Dear Wikimedians
We, Wikimedia Korea just submitted our activity/financial reports for 2019. We are glad that we can share our reports with you after being approved as a Wikimedia Chapter.:) Links to the documents are below.
2019 Activity Report
https://w.wiki/fAx
2019 Financial Report
https://w.wiki/fAw
Best,
Gu Eun-ae
Director of Wikimedia Korea
Hello everyone,
Every year since 2014, Wikimedia Norge has hosted an editathon dubbed
"Wikinobel" from the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo on the date of the
announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize. Due to 2020 being 2020, it will be
held fully online this year, and we invite everyone to join us to help
update Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects' coverage of the new peace
prize laureate(s). We have set up a Telegram group at https://t.me/wikinobel,
and will be meeting via Google Meet at https://wikitreff.wikimedia.no/
from10:00–14:00 CEST (08:00–12:00 UTC). Feel free to join us any time! (If
you do, keep our safe space policy
<https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Retningslinjer_for_inkluderende_m%C3%B8ter/en>
in
mind.)
--
*Jon Harald Søby*
Prosjektleder / Prosjektleiar / Prošeaktajođiheaddji / Project Manager
Wikimedia Norge / Wikimedia Noreg / Wikimedia Norga
+47 977 67 510
jhsoby(a)wikimedia.no
Hi everyone,
(Apologies for cross-posting.)
As part of the upcoming celebrations surrounding Wikipedia's 20th
birthday[1], the Wikimedia Foundation is publishing a short optional
survey[2] that will help us understand the needs of people who would like
to host a birthday event. The survey is expected to take three to five
minutes to fill in and will remain open until 23:59 UTC on Wednesday, 30
September 2020.
Before taking the survey, please review the privacy statement policy[3].
We would also like to announce that the Foundation will be supporting
Wikipedia 20 anniversary celebration events through multiple grant programs:
* Rapid Grants[4] to support celebration events up to 2000 USD.
* Additional funding for Conference & Events grantees (e.g. for a regional
or thematic conference) who wish to incorporate a celebration event to an
existing conference.
* Conference & Event Grants[5] to support celebration events for more than
2000 USD.*
*Round one applications for conference & event grants [5] is now open until
28 September 2020.
On behalf of the Wikipedia 20 team, Samir Elsharbaty
[1] Wikipedia 20 meta page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20
[2] Survey link: https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4GyxYcdRSSM5M8J
[3] Privacy statement:
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20_Community_Feedback_Surve…
[4] Rapid grants page on meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid
[5] Conference grants page on meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference
Samir Elsharbaty (he/him)
Brand Associate
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikipedians and Wikimedians,
Hope you are all doing well! Now is the time to sign up for Wikipedia Asian
Month 2020, which will take place this November.
No matter you want to be an organizer for the event or be a participant to
enjoy the joy of editing, we are looking forward to meeting you all online.
Here are some information for organizers and participants.
▎For organizers:
Here are the basic guidance and regulations for organizers. Please remember
to:
• use Fountain tool, or else you and your participants’ will not be able to
receive the prize from WAM team. See:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fountain_tool
• Add your language projects and organizer list to the meta page before
October 29th, 2020. See:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Asian_Month_2020
• Inform your community members WAM 2020 is coming soon!!!
• If you want WAM team to share your event information on Facebook /
twitter, or you want to share your WAM experience/ achievements on our
blog, feel free to send an email to info(a)asianmonth.wiki or PM us via
facebook.
• If you want to hold a thematic event that is related to WAM, a.k.a. WAM
sub-contest. The process is the same as the language one.
－－－
▎For participants:
Just join us! Let’s edit articles and win the prizes! See:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Asian_Month_2020
－－－
▎Here are some updates from WAM team:
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year we hope all the Edit-a-thons are
online not physical ones.
• The international postal systems are not stable enough at the moment, WAM
team have decided to send all the qualified participants/ organizers extra
digital postcards/ certifications. (You will still get the paper ones!)
• Our team has created a meta page so that everyone tracking the progress
and the delivery status.
－－－
If you have any suggestions or thoughts, feel free to reach out the WAM
team via emailing info(a)asianmonth.wiki or discuss on the meta talk page. If
it’s urgent, please contact the leader directly (jamie(a)asianmonth.wiki).
Hope you all have fun in Wikipedia Asian Month 2020
Sincerely yours,
Wikipedia Asian Month International Team 2020.10
Dear all,
I would like to inform you that we are almost at the onset of the Wikimedia
CEE Online Meeting 2020
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020>, which
will take place from 2–4 October. We have prepared a conference programme
with a variety of topics covered by speakers from all around the world (the
schedule is available on the following link
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020/Programme…>
).
Considering that this is an online event, the registration will be open
until *2 October at 12:00 (UTC)*. You can find more instructions regarding
the registration on this page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020/Participa…>
.
This is a one-time opportunity for non-CEE Wikimedians to attend the
Wikimedia CEE Meeting. Don't miss it!
Stay safe and healthy!
Best regards,
Kiril Simeonovski
Chair of the Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting 2020 organising committee
Dear all,
I would like to share with you some updates on Wikimedia Foundation Board
governance, concerning board composition, annual planning, and more.
The past few weeks and months have been difficult for many of us as
COVID-19 changes our schedules and lives, but we are being really true to
the vision of “the world in which every single human being can freely share
in the sum of all knowledge”—on the whole the visits to Wikimedia projects
have increased by more than 30% over the past month. It is impressive that
the volunteer communities continue to produce the information that informs
everyone through graphs and data seen by millions and careful synthesis of
the medical and administrative facts. Wikimedia volunteers’ work is present
in top stories on the novel coronavirus. We volunteers do this despite the
need to tend to home chores, take care of kids and the elderly, probably
feeling depressed or fearing for our jobs, economy, health and the lives of
relatives and friends all over the world.
In these circumstances, it may seem odd to be hearing about board
governance updates, but those are still important, for the long-term
thriving of our movement. I joined the Board because I wanted to explore
ways of improving understanding between the Foundation and the communities,
and to help the trustees provide what was needed to our communities. No
Board will ever do this perfectly, and I know, as do we all, that there
have been occasions in the long years of the movement on which the Board
had not supported the Foundation and communities in the ways we all hoped
and needed. We as Board members want to play our part in building a
Wikimedia that will sustain our mission far into the future. Please forgive
the length of this message—it is a lot of things to share in one letter.
== Designing a better Board for Wikimedia ==
One of the most significant initiatives the Board worked on collectively
over the last year was to run an official Board governance review. In large
part this review was a response to direct requests for clarification from
the community over several years. I will explain a few of the
recommendations that came from this review, and the changes we are making
based on these recommendations.
In early 2019, the Foundation Board Chair and Executive Director
commissioned Board Veritas (named Taylor Strategic Partnerships at the
time) to review how the Board might more effectively support the goals of
the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia movement. Board Veritas was
chosen because of their expertise in the governance of U.S. nonprofits with
global operations and internationally diverse boards, as well as their
background in developing strategic comparisons with other not-for-profit
boards.
The resulting recommendations [1] centered on increasing the Board’s
effectiveness in fulfilling its governance responsibilities, including
improving the process for selecting Board members; developing greater
clarity around Board roles, responsibilities and accountabilities; better
leveraging the talents and skills of trustees in service to the
Foundation’s mission and strategic goals; improving trust and interactions
between the Board, the ED/CEO, and staff; and strengthening strategy and
program oversight.
The Board began taking steps to respond to the recommendations right away,
at a special meeting in July 2019 [2]. At that meeting, we lengthened the
terms of Board officer and committee chair positions from one year to three
years, and we tasked the Board Governance Committee with the preparation of
proposals for how to implement additional changes.
We will have more to share in the near future when the Board will be
engaging broadly on the outcomes, but the first big planned change is
expanding the number of seats on the Board, from 10 to 16. This includes
increasing the current number of seats sourced from the wider Wikimedia
community (including affiliates) by three, for a total of eight
community-sourced seats. The majority of the Board and I feel that this
overall growth is necessary for us to increase our capacity to meet the
governance needs of the Foundation—and better reflect the growing and
diverse communities we serve with the increased number of voices from
community sources.
== Community-selected Board seats ==
The voting process to select nominees for three Community-selected Board
seats was intended to open candidate submissions soon. In normal
circumstances this selection process occurs every three years and would run
this month. However, we feel that the widespread global impact from the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting strain on resources make it
unwise and unreasonable to continue the voting process on its planned
timeline:
The selection process requires extensive effort from community members (to
read proposals, ask questions, be engaged and informed, and of course
vote); candidates (to write statements and engage with community
questions); the Elections Committee (to run the process, including
responding to questions and engaging across languages); Foundation staff
(to support the Elections Committee in running the process and coordinating
the work across all stakeholders); and the Board (to make high-level
decisions and follow the process, also across languages). Given the public
health crisis and the many extraordinary demands on every person’s time and
attention, we believe we can not expect or require the level of sustained
effort and engagement needed to hold a successful trustee selection.
We do not want to delay the trustee selection process any longer than we
have to, and we will continue to evaluate whether it is appropriate to
proceed based on the best information available to us. It takes time to
plan and run the selection, so once the postponed process can resume we
will still need to work out the best timing for it. It does not currently
seem likely that the process will resume before August 2020, but we are
committed to completing it before the end of June 2021.
In order to ensure sustained community representation on the Board, we are
extending the terms of the three community-selected trustees currently
occupying those seats (María, Dariusz, and James) for up to a year until we
are all ready to run the postponed process. I would like to thank them for
their service to our communities and dedication to our shared mission.
Note: The selection process is mandated by the Bylaws to happen every three
years according to a schedule and process set by the Board of Trustees. The
process last occurred in 2017, so if we determine that it is best to
postpone the process past 2020, this will require a modification of the
Bylaws. The necessary modification of the Bylaws will be part of
forthcoming recommendations as we learn more about when we can all dedicate
the necessary time to the selection process.
== Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan timeline ==
The Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan would normally be completed in April
and posted for your feedback in May. This year, the Board has provisionally
approved an extended and revised timeline for annual planning in order for
us to remain sensitive to global economic conditions and revenue
projections.
We are also adjusting the timelines and expectations for our affiliates
during this time. Our affiliates and user groups hold a lot of in-person
events and are transitioning some of their work online and having to
postpone or cancel some events entirely. We are all having to rethink the
next year and recognize that the adjustment is going to take time. This
pandemic is a changing situation and will affect parts of the globe
differently over time. We need to remain flexible during this time of
uncertainty.
There will be future updates on annual plan progress from the Foundation,
but we wanted to let you know as soon as we could that the usual timelines
are postponed.
== Board meeting minutes & resolutions ==
Some of you have asked for minutes and resolutions from our recent
meetings, as we are behind in publishing these notes. I apologize that we
fell behind in this; once we were behind, it became harder to catch up, and
we have only now been able to read and approve them all. The minutes were
posted and you will find them on the Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki
[3]. I shall update on this thread when they are all up.
Voting online to approve the minutes is not always possible, so we are
approving them during our meetings. The timeline of the expected publishing
of the minutes was too ambitious, and this would need to change. Amanda
Keton, our General Counsel and Secretary of the Board, will see to adopting
the practices needed and having support in place to help us review more
quickly.
== To recap ==
* In early 2019, the Foundation Board Chair and Executive Director hired
Board Veritas to conduct a Board Governance Review, and we are sharing the
resulting recommendations [1].
* We are planning to expand the number of seats on the Board, from 10 to
16. This includes increasing the current number of seats sourced from the
wider Wikimedia community (including affiliates) by three, for a total of
eight community-sourced seats. This change will require changing the
Bylaws, especially regarding the selection pathway for the additional
seats. We plan to present the Board’s vision and hold a community
discussion as part of the process for the Bylaws change.
* We are postponing the trustee selection process by up to a year because
of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by up to a year, the resulting strain on
resources, and the added burden to our communities. And we shall be
modifying the Bylaws to allow for this revised timeline in the selection
process, if needed.
* We are approving an extended timeline for the Wikimedia Foundation Annual
Plan.
* And we are posting the remaining backlog of trustee meeting minutes and
resolutions. After they are all up, I shall update on this thread.
As these are a lot of topics to talk about, please post your
thoughts/comments on the talk page of my message on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_not…
. It would be easier to have a structured discussion there, rather than
dozens of emails in this thread. Depending on interest and our shared
situation we might hold a video “town hall” to discuss more details of some
of these plans with you all.
Also we are currently working on an update to our 2016 statement on
community culture in order to reinforce our commitment to safety on our
projects. We look forward to sharing it with you in May.
Please take care of yourselves.
[1]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Board_Veritas_Governance_Recomme…
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes/2019-7-10
[3] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetings
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
advance!
Me again Antoine,
I remembered this partnership between WMF and Orange, the French telecom
operator.
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Press_releases/Orange_and_Wikimedia_a…
It seems to me to remember that during this partnership that the
database was replicated on Orange's servers in read mode, but I'm not on
that date a bit and my memory is failing me can be asked for
confirmation from Brion Vibber .
If this is the case, Orange had taken the risk of hosting the data and
Orange was never bothered too :)
The noticeable difference is that Orange offered money not a resilient
solution that the Criann is capable of accommodating.
Regards,
Pascal
Le 2020-10-01 22:57, Pascal Martin a écrit :
> Good evening Antoine,
>
> France is a country full of laws which are not respected, it is the old continent that you want :)
> Ex: it was not until 2013 that women could wear pants in Paris, and I assure you that women wore pants before that date.
>
> https://www.liberation.fr/france/2013/02/04/le-pantalon-n-est-plus-interdit…
>
> More seriously and from my personal experience for which for more than 12 years the data of all the projects of the WMF and in all the languages as well as the content of the source links are hosted at Criann, the Criann and I even have never had any problem in court.
>
> Regarding confidentiality, my servers are locked in a room which is also locked; only authorized persons can physically access the server rooms which are partitioned.
>
> From my point of view, I think the risk is to be measured by the Criann, because we are talking about making Wikipedia resilient, if the Criann accepts the risk apart from controversies there will be only that.
>
> Even so, I think it is for the wikipedia community to rule on this point, even if the mandate of the WMF is to host Wikipedia, it does not say that the community is not positioning itself for a less centralized system. than today.
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Community_Wishlist_Survey
>
> And to change the law in France, I think that given that the Criann depends on the President of the Region:
>
> <Reality>
> Maybe le criann can try giving a call to french president of the region normandie and see whether
> some arrangement can be made: -]
> </ Reality>
>
> De : Antoine Musso
> Envoyé le :jeudi 1 octobre 2020 18:17
> À : Wikimedia Mailing List; Pascal Martin
> Objet :Re: [Wikimedia-l] Moving the technical infrastructure out of the US
>
> On 30/09/2020 13:55, Pascal Martin wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>> Maybe one way in France :
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renater
>> I could contact them if it s possible, and more particularly the criann
>> he would only charge for electricity.
>> At the same time this allows to be able to save energy for users who
>> consult wikipedia in Europe.
>>
>> https://www.criann.fr/
>
> Hello,
>
> Wikimedia has caches servers located in Amsterdam in the same facility
> of AMSIX which is one of the largest internet exchange point in Europe.
> The caches thus have a very good connectivity with all the major
> internet service provider in Europe (and beyond).
>
> France several exchange points (France-IX, PARIX, SFINX which is
> operated by renater) and possibly others. But to my knowledge none offer
> the same amount of connectivity as AMSIX.
>
> Beside privacy, hosting would have to obey to french laws and the
> copyright laws are entirely different than the one in the USA. On top of
> my mind: there is no such thing as "fair use" and no "freedom of panorama".
>
> Surely laws can be changed by intense lobbying and could I see the use
> case for France to relax some copyrights laws to better accommodate
> hosting. That could potentially attract a wide range of content that
> are seeking a safe copyright heaven. But I don't see it happening
> anytime soon and that would require a lot of lobbying by a wide range of
> organizations beside just Wikimedia.
>
> <fiction>
> Maybe WMF CEO can try giving a call to french president and see whether
> some arrangement can be made :-]
> </fiction>
--
Cordialement
Pascal Martin
06 13 89 77 32
Greetings,
The Wikimedia Foundation would like to invite you to attend a
livestream event with Wikimedia Foundation CEO Katherine Maher and
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to announce the 2020 Wikimedian of the
Year.
Learn more about the event on Diff.
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/10/01/coming-soon-the-2020-wikimedian-of-th…
Yours,
Chris Koerner (he/him)
Community Relations Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation