Once again, WWB and Fuzheado will be presenting at Wikimania. View their discourse from last year.
"How long will this take?" This is one of the first questions new clients ask. They come to us because the Wikipedia entry about the company at which they work is wrong, incomplete, or even just outdated. The answer varies, but it often comes as a shock when we explain that fixing problems on the "encyclopedia anyone can edit" is a project measured in weeks, if not months.
Many are speaking to us because they have tried before and failed, or were spooked by headlines about others who had tried and failed. Late last month,
another firm joined the list of ignominy: Sunshine Sachs, a PR agency to the stars, was busted for removing content from
Naomi Campbell's entry, among others (see previous Signpostcoverage). But often, even company representatives who mean well are treated as if the fault rests entirely with them, and are reprimanded simply for not understanding how Wikipedia works.
This is something we see every day. Together, we have nearly 10 years combined experience helping brands, companies, and organizations engage Wikipedia constructively. We help them understand what they can accomplish, what they should leave alone, and how to engage with Wikipedia's volunteers. Although the process has improved over time, we believe the right balance has yet to be discovered.
How the Bright Line works
There are various views on paid editing on Wikipedia, among them, a suggestion that it should be explicitly forbidden. However, another standard is the Bright Line, as suggested by founder Jimbo Wales
The state-of-the-art in
conflict of interest engagement is commonly called the
"Bright Line" rule, from a quote by Jimmy Wales when he first outlined the concept in 2012. It basically
goes like this: "I am opposed to allowing paid advocates to edit in article space at all, but am extremely supportive of them being given other helpful paths to assist us".
We immediately embraced this new development. After all, our greatest challenge over time was not the research and writing, nor aligning client goals with Wikipedia's mission, but rather the uncertainty involved in navigating a community that has as many views on paid advocacy as there are members. The Bright Line was an elegant solution, simplifying the process and making it more comprehensible for editors and clients alike.
It had other benefits, too: more feedback makes for better articles, and volunteer editors can help clarify things for a "lay audience". Sometimes clients are pushy, and it’s helpful to be able to use editor review as a backstop. Occasionally, it will even spark a great collaboration: identifying additional areas for improvement neither side would have found alone.
When the Bright Line does not work
The Bright Line can work, and we (and others who have embraced it) are proof. But after three years of following its prescripts, we are all too aware of the times when it does not. Jimbo's elegant solution comes with its own limitations, challenges, and even contradictions. Here are several reasons the status quo can and should be improved:
The Bright Line has not actually reduced uncertainty—Not all volunteer editors are familiar with the Bright Line, which creates uncertainty surrounding the community's response to COI editors. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Bright Line has never become guideline or policy, so there is nothing definitive for adherents to point to when seeking help.
The Bright Line places a significant burden on volunteers—With volunteer time as scarce as it has ever been, it is somewhat perverse that established community members are asked to take time away from their own projects to work on someone else's. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but in our experience it often lacks common sense. Some real-life situations where we have had to avoid making uncontroversial edits: de-orphaning a new article, fixing typos, fixing broken formatting, updating navboxes and infoboxes, repositioning images, disambiguating links, and fixing non-obvious vandalism.
The Bright Line has no infrastructure to support it—With no clear advice on how to best ask for help, no specific guidelines for volunteers, and no active wikiproject or noticeboards, few ask and fewer respond. The closest thing to it now is the little-known
"Requested edits" category, which is backlogged in spite (and because) of its obscurity. We think more editors would help if a better process existed, especially one that turned it from the lonely responsibility of one volunteer at a time into a collaborative review effort.
Paid editing prohibitionists frustrate the process—Sometimes, the only responding editors are anti-paid editing, or are motivated by POV themselves. Not only do some COI editors choose not to disclose because it puts a target on their back, but some volunteers avoid offering help for the exact same reason. This can prevent edits being made that are genuine improvements, to the detriment of the encyclopedia.
It perpetuates the atmosphere of distrust on Wikipedia—The Bright Line was formulated in response to the
Bell Pottinger scandal, and so its framing focuses on the worst actors, while giving scant consideration to the possibility that "paid advocates" might be simply looking for an accurate and fair representation of the brand, not necessarily a promotional one. It actually requires editors to assume bad faith, which is fundamentally at odds with Wikipedia's
five pillars.
A proposed "First Amendment" to the Bright Line constitution
These problems raise an obvious question: what needs to be done? We have one short term suggestion that would immediately relieve some of the burden on volunteer editors and the wait times for adherents: The Bright Line should include an allowance for "maintenance edits".
Currently, the Bright Line allows exceptions for "emergency edits" that are comparatively rare: missed (obvious) vandalism and libel. A simple fix would be to allow for "maintenance edits" such as de-orphaning an article and removing the template afterward.
By applying common sense and allowing for edits that do not alter previous editorial decisions, the burden on volunteer editors can be eased, and neglected entries can be improved. To assuage concerns of potential abuse, COI editors might be required to use a standard edit summary such as "COI maintenance edit" so a filter could be created for identification and review.
Let's start over
The nuclear option, of course, would be to abandon the Bright Line altogether. While we wouldn't necessarily encourage doing so at this time, there is one (however unlikely) scenario in which doing so would make a great deal of sense: if
Flagged Revisions were to make a comeback. Especially in light of the recent
GamerGate debacle, the only difference really is whether the debate over GamerGate-inspired edits should have been a public game of whack-a-mole or a semi-public queue for editorial review.
In this scenario, editors with paid conflicts would receive scrutiny, and with new community infrastructure—not to mention some valuable gamification—they would be more likely to receive it in a timely manner. The uncertainty of how to participate and the absurdity of asking for help when the correction is obvious would be reduced, if not altogether eliminated.
A more elegant solution
Given our years of experience with client requests, we are comfortable explaining how Wikipedia works even to skeptical clients. Knowing how complex even "simple" requests can be, and how important it is to get things right, sometimes the months of research, writing and discussion are necessary. But the Bright Line in its current form makes no distinction between that which deserves careful scrutiny and those requiring a lighter touch. A few common sense adjustments would make the Bright Line easier to explain, more likely to be followed, and free Wikipedia volunteers to focus on more important things.
However coy they may be about it in public, Americans love to win. And when they do, they make no secret of it. Today saw two American triumphs in world sport:
Serena Williams securing her sixth Wimbledon win and the Women's national team securing their third World Cup title. America has had little recent success in men's tennis, lorded over as it is by seemingly invulnerable demigods like
Novak Djokovic,
Roger Federer and
Rafael Nadal. On the women's side though, Serena rules alone. As far as soccer goes, the US may not have a chance of ever dominating the male equivalent, but they rule the women's game, and are becoming increasingly vocal about it. Hopefully this will kickstart the one thing America is better at than any other nation in history: sales. As their ebullience translates into exposure and buzz, slowly other countries will come to treat women's football with the respect it deserves.
For the full top-25 list, see
WP:TOP25. See
this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see
here.
As prepared by
Serendipodous, for the week of July 5 to 11, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the
most viewed pages, were:
Serena's no stranger to this list, but this week sent her into the stratosphere. Not only did she win
Wimbledon for the sixth time in a straight-sets duel with
Garbine Muguruza, she also secured her second "Serena Slam" – winning four major titles in a row, and is on course to winning a
Grand Slam (four major titles in a calendar year). If she succeeds, she will be the first woman to do so since
Steffi Graf in 1988. At 33 she is also the oldest ever world women's tennis number 1; with 16 years between her first title and her latest, Williams has already surpassed other long-surviving legends in her sport, such as Graf and
Martina Navratilova, and shows no signs of slowing down. To put this in perspective, the 21-year-old Muguruza was only five when Williams won her first title.
It took the horrific act of the
Charleston church shooting on June 17 to refocus the attention of
South Carolina politicians and public at large to the fact that South Carolina was still flying the battle flag of the
Confederate States of America near their
state capitol. This flag causes a lot of controversy in the United States, though its general modern use as a symbol of racist oppression of blacks is undeniable. Will the flag of
ISIS/ISIL be similarly used in the Middle East one hundred years hence? In any event, on July 10, after an emotional debate in the state legislature, the flag was finally taken down.
This film marks the fourth attempt in 12 years to restart the dormant Terminator franchise without the aid of its creator,
James Cameron. To date, if
Metacritic and
IMDb are anything to go by, the only remotely successful of these resuscitations was the hugely underrated TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. One wonders if audiences are wishing they'd watched that when they had the chance, because the box office numbers for this flick are bad. Really bad. As in, "made as much in its first five days as Terminator Salvation made in its first weekend" bad. Salvation, mind you, was the black sheep of the series until now. Even after two weeks, the movie has made barely $70 million. All this is rather perplexing, since the two things that usually drive movies up this list are box office and controversy, and so far the only controversy generated by this film is from the few scattered critics who don't consider it utterly terrible. Perhaps it was the presence of
Emilia Clarke (currently the second Game of Thrones star to take on the role of
Sarah Connor). Or perhaps, if this ageing Terminator fan could be wistful for a moment, the critics are wrong when they say the
Millennial generation has no love for this franchise. Perhaps they rushed to their tablets incensed at the terrible reviews; determined to learn who and what was responsible for vandalising the legacy of this landmark work of science fiction. Or perhaps it means nothing at all. Who am I to guess?
Want a quick route to temporary posthumous fame? Become the subject of an interactive
Google doodle. Which is exactly what happened to the creator of
Ultraman this week.
At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually
Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the
Telugu actor
Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days.
The
midfielder's
hat trick in the
final against
Japan helped clinch the USA the World Cup title, and made her a national hero in the process. Though not enough of one to top this list, apparently.
If America wins a tournament, you can be sure it will end up on this list. And while the old US of A hasn't exactly stormed the palisades as far as men's football is concerned, it's comfortably ensconced at the top of the women's game. Perhaps this challenge to the world will lead some of the more macho footballing nations to begin to take their female counterparts seriously.
A fixture on this list last year, the former
Disney poplet has struggled to maintain a presence this year. Until this week, when she was filmed licking a doughnut on a display counter and then putting it back, before declaring, "I hate America". Not sure if this qualifies as a
Britney Spears-level meltdown, but it's certainly lifted her profile.
The US national team has now secured the World Cup title 3 times. If they were counted among the men's records, they would have a legacy as secure as Germany or Italy. Perceptions are changing though.
We return this week with an interview with a historical project that's still fairly active, WikiProject Former countries, which has a large amount of recognised content and a pretty large remit: countries that existed in history, but no longer exist as political entities. There are certainly a lot of those. Here to divulge their experiences are
OwenBlacker and
MirkoS18.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Former countries? Do you have an academic or professional background in world history? Have you contributed to WikiProjects covering any other geographical topics?
OwenBlacker: I went to school in
Plymouth (the original one, in
England), so there was a big emphasis on
British naval history. Apart from the
Roanoke Colony, though, it totally wasn't my bag and put me off history for years. Until I discovered my uncle's copy of The Times Atlas of World History and realised that learning more about history meant there were even more maps to look at — always a guilty pleasure. That helped me realise it wasn't history I disliked, just the parts I learnt at school. Since then I have read (and looked at maps) of history in great quantity.
Have you contributed to any of the project's 44 Featured or 77 Good Articles? What challenges do project members face when improving former countries articles to FA or GA status?
OwenBlacker: A lot of the Featured and Good articles are about military history, which doesn't interest me as much, but which benefits from many excellent writers. There's only one of the Good Articles that I've worked on in detail,
Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, one of the ecclesiastical states of the
Holy Roman Empire and an article I raised from a stub to GA class. I look forward to doing more.
OwenBlacker: The articles benefit greatly by having high-quality maps, flags and arms. I also contribute to
Commons:WikiProject Heraldry, mainly creating coats of arms images for articles I'm working on.
OwenBlacker: I mainly edit around pre-Napoleonic Europe, in particular the Holy Roman Empire and the
Old Swiss Confederacy; I'd say the Empire is probably my favourite.
MirkoS18: Talks on history of
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are still hot topic in the region. There is almost noone who would be emotionally distant and neutral. At the same time, people know little facts about that time. Theirs opinions are glorification or vilification.
Dissolution of Yugoslavia itself created new short living entities that are covered by this project. Today, there is even specific WP project Yugoslavia that tries to bring facts to the general public. Taking into account that topic is from recent history and is still very relevant for today, I would say that Yugoslavia would be my favourite former country and favourite topic to work on that is connected with this project.
What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
OwenBlacker: Like so much in the English Wikipedia, our coverage of the
Global South bears much room for improvement — for example, the
Songhai Empire was one of the largest empires in Islamic and African history but is currently rated
Start-class (though could do with a review and maybe a
GA Nomination). The easiest place to start, though would be to take almost any article and flesh it out — over a half of our article-space pages are Start-class.
D’Arcy Myers, chief executive of WMUK, told Orlowski that WMUK was "fufilling" Shapps' request and that "WMUK has not issued an apology to Mr. Shapps as the charity has not been involved with this issue." Orlowski wrote that he was "puzzled" by this response. Orlowski, a frequent critic of Wikipedia who has been reporting on the encyclopedia for at least a decade, outlined the separation between the
Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and WMUK for his readers, but did not explain the distinction between Symonds' paid employment at WMUK as office and development manager, responsible for finances and reports, and his volunteer role on the encyclopedia as a
functionary using checkuser and oversight tools. Orlowski did note instances where Symonds might have blurred those roles, writing that Symonds used a WMUK email address to communicate with The Guardian regarding Shapps, and claimed that Symonds "frequently" used his checkuser tool "on WMUK time". (July 13)
Plagiarism allegations lead to demotion for ASU professor
Professor Matthew Whitaker
The Arizona Republicreports that popular
Arizona State University history professor Matthew C. Whitaker was demoted following an investigation into plagiarism accusations. Whitaker was demoted from full to associate professor and from director to co-director of ASU's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. ASU's provost wrote that an "investigation identified significant issues with the content of" Whitaker's 2014 book, Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama.
Whitaker has been dogged with plagiarism allegations for years. His 2008 book African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence contained material regarding
Muhammad Ali and
Serena and
Venus Williams taken from Wikipedia. At the time, Whitaker blamed a freelance editor working from his outline and wrote "unfortunately and unknown to me, the freelance editor inserted verbatim sections from Wikipedia and other online sources without rewording them and without quotations or attribution." In 2012, a previous ASU investigation into this and other allegations concluded that Whitaker was not guilty of "systematic or substantial plagiarism". The Phoenix New Timesreports that this conclusion was the subject of much controversy among bloggers, such as the anonymous author of the blog
"The Cabinet of Plagiarism", and even some of his colleagues, one of whom resigned from a tenure and promotions committee in protest. (July 13)
In brief
Pluto photographed by the
New Horizons probe. More than meets the eye?
VA plagiarism allegations:
WKMG-TVreports that veterans are raising questions about the expertise of doctors evaluating their claims for the
United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The doctor's report on one veteran's
mycosis fungoides, denying his disability benefits claim, contained a section that appeared to be taken from Wikipedia. But the VA doctor's denial significantly omitted the word "not" in copying the following statement from the Wikipedia article: "While the cause remains unclear, most cases are not genetic or hereditary." (July 13)
More than meets the eye?: On the occasion of exploration of the planet dwarf planet
Pluto by the
New Horizons probe, The Weeknotes that "We know very little about the tiny world; its Wikipedia entry is 3,000 words shorter than that of
Cybertron, fictional home planet of the
Transformers." (July 13)
Reselling Wikipedia: Watsonreports on the numerous
print on demand compilations of Wikipedia articles for sale in online bookstores. Wikipedia content
can be reused without cost for any purpose. The Swiss
Foundation for Consumer Protection criticized these sales because they are priced almost as high as traditional books, while the cost to produce them is minimal. (July 12)
Sex offender test: A
long article in The Atlantic about the
Abel Assessment test, a test widely used in the American legal system purporting to measure a tendency toward
pedophilia, briefly discusses the widespread online criticism of the test and its creator,
Gene Abel. The article mentions that one of Abel's colleagues "tried to get the entry [on Abel] taken down". Last year, a new editor submitted the articles for Abel and the test for
speedy deletion and the latter to
Articles for Deletion, but both articles were kept. It is not known if this editor was Abel's colleague. Following the publication of the article, a different editor
redirected Abel's article to the article for his test. (July 9)
Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the
Newsroom or contact the
editor.
The following content has been
republished from the
Wikimedia Blog. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author alone; responses and critical commentary are invited in the
comments section. For more information on this partnership see our
content guidelines.
This report demonstrates the Foundation's continuing commitment to openness and transparency.
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce the release of our latest
transparency report. Transparency is one of Wikimedia's core
values, and we are committed to communicating clear and accurate information about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects to our user community.
In August 2014, we
published our first transparency report, which detailed the number of requests we received to disclose user data or alter or remove content from the Wikimedia projects between July 2012 and June 2014. We
updated the report in April 2015 with new data, real-life examples of the types of requests we receive, and additional categories such as "voluntary disclosures" and "
right to be forgotten" requests. We are happy to continue this tradition with our latest update, covering January to June 2015. During this time, we received 234 alteration or takedown requests and 23 user data requests, none of which we granted.
In summary, the report tracks five key data points:
Content alteration and takedown requests. None of the 234 general content removal requests we received during this time period were granted. Nine of the content alteration or takedown requests we received came from government entities. In general, we receive relatively few content removal requests because members of the Wikimedia community work hard to address any concerns relating to content accuracy and compliance with project policies. When we do receive takedown or alteration requests, we push back to ensure that Wikimedia platforms remain open, neutral, and uncensored, so that the community can decide what content belongs on Wikimedia projects.
Copyright takedown requests. During this period, Wikimedia received 21
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests and granted only three (14.3%) of those requests. Wikimedia users play a critical role in monitoring content to ensure copyright compliance; as a result, we receive very few DMCA requests compared to other technology companies. All DMCA requests that we do receive are thoroughly evaluated to determine whether the request is valid, whether the content is in fact infringing, and whether any legal exceptions (such as
fair use) may apply.
Right to be forgotten. Wikimedia received four requests for content removal based on the "right to be forgotten," and did not grant any of those requests. For more on the right to be Forgotten, we invite you to read our
statement opposing the scope of the
relevant European Court opinion and its implications for free knowledge.
Requests for user data. Wikimedia is strongly committed to
protecting user privacy. None of the 23 user data requests we received (including informal government and non-government requests, one criminal subpoena, and one court order) resulted in the disclosure of nonpublic user information. Each request we receive is carefully reviewed to ensure that it is legal and complies with our
stringent standards. Even if a particular request is valid, we often do not have any information to provide; we collect little nonpublic user information, and retain that information for a very short time.
Voluntary disclosure. On rare occasions, the Wikimedia Foundation becomes aware of concerning information on the projects, such as suicide or bomb threats. Consistent with our
privacy policy, in these cases, we may voluntarily provide information to the proper authorities in order to resolve the issue and ensure safety. Between January and June 2015, we made 14 such disclosures.
This report also features story highlights from this period and provides answers to many frequently asked questions. We invite you to consult the full report to learn more about our efforts to protect user privacy and maintain the integrity of the Wikimedia projects at
http://transparency.wikimedia.org.
Wikimania 2015 is underway in Mexico City, and one of its sessions—a scheduled follow-up to the annual
Wikimedia Conference that was held in Berlin in May—is good reason to provide a retrospective of that Conference.
The Wikimedia Conference gathered together leaders and staff of Wikimedia affiliate organizations, groups of volunteers such as the Affiliations Committee and the Funds Dissemination Committee, and WMF Board and staff members. The conference was held in Berlin, hosted by Wikimedia Germany, and involved 165 participants from 53 nations. Representatives were from 39 chapters, one thematic organization, and 17 user groups.
One of the highlights was the presentation by WMF executive director Lila Tretikov, in which she spoke of WMF collaboration with affiliates through improved partnerships, practices, and tools. In previous years the relationship between WMF and affiliates has been strained by
financial disputes; governance issues with
Wikimedia Germany and
Wikimedia UK; "
concern by the Foundation about budget and staffing growth, lack of demonstrable impact on WMF sites, and governance among eligible affiliates"; and the
drama around the now-defunct
Wikimedia Chapters Association. Many affiliate representatives welcomed the positive tone of Lila's presentation, which noted that "organizations can do what individuals cannot do alone", and acknowledged that Wikimedia affiliates have important roles in building collaborations with institutions around the world.
Other conference highlights included:
Numerous presentations on programs and program evaluation
Discussions of administrative workloads and volunteer burnout
An upcoming "community consultation" regarding WMF Community Resources (formerly known as Grantmaking)
The desire of user groups to receive more support from the Foundation (ongoing discussion about the extent of WMF support for user groups is on
the WMF Annual Plan talk page)
Discussions among affiliates about how to increase diversity, particularly among affiliate board members.
Discussions about
global metrics and alternative metrics for evaluating the outcomes of programs
Discussions on how to increase support for volunteers
Hopes and fears written by participants in the workshop.
Notice that the avalanche of documentation had already started on pre-conference day 1.
Packa from the Czech Republic took this photo of the workshop dinner
A graph showing self-evaluations by pre-conference workshop participants at the end of the workshop
May 14 highlights
Edward's presentation about Wikimetrics (PDF)
Presentation by Jaime about designing effective survey questions (PDF)
Presentation about the Education Program Extension by Anna Koval
Take-aways from the Thursday pre-conference sessions
May 15 highlights
Flipchart from the Board Governance session
Lightning talks were popular. See a list of them
here.
East and Southeast Asia meetup
Central and eastern Europeans
Africa meetup
May 16 highlights
The group photo!
Community Capacity Development Framework presentation (PDF)
Lila's presentation (PDF)
We discussed photo campaigns. This photo of Holy Mountains Monastery in Ukraine won the 2014 Wiki Loves Monuments competition
May 17 highlights
Communications presentation by Katherine and Juliet
User groups meeting
Who's going to Wikimania?
Wikimedia Germany executive director Christian Rickerts with WMF Board chair Jan-Bart de Vreede
Brief notes
Wikimania 2015 is happening:
Wikimania 2015 is now in progress—for 15-19 July
Mexico City will host the biggest annual gathering of Wikimedians anywhere in the world. Unfortunately the Signpost will not have a presence at the conference; are you an attendee interested in helping compile coverage?
Drop a line for us on the talk page. Presaging the conference, activity has
lit up on the previously quiet wikimania-l mailing list.
R
Fiscal year: Per an
email in wikimedia-l, the Wikimedia Foundation's
fiscal year is now over, and the fundraising department is set to begin work on next year's fundraiser. Details on the Foundation's impression of its activities will be posted to the
fundraising reports once the report is compiled; for now there is a
summary on the meta-wiki of near-future efforts to come.
R
Erasmus Prize award ceremony: Three members of the Wikimedia community, chosen for diversity,
will be presented the
Erasmus Prize at an award ceremony on 25 November. A
guest list for Wikipedians has been compiled on the Dutch Wikipedia, with sign-ups having closed on 12 July. For more information on the nature of the award refer to
previous Signpost coverage.
R
This Month: The
June edition of the GLAM newsletter is now published, as is the
June edition of the Education newsletter.
R
WMDE fundraising report: Wikimedia Germany have released their
detailed fundraising report on the meta-wiki. Wikimedia Germany's size and fundraising power are anomalously successful in the movement: the
Chapter-Wide Financial Trends Report published in June had to correct many of its results to account for the heavy positive skew Wikimedia Germany in the statistics. An
executive summary was published as a blog post in May.
R
New WM-UK CEO: In a
post to the wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia UK announced the hiring of a new executive CEO for the organization, Lucy Crompton-Reid, previously with the theatrical charity
Apples and Snakes. A
press release is available on the Wikimedia UK blog.
R
Semantic Wikimedia Survey: The
Semantic MediaWiki, a popular knowledge-base extension to the movement's base
MediaWiki platform, is looking for feedback on a
user survey ahead of a
meeting at this year's Wikimania.
R
p➞q: Wikipedia now has a channel on the notification-and-information-management website
If This Then That. A number of recipes exist for things like setting your phone wallpaper to the Wikipedia Picture of the Day and getting the day's featured article in your inbox.
R
The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate(
nominated by
Iridescent) William Etty painted The Destroying Angel in 1832, ten years after he'd been promised 60 guineas by Henry Payne of Leicester for a painting of the subject. Etty had been stung by newspaper criticism that he was lacking in taste and chastity of mind and was determined to prove his critics wrong. So he resurrected Payne's proposal, and set to with a will. Payne having given him free rein in the design of the picture, Etty portrayed "around 25 semi-naked human figures" (sounds like nobody's actually dared count them) engaged in "orgies" in a "Temple of Vice". To introduce a moral dimension, the orgies are being interrupted by the Destroying Angel and some naked swarthy daemons. In a neat division of labour, the Angel knocks down the architecture while the daemons carry off as many of the orgiasts as they can grab. Over the decade Etty's marketability had grown, so Payne paid 130 pounds for the finished canvas. Payne sold the painting in 1854 at auction for 770 guineas to the engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth- prices for Etty's paintings had increased rapidly after his death.
Angelina Jolie filmography(
nominated by
FrB.TG) Angelina Jolie has an eclectic filmography, ranging from voice-overs in animated films through dramatisations of video-games to intense psychological dramas. She won an Oscar for her portrayal of a sociopathic patient in the film Girl, Interrupted. Recently Jolie has directed a brace of war films, set during the Bosnian War and in a WW2 Japanese camp. Is she going places? Yes, unless that place is called Serbia.
Deepika Padukone filmography(
nominated by
Krimuk90) Deepika Padukone, Bollywood actress, has appeared in almost thirty major films since 2006. Most of them are in Hindi and Tamil, so unless you speak those languages you'll need your reading glasses. The exception is Finding Fanny, which is in English; five dysfunctional friends go on a road-trip across Goa in search of Fanny. Padukone takes the part of Angie, a "young virgin widow", who becomes a "young widow" halfway through the tangled plot. She muses that "you can't wait for love, you must go out and find it". That's true- you won't find Fanny right under your nose.
Denzel Washington on screen and stage(
nominated by
Cowlibob) Denzel Washington started his acting career age 22 in a 1977 TV adaptation of the life of Wilma Rudolph, American athlete. His stage debut followed in 1979 in Shakespeare's Coriolanus and film in 1981 with Washington playing "the long-lost black son of...a respectable [white] businessman" in Carbon Copy. He's won two Oscars, with "Best Actor" for his cop on the take, in Training Day.
List of Gaon Album Chart number ones of 2011(
nominated by
HĐ) The Gaon Album Chart shows what's selling in South Korean music albums; it's compiled by those fun-loving guys at Korea Music Content Industry Association, in association with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who provide the numbers. The ministry squeezes 'em out of the six major distributors of offline and online product. It's only been since 1987 that the Ministry of Culture have stopped censoring music; the Korean version of Dark Side of the Moon only had eight tracks instead of ten, omitting Us and Them and Brain Damage.
List of Warwickshire County Cricket Club grounds(
nominated by
ChrisTheDude and
AssociateAffiliate) The WCCC, like other county cricket associations, had a number of grounds scattered in towns and cities around their "patch". Their main ground is at Edgbaston, laid out there in 1894 to "enhance the image of the district", and there are or were ten other grounds at which first class matches have been played. Of those that have fallen out of use, the Courtaulds ground in Coventry is the only one that hasn't been built on. It was laid out on land belonging to Courtaulds the fibre manufacturers, and cost £15,000 to construct in 1935 (equivalent to about £930,000 or $1.4 million now). Warwickshire played its first county match there in June 1946. The last first class match was in 1983, and it's now the site of a weekly car boot sale, overlooked by the ruins of the pavilion.
List of songs recorded by Ariana Grande(
nominated by
Calvin999) Ariana Grande is an American singer and actress with a "remarkable vocal range" (261 Hz to 2349 Hz, give or take a few Hertz). She was inspired to take up a music career after being complimented by Gloria Estefan, who saw a performance Grande gave when she was eight years old. She's recorded two studio albums, with the songs written by a number of collaborators, and she has worked with many rap and R'n'B musicians. Grande has adopted several dogs, who are among her biggest fans, especially when she hits 2349 Hz.
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World(
nominated by
Harrias) The Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World is a development of the almanack's "Cricketers of the Year', which has been awarded to the "five cricketers that had the greatest impact during the previous English cricket season" since 1889. Recognising that the best cricketers weren't playing English domestic cricket the criteria for the original award were extended to take into account international performances, but in 2004 a separate world award was instituted. Selection is made by Wisden's editor, under advice. The first winner was Australian Ricky Ponting. A "notional award" was later instituted, to recognise cricketers from 1900 onwards (it was felt that international cricket was too "inchoate" before that year). The winners are described as being the first choice for a place in a World XI to play Mars. One drawback of playing cricket on the Red Planet is that because the gravity is so weak, the balls can reach Uranus.
Meripilus giganteus, also called the "giant polypore" or "black-staining polypore", because people are sometimes terrible at names.Title page to an early vocal score of
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, showing the c. 1700 costumery the censors forced on the show, instead of the then-contemporaneous setting Verdi desired.
Snowy owl(created by
User:Michael Gäbler;
nominated by
Brandmeister)Snowy owls start life with a number of black feathers among the thick white plumage. They gradually lose these as they age, with females retaining more of them; this photo is of a male snowy owl. They live in Arctic regions, but migrate for long distances in the winter- some have been recently seen in Florida,
Carl Nielsen(created by
Adam Cuerden;
nominated by
Adam Cuerden) This is Danish composer
Carl Nielsen, photographed probably in 1908. He is in his summer plumage, and his alert expression indicates that Nielsen has spotted a lady: although married, he had a roving eye.
La traviata(created by Leopoldo Ratti; restored and
nominated by
Adam Cuerden) John Webber, who edited Wikipedia as
Viva-Verdi, died in March this year, and work continues on our quest to provide a fitting memorial for his work on Wikipedia. The article on
Giuseppe Verdi is up for good article status at the moment, and a selection of images of his articles with potential to reach featured picture are being worked on.
Iman Budhi Santosa(created and
nominated by
Crisco 1492)Iman Budhi Santosa, commonly known as IBS, is seen here reading from his 2015 book Sesanti Tedhak Siti, a collection of geguritan (Islamic poetry in a particular metrical form, usually religious or spiritual) written from 1980 onwards. He is an Indonesian author, whose poetry reflects Javanese culture. The title refers to the ceremony of Tedhak Siti, the first meeting of a child with the earth; IBS says he wished to imply that the Javanese should relearn their culture.
Kue(created by
Gunkarta;
nominated by
Adam Cuerden) "
Kue" is a general term for bite-sized pastries, savouries, cakes and sweets beloved in Indonesia. They incorporate recipes and techniques from other cultures, such as Chinese and Indian, and are called "market munchies".
Johann Christian Bach(created by
Thomas Gainsborough;
nominated by
Crisco 1492) The sad sad story of
John Bach: born when his famous father was fifty years old, Johann Christian received a modicum of instruction from Old Bach. The contrapuntal style of his father faded from Johann's music, which was composed in the Galante style, with melodies and balanced phrasing (takes as long to go down the scale as it did to go up). Johann lived in Italy for a number of years before relocating to London when his operas received a warm welcome. He became John Bach, music master to George III's Queen Charlotte. But all the money he earned was embezzled by his steward, and he died in debt on New Year's Day, 1782.
Meripilus giganteus(created by
Michael Gäbler;
nominated by
Tomer T)Meripilus giganteus is a large fungus, mostly found on hardwoods. It causes white rot, and is generally considered inedible although, according to Maud Grieve in her Modern Herbal, its "esculent properties are appreciated on the continent." Thick fog in English Channel- continent cut off.
Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich(created by
Peter Lely;
nominated by
Crisco 1492) It would be a hundred years after
Edward Montagu's death that the sandwich was invented by his great-great-grandson; the first Earl of Sandwich lived his whole life untroubled by the notion that he was some kind of foodstuff. Fighting on the side of Cromwell in the English Civil War, he later helped to restore the monarchy, and served Charles as an ambassador and later an admiral. Sandwich died in his burning flagship at the battle of Solebay.
Caleb Strong(created by James Bannister;
nominated by
Godot13)Caleb Strong was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician, whose legal practice thrived during the American Revolution. He was governor of Massachusetts twice; during his second term from 1812 to 1816 he opposed the federal government's pursuit of war against Britain as a case of trampling on states' rights. Strong believed that the state militia should only be used to protect the state borders.
Angklung(created and
nominated by
Crisco 1492) The
angklung is an ensemble instrument made from bamboo. The tubes are tuned in pairs, one octave apart, and are sounded by striking to produce a resonance.
The following content has been republished as-is from the
Tech News weekly report.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
You can now see a
list of pages with errors in code coloring.
[1]
Problems
There was a problem with editing on Thursday. Some tools like bots and VisualEditor were broken on all wikis for 10 minutes.
[2]
There was a problem with images on Thursday. They were broken on all wikis for 15 minutes.
[3]
Changes this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from July 14. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from July 15. It will be on all Wikipedias from July 16 (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join a technical meeting at Wikimania in Mexico City this week.
[4]
Once again, WWB and Fuzheado will be presenting at Wikimania. View their discourse from last year.
"How long will this take?" This is one of the first questions new clients ask. They come to us because the Wikipedia entry about the company at which they work is wrong, incomplete, or even just outdated. The answer varies, but it often comes as a shock when we explain that fixing problems on the "encyclopedia anyone can edit" is a project measured in weeks, if not months.
Many are speaking to us because they have tried before and failed, or were spooked by headlines about others who had tried and failed. Late last month,
another firm joined the list of ignominy: Sunshine Sachs, a PR agency to the stars, was busted for removing content from
Naomi Campbell's entry, among others (see previous Signpostcoverage). But often, even company representatives who mean well are treated as if the fault rests entirely with them, and are reprimanded simply for not understanding how Wikipedia works.
This is something we see every day. Together, we have nearly 10 years combined experience helping brands, companies, and organizations engage Wikipedia constructively. We help them understand what they can accomplish, what they should leave alone, and how to engage with Wikipedia's volunteers. Although the process has improved over time, we believe the right balance has yet to be discovered.
How the Bright Line works
There are various views on paid editing on Wikipedia, among them, a suggestion that it should be explicitly forbidden. However, another standard is the Bright Line, as suggested by founder Jimbo Wales
The state-of-the-art in
conflict of interest engagement is commonly called the
"Bright Line" rule, from a quote by Jimmy Wales when he first outlined the concept in 2012. It basically
goes like this: "I am opposed to allowing paid advocates to edit in article space at all, but am extremely supportive of them being given other helpful paths to assist us".
We immediately embraced this new development. After all, our greatest challenge over time was not the research and writing, nor aligning client goals with Wikipedia's mission, but rather the uncertainty involved in navigating a community that has as many views on paid advocacy as there are members. The Bright Line was an elegant solution, simplifying the process and making it more comprehensible for editors and clients alike.
It had other benefits, too: more feedback makes for better articles, and volunteer editors can help clarify things for a "lay audience". Sometimes clients are pushy, and it’s helpful to be able to use editor review as a backstop. Occasionally, it will even spark a great collaboration: identifying additional areas for improvement neither side would have found alone.
When the Bright Line does not work
The Bright Line can work, and we (and others who have embraced it) are proof. But after three years of following its prescripts, we are all too aware of the times when it does not. Jimbo's elegant solution comes with its own limitations, challenges, and even contradictions. Here are several reasons the status quo can and should be improved:
The Bright Line has not actually reduced uncertainty—Not all volunteer editors are familiar with the Bright Line, which creates uncertainty surrounding the community's response to COI editors. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Bright Line has never become guideline or policy, so there is nothing definitive for adherents to point to when seeking help.
The Bright Line places a significant burden on volunteers—With volunteer time as scarce as it has ever been, it is somewhat perverse that established community members are asked to take time away from their own projects to work on someone else's. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but in our experience it often lacks common sense. Some real-life situations where we have had to avoid making uncontroversial edits: de-orphaning a new article, fixing typos, fixing broken formatting, updating navboxes and infoboxes, repositioning images, disambiguating links, and fixing non-obvious vandalism.
The Bright Line has no infrastructure to support it—With no clear advice on how to best ask for help, no specific guidelines for volunteers, and no active wikiproject or noticeboards, few ask and fewer respond. The closest thing to it now is the little-known
"Requested edits" category, which is backlogged in spite (and because) of its obscurity. We think more editors would help if a better process existed, especially one that turned it from the lonely responsibility of one volunteer at a time into a collaborative review effort.
Paid editing prohibitionists frustrate the process—Sometimes, the only responding editors are anti-paid editing, or are motivated by POV themselves. Not only do some COI editors choose not to disclose because it puts a target on their back, but some volunteers avoid offering help for the exact same reason. This can prevent edits being made that are genuine improvements, to the detriment of the encyclopedia.
It perpetuates the atmosphere of distrust on Wikipedia—The Bright Line was formulated in response to the
Bell Pottinger scandal, and so its framing focuses on the worst actors, while giving scant consideration to the possibility that "paid advocates" might be simply looking for an accurate and fair representation of the brand, not necessarily a promotional one. It actually requires editors to assume bad faith, which is fundamentally at odds with Wikipedia's
five pillars.
A proposed "First Amendment" to the Bright Line constitution
These problems raise an obvious question: what needs to be done? We have one short term suggestion that would immediately relieve some of the burden on volunteer editors and the wait times for adherents: The Bright Line should include an allowance for "maintenance edits".
Currently, the Bright Line allows exceptions for "emergency edits" that are comparatively rare: missed (obvious) vandalism and libel. A simple fix would be to allow for "maintenance edits" such as de-orphaning an article and removing the template afterward.
By applying common sense and allowing for edits that do not alter previous editorial decisions, the burden on volunteer editors can be eased, and neglected entries can be improved. To assuage concerns of potential abuse, COI editors might be required to use a standard edit summary such as "COI maintenance edit" so a filter could be created for identification and review.
Let's start over
The nuclear option, of course, would be to abandon the Bright Line altogether. While we wouldn't necessarily encourage doing so at this time, there is one (however unlikely) scenario in which doing so would make a great deal of sense: if
Flagged Revisions were to make a comeback. Especially in light of the recent
GamerGate debacle, the only difference really is whether the debate over GamerGate-inspired edits should have been a public game of whack-a-mole or a semi-public queue for editorial review.
In this scenario, editors with paid conflicts would receive scrutiny, and with new community infrastructure—not to mention some valuable gamification—they would be more likely to receive it in a timely manner. The uncertainty of how to participate and the absurdity of asking for help when the correction is obvious would be reduced, if not altogether eliminated.
A more elegant solution
Given our years of experience with client requests, we are comfortable explaining how Wikipedia works even to skeptical clients. Knowing how complex even "simple" requests can be, and how important it is to get things right, sometimes the months of research, writing and discussion are necessary. But the Bright Line in its current form makes no distinction between that which deserves careful scrutiny and those requiring a lighter touch. A few common sense adjustments would make the Bright Line easier to explain, more likely to be followed, and free Wikipedia volunteers to focus on more important things.
However coy they may be about it in public, Americans love to win. And when they do, they make no secret of it. Today saw two American triumphs in world sport:
Serena Williams securing her sixth Wimbledon win and the Women's national team securing their third World Cup title. America has had little recent success in men's tennis, lorded over as it is by seemingly invulnerable demigods like
Novak Djokovic,
Roger Federer and
Rafael Nadal. On the women's side though, Serena rules alone. As far as soccer goes, the US may not have a chance of ever dominating the male equivalent, but they rule the women's game, and are becoming increasingly vocal about it. Hopefully this will kickstart the one thing America is better at than any other nation in history: sales. As their ebullience translates into exposure and buzz, slowly other countries will come to treat women's football with the respect it deserves.
For the full top-25 list, see
WP:TOP25. See
this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see
here.
As prepared by
Serendipodous, for the week of July 5 to 11, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the
most viewed pages, were:
Serena's no stranger to this list, but this week sent her into the stratosphere. Not only did she win
Wimbledon for the sixth time in a straight-sets duel with
Garbine Muguruza, she also secured her second "Serena Slam" – winning four major titles in a row, and is on course to winning a
Grand Slam (four major titles in a calendar year). If she succeeds, she will be the first woman to do so since
Steffi Graf in 1988. At 33 she is also the oldest ever world women's tennis number 1; with 16 years between her first title and her latest, Williams has already surpassed other long-surviving legends in her sport, such as Graf and
Martina Navratilova, and shows no signs of slowing down. To put this in perspective, the 21-year-old Muguruza was only five when Williams won her first title.
It took the horrific act of the
Charleston church shooting on June 17 to refocus the attention of
South Carolina politicians and public at large to the fact that South Carolina was still flying the battle flag of the
Confederate States of America near their
state capitol. This flag causes a lot of controversy in the United States, though its general modern use as a symbol of racist oppression of blacks is undeniable. Will the flag of
ISIS/ISIL be similarly used in the Middle East one hundred years hence? In any event, on July 10, after an emotional debate in the state legislature, the flag was finally taken down.
This film marks the fourth attempt in 12 years to restart the dormant Terminator franchise without the aid of its creator,
James Cameron. To date, if
Metacritic and
IMDb are anything to go by, the only remotely successful of these resuscitations was the hugely underrated TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. One wonders if audiences are wishing they'd watched that when they had the chance, because the box office numbers for this flick are bad. Really bad. As in, "made as much in its first five days as Terminator Salvation made in its first weekend" bad. Salvation, mind you, was the black sheep of the series until now. Even after two weeks, the movie has made barely $70 million. All this is rather perplexing, since the two things that usually drive movies up this list are box office and controversy, and so far the only controversy generated by this film is from the few scattered critics who don't consider it utterly terrible. Perhaps it was the presence of
Emilia Clarke (currently the second Game of Thrones star to take on the role of
Sarah Connor). Or perhaps, if this ageing Terminator fan could be wistful for a moment, the critics are wrong when they say the
Millennial generation has no love for this franchise. Perhaps they rushed to their tablets incensed at the terrible reviews; determined to learn who and what was responsible for vandalising the legacy of this landmark work of science fiction. Or perhaps it means nothing at all. Who am I to guess?
Want a quick route to temporary posthumous fame? Become the subject of an interactive
Google doodle. Which is exactly what happened to the creator of
Ultraman this week.
At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually
Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the
Telugu actor
Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days.
The
midfielder's
hat trick in the
final against
Japan helped clinch the USA the World Cup title, and made her a national hero in the process. Though not enough of one to top this list, apparently.
If America wins a tournament, you can be sure it will end up on this list. And while the old US of A hasn't exactly stormed the palisades as far as men's football is concerned, it's comfortably ensconced at the top of the women's game. Perhaps this challenge to the world will lead some of the more macho footballing nations to begin to take their female counterparts seriously.
A fixture on this list last year, the former
Disney poplet has struggled to maintain a presence this year. Until this week, when she was filmed licking a doughnut on a display counter and then putting it back, before declaring, "I hate America". Not sure if this qualifies as a
Britney Spears-level meltdown, but it's certainly lifted her profile.
The US national team has now secured the World Cup title 3 times. If they were counted among the men's records, they would have a legacy as secure as Germany or Italy. Perceptions are changing though.
We return this week with an interview with a historical project that's still fairly active, WikiProject Former countries, which has a large amount of recognised content and a pretty large remit: countries that existed in history, but no longer exist as political entities. There are certainly a lot of those. Here to divulge their experiences are
OwenBlacker and
MirkoS18.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Former countries? Do you have an academic or professional background in world history? Have you contributed to WikiProjects covering any other geographical topics?
OwenBlacker: I went to school in
Plymouth (the original one, in
England), so there was a big emphasis on
British naval history. Apart from the
Roanoke Colony, though, it totally wasn't my bag and put me off history for years. Until I discovered my uncle's copy of The Times Atlas of World History and realised that learning more about history meant there were even more maps to look at — always a guilty pleasure. That helped me realise it wasn't history I disliked, just the parts I learnt at school. Since then I have read (and looked at maps) of history in great quantity.
Have you contributed to any of the project's 44 Featured or 77 Good Articles? What challenges do project members face when improving former countries articles to FA or GA status?
OwenBlacker: A lot of the Featured and Good articles are about military history, which doesn't interest me as much, but which benefits from many excellent writers. There's only one of the Good Articles that I've worked on in detail,
Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, one of the ecclesiastical states of the
Holy Roman Empire and an article I raised from a stub to GA class. I look forward to doing more.
OwenBlacker: The articles benefit greatly by having high-quality maps, flags and arms. I also contribute to
Commons:WikiProject Heraldry, mainly creating coats of arms images for articles I'm working on.
OwenBlacker: I mainly edit around pre-Napoleonic Europe, in particular the Holy Roman Empire and the
Old Swiss Confederacy; I'd say the Empire is probably my favourite.
MirkoS18: Talks on history of
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are still hot topic in the region. There is almost noone who would be emotionally distant and neutral. At the same time, people know little facts about that time. Theirs opinions are glorification or vilification.
Dissolution of Yugoslavia itself created new short living entities that are covered by this project. Today, there is even specific WP project Yugoslavia that tries to bring facts to the general public. Taking into account that topic is from recent history and is still very relevant for today, I would say that Yugoslavia would be my favourite former country and favourite topic to work on that is connected with this project.
What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
OwenBlacker: Like so much in the English Wikipedia, our coverage of the
Global South bears much room for improvement — for example, the
Songhai Empire was one of the largest empires in Islamic and African history but is currently rated
Start-class (though could do with a review and maybe a
GA Nomination). The easiest place to start, though would be to take almost any article and flesh it out — over a half of our article-space pages are Start-class.
D’Arcy Myers, chief executive of WMUK, told Orlowski that WMUK was "fufilling" Shapps' request and that "WMUK has not issued an apology to Mr. Shapps as the charity has not been involved with this issue." Orlowski wrote that he was "puzzled" by this response. Orlowski, a frequent critic of Wikipedia who has been reporting on the encyclopedia for at least a decade, outlined the separation between the
Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and WMUK for his readers, but did not explain the distinction between Symonds' paid employment at WMUK as office and development manager, responsible for finances and reports, and his volunteer role on the encyclopedia as a
functionary using checkuser and oversight tools. Orlowski did note instances where Symonds might have blurred those roles, writing that Symonds used a WMUK email address to communicate with The Guardian regarding Shapps, and claimed that Symonds "frequently" used his checkuser tool "on WMUK time". (July 13)
Plagiarism allegations lead to demotion for ASU professor
Professor Matthew Whitaker
The Arizona Republicreports that popular
Arizona State University history professor Matthew C. Whitaker was demoted following an investigation into plagiarism accusations. Whitaker was demoted from full to associate professor and from director to co-director of ASU's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. ASU's provost wrote that an "investigation identified significant issues with the content of" Whitaker's 2014 book, Peace Be Still: Modern Black America from World War II to Barack Obama.
Whitaker has been dogged with plagiarism allegations for years. His 2008 book African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence contained material regarding
Muhammad Ali and
Serena and
Venus Williams taken from Wikipedia. At the time, Whitaker blamed a freelance editor working from his outline and wrote "unfortunately and unknown to me, the freelance editor inserted verbatim sections from Wikipedia and other online sources without rewording them and without quotations or attribution." In 2012, a previous ASU investigation into this and other allegations concluded that Whitaker was not guilty of "systematic or substantial plagiarism". The Phoenix New Timesreports that this conclusion was the subject of much controversy among bloggers, such as the anonymous author of the blog
"The Cabinet of Plagiarism", and even some of his colleagues, one of whom resigned from a tenure and promotions committee in protest. (July 13)
In brief
Pluto photographed by the
New Horizons probe. More than meets the eye?
VA plagiarism allegations:
WKMG-TVreports that veterans are raising questions about the expertise of doctors evaluating their claims for the
United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The doctor's report on one veteran's
mycosis fungoides, denying his disability benefits claim, contained a section that appeared to be taken from Wikipedia. But the VA doctor's denial significantly omitted the word "not" in copying the following statement from the Wikipedia article: "While the cause remains unclear, most cases are not genetic or hereditary." (July 13)
More than meets the eye?: On the occasion of exploration of the planet dwarf planet
Pluto by the
New Horizons probe, The Weeknotes that "We know very little about the tiny world; its Wikipedia entry is 3,000 words shorter than that of
Cybertron, fictional home planet of the
Transformers." (July 13)
Reselling Wikipedia: Watsonreports on the numerous
print on demand compilations of Wikipedia articles for sale in online bookstores. Wikipedia content
can be reused without cost for any purpose. The Swiss
Foundation for Consumer Protection criticized these sales because they are priced almost as high as traditional books, while the cost to produce them is minimal. (July 12)
Sex offender test: A
long article in The Atlantic about the
Abel Assessment test, a test widely used in the American legal system purporting to measure a tendency toward
pedophilia, briefly discusses the widespread online criticism of the test and its creator,
Gene Abel. The article mentions that one of Abel's colleagues "tried to get the entry [on Abel] taken down". Last year, a new editor submitted the articles for Abel and the test for
speedy deletion and the latter to
Articles for Deletion, but both articles were kept. It is not known if this editor was Abel's colleague. Following the publication of the article, a different editor
redirected Abel's article to the article for his test. (July 9)
Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the
Newsroom or contact the
editor.
The following content has been
republished from the
Wikimedia Blog. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author alone; responses and critical commentary are invited in the
comments section. For more information on this partnership see our
content guidelines.
This report demonstrates the Foundation's continuing commitment to openness and transparency.
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce the release of our latest
transparency report. Transparency is one of Wikimedia's core
values, and we are committed to communicating clear and accurate information about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects to our user community.
In August 2014, we
published our first transparency report, which detailed the number of requests we received to disclose user data or alter or remove content from the Wikimedia projects between July 2012 and June 2014. We
updated the report in April 2015 with new data, real-life examples of the types of requests we receive, and additional categories such as "voluntary disclosures" and "
right to be forgotten" requests. We are happy to continue this tradition with our latest update, covering January to June 2015. During this time, we received 234 alteration or takedown requests and 23 user data requests, none of which we granted.
In summary, the report tracks five key data points:
Content alteration and takedown requests. None of the 234 general content removal requests we received during this time period were granted. Nine of the content alteration or takedown requests we received came from government entities. In general, we receive relatively few content removal requests because members of the Wikimedia community work hard to address any concerns relating to content accuracy and compliance with project policies. When we do receive takedown or alteration requests, we push back to ensure that Wikimedia platforms remain open, neutral, and uncensored, so that the community can decide what content belongs on Wikimedia projects.
Copyright takedown requests. During this period, Wikimedia received 21
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests and granted only three (14.3%) of those requests. Wikimedia users play a critical role in monitoring content to ensure copyright compliance; as a result, we receive very few DMCA requests compared to other technology companies. All DMCA requests that we do receive are thoroughly evaluated to determine whether the request is valid, whether the content is in fact infringing, and whether any legal exceptions (such as
fair use) may apply.
Right to be forgotten. Wikimedia received four requests for content removal based on the "right to be forgotten," and did not grant any of those requests. For more on the right to be Forgotten, we invite you to read our
statement opposing the scope of the
relevant European Court opinion and its implications for free knowledge.
Requests for user data. Wikimedia is strongly committed to
protecting user privacy. None of the 23 user data requests we received (including informal government and non-government requests, one criminal subpoena, and one court order) resulted in the disclosure of nonpublic user information. Each request we receive is carefully reviewed to ensure that it is legal and complies with our
stringent standards. Even if a particular request is valid, we often do not have any information to provide; we collect little nonpublic user information, and retain that information for a very short time.
Voluntary disclosure. On rare occasions, the Wikimedia Foundation becomes aware of concerning information on the projects, such as suicide or bomb threats. Consistent with our
privacy policy, in these cases, we may voluntarily provide information to the proper authorities in order to resolve the issue and ensure safety. Between January and June 2015, we made 14 such disclosures.
This report also features story highlights from this period and provides answers to many frequently asked questions. We invite you to consult the full report to learn more about our efforts to protect user privacy and maintain the integrity of the Wikimedia projects at
http://transparency.wikimedia.org.
Wikimania 2015 is underway in Mexico City, and one of its sessions—a scheduled follow-up to the annual
Wikimedia Conference that was held in Berlin in May—is good reason to provide a retrospective of that Conference.
The Wikimedia Conference gathered together leaders and staff of Wikimedia affiliate organizations, groups of volunteers such as the Affiliations Committee and the Funds Dissemination Committee, and WMF Board and staff members. The conference was held in Berlin, hosted by Wikimedia Germany, and involved 165 participants from 53 nations. Representatives were from 39 chapters, one thematic organization, and 17 user groups.
One of the highlights was the presentation by WMF executive director Lila Tretikov, in which she spoke of WMF collaboration with affiliates through improved partnerships, practices, and tools. In previous years the relationship between WMF and affiliates has been strained by
financial disputes; governance issues with
Wikimedia Germany and
Wikimedia UK; "
concern by the Foundation about budget and staffing growth, lack of demonstrable impact on WMF sites, and governance among eligible affiliates"; and the
drama around the now-defunct
Wikimedia Chapters Association. Many affiliate representatives welcomed the positive tone of Lila's presentation, which noted that "organizations can do what individuals cannot do alone", and acknowledged that Wikimedia affiliates have important roles in building collaborations with institutions around the world.
Other conference highlights included:
Numerous presentations on programs and program evaluation
Discussions of administrative workloads and volunteer burnout
An upcoming "community consultation" regarding WMF Community Resources (formerly known as Grantmaking)
The desire of user groups to receive more support from the Foundation (ongoing discussion about the extent of WMF support for user groups is on
the WMF Annual Plan talk page)
Discussions among affiliates about how to increase diversity, particularly among affiliate board members.
Discussions about
global metrics and alternative metrics for evaluating the outcomes of programs
Discussions on how to increase support for volunteers
Hopes and fears written by participants in the workshop.
Notice that the avalanche of documentation had already started on pre-conference day 1.
Packa from the Czech Republic took this photo of the workshop dinner
A graph showing self-evaluations by pre-conference workshop participants at the end of the workshop
May 14 highlights
Edward's presentation about Wikimetrics (PDF)
Presentation by Jaime about designing effective survey questions (PDF)
Presentation about the Education Program Extension by Anna Koval
Take-aways from the Thursday pre-conference sessions
May 15 highlights
Flipchart from the Board Governance session
Lightning talks were popular. See a list of them
here.
East and Southeast Asia meetup
Central and eastern Europeans
Africa meetup
May 16 highlights
The group photo!
Community Capacity Development Framework presentation (PDF)
Lila's presentation (PDF)
We discussed photo campaigns. This photo of Holy Mountains Monastery in Ukraine won the 2014 Wiki Loves Monuments competition
May 17 highlights
Communications presentation by Katherine and Juliet
User groups meeting
Who's going to Wikimania?
Wikimedia Germany executive director Christian Rickerts with WMF Board chair Jan-Bart de Vreede
Brief notes
Wikimania 2015 is happening:
Wikimania 2015 is now in progress—for 15-19 July
Mexico City will host the biggest annual gathering of Wikimedians anywhere in the world. Unfortunately the Signpost will not have a presence at the conference; are you an attendee interested in helping compile coverage?
Drop a line for us on the talk page. Presaging the conference, activity has
lit up on the previously quiet wikimania-l mailing list.
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Fiscal year: Per an
email in wikimedia-l, the Wikimedia Foundation's
fiscal year is now over, and the fundraising department is set to begin work on next year's fundraiser. Details on the Foundation's impression of its activities will be posted to the
fundraising reports once the report is compiled; for now there is a
summary on the meta-wiki of near-future efforts to come.
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Erasmus Prize award ceremony: Three members of the Wikimedia community, chosen for diversity,
will be presented the
Erasmus Prize at an award ceremony on 25 November. A
guest list for Wikipedians has been compiled on the Dutch Wikipedia, with sign-ups having closed on 12 July. For more information on the nature of the award refer to
previous Signpost coverage.
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This Month: The
June edition of the GLAM newsletter is now published, as is the
June edition of the Education newsletter.
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WMDE fundraising report: Wikimedia Germany have released their
detailed fundraising report on the meta-wiki. Wikimedia Germany's size and fundraising power are anomalously successful in the movement: the
Chapter-Wide Financial Trends Report published in June had to correct many of its results to account for the heavy positive skew Wikimedia Germany in the statistics. An
executive summary was published as a blog post in May.
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New WM-UK CEO: In a
post to the wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia UK announced the hiring of a new executive CEO for the organization, Lucy Crompton-Reid, previously with the theatrical charity
Apples and Snakes. A
press release is available on the Wikimedia UK blog.
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Semantic Wikimedia Survey: The
Semantic MediaWiki, a popular knowledge-base extension to the movement's base
MediaWiki platform, is looking for feedback on a
user survey ahead of a
meeting at this year's Wikimania.
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p➞q: Wikipedia now has a channel on the notification-and-information-management website
If This Then That. A number of recipes exist for things like setting your phone wallpaper to the Wikipedia Picture of the Day and getting the day's featured article in your inbox.
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The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate(
nominated by
Iridescent) William Etty painted The Destroying Angel in 1832, ten years after he'd been promised 60 guineas by Henry Payne of Leicester for a painting of the subject. Etty had been stung by newspaper criticism that he was lacking in taste and chastity of mind and was determined to prove his critics wrong. So he resurrected Payne's proposal, and set to with a will. Payne having given him free rein in the design of the picture, Etty portrayed "around 25 semi-naked human figures" (sounds like nobody's actually dared count them) engaged in "orgies" in a "Temple of Vice". To introduce a moral dimension, the orgies are being interrupted by the Destroying Angel and some naked swarthy daemons. In a neat division of labour, the Angel knocks down the architecture while the daemons carry off as many of the orgiasts as they can grab. Over the decade Etty's marketability had grown, so Payne paid 130 pounds for the finished canvas. Payne sold the painting in 1854 at auction for 770 guineas to the engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth- prices for Etty's paintings had increased rapidly after his death.
Angelina Jolie filmography(
nominated by
FrB.TG) Angelina Jolie has an eclectic filmography, ranging from voice-overs in animated films through dramatisations of video-games to intense psychological dramas. She won an Oscar for her portrayal of a sociopathic patient in the film Girl, Interrupted. Recently Jolie has directed a brace of war films, set during the Bosnian War and in a WW2 Japanese camp. Is she going places? Yes, unless that place is called Serbia.
Deepika Padukone filmography(
nominated by
Krimuk90) Deepika Padukone, Bollywood actress, has appeared in almost thirty major films since 2006. Most of them are in Hindi and Tamil, so unless you speak those languages you'll need your reading glasses. The exception is Finding Fanny, which is in English; five dysfunctional friends go on a road-trip across Goa in search of Fanny. Padukone takes the part of Angie, a "young virgin widow", who becomes a "young widow" halfway through the tangled plot. She muses that "you can't wait for love, you must go out and find it". That's true- you won't find Fanny right under your nose.
Denzel Washington on screen and stage(
nominated by
Cowlibob) Denzel Washington started his acting career age 22 in a 1977 TV adaptation of the life of Wilma Rudolph, American athlete. His stage debut followed in 1979 in Shakespeare's Coriolanus and film in 1981 with Washington playing "the long-lost black son of...a respectable [white] businessman" in Carbon Copy. He's won two Oscars, with "Best Actor" for his cop on the take, in Training Day.
List of Gaon Album Chart number ones of 2011(
nominated by
HĐ) The Gaon Album Chart shows what's selling in South Korean music albums; it's compiled by those fun-loving guys at Korea Music Content Industry Association, in association with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who provide the numbers. The ministry squeezes 'em out of the six major distributors of offline and online product. It's only been since 1987 that the Ministry of Culture have stopped censoring music; the Korean version of Dark Side of the Moon only had eight tracks instead of ten, omitting Us and Them and Brain Damage.
List of Warwickshire County Cricket Club grounds(
nominated by
ChrisTheDude and
AssociateAffiliate) The WCCC, like other county cricket associations, had a number of grounds scattered in towns and cities around their "patch". Their main ground is at Edgbaston, laid out there in 1894 to "enhance the image of the district", and there are or were ten other grounds at which first class matches have been played. Of those that have fallen out of use, the Courtaulds ground in Coventry is the only one that hasn't been built on. It was laid out on land belonging to Courtaulds the fibre manufacturers, and cost £15,000 to construct in 1935 (equivalent to about £930,000 or $1.4 million now). Warwickshire played its first county match there in June 1946. The last first class match was in 1983, and it's now the site of a weekly car boot sale, overlooked by the ruins of the pavilion.
List of songs recorded by Ariana Grande(
nominated by
Calvin999) Ariana Grande is an American singer and actress with a "remarkable vocal range" (261 Hz to 2349 Hz, give or take a few Hertz). She was inspired to take up a music career after being complimented by Gloria Estefan, who saw a performance Grande gave when she was eight years old. She's recorded two studio albums, with the songs written by a number of collaborators, and she has worked with many rap and R'n'B musicians. Grande has adopted several dogs, who are among her biggest fans, especially when she hits 2349 Hz.
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World(
nominated by
Harrias) The Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World is a development of the almanack's "Cricketers of the Year', which has been awarded to the "five cricketers that had the greatest impact during the previous English cricket season" since 1889. Recognising that the best cricketers weren't playing English domestic cricket the criteria for the original award were extended to take into account international performances, but in 2004 a separate world award was instituted. Selection is made by Wisden's editor, under advice. The first winner was Australian Ricky Ponting. A "notional award" was later instituted, to recognise cricketers from 1900 onwards (it was felt that international cricket was too "inchoate" before that year). The winners are described as being the first choice for a place in a World XI to play Mars. One drawback of playing cricket on the Red Planet is that because the gravity is so weak, the balls can reach Uranus.
Meripilus giganteus, also called the "giant polypore" or "black-staining polypore", because people are sometimes terrible at names.Title page to an early vocal score of
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, showing the c. 1700 costumery the censors forced on the show, instead of the then-contemporaneous setting Verdi desired.
Snowy owl(created by
User:Michael Gäbler;
nominated by
Brandmeister)Snowy owls start life with a number of black feathers among the thick white plumage. They gradually lose these as they age, with females retaining more of them; this photo is of a male snowy owl. They live in Arctic regions, but migrate for long distances in the winter- some have been recently seen in Florida,
Carl Nielsen(created by
Adam Cuerden;
nominated by
Adam Cuerden) This is Danish composer
Carl Nielsen, photographed probably in 1908. He is in his summer plumage, and his alert expression indicates that Nielsen has spotted a lady: although married, he had a roving eye.
La traviata(created by Leopoldo Ratti; restored and
nominated by
Adam Cuerden) John Webber, who edited Wikipedia as
Viva-Verdi, died in March this year, and work continues on our quest to provide a fitting memorial for his work on Wikipedia. The article on
Giuseppe Verdi is up for good article status at the moment, and a selection of images of his articles with potential to reach featured picture are being worked on.
Iman Budhi Santosa(created and
nominated by
Crisco 1492)Iman Budhi Santosa, commonly known as IBS, is seen here reading from his 2015 book Sesanti Tedhak Siti, a collection of geguritan (Islamic poetry in a particular metrical form, usually religious or spiritual) written from 1980 onwards. He is an Indonesian author, whose poetry reflects Javanese culture. The title refers to the ceremony of Tedhak Siti, the first meeting of a child with the earth; IBS says he wished to imply that the Javanese should relearn their culture.
Kue(created by
Gunkarta;
nominated by
Adam Cuerden) "
Kue" is a general term for bite-sized pastries, savouries, cakes and sweets beloved in Indonesia. They incorporate recipes and techniques from other cultures, such as Chinese and Indian, and are called "market munchies".
Johann Christian Bach(created by
Thomas Gainsborough;
nominated by
Crisco 1492) The sad sad story of
John Bach: born when his famous father was fifty years old, Johann Christian received a modicum of instruction from Old Bach. The contrapuntal style of his father faded from Johann's music, which was composed in the Galante style, with melodies and balanced phrasing (takes as long to go down the scale as it did to go up). Johann lived in Italy for a number of years before relocating to London when his operas received a warm welcome. He became John Bach, music master to George III's Queen Charlotte. But all the money he earned was embezzled by his steward, and he died in debt on New Year's Day, 1782.
Meripilus giganteus(created by
Michael Gäbler;
nominated by
Tomer T)Meripilus giganteus is a large fungus, mostly found on hardwoods. It causes white rot, and is generally considered inedible although, according to Maud Grieve in her Modern Herbal, its "esculent properties are appreciated on the continent." Thick fog in English Channel- continent cut off.
Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich(created by
Peter Lely;
nominated by
Crisco 1492) It would be a hundred years after
Edward Montagu's death that the sandwich was invented by his great-great-grandson; the first Earl of Sandwich lived his whole life untroubled by the notion that he was some kind of foodstuff. Fighting on the side of Cromwell in the English Civil War, he later helped to restore the monarchy, and served Charles as an ambassador and later an admiral. Sandwich died in his burning flagship at the battle of Solebay.
Caleb Strong(created by James Bannister;
nominated by
Godot13)Caleb Strong was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician, whose legal practice thrived during the American Revolution. He was governor of Massachusetts twice; during his second term from 1812 to 1816 he opposed the federal government's pursuit of war against Britain as a case of trampling on states' rights. Strong believed that the state militia should only be used to protect the state borders.
Angklung(created and
nominated by
Crisco 1492) The
angklung is an ensemble instrument made from bamboo. The tubes are tuned in pairs, one octave apart, and are sounded by striking to produce a resonance.
The following content has been republished as-is from the
Tech News weekly report.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
You can now see a
list of pages with errors in code coloring.
[1]
Problems
There was a problem with editing on Thursday. Some tools like bots and VisualEditor were broken on all wikis for 10 minutes.
[2]
There was a problem with images on Thursday. They were broken on all wikis for 15 minutes.
[3]
Changes this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from July 14. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from July 15. It will be on all Wikipedias from July 16 (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join a technical meeting at Wikimania in Mexico City this week.
[4]
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