Showing posts with label wikimedia foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wikimedia foundation. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

First day in Buenos Aires


I arrived Buenos Aires at 19:00 local time at Saturnday evening. While the plane is landing, the city is already emerged into darkness. From the air the city doesn't look so bright as many other cities, especially the outskirt are quite dark.

Yesterday morning I had the chance to go arround a little near the hotel and take a first impression of the city. The buildings here in the downtown are all very tall, mostly over ten floors. They are either in a style of neo-classic or are totally undecorated and looks like buildings out of the 1950s or 1960s in Germany, but far more taller. Most of the streets are very narrow. At least in the part of the city where I was there are very very few modern architects. No business towers with steel and glass. There are one or two that are really broad.

I made the classic failure of a northerner and went in the direction of sun in the assumption that this is south. Naturally, in the southern hemisphere this is north.

We had our first board meeting day today. New board members are introduced. New members also mean new ideas and frish wind. Lively discussions about diverse topics, mostly organizational (protocal would be published on the Foundation-wiki, so I don't want to be too detailed here).

In the evening we went for dinner, and met other Wikimedians in the Restaurante. A lot of handshakes and discussions and hugs.

I am disappointed that from the downtown the city light is so strong that one cannot see any stars, one can only see the moon and one or two of the most bright stars.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Election is over

Because of job it took me a few days to write down my thoughts about the election and its result. A few days that are needed to sort my thoughts.

At first I want to thank all the voters and volunteers and other participants who had took part in the election process. I want to thank those who had put their trust in me, as in the last year I would work hard to prove myself trustworthy. To be a community elected trustee is a tremendous honor for me.

The number of participants are almost at the same level as last year. This is far more lower than the license update vote. For me this indicates that the majority of our editor community is not very interested in what the board in special and the Foundation in wide sense is doing. The nice interpretation of this is that the board and the Foundation is just doing that what the community expects it doing, nothing spectacular and nothing utterly wrong. The WMF is traditionally a very quiet organization. Despite its power it doesn't make a lot of public recommendations or comments. Actually I am comfortable with this, because the Foundation and the board is not the star or the center of our community. The Foundation and the board is supporting the community. On the other side, the Foundation is also doing more than just support the community. It is making meaningful things with the knowledge that is accumulated by the community. This is expressed in our mission. An encyclopedia or a text book or a research project are only meaningful if they are indeed used. The Foundation had put it on its agenda to promote this. And the Foundation and the board are the place where it would be decided on how and where to promote. This is the reason why I hope we will have a broader participation of the community by the strategic planning.

I am sad that Domas dropped out of the board, on the other side I am also very happy that Samuel joined us now. The first time I met both of them on Wikimania 2005 in Frankfurt. I joined a presentation made by Domas and Tim about MediaWiki programming there and Samuel recorded a session about four different wikipedia language versions on which I presented the chinese Wikipedia. Both of them are very witful and resourceful. I am really happy in looking forward to work with Samual. And I know that Domas is simple not to be overlooked, in or outside of the board.

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Wegen Arbeit hatte es einige Tage gedauert, bis ich Zeit finde, um meine Gedanken über den Wahl aufzuschreiben. Ich brauchte auch tatsächlich diese Zeit, um meine Gedanken zu sortieren.

Zuerst möchte ich mich bei allen Teilnehmer und Helfer bedanken, die ihre Stimmen abgegeben haben, die dabei geholfen haben, den Wahl zu organisieren. Ich möchte mich auch bei jenen Wähler bedanken, die ihr Vertrauen in mich gesetzt haben. Wie im letzten Jahr werde ich hart daran arbeiten, um dieses Vertrauen gerecht zu werden. Für mich ist ein von der Community gewählten Sitz am Board eine unglaubliche Ehre.

Die Zahl der Teilnehmer entspricht in etwa die vom letzten Jahr, also viel weniger als bei der Abstimmung zur Lizenzänderung. Für mich bedeutet dies, dass ein Großteil unserer Authorencommunity nicht besonders daran interessiert sind, was das Board im Speziell und die Foundation im Allgemein macht. Die nette Interpretation ist dass das Board und die Foundation genau das macht, was die Community erwartet, nichts spektakuläres und nichts besonders falsch. WMF ist traditionell eine sehr leise Organization, die trotz ihrer Macht selten Kommentare oder Empfehlungen abgibt. In der Tat bin ich zufrieden damit. Der Star ist nicht das Board oder die Foundation, sondern die Community. Das Board und die Foundation soll nur die Community unterstützen. Auf der anderen Seite macht die Foundation natürlich mehr als das. Sie tut sinnvolle Sachen mit dem Wissen, das von den Freiwilligen zusammengetragen werden. Das drückt unsere Mission aus. Eine Enzyklopedie, ein Schulbuch oder ein Forschungsprojekt hat keinen Sinn, wenn sie nicht benutzt werden. Die Foundation hat sich als Ziel gesetzt, genau das Nutzen zu fördern. Das Board, und die Foundation entscheidet, wo und wie diese Förderung passiert. Deswegen hoffe ich, dass bei der Strategischen Planung die Community viel breiter sich beteiligt.

Ich bin traurig dass Domas aus dem Board sich verabschiedet, bin aber auch sehr froh, dass Samuel dazugekommen ist. Ich lernten beiden bei Wikimania 2005 in Frankfurt am Main kennen. Damals nahm ich teil an eine Presentation von Domas und Tim über Programmierung von MediaWiki, und Samuel hatte eine Session aufgezeichnet, wo mehreren Wikipediasprachversionen vorgestellt wurden, dabei habe ich die Chinesische Wikipedia presentiert. Beide sind sehr kluge und einfallsreichen Menschen. Ich freue mich schon auf die Zusammenarbeit mit Samuel und ich weiß, dass Domas einfach nicht zu übersehen ist, innerhalb oder außerhalb des Boards.

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出于工作原因我今天才开始写我对这次选举的想法。不过我也的确需要了这几天的时间来整理自己的思绪。

首先我想感谢所有参与者和组织者。我也想感谢所有对我表达出他们的信任的人。如同去年我将努力不辜负大家的信任。对我来说作为一个由社群选出的理事是一个无比的荣誉。

今年参加选举的人数和去年差不多一样多,比更新版权调查参加的人少得多。我觉得这说明大多数作者社群的人对理事会和基金会的工作不很感兴趣。比较好的理解方法是理事会和基金会的工作满足社群的想法,他们的工作没有什么特别瞩目的地方,也没有犯大错。维基媒体基金会向来是一个不很喧闹的组织,虽然它非常有力,但是它很少提出建议或者评论。事实上我觉得这样很好。我们的明星不是理事会或者基金会,而是我们的社群。理事会和基金会的任务是支持社群。另一方面基金会的工作当然不只是支持社群。它使用志愿者贡献的知识来做有益的事情,这是我们的任务。一部百科全书、或者教科书或者研究项目,没有人使用就没有意义。基金会的目标之一是促进其使用。但是怎样促进,在哪里促进,这由理事会和基金会决定。因此我希望在战略计划过程中有更多的社群参与。

Domas没有能够进入理事会使我很悲伤,但是Samuel进入了理事会使我很高兴。我是在2005年法兰克福的维基年会上认识他们的。当时我参加了一个由Domas和Tim做的关于软件开发的报告。在介绍不同维基百科语言项目的报告中(我介绍了汉语维基百科)Samuel做的录像。他们两人都是非常聪明,非常有主意的人。我非常高兴能够与Samuel合作,同时也知道Domas不论是在理事会内部还是外部都是不会被忽视的人物。

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Voting for the Board of Trustees has started

The voting for the Board of Trustees of the WikiMedia Foundation Inc. had started. The Board is the highest control and steering organ of the Foundation. In this year, three seats would be reelected for a two years term. Questions to the candidates can be submitted here. I submitted for re-election this year.

I would also advocate for voting for Domas. Domas is an active member out of the developer and system admin community. Though the Foundation has tech staff now a very big part of the development of our software is done by this small, quiet but vitally important community. So in my opinion a member out of this community on the Board is important.

Die Abstimmung zum Kuratorium der WikiMedia Foundation Inc. hat begonnen. Das Kuratorium ist das höchste Kontrol- und Steuerungsgremium der Stiftung. In diesem Jahr werden drei Sitze mit einer Amtszeit von zwei Jahren neu gewählt. Fragen an den Kandidaten können hier gestellt werden. I kandidiere dieses Jahr für den Wiederwahl.

Ich möchte an diese Stelle auch eine Wahlempfehlung für Domas aussprechen. Domas ist ein aktiver Mitglied der Entwickler und Systemadmin Community. Obwohl heute die Stiftung eigene bezahlte Tech-Personal hat, wird ein Großteil der Entwicklung immer noch von den freiwilligen Entwickler aus dieser kleinen, leisen aber extrem wichtigen Community geleistet. Deswegen ist meiner Meinung nach sehr wichtig, dass jemand aus dieser Community im Kuratorium sitzt.

维基媒体基金会理事会选举投票开始。理事会是基金会最高的指导和监督机关。今年理事会三名理事重新选举,任期为两年。这里可以向候选人提问。我今年报名重选。

在这里我也想推荐大家选举Domas。Domas是程序开发和系统管理社群的活跃成员。虽然现在基金会有自己的程序员,但是许多程序开发工作依然是由这个人数不多、很少发言、胆识及其重要的社群做的。因此我认为有这个社群的成员参与理事会是非常重要的。

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Submitted my candidacy for the next turn board membership

I had just submitted my candidacy for this year's board election. In this year three seats would be elected for a two year turn.

Ich habe gerade meine Kandidatur für diesjährigen Board of Trustees Wahl bekanntgegeben. In diesem Jahr werden drei Mitglieder mit einer Amtszeit von zwei Jahren gewählt.

我刚刚在今年的理事会选举报名。今年理事会将选出三名新成员,任期两年。

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Is Commons affected by the Board resolution about BPL?

Are images like this in scope of the board resolution about BPL or are they not? Can a image take along without context be considered as violating dignity of living person? If yes can they be kept on one of the Wikimedia projects in accordance with the board resolution?

Sind bilder wie dieses von der Board Resolution über Biographie Lebenden Personen betroffen? Kann ein Bild ohne Kontext als Ehrenverletzend gegenüber eines lebenden Persons betrachtet werden? Wenn ja kann ein solches Bild in Einklang mit der Boardresolution auf einem Wikimedia Projekt gehostet werden?

理事会的生人传记决议这样的图片也起作用吗?一张图片可以不看其上下文侵犯一个生人的尊严吗?假如可以的话这样的图片按照理事会的决议能够被存在维基媒体的项目中吗?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Arne Klempert joined the Board of Trustees

Now also this is official: Arne Klempert joined the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation as a chapters nominated member. Welcome Arne.

Nun ist auch das offiziell: Arne Klempert wird als Chapters nominierten Mitglied zum Board of Trustees der Wikimedia Foundation hinzukommen. Willkommen Arne.

阿尔纳·克莱姆帕特作为分会推举的维基媒体理事会成员进入理事会。欢迎。

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.

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.

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.