LSS/foundation-l-archives/2006 12 03-09

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This is part of LSS, a mailing list summary service. It is a summary of foundation-l. Most posts whose authors are named have links to the full e-mail in the archive. However not every post is archived and the archive itself is so unstable that the urls will periodically be reassigned breaking the links in this summary. While edits to correct inaccuracies are welcome, changes to style or focus should first be discussed on the talk page. Decisions on whether to refer to people by their Wikipedia handle or their email name is arbitrary and may not be completely internally consistent. Some genders may be accidentally incorrect.Incorrect or not, this standard is used all around the net, for business or projects.

This issue covers (roughly) 2006 December 3-9

Threads

• [1]Discussion continued from last month on the topic of a Montenegrin Wikipedia, going into detail about the linguistic history of the region, other languages, and mutual comprehensibility.
• [2][3][4][5][6][7]Angela Beesley announced the creation of a mailing list and Wiki for female WMF-projects editors to discuss gender bias and ways to make the projects more inviting for women. Discussion followed on whether this is a positive development, and whether a number of other divisions will (or should) spring up after this. Anthere eventually requested that the list be moved to a non-WMF site, for the peace of the community, leading to considerable further discussion.
• [8]James Hare announced Wikiyouth as a non-WMF project.
• [9]Anthere gave a report on a board meeting in the WMF office in Florida, reporting, among other things, that the new bylaws have been approved by all members, that board expansion was approved, that Anthere would be reappointed to the board for another year in July (extending her term until june 2008), and that the audit is complete.
• [10]Mingwangx gave a report from the Wikimania 2007 team. Among other things, donations are open (via Paypal), and a website is active.
• [11]Peter van Londen asked about image license issues on WMF projects, specifically if non-commercial-only licenses are acceptable, and asking for a decision from the board applying to all projects. Geni stated that projects are generally free to choose their own license policies.
• [12][13]David Koenig, relating to the discussion on Wikichix, gave the results of some studies on gender in the German Wikipedia. Followups discussed the Italian wikipedia, the meaning of the statistics and linked to an article about Malay culture and gender.
• [14]Galwaygirl provided a pointer to a news item suggesting that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) systems, due to interest inside Microsoft, may be able to run Windows with some modification, leading to discussion on the purpose of the device, Microsoft's intent, and the creation of markets.
• [15]Erik Möller said the Mission and Vision statements would have about one more week for discussion before finalisation.
• [16]Stephanie Daugherty objected to the English Wikipedia Arbcom Election being open ballot, citing come common criticisms of open ballots. Further discussion focused on reasoning for the open ballot, common practice on EN-WP, and other voting systems.
• [17]Christophe Henner spoke about the importance of sharing of ideas between various WMF projects and the relation between ES and WMF as a whole. Trust between ES and the Foundation was mentioned, as well as specific means for communication.
• [18]Anthere announced that Mindspillage and Oscar were appointed to the Foundation Board, and that on 15 December, Tim Shell would resign, replaced by Jan-Bart de Vreede from the Kennisnet Ict op School Foundation in the Netherlands. Tim Starling objected to the election of financial supporters of the foundation to the board. Discussion on the reasoning for the appointments was held.
• [19]Jeff Merkey, who has been working on machine translations of Wikipedia to a number of Amerindian languages, faxed a copy of a letter he received from the Principal Chief of the Cherokee in support of the translation efforts.
• [20]Brad Patrick announced that the financial statements of the Foundation for 2004-2006 have been completed. Discussion on future goals and duties for the board on these matters followed.