Dear Wikimedians,
The deadline to register for the Wikimedia Conference 2018 closes on Monday,
January 15!
For getting into the mood and to enhance the anticipation for the
conference, please review the current list of participants [1].
If you want to be part of the conference as a representative of your
affiliate and haven’t registered yet, do not miss this last chance to
sign up via the registration form [2]. On January 15, 2018 this form
will be closed.
Registration from the following affiliates are still missing:
=Chapters=
Wikimedia CH
Wikimedia Chile
Wikimedia Danmark
Wikimedia Eesti
Wikimedia Suomi
Wikimédia France
Wikimédia Magyarország
Wikimedia India
Wikimedia México
Wikimedia Ukraine
Wikimedia UK
Wikimedia District of Columbia
Wikimedia Venezuela
=User Groups=
Algeria Wikimedians User Group
Azerbaijani Wikimedians User Group
Esperanto kaj Libera Scio
GLAM Macedonia User Group
Hindi Wikimedians User Group
Maithili Wikimedians User Group
MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group
New England Wikimedians
North Carolina Triangle Wikipedians User Group
Ohio Wikimedians User Group
Tec de Monterey Wiki Learning
Tremendous Wiktionary User Group
Wiki Education Brazil User Group
WikiConference North America
Wikimedia Community User Group Ghana
Wikimedia Community User Group Greece
Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia
Wikimedia MA User Group (Morocco)
Wikimedians of Bulgaria User Group
Wikimedians of Colorado User Group
Wikimedians of Latvia User Group
Wikimedians of Nepal
Wikimedistas de Ecuador
Wikimujeres
Wikipedia Community Schools Association Greece
Wikisource Community User Group
Wikivoyage Association
WikiWomen's User Group
위키미디어 대한민국(Wikimedians of Korea)
=Allied Organizations=
Centre for Internet & Society - Access to Knowledge Program
For further information, please visit the Meta page [3].
You can reach out to us any time via wmcon(a)wikimedia.de should you
have any questions or comments.
Best regards,
Daniela and Michelle
on behalf of the WMCON organizing team
----
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2018/Participants%27_L…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2018/Registration_Info…
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2018
Hi everyone,
I am excited to share with you all the results of our search for permanent
leadership of the Wikimedia Foundation's Communications department.
Our own Heather Walls will transition from interim Chief of Communications
to leading the department full-time, in the newly created role of Chief
Creative Officer. She will be joined by a new Vice President of
Communications, Kui Kinyanjui, who will join us from her home in Nairobi,
Kenya in early March. Please join me in congratulating Heather and
welcoming Kui!
*The new roles*
As Chief Creative Officer, Heather will remain at the Leadership team, with
responsibility for the Communications department operations, and a mandate
that focuses on helping people better understand our values and mission
through our brand. She will oversee the organization and movement’s voice,
tone, and visual assets, and how they are incorporated into everything from
our recent awareness videos to our press statements. What do we sound and
look like? How do you feel when you interact with us, as an editor, a
reader, a donor? How do we spread and share our values? She will be
responsible for new and creative initiatives that seek to expand the way
people think about Wikipedia and Wikimedia, not only as an encyclopedia but
an essential part of the way we understand the world.
As Vice President of Communications, Kui will report directly to Heather
and oversee our traditional and digital communications efforts. She will be
responsible for our overall media positioning and coverage, critical issue
management (also known as crisis communications), extending our digital
media strategy, products, and presence, and supporting organizational
leadership, such as myself, the Leadership team, and the Board, with
effective and clear public communications. Kui also brings new and valuable
skills that we’re sure to appreciate: first, a background in internal
communications, which should help with improved information flows in our
ever-more distributed organization, as well as a deep background in
communications, campaigns, and marketing for emerging markets -- sure to be
a critical skill for our efforts around improving awareness about Wikimedia
in places where we want to reach more people.
*About Heather Walls*
Since joining the Foundation in 2011, Heather has been a driving force in
our creative and brand efforts at the Foundation. Under her stewardship,
the Foundation has dramatically reduced barriers to community usage of the
trademarks under our care while also helping increase consistency in their
usage. A member of the team before Communications was its own department,
Heather was one of the first people I met and worked with when I joined as
Chief Communications Officer. She graciously stepped in as leader of the
department when I transitioned to Executive Director and has since grown
into the role while making it her own. During that time, she has helped
find the organization's place in the growing social media channels,
modernized the Foundation’s brand, bringing it into greater alignment with
our movement's values and workflows, and overseen pioneering
community-supported awareness campaigns.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Heather worked in design roles at
organizations across California, Massachusetts, and the Midwest. She
developed a special collections room and exhibit for California Academy of
Sciences, and her work has been included in Architectural Record and
exhibited at Harvard as well as Detroit and New York.
*About Kui Kinyanjui*
Kui will join the Foundation in March after concluding her current position
as Head of Corporate Communications for Safaricom Limited in Kenya.
Safaricom is one of the leading mobile network operators in Africa, and one
of Kenya’s leading companies, providing mobile and banking services to more
than 28 million Kenyans. She brings deep communications skills, an
incredible wealth of knowledge around emerging markets, and a passion for
our efforts to reach beyond English-speaking audiences in our organization
and movement communications.
Kui is from Nairobi, Kenya. Her background is as a journalist and has
worked for Business Daily and other platforms within Nation Media Group
(the largest independent media organization in Eastern and Central Africa),
PC World, EA Magazine, Executive Magazine in Kenya, and 360 Magazine in
Washington, DC. She has also worked in communications for IBM, Ogilvy PR
Worldwide, and Media Moguls. Kui will be relocating from Nairobi to the San
Francisco Bay Area in the summer of 2018.
*How this came about*
This outcome may come as a surprise after we began an external search for a
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (CMCO), but like many surprises,
this outcome feels entirely obvious in retrospect. Heather and Kui have
essential skills and experiences that are highly complementary and will
serve to elevate and push the work of both the Communications department
and the Foundation overall. We will retain an accomplished and intuitive
advocate for our mission, community, and identity in Heather while
welcoming Kui’s fresh perspective and powerful communications skill set.
The evolution of my thinking, and this decision, was not hasty. Over the
process of looking for a CMCO, we conducted a long and thorough search with
an external firm Chaloner Associates. We reviewed applications from more
than 1200 applicants, from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences, and
brought three people through to the final rounds. While all of this was
going on, the Communications department was also undergoing a deep
consultation on its immediate and future needs, led by Heather, and with
the support of an external expert, Sabrina Hersi Issa.
Over six months of the search and consultation, a few things became clear.
The first was that Heather was doing a great job as interim chief. The
department was producing excellent results, and the team was small but
strong, united under Heather’s leadership. Her contributions to movement
strategy and the Leadership team were pragmatic and valuable. She has an
astute but understated understanding of how Wikimedia should speak, sound,
and appear to many different audiences. Her knowledge of the community was
borne out of hard-won experience over many years, with the ability to push
when we need pushing, while never losing sight of who we are.
The second was that we absolutely needed and wanted new skills and
experiences in service of our mission. We needed someone with deep
experience in traditional communications areas, from public relations to
internal communications. We wanted someone with experience in traditional
marketing and product marketing. The Communications team members who worked
in these areas were looking for someone to learn from, a strong manager and
mentor with a breadth and depth of experience. We were also committed to
finding someone who had worked serving audiences we still struggle to
reach. We wanted someone who would bring a fresh voice, an understanding of
emerging markets, and practical experience outside our current
competencies.
Kui and Heather together bring the best of both worlds. Creative and
communications, deep experience, fresh perspective, and a strong sense of
our mission and community. Together, they will work in the year to come to
develop a plan for staffing our growing marketing efforts.
*Next steps*
We will be sharing this information publicly on the blog closer to Kui's
start in March, but I wanted to share this news with you all as soon as
possible. I want to offer my appreciation to hiring committee for their
dedication through the process, and insights that led to this surprising
and exciting outcome. Thank you Anna Stillwell, Joady Lohr, Zack McCune,
Juliet Barbara, and Mel Kramer, Amy Segelin of Chaloner Associates, the
travel team for getting Kui to San Francisco, and of course, Liz Verlade
for ensuring it all come together.
Again, please join me in congratulating Heather and welcoming Kui!
Cheers,
Katherine
--
Katherine Maher
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635 <(415)%20839-6885>
+1 (415) 712 4873 <(415)%20712-4873>
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org
https://annual.wikimedia.org
--
Katherine Maher
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
+1 (415) 712 4873
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org
https://annual.wikimedia.org
Forwarding to Wikitech-l and MediaWiki-l for the benefit of technical
people who may be interested in this subject and not subscribed to the
general WikimediaAnnounce-l.
As has been the case for awhile, WikimediaAnnounce-l is not automatically
forwarding to Wikimedia-l, so I'm forwarding this email manually to that
list also.
Have a good weekend.
Pine <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:CatherineMunro/Bright_Places>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Markus Glaser <glaser(a)hallowelt.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 2:36 AM
Subject: [Wikimedia Announcements] Annual report 2017 for MediaWiki
Stakeholders' Group
To: "wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org" <wikimediaannounce-l@lists.
wikimedia.org>
Hello,
here is the annual report of the MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Stakeholders%27_
Group/Annual_Report_2017
Best,
Markus Glaser
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TLDR:
- March 4 is the deadline for conference grant proposals for events that
will happen between August 2018 and February 2019.
- There is a new conference grant proposal template
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Preload>, and a
required community engagement survey
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Plan> that must be
completed before the proposal deadline.
- Please email me by January 30th if you are thinking of planning a
conference in 2018 - 2019.
Hi everyone,
As a grant Program Officer for the WMF Conference and Event grant program
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference>, I support communities
to develop grant proposals and plan conferences, meetings and events that
need more than $2,000 USD.
I am writing to ensure that groups who are planning to request a grant from
the WMF to host a conference are aware of changes to the WMF conference
grant timelines and processes, and annual planning.
*Proposal process changes:*
In September 2017 we introduced a new proposal template and community
engagement survey for conference grants. The changes were made to support
event organizers to gather community input about what topics, projects or
goals are most important to focus on at a proposed event.
- Communities and organizing teams should be aware that there is a
new Conference
grant proposal template
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Preload>, which
includes a community engagement survey
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Plan> that must be
completed before the proposal deadline.
- If your community has a process they prefer to use to gather input to
plan conferences, organizers should contact Kacie Harold at
kharold(a)wikimedia.org by January 30s to discuss.
*Proposal timeline changes:*
We will be extending the March 2018 round review period by to ensure there
is sufficient time for applicants to update proposals after staff feedback.
Organizers will have the opportunity to revise their proposal after WMF
staff review, and will be able to respond to comments for one week after
the committee review.
- 4 March: Proposal deadline
- 5 - 16 March: WMF staff feedback and eligibility review
- 25 March: Proposal revision deadline
- 26 March - 8 April: Grant committee review
- 20 April: Grant decisions posted
Groups who need more than $2,000 USD funding for an event that will take
place between August 2018 and February 2019 should apply for a conference
grant by March 4 2018.
*Annual planning for 2018-19 budget:*
The WMF is working our FY18-19 annual plan and budget. We want to know what
events communities might need funding for during this period. All groups
who are thinking about requesting a WMF conference grant for potential
events in 2018 and 2019 are encouraged to contact Kacie Harold, the WMF
Conference Grant Program Officer by January 30th.
Thanks for your extended attention - I look forward to all of your emails
and questions.
Cheers,
Kacie
Hello all,
[sorry for cross-posting!]
The first international conference dedicated to the Wikidata community took
place in Berlin, in October 2017. The organizing team is very happy to
share with you the report of this event:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/WMDE/WikidataCon/Report
In this document, we share a brief overview of the conference, its program
and outcomes, our lessons learned, and we focus on two topics that we found
really important for the organization of such an event: inclusiveness and
documentation.
We hope that you enjoy reading this document as much as we enjoyed
preparing it.
You may wonder now, what are the next steps for WikidataCon? As announced
at the end of the 2017 edition, *WikidataCon will return in October 2019*,
scaled up and improved to welcome even more Wikidata enthusiasts to share
knowledge and appreciation.
In 2018, we encourage the local communities who would like to spread the
word about Wikidata to organize their own event for the *6th birthday of
Wikidata*. We would love to see a multilingual, multicultural,
decentralized but connected event happening all around the world for this
occasion. Each local group, chapter or individual willing to organize
something can already write about their project on this page:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Sixth_Birthday
You will also find some examples of event formats, documentation about how
to organize a Wikidata workshop, and how to request funding.
Wikimedia Deutschland will take care of the overall communication, and some
logistical support.
We’re very excited about celebrating a new year of Wikidata all around the
world!
If you have any question or idea, feel free to reach out to me.
For the WikidataCon organizing team,
--
Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
Hi all,
This week we ended 2017 and started 2018.
I liked the format and diversity of the December 2017 WMF metrics meeting (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFA53YlM9Q4). For those who didn't watch
that meeting or would like a reminder, here is a summary of the the
lightning talks:
* Wiki Loves Butterfly
* *Día de las Escritoras*
* Sesame Street and Wikipedia
* Wiki Loves Monuments
* Wikipedia in Space
* Promoting Wikipedia in Nigeria
Also, I generally like the appearance and speed of the new version of
Wikistats, which is currently an alpha release:
https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/all-projects
What's making you happy this week?
Pine
