Wikimedia Highlights, September 2015
"Drone Photography of Versailles - Lionel Allorge.webm" by Victor Grigas and Reetta Kemppi, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.; "Chiesa dio padre misericordioso 02.jpg" by Federico Di Iorio, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0; "Highly active editor graph.png" by Joe Sutherland, in the public domain.; "Antidorcas marsupialis, female (Etosha, 2012).jpg" by Yathin S Krishnappa, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0; "Editatón en el Museo del Bicentenario 3.jpg" by Giselle Bordoy WMAR, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.; Collage by Andrew Sherman.
Here are the highlights from the Wikimedia blog in September 2015.
“When you see the gardens from above… it truly reveals all the intricacy, all the details of that work.” Video by Victor Grigas and Reetta Kemppi, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Lionel Allorge, a photographer and programmer from France, was frustrated by the difficult process of getting permission to use photos he had found online. That’s why he began to release his own photography under free licenses to Wikimedia Commons. One of his favorite projects involved taking photographs of the Palace of Versailles from the air. Aerial photographs of the palace exist, but those photos were not free to use.
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The featured image when the Swedish Wikipedia hit two million articles—a springbok. Image by Yathin S Krishnappa, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The Wikimedia projects hitting major milestones in September include:
- The Swedish Wikipedia reached 2,000,000 articles on September 5. The two millionth article of the Swedish Wikipedia was one of many bot-created articles. Jan Ainali, of Wikimedia Sverige, says that the community is aware of the role of bots in getting to this milestone, but that it is still to be celebrated.
- The Urdu Wikipedia reached 80,000 articles on September 9.
- The Armenian Wiktionary has reached 90,000 entries on September 19.
- The Swahili Wikipedia reached 30,000 articles on September 22.
Building bridges between digital, scholar and open culture: Educational editathon at the Museo del Bicentenario. Image by Giselle Bordoy, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Delia Vazquez, a teacher trainer and a high school teacher, always considered that she was lacking a theoretical foundation that allowed her to defend and argue for Wikipedia’s use in the classroom—something that would allow her to “move away from the prejudices that are common among my colleagues”. With this feedback in mind, and an idea of the audience we wanted to address, an education program was designed for Wikimedia Argentina. It aimed to change the perceptions of Wikipedia in educational contexts, and emphasize the key role open culture has in education.
Every month, we will share a new story for shared learning from a different community. If you want to feature a lesson you learned, reach out!.
Jubilee Church in Tor Tre Teste , Rome, the winning picture of the 2014 Wiki Loves Monuments contest in Italy. Photo by Federico Di Iorio, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
In September 2015, the sixth edition of Wiki Loves Monuments, the largest photography competition in the world, was held. Thousands of Wikipedia readers and contributors from more than 30 countries around the globe took part in the contest, hoping to document their local heritage, contribute to Wikipedia, and perhaps win a little prize.
Check out the winners for 2015 from all across the world!
Participation from over 200 community members in the Reimagining WMF grants consultation led to planned changes to WMF's grants programs illustrated by the above graphic. Image by Chris Schilling, freely licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0.
The Wikimedia Community Resources team recently completed a successful consultation to change the structure of WMF grants. Many important findings surfaced through the last month, such as a desire for small, accessible grants, a need to simplify grant types, and requests for additional support during grant application and reporting. The feedback provided by participants has produced many substantive improvements in the reimagined structure for WMF grant programs.
Very active editor numbers (>100 edits per month) since the English Wikipedia’s launch in 2001. The thick red line symbolises a five-month moving average. Graph by Joe Sutherland, in the public domain.
The English Wikipedia’s population of very active editors—registered contributors with more than 100 edits per month—appears to have stabilized after a period of decline. We’re seeing some of the same trends globally on other language Wikipedias.
We have released a new dataset (documentation) to invite community members and researchers to join us in analyzing this trend. Some potential directions of investigation include:
- Existing editors could be editing more
- Fewer editors could be leaving
- More editors could be coming back
- The community could be reaching its new carrying capacity
- Faster editing as a result of December 2014’s performance improvements (“How we made editing Wikipedia twice as fast“) could be enabling more edits
- A temporary resurgence
There are specific rules for when you can edit the English Wikipedia for money. Image by Erik Zachte, freely licensed under CC-by-3.0.
This question and answer-style piece details what individuals can and should know about paid editing on Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, covering Wikipedia and all other projects supported by the Foundation, require that all paid editing be disclosed, and you should never hire an undisclosed paid editor. It may be tempting to want a Wikipedia article about you or your company, but Wikipedia is first and foremost an encyclopedia. Not every person or business in the world will or should appear in an encyclopedia.
These guidelines apply only to the English Wikipedia and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Andrew Sherman, Digital Communications Intern, Wikimedia Foundation