Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2007-12-26
Wales appoints six arbitrators
In a Signpost exclusive, Jimbo Wales has announced the results of the 2007 ArbCom elections. In an e-mail sent to us Wednesday morning, Wales named six new arbitrators to the Committee, effective January 1, 2008:
For the 2007 ArbCom elections, I am making the following appointments and shifts:
- Newyorkbrad - Tranche Alpha
- FT2 - Tranche Alpha
- FayssalF - Tranche Alpha
- Sam Blacketer - Tranche Alpha
- Deskana - Tranche Alpha
This fills the 5 vacancies in Tranche Alpha.
Then I am removing Flcelloguy from Tranche Gamma for inactivity, with the understanding that if he chooses to return to active service, he may claim a (perhaps temporary) expansion seat in Tranche Gamma. This is intended to be the same situation as Mindspillage and Filiocht have in Tranche Beta.
Into Flcelloguy's seat, I am moving FloNight. This effectively extends her term by 1 year, moving her from Tranche Beta to Tranche Gamma.
And then finally I am appointing Thebainer into FloNight's old seat in Tranche Beta. This unfortunately gives him only a 1 year term, but he did come in 6th.
Finally, I want to announce a desire that the ArbCom should institute some informal notions of a required level of activity, and that I will gladly act upon the advice and consent of the ArbCom at mid-term to make replacement appointments (June-ish - July-ish) for any Arbs who unfortunately have found themselves unable to live up to the time commitments of the position.
I will gladly leave the choice of those mid-term appointments up to the Arbcom (or, at their desire, make the tough decision myself), but will have a strong preference at that time for appointments (based on the election results) from this list of runner-ups: Raul654, Rebecca, Manning Bartlett, Giano II, David Fuchs, Shell Kinney, MastCell.
I am particularly interested that the community work to heal what appears to me to be perceived rifts between various factions, and encourage everyone to work within our existing frameworks and institutions for positive change with a minimum of drama. We are all here to build an encyclopedia and should understand that there are very often complex judgment calls in which we may not personally agree with every result - our first obligation is to pay attention to making sure that our _processes_ are as just, open, participatory, and transparent as possible consistent with our mission.
I believe that none of my appointments today will cause any surprise or drama, as I have followed the election results quite closely.
All five of the top five finishers in the election received three-year terms, and Thebainer, who received 67% support and finished sixth, received a one-year term. The extension of FloNight's term would lead her term to end in December 2009, giving her a three-year term. She was originally elected in the December 2006 elections, and given a two-year term.
Flcelloguy, meanwhile, was removed from the Arbitration Committee due to inactivity, but can return at any time to serve the remainder of his term (which expires in December 2009). Flcelloguy has not edited since May, when he noted that "I recently had an unexpected period of busyness. I should be back to active editing soon." This arrangement, as noted, is similar to the ones enacted for Mindspillage (Kat Walsh), who resigned when she joined the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, and Filiocht, who has not edited significantly since December 2005 due to illness, and noted in June 2006 that s/he was "Away indefinitely."
Wales' comments about inactivity would serve as a new guideline for arbitrators; in previous years, some arbitrators have been criticized for their inactivity, but no standards had been proposed about expected activity. Raul654, an arbitrator since July 2004, was not re-elected in this year's elections, in part due to his inactivity, which was cited by some opposing voters. Other than Raul654, seven other arbitrators were inactive for at least eight weeks this year, including Flcelloguy and Neutrality, who has not participated in an arbitration case since October 2006.
Board approves expansion, up to 11 trustees possible
This week, a resolution was approved to fill the two empty seats, and expand the Board of Trustees from seven to a maximum of eleven members:
In the aftermath of the resignation of Michael Davis (effective October 31, 2007) and Erik Möller (effective December 15, 2007), the board confirms its will to replace the two former board members, as well as its commitment to expand the number of members on the board of directors at the earliest convenience, up to a number of 11 members maximum. Due to its commitment to involve members from the community, at least half of the new members will be appointed for a term ending at the next board elections, in June 2008.
The resolution likely means that appointments of new members will be made soon, before the June 2008 board elections. The makeup of the Board would be as follows:
- Florence Devouard, Chair, elected position. Her term expires in June 2008, and she has indicated that she may be leaving the Board at the completion of her term (see below)
- Jimmy Wales, appointed position. Wales and all appointed members serve a one-year term, renewable by the Board; his term was renewed, and comes up for renewal in December 2008.
- Jan-Bart de Vreede, Vice Chair, appointed position. His term comes up for renewal in December 2008.
- Kat Walsh, elected position. Her term expires in July 2009.
- Frieda Brioschi, elected position. Her term expires in July 2009.
- A replacement for Davis, yet to be named. A search for a new Treasurer is in progress; the Board is looking for a candidate with experience in accounting.
- A replacement for Möller, yet to be named. This replacement would be appointed from the community, and would likely be up for election in June 2008.
- One or two additional positions from the community; these positions would likely be up for election in June 2008.
- One or two additional positions, which may be outside the community. The Board has indicated a desire to appoint professionals to some of these positions.
Thus, the Board will likely appoint either four or six additional members. Indications are that some or all of the elected positions will expire in June 2008, although Möller's seat was set to expire in July 2009, and his successor may retain the remainder of his two-year term. While no indication has been made by the Board as to how appointments will be made, it's likely that at least some of the appointments will come from those who were not elected in the 2007 Board elections.
In a separate announcement, Devouard noted that she is considering leaving the Board at the end of her term:
[In 2008], some of the board seats will be up for elections, including mine. I am not sure yet how many seats will be available, this will be clarified in the following weeks. But it seems clear there will be at least 3 seats. I wanted to give you a pre-position on this matter. In June 2008, I will complete 4 years on the board, including 1 year and a half as chair. I stopped working just 2 years ago, immediately before the birth of my third child. I now wish to officially be in activity again (meaning: working for a salary :-)). ... I also think I may be able to help the projects by continuing my activity within Wikimédia France and indicated some time ago, my interest for being a candidate at the next [Wikimédia France] board election (January or February 08).
As such, I would be happy to start the discussion as to who would be interested/willing joining the board of WMF (as appointed or as elected), and who would be potentially interested in the role of chair in the future.
WikiWorld comic: "Molasses"
NB: Greg Williams is on vacation. This rerun is from December 26, 2006.
This week's WikiWorld comic uses text from "Molasses" and "Molasses Gang". The comic is released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
News and notes
Steward elections complete, awaiting results
After elections for new stewards ended last week, the Board of Trustees endorsed the results of the elections, and appointed all users who finished with at least 80% support, adding twelve new stewards:
- Spacebirdy, 100.0%
- Jusjih, 98.6%
- .anaconda, 98.0%
- Dungodung, 98.0%
- Wpedzich, 96.6%
- Thogo, 96.3%
- Lar, 94.8%
- Zirland, 94.6%
- Millosh, 94.7%
- Andre Engels, 93.8%
- DerHexer, 81.2%
- Nick1915, 80.2%
Meanwhile, confirmation of current stewards is complete, and discussion between stewards is ongoing as to whether some of the stewards should retain their status. As of press time, it appears that Ausir, Romihaitza, Snowdog, and Suisui will not be confirmed due to inactivity, and Datrio and Fantasy resigned their stewardship voluntarily prior to these discussions. Sj's reconfirmation is close, with stewards evenly split as to whether Sj should be reconfirmed. Sixteen of the remaining 23 stewards will definitely retain stewardship, with no objections from the community, and it appears that the other seven will be reconfirmed as well.
Jimbo Wales testifies before U.S. Senate Committee, touts wikis
On December 11th, Jimbo Wales testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in a hearing titled "E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration and Access". Wales' testimony (PDF) is available, and video of the hearing, including a question-and-answer session with Wales, is available.
Fundraiser continues
The Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser continued this week. Nearly sixty-five days into the fundraiser, about 40,500 people have donated at least US$1, and the Foundation has raised about $1,310,000.
A new fundraising site was introduced this week; the design highlights a Wikipedian's story, what the money is used for, and simplifies the donation form significantly. The effects of such a site on donations have yet to be seen.
Donations on December 25 (Christmas) (228 donations, totaling $8,015.20) reached a fundraiser low; however, a series of large donations were received in the last week, including $4,000 from Brooke Burgess (with comment "Ubermind, Inc."), a €1,000 ($1,439.80) donation from an anonymous contributor, $1,024 from frequent contributor Jeff Moe, and $1,000 donations from Lawrence Lessig, Robert D. Hall and Ana F. Barreto, and two anonymous contributors.
Ironing board joke reported by German periodicals, President
A joke inserted into the German Wikipedia's article on the 1989 European Competition for Women's Football was unwittingly reported by multiple German newspapers and magazines, and subsequently mentioned by the President of Germany, Horst Köhler. The joke revolves around the gifts received by the German champions of the competition, who received a coffee set as part of their prizes. On September 10, the joke was embellished, with the addition of an ironing board to their "prizes". After the German team's victory in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the ironing board was subsequently reported in various German sources, including a syndicated article by Frank Hellmann, which was published on various German websites, including that of top periodical Der Spiegel ([1]). It was later referenced in a speech by Bundespräsident Köhler. The false information was removed on December 17.
Wikimania 2009 bidding continues
Wikimania 2009 bidding continued this week; one more bid was submitted this week: Kathmandu, Nepal. This joins two other official bids: Bogotá and Toronto. New bids will be open until January 12, at which time the jury will be announced. Bids already created will be open until February 3, when bidding will end, and deliberations will begin. On or before February 20, the host city for Wikimania 2009 will be announced to the public.
Briefly
- A poll is ongoing to find featured portal director(s). It is set to close on December 31.
- On Tuesday, January 8, editor and administrator Jonathan Hochman will give a lecture ("Wikipedia & Social Media") at the Tumblebrook Country Club in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The event will run from 6:30-9 p.m. The cost is $45 per person, but those who register before December 31st can save $10; the price includes dinner and cocktails.
- After ballooning to over 100,000 articles thanks to massive bot activity, the Lombard Wikipedia has shrunk to below 25,000 articles.
- The German Wikibooks has reached 10,000 modules. They now have 569 Books, 40 of which are "ready".
- The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 450,000 articles.
- The Bulgarian Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
- The Tagalog Wikipedia has reached 15,000 articles.
- The Tahitian Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
- The Aromanian Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
- The Cherokee Wikipedia has reached 200 articles.
In the news
Organisational challenges as Wikipedia grows
Wikipedia's awkward adolescence - Several incidents in the past have caused speculation that Wikipedia has an informal inner circle consisting of administrators, outside of which edits might not survive very long. The wider issue at hand is that Wikipedia's governance structure is at a cross-roads - between that of a digital experiment and that of its "broader ambitions". In Wikipedia's favour is its transparency, where every article maintains a history and edit comments, but that has not prevented others from proposing sites that store text that has been rejected from Wikipedia, to enforce greater accountability. A problem that Wikipedia has to deal with is its use of jargon; following along the lines of the Simple English Wikipedia, perhaps Wikipedia could move towards explaining decisions in plain English.
Blogs vs. New York Times bet ends with Wikipedia declared winner
Long Bet Winner: Weblogs vs. The New York Times - Rogers Cadenhead, reviewing a "long bet" made five years ago by Dave Winer and Martin Nisenholtz, concluded that while weblogs edged the New York Times in getting news-related entries ranked on the Google search engine, Wikipedia was solidly ahead of both. Using keyword phrases from the top five news stories for the year, as chosen by the Associated Press, Cadenhead compared the top-ranked blog entry against the highest-placed story from the Times website. He found that Wikipedia articles appeared before either one for four of the five stories. The one story for which Wikipedia didn't win, the current mortgage crisis, it had the fourth overall entry on Google, but the Times placed first; this was the only story for which either the Times or a blog had the top overall result, whereas Wikipedia had the top result twice, for Iraq war and Virginia Tech killings.
Wikipedian invited to Israel
Your wiki entry counts - David Shankbone, a Wikinews editor, went to Israel at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry, to offer him a first-hand look at the country. He was with a dozen or so American journalists who were invited in the hope of reversing a "one-dimensional view of Israel" that is said to persist through the narratives told by the media; the visit was said to be useful because Wikipedia editors aim to present a neutral, world view in articles. Shankbone defends Wikipedia by comparing it to a bulletin board, which merely hosts the information, and implores users to consider more than one source of information, even though Wikipedia is a useful starting point.
Other mentions
Other recent mentions in the online press include:
- The random endorsement: Wikipedia - A blogger endorses Wikipedia, after it helps him with his study to the extent that "Wikipedia has replaced Google in my life"
- Wikipedia: No Place for PR - Those who were formerly the audience are now producers of content too; others might end up writing about your company on Wikipedia, but beware the conflict of interest rules if you decide to contribute.
- Ex-Wikipedia COO Has Record - (see archived story) The case of Wikimedia's former COO continues to receive press coverage; new applicants now undergo background checks.
- Truth, anonymity and the Wikipedia Way - There is a contradiction between the anonymity of editors on Wikipedia, and the guidelines against editing with a conflict of interest.
WikiProject Report: India
WikiProject India is a WikiProject dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of all topics related to the Republic of India. Started on 11 July 2006, the project has steadily grown, and currently has 250 active members and 24 inactive members.
Departments
The India WikiProject has six departments to help share and distribute its workload.
- The outreach department strengthens the project's sense of community. Members that are involved in the department welcome new members to the project, help other editors in the project, manage the project newsletters and keep the project members in touch.
- The assessment department assesses the quality of Wikipedia's Indian articles. While much of the work is done in conjunction with the WP:1.0 program, the article ratings are also used within the project itself to recognize articles of high quality and point out those that need more work.
- The Indian Collaboration of the week finds an article in need of project-wide help, and attempts to improve it to Featured article status in one week.
- The peer review department conducts peer reviews of India-related articles on request to obtain ideas for further improvement by having contributors who may not have previously worked on particular articles examine them.
- The photography department aims to provide a collection of high-quality photographs and images for use in India articles.
- The cartography department aims to create a collection of high-quality maps for use in India articles. The department gathers existing public domain and free-license maps as well as creating new ones from other materials where no suitable maps can be found.
Descendant projects
The India WikiProject has several subprojects to focus on certain areas of its scope.
- Religion
- Arts
- Media
- Cinema
- Television
- Images
- Language & literature
- History
- Demographics
- Geography
- Trade & economy
- Politics
- Others
How to help
If you are interested in assisting the project, you can join it by adding your name to its members list.
Features and admins
Administrators
Seven users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Salix alba (nom), PrimeHunter (nom), Jj137 (nom), Masem (nom), Tony Fox (nom), Mattinbgn (nom), and Versageek (nom).
Bots
Six bots or bot tasks were approved to begin operating this week: MelonBot (task request), PaievBot (task request), MelonBot (task request), SoxBot II (task request), BJBot (task request), and Maelgwnbot (task request).
Featured pages
Fourteen articles were promoted to featured status last week: Queluz National Palace (nom), Massospondylus (nom), United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (nom), Opera (web browser) (nom), Bird (nom), Louis Slotin (nom), Wulfhere of Mercia (nom), Spiderland (nom), Final Fantasy Tactics (nom), Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany (nom), Internationalist (album) (nom), Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081) (nom), Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (nom), and Vasa (ship) (nom).
Seven lists were promoted to featured status last week: List of Governors of Wisconsin (nom), Lou Marsh Trophy (nom), List of Seattle Seahawks first-round draft picks (nom), AJPW Triple Crown Championship (nom), List of Academy Award winners and nominees for Best Foreign Language Film (nom), List of tallest buildings in Dubai (nom), and Nation of Ulysses discography (nom)
Three portals were promoted last week: Portal:Rugby union (nom), Portal:Scientology (nom), and Portal:Ireland (nom). No topics were promoted last week.
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Heian Palace, Tropical Storm Allison, Dorset, Bupropion, Aggie Bonfire, German occupation of Luxembourg in World War I and Nancy Reagan.
Former featured pages
Three articles and one list were delisted last week:
- History of Greenland (nom) — Promoted in August 2004 and kept in February 2006, the article was delisted this week; its nominator, Haukur, noted that "Greenland is an actual country inhabited by an actual nation, an Inuit one. This article should be largely devoted to telling the story of that nation. It almost completely fails to do so - instead putting all its emphasis on European-descended people." No concerns were addressed during the course of the nomination.
- Hopkins School (nom) — Promoted in March 2006, the article was delisted due to a lack of professional prose, and substandard sourcing.
- Lead(II) nitrate (nom) — Promoted in November 2006, the review noted issues with comprehensiveness and referencing. Itub argued that the article was as comprehensive as any article on the topic could be, but without any efforts to fix issues found with the article, it was delisted.
- List of RahXephon media (nom) — Promoted in January 2007, the review noted formatting inconsistencies, information better suited to other articles, lack of summaries, and poor layout; with little-to-no input on the review, and no improvement of the list, it was removed.
Featured media
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Portland, Oregon; Mulberry Street (Manhattan); Motorcycling; John Wilkes Booth; Frederick III, German Emperor; Ivan Shishkin; and Neue Wache.
Nine pictures were promoted to featured status last week and are shown below.
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Bugs, Reports and Internal Operations News
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that not all changes described here are necessarily live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.5 (d64f667), and changes to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active. Configuration changes and changes to interface messages, however, become active immediately.
Fixed Bugs
This week saw 34 bugs resolved across Wikimedia Foundation wikis. Some of the bugs fixed pertaining to the English language Wikipedia include:
- (bug 7046): Revisions not of page with given title cause inconsistencies in UI
- (bug 12340): Edit links are appearing below section header line instead of above
- (bug 11622): Provide extension for title blacklisting
- (bug 11854): Error in MonoBook.php creates invalid XML
- (bug 12350): MySQL error possible via negative offset and limit on Special:Newpages
Other bugs fixed include Bug 12309, allowing blocked users to edit their userspace on Swedish Wikipedia, Bug 12333 (Closure of several wikis), and Bug 12355 (Allow autoconfirmed users to patrol on English Wikisource).
Changes to Interface Messages
- MediaWiki:Deletereason-dropdown has had reasons for deletion shortened, as well as the CSD being updated.
- MediaWiki:Blockedtext has been made more specific.
Ongoing news
- Internationalisation has been continuing as normal; help is always appreciated! See mw:Localisation statistics for how complete the translations of languages you know are, and post any updates to bugzilla or use Betawiki.
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee did not open any new cases this week, and closed one case, leaving five cases currently open.
Closed case
- Physchim62: This case concerned administrator Physchim62's block of fellow administrator Hesperian. Other users asserted that Physchim62 had misused his administrative tools in the past. After Physchim62 resigned as an administrator while the case was pending, the arbitrators found that Physchim62 resigned "under controversial circumstances," so that he may not seek resysopping without a new RfA.
Evidence phase
- John Buscema: A case involving editing of the John Buscema article by editors including Tenebrae and Skyelarke.
- Dbachmann: A case involving alleged misconduct on the part of administrator Dbachmann and editing by other users on several race-related articles. Arbitrator UninvitedCompany has moved to dismiss the case based on a lack of evidence, but the motion has been opposed by arbitrators Kirill Lokshin and FloNight.
Voting phase
- RodentofDeath: A case involving alleged personal attacks and policy violations by RodentofDeath on articles including Angeles City. Remedies banning RodentofDeath for one year, and reminding Susanbryce not to use Wikipedia for purposes of advocacy, have the support of two to five arbitrators.
Case suspended
- Matthew Hoffman: A case involving controversial blocks of MatthewHoffman by a vanished user. Various remedies were proposed including either desysopping or admonishing him and annotating Matthew Hoffman's block log to reflect the arbitrators' view that the blocks were unjustified. A motion has been passed suspending the case for 30 days (until approximately 20 January, 2008) to allow for community input at a request for comment.
Motion to close
- Episodes and characters: A case involving alleged misconduct with regard to the notability of episodes and characters from television series. In the proposed decision, the parties are urged to work collaboratively to seek consensus on the issue.