Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2014-07-16

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16 July 2014

Special report
$10 million lawsuit against Wikipedia editors withdrawn, but plaintiff intends to refile

Traffic report
World Cup dominates for another week

Wikimedia in education
Serbia takes the stage with Filip Maljkovic

Featured content
The Island with the Golden Gun

News and notes
Bot-created Wikipedia articles covered in the Wall Street Journal, push Cebuano over one million articles

2014-07-16

$10 million lawsuit against Wikipedia editors withdrawn, but plaintiff intends to refile

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By The ed17

On the same day the Wikimedia Foundation announced it would offer assistance to English Wikipedia editors embroiled in a legal dispute with Yank Barry, the lawsuit has been dismissed without prejudice at the request of Barry's legal team—but only as a "strategic" move so that they can refile the lawsuit with a "new, more comprehensive complaint."

Barry, who was a musician in the 1960s and 70s before becoming an entrepreneur and philanthropist, launched the action against five editors who he alleges participated in a "conspiracy" to "engage in the wrongful acts of defamation and invasion of privacy" against him and his charity, the Global Village Champions Foundation, which is also a named plaintiff.

The defendants—who are identified by pseudonyms (Richard Fife, Nate Gertler, Ethan Urbanik, John Nagle, and "Does 1–50", a total of 54 editors) because Barry's legal team does not currently know their real names—are being targeted based on their edits to the discussion page related to his Wikipedia article.

Barry claims that their comments cost him (at minimum) $10 million dollars: "My page was so ridiculously false and made me sound like a terrible person and people believed it causing deals to fall through ... I finally had enough." The offensive posts are quoted on pages 6–8 of the court filing.

However, his legal team moved to dismiss their own lawsuit because they feared that the defense was about to launch a SLAPP motion. While SLAPP is normally used by plaintiffs, California has a unique version of the law that "provides for a special motion that a defendant can file at the outset of a lawsuit to strike a complaint when it arises from conduct that falls within the rights of petition or free speech." Part of this motion freezes all discovery and would have stopped Barry's legal team from amending their lawsuit.

According to Philip Dapeer, an attorney for Barry, "We were receiving no cooperation from the defense, we made no secret of the fact we were planning to amend the complaint and we sensed their lawyers were stalling for a reason. ... Withdrawing the complaint was a tactical move on our part and should not, in any way, be construed as retreat."

This defense team included attorneys paid for by the Wikimedia Foundation through its Defense of Contributors program. Of the four named editors, three will be represented by Cooley LLC, the same law firm engaged by the WMF in successfully defending Wikivoyage editors against Internet Brands in 2013, while the fourth has gone their own way and engaged the California Anti-SLAPP Project.

“

In our opinion, this lawsuit is an effort to try and chill free speech on the Wikimedia projects. ... we will always strongly defend [Wikipedia's] volunteer editors and their right to free speech.

”

— Michelle Paulson

Both are coordinating closely with each other and the WMF, which has strongly condemned the legal action. "In our opinion, this lawsuit is an effort to try and chill free speech on the Wikimedia projects", wrote WMF legal counsel Michelle Paulson. "[T]his lawsuit is rooted in a deep misinterpretation of the free-form truth-seeking conversations and analysis that is part of the editorial review process".

The WMF has previously demonstrated vociferous support for Wikimedia contributors being legally targeted for their editing. Just four months ago, the Foundation announced its support for a Greek Wikipedia administrator who was being sued on the basis of a single sentence added in one of Liourdis' 22 edits to the article, which reported that Greek politician Theodore Katsanevas was castigated as a "disgrace" in the will of Andreas Papandreou. At the time of his death in 1996, Papandreou was Katsanevas' father-in-law.

As mentioned above, the WMF also supported two editors who were sued in 2012 for their role in moving Wikivoyage into the Wikimedia movement. While the case was dismissed, a counter-suit led to the WMF declaring "victory" in February 2013. Ryan Holliday, one of the two defendants, commented then that "[t]hroughout the ordeal I was amazingly impressed by the professionalism, hard work, and dedication of both WMF and Cooley".

The Signpost is a volunteer news outlet dedicated to providing fair and balanced reportage to the Wikimedia communities. It is independent of the Wikimedia Foundation, its board of trustees, and the various chapters. The content here does not represent the views of any particular editor or group on any website, Wikimedia-affiliated or otherwise.

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2014-07-16

World Cup dominates for another week

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By Milowent

This week it's still more and more World Cup, with five entries out of the top ten (and 14 out of the Top 25). While tennis and pop culture make a few cameo appearances, the Indonesian presidential election is the only hard news subject to draw sufficient attention to make the list. Since this week's data goes through 13 July, the date of the World Cup final, next week should see a great shift to other topics of interest.

For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation for any exclusions.

For the week of 7 to 13 July 2014, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Amazon.com	1,234,236	The Amazon.com article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 a few months ago after a long absence; then it was No. 5 two weeks ago (466,100 views), and dropped out again last week (247,821). It had a big jump again this past week, all the way up to No. 1. It's always difficult to determine the reasons for the popularity of website articles (how many are simply misaimed clicks on the Google search list?), but another round of stories about Amazon and drones, as well as a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit complaining that Amazon is promoting in-app purchases by children may have contributed to this article's extreme popularity this week.
2	2014 FIFA World Cup	1,179,986	Down from 1,604,100 views last week, the tournament came to a close on 13 July with Germany defeating Argentina in the final match.
3	FIFA World Cup	1,049,265	The broader article on the history of the World Cup competition may have been accessed by people looking for the long view, but in truth it was probably more to do with people looking for the more specific article above. Up from 758,356 views last week.
4	Indonesian presidential election, 2014	653,933	The presidential election in Indonesia was held on 9 July, though results are not due until July 20. The race pits Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa against Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla.
5	Laverne Cox	552,258	The American transgender actress became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy award in an acting category; she was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sophia Burset in Orange Is the New Black.
6	Lionel Messi	470,138	The Argentine forward and captain of the national team is a contender for the title of "best footballer on the planet", though he was unable to lead his team to victory in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final on July 13.
7	Neymar	465,282	Brazil's star footballer retained great readership interest despite being knocked out by an injury in their July 4 match against Colombia. His absence led to Brazil's crushing loss in its next match against Germany; Neymar reportedly turned off his television to play poker after Germany scored its seventh (and final) goal.
8	Brazil national football team	451,828	Despite the heartbreaking loss to Germany, Brazil's fans can take solace in the fact that they have won five World Cup championships, more than any other country (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002).
9	Novak Djokovic	445,169	Djokovic won the men's singles title at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships on July 6, which day saw the bulk of the week's views for this entry.
10	Transformers: Age of Extinction	444,905	This action film, the fourth in the live-action Transformer film series, is down from #2 last week.

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2014-07-16

Serbia takes the stage with Filip Maljković

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By Pine

Introduction

The Wikimedia Education Program currently spans 60 programs around the world. Students and instructors participate at almost every level of education. Subjects covered include law, medicine, arts, literature, information science, biology, history, psychology, and many others. The Wikimedia in Education Signpost series presents a snapshot of the Wikimedia Global Education Program as it exists in 2014. We interviewed participants and facilitators from the United States and Canada, Serbia, Israel, the Arab World, and Mexico, in addition to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Interview

Based on an email interview with Filip Maljković, President of Wikimedia Serbia

Can you describe how the Education Program started in Serbia?

It all started in late 2005, when we first held lectures about Wikipedia in two educational institutions (universities). In 2006 we had the first official cooperation with a faculty, where students had assignments (writing articles on Wikipedia), and that gave us a boost to start cooperations with several other faculties.

How many instructors and students currently participate in the program?

There are about 5 people on our side that participate in the program, but there are only a few instructors. There are about 300-400 students currently participating in the program.

Which areas of the country currently participate?

It's mostly Belgrade, but we are trying to include some other parts of Serbia. Beside Belgrade, we have cooperation with educational institutions from Niš and Vranje (southeast Serbia), as well as Ivanjica (southwest Serbia).

What grade levels are the students who participate?

Mostly, it's college-level students (1st-3rd year mostly), as well as some secondary schools (high schools, aka Gymnasiums).

What languages do students use when editing? Is there any translation work between wikis?

They edit almost exclusively in Serbian. In some institutions, students do translation work from mostly English Wikipedia, but in the majority of them, students write their own articles. Some Spanish language students did some work on English Wikipedia as well.

As you probably know, Wikipedia editors are predominantly male in most languages. Approximately what percentage of the students who participate in the Serbia education program are female?

In many institutions, the number of male and female participants is balanced, but in the past year, we've had a slight majority of female participants, mostly due to the inclusion of Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

How are instructors and students trained to use Wikipedia?

We hold lectures about Wikimedia and Wikipedia (regarding both policies and editing). Usually, a set of workshops is held so that students can have hands-on experience, in order to be better prepared for their assignments.

Do students and instructors usually use VisualEditor?

It's been used to some extent only in one institution, mostly because it's been turned on later than for most wikis, and because some tech-related problems still need to be addressed, because of the conversion between Latin and Cyrillic scripts that is used throughout MediaWiki.

What kinds of assignments do students receive when using Wikipedia in the classroom? For example, are they translating, editing existing articles, or creating new articles? Which languages do they use?

During classes, students participate in workshops, where they are given a set of tasks to complete (usually on their user pages). The assignments that involve main namespace are usually set as homework or project, and are done at home. Those assignments can include translating, editing existing articles and/or creating new articles, depending on the agreement with the professors and specific circumstances at the institution at hand.

Has the program received any endorsements from government agencies? If so, who in the government endorsed the program, and how did the government decide to support the program?

The program isn't systematically endorsed by the government, but we have been recently accredited by a government body for holding seminars for teachers and professors, as a part of their continued professional improvement, so in a way they are supporting us.

Outside of Serbia, how widely used is the Serbian Wikipedia?

It is mostly used in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in Republic of Srpska (its constituent state), as many Serbian-speaking people live there, as well as in Montenegro (since there's still no Montenegrin Wikipedia). Serbia has a large diaspora, so there are visits to srwiki from several countries (such as Austria, Germany, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the US etc).

How do you expect the program to develop in the next few years?

We would like to have someone employed full time to address these projects and help make the program more sustainable and broaden it to include various institutions. We expect to have cooperation with many schools, with teachers and professors having enough knowledge to hold lectures to their students about Wikipedia.

Is there anything else you would like Signpost readers to know about the education program in Serbia?

In March this year, we held an educational conference, which was the first of its sort in this part of the world. Its full effects yet remain to be seen, but we deem it a successful event that gathered several people from abroad and interested local audience that had a chance to learn something about Wikimedia educational programs and the ways they can be included.

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2014-07-16

The Island with the Golden Gun

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By SchroCat and Crisco 1492

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 6 through 12 July. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Featured articles

Eight featured articles were promoted this week.

Harta Berdarah (nominated by Crisco 1492) was a 1940 film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). The story tells of a young man who convinces a stingy pilgrim to be more charitable and, in the process, falls in love with the man's daughter; it is a cautionary tale about valuing money over social obligations and the needs of society. Sadly the film is now lost, although thanks to the work of Crisco 1492 we have a permanently accessible record of its background.
Blue men of the Minch (nominated by Sagaciousphil and Eric Corbett) are mythological creatures in human form who inhabit the Minch, a strait between the northern Outer Hebrides and mainland Scotland. The creatures look much like humans, and are about the same size and have the power to create storms. They may be a tribe of fallen angels, Picts, or North African slaves taken to Scotland by the Vikings.
Fantastic Novels (nominated by Mike Christie) was an American minor science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine of the 1940s, a companion to Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Consisting of 25 editions, the magazine mostly reprinted science fiction and fantasy classics from earlier decades of the 20th century, but also occasionally published reprints of more contemporary work.
Gemini (2002 Tamil film) (nominated by Sriram) is a 2002 masala film—one that mixes genres—which was written and directed by Saran, and features Vikram and Kiran Rathod as the film's love interest, and Kalabhavan Mani as the antagonist. Although the film received mixed critical reviews, it became the most commercially successful Tamil film of the year and won a series of awards in India.
Queen Elizabeth Way (nominated by Floydian) was the first intercity freeway in North America, and one of the most historically important roads in Ontario and Canada. 139.1 km (86.4 mi) long, the Queen Elizabeth Way connects the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and the Highway 427, although the roads into which it feeds link Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York.
Flight Unlimited II (nominated by JimmyBlackwing) is a flight simulator video game that was developed in 1997 by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive, and the successor to the successful and popular Flight Unlimited. The player controls one of five planes in the airspace of the San Francisco Bay Area, in contrast to the aerobatics focus of its predecessor. Although highly praised by the critics, sales were not as buoyant as the first version.
Mischief Makers (nominated by Czar) is a side-scrolling platform video game that was developed in 1997 by Treasure and published by Enix and Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The player assumes the role of Marina, a robotic maid who journeys to rescue her creator from the emperor of Planet Clancer. The game—displayed in "2½D"—received mixed reviews at the time of its release, perhaps because of the unpopularity of a 2D game during great hype for 3D technology.
Freedom of Worship (painting) (nominated by TonyTheTiger) is a 1943 oil painting by the American artist Norman Rockwell. It is the second of the Four Freedoms series, based on the "Four Freedoms" goals enunciated by the US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 1941 State of the Union Address. The series of paintings has subsequently become part of a good topic.

Featured lists

Three featured lists were promoted this week.

John Barrymore on stage, screen and radio (nominated by SchroCat) John Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio who appeared in more than 40 plays, 60 films and 100 radio shows in a career that ran between 1904 and 1942. Nicknamed "the Great Profile", he was one of the finest and most influential actors of his day, although his career suffered in later years from monumental bouts of drinking, the effects of which included memory loss and the inability to remember his lines.
List of Major League Baseball players with unidentified given names (nominated by Seattle) There are thirty-seven individuals who played professional baseball at the major league level who lack identified given names, all in the late 19th-century. Surprisingly, newspapers have mentioned a few players in write-ups without identifying their first name but, in essence, these individuals have been lost to history and it is unlikely their true identity will ever be uncovered.
List of unprotected cruisers of Germany (nominated by Parsecboy) In the 1880s and 1890s the German navy built nine unprotected cruisers in three classes. These ships all served in Germany's colonial empire and required great endurance and relatively heavy firepower. The ships were mostly out of service by the First World War, though one did see some (limited) active service. These ships proved to be transitional designs, and experience gathered with them and a series of avisos helped to produce the first light cruisers of the German Navy.

Featured pictures

28 featured pictures were promoted this week.

Blenduk Church (created and nominated by Chris Woodrich) The oldest church in Central Java, it was built in 1753 and continues to hold Sunday services. This image was nominated after its author felt that our readership was growing bored with temples.
A Young Girl Reading (created by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, nominated by Hafspajen) is a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, "whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance and hedonism", according to the nominator.
Comparison of Wakatobi flowerpeckers and grey-sided flowerpeckers (created by multiple individuals, nominated by ThaddeusB) The promoted image is adapted from one published with a 2014 article which classified the Wakatobi flowerpecker as a unique species for the first time in a hundred years. Odd, these birds don't look that old...
Flying gurnard (created by Beckmannjan, nominated by Crisco 1492) You may not expect this from its name, but the flying gurnard does not actually fly. Rather, this family (better known to science as Dactylopteridae) almost appears to glide with its greatly enlarged pectoral fins.
One-dollar, two-dollar, five-dollar, ten-dollar, twenty-dollar, fifty-dollar, one-hundred-dollar, five-hundred-dollar, and one-thousand-dollar banknotes of the United States Notes ("Greenback") series (scanned and nominated by Godot13) These greenbacks were scanned from the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian. Issued between 1862 and 1863, they were only backed by the United States' good name – in a time of civil war.
Three temples at Sam Poo Kong (created and nominated by Crisco 1492) Sam Poo Kong (unrelated to the latest vogue in ape hair care products) is a Chinese temple in Semarang that was built in honor of Zheng He's landing in the area in the 17th century. It has been rebuilt and refurbished numerous times since then.
Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (created by Édouard Manet, nominated by Coat of Many Colours) This portrait of Berthe Morisot, a French painter, was completed in 1872. She later married the artists brother; sources are unclear whether this painting was a factor.
Yogapith, Mayapur (created and nominated by Cinosaur) The Temple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was established at his birthplace (Yogapith) in Mayapur (West Bengal) in the 1880s. Sadly Temple of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a redlink; does anyone feel like turning it blue?
Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (created by Vincent van Gogh, nominated by Coat of Many Colours) This is but one of a series of paintings which van Gogh did with a sunflower motif. Readers should get ready for a burst in van Gogh images over the next few weeks; seems the seed planted by these sunflowers has started blooming in full force.
Three Beauties of the Present Day (created by Kitagawa Utamaro, nominated by Hafspajen) Three Beauties of the Present Day is a c. 1793 woodprint. This copy is not a first edition, which can be differentiated by the inclusion of the sitters' names; keeping in mind that Utamaro attempted to idealize their likenesses, we'll let you decide which was best.
Woman with a Mirror (created by Titian, nominated by Hafspajen) The sitter of Woman with a Mirror, painted by Titian in 1515, is debated, and among the candidates are the lovers of two other men. Or, of course, she could have just been a model.
Round, chancel, altar, and organ of the Temple Church, London (created and nominated by Diliff) The four high-resolution images show different aspects of the Temple Church in London. Built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century, the church is now home to two Inns of Court and welcome to visitors. And no, there is no grail.
Indonesian one rupiah (scanned and nominated by Godot13) This scan is of a one rupiah note, one of few featured banknotes from Godot13 that are not from the US. Most of these notes were captured, meaning a delay in circulation. Today, one rupiah would not buy you even a sip of water.
Khao Phing Kan (created by Diego Delso, nominated by Crisco 1492) Forty years ago, Scaramanga asked Bond how he liked this island. Bond may have thought it out of the way, but this image shows that is no longer true. Perhaps the beauty (and lack of 24 carat weapons) has changed things.
City of Workers (created by Hans Baluschek, nominated by Sca) Berlin Secessionist Hans Baluschek's City of Workers (right), painted two years after Germany's defeat in World War I, is described by the Milwaukee Art Museum as a "a powerful critique of what political and social issues can do to ordinary citizens", with the city as a "menacing and dehumanizing force". Now, aren't you curious about his illustrations for children's books?
Time lapse of the Falkirk Wheel (created and nominated by Diliff) Not content to wow us with panoramas of churches, gifted photographer Diliff presents us with this time lapse video of the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland. Reports that looped versions of this film have kept cats busy for hours are unconfirmed.
Sgùrr nan Gillean (created and nominated by Diliff) Sgùrr nan Gillean is a mountain in the northern section of the Cuillin range on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is one of eleven Munros in its range; cousin Marvin was last spotted somewhere in North Takoma.

Together with four more beautiful church interiors, David Iliff presents us with this impressive time-lapse video of one rotation of the Falkirk Wheel; although each rotation takes around ten minutes, the video lasts ten seconds.

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2014-07-16

Bot-created Wikipedia articles covered in the Wall Street Journal, push Cebuano over one million articles

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By The ed17

The Swedish Wikipedia's prolific Lsjbot, which has created a significant proportion of the site's 1.7 million articles and has nearly single-handedly pushed it to being the fourth-largest Wikipedia, was covered in the Wall Street Journal this week.

In its front page article, the US newspaper reported that the bot has created 2.7 million articles, which is apparently a reference to the Waray-Waray and Cebuano Wikipedias (where Lsjbot is also active), and that "on a good day", it creates 10,000 articles.

The Wall Street Journal's article comes as the Cebuano Wikipedia is now the twelfth Wikipedia to cross the million article mark, almost entirely from the boost of these formulaic articles. Of these, over 40% (Swedish, Waray-Waray, Cebuano, Vietnamese, and Dutch) have received significant help from automated article creation scripts. The highest depth of these five is Vietnamese, with 18; Swedish follows with 11, and the others are all under ten. By comparison, the German Wikipedia has a depth of 90.

The process of bot-created articles has proved controversial among Wikimedians; by way of commenting, German Wikipedian Achim Raschka pointed the Signpost to an entry Denis Diderot wrote for the Encyclopédie, titled "Aguaxima". Diderot lamented that all they knew about the Aguaxima was that it was a plant in Brazil, yet he still had to describe it: "If all the same I mention this plant here, along with several others that are described just as poorly, then it is out of consideration for certain readers who prefer to find nothing in a dictionary article or even to find something stupid than to find no article at all."

Disagreement with these edits even led to a proposal last year that would have banned the overuse of bot-created articles on Wikimedia projects.

Still, they are not the first Wikipedias to utilize bots to augment human article creators: in 2007, Volapük and Lombard were expanded by over 100,000 bot articles each; Tagalog saw a similar rise. Lombard editors later placed a moratorium on new automated articles and deleted most of them; the Lombard Wikipedia currently has around 31,000 articles. Volapük is hovering around 120,000, and the Tagalog Wikipedia has close to 63,000.

Waray-Waray, Cebuano, and Tagalog are three of the largest languages of the Philippines. Volapük is a 19th-century constructed language from Germany, and Lombard is a Romance language from northern Italy. Vietnamese is primarily limited to Vietnam, while Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname.

$10 million lawsuit against Wikipedia editors withdrawn, but plaintiff intends to refile

World Cup dominates for another week

Serbia takes the stage with Filip Maljković

Introduction

Interview

The Island with the Golden Gun

Featured articles

Featured lists

Featured pictures

Bot-created Wikipedia articles covered in the Wall Street Journal, push Cebuano over one million articles

In brief