Re: http://twkozlowski.net/the-pot-and-the-kettle-the-wikimedia-way/
Two questions:
1. Where can I find a response from either the WMF board or WMF
funding/finance to the criticisms of a lack of transparency or the
apparent failure of the project to deliver value for the donor's money
as raised in this blog post?
2. Where can I read an officially recognized report for the outcomes
of this project in terms of value for Wikimedia projects? Obviously we
do not want to rely on second-hand analysis when reports to the WMF
are a requirement for such projects.
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
We know NSA wants Wikipedia data, as Wikipedia is listed in one of the
NSA slides:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KS8-001.jpg
That slide is about HTTP, and the tech staff are moving the
user/reader base to HTTPS.
As we learn more about the NSA programs, we need to consider vectors
other than HTTP for the NSA to obtain the data they want. And the
userbase needs to be aware of the current risks.
One question from the "Dells are backdored"[sic] thread that is worth
separate consideration is:
Are the Wikimedia transit links encrypted, especially for database replication?
MySQL has replication over SSL, so I assume the answer is Yes.
If not, is this necessary or useful, and feasible ?
However we also need to consider that SSL and other encryption may be
useless against NSA/etc, which means replicating non-public data
should be avoided wherever possible, as it becomes a single point of
failure.
Given how public our system is, we don't have a lot of non-public
data, so we might be able to design the architecture so that
information isnt replicated, and also ensure it isnt accessed over
insecure links. I think the only parts of the dataset that are
private & valuable are
* passwords/login cookies,
* checkuser info - IPs and useragents,
* WMF analytics, which includes readers iirc, and
* hidden/deleted edits
* private wikis and mailing lists
Have I missed any?
Are passwords and/or checkuser info replicated?
Is there a data policy on WMF analytics data which prevents it flowing
over insecure links, and limits what is collected and ensures
destruction of the data within reasonable timeframes? i.e. how about
not using cookies to track analytics of readers who are on HTTP
instead of HTTPS?
The private wikis can be restricted to https, depending on the value
of the data on those wikis in the wrong hands. The private mailing
lists will be harder to secure, and at least the English Wikipedia
arbcom list contain a lot of valuable data about contributors.
Regarding hidden/deleted edits, the replication isnt the only source
of this data. All edits are also exposed via Recent Changes
(https/api/etc) as they occur, and the value of these edits is
determined by the fact they are hidden afterwards (e.g. don't appear
in dumps). Is there any way to control who is effectively capturing
all edits via Recent Changes?
--
John Vandenberg
Hi folks,
to increase accountability and create more opportunities for course
corrections and resourcing adjustments as necessary, Sue's asked me
and Howie Fung to set up a quarterly project evaluation process,
starting with our highest priority initiatives. These are, according
to Sue's narrowing focus recommendations which were approved by the
Board [1]:
- Visual Editor
- Mobile (mobile contributions + Wikipedia Zero)
- Editor Engagement (also known as the E2 and E3 teams)
- Funds Dissemination Committe and expanded grant-making capacity
I'm proposing the following initial schedule:
January:
- Editor Engagement Experiments
February:
- Visual Editor
- Mobile (Contribs + Zero)
March:
- Editor Engagement Features (Echo, Flow projects)
- Funds Dissemination Committee
We’ll try doing this on the same day or adjacent to the monthly
metrics meetings [2], since the team(s) will give a presentation on
their recent progress, which will help set some context that would
otherwise need to be covered in the quarterly review itself. This will
also create open opportunities for feedback and questions.
My goal is to do this in a manner where even though the quarterly
review meetings themselves are internal, the outcomes are captured as
meeting minutes and shared publicly, which is why I'm starting this
discussion on a public list as well. I've created a wiki page here
which we can use to discuss the concept further:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…
The internal review will, at minimum, include:
Sue Gardner
myself
Howie Fung
Team members and relevant director(s)
Designated minute-taker
So for example, for Visual Editor, the review team would be the Visual
Editor / Parsoid teams, Sue, me, Howie, Terry, and a minute-taker.
I imagine the structure of the review roughly as follows, with a
duration of about 2 1/2 hours divided into 25-30 minute blocks:
- Brief team intro and recap of team's activities through the quarter,
compared with goals
- Drill into goals and targets: Did we achieve what we said we would?
- Review of challenges, blockers and successes
- Discussion of proposed changes (e.g. resourcing, targets) and other
action items
- Buffer time, debriefing
Once again, the primary purpose of these reviews is to create improved
structures for internal accountability, escalation points in cases
where serious changes are necessary, and transparency to the world.
In addition to these priority initiatives, my recommendation would be
to conduct quarterly reviews for any activity that requires more than
a set amount of resources (people/dollars). These additional reviews
may however be conducted in a more lightweight manner and internally
to the departments. We’re slowly getting into that habit in
engineering.
As we pilot this process, the format of the high priority reviews can
help inform and support reviews across the organization.
Feedback and questions are appreciated.
All best,
Erik
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Vote:Narrowing_Focus
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Hi folks,
I'd be interested in hearing broader community opinions about the
extent to which WMF should sponsor non-profits purely to support work
that Wikimedia benefits from, even if it's not directed towards a
specific goal established in a grant agreement.
This comes up from time to time. One of the few historic precedents
I'm aware of is the $5,000 donation that WMF made to FreeNode in 2006
[1]. But there are of course many other organizations/communities that
the Wikimedia movement is indebted to.
On the software side, we have Ubuntu Linux (itself highly indebted to
Debian) / Apache / MariaDB / PHP / Varnish / ElasticSearch / memcached
/ Puppet / OpenStack / various libraries and many other dependencies [2],
infrastructure tools like ganglia, observium, icinga, etc. Some of
these projects have nonprofits that accept and seek sponsorship and
support, some don't.
One could easily expand well beyond the software we depend on
server-side to client-side open source applications used by our
community to create content: stuff like Inkscape, GIMP and LibreOffice
(used for diagrams). And there are other communities we depend on,
like OpenStreetMap.
So, should we steer clear of this type of sponsorship altogether
because it's a slippery slope, or should we try to come up with
evaluation criteria to consider it on a case-by-case basis (e.g. is
there a trustworthy non-profit that has a track record of
accomplishment and is in actual need of financial support)?
I could imagine a process with a fixed "giving back" annual budget
and a community nominations/review workflow. It'd be work to create
and I don't want to commit to that yet, but I would be interested to
hear opinions.
MariaDB specifically invited WMF to become a sponsor, and we're
clearly highly dependent on them. But I don't think it makes sense for
us to just write checks if there's someone who asks for support and
there's a justifiable need. However, if there's broad agreement that
this is something Wikimedia should do more of, then I think it's worth
developing more consistent sponsorship criteria.
Thanks,
Erik
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Freenode_Donation
[2] Cf. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Upstream_projects
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
I emailed mobile-l and wikitech-l about this, now I'm moving this
discussion to wikimedia-l. Here's the longer technical thread:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mobile-l/2014-April/006884.html
In summary, to show Wikipedia Zero banners for the correct mobile networks,
we are planning once for each cellular-based app session to log two pieces
of data in a specialized logfile, deleting log entries older than 90 days.
1. MCC-MNC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_country_code> code (format
is ###-##), which denotes the mobile operator
2. Exit (gateway/proxy) IP address
* These data points would not be logged alongside the normal web access
logs.
This information could be used to estimate rough demand for Wikipedia in
potential Wikipedia Zero geos, although remediating the out-of-sync IP
addresses on file for existing partners is primary.
Internal review suggests this is in alignment with privacy policy, and we
wanted to see if there were other thoughts on this approach here on
wikimedia-l.
-Adam
hi,
could wmf please extend the mediawiki software in the following way:
1. it should knows "groups"
2. allow users to store an arbitrary number of groups with their profile
3. allow to select one of the "group"s joined to an edit when saving
4. add a checkbox "COI" to an edit, meaning "potential conflict of interest"
5. display and filter edits marked with COI in a different color in history
views
6. display and filter edits done for a group in a different color in
history views
7. allow members of a group to receive notifications done on the group page,
or when a group is mentioned in an edit/comment/talk page.
reason:
currently it is quite cumbersome to participate as an organisation. it is
quite cumbersome for people as well to detect COI edits. the most prominent
examples are employees of the wikimedia foundation, and GLAMs. users tend
to create multiple accounts, and try to create "company accounts". the main
reason for this behaviour are (examples, but of course valid general):
* have a feedback page / notification page for the swiss federal archive
for other users
* make clear that an edit is done private or as wmf employee
this then would allow the community to create new policies, e.g. the german
community might cease using company accounts, and switch over to this
system. this proposal is purely technical. current policies can still be
applied if people do not need something else, e.g. wmf employees may
continue to use "sue gardner (wmf)" accounts.
what you think?
best regards,
rupert
-------------------
swissGLAMour, http://wikimedia.ch
Hey everyone :)
I'll be doing another Wikidata office hour on IRC. It will take place
on May 19th at 5PM UTC in #wikimedia-office. For your timezone please
see http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Wikidata+office+ho…
I'll be giving a status update and then answer whatever
Wikidata-related questions you have. Hope to see many of you there.
Cheers
Lydia
--
Lydia Pintscher - http://about.me/lydia.pintscher
Product Manager for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das
Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
Dear all,
The next WMF metrics and activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
May 1, 2014 at 6 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 & Product Development
www.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
During the Annual Assembly this weekend, mr. Jarle Vines was elected new
chairman of the Board, a position that he also upheld from 2010 to 2013. At
the same time, we truly thank Jon Harald Søby for his good service in his
term as chairman.
Here is the Q3 Activity report of Wikimedia Norway, covering January-March.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikim…
Kind regards,
--
*Erlend Bjørtvedt*
Nestleder, Wikimedia Norge
Vice chairman, Wikimedia Norway
Mob: +47 - 9225 9227
http://no.wikimedia.org <http://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/About_us>
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for March 2014, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_March_2014
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,_March_2014
Many thanks to those who have been contributing to the still ongoing
translation work on the February "Highlights"!
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 April issue are welcome until tomorrow at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_ite…
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, March 2014
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_April_3…>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of March
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2014-04-03>
(April 3, 2014)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 New Beta feature: Hovercards show article previews
o 3.2 Typography refresh: A new look for text on Wikimedia sites
o 3.3 Draft annual plan published for feedback from the community
and the FDC
* 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 Online Fundraising
* 6 Grantmaking
o 6.1 Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee)
o 6.2 Project and Event Grants
+ 6.2.1 Grants funded in March 2014
+ 6.2.2 Reports accepted in March 2014
o 6.3 Travel and Participation Support
+ 6.3.1 Requests awarded in March 2014
+ 6.3.2 Reports accepted in March 2014
o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants
+ 6.4.1 Grants started in March 2014
o 6.5 Learning and Evaluation
+ 6.5.1 Program Evaluation
+ 6.5.2 Grants Programs
+ 6.5.3 Org effectiveness
+ 6.5.4 Other
o 6.6 Wikipedia Education Program
* 7 Human Resources
o 7.1 March Staff Changes
o 7.2 March Statistics
* 8 Finance and Administration
* 9 Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department
o 9.1 LCA Report, March 2014
+ 9.1.1 Contract Metrics
+ 9.1.2 Trademark Metrics
+ 9.1.3 Domains Obtained
+ 9.1.4 Coming & Going
+ 9.1.5 Other Activities
o 9.2 Communications Report, March 2014
+ 9.2.1 Major announcements
+ 9.2.2 Major Storylines through March
+ 9.2.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 9.2.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 9.2.5 Media Contact
+ 9.2.6 Communications Design
+ 9.2.7 Wikipedia Signpost
* 10 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for February:
*474 million* (-4.28% compared with January; -1.83% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release March data
later in April)
Page requests for March:
*21.042 billion* (+0.2% compared with February; -2.3% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation content projects including mobile access,
but excluding Wikidata <https://www.wikidata.org> and the Wikipedia
main portal page <https://www.wikipedia.org/>.)
Active Registered Editors for February 2014 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*75,958* (-6.80% compared with January / -2.06% 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_February_2…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of February 28,
2014
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_February_…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of February 28, 2014
(Financial information is only available through February 2014 at the
time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date February 28, 2014.
Revenue 39,242,310
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group 10,750,112
Fundraising Group 2,739,036
Grantmaking Group 1,078,075
Programs Group 1,205,135
Grants 3,887,562
Governance Group 469,783
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group 2,425,548
Finance/HR/Admin Group 4,542,676
Total Expenses 27,097,927
Total surplus (12,144,383)
/in US dollars/
* Revenue for the month of February is $1.07MM versus plan of $0.01MM,
approximately $1.06MM or 18,244% over plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $39.24MM versus plan of $45.05MM,
approximately $5.81MM or 13% under plan.
* Expenses for the month of February is $4.35MM versus plan of
$4.41MM, approximately $63K or 1% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, outside
contract services, and travel expenses partially offset by higher
legal fees, grants, and payment processing fees.
* Year-to-date expenses is $27.10MM versus plan of $31.80MM,
approximately $4.70MM or 15% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees,
payment processing fees, staff development expenses, and travel
expenses partially offset by higher outside contract services,
grants, and recruiting fees.
* Cash position is $52.44MM as of February 28, 2014.
== Highlights ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HoverCard_ClaudeMonet.png>
Screenshot of a Hovercard (a preview of the article en:Claude Monet
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet> displayed in en:Camille Doncieux
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Doncieux>)
=== New Beta feature: Hovercards show article previews ===
Hovercards <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Beta_Features/Hovercards> are brief
previews of a Wikipedia article or other wiki page, displayed when the
reader hovers over a link to that page. The preview consists of the lead
paragraph and first image of the article. Users can enable this feature
by logging into their account and clicking the "Beta" link at the top
right. Hovercards were inspired by the Navigation popups
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups> gadget used
by many experienced Wikimedians on the English Wikipedia and elsewhere,
and modify the idea to make it more suitable for casual readers.
=== Typography refresh: A new look for text on Wikimedia sites ===
At the end of March, an update to the typography
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/typography> on the desktop version of Wikimedia
sites was announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/27/typography-refresh/>. The
typography refresh
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Typography_refresh> is
based on four requirements: 1. Readability, 2. a consistent look across
multiple devices, 3. availability of the typefaces
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/typefaces> across various platforms (Mac OS X,
Windows, Linux, and mobile operating systems), and 4. accessibility
(even for those readers with visual impairments).
The most visible change is that headings are now displayed in a serif
font instead of a sans-serif font. Among the other modifications: The
text color is now a very dark grey instead of pure black, while the
background color remained pure white. Also, the body font size was
increased.
The changes were scheduled to be rolled out in April, with adjustments
based on user feedback.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sue_Gardner_discussing_the_2014-15_…>
Sue Gardner discussing the WMF FDC proposal
=== Draft annual plan published for feedback from the community and the FDC ===
In March, the Foundation worked to prepare its 2014/15 annual plan for
publication in draft form, as a proposal to the FDC
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim…>
(Funds Dissemination Committee). The feedback from the FDC and the
community review period (April 1 to April 30) will be taken into account
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-April/070826.html> while
the plan is being finalized. As part of the FDC proposal, the Foundation
published a new comprehensive overview of ongoing, long-term work
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim…>
that WMF staff and contractors are carrying out in support of the
Wikimedia projects.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for March 2014 can
be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2014/March
Department Highlights
Major news in March include:
* Hovercards
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/26/hovercards-now-available-as-a-beta-fe…>
now available as a Beta feature on all Wikimedia wikis, allowing
readers to see a short summary of an article just by hovering over a
link (see also Highlights above);
* a subtle typography change
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/27/typography-refresh/> across
Wikimedia sites for better readability, consistency and accessibility;
* a recap of the upgrade and migration
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/28/wikimedias-road-to-bugzilla-4-4/>
of our bug tracking software.
=== VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal>
===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erik_M%C3%B6ller_explaining_citatio…>
Erik Möller explaining citation support in VisualEditor
In March, the *VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor>*
team continued their work on improving the stability and performance of
this visual tool to edit wiki pages. They also added some new features
and simplifications, helping users edit and create pages more swiftly
and easily. Editing templates is now much simpler, moving most of the
advanced controls that users don't often need into a special version of
that window. The media dialog was improved and stream-lined to make it
clearer what the controls are for. The overall design of dialogs and
controls was improved to make it flow better, like double-clicking a
block to open its dialog. A new system for quickly and simply inserting
and editing "citations" (references based on templates) neared
completion and will be enabled in the coming month.
The *Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>* team continued with a
lot of bug fixing and tweaking
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/Deployments> of this parsing program
that converts wikitext to annotated HTML, behind the scenes of
VisualEditor. Media and image handling in particular was improved. In
the process, we discovered a lot of edge cases and inconsistent behavior
in the PHP parser, and fixed some of those issues there as well.
We revamped our round-trip test server interface
<http://parsoid-tests.wikimedia.org/> that compares the wikitext code of
a page before and after it's been converted into annotated HTML, and
back into wikitext. We fixed some issues in the round-trip test system,
and improved our error logging system.
We also designed and implemented a HTML templating library
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_template_system> which combines
correctness, security and performance. This will notably be used to
evaluate HTML templating for translation messages and eventually wiki
content.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor_-_2013-14_Q2%E2%80%93Q…>
Presentation slides from the VisualEditor team's quarterly review
meeting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…>
on March 26
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parsoid_review_Q3,_March_2014.pdf>
Presentation slides from the Parsoid team's quarterly review meeting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…>
on March 28
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Growth_team_update_April_2014.pdf?p…>
Presentation slides from the Growth team
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
This month the *Core Features* team focused on improvements to how the
new Flow <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow> discussion system works with
key MediaWiki tools and processes. We made changes to the history,
watchlist, and recent changes views, adding more context and bringing
them more in line with what experienced users expect from these
features. We released a thank feature in Flow, allowing users to thank
each other for posts, and began work on a feature to close and summarize
discussions. Lastly, we continued work on rewriting the Flow interface
to make it cleaner, faster, and more responsive across a wide number of
browsers/devices.
In March, the *Growth <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth>* team primarily
focused on bug fixing, design enhancements, and refactoring of the
GettingStarted <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted> and
GuidedTour <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GuidedTour> extensions,
which were recently launched on 30 Wikipedias. We updated icons and
button styles, rewrote the interface text, and refactored the interface
to be more usable in non-English languages. We also began to refactor of
the GuidedTour API, in order to support interactive tours that are
non-linear. Non-linear tours will not depend on a page load to run,
which will notably enable better support for tours in VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor>. Last but not least, we made
progress on measuring the impact of GettingStarted
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Onboarding_new_Wikipedians/Rollout>
across all wikis
where it is deployed, with results for the first 30 days of editor
activity expected in early April.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
The *Wikimedia Apps <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps>* team
worked on logged-out editing to logged-in editing, and table of contents
refinements.
The *Mobile web projects <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects>*
team worked on the link inspector for VisualEditor on tablets, and a
switch between VisualEditor and wikitext on tablets. Both are in alpha.
During the last month, with the assistance of the Operations and
Platform teams, the *Wikipedia Zero
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero>* team set up the upcoming
Partners Portal and continued work on reducing image size for the mobile
web. Additionally, the team added Wikipedia Zero detection to the
Wikipedia for Firefox OS app, as well as contributory features support
for users on partner networks supporting zero-rated secure connections.
With the assistance of the Apps team, new features were added to the
forthcoming reboots of the Android and iOS apps; proof of concept for
full-text search was started on iOS.
Smart, the largest mobile operator in the Philippines, is giving access
to Wikipedia free of data charges through the end of April. We arranged
a meeting with local community members and Smart to explore ways to
collaborate in support of education. The partnerships team started to
review the 27 existing Wikipedia Zero partners, to update the
implementation, identify opportunities for collaboration in corporate
social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and get feedback on the program.
The account reviews will continue for the next few months.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* A longtime WMF donor and retired aerospace engineer from Colorado is
leaving us his entire estate in a living trust.
* The fundraising team coordinated completion of the WMF's FDC proposal.
=== Online Fundraising ===
File:Open Letter for Free Access to Wikipedia - three months later, MTN
responds.webm
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Open_Letter_for_Free_Ac…>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Letter_for_Free_Access_to_Wiki…>
MTN response by video
* The online fundraising team ran *banner campaigns* in the Sweden,
Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, Denmark, and Norway. Roughly $1.7
million was raised in March (preliminary numbers as donations are
still settling).
* The team prepared *translations* of fundraising messages into
multiple languages for upcoming international banner campaigns. If
you would like to help with the translation process, please get
involved <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/Translation>.
* Mobile operator MTN South Africa responds to the Sinenjongo High
School 'open letter' video and grants *Wikipedia Zero in South
Africa*, publishing a video response of their own (see right).
== Grantmaking ==
Department highlights
* The first impact reports for Annual Plan Grants (reviewed by the
FDC), for activities in 2013, were submitted on 31 March, and an
analysis will be published this May.
* The Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation and the Program Evaluation and
Design teams are integrated and will continue to focus on program
evaluation and organisational effectiveness.
* The Wikipedia Education Program team also joins Grantmaking.
=== Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee) ===
* No new annual plan grants were funded this month; *3 grant reports*
were reviewed this month.
* Preparations are underway for upcoming Funds Dissemination Committee
Deliberations and Funds Dissemination Advisory Group Meeting in
Frankfurt, Germany this May.
* Staff summary of Q2 *progress reports*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Staff…>
published, and comments on WMHU's Q4 progress report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/…>
published. Thanks to all entities that submitted reports in this cycle.
* *2013-2014 Round 2 eligibility
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/Eligibility_checklist…>*
is
confirmed and announced: 6 entities are now eligible to submit
proposals on 1 April 2014.
* /Impact reports
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals>/ for most
2012-2013
Round 1 grants submitted on 31 March, and will be analyzed before
the upcoming FD Advisory Group
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/FD…>
Meeting on 25 May - 26 May
=== Project and Event Grants ===
* Grants:PEG/Frequently_asked_questions
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Frequently_asked_questions>
is updated.
* *5 new requests* were funded and *11 reports* were accepted in March
2014.
==== Grants funded in March 2014 ====
* Grants:PEG/WM_ZA/joburgpedia-2014
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_ZA/joburgpedia-2014>:
Building on the 2013
pilot, to do outreach and increase Wikipedia coverage of historic
buildings around Johannesburg.
* Grants:PEG/WM_PH/Cultural_Heritage_Mapping_project_2014
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_PH/Cultural_Heritage_Mapping_…>:
To
support a nationwide heritage documentation and mapping project in
the Phillipines, with results feeding into Wikimedia projects.
* Grants:PEG/WikiSym_Initiative/2014_OpenSym_Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WikiSym_Initiative/2014_OpenSym_…>:
To
support the 10th International Symposium on Open Collaboration.
* Grants:PEG/WM_ES/CUSL8
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_ES/CUSL8>: To support
Wikimedia outreach at the Spanish National Free Software
Universitary Contest Awards Conference.
* Grants:PEG/WM_PH/Annual_program_plan_2014
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_PH/Annual_program_plan_2014>:
To support
Wikimedia Philippines' 2014 annual project plan, including
edit-a-thons, WLM, and a rewards program.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palacio_Real_de_Aranjuez_-_130921_1…>
The Royal Palace of Aranjuez: One of the winning photos in Wiki Loves
Monuments 2013 in Spain
==== Reports accepted in March 2014 ====
* Grants:PEG/WM CZ/Presentation & Outreach/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_CZ/Presentation_%26_Outreach/…>
* Grants:PEG/WM Movement/Flow Funding Pilot Project/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_Movement/Flow_Funding_Pilot_P…>
* Grants:PEG/Katie Filbert - Wikimedians in DC/WikiXDC/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Katie_Filbert_-_Wikimedians_in_D…>
* Grants:PEG/Aislinn Dewey/Distribute WikiReaders to Schools/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Aislinn_Dewey/Distribute_WikiRea…>
* Grants:PEG/Shipmaster - Community of Arabic Wikipedia/Producer
Prize-2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Shipmaster_-_Community_of_Arabic…>
* Grants:PEG/WM AM/Wiki Loves Monuments 2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_AM/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013/…>
* Grants:PEG/WM RS/Annual plan 2012-2013/Report/Q5
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_RS/Annual_plan_2012-2013/Repo…>
* Grants:PEG/WM ES/Wiki Loves Monuments Spain 2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_ES/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_Spain…>
* Grants:PEG/Wikimedia Slovakia/Start-up/Report/Wiki Loves Monuments
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Wikimedia_Slovakia/Start-up/Repo…>
* Grants:PEG/WM CL/Annual Program Plan 2013-2014/Report/Interim report
to December 31, 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_CL/Annual_Program_Plan_2013-2…>
* Grants:PEG/WM MX/Wiki Loves Monuments 2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_MX/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013/…>
=== Travel and Participation Support ===
* *1 new request* was funded and *4 reports* were accepted in March 2014.
* As part of an overall program redesign, the Travel and Participation
Support reporting form has been revised: the *new version of the
reporting form
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Reporting_template>* is
designed to
be more lightweight and more useful to participants for sharing
learning with the movement and includes an option to create learning
patterns <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/Learning…>
==== Requests awarded in March 2014 ====
* Grants:TPS/Strainu/OSGEO_Cluj
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Strainu/OSGEO_Cluj>:
a request to fund an outreach presentation in OSGEO 2014 Cluj that
works toward free and open source solutions for working with
geospatial data. The presentation will have a focus on gathering and
verifying coordinates of monuments on Wikipedia.
==== Reports accepted in March 2014 ====
* Grants:TPS/Rjain/FOSS_Asia_2014/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Rjain/FOSS_Asia_2014/Report>
* Grants:TPS/Rahul21/FOSSASIA/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Rahul21/FOSSASIA/Report>
* Grants:TPS/Harsh4101991/FOSSASIA/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Harsh4101991/FOSSASIA/Report>
* Grants:TPS/Daniel_Mietchen/58th_Annual_Meeting_of_the_Biophysical_Society/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Daniel_Mietchen/58th_Annual_Meet…>
=== Individual Engagement Grants ===
* A round 1 2014 *open call for proposals* ran March 1-31. With the
support of staff, committee, and the larger community, in office
hours <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Events#Past_events>
and on-wiki, 25
proposals <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-join>
were finalized and submitted
during this period. In April, proposals will be checked for
eligibility and offered for community comments before the
committee's formal review begins.
* *4 new members
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Committee#ieg-members>*
have joined
the IEG committee, to replace 4 retiring members.
* Templates for midpoint and final IEG reports have been improved
based on learning from the first round
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Learning/round_1_2013/impact>.
* We've *submitted 4 Wikimania session proposals* aimed at fostering
participation in grantmaking to individuals and sharing learning
from past grantee projects:
o An IdeaLab workshop for creating ideas, project plans, and
learning patterns
<https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/IdeaLab_Workshop:_Maki…>
o An IdeaLab mixer for connecting people and projects
<https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/IdeaLab_mixer>
o A panel discussing social media strategies, drawing on learning
from 2 past IEG projects
<https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikipedia_Goes_Viral:_…>
o A grantmaking panel showcasing past grantees from WMF's 4
Grantmaking programs
<https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/WMF_Grants_Showcase:_F…>
* We've also submitted a session idea to run an *IdeaLab workshop at
Wikiconference USA
<http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/Submissions:IdeaLab_Workshop/>*.
* In other individual grantmaking news: Setup continues for the
*Arabic book grants pilot
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/ARWP_small_individual_grants…>*,
a joint
effort between WMF Grantmaking and The Wikipedia Library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library>
to fund *books and other
reliable sources for Wikipedia editors*. A reusable kit
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/Kit> is
being designed and developed on
meta-wiki, which will be initially used to build out Arabic
Wikipedia's Library hub
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9…>.
2 volunteer account coordinators
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/Kit/Coordinators>
have been selected
for the Arabic Library and their setup is in progress. We aim to
begin processing book requests on Arabic Wikipedia in April.
==== Grants started in March 2014 ====
* The Wikimaps Atlas <http://wikimapsatlas.github.io/> project, which
was selected
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Wikimaps_Atlas> in IEG
round 2 2013,
began work in March.
=== Learning and Evaluation ===
The month of March (and we expect the next few months) involved the
*incorporation of the former "Program Evaluation and Design" team into
the former "Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation" team*. We are now acting
as one cohesive team, with clear workstream areas carved out -- the
largest of which is program evaluation. We are thrilled about the
opportunity to coordinate more effectively on the integration of program
and organizational effectiveness.
We spent a lot of time this past month prepping for the months ahead:
annual planning for FY14-15, Wikimedia Conference 2014, Wikimania
submissions, interviews for the new community coordinator, and strategy
sessions with the new team. We are looking forward to the return on
these planning investments over the months ahead!
==== Program Evaluation ====
In addition to the work collaborating within grantmaking around our
organizational shift and annual planning (/see above/), in the month of
March the program evaluation team has also been:
* Preparing for our upcoming in-person meet-up sessions surrounding
*Wikimedia Conference 2014* ( Pre-conference Program Evaluation and
Design workshop
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/News/Wikimedia_C…>,
Open Thursday workshop sessions
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/News/Wikimedia_C…>,
a Conference Dialogue session
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Programme#18_Prog…>,
and overview sessions on tracking and reporting tools
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Programme#19_Prog…>)
* Submitting proposals to WikiConference USA
<http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/Submissions:Growing_the_Awesome_in_your_P…>
and Wikimania
<https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Growing_the_Awesome_in…>
* Adding new *learning modules
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Learning_modules>*
to our portal
Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library>
* Hosting *Virtual Meet-ups
<https://plus.google.com/b/117126229120807344920/117126229120807344920/posts>*
on Setting goals and targets: A SMART Process
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7iMVOPRKhQ#t=18> (17 participants
and 95 views as of 4/1/2013) and Evaluation reports (Round II)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2WgpaHot4> (12 participants and
34 views as of 4/1/2013)
==== Grants Programs ====
Annual Plan Grants
* Contractor *Kacie Harold* joined us near the end of the month to
help launch research to support the FDC Advisory Group convening,
taking place in May 2014. She will be pulling together the
quantitative and qualitative information from the first two years of
the FDC.
* Results from a *cost-benefit survey
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuo…>*
following Round 1 deliberations (November 2013) are posted. Major
takeaways are that people spend on average just over 90 hours on the
application process, but primarily no financial costs are incurred.
One recomendation is to eliminate the redundancy in the process
(lots of the same Q&A).
==== Org effectiveness ====
* Led /Strategy, planning, and evaluation/ for the *Boards training
workshop <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Boards_training_workshop_March_2014>*:
a session
hosted by WMUK in London focusing on capacity building for board
members of Wikimedia organizations.
* Developed org effectiveness *research and workplan* to bring in
information around how other organizations think about
organizational effectiveness and design their movement structures.
==== Other ====
* Ran training and implemented pilot of new *grants administration
tool*, "Fluxx <http://fluxx.io/>"
* Brainstormed and implemented ideas for the *microgrants pilot*
* Prepared a prototype dashboard for Wikipedia *geo-data visualization*
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
* The Global Education team (also known as the Wikipedia Education
Program) is now a *part of the WMF Grantmaking team*.
* Anna Koval joined the Global Education team as a *Global Education
Program Manager*, transitioning from her role at the Wikimedia
Foundation as a Community Advocate.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Education_Coop_kick-off_meeting_in_…>
Global Education Cooperative kick-off meeting in Prague
Global programs
* The Global Education Team traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, to
kick off a *Global Education Cooperative*. The Coop
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter/March_2014/Educati…>
includes Wikipedia Education Program leaders from Mexico, Nepal,
Serbia, Armenia, Catalonia (Amical), Ukraine, the Czech Republic,
the Arab World, Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. Areas of focus
identified are mentoring, resources, communications, and recognition
for programs and participants. Watch for more information soon.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EduWiki_Learning_Day_Belgrade_2014_…>
Education program leaders at the EduWiki conference in Belgrade
* Rod Dunican and Anna Koval traveled to Belgrade, Serbia, for
*EduWiki 2014 in Belgrade, Serbia
<http://edu.wikimedia.rs/index.php?title=EduWiki_Conference_2014>*.
Education program leaders from 4 Wikimedia chapters (Macedonia,
Czech Republic, Germany, and the U.K.) joined hosts Wikimedia Serbia
for a learning day and a regional conference for high school and
university educators and students.
Arab world programs
* Results from the *fall 2013-2014 term in Jordan* showed a growth in
student participation and overall on-wiki contributions with 88
students contributing a total of 1.2 million bytes of new content to
the Arabic Wikipedia.
* Tighe Flanagan joined Dr. Nidal Yousef in Jordan to support local
Wikipedia Education Program outreach and present the previous term's
results at a *celebration conference at Isra University*.
* Results from the *fall 2013-2014 term in Egypt* showed a drop in the
amount of students but an increase in overall student activity
on-wiki with 109 students contributing a total of 7.8 million bytes
of new content to the Arabic Wikipedia.
* The *Training Center for Wikipedia Translation at King Saud
University* in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, welcomed a new faculty leader,
Dr. Majid Al-Humaidi, where students and professors are working to
get their Wikipedia Education Program pilot up and running.
* The *Education Program Extension*
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program> was
piloted by the Arabic Wikipedia community and did not result in any
objections and courses may begin to use this tool in the spring 2014
term.
Communications
* Sage Ross, with design support from Heather Walls, has consolidated
the various education pages on Outreach wiki into a unified
*Wikipedia Education Program portal
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program>*, in
preparation for a content update and ongoing maintenance by the
Education Cooperative.
* The biweekly *Wikipedia Education Program Update
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News> has
been ended*, in favor of using the This Month in Education
newsletter <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter> as
the central place for education project news.
* One blog post:
o Introducing Dr. Paola Ricaurte Quijano of Tec de Monterrey,
Mexico City Campus
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/07/paola-ricaurte-quijano-profile/>
(March 7)
== Human Resources ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:April_2014_HR_Metrics_from_WMF.pdf>
Metrics meeting presentation slides
Much of March has been spent supporting the *ED and VPE searches*, and
the first draft of the department annual plans and staffing to feed into
the Wikimedia Foundation's *FDC proposal*submission. Routine work around
benefits administration, immigration, continues. Onward.
=== March Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Chase Pettet (Engineering)
* Kevin Leduc (Engineering)
Conversions (Contractor to Requisition)
* Anna Stillwell (HR)
Requisition Department Changes
* Janice Tud, HR to Grantmaking
* Carolynne Schloeder, Grantmaking to Engineering
* Adele Vrana, Grantmaking to Engineering
* Dan Foy, Grantmaking to Engineering
* Jaime Anstee, Programs to Grantmaking
* Rod Dunican, Programs to Grantmaking
Requisition Departures
* LiAnna Davis (Programs)
* Ken Snider (Engineering)
New Interns
* Alex Monk (Engineering)
New Contractors
* Kacie Harold (Grantmaking)
* Teresa Cho (Grantmaking)
* Siebrand Mazeland (Engineering) (was previously requisition)
Contracts Ended
* Dashiell Renaud
* Sahar Massachi
* Jon Søby
* Steven Bernardin
* Stefan Petrea
=== March Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
March Actual: 184
March Total Plan: 163
March Filled: 3, Month Attrition: 3,
FYTD Filled: 41, FYTD Attrition: 23
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
33 → reflects 4 total out of plan req#s 193-196 (for finance)
== Finance and Administration ==
* The *investments* of the Wikimedia Foundation of $15.4 million, have
an estimated annual income as of 2/28/14 of $462,000.
* Application was filed with the County of Loudoun, home of the
Virgina data center, for an *exemption from personal property
taxes*. If our application for exemption is approved, it will save
the Wikimedia Foundation $70,000 per year.
* Completed version one of the Wikimedia Foundation *FY 2014-15
budget* for the FDC application.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
For LCA, March was focused on a variety of ongoing projects, including
litigation and community consultations.
* We concluded a large discussion on a *draft amendment to the Terms
of Use on undisclosed paid editing
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/Paid_contributions_amendment>*,
with over 2,000
contributors and over 300,000 words. As a next step, this proposal
will be presented to the Board. Thanks go out to all participants
and to our interns, Jorge Vargas and Shaila Nathu, who did a lot of
hard work on this collaboration.
* After collaboration with community members on Meta and in our public
Advocacy Advisory Group
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors>,
the legal team finalized and submitted a response to the *European
Commission's request for consultation on copyright*
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/14/wikimedia-participates-in-eu-copyrigh…>.
We thank everyone who participated in this discussion.
=== LCA Report, March 2014 ===
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 28
* Completed : 26
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 20
* Approved: 4
* Pending : 4
* Denied: 2
* Request withdrawn: 1
* Approval not needed : 9
==== Domains Obtained ====
wikimedia.voyage, wikivoyage.voyage, winkipedia.com
==== Coming & Going ====
* LCA says goodbye to Dashiell Renaud, one of our legal interns. We
wish him the best of luck as he continues his legal career.
* LCA welcomes Jessica Tam, a new legal intern and recent graduate
from Santa Clara Law.
==== Other Activities ====
* Michelle attended a *Patent and Trademark Office forum on the DMCA
Notice-and-Takedown System*
<http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/copyrights/AGENDA_March-20_Multistakeholder_…>
to ensure Wikimedia's interests in protecting and improving the
current system were heard.
* Yana and Luis did a *panel presentation on open trademark licensing*
at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit
<http://collaborationsummit2014.sched.org/event/21e70c737d0bc54fe701adf47216…>,
focused on explaining our new trademark policy and the historical
and legal background behind it.
* Manprit Brar, a fellow in the legal team, published a blog post
titled *"Celebrating women and change in IP
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/21/celebrating-women-and-change-in-ip/>"*;.
This blog post highlighted relevant legal issues, and Yana's
participation in a panel discussion.
* Community Advocacy continues to build out *tools to improve and
speed up common workflows*, including a DMCA takedown tool that cuts
the time needed to handle a report by about 75%, and another for
reporting to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
with similar performance improvements.
=== Communications Report, March 2014 ===
March saw the announcement
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2014-March/000876.…>
revealing the Foundation's *new Chief Communications Officer*, Katherine
Maher. Katherine will take on her new role in mid April. The
Communications team tracked some complex issues through the month,
including efforts by a Greek politician to *sue a Greek Wikipedian* and
fundraising issues in *Finland*, and also worked on change management
issues with Foundation leadership. And we supported the Fundraising team
in the preparation of the publication of the draft 2014/15 annual plan
in form of the *WMF FDC proposal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim…>*,
including an appendix titled *“Ongoing work areas of the Wikimedia
Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim…>”*
which for the first time gives a comprehensive overview of recurring,
long-term work that staff across the organization carry out in support
of Wikimedia projects (see also general "Highlights" section
). We also pitched out the unveiling of the *new
typography*, leading to two stories in Fast Company magazine.
==== Major announcements ====
*A statement on Wikimedia Foundation’s fundraising delivered to the
National Police Board of Finland
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Statement_on_WMF%27s_Fi…>*
(03 March, 2014)
==== Major Storylines through March ====
Wikimedia and Bitcoin
Jimmy Wales at the forefront of the Bitcoin discussion - hints that
the Foundation might start to accept the digital currency, but
assures a consultation with the Board of Trustees before any final
decision is made. (04 March, 2014).
Mashable [1]
<http://mashable.com/2014/03/10/jimmy-wales-reddit-bitcoin/>
The Telegraph [2]
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/10687380/Influx-of-Wikipedi…>
Wikipedia on Crimea
An edit war has ensued on Wikipedia after disputes between Ukraine
and Russia have put the Crimean region's status as an autonomous
republic of Ukraine up for debate - triggering constant edits and a
spirited debate (19 March, 2014).
ABC News [3]
<http://abcnews.go.com/International/crimea-war-words-wikipedia/story?id=229…>
HNGN [4]
<http://www.hngn.com/articles/27005/20140320/wikipedia-and-national-geograph…>
Talk Radio News Service [5]
<http://www.talkradionews.com/united-nations/2014/03/20/un-map-showing-crime…>
The Voice of Russia [6]
<http://voiceofrussia.com/radio_broadcast/36172287/270304663/>
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
"UC Berkeley hires first Wikipedian-in-residence" (04 March, 2014).
Mercury News [7]
<http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_25364220/uc-berkeley-hires-first-wi…>
SF Gate [8]
<http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/UC-Berkeley-grad-to-expand-Wikiped…>
Dallas morning news [9]
<http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20140322-fixing-wikipedia-is-h…>
"Greek politician tries to use defamation lawsuit to gag Wikipedia, is
rewarded with Streisand effect." (06 March, 2014).
Tech Dirt [10]
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140305/08562026441/greek-politician-trie…>
"Study finds thousands of academic papers include Wikipedia citations"
(18 March, 2014).
Academica Group [11]
<http://academica.ca/top-ten/study-finds-thousands-academic-papers-include-w…>
"Warming up to the culture of Wikipedia" (19 March, 2014)
NY Times [12]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/arts/artsspecial/warming-up-to-the-cultur…>
"Wikihistory – Finding the World’s Leaders through the ages through
Wikipedia Social Networks" (19 March, 2014).
Knight News Challenge [13]
<https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/2014/feedback-review/wikihistory-fi…>
"The Wikipedia gender gap" (19 March, 2014).
Literacy teaching and teacher education [14]
<http://literacyteaching.net/2014/03/18/the-wikipedia-gender-gap/>
"The Geography of fame" (22 March, 2014).
NY Times [15]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/opinion/sunday/the-geography-of-fame.html…>
The Bill Fold [16]
<http://thebillfold.com/2014/03/how-to-ensure-your-progeny-have-wikipedia-en…>
Jimmy on holistic medical practices
Jimmy Wales rejected a change.org petition to allow more positive
discussion of holistic medicine on Wikipedia, defending Wikipedia's
policicy to rely on respectable scientific journals (24 March, 2014).
TIME [17]
<http://time.com/36938/wikipedia-founder-sticks-it-to-lunatic-holistic-heale…>
Business Insider [18]
<http://www.businessinsider.com/jimmy-wales-petition-response-2014-3>
Ars Technica [19]
<http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/wikipedia-founder-calls-alt-medicine…>
Slate Magazine (blog) [20]
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/27/jimmy_wales_denies_petit…>
The Daily Banter [21]
<http://thedailybanter.com/2014/03/wikipedia-founder-smacks-down-petition-to…>
International Business Times [22]
<http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/wikipedias-jimmy-wales-calls-holistic-medicine-pra…>
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Blog.wikimedia.org published 26 posts in March 2014
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/3/>. Two posts were multilingual
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>, with translations
in Spanish.
Some highlights from the blog include:
*Wikimedia participates in EU Copyright Consultation
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/14/wikimedia-participates-in-eu-copyrigh…>*
(March 17, 2014).
*Wikimedia-RU changes Russian Civil Code
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/17/wikimedia-ru-changes-russian-civil-co…>*
(March 17, 2014).
*For Rexford Nkansah, Wikipedia represents the future of education
for his country
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/19/for-rexford-nkansah-wikipedia-represe…>*
(March 19, 2014).
*Hovercards now available as a Beta Feature on all Wikimedia wikis
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/26/hovercards-now-available-as-a-beta-fe…>*
(March 26, 2014).
*Typography refresh: A new look for text on Wikimedia sites
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/27/typography-refresh/>* (March
27, 2014).
==== Media Contact ====
Media contact through March 2014: wmf:Press room/Media Contact#March
2014 <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#March_2014>
==== Communications Design ====
The Wikipedia *Teahouse* had its second birthday - still going strong,
now run by the community. We worked with Grantmaking to create a
prototype for the new *Wikipedia Library pilot on Arabic Wikipedia*, and
began a sprint to make the *IdeaLab* more flexible and reusable for
developing projects. Brena Monteiro finished her *FOSS Outreach Program
for Women project* with mentors Quim and Heather.
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for March 2014:
* Volume 10, Issue 9
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-03…>,
05 March 2014
* Volume 10, Issue 10
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-03…>,
12 March 2014
* Volume 10, Issue 11
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-03…>,
19 March 2014
* Volume 10, Issue 12
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-03…>,
26 March 2014
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in March 2014:
1. Deji Olukotun (PEN)
2. Jason Douglas (Google)
3. Denny Vrandecic (Google)
4. Francesco Radicati (Informa)
5. Nathan Knight (Informa)
6. Pat Reed (Global Collect)
7. Tom Staudt (Global Collect)
8. Loida Veroes (Global Collect)
9. Stormy Peters (Mozilla)
10. Alexis Rossi (Internet Archive)
11. Jake Johnson (Internet Archive)
12. Kevin Gomez (Internet Archive)
13. Jesse Johnson (Internet Archive)
14. Valerie Ball (KPMG)
15. Regina Prince (KPMG)
16. Ana Akhir (KPMG)
17. Dwight Wilson (Collabriv)
18. Katrina Walker (Collabriv)
19. Alan Bird (W3C)
20. Glenn Turner (Advanced Mobile)
21. John Sebastian Gomez (Infusion)
22. Juan Vanegas (U Caldas)
23. Cristian Perez (U Caldas)
24. Gautam Chandna (Opera Software)
25. Andreas Bovens (Opera Software)
26. Randy Abreu (Thomas Jefferson School of Law)
27. Tim Seeger (TJSL)
28. Skye Anderson (TJSL)
29. Robert Wasserman (TJSL)
30. Daniel Hasson (TJSL)
31. Michael Goodman (TJSL)
32. Sean Russel (TJSL)
33. Yana Loboda (TJSL)
34. Owen Davis (Wikia Inc.)
35. Katherine Kuhns (SVIC)
36. Javier Vallaure (All Pago)
37. Phillip Bock (All Pago)
38. Tom Hehir (CCSC Inc.)
39. Richard Millington (feverbee.com)
40. Tyson Polski (USCIS)
41. Astrid Wichmann (OpenSym)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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