Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2010-10-18
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Video subtitling tool, staff vs. volunteer developers, brief news
Universal Subtitles editor comes to Commons
For some time, visitors to Wikimedia Commons have been able to access "timed text" (a system of time references and accompanying text, better known by its applications as subtitles and closed captions) via the mwEmbed gadget. The subtitling effort has been hampered, however, by the lack of a useful editor for the timed text. "Universal Subtitles", a Mozilla Drumbeat project, aims to fill the void for all websites, but Wikimedia had not been able to integrate it. That changed this week, when developer Michael Dale announced that (Wikimedia Techblog):
| “ | Today, I am happy to share our first pass at integrating our open subtitle efforts. Please keep in mind this integration is still very early on in development, but the basic milestone of being able to use the tool on commons to create and sync up subtitle tracks is an important first step. Even without helpful tools in place, the Wikimedia community has been creating subtitles and translations. We hope this new subtitle edit tool will broaden the number of participants and enable the Wikimedia community to set a new standard for high quality multilingual accessibility in online video content. | ” |
An example is available, and it is also possible to leave feedback.
Staff, paid developers and volunteers: discussions continue
This week saw a revitalised drive towards reaching an understanding between WMF staff decision-makers, WMF paid developers, and the volunteer development community. For a long time the creation of the MediaWiki software, which Wikimedia, Wikia and a number of other sites rely on, had a development cycle that operated like a wiki, for better or worse. It included a large number of volunteer developers and only a handful of paid employees (for example, Brion Vibber); their contributions were checked and deployed in sequential order. With its budget expanding in recent years, the Foundation has been able to hire more developers, who are now involved in a large number of projects some would perceive as being nearly impossible for a volunteer to complete in their spare time. Likewise, the review system has been updated to allow important fixes to be deployed out-of-cycle without first reviewing other more minor edits. Staff and developers, both paid and volunteer, are now concerned that a tension is growing between the various parts of the jigsaw, an "us vs. them dynamic" (Erik Möller, Deputy Director), similar to the conflict that had flared up earlier this year between the User Experience team and volunteer developers over a seemingly minor issue (the display of interwiki links, see Signpost coverage), where Möller had likewise observed "a widening gap between staff and volunteer contributions". Paid developer Roan Kattouw put his thoughts down (Wikitech-l mailing list):
| “ | Since the discussion about staff collaboration with volunteers started a few weeks ago, actions and statements by staff members have undergone an increasing amount of scrutiny and criticism. That in itself is not a bad thing... in recent weeks, however, posts on this mailing list [i.e. from volunteers] have gone way beyond 'some' scrutiny and criticism, instead suggesting something closer to distrust and paranoia. | ” |
Volunteer Aryeh Gregor responded:
| “ | This is a symptom of the tension between staff and volunteers. Naturally, volunteers are more likely to express their frustration here, because they don't have to act professional and because they're the ones who feel wronged in this case. | ” |
More optimistically, the discussion turned to possible solutions. There was general agreement that getting back to more regular updates was the solution (Roan Kattouw):
| “ | I whole-heartedly agree with the analysis that deploy backlog is at the hear[t] of this. I have some gut feelings I can't word very well right now that say the "solely because they're not WMF" isn't completely fair, but what you've stated multiple times in various guises is true: what matters is perception, fair or not. If volunteers *feel* ignored, that's bad. ... We need to come up with a plan that takes us back to regular (weekly?) deployments. I think cleaning up the CR [Code Review] backlog is an uncontroversial first step. | ” |
This sentiment was mirrored by Aryeh Gregor:
| “ | To reiterate, I think most of the problem will disappear when we have regular code deployment again. At this point, it's best to focus solely on that and forget about all other complaints. If problems linger for long after everyone's code is getting deployed on a regular basis, we can talk about that then, and I think everyone will be talking on much more amicable basis. | ” |
There was continuing disagreement, however, about whether or not the Foundation was doing enough to achieve this goal, and how quickly it needed to be achieved. Discussion included the expansion of the code review base - including the rehiring of Brion Vibber, for example - which unfortunately coincided with the paternity leave of head code reviewer Tim Starling.
In brief
Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
- Google Summer of Code participant Peter Potrowl appealed for someone to take over the development of his "reasonably efficient interwiki transclusion" project (Wikitech-l mailing list). See also Signpost coverage of the project
- The Brooklyn Museum built its first open source software release, BklynFlow. BklynFlow is a MooTools class for creating Coverflow-like user interfaces for the web. It was designed for accessing Wikipedia content on iPad Kiosks placed for a recent exhibition.
- Microsoft Research has released a tool to assist people in translating Wikipedia articles. The tool makes machine translations of articles and has a simple integrated editor to make improvements upon that translation. The new product is called WikiBhasha and as Wikimedia CTO, Danese Cooper announced, it is an open-source project.
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Wikipedia fundraiser event, Frankfurt book fair, news in brief
Wikipedia community gathers for fundraising event
As reported by Steven Ma, the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Associate, "more than one hundred Wikipedia editors, donors, and readers" attended an event titled Inside the Globe in New York on 7 October. The evening was both a fundraiser and an opportunity to introduce major donors to the people and culture of the projects. Roughly a dozen editors were present, including Wikimedia New York City board members and other local Wikimedians. Hosted by the Harnisch Foundation (a patron of Wikimedia) in the Metropolitan Tower, the evening saw presentations by Jimmy Wales and Wikimedia fellow Steven Walling. Steven spoke about "the identity and culture of the most involved editors, highlighting the motivations and methods behind their amazing accomplishments within the project". After the event, Ruth Ann Harnisch, the president of the Harnisch Foundation, expressed her pleasure to have introduced "so many people to the workings of their favorite online resource." In an August blog post, she had invited donors to attend the Wikimedia fundraising event, noting that she had added the WMF to her list of grantees several years ago (as a "tiny part of the support system for Wikipedia"); in the posting, she also expressed her support for the Wikimedia Foundation in its then ongoing conflict with the FBI over the reproduction of the Bureau's seal (see Signpost coverage).
Argentine Wikimedians at Frankfurt Book Fair
The copyright situation in Argentina is considered particularly restrictive. In a 2010 Consumers International study of 34 countries, it came out sixth-worst for consumer rights. Argentina provides no fair use or library exceptions, and does not even permit the free use of public domain works in all cases (for some uses, a fee has to be paid to a fund supporting artists). The book argues that this is detrimental for education and culture. Wikimedia Argentina has engaged in various lobbying efforts regarding the copyright situation, such as signing a letter to parliament protesting last year's extension of copyright in phonograms (sound recordings) from 50 to 70 years after creation, and opposing ongoing lobbying by photographers to extend the monopoly on photographs from 25 to 50 years after creation, which would affect commons:Template:PD-AR-Photo.
Edited by Busaniche, the book collects contributions by various authors to the copyright debate in Argentina. One chapter, by Wikipedian and founding member of Wikimedia Argentina Roberto Fiadone, presents Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects as examples of communities that generate free knowledge. Another chapter, on ebooks, was reprinted by the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. The Heinrich Böll Foundation funded a translation into German and organized a presentation of the book in Berlin, in addition to the panel at the Frankfurt event. The book is available as a PDF under a CC-BY-SA license. The Spanish version was downloaded more than 20,000 times during the first week. Busaniche also gave a podcast interview (in English) about the book to German blog Netzpolitik.
In brief
- Executive director office hours: The log for the IRC office hours of 14 October with Sue Gardner has been released. Topics discussed included the blocking of Greg Kohs, owner of MyWikiBiz, from the meeting; the resolutions from the recent Board meeting (see last week's "News and notes") including the adoption of the WMF's Five-year targets (about which Gardner posted an additional Q&A); the WMF's support for GLAM outreach activities; accessibility for screen readers; expert assessment of articles (including ongoing work by the Public Policy Initiative), whether the Foundation should put out requests for proposals (RFPs) before contracting external companies for projects such as the recent donor survey; the possibility of offline versions of Wikipedia on e-readers such as the Kindle or iPad; and the study on controversial content (which three hours of the Board meeting were devoted to, with the Board concluding that further discussion was needed about some of the recommended policy changes). The office hour was also attended by WMF deputy director Erik Möller.
- CGDO office hours: Part of the log for the October 15 IRC office hours with Barry Newstead, the Foundation's Chief Global Development Officer (like the previous one, facilitated by Steven Walling), has also been released, covering hardware deployment, local chapters, balancing legal jurisdictions, and progress in India.
- Research analyst and other WMF hiring: Shortly after the office hours, Newstead announced the hiring of Mani Pande as the Global Development department's Senior Research Analyst (job description). In other WMF hiring news, the position of an User Interface Designer was added to the Foundation's Job openings page on Monday, while the Community Hiring program that was started in July to fill positions in the newly formed Community Department (Signpost coverage) was removed there last week. It is not known whether any community members have been added to the permanent staff via the program, which had received nearly 2000 applications by September, but three applicants were awarded temporary fellowships in the newly created "Community Fellows" program (Signpost coverage: September 20, October 4).
One of many images uploaded to Commons on a field trip by members of the Israeli chapter: an inscription for the ancient Al-Budeiri Library in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem - WM Israel report: Wikimedia Israel has released its chapter report for March–September. Among the topics are the chapter's annual general assembly in June, at which Shay Yakir was re-elected chair and two new members were elected to the board; preparations for Wikimania 2011 4–7 August in Haifa; a report on the new copyright bill making state-owned photographs free, which will be passed back to the Knesset for voting into law and for which chapter members have assisted in the wording (see also last week's "In the news"); the second Wikipedia Academy Israel Conference on 14 June; collaboration by the chapter to ship Linux-installed computers—including a static version of the French Wikipedia's one-million-plus articles—to the African countries of Cameroon and Benin and the provision of training to local students in their use (cf. Signpost coverage); and a number of field trips to archaeological sites and kibbutzim within Israel.
- WM NL annual convention: On October 9, Wikimedia Nederland held its annual members' convention in Utrecht, attended by 21 people. The meeting bid farewell to Hay Kranen, who left the board after three and a half years' service. After an amendment was passed allowing the board to have up to seven members, two new members were elected: Maarten Brinkerink and Sieband Mazeland. One topic was the matter of employing staff at the Dutch chapter, although the first appointment is not yet imminent. Another issue was the best way to transfer donations from the Netherlands to the WMF in the US. Paul Becherer said he expects to receive advice on this soon from the Netherlands tax office. January will see a bootcamp for Dutch Wikimedians on collaborating with museums, and a members' convention for the chapter's 2011 budget, when the results of fundraising are clear.
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Climate change case closes after 4 months
The Arbitration Committee opened no cases this week, but closed one, leaving one open.
Open case
Stevertigo 2 (Week 3)
This case concerns accusations of wiki-hounding and disruptive editing, and was filed by Stevertigo, a Wikipedia editor since 2002. He alleges that several editors deem his editing to be "disruptive" or "in need of banning" because they "still hold the grudge that previous cases did not find in their favor regarding [Stevertigo]". He also alleges that he "largely won" an argument against two editors in relation to the Time article, and that those two editors began editing the Punishment article due to an undue interest in Stevertigo's editing rather than due to an interest in the article. The case is currently in the evidence and workshop phase. Drafting arbitrators Kirill Lokshin and SirFozzie have placed proposals on the workshop page which have attracted limited input, mostly from a couple of parties and arbitrators. At the time of writing, no uninvolved users from the Community have commented on the proposals.
Closed case
Climate change (Week 19)
This case was opened after several requests for arbitration were filed on the same topic. Innovations were introduced for this case, including special rules of conduct that were put in place at the start. The case generated a number of concerns and criticisms, particularly in relation to its handling; a common concern was that arbitrators failed to sufficiently engage with participants, adversely affecting the ability of many participants to provide meaningful evidence in support of their (or in response to others) claims (see coverage by Signpost: last week, earlier).
The evidence and workshop pages were closed for an extended period; however, no proposals were posted on the proposed decision page and participants were prevented from further discussing the case on the case pages. A month after the workshop pages were closed, a proposed decision was posted; this sparked a large amount of unstructured discussion, mostly comprising concerns about the proposed decision (see earlier Signpost coverage). A number of users, including participants and arbitrators, made the discussion more structured, but the quantity of discussion continued to increase significantly. Arbitrators closed or archived discussions more frequently, particularly in the final weeks of the arbitration. The highly anticipated decision was enacted during the week; it attracted several responses.
- What is the effect of the decision and what does it tell us?
- Articles related to the climate change topic (CCT) are subject to specially tailored discretionary sanctions. Editors should avoid contributing towards a battlefield mentality.
- These specially tailored discretionary sanctions may not be applied by Lar, Stephan Schulz, and other administrators who similarly fit the case’s description of an involved administrator.
- A Quest For Knowledge, ATren, ChrisO, Cla68, FellGleaming, GregJackP, Hipocrite, JohnWBarber, Marknutley, Minor4th, Polargeo, Scjessey, Thegoodlocust, Verbal, William M. Connolley, and ZuluPapa5 are each indefinitely banned from the CCT.
- Each user may appeal their restriction after 14 April 2011.
- Scjessey may revert obvious vandalism and make routine cleanup-style edits to CCT (as part of Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol).
- KimDabelsteinPetersen is indefinitely limited to one revert per page per 24 hour period within the CCT, and is indefinitely banned from editing biographies of living persons.
- KimDabelsteinPetersen is banned from the CCT until 14 April 2011.
- It is not the role of the Committee to decide the outcome of content disputes or to push for changes to any existing outcomes. The Committee’s decisions should be supplementing the standards established by the Community rather than moving towards changing or superseding them. That is, Wikipedia’s policies remain in effect; in situations where Community standards permit administrators or the Community to intervene, it remains appropriate to intervene in that way even if Committee measures like discretionary sanctions also apply.
- Experienced administrators are encouraged to assist with the enforcement of sanctions that are imposed by the Community or the Committee. Experienced administrators and checkusers are encouraged to closely monitor new accounts that edit inappropriately in the CCT area.
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