(This press release is also posted at:
http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-release/wikimedia-foundati…)
Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner Will Receive the
First Knight Innovation Award from Knight Foundation
Gardner to speak at the Knight Innovation Award ceremony at the CUNY
Graduate School of Journalism on December 16
Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, the
operating foundation for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, will
receive the first Knight Innovation Award in recognition of her bold
international leadership in digital media and universal Internet
access. After she joined the organization, Wikipedia grew dramatically
to become the fifth most-visited website in the world. Meanwhile,
Gardner established herself as a leader in the struggle for Internet
freedom and access.
Gardner will receive a $25,000 award and will grant another $25,000 to
a startup of her choice in support of innovation and entrepreneurship
in news and information.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation established the Knight
Innovation Award, hosted by the City University of New York’s Graduate
School of Journalism and its Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial
Journalism. Gardner will announce the recipient of the startup award
and speak on innovation during a Dec. 16 (6pm) ceremony at the CUNY
Graduate School of Journalism.
When Gardner joined the Wikimedia Foundation in 2007, it raised less
than $3 million a year. By 2011, the organization raised $23 million.
In 2012, she partnered with Orange and Telenor, two European
telecommunications companies, to launch Wikipedia Zero, a program to
provide Wikipedia free-of-data-charges to millions of users across
Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. The same year, she led a
full-day Wikipedia blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and
the Protect Intellectual Property Act, one of the only major websites
to do so.
“Sue’s extraordinary vision for Internet freedom and openness has
helped guide the rapidly changing world of journalism into the digital
age,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of
journalism and media innovation. “Her outstanding accomplishments,
first as a journalist and then as leader of the Wikimedia Foundation,
have set a firm footing for the future. CUNY, itself an innovator in
journalism education and entrepreneurship, is a perfect partner for
this new award.”
Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial
Journalism, said, “We are committed to supporting new models for
sustainable journalism and to incorporating technology developments as
our industry transforms. Sue’s work clearly demonstrates her alignment
with these goals. We are delighted to honor her for her brave and
creative actions and accomplishments.”
Gardner, a native of Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, began her career at
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a national public radio
organization. Her background as a reporter and producer has given her
essential insights as she develops best practices for the future of
media.
Incoming CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Dean Sarah Bartlett said,
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with Knight
Foundation, which has supported us for three years, on another
initiative that contributes to the advancement of our industry. Sue
Gardner certainly deserves to be celebrated for her work. Our
institution couldn't be more pleased to co-host this historic event.”
About the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism
The Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism was established
in 2010 to help create a sustainable future for quality journalism
through education, research, and incubation.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality
journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster
the arts. The Foundation believes that democracy thrives when people
and communities are informed and engaged.
About the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in midtown Manhattan is the
only publicly supported graduate journalism school in the Northeast.
Opened in 2006 under Founding Dean Stephen B. Shepard, the School
offers a 16-month Master of Arts in Journalism program that includes a
required paid professional summer internship. It was also first in
the nation to offer an M.A. in Entrepreneurial Journalism, beginning
in 2011. Taught by award-winning journalists from top media
organizations, students learn to tell stories using print, broadcast,
and interactive formats while getting rigorous instruction in
reporting, writing, critical thinking, and journalism ethics. Students
also specialize in one of five subject areas: arts & culture, business
& economics, health & medicine, international, or urban reporting.
CONTACTS:
Amy Dunkin, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism,
amy.dunkin(a)journalism.cuny.edu, 646-758-7826
Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, media(a)knightfoundation.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
(This press release is also posted at:
http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-release/wikimedia-foundati…)
Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner Will Receive the
First Knight Innovation Award from Knight Foundation
Gardner to speak at the Knight Innovation Award ceremony at the CUNY
Graduate School of Journalism on December 16
Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, the
operating foundation for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, will
receive the first Knight Innovation Award in recognition of her bold
international leadership in digital media and universal Internet
access. After she joined the organization, Wikipedia grew dramatically
to become the fifth most-visited website in the world. Meanwhile,
Gardner established herself as a leader in the struggle for Internet
freedom and access.
Gardner will receive a $25,000 award and will grant another $25,000 to
a startup of her choice in support of innovation and entrepreneurship
in news and information.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation established the Knight
Innovation Award, hosted by the City University of New York’s Graduate
School of Journalism and its Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial
Journalism. Gardner will announce the recipient of the startup award
and speak on innovation during a Dec. 16 (6pm) ceremony at the CUNY
Graduate School of Journalism.
When Gardner joined the Wikimedia Foundation in 2007, it raised less
than $3 million a year. By 2011, the organization raised $23 million.
In 2012, she partnered with Orange and Telenor, two European
telecommunications companies, to launch Wikipedia Zero, a program to
provide Wikipedia free-of-data-charges to millions of users across
Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. The same year, she led a
full-day Wikipedia blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and
the Protect Intellectual Property Act, one of the only major websites
to do so.
“Sue’s extraordinary vision for Internet freedom and openness has
helped guide the rapidly changing world of journalism into the digital
age,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of
journalism and media innovation. “Her outstanding accomplishments,
first as a journalist and then as leader of the Wikimedia Foundation,
have set a firm footing for the future. CUNY, itself an innovator in
journalism education and entrepreneurship, is a perfect partner for
this new award.”
Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial
Journalism, said, “We are committed to supporting new models for
sustainable journalism and to incorporating technology developments as
our industry transforms. Sue’s work clearly demonstrates her alignment
with these goals. We are delighted to honor her for her brave and
creative actions and accomplishments.”
Gardner, a native of Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, began her career at
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a national public radio
organization. Her background as a reporter and producer has given her
essential insights as she develops best practices for the future of
media.
Incoming CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Dean Sarah Bartlett said,
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with Knight
Foundation, which has supported us for three years, on another
initiative that contributes to the advancement of our industry. Sue
Gardner certainly deserves to be celebrated for her work. Our
institution couldn't be more pleased to co-host this historic event.”
About the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism
The Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism was established
in 2010 to help create a sustainable future for quality journalism
through education, research, and incubation.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality
journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster
the arts. The Foundation believes that democracy thrives when people
and communities are informed and engaged.
About the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in midtown Manhattan is the
only publicly supported graduate journalism school in the Northeast.
Opened in 2006 under Founding Dean Stephen B. Shepard, the School
offers a 16-month Master of Arts in Journalism program that includes a
required paid professional summer internship. It was also first in
the nation to offer an M.A. in Entrepreneurial Journalism, beginning
in 2011. Taught by award-winning journalists from top media
organizations, students learn to tell stories using print, broadcast,
and interactive formats while getting rigorous instruction in
reporting, writing, critical thinking, and journalism ethics. Students
also specialize in one of five subject areas: arts & culture, business
& economics, health & medicine, international, or urban reporting.
CONTACTS:
Amy Dunkin, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism,
amy.dunkin(a)journalism.cuny.edu, 646-758-7826
Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, media(a)knightfoundation.org
(To be unsubscribed from this press release distribution list, please
reply with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)
_______________________________________________
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
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https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Hi everyone,
We'd like to draw your attention to our recent amendment of the 2009 Biographies of Living People resolution. We have amended that resolution to refer to both text and media when considering articles or images of living people:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Media_about_living_people
We believe this amendment serves to clarify our original intent with this resolution, which is to urge the Wikimedia community to act with care when working with all portrayals of living people.
This amended resolution was passed at the November 2013 Board meeting.
For the Board of Trustees,
María
Hi!
I'm sure that the WMF fundraising people are all aware of this, but this
isn't exactly a well-known issue, so please excuse this short introduction.
For a few months now, there has been quite a strong push from the
Bitcoin community to accept that currency as a donation method; the
issue has been gaining more and more significance ever since the start
of this years' fundraising campaign.
As far as I am aware, the only response so far from the Foundation is
that they do not accept any currencies that are not backed by "by the
full faith and credit of an issuing government." [1]
I'm sure those reading this list can Google the topic themselves, so I
won't link to the many angry discussion that are taking place on the
interwebs right now; instead, I'll ask this: does the Foundation intend
to accept Bitcoin as a donation method any time soon? Does the
Foundation realize that the payment processing company Bitpay has kindly
set up a merchant account that is transferring money to the WMF every
day? [2]
Can you let us know the reasons behind the decision of not accepting
Bitcoin other than those mentioned on the FAQ page I linked? I'm not in
any way related to the Bitcoin movement, but I'm sure that many people
would appreciate hearing more about this.
I should also perhaps mention for those interested in donating in
Bitcoin that Wikimedia New York City, the chapter for NYC, does accept
Bitcoins: <https://nyc.wikimedia.org/wiki/Donate>.
Maybe there are other chapters or affiliates that allow this method of
donating?
Tomasz
== References ==
* [1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en#Why_does_the_Wikimedia_Foundati…
* [2] http://blog.bitpay.com/2012/11/donate-to-wikipedia-with-bitcoin.html
Dear all:
A proposed amendment to the Industrial Property Law, Federal Law on
Copyright and the Federal Penal Code, recently presented at the Chamber of
Deputies of Mexico, very similar to SOPA and the Sinde Law in Spain, would
affect the functioning of the Wikimedia projects in Mexico.
Our chapter decided to issue a position that can be found at the following
link:
http://ow.ly/rBKx6
This document was sent to the email address of the legislators who are
driving this proposal, deputies Héctor Gutiérrez and Aurora Ugalde, no
response so far. If this proposal in advance approval, our chapter would
evaluate what actions could be taken.
Best regards.
--
*Atentamente:Iván MartínezPresidenteWikimedia México A.C.wikimedia.mx
<http://wikimedia.mx>Imagina un mundo en donde cada persona del planeta
pueda tener acceso libre a la suma total del conocimiento humano. Eso es lo
que estamos haciendo <http://es.wikipedia.org>. *
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for November 2013, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_November_2013
and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary.
Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay
updated, by providing a translation:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_November_2013
Many thanks to those who have translated the October "Highlights" into
Spanish, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Dutch and Chinese (help
continues to be welcome for completing the partial translations in
Emiliano-Romagnolo, Italian, Norwegian bokmål, Portuguese and some
other languages)!
While still focusing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the upcoming December issue are welcome until January
8 at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_ite…
.
Regards, Tilman
--
= Wikimedia Foundation Report, November 2013 =
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_Decembe…>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of November
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2013-12-05>
(December 5, 2013)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 New support material for program organizers: Evaluation
report about edit-a-thons, and a pattern library
o 3.2 "Beta Features" option allows users to test upcoming
software changes
o 3.3 Open Source Language Summit in Pune, India
o 3.4 OAuth extension makes it easier to use third-party editing
tools
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser
* 6 Grantmaking
o 6.1 Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee)
o 6.2 Project and Event Grants
+ 6.2.1 Grants awarded in November 2013
+ 6.2.2 Reports accepted in November 2013
+ 6.2.3 Travel & Participation Support
# 6.2.3.1 Requests awarded in November 2013
# 6.2.3.2 Reports accepted in November 2013
+ 6.2.4 Individual Engagement Grants
o 6.3 Grantmaking Learning and Evaluation
* 7 Programs
o 7.1 Wikipedia Zero
o 7.2 Wikipedia Education Program
+ 7.2.1 Global programs
+ 7.2.2 Arab World Program
+ 7.2.3 Communications
o 7.3 Program Evaluation and Design
* 8 Human Resources
o 8.1 Staff Changes
o 8.2 Statistics
o 8.3 Department Updates
* 9 Finance and Administration
* 10 Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department
o 10.1 Contract Metrics
o 10.2 Trademark Metrics
o 10.3 Domains Obtained
o 10.4 Coming & Going
o 10.5 Communications Report, November 2013
+ 10.5.1 Major announcements
+ 10.5.2 Major Storylines through November
+ 10.5.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 10.5.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 10.5.5 Media Contact
+ 10.5.6 Wikipedia Signpost
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for October:
*530 million* (+4.86% compared with September; +8.62% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release November data
later in December)
Page requests for November:
*19.039 billion* (+1.2% compared with October; -6.4% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access. Note: the
numbers previously reported for the months of July to October 2013
have been corrected
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57980>.)
Active Registered Editors for October 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*75,964* (-0.99% compared with September / -3.83% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects.)
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects):
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_October_20…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of October 31, 2013
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_October_2…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of October 31, 2013
(Financial information is only available through October 2013 at the
time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date October 31, 2013.
Revenue $11,646,366
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $5,379,535
Fundraising Group $1,097,830
Grantmaking Group $556,471
Programs Group $573,291
Grants $857,473
Governance Group $221,061
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $1,058,063
Finance/HR/Admin Group $2,490,383
Total Expenses $12,234,107
Total deficit ($587,741)
* Revenue for the month of October is $3.78MM versus plan of $4.91MM,
approximately $1.13MM or 23% under plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $11.65MM versus plan of $7.88MM,
approximately $3.77MM or 48% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of October is $2.84MM versus plan of $3.52MM,
approximately $680K or 19% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees,
payment processing fees, and travel expenses partially offset by
higher grants and recruiting expenses.
* Year-to-date expenses is $12.23MM versus plan of $14.70MM,
approximately $2.47MM or 17% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees,
grants, staff development expenses, and travel expenses partially
offset by higher payment processing fees.
* Cash position is $38.61MM as of October 31, 2013.
== Highlights ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Program_Evaluation_Edit-a-thon_even…>
Duration of edit-a-thons: 91% lasted less than 8 hours
=== New support material for program organizers: Evaluation report
about edit-a-thons, and a pattern library ===
A new *report about edit-a-thons
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/Edit-a-t…>*
includes data
from 46 events between February 2012 and October 2013. It starts a
series of seven reports about the most common types of programs executed
by Wikimedia program leaders around the world, authored by the Wikimedia
Foundation's Program Evaluation and Design team. This is the first time
that such an analysis compares the outcomes of a specific program to its
costs. Among the many findings of this report is that edit-a-thons with
a small budget can be as productive as events with a large budget.
In the new *learning pattern library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/Learning…>*
on Meta,
Wikimedians can share what they learn about organizing activities like
edit-a-thons, GLAM collaborations, gender gap outreach, or Wiki Loves
Monuments. Each pattern includes a description of a common problem, and
instructions for solving it.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BetaFeatures-Screenshot.png>
Screenshot of the new Beta Features preferences page
=== "Beta Features" option allows users to test upcoming software changes ===
A new "Beta Features
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/About_Beta_Features>"
section has been added to the user preferences menu
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeat…>,
allowing
logged-in editors to test upcoming software changes and give feedback to
the developers, before these features become available for everyone.
=== Open Source Language Summit in Pune, India ===
Together with Red Hat, the Wikimedia Foundation's language engineering
team organized the fall 2013 Open Source Language Summit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/12/10/language-engineering-events-language-…>
in Pune, India. It was also attended by members of the VisualEditor and
Mobile teams. Session topics
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Language_portal/Pune_LanguageSummit_November…>
included:
* improving the support for fonts (in particular in Indic languages)
* input methods for entering characters that are not available on a
user's keyboard
* the Language Coverage Matrix Dashboard
<http://tools.wmflabs.org/lcm-dashboard/lcmd/>, which displays how a
language is supported on Wikimedia projects
* a prototype for a user interface for translating Wikipedia articles
and other content
=== OAuth extension makes it easier to use third-party editing tools ===
All Wikimedia wikis now support
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/22/oauth-on-wikimedia-wikis/> OAuth
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:OAuth>, an open
standard that allows users to authorize third-party software tools to
carry out actions on the wiki on their behalf, without handing over
their user password. Among the first tools that use this new feature is
"CropTool <https://tools.wmflabs.org/croptool/?title=Example.jpg>",
which allows users to crop images on Wikimedia Commons.
* A visualization of the interaction between a third-party tool
(left), the wiki and the user under the OAuth protocol
*
OAuth-metrics-20131107.pdf
</w/index.php?title=File:OAuth-metrics-20131107.pdf&page=2>
*
OAuth-metrics-20131107.pdf
</w/index.php?title=File:OAuth-metrics-20131107.pdf&page=3>
*
OAuth-metrics-20131107.pdf
</w/index.php?title=File:OAuth-metrics-20131107.pdf&page=4>
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for November 2013
can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/November
Major news in November include:
* Beta Features
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/07/introducing-beta-features/>,
a new way for users to try out new features on Wikipedia and other
Wikimedia sites before they are released for everyone (see also the
general "Highlights" section);
* The launch of our search for a VP of Engineering
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/20/wikimedia-foundation-is-looking-for-a…>;
* A retrospective by the Mobile engineering team on best practices for
collaboration
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/22/developing-distributedly-part-2/>
while working distributedly;
* The activation of OAuth on Wikimedia wikis
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/22/oauth-on-wikimedia-wikis/>,
which allows users to authorize third-party applications to take
actions on their behalf without sharing their password (see also the
general "Highlights" section);
* A blog post about the "Wikidata concept cloud
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/25/wikidata-concept-cloud/>";
* A retrospective on the ability to add musical scores
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/27/adding-musical-scores-to-wikimedia/>
to pages on Wikimedia sites.
=== VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal>
===
In November, the VisualEditor team continued to improve the stability
and performance of this new editing interface, and add new features. The
code was updated three times. Most of the team's focus was on fixing
bugs, and on some major infrastructure changes, splitting out reusable
code from VisualEditor to make it available to other teams. Much of the
team travelled to the Open Source Language Summit
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Language_portal/Pune_LanguageSummit_November…>
in Pune, India to learn more about how to improve VisualEditor for a
variety of languages, scripts, users and systems.
Thanks to two new members of the QA team
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Quality_Assurance/Browser_testing>, the
automated browser tests have expanded in breadth and depth of coverage.
Work continued on major new features like full rich copy-and-paste from
external sources, a dialog for quickly adding citation templated
references, and a tool to insert characters not available on users'
keyboards. The editor was made available by default on just over 100
additional Wikipedias as part of the continuing roll-out. VisualEditor
was also enabled for opt-in testing on Swedish Wiktionary and Wikimedia
Sweden's wiki, the first time it has been available on a non-Wikipedia
production wiki.
Work also continued on Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>, the
parsing program that converts wikitext to annotated HTML to make
VisualEditor work. Major changes were made to the specification and
representation of elements. Due to bugs in external code used by the
team, tests were added to catch similar issue automatically in the
future. Editing support for categories was improved and several wikitext
corruption issues were fixed. Work continued to test the performance of
a system to store HTML and related information to improve performance of
Parsoid.
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Growth_Quarterly_Review_(December_2…>
Pre-registration user lifecycle (presentation slide from the Growth
team's quarterly review meeting)
In November, the Notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications)> feature was added to the
German and Italian Wikipedias, completing the worldwide release of this
tool. Community response to Notifications has been generally favorable
on all wikis. While feature development has now ended for this project,
we expect new notifications and features to be developed by other teams
in coming months.
The Flow <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow_Portal> team finished the basic
features of this new wiki discussion system. We made Flow work with the
watchlist and added history view for boards, topics and posts. We asked
for community feedback and testing, and prepared for release to
production wikis in December by working on Operations and Security needs.
The Growth <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth> team primarily worked on
reorganizing the GuidedTour
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GuidedTour> and GettingStarted
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted> extensions,
including development of an computer program interface
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface> (API) that
will be used to show editing tasks to users across a variety of devices.
The team also worked on the anonymous editor acquisition
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/anonymous_editor_acquisition> and Wikipedia
article creation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_article_creation>
projects, by taking part in a community discussion about a possible
Draft namespace <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Draft_namespace> for articles,
identifying user needs and preparing the code changes.
A few members of the Growth team attended the Wikimedia Diversity
Conference <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference>
and presented on how diversity related to their work.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
During the last month, the Wikipedia Zero
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> team monitored the launch of
Wikipedia Zero via text (USSD/SMS) in partnership with Airtel Kenya and
Praekelt for the first pilot of the program. The team also continued to
improve and simplify the process and files to configure Zero partners,
enhanced performance and added safeguards to avoid previous issues.
The A/B test done by the Mobile web projects
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects> team resulted in an Edit
Guider, now available on the mobile site. Other features like an
interface overhaul and better user profiles are currently being tested
in beta.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_Metrics_20131205.pdf?page=12>
The Edit Guider for new mobile users (presentation slide)
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_December_Metrics_Meeting_…>
Kenan Wang presenting about the Mobile team's work
== Fundraising ==
Department Highlights
* Prepared for and launched the Big English fundraiser on December
2nd, at approximately 23:00 UTC.
* As of December 5th at 8:30 AM PDT, in December alone, we had made a
little over 3.5 Million (USD converted) in over 250,000 donations.
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Prepared 2012/13 donor list for annual report.
* Worked on end of the year snailmail letter and email letter to
funders that have not given in the last year
* Continued work on a proposal for the Stanton Foundation regarding
mobile and flow.
* Continued work on Sloan proposal for general support grant
* Continued outreach to foundation funders in Europe.
* FDC Letter of Intent (LOI) submitted
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
* The fundraising team ran campaigns worldwide throughout November in
preparation for the launch of the December campaign in the US, UK,
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The team continued to run A/B
tests of banner messages, designs, and payment flows. In the month
of November, approximately USD 3.4 million was raised from 230,000
donors (preliminary numbers as donations are still settling). The
team also sent email tests to past donors (nearly 300,000 emails
have been sent so far this year). Please see the Fundraising 2013
page on Meta-wiki
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013> for additional
information.
* The WMF Merchandise Shop ran a 4-day banner campaign targeting
logged-in users in the US from 11/12/13-11/15/13. We sold 124 items
and had our most successful day in sales in the past 90 days. The
campaign was educational in helping us strategize store improvements
for 2014.
== Grantmaking ==
Department highlights
* Learning Patterns being promoted as a tool for sharing learnings.
See blog post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/19/learning-patterns-new-way-share-impor…>
and also monthly metrics presentation
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:December_5_Monthly_metrics-_Eval_po…>.
* Created grantmaking tracker
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_%26_Evaluation/Quarterly_Me…>
of
quarterly metrics, to be more public in the overall activity of our
grants. Working on reordering the presentation of grants materials
on meta.
=== Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee) ===
* Six *Letters of Intent
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Letters_of_intent_for_2013-2014_Ro…>*
for Round
2 2013-2014 were submitted. The Letter of Intent is the first stage
of the proposal process, and is required in order to be able to
submit a proposal. The eligibility process
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round…>
kicks off on December 15th, and all entities must close all gaps by
February 15.
* The Round 1 2012-2013 Quarter 3 *financial analysis*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/Staff…>
was posted on Meta after the submission of the Round 1 2012-2013
third quarterly reports.
* Prior to the FDC face-to-face deliberations, the FDC staff published
its *staff assessments
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:FDC_Staff_proposal_assessments_for…>*
of
all of the Round 1 2013-2014 proposals. The staff assessments are
one of many inputs into the FDC process; they were accompanied by
e.g. a financial analysis (including a R1 2013-2014 Financial
overview
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/Finan…>,
program analysis, and a grant history and compliance analysis.
* The FDC met for its *deliberations*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_members/2013-2014_round1/Del…>
in San
Francisco from November 17-21, and made its *Round 1 2013-2014
recommendations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2013-2014_ro…>*
to the WMF
Board. All nine members attended these deliberations, as did two
Board liaisons.
* Please direct any questions to FDCsupport at wikimedia.org.
=== Project and Event Grants ===
==== Grants awarded in November 2013 ====
The following grant proposals were accepted:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:T.K_Sujith_-_WikiSangamotsavam_2013/…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CZ/Communities
==== Reports accepted in November 2013 ====
The following grant reports were reviewed and accepted by WMF:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wikimedia_Slovakia/Start-up/Report/P…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wikipedia_in_Schools_2012-2013…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CZ/Mediagrant/Report/2013/10
==== Travel & Participation Support ====
* We've drafted a report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Support/Analysis> based
on analysis done by the Learning and Evaluation team in order to
help us better *understand the current state of the Participation
Support Program*. Ideas for growth and improvement are a particular
focus of the report, which will be used to forward conversations
with all stakeholders. We plan to iterate on our support offerings
for Wikimedians to travel and participate in events in the coming
months based on these findings and ongoing discussions.
===== Requests awarded in November 2013 =====
The Participation Support Committee has funded one request in November 2013:
* Participation:Oarabile_Mudongo/Youth_Engagement_Summit_Africa
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Oarabile_Mudongo/Youth_Engage…>
to
fund a Wikimedia volunteer's participation in a youth summit in
Mauritius, where he will present about Wikimedia to other attendees.
===== Reports accepted in November 2013 =====
Congratulations to 2 grantees on their successful participation in
SMWCon Fall 2013:
* Participation:Toniher/SMWCon_Fall_2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Toniher/SMWCon_Fall_2013/Repo…>
* Participation:Himeshi/SMWCon_Fall_2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Himeshi/SMWCon_Fall_2013/Repo…>
==== Individual Engagement Grants ====
* *Committee scoring* is complete and the results have been shared
back with all round 2 IEG proposers
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-join> on
meta-wiki.
* The IEG committee has recommended a *shortlist of IEG proposals* for
WMF to consider funding in round 2. Due diligence is underway and
the set of approved IEGs will be announced in mid December.
* Siko Bouterse traveled to Berlin to *attend the Diversity Conference
and meet with WMDE staffers*. Activities and outcomes from this trip
include:
o Hosted an *IdeaLab Diversity working session
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference/Schedule#Sik…>*,
where participants created 9 new ideas
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Ideas> (the
start of actionable project
plans) aimed at fostering increased diversity in the Wikimedia
movement.
o Co-facilitated a workshop
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference/Documentatio…>
aimed at sharing strategies for *measuring impact in diversity
initiatives*(see also the "Grantmaking Learning and Evaluation"
section below) .
o Co-led, with IEGrantee Ocaasi
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ocaasi>, a session on
*playful strategies* <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inviting_Diversity.pdf> *for
inviting diversity* that we've used in spaces like IEG
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG>, IdeaLab
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab>, and The
Wikipedia Adventure <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:TWA>.
o Met with WMDE's Community Team to share *learning and strategies
for grantmaking to individuals*. We hope to increase this
sharing and coordination between these teams over the coming year.
o Met with other WMDE staffers involved in research, Wikidata
development, Teahouse and other community projects, in order to
discuss specific IEG proposals and more general initiatives that
may involve *coordination between WMF and WMDE* in the future.
o Published a *blog post
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/25/diversity-conference-brings-wikimedian…>*
sharing learning and insights from the conference.
* *Final reports* have been received from the first 3 IEGrants and are
under review:
o https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_data_browser/Final
o https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Build_an_effective_method_of_pub…
o https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_v…
* A *post-grant survey* is being prepared to evaluate the grantee
experience from round 1.
=== Grantmaking Learning and Evaluation ===
* Created *grantmaking tracker
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_%26_Evaluation/Quarterly_Me…>*
of quarterly metrics, to be more public in the overall activity of
our grants. Working on reordering the presentation of grants
materials on Meta.
Grants Program evaluations
* *Annual Plan Grants*: See above section (assisted in the grants
program overview); including the Q3 report summary
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/Staff…>
and Application Financial Overview
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/Finan…>.
* *Individual engagement grants*: beginning drafting of a post-grant
survey
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_%26_Evaluation/Survey_draft…>
* *Wikimania Scholarships*: developing the assessment tool alongside
the engineering team; working on transitioning ownership to Ellie Young.
* *Travel and Participation Support Program*: program report in final
stages, but survey questions are now available on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_%26_Evaluation/Participatio…>
Awareness and learning
* Jessie co-presented at the *Diversity Conference* around Impact
Assessment
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference/Documentatio…>
(see also the "Individual Engagement Grants" section above).
Introduced people to the ideas of impact assessment and some tools
for how to do it, as well as a case study for how to do so.
Discussed in particular the Qualtrics, Wikimetrics, and Learning
Pattern tools
* 6 volunteers participated in a *Learning Patterns Hackathon
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Press/Learning_p…>*
on
November 14, at which 6 new Learning Patterns were created. The
library now contains 21 patterns.
* Several resources in the Evaluation Portal are being *translated*
from English: the WikiMetrics Learning Module
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Training/Wiki_Metrics> is
now available in Spanish, and
a learning pattern on asking survey questions about gender identity
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_patterns/Gender_identity>
is now being
translated into Chinese, German and French.
== Programs ==
Department highlights
* The *first of seven reports on the most common programs executed by
Wikimedia program leaders around the world has been published on
Meta* (see also the general "Highlights" section. and
below). It is the first time that an analysis on how the outcomes of
a specific program compare to its costs is available. The report
covers edit-a-thons and includes data gathered from 46 events
completed between February 2012 and October 2013. The Program
Evaluation and Design team asked the community for feedback and
engaged in a discussion on how to further improve this and upcoming
reports. The document is available on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/Edit-a-t…
* The U.S. and Canada education program officially *transitioned from
WMF to the Wiki Education Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Education_Foundation>*, a
new nonprofit that will run
the Education Program in the United States and Canada. Jami
Mathewson ended her contract with the Wikimedia Foundation and
became an employee of the Wiki Education Foundation which also
announced its search for an Executive Director. As quoted in a blog
post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/07/wiki-education-foundation/>
published on the Wikimedia Foundation blog, University of
Mississippi Professor Bob Cummings, board member of the Wiki
Education Foundation, wrote “If we can help a generation of learners
understand Wikipedia as contributors, they are more likely … to
promote better cultural understanding of Wikipedia writ large. If we
can train a generation of faculty to use Wikipedia productively in
their teaching missions, we are then also preparing them to better
understand the connections between specialized and public knowledge,
and how their disciplines can play a role in improving the accuracy
of information in Wikipedia.”
=== Wikipedia Zero ===
* The team launched Wikipedia Zero with *Tcell in Tajikistan and
Beeline in Kazakhstan*, bringing our total number of Wikipedia Zero
countries to 22. Both operators issued press releases to announce
the launch; Tcell also held a press conference, attended by two
Wikipedians from Tajikistan.
* The *USSD/SMS pilot* continued with Airtel Kenya. After some initial
stability issues, the service seems to be running smoothly now. When
Airtel sends promo SMS alerts, we get a good conversion rate and
spike in usage. We are studying the data to identify ways to improve
the user experience and validate the offering.
* Carolynne Schloeder, Director of Mobile Programs, attended a *press
event organized by the local Wikimedia community in Dhaka,
Bangladesh*, followed by a wikimeetup. The press event was well
attended and included brief presentations from each of our local
mobile operator partners. Banglalink, an affiliate under group
partner Vimpelcom and the first to launch Wikipedia Zero in
Bangladesh, said the program is very well received by their
subscribers. Grameenphone, a long time partner under our Telenor
group agreement, spoke of promoting Wikipedia through their iGen
educational program. A representative from Axiata operating company
Robi also expressed interest in supporting Wikipedia Zero in the
future. The event received substantial press coverage, which we hope
will raise awareness of Wikipedia in Bangladesh and support the
local Wikimedia community's efforts to increase the number of
editors contributing to the Bengali version. Munir Hasan and the
Wikimedia team in Bangladesh did an awesome job of organizing a very
productive trip.
* Carolynne also visited *Jakarta* where she met with Siska Doviana,
Ivonne and John from Wikimedia Indonesia, and attended a wikimeetup
organized by Ricky Setiawan. Siska also joined Carolynne in a
meeting with our local parter Axiata XL. We have not seen much usage
on zero.wikipedia.org on XL, so we explored ways that we could
increase the benefits for Indonesia.
* The Wikipedia Zero engineering team has *coordinated with the Ops
team* to define certain IP ranges used for zero-rating. This is a
key step needed to allow our partners to support HTTPS with
Wikipedia Zero.
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
==== Global programs ====
* The U.S. and Canada program officially *transitioned
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/07/wiki-education-foundation/>
from WMF to the Wiki Education Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Education_Foundation>*, a
new nonprofit that will run
the Education Program in the United States and Canada. Jami
Mathewson ended her contract with the Wikimedia Foundation and
became an employee of the Wiki Education Foundation. (see also the
department highlights above)
* Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager LiAnna Davis
attended the Wikimedia *Diversity Conference* in Berlin, Germany,
and discussed the education program's success in attracting new
female contributors and being a way to fill content diversity gaps
on Wikipedia.
* The Wikipedia Education Program team has set up a new hub
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program> for
planning *the future of the software for supporting courses*. We are
now looking for feedback on what improvements users would like to
see as development priorities. Developer Andrew Russell Green has
created several key enhancements to the course pages – including the
option for instructors to add sets of users as students, and to
assign articles to students -- which we expect to deploy in the
coming weeks.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rod_Dunican_presents_at_EduWiki_Con…>
Rod Dunican speaking at EduWiki 2013
* Communications Contractor Sage Ross has begun exploring the use of
*GuidedTours* to provide interactive elements to the Wikipedia
Education Program on-wiki training modules, drawing on the work of
Individual Engagement Grantee User:Ocaasi with /The Wikipedia
Adventure/.
* Rod Dunican, Director of Wikipedia Education Program, was a *keynote
speaker at EduWiki 2013
<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/11/eduwiki-conference-2013-convenes-in-ca…>*
in Cardiff, Wales. Sponsored annually by Wikimedia UK, the EduWiki
conference brings together educators and Wikimedians from around the
world to discuss Wikipedia in education. Rod met with several
lecturers, Wikimedians, and education program leaders, as well as
members of the Wikimedia UK staff to discuss their educational
programs and activities, goals, challenges, successes, and how the
Global Education team could support their efforts.
==== Arab World Program ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KSU_WMF_visit_2013_14.JPG>
Students, professors, and community members took part in a two-day
Wikipedia training at King Saud University.
The first half of November was marked by significant travel, educational
program meetings, and Wikipedia Education training sessions in the
region by Arab World Education Program Manager, Tighe Flanagan.
* Tighe Flanagan *visited King Saud University
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/19/wikipedia-education-program-saudi-ara…>*
to meet with program participants and assist in a two-day technical
training for professors and students. 118 men and women took part in
the training hosted at the Training Center for Wikipedia Translation
at King Saud University in Riyadh. Dr. Nidal Yousef of Isra
University also supported the training and shared his experience as
a participant in the program in Jordan.
* Tighe also *visited the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for
Health Sciences* to give a presentation on the Wikipedia Education
Program and the importance of medical/health articles to
approximately 30 students. This visit was arranged by an active
local Wikipedian who is also a student at the university.
* Tighe and Dr. Nidal Yousef *met with leaders of the King Abdullah
Project for General Education Development in Riyadh* to share ideas
on using Wikipedia as an education tool as they advise the Ministry
of Education on improving curricula in the kingdom.
* Tighe spent a week in *Jordan* meeting with previous program
participants at Isra University
<http://www.isra.edu.jo/start.php?c=news951.html> as well as
conducting outreach at universities that are new to the program this
semester or may join in the coming semesters: Zarqa University,
Princess Sumaya University for Technology. Tighe also had the
opportunity to connect with a group of local Wikipedians to get
direct feedback abou the program in Jordan and to think of ways to
better integrate the Wikipedians community with the efforst of the
Wikipedia Education Program in the region.
* The *Education Extension is now fully translated into Arabic*. An
on-wiki discussion
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9…>
has been posted and a request
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57729> has been
filed on Bugzilla to enable it on the Arabic Wikipedia.
==== Communications ====
* Following improvements based on community feedback, the text for the
new */Contributing to Wikipedia/ introductory print brochure* has
been handed off to designer David Peters.
* Three blog posts:
o New Wiki Education Foundation directs program in U.S., Canada
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/07/wiki-education-foundation/>
o Saudi students join the Wikipedia Education Program
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/19/wikipedia-education-program-saudi-arab…>
o How to make a Wikipedian angry
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/20/how-to-make-a-wikipedian-angry/>
* Two newsletters:
o 5 November
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/5_Nove…>
o 19 November
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/19_Nov…>
=== Program Evaluation and Design ===
November was a busy month for the Program Evaluation and Design team.
Communications wise it was rather quiet, as the team proceeded with
parsing, processing, and evaluating data collected in the *Data
Collection Survey*. Program Evaluation Specialist Dr. Jaime Anstee,
along with interns Yuan Li and Edward Galvez, worked on processing and
evaluating the data and on creating graphs and charts. This has been the
major focus of November for us, as the goal to have some initial
reporting available for the FDC. Highlights of the month include:
* The ongoing *development of program reports* for seven of the most
common programs executed by Wikimedia program leaders around the world.
* When copyediting and reporting is complete, reporting has been
published on Meta:
o The first report on Meta was about *edit-a-thons*. Community
Coordinator Sarah Stierch requested comments from the community
about the report, the data, and its usability. Converations have
been fruitful and the report has proceeded to be improved upon
based on community response. These reports are continuosly being
changed and improved upon, and we hope that the community will
use it to learn from, and improve upon. You can view the
edit-a-thon report here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/Edit-a-t…
o The next part of reporting to be shared on Meta was the
*Overview page*. This gives a detailed overview of the reporting
process, who reported, where data came from, and terminology and
methodologies used to process the data. You can view the overall
page on meta here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/Overview
* Frank Schulenburg *presented the team's analysis of data for
Edit-a-thons and Wiki Loves Monuments* to the FDC during their
recent visit to the Wikimedia Foundation. This allowed Frank to give
the FDC a taste of the work the team has been doing and what its
intended outcomes are.
* The team continues to focus on these ongoing reports, with next
steps including creating a *tool/resource development* timeline, and
creating *partnerships* between chapters, affiliates and community
members interested in piloting evaluation and design processes with
support from the Program Evaluation and Design team.
* Frank Schulenburg supported the Grantmaking team with an assessment
of all Round 1 2013-2014 proposals from the programs perspective as
one of the *inputs into the FDC process*.
== Human Resources ==
Human Resources supported the logistics of the *WMF board* meeting and
board retreat, *transition team
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Transition_team>* meetings, and
the ongoing *executive searches* (namely, Executive Director, Chief
Communications Officer, and VP of Engineering). HR also is overhauling
the *orientation process*, continuing our testing of *ergonomics*
evaluations, and conducting the annual *employee engagement survey*. We
are also preparing for the annual *holiday party*. The new US *401k*
investment options will go live December 1st, as well as open enrollment
for US *benefits* renewal, and the ongoing work of hiring and
immigration support continues.
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisition Filled
* Andrei Voinigescu, Legal Counsel (Legal)
Conversion
* Marc-Andre Pelletier (Engineering)
New Volunteers
* Aaron Arcos (Engineering)
* Roshni Patel (Legal and Community Advocacy)
* Laith Ulaby (Engineering)
New Contractors
* Jeff Hall (Engineering)
* Joey Hess (Engineering)
* Mike Hoover (Engineering)
* Jessica Robell (Fundraising)
* Jay Walsh (Legal and Community Advocacy)
Contracts Extended
* Dan DeJarnatt (Human Resources)
* Rubina Kwon (Legal and Community Advocacy)
Departure
* Ryan Lane
Contracts Ended
* Michelle Grover
* Jami Mathewson
New Postings
* Global Education Program Manager
* QA Automation Engineer
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
November Actual: 154
November Total Plan: 180
November Filled: 2, Month Attrition: 1
YTD Filled: 22, YTD Attrition: 13
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
39
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates
https://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or https://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* The 6th floor office space redesign is beginning in December. We
will work with VITAL Environments to discover needs, and support
team and common space functions.
* Conference room upgrades continue to be on target and we are
currently testing wall tablets for room management.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_December_Metrics_Meeting_…>
Luis Villa presenting about the version 4.0 of the Creative Commons
licenses (slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CC4forWikimedians.pdf>)
* On November 18, LCA announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/18/call-for-input-on-the-new-trademark-p…>
the launch of a new *community consultation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trademark_policy> regarding
its new Trademark Policy
draft <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark_policy>*. The
consultation period is expected
to last two months, ending on January 18. In creating this draft,
LCA incorporated advice and feedback received from the community
during an initial consultation about general trademark practices
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trademark_practices_discussion>
that lasted over five
months. LCA focused on making the draft reflect community values, on
ensuring easy reuse of the marks by community members, and on the
design and readability
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/10/29/designing-a-user-friendly-trademark-p…>
of the policy draft. We look forward to hearing the community’s
thoughts and feedback over the next two months, as we work towards
finalizing the draft. Once finalized, the draft will be presented to
the Board for adoption.
* LCA continues to consult with the community on a new draft *Privacy
Policy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy> and Access
to Nonpublic Data Policy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy>*.
* The WMF sent a letter, also published in a blog post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/19/wikimedia-foundation-sends-cease-and-…>,
demanding that *Wiki-PR cease and desist* from editing Wikipedia
until they had complied with the Wikimedia community’s conditions.
* The legal team posted a blog post congratulating Creative Commons
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/26/creative-commons-version-4-0/> on
the newly released version *4.0 of the CC license suite*. We are now
following community consultations in the license.
* A *German appeals court* held that the Wikimedia Foundation does not
need to proactively check for illegal or inaccurate content. Legal
Counsel Michelle Paulson summarized this decision in a blog post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/12/02/legal-victory-german-court-wikimedia-…>.
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 23
* Completed : 16
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 11
* Approved : 1
* Pending : 8
* Denied : 1
* Approval not needed : 1
==== Domains Obtained ====
mediawiki.gr, wikibooks.gr, wikisource.gr, wikibooks.am, wikidata.am,
wikinews.am, wikiquote.am, wikisource.am, wikiversity.am, wiktionary.am,
wikibooks.hk, wikibooks.lt, wikibooks.lu, wikibooks.lv, wikibooks.ro,
wikibooks.tw, wikidata.hk, wikidata.lt, wikidata.lu, wikidata.lv,
wikidata.ro, wikidata.tw, wikinews.be, wikinews.lt, wikinews.lu
==== Coming & Going ====
* LCA welcomed its *first legal fellow*, Roshni Patel, a recent
graduate from Georgetown Law who will be with the Foundation for 9
months and focusing on privacy issues during the term of her fellowship.
* LCA welcomed a *new legal counsel*, Andrei Voinigescu, to the team.
Immediately prior to joining WMF, he was living in Japan and working
on intellectual property and corporate transactions for a large
technology company. He previously interned at the Software Freedom
Law Center and earned a degree in Computer Science from Queen's
University in Ontario, Canada.
=== Communications Report, November 2013 ===
The Paid Advocacy Editing story continued into November. Our outside
counsel sent a cease-and-desist letter to Wiki-PR which generated a
fresh round of coverage, mostly positive. In other news, we reviewed the
first round of candidates for the new Chief Communications Officer
position at WMF and decided on 5 candidates to bring to San Francisco
for the first round interviews in early December. The communications
team provided on-going support to the Wikipedia Zero team’s announcement
of new partnerships, and the LCA team’s launch of a community
consultation period for the new Trademark Policy. We also helped Sue
prep for her Reddit AMA
<http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/1qk097/im_sue_gardner_i_ru…>.
The Rand Paul controversy and the MIT “Decline of Wikipedia” stories got
extended play into the first week of November and then petered out.
==== Major announcements ====
*Myanmar to get access to the world’s knowledge through Wikipedia
Zero
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Telenor_Wikipedia_Zero_…>*
(7 November 2013)
Telenor Group and the Wikimedia Foundation today announced Myanmar as
the latest country to be included in their existing agreement to bring
Wikipedia Zero to Telenor customers in Asia and Europe.
*Wikimedia Foundation opens community consultation on new trademark
policy
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_op…>*
(19 November 2013)
The Wikimedia Foundation has opened a two-month consultation period with
its community of contributors, who are invited to discuss a new
Wikimedia trademark policy draft and propose revisions to it.
*Wikimedia Foundation sends cease and desist letter to WikiPR
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_se…>*
(20 November 2013)
The Wikimedia Foundation has sent a cease and desist letter to WikiPR
demanding they stop violating Wikipedia's Terms of Use and that they
comply with the conditions outlined in a ban from the site by the
Wikipedia editing community.
==== Major Storylines through November ====
/(For a detailed list of press clips about Wikipedia and the
Wikimedia Foundation in October, see the list on Meta-wiki here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications_committee/Press_clippings#No…>./)
Cease-and-Desist Letter to Wiki-PR (late November)
Guardian - Wikipedia sends cease-and-desist letter to PR firm
offering paid edits to site
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/21/wikipedia-cease-and-desis…>
Washington Post (blog) - The Switchboard: Wikipedia slaps PR firm
with cease-and-desist over fake entries
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/21/the-switchboar…>
Independent - Wikipedia names Texas PR firm over false manipulation
of site entries
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/wikipedia-names-texas-pr-fir…>
Wikipedia Zero in Kenya, Myanmar and Bangladesh (throughout November)
Punch - Airtel, Wikimedia Foundation to link 17 countries
<http://www.punchng.com/business/technology/airtel-wikimedia-foundation-to-l…>
The Next Web - Myanmar to get free mobile Wikipedia access via
Telenor next year
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/11/08/myanmar-to-get-free-mobile-wikipedia-…>
Bangla Mail 24 - Zero in on the Wikipedia Project
<http://www.banglamail24.com/index.php?ref=ZGV0YWlscy0yMDEzXzExXzEzLTk2LTYyM…>
Iran Censors Persian Wikipedia (mid-November)
The Daily Dot - The Wikipedia articles the Iranian government
doesn't want citizens to see
<http://www.dailydot.com/politics/iran-internet-censorship-wikipedia/>
Mashable - The Wikipedia Articles Iran's Government Doesn't Want
People to See
<http://mashable.com/2013/11/14/wikipedia-articles-iran-block/>
Carbonated TV - Iran Blocks 963 Wikipedia Articles Including Emma
Watson and Kristen Stewart
<http://www.carbonated.tv/news/university-of-pennsylvanias-annenberg-report-…>
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
New Scientist - Unmask Wikipedia sock puppets by the way they write
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029434.500-unmask-wikipedia-sock-pu…>
The Black Sheep Journal -Three Obstacles to Underrepresented Peoples
on Wikipedia: The Role Edit-a-thons have to Play
<http://sites.hampshire.edu/blacksheepjournal/2013/11/13/three-obstacles-to-…>
Inklingsnews - Wikipedia is the (Not) so wicked witch of the web
<http://www.inklingsnews.com/b/2013/11/06/wikipedia-is-the-not-so-wicked-wit…>
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Blog.wikimedia.org published 31 posts
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/> in November 2013. Four posts were
multilingual <https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>,
including versions inAfrikaans, Arabic, Catalan, Spanish, French,
German, Hebrew, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and Xhosa.
Some highlights from the blog:
*Open letter for free access to Wikipedia on mobile in South Africa
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/08/open-letter-free-access-wikipedia-sou…>*
(November 8, 2013)
*Developing Distributedly, Part 2: Best Practices for Staying in
Sync
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/22/developing-distributedly-part-2/>*
(November 22, 2013)
*Adding musical scores to Wikimedia
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/27/adding-musical-scores-to-wikimedia/>*
(November 27, 2013)
==== Media Contact ====
Media contact through November 2013: wmf:Press room/Media
Contact#November 2013
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#November_2013>
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for November 2013:
* Volume 9, Issue 44
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-11…>,
6 November 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 45
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-11…>,
13 November 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 46
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-11…>,
20 November 2013
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in November 2013:
1. Damián Finol (Wikimedia Venezuela)
2. Phil Malone (Director of the IP clinic, Stanford Law)
3. Gautam Chandna (Opera Software)
4. Arjun Bhatt (Opera Software)
5. Simon Turkale (Lumen)
6. Luca Capello (Itopie Informatique)
7. Aaron Arcos (Google)
8. Chris Cavanaugh (CCSC)
9. Gerald Thomas (Paylocity)
10. Linda Lin (Google)
11. Denny Vrandečić (Google)
12. Jianyong Zhang (Google)
13. Jiang Bian (Google)
14. Peter Berger (People Plus)
15. Kate Seisel (People Plus)
16. Sarah Greene (Rapid Science)
17. Gerardo Capiel (Benetech)
18. Jason Ricci (FLUXX)
19. Graham U. (FLUXX)
20. Steve Heffernan (Brightcove)
21. Matthew McClure (Brightcove)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Hi all,
We've published an analysis of the Travel and Participation Support
Program.[1]
This program is a partnership between WMF, Wikimedia Deutschland, and
Wikimedia Switzerland to fund travel for Wikimedians to attend
non-Wikimedia events.[2] After 2 years of operation, we wanted to learn
what's working and what's not.
Some key findings from the report include:
Opportunities:
*Travel funding provides opportunities to deeply connect participants to
the movement and each other.
*Participation Support demonstrates an opportunity to reach a range of new
Wikimedia grantees, including women and participants in the Global South.
Recommendations:
*The volume of requests and grants made in this program must be increased
in order to fully realize its potential; the scale of use is too small with
the current scope and setup.
*Program pages should be redesigned for ease-of-use and if possible with a
bit of joy.
*Publicizing the program should be a priority; blogs, social media, and
on-wiki promotional campaigns to spread awareness of the program could help
boost the number of requests.
*Simpler application methods should be investigated in order to keep the
process open to a range of applicants.
*Scope expansion for the program should be considered, particularly to
include Wikimedia events.
We hope to use the data in this report as a starting point to reimagine
if/how we can better support Wikimedians to travel and participate in
events. Please have a look at the findings and share your thoughts and
ideas on the talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation_talk:Support/Analysis
Warm regards,
Siko
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Support/Analysis
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Support
--
Siko Bouterse
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
sbouterse(a)wikimedia.org
*Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. *
*Donate <https://donate.wikimedia.org> or click the "edit" button today,
and help us make it a reality!*
Hi Megan,
If someone wants to donate the harvestable platinum from an asteroid, would
you please make sure that an appropriately progressive excise tax is paid
to the ufohastings.com
concerns? Thanks muchly.
On Dec 11, 2013 8:03 PM, <wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. [Reminder] Language Engineering IRC Office Hour today
> December 11, 2013 at 1700 UTC (Runa Bhattacharjee)
> 2. Re: Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method (Tom Morris)
> 3. Re: Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method (David Gerard)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:41:30 +0530
> From: Runa Bhattacharjee <rbhattacharjee(a)wikimedia.org>
> To: MediaWiki internationalisation
> <mediawiki-i18n(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia Mailing List
> <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia developers
> <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
> wikitech-ambassadors(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Reminder] Language Engineering IRC Office Hour
> today December 11, 2013 at 1700 UTC
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAE7QTsTwAnwsmcj0M2Yo_JK7VNk3NvY0Gr_WjsoB5j3DrmhP0w(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hello,
>
> This is a reminder that the Wikimedia Language Engineering team will be
> hosting an IRC office hour from 1700 to 1800UTC later today on
> #wikimedia-office (FreeNode). Please see below for the event details.
>
> Thanks
> Runa
>
> === Event Details ===
>
> What: WMF Language Engineering Office hour
> When: December 11, 2013 (Wednesday). 1700-1800 UTC
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20131211T1700
> Where: IRC Channel #wikimedia-office on FreeNode
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Runa Bhattacharjee <rbhattacharjee(a)wikimedia.org>
> Date: Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 3:19 PM
> Subject: Language Engineering IRC Office Hour on December 11, 2013
> (Wednesday) at 1700 UTC
> To: MediaWiki internationalisation
> <mediawiki-i18n(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia Mailing List
> <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia developers
> <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
> wikitech-ambassadors(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
>
> [x-posted]
>
> Hello,
>
> The Wikimedia Language Engineering team will be hosting an IRC office
> hour on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 between 17:00 - 18:00 UTC on
> #wikimedia-office. (See below for timezone conversion and other
> details.) We will be talking about some of our recent and upcoming
> projects and then taking questions for the remaining time.
>
> Questions and any other concerns can also be sent to me directly
> before the event. See you there!
>
> Thanks
> Runa
>
> === Event Details ===
>
> What: WMF Language Engineering Office hour
> When: December 11, 2013 (Wednesday). 1700-1800 UTC
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20131211T1700
> Where: IRC Channel #wikimedia-office on FreeNode
>
> --
> Language Engineering - Outreach and QA Coordinator
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
>
>
> --
> Language Engineering - Outreach and QA Coordinator
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:58:39 +0100
> From: Tom Morris <tom(a)tommorris.org>
> To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method
> Message-ID:
> <1386759519.20606.58239989.134FB9E0(a)webmail.messagingengine.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> I demand that the Wikimedia Foundation start accepting the following:
>
> Litecoin
> Namecoin
> PPCoin
> Feathercoin
> Craftcoin
> Quarkcoin
> Freicoin
> Devcoin
> Terracoin
> BBQCoin
> Netcoin
>
> Actually, scrap that, I've got an even better Ponzi scheme - sorry,
> cryptocurrency: TomCoin.
>
> And, best of all, if you start taking TomCoins I'll be happy to give you
> a million of them. No, wait, how about a billion?
>
> --
> Tom Morris
> <http://tommorris.org/>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:32:10 +0000
> From: David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
> <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Let's accept Bitcoin as a donation method
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAJ0tu1F8oN5aA6O+98797ZWYemozBVnmTeWDkAcrOBTQS0MX0w(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> It's *completely* wrong to call these things Ponzi schemes.
>
> *Technically*, they're pump-and-dumps.
>
> - d.
> On 11 Dec 2013 10:59, "Tom Morris" <tom(a)tommorris.org> wrote:
>
> > I demand that the Wikimedia Foundation start accepting the following:
> >
> > Litecoin
> > Namecoin
> > PPCoin
> > Feathercoin
> > Craftcoin
> > Quarkcoin
> > Freicoin
> > Devcoin
> > Terracoin
> > BBQCoin
> > Netcoin
> >
> > Actually, scrap that, I've got an even better Ponzi scheme - sorry,
> > cryptocurrency: TomCoin.
> >
> > And, best of all, if you start taking TomCoins I'll be happy to give you
> > a million of them. No, wait, how about a billion?
> >
> > --
> > Tom Morris
> > <http://tommorris.org/>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list
> > Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
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> End of Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 117, Issue 25
> ********************************************
>
