As the fediverse and Mastodon grow in users and activity, so does the attention and the risk. This week Mastodon developers released a critical upgrade to address a recent security audit. As the word got out about the upcoming security release, the community rushed like never before to get everyone safe. Inspired by the awesome Claire, who contacted many instances and even patched custom codebases to keep users safe, I wondered how to help.

27/06/2023-03/07/2023

About us

• As Chris correctly pointed out, in a comment to our issue #675, we do not link to platforms that are not publicly accessible. Therefore, in future we will no longer link to messages on Twitter. If you want to distribute information coming from Twitter that is relevant to our readers, and you think we should report on it, please provide a non-Twitter link.If you are thinking of joining the Fediverse (especially Mastodon), Jorge Sanz has many tips on where to find accounts that cover geographical topics.

Mapping

• arjunaraoc published a how-to guide on mapping roadside fuelling stations using OsmAnd to collect the data and JOSM to add the new POIs to the map.
• CactiStaccingCrane shared his experience of suffering from burnout while mapping landuse in Vietnam. He provided tips for OSM contributors to avoid this.
• Cascafico explained how to create a simple script to automatically validate the URLs in OSM tags. In a reply, Strubbl referred to his programme on Codeberg, with which one can specify an OSM relation and then all the mapped websites within this boundary will be checked. He then showed an example analysis for München.
• darkonus shared his technique for creating smooth curves using the CAD Tools plug-in in JOSM.
• Kai Johnson blogged about his glossary of landforms, which he has put together for contributors interested in mapping natural features.
• The FlatLaf plug-in lets you personalise the interface of JOSM with nine different themes. You can view these FlatLaf themes on the OSM wiki. The plug-in is maintained by DevCharly on GitHub and it’s also available under the Apache licence for use in other software.
• The proposal playground=*, to add values to the list of documented playground equipment, is open for vote until Friday 14 July.

Mapping campaigns

• Mateusz Konieczny has published a MapRoulette challenge listing cases where the wikipedia tag links to a non-existing Wikipedia entry. This is an experimental tool and feedback is welcome. As with any QA tool, remember to use your brain and do not change things blindly!
• Obianinulu reported on a two-day training course, held at the University of Nigeria in Enugu, on using the iD Editor and Tasking Manager.
• With Maxar imagery being unavailable for several weeks, SColchester published a short guide that outlines the steps you can take to switch your Tasking Manager project to alternative imagery sources.

Community

• GrapeMapping published a diary post listing their favourite OpenStreetMap sites and tools.
• OSM Belgium has declared Michel Hebert, from Grenoble, to be their Mapper of the Month.
• Having moved to Bonaire a couple of months ago, Probelnijs described some of the challenges they have encountered while contributing to OSM.
• William Edmisten described how he mounted a GoPro MAX 360° camera on his car, processed the videos, and imported them into JOSM to help find missing features in OpenStreetMap.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• Maxar cut off access to their imagery a few weeks ago as they try to deal with non-OpenStreetMap related use of the imagery. The OSMF board is in contact with Maxar to try and resolve the situation.
• The OpenStreetMap Foundation Board reported on their ‘OSMF Board Screen to Screen’ meeting held in June 2023.

Local chapter news

• Quincy Morgan unveiled the new design of the OpenStreetMap United States website at the State of the Map US 2023.

Education

• Sebastian Kauer and Petra Sauerborn have written ► an article on using OpenStreetMap in the classroom, looking at potential benefits and challenges.

Maps

• [1] Piet Brömmel has updated his OSM statistics to June 2023 and added some statistics on corporate editors. According to the June 2023 statistics, the ten companies adding the most data to OpenStreetMap are: Meta, Kaart, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Grab, DigitalEgypt, DevSeed, TomTom, and Lightcypher.
• Christoph Hormann wrote, in the first of a series, about ‘drawing the line’ on maps, how different styles of lines are used to convey information in cartography.
• Ruben Mendoza reported that Development Seed have incorporated Meta’s Segment Anything Model into their DS-Annotate tool.

switch2OSM

• Robert Potter, from the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, Australia, consulted the OSM-talk mailing list on the issue of ODbL licences on OpenStreetMap. Adam Franco advised them to release their geospatial data to a public domain licence first, before adding it to the OSM database.

Software

• Meta Reality Labs have released OrienterNet, an AI-based application to automatically estimate a location based on visual information contained in photos and an user provided coarse location within 100 to 200 meters.
• autoevolution reviewed OsmAnd on Android Auto as an alternative to Google Maps.

Programming

• Starting with Debian 12 ‘Bookworm’, the libgdal-perl package, which is based on XS, will no longer be in the repositories. The upstream support period has ended. You can follow these instructions to migrate to the CPAN package Geo::GDAL::FFI. For more details, see the release notes for Debian 12.
• Jonny J Watson (pixmusix) built a wall hanging board that can display a simulation of pedestrians in Paris. This simulation was created using a Raspberry Pi device and OpenStreetMap data (via the PrettyMaps Python library).

Did you know …

• … Geoconfirmed? It is a community-based geolocation platform with a global reach, focusing on the current conflict in Ukraine. In addition, Syria and Yemen, among others, are also highlighted.
• … that the maximum size of a PDF version 7 file is 381 km x 381 km?

OSM in the media

• The Taj Mahal was incorrectly named ‘Shiva Kshetra’ on OpenStreetMap for 13 days. Mappers from Kerala corrected it.

Other “geo” things

• HeiGIT has analysed and compared the data in the regions of Maribor, Slovenia and Ngaoundéré, Cameroon using their OSM Element Vectorisation Tool.
• HeiGIT also analysed the correlations between indicators generated from the OSM data in Heidelberg, first to ensure that these indicators measured distinct data attributes, and then to look for interesting or surprising correlations. This was their third and final example of using the OSM Element Vectorisation Tool.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
London	Missing Maps London Mapathon		2023-07-04 – 2030-07-04
	Reunião – OSM Brasil – Mapeamento Aberto para Gestão de Riscos/Desastres [Horário 3]		2023-07-07
København	OSMmapperCPH		2023-07-09
臺北市	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata 月聚會 #54		2023-07-10
Zürich	OSM-Stammtisch		2023-07-11
München	Münchner OSM-Treffen		2023-07-11
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2023-07-12
Salt Lake City	Salt Lake City OSM Night		2023-07-13
Berlin	181. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch		2023-07-13
Bochum	OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch Bochum		2023-07-13
Montrouge	Rencontre contributeurs Sud de Paris		2023-07-13
	165. Treffen des OSM-Stammtisches Bonn		2023-07-18
Lüneburg	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)		2023-07-18
The Municipal District of Kilkenny City	Kilkenny History Mappers MeetUp		2023-07-18
Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe		2023-07-19 – 2030-06-21
Lorain County	OpenStreetMap Ohio Meetup – Kickoff	✓	2023-07-20
	Missing Maps – DRK & MSF Online Mapathon		2023-07-19

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by Elizabete, MatthiasMatthias, PierZen, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, derFred, rtnf, s8321414.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

Or as it insists on calling itself the tank museum. The good news is that this museum contains a lot of notable items (it has one of the best tank collections on earth). The bad news is that its been pretty mined out. A lot of wikipedians have visited the museum over the years including as part of a wikimedia UK project in 2014.

Most things available to be photographed have been photographed and most things to be written about have been written about. The photo environment also isn’t the best. Tanks are large vehicles which means the usual issues of photographing indoors (not being able to get far enough away, uneven lighting) are compounded. The museum does run a couple of event days where tanks are driven outside which can provide a much better photographic environment. Indeed given the right weather its possible to take some of the best tank photos Wikipedia is going to get. Another wikipedian has already written rather more lyrically than I can about the experience there.

There are items in the museum’s collection that Wikipedia could still use photos of (or better photos of in some cases). The Morris-Martel, the T14 Heavy Tank and Excelsior. Problem is none of them are currently on display. There are also a few tanks that lack articles such at the L1E3 amphibious tank.

So overall a great museum if you like tanks but for Wikipedians you are probably going to need to plan in advance if you want to get much out of it.

Wikitongues, a Wikimedia User Group and non-profit organization dedicated to documenting and revitalizing endangered and under-resourced languages, has announced the selection of 21 language activists to participate in its 2023 Language Accelerator program. The program provides grant funding, training, and mentorship to language activists working to preserve their native languages. It also provides training in language documentation and revitalization techniques, as well as mentorship from experienced linguists and language activists.

The 2023 cohort of language activists come from a variety of backgrounds including the Wikimedia Movement and represents a wide range of languages. The languages being revitalized through the program include:

• Fongbé (Bénin)
• Haíłzaqvļa language (Canada)
• Banjar language (Banjarmasin, Indonesia)
• Igala Language (Nigeria)
• Ghisadi language (Badlapur, India)
• Sarkese (United Kingdom)
• Kihunde language (Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Kaidipang-Bolangitang language (Jakarta, Indonesia)
• Arbëresh (Albania)
• Sekgalagadi language (Gaborone, Botswana)
• Dendi language (Calavi, Bénin)
• Raji language (India)
• Bukharian language (Uzbekistan)
• Chakma language (Bangladesh)
• Nepalbhāsā (Nepal)
• Jewish Neo-Aramaic (Middle East)
• Yupik language (Alaska)
• Choctaw language (Oklahoma)
• Popti’ language (Mexico)
• Rama language (Nicaragua)
• Kalmyk language (Kalmyk-American diaspora)

By providing grant funding, training, and mentorship to language activists, the program is helping to ensure that these languages are not lost to future generations.

About Wikitongues

Wikitongues is a Wikimedia User Group and non-profit organization dedicated to documenting and revitalizing endangered languages. The organization was founded in 2014 by Daniel Bögre Udell and Federico Andrade. Wikitongues has documented over 700 endangered languages from around the world. The organization’s mission is to “champion language diversity and downstream social justice movements by safeguarding endangered languages, increasing global access to critical linguistic resources, and directly supporting language revitalization projects.”

How You Can Help

There are many ways you can help support Wikitongues’ work to document and revitalize endangered languages. You can:

• Volunteer as a translator/interpereter.
• Donate through the organization’s website.
• Volunteer your time to help with short video donations of test wiki editing, Wikidata editing, translation etc.
• Spread the word about Wikitongues and its mission.

Every little bit helps. By working together, we can help ensure that endangered languages are not lost to future generations.

Last year, 1 out of 7 cars bought around the world was an electric vehicle. That’s a huge uptick from just 6 years ago where only 1 in 70 were EVs. As consumers seek to understand more about this fast-growing market, it’s likely they’ll turn to Wikipedia for clear explanations of complex topics.

Take lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides, for example. This is an important material in the lithium-ion batteries made for electric vehicles and our phones. Why is that? How do they work? Well, you can ask Enoch Rassachack who wrote the Wikipedia article about it as part of an assignment. He’s completing an honours degree in chemistry at the University of British Columbia and entering his final year of undergraduate study. He drew upon his studies and research experience to update this public resource.

“I have some co-op experience working with batteries which helped me find this article,” Enoch shared. “I also hope to work as a researcher in materials chemistry after (hopefully) going to grad school, and this project helped me practice communicating some of the knowledge I acquired. I see climate change as the key issue defining this century as well, so I hoped to work on an article that would educate people on something related to it, whether it be atmospheric and environmental chemistry, or technology that’s helping counteract the climate crisis. Considering all this, the page on lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides fit me perfectly.”

Most of Enoch’s improvements to the article focus on adding new sections about the material’s structure and synthesis. The original version of the article touched upon these points a bit, but Enoch knew he could build upon it with the academic sources he had on hand. He also found the introductory lede section to be difficult to follow without already being knowledgeable on battery materials. This is the beauty of students engaging in this science communication work. They remember what it was like learning about these topics for the first time. But they also have developed some subject matter expertise in their studies. Enoch simplified the opening paragraphs for Wikipedia’s general audience.

“While a majority of my edits involved technical writing, my main goal was to help folks who hand’t heard of NMC materials get a basic understanding of what they are. To this end, the relatively short lead section was the most important part of the article to get right, in my opinion. Of course, my work on the body sections were also valuable, as the summarized technical knowledge would be useful for more savvy chemists/material scientists. But for most readers on Wikipedia, these sections would not be nearly as helpful as the lead.”

For Enoch, this practice in distilling a complex topic into digestible and concise explanations was good practice. He knows he’ll draw upon these skills in his future classes and career.

“There is a lot of focus on more complicated details in an undergraduate chemistry program and even in the technical writing course I did this Wikipedia assignment in, so trying to write for a more general audience was a nice change,” he shared. “Being able to generalize my research later on as a scientist will likely be a useful skill, too. I know that public sentiment can potentially be a factor in getting research funding so spreading knowledge about my own work to people without my chemistry training could help with getting grants. Practicing more concise writing will also help me be clearer in my writing in all aspects of any future career.

“I think Wikipedia can be a great reference tool as well as a good starting point for curious individuals to begin looking into certain topics. Being an online encyclopedia makes it really unique because it’s very convenient for finding generally credible information, but can still be scrutinized since anyone can modify articles. Summarizing topics is Wikipedia’s biggest strength so it is most useful for finding general knowledge in a field without going too much into detail.”

All in all, Enoch found the experience to be valuable in many ways. Considering most students say they’ve been told never to use Wikipedia, diving into its inner-workings and learning to interact with the resource critically and actively is a great experience.

“This was one of the most unique assignments I’ve ever done and gave me a good glimpse behind one of the best Internet resources available. It really showed me a more balanced side to Wikipedia; I knew how the site operated before doing the assignment, but actually taking part in edits gave me much more appreciation for the anonymous users that edit or write huge parts of articles. It’s a lot more work than it seems! My expectations for information from Wikipedia were tempered down closer to reality, too, after seeing how many pages still needed significant work in project pages. It’s still a super useful resource, but its limitations as an ever-expanding collection of knowledge are much clearer, which will ultimately help me use Wikipedia more effectively.”

Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free assignment templates and resources that Wiki Education offers to instructors in the United States and Canada.

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the Flickr Foundation to extend the great work already done via the Flickr2Commons tool to make it even easier to upload CC-licensed images from Flickr into Wikimedia Commons. 

Wikipedia is a foundational source of information on the internet. It provides content to Google and other search engines, social media platforms, voice assistants, and, increasingly, AI applications. To illustrate that information, we have Wikimedia Commons, the central visual platform for Wikipedia and one of the primary sources for open licensed visual content online. You may not know that one of the largest sources for Wikimedia Commons is Flickr.  

Since 2004, Flickr has been one of the most popular platforms for photographers and amateurs to upload photographs, videos, illustrations, and more online. It is also one of the largest online repositories of Creative Commons-licensed content. Flickr members can assign a license to their uploads, including those Creative Commons licenses accepted on Wikimedia Commons: Attribution (CC-BY), Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA), Public Domain Dedication (CC0), and the Public Domain Mark.

In 2008, Flickr launched the Flickr Commons program, to increase public access to photography collections held at libraries, museums, and archives around the world. Images in Flickr Commons are shared with something a bit different from a license. It’s an assertion called  “no known copyright restrictions.”  The program supports over 100 member institutions, including The U.S. National Archives, NASA on Commons, the National Library of Scotland, and Ljósmyndasafn Reykjavíkur.

In 2022, the Flickr Foundation was established. It’s a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the objective of safeguarding Flickr and its tens of billions of photos for the future. It seeks to develop and sustain “…an accessible social and technical infrastructure to protect [this] invaluable collection.” 
This bridge between Flickr and Wikimedia Commons—which we’ve started calling “Flickypedia”—is one of the flagship projects of the Flickr Foundation. Building in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, and supported by the Culture and Heritage team, we will be building on the utility of the Flickr2Commons tool, extending it, and then tending it for the long term.

This project has been mentioned in the 2023-2024 Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan under the Equity / Culture & Heritage section, in this mailing list update from Flickr Foundation, and in the ensuing discussion on Wikimedia Commons’s Village Pump.

About Flickr2Commons

Flickr2Commons is a popular tool used by Wikimedia Commons contributors to upload single or multiple files from Flickr into Wikimedia Commons. It was created by Magnus Manske, and first launched in 2013, ten years ago! The tool allows for user authentication, checks for the required licenses, includes a metadata editing step, and then file transfer. 

Metrics important for Flickypedia

In order to gauge the possible reach of Flickypedia, we wanted to understand Flickr2Commons metrics. Magnus helped pull together the stats to show that roughly 5.4M files have been uploaded by about 2K users since launch. Using the Wikimedia Hashtags tool, we can also see how much Flickr2Commons is used today. In June 2023 only, for example, 71,689 files were uploaded by 147 users.

We were also able to discover the most active users of Flickr2Commons in the last six months, from January to June 2023.

It’s been great to collate all these usage statistics for Flickr2Commons—both the more recent numbers, but also in total over the last 10 years. Seeing it all together gives us a clear target for the new version to try to match. 

It is also worth noting that another tool connects Flickr to Wikimedia Commons, called the UploadWizard. We’re bearing in mind that this means there will have been even more images from Flickr through that tool. Preparing these metrics has given us ideas on how we might make it even simpler to count into the future using Flickypedia.

Our timeline

The Flickypedia partnership project officially started in June 2023. We plan to spend the next six months or so building our Alpha (hopefully to show in October) and then Version 1.0 (hopefully December). Please stay in touch if you’d like to be involved in testing or have feedback about Flickr2Commons we should know about.

• For the July-December plan, please visit the project page on Wikimedia Commons.
• For feedback, please contact us via the talk page on Wikimedia Commons.

Organization of the WZLOT 2023 in Krakow

My name is Marek Lewandowski, I’ve been working at the Wikimedia Polska Association (WMPL) since August 2022 as an Event Manager. During this time I have had the pleasure of organizing conferences and meetings for smaller groups of Wikimedians, WZLOT is the largest and most popular meeting for members of this community. About 80 participants registered.

We usually organize conferences and rallies for the Wikimedia community on weekends. This was also the case this time: the meeting opened with an informal dinner on Friday, April 21, and we officially welcomed the participants on Saturday morning just before the start of the substantive program.

My task was to provide all those willing to participate in the conference: hotel accommodation, availability of sufficiently large and properly equipped conference rooms, planning meals and breaks, as well as time for integration. Additionally, the attractions accompanying the event are a well-received practice during the conference; this time, together with Kamila Neuman (WMPL’s Open Culture Manager), we offered the participants a tour of three cultural institutions in the heart of Cracow.

The biggest challenge was to find a suitable place where the conference could take place, as it turned out – for 80 people. We counted on such a number of participants from the beginning, and I also conducted research on suitable places in Cracow from this angle. Despite the fact that WMPL happened to organize accommodation and conference rooms in different locations during one event, I wanted to find a facility that offers both a large number of accommodation and a large conference space and also has catering facilities. At the same time, it was important that the location was well connected by public transport with strategic points of Krakow (railway station, city center) and allowed to take advantage of the charms of this beautiful city in free time. As it turned out – it is difficult to find a hotel with such facilities in the very center of Cracow, but a few stops from the center – yes. We chose the Novotel chain (Novotel Kraków City West).

Choosing a place is a big responsibility and for some time unknown. Even if you know a given place and have had good experiences with it – when you return to the hotel after many years it may turn out that there have been changes that we experience a lot in the post-pandemic reality. However, after making contact with the hotel, my intuition told me that it was a good choice and over time I felt more and more confident. This certainty gave me peaceful sleep Eventually this choice also guaranteed a peaceful sleep for 80 participants who have requirements and expectations towards the conference and the employees of the Association.

One of the big tasks that requires special care is planning the travel and stay of people with disabilities. Adapting the facility to the needs of these people is one of the basic determinants in choosing a place. Novotel Kraków City West provided everything that is needed in this regard: adapted rooms and conference rooms and a restaurant on the ground floor, communication without thresholds and other obstacles, elevators, toilets. In addition, we have hung signs and signposts in the common areas to help people with disabilities reach key places. We have also appointed people from WMPL employees to assist people with disabilities. Some of these participants arrived with an accompanying person, one participant was provided with medical transport from their place of residence.

WZLOT’s organization has the characteristics of organizing any other event for Wikimedians, except that this event is the largest in our community. Therefore coordination was a challenge due to:

• number of participants (81 participants accommodated in 55 rooms)
• extensive substantive program (19 sessions in the form of lectures, workshops and discussions) and locating it in the right space and planning the right time for breaks and meals
• production of badges, planning conference packages and their delivery to the hotel in advance

This coordination in practice means long weeks of planning, several extensive tables, close cooperation with the Hotel and dozens of exchanged e-mails and phone calls, as well as attention to costs so as to fit within the assumed budget. At the same time, the large scale of such an undertaking translates into great satisfaction from the event, which ran smoothly and in a good atmosphere

Finally, my reflections on what to pay special attention to when organizing large events and what to avoid:

What to look for:

• safety: it is worth analyzing the number of participants and the resources and competences adequate to this number in the context of first aid.
• availability: location, number of rooms adapted to the needs of disabled, communication difficulties in the facility, access to toilets, support for disabled in basic activities, assistance.
• information: regardless of whether everything is going according to plan or there are changes, my priority is to keep all participants informed about the plan and its changes and to ensure easy access to this information.

What to avoid:

• exclusion: regardless of the minority of people with specific dietary preferences or disabilities, everyone has the right to feel like a full member of the event.
• information mess: information flowing from various sources, but also too much and too detailed information.
• limitations in infrastructure and services: the possibility of giving a multimedia presentation or a remote debate in VR is also a success of your event. Avoid event venues that do not give you the opportunity to spread your wings during conference speeches, that will not implement your ideas that are not modern.

Translation by Natalia Ćwik (WMPL)

Africa Day is a special occasion that unites us as Africans, reminding us of our shared history, struggles, and triumphs. It’s a day to celebrate the diversity, resilience, and potential that exists within our borders.

The Kwara Experience!

Bukola James led the Africa Day Campaign 2023 in Kwara, Nigeria, with micro funding from Open Foundation West Africa and valuable assistance from experienced facilitators like Barakat Adegboye, Miracle James, Blessing Linason, and Rhoda James. The main theme of this year’s campaign which is celebrated on the 25th of May annually was tagged “Acceleration of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation” with Organisers given the opportunity to select from the suggested topics curated for the Campaign. Specifically the primary objective of the local implementation in Kwara was to “recruit and train Nigerians in creating and improving content about Nigeria and Nigerians on Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons focused on some of the related topics of the theme. This content encompassed articles, images, videos, and other media that effectively showcased the rich cultural diversity, historical significance, natural resources, and contemporary achievements of Nigeria.

The campaign specifically focused on creating content related to Nigerian cuisines, infrastructure, tourism, and notable companies, among other subjects in Nigeria. By doing so, the campaign meticulously documented the stories of Nigeria while also emphasising the advantages of free trade. These selected topics harmoniously aligned with the overarching mission of the campaign, which aimed to foster a deeper comprehension of Africa, its people, diverse cultures, and cherished heritage.

Project Goal

This campaign aimed to accurately represent Nigeria’s diverse and significant heritage, along with its current advancements, on Wikimedia platforms. It aimed to achieve two major goals:

• Promoting Nigerian content on Wikimedia platforms: this involves actively encouraging Nigerians, organisations, and institutions to contribute their knowledge, expertise, and resources to Wikimedia projects. This was accomplished through the blended training sessions organised to educate and empower them to contribute effectively to Wikimedia projects. 

• Enhancing the visibility of Nigerian’s historical and contemporary contributions to the African continent and the world: the campaign aimed to boost Nigeria’s visibility on Wikimedia platforms by showcasing its rich cultural heritage, including ethnic diversity, languages, food, tourist attractions, and visual arts. Thereby, closing existing biases and gaps in representation while highlighting Nigeria’s historical significance and achievements in different fields.

Steps Developed to Achieve the Project Goals

1. Planning (May 15th – May 25th, 2023): This began with a series of activities, to identify the main approaches needed to achieve the changes that would be developed and delivered during the program. We identified two strategies to adopt for our deliverables which were;

• Two online sessions
• One physical session

During our planning stage, we also carried out other activities such as drafting proposals, receiving funds, creating e-flyers and sharing them on various social media platforms to call for participants, creating the campaign metapage and outreach dashboard, creating online platforms to connect with participants, fixing the date and time for all the sessions among others.

2. Implementation (May 25th – June 20th, 2023):

This project adopted the blended mode of implementation: We had two online training sessions that was followed by a physical session.

• The first online training session was held on the 25th of May, 2023 to introduce the campaign and train participant on how to contribute, using Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons with provision for data reimbursement, and one-on-one support. Participants’ contributions were diligently monitored on the dashboard and daily updates were sent to the various campaign communication channels to encourage participants.
• The second online session (follow-up) was held on the 4th of June, 2023 to check on the participants’ contributions and also discuss their challenges so as to proffer solutions to them.
• The physical training session was held on the 10th of June, 2023. This session provided participants with an in-person training experience and an opportunity to discuss the theme of the campaign. At the end of the in-person session participants were provided with a food menu of Nigerian cuisine.

3. Evaluation (June 20th – June 30th, 2023):

This stage covers the preparation and submission of the project report.

Our Learnings

We were able to gather that:

1. 80% of the participants were already familiar with Wikipedia and its sister projects but could not expand articles, add correct citations, create a detailed Wikidata item or add images with the correct descriptions and captions to Wikimedia Commons. Hence, the training specifically exposed participants to other ways of improving content on Wikipedia aside from adding citations to existing articles, and how to upload media files on WikiCommons, and improve data quality on Wikidata.
2. Article listings and the use of the direct link to participants’ special contributions through the Outreach dashboard served as the most effective metrics for gauging the campaign’s success.
3. There is a need to identify the content gaps, the availability of information resources, and the appropriate participants to bridge the gap to effectively improve content gaps in Wikipedia and its sister project.
4. Giving participants immediate feedback and individualised guidance enhances their community participation which boosts their editing efforts and maintains their presence in numerous Wikimedia projects.
5. Based on the edits recorded, the project met the expectations.

Challenges and Recommendations

1. Most of the participants were unfamiliar with the topic of impact and this slowed down our campaign at some points. We had to engage them in several one-on-one sessions before they became acquainted with the campaign theme and contribute meaningfully. We hope to build our next campaign upon these learnings.
2. We had many cases of blocked IP addresses and this led to reduced enthusiasm and contributions from some of these participants and as a solution shared links to IPBE form with them. We recommend that the foundation proffer a long and sustainable solution to this repeated problem.

Recordings and Photos

Africa Day Campaign 2023, Kwara, Nigeria.

Social Media Awareness Posts

Project Team

Bukola James (Lead): is the Community Coordinator for CodeforAfrica (CfA) Wikimedia in Residence (WiRs) Initiatives. She is an aspiring academic librarian and a certified Wikipedian in African Libraries with a passion for free knowledge. She is also a certified Content Organiser of Wiki projects and certified trainer of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program as well as the founder of the Wikimedia Fan Club at Kwara State University, Nigeria. She has led several GLAM-Wiki projects and campaigns in Nigeria such as Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, WikiGLAM Awareness for Librarians in Kwara and Lagos, WikiLovesLibrariesNigeria, 1lib1ref Kwara 2022, WikiLovesMonuments among others. Currently, she serves as the Special Advisor on the Wikipedia and Education User Group.

Barakat Adegboye (Facilitator): Barakat, a Wikimedia volunteer from Nigeria, has gained extensive experience as a facilitator and editor in various Wikimedia projects. Some of these projects include Wiki loves SDGs, WikiGLAM, 1lib1ref, Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, Wikidata for Novels and Novelists in Nigeria, WikiLovesLibraries, Promoting Nigerian Books and Authors, Celtic Knot Kwara, and more. Barakat has also served as a facilitator for Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom programs in Kwara, Nigeria, for teachers and secondary school students. As the General Secretary of the University of Ilorin Wikimedia Fan Club, Barakat, a trained educator, is passionate about learning, sharing knowledge, and has gained valuable experience through her contributions to these projects and others over the past two years.

Rhoda James (Facilitator): is an experienced Wikimedian, who has participated in various Wikimedia projects (as a facilitator as well as an editor) namely; Some of these projects include Wiki loves SDGs, WikiGLAM, 1lib1ref, Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, Wikidata for Novels and Novelists in Nigeria, WikiLovesLibraries, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom for Secondary School students, Promoting Nigerian Books and Authors, Celtic Knot Kwara, and more.

Linason Blessing (Facilitator): Blessing is an experienced Wikibrarian and has participated in various Wikimedia projects such as WikiLoveAfrica, WPWP, Wikidata (Media personalities in Nigeria), Winner of WPWP Kwara and Wikidata Media personality in Nigeria, WikiGLAM Awareness for Libraries and Librarians in Kwara, Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, 1lib1ref 2022 Kwara, etc. She led the Wikipedia awareness for Library and Information Science Students in Nigeria and was a facilitator for the first Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Nigeria. She is the Co-Founder of the Kwara State University Fan Club.

Miracle James: Miracle James is an experienced Wikimedian and member of the Wikimedia user group Nigeria who has participated in several Wikipedia projects as a volunteer, she also led the Wikipedia awareness in Offa community and has facilitated several Wikimedia projects. 

This project revolves around improving the visibility of authors and books in Prof. Festus Aghagbo Nwako Library, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka through the utilization of Wikidata. With the vast amount of literary works available, it can be challenging for libraries to effectively showcase the rich collection of authors and their works. By leveraging the power of Wikidata, a collaborative knowledge base, libraries can enhance discoverability and provide enriched information about authors and their books to users.

Wikidata serves as a comprehensive repository that consolidates data from various reliable sources, enabling librarians to create authoritative profiles for authors and books. Through this integration, libraries can go beyond traditional cataloging systems and offer a more dynamic and interconnected experience to their patrons.

Furthermore, linking books to Wikidata opens up opportunities for libraries to enhance the browsing experience. Library users can easily access comprehensive information about a book, including its publication details, translations, adaptations, and related works. This interconnected approach allows readers to dive deeper into a particular author’s body of work and discover new books based on their interests.

Outcome

The event which was organized by the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub with support from the Igbo Wikimedins User Group was held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Main Library, (known as Prof. Festus Aghagbo Nwako Library). This event which was the first of its kind at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Library, aimed at exposing librarians to current trends in open source, specifically utilizing Wikidata as a tool to enhance the visibility of library collections. By the end of the event, a total of 52 items were created. See event’s dashboard for more details

Amongst those in attendance at the event were prominent individuals such as Prof. Stella Anasi, the University Librarian. Additionally, key personnel from various departments were present, including Joy Onwumbiko, the Head of Cataloguing Department, Dr. Hope Chikaodi, the Head of Circulation Department, and Mrs. Kelechi Okafor from the Circulation Unit. Other notable participants included Ndanwu Angela, the Head of Serials Department, as well as existing and dedicated members of the hub, namely (usernames) Sayvhior, Mercyjamb123 , Bridget2023, Bibisuccess, Nwosuphayvour, Adimora chidinma, and many more. Their presence contributed to the success and engagement of the event.

Interactive session

During the event, participants were curios to learn more on how Wikidata could be used to enhance the visibility of collections. Some of the questions were:

Is it possible to add scholarly articles?

Response: Yes, it is indeed possible to add scholarly articles to Wikidata. Librarians can create articles individually by entering the relevant information manually. Alternatively, articles can be uploaded in batches using tools and unique identifiers such as DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or PMID (PubMed Identifier) to ensure accurate linking and attribution.

Can values be entered in Igbo, considering it’s an Igbo language visibility event?

Response: During the event, participants were shown how the Wikidata interface can be switched to Igbo language, catering to the focus on Igbo language visibility. While attempting to enter values in Igbo, such as “sex” or “gender” as “nwanyi” (meaning “female” in Igbo), it was observed that the value appeared in Igbo initially. However, upon selection, it switched back to the default English term “female.” This demonstration highlighted that Wikidata can be edited in Igbo language once the interface, properties, and corresponding values have been appropriately translated.

This emphasizes the potential for expanding the multilingual capabilities of Wikidata and enabling the representation of information in diverse languages, including Igbo. Efforts to translate the interface, properties, and values into Igbo would contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive representation of knowledge on Wikidata.

More questions and responses are on the Outcome page.

Challenges and recommendations

• Librarians in the southern regions are still in the process of comprehending the workings of Wikimedia projects as an open source initiatives. Recognizing this need, efforts are being made to increase awareness and understanding among librarians in the Igbo community.
• During this event, it was evident that further clarification was required, as many attendees had not fully grasped the concept. Several factors, such as erratic power supply, unavailability of resources, and unfavorable network conditions, hindered effective participation. In response to these challenges, organizers took proactive measures by creating on-screen videos and other supplementary resources. These materials were then shared with participants, enabling them to review the training sessions and practice at their convenience. Participants were followed up via the communication channels.
• The event was scheduled during office hours, which posed a challenge for some librarians who were already occupied with their work responsibilities. To address this issue and ensure broader participation, organizers are planning to arrange another event during a more convenient time slot, specifically targeting working librarians who were unable to attend the previous session.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, by incorporating these measures, it is anticipated that librarians in the Igbo community will gain a better understanding of Wikimedia open source projects. Through continued efforts to provide in-person events, as well as the provision of supplementary materials for self-paced learning, the goal is to empower librarians to actively engage with and contribute to Wikimedia projects. During the event at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Library, librarians were introduced to the potential of Wikidata. Participants demonstrated enthusiasm and curiosity, seeking ways to expand collections and incorporate scholarly articles. Moreover, the event highlighted the importance of language representation, challenges were identified, emphasizing the need for improved translation efforts to promote Igbo language visibility.

We extend our appreciation to the University Librarian, Prof. Stella Anasi, and all attendees, including dedicated members of the hub, for their valuable contributions and support.

Team: Olugold (Co-founder and facilitator, Ig Wiki Librarians Hub), Kingsley Nkem (event organizer and outreach coordinator), Chrysella and Newtrains (Communication assistants)
Learn more about the project: Meta-Wiki page

This spring, students at diverse colleges and universities across the United States tackled a glaring hole on Wikipedia: adding biographies of people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to Wikipedia. This term was the first of a planned three-year project, funded by the Broadcom Foundation, aimed at engaging a diverse group of students in writing biographies of STEM pioneers who look like them.

Dayanna Perez is a senior at California State University Dominguez Hills, who’d never heard of a Latina working for NASA until she wrote the biography of Christina Hernández.

“I chose Christina Hernández because she is the very first representation that I have seen in all my 22 years of Latinas in the aerospace field,” Dayanna says.

Inspiring students to understand there is a diversity of role models in the STEM field is a key element of the project. And what better place to do that than Wikipedia, the first place people turn to when wanting to know more about someone? But Wikipedia’s representation gaps lead many people to not find biographies of people of color or women; instead, figures in STEM with biographies on Wikipedia are often white men.

“Learning about Wikipedia’s lack of biographies of people of color and women in STEM fields opened my eyes to the privilege and power that news and social media platforms possess. Our nation has a history of presenting information that portrays African Americans and people of color in a negative light. The absence of positive contributions from groups that have been historically marginalized can be equally oppressive. Because of these inequities that exist, I made a conscious decision to choose an African American male as a subject,” says Kimberly Ivy, a student in Dr. La’Tonya Rease Miles’s class who created the biography of Eugene M. DeLoatch. “After learning about DeLoatch’s development of Morgan State University’s engineering program, and that he is responsible for training more African American engineers than anyone else in the world, writing his Wikipedia bio became more than a graded assignment. DeLoatch deserves the type of public recognition that possessing a Wikipedia biography article grants.”

All told, students this spring added 18 new biographies of STEM professionals of color. The biographies have already received thousands of page views, bringing more attention to the contributions of people like:

• Rodney Adkins, the first African American senior vice president at IBM
• Abdul–Aziz Yakubu, a scholar and mathematical biologist who chaired Howard University’s mathematics department
• Marcus McCraven, a nuclear scientist who served as the only African American engineer on the team who built the hydrogen bomb at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Asmau Ahmed, an advocate for women in technology and founder of Plum Perfect, a beauty technology company
• Camille Hearst, a technical entrepreneur who leads Spotify for Artists
• Juan C. Meza, an influential mathematician and computer scientist

In crafting these biographies for Wikipedia, the students also learn key research, writing, media literacy, and collaboration skills. As students graduate and pursue careers, these skills become even more valuable.

“Wikipedia has helped students to understand more about why they should grow, learn, and earn a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. They were able to be proud of people who look like them. Wikipedia has helped students to continue to see others who are working in many of the areas where many minorities are underrepresented,” said Corry Stevenson, a professor at Denmark Technical College, a Historically Black College and University, whose students created the biography of Marc Hannah. “Students gained a better understanding for procedures and requirements for why reading and writing skills are needed in today’s careers, and many of the students have modified their views. This initiative helped change their mind about pursuing a career in STEM.”

If you’re a college or university instructor at a diverse institution in the United States who’s interested in adding more biographies of historically marginalized people in STEM, teach with Wikipedia! If you want to learn more, register for one of our upcoming webinars.

Robin Stoodley’s CHEM 300 course at the University of British Columbia is a third-year undergraduate course on communicating chemistry. Students are asked to think about the context of their topic and their audience when they write. As the course focuses on written communication of scientific topics, the Wikipedia assignment is a great fit. Students take ownership of a Wikipedia article on a topic of their choosing, make improvements, and augment the body of knowledge available to the public. In this way, they work to take their disciplinary knowledge and communicate in a way that is meaningful and useful to many.

Daveen Yang is a chemistry honours major entering her 4th year who joined Robin Stoodley’s course this spring. She improved Wikipedia’s article about thin-layer chromatography, adding more than 1000 words and 53 references for the benefit of 26,000 readers since April.

“A good Wikipedia article takes very complex topics and makes them more approachable for a general audience,” Daveen shared. “It’s very powerful for anyone who may be curious about a scientific topic but doesn’t want to get lost in the jargon found in a textbook or a research article.”

Daveen wanted to reach readers beyond the academy with her choice of article, thinking about what topics might strike a chord and how she might represent them for a general audience.

“Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is a powerful tool that can be interesting for non-chemists because of the visual element to it — you can separate and see the different components of a mixture. However, its a topic taught in little detail and typically only introduced in upper-year organic chemistry labs. My goal was to draw attention to this topic, and to chemistry in general.”

As Daveen began evaluating the article’s gaps, she noticed the lede section was completely missing. Given that this part of a Wikipedia article is an important introduction to the topic and is often the only thing beginners might read, she saw it as a big missed opportunity.

“The article instead jumped straight into a multiple-paragraph description of thin-layer chromatography that made the article feel repetitive and intimidating to non-chemists. Overall, the article contained a lot of good information, but it was poorly organized.”

Daveen not only reorganized the content and added new detail, but she also illustrated the article with some photos she took in a professional lab.

“I’m an aspiring organic chemist and got a lot of experience in the field during my previous co-op position at Genevant Sciences Corporation. In that position, TLC was integral to my workflow. The Wikipedia assignment was a great opportunity to research this technique and learn something that I can apply to my chemistry in the future.”

Ultimately though, it was the lessons learned about writing for a public audience that stuck with her.

“The main skill I got was writing in clear and concise language. Particularly, using simpler vocabulary and splitting long sentences into shorter ones,” Daveen noted. “Additionally, I like that the articles are often organized to have less detail in the beginning, then go more in-depth later for anyone who is interested.”

“It was an interesting challenge because of how different the writing style is from other scientific communication methods, like lab reports, that I have more experience with. However, learning to communicate complex topics in an approachable manner will certainly come up in the future as my career progresses. I will keep this assignment in mind in those occasions.”

Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free assignment templates and resources that Wiki Education offers to instructors in the United States and Canada.

Introduction

Imagine a journey filled with empowerment and inclusion, led by the passionate Wikimedians of Arusha. This incredible journey, known as “Women in Wiki,” aims to engage and inspire more women to contribute to Wikimedia projects. Across three regions in Tanzania—Arusha, Kilimanjaro, and Manyara—Women in Wiki has made a remarkable difference by encouraging women from the northern part of the country to join the Wikimedia community. From July 2022 to June 2023, this program thrived with generous support from the Wikimedia Foundation’s General Support Fund. Let’s delve into the heartwarming stories and achievements of Women in Wiki.

Engaging Women in Wikimedia Projects

Women in Wiki was born out of the desire to bring more diversity to the Wikimedia community. Recognizing the importance of women’s voices, this program organized various events and activities to actively involve women in contributing to Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia and Wikidata. Through these efforts, women from Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, and beyond were encouraged to share their knowledge and expertise on a global platform. One special aspect of Women in Wiki was the emphasis on experienced women serving as trainers for other women. These experienced women, with their wealth of knowledge and expertise, guided and mentored their fellow women, creating a supportive environment where everyone could learn and grow together.

Celebrating Remarkable Women

A special highlight of Women in Wiki was the celebration of remarkable women. At the program’s events, women came together to write about and honor the achievements of their fellow remarkable women. These gatherings not only enriched the content on Wikimedia projects but also inspired others by shining a spotlight on the incredible accomplishments of Tanzanian women. It was a true celebration of female strength and resilience.

Expanding Outreach and Impact

Women in Wiki successfully reached out to women across Arusha, Kilimanjaro, and Manyara. Through workshops, training sessions, and community gatherings, the program equipped women with the skills and knowledge necessary to actively contribute to Wikimedia projects. These events created a supportive and nurturing environment, fostering connections, mentorship, and collaborative editing. Women found a safe space to express their unique perspectives, adding to the ever-growing Swahili-language knowledge pool.

Generous Support from the Wikimedia Foundation

None of this would have been possible without the generous support from the Wikimedia Foundation’s General Support Fund. Their commitment to diversity, inclusion, and gender equity played a vital role in sustaining the Women in Wiki program. The Foundation’s support was a powerful endorsement of the importance of empowering women in the Wikimedia movement.

Conclusion

As we reflect on the incredible impact of the Women in Wiki program led by the Wikimedians of Arusha, let us celebrate the journey of empowerment and inclusion it has undertaken. This program has empowered Tanzanian women, encouraging them to contribute their knowledge, stories, and perspectives to the Wikimedia community. By highlighting remarkable women and fostering a supportive environment, Women in Wiki has opened doors for more diverse voices to be heard in the rich tapestry of Wikimedia projects. Together, let’s continue to champion initiatives that promote diversity, inclusion, and equality in the pursuit of knowledge.

Introduction

In July 2022, Swahili-speaking Wikimedians of Arusha came together for an amazing event called Swahili Month. The purpose was to make Kiswahili Wikipedia and Wikidata even better, and guess what? It was a huge success! Let’s take a moment to look back at the incredible things that happened during this event and share a call to action to encourage more people from Swahili-speaking countries to join us in contributing to Wikimedia projects in Kiswahili in the Swahili Month.

A Vibrant Gathering

During the Swahili Month event, you could feel the excitement and enthusiasm in the air. We had a fantastic time collaborating with other Swahili speakers who were just as passionate about Kiswahili Wikipedia and Wikidata as we were. We shared our knowledge and worked together to improve the quality and availability of Swahili content on Wikimedia projects.

Empowering the Community

One of the main goals of the Swahili Month event was to empower our local community and get more people involved in Wikimedia projects. We organized workshops and training sessions to help everyone develop their skills in creating and editing content and making valuable contributions. By doing this, we not only strengthened our local Wikimedia community but also created a lasting culture of sharing knowledge.

Expanding Kiswahili Wikipedia and Wikidata

Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved in Swahili Month, we were able to achieve remarkable growth in Kiswahili Wikipedia and Wikidata. We created numerous new articles, improved existing ones, and added important information to Wikidata. These contributions not only made our Swahili-language content richer and more diverse but also ensured that Swahili culture, history, and knowledge reached a global audience.

A Call to Action: Unleashing the Potential of Swahili Speakers

The success of the Swahili Month event in Arusha should inspire us all, no matter where we’re from. We want to extend a warm invitation to every Swahili speaker, whether you’re in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, or beyond, to contribute to Wikimedia projects in Kiswahili. Your unique perspectives, cultural insights, and expertise are incredibly valuable in shaping a comprehensive and accurate representation of the Swahili-speaking world on Wikipedia, Wikidata, and other Wikimedia projects.

Whether you’re an educator, researcher, student, language enthusiast, or simply someone who cares about preserving and sharing knowledge, you have the power to make a difference. You can write new articles, improve existing ones, translate content, add reliable sources, or engage in community discussions. Your contributions will help ensure that our Swahili-speaking community is well-represented and that the wealth of Swahili knowledge is accessible to all.

Conclusion

The Swahili Month event in Arusha showed us the incredible things we can achieve when we come together as a community. Let’s keep building on this momentum and continue working together to expand Kiswahili Wikipedia and Wikidata. By answering this call to action and uniting across Swahili-speaking countries, we can contribute to a more diverse, inclusive, and vibrant knowledge ecosystem. Together, we can shape the narrative of our shared heritage and empower future generations with the wealth of Swahili knowledge.

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP) 2023 is the fourth edition of this annual contest that provides avenue for Wikipedia editors to improve Wikipedia language projects with photos and other relevant media files. This helps to provide additional contextual information to articles, enliven topics and generally enrich Wikipedia prose presentations.

Photos and media files help greatly in capturing the reader’s attention better than a long-form text. Graphical illustrations can convey significant information in small spaces compared to text and are often easier to understand. Other media files can make Wikipedia articles more instructive and pleasing to read.

This is to promote the use of digital media files collected from various Wikimedia photography contests, photowalks organized by the Wikimedia community, on Wikipedia article pages.

However, while there are millions of freely-licensed images on Wikimedia Commons, a significant number of Wikipedia articles are lacking appropriate photos. Only a tiny portion of Commons’ vast collection is being used on Wikipedia article pages. Yet, every year, thousands of images are uploaded through various Wikimedia programs, photowalks, and international photo contests such as Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Folklore, among others, many important images and illustrations are collected, but are not being properly put into use due to lack of concerted effort.

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos aims to tackle this interesting challenge and use that to improve Wikipedia contents and encourage users to not only upload, but also put those uploaded photos into actual use on Wikipedia projects.

Wikimedia Affiliates, groups and individuals are all invited to participate.

The 2023 edition of the contest is officially open from July 1st and will run for two months till August 31st.

How to join as organizer

If you are interested in organizing the competition in your country/region or you are representing an affiliate or group, please sign up at the Participating Communities page and also consider subscribing to the Campaign Organizers mailing list. The central Organizing Team posts updates and general announcements in the list.

Organizers can contact the International Organizing Team using contact info below at any time for support.

How to join as individual

Any Wikipedia editor who has a Wikimedia account (created on any Wikimedia project) is eligible to participate. However, specific Wikipedia projects may have additional requirements. See our FAQs. To participate as an individual follow these steps.

1. Go to List of participating communities
2. Choose any community to participate.
   • OR, list yourself as an independent participant.
3. During the campaign period, use the hashtag for the community you choose in step If you are an independent participant use #WPWP.
4. There’s a Resources page prepared to help participants understand the many ways to find articles wanting photos and how to find the appropriate photos on Commons.
5. Ask questions on the campaign discussion page if things are not clear.

Contacting the International Team

There are several ways to contact the Campaign’s organizing team.

1. Use the campaign main discussion page on Meta-Wiki
2. Post to the public organizers’ mailing list
3. Send an email to [email protected]

For more information and other resources about the campaign, check our home page: Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023

Registration for Wikimania 2023 now open! Register to join us in Singapore by 16 July, or register for the virtual event anytime.

Wikimania will be held from 16—19 August, in person at the Suntec Convention Centre and online on eventyay, an open source virtual and hybrid event platform.

Registration is happening on eventyay now. Eventyay has been partnering with us to implement new features for Wikimania, and we look forward to working together to deliver an engaging virtual experience on an open source platform. Eventyay was recently used by the FOSSASIA Summit, take a look at how it worked there!

For those of you coming to Singapore, we will have pre and post-conference activities on August 15 and 20, so if you’d like to join meet-ups, edit-a-thons, city tours, and more, plan to stay for those days as well! More information on those activities to come.

We look forward to seeing you at Wikimania Singapore!

Note: the in-person ticket is subsidized by the Wikimedia Foundation and costs $100 USD, which covers opening and closing events, plus lunches on the core conference days. Scholarship recipients will receive codes to register for the in-person event.

Registration privacy statement.

🕑 1 hour 17 minutes

Tom Harriman is a senior learning project manager at the technical training center of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). He runs the NRC's wiki, Nuclepedia.

Links for some of the topics discussed:

• Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wikipedia article
• "Nuclepedia: Sharing Knowledge One Page At A Time" (EMWCon Spring 2020 talk, YouTube)
• Moodle Wikipedia article

The Leadership Development Working Group (LDWG) recently published the Leadership Development Plan (LDP) and invited community feedback. This post shares a summary of feedback and next steps for the LDP. 

In May, we, members of the LDWG, collected feedback on the Leadership Development Plan across the eight geographic regions of the Wikimedia movement. Through survey, email, local community calls, talk page and Movement Strategy Forum, we asked community members their thoughts on the resource: is it valuable? Is it relevant? What would you change? If you were to use it, how would you?

Who responded?

We received 86 responses to our call for feedback. Together, the responders represented 27+ language projects. Over 50% identified as members of affiliates and informal organized groups. Community members from all 8 geographic regions responded, with the largest percentage of responders from Sub-Saharan Africa and MENA, followed by ESEAP. 

How did people respond?

The responses were generally positive: 89% of survey respondents believe the LDP is valuable and 79% believe it is relevant to their community. On average, 77% of survey respondents plan to use the resource themselves or share it with others. Respondents shared three main ways they want to use the LDP: 

1. Hosting discussions about its contents to raise awareness and identify leadership skills 
2. Guiding one’s own leadership development 
3. Organizing workshops, trainings and meetings to develop leaders in their communities

We also asked respondents about the three sections of the LDP and whether they are useful, appropriately written, and representative of the movement. The feedback we received about the specific sections also matches the broader feedback:

• Section 1: Understanding Leadership Roles & Skills –  an average of 80% of survey respondents believe the leadership roles are representative of the movement, the leadership skills are appropriately described and the information is useful to them and their community
• Section 2: Navigating Leadership Situations – an average of 76% of survey respondents believe the leadership situations are representative, appropriately described, and useful to them and their community
• Section 3: Starting a Leadership Development Initiative – an average of 81% of survey respondents believe the leadership situations are appropriately described and useful to them and their community. 

While the overall feedback was affirming, we also received constructive feedback that helps us improve this resource. The following are the major themes that surfaced:

• Accessibility: Several respondents highlighted the need for the LDP to be more accessible, namely its need for translation. In order for this resource to be helpful to community members globally, it needs to be translated, localized and shared more widely across the movement. By supporting these three steps, the LDP will be more relevant and helpful to the communities interested in using it.
• Usability: Another way the LDP can be improved is by making it easier to understand. A few recommendations we received were to present the information in other mediums such as visuals and videos and to share real-life examples or case studies of how different parts of the LDP can be used. We also received suggestions to improve LDP’s content. One responder proposed the idea of adding a section to the LDP where community members can share stories of how they successfully used the LDP. Others shared helpful pointers about how we can improve certain tools, sources, and diagrams. 
• Audience: We learned from respondents that the audience for the LDP currently is too broad, making the resource harder to follow and understand its benefits. Some suggested narrowing the target audience or segmenting the LDP for different audience types.
• Implementation strategies: “The document is a great guide… but is there a plan to go beyond that?” Several responders shared that while a plan is useful, having more hands-on and structured approaches to learning would complement this resource. This will help community members understand not only what skills are needed for effective leadership but also help them develop the skills in a tangible way. The main idea respondents shared was to organize or offer trainings related to different leadership skills.
• Future updation and community contribution: Last but not least, we received feedback that there needs to be a way to update this resource in the future. This relates to the feedback on localization: there needs to be a way for community members to localize the LDP and share these new iterations so that others can reuse them.

What’s next?

Updating LDP

Based on the feedback, we updated the LDP and published a revised version. This version will include some improvements, such as a section for community members to share case studies and localized versions of LDP; updated content (such as the Leadership Skills Diagram and the Resources Directory) to improve usability and readability; a Glossary of terms and a FAQ section to respond to the questions and clarifications we received in our community feedback period. We recognize many of the other improvements to accessibility and usability will require more time and intend for these improvements to be carried out as part of the next phase of work. 

Future of LDWG

The LDWG in its current configuration of 15 community members from different regions and backgrounds was meant to convene for a 1-year term to work on 3 goals: 1) draft a definition of leadership, 2) draft a leadership development plan, and 3) support the implementation of the leadership development plan. Our work this last year confirmed to us that leadership exists in our movement already, in the people and groups who manage culture & heritage programs, organize campaigns, run affiliate organizations, support movement governance on or off-wiki, train newcomers, and many more roles and initiatives. Because leadership exists, it’s important to make explicit the kind of leadership we hope to develop in the Wikimedia movement. The conversations we had with each other and with community members across the movement confirmed to us the need for this work. We’re happy to have published the leadership definition and Leadership Development Plan to respond to the need.

Now that we are reaching the end of our 1-year term, we have decided to move forward with the implementation of the LDP in a more decentralized, localized manner. LDWG will wrap up its work by the end of September 2023. Afterward, we hope you, community members across the Wikimedia movement, will join us in developing leadership development initiatives – small and large, in the different spaces and roles we occupy. Community Development will also continue stewarding the LDP and supporting community groups in applying the concepts and tools from the LDP. 

A big thank you 

Finally, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank everyone for the feedback they have given us, not only during this recent feedback period but all the other times throughout our year of work. We have learned a lot this last year and look forward to the shared journey ahead!

20/06/2023-26/06/2023

Mapping

• EnumMapper has posted a diary with links to two videos that show tracing the process of highway and mountain woods with a drawing tablet.
• Mateusz Konieczny has documented, on the OSM Wiki, the shop=eggs tag, for a shop selling only or primarily this specific type of food.
• The line_arrangement=* proposal for mapping the arrangement of power lines is now open for voting until Wednesday 5 July.

Community

• Andrii Holovin has shared an implementation of multilanguage support for Switch2OSM that is ready to use. This implementation includes extra features like a day/night theme switcher, search functionality, and syntax highlighting. He has also set up a Transifex project for translations and is open to helping with integrating this work into the main repository.
• InfosReseaux wrote a blogpost to improve awareness about the importance of tagging. They explained how the tagging scheme is at least as valuable as the data in OpenStreetMap.
• Mikko Tamura shared the work of RainbOSM, MapBeks, and the HOT Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific on ways to celebrate Pride Month on OpenStreetMap with LGBTQ+ themed tags and advice in making your mapathons LGBTQ+ friendlier.
• Rtnf reported that the ‘OSM Cultural Spheres Group’ was launched on Telegram. As a community for OSM contributors with limited English proficiency, everyone there is encouraged to speak their own native language.
• Tobias Jordans blogged about generating aerial imagery from 360° point clouds and compared it to using phone lidar technology.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• Mateusz Konieczny is updating the list of OpenStreetMap map data users found to be in violation of the licence and is seeking help in reviewing the list.

Local chapter news

• Following an informal AGM held during SotM France ► on 10 June, the statutory AGM ► of the OSM France association was held online on Friday 30 June at 9 pm. A new 12-member Board of Directors was elected for a one-year term.

Events

• Video footage of the State of the Map France 2023 has been released. These videos are available on peertube .

Maps

• MapTiler noted that MapTiler Outdoor has long-distance trails visible on higher zoom levels to help you plan your summer bike trip.
• Steve Attewell is developing a place-finding AI chatbot using OpenStreetMap data. The app is still in development and has not yet been released to the public.

switch2OSM

• [1] User Diogo Baptista announced, on the Telegram channel of the OSMPortugal group, that MobiCascais ► is using OSM on its public transport network. MobiCascais is the integrated sustainable mobility management system of the Portuguese town of Cascais, based on an integrated platform of various public transport service operators (buses, taxis, bicycles, car parks, and charging stations for electric vehicles).

Programming

• Oliver Spies wrote an article about how to use OpenStreetMap data for self-hosted, self-styled, privacy-friendly interactive web maps using vector tiles. For many websites this approach may be an alternative to using Google Maps.

Releases

• The release of the OSM Element Vectorisation Tool (OEV) by GIScience Heidelberg (we reported earlier) was accompanied by a
  presentation of possible use cases and specific examples of what the OEV tool can do, as well as a video podcast discussing OSM, data quality, and using the tool. The OEV provides high-resolution data insights into the OSM database by creating a multi-layered view of the data.

Other “geo” things

• The Direção Regional do Ordenamento do Território of the Autonomous Region of Madeira in Portugal is capturing ► aerial imagery of Madeira, Porto Santo, and Desertas, enabling the maps of these Portuguese territories to be updated.
• Tomas Pueyo explained how maps distort our perception of the world.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
Prizren	FOSS4G		2023-06-26 – 2023-07-02
中正區	TomTom x OpenStreeetMap Taiwan Mapping Meetup		2023-06-30
Gárdony	OSM Fonó marathon: Short editing introduction and remote help (online, live)		2023-06-30
Düsseldorf	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen		2023-06-30
烏日區	2023年7月 OpenStreetMap 街景踏查團		2023-07-02
London	Missing Maps London Mapathon		2023-07-04 – 2030-07-04
San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2023-07-05
Berlin	OSM-Verkehrswende #49	✓	2023-07-04
Stuttgart	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen		2023-07-05
Rulles	OpenStreetMap Belgium – Réunion à Marbehan		2023-07-06
København	OSMmapperCPH		2023-07-09
臺北市	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata 月聚會 #54		2023-07-10
Zürich	OSM-Stammtisch		2023-07-11
München	Münchner OSM-Treffen		2023-07-11
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2023-07-12
Berlin	181. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch		2023-07-13
Bochum	OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch Bochum		2023-07-13
Montrouge	Rencontre contributeurs Sud de Paris		2023-07-13

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by Elizabete, MatthiasMatthias, NunoMASAzevedo, PierZen, TheSwavu, barefootstache, rtnf.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

Inspired by the simple unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list

– Field Notes back inside cover

Lists are powerful technology.

In his book Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer likens early writing to sheet music for story-telling.

Scripto continua had zero punctuation—even lacking spaces between words. This dearth of punctuation meant (Foer argues) that ancient writing was little more than a mnemonic device for remembering stories. Reading silently to yourself was difficult and uncommon.

Today punctuation abounds. And lists are the ultimate in punctuation technology, enabling you to read text at a glance.

Umberto Eco, working as a librarian in residence at the Library of Congress, went further, arguing lists created modernity.

But I think it’s more than just lists—it’s lists you run into again.

✨ Highlights I was responsible for sending intern payment authorizations for the first time. I successfully completed this task in less than a week. We had our first 1000 interns celebration in Lagos, Nigeria! My newest talk, “Thinking about FOSS, systemically”, has been accepted to FOSSY! It’s in the track “Diversity Equity and Inclusion and FOSS”. I’ll be on my way to Portland in 10 days. Intern payments In the last couple of months, I’ve been working on taking on tasks that are traditionally assigned to Sage.

To His Majesty’s Government and the UK Parliament

The UK’s Online Safety Bill (OSB) addresses important safety issues to protect children and adults online. However, in its current state, the Bill unduly threatens the survival and welfare of projects that prioritise the public interest over profits. The Bill neglects to protect free knowledge, privacy, freedom of speech, and the strength of civic society in the UK.  

The signatory coalition represented in this letter includes organisations from across the cultural, scientific, and charitable landscape. They run or support projects that are used by and benefit a wide cross-section of the UK public: from young people to retirees; professionals to amateurs; and those with global, national, or hyper-local interests. Wikipedia, open science initiatives, crowdsourced UK heritage catalogues, and other public interest projects are the most socially, culturally, and scientifically valuable parts of the web.  

In an attempt to weed out the worst parts of the internet, the OSB jeopardises the best parts of the internet. So, we are calling on the UK Government and Parliament to exempt public interest projects from the OSB. 

Our coalition, and supportive members of the House of Lords, are urging the UK Government to act. Fixing this is simple; it requires adding a new paragraph to Schedule 1 of the Bill, exempting public interest projects (see this letter’s accompanying FAQ). Should the Government fail to act, Parliament will need to make the necessary changes itself. The Bill’s upcoming Lords “Report Stage” voting, starting July 6^th, is the UK’s best and final opportunity to enact this change. 

We hope the UK Government will take swift action to protect the best parts of the internet — public interest projects that uplift civic society and promote access to knowledge online. 

Yours faithfully

The signatories

• Arcadia Fund
• Big Brother Watch
• CILIP
• CILIP Scotland
• Code The City
• Creative Commons
• FixMyStreet / mySociety
• Flickr Foundation
• Global Partners Digital
• Inspire High Energy Physics
• Liberty
• London College of Communication
• Open Plaques
• Open Rights Group
• Open Scotland
• The Heritage Alliance
• The Mixed Museum
• Wellcome Sanger Institute
• Wikimedia Foundation
• Wikimedia Italia
• Wikimedia UK
• Zooniverse

• Dr Andrea Wallace, The GLAM-E Lab & SCuLE at the University of Exeter, Exeter Law School
• Dr Amanda Crawley-Jackson, Associate Dean Knowledge Exchange, University of the Arts London: London College of Communication
• Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
• Oliver Creighton, Professor of Archaeology and President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, University of Exeter
• Professor Peter Cox, Director of the Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter

Co-signatories

If you would like to add your individual or organisational signature to the letter, please fill out this short form with your name and if authorised to do so, your organisation.

The post Open call by UK civil society to exempt public interest projects from the Online Safety Bill  appeared first on WMUK.

Online Safety Bill FAQ

Q: How is the Online Safety Bill endangering public interest projects (PIPs)?

A: As currently drafted, the Bill applies to organisations that allow UK users to see user-generated content,⁽¹⁾ or that allow them to search other websites.⁽²⁾  This affects numerous public interest projects that serve or directly involve the public.

As the Bill stands, PIPs will be required to understand and apply this new 260-page law, which imposes at least 29⁽³⁾ new and often onerous legal duties.  Worse still, as a “skeleton” (or “future proofed framework” law), the Bill’s full impact on PIPs will only become clear to them once they have also mastered dozens of additional “implementation” rules, guidelines and Codes of Practice that will be issued by Ofcom and the Secretary of State.

New or evolving PIPs — no matter how important and beneficial they may be for the UK — will then be outlawed unless they first conduct “child access assessments” (“CAAs”, Clause 31) and “illegal content risk assessments” (“ICRAs”, Clause 8) for all projects that will involve user-generated content (such as a photography contest, or a discussion forum).   Each assessment must be documented (with records kept for inspection), and must be repeated frequently — some have a regular cadence (annual), while others require regular revision: ICRAs have to be revised every time there are “significant changes” to the design/operation of the service, or to Ofcom’s guidance.  CAAs, meanwhile, have to be revised at least annually; then when the service design changes; and again if signs emerge that more under-18s may be using the service. Assessments will in turn give rise to extra obligations (e.g. Clause 9, requiring new compliance measures).  

The Bill’s clearest requirements are often the most problematic for PIPs: for example, even “citizen history” and “open science” projects will be required to perform statutory assessments of their impact on (i) illegal immigration; (ii) operation of unlicensed crossbow rental businesses; (iii) selling stolen goods; (iv) controlling prostitutes; (v) and displaying words contrary to the Public Order Act 1986 (among many other “Priority offences”) (clause 8(5), read with Schedule 7).

The Bill may even subject the more widely-used PIPs to a new duty to submit annual earnings and userbase statistics to Ofcom, so that Ofcom can, if it sees fit to do so, charge that PIP a new “fee” — in essence, a tax to operate in the UK (Clauses 74-77).  Ofcom is also given the power to force PIPs to use content filtering and user blocking technologies, without a judge.  Those same “proactive technology requirement” powers have already attracted widespread criticism for threatening the privacy and confidentiality of WhatsApp and Signal conversations.

Noncompliance exposes PIPs to serious fines, UK blocking orders, and even staff imprisonment. 

Unable to manage this entirely new legal environment, many existing PIPs — some of which have served or been run by the UK public for decades — face closure, or could geoblock UK users.  New PIPs may never see the light of day, and those already operating will become change-averse (since some of the Bill’s obligations are triggered by “significant changes” to the “design or operation” of a website or app).  Many PIPs that do attempt to comply with the Bill, without Big Tech’s legal resources at their side, are likely to cut their risks: they can exclude under-18s, or suppress borderline-but-lawful content.  Even larger PIPs, like the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation that hosts Wikipedia, have spoken up about the risk of age-based discrimination and risk-reactive censorship.

Notes

(1) A “user-to-user service” is: “an internet service by means of which content that is generated directly on the service by a user of the service, or uploaded to or shared on the service by a user of the service, may be encountered by another user, or other users, of the service” – OSB, clause 2(1)

(2) A “search engine”:

“(a) includes a service or functionality which enables a person to search some websites or databases (as well as a service or functionality which enables a person to search (in principle) all websites or databases);

(b) does not include a service which enables a person to search just one website or database.” – OSB, clause 201(1)

(3) Approximate figure only.  This only counts new duties applicable to regulated “user-to-user services, based on a count of obligations drafted in the form “a duty (…) to… .”  This conservative approach means additional duties (and prohibitions) are missed from the count, e.g. those expressed in the form “[x] shall” or “[x] shall not”.  This methodology also excludes (i) additional duties applicable only to services designated as “Category 1” or “Category 2a”; search engines; and/or pornography websites; (ii) additional duties that arise only in relation to compliance with Ofcom regulatory actions, e.g. cooperation with investigations.

Q: Doesn’t the Bill just require sites to take “proportionate” steps, so requirements only cause problems if the sites actually pose a risk to their users?

A: No.  Some of the Bill’s requirements are indeed written in a nebulous, “futureproofed” and “proportionality-centric” way — allowing Ofcom and future governments to spell out more concrete requirements down the line — but some parts are already extremely specific.  

For example, Section 8(5) requires PIPs and other covered entities to specifically assess the risk of their projects being used to see content corresponding to every offence listed in Schedule 7 of the Bill, and to more generally assess the likelihood of their service being used to commit (or facilitate) those offences.  The list in Schedule 7 is four pages long, and, as noted above, includes assisting illegal immigration, unlicensed crossbow rental, selling stolen goods, controlling prostitutes, and displaying words contrary to the Public Order Act.

Q: What do the signatories want to see changed?

A: The fix is simple: The signatories request the addition of a new paragraph to Schedule 1 that would exempt PIPs from the Bill.  The suggested drafting of this amendment is as follows:

Q: Would that exemption be open to abuse? How is “public interest” defined?

A: “Public interest” exemptions are already widely used in other UK laws.  For instance, they set aside some of UK data protection law’s most onerous provisions.  “Public interest” is also used in other important laws, such as whistleblower legislation.  

Someone abusing the exemption to harm the UK public would not be acting in the public interest, and would therefore be automatically disqualified from the exemption.

The Bill could also pair this exemption with a new power for judges, or Ofcom, to selectively suspend exemptions, in response to abuse – modelled on a similar provision in the Gambling Act 2005 (s. 284).  However, the UK’s neighbouring countries — such as France (which just built a similar exemption into its new social media law) — seem to view this as unnecessary.

The post Frequently Asked Questions appeared first on WMUK.

Manchester museum is a university museum. Which tends to mean a collection of things that 19^th century collectors thought were collectable. It also has a natural history collection. The closest equivalent elsewhere would probably be the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. On paper this looks quite hopeful for Wikipedians but in reality is means a collection that overlaps with other museums that have better collections. When looking for photos there isn’t that much we don’t already have better coverage of. There are a few individual objects that like the Sebek-khu Stele have articles but these are rare.

This rarity however the museum is probably a good choice for wikipedians looking for ideas. The skeleton of Maharaja the Elephant meets you in the entrance area and is one of a number of animals from the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens who’s remains are now in the museum’s collections. Quite a few of whom are notable.

Many of the museum’s mummies have been studied enough for biographies to be written (although the museum using a wordpress blog for much of its material complicates things there). There are a number of fossils where we don’t have articles on their genus (Palaeosmilia Murchisoni for example). Some of the historic (and not so historic locations) of excavations could be expanded. The Riqqeh tombs over in egypt but more locally (to Manchester) the Alderley Sandhills Project.

Probably of most interest to a Manchester based wikipedian who wants an ongoing project but doesn’t want to deal too much with local history.

Update: On 30 June, the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia UK, and fellow organisers and backers of public interest projects published an open letter to the UK Government and Parliament calling for an exemption from the Online Safety Bill. We invite everyone in the UK who cares about Wikipedia and the future of free knowledge to join us and sign the letter and spread the word on social media using #ForFreeKnowledge. Read the blog below to learn more about how the Online Safety Bill threatens the survival and welfare of projects that prioritise the public interest over profits.

Wikipedia is best known as the global encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. More profoundly, it is a platform through which diverse communities share and receive knowledge across generations, cultures, and borders in over 300 languages. In the UK, it is also a lifeline for helping to preserve Indigenous and minority languages. Take, for example, the Welsh language version of Wikipedia: with over 7.5 million views every month, it is the most popular Welsh language website in the world. It is now part of the secondary curriculum in Wales, within a module of the Welsh Baccalaureate.

Wikipedia and its sister Wikimedia projects, hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, are largely built and governed by volunteers. They serve as vital forums for people to share and access information that impacts their lives and shapes their decisions. Recent research published by Wikimedia UK, an independent UK charity that helps communities across the country to contribute to Wikimedia projects, found that active participation in these projects not only builds information literacy, but it also helps to boost citizen engagement in democratic processes. 

Yet, Wikipedia, an invaluable resource for the UK’s increasingly diverse communities, is now at risk. 

The Online Safety Bill, expected to become law in a matter of months, includes provisions that threaten volunteer-run, non-profit public interest projects like Wikipedia. For years, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation have expressed concerns about the Bill — mainly that its requirements around content moderation, age-gating, and user verification are incompatible with the way in which information on Wikipedia is created and curated, as well as the website’s commitment to user privacy and freedom of speech. 

As the Bill now heads into its final stages in the House of Lords, our core concerns remain, and we are calling on the UK Government  to take action to exempt us from the Online Safety Bill, and preserve the very best of the internet for future generations.

Our concerns about the Online Safety Bill

As it is currently written, the Online Safety Bill could require the Wikimedia Foundation to collect data about Wikipedia users’ identities, track their actions, intervene in their editing processes, and interfere with their ability to set and enforce rules for what constitutes well-sourced neutral content about a given subject. Such requirements are counter to Wikipedia’s editorial guidelines and policies, as well as its privacy policy. 

In short, the requirements would jeopardise volunteers’ ability to contribute to the website and offer linguistically relevant cultural and educational content — including information that reflects and serves the lives and experiences of minorities and historically marginalised groups.

The Online Safety Bill will not only affect Wikimedia projects in the UK; it will also have global implications. Many thousands of volunteer contributors to Wikimedia projects are based in the UK. Images and other content shared to the platform by Wikimedia UK’s world-leading cultural sector partners — such as the British Library, National Library of Wales, and Wellcome Collection — reach users all over the world, with this content receiving, by Wikimedia UK’s count, some 10.4 billion views in 2022.

The possibility that Wikimedia projects may fall foul of the Online Safety Bill has clear and serious implications for the entire information ecosystem, within the UK and beyond.

Our call to action

The Online Safety Bill will establish a new regulatory framework for certain online services, including user-to-user services (such as Facebook or Twitter) and search services (such as Google or Bing). During the debates within the House of Lords, legislators from all sides of the House have made it clear that protecting children and young people from the harm that they may encounter online is of paramount importance. Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation wholeheartedly agree with that aim. Wikimedia UK advocates the importance of information literacy skills, delivering thousands of hours annually to develop young people’s skills in how to navigate and understand the online world. What deeply concerns us are the unintended potential consequences of the Bill for free knowledge and public interest projects. 

Although community-moderated, open source websites like Wikipedia are not the target of this legislation, they have been tangled in its wide regulatory net. In an attempt to weed out the worst parts of the internet, the Online Safety Bill actually jeopardises the best parts of the internet. 

During earlier stages of debate in the House of Lords, many peers expressed the view that Wikipedia should not be encompassed in the Bill’s purview, since it was designed with a focus on algorithm-driven social media websites and commercial platforms. It is time to ensure that public interest websites like Wikipedia, along with open-science initiatives and crowdsourced UK heritage projects, will be protected. The reality is that this far-reaching legislation is simply incompatible with our distributed, volunteer-run content model. 

Without an amendment exempting such public interest projects from the Bill, the decision of how the legislation will apply in practice to those projects (and how it should be enforced in the event of their noncompliance), will be left to the UK internet and media regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) — which has the power to change its decisions and policies at any time. This lack of clear legal protection for Wikipedia and other public interest projects is simply not good enough. 

The value of Wikipedia and other public interest projects to UK society must be recognised and protected in law now, not subject to shifts in the political agendas of governments and regulators in the future. 

The window of opportunity to protect Wikipedia for generations to come is closing. We hope the UK Government will take swift action to protect the best parts of the internet — public interest projects like Wikipedia that uplift civic society and promote access to knowledge online. 

Lucy Crompton-Reid is Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK. Rebecca MacKinnon is Vice President of Global Advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation.

The post Protect the future of Wikipedia in the UK appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

Dr. Kathryn Jasper began implementing Wikipedia assignments at Illinois State University in Fall 2022. Here, she reflects on the experience. 

Where do people get their history? The American Historical Association conducted a study in recent years on that very question and the results, reported in a table, show that most people get their history from social media, films, and television, and that a very small percentage learns about history in a formal course. My students weren’t exactly shocked to learn that, but it did give them pause. Although I don’t believe history education has to be entertaining, it should be engaging, and it obviously is not since the university is quite literally the last place the public will go for historical information. As I always tell the students, I can reach more people through Wikipedia than I will with my scholarship. So, the project matters to me, and I hope the students might adopt the same attitude. Possibly the fact that they took the content gap problem seriously (e.g., many students wrote about women) this past spring is evidence that they did.

My course focuses on the medieval Mediterranean from roughly AD 200 to 1100. The themes and goals include to describe change over time (Periodization/Global Middle Ages); to understand processes of intercultural contact and exchange (Christianization and Islamicization); to explain the shift in global influence from East to West; and to demonstrate the diversity of the medieval world. But the structure resembles less a narrative and more a thematic series of discussions, but these are built around a single specific object, person, text, or site – just like a Wikipedia entry. I devote one class day a week to working on skills; basically, on Monday I present a sample Wikipedia entry, and on Wednesday we discuss research strategies and methods to formulate an argument. Every day starts with two threads, one related to a particular aspect of writing a Wikipedia entry and the other about a potential Wikipedia topic. I gradually tie the two together by contextualizing the topic and situating its study in medieval historiography.

In practice last semester I delivered content on Monday, and we worked on method every Wednesday. Monday’s class started with an artifact followed by its context, which I unpacked gradually. For example, I showed the students a strange multi-purpose tool dating to the late Roman period. It has been called the Roman “Swiss Army Knife” in popular articles. It looks like a pocketknife with several retractable tools including a fork. Although two reputable museums with similar (allegedly) Roman multitools, one in Italy and one in England, claim the items are authentic, there is no way that could be true, because of the presence of a fork. We have only recovered one fork from the confines of the Roman Empire, and it dates to the sixth century, centuries before the multitool was made. The dates ascribed to the objects in both museums have to be at least a few centuries too early. My point here was twofold. First, you can’t simply trust everything you read; and second, the knife didn’t exist in a vacuum (i.e., if you were writing the Wikipedia article for the multitool, what would you need to know?). I emphasized that even trustworthy sources should not be read uncritically; perhaps a source lacks corroborating evidence or requires additional sources, or different sources, to be convincing. I also wanted them to appreciate that we could only know the museums were mistaken if we were aware of the wider context.

Rather than incorporating method and approach into lectures, every week I devoted Wednesday’s class entirely to building skills, from how to find sources to checking personal bias, and every few weeks I deliberately scheduled an in-class workday. Putting aside time for developing their research and writing skills was a game-changing decision. The students who regularly attended class understood concepts that the students in upper-division courses struggled to grasp. Indeed, several students told me that the course gave them skills valuable in our more advanced courses.

I’d like to share an anecdote about a particularly wonderful student project. One student, who took my suggestion to select a topic that addressed a “content gap,” chose to revise the article on the sixth-century Empress Theodora. It was a bold decision, to say the least. I warned this student that the historiography on her reign is vast and that the primary sources are dense. She was not deterred. It speaks to how much work this student had put into the project that her entry raised so many fascinating questions. I mentioned to her that the Roman historian Tacitus described the third wife of Claudius, Messalina, in a specifically sexualized way as a proxy for the Empire itself, which might also be the case with Theodora. I gave her quite a few articles to read, none of which was required, of course, but she read them anyway. She took my idea and ran with it. Her entry highlighted that the sixth-century author Procopius deliberately styles Theodora as feminine because she’s been elevated to a traditionally masculine position and operated in a masculine world. However, the palace was a unique space, at once the state and a private household, and Roman women ran the Roman household, so the empress occupied a unique position. The substance of her article was fabulous, but in my critique, I wrote that it could be improved with some discussion of how historians have understood Theodora. I could tell she took that lesson to heart. In her reflective essay, she wrote, “It is impossible to determine how we should analyze a figure or event in the modern day if we do not initially consider how it has been previously understood historically speaking.” How many students over the years internalized that message in my courses? Very few. I was so appreciative of her entry because Theodora is one of the most maligned figures in history, and her good work corrects that perspective.

The Wikipedia assignment has proved an effective means to weave together important conversations in the field with the practice of actual historical research. I am proud of what my students have contributed to the discussion and look forward to continuing this work in the future.

Jun 28, 15:40 UTC
Resolved - This incident has been resolved.

Jun 28, 15:40 UTC
Update - We are continuing to monitor for any further issues.

Jun 28, 15:32 UTC
Monitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.

Jun 28, 15:14 UTC
Identified - The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.

Jun 28, 14:57 UTC
Investigating - We are aware of issues with accessing some wikis, and we are investigating.

27 June 2023, San Francisco – The Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, today announced that Courtney Bass Sherizen will be joining as the new Chief Talent and Culture Officer, and Anusha Alikhan will become the Chief Communications Officer.

“The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation calls on us to engage and inspire readers and users around the world in our work to make sure all people can access the sum of all knowledge,” said Maryana Iskander, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Courtney and Anusha both bring a depth of expertise in their respective fields that will make us a more effective organization and steward of this mission.”

Courtney brings both nonprofit and technology experience as she joins the Wikimedia Foundation from Google, where she supported global teams across talent management, people operations, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. While at Google, Courtney created an HR crisis management response team supporting all of Google’s 120,000+ employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also a Lead People Partner, coaching and advising over 100 senior leaders across the organization. 

Courtney began her career as a public school teacher in Philadelphia through Teach For America (TFA), and later worked at Teach for America as their Managing Director of Strategy, Talent and Operations. Courtney also brings organizational strategy and management consulting experience from her time with The Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte), and is a board member of the Donors of Color Network and Beta Financial Services.

Courtney received her undergraduate degree in History with a certificate in African Studies, and as well as her Masters in Business Administration (MBA), both from Harvard University. She also has a Certificate in Organizational Leadership and Coaching from Northwestern University. 

“Throughout my career, I’ve embraced the ability of people to build transformative cultures together that can motivate and inspire. I’m excited to join a community of people committed to an inspiring global mission at the Wikimedia Foundation,” said Courtney Bass Sherizen, Chief Talent and Culture Officer.

Anusha joined the Wikimedia Foundation in 2019 as a Senior Director of Communications and was promoted to Vice President of Communications in 2021, leading the Communications department. She brings more than 15 years of experience across human rights, technology, international development, journalism and media innovation. She previously held communications leadership positions at the United Nations and Knight Foundation, and started her career as an employment and human rights lawyer in Toronto, Canada.

As Chief Communications Officer, Anusha will continue to lead the Communications department with a focus on increasing understanding of the Wikimedia mission and projects. She will oversee communications across external, movement and staff audiences, emphasizing unified storytelling that inspires people to care about the work of open knowledge and take action, while strengthening connections with and celebrating the achievements of volunteers. As the Foundation adapts to new opportunities and challenges in the areas of technology and knowledge delivery, she will position Communications as a key organizational partner in driving greater engagement through media, marketing, digital communications, brand building and community outreach. 

“I’m thrilled to continue my journey with the Wikimedia Foundation, as it explores ways to meet diverse knowledge needs with projects like Wikipedia that play an invaluable role in people’s daily lives,” said Anusha. “In a time of seismic shifts in the way online platforms are used, understood and regulated, communications is essential to showing how the evolving digital landscape affects the access and sharing of knowledge.”

Anusha has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University, a law degree from Queen’s University in Ontario and an Honors Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. She is based in Miami, Florida. She is a Board member at the Communications Network and Awesome Foundation Miami, and a member of the Communications Network working group for diversity, equity and inclusion.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

The post Wikimedia Foundation appoints new Chief Talent and Culture Officer and Chief Communications Officer appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.