Wikizine - number: 78

[EN Wikizine]

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Year: 2007  Week: 31  Number: 78

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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community

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=== Foundation ===

[Wikimania 2007] - In a few days the Wikimedia event of the year will  
start: Wikimania. From 3 Augusts until 5 Augusts in Taiwan. For so as  
possible Wikizine will attempt to provide reports about Wikimania  
during the event. Extra editions are probable but the blog that used  
to post Wikizine in English will be updated frequently during the  
days.  Wikizine is at present one person who is not at Wikimania. So  
all coverage will be limited to availability to online access to the  
event. Attempts will be made to create audio recordings of some of the  
presentations from the audio live-stream if present and to put those  
online very soon. Contributions from people who are there are very  
welcome.

On en.Wikizine.org can be found now;
# a countdown to the start of Wikimania
# 3 clocks providing the current time and date in Taipei, one for  
UTC+0 and your local time.
# And also easy access to IRC.
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org
http://en.wikizine.org
http://chat.wikizine.org  -- webbased access to the IRC channels,  
including #wikimania

[Wikipedia Academy] - Wikimedia Deutschland is organising the second  
Wikipedia Academy to be held in Mainz on August 24th and 25th, 2007.  
The conference will focus on the humanities in Wikipedia, aiming for a  
dialogue between researchers and Wikipedians. The Wikipedia Academy  
will be sponsored by the German Ministry for Education and Research.  
The conference will be opened by Doris Ahnen, Minister of Education,  
Research, Youth und Culture in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and Elke  
Lütjen-Drecoll, President of the Academy of Sciences and Literature. A  
price, the "Johann Heinrich Zedler Medal" will be awarded. Wikimedia  
Deutschland and the Mainz
Academy of Sciences and Literature award this prize for an outstanding  
encyclopedia article in the area of the humanities. The Zedler Medal  
comes with 3,000 Euro and is sponsored by the German scientific  
journal "Gehirn&Geist". The selection jury consists of seven renowned  
scientists.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/18958  -- Read more

[Correction of Wikizine 77 Extra] - regarding the results of the board  
election; Michael Snow has the 5th place (and not the 6th), Danny Wool  
has the 6th place (and not the 7th)

[Request for comments] - the community is invited to provide feedback  
about the proceedings of the recent board election.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comments/Board_Election_2007

=== Technical news ===

[Special:ProtectedPages] - Now specifies whether pages are cascade  
protected or not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Protectedpages

=== Request for help ===

[Checkuser] - Request for feedback about the current check-user policy  
and related matters.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/18974

=== Community ===

[Natinalistic Wikipedia?] - The topic was raised on the mailing list  
Wikipedia-l that the Armenian Wikipedia was using a Wikipedia logo  
with colors of the Armenian flag. Anthere (WMF chair) said about that  
"Whilst I am supportive of temporary (as in "24 hours") fun logo for  
special events, setting up a permanent derivative logo is really  
wrong, in particular when it refers to a nation.".  The Armenian  
Wikipedia has changed the logo back to the normal one.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/30344

[Wikigame] - The first computer game in the Piedmontese language is  
created,  a clone of Colonization.  For this BetaWiki, the wiki used  
for the localization of MediaWiki was used. Piedmontese is a small  
language spoken in a part of Italy and has its own Wikipedia.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/First_computer_game_in_Piedmontese_language

=== Media ===

["The Wikipedia Story"] - A half-hour BBC Radio 4 radioshow about Wikipedia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ram/wikipediastory.ram  -- RealAudio
Get "file not found?" If it does not work anymore and you wish to hear  
the recording contact Wikizine

[SpyWiki] - A story has appeared on /.  about an article claiming that  
an admin on the English Wikipedia is a secret agent. Jimmy Wales  
responded;  "This story is demented and broken on so many levels, it  
is quite difficult to know where to begin, even. Here we have an  
excellent Wikipedia administrator who has been victimized by lunatic  
conspiracy theorists, a private person who has absolutely no relation  
to the wild stories that this article promulgates."
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=374006&rel_no=1
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/27/1943254
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=256781&cid=20018335

[Thank you wikipedia.com] - Not new but original. To make sure that is  
no confusion about; this is not a real commercial for  Wikipedia by  
the Wikimedia Foundation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du1XrldPzn8

=== Stats ===

[Wikipedia] - Can Teenagers Write An Encyclopedia?
<quote>
Google has changed its search algorithm in late 2005-early 2006. I  
have been monitoring 154 keywords on Google since 1999. Of these, the  
number one (#1) search result in 128 keywords is now a Wikipedia  
article. More than a quarter (38 out of 128) of these "articles" are  
what the Wikipedia calls "stubs" (one or two sentences to be expanded  
by Wikipedians in the future). Between 7 and 10 of the articles that  
made it to the much-coveted number one spot are ... empty pages,  
placeholders, yet to be written! (These results were obtained in early  
2007).
</quote>
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3134&cid=1&sid=112

=== Other news ===

[Metapedia] - not a Wikimedia project - is the "alternative  
encyclopedia dedicated to the pro-European cultural struggle". It uses  
the racistic POV.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/23/metapedia/
http://www.metapedia.org/

=== Quote ===

"But even with all of its flaws and failures, America is still a  
democracy, and Americans still enjoy certain basic freedoms that are  
unknown to the average Chinese. In our panic over economic questions,  
we've forgotten that many, if not most, Chinese citizens are still  
living in desperate conditions under a repressive government. Jimmy  
Wales hasn't forgotten that. May the founders and executives at  
Google, Yahoo and others learn from his example." -- From "Free wikis  
for China" by Caille Millner
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/EDGGDR5N211.DTL

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