A new man stepping up to the plate

#Translatewiki.net is about localising software. Given the stupendous amount of languages we support, our aim is to make sure that our localisers can be as productive as we can possibly make them.

To keep our community productive, there is a small group of developers who ensure that the internationalisation of our projects is as good as it gets. We are happy to welcome everyone in our community but welcoming a new developer is special. Lcawte is our latest recruit and, I asked him some questions.



What got your interest in translatewiki going ?

Well, I must of clicked a link off of mediawiki.org or something a while back and had a look around and decided to do a few en-GB tweeks and then I disappeared. I came back a while later, as someone with developer interests, looking at translatewiki.net for a project or two I administer on Sourceforge, and then I remembered how cool translatewiki.net was, and I decided I wanted to get involved more and partly due to being bored of waiting on the other developers of those projects to get back to me.

What are you going to do ?

I'm not sure... according to Siebrand "he can be our new staff slave" ... so basicaly whatever tasks worthy of a slave :P

Tell us a little bit about yourself

Well, my name is Lewis Cawte, and I'm often using the alias "Lcawte" or "Lcawte-wikia", I've known HTML and CSS for 3-4 years now and I run my own LAMP server. I'm a huge fan of Open Source, in particular CMS' and MediaWiki... Interesting facts: I'm a shellium.org admin, at least 75% of the first 10 pages of Google Results for my name are my sites or profiles. My age has already shocked quite a few people.

What kind of kick do you hope to get out of twn ?

I guess really, its being able to work on one open source "project" and to contribute to a whole bunch at the same time..

What are your favourite MediaWiki extensions ?

• Nuke - Great extension, I use it on Recipes Wikia, it makes deletion of spam and vandalism alot quicker.
• Babel - Is a really helpful tool, saves alot of templates and is easy to use! I use it on all the sites I run.
• GetFamily - I like the idea, its only just been fixed, but I think it still has some problems.
• Renameuser - I tend to change my mind on my own wikis, and often rename my user accounts.
• EditUser - I have a few wikis I run for me and some friends, and I often change say, their skin setting and then watch their reactions, it gets rather funny sometimes.
• Interwiki - It is one of the most helpful extensions I have ever used..

 Thanks,
      GerardM

#translatewiki.net is not a stamp collection

The group statistics show all the supported languages that are 336 languages from Abkhazian to Zulu. Typically a new language is added when someone requests another Wikipedia. As localisation is a prerequisite before a new Wikipedia is actually created.

Having so many languages is a mixed blessing. When it comes to bragging rights it is great but we do not want all that "red" in the group statistics; it is the "green" that makes us happy. Regularly there are requests for new languages and success is most likely when it is a native speaker who comes to do the work.

For many languages we are waiting for people willing to do make a difference; these languages are ready waiting for localisations:

• 'sxu' - 'Säggssch' - Upper Saxon
• 'rtm' - 'Faeag Rotuma' - Rotuman
• 'wls' - 'Faka'uvea' - Fakauvea
• 'twd' - 'Tweants' - Twents
• 'trp' - 'Kokborok (Tripuri)' - Kokborok
• 'pko' - 'Pökoot' - Pökoot
• 'pru' - 'Prūsiskan' - Prussian
• 'swb' - 'Shikomoro' - Comorian
• 'njo' - 'Ao' - Ao Naga
• 'mni' - 'মেইতেই লোন্' - Meitei
• 'ttt' - 'Tati' - Tat 
• 'yrl' - 'ñe'engatú' - Nheengatu
• 'krl' - 'Karjala' - Karelian
• 'mwv' - 'Behase Mentawei' - Mentawai 
• 'niu' - 'ko e vagahau Niuē' - Niue 
• 'bew' - 'Bahasa Betawi' - Betawi
• 'rw' - 'Kinyarwanda' - Kinyarwanda 
• 'slr' - 'Salırça' - Salar 
• 'ryu' - 'ʔucināguci' - Central Okinawan 
• 'gom-deva' - 'कोंकणी' - Konkani (Devanagari script) 
• 'gom-latn' - 'Konknni' - Konkani (Latin script)
• 'akz' - 'Albaamo innaaɬiilka' - Alabama 
• 'jam' - 'Jamaican Creole English'
• 'kgp' - 'Kaingáng' 
• 'hu-formal' - 'Magyar (magázó)' 
• 'kea' - 'Kabuverdianu' - Kabuverdianu
• 'ady-cyrl' - 'адыгэбзэ' - Adyghe
• 'tsd' - 'Τσακωνικά' - Tsakonian 
• 'ary' - 'Maġribi' - Moroccan Spoken Arabic
• 'arq' - 'جزائري' - Algerian Arabic 
• 'gcf' - 'Guadeloupean Creole French' - Guadeloupean Creole French 
• 'lld' - 'Ladin' - Ladin
• 'ruq-grek' - 'Megleno-Romanian (Greek script)'
• 'ydd' - 'Eastern Yiddish' - Eastern Yiddish 
• 'plm' - 'Palembang' - Palembang 
• 'tzm' - 'ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ' - Tamazight 
• 'bto' - 'Iriga Bicolano' - Iriga Bicolano
• 'rap' - 'arero rapa nui' - Rapa Nui 
• 'bfq' - 'படகா' - UBadaga
• 'guc' - 'Wayúu' - Wayuu 
• 'lus' - 'Mizo ţawng' - Mizo/Lusai 
• 'mui' - 'Musi' - Musi 
• 'kbd-latn' - 'qabardjajəbza' - Kabardian (Latin script) 
• 'ase' - 'American sign language' 
• 'brh' - 'Bráhuí' - Brahui 
• 'khw' - 'کھوار' - Khowar 
• 'mnc' - 'ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᡤᡳᠰᡠᠨ' - Manchu 
• 'anp' - 'अंगिका' - Angika 
• 'aro' - 'Araona' - Araona 
• 'hif-deva' - 'फ़ीजी हिन्दी' - Fiji Hindi (Devangari script) 
• 'gah' - 'Alekano' - Alekano 
• 'rki' - 'ရခိုင်' - Rakhi

Thanks,
      GerardM

Put your two pennies in without it costing you a cent

Enda inter-arabe celebrates its twentieth anniversary, throughout that time it has empowered many women throughout Tunisia to rise from poverty. Its 500,000th loan was given to Mrs. Leila Gharbi who Mifos chose to highlight as the Marie (featured borrower) for which their upcoming release, Leila E, is named.

Enda inter-arabe is a Tunisian organisation and, I am sure they will be happy to find that their software will now an improved French localisation.

The roadmap does not state it, but it is going to be a welcome surprise that in addition to what has been scheduled, the internationalisation and localisation of Mifos has been much improved. Through translatewiki.net, volunteers have started to localise many languages and there is time until November 23 to get a localisation for a language into shape for Leila E. 

As this work has started very recently, a lot of work is going into making sure that the messages can be properly localised in the many languages we have experience with at translatewiki.net. At the moment we are working on improving plural and gender support.

We would love to find people who help us with the languages of Asia, Africa and South America. When Mifos can be used in the local languages, it becomes possible for many organisations who provide microfinance to improve their business and improve their service. A service that helps people help themselves out of poverty.
Thanks,
      GerardM

The terminology for finding pictures in #Commons

As Commons has over 7 million media files each file needs to be tagged properly in order for them to be found. These pictures are tagged with categories and this makes for a deterministic approach to the material.

The only "fluffy bunny" on Commons

Categories are useful but how do you find a "fluffy bunny" except with some luck? Google is way more generous with fluffy bunnies. They look at text close to the picture and this demonstrates fluffy bunnies as a searchable subject.

We can afford for ambiguity in the use of labels. Categories are good but are pictures found as a result? When alphabet soup is associated with dyslexia, it makes for another approach to a picture that does not fit in the category system.



When the utility of Commons is considered, of prime importance is that pictures are found. Associative labels can augment the deterministic categories. When improved utility of Commons is to be a strategic choice, making it easier to find appropriate pictures is a challenge for us to meet.
Thanks,
      GerardM

About #FOSS and #Telephony in #India

I found Mr Atul Chitnis on Twitter. He was retweeted and what he had to say makes sense. It also proved to be a find introduction on the subject of telephony and FOSS in India.

Some choice quotes:

A simple test: buy/borrow a phone used by your target audience. Point its browser at your site and try to use it. If you can't, weep.

If you are getting a website developed, ask the developers about mobile support at launch time. If they say "later", fire them instantly.

Almost ALL new Internet users in India will come online with mobile devices in 2011. If they can't read/use your site, shut shop and go home

PC penetration in India sucks ostrich eggs, but mobile device penetration is a different ball game - India leads the world there.

I can guarantee loss of visitors and business (and valuation) for any website in 2011 that is unusable in a mobile browser.

Saying "all mobile browsers show my site correctly" is a clear sign that you don't understand the issues

My take home lesson: if India is to be a strategic market, support for mobile telephones must be equally strategic.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Kerala loves its #Malayalam #MediaWiki

When you wonder why the Malayalam Wikipedia is doing so well, it is not only because of its enthusiastic community. It is as much because Indian organisations like IT@school are happy to support the logistics of workshops in six districts in Kerala.

These workshops will be held in the next two weeks on October 30,31 and November 6,7. The participants will get an updated version of the FAQ book with information about Wikipedia, WMF ... (old version)

IT@school runs its own wiki called Schoolwiki. As you can see it is in the Malayalam language. One reason why its chances of success are good is because of the quality of the localisation of MediaWiki in Malayalam. It makes sense for IT@school to support the promotion of these workshops. With more people understanding MediaWiki, it gains mindshare.

The workshops are happening in the following districts:

• Kottayam, Kannur - October 30
• Kasargod - October 31
• Kollam, Malappuram - November 6
• Alapuzha - November 7

 Thanks,
      GerardM

Stimulating the #Commons stock photo functionality

A company that sells pictures, makes sure that they have visually stunning images that can illustrate the most weird and wonderful subjects. Take a subject like dyslexia; how to illustrate this? A friend send me this wonderful example of a photoshopped picture that does this really well.

When you read the Wikipedia article, there is no illustration. This is where visually stunning pictures that express the issue are needed because this article is factually correct, it is hard reading with the key facts hidden behind all kinds of classification.

Stock photography is about illustrations. When there are many pictures that illustrate a subject, it is indeed the most visually attractive picture that will be sold. When you seek an illustration, you will find that historic pictures are an important part of a collection. They are because they provide a view that is no longer there.

With the arrival of sharing options at Commons, we have the opportunity to strengthen its stock functionality. With over 270 Wikipedias our own need for multiple pictures for one subject is intrinsically high.

Commons is slowly becoming a stable source of freely licensed pictures. We have the opportunity to make it the "goto" place for quality illustrations. With 7,626,589 freely usable media files, the basis for such a function exists. What is left is profiling and marketing us as a source for great illustrations.
Thanks,
        GerardM

Good news learned at the new #Wikinews

The Farsi Wikinews has been created. I visited the new wiki and a happy surprise awaited me; noticeable improvements in right to left support..

The user preferences are now beautifully alligned. The page looks as it should. It is likely to have been fixed as part of the usability initiative and attention to details like this show how valuable it has been.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikimedia publishes its audited financial statements

Organisations like the Wikimedia Foundation have their annual financial statements audited. Such statements are prepared by the auditor and the financial staff of the WMF.

The statements for 2009 and 2010 have been audited by KPMG. It is accompanied by a Q&A.

There is a part in the statements that hit two of the things I hold dear:

....an overwhelming majority of the Foundation’s project activities are carried out by an international network of volunteers, whose activity is not reflected in the table above.

For example (unaudited):

• In the year ended June 30, 2010, the educational content of the Foundation’s largest project, Wikipedia, grew by approximately 2.8 million articles to 16.2 million articles total.
• In the year ended June 30, 2010, volunteers added approximately 2.3 million images, movies, and sound files to the Foundation’s multimedia repository.
• Volunteers also contribute in several ways to the Foundation’s wiki software: volunteer software developers add new functionality to the code base, and volunteer language specialists add to the code base by translating the wiki interface into different languages. In the year ended June 30, 2010, the source code hosted in the Foundation’s version control repository grew by approximately 960,000 lines of code.

 Thanks,
     GerardM

#Propaganda as a two edged sword

A former Bush official calls for designating #WikiLeaks and its officers as enemy combatants. This would mean that the site could be held in violation of the US espionage act and taken down using "military assets" even when this breaks international and domestic laws.

The damage inflicted on the USA by WikiLeaks is largely self inflicted; the USA war effort is found to have broken international and domestic laws. This call for the use of military assets never mind international and domestic law is maybe great for the domestic consumption of the loony right. These calls for acts of war  put the persons spouting their poison in the same category as the broadcasters in Uganda who are now being convicted of incitement to genocide.

Would these people be happy when they are designated in turn as enemy combatants? Their argument holds that their assassination would not be murder. Theirs is not the moral high ground because their only argument is "we are losing a war". The data released by WikiLeaks demonstrates why the USA is losing the war. It indicates how and why the USA can do better and this is why WikiLeaks is in the USA's best interest.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Demonstrating the effect of #localisation

A workshop about localisation and #translatewiki.net was given last month to improve the usability of the MediaWiki user interface in Myanmar. The result has been really satisfying.

As you can see, currently 53.94% of the MediaWiki core messages have been localised and the numbers show in the Burmese script. Even more satisfying is that the user interface becomes more legible to the people in the many countries that have sizeable Myanmar population.

The translation rally proved also stimulating; 541 messages were localised in that time. There is a steady stream of new localisations and it is this kind of attention that makes the my.wikipedia.org ready for much needed growth.
Thanks,
       GerardM

RTFI - Read The eFfing Instructions ,, :(

The biggest winner of the #translatewiki.net; the usability of many #Wikipedias and any MediaWiki installation using LocalisationUpdate. Sadly there are people who lose out. They do because the instructions of the rally insist that there is a requirement to proceed to another category of messages only when the previous category has been completed.

The purpose of the rally is to improve the usability and the usability is served best when messages are localised in this order:

• the most often used messages
• MediaWiki core messages
• messages of extensions used by the Wikimedia Foundation
• other MediaWiki extensions

The instructions are there for a reason; they ensure that the money is spend to the best effect and they ensure that participation as a contestant ensures eligibility to the prize.

Disqualifying people is bad business. It is upsetting to do. It is upsetting because we do wish people who do the work to qualify for the prize.

There is only one real winner, that is the language community the localisations were done for. Like all the other localisations they became available in all MediaWiki projects that use LocalisationUpdate.
Thanks,
     GerardM

The artifice of #Commons featured pictures

The main page of Commons features a picture of the day. In order to qualify the picture has to be "stunning". To make it stunning a whole battery of tools is used to make it so. When an item in the picture is in the way, it is removed. When the colour is not stunning it is altered to make it so. The featured pictures process results in a series of advertisement quality photography with reality as its victim.

The picture of the year 2008 as we know it is a picture of two horses on a meadow. It is visually pleasing and manipulated.



The original picture features three horses. It is indeed sad that this composition is not as good as what became the winner.



Interestingly enough, a picture of the Mostar old town where only the air was removed is now up for delisting as an featured picture. The fact that manipulations are to be known is the argument for delisting. The issue is that the original material for most of the featured pictures is lacking, leaving them for what they are; just pretty pictures.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Conferences come and go ..

Conferences come and go and when it is held in an "exotic" location like Kosovo it is more likely that the audience do not find it exotic. The conference in Kosovo was part of a series of events that started with a conference in Vlora, Albania and culminated in a big conference in Kosovo.

The Kosovo conference was video taped.. The result is that presentations by people like Rob Savoye, Leon Shiman and Peter Salus are available to you on archive.org. Kim Bruning presented about Wikipedia ..

Another recent conference was Europeana in Amsterdam. Its presentations were video taped as well. Several of the presentations can be found on things like slideshare. The presentations will be coming soon as well it is advertised.

Wikimania in Gdansk had its presentations taped but I wonder if and when they become available. It is really sad that these videos are not on line as many people were networking in stead of presentation hopping in the understanding that it would be possible to see them later.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Diederik van Liere - #Wikimedia researcher

Diederik is the latest addition to the Wikimedia staff. As you can read in his introduction on the Wiki-research-l, he will be working as a "research consultant". As Diederik is a consultant, it will be hard to find him on the staff page.

I found this picture of Diederik on his Facebook page.. and while googling I also found this interesting presentation.

How Shallow is a Bug - How Open Source Communities (Help) Fix Bugs

View more presentations from Diederik van Liere.

Thanks,
     GerardM

Finally some good news about #Facebook

Facebook is one of those "must have" things at the moment. But from a privacy point of view it is getting from bad to worse. It is good to realise that providing real privacy controls is not in the interest of Facebook. Facebook makes its money by selling you out.

To make matters worse, there are all these websites that inform Facebook about your actions. This is done by the Facebook connect.

The good news is that there is an extension for Google Chrome called Facebook disconnect that prevents such data to be send. Currently it is only available for Chrome at the moment, a version for Firefox is expected.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Blow the war horn !!

#Commons has featured pictures. Having a picture featured is valuable on many levels. It is recognition for the picture and it means that the picture is likely to be used in many Wikipedias. Crucial in my understanding is that it is about featured pictures, not featured photos.

The issue with the current featured picture candidate process is dominated by digital photo think. A macro picture of a fly on some shit has a better chance of featuring then the picture below.

This picture is take in Burkina Faso and show a Samo man playing the so called war horn. This picture was taken during one of the collection expeditions of the Tropenmuseum in 1970 and 1971 in preparation of the exhibition in 1971-1972 titled "Samo. An African savanna people in development".

The Samo are one of the Mandé peoples and as far as Wikipedia is concerned they do not exist. From such a perspective, the war horn should be sounded to promote the coverage of subjects in both Commons and Wikipedia. Arguments like "FP status is to notice the special qualities of a picture, not to make anthropological advertisements" mean that only modern photos will be elected.  The quality of the picture is in line with the norm of the period. The true quality of the picture is best seen here where you find a 15MB TIFF file with blemishes removed, sharpness increased, levels adjusted, slightly cropped and rotated.

When historical pictures are consistently undervalued, it degrades not only the value of the featured pictures, it also degrades the value of Commons itself. Commons is a repository of educational material. Historic pictures show events that often do not repeat. Anthropological pictures show cultures that are not our own. When such pictures are not welcomed on the front page, when featured pictures are only good enough when they fit the latest craze Commons shows how little it values what it should be about; a repository of educational images useful for the whole world and about the whole world.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Commons Media of the day

Today's media of the day is a movie of Dutch cows that are put to pasture in spring. It is always special to see the antics of these animals after being stabled for the winter.



Sharing pictures on my blog from Commons is easy; just copy the html code and it works fine. The code for a film gets you a picture, but you have to click on the picture to go to Commons where you can finally watch this.

It would be lovely when we can share our media files as well as our pictures.. Maybe Magnus can have another look at this, or someone else is up for a challenge.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Do you love Dutch #monuments ?

Wiki Loves Monuments has had a good run. A cool 35GB is available for you to download from a torrent. This torrent is there for those who have an interest in monuments, for the jury to decide what is to receive a prize.

Maybe you want to download all this freely licensed material.. It is nice to know that not everything that is on a torrent is illegal :)
Thanks,
       GerardM

Doing the right thing, doing a great thing

As #Mifos was getting localised in French, we were really happy because French is used in many countries in Africa and this makes Mifos usable.

Sadly it turns out that Verdy_p thought that its localisations are part of the current translation rally at translatewiki.net. His contributions do not qualify for the rally as Mifos is not MediaWiki.

As a sign of appreciation and encouragement is very much in order, I hereby grant Verdy_p a bit of the big cheese.
Thanks,
      GerardM

The end of the world is near

It has been in the news that the date when the world according to Mayan predictions will end is near. Hold the press.. the calculations are probably off by some sixty days.

Well, we have seen that before. More then once in my lifetime; the most memorable last day of the world was predicted by Jehovah's witnesses. Obviously they are still around so "obviously" faith does not rely on facts or truth.

There are many gullible people who believe anything when something is brought to them in a convincing manner. Perpetuating a myth is in the interest of those who benefit from that myth. It would be good when past predictions were used to evaluate present facts, when promises made in the past were reconciled with what actually happened.
Thanks,
       GerardM

NB for a true believer it is most profitable to believe in Santa.

#Katla is looming on the horizon for #mwhack

The last hack-a-thon in Berlin was great, except for the shadow hanging over Europe thanks to the volcano with the impossible name to spell correctly.. It had people stay longer and hack more..

Katla is the bigger sister of Eyjafjallajökull (cntrl-c cntrl-v) and it has a reputation to keep up that when the little sister blows its top, it does follow suit. With a hack-a-thon coming up in the USA, the question is not only if "documentation is not needed as the code makes it obvious" but also if European coders will get there and will get back as scheduled.

Doom scenarios have been considered:

• taking the boat back
• finishing university by correspondence
• finding a job in the USA
• all MediaWiki bugs get squashed

Thanks,
     GerardM

#WikiBhasha a first introduction

#WikiBhasha is a tool developed by Microsoft research that brings a smart translation service to Wikipedia. What makes this service so good is that it understands and supports the way articles are normally created. Often a writer only adds snippets of an article to a target article.



When you translate, you only translate what you need. You then copy it in the target article and you can make any modifications necessary before you save the work that you have done.

There is quite an extensive FAQ as well.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Europeana and #swag

At the Europeana 2010 conference, participants were given a bag with goodies. A booklet about Amsterdam, a pen, a notepad ..

The many variations on the Europeana logo are really nice; they look good and at the conference most people have a laptop. Geeks like me often have an array of stickers on the back of their computer. Stickers were used to indicate directions so it was just a matter of asking if one was available.

I cut the figure out of the white space and now I proudly advertise that I have attended a great conference.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Why #Google Books is a breath of fresh air

At #Europeana, there was a track on the first day about the risks and rewards. This turned out in a big FUD fest about copyrights. This negative stance was later explained as "bringing a sense of reality to the party". The problem is the current acceptance of copyright practices. Copyright holders claim rights to exploitation and are wilfully blind to any responsibilities.

The Google books project very much fulfils the responsibilities of copyright holders. As it scans the books that are contained in libraries, it ensures that these books are preserved in a digital format.

It makes these books available on the Internet. This is great news for books that are already in the public domain. The best news is that books that are considered "orphans" and books that are still in print are also scanned. Google seeks active cooperation for books in this category, it provides methods for people to buy such books either as a "dead wood" or as a digitital copy.

In the United States there is agreement on a method that allows Google to sell orphan works where the copyright holder is missing. As there is no such provision for Europe, Europeans will have less access to their cultural heritage.

The FUD around copyright damages the availability of knowledge, it does not help with the exploitation of books. Optimisation of access to our cultural heritage trumps the opinion of copyright holders where they do not take responsibility and provide an adequate service.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Software in the local language is key to adoption

In a blog about the great Chinese firewall there is a discussion why so few people try to circumvent censorship with the available tools. The key tool the Chinese government uses is to provide similar services in the local language.

The take away message is that localisation is key to acceptance. It may be that it is a partial key; when software is developed it reflects the culture it is coming from. A similar service developed for a locale is can push the buttons of a culture more precisely.

Awareness of such cultural diversity can be build in software. The modifications it implies are part of the internationalisation of the software. This is how software can make a critical difference and be truly the right software for its public.
Thanks,
      GerardM

If you can type, you can make movies...

How to create an account at #translatewiki.net. Siebrand created this presentation using the xtranormal software. It is great to see that such functionality is now available on the web.

Thanks,
     GerardM

#MediaWiki #localisation rally

At #translatewiki.net we are quite happy to hold rallies that bring some excitement to our community. The format is simple. We have 1000 Euro and it will be divided between those who localised more then 500 MediaWiki messages. We are looking to optimise our result so the "most often used" messages have to be complete before we validate the "core" messages, followed by the messages of extensions used by the Wikimedia projects and then any MediaWiki message.

• To make it something of a competition, the two people with the highest number of newly localised messages share 100 EURO out of the total.
• This is where you find how many messages are valid for you
• This is where you find instruction on how to join the fun

Thanks,
     GerardM

The truth in labels

At a conference like #Europeana there are so many little factoids that merit more attention, that it takes time to pick the ones that merit more attention.

In one project they provided a mix of labels provided by experts and labels provided by crowd sourcing. It turned out that 85% of positive results were due to crowd sourced labels and 15% due to expert labels.

The conclusion that adding the crowd sourced labels is a success seems obvious. With more people able to find what a project has to offer, the project became more valuable. I was quite astonished when I heard people from other projects mutter about the "truth" in such labels.

The truthy labels are still there and remain of benefit to the people who know the terminology. The issue is that the great unwashed do not have the benefit of years of study to acquire such esoteric vocabulary. That does not mean that they have no interest or knowledge but that their truth is expressed in a different way.

When the truth is in numbers, the experts have it wrong. However, this is also too easy. What is needed is a dialogue, a translation so that each of the different parties is better understood so that their is room and respect for both.
Thanks,
     GerardM

If it is only true

#Wikipedia monthly traffic #statistics

When a growth of 60% is predicted for all the Wikipedia traffic from last month, it is a moment for a reality check. What is going on, are the numbers correct, if it is only true ...?

I did the obvious thing; I asked Erik Zachte. He had already noticed this anomaly and responded that he had added the numbers again and this gives the same numbers. The statistics are based on the numbers provided by Domas and perhaps something changed at his end.

I would love to believe the numbers; it is fantastic news but, when the numbers seem to be too good to be true they probably are.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Googlers, how about doing a 100% job as a 20% job

Biographies of Living Persons is one of the hot spots on #Wikipedia. Having it wrong for some of them happens regularly if only because of vandals and trolls. A lot of effort goes into reverting such nonsense. It gave rise to the development of Flagged Revisions, a project whose consensus based specifications are considered schizoid.

The university of Amsterdam found that changes in Wikipedia do not get reliably into the Google search engine. This is made worse by the fact that updates happen for many days. This is particularly bad when the work of a troll or a vandal is available on Google or one of the other search engines.

Neil Kandalgaonkar, a contractor who IS on the Wikimedia Foundation staff page, answers that "it is not clear to me that this is where the foundation or the community should spend its (very limited) time and resources".

There are however two sides to this story and, Google itself is one. They can be even more active in scanning the changes at all our Wikipedias. This may not provide us with an optimal solution; our computer costs do come at a price as well. Neil indicates that implementing existing protocols will provide a partial solution.

A proper solution could be a more direct connection between Wikipedia and search engines. This would improve a more synchronised coverage of Wikipedia. Given that Wikipedia articles are often selected by people searching the web, it is in the interest of Google, Bing et all to make this happen.
Thanks,
      GerardM