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.org
Year: 2007 Week: 19 Number: 70
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== Technical news ===
[Password security] - After several user accounts on EN Wikipedia where
cracked password security has been increased. From now on if an
incorrect password is entered you will need to pass a captcha test when
trying again. The passwords of the sysops on EN Wikipedia and Commons
has been checked against very weak passwords and some are locked. Those
users can login again by requesting a new password, at least if the
provided a valid email address in there preferences. The check could be
expanded to other wikis also and it is possible that additional security
measures will be taken. It is highly recommended to make sure you have
good password and a valid email address for your account.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.english/71181
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-05-07/Admins…
=== Request for help ===
[Board election] - WMF board member Jan-Bart de Vreede is looking for
candidates for the "Election Committee" that will at least prepare and
possibly also manage the upcoming board elections. Election committee
members can not run as candidates for the board and are not allowed to
vote. Applications can be send in until 13th of May. See lists posting
for more information.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16727
=== Foundation ===
[New chapter] - A new Wikimedia chapter is founded; Wikimedia Israel.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Israel
=== Community ===
[Re-branding] - WMF boardmember Erik Moeller has posted a proposal to
change the names of the Wikimedia projects to a name starting with
"Wikipedia" because that is the strongest brand. So for example
Wikiquote would become "Wikipedia Quotes". This proposal is a personal
idea of Erik and is not a board idea. This idea does not seem to get a
lot of support.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16813 -- Main thread
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16945
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16931
[Sponsor] - A Norwegian Wikipedian is awarded a scholarship for working
on the Nynorsk Wikipedia by an organization aiming to promote the use of
Nynorsk as a written language .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-05-07/Wikipe…
[EN Wikinews] - Get original reporting by asking someone else to do it.
http://wikinewsreports.blogspot.com/2007/04/wikinews-sends-reporter-to-prov…
=== Awards ===
[DE Wikimedia] - Wikimedia Deutschland, the german local WMF chapter,
awards a price,
the Zedler-Medaille, for an article (or the significant improvement of
an article) in the german Wikipedia. The article must be in the area of
humanities. The award is endowed with 3000 Euro and is funded by
the German magazine "Gehirn und Geist" ["Brain and Mind"] and
allocated
in co-operation with the Academy of Science and Literature in Mainz as
part of the german "Year of Humanities".
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Zedler-Medaille
http://www.wikimedia.de/zedler-medaille
http://www.abc-der-menschheit.de/coremedia/generator/wj/de/__Downloads/Pres…
=== Stats ===
[en.wikiquote] - The English Wikiquote has reached 10,000 articles. The
milestone is Langdon Smith posted by Kalki.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Langdon_Smith
[ar.wp] - The Arabic Wikipedia announces that the are almost at 30,000
articles. The are now 35th largest Wikipedia. The have made a
celebration logo for the event.
http://ar.wikipedia.org
[ga.wp] - The Irish Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
http://ga.wikipedia.org
=== Other news ===
[Encyclopedia of Life] - Yet again a new encyclopedia project. But this
one has very, very serious funding so most likely this one will not fail
or at least not in the short run. There mission is ambitious; "Imagine
an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth available
everywhere by single access on command." And is exactly what the are
planing to do. The content will primary be imported from several
existing sources, authenticated by scientists and used in the
encyclopedia. The first pages are expected to be live by mid 2008. The
hope to get the work done for creating articles about every organism in
10 years. The also plan to have the encyclopedia available in several
languages. The licence the will use is not yet known. If the can make
true what the announce the Encyclopedia Of Life will be a very strong
competition for Wikipedia and Wikispecies for fauna and flora. The
Wikimedia Foundation is a partner of "Encyclopedia Of Life".
http://www.eol.org/home.html -- See the video and notice the interface
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/08/226230
http://blog.valuewiki.com/2007/05/09/encyclopedia-of-life/
http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/05/08/a-new-encyclopedia-of-life-announced/
-- Larry Sanger about EOL
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16907
[kab.wp] - A new Wikipedia is born; number 251. This one is on Kabyle
language, a language the can use an encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabyle_language
hhtp://kab.wikipedia.org
=== Did you know ... ===
No, nothing this week. Only a nice comic found by the Signpost.
http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20070429/cx_nq_uc/nq20070429
=== Ferengi Rules of Acquisition ===
"Peace is good for business" - Rule 35
"More is good. All is better." - Rule 242
"After you've exploited someone, it never hurts to thank them. That way,
it's easier to exploit them next time." - Rule 299 (Unofficial Rule)
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