Hello Wikimedia community members,
This is not an easy e-mail to write, and it’s been a very hard
decision to make. But I’m writing to tell you that I’m planning to
leave my position as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia
Foundation.
My departure isn’t imminent -- the Board and I anticipate it’ll take
at least six months to recruit my successor, and I’ll be fully engaged
as Executive Director all through the recruitment process and until we
have a new person in place. We’re expecting that’ll take about six
months or so, and so this note is not goodbye -- not yet.
Making the decision to leave hasn’t been easy, but it comes down to two things.
First, the movement and the Wikimedia Foundation are in a strong place
now. When I joined, the Foundation was tiny and not yet able to
reliably support the projects. Today it's healthy, thriving, and a
competent partner to the global network of Wikimedia volunteers. If
that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t feel okay to leave. In that sense, my
leaving is a vote of confidence in our Board and executive team and
staff --- I know they will ably steer the Foundation through the years
ahead, and I’m confident the Board will appoint a strong successor to
me.
And I feel that although we’re in good shape, with a promising future,
the same isn’t true for the internet itself. (This is thing number
two.) Increasingly, I’m finding myself uncomfortable about how the
internet’s developing, who’s influencing its development, and who is
not. Last year we at Wikimedia raised an alarm about SOPA/PIPA, and
now CISPA is back. Wikipedia has experienced censorship at the hands
of industry groups and governments, and we’re --increasingly, I
think-- seeing important decisions made by unaccountable
non-transparent corporate players, a shift from the open web to mobile
walled gardens, and a shift from the production-based internet to one
that’s consumption-based. There are many organizations and individuals
advocating for the public interest online -- what’s good for ordinary
people -- but other interests are more numerous and powerful than they
are. I want that to change. And that’s what I want to do next.
I’ve always aimed to make the biggest contribution I can to the
general public good. Today, this is pulling me towards a new and
different role, one very much aligned with Wikimedia values and
informed by my experiences here, and with the purpose of amplifying
the voices of people advocating for the free and open internet. I
don’t know exactly what this will look like -- I might write a book,
or start a non-profit, or work in partnership with something that
already exists. Either way, I feel strongly that this is what I need
to do.
I feel an increasing sense of urgency around this. That said, I also
feel a strong sense of responsibility (and love!) for the Wikimedia
movement, and so I’ve agreed with the Board that I’ll stay on as
Executive Director until we have my successor in place. That’ll take
some time -- likely, at least six months.
Until then, nothing changes. The Wikimedia Foundation has lots of work
to do, and you can expect me to focus fully on it until we have a new
Executive Director in place.
I have many people to thank, but I’m not going to do it now --
there’ll be time for that later. For now, I’ll just say I love working
with you all, I’m proud of everything the Wikimedia movement is
accomplishing, and I’m looking forward to our next six months
together.
Jan-Bart’s going to write a note in a couple of minutes with
information about the transition process. We’ll be hosting office
hours this weekend as well, so anybody with questions can ask them
here or turn up to talk with us on IRC.
Thanks,
Sue
--
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!
https://donate.wikimedia.org/
The chapters report for Wikimedia Sverige January 2013 is now available at:
http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_reports/2013-01
- *HIGHLIGHTS:* Establishing cooperation with the Swedish University of
Agriculture including the first ever employed Wikipedian in Academy.[Are
you sure? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Are_you_sure%3F>]
- *WIKI-FOCUS:* Mostly Wikipedia through workshops and seminars but also
Commons in preparation for museum uploads.
- *GROWTH:* During January we have had 21 meetings with external
parties, reaching more than 50 professionals. This is through workshops in
GLAM and education mainly and most of them will lead to for further
collaboration.
*Best,
Jan Ainali*
CEO, Wikimedia Sverige <http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Huvudsida>
Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#48) is available. We write
about Wikimedia Conference 2013, project "Authors in Wikipedia", and
some past and future events we attended to.
As usual a link has been added to meta, at
Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; more-or-less raw text of
the bulletin
follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* Wikimedia Conference 2013
Wikimedia Foundation gave Wikimedia Italia the grant which had been
requested as financial support for the hosting of Wikimedia
Conference, which will take place in Milan from April 18 to 21. The
conference will be attended by the Wikimedia Foundation board and a
delegation from each Wikimedia chapter and affiliate. The convention,
held annually, aims to introduce the various members themselves,
create collaborations and talk about the current situation.
* "Autori in Wikipedia" needs help
The competition "Autori in Wikipedia (Authors in Wikipedia)",
organized by Wikimedia Italia, AICA (Section of Milan) and Ellis
Network, rewards the best articles in Wikipedia written by students.
For the schoolyear 2012-2013 we have been joined by 16 teachers and 20
classes. The goal is to produce 130 items (original, translated or
improved). As with last year, the project needs the cooperation of
teachers and Wikipedians for the valuation of items, which is made
by a pair (teacher + Wikipedian) so that each one can rate the
articles according to their skills. We already had 13 teachers in the
jury, now we need Wikipedians! Would you help us? To apply, or have
further information, please write to Roberto Didoni at <rodidon at
libero.it>.
Wikimania 2013
Wikimania 2013 will be held in Hong Kong from 7 to 11 August 2013.
This year Wikimedia Italia will provide again eight scolarships to
allow broad participation. The Committee for the selection of fellows
will be composed of Cotton, Nemo, Triquetra, Ilario and Franciaio. The
call for participation will soon be published.
* Librarians and Wikipedians allied
During the 'annual Librarians' conference (Stelline Foundation in
Milan, 14 and 15 March 2013), some Wikipedians and librarians met to
discuss possible synergies. The theme of the conference was "LIBRARIES
IN SEARCH OF ALLIES. Beyond cooperation, towards new strategies for
sharing." There has been talk of possible integration with Wikipedia
to the new Thesaurus of the National Library of Florence and other
issues of common interest. Those who want to know more may participate
to the collaborative project of Wikipedia or subscribe to the mailing
list.
* Next appointments
In the following days, Wikimedia Italia will be involved in various
appointments. Take a note, there could be one near you!
Thursday, March 21 the meeting "Open Access, il sapere libero"
(Open Access, the free knowledge) will be held at the Scuola Normale
Superiore of Pisa (Sala Azzurra - Palazzo della Carovana, h 16.00).
Andrea Zanni (Aubrey), board member and manager of Wikimedia Italia
projects, will attend.
Thursday, March 21 will be held the meeting "Wik-OPD-edia? Il
senso della presenza delle istituzioni culturali pubbliche nel Web
2.0" (The sense of the presence of public cultural institutions in Web
2.0), at the Salone del restauro in Ferrara (h 15.30 - 16.30, Room C,
first floor, between the pav. 5 and 6). Frieda Brioschi (Chairman of
Wikimedia Italia).
Saturday, March 23, Urban Center in Bologna will host the event
"Marilyn, Rita, Caterina: Wikipedia and women", by "Girl Geek Dinners
Bologna" and Wikimedia Italia. Among the speakers Frieda Brioschi
(Chairman of Wikimedia Italia), Emma Tracanella (Project Manager of
Wiki Loves Monuments Italia) and Ginevra Sanvitale. It is strongly
recommended the registration to the event.
* News from Wiki world
Markus Glaser of Wikimedia Deutschland has been elected president
of the Wikimedia Chapters Association. The other candidates were
[]:it:Utente:Laurentius|Laurentius]] of Wikimedia Italia and Kirill
Lokshin of Wikimedia DC.
WikiAfrica Space has been inaugurated last 15 March, at Doual'art,
center for contemporary art based in Douala, Cameroon. Computers
connected to the Internet via a broadband connection, along with the
help of volunteer experts from Wikipedia, allow anyone who wishes to
contribute to Wikipedia. WikiAfrica Cameroon project was made by
Fondazione Lettera 27 and Africa Centre, led by Doual’art and Orange
Foundation.
Wikimedia Foundation General Counsel Geoff Brigham has written a new
blog post on the Wikimedia Blog that examines several points from the
recent Wikimedia UK governance review, which he argues are useful for
all Wikimedia movement groups and individuals.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/movement-governance-recommendations/
The recent UK report and movement governance
Posted by Geoff Brigham on March 19th, 2013
As part of the Wikimedia movement, there are entities such as
chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation, thematic organizations, and user
groups, established to support our shared global mission of freely
sharing educational content. With the growth of these organizations
comes a need for “good governance” — a recognition that movement
entities are stewards for our contributors, donors and developers, who
generously donate their time, expertise and money to promote the
Wikimedia movement. Our organizations are called upon to use resources
efficiently and carry out official positions for the benefit of the
community. When they do not, they hurt the trust of the movement.
Last month, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK announced the
release of the final report and recommendations regarding the
governance of Wikimedia UK. The review was conducted by Compass
Partnership, a noted management consultant company with particular
expertise in evaluating nonprofit organizations. Although the report
includes highly specific recommendations to be implemented by
Wikimedia UK, as a whole, it suggests several foundational themes that
may be broadly applicable to all movement organizations. Each of us
(including myself) who holds positions entrusted by our community may
benefit from the learnings of the report. The following ones are worth
consideration by all of us in Wikimedia organizations.
▪ Maintain Respect and Professionalism. According to the UK report,
strong and effective relationships are an essential ingredient of any
movement involving multiple organizations in dispersed territories and
cultures. To foster effective relations among Wikimedia groups, the
report recommends that communications within the movement be
respectful and professional. It also suggests that this tone should be
set and modeled by those in entrusted positions in the movement – such
as trustees, executives and employees. We need not avoid controversy
and disagreement, but respectful and professional behavior benefits
the community as a whole. It ensures we are talking about and solving
issues that benefit the community in a constructive, objective and
productive way.[1]
▪ Keep Roles Within the Movement Separate from Your Personal
Interests. The report suggests that, to best serve the movement,
community members should keep their Wikimedia organizational roles
separate from their own personal interests. For example, a trustee
should never use that position within the movement to advance their
own financial interest. Similarly, when individuals within the
movement are acting in their personal capacity, for their own benefit,
they should not rely on their Wikimedia title or office in any way,
and they should be clear about it.[2]
▪ Be Transparent With Regard to Conflicts of Interest and Cooperate in
Resolving Them. As many of you may know, the WMF Board is currently
considering the proposed “Guidelines on the Disclosure of Potential
and Actual Conflicts of Interest in Requesting Movement Resources,”
which were developed through a six-week consultation period with the
community. The guidelines encourage community members to disclose
actively their potential conflicts of interest when requesting
Wikimedia resources, and also provide guidance regarding (1) what
circumstances may constitute a conflict of interest, and (2) when to
disclose such circumstances to the appropriate decision-maker within
the movement. The community’s efforts to improve the handling of
conflicts of interest are recognized in the UK report. The report
specifically discusses these guidelines and highlights their value in
providing a framework for the disclosure of potential conflicts of
interest so that they may be fully evaluated and managed.
The UK report explains that, in a charitable organization, the highest
standards should be followed in managing conflicts. If an employee,
officer or trustee of a movement entity believes there is any
possibility that they present a potential or actual conflict of
interest, this should be raised immediately with the appropriate
decision-maker. Furthermore, the employee, officer, or trustee should
be forthcoming and transparent with regard to all relevant facts, so
the appropriate decision-maker may fully assess the potential
conflict.[3]
▪ Go Beyond the Minimum Requirements of Law. Finally, the report
recognizes that the demands and values of the worldwide Wikimedia
movement call for us all to hold ourselves to the highest standard,
going beyond the basic legal requirements.The WMF Board encouraged as
much in its Resolution on Organizational Best Practices, suggesting
that “every organization in our movement must go beyond local
regulatory requirements and adopt our movement’s unique principles and
best practices around governance, transparency, and accountability.”
In the words of the Board, movement resources should be used “to
achieve the highest possible impact in the pursuit of our vision.”[4]
By considering these principles as they may apply to us individually,
or the particular Wikimedia entities that we serve, we all have the
opportunity to embrace our values while supporting a Wikimedia
movement that mandates the highest of standards. As I believe we all
agree, our community deserves nothing less.
Geoff Brigham, General Counsel, Wikimedia Foundation
Notes:
1. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on respectful
and professional communication, see Recommendation 4.4, paragraph 43;
Recommendation 4.5, introductory paragraph; and Recommendation 4.5,
paragraph 46 of the final report.
2. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on separating
one’s Wikimedia position from one’s personal interests, see
Recommendation 4.4, paragraphs 27, 30, and 41 of the final report.
3. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on transparency
and the management of conflicts of interest, see Recommendation 4.4,,
paragraphs 26, 27, and 29; and Recommendation 4.5, paragraph 48 of the
final report.
4. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on going beyond
the minimum requirements of law, see the Introduction of the final
report.
(This release can also be found online at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Axiata_partners_with_th…)
''Axiata partners with the Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile
Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero''
San Francisco, California and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- March 18, 2013
-- Axiata Group Berhad and the Wikimedia Foundation today announced a
partnership to offer Wikipedia on mobile devices free of data charges
to Axiata customers throughout Asia. By making Wikipedia available at
no data charge to its customers, Axiata is removing barriers to
information while joining the Wikimedia Foundation to increase access
to the free and open knowledge available on Wikipedia.
This partnership is part of the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Zero
program, which focuses on reaching the billions of people around the
world whose primary opportunity to access the internet is via a mobile
device. The partnership currently includes customers of Axiata
subsidiaries in Sri Lanka (Dialog Axiata), Cambodia (Smart Axiata),
Malaysia (Celcom Axiata), Indonesia (XL Axiata), and Bangladesh (Robi
Axiata).
“We applaud Axiata for joining us in removing a major barrier to
accessing Wikipedia on mobile phones. This partnership is an important
step forward in our mission to enable everyone on the planet to access
free knowledge,” said Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head of Mobile with the
Wikimedia Foundation. “With Axiata, one of the largest Asian
telecommunication providers, we’re now able to expand free access to
Wikipedia in more countries. With this partnership, Wikipedia Zero is
now available to 410 million mobile users around the world.”
Mohd Khairil Abdullah, Group Chief Marketing and Operations Officer of
Axiata said, “We are excited about this partnership with the Wikimedia
Foundation. Axiata’s extensive coverage across the region makes this
partnership one of the largest provisions of free mobile access to
Wikipedia to date. We hope that by offering this service for free we
will be enriching the lives of our customers, especially ones with
little or no fixed internet access.”
This partnership is part of Axiata’s broad vision of advancing Asia
through affordable connectivity and innovative technology. Education
is a pillar for Axiata’s business operations and social development
commitment. Through the years, Axiata has established local education
programmes in all its operating countries to help development in rural
communities.
Customers in each territory will be able to access local language
versions of Wikipedia along with the English version.
The program will be rolled out to Axiata’s operations throughout 2013.
Questions and answers about the partnership and Wikipedia Zero can be found at:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships#Axiata
About Axiata
www.axiata.com
Axiata is one of the largest Asian telecommunication companies. Axiata
has controlling interests in mobile operators in Malaysia, Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia with significant strategic stakes
in India and Singapore. India represents one of the fastest growing
markets in the world. In addition, the Malaysian-grown holding company
has a stake in mobile telecommunication operations in Thailand.
The Group’s mobile subsidiaries and associates operate under the brand
name ‘Celcom’ in Malaysia, ‘XL’ in Indonesia, ‘Dialog’ in Sri Lanka,
‘Robi’ in Bangladesh, ‘Smart’ in Cambodia, ‘Idea’ in India and ‘M1’ in
Singapore.
The Group, including its subsidiaries and associates, has over 215
million mobile subscribers in Asia. The Group revenue for 2012 was
USD5.7 billion. The Group provides employment to over 20,000 people
across Asia. Axiata’s vision is to be a regional champion by 2015 by
piecing together the best throughout the region in connectivity,
technology and talent, uniting them towards a single goal: Advancing
Asia.
Axiata was awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012
Asia Pacific ICT Award for Best Telecom Group and the Telecom Asia
Best Regional Mobile Group 2010 and 2011 for its operations in
multiple Asian markets.
Axiata Press Contact:
media(a)axiata.com
About 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 worldwide (comScore, January
2013). Available in 285 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 25
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.
Wikimedia Foundation Press Contact:
Jay Walsh
Senior Director, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
+1 415-839-6885 x 6609
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
(To be removed from this email list please reply with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in
the subject line)
The February activity report by Wikimedia Nederland is now available on
meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/WIkimedia_Nederla…
It is also included as text below.
WMNL February report
Technical projects
· The closing conference of the EU-funded CoSyne
project in which WMNL was a partner took place in Amsterdam on February 1.
WMNL Board Member Frans Grijzenhout presented the results of the testing
carried out by WMNL volunteers. CoSyne produced a tool for the
synchronisation and translation of wiki-pages.
· A team of enthousiastic volunteers and staff are
making good progress in preparing for the International Hackathon 2013,
which will take place in Amsterdam, May 23 - 26. For the first time,
participants will be able to stay overnight at the venue where they will be
working during the day.
Content projects
· Further steps were made towards integrating the
Dictionary of Hebrew and Jiddish words in use in the Dutch language into
Wiktionary. This dictionary was compiled by the Foundation Sofeer, who
want to make their work permanently available to a larger audience.
· On February 15. Wikimedia volunteers went on a
photo-excursion to the city of Arnhem to gather images of war-monuments.
This is part of a wider discussion between WMNL and the Netherlands
National Committee 4 and 5 May (responsible for official commemoration of
World War II) about cooperation.
· WMNL staff and board members are working with the
international coordination group of Wiki Loves Monuments to ensure funding
for activities in 2013.
Board and Staff
· Sebastiaan ter Burg started work as GLAM
project-coordinator on February 15
· Via the WMNL newsletter and other media a call went
out for candidate Board Members.
PR
· A new issue of the WMNL Newsletter was published
· Work is in progress on redesigning the WMNL website
· Research bureau Motivaction carried out surveys among
WMNL members and Dutch Wikipedia editors to assess to what extent they are
aware of the work done by WMNL, their expectations/ideas concerning future
activities, and their motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects. At
the same time a survey was done among a general public focusgroup to assess
whether they know and use Wikipedia, their potential willingness to
contribute and their insight into the way Wikipedia is maintained and
funded. Results will be available mid March.
Other meetings
· WMNL Director Sandra Rientjes and GLAM coordinator
Sebastiaan ter Burg met with staff of the European Centre for Nature
Conservation (Tilburg, the Netherlands) to discuss how they could
contribute images concerning biodiversity and protected areas to Wikimedia
Commons and how they could encourage their constituency to become active as
Wikipedia editors.
· Board Member Sandra Fauconnier and director Sandra
Rientjes had a meeting with the Director of the Netherlands National
Archives to discuss the possibility of a Wikipedian in Residence, and other
forms of cooperation.
Upcoming
· The Algemene Ledenvergadering (General Assembly) of
WMNL will take place on Saturday, March 23. On the agenda will be the
annual report and accounts 2012, as well as the election of Board Members
· Workshops on including recorded sound in Wikimedia
Commons and Wikipedia - March 30 & April 20
· European Fashion Editathon. May 13.
*
*
Sandra Rientjes
Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland
tel. (+31) (0)6 31786379
*Postadres*: * Bezoekadres:*
Postbus 167 Mariaplaats 3
3500 AD Utrecht Utrecht
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for February 2013, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_February_2013
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,_February_2013
Many thanks to those who have translated the January "Highlights" into
Breton, Danish, German, Spanish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Dutch,
Turkish, Ukrainian, and simplified/traditional Chinese (and partially
into some other languages like Arabic and French)!
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the upcoming March issue are welcome until April 3 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights .
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, February 2013
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_March_7…>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of February
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Legal victory for Wikivoyage and free knowledge
o 3.2 Mobile watchlist available
o 3.3 Language Engineering team attends open source conferences in
India
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser
* 6 Grantmaking and Programs
o 6.1 Strategic Goals Metrics
o 6.2 Grantmaking
+ 6.2.1 Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
+ 6.2.2 WMF Grants approved in February 2013
+ 6.2.3 WMF Grant Reports accepted in February 2013
+ 6.2.4 Participation Support requests approved in February
2013
+ 6.2.5 Individual Engagement Grants
+ 6.2.6 Fellowships
o 6.3 Programs
+ 6.3.1 Brazil
# 6.3.1.1 Institutional Partnerships
# 6.3.1.2 Hirings and positions
# 6.3.1.3 Analysis
# 6.3.1.4 Education
* 6.3.1.4.1 Partnerships with universities
* 6.3.1.4.2 Class assignments
* 6.3.1.4.3 Medicin Wikiproject
* 6.3.1.4.4 Community and High School
# 6.3.1.5 Meet-ups
+ 6.3.2 Mobile
+ 6.3.3 Global Education
o 6.4 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, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department
o 9.1 LCA Report, February 2013
+ 9.1.1 Contract Metrics
+ 9.1.2 Trademark Metrics
+ 9.1.3 Domains Obtained
+ 9.1.4 Coming & Going
+ 9.1.5 Other Activities
o 9.2 Communications Report, February 2013
+ 9.2.1 Major announcements
+ 9.2.2 Major Storylines through February
+ 9.2.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 9.2.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 9.2.5 Media Contact
+ 9.2.6 Wikipedia Signpost
* 10 Office of the Executive Director
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for January:
*488.5 million* (+3.37% compared with December; +1.31% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release February data
later in March)
Page requests for February:
*21.8 billion* (-2.1% compared with January; +20.2% 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 January 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*84,848* (+8.60% compared with December / +2.03% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects.
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects) for January 2013:
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_January_20…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of January 31, 2013
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_January_2…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of January 31, 2013
(Financial information is only available for January 2013 at the time of
this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date January 31, 2013.
Revenue $33,756,118
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $7,393,053
Fundraiser Group $2,223,577
Grantmaking & Programs Group $2,617,926
Governance Group $413,747
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $1,818,707
Finance/HR/Admin Group $3,249,731
Total Expenses $17,716,741
Total surplus/(loss) $16,039,377
* Revenue for the month of January is $2.84MM vs plan of $276K,
approximately $2.56MM or 927% over plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $33.76MM vs plan of $30.19MM, approximately
$3.57MM or 12% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of January is $2.26MM vs plan of $4.13MM,
approximately $1.87 or 45% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, timing of
FDC grants disbursement, and travel expenses partially offset by
higher legal expenses and outside contract services.
* Year-to-date expenses is $17.72MM vs plan of $21.90MM, approximately
$4.18MM or 19% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses,
capital expenses, internet hosting, timing of FDC grants
disbursement and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal
expenses and bank fees.
* Cash position is $41.47MM as of January 31, 2013.
== Highlights ==
=== Legal victory for Wikivoyage and free knowledge ===
The Wikimedia Foundation's legal team announced a settlement
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/a-victory-for-wikivoyage-and-free-know…>
in the legal proceedings between the Foundation and Internet Brands,
relating to issues stemming from the creation of Wikivoyage, our
community’s newest free knowledge project.
Last year, Internet Brands (owners of a for-profit wiki-based travel
project) sued two Wikimedians involved in supporting the travel wiki
project. The Foundation supported the legal defense of the volunteers
and the court ultimately dismissed Internet Brands’ lawsuit.
The Foundation also went on the offensive and filed its own separate
lawsuit against Internet Brands seeking a declaration from the court
that Internet Brands had no proper basis to block the travel wiki
project. That suit was resolved in an out of court settlement on
February 14, 2013. In that settlement, Internet Brands released the
Foundation and Wikivoyage e.V. (the German non-profit organization who
worked hard to make the travel project a success) from all claims
related in any manner to the creation and operation of the travel wiki
project. In return, the Foundation agreed to dismiss its suit.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_Wikipedia_watchlist.PNG>
Screenshot of the new mobile watchlist
=== Mobile watchlist available ===
Facilitating contributions to Wikipedia on mobile devices is an
important goal for the Foundation's mobile team. As one of the first
results of these efforts, mobile Wikipedia users are now able to log
into their account, and to view and modify their watchlist
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/13/follow-your-favorite-wikipedia-pages-…>.
On the mobile version, the star symbol for the watchlist is shown to all
users, to encourage them to log in or create an account. Experienced
contributors can use the watchlist as usual: To track changes to the
selected pages and fix problems if necessary. But to make the watchlist
more newbie-friendly, the mobile version also offers a full view of all
selected pages, which can function as a reading list.
=== Language Engineering team attends open source conferences in India ===
The Wikimedia Foundation's Language Engineering team participated in two
conferences in Pune, India: GNUnify 2013
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/27/language-engineering-team-participate…>,
a major open source conference, and the Second Open Source Language
Summit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/20/report-from-the-spring-2013-open-sour…>,
co-organized by the Foundation with Red Hat. The team aims to make
Wikipedia a website that can be used by anyone on the planet in their
own language. India's many different languages make it a natural
location for the team to see the effect of their work. At the Language
Summit, the engineers from the Wikimedia Foundation collaborated with
attendees from Red Hat, KDE, Google and other groups. The work areas
included the following:
* *Input methods* (enabling typing in a certain language), bringing
the number of supported languages to 140.
* *Translation tools*, including a demonstration of the new design and
features for the translation editor in MediaWiki's Translate
extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate>
* The *"Language Coverage Matrix"*, a detailed overview of language
support in different projects and platforms (with 285 languages
currently supported by Wikimedia, and more than 100 in the Fedora
Linux distribution)
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for February 2013
can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/February
Major news in February include:
* The Wikipedia Zero project
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/22/getting-wikipedia-to-the-people-who-n…>
got a Knight News Challenge grant.
* Additional input methods
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/20/report-from-the-spring-2013-open-sour…>
were made available for jQuery.IME.
* The Translate extension introduced a new iteration of the
Translation Editor
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/inching-towards-enabling-our-improvem…>.
* The Wikimedia mobile web team launched the ability to view or add
pages to
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/13/follow-your-favorite-wikipedia-pages-…>
watchlist — all from mobile devices (see also general "Highlights"
section)
* Echo is A new notification system for Wikipedia
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/echo-a-new-notification-system-for-wi…>.
* The Technical Operations team found ways to stop problems
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/05/how-the-technical-operations-team-sto…>
in their tracks.
* Wikipedia Mobile hit 3 billion monthly page views
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/01/wikipedia-mobile-hits-3-billion-month…>.
=== VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> ===
VisualEditor is on schedule to become the default editor for Wikimedia
users by July 2013. The alpha version of the VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> on the English Wikipedia and
mediawiki.org was updated twice, adding support for Microsoft Internet
Explorer (version 9 and above), improving the support for multiple
languages, preparing the backend for upcoming features and fixing
several issues reported by the community. Software engineer and Commons
contributor Ed Sanders
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2013-February/066421.html>
joined the team to work on the VisuaEditor data infrastructure.
In the backend, Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid> is going
through intense activity focusing on performance improvements. New
contributor volunteer contributor C. Scott Ananian improved its
performance by switching the DOM library from JSDom
<https://github.com/tmpvar/jsdom> to Domino
<https://github.com/fgnass/domino>. He also improved image handling and
contributed numerous other patches. The team wrote a blog post
explaining the technical challenges
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/04/parsoid-how-wikipedia-catches-up-with-…>.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Echo-Flyout-Screenshot-CloseUp-452p…>
User notifications in the new "Echo" system
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Brandon Harris presenting the "Flow
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FlowPortal>" project (slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flow-Slides-WMF_MetricsMeeting_03.1…>)
The Notifications <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Notifications> project
(codenamed /Echo/) is preparing its beta release to English Wikipedia by
the end of March. This new set of features, already enabled at
mediawiki.org <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki>, was summarized for
the Wikimedia community through a blog post
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/echo-a-new-notification-system-for-wik…>.
New features are being developed: bundling
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Bundling>
notifications, dismissing
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Dismiss> types of
notifications and defining user preferences
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Preferences>.
Article Feedback v5
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5> (AFT5) is now
feature complete, and a new release is being prepared for interested
Wikimedia projects. English Wikipedia will use it as an optional
feature, while French and German Wikipedia projects are planning to
enable it for all articles. The new features include simpler moderation
tools
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>,
better filters
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>,
new feedback link
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>,
auto-archive
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>
and discuss on talk page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>.
We posted a usability study report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Article_feedback/Moderation_Tools_…>
about
the effectiveness of the new moderation tools.
The Editor Engagement Experiments
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_Engagement_Experiments> team continued
testing Guided tours <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Guided_tours> as part of
the onboarding new Wikipedians
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/onboarding_new_Wikipedians> experiences
currently enabled on English Wikipedia. GuidedTour extension
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GuidedTour> was enabled on Wikimedia
Commons and six Wikipedias (including French, German, and Dutch). See
also the slides
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1RBrkt6uIEopyyxoM3ok…>
from the monthly Metrics and Activities meeting. The GettingStarted
extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted> is being
enhanced to include a wider variety of task types offered to new editors.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
Mobile web uploads <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Uploads>
functionality went out of beta and is now enabled in all Wikimedia
projects. All registered users have now the ability to upload and add
images to articles lacking them. We also explored two new upload
workflows: adding a call to action to articles that appear in the Nearby
and Watchlist view, and allowing users to quickly see articles near them
that may need an image. Lastly, we began collaborating with the
Fundraising team to enable CentralNotice
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CentralNotice> on the mobile web,
giving us the ability to deliver targeted banners to mobile users.
The new Commons app <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Commons>
beta for Android and iOS got a first wave of users ([mw:Mobile
QA/Commons uploads/Setup installation instructions) and feedback,
leading to many updates during the month. The Android app is in Google
Play
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikimedia.commons>.
iOS users need to go through a process for testers until the app is
stable and available at the Apple App Store.
== Fundraising ==
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What%27s_a_Love_Dart%3F.webm>
"What's a Love Dart?" video for Valentine's Day
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Received a $250,000 anonymous gift
* Received a $50,000 gift from Graham Weston
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
* The fundraising team began testing in February in various languages
and countries that were not included in the year-end 2012 campaign.
Nearly $2 million USD was raised from this testing in the month of
February. For additional details, please see the Fundraising 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013> page on Meta
* The fundraising tech team implemented new local payment methods for
various countries that were not included in the year-end 2012 campaign.
* Produced "What's a Love Dart?
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What%27s_a_Love_Dart%3F.webm>",
a short video interview
with Wikipedian Susan Hewitt about the article 'Love Dart', that she
helped to write. The video was emailed to 150,000 U.S.-only donors
on Valentine's Day. It was designed to educate viewers that they can
write Wikipedia articles. The video received many positive
responses. One example: "I found the video to be quite engaging, and
the people in it utterly delightful. Quite truthfully, I haven't a
clue how Wikipedia "works." I've known it was non-profit and largely
volunteer... And, I donated because I've felt guilty not donating
based on how much I use it as a resource. But, I'm fully ignorant of
how articles get into Wiki and the degree of collaboration that it
takes to refine them. So, these videos that give me glimpses into
the people and the process are fascinating..."
== Grantmaking and Programs ==
Department Highlights
* Individual Engagement Grants committee forms and request for round 1
proposals closes. Decisions for the first round will be announced by
the end of March.
* FDC staff confirms eligibility and prepares for 2012-2013 Round 2
proposal deadline on 1 March.
* Siko Bouterse takes the lead on the Participation Support Program
(previously run by Asaf Bartov).
=== Strategic Goals Metrics ===
Metric Value MoM MoM% Chart
Global South Active Editors (5+ edits in main namespace) 15.8k +6
+0.0% Increase [1]
<http://gp.wmflabs.org/graphs/global_north_south_active_editors>
=== Grantmaking ===
==== Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Katy Love presenting about the FDC round 2 (slides
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1cG-dHKgj3XUl-lFiMO0…>)
* WMF announces eligibility for 2012-2013 Round 2 of funding
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round…>.
* FDC staff prepares for 2012-2013 Round 2 proposal deadline on 1 March.
* Proposal form and hubpage templates are updated for the second
round; policy documents and Frequently Asked Questions page are
updated to reflect current policy and relevant dates.
==== WMF Grants approved in February 2013 ====
* Wikimedia Espana's Conferences and meeting for tenth anniversary of
the Galipedia: Grants:WM ES/Conferences and meeting for tenth
anniversary of the Galipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_ES/Conferences_and_meeting_for_te…>
* Wikimedia Italia's Wikimedia Conference 2013: Grants:WM IT/Wikimedia
Conference 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IT/Wikimedia_Conference_2013>
==== WMF Grant Reports accepted in February 2013 ====
* Grants:WM SE/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_SE/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report>
* Grants:Consumer Reports/Wikipedian in Residence/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Consumer_Reports/Wikipedian_in_Resid…>
* Grants:WM NO/christmas seminar and wlm ceremony/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_NO/christmas_seminar_and_wlm_cere…>
* Grants:WM CA/In person meeting/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CA/In_person_meeting/Report>
==== Participation Support requests approved in February 2013 ====
* Participation:Raystorm/2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships La
Molina
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Raystorm/2013_IPC_Alpine_Skii…>
* Participation:SarahStierch/ARLIS 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/ARLIS_2013>
* Participation:Bathlander/US OpenGLAM Launch
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Bathlander/US_OpenGLAM_Launch>
* Participation:Wittylama/Brisbane Library conferences
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Wittylama/Brisbane_Library_co…>
==== Individual Engagement Grants ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Siko Bouterse presenting on Individual Engagement Grants (slides
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1v5nYEr2QwviH3sNYr74…>)
* Over 50 project ideas and proposal drafts
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab>
have been submitted for Individual Engagement Grants
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> and 22 complete proposals
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-join> were
confirmed eligible for round 1
review which began on February 15th.
* An IEGrants committee has been formed. 18 community members
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Committee#ieg-members>
from 12 countries, with
experience in 14 different Wikimedia projects were selected to
review and recommend grant proposals for WMF funding in this round.
* The first round of grantees will be announced at the end of March.
==== Fellowships ====
* The fellowships program has ended but some projects live on. The
Wikipedia Teahouse <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:Teahouse> celebrated
its first birthday
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/27/wikipedia-teahouse-celebrates-its-firs…>
and increasing growth with metrics demonstrating impact
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/The_Tea_Leaf/The_Tea_Leaf_8>
and cupcake badges.
=== Programs ===
==== Brazil ====
===== Institutional Partnerships =====
A research on possible partners
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
for the Wikimedia Foundation Brazil Catalyst Program has been carried
out since October. This is part of the narrowing focus strategy and
implies the Brazil Catalyst program is to shift into the grantmaking model.
Ação Educativa
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
and Coletivo Digital
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
were considered the most likely institutions for the Wikimedia
Foundation to set up an institutional partnerhsip and host the
development of the Catalyst project in Brazil. Anasuya Sengupta,
consultants from Brazil and two community volunteers visited those
institutions during her trip to Brazil. The meetings were good and
clarifying. The results can be checked here:
* Meeting with Ação Educativa
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
* Meeting with Coletivo Digital
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
Next steps include: developing a medium term strategy with partners and
community and Skype meetings to make final decisions and define terms
and governance of this partnership.
===== Hirings and positions =====
* Arriving: Hiring and onboarding of Henrique Andrade
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:HAndrade_(WMF)> and Jonas
Xavier <https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:JXavier_(WMF)>
* Leaving: Everton announced he’ll be leaving WMF for Open Knowledge
Foundation soon. We’re working on the transition (he’ll be working
part time for WMF until May or June) and on the opening of the job
position. More in March.
===== Analysis =====
Data & Experiments
* Data analysis: Comparison year-over-year
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Annual_Stats>
from 2009 to
2012. The Portuguese Wikipedia is still seeing a decrease in
editors, active editors and edits, but the descrease in 2012 was
lower than in 2011. We may be reverting the decrease trend (except
for very active editors), little by little, but it’s hard to say
yet. One more year is key to analyze it.
Staff & Community work
* Henrique’s and Jonas’ onboarding: access to data, tools, Toolserver,
guidance on the use of them, how tos, introducing to people, sharing
plans, targets etc. Both worked on a draft execution detailed plan
to be published and discussed by the community.
* IRC with community: agenda covered Toolserver-Wikimedia Labs
transition, methodologies to work on measures in Wikipedia, data
portal (ideas, objectives, structure and target), demand for data on
editors and edits per regions.
Workshop Surveys
* Creation of survey forms to be sent to every participant of offline
activities developed by us and by the community.
===== Education =====
====== Partnerships with universities ======
* FGV SP (Getulio Vargas Foundation): group of professors developing a
methodology in collaboration aiming at the second semester of 2013.
Professors plan to have class assignment activities as well as a
group of students who will be working throughout the semester on
Wikipedia.
* UGF - Gama Filho University: partnership with the coordination of
translation courses post graduation. Great part of their students
are in their e-learning/distance learning program. Professors in the
course are expected to assign students with translations of
Wikipedia articles in English and Spanish into Portuguese. Oona and
Everton have recorded a video interview in the University with
Sanchez (the coordinator), to invite students to participate in the
program and engage in Wikipedia activities. Activities will start in
April.
* UFBA - Federal University of Bahia: Presentation to professors and
to the university publisher: potential involvement in the Education
program and potential partnership on Wikibooks, Wikisources and
Commons through open educational resources.
====== Class assignments ======
* Everton contacted professors who will continue the program in their
courses: Iara (Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco), Rafael (UFRGS),
Yury (UFES), Rubens (UNESP), Maria Paula (UNESP), Sanchez + 4
professors (UGF), Regina (USP), and to be finalized during this
semester: Edivaldo (UFRJ), Juliana (UNIRIO), Viktor (UFF), Ricardo
(UFPR), Leni (UFES)
====== Medicin Wikiproject ======
* Bot: Jonathan has finalized the bot to invite new contributors to
edit the Medicin Wikiproject and Everton submitted the request for
approval by the Portuguese community. Jonas has worked on final
developments customizing categories and criteria for trigger.
====== Community and High School ======
* Making bridges between and engaging in conversation with 2 high
school teachers who looked for WMF and community volunteers who are
developing a project to be deployed in high schools.
===== Meet-ups =====
* Digitalia 2013
<https://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discuss%C3%A3o:Digitalia/2013>
(Jan/Feb): Digital Culture debate and Wikipedia editing workshop
with 20 new editors. Usuário:Eduardofeld
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:Eduardofeld> led the workshop
and has adopted 10 new users. Oona and Everton organized, promoted
and led the activities on the mission of Wikimedia projects. Oona
was also one of the speakers in the opening session
<http://digitalia.com.br/?page_id=1155> (pictures
<http://digitalia.com.br/?page_id=1540>).
* Wiki meetup in Bahia: participation of 3 editors from Bahia and one
editor from Natal, who adopted 10 new users from the Workshop to
mentor them.
* 2 Wiki meetups in São Paulo: Feb 02 (fully community driven), and
Feb 23 (on the occasion of Anasuya’s visit).
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WP_Zero_Mid-Year_-_Master_Version_F…>
Slides from the quarterly review meeting for Wikipedia Zero
==== Mobile ====
* Launched Wikipedia Zero in a new country -- Botswana -- with Orange.
* We've started testing with Vimpelcom for an upcoming launch in March.
* Made Improvement to the partner dashboard which tracks Wikipedia
Zero usage
* Kul Wadhwa & Amit Kapoor traveled to Barcelona, Spain to attend
Mobile World Congress to meet with many current and potential
partners. The trip also involved attending talks on mobile usage in
developing countries and investigating potential pilots for
Wikipedia's USSD/SMS (text) service.
* Kul also wrote a blog post that was jointly posted on our funder's
site -- the Knight Foundation -- that explains our mobile strategy
and how we will use their grant to accelerate our mobile programs:
"Getting Wikipedia to the people who need it most
<http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/22/getting-wikipedi…>"
* The Wikipedia Zero team held its quarterly review meeting. Minutes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…>
are available.
==== Global Education ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Education_Program_extension_Feb_201…>
Slides from Sage Ross' presentation about the Education Program
MediaWiki extension
Highlights:
* Fall 2012 data showed students in WMF-run programs contributed 12.1
million bytes to Wikipedia, putting us on track for our goal of 25
million bytes in 2012-13.
* More than 350 students in the U.S. and Canada program have completed
the online student training, at en:WP:STUDENT
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:STUDENT>, so far. That means half of the
students who have created user accounts and signed up on course
pages thus far have completed an online training about how to edit
Wikipedia.
* So far, 60 courses <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Courses> are
using the Education Program Extension on the English Wikipedia.
* Planning is underway to kick off a pilot of the Wikipedia Education
Program in Jordan
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/w:%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%…>.
U.S. professor shares student experiences
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22New_Media_and_Development_Commun…>
"New Media and Development Communications," Columbia University, Fall 2012
Anne Nelson, a professor from Columbia University participating in the
Wikipedia Education Program United States, contributed a post to the
Wikimedia Foundation blog last week on her experiences with the program.
Many of her students are English as a second language learners, and she
asked those students to contribute to Wikipedia in both their native
languages and English, leading to a unique multilingual learning
experience for both Anne and her students. Read more of her reflections
on the project.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/11/multilingual-learning-through-the-wiki…>
Spanish Wikipedia's art coverage grows thanks to professor
Lila Pagola, a professor at the National University of Villa María in
Argentina, started teaching with Wikipedia back in 2007. The lack of
good information on the Spanish Wikipedia on topics related to art, her
specialty, spurred her to work with her students to add articles on
Latin American photography to Wikipedia, and she's been hard at work
using Wikipedia in her classroom ever since. Read about her project in
Argentina.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/creating-local-content-for-wikipedia/>
Swedish program shares learnings
Sophie Österberg, the education program leader in Sweden, contributed a
long post for the Wikimedia Foundation blog talking about her
experiences so far as she has been having workshops with professors and
launching the Wikipedia Education Program in Sweden, Wikipedia i
utbildning. Sophie's post explains some of the mistakes she has made,
and what she has learned from them. Her post encourages people worldwide
to share learnings so we can ensure we are not repeating mistakes in
different geographic regions. Read her post.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/14/wikipedia-education-program-sweden/>
Egyptian student becomes active Wikipedia editor
Walaa Abdel Manaem, a master's student in Spanish at Cairo University,
learned how to edit Wikipedia through the Cairo Pilot of the Wikipedia
Education Program -- and shortly after she started translating articles
from the Spanish Wikipedia to the Arabic Wikipedia, Walaa was hooked.
Less than one year later, Walaa has more than 8,500 edits on the Arabic
Wikipedia. She's created 68 articles, and is steadily climbing the list
of the 100 most active editors on the Arabic Wikipedia. She's also
assisting the education program as a Campus Ambassador at Cairo
University. Read more about Walaa's experiences.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/25/walaa-wikipedia-education-program-egyp…>
Students in Greece add photos to Commons
Mina Theofilatou, an instructor at Argostoli Evening High School in
Kefalonia, Greece, wrote a post for the Wikimedia Foundation blog
explaining her project to add photographs to Wikimedia Commons, the free
image repository project. Mina and her students have embarked on two
projects: one to catalog edible species on the island of Kefalonia, and
one to photograph every village on the island. Learn more about Mina's
project by reading the blog post.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/21/education-program-greece/>
Teaching assistant works to improve Arabic Wikipedia
Doaa Seif, a teaching assistant at Ain Shams University's faculty of
Al-Alsun, is an active Wikipedia Ambassador in the Wikipedia Education
Program in Egypt. Doaa was featured on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog
in a post explaining her desire to improve the availability of
information on the Arabic Wikipedia. The two courses that Doaa is a
teaching assistant for both participated in the Egypt program last term,
and she's also organized workshops teaching students how to edit. Read
the profile on Doaa.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/20/doaa-seif-profile/>
Program leaders invited to workshop in Milan
Wikimedia chapter members and other volunteer leaders who are already
running education programs in countries around the world are invited to
attend the first Education Program Leaders Workshop, aimed at building a
global community to share learnings and help each other overcome
challenges. The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Wikimedia
Chapters Meeting in Milan, Italy, on April 18. If you are a program
leader, you're encouraged to check out this page for more information.
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Education_P…>
Farewell, Annie!
Annie Lin, who's been with the Wikipedia Education Program since its
beginning in 2010, left the Wikimedia Foundation on February 22 to
pursue other opportunities. The entire Wikipedia Education Program team
will miss her tremendously. Annie is sad to leave, and she says she is
very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many
brilliant, inspiring educators and volunteers.
=== Learning & Evaluation ===
* Facilitated G&P annual planning process and helped formalize goals
and success metrics
* Experimented with servicing analytics requests using a 1 week sprint
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(scrum)#Sprint> methodology
* Built bot to automate various steps in the Individual Engagement
Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> program [2]
<https://github.com/jtmorgan/grantsbot>
* Built bot to automate certain tasks around the Brazil Education
Program <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Program/Education_program/Design>
* Built tool for analysis of category graphs [3]
<https://github.com/embr/mwcat>
* Built tool for analysis of cumulative user contributions to a page
by converting page history into Git repository [4]
<https://github.com/embr/mwgit>
* Investigated sources of error in our geolocation technology, MaxMind
(mw:MaxMind_Evaluation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MaxMind_Evaluation>)
* Participated in Analytics Reboot Workshop led by ThoughtWorks
consultant in preparation for WMF Analytics reorganization
== Human Resources ==
Primary HR activities for the month include:
* modeling staffing projections in preparation for the WMF annual
planning process
* conducting the second segment of a three-part series in the WMF
pilot leadership development program for directors and managers
* co-hosted an event with the Op-Ed Project in mutual support of the
aim to shift the gender gap in media
* commissioned a study on Wikimedia Foundation salaries with Radford
as follow-up to the board-sponsored executive salary study conducted
last year
* Chief Culture and Talent Officer Gayle Karen Young was profiled on
the Wikimedia blog ("Gayle Karen Young: Supporting Wikimedia’s
dynamic culture
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/13/gayle-karen-young-supporting-wikimedi…>")
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Henrique Andrade, Data Analyst & Experiments (Grantmaking and Programs)
* Greg Grossmeier, Release Manager (Engineering)
* Ed Sanders, Software Engineer, Visual Editor (Engineering)
* Luis Villa, Deputy General Counsel (Legal and Community Advocacy)
* Amy Vossbrinck, Executive Assistant to the Chief Finance &
Administration Officer (Administration)
New Volunteer
* Anita Whites (Fundraiser)
New Contractors
* Kraig Parkinson (Engineering)
* Marc-Andre Pelletier (Engineering)
* Jonas Xavier (Grantmaking & Programs)
Contracts Extended
* Michael Beattie (Fundraiser)
* LaTrisha Holliness (Finance)
* Rebecca Neumann (Legal and Community Advocacy)
* Joseph Seddon (Fundraiser)
Departure
* Annie Lin
Contracts Ended
* Peter Coombe
* Susan Walling
New Postings
* Partner Solutions Engineer
* Program Evaluation Community Coordinator
* Program Evaluation Specialist
* Senior Program Manager - Mobile
* Software Engineer - Multimedia User Interfaces
* Software Engineer - Parser
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
February Actual: 135
February Total Plan: 173
February Filled: 5, Month Attrition: 1
YTD Filled: 41, YTD Attrition: 18
1 Position canceled for FY
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
38 (10 of which are on hold)
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
We have begun active work on the Annual Plan, including setting a
baseline for annual expenditures.
The first financial review site visit occured with Wikimedia Argentina.
Our thanks to Osmar - Executive Director of Wikmedia Argentina for
hosting a sucessful site visit. A full report of the site visit will be
submitted to the FDC. The financial review portion of the site visit
showed that WMAR has good internal controls and is managing it financial
matters well.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
=== LCA Report, February 2013 ===
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 28
* Completed : 20
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 21
* Approved : 1
* Pending : 11
* Denied : 4
* Request withdrawn : 3
* Approval not needed : 2
==== Domains Obtained ====
wikinews.de
==== Coming & Going ====
* Luis Villa, Deputy General Counsel, has joined the Legal Department.
:)
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2013-February/0005…>
==== Other Activities ====
* We announced a settlement
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/a-victory-for-wikivoyage-and-free-know…>
in the legal proceedings between the Wikimedia Foundation and
Internet Brands relating to issues stemming from the creation of
Wikivoyage (see general "Highlights" section).
* The Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK announced the release of
the final report and recommendations regarding the governance of the
Wikimedia UK chapter
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/wikimedia-uk-and-wikimedia-foundation-…>.
The report was completed by Compass Partnership, consultants in
non-profit management based in the UK. The report was commissioned
jointly by the Foundation and Wikimedia UK in October 2012 following
important Wikimedia community discussions about potential conflicts
of interest arising from a series of wiki outreach projects.
* After critical and extremely helpful community input and changes, we
proposed to the Board new guidelines on the disclosure of conflicts
of interests when requesting movement resources
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Guidelines_on_potential_conflicts_of_i…>.
* We are drafting a template user group agreement (with appreciated
comments from members of AffCom) to serve our partnership with
independent groups of Wikimedian volunteers.
* We finalized the template for the organizational grant agreement for
use by the WMF Grants Program.
=== Communications Report, February 2013 ===
February was a relatively quiet month for the Foundation and projects
from a media relations perspective. Major media outlets were focused on
the news of the successful conclusion of the Internet Brands lawsuit as
well as a measured increase in coverage and requests related to
Wikipedia Zero.
==== Major announcements ====
No major press announcements in February.
==== Major Storylines through February ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Fidler_interviews_Sue_Gardn…>
Richard Fidler interviewing Sue Gardner
‘’WMF’s ED Sue Gardner in Brisbane, Australia’’ (Feb 17, 2013)
During a visit to Brisbane, Australia to speak at the ALIA conference at
the State Library of Queensland, Sue Gardner spent time with a number of
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio programs. Conversations
covered the Foundation’s work to recruit new editors and diversify our
community, including a lengthy discussion with Australian radio
personality Richard Fidler.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/wikipedia--dealing…http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/02/15/3691244.htmhttp://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacific/2013-02-13/wikipedia-flush-with-fu…
‘’A Victory for Free Knowledge and Wikivoyage’’ (Feb 15, 2013)
After five months of legal activity, the Foundation announced settlement
of litigation with Internet Brands. The announcement was made on the
Foundation’s blog
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/a-victory-for-wikivoyage-and-free-kno…>
and was followed by positive media coverage that repeated the mission
and focus of the non-commercial Wikivoyage project.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57569807-93/wikimedia-internet-brands-sett…http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/16/3995358/wikimedia-internet-brands-lawsuit…http://pandodaily.com/news/wikimedia-foundation-and-internet-brands-reach-s…
‘’Mobile Wikipedia and Wikipedia Zero: 3 billion pageviews and free
Wikipedia by SMS’’ (Feb 23, 2013)
A trio of blog posts and coverage relating to the Foundation’s mobile
work made positive headlines in February. The push past 3 billion page
views on our mobile WP site, coupled with coverage of our push for free
Wikipedia via SMS attracted significant interest, particularly from tech
and mobile industry blogs.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/23/wikipedia-expects-to-offer-sms-based-acc…http://www.ibtimes.com/wikipedia-reaches-3-billion-monthly-mobile-views-ami…http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/02/02/driven-by-developing-countries-wikip…
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Infographic: An Amazing, Invisible Truth About Wikipedia | Fast Co.
Design | Feb 11
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671833/infographic-an-amazing-invisible-truth-…
Getting Wikipedia to the people who need it most | Knight Foundation |
Feb 22
http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/22/getting-wikipedi…
The Biggest Wikipedia Traffic Spikes Since 2010 Prove We’re All Morbid |
Gizmodo | Feb 11
http://gizmodo.com/5983295/the-biggest-wikipedia-traffic-spikes-since-2010-…
==== WMF Blog posts ====
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/
Forty-three blog posts in February, with bilingual posts
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/> in Arabic, Spanish,
Greek, Ukrainian and Portuguese. Some highlights from the month:
How the Technical Operations team stops problems in their tracks
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/05/how-the-technical-operations-team-sto…
Engaging the local community in a school project on Commons
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/21/education-program-greece/
Egyptian student creates 68 new articles on the Arabic Wikipedia in less
than a year
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/25/walaa-wikipedia-education-program-egy…
Wikipedia Teahouse Celebrates its First Birthday
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/27/wikipedia-teahouse-celebrates-its-fir…
==== Media Contact ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#February_2013
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for February 2013:
* Volume 9, Issue 5, 4 February 2013
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…>
* Volume 9, Issue 6, 11 February 2013
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…>
* Volume 9, Issue 7, 18 February 2013
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…>
* Volume 9, Issue 5, 25 February 2013
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sue_Gardner_keynotes_ALIAonline.JPG>
Sue Gardner giving a keynote at the ALIA Online Conference
== Office of the Executive Director ==
Sue Gardner traveled to Australia in February, giving keynotes
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/February_2013/Contents/…>
at two library conferences in Brisbane: The Sixth New Librarians
Symposium (co-sponsored by Wikimedia Australia) and the Australian
Library and Information Association (ALIA) Online Conference. She also
did several interviews with Australian media (see the Communications
Report section above), in
particular a long discussion with Richard Fidler, and had productive
meetings with Australian Wikimedians.
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in February 2013:
1. Samantha Gaskin (Helms Briscoe)
2. Shannon Farley (Spark)
3. Amanda Brock (Spark)
4. Alex Wong (AAPIP)
5. Chris Cavanaugh (CCS Consulting Inc.)
6. Yvonne Ortmann (Reporter, t3n)
7. Eugene Eric Kim + guests (Consultant)
8. Kellie Brownell (TAI)
9. Erik Qualman (edx.org)
10. Abhishek Suryawanshi (Wikipedian)
11. Iara Camardo (Professor, Wikipedia Education Program Brazil)
12. Rosa Jiménez Cano (Reporter, El Pais)
13. Debra Wolter (CCS)
14. M. McCarthy (RDI)
15. J. Uppal (RDI)
16. Mike Chavet (Felice)
17. John Engers (Felice)
18. Kraig Parkinson (Thoughtworks consultant)
19. Marc Chenn (Salt Stack)
20. Thomas Hatch (Salt Stack)
21. Julie Jarratt (Cathay Pacific)
22. Maziebelle Riece (Cathay Pacific)
23. Valerie Aurora (TAI)
24. Kathy Ramsey (TAI)
25. Virginia Sutton (J&D)
26. Doug Hessel (J&D)
27. Linda Lam (J&D)
28. Ron Waliczek (JP Morgan)
29. Mike McKindey (JP Morgan)
30. Ryan McNeill (JP Morgan)
31. Paul Cardoso (Sequoia)
32. John Gaffney (Sequoia)
33. Melissa Sharp (Sequoia)
34. Jed Cloern (Sequoia)
35. Sheldon Renan (Video crew)
36. Mark Oppenheim (m|Oppenheim)
37. Stephany Kirkpatrick (LearnVest)
38. Denny Vrandecic (WMDE)
39. Daniel Kinzler (WMDE)
40. Galen Cranz (Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
