(This press release is also available online at:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_rai…
The Wikimedia Foundation raises $25 million in record time during 2012
Wikipedia fundraiser
More than 1.2 million Wikipedia readers donated to keep Wikipedia and
sister sites ad free and free to all
SAN FRANCISCO, December 27, 2012 - The Wikimedia Foundation, the
non-profit that operates Wikipedia and its sister projects, today
announced the successful completion of its ninth annual fundraising
campaign in record time. Wikipedia readers donated $25 million and
once again affirmed the value of the project by guaranteeing that the
online encyclopedia will remain ad-free.
"I'm grateful that the Wikipedia fundraiser was so successful. Our
supporters are wonderful and without them we could not do the job of
delivering free content worldwide," said Sue Gardner, Executive
Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "We're thrilled to be able to
introduce our readers to the editors around the world who create
Wikipedia and to invite our readers to join in editing."
Donations help the Wikimedia Foundation maintain server
infrastructure, support global projects to increase the number of
editors, improve and simplify the software that supports our projects,
and make Wikipedia accessible globally to billions of people who are
just beginning to access the internet.
More than 1.2 million donors contributed to the 2012 campaign, which
ran on English Wikipedia in 5 countries (United States, Canada, Great
Britain, Australia and New Zealand) for only 9 full days, down from 46
days in 2011. The most successful 24-hour period for donations this
year brought in $2,365,564 million from 145,573 donors. Messages and
formats optimized in this year's campaign will be used in another
short fundraising drive for the rest of the world in April 2013.
Though the fundraiser is an important part of Wikipedia's success,
volunteer contributors are the heart of the world's largest
encyclopedia. To highlight the tens of millions of hours they put into
the projects each year, the Wikimedia Foundation will conduct a thank
you campaign with short videos that showcase some of the roughly
80,000 volunteer editors, photographers and free-knowledge advocates
from around the world who regularly contribute to Wikimedia projects.
The campaign starts on December 27th and runs through the end of the
year.
Meet all the Wikimedians who we're profiling in our thank you campaign
here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Thank_You_All
Some of the Wikimedians being profiled:
Mei Jiun Kwek is a botanist from Malaysia who uploads photos to
Wikimedia Commons to accompany her work on crop species in her
country. She encourages researchers to share their material on a
freely licensed database to improve open access to knowledge.
(Video link on Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Impact_of_Wikipedia_-_Mei_Jiun_K…
and on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcGotJ927YM)
Dumisani Ndubane is an electrical engineer from South Africa who
started uploading his circuit analysis class notes to Wikiversity, a
project supporting open educational resources, which did not have much
information in his field at the time. By participating with volunteers
from around the world, Ndubane not only grew to appreciate the value
of collaboration, he helped improve the quality of free tutorials and
coursework.
(Video link on Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Impact_of_Wikipedia_Dumisani_Ndu…
and on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXvhABH-jFs)
Adrianne Wadewitz is a professor from California who uses Wikipedia as
a teaching tool in her classroom and helps her faculty peers to
incorporate digital technology in their teaching and research methods.
She describes a memorable moment when one of her students turned in an
essay largely plagiarized from a Wikipedia article Wadewitz had
written.
(Video link on Wikimedia Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Impact_of_Wikipedia_Adrianne_Wad…
and on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qwZ7jL4xyY)
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 483 million unique visitors per month, making them
the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November
2012). Available in 285 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 24
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.
Press contact:
Matthew Roth
Global Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415-839-6885 x6635
mroth(a)wikimedia.org
(to unsubscribe from this press release distribution list, reply to
this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject line)
*Hi all, *
*
*
*We are asking for community consultation on five proposed guidelines
relating to potential conflicts of interest when people ask for resources
belonging to the Wikimedia movement.
For your review and comments, you may find more information, a proposed
Board resolution, and the proposed guidelines here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Guidelines_on_potential_conflicts_of_in…
Please feel free to join the discussion on the talk page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Guidelines_on_potential_conflicts_of_interest
Thank you for your time and expertise.
*
Geoff Brigham
General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
Today we’re excited to launch the Wikimedia Foundation’s latest Annual Report
(see today's blog post as well:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/19/wikimedia-foundations-2011-12-annual-…)
(on wiki here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Annual_Report/2011-12)
This year marks the fifth edition of our Annual Report, which focuses
on the achievements and core work of the preceding fiscal year
(2011-12), and gives us a chance to recognize the amazing
contributions of our volunteers and the generous support of our
donors. You can read both the PDF and wiki versions. We welcome your
comments on the discussion page
(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Annual_Report/2011-12).
The Foundation uses the report primarily to support our conversation
with donors, to help build relationships with prospective partners, to
recruit new staff, and of course general outreach.
This year’s report is quite different from our previous efforts.
Instead of a multi-page book format, this year we created a folding,
vertical brochure (when it’s printed). It’s considerably shorter in
terms of text and we hope it will help make for a quicker and more
impactful read.
We’re currently in the midst of a translation effort that will result
in another 12 language editions to be released in the coming weeks. If
you have an account on Meta-Wiki and you’re interested in helping with
the review of these translations and other community translation
efforts, please sign up. We will be posting this new project for
translation shortly.
Many thanks to the photographers whose work we used in the report. I'd
also like to thank David Peters from Exbrook, the design studio that
has been working with us over the last 4 annual reports. David really
helped us tackle the shift from the classic book format annual report
to our new style.
And big thanks to Tilman Bayer in the WMF Communications team for
driving a complex process around developing translated versions of the
report - we're pushing the envelope on approaches to automated
translation, but it's a really important envelope for us :) And thanks
also to Matthew from Communications for supporting us with a lot of
the writing and editing.
We’re looking forward to another amazing year in the Wikimedia movement!
--
Jay Walsh
Senior Director, Communications
WikimediaFoundation.orgblog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for November 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_November_2012
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,_November_2012
Many thanks to those who have been translating the October
"Highlights", so far into Arabic, Breton, Danish, Spanish, French,
Piedmontese, and Russian.
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the December issue are welcome until January 2 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, November 2012
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_December_6,…
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of November
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2012-12-06>
(December 6, 2012)>
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 New HTML5 video player
o 3.2 Developer meetup and language summit in India
o 3.3 Fundraiser launch
o 3.4 Beta launch of Wikivoyage
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
o 4.4 Other news
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser
* 6 Global Development
o 6.1 Strategic Goals Metrics
o 6.2 Wikipedia Education Program
+ 6.2.1 Egypt
+ 6.2.2 U.S. and Canada
+ 6.2.3 Brazil
o 6.3 Fellowships
o 6.4 Editor growth and Contribution Program
o 6.5 Wikimania
o 6.6 Learning & Evaluation
o 6.7 Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
o 6.8 Grants
+ 6.8.1 Grants approved in November 2012
+ 6.8.2 Participation support requests approved in November
2012
+ 6.8.3 Program updates
o 6.9 US Cultural Partnerships
o 6.10 Wikipedia Zero
* 7 Human Resources
o 7.1 Staff Changes
o 7.2 Statistics
o 7.3 Department Updates
* 8 Finance and Administration
* 9 Legal and Community Advocacy
o 9.1 Contract Metrics
o 9.2 Trademark License Request Metrics
o 9.3 Litigation
+ 9.3.1 Internet Brands
+ 9.3.2 German Cases
o 9.4 Coming & Going
o 9.5 Other Major Activities
o 9.6 Communications
+ 9.6.1 Major announcements
+ 9.6.2 Major Storylines through November
+ 9.6.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 9.6.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 9.6.5 Wikipedia Signpost
+ 9.6.6 Media Contact
* 10 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for October:
*488.4 million* (+2.84% compared with September; +2.46% compared
with the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release November data
later in December)
Page requests for November:
*20.3 billion* (+2.7% compared with October; +16.8% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access)
Active Registered Editors for October 2012 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*79,964* (-2.73% compared with September / +0.59% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects. Note: We recently refined this metric
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/31/improving-the-accuracy-of-the-active-…>
to take into account Wikimedia Commons and activity across several
projects.)
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects) for October 2012:
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_October_20…
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of October 31, 2012>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_October_2…
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of October 31, 2012>
(Financial information is only available for October 2012 at the time of
this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date October 31, 2012.
Revenue $5,358,084
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $4,258,755
Fundraiser Group $816,319
Global Development Group $1,804,417
Governance Group $278,363
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $976,506
Finance/HR/Admin Group $1,793,482
Total Expenses $9,927,842
Total surplus/(loss) ($4,569,758)
* Revenue for the month of October is $1.24MM vs plan of $0.85MM,
approximately $396K or 47% over plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $5.36MM vs plan of $5.21MM, approximately
$151K or 3% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of October is $2.53MM vs plan of $2.84MM,
approximately $305K or 11% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, internet hosting expenses, travel expenses,
capital expenses, and outside contract services partially offset by
higher legal expenses and operating grants.
* Year-to-date expenses is $9.93MM vs plan of $11.52MM, approximately
$1.59MM or 14% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses,
internet hosting, travel expenses, capital expenses, grants and
awards, and outside contract services partially offset by higher
legal expenses and awards and grants.
* Cash position is $20.76MM as of October 31, 2012 which is
approximately 5.92 months of expenses.
== Highlights ==
=== New HTML5 video player ===
A new video player was enabled
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/08/introducing-wikipedias-new-html5-vide…>
on Wikipedia and its sister sites, promising to bring free educational
videos to more people, on more devices, in more languages. The player is
the same HTML5 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5> player used in the
Kaltura open-source video platform. Its many new features include
advanced support for subtitles, support for the royalty-free WebM
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM> video format, and server-side
transcoding, i.e. the ability to convert from one video format to
another, in order to deliver the appropriate video stream to the user
depending on their bandwidth and the size of the player.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:03-Pau-DevCamp-usability-testing.jpg
Usability testing of the new translation interface at the Bangalore
DevCamp 2012>
=== Developer meetup and language summit in India ===
On November 9-11, the Wikimedia Foundation held a developer meetup in
Bangalore, India. The /Engineering DevCamp
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/22/engineering-devcamp-in-bangalore/>/
focused on language support, development for mobile devices, and user
interaction and user experience design (UI/UX). More than 85 developers,
UX/UI designers, Wikimedians and translators attended the event. It was
preceded by an Open-Source language summit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/16/opensource-language-summit/> that
the Foundation organized together with Red Hat in Pune, India.
=== Fundraiser launch ===
The Foundation's ninth annual online fundraiser officially launched
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_an…>
on November 27, 2012 and raised a record breaking $2.3 million in a
single day: a 59% increase over our biggest day in 2011. See the
Fundraiser Statistics page
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics> for a view
comparing this year to previous years. Banner design progressed from
last year's "Jimmy appeal" ([1]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales?banner=B12_JpcwInline>) to
variations on a new "Facts banner" ([2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold?banner=B12_DroprealGldffcc00_Biggold>, [3]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information?banner=B12_1123_Smallinfo>,
and [4]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundraising?banner=B12_5C_113007_temple_twin_A>)
which are more oriented towards informing users about the Wikimedia
Foundation.
Due to the very successful start, it was decided to show banners only in
the following five English-speaking countries through December 31: US,
Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand (in addition to the banners for
fundraising chapters). The fundraiser will be re-launched in all
remaining countries in the spring of 2013, with improved translations.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Travel_Guide_Logo_-_Proposal_Yiyi.s…
Proposed new logo for Wikivoyage>
=== Beta launch of Wikivoyage ===
Wikivoyage <http://www.wikivoyage.org/>, the project to create a free
world travel guide which anyone can edit, launched on Wikimedia
Foundation servers on November 10, migrating text content and accounts
from the old servers run by the Wikivoyage Association. The community is
working on the review and transfer of media files, and the site remains
in "beta" until this and other cleanup tasks are completed.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for November 2012
can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/November
=== VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> ===
In November, the VisualEditor team, who is working on the upcoming
rich-text interface aiming to make it easier to edit wiki pages,
finished restructuring the code behind the scenes. This "refactoring"
was aimed at making the code more modular, and easier to change and
extend, even for developers who are not familiar with the entirety of
the VisualEditor's code.
They also continued to work on Parsoid
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>, the parsing program
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing> that translates plain wikitext into
HTML annotated for easy editing, and /vice-versa/. In preparation for
the upcoming deployment on the English Wikipedia, the team concentrated
on the preservation of existing content. They continued to tweak the
parser and to compare the articles' original wikitext to the one
obtained after a "round-trip" (the operation consisting of converting
wikitext to annotated HTML, and back to wikitext) on random selections
of test articles. Currently, 79.4% of test articles (up from 75% last
month) are converted without any differences at all, 18% (stable) show
only minor differences, and the remaining 2.6% (down from 7%) have
differences that still need fixing.
=== Editor engagement ===
Version 5 of Article feedback
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5>, a quality
assessment tool also aiming to engage readers and encourage them to
contribute, is still being tested on 10% of articles on the English
Wikipedia. A few additional features and improvements were developed in
November. A few other features were designed, mostly related to
moderation and reducing the editor workload; they will be developed next
month, once the code reorganization to improve database performance is
completed. The team also analyzed new research data
<http://toolserver.org/~dartar/fp/> to track how moderators use the
feedback page, and measure how many readers who post feedback become
editors or registered users. Next month, Wikipedians will be invited to
evaluate the usefulness of feedback posts and the effectiveness of the
new moderation tools. Once these tasks are done, this tool is expected
to be expanded to all articles on the English Wikipedia in early 2013.
Page Curation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation> (an interface for
experienced contributors to review and improve newly created pages) is
now in maintenance mode, following its release on the English Wikipedia
in September. Its impact has been tracked with a metrics dashboard
<http://toolserver.org/~dartar/pc/>, which confirms that it is being
used actively, with over 27,000 pages reviewed since launch.
The MicroDesign <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Micro_Design_Improvements>
team (focusing on small design issues) continued to work behind the
scenes in November, notably on a tool called "Agora" that aims to make
it easier to build and deploy future improvements. Several templates on
the English-language Wikipedia have been redesigned to reduce interface
clutter, with some changes already implemented.
In November, the Editor engagement experiments
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments> team
(E3) deployed the third and
final A/B test of the new account creation page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ACUX>, including client-side validation
(automated checks when the user enters content in a text field). Results
from basic data analysis of all three tests were published on Meta, and
the project will now move to the productization stage. The post-edit
confirmation message was put in maintenance mode after being deployed to
a further seven Wikipedias, including French and Portuguese. On the
analytics side, E3 transitioned permanently to EventLogging
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:EventLogging>, a tool to help
measure the success of future experiments, and collaborated with the
mobile team to track activity on Wikipedia's mobile beta. The team also
deployed a small design improvement to the personal tools
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/personal_tools> menu in MediaWiki core.
Last, key features of the Notifications project
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications)> (code-named 'Echo') were
designed and developed in November, leading to a first experimental
deployment in early 2013. This new notification system is designed to
replace and augment existing notification systems on Wikimedia sites, as
well as provide significantly more control to both users and developers
as to how their notifications are handled, read, and deleted. A first
prototype <http://ee-prototype.wmflabs.org/wiki/Main_Page> is available
for testing.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
In November, the Mobile team added the ability to log in to the site.
Many experimental features were made available in beta, such as editing
articles, reformatted tables, random article support, simpler layout for
cleanup templates, and watchlists.
Infrastructure work continued on programs to bring Wikipedia to more
devices (Wikipedia Zero <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero>,
access over SMS or USSD
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD> and the J2ME app
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_S40_J2ME_app>), notably during the
Bangalore DevCamp
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bangalore_DevCamp_November_2012>, where
volunteer developers got involved.
The Mobile quality assurance <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_QA> team
started to set up automated mobile browser-based tests and mobile
browser regression tests.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ULS-IME-Search.png
Universal language selector: Input method menu, accessed from the search box>
=== Other news ===
* A new video player was enabled
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/08/introducing-wikipedias-new-html5-vide…>
on Wikipedia and its sister sites (see general "Highlights" section)
* Two calls were sent in November. One was for interns as part of the
Outreach Program for Women
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/15/apply-for-the-foss-outreach-program-f…>,
organized by the GNOME Foundation. Applications are now closed. The
other call was to recruit volunteers to lead or advise engineers
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/21/lead-development-process-product-advi…>
on select activities; applications are still welcome.
* The Language engineering team, whose work aims to reduce barriers to
participation for contributors using languages other than English
(especially those using a non-Roman alphabet), continued to improve
their tools. In particular they integrated input methods
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/06/universal-language-selector-input-met…>
into the Universal language selector, allowing contributors to enter
text
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/16/writing-malayalam-on-wikipedia-just-l…>
in a script different from the one of their keyboard. They also
fixed bugs and added a keyboard layout
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/30/bugs-fixed-universal-language-selecto…>
to enter text in the international phonetic script. After an
Open-Source language summit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/16/opensource-language-summit/>
in Pune, India, they attended the Engineering DevCamp in Bangalore
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/22/engineering-devcamp-in-bangalore/>,
where many volunteers contributed code. Last, following the launch
of Wikidata, they invited users to translate the interface
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/10/translate-wikidata-user-interface/>
of its software.
== Fundraising ==
Department highlight
* The online fundraiser officially launched on November 27, 2012 and
raised a record breaking $2.3 million in a single day (see also
general "Highlights" section)
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Received a $500,000 grant from the Brin Wojcicki Foundation.
* Held a event for Bay Area major donors at Local Edition on November
13th.
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Impact_Of_Wikipedia.webm
'The Impact of Wikipedia' video series>
* Launched the 2012 annual fundraiser offically on November 27 (see
also general "Highlights" section). The year-end
fundraising goal is $46 million, while the online fundraiser is
expected to raise a total $32.6 million (not including fundraising
chapters and Major Gifts and Foundations).
* Banner design progressed from last year's "Jimmy appeal" [5]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales?banner=B12_JpcwInline> to
variations on a new "Facts banner" [6]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold?banner=B12_DroprealGldffcc00_Biggold>,
[7]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information?banner=B12_1123_Smallinfo>, and
[8]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundraising?banner=B12_5C_113007_temple_twin_A>
which are oriented more towards educating users about the Wikimedia
Foundation.
* As a result of extremely well performing banners and more payment
options, the fundraiser has been very successful. The team decided
to only show banners to the following five English-speaking
countries through December 31: US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New
Zealand in addition to fundraising chapters. This was a response to
a very successful start, donor feedback and worldwide testing which
indicated we could improve our banner message translations. The team
will be working to improve translations to re-launch the fundraiser
in all remaining countries in the spring of 2013.
* We uploaded the video series 'The Impact of Wikipedia'.
* See the Fundraiser Statistics page
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics> for a
view comparing this year to previous years. Some interesting
statistics:
o Raised a record breaking $2.3 million in a single day (November
27, 2012): a 59% increase over our biggest day in 2011. On this
day we had 145,000 donations averaging about $27 USD per second.
During the biggest single hour, we received over ten thousand
donations, and averaged about $45 USD per second.
o The multi-lingual donor services team responded to donor emails
and liaised closely with tech, the creative team, and our
payment providers to trouble shoot technical and financial
errors that hindered users from donating.
== Global Development ==
Department highlights
* The Flow Funding Pilot program, a grant-funded experiment in
empowering individual Wikimedians to make (small) funding
recommendations is about to begin. Learn more at the Flow Funding
portal <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FF_portal>.
* The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) submitted its
recommendations to the Board for Round 1 2012–2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_ro…>.
=== Strategic Goals Metrics ===
Metric Value MoM MoM% Chart
Free Wikipedia Zero Page Requests 1.9m 765k +45% Increase [9]
<http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/graphs/free_mobile_traffic_by_version>
Global South Active Editors (5+ edits in main namespace) 14k 206
+1.5% Increase [10]
<http://global-dev.wmflabs.org/graphs/global_north_south_active_editors>
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
New teaching tool brochure released
Instructor Basics How to Use Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool.pdf
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Instructor_Basics_How_to_Use_Wikipe…>
A new brochure, titled "Instructor Basics: How to use Wikipedia as a
teaching tool", is now available from the Wikimedia Foundation and on
Wikimedia Commons. This brochure covers key Wikipedia policies and
structures that educators wanting to do a Wikipedia assignment in their
classes need to understand, best practices on article selection and
working with the community, and sample grading rubrics. Download the
brochure.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Instructor_Basics_How_to_Use_Wikiped…>
Sample syllabus brochure revamped
Sample Syllabus for Wikipedia assignment.pdf
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sample_Syllabus_for_Wikipedia_assig…>
The sample syllabus provided for instructors interested in having their
students write Wikipedia articles as part of the course curriculum has
been updated based on recommendations from more instructors who have
participated in the Wikipedia Education Program. The new version
provides a week-by-week breakdown of how you can incorporate a "write a
Wikipedia article" assignment into your classes. It includes some key
milestones that have proven effective at ensuring that students derive
the greatest educational benefits from editing Wikipedia. Download the
syllabus brochure.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sample_Syllabus_for_Wikipedia_assign…>
==== Egypt ====
* Frank and Annie had a meeting with the Vice President of Ain Shams
University and some participating Ain Shams professors, students,
and Ambassadors. The Vice President is highly supportive of the
program and promised to provide free internet USB sticks and
official certificates to all Ain Shams students in the program.
* The Egypt program is now the fastest growing wing of the Wikipedia
Education Program — from 5 classes last term to 18 classes this term
(despite a teachers' strike in Alexandria that put all classes in
Alexandria on hold!).
* Wikipedia Education Program Egypt consultant Faris El-Gwely is
working with Campus Ambassadors to keep a running updates page on
the Arabic Wikipedia with information about their activities. The
updates pages includes information on in-class editing sessions,
students' reactions to Wikipedia editing, and challenges that they
faced, such as lack of reliable internet access. It's a great way to
keep up with the current status of the Egypt program. Read the
updates page.
<http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%…>
==== U.S. and Canada ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Education_Program_booth_a…
Wikipedia Education Program booth at the National Communication
Association conference 2012>
The US National Communication Association is joining the Association for
Psychological Sciences and the American Sociological Association in
calling for academics in their discipline to improve the content on
Wikipedia through using it as a teaching tool in their classrooms. The
Wikipedia Education Program was featured at the NCA convention in
Florida, with a workshop attended by more than 40 instructors and a
booth in the exhibit hall. Wikipedia Education Program Communications
Manager LiAnna Davis and volunteer professors Adel Iskandar of
Georgetown University, Lori Britt of James Madison University, and Zach
McDowell of the University of Massachusetts Amherst led the workshop.
See more information about the NCA Wikipedia Initiative.
<http://natcom.org/wikipedia/>
* The Working Group
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group> — a
group of volunteers leading the spin-out of the U.S. and Canada
Education Programs — turned in their first complete proposal draft
to Frank. The proposal outlines their "business plan" for the new
non-profit organization that will run the U.S. and Canada Education
Programs.
* A student at Davidson College created the article on the psychology
of music preference as an assignment for Professor Greta Munger's
course on Cognition and the Arts, which is participating in the U.S.
Education Program this term. The student's article got accepted into
the Did You Know section on Wikipedia's Main Page, where it received
more than 2,000 views. Read the article.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_music_preference>
=== Brazil ===
Institutional partnerships:
* Two trips to São Paulo for meetings with 3 potential institutional
partner organizations
* Development of catalyst program planning with initial discussions
with the community available here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento…>
* Interviews with candidates for the Data Analyst position and
development of task to be given to the finalists
* Two IRC meetings for general community debates on CAPTCHA,
Wikiprojects and data organization
Outreach:
* Fiocruz - VIII Encontro da Rede de Bibliotecas da Fiocruz - 2012
<http://www.perb.icict.fiocruz.br/public/conferences/1/schedConfs/1/program-…>
- "Compartilhando Informação e Construindo Conhecimento: interações
e práticas"
* Fliporto (a literature event that took place in Recife) - Oona and
Jonas_AGX presented Wikipedia mission and a step-by-step on Wiki
editing 101
<http://g1.globo.com/pernambuco/fliporto/2012/noticia/2012/11/diretora-da-wi…>
* Arrangements with Campus Party and Wikimedia Brasil community to
develop activities in 2013
Professor in Brazil leads successful editing workshop
Last month, professor Juliana Bastos Marques of Universidade Federal do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, led an editing workshop for students
as part of the Extension Week at her university. She and her Campus
Ambassador, User:OTAVIO1981, introduced 12 students into how to edit
Wikipedia. During the four hour workshop, the students translated five
articles from the English Wikipedia into the Portuguese Wikipedia and
learned wiki editing and literacy skills that can be used for future.
Learn more by reading Juliana's post.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/05/wikipedia-and-university-beyond-the-cl…>
Partners:
* Translation courses at Gama Filho Faculty (Rio de Janeiro) through
an UNESCO Latin America contact
* Ministry of Health to bring experts and Medical School students to
Portuguese Wikipedia
* Lots of talks with possible partners (still in progress): Google,
UNESCO, Fiocruz, Faculty of Medicine at the University of São Paulo,
United Nations, Medical School groups, research groups, other
colleges and universities, language courses etc.
Presentation and outreach:
* Lecture and workshop in Vitória (Espírito Santo) to professors
(positive feedback received)
* Connected LiAnna Davis (Wikipedia Education Program Communications
Manager) with the professors using Wikipedia.
Direction of the program:
* Requesting comments from the community
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/geral/Programa_Wikip…>
* Revitalizing WikiProjects
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/propostas/Wikiprojet…>
(a lot of work with the Portuguese Wikipedia community – still in
progress but getting positive feedback)
* Letting students translate articles from other Wikipedia language
versions (discussion with the community
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/geral/Sugest%C3%B5es…>)
* Online tutorials: contacted Max Klein (P2PU) for adapting his online
course on Wikipedia
<https://p2pu.org/en/groups/open-access-wikipedia-challenge/> to
Portuguese Wikipedia and inquired about the possibility of using
Coursera
Research:
* On the usage of WikiProjects and previous researches by WMF on the
subject
* On complex adaptive systems
Planning and goals:
* Started planning alternative actions for the Education Program
(WikiProjects and translation without Ambassadors)
* Draft on the goals of the WikiProject model and working with
Jonathan Morgan on how to improve it
* Following up on talks with University's translation department in
order to ensure reasonable goals
Reports and learnings:
* Started courses evaluation
* Started program sustainability and scalability analysis
* Contacted each professor for positive feedback on the program
* Started giving post semester survey to professors
=== Fellowships ===
* *Program*: Discussions about the wind-down and moving some support
opportunities into WMF's grant-making activities are ongoing
* *Dispute Resolution*: A second survey started
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution_volunteer_survey>
this month to follow up on the results of the first DR survey
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:DRSURVEY>, this time focusing on the
motivations and ideas of existing dispute resolution volunteers, in
hope of boosting participation and recruitment. Responses are filing
in and results will be released in December. An IRC office hours
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours> session was
also held to solicit feedback
and input from the community, and while the universal DR wizard
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:DRREFORM> is still being developed,
alternative ideas about processes for routing disputes, recognizing
volunteers, and holding disputants to decisions are in discussion.
* *Small Wiki Editor Engagement*: The help page pilot has been shown
to more than double the number of new editors making 5 or more edits
to Bangla Wikipedia, from 21 to 50 editors in 47 days before and
after September 12th. Pilot report with more details is forthcoming,
as is a work-plan for phase 2 of the project.
* *WikiWomen's Collaborative*: Phase 2 goals and activities
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative/Phase_2>
have been set for the project. In this phase we'll be focusing on
activites like experimenting with ways to increase the participation
of women who are not yet editing, and developing the sustainability
of the project in anticipation of the fellowship coming to an end.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Prog…
Logo of the Editor Growth and Contribution Program>
=== Editor growth and Contribution Program ===
* A report on the Taghreedat - Wikipedia Editors project
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Program/Tagh…>
was
published. The report highlights the impact of social media and
emails on recruiting and coaching new Wikipedia editors.
=== Wikimania ===
* Working on development of new scholarship committee; providing
overall coaching to the new team.
=== Learning & Evaluation ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anonymous_Mobile_Dashboard.jpg>
Wikipedia Zero Mobile Partner Dashboard>
* Established dashboard for the Mobile Partners to be able to track
their progress
* Developing frameworks for measuring organizational effectivess as
well as programmatic effectiveness
* Supporting the development of standards of support for different
affiliate groups via CIS and Brazil. This includes helping develop
program and hiring plans, as well as figuring out what sorts of
legal and programmatic support we are able to lend.
* Working with the analytics team on how to develop a more robust
update of the Limn reporting software
=== Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) ===
* The FDC's recommendations for Round 1
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_ro…>
were
submitted to the Board on November 15.
* The recommendations were accepted as-is by the Board
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Board_decisions/2012-2013_round1>
on 1 December.
* 8.43 mn USD will be allocated through Round 1.
* Overall, 12 entities (including the Foundation) submitted proposals
to the FDC for Round 1; 10 were recommended support for their annual
plans, with two recommended for bridge funding and re-application in
Round 2.
* The grantmaking team worked on recruiting a Senior Program Officer
for the FDC, who will be the main point person for the FDC processes
on staff.
=== Grants ===
==== Grants approved in November 2012 ====
* Iván Martínez's Wiki Loves Monuments México exhibition
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Iv%C3%A1n_Mart%C3%ADnez/Wiki_Loves_M…>:
Iván Martínez, a volunteer active within the Mexican chapter,
will be organizing a series of exhibitions and events to
publicize the results of a successful Wiki Loves Monuments photo
competition in Mexico.
* Wikimedia Canada's In person meeting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CA/In_person_meeting>
This grant will fund an in-person meeting in Vancouver for
Wikimedia Canada's Board, so that board members may meet in
person for the first time.
==== Participation support requests approved in November 2012 ====
* This reimbursement supports the attendance of three volunteers at
Brazil's Campus Party 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Wikimedia_Brasil/Campus_Party…>.
==== Program updates ====
* The Flow Funding Pilot program, a grant-funded experiment in
empowering individual Wikimedians to make (small) funding
recommendations is about to begin. Learn more at the Flow Funding
portal <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FF_portal>.
* All current and past grants now also viewable in a set of sortable
tables to get a good overview, at the new Grants:Table page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Table>.
=== US Cultural Partnerships ===
* Attended the Museum Computer Network Conference
<http://www.mcn.edu/mcn-2012-annual-conference>, which included:
* A full-day Wikimedia-Tech Workshop
<http://www.mcn.edu/2012/wikimedia-tech-workshop-bridging-gap>
with Erik Moeller and GLAM-Wiki and MediaWiki volunteers.
* Inclusion in the opening Ignite talk
<http://storify.com/5easypieces/mcn2012-ignite-mcn>,
promoting open culture with the talk, “Embracing the Bazaar.”
* A full session with three Wikipedia sessions, including
WikiSource
<http://www.mcn.edu/2012/extracting-data-historical-documents-crowdsourcing-…>,
Women in GLAM-Wiki
<http://www.mcn.edu/2012/glam-women-how-you-can-help-close-gender-gap-wikipe…>,
and Next Steps in GLAM-Wiki Collaboration
<http://www.mcn.edu/2012/so-now-what-next-steps-glam-wikimedia-collaborations>.
* Inclusion in the “Slack Day” <http://www.mcn.edu/slack-day>
half-day workshop, presenting on Conflict of Interest in
GLAM-Wiki
* Leading the breakout session for the theme of “Open/Shared
Authority” <http://www.mcn.edu/open-shared-authority> in the
closing plenary
* Planning for upcoming meetings with Open Knowledge Foundation and
Open Cultuur Data, in moving forward with efforts for sustainable
Open GLAM US entity.
* Coordination of upcoming Wikipedian in Residence positions and GLAM
partnerships.
=== Wikipedia Zero ===
* Worked with volunteer developers at the Bangalore DevCamp to start
supporting an important variant of the upcoming text messaging support.
* SMS/USSD combination working and awaiting launch
* Developing the SMS only version for carriers that cannot support USSD.
== Human Resources ==
HR completed the annual WMF *employee engagement survey* between
September 26 and October 12, 2012, to understand the views of employees
in areas critical to employee commitment. A total of 84 employees
participated, representing a 66% response rate, which is considered
good. Overall employee engagement is considered "very good" where 71% of
employees responded favorably across the survey questions. The highest
scores showed a strong commitment to the mission and purpose of
Wikimedia, a desire to help one another, and to learn from the job.
Lower scores and recommendations indicated a need for improvement in
accountability and performance measures, organizational planning, better
recruiting, and more efforts in recognizing strong performance.
HR also organized the first *pilot staff orientation program* for the
Foundation, including modules hosted by different WMF staff. We ran it
for a couple hours a day, over the course of a week. The modules
included: WMF org structure, office orientation, wikis and practical
knowledge, communications, finance, community structure, what the
transition is like in moving from being a community member to being a
WMF employee, and its challenges, orientation about the projects, legal
orientation, open source/free culture orientation, a staff edit-a-thon,
a phone call with community member and an international contractor (to
have a sense of what the remote experience is like), and an article
assignment. Many thanks to Lynette Logan, Philippe Beaudette, Matthew
Roth, Tony Le, James Alexander, Ryan Kaldari, Michelle Paulson, Tomasz
Finc, Arthur Richards, Phoebe Ayres, Oliver Keyes, and Maggie Dennis for
their leadership on their respective orientation modules. These modules
were all filmed, and are being edited for online distribution.
HR held a *benefits meeting* to help employees become aware of changes
to their benefits. Because of our organizational size, we've had to move
from small-group to large-group benefit plans, with few changes in the
actual level of coverage available to our staff. We also completed a
more informal staff characteristics and preferences survey to collect
characteristics of staff and to get to know them better (such as
international experience, where they've lived, and what percentage of
our staff are Wikipedians), and will be releasing that data next month.
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Quim Gil, Volunteer Engineering Coordinator (Engineering)
* Juliusz Gonera, Software Developer – Mobile (Engineering)
* Raymond Lui, Finance & Administration Assistant (Finance & Admin)
New Contractors
* Robert Miller (Administration)
* Nischay Nahata (Engineering)
* Ian Poirier (Legal)
* Naoko Sakurai (Community Advocacy)
* Mike Wang (Engineering)
Contracts Extended
* Sandra Hust
* Stefan Petrea
* Tanvir Rahman
* Yuko Sakata
Contracts Ended
* Kristina Baker
* Kevin Gorman
* Hisham Mundol
Department Movement
* Patrick Reilly joins the Engineering Features team
New Posting
* Legal Intern (Summer)
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
November Actual: 129
November Total Plan: 163
November Filled: 3, Month Attrition: 1
YTD Filled: 30, YTD Attrition: 13
1 position canceled for FY
Remaining open positions to fiscal year end
44 (8 of which are on hold)
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* The first phase of the *new space design for the WMF office* is
completed. Engineering now has new desks and space layout with
additional improvements in process.
* We have begun the process of our *annual insurance renewals for risk
management*. Improving coverage for media and privacy liability is
one of our key goals in this renewal.
* With the *departure of the Manager of Office IT*, we have interim
coverage for network and server issues being provided by Tech Ops.
We have posted a position opening and are looking at the option of
selecting a vendor or contractor to provide network and server support.
* With the pending *departure of our travel manager*, we are enaged in
a search for a new travel manager and are in the process of
implementing a new travel services provider.
* We welcome a *new member* of the Finance and Administration team -
Raymond Lui.
== Legal and Community Advocacy ==
=== Contract Metrics ===
* 14 - submitted
* 17 - completed
=== Trademark License Request Metrics ===
* 14 - submitted
* 1 - approved
* 7 - pending
* 2 - denied
* 1 - request withdrawn
* 3 - moved to C&D queue
=== Litigation ===
==== Internet Brands ====
* Blog Posts:
o Update to Internet Brands travel site lawsuit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/28/update-to-internet-brands-travel-site…>
o Update on Internet Brands v. Holliday
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/19/update-on-internet-brands-v-holliday/>
* Summary: The federal district court in Los Angeles issued its
written order on volunteer Ryan Holliday’s anti-SLAPP motion and
motion to dismiss
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-09-26_Notice_of_Defendants%27…>.
A copy of the order is available here
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-09-26_Notice_of_Defendants%27…>.
In the order, the court noted that Internet Brands abandoned its
federal Lanham Act <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanham_Act> claim. That
claim was based on the factual allegation that the Foundation was
operating a new travel wiki called “Wiki Travel Guide,” which Ryan
showed to be incorrect. After being required to respond to Ryan’s
motion, Internet Brands was forced to admit that the basis of its
claim was primarily predicated on an assumption. Noting that this
Lanham Act claim was the only claim supporting federal jurisdiction,
the court dismissed the remainder of Internet Brands’ case and found
Ryan’s anti-[[en:Strategic lawsuit against public
participation|SLAPP motion to be moot.
While we had hoped that the court would reach the merits of Ryan’s
anti-SLAPP motion, the dismissal of the entire suit nonetheless
represents a victory for Ryan and volunteer James Heilman (who was
also named in the suit). We congratulate both of them on this result.
Meanwhile, the Wikimedia Foundation is proceeding forward with its
lawsuit against Internet Brands in San Francisco. Internet Brands
has filed a demurrer (motion to dismiss), the hearing for which has
been postponed to December 14. The court has issued a tentative
ruling on that motion, which is available here
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Minutes_-_Demurrer_11-19-12.pdf>.
In the tentative ruling, the court indicates that it is inclined to
rule against Internet Brands. We will send out an update after the
hearing.
==== German Cases ====
* Blog Post:
o Two German courts rule in favor of free knowledge movement
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/04/two-german-courts-rule-in-favor-of-fr…>
* Summary: The Foundation successfully defended against two cases in
Germany, where the Foundation was accused of failing to respect the
rights of personality of two individuals as a result of content
appearing on German Wikipedia. However, one of the cases is now
currently under appeal.
[edit
</w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_November_2012&action=edit§ion=44>]
Coming & Going
* Deputy General Counsel Kelly Kay is leaving the Foundation,
effective December 7, 2012.
* Contract attorney Kristina Baker left the Foundation.
* Ian Poirier joined as a contract attorney to help with the workload.
* Currently interviewing for community advocates from around the world
to increase our understanding of different projects and find ways to
better support them. Also interviewing for spring and summer legal
interns, a new legal counsel role, and the deputy general counsel role.
=== Other Major Activities ===
* WMF received a major *DMCA takedown* request involving 59 images on
Commons of sculptures by an artist named Claes Oldenburg. After
exploring all possible options in favor of retaining the images, it
was determined that we had to comply with the takedown notice. For
more information, please see the statement to the community
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2012/11#DMC…>.
* Maggie, Michelle, and Philippe all participated in the *new employee
orientation* modules by each conducting their own training sessions
on legal and community issues.
* *Domains/Trademark Opposition Wins* - We won several domains from
third party squatters and successfully opposed one trademark
registration by a third party who was attempting to register the
Wikipedia puzzle globe logo.
* We worked with *Creative Commons* to ensure that the community’s
interests are properly represented as they work through drafting of
CC v.4 licenses.
* Standardized *grant agreements* have been drafted and vetted and
should be ready for use next week for the new Grantmaking and
Programs Department.
* Hosted a *visit from Risker* - got valuable community input on
ongoing projects and arranged for brown bag so that attendees could
get a unique community perspective.
=== Communications ===
November’s communications work focused largely on production of this
year’s Annual Report (to be launched in early December), support to the
online fundraising team, and launch of the Wikimedia merchandise
volunteer recognition program. No major issues or media stories around
the projects broke in November.
==== Major announcements ====
The Wikimedia Foundation launches ninth annual fundraiser to support
Wikipedia and free knowledge (27 November 2012) [11]
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_an…>
==== Major Storylines through November ====
Wikimedia kicks off its fundraiser (mid/late November 2012)
This year’s most successful fundraiser ever, launched with a significant
jump in giving, resulting in unusually light media coverage. The simple
and effective designs (currently lacking photography) haven’t caught the
attention of mainstream media as in the past. Further coverage is
expected as the campaign nears its goals, and around some proactive
media outreach in December.
* Wikipedia Begins Annual Fundraising Drive [12]
<http://www.theledger.com/article/20121130/COLUMNISTS0301/121139947>
* A Guide To Tech Charities On Giving Tuesday [13]
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/tech-charities-giving-tuesday_n_21…>
PR firm edits on prominent UK biz figures and brands (November 17)
The follow-up to an investigation from The Times about PR firm edits to
articles about prominent businesses and clients generated considerable
attention in November, predominantly in the UK media. A duo of Times
reporters focused on allegedly paid edits and ‘clean up’ to the UK
entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov, as well as a long list of prominent
businesses and brands. PR industry veterans weighed in to defend
industry practices vis a vis Wikipedia’s policies. Most stories directed
criticism towards the PR industry rather than our contributors or projects.
* Multinationals with something to hide? Wiki wipes exposed;
Controversies, disasters and embarrassments were deleted or
amended.[14]
<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/technology/internet/article3603194.ece>
* Finsbury edited Alisher Usmanov's Wikipedia page [15]
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/…>
* “Public relations professionals should not directly edit Wikipedia”
CIPR & PRCA insist, following RLM Finsbury editing Alisher Usmanov's
entry [16]
<http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/11/12/public-relations-professionals-shoul…>
Wikipedia adds HTML5 video support (November 8)
Significant coverage in tech blogs following the launch and
implementation of our HTML5 video player. Largely positive posts and
stories, although some critical observations that the project has been
underway since 2008.
* After Many Delays, Wikipedia Adds Video Support Today [17]
<http://allthingsd.com/20121108/after-many-delays-wikipedia-adds-video-suppo…>
* After a 5-year beta period, Wikipedia finally moves into the video
era with an HTML5 player [18]
<http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/11/08/after-a-5-year-beta-period-wikipedia…>
* Wikipedia adds HTML5 video player, though no influx of vids just yet
[19]
<http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/11/08/after-a-5-year-beta-period-wikipedia…>
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Macleans.ca | Meet the man with 130,000 Wikipedia edits (November 29)
[20]
<http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/11/29/meet-the-man-who-edited-13…>
Slate.com | Top Wikipedia Editors To Get Free Access to JSTOR. Be
Jealous. (November 26) [21]
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/11/26/jstor_wikipedia_partners…>
DailyDot | Top Wikipedia editors get free access to JSTOR academic
journals (November 21) [22]
<http://www.dailydot.com/news/wikipedia-editors-free-jstor-journals/>
PopSci | Meet The Climate Change Denier Who Became The Voice Of
Hurricane Sandy On Wikipedia (November 2) [23]
<http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-11/wikipedia-sandy>
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Fifty-two blog posts through November
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/>, including multilingual posts
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/> in Spanish, Catalan,
Portuguese, French and German
A few highlights:
Language engineering news: Bugs fixed in Universal Language
Selector, and a new IPA keyboard layout (November 30) [24]
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/30/bugs-fixed-universal-language-selector…>
Wikimedia India hosts Wikipedia women’s workshop in Mumbai (November
19) [25]
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/19/wikimedia-india-hosts-wikipedia-women-…>
The FDC process: a milestone in sharing Wikimedia movement funds
(November 15) [26]
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/15/fdc-process-milestone-sharing-wikimedi…>
Introducing Wikipedia’s new HTML5 video player (November 8) [27]
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/08/introducing-wikipedias-new-html5-video…>
Wikimedia Foundation Profile: Garfield Byrd, Chief of Finance and
Administration (November 1) [28]
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/11/01/wmf-profile-garfield-byrd-chief-of-fin…>
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
/The Wikipedia Signpost is a weekly community-written newsletter
developed in the English Wikipedia, but describing trends and
developments across the movement as well./
* Volume 8, Issue 45, 5 November 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-11…>
* Volume 8, Issue 46, 12 November 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-11…>
* Volume 8, Issue 47, 19 November 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-11…>
* Volume 8, Issue 48, 26 November 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-11…>
==== Media Contact ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#November_2012
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in November 2012:
1. David Weir (independent consultant)
2. Edward Griffin (Intivix)
3. Jared Pickering (Intivix)
4. Trevor Bolhler (Wikia)
5. Mark Bünger (Lux Research)
6. Dr. Usmani (Interactive Group, Pakistan)
7. Dennis Weckel (Forte)
8. Josep Nolla (Telenor)
9. Bjørn Martin Worsøe (Telenor)
10. Johanna Staaf (Telenor)
11. Nicolay Nickelsen (Telenor)
12. Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani (Interactive Group)
13. David Peters (exbrook)
14. Anne Clin (Risker <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Risker> -
enwiki Arbcom)
15. Valerie Aurora (TAI)
16. Naoko Sakurai (volunteer)
17. Deborah Bezona (SML insurance agency)
18. Christine Moellenberndt (volunteer)
19. Herb Miles (SML)
20. Mandy Lee (SML)
21. Juan Riboldi (Ascent)
22. Sowmyan Tirumurti (Director of Wikimedia India)
23. Kelly Smith (Travel and Transport)
24. Amanda Brock (Spark)
25. Shannon Farley (Spark)
26. Adrianne Wadewitz (Wikipedia Education Program - Community Member)
27. Cindy Hawlet (AIG)
28. Christina Drascudgee (AIG)
29. Brendan Quinka (AIG)
30. Dylan Hale (Cooley LLP)
31. Liz Williams (Collab Zone)
32. Liz Nichols (Brin Wojcicki Foundation)
33. Rob Fetrestaley (Brin Wojcicki Foundation)
34. Laura Hale (Wikimedia Australia)
35. Robert Myers (Wikimedia Australia)
36. Pete Hodgson (ThoughtWorks)
37. Khali Young (ThoughtWorks)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#41) is available.
This time we write about Wiki Loves Monument aftermath, the preparation of
third Open Data Day and the forthcoming celebrations for 10 years of CC
licenses.
As usual a link has been added to meta, at
Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; raw text of the bulletin
follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*WikimediaNews* - no. 41 - December 12, 2012
Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.
Wiki Loves Monuments Italy in the world
Wiki Loves Monuments Italy has been a wonderful journey and still is: we
started with a handful of "freed" monuments and we ended up with two
pictures classified in the international contest! The image of the Teatro
Comunale di Ferrara by Andrea Parisi came fifth, while the photo of the
Baptistery of San Pietro di Asti was ranked fifteenth. More info on the blog
of Wiki Loves Monuments
Italy<http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it/2012/12/litalia-nel-contest-internazionale/>.
The great satisfaction of Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 motivates us to design
a competition even more exciting for next year. But we still need your
support! This time you can help us without spending a dime, but simply by
voting: we have passed the first stage of the contest "Che fare" ("What To
Do"), and now we are trying to pass at the third stage. The winner of the
contest will receive a prize of €100,000. Go to Che fare!
site<http://www.che-fare.com/>and vote for the project no. 31!
Wikimedia Italia at Open Data Day
Wednesday, December 5, the first preparatory meeting for the third Open
Data Day <http://opendataday.it/> was held in Bologna. The Open Data Day
which be February 23, 2013; Italy will participate for the first time. It
is a public discussion, with the aim of involving all those who have so far
worked on open data in Italy in support of the activities of Italy Digital
Agency. Many events will be organized throughout the country, and the main
one will take place in Rome.
lettera27 for tenth birthday of Creative Commons
lettera27 Foundation celebrates 10 years since the creation of Creative
Commons licenses, used by Wikipedia and all the other Wikimedia projects,
with an event which will be held in Milan on December 14. lettera27 is a
foundation that supports the right to literacy, education and more
generally access to knowledge and information in every part of the world
and particularly in its most deprived areas. Thanks to the collaboration
between the Foundation and Wikimedia Italy, in 2006 project
WikiAfrica<http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:WikiAfrica#Contribuire_a_WikiAfrica>was
born, that this year has reached the goal of contributing to Wikipedia
with 30,000 images and texts about Africa, released under a free license.
This is a good reason to give thanks and celebrate Creative Commons.
News in brief
(Note: in this translated version only the news regarding Italy are shown)
- Wiki Loves Monuments Italy blog is hosting a tour of the best pictures
in the world edition of the contest. See the WLM Tours in Spain and
Andorra<http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it/2012/11/wlm-tour-spagna-e-andorra/>and
France
and Switzerland<http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it/2012/12/wlm-tour-francia-e-svizzera/>.
Dear all,
I am sending you the monthly report of Wikimedia Deutschland for November
2012.
Highlights this month:
* the eleventh general assembly of Wikimedia Deutschland and the community
event Open Sunday<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Offener_Sonntag>
*the research project RENDER <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/RENDER>finished
its second year successfully
*the annual fundraiser<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraiser_2012>started
and WMDE uses personal appeals from Wikipedia volunteers for the
first time
The report is available on Meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Deutsch…
Enjoy,
Katja
--
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
-------------------------------------
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstraße 72 | 10963 Berlin
Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0
www.wikimedia.de
Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen
Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
**** Helfen Sie mit, dass WIKIPEDIA von der UNESCO als erstes digitales
Weltkulturerbe anerkannt wird.
Unterzeichnen Sie die Online-Petition! http://wikipedia.de ****
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
Dear all,
The Affiliations Committee [1], the committee that is responsible for
guiding volunteers in establishing Chapters, User Groups and Thematic
Organizations ("affiliates" in short) and approving them when they are
ready is looking for about 6 new members.
The main focus of AffCom is to guide groups of volunteers in forming
affiliates. We make sure that the group is large enough to be viable
(and advise them on how to get bigger), review bylaws for compliance
with the requirements and best practices, and advise the Board of the
Wikimedia Foundation on issues connected to Chapters, Thematic
Organizations and User Groups.
This requires communication with volunteers all over the World,
negotiating skills and cultural sensitivity and the ability to
understand legal texts. We try to get a healthy mix of different skill
sets in our members.
Key skills/experience that we are looking for in candidate members,
are typically:
* Excitement by the challenge of helping to empower groups of
volunteers worldwide
* Willingness to work in a sometimes bureaucratic, sometimes political process
* 4 hours per week availability[2]
* International orientation
* Very good communication skills in English
* Ability to work and communicate with other cultures
* Strong understanding of the structure and work of affiliates and the WMF
* Communication skills in other languages are a major plus
* Experience with or in an active affiliate is a major plus
With the help of the Affiliations Committee, 2012 has been an exciting
year of transformation for the movement with the introduction of new
types of affiliation. This means that the workload of the Committee
has increased and diversified and help is wanted! Currently many
applications to become a Chapter, Thematic Organization or User Group
are in the pipeline and can use your attention and dedication!
You can send your applications with your name, contact data (e-mail,
wiki username), experience and motivation to join to the AffCom email
address, affcom AT lists DOT wikimedia DOT org by January 12, 2013.
You will get a confirmation that your application came through.
Members are usually selected every twelve months for staggered two
year terms. The applications will be considered by the current members
and outgoing members and Committee advisers, who are not seeking
re-selection.
Since I will be a candidate for re-selection myself, this process will
be managed by another committee member, Lodewijk Gelauff. I hope for
many suitable applications. If you have any questions, please don't
hesitate to email me or Lodewijk[3] privately. We are happy to chat or
have a phone call with anyone about our work, if this helps them
decide to apply.
Please distribute this call among your networks, and do apply if you
are interested.
Best regards,
Bence Damokos
Chair,
Affiliations Committee
[1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee (please
follow the links and familiarize yourself with our work)
[2]: Our member standards of participation are at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Standard_…
[3]: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:EmailUser/Effeietsanders
