Hi all,

please find below the WMF report for December 2012, in plain text.

As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_December_2012

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,_December_2012 Many thanks to those who have translated the November "Highlights" into Danish, Spanish, ‎Piedmontese, ‎Portuguese, ‎Russian, Ukrainian and Simplified Chinese (and partially into some other languages)!

While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement. Suggestions for the January issue are welcome until February 6 at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights

Regards, Tilman

-- Wikimedia Foundation Report, December 2012

<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_January_10,_... Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of December https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2013-01-10 (January 10, 2013)>

Contents

* 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Visual Editor opt-in launch on English Wikipedia o 3.2 Record donations in shortest ever fundraiser o 3.3 First round of the new funds dissemination process ends * 4 Engineering o 4.1 VisualEditor o 4.2 Editor engagement o 4.3 Mobile o 4.4 Other news * 5 Fundraising o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser * 6 Grantmaking & Programs o 6.1 Strategic Goals Metrics o 6.2 Grantmaking + 6.2.1 Funds Dissemination Committee + 6.2.2 WMF Grants Program # 6.2.2.1 Grants approved in December 2012 # 6.2.2.2 Reports accepted in December 2012 + 6.2.3 Participation Support + 6.2.4 Individual Engagement Grants + 6.2.5 Fellowships + 6.2.6 Wikimania Scholarships o 6.3 Learning and Evaluation o 6.4 Programs + 6.4.1 Brazil # 6.4.1.1 Education - Brazil * 6.4.1.1.1 Reports on courses * 6.4.1.1.2 Program development + 6.4.2 Mobile + 6.4.3 Global Education * 7 Human Resources o 7.1 Staff Changes o 7.2 Statistics o 7.3 Department Updates * 8 Finance and Administration * 9 Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications o 9.1 LCA Report, December 2012 + 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, December 2012 + 9.2.1 Major announcements + 9.2.2 Major Storylines through December + 9.2.3 Other worthwhile reads + 9.2.4 WMF Blog posts + 9.2.5 Media Contact, December 2012 o 9.3 Wikipedia Signpost, December 2012 * 10 Visitors and Guests

== Data and Trends ==

Global unique visitors for November:

*484.5 million* (-0.79% compared with October; +2.06% compared with the previous year) (comScore data http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release December data later in January)

Page requests for December:

*20.2 billion* (-0.8% compared with November; +23.5% compared with the previous year) (Server log data http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access)

Active Registered Editors for November 2012 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots):

*79,532* (-0.03% compared with October / +0.59% compared with the previous year) (Database data http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors, all Wikimedia Foundation projects. Note: We recently refined this metric https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/31/improving-the-accuracy-of-the-active-editors-metric/ to take into account Wikimedia Commons and activity across several projects.)

*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects) for November 2012:

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_November_20... Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of November 30, 2012> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_November_2... Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of November 30, 2012>

(Financial information is only available for November 2012 at the time of this report.)

All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date November 30, 2012.

Revenue $16,614,546 *Expenses:* Engineering Group $5,309,228 Fundraiser Group $1,442,814 Grantmaking & Programs Group $2,159,357 Governance Group $314,952 Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $1,265,059 Finance/HR/Admin Group $2,267,388 Total Expenses $12,758,798 Total surplus/(loss) $3,855,748

* Revenue for the month of November is $11.26MM vs plan of $10.29MM, approximately $964K or 9% over plan. * Year-to-date revenue is $16.61MM vs plan of $15.50MM, approximately $1.11MM or 7% over plan. * Expenses for the month of November is $2.83MM vs plan of $3.12MM, approximately $290K or 9% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses and capital expenses partially offset by higher legal expenses, bank fees, outside contract services, and operating grants. * Year-to-date expenses is $12.76MM vs plan of $14.64MM, approximately $1.88MM or 13% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses, internet hosting, travel expenses, capital expenses, and outside contract services partially offset by higher legal expenses, bank fees, and awards and grants. * Cash position is $28.06MM as of November 30, 2012.

== Highlights ==

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor-logo.svg%3E

=== Visual Editor opt-in launch on English Wikipedia ===

An alpha version of the VisualEditor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor, the upcoming rich-text interface which will make it easier to edit wiki pages, was enabled on the English Wikipedia https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/12/try-out-the-alpha-version-of-the-visualeditor/ in December. Experienced editors can now test it and provide feedback on problem and priorities.

<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Impact_Of_Wikipedia.webm "The Impact Of Wikipedia" (video produced for the fundraiser, with subtitles in various languages)>

=== Record donations in shortest ever fundraiser ===

The fundraising team reached their end-of-year goal of US $25 million early this year, making 2012 the shortest fundraiser to date. We also had a record-breaking total number of contributions: 1.484 million donations since July 1. The campaign ended with a "Thank You" banner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_1231_ThankYou_Getstrtd that introduced readers to a diverse group of editors https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Thank_You_All through written messages and video interviews. About half a million people watched a four-minute video introduction to Wikipedia editors and we saw an increase in account creation.

=== First round of the new funds dissemination process ends ===

The Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees approved https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Board_decisions/2012-2013_round1 the recommendations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_round1 of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), allocating $8.43 million to 11 Wikimedia organizations. This marked the successful conclusion of the first round of the new FDC process. This change in how money is distributed within the Wikimedia movement was described https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/15/fdc-process-milestone-sharing-wikimedia-movement-funds/ by Trustees Jan-Bart de Vreede and Patricio Lorente as "a significant devolution of power http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/DevolvePower to the global volunteer community of Wikimedians". The committee was formed earlier in 2012 and consists of seven volunteers from seven different countries, who have editing experience on several Wikimedia projects, and have founded or have been Board members of five Wikimedia chapters.

== Engineering ==

A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for December 2012 can be found at:

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/December

Department Highlights

Major news in December include:

* The launch of an alpha, opt-in version of the VisualEditor https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/12/try-out-the-alpha-version-of-the-visualeditor/ to the English Wikipedia, a project more complex than it appears https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/07/inventing-as-we-go-building-a-visual-editor-for-mediawiki/; * A research study https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/20/article-feedback-new-research-and-next-steps/ on the use of the Article Feedback feature; * New metrics for the MediaWiki community https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/10/introducing-mediawiki-community-metrics/; * The start of the Outreach Program for Women https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/11/welcome-to-floss-outreach-program-for-women-interns/; * Continued work to improve the workflow https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/12/translation-interface-makeover-in-progress/ and interface https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/31/translation-editor-growing-snazzier/ for translators.

== VisualEditor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor ==

In December, the VisualEditor team enabled on the English Wikipedia https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/12/try-out-the-alpha-version-of-the-visualeditor/ an alpha version of the VisualEditor (see also general "Highlights" section). The VisualEditor team focused on ensuring that it worked properly, on providing a dedicated tool to report problems with editing, and on addressing the reports and ideas from editors after deployment.

This successful release was also a major milestone for Parsoid https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid (the parsing program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing that translates plain wikitext into HTML annotated for easy editing, and /vice-versa/). Parsoid needs to handle the full range of arbitrary and complex existing wiki content, including templates, tables and extensions; it did so very well, as witnessed by the lack of mistakes https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?namespace=&tagfilter=visualeditor&title=Special%3ARecentChanges introduced by Parsoid in the wikitext. This was in large part due to the team's efforts on automated conversion testing http://parsoid.wmflabs.org:8001/ and the completion of a strategy to only convert the parts of the page what were edited ("selective serialization").

=== Editor engagement https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement ===

This month, the Editor engagement team (E2) continued to develop new features of the Notifications https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications) project (called "Echo"), and enabled a first experimental release on mediawiki.org https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki. They worked on feature requirements https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements, the user experience https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo_User_Experience and developed interface and behind-the-scenes components. More features will be developed in January that are planned to be enabled on the English Wikipedia in early 2013. Help is welcome to test these features https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Testing to provide feedback and find bugs. (see also: Presentation slides https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qVzlgBOotLxaYDtRwQMmQDxh9_37v3eMjjoG4oAZjnw/edit from the metrics meeting for December)

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metrics... Dario Taraborelli explaining results https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1s_ULakFx2pIc82CsAFc4oAkQEIeSD4KBPdvuOlHs-eQ/edit#slide=id.g5aaa5bd1_0_187 about the AFTv5 tool and new user registrations at the metrics meeting for December>

A research study https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/20/article-feedback-new-research-and-next-steps/ on the use of the Article Feedback https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5 (AFT) tool on the English Wikipedia confirmed that many readers use this quality assessment feature, and a sizable number of them go on to register and become editors. Based on that research and other suggestions, new features were started to reduce the editor workload through better filters and simpler moderation tools. The activation of Article Feedback on all articles of the English Wikipedia is planned for March 2013. Some wikis like the German Wikipedia have started to evaluate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/de:Spezial:Artikelr%C3%BCckmeldungen_v5 this tool as well, while others like the French Wikipedia are discussing it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fr:Discussion_Wikip%C3%A9dia:Prise_de_d%C3%A9cision/Mise_en_place_de_l%27outil_d%27%C3%A9valuation_des_articles_sur_la_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais.

No significant development activity happened on Page Curation https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation (an interface for experienced contributors to review and improve newly created pages) following its release on the English Wikipedia, but its localization and adaptation for possible use on other wikis and in other languages is currently under consideration.

In December, the Editor engagement experiments https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments team (E3) launched a new test aimed at Onboarding new Wikipedians https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians; it offers an optimized task list immediately after sign up, inviting those without an idea of how to get started to choose an article and try their hand at editing. Development continued on the new account creation experience and a Guided Tours https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GuidedTour feature that which will be launched in January 2013.

To support these and future experiments, the EventLogging tool https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:EventLogging underwent heavy development, including the launch of a dedicated space on meta-wiki for defining the data collected in a public, collaborative manner. Development of a user metrics interface https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Metrics for programs also begun in order to standardize user metrics, and provide infrastructure and access to them.

Last, the E3 team collaborated with the Fundraising team to reach out to donors and readers https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Donor_engagement as part of the annual fundraising campaign, via email and a "Thank You" banner which ran at the end of the year.

=== Mobile https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering ===

The Mobile development and design team worked on finalizing contributory and other experimental editor-focused features on the Beta site (uploads, editing, and watchlist functionality) in order to clear the way for mobile uploads by March 2013. They also worked to improve the reader and potential editor experience by introducing features geared toward educating and engaging users, such as a human-readable last-modified indicator for articles and watchlists, and thumbnail images to illustrate the watchlist view. Because of the huge interest generated in the Beta testing site, an Alpha site was created to house very early work on contributory features without disrupting the reading experience of the 100,000+ Beta users.

Work continued on GeoData https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/GeoData_Storage_%26_API, a tool to store and retrieve GPS coordinates in Wikimedia databases, and it was deployed to all Wikipedia and Wikivoyage sites; it is expected to become officially operational shortly. This tool is a cornerstone of the discovery feature for the mobile site, allowing users to read about places around them.

Orange Congo joined the list of mobile carriers who enable free mobile access to Wikipedia via the Wikipedia Zero https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero program. The Wikipedia Zero team resolved operational issues and continued to work on more partnerships https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/20/the-countries-in-which-mobile-matters-most/. Two other initiatives to bring Wikipedia to mobile devices, the Wikipedia S40 J2ME app https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_S40_J2ME_app and the USSD service https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD, are now ready to launch pending contractual negotiations with carriers.

Last, the Mobile quality assurance https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_QA team started to work on an upcoming community testing event for Mobile features, and support for the MobileFrontend extension in the Beta cluster https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Beta_cluster testing environment.

=== Other news ===

* Community metrics https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/10/introducing-mediawiki-community-metrics/ are now generated every month to provide insights into the activity and health of the MediaWiki contributor community.

* Six interns joined the technical community https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/11/welcome-to-floss-outreach-program-for-women-interns/ as part of the Outreach Program for Women https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_Program_for_Women. They will work full-time between January and March 2013 on projects ranging from coding to documentation to bug triage.

* The Language engineering team continued to improve the workflow https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/12/translation-interface-makeover-in-progress/ and interface https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/31/translation-editor-growing-snazzier/ for translators; this is done as part of an initiative to improve the user experience of the Translate extension https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate, a tool used to translate software as well as content of wiki pages.

== Fundraising ==

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zack_Exley_thinking_during_2012_Wiki... Zack Exley thinking under a large set of testing data during the 2012 Wikimedia Fundraiser. The team did more than 100 live A-B tests in December.> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metrics... Katie Horn explaining banner statistics during the monthly metrics meeting (slides <https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1snihaY1NRhf9cwAyY68W...

...

Department Highlights see general "Highlights" section

=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===

* Received a $500,000 gift from M. Chastain, a $500,000 gift from A. Sosnik, a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, and a $100,000 gift from an anonymous donor.

=== Annual Fundraiser ===

* We reached our $25,000,000 end-of-year goal early this year. See the Fundraiser Statistics page https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics for a view comparing this year to previous years * This was the shortest fundraiser to date. We showed everyone banners only for the first 9 days and then experimented with a new feature: hiding banners. We started showing banners /only/ to users who hadn't seen them before, and only for a limited number of views (usually 1 or 2). This lowered the visibilty of the banners while still allowing us to reach our goal. This method of displaying banners will impact our fundraising testing strategy in the future. More information can be found in the Press Release: "The Wikimedia Foundation raises $25 million in record time during 2012 Wikipedia fundraiser https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_raises_25_million_in_2012_fundraiser" * Banners were only shown to the following five English-speaking countries through December 31: US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand in addition to fundraising chapters. This was a response to a very successful start and worldwide testing which indicated we could improve our global translations. The team will be working to improve translations to re-launch the global fundraiser in all remaining countries in the Spring of 2013. * Through more than 100 live A-B tests, we discovered many new, more-effective banner messages. We started the campaign on November 17 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_112605_Min_US and took all fundraising-related banners down on December 31 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_5C_121713_recurring_recurringtwin2. * The results of past fundraising tests are available on "We Need a Breakthrough https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough" and a synopsis of December testing highlights will be included in the upcoming Fundraising 2012 report, which is in the process of being written. * Customer Service worked with 10 agents to answer emails in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Russian, French, Chinese, as well as using community-translated messaging for inquiries in German and Polish. We responded to over 20,000 emails from October to December (peak-time) and worked closely with the Tech team to identify, triage, and respond to donor issues. We also worked cross-departmentally on a broad range of issues (Legal, Ops). * We closed the campaign December 27 - 31 with a "Thank You banner" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_1231_ThankYou_Getstrtd that introduced our readers to a diverse group of editors through written messages and video interviews. About 500,000 people watched a four-minute video introduction to Wikipedia editors https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Impact_Of_Wikipedia.webm and we saw an increase in account creation. 'The Impact of Wikipedia' video series can be found here https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/the-impact-of-wikipedia/. You can see the 51 featured editors here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Thank_You_All * The campaign received some positive coverage this year in the media, for example on Techcrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/27/wikimedia-foundation-raises-25m-in-donations-over-9-days/ and The Next Web http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/28/wikimedia-foundation-raises-25-million-for-its-2012-fundraiser/.

* <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Thomas.jpg Commons Uploader Ken Thomas>

* <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Netha_Hussain-925.jpg Wikipedian Netha Hussain>

* <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tony_Santiago_%22Tony_The_Marine%22-... Wikipedian Tony Santiago>

* <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravan_Jaafar_Altaie.jpg Wikipedian Ravan Jaafar Altaie>

*

<Video: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/The_Impact_of_Wikipedia_... Wikipedian Ravan Jaafar Altaie>

== Grantmaking & Programs ==

Department highlights

* The WMF Board of Trustees approves FDC funds allocations for 2012–2013 Round 1. * The Grantmaking team and the FDC welcomes Katy Love, who joined WMF as the Senior Program Officer for the FDC on 28 December, 2012. * Wikipedia Zero officially launches in the Democratic Republic of Congo. * Preparation for the launch of the Individual Engagement Grants program in January 2013 is underway.

=== Strategic Goals Metrics ===

Metric Value MoM MoM% Chart Free Wikipedia Zero Page Requests 2.8m 87k +3.3% Increase http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/graphs/free_mobile_traffic_by_version_monthly_desc

Global South Active Editors (5+ edits in main namespace) 15k -141 -0.9% Increase http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/graphs/global_north_south_active_editors

=== Grantmaking ===

==== Funds Dissemination Committee ===

* The WMF Board of Trustees approves https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Board_decisions/2012-2013_round1 funds allocations for 2012-2013 Round 1 (see general "Highlights" section) * Hiring of the Senior Program Officer for the FDC completed; Katy Love joins from 28 December. Welcome, Katy! Read the job description. http://hire.jobvite.com/Jobvite/Job.aspx?j=owwHWfwp&c=qSa9VfwQ * FDC Staff publishes reporting requirements and forms for 2012-2013: FDC portal/Reporting requirements https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Reporting_requirements. * WMF Staff publishes eligibility status for each affiliate organization for 2012-2013 Round 2: FDC portal/Eligibility status/Current round https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round * FDC Grant Agreement finalized, and 2012-2013 Round 1 grantees are contacted to begin Round 1 disbursements.

==== WMF Grants Program ====

* WMF prepares to initiate the Flow Funding pilot project, which will begin in the New Year. Read more about it on the FF portal https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FF_portal. * 2 grants approved and 8 reports accepted in December 2012

===== Grants approved in December 2012 =====

1. Nkansah Rexford Nyarko's Wikimedia outreach in Ghana: Grants:PWM GH/Wikimedia outreach in Ghana https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PWM_GH/Wikimedia_outreach_in_Ghana.

Funds support the launch of "'Wikimedia Outreach in Ghana' campaign which will be our first mass project. Our main goal, in line with that of the Foundation's, is to train Ghanaians to collect, refine and contribute Ghana- related content for free use on some selected wiki projects -- Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikimedia Commons and Wikibooks (Cookbook)."

2. Malayalam Wikipedia 10th Birthday Celebrations approved: Grants:Malayalam Wikipedia/10th Birthday Celebrations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Malayalam_Wikipedia/10th_Birthday_Celebrations.

"These events are conducted as a series of celebrations of the tenth anniversary and birthday of Malayalam Wikipedia. Existing Wikipedia editors, aspiring Wikipedia users, subject matter experts and media representatives will be participating in these events. Apart from introducing a lot of common public to the concept of Wikipedia (both as readers and editors), it also rejuvenates the spirits and passion of the existing user base."

===== Reports accepted in December 2012 =====

* Grants:WM_SE/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report_Q3 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_SE/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report_Q3 * Grants:Susanna_Mkrtchyan/Wiki_conference https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Susanna_Mkrtchyan/Wiki_conference * Grants:WikiSangamotsavam_2012/Malayalam_Wiki_Conference_2012/Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WikiSangamotsavam_2012/Malayalam_Wiki_Conference_2012/Report * Grants:WM_PH/Philippine_WikiCon_2012/Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Philippine_WikiCon_2012/Report * Grants:Ada_Initiative,_Inc./AdaCamp_DC_Funding/Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Ada_Initiative,_Inc./AdaCamp_DC_Funding/Report * Grants:WM_HK/Education_Toolkits_For_Liberal_Studies/Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HK/Education_Toolkits_For_Liberal_Studies/Report * Grants:WM_HK/Kick_Start/Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HK/Kick_Start/Report * Grants:WM_HK/Mac_Computer/Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HK/Mac_Computer/Report

==== Participation Support ====

No requests approved or reports accepted in December 2012.

==== Individual Engagement Grants ====

* WMF begins community discussions and lays plans for new pilot program focused on making grants to individuals to complete projects, which will be launched in January. Read more about it here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Individual_Engagement_Grants.

==== Fellowships ====

* Dispute Resolution Project: Results from a new survey of existing English Wikipedia dispute resolution volunteers, aimed at understanding their motivations and experiences in order to identify ways to retain and recruit more volunteers, have been released: wikipedia:Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution_volunteer_survey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution_volunteer_survey. * Small-Wiki Editor Engagement Project: Results from the Bangla Wikipedia help pilot https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_Wiki_Editor_Engagement_Project/Report/Monthly_(September-October_2012) have been released, demonstrating that the number of active new Bangla editors doubled during the pilot period: * WikiWomen's Collaborative: We've launched a survey to gather feedback on the project from participants, and results will be available in January. The project has a new portal https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative and is focusing on growing its base of volunteers to sustain it post-fellowship.

==== Wikimania Scholarships ====

Committee selected to run the 2013 Wikimania Scholarships selection process. Committee members are:

* User:AutoGyro * User:Karthikndr * User:KTC * Osmar Valdebenito * User:Kudpung * User:CT Cooper * Deryck Chan (WM HK) * Simon Shek (WM HK) * Jessie Wild (WMF)

The application process is expected to start in mid-January.

=== Learning and Evaluation ===

* Began drafting framework for evaluation and learning for the Grantmaking and Programs team.

=== Programs ===

==== Brazil ====

* 2013 plan for Brazil Catalyst Program https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013 published for community comment. * Acquired a quote for video production for tutorial and institutional materials * WikiMeeting in Recife https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Encontros/WikiRecife_I#Fotos held in December. * Finalized hiring selection process for Brazil Data analyst consultant with a task for finalists https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013/Data_analyst_consultant/Tarefa.

User:Jonas AGX's task https://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:Jonas_AGX/tarefa User:Crang115's task https://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:Crang115/tarefa

=====Education - Brazil =====

====== Reports on courses ======

Ongoing development of courses that were selected but affected by a national strike:

* History https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Semin%C3%A1rio_de_Pesquisa_em_Cultura_Hist%C3%B3rica_e_Documento_(Juliana_Bastos_Marques) * Physics https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/F%C3%8DSICA_III_C_(Rafael_Pezzi) * Production systems https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Sistemas_de_Produ%C3%A7%C3%A3o_(Ricardo_Mendes_Junior) * Literature https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Literatura_-_Teoria_e_Cr%C3%ADtica_(Camillo_Cavalcanti) * Physics https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Eletromagnetismo_II_(Edivaldo_Moura_Santos) * Latin language https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/L%C3%ADngua_Latina_2_(Leni_Leite) * Biology https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/T%C3%B3picos_Especiais_em_Biologia_Evolutiva_(Aureo_dos_Santos)

Finalized 6 courses of the Education Program: 4 with good articles and contributions (about 80% of the content has already moved to or developed in the main domain of the Portuguese Wikipedia), and 2 under review. More than 60 articles have been produced https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ezalvarenga/Report.

* Law https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Direito_Sanit%C3%A1rio_(Felipe_Asensi) * Psychology https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Cidade_e_Imagin%C3%A1rio_(Sandra_Vichietti) * Chemistry https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Qu%C3%ADmica_Geral_e_Experimental_(Regina_de_Almeida_Santos) * Biology https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Atividades_Acad%C3%AAmico-Cient%C3%ADfico-Culturais_(Alessandra_Bizerra) * Maths (various articles in the main domain) * Design https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos/Design_e_Editora%C3%A7%C3%A3o_(Iara_de_Camargo)

====== Program development ======

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Professor_Ruy_de_Queiroz.jpg Professor Ruy de Queiroz>

* Development of restructure of Wikiprojects https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/propostas/Wikiprojetos_2.0_(23nov2012) * Meeting with Ministry of Health to reach out to “school-hospitals”, which have research groups that develop projects and may engage with the project to improve Wikipedia articles on Medicine. * Meeting with professor Ruy de Queiroz, who was already using Wikipedia as an educational tool * Brazilian professor featured on the Wikimedia blog:

Professor Yuri Leite http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/14/professor-yuri-leite-brazil/

==== Mobile ====

* Free Access to Wikipedia has officially launched in the Democratic Republic of Congo (via Orange). * Mobile improved our usage reporting for more accurate analytics. In many developing countries, Opera Mini is the most widely used browser by users on mobile devices. For example, Opera Mini is the primary way Telenor's customers access Wikipedia Zero. We previously had no data on aggregate Opera usage on Wikipedia mobile, but now that will be included in our mobile analytics (starting in 2013).

==== Global Education ====

U.S. student profiled on Wikimedia blog

Washington University senior Kevin Li's work on Wikipedia was featured on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog. Kevin, a student in Joan Strassmann's Behavioral Ecology course, contributed an article on worker policing to the English Wikipedia. Kevin started the article, and it has now achieved Good Article status. Read more about Kevin's experiences. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/06/wikipedia-as-a-miniature-classroom-for-yourself/

Education Program kicks off in Sweden

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-wall_for_teachers_conferen... A Wikipedia wall at a teachers' conference in Sweden.>

Sophie Österberg, the education manager for Wikimedia Sverige, has written a detailed update on the kick-off of the Wikipedia Education Program in Sweden. She and the rest of the team in Sweden have been meeting with instructors and institutions to determine the best ways of working Wikipedia into the curriculum in Sweden. Wikimedia Sverige has also produced T-shirts and brochures for the program, and they're excited about the results so far: many instructors have expressed interest in being part of the program, and they've started to build relationships. Learn more about the Swedish education program's activities. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/17/wikipedia-education-program-sweden-kicks-off/

Brazilian professor's work featured on blog

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yuri_L._R._Leite.jpg Yuri L. R. Leite>

Professor Yuri Leite of the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo in Vitória, Brazil, has been using Wikipedia in his courses since 2009, when he taught a class on the Charles Darwin book "The Origin of Species" and had his students update the article on the book on the Portuguese Wikipedia as he went along. Now, his students have contributed to improving the information on evolution available on the Portuguese Wikipedia for several terms, and Yuri looks forward to continuing to grow the available articles. Read more about his motivations for doing the project. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/14/professor-yuri-leite-brazil/

Trophy Case highlights excellent student work

Professors and Ambassadors who worked with students in the United States and Canada program in 2012 have added a series of links to the new Trophy Case, which highlights the best student work. The Trophy Case includes categories for articles that were featured on the English Wikipedia's main page in the Did You Know section, those that have achieved Good Article status, high quality new articles, significantly expanded existing articles, and non-textual contributions. See the Trophy Case, and add other student work you see to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Courses/Trophy_case

Worldwide resources page created on outreach wiki

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Studenti_p%C3%AD%C5%A1%C3%AD_Wikiped... Studenti píší Wikipedii is a brochure developed by Wikimedia Czech Republic for their education program, one of the brochures featured on the new page.>

A centralized repository of information for participants in the Wikipedia Education Program worldwide has been created on the outreach wiki's education portal. Broken down into information by target audience, such as instructors and students, the page contains links to brochures, handouts, and videos available in multiple languages. Handouts created specifically for Wikipedia Education Program participants in any language are welcome. See the page. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Portal/Tips_and_Resources

== Human Resources ==

In December on the celebratory front, HR hosted an annual holiday party and organized a group excursion to watch "The Hobbit" movie. We kicked off a Remote Employee Experience Task Force to improve the experience of people who work remotely. We also hosted open enrollment for staff to change their health plan benefits.

== Staff Changes ===

New Requisitions Filled

* Matt Flaschen, Software Engineer, Features (Engineering) * Katy Love, Senior Program Officer, FDC (Grantmaking and Progams)

New Recruiting Intern

* Ion Vazquez (Human Resources)

New Contractor

* Joseph Silverman (Administration)

Contract Extended

* Antonella Amatulli * Stephanie Coates * Cristiana Coimbra * Andrew Garrett * Aaron Halfaker * Joanie Hjulmand * LaTrisha Holliness * Sandra Hust * Alexander Kuiper * Mimi Li * Jonathan Morgan * Heather O'Malley * Kritie Robinson * Yuko Sakata * Elena Strelnikova * Julie Trias * Heather Walls

Turnover

* Laura James * Kelly Kay * Raymond Lui

Contract Ended

* Alec Bogossian * Arun Ganesh * William Kelly * Srikanth Lakshmanan * Stacey Merrick * Lori Phillips * Karina Pulec * Steph Thommen

New Postings

* Deputy General Counsel * Director of User Experience * Legal Intern (Summer) * Software Engineer - Multimedia * Software Engineer (Search) * Software Engineer (Apps)

=== Statistics ===

Total Requisitions Filled December Actual: 128 December Total Plan: 167 December Filled: 2, Month Attrition: 3 YTD Filled: 32, YTD Attrition: 16 1 Position canceled for FY

Remaining open positions to fiscal year end 45 (8 of which are on hold)

=== Department Updates ===

Real-time feed for HR updates

http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork

== Finance and Administration ==

* We have been focusing on our insurance renewals for 2013. Our goals for this insurance renewal are:

1. Improved D&O Coverage 2. Improved Media and Privacy Liability coverage 3. Improved travel coverage, with no country exclusions and a change to an new travel assistance provider.

* We closed the space improvement project for the third floor enginnering space and are beginning planning for space improvement projects on the sixth floor for our next fiscal year. * We have hired a Systems and Network specialist to work on Office IT projects, on a temporary basis, while we are searching for a full time person for this role.

== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications ==

=== LCA Report, December 2012 ===

In December 2012, the Legal and Community Advocacy team presented a draft of the first conflict of interest guidelines to Meta for community comment and feedback. LCA also finalized standardized grant agreements for the FDC organizations and continued to provide guidance regarding Thematic Organizations.

==== Contract Metrics ====

* Submitted : 27 * Completed : 20

==== Trademark Metrics ====

* Submitted : 12 * Approved : 1 * Pending : 6 * Denied : 4 * No Response : 1

==== Domains Obtained ====

We obtained the following domains over the last month: wikiartpedia.org, wikinews.info, wikimanialondon.org, wikiartpedia.biz, wikiartpedia.co, wikiartpedia.info, wikiartpedia.me, wikiartpedia.mobi, wikiartpedia.net, wikimania.net, wikipedia.bg, wiwkipedia.org

==== Coming & Going ====

* Rubina Kwon transitioned from being a legal intern to a contract attorney. * Billy Kelly and Karina Pulec’s legal internships ended. * Ava Miller, Megumi Yukie, and Missy Black are coming on board as legal interns for the spring.

==== Other Activities ====

* A draft of guidelines on potential conflicts of interest was posted on Meta https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Guidelines_on_potential_conflicts_of_interest for public comment. Details of the guidelines were also set out in a blog post http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/04/wikimedia-community-input-requested-for-conflict-of-interest-guidelines/. * A California superior court overruled Internet Brands’ demurrer. Details of the ruling were set out in a blog post http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/17/state-court-overrules-internet-brands-demurrer/. * GC Geoff Brigham shared some views on the naming of thematic organizations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Thematic_Organizations#Additional_thoughts_in_the_naming_of_thematic_organizations_and_user_groups. * Grant agreement templates for FDC organizations were finalized. * LCA continued to work with Creative Commons to ensure that the interests of the Wikimedia community and WMF were represented during the drafting of Creative Commons v.4 licenses. * LCA provided support and guidance for internships for women in software in conjunction with GNOME Foundation, Wikimania scholarships, and the FDC process. * The team has also been working on securing more expansive insurance protection for potential issues that may arise in relation to the defense of community-generated content.

=== Communications Report, December 2012 ===

In December the communications team formally launched the 2011-12 WMF Annual Report, as a print product and in a wiki/PDF version. Further work on translations and production of localized editions will continue through January. In December we also announced the winners of the 2012 Wiki Loves Monuments global contest and issued a release celebrating the conclusion of our recent successful online fundraiser.

Communications also supported WMF ED Sue Gardner during a series of media interviews and panel discussions in New York, focusing on the fundraiser, Wikipedia Zero, and diversifying and growing our community of contributors.

==== Major announcements ====

The Wikimedia Foundation raises $25 million in record time during 2012 Wikipedia fundraiser https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_raises_25_million_in_2012_fundraiser (27 December)

Winners Announced in World’s Largest Photo Contest, Wiki Loves Monuments https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Announcement_of_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012_winners (3 December)

==== Major Storylines through December ====

WMF’s fundraiser breaks a record (December 27)

The Foundation’s most successful fundraiser ever got strong coverage in late December around the announcement that marked the shift from fundraising to a highly-visible ‘thank you’ campaign. This year’s coverage also included unexpected news of a $70K donation from US based ‘Cards against humanity’ which offered a video appreciation of Wikipedia.

* Wikipedia edits its fundraising strategy (Bloomberg News)

http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2012-12-11-wikipedia-edits-fundraising-st...

* Wikimedia Raised $25M So Far in Annual Wikipedia Fundraiser (All Things Digital)

http://allthingsd.com/20121227/wikimedia-raised-25m-so-far-in-annual-wikiped...

* Cards against humanity gives $70000 to Wikipedia (Web Pro News)

http://www.webpronews.com/cards-against-humanity-gives-70000-of-holiday-pack...

* Are people who edit Wikipedia better people? (NY Magazine)

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/wikipedia-donors-better-people....

End of year lists grab on to Wikipedia (December 27-30)

Annual end-of-year media coverage on 2012 lists included a popular list of most-viewed articles in Wikipedia, based on results from a toolserver app by Johan Gunnarsson. The list generated a lot of speculation about how certain articles rose above others, including the curious inclusion of the German article for ‘Sackgasse’ (cul de sac) topping the German Wikipedia list.

* The Most Popular Pages on Wikipedia in 2012: Facebook, One Direction and … Cul De Sacs? (All Things D)

http://allthingsd.com/20121227/the-most-popular-pages-on-wikipedia-in-2012-f...

* Wikipedia's most-viewed articles in 2012 were... (CNET)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57561057-93/wikipedias-most-viewed-articles...

* Wikipedia's hits of the year (Guardian)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/dec/27/wikipedia-most-viewed

==== Other worthwhile reads ====

* The Hindu | Indians win in Wiki mega photo contest (December 6)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indians-win-in-wiki-mega-photo-contest...

* The Daily Nation (Kenya) | Wikipedia records high web traffic from Kenya (December 10)

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Wikipedia-records-high-web-traffic-fro...

==== WMF Blog posts ====

Fifty-four blog posts through December, including bilingual posts https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/ in German, Spanish, Czech, and Portuguese. https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/

A few highlights:

The impact of Wikipedia Ravan Jaafar Altaie (December 20)

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/20/the-impact-of-wikipedia-ravan-jaafar-a...

(Through December the Foundation featured 12 video interviews highlighting the contributions of volunteers from around the world. The whole series can be viewed at https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/the-impact-of-wikipedia/)

Article Feedback New research and next steps (December 20)

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/20/article-feedback-new-research-and-next...

15 million free media files on Wikimedia Commons (December 10)

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/10/15-million-free-media-files-on-wikimed...

Wiki Loves Monuments (through December)

(Numerous posts through December profiled the incredible selections from last year’s Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest, some of the most amazing freely licensed photographs on the Internet) https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wiki-loves-monuments/

==== Media Contact, December 2012 ====

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#December_2012

==== Wikipedia Signpost, December 2012 ====

For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for December 2012:

* Volume 8, Issue 49, 3 December 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-12-03 * Volume 8, Issue 50, 10 December 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-12-10 * Volume 8, Issue 51, 17 December 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-12-17 * Volume 8, Issue 52, 24 December 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-12-24 * Volume 8, Issue 53, 31 December 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-12-31

== Visitors and Guests ==

Visitors and guests to the WMF office in December 2012:

1. Craig Minassian (Minassian Media) 2. Jove Oliver (Minassian Media) 3. Eric Harris (Minassian Media) 4. Kat Walsh (Chair of the Board of Trustees) 5. Lisa Grossman (m|Oppenheim) 6. Valerie Aurora (The Ada Initiative) 7. Mark Oppenheim (m|Oppenheim) 8. Gray Lincoln (Fuze Box) 9. Trevor Bolliger (Wikia) 10. Jason Asbahr (Monstrou) 11. Jonathan Cooney (Monstrou) 12. Doron Weber (Knight Foundation) 13. Luis Villa (Greenberg Traurig) 14. Sarah Paris (UCSF) 15. Dr. Eric Widera (UCSF) 16. Andrew Rutledge (Microsoft) 17. David Sandwisch (Pacbell) 18. Richard Ortic (Gemini Model Art) 19. Rodney Dunican (Rod Ventures) 20. Saal Pean (Creative Commons) 21. Krista Boscoe (Kaplan) 22. Chad Spencer (DemiCreative, fundraising) 23. Dan Spencer (DemiCreative, fundraising) 24. Desirina Boscovich (Desirina Communications, fundraising) 25. Ben Thompson (Microsoft, engineering) 26. Lindsay Bayne (Microsoft, engineering) 27. Daniel Phifer (Social Imprints) 28. Kevin Mitchell (Fluxx) 29. Robert Kaye (Musicbrainz.org) 30. Caroline Young (ASG) 31. Cindy Hawley (ASG) 32. Brendan Quinla (ASG)