If you are curious about the languages and cultures of the world, follow Wikidelta on Twitter. It’s an unofficial and experimental account which is an attempt to discover what could be unique in each of the languages of Wikipedia.
If you are curious about the languages and cultures of the world, follow Wikidelta on Twitter. It’s an unofficial and experimental account which is an attempt to discover what could be unique in each of the languages of Wikipedia.
The account selects a world language at random. It then posts links, one at a time, to unique Wikipedia articles in that language:
A unique article, as I define it here, is one which has no links to other language versions. In other words, there are no known translations, adaptations or other versions of that article. Every article shared has zero counterparts in any other language’s Wikipedia – at the time of tweeting.
There are 284 language versions of Wikipedia currently active, all maintained largely by volunteers like you and me who create articles according to their interest and expertise.
Every link you see shared from the Wikidelta account is an example of the potential uniqueness of a topic expressed in a particular language, usually created by a user of that language.
Surprises every day
Each link offers us a moment to recognise a contribution and topic which may have received little attention, especially outside its own language community or communities.
For some languages it’s possible to get the gist of the article using automatic machine translation.
In the above example Wikidelta has chosen to post links in Persian/Farsi. The tweet announcing this uses the endonym first (the name of the language in the language itself), followed by the English name of the language, followed by a short hashtag which gives the language code (which is also its Wikipedia subdomain).
In the example the randomly chosen link in the tweet appears to be a film, and one in the medium of Persian/Farsi. According to machine translation the title conveys something like “Yassin Castle”. Please note that this is not necessarily a recommendation of this film (which I have not seen) although I am told that are many magnificent Iranian films to reward the attention.
Poetry, literature, culture and more
What could be unique in each language’s Wikipedia?
My initial interest in the uniqueness of articles led to my creation of an automated account called UnigrywUnigryw in April 2016. This account was, and is, a forerunner of Wikidelta and is focused exclusively on articles in Cymraeg (Welsh).
Since it began examples of articles unique to Welsh from this account have included:
a great number of articles about cynghanedd, particular forms of consonantal alliteration and rhyme which are characteristic of strict metre poetry in the language
All of these types of article are in some way connected to Wales and its language. I would expect to see parallels with the other languages shared by Wikidelta. For instance, there is a uniqueness to any given language’s poetry so we could expect that to be regularly highlighted in Wikidelta.
But sometimes the unique articles have no obvious connection to a nation or its language – except for the fact that somebody somewhere just wanted to create an article about a particular (or peculiar!) topic.
Adding interlanguage links
Sometimes an article appears unique because no Wikipedia contributor has yet managed to add interlanguage links pointing to its counterparts in other languages.
Wikipedia is an ever growing and evolving project, so the perceived uniqueness might be caused by the lack of a small edit job.
If the meaning of the article is 100% obvious then that edit job can be accomplished by anybody, including non-fluent users, in a few seconds. This benefits not only Wikipedia but Wikidata as well.
(Here’s an example tweet for Wikipedia Gàidhlig where I have added interlanguage links to an article about a Westminster parliamentary constituency.)
Further research and development
I am just beginning to discover patterns in the output, as I examine the output of the underlying software script which powers the Wikidelta project.
For example the average article length and average number of images and other multimedia elements in an article appear to correlate with how well resourced a language may be.
I am also producing a chart of all the Wikipedia languages ordered by how ‘unique’ they are, and looking to share this another time.
In the meantime my intention is to add certain checks to Wikidelta which will be proxies for article quality, e.g. number of contributors, minimum length of article, multimedia elements and so on. At the time of writing the unique articles are chosen at random but I hope to add more to the algorithm, showcase the ‘best’ articles that each language can offer, and thereby burst our online filter bubbles in unexpected ways.
How to help / acknowledgments
I hope that you enjoy Wikidelta and that you learn something fascinating about our world today.
If you would like to help then please follow the Wikidelta account and feel free to retweet any tweets you find interesting. Additionally you may wish to do some Wikipedia editing and improvement as a result of what you see. If your language is not on the list of Wikipedias and you want to start one with some other fluent users of your language then there may be somebody else who can help.
There is potential research work to be done here so please contact me if you’d like to work together on something.
You may also translate this article into your language and re-publish it elsewhere. It’s licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Os ydych chi’n chwilfrydig am ieithoedd a diwylliannau’r byd, dilynwch Wicidelta ar Twitter. Cyfrif answyddogol ac arbrofol ydy e sy’n ymgais i ddarganfod yr hyn a allai fod yn unigryw ym mhob un o ieithoedd Wicipedia.
Os ydych chi’n chwilfrydig am ieithoedd a diwylliannau’r byd, dilynwch Wicidelta ar Twitter. Cyfrif answyddogol ac arbrofol ydy e sy’n ymgais i ddarganfod yr hyn a allai fod yn unigryw ym mhob un o ieithoedd Wicipedia.
Mae’r cyfrif yn dewis iaith ar hap. Wedyn mae’n postio dolenni, un ar y tro, at erthyglau Wicipedia unigryw yn yr iaith honno.
Erthygl unigryw, yn ôl fy niffiniad i yma, ydy un heb ddolenni at fersiynau eraill mewn ieithoedd eraill. Mewn geiriau eraill, nid oes unrhyw gyfieithiadau, addasiadau na fersiynau eraill o’r erthygl honno. Mae pob erthygl yn un heb ei thebyg mewn unrhyw iaith arall – ar adeg y trydariad.
Mae 284 fersiwn iaith Wicipedia sy’n weithredol ar hyn o bryd, ac mae pob un yn cael ei chynnal yn bennaf gan wirfoddolwyr fel chi a fi sy’n creu erthyglau yn ôl eu diddordeb a’u harbenigedd.
Mae pob dolen rydych chi’n gweld ar y cyfrif Wicidelta yn enghraifft o natur unigryw posibl o bwnc a fynegir mewn iaith benodol, a grëwyd fel arfer gan ddefnyddiwr yr iaith honno.
Gyda llaw mae fersiwn Cymraeg a fersiwn Saesneg o Wicidelta. Dim ond y bywgraffiad a’r trydariadau ‘datgan iaith’ yn wahanol. Dros amser byddan nhw yn mynd drwy’r ieithoedd i gyd. Ond dw i wedi penderfynu bod nhw yn postio dolenni hollol wahanol er mwyn osgoi unrhyw amheuaeth o sbam wrth system Twitter!
Syndodau pob dydd
Mae pob dolen yn cynnig cyfle i gydnabod cyfraniad a phwnc a allai fod wedi cael dim ond ychydig o sylw, yn enwedig y tu allan i’w gymuned neu gymunedau iaith ei hun.
Ar gyfer rhai ieithoedd, mae’n bosibl cael awgrym o’r erthygl drwy ddefnyddio cyfieithu peirianyddol awtomatig.
Yn y ddelwedd gyntaf uchod mae Wicidelta wedi dewis postio dolenni yn yr iaith Aromaneg. Mae’r trydariad sy’n datgan hyn yn defnyddio’r endonym yn gyntaf (enw’r iaith yn yr iaith ei hun), wedi’i ddilyn gan yr enw yn Gymraeg, wedi’i ddilyn gan hashnod fer sy’n cynnig cod yr iaith (sydd hefyd yn is-barth Wicipedia ar gyfer yr iaith honno). Mae hi wedi bod yn dipyn o ymdrech i ganfod yr enwau yn Gymraeg a dweud y gwir ac mae dal angen rhai – gobeithio bydd pobl yn creu erthyglau Wicipedia Cymraeg am yr holl ieithoedd diddorol yma!
Yn y ddelwedd yma mae’r ddolen a ddewiswyd ar hap yn edrych fel bod hi’n arwain at ffilm, ac un drwy gyfrwng y Berseg. Yn ôl cyfieithu peirianyddol mae’r teitl yn cyfleu rhywbeth fel “Castell Yassin”. Nodwch nad yw hyn o reidrwydd yn argymell y ffilm hon (dw i ddim wedi ei gweld) er fy mod i wedi clywed bod llawer o ffilmiau Iran godidog i’w gwylio.
Barddoniaeth, llenyddiaeth, diwylliant a mwy
Beth allai fod yn unigryw yn Wicipedia pob iaith?
Dechreuodd fy niddordeb mewn unigrywiaeth erthyglau mewn cyfrif awtomateg o’r enw UnigrywUnigryw ym mis Ebrill 2016. Mae’r cyfrif yn fath o ragflaenydd Wicidelta sy’n canolbwyntio ar erthyglau yn Gymraeg.
Dyma enghreifftiau o’r erthyglau unigryw i’r Gymraeg o’r cyfrif hwn ers y dechrau:
nifer fawr o erthyglau gwahanol am fathau gwahanol o gynghanedd
Mae pob un o’r mathau hyn o erthygl mewn rhyw ffordd yn gysylltiedig â Chymru a’i hiaith. Byddwn yn disgwyl gweld paralelau yn yr ieithoedd eraill a rennir gan Wicidelta. Er enghraifft mae unigrywiaeth i farddoniaeth unrhyw iaith felly gallen ni ddisgwyl gweld hyn yn rheolaidd ar Wicidelta.
Ond weithiau does dim cysylltiad amlwg rhwng yr erthyglau unigryw â’r genedl neu iaith – heblaw am y ffaith bod rhywun yn rhywle jyst eisiau creu erthygl am bwnc penodol!
Ychwanegu cysylltau rhyngwici rhwng ieithoedd
Weithiau mae erthygl yn ymddangos yn unigryw oherwydd nad oes cyfrannwr Wicipedia wedi llwyddo i ychwanegu dolenni rhyngwici i erthyglau mewn ieithoedd eraill eto.
Mae Wicipedia yn brosiect sy’n tyfu ac esblygu drwy’r amser, felly efallai bod yr unigrywiaeth oherwydd diffyg job olygu fach.
Os yw ystyr yr erthygl yn 100% amlwg, gallai unrhyw un wneud y job olygu, gan gynnwys defnyddwyr nad ydynt yn rhugl mewn ychydig eiliadau. Mae hyn o fudd nid yn unig i Wicipedia ond Wicidata hefyd.
(Dyma enghraifft o drydariad o’r fersiwn Saesneg o Wicidelta lle dw i wedi ychwanegu dolenni rhyngiaith i erthygl Wicipedia Gàidhlig am etholaeth seneddol San Steffan.)
Ymchwil a datblygu pellach
Dw i newydd ddechrau darganfod patrymau yn yr allbwn, tra fy mod yn edrych ar allbwn y sgript meddalwedd sylfaenol sy’n gyrru Wicidelta.
Er enghraifft, mae’n ymddangos bod cydberthynas rhwng pethau fel hyd erthygl cyfartalog a nifer cyfartalog o ddelweddau ac elfennau amlgyfrwng eraill mewn erthygl – a pha mor dda mae’r iaith yn cael ei ‘adnoddu’, fel petai.
Dw i hefyd yn cynhyrchu siart o holl ieithoedd Wicipedia mewn trefn pa mor ‘unigryw’ y maent, ac am rannu hyn rywbryd eto.
Yn y cyfamser dw i’n bwriadu ychwanegu gwiriadau penodol i Wicidelta sy’n cynrychioli ansawdd yr erthygl, e.e. nifer o gyfranwyr, lleiafswm hyd yr erthygl, elfennau amlgyfrwng ac yn y blaen. Ar hyn o bryd mae’r system yn dewis yr erthyglau unigryw ar hap, ond dw i am ychwanegu rhagor at yr algorithm a thrwy hynny arddangos yr erthyglau ‘gorau’ y gall pob iaith ei gynnig, ac yna byrstio ein swigod hidlo ar-lein mewn ffyrdd annisgwyl.
Sut i helpu / rhoi cydnabyddiaeth
Dw i’n gobeithio y byddwch yn mwynhau Wicidelta ac yn dysgu rhywbeth diddorol am ein byd heddiw.
Os hoffech helpu, dilynwch y cyfrif Wicidelta ac mae croeso i chi aildrydar unrhyw drydariadau o ddiddordeb i chi. Yn ogystal efallai y byddwch am wneud rhywfaint o olygu a gwella Wicipedia o ganlyniad i’r hyn a welwch. Os ydych yn rhugl mewn iaith sydd ddim ar y rhestr o Wicipediau ac rydych am ddechrau un gyda rhai defnyddwyr rhugl eraill, efallai bod rhywun arall sy’n gallu helpu.
Mae gwaith ymchwil posibl i’w wneud yma, felly cysylltwch â mi os hoffech gydweithio ar rywbeth.
Gallech gyfieithu’r erthygl hon i ieithoedd eraill ac ail-gyhoeddi mewn mannau eraill. Trwyddedwyd yr erthygl o dan CC-BY-SA.
Map of Wales, from Atlas Ortelius by Abraham Ortelius. Original edition from 1571 – Image by Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Dutch National Library
Blog by Robin Owain, Wikimedia UK Manager
In December 1996 I uploaded around 150 of my published poems on a website, ”Rebel ar y We” (‘Rebel on the Web’), available to all, free of charge. In 2005, after my son’s illness, I changed the title to ”Rhedeg ar Wydr” (‘Running on a Glass Roof’). A few months later a revue was published by the Welsh Books Council in their magazine ”Llais Llyfrau”, which recognised that this was the first time a Welsh book had been placed on the web, the first Welsh e-book.
I urged other writers to publish on the web, rather than through a publisher; the middleman, the censor. The uproar which followed was not nice, especially by one publisher in North Wales who saw it as the beginning of the end! “Hundreds of pounds are at stake!” he wrote (”Golwg”, 16 March 2000), and for the next 10 years I was ‘sent to Coventry’ by the media. In an interview on BBC’s Radio Cymru around 2010 a listener phoned in and rudely chastised me by saying, “Don’t speak through your hat! Of course you can’t get a book to move down a phone-line and appear in another place!” And, yes, that was only 6 years ago! How things have changed!
Contributing ‘free information for everybody’ was my battle-cry, and the reason I started editing Wikipedia, with my first edit as User Llywelyn2000 on 7 June 2008, when cy-wiki already had a grand total of 16,000 articles. Today it has 81,400.
After the birth of en-wiki, it took around two years before her Welsh sibling, cy-wiki, appeared (July 2003). That first article was – and yes we are myopic! – ‘Wales’ with ‘List of Welsh people’, ‘Squirrel’, ‘David R. Edwards’ and ‘Owain Gwynedd’ quickly following.
Left to right: Robin Owain, Marc Haynes and Aled Powell
In July 2008, I began to discuss on cy-wiki how we could reach out to public bodies in Wales, and develop further and faster through funding. The National Library and the Welsh universities were mentioned, and by January 2015 we had had a Wikipedian in Residence in both institutions.
At that point cy-wiki had 20,000 articles, and a development plan was created (April 2012) and £65,000 funding received from the Welsh Government, topped up by Wikimedia UK. I was appointed Manager of the project ‘Living Paths’, many new editors were trained, and content released on an open licence. In a sense, it opened the closet!
Of all the experiences in the last 8 years, the one which really sticks is the second meeting of the Welsh Language and Technology Advisory Committee. On 9 July 2012 I had arranged to meet the Minister Leyton Andrews, and together with the Chair of Wikimedia UK at that time, Roger Bamkin, we met him at his office in Cardiff. His answers to all seven of our requests were “Yes I can!” or “Yes we will!”
Within weeks I become a member of his advisory board, and it was in the second meeting that one of his main officers, Gareth Morlais, announced that Google had just informed them that the main criterion which determined whether or not their projects (Google Docs, Google Drive, Maps etc.) would be translated into another language was… the number of articles in that language’s Wikipedia. And that really struck home! All eyes turned towards me, and the weight of such responsibility became heavy and awesome!
Robin Owain receiving an award at WikiConference UK 2013 – Image by Mike Peel
Other mile-stones, through my dragon tinted spectacles, include:
21 December 2012first Welsh ‘bot’: BOT-Twm Crys (transl: ‘Shirt Button’), creating redirections from Latin names of moths and butterflies to Welsh articles.
December 2012 Two meetings: editors of the Welsh encylopaedia (”’Gwyddoniadur Cymreig”’) and the second with Andrew Green, Head Librarian and Dafydd Tudur, Digital Access Manager at the National Library of Wales. Both Roger Bamkin and Ashley, representing Wikimedia UK were also at the meetings.
September 2013 I started the @WiciCymru Twitter account.
December 2013 I helped coordinate Wikimedia UK’s ‘EduWiki’ down in Cardiff, with Gareth Morlais opening the conference on behalf of the Welsh Government.
January 2014 Aled Powell appointed as Wici Cymru’s Training Organiser, as part of the ‘Living Paths’ project.
January 2014 Marc Haynes appointed as full time Wikipedian in residence at the Coleg Cymraeg (Welsh language ‘federal’ university).
January 2015 Jason Evans appointed WiR at the National Library of Wales.
Autumn 2016 9,500 new articles on living birds through our partnership with the nature group ‘Llen Natur’ (a branch of ‘Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd’) bringing the total number of articles to 81,000.
Autumn 2016 13,000 images taken from Commons appear on Llen Natur’s ‘Dictionary of Species’, turning it into the biggest Illustrated Dictionary of Species Wales has ever seen!
And the milestones will continue long after I’m gone, for I, certainly am not important. We are all Amazonian ants building a fine nest, where the whole is much greater than its parts. But I’m really honoured to be a part of something good, free, open, organic, where every language is respected as being a part of that wider spectrum.
Cy-wiki, is part of the conservation of that rich diversity, where my little language and way of life are respected and recognised within the big picture.
Yn Rhagfyr 1996, rhoddais dros 150 o fy ngherddi ar y we am ddim i bawb mewn casgliad o’r enw Rebel ar y We a newidiwyd yn 2005 i Redeg ar Wydr. Ychydig yn ddiweddarach cychwynais gylchgrawn digidol i blant, o’r enw Byd y Beirdd, gan alw ar feirdd roi eu gwaith hwythau ar y we am ddim i bawb. Erbyn heddiw, gallem alw Rebel ar y We yn e-lyfr, ond doedd y gair hwnnw ddim ar gael am ugain mlynedd arall! A hithau’n 2016, a’r gyfrol yn 20 oed, chlywais i ddim am unrhyw ddathliad o fath yn y byd! Cyhoeddwyd dros fil o e-lyfrau ers hynny, ond ychydig iawn sydd am ddim. A mi eith y pen-blwydd heibio, mi wranta, heb ganhwyllau, balwnau na cherdyn pen-blwydd! Cyn troi at brosiectau Wicimedia, dyma osod llwyfan am y cyd-destun: meddylfryd rhai Cymry yn y cyfnod cyn eu laniso.
Chredwch chi ddim y cicio a’r gweiddi ym mhlentyndod y we Gymraeg! Er i bob un o feirdd Byd y Beirdd lofnodi cytundeb ysgrifenedig yn rhoi eu hawl i gyhoeddi’r cerddi, gwaeddodd un perchennog gwasg yng Ngogledd Cymru: “Mae cannoedd o bunnoedd yn y fantol!” (Gweler Golwg, 16 Mawrth 2000) gan gyhoeddi fod perygl mewn cyhoeddi “amaturaidd” pan nad oes arian yn newid dwylo! Roedd yn gweld ei golled ariannol ei hun yn bwysicach na hawl llenorion Cymru i gyhoeddi eu gwaith eu hunain, yn bwysicach na’r Gymraeg. Diolch byth mae’r hen feddwl negyddol, cyfalafol hwnnw’n brysur ddiflannu! A phe bai wedi gofyn i’r beirdd pa un oedd bwyicaf – dyblu nifer y darllenwyr neu wneud ceiniog neu ddwy, dw i’n gwybod yn iawn beth fyddai’r ateb: mai sgwennu i’r gynulleidfa oedd bwysicaf! A mynegwyd hynny gan Selwyn Gruffudd ac eraill. Fel y dywedais gannwaith: “o’r llenor i’r darllenydd”, gan hepgor y sensor yn y canol.
Cyhoeddwyd adolygiad o Rebel ar y We yng Ngwanwyn 1997 yn Llais Llyfrau (Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru) a nodwyd mai dyma’r gyfrol Gymraeg gyntaf i’w rhoi ar y we. Mi sgwennais yn Golwg (6 Ebrill 2000): Pe bai pob cyhoeddwr llyfrau heddiw yn rhoi pob llyfr a gyhoeddwyd ganddynt AM DDIM ar y we byddai hynny’n ymestyn einioes y Gymraeg am genhedlaeth neu ddwy. Mae’r rhyngrwyd yma i aros… ac mae’n dyngedfennol ein bod yn ail-ystyried ein syniadau confensiynol am gyhoeddi, yn ei sgîl. Mae’r chwyldro ar y teledu – a’r monitor – ac mae’n rhaid i’r Gymraeg fod yno!
Pan fewngofnodais am y tro cyntaf ar y Wicipedia Cymraeg (cy-wici) ar 7 Mehefin 2008, roedd na tua 16,000 o erthyglau ac mae’r nifer hwnnw wedi codi, bellach i dros 81,400. Yng Ngorffennaf 2003 y teipiwyd y gair cyntaf ar cy-wici ar yr erthygl ar y Gymraeg; yn fuan ar ôl hynny y daeth: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Rhestr Cymry, Gwiwer, David R. Edwards ac Owain Gwynedd. Y mis hwnnw roedd yr en-wici dros ddwy oed.
Left to right: Robin Owain, Marc Haynes and Aled Powell
Yng Ngorffennaf 2008 dechreuais drafodaeth am nawdd a datblygu cy-wici drwy bartneru gyda chyrff erall. Roedd llai na 20,000 o erthyglau ar y pryd a datblygodd y drafodaeth yn weithgaredd unigolion y tu allan i WP ee cysylltu gyda Bwrdd yr Iaith, Prifysgol Cymru a’r Llyfrgell Genedlaethol. Datblygodd hyn yn gais am nawdd a chafwyd £65,000 gan Lywodraeth Cymru a lansiwyd y prosiect ‘Llwybrau Byw’. Fe’m penodwyd yn Rheolwr Cymdeithas Wici Cymru, gyda Wikimedia UK yn gwneud y gwaith papur o ddydd i ddydd. Ar ddiwedd y flwyddyn parhaodd y cytundeb a dw i’n dal yn fy swydd.
Ceir llawer o fanylion ar gerrig milltir eraill ar y dudalen Wicipedia Cymraeg ar cy-wici. Ond o’m rhan i, mae’r canlynol, wedi’u serio ym mêr fy esgyrn. Efallai mai un o’r profiadau mwyaf cofiadwy oedd hwnnw pan oeddwn ar banel ymgynghorol TG/Cymraeg y Llywodraeth yn 2013; tra’n trafod sefyllfa’r Gymraeg o fewn Techoleg Gwybodaeth, cyhoeddodd Gareth Morlais fod Google wedi’i hysbysu mai’r nifer o erthyglau ar Wicipedia oedd yn penderfynu sawl miliwn o ddoleri y bydden nhw’n ei wario ar gyfieithu eu prosiectau i’r Gymraeg a ieithoedd eraill. Mi chwysais litr neu ddwy o sylweddoli’r fath gyfrifoldeb oedd arnom! Dyma gerrig milltir eraill:
30 Mehefin 2012 Rhys Wynne a minnau’n trefnu’r Golygathon Cymraeg cyntaf yn y Llyfrgell Ganolog, Caerdydd.
9 Gorffennaf 2012 cafwyd cyfarfod rhwng y Gweinidog dros Dechnoleg Gwybodaeth Llywodraeth Cymru,[1] sef Leyton Andrews, a minnau, gyda’r ddau yn cytuno ar saith pwynt a godwyd, gan gynnwys rhyddhau cynnwys cyrff cyhoeddus ar drwydded agored
21 Rhagfyr 2012 y bot cyntaf (Bot-Twm Crys) ar cy-wici yn creu dros fil o ailgyfeiriadau o enwau gwyddonol i enwau Cymraeg gwyfynod a gloynnod byw
Rhagfyr 2012 Trefnais dau gyfarfod: y cyntaf gyda golygyddion y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig a Gwasg y Brifysgol ac yn ail gydag Andrew Green, Prif Lyfrgellydd y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol gan wneud cais i’r Llyfrgell rhyddhau lluniau a gwybodaeth a chyflogi Wicipediwr llawn amser. Y cyfarfod cyntaf yn negyddol, ond yr ail yn llwyddiannus! Cafwyd cyfarfod hefyd, yn ddiweddarach rhyngof â’r Dr Aled Gruffydd Jones.
Rhagfyr 2013 cyd-drefnais ‘WiciAddysg’ ym Mae Caerdydd a braf oedd clywed Gareth Morlais ar ran Llywodraeth Cymru yn siarad mor flaengar am gynnwys agored ac am cy-wici
Hydref 2016 9,500 o erthyglau ar adar byw, gan godi cyfanswm yr erthyglau Cymraeg i 80,000.
Hydref 2016 13,000 o luniau wedi eu huwchlwytho i Comin gan y LGC a 125 miliwn o bobl wedi’u gweld (hyd yma)
Robin (chwith), Carwyn Jones, Prif Weinidog Cymru, a Linda Tomos, Prif Lyfrgellydd y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol. Cyfarfod yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2012.
Mi fyddai’n cymharu Wicipedia’n aml i nyth morgrug Amasonaidd, a braf ei weld yn tyfu. Brafiach yw gweld newid ym meddyliau pobl, lle ceir meddwl rhydd annibynol heddiw, a’r syniad o rannu’n bwysicach na’r hyn a fu yng Nghymru cyhyd – cyhoeddi er mwyn arian. Os mai dymuniad y person yw gwneud arian, yna awgrymaf eu bod yn newid eu swydd a bod yn fancar neu’n llawfeddyg. Ond os mai’r rheswm dros olygu ydyw fod y llenor yn dymuno rhannu ei waith, neu drosglwyddo gwybodaeth neu argyhoeddi eraill, yna wici ydy’r lle, neu wefan agored arall, sy’n rhydd ac am ddim. Dwn i ddim pwy yw llawer o’r morgrug hyn, gan ein bod yn aml yn defnyddio ffug enw. Mae llawer wedi gwneud argraff arna i, yn bennaf, ‘Anatiomaros‘, Eleri James a Les Barker. Petha bach ydy morgrug ond mae eu gwaith diflino wedi creu’r storfa gwybodaeth Gymraeg mwyaf a fu erioed yn y cosmos, a’r fynedfa iddi am ddim! Gwnewch y pethau bychan – ar ei orau!
Rydym ar drothwy gweld datblygiadau’r 6 mlynedd diwethaf yn dwyn ffrwyth ar ei ganfed; bu’n waith caled, diddiolch, nid-am-arian, a hynny ar adeg pan oedd llawer o’n pobl yn anwybodus am bethau digidol, yn draddodiadol gul hefyd. Anghofia i byth sgwrsio gyda Wyn Roberts (Llansannan ers talwm) am lyfrau ar Radio Cymru, minnau’n sôn am Rebel ar y We, a’i fod mewn gwirionedd yr e-lyfr cyntaf yn Gymraeg. Wedi deg munud o sgwrsio, dyma rhyw hen wag o Ben Llŷn yn ffonio ac yn dweud wrtha i: “Peidiwch a siarad drwy’ch het, ddyn, wrth gwrs na fedrwch chi ddim tynnu llyfr i lawr gwifren ffôn!” 2010 oedd hynny, nid 1910!
Mi ddyfynaf fy nhad i orffen, dyfyniad allan o lyfr Aled Eurig, Tân a Daniwyd (Argr. W. Walters a’i Fab, 1976):
Hyn yw angen mawr Cymru heddiw: gweithwyr caled, gweithwyr cyson, gweithwyr adeiladol, gweithwyr creadigol, gweithwyr positif – gydag argyhoeddiad dwfn o werth yr unigolyn, a chariad tuag at gyd-ddyn yn ogystal â thuag at Gymru.
Trafod ei waith yn y 1960 yr oedd yn yr erthygl, ei waith fel ysgrifennydd Arfon o Gymdeithas yr Iaith a sefydlydd Tafod y Ddraig ond gallasai’n hawdd fod yn disgrifio yr hyn sydd ei angen arnom ni fel cenedl heddiw.
London African Street Style Festival – Image by Jwslubbock CC BY-SA 4.0
Cape Town, 28th November 2016 – Music and dance are the very beat of this vibrant continent. It is therefore fitting that for the third Wiki Loves Africa media competition, the focus will be on Music and Dance.
Wiki Loves Africa encourages participants to contribute media – photographs, video or sound files – to illustrate a theme chosen by Wikipedia volunteers across Africa. The theme changes each year to cover a universal, visually rich and culturally specific topic (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc). For 2016, the Wikipedia community chose Music and Dance. In a further celebration of music from across Africa, the project is asking musicians to donate a track to the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist.
Over the last two years, the contest has been very photographically biased. Dance and music are not only very visual, but also perfect for video and sound. This year we are expecting more videos and sound files to be submitted. Since 2014, the contest has seen the contribution of 13,624 photographs to Wikimedia Commons for potential use on Wikipedia. In the first year, under the theme Cuisine, 873 people contributed 6,116 photographs. Cultural fashion and adornment was the theme for the next year, 2015, which saw 722 people contribute over 7,500 photographs.
The competition runs from the 1st December 2016 to the 31st January 2017 and entries are welcome from anywhere on the continent and beyond. Specific actions, including training, photowalks and upload events, are held in focus countries by national organisers. This year, the ten focus countries are Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
All entries to Wiki Loves Africa will be directly uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (the digital repository of the Wikimedia projects) with the intention of being used to illustrate relevant existing articles or as a basis to begin new articles on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation. The teams will also be working with existing photographic groups to encourage their members to use their photographic skills, learn about licensing and contributing media to Wikipedia, and win prizes.
The main prizes for the competition are:
1st Prize: US$600
2nd Prize: US$400
3rd Prize: US$200
Community Prize: US$200
The Awesome Prize: US$400
In addition, each winner will also receive a year’s subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan, and a portable power pack. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes will be selected by a jury of international Wikipedians and professional photographers. The Community Prize is chosen by the Wikipedia Community from the Jury’s short list. The Awesome Prize will be awarded for outstanding media contribution to the project, and will be chosen by the two organisers.
For the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist, the teams will partner with music and cultural organisations like Music in Africa and Goethe-Instituts in each focus country to encourage the contribution of photographs, sound files and videos to Wikipedia during the competition. Musicians will be encouraged to release an example of their work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence to be part of the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist.
Wiki Loves Africa is activated by the Wikimedia community that created Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, and built the free media archive Wikimedia Commons. The competition was conceptualised by Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow-Flood as a fun and engaging way to rebalance the lack of visual representations and relevant content that exists about Africa on Wikipedia. The competition is supported by Ynternet.org. It is funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and local partners in individual countries.
The images donated are available for use on the internet and beyond, under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0.
A dig at Teotihuacan, Mexico in 2016 – Image by Daniel Case CC BY-SA 3.0
By Lorna M. Campbell, Wikimedia UK Board Member and OER Liaison – Open Scotland at the University of Edinburgh.
Although I’ve worked in open education technology for almost twenty years now, my original background is actually in archaeology. I studied archaeology at the University of Glasgow in the late 1980s and later worked there as material sciences technician for a number of years. Along the way I worked on some amazing fieldwork projects including excavating Iron Age brochs in Orkney and the Outer Hebrides, Bronze Age wetland sites at Flag Fen, a rare Neolithic settlement at Loch Olabhat in North Uist, the Roman fort of Trimontium at Newstead in the Scottish Borders and prehistoric, Nabatean and Roman sites in the South Hauran desert in Jordan. I still have a strong interest in both history and archaeology and, perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m a passionate advocate of opening access to our shared cultural heritage.
Archaeological field work and post excavation analysis generates an enormous volume of data including photographs, plans, notebooks and journals, topographic data, terrain maps, archaeometric data, artefact collections, soil samples, osteoarchaeology data, archaeobotanical data, zooarchaeological data, radio carbon data, etc, etc, etc. The majority of this data ends up in university, museum and county archives around the country or in specialist archives such as Historic Environment Scotland’s Canmore archive and the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) at the University of York. And while there is no question that the majority of this data is being carefully curated and archived for posterity, much of it remains largely inaccessible as it is either un-digitised, or released under restrictive or ambiguous licenses.
How individuals can engage with global open heritage data. Image by Arbeck CC 3.0
This is hardly surprising for older archives which are composed primarily of analogue data. I worked on the reanalysis of the Cadbury Castle archive in the early 1990’s and can still remember trawling through hundreds of dusty boxes and files of plans, context sheets, finds records, correspondence, notebooks, etc. That reanalysis did result in the publication of an English Heritage monograph which is now freely available from the ADS but, as far as I’m aware, little if any, of the archive has been digitised.
Digitising the archives of historic excavations may be prohibitively expensive and of debatable value, however much of the data generated by fieldwork now is born digital. Archives such as Canmore and the ADS do an invaluable job of curating this data and making it freely available online for research and educational purposes. Which is great, but it’s not really open. Both archives use custom licenses rather than the more widely used Creative Commons licences. It feels a bit uncharitable to be overly critical of these services because they are at least providing free access to curated archaeological data online. Other services restrict access to public cultural heritage archives with subscriptions and paywalls.
Several key thinkers in the field of digital humanities have warned of the dangers of enclosing our cultural heritage commons and have stressed the need for digital archives to be open, accessible and reusable.
The Journal of Open Archaeology Data is one admirable example of an Open Access scholarly journal that makes all its papers and data sets freely and openly available under Creative Commons licenses, while endorsing the Panton Principles and using open, non-proprietary standards for all of its content. Internet Archaeology is another Open Access journal that publishes all its content under Creative Commons Attribution licences. However it’s still just a drop in the ocean when one considers the vast quantity of archaeological data generated each year. Archaeological data is an important component of our cultural commons and if even a small portion of this material was deposited into Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikipedia etc., it would help to significantly increase the sum of open knowledge.
Wikimedia UK is already taking positive steps to engage with the Culture sector through a wide range of projects and initiatives such as residencies, editathons, and the Wiki Loves Monuments competition, an annual event that encourages both amateur and professional photographers to capture images of the world’s historic monuments. By engaging with archaeologists and cultural heritage agencies directly, and encouraging them to contribute to our cultural commons, Wikimedia UK can play a key role in helping to ensure that our digital cultural heritage is freely and openly available to all.
More than 250 people took part in the UK competition, uploading 6,200 photos of cultural heritage which anyone can reuse. Thank you to everyone who took part. The winners of the overall competition will be announced in December.
Wiki Loves Monuments is a global photographic competition run by the Wikimedia Foundation and its local chapters like Wikimedia UK. We encourage photographers to upload photos of places that have Wikipedia articles so that those photos can be used to illustrate Wikipedia.
A solidus of Emperor Honorious, one of the images uploaded by Joan and released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Legacy and sustainability were two of the biggest issues York Museums Trust (YMT) grappled with when running two Wikimedian in Residenceprogrammes with Wikimedia UK.
During these residencies we made real progress and learnt a lot about what success can actually mean when attempting to share knowledge freely and openly.
And I have begun to realise – rather belatedly – two very important things:
That the enrichment of individuals’ lives is as important as reaching new audiences and racking up page views for collections objects.
Free and open knowledge is a platform from which these truly meaningful connections with individuals can be made and then shared.
Now don’t get me wrong. When Andrew Woods, YMT’s curator of numismatics, came up with the idea of populating the biography pages of Roman emperors – and later medieval kings – with coinage depicting them; a project that would put a nationally-recognised collection in front of 600,000+ people a month; I was impressed. In fact it got me the gig at the Wellcome Trust this October.
But there was something bigger happening here.
What sounds like a very straightforward Commons upload project was actually the culmination of a couple of years work. But the time spent getting to this point doesn’t diminish the impact of the outcome – especially if you look beyond the numbers and museum catalogue improvements.
This was the first legacy project at YMT since our highly-skilled Wikimedian in Residence Pat Hadley had left for pastures new. A legacy project based around a model that could be sustained for other collections.
It was the first time a Wikipedia project at YMT had been run without any real direct input from the Digital Team.
Joan Pritchard – Andy’s amazing volunteer – was taught to handle and photograph museum collections, how to edit Wikipedia and use Commons, how to use a collections management system and how to map data to templates for uploading.
What amazed me most, however, was the inspiring, self-led learning that comes with working directly with a collection. Handling museum objects affords you time to think, ask questions and develop knowledge. By the end of the project Joan could identify badly-corroded coins with ease and had developed a real connection with the things she was digitising for Commons.
She also became aware of the power good imagery can have when exploring and interpreting a ‘difficult’ collection. The photography was the ‘most valued part’ of the project for Joan and provided a good counterbalance to upload template creation. Couple this intimacy with collections with the fact that your work ends up in front of hundreds of thousands of people with either a direct or indirect interest in the subject matter and you have a heady cocktail. This shows the power of digital engagement when it is based on sharing and openness through and through – not just the open licensing of the end product.
The Clarendon Building where the WIR is based. Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0
The University of Oxford now employs a Wikimedian In Residence (WIR). Martin Poulter is working half-time on a one-year project to embed Wikipedia, Wikidata and related sites in the university’s teaching, research and public engagement.
Dr Poulter served as the WIR at the Bodleian Libraries for one year ending in March 2016. He led wiki training at nine public events, and gave sixteen other workshops and presentations. The images bulk-uploaded during this placement now get more than 3 million views per month from being used to illustrate Wikipedia articles in 49 languages.
Thanks to funding from the IT Innovation Challenge he is returning to the Bodleian with a cross-university remit. The new project is about working with Wikimedia UK to embed innovative use of Wikimedia sites across the university. This will involve:
training staff in the university to run Wikimedia-related events such as editathons;
helping research projects to enhance their impact by sharing outputs on Wikidata and Wikipedia;
creating customised training workshops for academics, librarians and other staff in the university; and
sharing training materials.
The aim is to collaborate with a different large research or educational project each month. The first two partners are the Hillforts Atlas Project and the Voltaire Foundation. The former is a collaboration between the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, producing a definitive database of hillforts in the British Isles and Ireland. The latter publishes definitive critical volumes of the works and correspondence of Voltaire. Both projects can reach a larger audience by helping to improve Wikidata and Wikipedia. Other research projects and cultural institutions will be supported on a first-come, first-served basis.
Wikimedians In Residence are already employed by the National Library of Wales, the Wellcome Library, and the University of Edinburgh, as well as cultural and scholarly organisations around the globe. Martin Poulter can be contacted at martin.poulter@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
By Ewan McAndrew (reposted from Ewan’s blog with permission)
Wikipedia has a problem with representation. Its mission is to be “the sum of all human knowledge” yet it only covers, by very rough estimates, only 5% of the number of articles that it needs to. Clearly there is a lot of work to be done. However, that it has amassed over 40 million articles in 300 languages in its short existence is quite incredible and is a testament to the dedication of its community of volunteers.
Yet the fact Wikipedia is human-curated means that it reflects the editors that engages with it. The late Adrianne Wadewitz, wrote an article on why teachers should engage with Wikipedia:
“Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anyone can edit but not everyone does. You and your students can dramatically affect the most popular and important reference work in the world.
Wikipedia is the most popular reference work in the world.
If you want your students to learn about how a small community is influenced by demographics and how they can change that community by participating in it, Wikipedia is the place to go.
Google takes information from Wikipedia, as do many other sites, because it is licensed through a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. Those little boxes on the left-hand side of your screen when you do a Google search? From Wikipedia. The information that is on Wikipedia spreads across the internet. What is right or wrong or missing on Wikipedia affects the entire internet.” (Teaching with Wikipedia: the why, what and how” HASTAC Blog February 21, 2014)
Since I began my residency in January 2016, the figure we have cited in terms of female editorship of Wikipedia is 15%. Better than the 10% of 2014 but still shamefully low. This lack of female representation also skews the content in much the same way; resulting in only 15% of biographies on Wikipedia being about notable females.
According to figures from Equate Scotland, Women in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) represent similarly low percentages (only 14-18%) of the STEM workforce. If Scottish education & industry is serious about becoming a realistic competitor in STEM sectors and Wikipedia is serious about attaining the sum of all human knowledge then both need to take action to become more inclusive spaces; and both have an important role in highlighting success stories in providing role models for young & old women alike so they can see a career in STEM as viable.
With this in mind, the university held an Ada Lovelace Day event on Tuesday 11th October 2016 which incorporated guest talks, fun technology activities and a Wikipedia editathon which created 9 brand new articles on Women in STEM and improved 9 others. The event was enthusiastically received by its attendees and attracted the attention of STV News.
Ada Lovelace Day 2016 attendees (Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA)
Articles created
Sheila May Edmonds – British mathematician, a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and Vice-Principal of Newnham College from 1960 to 1981.
Ann Katharine Mitchell – Decrypted messages encoded in the German Enigma cypher at Bletchley Park. Wrote several academic books about the psychological effects of divorce on children. Won a place to study maths at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford (1940–1943). At the time relatively few women went to Oxford and even fewer studied maths. There were only 5 women in Ann Williamson’s year at Oxford and she remarked that the men coming to university had been taught maths much better at school than the girls. Indeed, it was suggested to her by the headmistress of her school that studying maths was “unladylike” and her parents had to overrule her school to allow her to take up her place at Oxford. Returned to university in 1970s to study social policy and in 1980 she graduated with a Master of Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh.
Margaret Marrs – Senior Operator of the original Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer (EDSAC). EDSAC was an early British computer constructed at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England, and the second electronic digital stored-program computer to go into regular service.
Code First: Girls – Not for Profit Social Enterprise that works exclusively with women in Britain to develop coding skills. The organisation promotes gender diversity and female participation in the technology sector by offering free and paid training and courses for students and professional women. It also supports businesses to train staff and develop talent management policies. As of June 2016, Code First: Girls is reported to have provided in excess of £1.5 million worth of free coding courses to more than 1,500 women since 2013.
PLUS another 5 Wikipedia articles were translated from English Wikipedia to Portuguese Wikipedia using Wikipedia’s new Content Translation tool.
Tamar Ziegler translated to Tamar Ziegler here. Ziegler is an Israeli mathematician known for her work in ergodic theory and arithmetic combinatorics. Much of her work has focused on arithmetic progressions, in particular extensions of the Green–Tao theorem.
Vyjayanthi Chari translated to Vyjayanthi Chari here. Chari is an Indian–American professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside, known for her research in representation theory and quantum algebra. In 2015 she was elected as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
Stefanie Petermichl translated to Stefanie Petermichl here. German mathematical analyst who works as a professor at the University of Toulouse, in France. Topics of her research include harmonic analysis, several complex variables, stochastic control, and elliptic partial differential equations. She became a member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 2013.
Cornelia Druțu translated to Cornelia Druțu here. Romanian mathematician working in the areas of geometric group theory, topology, and ergodic theory and its applications to number theory. She is a fellow and a tutor in pure mathematics at Exeter College, and lecturer in the Oxford University’s mathematical institute.
Mildred Sanderson translated to Mildred Sanderson here. American mathematician, best known for her mathematical theorem concerning modular invariants. She is mentioned in the book Pioneering women in American mathematics. A Mildred L. Sanderson prize for excellence in mathematics was established in her honor in 1939 at Mount Holyoke College.
Ada Lovelace Day 2016 attendees (Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA)
A summary infobox and additional information was added to the early life and academic career sections of Nora Calderwood‘s page.
Links, references & formatting were all fixed in Margaret Rock‘s page – Rock was an English cryptoanalyst who worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during World War II.
Links were improved from Joan Robinson (British economist well known for her work on monetary economics) linked to John Eatwell (British economist and the current President of Queens’ College, Cambridge) and then Nicholas Kaldor(Cambridge economist in the post-war period) linked to Joan Robinson. Text has been drafted in sandbox to improve the Cathie Marsh page. Marsh was a sociologist and statistician who lectured at the University of Cambridge and University of Manchester. The Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIST) at the University of Manchester was named following her early death from breast cancer, aged 41.
Highlighting female success stories like these is massively important soWikiProject Women in Red (the second most active WikiProject out of 2000 or so WikiProjects) hold 5 editathons every month on and gets editors from all over the world to turn those red-linked articles on Wikipedia (i.e. ones that don’t yet exist) into blue clickable links that do; whether it be Women in Art, Women Writers, Women in Nursing, Women in Religion or Women in STEM.
To date they have been very successful, averaging 1-3000 articles a month and shifting the balance from 15% of biographies on female to 16.52%. Still a long way to go but it is important for projects like these to write women back into history.
Wikimedia UK and the National Library of Scotland are advertising for a Gaelic Wikipedian to help promote the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia, Uicipeid.
Following a successful funding application to Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the department of the Scottish government which promotes Gaelic, we will be appointing a Gaelic Wikimedian who will work throughout Scotland to promote the Gaelic language by training people to improve or create resources on Uicipeid, the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia.
This will require the Wikipedian to deliver training and events in the Western Isles, Highlands and central Scotland. The role will allow the Wikipedian flexibility in where they are based, though they will be able to work from the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh if they choose to.
Wikimedia UK launched the first Wikimedian-in-Residence programme in Scotland with the National Library of Scotland in 2013. The programme aimed to build links between the Wikimedia community and the National Library of Scotland and was followed by residencies at Museums Galleries Scotland and the University of Edinburgh. These projects are enabling us to mainstream the idea of open knowledge and open licenses within the cultural heritage and education sector, and we now want to create open educational resources to support people learning Gaelic.
If you search for ‘Scots Gaelic’ or ‘Scottish Gaelic’ on Google, the Wikipedia page for Scottish Gaelic is the top link. The 2011 national census showed that 87,056 people had some ability with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, a decline of 6,226. However, the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, and this is why Wikipedia can be such an important tool to make sure that young people continue to develop their proficiency in speaking Gaelic.
The Gaelic Wikipedian will be responsible for designing and delivering a range of activities which will encourage young Gaels to improve their language skills through editing Uicipedia. They will deliver events and workshops and work with Gaelic organisations and communities to increase knowledge about Uicipedia and increase its size and usage. They will support the development of open knowledge and open licenses and prepare progress reports to assess the impact of their work on the development of Uicipedia.
Wikimedia UK is committed to improving digital access to knowledge, culture and educational resources throughout the UK and we understand how important it is that people outside of London and other big cities can benefit from the opportunities Wikimedia projects provide. The UK is a diverse place with many cultures and languages which we are committed to supporting and representing online, so if you have a good knowledge of Gaelic and a passion for improving access to Gaelic resources, please consider applying.
To apply:
Please complete the online application form at the NLS’ website and include your current CV, a statement on why you think you are suited to the role of Gaelic Wikipedian including your level of spoken and written Scottish Gaelic, experience in designing and leading workshops or events and experience as a Wikipedia editor and your Wikipedia username if you have one.
By using this site, you agree we can set and use cookies.
_obverse.jpg)
