Today I got the neuest issue of my subscription of Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the german sister scientific magazine of Scientific American. While I turned the pages over one of a whole page announcement caught my eyes immediately. It is an announcement of the Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. for articles of the this year's Zedler Medal contest (on page 23). It is a really very nice designed announcement with the title "Donate your knowledge for Wikipedia". Well done again WMDE!
Als ich heute die neueste Ausgabe der Spektrum der Wissenschaft in der Hand hielt und sie durchblätterte sprang mir sofort eine ganzseitige Anzeige der Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. (auf Seite 23) entgegen: Spenden Sie Ihr Wissen für Wikipedia. Es ist eine Anzeige an Experten für den diesjährigen Zedler-Medaille. Der Design der Anzeige ist schlicht und schön. Gut gemacht WMDE!
今天我拿到了我订阅的《Spektrum der Wissenschaft》的最新一期，这本杂志是德语的《科学美国人》姐妹杂志。在我翻阅它的时候我突然看到了第23页上的一篇全页广告：向维基百科捐献您的知识。这个广告是呼吁专家人员参加德国维基媒体协会建立的蔡德勒奖供稿的广告。广告很简明，很清晰漂亮。加油德国维基媒体协会！
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Some news
- Chinese Wikipedia arrived the landmark of 250,000 articles
- In German Wikipedia a controvers breaked out because of the license migration. A lot of authors felt themselve bad informed and are discussion about the possibility of author naming inside the articles. A poll is planned for between April 20th and Mai 4th.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wikipedians voting for the change of license agreement
All Wikipedians are called to a vote for changing of the license agreement from GFDL to double licensing under GFDL and CC-BY-SA.
The voting was made necessary mostly because GFDL doesn't scale well when it comes to publishing Wikipedia content in other forms like paper or DVD, which caused to legal uncertainties. The double licensing is negociated between the Wikimedia Foundation and FSF who holds the GFDL licensing right. It was a very difficult negociation that went two years. There were also a very long during discussion on mailing list and on the meta page about this license change, where different issues and positions were discussed in every detail.
Now we endly are moving on. I think this license change is very important because the current situation is hindering our effort of outreach.
The voting was made necessary mostly because GFDL doesn't scale well when it comes to publishing Wikipedia content in other forms like paper or DVD, which caused to legal uncertainties. The double licensing is negociated between the Wikimedia Foundation and FSF who holds the GFDL licensing right. It was a very difficult negociation that went two years. There were also a very long during discussion on mailing list and on the meta page about this license change, where different issues and positions were discussed in every detail.
Now we endly are moving on. I think this license change is very important because the current situation is hindering our effort of outreach.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Letter of Support
Sue announced the Letter of Support yesterday. Volunteers of the Wikimedia movement can request Letter of Support from the Foundation if they need such support letters for their work in the community and public. This is a further step that the foundation is going to do, to actively support community members in their work.
This would not be the last step, and it is only a small step, but it shows the direction where we want to move to. And in my opinion it is absolutely the right thing to do and right direction to go.
Naturally there are a lot of things we can do. And we would not be able to do all these things and distribute the resources of the foundation in all directions equally. This is also the reason why the foundation would work on its strategy in the next time. To work out where we want to concentrate our energy in all those things what we want to do.
The work on this strategy would cost us resources and energy, but it is a thing that worth to do. It would give us a clear direction for the future years and we would be able to distribute our resources not aimlessly.
This would not be the last step, and it is only a small step, but it shows the direction where we want to move to. And in my opinion it is absolutely the right thing to do and right direction to go.
Naturally there are a lot of things we can do. And we would not be able to do all these things and distribute the resources of the foundation in all directions equally. This is also the reason why the foundation would work on its strategy in the next time. To work out where we want to concentrate our energy in all those things what we want to do.
The work on this strategy would cost us resources and energy, but it is a thing that worth to do. It would give us a clear direction for the future years and we would be able to distribute our resources not aimlessly.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Back at work
Started at 7:30 today morning. The underground of Cologn had an incident and so I had to wait for the train for about a quarter of an hour.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Third Day of the WMF Board Meeting
Today is the third and last day of the WMF Boardmeeting. The party in the evening before had the result that the people gathered later than planned. Quite some people left the location long after the midnight. I planned to leave at 22:00 but left far later.
The topic of today is mainly more elaborations about the strategic planning, develop a time plan, work out who would take part in which workgroup, etc.
At 11:00 we went up to join the chapters for the wrap up part. The developers presented their results. You see by the questions that the usability project get the most attention, followed by OpenMap collaboration. The end was so touching.
After lunch the board meeting went on. We had discussions about various topics and finished some of the loose ends of the meeting. At about 14:30 we were endly done.
I went to the WMDE office. It is in a beautiful restalled old building from the begin of the 20th century. There are more talks. Most of the people went after that to C-Base for party again. Elya, Raimond, Dror and I sat at a street corner near the WMDE office and talked about fund raising, tax deduction, history and people. It was really fun.
At 16:00 Dror started for C-Base, Elya and Raimond for the rail station. I went by foot to the rail station because I still have so much time. It took me a good hour of time to go. But it is good weather and most part of the way was Tiergarten and Spreeufer, so it was a beautiful walk.
The topic of today is mainly more elaborations about the strategic planning, develop a time plan, work out who would take part in which workgroup, etc.
At 11:00 we went up to join the chapters for the wrap up part. The developers presented their results. You see by the questions that the usability project get the most attention, followed by OpenMap collaboration. The end was so touching.
After lunch the board meeting went on. We had discussions about various topics and finished some of the loose ends of the meeting. At about 14:30 we were endly done.
I went to the WMDE office. It is in a beautiful restalled old building from the begin of the 20th century. There are more talks. Most of the people went after that to C-Base for party again. Elya, Raimond, Dror and I sat at a street corner near the WMDE office and talked about fund raising, tax deduction, history and people. It was really fun.
At 16:00 Dror started for C-Base, Elya and Raimond for the rail station. I went by foot to the rail station because I still have so much time. It took me a good hour of time to go. But it is good weather and most part of the way was Tiergarten and Spreeufer, so it was a beautiful walk.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Second Day of WMF April Board Meeting
Today was mostly dedicated to the issue of Biography of Living People (BLP): What's the problem, why the problem and what we as board and the foundation should do with this problem. This topic was discussed for quite long time because of its importancy, but also because it is not so easy as it may be seemed to be.
After that we built up different workshops to check different things. For example to work out a resolution about the BLP, or the trademark issue and some other topics.
At 17:00 we had a joint meeting with the attendees of the chapters meeting. That was a great meeting. Atop of Berlin we discussed about various topics such as strategic planning, relations between the foundation and the chapters, the relationship between the chapters, the diversity of culture and chapters and the respect of this diversity as a value of the Wikimedia movement, communication and transparency. It was such an exciting meeting. You can really feel the spirit in the air. I really love to see all those faces and eyes.
At the evening it was the party at C-Base, an amazing hacker bar in Kreuzberg, where we also meet the folks who took part to the developer meeting. It was a very nice party with lots of talks, games, hacking, photo sessions and nice food and drink. (Though I didn't try the CC-BY beer.) I planned to stay until 22:00 but stayed there far more later.
After that we built up different workshops to check different things. For example to work out a resolution about the BLP, or the trademark issue and some other topics.
At 17:00 we had a joint meeting with the attendees of the chapters meeting. That was a great meeting. Atop of Berlin we discussed about various topics such as strategic planning, relations between the foundation and the chapters, the relationship between the chapters, the diversity of culture and chapters and the respect of this diversity as a value of the Wikimedia movement, communication and transparency. It was such an exciting meeting. You can really feel the spirit in the air. I really love to see all those faces and eyes.
At the evening it was the party at C-Base, an amazing hacker bar in Kreuzberg, where we also meet the folks who took part to the developer meeting. It was a very nice party with lots of talks, games, hacking, photo sessions and nice food and drink. (Though I didn't try the CC-BY beer.) I planned to stay until 22:00 but stayed there far more later.
Friday, April 3, 2009
First day of WMF April 2009 Board meeting
This year the board meeting is in Berlin, at the same place as the WMF Chapters meeting. At the same time there is also the developers meeting in Berlin in C-Base.
Unlike the earlier meetings we started at about 11:30, because before that we went up to the Chapters meeting to attend the opening event. I am so happy to meet so many old friends and to learn the new chapters. Many people I already knew from mailing lists or committees but met them for the first time.
After that it goes with the real board meetings. At Friday there are mostly short topics of administrative and procedural nature. So it went quite fast and we worked three or four topics inside of a few hours.
At the evening there was a reception of some of the board members of Quadriga Foundation. Last year Wikipedia won the Quadriga Prize. So they invited us for a reception. It was held in an appartment just above the Brandburg Gate, with the undergoing sun over Tiergarten. A sight that I didn't thought would have able to enjoy. There were a few members of the Quadriga. Most interesting talks are with the board member of Wikimedia Deutschland.
The day ends with the board dinner. Further informal talks about various things, for example problem of promotion in China.
Unlike the earlier meetings we started at about 11:30, because before that we went up to the Chapters meeting to attend the opening event. I am so happy to meet so many old friends and to learn the new chapters. Many people I already knew from mailing lists or committees but met them for the first time.
After that it goes with the real board meetings. At Friday there are mostly short topics of administrative and procedural nature. So it went quite fast and we worked three or four topics inside of a few hours.
At the evening there was a reception of some of the board members of Quadriga Foundation. Last year Wikipedia won the Quadriga Prize. So they invited us for a reception. It was held in an appartment just above the Brandburg Gate, with the undergoing sun over Tiergarten. A sight that I didn't thought would have able to enjoy. There were a few members of the Quadriga. Most interesting talks are with the board member of Wikimedia Deutschland.
The day ends with the board dinner. Further informal talks about various things, for example problem of promotion in China.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Attend Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) Board Meeting
Worked in Cologn in project from 7:00 until 16:00,
went to railway station,
traveled from Cologn to Berlin.
Arrived Berlin at 22:20.
Arrived hotel at about 22:30.
Met other board member.
Checked in,
put down my gabbage.
Went back to bar,
talked with other attendants of the meeting.
Now going to bed.
At least I don't have jet lag this time
went to railway station,
traveled from Cologn to Berlin.
Arrived Berlin at 22:20.
Arrived hotel at about 22:30.
Met other board member.
Checked in,
put down my gabbage.
Went back to bar,
talked with other attendants of the meeting.
Now going to bed.
At least I don't have jet lag this time
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