Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-11-13/News and notes

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News and notes

By Flcelloguy, November 13, 2006

Board passes four resolutions

The Board of Trustees, coming off a reorganization and retreat earlier this month, passed four resolutions on Wednesday, November 8. The first resolution authorizes the creation of a new events committee, to be developed by Board member Tim Shell. Another resolution, meanwhile, authorizes the creation of a group "to assess and later manage Wikimedia Foundation domain names." This resolution comes after increased reports of cybersquatting on potential Wikimedia domain names, and the use of such legitimate-sounding domain names to spread viruses (see archived story). The third resolution authorizes the creation of a committee, led by Brad Patrick, Oscar van Dillen, and Jan-Bart De Vreede, to formulate a process in the search for a permanent executive director; Patrick currently serves as the Foundation's legal counsel and interim executive director. The final resolution summarizes the Board's retreat in Frankfurt, Germany. Among the topics discussed were the resignation of Board member Tim Shell, effective at the end of the year, Wikimedia's expansion, and another face-to-face meeting for the entire Board.

Wikizine and Wikipedia Weekly

Wikizine, a newsletter in blog format about Wikimedia Foundation projects, published its 50th issue this week, having now been active for a full year. In contrast with The Wikipedia Signpost, which focuses on the English Wikipedia, the Wikizine aims to cover news relevant to the larger Wikimedia community, not any specific project.

Meanwhile, another source of Wikipedia news is the recently launched podcast Wikipedia Weekly, a project launched by Tawker and Fuzheado. It has completed four weekly episodes so far, with more in production, and also released a special midweek podcast about the German article-writing contest (see archived story), along with an interview with Larry Sanger of Citizendium.

Briefly

• The Basque Wikipedia has reached 15,000 articles.
• The Ukrainian Wikipedia has reached 40,000 articles.
• The Chinese Wikipedia has reached 100,000 articles.
• The Cree Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Hungarian Wikipedia has reached 100,000 total pages.
• The Serbian Wikipedia has reached 39,000 articles.
• The Icelandic Wiktionary has reached 2,000 entries.
• The Arabic Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles and 35,000 registered users.
• The Persian Wikipedia has reached 20,000 registered users.
• The French Wikipedia has reached 390,000 articles.
• The Swedish Wikipedia has reached 25,000 registered users.
• The Piedmontese Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 6,000 articles, 13,000 total pages, and 37,000 edits.
• The German Wikipedia has reached 300,000 registered users.
• The Norwegian (bokmål) Wikipedia has reached 25,000 registered users.
• The Telugu Wikipedia has reached 1000 registered users.

Also this week: Chinese Wikipedia — Arbitration series — Visitors outside US — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — Technology — Arbitration