Jan Ainali

funderingar från mig

Tag: podcast

My sustainability May 2024

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Podcast episode

Surprisingly, the tables were turned when after an interview at the Wikimedia summit in April, Eva Martin offered to interview me. I agreed, and here is the episode where I elaborate on the experience of the summit with the perspective of being there as a representative for the Wikimedians for Sustainable Development. While it is a bit specific for the summit, it still is a good introduction to the user group.

User group meeting

I announced a user group meeting, but it was not many attendees. I still took some notes and published the minutes.

On a more positive note, another user group member offered to help announce the meetings and already scheduled one for 16 June after a bit of coaching. This is precisely what I hoped for, and with just three or four more members taking on small tasks like this, it will turn into a lively group quickly.

Newsletter

There were also plenty of cool things happening in the community, and the newsletter for May was fun to write.

Grant

Last month, I reported I submitted a grant for starting a secretariat. Unfortunately, it was declined.

This is the first half of my fifth monthly reports of my New Year’s resolutions.

2024 podcast listening update

Posted on by Jan Ainali

In 2022, I wrote a blog post about my podcast listening. Since I recently switched podcast player, and with that did a big cleanse, I thought it was time for an update.

I used to use the Podcast addict app for listening to podcasts. And it was actually quite good and had all the features I wanted. But it was one thing itching, it wasn’t open source. So last year I finally did some research and installed AntennaPod, an open source solution that I saw was getting good reviews.

The migration was as easy as one could hope for, and one neat feature was that it asked which of my subscriptions I wanted to keep. This made me contemplate the ones I were enjoying, and now I have updated my listening page (archiving my previous feed). Most of the changes, though, are for podcasts that stopped producing new episodes and where I gave up hope of them returning.

One small thing that I have not figured out yet, is how to add episodes without subscribing to the podcast. But I guess I will figure that out, or make a feature request. Their contributing page looks inviting, and I have requested access to help translate the app.

On the positive note, I am already glad to not be bothered by the animated ads that pestered me in the Podcast addict app.

On the Between the brackets podcast

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I was recently a guest on the podcast Between the brackets. The podcast usually covers MediaWiki related topics, but from time to time, also have Wikimedians as guests. It was a lot of fun, since we talked about almost all the things I am currently involved in. We mostly talked about the Foundation for Public Code, Wikidata, Govdirectory, Wikimedians for Sustainable Development but also a bit about AI and Abstract Wikipedia.

If you want to have a listen, find it in your podcast player, or listen directly here: https://betweenthebrackets.libsyn.com/episode-155-jan-ainali
(or select a service of your choice in Wikidata).

On Sustain Open Source Software Podcast – again

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Last winter, I was on the Sustain Open Source Software Podcast talking about the Standard for Public Code. Now I was on again, but this time talking mostly about the Governance game. It was just as fun this time to chat with Richard Littauer, he is a great host, and I had a great time. Give it a listen and see what you think, I am in the second half of the podcast, starting at 16:00. The podcast was recorded earlier in March at FOSS Backstage.

On Sustain Open Source Software Podcast

Posted on by Jan Ainali

A few days ago I was guest appearing in the podcast Sustain OSS. It was an energizing conversation with Richard Littauer and Justin Dorfman, and we honestly probably could have continued for several hours. We mostly discussed my work at the Foundation for Public Code and the Standard for Public Code we have developed and that I work on, and with, daily. But we also got into talking about Wikipedia, the movement and some of the bot creation initiatives we have seen.

I really enjoyed the conversation and hope I get the chance to speak with them again sometime. As they are deep in the know of the field of work, they asked just the right questions that we are also thinking about which made this more than just a shallow presentation of who we are. I guess the only thing we really didn’t get into much is how we are funded which is possibly not the most interesting conversation for everyone, but as a non-profit working for the common good is something we are always eager to explore. That being said, I think that the conversation will give anyone who listens to it a better sense of what I do at work and why I am passionate about it.

From a podcast producer point of view, I was also impressed by the process they applied. All the way from getting in contact, having guiding documents, gathering information needed for the shownotes to checklists for the recording, it was a great experience as a guest. I guess the only downside was that very few of the tools they used (that I saw) were open source solutions. Now, for remote multitrack recording, there aren’t many alternatives, that is something I am also sadly aware of, but for simple collaborative document editing there are plenty of options. If some of those services are switched, it will be an even more pleasant experience to be a guest in the future!

Mini hackathon in Utrecht

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Two weeks ago, I participated in the mini hackathon in Utrecht. It turned out to be quite productive and I manage to complete four different tasks. But mostly it was fun to meet wikimedians again (and they also served some tasty vegan pastries).

Wikidata based maps

First, I helped improve the map about accused witches to also have colors based on the gender of the accused person. This was done by binding the gender label to a layer. Then I also made a version for Kartographer using colors on the marker symbols.

Common properties user script for Wikidata

I have several times created a query to help me understand how a topic is modeled, by exploring which properties have a specific item as a value. There is a gadget that does something very similar to what I had in mind, Easy query. So based on that, I managed to create a user script I called common-properties.js. You can see it used in this video.

Mapframe code snippet

Similarly, I have wished for Wikidata Query Service to have Kartographer’s <mapframe> as one of the code examples in the results view. I had even created a Phabricator task for it. With some excellent help from Lucas Werkmeister it resulted in a patch to gerrit. And it has already been merged!

The new mapframe code snippet.

Podcast interview

With so many interesting people in one place, I couldn’t resist recording a special episode in English for Wikipediapodden. I talked to Siebrand Mazeland, one of the organizers, about this hackathon and hackathon organizing in general.

Backing up podcasts

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I saw a short and sweet blog post about backing up podcasts by Ed Summers. And since he encouraged people to copy his approach, I gave it a try.

In essence this was just downloading a file from my podcast player, look at how the page from Ed worked and styled it a bit (borrowing from my short link site aina.li) and upload them. Quite easy!

The bonus is of course that you can explore all the podcasts I listen to. If you find something new that interests you that you subscribe to, do leave a comment or ping me on social media.

Interviewed in The World According to Wikipedia

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A week ago, I was interviewed for the podcast The World According to Wikipedia about Wikidata. We talked about what Wikidata is, why it has grown so fast, and what role it might play in the future. And of course I had to mention Wikimedians for Sustainable Development and Govdirectory.

Listen to the episode here: https://headstuffpodcasts.com/episode/s02e09-stanning-wikidata

Thanks to Rebecca O’Neill for a lovely chat!

Intervjuad av Trevlig mjukvara

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Inför konferensen FOSS North där jag ska tala intervjuade podcasten Trevlig mjukvara mig. Det var ett trevligt samtal om potentialen som finns om organisationer i offentlig sektor samarbetar med varandra och använder öppen källkod.

Avsnittet blev S07E04 Trevlig Intervju – Jan Ainali.

Det är för övrigt en väldigt trevlig podd och den enda jag känner till som pratar om öppen källkod på svenska. Om det är i ditt intresse kan du prenumerera på en gång. (Och har du andra liknande tips får du gärna tipsa mig.)

Med i podcasten Killander & Björk

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När jag var i Almedalen i somras fick jag chansen att vara med i en podcast med Killander & Björk i ett samtal om framtiden. Vi pratade mest om öppna data, men också lite blandat om öppenhet och lite Wikimedia så klart.

Lyssna på avsnittet här: https://www.killanderobjork.se/05-28-jan-ainali-wikipedia/