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Wikipedia en español supera el millón de artículos

Este 16 de mayo de 2013, la comunidad de Wikipedia en español anunció un nuevo récord de edición, cuando «La enciclopedia libre» superó la barrera del millón de artículos.

Wikipedia es la enciclopedia más grande, más actualizada y de más rápido crecimiento en todo el mundo, caracterizada por ser libre, multilingüe y escrita únicamente por voluntarios de todo el mundo, que trabajan en forma colaborativa. Actualmente cuenta con más de 25 millones de artículos en 271 idiomas. Solo Wikipedia en español recibe cerca de 2 millones de visitas por hora, y es la segunda versión de la enciclopedia con más usuarios: hoy cuenta con 16 590 usuarios activos. Es uno de los sitios más visitados de Internet, con lectores que van desde estudiantes y docentes, hasta periodistas, políticos, científicos, artistas y gente de la comunidad civil.

La tecnología wiki es lo que permite que sus artículos pueden ser modificados por cualquier persona mediante un navegador web. Sus contenidos están bajo la licencia libre Creative Commons Atribución-CompartirIgual 3.0, que posibilita a los usuarios copiar y modificar el trabajo de terceros, basándose en un principio conocido como copyleft. La base de datos, además, puede ser descargada gratuitamente. Pero el proyecto no se trata solamente de tomar la información necesaria. La enciclopedia funciona gracias a que millones de colaboradores dedican incontables horas de su tiempo libre a mejorar el contenido disponible en la web, desde corregir errores tipográficos, gramaticales y ortográficos, hasta extender artículos y crear nuevas entradas sobre personajes, lugares e hitos históricos desconocidos.

Es en este espíritu de colaboración que, a pocos días de cumplir 12 años, Wikipedia en español ha superado el hito del millón de artículos. No se trata solo de un millón de entradas diferentes, sino del trabajo conjunto de cientos de miles de personas en todo el mundo de habla hispana que, con su contribución individual, aportan a la creación de un proyecto colectivo que está en permanente actualización. Los editores provienen de diversos puntos del globo, de las más variadas profesiones, edades y culturas. Muchos de ellos ya no editan más, otros permanecen como colaboradores pero, invariablemente, todos dejan un poco de sí mismos como legado para la humanidad.

Wikipedia es fiel reflejo del dinamismo del saber y del mundo moderno, uno de los mayores logros de la sociedad del conocimiento. Es una enciclopedia viva.

Millars, Wikimedia España

English

On May 16, 2013, the Spanish Wikipedia community announced a new milestone in editing, when the Spanish language version of “the free encyclopedia” surpassed one million articles.

Wikipedia is the largest, most current and fastest growing encyclopedia in the world, characterized by being free, multilingual and written exclusively by volunteers around the world working collaboratively. It currently has more than 25 million articles in 271 languages. Spanish Wikipedia alone gets about 2 million page views per hour, and it is in second place by total number of editors, with 16 590. It is one of the most visited Internet sites, with readers ranging from students and teachers, to journalists, politicians, scientists, artists and people from all parts of society.

Wiki technology allows articles to be edited by anyone with a web browser. Most of its content is freely licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, which allows users to copy and edit the work of others, based on a principle known as copyleft. The database also can be downloaded for free. But the project is not just about to take the necessary information. The encyclopedia is powered by millions of collaborators who spend countless hours of their free time to improve the content available on the web, from correcting typos, grammar and spelling, to expanding articles and creating new entries on people, places and historical landmarks.

It is in this spirit of collaboration that, just a few days shy of its 12th birthday, Spanish Wikipedia surpassed the 1 million article milestone. It is not just a million different entries, but the joint work of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Spanish-speaking world, with their individual contributions, sharing in the creation of a collective project that is constantly updated. The editors come from various parts of the world, of the most varied professions, ages and cultures. Many of them no longer edit, others remain as contributors but, invariably, all leave a little of themselves as a legacy for humanity.

Wikipedia is a true reflection of the dynamism of knowledge and of the modern world, one of the greatest achievements of knowledge in society. It is a living encyclopedia.

Millars, Wikimedia España

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English

Muscovite Aliona Bogdanova’s path to editing Wikipedia came circuitously through her vegetarian diet, a diet, she said, that was at odds with the way most Russians view nutrition.

“When I was a child, I found out that where meat comes from. I decided that it’s not fair to kill animals to get meat,” she said. Her decision was not viewed favorably. “My family, they wouldn’t let me not eat meat because in Russia, people generally believe that it’s impossible not to eat meat and if you stop eating meat, you die!”

Aliona Bogdonova and her son

When she was 20, Bogdanova researched online how to create a proper vegetarian diet and became a vegetarian. She has, however, met resistance along the way, especially when she started her family.

“When I got pregnant, lots of people asked me questions, how can you possibly carry a child and not eat meat because you’re pregnant and you must eat meat?” said Bogdanova. “So I had a breastfeeding consultant who advised me to eat a little piece of meat at least once a week. I didn’t do it because I would, you know, poison myself.”

Bogdanova said she was able to find useful information in Russian about vegetarianism and animal rights on sites like Wikipedia, but, “there’s in general very little information about breastfeeding in Russia, and that has to do with the Soviet school stopping with how people have thought about this.”

Bogdanova has taken passionately to sharing what she’s learned about health and parenting with people seeking information on Russian Wikipedia.

“I wrote several articles about food, about vegetarianism. I edited some articles about parenting, natural parenting,” she said. “But I remember, my first big article is about marzipan because I’m a fan of marzipan. There was only a few words about it and maybe no article at all, and I just knew what I should write.”

To fill the time while at home during her pregnancy, Bogdanova took up soap making as a hobby. Before long it turned into a business. “When you make soap, eventually you end up making too much and eventually comes a point where…you can’t possibly use so much and you can’t find enough friends who you could give it as a gift,” she said. “I use Wikipedia as a research tool (it has so many useful links) and I share things that I learn from my business on Wikipedia, so that everyone can learn.”

Bogdanova is also translating a book about homeschooling, the Teenage Liberation Handbook, into Russian. It’s her first serious translation effort.

Natural curiosity and research drew her to Wikipedia years ago and she credits her upbringing with keeping her in the community of contributors.

“I can’t, you know, pass by something that I can improve,” she said. “Because I grew up in the family of teachers, I was raised on the idea that talking like an encyclopedia is an important scholarly work, and so when I wrote in Wikipedia, I had the sense that I had contributed to this.”

She added, “Once in a while, I find out that somebody has come across this article that I have created about homeschooling, for example, and then I am really proud.”

Profile by Donna Peterson, Communications Volunteer, Wikimedia Foundation

На русском языке

Москвичка Алена Богданова пришла к редактированию Википедии окольным путем, через вегетарианство – которое непривычно и странно для большинства россиян.

“Когда я была ребенком, я узнала, откуда берется мясо. Я решила, что несправедливо убивать животных только чтобы поесть,” сказала она. Это решение не было благосклонно принято ее семьей. “Мои родители и родственники запретили мне отказываться от мяса, потому что в России люди обычно считают, что нельзя не есть мяса, без мяса – умрешь! ”

Когда ей было 20, Богданова прочитала в Интернете, как составить сбалансированную вегетарианскую диету и стала вегетарианкой. Однако она снова встретила сопротивление на этом пути, когда создала свою семью.

«Когда я забеременела, многие люди задавали мне вопросы, как возможно выносить ребенка и не есть мясо. Якобы беременным мясо необходимо”, – сказала Богданова, – “мне даже консультант по грудному вскармливанию советовала съедать маленький кусочек мяса по меньшей мере раз в неделю. Я не делала этого, потому что отравилась бы”.

Богданова сказала, на сайтах вроде Википедии – масса полезной информации на русском языке о вегетарианстве и правах животных на сайтах, но, “вообще очень мало информации о грудном вскармливании в России, это связано с советской школой воспитания и ухода за детьми.”

Богданова принялась активно делиться информацией о здоровье и воспитании детей, с людьми, ищущими информацию в русской Википедии.

“Я написала несколько статей о еде, о вегетарианстве. Я редактировала несколько статей о воспитании, естественном родительстве”, сказала она. “Но я помню, моя первая большая статья была о марципане, потому что я фанат марципана. Изначально в ней была только несколько слов об этом, а может и вообще не было такой статьи, а мне было что написать”.

Беременность добавила еще один аспект жизни Алёны: новый бизнес в Интернете.

Чтобы чем-то занять время, пока сидела дома “в декрете”, она завела хобби – мыловарение, и «… когда вы делаете мыло, в какой-то момент его становится слишком много, и в конце концов наступает момент, когда … столько уже не использовать, не смылить, и даже для подарков друзьям его уже слишком много”, сказала она. Когда люди начали спрашивать, можно ли его купить, появился магазин. “Я ищу информацию в Википедии (там много полезных ссылок), и выкладываю то, что узнала благодаря магазину, чтобы все могли это узнать”.

Богданова также переводит книгу о домашнем обучении, “Teenage Liberation Handbook” (“Руководство подростка по освобождению от школы”), на русский язык. Это ее первая серьезная попытка перевода.

Природная любознательность и исследования привели ее в Википедию десять лет назад, и она относит это на счет своего воспитания.

“Вы знаете, я не могу пройти мимо того, что могу улучшить”, сказала она. “Потому что я выросла в семье учителей, я была воспитана на том, что энциклопедии является важной частью научной работы, и поэтому, когда я впервые написала в Википедии, у меня было чувство, что я внесла свой вклад в это.”

Она добавила: “Время от времени я узнаю, что кто-то наткнулся на мою статью о домашнем обучении, например, и тогда я очень горжусь своей работой”.

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English

The Spring 2013 semester was a busy one for Wikipedia projects at ITESM-Campus Ciudad de México in Mexico, building on the success of prior work and starting new activities.

Medical English class

Two classes of Medical English, an advanced-level English as a foreign language course for medical professionals, worked with Wikipedia in Spanish and English as well as Wikimedia Commons. The Commons project was first, with students uploading more than 60 photos related to their future professions, including photographs of hospitals, campus classrooms, and laboratory activities for their other courses. The next project was to translate medicine related articles from the English Wikipedia to the Spanish Wikipedia. Not only is this process a good way to introduce Wikipedia writing style, formatting and technological requirements, but it is also helpful to the Spanish Wikipedia, which has fewer medicine-related articles than the English version. Twenty four articles were translated including Artificial pancreas, Amaurosis Fugax, Binge drinking and Abdominal pregnancy. The final project was to create a new article or augment an existing article in English Wikipedia, preferably one with a topic related to Mexico. This effort resulted in 29 articles created or expanded including Dorsal nexus, Embryology of the heart, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, the Mexican Red Cross, and the History of smallpox in Mexico.

International Baccalaureate CAS

Students from the International Baccalaureate program at the high school level have now been working with Wikipedia for three semesters to fulfill hours needed for the CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) hours, working on various projects. Participating students for the this semester were Xibsuarz, MichiKiske17, Salcedo95, Piskysama4, Aerozt, and EdmundoGuadarrama.

They have continued to work on articles related to the ongoing project with the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, translating articles on artists such as Álvaro Zardoni as well as creating articles in English. Following their own interests, other articles were translated from English to Spanish, such as Incidente de la colina Flagstaff, Antojito (expanded), Cheonggyecheon, Laima, Abrahadabra (Thelema), Aeon (Thelema), Tsundere, and Fujiko F. Fujio. In addition to creating content on their own, students assisted with the judging of the Holy Week in Mexico photo contest and the descriptions and uploading of the donation of 2,100 images from ITESM campus archives into Wikimedia Commons (both detailed below).

Campus archive photo donation

In January, a project to prepare, upload, and integrate more than 2,000 photographs from campus archives was begun. The campus is a busy one with at least one activity happening each school day, all of which are photographed for publication in campus newsletters and other outlets. As an experiment, a primary batch of 100 photographs was donated in January 2013. Students from the International Baccalaureate program and Thelmadatter worked to create descriptions for the photographs, upload them and integrate them into Wikipedia articles where appropriate. At the end of this phase, the students gave a presentation to Armín Gómez, the director of campus communications and Lourdes Esptein, the director of the campus library, impressing them with how the photographs can be used in Wikipedia and seen worldwide. This led to the authorization of 2,000 more photographs, which are in the process of description and uploading. As of this writing, more than 1,700 are in Commons, and appear in more than 100 Wikipedia articles in English and Spanish. The donation has been particularly useful for photographs of notable writers, politicians, academics and others such as José Emilio Pacheco, Patrick Loliger, Susana Pagano, Manuel Espino, Federico Reyes Heroles, and many more. It has also been useful for images related to various forms of dance, both modern and folk and sports.

Holy Week in Mexico photo contest

Due to the success of last semester’s Day of the Dead photo contest, the campus library again sponsored a photo contest related to Mexican culture, this time dealing with traditions related to Holy Week. Most communities have some kind of public religious observance during this week, especially on Good Friday, and some are very elaborate and well-known in the country, such as those of Iztapalapa, Mexico City and Taxco, Guerrero. The contest attracted more than 160 photos related to the week, many of which are of high quality. There were three awards in three categories. The winner of the best photo category and the most photos category was Marcelo Sánchez Olaiz (User:Marcelolaiz) and the winner of the most original photo category was Jorge Alberto Rey Hernandez (User:A01333441jarh). The award for the best photo was an iPod Touch, for the most original photo was a gift certificate for 800 pesos and for the most photos was a gift certificate for 500 pesos.

Thelmadatter, Wikimedian Regional Ambassador/Professor at ITESM Campus Ciudad de México
Xibsuarz, International Baccalaureate student/CAS participant

Español

ITESM Campus Ciudad de México cumple muchos proyectos relacionados a Wikipedia

El semestre de Enero-Mayo 2013 ha estado lleno de proyectos para Wikipedia en el ITESM Campus Ciudad de México, México. Se ha trabajado tanto sobre proyectos anteriores como con nuevas actividades.

Clase de Medicina en Inglés

Dos clases de Medicina en Inglés, es decir, un nivel más avanzado de inglés como lengua extranjera para profesionistas médicos. Los alumnos han trabajado con Wikipedia en inglés y en español, así como con Wikimedia Commons. El proyecto de Commons inició con los estudiantes subiendo más de sesenta fotos relacionadas con su futura profesión. Estas fotografías incluían hospitales, aulas del campus y actividades de laboratorio de otras materias. El proyecto posterior consistía en traducir artículos médicos de Wikipedia en inglés al español. Esto, además de ser una buena introducción al estilo de redacción, formato y aspectos técnicos de Wikipedia, es útil para Wikipedia en español que tiene menos artículos médicos que Wikipedia en inglés. Vienticuatro artículos fueron traducidos, incluyendo Páncreas Atrificial, Amaurosis fugaz, Episodio alcohólico y es:Embarazo Abdominal. El proyecto final consistió en crear un nuevo artículo o expandir uno ya existente en Wikipedia en inglés, de preferencia uno relacionado con México. Esto resultó en veinte y nueve articulos creados o expandidos, incluyendo Dorsal nexus, Embryology of the heart, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexican Red Cross y también History of smallpox in Mexico.

CAS Bachillerato Internacional

Estudiantes del programa de Bachillerato Internacional en preparatoria han estado trabajando con Wikipedia por tres semestres para cubrir las horas necesarias de CAS (Creatividad, Acción y Servicio), trabajando en diferentes proyectos. Los estudiantes que participaron este semestre son: Xibsuarz, MichiKiske17, Salcedo95, Piskysama4, Aerozt y EdmundoGuadarrama.

Los alumnos han continuado en el proyecto de artículos relacionados con el Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, traduciendo artículos de artistas como es:Álvaro Zardoni, así como creando artículos en inglés. De igual manera, han traducido articulos de inglés a español de acuerdo a sus propios intereses como el Incidente de la colina Flagstaff, Antojito (expandido), Cheonggyecheon, Laima, Abrahadabra_(Thelema), Aeon_(Thelema), Tsundere y Fujiko_F._Fujio. Además de crear contenido propio, los estudiantes han juzgado fotografías para el concurso de Semana Santa en México, de igual manera, han subido fotografías y descripciones a Wikimedia Commons a partir de la donación de 2100 imágenes proporcionadas por el ITESM (ambos eventos con detalles más adelante).

Donación de fotografías de archivos del Campus

En enero se inició un proyecto para preparar, subir e integrar más de 2,000 forografías de los archivos del campus. El campus está lleno de actividades, con al menos un evento al día; todos estos eventos fueorn forografiados para una publicación escolar y otros medios. A manera de experimento, un lote incial de 100 forografías fue donando en Enero de 2013. Estudiantes del programa de Bachillerato Internacional y Thelmadatter trabajaron creando descripciones para las fotografías, lo que permite subirlas e integrarlas en artículos de Wikipedia con características apropiadas para tal fin. Al concluir este fase, los estudiantes dieron una presentación a Armín Gómez, Director de Comunicaciones en el campus y a Lourdes Esptein, Directora de la Libreria del campus, impresionándolos sobre como las fotografías pueden ser usadas en Wikipedia y vistas alrededor del mundo. Esto llevó a la autorización de 2,000 fotografías más, que están en proceso de descripción e integración. Más de 1700 fotografías están en Commons y más de 100 en artículos de Wikipedia en inglés y español. La donación ha sido útil para artículos de escritores notables, políticos, académicos y otros como José Emilio Pacheco, Patrick Loliger, Susana Pagano, Manuel Espino, Federico_Reyes_Heroles y muchos otros. También ha sido útil para artículos relacionados con varios tipos de baile moderna, folclórica y deportes.

Concurso de fotografías sobre la Semana Santa en México

En el semestre pasado (ago-dic 2012) el Campus patrocinó un concurso para documentar al Día de Muertos en México. Por tener éxito, la biblioteca del Campus patrocina otro concurso para documentar las tradiciones de Semana Santa en México. La mayoría de las comunidades en el país tienen celebraciones y procesiones religiosas durante la semana, sobretodo en Viernes Santo. Algunos son muy complejos y famosos en el país, incluyendo las de Iztapalapa, Mexico City and Taxco, Guerrero. El concurso de Semana Santa recibió más de 160 fotos relacionadas con estas actividades, muchas son de alta calidad. Tuvimos tres premios en tres categorías. El ganador en la categoría de “mejor foto” y la categoría de “mayor cantidad de fotos” fue Marcelo Sánchez Olaiz (User:Marcelolaiz), el ganador en la categoría de “foto con mayor originalidad de tema” fue Jorge Alberto Rey Hernández (User:A01333441jarh). El premio para la categoría de mejor foto fue un IPod_touch, para la fotos con tema más original, se entregó una tarjeta de regalo de 800 pesos y para la categoría de mayor cantidad de fotos, el premio fue una tarjeta de regalo de 500 pesos.

Thelmadatter, Wikimedian Regional Ambassador/Professor at ITESM Campus Ciudad de México
Xibsuarz, International Baccalaureate student/CAS participant

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English

What happens when a WikiWoman meets a WikiLibrarian? An editathon on women’s biographies, of course! Or at least this is what happened on May 4th at Biblioteca Salaborsa, one of the most well-known libraries in Bologna, Italy.

Wikimedia Italia organized its first event at Biblioteca Salaborsa on April 20th, an introductory workshop led by wikipedian Piero Grandesso. Thanks to the work of the librarian and wikimedian Virginia Gentilini, it was possible to renew the collaboration and organize a second event.

We had thirteen participants, some of whom came after attending the first workshop. We created five new articles and improved two existing pages, paying homage in this way to seven amazing Italian women (and also a French one!) who didn’t have the space they deserved on Wikipedia.

It is always a little shocking to discover how many relevant women are missing from Wikipedia. Amongst the pages we created was one about Hortensia, a late Roman Republic orator and one of the very few women who at that time challenged men’s authority by giving a speech in the Forum. She lived during the civil war that took place after Julius Caesar’s assasination, a period when the Roman Republic was struggling with many war expenses. Hortensia debated in the Roman Forum against a tax imposed on wealthy Roman women, arguing that it was not legitimate to demand that women’s properties finance a war in which they had no active role. Eventually the number of women affected by the tax was reduced.

As one can imagine, we study a lot of Ancient Roman history in Italy. Latin literature and language are also compulsory teachings in some secondary schools. But Hortensia’s page, already in other language versions, was not yet on Italian Wikipedia.

Beside the creation of content on Wikipedia, the editathon was also an occasion to put together and share the different skills and competencies of the organizers. The team was composed of Virginia Gentilini, Wikimedia Italia member Ginevra Sanvitale and Commons and Italian Wikipedia sysop Elitre, who worked together, each one according to her area of expertise. We also had a chance to learn and confront a number of related Wikimedia topics.

Finally, the role played by Salaborsa as a center of cultural creation and knowledge circulation was very important.

In 2012, Wikimedia Italia reached out to Italian librarians and libraries for the first time, discovering many possible ways of collaboration. Wikipedia workshops for patrons of libraries are one of these, and they are particularly interesting because of their cultural and social implications. Working on Wikipedia in libraries can bridge the gap between print, traditional resources of information and the lively and active community of Wikipedians. But it can contribute to bridge the Wikipedia Gender Gap too: public libraries in Italy are traditionally used by women more than men, and they can therefore be a perfect place to find women interested in connecting their love of reading to a more participative and empowering way to enrich their cultural life. More women attended the editathon indeed, showing enthusiam and asking for further opportunities to work in this direction.

Librarians in Italy are traditionally mostly women too. It will be interesting to see how many successful ways of collaboration we’ll manage to find, both working directly with patrons inside the libraries, and at a more general level of interaction between bibliographic data held by National Libraries and Wiki Projects. There is such a large amount of useful work to do!

Ginevra Sanvitale, Wikimedia Italia. With the collaboration of Virginia Gentilini

Italian

Cosa succede quando una Wikipediana incontra una WikiBibliotecaria? Un editathon su biografie femminili, ovviamente! O per lo meno questo è quello che è successo il 4 maggio in Biblioteca Salaborsa, una delle biblioteche più famose di Bologna.

Wikimedia Italia ha organizzato il suo primo evento in Salaborsa il 20 aprile, un workshop introduttivo tenuto dal wikipediano Piero Grandesso. Grazie al lavoro della bibliotecaria e wikimediana Virginia Gentilini è stato possibile rinnovare la collaborazione e organizzare un secondo evento.

Abbiamo avuto tredici partecipanti, alcuni dei quali arrivati direttamente dal primo workshop. Abbiamo creato cinque nuovi articoli e migliorato due pagine esistenti, omaggiando in questo modo sette fantastiche donne italiane (e anche una francese!) che non avevano ancora lo spazio che meritavano su Wikipedia.

È sempre un po’ scioccante scoprire quante donne rilevanti mancano su Wikipedia. Tra le pagine che abbiamo creato ce n’è una su Ortensia, un’oratrice della tarda Repubblica romana e una delle pochissime donne che a quei tempi sfidarono l’autorità maschile tenendo un discorso nel Foro. Ortensia visse durante la guerra civile iniziata dopo l’assassinio di Giulio Cesare, un periodo di grandi spese militari per Roma. Ortensia discusse nel Foro contro una tassa imposta sulle romani benestanti, sostenendo che non fosse legittimo chiedere alle donne romane di impegnare i loro patrimoni per una guerra in cui non avevano avuto un ruolo attivo. Alla fine, il numero di donne colpite dalla tassa fu diminuito.

In Italia studiamo tanta storia romana. Basti pensare che la lingua e la letteratura latina sono ancora materie obbligatorie in diverse scuole superiori. Eppure la pagina di Ortensia, già esistente in altre versioni linguistiche, non era ancora presente su Wikipedia in italiano.

Oltre alla creazione di contenuti su Wikipedia, l’editathon è stato anche un’occasione di mettere insieme e condividere le diverse abilità e competenze delle organizzatrici. Il team era composto da Virginia, Ginevra Sanvitale di Wikimedia Italia e l’amministratrice di Commons e Wikipedia in italiano Elitre, che hanno lavorato insieme ognuna in accordo al proprio campo di esperienza. Abbiamo anche avuto la chance di approfondire le nostre conoscenze e scambiarci opinioni su diversi argomenti collegati al mondo Wikimedia.

Infine, il ruolo giocato da Salaborsa in quanto centro di creazione culturale e di circolazione della conoscenza è stato molto importante.

Nel 2012 Wikimedia Italia ha per la prima volta iniziato a dialogare con le biblioteche e i bibliotecari italiani, scoprendo molti modi possibili per collaborare. Uno di questi sono i workshop su Wikipedia fatti per gli utenti delle biblioteche, particolarmente interessanti per le impicazioni culturali e sociali che comportano. Lavorare con Wikipedia nelle biblioteche può ridurre il divario tra la carta stampata, le risorse d’informazione tradizionali e la vivace e attiva comunità di Wikipediani. E inoltre può anche contribuire a ridurre il divario di genere: le biblioteche pubbliche italiane sono tradizionalmente utilizzate dalle donne più che dagli uomini e possono dunque essere il luogo perfetto per trovare donne interessate a collegare il loro amore per la lettura a una modalità maggiormente partecipativa e responsabilizzante di arricchimento della loro vita culturale. Molte donne, infatti, hanno partecipato all’editathon, mostrando entusiasmo e chiedendo altre occasioni di lavoro in questa direzione.

Gli stessi bibliotecari in Italia sono, tradizionalmente, per la maggior parte donne. Sarà interessante vedere quanti altri modi riusciremo a trovare per collaborare, sia lavorando direttamente con gli utenti all’interno delle biblioteche, sia a un livello di interazione più generale tra i dati bibliografici custoditi dalle biblioteche nazionali e i progetti Wiki. C’è così tanto lavoro utile da fare!

Ginevra Sanvitale, Wikimedia Italia. Con la collaborazione di Virginia Gentilini

Spanish

¿Qué sucede cuando WikiWomen se junta con una Wikibiblitecaria? Un editatón de biografías de mujeres, por supuesto! O al menos esto es lo que sucedió el 4 de mayo en la Biblioteca Salaborsa, una de las bibliotecas más conocidas en Bolonia, Italia.

Wikimedia Italia organizó su primer evento en la Biblioteca Salaborsa el 20 de abril, un taller de introducción realizado por el wikipedista Piero Grandesso. Gracias a la labor de la bibliotecaria y wikimedista Virginia Gentilini, se logró renovar la colaboración y organizar un segundo evento.

Teníamos trece participantes, algunos de los cuales vinieron después de asistir al primer taller. Hemos creado cinco nuevos artículos y mejoramos dos páginas existentes, rindiendo homenaje de esta manera a siete mujeres italianas increíbles (y también una francesa!) Que no tenían el espacio que merecen en Wikipedia.

Siempre es algo impactante descubrir cuántas mujeres relevantes no están en Wikipedia. Entre las páginas que hemos creado había un sobre Hortensia, una oradora de la república romana tardía y una de las pocas mujeres que en ese momento desafiaron la autoridad de los hombres, dando un discurso en el Foro. Ella vivió durante la guerra civil que tuvo lugar después del asesinato de Julio César, un período en que la República Romana estaba luchando contra las consecuencias económicas de la guerra. Hortensia debatió en el Foro Romano en contra de un impuesto aplicado a las mujeres romanas adineradas, con el argumento de que no era legítimo exigir que las mujeres financiaran con su propiedad una guerra en la que no tenían ningún papel activo. Eventualmente se redujo el número de mujeres afectadas por el impuesto.

Como se puede imaginar, estudiamos mucho de la historia antigua de Roma en Italia. La literatura y la lengua latina también son materias obligatorias en algunas escuelas secundarias. Pero la página de Hortensia, que ya existía en otros idiomas, todavía faltaba en la Wikipedia en italiano.

Además de la creación de contenidos en Wikipedia, el editatón fue también una ocasión para reunir y compartir las diferentes experiencias y habilidades de los organizadores. El equipo estaba compuesto por Virginia, la integrante de Wikimedia Italia Ginevra Sanvitale y el administrador de Commons y Wikipedia en italiano Elitre, quienes trabajaron juntos, cada uno de acuerdo a su área de especialización. También tuvimos la oportunidad de aprender y hacer frente a una serie de temas relacionados con Wikimedia.

Por último, el papel desempeñado por Salaborsa como centro de creación cultural y difusión del conocimiento fue muy importante.

En 2012 Wikimedia Italia se dirigió a los bibliotecarios y las bibliotecas italianas por primera vez, descubriendo muchas formas posibles de colaboración. Talleres de Wikipedia para usuarios de las bibliotecas son una de ellas, particularmente interesantes debido a sus implicaciones culturales y sociales. Trabajar con Wikipedia en las bibliotecas puede cerrar la brecha entre los recursos tradicionales de información impresos y la comunidad viva y activa de wikipedistas. Pero también puede contribuir a reducir la brecha de género en Wikipedia: las bibliotecas públicas en Italia se utilizan tradicionalmente más por mujeres que por hombres, y por lo tanto pueden ser el lugar perfecto para encontrar mujeres interesadas en conectar su amor por la lectura con una manera más participativa y de empoderamiento para enriquecer su vida cultural. La mayoría de las mujeres que asistieron a la editatón de hecho, mostraron su entusiasmo y preguntaron acerca de las oportunidades de continuar trabajando en esta dirección.

La mayoría de bibliotecarios en Italia también son tradicionalmente mujeres. Será interesante ver cuántas formas exitosas de colaboración podemos encontrar, tanto trabajando de manera directa con los usuarios dentro de las bibliotecas, y en un nivel más general a través de la interacción entre los datos bibliográficos contenidos en las bibliotecas nacionales y en los proyectos wiki. Hay tanto trabajo útil que hacer!

Ginevra Sanvitale, Wikimedia Italia. Con la colaboración de Virginia Gentilini

But hey, perhaps we should initially look at the overarching aim of an education programme in Sweden. The overall goal is to have Wikipedia (and other Wikimedia projects) accepted as learning tools among teachers at various educational levels in Sweden.

Employment

On 1 October, Sophie Österberg was employed as Education manager as to initiate and lead the education programme in Sweden. Then, the world’s first Wikipedian in Academy was employed the spring of 2013 by a Swedish University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. We’ve recently spoken to another university here in Sweden who is quite interested in the idea of employing a Wikipedian. So we might see another Wikipedian in Academy this autumn.

Funding

The education programme managed to get funding for a quarter of the manager’s salary from an internet fund for a specific educational project. The project is a collaboration with an educational institution where we offer Wikipedia training to teachers of immigrants who are learning Swedish. When they’re on a more advanced level, a possibility is to translate a Swedish Wikipedia article about something typically Swedish and hence learn about a historical person or phenomenon, and writing this article in their native language on their Wikipedia language version. So far we’ve found, and had to meet-ups with the interested teachers who will engage their students in this the coming fall. Look at the list of examples of what to write about which is arguably typically Swedish. (What might a list look like on your language version? What are typical German, British, Spanish, Arabic articles?)

Invitations (at least a few of them)

The education programme has kindly and generously been invited to various events around in Sweden, mostly in Stockholm and Gothenburg, our two largest cities. We’ve been talking at large conferences, exhibiting the education programme at various events, held seminars and co-hosted teachers evenings and various workshops. At the Internet days here in Sweden we participated in a panel discussion regarding digital resources in education. At SETT (yes, it’s like BETT and is the Swedish version of it) we held lectures on both the days of the huge exhibition. We were also invited to have a seat at the jury for a well-established school competition in April. These are a few of the events we’ve been invited to, and the invitations keep on coming! (It must be due to the amazingly gorgeous t-shirts!)

Collaborations

The education programme is supporting a network of teachers in Sweden who are using the flipped-classroom idea. There has been a lack of a good place to store these movies so Commons seemed as a rather splendid alternative. The dialogue was initiated between the education manager and one of the most engaged flipped-classroom teachers in Sweden, Karin Brånebäck, in the end of March, and the first movie is now up after a page has been created for this purpose on Commons.

Moreover, the Swedish Educational broadcasting radio (which also does TV) has had its largest ever TV production aiming at immigrants learning Swedish and the teachers engaged in their education. Through the Wikipedia education programme, a part of the production is to have teachers share their experiences, knowledge and ways to teach Swedish via Wikiversity which is promoted by the Swedish Educational broadcasting radio. They will also create a short movie about Wikiversity and how one may contribute to the project.

Ambassador programme

On 24t March, all was created that was needed for an ambassador programme, and the very first Swedish Ambassador was done with his online training on 4 May. He has now been given a lovely t-shirt and other goodies and has already scheduled a meeting with the principal of the school to discuss how the best may utilise Wikipedia at their school.

Online-education

An online-training for teachers, which looks at the pedagogical aspects of Wikipedia, the current legislation in Sweden in regards to what should happen in school and how Wikipedia fits into that context, is now on Wikiversity. The course was finalised on 22 February, and 17 people have take the online course. The first teacher succeeded with all the three tasks the other day and has now been sent a …. well I guess you know by now what we’ve sent him! ;) He will run a programme this fall with his pupils to develop a specific article about an area that is close to their school. They will collect information and take photos, all in order to make Wikipedia better!

Travels

As a great part of the education programme here in Sweden is to inform about the possibility to use Wikipedia in the classroom through practical workshops and/or lectures, the education programme has been to 13 cities so far in Sweden. It’s actually 1,379 km (857 miles) between the cities Skellefteå in the north and Simrishamn in the south, so we’ve covered quite a bit of this long country, which is in total 1,574 km from north to south.

Programmes

• This past fall students at KTH Royal Institute of Technology had the option of writing their assignment as an article on Wikipedia.
• 13-year olds have started writing articles together with their very dedicated librarian.
• A high-school class has written articles relating to their journeys to Uganda and South Africa.
• The Royal College of Music has had a small tryout with Wikipedia writing about music production, which they wish to scale with much more students this coming fall.
• Students at Linneaus University are writing about different bacteria on Wikipedia as a part of their course.
• High-school students are currently writing about their home town and are finding historical fact by engaging the local museum to help them.

A tool

The programme has so gratefully had the chance to be helped by a dedicated Wikipedian in Sweden who has developed a tool for counting a group’s contributions to Wikipedia. This is currently used by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Museums have also expressed interest in using this as it makes possible to quantitatively see what they’ve actually contributed to this wonderful encyclopedia.

And what about the fall …. ?

Some of the things that are planned are:

• A day for teachers in museums about digital resources. This will be in collaboration with two other organisations.
• Half a day for primarily principals about Wikipedia. As teachers are very interested in Wikipedia but would need more support by their principals, we are arranging a half-day seminar about Wikipedia and its importance in education
• Education for librarians. A joint program with an organisation for school librarians about how Wikipedia works and how they can use it in their role as librarians.
• Initiating WikiMini in Sweden. The interest for WikiMini has been quite big in Sweden from teachers at younger levels, and we are aiming to have WikiMini up and running this fall. This will be in collaboration with an educational institution in Gothenburg.
• Two seminars during a course this fall for principals. In collaboration with an organisation supporting principals in Sweden, we have been offered to host two seminars during their semester-long evening course for principals where we will talk Wikipedia.
• Among various of other interesting & exciting stuff of course! :)

Sophie Österberg, Wikimedia Sverige

When Melisa Parisi began contributing to Wikimedia in 2007, she was only 15. Parisi, a native Argentinean, started by translating articles about the long-running cartoon The Simpsons from English Wikipedia to Spanish Wikipedia.

Melisa Parisi

Her first article was deleted because it didn’t have the correct formatting. That setback didn’t deter Parisi, however, and with the assistance of an even younger Wikipedia editor, she learned the the ins and outs of editing guidelines. “He helped me a lot, I was ready to quit when a sysop deleted my first article, I wanted to quit because it was so frustrating,” said Parisi. “Thanks to his help, I kept going.”

Once she got her footing, she began writing articles about American TV shows. With The Simpsons, she translated roughly 300 articles from English to Spanish, covering the many characters and episodes. “I was interested [in writing about The Simpsons] because we didn’t have a lot of articles about this program,” she said. “There were in the English Wikipedia but not in the Spanish, so I decided to bring them all, and I did — I brought absolutely everything to Spanish Wikipedia.”

As of 2012, she’s written more than 800 articles — including 40 Featured articles — and has made more than 27,000 edits. All that experience has helped her improve her writing and language skills. “Wikipedia helped me a lot because I learned how to write better,” she said. “It helps me in my professional career.”

Being a Wikipedia contributor even helped Parisi get a job. Since she didn’t have any professional experience at the time, she added that she edits Wikipedia to her resume and said that got her the gig. She’s now a professional text editor and translator, and is also pursuing a career as a flight attendant.

After years of contributing her own time and skills, Parisi hopes more young people will also contribute to Wikipedia. To encourage others in her community, she has taught classrooms full of students how to get started editing Wikipedia. With any luck, she’ll create a new generation of editors and contributors for Spanish Wikipedia and beyond.

Parisi is the first to tell anyone that all that’s required to contribute to Wikipedia is the desire to do so. You don’t need to be a genius or an expert on a topic, she said, you just need to have the drive to make a contribution. It helps if you love what you write about, but even the smallest changes in an existing article can make a difference.

“I realized that many people do not participate in Wikipedia because they don’t know they are able to do useful contributions,” she said. “By correcting a comma, an accent or a misspelled word you are improving an article and helping the reader who will consult it.”

Sarah Mitroff, Communications Volunteer, Wikimedia Foundation

Wikimedia France is pleased to announce the first winner of the Wikimedia France Research Award:

Pete Forsyth, an early designer of the Wikipedia Education Program, is now teaching a free online course on Wikipedia and Open Educational Resources, along with Wikipedian and education researcher Sara Frank Bristow. The six-week course, “Writing Wikipedia Articles,” recently concluded its first run, and will be offered again starting 14 May (Americas)/15 May (Asia/Australia). You can enroll here.

The course was born of Communicate OER, a project that seeks to activate the Open Educational Resources community to improve and update Wikipedia articles relevant to its field. Accordingly, as students learn about the technical and social aspects of Wikipiedia, they are encouraged to improve such articles as open educational resources, open content, MOOC, and free license. Students successfully completing the course earn the WikiSOO Burba Badge, which is based on English Wikipedia’s “service awards” and Peer to Peer University’s badges. The course is offered through the Peer to Peer University’s recently launched School of Open.

“This course has allowed us to bring together several communities that are passionate about the same things, but not always closely connected,” Forsyth said. “The OER community brings the values and practices that brought Wikipedia into existence to formal and informal learning around the world. The School of Open provides the perfect environment for a course like ours, allowing us to work alongside colleagues from free culture organizations like Creative Commons and Mozilla.”

Students are welcome to enroll regardless of their background; while some familiarity with wikis or OER can be helpful, it is not required.

“The WikiSOO course is exactly the kind of work serious Wikipedians need to be doing not only to make their encyclopedia better, but to make their community a more sane place to collaborate,” said Christine, a student who earned the WikiSOO Burba Badge in the course’s first run. “This course provides a solid primer of the skills needed to navigate the syntax, discourse, and guidelines you will encounter if you want to make substantive contributions to Wikipedia’s audacious mission.”

Enrollment in the course’s second run is open through next week. (The first class will be held Tuesday/Wednesday.) See the course’s page on the School of Open for more information, or to join the 60 students who have already enrolled!

LiAnna Davis, Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager

With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the first Program Evaluation and Design Workshop, on 22-23 June 2013 in Budapest, Hungary.

We have only 20 slots available for this workshop and the application deadline ends on May 17th. This two-day event will be followed by a pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013. Ideally, applicants would commit to attending both events.

The first Program Evaluation & Design workshop will be held in the shadows of the Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary

Our long-term goals for the workshop are:

• Participants will gain a basic shared understanding of program evaluation
• Participants will work collaboratively to map and prioritize measurable outcomes, beginning with a focus on the most common programs and activities
• Participants will gain increased fluency in common language of evaluation (i.e. goals versus objectives, inputs and outputs versus outcomes and impact)
• Participants will learn and practice how to extract and report data using the UserMetrics API
• Participants will commit to working as a community of evaluation leaders who will implement evaluation strategies in their programs and activities and report back at the pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013
• …and participants will have a lot of fun and enjoy networking with other program leaders!

We will publish a detailed agenda for the event in Budapest soon on Meta-Wiki.

During the workshop in Budapest, we will only have a limited amount of time. Therefore, we will be focusing on the some of the more common programs and activities:

• Wikipedia editing workshops where participants learn how to or actively edit (i.e. edit-a-thon, wikiparty, hands-on Wikipedia workshop)
• Content donations through partnerships with galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) and related organizations
• Wiki Takes/Expeditions where volunteers participate in day-long or weekend events to photograph site specific content
• Wiki Loves Monuments, which takes place in September
• Education program and classroom editing where volunteers support educators who have students editing Wikipedia in the classroom
• Writing competitions, which generally take place online in the form of contests, the WikiCup  and other challenges – often engaging experienced editors to improve content.

Contributors who play an active role in planning and executing programs and activities as described above in the Wikimedia community are highly encouraged to apply. Your experience and knowledge will make this workshop a success!

Hotels, flights and other transportation costs will be the responsibility of your chapter; the Wikimedia Foundation will provide the venue, handouts, breakfasts, light lunches, and a dinner for all participants on Saturday. If you’re not affiliated with a chapter and cannot afford to attend the event, please email me after you apply – we have a small amount of money set aside for those cases.

Remember, applications are open until May 17. You can apply via this Google Form.

Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to a great group of participants!

Sarah Stierch, Program Evaluation and Design Community Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation

This post is available in 3 languages:

Català  •  Italiano  • English

(This is a guest post by Wikisource volunteers Andrea Zanni and David Cuenca)

English

There was an Indian librarian who once wrote five laws on what libraries should be. The fifth and last law read: “A library is a growing organism.“ Wikisource is a wiki digital library that doesn’t grow by itself. Volunteers like you, like us, make it grow everyday, digitizing books from the public domain, proofreading OCR text and recently also transcribing sheet music.

Almost 10 years have passed since Wikisource started, on November 24, 2003. It began as a support project for Wikipedia. While we cannot tell you what dreams are made of, we know that the Wikipedia dream is nurtured by many of the sources, books and first-hand knowledge that populate Wikisource.

Wikisource users Andrea (Aubrey) and David (Micru) were recently named recipients of a Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engangement Grant, and we intend to periodically keep you updated about the progress of our work. We are sharing the progress we have made during the month of April and we invite you to participate defining the Wikisource vision for the future with us.

During the first month of work for the grant, we have been focusing on writing the first draft of the Wikisource values and ways of applying them. The suggestions are based on a Wikimania meeting last year, on our experience with the wiki, and on volunteer wishes. If you expect more of Wikisource, help us expand our list and comment on the suggestions.

That is not only a “wishlist,” but a list of specific proposals that can be transformed into action. As part of this commitment, we are giving support and formally endorsing the GSoC^[1] proposal: Book upload customisation (candidate 1, candidate 2). The reason for this endorsement is the high importance that such a project could have for the Wikisource community, enabling users to import external book metadata and spread it to the relevant pages to avoid redundant work.

There are three other candidates that are additionally applying for the Outreach Program for Women with proposals that, if accepted, will also be of paramount importance:

• Refactor proofread extension: to integrate the Visual Editor into Wikisource.
• Improve support for book structures: a long expected and needed feature.
• Prototype inline citations: combining the wonderful OKFN Annotator with Mediawiki.

We expect that once we have reached an agreement on what the other important tasks for Wikisource’s future are, we can keep offering more volunteer projects.

Another task we are tackling is the relationship with external organizations. It is useless to have an amazing digital library if it is not well connected with other libraries, websites, users and the world. It will take time to develop partnerships with other related organizations, like the Open Library, or free knowledge organizations, such as the Open Knowledge Foundation. We have started developing these connections and exploring possible ways of collaboration.

And finally there is Wikidata, a new member of the Wikimedia family that will also be a key for resolving one of Wikisource’s long standing issues: book metadata management. As a first stage of this ongoing work, we have started the Wikidata books task force to define the necessary properties for having reusable data about books in Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia and Wikisource.

In May, we are looking forward to interviewing core users from the different language Wikisources. Special thanks to Haitham for his aid in visualizing the activity data in Gephi.

If you have any suggestions, requests or feedback, please reach out either via email or our talk pages. All Wikimedia users are invited to join and build a better Wikisource together. It’s your call too.

Andrea Zanni and David Cuenca, Wikisource

Note

1. ↑ Google Summer of Code 2013: http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2013

Italiano

Costruiamo la vision di Wikisource

Un bibliotecario indiano una volta scrisse cinque leggi a fondamento della biblioteconomia. La quinta ed ultima recita: “La biblioteca è un organismo che cresce“.

Wikisource è una biblioteca digitale wiki, ma non cresce da sola. Volontari come voi, come noi, la coltivano e fanno crescere ogni giorno, digitalizzando libri in pubblico dominio, rileggendo i testi e, da pochissimo, anche trascrivendo spartiti musicali.

Andrea Zanni

Sono passati quasi 10 anni da quando Wikisource è nata, il 24 novembre 2003, come semplice progetto a supporto di Wikipedia. Anche se non sappiamo dirvi di cosa sono fatti i sogni, possiamo dirti che il sogno di Wikipedia si nutre anche della conoscenza che alberga nelle migliaia di fonti, libri e documenti presenti in Wikisource.

Come tributo a questo decimo anniversario, Andrea (Aubrey) and David (Micru), vincitori di una borsa Individual Engangement Grant, vorrebbero condividere con voi il lavoro che hanno portato avanti durante il mese di aprile, e invitarvi a partecipare nella definizione della vision di Wikisource per i prossimi anni.

In questo primo mese di lavoro, ci siamo concentrati nello scrivere la prima versione dei valori di Wikisource, e dei modi per applicarli. I suggerimenti sono basati sul meeting di Wikimania l’anno scorso, sulla nostra esperienza, e sui desideri dei volontari. Se ti aspetti più da Wikisource, aiutaci ad espandere la nostra lista e commenta o correggi.

Questa non è una “lista dei desideri”, ma una serie di proposte specifiche da tradurre in azione. Come parte del nostro impegno, stiamo dando formale supporto e appoggio ad alcune proposte GSoC^[1]:Book upload customisation (candidato 1, candidato 2). La ragione di questo supporto è la grande importanza che questo progetto potrebbe avere per la comunità di Wikisource: abiliterebbe gli utenti nell’import automatico di metadati bibliografici esterni, eliminando azioni tediose e ripetitive di copia e incolla manuale.

Ci sono inoltre tre altri candidati che si stanno proponendo per il programma Outreach Program for Women, le cui proposte, se accettate, sarebbero di fondamentale importanza:

• Refactor proofread extension: per integrare il Visual Editor su Wikisource.
• Improve support for book structures: una feature a lungo richiesta e desiderata dalla comunità.
• Prototype inline citations: integrare il fantastico OKFN Annotator in Mediawiki.

Ci aspettiamo inoltre che, una volta raggiunto un accordo sulle priorità più importanti per Wikisource, potremo continuare ad offrire altri progetti per volontari.

Un’altro problema che stiamo affrontando sono le (possibili) relazioni con organizzazioni esterne. E’ inutile possedere una straordinaria biblioteca digitale se questa non è connessa, se non parla con altre biblioteche, siti, utenti e il resto del mondo. Ci vorrà un sacco di tempo per sviluppare relazioni durature e stabili con altre organizzazioni, come Open Library, o altre associazioni per la conoscenza libera,come la Open Knowledge Foundation. Abbiamo iniziato a svilupparle, esplorando possibili vie di collaborazione.

Infine, c’è Wikidata, il nuovo membro della famiglia Wikimedia. Wikidata sarà fondamentale per risolvere uno dei maggiori problemi di Wikisource, cioè la gestione dei metadati bibliografici. Come prima parte di un lungo lavoro, abbiamo creato una Wikidata books task force per definire le proprietà necessarie ad ottenere dati riusabili sui libri presenti nei vari progetti (Commons, Wikipedia e Wikisource).

Per il mese di maggio, vorremmo intervistare gli utenti più attivi nelle varie Wikisource. Un ringraziamento speciale va a Haitham, per il suo aiuto trovare questi utenti for his aid in visualizing the activity data in Gephi.

Se hai qualsiasi suggerimento, richiesta o feedback, per favore contattaci via email. Saremo anche presenti a Wikimania, ad agosto 2013 (puoi votare la nostra presentazione, se vuoi darci una mano).

Tutti gli utenti di Wikimedia sono invitati a farsi avanti e costruire insieme una Wikisource migliore. C’entri anche tu.

Andrea Zanni, David Cuenca, Wikisource

Nota

1.  Google Summer of Code 2013: http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2013

Català

Definint la visió de Viquitexts

Hi hagué un bibliotecari indi qui una vegada escrigué cinc lleis sobre què haurien de ser les biblioteques. La cinquena i darrera era la següent: “una biblioteca és un organisme que creix”. Viquitexts és una biblioteca digital wiki que no creix ella mateixa. Els voluntaris com tu, com nosaltres, la fan créixer cada dia, digitalitzant llibres que es troben al domini públic, transcrivint text OCR i, recentment, transcrivint partitures.

David Cuenca

Han passat quasi 10 anys des que Viquitexts (Wikisource, en anglès) començà a caminar el 24 de novembre de 2003. Començà com un projecte de suport a la Viquipèdia. Encara que no et poden dir de què estan fets els somnis, sabem que el somni de la Viquipèdia es nodreix d’algunes de les incomptables fonts, llibres i coneixement de primera mà que existeix a Viquitexts.

Els usuaris de Viquitexts Andrea (Aubrey) i David (Micru) resultaren recentment receptors d’una subvenció Individual Engangement grant de la Fundació Wikimedia, i volem mantenir-vos actualitzats periòdicament sobre el que fem. Estem compartint el progrés que hem fet durant el mes d’abril i et convidem a participar en la definició de la visió de Viquitexts (en anglès) pel futur del projecte.

El primer mes de treball ens hem centrat en la redacció del primer esborrany dels valors de Viquitexts i les maneres d’aplicar-los. Les suggerències s’han basat en la trobada de Wikimania de l’any passat, en la nostra experiència a la Viquipèdia i en els desitjos dels voluntaris. Si esperes més de Viquitexts, ajuda’ns a expandir la llista i comenta els suggeriments.

Això no és tan sols una “llista de desitjos” sinó una llista de propostes específiques que es poden transformar en acció. Com a part d’aquest compromís, donem suport i recolzem formalment la proposta del GSoC[1] següent: customització de la càrrega de llibres (candidat 1, candidat 2). La raó d’aquest recolzament és l’alta importància que aquest projecte podria tenir per la comunitat de Viquitexts, ja que permetria als usuaris importar metadades de llibre externes i aplicar-les a les pàgines rellevants, de tal manera que s’estalviaria molt treball redundant.

Hi ha tres altres candidats que es presenten addicionalment per l’Outreach Program for Women amb propostes que, si s’accepten, seran també d’una importància a tenir en compte:

• Extensió de revisió: per integrar l’Editor visual a Viquitexts.
• Millora del suport per estructures de llibres: una característica llargament demanada i necessària.
• Citacions en línia: combinació del magnífic OKFN Annotator amb Mediawiki.

Esperem que quan haguem arribat a un acord sobre quines són les altres tasques importants pel futur de Viquitexts podrem seguir oferint més projectes voluntaris.

Una altra tasca a la qual ens enfrontem és la relació amb organitzacions externes. És inútil tenir una biblioteca digital fantàstica si no està ben connectada amb altres biblioteques, llocs web, usuaris i el món. Prendrà temps desenvolupar una relació de col·laboració amb altres organitzacions relacionades tals com l’Open Library, o organitzacions de coneixement lliure tals com l’Open Knowledge Foundation. Hem començat a desenvolupar aquestes relacions i a explorar possibles vies de col·laboració.

Finalment, hi ha Wikidata, un nou membre de la família Wikimedia que també serà clau per resoldre un dels problemes eterns de Viquitexts: la gestió de les metadades dels llibres. Com a primera etapa d’aquest treball, hem començat la Wikidata books task force per a definir les propietats necessàries per tenir dades reutilitzables a Wikimedia Commons, Viquipèdia i Viquitexts.

El maig tenim previst entrevistar usuaris clau de les diferents versions idiomàtiques de Viquitexts. Volem donar les gràcies especialment aHaitham per la seva ajuda en la visualització de les dades d’activitat a Gephi. També hem presentat una presentació per Wikimania, si us plau, doneu-li suport.

Si teniu qualsevol suggeriment, sol·licitud o comentari, si us plau contacteu-nos per correu electrònic o mitjançant les pàgines de discussió. Tots els usuaris de Wikimedia estan convidats a afegir-s’hi i construir un millor Viquitexts tots junts. A tu també t’hi esperem.

Andrea Zanni, David Cuenca, Wikisource

Nota

1.  Google Summer of Code 2013 http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2013