Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-12-18/News and notes

News and notes

Steward elections conclude

The steward elections concluded on Friday, 15 December; confirmation of current stewards also ended at the same time. At the end of the voting, all of the candidates had at least 30 support votes, and 13 of the 15 candidates had at least an 80 percent support ratio. In order to qualify, candidates must have met both criteria. The Board of Trustees will appoint stewards from the 13 qualifying candidates. Although the exact number of candidates that will be chosen is unclear, it is thought that approximately 10 to 20 new stewards will be added, and the Board appointed every qualified candidate in January's steward elections. It is also unclear how present stewards will be re-confirmed, as several of the stewards had garnered some concerns and opposition to re-confirmation.

You chosen as Person of the Year

Time magazine released its annual Person of the Year award this week, and you were featured as the chosen person. Citing the perceived Web 2.0, the magazine elaborated on how the year was marked with the "story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before", and how the power of the individual - you - was greater than ever before. "It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace," the magazine added. YouTube and MySpace are both popular sites driven by community-based contributions; the former is a video sharing site, and the latter is a social network service.

The magazine also featured Wikipedia editor Simon Pulsifer (known as SimonP) in one of its 15 stories about individuals who have made an impact on the "new digital democracy." Pulsifer, who is currently an Arbitrator, once had the most edits of any account, excluding bots, on the English Wikipedia.