This paper (first reference) is the result of a class project I was part of
almost two years ago for CSCI 5417 Information Retrieval Systems. It builds
on a class project I did in CSCI 5832 Natural Language Processing and which
I presented at Wikimania '07. The project was very late as we didn't send
the final paper in until the day before new years. This technical report was
never really announced that I recall so I thought it would be interesting to
look briefly at the results. The goal of this paper was to break articles
down into surface features and latent features and then use those to study
the rating system being used, predict article quality and rank results in a
search engine. We used the [[random forests]] classifier which allowed us to
analyze the contribution of each feature to performance by looking directly
at the weights that were assigned. While the surface analysis was performed
on the whole english wikipedia, the latent analysis was performed on the
simple english wikipedia (it is more expensive to compute). = Surface
features = * Readability measures are the single best predictor of quality
that I have found, as defined by the Wikipedia Editorial Team (WET). The
[[Automated Readability Index]], [[Gunning Fog Index]] and [[Flesch-Kincaid
Grade Level]] were the strongest predictors, followed by length of article
html, number of paragraphs, [[Flesh Reading Ease]], [[Smog Grading]], number
of internal links, [[Laesbarhedsindex Readability Formula]], number of words
and number of references. Weakly predictive were number of to be's, number
of sentences, [[Coleman-Liau Index]], number of templates, PageRank, number
of external links, number of relative links. Not predictive (overall - see
the end of section 2 for the per-rating score breakdown): Number of h2 or
h3's, number of conjunctions, number of images*, average word length, number
of h4's, number of prepositions, number of pronouns, number of interlanguage
links, average syllables per word, number of nominalizations, article age
(based on page id), proportion of questions, average sentence length. :*
Number of images was actually by far the single strongest predictor of any
class, but only for Featured articles. Because it was so good at picking out
featured articles and somewhat good at picking out A and G articles the
classifier was confused in so many cases that the overall contribution of
this feature to classification performance is zero. :* Number of external
links is strongly predictive of Featured articles. :* The B class is highly
distinctive. It has a strong "signature," with high predictive value
assigned to many features. The Featured class is also very distinctive. F, B
and S (Stop/Stub) contain the most information.
:* A is the least distinct class, not being very different from F or G. =
Latent features = The algorithm used for latent analysis, which is an
analysis of the occurence of words in every document with respect to the
link structure of the encyclopedia ("concepts"), is [[Latent Dirichlet
Allocation]]. This part of the analysis was done by CS PhD student Praful
Mangalath. An example of what can be done with the result of this analysis
is that you provide a word (a search query) such as "hippie". You can then
look at the weight of every article for the word hippie. You can pick the
article with the largest weight, and then look at its link network. You can
pick out the articles that this article links to and/or which link to this
article that are also weighted strongly for the word hippie, while also
contributing maximally to this articles "hippieness". We tried this query in
our system (LDA), Google (site:en.wikipedia.org hippie), and the Simple
English Wikipedia's Lucene search engine. The breakdown of articles occuring
in the top ten search results for this word for those engines is: * LDA
only: [[Acid rock]], [[Aldeburgh Festival]], [[Anne Murray]], [[Carl
Radle]], [[Harry Nilsson]], [[Jack Kerouac]], [[Phil Spector]], [[Plastic
Ono Band]], [[Rock and Roll]], [[Salvador Allende]], [[Smothers brothers]],
[[Stanley Kubrick]]. * Google only: [[Glam Rock]], [[South Park]]. * Simple
only: [[African Americans]], [[Charles Manson]], [[Counterculture]], [[Drug
use]], [[Flower Power]], [[Nuclear weapons]], [[Phish]], [[Sexual
liberation]], [[Summer of Love]] * LDA & Google & Simple: [[Hippie]],
[[Human Be-in]], [[Students for a democratic society]], [[Woodstock
festival]] * LDA & Google: [[Psychedelic Pop]] * Google & Simple: [[Lysergic
acid diethylamide]], [[Summer of Love]] ( See the paper for the articles
produced for the keywords philosophy and economics ) = Discussion /
Conclusion = * The results of the latent analysis are totally up to your
perception. But what is interesting is that the LDA features predict the WET
ratings of quality just as well as the surface level features. Both feature
sets (surface and latent) both pull out all almost of the information that
the rating system bears. * The rating system devised by the WET is not
distinctive. You can best tell the difference between, grouped together,
Featured, A and Good articles vs B articles. Featured, A and Good articles
are also quite distinctive (Figure 1). Note that in this study we didn't
look at Start's and Stubs, but in earlier paper we did. :* This is
interesting when compared to this recent entry on the YouTube blog. "Five
Stars Dominate Ratings"
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-stars-dominate-ratings.html…
I think a sane, well researched (with actual subjects) rating system
is
well within the purview of the Usability Initiative. Helping people find and
create good content is what Wikipedia is all about. Having a solid rating
system allows you to reorganized the user interface, the Wikipedia
namespace, and the main namespace around good content and bad content as
needed. If you don't have a solid, information bearing rating system you
don't know what good content really is (really bad content is easy to spot).
:* My Wikimania talk was all about gathering data from people about articles
and using that to train machines to automatically pick out good content. You
ask people questions along dimensions that make sense to people, and give
the machine access to other surface features (such as a statistical measure
of readability, or length) and latent features (such as can be derived from
document word occurence and encyclopedia link structure). I referenced page
262 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to give an example of the
kind of qualitative features I would ask people. It really depends on what
features end up bearing information, to be tested in "the lab". Each word is
an example dimension of quality: We have "*unity, vividness, authority,
economy, sensitivity, clarity, emphasis, flow, suspense, brilliance,
precision, proportion, depth and so on.*" You then use surface and latent
features to predict these values for all articles. You can also say, when a
person rates this article as high on the x scale, they also mean that it has
has this much of these surface and these latent features.
= References =
- DeHoust, C., Mangalath, P., Mingus., B. (2008). *Improving search in
Wikipedia through quality and concept discovery*. Technical Report.
PDF<http://grey.colorado.edu/mediawiki/sites/mingus/images/6/68/DeHoustMangalat…>
- Rassbach, L., Mingus., B, Blackford, T. (2007). *Exploring the
feasibility of automatically rating online article quality*. Technical
Report. PDF<http://grey.colorado.edu/mediawiki/sites/mingus/images/d/d3/RassbachPincock…>
Hoi,
I have asked and received permission to forward to you all this most
excellent bit of news.
The linguist list, is a most excellent resource for people interested in the
field of linguistics. As I mentioned some time ago they have had a funding
drive and in that funding drive they asked for a certain amount of money in
a given amount of days and they would then have a project on Wikipedia to
learn what needs doing to get better coverage for the field of linguistics.
What you will read in this mail that the total community of linguists are
asked to cooperate. I am really thrilled as it will also get us more
linguists interested in what we do. My hope is that a fraction will be
interested in the languages that they care for and help it become more
relevant. As a member of the "language prevention committee", I love to get
more knowledgeable people involved in our smaller projects. If it means that
we get more requests for more projects we will really feel embarrassed with
all the new projects we will have to approve because of the quality of the
Incubator content and the quality of the linguistic arguments why we should
approve yet another language :)
NB Is this not a really clever way of raising money; give us this much in
this time frame and we will then do this as a bonus...
Thanks,
GerardM
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: LINGUIST Network <linguist(a)linguistlist.org>
Date: Jun 18, 2007 6:53 PM
Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers
To: LINGUIST(a)listserv.linguistlist.org
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831. Mon Jun 18 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.
Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers
Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar(a)linguistlist.org>
Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry(a)linguistlist.org>
Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project
<reviews(a)linguistlist.org>
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/
The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University,
and donations from subscribers and publishers.
Editor for this issue: Ann Sawyer <sawyer(a)linguistlist.org>
================================================================
To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html
===========================Directory==============================
1)
Date: 18-Jun-2007
From: Hannah Morales < hannah(a)linguistlist.org >
Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers
-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:49:35
From: Hannah Morales < hannah(a)linguistlist.org >
Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers
Dear subscribers,
As you may recall, one of our Fund Drive 2007 campaigns was called the
"Wikipedia Update Vote." We asked our viewers to consider earmarking their
donations to organize an update project on linguistics entries in the
English-language Wikipedia. You can find more background information on this
at:
http://linguistlist.org/donation/fund-drive2007/wikipedia/index.cfm.
The speed with which we met our goal, thanks to the interest and generosity
of
our readers, was a sure sign that the linguistics community was enthusiastic
about the idea. Now that summer is upon us, and some of you may have a bit
more
leisure time, we are hoping that you will be able to help us get started on
the
Wikipedia project. The LINGUIST List's role in this project is a purely
organizational one. We will:
*Help, with your input, to identify major gaps in the Wikipedia materials or
pages that need improvement;
*Compile a list of linguistics pages that Wikipedia editors have identified
as
"in need of attention from an expert on the subject" or " does not cite any
references or sources," etc;
*Send out periodical calls for volunteer contributors on specific topics or
articles;
*Provide simple instructions on how to upload your entries into Wikipedia;
*Keep track of our project Wikipedians;
*Keep track of revisions and new entries;
*Work with Wikimedia Foundation to publicize the linguistics community's
efforts.
We hope you are as enthusiastic about this effort as we are. Just to help us
all
get started looking at Wikipedia more critically, and to easily identify an
area
needing improvement, we suggest that you take a look at the List of
Linguists
page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguists. M
Many people are not listed there; others need to have more facts and
information
added. If you would like to participate in this exciting update effort,
please
respond by sending an email to LINGUIST Editor Hannah Morales at
hannah(a)linguistlist.org, suggesting what your role might be or which
linguistics
entries you feel should be updated or added. Some linguists who saw our
campaign
on the Internet have already written us with specific suggestions, which we
will
share with you soon.
This update project will take major time and effort on all our parts. The
end
result will be a much richer internet resource of information on the breadth
and
depth of the field of linguistics. Our efforts should also stimulate
prospective
students to consider studying linguistics and to educate a wider public on
what
we do. Please consider participating.
Sincerely,
Hannah Morales
Editor, Wikipedia Update Project
Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable
-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831
FYI
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 5:38 PM
Subject: [Tech/Product] Engineering/Product org structure
To: Staff All <wmfall(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hi folks,
consistent with Sue's narrowing focus mandate, I’ve been thinking &
talking the last few weeks a fair bit with a bunch of different people
about the future organizational structure of the engineering/product
department. Long story short, if we want to scale the dept, and take
seriously our identity as a tech org (as stated by Sue), it’s my view
that we need to split the current department into an engineering dept
and a product dept in about 6-8 months.
To avoid fear and anxiety, and to make sure the plan makes sense, I
want to start an open conversation now. If you think any of the below
is a terrible idea, or have suggestions on how to improve the plan,
I’d love to hear from you. I’ll make myself personally available to
anyone who wants to talk more about it. (I'm traveling a bit starting
tomorrow, but will be available via email during that time.) We can
also discuss it at coming tech lunches and such.
There’s also nothing private here, so I’m forwarding this note to
wikitech-l@ and wikimedia-l@ as well. That said, there’s no urgency in
this note, so feel free to set it aside for later.
Here’s why I’m recommending to Sue that we create distinct engineering
and product departments:
- It’ll give product development and the user experience more
visibility at the senior mgmt level, which means we’ll have more
conversations at that level about the work that most of the
organization actually does. Right now, a single dept of ~70 people is
represented by 1 person across both engineering and product functions
- me. That was fine when it was half the size. Right now it’s out of
whack.
- It’ll give us the ability to add Director-level leadership functions
as appropriate without making my head explode.
- I believe that separating the two functions is consistent with Sue’s
recommendation to narrow our focus and develop our identity as an
engineering organization. It will allow for more sustained effort in
managing product priorities and greater advocacy for core platform
issues (APIs, site performance, search, ops improvements, etc.) that
are less visible than our feature priorities.
A split dept structure wouldn’t affect the way we assemble teams --
we’d still pull from required functions (devs, product, UI/UX, etc.),
and teams would continue to pursue their objectives fairly
autonomously.
It’s not all roses -- we might see more conflict between the two
functions, more us vs. them thinking, and more communications
breakdowns or forum shopping. But net I think the positives would
outweigh the negatives, and there are ways to mitigate against the
negatives.
The way we’d get there:
I’m prepared to resign from my engineering management responsibilities
and to focus solely on my remaining role as VP of Product, as soon as
a successor for VP of Engineering has been identified. We would start
that hiring process probably in early 2013. I’m recommending to Sue
that we seriously consider internal candidates for the VP of
Engineering role, as we have a strong engineering management team in
place today.
So realistically we'd probably identify that person towards the end of
the fiscal year.
Obviously I can’t make any promises to you that in that brave new
world, you’ll love whoever gets hired into the VP of Engineering role,
so there’s some unavoidable uncertainty there. I’ll support Sue in the
search, though, and I’m sure she’d appreciate feedback from you on the
kind of person who you think would be ideal for the job.
The VP of Product role would encompass a combination of functions.
Howie and I would work with the department to figure out what makes
sense as an internal structure. My opening view is that Analytics and
User Experience are potential areas that may benefit from dedicated
Director-level support roles. (Analytics is tricky because it includes
a strong engineering piece, but also a research/analyst piece working
closely with product.) The new structure would therefore be as
follows:
* VP of Engineering -> Directors of Engineering
* VP of Product -> Director of Product Development, plus new
Director-level functions (we've discussed UX/Design as a likely new
leadership function, and Analytics as a _potential_ area to centralize
here because it works so closely with product)
Why Product? I’m happy to help the org in whatever way I can; I
believe I’d be most useful to it in focusing there and helping build
this relatively new organizational function. Based on my past
experience, Howie & I make a great team. I know how engineering
operates, which could help mitigate against some of the aforementioned
issues. Plus, our product priorities generally already reflect lots of
thought and consideration, and we have no intent of reopening
questions like "Is Visual Editor the top product priority".
I look forward to hearing your thoughts & discussing this further in
coming weeks.
All best,
Erik
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 6:49 PM
Subject: Wikimedia/mapping event in Europe early next year?
To: maps-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hi folks,
it's been a long time coming, but we're finally gearing up for putting
some development effort into an OSM tileservice running in production
to serve Wikimedia sites. This is being driven by the mobile team but
obviously has lots of non-mobile use cases as well, including the
recent Wikivoyage addition to the Wikimedia familiy. This work will
probably not kick off before January/February 2013; before then, the
mobile team is working to finish up the GeoData extension (
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Geodata ).
To get broader community involvement and sync up with existing
volunteer efforts in this area, it'd IMO be useful to plan a
face-to-face meetup/hackfest just focused on geodata/mapping related
development work sometime around Feb/March 2013.
WMF is not going to organize this, but we can help sponsor travel and
bring the key developers from our side who will work on this. Are
there any takers for supporting a 20-30 people development event in
Europe focused on mapping/geodata? I'm suggesting Europe because I
know quite a few of the relevant folks are there, but am open to other
options as well.
Cheers,
Erik
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Hi folks,
a quick update on the launch of a travel project under the WMF
umbrella, and the import of the existing Wikivoyage site.
* The name of the new site will be wikivoyage.org, per community vote.
Language domains will live at (foo).wikivoyage.org.
* A mailing list has been set up at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikivoyage-l
* We're not planning to import "Wikivoyage Shared" (which is a media
repository similar to Commons) and are encouraging the community to
help with transferring appropriately licensed files to Wikimedia
Commons.
* The Wikivoyage Association is currently finalizing details of a
domain name transfer with WMF. They have also recently secured
wikivoyage.com.
* The technical launch team at WMF consists of Chris Steipp, Daniel
Zahn, Sam Reed, Matthias Mullie, and myself. Everyone is encouraged to
help. Technical updates will be posted to
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikivoyage_migration and related pages.
We're using #wikimedia-wikivoyage on irc.freenode.net to coordinate,
so feel free to join us there any time and use it for other related
issues.
* We've received a tarball of extensions running on the Wikivoyage
sites, have imported them into Wikimedia's Git repo, and are currently
reviewing them and making changes where needed to ensure they're ready
for WMF. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikivoyage_migration/Extensions
for a list of extensions if you want to help (and feel free to comment
on the priorities suggested by the Wikivoyage folks)
We may not be able to deploy all extensions; we're using the two week
time-box for the launch as the main forcing function.
* The hairiest part is to properly migrate user accounts. We can only
migrate with users' permission, so Wikivoyage will kick off an opt-in
process shortly to ask users to consent to transferring their private
account data. On the WMF side, we have to reconcile account names with
existing ones and require renames if necessary.
We'll set up an initially private test instance in Labs and iterate
over it with a (possibly reduced) content import, to ensure that all
the tricky legal bits (e.g. attribution) are handled correctly. Then
we'll set up the production cluster wikis.
* Our goal is to go live by the end of this month. That might slip
depending on the domain name transfer and unexpected technical hurdles
or emergencies on the WMF side. We will aim to minimize downtime for
current users, and to ensure that the old sites can be available in
read-only mode for a little while longer to make it possible to
compare site behavior.
Let me know if you have any questions about the process. :-)
All best,
Erik
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Tim Starling wrote:
> According to ru.wp Arbcom member DR, the danger to Wikipedia was
> overstated, and the text of the proposed law was misrepresented.
I think that the interpretation to the bill given by DR is incorrect. In fact the proposed bill was not only about child pornography and extremism, but also about drugs and, about “information, prompting children to commit actions, making threat to their life and health”. That was a very loose clause, that could ban virtually anything. After the blackout this clause was removed from the bill and it is a clear achievement of the strike. On the other hand the final version of the bill contains another clause, that is even more hazardous to us. It is about “information of methods of producing and use of narcotic substances, … of methods and places of cultivation of narcotic plants”. We do have information of drug synthesis on Wikipedia, ways of its use (e.g. marijuana) and we do have thorough instructions of marijuana cultivation on wikibooks. That is why our achievements are ambiguous. On the one hand we have a removal of a loose clause about information harmful to children, but on the otherwe now have another clause that is even more dangerous. That is why we are still trying to do what we can via our contacts within the authorities to revise the passed bill.
But that is not all. The most important issue is extremism. According to the bill, the materials, that are banned for distribution in Russia should be included to the register of banned information on the ground of the court decision, banning the distribution of that information in Russia. We already have such court decisions and a list of extremist materials, distribution of which is prohibited in Russia. That list contains some really nasty materials, as e.g. nazi propaganda, but also Islamic texts (including those of famous non-terrorist Islamic authors e.g. Said Nursî), Saentologist, Jehova’s witnesses , Falun Gong, letters and materials of opposition in Russia, works of contemporary art, etc.
We *do have* banned extremist materials in Wikipedia. E.g. this image:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Файл:Александр_Савко_Путешествия_Микки_Мауса_п… искусства.jpeg
is considered extremist and is banned for distribution in Russia. (Hopefully it was uploaded two years before it was regulated as banned by the court).
This letter in wikisource is also considered extremist:
http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Всем,_кто_сочувствует_жертвам_бесланского_тер…!
This is enough for banning the IPs of Wikimedia projects in Russia. And I am really afraid of this.
I guess DR is aware of discussion on this list, but anyway I will inform him of it. Maybe he has something to add.
> According to Levg in his Arbcom application, again via Google
> Translate, "It should be noted that there are no objective reasons for
> such a 'sprint survey' did not exist, to discuss the bill on second
> reading has been known since at least last Friday."
That is our fault that we could not manage to get the information in time. The first hearing was on Friday, but the community and myself got to know about the problem only on Monday, 9th. What for me personally I haven’t read the news on the weekend (yes, it is bad, that I relaxed on the weekend and haven’t read the news), and I failed to get to know about the problem in time. I guess it is also true for others. If we start to organize on Friday, the result would be better. It is a fault, but anyway it was not a deliberate fault, as nobody has informed the community earlier.
Hello everyone,
I'd like to invite you all to an IRC Office Hours this coming Saturday, 28th July 2012 at 20:00 UTC in #wikimedia-office (time zone information: http://tinyurl.com/bmp7zaw).
In this meeting, I will be there to provide an update on my fellowship as well as answer any questions. I'll also appreciate any feedback, comments or suggestions on dispute resolution in general, and will be discussing the new universal dispute resolution wizard that is in development, which I could use some feedback and ideas on.
Please mark this date in your calendar if you wish to participate in the
discussion. I will send a reminder about this on Friday.
Regards,
Steven Zhang
Community Fellow, Wikimedia Foundation
szhang(a)wikimedia.org
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for October 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_2012
and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
As usual, we are 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,_October_2012
Many thanks those who have translated the September "Highlights" into
Arabic, Breton, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Piedmontese, Russian,
Ukrainian, Chinese and Telugu!
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the soon to be published November issue are welcome
until Wednesday (December 5) at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, October 2012
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_November_1,…
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of October
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2012-11-01>
(November 1, 2012)>
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Mobile Wikipedia redesigned
o 3.2 First in-person meeting of the Funds Dissemination Committee
(FDC)
o 3.3 Wikipedia Zero now available to 230 million people after
Saudi Arabia launch; has already grown Wikipedia readership in
Africa and Asia
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
o 4.4 Language engineering
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser
* 6 Global Development
o 6.1 Global Development Highlights
o 6.2 Education Program
o 6.3 Wikimedia Grants Program
+ 6.3.1 Grants funded
+ 6.3.2 Grant-funded progress
o 6.4 Participation Support Program
o 6.5 FDC Progress
o 6.6 Mobile
o 6.7 Brazil
o 6.8 Fellowships
o 6.9 Learning & Evaluation
* 7 Human Resources
o 7.1 Staff Changes
o 7.2 Statistics
o 7.3 Department Updates
* 8 Finance and Administration
* 9 Legal and Community Advocacy
o 9.1 Communications report, October 2012
+ 9.1.1 Major announcements
+ 9.1.2 Major Storylines through October
+ 9.1.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 9.1.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 9.1.5 Media Contact, October 2012
+ 9.1.6 Wikipedia Signpost, October 2012
* 10 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for September:
*474.9 million* (+4.08% compared with August; +4.47% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release October data
later in November)
Page requests for October:
*19.8 billion* (+3.4% compared with September; +15.8% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access)
Active Registered Editors for September 2012 (>= 5 mainspace
edits/month, excluding bots):
*82,582* (+4.08% compared with August / +2.98% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects. Note: We recently refined this metric
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/31/improving-the-accuracy-of-the-active-…>
to take into account Wikimedia Commons and activity across several
projects.)
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects) for September 2012:
http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/
(Definitions <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Metric_definitions>)
== Financials ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Revenue_%26_Expenses_September_…
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of September
30, 2012>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_September…
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of September 30, 2012>
(Financial information is only available for September 2012 at the time
of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date September 30, 2012.
Revenue $4,113,523
*Expenses:*
Technology Group $3,274,990
Community/Fundraiser Group $588,771
Global Development Group $1,353,447
Governance Group $200,668
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $581,916
Finance/HR/Admin Group $1,396,195
Total Expenses $7,395,987
Total surplus/(loss) ($3,282,464)
* Revenue for the month of September is $2.36MM vs plan of $2.44MM,
approximately $81K or 3% under plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $4.11MM vs plan of $4.36MM, approximately
$245K or 6% under plan.
* Expenses for the month of September is $2.20MM vs plan of $2.77MM,
approximately $577K or 21% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, internet hosting expenses, travel expenses,
capital expenses, grants and awards, and outside contract services
partially offset by higher expenses for the annual all-hands meeting.
* Year-to-date expenses is $7.40MM vs plan of $8.68MM, approximately
$1.3MM or 15% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses,
internet hosting, travel expenses, capital expenses, legal expenses,
grants and awards, and outside contract services.
* Cash position is $22.0MM as of September 30, 2012 which is
approximately 6.29 months of expenses.
== Highlights ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_site_redesign.jpg
The design changes to the Wikipedia mobile site include new navigation
and updated typography.>
=== Mobile Wikipedia redesigned ===
The mobile gateway <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/> to Wikipedia was updated
with several features
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/wikipedia-mobile-gets-a-new-look/> that
had earlier been tested on the mobile beta site
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_projects/Beta>. The new
navigation system aims to make
mobile features and settings easier to discover. In the coming months,
the mobile team will work on adding possibilities to contribute on
mobile devices. In the previous month, the Wiki Loves Monuments app had
already introduced a mobile photo upload function, as the first such
possibility. For readers, the new design offers fonts that make the
content easier to read.
=== First in-person meeting of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) ===
The nine members of the new volunteer-run Funds Dissemination Committee
(FDC) met for the first time in October, preparing their recommendations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_ro…>
about funding
requests by 12 organizations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals> (11 Wikimedia
chapters and the Foundation) from a pool of more than $10 million of
Wikimedia donations. In this new model, the funding requests have to be
submitted in public, enabling a community review period that lasted
until October 22.
The staff which supports the FDC scored each request
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/2012_-_2013_Round_1_Links/Staff_…>
according to a criteria list:
* estimates for the potential impact,
* the organization's ability to execute the planned activities,
* their expected financial efficiency,
* the quality of the proposed success measures
* the potential benefit for the Wikimedia movement
The /Signpost/ (the English Wikipedia's weekly community newspaper) has
published an overview
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-10-29/News_…>
of these scores and of the requested sums.
The Board of Trustees will announce its decision about the FDC's
recommendations in December.
=== Wikipedia Zero now available to 230 million people after Saudi
Arabia launch; has already grown Wikipedia readership in Africa
and Asia ===
Wikipedia Zero, the program offering mobile Internet users access to
Wikipedia without data charges, added Saudi Telecom Company (STC)
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/17/wikipedia-zero-reaches-230-million-mo…>
to the list of partners. With STC's 25 million subscribers in Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait, altogether 230 million mobile users in 31
countries have now access to the program, half a year after its
worldwide start. A preliminary evaluation
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/wikipedia-zero-grows-readership-in-af…>
of its effect on readership is promising: Wikipedia pageviews from
Orange Niger customers grew by 77% and those from Orange Kenya customers
grew by 88% in a four-month period including the launch in these
countries. In Malaysia, unique visitors to Wikipedia from local operator
Digi jumped by 42% after it joined Wikipedia Zero.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Engineering Department's activities for October
2012 can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/October
=== VisualEditor ===
VisualEditor, the upcoming rich-text interface aiming to make it easier
to edit wiki pages, didn't see many visible changes in October, but was
heavily restructured behind the scenes. This "refactoring" made the code
more modular, and easier to change and extend, even for developers who
are not familiar with the entirety of the VisualEditor's code.
As for Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>, the parsing program
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing> that translates plain wikitext into
HTML annotated for easy editing, and /vice-versa/, it was heavily tested
in October. The team focused on testing the JavaScript prototype parser
on 100,000 randomly-selected articles from the English Wikipedia. They
compared the articles' original wikitext to the one obtained after a
"round-trip" (the operation consisting of converting wikitext to
annotated HTML, and back to wikitext).
For a little over 75% of these articles, this resulted in exactly the
same wikitext, as intended. For another 18%, there were some minor
differences without consequence. Finally, just under 7% of articles
contained errors that change the produced HTML structure. The team is
now focusing on these remaining issues, in preparation for the December
release.
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
Version 5 of Article feedback
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5>, a quality
assessment tool also aiming to engage readers and encourage them to
contribute, is still being tested on 10% of articles on the English
Wikipedia. A few additional features and improvements were developed and
deployed to the site in October, mostly related to abuse prevention and
moderation. After a few final upcoming improvements, this tool is
expected to be expanded to all articles on the English Wikipedia by the
end of 2012, and to other Wikimedia sites in 2013.
Additional features and improvements were also developed for the Page
Curation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation> tool (an interface for
experienced contributors to review and improve newly created pages),
based on the feedback provided by users. A dashboard of metrics
<https://toolserver.org/~dartar/pc/> was created to better assess the
impact of this tool.
The MicroDesign <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Micro_Design_Improvements>
team (focusing on small design issues) mostly worked behind the scenes
in October. They began working on a new tool called "Agora" to make it
easier to build and deploy future improvements, and started to improve
the templates that are displayed when the "edit" window is opened.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PEF-1-Cropped.png
Post-edit confirmation message>
The Editor engagement experiments
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments> (E3) team
deployed a post-edit confirmation message
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/24/giving-new-wikipedians-feedback-post-…>
to 16 Wikipedia sites. They also tested a redesigned account creation
page
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/05/testing-new-signup-page-for-wikipedia/>
and developed an event logging tool to help measure the success of
future experiments. The E3 team is looking to hire new developers
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/fix-this-broken-workflow/> to
join their ranks.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
/(see also general "Highlights" section <#Highlights>)/
In October, the Mobile team unveiled a redesign of the mobile site
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/wikipedia-mobile-gets-a-new-look/>,
with particular emphasis on navigation and readability, for example
through new typography.
Wikipedia Zero <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> (a
collaboration with mobile carriers to enable free mobile access to
Wikipedia) expanded to include a new partnership with Saudi Telecom
Company (STC), reaching about 25 millions of customers in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait and Bahrain. The Wikipedia Zero program aims to increase
readership in countries where the internet is primarily accessed from
mobile devices; initial numbers indicate that the initiative is indeed
growing Wikipedia readership
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/wikipedia-zero-grows-readership-in-af…>
in Africa and Asia.
The Mobile team also started to decommission the Wiki Loves Monuments
mobile application
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application>, as
the contest ended in October. Last, a native Wikipedia application
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/26/wikipedia-app-for-windows-8-and-window…>
was released for use with Microsoft's newest operating systems, Windows
8 and Windows RT.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ULS-TamilInterface.png
Partially translated Tamil Interface of the Universal Language Selector>
=== Language engineering
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_engineering> ===
The Language engineering team, whose work aims to reduce barriers to
participation for contributors using languages other than English
(especially those using a non-Roman alphabet), continued to improve
their Universal language selector
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/09/translating-centralnotice-language-en…>,
and the interface for translating site-wide notices.
They also developed a JavaScript library (a bundle of code reusable by
other developers) offering an interface to enter characters not
available on a user's keyboard, and discussed with the VisualEditor team
to ensure proper language support in the upcoming editing interface.
Last, they shared their experience
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/designing-for-multilingual-web/>
in designing (and testing) tools and features for a multilingual audience.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Planning an event on November 13th for some long-time Bay Area
funders to kick off the online fundraiser.
* Completed our application and answered questions on the Talk Page
for WMF's proposal to the FDC
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/…>
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_Wikimedia_F…
Megan Hernandez presenting one of the "Facts" banners at the metrics and
activities meeting>
* Continued weekly fundraising testing in the US and increased
international testing in preparation for the 2012 fundraising
campaign. Results can be found on Meta at We Need a Breakthrough
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough>.
* Here are two examples of new banners for 2012: Facts banner
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_MegEx> and Facts
banner featuring an editor appeal
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_EditorAppeal_TabButton>
* Worked with Wikimedia volunteer translators to prepare fundraising
messages in as many languages as possible.
* Coordinated testing with Wikimedia chapters.
* Intensified the "International User Experience": 1:1 sessions with
volunteers from all over the world providing feedback on our
donation pages and payment methods. This feedback has already helped
us improve our payment processing significantly.
* Hired and trained an international donor services team to repond to
donor emails during the fundraiser. We are also developing a tagging
system that will allow us to give the team high level data on top
donation problems every day throughout the campaign.
== Global Development ==
=== Global Development Highlights ===
* Finalization of the Global Dev dashboard
<http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/>
* First in-person meeting of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC),
which ran through the first submissions via the FDC process and made
recommendations
* Research shows a significant improvement of articles edited by
students on the English Wikipedia
* Saudi Telecom launched Wikipedia Zero, reaches 25 million people.
=== Education Program ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_in_Education_Workshop,_Un…
Jami Mathewson at an information session and workshop introducing the
Wikimedia Foundation’s Wikipedia Education Program, hosted by
Open.Michigan and MLibrary>
U.S. professor blogs about her experiences
Alverno College professor Jennifer Geigel Mikulay wrote a post for the
Wikimedia Foundation blog about her experiences incorporating Wikipedia
into her classroom. She asks her students to write Wikipedia articles
about public artworks or create videos posted on Wikimedia Commons to
illustrate article content, and the best part is that all of her
students are women, so she's helping to address Wikipedia's gender gap.
Learn more about her experiences by reading her post.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/12/learning-from-wikipedia/>
More than 20 classes join Egypt program this term
The Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt is kicking off its second term,
with courses at the University of Alexandria joining Cairo University
and Ain Shams University in participating. More than 20 courses are
already on board, with both new and returning professors using Wikipedia
in their classrooms this term. At Ain Shams University, courses will be
working to translate high quality articles from the English, German,
Hebrew, and French Wikipedias onto the Arabic Wikipedia this term. See
the full list of courses.
<http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%…>
Michigan hosts teaching with Wikipedia workshop
Open.Michigan, a University of Michigan open educational resources
initiative, hosted Wikipedia Education Program staff member Jami
Mathewson last month for a workshop on teaching with Wikipedia. More
than 35 faculty, staff, and students at the University of Michigan
attended an information session on the program, and a total of 16 people
stayed for the in-depth workshop led by the University of Michigan
student club. Learn more about the event by reading Open.Michigan's blog
post about the workshop.
<https://open.umich.edu/blog/2012/10/01/wikipedia-education-program-at-u-m/>
=== Wikimedia Grants Program ===
==== Grants funded ====
The following grant proposals were funded:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Annual_plan_2012-2013
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_Movement/Flow_Funding_Pilot_Proje…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Creative_Commons_Community_in_Kenya/…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wikimedians_in_Brazil/WikiBrasil_2012
==== Grant-funded progress ====
* CEE (Central and Eastern European) Wikimedia group meeting in
Belgrade, in addition to established chapters (Poland, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, and Estonia), many proto-chapters
attended as well (Greece, Belarus, Armenia, Slovenia)
o 2-day program, well documented (conducted in English primarily)
– documentation: http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/CEE2012
o lots of excitement by proto-chapter groups about off-wiki
activities and better integration with international community
* Working with CIS in India to aid in the transition of the former
India Program to the new "Access To Knowledge
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge>" program as
a priority partnership.
Jessie went to Bangalore to guide in the meeting of the teams, as
well as facilitate learning conversations about the things that have
worked well in the past and the things that haven't worked as well.
o Stronger focus on output and outcome reporting (instead of
inputs/process)
o Still in the hiring phase for the programme director position: a
mission-critical position for the success of this program
=== Participation Support Program ===
The following requests have been funded:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Vantharith/BlogFestAsia2012
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/Museum_Computer_…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/Fembot_UnConfere…
=== FDC Progress ===
/(see also general "Highlights" section)/
* onboarding FDC members – 7 members (+2 Board representatives)
started September 15, orientation began from last week of September
and through October
o different regions, languages, projects, chapters, community
members, Global South, plus two Board reps
o intense orientation sessions
* deadline for proposals was Oct 1; 12 proposals are in, including
WMF's proposal
o lots of challenges around differing fiscal years
* on-wiki staff assessments went up; FDC has met in San Francisco, and
their recommendation goes to Board on 15 Nov. The Board will
announce decision to community 15 December, grant agreements signed
and funds disbursed by 15 Jan. Then gear up for second round of
funding in May/April.
=== Mobile ===
* Saudi Telecom launched Wikipedia Zero, reaches 25 million people.
* Completing work on software which will enable Wikipedia access over SMS.
* Added some diagnostics and created additional partner testing suport
materials for subsequent deployments of Wikipedia Zero. Mobile phone
users who attempt to use Wikipedia Zero on an unsupported partner
network will be informed that standard charges may apply.
* Beta version of J2ME based Wikipedia application has been completed.
Currently testing on supported mobile phones.
* Initial analysis of usage data from Wikipedia Zero deployments has
shown readership increases –
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/wikipedia-zero-grows-readership-in-af…
=== Brazil ===
* Outreach and education program events (Rio de Janeiro - "FIM" (books
fair and information production), Curitiba (CODAIP – Copyright),
Porto Alegre (enterpreneurship fair – workshops for professors and
lecture)
* Started discussion on Portuguese Wikipedia about next steps for the
Education Program, need feedback from community on levels of
engagement in the future
* Follow up with professors regarding articles, contributions and
activeness
* Stats - general monthly analyses for Portuguese Wikimedia projects
* Finalized a planning up to June 2013 based on debates with the
community regarding the Brazil Catalyst Program and presented that
to 2 local organizations.
* Attended and supported WikiBrasil meet-up – a three days event
organized by the community where about 25 people discussed projects
to be developed in the next year, as well as where the Associação
Pietro Roveri pelo Conhecimento e a Colaboração Livres was incorporated.
* Continued hiring process / interviewed candidates for data analyst
job position
=== Fellowships ===
* *Program*: As WMF begins a process of narrowing focus, we're
preparing to wind down the fellowships program over the next few
months. WMF may investigate other avenues for supporting projects
led by individual editors via grantmaking.
* *Dispute Resolution*: The community has supported
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:WP:DRREFORM> rolling out an easier way
to file dispute resolution requests across English Wikipedia, and
process improvements are in progress to impliment the community's
decision.
* *Help Pages Redesign*: The usability test results for a redesign of
the English Wikipedia's main help page were published
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_Project/Usability_Testing_2>
and replacing the old design is under discussion by the community
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_talk:Contents#RfC:_Redesign_of_Help:Cont…>,
with broad support so far. Peter's fellowship project concluded this
month, with finalized documentation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:Help_Project/Community_fellowship>.
* *Small Wiki Editor Engagement*: This month concludes a 6 week pilot
of help documentation improvements in Bangla Wikipedia. A midpoint
progress report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_Wiki_Editor_Engagement_Project/Report…>
is now available and a full statistical report on the outcomes is
being prepared. Plans are in development for the next Bangla
experiment, focusing on building a support system for new editors
tailored to a wiki of this size.
* *Teahouse*: We've wrapped up phase 2 of the Teahouse project, having
built stable and sustainable systems into the English Wikipedia
Teahouse and handed it over to full community ownership. The
complete project
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Phase_2_report> and
metrics <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Phase_2_report/Metrics>
reports are
on meta.
* *WikiWomen's Collaborative*: We're digging into results of the first
month of this social media initiative and an assessment report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative/Phase_…>
is in
progress. Content for the WWC's Facebook page
<https://www.facebook.com/WikiWomensCollaborative/>, Twitter feed
<https://twitter.com/WikiWomen/> and blog channel
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wikiwomen/> is being created
by Sarah and WikiWomen volunteers around the world, using the
WikiWomen's Collab organizing hub
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative> on
Meta. While October has been
focused on engaging the existing community, November will be focused
on engaging women who aren't yet editing Wikipedia and related projects.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_Wikimedia_F…
Evan Rosen presenting the Global Development Dashboard at the metrics
and activities meeting>
=== Learning & Evaluation ===
* Global Development Dashboard <http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/> up and
running! It showcases the main metrics related to the goals that the
GD team has committed to achieving during this 2012-13 fiscal year
* Lots of analysis done in support of other teams – see data embedded
in those sections!
* Working in conjunction with Analytics team to create better and more
powerful tools for our teams to evaluate their programs effectively
based on data. This primarily includes testing of and advising
regarding the development of "Limn" and "Kraken".
== Human Resources ==
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Zeljko Filipin, QA Engineer – Test Automation (Engineering Contractor)
* Brad Jorsch, Software Developer – MediaWiki (Engineering)
* Andre Klapper, Bug Wrangler (Engineering Contractor)
* Adele Vrana, Senior Project Assistant (Administration)
* Luke Welling, Senior Software Engineer (Engineering)
New Interns
* Zoe Bernard, Intern (Communications)
* Darrin Fox, Intern (Communications)
* Alice Roberts, Intern (Communications)
* Jawad Qadir, Intern (Communications)
New Contractors
* Antonella Amatulli (Fundraising)
* Steven Bernardin (Engineering)
* Kristina Baker (Legal)
* Cristiana Coimbra (Fundraising)
* Michelle Grover (Engineering)
* Joanie Hjulmand (Fundraising)
* Sandra Hust (Fundraising)
* Alex Kuiper (Fundraising)
* Robert Miller (Administration)
* Elena Strelnikova (Fundraising)
Contracts Extended
* Aaron Halfaker (Engineering)
* Antoine Musso (Engineering)
* Guillaume Paumier (Engineering)
* Steven Zhang (Global Development)
* Rebecca Neumann (LCA)
Departure
* Andrew White
Contracts Ended
* Moushira Elamrawy
* Stuart Geiger
New Postings
* Release Manager
* Software Engineer - VisualEditor (Features)
* Operations Engineer/Database Administrator
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
October Actual: 127
October Total Plan: 151,
October Filled: 6, Month Attrition: 1,
YTD Filled: 27, YTD Attrition: 12
1 Position canceled for FY
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 46 /(8 of which are on hold)/
=== Department Updates ===
HR ran and facilitated a few key initiatives in the month of October. We
did the first segment of a pilot leadership development program for
managers, to build leadership ability at the mid-level of the
organization that translates strategy into tactics. The overall
leadership program is co-designed between Gayle Karen Young and Jennifer
Garvey Berger, and will run with 13 managers over a 9-month period,
consisting of three 3-day sessions, 3 months apart. Eventually, all
leaders in the organization below C-level will go through this program.
Jennifer wrote a blog post about her experience with us:
http://www.cultivatingleadership.co.nz/leadership/2012/10/leading-wikipedia
HR piloted a recruitment training for hiring managers to improve our
recruiting processes and practices. We also supported the design and
facilitation of the first WMF board retreat to support better board
governance and group dynamics to evolve board functioning, and supported
the FDC by doing an "effective group dynamics and decision-making"
segment as part of their face-to-face meeting.
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* We completed a site visit and asset review at the Tampa Data Center.
* We are in the process of reviewing RFP for audit services for the
Wikimedia Foundation.
* Engaging in a continuing review of chapters in support of the FDC
and other projects.
* Work continued on the third floor space redesign
== Legal and Community Advocacy ==
* Strong legal and community support for the new travel project in a
variety of ways, including the naming poll
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide/Naming_Process> and
related legal issues
* Internet Brands litigation: For a summary of the cases and updates,
please go here:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/05/wikimedia-foundation-seeks-declaratory…
o San Francisco case: Internet Brands, Inc. v. William Ryan Holiday
+ To recap, on September 26, 2012, Ryan had filed an
anti-SLAPP
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation>
motion and motion to dismiss. This motion seeks dismissal of
all the claims against him now pending in federal court and
also asks for an award of attorneys’ fees against Internet
Brands. That pleading may be found here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-09-26_Notice_of_Defendants%27…
+ On October 12, 2012, Internet Brands filed its Opposition to
Defense Special Motion to Strike and Motion to Dismiss in
United States District Court. That response may be found
here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_Brands_Opp._to_anti-SLAPP_m…
+ On October 22, 2012, Ryan filed his Reply to Internet
Brands’s Opposition to Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion and motion
to strike. That reply may be found here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Reply_Brief_ISO_anti-SLAPP_Motion_…
o Los Angeles case: Wikimedia Foundation v. Internet Brands
+ On October 15, 2012, Internet Brands filed a "notice of
demurrer <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/demurrer>" against the
Foundation's complaint for declaratory judgment
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/declaratory_judgment> (to be
posted). The WMF response is presently due November 6.
* Legal supported the WMF Board of Trustee meeting in San Francisco,
providing governance and a procedural training session. Training
like this is recommended for all boards of Wikimedia movement
organizations on a regular basis, serving as an update on governance
developments and best practice procedures for the boards. Advised on
technical improvements in bylaws to ensure continued compliance with
relevant law (Florida).
* On October 24, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation announced
the appointment of Compass Partnership, a noted charity governance
firm, to produce the review and report on the governance of
Wikimedia UK.. For details, see
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/wikimedia-uk-and-wikimedia-foundation-…
* Contract metrics:
o 22 - submitted
o 26 - completed
* Trademark metrics:
o 20 - submitted
o 1 - approved
o 17 - pending
o 1 - closed to lack of response
o 1 - approval not needed
=== Communications report, October 2012 ===
October saw communications managing some spillover of the WMUK/COI media
relations work from September, but through mid October the media moved
on from the topic. The latest Wikipedia editor survey was finalized
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Survey_2012>
(and has now launched) and
work pushed forward on a community-focussed effort to allow Wikimedians
to give each other official branded merchandise in recognition for their
hard work. The team has also kicked off work on the 2011-12 WMF Annual
Report, which will continue through November. November will see more
communications work around the 2012 fundraising drive and further
Wikipedia Zero announcements.
==== Major announcements ====
The Wikimedia Foundation and Saudi Telecom (STC) partner to provide
access to Wikipedia free of mobile data charges in the Middle East
(October 14, 2012)
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_and_STC_partner_on_W…
(related coverage) CNET (October 15, 2012)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57532461-2/wikipedia-now-totally-free-t…
Saudi Gazette (October 14, 2012)
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20121…
==== Major Storylines through October ====
WMUK/COI story abates (early October, 2012)
Media coverage of allegations of conflict of interest around the WMUK
community continued through early October, but in limited, follow-up
stories. As of the middle of the month there have been no further media
inquiries.
UK Women’s edit-a-thon with Royal Society makes news (October 17-19, 2012)
A group edit-a-thon at the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of
science, aiming to bring more women editors to Wikipedia garnered strong
media attention. Held in conjunction with Ada Lovelace Day, the event
quickly filled up and improved dozens of articles, including many about
women in science.
(WMUK blog post)
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-ada-lovelace-the-royal-so…http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=royal-society-runs…http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/wikipedia-gets-overdue-makeover-t…http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/19/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-women-s…
Is Wikipedia done? (October 25, 2012)
An Atlantic story in late October prompted speculation that Wikipedia
might be nearing completion, an intriguing idea that prompted multiple
media outlets, including some mainstream outlets, to repost and
reference the story.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/surmounting-the-insur…http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/is-wikipedia-complete-8230188.h…http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/wikipedia-done-its-close-says-h…
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Popsci.com | A map of the world, according to Wikipedia geotags (October
2, 2012)
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/infographic-human-knowledge-p…
Talking Points Memo | Wikipedia Maps: Inside Encyclopedia’s Little-Known
Cache Of Geo Data (October 9, 2012)
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/wikipedia-maps-inside-encyclop…
Wall Street Journal | Editors Won't Let It Be When It Comes to 'the' or
'The' (October 12, 2012)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444657804578048534112811590.h…
Web Pro News | Wikipedia gives its mobile site new type layout (October
24, 2012)
http://www.webpronews.com/wikipedia-gives-its-mobile-site-new-type-layout-2…
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Thirty-six blog posts through October, including bilingual posts
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/> in Swedish, Spanish,
Bengali, Italian, Russian, and Arabic.
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/
A few highlights:
Gendered language and the Swedish Wikipedia article for Marissa Mayer
(October 30)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/30/gendered-language-and-the-swedish-wiki…
Wikipedia app for Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets (October 26)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/26/wikipedia-app-for-windows-8-and-window…
Where it’s a given that you would publish your source code (October 22)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/22/where-its-a-given-that-you-would-publi…
==== Media Contact, October 2012 ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#October_2012
==== Wikipedia Signpost, October 2012 ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for October 2012:
* Volume 8, Issue 40, 1 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 41, 8 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 42, 15 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 43, 22 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 44, 29 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in October 2012:
1. Olivier & Jean-Philippe Hugot (Hugot Avocats)
2. Stephen Lloyd (Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP)
3. Michael Mandiby (CUNY)
4. Valerie Aurora (TAI)
5. Kathy Ramsey (TAI)
6. Max Klein (Volunteer)
7. Rufus Pollock (Open Knowledge Foundation)
8. Christy Wilson (Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
9. Steve Spiker (Urban Strategies Council, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
10. Mike Linksvayer (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
11. Anna Daniel (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
12. Jessica Coates (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
13. Alan McConchie (Mapping Mashups, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
14. Tim McCormick (Stanford, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
15. Randall Leeds (Hypothes.is, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
16. Mike Bobak (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
17. Dan Whaley (Hypothes.is, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
18. Nicolas Torzec (Yahoo!, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
19. Léo Grimaldi (Orange San Francisco, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
20. Steve Rhodes (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
21. J Peralta (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
22. Matthew Crowe (AHHHA, Inc, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
23. Elliot Harmon (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
24. Brian Behlendorf (World Economic Forum, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
25. Jennifer Lin (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
26. Megan Edwards (PLoS.org, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
27. Max Vidrine (PLoS.org, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
28. Sameer Verma (SFSU, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
29. Timothy Vollmer (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
30. Parker Higgins (Electronic Frontier Foundation, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
31. Matt Senate (Digital Citizen Project, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
32. Daniel Mietchen (User:Daniel_Mietchen
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Daniel_Mietchen>)
33. Ed Johnson (Rearden Commerce)
34. Chris Nolan (owner of 365Main.com)
35. Mike Schwartz (Wikia)
36. Sara Wood (Wikia)
37. Mark Davis (Wikia)
38. Trevor Bolliger (Wikia)
39. Glenn Galbreath (Cornell Law Professor/Externship Coordinator)
40. Rebecca Bowe (EFF)
41. Maira Sutton (EFF)
42. Carolina Rossini (EFF)
43. Mark Rumold (EFF)
44. Mitch Stoltz (EFF)
45. Marcia Hofmann (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
46. Luis Villa (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
47. Daniel Ross (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
48. Carina Zona (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
49. Shiney Code (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
50. Roberto Burgos (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
51. Liz Henry (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
52. Kathy Ramsey (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
53. KC Crowell (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
54. Marina Kukso (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
55. Liz Flavall (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
56. laura ray (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
57. Jenny Liu (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
58. Mahvish Nagda (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
59. Mary Zhu (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
60. Julia Fasick (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
61. Lettie Malan (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
62. Tim Chevalier (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
63. Jenny Ryan (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
64. Ariel Haney (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
65. Sara Smollett (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
66. Shreyas Patankar (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
67. Morgan Marquis-Boire (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
68. Mariam Khan (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
69. Alex Peake (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
70. Heather Browning (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
71. Robyn Henderson (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
72. D Potter (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
73. David Helgason (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
74. Alex Glowaski (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
75. Andrea Horbinski (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
76. Christine Templin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
77. Rauhmel Fox (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
78. Rose White (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
79. Angie Chang (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
80. Danielle Siembieda (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
81. Pius Uzamere (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
82. Phil Wee (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
83. Sepi Nasiri (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
84. Mateo Fowler (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
85. Priyanka Sharma (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
86. Navi Ganancial (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
87. Marisol Torrez (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
88. Meghan Quirk (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
89. Matt Zimmerman (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
90. Sarah Mei (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
91. Angela Foreman (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
92. Andra Keay (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
93. natacha rodriguez (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
94. Angelo Olivera (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
95. Harvey Grosser (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
96. Tom Mayer (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
97. Christine Oneto (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
98. Beth Devin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
99. RJM Joynt (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
100. Margaret Mckinney (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
101. Steven Seltser (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
102. B Unyi (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
103. Jed Davis (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
104. Julie Parent (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
105. karla parker (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
106. Anatoly Goldin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
107. Star Simpson (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
108. Arnas Lucassen (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
109. Leslie Tom (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
110. Melita Mihaljevic (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
111. Ed Parker (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
112. Beth Reid (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
113. Fiona Tay (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
114. Kellie Brownell (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
115. Christina Nguyen (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
116. Yas Etessam (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
117. Snail Tsunami (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
118. Viktor Goldin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
119. Catha Strauss (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
120. Kevin Kilkenny (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
121. Christine Hodges (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
122. Nana Second (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
123. Lilia Markham (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
124. Jamie Giedinghagen (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
125. Mark Bünger (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
126. John Brosnan (Kimpton)
127. Peter McCollough (Time)
128. Carmel Wade (Dell)
129. Tag Cummings (Dell)
130. Dennis Bauier (IRIS)
131. Ryan Downe Karpf (coffee and power)
132. Chris Smith (Special Agent, Environmental Protection Agency)
133. Adrian Collins (Deputy Director, Environmental Protection Agency)
134. David Peters (Exbrook)
135. David Weir (Independent Consultant)
136. Kelly Smith (Travel and Transport)
137. Jessica Coates (Creative Commons)
138. Adam Hyde (FLOSS Manuals)
139. Chris Smith (Special Agent, Environmental Protection Agency)
140. Adrian Collins (Deputy Director, Environmental Protection Agency)
141. Lisa Perez Jackson (Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency)
142. Jared Blumenfeld (Regional Administrator, Environmental Protection
Agency)
143. Nancy 'Teddy' Ryerson (Chief of Staff to the Regional Administrator,
Environmental Protection Agency)
144. Deborah Bezona (SML insurance agency)
145. Mandy Lee (SML insurance agency)
146. Trevor Bolliger (Wikia)
147. Mat Caldwell (Mozilla)
148. Brad Fullenbach (Mozilla)
149. Anne Clin (User:Risker <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Risker>)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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Andy,
Can you clarify your concerns about systemic bias? Are you referring to the absence of minor US political parties in this study, or that this was a study focused on US contributors?
Pine
> Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:49:03 +0000
> From: Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Recent Research report: collaboration
> between editors of different political affiliations, predicting box
> office revenue, the Essjay controversy, and more
> Message-ID:
> <CABiXOEkaTqD8XV=EqXL4hzL=PaS+2X5mk0ON7MoEki-p6qq+Yw(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> On 28 November 2012 19:50, ENWP Pine <deyntestiss(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > "Based on an analysis of a sample of 1390 editors with known political
> > affiliation ? either US Democrat or Republican..."
>
> I detect a systematic bias...
>
> --
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
> ********************************************
Hi everyone,
Some important corrections to my previous email, please see below:
*Meeting Time: 7:00 PM UTC (11 AM PST)*
*IRC channel: #wikimedia-office*
Thank you,
Praveena
On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 12:51 PM, Praveena Maharaj <pmaharaj(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> Dear all,
> The next WMF metrics and activities will take place on Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 6:30 PM UTC (10:30 AM PST). The IRC channel is #wikimedia-metrics-meetings on irc.freenode.net and the meeting will be broadcast as a live YouTube stream.
>
> The current structure of the meeting is:
> * Review of key metrics including the monthly report card, but also specialized reports and analytics* Review of financials* Welcoming recent hires* Brief presentations on recent projects, with a focus on highest priority initiatives* Update and Q&A with the Executive Director, if available
> Please review https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings for further information about how to participate.
>
> We'll post IRC logs and the video recording publicly after the meeting.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Praveena
>
> --
> Praveena Maharaj
> Executive Assistant to the VP of Engineering and Product Development
> +1 (415) 839 6885 ext. 6689
> www.wikimedia.org
>
--
Praveena Maharaj
Executive Assistant to the VP of Engineering and Product Development
+1 (415) 839 6885 ext. 6689
www.wikimedia.org
