There’s been a recent surge in news reports about schools, including those in Kerala, incorporating AI into classrooms. For example this news titled “Kerala School Introduces IRIS: India’s First AI Teacher Robot” Today, I learned about a teacher training program organized by the Kerala Education Department. The program focuses on training teachers before students on AI tools. While I generally support teacher training on new technologies that can potentially improve teaching or save time, I’m curious about the specific problems AI is expected to solve.

 Last week I went to Portland for the MediaWiki Users and Developers conference (nee EMWCon). This is primarily a conference for people doing stuff with MediaWiki outside of Wikimedia. I had a blast.

I always enjoy conferences on the smaller side. They feel so much more personal. This year's conference had Ward Cunningham as the guest of honour. Ward was a fascinating person to meet and get to talk to.

I also must say hats off to the organizers - conference ran smoothly, venue was great, food was amazing. Seriously some of the best food I've ever had at any Wikimedia conference.

This was also my first time in Portland. Portland is a beautiful city. I didn't have a huge amount of time to explore the city, but I did manage to go to the Chinese garden, which was absolutely stunning. I also loved how many interesting murals there were in the city. Even the graffiti seemed prettier than normal.

 

I think my favourite talk was Jeffery's. He demo'd using LLMs to answer questions based on the content of the Wiki. The demo deities weren't fully in his favour, but I think it also demonstrated an important point that LLMs are cutting edge technologies that don't always give the expected answer 100% of the time. In any case, he did a great job presenting.

I did get the sense that I think some participants were disappointed that there was very little representation of WMF management (whether "real" management or product management) at the conference. Birgit did give a remote talk and Selena did come to a happy hour event after the conference, but neither really participated.

I don't think the participants necessarily wanted anything from WMF management, but there is a little bit of a feeling of being unseen. Many of the conference goers use MediaWiki for their own purposes and are interested to know what WMFs plans are for the future and how it will affect them (as do we all).

I think some participants were hoping to maybe make some connections for better mutual understanding and just reduce uncertainty about what is on the roadmap for MediaWiki. In theory Birgit's talk was about the plans for MediaWiki, but I suspect it was too laden with annual planning corporate buzzwords for anyone to figure out what it actually meant concretely.

The flip side of that of course is that open source is a do-orcracy. The corporate MediaWiki users as a general rule do not contribute back to MediaWiki core all that often, which is the price of admission to the various power structures of MediaWiki.

Create Camp

We were honored to host an exciting workshop in commemoration of the Open Data Day at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, welcoming level 200 students to participate in an engaging training session.

The collaboration was between Women for Sustainability Africa (w4safrica), Open Knowledge Foundation (OKI), Open Knowledge Ghana (OKG), Youth Climate Council (YCC), and the University of Environment and Sustainable Development . The event aimed to equip participants with essential tools and techniques to tackle climate change effectively. From exploring open data platforms like Wikipedia to understanding the pivotal role of technology in climate resilience, attendees delved into a wealth of knowledge and insights.

Distinguished speakers from Women for Sustainability Africa, Youth Climate Council, and Open Knowledge Ghana graced the occasion, sharing invaluable lessons on the importance of open data, the role of Wikipedia for climate action, challenges in building climate resilience, data analytics for climate action, and emerging trends in technology for climate resilience.

It was intriguing for us to know that almost 90% of the students had no idea that every is welcome to contribute to Wikipedia and for most of them, they have been  with the myth that Wikipedia is not a credible site without verifying that statement themselves. Enlightening them about the value and opportunities Wikipedia offers was really intriguing to the student.

Moreover, the event served as a platform to introduce students to the Open Knowledge Foundation and Open Knowledge Ghana, the Wikimedia Community, and the Youth Climate Council enhancing a sense of community and encouraging active participation in the open knowledge movement surrounding climate change.

The enthusiasm among participants was obvious, with 51 students and a dedicated team of 7 individuals actively engaging in the session. Photos from the event capture the energy and excitement of the day, showcasing moments of learning and collaboration.

Looking ahead, participants have been enrolled in our community WhatsApp group, ensuring continued engagement and access to opportunities within the open knowledge space.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Open Knowledge Foundation for their generous support, which made this event possible. Additionally, we thank Open Knowledge Ghana and the Youth Climate Council for their invaluable collaboration and support, as well as the University of Environment and Sustainable Development for welcoming us and providing a platform to engage with their students.

We also want to acknowledge our respective guest speakers in the persons of , Richard Martey from YCC Ghana, Anita Ofori, W4SAfrica, Ruby D-Brown, Maxwell Beganim from Open Knowledge Ghana.

As we reflect on the success of Open Data Day, we are inspired by the passion and dedication of all involved and look forward to future collaborations and initiatives aimed at driving meaningful change in the fight against climate change.

All photos credit – CC-BY-SA Women for Sustainability Africa

International Roma Day Edit-a-thon 2024

We reflect on the remarkable journey of the Wikipedia edit-a-thon that commemorated World Roma Day. This global event not only celebrated the rich tapestry of Roma culture and history but also aimed to bridge knowledge gaps within the vast expanse of the internet’s most extensive encyclopedia. The results were nothing short of extraordinary, with countless articles updated and expanded, shedding light on the stories and achievements of the Roma people.

Wikimedia Serbia organized the fifth global edit-a-thon to celebrate World Roma Day with the support of the CEE Hub. Volunteers worldwide wrote and improved articles on the Roma people and their history and culture. This campaign aims to combat prejudice and discrimination against Roma by spreading knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wiki projects. Roma Day Edit-a-thon was supported by Wikimedia Ukraine, Wikimedia Finland, Wikimedia Macedonia, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group, Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova, Wikimedia Hungary and Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska.

Page was created on Meta with a table containing a list of articles showing whether they exist in Wikipedia’s mentioned language edition. The list included different subcategories of topics, which made the list much easier to observe and navigate. This system allowed participants to work on translating articles if sources and literature on a given item did not exist in their language. Wikimedia affiliates and communities who were invited to join and support this event were countries and regions that have a significant Roma minority. Many affiliations and user groups organized a local version of this campaign.

The edit-a-thon lasted from the 1st until the 15th of April. This year, 42 participants from 8 language versions of Wikipedia wrote 116 and improved 9 articles. Wikipedians on Ukrainian, Serbian, and Macedonian Wikipedia contributed especially significantly to this event. The editors were also encouraged to work on Wikidata as well as on Wikiquote. On Wikidata, 51 new items were improved. On Wikiquote, 76 quotes were added. 

The final results can be viewed on Meta-wiki.

Articles about Romani people and their culture are an integral part of the CEE Spring competition, so editors from Central and Eastern Europe who are interested can contribute to this topic and participate in their local competitions until May 31st.

As we close the chapter on this year’s edit-a-thon, we invite you to join us next year. Whether you’re an experienced editor or new to the world of Wikipedia, your contributions can make a big impact. Together, let’s continue to enrich the narrative of the Roma community and ensure their history and culture are represented with the depth and respect they deserve.

Mark your calendars for next year’s World Roma Day, and be part of a movement that writes history, one edit at a time. 

United Nations Member States are drafting a vision for the future of the internet through the Global Digital Compact. We can ensure that the Wikimedia projects are protected.

United Nations (UN) Member States are outlining principles for an open, free, and secure digital future through a new international framework: the Global Digital Compact. Similar to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Compact will become the blueprint for how Member States shape their internet policies and develop regulation at the country level. Those policies and regulations will impact Wikimedia projects.

We want the Global Digital Compact to ensure that spaces exist in that digital future for community-led models centered on the public interest. This is especially important at a time when policymakers’ attempts to regulate the largest for-profit technology companies are increasingly resulting in unintended adverse consequences for community-led platforms like ours. The time to shape the text of the Compact is now, and Wikimedians have a unique story and experience to share. 

The Wikimedia Foundation and 12 Wikimedia affiliates have published an open letter as a call to UN Member States to include three key commitments in the Global Digital Compact. This blog post explains why influencing the Compact is essential for Wikimedia’s free and open knowledge mission, why we are publishing the open letter now, and how you can support this initiative.

Why is the Global Digital Compact important?

The Compact is being collaboratively created through a consultation process involving governments, civil society, the private sector, and more. UN Member States will vote on the final version of the Compact in September, 2024, at a special meeting known as the Summit of the Future that will focus on various aspects of global cooperation.

During the past two years, the Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates have been involved in the Compact drafting process. More recently, the Foundation and 12 Wikimedia affiliates have created a proposal to enshrine core principles that are essential to the Wikimedia movement, such as protecting community-led models, in the final version of the Compact. We believe this will both protect our projects and pave the way for similar projects to emerge and thrive in the future. 

For Wikimedia affiliates like Wikimedia Czech Republic, the Compact is a rare chance to proactively build a more inclusive online future:

In advocacy work, we often only react to changes in our legal and social environment that we were previously unable to influence. Thus, whenever there is an opportunity to participate in the creation of rules, and not only to follow them, we need to take it. The Global Digital Compact is such an opportunity. This initiative will influence the shape of the world in which Wikimedia projects operate, and here we can do something to help make the online space what we need it to be: A free digital space without barriers, which enables the free sharing of knowledge.

Why we are publishing this open letter now

Governments worldwide are increasingly proposing new legislation aimed at regulating the largest for-profit technology companies, but in doing so are inadvertently creating legal requirements that could harm Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Some measures proposed by governments in recent years both threaten the ability of volunteers to moderate content on the projects, and put pressure on the Foundation to violate our privacy principles and collect more information than is strictly necessary about users.

The creation of the Global Digital Compact is one of the most valuable opportunities to address these threats at the global level. Through this open letter, we are encouraging UN Member States to help us enshrine our values of community-led content moderation and governance in this global framework in order to protect our projects’ futures. The open letter builds on efforts over the past two years from the Wikimedia affiliates and the Foundation to help shape the Compact, mainly by providing both written and oral input into a number of public consultations. These include a comprehensive written submission in April 2023.

For Wikimedia User Group Nigeria and Wikimedia Chile, the Compact is a chance to highlight experiences from their communities at the global level. 

Wikimedia User Group Nigeria explained their challenges and aspirations:

Access to resources, knowledge, and power is not available in the same proportion among nations, and neither is access to technology. As an organization from the Global South, we desire a digital technological future that will benefit all and promote information transparency, equality, and safety of internet users everywhere.

Wikimedia Chile emphasized that the Compact offers a crucial opportunity to reshape digital governance:

Voices from the Global South are crucial to shaping this discussion. Our experiences are often overlooked when determining technology’s global impact and governance. We urge Wikimedia affiliates and volunteers to actively participate in this conversation, as it presents a rare opportunity to shape and safeguard the internet we desire.

Our open letter outlines key commitments that we want to have included in the final version of the Compact: principles that are fundamental to ensuring that the future of the internet is open, global, interoperable, inclusive, and grounded in human rights.

What we are saying in our open letter

The open letter that the Foundation and a dozen Wikimedia affiliates have published and signed asks UN Member States to enshrine three core principles in the Global Digital Compact that can help ensure that online public interest projects as well as the people who create them can continue to thrive:

1. Protect and empower communities to govern online public interest projects.  Free knowledge projects such as Wikipedia should not be rare. UN Member States should—through regulation, public policy, funding, and other resources—support a world where diverse online communities can build and govern their own public interest projects, designing them to be equitable and contributing to a healthier online information ecosystem. 
2. Promote and protect digital public goods by supporting a robust digital commons from which everyone, everywhere can benefit. Digital public goods such as Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects aim to make multilingual and intercultural information freely accessible to everyone. A thriving public domain that enables the sharing of free and openly licensed content for everyone to use and reuse is key to advancing many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
3. Build and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to support and empower, not replace, people who create content and make decisions in the public interest. AI and machine learning tools should support, and not replace, the work of humans. They should be designed and deployed in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, ensuring clear and consistent attribution. Such tools should also ensure participation and control by affected communities through transparent, accountable, and open processes.

Wikimedia UK has campaigned these past years to educate lawmakers and prevent the unintended negative consequences of regulatory decisions that threaten Wikimedia projects. The Wikimedia affiliate noted:

The Global Digital Compact represents a unique opportunity for Wikimedians to work together, across nations, to determine how we can make the internet an even better place. It is important to balance user interests with protection and freedom for public interest projects and community-governed platforms. We hope that as many people as possible from across Wikimedia’s diverse communities will sign and share the open letter to help shape this important initiative.

The full potential of the internet—enabling collaboration, broadening access to knowledge, and advancing social progress—depends on a united effort from governments, policymakers, and civil society to protect public interest spaces online.

Sign the open letter to show your support for a digital future that protects Wikimedia and other community-led projects for future generations. You can also read more about the Global Digital Compact and the Wikimedia movement’s work to shape it on our campaign collaboration webpage on Meta-Wiki and in our Medium blog post. 

*      *       *

If you want to stay on top of everything you need to help us protect the Wikimedia model, its people, and its values, sign up for our quarterly newsletter.    

23 April 2024 — Today, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, along with 12 Wikimedia affiliates, published an open letter calling on United Nations (UN) Member States to include commitments in the forthcoming Global Digital Compact that can allow online public interest projects, such as Wikipedia, to thrive. By protecting these projects and the communities that create them, the international community can ensure that the digital environment advances sustainable development and human rights.

The Global Digital Compact, which is being developed through a consultation process involving governments, the UN system, the private sector, civil society, grassroots organizations, academia, and individuals, aims to “outline shared principles for an open, free, and secure digital future for all.” It is the most comprehensive attempt ever at creating a vision for a shared approach to governing digital technologies. Set to be agreed at the Summit of the Future in September, this compact among UN Member States will help structure the future of digital cooperation and regulation for many countries around the world.

The letter released today highlights how Wikipedia’s community-governed model can serve as a roadmap for a better internet. Wikipedia is made and maintained by a global community of over 265,000 volunteer contributors who set and enforce policies to ensure that information on the platform is fact-based, neutral, and attributed to reliable sources. Over the last 20 years, Wikipedia’s human-centered content moderation model has established an unparalleled resource for reliable information in over 300 languages; its 62 million articles are viewed more than 15 billion times per month worldwide. Volunteers vigilantly defend against information that does not comply with the rules that they themselves have established and agreed upon. Furthermore, their volunteer-led process of content moderation is open and transparent. 

Wikipedia is also the only website in the top-ten most-visited global websites to be run by a nonprofit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation. The letter’s signatories, which include the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates, are calling on the drafters of the Global Digital Compact to include three key commitments that can help ensure an open, global, interoperable, and inclusive internet upon which public interest projects such as Wikipedia, and the people who create them, depend:

1. Protect and empower communities to govern online public interest projects. 

Free knowledge projects such as Wikipedia should not be rare. UN Member States should — through regulation, public policy, funding, and other resources — support a world where diverse online communities can build and govern their own public interest projects, designing them to be equitable and contributing to a healthier online information ecosystem. 

2. Promote and protect digital public goods by supporting a robust digital commons from which everyone, everywhere can benefit.

Digital public goods such as Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects aim to make multilingual and intercultural information freely accessible to everyone. A thriving public domain that enables the sharing of free and openly licensed content for everyone to use and reuse is key to advancing many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

3. Build and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to support and empower, not replace, people who create content and make decisions in the public interest.

AI and machine learning tools should support, and not replace, the work of humans. They should be designed and deployed in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, ensuring clear and consistent attribution. Such tools should also ensure participation and control by affected communities through transparent, accountable, and open processes.

Read more about these commitments in our open letter.

“As the world’s largest repository of human knowledge online, Wikipedia powers today’s digital knowledge ecosystem. It is one of the most important sources for training Large Language Models, and much of the information available from internet search engine results, voice assistants, and more comes from content on Wikimedia projects,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, VP of Global Advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation. “Through the Global Digital Compact, we have the opportunity to safeguard the best of the internet — open, community-led online spaces that are built in the public interest. We’re calling on UN Member States to embrace these three commitments. In doing so, they will not only protect Wikipedia; they will protect the right of communities anywhere in the world to build new online projects that serve the public interest in a manner that is responsible, ethical, and inclusive.”

“The Global Digital Compact represents a critical moment for everyone who contributes to and cares about Wikipedia to shape and safeguard the internet we desire,” said Patricia Díaz Rubio, Executive Director of Wikimedia Chile, one of a dozen Wikimedia affiliates to sign onto the letter. “We urge other Wikimedia affiliates and volunteers to seize this opportunity to secure a global agreement that protects and empowers online communities, promotes digital public goods and commons, and harnesses the transformative power of emerging technologies in a way that serves the public interest.”

The publication of today’s open letter builds on efforts from the Wikimedia Foundation over the last two years to help shape the Global Digital Compact, including input into a number of consultations and a comprehensive written submission in April 2023. 

Organizations and individuals committed to supporting the future of online public interest projects are encouraged to sign the letter*in support. To learn more, see this blog.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

For media inquiries, please contact press@wikimedia.org.

About Wikimedia affiliates 

Wikimedia affiliates are a global network of groups that support Wikipedia, Wikimedia projects, and the mission of sharing free knowledge globally. They range from more formally established groups, like chapters, which often have their own staff and governance systems, to more informal groups of volunteers, such as user groups. There are currently 188 Wikimedia affiliates around the world.

*To sign the letter, please complete this Google Form. For details on how the information you share in this form will be handled, see this privacy statement.

Related content

Open letter to protect Wikipedia and other public interest projects in the Global Digital Compact

Sign the letter

Visit our Advocacy page and learn more about our initiatives

Learn more

The post Wikimedia Foundation and global communities call on UN Member States to protect Wikipedia and other public interest projects in the Global Digital Compact appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

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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.

Recent changes

• Starting this week, newcomers editing Wikipedia will be encouraged to try structured tasks. Structured tasks have been shown to improve newcomer activation and retention. [1]
• You can nominate your favorite tools for the fifth edition of the Coolest Tool Award. Nominations will be open until May 10.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 April. It will be on all wikis from 25 April (calendar). [2][3]

Future changes

• This is the last warning that by the end of May 2024 the Vector 2022 skin will no longer share site and user scripts/styles with old Vector. For user-scripts that you want to keep using on Vector 2022, copy the contents of Special:MyPage/vector.js to Special:MyPage/vector-2022.js. There are more technical details available. Interface administrators who foresee this leading to lots of technical support questions may wish to send a mass message to your community, as was done on French Wikipedia. [4]

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

11/04/2024-17/04/2024

Mapping

• [1] Christoph Hormann demonstrated his work during the recent Karlsruhe Hack Weekend to improve the way addresses and entrances are displayed. His modifications include more differentiated entrances icons and a new address rendering strategy. Alternative styles are available in the repository on GitHub.
• Sven Geggus has re-activated his unique map of campsites in OpenStreetMap that have been mislabelled, which had been offline for two years. It shows campsites that mistakenly contain other campsites.
• SeverinGeo argued that terrain and highway mapping is better suited for beginner mappers than building mapping, due to its relative ease and the limited availability of high-quality satellite imagery for buildings.
• The vote on the extended tagging of traffic_sign was cancelled and the proposal withdrawn. Up to this point, there had been 8 votes in favour, 26 against, and 4 abstentions.

Mapping campaigns

• GoWin wrote about a craft mapping campaign with students from the University of Bohol, Indonesia. The on-site observations were recorded on fieldpapers. The georeferenced photos, collected with OpenCamera, were uploaded to Panoramax.
• The Hub de Mapeo Abierto, from HOT, organised an outdoor mapping party in Medellín as part of #OpenDataDay.
• Contrapunctus offered practical advice on organising OpenStreetMap mapping parties, highlighting key areas such as choosing safe and practical locations, effective announcement and invitation strategies, necessary equipment, and efficient teaching and mapping techniques.

Community

• C-RadaR discussed ► various topics in their April edition:
  • Anna, from netzpolitik.org, addressed the inclusion of children in discussions on IT security and encryption.
  • Oliver, from the German Amateur Radio Club, detailed a training weekend for emergency radio communications.
  • Tobias, along with weeman, explored developments in the StreetComplete app, designed to improve OpenStreetMap data.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The OSMF provided details on the timing and effect of the shutdown of OAuth 1.0a and HTTP Basic Auth on OpenStreetMap.
• The Board of the OpenStreetMap Foundation will meet for two days in Frankfurt on 26 and 27 April 2024. Topic suggestions for this meeting can be submitted via the forum.
• The OpenStreetMap Foundation blogged three reasons to join the OSMF as a member:
  • You can nominate to serve as a member of the OSMF Board and influence the strategic plan and some of OSM’s finances.
  • You can vote in the annual Board elections, as well as on other foundation initiatives.
  • To help grow and diversify the OSM membership worldwide.

Events

• France’s national cartography institute is launching ► a major cartography competition, in which participants are invited to use the BD TOPO ► to create a cartographic, computer graphic, or artistic narrative on the subject of France’s territorial continuities and disparities.
• Cyberjuan introduced the programme and academic programme committees for SotM Latam 2024 ►, to be held on 7 and 8 December at the Instituto Federal do Pará in Belem, Brazil.

Education

• GOwin facilitated a workshop in Iloilo, Philippines, to train local disaster agencies in field mapping.
• The IVIDES Institute has held a short course on collaborative mapping with OpenStreetMap, which focused on disaster risk reduction (DRR) for civil defence employees from several states of Brazil. Dr Raquel Souto commented ► on this training in her diary, saying that she has written a preliminary list of features related to DRR and their corresponding tags.
• Carston Hernke explored sourcing data to map parcel lockers in Berlin. He covered data from Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap, using DuckDB to query and convert the data, and preparing to visualise the mapped data.

Humanitarian OSM

• OSM India, in collaboration with OSM West Bengal and OSM Jalpaiguri, has launched a mapping project to map all sorts of roads and buildings along the estimated path of the 31 March tornado.
• Supaplex discussed the use of three OpenStreetMap projects to map areas affected by the 2024 Hualien earthquake in Taiwan. These initiatives will focus on mapping buildings, roads, and waterways to aid recovery and rebuilding efforts. They will consider donating recent satellite imagery to improve mapping accuracy. There are also plans to organise on-site mapping events to support local communities once conditions have stabilised.

Maps

• On 14 April at 17:08 UTC, TheRukk, who is most likely a mapper based in Italy, uploaded changeset 150 million to OpenStreetMap. In this changeset, he used the StreetComplete editor to clarify the road surface of the section of road at the intersection around the Porta San Felice gate, Bologna.
• Last week we reported on the migration of the Deutsche Post locations map from a market competitor to OpenStreetMap. Daniel-j-h has taken a closer look at the technical solution used to build the map and published his analysis on Mastodon.
• Christoph Hormann discussed the history of digital map design, highlighting that while digitalisation has brought significant benefits such as increased efficiency, and accessibility to a wider audience. It has resulted in a considerable loss of design skills and cartographic techniques, many of which had been developed and refined to very high standards in earlier centuries.
• Christoph Hormann reviewed the evolution and diversity of map design within the OpenStreetMap community, examining various projects and styles that highlight both historical developments and current trends in cartography, focusing on different regional and technical approaches to map design.
• juminet tooted the new symbol renderings for Belgian businesses such as breweries and chip shops.
• Christopher Beddow explored the evolution of cartography in an article on unstructured reality, discussing how modern mapping techniques, such as the use of digital twins and symbolic maps, blend empirical data collection with symbolic representation to both capture and abstract reality, enriching our interaction with geographical information systems.

OSM in action

• PamPam has provided tools for creating simple, interactive maps that allow easy customisation and sharing of maps to enhance interactive geographic storytelling.
• Rihards Olups presented some real-world applications of OpenStreetMap, including:
  • A fire department that used OSM to map all the houses and fire hydrants in their area and uses OsmAnd to find the nearest hydrants and determine the best routes.
  • A rescue dog handler who has created their own OSM leaflet app to plan their missions.
• ls65536 has developed a virtual sailing navigation simulator that uses real geographical and near real-time weather and ocean data. It also has the ability to set up races to compete against others.

Software

• Michel Stuyts has created a user script that adds an OpenStreetMap link to Google search results for geographic locations in the European Union, following the changes in March 2024, when Google removed such links to its own maps.
• rtnf has built song lyrics that capture the essence of OSM well. Musically, this could be quite exciting, as this AI prototype shows. Surely we have musical mappers who can do this by people for people? But the choir? A task for the upcoming SotM perhaps 😉 JOSM also has its own song.
• Kamil Monicz talked about the recent improvements and future plans for his OpenStreetMap-NG project. Highlights include faster GPS trace uploads, new trace editing features, and easier navigation. Kamil also mentioned upcoming features and thanked community members and sponsors for supporting the project.
• Ilya Zverev, the developer behind well-known tools such as EveryDoor and Level0, has reminded us of his browser plugin for the fast editing of tags in OSM (we reported earlier). This plugin allows tags to be corrected much faster, without the loading times of the iD editor, and eliminates the need to copy URLs into Level0.

Programming

• Sam Woodcock from HOT described, in his diary, how the new ODK entities, introduced into the ODK field data collection Suite in 2023, can be used to track OSM objects, collect information about these and eventually update OSM tags for these objects.The HOT Field Mapping Tasking Manager example (background OSM map without attribution) shows how a Server and a Mobile tool from the ODK suite are used to coordinate field teams and collect data from the field. These two tools are available free and open source for any organisation that wants to deploy its own server. Paid hosted services are also available.
  • The ODK Central server stores survey data and lets teams coordinate field data collection. Entities can be stored with geometry and properties.
  • The Android ODK Collect application can be used offline to collect data in the field.

Releases

• OsmAnd 4.7 has been released for Android and iOS. The Android version comes with faster offline navigation, extracted route tags from OpenStreetMap data, and OAuth 2.0 for OSM login. The iOS version has a redesigned tracks menu (long press to upload changes to OpenStreetMap) and many new widgets.

Did you know …

• … the Babykarte? This is a map showing relevant POIs and information for parents and guardians of infants and toddlers (0 to 3 years of age).
• … that if you see outdated map tiles on OpenStreetMap then reloading the page without cache might help you?On Windows and Linux this can be done using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+F5, on macOS CMD+SHIFT+R (or CMD+OPTION+R for Safari). In Firefox for Android, hold down the page reload button.If these keyboard shortcuts are not available to you, then open the site in a private window (incognito mode).
• … that there is a wiki page with a detailed guide to mapping North Korea using satellite imagery? This guide focuses on various elements such as transportation, land use, and specific structures such as buildings and monuments. It also offers specific tagging recommendations for contributors to ensure accurate and standardised map entries, and discusses the challenges of mapping in a region with limited local data contributions.
• … the Open Brewery Map? A map that shows all the breweries mapped in OSM.
• … that you draw a circle with a specified radius around a point on the map by using this tool?

OSM in the media

• Anne-Karoline Distel has completed an extensive photographic survey of Kilkenny City, capturing 360° street-level imagery that is now available on Mapillary. This volunteer effort, supported by a European Camera Grant from Meta, aims to improve OpenStreetMap data by focusing on areas accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.

Other “geo” things

• The city council of Barcelona has organised the removal of a bus route from Google and Apple maps. This decision was made in response to resident complaints about being unable to return home due to the bus being constantly filled with tourists on their way to Park Güell, the city’s second most popular attraction after the Basílica de la Sagrada Família.
• In episode 229 of the Geomob podcast, Steven interviewed Sean Wiid about UP42, a geospatial marketplace that simplifies access to commercial geospatial data and processing algorithms. UP42 aims to address the issues of complexity and fragmentation in the earth observation and geospatial industry. Sean explained that UP42 is a user-friendly platform, which differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on providing an accessible interface and API for customers.
• You can learn how to use GeoParquet with Apache Sedona to improve Overture Maps data efficiency. This tutorial explains how GeoParquet improves spatial operations and data interoperability.
• The Overture Maps Foundation has released a first beta version of its global open map dataset, which integrates multiple open data sources and includes 54 million points of interest and 2.3 billion buildings. The dataset is designed to complement OpenStreetMap by providing users with a ready-to-use geospatial dataset.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
Rio de Janeiro	Oficina de importação de POIs no OpenStreetMap, a partir de um arquivo de pontos – YouthMappers UFRJ		2024-04-19
	Arricchire i dati di OSM con i linked open data: impariamo a usare QLever		2024-04-20
臺北市	OpenStreetMap Taiwan x Help.NGO Crisis Mapping for Hualien Earthquake mapathon		2024-04-22
	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
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2024-04-26
	OpenStreetMap visual impaired accessibility initiative – kickoff (online)		2024-04-27
Fianarantsoa	State of the Map Madagascar		2024-04-28 – 2024-04-29
Brno	Missing Maps Mapathon at the Department of Geography		2024-04-29
Fianarantsoa	OSM Africa April Mapathon – Map Madagasikara		2024-04-30
Dresden	OSM-Stammtisch Dresden		2024-05-02
Essen	FOSSGIS-OSM-Communitytreffen 2024 Nummer 20		2024-05-03 – 2024-05-05
Bochum	OSM-Workshop		2024-05-05
臺北市	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #64		2024-05-06

Note:
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This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, PierZen, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, darkonus, derFred, euroPathfinder, mcliquid, rtnf.
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Movement Strategy Recommendation 4 (Equity in Decision Making) and Initiative 24 (Movement Charter) are the bedrock which form the bases of the implementation of the Movement Charter Ambassador Program in the West African Region project. This iteration aims to ensure that both experienced and newly joined members of the Ghana and Nigeria Wikimedia communities are enlightened and well-informed about the full draft of the Charter and its entireties. The project took into consideration involvement and awareness of the community members on the contents of the Movement Charter and inviting them to share their feedbacks to some of the questions raised during the session. It also enlightened participants on the right approach on when, where and how to share their perspectives and opinions with regards to how the activities and governance of the Movement affects them as community and region. It also strive to inform the community members that decision-making processes within the Wikimedia Movement are fair, inclusive, and representative of the diverse voices and perspectives within the community and for them to fully be a part of these, they need to add their voices so as to ensure equitable balance in the Movement.

Key objectives of this iteration include:

• Introducing/reintroducing the MS recommendation 4 to the community members
• Informing about the Movement Charter Document.
• Notifying community members on the recent final draft of the Movement Charter.
• Equipping them with the right information to participate in conversation that identifies and addresses the Wikimedia Movement governance.

The West African Regional MC Implementation Team

The West African region team of Movement Charter Ambassadors that implemented the Nigeria and Ghana Wikimedia Communities/Movement Charter Ambassador Program include:

Iwuala Lucy: aWikimedian and language professional with a degree in Language Studies. Her passion for indigenous languages veered her toward the path of indigenous language advocacy and revitalization. She is passionate about contributing to free knowledge dissemination and documentation. She also uses the Wiki Projects as a means for advocating for the digitization and preservation of indigenous languages and sees the Igbo Wikipedia as a useful tool through which she could achieve this cause. She is the Project Lead.

Peace Chinwendu (Akwugo): A linguist and passionate about contributing to free and open knowledge projects. With a keen interest on improving language and Women Visibility, giving her an edge to see the Wiktionary as a tool to promote and preserve the indigenous languages. She has organized several projects to encourage knowledge Equity and knowledge as a Service of which the project Deepening Community Engagement on movement Strategy Implementation in the Igbo Community is one of them. She is responsible for the project documentation.

Onwuka Glory: An experienced Wikimedian – joined the movement in 2021 as a volunteer. Her passion for free knowledge accessibility led her to join and identify with groups such as: Wikimedia User Group Nigeria, Igbo Wikimedia User Group and Open Foundation West Africa. She is the project Communication manager.

Alhassan Mohammed Awal: Formerly the Communications Manager for the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group and is currently the Co-Lead for the Dagaare Wikimedia Community to provide general training and technical support on their language Wiki. He is a Language Activist, communication and social media enthusiast, a content creator, and a translator. He plays several voluntary roles in organizing Wikimedia projects and co-leading working groups, presentations in calls, and as well as during conferences.

Fuseini Mohammed Kamal-Deen: a Wikimedian in Residence and trainer who is passionate about using technology to promote education and cultural heritage. He is a co-lead of the Gurene Wikimedia Community and a member of the Cyber security professional Association in Ghana. He contributes to Wikimedia projects under the username User:Dnshitobu and is a co-facilitator in Dagbani Wikipedia Saha tele-education program on TV. He is a professional teacher with a background in Information technology and a volunteer for many other community organizations.

Ogalihillary: a Wikimedian from Nigeria, a member of the Igbo Wikimedia community, a core team member of the Igala Wikimedia Community, a member of the Igbo Wikimedia programs committee, a member of Wiki Loves Africa international team where he serves as an Ambassador to English speaking communities, the former community lead for IG WIKI-COMMONS Hub in the Igbo community. He plays several voluntary roles in organizing Wikimedia projects , online meetings and training for both the Igbo and Igala Community.

Timeline and Activities

To achieve the outlined objectives of the project, series of discussions, consultations, and meetings were held to ensure the success of the project both across the Ghana and Nigeria Wikimedia communities. The actvites listed below were tailored within the stipulated time.

• Translating the untranslated Movement Charter pages on Meta weeks before conversation
• First General Online conversation
• Second online conversation (Nigeria Wikimedia community)
• Feedback and brief writing (to be collated on a designated Etherpad)
• Final Report in English

First Online Conversation

On the 3rd April, 2024 the online launch of the Movement Charter Conversation in the Ghana and Nigeria Wikimedia communities was held with the invitation of Movement Charter Drafting Committee member (Ciell) who shared insights on the Movement Charter Document. The discussion focused on an overview of the draft and all the entities that made up the document and also discussed the movement charter and equity in decision-making explicitly.

The conversation touched on the historical background of the Wikimedia Foundation and its roles within the movement, proposed structures like the Global Council, and emphasized inclusivity. Insights on serving on the Global Council, qualifications required for membership, and responsibilities of different council bodies were also shared. Concerns about potential bureaucracies were addressed through role delineation between assembly and board members, proposing governance structure adjustments for efficient decision-making while ensuring accountability. Furthermore, the focus shifted to establishing the functions and structure of the Global Council Assembly for decision-making in the Wikimedia movement.

There was a highlight on the assembly’s role in providing direction through majority decisions and its interaction with the council, board, and subcommittees. The complexities of the Global Council, emphasizing strategic considerations by committees like the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, were also discussed. Support from Wikimedia Foundation staff for Global Council operations without forming a separate legal entity and collaboration between WMF liaisons and council members were underscored, ensuring alignment of community interests and organizational goals.

Second Online Conversation (Nigeria Wikimedians Community)

Snippets of the Movement Charter Conversation in the Nigerian Community

To ensure ensure that communities are fully engaged in the community review process, and full understanding of the Movement Charter content, the Movement Charter conversation was brought more closer to the individual communities which the Nigerian Communities had on 8th April 2024. this grassroot strategy was adopted to ensure that those who could not participate in the general online launch could be reached and well informed. This session also focuses on explaining the different parts of the proposed Movement Charter document, intimating the participants the topics and contents that make up the document, answering questions and sharing insights on what content is obtainable from the document for clarity and consulation.

Final Feedback

Snippets of the Final Feedback of the Movement Charter Conversation in the Ghana and Nigeria Wikimedia Community

In this session which was held on the 13th April 2024, participants were invited to share their opinion and give their feedback with regards to the movement charter document and the Wikimedia Movement governance which was collated via the Jamboard and Google form. This session offered the space to the participants to share their ideas with regards to their active participation and what they have learnt so far from the previous sessions.

Feedback and input gathered through these engagements will be used to inform the development of recommendations and proposals for enhancing equity in decision making within the Wikimedia movement. These recommendations will be presented for further discussion and refinement, with the ultimate goal of creating a more inclusive and participatory decision-making framework that reflects the values and principles of the movement as a whole.

Challenges and way forward

Challenges and difficulties are one of the elements that help shape and mould the outcome of a project. These challenges can make or mare the project success and includes:

• Time Difference: One of the challenges faced in the implementation of collaborative project, especially when there is difference in time zone and world view is difference in time zone and world view. These two elements were first put into consideration. Arriving at a convenient time and date that would ensure the active participation of the members of the two countries was one of the challenges faced during the implementation of the project – we were able to find a solution that saw to the success of the project.
• Internet Instability: Another challenge is the unstable nature of internet connection in this part of the world. Poor internet coverage made some interested participant to be absented during these conversation. However, despite the challenges faced, were were able to successfully implement the project and gained considerable insights in project management and implementation.
• Difficulties to understand the concepts: In addition, it was challenging to make the participants comprehend the distinction between the Movement Strategy and Movement Charter. Most of the participants did not read the learning resources before the discussion, and therefore found it difficult to differentiate between the two. However, some of them understood the difference, while some had a vague understanding and planned to go through the resources to gain a better understanding.
• Technical Mishap: Due to some technical glitches, the scheduled online conversation for the Ghana community was not accounted for.

Outcome and Impact

This 3rd iteration of the Movement Charter Conversation which took place in the West African Region countries of Ghana and Nigeria recorded over 40 online attendees. Adopting a 3 consecutive conversation sessions, which involve first a General online conversation, a country based conversation in Nigeria and a general feedback session which invited community members to share their observations and learnings from the 2 conversation organized. It is in this feedback session that their knowledge and understanding of the topic of the conversation was gauged. In The level of participants awareness and understanding towards the topic of the conversation was determine using the Jamboard and post-event survey. The summary of findings and its interpretation are logically captured on the West African Region Movement Charter Conversation Draft Implementation Plan Logic Model below.

Post Event Findings

It was observed that many participants from the two Wikimedia communities lacked knowledge about the Movement Charter document, based on their feedback during the general first online conversation and via Jamboard/Google form. There was also a misconception about who is eligible to contribute to the document. However, the feedback received during the session indicates that participants now have a better understanding of the document and have been empowered with the right information to actively participate in Wikimedia Movement activities and governance.

In this article, Eugene Ormandy from Japan, Caner from Turkey and Taufik Rosman from Malaysia introduce their activities in December 2023.

Logo

Caner created a logo for this project. The triangle came from the location of three countries and colors has meanings too. Turquoise is the historical and cultural color of Turkey, red one came from Japan flag and golden one came from Malaysia flag. In addition, interlocking triangles represent diversity.

Q1. How did you contribute to Wikimedia projects in December 2023?

Eugene Ormandy : I held a Japan-Malaysia Friendship editathon with Taufik. I am very honored that various institutions cooperated the event.

In addition, I wrote 6 articles on Diff and 2 articles on Japanese Wikipedia. Moreover, three articles in which I talked with Dr. Sae Kitamura (aka User:さえぼー) were published on a Japanese Web magazine. Of course I reported it on Diff.

It was a great pleasure that I could hold a Wikimedia lecture for librarians in December. I introduced how I enjoy contributing Wikimedia project based on a Diff article I wrote. Of course I reported the experience on Diff.

Caner : In December, as it was the end of the year, I prepared an Almanac consisting of the activities we carried out throughout 2023 as Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey.

Additionally, as the ambassador of the MCDC Ambassador Program, which we carried out within the Wikimedians of Turkic Languages User Group, I published the end of the program report on Diff.

Taufik Rosman : This month, we organised our Japan-Malaysia Wikipedia editathon for the second year. For this year, it was in conjunction with ASEAN and Japan 50 years anniversary. We were glad to organise this concurrently with Japan again.

Q2. What was the most impressive news of Wikimedia Movement in December 2023?

Eugene Ormandy : A Japanese Diff article titled 調査手法の一事例：些細な誤謬を訂正する was excellent. This is a report of how to utilize NDL Digital Collections, a service held by the National Diet Library Japan for editing a Wikipedia article. I think this article would become a good tool for persuading Japanese institutions to use their services for Wikimedia.

The author of this article is User:Uraniwa, a member of the Student Wikipedian Community in Waseda University Tokyo. I am very proud of collaborating with such a talented Wikimedian.

Caner : Diff articles published in December were the results and outcomes of Wikimania 2023. Because it aroused my curiosity about what kind of results an event I attended achieved. Also, I was very happy and motivated to see the huge team behind Wikimania 2023, the efforts put in and the success that resulted. Also, I was surprised and motivated to see the Wikimania Japan-Turkey Friendship Project, which we carried out with Eugene, among the outcomes.

Taufik Rosman : What caught my attention was this Diff post titled “There is a Wikipedian in the Village: The first training in a village in Turkey” by Adem. Malaysia tries to do more events in villages as most of them still practise their culture and indigenous languages.

Q3. What did you learn about your friends’ communities in December 2023?

Eugene Ormandy : I created an article of [[言語図書局]] on Japanese Wikipedia. It is one of the Malaysia’s government institution, which coordinating the use of the Malay language and Malay-language literature.

Caner : As an interest from my childhood, I found Yakisugi, a Japanese traditional wood preservation method, while researching Japan and Japan culture. When I saw that the article was not included in the Turkish Wikipedia, I immediately started translating it and published it. Additionally, this article I published made history as the first article published in Turkish Wikipedia in 2024 according to Wiki time.

Taufik Rosman : I was reading the Wikipedia article about the Ottoman architecture. Some of the buildings here in Malaysia especially mosques get their inspiration from Ottoman architecture.

Music

Eugene Ormandy : I was impressed by “THE GREATEST UNKNOWN,” the newest album of a Japanese band King Gnu. Complicated but melodious tunes knocked me out.

Caner : December is the last month of the year and is a time when we review what we have done and experienced throughout the year. While I was thinking about all this, Cüneyd Orhon‘s song called Rast Taksimi playing in the background made me go deeper, remember what I had forgotten, and end the year 2023 happily.

Taufik Rosman : For this month, I recommend to listen this Japanese pop song titled “Question” by meiyo. I listened to this exactly one year ago.

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

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.

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.

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.