List of all posts ever
- 2008 November
- 12 » Wikimedia Australia now open for members[0]
Wikimedia Australia now accepting members, yay. And 4 copies of the FLOSS Manuals Inkscape book sold since I wrote about it yesterday. - 11 » Presenting 'Inkscape' by FLOSS Manuals[1]
The FLOSS Manuals Inkscape book is now available for purchase! Of course, it's still available free on the web to read or edit. - 10 » Codeswarm video of edits made to Obama's Wikipedia page[0]
Title says it all. - 08 » Wikimedia Argentina holds its first Wikipedia Academy[0]
Wikimedia Argentina recently held its first Wikipedia Academy. Information about the event and background on the idea of the Wikipedia Academy. - 07 » Wikimedia chapter reports[0]
Wikimedia Australia's first monthly report is now available (except it kinda covers three months, since it's the first one). - 06 » ☍ Links for 2008-11-06[3]
The WMF fundraiser begins, and a few other choice links. - 05 » Why I love MediaWiki[0]
Feeling the LUV for MediaWiki. (Bad pun.) - 04 » Horses for courses[0]
Lots of new bubbling around, including the FSF's release of GFDL 1.3. On the eve of the US election, Wikipedia's featured article is shared between the articles on Barack Obama and John McCain. Nice touch. - 03 » How to change Wikipedia (not just one article)[3]
A link to a great paper presented at FSCONS by Lars Aronssen, about his experience in the Swedish Wikipedia implementing large-scale changes and convincing the community of their success. - 02 » NaBloPoMo[3]
Taking part in NaBloPoMo. This is my post for November 2nd. - 01 » WikiDashboard now works on live Wikipedia[0]
WikiDashboard now works on live Wikipedia instead of an old dump from April. Yay! Unfortunately the feeds it relies on are still flaky. - 01 » National Library of Australia catalogue incorporates Wikipedia text into author pages[0]
The National Library of Australia is pulling Wikipedia data into the author pages of its catalogue. - 01 » Book, book, book, book[1]
Current reading: How Wikipedia Works, Here Comes Everybody, ©ontent, MediaWiki Skins Design. - 2008 October
- 26 » Video from AussieChix microconf - Wikipedia & the education system[2]
Video and summary notes from my talk "Wikipedia & the education system" given at the AussieChix microconf. - 23 » LCA Free as in Freedom miniconf speakers get free miniconf day passes[0]
Miniconf speakers can access free miniconf day passes instead of needing to register for the main LCA conference. This is good news if you would like are interested in my Free as in Freedom miniconf but the rest of the conference, not so much. (So submit me something now! :)) - 18 » The Future Melbourne wiki - "the city plan that anyone can edit"[1]
Thoughts on the City of Melbourne's "Future Melbourne" wiki experiment. (They put their 2020 city plan in a wiki and opened it for public editing for a month.) - 17 » New MediaWiki search features on Wikipedia[7]
Wikipedia's search has a couple of interesting new features - links to specific article sections, and highlighting of search results on sister projects. - 17 » ☍ Data-scraping Wikipedia with Google Spreadsheets[0]
Use Google Spreadsheets to create a Wikipedia table data + map mashup. Looks like basically no programming required, either. - 16 » ☍ Causes, books and other links for 2008-10-16[2]
Creative Commons fundraising season, Open Access Day, a new book on MediaWiki, and wiki-related sessions at the Association of Internet Researchers. - 15 » Charles Matthews on Notability[1]
A guest post by Charles Matthews, long-time Wikipedia editor, arbitrator and author of "How Wikipedia Works", on the notability policy and Wikipedia's "topic policy" approach. - 12 » The trouble with WP:NOT (What Wikipedia is not)[0]
Follow-on from my previous post ("Wikipedia, the traditional and deeply conservative encyclopedia"), with links to external discussions, thoughts on positive vs negative definitions, and the potential for a fork. - 10 » Wikipedia, the deeply conservative and traditional encyclopedia[12]
Wikipedia, the product, is not something new or radical - in fact it's a throwback to traditional authority, probably triggered by community unease caused by MSM pressure after the Seigenthaler incident. But readers love Wikipedia because of things it has that don't meet that traditional academic standard of an encyclopedia. And academia itself has limited coverage, which would limit Wikipedia's coverage -- if we continue to let it. - 06 » 'Free as in Freedom' miniconf Call for Participation (CfP)[0]
The Call for Participation for the Free as in Freedom LCA miniconf. Submissions close November 10. - 02 » Wikibooks, and books about wiki*, on Amazon[4]
Wikibooks are published on Amazon. Also, which books should be on the essential reading list for those interested in Wikipedia-as-a-phenomenon/free culture and related ideas? - 02 » "Safe wiki": Teaching responsible use of Wikipedia[0]
A "slidecast" (synchronised audio to slides) of my talk at ACEC, called "'Safe wiki': Teaching responsible use of Wikipedia". - 01 » Whither free software in education?[4]
I went to the Australian Computers in Education Conference (ACEC). The seeming lack of information about FLOSS products for education was more than a little scary. - 2008 September
- 22 » Free as in Freedom LCA miniconf accepted![0]
I am well excited that my miniconf proposal for LCA was accepted. Now I get to organise one day of speakers under the banner of "Free as in Freedom". (LCA is Australia's Linux conference, and one of the biggest worldwide.) - 22 » Melbourne's Software Freedom Day[5]
Recap of my talk at Melbourne's Software Freedom Day, "How Free Software makes Wikipedia possible", and how I came to use free software. - 20 » Good things afoot regarding public sector information licensing in Australia[0]
There are lots of promising rumblings at the moment from various parts of Australia regarding the licensing of public sector information (PSI), ie. government data. - 20 » Book authors and eating one's own dogfood[2]
I went to a talk by Charles Leadbeater about his new book "We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity". It wasn't entirely satisfying. - 02 » A FLOSS Manual: How to contribute to Wikimedia Commons[10]
Info about the FLOSS Manual I wrote, "How to contribute to Wikimedia Commons", differences between Twiki and MediaWiki, and the difficulty of converting wikis to PDF. - 2008 August
- 31 » Community-curated works (CCW)[8]
My idea of "community-curated works" as an alternative term to "user-generated content" has caught a little traction, although the word "curated" is not loved by all. - 31 » OT blog recommendations for Blog Day[1]
Ten interesting non-wiki-related feeds for Blog Day. - 28 » The prettiest MediaWiki you've ever seen[5]
A brief intro to culturalcartography.net (via the SVG Open conference), which uses a SVG front-end on a MediaWiki back-end to good effect. - 26 » Write API enabled on Wikimedia sites![2]
The MediaWiki write API has been enabled for Wikimedia sites. Very cool! - 22 » Google Reader users: a favour...[9]
MediaWiki page history feeds seem rather broken in Google Reader. - 18 » WP:DYK + identi.ca -> enwpdidyouknow[1]
Wikipedia + MediaWiki API + mwclient + enwp.org service + identica API = new article fun :) - 13 » Links for 2008-08-13[1]
National Library of Australia historic newspaper digitisation project beta service released; WikiMindMap; vi.sualize.us. - 12 » The need for community APIs[7]
Free content is only as good as its search ranking. Creating free works is good, but encouraging easy and innovative re-use is just as important. - 08 » Wikimedia Australia finally exists![3]
Wikimedia Australia is officially incorporated in the state of Victoria. woot. - 07 » Interview with Sue Gardner[2]
A great podcast interview on Wikipedia Weekly with WMF executive director Sue Gardner. - 06 » Get Your FreeCon[0]
Jon Philips has proposed a "true" conference for the free culture movement, dubbed "Get Your FreeCon". - 04 » More reports from Wikimania[0]
Links to four more reports from Wikimania 2008, and a video. - 03 » Translation in Wikimedia Projects[0]
Some slides from Arria Belli's session on 'Translation in Wikimedia Projects' at Wikimania 2008, plus upcoming wiki/translation-related goings-on. - 03 » WikiProjects starting to use pageview stats in article assessment[0]
WikiProject Mathematics has incorporated pageview stats into their assessment of their Wikipedia articles. - 02 » An alternative term for "User-generated content"[4]
What's wrong with the term 'user-generated content'? Only three things -- the words, 'user', 'generated' and 'content'. An alternative for wikis can be 'community-curated works'. - 02 » A dialogue about Creative Commons licenses[0]
Confusion about Creative Commons abounds, but what's new? - 2008 July
- 29 » Easiest image/video request ever: nodding[1]
The article on nodding needs your mad creative skills urgently! - 26 » iCommons iSummit08 starting on Tuesday[2]
My picks of what's interesting at the 2008 iCommons iSummit in Sapporo, Japan. - 26 » Life in blogland[3]
100TH POST! - 24 » Who had the best time at Wikimania? Maybe my roommate[4]
The story of my roommate Professor El-Sheikh's experience at Wikimania. - 23 » The coming challenges for Wikimedia Commons[8]
Wikimedia Commons hits 3 million files, but serious challenges lie ahead, including Partnerships, Project relationships, Usability and Scope/censorship. - 22 » Y Combinator's "Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund": "More open alternatives to Wikipedia"[1]
_"There is room to do to Wikipedia what Wikipedia did to Britannica."_ Now that's a wake-up call if I ever heard one. - 20 » Wikimedia Commons for Fun & Profit; an interesting job in Sydney[0]
Links to my Wikimania talk; job position at the Dictionary of Sydney. - 18 » Wikimania feeds[0]
Wikimania media links; slides from my Inkscape SVG workshop with Adam Hyde. - 17 » Quick update from Wikimania[3]
- 07 » CCau "Building an Australasian Commons" conference notes[2]
Thoughts about what the Wikimedia movement can learn from the Creative Commons movement. - 03 » Wikimania 2008 schedule is out[0]
Wikimania 2008 schedule is now published. - 2008 May
- 18 » Wikimania 2007 videocasts now available[0]
Wikimania 2007 video lives! no, really! - 2008 April
- 21 » Online/offline[0]
It seems alternately disappointing and thankful, but always true, that a "real life" factor leads people to self-discipline, or self-censor. - 15 » WikiProject so effective, it skews study results[2]
WikiProject Banksia has twice as many featured articles as it does members, and formats references like it's nobody's business. - 14 » Flickr + Powerhouse Museum -> Tyrell Today[0]
Tyrrell Today Flickr group collects photos of the same landmarks and locations as the Powerhouse Museum's Tyrrell collection over 100 years ago. - 14 » Links for 2008-04-13[0]
Mailing list excerpts; Queensland newspaper archives from 1903-1955 online; Dutch crowd 'Images for the future' working conference; open data on the web; free learnsvg ebook. - 13 » Powerhouse Museum takes part in Flickr's "The Commons"[0]
The Powerhouse Museum joins Flickr's "The Commons" project (following the US Library of Congress). - 12 » "Foundations of Open" Australia 2020 local summit[1]
Notes and links from the Foundations of Open 2020 summit held by Senator Kate Lundy. - 06 » Links for 2008-04-06[2]
Libre Graphics Meeting fundraising; CC releases draft statement of intent for CC-BY-SA license; Not The Wikipedia Weekly podcast courts drama by interviewing banned users; Wikimania scholarship applications open. - 05 » [guest] Rethinking the Top Ten[0]
Guest post by Walter Pimenta, about a proposal to revamp the www.wikipedia.org portal by listing different projects based on a different measurement metric. - 05 » Tipping the weight against NC clauses[10]
Could the Creative Commons license selector form be changed to discourage people from choosing licenses with NC clauses? - 01 » APIs: Ask, and ye shall receive[1]
Wikimedia Commons needs an API beyond the standard MediaWiki API. Magnus creates stuff practically on demand. Hence, coolness. - 2008 March
- 30 » Links for 2008-03-30[2]
Freebase database dumps, Semapedia, screencast on Wikimapia, Teemu's talk, Wikimania 2009 = Buenos Aires. - 28 » Zemanta - Wikimedia Commons for bloggers [5]
Zemanta is a Firefox extension that suggests images for your blog postings, including from Wikimedia Commons. - 27 » Micromanagement[5]
Observation on the complex relationship between the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia community(ies). - 26 » Blog memes in translation[1]
A Spanish Wikipedia-adapted version of my essay on Templatology has appeared. Such unbidden prizes are heartening. - 25 » Some interesting recent Featured Pictures[1]
Four interesting recent Featured Pictures at Wikimedia Commons. - 18 » Links for 2008-03-18[4]
Not the Wikipedia Weekly talks to Sue Gardner; SUL pilot promised soon; screenshot of the planned new Commons upload form. - 18 » The Wikipedia of metaphors[3]
Which properties of Wikipedia lend it to comparative understanding? - 15 » Links for 2008-03-15[2]
WikiSym submissions; German Wikipedia mainpage link stats; AboutUs video FAQ. - 14 » Where do users go after the main page?[5]
Annotation of main page menu links showing how many views they get each day on average. - 14 » The responsibility of Wikipedia in the wider world[5]
Reading and editing Wikipedia needs to be as familiar as riding a bicycle. Recent news stories with unlikely claims demonstrate why. - 10 » Ten possibly provoking thoughts about improving the quality of Swedish Wikipedia[0]
Link to a provocative essay by the chair of Wikimedia Sverige about how to improve the quality of the Swedish Wikipedia. - 10 » Templatology, an essay[5]
The history of the template feature in MediaWiki, and how its use and attitudes towards it have evolved over the years. - 07 » Wikimedia Commons goes 3D[3]
Wikimedia Commons' first anaglyph FP. Get out your red-and-cyan cardboard glasses! - 06 » The myth of the 'big enough' volunteer community[0]
A thought on skills that volunteer communities don't necessarily provide, even when they're big. - 05 » Vanity wiki stats[1]
A tool called "Wikipedia article traffic statistics" also lets you check the traffic to your Wikipedia userpage. :) - 04 » Links for 2008-03-04[0]
A Wikiversity course on open education resources; action=edit now available for the MediaWiki API; stickers to proclaim yourself a "public domain donor". - 03 » Wikipedia: the Missing Manual[3]
Review of John Broughton's "Wikipedia: The Missing Manual". - 02 » Links for 2008-03-02[0]
Neil Gaiman releases free books online; en.wp database dump actually exists; Wikimedia Serbia session in Creative Commons Salon (Serbia). - 2008 February
- 26 » The role of administrators[2]
Musings on the typical role/s of administrators in Wikimedia communities, and a short survey on the topic. - 26 » Why Wikipedia doesn't need protecting from the masses[0]
"It's not as though our existing volunteers are abnormally intelligent, or particularly gifted at writing an encyclopedia; they're just some people who wound up helping." - 21 » Links for 2008-02-21[0]
* Adam Hyde (FLOSS Manuals) interview * Wikibook 2008 non-technical wishlist * Guardian article on Qld govt plans for CC licensing * "New York City Free Culture Alliance" floated * Sydney selected to host FOSS4G 2009 (geospatial stuff) * Freebase releases Wikipedia-extracted database dumps * Article slams Veropedia and Citizendium as "wasting their time" * Document Freedom Day announced for 26 March * Wikipedia Selection for schools DVD being updated * CC marks CC-BY and C-BY-SA as "approved for Free Cultural Works" * cute Wikinews jacket :) - 13 » The need for a self-documenting community[7]
Wikipedia has enemies that are hostile jerks. Unfortunately they are more or less the only game in town for decent criticism of Wiki*edia. This is a call to arms to the community to start that critical self-examination, to deprive the hostile jerks of oxygen. - 13 » The Kaltura brouhaha[3]
WMF makes partnership with Flash-based video-editing start-up. Mailing lists explode with teh dram0rz. My summary of the events early-mid January 2007. - 13 » A side note on selling Wikipedia[3]
The only thing that would be likely to be achieved with any certainty, when "selling Wikipedia", would be the destruction of the Wikipedia community. - 13 » Links for 2007-02-13[0]
It's all about releasing data. Queensland govt planned release of public service information under a Creative Commons license; DBpedia 3.0 release; WMF finance report release. - 06 » Who's behind Wikipedia?[1]
Link to an extended article based on my LCA talk, "Who's behind Wikipedia?". - 06 » Free software on a free content project[0]
The Wikimedia Foundation has drafted an explicit commitment to free software, yet the community continue to cling to closed source software in a variety of ways. It's time we got our own house in order. - 04 » Links for 2007-02-04[0]
Wikimedia Commons OggSearch, media rename bot, Wikitravel press, new MediaWiki skin, and recent WMF openness. - 03 » If you take photos of famous people, release them as free content[0]
Robert Scoble + camera + Davos + CC-BY = super cool. - 03 » How to use Gmail to manage high-traffic mailing lists[1]
How to use Gmail and Gmane to manage crazy-traffic mailing lists. - 03 » LCA Open Day[0]
Photos + notes from Wiki[mp]edia's table at the LCA Open Day, plus thoughts on possible future events for Wikimedia Australia. - 01 » Links for 2008-02-01[0]
News in brief. - 01 » LCA Friday[0]
Review of LCA's Friday sessions, last day of the main conference. - 01 » LCA Thursday[0]
Summary of talks attended at LCA Thursday (day 2 of 3). - 2008 January
- 31 » LCA Wednesday[0]
Talks and conversations from the first day of the main conference at linux.conf.au 2008. - 30 » Creative Commons Australia: Building an Australiasian commons[0]
CCau is holding an event called "building an australiasian commons" in late June, Brisbane. - 29 » linux.conf.au LinuxChix miniconf[0]
I spoke at the LCA today, on "Who's Behind Wikipedia?". - 26 » Commons POTY results[2]
Wikimedia Commons POTY 2007 results. - 26 » Copyvios flow in, copyvios flow out[0]
A copyvio of a Wikimedia Commons work ends up on the London Tube. - 26 » WMF is hiring[0]
Position advertised for software developer/IT support. - 20 » Commons POTY Finals voting begins[0]
The finalists have been decided for COM:POTY/2007, so bring on the voting. - 18 » Library of Congress & Flickr: that should have been us[8]
The Library of Congress is partnering with Flickr to provide more accessibility to their collections. Why Flickr and not Wikimedia? - 14 » Links for 14-01-2008[0]
Wikimania 09 bidding, and other misc news and links. - 10 » Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year competition now open[0]
As the title says. I can't vote, so you definitely should! :) - 09 » Institutional change[3]
Thoughts about leaks and recent dramas on foundation-l. - 05 » The free culture movement's moral imperative[0]
A comparison between the free software movement's leadership and moral strength to the free content movement's lack there-of of both. - 2007 December
- 31 » Of bots and conlangs: the Volapük Wikipedia[12]
Controversy continues over vo.wp, currently the 15th largest Wikipedia, thanks to unprecedented bot-generated articles. - 31 » Photographers hate Creative Commons?[3]
Some responses to "pro photographers" who hate Creative Commons. - 29 » Guest blogging[0]
Link to my post on the WMF fundraiser blog. - 23 » Jimmy Wales talking at Stanford about Wikia Search[0]
Link to Jimmy Wales audio + slides from a talk given in October about Wikia Search. - 23 » Who's afraid of commercial use?[3]
When it comes to free-content-ish licensing, the prospect of allowing commercial use seems to be a sheep in wolf's clothing. It sounds bad, and one can easily dream up horrible what-if exploitation scenarios, but there's no evidence that those scenarios have any basis in reality. - 22 » New page: events[2]
woot, Google calendar of free culture and free content events for 2008. - 20 » Top 10 software extensions Wikimedia Commons needs in 2008[0]
A "top 10 extension wishlist" for Wikimedia Commons for 2008. 0: SUL. 1: Image search. 2:multilingual categories/tagging. 3:rating system. 4-6: svg improvements. 7:gallery preview. 8:InstantCommons. 9:CheckUsage. 10:ImportFreeImages. - 18 » Free content roundup, 2007-12-18[0]
Misc links and notes. - 14 » Podcast fame: PGIP; GFDL/CC-BY-SA harmonisation[0]
I appeared on the Wikipedia Weekly podcast, discussing the PGIP and the WMF/FSF/CC plans to harmonise the GFDL and CC-BY-SA licenses. - 13 » ArbCom and Steward elections in progress[0]
Quick comparison of Arbcom and Steward elections. - 07 » Interested in the Philip Greenspun illustration project?[2]
Useful links for those searchers who want to know about the GIP. - 2007 November
- 28 » i has a serius biznis: lolwiki[1]
Lolcats take over Wikimedia. That's my hopeful assessment. - 21 » WikiNorthia[0]
WikiNorthia, a local government-sponsored project to document loca "social history" in northern Melbourne. - 20 » Fundraisers a-go-go; a new license on the block[1]
Snippets on Fundraisers a-go-go; Affero GPL; Mako's "Free Culture Advanced"; Amazon's Kindle ebook thingy; cool Flash app GunnMap. - 18 » Wikisource in action[0]
A translation of the recent French court case involving WMF is now available at English Wikisource. - 17 » Links for 17-11-2007[0]
Misc links. - 13 » Breaking news: German Wikipedia rids the world of sexism![1]
German Wikipedia deletes the equivalent of Category:Sexism. - 12 » Playing within the rules: Free content communities and copyright[2]
Why the mantra of the free content movement must be "Assume unfree content", and the limitations of the free-content-movement/Creative Commons approach to wrong copyright laws. - 03 » Introduction to TiddlyWiki, via Slideshare[0]
TiddlyWiki fangirlism. - 03 » Philip Greenspun illustration project and misc. notes[0]
Brief notes on recent announcements, and a discussion of the recently announced Philip Greenspun illustration project which I am coordinating for the Wikimedia Foundation. - 2007 October
- 29 » Reminder: ISEA 2008 Call for papers[0]
International Symposium of Electronic Arts 2008 (ISEA2008) is happening in Singapore, July 2008. One of the five themes is "wiki wiki". Paper submissions close November 14th. - 28 » What's hard about Wikipedia?[1]
WikiEducator recently won a $100k grant to teach "MediaWiki editing skills" in developing countries. But is that enough to understand what Wikipedia is really about and how it works? - 23 » CaFeConf 2007; unacademic knowledge[1]
Patricio Lorente's presentation at CaFeConf 2007; the fate of "unacademic knowledge" against the hunt for reliable sources. - 23 » Bits & bobs/is shared vision more important than a specific license?[0]
Interesting conferences; Wikimedia Sweden takes form; is a shared spirit and vision more important than a shared license when it comes to free/open content/culture/education/etc? - 18 » OTRS & the permissions problem[0]
A description of how the Wikimedia OTRS queue is used to process records of free license permission given, and a discussion of its shortcomings. - 12 » WikiHR - wiki developers for hire[1]
http://wikihr.net/ has started up, a wiki for connecting wiki developers with potential jobs and other work. - 12 » Freebase, Wikipedia and the right to fork[1]
Comparisons between Freebase and Wikipedia. Does free content imply "the right to fork" as free software does? - 07 » Video: Wikis in plain English[0]
An interesting video to explain how a wiki works to people who don't get it. - 2007 September
- 25 » News and notes from Creative Commons land[0]
Comments on the recent lawsuit against Virgin and Creative Commons for misuse of a photo from Flickr; a heated discussion on the cc-community mailing list about what "NC" (non-commercial) really means; quick notes on iCommons iHeritage event. - 20 » PacLing 2007[0]
PacLing papers are released under CC-BY license; discussion of a Thai-Thai Sign Language machine translation system. - 08 » Content reuse, a nice deja vu[0]
What you write for Wikipedia may find you again when you least expect it. - 03 » Spotlight on Wikimedia Commons[0]
Link to an article I wrote recently that introduces Wikimedia Commons to people who've never heard of it before: "Wikimedia Foundation wiki":http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Spotlight_on_Wikimedia_Commons . - 02 » Leaders, stand up[0]
The "working Board" days are almost over. What layers are needed in between a seven-member Board and a volunteer editing community of potentially millions? - 2007 August
- 28 » The Wikimedia projects: history and deliberation[0]
Why are the WMF projects the ones that they are? How do they relate to the Mission statement? Will they all survive? Will new ones ever be adopted? And why do any of these questions matter?
