Reminder that this is happening at 23:00 in #wikimedia-office.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:58 AM
Subject: IRC office hours with the WMF features team, Jan. 4th 2012
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hey everyone,
Since folks have been asking about it, I wanted to announce that the
features development team at the Wikimedia Foundation will be holding an
office hours (in #wikimedia-office) about the general past, present, and
future of MediaWiki features being worked on here at the WMF.
This will be on January 4th, 2012 at 23:00 UTC. Documentation is on Meta
for time conversion and IRC how-tos.[1]
--
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
--
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
Re Tom's suggestion that we have an RFC on meta to discuss what we are and
aren't prepared to do when fundraising; We already have a discussion at
Meta
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Draft_Guiding_principles_with_regards_to_fun….
Funny thing is that debate has almost been the mirror of here with the
Foundation proposing things like "Fundraising in line with our mission and
values: Our fundraising activities should aim to raise a movement budget
using only methods that strengthen our mission and values and communicate
them to all of our users and the world" and even "All Wikimedia fundraising
activities should be truthful with prospective donors."
May I suggest that we revive that overly quiet discussion?
WSC
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 17:28:39 +0000
> From: Tom Morris <tom(a)tommorris.org>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Blink tag jokes are now obsolete.
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <CAAQB2S-NYpP7AtTk8Aq6Q2o9bgc3HcFk5+Hxyya4b1OSSMBiUA(a)mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 14:50, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > Fabricating a sense of urgency that donations are immediately
> > necessary at the end of the campaign to keep the projects operational
> > and freely available (ie, "Please help Wikipedia pay its bills in
> > 2012" [1], "Last day to make a tax-deductible contribution to keep
> > Wikipedia free in 2012" [2], etc) is as unethical now as it was in
> > last year's campaign ("Please donate to keep Wikipedia free" in the
> > banner you linked to [3], etc).
> >
> > This discussion about blinking banners might seem trivial but it
> > serves as a very obvious reminder, in style now as well as substance,
> > of the disjoint between the fundraising team's work and the norms and
> > ethos of the community and projects.
> >
>
> Would it be an idea to have some kind of RfC or something like that on
> Meta where community members could come up with a list of things we
> roughly agree are the limits for fundraising.
>
> I think the fundraising team have done really well, but there have
> been a few things we really need to fix for next year, starting with
> the limits that the community are comfortable with regarding banner
> length, tone, graphical style etc.
>
> The other thing I think we really need to fix before next year is
> making clear to OTRS volunteers exactly what the right channels and
> actions are to handle fundraiser-related emails. And maybe it would be
> useful if we could go through fundraiser-related emails in OTRS and
> somehow tag the feedback into categories (perhaps on OTRS Wiki) and
> then give back to the community some statistics about how many
> complaints and emails we have had about fundraising and what the
> nature of those complaints and emails are so the Foundation and
> community can better tune the banners and fundraising for next year.
>
> On a subjective level, there's lots of things I've seen in e-mail from
> people: they would like to buy a t-shirt rather than donate (the
> Foundation really need to sort out merchandise - other similar
> non-profits like Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons and so on have
> really nailed merchandise), they want SMS donations in various
> European countries, they want it so that if they've donated it removes
> the banner for the rest of the fundraiser.
>
> --
> Tom Morris
> <http://tommorris.org/>
>
>
>
If anyone is feeling inspired by the ideas in this thread and would like to
propose a fellowship project aimed at attracting and retaining more
editors, the WMF Community Fellowship application process is still open:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 23:22:46 +0100
> From: Jan Ku?era <kozuch82(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] A fundraiser for editors
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <CA+n47WLfSH9=C55ajGFkytCDXVj=rbnvec1x2jvwCV=WUpkcHg(a)mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Full support here!
>
> 2012/1/3 Pharos <pharosofalexandria(a)gmail.com>
>
> > On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Przykuta <przykuta(a)o2.pl> wrote:
> > >> >
> > >> I agree cities are probably better, but I don't think that's really
> the
> > >> best place to start editing Wikipedia either, because it's an area
> where
> > >> it's really easy for new users to mistakenly think that they should
> > >> write content based on their personal experience rather than on
> sources.
> > >
> > > What do you think about libraries? ^^
> >
> > FWIW, this was actually the focus of the Seattle Wikipedia Loves
> > Libraries event:
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/seattleWLL
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_libraries_in_Seattle
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Richard
> > (User:Pharos)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
--
Siko Bouterse
Head of Community Fellowships
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
sbouterse(a)wikimedia.org
> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 15:08:12 -0800
> From: Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] A fundraiser for editors
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <CAEg6ZHnkby06gfCZhEViwu-xaKg-P5t+N0GxZmv--cdYhOYnvQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 8:53 AM, James Heilman <jmh649(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> The fundraiser for money has been working exceedingly well with our
>> number of donors increasing 10 fold since 2008. What we need now is a
>> fundraiser for editors. I meet well educated professionals who use
>> Wikipedia but have no ideas that they can edit it. We need to run a
>> banner with the same energy we use to raise money to raise editor
>> numbers. This idea has been trialed to a limited extent here
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Invitation_to_edit but the
>> effort did not have sufficient data crunching behind it to determine
>> if it works.
>
> James,
>
> thanks for this note! The problem, as I see it, is that we know that
> new editors, once they attempt to make their first edit, hit an
> enormous number of barriers. Even if they master mark-up (which is a
> big IF), they're likely to fail when their edits get reverted due to
> lack of proper citations or other issues.
I'd just like to echo this. As part of Wikimedia Australia's outreach
programmes, I've done more than a few academies, and once we get them
to write their articles initially in the user space, the #1 problem by
far we encounter is difficulty with the markup and editing interface.
One comment that I received (from a PhD, no less) was along the lines
of "Wow, this is a throwback, like editing text in the old MS-DOS
days".
I keep an enthusiastic eye out for the WYSIWYG editor, and it does
look like it's bubbling along quite nicely. It won't solve all of the
problems, but I think that once it is complete and implemented, we
will see an increase in the retention rates of editors, particularly
editors who are not traditionally considered to be computer power
users, or who have not had the benefit of growing up with this sort of
technology.
Regards,
Craig Franklin
The fundraiser for money has been working exceedingly well with our
number of donors increasing 10 fold since 2008. What we need now is a
fundraiser for editors. I meet well educated professionals who use
Wikipedia but have no ideas that they can edit it. We need to run a
banner with the same energy we use to raise money to raise editor
numbers. This idea has been trialed to a limited extent here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Invitation_to_edit but the
effort did not have sufficient data crunching behind it to determine
if it works.
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
Remember there was MSN Explorer (desktop software) that let you browse MSN
and use MSN services such as Hotmail?
Remember Google Earth (desktop software) that lets you browse the Earth and
provides additional services based on the Earth?
We can also make a "Wikipedia Explorer" (desktop software) that lets you
browse Wikipedia AND provides an added layer that enables users to:
* Chat/discuss with other users interested in the same topic (Wikipedia
article).
* Announce/find resources related to a topic (products, books, jobs,
anything).
* More.
I intend to see such a "Wikipedia Explorer" developed, or personally
develop it. Any comments?
Hello all,
I just want to send a note to celebrate the enormous success of the
2011 fundraiser. It used to be the case that I was pretty involved in
the annual campaign. For the last two fundraiser, Zack Exley's been
running the show, and I'm enormously impressed by and proud of what he
and his team have been able to accomplish.
When we prepared the budget for 2011-12, I worried that we'd need to
cross new lines in order to generate that much revenue. The 2010
campaign already felt like we were hitting the ceiling of how much can
be raised from a large number of individual donations. Last year, we
were showing Jimmy's face and appeals in many different variations
through much of the fundraiser. We had tried some pretty aggressive
banners, like these ones:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&tem…http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&tem…http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&tem…http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&tem…
Jimmy certainly didn't crave this level of attention, but he was a
good sport and gave his approval. The campaign was tremendously
successful. But after it was over, we weren't just worried that our
readers might be feeling "Jimmy fatigue", we were all feeling it,
including, I'm sure, Jimmy himself. But it simply remains true that
people strongly identify with him, and that his appeals tend to
motivate people to give more clearly than anything else.
So it was with some anxiety that we approached the 2011 campaign. Zack
isn't the kind of person who makes a grand master plan and then sticks
to it, so until it played out, I really didn't know what the 2011
campaign would look like. Instead of dreaming up plans, though, Zack
and team had spent the months leading up to the fundraiser A/B testing
and experimenting with ways to shorten the fundraiser and reduce our
reliance on a single message/message-bearer. And so they learned tons
of stuff: How long an appeal needed to be to work, what kind of
photo/lighting/background was effective, what payment process would
work, etc. And there was the usual usability testing, optimization of
donations forms, etc.
This, by the way, told us that we didn't need graphically obnoxious
banners -- the simple text on plain white with a photo worked just
fine. (But it needed to be the right kind of photo, and yes, moving it
to the left helped as well.)
And Zack hired storytellers, not an uncontroversial idea at the time,
whose job it would be to go out there and collect the most compelling
personal stories from people in our movement, wherever they may be and
whatever role they may play. This allowed us to share lots of those
stories, both through the testing and then through the actual
fundraiser itself.
There's more -- prior to the campaign, the tech team worked enormously
hard to integrate a new payment system, GlobalCollect. This would
allow us to accept payments not just in all major currencies, but also
through bank transfer, direct debit, and country-specific payment
methods:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give/en
This, too, in combination with more effectively organized efforts by
hundreds of volunteer translators, meant that banner impressions that
were previously wasted (because people had no way to actually donate)
were now going to turn into support for our work.
All the testing and infrastructure improvements meant that the first
day of the fundraiser was our most effective day ever, by far. And it
meant that we could raise our goal in less time than before. We've
also turned off the banners for registered users in record time, and
for the first time disabled banners for anyone making a donation. But
most importantly it allowed us to share appeals like these:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/22/who-is-asking-you-to-donate-to-wikiped…
These letters help people understand what Wikimedia is about through
many different voices, metaphors and experiences. The story of an
editor like Sengai Podhuvanar from India, or of a donor like Akshaya
Iyengar, or Ward Cunningham's own story. The storytellers worked hard
to capture the essence of these voices, so that they would be heard
loud and clear.
The team could have chosen to use that time to show more effective
Jimmy banners, or to pick one or two other banners and focus the
entire campaign on them. Instead it sacrificed short term revenue
impact for a more diverse and interesting campaign.
Years ago, we used to worry that people wouldn't/didn't understand
that Wikimedia is a non-profit, that it's created by volunteers, that
it's international/multilingual. Many misconceptions still exist, but
for anyone paying attention, we've demolished them.
I know that everyone involved is enormously proud of working their
butts off for Wikimedia and making this endeavor successful. I am, in
turn, really pleased and grateful with where we are as we enter the
new year. Not only do we have more resources at our disposal than ever
to succeed -- we've firmly established that Wikimedia is a new kind of
organization, a new kind of movement. With more than a million people
joining this year to support us, we're continuing to make history
together.
Thanks to everyone involved in making it happen (including, not to
forget, the participating Wikimedia chapters), and to all who've
supported Wikimedia this year. :-)
Happy 2012,
Erik
Hi all - sharing the press release that we posted this morning (PST) about
the successfully conclusion of this year's campaign. Also posted here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_Rin…
*Wikimedia Foundation Rings In New Year With Record-breaking Fundraiser*
*Over one million donors contribute to Wikimedia’s annual, global campaign*
San Francisco, CA -- January 2, 2012 - The Wikimedia Foundation’s annual
fundraising campaign reached a successful conclusion on Sunday, January 1,
having raised a record-breaking USD 20 million from more than one million
donors in nearly every country in the world. It is the Wikimedia
Foundation’s most successful campaign ever, continuing an unbroken streak
in which donations have risen every year since the campaigns began in 2003.
Wikimedia websites serve more than 470 million people every month. It is
the only major website supported not by advertising, but by donations from
readers.
“Our model is working fantastically well,” said Sue Gardner, Executive
Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Ordinary people use Wikipedia and
they like it, so they chip in some cash so it will continue to thrive. That
maintains our independence and lets us focus solely on providing a useful
public service. I am so grateful to our donors for making that possible. I
promise them we will use their money carefully and well.”
Since 2008, the number of Wikimedia Foundation donors has increased
ten-fold, and the total dollar amount raised in the campaign has risen to
over $20 million from $4.5 million.
The annual fundraiser is how the Wikimedia Foundation pays its bills. Funds
raised in this campaign will be used to buy and install servers and other
hardware, to develop new site functionality, expand mobile services,
provide legal defense for the projects, and support the large global
community of Wikimedia volunteers. The Wikimedia Foundation's total 2011-12
planned spending is 28.3 million USD. The bulk of that is raised during the
annual campaign, and the remainder comes throughout the year in the form of
grants from institutions such as the Sloan Foundation, and many other small
donations year round.
This year’s campaign highlighted the volunteers who help to create
Wikipedia. It featured testimonials from volunteer editors in countries
such as Argentina, Brazil, India, Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United
States ranging in age from 18 to 76, explaining why they edit Wikipedia and
why they think readers should support the Wikimedia Foundation. More than
100 volunteers translated the banners and appeals into dozens of languages,
reaching hundreds of millions of people.
With over 20 million articles in 282 languages, Wikipedia is the largest
encyclopedia in human history. Over 100,000 volunteers work on Wikipedia
and its 10 sister projects (including projects like Wikimedia Commons,
Wikibooks, and Wiktionary), furthering the Wikimedia Foundation's mission
to freely share the sum of all human knowledge. On January 15, 2012,
Wikipedia will celebrate its 11th anniversary.
*About the Wikimedia Foundation*
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 474 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2011).
Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20
million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than
100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia
Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily
through donations and grants.
--
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.orgblog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw
*Wikimedia Foundation Rings In New Year With Record-breaking Fundraiser*
*Over one million donors contribute to Wikimedia’s annual, global campaign*
San Francisco, CA -- January 2, 2012 - The Wikimedia Foundation’s annual
fundraising campaign reached a successful conclusion on Sunday, January 1,
having raised a record-breaking USD 20 million from more than one million
donors in nearly every country in the world. It is the Wikimedia
Foundation’s most successful campaign ever, continuing an unbroken streak
in which donations have risen every year since the campaigns began in 2003.
Wikimedia websites serve more than 470 million people every month. It is
the only major website supported not by advertising, but by donations from
readers.
“Our model is working fantastically well,” said Sue Gardner, Executive
Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Ordinary people use Wikipedia and
they like it, so they chip in some cash so it will continue to thrive. That
maintains our independence and lets us focus solely on providing a useful
public service. I am so grateful to our donors for making that possible. I
promise them we will use their money carefully and well.”
Since 2008, the number of Wikimedia Foundation donors has increased
ten-fold, and the total dollar amount raised in the campaign has risen to
over $20 million from $4.5 million.
The annual fundraiser is how the Wikimedia Foundation pays its bills. Funds
raised in this campaign will be used to buy and install servers and other
hardware, to develop new site functionality, expand mobile services,
provide legal defense for the projects, and support the large global
community of Wikimedia volunteers. The Wikimedia Foundation's total 2011-12
planned spending is 28.3 million USD. The bulk of that is raised during the
annual campaign, and the remainder comes throughout the year in the form of
grants from institutions such as the Sloan Foundation, and many other small
donations year round.
This year’s campaign highlighted the volunteers who help to create
Wikipedia. It featured testimonials from volunteer editors in countries
such as Argentina, Brazil, India, Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United
States ranging in age from 18 to 76, explaining why they edit Wikipedia and
why they think readers should support the Wikimedia Foundation. More than
100 volunteers translated the banners and appeals into dozens of languages,
reaching hundreds of millions of people.
With over 20 million articles in 282 languages, Wikipedia is the largest
encyclopedia in human history. Over 100,000 volunteers work on Wikipedia
and its 10 sister projects (including projects like Wikimedia Commons,
Wikibooks, and Wiktionary), furthering the Wikimedia Foundation's mission
to freely share the sum of all human knowledge. On January 15, 2012,
Wikipedia will celebrate its 11th anniversary.
*About the Wikimedia Foundation*
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 474 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2011).
Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20
million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than
100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia
Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily
through donations and grants.
Media Contact:
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
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