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-…>
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_…
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_ro…>
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_…>
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_…>
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-mo…>
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-af…>
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-…>
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-af…>
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-window…>
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-en…>,
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/…>
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_Wikimedia_F…
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,_Un…
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%…>
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_Proje…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Creative_Commons_Community_in_Kenya/…
* 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_…
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/Fembot_UnConfere…
=== 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-af…
=== 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:Cont…>,
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…>
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_…>
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_F…
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_m…
+ 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_…
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-…
* 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_W…
(related coverage) CNET (October 15, 2012)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57532461-2/wikipedia-now-totally-free-t…
Saudi Gazette (October 14, 2012)
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20121…
==== 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-so…http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=royal-society-runs…http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/wikipedia-gets-overdue-makeover-t…http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/19/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-women-s…
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-insur…http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/is-wikipedia-complete-8230188.h…http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/wikipedia-done-its-close-says-h…
==== 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-p…
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-encyclop…
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.h…
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-2…
==== 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-wiki…
Wikipedia app for Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets (October 26)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/10/26/wikipedia-app-for-windows-8-and-window…
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-publi…
==== 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…>
* Volume 8, Issue 41, 8 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 42, 15 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 43, 22 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
* Volume 8, Issue 44, 29 October 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-10…>
== 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
Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#40) is available.
This time we write about the award ceremony for Authors in Wikipedia 2012
and the first steps for Wikimedia Conference 2013; there is also a news
about a new Italian law which could boost Wikisource and Wikibooks.
As usual a link has been added to meta, at
Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; raw text of the bulletin
follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*WikimediaNews* - no. 40 - November 28, 2012
Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.
Authors in Wikipedia
The award ceremony for the contest Authors in Wikipedia was held in Milan
on 26 November, kindly hosted by AICA <http://www.aica.it/>.
Matteo Molteni, student at Liceo Scientifico “Galileo Galilei” of Erba
(CO), won the prize for the category "New original articles" with the
article "Curculio <http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curculio_%28Plauto%29>" on
Wikipedia.
Laura Beretta, another student at “Galileo Galilei”, won the prize for the
category "Translated and upgraded articles" with the article
"Pseudolus<http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudolus>"
on Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Conference 2013
Preparations are underway for the organization of the Wikimedia Conference,
to be held in Milan from April 18 to April 21. Giulia
Sepe<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gsepe_%28WMI%29>joined the
staff of Wikimedia Italia and will organize this international
event of the Wikimedia movement, hosted for the first time in Italy.
Updates and progresses in the organization of the Conference will be
gradually published on
Meta<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2013>.
News in brief
(Note: in the translated version only the news regarding Italy are shown)
- Italian law by decree 179/2012 dated
18.10.2012<http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/moduli/DL_181012_179.pdf>,
already in force, establishes the obligation for schools to adopt textbooks
in digital or mixed format from the school year 2013/2014 (2014/2015 for
primary schools). We do not know at the time what are the prospects for the
adoption of free digital content, but this law might be a good boost for
Wikibooks, Wikiversity and Wikisource.
Errata
In the last issue of Wikimedia News we mentioned among the beneficiaries of
the project Archeowiki the Archaeological Museum of Varese instead of Civic
Archaeological Museum of Castelleone, Cremona, which is the actual
beneficiary.
Hello everyone,
I'd like to invite you all to an IRC Office Hours this coming Saturday, 28th July 2012 at 20:00 UTC in #wikimedia-office (time zone information: http://tinyurl.com/bmp7zaw).
In this meeting, I will be there to provide an update on my fellowship as well as answer any questions. I'll also appreciate any feedback, comments or suggestions on dispute resolution in general, and will be discussing the new universal dispute resolution wizard that is in development, which I could use some feedback and ideas on.
Please mark this date in your calendar if you wish to participate in the
discussion. I will send a reminder about this on Friday.
Regards,
Steven Zhang
Community Fellow, Wikimedia Foundation
szhang(a)wikimedia.org
Hi all, I'm sharing a blog post on behalf of Wikimedia Foundation General
Counsel Geoff Brigham with an update about the Internet Brands travel site
lawsuit. This update can be found online here:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/28/update-to-internet-brands-travel-site-…
The federal district court in Los Angeles has now issued its written order
on volunteer Ryan Holliday’s anti-SLAPP motion and motion to
dismiss<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-09-26_Notice_of_Defendants%27…>.
A copy of the order is available
here<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-11-19_D18_Order_re_Special_Mt…>.
The order is consistent with our prior
report<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/19/update-on-internet-brands-v-holliday/>
following
the hearing on November 19. In the order, the court noted that Internet
Brands abandoned its federal Lanham Act claim. That claim was based on the
factual allegation that the Foundation was operating a new travel wiki
called “Wiki Travel Guide,” which Ryan showed to be incorrect. After being
required to respond to Ryan’s motion, Internet Brands was forced to admit
that the basis of its claim was primarily predicated on an assumption.
Noting that this Lanham Act claim was the only claim supporting federal
jurisdiction, the court dismissed the remainder of Internet Brands’ case
and found Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion to be moot.
While we had hoped that the court would reach the merits of Ryan’s
anti-SLAPP motion, the dismissal of the entire suit nonetheless represents
a victory for Ryan and volunteer James Heilman (who was also named in the
suit). We congratulate both of them on this result.
Meanwhile, the Wikimedia Foundation is proceeding forward with its lawsuit
against Internet Brands in San Francisco. Internet Brands has filed a
demurrer (motion to dismiss), the hearing for which has been postponed to
December 14. The court has issued a tentative ruling on that motion, which
is available here<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Minutes_-_Demurrer_11-19-12.pdf>.
In the tentative ruling, the court indicates that it is inclined to rule
against Internet Brands. We will update you further after the hearing.
*Geoff Brigham, General Counsel*
*
*
*
*
--
Matthew Roth
Global Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
+1.415.839.6885 ext 6635
www.wikimediafoundation.org
*https://donate.wikimedia.org*
Hello everyone,
Please find below Wikimedia UK's monthly report for October 2012. As well
as the usual updates on GLAM, outreach, communications, fundraising and
other activities, it also includes the results of our membership survey.
You can find the report online at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/October but plain text is below
for those who prefer to read the report in an email.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
GLAM activities
-
*14* - Andy Mabbett addressed the *Central and Eastern Europe Wikimedia
conference* <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2012>
about
recent developments in UK and international GLAM collaboration.
-
*19* - Andy Mabbett spoke to the *CityCamp
Coventry*<http://citycampcov.org.uk/> event,
about Wikimedia and GLAM.
-
*22* - Andy Mabbett delivered a training session on Wikipedia editing to
history students at the University of Birmingham, as part of the
*International
Dunhuang Project* <http://en.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/BL/IDP>.
Expert outreach
The London School of Economics' *Impact of Social Sciences blog* ran a
guest post by Martin Poulter, *"Writing for Wikipedia has forced me into
good scholarly habits and accessible
writing"*<http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/10/04/poulter-writing-wi…>.
This asks academics to view Wikipedia as an opportunity to write about
their own fields and as an opportunity for educational assignments.
Martin Poulter, Charles Matthews, Tom Morris and Edward Harding delivered a
*day workshop at for the JISC Digital Infrastructure
team*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/JISC_DI_team_training_workshop> at
the JISC headquarters in London. Many of the trainees had managerial or
leadership roles in elearning, research infrastructure or digital
humanities. As well as basic editing, the workshop looked at different
kinds of effort to improve Wikipedia, and how the different Wikimedia
Projects work together to provide a "digital infrastructure" for each other
and the wider web.
Other activities
-
*13* - Fæ addressed the *Central and Eastern Europe Wikimedia
conference*<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2012>,
about the Chapters Association.
-
*WereSpielChequers* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:WereSpielChequers>
and *Leutha* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Leutha> ran a
categorisation workshop for donors who were also willing to donate some
time to Wikimedia.
-
The second "train the trainers" session took place in London
Microgrants
Two microgrants have been approved this month.
-
*Microgrants/Birthday
2012<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Birthday_2012>
*is for supplies for WMUK's birthday party celebrating the 4th
anniversary of the chapter and the 1st anniversary of us achieving charity
status - the party will take place at the *London wikimeet on 11 November
* <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/London/63>, to which all are
welcome. The application was submitted by WMUK's intern, Hasina Khatun.
-
*Microgrants/32GB usb stick for Commons
dump*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/32GB_usb_stick_for_Commons_dump>
is
for a 32GB memory stick to support the operations of
*Commons:User:Faebot<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Faebot>
*without wearing out the operator's computer. The bot is currently
working on categorising the Geograph images on Commons, as well as doing
other similar tasks. The application was submitted by Fæ.
A number of microgrants were marked as completed this month, including:
-
*Microgrants/Cambridge University Wikipedia
Society*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Cambridge_University_Wikipedia_Soc…>
provided
funding to get the Cambridge University Wikipedia Society started via a
stall at their fresher's fair, with freebies to give away. The report for
the microgrant, which was submitted by*User:Deryck
Chan*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Deryck_Chan>,
said "We now have a mailing list, with 237 members on it, a huge jump from
only 10 wiki-page members and volunteers prior to the fair. Volunteers at
the stall included Charles Matthews, Daniel Thomas, and myself. We've also
received great support from SRCF. Almost all freebies were given out; the
T-shirts and pens for volunteers of our stall created a particularly
professional image by making everything in the stall Wikimedia-branded.
Additionally, the nearby stalls, all science and technology related, were
also predominantly using Wikipedia pens for their sign-up sheets!"
-
*Microgrants/Imperial College Wikipedia
Society*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Imperial_College_Wikipedia_Society>
Information about microgrants that are currently running, and how to submit
a microgrant application of your own, are at
*Microgrants/Applications*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Applications>
.
UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)
*A list of recent press coverage can be seen
here*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Media_coverage_summary_August_-_October_2…>
.
Upcoming activities in November
For events in December and onwards, please see
*Events*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events>
.
- *01* - *Ethical Properties Wikipedia Workshop/November
event<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ethical_Properties_Wikipedia_Workshop/November…>
*
- *03* - *Robin Owain addresses The Welsh Academy Writers' Fair,
Cardiff<http://www.llenyddiaethcymru.org/newyddion/i/141841/>
*
- *04* - *RBSA Backstage
Pass*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/RBSA_Backstage_Pass> in
Birmingham
- *04* - *Oxford meetup*
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Oxford/1> 1st
ever Oxford meetup
- *04* - *Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
editathon<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/RBSA_Backstage_Pass>
*
- *06* - Training at De Montfort University
- *06* - Workshop at the National Library of Scotland
- *07* - Workshop at the National Library of Scotland
- *08* - Workshop at Edinburgh University
- *09* - Workshop at EDINA, Edinburgh
- *11* - *London meetup <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/London/63>
*
- *17–18* - Board meeting (TBC) - in person
- *18* - *Reading
meetup*<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Reading/2> 2nd
Reading meetup
- *20* - Training at De Montfort University
- *24* - *Liverpool meetup<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Liverpool/6>
*
- *25* - *Manchester Girl Geeks editing
day<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Girl_Geek_Dinner/Manchester_November…>
*
- *25* - *Cambridge University Wikipedia Society gathering and editing
workshop*<http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:Cambridge_University_Wikipedia_So…>
Administrative activities
Finances
-
The current state of each of our budgets is *outlined in a Google
Spreadsheet*<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org.uk/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkP38YPQ7Tg…>.
This details spend to date, and a rough estimate of future spending. This
spreadsheet is too complex to be placed directly on a wiki. Our yearly
spend is heavily 'end-loaded', partially due to the rapid growth of
Wikimedia UK.
-
Q3's Management Accounts (covering August, September, October) are
at *File:Wikimedia
UK Management Accounts Q3
2012.pdf*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_UK_Management_Accounts_Q3_2012.…>.
These are also available in spreadsheet format for those interested -
contact richard.symondswikimedia.org.uk
Board activities
The Board's main activity during October was the appointment (jointly with
the Wikimedia Foundation) of Mike Hudson and Compass Partnership to conduct
an independent review of our governance arrangements. This was the
principal topic of discussion at our Board phone call on 9 October (*minutes
* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes_9Oct12>), and by the end of October
the review was under way.
On 10 October we received the conclusions from a financial review from
Garfield Byrd, the Wikimedia Foundation's Chief of Finance and
Administration. These have now been
*published*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Governance/2012_Financial_review_by_Garfield_B…>
along
with a *plan* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance_Action_Plan_2012/13>
setting
out our plans to address the issues raised in both Garfield's report and
that of our auditors.
News from the Chief Exec *For information on Jon's activities this month,
see **News from the
Office*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/News_from_the_Office/Posts>
*.* The updates about the Wikimedia UK Interns can be found there too,
together with *here* <http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/09/intern/>.
Communications
October was a month for repositioning our communications. The discussions
around governance continued, culminating in the appointment of Compass
Partnership to conduct the WMUK / WMF commissioned independent governance
review. The biggest communications success this month was *Ada
Lovelace Day*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace_Day_2012>.
This was the result of much excellent work by Daria and the team at the
Royal Society. The event gained widespread media coverage and received an
excellent reception on social media. You can see a comprehensive list of
coverage on the event's page. October's press coverage is *recorded in the
attached document*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Media_coverage_summary_August_-_October_2…>,
along with coverage from September. In other news, discussions have begun
on how we can improve the monthly reports. Suggestions include developing a
Signpost-style newsletter, featuring content created by WMUK members,
volunteers and UK-based editors. *Get involved in the discussion
here*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/What_would_a_WMUK_Signpost-style_newsletter_lo…>.
Blog posts in October:
- 9 October - *One year on: 12 months working with the Herbert Art
Gallery and Museum<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/one-year-on-12-months-working-with-the…>
*
- 13 October - *A message form the Wikimedia UK
Board<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/a-message-from-the-wikimedia-uk-board/>
*
- 19 October - *Bringing evidence based medicine to the
world<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/bringing-evidence-based-medicine-to-th…>
*
- 24 October - *Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Foundation appoint
independent reviewer<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/wikimedia-uk-and-wikimedia-foundation-…>
*
- 25 October - *Hasina says goodbye to Wikimedia
UK<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/goodbye-wikimedia-uk/>
*
- 26 October - *The story of Ada Lovelace, the Royal Society and
Wikimedia UK*<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-ada-lovelace-the-royal-so…>
Fundraising and Membership *Fundraising*
This month, we received £443.26 in one-off donations, with 13 individual
donations. The average donation amount was £34.09 - 62% of these donors
have had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If
anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information,
please get in touch with katherine.bavagewikimedia.org.uk and let her know
your requirements.
As for direct debit donations, there were 5349 successful direct debits
this month, bringing in a total of £20,917.12.
*Membership*
Up to 31st October 2012:
-
198 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current
members
-
51 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership
should be renewed)
This adds up to 249 members who are eligible to vote
-
155 Expired members
A membership survey was distributed on 30th October 2012 , the results were
made public as part of the reports to the Board meeting of 17th November
2012. You can view them
*here*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMUKMemSurveySummaryNov12.pdf>
(pdf)
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a
global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
(also posted online at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_an…)
The Wikimedia Foundation launches ninth annual fundraiser to support
Wikipedia and free knowledge
SAN FRANCISCO, November 27, 2012 - The Wikimedia Foundation, the
non-profit that operates Wikipedia and its sister projects, today
announced the launch of its ninth annual fundraising campaign. The
online fundraiser aims to raise $25 million, while the remainder of
the Wikimedia Foundation’s funding will come from foundation grants
and donations given outside the annual campaign.
The annual Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser brings in the resources
needed to keep the Wikimedia projects freely available to everyone
around the world in their own language, and guarantees that Wikipedia
will never have to rely on advertising. Donations help the Wikimedia
Foundation maintain server infrastructure, support global projects to
increase the number of editors, improve and simplify the software that
supports our projects, and make Wikipedia accessible globally to
billions of people who are just beginning to access the internet.
“Our fundraiser succeeds the same way Wikipedia does, with millions of
people contributing what they can so we can keep the site freely
available for everyone around the world,” said Sue Gardner, Executive
Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “People tell me they donate to
Wikipedia because they find it useful, and they trust it because they
know it's written for them. Our readers fund the site, which keeps us
independent and able to deliver what they need and want from
Wikipedia--exactly as it should be.”
During the 2011 fundraiser, more than 1.1 million people donated an
average of $30 from nearly every country on the planet, and banners
and fundraising messages were translated into over 100 languages by
more than 1,000 volunteers.
The 2012 campaign will build on the success of previous years and will
run through the end of this year. To make a donation, click the
banners at the top of Wikipedia, or go directly to donate.wikimedia.org.
Wikipedians in the 2012 fundraiser
The 2012 campaign will showcase stories from Wikimedia editors,
photographers and free-knowledge advocates from around the world who
contribute to Wikimedia projects.
Poongothai Balasubramanian, a retired math teacher from India, has
created 250 articles on quadratic functions, probability, charts,
graphs, and has recorded pronunciations for 6,000 words in Tamil, her
native language. “I'm a volunteer. No one pays me. But helping edit
Wikipedia has become my life's work,” she said. “Even though I'm not
in the classroom, I'm still doing what I care about most: helping a
new generation of students learn, in the language I love.” (photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balasubramanian_Poongothai-365.jpg
Andrea Zanni, a Wikimedia Italy chapter member and digital librarian
who contributes public domain and freely-licensed texts to Wikisource,
said his experience with the Wikimedia movement has facilitated his
self-expression and shaped his life. “Wikipedia is one of the few
things that really enables people to be useful, to have an impact with
a little effort,” he said. “Wikipedia is really empowering. It’s
really a framework of good faith, of good will.” (photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_Zanni-7090.jpg)
Ravan Jaafar Altaie, a Wikipedian from Iraq who writes about Leonardo
da Vinci and the moons of Jupiter, tells her story of contributing to
Arabic Wikipedia and influencing hundreds of thousands of people
through articles she’s written. “This is my wish and one of my dreams
to make a real change in the world. I think Wikipedia gave me this
chance to make a huge difference in this world,” she said. “It's like
an investment for your future, for your children's future.” (photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravan_Jaafar_Altaie-106.jpg)
Ken Thomas, a photographer from North Carolina, donates his photos to
Wikimedia Commons under the CC0 public domain license. “Putting a
photo on Wikipedia is an act of generosity,” he said. “I don’t own the
bird. I don’t own the light. I don’t own the tree branch that the bird
was sitting on. I take these pictures because I want people to see how
beautiful these things are. Who am I to charge for that?” (photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KenThomas-27527-1.jpg)
Erlan Vega, an English teacher from La Paz, Bolivia, said he improved
his English competency and earned international certifications because
of his experience editing Wiktionary and collaborating with English
speaking Wikipedians. “In my education system, people don’t usually
write or create,” he said. “Giving me the opportunity to be creative
and to be recognized for something I write has really been a turning
point in my life.” (photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erlan_Vega-264.jpg)
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 488 million unique visitors per month, making them
the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, October
2012). Available in 285 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 24
million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of
roughly 80,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the
Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded
primarily through donations and grants.
Press contact
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415-860-8166
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
(to unsubscribe from this list, reply with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line)
[apologies for cross posting]
Hi folks,
On last Monday, 11/19, Wikimedia France had the pleasure to sign an
exceptional partnership with the
French<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Ministry_of_Culture>Ministry
of Culture and Communication<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Ministry_of_Culture>and
INRIA (National
Institute for Research in Computer Science and
Control<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_for_Research_in_Computer_Sc…>
)
This partnership installs Semanticpedia, a platform dedicated to manage
some projects about semantization of Wikimedia projects contents :
http://semanticpedia.org/
The project began one year ago, by a semantic extraction of the French
-language Wikipedia. The project became the french chapter of DBpedia.org <
http://dbpedia.org/Internationalization/>, which works since 2007 to
extract structured content from Wikipedia. What is new? We work directly on
the French-language Wikipedia. That allows us to extract *all* the
Wikipedia articles and not only the entries with an interwiki with EN
Wikipedia. That means that we have between 20 to 30% more articles, which
are more reliable with French and French-language culture.
The future of the project may give a semantic extraction of the Wiktionary
(+ 2.2 millions entries in French) and why not other Wikimedia projects.
The minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, stressed the importance
of a French
presence on the web of data, which is becoming increasingly important in
many large websites and to connect contents and datas in content and reuse
projects. Recalling the importance of Wikipedia, she explained why the
Ministry of Culture wanted to support a specific project for linked data
resulting indirectly promoting French language and culture on the Internet
But going further, she also invited GLAM institutions to contribute
*directly* to Wikipedia, to enrich the content which will be extracted by
DBpedia, and widely reused.
Advocating a virtuous circle in which institutions could provide their
expert participations to Wikipedia and then redistributed to all. This
invitation is a real recognition of the position and the quality of
Wikipedia and the contributors, and a call for greater participation in
sharing knowledge for cultural institutions :
« *The partnership between the Ministry of Culture, Wikimedia France and
INRIA offers to cultural institutions the possibility to enrich
significantly the cultural resources available to users. In their areas of
expertise, cultural institutions have an incentive to reach their audiences
where they come to get the basic informations. The free and reusable
informations contained on the Wikipedia encyclopedia, available
**underseveral open licenses, is in this regard a guarantee of the
widest
dissemination of the data it contains. *
*
But this partnership can not be one-sided. Knowledge available on Wikipedia
is constantly being built and can fully benefit from the expertise of the
Ministry. This is why our institutions are invited to turn to consolidate,
enrich or correct if necessary the content on Wikipedia, so not only
increase the quality of the articles in French, but its effectiveness in
the Semantic Web.* » (Speech of Aurélie Filippetti, Minister of
Culture, November
19)
In that partnership the Ministry of Culture takes an important place to
support and finance the project. INRIA, well-known research institute,
gives the technical development and its experience on semantic web.
Wikimédia France provides the links and communication with the community of
contributors and brings its knowledge of the Wikimedia projects and their
functionning. Now hosted in INRIA, the Semanticpedia platform will be next
year hosted by Wikimedia France, with the support of the Ministry of
Culture.
Now, some cultural websites start to reuse data from Wikipedia via DBPedia
in French and organize their content, as the experimental website HDA-Lab
(Ministerial website for pedagogical content about history of art) and the
Cité de la Musique.
Wikimedia France is proud to participate to that unprecedented project of
partnership between a public Ministry, a research institute and a Wikimedia
chapter, project dedicated to sharing of knowledge and openning of data.
See photos of this event on Wikimedia Commons :
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Semanticpedia
And the slides of some presentations :
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Semanticpedia_presentation_slides
--
Adrienne Charmet-Alix
Directrice des programmes - Wikimedia France
Twitter : @AdrienneAlix
adrienne.alix(a)wikimedia.fr | +33 (0)7 62 92 42 01
http://www.wikimedia.fr
