"Tech News": Fighting technical information overload for Wikimedians
Every week, tech ambassadors assemble, simplify and translate "Tech News," a curated newsletter then delivered to hundreds of subscribers across wikis. But how exactly did this start, how does it work behind the scenes, and how does it fit within our efforts to bring developers and users closer together?
Reaching the many deadlines of WikiAfrica: Iolanda Pensa profile
Iolanda Pensa is always on one deadline or another. This is not a source of stress, though. She embraces them. As scientific director of WikiAfrica – which the Swiss-born, Italian-based 38-year-old calls “Africanizing Wikipedia” – Pensa gave the project some challenging deadlines. “In 2010, we decided to create a quantitative milestone, to produce 30,000 African….
Wikimedia Foundation signs letter requesting more transparency from NSA on PRISM
A few weeks ago, the Wikimedia Foundation’s legal team published a blog post about the PRISM surveillance program. In particular, we made clear that the Foundation does not participate in PRISM, and that we wanted Wikimedia community feedback on what next steps you felt we should take. This post is an update for the broader….
Ten years of supporting free knowledge
Ten years ago today, on June 20, 2003, Jimmy Wales announced the founding of the Wikimedia Foundation. He entrusted the new nonprofit with the operation of Wikipedia, launched two and a half years prior.
Seven years after Nature, pilot study compares Wikipedia favorably to other encyclopedias in three languages
Improving the quality of articles has long been one of the primary aims of contributors to Wikipedia, and is one of the Wikimedia movement’s 2010-15 strategic priorities, but measuring it objectively has remained a challenge
Recent events with Russian Wikipedia
On Tuesday, July 10, the Russian Wikipedia community made a decision to blackout their project for 24 hours to protest a piece of legislation before the Russian Duma. The legislation, which has since been passed (although with important amendments) could threaten the mission of the Wikimedia projects in Russia – to spread free knowledge globally.….
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Wikipedia’s community calls for anti-SOPA blackout January 18
Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States —the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House….
Terms of use
I am happy to announce that we have completed the most collaborative, interactive drafting of a proposed terms of use for any major website. For more than 120 days, the Wikimedia community reviewed, drafted, and redrafted with more than 200 edits modifying the original proposal. While accumulating 19,000 page views, community members offered comments, edits,….
How SOPA will hurt the free web and Wikipedia
For the past several days, Wikipedia editors have been discussing whether to stage a protest against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). I’ve been asked to give some comments on the bill and explain what effect the proposed legislation might have on a free and open Internet as well as Wikipedia. My goal in….
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