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6 May 2015

 

2015-05-06

"Inspire" grant-making campaign concludes, grantees announced

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By Resident Mario

The Wikimedia Foundation this week announced the winning grantees in March's "Inspire" grant-making campaign. The campaign was organized as an invitation to the editing community for thoughts, ideas, and opinions on how to address Wikipedia gender gap. Ideas were presented and commented by and within the community via the collaborative IdeaLab, and to help attract contributors the Foundation ran a prominent CentralNotice banner in support of the campaign. The best ideas were to be matched to long-term advisers as well as up to US$250,000 of funding withdrawn from the Individual Engagement Grants and Project and Event Grants programs, which were on hold from February to April this year to free up program staff for the campaign. The campaign served as a pilot project for what the WMF hopes will prove to be a viable new option in community-oriented grant-making: further "Inspire grants" organized as all-at-once timely campaigns focused on issues deemed to be of particular importance to the movement.

With the campaign now complete director of community resources Siko Bouterse and Project and Event Grants Program Officer Alexandra Wang presented the winners in a post to the Wikimedia Blog. At the time of the campaign's organization the Foundation was hoping for 20 new grant-supported projects, which appears to have been more or less fulfilled: after "careful review by a committee of volunteer Wikimedians and gender-focused experts", 16 projects have received WMF funding. They are as follows:

  • Wikipedian in residence for gender equity – $27,100 to support the creation of the first Wikipedian in residence role focused on gender equality. West Virginia University Libraries was inspired by the efforts of Wikipedian Adrianne Wadewitz and aims to pursue the vision of gender equality in Wikipedia for years to come, through the establishment of this role.
  • Gender-gap admin training – $9,000 to pilot the Ada Initiative Ally Skills workshop with a group of Wikipedians. If successful, this project may grow to create a scalable program for training Wikipedia administrators to more skillfully moderate discussions that have gender implications.
  • Survey women who don't contribute – $4,000 to survey women who don’t contribute to Wikimedia projects about their experiences and perceptions, to prioritize future strategies for engaging and retaining more women.
  • Wikipedia gender index – $22,500 to gather, automate, graph and observe gender trends in Wikipedia’s biographical articles over time, through a publicly viewable website with open-data downloads.
  • Wikipedia Buddy Group – $8,050 to pilot a peer editing group for mentorship between college and high school-aged women contributing to Wikipedia.
  • Wiki Edit-a-thon Work Parties – $750 to pilot a social model for anyone to create and host Wikipedia editing parties. Initial experiments will focus on women in English- and Spanish-speaking communities.
  • More Female Architects on Wikipedia – $14,150 for an international collaboration between groups in Germany, Australia and the United States, to increase content about women in architecture and design on Wikipedia.
  • Linguistics Editathon series: Improving female linguists’ participation and representation on Wikipedia – $3,736 to run a series of edit-a-thons targeting women in the linguistics community, to improve biographies of female linguists, linguistics stubs, and under-documented languages.
  • Wikipedia edit-a-thon for the Aphra Behn Society – $900 to introduce an academic group tightly focused on issues of women and gender in the period 1640–1830, to contribute to Wikipedia. This project, too, was inspired by one of the group’s founding leaders, Wikipedian Adrianne Wadewitz.
  • Wikineedsgirls – $2,596 to organize outreach aimed at supporting women students in Ghana to engage with Wikipedia and sister projects.
  • Gender in East Asia Wikipedia Editing – $700 to draw on the scholarly resources of Furman University in the US, to strengthen and expand coverage of gender in East Asia on Wikipedia.
  • Full Circle Gap Protocol: Addressing the Unknown Unknowns – $7,000 to pilot an approach for bringing feminist scholars together to identify specific content gaps and relevant resources, and then connecting them with classrooms to address systemic bias through Wikipedia assignments.
  • Wellington Wikipedia Meet Up – With Childcare! – NZ$3,150 for Wikipedia editing meet-ups at New Zealand’s Dowse Art Museum, to create Wikipedia content about women artists. Providing childcare is key to supporting women’s attendance at these community-building events.
  • Just for the record – €4,000 to expand the Art+Feminism event in Brussels into a series of editing events focused on topics of gender equality on Wikipedia
  • Let’s fill the gender gap Workshops – 6,000 Swiss francs to organize workshops to empower women to contribute to Wikipedia articles, focusing on biographies of Swiss women.
  • Empowering Afro-descendant women in Wikipedia – $6,280 to create more articles about Afro-descendant women on Wikipedia as part of the AfroCROWD initiative.

In a post to the WMF-l mailing list, Wang wrote:

Further feedback from the Foundation's Inspire team focusing on their experiences in organizing the campaign, which has been in embryo since last December, will be forthcoming. Meanwhile staff and volunteer time has returned to the now-unfrozen PEG and IEG programs, and any further proposed contributions to the themes of gender gap are encouraged to seek any further feedback at these venues.

In related news, senior operations analyst Tilman Bayer published a post to the Foundation blog a day earlier, on March 30, summarizing the statistical work that has been done so far to quantify the scale of the gender gap. Addressing the gender gap emerged as a major strategic goal for the WMF in 2011, following external media coverage about the fact, blowing up what had by that time already become an internal concern for former executive director Sue Gardner and founder Jimmy Wales alike (Signpost coverage at the time was itself written by Bayer, at the time the Signpost's volunteer editor-in-chief). The assessment came with a long list of qualifiers and provided numbers ranging from 6 to 26 percent; as the blog post points out, in the "Inspire" campaign's own banners the number used by the Wikimedia Foundation is a well-hedged "less than 20%". Past articles in the Signpost and elsewhere have used a 10% meter stick. Likely the best assessments come from a trio of editor surveys carried out in support of the 2010-2015 strategic plan, which gave 9%, 9%, and 10% figures, respectively, in 2011-2012—subject to the biases introduced by the use of voluntary editor surveys.

All that said, Bayer does not specifically criticize the distinct lack of recent data. There has been no general survey of the Wikimedia userbase since 2012, making it difficult to get an accurate accounting of how the gender gap has changed in the last three years. While WMF is currently working on another survey, there is no indication of when it will be completed and sent out. R

Brief notes
  • Foundation elections update: Preparations for the 2015 Wikimedia elections continue; this week the election passed another big milestone with the closure of the call for candidates. As of the time of writing 11 candidates are standing for the five community-elect positions on the Funds Dissemination Committee (see this week's Special report), 2 candidates are standing for the position of Funds Dissemination Committee ombudsperson, and 21 candidates are standing for the three community-elected positions on the Board of Trustees. R
  • Reorganizations at the Foundation made a little clearer: The staff and contractors page at the WMF wiki was abuzz with activity this week as Foundation personnel reorganized its structure to match organizational changes at the Foundation that have been coming hard and fast for the past two months: see for instance Lila Tretikov's email to the foundation-l mailing list, the off-boarding of long-time tech executive Erik Möller, the creation and hiring-into of the Advancement Department, and the leaving of CTCO Garen Kayle Young and on-boarding of COO Terence Gilbey. The page's new organization and refresh makes a little clearer how the Foundation is re-organizing itself to meet the future and current organizational challenges that it outlined in the recent publication of the "State of the WMF" report—challenges to be expedited on in the Foundation's forthcoming annual report. In related news the Foundation legal team updated the WMF's delegation of authority policy, an internal bylaw which controls the spending authority granted (via the office of executive director) to the various Foundation executives with a need for it, to address the high-level organizational changes amongst those that have it. R
  • Chapter reporting: Chapters and thematic organizations with fiscal years ending in December are expected to follow a four-month deadline in the publication of their chapter reports, necessary for evaluation by Foundation staff as to whether they are meeting the activity and finance reporting requirements to maintain their good standing as movement affiliates. These reports are expected to be published in the organization's local language and with a summary or full translation also made available in English, and are expected to completely cover chapter activities during the allotted time period—in this case, the period January 2014–December 2014. Foundation program officer Winifred Olliff this week published an accounting of the post-reporting period statuses of these chapter reports. 9 chapters do not follow the January–December fiscal year and so their standing was not evaluated. 20 chapters are up to date and 3 are up to date pending English translations of their reports. Two chapters are inactive and one formerly inactive chapter—Wikimedia Portugal—appears to have become active again. 8 chapters are not up-to-date with reporting requirements or have incomplete documentation. R
  • Language engineering group office hours: The Foundation's language engineering team held office hours, their first in a while, on March 5 this month. The team is the developer of the content translation tool, a MediaWiki extension that aims to ease the content translation process (one of especial importance to smaller wikis) through the use of computer-assisted translation features and user interface elements purpose-built for the task. In related news, this week saw the 2000th article translated this way to date, with the translation of the English-language Škocjan Caves article, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Slovenia, into an article on the Greek Wikipedia. For more information on the tool see this recent blog post. R
  • Wikimedia Blog survey: The WMF's communications team released a summary of the results of their blog survey this week. The survey was run in February–March of this year and drew 410 participants from users reading entries on the site; a fuller report on the research findings from the survey is available on the meta-wiki. A laundry list of recommendations has been generated, including ideas about the categorization of posts, their visibility and distribution, and the manner that the blog functions as a communications venue for community contributors. The Signpost has long used the blog as a primary reference source for movement reporting; with the greater emphasis placed on community contributions following the blog's re-organization last year we also now occasionally republish blog stories of import for the community to our own pages. R
  • Monthly education newsletter published: The Wikimedia Education team published their April issue of the "This Month in Education" report. R

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2015-05-06

The amorous android and the horsebreeder; WikiCup round two concludes

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By Adam Cuerden, WPPilot, Gamaliel, The ed17, Miyagawa, and The Herald
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 19 April through 25 April. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution. This edition of "Featured Content" also presents results from the ongoing WikiCup contest.

Seven featured articles were promoted this week.

Castell Coch
The Pyramid of Unas in Sakkara, Egypt.
  • Castell Coch (nominated by Dr. Blofeld, Hchc2009, and KJP1) The "quaint" Castell Coch was one of eight such defensive fortifications built by the Normans in order to protect Cardiff, the present-day capital of Wales, but is of special importance—according to co-nominator Dr. Blofeld, it is "beloved" by many Welsh and has a significant place in their culture and heritage. Rebuilt in stone between 1267 and 1277, the castle was reduced to ruins some time in the 14th century, probably during a Welsh rebellion in 1314, and it remained in this state for over 500 years. The Third Marquess of Bute had inherited Castell Coch in 1848, along with enough land and dosh to make him "one of the wealthiest men in the world", and he employed William Burges to rebuild the castle for use as a summer home. Work began on the exterior in 1875, although the start was delayed by Bute's unfounded fear of going bankrupt. By 1879 the exterior of the castle was finished. Two years later Burges was dead, but his team carried on to create a sumptuous and intoxicating High Victorian interior.
  • Enthiran (nominated by Ssven2 and Kailash29792) Enthiran is an Indian Tamil science fiction film. A scientist constructs a robot, and upgrades the robot's software to give it human emotions. The robot falls in love with the scientist's girlfriend after she kisses it. Rejected, it deliberately fails an evaluation by the Indian army; its creator is so angry that he chops the robot up and dumps it in a landfill. A rival scientist discovers the damaged robot, which has managed to re-assemble itself; he inserts a "red chip" which turns it into a homicidal maniac ... And that's as much of the plot as we're giving here.
  • Bazy Tankersley (nominated by Montanabw) An American horsebreeder, Ruth "Bazy" Tankersley started breeding Arabians in 1941 when she was 20. Over a 72-year career she bred more than 2,800 registered Arabians. Tankersley was also intensely interested in politics; her views gradually moved from conservative Republican to progressive, and she became a "strong supporter of environmental causes."
  • Romance (Luis Miguel album) (nominated by Erick) This "peculiar" album was solely responsible for the popularity spike of bolero—a genre that features slow-tempo Latin music—in the 1990s. The success of Romance led Luis Miguel to release three more bolero albums.
  • Unas (nominated by Iry-Hor) Unas was the last of nine pharaohs in the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. His reign, recorded in later writings as lasting 30 years, was marked by a decline in the economy and a continued growth and decentralisation of the Egyptian administration. Iry-Hor tells us that Unas is "best known to us as the earliest king to have the Pyramid Texts inscribed on the walls of his pyramid, one of the oldest religious texts still in existence." (It's also the first appearance of a particularly morbid section of the Texts, the " Cannibal Hymn ".) This must have worked; 2,000 years after his death Unas was apparently still being worshiped in the Saqqara necropolis as a local god. Another 2,500 years later and you're reading about him.
  • Telopea oreades (nominated by Cas Liber and Melburnian) Native to small parts of the forests of southeastern Australia, Telopea oreades is a shrub that can grow up to 65 feet (20 m) tall. Casliber helped write the article after planning to grow it in his garden. It's commonly known as the Gippsland Waratah, and has an enlarged base, partly buried, which acts as a reservoir of energy and nutrients, allowing the shrub to rapidly regrow after bushfires.
  • Falcon's Fury (nominated by Dom497) On its fourth nomination, Falcon's Fury—a 335 feet (102 m) drop tower at Busch Gardens Tampa—is now a featured article. Riders are strapped into a gondola, which is then pulled up to the top. Once there the gondola rotates so that its occupants are facing straight down. After a random period of time varying between one and five seconds, the gondola is released and drops for five seconds, reaching a speed of up to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). And then a big magnet slows and stops it, subjecting the riders to quite a G force!

Three featured lists were promoted this week.

Something's growing
  • List of women's international cricket hat-tricks (nominated by Harrias) Three wickets taken in three consecutive balls makes a hat-trick in cricket. It's pretty rare, and has only occurred fifteen times in women's international cricket. The first hat trick was in 1958 by Betty Wilson, bowling for Australia against England. There's been one this year, Sana Mir bowling for Pakistan against Sri Lanka.
  • Premio Lo Nuestro 2014 (nominated by Javier Espinoza) Los "Premios Lo Nuestro" se dan por la cadena estadounidense Univision para la mejor música latina lanzado en el año anterior. El mayor ganador de la noche fue Marc Anthony, quien ganó en las categorías de Álbum Tropical (3.0), Canción Tropical ("Live My Life"), Salsa Artista y Colaboración del Año ("Why Do You Lie?" con Tito El Bambino), así como el Premio a la Excelencia. Prince Royce ganó tres premios, Artista Tropical Masculino, Actuación Tradicional y Artista del Año. También: ¿Dónde está la biblioteca?
  • List of scheduled monuments in West Somerset (nominated by Rodw) A long list of nationally important archaeological sites and monuments in West Somerset. Most are barrows, cairns and the stumps of churchyard crosses, but there's a couple of World War II pillboxes as well. And a mound which might be a "possible round barrow".

Ten featured pictures were promoted this week.

Agfa Optima 1a, one of the first fully automatic 35mm film cameras.
Two dolphins, a trident and a crowned polar bear adorn the 50 Øre note from Greenland
  • Yitang Zhang (created by Aynsley Floyd for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, nominated by Crisco 1492) It's said that for every equation in the text the readership halves. Yitang Zhang is a "Chinese-born American mathematician working in the area of number theory." We'd quote a couple of his equations to see if the saying holds, but he rubbed them off the blackboard too fast. Anyway he's proved that there are an infinite number of pairs of prime numbers that differ by 70 million or less. Zhang was awarded a 2014 MacArthur prize for that proof.
  • Indus River near Leh (created by KennyOMG, nominated by Crisco 1492) The Indus is seen here as it flows through Ladakh; the broad valley is photographed from an elevated point near Leh. Although the river powers the agriculture and industry of Pakistan, in its higher reaches in Ladakh the emphasis today is on tourism, especially trekking. Overall, tourism now produces up to half of the Ladakh region's income.
  • Greenlandic krone (created by Kingdom of Denmark for use in Greenland. From the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, nominated by Godot13) In 1873, Denmark and Sweden formed a currency union, with the basic unit called the krone or (Swedish) krona. This note was issued in Denmark in 1874 for use in the Danish colony of Greenland- it bears the value of 50 øre, which is one-half of a krone.

 

I have seen
the Manet painting
that was in
the National Gallery

 

and which
you were probably
saving
for your next trip to DC

 

Forgive me
it was so beautiful
so pink
and so new

 

(with apologies to William Carlos Williams)
  • Agfa Optima 1a (created by Uwe Aranas, nominated by Crisco 1492) The Agfa Optima 1a was introduced in 1962 by Agfa and is a development of the original Optima camera, which was one of the first 35mm cameras with automatic exposure control. A selenium cell exposure meter next to the viewfinder controls the shutter speed and aperture. Focusing is by rotating the front lens cell to one of three positions, close-up, groups and landscape.
Titian's The Entombment (1559).

Second round of the WikiCup concludes

The second round of the WikiCup has all wrapped up, and round three has now started; 34 competitors remain. Leading the way overall was Belarus Cas Liber (submissions) in Group B with a total of 777 points for a variety of contributions including Good Articles on Corona Borealis and Microscopium - both of which received the maximum bonus. There was a number of high importance articles improved during the second round including the work by Philadelphia Coemgenus (submissions) on the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. His work there is a prime example of how collaborative working can be included in the WikiCup - he wasn't the only person working on the article but individually it was considered to be significant enough for him to earn the points. Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions), WikiCup champion in 2013 and 2014 maxxed out the bonus points by taking Dragonfly to Good Article. Another significant GA which was promoted during round two was Alexander Hamilton by Spanish Empire LeftAire (submissions); Hamilton was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a level 4 vital article.

The points varied across groups, with the lowest score required to gain automatic qualification was 68 in Group A - meanwhile the second place score in Group H was 404, which was high enough to win all but one of the other Groups! As well as the top two of each group automatically going through to the third round, a minimum score of 55 was required for a wildcard competitor to go through. We had a three-way tie at 55 points and so all three have qualified for the next round, in the spirit of fairness. On June 28, the top two in each group will progress automatically to the fourth round while the remaining 16 highest scorers across all four groups go through as wildcards.

Gallery of content created for the WikiCup this round

Of course this is not a complete list of content produced by any one contestant; consider this a sample of their overall work.

Top ten



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2015-05-06

Guggenheim image donation; Wiki campaign gets advertising award

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By Gamaliel

Guggenheim Museum donates 100 images, hosts editathon

Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses by Umberto Boccioni, from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

artnet and The Next Web report (May 6) that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is releasing a hundred images of works in its collection under Creative Commons licences in conjunction with a May 19 editathon. The donation includes works by Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Klee. Pharos, president of Wikimedia New York City and a speaker at the editathon, told the Signpost that the works should all be available in the Wikimedia Commons category commons:Category:Media contributed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in time for the event. The images will be of works already in the public domain, but they will be higher resolution images than have been previously available, and will include both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works.

Wikipedia stunt earns advertising award

Luis Guillermo Solís

Advertising Age reports (May 4) that a campaign involving Wikipedia was honored at the 94th annual awards of the Art Directors Club, presented last week in Miami Beach. The campaign was created by the Costa Rican branch of Leo Burnett Worldwide for Fundación Paniamor, a Costa Rican non-profit organization dedicated to children's advocacy, for the 2014 presidential election last May. In October 2014, they edited the articles of the major candidates on the Spanish Wikipedia, including the eventual winner Luis Guillermo Solís, to insert a largely blank section asking what the candidates would do to address childhood protection issues. The edits were immediately reverted and the articles protected, but the campaign drew attention to the edits with the hashtag #IncompleteBios. The campaign received attention in the Spanish-language media and claims credit for the candidates all adopting childhood protection policies in their platforms.

In brief



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.


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2015-05-06

FDC candidates respond to key issues

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By Tony1
Snezhana Shtrkovska
Tanweer Morshed
Itzik Edri

Elections have begun for five community members of the Funds Dissemination Committee, the Foundation's volunteer body for judging and recommending millions of dollars worth of annual grants to affiliates in the movement. This is the first year in which Wikimedians will elect the full quota of five members, who will serve until the next election in mid-2017. The election lasts just eight days, from Sunday 3 May until 23:59 UTC on Sunday 10 May, so at the time of publication, voters will need to act promptly. All Wikimedians who satisfy the requirements may vote. Voters can update their selections by simply going through the process again before the deadline.

Eleven candidates are competing for the five positions: Snezhana ("Zana") Shtrkovska (native speaker of Macedonian, from Macedonia); Tanweer Morshed (Bengali, Bangladesh); Shawn Chen (English, US); Itzik Edri (Hebrew, Israel); Mike Peel (English, UK); Pete Ekman (English, US); Felix Nartey (English, Ghana); Liam Wyatt (English, Australia); Ad Huikeshoven (Dutch, the Netherlands); Lorenzo Losa (Italian, Italy); and Michał Buczyński (Polish, Poland). The Signpost put 10 propositions to each candidate for their response; the results are set out below.

Candidates' basic details and election statements are displayed on Meta. Links to translations in many languages are trumpeted at the top of the election pages, showing yet again that relying on pro bono translation ends up almost nowhere: non-English-speakers beware. A table of further information on the candidates, including total edits on their home-site and on all WMF sites, appears on the talkpage of the German Wikipedia's news outlet, Der Kurier.

A ternary voting system is used, imported last year from the English Wikipedia's ArbCom elections. This gives voters three options for each candidate—support, neutral, or oppose—in which avoiding "neutral" votes strengthens the positions of those whom a voter supports, on simple arithmetic grounds. The formula S/(S+O) will determine the successful candidates, who must then be endorsed by the WMF Board.

Elections for the FDC ombudsperson—who receives, documents, and makes recommendations to the WMF Board on complaints concerning the FDC process—are being held concurrently. There are two candidates, Kirill Lokshin (English, US) and Mykola Kozlenko (Ukrainian, Ukraine/Paris).

Background to the FDC election

In March 2012 the WMF Board passed a resolution setting up a staff-supported volunteer body to allocate annual funding to eligible affiliates. In two rounds each year (October and March), the Funds Dissemination Committee has since pored over, analysed, and met in San Francisco to discuss dozens of lengthy applications detailing track-records and spending proposals, and made recommendations to the Board that have thus far always been accepted. The FDC receives an annual budget for each pair of rounds, which the Board has held at 2013–14 levels of US$6 million until at least the end of the 2015–16 year (Board minutes and p. 7, WMF Annual Plan).

The FDC's "framework" provides a year-by-year system of four Board-appointed members in even-numbered years and five community-elected members in odd-numbered years (after elections in 2013 and 2014 for two and four members, respectively).

Candidates' numerical responses

The Signpost put to the candidates a set of 10 propositions related to the FDC, asking them to respond on a 1–5 numerical scale, with brief comments. The table below sets out their responses, with counts of "net positive" responses (1s and 2s), "net negatives" (4s and 5s), and neutrals (3s).[A]

The 1–5 Likert scale was:

  • 1 = strongly agree
  • 2 = agree
  • 3 = neutral
  • 4 = disagree
  • 5 = strongly disagree
Proposition Mike Liam Shawn Ad Tanweer Zana Pete Lorenzo Michał Itzik Felix Nartey Av (StDev)
Appoint external tech experts 2 3 2 3 2 2 3 5 1 4 4 2.8 (1.2)
Make Wikidata separately eligible 5 5 2 3 1 3 3 4 3 3 4 3.3 (1.2)
Direct unspent funds to planned new endowment 3 4 1 5 3 2 2 1 2 4 2 2.6 (1.3)
Current FDC budget is sufficient 4 2 3 3 1 2 3 2 3 3 3 2.6 (0.8)
Don't align FDC judgment more closely with tech needs 4 4 3 3 2 3 3 3 5 1 3 3.1 (1.0)
Method of FDC appt/election should continue 2 2 2 3 1 2 2 3 2 1 2 2.0 (0.6)
Retain "guardrails" 5 4 4 3 3 2 3 2 4 4 1 3.4 (1.1)
Align FDC judgment more closely with edu. outreach 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 2.5 (0.5)
Advisory committee no longer needed 4 2 4 3 4 4 2 1 3 3 1 2.8 (1.2)
Prioritise global south 2 2 2 2 1 3 1 3 4 2 2 2.2 (0.9)

Interpretation and candidates' comments

Mike Peel
Felix Martey
Liam Wyatt
Ad Huikeshoven
Lorenzo Losa
Michał Buczyński

For each proposition, we give the number of positive responses (1s and 2s), the number of negative responses (4s and 5s), and the number of neutrals/no responses (3s).[B]

(a) "The WMF should be appointing external technological expertise to the FDC to enhance its ability to judge major technical grants, such as projects related to Wikidata." [5 positive; 3 negative; 3 neutral]

Michał strongly agrees, and Lorenzo strongly disagrees. Some candidates point out that a reasonable alternative is for the FDC to consult the opinions of subject-matter experts where the Committee itself lacks the necessary expertise. Ad finds the proposition tangential: he would prefer a fully elected FDC.

(b) "Wikidata should be spun off from Wikimedia Germany into an independent FDC-eligible organisation to address the need to increase the development of Wikidata, and remove it from competing with demands on the German chapter’s budget." [2 positive; 4 negative; 5 neutral]

The Wikidata proposition is probably the most provocative, and unsurprisingly the least favoured. Mike and Liam strongly disagree with it, as does Ad in principle ("the FDC doesn't have a say in such a question. Wikidata is a geat success, [the German chapter] does a great job"). For Michał, an "independent, international entity working on Wikidata would be plausible", but he feels that its budget can be quite transparent even within the German chapter, and Wikidata should be kept semi-independent from the WMF. Lorenzo comments: "It may make sense, from the FDC point of view, to separate the evaluation of Wikidata from the rest of Wikimedia Germany, but I would not advise to create a new entity just to support Wikidata." For Liam, "this idea would not make Wikidata any more efficient than being a department of WM-De, as this would require much of the organisational infrastructure of the chapter be duplicated. Tanweer strongly supports the proposition: "The Wikidata project, though developed by Wikimedia Deutschland, has now come into such a position that it needs to be developed by the wider community and so its authority for control and supervision should be transferred to an eligible entity."

(c) "The unspent funds from each annual FDC budget should go into the planned new WMF endowment." [5 positive; 3 negative; 2 neutral]

Currently, unspent funds at the end of each year go to the WMF's reserves, but the recent plans to create an endowment raise the question of whether unspent funds should be put into longer-term safekeeping or spent by the WMF in the shorter term. The proposition is controversial, with strong agreement by Shawn and Lorenzo, and strong disagreement by Ad, for whom "there shouldn't be an endowment. ... Unspent FDC money should roll forward to the next FDC round." Liam agrees that an endowment should be created, but does not think it should "compete" against FDC allocations. Michał suggests directing unspent funds to a "quasi-endowment".

(d) "The current FDC budget is sufficient for the movement’s needs, given the competing needs of the editorial communities." [4 positive; 1 negative; 6 neutral]

Ad strongly believes more funds are needed to support existing and new affiliates, but objected to the notion that affiliates compete against the needs of editorial communities. Michał thinks an increase will be required when Wikidata expands, and that should software development by affiliates increase, more funding would be required. Tanweer strongly supports the proposition. More than half of the candidates are neutral on this matter, as for the next proposition.

(e) "The FDC’s judgment should not be more closely aligned with the movement’s technological needs." [2 positive; 3 negative; 6 neutral] (note polarity reversal)

Michał strongly agrees with closer tech alignment, linking to his previously expressed opinion. For Shawn, the FDC "should ultimately be aligned with the guidance provided by the Foundation and its community of what would benefit the movement's mission". Lorenzo has no major concerns about the alignment between the FDC recommendations and the movement's technological needs. Itzik strongly agrees that tech needs should not be aligned more closely with FDC decisions.

(f) "The method of appointing/electing FDC members has served us well and should be continued beyond the Board’s arrangements." [9 positive; 0 negative; 2 neutral]

This is the most strongly supported proposition of all. Lorenzo does think "the current ratio is sound (but there might be a problem of continuity: none of the members ending their term now is seeking reelection", but nevertheless responded "neutral", as did Ad, who would strongly prefer a higher ratio of elected members.

(g) "The “guardrails” (limits of +/– 20% in funding changes from year to year) should be retained." [2 positive; 6 negative; 3 neutral]

The guardrails are controversial, and this is among the two least popular statements, with Mike strongly against. Shawn writes that the guardrails "create a bias towards limiting the potential of an applicant within those means. I believe we can graduate from the transitory phase and allow more opportunities for our grantees." Michał believes they should be increasingly flexible and merit-based. This is similar to Liam's view: "much more context needs to be taken into account for each applicant than merely applying a formula like this".

(h) "The FDC’s judgment should be more closely aligned with the movement’s broader educational outreach." [5 positive; 1 negative; 5 neutral]

There is weak support.

(i) "The FDC has matured sufficiently that a separate advisory committee is no longer needed." [3 positive; 5 negative; 3 neutral]

This is the other least-popular statement. Lorenzo strongly agrees, and Michał wants the advisory committee to be more pro-active in providing expertise on tech, community, and financial matters.

(j) "Where possible, the FDC should prioritise global south funding." [8 positive; 1 negative; 2 neutral]

Given that a huge majority of voters are from the global north, this is a politically intricate issue for candidates. Pete and Tanweer are strongly supportive. Ad believes that "all global south programs already well funded". There were several nuanced opinions: Michał: "Prioritize on efficacy, effectiveness, SWOT [strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats]". Liam: "Yes, but only in as much as this is the strategic goal of Wikimedia more generally." Lorenzo is keen to value diversity, "which is a bit different (and a bit more general) than global south. And, above all, it should prioritize impact ... although [the global south is] important, it's an issue that goes well beyond funding, and I don't want to convey the impression that funding is the solution."

Pete Ekman provides only a summary statement, which is oriented towards the big picture of the FDC's evolving role:

Voters can ask questions of candidates here. Voting (and re-voting) is open until the end of Sunday UTC.

______________________

Footnotes:

  1. ^ We suggested to several candidates who felt unable to give a single numerical response to a whole proposition that they use "3". The strongest responses (1 and 5) are bolded in the table. Averages and standard deviations are provided for each proposition; the higher the standard deviation (Stdev), the more widely spread the candidates' responses. The order of propositions was deliberately scrambled thematically, and one was reversed in polarity ("not") to catch the unwary (no one appears to have been caught).
  2. ^ Of the 110 (10 × 11) individual responses, 46 are in positive territory, 27 in negative territory, and 37 neutral/no response; 19 of the 100 responses were strongly felt (1s and 5s). Issues concerning the status of Wikidata, the FDC's budget, and the bearing of tech and educational priorities on FDC decisions are associated with high proportions of neutrals, whether through political caution or unwillingness to enter a single response to a complex question. On the other side, neutrals are minimal when it comes to what to do with unspent funds, whether the current system of appointments and elections should continue, and whether funding the global south should be a priority.


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2015-05-06

The grim ship reality

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By Serendipodous

Summary: Like colliding ocean liners, rousing entertainment and harsh reality merged ungainly in this week's top 10 list. The much heralded pay-per-view pummeling of Manny Pacquiao by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. dominated the list's top slots, giving this list one of its highest total view counts in months. Box office behemoth Avengers: Age of Ultron, which had ruled last week's list, was sent to number 4, despite the fact that its views had actually increased. However, just below, the death of Freddie Gray and the horrific earthquake in Nepal forced viewers' attentions back to the vagaries of human experience.

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 April 26 to May 2, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao C-class 2,631,206
Wikipedians love their combat sports, but this is the first time such an event has topped the list since it began in January 2013. This long-anticipated boxing match between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (pictured) and Manny Pacquiao, and the latest fight to be dubbed the Fight of the Century (a somewhat presumptuous title, given that our century is currently 15 years old), was held on May 2 in Las Vegas. To say this fight has been highly anticipated is an understatement: this article was created in July 2013, and plans to get these two in the ring together date as far back as 2010. For all that hype, pay-per-view revenues are estimated to be as high as $400 million, fulfilling record-breaking predictions.
2 Manny Pacquiao B-class 2,578,817
The current Filipino Congressman and boxing's only octuple champion suffered a fairly noble defeat to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. during the "fight of the century" on May 2.
3 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. B-class 2,507,300
The quintuple champion upheld his undefeated record with his 48th straight win on May 2.
4 Avengers: Age of Ultron C-Class 2,407,812
The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe premiered in Hollywood on April 13, and went on wide release on May 1. In any other year, the sequel to the billion-grossing Avengers would be the film to beat at the box office, but with the success of Furious 7, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ahead, no one is taking bets on who will come out on top. The movie's $188 million opening weekend failed to live up to its predecessor's $207 million, but when the numbers are this big, you're splitting hairs.
5 Death of Freddie Gray B-class 2,093,596
America has seen a spate of young black men killed under suspicious circumstances by police in the last 12 months, and in the confusion and politicised debate, viewers turned to Wikipedia for clarity. The death of Eric Garner and the shooting of Michael Brown topped this list for a combined three weeks running, and in a more typical week, this latest death would top the list as well. The decision of state's attorney Marilyn Mosby to charge the police who killed Freddie Gray with homicide has meant that the city of Baltimore has been spared the worst excesses of the riots visited upon Ferguson, Missouri.
6 Bruce Jenner C-Class 1,219,166
The former track and field Olympian and current honorary Kardashian remains the news this week, and views for his article have dropped just 25%. Jenner previously appeared on the Top 25 for two weeks in February, but his article would not include what the tabloids were reporting until Jenner said it himself, which he did in an April 24 interview on American television with Diane Saywer – that he is a trans woman. His gender transition will be the subject of an eight-part documentary series starting July 2015.
7 Nepal B-class 1,192,053
Before today, this Himalayan country sandwiched between India and China was probably best known as the home (with Tibet) of Mount Everest, and also of the Sherpa people, who guided the first Westerners to its summit. A onetime spot on the Hippie trail and home for disaffected westerners looking for an alternative way of life, it has seen tragedy, upheaval and civil war in recent years, but horror reached a climax this week with the hideous 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck its central region, including its capital, Kathmandu.
8 2015 Nepal earthquake B-class 908,375
The grinding push of India into Asia that is slowly raising the Himalayas has meant that the Nepali people are no strangers to geological tragedy; even so, the horror they woke up to on 25 April was the worst they would have known in more than eighty years. A combination of size (7.8), depth (a relatively shallow 15 km) and duration (twenty seconds) made the quake particularly devastating; generating a death toll of 7,500, with hundreds still missing. Entire villages near the epicentre were wiped out. Temples that had stood for centuries were flattened. But perhaps the greatest tragedy is that the poor state of transport infrastructure in the country has meant that many of the more remote villages have still received no aid.
9 Vision (Marvel Comics) B-class 825,378
The sentient AI and foil for the villainous Ultron became the breakout star of The Avengers: Age of Ultron and allowed actor Paul Bettany (pictured) to finally step out of the voice-only shadows of his J.A.R.V.I.S. character into full acting.
10 Furious 7 B-class 660,138
After burning through the global box office like a brush fire for its first three weeks, this latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise is apparently winding down, taking only $6 million in its latest weekend; however such was the overwhelming gravitational pull of Avengers: Age of Ultron that Furious 7's meagre gross still placed it at no. 2 in the charts.


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