Wikimedia-l January 2012

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158 participants
123 discussions

[Foundation-l] Call for nominations! Steward Elections 2012
by Tanvir Rahman 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

Hello everyone, I am pleased to announce the beginning of Steward Election 2012 [1]. We are now taking nominations from eligible candidates. Interested candidates can check their eligibility and procedure to submit the nomination on the guidelines page [2]. We are open to candidate submissions till January 28, 2012, 23:59 (UTC). Questions to the candidates can be submitted until February 6, 2012, 23:59 (UTC). Guidelines about questioning can also be found on our guidelines page [2]. This time we are also arranging the confirmation of existing stewards [3]. But the confirmation will begin on February 8, and will finish on February 27, 2012. Please remember, the voting has not yet begun and will be not until February 8, 2012, 00:00 (UTC). We will poke you once again when the voting start. As you all know steward election is a global event, so we need help from volunteers to translate necessary pages into languages they speak. For those who want to help us out with translation, please see our translation portal [4]. And if you have any queries related to translation or anything related to the election, you can ask us on the talk page [5]. Alternatively you are free to poke us on IRC channel #wikimedia-stewards-elections. For those who are a little bit surprised to see another election in few months, I want to let you know that previous one (in September-October of 2011) was a special one which we arranged in need. This is the regular one to elect new stewards and to confirm existing ones. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to any list if you think it will be useful. :-) Regards, Tanvir Rahman Wikitanvir on Wikimedia (On behalf of the Election Committee.) [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2012 [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2012/Guidelines [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Confirm/2012/en [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2012/Translation [5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Stewards/Elections_2012

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[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Poland's travelling POTY exhibition moves south
by Tomasz Kozłowski 14 Jan '12

14 Jan '12

Dear all, I am delighted to announce that the first-ever travelling POTY pictures exhibition, organised by Wikimedia Poland, is moving to yet another Polish city. Starting next Wednesday, January 18, 16 images chosen in the annual POTY contests are going to be shown at the Municipal Public Library in [[Bytom]] in the south, less than 90 km from the Czech Polish border. As some of you may recall, the exhibition premièred during the 10th anniversary of the Polish Wikipedia conference, held in Poznań last September, having been visited by a few hundred visitors in just two weeks. Our first stop outside Poznań was Przystanek Książka, one of Warsaw's media libraries, where the exhibition was shown from November 28, 2011 to January 11, 2012, and has been visited by over a thousand visitors (after making it to the main page of Gazeta.pl, one of Poland's most popular news sites)! With high hopes, we are now moving to Bytom, where the pictures are going to be showcased until February 18. The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a public lecture on Polish Wikipedia and a Wikipedia editing workshop for 50+ people, led by Wikimedian Paweł Marynowski ([[user:Yarl]]). For those of you currently living in the south of Poland or planning to visit the Upper Silesia Metroplex (e.g. Katowice) in the upcoming weeks: the library is located at 3 Jan III Sobieski Square in Bytom, just 400 metres north of Bytom Market Square, with direct public transport from Katowice (bus lines "820" and "830") and is open on working days from 8 AM until 7 PM (8 AM-3 PM on Saturdays). We are still looking for more organisations and institutions willing to hold the exhibition – and if there's anyone from the neighbouring (European) countries willing to get involved (we are particularly looking at our WMCEE friends now :)), feel free to approach me at <tomasz.kozlowski @ wikimedia.pl>. Regards, -- Tomasz Kozłowski | [[user:odder]]

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[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Israel Report, October - December 2011
by Harel Cain 14 Jan '12

14 Jan '12

Dear all, Here is our activity report for the period of October-December 2011 (apparently monthly reports are difficult to keep up, so we’re switching to less frequent quarterly reporting). == General Assembly == On December 18th, Wikimedia Israel held a General Assembly in Tel Aviv, to present our Board’s plans and budget allocation for 2012 and to approve the final general and financial reports for 2010. Most of the GA was devoted to hearing reports from our volunteers in the field about the various projects now underway - we are experiencing a true renaissance of outreach activity since hosting Wikimania in August. In this report we’ll mention some of the activities presented in the GA. The GA was attended by 16 people, 14 of which are formal members of our chapter. ==GLAM== ===GLAM: IMJ project === As reported before, part of the GLAM:IMJ project included a Wikipedian-in-Residence program. The first WIR, Yair Talmor, began his work at the Museum on Sep. 18th, and his residency ended on Nov. 30th. Throughout his two months at the IMJ, Talmor worked in order to promote the goals set at the beginning of the project. This was no easy task - although an effort was made to have realistic and reachable milestones, the project was very ambitious and much energy was invested in it, just as part of it being the first GLAM project in Israel. As part of his residency, Talmor led editing sessions with Museum staff, promoted the relations between museum staff, volunteers of the Information Center and the Hebrew Wikipedia community, worked with the museum in order to release media files to Wiki Commons and cultivated a personal relationship with artists [and their families], who eventually donated info and media to the project. * http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/December_2011/Contents/I… * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/IMJ (project page on en.wp) ==== The 8th Digital Heritage Conference at the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem ==== On November 16th, we had the privilege of attending the 8th annual conference on the digitization of cultural heritage. The conference is probably the most professional & important one in Israel on the subject, so we were fortunate to have a two-hour session to present our projects. The session, which was called "Wikipedia and GLAM Projects - How galleries, libraries, archives and museums work with Wikipedia & Wikimedia to share knowledge", was chaired by Dr. Allison Kupietzky, Collections Database Manager and Head of the Information Center for Israeli Art at the IMJ, and had 5 parts: * "How to change the world while still in your slippers - Wikipedia, Wikimedia and the free content movement" - A presentation by Tomer Ashur, Chairman of Wikimedia Israel. * "Wikimedia's Outreach Projects - from Africa to GLAM" - A presentation by Shani Evenstine, GLAM Projects Coordinator, Wikimedia Israel. * "Israeli Art on Wikipedia as part of the GLAM IMJ Project" - A presentation by Dr. Allison Kupietzky, Head of the Information Center for Israeli Art, IMJ & Yair Talmor, Wikipedian-in-Residence, IMJ Project. * "Working Together - The National Library and Wikipedia" - A presentation by Ido Ivri, Manager of Digital Programs, the National Library of Israel. The lecture described the National Library of Israel's initiative for providing access to a historic collection of 3,000 photographs, by making it accessible on Wikipedia, the benefits of the process to the general public, what the National Library gains and possible implications on the digitization and licensing processes. * A Q&A panel with the audience. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/December_2011/Contents/I… ===GLAM: NLI Project === It is with great pleasure that we announce the beginning of the second big GLAM project in Israel - a collaboration with the National Library of Israel. This project also hosts a Wikipedian-in-Residence, Daniel Tzvi Framowitz, who will work at the NLI once-twice a week, in the coming six months. The project was initiated by Ido Ivri, Manager of Digital Programs at the NLI, and a new wikipedian. * http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/December_2011/Contents/I… == Copyright Legislation == We are continuing our ongoing effort to introduce a change in Israeli copyright law that will allow free use of all pictures and media created by state employees. With a 18 months delay, the Economy Committee of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) started to discuss this change in the law, and in its next meeting will vote on whether to accept the change as drafted by Wikimedia Israel and the Israeli Internet Association (ISOC). More information and our policy paper published before the meeting: http://blog.wikimedia.org.il/?p=325 (in Hebrew) == Israeli Ministry of Education == Following meetings between the chapter’s representatives and the Science and Technology Administration at the Ministry of Education, we held a trial series of virtual meetings teaching fifth and sixth grade pupils about crowdsourcing, wisdom of the masses, history of Wikipedia and how to use Wikipedia in a smart and responsible way. The material was written by Deror Avi and Amir Aharoni and taught by the charming Tamar Hayardeni to 380 classes in three rounds, with 13,300 (!) pupils watching it altogether. == A lecture to Arab teachers in Baqa al-Gharbiyye == On December 4 Amir Aharoni gave a lecture about Wikipedia in the Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye to twenty five Arab teachers of history and geography. The lecture presented Wikipedia and the principles behind, showed the teachers how to read and search Wikipedia effectively, how to use in their particular classes and how to improve articles for the benefit of their students and all Wikipedia readers. This was the first WMIL activity with the Israeli Arab community. == Haifa University Faculty of the Humanities == As part of a big cooperation initiative with the Faculty of the Humanities in the Haifa University, Hana Yariv is instructing factuly staff and students on Wikipedia and its inner workings. In a few courses provided by the faculty, students are required to write Wikipedia articles as part of their coursework. == Haifa University Faculty of Public Health == Deror Avi is leading a cooperation project with the Faculty of Public Health at Haifa Univeristy, in which graduate students will write Wikipedia articles as a mandatory assignment in their coursework. The articles will be graded and verified by the course teachers. A meeting with the faculty staff was held in December, and a training session given to the students. == Ben Gurion University == Danny W. is leading a few parallel cooperation efforts with Ben Gurion University in Beersheba: mainly with professors who are friendly to our cause and willing to introduce article improvement assignments as part of their coursework, and with the Dean of Students in order to form a formal student club of Wikimedians which will have its own humble budget from the university. == Public outreach talk in Ra'anana Municipal Library == On November 22nd, Tomer Ashur gave a presentation in the the municipal library of Raanana. The presentation included about 30 people which engaged in the discussions and were very interested of the topic. After the presentation we started receiving requests from other libraries which heard about this presentation. == Cooperation with Librarians in the Western Galilee == Liron Dorfman has been giving a group of librarians and students of information studies in the College of the Western Galilee (http://www.wgalil.ac.il/) a series of lectures on Wikipedia and its inner workings. == Wikipedia Training to Teachers of Civic Studies, Center for Educational Technology == On January 2nd, Harel Cain delivered a training session about Wikipedia and using it in the classroom, with an emphasis on civic studies (solving disputes in Wikipedia, questions of privacy and libel, of censorship etc) to a group of 20+ teachers of civic studies in Israeli high schools, at the Israeli Center of Education Technology (CET). Followup acitivties and meetings at the CET are planned for the coming weeks. * http://video.cet.ac.il/VideoPlayer.aspx?xmlConfigPath=Civic/2012/Ezrahut_Hi… (video of talk, in Hebrew) == Annual Meetup of Wikipedians in January 2012 == On January 13th, 2012, Wikimedia Israel held an annual meetup of Wikipedians at Tel Aviv University, which was attended by dozens of Wikipedians. The program contained both informal mingling and a series of updates and talks on various projects and trends in the Wikimedian universe, with a focus on Wikimedia Israel’s activities. * http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedian_meetups_in_Israel:_Ja… * http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%… (program, in Hebrew) == Wiki Photo Hunts - Elef Millim Project == We continue our long tradition of monthly self-guided tours for and by Wikimedians, which also serve as photo hunts generating hundreds of photos for Commons. In October we made to Jaffa, in November to Kafr Qara and in December to Neve Tsedek (one of the old neighborhoods of Tel Aviv). * http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%… * http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%… * http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%… Sincerely, Harel Cain Secretary, Wikimedia Israel _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Foundation-L, the public mailing list about the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. For more information about Foundation-L: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l

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Re: [Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Talk pages Considered Harmful (for references)
by Gwern Branwen 14 Jan '12

14 Jan '12

An update: I managed to fix the double-counting problem I mentioned was skewing the numbers upwards, and fixed a few other issues. (In retrospect, the solution was almost trivial: just discard any URL that appears *twice* in the diff, since none of the edits would repeat an added link.) The updated numbers are: - My anime references: <8% - My non-anime references: <3% - Krebmarkt's references: <4% - Total references used: <4.15% of 1206 As one would expect from fixes removing false positives, all the new figures are smaller. I invite people to go through and double-check - everything you need is provided. On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Ken Arromdee <arromdee(a)rahul.net> wrote: > The rest of that, about deletionism, may be at least as interesting. Or it's a rant, depends on your own inclinations, I think. (I do well on things like belief calibration and avoided political bias on tests, but who knows whether my beliefs on Wikipedia are correct.) Sue Gardner liked it, at least. > I wonder how the ban on canvassing is affecting deletion. Our system is set > up so that informing the very people who would be affected most by deleting > an article is not permitted. (And of course, we have WP:OWN, which prevents > even *recognizing* that some people may have a particular interest in an > article not being deleted.) It helps deletion, unsurprisingly; see the study quoted & linked in http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism#fn22 On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Rob <gamaliel8(a)gmail.com> wrote: > This makes a lot of sense. Many times I've removed these from the > article for valid reasons - text/link dumps, mal- or unformed > sections, etc. - and placed them on talk so editors could use them for > future edits. They don't use them, as I've shown. On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 9:46 PM, <kgorman(a)berkeley.edu> wrote: > This rate, without additional context, is meaningless. As Rob pointed > out, there are many different reasons for moving > references/links/citations from an article to a talk page, and unless you > have more information about why people are moving these to talk pages, the > rate at which they move back doesn't really mean anything. By labeling > this rate a 'failure rate' you are strongly implying that success would be > keeping the link in the article. I don't believe this is right - I > believe that 'success' is doing what's best for the article. > > Even if 99% of things that were moved to talk pages were not subsequently > returned, I would not find this at all disturbing without evidence that a > large portion of the removed things should not have been removed. > Frankly, I would be surprised if 10% of things that I personally moved to > talk pages were moved back in to the article space. You and Rob have apparently completely missed the point of the exercise, the reason why I invested so much manual effort into this. I didn't look at a bunch of anonymous edits, precisely because I *knew* someone would say 'oh they're from dirty anonymouses and so they are probably crappy links - why be bothered by a 10% or a 1% rate?' This is wrong, but it has a surface plausibility and there's no point in compiling data that can be so glibly dismissed. So I looked *only* at known good links, links I and Krebmarkt had hand-selected as useful. Again, feel free to go through the links and look at them! My first 2 anime links were RSs for a director's next movie, and box office receipts; Krebmarkt's first 2 links were RS critics' reviews for manga that both have (note the present tense) 0 reviews in their articles. And so on. There is a known rate at which these links ought to be included. It's >90%. (I am being charitable in not saying 99% or 100%.) The actual inclusion rate is <10%. The difference should bother us. -- gwern http://www.gwern.net/In%20Defense%20Of%20Inclusionism#the-editing-community…

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[Foundation-l] Blink tag jokes are now obsolete.
by geni 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

We appear to have actual blinking ads. Unfortunate. Still I suppose the occasion should be marked. -- geni

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[Foundation-l] 30 min. reminder: IRC office hours this week with Sue Gardner
by Steven Walling 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

This is happening in about 30 minutes in #wikimedia-office. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 11:07 AM Subject: IRC office hours this week with Sue Gardner To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hi everyone, This is just a note that on Thursday the 12th, at 22:30 UTC, WMF Executive Director Sue Gardner will be in #wikimedia-office to answer your questions. We haven't set a topic as yet, so feel free to come prepared with what is of interest to you right now. As usual, time conversion links and other documentation is on Meta.[1] Talk to you then! -- 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

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[Foundation-l] Page view stats
by James Heilman 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

We seem to be missing the states from Dec of 2011 here http://toolserver.org/~alexz/pop/view.php and not sure why Also Mr.Z-man seems to have gone inactive for more than a month now. Not sure if there is anyone to take over this tool? Hopefully he shall return. -- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian

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[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, December 2011
by Tilman Bayer 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

Hi all, please find below the WMF report for December, in plain text. As always, the editable and formatted version is on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_December_2011 and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/ We are now also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary. Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay updated, by providing a translation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_December_2011 Many thanks to those who translated last month's "Highlights" into Danish, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch and Vietnamese! While continuing to focus on WMF activities, the "Highlights" now include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement. Suggestions for the upcoming January issue are welcome at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights (until the first week of February). Regards, Tilman -- Wikimedia Foundation Report, December 2011 * 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Visual editor prototype o 3.2 Fundraiser ends with record-breaking donations o 3.3 Annual Report published, for the first time with translations o 3.4 Collaborative drafting process for Terms of Use update completed * 4 Technology o 4.1 Operations o 4.2 Features Engineering o 4.3 Mobile o 4.4 Platform Engineering * 5 Research * 6 Community o 6.1 Projects o 6.2 Fundraising o 6.3 Fellowship Program o 6.4 Community Relations * 7 Global Development o 7.1 Grants Program + 7.1.1 Grants Awarded and Executed o 7.2 Brazil Catalyst o 7.3 Arabic Language Initiative o 7.4 Wikimania Scholarships o 7.5 Mobile and Business Development o 7.6 Global development research o 7.7 Wikipedia Education Program o 7.8 India Programs + 7.8.1 Indic Languages + 7.8.2 India Outreach + 7.8.3 India Education Program + 7.8.4 Other o 7.9 Communications + 7.9.1 Major announcements + 7.9.2 Major Storylines through December # 7.9.2.1 WMF's 2010-11 Annual Report launched (December 17) # 7.9.2.2 Wikipedia visual editor (December 13) # 7.9.2.3 WMF opposes SOPA / WP shut down? + 7.9.3 Other worthwhile reads + 7.9.4 Wikipedia Signpost + 7.9.5 WMF Blog posts + 7.9.6 Media Contact * 8 Human Resources o 8.1 Staff Changes o 8.2 Statistics o 8.3 Department Updates * 9 Finance and Administration * 10 Legal * 11 Visitors and Guests == Data and Trends == Global unique visitors for November: 474 million (-0.4% compared with October; +15.6% compared with the previous year) (comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release December data later in January) Page requests for December: 16.3 billion (-6.2% compared with November; +17.1% compared with the previous year) (estimate from Server log data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access) Active Registered Editors for November 2011 (>= 5 edits/month): 83,444 (-1.2% compared with September / comparison data for November 2010 currently unavailable) (Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects except for Wikimedia Commons) Report Card for November 2011: http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/RC_2011_11_detailed.html The report card is currently undergoing a redesign as a more fully-featured dashboard (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects). == Financials == (Financial information is only available for November 2011 at the time of this report.) All financial information presented is for the period of July 1, 2011 - November 30, 2011 Revenue: $14.5 million Expenses: * Technology Group: $3,916,000 * Community/Fundraiser Group: $1,732,000 * Global Development Group: $1,454,000 * Governance Group: $406,000 * Finance/Legal/HR/Admin Group: $2,419,000 Total Expenses: $9,927,000 Total surplus/(loss): $4,573,000 Revenue was ahead of plan due to grants of $2.8 million and additional donations ahead of plan of $2.1 million. Expenses were below plan at $9.9 million actual versus $11.6 million plan. Expenses were below planned due to lower than planned expenditures in capital expenditures, chapter grants, recruitment cost and other activities due. Cash of $22.8 million, which is twelve months of cash reserves at current spending levels and ten months of cash per the annual plan. == Highlights == <Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Visual_Editor_(side-by-side).png Wikitext (right) and its representation in the Visual Editor (left)> === Visual editor prototype === The team developing a Visual Editor for Wikipedia and our other projects presented a first prototype for testing <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:VisualEditorSandbox> on December 13. Its development has been one of the Foundation’s top priorities according to the 2011-2012 Annual Plan. Wiki-markup is a substantial barrier that prevents many people from contributing, and it is hoped that the Visual Editor will make editing easier. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/help-test-the-first-visual-editor-deve… === Fundraiser ends with record-breaking donations === <Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WCI(2011),sengai_podhuvan_with_vict…> Tamil Wikipedia Editor Dr. Sengai Podhuvan being interviewed by Victor Grigas for a fundraiser testimonial> The 2011 annual fundraiser ended on January 1, 2012 raising a record-breaking USD 20 million from more than one million donors in nearly every country in the world. This year’s campaign highlighted staff and 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. https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/02/wikimedia-fundraiser-concludes-with-r… <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_AR11_SHIP_spreads_15dec11_72dpi…> WMF annual report 2010-2011 === Annual Report published, for the first time with translations === The Wikimedia Foundation's latest Annual Report <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Annual_Report> was posted in PDF and wiki format in mid-December. This year's report focusses on the Foundation's major strategic efforts: supporting growth in India, expanding our mobile reach, improving and simplifying our software, and building our global education program. The report also highlights accomplishments within our community through the last fiscal year, and features a center spread article about the creation of the Arab Spring article on Wikipedia. For the first time, we produced 'summary' versions in seven languages. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/17/our-latest-annual-report-how-the-world… === Collaborative drafting process for Terms of Use update completed === After more than 120 days, the comment period for the proposed user agreement comes to an end with powerful and effective community participation. See the present version of the proposed user agreement and extensive discussion here <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use>. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/31/terms-of-use/ == Technology == A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for December 2011 can be found at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2011/December Department Highlights Major news in December include: * The deployment of WebFonts <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/11/ready-for-a-webfonts-soft-launch/> to selected Indic wikis; * The first developer prototype <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/help-test-the-first-visual-editor-dev…> of the Visual editor (see also general "Highlights" section above); * A new version <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/20/a-new-way-to-contribute-to-wikipedia/> of Article Feedback being tested on the English Wikipedia; * Progress on the Swift media storage project. === Operations === * Data Centers — The team deployed the puppetmaster dashboard, and a new UDP-based profiling tool to better identify potential performance issues. Some database servers were moved to newer hardware, including OTRS. * Media Storage — As part of our preparation for the migration of our media service to Swift, a distributed storage back-end, we need to keep the current system afloat a bit longer. We reclaimed some space by purging thumbnails not newly generated and not in use on any of our projects. We also performed Swift thumbnail integration and stress testing. * Wikimedia Labs — 15 projects <https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Ask/-5B-5BResource-20Type::p…> and 36 instances <https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Ask/-5B-5BResource-20Type::i…> have been created and 46 people <https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListUsers> have been given Labs accounts so far. OpenStack Nova was upgraded from /cactus/ to /diablo/. A GlusterFS filesystem was added on all compute nodes via puppet, to act as storage for the instances. === Features Engineering <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Features_engineering>=== * Visual editor — The team deployed a developer prototype of the visual editor sandbox to mediawiki.org for public feedback and testing: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:VisualEditorSandbox . Work continued on the parser test runner and the parser pipeline including the tokenizer and its grammar and template expansions. * Internationalization and localization tools — The WebFonts extension was deployed to select Indic languages and projects, making it possible to read content in languages using non-Latin fonts without installing fonts manually. The deployment uncovered bugs and issues that were addressed by the team, like cross-site font loading. The team also improved the Narayam and Translate extensions, and the latter was enabled on mediawiki.org to facilitate the translation of software documentation. * Article feedback — The team launched three test versions of the new feedback forms on a sample of pages on the English Wikipedia, and began evaluation of feedback comments. === Mobile <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects> === * MobileFrontend — We quietly launched mobile user login and better support for tiered JavaScript. We also fixed long-standing issues like the locked viewport and we updated image description pages. Finally, we deployed HTTPS support on mobile for Wikipedia, with plans to enable it for sister projects soon. * Android Wikipedia App — Several release candidates were released over the month and we're nearing completion of the first version of the app. Nightly builds are available for testing. === Platform Engineering <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Platform_Engineering>=== * MediaWiki 1.19 — As of December 31st, about 600 revisions remain to be reviewed in trunk before a new release can be deployed. Brion Vibber proposed a feature freeze in trunk, to catch up on code review and get the backlog down to zero in preparation for full adoption of continuous integration. * Continuous integration tools — The TestSwarm package was Debianized and its configuration almost entirely entered into Puppet. TestSwarm was then deployed to production and is now running at: http://integration.mediawiki.org * Volunteer coordination and outreach — Eleven developers got commit access, all from the non-staff MediaWiki community. Sumana also prepared for the January San Francisco hackathon and the February Pune hackathon and recruited participants. Partly in preparation for these coding events, Sumana and Guillaume Paumier continued to consolidate training documentation to facilitate the onboarding of new developers. == Research == * The Research Committee held an extraordinary meeting [1] to review the implications of the Berkman study – a large-scale online experiment which was launched in December and recruited participants among enwiki editors for a few hours [2] – and to discuss the way forward to support subject recruitment for research purposes. * We launched a public consultation to understand how to best serve the research and developer community with open data from our projects [3]. The consultation will remain open through January and the full set of responses will be released at the end of the month under a CC0 license. * We continued reviewing, supporting and documenting research projects and collaborations. We concluded the first six months of existence of the Wikimedia Research Index with a total of 81 projects (including the 2011 Summer of Research sprints) documented in the project directory [4]. * We published the 6th issue of the Wikimedia Research Newsletter [5]. In the past half year it has covered a total of 93 references from the recent scholarly literature on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_Committee/Meetings/Meeting_2011-12-… [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Dynamics_of_Online_Interactions_and… [2] http://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGNBSGFUcTdJLU… [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Projects [5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2011-12-26 == Community == Department highlights * Sarah Stierch joined as WMF's first Community Fellow focused on the gender gap (see fellowships section below for more info) * Over 1600 volunteers translated the banners and appeals for the annual fundraiser into 112 languages, helping reach hundreds of millions of people. === Projects === Editor Retention * Karyn Gladstone joined the team as Director of Community Operations. She will drive the operational agenda of the Community Department; take initiative to relieve the CCO of detail work and create a central coordination of activities so that we can achieve our primary goals. * Maryana Pinchuk and Steven Walling have continued their A/B testing of the content of user warning template notifications to new users. In December, they concluded tests for Huggle and XLinkBot, and began new tests for SDPatrolBot, ImagetaggingBot, and shared IPs [1]. Together with Stuart Geiger, Aaron Halfaker and others, work was completed on an automated analysis infrastructure for template tests, with publishable results expected early in January. * Basic planning is underway for our first "community convenings" — meetups for community members interested in solving specific editor retention issues. We're reaching out to the community for participants for convenings of bot herders (users who manage applications that take care of automated tasks - like adding a template to an article), convenings about policy simplification, and convenings focused on learning from the good governance decisions of growing Wikipedias. * Recruitment is underway for 2012 Community Summer Analysts, building off of last year's Wikimedia Summer of Research. This summer, analysts will focus on tackling practical analytic questions for answering longstanding editor retention questions to help us determine our next projects [2]. * See also Teahouse Project below 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_user_warnings/Testing 2. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Summer_Community_Analytics == Fundraising == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Fundraiser_Boiler_Room-1-3.jpg Boiler room banner analysis during the fundraiser> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Fundraiser_Boiler_Room-1-4.jpg Life in the boiler room> Fundraiser (see also general "Highlights" section) * The 2011 annual fundraiser ended on January 1, 2012 raising a record-breaking USD 20 million from more than one million donors in nearly every country in the world. * This year’s campaign highlighted staff and 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. * Daily testing of messaging, form optimization, and payment methods continued throughout the campaign. [1] * A full report of the 2011 fundraiser will be posted in 2012. * The fundraiser was translated by over 1600 volunteers into more than 100 languages. See fellowships section below for more info on the translation project. 1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011 Major Gifts and Foundations * Secured a $100,000 grant from the Kaphan Foundation * Brought in $500,000 in $5000+ individual donors and family foundation gifts during the annual fundraiser * Received $400,000 installment from the Hewlett Foundation === Fellowship Program === Program Activities * Launched a recruitment drive for 2012 Community Fellowships.[1] We're using various communication channels to get the message out around the world, including chapter outreach and the Global Message delivery system to post an open call to over 500 on-wiki community spaces. * Liam Wyatt's Cultural Partnerships Fellowship wrapped up this month. Many thanks go to Liam for his year spent building enthusiasm, awareness, and working models for cultural institutions to partner with Wikipedians in producing open content for the public.[2] * Sarah Stierch began work as our first Community Fellow focused on gender gap projects, visiting the Community Department towards the end of the month to plan her first project (see also Teahouse, below).[3] Translation Project * Over 1600 volunteers translated the banners and appeals for the annual fundraiser into 112 languages, helping reach hundreds of millions of people. [4] 19 batches of text containing 7663 total source words have resulted in 567 completed translations. The final report is in progress.[5] The Community Department hosted Fellow Jon Harald Søby is to wrap up this project and begin planning the next translation project for 2012. <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Fundraiser_2011_Translation_Pro… The translation project spreadsheet> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jon_Harald_S%C3%B8by-1-2.jpg Fellow Jon Harald Søby working at translation> Teahouse Project * Community Department hosted Fellows Jonathan Morgan and Sarah Stierch were in San Francisco this month to continue planning for the Teahouse Project, an initiative to reach out and offer help to promising new editors, particularly women, in a many-to-many peer support environment.[6] 1. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/07/open-call-for-community-fellows/ 2. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM 3. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/20/announcing-community-fellow-sarah-stie… 4. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Translation 5. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Translation/Project_Report 6. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Teahouse === Community Relations === * Working with the tech team, we were really pleased to be able to help get Corensearchbot, which is a heavily used bot on the English Wikipedia, back up and back to its job detecting copyright violations. The same work supports other bots on several different language projects. * Of the emergency reports, 28 were passed on to law enforcement (33%). Of these, two are confirmed to have been life saving telephone calls. While we don't often receive outcome data from local police, we know that several others resulted in successful welfare checks. * Approximately 30% of the cases were either returned to the community for their handling or rejected as something the Foundation would not interfere with. 51 are still actively being worked. == Global Development == Department highlights * The communications team finalized the annual report. * Successful launch of 2nd Editor Survey. * Preliminary meetings in Cairo to discuss global education pilot. * Developed a proposal for unrestricted operating grants for chapters based on annual plans. Now discussing this with the community at: Grants:Annual/Draft <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Annual/Draft> * Hired Lori Byrd Phillips as *US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator* -- http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/07/us-cultural-partnerships-coordinator-l… === Grants Program === ==== Grants Awarded and Executed ==== * *Wikimedia Grants* <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index> o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_KE/Start-up o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WMAR/Programs_2012 o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/Kolkata_Book_Fair_2012 o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Sudhanwa/CMDA_IT_Expo,_Pune * Wikimedia *Participation Grants* <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Participation> o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:B1mbo/GLAMcamp_Amsterdam o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:LauraHale/Amsterdam_GLAMCamp o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Nasir8891/WikiConference_India_2011 o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:SarahStierch/DISH2011 o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:MetalBrasil/Campus_Party_2012 o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Solstag/CulturaDigitalBR2011 o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:R.T.Argenton/CulturaDigitalBR2011 * Proposed revision of the Wikimedia Grants program process and criteria: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Annual/Draft === Brazil Catalyst <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Catalyst_Project> === * Education Program: Contractor Everton Z. Alvarenga will lead the education work for Brazil. He has been working with the community to restructure the "standard" GEP to fit with Brazil and its needs / intricacies. The pilot is planned to start this upcoming academic year, in March 2012. * WMF branch in Brazil: Contracted with executive search firm Michael Page to work on hiring a country program director in Brazil. === Arabic Language Initiative === * Finalizing preparation for *Cairo* Wikipedia Education pilot, including staff, campus ambassador and on-line ambassador recruitment * Supported a series of Arabic Wikipedia community events in Cairo, including celebration the Arabic Language International day in collaboration with Engineering students of Cairo University, and a Wikipedia editing session for Cairo geophysics community. WMF staff gave Wikipedia talks in language schools in Cairo university. * Currently preparing for community gathering in *Tunis* from January 26 to January 31 to include tabling and sessions at the national school of engineers (http://www.enit.rnu.tn) and gathering with FOSS and CC community. (One WMF staff member will be accompanied by three active Arabic Wikipedia admins.) * Barry Newstead will visit Cairo and Beirut next February, when he will participate in public talks and meetings with community folks and like-minded organizations. === Wikimania Scholarships === Travel and accommodation scholarship applications open in the beginning of January 2012. Stay tuned to the mailing lists for more information! === Mobile and Business Development === * Continued project planning with partner operators in India, Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia for Q1 2012 launch of programs focused on mobile accessibility. * Worked on implementation plan and testing for Wikipedia Zero (Mobile Wikipedia access without data charge) to roll out for Q1. * Began discussions and contract process with new potential partners in same priority regions with launch potential of Q2 2012 and later. * Set plans for launching Android app publicly and with partners in mid-January. === Global development research === Successfully concluded the second Wikipedia editor survey. (After data cleaning we have about 7,000 completed responses - a big increase from the 5000 responses we had last time.) Data analysis is in progress. === Wikipedia Education Program === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ArabicWikimediansCairo.jpg Wikipedia Education Program staff meet with Arabic Wikimedians in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2011.> * In the first half of December, Frank Schulenburg and Annie Lin traveled to Cairo, Egypt, and met with professors, students and local Wikipedians. The trip was part of the preparation for a small pilot for the Wikipedia Education Program to be conducted during the spring 2012 semester. Supported by Moushira Elamrawy and Essam Sharaf, Annie and Frank had a number of in-person meetings with professors from Cairo University and Ain Shams University. Frank and Essam also gave Wikipedia presentations at Cairo University and at the German University in Cairo. As a result, six professors have been identified as participants of the pilot that will start in early February 2012. More information about this trip on the Wikimedia blog: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/31/education-program-gets-ready-for-cairo… * KALW, a public radio station in San Francisco, California, covered the Wikipedia Education Program on its "Crosscurrents" show. The journalist, Nicole Jones, interviewed University of California at Berkeley Professor Brian Carver, some of his students, and Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager LiAnna Davis. The segment discusses the benefits of using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in higher education classrooms: http://www.kalwnews.org/audio/2011/11/29/colleges-take-chance-wikipedia_148… * On December 17 and 18, Frank Schulenburg led the first train-the-trainer event for the new Wikipedia Education Program in Germany. Ten longterm Wikipedians were trained as "Referenten", who will support professors and teaching assistants to integrate Wikipedia into the classroom at German Universities. The training slides (in German) are available on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K%C3%B6ln_Orientierungsworkshop_f%C3… * On December 20, the third monthly Wikipedia Education Program Metrics and Activities Meeting took place. Representatives from the programs in the U.S., Canada, India, Egypt, and Germany all spoke about their plans for the forthcoming term. The meeting notes are available on the Foundation's outreach wiki: http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program_Metrics_and_… * As the U.S. branch of the Education Program wrapped up the fall 2011 semester, LiAnna Davis started to document its success stories. A blog post published on the Wikimedia Foundation blog (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/19/pitt-undergrad-learns-the-ways-of-wiki…) describes the experiences of undergrad Karl Wahlen, enrolled in a University of Pittsburgh class called Sociology of Marriage, taught by longterm Wikipedian Piotr Konieczny. Another blog post tells the story of Katy Lederer (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/30/milwaukee-brise-soleil-video-featured-…), who is in her final year of school at Alverno College, a women’s college in Milwaukee. As part of her Advanced Media Studies class, Katy created a video of the Milwaukee Art Museum's brise soleil, which appeared as the Wikimedia Commons Media of the Day on November 26. * Jami Mathewson continued working with Regional Ambassadors in the U.S. and Canada to organize the in-person training for Campus Ambassadors in January 2012. This will be the last iteration of in-person trainings in North America, before the training will be transitioned to an online training model. === India Programs === ==== Indic Languages ==== Concluded a series of discussions with a host of Indic language Wikimedians across the India (and indeed the world) to try and understand, document and share their experiences and thinking and suggestions for Indic languages in order to cross-pollinate ideas, encourage greater community conversations, and help identify community initiatives or community-endorsed pilots for India Programs through a series of suggestions that have been shared and conversations we are trying to foster on respective village pumps. ==== India Outreach ==== * Initiated work on supporting general outreach efforts of the community by documenting and sharing best practices and tips as well as presentation material and guidelines. * Planned out outreach efforts across the country to kick-start outreach. ==== India Education Program ==== v 1.0 of the pilot has concluded and we are in the process of analysing results to determine next steps. This includes internal analysis, Ayush's data analysis, and Tory Read's evaluative report, which are likely to be in place after mid-January, after which we will start a collaborative exercise to determine v 2.0. (We already know of many problems, such as scale, faculty selection/involvement, Campus Ambassador/student selection/training, engagement with the global en-WP community, but we want to make sure we capture everything before we attempt anything further.) ==== Other ==== * Subhashish Panigrahi was selected for Consultant, Community & Program Support. Welcome, Subha! * Provided ad hoc support to number of communities on local initiatives like the Pune and West Bengal outreach efforts. * Continuing work on the right legal and regulatory framework / structure to operate within India. === Communications === The communications team finalized the Foundation's 2010-11 Annual Report in December, both the print/PDF version and a wiki version (see general "Highlights" section above). Communications also provided major support to the annual fundraising campaign team, though much of our efforts by mid-December were focussed on press strategy around WMF's opposition to SOPA in the US, including responses around the Wikipedia community's discussion of a Wikipedia site block and coordination with many of the Foundation's NGO and mission-supporting partners. ==== Major announcements ==== (No major press announcements in December) ==== Major Storylines through December ==== ===== WMF's 2010-11 Annual Report launched (December 17) ===== (cf. general "Highlights" section above) ===== Wikipedia visual editor (December 13) ===== Following the news (of a demo) of a new visual editor interface for Wikipedia (see general "Highlights" section above) global press eagerly reposted and shared the news of what may be the "most significant change in Wikipedia's short history." Most coverage of the news was favorable and positive. http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/12/changes-wikipedia http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/246251/help_test_wikipedias_n… ===== WMF opposes SOPA / WP shut down? ===== Global attention was drawn to discussion of the Stop Online Piracy Act before a congressional committee in Washington in December. WMF opposes the bill (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/how-sopa-will-hurt-the-free-web-and-wi… ), which would hurt the open and free web, and significantly hamper global projects like Wikipedia. A straw poll on Jimmy Wales' talk page regarding the possibility of a Wikipedia shutdown in protest of the bill drew significant international media attention as well. Much of the coverage (and social media response) has been critical of the bill. http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/wikipedia-threatens-blackout-over-privacy-… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/wikipedia-blackout-sopa_n_1144580.… http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70554.html ==== Other worthwhile reads ==== http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16084861 (on Bell Pottinger and PR editing) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-arms-company-the-oligarch… http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/wikistream-shows-off-the-unbelieve… ==== Wikipedia Signpost ==== * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-12-… * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-12-… * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-12-… * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-12-… ==== WMF Blog posts ==== http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/ ==== Media Contact ==== http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#December_2011 == Human Resources == === Staff Changes === New Contractors * Everton Zanella Alvarenga * Erek Dyskant * Yuvaraj Pandain * Maxim Semenik * Lori Byrd Phillips Contract Extended * Karen Chelini * Jeroen De Dauw * Andrew Garrett * Roan Kattouw * Niklas Laxstrom * Siebrand Mazeland * Gerard Meijessen * Neel Punatar * Angela Robeson Contract Ended * Greg DeKoenigsberg * Christine Moellenberndt * Rebecca Neumann * Linda Pennington * Stark Thom New Postings * Interaction Designer * Office IT Support Specialist * Summer Community Analytics RFP * Executive Dashboard – Analytics === Statistics === Total Employee Count December Plan: 109, December Filled: 0, December Attrition: 0, YTD Filled: 24, YTD Attrition: 8, Actual: 90 Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 27 === Department Updates === We have a new CTCO (Chief Talent and Culture Officer) - Gayle Karen Young - and we're in process of hiring a Director of HR and restructuring roles until the HR director comes on board. We have vision of an effective, smooth, and supportive department. As Gayle gets her feet under her, we will be identifying our key priorities and communicating to the organization about them. Jeanie Mayall started last September, gracefully taking on a great number of tasks when Daniel left. She is accepting a position as a Manager of HR with a start-up down the street. In the last few months, she has handled open enrollment with great success, immigration issues, contractors and the contracting process, compliance, and non-California tax issues. She has agreed to be accessible on an ongoing basis and we are working to proactively transition open issues. Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork == Finance and Administration == Isa will be transitioning, in the month of January, out of her role as Interim Head of Office Administration. Many thanks to Isa for all of her good work during her time at WMF. We are continuing our search for a new Head of Office Administration and a Senior Accountant. We completed a review of internal security systems and began implementing recommendations. == Legal == * The 120+-day comment period for the proposed user agreement <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use> comes to an end with strong community participation (see general "Highlights" section above). * Continued support of community during its review of SOPA and IP Protect. For the community discussion page (to which we contribute), go here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative>. Geoff's blog post is here <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/how-sopa-will-hurt-the-free-web-and-wi…>. * IRC office hours on legal strategy took place with this summary <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Geoffbrigham/Strategy>. * Consideration of legal strategy for challenging Loriot decision on stamps in Germany. For the legal and community discussion, go here <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Loriot_Signature_Background> * Ninth Circuit - which decides case law applicable to the Wikimedia sites - affirms DMCA safe harbor in an excellent decision. You can find a summary of the decision and a copy of it here <http://title17.net/2011/12/umg-v-veoh-ninth-circuit-affirms-dmca-safe-harbo…>. Andrew, our legal intern, prepared for Geoff a summary of the decision here <http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AUMG_v._Veoh_Summary.pdf&…>. * Note the recent restrictions on Internet access in Belarus that could affect Wikimedia. See http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120103/07193917260/no-belarus-is-not-cut… Stats: * # contracts signed - 11 * # trademark requests - 8 o approved - 3 o denied - 1 o approval not needed - 1 o pending - 5 == Visitors and Guests == 1. Deborah Bezona (D. Bezona & Company) 2. Valerie Ball (KPMG) 3. Diane Peters (Creative Commons) 4. Hana Yariv (Wikimedia Israel) 5. Jan-Bart de Vreede (WMF Board of Trustees) 6. Kat Walsh (WMF Board of Trustees) 7. Chris Bishko (Omidyar Network, Investment Director) 8. Eric E. Johnson (Affiliate Scholar, Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, Associate Professor of Law, University of North Dakota School of Law) 9. Carol Reed (National Sales Manager, Travel and Transport) 10. Christie Goodfellow and Denise Truong (Triton Hotel) 11. Lori Byrd Phillips (The Children's Museum of Indianapolis) -- Tilman Bayer Movement Communications Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Foundation-L, the public mailing list about the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. For more information about Foundation-L: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l

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[Foundation-l] Updates on our template work at WMF
by Steven Walling 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

Hey all, Maryana Pinchuk and I wanted to spread the word that, similar to the fundraiser, we will be collecting the results from all our experiments with various communities on Meta. We're currently testing new user talk templates with community members from English, Portuguese, and German, have published several English Wikipedia results, and we expect to have more English and Portuguese results up very soon. Each project has its own documentation pages for this project, but we hope putting results in one place on Meta can help the different communities share lessons from their testing. If you have any questions about the results or the testing process, please let us know on-wiki. The page to follow for all these results is: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testing Thanks! -- Steven Walling Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation wikimediafoundation.org

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[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2013 - Announcement of Jury and invitation to bid
by James Forrester 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

Dear all, As promised, for Wikimania 2013[0] I hereby announce the Jury[1] to select the winning bid, and invite everyone to consider putting a bid[2] together: == Jury == * [[User:80686|Manuel Schneider]] * [[User:Beria|Béria Lima]] * [[User:Deror avi|Deror Avi]] * [[User:Effeietsanders|Lodewijk Gelauff]] * [[User:Ilario|Ilario Salvatore Valdelli]] * [[User:Kiril Simeonovski|Kiril Simeonovski]] * [[User:Peteforsyth|Pete Forsyth]] * [[User:Philippe|Philippe Beaudette]] * [[User:Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington|Anirudh Bhati]] * [[User:Theo10011|Theo10011]] * [[User:Thogo|Thomas Goldammer]] There are a further two individuals who I have asked to confirm that they are happy to serve on the Jury, and who I will add on-wiki if and when they confirm. As in previous Juries, any Wikimania Foundation Board members may act as (non-voting) advisors to the Jury if they so choose. I know that Bishakha Datta and Phoebe Ayers have agreed to take on this role, and other Board members may join if they wish. I will serve as a moderator (a neutral non-voting aide to the Jury), along with another individual who will hopefully confirm that this is OK with them later today. Thank you for everyone who contacted me to nominate themselves, others, or give suggestions; the suggestions were very helpful, and I hope the resulting Jury will be a success. == Invitation to bid == To re-iterate my comment in November, I'm sure the whole Wikimedia community would love to see as many good bids as possible. There are already a few bids[2] on Meta, but if you or your local community are thinking about putting one in, you need to get it started and in a reasonable state by the end of 28 January 2012 at the very latest[3]. Please also consider passing this message on (and translating it!) for your wiki's community forum for those that don't read these mailing lists. Thank you, and good luck to all Bids. [0] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013 [1] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013_jury [2] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013_bids [3] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013_bids/Timeline Yours, -- James D. Forrester jdforrester(a)wikimedia.org | jdforrester(a)gmail.com [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]

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