Translations into several languages are now available for the October
2011 "Wikimedia Highlights" - combining some of the most relevant
information from the Wikimedia Foundation Report and the Wikimedia
engineering report for October 2011 with a selection of other
important events from the Wikimedia movement. Help is welcome in
spreading the translated versions among the project communities for
these languages.
Many thanks to all translators!
Suggestions for notable items to cover in the short movement news part
of the upcoming Highlights issue are welcome until the beginning of
December, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights .
Regards, Tilman
--
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/de
Höhepunkte aus dem Monatsbericht und dem technischen Bericht der
Wikimedia Foundation für Oktober 2011, samt einer Auswahl anderer
wichtiger Ereignisse aus dem Wikimedia-Universum
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/es
Destacados del informe de la Fondación Wikimedia y el informe de
ingeniería por octubre de 2011, con una selección de otros eventos
importantes del movimiento Wikimedia
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/fi
Kohokohdat Wikimedia Foundationin raportista ja Wikimedian
ohjelmistotuotantoraportista lokakuussa 2011 sekä kuukauden muut
tärkeät tapahtumut Wikimedia-liikkeessä
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/fr
Éclairages sur le rapport de la Fondation Wikimedia et le rapport
d’ingénierie Wikimedia pour octobre 2011, avec une sélection d’autres
évènements importants du mouvement Wikimedia.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/it
Approfondimenti dal rapporto Wikimedia Foundation e dal rapporto
ingegneristico Wikimedia di ottobre 2011, con una selezione di altri
eventi importanti dai movimenti di Wikimedia
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/ja
2011年10月のウィキメディア財団報告書及びウィキメディア技術報告の抄録ほかウィキメディア活動の重要行事について
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/nl
Hoogtepunten uit de Wikimedia Foundationrapportage en de Wikimedia
technische rapportage voor oktober 2011, aangevuld met een selectie
van andere belangrijke gebeurtenissen binnen de Wikimediabeweging.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2011/vi
Những điểm nổi bật từ Bản báo cáo Wikimedia Foundation và phản hồi kỹ
thuật Wikimedia vào tháng 10 năm 2011, bao gồm các sự kiện quan trọng
khác của phong trào Wikimedia
--
Tilman Bayer
Movement Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
*Brin Wojcicki Foundation Announces $500,000 Grant to Wikimedia*
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 18, 2011 – The Brin Wojcicki Foundation,
started by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and 23andMe co-founder Anne
Wojcicki, awarded a $500,000 grant to the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs
Wikipedia and its sister sites. The Wikimedia Foundation kicked off its 8th
annual fundraiser on November 16, 2011.
The Wikimedia projects currently reach more than 477 million unique
visitors around the world every month (comScore, October 2011), making
Wikipedia the fifth most-popular web site in the world.
“This grant is an important endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation and its
work, and I hope it will send a signal as we kick off our annual
fundraising campaign this week," said Sue Gardner, executive director of
the Wikimedia Foundation. "This is how Wikipedia works: people use it, they
like it, and so they help pay for it, to keep it freely available for
themselves and for everyone around the world. I am very grateful to Sergey
Brin and Anne Wojcicki for supporting what we do.”
The Brin Wojcicki Foundation has funded such organizations as the Michael
J. Fox Foundation, which is researching a cure for Parkinson’s disease. The
principals of the Brin Wojcicki Foundation are Sergey Brin, who co-founded
Google in 1997, and Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe, a personal
genetics company.
*About the Wikimedia Foundation*
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 477 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, October 2011).
Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20
million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than
100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia
Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily
through donations and grants.
Media Contact:
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
*(to be removed from future mailings, please reply to this email with
'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)*
*Wikipedia’s Contributors and Authors at the Center of Wikimedia’s Eighth
Annual Fundraiser
*
SAN FRANCISCO, November 16, 2011 - The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit
behind Wikipedia, today announced the launch of its annual fundraising
campaign. The annual fundraiser brings in critical revenue so that
Wikipedia and its sister projects can remain freely available to people
around the world. Funds raised in this campaign by Wikimedia and its
regional chapters will be used to maintain Wikimedia’s server
infrastructure and improve software, expand global reach, and provide
direct support to a global volunteer community. The Foundation's total
2011-12 planned spending is $28.3 million USD.
This year’s campaign will focus on telling the story of the volunteers and
editors who donate their time to further the Wikimedia mission: to spread
free knowledge around the world. Through the duration of the campaign, the
users of Wikipedia and its sister projects will learn about the unique
personalities behind our projects, as well as the passions and motivations
that fuel their contributions. As in previous years, Wikipedia founder,
Jimmy Wales, will also play a visible role in the fundraising campaign.
“Our community - both our donors and those who actually help write projects
like Wikipedia - is made up of people who are curious, brilliant, and
engaged,” said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
“This year we want to share their stories. I think people will find it
interesting to read about the folks who work behind the scenes in the
projects -- and ideally, I am hoping that some readers will be inspired to
start editing themselves, as well.”
*Three Wikipedia contributors to look out for
*
Alan Sohn (user:Alansohn) has contributed so much tech-related information
to more than 2,500 original articles on Wikipedia that his time commitment
to the hobby would equate to hundreds of thousands of earned dollars if he
focused only on his day job as a New Jersey-based systems consultant. “But
money is not the incentive here,” Alan says. “You deal in a different
currency on Wikipedia.” He believes the Foundation has harnessed an
invaluable resource of cooperating individuals dedicated to sharing
unbiased, accurate information.
Susan Hewitt (user:Invertzoo), a US citizen originally from England, knows
her snails. She harbors such a fascination for gastropods and has
cultivated such an extensive knowledge of their existence that she can’t
help but want to share. “That’s what makes Wikipedia so magical,” she says,
“there’s this unspoken light inside all of us that comes from the desire to
help educate, to help share knowledge.” Susan donates because she believes
she has a moral obligation to support any free service she uses so
frequently.
West Virginia native, and San Francisco Bay area-based, Brandon Harris
(User:Jorm) left a high-paying career in the tech industry to help make
positive changes to society. He now works as a programmer for the Wikimedia
Foundation because everything in his soul tells him it’s the right thing to
do. Brandon is particularly motivated by the thought that WMF produces with
“sticks and wires” what massive, big-budget companies only dream of pulling
off.
During the 2010 annual fundraising campaign, the Wikimedia Foundation
raised $15 million in fifty days, a 72% increase over 2009’s total of $8.7
million.
The 2011 campaign will run through January 2012, with appeals from Brandon,
Susan, Alan, Jimmy Wales, and many more atop pages on Wikipedia and its
sister sites, asking readers for their support.
You can also follow the conversation about the annual fundraising campaign
via @wikipedia on Twitter (http://twitter.com/wikipedia) or Identi.ca (
http://identi.ca/wikipedia). To donate to the campaign, visit:
http://donate.wikimedia.org.
*MORE VISUAL MATERIALS*
For photos of the Wikipedia contributors, as well as samples of the
fundraising banners, visit:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Category:Fundraising_2011_press_materia…
*About the Wikimedia Foundation
*
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization which operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 454 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, September 2011).
Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 18
million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than
100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia
Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily
through donations and grants.
*Media Contact:
*
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
*(to be removed from future mailings, please reply to this email with
'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)*
Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 31 October 2011. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog, join our mailing list, and/or follow us on Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page.
This report is also available, complete with pictures, on our website at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2011/October .
Contents
1 Program activities
1.1 2012 Activity Plan
1.2 Education projects
1.3 GLAM activities
1.4 Other activities
1.5 UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)
1.6 Upcoming activities in November
2 Administrative activities
2.1 Board activities
2.2 Extraordinary General Meeting to change our Objects
2.3 News from the CEO
2.4 Fundraising
2.5 Recruitment
Program activities
2012 Activity Plan
Our 2012 Activity Plan was posted to the WMUK wiki on 1 October and has been submitted to the Wikimedia Foundation as part of the planning for the annual fundraiser. This plan is an outline of the work we will do in 2012, and the resources we need to support it. It is an important stage in the development of our 2012 Budget. When we’re asking people for money in this Autumn’s fundraiser, the Activity Plan will show people what we’re hoping to achieve with their donations – so it’s also important for the openness and accountability of our fundraising. We welcome any comments or suggestions on the talk page.
Education projects
Dr Mark Graham, and Han-Teng Liao, both from the Oxford Internet Institute, attended WikiSym 2011 on WMUK scholarships this month; they also presented about their work at the Wikimedia Foundation offices.
Fiona Apps, supported by Richard Symonds, held a stall at the University of Warwick Freshers fayre, on 1 October. This resulted in over 70 expressions of interest in forming a Wiki student club.
We have supported a University of Birmingham bid for JISC funding for World War One digital content prioritization; our letter of support is at File:Birmingham JISC support.pdf.
On 24th October, Fiona Apps led a Wikipedia Lounge at The University of Manchester.
GLAM activities
On October 1st there was a Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Backstage Pass - this was covered in detail in the This Month in GLAM newletter. Also on the 1st, Tom Morris attending Over the Air at Bletchley Park.
On the 7th October, an internal training workshop was held at the British Museum. Then on the 13th October, the British Museum Ice Age art "Behind the Scenes" event was held.
Other events this month included:
5th - Martin Poulter spoke on "Common pitfalls in engaging with Wikipedia" at Bathcamp #26, the Innovation Centre, Bath
8th - Andy Mabbett talked about "GLAM and QRpedia" at Library Camp UK in Birmingham
14th - CeriseLovesColours from France visits Derby for VIP tour and to pick 2nd prize for the Wright Challenge
28th - Initial meeting for MonmouthpediA - John Cummings
A video showing Derby Museum using QRPedia codes was released on Vimeo.
Other activities
UK Wikimeets this month: Edinburgh meeting (1st), Cambridge meetup (8th), London (16th)
3rd-5th - Roger Bamkin speaking at Europeana Tech Conference in Vienna (report here)
29th - Trevor Johnson hosted a stand and a training event at RISC OS London Show, Feltham
Microgrants funded this month include Elections in Europe from User:Number 57 and Copyright law from User:Ironholds
UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)
Press coverage of Wikipedia in UK publications this month included:
Journal: "The Linguist" (vol. 50 no. 5, Oct/Nov 2011, p. 7 covers "Net Challenge" by Andrew Dalby listing the winners in Russia, France, Italy, Indonesia and the Czech Republic
1st - continued coverage of QRPedia:
How Wikipedia Is Making QR Codes Useful Again, Gizmodo
QRPedia: Wikipedia launches QR code tool for museums, PC Advisor
QRPedia - simple but effective , i-Programmer
Also: Wikipedia Signpost write-up of QRPedia
3rd - Wikipedia codifica tutto, Pubblicita Italia (QRpedia and arty QR codes)
5th-7th - several UK media outlets covered the strike of the Italian Wikipedia:
Wikipedia closes in Italy after Silvio Berlusconi 'gagging' bid, Independent
Wikipedia shuts Italy site to protest Berlusconi "gag law", Reuters UK
Italy wiretap law: Wikipedia hides pages in protest, BBC News
Wikipedia Shut Italian Site In Protest Over Privacy Law, Huffington Post UK
7th - Die Wikipedia kommt ins Museum, Spiegel on line, Interview with Peter Weiss about QRpedia and GLAM
14th Arriba a Barcelona l’exposició ‘Joan Miró. L’escala de l’evasió, Calalan Wikipedia and QRpedia enable Spanish Art Gallery labelling by Kippelboy
Wikipedia vandalism:
Rugby World Cup 2011: referee Alain Rolland's Wikipedia account sabotaged after Sam Warburton red card, Telegraph
Wiki-d lies so mean say North Lynners, Lynn News
When I died on Wikipedia, Guardian
Jimmy Wales
23 October, Jimmy Wales: The internet's shy evangelist, Independent - unfortunately containing a number of inaccuracies.
29 October, Jimmy Wales appeared on The Culture Show, talking to Aleks Krotoski.
Upcoming activities in November
Planned activities in November include:
1st - Exec board meeting
1st - Fae at PICTFOR meeting on Hargreaves' report on UK copyright changes, blog post
10th - Steve Virgin speaking at UK Association of Science & Discovery Centres Marketing Managers Conference - event entitled 'Word of Mouth'
12th - Manchester Girl Geeks Editing Day
13th - London meetup
13th - 18:30-20:00 Sue Gardner Speaking at Imperial College
16th - Roger Bamkin speaking at Lillehammer
17th - Roger Bamkin on Special Libraries Assoc panel
18th - Martin Poulter speaking at ESRC Research Seminar on "Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights", Leicester University
19-20th - In-person board meeting
19-20th - Brighton Hackathon 2011
22nd - 18.00- Liverpool meetup
24th - Fae presenting at Open Data in Cultural Heritage workshop hosted by Wellcome Trust & Open Knowledge Foundation
For events in December and onwards, please see Events.
Administrative activities
Board activities
A full board meeting was held on 11 October, focused on the topics of office space; charity status and fundraising readiness. Draft minutes from the meeting are available. A brief board meeting was also held on 16 October discussing the constitution of the Executive Board, and the implementation of our expenses system. You can also find out information about our Board member's recent activities at the report page for the board meeting on 11th October.
Extraordinary General Meeting to change our Objects
On 16th October we held an Extraordinary General Meeting to approve a change of our Objects as part of the process of being recognized by the Charities Commission as a UK charity. The resolution was passed, with 49 supporting, 1 abstaining and no-one opposing.
News from the CEO
For more information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.
A busy first month for me with visits to Coventry to see everyone in action at the Herbert and the Fresher's Fair at Warwick University. Later I spent a few days in the offices of our German sister organisation seeing what we might look like a few years on. We had a successful EGM in London which was a key step on the way to becoming a charity.
In the background a steep learning curve with lots of support from the community, so thanks, you know who you are. An office space has also been found into which I move next Monday with a couple of cardboard boxes. There will be some open days when we get it equipped.
Fundraising
A number of fundraising tests were run this month; the details and their outcomes are described on meta. For more information about our participation in this year's fundraiser, see 2011 Fundraiser.
We received £17,622.69 in donations from 1270 donors via paypal this month, and £658 of monthly donations from via direct debit (including M new direct debits). For more information please see our monthly fundraising report at Fundraising Report - Monthly Totals 2011.
We are currently in the process of assembling our Expense policy, which more clearly sets out the approach that we have already been following with regards expenses incurred by Board, staff and volunteers when on Wikimedia UK business.
Recruitment
Our Chief Exec, Jon Davies, started work on 1 October.
Recruitment started for our permanent Office and Development Manager, with interviews due to take place in November.
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK, a charity registered in England and Wales (1144513).
Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom.
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for October, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version is on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_2011
and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
Since last month, 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_2011
Many thanks to those who translated last month's "Highlights" into
Arabic, Danish, German, Italian and Japanese!
While continuing to focus on WMF activities, the "Highlights" now
include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole
the movement. Suggestions for the upcoming November issue are welcome
at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights (until the
beginning of December).
Regards, Tilman
--
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Arabic Wikipedia meetings in the Middle East
o 3.2 MediaWiki 1.18 and HTTPS support deployed
o 3.3 A/B testing to improve editor retention
* 4 Technology
o 4.1 Operations
o 4.2 Features Engineering
o 4.3 Mobile
o 4.4 Special projects
o 4.5 Platform engineering
* 5 Research
* 6 Community
o 6.1 Projects
o 6.2 Fundraising
* 7 Global Development
o 7.1 Global Development Highlights
+ 7.1.1 Grants Awarded and Executed
o 7.2 Brazil Catalyst
o 7.3 Arabic Catalyst
o 7.4 Wikimania Scholarships
o 7.5 Mobile and Business Development
o 7.6 Global development research
o 7.7 Global Education Program
o 7.8 India Programs
o 7.9 Communications
+ 7.9.1 Major announcements
+ 7.9.2 Major Storylines through October
+ 7.9.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 7.9.4 Wikipedia Signpost
+ 7.9.5 WMF Blog posts
+ 7.9.6 Media Contact
* 8 Human Resources
o 8.1 Staff Changes
o 8.2 Statistics
o 8.3 Department Updates
* 9 Finance and Administration
* 10 Legal
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UV_Growth_Chart-Sept_2011.png
ComScore unique visitor growth by region, September 2010-September 2011 >
Global unique visitors for September:
455 million (+7.5% compared with August; +%14.2 compared with the
previous year)
(comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will
release October data later in November)
Page requests for October:
16.8 billion (+6.1% compared with September; +15.6% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile
access)
Active Registered Editors for September 2011 (>= 5 edits/month):
92,781 (+0.1% compared with August / +5.5% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects except for
Wikimedia Commons)
Report Card for September 2011: http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/
The report card is currently undergoing a redesign as a more
fully-featured dashboard (integrating various statistical data and
trends about WMF projects).
== Financials ==
(Financial information is only available for September 2011 at the time
of this report.)
Revenue: $3,580,474
Expenses:
* Technology Group: $2,169,824
* Community/Fundraiser Group: $754,685
* Global Development Group: $775,647
* Governance Group: $263,091
* Finance/Legal/HR/Admin. Group: $1,416,181
Total Expenses: $5,379,428
Total surplus/(loss): ($1,798,954)
Revenue was ahead of plan due to Stanton grant of $2.8 million and
additional donations ahead of plan of $427,751.
Expenses were below plan at $5.4 million actual vs. $6.7 million plan.
Expenses were below plan due to lower than plan expenditures in capital
expenditures, chapter grants, recruitment cost and other activities due
to being only three months into the fiscal year.
Cash of $16 million, which is six months of cash reserves at current
spending levels.
== Highlights ==
=== Arabic Wikipedia meetings in the Middle East ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qatar_Convening_for_Arabic_Wikipedi…
Group picture at the Qatar Convening for Arabic Wikipedia >
Barry Newstead, Frank Schulenburg, Moushira Elamrawy and Sara Yap of the
Global Development department traveled to the Middle East to meet with
Wikipedians in the Arab world and begin the expansion of the Wikipedia
Education Program. Adel Iskandar, a professor at Georgetown University
who had taught in the Public Policy Initiative (the U.S. Global
Education Program pilot), joined the team to meet with professors and
Wikipedians in Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan. These meetings will inform the
planning of the Arabic Education Program, which will be launched in
2012. Over the course of a 14-day visit to Egypt, Jordan and Qatar, the
Wikimedia team connected with local experts, university staff, student
groups, and attendees at an Arabic Wikipedia Convening in Doha which was
co-hosted by WMF together with the Qatar Computing Research Institute.
The convening focused on ways to catalyze high quality growth of the
Arabic Wikipedia across the Middle East and North Africa.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/11/08/building-a-story-for-the-arabic-wikipe…http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/23/arabic-wikipedia-convening/http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/21/foundation-engages-in-egypt-qatar-jord…
=== MediaWiki 1.18 and HTTPS support deployed ===
MediaWiki 1.18 was deployed to all Wikimedia wikis in October. Major
features of the new version include:
* Support for gender-specific user pages: In languages that have
different words for "User" depending on whether the user is male or
female, user pages are denoted by the male or the female version, if
the user has specified their gender in their preferences.
* Better directionality support: MediaWiki 1.18 makes it easier for
left-to-right and right-to-left text to coexist on the same page.
(Languages affected by this include Hebrew, Arabic, and Farsi.)
October also saw the rollout of native HTTPS support to all wikis, so
that URLs like https://en.wikipedia.org/ work to access the secure
version of our sites.
=== A/B testing to improve editor retention ===
To improve retention of new Wikipedians, Steven Walling and Maryana
Pinchuk from the Community Department collaborated with community
members on the English and Portuguese Wikipedia in testing variations in
the wording of warning messages. These ready-made messages are used in
automated editing tools to alert new users about problems with their
edits. A/B testing is used to find out whether more personal, less
directives-oriented messages, or a friendlier wording, have an effect on
the user's subsequent actions: How often they edit afterwards, whether
their subsequent edits are vandalism, whether they contact the more
experienced user who issued the warning, and whether that contact is
constructive or not.
The tests involved the anti-vandalism tools Huggle and Twinkle, and
SDPatrolBot, a bot which warns users when they remove a speedy deletion
tag from an article they are working on. Steven and Maryana also started
to collaborate with community members in order to test improvements in
the archiving of shared IP talk pages, where many such warning messages
to anonymous editors are being left.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:UWTESThttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testinghttp://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia_Discuss%C3%A3o:Huggle#Mudan.C3.…
== Technology ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for October 2011
can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2011/October
Department Highlights (see also general "Highlights" section above)
Major news in October include:
* The New Orleans hackathon
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/28/tech-meetup-moves-wm-infrastructure-f…>,
which focused on Wikimedia's infrastructure;
* Native HTTPS support
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/03/native-https-support-enabled-for-all-w…>
on all Wikimedia sites;
* Progress on the Visual editor project, with the first prototype
expected in the coming months;
* The deployment of the Translate extension to meta-wiki;
* The deployment of MediaWiki 1.18
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/04/mediawiki-1-18-deployment-today-to-all…>
to all Wikimedia sites;
* The completion of the first revision of the MediaWiki architecture
document;
* The ramp-up by the fundraising engineering team, to prepare for the
upcoming annual fundraiser.
The engineering management team continues to update the *Software
deployments <http://wikitech.wikimedia.org/view/Software_deployments>*
page weekly, providing up-to-date information on the upcoming
deployments to Wikimedia sites, as well as the *engineering roadmap
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/roadmap>*, listing ongoing and future
Wikimedia engineering efforts.
=== Operations ===
* *HTTPS* — HTTPS support has been enabled on all Wikimedia sites;
mobile support is still to come. At some point in the future, we'll
be switching the log-in link to default to logging in via https.
* *Virtualization test cluster* — Wikimedia Labs has been launched. We
are starting to install instances to duplicate our production
environment. We are also bringing up some instances for
non-MediaWiki related work.
=== Features Engineering ===
* *Visual editor* — Trevor Parscal worked on a new model tree (and the
conversion from the linear model) and updated the software design
documentation. Inez Korczynski worked on front-end functionality:
dialogs, selecting text, mouse actions, scrolling, keyboard
shortcuts, etc. Roan Kattouw focused on algorithms that insert
ranges of data into a document, and Neil Kandalgaonkar on the
removal of data. On the parser side, a basic parser using PEG is in
place, which produces an intermediate JSON object tree; Brion Vibber
is still working on markup support (mixed HTML and Wikitext).
Gabriel Wicke joined the team and started to work on the PEG parser.
* *Internationalization and localization tools* — Siebrand Mazeland
and the rest of the team continued to plan their work using Mingle.
Santhosh Thottingal added new features, and support for more
languages, to the WebFonts extension, as well as new keyboard
mappings and languages to the Narayam input method extension. Gerard
Meijssen started to build language support teams focusing on
localization and internationalization. A major achievement was the
deployment of the Translate extension to Meta-wiki, by Niklas
Laxström and Sam Reed; it will be used to translate content pages,
e.g. for the 2011 fundraiser.
* *Article feedback* — Work has started on Version 5 of this feature,
which will focus on reader engagement, for example by offering new
feedback forms and free-text comment fields; a comment moderation
system is also planned. This project is led by Fabrice Florin, and
will be implemented by an external contracting company, OmniTI.
=== Mobile ===
* *MobileFrontend* — The production version of our new Wikimedia
mobile platform, launched in September, is no longer considered to
be beta. Users can opt-in to the beta program to test new,
pre-release features and provide feedback; future features include
search suggestions and interwiki links. Phil Chang also set up a
mobile features brainstorm page, and started to organize them.
=== Special projects ===
* *2011 Fundraiser* — October was a very busy month for fundraising
engineering. The biggest achievement was the rewrite and deployment
of the credit card processing software, the DonationInterface
extension. It now supports GlobalCollect, a new payment processor,
in addition to the existing ones. Work is underway to add support
for non-credit card payments. Another major feature of the extension
is the ability to easily create new forms simply by inserting
template tags into HTML markup; it also leverages MediaWiki's
message translation system using translatewiki.net. From an
operations perspective, we increased the monitoring capacity of the
servers in the payment cluster, as well as the redundancy of systems.
=== Platform engineering ===
* *MediaWiki 1.18* — The deployment of MediaWiki 1.18 was successfully
completed on all Wikimedia wikis. Developers are now fixing the
remaining bugs before releasing 1.18 for third parties. The first
beta is expected in early November.
* *Continuous integration* — Chad Horohoe worked with the operations
team to finalize the setup of the testing server, now online at
http://integration.mediawiki.org. It is currently running Jenkins
(PHPUnit), and TestSwarm should be added soon.
* *Git conversion* — Chad Horohoe started to prepare for the migration
to git; he wrote a script to compare LDAP accounts to the
information stored in Code review, and prepared for conversion tests
from the current Subversion repository.
* *Volunteer coordination and outreach* — Sumana Harihareswara
continued to go through the backlog of commit access requests, and
participated in a discussion on making it easier to get Subversion
commit access. She encouraged volunteers who are interested in
leading hackathons, teaching classes, or attending conferences to
talk about MediaWiki. She also followed up with volunteers and
potential new developers, notably from the New Orleans hackathon and
Google Summer of Code mentors' summit.
* *MediaWiki architecture document* — Guillaume Paumier finished the
write-up of the document, based on the input provided by developers,
the existing documentation on mediawiki.org, the auto-generated
documentation from doxygen, and deep dives into the actual code. The
MediaWiki community reviewed the document, which was submitted to
the book's editors. This project is considered to be mostly
completed. Further work will include minor polishing and follow-up
on the document and its publication, and integration of the content
into the relevant pages on mediawiki.org.
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_architecture_document/text
== Research ==
* We announced the winner of the Wiki Participation challenge, a data
competition organized by the Foundation in partnership with Kaggle
[1]. The full description of the winning entries and the code used
in the submissions are publicly available. [2]
* A new project funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and led by
researchers based in the UK [3] kicked off in October and was
further announced by a blog post [4]. The project will examine the
accuracy and quality of Wikipedia articles across subjects and
languages.
* A large delegation of WMF staff attended WikiSym 2011 in Mountain
View, CA on October 3-5 – an event that was co-sponsored by the
Foundation. [5]
* We published the 4th issue of the Wikimedia Research Newsletter
(WRN), covering 21 items including highlights from WikiSym 2011 and
recent academic research on Wikimedia projects [6]. The WRN is
cross-posted on the Signpost, on Meta and now also on the
Foundation's blog where it can syndicated via an RSS feed. [7]
* Wikipedia Campus Ambassador Cheryl Moy [8] joined the Research
Committee as a new full member, while former member Luca de Alfaro
resigned due to other commitments.
* RCom member Mayo Fuster Morell organized the Global Forum on
Building Digital Commons and Collaborative Communities, a 2-day
event held in Barcelona on October 29-30 [9]. RCom members Milos
Rancic and Dario Taraborelli as well as WMF analyst Erik Zachte
participated in the event.
* RCom member and Wikipedian in Residence in Open Science Daniel
Mietchen presented his work on Wikipedia and Open Access and the
RCom related activity at several events including Open Access Tage
2011, the Open Science Summit 2011 and the Vienna SciBarCamp. [10]
* We provided continuous support to external research requests and
reviewed new subject recruitment proposals. The Wikimedia research
project directory was entirely redesigned. [11]
[1]
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/26/announcing-the-wikichallenge-winners/
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wiki_Participation_Challenge
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Accuracy_and_quality_of_Wikipedia_…
[4]
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/11/02/new-comparative-study-to-re-examine-th…
[5] http://www.wikisym.org/ws2011/
[6] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2011-10-31
[7]
http://blog.wikimedia.org/c/research-2/wikimedia-research-newsletter/feed/
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MichChemGSI
[9] http://www.digital-commons.net/
[10]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedian_in_Residence_on_Open_Science
[11] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Projects
== Community ==
Community Highlight(s)
(see also general "Highlights" section above)
* Production Coordinators visited the team in SF for a week. We
developed efficient procedures, campaign set up structure, and best
practices to be used during the Fundraiser, which is kicking off in
November
=== Projects ===
Editor Retention
(see also general "Highlights" section)
* In coordination with WikiProject User Warnings, Maryana Pinchuk and
Steven Walling continued their testing in English Wikipedia of new
template content to improve retention of new Wikipedians, forming a
taskforce there and on Meta as well in order to document and support
this work.[1][2]
* With the help of community members, testing was extended to the use
of Huggle on Portuguese Wikipedia, where it is a popular tool for
dealing with vandalism.[3]
* Department-wide discussion with guests Sara Stierch and Kevin Gorman
on the recent gender-gap survey results and potential community
outreach activities.
* Wrapping up results of Portuguese Wikipedia community trends and
behavior study with Global Dev
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:UWTEST
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testing
3.
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia_Discuss%C3%A3o:Huggle#Mudan.C3.…
4. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Women_and_Wikimedia_Survey_2011
=== Fundraising ===
Fundraiser
* Production Coordinators visited SF for a week. One of the main focus
of the visit was to find the most efficient procedures, campaign set
up structure and best practices to be used during the Fundraiser
* Kick-started testing for Payment Processing Chapters
* Defined a new campaign structure and Blueprint for the Fundraiser
* Enabled localization feature for CIVICRM bulk emails
* Weekly fundraising messaging and technical tests ramped up in
October in preparation for the November launch of the year-end
campaign. [1]
* We held a focus group to learn more about our donors and why they
support the Wikimedia Foundation. A report from this research will
be posted in November.
* Stacey Merrick joined the fundraising team to lead social media
strategy and implementation during the fundrasier.
1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011
Fundraiser Translations
* 1100 translators signed up, 158 translations completed with another
141 in progress. New text is going into translation each day.
Major Gifts and Foundations
* Submitted three new proposals for funding
== Global Development ==
===Global Development Highlights ===
* Members of the department traveled to the Middle East to prepare the
expansion of the Wikipedia Education Program and meet with local
community members (see also general "Highlights" section above). WMF
co-hosted a convening of Arabic Wikipedians in Doha with the Qatar
Computing Research Institute.
* Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland jointly fund the new
*Wikimedia Participation Grants* program:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/11/05/enabling-worldwide-participation/
==== Grants Awarded and Executed ====
Six Wikimedia Grants were awarded in October. The largest among them,
awarded to Wikibilim, the NGO furthering Wikimedia's mission in
Kazakhstan, will fund the first-ever regional conference of Turkic
language editing communities, i.e. Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Uzbek,
Turkmen, Uyghur, and of course Kazakh. Other grants support capacity
building initiatives in Serbia and the Philippines, as well as events in
Serbia, Catalonia, and for the Tamil Wikpedia community.
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Open_Wiki_GLAM_of_Serbia
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Turkic_speaking_wikimedians_conference
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Amical/FCF-2011
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Capacity_building_project_for_t…
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Tamil_Wikimedians/TamilWiki_Media_Con…
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Chapter_startup_2
=== Brazil Catalyst <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Catalyst_Project> ===
* Barry and Jessie went to Brazil in early October to meet with the
community about a few key projects:
1. University program: there are some viral education programs
going on now, which we are supporting minimally but encouraging.
We want to grow this program during the upcoming semester.
2. Research on PT-WP: October was a particularly research-heavy
month, and we are finding both encouraging and concerning things
about Portuguese Wikipedia (PT-WP): edits remain steady, but
editing is incredibly difficult and not viewed as "fun".
Contractors Daniela Feijo and Fabian Kaelin were working with
Jessie and Siko on this. For more information, see
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Portuguese_Wikipedia_trends_and_be…
* Office: we are planning to work with Executive Search Firm Michael
Page to hire a Program lead to support program work in Brazil.
=== Arabic Catalyst ===
(see also general "Highlights" section)
* Conducted interviews in Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.
* Supported efforts for the first launch of the Arabic Wikipedia
Convening in Doha, Qatar
* Evaluated five universities on their abilities to contribute to
Wikipedia: Ain Shams, Cairo University, American University of
Cairo, Qatar University, and University of Jordan.
* Coordinated Wikimedia Meet-up in Cairo, Egypt for the local community
* Conducted informal on-the-ground user research for mobile technology
in three MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries to share with
the Wikimedia Mobile team.
* http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/04/wikimedia-foundation-to-launch-arabic-…
* http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/21/foundation-engages-in-egypt-qatar-jord…
=== Wikimania Scholarships ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Average_impact_of_scholarship_progr…
Average impact of scholarship program on interest in participation>
* Process for Wikimania scholarships has begun
* Analysis is being done based on last year's scholarship
applications, and we are delighted to find that the scholarship
process does in fact increase individuals' interests in
participating in the Wikimedia movement.
* For the next scholarship cycle, communicate the selection criteria
more transparently as well as increase publicity once application is
open.
=== Mobile and Business Development ===
* Visited India for meetings with top four operators. Anticipate
announcing soon our first partner for Wikipedia Zero there and also
an operator partner for developing low-end (SMS and USSD) services
at the Hackathon. From all Global South operators, we are hearing
great demand for SMS and USSD, so are further investigating how to
scale development.
* Began discussions with top 3 operators in Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philipines. (Visiting next two weeks to advance partnerships.)
* Continuing negotiations for large-scale Africa partnership.
* Announced the rollout of global mobile partnership programme and
Wikipedia Zero, and received coverage in Paid content, MocoNews, and
various blogs.[2]
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/26/wikipedia-seeks-global-operator-partn…>
* Finalized Sony Ericsson agreement. Wikipedia to be included in media
player (eg "see more info on Artist") for all next-release Android
phones.
=== Global development research ===
* Editor Survey: We have a final draft of the editor survey which we
are planning to field in December, with internal and external output.
* Readers Survey: Please read our blog posts about the readers study
at https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/readers-survey/ .
* Mobile Research: India, Brazil report is finished, and is being
copy-edited. The mobile survey went back to field in October, and we
used an external survey hosting company. The process of data
cleaning is currently ongoing.
=== Global Education Program ===
* Frank Schulenburg attended the /Mobility Shifts/ conference in New
York. He led a workshop that demonstrated how Wikipedia can be
incorporated into a university curriculum.
* Wikipedia Global Education Program staff were on-hand at the
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to talk with interested
professors about Wikipedia's use as a teaching tool in higher
education. Wikipedia had both a booth in the exhibit hall and a
presentation slot where staff members Annie Lin and LiAnna Davis
discussed results from the U.S. pilot program.
* On October 25, the first "Global Education Program Metrics and
Activities Meeting" took place online. Ayush Khanna walked the
participants through some high-level metrics such as student,
professor and course numbers. Also, program representatives from
India, Canada, Germany, the U.S. and the MENA region gave an
overview of the program activities in their specific region. The
meeting will take place on a monthly basis:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Education_Program_Metrics_and_Act…
* Wikimedia Foundation staff, including Global Education Program
Director Frank Schulenburg, traveled to the Middle East at the end
of October to begin planning the expansion of the Wikipedia
Education Program to the Arab world (see also general "Highlights"
section). Assisted by regional advisor Adel Iskandar, a professor
from the U.S. Education Program pilot, the team met with professors
and Wikipedians in Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan.
=== India Programs ===
Continued efforts underway to wrap up the Pune Pilot project and address
challenges of the pilot.
* Worked with online ambassadors from India and the US to address
urgent problems with student editing behavior, especially
plagiarism. Engaged with the broader EN:WP community on the
challenges and actions to address persistent problems during the pilot.
* Documenting learning to ensure that future work benefits from the
lessons of the pilot:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Educat…
=== Communications ===
Work through October focussed on major ongoing projects: launch of the
online Wikimedia merchandise store, development of the 2010-11 WMF
Annual Report (with a slated release by end of November), considerable
support towards the new Qatar Fdn partnership, Wikipedia mobile outreach
work, strategy and assistance leading up to the 2011 annual fundraiser,
and support to WM global chapters on major milestones and local initiatives.
==== Major announcements ====
Stanton Foundation Awards Wikimedia $3.6 Million for Technology
Improvements (Oct 5)
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Stanton_Foundation_Award…
Indigo Trust awards Wikimedia a Grant for Mobile Improvements (Oct 14)
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Indigo_Trust_awards_Wiki…
Qatar Computing Research Institute partners with Wikimedia Foundation
(Oct 30)
http://www.qf.org.qa/news-center/news/news-details?item=171
==== Major Storylines through October ====
Italian Wiretap law draws WP block from it.Wikipedia community
Significant global coverage of the early October shutdown of IT.WP over
the proposed 'Blog kill' bill being reviewed by the Italian parliament.
The IT.WP shutdown drove the majority of mainstream coverage, including
substantial coverage in Italy - and visibility of the actions ultimately
altered the bill significantly. Most coverage was favorable towards the
efforts of Wikipedia and critical of the proposed bill.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5glF1D6jREw8cUXHrzJljVz094…
(AP story)
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/10/06/wikipedia-shut-italian-si_n_9979…http://www.universityobserver.ie/2011/10/21/censor-sensibility/
Wikimedia Foundation and Qatar Foundation partner to expand presence in MENA
This month WMF signed its first major partnership in MENA to work
towards increase the participation and presence of Wikimedia's projects
in that region. WMF partnered with the Qatar Foundation Computer
Research Institute, with the aim to increase the number of Arabic
Wikipedia articles to 500K in three years. Considerable Arabic media
coverage of the partnership.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=4656…http://www.alarab.qa/details.php?issueId=1408&artid=156050 (Arabic)
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Why Wikipedia Is as Important As the Pyramids
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/st_essay_wikipediawonders/
Wikipedia U - THE WEB’S FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA TAKES YOU TO SCHOOL
http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/webjam.cfm?content=182927
The contribution conundrum - Why did Wikipedia succeed while other
encyclopedias failed?
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/the-contribution-conundrum-why-did-wikiped…
Google and Wikipedia team up to develop Setswana
http://www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID=12202&GroupID=5
The Amanda Knox Case - A Rare Failure at Wikipedia
http://www.groundreport.com/Opinion/The-Amanda-Knox-Case-A-Rare-Failure-at-…
Wikimedia Doubles Down On Mobile With Wikipedia Zero, Carrier Appeals
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-wikimedia-doubles-down-on-mobile-with-wi…
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-10…
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-10…
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-10…
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-10…
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-10…
==== WMF Blog posts ====
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/
==== Media Contact ====
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#October_2011
== Human Resources ==
=== Staff Changes ===
New Permanent Position Hires
* Phil Chang, Product Manager – Mobile (Technology)
* Rachel Farrand, Assistant to the Technology Department (Admin)
* Leslie Carr, Operations Engineer – Networking & Systems (Technology)
* Kelly Kay, Deputy General Counsel (Legal)
New Contractors
* Amir Aharoni
* Andrew Bogott
* Stuart Geiger
* Oliver Keyes
* Stacey Merrick
* Antoine Musso
* Neel Punatar
* Angela Robeson
* Heather Walls
Contract Extended
* Aislinn Dewey
* Chad Horohoe
* Tracey Fleming
* Christine Moellenberndt
* Steph Thommen
* Timo Tijhof
* Diederik Van Liere
* Peter Youngmeister
Contract Ended
* Alex Graveley
* Fabian Kaelin
* Igor Kofman
* Russ Nelson
* Jan Paul Posma
New Postings
* Global Communications Manager
* Head of Office Administration
* Software Security Engineer
RFP
* Mobile UI/UX Redesign
=== Statistics ===
Total Employee Count
October Plan: 106, October Filled: 4, October Attrition: 0
YTD Filled: 21, YTD Attrition: 6, Actual: 89
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 28
=== Department Updates ===
HRiS is finally set to be implemented and launched, and the HR team
spent most of October training and verifying data. This is a big step
forward in terms of Foundation process, and service to our employees.
We're not hitting our recruitment targets yet, but we are making good
progress. We added an additional contract recruiter this month who is
focused on tech to help us build a stronger pipeline.
Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or
http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* Hired two work study students from UC Berkeley to assist with
administrative work load
* Completed several facility repair projects including repairs to air
conditioning
* Working on updating wireless access in the San Francisco office
* Engaged in an insurance review for the Foundation
== Legal ==
* Strong push on drafting or improving upon template contracts
(volunteer agreement, unilateral NDA, trademark licenses)
* Started implementation of online contract management system
* Engaged in internal reviews, including trademark portfolio strategy
* Seeking new legal interns for next semester
* Strong support of fundraiser
* Ongoing discussions over new proposed terms of service.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use
* Stats for the month of October 2011
number of contracts signed - 19
number of trademark requests - 13
approved - 3
denied - 3
pending - 7
== Visitors and Guests ==
1. James Forrester (Wikipedian)
2. Andi Gutmans (CEO of Zend, PHP Pioneer)
3. Elaine Lennox (Chief Marketing Officer, Zend)
4. Yosem Companys (The Diaspora Project)
--
Tilman Bayer
Movement Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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