Wikimedia-l September 2012

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116 participants
89 discussions

[Foundation-l] Improving search in Wikipedia through quality and concept discovery
by Brian J Mingus 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

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…>

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers
by GerardM 09 Aug '22

09 Aug '22

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

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Russian Wikipedia goes on strike
by abi yoyo 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

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.

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AFT5: what practical benefits has it had?
by ENWP Pine 20 Nov '12

20 Nov '12

Forwarding questions from Research-l with permission, with the hope that these will spark discussion here on Wikimedia-l. RJensen: "Comments: I have not seen any editor make actual use of the Article Feedback tool -- are there examples? Yes Wikipedians are very proud of their vast half-billion-person audience. However they do not ask "what features are most useful for a high school student or teacher/ a university student/ etc"" Pine: This is a very interesting question. What have been the benefits of AFT5? I have seen complaints about spam and suppressible material being written in AFT5. What benefits has it had? Thanks, Pine

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Upcoming Survey, Feedback requested, and Office Hour
by Christine Moellenberndt 30 Oct '12

30 Oct '12

*Hi everyone, It's been a bit since I last emailed this list (or any list, for that matter!)... you may remember me, I worked at the Foundation last year in the Community Department, working with Philippe on any number of issues, as well as with the OTRS team. I've come back to work on a short term project with the Foundation, and I have to say it's great to be back! (and a great break from my Master's thesis!) We're getting ready to run the next version of the Editor Survey, for August 2012. This will be the third incarnation we've run since 2011. As with the prior incarnations of the survey, we'll be looking at a variety of topics, this time with the goal of not only understanding your needs and pressing issues while interacting with fellow editors, but also focusing on editors' satisfaction with the work of the Foundation. The last time we ran an editor survey, it was completed by over 6,000 respondents. When you break that down, it means that each minute of time demanded by the survey corresponds to 100 hours of Wikipedians' time. We want to make sure that this time is spent wisely, ensuring that the questions we have are worded clearly, don't cause confusion, and will generate meaningful answers. So we'd like to ask you to take a look at the survey, and give us feedback on the questions. You can find them here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Survey_August_201… <https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Surv…> ... and please leave your feedback on the talk page there so we can keep the discussion in one place :) You can find out more information about the survey here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Survey_August_2012 Also, we are planning an IRC Office Hour on the survey, this **Tuesday, July 31 at 1700 UTC.** (See https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hoursfor general information about IRC Office hours) I know there has been some discussion about offering Office Hours in a broader range of times, and I know this time may not be the greatest for some... but this was the best time we could find currently. Thanks everyone!! -Christine Wikimedia Foundation*

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Transparency about Wikimania costs
by Itzik Edri 12 Oct '12

12 Oct '12

Hi, Jessie started to work on a page that shown breakdown of the scholarships given in 2012, by the WMF and the chapters - and the cost. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships/2012 I think it's great, but we need to share much more information about "how much Wikimania cost to the movement". Wikimania is our biggest and most expensive event\project - and the costs spread around movement. Beside scholarships, the chapters and the WMF spending money on their staff and boards - and this also need to be transparent. When we know Wikimedia Israel gave 4 scholarships for people from Israel, the WMF gave another two - this is not the full picture. WMIL also sent paid for the travel of one board member. In some others chapters the numbers are much bigger (staff+board). Also, we have WMF and Chapters support to the conference itself. I published here Wikimania 2011 costs & income: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/2011/Budget I'm not asking everyone now to start digging for their costs in 2011, but I think we can start do it from this year. I posted here WMIL travel costs: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/2012/Budget/Chapters I'll be happy if the chapters and the WMF can post their costs also and I'm encouraging Wikimania 2012 local team also to post their conference costs and incomes. I think this transparency is important, and this knowledge about the total costs to the movement is also important to others who planning Wikimania in the future. Itzik WMIL

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Free Knowledge across borders – Our new International Affairs Unit
by Nicole Ebber 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Dear fellow Wikimedians, Some of you already know me from my work as an event and project manager at Wikimedia Deutschland. Today I am writing to let you know that my working area will change within the next months: We are setting up an “International Affairs Unit” and I will become a liaison for the collaboration between Wikimedia Deutschland and the communities, the Wikimedia Chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation. The position will be officially launched on January 1, 2013, but I am already starting to work on the first ideas and tasks. I have published a blog post where I briefly introduce our plans and motives, ask for your support and invite you to get involved. [1] (Full-text below, but for the fancy version with links and a nice picture, please visit our blog :)) I am very curious about your expectations, comments and wishes. You can reach me via this list or via email, join the discussion about our annual plan [2], leave a comment on our blog or on my talk page [3], find me on IRC (#wikimedia-de, Nicole_WMDE) or meet me in our office or at one of the future meetups. I am really looking forward to a fruitful and exciting teamwork. Best regards, Nicole [1] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2012/09/26/free-knowledge-across-borders/ [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/2013_annual_plan_draft… [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nicole_Ebber_(WMDE) ______________________ Free Knowledge across borders Some of you already know me from my work as an event and project manager at Wikimedia Deutschland. I am writing this blog post to let you know that my working area will change within the next months: We are setting up an International Affairs Unit and I will become a liaison for the collaboration between Wikimedia Deutschland and the communities, the Wikimedia Chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation. The position will be officially launched on January 1, 2013, but I am already starting to work on the first ideas and tasks. I would like to briefly introduce our plans and motives, and ask for your support and invite you to get involved. >From international events… I have been working at Wikimedia Deutschland since March 2010, when my job started with two of my all-time favourite events: The Wikimedia Conference and the Hackathon aka Developers’ Workshop. During the last 2.5 years, I have met many international Wikimedians and am so happy to learn so much about our global movement. I am still deeply impressed by the enthusiastic people from all around the world who work together for our shared goal: Free Knowledge! When participating at Wikimedia events, the most interesting aspects for me are the active contribution and sustainable networking. In the future, I would like to work more focussed on these issues. …to international collaboration The emphasis of my work within the new unit will lie in the following: 1. Monitor the international activities, networks and contacts and make them available for reuse for our local activities and communities. Publish this information in German on our blog, on mailing lists and in the international portal (coming soon) on DEWP. 2. Utilise international expertise from other chapters communities and the WMF for our work – and vice versa. For example, we can adapt topics like Open Educational Resources and Diversity in Wikipedia to our local acitivities, while the experience from our education department can be valuable for other chapters, too. 3. Cooperate with other like-minded organisations for activities beyond a local scope. For example, we want to contribute to the European chapters’ visibility in Brussels and I will coordinate with other stakeholders to bundle their interests and concerns regarding international agreements or conditions for free and open projects. My first steps Within the next weeks and months, I will go more into detail about these first activities; but I would like to share a rough overview with you first. I do this at a very early stage of planning because I am really looking forward to your comments and ideas. * Wikimedia Deutschland is part of the international Wikimedia movement. We share our know-how, initiate international exchange programmes as well as events and support the development and collaboration among chapters and like-minded organisations. * We support the establishment of the Wikimedia Chapters Association (WCA) and work closely together with our council member, Markus Glaser. * Some of our info materials are already published in English (monthly and yearly reports, some brochures, annual plan. We will provide toolkits, best practises and reports and enable others to use them for their own work. Using channels like Meta and Outreach Wiki, Wikipedia Signpost, the WMF’s blog and publishing English articles on our own blog should help us spread the word and others to reuse our materials. * We help those interested in the development of the Wikimedia projects to make their voice heard. By making international issues more visible within the German language projects and facilitating the discussions, we hope to avoid potential conflicts and come up with constructive solutions. * Together with everyone interested in international movement affairs, I would like to establish a portal in the German language Wikipedia. This platform should provide background information and updates on topics like FDC, WCA, WMF, Board of Trustees as well as cool and bold projects from other chapters, organisations and communities. * As you might have already guessed, I am still very much into events. :) I am planning to invite all those interested in shaping our international commitment to a meeting (nice working title: “camp international”). The date is not yet fixed, more will be announced. Ideas welcome! Be part of it! If you ask yourself: Wow, how could can one person take care of all those tasks? I must admit: I won’t do this all on my own. My job is to enable and support the work of my colleagues and the internationally active community members. This new unit is a great opportunity for Wikimedia Deutschland and for me personally. Whew! But it is also a huge challenge that we can only rise to meet with your collaboration, ideas and feedback. I am very curious about your expectations, comments and wishes. You can reach contact me via email, leave a comment on my talk page, find me on IRC (#wikimedia-de, Nicole_WMDE) or meet me in our office or at one of the future meetups. I am really looking forward to a productive and exciting teamwork! -- Nicole Ebber Projektmanagerin Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | NEU: Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin Tel. +49 30 219158 26-0 http://wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.

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[Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia engineering August 2012 report
by Guillaume Paumier 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

Hi, The report covering Wikimedia engineering activities in August 2012 is now available. Wiki version: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/August Blog version: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/04/engineering-august-2012-report/ -- Guillaume Paumier Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation https://donate.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l

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[Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, August 2012
by Tilman Bayer 01 Oct '12

01 Oct '12

Hi all, please find below the WMF report for August 2012, in plain text. As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_August_2012 and the reports are 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,_August_2012 Translations of the July "Highlights" are still ongoing as well; many thanks those who have completed translations into Czech, Spanish, French, Romanian, Russian 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 upcoming September issue are welcome at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights (until October 4). Regards, Tilman -- Wikimedia Foundation Report, August 2012 <Video: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_September_4,_2… Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of August (September 4, 2012)> * 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Wiki Loves Monuments app enables the first mobile contributions to Wikimedia projects o 3.2 Language support tools released in "Project Milkshake" o 3.3 Request for Comment on legal fees assistance program o 3.4 Pilot project on Arabic Wikipedia increases contributions by new editors * 4 Engineering o 4.1 Operations o 4.2 Features Engineering o 4.3 Internationalization and Localization engineering o 4.4 Mobile Engineering o 4.5 Platform 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 Mobile and Business Development o 6.3 Global Learning and Grantmaking + 6.3.1 Learning + 6.3.2 Funds Dissemination + 6.3.3 Grants Awarded and Executed + 6.3.4 US Cultural Partnerships o 6.4 Catalyst Programs + 6.4.1 Brazil Catalyst Project # 6.4.1.1 Brazil Education program # 6.4.1.2 National Program, Brazil + 6.4.2 India Program o 6.5 Education Program o 6.6 Fellowships o 6.7 Editor Growth and Contribution Program o 6.8 Communications + 6.8.1 Major announcements + 6.8.2 Major Storylines through August + 6.8.3 Other worthwhile reads + 6.8.4 Wikipedia Signpost + 6.8.5 WMF Blog posts + 6.8.6 Media Contact, August 2012 * 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 * 10 Visitors and Guests == Data and Trends == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting, September 4, 2012> Global unique visitors for July: *451.82 million* (-3.80% compared with June; +14.81% compared with the previous year) (comScore data <http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release August data later in September) Page requests for August: *18.2 billion* (+2.6% compared with July; +20.7% 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 July 2012 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots): *80,465* (+2.59% compared with June / +1.16% 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 July 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_July_2012_…> Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of July 31, 2012> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_July_2012…> Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of July 31, 2012> (Financial information is only available for July 2012 at the time of this report.) All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date July 31, 2012. Revenue $346,647 *Expenses:* Engineering Group $1,145,753 Fundraiser Group $221,223 Global Development Group $541,308 Governance Group $96,465 Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $185,852 Finance/HR/Admin Group $413,077 Total Expenses $2,603,678 Total surplus/(loss) ($2,257,031) * Revenue for the month-to-date and year-to-date is $347K vs plan of $1.5MM, approximately $1.1M or 76% under plan, primarily due to $1M from Sloan Foundation budgeted for July but actually received in August. * Expenses for the month-to-date and year-to-date is $2.6M vs plan of $3.2M, approximately $639K or 20% under than plan, primarily due to lower personnel related expenses and awards and grants associated with Wikimania DC that had been reflected in FY 11-12. * Cash position is $23.6M as of July 31, 2012, which is approximately 6.7 months of expenses. == Highlights == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:4_Monument_Detail_-_Rialto.png> Screenshot of the Wiki Loves Monuments app> === Wiki Loves Monuments app enables the first mobile contributions to Wikimedia projects === In preparation for September's "Wiki Loves Monuments <http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/>", the worldwide contest to contribute freely licensed photos of cultural heritage sites to Wikimedia Commons, the mobile team released the new Wiki Loves Monuments app <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/01/wiki-loves-monuments-for-mobile-is-he…> for Android. Users can find nearby monuments, or search for them on a list. One can take photos from within the app and directly upload them to Wikimedia Commons. This is the first time that a mobile contribution mechanism is officially supported. Others ways of contributing to Wikimedia projects using mobile devices are being considered, too. === Language support tools released in "Project Milkshake" === The Internationalisation/Localisation (i18n/l10n) team reported progress <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/14/internationalisation-language-selecto…> on its Project Milkshake <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project_Milkshake>, an effort to release its existing internationalisation-related JavaScript components as standard jQuery <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jQuery> libraries. They include an i18n framework that supports parameter replacements and grammar-, plural-, and gender-dependent translations, a library to support WebFonts (fonts that do not need to be installed on the reader's computer), and a library to provide text input methods in the browser. === Request for Comment on legal fees assistance program === In a Request for Comment (RfC) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_P…>, the Foundation proposes a program intended to help pay for the legal defense fees of eligible users in specified support roles - such as certain community administrator, arbitrator, email response, or project governance functions - if a lawsuit is brought against them in relation to their activities in these roles. === Pilot project on Arabic Wikipedia increases contributions by new editors === On the Arabic Wikipedia, a new "contribution portal" was created in June, as a pilot project within the Editor Growth and Contribution Program <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Program>. It offers simple visual tutorials for six basic editing tasks, such as fixing a typo or creating a new article. It has already increased the ratio of new users who start contributing, according to an analysis of the first phase (in English <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/15/pilot-project-arabic-wikipedia-move-n…> and Arabic <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/15/pilot-project-arabic-wikipedia-move-n…>). <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Contribution_Portal_-_Phase_0_(Arab…> Contribution portal on the Arabic Wikipedia (phase 0)> == Engineering == A detailed report of the Engineering Department's activities for August 2012 can be found at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/August Department Highlights Major news in August include: * Progress by the Internationalization team on the Universal language selector & /Milkshake/ <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/14/internationalisation-language-selecto…>, and WebFonts <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/24/webfonts-in-uls-translation-rally/>; * Changes in our analytics system to improve the accuracy of the active editors metric <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/31/improving-the-accuracy-of-the-active-…>; * Major work on the Wiki Loves Monuments <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/01/wiki-loves-monuments-for-mobile-is-he…> app preparatory to the official launch on September 1 (see also general "Highlights" section). === Operations === *Site infrastructure* We built additional MySQL servers for each of the clusters in Ashburn, all in preparation for the primary data center migration in the coming quarter. A database tree chart <http://noc.wikimedia.org/dbtree/> provides the latest information on our database clusters. We also successfully updated and deployed the NetApp storage servers <http://torrus.wikimedia.org/torrus/Storage?path=/Storage/>, and enabled replication from Tampa to Ashburn. *Network Infrastructure* The usual traffic surge due to the new school year caused an increase in package loss on our Tampa internal network. We upgraded the links between the racks, and installed a new passive optics (CWDM) system between the 2 floors of the Tampa datacenter hosting our servers, giving us effectively a 4X capacity increase. *Object Store/Swift <http://wikitech.wikimedia.org/view/Swift>* 'Originals' (original multimedia files that are uploaded) were successfully copied over to the Swift cluster from the legacy NFS servers. In addition to serving thumbnails (which was completed last month), Swift is now also the primary object store for Originals. === Features Engineering <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Features_engineering> === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting, September 4, 2012 (presentation on Editor engagement experiments)> *Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>* The Parsoid team reached a major milestone in August by implementing a template output encapsulation algorithm, and started to use it to support expanded template round-tripping. In parallel with this and the usual smaller tweaks, work on a C++ port of the parser was started. The port is expected to allow an efficient integration with PHP and Lua, improve performance and allow the parallelization of the parser in the longer term. *Article feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>* This month, we developed a range of new features <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…> for Article Feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5>, which is now deployed on 10% of the English Encyclopedia. We are now in our productization phase (support for more platforms, scalability, code re-factoring, localization, metrics, mobile) and are aiming for a full release to 100% of English Wikipedia by the end of October 2012 — with other wiki projects starting later this year. *Page Curation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation>* We deployed a 'pre-release' version of Page Curation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation> on the English Wikipedia. This new product includes two main features: the New Pages Feed, a dynamic list of new pages for review by community patrollers, and the Curation Toolbar, an optional panel on article pages, which enables editors to quickly review these pages. We are now preparing for a full release of Page Curation on the English Wikipedia at the end of September 2012. === Internationalization and Localization engineering <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Internationalization_and_Localizat…> === *Internationalization and localization tools <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization_tools>* The team continued to work on the Universal Language Selector <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector> (ULS): the display settings dialog was completed and is now able to show and set WebFonts. The lists of languages were tweaked to emphasize those likely to be chosen by the user, based on their location and past selections. Translation memory <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate/Translation_memories> support was deployed on Meta and other wikis with the translation extension enabled, and CLDR plurals support was merged into the core master. User experience <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Translation_UX> testing of the Translate extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate> is in progress. === Mobile Engineering <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> === *Wiki Loves Monuments App <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application>* The mobile team released three new betas for the WLM app and published the last one on Google Play <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia.wlm>. We finalized many new features like saving for later, showing current location, and cleaned up data issues. The contest started on September 1st. (see also general "Highlights" section). === Platform Engineering <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Platform_Engineering> === *Git conversion <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Git/Conversion>* We fixed issues upstream, and cleaned up the Gerrit installation on Labs to more accurately mirror production—also cleaning up the production setup along the way. In September, we'll be upgrading to Gerrit 2.5, which brings a bunch of new features (like plugins), and getting repositories replicated out to GitHub. *Admin tools development <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Admin_tools_development>* We added two new major features to the AbuseFilter extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AbuseFilter>, global rules and global throttling. These features will allow the creation of filters that apply to all Wikimedia wikis, which is effective for stopping cross-wiki spambots. *Summer of Code 2012 <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2012>* Eight of Wikimedia's nine Summer of Code students passed. Their achievements <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_Past_Projects#2012> have already led to improvements in the Wikimedia Incubator, and improvements to Semantic MediaWiki and UploadWizard will reach users soon. == Fundraising == === Major Gifts and Foundations === Planned a "Thank you event" at Googleplex for September for Google employees who give to Wikimedia. Sara Lasner completed a East Coast trip to meet with donors. Worked with Morgan Stanley to be included in their communications/recommendations to the donor advised funds. === Annual Fundraiser === Ran a week long fundraising test on Spanish Wikipedia in preparation for the annual campaign. Variables tested included: banner and donation page messages, ask amounts, form field variations. Results from the test are still being analyzed and will be posted on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough>. Storytelling interviews that were recorded on video at Wikimania 2012 are currently being edited with the goal of creating a short educational video about Wikipedia. Launched Amazon Payments ewallet as a donation option for USA donors Translation of fundraising messages in various languges increased, with Joseph Seddon improving outreach. Prepared for an upcoming Italian fundraising test. Weekly testing in the US continued: Fundraising 2012/We Need A Breakthrough <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough> == Global Development == === Global Development Highlights === * Barry Newstead stepped down as Chief Global Development Officer. He left the Wikimedia Foundation at the end of August to relocate to Australia for personal reasons: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-August/121639.html * Frank Schulenburg and Anasuya Sengupta will serve as interim leaders of the department until a new CGDO is found: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-August/121640.html * A beta version of the *Global Development dashboard* allows project owners to evaluate the impact of their work on an ongoing basis. * Wikipedia Zero launched in Cameroon. * FDC nominations closed on August 15 with 42 nominations for FDC members and 13 for Ombudsperson. === Mobile and Business Development === * Wikipedia Zero launched in Cameroon with Orange and in Montenegro with Telenor. Total of 7 country launches to date. * Continued launch preparation for additional forthcoming TBA Wikipedia Zero partners, along with planning of pilot program for Wikipedia by text message. * Negotiation discussions proceeded with potential new Wikipedia Zero partners in Asia and Africa. === Global Learning and Grantmaking === *The GLEE team: Global Grantmaking, Learning and Evaluation Enterprise* ==== Learning ==== * Beta version of the *Global Development dashboard* <http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/> to allow project owners to easily track their projects, to be transparent with their work, and to evaluate impact on an ongoing basis: project owners can easily create visualizations and have access to information they need. * Developing more robust ways of designing project pilots within the Global Development Team. * Evaluations of Brazil <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Program/Education_program/Learning/B…> and Cairo <http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Pilot_%E2%80%93_final_report> Education pilots * Evaluation <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships> of Wikimania Scholarships process to re-think the overall process and create a more effective program. ==== Funds Dissemination ==== * The FDC portal <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal> was launched on August 1st with support from Heather Walls and Bridgespan. * Work continues on key documents related to the FDC process: the Proposal form and the Staff Assessment form were reviewed by the community and finalized. * Bridgespan and the FDC team have been working on orientation training materials, continuous improvement materials, and most importantly - a process document for how the FDC might finalise their recommendations for Round 1. * Nominations and selection process: posted messages on 600 village pumps and put a CentralNotice up for several days before nominations closed on 15 August, with 42 nominations for FDC members and 13 for Ombudsperson. Criteria for selection include /Wikimedia history, Non-WM history, Alignment with the (FDC) criteria [in the framework], Overall portfolio mix [languages, region, gender, chapter/wikiproject/community experience etc.]/. ==== Grants Awarded and Executed ==== * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_ZA/Wiki_Loves_Monuments * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Serbia_… * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wikimedia_Slovakia/Wikipedia_workshop… ==== US Cultural Partnerships ==== * The US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator Mid-Year Report is now published: WP:GLAM/US/Mid-Year Report <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:GLAM/US/Mid-Year_Report> === Catalyst Programs === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14_WikiSampa_August_2012_-_27.JPG> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14_WikiSampa_August_2012_-_17.JPG> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14_WikiSampa_August_2012_-_40.JPG> ==== Brazil Catalyst Project ==== ===== Brazil Education program ===== * 30 participated in an Education Program Workshop in São Paulo: professors, teaching assistants, ambassadors, Wikipedia volunteers who learned how to edit Wikipedia and about their roles as campus ambassadors. Professors worked on planning and methodologies to develop the program within their courses, and attended a dinner to share and learn from past experiences. * 8 professors are involved: 6 professors from São Paulo area, 1 from Rio, 1 from Porto Alegre. 7 courses will start when the strike ends. * Planning of the upcoming professor orientation in Rio de Janeiro: A workshop for professors will be held on 22 September at PUC-Rio; over the last couple of weeks, we worked on finding a location for the event. A draft schedule <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia_Discuss%C3%A3o:Wikip%C3%A9d…> can be found on the wiki. * Start of term survey: We conducted a survey among professors. Based on the preliminary results, we've been following up with Professors regarding the design of course pages <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universid…>. * Meetings with Frank and possible partners: We've been exploring a potential partnership opportunity with UniRio; we've also met with a group of professors at COPPE-UFRJ and gave a presentation about the Education Program; meetings with professors have surfaced a high level of enthusiasm about the program <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14_WikiSampa_August_2012_-_41.JPG> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14_WikiSampa_August_2012_-_41.JPG> Community gathering in São Paulo * Brazil team and volunteers have been working on Portuguese tutorials online and in print to support selected courses and collaborators on other activities: Guia do Estudante <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universid…>, Guia do Professor <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universid…> * Community gatherings in São Paulo and Rio, volunteers are working on a proposal for bringing the Education Program to Brazilian high schools. ===== National Program, Brazil ===== * Data analyst and experiment consultant job description <https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3APrograma_Catalisador_do…> finalized * Gathering and analyzing data regarding experiment developed by the community in the first semester, working on metrics and tools to analyze a campaign community is developing to bring IPs into creating accounts, gathering information and references to debate possible experiments on the use of CAPTCHA in the Portuguese Wikipedia: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejam… * Discussions and information gathering continue on how to establish an office in Brazil. * New articles on the Portuguese Wikipedia have been growing constantly, and the growth of new and active editors have remained steady (unlike the decrease of growth rates seen during 2011, active editors growth has been small but consistent in the last 4 months). Small growth of 0.5% in active editors in comparison to July in 2011 and 52% growth in the rate of new articles per day (https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoM2xDBi-taQdE…) ==== India Program ==== * Supported the first Punjabi Wikipedia workshops at Patiala and Amritsar * Typing tool enhancement for Punjabi wikipedia * Plan for video tutorial program, How-to-edit-Nepali-Wikipedia video, How-to-edit-Hindi-Wikipedia video * Chandigarh: Workshops: Punjabi Wikipedia workshop in Amritsar, 2 workshops in British Library, Chandigarh and Wikipedia Club Chandigarh <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Club_Chandigarh> announced, Facebook group <https://www.facebook.com/groups/WikiClubChandigarh> with workshop support system, meetings with curator of Chandigarh Museum for potential GLAM project, professors at Panjab University in Chandigarh <Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_write_in_Nepali_wiki.ogv> How to edit Nepali Wikipedia> <Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_contribute_to_Hindi_Wikipedi…> How to edit Hindi Wikipedia> === Education Program === * *New on-wiki Education newsletter debuts*: At the Wikipedia in education session at Wikimania's unconference, volunteers around the world agreed to start a new monthly newsletter about Wikipedia's use in education for Wikimedians. The newsletter, delivered on talk pages, is designed to keep Wikimedians running programs or those interested in starting a program up to date about what's happening in different education initiatives around the world. /This Month in Education/ will come out on the 15th of each month. August issue: <http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Portal/Newsletter/August_2012> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Professor_and_Ambassador_Orientatio… Professor and Ambassador Orientation, São Paulo> * *Brazil Pilot kicks off second phase*: On August 11, the second phase of the Education Pilot in Brazil began with a workshop in São Paulo for orienting new professors and new Ambassadors, hosted by Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. Participants included seven new professors, four interested ones who might join the program in 2013, and dozens of new Campus Ambassadors trained by experienced Campus Ambassadors and Wikipedians. Education Program Director Frank Schulenburg traveled to Brazil to participate in the workshop, and participants were excited to get started on working with Wikipedia in education in Brazil. * *ASA Annual Meeting features Wikipedia initiative*: Wikimedia Foundation staff Annie Lin and Jami Mathewson traveled to Denver, Colorado, in mid August to attend the American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting. ASA has joined other academic organizations in starting a Wikipedia initiative to encourage sociology professors to edit and have students edit Wikipedia articles to improve information available about sociology. Instructor and Ambassador Piotr Konieczny helped out at the booth, and hundreds of people learned more about using Wikipedia in the classroom. <http://www.asanet.org/about/wiki_Initiative.cfm> * *Journal article shows four case studies*: A journal article published in E-Learning and Digital Media last month describes how four professors who participated in the United States Education Program pilot used Wikipedia in their classrooms. UC Berkeley's Brian Carver, Georgetown's Rochelle Davis and Robin Kelley, and Michigan State's Jonathan Obar discuss their experiences using Wikipedia as a teaching tool and why they feel like it is a worthwhile endeavor for other professors in the article titled "Assigning Students to Edit Wikipedia: four case studies." <http://www.wwwords.co.uk/rss/abstract.asp?j=elea&aid=5094&doi=1> === Fellowships === * *Fellowship reviews* are underway to support the professional development of all current WMF fellows. A process for fellows to identify mentors is expected to be launched in September. * Phase 2 of the *Teahouse* project continued this month with a focus on making it easier for new editors to find the Teahouse and for experienced editors to participate as hosts. As a result of July's successful experiment <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Invites> with bot-delivered Teahouse invitations, automated invites have now been approved for an extended trial. Guest visits, profile-creation, and questions have increased by 50%, thanks to the small set of improvements that have been piloted thus far. * A sprint focused on hosting <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Invites>, with the aim of building better systems to engage new *Teahouse hosts*, surface host activity, and make helping in the Teahouse easier to do is nearly complete. Host resources <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host_lounge> have been simplified, a new host-creation process <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host_start> is live. User feedback so far is positive, and we'll be measuring changes to host activity in September to determine the impact of these changes. * *Dispute Resolution*: A 1-month trial of process improvements for filing, tracking, routing and resolving disputes ran in the Dispute Resolution Notice board in August. Mid-month stats have been reported <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dispute_Resolution_Improvement_Proj…>, and the full month's results will be compiled soon. * *Help page redesign*: A full report of usability tests ran on existing help pages is being compiled and new designs <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Introduction_to_referencing> are being finalized with community input in preparation for a second round of usability testing. * *Small Wiki Editor Engagement Project*: Step-by-step tutorials <https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA…> to help new editors get started on Bangla Wikipedia are being developed with feedback from the Bangla community. These will be rolled up into a contribution campaign next month in an experiment to increase the number of active Bangla editors. * *WikiWomen's Collaborative*: A new gender gap project <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative> is being planned with community input. The WikiWomen's Collaborative is aiming to launch in September with a set of experiments in lightweight social media campaigns tied to clear calls to action for women to edit Wikipedia, and supported by a variety of new-editor resources and community building activities. === Editor Growth and Contribution Program === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Prog… Logo of the Editor Growth and Contribution Program> * A blog post <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/15/pilot-project-arabic-wikipedia-move-ne…> on the outcomes of the first phase pilot of the Contribution portal was published. According to a preliminary analysis, the pilot appears to have a positive effect on the ratio of new editors who make contributions to Wikipedia. (see also general "Highlights" section) * A new design of the contribution portal <https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9…> at Arabic Wikipedia was launched with a new logo emphasizing the concept of the portal as being a gateway to welcome participation in Wikipedia. === Communications === Work in August was largely focussed on preparations for a series of partnership and project announcements, several of which will be pushed to September. Work on the Editors Survey, including translations and technical implementation continued - the survey should launch in early September. The team also worked closely with volunteers on several public initiatives, including the global launch of Wiki Loves Monuments. Communications relocates to the Legal and Community Advocacy section of WMF starting in September. A big 'thank you' to all of the Global Dev team for being great colleagues! ==== Major announcements ==== Participants in world’s largest photo contest – Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 – will upload images under free license for use on Wikipedia. (August 29, 2012) https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WLM_photo_contest_launc… ==== Major Storylines through August ==== Sue Gardner named on of the World's 100 most powerful women in Forbes Magazine (August 24, 2012) WMF ED Sue Gardner made Forbes' annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women, which includes global political figures, tech leaders, celebrities and NGO/Non-profit founders. As the only Canadian in the entire top 100, the news struck a strong chord in north of the US. The news also included a video interview and feature interview with Sue online and in print. http://www.forbes.com/power-women/list http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/22/sue-gardner-wikipedias-e… http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1246413--sue-gardner-only-canadian-… http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/performance/96358--canadian-sue-gardne… Brief WP outage makes a splash (August 6, 2012) Wide international media coverage of a roughly hour-long WP outage due ultimately to a severed cable near our Tampa data center. Media seemed to enjoy the over-simplified suggestion that all the world's knowledge could be robbed from the Internet due to a misplaced shovel or a lawnmower. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/aug/06/wikipedia-outage-after-ser… (AFP coverage) http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g5KhqeV7xp2eEu8pxfK0nh1x… http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/06/wikipedia-is-down-good-thing-its-s… Speculation on WP's coverage of VP race (August 6, 2012) Predominantly US politic media speculated widely that Wikipedia would be the best place to look for an indication of US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's VP running mate. Humorist Steven Colbert added more fuel to the speculation, although the coverage was not as relevant as 2008 when then VP nominee Sarah Palin's article was substantially improved prior to that announcement. http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/08/06/want_to_guess_romneys_running_… http://techpresident.com/news/22680/how-spot-romneys-vice-president-pick-ad… http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/08/why-wikipedia-isnt-the-veep-ora… ==== Other worthwhile reads ==== Orange to push use of Wikipedia in Kenya http://www.the-star.co.ke/business/local/90436-orange-pushes-use-of-wikiped… U of U Professor Ditches Term Papers for Wikipedia Articles http://kcpw.org/blog/local-news/2012-08-21/u-of-u-professor-ditches-term-pa… *On WP's new TOS* (Putting An End To The Biggest Lie On The Internet - on the new TOS;DR project) http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/13/putting-an-end-to-the-biggest-lie-on-the-i… ==== Wikipedia Signpost ==== For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for August 2012: * Volume 8, Issue 33, 6 August 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-08…> * Volume 8, Issue 34, 13 August 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-08…> * Volume 8, Issue 35, 20 August 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-08…> * Volume 8, Issue 36, 27 August 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-08…> ==== WMF Blog posts ==== Twenty-one blog posts went out in August, 2012, including a continued push to solicit and post in other project languages <https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>. https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/ Selections from Wikimedia Blog Discussions and planning for a Ghanaian Wikimedia chapter https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/31/ghanaian-wikimedia-chapter/ Hungarian Wikipedians go camping again! https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/28/hungarian-wikipedians-go-camping-agai… Seven years after /Nature/, pilot study compares Wikipedia favorably to other encyclopedias in three languages https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/02/seven-years-after-nature-pilot-study-… ==== Media Contact, August 2012 ==== https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#August_2012 == Human Resources == HR focused on supporting the organization in completing the Foundation's annual review cycle of performance reviews for all employees and launched a review process for Fellows in the Fellowship program. An initial draft of an employee engagement survey was completed, and is in process of revision for a late September rollout. === Staff Changes === New Hire No new hires Conversions * Daisy Chen, Paralegal (Legal and Community Advocacy) * Andrew Bogott, DevOps Engineer (Engineering) * Chad Horohoe, Software Developer (Engineering) * Chris Johnson, Data-center Engineer (Engineering) * Faidon Liambotis, Operations Engineer - Labs (Engineering) * Daniel Zahn, Operations Engineer (Engineering) New contractors * Lauren Bockneck (Administration) * Stephanie Coates (Fundraiser) * John Grande (Administration) * Srikanth Lakshmanan (Engineering) * Timothy Sandole (Fundraiser) Contracts Extended * Antoine Musso (Engineering) * Sam Reed (Engineering) * Erik Zachte (Engineering) Contracts Ended * Claude Boulingui * Jan Gerber * Brittany Gipson * Lindsey Smith * Jon Harald Søby Departure * Karyn Gladstone * Ben Hartshorne * Barry Newstead Department Changes * Winifred Olliff filled the requisition for Grants Administrator within Global Development. New Postings * IT Intern * Engineering Recruiter * Volunteer Engineering Coordinator * Visual Designer * Grants Administrator * Product Manager (Mobile) * Project Assistant * Senior Program Officer, Funds Dissemination Committee * Communications Intern * Software Developer - Fundraising RFP * Git and Gerrit software development === Statistics === Total Requisitions Filled August Actual: 120 August Total Plan: 138 August Filled: 6, Month Attrition: 4, YTD Filled: 14, YTD Attrition: 6 Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end 54 === Department Updates === Real-time feed for HR updates http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork == Finance and Administration == * We have been working with a consultant on space optimization, so we can accommodate new hires without adding space in the near future. The first step in this process has been changes to the cubicle layout on the 6th floor. * The audit of the Wikimedia Foundation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 has been started, with the audit scheduled to be presented to the Wikimedia Foundation Audit Committee by the end of September. * The Wikimedia Foundation has issued an RFP for audit and tax services for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. Any inquiries on this RFP should be directed to gbyrd at wikimedia.org. == Legal and Community Advocacy == * Cease and desist stats: o Opened 8 cases o Closed 7 cases o 13 letters sent o Total cases open 50 o Helped community member recover @wikinews Twitter account * Contract Metrics: o 28 - submitted o 34 - completed * Trademark Metrics: o 24 - submitted o 7 - approved o 11 - pending o 4 - denied o 2 - request withdrawn * Two new LCA Community Programs o Legal Fee Defense Fund RfC Started + The Request for Comment (RfC) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_P…> outlines a program designed to assist community functionaries with legal fees in the event of a lawsuit brought against them in relation to their activities as functionaries. The RfC sets forth the details of the program and the applicable guidelines. LCA is hoping it will close favorably in early October and go for board approval at the October board meeting. (see also general "Highlights" section) o Advocacy Advisory Group Established + This group will provide a community venue to discuss political and legislative developments worldwide that affect our mission, such as censorship laws and proposals that seek to restrict a free and open Internet. + Anyone can join the list, bring up topics for discussion, and participate. + In response to community and OTRS requests, the legal team took actions regarding to the Pulp-pedia spoof website that attempts to mirror Wikipedia, however includes modified content that is in some cases profane, defamatory or otherwise harmful. We will continue to seek a final resolution. * Wikilegal: o Copyright of X-Ray Images <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Copyright_of_X-Ray_Images> - Peter o The 9th Circuit and Works Published Without Formalities <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/The_9th_Circuit_and_Works_Publish…> - Peter o Copyright of Images of Memorials in the US <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Copyright_of_Images_of_Memorials_…> - Peter == Visitors and Guests == 1. Pete Forsyth (WikiStrategies) 2. Shane Cragun (Ascent Advisor) 3. Juan Riboldi (Ascent Advisor) 4. Shawn Ram (Aon Risk Solutions) 5. Bruce Eberly (Aon Risk Solutions) 6. Brent Rieth (Aon Risk Solutions) 7. Shelley Yim (Aon Risk Solutions) 8. Brent Rieth (Aon) 9. Christine Moellenberndt (Consultant to the LCA Team) 10. Elizabeth MH (Consultant to the LCA Team) 11. Kat Walsh (WMF Board of Trustees member) 12. Tim Vollmer (Creative Commons) 13. Mark Oppenheim (m/Oppenheim Associates) 14. Jimmy Schulz (German Parliament) 15. Kevin McCracken (Social Imprints) 16. Daniel Phifer (Social Imprints) 17. Brian Lee (Forte Systems) 18. Evan Priestley (Phabricator) 19. James Gleick (Author) 20. User:WhatamIdoing (Wikipedian) 21. Akshaya Iyengar (Donor from the 2011 fundraising campaign) 22. Shruti Yadav (Student) 23. Nash Hurley (Vital Environments) 24. Taylor Keep (Vital Environments) 25. Claudio Martonfy (Vital Environments) 26. Jonathan Werner (Vital Environments) 27. Leah Nichols (Vital Environments) 28. Shawn Pierce and guest (Google) 29. Desigan Chinniah (Mozilla Firefox) 30. Valerie Aurora (The Ada Initiative) 31. Kathy Ramsey (The Ada Initiative) 32. Lisa Grossman (m/Oppenheim Associates) 33. JK Werner and Grant Joung (ThoughtWorks) 34. Sara Crouse (Creative Commons) 35. Anna Daniel (Creative Commons) 36. Greg Grossmeier (Creative Commons) 37. Elliot Harmon (Creative Commons) 38. Cathy Casserly (Creative Commons) 39. Luis (User:Hispalois) 40. Laura Lanzerotti (Bridgespan Group) 41. Libbie Landles-Dowling (Bridgespan Group) 42. Oliver Keyes (remote contractor) 43. Chad Horohoe (remote contractor) 44. Diederik van Liere (remote contractor) 45. Gina Otto (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 46. Christine Bronstein (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 47. Shannon Farley (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 48. Pia Infante (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 49. Abby Goldberg (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 50. Megan Cayler (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 51. Sarah Selim (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 52. Blair Palmer (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 53. Pema Teeter (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 54. Sara Litke (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 55. Deborah Holmes (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 56. Sheila Bapat (WMF/Spark/Op-Ed event visitor) 57. Ryota Tamaki (Nikkei) 58. Micah Alpern (LinkedIn) 59. Jack Herrick (WikiHow) 60. Cathy Ferrari (Monahan Pacific) 61. Brian Lee (Forte) 62. Sizhe Liu (KPMG) 63. Daniel Hennigan (KPMG) 64. Charlie Hou (Huawei) 65. Yiren Huang (Huawei) 66. Charlie Dong (Huawei) 67. Asheesh Laruia (OpenHatch) 68. Jonathan Effrat (Google) 69. Mike Rhodes (Cooley LLP) 70. Patrick Gunn (Cooley LLP) 71. Ray Sardo (Cooley LLP) 72. Mike Schwartz (Wikia) 73. Andrzej Swędrzyński (Wikia) 74. Joe Arnold (Swiftstack) 75. Pieter Stal, EVP Global Account Management (Global Collect) 76. Patricia Reed, Account Manager (Global Collect) 77. Andrzeg Swedrzynsui (Wikia) -- Tilman Bayer Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications) Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l

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Board Resolution on FDC initial membership
by Bishakha Datta 30 Sep '12

30 Sep '12

Dear all, This has been published at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Funds_Dissemination_Committe… It reflects the earlier announcements on this list by Patricio Lorente, which are at: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-September/122003.html http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-September/122005.html Best Bishakha

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Wikimedia-l September 2012