Subject: Re: What is de.wikiversity.org? - msg#00142

Previous Message by Date: click to view message preview

Re: Business cards

Christopher Mahan a écrit: --- notafish <notafishz-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: OK, sorry for digging out old conversations, I've been dead for the past 5 days, and just resurrected for a few hours. So here goes. This said, I stand up to my opinion that mentions of stewards or arbitrators of the english AC has basically nothing to do here. These positions do not exist in the real world. They mean nothing to those outside wikipedia. They are unrelated to the Foundation itself. And they are only part of the status existing on the projects. Well, there are apparently plans to form Arbitration Committees on other language versions of Wikipedia, so it's not en:-centric (or not intended to be). Thus Arbitrator status, and certainly, of course, Stewards, are Wikimedia-project-wide, and the people who will receive these cards will understand that they confer extra 'status' of some kind, as you say. Neither job are particularly easy to do, and a small amount of thanks like this is perhaps not a bad thing. Having a card, imho, has nothing to do with getting any thanks for a job well done within wikipedia or any other project, but more about having (or not having) a right to speak about certain matters with a more or less official position. Arbitrators, Stewards are all, as Anthere pointed out, positions within the projects, but not positions that mean that you have a right to talk about the Moogle Deal of the Fahoo proposition or a right to sell Wikipedia and all other projects to the next Moohoo buyer who comes along. Of course, I am going a bit far, here, but this is what a "card" could entitle to do. So no, they should not be given out as thanks, but as an exact description of who does what in the Wikimedia Foundation and projects, and who can say "we" when talking about the Foundation, or Wikimedia Deutschland, or Wikimedia France. People in general, journalists in particular, are very wary of who their source is, but will be fooled by a little square of paper. A "business card" gives a credibility that some of us certainly do not have, and some of us certainly do not deserve. So let us be careful when handing out those "cards". Samples of titles: Wikipedia Administrator Wikimedia Software Developer Wikimedia Senior Systems Engineer Contributing Editor Arbitration Committee Panelist 2005 WikiNews Freelance Photographer and so on. I see nothing in there that says they can speak 'for' the foundation. There should be a link to Wikimedia Foundation's formal contacts on each card, like this: www.wikimedia.com/press and an explanation on that page of what cards there are, who has them, and so on. This will allow the press people to understand who the cardbearer is and what they do. you forgot mediators. But I think that for press curiosity, it would be interesting to have a couple of very short pages to define this. Ant

Next Message by Date: click to view message preview

Re: What is de.wikiversity.org?

Erik Moeller wrote: 1) When and why was this wiki set up? Who made the decision? I set up the wiki on March 1 on Kurt Jansson's request. I'm sure Kurt won't mind if I reprint his request here: "hi! I already asked in #wikimedia, but didn't have any luck, so I'm trying again here: could one of you server guys please set up de.wikiversity.org (just with an empty wiki)? we still don't have any news about funding, but people want to start working on it and keep bugging me. would be really nice :-)" 2) Why was the procedure for launching new projects as established with Wikinews not followed? My understanding is that this was all discussed ages ago, and the project's just been waiting on the external funding (which hasn't quite happened yet). 3) What are the future plans for the wiki? If this is merely meant to be a demonstration prototype and not an official project of the Wikimedia Foundation, I think that status should be clearly indicated on the wiki. That's my understanding of the present situation; it's for demo / discussion / planning for now. Last but not least, a MAJOR issue: all the wikiversity.org language subdomains have an unprotected "Create wiki" link. If this is meant to be a German demo only, then we have to disable this link ASAP, or otherwise people will start building their things there before the project has been officially approved. If you find such links *anywhere* they need to be disabled. The autocreation script is broken. -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com) signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l-AeOJrEpdGNeGglJvpFV4uA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Previous Message by Thread: click to view message preview

Re: What is de.wikiversity.org?

Update: I asked Tim Starling to disable the "create a wiki" link for the other language subdomains, and he did so. So this problem is now out of the way. Best, Erik

Next Message by Thread: click to view message preview

Re: What is de.wikiversity.org?

Ang- that seems reasonable to me. I have added a site notice to the effect that Wikiversity is not yet an official Wikimedia project, with a link to your mailing list post. As for the general project idea, the page http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity is still a big hodgepodge of keywords and threadmode discussions. Now would be a good time for someone to take the lead in defining the project goals properly. I cannot support the project until that has happened, because I fear people in the different language communities would develop vastly different resources under the same name. The most important question seems to me whether Wikiversity will just be a repository of learning materials, or a true online university that includes - a graduation process - original research - a publication and peer review process for scientific papers, theses, etc. That information would be necessary before people can make an informed decision whether Wikiversity should exist as a separate project, as an umbrella project that includes Wikibooks, as part of Wikibooks, or not at all. For example, I would only support a separate project if its goals go beyond merely collecting and creating resources for educators in existing institutions. I'm really excited about the broader vision of a wiki-university. I'd be happy to assist in taking this project from brainstorming to reality, though I do believe it might be a good idea to wait another couple of months before formally launching a vote on the launch, to avoid voter fatigue and the general impression that Wikimedia is moving too fast with new projects. Peace, Erik