In a continent bursting at the seams with  talented creatives, it is surprising and disconcerting that so many Africans as well as the cultural and creative industries in which they operate, are not adequately documented across the digital space. 

In response, the AfroCreatives WikiProject (ACWP) was established to mobilize these communities, as well as African cultural enthusiasts, to generate more and better knowledge on the African cultural and creative industries on the internet, leveraging Wikipedia and its sister projects. This is a broad landscape that touches on many disciplines and requires a deliberate and focused approach in one area.  As one of Africa’s most dynamic creative industries, African film & television was a natural starting point. Springboarding and learning from its activities in this area, ACWP will expand its activities into African fashion and African literature in 2025.

The first iteration of  AfroCreatives WikiProject+film (ACWP+film) took place in 2022 with campaigns in Senegal, Nigeria, and Rwanda aimed at documenting African film and television on Wikipedia. 

The year of  2024 marks the return of ACWP with an expanded scope, a more deliberate and refined strategy, and a new Wikimedian-In-Residence, Ceslause Ogbonnaya who brings his extensive experience in the Wikimedia Community, including in his most recent capacity as Wikimedian-In-Residence for the Africa Knowledge Initiative.

Collaboration for the Open

Leading the list of ACWP’s lessons learned following its 2022 campaign was the importance of partnerships with established industry partners and promptly secured the commitment of  The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (French: Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou, FESPACO), the continent’s largest film festival, and the African Federation of Film Critics (AFFC, French: Fédération africaine de la critique cinématographique, FACC), a panafricanist federation of African and diaspora film critics.

These partnerships are aimed at mobilizing African film and television industry stakeholders to learn how the Wikimedia space works, and how they can help bridge the content gap that exists on the digital space about African film and television through Wikimedia projects. These industry stakeholders include the gamut of creatives and professionals—actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, directors, producers, executives, film critics, among many others—who bring their industry knowledge to improving Wikipedia articles. 

In addition, given the vital role of images in enhancing Wikipedia, ACWP+film  is launching a special effort timed to the FESPACO edit-a-thon to encourage industry figures to contribute images such as posters, film stills, behind-the-scenes, film festivals, awards, etc) to Wikimedia Commons. An early test effort made to some award-winning African filmmakers in 2022 reflected strong support and ACWP expects the launch of this concerted effort to bring notable additions to African film and television imagery. 

All these contributions helpfully complement the work of the African Wikimedia communities who contributing in the same or adjoining space

African film and television portals

One of the ideas birthed in 2022 on the heels of the first ACWP+film campaign, was the  creation of  African film and television portals, thoughtfully curated and tailored for English, French and Arabic Wikipedia.

The goals are broadly two-fold: 

1. To generate greater visibility and awareness for African film and television among a global audience as well as further engagement on Wikipedia, and 
2. To generate further enthusiasm, pride, and ultimately, more engagement among the African community contributors in the area of African film.  

The Content on these portals is manually curated twice a month. 

The Portals are launching on the 18th of April 2024, with manually curated content posted every two weeks.

2024 ACWP+film campaign

The 2024 ACWP+film campaign will officially launch on 18th May 2024 and run through 1st June 2024. However, the series of film specific training sessions on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons will start on 3rd May. 

In addition to general editing guidelines, the training modules include film-and-television specific insights on how to document film on Wikipedia with important elements that are frequently lacking. These include film and television specific infoboxes, filmography tables, linking to external film databases, how to document film subjects on Wikidata, among others. 

The realization for enhanced training modules came on the heels of  the ACWP +film 2022 campaign through a review of the kinds of contributions that were made as well as a deep dive and better understanding of what constituted quality articles about film and television on Wikipedia for instance.

All of this points to what we expect to be an immensely productive and rewarding campaign. So, sit back, relax, and look out for the communications about the campaign launch in due time!

“Guide to Creating Museum Articles in Turkish Wikipedia”, the content of which was written by Basak, and compiled into a book by Kurmanbek, members of the Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey has been published.

This guide, which was created to improve the museum articles on the Turkish Wikipedia and increase participation, contains various suggestions and examples, from information on how a Wikipedia editor should write a good museum article to what content should be included in the museum article.

In addition, the guide includes how to use the museum infobox used for museum articles, the meanings of each of the parameters and sample usages. In addition, how a museum item can be introduced, what titles and details the item can include, and various suggestions and examples are also included in the guide.

With this guide, we aim to improve the quality of museum articles on Turkish Wikipedia and encourage Wikipedians to write more museum articles. You can review the guidebook on Wikimedia Commons.

On April 12, 2024, Africa Wiki Women launched the Inspire Inclusion 2024 Campaign in observance of International Women’s Day. With the United Nations theme “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress,” the virtual launch included partner spotlights, introductions to the campaign, and Wikipedia. 

Anita Ofor, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Women for Sustainability Africa, was spotlighted as one of our 3 partners, and the moderator of the session was Linason Blessing, a team member of Africa Wiki Women. The session attracted over 30 participants, including project leads and community members from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Ruby D. Brown provided an overview of the campaign, which was  followed by an introduction to Wikipedia.

Key highlights

The webinar commenced with the welcoming of participants, followed by a brief citation of our partner, Anita Ofori the  Co-Founder and Executive Director of Women for Sustainability Africa, a non-profit organization committed to empowering women and girls in STEM,as well as enhancing their visibility within the sustainability sphere. 

The session proceeded with a comprehensive overview of the campaign presented by Ruby D Brown. She elaborated on the campaign’s objectives, and  explained the mission of the Africa Wiki Women, and outlined the campaign’s goals. She provided insights into essential aspects that participants should acquaint themselves with, including training and office hours, and emphasized the significance of following the scoring criteria and data scholarship.

Furthermore, the session progressed with a slide presentation focusing on the introductory aspects of Wikipedia. The presentation encompassed what Wikipedia is, an exploration of the various styles of editing on wikipedia, more light on the facts and misconceptions surrounding Wikipedia, and practical  hands on  editing wikipedia. 

Subsequently, participants were provided with an attendance form aimed at gathering comprehensive feedback regarding the Day 1 session of the Inspire Inclusion of the Africa Wiki Women campaign.

The session concluded with a guided walkthrough of the campaign metapage  by Bukola James. She provided detailed guidelines to participants on how to actively engage in the campaign, including more guidance on registration and accessing the dashboard. She also demonstrated how participants could navigate through the various categories to identify articles requiring updates or creation, thereby enabling them to contribute effectively to the campaign objectives. Participants asked questions and they were given answers to every question asked. 

For those who may have missed the session, the link to access it is available on the community meta page. Additionally, we encourage you to register for our upcoming sessions to ensure you receive timely email notifications one hour before each online session begins. If you wish to become an active member of our community, please take a moment to complete the registration form. Let’s work together to bridge the gap on information about women on Wikipedia and sister projects.

Wiki Education kicked off the month in Chicago, where four political scientists from across the country joined Scholars & Scientists Program Manager Will Kent for a panel discussion at the 81st annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) conference.

For refugee resettlement expert Shyam Krishnan Sriram, participating in the panel, “Being a MPSA Wiki Scholar: Sharing Political Expertise on Wikipedia,”  was an opportunity to break from his typical engagement with the conference.

“The MPSA is an important conference and I have attended a dozen times in the last two decades,” said Sriram, assistant professor of political science at Canisius University. “When it was suggested to come together as a panel, I jumped at the chance because this professional development side of the conference is important to me – not just presenting original research.” 

Reflecting on their experience as participants of a recent Wiki Scholars course, each of the four scholars noted the importance of editing Wikipedia as a strategy to combat misinformation, particularly during the 2024 election year. Panelists also initiated conversations about the role Wikipedia can play in disseminating research, its relationship with artificial intelligence and large language models, and the challenges of biases against Wikipedia. 

“We agreed during the panel that the number one challenge was a vast amount of misinformation about Wikipedia and its legitimacy as an academic source,” noted Sriram. “We still have a lot of work to do!”

Panelist and doctoral student at the University of Georgia Yao Yao agreed, underscoring the importance of educating academics and students on the immeasurable value of Wikipedia.

“As a PhD student, I believe it’s crucial to challenge the notion that students should be discouraged from using Wikipedia,” said Yao, an American politics scholar. “Instead, we should educate them on how to leverage its benefits effectively.”

From her first day in the Wiki Scholars course, Yao was drawn to the “inclusive and collaborative nature” of the Wikipedia community, embracing the chance to question her assumptions, gain practical skills in content creation, and join the worldwide group of editors dedicated to sharing knowledge. 

“One aspect of the course that particularly resonated with me was its emphasis on overcoming bias and fostering confidence in editing Wikipedia,” said Yao. “I also appreciated the opportunity to learn the intricacies of article editing, even though some processes seemed complex initially. The course provided valuable guidance on editing various elements such as images and charts, which has expanded my skill set and deepened my understanding of content creation on Wikipedia.”

An idea championed by panelist Muhamad Hassan Bin Afzal, visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Service at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the group plans to collaborate on a writing project which will examine the topics they discussed at the conference.

“The participants were so fun, engaged, and curious, and we’re even in talks about developing a paper for publication,” said panel chair Jacqueline M. Keil, assistant professor of political science at Kean University.

Wiki Education staff also engaged with all MPSA conference attendees from our booth in the exhibition hall. Both Kent and Wiki Education’s Communications and Outreach Coordinator Colleen McCoy connected with political science experts from across the globe, sharing information about our upcoming Wiki Scholars & Scientists professional development courses and the opportunity to teach with Wikipedia in our Wikipedia Student Program.

Welcome to the April 2024 edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter by the Wikimedia Foundation Language team!

This newsletter provides you with quarterly updates on new feature developments, improvements in various language-related technical projects and support work, community meetings, and ideas to get involved in contributing to the projects.

Subscribe to the newsletter

Key highlights

Yoruba Wikipedia hits 25 millions views 

The Yoruba language version of Wikipedia is known as “Yoruba Wikipedia,” with its web address being “yo.wikipedia.org.” Although established in October 2002, the majority of its content was authored by non-native Yoruba speakers until 2018. This was mainly due to the lack of native Yoruba-speaking editors. In 2023, Yoruba Wikipedia reached a significant milestone, garnering 25 million views, making it the most widely read Nigerian language Wikipedia and the most visited website in Yoruba [1]. This remarkable achievement is largely attributed to the substantial contributions of the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group and other volunteer members of the Yoruba Wikipedia community. As of February 15, 2024, Yoruba Wikipedia features a total of 33,745 articles and is supported by 110 active editors who regularly contribute to its growth. 

Insights from MinT Research

Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation’s language team initiated a study to understand how MinT can support more people in reading and writing on Wikipedia, particularly in languages receiving machine translation support for the first time or with additional machine translation options. Working with Anagram Research, they tested ideas to assess people’s experiences with machine translation. The study aimed to: 1) find new ways to display more content and encourage contributions, and 2) understand how people use machine translation in languages with fewer resources, especially where translation options are improving. They also investigated how MinT can help break language barriers to knowledge. Hindi, Chhattisgarhi, and Awadhi speakers participated in the study. Detailed results can be found here.

Translation tools activated for 28 Wikipedias

As part of the Boost initiative to support content generation across different Wikipedia sites using translation tools, Content and Section Translation tools have been activated for 28 language Wikipedias. These Wikipedias were chosen because they have potential to grow with these tools. For 23 of these languages, MinT has been set as the default service in Content Translation. Before enabling this option, these Wikipedia communities were invited to test machine translation quality on their wikis. After consulting with them, this option was made the default. These translation tools are available on the wikis where corresponding languages are supported by the MADLAD-400 open source translation model from Google Research. MinT is designed to provide machine translation service from multiple models. As the Foundation’s Language Team is considering integrating the MADLAD model with MinT in the future, this will help maximize their impact when machine translation capabilities are enabled.

Tutorial for translation administrators 

User:RAdimer-WMF, an Associate in Movement Communications at the Wikimedia Foundation and a Wikimedia volunteer, has authored a blog post titled “Understanding translation administration” offering a conceptual overview of using the Translate extension for individuals new to or interested in becoming translation administrators. The post’s first section introduces key concepts, while the latter half delves into practical examples for preparing pages for translation. From the blog post:

The Translate extension allows us to create and manage translatable pages. A working understanding of its process and features is integral to an effective presentation of content on multilingual wikis, used for everything from large projects like the Foundation’s Annual Plan, to CentralNotice banners, to individual pages. Becoming comfortable with this tool opens up a range of options to improve the accessibility of wiki content, allowing users from diverse linguistic backgrounds to engage together with the page’s ideas

MinT integration in a KDE project

Subtitle Composer, an open-source text-based subtitle editor developed by the KDE Desktop project, recently integrated support for MinT [2], enabling users to translate subtitles seamlessly. The Subtitle Composer team independently undertook the integration of MinT into this project, without any direct involvement or support from the Foundation’s Language team. This represents a significant advancement, expanding MinT’s accessibility and usability beyond its original use within Wikimedia projects. Consequently, users can now translate subtitles more efficiently and accurately with this newly added MinT support. 

2 million translations since deployment of translation tools

The total number of translations published on Wikipedias since the deployment of Content and Section Translation tools has recently reached a significant milestone of 2 million. This includes various types of translations, such as creating or expanding articles or sections. Essentially, it showcases a vast range of translations on Wikipedia, highlighting the significant impact and widespread adoption of these translation tools across all the languages that use Wikipedia.

Kiwix’s translation efforts

Stephane Coillet-Matillon, co-founder of Kiwix, and Ruby D-Brown from Open West Africa Foundation discussed Kiwix’s ongoing translation efforts to make language interfaces in technical tools more inclusive during the February Language Community Meeting. Kiwix is a free and open-source software project that enables users to access a vast array of content offline, including Wikipedia. Their team’s participation in the Wikimedia Tech Safari Program has helped improve language inclusivity in technical interfaces, making them easier for everyone to use. They shared how, through technical events organized by the African group, translating for just 20 minutes became a part of the day’s activities, getting everyone excited to participate. Additionally, they emphasized the importance of staying in touch with potential translators to keep them involved. This collaboration shows Wikimedia’s commitment to making knowledge accessible to everyone, no matter where they are or what language they speak.

Community meetings and events

• Let’s Connect community hosted their March Connect-a-thon focused on translation and Content Translation.
• In case you missed the second language community meeting in February, you can catch up by watching the video recording and reading the notes. Stay tuned on the mailing lists for updates about the upcoming meeting in May.
• The Celtic Knot Wikimedia Languages Conference encourages collaboration among individuals working with minority languages, facilitating information exchange. After years of online gatherings, the conference will take place in person in Waterford City, Ireland from September 25th to 27th, 2024. Stay tuned for updates on the event and how to participate, which will be available on the Celtic_Knot_Conference_2024 meta page soon.
• Santhosh Thottingal from the Foundation’s Language team hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on language computing and typeface design on the developersindia channel on Reddit.

References

1. https://thenationonlineng.net/yoruba-wikipedia-hits-25-million-views-in-2023/
2. https://invent.kde.org/multimedia/subtitlecomposer/-/commit/8e7bbef819a5f4fba9f21449850d3a94b863e94f

Hi! I’m Rae, a Movement Communications Associate at the Wikimedia Foundation, and long-time Wikimedia volunteer. This post discusses IP blocks—what they are, why they are placed, and IP block exemptions.

On Wikimedia projects, rules for how each project works are defined by their editor community. They develop policies and guidelines¹ through consensus-building discussions.² This includes rules that govern conduct, like civility and conflict of interest policies, as well as content, like neutral point of view and verifiability guidelines. With the goal of implementing these policies and guidelines, communities elect volunteers that have additional technical access.

Communities elect administrators, who have tools that allow them to implement community consensus locally³ (on one wiki). They can delete and protect pages, block users and IP addresses from editing, and assign user groups, among other abilities.

Additionally, the global Wikimedia community elects users with the ability to implement community consensus on a broader scale: stewards.⁴ These users have tools that allow them to respond to cross-wiki needs, including by locking accounts, globally blocking IP addresses from editing, and assigning global groups.

IP blocks and collateral effects

Since anyone can edit Wikimedia projects, there are often many unconstructive edits. To respond to and prevent this, administrators have the ability to block users from making actions on a wiki. Blocks can be applied to either accounts, IP addresses, or IP ranges. And they are configurable: blocks can be of limited length or indefinite, users can be blocked from individual pages or namespaces (e.g., articles, or categories), or all editing in general. Other actions can also be prevented, including sending emails, creating other accounts, or editing their own talk page.⁵

Collateral effects

With accounts, it is generally clear that only one person will be affected by the block: the person who controls the account. With IP addresses, that is less clear. Multiple users could share the same IP address or range (a group of IP addresses often allocated together), which brings in the question of collateral effects.

Let’s imagine a scenario where three unrelated users (A, B, and C) are assigned by their internet service provider (ISP) to the same IP address. User A is an active contributor, about to start working on a new article. User B doesn’t edit but likes to read articles, and User C is interested in promoting their business.

If User C is blocked for promotional editing, the underlying IP might be subject to a 24-hour autoblock. This means that User A would be unable to edit from that IP address for the duration of the block. User B’s reading would be unaffected, as the block only prevents editing.

IPs are not great at identifying individual end-users. When users share IPs or an IP range,⁶ it can result in collateral effects, where innocent users are unintentionally blocked from editing because they happen to share an IP with an unconstructive user.

Are there alternatives to IP blocks?

Given the potential for collateral effects from IP blocks, it’s reasonable to ask why they’re even used. The short answer is that there are no good alternatives; blocks are the primary preventative anti-abuse measure available to Wikimedia communities.

Another preventative anti-abuse tool does exist, called AbuseFilter. Each edit on a wiki is checked against a set of rules before the edit goes through. These rules are defined in filters, which admins can create and edit.⁷ If a filter is “hit”, i.e., an edit was flagged by the filter’s ruleset, it can make actions like warning the user, tagging the edit, or disallowing the edit entirely, depending on how the filter was configured.

Filters are just a set of rules, and are as a result very limited. For example, you could define a filter that prevents edits which remove more than 5000 bytes of a page by users with 10 edits or less. The intent is clear: to prevent new users from blanking articles. However, this won’t affect users who have 11 edits doing the same, or from removing 4999 bytes of content. AbuseFilter does not use machine learning and is not itself adaptive, and thus is only useful for preventing very obvious vandalism that the rules can easily check for, without too many false positives.

Machine learning tools do exist for anti-abuse work, though they are primarily responsive. Many projects employ anti-vandalism bots that revert unconstructive edits (like ClueBot NG or SeroBOT) and machine learning models exist that can flag potentially damaging edits to volunteers.

These tools—AbuseFilter, anti-vandalism bots, and machine learning models—are not alternatives to blocks. Fundamentally, if a user is repeatedly contributing unconstructively, the only way to prevent their continued editing is to block their account or IP address.

Proxy blocks

There are two main types of IP blocks that may affect you. The first are normal blocks made in response to disruptive editing from other users on your IP address or range. The second are blocks of open proxies–shared IP addresses accessible anywhere through paid or free services. 

Proxies route users’ internet traffic through shared servers, allowing people to mask their individual connection behind a shared IP. Bad actors often use these proxies to evade blocks placed on their IPs or accounts. In the interest of preventing this abuse, open proxies have been blocked on Wikimedia projects since 2004.

That decision was made over 20 years ago. Since then, there have been significant changes in the types of proxies available and their ease of access. Through services like iCloud Private Relay and in-browser VPNs, many everyday internet users connect via proxy without knowing it. And peer-to-peer proxy networks, where traffic is routed through other users’ residential internet connections, mean that any IP address can act as a proxy.

Blocks of peer-to-peer proxy networks can often have more collateral than intended; in many countries with developing internet infrastructure, hundreds or even thousands of residential users might share the same single IP address. If a device using that IP address is also part of a peer-to-peer proxy network, and an outside user accesses it to disruptively edit Wikimedia projects, a block of that IP could have significant collateral effects.⁸

In an effort to reduce collateral effects, peer-to-peer proxies are no longer preemptively blocked globally.⁹ Individual projects, such as the English, Spanish, Farsi, and Chinese Wikipedias, also make proxy blocks locally which can include preemptive peer-to-peer proxy blocks.

Unblock and IP block exemption processes

Projects generally prefer not to unblock proxies and IPs that are being used disruptively. Instead, affected users can request local and/or global IP block exemptions (IPBE) for their account.

Local IPBE is given on a per-wiki basis, and exempts users from all IP blocks (local and global) while editing that particular project. Global IPBE is a global group and exempts users only from global blocks, though on all projects.

The specific process of requesting IPBE depends on:

1. Type of block
   • Is the IP blocked locally, globally, or both?
   • If both, or if the IP is blocked locally on multiple wikis, the user may need to request multiple IP block exemptions.
2. Proxy use
   • Is the IP blocked as a proxy, or for other reasons?
   • If a proxy, does the user have an approved reason to contribute through a proxy?
   • If not, the standard advice is to disable their VPN to contribute to Wikimedia projects.
3. Account status
   • Does the affected user have a registered account?
   • If not, they would need to request the creation of an account first, then IP block exemptions. This is because IP blocks generally prevent account creation.
4. Projects
   • Depending on the project’s local policies and guidelines, the process for requesting an IP block exemption may differ.

For users facing a local block, information about the local project’s appeals and exemptions processes are provided in the block message (which show up when a blocked user attempts to edit).

For users facing a global block, the stewards’ wizard provides information about the optimal process to contact.

Notes

1. This links to a Wikidata item, which lists the “Policies and Guidelines” pages of dozens of Wikimedia projects. In this post, I link to Wikidata items where no central page exists for a concept. ↩︎
2. Though some policies are global, like the Universal Code of Conduct, these are generally still enforced at the level of an individual project, in line with the subsidiarity principle. In the case of systemic failures of local projects to follow broader Wikimedia standards, other processes exist, like global RfCs and the U4C. ↩︎
3. “Local”, in the Wikimedia context, refers to a single Wikimedia project. “Global” refers to all Wikimedia projects. ↩︎
4. Also global rollbackers and global sysops, though they have a more limited toolset focused on supporting individual project cleanup/maintenance, does not include global actions. ↩︎
5. By default, blocked users can edit their own user talk page. This allows for them to appeal the block while not being able to edit the rest of the project. ↩︎
6. Very few IP allocations are static. The IP someone is using to connect to the internet can change throughout the week, day, or even hour, depending on their ISP. Even when IPs are changing, most ISPs limit those changes within a specific range. When there are disruptive edits being made on multiple IPs in an identifiable range of IPs, that range will generally be blocked. ↩︎
7. Each local wiki has their own set of abuse filters. There are also global filters which are active on every project except the English and Japanese Wikipedias, who have opted out. ↩︎
8. I explored the impact of peer-to-peer proxy blocks in a three-part Diff post series in December 2022. ↩︎
9. A ‘global IP block’ is technically distinct from a ‘local IP block’. Global blocks are applied by stewards and prevent editing from that IP on all Wikimedia projects. Local IP blocks prevent editing from that IP on a single Wikimedia project. A global IP block can be disabled by local administrators on a project, but that is uncommon. ↩︎

Temple of Athena, Paestum, Italy (March 2023). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

Wikipedia’s photographers are enthusiastic volunteers, who spend endless hours of their free time taking pictures. While these photo enthusiasts reach a massive audience with their images, many people outside of the online encyclopedia’s community don’t even know that “taking photos for Wikipedia” is a thing.

A subset of Wikipedia’s photographers is dedicated to attaining the utmost quality in capturing images for the encyclopedia. Those volunteers gather in places like “Featured Picture Candidates” on a daily basis and critique each other’s work. In an open and collaborative process they determine whether or not an image will be highlighted as one of the finest.

Diego Delso, known as User:Poco a poco, has achieved a significant milestone, with the community recognizing 1,000 of his photographs as “Featured Pictures”. Knowing how difficult it is to achieve Featured Picture status, I am awestruck by Diego’s achievement. That’s why I invited him to do an interview with me and talk about his motivation and also about his learnings during his years-long journey.

Frank Schulenburg

Diego, you just reached an incredible achievement: 1,000 Featured Pictures. Can you share what this milestone means to you?

Diego Delso

Yes, crazy, isn’t it? I had my first Featured Picture in January 2012. When I reached 100 Featured Pictures in 2014, I believed that reaching 1,000 would be a kind of challenging lifetime target for my engagement in the project. Back then I didn’t know whether I would ever manage it and in that case whether it would take 10 or 30 years. Being the first one to achieve this milestone and realizing that nobody else so far has managed to even get 500 Featured Pictures makes me more proud. It was not easy to make it, there were phases where I got demotivated and was about to give up but here I’m. Happy to have managed it. I will continue to contribute, also with Featured Pictures, hopefully, but without any target anymore in front of my eyes. Btw, I am also about to reach 20,000 Quality Images (QI), too. Quality Images is the place where I’ve spent most time, so it’s also an important milestone to me.

Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus), an endangered species, Almuradiel, Ciudad Real, Spain (December 2021). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

FS

When did your personal photography journey start? Do you remember your first camera?

DD

My first cameras back in 1990 were analog and inexpensive. I used such cameras until 2002 including my first trips abroad beginning in 1998 (when I was 24). In 2002 I bought my first digital camera in Japan, a Casio Exilim EX-S1 (1 Mpx). It was slim enough to have it always with me and enjoy photography anytime (think of  smartphones today). I didn’t buy my first DSLR camera until 2008, a Canon EOS 450D (a so-called “entry level camera”). Since then I’ve been loyal to Canon. It was followed by a 5D Mark II, a 5DS and as soon as it will be out (somewhen this year), the mirrorless R5 Mark II.

FS

In June 2009 you uploaded your first photograph to Commons, Wikipedia’s media repository. The image shows the mountain group Cordillera Paine in Chile and it is still in use on some Wikipedia language versions today. What motivated you back then to start uploading your work under a free license?

DD

Well, I enjoy traveling a lot and had a decent camera with me, so I felt that I could really make a difference to Commons with my contributions. In fact, I consider myself a bit adventurous and also enjoy visiting places which are not mainstream, images from those places are not frequent and valuable to the project.

I started scuba diving five years ago not because I wanted to try it out but rather because I realized that we have important gaps in high quality images of marine life. During my certificate dives I already took the camera with me and I cannot imagine diving without it. In the meanwhile about 13% of my Featured Pictures and Quality Images were taken underwater.

The Taj Mahal in Agra (India), one of Diego’s first Featured Pictures (December 2009). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

FS

What were the most significant challenges you faced on your journey to this milestone?

DD

My Featured Pictures are diverse: underwater, architecture, wildlife, plants, macro, objects, studio,… I spent a lot of time and money on traveling and on professional equipment, while living in a small rented apartment. Still, sometimes the results were not the expected and that could become frustrating. A big blow was also the loss of my whole camera equipment (along with the pictures) in 2014 after a long trip in South America. The crowdfunding campaign started by fellow Wikimedians and backed by 70 people was a great morale boost that made me forget that loss very quickly. I bought a better camera and repeated the trip to Chile and Bolivia to document everything again.

Still I guess that these kinds of things happen to many photographers, what makes things different on Commons is the community and the interaction with so many people. That’s not always easy and when you feel being treated unfairly or even targeted by some people you can get very frustrated. Many people have left the project because of this and I’ve to say that I had periods of time where I didn’t upload material and/or was about to give up for good.

Sunset view from the back of the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, Suðurland, Iceland. (August 2014). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

FS

Some people say “Don’t buy new camera gear if you’d like to improve your photography. Rather spend the money on traveling and on shooting more interesting subjects.” – Would you agree?

DD

Surely, both things are major ingredients to get a nice portfolio of images, that’s why I try to do both. Apart from traveling I don’t know of any other activity where you get richer spending money. As a proof of that, at least one of my pictures has been selected among the last 10 in Wiki Loves Monuments in 22 different countries. I love detail in images and good equipment makes a big difference here. At the same time I get more focused and motivated if I travel to unknown areas with the purpose to get nice captures of the spots there that I find more interesting. It’s funny, but even if I know that there are nice motifs around the place where I live, I never make a priority to photograph those. 

A geometric moray (Gymnothorax griseus) in the Red Sea (April 2023). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

FS

Over the years, you’ve done landscape, architecture, wildlife, people, and underwater photography. What’s your favorite genre of photography and why?

DD

That’s easy! For 45 years I’ve seen – and later photographed – what I encounter above earth’s surface, and surely I’ve enjoyed great landscapes and wildlife. I had seen documentaries and had been to some aquariums before but experiencing marine life at zero gravity is a different animal. I’ve also seen underwater creatures that I didn’t even know would exist. Every dive is to me an adventure and having the opportunity to document it a privilege. When you go down there you never know what you will find and it makes it exciting. Furthermore it is really challenging to get quality material under water. I use the same camera under water and above it, but lighting, loss of colors, shy animals, water currents, visibility,… make it hard to get similar quality to the one you can get above the surface.

FS

How have your style and approach to photography evolved during your journey to this achievement?

DD

Well, first of all Wikimedia Commons has been an inspiration to try out different things, like studio or macro photography. Not only seeing examples of these kinds of photography but also reading feedback about what could be improved encouraged me to try it out. I’ve surely learned lots of things about how to improve the composition, how to find a better light, the POV, the moment, … I’d say the first Featured Pictures were lucky punches and also the rate of successful nominations was pretty low, I tried many approaches of what could become a Featured Picture. After 1,000 I still get surprised from time to time but I can usually recognize a strong candidate to become Featured Picture. So, before I take the shot I know whether it has potential to wow people or not. In fact, when I feel it (the wow?) myself when I take the shoot that’s when I get best results.

A 5 millimeters (0,20 in) long leaf sheep nudibranch (Costasiella kuroshimae) taken with a macro lens underwater, Anilao, Philippines (August 2023). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

FS

Were there any unexpected lessons you learned along the way?

DD

There have been many lessons, but I wouldn’t say they were unexpected, since I didn’t have any concrete expectation of what I could learn. What I can say is that we have very experienced users from whom you can learn a lot and the spectrum is huge, from camera settings, to processing, software tools, editing, composition, sharpness, lighting, …everything. I learned “step by step” (that’s my username “Poco a poco”, by the way) almost without realizing it. Now I’m very happy about my portfolio of images, something I couldn’t have managed without Commons. This is something I realized a long time ago and on Wikimania in London back in 2012 I held a talk about Commons as a learning platform with the title: How Wikimedia Commons made a quality photographer out of me. 

Dunes and shadows in Sossusvlei, Namibia (August 2018). © Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

FS

Can you share a piece of advice with aspiring Commons photographers who look up to you and your achievements?

DD

If you nominate images to Featured Pictures or Quality Images what you are doing, in other words, is asking for feedback about your work, so you have to be ready to get and accept this feedback, especially if it isn’t the one you expect. People don’t usually decline or oppose images for fun, there is a good reason for it, so you have to take note of that feedback and don’t just get angry at the result. That path wouldn’t help you to get better and improve your skills and photographer eye. So, be patient and understand feedback as a treasure, and use it as a stimulus to get better. I know this from experience. If you participate with this mindset it’s a matter of time that you get better and better. It’s like many other things in life. You may not realize that you are progressing, but when you look back at the pictures you took years ago and compare them with the pictures you take today, you will have the evidence. Everything else will come step by step.

FS

Thanks so much for the interview, Diego! And for the amazing photos you’re sharing with millions of people through Wikipedia! 

Frank Schulenburg is a California-based Wikipedia photographer and the founder of the Commons Photographers User Group. In 2023, the Museum of Northern California Art displayed a selection of his works in the first ever solo museum exhibition of a Wikipedia photographer.

The Hindi Wikimedians User Group, which is working on furthering content on the 4th most spoken language in the world, has been focussing our efforts on new editor engagement, article creation, and partnerships with academic institutions through which we can bring in new users and editors to certain Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia, Wikisource etc in India. 

More recently, through our efforts we have been successful in establishing a sustained partnership with Google India, supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, through which we aim to take our projects to new audiences, users and potential editors. 

These specific initiatives have been zeroed in by the Hindi Wikimedians User Group based on our need to bring in new editors and users to the movement in an attempt to create, preserve and present knowledge to a wider audience.

Here is a snapshot of some of the initial activities we have executed under the partnership and our own activities (in the last quarter of 2023).

PILOT PROJECT

Through Google’s support we have been given key search trends on Google (in Hindi) for which there was no Hindi Wikipedia page. The group then focussed on the topics relevant to our audiences and editors and launched an Editathon on Hindi Wikipedia in June, 2023 through which we saw over 40 sign ups and 900+ new articles on Hindi Wikipedia. 

We also hosted a Hindi Wikisource Edithathon in July where 15 participants proofread selected works including the Constitution of India, Hindi Grammar and more.

These projects gave us a lot of understanding on the current engagement trends of our community and also on the need to focus on bringing in more contributors to the projects. 

OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

Following the learning and impact of the Pilot Project we regrouped as a team to focus on our outreach and engagement activities that inspire new contributors to the projects. The focus and approach were regularly shared on the Hindi Community Village Pump for community input, discussion and for transparency. 

Some of the key activities were

• Wikipedia and Wikisource Introductory Workshop, hosted at the Rishi Bankim Chandra College while commemorating the Hindi Day (Hindi Diwas) where we saw 25 new participants join to understand the basics of Wikipedia and Wikisource. 
• In October, we hosted a Hindi Wikisource Capacity-Building Workshop and Edit-a-thon  (online and offline) while commemorating Gandhi Jayanti which saw over 25 participants join both online and offline. 
• Following this, in November, we hosted an in-person Wikipedia workshop with nearly 50 participants in Mizoram, India. 

All of the activities above were focused on new editor outreach and engagement to bring in new contributors to our efforts and activities as a user group. 

KEY LEARNINGS

While the timelines are very short for conclusive outcomes, the following are some of the trends we are monitoring as we proceed further with our engagement activities. 

For Eg: In December, 2023 we saw over 90 millon page views on Hindi Wikipedia making it one of the most active months in 2023. 

• Increased Engagement and Viewership: We are seeing positive engagement, increasing viewership and interest from Hindi Wikipedia due to our recent activities.
• Editor Growth:  There is a keen focus on increasing the current base of editors through the partnership which will enable an incremental yet sustained increase in our editors and content.
• Ground Level Partnerships: We have been focussing on establishing new and sustained partnerships with educational institutions through which we can bring in new members to the Wikimedia ecosystem (Delhi, West Bengal, UP, and Mizoram). 
• Beyond Wikipedia: While there is a keen focus on increasing the number of articles/editors on Hindi Wikipedia we are also focussing on the enhancement of Wikisource as well. 
• Mixing Online and Offline: Keeping in mind timelines and resources we are seeing the benefits of establishing a good mix of meet-ups, edit-a-thons and online contests with a focus on increasing engagement but also avoiding editor burnout. 

We aim to continue and grow this momentum in the next few months by hosting online and offline workshops, community meet ups and online contests by which we not only bring in new contributors to the fore but also increase our content on projects like Wikipedia and Wikisource. 

To know more or engage with us, please contact on our meta page or the Hindi Wikipedia Village Pump

This blog has been written by the author(s) on behalf of the Hindi Wikimedians User Group

Apr 17, 10:58 UTC
Resolved - This incident has been resolved.

Apr 17, 10:10 UTC
Monitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.

Apr 17, 09:38 UTC
Identified - The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.

Apr 17, 09:38 UTC
Update - We are continuing to investigate this issue.

Apr 17, 09:26 UTC
Investigating - We are aware of issues with accessing some wikis, and we are investigating.

The project was focused on mitigating systematic bias and bridging content discrepancies on Wikipedia regarding Niger Delta region with focus on Akwa-Ibom and Bayelsa States. The project was spearheaded by Ugwulebo and Omorodion, who are both dedicated wikimedians in the wiki space. The primary objective was to enhance the representation of the culture, traditions, and noteworthy information pertaining to the region, thereby augmenting its visibility on the world’s largest online encyclopedia.

Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states are significant regions in Nigeria, each with its unique cultural heritage, natural resources, and socio-economic dynamics. Akwa Ibom, located in the South-South geopolitical zone, is known for its rich cultural festivals, such as the annual Ibibio Festival of Arts and Culture, as well as its vast oil reserves, which contribute significantly to Nigeria’s oil production.

Bayelsa, also situated in the South-South region, is notable for being the home of the Ogbia and Ijaw ethnic groups, its mangrove swamps, and its pivotal role in Nigeria’s oil industry, as it is home to several oil-producing communities.

It is crucial to have comprehensive information about these regions and bridge the knowledge gap on platforms like Wikipedia to ensure that the cultural, historical, and geographical significance of these regions are accurately represented and accessible to a global audience. Bridging the content gap on Wikipedia regarding Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states allows for the preservation and dissemination of their unique cultural identities, histories, and contributions to Nigeria and the world at large. Moreover, it promotes a more inclusive and diverse representation of Nigeria’s cultural landscape on a widely accessed platform, fostering greater understanding and appreciation of these regions’ importance

The project sought to rectify the insufficient documentation of the diverse ethnic groups, cultural heritage, and notable landmarks in Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states on Wikipedia. Despite the abundance of cultural events and significant locations in these regions, such as the Ekombi dance, Usoro Ekoon Festival, and Itam Industrial Area, there remains a gap in documentation about these activities By bridging this content gap, the initiative aimed to enhance the visibility of these regions and their rich cultural tapestry, thereby facilitating broader access to the reservoir of knowledge about Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, and to also foster the spirit of community amongst Wikimedians in these regions by creating awareness to residents to improve contributions made on Wikipedia. 

Editors improving and creating articles during the Akwa-Ibom and Bayelsa history write-a-thon

Goals and objectives

The project successfully achieved several key objectives:

• It attracted participants from historically underrepresented demographics, thereby fostering greater diversity within the community.

• By fostering collaboration and communication, it cultivated a more inclusive and tightly-knit culture within our community.

• It generated comprehensive content addressing topics and groups that had been previously overlooked or marginalized.

• It amplified voices from underrepresented perspectives, enriching the overall diversity of content on the platform.

• Through various engagement strategies, it promoted the continued involvement of editors, ensuring their ongoing contribution to the project.

• It also facilitated the continued participation of organizers, bolstering the sustainability of the project over time.

• Notably, it heightened participants’ sense of belonging and connection to the broader movement, fostering a more profound and enduring commitment to its goals and values

Activities

Publicity Campaign

Efforts were made to raise awareness about Wikipedia and its sister projects among the residents of Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa state. This involved disseminating E-posters across various communication channels to attract potential participants.

TRAINING SESSIONS 

• Online Training:
  • An online onboarding and training session was conducted, guiding participants through the process of creating Wikipedia accounts, crafting articles, and incorporating Wikilinks and citations.
  • The session was recorded for future reference, ensuring accessibility and continuous learning opportunities for participants.
• Physical Training:
  • In-person training sessions were organized to complement online learning, offering participants hands-on experience and the opportunity to address any challenges they encountered.
  • Discussions during these sessions allowed for the resolution of queries and the reinforcement of knowledge gained from online training.

Facilitator putting participants through during the physical session 

Edit-a-thon 

 The edit-a-thon/write-a-thon yielded a significant impact, showcasing the valuable contributions of its participants throughout the project’s duration. Leveraging the outreach dashboard as a monitoring tool, approximately 398 Wikipedia articles were authored during the write-a-thon, while over 3,790 articles received enhancements. These efforts notably bolstered awareness and visibility of the regions by incorporating info boxes, citations, categories, and wiki links, among other enhancements. Such activities not only refined the editing prowess of both novice and seasoned contributors but also enriched the overall quality of content on Wikipedia.

List Building and Development of project page

 A list of notable subjects or topics pertaining to the regions was created for the project. This list served to assist editors in identifying topics aligned with the project’s goals, as well as to provide a catalogue of existing Wikipedia articles in need of improvement. A documentation page was also established, featuring a comprehensive list of articles to be created or improved. This resource proved invaluable in assisting participants in identifying content gaps on Wikipedia and prioritising their contributions

Communication and Personalised Support

Dedicated efforts were made to establish effective communication channels and provide personalised support to participants throughout the project with the help of experienced facilitators 

Regular communication via email, messaging platforms, and virtual meetings ensured that participants felt supported and engaged.

Individual assistance was offered to address specific challenges or questions raised by participants, fostering a supportive learning environment.

METRICS 

Outcome

• Editor Recruitment:
  • A total of 94 editors were recruited, including – new participants, enriching the diversity and engagement of contributors to the project.
• Raising Awareness of Wikipedia:
  • The project successfully raised awareness of Wikipedia among the residents of Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa state resulting in increased participation and contributions to the platform, bridging the contributor gap in the community.
• Significant Impact on Wikipedia and sister projects:
  • Participants made a significant impact by generating over 4188 edits on Wikipedia, 511 uploads on Wikicommons and generated over 1.55 million article views during the project’s implementation, which was tracked using the outreach dashboard. .

Group picture showing participants at the end of the physical session 

• Increased Participation from Underrepresented Groups:
  • We successfully attracted participants from underrepresented demographics, ensuring a more diverse and inclusive community.
• Fostering a Culture of Inclusivity and Connectivity:
  • Through various activities and initiatives, we have cultivated an environment of inclusivity and connectedness, where participants feel valued, supported, and connected with one another.
• Addressing Content Gaps and Representing Underrepresented Topics:
  • Our efforts have led to the development of content about underrepresented topics and groups, contributing to a more comprehensive and inclusive representation of data about the regions on Wikipedia.
• Amplifying Underrepresented Perspectives:
  • We have actively worked to amplify the voices and perspectives of underrepresented groups within our community, challenging dominant narratives and promoting greater understanding and empathy

Facilitators:

Facilitators at the Physical event of the Akwa-Ibom and Bayelsa history write-a-thon

Conclusion

Prior to the implementation of this project, significant gaps in data existed regarding Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, resulting in limited international visibility for these regions. Throughout the project, efforts have been made to document the rich culture and traditions of the people of Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa. While progress has been made, there remains much more work to be done. Wikipedia has emerged as a valuable resource for storing our collective knowledge and preserving it for future generations

By Rupal Karia, Outreach and Community Coordinator at Wikimedia UK

The UK has a thriving Wiki community, and coming together informally, in-person, can be an important opportunity for Wikipedians who enjoy interacting with people in real life as well as online.

Meet-ups are a space where you can connect with fellow Wikimedians, chat about Wikipedia and its sister projects, exchange ideas and support, meet other people who are passionate about open knowledge and feel part of the UK Wiki community. All meet-ups observe the Friendly Spaces Policy; commiting to providing a welcoming experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, appearance, race, and religion (and not limited to those aspects). 

Whether you are new to Wiki projects or a long-time Wikimedian, there are meet-ups happening up and down the country where you can connect with fellow Wikimedians. Currently there are meet-ups in Leeds, Edinburgh, Brighton, Oxford and London.

You can find out more details about all the meet-ups here. If you would like to set up a Wikimedian meet-up in your area and would like some support from WMUK, please get in touch with us at volunteering@wikimedia.org.uk

The post Ways to connect – Wikimedian meet-ups across the UK appeared first on WMUK.

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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• Between 2 April and 8 April, on wikis using Flagged Revisions, the “Reverted” tag was not applied to undone edits. In addition, page moves, protections and imports were not autoreviewed. This problem is now fixed. [1][2]

Changes later this week

•  The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 April. It will be on all wikis from 18 April (calendar). [3][4]
• Default category sort keys will now affect categories added by templates placed in footnotes. Previously footnotes used the page title as the default sort key even if a different default sort key was specified (category-specific sort keys already worked). [5]
• A new variable page_last_edit_age will be added to abuse filters. It tells how many seconds ago the last edit to a page was made. [6]

Future changes

• Volunteer developers are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle temporary accounts. Learn more.
•  Four database fields will be removed from database replicas (including Quarry). This affects only the abuse_filter and abuse_filter_history tables. Some queries might need to be updated. [7]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

In celebration of African women’s achievements and contributions to society, Open Foundation West Africa launched the Shine Her Light Campaign, an initiative that focused on highlighting their stories and accomplishments. The Shine Her Light Campaign consisted of two main events: The Shine Her Light Writing Contest and the Shine Her Light Webinar.

The writing contest aimed to bridge the gender gap on Wikipedia by increasing the representation of African women on the platform. As the contest came to a close, the Shine Her Light Webinar, which featured inspiring women from diverse fields was organized. Through it, our community got to learn from the shared experiences and insights of these notable women. Aside from these two main programs, the Shine Her Light Campaign included a one month social media drive that featured awareness creation and publicity of the profiles and biographies of some prominent African women, particularly those who were active in the women and youth empowerment space.

Celebrating African Women’s Voices on Wikipedia

The campaign began with the Shine Her Light Writing Contest which was unveiled on the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, and ran through March with both the writing contest and campaign coming to a close on the 31st of March. Throughout the contest, participants delved into the lives and achievements of African women, creating and editing Wikipedia articles to ensure their stories were accurately represented. With the goal of proper representation in mind, the contest was directed at creating new articles for biographies of the prominent African women who were included in the social media drive, specifically those who do not have existing Wikipedia articles. A call has been put out to our community for the creation of a jury that will evaluate the contributions made and decide on the winners by the end of April 2024. The reward list for the contest’s winners allotted $70 to the top contributor, $50 and $30 for the second and third place respectively, with a special prize of $50 for the top female contributor.

The Power of Collaboration

One of the most remarkable aspects of the contest was the realization of the impact of a spirit of collaboration. As editors collaborated to research, write, and edit articles, they shared knowledge and built connections. Through collaborative efforts, participants were able to amplify the voices of African women and create a lasting impact on the platform. As a testament to this sentiment, the contest saw a total of 60 registered participants with 35 editors and by the 31st of March, the program dashboard displayed 4,490 total edits, 705,000 words added, and 5480 references added. Here is a link to the contest dashboard

Telling the Untold Story in the Shine Her Light Webinar

To culminate the contest, we organized a webinar where women from various fields of work came together to share their stories and insights. From a journalist’s perspective, Adwoa Tenkoramaa of Citi FM/Citi TV shared her story on how she navigates the media space as a woman. A climate enthusiast and activist, Stephanie Nkansah of A Rocha Ghana discussed the relational cycle between women, the environment, and society. Finally, a corporate manager, Jael Serwaa Boateng, Executive Director of Open Foundation West Africa described the struggles of a woman in the corporate world. Each speaker offered valuable perspectives on empowerment, leadership, and breaking barriers, and the webinar provided a platform for dialogue, inspiration, and networking between community members, further amplifying the voices of African women and fostering connections across diverse sectors. Did you miss our webinar? Catch up now on YouTube and dive into insightful discussions!

Reflections, Future Directions, and Conclusion

As we think back on the success of the Shine Her Light Writing Contest, webinar, and campaign as a whole, we recognize the importance of ongoing efforts to empower African women and ensure their voices are heard and valued. Moving forward, we are committed to continuing our work to bridge the gender gap on Wikipedia and empower women to share their stories, expertise, and achievements with the world. By celebrating the achievements of women and amplifying their presence on platforms like Wikipedia, we can inspire change, foster inclusivity, and create a more equitable world for all.

On r/AmItheAsshole, you tell your story about an interpersonal conflict, and, after 18 hours, a bot tallies the comments and labels the post as:

• YTA (you are the asshole)
• NTA (not the asshole)
• ESH (everyone sucks here)
• NAH (no asshole here)
• or INFO (more information needed)

How many people get voted the asshole? Thanks to bot data from u/phteven_j, here are the relevant statistics for 2022-Nov-01 to 2023-Apr-03.

• Total judgments: 45,597
• 445,160 Mod actions (remove, ban, etc)
• Banned users: 30,590
• 445 Average post upvotes
• 140 Average comments per post
• Average time til top comment posted: 14.5 minutes

Also, the Redditor who issued the top (most voted for) judgment receives a point toward their user flair rank. A user with the “Pooperintendant” flair has been the highest-voted top-level commenter fifty times! Again, with data from u/phteven_j, I’ve tabulated the number of those holding a rank. These are cumulative: a higher rank is counted in all lower ranks. Note that these ranks span the history of the subreddit, which has revised the system over that time (in 2019, five new ranks were added). This explains why, for a couple of higher ranks, there are more of them than a preceding rank.

04/04/2024-10/04/2024

Mapping

• Suresh Devalapalli described how to improve the quality of OpenStreetMap data by identifying and correcting untagged pedestrian crossings, which are critical to improving the accuracy of pedestrian networks in urban areas such as Los Angeles. Using algorithms, they have automated the detection and correction of mapping inconsistencies, significantly improving the utility of the data for navigation and planning.
• PineappleSkip has written a diary entry on tagging rural roads in Queensland, Australia.
• Minh Nguyễn has mapped all the time zones of the United States and their history going back to 1919, when time zones were first established in the US.
• Take part in the vote and discussion on the interpretation of maxwidth:physical for gates and doors, debating whether it refers to the passable width without opening or after the gate/door is fully opened.

Community

• Arjunaraoc shared his efforts at improving the accuracy of geospatial data on OpenStreetMap and Wikidata for Indian locations, focusing on correcting mismatches in the locations of villages in Andhra Pradesh.
• In the second week of their EU Camera Grant project Anne-Karoline Distel has uploaded around 30,000 images, using a GoPro Max, experimenting with different modes of transportation including cycling, walking, and taking the bus to capture imagery. Despite weather challenges, their efforts were enhanced by using an e-bike, allowing for broader coverage. They also discussed the project in a local radio interview and began testing uploads to Panoramax.
• bkil is calling for developers to help contribute to an OSM accessibility initiative. They want to aid blind editors and others with a disability through micro-mapping and documentation.
• In Timor-Leste, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, in collaboration with local and international partners, is pioneering anticipatory action mapping to mitigate climate-related risks. This project uses satellite imagery to map critical infrastructure and is complemented by community knowledge of flood history and early warning mechanisms.
• GovernorKeagan continued his mapping efforts in Gqeberha, South Africa, focusing on adding missing buildings, micro-mapping schools and shopping centres, and making small corrections. His detailed work included correcting misalignments and improving data quality through local knowledge and aerial photography, making a significant contribution to the OpenStreetMap project in South Africa from Ireland.
• The UN Mappers of the Month for April are the extraordinary team of Chinese translators who translated the UN Maps Learning Hub courses: OSM Basics and OSM Advanced. Their dedication helps overcome language barriers, allowing future Chinese mappers to gain skills directly in their native language.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The OpenstreetMap Foundation’s Communication Working Group tweeted about weeklyOSM.
• The OSMF announced that the York Region Open Data provided under the Open Data Licence and OGL 1.0 Toronto have been deemed compatible with OSM by the LWG. It lists several licences, such as OGL Canada 2.0 and various local variants, and notes their compatibility with specific standards. The list is a work in progress and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Events

• The Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology will release Sketch Map Tool 2.0 on Tuesday 16 April. The new version will offer enhancements for participatory mapping with offline data collection, digitisation, and georeferencing. Join the launch event in the first session at 9 am or the second session at 5 pm (UTC+2).
• The call for academic track abstracts for the State of The Map 2024 is open until Friday 10 May.
• On Thursday 25 April the Trufi Association will host a webinar exploring GTFS-Flex’s potential. This extension to the General Transit Feed Specification can represent real-world dynamic conditions, including informal transport in the global South and services for communities supported by small urban, rural, and tribal transit agencies.

Education

• Zeke Farwell explored the art of mapping rural forests in JOSM by demonstrating how to efficiently outline forest areas using existing road maps. This tutorial reveals handy techniques, including the time-saving tip of using the ‘alt’ key for tagless copying, which makes forest mapping easier and more accurate.
• The IVIDES Institute have hosted ► a workshop on the collaborative mapping of points of interest (POI) with OpenStreetMap. Dr Raquel Souto commented ► about it in her diary, sharing that she presented on how to map coastal and marine POIs.

OSM research

• [1] GeoSDS team have analysed the emergency response time of ambulances in Jakarta, Indonesia, by using the emergency=ambulance_station tag in OpenStreetMap.
• A new study from Qi Zhou, Zixian Liu, and Zesheng Huang presented a method integrating OpenStreetMap and Google satellite imagery to map the road surface types (paved or unpaved) in Kenya, addressing the challenge of large-scale, accurate road surface identification. The dataset created contains over 1.2 million road segments, with the method proving highly accurate, offering valuable insights for improving local infrastructure and economic development.
• Rhett Butler discussed the significant effect of illegal ‘ghost roads’ on rainforests, focusing on their role in facilitating unauthorised access and deforestation. The article highlights the use of OpenStreetMap data to show how technology and mapping data can reveal the vast network of these roads and draw attention to the urgent need for conservation efforts in these critical areas. The study highlights the value of geospatial data in environmental conservation strategies.

Maps

• Berliner Badeseen (Berlin Bathing Lakes) puts the places in Berlin where you can swim (like beaches and lakes) on a map, indicating water quality with coloured umbrella icons and offering filters for personalised searches. It was created using Maperitive, OpenStreetMap data, and Leaflet.js, with water quality data from daten.berlin.de and swimming pool data from the municipal pool operator Berliner Bäderbetriebe.
• OSM India community member sahilister has started a thread on the OSM Community forum highlighting places in India that have highly detailed and beautiful looking maps on OSM. #NicelyMappedIndia places will be showcased on OSM India’s Mastodon and X handles.
• Nat Henry has launched Close, an interactive map that shows walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly neighbourhoods across every block in the United States.
• Matt Whilden has created a map of the US state of Washington based on OSM data that can be searched using filters without having to follow Overpass syntax. Using an example, he shows how he can easily visualise Indian and Thai takeaway restaurants on the map with a very simple search query.

OSM in action

• ‘Infection Free Zone’, a post-apocalyptic strategy game, was launched on Steam Early Access on Thursday 11 April. The game features integration with OpenStreetMap, allowing players to rebuild cities in any real-world location, facing threats from the infected and resource scarcity. Players must make strategic decisions to ensure survival, using the game’s detailed replication of real-world topography to plan defences and resource gathering efficiently.
• The Russian marketplace Ozon is testing transitioning from Yandex Maps to its own geoplatform based on OSM data. Now OSM maps can be found on the page of order pick-up points and the website for selecting a location for opening pick-up points. The company is also testing a platform for filling in missing buildings and addresses in OSM based on messages from couriers.
• Bobropiton noticed that the public transport information boards in St. Petersburg are using an OpenStreetMap map.

Software

• Starting with version 19030, JOSM now builds for macOS, with native support for Apple Silicon.
• Mapilio has integrated OpenStreetMap login functionality, a significant step towards improving accessibility and map quality. This development allows users to seamlessly connect their OpenStreetMap accounts, making it easier to contribute and use Mapilio’s tools for a better mapping experience.
• Kamil Monicz discussed his progress in the development of OpenStreetMap’s NextGen, highlighting enhancements such as client-side SVG rendering for trace images for faster uploads and improved UI, and updates to deployment scripts, while thanking project sponsors and contributors.
• AlexandrPS has made a dark theme user style for osm.org and has improved the visibility of building outlines in the iD editor. By the way, there is documentation for the iD editor, which makes it easier to create your own styles.

Programming

• overturemaps-py is the official Python command-line tool of the Overture Maps Foundation, designed to download Overture Maps data in various formats, with features currently in the experimental phase.
• Alexander Nozik talked about the creation of maps-kt, a cartographic library for Compose Multiplatform.
• William Edmisten’s docker-openstreetmap-stack provides a set of Docker services to serve OpenStreetMap (OSM) tiles, routing, and geocoding. It includes detailed instructions on setting up the environment, prerequisites, hardware requirements, and steps to build the demo application, import data, and run the applications.
• Igor Sukhorukov spoke about openstreetmap_h3, a tool to help analyse OSM data, at the PGConf.Russia conference.

Did you know …

• … there is an OpenStreetMap tag on StackOverflow and GIS StackExchange?
• … the various options for supplying your Garmin devices with OSM maps?
  • OpenTopoMap
  • Speichenkarte ►
  • Garmin’s TopoActive ►
  • kleineisel.de
  • VeloMap
  • WanderReitKarte.de ►
  • thkukuk.de ►
  • freizeitkarte-osm.de ►
  • hscholland.de ►
  • OpenHiking.eu
  • hike-and-bike.ch
• … there are wikis that are focused solely on highways? AARoads covers North America and SABRE covers the UK and Ireland.

OSM in the media

• Elias Probst has discovered and Paketda! reported ► that the Post and DHL Group now use OpenStreetMap instead of the previous Google Maps service for the display of branches and packing stations on their website and in the Post and DHL app ►. A step that, according to CHIP, was probably motivated ► by financial considerations.

Other “geo” things

• Students from the University of Stralsund, in collaboration with the Störtebeker Brewery, have developed ► a ‘beer map’ comparing 13 different types of beer in a project that combines scientific analysis with beer tasting. Guided by statistical standards, the project aims to help beer lovers identify their favourite beers more easily, using multi-dimensional statistics to map the similarities and differences in flavour profiles.
• OpenCage’s last #geoweirdness toot was about Finland to celebrate the GeoMob event held on 9 April in Turku.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
Berlin	190. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch		2024-04-12
	OSMF Membership Campaign Webinar		2024-04-13
Dover	Beer and Mapping!		2024-04-13 – 2024-04-14
Delhi Cantonment	7th OSM Delhi Mapping Party		2024-04-13
	OpenStreetMap visual impaired accessibility initiative – kickoff (online)		2024-04-13
City of Belmont	Social Mapping Sunday: Ascot Bridge		2024-04-14
København	OSMmapperCPH		2024-04-14
Žilina	Missing Maps mapathon Žilina #13		2024-04-15
Amsterdam	Maptime Amsterdam – Spring Mapping!		2024-04-15
Budapest	2024.04 – OSM találkozó		2024-04-15
Hannover	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover		2024-04-15
Berlin	DRK Beginner Online Mapathon	✓	2024-04-15
England	OSM UK Online Chat	✓	2024-04-15
Tagbilaran	OSM-PH outreach in Tagbilaran, with UB-YMC		2024-04-16
Lyon	Réunion du groupe local de Lyon		2024-04-16
San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2024-04-17
Bonn	174. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn		2024-04-16
City of Edinburgh	OSM Edinburgh pub meetup		2024-04-16
	[Online] Map-py Wednesday		2024-04-17
Bielefeld	OSM Ostwestfalen-Lippe		2024-04-17
Kiel	Mapping-Party “Surveillance under surveillance” Kiel		2024-04-17
Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe		2024-04-17
	iD Community Chat		2024-04-24
Düsseldorf	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)		2024-04-24
Wien	71. Wiener OSM-Stammtisch		2024-04-24
Aachen	5. Treffen Aachener Stammtisch 2.0		2024-04-25
Potsdam	Radnetz Brandenburg Mapping Abend #6		2024-04-25
Fianarantsoa	State of the Map Madagascar		2024-04-28 – 2024-04-29

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, Strubbl, TheSwavu, TrickyFoxy, YoViajo, barefootstache, derFred, euroPathfinder, mcliquid, muramototomoya, rtnf.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

For Jessica Allison of the Detroit Institute of Arts, participating in Wiki Education’s recent Art History Wiki Scholars course presented the opportunity to improve Wikipedia articles using sources at her fingertips – the works housed in her museum’s own collection.

To find her starting point, Allison assembled a comprehensive list of works in the museum’s collection that related to the course themes and then explored Wikipedia to discover which of the works were already featured as articles. Her search led to the Wikipedia article about “The Jewish Cemetery”, a 17th century oil painting by the Dutch artist Jacob van Ruisdael.

“I came across the article for the Jewish Cemetery and noticed that some of the information, especially around provenance, was not accurate or as clearly described as what we had in our database,” said Allison, Collections Database Manager. “I wanted to check the sources and make sure we could update the article to share a clearer timeline of how the painting made its way into our collection.”

Allison did just that and more, tackling the project head-on. During her participation in the Wiki Scholars course, she added nearly 3,500 words and 36 references to the article, completely transforming several existing sections and adding a new section featuring the exhibition history of the painting.

Allison, along with her colleagues, continues to engage with and learn about Wikipedia and Wikidata to understand how to make accurate and robust information about their collections more accessible to the public. She encourages other professionals across all disciplines to lend their unique expertise, noting how the awareness of and immediate access to sources can save significant research time.

“Wikipedia can be a really great source of information for users looking to know more on certain subjects, but the articles are only as good as the sources and information that someone is able to provide,” said Allison. “Having resources and professional knowledge on a subject and being able to share it in this way helps everyone.”

When reflecting on her participation in the course, Allison noted the fun of rediscovering practices she hasn’t employed since her time as an art history student.

“My favorite part about editing Wikipedia is getting to spend some time researching and writing about works in our collection and using skills I don’t often get to utilize since finishing school,” said Allison. “It is nice to slow down and learn more about a work and be able to turn that knowledge into something accessible and easy to read for the public so that they can learn more about the work as well, and maybe they’ll decide to come check out the collection in person.”

Funded by Samuel H. Kress Foundation and led by Wiki Education in fall 2023, the 10-week Art History Wiki Scholars course focused on training scholars in pre-modern European art and architecture how to add their expertise to this underdeveloped subject area on Wikipedia. The collective contributions of Allison and the other 19 course participants have been viewed on Wikipedia nearly 3 million times.

• Albania report: WikiGap Tirana 2024
• Australia report: Art+Feminism in Australia
• Belgium report: Belgian Public domain day and Wiki Loves Heritage awards on March 7
• Brazil report: A GLAM focus on Rio de Janeiro; Archivos en vigília
• Colombia report: Making the public domain visible on Wikidata; In Colombia Women are historical
• Italy report: GLAM call winner projects
• Netherlands report: GLAMorousToHTML – a tool to list Wikipedia articles that include images from a given Commons category
• New Zealand report: Update on Wikidata:WikiProject Te Papa research expeditions and the Wikipedian at Large
• Poland report: What’s up in GLAM-Wiki in Poland in March
• Sweden report: More photo memories – and the community is helping out; Yearly student project
• Switzerland report: Swiss GLAM Programme
• UK report: A small problem with the Ottoman Empire
• USA report: GLAM CSI and WikiPortraits launch and more meetups
• Biodiversity Heritage Library report: BHL-Wiki Working Group March monthly highlights
• Content Partnerships Hub report: GLAMorousToHTML – a tool to list Wikipedia articles that include images from a given Commons category
• Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons report: WikiLearn course for OpenRefine on Wikimedia Commons
• WMF GLAM report: Learn to upload to Commons with OpenRefine and get up to date on the International Museum Day, GLAM CSI, WiLMa Network, and WikiWorkshop
• Calendar: April’s GLAM events

🕑 1 hour 43 minutes

Megan Cutrofello, better known as River, returns to the podcast. She is a freelance wiki developer who has worked with Gamepedia, Fandom and wiki.gg, among others.

Links for some of the topics discussed:

• wiki.gg
• "What's going on with gaming communities moving from Fandom to Wiki.gg?" (2023 Reddit thread)
• River Writes blog
• The Sea of Thieves Wiki
• DRUID (Data Representation Ultra Infobox Design) infoboxes

28/03/2024-03/04/2024

Mapping

• [1] barefootstache explored the Croatian countryside, not hesitating while being soaked traversing waterway crossings.
• GovernorKeagan has shared his journey of detailed mapping in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth, South Africa), focusing on adding buildings and details missing in his hometown, highlighting the therapeutic aspect of the task and plans for more structured updates and screenshots to document progress.
• Jfd553 has documented his detailed mapping project on the Magdalen Islands. The project involved correcting existing data and enriching the map with new features based on local knowledge over a nine-month period.
• OMNIBUS, from ReDHumus ►, has written a diary entry regarding his participation in the #UNMappers validation training. In particular he shares how he uses the ‘Who did it’ RSS generator to track changes in the map for his area of interest, and how to publish the timeline on a website for non-techy users.
• Supaplex described in detail a successful mapping workshop, organised by OpenStreetMap Taiwan and TomTom, held at the National Cheng Kung University, focusing on local project creation with the HOT Tasking Manager. The workshop trained 22 students, who contributed to mapping 369 buildings in the Xiejie District of Tainan City.
• Voting on the extended tagging of traffic_sign proposal is open until Monday 15 April.

Mapping campaigns

• Brazil Singh shared their experience with the Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific from HOT and World Vision Bangladesh, detailing a field mapping and data collection effort in Mirpur and Duaripara, a neighbourhood in Dhaka.
• The Austrian community has taken a collective approach in processing about 5000 map notes and about 2000 notes have already been closed in a short time. Currently, less than 3000 are still open. If you also want to help, there are a number of useful tools available:
  • An overview of all notes in Austria
  • A list of all open notes
  • A list of the oldest notes per country
  • A URL that displays a random note (suitable as a bookmark)
  • The tools NotesReview and NoteViewer for viewing local notes.
  • The JOSM plugin noteSolver for automatic assignment of changesets and notes

Community

• Anne-Karoline Distel discussed her initial week with a camera grant for EU mapping, capturing over 12,643 images on bike and foot, including mapping a new bus route to St. Mullin’s and adding new features to OSM.
• April Fools:
  • On 1 April Osm2pgsql went AI with a new cool AI generated logo. Amanda McCann reacted by saying ‘we shouldn’t let #AI anywhere near the code section’.
  • StreetComplete showed a rainbow #EasterEgg to replace the direction logo. Ludovic realised a rainbow nyan cat follows his edits and gislars felt followed by a rainbow trace.
  • TrickFoxy proposed OSM API v1.0⁴. This proposal was stamped and approved by Kamil Monicz. This ignited some serious discussion regarding future improvements for OSM API.
• Kamil Monicz’s third development diary for OpenStreetMap NextGen detailed updates such as the integration of features, a refreshed changeset user interface, support for the Rapid editor, a new icon system, improved pagination of elements, and native support for complex tagging schemas.
• Sven Geggus evaluated the progress of campsite tagging over the past decade (we reported earlier), noting a reduction in the number of sites with insufficient tagging from 70% to 47%, but acknowledging that much work remains to be done, with 81,880 sites still inadequately tagged.
• Volker Krause recapped his experience at the FOSSGIS Conference 2024 in Hamburg, Germany, with a focus on indoor navigation and public transport. Highlights include successful indoor OSM user meetings, updates in indoor localisation research, and BIM to OSM conversion efforts. Krause also explored public transport advancements relevant to Transitous and discussed the growing importance of open data and free software in public administration.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The OpenStreetMap Foundation has scheduled this year’s General Meeting and board elections for Saturday 19 October. To run for the Board you must be a member of the Foundation by Monday 22 April. There are four Board positions up for election this year. The election date has been adjusted to avoid a conflict with the presentation of the Financial Report.

Events

• Vitor announced the development of the State of the Map Latam 2024 website, scheduled for 7 and 8 December in Belém, Brazil, and called for community members, with web development experience, to collaborate on the project using Jekyll and a template from previous conferences.
• The FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2024 will take place in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, from 5 to 8 November. The call for papers is open until Friday 31 May.
• Videos of the FOSSGIS 2024 conference are now available . They provide access to a range of presentations and workshops covering topics such as QGIS, OpenStreetMap data evaluation, open data strategies, comprehensive overview of current trends, and developments in open source geospatial technology.
• The State of the Map (SotM) 2024 conference is calling for papers for its hybrid event being held in Nairobi, Kenya, and online. The event, the first international SotM in Africa, is seeking presentations in a variety of tracks, including OSM Basics, Community, Mapping, Cartography, Software Development, Data Analysis, and User Experience. Submissions must be made by Tuesday 23 April.
• On Monday 1 April Umbraosmbr held a mapping workshop for beginners on OpenStreetMap as part of the Mapeia Belém Project initiative, which aims to update data on the limit of the Legal Amazon and also train new mappers to join collaborative mapping. The recordings are available on YouTube and you can find more information in umbraosmbr’s blog posts: 1 and 2.

OSM research

• An article in The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences from 2022 discussed a collaborative mapping strategy developed for slum upgrading in Bogotá, Colombia, detailing the creation of a methodology for remote data collection in a South American informal settlement. It highlights the benefits of collaboration between different stakeholders, including local NGOs and international volunteers, using OpenStreetMap and Mapillary to map over 700 points of interest in a Bogotá slum, and highlights the potential of the methodology to be replicated in similar contexts to improve living conditions through detailed and accessible mapping.

Humanitarian OSM

• Pete Masters’ video shows how open data collected by MapSwipe users in the flood-affected areas of Libya is helping humanitarian aid workers and mappers to locate settlements for inclusion in OpenStreetMap.

Maps

• Robin Wilson has launched a web app which allows you to search and view British placenames on an OSM map background. You can search to find names that, for example, start with ‘great’, end with ‘burgh’, or contain ‘sea’, showing the fascinating patterns of names and their various sources in Britain.
• In the outdoorseiten.net forum ►, there is a uMap map, created by Wafer, that now includes 5000 shelters, water points, and other objects of interest for hikers and bike travellers. All have been visited, described, and photographed by volunteers. The map currently covers Germany and surrounding areas but can be expanded worldwide.
  Those who want to participate need to register in the forum and can report ► their observations in the post.
• Tracestrack have started rendering sac_scale and trail_visibility tags in their topographic maps.

Software

• Stadia Maps announced the release of their latest endpoint, ‘Cacheable Static Maps’, expanding their ‘Static Map Images’ API with special terms to enable new use cases in digital projects like CDNs and static sites, as well as in print materials such as brochures and books.
• Olivia Hudson, at Gearrice, highlighted Organic Maps as the preferred open source alternative to Google Maps and Waze for Android Auto users, highlighting its offline map downloads, Android Auto compatibility, and customisation options.

Programming

• retiolus has developed the osm2gmaps app over the past two weeks. It facilitates conversion between OSM-based app links and those for Google Maps, Apple Maps, Magic Earth, and vice versa, enhanced by user feedback.
• Robin Wilson has written a blog post showing how easy it is to self-host OSM-based routing using Valhalla and Docker, including Python code to process the Valhalla output.

Releases

• The Vespucci 20.0.0 release includes significant updates such as OAuth 2 support for authorisation, a delayed end of support for Android 4.1 to 4.4, new geometric features such as creating and aligning circles, improved wayfinding, improved conflict resolution, and support for localised values in presets. It also introduces a better onboarding experience for new users.
• Ilya Zverik has released a test build of their EveryDoor app with a ‘walking papers mode‘, which allows users to scribble lines on maps or imagery layers with options for colours and notes, intended for offline mapping enhancements. This feature supports GeoJSON export and aims to include various improvements like tappable notes, style selection, and an eraser mode.
• GeoDesk for Python 0.1.10 has introduced new filters for minimum and maximum areas and lengths, which are useful for discovering anomalous OpenStreetMap features.
• Mapilio has announced the integration of its image layers into OpenStreetMap via the iD editor. The partnership aims to provide mappers with improved tools for precision mapping.
• The Ordnance Survey has launched a new product, the OS Multi-modal Routing Network, to help transport planners by integrating over one million kilometres of road, rail, path, and ferry networks across the UK. This innovation, developed in response to customer feedback under the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement, aims to simplify route planning by providing a comprehensive one-stop-shop for transport data.
• With Organic Maps Android version 2024.03.31-8 the OpenStreetMap login functionality is working again. Other changes include improved isoline elevation data for Europe, updated OpenStreetMap data from 26 March, and various interface and functionality improvements, such as sorted bookmark lists and a larger search results button, as well as crash fixes and Android Auto improvements.
• FacilMap version 4.0.0 brings significant UI/feature updates, bug fixes, changes for self-hosted instances, and technical changes including migration to Vue 3, use of Bootstrap 5 and the introduction of new features such as a high accuracy mode for current location and QR code sharing.

Did you know …

• … Öffi? This is an Android app designed to support public transport by providing users with real-time information on trains and buses, including delays and replacement services, in various European countries and the USA.
• …the traffic sign tool > , which can be used to compile tags for some German traffic signs?

OSM in the media

• CHIP reported ► on OpenCycleMap and emphasised that it makes cycling tours a real experience. The article looked at the map legend, the POIs displayed, and the editing options.
• The GeoObserver highlighted ► OpenStreetMap’s rapid update capabilities, exemplified by its quick response to the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was hit by a 300 m long container ship. Within 2 hours and 34 minutes of the incident OpenStreetMap had updated its maps to reflect the status of the bridge, demonstrating its efficiency in providing up-to-date map data, in contrast to Google Maps, which still showed the bridge but with a warning and altered routing.
• Volodymyr Agafonkin shared his journey to creating Leaflet, a open-source JavaScript mapping library for interactive maps similar to OpenStreetMap in a Minds Behind Maps podcast interview. The conversation also touched on life in Ukraine amidst the ongoing conflict, illustrating the backdrop against which Agafonkin’s work progresses.

Other “geo” things

• The Open Data Days Vienna 2024, with this year’s motto ‘Data above and below ground’, offered ► the more than 140 participants an insight into the Austrian Parliament’s expanded open data offerings. The importance of transparency and accessibility in democracy was emphasised through guided tours and discussions at various open data showcases related to the Parliament’s work.
• This TGS-produced map shows details of offshore wind installations with electrical interconnections. The map uses Esri.
• A new study, published in Nature Cities, has assessed the global potential of new peri-urban forests to combat climate change. These geospatial data sources are critical for analysing land availability, guiding restoration efforts, and planning urban forestry initiatives in the context of climate change.
• Marianna Kantor, from Esri, discussed the transformative role of GeoAI, which combines spatial analytics and artificial intelligence to improve decision-making and predictive capabilities. She highlighted its application across multiple sectors, citing the US Army Corps of Engineers, which has saved $100 million annually by using GeoAI to efficiently dredge to maintain navigable waterways.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
Bengaluru	OSM Bengaluru Mapping Party		2024-04-06
Richmond	MapRVA Happy Hour		2024-04-09
Potsdam	Radnetz Brandenburg Mapping Abend #5		2024-04-08
Grenoble	Atelier du groupe local OpenStreetMap		2024-04-08
Aachen	5. Treffen Aachener Stammtisch 2.0		2024-04-09
Hamburg	Hamburger Mappertreffen	✓	2024-04-09
München	Münchner OSM-Treffen		2024-04-09
	UN Mappers training – Validating OSM data – session #6		2024-04-10
Salt Lake City	OSM Utah Monthly Map Night		2024-04-11
Lorain County	OpenStreetMap Midwest Meetup	✓	2024-04-11
Zürich	162. OSM-Stammtisch		2024-04-11
Berlin	190. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch		2024-04-12
	OpenStreetMap visual impaired accessibility initiative – kickoff (online)		2024-04-13
City of Belmont	Social Mapping Sunday: Ascot Bridge		2024-04-14
København	OSMmapperCPH		2024-04-14
Žilina	Missing Maps mapathon Žilina #13		2024-04-15
Amsterdam	Maptime Amsterdam – Spring Mapping!		2024-04-15
Budapest	2024.04 – OSM találkozó		2024-04-15
Hannover	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover		2024-04-15
Berlin	DRK Beginner Online Mapathon	✓	2024-04-15
England	OSM UK Chat	✓	2024-04-15
Lyon	Réunion du groupe local de Lyon		2024-04-16
Bonn	174. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn		2024-04-16
San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2024-04-17
	[Online] Map-py Wednesday		2024-04-17
Bielefeld	OSM Ostwestfalen-Lippe		2024-04-17
Kiel	Mapping-Party “Surveillance under surveillance” Kiel		2024-04-17
Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe		2024-04-17

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, Michael Montani, PierZen, SeverinGeo, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, derFred, mcliquid, rtnf.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

Apr 3, 13:58 UTC
Resolved - This incident has been resolved.

Apr 3, 13:45 UTC
Monitoring - A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.

Apr 3, 13:29 UTC
Investigating - We are aware that many users are having trouble accessing Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites, and we are investigating.

Activist organisations often have difficulties with raising awareness around the problems that they make it their mission to solve. While lack of adequate expertise or access to funding that could be spent for information campaigns, are among reasons, there is a lot to be said about the messaging and methods we chose. What if we got inspiration from pop-culture and artworks that excell at translating the emerging tendencies and new technologies into the zeitgeist?

These are the droids you’re looking for

Together with SWPS University’s Institute of Humanities in Warsaw, Poland, we delved into exactly this inspiration! Students worked under the direction of the faculty on data collection and report Visions of AI in Popular Culture: Analysis of the Narratives about Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction Films and Series. The Wikimedia assignment was to examine attitudes and winning narratives pertaining to the key narrative tropes:

• Conquest or progress? The spread of tech innovation as a political and economic tool
• Good teamwork and machines – how team forming and priorities are assisted, augmented, made possible through technology
• The pursuit of happiness – personal goals and way to get there in tech-saturated world
• Making a family – non-humans, human emotions, making a mistake, lasting emotional connections between humans and non-humans alike
• Which way do we go? New geographies, responses to the non-human other and their rationalisation
• Who is a good citizen? Political choice, rebellion, and going underground in tech-saturated society/or surveillance doctrine of governance ( / = to choose or to mix)
• Everything is going to be fine! Technology as a source of comfort and reassurance 

Where no wo/man has gone before

So why are we so bent on rediscovering this? It has to do with what we identified as a narrow repertoire of narrative devices that are commonly in use. Insular language or overcomplicating the messaging to not miss “important nuance” are among most common issues. Often our campaigners need to feel they like their campaign even if they are not the ones that should actually be persuaded by it. On the other hand, there seems to be emphasis on an apologetic approach, where an appeal to the audience’s higher feelings is centred. In result many campaigns persuade people to “normalise old age”, “be a hero and adopt a poor, sick pet”, show outstanding compassion and “help feed a child”. 

These campaigns are based on an ask for a bend of perspective and appeal to a narrow range of emotions and reflexes. Campaigns centred on the digital rights are mostly based on dissent (“say no to content filters”), resistance (“resistance is not futile”, as one sticker at 36C3 proclaimed), or action to rebound from power imbalance (“reclaim your face”). Again, the audience is asked for a favour.  

We thought there is more that can be done to get people on board with our messages and campaigns.

We’re Not In The Business. We are The Business.

Pop culture operates on a buy-in principle. The buy-in in pop culture is not a stretch of goodwill, it is an invitation to be cool, to partake in excitement. This considers both the palatable and the difficult notions handy in renegotiating the social order. 

It is no coincidence that Star Trek and Star Wars debuted during the consolidation of the Cold War efforts resulting in both sides of the conflict escalating the arms race into space. Even cautionary tales carry considerate allure – a condemnation of predictive policing and surveillance capitalism (Minority Report) had showed off motion-powered interfaces, smart houses, and autonomous cars with elegance, before these were cool.

Even animations for children are studded with subtle references to modern technologies, almost subliminally sneaking them into the everyday. A story of friendship and belonging in difficult times features a snugly robot to explain machine-assisted wellbeing on the side (Big Hero 6 from 2015 which coincidentally is a year of mass-market release of Echo and Alexa). A tale of following one’s dreams does not only make a comic relief out of facial recognition but also showcases US security measures at the US-Mexican border as a well accepted fact (Disney’s Coco, released in 2017 in the midst of the biggest wave of protection-seeking migration from Central America since 2014).

While the showcased tropes certainly are not ones that would become a focus of a campaign on digital rights, there is certainly learning to be taken from pixarisation of soft propaganda in pursuit of positive emotions and, in the end, surrender if not compliance. In order to do so, these and more examples need to be analysed and understood.

We hope that the report will offer an inspiration on ways we can tell stories and shape messages when speaking of digital rights.

Download the report:

• In English
• In Polish

This month was a slow month. While we had planned a user group meeting, the shift to daylight savings time caused confusion, and we didn’t manage to get together.

On a positive note, I managed to get a proposal for Wikimania submitted. Now, let’s hope that the program committee finds it worthy.

This is the second half of my third monthly reports of my New Year’s resolutions.