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Welcome to Meta! edit

Hello Discott, and welcome to the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki! This website is for coordinating and discussing all Wikimedia projects. You may find it useful to read our policy page. If you are interested in doing translations, visit Meta:Babylon. You can also leave a note on Meta:Babel or Wikimedia Forum (please read the instructions at the top of the page before posting there). If you would like, feel free to ask me questions on my talk page. Happy editing! LouriePieterse 14:57, 7 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

feedback for Wikidata mockups edit

Hey :)

You indicated that you'd like to help with the interwiki link phase of Wikidata. We're currently looking for feedback on mockups about linking on the Wikipedias. In case you have not seen them yet it'd be great if you could have a look and tell me what you think.

Cheers --Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) (talk) 15:09, 8 May 2012 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for telling me about it Lydia. I am taking at look at it now. --Discott (talk) 16:01, 8 May 2012 (UTC)Reply

Questions for FDC candidates edit

Hi :-) thank you for putting yourself forward for the FDC. I want to draw your attention to the list of questions that people can answer to help the Board of Trustees learn more about the people volunteering for the committee. [1] Look forward to seeing your answers. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 21:51, 14 August 2012 (UTC)Reply

Your comments are invited on four current FDC proposals edit

Hello! As you may know, we've opened the community review period for the current funding round in the Funds Dissemination Committee process. I noticed that in the past you expressed interest in the FDC, since you were a nominee for the committee. I'd like to invite you to review the 4 proposals (totaling $1.3 million USD) that were submitted to the FDC, and to ask questions and share comments about those proposals. You can help to ensure that they have high potential for impact regarding the movement's goals. The FDC especially values comments by community members and will take them into account when they prepare their recommendations. Let me know if you have any questions! --Katy Love, Senior Program Officer, Funds Dissemination Committee, Wikimedia Foundation, 22:36, 14 March 2013 (UTC)Reply

Cape Town/4-12-2013-BidTeam-Meeting edit

Can you please categorize this? Thanks. :) PiRSquared17 (talk) 01:35, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the reminder. This page is a duplicate so I have requested that it be deleted. Thanks for putting it on my radar.--Discott (talk) 05:34, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply
Deleted. PiRSquared17 (talk) 05:37, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply
Thanks PiRSquared17! Merry Xmas! :-) --Discott (talk) 05:40, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply
Merry Xmas, hope you have a good day! PiRSquared17 (talk) 05:41, 25 December 2013 (UTC)Reply

SWOT edit

Hey Douglas, I see you have been working on a similar document like Wikimania_2015_bids/Cape_Town/SWOT. What's your proposal to merge these two pages? MADe (talk) 19:11, 11 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

I Maarten, nice work. I think I will merge it into our bid tomorrow. Lets chat about it some more at our next meeting this Wednesday.--Discott (talk) 20:36, 11 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

How can we improve Wikimedia grants to support you better? edit

Hi! The Wikimedia Foundation would like your input on how we can reimagine Wikimedia Foundation grants to better support people and ideas in your Wikimedia project.

After reading the Reimagining WMF grants idea, we ask you to complete this survey to help us improve the idea and learn more about your experience. When you complete the survey, you can enter to win one of five Wikimedia globe sweatshirts!

In addition to taking the the survey, you are welcome to participate in these ways:

This survey is in English, but feedback on the discussion page is welcome in any language.

With thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF), Community Resources, Wikimedia Foundation.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was sent by I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) through MediaWiki message delivery. 01:23, 19 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Last call for WMF grants feedback! edit

Hi, this is a reminder that the consultation about Reimagining WMF grants is closing on 8 September (0:00 UTC). We encourage you to complete the survey now, if you haven't yet done so, so that we can include your ideas.

With thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF), Community Resources, Wikimedia Foundation.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was sent by I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) through MediaWiki message delivery. 19:08, 4 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

Volunteering for Grants:IEG/Motivational and educational video to introduce Wikimedia edit

Hello, thanks for volunteering for this project. What is it that you are volunteering to do? (: --Pine 19:52, 20 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

Hi Pine, I am not sure. However I can help I guess. We do a number of edit-a-thons so I get the opportunity to show people how to start editing. I guess I could test out the videos to see how informative others might find them? --Discott (talk) 07:23, 21 January 2016 (UTC)Reply
I have a couple of specific ideas for how you can help. First, would you be willing to read the script outline and leave any comments on this talk page? Second, would you be willing to attend an IRC office hour, and help with scheduling by following the request here to fill out a Doodle? Thanks! --Pine 18:35, 21 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

Inspire Campaign on content curation & review edit

 

I've recently launched an Inspire Campaign to encourage new ideas focusing on content review and curation in Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia volunteers collaboratively manage vast repositories of knowledge, and we’re looking for your ideas about how to manage that knowledge to make it more meaningful and accessible. We invite you to participate and submit ideas, so please get involved today! The campaign runs until March 28th.

All proposals are welcome - research projects, technical solutions, community organizing and outreach initiatives, or something completely new! Funding is available from the Wikimedia Foundation for projects that need financial support. Constructive feedback on ideas is welcome - your skills and experience can help bring someone else’s project to life. Join us at the Inspire Campaign to improve review and curation tasks so that we can make our content more meaningful and accessible! I JethroBT (WMF) 05:39, 29 February 2016 (UTC)Reply

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Thank you for participating in Learning Day, Wikimedia Conference 2016 edit

 
Certificate of participation in
Learning Day
Wikimedia Conference 2016
Discott, we hope the resources you took on this day help you to expand your projects and coach other peers in your local community!
Make sure to keep the learning wheel rolling: (1) share something you learn via a Learning Pattern; (2) share any new resources you create on our portal and social media.
Warmly, the Learning Day team. María (WMF) (talk) 21:22, 26 May 2016 (UTC)Reply


Thank you for engaging at Wikimedia Conference 2016 Learning Days! edit

    This Certificate of Appreciation awards Discott for presenting a
Lightning Talk
at Learning Days - Wikimedia Conference 2016
Discott, we hope this experience has empowered you to continue sharing your experiences to enlighten others in your local community... and beyond! We hope to continue to foster together peer-to-peer learning. Warmly, the Learning Days team. María (WMF) (talk) 00:23, 27 May 2016 (UTC)Reply
 

Through June, we’re organizing an Inspire Campaign to encourage and support new ideas focusing on addressing harassment toward Wikimedia contributors. The 2015 Harassment Survey has shown evidence that harassment in various forms - name calling, threats, discrimination, stalking, and impersonation, among others - is pervasive. Available methods and systems to deal with harassment are also considered to be ineffective. These behaviors are clearly harmful, and in addition, many individuals who experience or witness harassment participate less in Wikimedia projects or stop contributing entirely.

Proposals in any language are welcome during the campaign - research projects, technical solutions, community organizing and outreach initiatives, or something completely new! Funding is available from the Wikimedia Foundation for projects that need financial support. Constructive feedback on ideas is appreciated, and collaboration is encouraged - your skills and experience may help bring someone else’s project to life. Join us at the Inspire Campaign so that we can work together to develop ideas around this important and difficult issue. With thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:47, 31 May 2016 (UTC) (Opt-out instructions)Reply

A paper on personal attacks in English Wikipedia edit

Hi! You're receiving this message because you signed up as a participant to the m:Research:Detox project. We just wanted to let you know that some of the researchers on the project have released a paper that uses machine learning to analyze some aspects of the nature of personal attacks in English Wikipedia. The paper can be found on arxiv here. If you get the chance to read it, we'd love to hear your thoughts over on the m:Research:Detox page.

Help us understand Toxicity on English Wikipedia edit

Hi! You're receiving this message because you signed up as a participant to the m:Research:Detox project. We have just launched a Wikilabels campaign to collect more information on Toxicity in Wikipedia. If you'd like to help, please rate a few comments via the Discussion quality WikiLabels campaign (Warning: comments may contain distressing content).

The Wikimaps User Group has now been officially recognized! edit

Let's start discussing the goals for our activities on the user group page. See you there! Cheers, Susanna Ånäs (Susannaanas) (talk) 10:27, 8 March 2017 (UTC)Reply

 

Thanks for your participation during the Inspire Campaign focused on outreach to outside knowledge networks from February 2017. I'm interested in hearing your experience during the campaign, so if you're able, I invite you to complete this brief survey to describe how you contributed to the campaign and how you felt about participating. I want to improve how campaigns are run, so let me know if there's something that could be done better for next time.

Please feel free to let me know on my talk page if you have any questions about the campaign or the survey. Thanks! I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 18:34, 31 March 2017 (UTC)Reply

(Opt-out instructions)

Survey link error fixed edit

Hi there, there was a error with the Inspire survey link that caused the survey to be shown as expired, but has now been fixed. The link in the above message should now bring you to the survey. Apologies, I JethroBT (WMF) 19:20, 31 March 2017 (UTC)Reply

Whose Knowledge?: [April 2017] edit

Whose Knowledge  News
April 2017 • Volume 1 • Issue 2
Activities and Events:
Dalit History Month Events; Wikimania 2017 submissions
Resources:
Resources lists
Wikimedia Movement:
Wikimedia Strategy: Knowledge is Global
  About Whose Knowledge?
If this message is not on your home wiki's talk page, update your subscription.

We hope you enjoy this issue of the Whose Knowledge? News. Please reach out to us if you have any ideas or suggestions! -- Saileshpat using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:47, 1 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

Whose Knowledge?: [July 2017] edit

Whose Knowledge  News
July 2017 • Volume 1 • Issue 3
Activities and Events:
Okvir pilot in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Wikimania 2017
Resources:
Emancipatory Design Research
Wikimedia Movement:
Letter from Buenos Aires
  About Whose Knowledge?
If this message is not on your home wiki's talk page, update your subscription.

We hope you enjoy this issue of the '''Whose Knowledge?''' News. Please reach out to us if you have any ideas or suggestions! -- Saileshpat using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:18, 2 August 2017 (UTC)Reply

Presenting Community Engagement Insights survey report: Tuesday, October 10, 1600 UTC edit

Hi Discott,
I am reaching out to you because you signed up to receive updates about the Global Wikimedia survey.[1]

We will be hosting a public event online to present the data, a few examples on how teams will be using it for annual planning, and what are next steps for this project. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 10, at 9:00 am PST (1600 UTC), and the presentation will be in English. You can watch the livestream here, and ask question via IRC on #wikimedia-office.

If you are unable attend, you can also find the report on meta, and watch the recording of the event at a later time.

We hope to have you join us online! -- María Cruz 23:29, 2 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

  1. Update your subscription to these messages by clicking here.

Join us on The AfroCine Project edit

 
 

Greetings!

This is to introduce you to a new Wikimedia project called The AfroCine Project. This new project is dedicated to improving the coverage of the history, works, people, places, events, etc, that are associated with the cinema, theatre and arts of Africa, African countries, the Caribbean, and the diaspora. If you would love to be part of this (or you're already active in this area), by coordinating local programmes around African cinema (independently or otherwise) in your community or local Wikipedia, kindly list your username or organization as a participant on the meta project page here.

Furthermore, In the months of October and November, we are organizing a global contest and edit-a-thon tagged: The Months of African Cinema. If you would love to join this exciting event, also list your username as a participant on the English Wikipedia page. If you would love to lead this contest (or any other relevant program) for a non-English Wikipedia community, please feel free to translate the English Wikiproject page to your local language Wikipedia, or you can create one from scratch!

If you have any questions, complaints, suggestions, etc., please reach out to me personally on my talkpage or the project talkpage! Cheers!--Jamie Tubers (talk) 20:50, 5 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

Sign-up for Whose Knowledge? on-line newsletter edit

Hi everybody,

We are leaving the wiki newsletter format behind and venturing into the email newsletter format. We'd love to keep sharing our projects and adventures with you all! You can sign up here to make that happen.

See you all there!

With love & solidarity,

Claudia - and the WK? Comms Team using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:45, 17 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

Doug + Lane edit

  • WREN - Wikimedian group
  • Check out Wiki Education Foundation for precedent on university outreach
  • user:John P. Sadowski (NIOSH) may be able to assist with your environmental collaboration
  • Commons:Commons:Public Domain Day - get the word out that Wikipedia and Creative Commons were both founded on 15 January 2001 and tell people that Public Domain Day is anytime in January and a celebration of Wiki, CC, and PD. All three of those are highly interconnected concepts!

Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:46, 26 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

Awesome, thanks Bluerasberry! Great catching up with you in DC last week! --Discott (talk) 20:34, 5 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Welcome to the Months of African Cinema! edit

 
 

Greetings!

The AfroCine Project welcomes you to October, the first out of the two months which has been dedicated to improving contents that centre around the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora.

This is a global online edit-a-thon, which is happening in at least 5 language editions of Wikipedia (en, he, es, it, bn) and Wikidata. Join us in this exciting venture, by helping to create or expand articles which are connected to this scope.

On English Wikipedia, we would be recognizing Users who are able to achieve the following:

  • Overall winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd places)
  • Country Winners
  • Diversity winner
  • High quality contributors
  • Gender-gap fillers
  • Page improvers
  • Wikidata Translators

For further information about the contest, the recognition categories and how to participate, please visit the contest page here.

If you'd love to organize this contest for your local wiki or organize in-person events centred around this project, or you need further information about the AfroCine Project, please leave a message on the project talkpage. See you around :).--Jamie Tubers (talk) 22:50, 03 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Community Wishlist Survey edit

Hi,

You get this message because you’ve previously participated in the Community Wishlist Survey. I just wanted to let you know that this year’s survey is now open for proposals. You can suggest technical changes until 11 November: Community Wishlist Survey 2019.

You can vote from November 16 to November 30. To keep the number of messages at a reasonable level, I won’t send out a separate reminder to you about that. /Johan (WMF) 11:24, 30 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Write For the Rights Tunis edit

Hi Douglas,

I hope you are doing fine. This is Houssem from Wikimedia Tunisia. We met last year in WikiIndaba in Tunis. I am working on a small editathon about LGBT+ rights and culture in Africa and the MENA region, and looking for some international participants to join us in Tunis from the 22nd to the 24th of March to write Wikipedia articles about the topic. We have a grant from Wikimedia foundation to cover the local expenses of the participants (accomodation, food, local transportation, etc), but every participant is responsible for his flight ticket and visa. Most of the comings are supported by their chapters (Germany, France, Nigeria). I was thinking, can Wikimedia ZA support someone from its community to come and participate? We are looking for people who are interested in the theme and can write in their local language to ensure diversity and reduce the language gap on Wikipedia about LGBT content. I alreday found a participant interested in coming. She is an activist in South Africa but she's not a wikimedian yet. What do you think? --Houssem Abida (talk) 13:42, 26 February 2019 (UTC)Reply

Hi Houssem Abida great to hear from you again. I hope you are well. That sounds like a great project which we would love. With regards to requests for support, which I assume you mean financial support, unfortunately WMZA is not in a position to provide that as we don't have budget for it and our grant process is currently still being written up so we have a very limited budget until that is done after July this year. However it is a great learning for us as it shows the need to possibly create a budget line item for such an expense in the future.--Discott (talk) 14:18, 26 February 2019 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for the quick reply Discott. Yes by assistance I meant financial aid for the potential participant you might send. Yet, wikimedians can always contribute remotely. If you know anyone from your community who is interested by the question of LGBT+ in Africa, can you tell him/her? Or maybe just share it with the community. Thank you very much!--Houssem Abida (talk) 19:44, 26 February 2019 (UTC)Reply
Sure thing, would be more than happy to pass it on.--Discott (talk) 08:08, 27 February 2019 (UTC)Reply

ASBS process edit

Hoi Douglas, thanks for nominating yourself in the ASBS process. Could you answer the set of general questions (Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Questions) to all candidates on that page please? Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 14:32, 29 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

Questions for all candidates edit

Hi Douglas, on the page Affiliate-selected Board seats/2019/Questions are questions to all candidates. Voters would love to see you answer them all. Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 19:11, 6 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the reminder Ad Huikeshoven, I am working on my answers as we speak. --Discott (talk) 08:12, 7 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

AfroCine: Join the Months of African Cinema this October! edit

Greetings!

After a successful first iteration of the Months of African Cinema last year, we are happy to announce that it will be happening again this year, starting from October 1! In the 2018 edition of the contest, about 600 Wikipedia articles were created in at least 8 languages. There were also contributions to Wikidata and Wikimedia commons, which brought the total number of wikimedia pages created during the contest to over 1,000. About 9 in-person events were also organised for the edit-a-thon in different parts of the world.

The contest is organized by a Wikimedia project called The AfroCine Project, which is dedicated to improving the coverage of the history, works, people, places, and events, that are associated with the cinema, theatre and arts of Africa, African countries, the Caribbean, and the diaspora.

If you would love to join this exciting event, please list your username as a participant on the English Wikipedia contest page. If you would love to lead this contest for your country or community, please list your name in the coordinators' page here. The rapid grants team would be accepting proposals throughout October and November, in case you'd need funds to run local edit-a-thons or some other activities related to this event. Upon listing your name on the coordinators' page, you'd be contacted to talk about the resources you'd need to run the event in your community. You can also contact me directly for any clarifications.

Finally, We also need volunteers to handle some aspects of the AfroCine project. These aspects include:

  1. Community Liaison: This role essentially involves closely engaging with local communities to support their activities within the scope of Afrocine.
  2. Communications: This involves the communications aspects of the project. Sharing relevant information on mailing lists and social media would be the responsibility of this person.
  3. MAC Jury: This role involves joining the jury of Months of African Cinema contest. We need as many people as we can get 🙂.
  4. Tools: Going forward, we would need relevant tools to better track the metrics and also analyse the general impact of these events. We are calling for Wikimedia volunteers who can navigate wikimedia tools that can be useful for the project.

If you would love to help with any of these roles, or some other roles that have not been mentioned, please contact me directly or on: samoye_ hotmail.com

If you have further questions, complaints, suggestions, etc., please reach out to me personally or right here or the project talkpages.

Thank you!--Jamie Tubers (talk) 17:10, 30 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

AI legislation edit

Dear Discott,

I contact you since you are marked among the "People who are interested" in Advanced technology page. As you might already know, the EU is working about a regulation of the AI environment, in order to promote its potential and at the same time to protect the citizens from unwanted uses. It is going to be an important moment for achieving the most empowering, safe and clear definition of the rights and duties related to the AI, affecting also Wikimedia's opportunities, not only inside EU. I kindly invite you to participate to the discussion, firstly by commenting the page that is dedicated to it, in order to draft Wikimedia's answers to this legislative initiative of the EU.

The linked page contains the questions from the public consultation by the European Commission on its Artificial Intelligence White Paper.

The EU's survey will remain open until 14 June 2020, but we will take input into account until 31 May 2020.

Thanks, --sNappy(talk) 21:16, 17 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

Thank you Mattia Luigi Nappi for the heads up on this. I am very interested in this area however I am not sure that I am able to participate as I am not a citizen of an EU country. I am South African. However this is the sort of thing that Dimi z would be very interested in and pinged in on. I haven't talked with Dimi about AI stuff very much but this is a great excuse to reactivate the AI user group so we can discuss issues like this in more detail. Personally my concerns revolve around the issue of copyright and AI but I know that this is more expansive than that.--Discott (talk) 10:03, 28 May 2020 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for your interest. I personally think that there are two good reasons why it is licit and interesting to have your contribution, @Dimi z: - which is the main sponsor of this discussion - will correct me if I am wrong:
  1. We are elaborating an answer by Wikimedia, a group of projects to which you contribute to as well as all the others do, to the survey of a federation of countries (it is not interesting only the opinion of the users of the countries belonging to this federation).
  2. This regulation will probably have quite a large influence worldwide, maybe inspiring the discussion of the South African regulation too, as for example it happened for the GDPR regulation about privacy in several countries.
--sNappyML 20:45, 28 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

Sunday August 23: Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Strategic flock of Wikimedians heading in a new direction.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a proposed forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

The idea is to follow up on the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting and other strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates, and you are all invited to RSVP here.--Pharos (talk) 18:04, 20 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

Sunday October 25 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Friendship is a movement value.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the September and August SWAN meetings, and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including the recent proposed changes to the Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws, this month we are meeting on Sunday October 25, and you are all invited to RSVP here.--Pharos (talk) 16:42, 22 October 2020 (UTC)Reply

Wiki World Heritage User Group edit

Dear World Heritage enthusiast,
We are thrilled to announce that Wiki World Heritage User Group has been finally recognized ! This wouldn't have been possible without your support !
Please join us on:

Wishing you an excellent week ahead !

Nassima Chahboun (talk) 15:56, 3 November 2020 (UTC)Reply
On behalf of the founding members.

Sunday November 29 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Take flight with us.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, and October SWAN meetings, and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including the recent proposed changes to the Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws, this month we are meeting on Sunday November 29, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(Note that the UTC times of and are the same as before, although a number of places have had daylight savings time changes since our last meeting).--Pharos (talk) 01:27, 27 November 2020 (UTC)Reply

Wiki World Heritage UG preparatory meeting edit

Hello Discott,
The first preparatory meeting of Wiki World Heritage User Group will be held on 26 December 2020 at 16:00 UTC, and are looking forward to having you with us!

  • Meeting link : Here
  • Meeting ID : 763 8364 4697
  • Password: WWH

You are also invited to join us on WWH mailing list and WWH Telegram group.
Thank you !

Yamen (talk) 19:10, 17 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
On behalf of the founding members.

Wiki World Heritage UG board election edit

Hello Discott,

Following the meeting of 26.12.2020, Wiki World Heritage User Group is choosing its first board !
You can find the elections page here.

Nassima Chahboun (talk) 21:10, 27 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
On behalf of the founding members.

Sunday January 10 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Into the blue.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, and November SWAN meetings, and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including SWAN input on Interim Global Council and Movement Charter, this month we are meeting on Sunday January 10, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

To start the exchange of ideas on the IGC early, and to help prepare before the SWAN calls, we have set up and invite everyone to participate at this etherpad. If you like a more interactive way of discussing, we have also made a jamboard. Check here for more details.

--Pharos (talk) 14:51, 4 January 2021 (UTC)Reply

Wiki World Heritage UG board election Reminder edit

Hello Discott,

We would like to inform you that after the self nomination period, we are now voting for the board members and we count on your participation to take part of this first important election.

According to the agreed agenda the voting period deadline is the 29th of January 2021 (Midnight UTC).

You can vote for one or more candidate on this meta page.

Thanks --
Nassima Chahboun (talk) 23:23, 22 January 2021 (UTC)Reply
On behalf of the founding members

Permission to add at Wikimedia South Africa/Copyright Amendement Bill/FOP impact edit

Good day from the Philippines, Discott! I just saw your subpage of your campaign page for the introduction of FOP in the largest country of southern Africa – Wikimedia South Africa/Copyright Amendement Bill/FOP impact. Since I presume you manage this page, I'm politely requesting your permission for me to add links to images of South African public art deleted on English Wikipedia on similar grounds. Whether by FFD or by the obsolete PUF (possibly unfree files) processes (example: w:Wikipedia:Files for discussion/2016 July 14#File:Statue of Nelson Mandela at Union Buildings, Pretoria, December 2013.jpg). I may use a different listing method, however. I am hoping for your response, whether affirmative or otherwise. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 07:27, 13 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

My searching on enwiki only yields two probable cases: the aforementioned w:Wikipedia:Files for discussion/2016 July 14#File:Statue of Nelson Mandela at Union Buildings, Pretoria, December 2013.jpg and the w:Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files/2012 February 19#File:Thebutcherboys front.JPG + 2 others (but this latter one is doubtful as there is an OTRS complaint, but I'm not sure if the complaint comes from the artist who created the artwork him/herself). JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 07:45, 13 February 2021 (UTC)Reply
Hi JWilz12345, sure thing. Please feel free to add any pictures you find. I have created a special sub-page for the purpose of collecting South African pictures that have been nominated for deletion or actually deleted for FOP reasons.--Discott (talk) 17:47, 13 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

Sunday February 21 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
We are a mosiac.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, and January SWAN meetings and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates, this month we are meeting on Sunday February 21, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

To help set priorities for the SWAN agenda, and also to help manage which global conversations should be a focus in general, we have set up and invite everyone to participate at this SWAN priorities form.

Possible topics include Community Board seats, Interim Global Council, Strategy prioritization follow-up events, Branding, Universal Code of Conduct, Grant strategy, and WMF CEO search. That is a lot of things, which are most important to cover in our upcoming SWAN meeting?

Following the regular call, in SWAN after hours: Wikimedia Meet Jitsi social event with brainstorming for possible Nano Charter ideas, plus any other topics.

--Pharos (talk) 17:54, 18 February 2021 (UTC)Reply

Wiki World Heritage UG Minutes of the Meeting 02-13-2021 edit

Hello Discott!

The first meeting of the Board of Wiki World Heritage User Group (WWH UG) was held last February 13, 2021. Board members discussed several topics including the dispatching of roles inside the board. You can find the minutes of the meeting via the following link [1].

Also, the board discussed the importance of capacity building for the group members and we would like to invite all the members to fill the following form [2] in order to help define the learning priorities.

Furthermore, the board discussed some ideas for the 2021 annual program but we would like to hear also from the members in case they would like to propose some activities. We would like to invite you to update this page and add any potential activities[3].

A meeting will be held in the first week of March in order to finalize the program and you can find below [4] a doodle link to choose the date and time that suits you.

You are also invited to join us on WWH mailing list and WWH Telegram group.
Thank you !

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_World_Heritage_User_Group/Meeting_minutes_20210213
[2] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSde6BsB8v9WwbLtE0_n5kT0TmZoYXsaFQN2ijP-XZFsJcWmcw/viewform
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_World_Heritage_User_Group/Calendar2021
[4] https://doodle.com/poll/4qmstzpwaxu45pwr


Imelda Brazal (Talk)
Members Liaison, Wiki World Heritage User Group
On behalf of the Board Members

Sunday March 21 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Community as a hand-carved gem.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, January, and February SWAN meetings and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Grants relaunch, Universal Code of Conduct/Discussions, Wikimedia Enterprise / OKAPI, Community Board seats, Interim Global Council + Movement Charter, and WMF Executive Transition

This month we are meeting on Sunday March 21, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(Note that the UTC times of and are the same as before, although some places have had daylight savings time changes since our last meeting).--Pharos (talk) 19:35, 17 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

Sunday April 25 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Swanlings grow up together.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, January, February, and March SWAN meetings and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Interim Global Council + Movement Charter, WMF Resolution about the upcoming Board elections, Community Resilience and Sustainability role in Movement Strategy coordination, Grants Strategy Relaunch, and WMF Executive Transition

This month we are meeting on Sunday April 25, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(Note that the UTC times of and are the same as before, although some places may have had daylight savings time changes since our last meeting).--Pharos (talk) 04:13, 23 April 2021 (UTC)Reply

FOP at enwiki edit

Hello. I've added the South Africa section at enwiki article on FOP, now at w:Freedom of panorama#South Africa. I don't know if I will add the thing about the copyright amendment bill, since I don't know if there are sources that directly mention the copyright amendment bill vis-à-vis FOP. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 12:41, 12 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

Hi JWilz12345, thanks for giving me a heads up and thank for working on that article. When it comes to the copyright amendment bill I have been keeping a page on meta.wiki about the bill's passage through parliament. You will be able to find references there about the bill. The bill, as I am sure you know, as a clause allowing for freedom of panorama. Currently the bill is still sitting in suspended animation between being passed by both houses of parliament and being signed into law by the president. As of today it looks more uncertain than ever about when it will be enacted as the presidency has sent it back to parliament for re-tagging which basically means it must go through another long process. There is also a lot of pressure from certain copyright maximising groups to scrap the bill, they have been putting out a lot of content in the media about how bad they feel the bill is. So I am not surprised to see the article you shared (thanks for sharing it by the way, I had not seen it before). The discussion about the bill's impact on US/SA trade has come up before. Supporters of bill, including those in the USA, gave testimony to the US Trade Representative that the bill will not have a meaningful negative impact on US IP protection in South Africa but would rather expand the rights of artists and other creatives. It is also worth mentioning that the US film sector does not want to see South Africa adopt fair use (the same system that the US has) as they feel it will negatively impact the extensive protections that the fair dealing system in SA offers them.--Discott (talk) 14:52, 12 May 2021 (UTC)Reply
I hope that the bill, including the FOP provision, will be passed, sooner than later. Keep safe and be healthy there in South Africa! JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 14:55, 12 May 2021 (UTC)Reply
Thank you very much. Stay safe as well and I will keep everyone updated on when/if the bill gets passed.--Discott (talk) 15:01, 12 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

Sunday June 6 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Swan of healing.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, January, February, March, and April SWAN meetings, as well as last June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Movement Charter + Movement Strategy/Events, WMF Board elections, Wikimania 2021, and Grants Regional Committees.

This month we are meeting on Sunday June 6, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and *Note that we have shifted the second call an hour earlier in UTC time due to popular demand and to accomodate daylight savings*.)--Pharos (talk) 20:43, 3 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Invitation as guest speaker to Episode 3 of WikiAfrica Hour edit

Dear Douglas Ian Scott,

I hope this meets you well.

My name is Ceslause Ogbonnaya, from Wiki In Africa.

Two months ago we launched the WikiAfrica Hour with our first ever episode featuring outgoing Wikimedia Foundation CEO, Katherine Maher. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIgEatqSYJk&t=854s. Our second episode featured the role photography plays within a Wikimedia context, where we had special guests from Wiki Loves Earth, Nos Jardins, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP) and Nigerian Commons Photographers User Group. You can check out episode 2 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SMx7JpIk_g .

We started WikiAfrica Hour, a monthly vodcast, to build the community of Wikimedians across Africa by: 1.Interacting with guest(s) and ask questions from the context of and relating to African Wikimedians; 2.Providing a platform for Wikimedians to discuss topics, issues, projects and collaborations to promote synergy and more advanced knowledge within the Wiki communities across Africa, and 3.Sharing current updates, and highlights of Africa Wikimedians activities undertaken by Africa Wikimedians with the African audience, and those globally who are interested,

For the next WikiAfrica Hour, we would like to demystify the WMF Board and address the impressions various wiki communities have about it. With this in mind, and given you are a WMF board election candidate, I would like to invite you as a special guest speaker on this episode 3 of WikiAfrica Hour, titled “WMF Board:Demystified”. This episode is slated for 25th June 2021 at 4pm UTC.

There are hush discussions, perceptions and assumptions about the upcoming WMF Board elections and the WMF Board in entirety. We would like the WikiAfrica Hour discussion to provide insight into the WMF Board and upcoming Board elections, especially how it affects the African wiki communities. Who best to provide such insight than a candidate from Africa! African Wikimedians would benefit immensely to hear about what it’s like to be a candidate in the coming board election.

The vodcast is run live using StreamYard, with the support of Andrew Lih from the Wikipedia Weekly Team. WikiAfrica Hour is a live broadcast and will be simulcast on the Wiki in Africa YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as Wikipedia Weekly YouTube and Facebook channels. The episode will remain for reviewing on both YouTube channels.

I look forward to hearing from you, and confirming your availability. Please let us know if 25 June 2021 at 4pm UTC is convenient.

Regards,

Ceslause Ogbonnaya

Hi Ceslause, I would be delighted to speak at the 3rd WikiAfrica Hour tomorrow. :-) --Discott (talk) 16:28, 24 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Candidacy in the 2021 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election edit

Hi there! I am reaching out about your decision to be a candidate in the 2021 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election. The Board of Trustees decided there would be outreach available for the 2021 Board of Trustees election. There is a team of facilitators supporting this election through outreach activities.

The facilitators have some activities planned during the campaign period. Be sure to check out Candidate Resources to learn more about the trustee role.

The first thing facilitators plan to do during the campaign period is host a Conversation Chat for candidates. We will talk about the campaign timeline, activities, and answer questions you have. This is currently scheduled for July 3 at 15:00 UTC. This time might change.

Facilitators are reaching out to all candidates with this message. We can offer support to make sure your message is clear. This could be reviewing your candidate page for clarity. We can also clarify community questions that candidates answer during the campaign. Please let us know if you would like this support and we can schedule a time to chat. Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 21:36, 27 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Hi there! I want to let you know the Candidate Briefing will be July 3 at 15:00 UTC via Google Meet. If this time does not work for you, it is not a problem. We can plan another time or way to get the information to you. Please just let me know what works for you. Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 19:37, 1 July 2021 (UTC)Reply
Hi JKoerner (WMF), that is perfect timing. I will see you all at the Google Meets room at 15:00 UTC tomorrow. Also, thank you for proving all the links to the different resources we, as candidates, can use.--Discott (talk) 09:57, 2 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

Proof of Identity still needed for Board of Trustee Candidacy edit

Hi there! I see that you have not yet submitted your proof of identity. Candidates for this position must submit proof of identity and evidence of age of majority as a condition of candidacy. A copy of one of the following documents fulfills this:

Driver's license
Passport
Other official documentation indicating real name and age

This may be provided to the Wikimedia Foundation via email at secure-info wikimedia.org. Even if you may have done this previously for a different position, you are asked to complete this again. Please submit this by 29 June 2021 at 23:59 UTC.

If you are one of the selected candidates, the Wikimedia Foundation may need to request additional identifying information in order to run a background check prior to your appointment to the Board.

Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 03:41, 29 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Candidate update: community question translation and campaign activities edit

Dear Candidate,

I am writing to you about several things:

1. On 20 July the facilitation team will begin translating the candidate answers to questions selected by the Elections Committee. Please try to finish your answers by that date if possible.

2. There is a list of Campaign Activities planned by the facilitation team. We have heard feedback about Campaign Activities. Thank you for your patience as we are trying new things and learning. The facilitation team will discuss solutions to these frustrations on 21 July. Look for updates on the Campaign Activities list.

3. The Community Affairs Committee meeting with candidates is on 21 July. You may email questions to askcac wikimedia.org if that works better for you than writing on Meta. If you have not already received a calendar invitation, please email me at jkoerner-ctr wikimedia.org so a calendar invitation for the CAC meeting can be sent to you.

Best, JKoerner (WMF) (talk) 21:39, 16 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

Wiki World Heritage Membership Request edit

Hello!

Wiki World Heritage UG Membership is open to anyone who supports the group's mission and objectives. To formally become a member, it is mandatory that members fill the Membership Request Form. Requests are automatically approved, except for the case of the global ban as mentioned in the by-laws.

This will also help us facilitate this year's activities and established a communication channel. You may access the form here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxqv-sIrApmjWgr1Rr2NRzofqTjgofiX7Jhz2gPRUKzvI2QQ/viewform


Best,

Imelda (Talk) 02:17, 19 July 2021 (UTC)Reply
Members Liaison, Wiki World Heritage User Group

Sunday July 25 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
The swan or the egg?

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, January, February, March, April, and June SWAN meetings, as well as last June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Movement Charter + Drafting Committee, WMF Board elections, Wikimania 2021, and Grants Regional Committees.

This month we are meeting on Sunday July 25, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and *Note that we have shifted the second call an hour earlier in UTC time due to popular demand and to accomodate daylight savings*.)--Pharos (talk) 15:01, 22 July 2021 (UTC)Reply

Gang stalking survey edit

Please contribute to the survey at Gang stalking on Wikimedia projects. Thanks, --Gangstalking-Research-20085 (talk) 19:29, 16 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

Sunday September 26 SWANniversary Party and All-Affiliates Strategic Meeting edit

 
Celebrate our first anniversary with SWAN-shaped desserts!

Join the SWANniversary on September 26 as we mark the first year of the Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network!

We will have the regular All-Affiliates Strategic Meeting, to be followed by a SWANniversary Party in the after hours session, likely through spatialized chat on WorkAdventure.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, January, February, March, April, June, and July SWAN meetings, as well as last June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, we'll look together at strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Movement Charter + Drafting Committee, WMF Board elections, Wikimania 2021, and Grants Regional Committees.

This month we are meeting on Sunday September 26, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and .)--Pharos (talk) 18:03, 22 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

Sunday October 31 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
A swan reflects.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, January, February, March, April, and June, July, and September SWAN meetings, as well as last June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Movement Charter Drafting Committee Set Up Process, Next Steps for Brand Work, 2021, Wikipedia Asian Month 2021, and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday October 31, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and *Note that we have shifted the second call a half-hour later in UTC time due to WikidataCon*.)--Pharos (talk) 01:24, 29 October 2021 (UTC)Reply

Sunday November 28 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Chart a new course on the swan ferry.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Hubs+Hubs Workshop, Movement Charter+Drafting Committee, WMDE's 'Future of Wikimedia Governance' proposal, Wikipedia Asian Month 2021, and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday November 28, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and , note that some areas recently experienced daylight savings time changes).--Pharos (talk) 15:47, 25 November 2021 (UTC)Reply

COT Interview edit

Hi @Discott -- I have just sent you an email regarding your application for the 2022 Wikimania COT. Kindly check and get back to me at your earliest convenience. Thank you! :)

19:36, 26 January 2022 (UTC) JLetang (WMF) (talk) 19:36, 26 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sunday February 27 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
To dance is to fly.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Hubs+Dialogue, Movement Charter, Universal Code of Conduct+Enforcement Voting, Brand, International Women's Day+Gender Gap and WikiForHumanRights campaigns, and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday February 27, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and ).----Pharos (talk) 03:17, 24 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sunday April 3 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Bots in precious metals are part of our community too.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including UCoC Voting, Hubs Global Conversation held + CEE Hub update, Movement Charter + Leadership Development Working Group, Desktop Improvements, Celebrate Women in March + International Women's Day, Wikimania 2022 survey concluded + Wikimedia Hackathon 2022 May 20-22 + local events, and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday April 3, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and , note that some areas recently experienced daylight savings time changes).--Pharos (talk) 12:44, 30 March 2022 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for participation in Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2022! edit

 

Dear participant!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for participating in Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2022! We are grateful for your willingness to share free knowledge about the people and culture of Ukraine when it is needed the most.

As promised, the organizers want to appreciate your contribution by awarding you a certificate of participation. Please wait for further notifications from me on that issue.

What comes to prizes: because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there could be delays in shipping, however, we will definitely get back soon with more information on that.

Take care and stay safe.-- ValentynNefedov (WMUA) (talk) 09:18, 4 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Leadership Development Working Group applications open until 10 April 2022 edit

Hello, I hope you're well. I was hoping to share the below message with you and your talk page guests, as the call for applications for this working group is closing soon.


You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

The Community Development team at the Wikimedia Foundation is supporting the creation of a global, community-driven Leadership Development Working Group. The purpose of the working group is to advise leadership development work. Feedback was collected in February 2022 and a summary of the feedback is on Meta-wiki. The application period to join the Working Group is now open and is closing soon on April 10, 2022. Please review the information about the working group, share with community members who might be interested, and apply if you are interested.


Thank you in advance for your consideration =) Xeno (WMF) (talk) 02:29, 8 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sunday May 8 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Swans are musical creatures.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including 2022 Board of Trustees Call for Candidates, Movement Charter/Content preliminary narrative, Human Rights Policy Community Conversations, Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan Feedback, IP blocking and Open Proxies discussion, Wikimedia Hackathon 2022 May 20-22 + local events, and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday May 8, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and , note that some areas recently experienced daylight savings time changes).--Pharos (talk) 18:57, 4 May 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sunday June 5 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Swan impressions.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Movement Charter, Hubs Global Conversation this June, WMF Proposal for Movement Strategy Forum, New rounds of WMF Conference Funds including in-person events, WMF Proposal for Sound Logo Contest, WMF Elections Analysis Committee selection, wikimania:Program submissions due June 10 (scholarship and local event grants due June 3) and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday June 5, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and ).--Pharos via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:19, 1 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sunday July 3 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
Swan celestial.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Movement Charter, Hubs Global Conversation last week, Affiliate voting period to shortlist WMF Board candidates (July 1-15), Wikimania updates, Desktop improvements, Wikimedia Enterprise first customers, Call for program submissions and updates for a global diversity of regional/linguistic Wiki-Conferences, Wikidata:Wiki Mentor Africa and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday July 3, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and ).--Pharos via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:57, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Whose Knowledge? Drop-in July 2022 invitation edit

 

Over the next 2 weeks, we want to invite Whose Knowledge? User Group members to a community conversation about the upcoming Board of Trustees election. We’re also testing these drop-ins as a great way to be in touch, and establish periodic check-ins with our community.

There will be 2 informal drop-in sessions on different days and times. Please come to the session that works best for you:

  • Drop-in 1: Thursday, July 7, 2022 - 12pm UTC
  • Drop-in 2: Monday, July 11, 2022 - 6pm UTC

To learn more, visit the event page. If you can't join us, but you are interested in the conversation, we’d be more than happy to hear from you on our Talk page!

Just a gentle disclaimer: You are getting this message because you have signed up as a member of Whose Knowledge? User Group. We will send invitations like this from time to time, but we promise not to burden your Talk page. Feel free to unsubscribe from the distribution list.

--Mariana Fossatti (WK?) (talk) 18:19, 29 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

Thank You! A Teamwork Barnstar from the CR Team! edit

  The Teamwork Barnstar
The Community Resources team is awarding you the Teamwork Barnstar to recognize your important and collaborative preparatory work on Conference Funds Committee! Our team appreciates your willingness to dedicate your time, talent, and thoughts towards increasing the impact of Wikimedia movement funds. We look forward to continuing to work together and learning from you!) --DGuedri (WMF) (talk) 11:36, 12 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

Sunday November 13 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting edit

 
bestiary (Q830560)compendium (Q1459574)reference work (Q13136).

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Wikimedia Research Fund, 2023 Ombuds commission and Case Review Committee appointments process, feedback on consultation and community session of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, various Wikimania topics: (ideas/suggestions for Wikimania 2023, expressions of interest for Wikimania 2024 and beyond, expressions of interest to join Wikimania Steering Committee), and other ongoing activities.

This month we are meeting on Sunday November 13, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(UTC meeting times are and
UTC times are different from before, and also note that some areas may have recently experienced daylight savings time changes.).--Pharos via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:59, 9 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

Do you want to subscribe to the Wikimedians for Sustainable Development newsletter? edit

Hello! Thanks for being a member of Wikimedians for Sustainable Development. We recently did a poll and understood that our newsletter was quite unknown. This is therefore a one-time invitation for all our members to sign up for our monthly newsletter. Best regards, Ainali talkcontributions 14:43, 28 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

No more FOP in Eswatini edit

Hello Discott. I wanted to share this to you aince you are active at introduction of FOP in South Africa. Eswatini updated their law in 2018, repealing the 1912 law. I just updated the Commons policy page on Eswatini, which is already outdated for about 4 years. Sadly, Eswatini did not inherit the freedom of panorama. For the WIPO copy of the law: [3] It seems more and more countries are becoming no-FOP as years go by. Hopefully African Wikimedians are vigilant on this, considering the continent having more no-FOP countries than yes-FOP ones. Regards, JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 09:16, 3 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi JWilz12345, thank you for letting me know. Sad to hear the bad news regarding FoP in Eswatini. I will spread the word about it within both the Southern Africa Wiki community and the Copyright (copyleft) reform community I am working with (mostly comprised of librarians, documentary film makers and legal academics). It sounds like we missed the boat to get that done recently but I supposed I was distracted by the parliamentory proceedings for the South African bill and organising Wikimania that year to have focused on it even if I had known. I suspect it will be another 5 to 15 years before the Eswatini government gets round to reviewing their copyright law again.--Discott (talk) 12:45, 4 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
@Discott: you'te welcome. By the way, are there also any news of more introductions of FOP in African countries, at the very least in southern Africa? Namibia's exception is also very similar to the current exception in your country (only broadcasting, radio transmission, and cinematography uses of public space works). Botswana has no FOP exception whatsoever; Zambia's is incidental inclusion only. There are some steps being taken in Ghana, if I can recall, as well as initial steps in Sudan.
In our case, we hope that freedom of panorama gets introduced here too (see Pilipinas Panorama Community/Freedom of Panorama), becoming the 6th ASEAN country to have FOP. Sadly, Vietnam made their FOP non-commercial as part of the 2022 copyright law amendments, with the amendments taking effect on January 1, 2023. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 13:01, 4 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
I am not as clued up on the FoP situation in South Africa's neighbours as I would like to be as I have been so focused on one country. I do hope to change that at some point. I can say that I did give a presentation to the Namibian government a few years ago on FoP and why they should include it into their copyright bill. I must check with our chapter members in Nambia to see how that is going but its all been pretty silent since that presenation. Fingers crossed the Philippines gets it soon, however experiance has taught me that this sort of change take a very long time and a lot of talking before it happens.--Discott (talk) 13:56, 4 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - January 2023 Newsletter edit

This is our twentythird newsletter, covering January 2023. This issue has news related to SDGs 3, 5, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 16.

Meetings

Activities

News

Resources

Videos

Featured content

New Wikidata properties

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Tanzania edit

Hello Discott. My apology for bothering again (since you are all focused on SoAfrica FOP right now). But are there any initiative for extending FOP in Tanzania to photos? Right now the exception there is very similar to Namibia and Ghana FOP that only allow FOP for broadcasts, films, and videos (audio-visual media only). In fact, the template c:Template:FoP-Tanzania has been sitting unused for over a year, since the bulk of public space depictions from Tanzania are photos, not videos that the Tanzanian FOP only permits. Once I nominated the template for deletion (c:Commons:Deletion requests/Template:FoP-Tanzania) but it was decided to be kept as users believe one day videos from Tanzania will be uploaded. So far I cannot see such videos being uploaded; photos are still the most convenient way of recording public art and works, not videos, especially in parts of Africa where many have little or no knowledge in converting .mp4 videos to acceptable formats like .webm. JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 09:38, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

Hi @JWilz12345, not that I am aware of. From what I know from attending Wiki Indaba there is currently not much of a Tanzanian Wiki community to pursue this issue yet. Hopefully that will change. I have just asked Wiki Project Advocacy but I would be surprised if they knew of anyone doing that there. I will let you know if they do know of someone. Discott (talk) 08:13, 6 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - February 2023 Newsletter edit

This is our twentyfourth newsletter, covering February 2023. This issue has news related to SDGs 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

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News

Resources

Research

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Wikidata query examples

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Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2023: Invitation edit

 

Dear Wikipedian!

After two successful campaigns, Wikimedia Ukraine, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Ukrainian Institute, decided to launch "Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month" in the year 2023, which will last from 1st until 31st March. The campaign is dedicated to famous Ukrainian artists of cinema, music, literature, architecture, design, and cultural phenomena of Ukraine that are now part of world heritage.

I would like to invite you to participate once again in this writing challenge! We have revised the suggested articles and announced new prizes for contestants to motivate fruitful contributions from participants. I hope to see you on board soon!

You received this message because you participated either in 2021 or 2022 edition of Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month.ValentynNefedov (WMUA) (talk) 07:47, 2 March 2023 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - March 2023 Newsletter edit

This is our twentyfifth newsletter, covering March 2023. This issue has news related to SDGs 3, 5, 10, 13, 15 and 16.

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Activities

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Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - April 2023 Newsletter edit

This is our twenty-sixth newsletter, covering April 2023. This issue has news related to SDGs 2, 4, 5, 6, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

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DTIC input on FOP edit

Hello Discott. While searching on Google, I found this pdf about inputs of your country's Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition on two amendment bills, including the Copyright Amendment Bill that you all endorse. DTIC's input on FOP is found at page 30 of the pdf. What are your thoughts on this? JWilz12345 (Talk|Contrib's.) 09:55, 6 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

Sunday July 16 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting (Global Council focus, now available in ar, es, fr!) edit

 
SWAN: The Next Generation

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

We'll focus on strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including Wikimania Singapore, Future of SWAN, Movement Charter/Content new sections (particularly Movement Charter/Content/Global Council), other activities you submit, and we will top it all off with a grand finale AI Happy Hour / Doom Hour!

This month we are meeting on Sunday July 16, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

UTC meeting times are and
Note that we are now meeting on Zoom, with interpretation in the 2nd session in (Arabic) (Spanish) (French)--Pharos (talk) 02:44, 12 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

Wiki Loves Monuments question edit

Hi Discott, I hope you can help me with something, I know WLM is nor organised in South Africa but I hope you can help me with this question. For the Wiki Loves Monuments banner I miss a translation of "Learn more" in Afrikaans. If this text is not logic in your language, use then instead a translation of "More information". Can you provide me a translation in Afrikaans? Thanks! Romaine (talk) 10:33, 31 August 2023 (UTC)Reply

PS: The same two words I also need in Northern Sotho (nso) and Tswana (tn), both languages spoken in South Africa. Do you know anyone who can help me with the translations for Northern Sotho and/or Tswana? Romaine (talk) 14:29, 31 August 2023 (UTC)Reply
Hi @Romaine, you are right about WLM in South Africa. We have not done one since 2015 largely because of a lack of interest at the time although we have been meaning to restart them again since around 2019, we just haven't yet found a new volunteer lead to drive the event yet. As for the words; I am not a first language Afrikaans speaker so I am the wrong person to ask, I would suggest asking @Lefcentreright or @Oesjaar. As for N. Sotho and Tswana, I would suggest asking @Bobbyshabangu.-- Discott (talk) 15:18, 31 August 2023 (UTC)Reply
Hi Discott, Thanks! I just knew I had to ask you. :-) Romaine (talk) 17:17, 31 August 2023 (UTC)Reply

Invitation to participate in the photo contest Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports 2023 edit

English Dear Discott,

We’re excited to share with you our first-ever art and photo contest for this year’s #VisibleWikiWomen, on Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports!

 

We’re inviting submissions of photos, illustrations, and other forms of art depicting womxn and non-binary people in sports — as athletes, fans, cheerleaders, referees, journalists, and much more. Our #VisibleWikiWomxn contest celebrates the bodies of womxn in sports by centering their voices, images, stories, and experiences in all their diversity, plurality, and glory.

You can find all the information on our landing page: Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports

Spanish Hola Discott,

Queremos invitarte a participar de nuestro primer concurso de arte y fotografía "Cuerpos plurales en el deporte" en el marco de la campaña #VisibleWikiWomen de este año.

Estamos convocando a presentar fotos, ilustraciones y otras formas de arte que representen a mujeres y personas no binarias en el deporte - atletas, personas aficionadas, animadoras, árbitras, periodistas y personas ligadas al deporte en todos los aspectos. Nuestro concurso #VisibleWikiWomxn celebra los cuerpos de las mujeres en el deporte centrándose en sus voces, imágenes, historias y experiencias en toda su diversidad, pluralidad y gloria.

Puedes encontrar toda la información en la página del concurso.

Portuguese Olá Discott,

 

Ficamos felizes em convidar você a participar de nossa primeira Wiki-competição de arte e fotografia, como parte da campanha #VisibleWikiWomen deste ano, sobre "Corpos plurais no esporte"!

Estamos recebendo fotos, ilustrações, e outras formas de arte que retratem mulheres e pessoas não-binárias nos esportes — como atletas, torcedoras, juízas, jornalistas, e muito mais. Nossa competição #VisibleWikiWomxn celebra os corpors de mulheres e pessoas não-binárias e coloca ao centro suas vozes, imagens, histórias, e experiências em toda sua pluralidade e glória.

Você pode encontrar todas as informações necessárias em nossa página: Unpacking Body Plurality in Sports.

Mariana Fossatti (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:49, 20 October 2023 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - December 2023 Newsletter edit

This is our twenty-seventh newsletter, a sort of year-in-review for 2023.

Dear Wikimedians for Sustainable Development,

As we bid farewell to 2023, we reflect on a year that has been an uneven year for our user group. While the journey has been marked by some truly inspiring events, most of our efforts have been largely uncoordinated and the user group hasn't been the support it could have been. Yet, there's a glimmer of hope and a world of potential for 2024.

Highlights of 2023:

Newsletters Galore
We kicked off the year with zeal, sharing updates and inspiration through four newsletters. The number of things happening in the movement is astounding, but we need to rethink the format of the newsletter going into the next year.
Growing Strong
The Wikimedians for Sustainable Development family welcomed 33 new members in 2023. Your passion and dedication continue to inspire us, and we look forward to nurturing this community spirit in the year ahead.
Wikimania Talks
Our voices echoed far and wide at Wikimania, where several members of our community took the virtual stage to share insights and ideas about everything from Wikipedians-in-Residence's to open data. Your contributions showcased our commitment to sustainable development on a global scale.
Content Creation Magic
Throughout the year, our extended community demonstrated incredible dedication to expanding the knowledge base on Wikipedia. Countless hours were spent creating and curating content that aligns with our mission, contributing to a more sustainable digital ecosystem.
Campaigning hard
We saw a large variety of campaigns, from writing challenges to editathons. The willingness to experiment with new formats and partners, as well as learning from past efforts, shows great promise for the future.

Acknowledging Challenges:

While we celebrate these achievements, we acknowledge that 2023 presented its fair share of challenges. A lack of global coordination reminded us that the road to sustainable development is not always linear. However, it is precisely these challenges that fuel our determination to work together more cohesively in the coming year and proof that the user group is needed.

Hopeful Anticipation for 2024:

As we turn the page to 2024, let's carry forward the lessons learned and the successes celebrated. We are optimistic that, with renewed energy and a collective commitment, we will overcome obstacles and create an even more impactful and connected Wikimedians for Sustainable Development community.

Here's to a year of collaboration, growth, and making a lasting impact on the world through our shared passion for sustainability. Together, we can turn challenges into opportunities and pave the way for a brighter future.

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Warm regards, User:Ainali, User:Daniel Mietchen

PS. We have started writing our yearly report, please add your activities to it.

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Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - January 2024 Newsletter edit

This is our twenty-eighth newsletter.
User group news
  • We have submitted our 2023 annual report.
  • Upcoming meeting: on 9 February, we'll have a call about roles and responsibilities in the user group. This is an attempt to make more opportunities to engage more of the user groups members in its activities. If you want to help out in some way, but don't know how, this is a meeting for you to get help creating that opportunity. If you know how you would like to help, but don't know how to get started, this is also the meeting for you.
Other news
  • New Wikiproject for Climate Change on Basque Wikipedia: Wikiproiektu Klima Aldaketa
  • Climate Justice, Digital Rights and Indigenous Voices international Wikimedia event in Huaraz, Peru 2024: Engagement Survey (closes 2 Feb)

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Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2024: Invitation edit

 

Dear Discott!

Wikimedia Ukraine, in cooperation with the MFA of Ukraine and Ukrainian Institute would like to invite you to once again participate in annual "Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month". We accept contribution in all language editions of Wikipedia! As always, the campaign is dedicated to famous Ukrainian artists of cinema, music, literature, architecture, design, and cultural phenomena of Ukraine that are now part of world heritage.

We have revised the suggested articles, made process of claiming your contributions more clear, so I hope to see you joining campaign soon!

You received this message because you participated in the previous iterations of Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month.ValentynNefedov (WMUA) (talk)

Wikimedians for Sustainable Development - February 2024 Newsletter edit

This is our twenty-ninth newsletter.
User group news
Other news

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