Open Wiki Blog Planet

Volume 5, Issue 22 - 1 June, 2009

2009-06-01T21:21:30+00:00

From the editor: Browsing the archives
Book review: Review of The Future of the Internet
Scientology: End of Scientology arbitration brings blocks, media coverage
News and notes: Picture of the Year, Wikipedia’s first logo, Board elections, and more
Wikipedia in the news: Tamil Wikipedia, Internet Watch Foundation, and more
Features and admins: Approved this week
Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Updates

2009-06-01T20:29:42+00:00

Lots of Semantic MediaWiki-related developments recently…

SMW now supports a “category” format, recurring events and location-based queries (e.g., to get all points within 10 miles of some coordinate).
Semantic Result Formats has the new “outline” format.
Semantic Forms supports creating properties, template, form and category in one step, and using forms to run queries.
Data Transfer allows for importing both XML and CSV files.
Replace Text allows for selecting the namespaces in which replacement will happen.
SMW and a good number of its extensions are now handled by both Admin Links and Configure.
The SMW quick reference has been updated, both the PNG and PDF version.

A Wikipedia ban and the wisdom of a 5-year old

2009-06-01T19:56:22+00:00

I’m sure many people enjoyed an outrageous weekend. Going to a strip club, drinking too much, behaving outrageously and then getting banned from ever returning. That sort of thing.

My version involved almost getting banned from Wikipedia. Technically I’d broken a fundamental Wikipedia rule, reverting an article three times. Since I’m absolutely passionate about the goals of the foundation, which begin Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge, getting banned would be rather sad. The fact that my version of the article was much better than the alternative version wouldn’t have helped my defence!

Skipping forward to Sunday evening, Dorje, in the midst of winning at all costs, said something along the lines of I’m so full of love I love everybody, even baddies.

Wikipedia has a principle of assuming good faith. This very powerful principle implements the idea that by treating people well, they’re likely to treat you well. So, when a user makes a contribution that you deem is not constructive, instead of assuming that they’re an agent of the Illuminati out to corrupt Wikipedia, or some nutter who cons the gullible with their snake oil product, one can work with them. Perhaps the edit was a mistake, or perhaps they are simply well-meaning but not really seeing a perspective beyond their own.

After Dorje’s comments, I thought back to my weekend’s Wikipedia interactions, and loving the baddie I’d been bumping heads with. To my mind s/he was arrogant, aggressive and rude. Except that picturing somone in your mind as arrogant, aggressive and rude is hardly assuming good faith, or conducive to spreading the love. So, I returned, ready to try make peace with this person, even if I couldn’t agree.

I found, to my surprise, that many of their edits were generally constructive, and that I had been in the wrong. In my picturing them as a baddie, I’d overlooked their constructive contributions, and had once even reverted a constructive contribution of there’s under an assumption that it was no good. Since they were perhaps tired, stressed, or picturing me as a baddie too, we’d both been bumping heads, looking at the worst of each other’s activities.

Thanks to Dorje’s contribution, I’m humbled, and for now, all is peaceful again.

Dick Cheney loves gay marriage?

2009-06-01T19:27:45+00:00

Never mind that Cheney had eight years to do something as logical in a time of two wars as repeal the Defense Department ban on gays in the military. In trying to cement his “Sister Souljah moment“, Cheney is out-and-about all gung-ho for the gays:

Cheney said:

“I think that freedom means freedom for everyone,” replied the former V.P. “As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don’t support. I do believe that the historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis. … But I don’t have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that.”

Possibly related posts

Wikimedia Commons, Picture of the Year 2008

2009-06-01T18:53:08+00:00

Yesterday on the Wikimedia Commons discussion mailing list. the winners of the 2008 Picture of the Year Competition were announced. Every year Wikimedians vote on the thousands of newly posted, free (under a creative commons, GFD, or public domain license) images to choose winners from hundreds of distinct categories.

This year’s winner is a cc-by-sa 2.0 shot, ‘Horses on Bianditz mountain.’ by Mikel Ortega, with touch-ups by user Richard Bartz. The runners-up can be found on the results page.

Congratulations to the photographers (and re-touchers!) for their extraordinary contributions, and to the organizing committee.

The Wikimedia Commons contains over 4million freely reusable images. All of the images in Wikipedia and the Foundation’s other projects live in the Commons. Like Wikipedia, anyone can participate by uploading images, editing content, categorizing media, and generally making the project better.

Jay Walsh, Head of Communications

JetBlue’s Test Group Helps Enterprise Wiki Adoption

2009-06-01T18:37:52+00:00

In early 2008, JetBlue introduced an internal social software platform to a test group of 200 employees who serve as faculty in Jetblue University, the airline’s training division. The platform gave this group access to wikis and blogs to share and collectively improve processes and techniques they use in training other JetBlue employees.

JetBlue’s decision to find a good test group will help its efforts to incorporate wikis and blogs enterprise wide because the training faculty can become advocates for the technology, says Rob Koplowitz, a Forrester analyst who studies Web 2.0 in the workplace and collaborative technologies. “You want to get a sense of how well it work, but you also want to do it to a relatively receptive audience,” he says.

In October 2008, Jeanne Meister wrote about the successful use of this platform by JetBlue University faculty:

The software selected provided a vehicle for JetBlue faculty to talk to one another, not just about process improvements in learning & development, but also to share photos from family vacations, weddings and birthdays. The thinking behind this choice was that as the faculty got to know one another better as individuals, they would more easily share lessons and best practices as professionals.

Letting the personal connections take place elevates the platform’s importance to the average employee, and keeps the coming back, which ultimately benefits the directly business-related uses:

As the JetBlue example illustrates, the process of getting to know one another better through the use of these technologies can smoothly segue into suggesting ways to use these tools to increase innovation and collaboration across enterprises.

In this video, JetBlue University’s Murry Christiansen, Director of Learning Technologies and Dan Dyer, Manager of Social Media, discuss why they chose to use these tools, and how some people naturally pick up collaboration on the wiki and blogging:

JetBlue Terminal 5 rendering © Gensler.

Wikimedia Canada Bylaws

2009-06-01T16:51:00+00:00

The first draft of the Canada group's bylaws have been posted on meta. This is a pretty big step, and I am sincerely hopeful that we will see a Canadian chapter formed and approved sometime in 2009.

Help Change the World

2009-06-01T14:45:05+00:00

If you are a history teacher (or really just a teacher) with a desire to help make the world a better place and have some time on your hands this summer (or next), I highly recommend a stint as a volunteer with Teachers Across Borders. This very worthy NGO is currently seeking volunteer teachers to help with their project in Cambodia. I went to Cambodia as a volunteer myself two years ago and had a marvelous experience, both with Teachers Across Borders as the facilitator of my work and with the Cambodian teachers I was working with. Anyone with several years of teaching experience can make a difference in a school system that was essentially destroyed in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge and has struggled to recover ever since. To find out more, visit the Teachers Across Borders website linked here.

Scientology "banned" from Wikipedia

2009-06-01T14:59:45+00:00

In an effort to close some long-standing conflicts on Scientology-related topics, the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee (ArbCom, for short) has used some interesting measures in an attempt to settle the problem more thoroughly.

Most prominently, ArbCom has called for a blanket ban on editing from Scientology-associated IP addresses. Specifically, the sanction is the following:

2) All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies. Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses.
Passed 10 to 1 at 13:31, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

This is an interesting development, but I think it's being misinterpreted to some degree in the media. Given Scientology's reputation for attempting to influence media in their favour, it's entirely understandable that a group in Wikipedia's position would want to bar them from contributing, so I don't blame journalists and the public for misunderstanding the IP ban for an organizational ban—but they can't be excused for missing the fact that a number of anti-Scientology activists were topic-banned (disallowed from editing Scientology-related articles, on penalty of blocking) as part of the decision.

To a certain degree, it is the case: Wikipedia doesn't need the kind of relentless view-pushing that Scientologists present. Whether they're "fighting religious discrimination" or "suppressing the truth", their drive to stamp out criticism of the movement is undeniable, and on Wikipedia, that's unacceptable.

It's evidently not the case that Wikipedia is outright banning the organization. The above sanction only blocks the IP addresses rather than bans the organization. If you read the principles defined for the definition, this becomes more evident. Specifically, the following principle is interesting:

11) It is rarely possible to determine with complete certainty whether several editors from the same IP or corporate server are sockpuppets, meat puppets, or acquaintances who happen to edit Wikipedia. In such cases, remedies may be fashioned which are based on the behavior of the user rather than their identity. The Arbitration Committee may determine that editors who edit with the same agenda and make the same types of edits be treated as a single editor.
Passed 7 to 4 (with 1 abstention) at 13:31, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

It's not only the principle that justifies the block, in my opinion—since multiple uniformly pro-Scientology editors using Scientology IP addresses can't be distinguished from a single one abusing multiple accounts—but one of the more controversial principles in the case.

I find this curious, and so looked at the votes placed on the principle. Risker opposed the principle with the concern that it could be used badly, since users might be attacked using this principle based on the point of view that their edits support.*

*Having edits which support a particular point of view is, in my opinion, not inherently in violation of Wikipedia's policy of neutrality; even if someone's edits uniformly present a particular point of view, correcting other imbalances, or presenting material favourable to one view neutrally, is not necessarily a problem.

As I was writing this post, I stumbled upon a Huffington Post article which deals with this kind of concern. It's interesting in part because of the points that it misses, but in part because of the relevance that it has to the subtler implications of the ArbCom decision, and suggests that it may be a dangerous precedent. In "Wikipedia Removes Semi-Protection from Civil Liberties", Leah Anthony Libresco argues that Wikipedia's decision to ban Scientology is misguided. Libresco argues that setting the precedent of banning an organization like Scientology, a whole class of people, is akin to taking away civil liberties. There is some confusion: Libresco says, for example, that WikiScanner can "identify the sources of anonymous edits made on Wikipedia by analyzing the IP addresses of the perpetrators", when this isn't really the case (WikiScanner correlates edits made without a user account with a database of known IPs of organizations, but can't equal tools like CheckUser which can investigate registered users). I think that Libresco misunderstands the depth of the problem (that Wikipedia's methods for investigating abuse are insufficient for the Scientology IP addresses) and the seriousness of the remedy, while falling into the usual assumption of an organizational ban rather than a technical block. Libresco does, however, make some cogent points about the need for open discussion—if speech is suppressed, neutrality becomes more difficult to create and, worse, to expect.

This kind of sentiment was echoed in another article which criticized the decision. In "Why Wikipedia was wrong to ban Scientology", Evgeny Morozov attacks the ArbCom decision as one which suppresses the group from joining in the debate about itself. Two sections of his article summarize the article well for me:

I am no fan of Scientology, but I think that banning them from Wikipedia is going to be counterproductive. Unfortunately, it presents the Wikipedia admins/editors as a non-neutral group that opposes a particular set of ideas. In an ideal world, I don't think that the Wikipedia editors should be making any value judgements on whether a particular idea is good or bad, for it undermines the trust that users place in an open encyclopedia, no matter how innovative it is.

[…]

However, bowing down to Scientology-bashers is almost guaranteed to trigger similar requests from people who hate satanism, fascism, or even pokemons. [sic] Granted it's harder to identify and ban the more decentralized community of, say, satanists than that of scientologists [sic] (who have registered physical addresses), but I am sure that very soon somebody will request that another group is excluded from online deliberations over what kind of materials to publish about it. In a way, Wikipedia's decision opens Pandora's box : why allow Christians to edit articles on Christianity, for example?

It misses many of the obvious considerations, and has been thoroughly criticized so far in the comments, but it does raise a good point in the larger scheme of things: is a decision to block particular sets of IP addresses on these grounds tenable? It's certainly possible that it may—as the first quoted section, and some other articles have suggested—have negative public image effects for Wikipedia. It's certainly a reminder that, especially in administrative actions, even the appearance of impropriety in an action can be damaging without the need for any true abuse.

On another issue, the criticism raises questions. Libresco's article in particular makes the parallel of civil liberties in suggesting that the suppression of any particular group is troubling. While I think it's fallacious to make a direct comparison of Wikipedia to many existing political and economic systems, there are parallels that should not be ignored. I plan to outline some interesting parallels in a future article.

Is the block dangerous, justified, or merely ugly and unfortunate? I'd like to hear your opinion.

The maturity test

2009-06-01T10:04:04+00:00

Some people assert that there ought to be a minimum age limit for editing Wikipedia. Perhaps it would be better to work from an alternative: a minimum maturity limit. Provided below is a multiple choice test.

1. "The encyclopedia anyone can edit" means:
A. Everyone is welcome to try and improve articles, so long as they abide by Wikipedia's policies.
B. Idiots and high school students write two-thirds of the content.
C. Epic lulz.
D. I've got access to a /12 range so you can't really stop me.

2. You make an edit and it gets reverted. What do you do?
A. Discuss it on the article talk page.
B. Restore it with a nasty edit summary.
C. File a frivolous noticeboard complaint against the person who reverted me.
D. Restore it under a sockpuppet account.

3. You get blocked for edit warring. What do you do?
A. Sit out the block and return calmer and refreshed.
B. File an unblock request filled with four-letter vulgarities.
C. Make bias accusations against the people who reverted me.
D. Blame the administrator who blocked me at a "critical forum".

4. The purpose of featured articles is to...
A. Highlight the site's best material for readers, and motivate contributors to excellence.
B. Earn clout that can be traded for unblocks after I unload on people I don't like.
C. Boss people around until they comply with my favorite Manual of Style clause.
D. Wait until the primary editor goes on Wikibreak, and then 'fix' the page until it confirms with my point of view.

5. Dispute resolution exists to...
A. Settle differences and improve the encyclopedia.
B. Settle scores.
C. Wear out the patience of everyone who disagrees with me until they retire.
D. Provide entertainment while my favorite "critical site" has been hacked.

6. Wikipedia's administrators are...
A. Seasoned volunteers who have earned the trust of their peers.
B. Children, wankers, and assorted incompetents.
C. The cult leaders of the twenty-first century.
D. Worth eight hundred to a thousand dollars at Craig's List.

7. Vandalism at Wikipedia is...
A. Easily reverted due to the robust structure of wiki software.
B. Often more intelligent than the Pokemon article it supposedly damages.
C. A fun game between me and my friends. We trade bets to see which of ours lasts longest.
D. A cheap source of mainspace edit reversions to bolster my next RfA.

8. Inline citations exist to...
A. Provide verification of the statements in the article.
B. Litter the page with nonsense. The list of books I've provided at the bottom of the page is far superior, and don't you dare slap a template on my work of genius.
C. Add new layers of fun. I've been citing MySpace and The Onion for two months and getting reverted a lot less often.
D. Make my point of view appear legitimate. The trick is to go with older text references not covered by Google Books. After all, who really uses interlibrary loan anymore?

9. Checkuser is...
A. A technical power entrusted to select individuals that helps to detect sockpuppetry.
B. Useless and easily defeated by anyone who has brains.
C. Not that serious a problem as long as I never log in to my main account at the office.
D. A good way to smear someone's name, even if the result comes back negative.

10. Jimbo Wales is...
A. The founder of Wikipedia.
B. The cofounder of Wikipedia.
C. A good user talk page to watchlist.
D. One of the few humans on the planet who can still get venture capital in 2009.

Flickr vs. Wikimedia Commons: why Flickr is doomed

2009-06-01T08:26:31+00:00

I was always puzzled why people prefer to use Flickr to Wikimedia Commons. Flickr, after all, has litte to offer compared to Commons: Flickr allows you to upload images, set copyright, tag them, comment on them, and is not fully free - Wikipedia allows you the same, plus is completly free, and comes with a community that will actually IMPROVE your images - by adding missing categories, correcting wrong ones, improving/translating description, etc. As far as I can tell, the only feature that flickr offers that seems useful and is not implemented on Commons, is mapping part of the image and commenting on it. And of course, for those strange people who don't like others using their work, flickr allows the use of non-free licenses...

Yet:

Flickr popularity on Alexa: 33 most popular site online

Wikimedia Commons popularity: 186 most popular site online

What gives? I think that the flickr is more popular because it looks more "cool", and with the snowball effect, it reaches more people. It's also slightly more user friendly, and better integrated with popular networking sites like Facebook. Wikimedia Commons is not that popular outside the Wikipedia crowd. Yet with Commons "wisdom of the crowd" approach, its steadily improving quality of images, and drive to move useful and freely licensed images from Flickr to Commons, while Flickr keeps accumulating more and more crap, I'd predict that in few years, time, Flickr will be relegated to a repository of porn, non-encyclopedic images and copyright violations.

Pictures of the Day - June 01

2009-06-01T06:03:02+00:00

commons.wikimedia.org:

Phalacrocorax-auritus-020.jpg from commons.wikimedia.org, provided by Mdf

de.wikipedia.org:

Erfurt-Hbf-Es.jpg from commons.wikimedia.org, provided by Störfix

en.wikipedia.org:

Pioneertown california saloon and bath house.jpg from commons.wikimedia.org, provided by Mfield

Ivri Lider plays New York City’s Webster Hall - photos

2009-06-01T04:34:39+00:00

Israeli rock star Ivri Lider invited me backstage at Webster Hall tonight when he swung through New York City on a North American tour that hits D.C., Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We made some images for the creative commons; click on them to download higher resolution sizes.

Rock on, Ivri, shalom and welcome back to New York.

Possibly related posts

Interview with Hillel Mintz

2009-05-31T19:18:57+00:00

Hillel Mintz posted a quick interview with me about my perspective on Israel after having traveled there twice for the creative commons and Wikimedia projects. Go here to read it.

Speaking of Israel, tonight I will be photographing Israeli rock star Ivri Lider at Webster Hall.

Earlier today I met with a couple of local New York literary scenesters to discuss the formation of a new website. We began its design.

Possibly related posts

Photoshop Interface Constructed from Physical Objects

2009-05-31T19:03:38+00:00

Bates 141, an ad agency and design studio in Jakarta, Indonesia, constructed the Adobe Photoshop interface with cardboard boxes, tape measures, pens, pencils, and other physical objects. This is part of a print ad campaign for local software distributor Software Asli, and it’s an amazing way to show the relationship between software and traditional creative tools.

Wikimedia Ukraine

2009-05-31T18:13:00+00:00

Short update today. The chapcom has received notification today that that group in Ukraine has had their first general meeting and elected a board of directors.

As a short disclaimer, the Ukraine group has not yet been approved as a chapter by the WMF board and has not signed the chapters agreement, so they are not yet a "chapter". When and if that status changes, I will write about it here.

http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/20090530

2009-05-31T16:16:57+00:00

enwiki-20090530-pages-articles.xml.bz2

Roundtable on Access - the digital rail gauge

2009-05-31T15:10:39+00:00

After the amazing Copyright Future conference held this week [good 30 second summary here], Wikimedia Australia was invited to attend a select roundtable meeting of cultural institutions and ‘thought leaders’ on the topic of Open(ing) Access to Australia’s cultural heritage.

Interestingly, what we seemed to discover was that whilst every institution - and I’m talking the major national organisations here - is theoretically on board with the idea of opening up and sharing their content, in practice they each have independent policies that stymie this. It’s rather like the way that Australia doesn’t have a consistent rail gauge - nothing really connects up and everyone is duplicating each others’ efforts…

(Dual-gauge railway track in Wallaroo, South Australia)

When it became clear that the problems standing in the way of greater access and harmonisation were procedural (rather than problems of infrastructure as with the railways) I piped up and asked the somewhat provocative question of why most of Australia’s cultural institutions used generic access-restriction phrases on every single item in their collection irrespective of its age/access policy/copyright. Here are three of many examples:

: (exhibit 1)

: (exhibit 2)

(exhibit 3)

A bit of backstory…

At this point I would like to refer you to the excellent blogpost by Sage Ross, grad student at Yale, from January this year entitled “Libraries and Copyfraud”. It explains the situation Wikimedians find themselves in when working with cultural institutions who make these kinds of blanket statements. Here is the key paragraph where Sage describes his attempt to access an already digitised copy of a portrait of Charles Darwin from the Huntington Library:

…In the exchange that followed, I tried to explain why the library has neither the moral nor legal right to pretend authority over the image (although, I pointed out, charging fees for distribution is fine, even if their fees are pretty steep). A Curatorial Assistant, and then a Curator, tried to explain to me that the Huntington actually has generous lending policies (you don’t “lend” a PD [public domain] digital image, I replied), that while the original is PD, using the digital file is “fair use” that library has the right to enforce (fair use, by definition, only applies to copyrighted works, I replied), that having the physical copy entails the right to grant, or not, permission to use reproductions (see Bridgeman v. Corel, I replied), that other libraries and museums do the same thing (that doesn’t make it right, I replied), that big corporations might use it without giving the library a cut if they didn’t claim rights (nevertheless, claiming such rights is called copyfraud and it’s a crime, I replied), and finally that I should contact the Yale libraries and museums and see if they do things any differently (a return to the earlier “everyone else does it” argument with a pinch of ad hominem for good measure, to which I see no point in replying)….

Apart from some differences of law [See footnote 1 for the three main differences between his circumstances in the US and those in Australia] his experience in coming up against the “everyone else does it” argument is entirely familiar. Another important argument raised by cultural institutions for these kinds of access policies - one for which I have much sympathy - is that due to depleted “core funding” the institutions need to charge customers in order to pay for their daily operations.

So, back to the roundtable meeting…

From where I was sitting, it appeared that those who represented cultural institutions were saying: “well yes, of course we charge access fees. It’s a business model and we need the funding. Everyone else does it…” At the same time the lawyers and academics were saying: “well no, of course they wouldn’t do that. The content is already online so there’s no basis in law for the fee to be applied…” This was the moment where everyone looked at one other and said: “Ah, Houston we have a problem“. But it is from these kinds of moments that the best kind of collaboration can occur. And so in our case, although the problem is not new, there seemed to be an awareness that specific measures need to be taken.

Into this breach stepped Dr. Prodromous Tsiavos who has been dealing with similar issues in the UK. He broke it down into three specific areas. I believe that if all Australia’s cultural institutions signed on to his suggestions, we would be in a much happier place because we would all be rolling on the same digital rail gauge.

1) Standard Access policy

Setting aside the issue of copyright, there is no agreed-upon “best-practice access model”. Each institution’s legal department writes its own rules and then the front-line staff have to enforce them. This is a recipe for confusion, frustration and the creation of organisational fiefdoms. It would be of great assistance if there was a document from the federal government stating the principles that they recommend publicly-funded institutions follow. Perhaps this would be a task that the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) could undertake? Trying to access a particular (public domain) image from the collection of one of Australia’s peak cultural institutions, I ended up speaking with staff from three different levels. Each one overruled the other whilst referencing the same access policy. The range of policies in effect across the country is broad. Some institutions say they allow personal/private use; some say they allow educational use; some ask for an access form to be submitted; some require a clickthrough agreement to their terms of use; some use technical protection measures (TPMs) to inhibit access (such as using unstable URLs, popup windows and embedding files in the .flv (adobe flash) format) yet others offer a “download here” button.

I would suggest we look to the Library of Congress in the US for a best-practice example. They do not have any generic statement on items. Their copyright information page gives details about how you can make your own assessment on the copyright status. They also publish a list of the “rights and restrictions” for many of their works so that you can see for yourself what the rules of the game are and where to go for further permission (when required).

2) Licence Toolkit

Once it is determined that a licence is required, each institution currently has its own separate system for drafting agreements. This is not relevant to Wikimedia as everything on Wikimedia projects must allow downstream access/usage. Nevertheless, it is a huge time and cost burden on the thousands of end-users of Australia’s cultural heritage. Drafting and managing these kinds of agreements takes approximately 70% of my work time at the Dictionary of Sydney despite the fact that each of the agreements has the same restrictions and warranties. One of the key advantages of the Creative Commons licencing scheme is the way it is “off the shelf” and “mix and match”. Rather than every institutions having to draft and manage bespoke licences that say effectively the same thing it would be good if there were a standard licence toolkit which everyone could access. Again, the federal government could play a role here as I am willing to bet my left arm that this measure alone would produce huge labour and cost efficiencies. People could stop worrying about managing licences and start getting down to the business. And I mean business. How much money and time is spent by the cultural production houses like the ABC and SBS tracking down and managing licenses when that money could be better spent in producing content.

The Australian Copyright Council would no doubt be appalled by this idea. Despite the fact that they are government funded to provide neutral copyright advice they behave as if they have a vested interest is in maintaining complexity in the licencing system. Their dislike of the Creative Commons system, precisely because it is “off the shelf”, is testament to that. Unfortunately, because of their own access conditions to their (government funded) work, I am not allowed to talk about what they have to say. This is what is written on the last page of their “Creative Commons licences (information sheet) GO94″. Oh the irony…

3) Standard Workflow

Standard workflow is a corollary of the first two points. If you have a standard policy for access, and you have a clear system of licensing usage for items still in copyright, then you need a standard way of managing the process. Each institution currently has a different format for directing access/licence requests and these requests pass through different departments. For example, sometimes I am simply asked to notify by email my having received permission for use of an in-copyright work; sometimes I need to fill out and fax a monthly form; sometimes I need to wait for that form to be signed by a copyright officer and returned; sometimes I need to send an image gallery of the items I intend to use; and so on … It would be more efficient for the organisation and easier for the customer if the processes were simpler and the default policy was built around access rather than restriction.

I have a strong feeling that these issues are going to be raised at the upcoming GLAM-WIKI meeting in Canberra. In fact, since I’m the one convening it, I’m going to make sure they do. We need to all be rolling on the same digital rail gauge.

Peace, love & metadata to all.

Liam

[footnote 1] There are three big differences between his circumstance and that in Australia - 1) the idea of Public Domain [PD] is not actually enshrined in law in Australia as it is in America. It’s never actually been tested - so I hear. In the exact reverse of the American experience it is impossible for the Australian government to license something as PD and even the CreativeCommonsZero license is on shaky ground here. 2) We don’t have “fair use” but rather “fair dealing” which is in effect much more restricted. In the US-AU free trade agreement we managed to get US-style copyright term extentions but failed to get any of their generous copyright exceptions to match. 3) Bridgeman v. Corel is not a binding precedent in the Australian jurisdiction.

Google's copyright paranoia

2009-05-31T14:18:12+00:00

Lessig's Free Culture book has been released under a Creative Commons license. So how come Google Print's three editions consist of one limited preview and two no previews??

More Waves

2009-05-30T14:54:00+00:00

Essential to me and many of my friends is the license for Wave. The patent license has already been posted. It is short and it is sweet.

"Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Google and its affiliates hereby grant to you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this License) patent license for patents necessarily infringed by implementation of this specification. If you institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the specification constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses for the specification granted to you under this License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed."

In addition to the license, a contributor to the protocol has to provide either an individual or an organisational contributor license agreement AND in order to get a patch to the protocol accepted, a production-quality patch for the reference implementation has to be provided.

For Wave technology to succeed, is must be easily adopted and be adopted as widely as possible. Given that Wave is based on peer to peer technology, only by making client or server applications available cooperation can be ensured. By restricting the use of software cooperation in a Wave is prevented and the usefulness of the functionality is reduced
Thanks,
GerardM.

Stormy Weather

2009-05-29T22:39:28+00:00

The last few weeks have been exciting and tumultuous for the AboutUs developers as we have moved many of our systems in to the cloud. We first dipped a toe in to the water back in March by migrating this blog to Amazon’s ec2, and in the past month we’ve moved much of the core data storage of AboutUs their too.

But if you’re an active AboutUs community member or follow us on Twitter, you’ll know that it has been a somewhat rocky start for us.

The site has been in and out of read-only mode recently, (meaning the site is up, but no editing is possible). While this is definitely preferable to being totally out of commission, it certainly isn’t the best place to be, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.

As of today, we’ve moved temporarily back to our previous data centers in order to get a handle on things. Our development and systems team has been working hard to iron out any kinks, and we hope to be fully operational and back in the cloud as soon as possible. We’re confident that this change in our architecture is going to be a long term boon to the site, but in the meantime, we appreciate your patience. Look here and on Twitter for a future update on our progress.

3qi-perfect

2009-05-29T20:40:37+00:00

Pfanne comments about the new Pixel Qi screen:

this completes the things that i want to have in my dreamnotebook…
40/45nm amd gpu/processor (with enough juice fur starcraft2+diablo3)
pixel qi display
gallium3d based driver
direct3d statetracker
6h+ batterylife
14inch screen
i’d give an arm for a computer with these specs…
more likely a leg, using a computer with only one arm is shit.

Now who’s pulling whose leg? Congrats to Mary Lou and team on approaching their first release; it looks simply beautiful.

Do you like popularity contests?

2009-05-29T15:22:01+00:00

Yes or no.

If no, why do we keep making them?

Justin Theroux, Chevy Chase, Liya Kebede and Sigourney Weaver - new Wikipedia portraits

2009-05-29T14:44:32+00:00

I looked through my 2008 Tribeca Film Festival photos at the premiere of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Baby Mama and found some new shots to upload for the Creative Commons.

Liya Kebede - (born January 3, 1980) is an Ethiopian model who has appeared on the cover of US Vogue twice. According to Forbes, Kebede was the eleventh highest-paid model in the world.

Justin Theroux - (born August 10, 1971) is an American actor, screenwriter and director.

Sigourney Weaver - (born October 8, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress, best known for her roles as Lt. Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series and as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters movies.

Chevy Chase - (born October 8, 1943) is an American Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and television and film actor. Born into a prominent family, Chase quickly became a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, where his Weekend Update skit quickly became a staple of the show. Chase is also well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon’s Vacation films.

These images are licensed Creative Commons and are part of a public art project. Click here to see more.

Possibly related posts

Scientological Aspirations

2009-05-29T09:59:49+00:00

I can certainly sympathize with the decision by Wikipedia to ban Scientology. If anyone deserves to be banned, it is them. On the other hand, I think it raises a lot of longterm issues that may or may not have been considered. Rather than condemn or condone the decision, I am going to go through some of these issues one by one, in no particular order.

1. The CoS has a reputation as a very litigious organization with lots of money backing it up. If they decided to involve WP in a protracted lawsuit, does Wikipedia have the resources to handle it? I am skeptical.

2. Who would the CoS sue? As I read it, the decision was made by the Arb Com, not the WMF office. That is a good thing. The WMF bases its legal claims on it being a service provider, rather than a content provider. As such, it has no say in matters of content. Could that be challenged? If so, the impact would reach far beyond the CoS. Anyone else with a gripe against Wikipedia could threaten the Foundation in the same way. In that sense, it is important that the Foundation remain as completely uninvolved in the ensuing debate as possible.

3. On the other hand, what would the WMF do if the CoS decided to go after the Arb Com members who made the decision? Would the WMF assist them with legal protection? Would it hang them out to dry? Could it afford the former? How would the latter approach affect the willingness of volunteers to assume various responsibilities such as Arb Com or even Board (actually, the Board is insured, but no one else is)?

4. What will the PR impact of the decision be? Right now it is good, but that could all be turned around rather quickly. Might Wikipedia get the reputation as "The encyclopedia that anyone except Scientologists can edit"? To be totally honest, that is not a fair assessment. Scientologists weren't banned: an IP address was. On the other hand, most people aren't that careful in making those kinds of distinctions.

5. Assuming that the CoS decides to forgo the legal route, are there any other strategies that they might use to fulfill their agenda, and is WP prepared for them? For example, rather than paying a lawyer, they might decide to pay the WMF some hefty sum--say $5 million--and ask for a seat on the Advisory Board in return. Heck, they could even ask for a Board seat eventually or a position as special adviser to the CEO. That is just one contingency that comes to mind, and I am sure there are others. Is the WMF prepared for that? Alternately, they might simply get the same people to use different IPs and have them slowly climb up the ranks: admin, bureaucrat, steward, etc. There is a lot that can be done if a large enough group is committed to it.

6. Banning a group is an almost unprecedented act in Wikipedia (though the Senate ban of a few years ago was fun). Is it setting precedent? Is there a slippery slope down the road? What other groups might get banned in the future?

To be totally honest, I don't know what to do in this situation. I don't even know how legitimate my concerns are, but they are concerns nonetheless. To quote Rachel Maddow, I hope that someone talks me down.

Google wave

2009-05-29T07:05:00+00:00

I just watched yesterday's developer presentation of Google Wave. It stole the thunder of bing and deservedly so. It is the difference between a completely proprietary search system and an open source system that integrates many of the paradigms of the modern Internet. It is the difference between a "me too" system and something "new".

I think wave has the potential to make a big difference. The one thing that struck me was how much those aspects that make a Wiki are integrated already. The usability of this still very early product is awesome. When you see this demonstration and you think Wikipedia, you may find like me that much of the functionality is already there.. Sure I have not seen the "flagged revisions" or the "citations" but both will be the kind of functionality that so many people / organisations will need that I am sure that that will happen.

What do you think, is this the kind of open source functionality that would fit Wikipedia?
Thanks,
GerardM

Another reason not to copyright logos

2009-05-28T20:25:59+00:00

…and should leave their source files publicly available. Because most logos need work, and you never know who’s going to improve on yours for their own reasons. (Of course you should still trademark them.)

Bjorn S. reflects on designing the first Wikipedia logo (designed for Nupedia but never used on that project), and describes how it led to today’s silver ball… and how he didn’t know about any of this until a week ago.

Wikipedia's longest arbitration case

2009-05-28T21:02:56+00:00

After five months and 17 days it's finally over: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Scientology

Case Opened on 04:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Case Closed on 13:31, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

A few of the remedies deserve discussion:

Review of articles urged

9) The Arbitration Committee urges that knowledgeable and non-conflicted users not previously involved in editing Scientology-related articles, especially Scientology-related biographies of living people, should carefully review them for adherence to Wikipedia policies and address any perceived or discovered deficiencies. This is not a finding that the articles are or are not satisfactory in their present form, but an urging that independent members of the community examine the matter in light of the case.

Passed 11 to 0 at 13:31, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

In the Scientology arbitration case which closed today, two senior administrators were sanctioned even though neither had edited this topic since 2007: one was topic banned and another was restricted.

Two years ago as I responded to a positive checkuser finding and a noticeboard request related to this dispute. That problem could not be resolved at the community level. As a result of that situation and its followup I requested two arbitration cases on this subject. The other was Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/COFS. These two cases consumed 253 days of my life. Two administrators and various other editors were less fortunate; they are now under formal sanction regarding actions they had ceased long before the case began. In several instances, diffs cited in the decision were cherry picked, inconclusive, or very old.

Remedies in Wikipedia are supposed to be preventative rather than punitive. When it comes to arbitration this is no longer true. It is not possible to endorse the Committee's request for "knowledgeable and non-conflicted users not previously involved in editing Scientology-related articles" to involve themselves in this dispute. The dispute does need help, but it's like stepping into quicksand.

Encoding the Pahawh Hmong script

2009-05-28T19:46:00+00:00

Pahawh Hmong is a script. It is used to write the Hmong language(s). Different scripts are quite the norm in Asian languages and it is for this reason that the Hmong take pride in the existence of "their" script. Pahawh Hmong was developed in 1959 and it has evolved in to three variants and this complicates things a lot.

At this time there is the opportunity for this script to be included in Unicode. It is a good time to do this; there is still someone alive who knew Mr Shong Lue Yang, and it takes some plane tickets and salary for the person researching and encoding the script into Unicode.

It is not just Wikipedia that requires Unicode for a script most applications do. Without it, you may write it with a fountain pen but effectively the language is not part of this modern world.

As it is, there is no money for the encoding of the Pahawh Hmong script...
Thanks,
GerardM

So It’s Come to This?

2009-05-28T18:25:17+00:00

Who knew that history educators could be put in the unenviable position to fighting to keep a standardized multiple choice test that is inflicted on third graders here in Virginia? For as long as the test’m till they drop mentality has been governing history instruction at the K-12 level, history teachers have been complaining about having to “teach to the test.” The primary complaint, of course, has been that the tests privilege a particular type of history, namely the version that is all about memorizing names and dates.

Three years ago I had some very critical things to say about the Florida legislature’s desire to impose the Sgt. Joe Friday approach to history on the schools in Florida (one of my favorite posts of all time in case you’re keeping track).

Now, though, it seems the worm has turned…Today’s Washington Post reports that some history teachers and/or social studies administrators in Virginia are opposed to the state’s proposal to drop the third grade history test administered state-wide (a “standard of learning” test or, ironically, an SOL). A couple of those quoted in the article worry that if there is no history test for third graders then history will be devalued as a subject in the schools.

As the parent to two school-age children (one of whom took his fourth grade SOL in history this morning), I want to make it very clear that I’m with whoever it is who wants to drop the third grade test. I spend a lot of time working with history teachers at all grade levels in the public schools and my impression is that the vast, vast majority are very committed to the idea that history has a central place in the school curriculum at all grade levels, so I’m not worried that teachers are going to suddenly drop history like a stone just because there isn’t a state wide test.

And I’m equally sure that no school district anywhere in the United States could get away with cutting much more history from the curriculum than has already been cut in the past 20 or 30 years. To do so strikes me as a political third rail.

So I say let the Florida legislators try to transform their state into Belarus. Here in Virginia I say we can live without a history test or two.

Abu Ghraib photos show child rape

2009-05-28T17:23:14+00:00

As if the Bush legacy of horror can’t get any worse, apparently the photos that Obama decided not to release show how our torture policies during the flopped invasion of Iraq were shockingly carried out. Reports the UK Telegraph:

The latest photographs relate to 400 cases of alleged abuse between 2001 and 2005 in Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Mr Obama said the individuals involved had been “identified, and appropriate actions” taken.

Maj Gen Taguba’s internal inquiry into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which, he said in the report, he found “credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses.”

Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: “I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***…. and the female soldier was taking pictures.”

The translator, an American Egyptian, is now facing a civil court case in the United States.

Retired Major Gen. Antonio Taguba oversaw the U.S. investigation into the abuses at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison. The unreleased photographs are rumored to number close to 2000 in total. Taguba went on to say that he supports Obama’s decision to not release the images because they would imperil American troops. “The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it,” said Taguba.

It certainly turns my stomach, as an American.

Possibly related posts

How Email Inefficiency Reduces the Quality of Group Input

2009-05-28T16:46:46+00:00

This is from Ric Roberts of Swirrl, a company that offers a hosted online workspace for sharing knowledge. The Swirrl Blog is a good source of information on business collaboration and knowledge management. - Stewart

Email works great for short messages intended for one person, where you just want to alert the recipient to something, and no further discussion is required. But when you start to include more people, and they all start chipping in with their responses, email starts to break down as an efficient medium.

Say there are five other people in your team, and you want to get their feedback on a report that you intend to send to a client. If you send out an email to all of them, asking for their advice, you might get 3 or 4 responses back: some with revised versions of the report, some with notes at the end and some with comments interspersed within your original text. A couple of people might have ‘CC’d everyone else in your team when they replied, where others might have just replied directly to you.

I’m sure you can see where this is leading. Your team ends up with multiple conflicting versions of the report, some of which aren’t available to everyone involved. Holding a meaningful discussion over the content quickly becomes impossible.

What’s more, some of your team might be busy doing something else more urgent, and as your group email discussion progresses, you’re just annoying them with unnecessary interruptions. Conversely, because not everyone included the whole team in their replies, some people miss out on messages which may have sparked an idea or perhaps included topics where they could have contributed useful insights.

Using tools which provide you with central hub for communication (such as a wiki), instead of directly contacting each individual person, allows you to reduce the number of connections involved. This, in turn, reduces the number of interruptions and the number versions of the document that are generated, making the discussion much more manageable. Furthermore, if the article is in a wiki, then it becomes search-able by all the users of the wiki too, so other people can find it again in the future. This is not the case if it’s stuck in someone’s inbox.

Email is not entirely redundant: it still makes sense to send out an email to your team-mates, pointing them to the discussion in your chosen collaboration tool (e.g. a url to a wiki page). But from that point on, it’s more efficient to hold the discussion entirely within an application designed for that purpose. At Swirrl, we try to avoid sending each other emails as much as possible, and when we do, it’s often just to point out something we’ve written on our wiki.

Requests to implement the Babel extension

2009-05-28T14:44:00+00:00

The Babel extension is one of my favourites. There are several reasons why:

it is implemented and supported at translatedwiki.net
there are many localisations for the messages involved
when you install it, all the localisations are instantly available
it is an extension
it is not based on templates

The good news is that many people appreciate Babel for what it is. There are several Wikipedias who have requested for this extension to be implemented. They are even considering to put this extension to the vote for the German Wikipedia..

There is one problem; the code needs to be assessed. It already has the endorsement of all the developers at translatewiki.net...
Thanks,
GerardM

The dead trees standard

2009-05-28T11:43:45+00:00

June is coming in a couple of days, which will be the two year anniversary of the dead trees standard. It's an idea that applies to courtesy deletions for Wikipedia's biographies of living people.

If the living subject of a Wikipedia biography wants their biography deleted, and that person does not have an entry in any reliably published paper encyclopedia including specialty encyclopedias, then we delete their biography upon request.

It's objective, it's measurable, and it's sensible. A Wikipedia article is going to be a top Google return for nearly anyone's biography, and nobody is more affected by that than the subject himself or herself. Many of these biographies are not watchlisted, they're openly editable, and biography subjects are strongly discouraged from editing their biographies themselves.

So in other words, David Bowie is here to stay. And everyone else who has an entry in the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll is going to stay in Wikipedia. But if a fellow who played bass for David Bowie for a year wants out of Wikipedia, we'll delete the bassist's biography if he asks us to.

There are two great sides to nailing this down:

Wikipedians cut down on low priority drama.
Biography subjects get an answer they can understand.

Ever call the cable company with a service request and get the run-around? It's no fun. When you want a refund for a service outage, the last thing you want to hear about is how Cable Inc. organized their departmental structure. If the answer is yes you want the money now, and if the answer is going to be no they could at least say it without wasting your time.

Living people who want their biographies out of Wikipedia want straight and simple answers. Put yourself in their shoes: the top Google return for your name is a lot more important than a five dollar refund from your cable company. We can't stop corporate bureaucracy, but we can fix this.

So let's do the decent thing: add dead trees to policy.
----
Image credit

Checksums again, some I/O too

2009-05-28T07:53:11+00:00

When I was doing data loading tests, I realized that usually low checksum calculation CPU percentage is actually the blocking factor. See, usually when background writers do the flushing, it gets parallelized, but if active query is forcing a checkpoint, it all happens in ‘foreground’ thread, checksum computation included. This is where more Sun-ish wisdom (these people tune kernel with debugger all the time) comes in:

gdb -p $(pidof mysqld) -ex "set srv_use_checksums=0" --batch

Puff. Everything becomes much faster. Of course, one would be able to restart the server with –skip-innodb-checksums, but that would interrupt the whole process, etc. Of course, proper people would implement tunable parameter (5 lines of code, or so), but anyone with Solaris experience knows how to tune stuff with debuggers, hahaha.

Odd though, I was used to compiled -O3 mode optimizing checksums to disappear from profiles, so either this doesn’t work, or it just got so much emphasis to actually matter. This is why I told Heikki at the Users Conference, that checksums ‘must go’ or be fixed in one way or another. Even when they’re small part of operation and doesn’t cost anything if it doesn’t block primary operations (e.g. happens in parallel), people keep accessing SSDs, and then relative cost of checksum is insane.

It is quite easy to check that, just run InnoDB with tiny buffer pool, OS caching, and try some benchmarking with checksums enabled and disabled – there will be a huge difference, which may simply explain the performance difference of caching at buffer pool and OS buffers. Turn checksums off, and OS caching may be even tolerable for your workloads.

Other interesting issue here is that MarkC has lots of I/O path optimization in his fourth (and four is a good number!) patch. Now… maybe everyone will be soon caching pages in OS, once some more work is done in I/O access path cost work?

Economist: Despite Recession, Entrepreneurship Healthy

2009-05-27T22:17:44+00:00

Global Heroes, a new special report from The Economist, looks at the state of entrepreneurship around the world:

Back in 1942 Joseph Schumpeter gave warning that the bureaucratisation of capitalism was killing the spirit of entrepreneurship. Instead of risking the turmoil of “creative destruction”, Keynesian economists, working hand in glove with big business and big government, claimed to be able to provide orderly prosperity. But perspectives have changed in the intervening decades, and Schumpeter’s entrepreneurs are once again roaming the globe.

The full report is available as a free download, sponsored by UK Trade & Investment.

Venture Capital in Oregon, An Online Roundtable

2009-05-27T20:35:35+00:00

This Friday at 9am, Mike Rogoway of Oregon Live’s Silion Forest blog will host an online roundtable on venture capital in Oregon.

As a response to some of the ideas brought up in the blog’s first chat session on startups, this conversation will bring together some of the leading voices from the Oregon venture community, including some from our investors, Capybara Ventures and Voyager Capital.

Subjects that are on the docket for this chat include:

How entrepreneurs should get started looking for funds, and mistakes to avoid
Microfunding
Perceptions of the Portland startup community, inside and outside of Oregon
The evolving venture capital business model

This should be a productive exploration of how Oregon can continue to foster a growing community of entrepreneurship. If startups are your passion, please join the chat or comment after.

Open Business Cards

2009-05-27T17:04:34+00:00

I recently launched a fun project as a bit of a small-scale experiment at the clever site kickstarter.com.

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative ideas and endeavors through online collective support. Individuals get rewards in exchange for backing a project, and no one is committed unless a project gets all the support it needs.

The Open Business Cards experiment uses Kickstarter to help fund the creation of 100 Creative Commons licensed background images for anyone to use for free. As part of the project, up to 10 packs of mini business cards will be created using the images and distributed as part of an exclusive run.

The idea was inspired in part by MOO MiniCards, which let you put custom photos on the back of high quality mini business cards. Since MiniCards come in packs of 100 and you can upload up to 100 custom images, I thought it would be fun to create a pack with every card you hand out being unique and open.

Before initiating this project, I had begun to create a library of textural background images from my iPhone. This was inspired by the discovery that if you power off your iPhone with the camera app running, you'll get an impromptu close-up shot when you next turn it on. This is usually a shot of a table surface, the ground, your shoes - many of which provide interesting textural backgrounds.

I have shot 53 photos so far (as of this post). I will open up the licensing of this photo set once I have shot 99 acceptable background photos.

Lucy Gordon suicide remains a mystery to the public

2009-05-27T14:18:00+00:00

One week after the shocking suicide of rising star Lucy Gordon, the British actress’s death remains a mystery to the public. Here is what is known:

Lucy’s boyfriend, Jerome Almeras, a cameraman in his 40’s who found the starlet hanging from their ceiling when he woke up, has been cleared of any suspicion. Initial reports were that the couple had been arguing.
Gordon was in love with Almeras. “She told me she was in love with her boyfriend,” said Michel Haddi, who photographed her for the Italian issue of Vanity Fair. “I told her she must like older men. She looked like a girl with a plan. She had everything to go for. I was going to visit her and her boyfriend in Paris.”
She left two suicide notes. One note was for her family; the other detailed how her remains and estate should be disposed of.
Elizabeth Simpson, Gordon’s agent, is also in the dark about the death. “My team and I are baffled and devastated by this wholly unexpected tragedy and our sympathy goes out to her family…”
A close, unnamed friend of hers had recently committed suicide, and Gordon was deeply affected by the loss.
Richard Gordon, Lucy’s father, also said the suicide “came out of the blue” and has not indicated whether the suicide note he received shed any light on her motives.

The public is left wondering why she would end such a promising, young life.

The most commonly-held belief is that she killed herself because she was distraught over her friend’s suicide. This is such a let-down, if that’s the case. Contemplating suicide is common, but as Gordon learned, it is selfish because of the devastation left behind to the ones who loved you. For Gordon to experience that pain, and then not see or care that her actions would inflict an even worse pain upon her family and loved ones, would be a disappointment. The man she loved found her hanging in the bedroom when he woke in the morning. That is severe.

Hopefully a better answer will be forthcoming.

Possibly related posts

Wikipedia now incompatible with third-party GFDL text

2009-05-27T12:27:56+00:00

The GFDL 1.3 allows collaborative sites to switch from the GFDL to CC-BY-SA 3.0 as their license, under limited circumstances.

Wikimedia has been advocating for this change for some time, and with much effort from the FSF and Creative Commons a solution was worked out last November: such a transition would be available only for massively collaborative projects, and only for a limited time. If a project opted for this transition, it could not incorporate any new GFDL material after the release date of the new license (November 3, 2008); and it had to decide by August 1, 2009.

Given the first date, one would assume a site would want to move as quickly as possible to decide, to avoid a prolonged period when no outside material under most any free license could be incorporated. Nevertheless, it took us over 6 months to decide to make the transition. Now we are faced with two hurdles: ensuring that no GFDL material has been migrated into a Wikimedia project since November, and far more complex, communicating with the hundreds of smaller GFDL wikis who chose their license for compatibility with Wikipedia, to ensure they know about this change and what it means for them. They only have until the first of August to figure it out.

So I’ve started compiling a list of GFDL wikis and other collaborative sites that have not yet indicated any awareness about the license switch or considered switching themselves. This includes at least half of the 20 largest GFDL wikis other than Wikipedia, both major medical wikis (Medpedia and WikiDoc), PlanetMath, and the old Spanish Wikipedia fork. Please help contact these sites and update their status on this project page: [[m:Licensing update/Outreach]]

Videos: Sharing Stories About Wikis the Pecha Kucha Way

2009-05-27T03:33:32+00:00

Mark Halvorson writes about the recent Sharing Stories About Wikis the Pecha Kucha Way event in Washington DC:

Watching Pecha Kucha presentations is quite exciting, the fast pace really keeps the speaker on their toes, and as an audience member I found myself able to absorb a lot more information than I typically would get out of a one hour presentation on a single topic.

Videos are available for all the presentations. Each is about seven minutes long, and they offer good snapshots of what’s happening inside the White House Office of Management and Budget, National Geographic Society, Defense Technical Information Center, and the National Institutes of Health. There’s also a good Q&A video with all the presenters.

Presentations: Being Clear is Better Than Being Impressive

2009-05-26T22:46:24+00:00

Rob Weir on how to be a better presenter by being clear and interesting:

Lectures are not conference papers. You should be interesting, authoritative, and informative, but the point is not to show how clever or erudite you are. Most of what you will teach is already second nature (even simplistic) to you. Your task is to help students expand their knowledge, concepts, skills, and thinking. Being clear is far more important than being impressive.

One could argue that the same principles should apply to conference papers, too.

(Via kottke.org)

Wikimedia at NetSquared Y4 conference in San Jose

2009-05-26T22:08:39+00:00

Several folks from the Wikimedia Foundation are participating in the two-day NY24 conference in San Jose. Now in its fourth year, the conference brings together non-profits, tech innovators, and potential funding partners to explore new challenges and opportunities in the tech space. NetSquared is an initiative of TechSoup Global.

This year’s NetSquared is focussed on the ‘mobile challenge,’ highlighting new applications for mobile technology that can have a positive impact on the world. Wikimedia is particularly interested in the opportunities of mobile donations, social engagement, and how projects like Wikipedia can engage broader audiences through the very rapidly expanding mobile web.

You can follow the conference twitter feed. You can learn about the 15 featured projects and weigh in with your thoughts as well.

A big thanks to TechSoup and the NetSquared team for organizing a great event and bringing together truly like-minded people. And of course a thank you to the

Jay Walsh, Head of Communications

Free localisation support for five Wikis

2009-05-26T19:06:00+00:00

When you install the 1.15 stable version of MediaWiki on your system, you will only get the localisation available at the time of the release. After that you do not get any more regular updates. This is not because no more localisation work is done at translatewiki.net for the many relevant messages, it is just because there is no mechanism to get them to you in a timely manner.

The LocalisationUpdate extension will be a game changer; it will bring you all the latest localisations from Wikimedia Foundation's SVN. It will bring them based on the definition of the English message in SVN being EXACTLY the same as the local message on your wiki. So when you have a MediaWiki Wiki in a language that is in need of improved localisation support, you can choose to become part of the beta testing of LocalisationUpdate.

TheDevilOnLine is willing to support five Wikis in five different languages who want to test out this new functionality. To be eligible you will have to upgrade to release 1.15.
Thanks,
GerardM

Ward Cunningham Explains Wiki Philosophy with Furniture

2009-05-26T19:04:45+00:00

Ward Cunnigham, wiki-inventor and CTO of AboutUs, explains wiki philosophy for attendees of the Workshop on Wikis for Software Engineering at ICSE 2009:

Ward used the reconfigurable workspace we have at our Portland office as an example of how the philosophy of wiki can be applied to just about anything, even your physical environment.

(Via The AboutUs Weblog)

Wikipedia's longest 'Did you know?' submission

2009-05-26T19:22:27+00:00

... that optics is a subfield of electromagnetism within theoretical physics?9x expansion principally by ScienceApologist.[1] Durova^Charge! 01:17, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Why Wolfram Alpha Won’t Work for Historians

2009-05-26T17:49:58+00:00

In our most recent episode of Digital Campus one of the news items I had a particularly caustic view of was the new search engine Wolfram Alpha. My broader pronouncement in the podcast that WA will “sink like a stone” is predicated on the incredibly clunkiness of the interface and the fact that when the engine doesn’t understand your question or simply has no data to work with, it offers no help…just the statement “Wolfram Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” This alone will send users running back to Google or Yahoo.

But I am sympathetic to the attempt to bring more computational strategies to bear on the search and retrieval of information online. As databases of historical information get larger and larger we are going to need tools like WA (I can’t keep writing Wolfram Alpha) to help us crunch through those databases. So, for instance, I recently wrote something for our 1989 website on the economic causes of the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and needed some good old fashioned economic data to work with.

Here’s one reason WA won’t work for historians: Taking the data presented in the source I just linked to, one finds that a 1992 edition of World Bank Facts gives Hungary’s GDP per capita in 1989 as $2,580 (USD). To see what WA comes up with for the same question, I used the query “Hungary gdp per capita in 1989“. When you try this search, the result is a problem. WA offers a different result ($3,097) and a nice graph of Hungary’s GDP per capita between 1970 and the present.

How then can a historian (or student) reconcile the difference between the World Bank’s number and WA’s number? The obvious solution, and the one we teach all of our students, is to check WA’s sources. Here’s what I found–a list of around 30 sources (you’ll have to go to the site and click on Source Information to see them all) with the following disclaimer: “This list is intended as a guide to further sources. The inclusion of an item in this list does not necessarily mean that its content was necessarily used for any Wolfram Alpha result.”

Would you accept a paper from a student with no footnotes but a disclaimer like this one at the top of the bibliography page? No, I didn’t think so. Unfortunately, if my students actually knew that WA existed and I asked them to tell me Hungary’s GDP per capita in 1989, I’m willing to bet the answer I’d get is $3,097 not $2,580. And don’t ven think of asking WA for the GDP per capita or East Germany in 1989. Apparently East Germany never existed and even worse, the GDP per capita result for Germany offers no reference/mention of the fact that East and West Germany merged after 1989.

So, I now have to add WA to my list of websites and web tools to teach my students about in the “these resources have serious problems for historians” category.

Israel21c profiles my creative commons images of Jerusalem

2009-05-26T14:24:47+00:00

Last week one of the most influential Israeli websites, Israelity.com, profiled some of my 2007 images of Jerusalem that are found on Wikipedia. Many of these images are reproduced in numerous places around the Internet and published in books, free of copyright restrictions for their use.

This image of the Israeli countryside is used by both Wikipedia and Encyclopædia Britannica, amongst others

It was particularly exciting to have this website profile my images because the Israel you see in the media bears no resemblance to the reality of the country. Israelity.com is an attempt to show the nuances and life of a culturally rich and diverse nation, which most people know little about outside of conflict.

I have taken two trips to the country as part of my public art project that explores information as art. The information the public receives about Israel is incomplete, distorted and myopic. My photography was an attempt to show a bigger picture of the country, its people and its landscape.

Check out Rachel Neiman’s piece about some of my work from the 2007 trip.

Possibly related posts

Billy Name, famed Warhol photographer, joins Steven Kasher Gallery

2009-05-26T14:00:22+00:00

One of the most noted photographers of the 20th Century, Billy Name, has signed with Steven Kasher Gallery in New York City, which will now represent his monumental photography archive.

Billy engaged in a famous collaboration with Andy Warhol that spanned most of the 1960’s, which is generally considered the apex of Warhol’s creative output. In 2001, the United States Postal Service used one of Billy’s portraits for a stamp it issued in Warhol’s honor.

This is big news, as Billy Name has joined a long lists of his peers at Kasher’s gallery, who have included Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Herb Ritts, David LaChapelle and many of the other greatest innovators in photography.

Billy Name and David Shankbone in Billy's kitchen, March 2007

To learn more about Billy Name, one of the best sources is the meticulously updated website by Gary Comenas, WarholStars.org.

From Wikipedia:

Billy Name is a photographer, artist, filmmaker, lighting designer, and the main archivist of the Warhol era from 1964 to 1970. His brief romance and subsequent close friendship with Andy Warhol fostered substantial collaboration on Warhol’s most influential work, including his films, paintings and sculpture. Billy Name was amongst the coterie known as the Warhol Superstars, and he is considered one of the most significant. He was responsible for “silverizing” Warhol’s New York studio the Factory, where he lived until 1970. His images of Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Nico, Ultra Violet, Bob Dylan, Mary Woronov and of Warhol himself, amongst others, are portraits of the height of the Pop art era.

Steven Kasher can be contacted via his gallery at 521 West 23 St. Second Floor, NY, NY, 10011/Telephone 212 - 966 3978/email: steve@stevenkasher.com. The website for the Steven Kasher Gallery is at: http://www.stevenkasher.com.

Possibly related posts

Reality Check

2009-05-26T13:15:27+00:00

The latest installment of Digital Campus is now up online for your listening pleasure. In this episode (#42 if you’re counting), Tom, Dan, and I consider what happens when reputable publishers of scholarly journals publish journals that are, well, not so reputable. We also take a look at the latest attempt to take some of Google’s market share in the world of search. My assessement of Wolfram Alpha? Let’s just say I didn’t mince any words on the podcast. So, give us a listen and don’t forget to stalk us (sorry, follow us) on Twitter.

Control & Community: Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage

2009-05-26T08:02:37+00:00

Matthew C. Clarke examines the balance of power inherent in building successful enterprise wiki, and comments on the future for wikis. This is an excellent, and very detailed case study:

Nevertheless, I predict that Wikis will disappear over the next 5 to 10 years. This is not because they will fail but precisely because they will succeed. The best technologies disappear from view because they become so common-place that nobody notices them.

Wiki-style functionality will become embedded within other software – within portals, web design tools, word processors, and content management systems. Our children may not learn the word “Wiki,” but they will be surprised when we tell them that there was a time when you couldn’t just edit a web page to build the content collaboratively.

To put it another way: wikis are on the way to becoming as ever-present as email. The success of email is that we don’t talk about it all that much; we just use it constantly.

(Via Matt Wiseley)

Volume 5, Issue 21 - 25 May, 2009

2009-05-26T00:59:28+00:00

License update: Licensing vote results announced, resolution passed
News and notes: New board member, flagged revisions, Eurovision interviews
Wikipedia in the news: Wikipedia: threat or menace?
WikiProject report: WikiProject LGBT studies
Discussion report: Discussion Reports and Miscellaneous Articulations
Features and admins: Approved this week
Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
Arbitration report: The Report on Lengthy Litigation

Year: 2009 Week: 7-22 Number: 106

2009-05-25T21:06:19+00:00

Technical news

[dumps] - Dumps are becoming more regular now and are actually working, thanks to Foundation developer Tomasz Finc. Two new mailing lists were created to discuss dumps.

http://dumps.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xmldatadumps-l -- discussion list for the dumps
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xmldatadumps-admin-l -- admin list (Failures / Upgrades / Changes)

[Abuse Filter] – After all the research done by the English Wikipedia, many other wikis have reached consensus about activating the Abuse Filter and are now carefully exploring the possibilities (including: alswiki, arwp, elwp, fiwp, hewp, nlwb, nlwp, ruwp, svwp, zhwp).
[Books & PDF] - In April a new function was enabled to make "books" of pages of the wiki. The added pages can be stored, exported as PDF or OpenDocument. Also is there the option to order your "book" (= collection of wiki-pages) in print. It is enabled on most projects and wikis but not on all. Look for a book toolbox in the side menu.

On the English Wikipedia this function is removed again after objections of the community. On most Wikis is there also an option to download a PDF-version of the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books

Request for help

[wikizine] - Wikizine is planning on becoming more regular and to do that, we need your help. Please post news tips or even help us with writing by joining the editors mailing list.

http://report.wikizine.org -- tip line
http://mail.wikizine.org/mailman/listinfo/editors_wikizine.org -- editors mailing list

Foundation

[new board members] - The chapters have finally selected their choices for the board, choosing Arne Klempert (akl) and Michael Snow.

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-May/052037.html announcement on foundation-l

[usability] - The usability project published a sneak preview of their research results. The project is also still looking for a software developer.

http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/04/24/usability-study-results-sneak-preview/ -- blog pos
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Software_Developer_(project) -- job opening

[strategic planning] - The board announced that they are starting a long-term strategic planning process to lay out the next 3-5 years. The foundation is currently hiring 3 people to work as a part of that project.

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-April/051565.html -- board resolution
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings -- job openings

[auditcom] - The audit committee is currently looking for volunteers. The only requirement is to be financially literate.

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-May/051977.html -- call for volunteers

[BLPs] - The Board released a statement about biographies of living people.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Biographies_of_living_people -- resolution/statement

[Public outreach] - The public outreach hub on Meta-Wiki was recently revamped. Among other things, the Foundation is seeking a volunteer for the bookshelf project and tips from public outreach/Wikimedia-related presentations.

Legal

[licensing update] - The licensing update vote results are now available. 75% has voted in favor of the license update (with 14% remaining neutral). 43% of all votes came form the Enlgish language Wikipedia.

This means that the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) license will be be added in addition to the current GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) CC-BY-SA) for most of the Wikimedia Foundation projects. Actual change of the license on the sites will be arround the 15th of June.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Results
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Dual_license_vote_May_2009 -- press release

Agenda

[Maker Faire-SF] - The Wikimedia Foundation is planning to have a booth at the San Francisco Maker Faire again this year. If you're near SF, stop by and say hi or volunteer to help out with the booth!

http://makerfaire.com/ -- Maker Faire home page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/San_Francisco/Maker_Faire -- volunteer signup

[Wiki Loves Art/NL] – In collaboration with Creative Commons NL, the Dutch Wikimedia chapter, Wikimedia Nederland, is organizing Wiki Loves Art/NL this June. More than 30 museums and other inheritanc-agencies are cooperating with volunteers to free their collections, amongst them the well-known Van Gogh museum. More information: www.wikilovesart.nl

Community

[embassies contest] - Norwegian & Estonian embassies sponsor article-writing contests in three languages (Norwegian: nb/Bokmal & nn/Nynorsk, et/Estonian).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-05-18/Multilingual_contests

[japanese conference] - a one-day Japanese conference is currently being planned for November 22 in Tokyo, planning is on Meta.

[Wikimania 2009] - The scholarships and program committees are currently reviewing all the submissions they received; more information should be given by the end of May.

http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/

[Wikimania 2010] - It is official, Wikimania 2010 will be held in Gdansk, Poland, Europe on July 9-11, 2010. The event site is beautifully located on Ołowianka Island.

http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/
http://www.epgd.net/grafika/wilga/images/37.jpeg -- air picture of Ołowianka (Bleihof) island

[Picture of the Year] – Wikimedia Commons held their annual Picture of the Year election. The votes have been cast, and now we're waiting for the final results to appear. The unofficial results can be found at http://is.gd/CKHG

Awards

[webware] - Wikipedia was one of the Webmare 100 winners, which recognizes the best Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications on the Web today.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13546_109-10237659-29.html

[WMIT award 2009] - Wikimedia Italia, the Italian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, issues an Award for people who gave significant contributions to the open projects supported by Wikimedia Foundation and/or Wikimedia Italia. The winners were announced on May 23 at the Digital Freedoms Festival.

http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Premio_Wikimedia_Italia_2009/en -- description page
http://www.libertadigitali.org/ -- festival webpage
http://wikimedia.it/index.php/Vincitori_del_Premio_Wikimedia_Italia_2009 -- winners list

Media

[ta.wp] - Tamil Wikipedia got a nice article in "The Hindu". New account creations on that wiki doubled on the day the article was published.

http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2009/05/21/stories/2009052150760100.htm

[Censors of Wikipedia?] - an article with comments from our General Counsel, Mike Godwin, about the censorship of Wikipedia in the UK a few months back.

http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2009/05/features/the-hidden-censors-of-the-internet.aspx

Stats

[de.wp] -- The German Wikipedia has reached 900,000 articles.

Other news

[Marriage for CTO] - Brion Vibber, the Chief Technical Officer for the Foundation, got married this weekend. Congratulations to Brion & Marti!

Did you know ...

... that there are also browser, operating system (and more) statistics of the projects available?

http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/VisitorsSampledLogOperatingSystems.htm

Quote

"Man will not fly for fifty years" – Orville Wright, 1901

Number of subscribers: 730 , Unique Visitors website last week: NA , Editor(s): Casey, Alex , Corrector(s): Rjd
Thanks to: the #wikimedia-tech crew, Mwpnl , Contact: http://report.wikizine.org , Website: http://www.wikizine.org

Sign of the Times?

2009-05-25T19:15:00+00:00

Recently, I happened across the Outline of poetry article. "Oh!" I said to myself, as I seem to talk out loud when no one is about, "this should be interesting." Oh, indeed it was. So interesting, in fact, that the article, until I got a hold of it, mentioned quite a few obscure and minor poets, and people like Oscar Wilde or Emily Bronte that have almost no critical interest in regards to their poetry.

Sure, that could be excusable, except that Chaucer was not on the list. Really, no Chaucer? Oh, but John Milton was also not there. You mean the greatest poet of the English language is not in the poetry section? What about Wordsworth and Coleridge, whose poems are taught whenever a class deals with general English poetry? John Donne is worthless now? We all know Dryden and Pope have been pushed aside for ages, but William Blake's thousands of lines of poetry mean nothing? Tennyson is worthless? And poor Keats, just because he died of TB means that he doesn't get a mention? T.S. Eliot, Yeats, and Pound obviously couldn't be important, because no one cares about Modernism! And Walt Whitman was just some dirty old man, so we can ignore his works. But obviously, no one cares about the revolutionary poetic diction of Housman, Hopkins, or Longfellow.

Those are who people should know in our modern education system. I can understand people having no sense of great literature in general, so of course Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Petrarch, and even Dante would be ignored. And if people wont bother with the classics, how would they even know the wonders of Ariosto or Tasso? Does anyone still pay attention to the delicate emphasis of wine, women and song from Kayyam? Of course not since their understanding of poetry is a handful of ditties read to them from collections by Shel Silverstein while they were 4 because their mother thought it would be nice to make their children a little more literary!

Edit - excuse me... even I was able to forget poor Edmund Spenser and poor Sidney too!

Juvenal and Today's ArbCom

2009-05-25T17:26:00+00:00

Like a good Federalist, Tony1 recently put forth the concept of "Separation of Powers" on the ArbCom noticeboard. A noble spirit, and, indeed, a system that has proven its superiority over the years. However, a good Federalist would remember that these separations were imposed to distinguish Republicanism from Democracy. The Federalists intended to rely on a Smithian understanding of human desire for power in order to establish a system of checks that should temper the problematic aspects of human nature when it comes to holding power: power begets desire for more power, jealousy begets the willingness to seek out problems with one's opposition, and the corrupt are eventually weeded out during the power struggles.

However, Wikipedia is not a Democracy, let alone a Republic. We have no Cato, let alone a Solon. We have Caesar, and we must give to Caesar what is his. So, I pointed out why Tony1's idea is flawed, as our system does not follow that which he wants. But the spirit, the intent, behind his words do have a parallel: Juvenal. So yes, Juvenal has made the ArbCom noticeboard.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? That is the question - who will watch the watchmen. It is an interesting phrase and brings forth to the mind the need to protect not only the people from the people, but the people from the protectors. We could leave it at just that, but the context is telling:

I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them! (SatireVI: 346–348)

In this situation, a woman is to be restrained, but (as well all know, women are quite crafty and men are easily manipulated) she has already gone to those in power and seduced them in whatever way. Thus, she is to be put under control, but those controlling her let her go and continue on her way. Our biggest danger is not from evil protectors of the people, but against those who are able to turn even our faithful protectors. As Tony1's claim shows, an Arbitrator was possibly persuaded by friendship towards helping one of their friends. If that is the case, they have already been seduced. Who is there to protect that Arbitrator from the seducer? Who is there to protect that Arbitrator from their own self?

There is much that can be learned from Juvenal, and, at least, he can be used to spice up a point.

Wikipedia + Wolfram|Alpha

2009-05-25T13:17:48+00:00

Image via CrunchBase

A while ago I introduced the topic of semantics, and how they could be useful for completely revolutionizing how data within Wikipedia is treated. This month marks the initial launch of Wolfram Alpha, and it struck me as a good opportunity to talk about how new technologies such as the one showcased in WA, could mean an extremely exciting future for the likes of Wikipedia.

By now, you've probably already tried out Wolfram Alpha and realized the enormous possibilities that lie within. Now, imagine that that power is able to harnass the rich data that Wikipedia contains - already the mind starts to boggle. Wolfram can already take 'natural langauge' inputs, such as "how far is it from london to paris?" and come back with some pretty accurate and useful results.

However, the scope of the data WA works with, although massive, is still rather limited. Scientific and geographic calculations it can cope extremely well with, and although it claims to be able to have a wide range of data concerning the arts, this really doesn't seem to be the case. Enter in any book, for instance, and it'll only be able to tell you the author and the date. Not great considering the wealth of information that could potentially be associated with novels such as Dickens' Bleak House. Now, such information could easily be extracted from Freebase - and indeed it would be great if Wolfram Alpha could utlilize such a resource.

The real potential, however, comes if you start to think about what would happen if all the information contained within Wikipedia were to be made accessible in such a format. As I mentioned in my previous post, this could happen in a couple of different ways: technologies such as OpenCalais could be employed to extract meaningful data from already-written articles; or the data in infoboxes could be made accessible in a useful format, such as RDF.

I'll be covering these in detail in subsequent posts, but just for a moment imagine the possibilities: typing "Who is Kevin Rose dating?" or "why was Bleak House controversial" or "what is the tenth largest city in the world" into a search engine like WA and getting instant answers.

This type of "knowledge gratification" is possible - we just have to hope services such as Wikipedia play their cards right, and be a little patient. If everything goes well, the possibilites are endless.

Episode 42: Live From New York

2009-05-25T01:30:00+00:00

This is a first for Wikivoices, a "live" episode.

At the recent NYC meetup, User:Becksguy led a wide-ranging discussion exploring the various ways processes that worked well when Wikipedia was small are having difficulty scaling up to work well for the humongous size it is now.

Listen to Episode 42

Hopefully in future, we can organize more Wikivoices episodes to be recorded live at meetups around the globe.

If folks have thoughts on the discussion and ideas raised in this episode, or just the format of this type of episode, please add them to the comments.

Slow Sex Movement

2009-05-25T00:09:00+00:00

Slow Sex Movement (as a social movement) has emerged in early 2009 and borrows from a long tradition spanning many centuries, several cultures and many belief systems, including Tantra, Yoga, Buddhism, Buddhist meditation, Taoism, qigong, and integrates Eastern medicine and Western medicine going back to Hippocrates, theories of Wilhelm Reich, orgasm, biology, sociobiology, biological psychiatry and evolutionary theory.
Orgasmic Meditation and mindful sexuality generally are referred to as a practices of the "slow sex" movement and have been compared with the "slow food" movement as popularized by chef Alice Waters (founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy), in that comparison both strip away the trappings and conventions that have developed around a fundamental human activity in order to rediscover their raw biological essence while observing Safer Sex practices and to increase both pleasure and healthfulness.
The Slow Sex Movement is said to diverge from the consumerism and productivity nature of sexuality and relationships of the 20th Century and brings awareness to the intimacy and connections needs of all humans. Orgasmic Meditation as languaged by William Safire in the New York Times[2], referencing the earlier Times article on mindful sexuality[1]. Proponents reference reawakening through mindful sexuality and training one’s senses through a practice of Orgasmic Meditation partners rediscover the joys of sensation and learn to stay present through intense sensations in their daily life. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Slow Sex Movement". This entry is a fragment of a larger work. Link may die if entry is finally removed or merged.

Useless self-disclosures

2009-05-24T18:37:26+00:00

Geek cred:

My real name is a prime number in leet.
Was named after a physicist.
Saw the first Space Shuttle landing from Edwards Air Force Base. Had a spot in the VIP section and actually broke their rules and walked three miles to the fence at the edge of the dry lake bed to get the best view.

Handedness:
Naturally ambidextrous--used crayons and pencils with either hand as a small child, couldn't tell the difference or understand why adults made a fuss about it. Got pressured to choose a side; became left dominant for most purposes including writing.

Can actually write with either hand. Penmanship is better with the right but it's slower so hardly ever use it. Able to write signature simultaneously with both hands: forward, backward, and in mirror writing. It makes an entertaining party trick for about two minutes.

For image restoration, though, always and only use the right hand. That was the inadvertent result of an old desk's geography.

Hello, world!

2009-05-24T18:14:20+00:00

I've thought a while about various Wikipedia-related issues, and I follow Wikipedia-related news, and I've decided that I should blog about them. Here are some basic ground rules:

The blog will follow NPOV, where NPOV is "Nihiltres' point of view". :) While it would be nice to follow a Wikipedia-like neutral point of view, I don't feel like working endlessly to appease critics. I generally think Wikipedia is a good thing, but not perfect—criticism will try to be constructive when applicable.
I plan to allow and encourage comments, but I reserve the right to delete posts for any reason. Specifically, comments which are unhelpful or derogatory will be targeted.
You can ask me to write about something! Contact me on my Wikipedia user talk page, by email (wiki dot nihiltres at gmail dot com), through Twitter (@wiki_nihiltres) through IRC ("Nihiltres" on freenode), or even "wikinihiltres" on AIM, and I'll consider writing about whatever topic you suggest.
I plan to try to make this blog accessible to non-Wikipedians, though it'll inevitably describe things that only Wikipedians are really interested in. Keep your WP:WTF (acronyms) out of comments, please!

I'm currently in the process of writing a first ("real") article, so watch this space.

Biology Today, the '70s textbook that would have made me a biologist

2009-05-24T06:29:17+00:00

A few weeks ago, thanks to the blog A Journey Round My Skull (via Crooked Timber), I discovered Biology Today, an amazing college biology textbook from 1972. You can get the basics from the Wikipedia article I put together: [[Biology Today]]. But there's a lot more to it than what I could put into a Wikipedia article without running afoul of the "no original research" policy--and a lot more than I can fit into a blog post. The reviewer of a bowdlerized later edition got it right: "The true story of the development of Biology Today would make an interesting book in itself."

The text of Biology Today was apparently assembled from the work of a long list of "contributing consultants". The list is star-studded, including James D. Watson and six other Nobel laureates (as well as Michael Crichton). The list--and the text--is dominated by molecular biology, which was reaching perhaps its cultural acme in the early 1970s.

A Journey Round My Skull has collected on Flickr many (but far from all) of the interesting and unusual "artist's interpretations" and other images that make Biology Today such a magnificent artifact. Many of the diagrams are outstanding both aesthetically and conceptually.

The most lavish interleaf illustration is supposed to depict the "central dogma" of molecular biology with a three-panel view into the holy of holies, the DNA-filled nucleus, and a two-panel view of nucleic acids making their way into the cytoplasm and translating genetic information into proteins:
Molecular biologists, by the 1970s, thought of themselves not only as the future of science, but of culture more generally. Many adopted the scientific humanism that had been championed by the previous generation of public biologists like Julian Huxley, although the mechanistic and cybernetic worldview of molecular biology, rather than the neo-Darwinism of Huxley and his allies, was their gospel. For intellectually- and sexually liberated biologists (like Watson), anthropology and sexology displaced parochial religious ideas, and science had nothing to offer religionists but contempt or pity. Behold Noah's Ark, from the chapter on "Human Sexual Behavior":

Evolution's role in this textook is a curious one. The only well-known figure who can be considered primarily an evolutionary biologist is Richard Lewontin, a pioneer of molecular evolution and a frequent critic of adaptationism, sociobiology, and much of mainstream evolutionary theory in the 1960s and 1970s. The chapter on population genetics, which introduces the mechanisms of evolution (and doesn't come until page 672!) looks like it was written by Lewontin; it treats, in turn, "genetic equilibrium", "genetic drift", "mutation", "selection", and "multiple factors", with no particular emphasis on natural selection. Of course, whether one was a follower of the selection-centric modern evolutionary synthesis or not, Darwin was (and still is) the patron saint of biology:
But in Biology Today, veneration of nature, of the scientific life, and of humanity trumped veneration of Darwin. In the lyrical ten-page illustrated preface from biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi, there is a passage (one of many) that could never be found in a mainstream biology textbook today, when creationists have turned their energies (in the form of Intelligent Design) to molecular biology, rather than the organismal evolutionary biology that earlier generations of creationists (and evolutionists) focused on. Working his way up through the levels of biological complexity, Szent-Györgyi makes his way to the mind:

"I do not think that the extremely complex speech center of the human brain, involving a network formed by thousands of nerve cells and fibers, was created by random mutations that happened to improve the chances of survival of individuals. I must believe that man built a speech center when he had something to say, and he developed the structure of this center to higher complexity as he had more to say. I cannot accept the notion that this capacity arose through random alterations, relying on the survival of the fittest. I believe that some principle must have guided the development toward the kind of speech center that was needed."

For both cultural and scientific reasons, that's not something you would catch many biologists saying today.

The duel has been fought

2009-05-23T19:02:47+00:00

A press release has just been published announcing that, effective June 15 2009, Wikipedia and its sister projects will be switching to CC-BY-SA as their primary license.

About 17,500 people voted - thank you for having your say in Wikipedia's future. There is more information on Meta, and I'll update here with what this will mean for Wikimedia.

Video: Hold a “Science Fair” to Share Successful Practices

2009-05-22T17:47:52+00:00

A “Science Fair” is a great way for people using wikis to get together - regardless of what they work on - and share how they work.

Adoption: A CIO’s Response to Grassroots Technology Use

2009-05-22T16:55:20+00:00

Jonathan Schwartz on how a CIO recognized & responded to bottom-up technology adoption:

I was with a big customer of ours last year, and reading through my account briefing before the meeting, I knew we were doing well. An analysis of their download activity showed they were heavy users of Solaris and OpenSolaris, and they had a large internal community of MySQL users, as well. In the meeting, their CIO said “we love where Solaris is headed.” I then asked if we could help with MySQL, and he said… “I banned it.”

Not exactly a buying signal.

I was stunned. I asked, “why?” He responded, “Oracle is our global standard, and with 20,000 developers, people need to follow the rules.” I said we had a very good relationship with Oracle, and started talking about how fast Oracle runs against our new Open Storage products. Until he interrupted me, “…but my ban failed.” What? “We hire lots of people out of college every year, and they all come in knowing MySQL. All my prototypes are written to MySQL, and now I have a big base of MySQL apps I don’t want to port, and a bunch of MySQL programmers I don’t want to retrain. So I’d like a commercial relationship.”

In a nutshell, that’s adoption in action. Change in IT isn’t just a top down phenomenon - it’s more often bottom up.

The Guardian uses Eve Sedgwick portrait for her obituary

2009-05-22T16:17:10+00:00

I already wrote about the death of prominent writer and theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. I just wanted to post a copy of London-based The Guardian’s use of my portrait in their May 12, 2009 obituary in their print edition, which is not found on-line. Special thanks to the Guardian’s obituary department for sending me a complimentary copy.

Click on the image below to enlarge and read it.

Possibly related posts

Are you disillusioned with Web 2.0?

2009-05-22T15:33:59+00:00

For me, the bloom is off the rose.

The Internet affects us psychologically and socially in ways that people like Maggie Jackson and Nicholas Carr — to name just two — have been writing about fascinatingly. (I have written and spoken about the individual impact of the Internet a fair bit as well. See 1, 2, 3, 4.)

Perhaps it will make me even more of a Web 2.0 apostate to say so, but FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, many blogs, and many online forums are becoming increasingly obnoxious to me. I’m sorry to have to say it, but it’s true. Why? For a whole variety of reasons. But before I get into the reasons, let me say that these concerns don’t apply so much to Wikipedia, YouTube (except for YouTube forum discussions, which are obnoxious), or my own two new projects, the Citizendium and WatchKnow (still ramping up). Those actually produce (or usefully organize) quite a bit of interesting content. But as to many others — well, for me personally, things have reached a breaking point.

1. Facelessness

Frequently, we find ourselves in conversation with people we don’t know. We have nothing invested with them socially. When I first started talking to people in this way on mailing lists and USENET, back in 1993 I guess it was, online conversations were a bizarre but compelling game. It was still fascinating that I could speak to people who lived halfway across the world. It was the first time that I had conversed very much with people from Europe or Australia. It was also the first time that I could connect with people with very special interests (in my case, the fiddle tradition of County Donegal, Ireland). The social possibilities seemed rich.

Now they seem woefully impoverished. The stunning diversity of humanity online does not make up for the annoying effects of anonymity and disembodiment — or in one word, facelessness.

It so happens that I “know” fairly well on the order of dozens of people, people each of whom I have, at one time or another, spent many hours conversing and/or working. I’ve met some of these people in real life (IRL), but I would not recognize most of them if I were to pass them on the street. And, when you get down to it, I don’t really know much about these people. We only know about our shared interests — Citizendium, Wikipedia, fiddle music, or what have you.

To be honest, this makes me sad. I think that I should know my Internet acquaintances. I’ve spent so much time with them, I feel that I know them — and yet, I don’t. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I think there is a small sort of tragedy here. It seems pathetic that we so often meet a powerful and natural need for human companionship by sitting down and interfacing with a computer, usually through the medium of the written word. But really to get to know people, we need to be around them — hear their voices, watch their facial expressions, see how they react to things in your immediate vicinity, and in short “pass time” with them.

Please do not write to say that you have gotten to know all sorts of people intimately through deep conversations about many topics that you could not have discussed face-to-face. Yeah, I know. Me too. I have been doing that for a long time myself, so I know it’s possible. And yet a failure to “interface” in person has seemed to make all the difference to the long-lastingness of the relationships. The people who I have met in person after those long conversations I still count as friends; others, whom I never met in person, I’m sorry to say I’ve forgotten some of their names. (That’s an apropos word here — “interface” — isn’t it? On the Internet, we are faceless; so we don’t really connect, we “interface.”)

2. Groupthink

The second reason Web 2.0 is becoming obnoxious to me is that I really, really hate groupthink. It may sound very strange that the main architect of Wikipedia is an individualist, but I am and always have been. Please don’t misunderstand; I am not, contrary to Andrew Lih and the London Review of Books, an Ayn Rand-following Objectivist, and that’s partly because I detest the way so many of Rand’s followers themselves engaged in groupthink without admitting or even knowing it.

But let’s not get off on that tangent. My present complaint is about the groupthink inherent in the design of so many Web 2.0 websites. It is one thing to aggregate opinions and data that reflects opinions, as Google and Slashdot do. (I think James Surowiecki’s excellent book The Wisdom of Crowds has been largely misappropriated in defense of many of these websites, by the way. Not all online crowds are wise.) It is quite another thing to be part of a community that has a variety of mechanisms that allow us to reward people who agree with us and punish those who disagree with us. Those are the tools of conformity and groupthink. As far as I can tell, the rating of comments in Amazon and YouTube are nearly as interesting as the comments themselves. As a result, we’re stuck with a lot of really overinflated ratings on YouTube (though, again, I really like a lot of the content on YouTube, for all the garbage available there) and a lot of pointless head-nodding in Amazon reviews.

(Amazon punishes user scores when your comments are low-rated, and it’s very hard to give a bad review without your comment being low-reviewed in turn. I’d guess this is because most people who care enough about a product to say anything about it generally have good opinions about it. This artificially inflates ratings — good for Amazon, bad for the end user who wants a more accurate view of the product. This is why I always pay careful attention to the well-written bad reviews.)

What’s really disconcerting is when people like NYU’s Clay Shirky seems to celebrate groupthink. If he doesn’t, I wish he would clarify sometime. In this Britannica Blog post, he said essentially that the instantaneous and always-on nature of Internet communication means that people are rapidly losing the patience and even the ability to take longer, more complex stuff (like Tolstoy) on board. But Shirky and some others don’t just assert that this switch to instant, bite-sized communication is happening, they (unlike Nick Carr) seem to celebrate it. I do not, because such communication represents a powerful engine of groupthink, which is both tedious and (if history is a guide) dangerous. If you want to be an individualist, you have to think deeply, a lot, by yourself. I would argue that you really have to come to grips with the great minds of the past (and present), as well. None of this can be done in any “bite-sized” way. But twitters and most blog posts from most people are at once both navel-gazing and intensely attuned to the tastes of one’s audience (real, imagined, or hoped-for). When we write briefly in a medium that makes reading and replying instantaneous, if we aren’t plugged in to whatever happens to be on other people’s minds these days, they won’t read and they won’t reply. We become irrelevant if we’re not mainstream; and you’re bound not to be, because true individualism rarely runs in the mainstream. Of course, the “success metrics” of blogs (Technorati scores, for example) and other social media only encourages this natural human tendency to conformity. I don’t know how any serious intellectual can observe this trend and not be a little nervous.

The result is that we become more and more Borg-like (and, plumped in our chairs, less Borg-like). Sorry, but I will not be assimilated. I just won’t play. I won’t Twitter. I won’t blog about the latest cool thing. I won’t update my Facebook page…often.

Let’s put it this way. I have complex, ever-changing, idiosyncratic tastes and views. The notion that I ought to be particularly concerned about “what’s percolating in blogs now” (for example) deeply offends my individualism. It’s sad and ridiculous that I should let my free time be eaten up by the concerns of an often faceless group of people — especially one that often behaves like a pack of hyenas — rather than my own personal concerns, or by interfacing with the great “cathedral-like minds” of the past. I’ll genuflect where I please, Shirky.

3. Such a godawful waste of time

The first time we see a shiny new Internet toy, we are all oohs and aahs. But, OK…isn’t it time to stop it with the “Which Star Trek character are you?” quizzes on Facebook? (Yes, yes, I have taken such quizzes. I’m not proud of it.) Why do we play these games? Aren’t they getting tiresome already?

Seriously, to my way of thinking, there are worthwhile Web 2.0 projects — like, of course, the Citizendium and WatchKnow (not launched yet) — but it seems like the vast majority of the websites, and many attractive and popular features within more worthwhile sites, are a waste of time.

Now, if you tell me, “You’re not getting it, this is social media, it’s for socialization,” I reply, “Yes, but what kind of socialization?” Are you seriously telling me that you make or foster meaningful friendships with all the silly tools and communities that exist out there? If you want to socialize, shouldn’t you be having a beer, playing pool, watching a game or movie together, taking a hike together — that sort of thing? No, I am not convinced. The fact that it is popular does not mean that this kind of socialization is a healthy way of socialization. It is a pale shadow of the real thing.

If competing for a place on Digg’s front page is of little value qua socialization — and on anybody’s account it has little value in terms of getting knowledge or wisdom — then sit down and tell me soberly: what the hell is it good for?

I know a reply to this will go something like this: you’re whistling in the wind. You’re a luddite. You’re trying to stop the tide. Complaining about Web 2.0 today is like complaining about television in 1960. To which I reply: I know that Web 2.0 is here to say; I helped build it and I know exactly the source of its staying power. I wrote in 2004 that sites like Wikipedia are natural institutions. But every human institution is imperfect, and some have far more flaws than others. Prostitution, for example.

Wasting our free time in faceless groupthink, staring at a screen instead of jostling shoulders or holding hands — is that where we in post-industrial societies are going? Is it where we want to be going? If you’re a kid, is that what you want society to be like when you grow up? If you’re a parent, is that what you want for your kids?

And if not, how can we use our boundless creativity to find a solution?

New Data from D.C.

2009-05-22T13:25:27+00:00

The U.S. government is beginning to post its vast collection of data sets online. At the moment, there are only 47 data sets posted at data.gov and most of these are geological or weather related. However, it won’t be long (I’m told) before data of greater interest to historians begin to appear. I, for one, can’t wait for census data to begin showing up on this site rather than having to rely on other, more cumbersome points of access to the census. My hope is that data.gov will eventually include not only the 2000 census, but all of the census data collected by the federal government. Talk about a treasure trove for historians!

Around the world census authorities are posting more and more raw data in its entirety and in various summary forms. At present much of this data is the most recent information, but soon we can expect to see historical data sets. One thing I like about the data.gov data sets is that many are published in a variety of formats, including, for instance, Google Earth overlays. So, for example, if you want to know how many earthquakes there have been in any part of the world in the past seven days, you can download the file and take a peek. Here’s a look at Alaska.

But what if your interest was in changing patterns of infant mortality in Europe compared to levels of industrialization (say, steel production) over time? Once these data are available, enterprising historians and geographers and sociologists and economists will start to play with the data and instead of earthquakes, we’ll be able to see graphical representations of the relationship between things like mortality and industrialization. Of course, this will require some rather unprecedented cooperation between social scientists who aren’t so used to talking to one another, but I suspect that a passion for data is something many of us share and will become a way to bridge our disciplinary divides.

From the cradle of civilization to global collaboration

2009-05-22T00:58:20+00:00

The birthplace of civilization (at least based on the clearest evidence we have) was in population centers based in abundant agricultural lands, at the crossroads of moving groups of varying ethnicities: the Fertile Crescent, i.e. the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.

This was an exciting development in human development. Cities are culturally dynamic and innovative places. At a critical time in our history, seeking to change the direction of civilization and commit to a zero-carbon or negative carbon economy, we do well to remember this.

Most observers agree that the way forward for Canada lies in achieving a more effective innovation economy, but there is considerably less understanding of the role that cities play in an innovation economy. The reality is that cities are ever more important as sites of production, distribution and innovation around the globe.

via Conference Board Speeches and Op-eds > Innovative economy vital to take cities into the future.

On the other hand, people outside the cities are more connected than ever. So while a city's face-to-face interactions are great for innovation, we can still keep track of a project like the Factor-E Farm, where innovative appropriate technologies are being developed in an off-the-grid context that's forcing them to hard work and creativity to achieve their aims.

There's no need for a a fiery debate about whether off-the-grid or cities are better. Each have their advantages, and there are different choices for different people - and a thrivable future means having choices. But off-the-grid technologies and the social, creative energy of cities can work together. Social technologies that enable collaboration - of which Appropedia is one example - can bring together the creative forces of cities and physically isolated people.

Not sure if that was coherent or a ramble. But share your thoughts in the comments.

Share and encourage:

Wikipedia trumps print media?

2009-05-21T23:27:47+00:00

“Scientists have more faith in Wikipedia than national print media”

That’s one of the takeaways from a recent poll of nearly 1000 toxicologists when they were asked how various media outlets cover their specialty: the representation to the public of chemical risks. (The poll was conducted by STATS, The Center for Health and Risk Communication at George Mason University, and the Society of Toxicology)

Given the common lament that Wikipedia shuns “experts,” and information is produced by people “off the street,” the results are intriguing when you look at the numbers for other professional and “mainstream” media outlets. From the report synopsis:

WebMD and Wikipedia were seen as significantly more accurate in the way they presented chemical risk than any other media source.

·         56% say WebMD accurately portrays chemical risks

·         45% say Wikipedia accurately portrays chemical risks

·         By contrast, no more than 15% say that leading national newspapers, news magazines, and television networks accurately portray chemical risks.

·         Over 80% say that leading national newspapers, news magazines, and television networks overstate chemical risks

[...]

…only 15 percent described similar coverage in the national print media (i.e., the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal) as accurate. This figure dropped to 6 percent for USA Today and 5 percent for broadcast network news.

At a press conference at the National Press Club to release the preliminary results of the study, Dr. S. Robert Lichter, who conducted the survey described the Wikipedia finding as an indictment of the mainstream media - ” it’s disturbing that someone off the street seemingly can do a better job than the media.”

I’d take issue with the fact that Wikipedia is simply the product of random person “off the street,” but it is a real shift in what we consider authority and how reliable information can be produced.

Even the best performer, WebMD, gained the approval of only about half the toxicologists who were surveyed which should be a bit surprising in itself. My (full disclosure: unpaid, uncompensated) commentary as it appeared in the report:

“This reminds me of the Nature study [link] that was done in December 2005 where it found that on average, Britannica had 3 errors per article, and Wikipedia had 4 errors,” Lih says by email. “It was surprising because Wikipedia did much better than expected, given its foreign work process and Britannica did much worse. People had presumed a certain level of accuracy from Britannica’s reputation, and it was knocked down from that pedestal. To me the WebMD and Wikipedia results here are similar – they’re much closer than what one would expect. Wikipedia doing better, WebMD doing worse.”

But perhaps the most interesting part was not WebMD, but that the daily professional print media came up so short in the eyes of these experts. It seems to reinforce the old adage: “Journalists do a pretty good job of covering things, except for subjects in which you’re knowledgeable.”

The commentary for Columbia Journalism Review contributor Alissa Quart was insightful about why the MSM approach (reporting science as a storyteller for the masses) is perhaps systemically flawed:

“Journalists fall into storylines, because that’s how we write. There are three narratives, that we use, which can make us great but also get us into trouble – one narrative to please our editors, one to please our readers, and one which leans toward our sources, because we identify with them. WebMD and Wikipedia contributors are disconnected from most of those narratives – maybe they are trying to please certain readers, but they aren’t ‘the reader.’ Their model of knowledge doesn’t ask for stories, or sentiment or people.

This is a really good observation that meshed well with my views about the role of public relations and the dangerous media narrative driving scientific reporting. Quart and I arrived at the same conclusion.

In short, argument trumps aesthetics. Lih, an engineer by education, concurs. The clash of narratives “also says something about motivation, in that the mainstream press will be driven by reports, PR bring shoved at them, and also the market and the desire by editors (in a top-down manner) to demand reporters find a story in the latest research, even if in the greater context of the field, it doesn’t warrant so much attention. In that sense, Wikipedia’s motivations are different, in that the ‘crowd’ helps moderate and even dampen the type of ‘recentism’ that is so pervasive in news coverage.”

The overall summary can be found at the Stats.org site, or you can view the full PDF.

Wikimedia community approves license migration

2009-05-21T18:51:18+00:00

Today we announced some fantastic news. The proposal to see Wikimedia’s content adopt a new dual license system has been voted on and approved by the Wikimedia community. With the full approval of our Board of Trustees, this now means that the Wikimedia Foundation will proceed with the implementation of a CC-BY-SA/GFDL dual license system on all of our project’s content. The new dual license will begin to come into effect in June.

A Q&A about the announcement has been posted on the Foundation wiki. You can also find considerably more information, discussion, and details about the license change and the work of the license update committee on their meta page.

A huge thanks to the committee, to the folks at Creative Commons (who have also blogged on the topic), to Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation, and to thousands of Wikimedia volunteers from around the world who both authored the content and voted to help make the proposal a reality.

Jay Walsh, Head of Communications

A low-meat diet - as good as a Prius

2009-05-21T18:37:37+00:00

As has been reported in the media, and highlighted by animal welfare groups, eliminating animal products from your diet is better than trading in your gas-guzzler for a Prius. But as in all things, moderation achieves good results and, importantly, is achievable:

The idea that one need not go “cold turkey” and avoid all meat also makes the prospect of changing diet more palatable. New York Times food writer and cookbook author Mark Bittman has recently adopted an eat-less-meat habit, sharing low meat recipes as part of an easy, delicious modern approach to cuisine. As Bittman has pointed out, it’s much easier to go low on meat than to say no to meat. Indeed, with greater availability and variety of high-quality vegetables, beans, and grains-plus more appealing and varied recipes, inspired by a more cosmopolitan cuisine, the possibility of eating very well with a low meat diet is now greater than ever before.

via Ann Vileisis: Time to break the low-meat barrier.

Share and encourage:

Super fresh local food, with yardsharing

2009-05-21T17:40:36+00:00

Eating fresh local food (and super fresh food tastes so much better) is appealing, but for some of us, we're just never going to make our own gardens. Behold, a solution:

What is ‘yardsharing’?

Yardsharing is an arrangement between people to share skills and gardening resources; space, time, strength, tools or skills, in order to grow food as locally as possible, to make neighborhoods resilient, kids healthy and food much cheaper!

via What is yardsharing? « Hyperlocavore.

Turn that wasted space (that you have to maintain) into a resource.

Turn a chore into a social activity. While I grew up around plants, and love lazy gardening (better eating by doing a little pleasant activity), I know that many people are daunted, uninterested, or feel that they don't have time. With some local teamwork, you can have a garden anyway!

Find a local group/website if there is one (e.g. Portland Yardsharing) and start from there. Or visit the Hyperlocavore social network and ask there.

Enjoy!

Share and encourage:

Small is beautiful in house design

2009-05-21T15:54:13+00:00

An unconventional architect, Joseph Esherick emphasized practicality over ostentatious design. While big may be showy and attention getting, Esherick designed functional living spaces that were sometimes remarkably small.

A mere 875 square feet, the house is made from inexpensive materials though its spatial arrangements are quite complex. Ironically perhaps, the current owner, Jim Friedman, builds $10 million to $20 million 20,000-square-foot houses for a living. “The Esherick house has taught me that really great architecture doesn’t require gilding a lily,” he said. - via Utopia by the Sea - NYTimes.com.

Yet another demonstration that technology's best contribution to our quality of living is not through conspicous consumption, but through wise design and providing just what is needed.

Share and encourage:

stop messing with the tablespace

2009-05-21T14:05:49+00:00

People keep loving and endorsing the –innodb-file-per-table. Then poor new users read about that, get confused, start using –innodb-file-per-table, and tell others to. Others read then, get confused even more, and start using –innodb-file-per-table, then write about it. Then…

Oh well. Here, some endorsements and FUD against one-tablespace-to-unite-them-all:

This same nice property also translates to a not so nice one: data can be greatly fragmented across the tablespace.

Of course, having file-per-table will mean that only one table will be in a file, so, kind of, it will not be ‘mixed’… inside file. Now, when data grows organically (not when you restore few-hundred-gigabyte dump sequentially), all those files grow and start getting fragmented (at ratios depending on how smart filesystem is, and.. how many people choose smart filesystems nowadays?). So, disks will have same soup of data, just instead of ‘fragmentation’ inside tablespace which is laid out sequentially on a disk/filesystem, you get fragmentation at file system level. Now, InnoDB has extents and such, and can afford new storage formats more often than filesystems do, so… which one is more modern for proper data allocation strategies?

So, some more criticism of InnoDB tablespaces:

An annoying property of InnoDB’s tablespaces is that they never shrink.

Annoying are people who find this annoying. Look, it is simple, if your data grows to X, then you do something amazing and shrink your dataset, there’re two outstanding questioms:

How soon will your dataset grow back to X?
What temporary data will be placed there, until the moment dataset grows back to X?

It is very simple, database servers house data. Run OPTIMIZE, data will get eventually fragmented (quite fast, actually, at usual access patterns, as once you have lots of full pages around, a simple insertion will split pages). That ‘free space’ achieved does not bring too much value, it will be gone, and data will be placed there. Oh, well, and it _will_ be used by database, by _any_ table, not just the owner-table of a file.

It does not release storage to the file system.

*facepalm*. File system doesn’t want that storage. It will give it back to InnoDB as soon as it asks. :)

I’ve seen more than once how certain tables are left unwatched, growing until disk space reaches 90% and SMS notifications start beeping all around.

Where is that issue of data storage strategies? I have tablespaces taking 95%. When they will reach 99% I will kill the database servers and cycle them out to other tasks to deal with smaller datasets. There is nothing bad with data growing, as long as you know the reason. There is nothing wrong with tablespace growing, thats its job – to house the data you feed in.

But having a file which consumes some 80-90% of disk space is a performance catastrophe. It means the disk needle needs to move large distances. Overall disk performance runs very low.

[citation needed]. Which filesystem will not place data at those ‘long distances’ for the needle, when it gets full? Which filesystem will relocate the data to the start of disk? This is most poorly sourced statement, which spreads FUD, even though same data placement would happen pretty much with every storage strategy. If start area gets full, you have to place data elsewhere. End of tablespace, end of filesystem, end of disk, it is same thing.

Also, one can never be sure how underlying storage will be mapped to block device. Writing to the end can be fastest, you never know. Did you try? :)

mysqldump, mk-parallel-dump

Where is mydumper? ;-D

One other nice thing about innodb_file_per_table is that it is possible to monitor table size on the file system level.

Oh sure, thats just what you need, give people who deal with data at the application level, access to MySQL data directories, and let them run awk, sort, du, etc, even though INFORMATION_SCHEMA gives you that data for any kind of table storage type you use. Oh, by the way, both I_S and ‘SHOW TABLE STATUS’ will tell about free space, whereas filesystem has no idea about what data is inside file. You choose your tools… ;-)

Oh, wait, this was given as an argument:

You don’t need access to MySQL, to use SHOW TABLE STATUS or to query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.

Right…

Though actually I know where file-per-table solves something. I’ve written already, that most Linux file systems serialize O_DIRECT writes. Using separate files will mean that O_DIRECTs will be placed in separate queues per each inode. I’d suggest just using proper file system :-)

Now I should probably tell why having single tablespace is better. Besides the obvious (freed space shared by all tables), I don’t know. Well, there’re lots of different issues that have different impact on different operating systems, file systems, storage, etc.

For example, when data lives inside single tablespace, filesystem metadata operations are nearly non-existing. That means no writes to FS journal, less need for multiple-points-of-synchronization, etc.

Multiple file descriptors could also be mentioned, though probably nowadays it has nearly zero significance. I don’t know – statements like that need more than just assumptions. I don’t have good numbers about how much FS fragmentation affects proper database workload – and results can be different depending on data access patterns, size composition, and of course, filesystems used.

Still, from OS administrator’s perspective data is not fragmented in any way, moving files around will hit bandwidth issues in network, memory, I/O, but will not do any seeks. I probably have dealt too much with systems that had hundreds of millions of files, to love single-file-approach. :)

Zotero 2.0

2009-05-21T14:04:14+00:00

[This post originally appeared in the blog hist.net.]

Zotero 2.0 became available for public download on May 14. This new version of Zotero provides many exciting features that unlock the research archives of individual scholars making those research archives (or portions of those archives) available for a wider audience. Think about it this way. In what my students like to call the “olden times” (anything before 2000), scholars collected materials into their personal research archives then sat down and wrote a book, an article, or a conference paper. That publication provided the scholar’s audience with a glimpse into the source materials he or she had collected from various archives, libraries, etc. But only a glimpse, and mostly in the footnotes. If you wanted access to those same sources, you had to replicate the research already completed by the author of what you were reading.

Zotero 2.0 potentially puts an end to this re-research process. Now, a scholar can make any portion of that personal research archive available online via Zotero’s collaborative capabilities. So, for instance, as I collect materials for an article I am perparing for a volume of essays on “getaways” in communist Eastern Europe, I can make my Zotero folders available to anyone or just my collaborators in the volume. Once the book is published, I can choose whether or not to make my sources available to those readers who want to work with the sources I collected. In this way, the “hidden archive” of scholarship will begin to migrate to the surface. The potential for transformation of scholarly work is, I think, quite significant.

Zotero 2.0 also taps into the potentialities of social networking for scholars. Once logged in to the Zotero server, one can create a personal profile page, create or join affinity groups, and track (”follow”) the work of others who are part of the Zotero community. For a brief summary of the features of Zotero 2.0, read what Dan Cohen, Director of the Center for History and New Media, has written (and will continue to write) in his blog.

The Ballad of Lucy Gordon: actress found dead two days before 29th birthday

2009-05-21T13:24:22+00:00

Yesterday British actress Lucy Gordon was found hanging from her ceiling in her apartment in Paris. It is believed that she committed suicide; however, no further details have been released, according to the BBC. It was two days before her 29th birthday.

The portrait below was taken by me on May 1, 2007. It’s difficult for me not to look at it and think about what she would have seen in her life just two years into the future. She was extraordinarily nice and accommodating.

Lucy Gordon by David Shankbone. 22 May 1980 – 20 May 2009.
As with all of my photography, this image is licensed Creative Commons and may be reproduced and altered without my permission. Click on it to download a higher resolution.

Lucy was found by her boyfriend, who said he was sleeping when she hung herself. Neighbors reported that the couple had not been getting along. After her unnamed boyfriend found her, he ran down the street outside of their apartment screaming: ‘Call the police – my friend has hung herself!’

Lucy’s father, Richard Gordon, 60, made the following statements:

‘The whole family is so proud of Lucy, and we always have been. We have loved her so much throughout her life. We called her Lucy because she was the light of mine, her mum Sue’s, and her sister Katie’s lives. Lucy was a lovely, generous and unselfish person who always gave so much thought to other people and put them before herself.‘

Gordon recently finished a biopic about celebrated French singer Serge Gainsbourg in which she played Gainsbourg’s lover, iconic actress and film director Jane Birkin. Gordon was oft-compared to Birkin in life.

I photographed Gordon at the 2007 Spiderman 3 premiere. Oddly, I uploaded the photograph to Wikipedia at a time when she did not have an article. I probably have around 40 or 50 portraits sitting on computers at home of people who either do not have a Wikipedia article, or who I do not recognize but are notable for some reason since they are posing for me on the red carpet at Tribeca. I do not usually upload these images because of the time involved (finding out who they are and/or the time involved in Photoshopping and uploading an image for which there is no place for it on Wikipedia). Lucy Gordon was an exception to that. I found her captivating.

I tried to find a home for her portrait, so I put it on the Oxford High School article, which was her alma mater in England. At the time, it was one of the few places where she was mentioned on Wikipedia.

Eerily, the mood in Marianne Faithfull’s The Ballad of Lucy Jordan is a fitting soundtrack to this post:

The filmography of Lucy Gordon:

2001: Perfume (as Sarah)
2001: Serendipity (as Caroline Mitchell)
2002: The Four Feathers by Shekhar Kapur (as Isabelle)
2005: The Russian Dolls by Cédric Klapisch (as Celia Shelburn)
2007: Serial de Kevin Arbouet et Larry Strong (as Sadie Grady)
2007: Spider-Man 3 by Sam Raimi (as Jennifer Dugan)
2008: Frost by Steve Clark (as Kate Hardwick)
2009: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by John Krasinski (as Hitchhiker)
2009: Cinéman (as Fernandel’s friend)
2010: Serge Gainsbourg, vie héroïque (as Jane Birkin)

Possibly related posts

Licensing Vote Results

2009-05-21T12:03:35+00:00

The results of the Wikimedia licensing vote have been made public today. From Robert Rohde on foundation-l:

The licensing update poll has been tallied.

"Yes, I am in favor of this change" : 13242 (75.8%)
"No, I am opposed to this change" : 1829 (10.5%)
"I do not have an opinion on this change" : 2391 (13.7%)

Total ballots cast and certified: 17462

This is quite a good result, and one that I am happy to see. The WMF board has not made a final decision on the matter, but I sincerely hope that they pursue this license migration.

Update: The board moved pretty quickly on these results, and have already written and approved a resolution:

Whereas the Wikimedia community, in a project-wide vote, has expressed
very strong support for changing the licensing terms of Wikimedia sites,
and whereas the Board of Trustees has previously adopted a license
update resolution requesting that such a change be made possible, the
Board hereby declares its intent to implement these changes.
Accordingly, the Wikimedia Foundation exercises its option under Version
1.3 of the GNU Free Documentation License to relicense the Wikimedia
sites as Massive Multiauthor Collaborations under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license, effective June 15, 2009. The Board
of Trustees hereby instructs the Executive Director to have all
Wikimedia licensing terms updated and terms of use implemented
consistent with the proposal at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update

So it looks like Wikibooks (and all other GFDL WM projects) will be migrating to CC-BY-SA-3.0 dual-licensing by June 15th. Quite a cool thing to happen!

الويكيميديون يقولون نعم لرخصة CC-BY-SA

2009-05-21T10:14:34+00:00

أعلنت اليوم مؤسسة ويكيميديا عن نتائج التصويت الذي إنتهى في 3 مايو الجاري و الذي يطلب من المستخدمين التصويت على مستقبل حقوق النشر في مشاريع المؤسسة (ويكيبيديا, ويكي الأخبار, ويكاموس.. إلخ.) و ذلك بتحويل الرخصة من رخصة جنو للوثائق العمومية 1.2 إلى رخصة التشارك الإبداعي النسبة-الحفاظ على الرخصة 3.0, كانت نسبة المشاركة في الوسط الويكيميدي [...]

Green wiki #2: Playgreen

2009-05-21T05:17:20+00:00

We recently looked at the Green Powered Wiki - and we'd still like to make contact with the team behind that effort, and know if they're still interested in co-creating a knowledge base for renewable energy.

But let's look at a green wiki which is still online - Playgreen, a wiki on green living.

Some observations:

Topics covered are similar to the Appropedia wiki - both have howtos and organizational profiles but Playgreen is more focused on green living, without the emphasis on sharing designs and project write-ups.
It hasn't been active recently - just 2 or 3 edits per month. Spam is an issue.
Playgreen uses a true open license, without noncommercial restrictions - specifically the Creative Commons Share Alike CC-BY-SA license, which Appropedia also uses. It's good to know that we can share content with complete ease.
Okay, not quite complete ease - the wiki uses a different markup (way of representing formatting) which I've never seen before. I get a bit impatient with having to several different kinds of markup on all the sites I post to. On the plus side, it's relatively easy to figure out.
The skin is quite slick - better than our MediaWiki skin (development of which is on the backburner until we can get help from a CSS wizard).
I can't find history page for each wiki page, so I can't revert the spam I found tonight. I also can't find a statistics page.
There seems to be no site map or category structure.
I've sent a message via the contact form at least twice in the past couple of years, suggesting we explore collaboration. Either they're not interested, the form is broken, or (maybe the most likely) it's one of hundreds of messages they haven't answered yet because they have day jobs. We know all about that.

So, it's an interesting effort, but it's stalled. There are clearly still people who visit the site and contribute, but there's a lack of critical mass to fill the need for quality green living info.

But the great thing about Playgreen is the use of a proper open license. That means that even if the site doesn't take off, these contributions of green wisdom can live on and grow in different forms - the "no such thing as waste" principle applied to the labors of green wiki contributors.

By the way - check out our green living info. It's a very different layout to Playgreen, and perhaps not as well packaged, but there's a growing collection, and I hope it's usable - please give feedback!

Share and encourage:

Thrivability 1: Milk

2009-05-20T20:59:00+00:00

In 1993, the FDA approved the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), otherwise known as bovine somatotropin (rbST), in cows. Farmers inject this synthetic hormone into their animals to increase their milk production. This practice has been banned in Europe, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

via Organic Milk - Hormones rBGH and rbST in Milk - thedailygreen.com.

I'm not going to get into the details of the good and bad of rbST - but the Wikipedia article refers to European Union and Canadian government reports that the use of rBST substantially increases health problems in the cattle. The effect on human health is less clear, it seems, but causing suffering to the animals that produce our food is something I want to avoid.

I also find that organic milk tastes better, and organic dairy farmers seem to pay more attention to the animals' welfare (if only to get certification and keep their customers happy - that's how capitalism works, after all). Considering all this, I do now have a strong preference for organic milk, and will go without milk rather than use milk from system that abuses its animals in this way. We'll see how strong my willpower is. And yes, I already knew they abused the animals, but this brought it home.

There's a bigger picture here: that's the question of how we attain abundance. Consumerism might be rejected by us green folks, but having plenty of tasty food to eat is something people around the world aspire to, especially those who don't have enough.

So, let's admit we want it - that simple living is fine up to a point, but most of us don't want to live on a meager diet, or pay through the nose for our staple foods. Let's ask: can we attain abundance and at the same time protect the world that supports us, and without compromising on issues like humane treatment of animals?

This is not just the better way, it's the only way. Selling "being hungry and paying through the nose" just doesn't look promising. Selling thrivability means building and showing a path to change - it's hard work, but an achievable outcome, and one that we're continuing to strive for.

How do we achieve this? How we advance towards "thrivability" rather than just sustainability? This is something that we explore together on the wiki, and something that we'll look at in coming blog posts. Stay tuned!

Photo credit: Fake cow by macieklew, open-licensed under CC-BY-SA

Share and encourage:

My name is ___, and I use SMW

2009-05-20T20:20:48+00:00

After some amount of planning, emailing and persuading, the Semantic MediaWiki testimonials page is now up. The page, as could be expected, holds a list of statements by various people about how SMW has helped them. There are eight testimonials already, featuring a good mix of contributions from corporations, research groups and individual websites. So now we have something that I think is rare: a testimonials page for an open-source application that has no organization running it. In other words, a marketing effort without the marketers, or even a CEO. Is this a harbinger of the future of work? I guess we’ll see. For now, I think this will be an important tool in getting companies and other organizations more comfortable with the idea of using SMW, especially in place of more slickly-marketed (but also more expensive) packages. And if you use Semantic MediaWiki and haven’t already submitted a testimonials, please feel free to do so - the email address is at the bottom of that page.

Wikis4SE 2009: A video introduction by Ward Cunningham

2009-05-20T19:13:16+00:00

Earlier this week, AboutUs was fortunate to be the backdrop to a great introduction to wiki by Ward, the wiki-inventor and our CTO.

Shot by Ademar Aguiar, it was aimed at participants in a workshop on Wikis for Software Engineering at the 31st International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). Being his usual clever self, Ward used the reconfigurable workspace we have at our Portland office as an example of how the philosophy of wiki can be applied to just about anything, even your physical environment.

Intellectual conservatism is dead

2009-05-20T18:40:23+00:00

It takes an iconic conservative judge like Richard Posner to state, very plainly, why the Republican party has become such a spectacular basket case [emphasis added]:

By the end of the Clinton administration, I was content to celebrate the triumph of conservatism as I understood it, and had no desire for other than incremental changes in the economic and social structure of the United States. I saw no need for the estate tax to be abolished, marginal personal-income tax rates further reduced, the government shrunk, pragmatism in constitutional law jettisoned in favor of “originalism,” the rights of gun owners enlarged, our military posture strengthened, the rise of homosexual rights resisted, or the role of religion in the public sphere expanded. All these became causes embraced by the new conservatism that crested with the reelection of Bush in 2004.

My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

Bravo, Judge Posner.

Possibly related posts

The Wikipedia Usability Initiative is still hiring.

2009-05-20T15:47:36+00:00

The Wikipedia Usability Initiative has extended the application deadline for the Software Developer position till May 30th. We are recruiting two candidates for this position. Both local applicants to the San Francisco Bay Area and remote applicants are encouraged to apply. Please help spread the word.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Software_Developer_(project)

Naoko Komura
Wikipedia Usability Initiative

Stan Katz Knows

2009-05-20T12:43:18+00:00

In the most recent episode of Digital Campus, Dan and I interviewed Stan Katz (Princeton) about his role in promoting digital history over the past 20 (yes, 20) years. Tom couldn’t join us for the episode because he was at home with the Scheinfeldt family’s new baby. I suppose that qualifies as an excuse. If it seems to you that digital history is too new to have a history, then you need to listen to this episode of Digital Campus. Stan will disabuse you of the notion that what we’re up to is a very recent thing…he was pushing historians to realize that a computer is not a typewriter more than a decade ago and, as that paper reveals, his efforts on behalf of digital history go back even further. For instance, if you like accessing the American Historical Review online, thank Stan. He was the AHA vice president for research who pushed the AHR to move to a digital format. So give the podcast a listen and you’ll even learn how accessing Facebook can lower your GPA.

Reply to a tweeted link

2009-05-20T06:38:42+00:00

Clay Shirky tweeted a link to this essay on the future of journalism, from Dan of Xark!. It isn't accepting my comment, so I'm posting it here:

This is an interesting vision of the future, but I don't see how it could possibly be the future of journalism.

For the sake of argument, I'll assume that collecting news data and maintaining a usefully-organized database of it is a viable business model. I agree that it would not be newspapers who led this, but more likely a web-only company.

But newspapers (and to a much lesser extent, television) are the organizations that have an institutional commitment to investigative journalism (the kind that isn't database-friendly and that is the main thing people fret about losing). Why would a news informatics company, which would lack that institutional commitment, use its profit to subsidize investigative journalism that isn't itself profitable?

For newspapers, there have been two jobs that only meet economically at the broadest levels: to sell ads, and to create compelling content for readers. Economics didn't figure in directly in the choice of whether to send a reporter to the court house or fire; rather, that choice was made within the editorial sphere. For news informatics, every choice of coverage has economic implications: which kind of data will people be paying to access? In that environment, in what is sure to be a tough market to establish, would news informatics companies fund investigative journalism out of sheer civic responsibility?

Request for assistance for EN Wikizine

2009-05-20T00:36:16+00:00

Dear reader of Wikizine,

Wikizine depends on volunteers to provide you, our readers, this service.

There are no volunteers for Wikizine who help out on a core level who
are needed to be able to continue to provide this service.

If you find Wikizine useful consider to help me. Only by substantial
assistance on a more then occasional basis can wikizine continue. Who
helps out gets wide editorial freedom to give form to Wikizine.

If you would like to help out with the creation of Wikizine please
contact me.

Greetings,

Walter

--
Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org
Wikizine.org - news for and about the Wikimedia community

The future of the Digital Economy, or not…

2009-05-19T22:48:50+00:00

Thank you Brianna for pointing out that the Australian Department of Communications, Broadband and the Digital Economy (with the memorable acronym DCBDE) has published all 116 public submissions to their ‘consultation draft’ for the Digital Economy Future Directions Paper.

You can find Wikimedia Australia’s two cents right down at the bottom between the “West Gippsland Regional Library Corporation” and “Yahoo!”. The perils of having a name that starts with a “W” I know only too well…

There are submissions from the usual suspects (Telstra, Google, Microsoft, seven from IBM and one from Sony - the corporation with a CEO that “…doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet…“) as well as some from organisations you wouldn’t expext, like Lonely Planet - yes, the travel publishing company. LP focus their submission on Australia’s “Safe Harbour” scheme and why they believe it should be strengthened. They even favourably namedrop Wikipedia. How very kind of them. On page 4 they write:

In short, interactivity and collaboration have become the mantra of the digital age.

The use of interactive and collaborative communications technology is often economically and socially valuable. For example:
Wikipedia provides an outlet for subject matter experts to self-publish and share knowledge with the world on all varieties of topics, thus providing an ever increasingly helpful research tool, as well as a public forum for new, topical or arcane issues;

There is also another group of submissions - althogether expected - from the copyright collection agencies and related groups who represent a copyright maximalist stance.

What strikes me as interesting is the dichotomy. On the other hand, there are the submissions from organisations that represent education, research, user groups and the like, which all talk about innovation, collaboration, sharing, development. On the other hand, there are submissions from the copyright clan, which all talk about protection, theft, exploitation (the good kind - commercially, by them) and exploitation (the bad kind - any, by you) etc. It is as if they were speaking two different languages. Here are some highlights:

the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT):

(I like the way they have decided to not let you copy text in their PDF, here's a screengrab instead.)

In other words - better access to modern communications technology will harm the business model of corporations who rely on people being passive consumers of cultural output (such as ‘you’ll get what you’re given’ television and cinema). This is the same as saying that better access to motor vehicles harms the horse & carriage industry, which is very true, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing.

the Australian Publishers Association (APA):

“The Government should look to strengthen rather than dilute its copyright regulations and introduce no new exceptions to the Copyright Act without conducting a thorough, fundamental review of the legislation to take into account the needs of the digital economy” [p3.]

In other words - they think Copyright laws are too lax. Exceptions that are being proposed (such as allowing teachers to display free, public websites in schools without paying royalties) go too far down the road of making “free education” practically viable. You wouldn’t have thought that it would even require an exception but apparently Australia is the only country in the world that requires educational institutions to pay to use publicly available websites. The school system is asking for an exception to this but it is being opposed…

the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA)

“The introduction of “access” services is the single most important current development in the music business. Online services like Nokia’s Comes With Music are transforming the way people enjoy music, offering more choice in music downloads than ever before. Music track sales were up to 1.4 billion globally in 2008.” [p3]

Later in the same page (and elsewhere in the document) they go into detail about how much money the industry is losing to filesharing of in-copyright music. At least the Australian music industry peak body is not suggesting that every illegal download equals a lost sale. They figure it’s 1 in 5 (same page) - this is not what they used to say and the change to a more reasonable method for calculating potential lost sales should be recognised. However, combining in the one page a section that says how well the industry is doing out of digital sales followed by a much lengthier section about how much the industry is losing, seems to be trying to make an argument both ways at the same time. That is, they argue that the industry is healthy, responsive to market changes and important to the national economy. At the same time they argue that it is being attacked and in need of government regulatory support.

the Australian Copyright Council (ACC)

“The Consultation Paper refers to the Powerhouse Museum and the State Library of NSW having recently placed photographs (in which copyright has expired) from their
collections onto the US website Flickr. Flickr generates revenue, through advertising, for its US owner, Yahoo…”

“…When considering the success of this project, however, the generation of revenue that does not come back to the collecting institutions to further their activities must be
taken into account. That must be weighed against factors such as the numbers of people who view the items online, whether those are the people the collecting
institution wants to reach, and the quantity and relevance to the collecting institutions of the information about the photographs contributed by Flickr users.” [p3]

(One of the wonderful images taken from the PHM archive, placed on Flickr, then copied across to Wikimedia Commons.)

This seems to directly contradict what the Powerhouse Museum (PHM) is reporting about their decision to put their pictures on Flickr. Their image services manager presented a paper at the recent “Museums and the Web” conference entitled “Open licensing and the future for collections” on exactly this topic. On all metrics this experiment has been a success - even to the point of reducing the number of phone calls to the curatorial staff from the public wanting to ask simple questions. People now ask their questions on the Flickr comments section where the rest of the viewing community can usually answer satisfactorally - allowing the staff to be more productive.

The ACC also suggests that the PHM has willingly or unintentionally ’sold out’ to an overseas commercial company.

First the ‘commercial’ aspect: In Wikimedia-land, we have copied across onto Wikimedia commons many of these photographs and would indeed like to see the Powerhouse upload directly there - Wikimedia being non-commercial after all. But we understand that Flickr offers a better workflow for collection management and also has a larger direct audience than Wikimedia-Commons. As they are Public Domain images anyway, Wikimedians can copy the images freely by themselves. If the Powerhouse had chosen to put a digital padlock on the images then there would be a problem and the proprietary nature of the Flickr system would be rightly questionable as the best method for publication. However, since the Powerhouse are using this tool the way it should - to encourage access rather than to extend restrictions to a new platform - everyone is happy. Hey, even Obama’s doin’ it.

Secondly, the ‘overseas’ aspect: There is an expectation, and indeed a requirement, that government funded content be hosted on Australian websites so that it remains within the national jurisdiction. There is also an element of the ‘national interest’ argument here, along the same lines as why we want to be able to build our own submarines and not have to rely on foreign contractors. I understand and in fact agree with this concern - I would like Australia to be self-sufficient in providing access to its own culture. However, what the ACC submission does not mention is that all of these photographs placed on Flickr were already available on the PHM website - which is hosted within Australia. As with the commercial discussion above, if the PHM had published exclusively on foreign websites then this would be a problem. But given that these are copies of Public Domain images published on their own website and the original objects are all safely stored away (in Australia) the PHM did not do anything that would go against their mandate to protect Australian cultural independence.

the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL)

I love what they've done with the fax-machine motif there. (p3)

CAL’s submission focuses mainly on the suggestion that the Government might be looking into releasing Public Sector Information (PSI), you know, like, publicly. An extension of the “it’s taxpayer money that paid for it to be written so why should we have to pay to read it” argument. One of the most obvious roads to do this would be to adopt Creative Commons licensing - a step that some agencies are already taking up, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishing under the CC-by license.

The particular argument being used here against putting PSI under a Creative Commons license is a new one - for me at least. It seems to be saying that by using CC licensing, people would be able to rework the government’s words to mean something they did not originally intend and the government would have no way of stopping them. Since when is that a concern of copyright law? More than likely there will be many incorrect quotations and incorporations of PSI into other materials but the copyright status of the PSI one way or the other will have no effect on this. People misquote and misconstrue (intentionally and unintentionally) PSI all the time and no one is especially bothered - and that is with Crown Copyright firmly in place. In a cost/benefit analysis the question would be: How great are the potential advantages of allowing the public greater freedom of use of the the content that already own as taxpayers, relative to the potential harm associated with an increase in misquotations as a result of copyright licensing changes.

And in recognition of your having read down this far, I award you the Copyright Society of the United States’ hastily drawn “copyright cat” .gif:

I think they're serious too!

The Power of Mass Collaboration

2009-05-19T22:37:20+00:00

Us Now is a fascinating new documentary about the power of mass collaboration. Whether you’re hacking on the Linux kernel or just tweeting your heart out about what you ate for lunch, this is a film that pretty poignantly explains just how lowering the barriers to self-expression and collaboration can make a huge impact. From our perspective, it’s a fine primer on why we’re passionate about our mission.

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

With interviews with some of the leading minds on the power of the new Internet — such as Don Tapscott, Clay Shirky and Charles Leadbeater — it focuses quite a bit on the potential for the “unbundling and reconstituting what is a government” through the collaborative web.

But the prime examples are tools just like AboutUs: the application of collaborative models to every aspect of our lives, even the mundane.

Sites such as Mumsnet and CouchSurfing hammer home the film’s points about being open and showing trust, as well as the “possibility of using these tools to do massive things,” like our goal of adding an editable accompaniment to all the websites that matter to you.

The Business of (Business) History

2009-05-19T15:02:38+00:00

A new blog worth taking a look at is the Business History Matters brought to you by the folks at the History Factory. I came across this one via a push from one of the blog’s creators, but already knew of the History Factory because one of their interns interiewed me for their spring newsletter. One reason I’m interested in this particular blog is that in my current job in the Dean’s office, I’ve spent a lot of time working with our departments on what might be called “workforce” issues — lining up internships for undergraduate and graduate students, promoting those internships, building relationships with employers that might turn into jobs for our graduates, etc. The History Factory and their blog are both good examples of how those with a history degree, whether at the graduate or the undergraduate level, can find interesting, exciting, and remunerative work in history in venues we don’t typically think of when someone asks us “what can you do with a history major?”.

A Life Offline

2009-05-18T21:33:48+00:00

I have literally had a computer since birth; the Internet came not long after that: I still remember email addresses supplemented by UUCP bang-paths. Hardly a day has gone by in which I haven’t checked my email for what must be a decade.

The Internet has kept me connected to people—as a child, all my best friends were online; as an adult, all my coworkers are. My jobs do not take place in an office; they take place over email, where time and place do not matter. The upside, is that I can go anywhere and still do them. The downside, is I cannot get away from them.

I need to take a break. My life has become entangled with technology and pressure that I hardly know any other way of life. So I’m planning to spend the month of June (June 6 to July 4, to be exact) offline. I’m packing up the laptop and the cable modem and sending them someplace far away. I’m going back to the world of paper and books.

Of course, my phone is now a computer too, so that will also have to go. I don’t have a landline, so if folks want to talk to me they’ll have to write letters (here’s my address). I (amazingly) don’t have any clocks or calendars, so I won’t even know what time it is. All of which means no more meetings or coordinating to hang out with people. I suppose people could call on me, but honestly, I wish they wouldn’t — at least at first.

I don’t feel like the kind of person who could survive on Walden Pond — I’m a finicky eater and not a huge fan of animals in any capacity. So locking myself in my apartment seems about as close as I can get. There will of course be the clerks at stores and people on the street, but for the most part I’ll be alone.

I’ve experimented with it a little — both my phone and my laptop have died recently — and it’s liberating. Walking down the street or waiting in lines, I find myself checking my phone compulsively, using it to send my mind to some other world of email or news. Without it, I feel grounded. And my laptop is even worse — a beckoning world of IMs to friends, brain-gelatinizing television shows, and an endless pile of emails to answer. It’s like a constant stream of depression. A day without it made me feel like I was human again.

I want to be human again. Even if that means isolating myself from the rest of you humans.

What if there’s an emergency? Has there ever been an emergency? The biggest urgent things seem to be that my servers go down. Which sucks, but I need to be able to walk away from that. If you have things hosted on one of my machines, contact me now and I’ll try to get you enough privileges that you can fix things if they break. If something’s really an emergency, I’m sure you’ll find me.

Have a nice June.

Six Key Traits of VRM ListenLog

2009-05-18T21:00:15+00:00

At the VRM West Coast Workshop on May 15, I briefly presented The Six Key Traits of the proposed VRM ListenLog project. Each trait distinguishes the technology from a straightforward, local log file. Each differentiator is critical in highlighting what makes the ListenLog concept so powerful.

Listen to the bad audio while you click through the two slides. What could be a more informative way to spend six minutes?

VRM ListenLog

View more presentations from hopperomatic.

On throttling

2009-05-18T20:57:24+00:00

Seems like nowadays InnoDB crash recovery is much funnier. Please allow me to show you something:

while (buf_pool->n_pend_reads >=
        recv_n_pool_free_frames / 2) {
  os_aio_simulated_wake_handler_threads();
  os_thread_sleep(500000);

Translation – if there’re more than 128 outstanding I/O requests, sleep for half a second. Hehehe. Optimized for floppies!

This Month in Sociology

2009-05-18T20:01:48+00:00

based on Contexts’ sociology roundup

A new study finds that marriage has been making people increasingly unhappy for the past 30 years. Even when they say they’re happy with their relationship, married people are unhappier overall. Indeed, the effect is so large that it cancels out the happiness gains the unmarried population has made in the past 30 years.

Meanwhile, in Portugal the police have been arresting whole neighborhoods and transporting them all to jail. Now prisoners can serve with their old family and friends.

Rich countries tend to be more accepting of minorities, while most strippers have terrible working conditions. Moving increases crime, the DUI gender gap is narrowing, and media coverage encourages sports hooligans. Young people are increasingly critical of war.

Blacks are moving back to the south, while dual citizenship is increasingly permitted. Ugandans educated at foreign colleges and universities are twice as likely to be employed as equally-educated Ugandans who never left and three times as likely to be employed as foreign-born immigrants.

Appalachian boys prefer working with their hands to booksmarts.

with apologies to Paul Ford and Roger Hodge

after the conference, mydumper, parallelism, etc

2009-05-18T20:00:57+00:00

Though slides for my MySQL Conference talks were on the O’Reilly website, I placed them in my talks page too, for both dtrace and security presentations.

I also gave a lightning talk about mydumper. Since my original announcement mydumper has changed a bit. It supports writing compressed files, detecting and killing slow queries that could block table flushes, supports regular expressions for table names, and trunk is slowly moving towards understanding that storage engines differ :)

I’ve been using mydumper quite a lot in my deployments (and observing 10x faster dumps). Now, the sad part is how to do faster recovery. It is quite easy to parallelize load of data (apparently, xargs supports running parallel processes):

echo *.sql.gz | xargs -n1 -P 16 -I % sh -c 'zcat % | mysql dbname'

Still, that doesn’t scale much – only doubles the load speed, compared to single threaded load, even on quite powerful machine. The problem lives in log_sys mutex – it is acquired for every InnoDB row operation, to grab LogicalSequenceNumbers (LSNs), so neither batching nor differentiation strategies really help, and same problem is hit by LOAD DATA too. In certain cases I saw quite some spinning on other mutexes, and it seems that InnoDB currently doesn’t scale that well with lots of small row operations. Maybe someone some day will pick this up and fix, thats why we go to conferences and share our findings :)

Stanley Fish's take on science vs. religion

2009-05-18T18:45:25+00:00

Stanley Fish has a really eloquent column, "God Talk, Part 2". Nominally about "science vs. religion", it also speaks to why Wikipedia works and why even for partisans (in politics, in fighting popular pseudoscience or religionism, etc.), really embracing neutral point of view is more effective as a rhetorical strategy than shutting out the views one opposes.

One good bit:

So to sum up, the epistemological critique of religion — it is an inferior way of knowing — is the flip side of a naïve and untenable positivism. And the critique of religion’s content — it’s cotton-candy fluff — is the product of incredible ignorance.

As Fish's own worldview should make clear, none of this should be taken as a defense of (any particular) religion or a rejection of science. But theological, philosophical and historical arguments have done far more to erode religious authority than scientific ones ever did. The 'rally the faithful' approach of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins does more harm than good.

[thanks @jayrosen_nyu on Twitter for the link]

Compound document formats

2009-05-18T17:29:16+00:00

I’m generally appalled at the state of compound documents…

In the Apple world, Mac apps like Keynote love to use bundled directories which look like flat files at the UI level. Cute, but Thunderbird gleefully destroys them as attachments… Apple’s Mail.app transparently packages them into .zip archives for you, but Thunderbird just gives you a file with a directory listing, which naturally enough fails to open when you download it. Nice!

OpenOffice and the latest greatest MS Office stick their XML documents into a .zip archive and package image files, etc into that archive. These actually do act like flat files, so attachments and uploads work. But it makes file type detection and validation a little harder; verifying which file type your zip thingy is and whether it contains extra files slipped in…

And then you get fun packages like Scribus, which just give you an XML file referencing all your external image files by path, leaving no way to transfer your entire document without manually managing a directory structure and sending around or archiving multiple files manually.

We had a request for allowing Scribus uploads to Wikimedia sites for things like PR materials… sounds great, except for how any actually relevant document will need image files packed into the same directory which you can’t do. D’oh!

Volume 5, Issue 20 - 18 May, 2009

2009-05-18T16:09:54+00:00

From the editor: Writers needed
Special report: WikiChemists and Chemical Abstracts announce collaboration
Special report: Embassies sponsor article-writing contests in three languages
News and notes: Wiki Loves Arts winners, Wikimania Conference Japan, and more
Wikipedia in the news: Arbitrator blogs, French government edits, brief headlines
WikiProject report: WikiProject Opera
Features and admins: Approved this week
Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Wikibooks First!

2009-05-18T10:54:57+00:00

I got a great email today from Cbrown1023. He did a Google search and a result from Wikibooks appeared first, even before any results from Wikipedia! What's funny is that it's not on a topic that I would consider to be a particular strength of our collection. Part of me hopes this page is not being heavily linked to as an example of the worst parts of Wikibooks, but when you see the page in question you might have that thought too. Another reminder of how much more work we need in order to make a great library of free books!

My next point of interest is to wonder why Cbrown1023 was searching for information about nuclear war? Do the WP people know something us WB folks don't?

How Policy Gets Made: A Primer

2009-05-17T23:37:48+00:00

Barack Obama’s campaign was a model of efficiency and foresightedness. Bill Clinton treated his campaign plans like marketing documents, poll-testing each proposed new idea, and forcing his administration to only begin seriously thinking about what to do once they were in office. Obama, by contrast, started early and put together a series of policy teams even before the campaign had begun in earnest.

Each policy team had a different subject — technology, health care, foreign policy — and was led by a top ally or fundraiser in the field. Let’s take technology, since it’s the case I’m most familiar with. Julius Genachowski was named Chairman of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications policy working group. Genachowski was a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama’s who had gone on to become a chief executive at Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp (market cap: $2.1 billion). He went on to become a venture capitalist and sit on the board of numerous technology companies.

He used his wealth (annual income: $1.6 million) and influence to become the leading Silicon Valley fundraiser for his old classmate — indeed, one of Obama’s top fundraisers nationally. As a result, he was the obvious pick to define Obama’s technology policy. Genachowski canvassed his fellow Silicon Valley business leaders for policy suggestions and his team synthesized the results into proposed policy documents. These proposals were circulated among a wider circle for further comments before being published on the campaign website.

After the election was won, the teams were reassembled as transition teams. Genachowski was again leading the technology team, now named the Technology, Innovation & Government Reform Policy Working Group (TIGR). It was staffed by old government hands, like Thomas Kalil (Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Technology and Economic Policy, rode out the Bush years as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology at UC Berkeley). Also brought out were business leaders, like Andrew McLaughlin (Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs for Google), and business-affiliated academic experts, like Susan Crawford (UMich law professor and a former partner at a DC law firm).

The teams worked on converting the policy documents from the campaign into instructions that would be given to federal agencies or executive orders the President could sign. They fleshed out campaign proposals, interviewed potential candidates for government positions, and held audiences with various interest groups. I visited DC during this period and got to see the aforementioned names at DC cocktail parties or the diner outside transition headquarters that became the informal meeting-place of the team. “It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life,” Susan Crawford told me, clearly relishing the challenge.

After the inauguration, the teams disbanded and their members either returned to private life or were named to the administration. Genachowski, who obviously had his pick of positions, was named chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Thomas Kalil became Associate Director of Science and Technology Policy. Susan Crawford became Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. McLaughlin went back to work at Google, where his connections to the new administration are no doubt invaluable.