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Wikimedia Foundation Report, July 2012
by Tilman Bayer 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

Hi all, please find below the WMF report for July 2012, in plain text. As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_July_2012 and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/ This issue was published a bit later than usual; expect the August report to come out sooner. On the upside, the delay has made it possible to add numerous direct links to the Wikimania videos that were uploaded recently by Wikimedia DC. 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,_July_2012 Supported by the new translation notifications system, volunteers have translated the June Highlights into around 30 different languages eventually (see upcoming separate announcement). 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 August issue are welcome at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights (until September 3). Regards, Tilman -- Wikimedia Foundation Report, July 2012 <Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_August_2,_2…> Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of July (August 2, 2012)> * 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Foundation staff at Wikimania * 4 Technology o 4.1 Events o 4.2 Operations o 4.3 Features Engineering o 4.4 Internationalization and Editor Engagement Experiments o 4.5 Mobile Engineering o 4.6 Platform Engineering * 5 Fundraising o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations o 5.2 Fundraiser * 6 Global Development o 6.1 Global Development Highlights o 6.2 Global Learning and Grantmaking + 6.2.1 Grants Awarded and Executed o 6.3 Fellowships + 6.3.1 Dispute Resolution + 6.3.2 Help Pages Redesign + 6.3.3 Small Wiki Editor Engagement + 6.3.4 Teahouse + 6.3.5 Translations o 6.4 Editor Growth and Contribution Program o 6.5 Brazil Catalyst <#Brazil_Catalyst> + 6.5.1 Activities in events: Campus Party Recife 2012 and Wikimania + 6.5.2 Community Engagement and activities + 6.5.3 Brazil Education Program + 6.5.4 Office/Staff o 6.6 US Cultural Partnerships o 6.7 Mobile and Business Development o 6.8 Wikipedia Education Program o 6.9 India Programs + 6.9.1 India Community Support o 6.10 Communications + 6.10.1 Major announcements + 6.10.2 Major Storylines in July + 6.10.3 Other worthwhile reads + 6.10.4 Wikipedia Signpost + 6.10.5 WMF Blog posts + 6.10.6 Media Contact * 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 * 10 Visitors and Guests == Data and Trends == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… Erik Möller explaining pageviews> Global unique visitors for June: *469.64 million* (-4.62% compared with May; +17.60% compared with the previous year) (comScore data <http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release July data later in August) Page requests for July: *17.1 billion* (-1.9% compared with June; +2.5% 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 June 2012 (>= 5 edits/month): 82,220 (-3.2% compared with May / -1.3% compared with the previous year) (Database data <http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia Foundation projects except for Wikimedia Commons. Note: We are in the process of moving to a metric that takes into account SUL and Wikimedia Commons.) *Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects) for June 2012: http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/ == Financials == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_YTD_Revenue_and_Expenses_vs_Pla…> WMF YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of June 30, 2012> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_YTD_Expenses_by_Functions_as_of…> WMF YTD Expenses by Functions as of June 30, 2012> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric…> Sue Gardner explaining financial information> (Financial information is only available for June 30, 2012 at the time of this report.) All financial information presented is for the period of July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012. Revenue $36,112,711 *Expenses:* Technology Group $12,335,628 Community/Fundraiser Group $3,769,765 Global Development Group $4,879,005 Governance Group $998,443 Finance/Legal/HR/Admin Group $6,814,021 Total Expenses $28,796,862 Total surplus/(loss) $7,315,849 * Revenue for the month is $549K vs plan of $162K, approximately $387K or 238% over plan. * Year-to-date revenue is $36.1MM vs plan of $29.5MM, approximately $6.6MM or 22% over plan. * Expenses for the month is $3.3MM vs plan of $2.2MM, approximately $1.1MM or 49% higher than plan, primarily due to catching up on planned capital expenditures and higher-than-budgeted expenses for professional services and wikimania. * Year-to-date expenses is $28.8MM vs plan of $28.3MM, approximately $512K or 2% higher than plan, primarily due to higher-than-budgeted payment processing fees (reflecting over-achieved revenue targets), higher-than-budgeted expenses for Wikimania, and an over-spend for Legal to fix issues with our trademark portfolio. * Cash position is $25.4MM as of June 30, 2012 which is approximately 10.9 months of expenses. * Please note that the June 30, 2012 numbers presented in this report will be different from those in the audited financial reports due to the way capital expenditures and other items are presented. For example, for this report capital expenditures for servers and other equipment purchases are shown as an expense for the fiscal year, and for our audited financial statements they will be moved to fixed assets on the balance sheet and the audited statement of activities will show depreciation expense. == Highlights == === Foundation staff report on their work at Wikimania === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_Group_Photograph-000…> Wikimania 2012 group photograph> >From July 12 to July 14, Wikimedians from around the world came together in Washington DC for this year's annual Wikimania conference, organized by Wikimedia District of Columbia (see also the this month's movement highlights <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_July_2012>). Among them were many Wikimedia Foundation staff, fellows and contractors. The keynote of Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner was titled "Wikimedia Foundation: The Year In Review and The Year Ahead" (slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sue_Gardner_Presentation_Wikimania_…>), and the Schedule <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule> included many other presentations by WMF staff, fellows and contractors: * Fabrice Florin, Howie Fung, Karyn Gladstone, Brandon Harris, Oliver Keyes: /Engaging editors on Wikipedia: A roadmap of new features/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Engaging_editors_on_Wi…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania-2012-Editor-Engagement-Pa…>) / Oliver Keyes: /Engaging the Community: What We've Tried and Where We're Going/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Engaging_the_Community…>) - video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6POVSbBfPX0> * Trevor Parscal and Roan Kattouw: /Life Without Brackets: Visual Editing for Wikitext/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Life_Without_Brackets:…>, * Erik Moeller: /The purpose-driven social network: Supporting WikiProjects with technology/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_purpose-driven_soc…>, slides <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012-WikiProjects.p…>) * Brandon Harris: /The Athena Project: Wikipedia in 2015/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_Athena_Project:_Wi…>. slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_-_2012_-_Athena_Project.p…>) * Steven Walling, Maryana Pinchuk: /Welcome to Wikipedia, now please go away: improving how we communicate with new editors/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Welcome_to_Wikipedia,_…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Template_A-B_testing_presentation_d…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkCLHmuRuB4&feature=player_detailpage#t=154…>) * Tilman Bayer (with MZMcBride): /Stop Spamming' vs. 'Nobody Told Me' – the state and future of movement broadcasting mechanisms/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Movement_Broadcasting_…>, slides <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_-_Movement_bro…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkCLHmuRuB4&feature=player_detailpage#t=301…>) * Alolita Sharma: /The next billion users on Wikipedia with Open Source Webfonts/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_next_billion_users…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X39fQMRpDhQ&feature=plcp>) * Amir E. Aharoni: /The software localization paradox/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_software_localizat…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The-paradox-free.pdf>) * Noopur Raval: /GLAM and Outreach in India/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/GLAM_and_Outreach_in_I…>) * Lori Byrd Phillips: /State of GLAM-WIKI in the US/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/State_of_GLAM-Wiki_in_…>) * James Forrester & Philippe Beaudette: /Wikimedia relations with governments, lobbying and public relations/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_relations_wi…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35T7ceVT5jU&t=1542s>) * Amir E. Aharoni: /Supporting languages, all of them/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Supporting_languages,_…> - submitted by Gerard Meijssen - , slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_Supporting_languages…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG38eXH4SaE>) * Siebrand Mazeland: /A Tale of Language Support/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/A_Tale_of_Language_Sup…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_A_Tale_of_Language_S…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X39fQMRpDhQ#t=5700s>) * Siebrand Mazeland, Santhosh Thottingal, Pau Giner, Niklas Laxström, Amir Aharoni, Arun Ganesh, Alolita Sharma: /Ask the Language Support People/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Ask_the_Language_Suppo…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X39fQMRpDhQ&t=7398s>) * Fabrice Florin: /Giving Readers a Voice: Lessons from Article Feedback v5/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Giving_Readers_a_Voice…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Article-Feedback-Slides-07-13-2012.…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWYH46p5hss&feature=plcp>) * Geoff Brigham: /Top 10 Legal Issues for the Wikimedia Movement/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Top_10_Legal_Issues>, slides https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_LCA_Presentation_-_Wikimania_20…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEuBsbl_zGg>) * Leslie Carr, Ben Hartshorne, Jeff Green, Ryan Lane, Rob Halsell: /Ask the Operators/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Ask_the_Operators>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWBoSoWrgF4&t=2307s>) * Ben Hartshorne: /Swift and the Media Storage System/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Swift_and_the_Media_St…>, slides <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swift_Presentation_for_Wikima…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWBoSoWrgF4>) * Amir E. Aharoni: /The hundred-year old websites - a new look at Wikisource/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_hundred-year_old_w…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikisource-hundred-year-old-website…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXQ3GC7O2mc>) * Brion Vibber: /Embedded scripting: creating interactive diagrams, maps, and other media resources in MediaWiki/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Embedded_scripting:_cr…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_DC_-_Brion_Vibber_-_…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOoYzxdUkvc&t=1982s>) * Andrew Garrett, with other panelists: /Small Process Helpers: The case for Widgets/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Small_process_helpers:…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOoYzxdUkvc&t=3369s>) * Tomasz Finc, Jon Robson: /The Wikipedia Mobile Experience — Where We've Been and Where We're Going/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_Wikipedia_Mobile_E…> - submitted by Patrick Reilly -,slides https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wikipedia_Mobile_Experience_%E2…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQuOf6e0p>) * Yuvaraj Pandian: /The Wikipedia Smartphone Apps Story/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_Wikipedia_Smartpho…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQuOf6e0p0&feature=player_detailpage#t=333…>) * Oliver Keyes, with other panelists: /Eternal December: How Awful Arguments are Killing the Wiki, and Why not to Make Them/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Eternal_December:_How_…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Ng60B0mKU>) * Maryana Pinchuk, Steven Walling: /“This is my voice”: the motivations of highly active Wikipedians/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/%E2%80%9CThis_is_my_vo…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikimaniaMotivationsTalk.pdf>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Ng60B0mKU&t=2352s>) * Ryan Lane: /Wikimedia Labs and the state of our open source infrastructure/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_Labs_and_the…>) * Amit Kapoor/Kul Takanao Wadhwa: /Reaching the Next Billion Users: Wikipedia on mobile/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Reaching_the_Next_Bill…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reaching_next_billion_users_Wikiman…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6HOqFzPclI>) + panel (video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6HOqFzPclI&t=3140s>) * Tomasz Finc, Dan Foy: /Removing the barriers of access to Wikipedia/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Removing_the_barriers_…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Removing_the_barriers_of_access_to_…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6HOqFzPclI&t=1798s>) * Niklas Laxström: /Translating the wiki way/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Translating_the_wiki_w…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Translating_the_wiki_way.pdf>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqS3YSKfJqU&t=1685s>) * Rob Lanphier: /Delivering MediaWiki faster, smoother and better/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Delivering_MediaWiki_f…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqS3YSKfJqU&t=3438s>) * Siko Bouterse, Sarah Stierch, Jonathan Morgan, Jon Harald Søby, Peter Coombe, Tanvir Rahman, Steven Zhang: /Wikimedia Community Fellows: what we're researching, piloting and building to help the movement/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_Community_Fe…>, slides: Introduction <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fellowships_Wikimania_2012_Presenta…>, Teahouse <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teahouse_presentation.pdf>, dispute resolution <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dispute_Resolution_on_the_English_W…>, translation project <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Translation_fellowship.pdf>, help pages <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_-_Help_pages_fellows…>, Small Wiki Editor Engagement <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_presentation_on_SWEE…>) * Sumana Harihareswara, Guillaume Paumier, Rob Lanphier: /Transparency and collaboration in Wikimedia engineering/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Transparency_and_colla…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21lR4kYXRmw>) * Katie Horn: /Fundraising: Under the Hood/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Fundraising:_Under_the…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21lR4kYXRmw&t=1605s>) * Sarah Stierch: /10 women in 10 minutes/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/10_women_in_10_minutes>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:10_women_in_10_minutes_-_wikimania_…>) * Santhosh Thottingal: /Read and Write in your language/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Read_and_Write_in_your…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Read_And_Write_in_your_language.pdf>) * Asaf Bartov: /Funds for Free Knowledge: Wikimedia Foundation Grantmaking/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Funds_for_Free_Knowled…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Funds_for_Free_Knowledge_-_Wikimani…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7pLyzAfcCs>) * James Alexander: /The Bad Assumptions of the Copyright Discussion/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_Bad_Assumptions_of…>) * Sumana Harihareswara: /What Does THAT mean? Engineering Jargon And Procedures Explained/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/What_Does_THAT_mean%3F…>) * Roan Kattouw and Timo Tijhof: /ResourceLoader 2: The Future of Gadgets/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/ResourceLoader_2:_The_…>, slides <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ResourceLoader_Wikimania_2012.pdf>) * Guillaume Paumier: /11 years of Wikipedia, or the Wikimedia history crash course you can edit/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/11_years_of_Wikipedia,…>, video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRA1sKIBB_g>) * Lori Byrd Phillips (with Àlex Hinojo and Andy Mabbett): /QRpedia and you/ (abstract <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/QRpedia_and_you>) Beyond these, Wikimedia Foundation staff, fellows and contractors also participated in various other panels. The fundraising team recorded over 100 on-camera interviews with Wikimedia editors, programmers and volunteers from all over the world. Interviews are inspiring new editor appeals (and a short video about Wikipedia), which we will showcase during the annual fundraiser. == Technology == A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for July 2012 can be found at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/July Department Highlights Major news in July include: * Engineering presence at Wikimania 2012 in Washington, D.C., and the pre-Wikimania hackathon; * the launch of Limn <https://github.com/wikimedia/limn>, an open source dataviz toolkit developed by the Wikimedia analytics team; * the deployment of Article Feedback Version 5 <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/10/article-feedback-v5-starts-wider-depl…> (which supports free-text feedback and moderation thereof) to 10% of English Wikipedia articles === Events === *Wikimania <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/>* and *Pre-Wikimania hackathon <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hackathon>* (10–15 July 2012, Washington, D.C. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.>, USA) This year's pre-Wikimania Hackathon was special in that it had a full track for newcomers, going beyond tutorials. The Hackathon was a collaboration with OpenHatch, an open-source teaching non-profit. The new efforts included appropriate first-time tasks to orient newcomers into more advanced Wikipedia editing and tech contribution, a laptop setup guide that steps attendees through the process of configuring development environments, and constant in-person assistance to help people past problems they encountered. While at the event, we saw many people learning more about templates, editing Wikipedia, and using and modifying bots to improve the encyclopedia and media on it. At least 65 people signed in, with surely more in attendance. During the main Wikimania conference, a number of volunteer and staff gave talks and led discussions <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_submissions_abo…> about technology-related topics. === Operations === *Site infrastructure* The team mostly worked behind the scenes in July. Notably, we successfully integrated and tested the upgraded Varnish software (with persistent cache patch) on some of our mobile caching servers. They are working very well and the plan is to roll it widely in the coming weeks. *Object Store/Swift <http://wikitech.wikimedia.org/view/Swift>* Migration to Swift is progressing to the final stages now that the performance bottleneck issue identified in June has been resolved. MediaWiki is now operating fully using Swift as the primary object store for thumbnails (the legacy NFS system is relegated to a secondary fail-over backup). The 'originals' (uploaded images and multimedia contents) have been copied over to Swift as well, setting the stage to migrate away from the NFS filer next month. === Features Engineering === *VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor>* <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… Explaining the visual editor> The VisualEditor (VE) team presented their work at Wikimania and received a good deal of feedback from the community. The team created a rough plan for the next three months' work <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/2012-13_Q1_forward-look>. The early version of VE on mediawiki.org was updated twice, fixing a number of bugs and noticeably including the addition of support for nested lists. *Article feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>* The team deployed Article Feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5> on 10% of the English Encyclopedia. This month, we developed final features <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requireme…> for this tool, including the article feedback page <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ArticleFeedbackv5/Golden-crowned_Spar…>, the central feedback page <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ArticleFeedbackv5>, and the final feedback form <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco?aftv5_form=6> (scroll to bottom of page). To guide users of this tool, we also published a new video tour <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_Feedback_Tool/Version_5/Vid…>, a walkthrough tutorial <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Feedback_walkthrough> and various help pages <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_Feedback/Help/Editors>. We are aiming for a full release to 100% of English Wikipedia by October 2012 — with other wiki projects starting later this year. *Page Curation| <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation>* The team deployed an updated version of the new Page Curation product (formerly called /Page Triage/) on the English Wikipedia. It includes two main features: 1) the New Pages Feed <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Special:NewPagesFeed>, a dynamic list of new pages for review by community patrollers; and 2) the Curation Toolbar, an optional panel on article pages, which enables editors to get page info, mark a page as reviewed, tag it, mark it for deletion, send WikiLove to page creators — or jump to the next page on the list. We plan to pre-release this feature on the English Wikipedia in mid-August — with a full release in September 2012. === Internationalization and Editor Engagement Experiments === *Internationalization and localization tools <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization_tools>* The team continued to work on the Universal Language Selector <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector> and set up a prototype <http://sandbox.translatewiki.net/wiki/Main_Page> to test it. Development was completed on Translation memory and CLDR plurals support and code review is pending. User experience testing of the Translate extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate> is in progress to Translate UX enhancements. The WebFonts <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WebFonts> and Narayam <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Narayam> extensions were deployed on Bengali Wikisource and Punjabi Wikipedia. Development started on Project Milkshake <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Santhosh.thottingal/jQuery_i18n_Spec>. *Editor engagement experiments <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments>* The Timestamp Position Modification <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Timestamp_Position_Modification> experiment was completed, and initial analysis shows that adding the timestamp on articles increases clicks on the History tab. Development started to deliver post-edit feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/post-edit_feedback> messages; this experiment includes a proof-of-concept dry run of a new editor bucketing strategy for delivering experimental treatments that was deployed in advance of the full experiment. The team configured a test environment on Labs, to be used for UI and functional requirements validation by the team. The Wikimania conference was an opportunity to interact with editors from the English Wikipedia, and to define a new experiment related to cleanup templates. === Mobile Engineering === *Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application>* <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… Thomasz Finc explains the Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… Thomasz Finc explains the potential effect of the Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application> Significant progress made at the Wikimania Hackathon in Washington DC and elsewhere. The development team of Jon, Brion, Yuvi, Max, Arthur improved the robustness of photo uploads, sped up monument discovery, and polished the app extensively. We held a showcase to demo our app to the WLM community and have released <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2012-August/062084.html> a first beta for Android. *Mobile default for sister projects <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_default_for_sister_projects>* We added three new projects and one new domain <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2012-July/061776.html> to be mobile default. Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, and *.wikimedia.org are now equipped to better server our mobile users. The development team is eager to hear back from our community about what they would like to see from their projects on mobile. Our last project to migrate will be commons <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_default_for_sibling_projects#Timeline>. === Platform Engineering === *Git conversion <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Git/Conversion>* We're in the process of evaluating Gerrit and its alternatives <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Git/Gerrit_evaluation> as a code review tool. We upgraded our Gerrit instance to 2.4, which provided many incremental fixes and small features (e.g. the "rebase" button), and migrated the Gerrit database to our Ashburn datacenter, which resulted in a big performance boost. *Lua scripting <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua_scripting>* We've added a debug console to test code snippets. We believe we're ready to deploy Lua to the WIkimedia cluster, starting with test2 in August, followed by mediawiki.org. We plan to let Lua incubate on mediawiki.org while we test the performance characteristics with key templates, and work out a deployment plan for larger wikis that includes community involvement. == Fundraising == === Major Gifts and Foundations === Secured a $100,000 3-year grant from the Charina Endowment Fund. Revamped the categories in Civi to better capture the data we need. Completed our annual report to the Sloan Foundation. === Fundraiser === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2012_Jonathan_and_Victor.… Jonathan Curiel and Victor Grigas setting up video equipment during Wikimania to interview Wikipedians> Wikimania! - The team recorded over 100 on-camera interviews with Wikimedia editors, programmers and volunteers from all over the world. Interviews are inspiring new editor appeals (and a short video about Wikipedia), which we will showcase during the annual fundraiser. Photographed the Wikimedia servers that the Fundraising team is always talking about in banners. <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Servers-8055_1… User:Helpameout photographing the Wikimedia Servers> Worked closely with Finance and Legal for reviewing/approving new payment service providers. Weekly testing continued: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough Prepared for a fundraising test on Spanish Wikipedia to take place the week of August 21. This will be the first of several tests that will go up prior to the fundraiser kicking off. The goal is to localize the campaign to the best of our ability, test our infrastructure, and identify any kinks in the overall operation. Hired Matt Walker, fundraising engineer. The fundraising tech team is fully staffed and making much progress on implementing new features for the 2012 fundraiser. Joseph Seddon started as the Fundraising Translation Coordinator to build up and support our volunteer translators so we can show our fundraising messages and supporting materials (emails, info pages, etc) to our users in their own language. == Global Development == === Global Development Highlights === * Anasuya Sengupta joins the Global Development Team as Director of Global Learning and Grantmaking * Announcement of Wikimedia Foundation's partnership with CIS (Center for Internet and Society) to continue its work in India * Launch of the Wikimedia Shop * Communications support for Wikimania 2012 in Washington DC * Launch of Wikipedia Zero in Kenya * Launch of the FDC portal for Round 1, 2012-2013 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal> === Global Learning and Grantmaking === * Delivered a presentation on the Foundation's grantmaking at Wikimania 2012 * Significant work supporting the FDC process and eligiblity assessments * Started fiscal year 2012-13. $600K are allocated for Wikimedia Grants this year, a significant increase over last year, especially considering some of last year's grantees will be seeking funding from the (separate) FDC budget this year. ==== Grants Awarded and Executed ==== * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_MX/Start-Up * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:The_John_Ernest_Foundation/2012_Wikis… * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:CMNT/WikipediaMA === Fellowships === * Showcased current fellowship projects in a fellows panel presentation <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2012_Fellows_session> at Wikimania * Evaluating open project ideasand <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships/Process#Open_project_…> fellowship applications to fill an expected open fellowship slot in Fall 2012. * The July edition of the Fellowship News <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_News> has complete updates on all fellowship projects, and a few highlights are listed below. ==== Dispute Resolution ==== * Based on the results of DR findings so far, an easier way for editors to file disputes has also been rolled out to the dispute resolution noticeboard on English Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:DRN>. This and other changes will be undergoing a trial there in August, and metrics are being collected to see what impact these have. * Steven Zhang held IRC office hours <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2012-07-28> to discuss ongoing DR work with the community. ==== Help Pages Redesign ==== * Peter released finalised results <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_Project/June_2012_survey> from the help pages survey conducted in June. * Usability testing on old help pages is nearly complete and new help page designs are underway. ==== Small Wiki Editor Engagement ==== * Tanvir ran a survey on Bangla Wikipedia to learn from readers how to best encourage more active editing and participation. About 1100 responses are giving us a clearer picture of their needs. The full survey report will be available soon. * Planning a first experiment to introduce a new kind of help pages that provide step-by-step guidelines on basic Wikipedia editing questions. ==== Teahouse ==== * Began a two week experiment <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Invites> to evaluate automated invitations as a feasible alternative to manual invites, and created a new automated invite template <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teahouse/HostBot_Invitation>. Preliminary results seem promising: in the week since July 23rd when HostBot began sending out Teahouse invites, the average number of questions per day has doubled and guest profiles are up by 300%. * Other measures of Teahouse activity were relatively stable in July. 215 guests visited the Q&A page, half of whom were new editors. Guests asked 172 questions. 23 Teahouse hosts participated overall, and 13 participated per week on average. Complete July metrics are available in the Teahouse lounge <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host_lounge/Metrics>. * Planning for a phase 2 sprint to improve hosting processes <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Hosting> in August, which will include some redesigns of key Teahouse pages. ==== Translations ==== * A campaign to recruit translators for the new meta translation system <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:TranslatorSignup> was a success, with more than 1200 new signups across more than 100 languages, despite being targeted to only the top 20 languages. Updated statistics can be seen on Toolserver <https://toolserver.org/%7Esiebrand/tnstats.php>. * In the final weeks of his fellowship, Jon Harald has been helping revamp the translation committee <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications_subcommittees/Trans/Revamp>, which is currently looking for new members. He is also finishing up documentation of outcomes <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jsoby/Fellowship> from the meta translation project. === Editor Growth and Contribution Program === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Prog…> Logo of the Editor Growth and Contribution Program> Experiments continue on the Arabic Wikipedia Contribution Portal <https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D8%A8:%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9_%…>. Analysis of the initial pilot phase of the project <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Program/Cont…> is demonstrating early proof of concept - running banners that invite readers to learn how to contribute and providing simple learning tools for this purpose is encouraging a higher proportion of new accounts to edit. === Brazil Catalyst === ==== Activities in events: Campus Party Recife 2012 and Wikimania ==== * At *Wikimania* there were two meetings that contributed to sharing ideas: the three catalyst program groups (Arabic, Brazilian and Portuguese, parts of the India Community) met to discuss challenges and opportunities at their countries (Google Translation <http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fosam…>); a Brazilian-Portuguese community meeting to discuss issues regarding the Brazil Catalyst program (community facilitator role, supporting community-led projects, planning activities based on resources and experience). * *Campus Party* Recife, meet-up involving about 12 people discussing Wikipedia possibilities and the Wikimedia movement, workshop that engaged 3 developers to develop new apps for Wikipedia, 2 volunteers working on editing actitivies, panel on women in the IT field. * *Conversations* with Casa de Cultura Digital - Santos representatives, the Brazilian Steering Committee of Internet, as well as the Pirate Party, and other communities such as Mozilla. ==== Community Engagement and activities ==== 1. Community is actively collecting and analyzing data and proposing activities and actions to increase editing in Wikipedia. 2. Brazilian Wikimedia community is still trying to organize WikiBrasil 2012 and wants to develop know-how and experience to host Wikimania in the future: a volunteer traveled with his own resources to check logistics and structure of Wikimania to be able to help in the organization of events by the Brazilian community. ==== Brazil Education Program ==== * Concluded the recruitment of new professors for the second semester of the Education Program in Brazil: we received 36 applications from professors in less than one month with an open call and more than 80 application from volunteers to be Ambassadors in about 10 days using a sitenotice. * *Positive impressions*: great interest from professors (almost none from our previous circles of acknowledgement) and volunteers, spontaneous online media news on the open call (http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/vidae,wikipedia-convoca-professores-para… ). * *Challenges*: 1. Lack of intensive involvement of the community in the process of selection (many editors did not volunteer to participate and expressed skepticism) 2. Sustainability and institutionalization of the program 3. Coordinating more than 10 courses is a huge challenge for 1 - 3 contractors 4. Methodologies: creating articles in the main domain may create conflicts between new editors and the community, but creating articles outside the main domain may create work for staff and Ambassadors ==== Office/Staff ==== 1. Worked at the Hub in July 2. Everton's contract renewed 3. Meeting with community in Wikimania made us reconsider the hiring of a community facilitator and we're now working to develop a more specific role around data collection, development of tools and features. === US Cultural Partnerships === * Launched the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/Consortium> during GLAM Night Out <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM_Night_Out> at Wikimania, and facilitated ongoing dialogue with cultural professionals and Wikipedians about the direction this network will take. * Significant internal outreach for GLAM initiatives and needs during Wikimania, including at the Wikipedia Loves Libraries <https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries> workshop, the National GLAM Coordinators Panel, the State of GLAM in the US talk, and in the Wikipedia Weekly podcast <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:WikipediaWeekly/Episode91>, in addition to GLAM Night Out. === Mobile and Business Development === * Fully launched three new Wikipedia Zero programs with full free access to entire Wikipedia on mobile including images with Orange in the following territories: Uganda, Niger, and most recently in Kenya. *We encourage community member in those countires that are on Orange's networks to try them out and give us their feeback.* * Ongoing testing and fixes allowed us to overcome two major roadblocks including (1) resolving Opera Mini browser compatibility issues with our WP Zero programs, and (2) providing ability to support partners that want to provide free access to both .zero and .m Wikipedia mobile sites. * Project planning work on Wikipedia via text message (on USSD and SMS): we plan to put this into production for our first pilot by next month. === Wikipedia Education Program === * *Cairo Pilot wraps up successfully with conference*: Professors, Ambassadors, students, and supporters of the Cairo Pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program gathered in Egypt on July 4–5 to share their experiences and celebrate the incredible accomplishments of the students. Seven classes participated in the pilot last term, with 54 students editing. Those students added the equivalent of 372 printed pages of content to 246 unique Arabic Wikipedia articles, and the Cairo Pilot succeeded in confirming that the proof of concept of students editing Wikipedia works in Egypt. See photos at commons:Category:Cairo_Pilot_-_Celebration_Conference_July_2012 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cairo_Pilot_-_Celebration_Confe…> and read more about the conference and pilot on the Wikimedia blog <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/08/wikipedia-education-program-cairo-pilo…>. See also a post on one professor's experience teaching with Wikipedia on the Spanish and Arabic Wikipedias <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/30/improving-arabic-and-spanish-wikipedia…>. * A crowd of more than 80 people interested in Wikipedia's use in education around the world attended a *meet-up held during Wikimania* last week. Co-hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation and the Saylor Foundation, the event allowed people from around the world to share their experiences using Wikipedia in classrooms and what they hope to do in the future. A follow-up meeting delved more into details of how to get programs started and sharing learnings, with promises to provide more cross-country communication about programs on-wiki. Photos from the event are available at commons:Category:Wikimania_2012_Wikipedia_in_Education_Meet-Up <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2012_Wikipedia_in_Edu…>. * *Class assignment inspires growth of Kazakh Wikipedia*: Rauan Kenzhekhanuly first started editing Wikipedia as a student in Professor Nicco Mele's course at Harvard University on the first term of the U.S. pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program, the Public Policy Initiative. Rauan was so inspired by the assignment that he returned to his native Kazakhstan and started invigorating the community around growing the Kazakh Wikipedia. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales recognized his efforts by naming him the Wikipedian of the Year last year during Wikimania, an honor that included a travel stipend for Rauan to attend Wikimania this year. Read more about Rauan's work on a Wikimedia Foundation blog post <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/05/class-assignment-inspired-wikipedian-o…> published this month. * The *Working Group for the United States and Canada <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group>* – a body of volunteers who will help spin out the programs from the Wikimedia Foundation to a new organization so the programs can be more volunteer-driven – met in person for the first time on July 16–17 in Washington, D.C. Working Group members split into task forces to help develop a strategic plan for the future of the programs, which will be open to community involvement along the way. * *U.S. Ambassador blogs about transnational scholarship*: Georgetown University Campus Ambassador Kelsey Brannan wrote a post for the Wikimedia blog about how her work with Professor Adel Iskandar starts a trend toward transnational scholarship at Georgetown. Professor Iskandar's students wrote on topics related to the Arab world, and he hopes to collaborate with professors in the Cairo program to translate these articles to the Arabic Wikipedia as well. Read Kelsey's blog post. <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/23/from-sandbox-to-translation-an-overvie…> === India Programs === The Wikimedia Foundation announced a partnership with the Center for Internet and Society [1] <http://cis-india.org> to continue its work in India. For more information about this change, please visit the FAQ <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/India_Program_Announcement_an…>, or Barry's post on the Wikimedia Foundation Blog [2] <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/01/wikimedia-foundation-awards-grant-to-c…>. === India Community Support === * Supporting new editors for GLAM Project on Hindi Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hi:WP:CM>. More on Wikimedia blog <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/24/chronicling-the-crafts-indias-first-g…>. * Odia and Malayalam workshops in Delhi. * Creating Typing scheme <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pa:Help:Typing> for Punjabi Wikipedia, Facebook group <https://www.facebook.com/groups/PunjabiWikipedia> and page <https://www.facebook.com/PunjabiWikipedia> creation and update and community involvement for social media activities. * First Punjabi Wikipedia workshop at Ludhiana. === Communications === The focus for the Communications team in July was Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC. Prior to the event, we supported the Wikimedia DC organizing team as they prepared for the Wikimania press conference with Jimmy Wales, Sue Gardner, representatives of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and plenary speaker Mary Gardiner. More than 40 media outlets pre-registered or showed up directly at the event at George Washington University's campus, interviewing a number of participants and speakers (see the wonderful BBC editor profile story linked below). The Communications team also organized a day of media interviews for Jimmy Wales the Tuesday before Wikimania. It included roundtable discussions with the Washington Post editors, columnists and reporters, a similar roundtable and video interview with Politico, and an excellent video piece with PBS Newshour (see below). <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Monthly_Metric… James Alexander explaining the Wikimedia Shop> The Wikimedia Shop (http://shop.wikimedia.org) debuted to a positive reception at Wikimania, and to the world via a blog post <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/10/wikimedia-shop-starts-to-roll-out-to-t…>). James Alexander introduced the shop to Wikimedians in person and gave out all the official Wikimania t-shirts to the more than 1400 participants at the conference. Further, James solicited significant feedback from the volunteer community for further merchandise, including a number of new designs sketched out on the spot. As the online platform for the shop expands, we'll continue to make the shop more accessible and cost-effective for those outside of North America. The focus for Communications continues to be increased production on the Wikimedia blog, with more participation from our contributor community and more articles in non-English languages. ==== Major announcements ==== In July, we announced the new Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and Elected Officers for 2012-2013. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_Board_Election_July_… ==== Major Storylines in July ==== Increasing editors on Wikipedia (July 12th, 2012) A central theme at Wikimania 2012 was the need to increase the total active editors across Wikimedia projects. Significant press attention followed several discussions at the event, including Jimmy's opening plenary and Sue's Saturday plenary. (US News & World Report) http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/07/12/wikipedia-founder-worries-ab… (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/wikimania-hits-dc-as-wiki… The need to promote new administrators on English Wikipedia (July 2012) The press wrote a number of articles based on a presentation by Andrew Lih during Wikimania, which chronicled the decline in the rate of new admins promoted on English Wikipedia over time. (The Atlantic) http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/3-charts-that-show-ho… (Daily Mail) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2174773/Will-Wikipedia-edit-… (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18886752 Increasing the number or women editors on Wikipedia The Wikipedia Gender Gap was a prominent theme at Wikimania and in the press surrounding Wikimania. Jimmy mentioned a controversy around the notability of Kate Middleton's wedding dress, which set off a media flurry. (Slate) http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/13/kate_middleton_s_wedding… (NYMag) http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2012/07/does-wikipedia-have-a-fashion-proble… (Vogue, UK) http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2012/07/16/catherine-duchess-of-cambridge-wikip… ==== Other worthwhile reads ==== Russian Wikipedia blackout over parliamentary bill (CNN, 10 July, 2012) http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/10/tech/web/russia-wikipedia-bill/index.html Jimmy on PBS Newshour (10 July, 2012) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec12/wikipedia_07-10.html Wikipedia and Internet Freedoms (Reuters, 13, July, 2012) http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/wikipedia-internet-freedoms-idINL2… English Wikipedia crosses 4 million article threshold (13 July, 2012) (WMF Blog) http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/13/english-wikipedia-crosses-4-million-ar… Meet the men and women who edit Wikipedia (BBC, 14 July, 2012) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18833763 Meet the Bots that Edit Wikipedia (BBC, 24 July, 2012) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18892510 ==== Wikipedia Signpost ==== For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for July 2012: * Volume 8, Issue 27, 2 July 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-07…> * Volume 8, Issue 28, 9 July 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-07…> * Volume 8, Issue 29, 16 July 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-07…> * Volume 8, Issue 30, 23 July 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-07…> * Volume 8, Issue 31, 30 July 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-07…> ==== WMF Blog posts ==== Twenty-nine blog posts in total for July 2012. A surge of new posts from the Wikipedia Education Program team, including several important posts in WMF priority regions, such as Arabic-language countries. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/ Selections from July: * Wikipedia ranks 1st in ACSI Customer Satisfaction Index for 3rd straight year <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/20/wikipedia-ranks-first-in-customer-sat…> * Meet the Wikimedia Foundation Analytics Team <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/25/meet-the-analytics-team/> * Improving Arabic and Spanish Wikipedia articles for a class in Cairo University <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/30/improving-arabic-and-spanish-wikipedi…> ==== Media Contact ==== https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#July_2012 == Human Resources == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_REQsnap-712_1.jpg WMF staff snapshot for July 2012> <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Contract712_map1.jpg WMF contractor snapshot for July 2012> HR is pleased to now have a full-time internal recruiter, Sangeeta Prashar, who can build our strength in that area. We will focus on engineering recruiting and improving our candidate experience. === Staff Changes === New Requisitions Filled * Lynette Logan, Director of Administration (Administration) * S Page, Software Engineer (Engineering) * Sangeeta Prashar, Recruiting Manager (Human Resources) * Anasuya Sengupta, Director of Global Learning and Grantmaking (Global Development) * Matthew Walker, Software Engineer – Fundraising (Engineering) New Other Position Hires * Vanessa Sanchez, Intern (Administration) Conversions * Sara Lasner, Development Outreach Manager (Fundraiser) * Gabriel Wicke, Sr Software Developer (Engineering) * Peter Youngmeister, Operations Engineer (Engineering) New Contractors * Rebecca Neumann (Global Development) * Kevin Gorman (Global Development) * Brittany Jones (Fundraiser) * Srikanth Lakshmanan (Engineering) Contract Extended * Giovanni Ciampaglia (Engineering) * Niklas Laxström (Engineering) * Sage Ross (Global Development) * Joseph Seddon (Fundraiser) * Diederik Van Liere (Engineering) * Susan Walling (Fundraiser) Departure * Jeremy Postlethwaite Contract Ended * Pavel Andreev * Mariel Bird * Luis Campos * Karen Chelini * Jimmy Chiu * Daniel DeJarnatt * Rodney Dunican * Faris El-Gwely * Brittany Jones * Ayush Khanna * Johanna “Petro” Leigh * Mimi Li * Jacqui Pastor * Ricardo Saavedra * Robert Schnautz * Sarah Selim * Essam Sharaf Department Changes * Melanie Brown joins Human Resources New Postings * Community Facilitator * Executive Assistant to the Chief of Finance and Administration * IT Systems Engineer * Operations Engineer * Operations Engineer (Systems & Storage) * Software Engineer * System Administrator RFP * Part Time System Administrator === Statistics === Total Requisitions Filled July Actual: 118 July Total Plan: 137, Month Plan Hire: 25 July Filled: 8 (9 Reqs in Process), July Attrition: 2 FYTD Filled: 8, FYTD Attrition: 2 Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 56 === Department Updates === Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork == Finance and Administration == We are pleased to welcome Lynette Logan as our new Director of Administration. We have been working on several projects this month: * Optimizing our foreign exchange systems to increase flexibilty and reduce cost * We did a physical count and site visit at the Virginia data center. Our thanks to Rob Halsell for a sucessful site visit and a well-organized data center. * We have been working on the eligibility criteria and methods for the FDC process. * We have received Board approval to proceed with putting part of our cash reserves in a low cost bond portfolio working with an investment manager. == Legal and Community Advocacy == * Launch of Affiliate Guideline RFC * Legal Review of several key contracts for the annual fundraiser * Completion of the Payment Processing Chapters' Agreements * Support and implementation of a new Financial delegation policy for WMF * Signing of agreement for mobile in India * Finalization of the internal contract approval process and launch of new database * Continued privacy review and recommendations * Released donor data guidelines for fundraising staff * Wikilegal: o Copyright of images in German postage stamps <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Copyright_of_Images_in_German_Pos…> - Jesse o Sweat of the brow <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Sweat_of_the_Brow> Will o Copyright in Google translations <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Copyright_for_Google_Translations> - Will o Copyright status of images hosted on US government websites <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Copyright_Status_Of_Images_Hosted…> - Peter o Linking legal considerations <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Linking_Legal_Considerations> - Peter * Cease and desist stats: o Opened 23 cases o Closed 6 cases o 19 letters sent o Total open cases 81 o Recovered @wikisource Twitter account after community request * Metrics o Contracts submitted: 36 o Trademark issues submitted: 14 o Approved: 3 o Pending: 8 o Denied: 3 == Visitors and Guests == 1. Bence Damokos (Wikimedia Hungary) 2. Steven Zhang (Community Fellow) 3. Pete Forsyth (Wikistrategies) 4. Stella Yu (Stella Results) 5. Anya Shyrokova (Design for America, fellowship candidate) 6. Grant Joung (Thoughtworks) 7. Rene Resendez (Dell Financial Services) 8. Deborah Bezona (D. Bezona & Company) 9. Valerie Aurora (ADA Initiative, Co-founder) 10. Mary Gardiner (ADA Initiative, Co-founder) 11. Timo Tijhof (User:Krinkle, contractor based in Netherlands) 12. Andrew Garrett (User:Werdna, contractor based in Australia) 13. Jan Gerber (User:JanGerber, contractor based in Germany) 14. Liam Wyatt (User:Wittylama, GLAM) 15. Chiori Takahashi (JATV/LA Arts Productions - Worksight magazine interview) 16. Shotaro Yamashita (Kokuyo - Worksight magazine interview - plus 5 crew members/editors) 17. Daisuke Ando (bridgeworks, LLC, Worksight magazine interview) 18. Mark Oppenheim (m/Oppenheim Associates) 19. Kelly Smith (Travel and Transport) 20. Mike Godwin (Legal Consultant) 21. Laura Lanzerotti (Bridgespan Group) 22. Libbie Lowndles-Dowling (Bridgespan Group) 23. Meera Chary (Bridgespan Group) 24. Monty Widenius (MariaDB, CEO) 25. Andrea (MariaDB) 26. Mina Nagy Takla (ict Qatar) 27. Sami Al-Mubarak (ict Qatar) 28. Andy Duncan (ThoughtWorks) 29. Natalya Berenshteyn (Creative Commons) 30. Andy Blanco (Creative Commons) 31. Tim Vollmer (Creative Commons) 32. Jessica Coates (Creative Commons) 33. Anna Daniel (Creative Commons) 34. Varun Aurora (OpenCurriculum) 35. James Gleick (Author/Journalist) 36. Brendan Corrigan (JP Morgan) 37. Ron Waliczek (JP Morgan) 38. Charu Gorrepati (JP Morgan) 39. Dawn Wojrarowski (JP Morgan) 40. Markus Beckedahl (group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 41. Ulf Buermeyer (group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 42. Dr. Jeanette Hofmann (group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 43. Konstantin von Notz (group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 44. Anne Roth (group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 45. Malte Spitz (group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 46. Christian Stoecker (SPIEGEL ONLINE / group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 47. Matthias Kolb (sueddeutsche.de / group visit of German digital rights experts, organized by Böll Foundation) 48. Arne Jungjohann (Böll Foundation / group visit of German digital rights experts) 49. Alice Iliynskaya (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 50. Savin Alexandz (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 51. Joseph Ng (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 52. Ondres Zaska (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 53. Qinzhi Liu (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 54. Kate Gavva (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 55. Svetlana Koshenkova (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 56. Svetlana Lakovleva (UC Berkeley Summer Session) 57. Tamas Meszoly (Wikimedia Hungary) 58. Itzik Edri (Wikimedia Israel) 59. Chris Johnson (visiting contractor) 60. Michael Peel (Secretary, Wikimedia UK) 61. Pete Forsyth (Wikistrategies) 62. David Peters (Exbrook) 63. Reza Musavi (Cushman & Wakefield) 64. Bob Kraynak (Cushman & Wakefield) 65. Bob McDonald (TOG Solutions) -- Tilman Bayer Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications) Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Request for Comments: Legal Fees Assistance Program
by Geoff Brigham 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

*Note: You may also read this announcement in DE<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>- ES<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>- FR<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>- IT<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>- JA<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_P…>- RU<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_P…> * Many Wikimedians take on key support roles that help ensure that the community’s projects run smoothly and effectively. The Wikimedia Foundation -- under the lead of the Finance Department and the Legal and Community Advocacy Department -- is proposing the Legal Fees Assistance Program. This program is intended to help find qualified lawyers or pay for the legal defense fees of eligible users in specified support roles<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>. The assistance would be available in the unlikely event those users were ever named in a legal complaint as a defendant because of their support roles on any Wikimedia project. The program would apply to all projects and languages. We have started a request for comment<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_P…>to see what the community thinks of this proposed initiative, and we would like those who are interested to look at the proposed program itself<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>and let us know your thoughts. If you have further questions, we have prepared an FAQ<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Ass…>, and we will be available to discuss via the talk pages. Many thanks, Geoff <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Gbrigham> Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation Garfield <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Gbyrd> Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation

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Participants in world’s largest photo contest -- Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 -- will upload images under free license for use on Wikipedia.
by Jay Walsh 29 Aug '12

29 Aug '12

(This release is also posted on the Wikimedia Foundation's wiki at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WLM_photo_contest_launch… ) *Participants in world’s largest photo contest -- Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 -- will upload images under free license for use on Wikipedia.* *U.S. participants join Wikipedians in more than 30 countries to document historic sites, monuments, and cultural heritage.* San Francisco -- August 29, 2012 -- Wikipedians around the world will participate in the world’s largest photo contest, Wiki Loves Monuments 2012, from September 1st through 30th. Thousands of volunteers in more than 30 countries will upload photos of historic sites throughout the month, making hundreds of thousands of photos available under a free license on Wikipedia’s image database, Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org ). In last year’s contest, 5,000 photographers from 18 European countries uploaded more than 168,000 photos. This year’s contest will have significantly greater participation, including the United States and many non-European countries for the first time. Volunteer Wikipedians organize the contest in each country, with the winning photos from national contests considered by an international jury in late October. The international jury will announce the top-ten international photos and the overall best picture winner in early December. “There are millions of historically and culturally significant monuments and buildings around the world, though most of them still have no freely-available images on the Internet,” said Lodewijk Gelauff, one of the founders of the first Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest in 2010. “Wiki Loves Monuments is an important way for volunteers around the world to showcase the cultural heritage in their countries and share these images with everyone through Wikipedia.” The photos will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under a free license, so they can be used by anybody, for any purpose, as long as the photographer is credited. Many of the photos will appear in Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia, and all will be available to download at no cost. “In the U.S., anybody can photograph any of the 87,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places for this contest,” said Peter Ekman, national coordinator for the U.S. part of the contest. “By uploading your photos you are sharing our national heritage with everybody in America and in the rest of the world. The photos will be free to use, and free of cost, forever.” *The Wiki loves Monuments App* In conjunction with the contest this year, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, has also developed a free Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application for Android smartphones, available in the Google app store. With this app, Wikipedians for the first time will be able to upload photos to Wikimedia sites through their mobile devices. The app displays nearby historic sites automatically, allows users to upload directly through their Wikimedia accounts, and is available in many different languages. The final version of the app will release on September 1, 2012 and will be available at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia.wlm *U.S. Jury* For full bios, see http://wikilovesmonuments.us/judging/ • *Carol M. Highsmith* specializes in capturing America with her camera. Her collection at the Library of Congress has over 20,000 photos that she has donated to the public domain. • *Heather Moran* is the photographer and archivist of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) where she photographs and works to digitize the Muni collection. • *Rick Prelinger* is an archivist, teacher, writer, lecturer and filmmaker. He is the founder and President of Prelinger Archives, co-founder of the Prelinger Library in San Francisco, and Board President of the Internet Archive. • *Daniel Case* has been a Wikipedia editor since 2005, and is now an Administrator. He has focused on WikiProject:National Register of Historic Places • *Howard Cheng* is an administrator at both Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons who works on the “Picture of the Day,” and “On this Day…” features on Wikipedia’s main page. • *Daniel Schwen* is an administrator on Wikimedia Commons and contributor of numerous Featured Pictures. • *David Shankbone* is one of Wikipedia’s most influential photographers, whose photos appear in over 5,000 Wikipedia articles in 200 languages. *Grand Prize: photo tour to Hong Kong* The top 10 photos and grand prize winner of the international Wiki Loves Monuments contest will be announced in beginning of December. The grand prize winner will be invited to a photo tour in Hong Kong for the annual meeting of Wikipedia editors, photographers, and collaborators: Wikimania 2013. *More information* International contest: http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org U.S. contest: http://wikilovesmonuments.us *Media contacts for international contest:* Lodewijk Gelauff and Barbara Fischer Phone:+49 (0) 30 219 158 26 18 Email: press(a)wikilovesmonuments.org or barbara.fischer(a)wikimedia.de *Media contact in the United States* Peter Ekman Phone: (484) 238-3489 Email: pdekman(a)gmail.com *About Wikipedia* Wikipedia and the related sites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 460 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property world-wide (July 2012). Available in more than 280 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 23 million articles contributed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

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(press release) Participants in world’s largest photo contest -- Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 -- will upload images under free license for use on Wikipedia.
by Jay Walsh 29 Aug '12

29 Aug '12

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The Signpost -- Volume 8, Issue 35 -- 27 August 2012
by Wikipedia Signpost 28 Aug '12

28 Aug '12

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Join the Advocacy Advisors Group!
by Michelle Paulson 21 Aug '12

21 Aug '12

Hi All, We would like to invite you to join the new “Advocacy Advisors Group”! The purpose of this mailing list is to provide an open venue where anyone can participate in lively discussions about political and legislative developments around the world that may affect the Wikimedia mission. If the need arises, the Wikimedia Foundation will also seek discussion and input from the members of this list regarding potential policy or political affiliations with third parties, in accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation Policy and Political Association Guideline<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Foundation_Poli…> . If you are interested in political and policy issues, join<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors>the Advocacy Advisors Group. If you would like to become a moderator of this mailing list and help us handle spam, please email mpaulson[at] wikimedia.org. Thanks for your time! Best, Michelle Paulson Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org 415.839.6885 ext. 6608 (Office) 415.882.0495 (Fax) NOTICE: This email message and all attachments transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the addressees and may contain legally privileged, protected, or confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email reply and please delete this message from your computer and destroy any copies. You must not copy or disclose the contents of this message or any attachment to any other person.

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The Signpost -- Volume 8, Issue 34 -- 20 August 2012
by Wikipedia Signpost 21 Aug '12

21 Aug '12

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Wikimedia UK report - July 2012
by Stevie Benton 17 Aug '12

17 Aug '12

Hello everyone, Just a quick note to let you know that our report for July 2012 is now published. http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/July Highlights include notes on how we reached 4 million articles on the English language Wikipedia, details of GLAM activities, the June / July board meeting and a comms round up. Thanks, Stevie -- Stevie Benton Communications Organiser Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, 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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new wiki Education newsletter
by Leigh Thelmadatter 15 Aug '12

15 Aug '12

One of the things discussed during Wikimania was the need for a newsletter that will allow us already working with Wikipedia a chance to share ideas easily. Today is the official "publication" of the This Month in Education wiki-newsletter. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Portal/Newsletter This is only only easy to find, but easy to contribute to with the "Newsroom" link. Final versions are announced each month (published) and email reminders will be sent on this list and to anyone who requests it. Please enjoy reading what is happening in various parts of the world and we happily accept contributions for the 15 September newsletter!

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Wikimedia Nederland FDC Financial Report 2011
by Ad Huikeshoven 14 Aug '12

14 Aug '12

Hi Asaf, The Financial Report 2011 of Wikimedia Nederland<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland_FDC_Financial_Report_2011>has been translated to english usingGbyrd FDC model<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Funds_Dissemination_Committee/2012_Roun…>and posted on meta. Please update eligibility status report<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/2012_Round_1_E…>on meta.Annual report 2011<http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Jaarverslag_2011/Indeling>(Dutch) is a work in progress, here is a google translate to english: Annual report 2011<http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-…> . Greetings, Ad Huikeshoven Treasurer Wikimedia Nederland

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