See the wiki version here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_committee/Reports/2011-08
This is the language committee report for August 2011.
=== Committee ===
* Wikimedia Australia and Wikimedia Indonesia are collaborating with
the language committee to organise a 2012 Languages Conference in
Indonesia. More info:
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Proposal:2012_Languages_conference
=== Requests ===
* Discussion about the request for a Northern Sotho Wikipedia. It
lacks activity, but it has been in the Incubator for years while
having the highest number of articles in a indigenous South African
language.
* Discussion about the request for a Lezgi Wikipedia. One very active
editor, but more contributors are needed.
No formal approval (yet), but both or one of them may be approved soon.
=== Related ===
* The ISO 639-3 standard decided not to retire the language code
'www', even though it conflicts with websites like the
'www.wikipedia.org' portal. The code 'www' is assigned to Wawa, a
language of Cameroon spoken by about 3000 people.
* The Wikimedia Incubator now has "welcome pages" -- for example
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nl links to the Dutch Wikipedia
at http://nl.wikipedia.org/ while
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wn/aa says that it doesn't exist
and invites users to start that project. This will in the future
replace general "wiki does not exist" placeholders. More info:
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2011/08/wikimedia-incubator-improvement…
Dear all,
The Wikimedia Hungary Report for July 2011 is now available on Meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma….
For your convenience it is reproduced below.
Best regards,
--
Bence Damokos
Executive Vice President,
Wikimedia Hungary
http://wikimedia.hu <http://wiki.media.hu>
*Wikimedia Hungary Report*
*Vol 4 Issue 7*
*July 2011*
*Prepared by: Bence Damokos*
This is an update on Wikimédia Magyarország's activities covering July 2011.
The month was mostly spent with the WikiCamp event and the onboarding of our
new treasurer with a review and update of our internal policies and
procedures.
WikiCamp
Just as last year<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/08/27/volunteers-from-serbia-and-wikimedia-h…>,
about thirty Wikipedians gathered for a four-day
Wikicamp<http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikital%C3%A1lkoz%C3%B3k/Wikit%…>
in
the north-eastern town of Miskolc <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miskolc>.
The campers got a chance to get to know each other while sightseeing
in Eger<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eger> and
Miskolc (the former with a pit stop at a wine cellar), hiking and getting
lost in the nearby woods, a visit to an adventure park and some short
presentations on how to take quality pictures for Wikipedia and Wikimedia
Commons and of the planned software changes coming to Wikipedia (among a few
others). (Pictures are linked from
http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikital%C3%A1lkoz%C3%B3k/Wikit%…
.)
The event proved to be a success and is becoming a tradition, so we urge
everyone to sign
up<http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikital%C3%A1lkoz%C3%B3k/Wikit%…>
early
for the 2012 camp to be held in
Veszprém<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veszpr%C3%A9m>
.
Fundraising
In preparation for the 2011/2012 fundraising we opened two further bank
accounts to allow us to conduct A/B testing on our landing pages, with the
first test<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Chapter_testing/HU#Test_1>
taking
place on the 28th.
In the month of July 30 484 forints ($152) were collected in donations.
Scholarships
Wikimedia Hungary has offered to cover the participation costs of a member
of the Hungarian Open Street Map Community at the State of the Map
Europe<http://sotm-eu.org/> conference
held in Vienna. Nattomi applied for our grant, a report of his experiences
can be read (in Hungarian) on his blog:
http://osm.blog.ggki.hu/2011/07/23/sotm-europe-beszamolo/.
We have also offered partial scholarships to two of our members to help them
attend the Wikimania conference in Haifa, Israel.
Wikipedia Library
We have received updated statistics on our Wikipedia shelf at the library of
the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (see coverage in
May<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…>
):
*Author* *Title* *Publishing date* *Times borrowed*02. – 06. 2010.07. – 12.
2010.01. – 07. 2011.Yochai BenklerThe wealth of networks : how social
production transforms markets and freedom cop. 2006000Stewart
MaderWikipatterns :
a practical guide to improving productivity and collaboration in your
organizationcop. 200800 0John BroughtonWikipedia : the missing manualcop.
2008000Robert E. CummingsLazy virtues : teaching writing in the age of
Wikipedia cop. 2009000Andrew DalbyThe world and Wikipedia : how we are
editing reality2009011Andrew LihThe Wikipedia revolution : how a bunch of
nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia 2009000Clay ShirkyHere
comes everybody : how change happens when people come together2009, cop.
2008101Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates How Wikipedia works :
and how you can be a part of itcop. 2008000
These books, and the ones added to our shelf in May, continue to be
available to the general public and to our members if they need it.
Project news
The Hungarian Wikipedia has turned 8 years old on the 8th of July.
Dear all,
The Wikimedia Hungary Report for June 2011 is now available at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma….
For your convenience it is reproduced below.
Best regards,
--
Bence Damokos
Executive Vice President,
Wikimedia Hungary
http://wikimedia.hu <http://wiki.media.hu>
*Wikimedia Hungary Report*
*Vol 4 Issue 6*
*June 2011*
*Prepared by: Bence Damokos*
This is an update on Wikimédia Magyarország's activities covering June 2011.
The month was spent mostly on official and administrative tasks and in
preparation for the WikiCamp event held in July 2011.
Presentations
- Two of our members participated in a conference held at the Károly
Kisfaludy County Library in Győr (northwestern Hungary). The presentations
were well received, a summary of the conference was published in a Hungarian
journal for librarians, and we gave an interview to a regional radio
station.
- The people behind the Sztakipedia project aimed at introducing
intelligent automated suggestions into the editing workflow of Wikipedia
(see demo at http://pedia.sztaki.hu/ and previous coverage in
March<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…>)
gave a presentation on the project and the ideas behind it for members of
Wikimedia Hungary.
Grants
We have made some last minute progress on our outstanding grants from the
Wikimedia Foundation.
- We bought a projector (NEC V300X) and after realizing that white wall
space is not as ubiquitous as we though, a projection screen. The projector
was used so far at our AGM and the July WikiCamp (see the next issue of this
report), and will be used at further meetings and presentations. The
relevant grant page is at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HU/Projector
- We restocked our supplies of Wikimedia themed T-shirts, and also
produced a score and ten shirts for our July WikiCamp event. This was
supported by the following grant:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HU/Promotional_Items .
- We received notice that our grant to support operational expenses has
been approved by the National Civil Fund. (This is the same grant as
reported in April<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…>,
but the government deemed it necessary to review the grant giving agency's
practices and decisions, which has lead to some delays.)
Fundraising
There were a number of events connected to fundraising in the month of June,
even though it was not a very popular month for giving (Wikimedia Hungary
didn't collect donations in Hungary in June, while the Wikimedia Foundation
received $14.12 from donors in Hungary).
Bence participated in a Fundraising Seminar organized by the Foundation for
Development of Democratic Rights <http://demnet.hu/index.php?lang=en> and
lead by Liam Cranley, former head of the ImpACT Coalition. Some quick notes
taken at the seminar are available at
http://internal.wikimedia.hu/w/images/7/72/Fundraising_kepzes.pdf.
The following week, Bence and Gergő participated in the Fundraising
Summit<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Fundraising_Summit>
held
in Vienna. The main topics were the technicalities and processes of the
2011/2012 Wikimedia fundraiser. The evening sessions were especially useful
for us to establish contact with the Viennese Wikipedia community and to
start thinking about possible common meetings and projects.
Having returned from the summit, Wikimedia Hungary officially signed
the fundraising
agreement<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Chapters/Fundraising_Agreem…>
to
participate in the 2011/2012 fundraising in partnership with the Wikimedia
Foundation.
Annual General Meeting
On 25 June we held our Annual General Meeting in Budapest. A number of
important decisions were taken at the meeting.
- Mónika Balogh was elected as our new treasurer, replacing Dániel
Zrínyi, who has held the position since the inception of the chapter.
- A number of bylaw changes were agreed upon that will become effective
once the Metropolitan Court of Budapest approves them (approval is pending
as of August 2011). The chief changes are:
- The establishment of a 3-person Supervisory Committee to oversee the
activities of the Board and the Association.
- The right to represent the Association was extended to the executive
vice president (previously it was only the president who could
represent the
Association, which was occasionally a bottleneck).
- The financial report for the year 2010 was approved. The full report is
at:
http://wikimedia.hu/w/images/6/6d/K%C3%B6zhaszn%C3%BAs%C3%A1gi_jelent%C3%A9….
The chief numbers for 2010 are:
- Total income: 11 118 000 HUF ($59 000)
- Main income sources: Donations (5.16 M HUF), Toolserver grant
(4.3 M HUF), Wikimedia Foundation grants (1.06 M HUF),
National Civil Fund
grants (0.44 M HUF)
- Total expenses: 944 000 HUF ($5 000)
- Expense categories: Material expenses (29 k HUF), Personal
expenses (travel, etc., 45 k HUF), Other expenses (includes
programme costs
and administrative costs like accounting, 683 k HUF), banking
costs (187 k
HUF)
- Result (*i**n**c**o**m**e* − *e**x**p**e**n**s**e**s*): 10 174 000
HUF ($54 000)
- Note: The majority of the income was received at the end of the
fiscal year and a number of big expenses (the purchase of a
toolserver and
the remittance of the Wikimedia Foundation's share of the fundraiser) as
well as expenses connected with our other grants have taken place in the
2011 financial year.
The minutes of the general meeting are available at:
http://wikimedia.hu/w/images/b/b1/Jegyz%C5%91k%C3%B6nyv_2011._06._25.pdf.
Possible changes in our regulatory framework
The Government of Hungary has issued for comment a draft
legislation<http://www.greenfo.hu/hirek/2011/06/23/elkeszult-a-civiltorveny-tervezete>
on
civil society. It is not yet known, when this law will become effective and
what changes there might be between the bill and the final act;
nevertheless, the draft contains a number of fundamental changes in the
regulatory framework of Hungarian NGOs.
An important change is the way organizations would receive the tax
deductible status called "organization of public benefit". Whereas, so far
it was bestowed upon an organization based on their stated aims and goals in
their bylaws, the new legislation requires that organizations prove every
year that they have adequate resources and support from society.
To prove adequate resources, the organization has to have either a positive
pre-tax result or an average yearly income above 1 million forints ($5000).
To prove adequate support, two of the following criteria have to be met:
- Donations make up at least 10 percent of the yearly income;
- Personal expenses (not counting the money spent on the officers of the
organization) makes up at least 10 percent of all expenses;
- The support it receives from the government budget is less then 50% of
the total income.
We are glad to resume (or rather start?) the habit of posting short monthly
reports about our activity to this list. They will also be cross-posted to
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Israel.
This is the report for August 2011:
== Wikimania 2011 ==
We hosted Wikimania 2011 in Haifa. The conference was attended by over 700
attendees hailing from over 50 countries. It consisted of two pre-conference
days devoted to various meetings and workshops, three main-conference days
and a tour day. Also included were three parties. The conference got very
wide press coverage in the international and local media, and we got
excellent feedback from attendees about their satisfaction with the
conference.
== GLAM cooperations ==
* Our ongoing relationships with the National Library of Israel and the
Israel Museum (both based in Jerusalem) were boosted by Wikimania and the
special meetings we held there with Liam Wyatt as a guest. Both institutions
are now interested in having Wikimedians-in-Residence, sooner than we first
anticipated. We are now finalizing the details of these internships with
both institutions.
* We are also making progress with the limited trial of the Schwadron
Collection at the National Library of Israel, a unique collection of over
3000 portrait photographs of prominent personalities in Jewish and Zionist
history, for many of whom there are no freely licensed portraits available
at all. We received a first small batch of digitized scans from the library
and will soon start uploading and integrating them in the projects.
* Meetings were held with activists in the Haifa Historical Society, and we
hope that they will release various unique collections that they hold under
free licenses.
== Academic cooperations ==
* The Faculty of Humanities at Haifa University is interested in assignments
involving writing and expanding Wikipedia articles for its students. A
couple of courses, specifically in history and in archaeology, are scheduled
to have such coursework in the coming semester. We will provide workshops
and guidance both to university faculty and students, as well as online
tutoring of these student editors, to guide them in the specific style of
Wikipedia, and the differences between regular academic assignments and this
wiki-based one.
== Israeli Arab sector ==
Also boosted by Wikimania, are a first few connections between WMIL and Arab
Israeli like-minded organizations. We have held a couple of meetings. A
first-of-its-kind lecture/workshop about Wikipedia in the Arab Israeli
sector is planned to be held in Nazareth in the coming weeks.
== Gender gap ==
Following the participation of the deputy mayor of Haifa at the WikiChicks
lunch at Wikimania, a meeting is scheduled for this week with the mayor's
adviser on gender issues, and we hope it will yield some real-world
projects.
== Secretariat ==
* Three new members joined WMIL, inspired by Wikimania. A few more expressed
interest and have joined our mailing list.
* We are moving our chapter wiki and our blog to a new server, and
refurbishing both.
Sincerely,
Harel Cain
Secretary, Wikimedia Israel
Please find below the report for July. As always, you can find the
formatted and illustrated version on-wiki:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_July_2011
Big thanks to Tilman Bayer, our new Movement Communications Manager,
for shepherding this one. Going forward Tilman will be distributing
the monthly reports. :-)
All best,
Erik
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Global Education Program launched after successful Wikipedia
in Higher Education Summit
o 3.2 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation renews $3 million commitment to
Wikimedia
o 3.3 Article Feedback tool rolled out to entire English Wikipedia
* 4 Technology
o 4.1 Operations
o 4.2 Features
o 4.3 Platform Engineering
* 5 Research and Strategy
o 5.1 Research Committee activity
* 6 Community
o 6.1 Projects
o 6.2 Fundraiser
o 6.3 Public Policy Initiative
o 6.4 Fellowship Program
* 7 Global Development
o 7.1 Global Development Highlights
o 7.2 Grants Awarded and Executed
o 7.3 Chapter Relations
o 7.4 Brazil Catalyst
o 7.5 Mobile Strategy and Business Development
o 7.6 Editor Survey
o 7.7 Readers Survey
o 7.8 Mobile Research
o 7.9 Offline
o 7.10 Global Education Program
+ 7.10.1 Student clubs
o 7.11 India Programs
o 7.12 Communications
+ 7.12.1 Storylines through July
+ 7.12.2 Other worthwhile reads
+ 7.12.3 Major announcements
+ 7.12.4 Wikipedia Signpost
+ 7.12.5 WMF Blog posts
+ 7.12.6 Media Contact
- Hide quoted text -
* 8 Human Resources
o 8.1 Staff Changes
o 8.2 Statistics
o 8.3 Department Updates
* 9 Finance and Administration
* 10 Legal
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for June: 399 million (-2.9% compared to May
/ +5.3% compared to previous year)
Global unique visitors for July: 393 million (-1.5% compared to June
/ +9.2% compared to previous year)
(comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects)
Page requests for June:
14.6 billion (-3.3% compared to May / -0.1% compared to previous year)
Page requests for July
14.1 billion (-3.5% compared to June / +1.2% compared to previous year)
Report Card for June 2011: The report card is currently undergoing a
redesign as a more fully-featured dashboard.
== Financials ==
(Financial information is only available for June 2011 at the time of
this report.)
Operating revenue for June: USD 1.6MM vs plan of USD 0.2MM
Operating revenue year-to-date June: USD 24.1MM vs plan of USD 20.4MM
Monthly revenue is over plan due primarily to revenue sharing from Local
Chapters and Omidyar grant timing. Year-to-date exceeds overall plan.
Operating expenses for June: USD 2.2MM vs plan of USD 1.7MM
Operating expenses year-to-date June: USD 18.8MM vs plan of USD 20.4MM
Expenses for the month are higher primarily due to CapEx, internet
hosting, outside contract services, legal fees and travel expenses
offset by lower personnel-related expenses due to slower hiring.
Expenses year-to-date are under primarily due to timing of internet
hosting, CapEx for data center, personnel-related expenses due to slower
hiring, meetings & conferences partially offset by awards & grants,
legal fees, PayPal fees, CapEx for IT support, outside contract
services, recruiting fees, and travel.
Cash and investments as of June 2011 totaled USD 17.9MM (approximately
7.6 months of expenses based on the 2011-12 plan).
== Highlights ==
=== Global Education Program launched after successful Wikipedia in
Higher Education Summit ===
<Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sue_Gardner_and_Frank_Schulenberg_sh…
At the Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit, Sue Gardner and Frank
Schulenburg demonstrate the volume of the content contributed to
Wikipedia by students in the Public Policy Initiative/>
In July, the Public Policy Initiative started wrapping up with the
Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit. The Summit was held in Boston on
July 7–9 and brought together around 120-150 U.S. and international
professors, students, Wikipedia Ambassadors and Wikimedia staff members.
The participants discussed the results of the Public Policy Initiative
and shared their experiences and best practices in using Wikipedia in
the classroom. Highlights of the Educational Summit include a keynote
talk from Sue Gardner, an opening address by the 10th Archivist of the
United States (David Ferriero), workshops led by Wikipedians and Campus
Ambassadors, a seminar on public speaking by Rod Dunican, and the
expressed gratitude from Liz Allison from the Stanton Foundation, who
attended several sessions.
* http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_in_Higher_Education_Summit
* http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_in_Higher_Education_Summit/Doc…
Also in July, the Wikimedia Foundation launched the Global Education
Program <http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Education_Program>,
funded not by a restricted grant, but out of the Wikimedia Foundation
operating budget. Its purpose is to support the Foundation's strategic
goals of growing the number of active Wikimedia editors and improving
the quality of information we offer, by persuading professors to assign
article-writing as classwork using the model developed in the Public
Policy Initiative. Its work will start this fall, and its priorities in
the coming year will be India and Brazil, with a lesser emphasis on a
number of other countries. Whereas the Public Policy Initiative had a
narrow topical focus, the new Global Education Program will encourage
participation from all disciplines.
* http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/29/for-wikipedia-in-education-the-future-…
=== Alfred P. Sloan Foundation renews $3 million commitment to Wikimedia ===
On July 11, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic grantmaking
institution that supports science, technology and economic institutions,
announced that it was awarding a grant of $3 million (USD) to the
Wikimedia Foundation. This is the second grant of this amount awarded to
the Wikimedia Foundation from the Sloan Foundation’s Universal Access to
Knowledge component of its Digital Information Technology program. The
Sloan Foundation’s first grant of $3 million, awarded from 2008 through
2010, is the largest single grant ever received by the Wikimedia
Foundation. Funds will support Wikimedia's strategic plan that focuses
on increasing quality, the number and demographic diversity of its
editors, and reaching more readers.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/July_2011_The_Alfred_P._…
=== Article Feedback tool rolled out to entire English Wikipedia ===
<Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aft_phase_2.jpg
Ratings interface for the Article Feedback Tool/>
The Article Feedback Tool
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>, which allows
Wikipedia's readers to rate the quality of articles in several aspects,
completed its deployment to the entire English Wikipedia in July. While
work is ongoing on the next version of the tool, a survey already showed
that over 90% of users find the ratings useful, and that the vast
majority of raters were previously only readers of Wikipedia. Tests of
an invitation to edit that was displayed after completion of the rating
process indicate huge potential for the feedback tool to successfully
convert passive readers into active contributors to Wikipedia. Research
showed that the ratings can provide a reasonable level of assessment in
the Completeness and Trustworthy (formerly “Well-Sourced”) dimensions.
Also, the Article Feedback Tool could help surface problematic articles
in real time, as well as articles that may qualify for increased visibility.
* http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/15/%E2%80%9Crate-this-page%E2%80%9D-is-co…
== Technology ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for July 2011 can
be found at:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2011/July
Major engineering news in July include:
* Ongoing data replication from our primary Florida data center to our
new Virginia data center;
* The deployment of the Article Feedback feature to all articles on
the English Wikipedia, and the deployment of MoodBar;
* The successful implementation of a MySQL-based parser cache on
Wikimedia wikis;
* Mid-term evaluation of our Summer of Code projects.
=== Operations ===
* *Florida Data Center* — 74 new servers were purchased to increase
the capacity of our Apache cluster. Network maintenance was also
performed to install a new router and replace a core switch. A
number of servers were upgraded, and automated with puppet.
* *Virginia Data Center* — Full network connectivity was set up and
the 7 wiki database clusters have now been replicated to our new
servers in Virginia. We have also standardized the puppet
configuration and enabled LVM snapshots. About 20 other databases
(of tools like OTRS, CiviCRM, Bugzilla, WordPress and RT) have been
replicated as well.
* *HTTPS* — HTTPS was enabled on a private production wiki and
testwiki to test functionality and uncover bugs. Protocol-relative
URLs were enabled on testwiki for community testing before rolling
out to all projects (read more
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/19/protocol-relative-urls-enabled-on-test…>).
* *Data Dumps* — The June and July runs of the English Wikipedia dump
were completed, and the August run is underway. Chinese Wikipedia
dumps have also been fixed.
=== Features ===
* *Visual editor* — Trevor Parscal continued to work on the front-end
of the visual editor and rich text rendering; he was joined by Inez
Korczynski, a developer from Wikia, who are also interested in the
visual editor. Neil Kandalgaonkar worked on real-time collaboration,
concurrent editing and dived into the inner workings of Etherpad.
* *Article feedback <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>*
— Roan Kattouw completed the UDP logger (for clicktracking metrics)
and deployed it to production. The Article feedback feature was
incrementally rolled out to all articles on the English Wikipedia,
and the Product research team continued to analyze its impact (see
"Highlights" section).
* *UploadWizard* — Ian Baker joined the team and started to work on
the UploadStash back-end. Jeroen De Dauw started to extend the
UploadWizard code base to support customized campaigns, like the
Wiki Loves Monuments contest. Neil Kandalgaonkar refactored some
libraries to better support Ian and Jeroen's work, and committed
some fixes to reduce categorization and licensing mistakes.
* *ResourceLoader* — Roan Kattouw and Timo Tijhof started to work on
global gadgets and a gadget manager. The back-end for loading
gadgets remotely from another wiki now works, although it is limited
to database loading within the same server farm; an API back-end is
in the works.
* *MobileFrontend* — Patrick Reilly focused on proper caching support,
as well as device detection optimization. Mobile device recognition
on Wikimedia sites is now done server-side at the squid level, which
results in faster redirect for mobile users, and better recognition
of devices.
* *2011 Fundraiser* — Ryan Kaldari modified CentralNotice to allow the
logging of changes to banners and campaigns. Katie Horn fixed an
issue with the script that handles determining whether or not credit
card donations flagged as 'pending' have been approved or not. The
server was successfully puppetized and upgraded by Peter
Youngmeister and Arthur Richards. Arthur also set up advanced
monitoring through Ganglia.
* *Wikipedia version tools* — GSoC student Yuvaraj Pandian continued
to port User:CBM's WP 1.0 bot to a MediaWiki extension, and nearly
achieved feature parity with it by implementing article selection
filtering based on project, quality, importance and category.
Mentored by Arthur Richards, Yuvaraj also implemented the ability to
save lists of filtered articles.
=== Platform Engineering ===
* *Code review management* — Work continued to review commits to the
MediaWiki code; MediaWiki 1.18 was re-branched to reduce the backlog
faster. In July, Wikimedia Foundation engineering staff and
contractors also attended a Code review workshop; the goal was to
share experience and practices on the general review process, as
well as security and performance.
* *Disk-backed object cache
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Disk-backed_object_cache>* — To
improve the MySQL-based version of this system, Domas Mituzas
suggested to split the cache into several tables, which Tim Starling
implemented in MediaWiki. The system was then deployed on July 11th
and the cache has been filling up since then, thus increasing the
parser cache hit ratio from about 30% to 80%.
* *Continuous integration* — This project aims to rebuild the
Wikimedia continuous integration legacy server on a dedicated server
in eqiad, our new data center. Chad Horohoe started to consolidate
the platform to run automated tests systematically at post-commit
time. The new server will be combined with TestSwarm, a distributed
continuous integration tool for JavaScript, currently hosted on the
Toolserver.
* *Wikimedia Report Card 2.0* — The team incorporated key metrics into
the Report card such as editors by geography, page views and gender
breakdown of editors. Nimish Gautam worked on the infrastructure and
analytics for editor by geography. Sam Reed implemented a generic
CSV importer, and looked at how to use the Google API to
automatically draw data into the Report card from Google Spreadsheets.
* *Bug management* — Mark Hershberger continued to conduct bug triage
sessions on IRC, some of which were focused on MediaWiki 1.18
blockers, thumbnails issues, caching and operations-related
requests. With Sumana Harihareswara, he cleaned up default assignees
in bugzilla in order for assignments to be more meaningful.
* *Summer of Code 2011
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2011>* — 7 out of 8
students made it through the mid-term evaluation, and continue to
work on their projects (read more
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/22/mediawikis-gsoc-students-halfway-throu…>).
== Research and Strategy ==
We analyzed data generated by new editor retention features (Moodbar,
WikiLove) and by the global deployment of the Article Feedback tool (see
also "Highlights" section), with a focus on the volume of feedback
generated and their effect on user registration and participation [1].
We released and documented the first open datasets from the feature
development program [2] and worked towards the standardization of
research data, code and query libraries produced by WMF. Testing of a
number of open data platforms is currently underway. We worked in
collaboration with the Summer of Research program to identify possible
intersections between community research and the retention feature
program in the Tech department.
=== Research Committee activity ===
We analyzed data from the Expert Participation survey and prepared
preliminary results to be presented at Wikimania 2011 [3]. We evaluated
several new requests of support from external researchers.
In collaboration with the Signpost, we launched the first issue of the
Wikimedia Research Newsletter [4], a monthly newsletter covering recent
research updates on Wikimedia projects and integrated in the new
Wikimedia Research Index.
We reported the awarding of an Open Society Foundations grant to support
RCom member Daniel Mietchen as a new Wikimedian in Residence on Open
Science. [5] Daniel's initial activity focused on finalizing the open
access/open data policy for the Foundation [6].
[1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Research/Call_to_action
[2] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Data
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Expert_participation_survey
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter
[5] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/20/joining-forces-with-open-science/
[6]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Committee/Areas_of_interest/Open-ac…
== Community ==
July saw the first complete month of the Wikimedia Summer of Research,
with all eight researchers from around the globe in San Francisco.
Highlights from several areas of research were published on Meta and in
the English Wikipedia Signpost. You can read our blogs and view photos
here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/07/wikimedia-summer-research-update/
=== Projects ===
Reader Relations and Support
We responded to 45 queries from readers or editors requesting assistance
and began communicating with the Arbitration Committee on English
Wikipedia about ways to address some of that community's wishes. Maggie,
our Community Laison, held a well-received brown-bag discussion at the
San Francisco office on Wikiculture. She has put more work into
developing an “Answers” system which would allow us to organize requests
for information from staff, feeding it back to the community where
necessary, into the developing FAQ, or setting it aside when requiring
direct feedback from staff. She has also begun conducting
self-assessment interviews with WikiProjects to help determine best
practices and working on a Webinar that will help bring in (and
monitor!) responders to the AFT (Article Feedback Tool) invitation.
OTRS Analysis
In July, we ran a survey for OTRS agents and received 107 responses; the
results will be released to the OTRS team very soon. Analysis is
ongoing, and will inform a series of IRC Town Hall style meetings to be
held after Wikimania.
Account Creation Improvement Project Wrap-up
Lennart completed the first version of his Account Creation Improvement
report [1] which he is presenting at Wikimania. High-quality tests
showed that this version of account creation page [2] can increase the
number of newcomers who make 1 edit *by 15%* on an average day. In
addition, by increasing the number of new Wikipedians who make 5 edits
from 6.12% to 7.02% on an average day, *we gain 9 editors per day*.
[1]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Report_from_Lennart%27s_Fellowship.p…
[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&action=submitlo…
=== Fundraiser ===
The fundraising team continued weekly one hour messaging tests
throughout July. Test results can be seen on our newly remodeled meta
page [1]. The Storytellers are interviewing several volunteers and are
preparing to gather a variety of material at Wikimania to run volunteer
appeals during the annual fundraiser. This year, the fundraiser will
rely as much as possible on voices of many different members of our
community.
We also started with our Chapters Testing, mostly testing connectivity
and metrics. In July we tested UK, Sweden and Hungary and posted results
[2].
The Production Coordinator (PC) team worked on enhancing landing pages
and donation templates and has kick-started the localization projects
that will provide a more tailored donation experience for our future
donors. More information is located on the collab wiki [3]. At the end
of July our team welcomed Charles Barr and Jon Soby as PCs throughout
the Fundraiser 2011.
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Updates
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Chapters_Testing
[3] http://collab.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraiser_2011/Styleguide
Major Gifts and Foundations
Two fundraising trips were made to meet with major donors and
foundations in New York and Boston (PPI Higher Education Summit) this
month. We submitted eight initial funding applications to foundations in
the month of July.
Public Policy Initiative
In July, the PPI team successfully facilitated the Wikipedia in Higher
Education Summit in Boston (see "Highlights" section). Summit attendees
saw the initial research results by PPI's researcher Amy Roth, covering
achievements of both the overall project and article quality metrics.
Finally, the PPI team celebrated all of the hard work of the professors,
students, ambassadors, and Wikipedia Teaching Fellows with an Awards
Ceremony and a party.
=== Fellowship Program ===
<Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Summer_Fellows-3.jpg
Fabian Kaelin, a Swiss WMF Summer of Research (SoR) fellow, discusses
his research goals with the team, at a weekly SoR meeting./>
Summer of Research
The Wikimedia Summer of Research team continued looking into critical
questions addressing community health and analytics. Their work was
documented on Meta and highlights from three of their research sprints
(covering the topics of new users and help requests, edits to trending
articles, and workload of vandal-fighters/new page patrollers) appeared
in the Signpost [1].
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-07-25/Recent…
WikiHistories Project
The WikiHistories fellows continued their research on different
non-English Wikipedia communities, traveling to meet with and interview
Wikipedians from around the world. They published two blog posts on the
Foundation blog, one on the Armenian [1] and one on the Turkish
Wikipedia [2].
[1]
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/13/armenian-wikipedia-part-of-a-bigger-ba…
[2]
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/27/turkish-wikipedia-first-contact-with-t…
== Global Development ==
=== Global Development Highlights ===
* New Mobile Partnership Manager, Amit Kapoor, joins the Global
Development Team
* Launch of the Global Education Program after the successful
Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit
* Barry and Jessie's visit to Brazil
=== Grants Awarded and Executed ===
* Wikimedia Estonia re-purposing of previous grant money approved
* Wikimedia New York City re-purposing of previous grant money approved
=== Chapter Relations ===
* Fundraising Agreements: Completed chapters 2011-2012 fundraising
agreements signed with Wikimedia Austria, Wikimedia Germany and
Wikimedia UK. This is in addition to Wikimedia Australia, Wikimedia
Hungary, Wikimedia Sweden and Wikimedia Ukraine, who signed their FR
agreement last month.
* WMF and chapter raised amounts for June [1]
<https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Av5TeXEyGuvpdGRyNDJHS19RZmRqbWlqeH…>
* Chapters Agreements: Reviewing final requested changes in agreement
with Israel and Canada chapters. For updates please check [2]
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapter_Agreements>.
=== Brazil Catalyst ===
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Catalyst_Project>
<Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiSampa-23June2011-SaoPaulo-1.jpg
Wikimedia meetup in Sao Paulo during Wikimedia Foundation visit to Brazil/>
* Full documentation of the trip of Barry, Jessie and Carol to Brazil
(which was actually completed at the end of June):
o http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Catalyst_Project/Agenda_June_2011#Age…
o http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/18/brazil-beginnings/
* Work has begun in conjunction with the Community Department to think
through what sets of research and analysis could and should be done
on the Portuguese Wikipedia to better inform how to best support the
Brazilian community going forward.
* Work has begun in conjunction with the Community Department - plus
research and interviews with external experts - to think through a
methodology and fellowship program. The goal of the integrated work
is a "changing and self awareness" process, which will foster a
healthier and growing, both in terms of raw numbers and in terms of
individual capacities, Wikipedia and Wikimedia community in Brazil.
* Brazil office logistics: Received and reviewed lawyers' opinion on
office legal structure and definition of a "country Manager" role
=== Mobile Strategy and Business Development ===
We have a new member on our mobile team: Amit Kapoor just joined the
Wikimedia Foundation to manage Mobile Partnerships.
The Mobile Strategy Group is developing a new partnership pipeline
focused on building out a worldwide program focused on mobile operators.
=== Editor Survey ===
Results from the Editor Survey are available on the Wikimedia blog at
http://blog.wikimedia.org/author/mani/
We finished fielding the Japan Editor Survey, and data from the survey
is currently being analyzed.
=== Readers Survey ===
Readers survey is currently in field. Data collection will be completed
next week.
=== Mobile Research ===
The mobile readers survey is currently being translated with the help of
the community:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Mobile_Readers_Survey_2011
We are working on the user experience report from India and Brazil. We
will also be launching the study in the US soon.
=== Offline ===
* A new version of Kiwix, the software for reading offline Wikipedia,
was released after a series of beta testing and concluding the
contract (see tech monthly update for more information).
* Two content development projects are highest priority and underway:
Spanish Wikipedia and Portuguese Wikipedia for Schools. (An "offline
collection" means that the full Wikipedias would be boiled down to
only the most essential articles, resulting in a total in the
thousands vs. hundreds of thousands, through filters for quality
annd importance, and then the article with the most recent "trusted"
version ID is selected. See
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Offline_Projects/Content_Development
for more information. The reasons for creating these content
selections is the high demand we are seeing recently, both
informally through more viral demand by one-off school districts and
teachers as well as more formally, as we have been talking to a
couple different computer manufacturers about offline "Wikipedia for
Schools" being pre-installed on the low-cost computers they
distribute in areas and in schools that are not as likely to have
Internet connections.)
=== Global Education Program ===
In July, the Public Policy Initiative started wrapping up with the
Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit, followed by the launch of the
Wikimedia Foundation's Global Education Program (see "Highlights" section).
==== Student clubs ====
In addition to the classroom-based model, we are working to support more
viral methods of student contributions and organization through a
"student club" approach. For more information, see
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Student_Organizations/How_to_Start_a_Wik….
With very little promotional effort, we have already seen much uptake in
clubs forming virally throughout the world. (In July, we saw interest
and formation occuring throughout India, Mexico, and Kyrgyzstan!)
We have been and are continuing to work on a few different resources in
support of the scalable nature of these groups:
1. Trademark policy / contracts (working with Legal on a standard
agreement)
2. Collaborative design guidelines (working with Communications on
developing an extensible design system similar to that of Wikipedia 10)
3. Clubhouse page templates will help clubs use outreach wiki (or
another wiki) to promote their activities and connect with one another
=== India Programs ===
* Hired two new consultants for the India Team:
Shiju Alex (for Indic Initiatives) & Nitika Tandon (for
Participation)
* The Pune pilot is now covering about 1000 students through about 15
teachers. Its major focus is to ensure that we drive quality and
support newbies as they get into their first edits.
* Next month we will get the Trust registered and get the office set up.
=== Communications ===
Initiatives in July focused on preparations for Wikimania in August
2011, as well as the $3million Sloan Foundation grant announcement, and
continuing research and planning around the Wikimedia web store
(reviewing and developing terms of service and exploring taxation issues).
In July we also began to develop a new visual identity concept for the
Wikipedians on campus initiatives - a design project similar to
Wikipedia 10.
==== Storylines through July ====
Wikipedia Article feedback tool (July 18)
The July release and launch of the article feedback tool garnered
significant media coverage (largely positive), mostly focusing on how
the tool aligns with WMF's overall goal of improving article quality and
editor recruitment.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wikipedia_rolling_out_article_rating_s…http://news.techworld.com/personal-tech/3292150/wikimedia-foundation-lets-r…
Sloan Gift
WMF and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced a second grant of $3
million over the course of three years (see "Highlights" section).
http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/development/48423-sloan-foundation-b…http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/sloan-foundation-gives-3-million-to-…
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Wikipedia Aims Higher, July 11, Insider Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/11/wikipedia_seeks_to_build_acad…
‘Wikipedian-in-Residence’ Helps Share Smithsonian Archives, July 28,
Chronicle of Philanthropy
http://philanthropy.com/blogs/social-philanthropy/wikipedian-in-residence-h…
==== Major announcements ====
*The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation renews $3 million commitment to
Wikimedia* (11 July 2011)
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/July_2011_The_Alfred_P._…
(see "Highlights" section)
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-07-…
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-07-…
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-07-…
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-07-…
==== WMF Blog posts ====
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/07/
==== Media Contact ====
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#July_2011
== Human Resources ==
=== Staff Changes ===
New Perm Position Hires
* Jeff Green, Network Ops – Special Projects (Technology)
* Ian Baker, Software Developer (Technology)
* Amit Kapoor, Sr. Manager – Mobile Partnerships (Global Dev)
* Ben Hartshorne, Operations Engineer (Technology)
* LiAnna Davis, Global Program Manager (Global Dev) – /converted from
grant to perm/
* Annie Lin, Ambassador Manager (Global Dev) – /converted from grant
to perm/
New Other Position Hires
* Shuji Alex, consultant (fills the permanent role of) India Programs
Indic Languages (Global Dev)
* Nitika Tandon, consultant (fills the permanent role of) India BOTG
(Global Dev)
Folks accepted, not yet started
* Director of Sustainability (Community) – expected start in Sep.
* Deputy General Counsel (Legal) – expected start in Oct.
New Contractors
* Stephanie Thommen
* Skye Kraft
* Chris Leonello
* Tilman Bayer
* Charles Barr
* Jon Harald Soby
* Igor Kofman
* Alex Graveley
* Niklas Laxstrom
Contract Extended
* Roan Kattouw
* Andrew Garrett
* Jeroen DeDauw
Contract Ended
* Veronique Kessler
* Priyanka Dhanda
* Sara Crouse
* Danese Cooper
* Jon Davis
=== Statistics ===
Total Employee Count:
Plan: 88
Filled: 8
Attrition: 5
Actual: 77
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 40
=== Department Updates ===
The HR department has added a lot of capacity in the form of contract
recruitiers and screeners, and along with increased effort from the
hiring managers this has begun to turn the tide in terms of new hires.
We have a very ambitious goal to the end of the year, however, so we'll
need to stay focused and engaged to make our target of 40 more hires.
The first thing to go when you push this hard is quality, so maintaining
a high standard whilst moving quickly will be a key component of the
year's strategy.
We engaged two internal recruiters to aid in screening and interviewing
potential candidates. While a majority of this focus will be in
technical hiring we have capacity to provide support to all hiring
managers looking to fill permanent roles. Additonally, we've signed up
for two beta recruiting projects that take advantage of social media
platforms to help find internal referrals of talent and leverage new
tech based tools for sourcing and refining searches.
New Postings
* Development Communications Manager (Community Department)
* Software Developer Rich Text Editing (Features)
* Software Developer Frontend
* Software Developer Backend
* Software Developer, Mobile
* Product Manager (Mobile)
* Product Manager (New Editor Engagement)
RFPs
* Engineering Outreach
* Article Feedback Feature
Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or
http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* Leadership transition. Goodbye celebration for Veronique Kessler.
Garfield Byrd joins as new Chief of Finance and Administration on
August 3.
* Upgrades to wireless network in San Francisco office to increase
stability and performance
== Legal ==
* Strong WIPO decision on Wikipedia trademark (which will be useful in
future challenges):
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2011-1031
("it is inconceivable that the Respondent was not aware of the
Trademark WIKIPEDIA and the domain name <wikipedia.org>")
* Drafted explanatory note on use of Article Feedback data.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Feedback
* Focus on significant contractor agreements relating to fundraising
activities.
* Board issues new privacy donor policy.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Donor_privacy_policy_update_…
* Statistics:
o Number of contracts signed in June - 5
o Number of trademark requests - 10
+ approved - 2
+ denied - 2
+ pending - 6
== Visitors and Guests ==
1. Peter Kazanjy (TalentBin)
2. John Lavey (insurance broker)
3. Hai Ton (ThoughtWorks)
4. Jonny Leroy (ThoughtWorks)
5. Carl Miller (Global Collect)
6. Amnon Salim (Global Collect)
7. William Pietri (CTO, NeedFeed)
8. Alex Gravely (Hackpad)
9. Igor Koffman (Hackpad)
10. Wikia engineers
11. Deborah Bezona (D. Bezona & Company)
12. Fabrice Florin (Executive Director, NewsTrust)
13. Nate Allen (Epicor)
14. Robert Cobb (Epicor)
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Dear all,
The Wikimedia Hungary Report for May 2011 is now available at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma….
For your convenience it is reproduced below.
Best regards,
--
Bence Damokos
Executive Vice President,
Wikimedia Hungary
http://wikimedia.hu <http://wiki.media.hu>
*Wikimedia Hungary Report*
*Vol 4 Issue 5*
*May 2011*
*Prepared by: Bence Damokos*
This is an update on Wikimédia Magyarország's activities covering May 2011.
For more recent updates, you can like us on Facebook:
http://facebook.com/WikimediaHU
Strategy consultation
Wikimedia Hungary is participating in the Chapter Development Pilot
Programme<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Organizational_Growth_%26_Development_Ne…>,
a joint initiative between four chapters, facilitated by Sebastian Moleski.
As part of the programme we held a meeting for our members to discuss the
self-assesment portion of the strategy process. A workshop with our
facilitator was scheduled for May as well, but has been postponed.
Fundraising
Wikimedia Hungary is a partner in the 2010/2011 fundraiser, the amount of
donations raised in Hungary was as follows:
- Wikimedia Hungary: 13 000 HUF ($65)
- Wikimedia Foundation: $43.11
As an organization of public benefit with two years of operations and no
public debts, Wikimedia Hungary was eligible as a target for 1% income tax
allocation, where taxpayers could direct one percent of their income tax to
a charitable organization or church of their choice. To facilitate choice,
we ran a short banner campaign advising donors of the possibility.
Wikipedia Libray
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikilibrary_1.jpg>
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikilibrary_1.jpg>
Wikipedia Library in 2010
Wikimedia Hungary had donated a number of books on Wikipedia and free
knowledge to the library of the Budapest University of Technology and
Economics, to make them accessible in Hungary in general, and in particular
to to our members (who are eligible for a free library membership as part of
the partnership).
In May, our shelf in the library was expanded with three new books and a
number of Wikimedia publications (e.g. annual reports, Bookshelf material).
For a list of the books on the shelf, see:
http://wikimedia.hu/wiki/Egy%C3%BCttm%C5%B1k%C3%B6d%C3%A9si_meg%C3%A1llapod…
.
Project news
The Hungarian Wikinews <http://hu.wikinews.org/> project was closed on 15
May.
