[Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, October 2012 - Wikimedia-l

30 Nov 2012


      Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for October 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_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,_October_2012
Many thanks those who have translated the September "Highlights" into
Arabic, Breton, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Piedmontese, Russian,
Ukrainian, Chinese and Telugu!
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the soon to be published November issue are welcome
until Wednesday (December 5) at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, October 2012
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_November_1,_...
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of October
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2012-11-01
(November 1, 2012)>
* 1 Data and Trends
  * 2 Financials
  * 3 Highlights
      o 3.1 Mobile Wikipedia redesigned
      o 3.2 First in-person meeting of the Funds Dissemination Committee
        (FDC)
      o 3.3 Wikipedia Zero now available to 230 million people after
        Saudi Arabia launch; has already grown Wikipedia readership in
        Africa and Asia
  * 4 Engineering
      o 4.1 VisualEditor
      o 4.2 Editor engagement
      o 4.3 Mobile
      o 4.4 Language engineering
  * 5 Fundraising
      o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
      o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser
  * 6 Global Development
      o 6.1 Global Development Highlights
      o 6.2 Education Program
      o 6.3 Wikimedia Grants Program
          + 6.3.1 Grants funded
          + 6.3.2 Grant-funded progress
      o 6.4 Participation Support Program
      o 6.5 FDC Progress
      o 6.6 Mobile
      o 6.7 Brazil
      o 6.8 Fellowships
      o 6.9 Learning & Evaluation
  * 7 Human Resources
      o 7.1 Staff Changes
      o 7.2 Statistics
      o 7.3 Department Updates
  * 8 Finance and Administration
  * 9 Legal and Community Advocacy
      o 9.1 Communications report, October 2012
          + 9.1.1 Major announcements
          + 9.1.2 Major Storylines through October
          + 9.1.3 Other worthwhile reads
          + 9.1.4 WMF Blog posts
          + 9.1.5 Media Contact, October 2012
          + 9.1.6 Wikipedia Signpost, October 2012
  * 10 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for September:
*474.9 million* (+4.08% compared with August; +4.47% compared with
    the previous year)
    (comScore data
    http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors for all
    Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release October data
    later in November)
Page requests for October:
*19.8 billion* (+3.4% compared with September; +15.8% 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 September 2012 (>= 5 mainspace
edits/month, excluding bots):
*82,582* (+4.08% compared with August / +2.98% 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 September 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_September_2...
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of September
30, 2012>
    
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_September_...
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of September 30, 2012>
(Financial information is only available for September 2012 at the time
of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date September 30, 2012.
Revenue 	$4,113,523
*Expenses:* 	
Technology Group 	$3,274,990
Community/Fundraiser Group 	$588,771
Global Development Group 	$1,353,447
Governance Group 	$200,668
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group 	$581,916
Finance/HR/Admin Group 	$1,396,195
Total Expenses 	$7,395,987
Total surplus/(loss) 	($3,282,464)
* Revenue for the month of September is $2.36MM vs plan of $2.44MM,
    approximately $81K or 3% under plan.
  * Year-to-date revenue is $4.11MM vs plan of $4.36MM, approximately
    $245K or 6% under plan.
  * Expenses for the month of September is $2.20MM vs plan of $2.77MM,
    approximately $577K or 21% under plan, primarily due to lower
    personnel expenses, internet hosting expenses, travel expenses,
    capital expenses, grants and awards, and outside contract services
    partially offset by higher expenses for the annual all-hands meeting.
  * Year-to-date expenses is $7.40MM vs plan of $8.68MM, approximately
    $1.3MM or 15% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses,
    internet hosting, travel expenses, capital expenses, legal expenses,
    grants and awards, and outside contract services.
  * Cash position is $22.0MM as of September 30, 2012 which is
    approximately 6.29 months of expenses.
== Highlights ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_site_redesign.jpg
The design changes to the Wikipedia mobile site include new navigation
and updated typography.>
=== Mobile Wikipedia redesigned ===
The mobile gateway http://en.m.wikipedia.org/ to Wikipedia was updated
with several features
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/wikipedia-mobile-gets-a-new-look/ that
had earlier been tested on the mobile beta site
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_projects/Beta. The new
navigation system aims to make
mobile features and settings easier to discover. In the coming months,
the mobile team will work on adding possibilities to contribute on
mobile devices. In the previous month, the Wiki Loves Monuments app had
already introduced a mobile photo upload function, as the first such
possibility. For readers, the new design offers fonts that make the
content easier to read.
=== First in-person meeting of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) ===
The nine members of the new volunteer-run Funds Dissemination Committee
(FDC) met for the first time in October, preparing their recommendations
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_round1
about funding
requests by 12 organizations
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals (11 Wikimedia
chapters and the Foundation) from a pool of more than $10 million of
Wikimedia donations. In this new model, the funding requests have to be
submitted in public, enabling a community review period that lasted
until October 22.
The staff which supports the FDC scored each request
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/2012_-_2013_Round_1_Links/Staff_assessment_pages
according to a criteria list:
* estimates for the potential impact,
  * the organization's ability to execute the planned activities,
  * their expected financial efficiency,
  * the quality of the proposed success measures
  * the potential benefit for the Wikimedia movement
The /Signpost/ (the English Wikipedia's weekly community newspaper) has
published an overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-10-29/News_and_notes
of these scores and of the requested sums.
The Board of Trustees will announce its decision about the FDC's
recommendations in December.
=== Wikipedia Zero now available to 230 million people after Saudi
      Arabia launch; has already grown Wikipedia readership in Africa
      and Asia ===
Wikipedia Zero, the program offering mobile Internet users access to
Wikipedia without data charges, added Saudi Telecom Company (STC)
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/17/wikipedia-zero-reaches-230-million-mobile-users-with-saudi-telecom-partnership/
to the list of partners. With STC's 25 million subscribers in Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait, altogether 230 million mobile users in 31
countries have now access to the program, half a year after its
worldwide start. A preliminary evaluation
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/wikipedia-zero-grows-readership-in-africa-and-asia/
of its effect on readership is promising: Wikipedia pageviews from
Orange Niger customers grew by 77% and those from Orange Kenya customers
grew by 88% in a four-month period including the launch in these
countries. In Malaysia, unique visitors to Wikipedia from local operator
Digi jumped by 42% after it joined Wikipedia Zero.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Engineering Department's activities for October
2012 can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/October
=== VisualEditor ===
VisualEditor, the upcoming rich-text interface aiming to make it easier
to edit wiki pages, didn't see many visible changes in October, but was
heavily restructured behind the scenes. This "refactoring" made the code
more modular, and easier to change and extend, even for developers who
are not familiar with the entirety of the VisualEditor's code.
As 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/, it was heavily tested
in October. The team focused on testing the JavaScript prototype parser
on 100,000 randomly-selected articles from the English Wikipedia. They
compared the articles' original wikitext to the one obtained after a
"round-trip" (the operation consisting of converting wikitext to
annotated HTML, and back to wikitext).
For a little over 75% of these articles, this resulted in exactly the
same wikitext, as intended. For another 18%, there were some minor
differences without consequence. Finally, just under 7% of articles
contained errors that change the produced HTML structure. The team is
now focusing on these remaining issues, in preparation for the December
release.
=== Editor engagement https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement ===
Version 5 of Article feedback
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5, a quality
assessment tool also aiming to engage readers and encourage them to
contribute, is still being tested on 10% of articles on the English
Wikipedia. A few additional features and improvements were developed and
deployed to the site in October, mostly related to abuse prevention and
moderation. After a few final upcoming improvements, this tool is
expected to be expanded to all articles on the English Wikipedia by the
end of 2012, and to other Wikimedia sites in 2013.
Additional features and improvements were also developed for the Page
Curation https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation tool (an interface for
experienced contributors to review and improve newly created pages),
based on the feedback provided by users. A dashboard of metrics
https://toolserver.org/~dartar/pc/ was created to better assess the
impact of this tool.
The MicroDesign https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Micro_Design_Improvements
team (focusing on small design issues) mostly worked behind the scenes
in October. They began working on a new tool called "Agora" to make it
easier to build and deploy future improvements, and started to improve
the templates that are displayed when the "edit" window is opened.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PEF-1-Cropped.png
Post-edit confirmation message>
The Editor engagement experiments
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments (E3) team
deployed a post-edit confirmation message
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/24/giving-new-wikipedians-feedback-post-edit/
to 16 Wikipedia sites. They also tested a redesigned account creation
page
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/05/testing-new-signup-page-for-wikipedia/
and developed an event logging tool to help measure the success of
future experiments. The E3 team is looking to hire new developers
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/fix-this-broken-workflow/ to
join their ranks.
=== Mobile https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering ===
/(see also general "Highlights" section <#Highlights>)/
In October, the Mobile team unveiled a redesign of the mobile site
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/wikipedia-mobile-gets-a-new-look/,
with particular emphasis on navigation and readability, for example
through new typography.
Wikipedia Zero https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero (a
collaboration with mobile carriers to enable free mobile access to
Wikipedia) expanded to include a new partnership with Saudi Telecom
Company (STC), reaching about 25 millions of customers in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait and Bahrain. The Wikipedia Zero program aims to increase
readership in countries where the internet is primarily accessed from
mobile devices; initial numbers indicate that the initiative is indeed
growing Wikipedia readership
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/wikipedia-zero-grows-readership-in-africa-and-asia/
in Africa and Asia.
The Mobile team also started to decommission the Wiki Loves Monuments
mobile application
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application, as
the contest ended in October. Last, a native Wikipedia application
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/26/wikipedia-app-for-windows-8-and-windows-rt-tablets/
was released for use with Microsoft's newest operating systems, Windows
8 and Windows RT.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ULS-TamilInterface.png
Partially translated Tamil Interface of the Universal Language Selector>
=== Language engineering
      https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_engineering ===
The Language engineering team, whose work aims to reduce barriers to
participation for contributors using languages other than English
(especially those using a non-Roman alphabet), continued to improve
their Universal language selector
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/09/translating-centralnotice-language-engineering-news/,
and the interface for translating site-wide notices.
They also developed a JavaScript library (a bundle of code reusable by
other developers) offering an interface to enter characters not
available on a user's keyboard, and discussed with the VisualEditor team
to ensure proper language support in the upcoming editing interface.
Last, they shared their experience
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/designing-for-multilingual-web/
in designing (and testing) tools and features for a multilingual audience.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Planning an event on November 13th for some long-time Bay Area
    funders to kick off the online fundraiser.
  * Completed our application and answered questions on the Talk Page
    for WMF's proposal to the FDC
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/Wikimedia_Foundation/Proposal_form
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_Wikimedia_Fo...
Megan Hernandez presenting one of the "Facts" banners at the metrics and
activities meeting>
* Continued weekly fundraising testing in the US and increased
    international testing in preparation for the 2012 fundraising
    campaign. Results can be found on Meta at We Need a Breakthrough
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough.
  * Here are two examples of new banners for 2012: Facts banner
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_MegEx and Facts
    banner featuring an editor appeal
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=B12_EditorAppeal_TabButton
  * Worked with Wikimedia volunteer translators to prepare fundraising
    messages in as many languages as possible.
  * Coordinated testing with Wikimedia chapters.
  * Intensified the "International User Experience": 1:1 sessions with
    volunteers from all over the world providing feedback on our
    donation pages and payment methods. This feedback has already helped
    us improve our payment processing significantly.
  * Hired and trained an international donor services team to repond to
    donor emails during the fundraiser. We are also developing a tagging
    system that will allow us to give the team high level data on top
    donation problems every day throughout the campaign.
== Global Development ==
=== Global Development Highlights ===
* Finalization of the Global Dev dashboard
    http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/
  * First in-person meeting of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC),
    which ran through the first submissions via the FDC process and made
    recommendations
  * Research shows a significant improvement of articles edited by
    students on the English Wikipedia
  * Saudi Telecom launched Wikipedia Zero, reaches 25 million people.
=== Education Program ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_in_Education_Workshop,_Uni...
Jami Mathewson at an information session and workshop introducing the
Wikimedia Foundation’s Wikipedia Education Program, hosted by
Open.Michigan and MLibrary>
U.S. professor blogs about her experiences
Alverno College professor Jennifer Geigel Mikulay wrote a post for the
Wikimedia Foundation blog about her experiences incorporating Wikipedia
into her classroom. She asks her students to write Wikipedia articles
about public artworks or create videos posted on Wikimedia Commons to
illustrate article content, and the best part is that all of her
students are women, so she's helping to address Wikipedia's gender gap.
Learn more about her experiences by reading her post.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/12/learning-from-wikipedia/
More than 20 classes join Egypt program this term
The Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt is kicking off its second term,
with courses at the University of Alexandria joining Cairo University
and Ain Shams University in participating. More than 20 courses are
already on board, with both new and returning professors using Wikipedia
in their classrooms this term. At Ain Shams University, courses will be
working to translate high quality articles from the English, German,
Hebrew, and French Wikipedias onto the Arabic Wikipedia this term. See
the full list of courses.
http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7:%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%AC_%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7_%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85/%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%AC_%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9
Michigan hosts teaching with Wikipedia workshop
Open.Michigan, a University of Michigan open educational resources
initiative, hosted Wikipedia Education Program staff member Jami
Mathewson last month for a workshop on teaching with Wikipedia. More
than 35 faculty, staff, and students at the University of Michigan
attended an information session on the program, and a total of 16 people
stayed for the in-depth workshop led by the University of Michigan
student club. Learn more about the event by reading Open.Michigan's blog
post about the workshop.
https://open.umich.edu/blog/2012/10/01/wikipedia-education-program-at-u-m/
=== Wikimedia Grants Program ===
==== Grants funded ====
The following grant proposals were funded:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Annual_plan_2012-2013
  * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_Movement/Flow_Funding_Pilot_Projec...
  * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Creative_Commons_Community_in_Kenya/C...
  * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wikimedians_in_Brazil/WikiBrasil_2012
==== Grant-funded progress ====
* CEE (Central and Eastern European) Wikimedia group meeting in
    Belgrade, in addition to established chapters (Poland, Czech
    Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, and Estonia), many proto-chapters
    attended as well (Greece, Belarus, Armenia, Slovenia)
      o 2-day program, well documented (conducted in English primarily)
        – documentation: http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/CEE2012
      o lots of excitement by proto-chapter groups about off-wiki
        activities and better integration with international community
* Working with CIS in India to aid in the transition of the former
    India Program to the new "Access To Knowledge
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge" program as
a priority partnership.
    Jessie went to Bangalore to guide in the meeting of the teams, as
    well as facilitate learning conversations about the things that have
    worked well in the past and the things that haven't worked as well.
      o Stronger focus on output and outcome reporting (instead of
        inputs/process)
      o Still in the hiring phase for the programme director position: a
        mission-critical position for the success of this program
=== Participation Support Program ===
The following requests have been funded:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Vantharith/BlogFestAsia2012
  * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/Museum_Computer_N...
  * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/Fembot_UnConferen...
=== FDC Progress ===
/(see also general "Highlights" section)/
* onboarding FDC members – 7 members (+2 Board representatives)
    started September 15, orientation began from last week of September
    and through October
      o different regions, languages, projects, chapters, community
        members, Global South, plus two Board reps
      o intense orientation sessions
* deadline for proposals was Oct 1; 12 proposals are in, including
    WMF's proposal
      o lots of challenges around differing fiscal years
* on-wiki staff assessments went up; FDC has met in San Francisco, and
    their recommendation goes to Board on 15 Nov. The Board will
    announce decision to community 15 December, grant agreements signed
    and funds disbursed by 15 Jan. Then gear up for second round of
    funding in May/April.
=== Mobile ===
* Saudi Telecom launched Wikipedia Zero, reaches 25 million people.
  * Completing work on software which will enable Wikipedia access over SMS.
  * Added some diagnostics and created additional partner testing suport
    materials for subsequent deployments of Wikipedia Zero. Mobile phone
    users who attempt to use Wikipedia Zero on an unsupported partner
    network will be informed that standard charges may apply.
  * Beta version of J2ME based Wikipedia application has been completed.
    Currently testing on supported mobile phones.
  * Initial analysis of usage data from Wikipedia Zero deployments has
    shown readership increases –
    https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/29/wikipedia-zero-grows-readership-in-afr...
=== Brazil ===
* Outreach and education program events (Rio de Janeiro - "FIM" (books
    fair and information production), Curitiba (CODAIP – Copyright),
    Porto Alegre (enterpreneurship fair – workshops for professors and
    lecture)
  * Started discussion on Portuguese Wikipedia about next steps for the
    Education Program, need feedback from community on levels of
    engagement in the future
  * Follow up with professors regarding articles, contributions and
    activeness
  * Stats - general monthly analyses for Portuguese Wikimedia projects
  * Finalized a planning up to June 2013 based on debates with the
    community regarding the Brazil Catalyst Program and presented that
    to 2 local organizations.
  * Attended and supported WikiBrasil meet-up – a three days event
    organized by the community where about 25 people discussed projects
    to be developed in the next year, as well as where the Associação
    Pietro Roveri pelo Conhecimento e a Colaboração Livres was incorporated.
  * Continued hiring process / interviewed candidates for data analyst
    job position
=== Fellowships ===
* *Program*: As WMF begins a process of narrowing focus, we're
    preparing to wind down the fellowships program over the next few
    months. WMF may investigate other avenues for supporting projects
    led by individual editors via grantmaking.
* *Dispute Resolution*: The community has supported
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:WP:DRREFORM rolling out an easier way
    to file dispute resolution requests across English Wikipedia, and
    process improvements are in progress to impliment the community's
    decision.
* *Help Pages Redesign*: The usability test results for a redesign of
    the English Wikipedia's main help page were published
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_Project/Usability_Testing_2
    and replacing the old design is under discussion by the community
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_talk:Contents#RfC:_Redesign_of_Help:Contents,
    with broad support so far. Peter's fellowship project concluded this
    month, with finalized documentation
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:Help_Project/Community_fellowship.
* *Small Wiki Editor Engagement*: This month concludes a 6 week pilot
    of help documentation improvements in Bangla Wikipedia. A midpoint
    progress report
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_Wiki_Editor_Engagement_Project/Report/Monthly_(July-August_2012)
    is now available and a full statistical report on the outcomes is
    being prepared. Plans are in development for the next Bangla
    experiment, focusing on building a support system for new editors
    tailored to a wiki of this size.
* *Teahouse*: We've wrapped up phase 2 of the Teahouse project, having
    built stable and sustainable systems into the English Wikipedia
    Teahouse and handed it over to full community ownership. The
    complete project
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Phase_2_report and
    metrics https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Phase_2_report/Metrics
reports are
    on meta.
* *WikiWomen's Collaborative*: We're digging into results of the first
    month of this social media initiative and an assessment report
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative/Phase_1/Report
is in
    progress. Content for the WWC's Facebook page
    https://www.facebook.com/WikiWomensCollaborative/, Twitter feed
    https://twitter.com/WikiWomen/ and blog channel
    https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wikiwomen/ is being created
    by Sarah and WikiWomen volunteers around the world, using the
    WikiWomen's Collab organizing hub
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative on
Meta. While October has been
    focused on engaging the existing community, November will be focused
    on engaging women who aren't yet editing Wikipedia and related projects.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_Wikimedia_Fo...
Evan Rosen presenting the Global Development Dashboard at the metrics
and activities meeting>
=== Learning & Evaluation ===
* Global Development Dashboard http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/ up and
    running! It showcases the main metrics related to the goals that the
    GD team has committed to achieving during this 2012-13 fiscal year
  * Lots of analysis done in support of other teams – see data embedded
    in those sections!
  * Working in conjunction with Analytics team to create better and more
    powerful tools for our teams to evaluate their programs effectively
    based on data. This primarily includes testing of and advising
    regarding the development of "Limn" and "Kraken".
== Human Resources ==
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Zeljko Filipin, QA Engineer – Test Automation (Engineering Contractor)
  * Brad Jorsch, Software Developer – MediaWiki (Engineering)
  * Andre Klapper, Bug Wrangler (Engineering Contractor)
  * Adele Vrana, Senior Project Assistant (Administration)
  * Luke Welling, Senior Software Engineer (Engineering)
New Interns
* Zoe Bernard, Intern (Communications)
  * Darrin Fox, Intern (Communications)
  * Alice Roberts, Intern (Communications)
  * Jawad Qadir, Intern (Communications)
New Contractors
* Antonella Amatulli (Fundraising)
  * Steven Bernardin (Engineering)
  * Kristina Baker (Legal)
  * Cristiana Coimbra (Fundraising)
  * Michelle Grover (Engineering)
  * Joanie Hjulmand (Fundraising)
  * Sandra Hust (Fundraising)
  * Alex Kuiper (Fundraising)
  * Robert Miller (Administration)
  * Elena Strelnikova (Fundraising)
Contracts Extended
* Aaron Halfaker (Engineering)
  * Antoine Musso (Engineering)
  * Guillaume Paumier (Engineering)
  * Steven Zhang (Global Development)
  * Rebecca Neumann (LCA)
Departure
* Andrew White
Contracts Ended
* Moushira Elamrawy
  * Stuart Geiger
New Postings
* Release Manager
  * Software Engineer - VisualEditor (Features)
  * Operations Engineer/Database Administrator
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
    October Actual: 127
    October Total Plan: 151,
    October Filled: 6, Month Attrition: 1,
    YTD Filled: 27, YTD Attrition: 12
    1 Position canceled for FY
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 46 /(8 of which are on hold)/
=== Department Updates ===
HR ran and facilitated a few key initiatives in the month of October. We
did the first segment of a pilot leadership development program for
managers, to build leadership ability at the mid-level of the
organization that translates strategy into tactics. The overall
leadership program is co-designed between Gayle Karen Young and Jennifer
Garvey Berger, and will run with 13 managers over a 9-month period,
consisting of three 3-day sessions, 3 months apart. Eventually, all
leaders in the organization below C-level will go through this program.
Jennifer wrote a blog post about her experience with us:
http://www.cultivatingleadership.co.nz/leadership/2012/10/leading-wikipedia
HR piloted a recruitment training for hiring managers to improve our
recruiting processes and practices. We also supported the design and
facilitation of the first WMF board retreat to support better board
governance and group dynamics to evolve board functioning, and supported
the FDC by doing an "effective group dynamics and decision-making"
segment as part of their face-to-face meeting.
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* We completed a site visit and asset review at the Tampa Data Center.
  * We are in the process of reviewing RFP for audit services for the
    Wikimedia Foundation.
  * Engaging in a continuing review of chapters in support of the FDC
    and other projects.
  * Work continued on the third floor space redesign
== Legal and Community Advocacy ==
* Strong legal and community support for the new travel project in a
    variety of ways, including the naming poll
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide/Naming_Process and
related legal issues
  * Internet Brands litigation: For a summary of the cases and updates,
    please go here:
    http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/05/wikimedia-foundation-seeks-declaratory-...
o San Francisco case: Internet Brands, Inc. v. William Ryan Holiday
          + To recap, on September 26, 2012, Ryan had filed an
            anti-SLAPP
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation
            motion and motion to dismiss. This motion seeks dismissal of
            all the claims against him now pending in federal court and
            also asks for an award of attorneys’ fees against Internet
            Brands. That pleading may be found here:
            http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-09-26_Notice_of_Defendants%27_...
          + On October 12, 2012, Internet Brands filed its Opposition to
            Defense Special Motion to Strike and Motion to Dismiss in
            United States District Court. That response may be found
            here:
            http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_Brands_Opp._to_anti-SLAPP_mo...
          + On October 22, 2012, Ryan filed his Reply to Internet
            Brands’s Opposition to Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion and motion
            to strike. That reply may be found here:
            http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Reply_Brief_ISO_anti-SLAPP_Motion_a...
      o Los Angeles case: Wikimedia Foundation v. Internet Brands
          + On October 15, 2012, Internet Brands filed a "notice of
            demurrer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/demurrer" against the
            Foundation's complaint for declaratory judgment
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/declaratory_judgment (to be
            posted). The WMF response is presently due November 6.
  * Legal supported the WMF Board of Trustee meeting in San Francisco,
    providing governance and a procedural training session. Training
    like this is recommended for all boards of Wikimedia movement
    organizations on a regular basis, serving as an update on governance
    developments and best practice procedures for the boards. Advised on
    technical improvements in bylaws to ensure continued compliance with
    relevant law (Florida).
  * On October 24, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation announced
    the appointment of Compass Partnership, a noted charity governance
    firm, to produce the review and report on the governance of
    Wikimedia UK.. For details, see
    http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/24/wikimedia-uk-and-wikimedia-foundation-a...
  * Contract metrics:
      o 22 - submitted
      o 26 - completed
  * Trademark metrics:
      o 20 - submitted
      o 1 - approved
      o 17 - pending
      o 1 - closed to lack of response
      o 1 - approval not needed
=== Communications report, October 2012 ===
October saw communications managing some spillover of the WMUK/COI media
relations work from September, but through mid October the media moved
on from the topic. The latest Wikipedia editor survey was finalized
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Survey_2012
(and has now launched) and
work pushed forward on a community-focussed effort to allow Wikimedians
to give each other official branded merchandise in recognition for their
hard work. The team has also kicked off work on the 2011-12 WMF Annual
Report, which will continue through November. November will see more
communications work around the 2012 fundraising drive and further
Wikipedia Zero announcements.
==== Major announcements ====
The Wikimedia Foundation and Saudi Telecom (STC) partner to provide
access to Wikipedia free of mobile data charges in the Middle East
(October 14, 2012)
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_and_STC_partner_on_WP...
(related coverage) CNET (October 15, 2012)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57532461-2/wikipedia-now-totally-free-to...
Saudi Gazette (October 14, 2012)
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20...
==== Major Storylines through October ====
WMUK/COI story abates (early October, 2012)
Media coverage of allegations of conflict of interest around the WMUK
community continued through early October, but in limited, follow-up
stories. As of the middle of the month there have been no further media
inquiries.
UK Women’s edit-a-thon with Royal Society makes news (October 17-19, 2012)
A group edit-a-thon at the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of
science, aiming to bring more women editors to Wikipedia garnered strong
media attention. Held in conjunction with Ada Lovelace Day, the event
quickly filled up and improved dozens of articles, including many about
women in science.
(WMUK blog post)
    http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-ada-lovelace-the-royal-soc...
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=royal-society-runs-...
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/wikipedia-gets-overdue-makeover-to...
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/19/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-women-sc...
Is Wikipedia done? (October 25, 2012)
An Atlantic story in late October prompted speculation that Wikipedia
might be nearing completion, an intriguing idea that prompted multiple
media outlets, including some mainstream outlets, to repost and
reference the story.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/surmounting-the-insurm...
    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/is-wikipedia-complete-8230188.ht...
    http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/wikipedia-done-its-close-says-hi...
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Popsci.com | A map of the world, according to Wikipedia geotags (October
2, 2012)
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/infographic-human-knowledge-pl...
Talking Points Memo | Wikipedia Maps: Inside Encyclopedia’s Little-Known
Cache Of Geo Data (October 9, 2012)
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/wikipedia-maps-inside-encyclope...
Wall Street Journal | Editors Won't Let It Be When It Comes to 'the' or
'The' (October 12, 2012)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444657804578048534112811590.ht...
Web Pro News | Wikipedia gives its mobile site new type layout (October
24, 2012)
http://www.webpronews.com/wikipedia-gives-its-mobile-site-new-type-layout-20...
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Thirty-six blog posts through October, including bilingual posts
https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/ in Swedish, Spanish,
Bengali, Italian, Russian, and Arabic.
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/
A few highlights:
Gendered language and the Swedish Wikipedia article for Marissa Mayer
(October 30)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/30/gendered-language-and-the-swedish-wikip...
Wikipedia app for Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets (October 26)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/26/wikipedia-app-for-windows-8-and-windows...
Where it’s a given that you would publish your source code (October 22)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/22/where-its-a-given-that-you-would-publis...
==== Media Contact, October 2012 ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#October_2012
==== Wikipedia Signpost, October 2012 ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for October 2012:
* Volume 8, Issue 40, 1 October 2012
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10-01
  * Volume 8, Issue 41, 8 October 2012
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10-08
  * Volume 8, Issue 42, 15 October 2012
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10-15
  * Volume 8, Issue 43, 22 October 2012
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10-22
  * Volume 8, Issue 44, 29 October 2012
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10-29
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in October 2012:
1. Olivier & Jean-Philippe Hugot (Hugot Avocats)
 2. Stephen Lloyd (Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP)
 3. Michael Mandiby (CUNY)
 4. Valerie Aurora (TAI)
 5. Kathy Ramsey (TAI)
 6. Max Klein (Volunteer)
 7. Rufus Pollock (Open Knowledge Foundation)
 8. Christy Wilson (Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
 9. Steve Spiker (Urban Strategies Council, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
10. Mike Linksvayer (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
11. Anna Daniel (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
12. Jessica Coates (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
13. Alan McConchie (Mapping Mashups, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
14. Tim McCormick (Stanford, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
15. Randall Leeds (Hypothes.is, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
16. Mike Bobak (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
17. Dan Whaley (Hypothes.is, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
18. Nicolas Torzec (Yahoo!, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
19. Léo Grimaldi (Orange San Francisco, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
20. Steve Rhodes (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
21. J Peralta (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
22. Matthew Crowe (AHHHA, Inc, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
23. Elliot Harmon (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
24. Brian Behlendorf (World Economic Forum, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
25. Jennifer Lin (OKFN Meet-up visitor)
26. Megan Edwards (PLoS.org, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
27. Max Vidrine (PLoS.org, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
28. Sameer Verma (SFSU, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
29. Timothy Vollmer (Creative Commons, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
30. Parker Higgins (Electronic Frontier Foundation, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
31. Matt Senate (Digital Citizen Project, OKFN Meet-up visitor)
32. Daniel Mietchen (User:Daniel_Mietchen
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Daniel_Mietchen)
33. Ed Johnson (Rearden Commerce)
34. Chris Nolan (owner of 365Main.com)
35. Mike Schwartz (Wikia)
36. Sara Wood (Wikia)
37. Mark Davis (Wikia)
38. Trevor Bolliger (Wikia)
39. Glenn Galbreath (Cornell Law Professor/Externship Coordinator)
40. Rebecca Bowe (EFF)
41. Maira Sutton (EFF)
42. Carolina Rossini (EFF)
43. Mark Rumold (EFF)
44. Mitch Stoltz (EFF)
45. Marcia Hofmann (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
46. Luis Villa (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
47. Daniel Ross (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
48. Carina Zona (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
49. Shiney Code (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
50. Roberto Burgos (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
51. Liz Henry (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
52. Kathy Ramsey (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
53. KC Crowell (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
54. Marina Kukso (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
55. Liz Flavall (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
56. laura ray (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
57. Jenny Liu (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
58. Mahvish Nagda (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
59. Mary Zhu (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
60. Julia Fasick (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
61. Lettie Malan (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
62. Tim Chevalier (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
63. Jenny Ryan (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
64. Ariel Haney (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
65. Sara Smollett (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
66. Shreyas Patankar (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
67. Morgan Marquis-Boire (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
68. Mariam Khan (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
69. Alex Peake (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
70. Heather Browning (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
71. Robyn Henderson (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
72. D Potter (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
73. David Helgason (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
74. Alex Glowaski (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
75. Andrea Horbinski (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
76. Christine Templin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
77. Rauhmel Fox (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
78. Rose White (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
79. Angie Chang (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
80. Danielle Siembieda (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
81. Pius Uzamere (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
82. Phil Wee (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
83. Sepi Nasiri (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
84. Mateo Fowler (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
85. Priyanka Sharma (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
86. Navi Ganancial (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
87. Marisol Torrez (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
88. Meghan Quirk (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
89. Matt Zimmerman (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
90. Sarah Mei (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
91. Angela Foreman (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
92. Andra Keay (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
93. natacha rodriguez (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
94. Angelo Olivera (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
95. Harvey Grosser (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
96. Tom Mayer (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
97. Christine Oneto (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
98. Beth Devin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
99. RJM Joynt (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
100. Margaret Mckinney (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
101. Steven Seltser (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
102. B Unyi (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
103. Jed Davis (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
104. Julie Parent (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
105. karla parker (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
106. Anatoly Goldin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
107. Star Simpson (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
108. Arnas Lucassen (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
109. Leslie Tom (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
110. Melita Mihaljevic (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
111. Ed Parker (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
112. Beth Reid (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
113. Fiona Tay (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
114. Kellie Brownell (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
115. Christina Nguyen (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
116. Yas Etessam (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
117. Snail Tsunami (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
118. Viktor Goldin (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
119. Catha Strauss (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
120. Kevin Kilkenny (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
121. Christine Hodges (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
122. Nana Second (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
123. Lilia Markham (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
124. Jamie Giedinghagen (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
125. Mark Bünger (ADA Lovelace Day Attendee)
126. John Brosnan (Kimpton)
127. Peter McCollough (Time)
128. Carmel Wade (Dell)
129. Tag Cummings (Dell)
130. Dennis Bauier (IRIS)
131. Ryan Downe Karpf (coffee and power)
132. Chris Smith (Special Agent, Environmental Protection Agency)
133. Adrian Collins (Deputy Director, Environmental Protection Agency)
134. David Peters (Exbrook)
135. David Weir (Independent Consultant)
136. Kelly Smith (Travel and Transport)
137. Jessica Coates (Creative Commons)
138. Adam Hyde (FLOSS Manuals)
139. Chris Smith (Special Agent, Environmental Protection Agency)
140. Adrian Collins (Deputy Director, Environmental Protection Agency)
141. Lisa Perez Jackson (Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency)
142. Jared Blumenfeld (Regional Administrator, Environmental Protection
    Agency)
143. Nancy 'Teddy' Ryerson (Chief of Staff to the Regional Administrator,
    Environmental Protection Agency)
144. Deborah Bezona (SML insurance agency)
145. Mandy Lee (SML insurance agency)
146. Trevor Bolliger (Wikia)
147. Mat Caldwell (Mozilla)
148. Brad Fullenbach (Mozilla)
149. Anne Clin (User:Risker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Risker)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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