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25 September 2006

 

2006-09-25

Erik Möller declared winner in Board of Trustees election

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By Flcelloguy

The elections for the Board of Trustees concluded this week at the end of Thursday, 21 September after nearly three weeks of voting. The results of the elections were released Sunday, and Erik Möller, known as "Eloquence", was declared the winner with approximately 42% of the vote. Pending confirmation by the Wikimedia Foundation, he will join the Board of Trustees and complete the remainder of Angela Beesley's term, which lasts until July of 2007. Beesley resigned in July of this year to focus on other aspects of Wikimedia projects.

Möller has been a long-time contributor to Wikimedia projects, first joining the English Wikipedia in December 2001; he has been active in the English (where he has over 15,000 edits) and German Wikipedias, as well as on Meta-Wiki, Wikimedia Commons, and multiple other projects. He was also responsible for helping create and establish several projects, including both Commons and Wikinews, where he drafted many of the initial guidelines and policies. Möller is also a developer and has played a critical role in the development of MediaWiki software, helping code and implement multiple features, including subpages, section editing, the graphical editing toolbar, the table of contents, and input boxes.

A 27-year old journalist, author, and computer scientist residing in Berlin, Möller has also been involved with the Foundation previously. He served as the Foundation's first Chief Research Officer briefly from June to August 2005, resigning because of "personal differences and a fundamental disagreement about the nature and scope of the role." In his resignation letter, he cited a "personality conflict between [himself] and [current Board member Florence Nibart-Devouard] (Anthere) which led to many public disagreements between us over the last few years," as well as tensions between himself and Jimbo Wales, saying that Wales "often perceived me as a major threat... as someone who might try to undermine or replace him, [making] cooperation sometimes difficult." Despite announcing his intentions to leave Wikimedia, he never permanently left and soon helped organize the Wikimania 2005, which was held in Germany, as a member of the Program Committee. Since then, he has also given numerous talks at conferences pertaining to Wikimedia and wikis and written several articles (and even a book) about the topic.

Election results
1st Erik Möller 987 (42%)
2nd Kat Walsh 702 (30%)
3rd Oscar van Dillen 648 (28%)
4th Daniel Arnold 580 (25%)
5th Kim Bruning 492 (21%)
6th Aaron Swartz 423 (18%)
7th Charles Matthews 382 (16%)
8th Arno Lagrange 378 (16%)
9th Jussi-Ville Heiskanen 375 (16%)
10th Juan David Ruiz 356 (15%)
11th Kelly Martin 349 (15%)
12th Steve Dunlop 346 (15%)
13th Pat Gunn 323 (14%)
14th Alex Schenck 315 (13%)
15th Alex T. Roshuk 297 (13%)
16th Bruce Andersen 237 (10%)
17th Ross Hedvicek 109 (5%)

The voting for the elections, which had 17 candidates, ended at 23:59 on Thursday, 21 September. The results were first announced on the Foundation-l mailing list at the beginning of Sunday, 24 September by the election officials - Essjay, James D. Forrester, Kizu Naoko, Dariusz Siedlecki, and Jon Harald Søby. There were a total of 2,347 valid votes, an increase of nearly 1,000 votes from last year's elections, and voters from English-language projects comprised nearly 50% of the total votes, according to unofficial statistics analyzed from the list of votes. However, despite the increase in the number of voters, no one candidate managed to garner over 50 percent of the vote, with Möller gaining approval from 42 percent, and the nearest contenders, Kat Walsh (Mindspillage) and Oscar van Dillen, receiving 30 and 28 percent approval, respectively. Both Walsh and van Dillen had been endorsed by Wales in the middle of the voting period; Möller had also received several endorsements, including that of Beesley, who called him the "best candidate to represent the community in the development of the Wikimedia Foundation over the coming year."

Möller's platform centered around making the Foundation more open; in an interview with the Signpost last month, he called for the Foundation to "establish a high level of transparency and low barriers to entry", citing the creation of several committees as a step in the right direction. In addition, he also pledged to improve all of the projects' networking, and promised to continue the Foundation's goal of free knowledge. Following the elections, Möller released a statement on his user page, thanking everyone for the support and promising to do his "best to work together with the Board to move our organization forward." On the Foundation-l mailing list, he also pledged to remain open to feedback and also congratulated the other candidates.

Reaction to the elections was generally positive. Beesley congratulated him and wished him good luck, both Danny Wool ([1]) and general counsel and interim executive director Brad Patrick welcomed him aboard, and Wales also congratulated him and offered thoughts on his platform.



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2006-09-25

Wikimania 2007 to be held in Taipei

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By Ral315

Wikimania 2007 will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, after the city's bid prevailed over three other finalists: Alexandria, London, and Torino.

Phoebe Ayers, a key organizer of Wikimania 2006 in Boston, announced the results of jury deliberations on Monday. Among other strengths, Ayers praised the bid's strong sponsorship (in all, the Taipei team estimated sponsorship of more than US$100,000, including accidental medical and death insurance, wireless LAN coverage, catering, and alcoholic drinks for evening cocktail parties), a great venue, and the opportunity to focus on Asian language projects.

Ayers also noted the quality of other bids. The Torino bid, which was a close second to Taipei, offered catering, conference halls, hot-spot access, and free phone calls, as well as two possible venues. Alexandria's bid was praised for its partnership with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and London's was recognized for its partnership with Wikimania UK and focus on education.

In response to worries that bids from outside Asia were not given a fair chance, Angela Beesley replied, "No it wasn't and I wish people didn't have this misconception. All of the bids were considered against a range of criteria, not only location. Amongst many other factors, Taipei offered the venue and accommodation on a single site, and their organizing team had prior experience from running the Chinese Wikimania this year ... If Asia was a sure winner from the start, we wouldn't have needed a meeting lasting more than 4 hours on Saturday to determine which city would be successful."

Those interested in submitting a bid in 2008 should start an unofficial bid, Ayers said, because a decision on the location of Wikimania 2008 will be made this winter (northern hemisphere).



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2006-09-25

Arbitration clerk Tony Sidaway resigns

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By Ral315

After concerns over a three-hour block placed on Giano, as well as incivility concerns, Tony Sidaway resigned as arbitration clerk on Monday, after a request to do so by arbitrator Charles Matthews.

Private discussion after controversial edits on an arbitration case involving Giano led to the request, which was made public in a proposed finding of fact in the case. Arbitrator Fred Bauder commented "I don't think much of it, cutting our nose off to spite our face, but I think there was a sense that Tony's actions reflected badly on the Committee. I think they reflect badly on Tony, but he was the best clerk we have ever had."

After confirming his resignation, Tony said "I worked hard at a time when there was nobody else to do the job, and I felt appreciated. I am happy to leave the clerks' corps after seeing our three new clerks do an excellent job of taking over. ... A controversial sysop is not a sensible choice of clerk, no matter how good he may be at the job. There is a conflict that, with experience of the role, we have come to acknowledge."

Sidaway's resignation comes just after former arbitrator Kelly Martin left the English Wikipedia, resigning her administrative, checkuser and oversight privileges and access to the Arbitration Committee mailing list on Friday, after multiple administrators asked her to resign.

The arbitration case, of which Sidaway and Martin are still parties, is in the evidence phase.



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2006-09-25

Report from the Danish Wikipedia

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By Snailwalker, and Malene

Status and community news

As of Sunday, 17 September 2006, the Danish language Wikipedia contained about 48,936 articles. It had 8,325 registered users, with 27 administrators (0.32%).

There is no formal process for selecting featured articles on Danish Wikipedia, but a new article is shown on the Main Page every week (changed daily until 12 September 2005), and one could say it is a kind of featured article. The Danish Wikipedia has recently begun selecting Anbefalede artikler (an equivalent of Good articles).

Besides featuring Danish articles on the Main Page, an article from the Skanwiki project is occasionally selected instead, so an article in Swedish, or Norwegian (Nynorsk or Bokmål), and occasionally Faroese or Icelandic, is displayed on the Danish Main Page from time to time.

On 15 September, a tough decision was made to permanently ban a well-known regular user, Haabet, who has been contributing to the project for several years. Apart from bans of a few well-known vandals, this is the first occasion when a user has been banned permanently from the Danish Wikipedia. The Danish Wikipedia does not have an Arbitration Committee.

Co-operation with Danmarks Radio

The Danish Wikipedia is working together with Danmarks Radio (DR), the national Danish Broadcasting Corporation, to expand articles about the Denmark national football team and the SAS Ligaen, the highest league of football (soccer) in Denmark. DR opens Wikipedia in a different skin with a kind of sports portal (an example can be seen here). The skin is set by an HTTP cookie that times out after 10 minutes of inactivity.

New users

Over the summer, many new users joined the Danish Wikipedia. As a result, a campaign has been started to help new users find their way on the Danish Wikipedia. As an example, a team of mentors and a central help page has been started. The welcoming template system has been reformed and the Main Page has been redesigned to meet some of the criticism from the newcomers.



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2006-09-25

News and notes

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By Flcelloguy

Logo votes proceed

The search for new logos for Wikibooks, Wikiversity, and Wiktionary all proceeded into the next phase this week after initial voting concluded. Several logos were chosen from the entire field of proposals following the vote, and Wikimedians are invited to refine and alter existing proposals. Phase 3, which will determine which logos proceed to the final round, will begin following the conclusion of this phase on 30 September for all three logo processes.

Milestones

This week, the Telugu Wikipedia reached 15,000 articles, becoming the first Wikipedia in an Indian language to reach such a milestone. It has expanded rapidly in the past few weeks: it had 5,672 articles as of 1 September, according to Wikipedia:Multilingual statistics. The Bengali Wikipedia, a project in another Indian language, also recently passed 10,000 articles, the 50th Wikipedia to do so.

In addition, the English Wikipedia also surpassed 1.4 million articles this week. The English Wikipedia is by far the largest language Wikipedia by number of articles, with almost three times the number of articles as the German Wikipedia, the next largest at just over 470,000 articles.

Briefly



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2006-09-25

Wikipedia in the news

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By Trödel

Acceptance of Wikipedia in academia

Wikipedia continued to get both positive and negative press coverage on its reputation as a reputable source. University of Connecticut's The Daily Student carried a story titled Wikipedia More Reliable Than Perceived saying, "The popular assumption with Wikipedia is that information in its articles has many flaws since they are not necessarily written by experts on the subject. Though many professors and educators frown upon Wikipedia in a research setting, the information presented in many articles is quite accurate and the validity of the web site should be reconsidered by the public at large."

The Des Moines Register carried an article documenting various Iowa towns and their strange claims to fame in an article titled Wikipedia chronicles lore, legend, lies. And a reporter with The Williams Lake Tribune claimed he is Addicted to Wikipedia.

However, ECT News (aka Linux Insider), in Wikipedia's Place in Academia Questionable, claimed "Research, the cornerstone of academia, has little room for the haphazard information-gathering Wikipedia offers. Wikipedia, as far as education goes, is best left to assist with the seventh-grade history assignment on John F. Kennedy, not the 300-level research paper on the French Revolution."

Media coverage of Citizendium

Citizendium, Larry Sanger's fork of Wikipedia (see last week's article) received broader coverage with The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Information Week providing coverage. The Guardian article stated, "One of Wikipedia's founders, Larry Sanger, says he plans to rewrite it - as Citizendium, a "citizens' compendium". To succeed, he will probably need to attract many of the people who contribute, or used to contribute, to Wikipedia. But whether the "new Wikipedia" will avoid the problems of the old one, or just create new ones of its own, remains to be seen."

The San Diego Union-Tribune discussed the relationship between Wikipedia and Citizendium. The article stated that "Sanger said he was pleased that Wikipedia was accepting of his new project. 'We will take the best of their articles and edit them and hopefully make them better,' he said. 'And they are free to take from our articles. We're in a partnership to a certain extent, two parallel-thinking projects.'"

Other coverage available on WebProNews, Ars Technica, Red Herring, Slashdot, Corante, and The Register.

Wikipedia as source

Continued coverage of China's block of wikipedia.org

Other articles



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2006-09-25

Features and admins

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By Ian Manka

Features and admins

Three users were granted admin status this week: Sarah Ewart (nom), Thatcher131 (nom) and Mr. Lefty (nom).

Of the three administrators which were promoted this week, two (Sarah Ewart and Thatcher131) joined the ranks of WP:100, the 46th and 47th RfA to do so. Sarah Ewart ties for 5th on the list, with 160 support votes, while Thatcher131 joined the list with 120 support votes, tied for 20th on the list.

Featured content

Five articles were featured last week: Enzyme inhibitor (nom), Aspasia (nom), New Orleans Mint (nom), Halo: Combat Evolved (nom) and Operation Wrath of God (nom).

Three articles were de-featured last week: Eigenvalue, eigenvector and eigenspace, Tea and Vulgar Latin.

No portals reached featured status last week.

One list was featured last week: List of Vieques birds.

The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Pericles, Rush, Cornell University, Dog Day Afternoon, AK-47, Globular cluster and Jaguar.

The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Calvary Cemetery, E. coli, Mite, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Mexican Wolf and Staphylococcus aureus.

Ten pictures were featured last week:



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2006-09-25

The Report On Lengthy Litigation

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By David Mestel

The Arbitration Committee opened two new cases this week, and closed one case. Additionally, a motion passed in a prior case.

Motion in prior case

Closed case

New cases

  • Giano: A case involving the actions of Giano, Tony Sidaway and others, in which Sidaway blocked Giano for making "inflammatory" comments regarding the behaviour of the ArbCom and the Wikimedia Foundation. The block was subsequently overturned after discussion on WP:AN/I.
  • Rachel Marsden: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Rachel Marsden, Bucketsofg and others on the Rachel Marsden page. Marsden and Ellis allege that the page contains inaccurate and libellous material, and that this has been protected on the page by various admins. In response, others allege that Ellis has engaged in edit warring on the page.

Evidence phase

  • Vivaldi: A case involving the actions of Vivaldi on Jack Hyles and related articles. Arbustoo alleges that Vivaldi has removed "cited criticism" from the article, as well as harassment, incivility and edit warring. However, an anon IP, 205.157.110.11 accuses Arbustoo of removing comments from AfDs.

Voting phase

  • Honda S2000: A case involving the actions of SpinyNorman on List of fastest cars by acceleration. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies placing SpinyNorman on probation, general probation, personal attack and revert parole, as well as limiting him to one account. However, no other arbitrators have yet commented on the proposals.
  • Kosovo: A case involving the actions of editors on Kosovo, particularly the political status of Kosovo. A temporary injunction has been passed allowing any uninvolved administrator to ban any of the named users from the page. Various remedies have been proposed, mostly with the support of three arbitrators, applying various bans, warnings, limits and paroles to a number of users.
  • Ackoz: A case involving the actions and community ban of Ackoz, and his later account, Azmoc. The user previously contributed to Wikipedia under the name Ackoz. He admits to "some trolling" after a three-day block, which led to his ban. However, he has stated that were he unbanned, he would cease his disruptive behaviour, and would be prepared to undergo mentorship. Fred Bauder has introduced remedies to unblock Ackoz and place him on probation for one year, leaving open the possibility for a renewed community ban should Ackoz "revert to his previous pattern of sustained trolling", which have been supported by Dmcdevit.
  • Marudubshinki: A case involving the actions of Marudubshinki. Snottygobble, I@n and others allege that Marudubshinki has operated an unauthorised bot, and misused his sysop powers by unblocking himself and allowing his bot to delete pages. A remedy to desysop Marudubshinki has the support of three arbitrators.
  • Ed Poor 2: A case involving Ed Poor. JoshuaZ and Consumed Crustacean have accused Poor of POV pushing and disruption; Poor has not introduced evidence in the case. Ed Poor was party to two prior cases; the first was closed after Poor resigned his status as a bureaucrat, and the second resulted in his desysopping. Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy placing him on probation, a modified version of which has attracted the support of three arbitrators.
  • Pat8722: A case involving the actions of Pat8722. BorgHunter has accused Pat8722 of edit-warring. Pat8722 has requested that the ArbCom stay the case while he pursues 6 pro se cases in the American courts, and has agreed not to edit Wikipedia in the interim. A motion establishing the principle of a "continuance", and a remedy extending this to Pat8722, are supported by two arbitrators; a separate motion to place Pat8722 on probation has also been raised by Dmcdevit, but opposed by Fred Bauder.
  • Deir Yassin massacre: A case involving the actions of KimvdLinde and Guy Montag on Deir Yassin massacre. KimvdLinde alleges that Montag has violated his probation by rewriting the article, unilaterally moving it to "Battle of Deir Yassin", violating copyright and votestacking. In return, Montag refuses "to participate in any of these proceedings", and alleges that KimvdLinde has abused her admin tools by exercising them in a dispute in which she is involved. Proposed remedies banning Guy Montag from articles relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extending his probation for another year, and encouraging users to enforce Montag's probation have the support of five to six arbitrators.

Motion to close

  • Israel-Lebanon: A case involving the actions of AdamKesher, Tasc and others on 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. AdamKesher accuses Tasc of removing relevant external links which satisfy WP:EL, and he denies the allegation. In response, Denis Diderot accuses Kesher of "using Wikipedia as a tool to promote his POV". If closed, remedies to affirm the possibility of using blogs containing "contemporary opinion and observations" about current events, cautioning editors involved and santioning bans for users who edit war on the article would come into effect.
2006-09-25

The Report On Lengthy Litigation

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By David Mestel

The Arbitration Committee opened two new cases this week, and closed one case. Additionally, a motion passed in a prior case.

Motion in prior case

Closed case

New cases

  • Giano: A case involving the actions of Giano, Tony Sidaway and others, in which Sidaway blocked Giano for making "inflammatory" comments regarding the behaviour of the ArbCom and the Wikimedia Foundation. The block was subsequently overturned after discussion on WP:AN/I.
  • Rachel Marsden: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Rachel Marsden, Bucketsofg and others on the Rachel Marsden page. Marsden and Ellis allege that the page contains inaccurate and libellous material, and that this has been protected on the page by various admins. In response, others allege that Ellis has engaged in edit warring on the page.

Evidence phase

  • Vivaldi: A case involving the actions of Vivaldi on Jack Hyles and related articles. Arbustoo alleges that Vivaldi has removed "cited criticism" from the article, as well as harassment, incivility and edit warring. However, an anon IP, 205.157.110.11 accuses Arbustoo of removing comments from AfDs.

Voting phase

  • Honda S2000: A case involving the actions of SpinyNorman on List of fastest cars by acceleration. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies placing SpinyNorman on probation, general probation, personal attack and revert parole, as well as limiting him to one account. However, no other arbitrators have yet commented on the proposals.
  • Kosovo: A case involving the actions of editors on Kosovo, particularly the political status of Kosovo. A temporary injunction has been passed allowing any uninvolved administrator to ban any of the named users from the page. Various remedies have been proposed, mostly with the support of three arbitrators, applying various bans, warnings, limits and paroles to a number of users.
  • Ackoz: A case involving the actions and community ban of Ackoz, and his later account, Azmoc. The user previously contributed to Wikipedia under the name Ackoz. He admits to "some trolling" after a three-day block, which led to his ban. However, he has stated that were he unbanned, he would cease his disruptive behaviour, and would be prepared to undergo mentorship. Fred Bauder has introduced remedies to unblock Ackoz and place him on probation for one year, leaving open the possibility for a renewed community ban should Ackoz "revert to his previous pattern of sustained trolling", which have been supported by Dmcdevit.
  • Marudubshinki: A case involving the actions of Marudubshinki. Snottygobble, I@n and others allege that Marudubshinki has operated an unauthorised bot, and misused his sysop powers by unblocking himself and allowing his bot to delete pages. A remedy to desysop Marudubshinki has the support of three arbitrators.
  • Ed Poor 2: A case involving Ed Poor. JoshuaZ and Consumed Crustacean have accused Poor of POV pushing and disruption; Poor has not introduced evidence in the case. Ed Poor was party to two prior cases; the first was closed after Poor resigned his status as a bureaucrat, and the second resulted in his desysopping. Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy placing him on probation, a modified version of which has attracted the support of three arbitrators.
  • Pat8722: A case involving the actions of Pat8722. BorgHunter has accused Pat8722 of edit-warring. Pat8722 has requested that the ArbCom stay the case while he pursues 6 pro se cases in the American courts, and has agreed not to edit Wikipedia in the interim. A motion establishing the principle of a "continuance", and a remedy extending this to Pat8722, are supported by two arbitrators; a separate motion to place Pat8722 on probation has also been raised by Dmcdevit, but opposed by Fred Bauder.
  • Deir Yassin massacre: A case involving the actions of KimvdLinde and Guy Montag on Deir Yassin massacre. KimvdLinde alleges that Montag has violated his probation by rewriting the article, unilaterally moving it to "Battle of Deir Yassin", violating copyright and votestacking. In return, Montag refuses "to participate in any of these proceedings", and alleges that KimvdLinde has abused her admin tools by exercising them in a dispute in which she is involved. Proposed remedies banning Guy Montag from articles relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extending his probation for another year, and encouraging users to enforce Montag's probation have the support of five to six arbitrators.

Motion to close

  • Israel-Lebanon: A case involving the actions of AdamKesher, Tasc and others on 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. AdamKesher accuses Tasc of removing relevant external links which satisfy WP:EL, and he denies the allegation. In response, Denis Diderot accuses Kesher of "using Wikipedia as a tool to promote his POV". If closed, remedies to affirm the possibility of using blogs containing "contemporary opinion and observations" about current events, cautioning editors involved and santioning bans for users who edit war on the article would come into effect.




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