Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2005-11-21
From the editor
We've added a new weekly series with this issue, after receiving a request to do so. To better keep you informed about server administration and other technical issues, we've added Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News (B.R.I.O.N.) This will detail major bugs and bug fixes, server problems, and major repairs. Input is appreciated on other technical issues that we can cover; feel free to leave a message at our discussion on the Tip Line.
Also, I'm sad to note that the ArbCom series will be on hiatus this week due to reform proposals by Jimbo that have not yet been announced. We hope to bring the series back as soon as possible.
Thank you for continuing to read the Signpost.
— Ral315
Creative Commons floats move toward compatibility with GFDL
In an effort to make freely licensed content more accessible across different projects, Creative Commons has released an initial draft of a license that would improve compatibility with the primary license for Wikipedia content.
Mia Garlick, General Counsel of Creative Commons, on Thursday released a proposal that would amend the organization's copyleft ShareAlike licenses. The draft amendment would change these licenses so that derivative works could also be distributed under the Free Software Foundation's GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). In explaining the proposal, Garlick cited the inability to use content from Wikipedia with Creative Commons-licensed material from other sites, such as Flickr.
Currently, the ShareAlike clause in Creative Commons licenses allows derivative works to use any license with the same "license elements", to allow for license updates and international versions. Garlick noted that the GFDL "essentially enables the same freedoms" as the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC-BY-SA).
Discussion took place largely on the Creative Commons licenses mailing list. The proposal initially met with enthusiasm about the prospects for greater interoperability among free content licenses. However, some concerns were also raised about it based on the provisions of the GFDL. The point was made that the GFDL specifically indicates that commercial uses are allowed, whereas Creative Commons provides the option to choose a ShareAlike license that is restricted to noncommercial use. Thus, to avoid going against the intentions of people who chose a noncommercial license, Garlick later indicated that the amendment might have to be limited to the CC-BY-SA license. Also, several people expressed concern about the widely disliked GFDL provisions for "invariant sections" (use of which is prohibited on Wikipedia).
Tomos made the observation that the amendment would create "a one way street" where Creative Commons material could be reused under the GFDL, but not the other way around. Since making changes in the other direction is out of Creative Commons' control, discussion also turned to the question of whether changes to the GFDL might be possible. Many people have expressed hope that the GFDL and Creative Commons licenses could eventually become more compatible, but any progress is likely to be gradual. The Free Software Foundation is currently working on a new version of the GNU General Public License (GPL), with a public comment process that is expected to last through next year. As a result, it is uncertain how much effort will be put into revising the GFDL in the near future.
ArbCom elections poll continues during week of little activity
Note: The Signpost special series on the
This week the
Discussion was also started on the suitability of a poll for gauging input and its effectiveness, with several users citing the now-famous meta page, Polls Are Evil. However, others disagreed, saying that a poll was a proper way to spark discussion and to estimate community opinions.
There were no changes this week to the
News and notes
Wikimania 2006 dates
The possible dates for Wikimania 2006 have been narrowed down to two options, one in July and one in August. The conference, to be held next year at Harvard University, is tentatively set for either July 13-16 or August 3-6. The choice depends partly on which facilities are available at the given time; the August dates have greater competition for meeting rooms, while the July dates would be tighter in terms of dorm room accommodations for conference attendees. With a view to maximizing attendance, August is believed to be preferable in terms of people's commitments and travel flexibility. The Wikimania planning committee welcomes feedback to assist in making the final selection.
Article validation to go live soon
Article validation is set to be enabled on Wikipedia "very soon", probably during this week, according to David Gerard. The feature has been available for a while, but had not been utilized.
Picture Peer Review started
After
Briefly
- The Hungarian Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
- The Swahili Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
- The Amharic Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
- The Catalan Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
In the news
Major media discusses Wikipedia
The
The
Wikipedia vandalism makes front page news
Vandalism to the English article on Norwegian Prime Minister
Others try their hand at the Wiki game
On November 15, technology site CNET published a long article called "How wikis are changing our view of the world" as part of their special report series "Taking Back the Web". It was written by Daniel Terdiman, who has written several previous articles on Wikipedia and other wiki matters. At the same time, they launched http://www.takebackwiki.com, a nearly empty wiki based on the MediaWiki software for their readers to take in whatever direction they chose. (The site was not working at press time.)
Similarly, the
Mail & Guardian follow up
The South African
The newspaper also mentioned Wikipedia in "One foot in the future" (November 17), and cited it for a definition of
Local analysis
On November 20, The Sunday Times in Singapore ran an article by Mak Mun San called "Wakey, Wakey, Wikipedians edit the world" (subscription required); it ran on page L8-9 of their print edition. The article describes Wikipedia and defines wiki terms such as "NPOV", "Wiki", and "Wikipediholic".
The California newspaper
Citations in the news
Wikipedia was cited in the last week in the following publications:
- Jemaah Islamiah [1]
- National Post (Canada), on Calvin and Hobbes [2]
- Dagbladet (Norway), on mal de debarquement [3]
- Photoshop [4]
- vegan [5]
- Great Falls Tribune (Montana, USA), on World of Warcraft [6]
- Easton Courier (Connecticut, USA), on Easton, Connecticut [7]
- defibrillator [9]
Citations on the web
- Bloomberg.com, on Charles Darwin [11]
Features and admins
Administrators
).Featured content
Ten articles were promoted to
Three lists reached
Four pictures reached
-
State Library of Victoria
-
Low pressure area
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
Temporary image downtime possible
Images may be unavailable for sometime on 21 November or 22 November in order to finish server configurations on the new image server, 'amane'.
HTML Tidy running smoothly again
After being disabled last week,
Wikipedia:Changing username re-enabled
The operation allowing users to change their username was re-enabled on 16 November. Special:Renameuser had been disabled since 26 September due to the page's inefficiency. brion restored the function with the 'archive' bit disabled, leaving a minor concern about the possibility for incorrect usernames in the histories of undeleted pages.
New squid statistics live
A new system for creating
Last week in servers
Other server-related events and problems included:
- 15 November — 1911 Encyclopædia Britannicascans converted to PNG files dynamically
- 17 November — Servers srv51 through srv70 are being prepared for usage as Apache servers
- 18 November — Page leech blocked
The Report On Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee closed a case against Stevertigo this week.
Stevertigo
The case against Stevertigo was closed for a second time on 18 November. As a result, Stevertigo was de-adminned. A previous ruling required Stevertigo to resubmit himself for adminship; however, after complaints by the community, and the ensuing RFA, in which many users submitted that the decision was the Arbitration Committee's job, the case was reopened by Theresa Knott.
The case centered around Stevertigo's actions at
Other cases
Cases were accepted this week against numerous editors on Political Research Associates, a series of editors on Winter Soldier, and Johnski (user page). All three are in the evidence phase.
An additional case against Rex071404 (user page) was accepted this week. It is in the voting phase.
Other cases against Xed (user page), Pigsonthewing (user page), Copperchair (user page), numerous editors on Ted Kennedy, and Rangerdude (user page), are in the evidence phase.
Cases against
Motions to close are on the table in cases against Maoririder (user page) and Instantnood (user page).