Wikimedia-l February 2012

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141 participants
94 discussions

[Foundation-l] Waste of money, Wikipediacentrism. - Brazil
by Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton 11 Feb '12

11 Feb '12

Dear all, Well as you know, Brazil is a priority, but when spending is a waste. We have a volunteer group that operates in Brazil since 2008 in direct contact with the problems of Brazil, know much about the free national culture, know a lot about education in the country, and their projects, they can tell the reasons why Brazil has poor performance on Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation conducted several interviews with the group, I was interviewed three times and had several conversations with several different employees. Also recently a person was hired to do a search on this, already operating in Brazil. And yesterday they announced the arrival of two more employees to ask only that, again. [1] They already have the answer to these interviews, what they are asking again? And what I find worse is the fact that there is a prohibitive message for explanation of other Wikimedia projects. As for the local group that Wikipedia is not central. And there will be an office of WMF, only to activities for Wikipedia. And many Brazilians criticize the model of the WMF, and that centralization in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is only the tenth seventh most visited site in the country. Need better, yes, but the problem is the community that is not healthy, and that the WMF does not interfere on that. So it's skating, and spending resources unnecessarily. Several staff members say the Wikipedia impact is larger than the other projects. Which has more impact for you? "The Movement Wikimedia projects through education, created free educational resources available in Wikibooks, and classes on Wikiversity, this could change the lives of thousands of poor children" or "The Movement Wikimedia succeeded in creating an encyclopaedia in Portuguese high quality " Unfortunately I live in a country that 38% of teens lives in extreme poverty [2], how they want to create a program just with universities, to share knowledge if people that never walk inside one university? Or not be able to read the contents of Wikipedia because they were not properly literate. I'm not talking to literate Brazilians, I'm talking to create free educational resources, and create classes, and encourage businesses and organizations to do that change, this is a collaborative work. With the money spent to keep three people six days in Brazil from the U.S.A., we could fund a fellow to start a social work with teachers to create this material.What is the interest of the WMF on this? "Our priority is Wikipedia " *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. * I'll keep imagining, and having to push myself very hard to see this world. That will never be reached by Wikipedia alone.Especially in Brazil. If it were to promote Wikipedia as a site, it would be best to hire a company, not a Foundation, if that way selected, do things as a Foundation. Sorry for my English, I'm tired and I didn't review. [1] https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/geral/Wikip%C3%A9dia… [2] http://noticias.r7.com/brasil/noticias/adolescentes-sao-mais-pobres-que-res… -- Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton rodrigo.argenton(a)gmail.com +55 11 7971-8884

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[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, January 2012
by Tilman Bayer 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

Hi all, please find below the WMF report for January 2012, in plain text. As always, the editable and formatted version is on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_January_2012 and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/ Since a few months, we have been 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,_January_2012 Many thanks to those who translated last month's "Highlights" into Danish, German, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian (Bokmål), Dutch, Polish, and Vietnamese! While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement. Suggestions for the upcoming Febuary issue are welcome at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights (until March 1). Regards, Tilman -- = Wikimedia Foundation Report, January 2012 = <Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_February_2,… Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of January (February 2, 2012)> * 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Foundation supports historic anti-SOPA Wikipedia blackout o 3.2 San Francisco Hackathon o 3.3 Mobile announcements: Official Android app, and Orange partnership for free Wikipedia access in Africa/Middle East * 4 Technology o 4.1 Events o 4.2 Operations o 4.3 Features Engineering o 4.4 Mobile o 4.5 Platform Engineering * 5 Research * 6 Community o 6.1 Projects + 6.1.1 Editor Retention o 6.2 Fundraising + 6.2.1 Fundraiser + 6.2.2 Major Gifts and Foundations o 6.3 Fellowship Program + 6.3.1 Program Activities + 6.3.2 Fellowship Projects o 6.4 Community relations * 7 Global Development o 7.1 Announcements o 7.2 Grants + 7.2.1 Policy Discussions + 7.2.2 Wikimedia Grants Approved + 7.2.3 Participation Grants Approved o 7.3 US Cultural Partnerships o 7.4 Research o 7.5 India Programs o 7.6 Brazil Catalyst o 7.7 Arabic Language Initiative o 7.8 Global Education Program o 7.9 Mobile o 7.10 Communications + 7.10.1 Major news o 7.11 Press releases o 7.12 Blog posts o 7.13 Wikipedia Signpost o 7.14 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 December: 457 million (-3.7% compared with November; +15.6% compared with the previous year) (comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release January data later in February) Page requests for January: 18.0 billion (+10.4% compared with December; 16.4% compared with the previous year) (Server log data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access) Active Registered Editors for December 2011 (>= 5 edits/month): 83,293 (+0.1% compared with November / +1.6% compared with the previous year) (Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects except for Wikimedia Commons) Report Card for December 2011: http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/RC_2011_12_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 December 2011 at the time of this report.) All financial information presented is for the period of July 1, 2011 - December 31, 2011 Revenue: $25.6 million Expenses: * Technology Group: $4,801,082 * Community/Fundraiser Group: $2,501,444 * Global Development Group: $2,154,912 * Governance Group: $464,533 * Finance/Legal/HR/Admin Group: $2,916,686 Total Expenses: $12,838,657 Total surplus/(loss): $12,784,247 Revenue was ahead of plan due to grants of $2.8 million and additional donations ahead of plan of $2 million. Expenses for the month is $2.9MM vs plan of $2.6MM, approximately 11% higher than plan. Year-to-date is $12.8MM vs plan of $14.2MM, approximately 10% lower than plan. Underspending YTD is due to timing of capital expenditures ($989K - budget was spread evenly over 12 months), internet hosting ($64K), volunteer development ($142K), travel and conference expenses ($233K), personnel expenses ($584K), recruiting expenses ($124K), and IT desk equipment ($77K) offset by higher awards and grants ($261K) budget was spread evenly over 12 months), legal and accounting fees ($81K), professional services ($293K), and bank fees ($248K). Cash of $30.6 million, which is thirteen months of cash reserves at current spending levels and fourteen months of cash per the annual plan. == Highlights == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_SOPA_War_Room_… WMF staff preparing for the anti-SOPA blackout> === Foundation supports historic anti-SOPA Wikipedia blackout === On January 18, the community of the English Wikipedia made history <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/20/the-message-from-the-wikipedia-blacko…> with its decision <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-s…> to black out its entire project for 24 hours in protest of two proposed US laws — SOPA and PIPA — that would have seriously damaged the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia. The communities of over 30 other Wikimedia projects supported the protest <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Actions_by_other_co…>. Many Foundation staff assisted in the effort, handling the technical side of the blackout as requested by the community, providing code and design, facilitating discussions, contributing legal analysis and handling an unprecedented amount of press coverage. During the blackout, more than eight million US-based readers used the CongressLookup tool to find their political representatives. A blog post by Sue Gardner received more than 13,000 comments, with the overwhelming majority supporting the blackout. Google News listed over 11,000 media stories about the Wikipedia blackout and the other Internet protests of January 18, and #wikipediablackout was tweeted almost 1 million times. Support for both SOPA and PIPA has since dwindled. Observers expect that they will not become law in their proposed form. === San Francisco Hackathon === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Hackathon_2012-1-16.j… Participants at the San Francisco Hackathon> The first San Francisco Hackathon was attended by 92 participants, many of them complete newcomers. They attended training sessions about Wikimedia technology, followed by team work on demo projects which were then presented in a showcase session and judged by a jury. The first prize went to "SMSpedia", which allows the user to text a page title to a phone number, who is then called back by the service and can listen to the Wikipedia entry read aloud. === Mobile announcements: Official Android app, and Orange partnership for free Wikipedia access in Africa/Middle East === In the first partnership of its kind, mobile operator Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation will provide more than 70 million Orange customers from 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East (AMEA) with mobile access to Wikipedia <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/24/free-mobile-for-wikipedia-starts-with…> — without incurring data usage charges. Also in January, the official Wikipedia Android app was announced <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/26/announcing-the-official-wikipedia-and…>. It was installed more than half a million times within the first two weeks. == Technology == A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for January 2012 can be found at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/January Department Highlights Major news in January include: * Tech support for the black-out protesting SOPA & PIPA <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-s…>; * The release of the official Wikipedia Android app <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/26/announcing-the-official-wikipedia-and…>; * A new beta cluster <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/28/beta-cluster-test-software-before-dep…> for Wikimedians to test upcoming software before it's deployed to production. === Events === * *English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout>* — The engineering team supported this online protest by developing and deploying the blackout code and design, including the CongressLookup extension for helping people find and contact their representative. The Operations team disabled editing during the 24 hour time period, and helped keep other systems up and running, including the temporarily overloaded Wikimedia blog. * *San Francisco hackathon <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/January_2012_San_Francisco_Hackathon>* — More than 90 participants learned and hacked during this outreach-focused developers week-end. The teams of participants demonstrated more than a dozen projects. * *October 2011 Coding Challenge <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/October_2011_Coding_Challenge>* — The winners of the coding challenge <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/30/october-2011-coding-challenge-winners/> were announced. They include an Android app <https://market.android.com/details?id=nl.michiel1972.main> for uploading to Wikimedia Commons, a user script <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Schnark/mostEdited> for surfacing pages with a lot of recent editing activity, and a user script <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Phiarc/October2011/> for displaying relevant images in an article as a lightbox slideshow. === Operations === * *Data Centers* — Work continued on building up the EQIAD datacenter in Virginia. We added new servers and upgraded the database servers with a new chained replication topology and a heartbeat-based replication monitoring. We have also successfully tested the new thumbnail system and the text squid implementation, that we'll start rolling out fully in February. At the same time, we have retired 40 old servers from our Tampa datacenter, which will be available for donation soon. * *Wikimedia Labs* — To keep up with project growth, we doubled the filesystem storage available and allowed Labs to grow by up to another 30 instances. A number of projects were added or moved to Labs, including incubator, ganglia, deployment-prep, globaleducation, a number of mobile projects, and a bunch more. A number of projects were also created, implemented, and demoed using Labs during the San Francisco hackathon. === Features Engineering === * *Visual editor* — Plans for the second phase of the editor project were formulated. The team investigated a possible use of contenteditable to help with input methods and text selections on mobile devices. The parser was also extended with the ability to fetch and expand templates in a parallel and asynchronous fashion. The parser now supports most parts of the English Wikipedia Main Page. * *Article feedback* — The next round of Article Feedback Tool v5 features was developed, including a new feedback page. The teal continued to collect valuable data from the community about the usefulness of comments coming in from each of the three forms launched in December. A survey to get comments from readers about the effectiveness and attractiveness of each design was also launched. The target date for the full feedback page is Feb. 15 for pre-deployment testing on en-labs, then full deployment on Feb. 22. * *Feedback Dashboard* — We implemented a leaderboard of recent top responders on the feedback dashboard. New editor feedback is now added to a dedicated log. When feedback is marked as helpful, that fact is displayed on the feedback dashboard itself. Other than a few other smaller changes, we're now moving the project into maintenance mode to focus on article creation workflow <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_creation_workflow> and New Page Triage <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Page_Triage>. === Mobile === * *Android Wikipedia App* — The Mobile team released the first version of the Wikipedia Android application <https://market.android.com/details?id=org.wikipedia> into the Android Market. In just over three weeks, we've had over 900,000 downloads, became the #1 search result for "Wikipedia", became the #1 trending app, and received a consistent 4/5 stars in the Android Market. We released two minor updates to fix bugs, and are processing user feedback to guide our next version. * *FeaturedFeeds* — We deployed the first version of FeaturedFeeds <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/26/featuredfeeds-brings-syndication-feed…> to production. Wikimedia communities can now make use of these RSS feeds to better surface their content to other applications. === Platform Engineering === * *MediaWiki 1.19* — A new Beta cluster, replicating the production environment, was set up to allow Wikimedians to test upcoming software (including MediaWiki 1.19) on Wikimedia Labs before deployment. A preliminary schedule was drafted, according to which deployment of MediaWiki 1.19 will start on February 13th and complete on March 1st. * *Volunteer coordination and outreach* — In preparation for the San Francisco hackathon, the team prepared training materials and documentation on gadgets and the MediaWiki API. Nine developers got commit access in January, among which seven volunteers. * *Wikimedia blog maintenance* — The new WMBlog plugin (which brings functionality specific to the Wikimedia blog independently of the theme) was deployed in January, as well as tweaks to the theme. Due to the SOPA/PIPA blackout-related traffic, the Operations team moved the blog to a newer, more powerful server and added caching layers (Varnish & Memcached). == Research == * Daniel Mietchen lead the drafting and submission of a response <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Committee/Areas_of_interest/Open-a…> to the White House RFI on Public Access to Scholarly Publications. * The open data consultation <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGNBSGFUcTdJL…> we launched in December closed with 100 responses. The results will be published this month. * Several Research Committee and community members worked on the English Wikipedia article for the Research Works Act <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Works_Act>, a proposed bill that would undermine open access mandates for publicly funded research in the US. The bill would affect our research policy as it would make it hard for RCom to enforce any OA and open data requirements for research collaborations. The article made it to DYK on January 15, 2012. * Dario Taraborelli gave a podcast interview <http://futurejournalismproject.org/post/16028914688/wikimedia-data-and-peer…> with Michael Cervieri for the Future Journalism Project, discussing what Wikipedia can do to support data journalism. * Dario Taraborelli co-hosted with APS cognitive psychology professor Greta Munger a session on Scientists and Wikipedia <http://scienceonline2012.sched.org/event/db96864b9ce76d4792a7f0f21f7611aa> at Science Online 2012 <http://scienceonline2012.com/> in Raleigh, NC (slides <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venues_for_expert_participation_in_…>). * We set up a Wikimedia group <http://thedatahub.org/group/wikimedia> on the /DataHub/, an open data repository powered by CKAN <http://ckan.net>. The repository is for testing purposes but all data deposited will be preserved and migrated once we've finalized the configuration of the repository. * Mayo Fuster Morell circulated a call for papers <http://www.onlinecreation.info/?p=474> calling for contributions on "Academic research into Wikipedia: Beyond English Wikipedia and towards comparative perspectives". The submission deadline is March 1, 2012. * Tilman Bayer led the publication of the first 2012 issue <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2012-01-30> of the Wikimedia Research Newsletter. == Community == Department Highlights * Lots of clean up/ wrap up work from the fundraiser; Lots of planning work already done for the 2012 fundraiser * 23 fellowship project proposals and suggestions received for the Fellowship program. * Community & reader relations team supported SOPA work and fundraising and funds dissemination discussion. * Wrapping up template testing pilot project, beginning analysis of results === Projects === ==== Editor Retention ==== * Other than new community requests to test on the Wikimedia Incubator and Commons, the majority of template A/B tests have been wrapped up. Ryan Faulkner, formerly part of the fundraising team, has joined our group as the Community Research Analyst to further understand template testing results, and the group is now publishing test results on Meta as they come in.[1] * The Community Dept. is hosting the first 2012 meet-up of California Wikipedians at the Foundation offices on Saturday, Feb 4 — coinciding with the Board of Trustees meeting. [2] * We are planning a series of meet-ups with Brazilian editors in early March to better understand their community and its dynamics, and give those authors a place to voice issues that the Foundation may be able to assist with. [3] * Collecting resumes and scheduling preliminary screenings of candidates for the 2012 Community Summer Analysts, whose work will focus on providing working data and actionable recommendations for community change programs. [4] * Wrapping up a proof-of-concept analytic project with Odiago, who has provided some insight into authorship questions with big data analysis of our diff data. 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testing 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/San_Francisco_17 3. https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Convenings/Portuguese_Wikipedia 4. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Summer_Community_Analytics === Fundraising === ==== Fundraiser ==== * Gathered all fundraising staff and contractors in San Francisco for the 2011 Fundraiser Retrospective. We recapped accomplishments, and identified pain points and successes in communications and process so that the next fundraiser can be run more smoothly with a leaner team. * Began writing the 2011 Fundraiser Report which will be publicly posted in 2012. * Held a planning session for the 2012 Fundraiser. Over two days, the team set priorities for this year and focused on mapping out a division of responsibility, communication and tracking processes, ways to improve localization, testing, donor experience, and analytics systems. * In conjunction with the Brazilian author meet-ups, we are planning focus groups and storyteller interviews in both Brazil and Argentina. * Created a testing calendar to plan out regional tests throughout the year. These tests will focus on the localization of our forms and appeals in different countries. * Started our global research on currencies, payment methods and personal information fields to integrate to the regional tests. * Began researching new payment methods requested by Wikipedia users during the 2011 fundraiser. ==== Major Gifts and Foundations ==== * Received a 3-year grant from the Teterev Foundation * Completed a new grant proposal for our mobile work === Fellowship Program === ==== Program Activities ==== * Fellowship recruiting continues - the community generated 23 fellowship project ideas [1] in January and applications have been submitted by candidates from 18 countries. The deadline to apply for this round of fellowships has been extended until February 15th, and review of existing applications is underway. ==== Fellowship Projects ==== * The fundraising translation project report is complete,[2] and Jon Harald Søby hosted a brown bag presentation at WMF to discuss lessons learned. A survey of the fundraiser translators is also in progress, with nearly 300 responses so far. Feedback will be incorporated into future fundraisers as well as an upcoming project to improve the meta translation request process, which is in the planning stages. * The Teahouse project has recruited 23 Wikipedians to serve as Teahouse hosts - they'll be inviting new editors to the space, answering questions, and facilitating discussions during the pilot.[3] Design of the space is in progress. 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships/Process#Open_project_… 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Translation/Project_Report 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Hosts === Community relations === * Supported the Fundraising/Funds Dissemination discussions on meta [1]. * Actively supported SOPA, and all the madness that came with it (see also general "Highlights" section. More SOPA pictures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Victorgrigas#SOPA ) * Developed job descriptions for new hires (new "Maggies") from around the world to support our global capacity. 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_and_Funds_Dissemination/Recomme… == Global Development == Department highlights * Communications supports WMF's blackout on 18 January (see also general "Highlights" section) * Mobile: Partnership with Orange was announced on 24 January to supply free access to Wikipedia to more than 70 million customers across 20 countries in the middle east and Africa. * Arabic-speaking Initaitive: Arabic-speaking Wikipedians met in Tunisia this month beginning a regional outreach effort to create new connections in the Arabic Wikimedia community.. * India program: Six outreach workshops in January in partnership with the community as part of an effort to increase outreach and improve conversion to editing * Education Program: Published program plan for Cairo pilot and new standards for participation in the global education program are put in place * The Global Development team midyear report is now available: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Development_Midyear_report_2011-… === Announcements === * Wikimania Scholarships are open! *Encourage your networks to apply!* https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships === Grants === ==== Policy Discussions ==== * Ongoing discussion of proposed procedure and criteria for unrestricted operating grants based on annual plans <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Annual/Draft>. * Ongoing discussion of Grant Advisory Committee's membership terms, appointment procedures, and form of review <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Grant_Advisory_Committee>. ==== Wikimedia Grants Approved ==== * Grants:WM_PH/Open_Web_Day <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Open_Web_Day> * Additional $1000 for scholarships for Grants:WM_RS/Open_Wiki_GLAM_of_Serbia#Scholarship <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Open_Wiki_GLAM_of_Serbia#Schol…> * Grants:WM_CL/Start-up <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CL/Start-up> ==== Participation Grants Approved ==== * Grants:Jonas_Xavier/Campus_Party_2012 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Jonas_Xavier/Campus_Party_2012> === US Cultural Partnerships ==== * US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator begins work * Preparation has continued for the Wikipedia session and table at the *American Association of Museums conference <http://www.aam-us.org/am12/>* in April. The Wikipedia session will now also be part of the exclusive online conference as well. * *GLAMcamp DC <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAMcamp_DC>*, which will take place in early February, is in its final stages of preparation. This has included establishing a proposed framework for GLAM:US collaboration, which will be presented at GLAMcamp and finalized as a goal of the event alongside other documentation and tool development. * Initial coordination talks have begun with Europeana and others who will be collaborating on GLAM tools over the coming year. * There has been ongoing follow-up on leads and expressions of interest from GLAM institutions, as well as consolidation of interested parties and contacts into a single, master list. This streamlining of information will continue at GLAMcamp DC. * In February, the US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator will be publishing a number of GLAM-related blog posts for various organizations , including the Center for the Future of Museums <http://www.futureofmuseums.org/>, the Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>, and the New Media Consortium <http://www.nmc.org/>. === Research === * Kicked off work on the outreach tool. Further details can be found at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Outreach_evaluation (early-stage UI mockups will be added soon) * Read more about the mobile readers survey analysis here: http://prezi.com/foyok1qpfxqa/wikipedia-mobile-readers-survey-2011/ * Successfully completed the second editor survey, data cleaning to start soon. <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMFMobilePageviewsApril2011ToNovemb… Mobile page views across the last few months> * Completed work on getting a more reliable estimate of mobile page views. Work to get reliable estimates of mobile page views by geography is continuing. * Continued blogging about the readers survey: http://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/readers-survey/ * Find the wiki version of the India-Brazil user experience research here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Mobile_User_Research * Read about India Education Program quantitative analysis here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Analysis/Qu… === India Programs === * We concluded an exercise on distilling learnings from all Indic communities and started the process of seeding ideas with communities. All ideas are centred around community building (and not content creation or improvement), the rationale being that content will follow community. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages o Ideas have been customised by the community and are a combination of what individual volunteers or volunteer groups can do indepedently as well as potentail pilots that the India Program team can build and run collaboratively with local communities. o There appears to be interesting progress in at least 6 languages : Hindi, Odia, Assamese, Kannada, Tamil & Malayalam. * The India team is supporting outreach by sharing best practises as well as making a central repository of outreach material. In addition, the team is personally taking part in out outreach sessions to provide additional momentum to existing community efforts. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs * The team is analyzing the findings of the study and quantitative analysis of the India Education Program and listening to additional feedback from the community. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Analysis/In… , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Analysis/Qu… * We are finalizing a contract for Communications consultancy, which closes the loop on the India consultancy team. === Brazil Catalyst === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiSampa11_-_4.jpg "Wikisampa 11" meetup in São Paulo> * We have been working hand and hand with the community to hire the Brazil National Program Director. The recruiting process has been innovative in that we have engaged with an unprecedented level of community involvement. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/11/brazil-recruiting-and-partnership-with… 1. We posted the role in November, and in parallel with an executive search firm which was screening applicants, we asked the Brazilian community to nominate two community members to participate in the interviews with us. They selected two great folks - Everton and Castelo - to interview 10 finalists on a panel with Barry in Sao Paulo. 2. The next phase for the top 4 finalists was a unique assignment to be done on the br.wikimedia.org wiki: /engage the Brazilian community and your fellow candidates on the wiki to address the question of how to grow the PT:WP community/? The assignment went well and was a great learning experience for the candidates and for us. 3. Following the assignment skype and interviews with Jessie, we brought in a top candidate to SF at the end of the month and are in the final stages of of the process. * We are also starting a small *Brazil Education Pilot* (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_Brazil_programs/Educ…) in March 2012. We are targeting about 5 professors (one of whom - Juliana - pioneered this program in Brazil in 2011). Contractor Everton Zanella Alvarenga is leading this effort from Sao Paulo. === Arabic Language Initiative === * Visited Tunisia as part of our outreach regional program, more details are found here: [1] <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/01/wikimedia-in-tunisia/> * Updated and localized some of our bookshelf material. (Printing is currently in process.) * Preparing for upcoming events in Egypt and Jordan * Helped develop the Cairo education pilot - see Global Education Program section === Global Education Program === * Frank Schulenburg published the program plan for the Cairo pilot to start in spring 2012. The document outlines the core design elements as well as the success criteria and the questions the pilot project is supposed to answer: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Pilot_program_plan * Frank Schulenburg and Annie Lin documented the measures put in place based on the learnings from the pilot project in Pune, India. (More than 10 different actions have been taken in order to immediately apply the learning points to the Cairo pilot. Among others, these include a longer preparation phase, a heavy involvement of the local community of Wikipedians, a strict limit on the number of participating students, and mandatory professor orientations. More differences on https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Comparing_the_Pune_and_the_Cairo_Pilot_… ) * Professors joining the Wikipedia Education Program in the spring 2012 term are finding a new set of participation requirements in place, designed to ensure that all participating professors and students receive adequate support on Wikipedia. o These new participation requirements are largely based on the feedback given by members of the English Wikipedia community. o The requirements set standards for the maximum number of students per Wikipedia Ambassador and the number of Wikipedians involved in the program, and they require instructors to go through a faculty orientation. o Currently, the requirements affect the programs in the U.S., in Canada, and in Egypt during spring 2012, although individual programs may enact stricter requirements as well (for example, the Cairo Pilot will have an even smaller ambassador to student ratio). o So far, community reactions to these new requirements have been very positive. More information: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Participati… <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cairo_faculty_workshop6.jpg Faculty workshop for the Cairo pilot (more photos on Wikimedia Commons <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_Education_Program_%E2…>)> * Volunteers from the Arabic Wikipedia - supported by Education team members Frank Schulenburg, Annie Lin and Georgetown University professor Rochelle Davis - kicked off the Cairo pilot with workshops for faculty members and Campus Ambassadors. These workshops were almost 100% in Arabic. * In late January, seven community members of the Arabic Wikipedia completed an Online Ambassador orientation organized by other Arabic-speaking Wikipedians and supported by Annie Lin. * LiAnna Davis worked with Leigh Thelmadatter, who is an English as a foreign language teacher in central Mexico, to document her learnings with advanced English students who edited Wikipedia as part of their class. Read more: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/27/wikipedia-as-a-foreign-culture/ * Rod Dunican published three online training modules for instructors who are planning to participate in the Wikipedia Education Program: o (1) Global Education Program Overview: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Professor_Orientation/Module_… o (2) About Wikipedia: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Professor_Orientation/Module_… o (3) Syllabus and Assignment Design: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Professor_Orientation/Module_… === Mobile === * We announced a partnership with Orange on January 24 — free Wikipedia access (i.e. no mobile data fees) for 70+ million customers across 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/24/free-mobile-for-wikipedia-starts-with… o The announcement of the partnership got a lot of positive press attention: 50+ articles including Mashable, GigaOM, Wired UK, and Guardian o There is much work ahead to implement these partnerships from a technical and marketing standpoint: helping define how the service is marketed by operators and how we measure it. * "Selling in" free Wikipedia continues to be the main objective, and we plan to announce another big partner — and new countries — in Feburary. * Project planning on further USSD/SMS testing in Africa with the Praekelt Foundation began. === Communications === The Wikipedia blackout is January 2012's standout story, possibly the story of the year for WMF and Wikipedia, and maybe the most important story in our history. The days before and after January 18, 2012 were almost exclusively focussed on supporting WMF's work around the community mandate to bring about a blackout, including consulting on messaging, design, implementation, community outreach and media relations. January also saw the cap-off of our most successful fundraising campaign ever, and saw the introduction of Matthew Roth to the Communications team as Manager, Global Communications. ==== Major news ==== <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:History_Wikipedia_English_SOPA_2012… The English Wikipedia as seen by readers during the blackout> Wikipedia blackout (January 18) Undoubtedly one of the biggest stories in the US and the world in January 2012 was the Internet protests on January 18, which largely centered around the Wikipedia community decision to blackout English Wikipedia internationally for one day. Aside from publishing three separate press releases leading up to and after the blackout, the Communications team worked closely with Jimmy Wales on both advance press interviews and a deluge of interview requests the week of January 16. In total, WMF responded to over *260 separate media inquiries* from around the world. News.google.com reports over *11,000 media stories* on the topic of our blackout and the Internet protests, many of which focussed primarily on Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales had over a dozen television appearances, effectively positioning the blackout story as the leading story around the world on January 18. Major newswire stories were syndicated interntaionally and in dozens of languages. *Social media* activity around the blackout was extraordinary. Users followed the CongressLookup system and tweeted their Representatives to urge action around SOPA/PIPA. #WikipediaBlackout and #SOPA were trending topics for the day. #wikipediablackout was tweeted almost 1 million times, and SOPA was mentioned 2.3 million times. Media interest continued well after the week of January 16 and Communications continues to support inquiries. We're also working on a series of feature stories about the blackout in major magazines and placed OpEd stories in either the NY Times or Washington Post. Wikimedia's global network of chapters also fielded dozens of requests in their own regions and languages, further augmenting the world-wide footprint of the blackout. Media coverage was largely positive and supportive of the efforts of Wikipedia's community. The bill supporters have since withdrawn both SOPA and PIPA, shelving them indefinitely, based largely on a historic level of constituent reaction and Congressional contact in the US. Meta-wiki consolidation of the major coverage: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout/Media (and great quotes about the blackout) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout/Quotes Social media stats: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SOPA_social_media Wikipedia Signpost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-01-23/In_th… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-01-23/News_… Orange/WMF partnership for free Wikipedia mobile (January 24) WMF returned to one of its early business partners in January, announcing a major partnership to make Wikipedia available at no charge to mobile subscribers in dozens of their territories throughout Africa and the Middle East. This was the first major partnership announced regarding WMF's efforts to dramatically increase access to Wikipedia through mobile channels around the world. Coverage was largely positive and supportive of the effort. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/24/orange-wikipedia-mobile-de… http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2012/01/orange-to-provide-free-access-to-mobile… http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/01/how-will-free-wikipedia-acce… ==== Press releases ==== Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation partner to offer Wikipedia in Africa and the Middle East at no extra cost, 24 January 2012 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Orange_and_WMF_partner_… Statement from the Wikimedia Foundation regarding developments in Washington on SOPA and PIPA, 20 January 2012 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Statement_on_Jan_20_eve… Wikipedia blackout affirms overwhelming support for free and open Internet, 18 January 2012 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_blackout_supp… English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA, 16 January 2012 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go… Wikimedia Foundation Rings In New Year With Record-breaking Fundraiser, 2 January 2012 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_Ri… ==== Blog posts ==== https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/ ==== Wikipedia Signpost ==== * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01… * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01… * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01… * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01… * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01… ==== Media contact ==== https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#January_2012 == Human Resources == === Staff Changes === New Hires * Fabrice Florin, Product Manager – New Editor Engagement (VP of Engineering & Prod Development) * Joady Lohr, Director of Human Resources (Human Resources) * Christopher McMahon, Quality Assurance Lead Engineer (Engineering) * Gayle Karen Young, Chief Talent and Culture Officer (Human Resources) New Other Roles Filled/Conversion * Subhashish Panigrahi, Consultant Community & Program Support (India) * Jon Robson, Contractor Software Developer-Mobile (Engineering) * Matthew Roth, Global Communications Manager (Global Development) New Contractors * Christian Aistleitner * Andreas Engels * Andrew Otto * Lori Phillips * Sarah Stierch Contract Extended * Pavel Andreev * Jeroen de Dauw * Erek Dyskant * Roan Kattouw * Niklas Laxstrom * Yusuke Matsubara * Diederik Van Liere * Susan Walling Departed * Neil Kandalgoankar * Cyn Skyberg Contract Ended * Farhan Chaudhary * Aislinn Dewey * Tracey Fleming * Stacey Merrick * Heather O'Malley * Neel Punatar New Postings * Senior Software Engineer Frontend * Operations Engineer (Labs) RFP * Recruiting Engineer * Mobile QA === Statistics === Total Employee Count Actual: 95 January Plan: 110, January Filled: 7, January Attrition: 2 YTD Filled: 29, YTD Attrition: 10 Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 22 === Department Updates === Joady Lohr has joined us as the new Director of Human Resources. Joady handles aspects of human resources as related to compensation, benefits, policies, etc. and is already an indispensible part of our team. She comes to us with years of experience at IDEO and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), both of which speak to her experiences working in HR with global organizations. In recruiting, we are iterating changes to http://jobs.wikimedia.org , and hosting a focus group with community members to ensure that the page communicates that we welcome community members applying for roles with the Foundation. Feedback on the page is welcome. We are also rolling out Jobvite as our recruitment and applicant tracking software to streamline our recruiting process. We have also begun redesigning some of our internal processes, such as onboarding and hiring, including a revision of our hiring contracts and agreements with heavy and wonderful support from Legal. Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork == Finance and Administration === Chip Deubner joined our Office IT team and Nathan D’Annibale joined our accounting team. We are continuing our search for a Head of Office Administration and will begin interviews next week. Work was completed on an update to conference room R 33 to improve its usability for the Tech team. Our thanks to Leslie for facilitating this project. == Legal == * New proposed terms of use have been sent to the Board for review and potential approval. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Terms_of_use#The_terms_of_use_are_now_… * Like the rest of the WMF office and community, Legal provided strong support to the SOPA/PIPA blackout strategy, including advising the community on the SOPA Initiative page, helping coordinate cross-functional issues, and reviewing various legal issues associated with the blackout. We are now engaged in post-blackout strategy with other departments. Our present thinking is to leverage the positive response following the blackout to support messages that explain and advocate the open and free knowledge movement as it applies to Wikimedia values. * White paper on ACTA ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/ACTA ) and OPEN ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/OPEN_Act ) * Filed challenge against German Loriot injunction, which we will post shortly. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Loriot_Signature_Background#Conc… * Reviewing present privacy policy for possible revision and review with community. * Strong support of global development: India and Brazil. * Strong daily contract, trademark, community, governance, international, and content-defense support. * Stats o # contracts signed - 10 o # trademark requests - 11 + approved - 4 + denied - 2 + approval not needed - 1 + pending - 4 == Visitors and Guests == 1. Daniel Long (Community member) 2. Wendy Hanamura, Cassie Gruenstein, Merin Mathew, Taylor Hadfield, Andrea Jones, Lili Polastri (Link TV) 3. Philip Neustrom (LocalWiki) 4. Julian Nachtigal (pariSoma) 5. Victor Lobo and two colleagues (ADP) 6. 30 Harvard/Stanford students for cross dept talk 7. Steve Devetter (KPMG) 8. Daniel Kinzler (Wikimedia Germany) 9. MetaMarkets CEO Mike Driscoll and team, for a brown bag presentation on analytics 10. Product Design Guild (hosted meet-up) 11. Derk-Jan Hartman 12. Various visiting engineering contractors -- 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] Budget for Summer of Research 2011
by En Pine 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

Because this subject was previously mentioned on Foundation-l and Research-l, I thought that those who are interested in research budgets might want to look at the information that’s now available here. Thanks to Steven Walling (WMF) for following up. I’m hoping that we’ll see more of this kind of information in the future so that the community can compare ROIs of proposed and completed projects. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_talk:Wikimedia_Summer_of_Research_2… Pine

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Re: [Foundation-l] Fw: Strike against the collection of personal data through edit links
by WereSpielChequers 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

Hi Brandon, thanks for the explanation, but wouldn't it be easier to just analyse edit summaries? If you edit by section the edit summary defaults to start with the section heading....... Were SpielChequers Message: 7 > Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:51:49 -0800 > From: Brandon Harris <bharris(a)wikimedia.org> > To: foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fw: Strike against the collection of > personal data through edit links > Message-ID: <4F2DB685.70000(a)wikimedia.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > > (This may not be 100% accurate; the person who knows most about > this is > on vacation, but I'll try to explain to the best of my understanding.) > > Those weird URLs are part of a clicktracking process. It's a test > to > see how people go about editing the page *most often* (by section, or by > edit tab) and further to see how effective various calls-to-action (such > as those given by Article Feedback) are. > > The longevity of the data isn't something I can comment to but I'd > be > surprised if it lasted even 3 months. I do not know if there are > identity markers connected to them but I wouldn't be surprised. > > To that end, the data is only useful in roll-ups, and wouldn't be > something published anywhere except in aggregate. > > > > On 2/4/12 2:27 PM, Philippe Beaudette wrote: > > MZ is correct: 3 months is the purge for Checkuser data. > > > > As to the rest of it, Diederick van Liere, our resident guru of data, > will > > be checking into this, and will confirm back when we know exactly wht is > > intended by the devs for that data. I will say that generally speaking, > > the Foundation prefers to maintain the minimum data possible for the > > shortest period of time. > > > > Thanks, > > pb > > ___________________ > > Philippe Beaudette > > Head of Reader Relations > > Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. > > > > 415-839-6885, x 6643 > > > > philippe(a)wikimedia.org > > > > To check my email volume (and thus know approx how long it will take me > to > > respond), go to http://courteous.ly/hpQmqy > > > > > > > > On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 2:19 PM, MZMcBride<z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote: > > > >> Fred Bauder wrote: > >>> David Gerard wrote: > >>>> 3 months I can live with :-) Can someone from WMF just confirm what > data > >>>> is kept for how long? > >>> > >>> The exact time is confidential. > >> > >> Err, no, I don't think so. It's not defined in the files at > >> <http://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/>, which means it should be using the > >> default, as defined at > >> < > >> > http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/CheckUser/CheckU > >> ser.php?revision=106556&view=markup>. From that file: > >> > >> --- > >> # How long to keep CU data? > >> $wgCUDMaxAge = 3 * 30 * 24 * 3600; // 3 months > >> --- > >> > >> The last attempt to change this value (without community discussion) was > >> summarily shot down: > >> <http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki?view=revision&revision=40847 > >. > >> > >> That's only CheckUser data, though. I'm not sure what David wants > confirmed > >> from the Wikimedia Foundation. Different data has different expiries. A > lot > >> of it is permanent (e.g., revisions aren't going anywhere for the most > >> part). I guess the question is specific to the ClickTracking extension: > >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ClickTracking>? > >> > >> MZMcBride > >> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> foundation-l mailing list > >> foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > foundation-l mailing list > > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > > -- > Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation > > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate > > > >

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[Foundation-l] Reminder: IRC office hours in 30 mins. with the new Legal & Community Advocacy team
by Steven Walling 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

Hey folks, Just a reminder that in about 30 minutes, we'll be in #wikimedia-office with Geoff, Philippe and the rest of the newly-minted Legal and Community Advocacy department [1] to discuss their work. Thanks! -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/ 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy

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Re: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: Building a new Legal and Community Advocacy Department & Promotion of Philippe Beaudette
by Craig Franklin 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

Hi All, Firstly, congratulations to Phillipe on a very richly deserved promotion! I'm sure that you will do very well in your new role. However, I must concur with Lodewijk in stating that the idea behind the new department is still not entirely clear to me. It's not about advocacy and lobbying (except when it is), but I'm not sure what else it is supposed to do or why it's organisationally near the legal department? If the purpose is primarily to advocate on behalf of the community internally within WMF, would that be because you feel that the voice of the community has not been heard clearly in the Foundation previously? If so, this is a step forward but it's regrettable that input from the community hasn't been something that's been institutionally considered in the past. Cheers, Craig > From: Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org> > To: philippe(a)wikimedia.org > Cc: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: > Building a new Legal and Community Advocacy Department & Promotion > of > Philippe Beaudette > Message-ID: > <CACf6BesiWT8F+4JsdV_=yf++DO-JhSzHxMztaR-fAVG-VYPTGw(a)mail.gmail.com > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Hi Philippe, > > it sounds great. Awesome. But still, it doesn't make much sense to me, > sorry. > > Saying people can 'edit' is of course bound to cheer people up - but if you > don't understand *what* you're editing, it is also bound to either become a > mess, or either just become what you pick it to become. I can't suggest > changes to team or actions if I am unable to grasp behind the very broadly > stated goals. Right now it is clear who is in the team, but honestly I > don't know you guys well enough to derive from that what you should be > doing. > > Lodewijk > >

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[Foundation-l] Community Advisory Board / Volunteer Council
by Lodewijk 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

While reading the detailed "Legal and Community Advocacy/LCA Announcement", on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/LCA_Announcement , I stumbled upon the following sentence: "We would like to build a community advisory board to reinforce our commitment to a global perspective while understanding and promoting communities beyond English Wikipedia". This was quite a big news for me - and something worth much more than a simple side sentence in the details section of a department reshuffling announcement, so I'll be starting this thread. As many will know, I have always been a supporter of the Wikimedia Foundation asking more structural feedback and active input from the community. I don't believe myself that this 'Foundation-l' is the best venue for that, nor any of the other communication channels we have at our availability right now. In the past I have proposed a "Volunteer Council" which the board did not want to back up and died in silence. In the past several other mechanisms with similar goals have been proposed. So, at this announcement I see a good side - this 'community advisory board' could bring us exactly that: a more structural approach to getting continuous community input on Foundation governance decisions - other than having a board member election every two years. If we were to call it 'community advisory board' (who cares about the name) and still give it the same rights (right for information, right to be asked for its opinion before certain decisions are being made, right to give unasked advice, right to veto certain decisions even?) then it would be great news. But somehow I don't have the feeling that this department is aiming for that. So I hope it can be elaborated a bit what is a) the authority of this advisory board (who decided to build it - board, ED or team), b) what will be the purpose and c) what will be the rights. I know you won't have all detailed answers yet because you need to enter a consultation process with the community before setting such steps (which I am grateful for) but I would like to get a little more insight in the direction you want to aim for. Finally, I hope that in case this 'advisory board' is indeed toothless and very topic centered, I hope that this is being made obvious in its name as well. And I hope too that this wouldn't hold back people from keeping asking for a 'real' volunteer council. Best, Lodewijk

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[Foundation-l] Invitation to participate in Wiki Africa project!
by francisa＠africacentre.net 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

Dear Wiki colleagues, I am excited to invite members of Wikimedia Foundation to participate in the Wiki Africa project that will expand and increase the contents of Africa information in Wikipedia. Through this invitation we hope to build a strong partnership in promoting African content in Wikipedia. WikiAfrica is an international collaborative project between Africa Centre and Lettera27 that is designed to Africanize Wikipedia by generating and expanding 30,000 articles over two years. The project promotes a new method of acquiring and sharing knowledge that is fully-inclusive, mainstream, intercultural and relevant to contemporary and historic Africa. The initial two years are focused on encouraging external Africa-based, cultural organizations, museums and archives, as well as bloggers and journalists, to contribute their knowledge to Wikipedia. These initial two years focus on content related to literature, poetry, art, cinema and other cultural products. WikiAfrica will not exclude anything that falls outside of these categories, but focuses most of its energy in these areas. At the same time, the WikiAfrica project expands the African content that is already available online and improves existing articles by combining sources and promoting the participation of experts. WikiAfrica contributes to the aims of Wikimedia projects online (especially the WikiProject Africa, WikiProject African diaspora and the Africa Portal) and also works externally with texts, quotes, images, audio and video. The project will be approached and achieve its goals via the following four activities: -Create partnerships with organisations that have existing archives that are readily accessible and that are predisposed to placing this content online; -Motivate the adaptation of a copyleft or Creative Commons approach to intellectual property. -Activate new Wikipedia users and editors in Africa through marketing and promotion; and -Create training tools and establish the mentorships required to activate a new team of users and editors of Wikipedia (wikipedians). Click on Get started (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/Get_started ) or the Project page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/Projects) to contribute to Wiki Africa and become a member of Wiki Africa! Please visit our incubator at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/Incubator for a step by step guide on how to start your articles for new authors. We look forward to working with all Wikimedia members interested in developing African content through knowledge exchange, participation and contribution to this project. For any questions don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you Francis Awinda Administrator and content manager Wiki Africa Email:francisa@africacentre.net Tel:+27793087519

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[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] "We are the media, and so are you" Jimmy Wales and Kat Walsh OpEd in Washington Post
by Jay Walsh 09 Feb '12

09 Feb '12

(Sharing this oped published in the Washington Post today. Will be printed in tomorrow's paper) http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-are-the-media-and-so-are-you/2012… We are the media, and so are you By Jimmy Wales and Kat Walsh, Thursday, February 9, 4:15 PM It’s easy to frame the fight over SOPA and PIPA as Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley —two huge industries clashing over whose voice should dictate the future of Internet policy —but it’s absolutely wrong. The bills are dead,thanks to widespread protest. But the real architects of the bills’ defeat don’t have a catchy label or a recognized lobbying group. They don’t have the glamour or the deep pockets of the studios. Yet they are the largest, most powerful and most important voice in the debate —and, until recently, they’ve been all but invisible to Congress. They are you. And if not you personally, then your neighbors, your colleagues, your friends and even your children. The millions of people who called and wrote their congressional representatives in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act were “organized” only around the desire to protect the Web sites that have become central to their daily lives. Change like this needed a fresh set of voices. The established tech giants may have newfound political influence, but their fights are still the same closed-door tussles over minor details. They have been at the table, and they have too much invested in the process to change it. More important, they are constrained by obligations to their shareholders and investors, as well as by the need to maintain relationships with their advertisers, partners and customers. Wikipedia,its users and its contributors don’t have the same constraints. We don’t rely on advertising dollars or content partnerships. The billions of words and millions of images in our projects come from the same place as our financial support: the voluntary contribution of millions of individuals. The result is free knowledge, available for anyone to read and reuse. Wikipedia is not opposed to the rights of creators —we have the largest collection of creators in human history. The effort that went into building Wikipedia could have created shelves full of albums or near-endless nights of movies. Instead it’s providing unrestricted access to the world’s knowledge. Protecting our rights as creators means ensuring that we can build our encyclopedias, photographs, videos, Web sites, charities and businesses without the fear that they all will be taken away from us without due process. It means protecting our ability to speak freely, without being vulnerable to poorly drafted laws that leave our fate to a law enforcement body that has no oversight and no appeal process. It means protecting the legal infrastructure that allowed our sharing of knowledge and creativity to flourish, and protecting our ability to do so on technical infrastructure that allows for security and privacy for all Internet users. We are not interested in becoming full-time advocates; protests like the Wikipedia blackout are a last resort. Our core mission is to make knowledge freely available, and making the Web site inaccessible interrupts what we exist to do. The one-day blackout,though, was just a speed bump. Breaking the legal infrastructure that makes it possible to operate Wikipedia, and sites like ours, would be a much greater disruption. Two weeks ago we recognized a threat to that infrastructure and did something we’ve never done before: We acknowledged that our existence is itself political, and we spoke up to protect it. It turned out to be the largest Internet protest ever. The full-time advocates of freedom of information, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge, have been fighting for decades to help create the legal environment that makes our work possible. We cannot waste that effort by failing to speak in our own defense when that environment is threatened. It’s absolutely right that Congress cares about the content industry, recognizing its ability to innovate, to create wealth and to improve lives. But existing copyright enforcement laws were written in a world in which the information we had access to on a broad scale came from a few established media outlets. The players were easy to identify. They organized into groups with common interests and fought to protect those interests. The “content industry” is no longer limited to those few influential channels. The laws we need now must recognize the more broadly distributed and broadly valuable power of free and open knowledge. They must come from an understanding of that power and a recognition that the voices flooding the phone lines and in-boxes of Congress on Jan. 18 represented the source of that power. These laws must not simply be rammed through to appease narrow lobbies without sufficient review or consideration of the consequences. Because we are the media industry. We are the creators. We are the innovators. The whole world benefits from our work. That work, and our ability to do it, is worth protecting for everyone. --- Jay Walsh, Head of Communications wikimediafoundation.org +1 415 839 6885 ext 6609 _______________________________________________ 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] Congratulations to Wikimedia Kenya!
by phoebe ayers 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

The Wikimedia Foundation Board is very pleased to welcome and approve our 39th chapter, Wikimedia Kenya: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Recognition_of_Wikimedia_Ken… Congratulations to all for your hard work! -- Phoebe Ayers WMF Board of Trustees Secretary -- * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers <at> gmail.com *

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