Dear Wikimedia friends,
On Saturday, November 30, 2013, Wikimedia Deutschland held its 13th
general assembly in Berlin. Our main topics were the presentation and
discussion of our annual plan[1], the future of our community project
budget (CPB) as well as the election of the board. The assembly agreed
upon the annual plan, an innovation of the CPB and elected the
following members to its board[2]:
- Nikolas Becker (President)
- Anja Ebersbach (Vice President)
- Tim Moritz Hector (Vice President)
- Steffen Prößdorf (Treasurer)
- Jürgen Friedrich
- Markus Glaser
- Sebastian Wallroth
- Ralf Bösch
- Robin Tech
- Jens Best
Olaf Kosinsky, Daniel Baur, Holger Motzkau and Thomas Goldammer were
re-elected as auditors. All of them were elected for a term of one
year.
Nikolas Becker succeeds Ralf Liebau in the office as the board’s
president. Ralf as well as our former vice president Delphine Ménard
and the two board members Martin Rulsch and Manuela Kanneberg did not
run for the board again. All of Wikimedia Deutschland – the board, the
association and the staff – thank the outgoing members for their hard
work and support.
Like in the previous years, the board of Wikimedia Deutschland is
looking forward to working with the Wikimedia Foundation and the
Wikimedia Chapters on a fruitful and co-operative basis. Feel free to
get in touch any time, either via email to single board members[2] or
to the whole board via praesidium(a)wikimedia.de.
Please join in in welcoming them on board! :)
Best regards,
Nicole Ebber
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/2014_annual_plan/en
[2] http://www.wikimedia.de/wiki/Pr%C3%A4sidium
--
Nicole Ebber
Leiterin Internationales
Head of International Affairs
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 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.
Hi,
Looking at the summary reports per language, I've noticed a linear,
significant increase in pageviews for many European languages (ro, bg,
hu, fr) Wikipedias in the last 3 months. This is not happening for
Asian languages or Russian and is not obvious from the report card.
Has anything changed in the reporting or the visit patterns for these
Wikipedias? It looks pretty weird to have a 100% increase for Romanian
in just 3 months [1].
Thanks,
Strainu
[1] http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/SummaryRO.htm
(This press release is also available online here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_an…
Wikimedia Foundation launches tenth-annual online fundraising campaign to
support Wikipedia and increase access to free knowledge
(San Francisco, California) 3 December 2013 -- The Wikimedia Foundation,
the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and its sister projects, today
announced the launch of its tenth-annual year-end fundraising campaign. The
online fundraising campaign aims to raise $20 million, while the remainder
of the Wikimedia Foundation's funding will come from individual gifts given
outside the year-end campaign, and from foundation grants. The overwhelming
majority of the Wikimedia Foundation's funding comes from individual
readers giving an average of $15.
The Wikimedia Foundation's online fundraising brings in the resources
needed to keep the Wikimedia projects freely available to everyone around
the world in their own language, and guarantees that Wikipedia will never
have to rely on advertising. Donations help the Wikimedia Foundation
maintain server infrastructure, improve and simplify the software that runs
our projects, support initiatives around the globe to increase the number
of project contributors, and make Wikipedia accessible to billions of
people who are just beginning to access the internet.
"People donate to Wikipedia because they find it useful, and they trust it
because even though it's not perfect, they know it's written for them. We
aim to tell the truth, and we can do that because of the millions of people
who donate what they can each year," said Sue Gardner, Executive Director
of the Wikimedia Foundation. "The average donor is paying for his or her
own use of Wikipedia, plus the costs of hundreds of other people. The
support of so many people keeps us independent and able to deliver the
world's knowledge for free. Exactly as it should be."
Every year, as the number of Wikipedia readers and donors grows, the
Wikimedia Foundation is able to shorten the duration of its end-of-year
campaign. We thank all our donors for their support. We also want to thank
the volunteers who help make our campaign a widely localized and
internationalized endeavor. In 2012, for example, more than 1,000 people
translated the fundraising banners into more than 100 languages, which
prompted donations from nearly every country on the planet.
The 2013 year-end fundraising campaign builds on the success of previous
years and will run through the end of this year. To make a donation, click
the banners at the top of Wikipedia, or go directly to donate.wikimedia.org.
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 530 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property worldwide (comScore, October 2013).
Available in 287 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 30 million
articles contributed by a global volunteer community of roughly 80,000
people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an
audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and
grants.
Press Contact
Matthew Roth
Spokesperson, Wikimedia Foundation
+1 415-839-6885 ext 6635 (San Francisco)
mroth(a)wikimedia.org
To be removed from the Wikimedia Foundation press release list, please
reply with "unsubscribe" in the subject.
_______________________________________________
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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WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Sorry for cross-posting on Wikimedia-l, but last month there was a problem
with getting the message out over Advocacy Advisors. I also believe that
this month is particularly relevant.
EU Policy November Report
a.k.a.
Keep it short, stupid!
Groetjes uit Brussel! [1]
As the days are getting shorter in the Northern Hemisphere and so will be
this report. That is due to popular request and not lack of humongous
amounts of information. We can always take a topic further and go deeper,
just give me a hint.
Dimi
tl;dr
Copyright reform dialogue,PSI guidelines and study on the “contribution of
public domain works and open licensing to the European economy” likely to
come.
ToC
1. New Copyright Reform Consultation Announced
2. Public Sector Information Hearing in Luxembourg
3. Study on Public Domain and Open Licensing by EC
4. Trademark Directive and Encyclopedias
-----------------
-----------------
#copyright #reform #l4e
1. The Tragic End of Licenses 4 Europe and New Hope for Copyright Reform
Why is this relevant?
It is the lead-up to the now confirmed future consultation on a wider
copyright reform.
What happened?
The final plenary of Licenses for Europe (European Commission stakeholder
dialogue on copyright topics) took place in Brussels [2] without
delivering any palpable, legislative results or even proposals. It was
complemented by an event at the European Parliament concentrating on the
aspect of text and data mining. [3] Me and Mathias Schindler (WMDE)
participated at both events. In the latter, Mathias presented opportunities
how Wikimedia projects can be used in text mining applications. At both
events we also supported the point of view, that mining is essentially
reading using sophisticated tools and that a general debate on copyright is
necessary, instead of coming up with new licensing requirements for yet
another range of cases. A last remark from the EP event: It was the first
time I have ever heard a conservative EPP politician (Zalewski, PL) calling
for shortening copyright terms and decriminalising file sharing.
What comes next?
According to Commissioner Barnier, the European Commission will “very soon
launch a public consultation on copyright”. [4] Licenses 4 Europe was
supposed to be the industry's chance to solve the problems on its own. This
has clearly not happened, so that even Barnier had to admit that “a
legislative proposal is very well possible [*fr. bien possible*] because
markets cannot resolve all problems. I am not satisfied with the results
and with the current situation.”. My personal guess is that we will see an
announcement in December and a start of actual stakeholder consultation
somewhere in March 2014. The actual proposal will have to be finalised by
the new Commission at the end of 2014. One could only guess about the
scope, but people from within the Commission have told us that “big
discussions” are going on inside the institutions with “major upsets” on
the table.
-----------------
-----------------
#PSI
2. Public Sector Information Hearing in Luxembourg
Why is this relevant?
The 2013 amendments to the PSI Directive [5] need to be implemented. As
many member states and institutions are having a hard time understanding
the subject matter, the Commission wants to release best practice
guidelines.
What happened?
Again me and Mathias Schindler (WMDE) participated in the hearing.
Beforehand we had coordinated our position with the Open Knowledge
Foundation, Creative Commons, LAPSI [6] and several other like-minded
groups. Our general talking points were as follows:
-
No NC restrictions (we also gave out our relevant brochure [7])
-
Free of charge access (since charging for it would be prohibitive and
result in lack of income anyway)
-
Use of “standard” licenses (e.g. cc0 or cc-by) instead of creating new
ones (see [8])
What comes next?
The Commission will have another discussion round with member states’
national representatives and then move on to writing said guidelines.
-----------------
-----------------
#IPObservatory #OHIM #IPvalue #PDvalue
3. IP Observatory Open to Commissioning Study on Importance of PD&Free
Licenses
Why is this relevant?
The EC has created an Observatory of Intellectual Property Rights
Infringements (run by OHIM) that is meant to serve as a place where
narratives regarding intellectual property are shaped.
What happened?
Me and Nikolas Becker attended the plenary last month (see last monitoring
report for further details [9]). As we felt that the commissioned reports
are biased towards underlining the how crucial intellectual property is to
the European economy, we asked for a study on the contribution of the
public domain and open licensing to the European economy. As we followed up
this request and also had like-minded organisations ask for a similar step,
we have now received an official answer that the OHIM will try to include
such research in their 2014 working programme. [10]
What comes next?
I am invited on the 17. December at the OHIM offices in Brussels for a
Christmas reception. I expect to have more information by that date the
latest. If anyone else is in Brussels at this time, let me know and I can
ask for a second invitation.
-----------------
-----------------
#trademark #encyclopedia
4. Trademark Directive: Encyclopedic Reproductions
Why is this relevant?
There are currently two legislative proceedings regarding trademarks in the
EU. A Directive, which governs trade mark law in each member state [11] and
a Regulation, which lays out the rules for the European trade mark and the
OHIM [12]
What happened?
The Dossiers and possible amendments are being negotiated in the JURI
Parliamentary Committee (Legal Affairs) with Swedish liberal (ALDE) MEP
Cecilia Wikström serving as Rapporteur. One of the discussed aspects is an
specification for publishing trademarks in works of reference. The current
relevant text is Article 12 of the Directive. It reads:
“If the reproduction of a trade mark in a dictionary, encyclopaedia or
similar reference work gives the impression that it constitutes the generic
name of the goods or services for which the trade mark is registered, the
publisher of the work shall, at the request of the proprietor of the trade
mark, ensure that the reproduction of the trade mark at the latest in the
next edition of the publication is accompanied by an indication that it is
a registered trade mark.”
What comes next?
A first plenary reading is forecasted for February 2014. This usually means
that by then the Parliament should have finalised its position and should
have come to an agreement with the Council.
-----------------
-----------------
[1]http://staaltape.wordpress.com/groetjes-uit-brussel/
[2]
http://ipkitten.blogspot.be/2013/11/licences-for-europe-insiders-report.html
[3]
http://eventstream.streamovations.be/copyright-research-and-innovation-poli…
[4]https://twitter.com/linotherhino/status/400664940778106880
[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_the_re-use_of_public_sector_info…
[6]http://www.lapsi-project.eu/
[7]http://www.wikimedia.de/images/1/15/CC-NC_Leitfaden_2013_engl.pdf
[8]http://xkcd.com/927/
[9]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-November/128738.html
[10]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PRES_Dimitrov_reply_Narratives_and_…
[11]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2013/…
[12]
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2013/…
Hi all,
The fundraising team is kicking off our year-end campaign in the US, UK,
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand at midnight UTC on December 3, 2013. SF
staff - banners are going up in a few minutes.
Check out our latest banner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/?banner=B13_1202_clr_blgs_enYY&reset=1
Quick reminder: We have been running banners at a low-level since the start
of the fiscal year in July. In that time, we have continuously tested new
banners to find improvements that will allow us to reduce the number of
banners people see each year. This is our first year experimenting with
year-round fundraising. We've already raised over $13 million USD -- which
is roughly equal to about how much we raised after our first full week of
the 2012 fundraising campaign. During this year-end campaign, banners will
be displayed to 100% of readers.
*A few key facts:*
- Amount raised in testing prior to the year-end campaign: Roughly $13.5
million USD
- Campaign goal: $20 million USD
- Banners will run to 100% of English readers in the US, UK, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand
- Previous donors will receive a reminder to donate email during the
month of December
- Mobile banners will be displayed in the US
- We will run campaigns in other countries and languages in 2014
If you spot any errors, please let us know on the meta talk
page<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Fundraising_2013>.
Feel free to ask questions there as well.
More background info on meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013
Thanks for your help!
Megan
--
Megan Hernandez
Director of Online Fundraising
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi,
This is just a notification that the latest edition of The Wikinewsie Group
News newsletter can be found at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikinewsie_Group/Newsletter/6 .
Highlights:
The Wikinewsie Group News Edition 6, December 2, 2013
If you know anyone interested in Wikinews, journalism on Wikimedia projects
or The Wikinewsie Group, please encourage them to subscribe to the
newsletter by adding their name to the
list<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikinewsie_Group/Newsletter>
.
The Group
- Aff-comm recommended to the Wikimedia Foundation Board that The
Wikinewsie Group be recognised as a thematic organization in early November.
[1]<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/The_Wiki…>
Education
- Wikinews Education
Program<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/12/02/wikinews-education-program/>
blog
post was published on Wikimedia's official blog.
- Discussions were had on IRC and Skype about the possibility of
installing the education extension on Ukrainian, Czech and Korean Wikinews.
While these could be used to potentially re-invigorate the local
communities and provide a cohort of new contributors, the limited
contributor base at the moment makes it difficult to implement. Greater
partnerships would need to be done with chapters to provide people to
assist local projects in running any education initiative.
- What is news?
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What_is_news.pdf> handout
was created to supplement existing training materials as this is an area
where new contributors sometimes have issues on English Wikinews.
- Documenting your original sport
reporting<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Documenting_your_original_sport_report…>
was
created to supplement Wikinews Original Sport
Reporting<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikinews_Original_Sport_Reporting.pdf>.
Assistance is requested in translating these documents into Spanish and
Ukrainian.
Outreach
- LauraHale attended Wikimedia CEE Meeting
2013<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2013> in
Slovakia representing The Wikinewsie Group. She had conversations with
people from several chapters about the potential to do things with TWG
including the Polish, Estonian, Serbian, Czech and Ukrainian chapters.
Original reporting projects
- The paperwork was submitted at the end of the month to send five
Wikinews reporters to the Sochi Paralympic Games.
- Attempts were made to secure media accreditation for the Commonwealth
Games. The application was unsuccessful.
Sincerely,
Laura Hale
--
twitter: purplepopple
blog: ozziesport.com
Hi.
I just wanted to remind everyone that starting today we are again having office
hours for VisualEditor. The first will be held on Monday, 2 December, at
1900 UTC and the second on 3 December at 0100. (See
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_hours for time conversion links.)
Logs will be posted on meta after each office hour completes. You'll find
them and logs for older office hours on the topic at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:VisualEditor_office_hours_logs
Hope to see you there. :)
Maggie
--
Maggie Dennis
Senior Community Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
// For translated versions, please consult
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Call_for_Candidates_…
//
Dear all,
The Affiliations Committee [1], the committee that is responsible for
guiding volunteers in establishing Chapters, User Groups and Thematic
Organizations and approving them when they are ready is looking for new
members.
The main focus of AffCom is to guide groups of volunteers in forming
affiliates. We make sure that the groups are large enough to be viable (and
advise them on how to get bigger), review bylaws for compliance with the
requirements and best practices, and advise the Board of the Wikimedia
Foundation on issues connected to Chapters, Thematic Organizations and User
Groups.
This requires communication with volunteers all over the World, negotiating
skills and cultural sensitivity and the ability to understand legal texts.
We try to get a healthy mix of different skill sets in our membership.
Key skills/experience that we are looking for in candidate members, are
typically:
is
* Excitement by the challenge of helping to empower groups of volunteers
worldwide
* Willingness to process applications through a set, perhaps bureaucratic
process
* Readiness to participate in (movement roles) political discussions on the
role and future of affiliates, models of affiliations, and similar questions
* 5 hours per week availability[2], and the time to participate in a
monthly ~2 hour phone meeting
* International orientation
* Very good communication skills in English
* Ability to work and communicate with other cultures, languages andcultures
* Strong understanding of the structure and work of affiliates and the WMF
* Knowledge of different legal systems, experience in community building
and organising is a plus
* Communication skills in other languages are a major plus
* Experience with or in an active affiliate is a major plus
In 2012 new types of affiliations were introduced and the role of the
Committee has increased in guiding through volunteers towards affiliation
models that empower them to further our mission, and making sure these
models meet the needs of the volunteers and the movement. We are looking
for new people to help, who are not afraid of the workload and are
motivated by helping other volunteers come together forming communities
that further our mission around the world.
Members are usually selected every twelve months for staggered two year
terms. The applications will be voted on by the current members not seeking
re-election, taking into account comments put forward by the committee's
members, advisers, WMF staff and board liaisons based on the above
membership criteria. A final decision will be made by the end of the year,
with new members expected to join on or around 1 January 2014.
If you are interested, You can send your applications with your full name,
contact data (e-mail address, wiki username), relevant experience and
motivation letter to our vice-chair Carlos Colina at jewbask AT
wikimedia.org.ve by December 5, 2013. You will get a confirmation that your
application came through.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me or Carlos. We
are happy to chat or have a phone/VoIP call with anyone about our work, if
this helps them decide to apply.
Please distribute this call among your networks, and do apply if you are
interested.[3]
Best regards,
Bence Damokos
Chair,
Affiliations Committee
[1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee (please follow
the links and familiarize yourself with our work)
[2]: Our member standards of participation are at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Standard_…
[3] A translatable version of this call is avaliable at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Call_for_Candidates_…,
please help translate and distribute it among your networks!