Wikimania 2008 bidding open

Bidding for Wikimania 2008 opened on Monday; bids will be accepted through Thursday, August 30, with a final decision scheduled for October 6. As of this time, three bids have been entered: Cape Town, Alexandria, and Atlanta.

Also on Monday, the jury for Wikimania 2008 was announced, with 17 voting members: Board members Jan-Bart de Vreede, Florence Devouard, and a board member yet to be determined, Wikimedia Special Advisor Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Communications Manager Sandra Ordonez, former board member and current Advisory Board member Angela Beesley, Advisory Board member Achal Prabhala, Juan David Ruiz, Dror, Kizu Naoko, Theodoranian, KJ, Phoebe Ayers, foundation Chapters Coordinator Delphine Ménard, and Austin Hair, with two potential members, Michael Snow and Samuel Klein, who have not yet accepted their membership.

Additionally, the jury will be aided by non-voting members: Advisory Board member Heather Ford, James Forrester, Andrew Lih (pending acceptance), Foundation employee Cary Bass, and other Board members will advise the jury.

200 x 100

This week, the Papiamentu Wikipedia reached 100 articles, making it the 200th Wikipedia to reach the 100 article barrier. Papiamentu, or Papiamento, is a Portuguese Creole mainly spoken on the islands of Bonaire and Curaçao, which are part of the Netherlands Antilles, and on Aruba, another self-governing part of the Netherlands. The language has 329,000 speakers worldwide.

In June 2005, the Nahuatl Wikipedia passed the 100 article mark, making it the 100th Wikipedia to reach 100 articles (see archived story). The Nahuatl Wikipedia now has over 3,200 articles. In June 2006, the Venetian Wikipedia passed 1,000 articles, making it the 100th Wikipedia to reach 1,000 articles (see archived story); it now contains nearly 5,500 articles.

Built-in maps

Articles with geographical coordinates now include a built-in javascript-based mapping tool, WikiMiniAtlas. For an example, click on the globe icon to view a map of St. Petersburg, Florida, home of the Wikimedia Foundation: 27.782254, -82.667619. The tool was developed by Dschwen.

Briefly

• The English Wiktionary has reached 500,000 entries.
• The Simple English Wikibooks has reached 100 book modules.
• The Sardinian Wiktionary reaches 600 entries.
• The Tsonga Wiktionary surpasses 300 entries.
• The Faroese Wiktionary reaches 200 entries.
• The Zulu Wiktionary reaches 100 entries.
• The Italian Wikiquote has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Maori Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Italian Wikisource has reached 15,000 text units.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 200,000 total pages.
• The Bavarian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Bishnupriya Manipuri Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
• The Wikipedia of Ripuarian languages has reached 7,000 articles.
• The Catalan Wikisource has reached 1,000 text units.