Year: 2009 Week: 34-35 Number: 116

Technical news

• [Tech Update] - Brion posted an update on the status of a few projects, before shipping off to Wikimania.
• http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/weekly-wiki-tech-update-pre-wikimania-edition/

• [Commons: ImageAnnotator] - Wikimedia Commons added a new gadget: an Image Annotator, where users can place comments *onto* images (like flickr).
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Gadget-ImageAnnotator

• [Bugs] - Trevor Parscal, of the Usability Project, gave an update on the Usability Beta by saying that more than 40,000 users have now participated in the process.
• http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/squashing-the-bugs/

• [iPhone app released] - the Wikimedia Foundation released its own official iPhone/iPod application for Wikipedia, in addition to the regular mobile interface.
• http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wikipedia_lauches_official_iphone_app_-_but_its_no.php
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_iPhone_app
• http://m.wikipedia.org/

• [SmartWikiSearch] - Smart Wiki Search, a "concept similarity" search, tries to make your Wikipedia search experience better by finding other Wikipedia pages that discuss the same or similar concepts to the one you searched for.
• http://www.smartwikisearch.com/

Request for help

• [Wikipedia Signpost RfC] - the Wikipedia Signpost, the English Wikipedia's newspaper, is looking for comments about what is their mission, purpose and where they should go from here.  Feedback is appreciated.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/About#Where_does_the_Signpost_go_from_here.3F

• [Multimedia Usability Meeting] - we previously reported on the upcoming Multimedia Usability Project by Wikimedia France, suggestions and feedback are being requested on Meta-Wiki.  There is also a planning event to take place in October 2009.
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Usability_Project_Meeting_October_2009

• [Report to the Board] - Sue Gardner, the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, published her report to the board for May 2009.
• http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-August/054008.html

• [New "labs" sites] - two new "labs" sites have been created to test out the flagged revisions and reader feedback extensions. In general, "Wikimedia Labs" is the name given to sites created to test out new extensions before they are used on Wikimedia wikis.
• http://flaggedrevs.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• http://readerfeedback.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

• [Hewlett Foundation grant] - the Wikimedia Foundation received a US$500,000 grant towards operational support from Hewlett Foundation.  The grant's purpose is to allow the Foundation expand its work bringing free educational content to everyone on the planet.
• http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Hewlett_Foundation_grant_August_2009

• [Omidyar Network Grant] - the Omidyar Network gave a grant of up to $2 million over two years to the Wikimedia Foundation.  The grant will support Wikimedia's key goals: to bring free educational content to every person on the planet, to engage and empower more people to author that content and to continually increase the quality and breadth of the information provided through Wikimedia?s projects.
• http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009
• http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009QA

• [New board members/officers] - at Wikimania, the Board of Trustees officially accepted the results of the election, welcoming Samuel Klein (Sj) and thanking Domas for his service.  Kat Walsh has also taken the position of executive secretary.  In addition to these community-selected board members, an "expertise" seat was filled with Matt Halprin.
• http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-August/054318.html
• http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/user:Mhalprin -- biography of Matt

• [Wikimania 2009] - Wikimania 2009, the international Wikimedia conference, ended this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Even if you were not there, you can enjoy it too with twitter, flickr photos, and presentation videos.
• http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23wikimania+OR+%23wikimania2009 -- twitter for #wikimania2009 or #wikimania
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/wikimania2009/ -- flickr
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2009_presentations -- videos of the presentation

• [WikiExpedition 2009] - a summary (in English) of the recent Polish Wikimedian's "WikiExpedition" was published.
• http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiekspedycja/Summary

• [mediawiki/ IRC cloaks now available] - the Group Contacts are now offering "mediawiki/" IRC cloaks for developers.
• http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-August/054120.html - mailing list post
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Cloaks -- IRC cloak explanation

• [GLAM-WIKI Recommendations] - now that the GLAM-WIKI conference is over, Liam Wyatt (the conference coordinator) has compiled a list of recommendations to "GLAM", to Wikimedia, and to the government.  This list is based on the discussions and findings at the conference.
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM-WIKI_Recommendations

• [Wikimedia UK blog/twitter] - Wikimedia UK, the British chapter, has started a blog and twitter account.
• http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2009/08/welcome/
• http://twitter.com/wikimediauk

• [WMES: Planning Reboot] - Wikimedia España, the planned Spanish chapter, has had a planning reboot. Join the mailing list if you're interestd in creating a Spanish chapter.
• http://lists.wikimedia.org.ar/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-es

• [WMSE: Image donation] - Wikimedia Sweden has helped Regionarkivet (the municipal archive of the Gothenburg area in Sweden) upload some of its most prized images to the Wikimedia Comons.
• http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pressmeddelande_2009-08-19/en
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Regionarkivet

• [Chapcom membership update] - the Chapters committee (those charged with coordinating the chapters, especially with getting new chapters started) welcomes two new members.  Milos Rancic and Lodewijk Gelauff replace the seats of Carlos Barcenilla and Michael Bimmler, who recently resigned.
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_committee

• [Wikinews ArbCom] - Blood Red Sandman, Brian, Brian McNeil, Cirt, Cspurrier, and Tempodivalse were elected to the Arbitration Committee on the English Wikinews.
• http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Arbitration_Committee/2009_elections

• [Wikimedia Belgium Meeting] - Wikimedia Belgium, the proposed Belgian chapter, had a coordination meeting on August 28. The English and French minutes are available.
• http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediabe-l/2009-August/000006.html

Awards

• [UK Wikipedia Loves Art - prizes] - Wikimedia UK's Wikipedia Loves Art project finally announced its winners.
• http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2009-August/004565.html -- mailing list post
• http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2009/08/wikipedia-loves-art-prizes/ -- WMUK blog post

Media

• [Generate PDFs from Wikipedia] - Lifehacker.com covered the ability to creates PDFs and Multi-Article Books using PediaPress, something that happened a while ago.
• http://lifehacker.com/5339852/generate-pdfs-and-multi+article-books-from-wikipedia
• http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/02/20/wiki-to-print-feature-activated-in-six-more-wikipedia-languages/ -- original WMF blog post

• [Tale of another Mangalore on Wikipedia] - some commentary on a local Wikipedia Academy in Mangalore, India.
• http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article7437.ece
• http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article6940.ece

• [Health Care and Wikipedia] - Columbia Journalism Review compliment's the English Wikipedia's coverage of the American "health care debates".
• http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/health_care_and_wikipedia.php

• [Wikimania 2009] - a pre-Wikimania article about Wikimania 2009 and the Wikimania idea.
• http://www.en.argentina.ar/_en/science-and-education/C954-wikimania-2009-in-argentina.php

• [Wikinews: The unsung news source] - Wikinews got a favorable blog post that includes a Q&A and explanation of the project.
• http://perspective.cfezra.com/?p=105

• [AP tries to rival WP?] - apparently the Associated Press is going to try to rival Wikipedia in the search results.  The AP will hold back some content from member websites and hope that Google will rate it higher due to the increased number of links to that page.
• http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/08/how-the-associated-press-will-try-to-rival-wikipedia-in-search-results/

• [Wikiversity media coverage] - Wikiversity is in the news again, with a whole article devoted to it.  According to the article, "Wikiversity" is to be a university for every Internet user. Some professors are smitten with it - others are skeptical.
• http://www.tagesspiegel.de/magazin/wissen/Wikiversity;art304,2876731 (de)

• [Inkblot Poster] - remember the controversy on the English Wikipedia because there were copies of the Rorschach inkblot tests in the article?  Well, according to the New York Times, te doctor who helped publish the 10 inkblots is being investigated by his local doctors? organization after it received complaints that his actions were unprofessional.
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/business/24inkblot.html

Stats

• [enwp: 3m] - the English Wikipedia has reached 3,000,000 articles with the creation of "Beate Eriksen", a Norwegian actress.
• http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/17/3000000/

• [cswikt] - the Czech Wiktionary has reached 10,000 entries.
• http://cs.wiktionary.org/

Other news

• [Growing Wikipedias] - Hausa Wikipedia, one of the African-language Wikipedias, was previously in danger of being closed but now it's growing very quickly.  This comes at an interesting time, there have been recent foundation-l discussions about the process for closing projects.
• http://hausaonline.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/hausa-wikipedia-is-growing/ -- Hausa Wikipedia
• http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/175836 -- mailing list thread
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects -- current project closing process

• [Wikipedia Diver] - a new Firefox add-on gives you a visual history of everywhere you've been on Wikipedia, and organizes it down to the day, order, and session in which you visited the sites, making it easy to revisit old entries.
• http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10315483-248.html

• [Enterprise Wikis] - a blog post gives 8 more reasons to use a wiki for you internal corporate site.
• http://www.ikiw.org/2009/08/21/8-things-you-can-do-with-an-enterprise-wiki/

• [Citizendium founder ready to leave] - Larry Sanger, the founder of Citizendium (another encyclopedia created to rival Wikipedia) and one of the first contributors to Wikipedia, is ready to leave his project and move on.
• http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/08/citizendium-founder-ready-to-jump-ship/

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