Report to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

Covering: August 2009 Prepared by: Sue Gardner, Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation Prepared for: Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

MILESTONES FROM AUGUST * Engagement of recruiters to fill new positions and vacancies: Chief Development Officer, vacant Board “expertise” seat, and Chief Technical Officer * Wikimania 2009: scholarships finalization, staff attendance and presentation preparations, preparations for board meeting * Soft-launch of the Strategic Planning Project

KEY PRIORITIES FOR SEPTEMBER * Strategic Development Process * Communications Campaign Kick-off * Finalization of Office Move details * Meetings with donor prospects

THIS PAST MONTH

REACH

In August 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation sites held steady as the fifth most-popular web property in the world with 307 million global unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix.

WIKIMANIA BUENOS AIRES

The fifth annual Wikimedia conference, Wikimania 2009, took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from August 26 to 28. The conference hosted more than 500 Wikimedians and supporters from around the world. Talks and workshops gave attendees new insights into the Wikimedia projects, other free knowledge efforts, and the challenges and opportunities facing the movement.

Wikimania 2009 was attended by 57 Wikimedians on scholarships funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Wikimedia Germany, the Open Society Institute and the Wikimedia Foundation. The dollar value of those scholarships totalled approximately USD 100,000. This represented huge growth from Wikimania 2008 in Alexandria, which a total of nine people attended via scholarships, funded by OSI and totalling USD 10,000. More on the scholarships process later in this report.

Twenty Wikimedia Foundation staff traveled to Buenos Aires to participate at Wikimania. Staff who attended were: Brion Vibber, Cary Bass, Erik Moeller, Erik Zachte, Eugene Eric Kim, Frank Schulenburg, James Owen, Jay Walsh, Jennifer Riggs, Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Mark Bersgma, Naoko Komura, Nimish Gautam, Philippe Beaudette, Rand Montoya, Rob Halsell, Sara Crouse, Sue Gardner, Tim Starling and Tomasz Finc. Staff participated in the conference as workers (e.g., supporting the Board meeting and press conference), as panelists, workshop leaders and speakers, and as participants. At the close of the conference, Sue gave a keynote talk on the Wikimedia Foundation: The Year in Review and The Year Ahead. In it, she focused on some of the challenges facing Wikimedia, including flagging participation trends and a need for more openness and friendliness to new people, and pointed to the strategy project as a way for all Wikimedians to participate in charting our course for the next five years.

The following presentations were given by Foundation staff members (see links for videos and, in most cases, slides):

The Year in Review and the Year Ahead - Sue Gardner http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:112

NIH Wikipedia Academy 2009 - Frank Schulenburg and Jay Walsh: http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:334

Wikimedia Technical Infrastructure - Rob Halsell http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:103

Scaling Up the Wikimedia Movement - Erik Moeller http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:298

What can Wikimedia learn from the Red Cross? - Jennifer Riggs http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:207

Wikimedia in Numbers - Erik Zachte http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:144

Collaborative Video on Wikipedia - Michael Dale http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:332

Wikipedia Usability Initiative - Naoko Komura http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:237

Documenting best practices in public outreach - Frank Schulenburg http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:335

The Wikimedia tech community organized a separate "codeathon" running in parallel to the main event. See the summary provided by Brion Vibber here: http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:86

Related blog post by Domas: http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/traffic-reduction/

Note the generally excellent video coverage of Wikimania 2009, thanks to the local team, who received some help from the Wikimedia tech community to get the videos to Commons. Additional videos can be found here:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2009_presentations http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule

The Wikimedia Foundation expresses its heartfelt appreciation to the local planning team, and everyone else who helped make Wikimania 2009 such a successful and enjoyable event.

STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

In August, the Strategic Planning Project soft-launched with a Call For Proposals asking Wikimedians to develop and share proposals aimed at helping the movement better achieve its goals. Since then, over 350 proposals were submitted on the strategy wiki, all of which have been categorized and many of which have been actively discussed and revised. Eugene, Philippe and three members of the Bridgespan Group attended Wikimania, where they participated in the conference, made several presentations to the Board of Trustees, supported Jimmy in development of his keynote talk, staged a strategy lunch with Wikimedians, and interviewed Advisory Board members and other key stakeholders such as donors and researchers. Following Wikimania, the number of registered users and edits on the strategy wiki skyrocketed, and the wiki has seen significantly increased activity.

See the list of proposals here: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_proposals

The Bridgespan Group released an early summary of its fact base research, here: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fact_base

It includes data and analysis in the following areas:

* Data and analysis of Wikimedia project participants: by segment, past growth trends, future growth trends, drivers of participation, attracting new participants and retaining existing ones.

* Data and analysis of Wikimedia project readers: who is currently using Wikimedia and why; barriers that exist in accessing Wikimedia projects and understanding why people who have access to Wikimedia projects choose not to use them

* Regional and language version data and analysis covering East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe.

* Data and analysis about Wikimedia project content: what is the content landscape in which it operates, sources of content by type and category, relevant trends in content and content sourcing (e.g., digital textbooks), current penetration by category, sources of existing content, initiatives currently underway or planned, options for expanding content scope, potential partnerships and alliances (content institutions, educational institutions, libraries, online encyclopedias), resource requirements and funding availability, benefits and/or risks

* Data and analysis about Wikimedia project quality: what is the quality landscape in which Wikimedia operates, quality criteria (e.g. accurate, credible, complete, neutral), audience/stakeholder expectations (including online context), changes/trends over time, Wikimedia's perceived versus actual quality, key challenges (e.g., translations), comparisons to relevant benchmarks. What quality control/assurance initiatives are already in place, or are being tested by Wikimedia and the community, what approaches to quality control/assurance could Wikimedia consider to improve actual and perceived quality, what is the potential impact of these quality control/assurance approaches, and where are the most salient intersections between content and quality.

In September, the strategy project team will launch a formal Call for Participation to engage a broader audience.

TECHNOLOGY

In August, Brion Vibber, Chief Technical Officer since 2005 and first employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, announced his decision to shift his focus towards software architecture, creating a vacancy in the Chief Technical Officer role, which will be re-defined into a senior management role. A new CTO is hoped to be placed before the end of the year, and the Wikimedia Foundation will be supported by the Walker Talent Group on a pro-bono basis in the search process. http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/cto-position-split/

A mobile wrapper application for the iPhone was launched and made available for free through the iTunes store. We're focusing most of our attention on the browser-based mobile gateway, but this is an additional method to provide quick access to Wikipedia.

Initial test sites were set up for the proposed FlaggedRevs English Wikipedia configuration, and for the ReaderFeedback extension which allows rating scores to be assigned to pages by readers. The ReaderFeedback tool was also deployed on the newly created Strategic Planning wiki to support the systematic assessment of community proposals.

The Wikimedia Foundation continues to support the CiviCRM development community, not only through funding and project-managing open source development work critical to Wikimedia's own fundraising needs, but also by helping to put together local meetups and by sharing experiences with other non-profits. In August, another CiviCRM meetup took place, with space provided by Wikia: http://civicrm.org/node/611

MOZILLA THEORA DEVELOPMENT WORK CONCLUDED

In January, the Wikimedia Foundation received a grant of $100,000 from Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, to improve the technological foundations of open video standards for the web. The grant was passed through to contractors doing this development work, with minimal administrative overhead. In the course of the grant, contractor Timothy Terriberry developed a much improved Theora encoder. These improvements made Theora more competitive with proprietary codecs.

Contractor Viktor Gal maintained the liboggplay library making performance, stability and security enhancements necessary for using the library in the Firefox browser. Contractor Conrad Parker worked on security, and seeking performance enhancements to the base Ogg libraries. These developments contributed to the successful launch of Firefox 3.5 that included Og Theora video support via the HTML5 standard.

USABILITY INITIATIVE

The first usability release, Acai, was made available through user preferences on July 1st. A set of enhancements was deployed to Acai and it was enabled as the beta release from “Try Beta” link on the top of every Wikimedia page on August 6th. Enhancements were; 1) proper right-to-left language support, 2) integration of special characters in the toolbar, and 3) warning message for unsaved edits. As of August 31st, over 100,000 people tried out the beta and 75% people continued using the beta. Lifehacker and Mashable bloggers picked up the beta and wrote positive reviews. The Mashable blog post was tweeted 191 times. http://lifehacker.com/5332258/try-out-wikipedias-new-look-in-beta Lifehacker http://mashable.com/2009/08/07/wikipedia-redesign/ Mashable

Design refinement and development work for the next release, Babaco, made good progress, and the prototypes of new features, navigable table of contents and dialogues for links and tables are staged on the usability prototype environment. http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Prototype

Calls for proposals for the second round usability study started. Twelve usability study firms were contacted for proposals. Five usability study firms responded and submitted their proposals. Among all the proposals submitted, Bolt Peters, the usability study firm which conducted the first usability study, was the most compelling in terms of quality and price.

The quarterly report for the period from April to June was compiled and submitted to the Stanton Foundation. The report included the achieved milestones, perceived project issues, changes from initial proposal, project spending, and reallocation of budget. The total expenditure for the second quarter of the project, from April 1st to June 30th, was $131,719 out of the allocated budget of $176,266, or 74% of the budgeted figure. The under-spending is primarily a result of the open software development position.

Also in August, the Ford multimedia usability project began recruiting a Product Manager and Software Developer. Job openings were posted on the Wikimedia Foundation's job board and various major job boards such as LinkedIn, Craigslist, etc. We reached out to active community members at Wikimania to recruit volunteers.

Wikimédia France offered to fund a multimedia workshop to brainstorm ideas for improving Wikimedia Commons from a technical and program perspective. Coordination of the programs and the invitation list was coordinated with the French Chapter. The workshop is scheduled early November in Paris, France.

Initial discussion of the usability study for the multimedia usability project has started and a few usability firms were reached out for ideas and quotes.

OTHER PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

From August 3 – 10, Jennifer Riggs was in Australia attending

Wikimedia meet-ups and supporting the GLAM-Wiki event in Canberra (http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/GLAM-WIKI ). At the event, she presented a keynote speech introducing the Wikimedia Foundation and drawing out the shared educational missions of cultural institutions and Wikimedia projects. The support of this event and its resulting recommendations for the Wikimedia community was a part of overarching efforts to expand Wikimedia groups', chapters' and individuals' capacity to conduct public outreach and build local institutional relationships.

Frank Schulenburg recruited a best practices documentation team to invigorate the Best Practices series on Meta-wiki. The Volunteer Project Lead, Kathrin Jansen has led the team in conducting IRC meetings, creating a work plan and in producing high quality documentation of best practices ranging from developing content partnerships to using WikiBooks in the classroom.

In August, Frank, Jennifer and Jay conducted interviews for the Bookshelf Project Manager position. The Bookshelf is a one-year project to develop an essential set of educational Wikimedia Foundation public outreach materials. Most materials will be aimed at a general audience, with the goal of persuading people to participate in the projects, and teaching them how to do it. The purpose is to develop a core set of English-language “Bookshelf” resources, which will then be made available to the international Wikimedia community and to partner groups, to be adapted, customized, translated and disseminated as part of Wikimedia outreach and other activities.

In preparation for the 2009-10 annual giving campaign and a comprehensive communications strategy, Jay Walsh led the search for a communications consulting firm. The successful firm is Fenton Communications, working in a custom-built collaboration with Sea Change Strategies and Creative Director Jelly Helm. Fenton Communications has two decades of experience offering a full range of communications services supporting initiatives in the public interest, including clients such as MoveOn.org, The National Geographic Society, Human Rights Watch, the Save Darfur Coalition, the Open Society Institute, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jelly Helm attended Wikimania in Buenos Aires, to soak up the Wikimedia culture and support Jay in documenting the event via video and still photography.

Cary Bass worked to enhance Wikimedia's customer service through initiatives to support volunteers working with the OTRS email response system and biographies of living persons (BLPs). Cary led volunteer statisticians in evaluating the current OTRS system and identifying technical issues that may present barriers to increasing participation in the system. He is currently working with the WMF Tech Team to begin addressing these technical challenges.

COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA

Major coverage during August revolved around the following stories:

1. Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) report on 'slowing' of Wikipedia editing garners attention (August 5)- New Scientist magazine reported on research by Ed Chi, a scientist at PARC, saying it “shows that the website's explosive growth is tailing off and also suggests the community-created encyclopaedia has become less welcoming to new contributors.” Ed Chi took data showing that new article creation and casual editor participation on the English Wikipedia has been slowing since 2006, and interpreted it to suggest that the Wikipedia community is becoming resistant to new content and new editors, which could lead over time to a degradation in quality. The story was picked up by Slashdot, as well as newspapers around the world including the Taipei Times, the Guardian, and Australian newspaper The Age, bloggers, and other media. Also http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17554-after-the-boom-is-wikipedia-head... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/12/wikipedia-deletionist-inclu...

2. Wikipedia launches iPhone mobile browser (August 20) - twitter and blogs quickly converged on the news that the Wikimedia Foundation had released the first official Wikipedia application on the Apple iTunes store in August. The app received mixed reviews, but many noted that it's open-source and will likely see considerable improvements as more developers became involved. http://mashable.com/2009/08/18/wikipedia-iphone-app/ http://www.itpro.co.uk/614161/official-wikipedia-app-heads-to-the-iphone http://cybernetnews.com/free-wikipedia-iphone-app-launches/

3. Flagged Revisions tops the media charts (August 25)- In August, the New York Times published a story about the upcoming implementation of Flagged Revisions on the English Wikipedia, saying it “would mark a significant change in the anything-goes, anyone-can-edit-at-any-time ethos of Wikipedia.” This story was picked up by multiple media, including the Wall Street Journal, PC Magazine, CNET, Salon magazine, CNN and BBC News, as well as micro blogging and blogging traffic that implied significant changes might be afoot or already active. Many media blended the Flagged Revs and PARC stories, and interpreted both negatively, predicting increased control in the hands of a dwindling number of editors, and declaring “the Wikipedia philosophy” dead. Many media also lauded Wikipedia for acknowledging its increased influence, and acting responsibly to tighten up its editorial processes. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/internet/25wikipedia.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8220220.stm

4. Wikimania 2009 in Argentina / Omidyar Grant (August 28-30)- This year's Wikimania in Buenos Aires garnered considerable coverage in Spanish, South American (predominantly Argentine) press. Richard Stallman and Jimmy Wales made headlines, and stories tended to highlight the importance of open-source culture in the region. English press primarily focussed on the news of the Foundation's receipt of the $2 million Omidyar grant as the primary thrust for coverage of Wikimania, with several linked mentions of flagged revisions or participation decline. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=8412179 http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/08/25/wikipedia-gets-2m-from-omidyar-net... http://www.wikimedia.org.ar/wiki/Prensa (right hand side of the page) http://www.criticadigital.com/impresa/index.php?secc=nota&nid=2977

During August, the Wikimedia Foundation participated in interviews with BBC Newsnight (London, UK); Philadelphia Business Journal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA); Byline Magazine (New York, New York, USA); Herald Democrat (Sherman, Texas, USA); Wall Street Journal (New York, New York, USA); Agence France Presse (San Francisco, California, USA); La Voz de Galicia (A Coruña, Spain); GLZ Radio (Jaffa, Israel); Time Magazine (Los Angeles, California, USA); Pagina 12 (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Print Magazine (Buenos Aires, Argentina); La Nacion (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Sky News (London, UK); Wall Street Journal (New York, New York, USA); New York Times (New York, New York, USA); Terra TV (Buenos Aires, Argentina); National Public Radio (Los Angeles, California & Washington DC, USA); BBC News (London, UK); Associated Press (New York, New York, USA); Financial Times (San Francisco, California, USA); CBC TV (Toronto, Canada); Agence France Presse (San Francisco, California, USA); CNN.com (Atlanta, Georgia, USA); Wired Magazine Italy; CNN TV (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)

During August, the Wikimedia Foundation released 4 press releases.

“Wikimedia Foundation receives $500,000 in operational support form Hewlett Foundation” http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Hewlwett_Fdn_grant_August...

“Wikimania 2009 kicks off in Buenos Aires” http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimania_2009_media_advi...

“Omidyar Network Commits $2 Million Grant to Wikimedia Foundation” http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_Aug...

“Wikimedia Foundation Announces New Appointments to Board of Trustees” http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Board_Announcements_Augus...

FUNDRAISING, GRANTS, & PARTNERSHIPS

The Wikimedia Foundation received 972 donations in August totaling approximately USD 313,165. This included 2 major gifts which total USD 268,817. Year-to-date, the Foundation has raised USD 413,179 in fundraising related revenuer, 6% of the annual goal of USD 7,500,00.

Rand Montoya and Anya Shyrokova have continued with preparations for the annual fundraiser, and are working on a new mobile giving platform and a variety of upgrades to CiviCRM (the open source customer relationship management database used by the Foundation's fundraising team to manage donor information).

In August, Wikimedia finalized two large grant commitments. The first, a grant in the amount of USD 500,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Open Educational Resources program, supports Wikimedia's general operations for the fiscal year 2009-2010. The Hewlett Foundation's support acknowledges the important role Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects play in making educational information freely accessible to the world. The second grant, from Omidyar Network, is a commitment of up to USD 2,000,000 over two years in unrestricted funding to support the general operations and mission of Wikimedia. A philanthropic investment firm, Omidyar Network supports both for- and non-profits that achieve a positive social impact. In addition to direct financial support, Omidyar Network will dedicate internal resources and engage its network to support Wikimedia's strategic planning process, communications work, and recruiting. Thanks to Sara Crouse for developing these two grants.

In August the Foundation hired Mark Oppenheim of m/Oppenheim & Associates to assist in the recruitment process for a Chief Development Officer. m/Oppenheim & Associates is an executive recruiting firm which specializes in the nonprofit and government sectors. It has conducted searches for, for example, the Hewlett Foundation, the X Prize Foundation, the University of Alberta, the Science Fiction Museum, and the Daniel Pearl Foundation. Mark has been asked to focus on finding the Wikimedia Foundation an innovative development professional with a strong understanding of both internet and traditional fundraising methods, with the goal of growing and diversifying the Foundation's fundraising capacity. Mark's team will conduct interviews with Wikimedia Foundation staff, Board members, Advisory Board members and funders, in order to flesh out the requirements for the job. It will then reach out to potential candidates, and develop a shortlist of screened, interested people. The search is expected to conclude by the end of December.

WIKIMANIA SCHOLARSHIPS

In August, Sara and Cary Bass, working with a team of volunteers, finalized scholarship arrangements for Wikimania 2009. A total of USD 100,000 in scholarship funding was given out to 57 Wikimedians for Wikimania 2009, with scholarship recipients attending Wikimania from Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, South America, Europe, and North America. This year's scholarships program was funded by The Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Wikimedia Germany, Open Society Institute and the Wikimedia Foundation. By comparison, in 2008, one funder supported the attendance of nine individuals from Arab and Latin American regions at Wikimania Alexandria, with a grant of about USD 10,000.

The increase in scope and scale of this year's program is, in part, enabled by Wikimedia's new capacity to raise and manage funds, and to coordinate the program with staff and administrative support. Moreover, this year's program was facilitated by the dedicated work of a volunteer committee and combined, organized volunteer effort that has not existed in prior years. We believe it was the most rigorous, transparent and equitable scholarships process in Wikimedia history.

Scholarship recipients were chosen through an application and selection process run by an international committee of nine (seven longtime volunteers, Cary Bass, and Sara Crouse), who met regularly on IRC and worked together over the course of six months. The committee determined the selection criteria for applicants, provided technical support for development and execution of the applications and review processes, and communications support on-wiki and via OTRS. The committee reviewed 1200 applications against volunteer-defined selection criteria.

This year's scholarships program was both a learning process and a pilot for future years and programs to come. The Foundation is very grateful to the committee for working productively together as the process evolved. Now that Wikimania is over, Sara will survey scholarship recipients, and then assess and document what we have learned from the process to apply to future years. Questions to be considered will likely include:

In 2009, several funders restricted their contribution (e.g., supporting only applications from a specified geographic region). This was administratively burdensome, and also presents the risk that funders' goals will conflict with Wikimedia's goals. In future years, perhaps solely unrestricted scholarships funding should be sought and accepted.

The current selection criteria privileges experienced Wikimedians. In future years, perhaps a number of scholarships should be reserved for promising new Wikimedians.

Questions about roles and responsibilities. We learned a lot this year about who was suited to what type of work. In future years, do we want to refine and finetune who does what, to better support the process.

When the assessment document is completed, Sara will post it publicly for review and discussion.

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

In August, Veronique and Bill prepared for the annual audit which will be conducted by the auditing firm KPMG.

Also in August, Veronique prepared for a meeting of the Audit Committee, which took place on August 12. The audit committee members for 2009-10 are: Ad Huikeshoven, Alan Bauer, Anders Wennersten, Matt Bisanz, Renata Stasaityte, Sandy Gallanter, Stu West (Chair of the Audit Committee and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees), and, as observers, Michael Snow and Sue Gardner. This was the first meeting of the 2009-10 audit committee: the agenda included a walkthough of the 2007-08 audited financial statements, presentation of the audit plan for 2008-09, a general discussion around risk, and a discussion of investment strategy.

LEGAL

During August, Mike and Erik worked on the Wikimedia Foundation's response to legal issues raised by the National Portrait Gallery in the United Kingdom. This involved seeking and obtaining independent legal representation for a volunteer editor involved in the case, and also working directly with the NPG to find an amicable resolution to the dispute.

Also, pursuant to the Board's April resolution regarding trademark policy, Mike completed a draft of a revised Wikimedia trademark policy, and circulated it among other staff members for review and feedback. The draft policy aims, among other things, to make clearer how chapters may use Wikimedia trademarks non-commercially, and that to some degree they may do so without seeking prior approval.

TRAVEL AND CONFERENCES

In August, Sue Gardner participated in the Aspen Institute forum “Of the Press: Models for Preserving American Journalism,” which convened leaders and experts to respond to the crumbling of traditional media business models, by exploring potential new models for sustaining the journalistic functions of the press that are essential to democratic governance. Other participants included former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Google's Marissa Mayer, Craig Newmark from Craigslist, and Vivian Schiller, President and CEO of National Public Radio. The proceedings were live-streamed, and occasioned media coverage and micro-blogging.

Also in August, Veronique attended a professional development conference offered by the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina.