Hi folks,
I’m sorry to tell you that Zack Exley has decided he wants to leave
the Wikimedia Foundation, although I am glad to say he’s planning to
continue contributing his prodigious creative and analytic talents to
our fundraising. As of August 30, Zack will no longer be Chief Revenue
Officer, but will instead be a part-time consultant and advisor to the
WMF fundraising team, in addition to other consulting work he’s
planning to take on.
We all owe Zack enormous thanks and praise.
The year before Zack joined us, the WMF raised USD 16 million in
donations, and three years later that has more than tripled to USD 56
million -- and we are doing it in a way that’s 100% consistent with
our mission, vision and values. The many-small-donors model preserves
the Wikimedia movement’s independence by preventing over-reliance on a
small number of people, it enables the WMF to focus on readers and
editors without having their needs drowned out by other stakeholders,
and it makes us the largest amount of money at the smallest-possible
cost. Zack has earned his place in the histories of Wikimedia yet to
be written: for the past three years, he has been the single person
most responsible for funding the growth of resources for the global
movement.
Zack is leaving the WMF fundraising team in terrific shape, and I’m
very happy to announce I’ll be promoting into the position of Chief
Revenue Officer the deputy head of the department, Lisa Seitz Gruwell.
Since Lisa joined in 2011, both Zack and I have come to heavily rely
on her leadership, managerial and strategic abilities. Lisa has been
responsible for foundations and major donors as well as being Zack’s
deputy, and over the past two years she and her team have
significantly grown revenues without increasing the costs to the
organization. This is a big deal: most non-profits need their
non-fundraising staff to participate in fundraising efforts, and it’s
to Lisa’s credit that her team has figured out how to raise money
without that. Lisa is widely respected and trusted. I look forward to
her leadership and am confident she will continue Fundraising’s track
record of success.
We are also promoting Megan Hernandez, who has been the
behind-the-scenes creative talent of our last two online campaigns.
She will become Director of Online Fundraising, leading all our online
work. And we are promoting Sara Lasner to the role of Development
Director, where she will lead the foundations and major gifts team
that has been Lisa’s responsibility. Congratulations to Megan and
Sara.
Our fundraising strategy will not change. We will continue to focus on
the many-small-donors model, supplemented by unrestricted grants and
major gifts. Everything takes effect immediately, except Zack’s
official departure which will be August 30. He won't be at Wikimania,
but people in the San Francisco Bay Area will get a chance to see him
when he comes to town in early September. And of course we'll continue
to see him afterwards, in his new relationship with us.
I’m very confident in the trio of Lisa, Megan and Sara to lead
fundraising for the movement, and I’m delighted Zack will continue to
lend his guidance and creativity to our campaigns. Please join me in
thanking Zack for everything he has done for the Wikimedia movement
and for his continued involvement. And congratulations to Lisa, Megan,
and Sara on their well-deserved promotions.
Thanks,
Sue
--
Executive Director,
Wikimedia Foundation
The chapters report for June 2013 has been published on our
wiki<http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_reports/2013-06>
.
*HIGHLIGHTS:*
- Joint board meeting between Wikimedia Sverige and Wikmedia Norge where
experiences were shared and future cooperations discussed.
- Accreditation to the Royal wedding.
- Several edit-a-thons in the Europeana Awareness project.
*GROWTH:*
- Editors involved in chapter activities: 70+
- Media uploaded: 884 files
- Persons engaged in workshops and seminars: 12
- New chapter members: 5
Swedish Wikipedia passed 1,000,000 articles 14 June which sparked a global
community wide discussion on bot-generated articles.
*Best regards,
Jan Ainali*
CEO, Wikimedia Sverige <http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Huvudsida>
+46 729 67 29 48
Hi community,
the latest issue of the Tech News summary has been published and is now
being delivered to its subscribers across the wikis:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2013/31
The newsletter aims to help Wikimedians stay informed about recent and
future technical changes that are likely to impact their work. Thanks to
our amazing community of volunteers translators, the current issue is at
least partially available in 10 languages: for the first time ever, it
will be also delivered to recipients in Russian (ru) and Swedish (sv).
Please note that you can also subscribe to get the newsletter directly
on your talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambass…
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns. I
appreciate your help, feedback and involvement.
Tomasz
(This press release is also posted online at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Aircel_partners_with_Wik…)
Aircel partners with Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile
Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero
[Aircel subscribers to be the first in India to have free access to
Wikipedia on their mobile phones]
SAN FRANCISCO and NEW DELHI -- July 25, 2013: Aircel and the Wikimedia
Foundation today announced a partnership to offer Wikipedia on mobile
phones without any data charges to Aircel customers. The alliance is
aimed at making knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all
Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free. This is the
first service of its kind to formally launch in India.
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 will help provide Wikipedia to 60 million new
users in the region.
Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer for Aircel, said, "Through our
alliance with the Wikimedia Foundation, Aircel is not only making
internet services reach a wider audience, but also helping to
encourage and enrich the lives of our customers by offering access to
knowledge and information free of cost. We are excited about this
partnership and hope this initiative will benefit all our customers
from various age groups."
"We hail Aircel’s commitment to enhancing and expanding access to free
knowledge for their mobile customers. With the partnership, we extend
our program to India where we potentially reach millions of people for
the first time." said Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head of Mobile with the
Wikimedia Foundation. "Aircel is one of the operators across the globe
that has contributed towards expanding free access to Wikipedia Zero
to 470 million mobile users."
Aircel customers will be able to access versions of Wikipedia in
English, Hindi, Tamil, and 17 other Indic languages.
Aircel is a young, data led telecom player and has been continuously
innovating products and services to offer convenience to its young
customers. The company has recently introduced various noteworthy data
products like Pocket Internet Smart and the recent Pocket Internet 24,
which offers internet at less than 1 rupee a day. Therefore, Aircel
aims to empower and inspire the youth by enhancing their data
experience.
Questions and answers about this partnership can be found at:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships#Aircel
About Aircel Limited
http://www.aircel.com
Aircel is one of India’s leading pan India operators. It won 3G
spectrum in 13 circles and BWA spectrum in 8 circles and has
successfully launched 3G services which is the fastest 3G roll out
ever in the Indian Telecom Space. Aircel has been constantly
innovating products and services and is credited with making 3G
affordable to masses by launching Pocket Internet Smart which offers
best value 3G packs. Aircel Pocket Internet Smart gave a boost to 3G
adoption in the country as it is a true value for money product that
allows consumers to access unlimited 3G data at extremely affordable
prices. Aircel has positioned itself as a data led telecom player and
has addressed the multi-functionality of a mobile phone in many
innovative ways which are Industry firsts, be it the Aircel Pocket
Internet, Pocket Internet Games and Facebook Voice Updates on Aircel.
Aircel is also a preferred telecom network to launch Apple iPhone 3GS,
iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. For more information, please log on
to www.aircel.com.
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 world-wide (comScore, April 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
Matthew Roth
Communications
+1 415-839-6885 ext 6635 (San Francisco)
mroth(at)wikimedia.org
Aircel media contact
Bhavya Suri
Corporate Communications
+ 91 8802999046 (India)
bhavya.suri(at)aircel.co.in
(This press release is also posted online at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Aircel_partners_with_Wik…)
Aircel partners with Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile
Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero
[Aircel subscribers to be the first in India to have free access to
Wikipedia on their mobile phones]
SAN FRANCISCO and NEW DELHI -- July 25, 2013: Aircel and the Wikimedia
Foundation today announced a partnership to offer Wikipedia on mobile
phones without any data charges to Aircel customers. The alliance is
aimed at making knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all
Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free. This is the
first service of its kind to formally launch in India.
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 will help provide Wikipedia to 60 million new
users in the region.
Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer for Aircel, said, "Through our
alliance with the Wikimedia Foundation, Aircel is not only making
internet services reach a wider audience, but also helping to
encourage and enrich the lives of our customers by offering access to
knowledge and information free of cost. We are excited about this
partnership and hope this initiative will benefit all our customers
from various age groups."
"We hail Aircel’s commitment to enhancing and expanding access to free
knowledge for their mobile customers. With the partnership, we extend
our program to India where we potentially reach millions of people for
the first time." said Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head of Mobile with the
Wikimedia Foundation. "Aircel is one of the operators across the globe
that has contributed towards expanding free access to Wikipedia Zero
to 470 million mobile users."
Aircel customers will be able to access versions of Wikipedia in
English, Hindi, Tamil, and 17 other Indic languages.
Aircel is a young, data led telecom player and has been continuously
innovating products and services to offer convenience to its young
customers. The company has recently introduced various noteworthy data
products like Pocket Internet Smart and the recent Pocket Internet 24,
which offers internet at less than 1 rupee a day. Therefore, Aircel
aims to empower and inspire the youth by enhancing their data
experience.
Questions and answers about this partnership can be found at:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships#Aircel
About Aircel Limited
http://www.aircel.com
Aircel is one of India’s leading pan India operators. It won 3G
spectrum in 13 circles and BWA spectrum in 8 circles and has
successfully launched 3G services which is the fastest 3G roll out
ever in the Indian Telecom Space. Aircel has been constantly
innovating products and services and is credited with making 3G
affordable to masses by launching Pocket Internet Smart which offers
best value 3G packs. Aircel Pocket Internet Smart gave a boost to 3G
adoption in the country as it is a true value for money product that
allows consumers to access unlimited 3G data at extremely affordable
prices. Aircel has positioned itself as a data led telecom player and
has addressed the multi-functionality of a mobile phone in many
innovative ways which are Industry firsts, be it the Aircel Pocket
Internet, Pocket Internet Games and Facebook Voice Updates on Aircel.
Aircel is also a preferred telecom network to launch Apple iPhone 3GS,
iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. For more information, please log on
to www.aircel.com.
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 world-wide (comScore, April 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
Matthew Roth
Communications
+1 415-839-6885 ext 6635 (San Francisco)
mroth(at)wikimedia.org
Aircel media contact
Bhavya Suri
Corporate Communications
+ 91 8802999046 (India)
bhavya.suri(at)aircel.co.in
(To be unsubscribed from this list please reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in
the subject line.)
Hi community,
the latest issue of the Tech News summary has been published and is now
being delivered to its subscribers across the wikis:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2013/30
The newsletter aims to help Wikimedians stay informed about recent and
future technical changes that are likely to impact their work. Thanks to
our amazing community of volunteers translators, the current issue is
available in 13 languages (yay!).
Since subscribers of this list are likely to be interested in reading
the newsletter, we'll announcing its release every week from now on,
until we hear from you otherwise :-) Feedback about this decision (and
the newsletter) is welcome at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News
Please note that you can also subscribe to get the newsletter directly
on your talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambass…
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns. I
appreciate your help, feedback and involvement.
Tomasz
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for June 2013, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_June_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,_June_2013
Many thanks to those who have translated the May "Highlights" into
German, Spanish, French, Italian, Norwegian Bokmål, Dutch, Russian
and Chinese (while translations are still ongoing into Asturian,
Hindi, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese and other languages)!
While still focusing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the upcoming July issue are welcome until July 31 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, June 2013
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_July_11…>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of June
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2013-07-11>
(July 11, 2013)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 First workshop on how to evaluate the success of organized
Wikimedia activites
o 3.2 Preparations for the launch of VisualEditor and Universal
Language Selector
o 3.3 Community input invited for privacy policy update
* 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
o 6.1 Strategic Goals Metrics
o 6.2 Funds Dissemination Committee
o 6.3 WMF Grants
+ 6.3.1 Grants awarded in June 2013
+ 6.3.2 Reports accepted in June 2013
+ 6.3.3 Participation Support
# 6.3.3.1 Requests awarded in June 2013
# 6.3.3.2 Reports accepted in June 2013
o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants
o 6.5 Learning & Evaluation
o 6.6 Brazil Catalyst Project
+ 6.6.1 Data Analyses
+ 6.6.2 Communications
+ 6.6.3 Outreach
+ 6.6.4 Institutional Partnership
+ 6.6.5 Education
* 7 Program Development
o 7.1 Wikipedia Zero
o 7.2 Wikipedia Education Program
o 7.3 Program Evaluation and Design
* 8 Human Resources
o 8.1 Staff Changes
o 8.2 Statistics
o 8.3 Department Updates
* 9 Finance and Administration
* 10 Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department
o 10.1 LCA Report, June 2013
+ 10.1.1 Contract Metrics
+ 10.1.2 Trademark Metrics
+ 10.1.3 Domains Obtained
+ 10.1.4 Coming & Going
+ 10.1.5 Other Activities
o 10.2 Communications Report, June 2013
+ 10.2.1 Major announcements
+ 10.2.2 Major Storylines through June
+ 10.2.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 10.2.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 10.2.5 Media Contact
+ 10.2.6 Wikipedia Signpost
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for May:
*522 million* (+0.97% compared with May; +5.97% compared with the
previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release June data later
in July)
Page requests for June:
*21.1 billion* (+0.7% compared with May; +17.1% 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 May 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*80,611* (-0.19% compared with May / -1.92% 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):
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_May_2013_-…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of May 31, 2013
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_May_2013.…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of May 31, 2013
(Financial information is only available through May 2013 at the time of
this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date May 31, 2013.
Revenue $50,559,430
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $13,523,471
Fundraiser Group $3,265,731
Grantmaking & Programs Group $8,284,686
Governance Group $692,321
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $2,777,192
Finance/HR/Admin Group $5,272,075
Total Expenses $33,815,476
Total surplus $16,743,954
* Revenue for the month of May is $0.12MM versus plan of $0.28MM,
approximately $159K or 57% under plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $50.56MM versus plan of $45.79MM,
approximately $4.77MM or 10% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of May is $2.97MM versus plan of $4.01MM,
approximately $1.04MM or 26% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, internet hosting, and grant expenses (FDC
grants) partially offset by higher capital expenses, outside
contract services, and travel expenses.
* Year-to-date expenses is $33.82MM versus plan of $38.08MM,
approximately $4.26MM or 11% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, internet hosting, grant expenses (FDC grants),
and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal expenses, bank
fees, outside contract services, and personal property tax expenses.
* Cash position is $42.7MM as of May 31, 2013.
== Highlights ==
=== First workshop on how to evaluate the success of organized
Wikimedia activites ===
On June 22–23, the first workshop on the design and evaluation of
programs
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/11/finding-out-what-works-first-workshop…>
(organized activities) in the Wikimedia movement took place. The event
was held Budapest, Hungary by the Wikimedia Foundation, in partnership
with Wikimedia Magyarország, the local chapter. The workshop brought
together 21 program leaders from 15 countries to learn the basic
concepts of program evaluation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/program_evaluation>. The success of the
workshop itself was evaluated, too: Surveys before and after the
workshop showed that a majority of the participants left with a better
understanding of these terms and concepts.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor_-_Editing_references_1…>
One of the tasks made easier by VisualEditor: References can now be
edited and added in a format that is more convenient than the <ref> tags
in the middle of the page’s source wikitext.
=== Preparations for the launch of VisualEditor and Universal Language
Selector ===
In June, work was completed on major new features for VisualEditor (the
visual interface to edit wiki pages without markup), in preparation for
its launch for all logged-in editors on the English Wikipedia on July 1
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/visualeditor-beta-rollout/>. It
is becoming available to most other Wikipedians during the rest of July.
Also in June, the Universal Language Selector
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/universal-language-selector-uls-deplo…>
began to be deployed to all Wikimedia projects. It allows users to
configure language settings like interface language, fonts, and input
methods (keyboard mappings) in a flexible way. By July 1, it was
available on more than 150 wikis.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ULS-Display-Settings.png>
Universal Language Selector: A logged-in user is choosing the language
which they prefer for the interface menus on the English Wikipedia
=== Community input invited for privacy policy update ===
In preparation for an update of the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy
policy (the first since 2008), the Legal and Community Advocacy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy> (LCA)
team has invited
participation in a community discussion period
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy…>,
lasting until July 18. The goal was to get initial input about what
privacy concerns community members have, what they find important, and
what they would like to see in the next version of the privacy policy.
The community was also asked to provide input on practices regarding the
Wikimedia trademarks
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark_practices_discussion>.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for June 2013 can
be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/June
Department Highlights
Major news in June include (see also general "Highlights" section
):
* The preparation for the activation of VisualEditor
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/06/preparing-for-visualeditor-on-all-wik…>
to most Wikipedia sites, and its debut on the English Wikipedia
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/visualeditor-beta-rollout/>
on July 1;
* News around Language engineering
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/03/language-engineering-development-upda…>,
including the activation
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/universal-language-selector-uls-deplo…>
of the Universal Language Selectors on many wikis;
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VisualEditor-Parsoid_-_2013-07_Metr…>
VisualEditor presentation slides (July 11)
=== VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal>
===
In June, the team completed major new features for VisualEditor (the
visual interface to edit wiki pages without markup) in preparation for
making it available to most Wikipedia users in July. The editor is now
capable of letting users edit the majority of content without needing to
use wikitext: it supports text, as well as adding and editing inclusions
of references, templates, categories and media items. We organized an
A/B test for new user accounts on the English Wikipedia, with half of
them getting VisualEditor ahead of the wider release. There were also a
number of user interface improvements, and many bugs uncovered by the
community were fixed. The team was expanded with four dedicated new
members, who will help community members use VisualEditor, and ensure
that feedback will be focused and lead to rapid improvements.
VisualEditor relies on Parsoid, the software that converts wikitext to
annotated HTML behind the scenes. This month, Parsoid was activated on a
new set of servers, and started to track all edits and template / image
updates from all Wikipedia sites. The goal was to test Parsoid's
performance in preparation for the activation of VisualEditor on almost
all Wikipedia sites. Optimization improvements made earlier (notably
using caching) proved effective, as servers seemed to handle the
increased load well. Good performance allowed the team to focus on
improving the conversion to wikitext, in order to avoid conversion
errors and wikitext corruption.
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
In June, we released more features and bug fixes for Notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications)> on the English Wikipedia
and mediawiki.org. We added a confirmation button for the "Thanks"
feature, and added a link to the difference between versions of the page
for talk page and interactive notifications. Development of HTML Email
notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#HTML_single_email_…>,
as well as of new metrics dashboards
<http://ee-dashboard.wmflabs.org/dashboards/enwiki-features>, continued.
We ran a week-long A/B test of new user activity
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Notifications/Experiment_1/Results>,
and results show
that new users who received Echo notifications made more edits than
those who did not, but their edits were reverted slightly more often.
Later this Summer, we plan to enable Notifications on more wikis,
starting with Meta and the French Wikipedia.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Metrics_Meeting_July_2013_04.jpg>
Erik Möller explaining first results about the impact of GettingStarted
This month, we also activated features and fixed bugs for the Article
Feedback Tool <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5>
(AFT5) on the English, French and German Wikipedia. An opt-in feature
now allows to enable or disable feedback on a page. The metrics
dashboards
<http://ee-dashboard.wmflabs.org/dashboards/enwiki-features#article_feedback…>
show how the new moderation tools are being used: for example, about
half of moderated feedback is marked as 'no action needed', and about a
tenth as 'useful'. The team supported a wider activation of AFT5 on over
40,000 articles on the French Wikipedia; as for the German community,
they elected not to adopt the tool. Feature development has now ended
for this project, and we plan to make AFT5 available to other wiki
projects in the coming weeks.
The Editor Engagement Experiments (E3) team continued work on its
experiments related to onboarding new Wikipedians
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/onboarding_new_Wikipedians>, and launched
several new tools to Wikimedia projects. The team began running
campaigns <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Campaigns> to learn about
how many editors sign up on the top 10 Wikipedias, and how many sign up
via the invitation to "Join Wikipedia" on the login page (see the list
of active campaigns
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Account_creation_campaigns>
and
analysis). Another tool, the CoreEvents extension
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CoreEvents>, now logs MediaWiki core
activity, like preference updates and page saves across all projects.
For the GettingStarted
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted> project, the team
conducted usability testing
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians/user_testing#Test…>
of new designs. the E3 team also improved and refined the guided tours
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/guided_tours> extension, including adding
usability enhancements like new interface animations, support for
community tours, and bug fixing. Work has begun on an experiment to
deliver guided tours
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Guided_tours> to all
first-time
editors. After the VisualEditor launch on the English Wikipedia, we
started a micro-survey of newly-registered users
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Gender_micro-survey> to give
us a first systematic look
at the gender diversity of those creating accounts.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia-Metrics-Meeting-July-11-2…>
Maryana Pinchuk presenting about mobile uploads
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
This month, the Mobile team launched a new Wikipedia Zero
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> partnership with Dialog in Sri
Lanka. On the technical side, we fixed user interface bugs and enhanced
the tool to configure partnerships. We also improved logging and
debugging for identification of anomalous access.
We also focused on improving education around mobile uploads
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Uploads>, including an
interactive Commons tutorial and first-time user copyright and scope
check. The "Nearby" feature
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/05/29/wikipedia-nearby-beta/> was
activated on the default mobile site, allowing users to find articles
near them that are in need of images, take photos and upload them via
mobile.
In beta, we started working on an improved navigation
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Wikipedia_navigation> for the
site and for articles. This includes design tweaks to the left
navigation menu, and a new in-article contributory navigation that
combines article actions (edit, upload, and watch) with a talk page
link. We also experimented with integration of user Notifications, which
now work on the English Wikipedia mobile site. We hope make this feature
available to all mobile users in July.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
We received a $300,000 grant from the Knight Foundation. This is the
first installment of a two-year grant we were awarded for winning the
Knight News Challenge for Wikipedia Zero.
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
* The team prepared to begin fundraising worldwide with the start of
the new fiscal year in July. An update on this testing
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013#July_1.2C_2013_Update>
was posted on Meta.
* Spent three days working with the fundraising staff from the German
chapter to prepare for the 2013 fundraiser.
== Grantmaking ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grantmaking_team_photo_June_2013.JPG>
Fun photo of the WMF Grantmaking Team. Taken in the Hub, San Francisco,
during a team retreat to work on planning for FY2013-14 (see below).
=== Strategic Goals Metrics ===
Metric Value MoM MoM% Chart
Global South Active Editors (5+ edits in main namespace) 15.6k +563
+3.7% Increase [1]
<http://gp.wmflabs.org/graphs/global_north_south_active_editors>
=== Funds Dissemination Committee ===
* Two new members were elected to the FDC, and the ombudsperson was
re-elected! The FDC welcomes Delphine Ménard and Cristian Consonni,
and also welcomes back the ombudsperson, Susana Morais.
* FDC staff summary
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/Staff…>
of the first round of progress reports for 2012-2013 Round 1
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round1>
was published after
the reports <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Reports>
were submitted by 30 April.
The next round of progress reports for 2012-2013 Round 1
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Reporting_requirements>
will be due by 30 July.
* were submitted by 8 June.
* WMF staff is preparing to announce eligibility for FDC 2013-2014
Round 1 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility>
on 15 July for the. Final
eligibility will be confirmed by 15 September, and proposals are due
on 1 October.
* The ombudsperson's annual report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Ombudsperson_annual_report_-_201…>
was published.
* The FDC portal is being re-worked to improve user experience.
Feedback is being collected
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Feedback>.
* A 2012-2013 Round 2 Process Survey was conducted, and analysis is
underway. A report is forthcoming.
=== WMF Grants ===
* 3 new project grants were approved in June.
* 7 grant reports were accepted in June.
==== Grants awarded in June 2013 ====
* Grant to continue encouraging GLAM institutions in Denmark to have
Wikipedians-in-Residence:
Grants:WM_DK/Wikipedian-in-Residence_Scholarship,_II
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_DK/Wikipedian-in-Residence_Schola…>
* Grant to purchase 500 WikiReaders and distribute them to selected
schools that have limited or no internet access:
Grants:Aislinn_Dewey/Distribute_WikiReaders_to_Schools
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Aislinn_Dewey/Distribute_WikiReaders…>
* A project aiming to increase Wikipedia coverage of iconic buildings
around Johannesburg with historic and heritage importance:
Grants:WM_ZA/joburgpedia-2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_ZA/joburgpedia-2013>
==== Reports accepted in June 2013 ====
* Grants:WM_RS/Wikimedia_CEE_Conference_2012
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wikimedia_CEE_Conference_2012>
* 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…>
* Grants:WM_RS/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Serbia_2012
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Serbia…>
* Grants:User:HstryQT_-_GLAMWiki_US_Consortium/Advisory_Group_Meeting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:User:HstryQT_-_GLAMWiki_US_Consortiu…>
* Grants:WM_PH/Open_Web_Day
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Open_Web_Day>
* Grants:WM_FI/Tervetuloa_Wikipediaan!
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_FI/Tervetuloa_Wikipediaan!>
* Grants:WM_CL/Start-up
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CL/Start-up>
==== Participation Support ====
* 3 new requests were approved in June.
* No grant reports were accepted in June.
===== Requests awarded in June 2013 =====
* Participation:Futureimperfect/_Free_Minds_free_People_and_IDEC_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Futureimperfect/_Free_Minds_f…>
* Participation:Thelmadatter/2013_Congreso_de_La_Asociación_Centroamericana_de_Lingüística_(ACALING)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Thelmadatter/2013_Congreso_de…>
* Participation:Iopensa/WikiSym_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Iopensa/WikiSym_2013>
===== Reports accepted in June 2013 =====
No reports were accepted in June 2013.
=== Individual Engagement Grants ===
* A work sprint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Build/May_2013_sprint_plan>
on
the Grants:IdeaLab
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab> continued, in
preparation
for a July (re)launch of the space aimed at cultivating ideas for
proposals in advance of August’s IEG open call. The updates will
make it easier to browse and connect with ideas, and will highlight
recent activity.
* IEG midpoint and final report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-reporting2>
templates have been completed and made available to grantees. The
first 5 IEGrantee midpoint reports are due July 15th.
* Siko Bouterse and IEGrantee Ocaasi, along with volunteer Wikimedians
the wub and Valeriej, attended Open Help Conference
<http://openhelpconference.com/2013/sessions/> to present, discuss
and worksprint on Wikimedia projects like Teahouse, IdeaLab, the
Wikipedia Adventure, and the Help Project. Outcomes and learnings
are shared in a blog post
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/03/wikipedians-open-help-conference/>.
* A small July meeting was organized to brainstorm and strategize on
the gender gap for the coming year. Outcomes will be reported in July.
* The Wikipedia Library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library>,
our
8th and final round 1 IEGrant project to begin work, launched this
month. IEGrantee Ocaasi visited San Francisco to participate in a
tech roundtable and while in the Bay Area he met with staffers and
local organizations to kickoff the project. A full account of June
activity is reported on the project page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library/Timeline>.
* All IEGrantee projects continue! Some grantees are contributing to
the WMF blog
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/individual-engagement-grants/>, and
all grantees' progress is chronicled each month at:
o Grants:IEG/Build an effective method of publicity in
PRChina/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Build_an_effective_method_of_pub…>
o Grants:IEG/Consolidate wikiArS to involve art schools/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Consolidate_wikiArS_to_involve_a…>
o Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource strategic vision/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_v…>
o Grants:IEG/MediaWiki data browser/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_data_browser/Timeline>
o Grants:IEG/Replay Edits/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Replay_Edits/Timeline>
o Grants:IEG/The Wikipedia Adventure/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Adventure/Timeline>
o Grants:IEG/The Wikipedia Library/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library/Timeline>
o Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_and_Javanese_script/Timeline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_and_Javanese_script/Ti…>
* Haitham Shammaa transitioned from Contribution Research Manager into
a new role in the Grantmaking Department’s Learning & Evaluation
team. As Learning Strategist, Global South, Haitham will support
Grantmaking and Global South strategy with research,
experimentation, and tools to enhance learning and data-driven
decision making.
* Learnings from an experiment aimed at recruiting editors from the
Philippines on English Wikipedia have been shared in a blog post
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/02/english-wikipedia-editor-pilot-philipp…>.
=== Learning & Evaluation ===
* Learned a lot from the Grantmaking for Effective Organizations
(GEO)'s learning conference in Miami. Met with various grantmakers
to talk about how to promote learning internally as well as amongst
grantmakers. Joined group of grantmakers that are working on funding
networks and evaluating results – a tricky thing to do! Conference
notes and speakers can be found here
<http://geofunders.org/conferences/learning-conference-2013>.
* Hosted our first grantmaking team retreat (see photo above)! We
hosted various outside panelists, including Kate Kroeger, Pete York,
and Judd Antin. We spent time developing our action calendar and
learning goals for the next fiscal year.
* Supported program evaluation team in the development of the Budapest
workshop
* Began planning for Wikimania Learning Day – a day to host a few of
the different grantees to work on our collective strategies for
learning and evalution of programs and organizations.
* Transitioned Grantmaking Data Manager Evan Rosen over to the WMF
Analytics team. Fortunately, Evan still is specifically supporting
the needs of the Grantmaking & Programs teams! Evan is still working
on the UMAPI tool; update for the tool should be included in the
Analytics' monthly overview report.
* Collected feedback (via survey) on the FDC Round 2 process.
* Working on survey development for the Grants Program
* Working on the tiger team behind the IdeaLab to create a great
collaboration space for new ideas. Mostly did bot work to spotlight
different contributors and ideas to encourage participation and
collaboration. Work included:
o CONTRIBUTORS: regular profiles are found here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Introductions>,
and are created by the
users themselves. GrantsBot sorts this list so that the profiles
of people who have been most active in recent weeks are listed
at the top.
o CONTRIBUTORS: featured profiles are placed on one of six
rotating 'gallery' pages (like this one
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Introductions/Featured/6>)
and will be
displayed on the IdeaLab front page, a mockup of which is here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Heatherawalls/sandbox>.
Currently, the most active
participants are 'featured' every week, but we can also set
other criteria for who we choose to feature (such as people who
just joined).
o IDEAS: regular idea profiles have to be created from scratch.
GrantsBot does this by grabbing metadata about each Idea
proposal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Accessibility_-_reading,_reusing…>
(such as the creator name and the summary text listed in the
infobox) and dumps those into a profile template. The different
categories of idea proposal (currently 'new', 'participants
wanted', and 'IEG draft') are then displayed on this page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Ideas>. This
allows IdeaLab visitors to
browse the current ideas without having to visit each individual
proposal page.
o IDEAS: featured idea profiles are just a simplified version of
regular idea proposals. They go in a gallery page just like
person profiles and will be displayed on the front page of the
IdeaLab.
=== Brazil Catalyst Project ===
==== Data Analyses ====
* Second phase of data collection on CAPTCHA
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):HAndrade_(WMF)/Pesquisa_Vanda…>
took place.
* Under development:
o Configuration of Portuguese Wikipedia Data for automatic update
on Limn
o localization of Snuggle for the PT-WP
o Timeline: advancements on timeline prototype connecting events
to data on the PT-WP
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):JXavier_(WMF)/Linha_do_tempo>
==== Communications ====
Correio da Wikipedia: a site notice about the community newsletter -
Correio da Wikipedia, recently reactivated - was published and daily
accesses
<http://stats.grok.se/pt/latest90/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Correio_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia>
increased from 50 per day to up to almost 4300 a day.
==== Outreach ====
Participation in the International Free Software Forum (FISL) - Oona,
Henrique and Rodrigo Padula were at FISL to promote Wikimedia projects
and discuss potential partnerships (with both private and public
institutions). Henrique's presentation was featured on a tech website
("Fisl14: analista da Wikipédia ensina internautas a contribuir para
site
<http://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/noticia/2013/07/fisl-14-analista-da-wik…>")
==== Institutional Partnership ====
Draft on project and budget
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
shared for analyses
==== Education ====
* Hiring of the new education team:
o Offboarding of Everton: after 1,5 year working with us, Everton
Zanella Alvarenga has ended the transition period and left WMF
for Open Knowledge Foundation. Everton has built the education
program from scratch in Brazil, developing the pilot and
contributing very much to the catalyst program.
o Onboarding of Rodrigo Padula and Celio Costa:
+ Celio Costa (Usuário:Sturm
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:Sturm>) has been a
Wikipedian since 2004 and is one of the most active editors
in the Portuguese Wikipedia. He'll be working as the
consultant for Outreach. Holding a bachelor degree at
History and Linguistics, Celio has consistently promoted
Wikimedia projects as a volunteer and also the wiki practice
and use as a professional.
+ Rodrigo Padula is a researcher at the Federal University of
Rio de Janeiro, where he leads initiatives and
implementation of the Open Source Technologies Laboratory -
LAPTEL. For almost 8 years he’s been collaborating with
Mozilla Foundation, promoting Web technology and internet
freedom.
== Program Development ==
Department highlights
* The first Program Evaluation & Design Workshop took place in
Budapest, Hungary, June 22–23 (see also general "Highlights" section
and the blog post "Improving program performance:
first evaluation workshop in Budapest
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/11/finding-out-what-works-first-workshop…>")
* Wikipedia Zero is now available in Sri Lanka for the first time on
Dialog's mobile network, reaching over 8 million subscribers.
* Faris El-Gwely attended a conference at Dr. Yahia Fares de Medea
University in Algeria celebrating the success of the pilot of the
program at the university. Dr. Fareh Abdelhak worked with one class
in Algeria this term, and the students contributed 1.6 million bytes
of content to the Arabic Wikipedia.
=== Wikipedia Zero ===
* Wikipedia Zero is now available in Sri Lanka for the first time on
Dialog's mobile network, which is part of the Axiata group. Dialog
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_Axiata> is Sri Lanka's largest
telecommunications service provider with the country's largest
mobile phone network of over 8 million subscribers.
* Worked with Mozilla on marketing campaigns to promote the
availability of Wikipedia on Firefox OS in Eastern Europe
(with Engineering):
* Developed faster process for mobile carrier testing using partner
configuration pages
* Created semi-automated method of updating Varnish configurations,
thus facilitating the launch and update of Wikipedia Zero partnerships
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
United States and Canada
* Started sending out welcome packets to professors interested in
joining for the fall 2013 term.
Arab World
* Faris El-Gwely attended a celebration conference at Dr.Yahia Fares
de Medea University in Algeria to celebrate the success of the pilot
of the program at the university. Dr. Fareh Abdelhak worked with one
class in Algeria this term, and the students contributed 1.6 million
bytes of content to the Arabic Wikipedia.
* Students started editing again in Egypt after stopping for 20 days
because of final exams at the universities.
* Faris and faculty leaders started planning a celebration conference
in Cairo in August.
* Interviewed candidates for Arab World Program Manager position.
Communications
* Set up system for porting Training infrastructure to any wiki, and
tested it successfully with Czech Wikipedia.
* Launched community discussion of Commons brochure draft
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Welcome_to_Commons_brochure>.
* Worked with David Peters on a refresh of the Bookshelf piece
"Evaluating Wikipedia Article Quality".
* Reprinted "Instructor Basics", "The Syllabus", and "The Essentials"
brochures, with minor edits.
* Facilitated three blog posts on the Wikimedia blog:
o Wikipedia education projects in Thessaloniki
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/06/wikipedia-education-thessaloniki/>
(available in English and Greek)
o Communications students at Schreiner University reflect on their
Wikipedia assignment
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/10/schreiner-university-wikipedia-educati…>
o Starting an education program for small chapters 1.0
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/26/starting-an-education-program-for-smal…>
* Published two newsletters:
o 4 June 2013
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/4_June…>
o 18 June 2013
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/18_Jun…>
=== Program Evaluation and Design ===
* The first Program Evaluation & Design Workshop took place in
Budapest, Hungary, June 22–23. The event was held by the Wikimedia
Foundation, in partnership with Wikimedia Magyarország, the local
chapter. The workshop brought together 21 program leaders from 15
countries to learn gain a shared understanding of the basic concepts
of program evaluation and why it's a helpful skillset to learn when
executing Wikimedia focused programs such as GLAM content donations,
Wikipedia education programs, edit-a-thons/workshops, editing
contests, and photo upload contests (i.e. WikiLovesMonuments). A
blog post about the workshop is here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/11/finding-out-what-works-first-workshop…
* Prior to the workshop, Sarah Stierch encouraged the participants to
share their experiences with their respective programs online on Meta:
o Edit-a-thons and Workshops
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation/Share_Space/Edit-a-thons…>
o Wikipedia Education Program
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/Share_Space/W…>
o GLAM content donations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/Share_Space/G…>
o Wiki Loves / Takes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/Share_Space/W…>
o Contests
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/Share_Space/C…>
* Outcome of the workshop: Attendees were provided a pre and post
survey to fill out as part of evaluation of the workshop. The
surveys provided positive results, most participants entered the
workshop with little to moderate knowledge about program evaluation
and majority left the workshop with a better understanding. Majority
of participants also were highly satisified with the concept of
using logic models and 63% said they were "mostly" or "very" ready
to implement program evaluation in their programs.
* An announcement only mailing list has been created for Program
Evaluation & Design. Anyone is welcome to join it in order to learn
about the latest news, activities and events related to Program
Evaluation & Design:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-ped
* The team has started fleshing out a space on Meta for Program
Evaluation & Design
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design>. This
is
the main social space for everybody in the movement interested in
Program Evaluation & Design, and will serve as the main contact
point for interaction about the subject and resource center.
== Human Resources ==
The primary focus of work for June was annual reviews and annual
compensation increases and adjustments for every employee of the
Foundation. The other large pieces of work focused on adding index funds
to the portfolio of 401k plan options and hosting the annual summer
C-level retreat.
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
(see also: slides
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/143jtUmwGggT19y7SLvsv8zsO1ApMoMGFYJu…>
from the monthly metrics meeting)
* Peter Coombe, Fundraising Production Coordinator (Fundraiser)
* Toby Negrin, Director of Analytics (Engineering)
* Sean Pringle, Administrator, Database (Engineering)
* Ken Snider, Contractor for Wikimedia Operations team (Engineering)
New Volunteers
* Rita Chang (Legal & Community Advocacy)
* Joshua Errett (Legal & Community Advocacy)
* Alice Debois-Frogé (Legal & Community Advocacy)
* Donna Peterson (Legal & Community Advocacy)
* Sarah Mitroff (Legal & Community Advocacy)
New Legal Interns
* Matthew Collins (Columbia)
* Jenny Bloom (Harvard)
* Lukas Mezger (recent graduate from Germany)
New Contractors
* Celio Costa (Grantmaking & Programs)
* Patrick Early (Engineering)
* Erica Litrenta (Engineering)
* Kartik Mistry (Engineering)
* Rodrigo Padula (Grantmaking & Programs)
* Keegan Peterzell (Engineering)
* Sherry Snyder (Engineering)
* Dhaval Trivedi (Engineering)
* Brian Wolff (Engineering)
Contracts Extended
* Michael Guss (Administration / also a volunteer with Legal &
Community Advocacy)
* Michael Ray (Administration)
Departure
* Luke Welling
* Tiffany Li
Contracts Ended
* Everton Alvarenga
* Missy Black
* Alexander Kuiper
* Nischay Nahata
* Rebecca Neumann
* Robert Smith
* Ion Vasquez
Department Changes – move to Engineering Analytics
* Dan Andreescu
* Andrew Otto
* Evan Rosen
* Dario Taraborelli
* Diederik Van Liere
* Erik Zachte
New Postings
Fundraiser Program Manager Director of Program, Mobile Linux System
Administrator (Systems & Network) - Part Time
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
June Actual: 145
June Total Plan: 174
June Filled: 4, Month Attrition: 2
YTD Filled: 62, YTD Attrition: 29
4 Positions On Hold at FYE
Remaining Open Reqs to rollover into the next fiscal year
29
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* We have negotiated a new foreign exchange rate which will lower the
cost of sending payments in a variety of currencies.
* The Form 990 FAQ for 2011 has been posted
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Form_990_Questions_and_Answers_(2011)>.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
=== LCA Report, June 2013 ===
The Legal and Community Advocacy Department has been working extensively
with the community regarding a number of topics, including PRISM
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:PRISM>, trademarks
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trademark_practices_discussion>,
and privacy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_(2013)>.
More detail about
these ongoing discussions can be found below under "Other Activities
".
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 23
* Completed : 26
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 13
* Approved : 3
* Pending : 7
* Denied : 3
==== Domains Obtained ====
Acquired: wikipedia.in, wikimanialondon.org, wikipedia.us
==== Coming & Going ====
* We welcome our new summer legal interns, Matthew Collins (Columbia),
Jenny Bloom (Harvard), and Lukas Mezger (our first international
legal intern, from the German community)!
* We say goodbye to our fantastic summer intern, Tiffany Li
(Georgetown) as she heads back to Washington DC to spend the second
half of her summer at a start-up. We wish her the best of luck!
* We welcome Keegan Peterzell, Erica Litrenta, Patrick Earley, and
Sherry Snyder, who will be working as community liaisons to assist
with the Visual Editor roll-out (seconded to LCA from Engineering).
* We also welcome Joshua Errett, Donna Peterson, Alice Debois-Froge,
Sarah Mitroff, and Michael Guss as volunteers who will be assisting
our Communications team!
==== Other Activities ====
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Law,_Technology,_and_Social_Change_…>
Video recording of the “Technology, Law, and Social Change” presentation
and panel
* LCA launched a *community discussion
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:PRISM> about PRISM*
and what, if any, role WMF and the community should play. The
consultations showed limited support for advocacy about government
surveillance, and we are currently evaluating advocacy options that
are consistent with this guidance.
* LCA launched a *community discussion about privacy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_(2013)>*
generally to
engage the community and get initial input about what privacy
concerns they have, what they find important, and what they would
like to see in the next version of the privacy policy. The
discussion is scheduled to close on July 18 and has been very
helpful in shaping the forthcoming draft of the privacy policy,
which is set for release for public comment at the beginning of
August. Special thanks to members of the community who have
participated in this important discussion. We look forward to the
community’s comments on the draft as soon as it’s completed.
* Simultaneously, LCA has been working extensively with the entire
Foundation to create a *new version of the privacy policy* that
reflects the mission and movement values. Special thanks to members
of the tech department for the continued support and guidance. They
have been essential to development of the new policy.
* LCA launched a *community discussion on trademarks
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trademark_practices_discussion>*
to get the community’s
thoughts on how we should employ our trademarks for community
members, movement organizations, and third parties. LCA will use
this input to shape how the next version of the trademark policy is
drafted. Once this discussion closes and the draft is developed, the
draft of the new trademark policy will be released for public comment.
* LCA presented a proposed process for creating a *new Wikivoyage logo
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage/Logo_announcement>*
and the community gave
significant input on the process. Members of the community have
begun submitting potential designs
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage/Logo_2013/Submissions>
and we are looking forward
to seeing the community showcasing their creativity in the coming weeks.
* LCA worked to prepare its *first public event* with General Counsel,
Geoff Brigham, keynoting and a panel of speakers from Mozilla, the
EFF, Google, and Twitter speaking on “Technology, Law, and Social
Change” on July 10. About 100 local attorneys, law students, and
people interested in tech law attended eventually.
* LCA was happy to announce
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/26/wikimedia-foundation-legal-victory-ita…>
a *major legal victory in Italy* in a lawsuit brought by former
Italian Minister of Defense, Cesar Previti.
* LCA is working hard in cooperation with the tech department on
*Visual Editor* and has coordinated the work of the recently hired
community liaisons to do so. We are beginning to think beyond the
en-wiki deployment and are putting architecture in place to support
the deployment on non-English wikis. We have supported the triage
and elimination of almost 200 bugs since deployment and coordinated
a 24-hour coverage shift to support the deployment.
* LCA is excited to present on three topics at *Wikimania* 2013! We
encourage the community to sign up and attend any (or all!) of the
following presentations: Our Legal Strategy Going Forward: A Talk
with the WMF General Counsel
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Discussing_Our_Legal_S…>;
Open Culture, Open Data, Open Source
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Open_Culture,_Open_Dat…>;
and Working Together, But Separately: A Gathering of Functionaries
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Working_together,_but_…>.
=== Communications Report, June 2013 ===
Although we issued no major announcements in June, it was still a busy
month. We worked on business planning and transition details for the
Wikimedia shop, reviewed and implemented designs for revisions to the
Wikimedia blog, kicked off some new design projects, and resumed work on
an upcoming Wikipedia Zero announcement. In June we also began
collaborating with the Wikimania organizing team to coordinate press
activities for the upcoming conference.
==== Major announcements ====
No major press announcements in June.
==== Major Storylines through June ====
Wikimedia response to PRISM/NSA controversy (June 14)
The Edward Snowden-led leak of documents relating to the NSA's PRISM
program was a major global news story in June. Wikipedia and the WMF
sites received mostly neutral mentions (faring better than other top web
properties), particularly following the posting of a notice of community
discussion about the topic on the WMF blog.
(related blog post)
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/14/prism-surveillance-wikimedia/http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/17/wikimedia-foundation-says-it-hasnt…http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/19/nsa-prism-privacy-martin-sorrellhttp://www.electronista.com/articles/13/06/17/joins.open.letter.to.us.congr…
Wikimedia Foundation victorious in Cesare Previti lawsuit (June 26)
The Foundation's legal team announced a victory against former Italian
Minister of Defence Cesare Previti in June. Previti accused the
Foundation of providing a venue for hosting inaccurate and defamatory
statements. The Civil Court of Rome disagreed with Previti's claim and
found in the Foundation's favor, which resulted in major, largely
positive coverage in the Italian mainstream press.
(related blog post)
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/26/wikimedia-foundation-legal-victory-it…http://thenextweb.com/eu/2013/06/27/wikimedia-prevails-in-italian-lawsuit-b…http://www.lastampa.it/2013/06/29/tecnologia/wikipedia-non-responsabile-dei…http://www.today.it/politica/cesare-previti-perde-causa-wikipedia.html
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Adding Our Voice to the Wikipedia Chorus
<https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/2013/06/20/adding-our-…>
| Brooklyn Museum | June 20
Internet Hall of Fame to induct top names in tech
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57591045-93/internet-hall-of-fame-to-induc…>
| CNET | June 26
When The Last of Us are Left, How Long Would it Take to Transcribe
Wikipedia?
<http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/overthinking-it/2013/06/27/when-the-las…>
| Scientific American | June 27
Wikipedia contributors ‘should be proud’
<http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/wikipedia-contributors-should-be…>
| Times Higher Education | June 30
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Blog.wikimedia.org ran 33 posts <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/> in
June 2013. Thirteen posts were multilingual
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>, including Spanish,
Bangla, German, French, Greek, Russian, Catalan, Italian, Ukranian, and
Armenian. Some highlights:
* *Preparing for VisualEditor on all Wikipedias
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/06/preparing-for-visualeditor-on-all-wiki…>
| June 6, 2013*
* *Wikimedians help translate renowned classical music lyrics to
Ukranian
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/07/translate-classical-music-lyrics-ukrai…>
| June 7, 2013*
* *Call for input on the new Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy-…>
| June 18, 2013*
* *How the Wikimedia Foundation’s values are changing the world: The
Bolivian experience
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/27/wikimedia-foundation-values-bolivian-e…>
| June 27, 2013*
==== Media Contact ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#June_2013
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for June 2013:
* Volume 9, Issue 22
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-06…>,
5 June 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 23
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-06…>,
12 June 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 24
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-06…>,
19 June 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 25
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-06…>,
26 June 2013
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in June 2013:
1. Christine Cavanaugh (CCS Consulting)
2. Stephen Josephs (7 Powers Consulting & facilitator)
3. Barnet Bain (independent consultant & facilitator)
4. Frits Habberman (CTO of PopCap)
5. Jailza Pauly (Haas Business School)
6. Chema Hernández Gil (SF Bike Coalition)
7. Simone Syed (Mithril)
8. Scott Norman (Mithril)
9. Caroline Simard (Stanford University)
10. Rebecca York (Adyen)
11. Jon Fuller (Adyen)
12. Lisa Groesz (Taos)
13. Peter Cooper (Paul Hastings LLP)
14. Rishi Sharma (Paul Hastings LLP)
15. Dennis Porter (Suf)
16. Brian Andersen (Suf)
17. Tom Johnson (Oregon State University)
18. Kevin Phillips (Forte)
19. Adria Richards (BYAG)
20. Shauna Gordon-Mckeon (OpenHatch)
21. Cosimo Cecchi (Endless Mobile)
22. Debbie Wolter (CCS Consulting)
23. Mike Meghan (CB2 Construction)
24. Ohana Hernandez (SFBC)
25. Kellie Brownell (Giant Rabbit)
26. Vijay Toke (Hiaring & Smith LLP)
27. Joey Daoud (Knight Foundation)
28. Sophie Österberg (WMSE)
29. Isabella Bagneros (Twitter)
30. Tom Simonite (MIT Technology Review)
31. Ben Dierker (Walker)
32. Joe Vasquez (Hero @ Home)
33. Christophe Henner (Wikimedia France)
34. Jim Chen (CTBT)
35. Aloka Archige (Forte)
36. Sam Giroy (Forte)
37. Kevin Phillips (J&K)
38. Alexis Rossi (Internet Archive)
39. Will Norris (Google)
40. Daniel Shapiro (Wells Fargo)
41. Pierros Papadeas (Community Manager at Mozilla)
42. Alex Wafula (Wikimedian and Mozilla Rep from Kenya)
43. Josh Lim (Wikimedia Philippines)
44. Lorenzo Losa (Wikimedia Italy)
45. Pedro Lopez (Data Safe)
46. Anna Nygren (Telenor)
47. Taylor Keep (Vital)
48. Lee Eckert (Vital)
49. Sam Slater (Vital)
50. Lisa Groesz (Taos)
51. Patrick Chow (change.org)
52. Dennis Porter (Saf)
53. Pedro Torrecillas (Imagine.cc)
54. Albert Moro (Imagine.cc)
55. Laura Dubreuil (Imagine.cc)
56. Sebastian Romero (Imagine.cc)
57. Nuria Lao (Imagine.cc)
58. Phillipe Delespesse (Imagine.cc)
59. Anna Sala (Imagine.cc)
60. Luis Montes de Oca (Imagine.cc)
61. Oriana Mendez Lopez (Imagine.cc)
62. Xavier (Imagine.cc)
63. Rosa Monge (Imagine.cc)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
