Hi folks,
As many of you know, this week we enabled HTTPS for logged-in users of
Wikimedia projects. See:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/https-default-logged-in-users-wikimed…
We have geographically exempted users geo-located to China or Iran
from this [1], because these countries mostly block HTTPS traffic and
requiring HTTPS for logged-in users would make it impossible for users
in these countries to log in.
Long term, we’d like to increase HTTPS coverage further, initially by
marking the HTTPS versions of our pages as "canonical", which would
cause search engines to refer to them instead of the unencrypted
content. This would make issues with countries that block HTTPS
traffic even more complex to deal with.
HTTPS for editors is important because it is otherwise trivial to
sniff account credentials, especially when users use unencrypted
connections such as open wireless networks. This could potentially
enable an attacker to gain access to an account with significant
privileges, such as checkuser credentials. Beyond that, HTTPS makes it
harder for attackers (individuals, organizations, governments) to
monitor user behavior of readers and editors. It’s not perfect by any
means, but it’s a step towards more privacy and security.
There are many sites on the web now that use HTTPS for all
transactions. For example, Twitter and Facebook use HTTPS by default.
Both sites are also completely blocked in mainland China. [2]
Disabling HTTPS-by-default in regions where HTTPS is blocked for
political reasons of course also exposes affected users to monitoring
and credentials-theft -- which is likely part of the political
motivation for blocking it in the first place. Therefore, our current
exemption is an explicit choice to _not_ give users a degree of
security that we give to everyone else, for the simple reason that
their government would otherwise completely limit their access.
If they know how to make HTTPS work in their region, these users will
still be able to use it by explicitly visiting the HTTPS URLs or use
an extension such as HTTPSEverywhere to enforce HTTPS usage.
In the long term, the Wikimedia movement is faced with a choice, which
is inherently political: Should we indefinitely sustain security
exceptions for regions that prevent the use of encryption, or should
we shift to an alternative strategy? How do we answer that question?
We can, of course, ask users in the affected countries. Given that
this may lead to degradation or loss of access, users are likely to be
opposed, and indeed, when plans to expand HTTPS usage were announced,
a group of Chinese Wikipedians published an open letter asking for
exemptions to be implemented:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:%E5%BC%BA%E5%88%B6%E5%8A%A0%E5%AF%8…
This was a big part of what drove the decision to implement exemptions.
The bigger consideration here, however, is whether any such
accommodation achieves positive or negative long term effects. The
argument against it goes like this: If we accommodate the PRC’s or
Iran’s censorship practices, we are complicit in their attempts to
monitor and control their citizenry. If a privileged user’s
credentials (e.g. Checkuser) are misused by the government through
monitoring of unencrypted traffic, for example, this is an action that
would not have been possible without our exemption. This could
potentially expose even users not in the affected country to risks.
Moreover, Wikimedia is not just any website -- it’s a top 5 web
property, and the only non-profit organization among the top sites.
Our actions can have signalling effects on the rest of the web. By
exempting China and Iran from standard security measures, we are
treating them as part of the global web community. It could be argued
that it’s time to draw a line in the sand - if you’re prohibiting the
use of encryption, you’re effectively not part of the web. You’re
subverting basic web technologies.
Drawing this hard line clearly has negative near term effects on the
citizenry of affected countries. But the more the rest of the world
comes together in saying "What you are doing is wrong. Stop it." - the
harder it will be for outlier countries to continue doing it. Another
way to pose the question is: Would we be implementing these exemptions
if China had blocked HTTPS traffic well after we switched to HTTPS?
Moreover, we’re not helpless against censorship. There _are_ effective
tools that can be used to circumvent attempts to censor and control
the Internet. Perhaps it is time for WMF to ally with the
organizations that develop and promote such tools, rather than looking
for ways to guarantee basic site operation in hostile environments
even at the expense of user privacy.
So, what to do? My main suggestion is to organize a broad request for
comments and input on possible paths forward. I think we’re doing the
right thing by initially implementing these exemptions -- but I do
think this decision needs to finally rest with the Board of the
Wikimedia Foundation, based on community input, taking the tradeoffs
into account.
My own stance, which I will continue to argue for (and which is my
view as an individual -- there are many divergent opinions on this
even inside WMF), is clear: I think we should set a deadline for the
current approach, and shift to HTTPS for all traffic, for all sites,
for all users, by default, after that deadline passes. This will force
us to take the consequences of that shift seriously, and to explore
alternatives to designing our technical policies around the practices
of regimes that undermine web security in order to better censor and
monitor their citizens.
All best,
Erik
[1] For the curious, the list of blacklisted countries is defined in
the configuration array 'wmgHTTPSBlacklistCountries’ in
https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/InitialiseSettings.php.txt .
[2] A reasonably up-to-date list is being maintained at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_China
Dear all,
The next WMF metrics and activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
September 5, 2013 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net and the meeting will be broadcast as
a live YouTube stream.
The current structure of the meeting is:
* Review of key metrics including the monthly report card, but also
specialized reports and analytic
* Review of financials
* Welcoming recent hires
* Brief presentations on recent projects, with a focus on highest priority
initiatives
* Update and Q&A with the Executive Director, if available
Please review
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings for further
information about how to participate.
We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
Thank you,
Praveena
--
Praveena Maharaj
Executive Assistant to the VP of Engineering and Product Development
+1 (415) 839 6885 ext. 6689
www.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
I'm very glad to tell you that Wikimedia CH has just hired two new
directors. Duc-Ahn Chung will be our new Chief Administrative Officer,
starting in November, and Charles Andrès, our former president of the
board, will be our new Chief Science Officer. Read on for more details!
When Chantal Ebongué, our CAO and first employee, told us she was
planning to leave, we set a recruiting committee to replace her. One of
the reasons she was leaving was that it was difficult to take care of
both administrative work and project work -- both because of the high
workload, and because these two tasks require very different
competences. Thus, while drafting the job description, the recruiting
committee proposed to the board to hire two people. This was accepted,
and we now have filled these positions.
Duc-Anh ("Anh") Chung, our new CAO, originally studied hotel management,
and worked as project manager in different hotels around the world. She
then worked as an executive assistant in a start-up company in Geneva,
in charge of all administrative matters. Since May 2012, she is
assistant director in a large non-profit organization in Geneva. In this
position, she is responsible for all administrative matters, and has a
wide experience helping a purely volunteer organization transform itself
into a professional structure.
Among other tasks, Ahn will be in charge of the human resources and the
finances of our association, including the annual fundraiser and the
financial side of the FDC application, and will report directly to the
board. She will start working for Wikimedia CH on 1 November -- just in
time for the fundraiser :-)
Charles Andrès, our new CSO, was originally trained as a biologist; he
received a Master in Genetics followed by a PhD in Cellular Biology in
France. Since 2007, he has worked as a senior scientist at the
University of Neuchâtel, where he is a researcher and lecturer in
biology. He is a Wikipedian since 2007, board member of Wikimedia CH
since 2010 and the chairman of the board since June 2012.
Charles will be responsible for all the projects conducted inside our
association, including both support of individual initiatives (members
projects) and institutional partnerships, and will be responsible for
the annual FDC application. Among other projects, he will oversee our
GLAM activities, as well as the development of our education program. He
will report directly to the board. Charles has started working part-time
as CSO on 1 September (just in time for the preparation of the FDC
application :-), and will join us full time in early October.
----------------------------------------------------
The choice of a Chief Science Officer (CSO) position
The decision to create a CSO position stems from the fact that many of
our efforts (current and planned) are focused on "scientific" projects;
by this we mean not only that we have established many collaborations
with academic institutions, but also that we intend to drive our
projects using a scientific approach, as a tool to improve quality. We
have received very good feedback on this from many people in the
Wikimedia community.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The choice of two directors rather than one executive director
In our current structure and given our level of development, the board
still takes care of many tasks traditionally in the hands of an
executive director. The choice of hiring two directors, each with
well-defined areas of competences, working closely together and with the
board, was deemed the best solution (note that despite the title of
"directors", they will not simply delegate the day-to-day work to other
employees, but will actually perform most of it).
This solution fits well with the Swiss culture, as even the Federal
government is organized following such a collegial structure
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Council_%28Switzerland%29 ).
We are also glad to have been able to make a balanced hiring: not only
have we hired one man and one woman, but we have one director who knows
the Wikimedia movement very well, and another one who will bring a fresh
pair of eyes. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find a balance
between the different languages spoken in Switzerland, as we hired two
native French speakers, but we have made sure that our staff can cover
adequately the different language communities in the country.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Governance and management of potential conflicts of interests
At the time when Chantal left, Charles Andrès had indicated an interest
in a potential position within the Wikimedia movement. As such, he was
not part of the recruiting committee who suggested the creation of a CSO
position and did not participate to the board discussion that approved
this position. He did not participate either to any of the discussions
that took place afterwards during the hiring process for both positions,
until the final choice made by the rest of the board, and resigned
immediately after being told he was chosen. During the process, we
received the advice of Dominique Freymond, a widely-recognized Swiss
expert in governance (http://www.mas-ltd.ch/index.php?page=97), who
helped us eliminate possible conflicts of interests. In particular, it
was determined that our president did not have to resign during the
selection process.
The main people taking part in the recruiting committee were Chantal
Ebongué, Ilario Valdelli and Frédéric Schütz, who followed the entire
process. Several other people from the board, the staff, our members and
external people were involved at one step or another, commenting on the
process or the applications and participating to the interviews.
----------------
Board transition
The board has chosen current board member Patrick Kenel as president of
the board ad interim, and Frédéric Schütz as vice-president ad interim.
The current priority goes to the upcoming FDC application and the annual
fundraiser; the organization of these activities does not depend on the
transition, and so will not be affected in any way.
The next general assembly is planned on 22 March 2014, and a new
president will be elected at that time.
Before finishing this long email, I would like to thank Chantal Ebongué
again for the huge work she did while working with us, and for her
collaboration within the hiring committee.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
Frédéric
Board member of Wikimedia CH, in the name of the core of the recruiting
committee: Chantal Ebongué, Ilario Valdelli and Frédéric Schütz
Thanks to Mark Holmquist for maintaining http://etherpad.wmflabs.org for
the past long while. It is going down in 2 weeks, so please retrieve
your text.
I recommend that you:
* go into your browser history
* search it for etherpad.wmflabs.org
* go to each of those pads and copy-and-paste the content someplace,
preferably on a public wiki, even if it's just in your userspace
* replace the content of the Etherpad with a link to the wiki page
you've moved the text to
-Sumana
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Wikitech-l] Etherpad Lite labs instance going down in two
weeks - backup time
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 13:02:13 -0700
From: Mark Holmquist <mtraceur(a)member.fsf.org>
Reply-To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, engineering(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
labs-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
The day we have all equally hoped for and dreaded is come to pass: Etherpad
Lite has now replaced Etherpad "Classic" in production, and the labs
instance
is on its way out.
This is my as-wide-as-possible email warning to say that everything on the
labs instance, as really should have been expected, is going to be gone
soon.
Not immediately - we intend to give you two weeks to get your important data
off the instance and onto the new one at https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/ -
but you should _absolutely_ be moving things as soon as possible. We will
also keep a data dump around, in case anything else needs to get pulled out
of the pads, but I would suggest not relying on that if you don't have to.
And in the future: If a URL has "wmflabs.org" in it...don't put anything,
ANYTHING, important there. The purpose of labs is to let us experiment with
new technology without having to worry about reliability.
Thanks so much for your help and understanding in the course of this
migration.
tl;dr: http://etherpad.wmflabs.org is going down in 2 weeks, get yer
stuff off it.
--
Mark Holmquist
Software Engineer, Multimedia
Wikimedia Foundation
mtraceur(a)member.fsf.org
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:MHolmquist
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
This email is available in English, Deutsch, español, 日本語, français, and
Arabic below. Please accept my apologies in advance for any errors or
suboptimal phrasing in the translations. We would appreciate the
community's help in translating the blog post and policies announced in
this email into more languages and in making the existing translations
better!
*
English*
Hi All,
I would like to direct your attention to a new blog
post<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>on
the Wikimedia Blog, requesting input from community members (like
you!)
on the drafts of the new Privacy Policy and the new Access to Nonpublic
Information Policy.
In June, we asked you for initial input about what we could do to improve
our current privacy policy and what you would like to see in a new privacy
policy. Today, we ask for your help again. Based on your initial input
and that of a number of Wikimedia Foundation teams, we have crafted our
first attempt at these new policies. But they cannot and will not be
complete with your feedback.
We ask you to read the blog
post<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>
for
more details and encourage you to participate in these important
discussions. We ask that you leave your input on the Privacy Policy
discussion page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy> and
the Access to Nonpublic Information Policy discussion
page<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_infor…>only,
so that everyone is equally aware of the topics being discussed and
has the opportunity to participate fully in the discussions that interest
them.
Many thanks,
Michelle Paulson
Legal Counsel
Geoff Brigham
General Counsel
=====
*Deutsch
*
Hallo,
Ich möchte euch auf einen neuen
Blogeintrag<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>auf
dem Wikimedia Blog aufmerksam machen, in dem um Kommentare von
Community-Mitgliedern (wie euch!) zu den Entwürfen der neuen
Datenschutzrichtlinie und der neuen Richtlinie zum Zugriff auf nicht
öffentliche Informationen gebeten wird.
Im Juni haben wir euch um erste Kommentare dazu gebeten, was wir tun
können, um unsere aktuelle Datenschutzrichtlinie zu verbessern, und was ihr
euch in einer neuen Datenschutzrichtlinie wünschen würdet. Heute möchten
wir euch noch einmal um eure Hilfe bitten. Aufgrund eurer ersten Kommentare
und der Kommentare einer Reihe von Teams der Wikimedia Foundation haben wir
unseren ersten Entwurf für diese neuen Richtlinien erstellt. Aber mit eurem
Feedback können und werden sie nicht vollständig sein.
Wir möchten euch bitten, den
Blogeintrag<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>zu
lesen, um nähere Einzelheiten zu erfahren, und euch auffordern, an
diesen wichtigen Diskussionen teilzunehmen. Bitte hinterlasst eure
Kommentare nur auf der Diskussionsseite zur
Datenschutzrichtlinie<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy>und
der Diskussionsseite
zur Richtlinie für den Zugriff auf nicht öffentliche
Informationen<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_infor…>,
damit alle über die diskutierten Themen gleichermaßen informiert sind und
die Gelegenheit haben, sich in vollem Umfang an den Diskussionen zu
beteiligen, die sie interessieren.
Vielen Dank,
Michelle Paulson
Anwältin der Rechtsabteilung
Geoff Brigham
Leiter der Rechtsabteilung
=====
*español
* Hola a todos:
Me gustaría dirigir vuestra atención hacia una nueva entrada del
blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>de
Wikimedia, en la que se solicita la aportación de los miembros de la
comunidad (como tú) a los borradores de la nueva política de privacidad y
de la nueva política de acceso a información privada.
En junio, te pedimos una aportación inicial sobre qué podríamos hacer para
mejorar nuestra política de privacidad actual y qué te gustaría ver en la
nueva política de privacidad. Ahora te pedimos ayuda otra vez. Basándonos
en tu aportación inicial y en la de varios equipos de la Fundación
Wikimedia, hemos realizado un primer intento de elaboración de las nuevas
políticas. Pero no pueden estar, ni estarán completas sin tus comentarios.
Te pedimos que leas la entrada del
blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>para
tener más información y te animamos a participar en estos importantes
debates. También te pedimos que dejes tu aportación en la página de debate
sobre la política de
privacidad<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy>y en la
página de debate sobre la política de acceso a información
privada<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_infor…>,
de forma que todo el mundo sea consciente de los temas que se debaten y
tenga la oportunidad de participar plenamente en los debates que le
interesen.
Muchas gracias,
Michelle Paulson
Asesora jurídica
Geoff Brigham
Director del Departamento Legal
=====
*日本語*
皆さん、こんにちは。
(皆さんのような) コミュニティ
メンバーからの、新たなプライバシー・ポリシーおよび非公開情報へのアクセスについての方針の草案に関する意見を求める、ウィキメディア ブログ上の新たな
ブログ投稿<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>に
ご注目ください。
6
月に、我々は、現在のプライバシー・ポリシーの改善で何ができるか、また新たなプライバシー・ポリシーをどう思うかについての最初の意見を、皆さんに求めました。本日は、今一度皆さんのご支援をお願いいたします。皆さんの最初のご意見およびウィキメディア財団のいくつかのチームの意見に基づき、我々はこれら方針をまず作成しましたが、皆さんのフィードバックなしには完了することはできず、また完了することもありません。
詳細についてはブログ投稿<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>をお読みください。この重要な議論に参加いただくようお願いいたします。全員が議論されているトピックについて平等に知り、関心のある議論に完全に参加できるよう、ご意見は、
プライバシー・ポリシーの議論のページ <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy>
と非公開情報へのアクセスについての方針の議論のページ<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_infor…>にのみお寄せください。
よろしくお願いいたします。
ミシェル ポールソン (Michelle Paulson)
法務顧問
ジェフ・ブリガム（Geoff Brigham）
法律顧問
=====
*français
*
Bonjour à tous !
J'aimerais attirer votre attention sur un nouveau billet du
blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>Wikimedia,
qui fait appel à la participation des membres de la communauté
(comme vous !) pour faire des remarques sur les versions préliminaires de
la nouvelle Politique de protection des données personnelles et de la
nouvelle Politique d'accès aux informations non publiques.
En juin, nous vous avions demandé de faire des remarques initiales sur la
façon d'améliorer notre politique de protection des données personnelles
actuelle et sur les éléments que vous aimeriez voir dans une nouvelle
politique de protection des données personnelles. Aujourd'hui, nous sommes
de nouveau amenés à faire appel à vous. Suite à vos remarques initiales et
aux recommandations de plusieurs équipes de Wikimedia Foundation, nous
avons élaboré une version provisoire de ces nouvelles politiques. Ces
versions ne pourront toutefois pas être mises au point sans votre feedback.
Nous vous demandons de lire le billet du
blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>pour
obtenir des renseignements plus précis et nous vous encourageons à
participer à ces discussions importantes. Nous vous demandons de faire des
remarques uniquement sur la page de discussion de la Politique de
protection des données
personnelles<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy>et
sur la
page de discussion de la Politique d'accès aux informations non
publiques<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_infor…>,
pour que toutes les personnes concernées puissent prendre connaissance des
sujets abordés et participer pleinement aux discussions qui les intéressent.
Merci mille fois,
Michelle Paulson
Conseillère juridique
Geoff Brigham
Directeur juridique
=====
*العربية*
أود أن أوجه انتباهكم إلى مدونة
جديدة<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>على
موقع ويكيميديا، تطلب مدخلات من أفراد المجتمع (مثلكم!)، بخصوص مسودات
سياسة الخصوصية الجديدة وسياسة الوصول إلى المعلومات العامة الجديدة.
لقد طلبنا منكم في شهر يونيو مدخلات أولية بشأن ما يمكن أن نفعله لتحسين سياسة
الخصوصية الحالية الخاصة بنا وما ترغبون في إيجاده في سياسة الخصوصية الجديدة،
ونحن اليوم نطلب مساعدتكم، وبناءً على مدخلاتكم الأولية ومدخلات عدد من فرق
مؤسسة ويكيميديا، قمنا بمحاولة أولى في هذه السياسات الجديدة، ولكن هذه
السياسات لم ولن تكتمل إلا بتعليقاتكم وآرائكم.
إننا نطالبكم بقراءة
المدونة<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-in…>لمعرفة
المزيد من التفاصيل ونشجعكم على المشاركة في هذه المناقشات المهمة، كما
نطلب منكم أن تتركوا مدخلاتكم في صفحة مناقشة سياسة
الخصوصية<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy> وصفحة
مناقشة سياسة الوصول إلى المعلومات
العامة<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_infor…>فقط،
وبذلك يكون الجميع على دراية بالموضوعات التي تتم مناقشتها، ويحظى الجميع
أيضًا بفرصة المشاركة بالكامل في المناقشات التي تهمهم.
وتفضلوا بقبول فائق الاحترام والتقدير؛
ميشيل باولسون
المستشار القانوني
جيوف بريجهام
المستشار العام
--
Michelle Paulson
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org
415.839.6885 ext. 6608 (Office)
415.882.0495 (Fax)
NOTICE: *This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. For legal reasons, I may only
serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation. This means I may not
give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer for community members,
volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity.*
_______________________________________________
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
I'm really happy to see this page and conversation around analyzing and
comparing various ways of grantmaking to individuals - thanks for starting
this!
Some learnings we have from the first round of IEG are posted here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Feedback/round_1_2013
We're planning to do a survey and some analysis of the Participation
Support Program in September to prepare for a revamp of that grantmaking
program and will share the learnings from that as well.
I'm particularly interested in understanding what kinds of microgrants are
working particularly well, what the most common challenges are with these
programs, and what needs are not yet being met for individuals in existing
programs...I wonder if adding a "questions" section to that page might be
useful, to help define the kinds of analysis as well?
Best wishes,
Siko
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2013 15:58:22 +0200
> From: Jean-Frédéric <jeanfrederic.wiki(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Funding programs for individuals.
> Message-ID:
> <CADCCoo=
> 2gNXeOgFdf7VEHQv5G1dMamfkOC7z05rwHCK4XZFiQg(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi folks,
>
> While watching the current changes to Wikimedia France microgrants program
> implemented, I was curious to know which Wikimedia entities had similar
> funding programs for individuals - how they worked, how we could learn form
> each other.
>
> Since apparently there was no Meta page for that(tm) (yet!) I went ahead
> and
> drafted <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jean-Frédéric/Funding_programs
> >
>
> I dug my information out of my email archives and FDC proposal forms, so I
> could totally have missed some programs - please add the ones you know
> about!
>
> Of course, it would be more useful to have more detailed information on
> every program.
> Together with Caroline & Pierre-Selim we threw some ideas on what we
> thought was interesting to know about the programs, but that's still very
> alpha - please add more ideas!
>
> Looking forward to your thoughts about this!
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Jean-Frédéric
> Wikimédia France
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2013 15:03:16 +0100
> From: Richard Nevell <richard.nevell(a)wikimedia.org.uk>
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Funding programs for individuals.
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAHp4nskarHx5zhxEYaaqr6RfnJsxf5xvQQj60op7NoQuQX0QJQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Wikimedia UK offer microgrants and macrogrants. Microgrants are for sums
> between £5 and £250, while macrogrants are for £250 to £2,000.
>
> To be eligible, the applicant has to be a member of Wikimedia UK; this can
> either be individual membership, or organisational.
>
> You can read more at https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants
>
> Richard
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
>
>
> End of Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 114, Issue 2
> *******************************************
>
--
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!*
Hello everyone,
Please see below for the Wikimedia UK monthly report for July. For those
who prefer to read the report in their browser, it can be seen at
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/July
We are still accepting submissions to the monthly reports for August. If
you'd like to make a contribution and tell everyone about your Wikimedia
UK-related activities, please do so at
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/August
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
__________
Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly
report<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports> for
the period 1st to 31st July 2013. If you want to keep up with the chapter's
activities as they happen, please subscribe to our
blog<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/>
, join a UK mailing
list<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l>,
and/or follow us on Twitter <http://twitter.com/wikimediauk>. If you have
any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk
page<https://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Reports/2013/July&action=ed…>
.
Program activities Community
A Wikipedia editing training session took place on 20 July in Monmouth. The
office received feedback from one local attendee that the training was
excellent, attendees went away very happy and that "all of the Wikimedia
volunteers were fantastic!" Eight people attended (including three women),
all newcomers to Wikipedia editing, attended. A good understanding of how
Wikipedia works and the rules around notability and referencing was
achieved. All users went away confident in making basic edits to articles
and were enthusiastic to be involved. You can see more details of the event
on the event page<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Monmouth_Wikipedia_training>
.
Education activities EduWiki
Work progresses on delivering the Wikimedia UK's flagship education
conference, EduWiki
2013<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/EduWiki_Conference_2013> (1-2
November 2013, Cardiff). Registration opens soon, and we are already
looking for volunteers for various support roles. If you are interested do
get in touch with the Education Organiser Toni Sant - toni.sant[image: at]
wikimedia.org.uk
Y Coleg Cymraeg
The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol <http://www.colegcymraeg.ac.uk/en/> (the
federal Welsh College) is a national body which plays a key role in
planning, supporting and developing Welsh medium education and scholarship
at universities in Wales. Wikimedia UK has initiated discussion regarding
open content.
European young researchers network Wikipedia workshop
Sphingonet a European network of PhD-candidate and post-doc researchers
focusing on Sphingolipids. Part of their activities is outreach work and so
we organised a workshop<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/European_young_researchers_network_Wikipedia_…>
on
how Wikipedia works, and how to improve it with the attendees' specific
knowledge. The people on the network came from 10-12 different countries
(UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland). The goal of this event
was to make a significant contribution to the quality of Wikipedia
scientific content in Sphingonet-‐related topics.
Luc Henry, the organiser from the network, reflected:
"The workshop was exactly what we expected. We found a team of extremely
motivated and talented editors willing to freely share their time and
knowledge to improve Wikipedia. As most of the participants were beginners,
the basics of the language and inner workings were covered first, but the
aim was that each participant would create or significantly improve one
article. In order to be more productive, a draft article was prepared in
advance so that we could focus on the technicalities during the afternoon.
The five hours of the workshop were just sufficient to cover some
background and technical information and learn enough to achieve the task.
The feedback from the participants was unanimously positive and the comment
that was heard the most was that people found it very useful to get
started, overcoming their apprehension to modify anything found in the
encyclopedia. A majority of people also found it very likely that they
would continue editing Wikipedia articles now that they had a basic
training, something they would not have done on their own."
GLAM activities Open Culture 2013
The Collections Trust very kindly gave us a free stand at their exhibition
on the 2nd/3rd of July 2013. This was a great opportunity for us to talk to
attendees at OpenCulture2013 <https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/OpenCulture2013>,
people who are committed to the idea of free culture, but who may need
information on what Wikipedia can do with mass releases of images. Or
indeed just show them how to edit an article or add an image to an article.
In actuality it gave us the opportunity to talk to a range of museum
professionals, from those who weren't sure if we'd be interested in their
little museum, to those who only see us as a threat to their sale of
images; and we did get to show one curator how to upload images.
Welsh Books Council
The Welsh Books Council
<http://www.cllc.org.uk/hafan-home?diablo.lang=eng> agreed
to Wikimedia UK's Manager in Wales' request to upload all their Welsh book
reviews (3249 articles) onto Wicipedia Cymraeg.
Technology Other activities Wiki Loves Monuments
The third planning meeting for Wiki Loves Monuments in the UK took place in
July. Volunteers have been adding lists on Wikipedia, with lots of help
from editors, resulting in a strong collaborative effort. At the same time,
the organisers are setting up a website and arranging events such as photo
walks, and looking for partners. The competition takes place in September,
and if you are interested in helping out or participating, please leave a
message on Commons<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_in_the…>
where
efforts are being co-ordinated.
Microgrants
Information about microgrants that are currently running, and how to submit
a microgrant application of your own, are at
Microgrants/Applications<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Applications>
.
UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)
- Dr Martin Poulter appointed Jisc-Wikimedia
Ambassador<http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2013/9535.html>,
Bristol University
- Revealed: Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza was obsessed with correcting
Wikipedia articles about mass killers and admitted having a bullet
'fetish'<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2352249/Revealed-Sandy-Hook-gunman-…>,
Daily Mail
- Boot up: wireless contact lens, Wikipedia's visual editing, Samsung's
share slide and
more<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2013/jul/02/rabbit-contact-lens>,
Guardian
- Wikimedia yn penodi Cymro fel
rheolwr<http://www.golwg360.com/newyddion/cymru/114551-wikimedia-yn-penodi-cymro-fe…>
Golwg360
(Google Translate<http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=cy&tl=en&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&…>
)
- Wicipedia Cymraeg: New manager looks to expand Wiki in
Welsh<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-23402054>,
BBC News Wales
- Wikimedia’s annual Wikimania conference is coming to London in
2014<http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/07/22/wikimedias-annual-wikimania-conferen…>,
The Next Web
- Using Wikipedia to inspire the next generation of women
scientists<http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2013/jul/25/wikipedia-next…>,
The Guardian, 25 July 2013
- Wikipedia edit-a-thon to inspire women
scientists<http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Education/Universities/Wikipedia-edit-a-tho…>,
Cambridge News
- Wikimedia announces Wikimania conference coming to London in 2014 and
reveals update
plans<http://www.itproportal.com/2013/07/23/wikimedia-announces-wikimania-confere…>,
ITProPortal, 23 July 2013
Blog posts this month
2 July - Wikimedia UK yn penodi Rheolwr i Gymru / Wikimedia UK appoints
Wales Manager<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/wikimedia-uk-yn-penodi-rheolwr-i-gymru…>
-
a post in English and Welsh announcing the appointment of Robin Owain as
Wales Manager
4 July - Wikipedia to celebrate Rosalind Franklin’s
birthday<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/wikipedia-to-celebrate-rosalind-frankl…>
-
this piece is about an event to be jointly hosted with the Royal Society
and Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research
(NIMR) celebrating the contributions of women in science.
5 July - - a painting from Commons to feature in new
book<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/painting-from-commons-to-feature-in-ne…>
A
painting uncovered by Andy Mabbett at the The New Art Gallery, Walsall, is
to feature in a new book.
5 July - Canadian Copyright Collection from the British Library on
Wikimedia Commons<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/canadian-copyright-collection-from-the…>
-
Wikimedia UK and the British Library announced the release of 2,000 images
of historic Canada.
11 July - Notes from a Wikimedian in
Residence<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/1733/> -
a report from John Cummings, Wikimedian in Residence at the Science Museum
and Natural History Museum.
13 July - Ashley Van Haeften steps down from Wikimedia UK
Board<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/ashley-van-haeften-steps-down-from-wik…>
-
noting that Fae has stood down as a Trustee.
16 July - Twentieth century culture and Wikimedia
UK<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/twentieth-century-culture-and-wikimedi…>
-
A report from Jonathan Cardy about the editathon at the Royal Opera House.
27 July - Mike Peel resigns as a Trustee of Wikimedia
UK<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/mike-peel-resigns-as-a-trustee-of-wiki…>
-
Announcing Mike's departure from the Board.
29 July - Sphingonet and
Wikipedia<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/07/sphingonet-and-wikipedia/>
-
A report from Richard Nevell about an editing event in Oxford.
Administrative activities Finances
Our FDC progress report form is available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/WMUK/….
This breaks down our activities and spends over the months of May, June and
July.
Our Annual Accounts and Financial Statements for the year have also been
published: see here<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMUK_Annual_Report_2012-13_(Signatures_R…>
.
Board activities[edit<https://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/July&action=edit&se…>
]
There was a board meeting on 13 July. You can see the agenda
here<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Agenda_13Jul13>,
the minutes here <https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes_13Jul13> and
the reports
made to the board here <https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports_13Jul13>.
News from the Chief Exec *For information on Jon's activities this month,
see News from the
Office<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/News_from_the_Office/Posts>
.*
Communications
Please see the above links to relevant press coverage received in July. In
other top line communications news, Stevie visited journalists from some of
the national newspapers to build relationships and keep them up to date
with potential stories, including Wikimania 2014 and Wiki Loves Monuments.
He also spent some time meeting academics and learning more about the way
they use Wikipedia in their university courses. These form the basis of
some potential case studies and will be useful in the lead up to the
EduWiki conference. The annual review was successfully printed in Hong Kong
for sharing at Wikimania 2013 which was a great relief. Rock drum visited
the office for a few days to make a short film for Wikimania 2014 and did
an excellent job. Planning began for a key messages workshop offered to the
charity for free by a volunteer.
If you're interested in getting more involved with our communications or
have any questions or comments, please email Stevie Benton –
stevie.benton(a)wikimedia.org.uk
Fundraising and Membership Fundraising
This month, we received £2,357 in one-off donations, with 7 individual
donations. One of these was a large donation of £2,000. Excepting this, the
average donation amount was £59.50 - 71%% of these donors have had Gift Aid
Declarations made and matched with their records. If anyone would like a
full (but anonymised) csv file with more information, please get in touch
with katherine.bavage[image: at]wikimedia.org.uk and let her know your
requirements.
There were 5414 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of
£22,177.52.
Membership
Up to 30th July 2013:
- 180 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current
members - with 6 new join-ups in July.
- 34 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership
should be renewed)
This adds up to 214 members who were eligible to vote
Visitors to the office
- Lucile - volunteer from France
- John Cummings WiR Natural History and Science Museum
- Visitors from National Library of Scotland
- A Brazilian Wikimedian en route from Hungary to Brazil
- Alaistair McCapra and Micahel Maggs - new trustees
- Ed Saperia and James Knight from Wikimania Team
- Martin Poulter - JISC Ambassador
- Garfield Byrd CFO Wikimedia Foundation
- Greyham Dawes
- Mark Kelleher - BBC
- Rockdrum for volunteering.
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a
global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
_______________________________________________
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