutch IP, as well as deletions of it by ClueBot and by an account named SBMO. The Wall Street Journal also published an article covering the story. SBM Offshore in turn released a statement saying that a former employee had attempted to blackmail them, and that when they refused to entertain the threat, material very similar to that which the employee had e-mailed them was posted on Wikipedia. SBM Offshore announced they would be "taking steps against the former employee", adding that the material posted on Wikipedia was "not representative of the facts". (7 February 2014)
- Wikipedia vs. the small screen: The New York Times discussed the challenges Wikipedia faces as more and more users are accessing the encyclopedia on smartphones and tablets—devices made for "consumer behaviour" rather than "creative behavior", as the article puts it. Only 1 percent of Wikipedia edits are made from mobile devices. (10 February 2014)
- "Wiki-Pedials" crowdsourcing our history: Forbes.com hosted a piece on how "the Wikipedia generation will change the world". (10 February 2014)
- Scrutinising neutrality: 24dash.com hosted a University of Leicester write-up of a paper on Wikipedia's neutrality. The paper, authored by Dr. Ruth Page and published in the journal Language and Literature, looked at the Wikipedia article on the murder of Meredith Kercher. (10 February 2014)
- No Wikipedia involvement in online protest: techpresident.com noted Wikipedia's absence from the "The Day We Fight Back" protests against mass surveillance. (11 February 2014)
- Cape Town Wikimania bid: African tech website humanipo.com reported that Cape Town is in the running to host Wikimania 2015. Douglas Scott, the leader of the Cape Town bid, told the site that having Wikimania in Africa would boost awareness of Wikipedia in Africa and create more awareness of Africa in Wikipedia, too: "Africa is a bit of a dark hole when it comes to Wikipedia. There isn’t much on Africa or on African topics, and when there is the quality isn’t very high. The conference will create awareness with the intended vision of increasing the quantity as well as the quality of articles on African topics." (11 February 2014)
- Arabic Wikipedia: An article in Wired looked at the history and challenges of the Arabic Wikipedia. (12 February 2014)
Reader comments
Left with no choice
Software evolution does not always mean that features are being added. It also means that old fat is being trimmed. It is no different for MediaWiki. A while ago, developers started discussing about removing some user preferences to reduce "option bloat" (see also Bugzilla:52807). Last week, the advanced options dealing with page presentation (such as how to format links to non-existent pages, and whether to justify paragraphs) were removed, and it did not go unnoticed, but discussion did not grow to VisualEditor-esque proportions.
In brief
Highlights from Tech news:
- Recent software changes
- The Vector search box was changed to fix old display and accessibility issues; for example, you can now use full-text search even if you have disabled JavaScript. Please report any problems you see. The option to disable the "simplified search bar" on Vector will also be removed. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
- You are now notified when someone adds a link to your user page on wikis where it didn't work before (wikis with dates in the year-month-day order, including Hungarian, Japanese, Korean and some variants of Chinese). [6]
- VisualEditor news
- Problems
- On 3 February, all wikis were broken for about an hour due to a traffic balancing issue. [12]
- On 6 February, some wikis were broken for about half an hour in total due to a problem with the Math extension (Editor note: it actually lasted two days, and only affected math rendered in PNG format.).
Reader comments
WMF bites the bullet on affiliation and FDC funding, elevates Wikimedia user groups
- Editor's note: last week (5 February) there was no edition of the Signpost.
In a bold move, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees has announced a major change in policy concerning affiliated groups in the worldwide movement, and Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) funding levels to eligible chapters and thematic organizations over the next two years. Both decisions were published last Tuesday after considerable post-meeting consultation with the FDC and the Affiliations Committee (AffCom). The core of the first decision is:
| “ | The WMF Board will only approve new chapters and thematic organizations that have been a user group for two years with demonstrable programmatic results, and whose application is supported by the Affiliations Committee. | ” |
Here, “programmatic results” refers to activities that are likely to improve the quality and prospects of the Foundation’s online projects. The motion was put by Phoebe Ayers and seconded by Stu West—and since the voting of each trustee is now put on the public record as the result of a change in practice in early 2012, we know the details of the vote: seven trustees voted for the motion: Phoebe Ayers (community-elected), Jan-Bart de Vreede, Ana Toni, Stu West, and Bishakha Datta (all appointed for their "specific expertise", and the last-named a Board representative on the FDC), Jimmy Wales (co-founder), and Alice Wiegand (chapter-selected). Three trustees voted against: Sam Klein and Maria Sefadari (community-elected), and Patricio Lorente (chapter-selected trustee and Board representative on both the FDC and AffCom).
The Board's announcement has put the concept of user groups on a new structural footing: they can function either as a means in themselves or as a stepping-stone towards eventual recognition as a thematic organization or chapter. By definition, user groups comprise at least three people who do offline work; they are eligible to use the WMF's trademark and to apply for funding through the Foundation's Project and Event Grants Program. Nine user groups have already been approved, covering Wikimedians in the following fields: Wikisource, Brazil, GLAM-Wiki US, Greece, Esperanto, New England, San Francisco, Nepal, and Groups/Promotion. A step-by-step guide explains the pathway towards affiliation by AffCom.
The second major announcement by the Board caps the total amount of funding that can be allocated to eligible chapters and thematic organizations:
| “ | We expect to be capping the allocation for FDC Annual Plan funding at approximately its current amount, for the years 2014–15 and 2015–16. We want to make the FDC and all recognized movement entities aware of this now, so they can plan accordingly. The amount allocated to the FDC process will be revisited during the Wikimedia movement's next strategic planning cycle, and the number may therefore change in 2016–17. | ” |
This motion was also put by Ayers and seconded by West. The voting was the same as for the previous motion, except that Alice Wiegand opposed.
Both decisions come after clear signs of growing concern by the Foundation about budget and staffing growth, lack of demonstrable impact on WMF sites, and governance among eligible affiliates, which are strongly weighted towards the global north. Last August, WMF executive director Sue Gardner asked "whether the benefits are turning out to be worth the costs" of "setting up bricks-and-mortar institutions". The Board is the only body with the power to make these decisions: it alone is charged with determining the mission, goals, long-term plans, and high-level policies of the WMF and its projects; ensuring the sustainability of the organization; and maintaining legal and ethical integrity. It was the Board that restructured the financial arrangements of the movement in 2012, in the process creating the FDC and forging the major policies that govern the WMF's evolving responsibility as grantmaker; it was also the Board that recently reformed the WMF's trademark policy, in the process making it more accessible to user groups and other members of the movement.
Given the significance of the announcement, Ayers took the unusual step of explaining the decision-making process on the public Wikimedia mailing list (stressing that this was her perspective, not a Board statement). Her account suggested that there was extensive debate among the trustees about the issues, and that the ramifications of the motions were treated with considerable weight and care. We have summarized what Ayers wrote:
- The board has been discussing the question of movement roles for years, and "started discussing the topic again specifically in October 2013. ... [This has included] the need to review new affiliates more thoroughly than we have historically done (as recommended by our legal team, and as indicated by the history of some chapters not staying active). [The key contexts are] the new trademark and user group policies which make different models for volunteers both possible and easier; and various trustee concerns over our increasing focus movement-wide on incorporation and administration. / The Board first discussed the general notions underlying the two decisions in October. ... before the November meeting, a recommendation to take these decisions was presented in a packet by the WMF Executive Director to the board, along with some context. ... The trustees discussed the recommendations on their email list for about a week before meeting, and then over two sessions in the two-day meeting. / After voting and recording the text, we then sent the text of the decisions to AffCom and the FDC, via the Board liaisons." The FAQ was written partly in response to questions raised by AffCom and the FDC, during which the Board debated additional questions, including AffCom's response. While there was no consensus on AffCom's response, the Board again considered the matter in the subsequent physical meeting, where a majority felt that the decisions should stand.
Initial reactions
With significant funding and shifts in movement structure at issue, it was understandable that the decision might have prompted criticism, although the personal nature of Rupert Thurner's opening shot was a surprise to many: "i am disappointed personally by you. you as a person, you as an american, and you as a board member of the foundation. especially about your inability to grasp international cultural differences in terms of funding, fundraising."
Subsequent commentary, while mostly critical, was more measured. Frédéric Schütz, of the Swiss chapter, argued that the trajectory towards chapter or thematic organization forbids a user group from incorporating and having bylaws. He wrote to the Signpost that in Switzerland that would mean "they first have to live two years in a legal limbo, which prevents them from handling any money or contract—and basically prevents them from doing anything useful as a group (except meetings as friends). / Contrary to what the board says, becoming an incorporated entity does not necessarily imply a large bureaucratic overhead, and then it makes sense in many cases for [a user group] to incorporate." On the mailing list, he wrote: "The burden of the proof should be on the WMF board to explain why this proposal makes sense, and what positive outcome it brings to the community—not on motivated community members who have to beg to get exceptions."
Trustee de Vreede's response to these points was: "We are saying that a track record is ... much more important that the previous focus on having bylaws. This because we know that a proven track record is a very good indicator of the [subsequent] chances of success of a chapter or thematic organisation. / Hmmm ... I would say that:
- We made a decision in which we took several factors into account
- We recognise that there might be situations which we might not have taken into account and we invite you to let us know it you think this is the case."
The chair of AffCom, Bence Damokos, wrote: "Speaking in my personal capacity, I echo the surprise that the Board has decided to move a motion before they had full or close to full consensus on the issue—which is in general a departure from the usual." This provoked comments that the Board makes decisions on a majority vote, by its constitution. The chair of the FDC, Dariusz Jemeilniak, stated that the FDC itself "have not participated in consulting or idea exchange in any systematic way" on the decisions.
Lodewijk Gelauff of the Netherlands chapter, who is also a member of AffCom, complained that the decision "is very bad for the volunteers", and that in his view, AffCom "was not consulted by the board on this topic [but] on a different (but related) proposal by a staff member, with very different arguments from those that the board used in their discussion. In my feeling the board is painting an unjust and unfair picture of the consultation that took place." In a long message, Nicole Ebber, the project manager of Wikimedia Germany, was critical of giving user groups an elevated role, "since there is hardly any structured support for these young and aspiring volunteer groups to grow, to develop and to become trusted partners, ... / The most pressing question here remains: In an ideal world, how would an organization model for Wikimedia look like? And does the restriction of choices for affiliations' models help us to reach this goal?"
Trustee Sam Klein wrote: "The WMF also wants to let all groups have easier access to trademarks and funds. This is what user groups were designed to allow, with minimal overhead. These two ideas were combined into "be a user group for two years". This garnered a positive response from one participant: "This part I do think is a good idea. There are many models of how individuals and groups participate and organize themselves within the global Wikimedia movement besides the umbrella Wikimedia Foundation, and imo the previous organizational/funding focus overlooked those who didn't fit one specific model: national Chapters, i.e. organizations seeking to represent Wikimedia-movement activities in a general sense, within the territory of one nation-state, and usually in a fairly "official" manner (paid staff, boards of directors, political visibility, etc.). I like that initiatives such as the individual-engagement grants, user-group recognition, etc. are opening up more avenues for Wikimedian organizations, organized along different lines, to find a more recognized (and funded) role in the movement.
To those who have expressed the view that becoming a user group imposes some kind of penalty, Ayers made the point: "If a group goes from no Wikimedia recognition to being a user group they go from no access to resources to access to the Wikimedia trademarks, access to grants big and small, listing with other official groups ... it's a big change. Of course groups might want to become a chapter later on, but that's not exactly always an easy process ...".
The debate continues on the mailing list.
In brief
Wiki-PR duo bulldoze a piñata store; Wifione arbitration case; French parliamentary plagiarism
1 April 2015
With paid advocacy in its sights, the Wikimedia Foundation amends their terms of use
18 June 2014
WMF bites the bullet on affiliation and FDC funding, elevates Wikimedia user groups
12 February 2014
Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
29 January 2014
Foundation to Wiki-PR: cease and desist; Arbitration Committee elections starting
20 November 2013
The decline of Wikipedia; Sue Gardner releases statement on Wiki-PR; Australian minister relies on Wikipedia
23 October 2013
Vice on Wiki-PR's paid advocacy; Featured list elections begin
16 October 2013
Wiki-PR's extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed
9 October 2013
- Wiki-PR's half-step dance: Wiki-PR, the company extensively covered by the Signpost due to its paid advocacy in defiance of the English Wikipedia's policies, has rebranded itself as Status Labs Image Management. They appear to have much more of a Google-centered search engine optimization approach, though they still offer "Wikipedia Consulting" services. Intriguingly, they devote two sentences to the issues that ultimately caused them to be site-banned: "Our team helps you follow Wikipedia’s best practices for editors with a financial conflict-of-interest. We never directly edit Wikipedia, but we help you ensure your Wikipedia page is 100% factually accurate and up-to-date." Of further concern is their direct promotion, that they "can help you get into other language Wikipedias, too." (Editor's note, 20 January 2015: it has come to our attention that there is more than one company named "Status Labs". We are exclusively referring to Status Labs Image Management, a public relations firm with offices in Austin [Texas], New York City, and São Paolo, and not any other extant organization, like Status Labs Inc..)
- Finnish police investigate Wikipedia: In a developing story, authorities in Finland are investigating the Finnish Wikipedia for a fundraising banner that was placed on the site. Unusually, Finland's Money Collection Act requires individuals to apply for and receive a permit before soliciting donations. While it is unclear whether Finland would have jurisdiction over the Wikimedia Foundation, which is based in the US, their email was sent to wikifi-admin
list.wikimedia.org, the mailing list of the Finnish Wikipedia's administrator's core. This has been forwarded to the Foundation, whose legal team is investigating. A response is due by 21 February. - US copyrights up for discussion: The US Copyright Office has called for public comments on orphan works, which are copyright-protected with the rightsholder either unknown or uncontactable. The Copyright Office is looking for legislative solutions on how to deal with these, which would possibly include a new ability to mass digitize them. There is a potential to push for more: in an email notifying the Advocacy Advisors mailing list, Ryan Kaldari expressed his desire for the Foundation to use the opportunity to "push for U.S. adoption of the 'rule of the shorter term', as this would solve our URAA problems on Commons and free millions of orphan foreign works in the U.S."
- IEG: The Wikimedia Foundation has published its initial conclusions from round one of the Individual Engagement Grants program, which focuses on individuals with experimental ideas that have measurable online impact. An accompanying blog post states, "Grantees ... were clear about their goals, eager to engage with the community to understand their needs and priorities and willing to take risks and experiment in search of pragmatic and scalable solutions. They incorporated experts and mentors into their process to build platforms that are larger than any one individual."
- Wiki Education Foundation: Frank Schulenburg, who was the Wikimedia Foundation's senior director of programs, has been named executive director of the Wiki Education Foundation (press release and Q&A).
- WMUK asks for input: The UK Wikimedia chapter has called for community input on its proposed five-year strategic plan.
- Libraries and Wikipedia: Wikipedians Jake Orlowitz and Patrick Earley have published an opinion article in the Library Journal's technology section, the Digital Shift. The piece trumpets the Wikipedia Library's significant gains in the last year, which include the first Visiting Scholars program (at George Mason University) and an agreement with OCLC to create an app that will "remotely connect a library user on a third party site, like Wikipedia, to a full text source just by affiliating the user’s IP address with a library’s proxy resolver, once a match on the article citation is made." While this statement alone raises a frightening number of privacy concerns, Orlowitz and Earley had OCLC agree to "build in whatever privacy protections Wikipedia desires to insure that any sharing of editors’ information with a third party such as a library or university would be fully disclosed and opt-in only."
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Space selfie
This Signpost featured report covers content promoted from 19 January to 1 February. Text is taken from the featured articles and lists; see those pages for attribution.
Featured articles
Sixteen articles were promoted to featured status.
- "A Song for Simeon" is a 37-line poem written in 1928 by American-English poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). It is seen by many critics and scholars as a discussion of the conversion experience. – Nominator: ColonelHenry
- Abe Waddington (1893–1959) was a professional cricketer for Yorkshire who played in two Test matches for England, both against Australia in 1920–21. Capable of making the ball "swing", Waddington was admired for the aesthetic quality of his bowling action. He sometimes sledged opposing batsmen and questioned umpires' decisions, behaviour which was unusual during his playing days. – Nominator: Sarastro1
- Blue's Clues is an American children's television show that premiered on September 8, 1996, and ran for a decade on the cable television network Nickelodeon. Featuring an animated blue-spotted dog named Blue, the show was critical to Nickelodeon's growth, becoming the highest-rated show for preschoolers on American commercial television. – Nominator: Christine (Figureskatingfan)
- Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists, sometimes known as the Flemish Primitives, active in the Burgundian Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance, especially in the flourishing cities of Tournai, Bruges, Ghent and Brussels in modern-day Belgium. – Nominators: Ceoil, Victoria
- Franklin Peale (1795–1870) was an employee and officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the Mint of the United States, he was eventually dismissed amid allegations he had used his position for personal gain. – Nominator: Wehwalt
- How Brown Saw the Baseball Game is an American short comedy film produced in 1907 and distributed by the Lubin Manufacturing Company. As of 2013 it is unclear whether a print of the film has survived. – Nominator: Taylor Trescott
- Nancy Mitford (1904–1973) was an English novelist, biographer and journalist. She was one of the renowned Mitford sisters and one of the "Bright Young People" on the London social scene in the inter-war years, and is best remembered for her novels about upper-class life in England and France, and for her sharp and often provocative wit. – Nominator: Brianboulton
- The Natchez revolt was an attack by Natchez people on French colonists near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, on November 29, 1729. Natchez leaders were provoked when the French colonial commandant, Sieur de Chépart, demanded land from a Natchez village for his own plantation. They killed almost all of the Frenchmen, while sparing most of the women and African slaves. – Nominators: Maunus, Jsayre64
- Newton's Parakeet (Psittacula exsul) is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Rodrigues in the western Indian Ocean. It became scarce due to deforestation and perhaps hunting, but it is thought that it was finally wiped out by a series of cyclones and storms that hit Rodrigues in the late 19th century. – Nominator: FunkMonk
- St James' Church is an Anglican parish church in inner city Sydney, Australia, consecrated in February 1824. The oldest building in Sydney's inner city region, St James' is part of the historical precinct of Macquarie Street which includes other early colonial era buildings such as the Hyde Park Barracks. – Nominator: Whiteghost.ink
- The Coral Island (1858) is a novel written by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne. One of the first works of juvenile fiction to feature exclusively juvenile heroes, the story relates the adventures of three boys marooned on a South Pacific island, the only survivors of a shipwreck. Inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, the popular book first went on sale in late 1857 and has never been out of print. – Nominators: Drmies, Eric Corbett
- Russian battleship Retvizan "(Russian: Ретвизан) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built by the American William Cramp and Sons because Russian shipyards were already at full capacity." – Nominator: Sturmvogel 66
- The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project "was a United States military agency responsible for those aspects of nuclear weapons remaining under military control after the Manhattan Project was succeeded by the Atomic Energy Commission on 1 January 1947." – Nominator: Hawkeye7
Featured lists
Three lists were promoted to featured status.
- List of Cricket World Cup five-wicket hauls- Nominator: Vensatry. "In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five-for" or "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and there have been only 47 instances of a bowler taking five-wicket haul in World Cup tournaments."
- List of Detroit Red Wings award winners- Nominator: Rejectwater "The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL) and are one of the "Original Six" teams of the league."
- List of Nippon Professional Baseball players to hit for the cycle- Nominator: Torsodog "In baseball, completing the cycle is the accomplishment of hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle", which has occurred five times in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB)."
Featured pictures
Twenty five pictures were promoted to featured status.
- Sherlock Holmes play poster (nom) created by Metropolitan Printing Co. (Edit by Nagualdesign) and nominated by Tomer T.
- Gebang (nom) created and nominated by Crisco 1492.
- 1888 map of Gothenburg (nom) created by Ludvig Simon and nominated by Elekhh.
- Chapel of Exeter College, Oxford (nom) created and nominated by Diliff.
- Dining hall of Balliol College, Oxford (nom) created and nominated by Diliff.
- Library of Göttweig Abbey (nom) created by Jorgeroyan and nominated by Elekhh.
- M-209 (nom) created by Rama and nominated by Tomer T.
- Mary of Hungary (nom) created by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen and nominated by Armbrust.
- Monticello (nom) created by Martin Falbisoner and nominated by Yerevantsi.
- Petra Martić (nom) created and nominated by Diliff.
- Publicity photo for The Kid (nom) creator unknown; edited by Crisco 1492 and nominated by Tomer T.
- Sha-có-pay portrait (nom) created by George Catlin and nominated by MatGTAM.
- Space selfie (nom) created by Aki Hoshide/NASA and nominated by Crisco 1492.
- The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (nom) created by Albert Bierstadt and nominated by Yerevantsi.
- Tower of London (nom) created by Bob Collowân and nominated by Crisco 1492.
- Capra pyrenaica victoriae juvenile (nom) created and nominated by Alurín.
- European hedgehog (nom) created by Michael Gäbler and nominated by Tomer T.
- Point Cabrillo Light (nom) created by Frank Schulenburg and nominated by Tomer T.
- Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (nom) created by Richard Bartz and nominated by Alurín.
- Rodovia dos Imigrantes (nom) created by Loggan11, edited by Admrboltz and Wilfredor, and nominated by Admrboltz.
- George Catlin (nom) created by William Fisk and nominated by Armbrust.
- The Last Day of Pompeii (nom) created by Karl Briullov and nominated by Yerevantsi.
- Birdy (nom) created by Seewolf and nominated by Julia W.
- Klara church (nom) created and nominated by ArildV.
- Jennifer Cobb (nom) created by the United States Army and nominated by Brandmeister.
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Sports Day
Summary: Ah, sports! I am sure that I share with most Wikipedians a fairly good opinion of the roundness of my own knowledge, at least in certain areas. It is a bold mind indeed that embarks on a longterm Wikipedia career without first winning a few rounds of Trivial Pursuit. However, the one topic about which I can safely declare myself utterly clueless is competitive physical activity, as evidenced by the fact that most of my free time is spent in front of a computer screen. So when two great sporting events, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, collide in one week, transforming the top 25 into a festival of flying feet, a carnival of colliding craniums and a bacchanal of bouncing balls, I find myself at the foothill of a rather large amount of research. So if the commentary seems a bit less colourful than usual, that's why.
For the complete top 25 report, plus exclusions, see WP:TOP25
For the week of 2 to 8 February, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages* were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Philip Seymour Hoffman 
4,755,765 
The sudden, unexpected death of this intensely talented, Oscar-winning actor at the age of only 46 sent ripples throughout the pop-culturesphere. Although the coroner has yet to confirm the cause of death, evidence found at the scene suggests that he relapsed into heroin use after a long abstinence. 2 Bruno Mars 
1,190,624 
Despite having only been on the scene for three years, this singer has already sold over 100 million records, and he shot into public consciousness this week not only by winning Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammys, but by presiding over a widely praised Super Bowl halftime show. 3 2014 Winter Olympics 
1,060,738 
The 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony fell on February 7. Thanks to Russia's vicious anti-gay laws and roundly condemned political imprisonments, this has become, whether it wanted to or not, a lightning rod for modern civil rights protest. 4 Satya Nadella
800,101 
The new CEO of Microsoft has a lot to deal with. Not only must he assume the mantle of a charismatic and universally known predecessor, but one whose shadow will likely fall on all who follow him, he must re-orient a company designed for the PC market in a world now dominated by tablets and mobile devices. It's somewhat surprising to see him so high on this list, but again, the India effect doubtless played a role. 5 Russell Wilson
723,018 
The defeat, or rout, if you prefer, by the Seattle Seahawks of the Denver Broncos that comprised this year's Super Bowl was distilled in the media to a battle between the two opposing quarterbacks—one a veteran approaching the end of his career, and this one, a newcomer led his team to their first Super Bowl win ever in just his second year in the league. 6 Sochi
721,216 
The sub-tropical resort that Vladimir Putin for some reason chose as the ideal location to host the Winter Olympics has become something of a talking point, given that it is one of the few places in the entire country that doesn't get snow in the winter, leading to the slightly ridiculous scenario of a country that regularly sees double-digit below zero temperatures having to spray artificial snow. 7 Super Bowl XLVIII
672,744 
With 111.5 million viewers, the largest amount in US television history, the great American event enters the top 10 for obvious reasons. 8 Peyton Manning
610,853 
A popular five-time MVP who played for the Indianapolis Colts for 14 seasons before leading the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl, Manning was framed in the media as the protagonist in a mano a mano battle with opposing quarterback Russell Wilson (see above). 9 Woody Allen
606,319 
The film director responded to an open letter from his onetime adopted daughter this week, dismissing accusations that he had sexually abused her, and reigniting smouldering debates about his behaviour. 10 Facebook
587,794 
A perennially popular article
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Game Time in Russia
- WikiProject Olympics is hard at work building and updating articles about the 2014 Winter Olympics and they could use your help
- The Tyop Contest is underway, but you can still join and eliminate spelling and grammatical errors on Wikipedia
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In celebration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, we revisited the team at WikiProject Russia to learn how the project has changed since our first interview in 2011. The project is currently home to 115 pieces of Featured material and 287 Good Articles. we interviewed Ezhiki and Ymblanter.
- How long have you been a member of WikiProject Russia? Do you live in Russia or speak Russian? Have you ever contributed to the Russian Wikipedia?
- Ezhiki: I've been involved with the project in one form or the other almost since its inception in 2006. I am a native Russian speaker, but I've been living in the United States for many years now. I have contributed (and occasionally continue to contribute) to the Russian Wikipedia, but I can hardly be called a regular there.
- Ymblanter: I am not formally signed up, but I was following the activities of the WikiProject since mid-2011, and much of my interests in Wikipedia are related to geography, history, and culture of Russia. Russian is my mother tongue, but I moved out of the country in 1994, though I visit on a regular basis. I have not contributed to the Russian Wikipedia since mid-2011, and I am not planning to resume my activity there. I am an active user and an administrator of the Russian Wikivoyage.
- Has WikiProject Russia noticed an increase in activity on the project's article related to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi? Have you contributed to any of the articles about venues for the Olympics? Have you had any contact with WikiProject Olympics?
- Ezhiki: Yes, of course there was an increase in Olympics-related activity. Setting up stubs infrastructure for all of the Olympic events is a Herculean task on its own, and from what I see it's progressing nicely (although much of the credit for this goes to editors normally uninvolved with WP:RUSSIA). On the other hand, this activity did not really transfer much onto other articles—while articles like Sochi do enjoy an influx of new edits, it, sadly, does not seem to affect other, closely related, but not really Olympics-specific topics. It will be interesting to see if this changes come February 6.
- Ymblanter: I might be the only Wikipedia user who has both WikiProject Russia and WikiProject Olympics on the watchlist, and I created a number of articles on Olympic competitions. I am also working on articles on subdivisions of Sochi. By the start of the Olympics, we must have articles on all four city districts of Sochi and hopefully I might have time to work on some of the most important microdistrict. So far, they indeed did not enjoy much of attention.
- When we first interviewed WikiProject Russia in 2011, members of the project were open to collaborating with the projects of neighboring countries, but few of those other projects were active at that time. Has the landscape changed since then? What can be done to revive projects covering countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia?
- Ezhiki: Despite its enormous scope, WikiProject Russia is not particularly bustling with activity. We have our ebbs and flows, but in the long run participation level does not fluctuate much and remains fairly low. I would imagine that for the WikiProjects covering countries neighboring with Russia the situation is rather similar, with an added disadvantage that their pool of potential editors is even smaller. In that regard, one can say that the landscape has not changed much, if at all. This, however, is to be somewhat expected: it has always been a challenge to attract editors knowledgeable about subjects where English-language coverage is limited.
- Ymblanter: I agree with Ezhiki. WikiProject Ukraine is somewhat active, other projects are essentially dead.
- Are there any struggles with keeping Wikipedia's articles about Russian politics neutral?
- Ymblanter: I do not have many articles on Russian politics on the watchlist, but I did not see much of the problem in those I watch (though I decided to unwatch 2014 Winter Olympics after being groundlessly accused in a POV by an incivil editor). The major problems I see are actually with articles on Medieval and pre-Medieval Russian history, such as Varangians. There academic literature is scarce, and users happy to introduce marginal theories are too numerous.
- Do some geographic areas of Russia receive more attention than others? What can be done to improve Wikipedia's articles about overlooked locations in Russia?
- Ezhiki: As someone editing mostly geography-related articles, I can't say any geographic areas are more popular than others. Topics related to Moscow and St. Petersburg are naturally high on the list, but so are more obscure regions like Chukotka or Murmansk Oblast. All in all, I'd say the coverage is surprisingly even (although rarely as thorough as we'd like to see). As for helping out, if anyone has good knowledge of a particular region, it should not be hard to find a Stub- or Start-level article to improve. Much of the "infrastructure", so to say, is in place; what we need most is people willing to grow meat on that bony skeleton.
- Ymblanter: Much of my activity of Wikipedia is bringing the articles of Russian district from such state to such state. So far I have done 5 federal subjects of Russia out of 83. I think even if we get all the articles about the districts to this level, it would already be a huge step forward.
- Has the project had any difficulties acquiring images for articles? What can Wikipedians visiting or living in Russia contribute to the project's photography? Are there any locations or objects that could be easily handled by anyone with a camera?
- Ymblanter: Images are a serious problem, and quality images are even a bigger problem, but the point is that the countryside of Russia, and towns which did not become tourist centers see no foreign visitors at all. If somebody happens to travel to such areas it is most likely that we need images. Do not forget that there is no freedom of panorama in Russia, and images of modern buildings or monuments will not be accepted.
- What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new member help today?
- Ezhiki: Our needs are too numerous to list here, but Olympics coverage is probably going to be of the highest priority in the coming month. Other than that, a good starting point for anyone willing to help out and unsure where to start would be the task force pages like this one, where Greyhood (talk · contribs) (now sadly retired) compiled lists of most pressing needs. Another option is to peruse the lists of popular pages (like this one; one is available for each of the WikiProject's taskforces) to identify underdeveloped but popular articles. And then there is always the WikiProject's talk page, where one can ask for pointers.
Next time, we'll discuss some of Wikipedia's shortcomings. Until then, explore our vast archive.
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