Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2012-12-10
Wobbly start to ArbCom election, but turnout beats last year's
Leaks and last-minute panics give way to a successful election process
At the time of writing, this year's election has just closed after a two-week voting period. The eight seats were contested by 21 candidates. Of these, 15 have not been arbitrators (Beeblebrox, Count Iblis, Guerillero, Jc37, Keilana, Ks0stm, Kww, NuclearWarfare, Pgallert, RegentsPark, Richwales, Salvio giuliano, Timotheus Canens, Worm That Turned, and YOLO Swag); four candidates are sitting arbitrators (David Fuchs, Elen of the Roads, Jclemens, and Newyorkbrad); and two have previously served on the committee (Carcharoth and Coren).
Four Wikimedia stewards from outside the English Wikipedia stepped forward as election scrutineers: Pundit, from the Polish Wikipedia; Teles, from the Portuguese Wikipedia; Quentinv57, from the French Wikipedia; and Mardetanha, from the Persian Wikipedia. The scrutineers' task is to ensure that the election is free of multiple votes from the same person, to tally the results, and to announce them.
- Good and bad aspects
A three-member electoral commission was charged with mediating any disputes and making decisions on unexpected issues. The commission comprises three trusted members of the community: MBisanz, Happy-melon, and Lord Roem. MBisanz and Lord Roem told the Signpost they felt that the format of the elections has generally run smoothly; Lord Roem highlighted the SecurePoll voting interface, which has been tweaked to include links to candidates’ statements and their responses to questions, "making it easy for voters to do last-second research". MBisanz was pleased that "all the candidates readily complied with the required statements and voters have thus far been helpful in flagging ineligible votes". He also thanked DeltaQuad for coding a reliable bot for the election in under 90 minutes.
We asked MBisanz and Lord Roem about the downsides. Both commented on the lack of technical preparation, requiring Bugzilla requests to be filed to alter SecurePoll; and there was a five-day hold-up in the appointment of the commissioners. The result was a 24-hour delay in the start of the election. Stressing that this is a personal opinion, MBisanz was critical of "the misuse of the questions pages as a forum to re-argue or advertise prior disputes, as opposed to discovering the views or opinions of the candidates". Lord Roem said, "Next year, we definitely need to organize the technical side a few weeks in advance to avoid the scrambling of looking for a developer the day before."
- Leaks
Aside from these technical and procedural hitches, this year's election was not without controversy. Shortly before the start of voting, emails regarding controversial arbitrator Jclemens from the off-wiki arbitrator mailing list (arbcom-l) were leaked to a community member. Elen of the Roads confirmed to the committee that she had shared at least some of the emails with an editor with whom she is associated. They then forwarded them to some current candidates, including NuclearWarfare, who notified the committee of the breach of confidence. The situation deteriorated quickly and led to a motion to suspend or expel Elen of the Roads, under the "conduct of arbitrators rule", which would include removing her checkuser and oversight flags, her access to all mailing lists associated with ArbCom and those flags, along with her access to the ArbCom and Checkuser wikis. However, the required two-thirds majority of all sitting arbitrators to take this action was not achieved. While five arbitrators supported and only one opposed, the number of recusals – partly comprising arbitrators who were standing for reelection – made it impossible to pass.
This is not the first time that emails from the committee's mailing lists have been leaked: messages from arbcom-l were disclosed in 2009, and in 2011 where the entire list appears to have been compromised going back to July 2005 in a series of releases on the Wikipedia Review.
- Calls for early release of unaudited votes
Every year frustration boils over in candidates and others who watch the election closely. This time, there was a plaintive attempt to release the unofficial results as soon as possible, to which Happy-melon responded, "All community members ... are entitled to a secret ballot. Please sit back and continue to chew your fingernails patiently." The full results are expected to be released within the next few days and will be reported in next week's edition of the Signpost.
Editor's note: Seven years ago, the Signpost ran a 17-part series on the 2005 Arbitration Committee ("Arbcom") elections. This surprisingly extensive coverage was understandable, since ArbCom at that stage was still a relatively new phenomenon, still finding its feet, and rapidly becoming more complex, with more than 20 open requests for arbitration when the 2005 arbitrators took office (see the Signpost's "History of the Arbitration Committee"). The second half of 2012 has been a study in contrasts: there has not been an arbitration case since Fæ in July. Given that ArbCom's role has become more settled from year to year, our coverage nowadays is somewhat less than 17 articles.
In brief
- Indian Wikipedia summit scholarships: Editors interested in participating in the first Wikipedia Summit India, hosted by the volunteers of the Wikipedia Club Pune, can apply for scholarships. The application period started on December 1 and the deadline is December 15.
- South African campaign for free mobile access to Wikipedia: On December 10, the news portal news24.com reported on a campaign by South African educators for free mobile access to Wikipedia. The model pointed to is the WMF's Wikipedia Zero initiative.
- German paid editing evaluation project: On December 10, Wikimedia Germany approved an €81,000 grant for a project evaluating paid editing concepts on Wikipedia. The investigation, to be conducted over the coming year, will be led by Southpark.
- New Wikivoyage logo: The community contest determining the logo for Wikimedia's new travel guide project, Wikivoyage, established a clear winner. The original proposal of the first round won with 68 votes.
- WMF restructure: On December 7, the WMF announced the first phase of its restructure, which aims to improve support for core tasks such as a better software interface for Wikipedia. While the final decision on the structure of the tech department will be taken early next year, the current broad working management structure of the global development department (renamed Grantmaking and Programs) has been made permanent.
- WMF audit report 2011–12 published: On December 10, the Wikimedia Foundation published its audit report 2011–12. KPMG states in the document that it represents the financial position "fairly, in all material respects" and that the year ended in "conformity with US generally accepted accounting standards".
- WMF board minutes published: Minutes of the WMF board of trustees October meeting have been published. The meeting focused on administrative business and the Legal Fees Assistance Program,.
- English Wikipedia miscellanea
- New administrator: Harrias, a British editor based in Somerset, passed RfA this week with strong consensus, marking the 27th new administrator this year—a total far below that of previous years.
- Final pending changes update: Level one of the controversial pending changes tool, which affects only new and unregistered editors, has been enabled across the English Wikipedia.
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Wikipedia goes to Hell
Featured articles
Eight featured articles were promoted this week:
- Vidya Balan (nom) by Smarojit. Balan (b. 1978) is an Indian film actress who made her debut in the sitcom Hum Paanch in 1995, with her feature film debut following eight years later. At first fairly unsuccessful, beginning in 2009 she played the first of five consecutive roles which were well received. She initially drew criticism for her fluctuating weight and poor choice of clothing, but has since been credited for retaining her individuality and breaking stereotypes of a Hindi film heroine.
- Operation Barras (nom) by HJ Mitchell. Operation Barras, a 2000 British Army operation, was an effort to rescue five British soldiers from a Sierra Leonean militia group after negotiations failed. One regiment attacked the militia's base at Gberi Bana, while elements of another provided a diversion. The operation rescued 26 persons, including the original five, and led to at least 26 deaths – mostly members of the militia. The success of this mission restored confidence in the British forces operating in Sierra Leone.
- 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) (nom) by Peacemaker67. The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party in World War II. It was the first non-Germanic Waffen-SS division, reaching a maximum size of 17,000 men. It saw action between 1943 and 1945 in what is now Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia.
- Harold Larwood (nom) by Brianboulton. Larwood (1904–1995) was a professional cricketer who spent a fourteen-year career playing for Nottinghamshire and England. He was considered the finest bowler of his generation. His domestic career ended in 1938; his international career had ended five years previously owing to his involvement in the "bodyline" scandal. In the 1950s he emigrated to Australia, where he spent the rest of his life.
- Banksia grossa (nom) by Casliber. Banksia grossa, commonly known as the coarse banksia, is a species of shrub endemic to Southwest Australia. It was first described in 1981 and is distinguished from the other thirteen species in its series by thick leaves and large seeds. The plant grows up to 1 m (3 ft) high, generally in sand or sand over laterite among heath. B. grossa is pollinated by insects and the white-tailed dunnart; its seeds germinate after disturbance, such as bushfires.
- Terang Boelan (nom) by Crisco 1492. Terang Boelan is a 1937 film from the Dutch East Indies written by Saeroen and directed by Albert Balink. It stars Rd Mochtar and Roekiah as two lovers who elope after one is nearly forced to marry an opium smuggler. Released after a period of little activity in the local film industry, Terang Boelan was highly successful: it earned 200,000 straits dollars in Malaya and provided a catalytic effect on the domestic film industry's growth.
- Mauritius Blue Pigeon (nom) by FunkMonk. The Mauritius Blue Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima) was a species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island, near Madagascar. It was coloured similar to the Dutch flag: white hackles around the head, neck and breast, blue plumage on the body, and red on the tail and the bare parts of the head. First mentioned in the 17th century, the bird became extinct around the 1830s due to deforestation and predation.
- Arthur Gilligan (nom) by Sarastro1. Gilligan (1894–1976) was an amateur English cricketer who captained the England cricket team in 1924 and 1925 before ultimately retiring in 1932, having played worse after a blow to the heart. He was known as a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman, but a poor strategist. During the mid-1920s he was a member of the British Fascists, but only a few years later suggested that the Indians take responsibility for their own cricket board.
Featured lists
Four featured lists were promoted this week:
- List of aircraft operated by Scandinavian Airlines (nom) by Arsenikk. Scandinavian Airlines, the national airline of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, has operated 618 aircraft throughout its history. Most are from Douglas Aircraft Company and its successor McDonnell Douglas.
- List of songs recorded by Adele (nom) by Calvin999. The English singer-songwriter Adele has recorded 36 songs during her six year career. Her first single as a solo singer was "Chasing Pavements", from her debut album 19.
- List of Vancouver Whitecaps FC players (nom) by Nurmsook. The Canadian soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps FC has seen three goalkeepers and forty-two outfield players participate in games since it was established in 2011.
- Bruno Mars discography (nom) by Status and Hahc21. The American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has released one studio album, one extended play, twenty-one singles, and thirteen music videos during his three-year career. Another album is due in December 2012.
Featured pictures
Six featured pictures were promoted this week:
- Tony Estanguet (nom; related article), created by Pavel.rycl and nominated by Tomer T. Estanguet (b. 1978) is a French slalom canoeist who competed between the mid-1990s and 2012. He has won three Olympic gold medals.
- The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Set of ten pictures; related article), created by William Edward Frank Britten, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden. Britten (1848 or 1857–1916) was a British painter and illustrator who worked out of London. He illustrated numerous anthologies, including the one featured.
- First Colored Senator and Representatives (nom; related article), created by Currier and Ives, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden. African Americans began to be elected to the US Congress in 1870; several representatives were chosen during this same period.
- Door to Hell (nom; related article), created by Tormod Sandtorv and nominated by Tomer T. The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Turkmenistan which has been burning continuously since 1971, fed by the rich natural gas deposits in the area.
- Pisa Baptistry (nom; related article), created by NotFromUtrecht and nominated by Tomer T. The Baptistry of St. John in Pisa, Italy. Construction began in 1152 and was completed in 1363. The structure is 54.86 metres (180.0 ft) high.
- Domesticated yak (nom; related article), created by Dennis Jarvis and nominated by Samsara. The yak is a long-haired bovine found throughout Central Asia and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. It has a large domesticated population.
Featured topics
One featured topic was promoted this week:
- Armero tragedy (nom) by Ceranthor, with three articles. The Armero tragedy was the overrunning of the Colombian town of Armero by lahars from Nevado del Ruiz. The government did not warn the populace of the impending eruption.
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The new Visual Editor gets a bit more visual
First Wikipedians allowed to opt in to Visual Editor
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The Visual Editor project – an attempt to create the first WMF-deployable WYSIWYG editor – will go live on its first Wikipedias imminently following nearly six months of testing on MediaWiki.org. A full explanatory blog post accompanied the news, explaining the project and its setup.
By opting in, an editor can handle basic formatting, headings and lists, while safely ignoring elements the new system is yet to understand, including references, categories, templates, tables and images. At the last count, about 2% of pages would break in some way if a user tried the Visual Editor on them; it is unclear whether any specific protection will be put in place beyond relying on editors to spot problems. Only users with compatible browsers (currently Chrome and Firefox) will be able to take advantage of the Visual Editor at the moment; Internet Explorer 9+ is expected to be supported eventually, as is Safari. The Visual Editor is likely to get much faster as the Parsoid (Parser 2.0) project develops.
WMF developers describe the opt-in process (the same as that used for Vector skin over two years ago) as designed to allow editors to "get familiar, highlight bugs, and help us prioritise". Once enabled, the editor will be updated every two weeks, although that is no guarantee of rapid expansion in feature capability; few headline capabilities have been introduced since the Signpost's last story about the Visual Editor back in June. Instead, the work of recent months has focussed on internal cleanup and documentation. Even though refactoring work has come to an end, the Foundation is likely to miss its target of implementing three plugins (e.g. list, tables and citations) by the end of this month. For many casual users, of course, it will be a case of better late than never whenever the editor arrives.
November engineering report published
| “ | In November:
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—Adapted from Engineering metrics, Wikimedia blog | ||
The WMF's engineering report for November 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia blog and on the MediaWiki wiki ("friendly" summary version), giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project, phase 1 of which will soon be trialled on the Hungarian Wikipedia). Of the four headlines picked out for the report, two (the launch of Wikivoyage.org and the TimedMediaHandler extension) have already received Signpost coverage. The third focusses on the create of a cluster devoted to analytics number crunching, and the fourth is an invitation to volunteers to assist not just with development but product management.
The report featured an extended section on performance, an area often neglected in official communications. Much of the news was positive; a problem with caching server stability has been fixed, and freeing up memory on the WMF's application servers "addresses some of the root causes of multiple site outages, and brings with it multiple client improvements including consistent hashing, igbinary serialization, and better timeout handling". On the negative side, the Foundation's image server continued to experience occasional hardware failure, leading to an agreement with the hardware vendor to replace them. The migration of the primary data centre from Tampa to Ashburn is ongoing.
Elsewhere, there was work on developing new UI theming across all skins (primarily with the intention of making the "Save page" button more prominent) and discussion about getting more JavaScript (browser) tests automated following previous broken deployments. (Users interested in the subject may consult a more recent, detailed post on the topic.) The first phase of the Universal Language Selector (ULS) was completed in November, but, as the lack of reporting in the Signpost will attest, there were further delays in launching the Wikidata client to its first test wiki (the Hungarian Wikipedia).
In brief
Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for several weeks.
- Job queue nightmare: Developers and system administrators, both staff and volunteer, have been working on understanding and resolving an apparent glut of problems with the JobQueue. Bottlenecks in the queue, which handles tasks that do not have to be performed immediately, such as updating Special:WhatLinksHere and category membership, normally manifest themselves as straightforward delays in job handling. These delays then cause the number of jobs in the backlog, which is more easily observable, to grow (as has been the case recently). This time, however, newly enabled code (1, 2) exposed weaknesses in both "core" MediaWiki code and several extensions; for example, the changes prompted several translation notifications to be sent multiple times (detailed analysis), further cluttering the queue. A (presumably related) "logic issue in the job queue" unusually caused an internal database replication lag, resulting in a three hour lock-down for many smaller wikis (wikitech-l mailing list). Several fixes were deployed, though the complexity of the area involved suggests the possibility of ongoing issues, including (but not limited to) a slower processing of the job queue caused by the introduction of randomness of job selection.
- UploadWizard gets Flickr integration: The UploadWizard has been updated for the easy transfer of suitably licensed content from popular image hosting site Flickr (wikitech-l mailing list). The project, an attempt to improve upon existing Toolserver tools designed to provide a similar service, represents the first of this year's Google Summer of Code projects to go live. Uploaders can select single images for transfer, or multiple images from the same Flickr photoset. Although only administrators can test the feature at present, the plan is for a wider rollout in the near future.
- Matthew Flaschen hired as a features engineer: Wikimedia insider Matthew Flaschen has joined the WMF as a features engineer (wikitech-l mailing list). Flaschen, whose previous work includes the ProveIt extension, has edited Wikipedia since 2004 and has been an administrator since 2006. His first focus will be feature development for the Editor Engagement Team.
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WikiProject Human Rights
- The December Wikification Drive is underway
- The Guild of Copy Editors is accepting nominations for their next tranche of coordinators
- WikiProject Articles for Creation needs help keeping its backlog in check
- Curious about WikiProjects? Ask us a question at the WikiProject desk and you could see the answer in a future issue of the Signpost!
In celebration of Human Rights Day, we checked out WikiProject Human Rights. Started in February 2006, the project has grown to include over 3,000 articles, including 12 Featured Articles, 3 Featured Lists, 66 Good Articles, a large collection of Did You Know entries, and a few mentions "in the news". The project monitors listings of popular pages and cleanup tags. We interviewed Khazar2, Cirt, and Boud.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Human Rights? Have you contributed to any of the project's Featured or Good Articles?
- Khazar2: Most of my Wikipedia editing focuses on attacked or imprisoned journalists and activists, so for me it was a no-brainer. I've contributed to three GAs from the project, all dealing with journalists—Azimzhan Askarov, Jesús Blancornelas, and Murder of Udin—and somewhere around 80 DYK articles. For me, documenting human rights cases has a more obvious real-world payoff than other areas of Wikipedia where I could be working. Public awareness of a prisoner's case can make a difference in her legal situation, release date, or access to medical treatment; public awareness of alleged threats against a journalist can save her life; public awareness of an alleged massacre can contribute to its later investigation. I work equally hard to include the responses of the groups and governments in question, of course, but in most of these cases the governments rely not on argument but on silence and censorship. Simply to document the claims of both sides becomes an act of resistance.
- Cirt: A majority of my contributions towards improving quality of articles relate to human rights, more specifically freedom of speech. These include the Featured quality: Portal:Journalism, and Good Article quality entries on books about freedom of speech: Cyber Rights by Mike Godwin, Freedom of Expression by Kembrew McLeod, Free Speech, "The People's Darling Privilege" by Michael Kent Curtis, Beyond the First Amendment by Samuel Peter Nelson, and most recently Freedom for the Thought That We Hate by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Lewis.
- Boud: I've worked on several human-rights-related English-language Wikipedia articles when I felt I could make a useful contribution. My general motivation for working on HR-related articles is probably similar to the reasons why lots of other people think that human rights are important. In fact, whether or not all Wikipedia editors are motivated by Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our editing constitutes a direct contribution to the practical implementation of Article 26. Someone else would have to check if any articles I have been involved with became FA/GAs – that's not my priority.
Are there any significant gaps in Wikipedia's coverage of historical events, publications, biographies, and organizations related to human rights? Do some subjects, time periods, or geographic regions receive more attention than others? What can be done to remedy these inequalities?
- Khazar2: Any human rights situation in which the US has a hand is generally better covered than others. (A good rule of thumb is that if Noam Chomsky has written about it, it's been covered by Wikipedians.) Coverage of human rights issues in Africa is particularly weak, but Wikipedia seems to struggle with African coverage generally. I'd love to see our "Human Rights in Country X" articles standardized and improved. Ideally, this could be done through collaboration between editors at WP Human Rights and the WikiProjects for individual countries.
- Cirt: More recent events generally receive better coverage than historical issues. I'd like to see better quality coverage of landmark cases related to freedom of speech, for example: U.S. Supreme Court cases including New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974), and Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), are all ripe for quality improvement drives.
- Boud: Obviously (subqns 1 and 2). I think that the Wikipedia guidelines are mature enough that our content is to some degree less imbalanced than the known biases of the mainstream Western media human rights coverage that are empirically well-established by the Propaganda Model. Similarity to the propaganda model comes from the need to source information (one of the five filters of the model) – the coverage by mainstream media (at least the US mainstream media) is consistent with the model; the coverage by big human rights NGOs is less strongly constrained by the foreign policy interests of the US, UK, France, Russia and P.R.China and consists of detailed reports rather than 30-second sound-bites (or 2000-word article-bites) but still is clearly correlated with the US/UK/France interests; coverage by smaller, local NGOs exists but is rarer, hard to find, and often the English versions are on poorly maintained websites. The difference comes mainly from radically transparent, structured discussion. WP:BIAS gives a Wikipedia community summary of the problem.
- Subqn 3: Since we don't want original research, there's no magic solution to the problem. Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that most of us cannot edit (as of 2011[update]). WP:BIAS does makes many recommendations.
The project is home to several former Featured and Good Articles that were reassessed and demoted over the past few years. Has there been a concerted effort to return these articles to FA or GA status? What has been the greatest challenge to both improving and maintaining articles related to human rights?
- Khazar2: I can't speak to past demotions, but I am starting a project to get some of WP Human Rights' most-viewed articles up to GA status. First up is Pussy Riot, the Russian punk rockers jailed for a stunt performance criticizing President Vladimir Putin in a church.
- Cirt: After some research at Category:Wikipedia former featured articles, some previously featured articles relevant to human rights that could be helped by a quality improvement drive include: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Dred Scott v. Sandford, Federalist No. 10, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gender role, Lawrence v. Texas, Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme), Origins of the American Civil War, Paragraph 175, Race (human classification), Roe v. Wade, and Same-sex marriage.
Do human rights topics elicit any disagreements or debates on Wikipedia articles? How does the project deal with these issues?
- Cirt: Most certainly debates and disagreement occur at times on talk pages of articles related to human rights, and the best way to deal with these situations is the dispute resolution process, for example, hopefully issues can be resolved at the third opinion or request for comment level.
- Boud: Arab-Israeli conflict issues are AFAIK the most intense human-rights related issues that en-Wikipedia has had to deal with. The arbitration decision, which includes an automatic validity of WP:1RR for any Arab-Israeli-related articles is a nice example of how meta-processes on the en-Wikipedia can stabilise extremely intense, long-lasting editorial conflicts without sacrificing Wikipedia's basic principles. Arab Spring articles have had quite some talk page energy invested in proposed article title changes (and a few non-consensus title changes!), but IMHO they have generally been well dealt with by reference to standard Wikipedia principles.
Has the project had any difficulty acquiring images for articles? Are there any sound, film, or other media clips that would be useful for illustrating articles under the project's scope?
- Khazar2: Yes! Many of our articles are about politically sensitive cases in countries where media and internet are restricted, so you can imagine the difficulties involved.
- Cirt: Well, you never know until you try to reach out to the copyright holder of the media. For example, recently I was able to obtain free-use license confirmation of the Free Speech Flag (File:Sample 09-F9 protest art, Free Speech Flag by John Marcotte.svg). The Free Speech Flag was created during the AACS encryption key controversy and has come to symbolize freedom of speech more generally, particularly on the Internet.
- Boud: There are almost no images for the Saudi Arabian human-rights-related protest articles. Photos on e.g. Twitter are certainly available. With some time and patience, IMHO it should be quite practical for Wikipedians to explain to the photos' authors what free-licensing (in particular CC-BY-SA) is, why it's insufficient for the authors to just "put the photos on the Internet", and how to go through the practical details if the authors decided they wished to provide some Wikimedia Commons images. In that case we could get plenty of images, or at least enough for a few per article. But it would take time and patience – understanding free licensing is complicated in practice, and saying "RTFM" to photo authors is not likely to be productive.
Does the membership of WikiProject Human Rights overlap with any other projects? What other WikiProjects may be interested in collaborating with WikiProject Human Rights?
- Khazar2: WikiProject Human Rights overlaps most obviously with the country and regional WikiProjects, and assistance from editors at those, who can often give regional and cultural context, is a big help. The project also overlaps heavily with WP Journalism, religion WikiProjects, and the newly-created WP Freedom of speech.
- Cirt: I'd echo Khazar2 above in emphasizing we have the recently started WikiProject, WP Freedom of speech, which dovetails nicely with human rights as well. Interested editors can join the Freedom of speech WikiProject at our participants subpage, and join in discussion about potential collaborative quality improvement projects at the Freedom of speech WikiProject talk page.
Is WikiProject Human Rights planning anything for Human Rights Day? What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
- Khazar2: The project's biggest need is members! Our active membership is in decline, and it would be great to have a few more hands on deck to help out with article improvement drives, third opinions, etc. Editors with specialized knowledge (countries, religions, etc.) who are interested in collaborations would also be very helpful.
- Cirt: A nice collaboration for Human Rights Day might be the article Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I'm not seeing a list or section on the the Human rights WikiProject page, but the Freedom of speech WikiProject has a useful "Things you can do" list of "Open tasks" and we'd be most appreciative if editors wished to help out in any way they're interested.
- Boud: Subqns 2/3: helping today: IMHO Women's rights in Syria would be a good article to get started, and there should be a fair chance of finding editors willing to help. Political leaders of different sides inside and outside of Syria are justifying their actions or inactions on the basis of Syrians' human rights (without necessarily using the term explicitly), but en-Wikipedia (including the human rights in Syria article) doesn't (yet) know anything about the human rights of half the Syrian population...
- If someone has the patience to contact photographers, explaining licensing logic and practical procedures, obtaining Commons material for illustrating the Saudi Arabian human-rights-related protest articles would be useful. My suggestion would be to start with Twitter and follow through by whatever means people are happy to use for communication: Eastern Province 1 2, national 1, 2, 3.
We really don't know who we interviewed for next week's article. All we know is that they're German and enjoy video games. In the meantime, have fun in the archive.
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