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Wikimedia UK activity report, February 2013
by Stevie Benton 28 Mar '13

28 Mar '13

Hello everyone, Please see below the Wikimedia UK activity report for February. For those who prefer to see the report on wiki it can be found at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February We'd love to see more community involvement in this report so if you're involved in any chapter-related activities please do get involved. For example, you can find the draft of March's activity report at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/March - do take the plunge and contribute. Thanks, and have an enjoyable Easter, Stevie Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports> for the period 1st to 28th February 2013. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/> , join a UK mailing list<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l>, and/or follow us on Twitter <http://twitter.com/wikimediauk>. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Reports/2013/February&action…> . Contents [hide <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#>] - 1 Program activities<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Program_activities> - 1.1 Community<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Community> - 1.2 GLAM activities<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#GLAM_activities> - 1.3 Technology<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Technology> - 1.4 Other activities<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Other_activities> - 1.4.1 Microgrants<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Microgrants> - 1.5 UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#UK_press_coverage_.28and…> - 1.6 Upcoming activities in March<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Upcoming_activities_in_M…> - 2 Administrative activities<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Administrative_activities> - 2.1 Finances<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Finances> - 2.2 Board activities<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Board_activities> - 2.3 News from the Chief Exec<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#News_from_the_Chief_Exec> - 2.4 Communications<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Communications> - 2.5 Fundraising and Membership<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2013/February#Fundraising_and_Membersh…> [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Program activities [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Community [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]GLAM activities - Robin Owain <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Llywelyn2000> met National Trust officers in Llandudno (11/02/2013) to discuss incorrect entries on Wiki-en and possible training of staff. Interested Wikipedians can Wiki-email Robin or contact the office. - Preparations for the GLAM-Wiki Conference<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM-WIKI_2013> continue. - Training workshops for contributors at the British Library - Work on Wikimedians in Residence<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cultural_partnerships#Wikimedians_in_Residence> continue, with the position at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum set to start in March. [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Technology [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Other activities - Robin Owain <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Llywelyn2000> met Aberystwyth University Students Union President and other offices (13/02/2013) to discuss forming a Wikipedia student society, starting with an editathon. Also met Dr Ted Jones and Dr Dafydd Tudur at the National Library regarding the Piloting of images. - Robin Owain <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Llywelyn2000> represented WMUK at the Royal Commission's Digital Past Conference<http://www.rcahmw.gov.uk/HI/ENG/Our+Services/Outreach+/>; 13-14 February. [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Microgrants Information about microgrants that are currently running, and how to submit a microgrant application of your own, are at Microgrants/Applications<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Applications> . [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities) - http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/news/content/14428/wikimedia_uk_tr… - http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/Governance/article/1170282/review-urges-major-… - http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/02/the-biggest-wikipedia-traffic-spikes-since… - http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/download-review/2240986/download-kiwix - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-candidate-accused-of-loo… - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9864802/Tory-candidate-accused-of-cutting-a… - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain/wikipedia-towards-closing-gen… - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/13/wikimedia_uk_shape_up/ - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/25/wikipedia_by_txt/ [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Upcoming activities in March *February* For past events please see here<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events#Past_events_in_2013> . *March* For events in March 2013 and onwards, please see Events<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events> . [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Administrative activities [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Finances [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Board activities - John Byrne stands down as the Treasurer and a trustee of Wikimedia UK<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/02/john-byrne-stands-down-as-the-treasure…> - Greyham Dawes has joined the WMUK board<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/02/greyham-dawes-joins-the-wikimedia-uk-b…> [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]News from the Chief Exec *For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/News_from_the_Office/Posts> .* [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Communications Please see the above links to relevant press coverage received in February. The most prominent communications activity in February related to the release of the Compass Review into Wikimedia UK's governance. This generated some press coverage (see above) and plenty of conversation. Much time was spent responding to questions and comments both on and off wiki. One of the other main activities in February linked to communications was the delivery of the second round of media training. This session was attended by trustees, volunteers and some staff and looked at strategies and techniques related to crisis management and widespread news coverage. Plans were finalised for the media event in early March attended by Jimmy Wales and guidance notes finalised. A series of short briefing papers was prepared for Trustees and staff related to potential hot topics. If you're interested in getting more involved with our communications or have any questions or comments, please email Stevie Benton – stevie.benton(a)wikimedia.org.uk [edit<http://uk.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reports/2013/February&action=edit…> ]Fundraising and Membership Fundraising This month, we received £755 in one-off donations, with 14 individual donations. The average donation amount was £52.93 - 43% of these donors have had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information, please get in touch with katherine.bavage[image: at]wikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements. There were 5335 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £21,371.24. Membership Up to 28th February 2013: - 162 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members - with 13 new join-ups in February - 117 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership should be renewed) - 4 expiring memberships. This adds up to 279 members who were eligible to vote at as of 28th February 2013. -- Stevie Benton Communications Organiser Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*

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Announcement *please read*
by Sue Gardner 27 Mar '13

27 Mar '13

Hello Wikimedia community members, This is not an easy e-mail to write, and it’s been a very hard decision to make. But I’m writing to tell you that I’m planning to leave my position as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. My departure isn’t imminent -- the Board and I anticipate it’ll take at least six months to recruit my successor, and I’ll be fully engaged as Executive Director all through the recruitment process and until we have a new person in place. We’re expecting that’ll take about six months or so, and so this note is not goodbye -- not yet. Making the decision to leave hasn’t been easy, but it comes down to two things. First, the movement and the Wikimedia Foundation are in a strong place now. When I joined, the Foundation was tiny and not yet able to reliably support the projects. Today it's healthy, thriving, and a competent partner to the global network of Wikimedia volunteers. If that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t feel okay to leave. In that sense, my leaving is a vote of confidence in our Board and executive team and staff --- I know they will ably steer the Foundation through the years ahead, and I’m confident the Board will appoint a strong successor to me. And I feel that although we’re in good shape, with a promising future, the same isn’t true for the internet itself. (This is thing number two.) Increasingly, I’m finding myself uncomfortable about how the internet’s developing, who’s influencing its development, and who is not. Last year we at Wikimedia raised an alarm about SOPA/PIPA, and now CISPA is back. Wikipedia has experienced censorship at the hands of industry groups and governments, and we’re --increasingly, I think-- seeing important decisions made by unaccountable non-transparent corporate players, a shift from the open web to mobile walled gardens, and a shift from the production-based internet to one that’s consumption-based. There are many organizations and individuals advocating for the public interest online -- what’s good for ordinary people -- but other interests are more numerous and powerful than they are. I want that to change. And that’s what I want to do next. I’ve always aimed to make the biggest contribution I can to the general public good. Today, this is pulling me towards a new and different role, one very much aligned with Wikimedia values and informed by my experiences here, and with the purpose of amplifying the voices of people advocating for the free and open internet. I don’t know exactly what this will look like -- I might write a book, or start a non-profit, or work in partnership with something that already exists. Either way, I feel strongly that this is what I need to do. I feel an increasing sense of urgency around this. That said, I also feel a strong sense of responsibility (and love!) for the Wikimedia movement, and so I’ve agreed with the Board that I’ll stay on as Executive Director until we have my successor in place. That’ll take some time -- likely, at least six months. Until then, nothing changes. The Wikimedia Foundation has lots of work to do, and you can expect me to focus fully on it until we have a new Executive Director in place. I have many people to thank, but I’m not going to do it now -- there’ll be time for that later. For now, I’ll just say I love working with you all, I’m proud of everything the Wikimedia movement is accomplishing, and I’m looking forward to our next six months together. Jan-Bart’s going to write a note in a couple of minutes with information about the transition process. We’ll be hosting office hours this weekend as well, so anybody with questions can ask them here or turn up to talk with us on IRC. Thanks, Sue -- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation 415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! https://donate.wikimedia.org/

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Chapters report Wikimedia Sverige January 2013
by Jan Ainali 27 Mar '13

27 Mar '13

The chapters report for Wikimedia Sverige January 2013 is now available at: http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_reports/2013-01 - *HIGHLIGHTS:* Establishing cooperation with the Swedish University of Agriculture including the first ever employed Wikipedian in Academy.[Are you sure? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Are_you_sure%3F>] - *WIKI-FOCUS:* Mostly Wikipedia through workshops and seminars but also Commons in preparation for museum uploads. - *GROWTH:* During January we have had 21 meetings with external parties, reaching more than 50 professionals. This is through workshops in GLAM and education mainly and most of them will lead to for further collaboration. *Best, Jan Ainali* CEO, Wikimedia Sverige <http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Huvudsida>

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The Signpost -- Volume 9, Issue 11 -- 18 March 2013
by Wikipedia Signpost 22 Mar '13

22 Mar '13

News and notes: Resigning arbitrator slams Committee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18/News_a… Interview: Meeting in the middle: Wikipedia and libraries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18/Interv… Featured content: Wikipedia stays warm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18/Featur… WikiProject report: Making music with WikiProject Composers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18/WikiPr… Arbitration report: Another arbitrator resigns; Richard case closes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18/Arbitr… Technology report: Visual Editor "on schedule" for July rollout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18/Techno… Single page view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signpost/Single PDF version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-03-18 http://identi.ca/wikisignpost / https://twitter.com/wikisignpost -- Wikipedia Signpost Staff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost

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WMIT bulletin no. 48: March 21, 2013
by .mau. (maurizio codogno) 21 Mar '13

21 Mar '13

Hi all, the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#48) is available. We write about Wikimedia Conference 2013, project "Authors in Wikipedia", and some past and future events we attended to. As usual a link has been added to meta, at Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; more-or-less raw text of the bulletin follows below. ciao, .mau. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * Wikimedia Conference 2013 Wikimedia Foundation gave Wikimedia Italia the grant which had been requested as financial support for the hosting of Wikimedia Conference, which will take place in Milan from April 18 to 21. The conference will be attended by the Wikimedia Foundation board and a delegation from each Wikimedia chapter and affiliate. The convention, held annually, aims to introduce the various members themselves, create collaborations and talk about the current situation. * "Autori in Wikipedia" needs help The competition "Autori in Wikipedia (Authors in Wikipedia)", organized by Wikimedia Italia, AICA (Section of Milan) and Ellis Network, rewards the best articles in Wikipedia written by students. For the schoolyear 2012-2013 we have been joined by 16 teachers and 20 classes. The goal is to produce 130 items (original, translated or improved). As with last year, the project needs the cooperation of teachers and Wikipedians for the valuation of items, which is made by a pair (teacher + Wikipedian) so that each one can rate the articles according to their skills. We already had 13 teachers in the jury, now we need Wikipedians! Would you help us? To apply, or have further information, please write to Roberto Didoni at <rodidon at libero.it>. Wikimania 2013 Wikimania 2013 will be held in Hong Kong from 7 to 11 August 2013. This year Wikimedia Italia will provide again eight scolarships to allow broad participation. The Committee for the selection of fellows will be composed of Cotton, Nemo, Triquetra, Ilario and Franciaio. The call for participation will soon be published. * Librarians and Wikipedians allied During the 'annual Librarians' conference (Stelline Foundation in Milan, 14 and 15 March 2013), some Wikipedians and librarians met to discuss possible synergies. The theme of the conference was "LIBRARIES IN SEARCH OF ALLIES. Beyond cooperation, towards new strategies for sharing." There has been talk of possible integration with Wikipedia to the new Thesaurus of the National Library of Florence and other issues of common interest. Those who want to know more may participate to the collaborative project of Wikipedia or subscribe to the mailing list. * Next appointments In the following days, Wikimedia Italia will be involved in various appointments. Take a note, there could be one near you! Thursday, March 21 the meeting "Open Access, il sapere libero" (Open Access, the free knowledge) will be held at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Sala Azzurra - Palazzo della Carovana, h 16.00). Andrea Zanni (Aubrey), board member and manager of Wikimedia Italia projects, will attend. Thursday, March 21 will be held the meeting "Wik-OPD-edia? Il senso della presenza delle istituzioni culturali pubbliche nel Web 2.0" (The sense of the presence of public cultural institutions in Web 2.0), at the Salone del restauro in Ferrara (h 15.30 - 16.30, Room C, first floor, between the pav. 5 and 6). Frieda Brioschi (Chairman of Wikimedia Italia). Saturday, March 23, Urban Center in Bologna will host the event "Marilyn, Rita, Caterina: Wikipedia and women", by "Girl Geek Dinners Bologna" and Wikimedia Italia. Among the speakers Frieda Brioschi (Chairman of Wikimedia Italia), Emma Tracanella (Project Manager of Wiki Loves Monuments Italia) and Ginevra Sanvitale. It is strongly recommended the registration to the event. * News from Wiki world Markus Glaser of Wikimedia Deutschland has been elected president of the Wikimedia Chapters Association. The other candidates were []:it:Utente:Laurentius|Laurentius]] of Wikimedia Italia and Kirill Lokshin of Wikimedia DC. WikiAfrica Space has been inaugurated last 15 March, at Doual'art, center for contemporary art based in Douala, Cameroon. Computers connected to the Internet via a broadband connection, along with the help of volunteer experts from Wikipedia, allow anyone who wishes to contribute to Wikipedia. WikiAfrica Cameroon project was made by Fondazione Lettera 27 and Africa Centre, led by Doual’art and Orange Foundation.

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Good governance lessons from UK review
by Matthew Roth 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

Wikimedia Foundation General Counsel Geoff Brigham has written a new blog post on the Wikimedia Blog that examines several points from the recent Wikimedia UK governance review, which he argues are useful for all Wikimedia movement groups and individuals. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/19/movement-governance-recommendations/ The recent UK report and movement governance Posted by Geoff Brigham on March 19th, 2013 As part of the Wikimedia movement, there are entities such as chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation, thematic organizations, and user groups, established to support our shared global mission of freely sharing educational content. With the growth of these organizations comes a need for “good governance” — a recognition that movement entities are stewards for our contributors, donors and developers, who generously donate their time, expertise and money to promote the Wikimedia movement. Our organizations are called upon to use resources efficiently and carry out official positions for the benefit of the community. When they do not, they hurt the trust of the movement. Last month, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK announced the release of the final report and recommendations regarding the governance of Wikimedia UK. The review was conducted by Compass Partnership, a noted management consultant company with particular expertise in evaluating nonprofit organizations. Although the report includes highly specific recommendations to be implemented by Wikimedia UK, as a whole, it suggests several foundational themes that may be broadly applicable to all movement organizations. Each of us (including myself) who holds positions entrusted by our community may benefit from the learnings of the report. The following ones are worth consideration by all of us in Wikimedia organizations. ▪ Maintain Respect and Professionalism. According to the UK report, strong and effective relationships are an essential ingredient of any movement involving multiple organizations in dispersed territories and cultures. To foster effective relations among Wikimedia groups, the report recommends that communications within the movement be respectful and professional. It also suggests that this tone should be set and modeled by those in entrusted positions in the movement – such as trustees, executives and employees. We need not avoid controversy and disagreement, but respectful and professional behavior benefits the community as a whole. It ensures we are talking about and solving issues that benefit the community in a constructive, objective and productive way.[1] ▪ Keep Roles Within the Movement Separate from Your Personal Interests. The report suggests that, to best serve the movement, community members should keep their Wikimedia organizational roles separate from their own personal interests. For example, a trustee should never use that position within the movement to advance their own financial interest. Similarly, when individuals within the movement are acting in their personal capacity, for their own benefit, they should not rely on their Wikimedia title or office in any way, and they should be clear about it.[2] ▪ Be Transparent With Regard to Conflicts of Interest and Cooperate in Resolving Them. As many of you may know, the WMF Board is currently considering the proposed “Guidelines on the Disclosure of Potential and Actual Conflicts of Interest in Requesting Movement Resources,” which were developed through a six-week consultation period with the community. The guidelines encourage community members to disclose actively their potential conflicts of interest when requesting Wikimedia resources, and also provide guidance regarding (1) what circumstances may constitute a conflict of interest, and (2) when to disclose such circumstances to the appropriate decision-maker within the movement. The community’s efforts to improve the handling of conflicts of interest are recognized in the UK report. The report specifically discusses these guidelines and highlights their value in providing a framework for the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest so that they may be fully evaluated and managed. The UK report explains that, in a charitable organization, the highest standards should be followed in managing conflicts. If an employee, officer or trustee of a movement entity believes there is any possibility that they present a potential or actual conflict of interest, this should be raised immediately with the appropriate decision-maker. Furthermore, the employee, officer, or trustee should be forthcoming and transparent with regard to all relevant facts, so the appropriate decision-maker may fully assess the potential conflict.[3] ▪ Go Beyond the Minimum Requirements of Law. Finally, the report recognizes that the demands and values of the worldwide Wikimedia movement call for us all to hold ourselves to the highest standard, going beyond the basic legal requirements.The WMF Board encouraged as much in its Resolution on Organizational Best Practices, suggesting that “every organization in our movement must go beyond local regulatory requirements and adopt our movement’s unique principles and best practices around governance, transparency, and accountability.” In the words of the Board, movement resources should be used “to achieve the highest possible impact in the pursuit of our vision.”[4] By considering these principles as they may apply to us individually, or the particular Wikimedia entities that we serve, we all have the opportunity to embrace our values while supporting a Wikimedia movement that mandates the highest of standards. As I believe we all agree, our community deserves nothing less. Geoff Brigham, General Counsel, Wikimedia Foundation Notes: 1. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on respectful and professional communication, see Recommendation 4.4, paragraph 43; Recommendation 4.5, introductory paragraph; and Recommendation 4.5, paragraph 46 of the final report. 2. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on separating one’s Wikimedia position from one’s personal interests, see Recommendation 4.4, paragraphs 27, 30, and 41 of the final report. 3. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on transparency and the management of conflicts of interest, see Recommendation 4.4,, paragraphs 26, 27, and 29; and Recommendation 4.5, paragraph 48 of the final report. 4. For Compass Partnership’s specific recommendations on going beyond the minimum requirements of law, see the Introduction of the final report.

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[Press Release] Axiata partners with the Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero
by Jay Walsh 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

(This release can also be found online at https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Axiata_partners_with_th…) ''Axiata partners with the Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero'' San Francisco, California and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- March 18, 2013 -- Axiata Group Berhad and the Wikimedia Foundation today announced a partnership to offer Wikipedia on mobile devices free of data charges to Axiata customers throughout Asia. By making Wikipedia available at no data charge to its customers, Axiata is removing barriers to information while joining the Wikimedia Foundation to increase access to the free and open knowledge available on Wikipedia. This partnership is part of the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Zero program, which focuses on reaching the billions of people around the world whose primary opportunity to access the internet is via a mobile device. The partnership currently includes customers of Axiata subsidiaries in Sri Lanka (Dialog Axiata), Cambodia (Smart Axiata), Malaysia (Celcom Axiata), Indonesia (XL Axiata), and Bangladesh (Robi Axiata). “We applaud Axiata for joining us in removing a major barrier to accessing Wikipedia on mobile phones. This partnership is an important step forward in our mission to enable everyone on the planet to access free knowledge,” said Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head of Mobile with the Wikimedia Foundation. “With Axiata, one of the largest Asian telecommunication providers, we’re now able to expand free access to Wikipedia in more countries. With this partnership, Wikipedia Zero is now available to 410 million mobile users around the world.” Mohd Khairil Abdullah, Group Chief Marketing and Operations Officer of Axiata said, “We are excited about this partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation. Axiata’s extensive coverage across the region makes this partnership one of the largest provisions of free mobile access to Wikipedia to date. We hope that by offering this service for free we will be enriching the lives of our customers, especially ones with little or no fixed internet access.” This partnership is part of Axiata’s broad vision of advancing Asia through affordable connectivity and innovative technology. Education is a pillar for Axiata’s business operations and social development commitment. Through the years, Axiata has established local education programmes in all its operating countries to help development in rural communities. Customers in each territory will be able to access local language versions of Wikipedia along with the English version. The program will be rolled out to Axiata’s operations throughout 2013. Questions and answers about the partnership and Wikipedia Zero can be found at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships#Axiata About Axiata www.axiata.com Axiata is one of the largest Asian telecommunication companies. Axiata has controlling interests in mobile operators in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia with significant strategic stakes in India and Singapore. India represents one of the fastest growing markets in the world. In addition, the Malaysian-grown holding company has a stake in mobile telecommunication operations in Thailand. The Group’s mobile subsidiaries and associates operate under the brand name ‘Celcom’ in Malaysia, ‘XL’ in Indonesia, ‘Dialog’ in Sri Lanka, ‘Robi’ in Bangladesh, ‘Smart’ in Cambodia, ‘Idea’ in India and ‘M1’ in Singapore. The Group, including its subsidiaries and associates, has over 215 million mobile subscribers in Asia. The Group revenue for 2012 was USD5.7 billion. The Group provides employment to over 20,000 people across Asia. Axiata’s vision is to be a regional champion by 2015 by piecing together the best throughout the region in connectivity, technology and talent, uniting them towards a single goal: Advancing Asia. Axiata was awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Asia Pacific ICT Award for Best Telecom Group and the Telecom Asia Best Regional Mobile Group 2010 and 2011 for its operations in multiple Asian markets. Axiata Press Contact: media(a)axiata.com About Wikimedia Foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 488 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property worldwide (comScore, January 2013). Available in 285 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 25 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of roughly 80,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants. Wikimedia Foundation Press Contact: Jay Walsh Senior Director, Communications Wikimedia Foundation +1 415-839-6885 x 6609 jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org (To be removed from this email list please reply with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)

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Wikimedia Nederland February activity report
by Sandra Rientjes 14 Mar '13

14 Mar '13

The February activity report by Wikimedia Nederland is now available on meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/WIkimedia_Nederla… It is also included as text below. WMNL February report Technical projects · The closing conference of the EU-funded CoSyne project in which WMNL was a partner took place in Amsterdam on February 1. WMNL Board Member Frans Grijzenhout presented the results of the testing carried out by WMNL volunteers. CoSyne produced a tool for the synchronisation and translation of wiki-pages. · A team of enthousiastic volunteers and staff are making good progress in preparing for the International Hackathon 2013, which will take place in Amsterdam, May 23 - 26. For the first time, participants will be able to stay overnight at the venue where they will be working during the day. Content projects · Further steps were made towards integrating the Dictionary of Hebrew and Jiddish words in use in the Dutch language into Wiktionary. This dictionary was compiled by the Foundation Sofeer, who want to make their work permanently available to a larger audience. · On February 15. Wikimedia volunteers went on a photo-excursion to the city of Arnhem to gather images of war-monuments. This is part of a wider discussion between WMNL and the Netherlands National Committee 4 and 5 May (responsible for official commemoration of World War II) about cooperation. · WMNL staff and board members are working with the international coordination group of Wiki Loves Monuments to ensure funding for activities in 2013. Board and Staff · Sebastiaan ter Burg started work as GLAM project-coordinator on February 15 · Via the WMNL newsletter and other media a call went out for candidate Board Members. PR · A new issue of the WMNL Newsletter was published · Work is in progress on redesigning the WMNL website · Research bureau Motivaction carried out surveys among WMNL members and Dutch Wikipedia editors to assess to what extent they are aware of the work done by WMNL, their expectations/ideas concerning future activities, and their motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects. At the same time a survey was done among a general public focusgroup to assess whether they know and use Wikipedia, their potential willingness to contribute and their insight into the way Wikipedia is maintained and funded. Results will be available mid March. Other meetings · WMNL Director Sandra Rientjes and GLAM coordinator Sebastiaan ter Burg met with staff of the European Centre for Nature Conservation (Tilburg, the Netherlands) to discuss how they could contribute images concerning biodiversity and protected areas to Wikimedia Commons and how they could encourage their constituency to become active as Wikipedia editors. · Board Member Sandra Fauconnier and director Sandra Rientjes had a meeting with the Director of the Netherlands National Archives to discuss the possibility of a Wikipedian in Residence, and other forms of cooperation. Upcoming · The Algemene Ledenvergadering (General Assembly) of WMNL will take place on Saturday, March 23. On the agenda will be the annual report and accounts 2012, as well as the election of Board Members · Workshops on including recorded sound in Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia - March 30 & April 20 · European Fashion Editathon. May 13. * * Sandra Rientjes Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland tel. (+31) (0)6 31786379 *Postadres*: * Bezoekadres:* Postbus 167 Mariaplaats 3 3500 AD Utrecht Utrecht

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Wikimedia Foundation Report, February 2013
by Tilman Bayer 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Hi all, please find below the WMF report for February 2013, in plain text. As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_February_2013 and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/ As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary. Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay updated, by providing a translation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2013 Many thanks to those who have translated the January "Highlights" into Breton, Danish, German, Spanish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Dutch, Turkish, Ukrainian, and simplified/traditional Chinese (and partially into some other languages like Arabic and French)! While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement. Suggestions for the upcoming March issue are welcome until April 3 at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights . Regards, Tilman -- Wikimedia Foundation Report, February 2013 <Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_March_7…> Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of February Contents * 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Legal victory for Wikivoyage and free knowledge o 3.2 Mobile watchlist available o 3.3 Language Engineering team attends open source conferences in India * 4 Engineering o 4.1 VisualEditor o 4.2 Editor engagement o 4.3 Mobile * 5 Fundraising o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser * 6 Grantmaking and Programs o 6.1 Strategic Goals Metrics o 6.2 Grantmaking + 6.2.1 Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) + 6.2.2 WMF Grants approved in February 2013 + 6.2.3 WMF Grant Reports accepted in February 2013 + 6.2.4 Participation Support requests approved in February 2013 + 6.2.5 Individual Engagement Grants + 6.2.6 Fellowships o 6.3 Programs + 6.3.1 Brazil # 6.3.1.1 Institutional Partnerships # 6.3.1.2 Hirings and positions # 6.3.1.3 Analysis # 6.3.1.4 Education * 6.3.1.4.1 Partnerships with universities * 6.3.1.4.2 Class assignments * 6.3.1.4.3 Medicin Wikiproject * 6.3.1.4.4 Community and High School # 6.3.1.5 Meet-ups + 6.3.2 Mobile + 6.3.3 Global Education o 6.4 Learning & Evaluation * 7 Human Resources o 7.1 Staff Changes o 7.2 Statistics o 7.3 Department Updates * 8 Finance and Administration * 9 Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department o 9.1 LCA Report, February 2013 + 9.1.1 Contract Metrics + 9.1.2 Trademark Metrics + 9.1.3 Domains Obtained + 9.1.4 Coming & Going + 9.1.5 Other Activities o 9.2 Communications Report, February 2013 + 9.2.1 Major announcements + 9.2.2 Major Storylines through February + 9.2.3 Other worthwhile reads + 9.2.4 WMF Blog posts + 9.2.5 Media Contact + 9.2.6 Wikipedia Signpost * 10 Office of the Executive Director * 11 Visitors and Guests == Data and Trends == Global unique visitors for January: *488.5 million* (+3.37% compared with December; +1.31% compared with the previous year) (comScore data <http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release February data later in March) Page requests for February: *21.8 billion* (-2.1% compared with January; +20.2% compared with the previous year) (Server log data <http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access) Active Registered Editors for January 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots): *84,848* (+8.60% compared with December / +2.03% compared with the previous year) (Database data <http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia Foundation projects. *Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects) for January 2013: http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/ (Definitions <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Metric_definitions>) == Financials == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Revenue_%26_Expenses_January_20…> Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of January 31, 2013 <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_January_2…> Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of January 31, 2013 (Financial information is only available for January 2013 at the time of this report.) All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date January 31, 2013. Revenue $33,756,118 *Expenses:* Engineering Group $7,393,053 Fundraiser Group $2,223,577 Grantmaking & Programs Group $2,617,926 Governance Group $413,747 Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $1,818,707 Finance/HR/Admin Group $3,249,731 Total Expenses $17,716,741 Total surplus/(loss) $16,039,377 * Revenue for the month of January is $2.84MM vs plan of $276K, approximately $2.56MM or 927% over plan. * Year-to-date revenue is $33.76MM vs plan of $30.19MM, approximately $3.57MM or 12% over plan. * Expenses for the month of January is $2.26MM vs plan of $4.13MM, approximately $1.87 or 45% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, timing of FDC grants disbursement, and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal expenses and outside contract services. * Year-to-date expenses is $17.72MM vs plan of $21.90MM, approximately $4.18MM or 19% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, timing of FDC grants disbursement and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal expenses and bank fees. * Cash position is $41.47MM as of January 31, 2013. == Highlights == === Legal victory for Wikivoyage and free knowledge === The Wikimedia Foundation's legal team announced a settlement <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/a-victory-for-wikivoyage-and-free-know…> in the legal proceedings between the Foundation and Internet Brands, relating to issues stemming from the creation of Wikivoyage, our community’s newest free knowledge project. Last year, Internet Brands (owners of a for-profit wiki-based travel project) sued two Wikimedians involved in supporting the travel wiki project. The Foundation supported the legal defense of the volunteers and the court ultimately dismissed Internet Brands’ lawsuit. The Foundation also went on the offensive and filed its own separate lawsuit against Internet Brands seeking a declaration from the court that Internet Brands had no proper basis to block the travel wiki project. That suit was resolved in an out of court settlement on February 14, 2013. In that settlement, Internet Brands released the Foundation and Wikivoyage e.V. (the German non-profit organization who worked hard to make the travel project a success) from all claims related in any manner to the creation and operation of the travel wiki project. In return, the Foundation agreed to dismiss its suit. <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_Wikipedia_watchlist.PNG> Screenshot of the new mobile watchlist === Mobile watchlist available === Facilitating contributions to Wikipedia on mobile devices is an important goal for the Foundation's mobile team. As one of the first results of these efforts, mobile Wikipedia users are now able to log into their account, and to view and modify their watchlist <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/13/follow-your-favorite-wikipedia-pages-…>. On the mobile version, the star symbol for the watchlist is shown to all users, to encourage them to log in or create an account. Experienced contributors can use the watchlist as usual: To track changes to the selected pages and fix problems if necessary. But to make the watchlist more newbie-friendly, the mobile version also offers a full view of all selected pages, which can function as a reading list. === Language Engineering team attends open source conferences in India === The Wikimedia Foundation's Language Engineering team participated in two conferences in Pune, India: GNUnify 2013 <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/27/language-engineering-team-participate…>, a major open source conference, and the Second Open Source Language Summit <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/20/report-from-the-spring-2013-open-sour…>, co-organized by the Foundation with Red Hat. The team aims to make Wikipedia a website that can be used by anyone on the planet in their own language. India's many different languages make it a natural location for the team to see the effect of their work. At the Language Summit, the engineers from the Wikimedia Foundation collaborated with attendees from Red Hat, KDE, Google and other groups. The work areas included the following: * *Input methods* (enabling typing in a certain language), bringing the number of supported languages to 140. * *Translation tools*, including a demonstration of the new design and features for the translation editor in MediaWiki's Translate extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate> * The *"Language Coverage Matrix"*, a detailed overview of language support in different projects and platforms (with 285 languages currently supported by Wikimedia, and more than 100 in the Fedora Linux distribution) == Engineering == A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for February 2013 can be found at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/February Major news in February include: * The Wikipedia Zero project <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/22/getting-wikipedia-to-the-people-who-n…> got a Knight News Challenge grant. * Additional input methods <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/20/report-from-the-spring-2013-open-sour…> were made available for jQuery.IME. * The Translate extension introduced a new iteration of the Translation Editor <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/inching-towards-enabling-our-improvem…>. * The Wikimedia mobile web team launched the ability to view or add pages to <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/13/follow-your-favorite-wikipedia-pages-…> watchlist — all from mobile devices (see also general "Highlights" section) * Echo is A new notification system for Wikipedia <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/echo-a-new-notification-system-for-wi…>. * The Technical Operations team found ways to stop problems <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/05/how-the-technical-operations-team-sto…> in their tracks. * Wikipedia Mobile hit 3 billion monthly page views <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/01/wikipedia-mobile-hits-3-billion-month…>. === VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> === VisualEditor is on schedule to become the default editor for Wikimedia users by July 2013. The alpha version of the VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> on the English Wikipedia and mediawiki.org was updated twice, adding support for Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 9 and above), improving the support for multiple languages, preparing the backend for upcoming features and fixing several issues reported by the community. Software engineer and Commons contributor Ed Sanders <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2013-February/066421.html> joined the team to work on the VisuaEditor data infrastructure. In the backend, Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid> is going through intense activity focusing on performance improvements. New contributor volunteer contributor C. Scott Ananian improved its performance by switching the DOM library from JSDom <https://github.com/tmpvar/jsdom> to Domino <https://github.com/fgnass/domino>. He also improved image handling and contributed numerous other patches. The team wrote a blog post explaining the technical challenges <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/04/parsoid-how-wikipedia-catches-up-with-…>. <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Echo-Flyout-Screenshot-CloseUp-452p…> User notifications in the new "Echo" system === Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…> Brandon Harris presenting the "Flow <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FlowPortal>" project (slides <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flow-Slides-WMF_MetricsMeeting_03.1…>) The Notifications <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Notifications> project (codenamed /Echo/) is preparing its beta release to English Wikipedia by the end of March. This new set of features, already enabled at mediawiki.org <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki>, was summarized for the Wikimedia community through a blog post <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/echo-a-new-notification-system-for-wik…>. New features are being developed: bundling <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Bundling> notifications, dismissing <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Dismiss> types of notifications and defining user preferences <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Preferences>. Article Feedback v5 <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5> (AFT5) is now feature complete, and a new release is being prepared for interested Wikimedia projects. English Wikipedia will use it as an optional feature, while French and German Wikipedia projects are planning to enable it for all articles. The new features include simpler moderation tools <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>, better filters <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>, new feedback link <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>, auto-archive <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…> and discuss on talk page <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…>. We posted a usability study report <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Article_feedback/Moderation_Tools_…> about the effectiveness of the new moderation tools. The Editor Engagement Experiments <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_Engagement_Experiments> team continued testing Guided tours <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Guided_tours> as part of the onboarding new Wikipedians <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/onboarding_new_Wikipedians> experiences currently enabled on English Wikipedia. GuidedTour extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GuidedTour> was enabled on Wikimedia Commons and six Wikipedias (including French, German, and Dutch). See also the slides <https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1RBrkt6uIEopyyxoM3ok…> from the monthly Metrics and Activities meeting. The GettingStarted extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted> is being enhanced to include a wider variety of task types offered to new editors. === Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> === Mobile web uploads <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Uploads> functionality went out of beta and is now enabled in all Wikimedia projects. All registered users have now the ability to upload and add images to articles lacking them. We also explored two new upload workflows: adding a call to action to articles that appear in the Nearby and Watchlist view, and allowing users to quickly see articles near them that may need an image. Lastly, we began collaborating with the Fundraising team to enable CentralNotice <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CentralNotice> on the mobile web, giving us the ability to deliver targeted banners to mobile users. The new Commons app <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Commons> beta for Android and iOS got a first wave of users ([mw:Mobile QA/Commons uploads/Setup installation instructions) and feedback, leading to many updates during the month. The Android app is in Google Play <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikimedia.commons>. iOS users need to go through a process for testers until the app is stable and available at the Apple App Store. == Fundraising == <Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What%27s_a_Love_Dart%3F.webm> "What's a Love Dart?" video for Valentine's Day === Major Gifts and Foundations === * Received a $250,000 anonymous gift * Received a $50,000 gift from Graham Weston === Annual Fundraiser === * The fundraising team began testing in February in various languages and countries that were not included in the year-end 2012 campaign. Nearly $2 million USD was raised from this testing in the month of February. For additional details, please see the Fundraising 2013 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013> page on Meta * The fundraising tech team implemented new local payment methods for various countries that were not included in the year-end 2012 campaign. * Produced "What's a Love Dart? <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What%27s_a_Love_Dart%3F.webm>", a short video interview with Wikipedian Susan Hewitt about the article 'Love Dart', that she helped to write. The video was emailed to 150,000 U.S.-only donors on Valentine's Day. It was designed to educate viewers that they can write Wikipedia articles. The video received many positive responses. One example: "I found the video to be quite engaging, and the people in it utterly delightful. Quite truthfully, I haven't a clue how Wikipedia "works." I've known it was non-profit and largely volunteer... And, I donated because I've felt guilty not donating based on how much I use it as a resource. But, I'm fully ignorant of how articles get into Wiki and the degree of collaboration that it takes to refine them. So, these videos that give me glimpses into the people and the process are fascinating..." == Grantmaking and Programs == Department Highlights * Individual Engagement Grants committee forms and request for round 1 proposals closes. Decisions for the first round will be announced by the end of March. * FDC staff confirms eligibility and prepares for 2012-2013 Round 2 proposal deadline on 1 March. * Siko Bouterse takes the lead on the Participation Support Program (previously run by Asaf Bartov). === Strategic Goals Metrics === Metric Value MoM MoM% Chart Global South Active Editors (5+ edits in main namespace) 15.8k +6 +0.0% Increase [1] <http://gp.wmflabs.org/graphs/global_north_south_active_editors> === Grantmaking === ==== Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) ==== <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…> Katy Love presenting about the FDC round 2 (slides <https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1cG-dHKgj3XUl-lFiMO0…>) * WMF announces eligibility for 2012-2013 Round 2 of funding <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round…>. * FDC staff prepares for 2012-2013 Round 2 proposal deadline on 1 March. * Proposal form and hubpage templates are updated for the second round; policy documents and Frequently Asked Questions page are updated to reflect current policy and relevant dates. ==== WMF Grants approved in February 2013 ==== * Wikimedia Espana's Conferences and meeting for tenth anniversary of the Galipedia: Grants:WM ES/Conferences and meeting for tenth anniversary of the Galipedia <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_ES/Conferences_and_meeting_for_te…> * Wikimedia Italia's Wikimedia Conference 2013: Grants:WM IT/Wikimedia Conference 2013 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IT/Wikimedia_Conference_2013> ==== WMF Grant Reports accepted in February 2013 ==== * Grants:WM SE/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_SE/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report> * Grants:Consumer Reports/Wikipedian in Residence/Report <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Consumer_Reports/Wikipedian_in_Resid…> * Grants:WM NO/christmas seminar and wlm ceremony/Report <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_NO/christmas_seminar_and_wlm_cere…> * Grants:WM CA/In person meeting/Report <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CA/In_person_meeting/Report> ==== Participation Support requests approved in February 2013 ==== * Participation:Raystorm/2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships La Molina <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Raystorm/2013_IPC_Alpine_Skii…> * Participation:SarahStierch/ARLIS 2013 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:SarahStierch/ARLIS_2013> * Participation:Bathlander/US OpenGLAM Launch <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Bathlander/US_OpenGLAM_Launch> * Participation:Wittylama/Brisbane Library conferences <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Wittylama/Brisbane_Library_co…> ==== Individual Engagement Grants ==== <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…> Siko Bouterse presenting on Individual Engagement Grants (slides <https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1v5nYEr2QwviH3sNYr74…>) * Over 50 project ideas and proposal drafts <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab> have been submitted for Individual Engagement Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> and 22 complete proposals <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-join> were confirmed eligible for round 1 review which began on February 15th. * An IEGrants committee has been formed. 18 community members <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Committee#ieg-members> from 12 countries, with experience in 14 different Wikimedia projects were selected to review and recommend grant proposals for WMF funding in this round. * The first round of grantees will be announced at the end of March. ==== Fellowships ==== * The fellowships program has ended but some projects live on. The Wikipedia Teahouse <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:Teahouse> celebrated its first birthday <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/27/wikipedia-teahouse-celebrates-its-firs…> and increasing growth with metrics demonstrating impact <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/The_Tea_Leaf/The_Tea_Leaf_8> and cupcake badges. === Programs === ==== Brazil ==== ===== Institutional Partnerships ===== A research on possible partners <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…> for the Wikimedia Foundation Brazil Catalyst Program has been carried out since October. This is part of the narrowing focus strategy and implies the Brazil Catalyst program is to shift into the grantmaking model. Ação Educativa <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…> and Coletivo Digital <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…> were considered the most likely institutions for the Wikimedia Foundation to set up an institutional partnerhsip and host the development of the Catalyst project in Brazil. Anasuya Sengupta, consultants from Brazil and two community volunteers visited those institutions during her trip to Brazil. The meetings were good and clarifying. The results can be checked here: * Meeting with Ação Educativa <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…> * Meeting with Coletivo Digital <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…> Next steps include: developing a medium term strategy with partners and community and Skype meetings to make final decisions and define terms and governance of this partnership. ===== Hirings and positions ===== * Arriving: Hiring and onboarding of Henrique Andrade <https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:HAndrade_(WMF)> and Jonas Xavier <https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:JXavier_(WMF)> * Leaving: Everton announced he’ll be leaving WMF for Open Knowledge Foundation soon. We’re working on the transition (he’ll be working part time for WMF until May or June) and on the opening of the job position. More in March. ===== Analysis ===== Data & Experiments * Data analysis: Comparison year-over-year <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Annual_Stats> from 2009 to 2012. The Portuguese Wikipedia is still seeing a decrease in editors, active editors and edits, but the descrease in 2012 was lower than in 2011. We may be reverting the decrease trend (except for very active editors), little by little, but it’s hard to say yet. One more year is key to analyze it. Staff & Community work * Henrique’s and Jonas’ onboarding: access to data, tools, Toolserver, guidance on the use of them, how tos, introducing to people, sharing plans, targets etc. Both worked on a draft execution detailed plan to be published and discussed by the community. * IRC with community: agenda covered Toolserver-Wikimedia Labs transition, methodologies to work on measures in Wikipedia, data portal (ideas, objectives, structure and target), demand for data on editors and edits per regions. Workshop Surveys * Creation of survey forms to be sent to every participant of offline activities developed by us and by the community. ===== Education ===== ====== Partnerships with universities ====== * FGV SP (Getulio Vargas Foundation): group of professors developing a methodology in collaboration aiming at the second semester of 2013. Professors plan to have class assignment activities as well as a group of students who will be working throughout the semester on Wikipedia. * UGF - Gama Filho University: partnership with the coordination of translation courses post graduation. Great part of their students are in their e-learning/distance learning program. Professors in the course are expected to assign students with translations of Wikipedia articles in English and Spanish into Portuguese. Oona and Everton have recorded a video interview in the University with Sanchez (the coordinator), to invite students to participate in the program and engage in Wikipedia activities. Activities will start in April. * UFBA - Federal University of Bahia: Presentation to professors and to the university publisher: potential involvement in the Education program and potential partnership on Wikibooks, Wikisources and Commons through open educational resources. ====== Class assignments ====== * Everton contacted professors who will continue the program in their courses: Iara (Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco), Rafael (UFRGS), Yury (UFES), Rubens (UNESP), Maria Paula (UNESP), Sanchez + 4 professors (UGF), Regina (USP), and to be finalized during this semester: Edivaldo (UFRJ), Juliana (UNIRIO), Viktor (UFF), Ricardo (UFPR), Leni (UFES) ====== Medicin Wikiproject ====== * Bot: Jonathan has finalized the bot to invite new contributors to edit the Medicin Wikiproject and Everton submitted the request for approval by the Portuguese community. Jonas has worked on final developments customizing categories and criteria for trigger. ====== Community and High School ====== * Making bridges between and engaging in conversation with 2 high school teachers who looked for WMF and community volunteers who are developing a project to be deployed in high schools. ===== Meet-ups ===== * Digitalia 2013 <https://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discuss%C3%A3o:Digitalia/2013> (Jan/Feb): Digital Culture debate and Wikipedia editing workshop with 20 new editors. Usuário:Eduardofeld <https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:Eduardofeld> led the workshop and has adopted 10 new users. Oona and Everton organized, promoted and led the activities on the mission of Wikimedia projects. Oona was also one of the speakers in the opening session <http://digitalia.com.br/?page_id=1155> (pictures <http://digitalia.com.br/?page_id=1540>). * Wiki meetup in Bahia: participation of 3 editors from Bahia and one editor from Natal, who adopted 10 new users from the Workshop to mentor them. * 2 Wiki meetups in São Paulo: Feb 02 (fully community driven), and Feb 23 (on the occasion of Anasuya’s visit). <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WP_Zero_Mid-Year_-_Master_Version_F…> Slides from the quarterly review meeting for Wikipedia Zero ==== Mobile ==== * Launched Wikipedia Zero in a new country -- Botswana -- with Orange. * We've started testing with Vimpelcom for an upcoming launch in March. * Made Improvement to the partner dashboard which tracks Wikipedia Zero usage * Kul Wadhwa & Amit Kapoor traveled to Barcelona, Spain to attend Mobile World Congress to meet with many current and potential partners. The trip also involved attending talks on mobile usage in developing countries and investigating potential pilots for Wikipedia's USSD/SMS (text) service. * Kul also wrote a blog post that was jointly posted on our funder's site -- the Knight Foundation -- that explains our mobile strategy and how we will use their grant to accelerate our mobile programs: "Getting Wikipedia to the people who need it most <http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/22/getting-wikipedi…>" * The Wikipedia Zero team held its quarterly review meeting. Minutes <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…> are available. ==== Global Education ==== <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Education_Program_extension_Feb_201…> Slides from Sage Ross' presentation about the Education Program MediaWiki extension Highlights: * Fall 2012 data showed students in WMF-run programs contributed 12.1 million bytes to Wikipedia, putting us on track for our goal of 25 million bytes in 2012-13. * More than 350 students in the U.S. and Canada program have completed the online student training, at en:WP:STUDENT <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:STUDENT>, so far. That means half of the students who have created user accounts and signed up on course pages thus far have completed an online training about how to edit Wikipedia. * So far, 60 courses <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Courses> are using the Education Program Extension on the English Wikipedia. * Planning is underway to kick off a pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program in Jordan <https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/w:%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%…>. U.S. professor shares student experiences <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22New_Media_and_Development_Commun…> "New Media and Development Communications," Columbia University, Fall 2012 Anne Nelson, a professor from Columbia University participating in the Wikipedia Education Program United States, contributed a post to the Wikimedia Foundation blog last week on her experiences with the program. Many of her students are English as a second language learners, and she asked those students to contribute to Wikipedia in both their native languages and English, leading to a unique multilingual learning experience for both Anne and her students. Read more of her reflections on the project. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/11/multilingual-learning-through-the-wiki…> Spanish Wikipedia's art coverage grows thanks to professor Lila Pagola, a professor at the National University of Villa María in Argentina, started teaching with Wikipedia back in 2007. The lack of good information on the Spanish Wikipedia on topics related to art, her specialty, spurred her to work with her students to add articles on Latin American photography to Wikipedia, and she's been hard at work using Wikipedia in her classroom ever since. Read about her project in Argentina. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/creating-local-content-for-wikipedia/> Swedish program shares learnings Sophie Österberg, the education program leader in Sweden, contributed a long post for the Wikimedia Foundation blog talking about her experiences so far as she has been having workshops with professors and launching the Wikipedia Education Program in Sweden, Wikipedia i utbildning. Sophie's post explains some of the mistakes she has made, and what she has learned from them. Her post encourages people worldwide to share learnings so we can ensure we are not repeating mistakes in different geographic regions. Read her post. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/14/wikipedia-education-program-sweden/> Egyptian student becomes active Wikipedia editor Walaa Abdel Manaem, a master's student in Spanish at Cairo University, learned how to edit Wikipedia through the Cairo Pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program -- and shortly after she started translating articles from the Spanish Wikipedia to the Arabic Wikipedia, Walaa was hooked. Less than one year later, Walaa has more than 8,500 edits on the Arabic Wikipedia. She's created 68 articles, and is steadily climbing the list of the 100 most active editors on the Arabic Wikipedia. She's also assisting the education program as a Campus Ambassador at Cairo University. Read more about Walaa's experiences. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/25/walaa-wikipedia-education-program-egyp…> Students in Greece add photos to Commons Mina Theofilatou, an instructor at Argostoli Evening High School in Kefalonia, Greece, wrote a post for the Wikimedia Foundation blog explaining her project to add photographs to Wikimedia Commons, the free image repository project. Mina and her students have embarked on two projects: one to catalog edible species on the island of Kefalonia, and one to photograph every village on the island. Learn more about Mina's project by reading the blog post. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/21/education-program-greece/> Teaching assistant works to improve Arabic Wikipedia Doaa Seif, a teaching assistant at Ain Shams University's faculty of Al-Alsun, is an active Wikipedia Ambassador in the Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt. Doaa was featured on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog in a post explaining her desire to improve the availability of information on the Arabic Wikipedia. The two courses that Doaa is a teaching assistant for both participated in the Egypt program last term, and she's also organized workshops teaching students how to edit. Read the profile on Doaa. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/20/doaa-seif-profile/> Program leaders invited to workshop in Milan Wikimedia chapter members and other volunteer leaders who are already running education programs in countries around the world are invited to attend the first Education Program Leaders Workshop, aimed at building a global community to share learnings and help each other overcome challenges. The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Wikimedia Chapters Meeting in Milan, Italy, on April 18. If you are a program leader, you're encouraged to check out this page for more information. <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Education_P…> Farewell, Annie! Annie Lin, who's been with the Wikipedia Education Program since its beginning in 2010, left the Wikimedia Foundation on February 22 to pursue other opportunities. The entire Wikipedia Education Program team will miss her tremendously. Annie is sad to leave, and she says she is very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many brilliant, inspiring educators and volunteers. === Learning & Evaluation === * Facilitated G&P annual planning process and helped formalize goals and success metrics * Experimented with servicing analytics requests using a 1 week sprint <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(scrum)#Sprint> methodology * Built bot to automate various steps in the Individual Engagement Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> program [2] <https://github.com/jtmorgan/grantsbot> * Built bot to automate certain tasks around the Brazil Education Program <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Program/Education_program/Design> * Built tool for analysis of category graphs [3] <https://github.com/embr/mwcat> * Built tool for analysis of cumulative user contributions to a page by converting page history into Git repository [4] <https://github.com/embr/mwgit> * Investigated sources of error in our geolocation technology, MaxMind (mw:MaxMind_Evaluation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MaxMind_Evaluation>) * Participated in Analytics Reboot Workshop led by ThoughtWorks consultant in preparation for WMF Analytics reorganization == Human Resources == Primary HR activities for the month include: * modeling staffing projections in preparation for the WMF annual planning process * conducting the second segment of a three-part series in the WMF pilot leadership development program for directors and managers * co-hosted an event with the Op-Ed Project in mutual support of the aim to shift the gender gap in media * commissioned a study on Wikimedia Foundation salaries with Radford as follow-up to the board-sponsored executive salary study conducted last year * Chief Culture and Talent Officer Gayle Karen Young was profiled on the Wikimedia blog ("Gayle Karen Young: Supporting Wikimedia’s dynamic culture <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/13/gayle-karen-young-supporting-wikimedi…>") === Staff Changes === New Requisitions Filled * Henrique Andrade, Data Analyst & Experiments (Grantmaking and Programs) * Greg Grossmeier, Release Manager (Engineering) * Ed Sanders, Software Engineer, Visual Editor (Engineering) * Luis Villa, Deputy General Counsel (Legal and Community Advocacy) * Amy Vossbrinck, Executive Assistant to the Chief Finance & Administration Officer (Administration) New Volunteer * Anita Whites (Fundraiser) New Contractors * Kraig Parkinson (Engineering) * Marc-Andre Pelletier (Engineering) * Jonas Xavier (Grantmaking & Programs) Contracts Extended * Michael Beattie (Fundraiser) * LaTrisha Holliness (Finance) * Rebecca Neumann (Legal and Community Advocacy) * Joseph Seddon (Fundraiser) Departure * Annie Lin Contracts Ended * Peter Coombe * Susan Walling New Postings * Partner Solutions Engineer * Program Evaluation Community Coordinator * Program Evaluation Specialist * Senior Program Manager - Mobile * Software Engineer - Multimedia User Interfaces * Software Engineer - Parser === Statistics === Total Requisitions Filled February Actual: 135 February Total Plan: 173 February Filled: 5, Month Attrition: 1 YTD Filled: 41, YTD Attrition: 18 1 Position canceled for FY Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end 38 (10 of which are on hold) === Department Updates === Real-time feed for HR updates http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork == Finance and Administration == We have begun active work on the Annual Plan, including setting a baseline for annual expenditures. The first financial review site visit occured with Wikimedia Argentina. Our thanks to Osmar - Executive Director of Wikmedia Argentina for hosting a sucessful site visit. A full report of the site visit will be submitted to the FDC. The financial review portion of the site visit showed that WMAR has good internal controls and is managing it financial matters well. == Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department == === LCA Report, February 2013 === ==== Contract Metrics ==== * Submitted : 28 * Completed : 20 ==== Trademark Metrics ==== * Submitted : 21 * Approved : 1 * Pending : 11 * Denied : 4 * Request withdrawn : 3 * Approval not needed : 2 ==== Domains Obtained ==== wikinews.de ==== Coming & Going ==== * Luis Villa, Deputy General Counsel, has joined the Legal Department. :) <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2013-February/0005…> ==== Other Activities ==== * We announced a settlement <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/a-victory-for-wikivoyage-and-free-know…> in the legal proceedings between the Wikimedia Foundation and Internet Brands relating to issues stemming from the creation of Wikivoyage (see general "Highlights" section). * The Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK announced the release of the final report and recommendations regarding the governance of the Wikimedia UK chapter <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/07/wikimedia-uk-and-wikimedia-foundation-…>. The report was completed by Compass Partnership, consultants in non-profit management based in the UK. The report was commissioned jointly by the Foundation and Wikimedia UK in October 2012 following important Wikimedia community discussions about potential conflicts of interest arising from a series of wiki outreach projects. * After critical and extremely helpful community input and changes, we proposed to the Board new guidelines on the disclosure of conflicts of interests when requesting movement resources <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Guidelines_on_potential_conflicts_of_i…>. * We are drafting a template user group agreement (with appreciated comments from members of AffCom) to serve our partnership with independent groups of Wikimedian volunteers. * We finalized the template for the organizational grant agreement for use by the WMF Grants Program. === Communications Report, February 2013 === February was a relatively quiet month for the Foundation and projects from a media relations perspective. Major media outlets were focused on the news of the successful conclusion of the Internet Brands lawsuit as well as a measured increase in coverage and requests related to Wikipedia Zero. ==== Major announcements ==== No major press announcements in February. ==== Major Storylines through February ==== <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Fidler_interviews_Sue_Gardn…> Richard Fidler interviewing Sue Gardner ‘’WMF’s ED Sue Gardner in Brisbane, Australia’’ (Feb 17, 2013) During a visit to Brisbane, Australia to speak at the ALIA conference at the State Library of Queensland, Sue Gardner spent time with a number of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio programs. Conversations covered the Foundation’s work to recruit new editors and diversify our community, including a lengthy discussion with Australian radio personality Richard Fidler. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/wikipedia--dealing… http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/02/15/3691244.htm http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacific/2013-02-13/wikipedia-flush-with-fu… ‘’A Victory for Free Knowledge and Wikivoyage’’ (Feb 15, 2013) After five months of legal activity, the Foundation announced settlement of litigation with Internet Brands. The announcement was made on the Foundation’s blog <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/15/a-victory-for-wikivoyage-and-free-kno…> and was followed by positive media coverage that repeated the mission and focus of the non-commercial Wikivoyage project. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57569807-93/wikimedia-internet-brands-sett… http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/16/3995358/wikimedia-internet-brands-lawsuit… http://pandodaily.com/news/wikimedia-foundation-and-internet-brands-reach-s… ‘’Mobile Wikipedia and Wikipedia Zero: 3 billion pageviews and free Wikipedia by SMS’’ (Feb 23, 2013) A trio of blog posts and coverage relating to the Foundation’s mobile work made positive headlines in February. The push past 3 billion page views on our mobile WP site, coupled with coverage of our push for free Wikipedia via SMS attracted significant interest, particularly from tech and mobile industry blogs. http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/23/wikipedia-expects-to-offer-sms-based-acc… http://www.ibtimes.com/wikipedia-reaches-3-billion-monthly-mobile-views-ami… http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/02/02/driven-by-developing-countries-wikip… ==== Other worthwhile reads ==== Infographic: An Amazing, Invisible Truth About Wikipedia | Fast Co. Design | Feb 11 http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671833/infographic-an-amazing-invisible-truth-… Getting Wikipedia to the people who need it most | Knight Foundation | Feb 22 http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/22/getting-wikipedi… The Biggest Wikipedia Traffic Spikes Since 2010 Prove We’re All Morbid | Gizmodo | Feb 11 http://gizmodo.com/5983295/the-biggest-wikipedia-traffic-spikes-since-2010-… ==== WMF Blog posts ==== https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/ Forty-three blog posts in February, with bilingual posts <https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/> in Arabic, Spanish, Greek, Ukrainian and Portuguese. Some highlights from the month: How the Technical Operations team stops problems in their tracks https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/05/how-the-technical-operations-team-sto… Engaging the local community in a school project on Commons https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/21/education-program-greece/ Egyptian student creates 68 new articles on the Arabic Wikipedia in less than a year https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/25/walaa-wikipedia-education-program-egy… Wikipedia Teahouse Celebrates its First Birthday https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/27/wikipedia-teahouse-celebrates-its-fir… ==== Media Contact ==== https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#February_2013 ==== Wikipedia Signpost ==== For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for February 2013: * Volume 9, Issue 5, 4 February 2013 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…> * Volume 9, Issue 6, 11 February 2013 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…> * Volume 9, Issue 7, 18 February 2013 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…> * Volume 9, Issue 5, 25 February 2013 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-02…> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sue_Gardner_keynotes_ALIAonline.JPG> Sue Gardner giving a keynote at the ALIA Online Conference == Office of the Executive Director == Sue Gardner traveled to Australia in February, giving keynotes <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/February_2013/Contents/…> at two library conferences in Brisbane: The Sixth New Librarians Symposium (co-sponsored by Wikimedia Australia) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Online Conference. She also did several interviews with Australian media (see the Communications Report section above), in particular a long discussion with Richard Fidler, and had productive meetings with Australian Wikimedians. == Visitors and Guests == Visitors and guests to the WMF office in February 2013: 1. Samantha Gaskin (Helms Briscoe) 2. Shannon Farley (Spark) 3. Amanda Brock (Spark) 4. Alex Wong (AAPIP) 5. Chris Cavanaugh (CCS Consulting Inc.) 6. Yvonne Ortmann (Reporter, t3n) 7. Eugene Eric Kim + guests (Consultant) 8. Kellie Brownell (TAI) 9. Erik Qualman (edx.org) 10. Abhishek Suryawanshi (Wikipedian) 11. Iara Camardo (Professor, Wikipedia Education Program Brazil) 12. Rosa Jiménez Cano (Reporter, El Pais) 13. Debra Wolter (CCS) 14. M. McCarthy (RDI) 15. J. Uppal (RDI) 16. Mike Chavet (Felice) 17. John Engers (Felice) 18. Kraig Parkinson (Thoughtworks consultant) 19. Marc Chenn (Salt Stack) 20. Thomas Hatch (Salt Stack) 21. Julie Jarratt (Cathay Pacific) 22. Maziebelle Riece (Cathay Pacific) 23. Valerie Aurora (TAI) 24. Kathy Ramsey (TAI) 25. Virginia Sutton (J&D) 26. Doug Hessel (J&D) 27. Linda Lam (J&D) 28. Ron Waliczek (JP Morgan) 29. Mike McKindey (JP Morgan) 30. Ryan McNeill (JP Morgan) 31. Paul Cardoso (Sequoia) 32. John Gaffney (Sequoia) 33. Melissa Sharp (Sequoia) 34. Jed Cloern (Sequoia) 35. Sheldon Renan (Video crew) 36. Mark Oppenheim (m|Oppenheim) 37. Stephany Kirkpatrick (LearnVest) 38. Denny Vrandecic (WMDE) 39. Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 40. Galen Cranz (Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley) -- Tilman Bayer Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications) Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Lua scripting enabled today on all wikis
by Guillaume Paumier 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Greetings, As you might have seen on the Wikimedia tech blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pa…>(article included below) or the tech ambassadors list<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-March/000171…>, a new functionality called "Lua" is being enabled on all Wikimedia sites today. Lua <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua> is a scripting language that enables Wikimedia editors to write faster and more powerful MediaWiki templates. If you have questions about how to convert existing templates to Lua (or how to create new ones), we'll be holding two support sessions on IRC next week: one on Wednesday<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=02&min=00&sec=0&d…>(for Oceania, Asia & America) and one on Friday<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=18&min=00&sec=0&d…>(for Europe, Africa & America); see m:IRC office hours <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours> for details. If you can't make it, you can also get help at mw:Talk:Lua scripting <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Lua_scripting>. If you'd like to learn about this kind of events earlier in advance, consider becoming a Tech ambassador<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/Ambassadors>by subscribing to the mailing list <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-ambassadors>. ================================= New Lua templates bring faster, more flexible pages to your wiki<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pa…> Posted by Sumana Harihareswara <https://blog.wikimedia.org/author/sumanah/>on March 11th, 2013 Starting Wednesday, March 13th, you’ll be able to make wiki pages even more useful, no matter what language you speak: we’re adding Lua<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_%28programming_language%29>as a templating language. This will make it easier for you to create and change infoboxes, tables, and other useful MediaWiki templates. We’ve already started to deploy Scribunto<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto>(the MediaWiki extension that enables this); it’s on several of the sites, including English Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lua>, right now. You’ll find this useful for performing more complex tasks for which templates are too complex or slow *—* common examples include numeric computations, string manipulation and parsing, and decision trees. Even if you don’t write templates, you’ll enjoy seeing pages load faster and with more interesting ways to present information. Background MediaWiki developers introduced templates and parser functions<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ParserFunctions>years ago to allow end-users of MediaWiki to replicate content easily and build tools using basic logic. Along the way, we found that we were turning wikitext into a limited programming language. Complex templates have caused performance issues and bottlenecks, and it’s difficult for users to write and understand templates. Therefore, the Lua scripting project<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua_scripting>aims to make it possible for MediaWiki end-users to use a proper scripting language that will be more powerful and efficient than ad-hoc, parser functions-based logic. The example of Lua’s use in World of Warcraft<http://www.wowwiki.com/Lua>is promising; even novices with no programming experience have been able to make large changes to their graphical experiences by quickly learning some Lua. Lua on your wiki As of March 13th, you’ll be able to use Lua on your home wiki (if it’s not already enabled). Lua code can be embedded into wiki templates by employing the {{#invoke:}} parser function provided by the Scribunto MediaWiki extension. The Lua source code is stored in pages called modules (e.g., Module:Bananas <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module:Bananas>). These individual modules are then invoked on template pages. The example: Template:Lua hello world <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Lua_hello_world> uses the code {{#invoke:Bananas|hello}} to print the text “Hello, world!”. So, if you start seeing edits in the Module namespace, that’s what’s going on. Getting started Check out the basic “hello, world!” instructions<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#Get…>, then look at Brad Jorsch’s short presentation<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Tech_Talk_2013-02-28_slides_-_S…>for a basic example of how to convert a wikitext template into a Lua module. After that, try Tim Starling’s tutorial<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua_scripting/Tutorial> . To help you preview and test a converted template, try Special:TemplateSandbox<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:TemplateSandbox>on your wiki. With it, you can preview a page using sandboxed versions of templates and modules, allowing for easy testing before you make the sandbox code live. Where to start? If you use pywikipedia, try parsercountfunction.py by Bináris<https://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/pywikipedia/trunk/pywikipedia/parserfunct…>, which helps you find wikitext templates that currently parse slowly and thus would be worth converting to Lua. Try fulfilling open requests for conversion on English Wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lua_requests>, possibly using Anomie’s Greasemonkey script<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anomie/PP-report-Greasemonkey-script>to help you see the performance gains. On English Wikipedia, some of the templates have already been converted<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Lua_talk> *—* feel free to reuse them on your wiki. The Lua hub on mediawiki.org <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua> has more information; please add to it. And enjoy your faster, more flexible templates! *Sumana Harihareswara, Engineering Community Manager* ================================= -- Guillaume Paumier Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation https://donate.wikimedia.org

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