Saturday, November 14, 2009

A huge thank you for our staff

Yesterday we started our November board meeting in the new location in San Francisco. Michael had posted the agenda of the meeting on foundation-l. After the meeting he would surely post a summary of the meeting and Kat would post the meeting minutes a little later.

For me the meeting in San Francisco is also a very welcome opportunity to meet the staff.

One thing about our staff is that they are so often criticized, in most cases unjustified, and often very personal and in a hurting manner. And they are so few thanked, although there are so many reasons to say thank you to them.

For example thank you that you are keeping the project sites running, thank you that you are improving our software, thank you that you are fending off every threat against us, thank you that you are keeping the public informed about us, thank you that you are coordinating our volunteers works like OTRS and translation, thank you that you are organizing Wikipedia Academy to invite and encourage more people join our movement, thank you that you get all the money so that we can do all these wonderful things.

Thank you that you are even working off works and if necessary even at the weekend or during vacation.

If we consider our movement as an organism, for me our staff is the heart, the very heart that keeps the organism nourished so that it can grow, move and change the world.

It is a tiny heart, only 30 people, for a HUGE organism, with hundreds of thousands of editors and even more users. It is a very strong heart, because even despite of this disproportion it is keeping our movement going, and even improving itself during all this time.

Everyone know how important our heart is. But in the most time we don't think about it. Mostly we only think about it if we feel it begins to fail to meet our demand. So be thankful that we have this strong heart. And keep in mind it is OUR heart, it is a very vital part of US.



Gestern war der erste Tag unseres November Boardmeetings, diesmal in der neuen Lokation in San Francisco. Michael hat das Agenda des Meetings auf foundation-l gepostet. Nach dem Meeting wird er wie gewohnt eine kurze Zusammenfassung dort veröffentlichen. Wenig später wird dann Kat das Meetingprotokol veröffentlichen.

Für mich ist ein Meeting in San Francisco immer auch eine sehr willkommene Gelegenheit um die Mitarbeiter zu treffen.

Unsere Mitarbeiter werden sehr oft kritisiert, in den meisten Fällen ungerechtfertigt, oft sogar sehr persönlich angefeindet. Und sie werden so selten bedankt, obwohl es sehr viele Gründe gibt, sich bei ihnen zu bedanken.

Zum Beispiel Danke dass Ihr die Projektseiten am Laufenden haltet, danke dass Ihr unsere Software verbessert, danke dass Ihr jede Bedrohung gegen uns abwehrt, danke dass Ihr die Öffentlichkeit über uns informiert, danke dass Ihr Arbeit der Freiwilligen wie zum Beispiel bei der OTRS und der Übersetzung koordiniert, danke dass Ihr Veranstaltungen wie Wikipedia Academy organisiert, um mehr Leute einzuladen, und anzuschließen, danke dass Ihr das Geld sammelt, damit wir all diesen wunderbaren Sachen tun können.

Danke dass Ihr selbst nach der Arbeit, wenn notwendig selbst an Wochenenden und in Urlaub arbeitet.

Wenn ich mir unsere Bewegung als ein Organismus vorstelle, dann ist für mich unsere Mitarbeiter das Herz, DAS Herz, das das Organismus mit allem versorgt, was er braucht, um zu wachsen, zu bewegen und die Welt zu ändern.

Es ist ein winziges Herz, bestehend nur als 30 Leute, für ein RIESIGES Organismus, mit hunderttausenden Autoren und noch mehr Benutzer. Es ist ein sehr starkes Herz, weil ungeachtet diese Disproportion es unsere Bewegung nach Vorne hält und sich selbst immer weiter verbessert.

Jeder weißt wie wichtig das Herz für uns ist. Aber in den meisten Zeiten denken wir nicht darüber. Meistens wird unser Herz uns erst bewusst, wenn es unsere Anforderungen nicht gerecht werden. Um so wichtig ist es, um dankbar zu sein, dass wir ein so starkes Herz haben. Und denkt immer daran, es ist UNSER Herz, es ist ein lebenswichtiges Teil von UNS.



昨天是基金会理事会11月会议的第一天,这次在旧金山的新办公室里。迈克尔在foundation-l上发表了会议的议程。会后他会一如往常发表一个短暂的总结。凯特会在短时间后发表会议的正式纪录。

在旧金山开会也总是一个和基金会工作人员碰头的好机会。

我们的工作人员经常被批评,在大多数情况下不公正地被批评,往往非常人身攻击地被批评。而他们却很少听到别人对他们说:谢谢你们。尽管我们有许多理由谢谢他们:

比如谢谢你们保证项目网页的运行,谢谢你们不断改善我们的软件,谢谢你们排除一切外来的威胁,谢谢你们向公众介绍我们的工作,谢谢你们协调志愿者在OTRS和翻译方面的工作,谢谢你们组织Wikipedia Academy之类的活动来鼓舞更多的人参加我们的运动,谢谢你们募捐所有需要的钱来使得我们可以做所有这些美妙的工作。

谢谢你们即使在下班后,必要的时候甚至在周末和假期中工作。

假如把维基运动看做一个生物体的话那么我们的工作人员是这个生物体的心脏,那颗保障我们的运动能够发展、行动、改变世界的心脏。

它是一颗微小的心脏,只有30个人,但是却为一个巨大的生物体服务:上十万的作者和更多的用户。因此它是一颗非常强壮的心脏,因为尽管它相比整个生物体这么小它依然保证我们的运动发展,与此同时还不断地完善它自己。

我们每个人都知道心脏有多么重要。但是在大多数情况下我们不会想到自己的心脏。在多数情况下我们感觉到我们的心脏因为它无法满足我们的要求。因此我们必须感谢这颗强壮的心脏,必须随时想到它是我们的心脏,是我们不可缺少的一部分。

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Party, and finally, Buenos Aires!


After the closing ceremony, the Wikimania party started at 10:00 pm. This was my favorite party until now: No shows, no announcements, no presentations, simply party, dancing, laughing, chatting. I enjoyed it a lot. I think to put the party on the last day of the conference is really a very good idea.

The next day I had finally time to do some sight seeing in the city. Because I must leave at 6:00 pm for airport, I decided to make a bus tour with three other Wikimedians. I am really happy that we did this, because otherwise I would only have the picture of a street valley in my memory about this beautiful city. The old wharf scatter La Boca, which is now a day a hip. But behind the main street facade or on the less visited street you can still see the remains of the scatter. The Ecological Reserve that is build upon landfill wasts. While in the downtown city it seems only sparrow and pigeon had servived here are plenty of wild birds, most easily to see are the parrots. The port area is a modern area with skyscrapers, but also broad streets where people jogging, inline-scating and bycicling. The northern part of the city has some big parks, squares and are pretty green.

We made two stops, and at the end of the tour I have also had to pick up my luggage for airport.

Later on the plane I had the chance to get a glimps at the Southern Cross. I would have liked to see Eta Carinae, or the Magellanic Clouds, or the Galactic Center. But they are saved for the next time.

So exhausted and excited at the same time, I say good bye and thank you very much to you all in Buenos Aires, and see you next year in Gdansk!
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Nach der Abschlusszeremonie startete abends um zehn die Wikimania Party. Nach meinem Geschmack war sie die beste Wikimaniaparty, die ich je erlebt habe: Es gab keine Rede, kein Shows, nur einfach Party. Tanzen, Lachen, Reden. Ich habe sie sehr genossen. Ich glaube, die Party am letzten Tag zu verlegen ist eine gute Idee.

Am nächsten Tag hatte ich endlich die Gelegenheit, mir die Stadt anzuschauen. Da ich bereits um sechs Uhr abends zum Flughafen muss, habe ich beschlossen, mit drei anderen Wikimedianer ein Bustour zu machen. Ich bin wirklich froh darüber, dass ich dies getan habe, sonst hätte ich nur das Bild eines Straßenschluchtens von dieser schönen Stadt in meine Erinnerung gehabt. Das alte Werftslam La Boca ist heute ein Hipstadtteil. Aber hinter den Hauptstraßenfassaden oder in den weniger besuchten Nebenstraßen luken immer noch der alte Slam hervor. Das Naturschutzgebiet wird mit Bauschutt aufgeschüttert. Während in der Stadtmitte anscheinend nur Spatzen und Tauben überlebt haben, kann man hier viele Wildvogel sehen. Vor allem die Papageien sind besonders leicht zu sehen. Das Hafengebiet ist heute ein Büro- und Wolkenkratzerstadtteil, aber auch mit vielen breiten Straßen, wo Menschen joggen, Inlinescaten und Fahrrad fahren. Im Norden der Stadt gibt es viele große und größe Plätze und Parks. Wir machten während des Tours zwei Stops, und als sie Zuende war, muss ich auch schon meine Sachen holen und abreisen.

Später im Flugzeug hatte ich noch die Chance, einen Blick auf den Kreuz des Südens zu erhaschen. Ich hätte noch gern andere Himmelswundern des Südhalbkugels gesehen, aber sie müssen auf das nächste Mal warten.

Erschöpft und glücklich zu gleich sage ich Aufwiedersehen und vielen Dank an allen in Buenos Aires, und hoffentlich sehen wir uns im nächsten Jahr in Danzig wieder!
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结束仪式后晚上十点钟年会的派对开始了。我觉得这是最好的一个派对,没有演讲,没有表演,就是派对:跳舞,欢笑,攀谈。我很喜欢。我觉得把派对移到年会的最后一天是个好主意。

次日我终于有机会在市内观光。因为我当天下午六点钟就要去机场,因此我决定和其他三个维基人一起坐车观光。还好我利用了这个机会,否则的话这座美丽的城市在我的记忆中将永远只是一个街道峡谷的映像。原来的船坞贫民窟今天是一个时髦的市区,但是在主要街道的背后和在人少的街道上依然可以看到贫民窟的遗迹。自然保护区是在原来的建筑废物上形成的。在市中心好像只有麻雀和鸽子幸存,但是在这里可以看到许多野鸟,尤其鹦鹉很常见。旧日的港区今天是现代的高楼区。但是这里也有许多宽阔的街道,许多人在这里跑步、溜冰、骑车。在城市的北部有许多优美绿色的广场和公园。

后来在飞机上我还看到了南十字星座。本来我还想看到其它南天的景象,但是只好等下回了。

精疲力尽但是兴高采烈,再见了布宜诺斯艾利斯,谢谢你们大家,但愿我们明年在格但斯克再见!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Day Five in Buenos Aires


Today is the last day of Wikimania 2009.

I spent a lot of time to talk with other people. For example with Heiko Hees who is one of the developers for the "Create a book" feature that is implemented on the english Wikibooks. They had made an educational video for this feature which is actually in German and are searching for someone native english speaker who can read the text for the english version.

I had also talked quite long with Jerry, the president of Wikimedia Hongkong, about the community there, the work of Wikimedia Hongkong, the planned Wikimedia Macao and the possibility of creating a Wikimedia China, about the preparation of the chinese Wikipedia conference end december.

At lunch time there was a very long talk with the strategic planning team about all kind of things arround the strategic planning. I am really happy that we have this strong team who had worked out the process so good (although they themselves always say it is not perfect). Half a year back on our January board meeting when we first talked about initiating such a process I found it difficult to imaging how we can really get the community and the chapters involved. And now it is there, the impossible that becomes reality.

The keynote of Sue is a hymn for the community. It was really charming.

The Board Q&A session was in my opinion too short. I am sure there are more people who want to ask questions and didn't got the chance.

The closing ceremeny is moving. The Buenos Aires team had made miracles. It is really great.

And yes, I am looking forward for Wikimania 2010!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Day Four in Buenos Aires


Second Wikimania day.

The keynote by Jimmy Wales today morning was simply great. The best call for participation for the strategic planning process I had ever anticipated.

I missed the panel led by Andrew Lih because I had at the same time a talk by myself.

The sessions after the lunch break got really really good.

I visited the talks from Chitu Okoli and Mako about researches on Wikipedia. We need such researches, I am surprised that there are indeed some of them out there. Their results are very fascinating and helpful.

After that two tech talks about usability from Naoko and Angela. Really great. There was after the talk a very lively discussion about all aspects of usability. The developers made life sneak previews about features they are working on. There are inputs from other projects that use MediaWiki, comparisons with different solutions. What I found really good is the improvement on talk pages that should be released soon on the trial version. Really cool. A very very huge thank you very much to all developers that are involved and the whole usability team.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Day Three in Buenos Aires


It is always the same by Wikimania: You have four tracks running paralell and you would at least devide yourself into three so that you won't miss anything really interesting.

The opening keynote by Richard Stallman was very entertaining. That show with how he entered the stage, how he auctioned the gnu was really funny. The first part of his keynote was about free software and was quite identical with the talk he made five year ago in Frankfurt. In the second part he took the chance to express his opinion about some of the articles on Wikipedia. I don't think that he is right, but I am ok in he distribute this, after all we invited him.

I had heard three very interesting talks today and I surely missed two or three equally interesting talks because of conflict of time. Two of the talks was technical talks, one made by Rob Halsell about the infrastructure of the Wikimedia servers, the other was given by Daniel Kinzler about the Toolserver. Both were very good visited and both were very interesting, with a lot of details that I didn't know earlier. I can scarcely wait them put the presentation on the TechBlog.

The third talk was given by two teachers from the Old Dominion University. They started three years ago a project by teaching the students in let the students to write their textbooks on WikiBooks. It is a really fascinating project. The two presenters are both teachers at the Darden College of Education. They teach people who would become teachers. They said when they ask their students if they would use this methode for their students, most of the students said yes. I think this is really one of the best measure for success.

Day Two in Buenos Aires


At first I want to appology that in contrary to my normal custom I didn't write my blog in three languages at the moment. As usual Wikimania and Board Meeting are tough and a lot of things are happening so that the time is sorrowfully limited to work on the computer. I hope that later I can add the translations.

Day two was fully for board meeting. Today the topic is strategic planning process. The team introduced procedures, measurements of success and plans. There were a lot of discussions. Because of the scheduled press conference we must break up at 15:00, so the session was really too short. There are a lot of ideas that were discussed but the discussion must be break off at some point simply because of the schedule. In total the workshop was very concentrated. I asked Arne later how was his impression of the board meeting and it was very positive.

The venue of this year's conference is in the middle of down town, in one of the most crowded place. It is at the basement and the lower floors of an office tower, quite different to the venues we had in the last years. The tech folks who are attending Hacking Days are already productive.

As every Wikimania it is a meeting between friends that one had only had online-contact for a year. A lot of hugs, hand shakings, greetings, how are yous, a lot of discussions about the past year and the year before us. Talking about ideas, projects, works, experiences.

For example I met Achal Prabhala at dinner. Achal was the one who had moderated my first Wikimania talk back in Frankfurt. We talked about the forming indian chapter and about all the difficulties, about culture and language, about the differences between the different language versions. That was really a nice evening.

So, I am now really looking forward of the coming days. It would be good, as every year.

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, May 21, 2009

Licensing Update Poll Result is Published

The result of the Licensing Update Poll is now published. I am very happy about this result. This is more than three fourth of the attendents agree with the license change. Given the lots of critical debates and remarks in the prior discussion the number of positive votes surprised me. It is surely very good work done especially by Eric Möller and Mike Godwin to communicate with the community and to take as much points of critical remarks as possible and integrate them in the new license change document.

Das Ergebnis der Licensing Update Umfrage ist nun publiziert. Ich bin sehr über das Ergebnis erfreut. Mehr als drei Viertel der abgegebenen Stimmen favorisieren eine Änderung zum Doppellizenzierung. Angesichts der vor der Umfrage in den Diskussionen geäußerten kritischen Anmerkungen und Diskussionen hat mir die Eindeutigkeit des Ergebnisses überrascht. Dies ist sicherlich besonders die Arbeit von Eric Möller und Mike Godwin zu verdanken, die unermüdlich mit der Community kommuniziert haben und so viele wie möglich Änderungen und Vorschlägen in dem Änderungsdokument aufgenommen haben.

更改版权协议的投票结果发表了。我对这个结果非常满意。四分之三以上的票同意更改为双重版权协议。由于在投票前非常激烈和批评性的讨论和评论这个这样明确的结果出乎我的意料。在这里尤其是埃里克·穆勒和麦克·戈德温在与社群讨论和参考社群意见修改更改版权协议的文献中做出了非常大的贡献。

Monday, May 18, 2009

IBM Corporate Service Corps

At friday morning I got a mail from the IBM Corporate Service Corps that I was selected as one of the corp members. Two months ago there was a call for partifipation. I was immediately electrified as I read the mail. It was the chance I was waiting for. I called my boss to ask him for the allowance to applicate on the program. He said yes he would support me for that. I wrote the application down in the same evening. I didn't thought a lot as I wrote the application. It was as if the program is maid for me. The reasons why I want to take part on it were all so natural that I don't need to really think about them. The only challenge was to confine my thoughts in 5000 letters. And now, it is there. I am still electrified thinking of it. Mr. Kusterer, who is responsible for Corporate Citizenship in IBM in Germany told us on the CSC Roadshow that the chance to get selected is like an application by the Stanford University. So, it's an honor, a responsibility, and an adventure into an unknown universe.

Am Freitag Morgen erhielt ich die Mail von der IBM Corporate Service Corps dass ich für das Programm gewählt wurde. Vor zwei Monaten als ich den Aufruf zur Beteiligung las wirkte sie für mich elektrisierend. Das war die Chance auf die ich gewartet habe. Ich rief meine Führungskraft sofort an und fragte nach dem Erlaubnis, mich für das Programm zu bewerben. Er sagte sofort seine Unterstützung zu. Am gleichen Abend füllte ich die Bewerbungsformular. Ich musste nicht viel darüber nachzudenken. Die Gründe, warum ich daran teilnehmen will, waren so natürlich dass sie wie von selbst heraussprudelten. Die einzige Herausforderung war sie alle auf 5000 Zeichen zu begrenzen. Und nun ist es da. Ist bin immer noch aufgeregt wenn ich daran denke. Der für IBM Corporate Citizenship in Deutschland zuständiger Manager Herr Kusterer hatte in seinem in Köln gegebenen CSC Roadshow gesagt, dass die Chance, genommen zu werden, entspricht in etwa eine Bewerbung bei der Stanford University. Es ist eine Ehre, eine Verantwortung und ein Abenteuer in einem unbekannten Universum.

星期五早上我收到了被IBM企业全球服务志愿队收录的信。两个月前我在公司内部的信件中看到了呼吁参加的信件。当时我就非常兴奋。这正是我在等待的机会。我立刻给头打电话问是否可以参加。他马上说他支持我。当晚我就填好了申请表格。当时我根本不用多想,为什么我要参加的原因就像自然而然地就浮现了,最难的是把它们压缩到5000个字母。现在我真的被收录了。想到这点我依然非常兴奋。在德国负责企业公民责任的库斯特勒先生在科隆介绍这个项目的时候说,从数值上来说,被这个项目收录的机会和被斯坦福大学收录的机会差不多。这是一个荣誉、一个责任和一个进入未知宇宙的探险。

Hu Feng Conterrevolutionary Clique

The featured article on the Chinese Wikipedia this week is 胡风反革命集团案, which means "Hu Feng conterrevolutionary Clique". It is an episode shortly after the begin of the People's Republic of China and is the first of all big political campagne, which would one day summit in the Culture Revolution. This is after a long time I again start a translation from the Chinese Wikipedia out into the German Wikipedia. The last one is about Pagoda, also a featured article in zh-wp.

Der Artikel der Woche auf der Chinesischen Wikipedia ist Hu Feng konterrevolutionäre Clique, eine Episode, die kurz nach der Ausrufung der Volksrepublik China passierte, die erste große politische Kampagne, die irgendwann in die Kulturrevolution gipfelte. Dies ist nach lange Zeit zum ersten Mal dass ich wieder einen Artikel aus der Chinesischen Wikipedia in die Deutsche übersetze. Der letzte war Pagode, ebenfalls ein Artikel der Woche.

中文维基百科上这个星期的特色文章是胡风反革命集团案,中华人民共和国建国后的第一次大规模的政治运动,文化大革命的先驱。自从12月份我把翻译到德文维基百科后这是我长时间后第一次把一篇中文维基百科的文章翻译到一个外语版本中去。

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Wikimania 2010 Gdansk

Ok, now it is official. Gdansk won the bidding for Wikimania 2010. This was a really hard work to go through all the biddings. I never imagined it would be so hard. But at the end I am happy that we have so many good bids.

Ok, nun ist es offiziel. Danzig wird Wikimania 2010 austragen. Es war eine harte Arbeit um diese Entscheidung zu treffen. Ich habe nie gedacht dass es so hart wird. Aber am Ende bin ich doch sehr froh, dass wir so viele gute Bewerbungen haben.

格但斯克赢得2010年举办维基媒体年会的权利。做出这个决定的过程很艰苦。我没有想到这个过程会这么艰苦。但是最终我很高兴我们有这么多好竞争。

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Something very old

I just read the following text out of the March 1931 issue of Scientific American:
We are faced with a stagnation of industry such as we thought would never occur again. The country is full of remedies, but in trying to think our way through the difficulty we must remember that we are living in a 20th-century industrial world and not an 18th-century one. Our new world is a world of interdependence and solidarity. It is a world with thousands of criss-crossing threads. It is a world in which the relations between cause and effect have been so lengthened that on any given day the Egyptian planter cannot know what his cotton or sugar is worth until he receives the quotation from Galveston or Cuba. A heavy frost in the Mississipi valley will affect prices on the Liverpool exchange, and the disturbance will reverberate in Australia and India. French savings, through the channel of a loan to Argentina or Chile, contribute to the development of Belgian or German industry. Prosperity in Czechoslovakia by increasing the consumption of chocolate, results in the stimulation of the plantations of Venezuela. ...
That was 1931. So looking did the world changed a lot?

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Logo for Remembrance of 512

On the Chinese Wikipedia a very heavy debate broke out about whether to change the logo for the remembrance of the 512 earthquake last year.

Auf der Chinesischen Wikipedia ist ein sehr heftiger Streit ausgebrochen, ob man zur Erinnerung des Erdbebens im letzten Jahr das Logo am 12. Mai ändern soll.

在中文维基百科上关于是否因为纪念512汶川大地震而更改标志的问题发生了非常激烈的争执。

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Wikipedia on Spektrum der Wissenschaft

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!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Mercury

I saw Mercury at Monday morning. This is the second time in my life that I saw this smallest planet of our solar system. Mercury is notorious for its difficulty to observe because of its vincinity to the Sun. It is said that Copernicus never saw this planet in his life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :-)