Wikipedia:Article Incubator, a space for the development of new articles with potential, has been launched byUser:Fritzpoll andUser:GTBacchus. The aim of the incubator is to save articles fromdeletion if they show the potential to meet Wikipedia standards. It is suggested as a better solution thanuserfication as it allows collaborative editing and improvement to continue, and avoids issues overownership where there are multiple contributors.
User:Fritzpoll says: "We have two major problems around good-faith new articles that aren't up to our standards: the need to get them out of the mainspace and the desire not tobite new editors. The Article Incubator should help with both and we'll take articles from any venue where it is deemed appropriate:CSD,PROD,AfD,AfC, etc." The project is currently looking for more editors to help develop incubated articles.
Wikipedia Takes Manhattan is a planned scavenger hunt and free content photography contest coordinated withColumbia University andNew York University students andThe Open Planning Project, aimed at illustrating Wikipedia andStreetswiki articles covering the wondrous sights of the isle ofManhattan, and all across the Five Boroughs of New York City.
Scheduled for Saturday, 10 October 2009, this event will be a sequel tolast spring's Wikipedia Takes Manhattan (WTM-1) andlast fall's Wikis Take Manhattan (WTM-2) event. Participants may register their teamhere.
On Friday, Wikimedia contract developerAndrew Garrettannounced an open beta test ofDavid McCabe'sLiquidThreads extension, described as "a next-generation discussion system for MediaWiki". The extension, originally developed as aGoogle Summer of Code project, replaces talk pages with a full-featuredforum system, facilitating more organised and effective discussion.
The second release of features from theWikimedia usability team was released this week, codenamedBabaco. The features enhance the editing window and editing toolbar, and can be enabled through User preferences, by going to the 'Editing' tab and selecting 'Experimental features.'
In today'sonline announcement of the winners of the 2009Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Prize committee used free photos fromWikimedia Commons to depict two of the three prize winners,Elizabeth Blackburn andCarol W. Greider. The captions mention the "Attribution Share Alike 3.0" license and duly credit the photos to "Gerbil", a user on Commons and the German Wikipedia who took them in March 2009 atGoethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.
Since last week thesecond largest Wikipedia has been left without a central institution for conflict resolution, after seven members of the arbitration committee ("Schiedsgericht")resigned at once, leaving only two active arbitrators, below the minimum of five. The resignation statements cited multiple reasons, among them internal conflicts, lack of a clear mandate in certain matters, and lack of authority within the community. The German Wikipedia had introduced an ArbCom in April 2007, at a time when such an institution already existed on ten other Wikimedia projects (some of which were consulted about their experiences). Discussion is ongoing, with many users opining that electing new arbitrators won't be enough to solve the problem and that some sort of reform is needed. In April 2009, theSpanish Wikipediavoted to abolish its ArbCom ("Comité de Resolución de Conflictos") altogether.
