WikimediaAnnounce-l March 2012

wikimediaannounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org

12 participants
17 discussions

Press release about Wikidata
by Jay Walsh 31 Mar '12

31 Mar '12

Sharing from the Foundation-l mailing list. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Denny Vrandečić <denny.vrandecic(a)wikimedia.de> Date: 2012/3/30 Subject: [Foundation-l] Press release about Wikidata To: Foundation list <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hi all, Wikimedia Germany is sending out a press release about Wikidata today. The press release sums up the information that has been published on Meta since last Wikimania, where it was first presented and discussions started, and refined since then, including information about the donation that is making Wikidata possible. <http://www.wikimedia.de/wiki/Pressemitteilungen/PM_3_12_Wikidata_EN> More information about Wikidata is on its Meta page: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata> We are very excited about the Wikidata development team starting on Monday. This also means, that in the future we will be communicating about Wikidata much more, as the development is finally starting. Yay! I want to take this opportunity to thank the donors of Wikidata, the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence ai2, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Google for the generous support, that enables us to work on the Wikidata project for the next year. Exciting times are waiting for us, Cheers all, Denny -- Project director Wikidata Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Eisenacher Straße 2 | 10777 Berlin Tel. +49-30-219 158 26-0 | http://wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.

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The Signpost -- Volume 8, Issue 13 -- 26 March 2012
by Wikipedia Signpost 27 Mar '12

27 Mar '12

News and notes: Controversial content saga continues, while the Foundation tries to engage editors with merchandising and restructuring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/News_a… WikiProject report: WikiProject Rock Music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/WikiPr… Featured content: Malfunctioning sharks, toothcombs and a famous mother: featured content for the week http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/Featur… Arbitration report: Race and intelligence review at evidence, article titles closed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/Arbitr… Recent research: Predicting admin elections; studying flagged revision debates; classifying editor interactions; and collecting the Wikipedia literature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/Recent… Education report: Universities unite for GLAM; and High Schools get their due. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/Educat… Technology report: A busy week: Git switchover, mobile site upgraded, and still time for three security releases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26/Techno… Single page view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signpost/Single PDF version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-03-26 http://identi.ca/wikisignpost / https://twitter.com/wikisignpost -- Wikipedia Signpost Staff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost

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Amical Viquipèdia Report, February 2012
by David Parreño Mont 25 Mar '12

25 Mar '12

Dear fellows, The following message is just to keep you informed about the activities developed during the last month by Amical Viquipèdia<http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/P%C3%A0gina_principal> . Sorry for delay. Kind regards, David Parreño Mont User:Davidpar (As a member of Amical Viquipèdia) --- *Source:* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Associaci%C3%B3_Amical_Viquip%C3%A8dia/Febru… Education <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Converses_2012_al_Museu_del_Ferrocarril…> <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Converses_2012_al_Museu_del_Ferrocarril…> Presentation at the Catalonia Railway Museum <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Converses_2012_al_Museu_del_Ferrocarril…> <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Converses_2012_al_Museu_del_Ferrocarril…> One of the work groups in a train car at the Railway Museum discussing ideas for introducing Wikipedia at the museum. - The registration period begins for Viquiescoles (Wikischools)[1], which aims to bring the Wikipedia to the classroom such that students in compulsory secondary education (ESO), vocational training programs (Cicles Formatius) and post-compulsory secondary education (Batxillerat, i.e. A-levels / senior high) are encouraged to write articles on a variety of topics through a contest and awards for the best contributions. Some 250 students from a total of 15 schools will participate. - February 10. Creation of the WikiEducació (WikiEducation)[2] mailing list on Wikis in the educational sphere. The list is open to anyone interested. Administrators: Dvdgmz & Paucabot - February 25. Introductory course to the Wikipedia and its educational potential at the Garraf Center for Pedagogical Resources (Centre de Recursos Pedagògics del Garraf), with a total of 125 attendees. The presentation went over the possibilities and advantages this tool offers for the schoolroom, i.e. teaching democratic values and a critical spirit, making students active knowledge builders, lending them motivation or serving as a tool to work on basic skills, among others. See Note (in Catalan)[3]. Barcelona & Kippelboy - February 29. "Local Museums + Wikipedia = Educational Success"[4]: meeting of Wikipedians, professors and education professionals in the museum sector at the Catalonia Railway Museum[5]. The aim of the meeting was to explore ways of collaborating. Two presentations were made in the morning on different examples of successful GLAM-WIKI projects and the Wikipedia's educational potential. In the afternoon, groups met in the train cars on exhibit at the museum to propose activities involving the Wikipedia that would be suitable for their museums. See Note[3], the photo gallery[6] and the museum's opinion of the event[7]. Barcelona and Kippelboy GLAM-WIKI - February 3. Meeting with the Joan Miró Foundation[8] to discuss opportunities for collaboration in 2012 and prepare the Mobile World Congress and QRpedia campaigns. Kippelboy - February 6. Meeting with the CCCB[9] to discuss the I+C+i symposium on the influence of the Wikipedia and open knowledge on society, to be held in April 2012. Kippelboy - February 9–13. Attended GLAMCAMP Washington DC, explained the Catalan situation and provided a Catalan point of view at GLAM-WIKI and Wiki Loves Monuments 2011. See Presentation[10] and photo gallery[11]. Kippelboy - February 15. Meeting with the Girona Cinema Museum[12] to begin collaboration on contents through implementation of QRpedia[13]. Arnaugir - February 16. Meeting with the National Art Museum of Catalonia[14] to discuss possible GLAM-WIKI collaboration. Kippelboy - February 23. Meeting with Mozilla to seek synergies for GLAM-WIKI collaboration and Hackasaurus[15]. Kippelboy - February 23. Presentation of QRpedia at the Joan Miró Foundation at the Social Media Point[16] congress in Barcelona. See Note[17]. Kippelboy - February 27-29. Mobile World Congress. Backstage pass to the Joan Miró Foundation and meeting with Wikipedia Mobile and QRpedia teams. Kippelboy Editing Workshops <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lluis_tgn_al_taller_de_Viquip%C3%A8dia.…> <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lluis_tgn_al_taller_de_Viquip%C3%A8dia.…> Wikipedian Lluis_tgn holding up a "Welcome to Wikipedia" leaflet. - February 17. Workshop at the Antoni de Martí i Franquès Secondary School[18] in Tarragona. See Note[19]. Lluis_tgn - February 6. Editing course for students doing internships with the Visual Artists Association of Catalonia (Associació d'Artistes Visuals de Catalunya - AAVC)[20]. Pilot collaboration project between the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona), universities, the AAVC and the Wikipedia. Kippelboy Institutional Relations - February 1. Meeting with the General Directorate for Linguistic Policy of the Catalan Government[21]. - February 8. Visit to the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco. Report on www.digital-commons.net Lilaroja - February 8. Meeting with the Department of Social and Family Affairs of the Catalan Government to evaluate the outcome of the workshops for the elderly carried out in 2011 and set out the program for 2012. Gomà i Pallares - February 9. Meeting of the Catalan Alliance for Open Knowledge and Open-Source Software (Aliança Catalana pel Coneixement i el Programari Lliures), where an initial joint activity is planned regarding Open Data using the agreement established between Amical Viquipèdia and the Catalan Government. Attending the meeting were Softcatalà, Mozilla, Caliu and Amical. - February 14. Meeting with Angelique Pinon, head of projects for the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion[22], to present a euroregional project going beyond Wiki Loves Monuments. Gomà & Àngels - February 15. Meeting with the Baix Llobregat County Center for Studies (Centre d'Estudis Comarcals del Baix Llobregat)[23]. Pallares - February 15. Meeting with the Culture Commission of the Cardona[24] City Council to develop a project involving Viquiescoles (Wikischools)[1], Wiki Loves Monuments and QRpedia. Beusson Other - Progress made on the Wiki4HE[25] project. We now have a rough draft of the survey for professors at the Open University of Catalonia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya - UOC) and the Technical University of Catalonia (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) as well as the interview script. In addition, a form has been created to document experiences in Wikipedia application and the profile defined for the research assistant to be contracted for the project. The call for candidates for the position will soon be announced. The position is a part-time, remunerated job as research assistant at the UOC for a duration of 18 months or so. Gomà - The Catalan Cinema WikiWeek (Viquisetmana del Cinema Català)[26] was held before the 4th Gaudí Cinema Awards[27]. All in all, some thirty-odd articles on filmmakers and nominated films were created or improved. Davidpar, Pallares - Amical Viquipèdia, together with the Wikipedia in Catalan, provides support for and participates in disseminating the Catalanitzador per a Windows[28] tool by Softcatalà, which helps users who so wish to get their computers and programs to be in Catalan. Davidpar - Wikitexts in Catalan reaches 10,000 revised pages and is now in 9th position worldwide. See Press Release[29] - The technology blogs, Paella de Bits.cat[30] and Betes i Clicks[31] publish articles about the presence of QRpedia at the Mobile World Congress. Davidpar - The Facebook page[32] is updated to the new "timeline" design. [1] http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:Introducing_Wikischools_2012_%28Viqui… [2] http://llistes.softcatala.org/mailman/listinfo/wikieducacio [3] http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:Vilanova_i_la_Geltr%C3%BA_s%27est%C3%… [4] http://converses2012.eventbrite.com/ [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia_Railway_Museum [6] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_presentation_at_Museu_… [7] http://museuvictorbalaguer.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/wikipedia-museus-locals… [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundaci%C3%B3_Joan_Mir%C3%B3 [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_de_Cultura_Contempor%C3%A0nia_de_Barcel… [10] http://www.slideshare.net/Kippelboy/glamcamp-dc-glamwiki-outreach-basics [11] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:GLAMcamp_DC [12] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museu_del_Cinema-Col%C2%B7lecci%C3%B3_Tom%C3%A… [13] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/QRpedia [14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museu_Nacional_d%27Art_de_Catalunya [15] http://hackasaurus.org/ca/ [16] http://www.socialmediapoint.es/ [17] http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:El_projecte_QRpedia,_en_%C3%BAs_a_la_… [18] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_Antoni_de_Mart%C3%AD_i_Franqu%C3%A8s [19] http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:Taller_de_Viquip%C3%A8dia_a_l%27Insti… [20] http://www.aavc.net/aavc_net/html/index.php [21] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalitat_de_Catalunya [22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees-Mediterranean_Euroregion [23] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_d%27Estudis_Comarcals_del_Baix_Llobregat [24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardona,_Spain [25] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wiki4HE [26] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Cinema [27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Gaud%C3%AD_Awards [28] http://catalanitzador.softcatala.org/ [29] http://ca.wikisource.org/wiki/Viquitexts:Notes_de_premsa/10.000 [30] http://www.paelladebits.cat/el-projecte-qrpedia-present-al-mwc/ [31] http://betesiclicks.com/2012/02/25/aquesta-setmana-hem-llegit-sobre-bebes-a… [32] https://www.facebook.com/wikimediacat

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Translations of the "Wikimedia Highlights" for February 2012 available in Nederlands (Dutch), 日本語 (Japanese), Italiano (Italian), Français (French), Deutsch (German)
by Tilman Bayer 23 Mar '12

23 Mar '12

The following translation are now available for the February 2012 "Wikimedia Highlights", which combine some of the most relevant information from the Wikimedia Foundation Report and the Wikimedia engineering report for February 2012 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, where this has not already been done. Many thanks to all translators! https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2012/de Höhepunkte aus dem Bericht der Wikimedia Foundation und dem technischen Bericht von Wikimedia für Februar 2012, mit einer Auswahl anderer wichtiger Ereignisse aus der Wikimedia-Bewegung https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2012/fr Éclairages sur le rapport de la Wikimedia Foundation et le rapport d’ingénierie Wikimedia pour février 2012, avec une sélection d’autres événements importants du mouvement Wikimedia. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2012/it Punti salienti dal rapporto della Wikimedia Foundation e dal rapporto ingegneristico Wikimedia di febbraio 2012, con una selezione di altre importanti iniziative dagli eventi di Wikimedia https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2012/ja 2012年2月のウィキメディア財団報告書及びウィキメディア技報の抄録ほかウィキメディア運動の重要行事について https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2012/nl Hoogtepunten uit de Wikimedia Foundationrapportage en de Wikimedia technische rapportage voor februari 2012, aangevuld met een selectie van andere belangrijke gebeurtenissen binnen de Wikimediabeweging. Suggestions for the movement news section in the upcoming Highlights issue are welcome until April 4, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights . -- Tilman Bayer Movement Communications Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Fwd: Announcement: New editor engagement experiments team!
by Sue Gardner 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

Hey folks, I sent the note below to the staff and board a few hours ago: sharing now with everyone :-) Thanks, Sue ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org> Date: 20 March 2012 19:17 Subject: Announcement: New editor engagement experiments team! To: Staff All <wmfall(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hey folks, A couple of changes at the Wikimedia Foundation that I want you to know about. Everybody knows that reversing stagnating/declining participation in Wikimedia’s projects is our top priority. To make better progress, as of April 16 we're going to bring together resources from the Community and Engineering/Product departments into a new cross-functional team tasked specifically with conducting small, rapid experiments designed to improve editor retention. We already know some of the fixes that will solve the editor retention problem, and we're working to put them in place. The purpose of *this* team will be to identify the fixes we don't yet know about. Separately, Zack has to move back to Missouri for family reasons. When Zack told me about that, we agreed that it’s an extra impetus for this new team to be launched now. This means that going forward, Zack’s department will focus solely on fundraising, and some members of his department will move permanently into other groups. There have been lots of conversations about this over the past few weeks, which have included everyone affected. So here’s what we’re going to do: FUNDRAISING: Zack will manage fundraising remotely. He’ll continue to be part of the C-level team, but he’ll do it from Missouri. He’ll travel back to San Francisco frequently, and he’ll probably be here throughout the fundraising campaign every year and spend other longer chunks of time here when needed. We don’t yet know what the title of Zack’s department will be, or what Zack’s title will be. Neither Zack nor I care very much about titles, and we are in the happy position of not particularly needing to impress anyone -- so, we do not need fancy euphemistic titles. It would be nice to have titles that are clear and direct and understandable, and also to have ones that reflect the creative/storytelling/community aspect of the fundraising team’s work. So, we are leaving this piece open for the time being, and we’ll just call the department “fundraising” until and unless we think of something better. Folks with suggestions should talk with Zack. :-) EDITOR ENGAGEMENT EXPERIMENTATION: Reflecting the importance of editor engagement in the Wikimedia Foundation’s strategy, we will have the following teams directly focused on it: **the Visual Editor group (led by Trevor as lead developer, and by the soon-to-be hired Technical Product Analyst) which is making the visual editor; **the Editor Engagement group (led by Fabrice Florin as Product Manager and Ian Baker as ScrumMaster) which is working on medium-term projects improving Wikimedia’s handling of reputation/identity and of notifications; **the new team focused on rapid experimentation, led by Karyn as Product Manager and a to-be-hired engineering lead/ScrumMaster, tentatively titled something like Research & Experimentation, Editor Engagement Innovation Lab or the Rapid Experimentation Team. Our thinking is basically this: we know the Visual Editor will help with editor retention. We know that improving notifications, messaging, identity and other core features of MediaWiki will help with editor retention. But there are a handful of other smaller projects --maybe just simple tweaks, maybe ideas that should become fully-fledged new features-- that will also help. The purpose of the new experimentation team will be to conduct many quick experiments, which will identify a handful of small changes that can either be accomplished by the team itself, or be queued up as part of our overall product backlog. Staff moving from the Community Dept to Engineering and Product Development (AKA Tech) are: Karyn Gladstone, Maryana Pinchuk, Steven Walling, and Ryan Faulkner. They will form a team tasked with rapid experimentation to find policy, product or other changes that will increase editor retention. Karyn will head product thinking and maintain the experimentation backlog, reporting to Howie. Alolita will hire and manage the engineers for this team, and will help interface them with the rest of the engineering organization. The important thing to know about this team is that they are being tasked with one of our absolutely most important objectives: to figure out new ways to increase editor engagement and retention. Karyn will report to Howie. Maryana, Ryan Faulker, and Steven will report to Karyn. The group has never had engineering resources assigned to it, and it’s clear they need engineering resources. Therefore, Alolita will work in close partnership with Karyn to recruit an engineering team --mostly developers but also UI/design people-- to support the new group. If you have ideas for people we should be recruiting for this, please tell Alolita or Karyn! Dario Taraborelli will join the editor engagement experimentation team as senior researcher and help design the roadmap and the individual experiments the team will run. We don’t yet have a firm title for the experimentation team, nor do we know yet what Karyn’s title will be, or whether other people’s titles (like, Steven or Maryana’s) will change. The team will figure this out, and to that end they’re kicking it around with other staff and with some folks in the community. FELLOWSHIPS: As most of you know, Siko runs our fellowship program. The fellowship program has lots of similarities to Asaf’s work on the grants program -- they are both, at heart, about giving funding and other support to members of the Wikimedia community to enable people to do useful work. The community-building projects that fellows often take on line up with some of Global Dev’s work, particularly as the fellowship program expands its global reach. So as we’ve been talking through Zack’s move and the implications for the Community department, it makes sense to shift Siko to Global Development. Siko’s title remains Head of Community Fellowships for now and she will report to Barry. Fellows and fellowship projects are continuing as planned, and you are still highly encouraged to keep an eye peeled for community members with good fellowship ideas. :) EDITOR RETENTION OVERALL: Finally, I want to talk for a minute about editor retention overall. As you know, we started the year with two major goals: the increase the number of mobile pageviews to two billion, and to push up the number of active editors to 95K. We’re doing fine on mobile reach (yay!) but we are completely failing to move the needle on the number of active Wikimedia editors. That doesn’t reflect poorly on the people who work on editor retention. It’s a complex problem that took a decade to develop, and the team doesn’t control all the variables affecting it. It makes sense that it will take time to fix. But it does mean that we need to increase the resources focused on it, so we can get more done faster. That’s what we’re doing here. We’re reorganizing to focus our existing resources more tightly, and we’ll also be adding new resources -- starting now, and continuing through the 2012-13 financial planning process. And, we’re going to move many/most of the editor-retention related people up to the 6th floor by the collab space. I really love the model Zack developed for the annual campaign -- the war room in Yongle, work visible on the walls for everyone, the buzz of people working hard towards a common purpose. I want us to have that same energy and momentum and focus for the editor retention work. Sorry for this long note, but I figure you will all be curious about this and have questions, so the goal here was to anticipate everything and get it answered up-front. This note was crafted collectively by many people :-) If questions remain, please feel free to ask them, or to talk with any of the individuals involved. And thanks to everyone who contributed to creating this plan: I very much appreciate everyone’s single-minded focus on attacking the editor retention problem, and I look forward to future success moving the needle on it. Everything I talk about in this mail will take effect April 16. Once it’s in your in-box, it’s no longer confidential, and you can feel free to talk about it publicly. I will forward it to announce-l, after I give you a couple of hours to read it yourselves. And please join me in congratulating the folks who are going to work on this important new team :-) Thanks, Sue Q What’s the impetus behind these changes? A Two things. Mainly, we want to redouble our focus on attacking the editor retention problem, and it makes sense for us therefore to consolidate our efforts into a single focused mega-team. Secondarily, Zack has decided he needs to relocate to Missouri. We had already been talking about whether consolidation made sense -- with Zack moving, that accelerated those conversations. Q What’s happening to Zack? A Zack will lead our fundraising remotely, as a C-level employee. His title and the title of his team will change to reflect that, but no final decisions have been made yet about what those titles will be. Ideally we’d like to have a title for that department, and for Zack, that reflects the storytelling aspect of their work, telling the community’s stories to the world. But in the end we may settle for just calling it Fundraising, if we don’t think of anything better. Q What’s happening to the Community Department? A We initially created a community department because it made sense to have focused resources dedicated to understanding the community and being a centre of expertise about it for the Wikimedia Foundation. At the time that was the right thing to do, because although some individual staff members had lots of community understanding, the organization as a whole did not -- which meant it made sense for us to focus our energy, for a time, on researching and documenting and analysing the community. But having a Community Department was never a perfect fit for the Wikimedia Foundation the way it is for other internet companies, because community is not a small subset or a single aspect of what we do at the Wikimedia Foundation --- all our departments have interactions with community members for multiple different purposes, and over time we have been growing specific community expertise and responsibilities in multiple departments throughout the organization. As expertise grew elsewhere, having a community department became a less-good fit for us. Basically: it made sense to have a Community Department at the time when we did it, and it makes less sense now as the organization has matured and evolved. Q Why are you integrating the Karyn/Ryan/Steven/Maryana group into Engineering and Product Development? A The goal is to create a better model for rapid experimentation/innovation, with minimal hindrance to the work of our active editors and maximal gain in new community members. That group is not necessarily a perfect fit with Engineering and Product Development, but we think that’s okay: it’s a good fit, and being in that department will enable the team to increase its impact overall, by giving it better access to UI/design and engineering resources. Q How is the new product team different from Fabrice’s team? A The new team won’t focus on critical major changes to the platform (like the Visual Editor) or critical but equally complex projects like improving the mechanisms by which editors communicate and collaborate on the projects. This team will be much more fast-paced and experimental, identifying small-scale interventions that might make an impact on editor retention and quickly iterating through them on a weekly (or even daily) basis. Unlike Fabrice’s team, which has a list of projects that are known to be important and impactful, this team will quickly cycle through a large number of ideas that have not yet been tested in order to identify what does and doesn’t work, and what can be integrated into existing product roadmaps. Q Will this new team be building new features? A No. Ideas for new features that come out of successful experiments will be handed off to Fabrice’s team or elsewhere in engineering/tech as is appropriate for the task. Q What kinds of projects will this new team be working on? A Some of our projects will be similar to the template A/B testing conducted by Steven, Maryana, and Ryan Faulkner: small tweaks to existing community-built systems like template messaging. Others will focus on more innovative ways to engage new and current editors, using notifications, task assignment, and different kinds of incentives to keep editing. All of the projects will be temporary tests, not permanent large-scale changes, and focus on measuring effects to inform further decisions. Q How can volunteers give input on this work? A Ping Steven or Maryana. Q Who will be in charge of this work? A The C-level in charge of this team is Erik Moeller. The team reports to Karyn Gladstone. Q Where will fellowships live and how do fellows fit with other teams? A The fellowships program will move to Global Development, but the structure and scope of current and planned fellowships will not change. Fellows will continue to be recruited from the community to work on their own projects, supported by Siko Bouterse, Head of the Fellowships Program. Q Where will other community projects live (e.g., summer researchers/analytics, community convenings)? A Current community department projects will be integrated into either the new team or other teams in the organization, depending on their purpose. Convenings of various kinds will be staged on an ad hoc basis by multiple groups, including this one. Q What’s happening to fundraising and storytelling? A The fundraising team, which includes storytelling, will be managed by Zack and will continue to operate as planned. Q Why is this all so confusing? The Wikimedia Foundation changes people’s titles and reporting lines all the time! A Yes, we do :-) The Wikimedia Foundation is a pretty young organization: it’s growing, and doing lots of experimentation. We learn new things all the time, and we want to be able to apply what we’re learning, which includes restructuring/reinventing ourselves. If we were a hundred-year-old organization, or if we had tens of thousands of employees, it would be hard for us to adapt and change, because there would be too many layers of people who would need to be involved, and the downstream implications of even small changes would be serious. That’s a problem for big/old organizations, because it limits their adaptability. Luckily, at this point the Wikimedia Foundation is still small enough and young enough that we can afford to be reasonably flexible. That said, we know that this kind of change can be confusing for people who aren’t involved (at a minimum, it’s one more long e-mail to read), so we appreciate everybody’s patience :-) Q How can I join this team? A We’re hiring! We’re looking for more experienced editors to help us design experiments, track results, and communicate what we’re doing. We are also looking for strong front-and back-end developers to deploy experiments. If you’re interested in working with us, please check out available positions on the Wikimedia Foundation jobs page: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings -- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation 415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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The Signpost -- Volume 8, Issue 12 -- 19 March 2012
by Wikipedia Signpost 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

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Wikimedia UK Communications Manager
by Richard Symonds 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

All, We’re happy to announce our fourth employee at the UK chapter – Stevie Benton. Stevie will be taking on the communications role for the charity. He has worked in non-profit communications for over eight years in a variety of disciplines, including internal communications, press, online and multimedia. He believes that education and access to information are fundamental to the development of humanity. He’ll be working from the office in Old Street, but believes in being very hands-on and is looking forward to getting out and meeting as many Wikimedians, volunteers and partners as possible. Stevie is interested in all kinds of art, literature and music, enjoys video games and is a long-suffering fan of the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team. Over the next few weeks Stevie will be working with Wikipedians to promote the Monmouthpedia Project in April and our AGM in the Science Museum in early May. He can be contacted at at stevie.benton(a)wikimedia.org.uk, or by phone on 0207 065 0993. Richard Symonds Office& Development Manager Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 207 065 0992 -- Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Charitable Company Registered in England and Wales, No: 6741827. Charity No:1144513 Office: 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. Wikimedia UK is the local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). It is an independent non-profit organization with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.

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Wikimedia Hungary Report - February 2012
by Bence Damokos 18 Mar '12

18 Mar '12

Dear all, Please find the February 2012 report of Wikimedia Hungary available at: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…. Reports covering the September-November 2011 period have also been published in Hungarian at: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…. We hope to use the Translate extension so that over time our Hungarian reports can be read in English and our English reports in Hungarian. In the mean time, we are happy to answer any questions. For your convenience, the February report is copied below. Best regards, Bence Damokos Wikimedia Hungary '''Wikimedia Hungary Report''' '''Vol 5 Issue 2''' '''February 2012''' ''Prepared by: Bence Damokos'' This is an update on Wikimedia Hungary's activities covering the February 2012 period. We have recently uploaded to Meta our reports for the September-November 2011 period in Hungarian, you can find them [[Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimédia_Magyarország|here]]. ==Activities == * We have awarded one small grant to buy a book to help improve articles on [[:en:Franz Liszt|Franz Liszt]]. Furthermore, we have created info pages about our programs to provide funding for community projects[1] and travel[2]. * Work has been ongoing on replenishing our stock of Wikipedia themed merchandise. Tangible results are expected by end of March, early April. * We held two smaller scale meetups for our members, at one of them Milos Rancic from Wikimedia Serbia was also present. * Furthermore, a full-day board meeting was held with the main topic being the implementation of our annual plan.[3] * Orsolya, one of our members has participated in the Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia event in Belgrade.[4] * Bence, our vice-president participated in the Paris finance summit.[5] * Bence (later joined by Ting Chen, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation) has spent a weekend as a guest of Slovene Wikipedians as they were celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Slovene Wikipedia.[6] The anniversary has garnered substantial media attention. On the visit, Bence has discussed the idea of a Slovene Wikipedia chapter and the general process and requirements of establishing a local Wikimedia organisation. * Our office manager has participated in a conference and training about the new laws and regulations governing Hungarian civil society, and has prepared a summary of the regulatory context.[7] * Our website was restored following a crash in January[8] * We have started preparing a campaign to collect 1% income tax allocations from Hungarian donors. A specialized fundraising agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation was agreed to and (as of March 2012) signed. * Csongor Gál has joined our ranks as a communications intern until about April. == Financials == The following financial data is provided for informational purposes only. The data presented is not audited and may change slightly as all invoices come in. Amounts are in Hungarian Forints. === Expenses === [[File:Wikimedia Hungary expenses in 2012.png|right|thumb|Expenses by month of Wikimedia Hungary in 2012]] {| | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Category''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''January''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''February''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Total YTD''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Plan 2012''' |- | postage fees|| 18 286 || 2 315 || 20 601 || 30 000 |- | server maintenance|| 34 375 || 34 375 || 68 750 || 420 000 |- | employee and employment costs|| 17 705 || 235 038 || 252 743 || 2 500 000 |- | office space|| 13 875 || 9 398 || 23 273 || 60 000 |- | telephone|| 11 553 || 5 135 || 16 688 || 100 000 |- | printer and printing costs|| 33 610 || - || 33 610 || 70 000 |- | debt to Wikimedia Austria|| 61 100 || - || 61 100 || 50 000 |- | banking fees|| 7 165 || 3 850 || 11 015 || 50 000 |- | community travel|| 4 320 || - || 4 320 || 1 725 000 |- | board travel|| - || 119 200 || 119 200 || 650 000 |- | board meeting|| - || 46 818 || 46 818 || 100 000 |- | small grants programme|| - || 3 200 || 3 200 || 100 000 |- | accountant|| 13 208 || - || 13 208 || 300 000 |- | '''Total:'''|| '''215 197''' || '''459 329''' || '''674 526''' || |} === Revenues=== [[File:Wikimedia_Hungary_income_in_2012.png|right|thumb|Revenues by month of Wikimedia Hungary in 2012]] {| | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Category''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''January''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''February''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Total YTD''' | align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Plan 2012''' |- | donations|| 9 500 || 113 000 || 122 500 || - |- | interest|| 39 705 || 36 406 || 76 111 || - |- | membership fees|| 19 000 || 6 000 || 25 000 || 100 000 |- | other|| - || 23 985 || 23 985 || - |- | '''Total:'''||'''68 205'''||'''179 391'''||'''247 596'''|| |} ==Links== * [1]: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikim%C3%A9dia_Magyarorsz%C3%A1… * [2]: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikim%C3%A9dia_Magyarorsz%C3%A1… * [3]: http://wikimedia.hu/wiki/2012-es_programterv/en * [4]: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_Wiki_GLAM_of_Serbia * [5]: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance_meeting_2012 * [6]: http://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:10 * [7]: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szerkeszt%C5%91:Samat_(WMM)/Civil_szervezetek_… (in Hungarian) *[8]: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma… * Blog posts published in February: http://huwiki.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

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The Signpost -- Volume 8, Issue 11 -- 12 March 2012
by Wikipedia Signpost 15 Mar '12

15 Mar '12

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Wikimedia Nederland reports for January and February 2012
by Ziko van Dijk 13 Mar '12

13 Mar '12

This is the chapter report for Wikimedia Nederland for January 2012. == Cultural heritage == Together with Teylers Museum in Haarlem there is a "challenge" in which people are asked to write Wikipedia articles about subjects related to that museum. Conferences etc. On Saturday January, 21st WMNL was the guest of Teylers Museum in Haarlem. Our new years reception (nieuwjaarsborrel) was visited by ca. 120-150 people. == Press and outreach == The anti SOPA strike was a news subject in the Netherlands on and around January 18th. Many newspapers reported, and our president was on national TV for the issue. == Upcoming == February: strategy weekend board March: general assembly This is the chapter report for Wikimedia Nederland for February 2012. == Cultural heritage == User:Husky gave a short one-day course on editing in Wikipedia to volunteers in Gouda, co-organized by Goudanet and The Gouda platform for History. People made their first edits and wrote their first article on Gouda history. Around 10 people participated including people from the local library. The volunteers will continue to edit Wikipedia in the next few months. Conferences etc. == Other == The board of WMNL met in Zutphen on the 4th and 5th for a strategy weekend. The results should be presented to the members before the general assembly on March 24th, so they will have time to give feedback on the results. On the 25th the WMNL board had an afternoon scheduled on the day of a Wiki-Saturday to receive people who are interested in a board position. == Upcoming == March: general assembly http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Nederla… -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland dr. Ziko van Dijk, voorzitter http://wmnederland.nl/ -----------------------------------------------------------

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WikimediaAnnounce-l March 2012