Ivan Shmakov

A free software enthusiast and a wikimedian.

Licensing

Regardless of the license(s) I’ve agreed to release my original work under by contributing to a Wikimedia Foundation project, I also hereby release my original contributions, both past and (until further notice) future ones, under the CC BY-SA 3.0 or later license.

Of course, this does not cover the cases where I merely move the text authored by others around, which I generally mark as such in the summary (but it wouldn’t harm to double-check as I can let it slip at times.) Also, when my contribution is a derivative of someone’s else work (say, an edit to an image), the license of the original work may preclude you from enjoying the benefits of the license above until (and unless) the original author rereleases his or her work under a compatible license. (Or the copyright expires.)

Selected contributions

(Roughly in the order of diminishing importance. As I perceive it, anyway.)

On Russian Wikibooks:
- Язык Си в примерах (C language in examples) – overhauled seven sections so far (out of 24);
- Установка Debian (Installing Debian) and Сетевые средства Debian (Debian networking facilities) – authored; they are in the need of update to match the current Debian versions, however.
- Викиучебник:Категоризация (Wikibooks: Categorization) and Викиучебник:Шаблоны названий страниц (Wikibooks: Page name templates) – authored;
- Викиучебник:Как готовить (Wikibooks: How to cook.) Add wiki-markup to taste. Best served upon a template.
On Wikimedia Commons (see also c:Special:ListFiles/Ivan Shmakov):
- a set of land cover type maps (2002‒2011) based on the NASA MODIS MCD12C1 dataset; see c:Template:Other versions/MCD12C1 Land Cover Type 1;
- several maps based on other NASA MODIS datasets;
- c:File:Dla-demo-2005-12-29.ogv – diffusion-limited aggregation animation in 3D; (source data presumed to be lost due to a HDD failure, alas);
- c:Category:TAIGA observatory – contributed a few photographs.
On Russian Wikiversity:
- Системы сборки на основе Make (Make-based build systems) and Архитектура AVR в примерах (AVR architecture in examples) – authored.

No good deed

The Paid contributions amendment, effective as of June, 2014 reads: you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation.

I believe that this amendment is harmful for at least the following reasons.

As shown during the c:Commons talk:Requests for comment/Alternative paid contribution disclosure policy#Test case discussion, it’s entirely trivial to violate this term of use while neither causing nor intending to cause any harm to Wikimedia goals (at least how I understand them) whatsoever.
It shifts the community focus from contributions to contributors – which is itself detrimental to said goals.

Gladly, several projects’ communities understood the potential harm and effectively got out of the reach of this prohibition (see m:Alternative paid contribution disclosure policies#Does not require any disclosure.) And if you truly care about a Wikimedia project which didn’t as of yet effected a similar alternative paid contribution disclosure policy – I urge you to start the respective discussion at the appropriate project forum.

Personally, I’ve decided to try to refrain from participating in any and all Wikimedia Foundation projects that haven’t yet adopted a relaxed policy in place of the Foundation’s default one.

Thanks in advance, and thanks for your understanding.