Hey @GlobalYAcademy this blogpost is for you II

As I have added all global young academics in Wikidata, an update. What I like best about this academy is its global reach and the spread among the sciences. I am happily pleased that you may be found in ORCiD, Google Scholar and VIAF.

The most vital of them all for Wikidata is ORCiD; when your data "can be seen by everyone", we can retrieve your data, import it in Wikidata and make a "Scholia" for you. This is the Scholia of one of my favourite young academics. The import process (SourceMD) is broken at this time and this is my backlog of jobs to run.

Running a process for you will import co-authors and papers we do not know about. Given your global spread, it follows that your co-authors will have a similar global spread and this is an anti-dote to the Anglo-American bias we have in Wikidata and the Wikipedias. Particularly when I run a second job, a job will run for your co-authors with pubic ORCiD information as well, improving the subset of the data you are part of.

There are things you can do that have an impact on what we do:

• You can check your data, add what is missing, improve what is wrong or missing on your Wikidata item
• You can create/improve your ORCiD data and make it visible to everyone
• You can trust organisations like CrossRef to update your data in ORCiD on your behalf
• Please add your "name in native language" and indicate using the ISO 639 code the language it is in.
• Check if the authorities that are linked to you are indeed correct and do not link to a false friend
• Add your occupation
• Please add other authorities that know you.. ISNI for instance
• We love to have a (freely licensed) picture, it helps with disambiguation. You can upload it to Commons.. 
• Having a picture on the GYA website and on Google Scholar is why there are so many links to Google Scholar

So what is in it for us?

• We want people to know about science and learn about the scientific record
• We want people to write Wikipedia articles and your papers may be used as references.
• There are many gaps in our coverage of science. We know and it is improved one paper, one scientist at a time.. There is even the option to work on a specific subject.. like this one

As a member or the GYA, you are part of an outreach program. We happily invite you to work with us and together do the best job possible for science.

Thanks,

      GerardM

@Wikimedia, when we do "science outreach" what audience do we reach out to and why?

A recent tweet said "If you are an outstanding woman then you have a 1 IN 6 chance of having a @Wikipedia article. If you are an #African woman then you have a 1 in 300 chance." This bias exists for all Africans and all of Africa.

In Wikicite, with all respect for what has been achieved, we find a professional approach by scientists. Their profession, their data and this is all well and good. However, as the University of California no longer has access to the Elsevier papers, business is no longer "as usual" and consequently the relevance of access to readable papers has gained priority.

We need to know if papers known to Wikidata are available and we may have all the papers known at UnpayWall but as long as we do not indicate availability, it is irrelevant.

We need to make it easy for scientists to gain a presence for their science. At this time there are too many hoops to jump through. We can make it easy by putting scientists in the driving seat.

1. Make an Orcid identifier for yourself and open up the data
2. Enable common sense organisations like "your" university, CrossRef to update your profile
3. Have a button that runs a SourceMD process importing the data into Wikidata.
4. Enjoy and improve on your Scholia

By enabling people to update their data and the data of others, you create value. When we run the API of Unpaywall as part of the SourceMD process, we help USC and we help the rest of the world that is facing the insurmountably obstacle that exists because of the likes of Elsevier. Science becomes easier, scientists gain relevance for their science and Wikidata establishes another purpose.

NB Wikipedia gains as a fringe benefit an objective criteria for the establishment of notability (it is in the science, the Scholia)

Thanks,

      GerardM

Reaching out particularly to all the #USA Secret Service #Analysts

Many employees of the USA government have been send home. They have time on their hand and really relevant expertise.

I would like to reach out to all of them and invite them to edit Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Many of the analysts of the many secret services have been send home as well. I would like them to help us expand the information about all the civilisations they know so well.

I do not ask them to share anything that is secret. I do ask them to consider the need for a neutral point of view and provide sources. I want to remind all my fellow Wikimedians that our coverage about the Arabic and Islamic civilisations is not that great. We need better information and these people have time on their hand.

Please help us bring the sum of all knowledge together so that people can understand each other.
Thanks,
      GerardM

The next billion #Internet users III

At the end of the year the number of Internet users is expected to reach 2,7 billion users. The expectation is that in 2017 there will be 3.7 billion users. This means that in 2017 most people will still not be connected to the Internet.

Recently Mr Zuckerberg of Facebook fame presented Internet.org. It aims to bring the people who are waiting for the "last mile" to be bridged. In an interview in Wired, you can read about the vision behind this project.

The numbers of the Internet Service Providers are from before the announcement of this new project. When people are getting on the Internet even faster, it will certainly change the dynamics of the Internet even more. It is not obvious what data will be most sought after by the people who will be new on the Internet.

With all its encyclopaedic information, Wikipedia seems to be well placed to serve many more people the sum of all knowledge. However, much of that information will not be accessible to the many people because it is not available in a language they know. With Wikidata it will be possible to maintain data and present it in the many languages it supports.

We do want well written articles but presentations of the core data of subjects may fill in the gap.
Thanks,
        GerardM

The next billion #Internet users

The aim of the #Wikimedia Foundation is "to share the sum of all knowledge".  We are reasonably successful at that as we are one of the largest websites in the world. The Internet Service Providers have looked into their crystal ball and made a nice presentation of where the next billion Internet users will come from.

They asked me if I would be interested to share it with my readers because of a previous blogpost of mine. I am, so enjoy.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Font subsets III

#Google web fonts is important. A major player makes freely licensed fonts available for general use. They allow people to be more expressive because the right font adds to the message. They allow people to contribute to existing fonts and make new fonts available.

Both Google and the Wikimedia Foundation invest in freely licensed web fonts and because of this, an opportunity for cooperation exists. The Wikimedia Foundation supports all languages in all scripts particularly for use in its projects and Google supports the world with its Google docs where people can use web fonts in their own documents and in their own language.

As the two organisations complement each other so well, it would be great when they share their web fonts. Wikipedia can become more expressive and for Google docs usable fonts can be associated with the languages that they support. A combined outreach of Google and the WMF will make web fonts even more visible and it will make the effort of both organisations even more relevant.
Thanks,
     GerardM

The #Santali language and the Ol Chiki script II

A request for a #Wikipedia is made for the Santali language. The request was made for use with the Latin script but Santali language is also written in the Ol Chiki script. It stands to reason that when a language is written in multiple scripts, it is relevant for the people who read that language to have fonts available for all the scripts in use. It is unlikely that the Ol Chiki font is part of any standard operating system.

When you are interested in an Ol Chiki font, one resource that pops up when you search for it is Wesanthals. Several fonts can be found at this website. Sadly they are not available under a standard free license. The good news is that we are reaching out to developers of Ol Chiki fonts.

When we do have fonts available under a free license, we can provide support for the Ol Chiki font in WebFonts. A text in Ol Chiki will be tagged like this:

<div lang="sat-olck"> ᱐</div> or <span lang="sat-olck"> ᱐</span>

Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikisource should be big

At #Fosdem you meet people from all over Europe. I met with one Wikisourcerer and we had a talk about this project. Even though it is an official Wikimedia Foundation project, it is very much a Cinderella; an  unloved daughter that is blossoming into beauty.

The one thing Wikisource is lacking is a bit of TLC. Compare it with the attention showered over GLAM, the contrast could not be starker. We all love GLAM (I do), it has had a global WMF fellow and now there is a person doing the works for the USA and it has the attention of many chapters. Wikisource is what some people do.

Actually what these people do, particularly when they are organised is very relevant and it supports one of the pillars of what we do; the public domain. The public domain is strengthened because it fulfils the role industry does not. It ensures the availability of works that are considered to be of no commercial interest. It brings attention to works that have a timeless value and for many languages it actually ensures that schools have books for kids to read.

There are several projects where people are digitising books, transliterating them. The one thing lacking is learning from best practices. The best source projects organised the acquisitions of books, the scanning, the transliteration, the distribution. The Malayalam Wikisourcerers for instance published a CD that was send to all schools in Kerala.

Wikisource is a project where our chapters are particularly well positioned to engage in Wikisource. It is practical and when done well it will help us in preserve and strengthen the public domain.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Reaching out to #Intel

A conference like #FOSDEM is big, some of the talks are influential and consequently it is a place where people are to learn about what is happening and how people think about technology and open source technology at that.

At breakfast we were sitting next to a gentleman working for Intel. He was very much into mobile communications so we reached out to him and discussed with him about our need to support input methods for languages like Tamil, Malayalam ... We told him that we provide web fonts.

You never know at the start of a conversation what will come out of it. What we do know is that support that is low in the technology stack has the most effect.
Thanks,
    GerardM

#Wikimedia is at #FOSDEM

We Wikimedians took the bus to FOSDEM. This proved to be a problem for some, the bus was full. As the buses are driving again, we are sad to have left some people out in the cold.

We are here for many reasons, some are on their way to Pune, some are here because Fosdem is awesome and a place to be. Several of us is here to meet open source developers looking for challenges and one of us is looking for the best of them.

I am here at Fosdem to talk about languages and language support. I would love to connect to other projects who are oriented to the whole of the web and all its languages.

So when you are into language and language support, find me and talk to me.
Thanks,
     GerardM

A tale of two cities

I met Fahraan, she is Kurdish, she speaks #Sorani and #Dutch. Fahraan is a refugee and has too much time on her hands.

Sulaymaniyah and Almere are two cities important to her; in Sulaymaniyah she was born and raised and she is now living in Almere. As a consequence, there are people in both cities that know Fahraan.

Fahraan often tells the story of her two cities. About Almere in Sorani and about Sulaymaniyah in Dutch. The suggestion for her to write proper articles about these cities intrigues her. The existence of a Wikipedia in Sorani was a revelation to her.

Teaching someone like Fahraan to edit Wikipedia is cool. She will improve her Dutch and she will write in Sorani. Teaching a group of people like Fahraan is even better; even when only one person writes the occasional article the smaller projects will be happy to welcome her.
Thanks,
      GerardM

nine-eleven revisited

This day ten years ago, I was in a shop that had a TV turned on. I saw a plane crash into a skyscraper. The consequences have been horrible. Nearly 3000 people died in this abomination, many many more died as a consequence of the wars that followed.

Today, ten years on, I met a local imam here in Almere. The date of the appointment was quite accidental but we did talk briefly about the September 11th attacks. It is horrible when you consider how a small group of fanatics were allowed to bring so much misery on all Muslims.

Wikipedia was another subject; the need for free and neutral information was considered very important. I may even quote my imam as he said: "the biggest challenge of mankind is ignorance and then illiteracy". We had a look at Wikipedia, both the Arabic and the Dutch Wikipedia, and found that articles that explain Morocco and Islam can do with a lot more tender loving care.

Bringing Muslims to Wikipedia does not need to be more then just reaching out. I indicated that I am happy to give some instructions in Almere. I truly do not care in what language they write, where they come from, their culture. What I care about is that we will grow the sum of available knowledge and share it widely.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#CTM11; The #GettyMuseum is not a #GLAM partner yet

As the Getty museum is one of the richest repositories of our world heritage, it is not strange that many of the objects that are conserved there have ended up in Commons and are used in many Wikipedia articles. We do not really know what we are using of the Getty and consequently we cannot compile the statistics that show the relevance of the Getty to us.

This is problematic on several levels:

• When illustrations come without provenance, how do we know they provide true information
• How is an illustration without annotations acceptable when we require references when stating facts
• What benefit is there for the Getty to provide us with annotations to the material we already have
• What incentive do we give the Getty to consider sharing what is in their depot with us

The Getty museum was represented at communicating the museum in Düsseldorf. They do know that items of their collection have found their way to Commons. They are interested in learning how well it is doing. They would consider sharing annotations with us for what is already there and this might lead to more collaboration.

To make this happen, someone has to create a Getty museum template and start applying this to the media files that indicate that the object represented can be found at the Getty. The Toolserver has tools to automate this to some extent.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#CTM11 the #Tate and #Wikipedia (again)

A big GLAM like the Tate sends many people to a conference like communicating the museum. It allows for many conversations; at breakfast I met a lady from their commercial department. She is another one wondering how collaborating with these guys representing Wikipedia makes sense.

A commercial department is about revenue, so I talked how sales of images goes up. How we can provide statistics on articles using the material of a GLAM, about traffic. This is essential information because it is the kind of information that justifies continued funding. We talked meta-data and how pictures without meta-data does not provide the reliability we seek for our facts. How a reference to the website of a GLAM can drive sales.

We talked about people just grabbing the material without any regard for the GLAM that conserves the depicted material for next generations. We agreed that it is a fairly fixed percentage who is involved in such a way. They do not contribute in any way so they are best ignored.

Collaboration works best when we share information, when we share the imagery with the meta-data, when we are partners in bringing information that becomes knowledge to the people of our world.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#CTM11 #Wikipedia #GLAM reaching out to #Qatar

At an international conference, there is the opportunity to reach out to people who come from all parts of our world. Meeting with the head of IT-services of the museum of Islamic art is something of a privilege.

We talked about the Arabic Wikipedia, about the English Wikipedia about the quality of translations and the horror that are machine translations. We talked about getting children interested in what museums have to offer.

Most relevant in the context of communicating the museum, we explored a little bit if it is possible to have a Wikipedia meetup, a GLAM meetup in Qatar. We talked about backstage tours, editing time with conservators, getting the message out that Arabic has to be written well in order to attract visitors.

It will be a happy occasion when our worldwide audience learns more about Islam, Islamic art. It will be a happy occasion when quality information and imagery finds its way into our Wiki world. A happy occasion because it will bring us closer.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#CTM11 #vangoghmuseum

It is a privilege to be at a conference like the communicating the museum. It allows me to network with people who are only forty minutes away from my home and who also travelled a considerable distance. People like the two ladies of the Van Gogh Museum.

They are not happy with the article on Vincent, consider that the facts are not well represented, that some of the major references are missing. They asked me how to deal with this. We talked about it and we talked about the material published by the Tropenmuseum and how material that museums have in depot may gain relevance when it becomes available at Commons and how annotations are so important, even essential.

The Van Gogh museum wants to meet in the near future with the Dutch chapter, they first want to learn about how to improve the articles on content that is dear to them. With this covered we may talk about the material in their depot.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Promoting #Malaysia on #Wikipedia

A story at #Slashdot has it that for six #Facebook pages an astounding $600,000.- was spend by the government of Malaysia. Only six pages... and it will be interesting to learn how they will get sufficient interest for what they have to say on only six pages.

Spending a similar amount of money wisely to promote Malaysia on Wikipedia will not only have a measurable impact the impact will be sustained over a long time.

I am sure the Malaysian government already has a wealth of pictures about Malaysia, not only the pictures that may draw tourists to Malaysia but also the historic pictures, the film footage and material from archives and museums. All this can be made available without spending much money.

When Malaysia would be determined to spend $600K, it could have a photo competition about its land marks, its nature, its monuments. At the same time it could have a competition having people write Wikipedia articles in its many languages.

It would work and we can provide the statistics that prove it.
Thanks,

      GerardM

Outreach in #Indonesia by #Radio

Outreach for #Wikipedia is best done by a broadcast medium. It is best when you want to reach a big audience. Effectively building a public for Wikipedia where computers and broadband are for many a luxury takes a stroke of genius.

Using small articles, often just stubs, on the radio at the end and beginnings of programs is such a stroke of genius. Learning that it is even extended to languages that have not even an Incubator presence makes it even more awesome.

A big thank you to Kombinasi who provide this wonderful service to us.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Working for the Yankee dollar ..

#Wikipedia doing a #commercial project? Hell, why not! The license allows it and, it is wonderful outreach.

The Indonesian Wikipedia had a writing competition about theology. Publishers are interested in publishing and, the question is: can we do it.

In Commons we explicitly do not accept pictures available under a CC-by-nc license. This ensures that we have the widest possible audience for our material. It follows that the same applies for our articles. When a publisher or a website wants our material and publish it commercially they can. When they do it with us, even better.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The #Ada initiative

The Ada initiative, named after one of the heroins of computing, intends to increase the participation of women in open technology and culture. The goal as specified is to help women to build their careers in this field.

Wikipedia is specifically mentioned as a project where female participation is to be encouraged. I hope that this project will be a roaring success and that the inclusion of Wikipedia will allow this project to quickly become a project with a global reach.
Thanks,
     GerardM