Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for May 2014, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_May_2014
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,_May_2014
Many thanks to those who have translated the April "Highlights" into
various 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 June issue are welcome until Wedneday, July 2 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_ite…
.
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, May 2014
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_June_5,…>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of May
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2014-06-05>
(June 5, 2014)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 12 new individual engagement grants
o 3.2 Inviting anonymous editors to join the Wikipedia community
o 3.3 Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) recommendations
announced
* 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 Online Fundraising
* 6 Grantmaking
o 6.1 Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee)
o 6.2 Project and Event Grants
+ 6.2.1 Grants funded in May 2014
o 6.3 Travel & Participation Support
+ 6.3.1 Requests awarded in May 2014
+ 6.3.2 Reports accepted in May 2014
o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants
o 6.5 Learning and Evaluation (including Program Evaluation)
+ 6.5.1 Grants Programs
+ 6.5.2 Grants Operations and tools
+ 6.5.3 Org effectiveness
+ 6.5.4 Other
o 6.6 Wikipedia Education Program
+ 6.6.1 Global programs
+ 6.6.2 Arab world programs
+ 6.6.3 Communications
* 7 Human Resources
o 7.1 May Staff Changes
o 7.2 May Statistics
* 8 Finance and Administration
* 9 Legal & Community Advocacy Department
o 9.1 LCA Report, May 2014
+ 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
* 10 Communications Report, May 2014
o 10.1 Major announcements
o 10.2 Major Storylines through May
o 10.3 Other worthwhile reads
o 10.4 WMF Blog posts
o 10.5 Media Contact
o 10.6 Wikipedia Signpost
o 10.7 Communications Design
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for April:
*465 million* (-6.00% compared with March; -9.92% compared with the
previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release May data later
in June)
Page requests for May:
*20.654 billion* (-0.2% compared with April; -1.6% compared with the
previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation content projects including mobile access,
but excluding Wikidata <https://www.wikidata.org> and the Wikipedia
main portal page <https://www.wikipedia.org/>.)
Active Registered Editors for April 2014 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*75,364* (-2.25% compared with March / -7.25% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects.
Note: These numbers were recently adjusted
<http://infodisiac.com/blog/2014/06/reassessment-of-active-editors/>
to correct a bug involving IPV6 addresses.)
*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_April_2014…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of April 30, 2014
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_April_201…>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of April 30, 2014
(Financial information is only available through April 2014 at the time
of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date April 30, 2014.
Revenue 49,194,784
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group 13,800,658
Fundraising Group 3,209,299
Grantmaking Group 1,472,907
Programs Group 1,493,168
Grants 4,066,472
Governance Group 725,565
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group 3,256,914
Finance/HR/Admin Group 5,484,592
Total Expenses 33,509,575
Total surplus (15,685,209)
/in US dollars/
* Revenue for the month of April is $8.24MM versus plan of $1.71MM,
approximately $6.53MM or 383% over plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $49.19MM versus plan of $46.76MM,
approximately $2.43MM or 5% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of April is $3.19MM versus plan of $4.69MM,
approximately $1.50MM or 32% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, FDC grants,
and payment processing fees partially offset by higher legal fees,
outside contract services, and travel expenses related to community
convening events.
* Year-to-date expenses is $33.51MM versus plan of $41.06MM,
approximately $7.55MM or 18% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees,
payment processing fees, staff development expenses, grants and
travel expenses partially offset by higher outside contract services.
* Cash and Investments - $55.6MM as of April 30, 2014.
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZoomProof_Wikisource_tool_concept.o…>
Demo video for "ZoomProof", a tool that will facilitate proofreading
work on the Armenian Wikisource - one of the 12 new IEG projects
== Highlights ==
=== 12 new individual engagement grants ===
The Foundation's Individual Engagement Grants
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> (IEG)
support projects from individuals or small teams to organize, build,
create, research or facilitate something that enhances the work of
Wikimedia’s volunteers. The 12 winning grants from the first round of
2014 were announced on May 30
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/30/new-grantees-fresh-perspectives-resea…>.
</w/index.php?title=File:Growth_team_update_(June_2014).pdf&page=8>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Growth_team_update_(June_2014).pdf?…>
Test of a message inviting anonymous editors to create an account,
displayed after they have made an edit (presentation slide)
=== Inviting anonymous editors to join the Wikipedia community ===
On the English, German, French, and Italian Wikipedias, the Foundation's
Growth team conducted two experiments to test user interface changes
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/16/anonymous-editor-acquisition/>
for encouraging anonymous editors to create an account and join the
community of registered users. In the first A/B test, a recommendation
to create an account was shown when the user clicks "edit", and in the
second test, the invitation was displayed after the users saved an edit.
Preliminary data strongly suggested a positive effect on new registrations.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GLEE_FDC_update_-_Metrics_June_5.pd…>
Overview over the FDC proposals from round 2 (presentation slides)
=== Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) recommendations announced ===
In May, the nine-member Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) met for its
face-to-face deliberations and published its recommendations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2013-2014_ro…>
to the WMF Board
of Trustees on proposals from four organizations (three chapters and the
Foundation) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals> on
how to spend Wikimedia
donation money. The Board will make its decision on these
recommendations by 1 July. The Advisory Group to the FDC
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee_Advisory_Group>
also met in
Frankfurt for their final meeting, to provide the Executive Director of
the WMF with a recommendation on whether or not the FDC process (begun
in 2012) should continue, and if so, what modifications should be made.
Their unanimously agreed to recommend
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemi…>
to continue the process.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for May 2014 can
be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2014/May
Department Highlights
Major news in May include:
* changes to the mobile site to better show the editors behind the
curtain
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/02/the-wikipedia-editors-behind-the-curt…>;
* the announcement of CyrusOne in Dallas
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/05/wikimedia-foundation-selects-cyrusone…>
as the location of the new Wikimedia data center;
* the Zürich hackathon
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/10/tech-wizards-behind-wikipedia-meet-in…>
and Lila Tretikov's perspective
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/15/hacker-osmosis-ideas-european-hackath…>
on it;
* experiments by the Growth team to encourage more contributors to
register
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/16/anonymous-editor-acquisition/>;
* the one-year anniversary
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/20/celebrating-one-year-of-tech-news/>
of the launch of Tech News;
* the launch of Wikipedia Zero in Nepal
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/22/wikipedia-zero-shall-accelerate-wikip…>
in partnership with NCELL;
* the launch of a second request for proposals
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/27/request-for-proposals-mediawiki-relea…>
for the release management of MediaWiki for third-party users.
=== VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal>
===
In May, the VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> team
worked on the performance stability of the editor, rolled out a major
new feature to help users better edit articles, and made some
improvements to other features to increase their ease of use and
understandability, fixing 75 bugs and tickets
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?list_id=318847&order=priority%2C…>.
The new *citation editor* is now available to all VisualEditor users on
the English, Polish, and Czech Wikipedias, with instructions
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Citation_tool> on how to enable
it on other wikis. The citation and template dialogs were simplified to
avoid technical language and some outcomes that were unexpected for
users. As part of this, the citation icons were replaced with a new,
clearer set, and the template hinting system now lets wikis mark
template parameters as "suggested", as a step below the existing
"required" state. The *formula editor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/Formulae>* is now
available to all VisualEditor users, and a new Beta Feature giving a
tool that lets you set the *language of content*
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/Language> was made
available for testing and feedback. Following a new set of user testing,
the *toolbar* was tweaked, moving the list and indent buttons to a
drop-down to make them less prominent, and removing the gallery button
which is rarely used and confused users. The *mobile version* of
VisualEditor, currently available for alpha testers, was expanded to
also have the new citation editor available, and had some significant
performance improvements made, especially for long or complex pages.
Work continued on making VisualEditor more *performant and reliable*,
and key tasks like *keyboard accessibility* have progressed. The
deployed version of the code was updated five times in the regular
release cycle.
Progress was also made on *Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>*,
the parsing program that works behind the scenes of VisualEditor. The
team continued with ongoing bug fixes and bi-weekly deployments. Besides
the user-facing bug fixes, we also improved our *tracing support* (to
aid debugging), and did some *performance improvements*. We also
finished implementing support for HTML/visual *editing of transclusion
parameters*. This is not yet enabled in production while we finish up
any additional performance tweaks on it. As part of the Google Summer of
Code program, one student is working on a wikilint project
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/Linting/GSoC_2014_Application> to
*detect broken/bad wikitext* in wiki pages.
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
In May, the Flow <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow> team prepared the new
*front-end redesign* of this new discussion system. We completed work on
sorting topics on a board by most recent activity, and changed hidden
post handling so that everyone can see hidden posts. Back-end
improvements include optimizations on how we handle unique identifiers
and generate standard URLs. We also accepted Special:Flow (a
community-created improvement that makes it easier to create redirects
to Flow boards) and made fixes for topic submission and replies for
users without JavaScript.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Growth_team_update_(June_2014).pdf?…>
Growth team presentation slides from the monthly Metrics meeting
The Growth <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth> team launched its A/B test
of two methods for *asking anonymous editors to sign up
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anonymous_editor_acquisition/Signup_invites>*
on the English, German, French, and Italian Wikipedias. Full analysis of
the test results
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Anonymous_editor_acquisition/Signu…>
is
expected in June, though preliminary data strongly suggests a positive
impact on new registrations. Last but not least, Growth released two
smaller enhancements to our *data collection regarding article
creation*, including adding page identifiers to MediaWiki's deletion
logs and tracking page restorations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schema:PageRestoration>
across all wikis.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
This month, the Mobile Apps <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps>
team worked on a series of *navigation improvements* to the iOS and
Android alpha apps, focusing on the interface for searching, saving and
sharing pages, and navigating to the table of contents. We also worked
on restyling the global navigation menu and article content—typography,
color, and spacing—to create a *standardized experience* across the
mobile web and apps. In preparation for the launch of the Android app in
June, we tackled a number of user-reported *crashing bugs* to ensure a
more stable and reliable experience for our users.
The Mobile web <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects> team
continued to build out the basic features of *VisualEditor for tablet
users*, providing the ability to add references via VisualEditor. We
hope to finish refining the add and modify references workflow in
preparation for graduating VE for tablets to the stable mobile site
sometime in July. On the reader features side, we've made a number of
tablet-related *styling improvements* (typography, spacing, and Table of
Contents) to the stable mobile site. This should greatly improve the
reading experience for tablet users who are already accessing the mobile
version of our projects, and it is one of the last pieces of work we
planned to get done before we begin *redirecting all tablet users to the
mobile site* mid-June.
The Wikipedia Zero <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> team worked
on *restructuring* ZeroRatedMobileAccess
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ZeroRatedMobileAccess> into several
extensions, and added support for graceful *image quality reduction
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Reducing_image_quality_…>*,
and worked on a proposal to use GIF images
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Unfragmented_ZERO_design>
for *Zero banners* instead of ESI
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_Side_Includes>. We also added necessary
library support to the reboots of the Wikipedia apps, performed limited
app code review, added support for Nokia (now MS Mobile) proxies, and
started work with the Design team on the final polish for the Wikipedia
Zero experience in the forthcoming apps.
In May we launched Wikipedia Zero with Ncell in *Nepal*, Sky Mobile
(Beeline) in *Kyrgyzstan* and Airtel in *Nigeria*. We also added Opera
Mini zero-rating in Umniah in *Jordan*. We served roughly *67 million
free page views in May across 30 partners in 28 countries*. We met with
community members from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan, as well as
prospective partners in Brazil, and kicked off the carrier portal design
with Noble studios.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* The Major Gifts team welcomed Sylvia Ventura to the team as a
*Development Consultant* on a 3 month contract. Sylvia will be
helping plan our fall fundraising events and further developing our
relationships with international donors.
* We are working on an event at St. James Palace in London to *support
Wikimania* the last week of June.
=== Online Fundraising ===
* The online fundraising team ran low-level *banner tests* world-wide.
*Emails* were sent to previous donors in the Czech Republic and
Norway. Approximately *$700,000 USD* was raised in May (preliminary
numbers as donations are still settling).
* The team held *focus groups* with donors in the US, primarly focused
on optimizing mobile and email fundraising.
* The team prepared *translations* of fundraising messages into
multiple languages for upcoming international banner campaigns. If
you would like to help with the translation process, please get
involved <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/Translation>.
* The fundraising tech team successfully deployed a new *credit card
processor* allowing us to process payments more efficiently
internationally, fully customize forms, and have credit card
processing redundancy.
== Grantmaking ==
Department highlights
=== Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee) ===
* In May, the nine-member FDC met for its face-to-face deliberations
and published its *recommendations*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2013-2014_ro…>
to the WMF
Board of Trustees on 2013-2014 Round 2 proposals
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals>. The Board
will make its decision on
these recommendations by 1 July. A more detailed calendar on the
process, including upcoming milestones and deadlines, is available
on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Calendar>.
* In addition, the *Advisory Group* to the FDC also met in Frankfurt
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/FDC_Advisory_…>
for their final meeting. Their goal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee_Advisory_Group>
was to provide
the Executive Director of the WMF with a recommendation on whether
or not the FDC process should continue, and if so, what
modifications should be made. Their unanimously agreed to recommend
to continue the process; more detailed recommendations are forthcoming.
* The FDC is currently accepting *four new members*. To that end,
self-nominations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/No…>
are
accepted through June 15. Four new members will be appointed by the
Board of Trustees, and will be announced in July. If you should have
questions about the process, contact FDCsupport at wikimedia.org.
=== Project and Event Grants ===
* *3 new requests* were funded in May 2014.
==== Grants funded in May 2014 ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Summer_of_Monuments.svg>
The logo for Wikipedia Summer of Monuments.
* Indigenous Knowledge for Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Pgallert/Indigenous_knowledge_for_Wi…>:
To support a workshop and the development of case studies examining
the use of oral citations for improving Wikipedia articles.
* Summer of Monuments 2014
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_US-DC/Summer_of_Monuments_2014>:
To support
Wikimedia US-DC in organizing a photo campaign targeted at select
Southern US states to improve coverage of nationally-recognized
monuments on Wikipedia.
* Wikimedia Estonia office rental
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_EE/Continuing_office_rental>:
To support Wikimedia
Estonia with their rental office space.
=== Travel & Participation Support ===
* *3 new requests* were funded and *2 reports* were accepted in May 2014.
==== Requests awarded in May 2014 ====
Three requests involving participation in the 2014 *Open Source Bridge
Conference* to fund:
* Niharika <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Niharika>’s talk on
a compact interlanguage
selector tool that supports the many languages on Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Niharika/Open_Source_Bridge_Conf…>.
* Rjain’s hack session on Extension Development with Mediawiki
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Rjain/Open_Source_Bridge_2014>.
* Netha <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain>’s
presentations at both the Ada
Camp and Open Source Bridge
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Netha_Hussain/Ada_Camp_and_Open_…>
conferences. At Ada Camp, Netha will hold discussions surrounding
the topic of increasing participation in women with plans on tying
in ideas to her proposed diversity workshop
<https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Diversity_Workshop:_Ge…>
at Wikimania 2014. At the OSB, her talk is on “The joy of
volunteering with open technology and culture
<http://opensourcebridge.org/proposals/1269>”.
==== Reports accepted in May 2014 ====
* LibreGraphics Meeting report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Rodelar/LibreGraphicsMeeting/Rep…>
* Libreplanet 2014 report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Noopur28/Libreplanet_2014/Report>
=== Individual Engagement Grants ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IEG_r1_2014_May_monthly_metrics.pdf…>
Presentation slides about new Individual Engagement Grants
* *12 new Individual Engagement grants* were selected and announced
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/30/new-grantees-fresh-perspectives-resear…>
in May! These grants, which range from $600 to $22,600, will support
16 grantees from 10 countries with countless volunteer participants
from around the world. Grantees will build tools and partnerships,
conduct research, and engage in online community organizing. Some
new investment areas in this round include funding mobile app
development, Wikipedia research, and projects aimed at improving
Wikivoyage and Wiktionary. The round 1 2014 projects are:
o Making Telugu Content Accessible
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Making_telugu_content_accessible>,
led by
Santhosh, funded at 104,000 Rupees.
o Medicine Translation Community Organizing
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Medicine_Translation_Project_Com…>,
led by CFCF, funded at $10,000.
o Open Access Reader
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Open_Access_Reader>, led
by
Edward Saperia, funded at $6550.
o Optimizing Wikimedia Category Systems
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Optimizing_Wikimedia_Category_Sy…>,
led by
Paul J. Weiss, funded at $9750.
o Promoting Wikivoyage
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Promoting_Wikivoyage>,
led by Tammy Bennert, funded at $600.
o Pronunciation Recording
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Finish_Pronunciation_Recording>,
led by Rillke
with participation from Ungoliant MMDCCLXIV and Infovarius,
funded at €1450.
o Reimagining Wikipedia Mentorship
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Reimagining_Wikipedia_Mentorship>,
led by I
JethroBT, Soni and Gabrielm199, funded at $22,600.
o Senior Citizens Write Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Senior_Citizens_Write_Wikipedia>,
led by
Vojtěch Veselý with participation from Vojtěch Dostál, Václav
Šulc, and Jan Sokol, funded at 160,000 CZK.
o Tools for Armenian Wikisource and beyond
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Tools_for_Armenian_Wikisource_an…>,
led
by Xelgen with participation from HrantKhachatrian and Mahnerak,
funded at $7600.
o The Wikiquiz
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikiquiz>, led by
Addis Wang,
Mys 721x, and Ericmetro, funded at $1070.
o WikiTrack
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/WikiTrack>, led by Hari
Prasad
Nadig, funded at $2500.
o Women and Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Women_and_Wikipedia>, led
by Amanda Menking, funded at $8075.
* Program Head Siko Bouterse attended the *Wikipedia Education Program
Hackathon* in Jordan to meet with Arabic Wikipedians. While there,
we launched the Arabic Wikipedia Library
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9…>,
participated in a group generating a list of online Arabic research
materials for use in editing articles
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9…>,
and presented about grantmaking
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_grantmaking_@_Jordan_Hackathon.…>
to a group of
educators and Wikipedians.
* Siko also facilitated an *IdeaLab workshop at Wikiconference USA
<http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/IdeaLab>*, where about 15
participants collaborated to develop a handful of ideas into action
plans <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab>.
* User scripts for an add-me gadget and a new Lua info-box template
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Build/Tools> have
been created to facilitate
joining and endorsing ideas, as part of the ongoing IdeaLab
worksprint <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Build/March-June_2014_sprint…>.
The team is wrapping up bug-fixing on the initial scripts before
moving to beta test as gadgets on Meta.
=== Learning and Evaluation (including Program Evaluation) ===
In May, much of the L&E teams time was set on developing the L&E logic
model and also bringing in new team member Maria Cruz! Also, much time
was spent on prepping for the FDC deliberations and advisory group
meeting and the revamp of the IdeaLab.
* Migrated the Evaluation portal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal> to
the Grants namespace
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation>, as part of our
ongoing efforts to *re-integrate Learning & Evaluation and Program
Evaluation*.
* Collaborated with the IEG program officer, contract developer Jeph
Paul, and designer Heather Walls on the *IdeaLab revamp* project.
See IEG section above for more info.
* Assisted IEG grantee Ocaasi with a 6-month retrospective data
analysis of *The Wikipedia Adventure*.
* Worked with Analytics to develop a framework for gathering *active
editor geodata*.
In addition to participating with the full Learning and Evaluation team
in *strategy sessions* related to our integration under Grantmaking, the
program evaluation and design team members:
* Initiated a community dialogue
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/Parlor/Dialogue>
around the evaluation
initiative, its evaluation, and grantmaking and posting/linking of
*Wikimetrics Brainstorm
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/Parlor/Metrics_Brainstorm>*,
a metrics
dialogue and development prioritization activity, initiated at
Wikimedia Conference.
* Posted two blogs: *Beginning to Understand What Works: Measuring the
Impact of Wikimedia Programs* (2 May 2014)
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/02/beginning-understand-what-works-measu…>
and *A Collaborative Definition of Impact: Building Metrics
Together* (30 May 2014)
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/30/building-metrics-together/>.
* Two team members attended WikiConference USA in New York City and
presented a two part session *Growing the awesome in your Programs*
<http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/Submissions:Growing_the_Awesome_in_your_P…>
overviewing the evaluation tools and resources and providing a
demonstration of Wikimetrics.
* Hired Maria Cruz on contract for *Program Evaluation Community
Coordinator*.
* Began L&E *Twitter feed* @WikiEval <https://twitter.com/WikiEval>
(gathered 75 followers in week one).
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GAC_Survey_Summary_2014.pdf>
Survey of GAC members
==== Grants Programs ====
* *Annual Plan Grants*: completed *impact analysis* for the first
round of funding, FDC year 1. Prepped materials for the FDC advisory
group (to be published); published *financial overviews
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Finan…>*
for the entities applying for funds in Round 2, 2013-14.
* *Project & Event Grants*: finalized consulting engagement with
pro-bono consulting group Inspire <http://inspire-inc.org/>. Key
topic areas:
o *Survey of GAC members
<Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GAC_Survey_Summary_2014.pdf>*,
resulting in ongoing
discussion on meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grant_Advisory_Committee/Revamp_Discussion>
with GAC
members (facilitated by the PEG team).
o Analysis of the *pain points in the grants reporting and
application* processes; improvements to these areas forthcoming.
==== Grants Operations and tools ====
* Migrated the *Evaluation portal* to a new address at
Grants:Evaluation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation> making its
contents
searchable by default.
* Conducted research on available commercial *QDA (Qualitative Data
Analysis)* solutions.
* Worked with *Fluxx* labs on fixing major bugs in Fluxx site
including bank info, budgets, currencies and others.
* *Documentation of GrantsBot
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_%26_Evaluation/GrantsBot>*!
GrantsBot is a
critical tool used by the grantmaking team to update and maintain a
variety of pages and portals throughout the Grants namespace.
* *IdeaLab revamp* is underway! See IEG section
above.
==== Org effectiveness ====
* Closure of the *Wikimedia board governance survey
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_Board_Governance_Survey>*
developed with
of WMF Board, Wikimedia Chapters, and AffCom. Analysis to be done in
June. Thank you to all the participants!
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grants-gephi-visualization.png>
A visualization of users' interaction to the Grants namespace talk pages
on Meta (generated using Gephi)
==== Other ====
* Grants Strategy:
o Prepared a Gephi visualization
<http://haithams.github.io/community_visualization/use-user-weight/network/i…>
of *users' interaction on the Grants namespace* on Meta-wiki.
Future development and interpretation anticipated (ideas welcome!)
o Open questions to the broader community around *grantmaking
metrics*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/Parlor/Dialogue>
(see Program
Evaluation below).
* External Grantmaking Outreach:
o Represented the Wikimedia Foundation at The Funder's Role in
Collective Impact forum
<https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/default.aspx?utm_campaign=FunderConv…>.
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
==== Global programs ====
* The Wikipedia Education Program team is establishing a *baseline of
Wikipedia education initiatives* worldwide. The team is conducting a
large outreach effort to more than 60 programs worldwide that are
using Wikipedia in education. Currently, the outreach consists of
one-on-one talks with all program leaders to understand their
educational initiatives, activities, goals, and potential support
needs. Since beginning our outreach efforts in April 2014,Floor,
Anna, Tighe, and Rod have spoken to 32 initiatives worldwide that
are using Wikipedia in Education.
* The Wikipedia Education Program continues its support for the
*Education Cooperative
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/About/WEP_Coop>*, a group
of program leaders worldwide committed to working together to share
leanings and experiences using Wikipedia in education. Coop members,
together with the Wikipedia Education Program team, are currently
working on four initial areas for the Coop: Communications,
Resources, Recognition and Mentoring. Check out these works in
progress:
o Restructuring of the *education portal* on Outreach wiki
continues as we bring together five separate educational portals
into one site, combining trainings, materials and brochures,
learnings and worldwide Wikipedia in Education efforts. See:
Update on the education portal
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Education#Update_on_the_education_…>.
We'll be working on the content for each of the pages in the
upcoming months.
o Improvements
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Education/News#Newsletter_improvem…>
to the monthly community-led *newsletter*, /This Month In
Education <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/wiki/Education/News>/,
including an email subscription
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/This_Month_…>
option and a single-page edition
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter/May_2014/Single>,
resulted in several new subscriptions as well as a significant
increase in page views.
* Floor Koudijs, Manager of the Wikipedia Education Program, attended
*WikiCon USA 2014
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_USA>*, in New York
from May
30 to June 1.
==== Arab world programs ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hack1110.JPG>
Volunteers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan gathered
for a two-day hackathon in Amman. Photo: Samir I. Sharbaty
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Samir_I._Sharbaty> CC-BY-SA-3.0
* Arab World Education Program Manager, Tighe Flanagan, *organized the
Wikipedia Education Program hackathon in Amman, Jordan* from 16-17
May, 2014 with support from Dr. Nidal Yousef and Isra University;
WEP sponsored the participation of 11 volunteers from Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen and Lebanon in addition to over 20 local volunteers
from Jordan.
* 35 volunteers (Wikimedians, educators and student ambassadors)
worked on tasks to improve the Wikipedia Education Program in the
region, documenting their teams and work on-wiki
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9…>;
the Editing Wikipedia Brochure
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Translate&group=pa…>
was partially translated into Arabic and several new institutions
were added to the Education Extension
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B5:%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%87%D…>
to track student activity and contributions on-wiki.
* Siko Bouterse from Grantmaking and Adele Vrana from Wikipedia Zero
helped *facilitate the Jordan Hackathon* from the Wikimedia Foundation.
* Egyptian students celebrated the accomplishments of the previous
semester, featured in the This Month in Education Newsletter
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter/May_2014/Egyptian_…>.
==== Communications ====
Two blog posts:
* Armenian students enjoy editing Wikipedia
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/07/armenian-students-enjoy-editing-wikip…>
(May 7)
* Wikipedia Education Program students keep editing in Arabic long
after their assignments are finished
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/06/students-keep-editing-in-arabic-long-…>
(May 6)
== Human Resources ==
We supported F&A in the finalization of the WMF *annual plan* for
submisson to the board. We hired two employees, Elena Hernandez, who
began with us as *benefits and wellness coordinator*, and a *recruiting
coordinator* who will begin in June. We completed preparation work for
the *annual reviews* and compensation adjustments, and all the hiring
and onboarding for nine new req holders as well as managing our
portfolio of immigration-related work.
=== May Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Lila Tretikov (ED)
* Bernd Sitzmann (Engineering)
* Daniel Duvall (Engineering)
* Filippo Giunchedi (Engineering)
* Mukunda Modell (Engineering)
* Rachel DiCerbo (Product)
* Abigail Ripstra (Product)
* Elena Hernandez (HR)
Conversions (Contractor to Requisition)
* Rummana Yasmeen (Engineering)
Requisition Departures
* Charles Salvia (Engineering)
New Interns
* Ralph Torres (Office IT)
* Consuelo Jimenez (Office IT)
* Sylvia Ventura (Office IT)
* Mark Verstraete (Legal)
* Chuck Roslof (Legal)
* Joseph Jung (Legal)
* Eric Holmes (Legal)
New Contractors
* Maria Cruz (Grants)
Contracts Ended
* Ryan Faulkner
* Monica Breton
* Marshall Olin
* Shaila Nathu
* Jessica Tam
* Genya Vasyanina
* Aaron Arcos
* Sage Ross
=== May Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
May Actual: 176
May Total Plan: 196 (full req#, with stage-gating and out of plan)
May Filled: 9, Month Attrition: 1,
FYTD Filled: 58, FYTD Attrition: 27
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
20 → reflects 4 total out of plan req#s 193-196 (for finance)
== Finance and Administration ==
* In the month of June, the Wikimedia Foundation will be issuing an
RFP (Request for Proposal) for *investment advisory* services.
* Beginning June 14 and ending June 30, the *6th floor* or the
Wikimedia Foundation office will be undergoing improvements which
will shift staff to the 3rd floor and offsite locations.
* The *Annual Plan* of the Wikimedia Foundation has been reviewed by
the Chair of the Audit Committee (Stu West) and is being prepared
for submission to the Board of Trustees for approval.
== Legal & Community Advocacy Department ==
=== LCA Report, May 2014 ===
* Following the closing
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/02/14/a-proposal-for-wikimedias-new-privacy…>
of a 5.5 month-long community consultation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy> in February,
the new draft *privacy
policy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy>* was
approved by the WMF Board of
Trustees and will go into effect upon completion of an appropriate
notice period on 06 June 2014.
* After the vigorous debate during the 5.5 month-long community
consultation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy>
closed
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/02/14/a-new-access-to-nonpublic-information/>
and significant changes were made based off of community feedback,
the WMF Board of Trustees approved the new draft *Access to
Nonpublic Information Policy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy>*,
which will go into
effect upon completion of an appropriate notice period. Importantly,
the new Access to Nonpublic Information Policy contains no
identification requirement by members of the community who are
entrusted with administrative rights that grant them access to
certain nonpublic information, but provides clear guidance about the
responsibilities that come with those rights and maintains
pre-existing minimum age requirements as the previous Access to
nonpublic data policy
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_data_policy>
contained.
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 29
* Completed : 24
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 11
* Request withdrawn : 1
* Pending : 4
* Denied: 1
* Approval not needed : 5
==== Domains Obtained ====
wikimedia.co.za, wikwipedia.org, wikimedia-commons.wiki,
wikimedia.co.za, wikimedia.wiki, wikimediacommons.wiki, wikinews.wiki,
wikipedia.expert, wikipedia.wiki, wikisource.wiki, wikiversity.wiki,
wiktionary.wiki, wikwipedia.org,
==== Coming & Going ====
We said goodbye to our *spring interns*, Shaila Nathu, Jessica Tam,
and Marshall Olin. We thank them for all of their hard work and wish
them the best in the adventures that await them in the future.
We welcomed our new *summer interns*, Mark Verstraete, Joe Jung,
Chuck Roslof, and Eric Holmes. We are very excited to have them join
the Foundation for the summer and look forward to tackling
interesting projects with them.
==== Other Activities ====
* Roshni, a WMF privacy legal fellow, shared her experience about
attending *Yale's Big Data Symposium* in a blog post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/21/yale-big-data-symposium/>.
* Wikimedia made its debut on the EFF's annual *Who Has Your Back
report <https://www.eff.org/who-has-your-back-2014>*, earning 4 stars.
* Yana published a blog post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/09/opposing-mass-surveillance-on-the-int…>
announcing our support for the 13 Principles
<https://en.necessaryandproportionate.org/take-action/digiges> that
demand that *governments respect human rights in their surveillance
actions, which earned Wikimedia an EFF star in the Who Has Your Back
report.*
* Legal interns published *notes in Wikilegal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal>* on
Copyright Status of Wikipedia Page Histories
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Copyright_Status_of_Wikipedia_Pag…>,
Authorship and Copyright Ownership
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Authorship_and_Copyright_Ownership>,
Uploading UK
Banknotes to Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Authorship_and_Copyright_Ownership>.
* We updated the *Wikimedia Legal Disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>* to
better explain the role of
the Legal Team and allow us to more freely discuss legal related issues.
* Manprit is working with *OTRS* to help them deal with questions from
users regarding legal topics. Manprit published a document
clarifying trademark related issues often faced by OTRS volunteers.
The document is the first of a series meant to provide OTRS
volunteers with a resource to consult when legal questions arise to
hopefully ease the burden they face.
== Communications Report, May 2014 ==
The major news story for the beginning of May was the announcement of
the *new Executive Director*, which resulted in stories in the
Economist, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, among others. A
ruling by the European Court of Justices in early May on the '*right to
be forgotten'* led to a flood of articles citing the impact of the
ruling on Wikipedia. In the UK, it was discovered that vandalism on an
article about the *Hillsborough stadium disaster* could be traced back
to government computers, promting numerous articles detailing the way
Wikipedia works, including how editors revert such vandalism. A study
released at the end of May on the "accuracy" of top-ten medical articles
garned wide coverage, but was dismissed as inaccurate and misleading by
editors from WikiProject Medicine. A ruling in Chile on the country's
Net Neutrality provisions prompted articles critiquing the potential
impact on projects such as Wikipedia Zero. Throughout the month, the
Communications team worked to support the onboarding of the new
Executive Director, the rollout of the Terms of Use, the launch of
Wikipedia Zero in Nigeria, and preparations for Wikimania, as well as
finalized the Communications Narrative for the Annual Plan for 2014-2015.
=== Major announcements ===
*Airtel offers Nigerians free access to Wikipedia
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Airtel_Offers_Nigerians…>*
(29 May, 2014)
*Wikimedia Foundation names Lila Tretikov as its new Executive
Director
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_announces_new_ED_Li…>*
(01 May, 2014)
=== Major Storylines through May ===
*Lila Tretikov*
Lila Tretikov becomes the Wikimedia Foundation’s new Executive Director
Wall Street Journal (01 May, 2014) [1]
<http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/05/01/wikipedia-names-software-executive-t…>
New York Times (01 May, 2014) [2]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/business/media/open-source-software-speci…>
*Jimmy Wales and the EU Courts of Justices ruling*
Jimmy Wales describes the ruling on the “right to be forgotten” as
“ridiculous.”
NY Times (blog) (30 May, 2014). [3]
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/google-takes-steps-to-comply-with-…>
BBC News (15 May, 2014). [4]
<http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27423527>
International Business Times (15 May, 2014). [5]
<http://www.ibtimes.com/eu-google-ruling-wikipedias-jimmy-wales-ridicules-ri…>
CNET (14 May, 2014). [6]
<http://www.cnet.com/news/wikipedias-jimmy-wales-blasts-ruling-forcing-googl…>
*Hillsborough Wikipedia entries scandal*
Wikipedia page dedicated to the 1989 disaster in which 96 people
died was vandalized using government computers.
The Telegraph (21 May, 2014). [7]
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/10844002/Civil-se…>
International Business Times (21 May, 2014). [8]
<http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hillsborough-wikipedia-edits-linked-liverpool-civi…>
Mirror (20 May, 2014). [9]
<http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hilsborough-wikipedia-scandal-strong-l…>
The Boar (9 May, 2014). [10]
<http://theboar.org/2014/05/09/response-hillsborough-wikipedia-scandal/#.U49…>
*Wikipedia and medicine*
Study claims that medical articles on Wikipedia contain inaccuracies.
ABC News Radio (28 May, 2014). [11]
<http://abcnewsradioonline.com/health-news/study-claims-wikipedia-medical-en…>
Yahoo (small business advisor) (28 May, 2014) . [12]
<https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/shocker-doctors-shouldn-t-rely-wiki…>
Huffington Post (Tech) (27 May, 2014). [13]
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/wikipedia-study-medical-informatio…>
The Telegraph (27 May, 2014). [14]
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10857468/Dont-diagnose-yoursel…>
Time (27 May, 2014). [15]
<http://time.com/118904/study-dont-trust-wikipedia-when-it-comes-to-your-hea…>
The Independent (27 May, 2014). [16]
<http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/don…>
=== Other worthwhile reads ===
”Wikipedia is a masterclass in digital democracy”
Wired (22 May, 2014)
[http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-05/22/digital-democracy/
”100 most edited Wikipedia articles”
FiveThirtyEight (30 May, 2014) [17]
<http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-100-most-edited-wikipedia-articles/>
Chile blocks free access to Wikipedia and Facebook
Quartz (30 May, 2014) [18]
<http://qz.com/215064/when-net-neutrality-backfires-chile-just-killed-free-a…>
100 most powerful women - Lila is #99
Forbes (28 May, 2014) [19]
<http://www.forbes.com/profile/lila-tretikov/>
”100 most obsessed-over people” on the internet
TIME (27 May, 2014) [20] <http://time.com/109947/web-ranking/>
Official Wikimedia affiliate organization recognized in Pakistan
Lahore Times (16 May, 2014) [21]
<http://lhrtimes.com/2014/05/16/official-wikimedia-affiliate-organization-re…>
An experiment intended to look at whether giving people an arbitrary
advantage over their fellows at the beginning of an endeavour led to a
significantly better outcome for those people, using Wikipedia.
The Economist (03 May, 2014) [22]
<http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21601494-and-science-h…>
=== WMF Blog posts ===
Blog.wikimedia.org published 32 posts in May 2014
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/5/>. Six posts were multilingual
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>, with translations
in English, Spanish, Nepali, Russian, Polish, German, French, Italian,
Czech, Catalan, Chinese, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish,
Portuguese (Brazil) and Malay.
Some highlights from the blog include:
*Happy Birthday, Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/26/happy-birthday-ward-cunningham-invent…>*
(May 26, 2014).
*Donating his estate to the Wikimedia Founation: The story of Jim
Pacha
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/12/the-story-of-jim-pacha/>*
(May 12, 2014).
*“No interviews. Except for Wikipedia!” - Documenting the Eurovision
song contest on Wikimedia Commons
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/10/no-interviews-except-wikipedia-docume…>*
(May 10, 2014).
*Launching a privacy policy built the Wiki way
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/07/launching-a-privacy-policy-built-the-…>*
(May 07, 2014).
*Announcing our new Executive Director Lila Tretikov
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/01/wmf_announces_new_ed_lila_tretikov/>*
(May 01, 2014).
=== Media Contact ===
Media contact through May 2014: wmf:Press room/Media Contact#May 2014
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#May_2014>
=== Wikipedia Signpost ===
For detailed coverage and news summaries, see the community-edited
newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for May 2014:
* Volume 10, Issue 17
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-05…>,
07 May 2014
* Volume 10, Issue 18
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-05…>,
14 May 2014
* Volume 10, Issue 19
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-05…>,
21 May 2014
* Volume 10, Issue 20
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-05…>,
28 May 2014
=== Communications Design ===
The legal team is creating guidelines for *app developers* to follow
when they create apps that integrate use our projects’ names or content.
One of the guidelines is how to create app logos that are not
confusingly similar to our trademarks or our own application logos. We
developed a few logos to provide as examples. We also created some logo
templates for Wikimedia *User Groups*.
We expanded the *endorse gadget* on Meta from last month with another
function to make it easy for people to join a project page in various
roles. Jonathan Morgan and Heather developed a Lua-based infobox to
summarize information across ideas and projects (see also the Individual
Engagement Grants section).
The *staff handbook* continues to be shaped on the Office wiki.
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in May 2014:
1. Violette (Gemalto)
2. Jeremie Acemyan (Gemalto)
3. Ajay Kaushik (Gemalto)
4. RAY KING (TL Design)
5. Tom Hehir (CCSC Inc.)
6. Rishi Sharma (Paul Hastings)
7. Peter Cooper (Paul Hastings)
8. Virgina Sutton (J.D.)
9. Kelly Johnson (J.D.)
10. Priscilla Imboden (Swiss Radio)
11. Hershel Mehta (Stanford)
12. Allison Dods (Stanford)
13. Alex Martell (Stanford)
14. Kent Blake (Stanford)
15. Ellie Redding (Stanford)
16. Gaurav Handa (Standford)
17. Howon Lee (Stanford)
18. Amber Rockwood (Stanford)
19. Julie Fortuna (Stanford)
20. Todd Davies (Stanford)
21. Gaurav Handa (Stanford)
22. Melissa Cliver (Melissa Cliver Design and Research)
23. Charlene Music (Boundless Media)
24. Carsten Voecker (WB)
25. Tamera White (WB)
26. Tom Hehir (CCSC Inc.)
27. Joe Zahradka (CNA)
28. Craig Aaron (Free Press)
29. Josh Levy (Free Press)
30. Humberto Chacon (Concern:EAP)
31. Rachel Connors (Yellow Leaf)
32. Joe Demin (Yellow Leaf)
33. Myleen Hollero (Myleen Hollero Photography)
34. Gregory Flipo (Sikana)
35. Joyce Cruz (Guardian)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
Dear friends and colleagues,
Rod Dunican (currently the Director, Wikipedia Education Program at WMF)
has announced that he is leaving the Foundation at the end of this month.
We are truly sorry to see him go; he has been such a critical part of the
Wikipedia Education Program and strategy for many years including his
leadership of the team. We wish you the very best, Rod, and look forward to
hearing of your new adventures.
I am looking forward to working even more closely with the current
Education team: Anna Koval, Floor Koudijs and Tighe Flanagan. All three of
them have complementing skills and backgrounds, and have begun working
closely and effectively with each other and with the rest of the
Grantmaking team. With Rod, they have been working on an exciting shift in
strategy as they have moved from a more hands-on programmatic strategy to
becoming a facilitative hub in which the team supports different kinds of
local education programs. This has meant that the team has been working
with educational program leaders, volunteers and community organisers in
over 60 countries to map their education-related activities, successes and
challenges. The integration of the Wikipedia Education Program team into
the GLEE team also means valuable opportunities for the different grants
programs to work more closely to understand successful education programs
and to support them through grants and other resources. In particular, the
Education team’s focus on gender and geographic diversity as a strategy is
very much shared across the broader Grantmaking department.
As the team goes forward to develop a road map for the future with our
community members, Floor Koudijs will be the interim Senior Manager for the
Education Program. Initially the team has been assigned different parts of
the world in order to create a baseline of educational programs and
activities, with Floor responsible for Latin America and Western Europe,
Tighe for the Arab region and Africa, and Anna for Asia and Eastern Europe.
Please look at the Education portal for more details.[1]
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, or to Floor, Tighe and Anna, for
any comments or clarifications.[2] We look forward to working in
partnership with our communities worldwide as we support education programs
in service to the Wikimedia mission.
Warmly,
Anasuya
[1] http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program
[2] Floor: fkoudijs(a)wikimedia.org Tighe: tflanagan(a)wikimedia.org Anna:
akoval(a)wikimedia.org
--
*Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation*
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
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Wikimedia Nederland published its report on activities in May:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Nederl…
It is included in this message as plain text.
*COMMUNITY: supporting and mobilising volunteers and editors]*
· *Wiki-Saturdays.*
The WMNL office was open for community members on May 10 and May 24. In
total, 12 people came to the office to discuss (inter alia) the education
programme, projectmonitoring and reporting.
· *Wikidata - DBPedia cooperation*
The working group on Wikidata and DBPedia cooperation met at the WMNL
offices on May 15.
*WORK: content, collaboration and activity development[edit]*
· *Wiki Loves Earth events*
The Wiki Loves Earth kick off took place in De Weerribben-Wieden National
Park on May 3. After a presentation a group of participants went into the
national park by boat with a ranger (from Staatsbosbeheer to take pictures
of this park.
On May 25, a further three Wiki Loves Earth events took place: in Sallandse
Heuvelrug National Park a sound workshop was organized to record sounds of
nature. In Utrechtse Heuvelrug National Park and Drentsche Aa National
Landscape photo workshops were organized.
· *Editathon Women and Art, Amsterdam*
On 17 May, a group of Wikipedians held a new edit-a-thon about women and
art at De Appel art centre in Amsterdam. This event was a follow-up to the
first Dutch Art+Feminism edit-a-thon on February 1 and was also financially
supported by Wikimedia NL. Both events together have, so far, resulted in
more than 50 new or improved articles about women in the arts.
· *Education Programme*
The two consultants engaged to carry out a feasibility study on developing
a WMNL education programme presented their interim results during the
Wiki-Saturday on May 24 . This was followed by a brainstorming session on
aims and ambitions of the programme
· *Maps and Wikipedia meeting, Amsterdam*
Wikipedians in Residence Sandra Fauconnier and Hay Kranen have organized an
expert meeting on old maps and Wikimedia projects on Saturday 24 May in
Amsterdam. More than 20 participants, including curators / collection
managers of map collections, and Dutch Wikipedians listened to the keynote
presentation was by Susanna Ånäs (Wikimedia Finland) on the WikiMaps
project. Further presentations, and a brainstorm session, included
historical map collections from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, old maps on
Wikimedia Commons, and a case study of storytelling via maps: visualizing
the 1934 world trip of Felix Vening Meinesz, a project by TU Delft.
· *Presentation Libraries Zeeland*
Sebastiaan ter Burg gave a presentation about cooperation between external
wiki initiatives and Wikimedia projects at the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek
(libraries in Zeeland) and met with the library of Vlissingen for future
cooperation.
· *World War Two*
Board member Justus de Bruijn and director Sandra Rientjes visited NIOD
(the national institute for war, conflict and genocide studies) to explore
cooperation concerning the the topic of World War Two. NIOD is keen to make
their collections better accessible to the public.
· *Bonnefanten Museum*
We met with the Maastricht Bonnefanten Museum to explore cooperation.
*WMNL*
· *Newsletter*
The newsletter was published on May 22. At the moment, 814 people receive
the WMNL newsletter.
*GLOBAL*
· *Zurich Hackathon*
Three members of the community attended the Hackathon in Zurich, supported
through a WMNL scholarship.
· *Wikimania*
We started advertising our scholarships for Wikimania. The aim is to give
scholarships to ten members of the community.
*GOVERNANCE*
· *Board*
The WMNL Board met on May 8.
Sandra Rientjes
Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland
tel. (+31) (0)30 3200238
mob. (+31) (0)6 31786379
www.wikimedia.nl
*Postadres*: * Bezoekadres:*
Postbus 167 Mariaplaats 3
3500 AD Utrecht Utrecht
For those who have not seen it yet, on June 13th the third installment in a
series of regular blog posts by the members of the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees was posted on the Wikimedia blog. This month’s post was
written by Board member Bishakha Datta on the topic of leadership within
the complex structures of the Wikimedia Foundation. The post is available
in English.
From: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/06/13/through-thick-and-thin/
Through Thick And Thin
Posted by Bishakha Datta on June 13, 2014
*This post is part of an ongoing series of monthly blog posts by members of
the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees that aims to shed light on the
function, responsibilities and inner workings of the Board.*
I’ve often thought you need the thin skin of an amphibian and the thick
hide of a rhinoceros to be a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. Your skin
must be thin enough to allow different ideas, voices, thoughts and
perspectives to permeate, including those most distant or different from
your own – openness is an inherent aspect of leadership. At the same time,
it must be thick enough to weed out distractions and inessentials. And of
course, your mind must be capable of knowing the difference.
What makes leadership complex in Wikimedia is its vast, diverse and
decentralized nature. Like the movement itself, the 10 of us on the
Wikimedia Foundation board come from different cultures, continents,
backgrounds and experiences – all of which shape how we understand power
and leadership. And all of which determine, to some extent, the kinds of
leaders we aspire to be or will become.
Let’s dive a bit deeper into this. In companies or corporations where the
notion of hierarchy is accepted, power can flow directly up or down in a
straight line. In academics, the teacher-learner dynamic provides cues for
the exercise of power and leadership. In the women’s rights movement, which
is part of my background, power is a dirty word and erasing power
inequalities between genders is an explicit goal. Thus leadership here
cannot be overt or heavy-handed; it has to be subtle and implicit, more
circular and collective, sometimes even veiled. In the sex workers’ rights
movement, of which I am a long-time ally, we turn power on its head and
equip unlettered sex workers or the ‘powerless’ to become leaders. This
requires supportive ‘outsiders’ to consciously step back and transfer some
of their own skills and power to ‘insiders’.
As WMF trustees, we exercise leadership through a mix of methods, from the
invisible to the visible, the implicit to the explicit and the subtle to
the evident. One of our most commonplace, yet most profound, acts of
leadership is upholding shared values and principles, an everyday act that
we take almost for granted. Let’s take consensus, which is a movement-wide
principle. [1] On the WMF board, we regularly strive for consensus in our
decision-making, while understanding that consensus is not unanimity. This
is done through certain routinely followed processes. For example, at our
board meetings, virtual or physical, each trustee is given a chance to
speak on each agenda item. This may sound basic, but this is essential to
give everyone a voice. This round-robin technique ensures that newer
trustees are not hesitant to speak, brings diverse views to the table,
prevents any one trustee or viewpoint from dominating the discussion, or
the formation of cliques or lobbies advocating a particular perspective.
And it ensures we don’t get entrenched in our individual positions – as
long as we are honest enough to admit we may not have all the answers in
our heads. And open enough to changing our minds in the face of better
evidence, arguments and insights.
And as each trustee voices his or her thoughts, never repeating what has
already been said, but plus-oneing, adding, sifting, sorting, shading,
unconsidered points and nuances appear on the table, the conversation
starts to round out – and commonalities, or the building blocks of
consensus, start to emerge. I find this process almost magical – and
Wikipedian in the sense that our collective decisions are built through our
individual contributions that we share with one another, just like our
articles.
Another way we exercise leadership is by using our influence, but this is
done sparingly, modestly and in a peer-to-peer manner that fosters equality
in keeping with our values. An encouraging nod, supportive email or helping
hand where it can make a difference, a candid behind-the-scenes
conversation when it’s called for, sometimes calling a spade a spade, or a
banana a banana rather than an elongated yellow fruit. There is
satisfaction at having done the right thing, even though no one may be
there to witness it.
Leadership is often misunderstood only as flaunting one’s power, but it is
as much about recognizing and accepting the impact, and the limits of
power. As WMF trustees, we entrust the Executive Director to make or
implement certain decisions; that is what delegation of power is all about.
In theory, delegating power is easy, like building consensus. In practice,
it means exercising a different kind of leadership, one which knows how and
when to step back just as much as it knows when and how to step forward.
You have to keep moving between the spotlight and the shadows to be an
effective leader.
In this sense, good leadership also means allowing others to lead and
creating the space and conditions to do so; as Board liaisons or observers
to Board-created committees such as the Affiliations Committee or the Funds
Dissemination Committee we must constantly ensure that our presence
encourages accountability but does not prevent others from exercising their
leadership. At the same time, we must know when to step in and provide
needed guidance or suggest improvements. Ask tough questions when they must
be asked. And explain Board decisions that may not be popular but that we,
as trustees, consider meaningful for the movement.
All in all, leadership is a balancing act, a bit like walking on a
tightrope. Lean too far ahead and you’re too much of a leader. Lean too far
back and you’re not enough of a leader. How can one command leadership
while continually deconstructing hierarchies of power? How can one
challenge thinking that has fossilized and inspire others to think in
different ways? How can one bring one’s personal experiences and influences
to the boardroom while putting aside one’s personal agendas? How can one
have skin that is both thick and thin? How can one see the trees without
missing the woods – or the big picture – in the same gaze? And finally, how
can we think not just of the needs of today, but also those of tomorrow?
As trustees the ultimate challenge before us is to be many-splendoured
things, as per this Buddhist model of leadership: sometimes “visionary (or
mission-driven, mission above all else, including constituent interests and
noise),” sometimes “role model (exemplary figure, does what he says,
someone who can be respected and emulated, lead by example),” sometimes
balanced “(impartiality in judgement rather than resolving conflict),”
sometimes “manager (ability to delegate),” sometimes “protector (of the
movement, wellbeing of the community),” sometimes “showing the way (inspire
others to their full potential).” [2] Or as one 11-year-old girl simplified
it to her mother: “Leadership is helping others, particularly through
difficult times. They need to show that this is the way you could go for
your future.” [3] I’ll plus one her on that.
*Bishakha Datta (User:Bishdatta) has been serving on the WMF Board of
Trustees since 2010. *
--
Carlos Monterrey
Communications Associate
Wikimedia Foundation
+1.415.839.6885 ext 6881
www.wikimediafoundation.orgblog.wikimedia.org
Hello all,
We have published the minutes from the Board's April 2014 meeting in San
Francisco, which you may find here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2014-04-25
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
Dear community:
Below you will find the report of activities of the month of May 2014 done
by the volunteers of Wikimedia Mexico. Please don't hesitate to get in
touch with us if you require extra information about this activities or
only to make some suggestions.
The report is also available on Spanish and English in our wiki:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Mayo_2014/ (Spanish)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Mayo_2014/en (English)
Kindly regards. On behalf our chapter.
Carmen Alcázar (User:Wotancito)
WMMX Secretary.
==Highlights==
===First meeting of volunteers for Wikimania 2015===
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Primera_reuni%C3%B3n_de_voluntarios_y…
The Mexican chapter had its first meeting of volunteers for Wikimania 2015,
the Wikimedia movement international conference which is to be held next
year at Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City. The meeting was held at the
same place where the conference will take place. 32 persons attended. A
general presentation was offered, then the general coordinations and their
specific tasks were described.
===Wikimania 2015 announcement on the Internet Day===
Past May 16
Iván Martínez
, president of Wikimedia Mexico, was invited by the Laboratory for the City
of Mexico to preside over the Internet Day in Mexico City. The ceremony
took place after an inauguration of a Telmex Digital Classroom at the
Centro de Transferencia a Menores of Procuraduría General de la República
(Center for Minor Transfer of the Attorney General's Office of Mexico
City). By request of the city authorities,
Iván Martínez
made a speech focused on social participation and collaborative phenomenon
behind Wikipedia. This message was written by Salvador
Alcantar
. The mayor of Mexico City, Miguel Ángel Mancera, formally announced the
realization of Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City and expressed his approval.
Watch the video
:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ULTgf_hfjM
== Journal ==
May 2
Talks by
Gustavo Sandoval
about Wikipedia at two self-managed public high schools in Chicoloapan,
State of Mexico: high school number 55 and high school "Próceres de la
Educación". See,
http://linuxchicoloapan.org/flisol-2014-en-chicoloapan-resena/ here, a
brief review by Adrián Vergara, a local chronicler who assisted us; some
images and opinions of some of the students are also included. These talks
are some of the activities included in the Latin-American Festival for the
Installation of Free Software (FLISOL).
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Pl%C3%A1tica_sobre_Wikipedia_en_secun…
May 6
Interview for Wikinoticias and presentation of Wikimania before the head of
the Government of the Federal District, Miguel Ángel Mancera.
Iván Martínez
and
Carmen Alcázar
attended the Government's office.
May 13
*
Iván Martínez
meets the authorities of the Institute of High School Education of the
Government of Mexico City in Iztacalco to talk about their interest in
joining Wikimedia México's Wikipedia Education Program.
*Wikimania 2015 staff work meeting at Jardín de Innovación, Mexico City.
May 14
*
Wikimedia Mexico
meets the authorities of the Laboratorio para la Ciudad (Lab for the City)
of the Government of the Federal District to talk about Wikimania 2015.
May 15
*Wikimania 2015 staff meets Biblioteca Vasconcelos' staff.
May 16
*
Iván Martínez
participates in the ceremony to celebrate the Internet Day in Mexico City,
invited by Laboratorio para la Ciudad of the Government of the Federal
District.
May 17
Iván Martínez
talks during the Latin-American Festival for the Installation of Free
Software (FLISOL) at National Polytechnic Institute's Escuela Superior de
Cómputo (ESCOM, School of Computer Science).
May 18
*Wikimedia México's board's monthly meeting
*Wikimania 2015 staff work meeting
*First meeting of volunteers for Wikimania 2015. Vasconcelos Library,
Mexico City.
May 22
*Presentation of the Report of Semester 2013-2 of the Wikipedia Education
Program at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)'s Faculty of
Higher Studies Aragón (FES Aragón).
May 23
*Talk by
Iván Martínez
at the Second Meeting of Digital Humanities, organized by Red de
Humanidades Digitales (Digital Humanities Network), UNAM's Faculty of
Philosophy and Literature (FFyL) and Biblioteca Vasconcelos.
May 27
*Participation of
Alan Lazalde
at Cumbre del Buen Conocer (Well Knowing Summit) in Quito, Ecuador,
organized by FLOK Society.
May 31
*Wikipedia Monthly Workshop at Telmex Hub.
During May
*Meetings and activities related to Wikimania 2015.
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