This press release is also available online here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/The_Wikidata_Revolution
The Wikidata revolution is here: enabling structured data on Wikipedia
San Francisco, 25 April 2013 -- A year after its announcement as the first
new Wikimedia project since 2006, Wikidata has now begun to serve the over
280 language versions of Wikipedia as a common source of structured data
that can be used in more than 25 million articles of the free encyclopedia.
By providing Wikipedia editors with a central venue for their efforts to
collect and vet such data, Wikidata leads to a higher level of consistency
and quality in Wikipedia articles across the many language editions of the
encyclopedia. Beyond Wikipedia, Wikidata's universal, machine-readable
knowledge database will be freely reusable by anyone, enabling numerous
external applications.
"Wikidata is a powerful tool for keeping information in Wikipedia current
across all language versions," said Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Sue Gardner. "Before Wikidata, Wikipedians needed to manually update
hundreds of Wikipedia language versions every time a famous person died or
a country's leader changed. With Wikidata, such new information, entered
once, can automatically appear across all Wikipedia language versions. That
makes life easier for editors and makes it easier for Wikipedia to stay
current."
The development of Wikidata began in March 2012, led by Wikimedia
Deutschland, the German chapter of the Wikimedia movement. Since
Wikidata.org went live on 30 October 2012, a growing community of around
3,000 active contributors started building its database of 'items' (e.g.
things, people or concepts), first by collecting topics that are already
the subject of Wikipedia articles in several languages. An item's central
page on Wikidata replaces the complex web of language links which
previously connected these articles about the same topic in different
Wikipedia versions. Wikidata's collection of these items now numbers over
10 million. The community also began to enrich Wikidata's database with
factual statements about these topics (data like the mayor of a city, the
ISBN of a book, the languages spoken in a country, etc.). This information
has now become available for use on Wikipedia itself.
"It is the goal of Wikidata to collect the world's complex knowledge in a
structured manner so that anybody can benefit from it," said Wikidata
project director Denny Vrandečić. "Whether that's readers of Wikipedia who
are able to be up to date about certain facts or engineers who can use this
data to create new products that improve the way we access knowledge."
The next phase of Wikidata will allow for the automatic creation of lists
and charts based on the data in Wikidata. Wikimedia Deutschland will
continue to support the project with an engineering team that is dedicated
to Wikidata's second year of development and maintenance.
Wikidata is operated by the Wikimedia Foundation and its fact database is
published under a Creative Commons 0 public domain dedication [
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/] . Funding of Wikidata's
initial development was provided by the Allen Institute for Artificial
Intelligence [AI]², the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Google, Inc.
More information available here:
* Project homepage: https://www.wikidata.org/
* Example of an "item" page: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q159
* Description of the project:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Introduction
* How volunteers can get involved with Wikidata:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Contribute
* Some of the first applications demonstrating the potential of Wikidata:
** http://simia.net/treeoflife/ - a (still very incomplete) "tree of life"
drawn from relations among biological species in Wikidata's database
** "GeneaWiki" generates a graph showing a person's family relations as
recorded in Wikidata, example: Bach family
https://toolserver.org/~magnus/ts2/geneawiki/?q=Q1339
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 517 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property worldwide (comScore, March 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 media contact
Jay Walsh
Communications
+1 415-839-6885 ext. 6609 (San Francisco)
jwalshwikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the Wikimedia Foundation's press release distribution
list, reply with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
**
Dear friends and colleagues,
We want to share with you information about the Letter of Intent process
and the FDC schedule for next year (July 2013 - June 2014). As you may
remember, the *Letter of Intent (LoI)* is the first step towards applying
for funds from the FDC, as discussed in the FDC framework [1]. This was not
part of the first year's process, but is meant to be an integral part of
the FDC calendar from this next round (Round 1, 2013-14) onwards. *The
Letter of Intent asks all entities who intend to apply for Round 1 (or
Round 2) to formally state their intention to do so.* In addition, the LoI
now asks applying entities to include a notional dollar figure (or local
currency figure) in the Letter of Intent. Applying entities will be able to
update this amount in their final FDC proposals. The updated Letter of
Intent template will be available on the FDC portal [2] by May 1, but the
sample is here for reference [3].
With the Letter of Intent, the FDC staff can support applying entities in
their proposal process well before the deadline for proposals. We hope this
will remove some of the challenges faced by applicants in the first year of
the FDC process. The FDC can also plan better with a clear understanding of
who intends to apply, and an estimation of the funds requested.
The FDC framework originally stated that the deadlines for the LoI were
June 1 for Round 1 and November 1 for Round 2. However, we are pushing back
the deadline *by one week*, since the community review period was also
extended by two weeks. *The LOI deadline will now be June 8 for Round 1,
and November 8 for Round 2. *
For your reference, here is the updated 2013-2014 Round 1 proposal process
schedule:
- *Letter of Intent deadline for Round 1: 8 June 2013*
- Deadline for WMF Staff to post eligibility: 15 July 2013
- Deadline for entities to meet eligibility requirements: 15 September
2013
- Proposal submission deadline: 1 October 2013
- Community review period: 1 October - 31 October 2013
- Staff assessment deadline: 8 November 2013
- FDC recommendation due: 1 December 2013
- Board decision due: 1 January 2014
The schedule for the 2013-14 Round 2 proposal process:
- *Letter of Intent deadline for Round 1: 8 November 2013*
- Deadline for WMF Staff to post eligibility: 15 December 2013
- Deadline for entities to meet eligibility requirements: 15 February
2014
- Proposal submission deadline: 1 March 2014
- Community review period: 1 March - 31 March 2014
- Staff assessment deadline: 8 April 2014
- FDC recommendation due: 1 May 2014
- Board decision due: 1 June 2014
It is our hope that the Letter of Intent process will help in planning for
both the entities and the FDC, and ensure that the FDC and FDC staff are
supporting the applying entities significantly ahead of the proposal
deadlines.
As always, do not hesitate to let us or the FDC support staff (
FDCsupport(a)wikimedia.org) know if you have any questions or concerns about
this important process.
Warm regards,
Patricio and Jan-Bart
(Board representatives to the FDC)
[1]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_…
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent
--
Patricio Lorente
Blog: http://www.patriciolorente.com.ar
Identi.ca // Twitter: @patriciolorente
Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#50) is available. We wrote
about the upcoming Wikimedia Conference in Milano, the not-so-incoming
Wikimania 2013, the tax days (Italian people may choose to devolve a
small part of their taxes to Wikimedia Italia), and past and
forthcoming meetings where we attended as experts or rapporteurs.
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 in Milano ==
Tomorrow, Thursday, April 18,
[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2013 Wikimedia
Conference 2013] starts. The conference is held every year to improve
coordination between the various Wikimedia chapters, discuss the next
challenges and share national experiences. For the first time the
Wikimedia Conference will be held in Milanp, Italy; we are proud that
Wikimedia Italia is in charge of the organization. You may find
further information and some tidbits on the
[http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Comunicati_stampa/Wikimedia_Conference_2013
official press release] (in Italian), while
[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2013 at this
page], and through the hashtag #wmconf on Twitter, you can follow the
updates in real time. All board and staff members awill be in Milan at
the conference during the event in Milan, so the work of the office
will be momentarily suspended. We apologize in advance for any delays.
[[File:Wikimania-2013-banner.png|thumb|256px|left| "''Wikimania
2013''" - By Amimi Cheng and Wikimania 2013 organizing committee.
Copyright owner: Wikimedia Hong Kong (Wikimedia Hong Kong)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]]
== Wikimania 2013: let's go to Hong Kong! ==
>From 7 to 11 August 2013 the eighth edition of
[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013 Wikimania] will be held
in Hong Kong.
Like we did in the past, Wikimedia Italia has decided to award 8
sponsorships, to cover the costs of participation in the event. Each
sponsorship includes travel expenses (by plane), accommodation and
registration to the event, for a maximum amount of € 1,250 each.
If you are interested you can find all the details of the announcement
on [http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Programma_borse_di_partecipazione_per_Wikiman…
the page for the event].
Applying is easy: you only have to fill an
[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YXCiNeC6Uo5pdxJsiF0Wm3NNnPYs-G56-3ehd1sGzH…
online form] and then send a confirmation email to the email address
domande(at)wikimedia.it. The deadline for submission of applications
is scheduled for 23:59 Tuesday, April 30, 2013.
== Set culture free. With your signature ==
To donate the 5x1000 of your taxes to Wikimedia Italia, you have just
to write on the dedicated form of the tax return (or communicate to
your accountant) the tax code of the association: 94039910156. Visit
[http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Cinque_per_mille this page] for more
detailed information. It is a real help, which does not cost you
anything.
== (past and present) Wikimedian events ==
* On April 5 [[:it:Utente:.mau.|Maurizio Codogno]] took part to the
[http://studenti.imparadigitale.it/ TabletSchool meeting] in Bergamo,
sponsored by [http://www.imparadigitale.it/ Centro Studi Impara
Digitale] (Learn Digital Research Centre). The event was enlivened by
the many questions raised by the students and by the presence of guest
experts ready to give answers. We strongly advise you to look at the
[http://www.ustream.tv/channel/impara-digitale streaming of this
event], which proved to be very enlightening.
* On April 11, in the context of [http://biennaledemocrazia.it/
Biennale della Democrazia] in Torino, the president of Wikimedia Italy
[[:it:Utente:Frieda|Frieda Brioschi]] participated in the meeting
[http://biennaledemocrazia.it/eventi/wikipedia-come-strumento-di-cittadinanz…
Wikipedia as a tool for digital citizenship], during which they
discussed the contribution that Wikipedia can make to the traditional
education. In particular, we submitted our digital literacy project
called [http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Dai_una_voce_alla_democrazia
''Dai una Voce alla Democrazia''] (Give a Voice to Democracy), which
in the recent months has involved the children of several schools in
the province of Torino. A short
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oChlbh33zr0 online video] of the
appointment is available.
* [http://www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it Salaborsa Library] in Bologna
organizes two free workshops in the series of meetings
[http://www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it/eventi/23821 Wikipedia in the
Library]. The first event is scheduled for Saturday, April 20 and is
aimed at beginners who want to take their first steps into the world
of Wikipedia: [[:it:Utente:P tasso|Piero Grandesso]] will be the
Wikipedian expert who will guide you. Saturday, May 4,
[[:it:Utente:Atropine|Ginevra Sanvitale]] will lead the the first
''edit-a-thon'' in the library: a writing entries marathon on
Wikipedia, particularly dedicated to the biographies of female figures
in history.
Dear fellows,
The following message is just to keep you informed about the activities
developed during the last month by Amical Viquipèdia.
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/March…
GLAM-WIKI
- March 1st. GLAM-WIKI workshop at Basque Contry Cultural Institutions.
Kippelboy
- March 5th. Museu d'Història de Catalunya (Catalan Museum of History)
announces its Wikipedian in Residence, user Galazan.
- March 6th. Meeting with Fundació Joan Miró to preparate the
35-hour-long edit-a-thon to be held in April. Kippelboy
- March 8th. Meeting to organize wiki workshop in Tarragona. Kippelboy
- March 8th. Meeting to find a possible Wikipedian in Residence at Museu
de la Música (Music Museum). Kippelboy
- March 9th. Edit-a-thon at Palafrugell Archive[1] about women who have
a street dedicated. During WikiWomen's History Month[2]. Davidpar
- March 16th. Edit-a-thon at Drassanes,[3] in Barcelona (Commons
category)[4]
- March 18th. Meeting with people in charge of education section at
Catalan Museum of History. Galazan and Barcelona
- March 18th. Wikipedia workshop at Puigcerdà library. Kippelboy
- March 19th. Presentation of a new Wikipedian in Residence at Museu
Morera, Lleida. ESM
- March 22th. Meeting with Barcelona City Council to design Wikiproject
1714. Kippelboy
- Weekly. Wikipedia editing meetings at Girona's Museum of art.
Education
- Whole month. Second phase of project Viquimodernisme (Modernism)[5].
Kippelboy and ESM collaborating with GRACMON-University of Barcelona.
- Whole month. Wikiproject about Preservation of digital information
resources[6]. 11 articles were started or expanded. Wikiproject coordinated
by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya with Amical's support.
- wikiArS
- March 18th. The image set Messinian salinity crisis in the
Mediterranean sea[7] created by Pau Bahí (Llotja School) advised by D.
Garcia-Castellanos (I. Jaume Almera CSIC) is considered as “Valued Image
Set” in Wikimedia Commons.
- Whole month. Peer review of Llotja and EDRA student’s works.
Preparation of assignments for Manresa students. Contacts with
new schools.
- Help page for posting to Commons specific for students linked to
wikiArS.[8]
Open Data
- March 4th. Meeting with Grup Catalunya Dades to prepare Big Data Week
Barcelona.[9]
Media
- Amical's Twitter surpasses 2000 followers.[10]
- Barcelona TV, TV3, Descobrir.cat talk about edit-a-thon at Drassanes.
Davidpar
- La Vanguardia, Europa Press, Catalunya Ràdio (interview to Galazan),
VilaWeb, Bonart, ABC/EFE talk about Wikipedian in Residence at Museu
d'Història de Catalunya. Davidpar
- Agència Catalana de Notícies, La Vanguardia, TV3 (minute 6:45), 324.cat
1, 2, Catalunya Ràdio (minute 3:38), VilaWeb, VilaWeb Mollerussa, La
Mañana, Segre 1, 2, Nació Digital, El Punt Avui, La Paeria, Bondia.cat,
Bonart, IntocableDigital.Cat talk about new Wikipedian in Residence at
Museu Morera, Lleida.
- "Viquimodernisme, not just another GLAMwiki project",[11] article by
ESM on Wikimedia Blog about Viquimodernisme.
Other
- March 8th. Meeting with Direcció General d'Atenció Ciutadana of
Catalan Government.
- March 16th. 12th anniverary of Catalan Wikipedia. We had a good cake
during Drassanes edit-a-thon :-)
- March 20-21th. Coorganizated Sharing Commons Sprint[12], with
IGOP-UAB, OKFN and Ourshare. Lilaroja, Dvdgmz
- March 25th. Meeting-workshop at Centre d'Estudis Vilassarencs. Dvdgmz
[1]
http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:Viquimarat%C3%B3_dones_amb_car…</>
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiWomen%27s_History_Month </>
[3] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:Viquimarat%C3%B3_drassanes</>
[4]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Editathon,_Barcelona_Royal_Shipy…</>
[5] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/21/viquimodernisme/ </>
[6]
http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Preservaci%C3%B3_de_recursos_d%2…</>
[7]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Valued_image_set:_Messinian_salinity_cris…</>
[8] http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/WikiArS/Com_publicar_a_Commons </>
[9] http://bigdataweek.com/barcelona/ </>
[10] https://twitter.com/wikimediacat </>
[11] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/21/viquimodernisme/ </>
[12] http://p2pfoundation.net/Sharing_Commons_Spring_Barcelona_March_2013</>
Hello,
Please find below the WMF Board of Trustees' draft agenda for the upcoming
meetings on April 17, 2013 - April 19, 2013.
== Wednesday, April 17, 2013 ==
'''16:00 - 18:00''' - Governance Committee Meeting
== Thursday, April 18, 2013 ==
'''09:00''' - Greetings and Introductions
'''09:10''' - Committee Reports
* Audit Committee Report
* Governance Committee Report
'''09:45''' - Committee Reporting Guidelines
'''10:00''' - Open Resolutions
* Resolution on guidelines on potential conflicts of interest
* Resolution on recognition of Wikimedia Armenia
* Resolution on the Board Governance Committee Charter
* Resolution appointing another trustee to the Board Governance Committee
'''10:15''' - Annual Plan Update
'''11:00''' - FDC Year Two Guidance
'''12:00''' - Lunch
'''13:00''' - WMF and FDC
'''13:45''' - Strategy Committee Proposal
'''13:30''' - Guiding Principles for the Wikimedia Foundation
== Friday, April 19, 2013 ==
'''09:00''' - Editor Retention
'''10:00''' - Transition Team Update
'''12:00''' - Lunch
'''13:30''' - Trustee Candidates
'''14:30''' - Executive Session
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia
Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer
for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.*
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for March 2013, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_March_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,_March_2013
Many thanks to those who have translated the February "Highlights"
into Asturian, Catalan, Danish, German, Spanish, Maltese, Russian and
Simplified Chinese (and partially into some other languages like
French, Italian, Norwegian Bokmål andTraditional Chinese)!
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 April issue are welcome until May 1 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_ite…
.
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, March 2013
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_April_4…>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of March
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Lua speeds up pages and empowers Wikimedia's technical
contributors
o 3.2 Mobile uploads launch for apps and the mobile web
o 3.3 First Individual Engagement Grants awarded to innovative
community projects
o 3.4 Wikipedia Zero wins award, reaches new users
o 3.5 Ombudsmen meet, might expand mandate
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
o 4.4 Other engineering news
* 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 Grant requests approved in March 2013
+ 6.2.3 WMF Grant reports accepted in March 2013
+ 6.2.4 Participation Support requests approved in March 2013
+ 6.2.5 Individual Engagement Grants
+ 6.2.6 Editor Growth and Contribution Program
+ 6.2.7 Wikimania Support
+ 6.2.8 Brazil
# 6.2.8.1 Institutional Partnerships
# 6.2.8.2 Hirings
# 6.2.8.3 Data & Experiments
# 6.2.8.4 Education
# 6.2.8.5 Online tutorials
# 6.2.8.6 Communications
# 6.2.8.7 Medicin Wikiproject
# 6.2.8.8 Community and High School
o 6.3 Programs
+ 6.3.1 Wikipedia Zero
+ 6.3.2 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, March 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, March 2013
+ 9.2.1 Major announcements
+ 9.2.2 Major Storylines through March
+ 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 February:
*483 million* (-1.12% compared with January; +1.53% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release March data
later in April)
Page requests for March:
*21.5 billion* (-1.1% compared with February; +24.8% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access)
Active Registered Editors for February 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*78,083* (-7.53% compared with January / -2.43% 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 February 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_February_2…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of February 28,
2013
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_February_…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of February 28, 2013
(Financial information is only available through February 2013 at the
time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date February 28, 2013.
Revenue $35,650,340
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $9,379,205
Fundraising Group $2,411,055
Grantmaking & Programs Group $3,935,546
Governance Group $504,987
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $2,029,585
Finance/HR/Admin Group $3,702,999
Total Expenses $21,963,377
Total surplus $13,686,963
* Revenue for the month of February is $1.89MM vs plan of $276K,
approximately $1.61MM or 585% over plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $35.65MM vs plan of $30.46MM, approximately
$5.19MM or 17% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of February is $4.25MM vs plan of $4.03MM,
approximately $215K or 5% over plan, primarily due to higher capital
expenses offset by lower personnel expenses, internet hosting, and
grant expenses.
* Year-to-date expenses is $21.96MM vs plan of $25.94MM, approximately
$3.98MM or 15% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses,
capital expenses, internet hosting, FDC grants executed, WMF project
grants, and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal
expenses and bank fees.
* Cash position is $40.68MM as of February 28, 2013.
== Highlights ==
=== Lua speeds up pages and empowers Wikimedia's technical contributors ===
On March 13
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pa…>,
Lua <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)> was enabled for
templates on all Wikimedia wikis. The existing syntax for wikitext
templates is complicated and limited: it does not offer loops
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_(computing)>, for example. With Lua,
editors can now use a real programming language
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/14/what-lua-scripting-means-wikimedia-op…>,
in which they can also contribute to programming projects outside
Wikimedia. For Wikimedia wikis, Lua means a big performance gain in
widely used templates, such as citations. For example, 300 citations on
an English Wikipedia article now render in 3 seconds instead of 18
seconds
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1gMw12QMPn0Xj_5tiUi1…>.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_web_upload_button.PNG>
The new image upload button in an article on the mobile version of the
English Wikipedia
=== Mobile uploads launch for apps and the mobile web ===
On the mobile version of Wikipedia, smartphone users can now easily
upload a lead image
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/28/add-an-image-to-this-article-uploads-…>
to Wikipedia articles that lack one. Also in March, the Mobile team
released a dedicated app for Wikimedia Commons
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/putting-commons-contributions-in-your…>,
allowing media uploads from Android and iOS devices.
=== First Individual Engagement Grants awarded to innovative community
projects ===
The recipients of the first Individual Engagements Grants were announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/29/wikimedia-individual-engagement-grant…>
on March 29. These grants fund projects by individuals or small teams
for a duration of six months. Among the largest of the eight funded
grants are "The Wikipedia Library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library>"
($7500), which aims to give
editors access to reliable sources, donated by publishers, "The
Wikipedia Adventure
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Adventure>"
($10,000), an on-wiki game for new editors, and a project to
collaboratively define a vision for the future of Wikisource
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_v…>
(10,000 Euros).
=== Wikipedia Zero wins award, reaches new users ===
Wikipedia Zero, which gives people around the world mobile access to
Wikipedia free of data charges, won the 2013 SXSW Interactive “Activism”
award
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/13/wikipedia-zero-wins-2013-sxsw-interac…>,
beating four other finalists. Also in March, Wikipedia Zero became
available to more than 55 million additional subscribers in Russia, as
part of a partnership with Beeline (VimpelCom). This was the biggest
launch for the Wikipedia Zero team to date. The same month, a new
Wikipedia Zero partnership with Axiata Group was announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/axiata-wikipedia-zero-partnership/>,
which will expand the program in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh this year.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-Ombudsman-Commission-Publ…>
Four of the Ombudsmen during their visit at the WMF office
=== Ombudsmen meet, might expand mandate ===
In March, the Foundation's LCA <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LCA>
team hosted five out of seven
members of the Ombudsmen Commission in San Francisco, where these
community members from around the world met with each other in person
for the first time
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/01/privacy-policy-complaints-on-wikipedi…>.
They consulted with various WMF departments and provided input regarding
privacy topics and the work of administrators. Formed in 2006, the
Ombudsmen Commission is currently tasked with investigating complaints
of alleged Privacy policy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy> violations on behalf
of
the Board of Trustees. It has been proposed that the Commission should
also be allowed to handle complaints about the global CheckUser policy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CheckUser_policy> and Oversight
policy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Oversight_policy>.
An RfC (request for comment) about this is being prepared.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for March 2013 can
be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/March
Department Highlights
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sneak_Preview_-_Wikipedia_VisualEdi…>
"A Sneak Preview of the Wikipedia VisualEditor", narrated by Trevor
Parscal (uploaded March 1, 2013)
=== VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> ===
/(Accessible introduction to what the Visual Editor is
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/07/inventing-as-we-go-building-a-visual-…>)/
In March, part of the team worked on infrastructure for the major new
features that they'll be adding in the coming months. We aim for
VisualEditor to be the default way all users edit our sites by July
2013, so it needs to let everyone edit the majority of content without
needing to use the usual "wikitext" editor. This will mean adding
support for references, (at least) basic templates, categories and
images, each of which is a very large piece of work. This month the team
primarily worked on draft designs and initial code to ensure users can
edit categories and templates.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:VisualEditor-Parsoid_-…>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor-Parsoid_-_2012-13_Q3_q…>
Slides from the VisualEditor/Parsoid quarterly review (see also slides
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor_-_2013-04_Metrics_deck.pdf>
from the monthly metrics meeting)
The VisualEditor team undertook its first ever "Quarterly Review
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…>"
(minutes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…>),
whose slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor-Parsoid_-_2012-13_Q3_q…>
detail these designs, the work done to date and expectations for the
near future. The alpha version of VisualEditor on mediawiki.org and the
English Wikipedia was updated twice, adding better input and selection
support, fixing a number of bugs, and restructuring the back-end so that
the new features will be simpler to create.
The Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid> team (who are creating
the parsing program <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing> that translates
plain wikitext into HTML annotated for easy editing, and /vice-versa/)
continued writing specifications, fixing bugs, and improving how Parsoid
deals with different human languages, newlines and whitespace, and
transclusion. They wrote a blog post explaining their challenges
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/04/parsoid-how-wikipedia-catches-up-with…>.
And late in March, C. Scott Ananian joined us as a contractor. Welcome!
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Fabrice Florin presenting about Notifications (slides
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1cknqzVqRBPffahIBWc_…>)
In March, the editor engagement features team worked on three projects:
Notifications, Article Feedback and Flow.
For Notifications (formerly code-named 'Echo'), we developed a range of
new features, including: the 'thanks' and 'user rights' notifications,
as well as HTML email notifications. We also started to collect our
first metrics and prepared a socialization plan for our upcoming release
on the English Wikipedia later this month.
For Article Feedback, we deployed a new version of the tool on the
French and German Wikipedias, for evaluation by their communities. Final
features include 'discuss on talk page' and 'auto-archive. The tool was
temporarily turned off on the English Wikipedia, where we expect to
re-deploy it on an opt-in basis as soon as practical.
Design work continued on Flow. We continued creating a "Portal" that
will engage discussion about Flow at three locations (mediawiki.org,
meta, and the English Wikipedia), and performing research.
The Editor Engagement Experiments
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_Engagement_Experiments> team largely
placed other projects – such as guided tours
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/guided_tours>, EventLogging
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/EventLogging>, and others – on hold to focus
on two key initiatives: the "Getting Started
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted>" process for
onboarding new Wikipedians
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/onboarding_new_Wikipedians>, and on making the
redesign of account creation and login
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/account_creation_user_experience> a permanent,
internationalized part of MediaWiki core.
For the Getting Started project, the team launched a new version on
English Wikipedia, which included a new landing page with additional
types of tasks suggested for brand new editors to try. The list of tasks
is now generated by a basic recommender system
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians/Recommender_system>
built by Ori Livneh, which gathers, filters, and delivered a fresh list
of tasks automatically for every editor. This new backend paves the way
for releasing the "getting started" feature on other projects, after
we've completed data analysis and testing to understand which kinds of
tasks are ideal for first time editors. Additionally, Matt Flaschen
collaborated with the Editor Engagement Features team to build
notifications <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo> to welcome new editors and
invite them to contribute via the Getting Started.
For the account creation and login work, S Page, Munaf Assaf, and the
rest of the team rebuilt our design to work with MediaWiki core, and
solicited reviews from outside the team. We currently plan to launch
both interface redesigns on an opt-in basis in April, to have editors
test the localization and other functional aspects of the forms via a
URL parameter, before we enable them as default.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Maryana Pinchuk presenting mobile image uploads (slides)
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1EW-Io5mTXeNwaPBGvAe…>
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
We have a stable version of the mobile-optimized website, which everyone
on a smartphone uses by default, and we have a beta version that
logged-in Wikimedia users can opt to use to see features we're still
building. When functionality is polished enough, we promote it from the
beta site to the stable site. In March, we added the ability to easily
upload a lead image
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/28/add-an-image-to-this-article-uploads-…>
to articles that lack one in the stable version of the mobile site. We
also helped users by giving them a temporary fix to an issue we
discovered that made logging in hard or impossible for some users of
newer mobile web browsers; that problem had prevented a number of users
from being able to upload photos via the mobile site. We are now well on
our way to reach our goal of 1000 unique uploaders/month by the end of
June 2013. Check out the mobile app dashboard
<http://mobile-reportcard.wmflabs.org/> to see mobile contributions via
the website and via apps.
Also: we've added thumbnails of lead images from articles in the mobile
watchlist view, as well as a "last modified" timestamp on articles in
the stable version of the mobile site. We are currently focusing on some
performance enhancements for the mobile site. In April we will graduate
the "uploads dashboard" feature from beta to stable, will further refine
our photo upload features, and will let beta site users see and use a
feature to identify articles on subjects near your current location.
The Mobile team that makes dedicated Wikimedia mobile apps have created
an initial version of the Commons photo uploader app
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/putting-commons-contributions-in-your…>
for Android; it is available for download in Google Play. The iOS
version is still in beta, but should be available in the Apple app store
next month.
In March, Wikipedia Zero
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships> added new telecom
partners (such as Axiata Group Berhad
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/axiata-wikipedia-zero-partnership/>),
fixed some technical problems, and onboarded new staff. We also won an
SXSW Interactive "Activism" award for Wikipedia Zero
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/13/wikipedia-zero-wins-2013-sxsw-interac…>.
(see also the general "Highlights" section)
Max Semenik, Arthur Richards and Faidon Liambotis held an OpenStreetMaps
mini-hackathon at Open Source Days 2013 in Copenhagen
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Events/Wikimedia_Mapping_Event_2013>. During
the event, they agreed on an implementation strategy for a future WMF
mapping cluster. The cluster would serve OSM "tiles" and thus help
integrate OSM functionality better into Wikimedia sites, and help with
our mobile apps which already make use of OSM data.
=== Other engineering news ===
* Lua scripting
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pa…>
has launched on all WMF wikis, making templates faster and making
pages more flexible. You can read that post to understand what to do
on your wiki to take advantage of this, and you can also read about
the implications for Wikimedia's future
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/14/what-lua-scripting-means-wikimedia-op…>
(see also general "Highlights" section)
* We redesigned the Translate interface
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/25/redesigning-the-translation-experienc…>
and made other progress
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/12/new-release-of-the-mediawiki-language…>
on translation and language-related tools.
* We have fresh, friendly instructions on reporting a technical
problem
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/18/how-to-create-a-good-first-bug-report/>
and invite you to help prioritize problems to fix
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/help-wikimedia-squash-software-bugs/>.
* Our designers are collaborating with the Noun Project
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/13/the-noun-project-and-the-wikimedia-fo…>
towards creating an "Encyclopedia Collection" of free icons.
* Our Operations group (the systems administrators who keep our
servers running) has started a twice-monthly meeting with other
engineering teams, to keep communication flowing about requirements
and possible upcoming problems or infrastructure needs.
* The User Metrics API <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User_Metrics>
launched; it's a service that allows researchers to perform cohort
analysis <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohort_study> on various data
sets, making it easier to measure the effects of programs and
platform experiments among discrete sets of users. The Analytics
group <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics>, which works on software
to make statistics about Wikimedia available, is currently working
on improving the web-based user interface, to make it available for
use outside of Wikimedia Foundation staff in the coming months.
== Fundraising ==
Department highlight
* The fundraising team ramped up testing in languages and countries
that were not included in the year-end 2012 campaign, raising
approximately $5 million USD.
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Received a $250,000 grant from Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing.
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
* The fundraising team ran banners in languages and countries that
were not included in the year-end 2012 campaign (US, UK, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, France, Switzerland, Germany). Approximately
$5 million USD was raised from this campaign in the month of March.
Banners were taken down on March 31, 2013. Any future testing will
be announced on the Fundraising 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013> page
on Meta.
* Patricia Pena visited India and researched user feedback and
possible opportunities for local processing in the country. We
interviewed roughly 20 donors and networked with over 20 Indian
payment providers.
* The fundraising tech team continued to add new payment options
including Boletos for Brazil and Direct Debit for Spain,
Netherlands, and Austria. In addition, the team added the option to
make a recurring credit card donation for countries where this was
not previously offered.
* Megan Hernandez, Katie Horn, and Bryony Jones visited Japan, a top
donor country, and met with 3-5 Japanese donors every day during the
week of March 11. The team tested 10 different messages and designs
and developed a high performing fundraising banner.
* Victor Grigas produced brief video introductions to the VisualEditor
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sneak_Preview_-_Wikipedia_VisualEdi…>
(see above)
and the Wikipedia Education Program
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wikipedia_Education_Program.webm>
(see below).
== Grantmaking and Programs ==
Department Highlights
* Launched Wikipedia Zero with Beeline (Vimpelcom) in Russia, largest
single operator to date (55+ million subscsribers)
* First round of Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) approved and
announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/29/wikimedia-individual-engagement-grant…>!
* Round 2 2012-2013 proposals to the Funds Dissemination Committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals> were
submitted on 1 March 2013 and have
been open to community review from 1 March to 31 March.
=== Strategic Goals Metrics ===
Metric Value MoM MoM% Chart
Global South Active Editors (5+ edits in main namespace) 15.5k -317
-2.0% Decrease [1]
<http://gp.wmflabs.org/graphs/global_north_south_active_editors>
=== Grantmaking ===
==== Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) ====
* Proposals for Round 2 2012-2013 were submitted on 1 March 2013. 4
proposals were submitted (presented alphabetically) :
o Wikimedia Czech Republic
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikim…>
o Wikimédia France
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikim…>
o Wikimedia Hong Kong
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikim…>
o Wikimedia Norge
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikim…>
* *Community review:* From 1 March until 31 March, members of the
Wikimedia community commented on the four funding proposals
submitted to the FDC
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals> (Wikimédia
France
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/…>,
Wikimedia Hong Kong
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/…>,
Wikimedia Norge
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/…>,
and Wikimedia Czech Republic
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/…>)
during the one-month open comment / community review period.
Comments and questions were submitted for each proposal: each
proposal discussion page had at least 20 distinct authors and at
most 34 distinct authors. 111 was the maximum total number of edits
made on the discussion pages of any proposal, and 79 was the minimum
total number. The comments addressed many topics, including
expressing overall support or concern for a proposal, questioning
the specifics of financial tables, stating concerns about an
entity's plans to hire staff, and requesting more information about
specific programs. Questions and comments from the community will be
summarized and reflected in the FDC staff assessments published on
April 8, and will be considered by the FDC when it deliberates in
Milan in late April.
* The Progress report form
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Progress_report_form> was
finalized and made ready for use by entities funded in 2012-2013
Round 1 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1>,
who will
submit their first progress reports before 30 April 2013. Entities
may submit their reports from their proposal hub pages in the FDC
portal.
==== WMF Grant requests approved in March 2013 ====
* Grants:WM IN/Program Grant Quarter 1 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/Program_Grant_Quarter_1_2013>:
Grant to support
the activities of Wikimedia India during the first quarter of 2013.
* Grants:WM Wikisym/2013 WikiSym OpenSym Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_Wikisym/2013_WikiSym_OpenSym_Conf…>:
Grant to
support the annual WikiSym conference.
* Grants:Jackson Peebles/Video and Interactive Tutorials
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Jackson_Peebles/Video_and_Interactiv…>:
Jackson will use screen capture software to author video tutorials
with potential interactivity for certain Wikipedia tools and processes.
* FF portal/Recommendations/Fotofahrt im Heißluftballon
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FF_portal/Recommendations/Fotofahrt_im_Hei%…>:
Flow funding request to support aerial photography projects in Germany.
* FF portal/Recommendations/Faculty of Economics Skopje
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FF_portal/Recommendations/Faculty_of_Econom…>:
Flow
funding request to support Wikipedia education activities at the
Faculty of Economics in Skopje.
==== WMF Grant reports accepted in March 2013 ====
* Grants:Abbas Mahmood - Creative Commons Community in Kenya/CC Kenya
Formative Meeting/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Abbas_Mahmood_-_Creative_Commons_Com…>
* Grants:WM US-DC/Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 USA/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_US-DC/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012_U…>
* Grants:WM US-DC/Events 2012/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_US-DC/Events_2012/Report>
* Grants:WM ZA/Wiki Loves Monuments/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_ZA/Wiki_Loves_Monuments/Report>
* Grants:WM IN/Bootstrap Grant/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/Bootstrap_Grant/Report>
* Grants:WM HU/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report/Q4
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HU/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Repor…>
* Grants:WM NL/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report/Q4
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_NL/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Repor…>
* Grants:WM SE/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report/Q4
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_SE/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Repor…>
Contractor Kevin Gorman has published a review of the Wikimedia
Foundation’s grants program
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Retrospective_2009-2012> from
fiscal year 2009-2010 through fiscal year 2011-2012.
==== Participation Support requests approved in March 2013 ====
* Participation:SarahStierch/NMLA Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/NMLA_Conference>
* Participation:Thelmadatter/Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin
American Library Materials
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Thelmadatter/Seminar_on_the_A…>
* Participation:Umbrellas000/US OpenGLAM Launch Weekend, Open
Knowledge Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Umbrellas000/US_OpenGLAM_Laun…>
* Participation:Bdcousineau/US OpenGLAM Launch Event
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Bdcousineau/US_OpenGLAM_Launc…>
* Participation:Hlong-lib/US OpenGLAM Launch Weekend, Open Knowledge
Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Hlong-lib/US_OpenGLAM_Launch_…>
* Participation:Tedder/Legislative Data and Wikipedia Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Tedder/Legislative_Data_and_W…>
* Participation:Cryptic C62/Legislative Data Workshop
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Cryptic_C62/Legislative_Data_…>
* Participation:Lpagola/LibreGraphicsMeeting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Lpagola/LibreGraphicsMeeting>
==== Individual Engagement Grants ====
The IEG Committee completed its review, and WMF announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/29/wikimedia-individual-engagement-grant…>
that all 8 recommended projects have been selected
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-engaging> for round 1 funding.
The selected projects are:
* Build an effective method of publicity in PRChina
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Build_an_effective_method_of_pub…>,
led
by zh:User:AddisWang <https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AddisWang>,
funded at $350. Addis and a small team of volunteers based in
mainland China will be experimenting with social media campaigns to
grow awareness of Wikipedia in China.
* Replay Edits
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Replay_Edits>, led by
w:User:Jeph_paul <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jeph_paul>, funded at
$500. Jeph is building a MediaWiki gadget that creates a visual
playback of the edit history of a Wikipedia article, allowing users
to see an article’s change over time.
* The Wikipedia Library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library>,
funded at $7500 and The Wikipedia Adventure
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Adventure>,
funded at $10,000, will
both be led by w:User:Ocaasi <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ocaasi>.
For the Wikipedia Library, Ocaasi will be building and consolidating
partnerships with reference providers donating access to reliable
sources for Wikipedia editors, and improving the systems for
managing these programs. The Wikipedia Adventure is an on-wiki game
that will be piloted on English Wikipedia using the Guided Tours
extension to determine whether this type of interactive learning is
an effective engagement strategy for new editors.
* Consolidate wikiArS to involve art schools
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Consolidate_wikiArS_to_involve_a…>,
led
by w:User:Dvdgmz <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dvdgmz>, funded at
7810 Euros. The WikiArS outreach program builds partnerships with
art and design schools to teach students to create images for
donation to Wikimedia Commons and for use in Wikipedia articles.
This grant will support focused experimentation in the existing
Catalan program’s models that can allow the initiative to scale and
to be sustained as an international program.
* Elaborate Wikisource strategic vision
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_v…>,
led by
User:Micru <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Micru> and
User:Aubrey <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Aubrey>,
funded at 10,000 Euros. This project brings together the global
Wikisource community and other stakeholders to define a vision for
the project’s future. They’ll begin work on near-term goals that can
be accomplished by volunteers on-wiki, and investigate paths forward
for longer-term improvements to Wikisource.
* MediaWiki data browser
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_data_browser>,
led by User:Yaron K.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Yaron_K.>, partially funded at
$15,000 in order to pilot the initial concept. Yaron’s project will
create a framework to allow any user to easily generate apps or
websites to browse sets of structured data that exist on Wikipedia
and other projects running on MediaWiki.
* MediaWiki and Javanese script
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_and_Javanese_script>,
led by
User:Bennylin <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bennylin>, has
been provisionally approved
for funding at $3000, provided that a couple of dependencies
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:IEG/MediaWiki_and_Javanese_scri…>
can be satisfied. This project will provide technical support using
a “train-the-trainers” model that teaches volunteers how to use
Javanese script online, facilitating the transcription of Javanese
texts to projects like Javanese Wikisource.
==== Editor Growth and Contribution Program ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Prog…>
Logo of the Editor Growth and Contribution Program
A landing page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tambayan_Philippines/Get_started> for
Geo-targeted Editors Participation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geo-targeted_Editors_Participation>
was created on English Wikipedia, and an invitation to edit was
displayed using the geo-targeted centranl notice to readers from the
Philippines, where readers were encouraged to registed an account and
were surfaced random stub articles about local topics to improve.
==== Wikimania Support ====
* Hired Ellie Young, Contractor to take the lead on orchestrating
Wikimania! Welcome, Ellie!
* Finalizing review of Wikimania Scholarship applications. Over 1200
applicants with 660 who made it into round 2 of the review process
(i.e., non-spam). Committee of 9 voting members thoroughly reviewed
and scored applicants. Anticipated ~100 scholarships through WMF.
==== Brazil ====
===== Institutional Partnerships =====
A debate on governance with Ação Educativa, WMF and a member of the
community took place, to trigger a debate on meta. The report on the
meeting has been published
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
and is now open for debate.
===== Hirings =====
* Job positions of the Brazilian Wikipedia Education Program for
substituting the current contractor opened! (with coverage by big
media, thanks to Tom)
===== Data & Experiments =====
* Translation of the Meta Page Research:Data
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Data>
into Portuguese is ongoing
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Central_de_pesquisas/Portal_de…>.
* Prototype of the Data Center
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Central_de_pesquisas/Portal…>
has been developed and is being debated: the proposal is to have a
central page with data and tutorials for anyone to work on data
creation and analysis.
* IRC meetings
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Projetos/Wikip%C3%A9dia/Reu…>
to debate proposals for Analyses and Data Center page
* Henrique’s onboarding in SF: Henrique attended the Python conference
and various meetings in SF as part of his onboarding.
* An initial proposal for data analyses and experiments
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
has been published on Meta and is being debated.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade_-_FG…>
Wikipédia na Universidade - FGV SP (direito)
===== Education =====
Partnerships with universities
* FGV SP (Getulio Vargas Foundation): A lecture at FGV Law School in
São Paulo for about 70 people has taken place, with the
participation of a WMF team and one volunteer. The university has
tried to implement actitivies at Wikipedia but faced difficulties in
having the content accepted. They’re restructuring the project with
our support now.
* Gama Filho: several videos <http://www.youtube.com/wikipediapt> to
invite students from the University to engage in the translation
course/partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation have been produced.
===== Online tutorials =====
We’ve catalyzed and provided a first translation version for online
tutorials <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Training>. The
community has imported the pages and is customizing the material.
===== Communications =====
* The community has approved the recreation of communications channels
as blogs
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/propostas#Blog_da…>
- though the br.wikimedia claims it should be under their website
<http://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:%C3%81gora/Blog_Wikimedia/Wikip%C3%A…>.
We should run a test on the Correio da Wikipédia
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Correio_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia>
for one month and check the signpost distribution system and would
publish that on br.wikimedia too, for customization.
* Catalyzed initiative of a journalist volunteer who started
interviewing volunteers
<http://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:%C3%81gora#Entrevista_com_editores>
to write stories about them
===== Medicin Wikiproject =====
* Bot: improvements have been made and it’s ready to be tested on the
real environment by the community (request for bot approval
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Rob%C3%B4s/Pedidos_de_aprova%C…>)
===== Community and High School =====
* The bridge reported last month built between the community and High
School Peretz became the subject of an article
<http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/tec/1251093-colegio-em-sp-estimula-alunos-a-ed…>
in Folha de S.Paulo <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folha_de_S._Paulo>. The
newspaper has also produced an online tutorial
<http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/tec/1251021-gravada-aprenda-a-editar-artigos-e…>.
=== Programs ===
==== Wikipedia Zero ====
/(see also general "Highlights" section)/
* Launched Wikipedia Zero with Beeline (Vimpelcom) in Russia, largest
single operator to date (55+ million subscribers)
* Completed partnership contract and announcement with Axiata,
expanding partner base of Wikipedia Zero to 410 million subscribers
* Wikipedia Zero received the 2013 SXSW Interactive Award for "Activism"
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wikipedia_Education_Program.webm>
The Wikipedia Education Program, in video form! (narrated by Annie Lin
and LiAnna Davis)
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Rod Dunican presenting about the impact of the Education Program (slides
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1UYnRWTJ18JGCfeb747L…>)
==== Global Education ====
Highlights:
* Egypt term wrapped up with a celebration conference in Cairo.
* Classes started in Egypt, Jordan, and Algeria, as part of the
Wikipedia Education Program Arab World
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ar:%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF…>.
* Volunteers proposed new thematic organization to run U.S. and Canada
Education Programs, the Wiki Education Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Education_Foundation>.
Egypt program celebrates end of second term
The second term of the Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt wrapped up
with a celebration conference at Cairo University. Dr. Abeer Abd
El-Hafez, a professor of Spanish from Cairo University, opened the
conference and spoke about the spirit of the program and its importance
in the lives of students and teachers in terms of skills development and
new experiences. Faris El-Gwely, the education program consultant who
runs the program in Egypt, shared results from the second term, and the
best students and Ambassadors from the program received certificates
recognizing their hard work. Students and professors also shared
information about their experiences in the program. Check out photos
from the event.
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Second_Celebration_Conference,_…>
U.S. student shares special Wikipedia story
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Article_Photo.jpg>
Jacqueline McCrory
University of San Francisco master's student Jacqueline McCrory wrote
the Wikipedia article on habitat conservation plans for her class with
Professor Aaron Frank in spring 2012 — and was then astonished to
discover that she'd been assigned to read the article in a different
class in fall 2012! Jacqueline talks about how her Wikipedia article
experience gave her additional responsibility at work and kudos from
professors in her department in a post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog.
Read the post.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/13/student-assigned-to-read-a-wikipedia-a…>
Quebec professor's work featured in WMF blog
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lauriers_C%C3%A9gep_de_Chicoutimi06…>
Simon Villeneuve's students
Professor Simon Villeneuve of physics and astronomy at Cégep de
Chicoutimi, a college in Quebec, has been using Wikipedia as a teaching
tool in his classroom since 2008. Overall, his students have created
more than 150 articles on the French Wikipedia on topics related to
astronomy and physics, and Simon has learned a lot about the best ways
of doing Wikipedia assignments. Read a post he wrote for the Wikimedia
blog about his work.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/07/quebec-school-project-improves-french-…>
News coverage highlights Poland, Ukraine programs
An article in the Global Post highlights the work being done in Poland
and Ukraine related to the Wikipedia Education Program. The Ukraine
program ran a pilot last term that produced 23 improved articles. The
Poland program is working with a university to replace a bachelor's
thesis with a Wikipedia article. Learn more by reading the article.
<http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/130313/wikipedia-aca…>
Education project improves Catalan Wikipedia
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sagrada_Familia_nave_roof_detail.jpg>
Sagrada Familia nave roof detail, an example of modernism in Barcelona.
Esther Solé from Amical Viquipèdia wrote a post for the Wikimedia
Foundation blog about the "Viquimoderisme" project to improve articles
related to modernism on the Catalan Wikipedia. Around 100 art history
students at the University of Barcelona are working with researchers to
create new articles on Catalan modernism, a topic important to the
cultural history of Catalonia. Esther's report highlights their
learnings from the initial phase, and they're currently embarking on the
second phase, in which a museum in Barcelona will also offer students
access to resources they can use in their articles. Read more about the
project. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/21/viquimodernisme/>
Online student trainings deemed a success
A post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog highlights the successful
development of an online training for students piloted on the English
Wikipedia with the United States and Canada programs. In the post,
author Sage Ross describes how early feedback and user testing has led
to iterative improvements to the content of the training. This term,
more than 400 students (about one third of all students participating in
the program) have successfully completed the training. Read more about
the online training.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/20/online-training-for-newcomers/>
Education Program featured in video
Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager LiAnna Davis and
former Program Manager Annie Lin were featured in a video describing the
basics of the education program. In the short video, Annie and LiAnna
describe how the program works and talk about the impact the program has
had in the last three years. Watch the video.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/wikipedia-education-program-video/>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Professor_Ruy_de_Queiroz.jpg>
Professor Ruy de Queiroz
Brazil professor featured on Wikimedia blog
Professor Ruy de Queiroz of Brazil is one of the pioneers of using
Wikipedia in his classroom. In 2005, he was browsing the Portuguese
Wikipedia in logic and theory of computation — his study areas — and
found the Portuguese version lacking in comparison to the English
version. Over the last seven years, he and his students have added
content to more than 125 articles on the Portuguese Wikipedia in an
effort to improve access to information. Read more about his work.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/26/ruy-de-queiroz-profile/>
=== Learning & Evaluation ===
* Working with the Analytics and E3 teams to expand the UserMetrics
API tool to address the needs of the G&P partners at large
* Plagarism study along with the Wikipedia Education team, working on
tools to be able to query based on article categories, editor type,
and contribution types
* Program mapping study, creating database of all funding mapped to
programs. Thanks to volunteer Rosie Lewis for this awesome work!
== Human Resources ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…>
Gayle Karen Young presenting about hirings in the first quarter (slides
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NHoqUo8prz3GGWluoar3Y5hj5MvXMkf-YTS…>)
In March, HR has made some changes to our benefits providers, namely a
broker change and a flexplan provider change. HR also hosted the second
remote employee task force meeting with a focus on improving in-office
technology for better remote participation, which Office IT has been
assiduously improving. We have also been working on analyzing our
compensation structure, and our 401k committee has been working to add
new low fee index funds and find a new plan advisor.
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Adam Baso, Senior Software Developer (Engineering)
* Yuri Astrakhan, Senior Software Developer (Engineering)
New Contractors
* Dan DeJarnatt (HR)
* Kristan Johnson (Fundraiser)
* Meron Kristos (Finance)
* Andrey Valkov (Fundraiser)
* Ellie Young (Grantmaking & Programs)
Contract Extended
* Oona Castro (Grantmaking & Programs)
* Jeroen DeDauw (Engineering)
Departures
* Peter Gehres (continuing as contractor)
* Svetlana Istrati
* Patrick Reilly
Contracts Ended
* Zoe Bernard
* Darrin Fox
* Aaron Halfaker
* Ian Poirier
* Jawad Qadir
* Mike Wang
* Anita Whites
New Postings
* A/P Clerk
* Communications Volunteer
* Development Associate
* Software Engineer | Language Engineering
* WordPress Developer (Contract)
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
March Actual: 134
March Total Plan: 175
March Filled: 2, Month Attrition: 3,
YTD Filled: 43, YTD Attrition: 21
6 Position canceled for FY
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
34 (8 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 ==
* Review of FDC round 2 proposals for the FDC.
* Completed Wikimedia Argentina site visit report which will be
presented to the WMF Audit Committee at their summer meeting.
* Completed Version 1 of the WMF annual plan, which is now being
reviewed by the WMF Senior Level Team and the WMF Board of Trustees.
* Reviewing options for Foreign Exchange management beyond the big
international banks to receive and distribute funds for the global
movement.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
=== LCA Report, March 2013 ===
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 17
* Completed : 20
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 26
* Approved : 2
* Pending : 20
* Denied : 3
* Approval not needed : 1
==== Domains Obtained ====
* wikipedia.us
* wikipedia.is
* softwarewikipedia.com
* wikispecies.org
* wikimedia.gr
==== Coming & Going ====
* Two legal interns’ spring internships are coming to an end. Thanks
to Ava Miller and Megumi Yukie for all of their help this semester!
* One of our contract attorneys, Ian Poirier, left the Foundation for
a permanent opportunity and we wish him the best in his new job!
* We welcome Elaine Wallace, a talented and experienced attorney who
will be volunteering her time with us over the next few months.
==== Other Activities ====
* Community Advocacy hosted a meeting in the office of 5 out of 7 of
the Ombudsman Commission both to facilitate their work with each
other and their assistance with various staff on WMF initiatives
(see also general "Highlights" section)
* Community Advocacy set up the first of a series of phone calls for
WMF management with highly connected community members around the world.
* Legal continues to work through the trademark registration process
to protect our marks around the world.
=== Communications Report, March 2013 ===
In March we successfully issued another major announcement for Wikipedia
Zero, highlighting a partnership with Axiata that will bring WP Zero to
countries in Southeast Asia. We also worked closely with the executive
team on news of Sue Gardner's upcoming departure from the Foundation.
The team is also rotating our group of Communications volunteers, and
hoping to bring in about four new volunteers to help us with day to day
media monitoring and reporting.
==== Major announcements ====
/Axiata partners with the Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile
Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Axiata_partners_with_th…>/
18 March 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.
==== Major Storylines through March ====
/WMF ED Sue Gardner to leave Foundation/ (Mar 27, 2013)
This month’s major news story focused on Sue Gardner’s announcement that
she would be stepping down later this year once a successor for her
position has been identified, to focus on defending the free and open
Internet. Mostly positive-tone coverage of the news largely followed a
highly visible story published by the NY Times shortly after Sue made
the announcement on the WM Blog and on public and community mailing lists.
(blog post)
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/27/sue-gardner-departure-announcement/http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/a-driving-force-behind-wik…http://www.stern.de/digital/online/fuehrungssuche-beim-online-lexikon-wikip…http://www.webpronews.com/sue-gardner-to-depart-wikimedia-foundation-uncomf…
/BP Edits to WP make headlines/ (Mar 20, 2103)
A flawed CNET story from mid-March sparked substantial coverage of a BP
staffer’s presence on English Wikipedia. The original story accused the
staffer of rewriting a number of BP related articles. Subsequent
coverage was mostly critical of BP for its actions. Some coverage
speculated that the BP staffer may have operated within the approved
‘policies’ around COI editing.
http://prweek.tumblr.com/post/45989772176/wikipedia-editors-have-accused-a-…http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/bp-accused-of-rewriting-wikipedia-…http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/bp-wikipedia-page_n_2923363.htmlhttp://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/bp_edited_its_own_environmental_record_on_w…
/Wikipedia Zero / Axiata / SXSW/ (Mar 8, 2013)
In early March Wikipedia Zero was honored with its first major accolade,
the SXSW Interactive award. Later in March Wikipedia Zero launched its
first major initiative in southeast Asia, further extending the number
of global customers who will be able to access WP without data charges
into the hundreds of millions.
http://www.informationweek.in/Mobile/13-03-21/How_Wikipedia_plans_to_use_mo…http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/sxsw-wikipedia-for-non-smartpho…
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
How Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia Harnessed the Web as a Force for Good | Wired
| March 2003
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/03/jimmy-wales-wikipedia/
Jane Goodall apologizes for plagiarizing Wikipedia | March 22
http://www.dailydot.com/culture/jane-goodall-plagiarized-wikipedia/
Wikipedia, meet Lua! | March 18
(blog post)
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/14/what-lua-scripting-means-wikimedia-op…http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/18/wikipedia-crowdsourcing-site-performance-…http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Wikimedia-adopts-Lua-for-page-genera…
==== WMF Blog posts ====
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/
Thirty-two blog posts in March, with bilingual posts
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/> in German, Dutch,
Portuguese, Catalan, Czech, and French. Some highlights:
* *Parsoid: How Wikipedia catches up with the web
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/04/parsoid-how-wikipedia-catches-up-with…>*
* *WikiAfrica project welcomes and trains Cameroonians to contribute
to Wikimedia sites
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/15/wikiafrica-space/>*
* *Evaluating the success of Wikimedia Czech Republic’s Mediagrant
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/18/evaluating-czech-mediagrant/>*
* *The recent UK report and movement governance
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/movement-governance-recommendations/>*
==== Media Contact ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#March_2013
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for March 2013:
* Volume 9, Issue 9
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-03…>,
04 March 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 10
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-03…>,
11 March 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 11
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-03…>,
18 March 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 12
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-03…>,
25 March 2013
== Office of the Executive Director ==
Sue Gardner announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/27/sue-gardner-departure-announcement/>
that she plans to leave her position as Executive Director of the
Wikimedia Foundation, to focus on defending the free and open Internet.
She will remain fully engaged as Executive Director until her successor
has been recruited, which is expected to take at least six months.
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in March 2013:
1. Teemu Leinonen (Aalto University)
2. Ken Collier (Thoughtworks)
3. Dan Garry (Ombudsmen Commission)
4. Lev Gloukhenki (Ombudsmen Commission)
5. Leif Larsen (Ombudsmen Commission)
6. Thomas Goldammer (Ombudsmen Commission)
7. User:Erzbischof (Ombudsmen Commission)
8. Erin Reading (NPS)
9. Gershon Bialer (EventLogging Workshop)
10. Mlitn (EventLogging Workshop)
11. Piotr Bablok (EventLogging Workshop)
12. Jonathan March (EventLogging Workshop)
13. Valerie Ball (KPMG)
14. Gour Lentell (BiNu)
15. Ton Chookhare (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
16. Franzi Mare (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
17. Nikita Kiselev (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
18. Thomas Malec (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
19. Julio Santil (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
20. Joseph Zhou (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
21. Vishel Shah (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
22. Lauren Fernandez (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
23. Abigail Feuer (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
24. Sarah Walker (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
25. Adi Rubinovich (UC Berkeley Haas MBA Tour)
26. John McLear (Etherpad Project)
27. Idoia Valencia (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
28. Mikel Garcia (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
29. Borja Pinedo (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
30. Patrizia Varela (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
31. Eneko Sieso (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
32. Asier Lopez (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
33. Beñat Egaña (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
34. Lucia Vazquez (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
35. Goio Arana (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
36. Tomas Tamayo (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
37. Jon Jimenez (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
38. Kim Dodson (consultants)
39. Randall Benson (consultants)
40. Mark Oppenheim (m|Oppenheim)
41. Mikel Gazzia (SMASH co-op)
42. Christine Cavanaugh-Simmons (CCS Consulting Inc)
43. Deb Wolter (Red Bamboo Consulting)
44. Mary Gardiner (TAI)
45. Simon Turkalj (Simon Turkalj Associates)
46. Patrick Dippery (COO and Co-Founder, Collabriv)
47. Nimish Gautam (visitor)
48. Thomas Shaffer (Change.org)
49. Patrick Chen (Change.org)
50. William Adams (Full Circle Group)
51. Glenn Turner (Advanced Mobile Notary)
52. Simon Cross and guest (Praekelt foundation)
53. Drew Paroski (Facebook)
54. Grant Joung (Thoughtworks)
55. Brian Bocchino (Gravity People)
56. Roman Garcia (User:Blurpeace
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Blurpeace>)
57. August Wissmath (volunteer)
58. Philip Steele (Pension Architects)
59. Michael Rom (Pension Architects)
60. Kunal Mehta (User:legoktm <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Legoktm>)
61. Brian Behlendorf (Cofounder of the Apache Software Foundation and
Board Member of the Mozilla Foundation)
62. Liliana Bounegru (DataDrivenJournalism.net, European Journalism Centre)
63. Mat Dryhurst (Director of Public Programming, Gray Area Foundation
for the Arts)
64. Jonathan Gray (Director of Policy and Ideas, Open Knowledge Foundation)
65. Jay Nath (SF Mayor's Chief Innovation Officer)
66. Timothy Vollmer (Manager of Policy and Data, Creative Commons)
67. Gregg Servis (Full Circle Group)
68. Brett Victor (guest speaker)
69. Andrew Lih (Author and guest speaker)
70. Doug Hessel (Johnson & Dugan)
71. Virginia Sutton (Johnson & Dugan)
72. Linda Lam (Johnson & Dugan)
73. Andrea De Ville (Radford)
74. Zachary Osman (Radford)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
*Sorry for crossposting*
Bern, 12.04.2013 - The Swiss Federal Archives and Wikimedia CH are joining
forces to review source materials from the Federal Archives and publish
them online. To this end, the post of a “Wikipedian in Residence” is now
being advertised via Wikimedia. The first joint project will provide access
to a photographic collection on the First World War.
2013 sees the start of a new collaboration between the Swiss Federal
Archives and Wikimedia – two organisations committed to free access to
knowledge. With a view to publishing freely usable, “public domain” source
materials from the Federal Archives holdings online via Wikimedia – such as
Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikiversity – a “Wikipedian in Residence” will be
working in the Federal Archives over the next few months.
Wikimedia has been gathering experience with the “Wikipedian in Residence”
concept internationally since 2010, at institutions such as the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, the British Library in London and the US National
Archives near Washington. The Federal Archives partnership is the first
collaboration with a GLAM (*Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums*)
institution in Switzerland.
The initial goal is to make more than 5,000 digitised photographs from a
collection on the First World War searchable and freely accessible via
Wikimedia by autumn 2013, providing researchers with a fascinating, well
catalogued and freely accessible body of materials just in time for the
centenary of the war’s outbreak in 1914.
As a guest of the Federal Archives, the Wikipedian in Residence will
promote entries in the online encyclopaedia that relate to the Federal
Archives and their holdings, and publish material under open-content
licences. Links between the Federal Archives and the Wikipedia community
will also be expanded.
The Federal Archives and Wikimedia CH will report on the collaboration and
its results at regular intervals.
The advertisement for the post of “Wikipedian in
Residence”<http://members.wikimedia.ch/images/c/c7/Job-Advertisement-WiR.pdf>
Français:
http://www.bar.admin.ch/aktuell/00431/01503/index.html?lang=fr&msg-id=48486
Deutsch:
http://www.bar.admin.ch/aktuell/00431/01503/index.html?lang=de&msg-id=48486
Italiano:
http://www.bar.admin.ch/aktuell/00431/01503/index.html?lang=it&msg-id=48486
---
Charles ANDRES, Chairman
Wikimedia CH <http://www.wikimedia.ch/>- Association for the advancement
of free knowledge
Skype: charles.andres.wmch
IRC://irc.freenode.net/wikimedia-ch
.jpg){kind=link}
