Greetings,
I'm very excited to welcome Arthur Richards to the Wikimedia Foundation as the backend developer for fundraising.
Back in the fall 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, Arthur took a leave of absence from Oberlin College to work with a grassroots relief organization in New Orleans, Louisiana. After finding a lot of discarded computer equipment in trash piles during cleanup, he rescued, repaired and rebuilt a handful of machines to open up the Common Ground Community Tech Center in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans. Powered by Linux, a jury-rigged solar array and a back-up generator, the Tech Center provided a place for community members to check on loved ones, learn about computers and publish their own media to the web.
After finishing school with a degree in History, Arthur headed to the Bay Area to begin a career in software development. There he worked for a few months as a content manager and developer for YouthNoise.org, a forum for young people to become civicly engaged. In 2007, Arthur left YouthNoise to try his hand at contracting. His first gig was with NetAcceleration, maintaining and providing new functionality for a proprietary content management system. Feeling a need to work with open source software and for social good, Arthur left NetAcceleration and co-founded Colingro Labs, a small web consulting company focused on non-profit, green and socially responsible clients where he fell in love with the Drupal content management system.
Most recently, Arthur has been in Guadalajara, Mexico with Adapting to Scarcity, making a documentary on the effects of urban water usage on communities downstream from Guadalajara and offering digital storytelling workshops to youth in affected communities.
Arthur will bring in some well needed drupal skills that will benefit our fundraising efforts with CiviCRM. He'll be working with our staff and the CiviCRM community to develop new features along with integrating our custom developments into the core distribution. He'll also be working extensively with our analytics team to better understand and present the various data sources that we have to both internal teams and the community at large.
He'll be starting a three month contract on July 6th and will be working in the San Francisco office.
Please join me in welcoming Arthur to the Wikimedia team! We'll be setting up his email as his start day gets closer but until then, you can reach him at awjrichards(a)gmail.com.
--
Tomasz Finc
Engineering Program Manager - Fundraising, Mobile, & Offline
What is the purpose of the resolution?
The Board is asking its Executive Director to conduct a study, with the
goal of figuring out what to do about potentially-objectionable material
in the projects. We know there is, and will always be, some material in
the projects that some readers will find offensive: that's inevitable,
given the size and scope of our readership, and our commitment to
providing access to all of the world's knowledge. We don't want to cause
unnecessary offence to people, and we particularly don't want to offend
people if it means they won't therefore use our projects, or that they
will aim to keep other people from using them. We want our projects to
be available to as many people as possible, and we would like, as much
as possible, to minimize the number of people who are prevented from
accessing the projects by third-parties. Having said that, we see the
projects' role as making available all knowledge, not making available
solely such knowledge as is universally deemed acceptable. It's a
challenge, and we need to strike an appropriate balance. Therefore,
we're asking our ED to do some investigation and thinking, and make some
recommendations to us at our meeting this fall.
How was the resolution developed and agreed upon?
The board and the community have been talking about this topic for the
past two months -- and indeed, the Commons and Wikipedia communities
have been discussing it for many years. Once the board reached general
agreement that a study was a good idea, we asked our ED to draft a
resolution to that effect. After she did that, we spent several weeks
talking with each other, refining the language of the draft, and voting
to adopt the resolution.
Does the board have consensus on what to do about
potentially-objectionable materials in the projects?
No. So far, board members have exchanged several hundred e-mails on this
topic, and we will continue to discuss it in the coming months.
Currently, board members have expressed quite different views, and there
is no consensus on how to resolve the issue. We think that's completely
fine though: it's complicated, and it's worth a lot of thought and
discussion. That's why we've commissioned a study: to see what we can
learn from other similar discussions that have taken place within other
organizations.
What are the individual board members' views on this issue? How divided
is the board?
We don't really want to characterize individual board members' views.
Having said that, individual board members have expressed their opinions
publicly in the past, and they will probably continue to do so. The
board is comfortable with disagreement on this issue, and it's
comfortable with people expressing their opinions. For example, Michael
Snow has been having a conversation with contributors on Commons, and
both Jimmy and SJ have been expressing their views there too. That's
fine, and the board encourages it.
How is this study related to the purge of some sexual imagery that
happened on Commons a month ago?
The Commons purge happened because Jimmy felt there was material on
Commons which didn't belong there -- that was potentially objectionable,
and had no educational value. The board released a statement on May 7,
encouraging Wikimedia editors to scrutinize potentially offensive
materials with the goal of assessing their educational or informational
value, and to remove them from the projects if there was no such value.
Jimmy himself then deleted a bunch of imagery he thought was
problematic. In so doing, he made a lot of admins on Commons really
angry -- essentially because they felt Jimmy was acting unilaterally,
without sufficient discussion. So yes, this study is an attempt to
better handle the general issue of potentially-objectionable material on
the projects, including Commons, by giving it some sustained attention.
In its statement May 7, the board said that it was not intending to
create new policy, but rather to reaffirm and support policy that
already exists. Has that changed?
We don't know yet what recommendations will come out of the study. It's
quite possible they will include recommendations to change policy on the
projects. In giving direction to the consultant, we have asked that
everything be considered: nothing has been ruled out.
In the aftermath of the Commons purge, a lot of editors felt that the
Wikimedia Foundation, the board, and/or Jimmy had overstepped their
authority. What do you say to those editors who believe that editorial
policy is their purview, not the responsibility of the board or the staff?
We agree with editors who say that, and we believe that Wikimedia's
current methods of developing and enforcing policy, for the most part,
work really beautifully. The Wikimedia projects are a shining example of
the power of mass collaboration, and nobody wants to fundamentally
change anything about how the projects work.
Is this the first time the Board has ever asked the ED or WMF to address
an issue like this?
This is the first time the Board has asked the ED to investigate the
issue of potentially-objectionable material on the projects, yes.
Will the Board make a decision about next steps on this issue following
the ED's presentation of findings?
The Board will review the recommendations and findings, and will
continue to discuss the matter and reach out to the community of
volunteers to discuss the issue. We won't speculate on what decisions
will be made, or when, until findings have been reviewed and discussed.
Who will the ED be seeking out to undertake this research?
She has hired a consultant: Robert Harris, a former executive with the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Robert is an experienced Canadian
journalist and writer who, over the course of his career, has held
responsibility for developing and ensuring compliance with editorial
standards and practices at the CBC. We think he's right for this work
because he's smart and thoughtful, has decades of experience handling
sensitive editorial issues, and is experienced at balancing the
interests of multiple stakeholders inside a mission-driven organization
designed to serve the general public. Sue worked with Robert for 17
years at the CBC, and is confident he can help us with this issue.
What will the process look like?
This won't be like the strategy project, which took an entire year and a
team of full-time people. This process will be smaller and simpler.
Robert intends to gather input from four major sources: i) by reading
existing policy and discussion pages on the wikis, ii) by interviewing
key project participants such as board members and community members,
iii) by gathering together external statements of policy, papers and
reports on this topic, and iv) by interviewing key experts such as
advisory board members, anti-censorship advocates, child-protection
organizations, and so forth. He will probably not do much original
research (such as surveys or focus groups): instead, he will tend to
rely on existing research done by others. Once Robert has gathered all
the input, he will do some analysis and thinking, and then make
recommendations to the board. It is intended to be a fairly quick and
simple process of information-gathering and thinking.
What will the end result look like?
Robert will explore and summarize our particular context: our mission,
our production processes, and current relevant policies. He will tell us
how other organizations and entities, such as libraries and big
user-generated content sites, have handled this challenge. He will lay
out possible courses of action, and the pros and cons of each in our
context. And finally, he will make recommendations to the board.
What might those recommendations include?
Nothing is off the table. Robert has not been asked to explicitly
exclude anything from the scope of recommendations. He could recommend
anything from doing nothing to creative ideas that haven't been
considered before.
What will happen after the board receives the recommendations?
The board will discuss the recommendations at its fall meeting. Then it
will talk with the community. Nothing will happen without lots of
discussion.
Why not hire a community member to do this work?
Any community member who'd be interested in this work has probably
already formed an opinion on the topic, which means it might be hard for
them to maintain neutrality, and/or other people might perceive them as
non-neutral. Robert brings a fresh eye, which is probably useful. Also,
he will bring to us his experience of designing policy elsewhere.
What other projects or properties face similar situations as those of
Wikimedia's? Who or what can provide context for this kind of research
or decision making? Who else knows how to address this issue?
We are interested in practices of other large projects containing
community-created material, such as Flickr, YouTube, Google, eBay, and
the Internet Archive. We are also interested in educational institutions
and archives, whose work is similar to ours. So we will be talking with
groups such as libraries, museums, and universities. Many smart people
have grappled with these issues, and we are looking forward to hearing
how they have handled them. We also know that our context is unique, and
the outcome will need to be suited to us: our mission, goals, values and
editorial practices.
Are you doing this because you're worried about the media, or donors?
No. The board is doing this because we've agreed that getting more
information about other approaches to the issue is the right thing to
do. We want to be thoughtful and responsible, and we think it's worth
putting some focused effort against this issue. We may be wrong about
that (and it's true that some board members feel more strongly about it
than others). We want to do what is best in terms of advancing the
mission and meeting the needs of all the world's readers and contributors.
Has the Board or Foundation actively done anything on the projects to
remove explicit content? Has any illegal material been found or deleted?
Although the Foundation would remove any illegal content if it were
necessary, it has not needed to do so--the task of removing this kind of
material generally falls to our volunteers first, who watch the latest
changes and additions to our projects. However, project policies often
include editorial considerations in addition to legal considerations;
just because an image is within the bounds of the law does not
necessarily mean it falls within the project scope, and individual
members have removed content they believed was outside of project policies.
The Wikimedia community has engaged in thoughtful policy development
around these issues for many years. Why is there a need for a top-down
process now?
It's true that the community has had many good policy discussions about
these issues, dating to the earliest days of Wikipedia. Ultimately, we
think those discussions may have been constrained in ways that aren't
ideal. First, discussions about policy tend to be project-centric,
rather than addressing the interests of the Wikimedia movement as a
whole. That means they typically aren't very informed by a
bigger-picture view (for example, the experiences of other projects,
other communities, other websites, other educational initiatives), in
part because there typically aren't resources dedicated to getting that
information. And, some types of policy change (for example, those with
technology implications) may be abandoned early, because community
members know technical support is hard to come by. We're hoping that
this process will help us to have a broader conversation about the topic
than might otherwise be possible.
Who wrote this Q and A, and who is its intended audience?
The first draft of this Q and A was written by Jay and Sue for the
board, based on the text of the resolution, and Sue's understanding of
the consensus that had been achieved by the board over the past several
months. Individual board members requested various revisions, and new
versions of the draft were recirculated over several days. The main
audience is the Wikimedia community, and the goal is to articulate the
board's position as completely as possible.
--Michael Snow
As a follow-up to the previous statement and discussion about
appropriate educational content, the board has passed a resolution
requesting a study of the issue of potentially objectionable content. We
have asked the Executive Director to organize this study and develop
recommendations for the board. We expect these will be shared with the
community and stimulate further discussion about whether to adopt
particular recommendations. Potential action would only follow that
process, but since it's hard to say what that might involve without
knowing the recommendations in advance, I will also pass along some
questions and answers that attempt to explain the process in more
detail. The text of the resolution follows:
1. The Wikimedia Foundation vision imagines a world in which every
single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That is
our commitment, and we aspire to see it realized.
2. We are making good progress towards that goal. Today, hundreds of
millions of people read the Wikimedia projects every month. Those people
represent a wide diversity of ethnicities, nationalities, ages,
socioeconomic conditions, sexual orientations, religions, values and
attitudes. We are proud of that, and we consider it proof of our
projects' broad relevance and utility.
3. In any group as diverse as ours, ideas about acceptability and taste
will necessarily vary widely. We know that to be true in our case
because, over the years, we have received many requests asking us to
remove from the projects different types of material, on the grounds
that it is objectionable to particular individuals or groups. However,
Wikimedia policy has never called for material to be deleted purely on
the basis that it is, or may be, objectionable, and our projects have
long contained caveats to that effect.
4. We do expect material in our projects to be educational in nature,
and any material that is not educational should be removed. We see our
role as making available all knowledge, not solely such knowledge as is
universally deemed acceptable. We believe that individual adults should
be able to decide for themselves what information they want to seek out.
In the case of children, we believe that their parents, teachers, and
other guardians are best placed to guide them to material that is
appropriate for them, based on their development and maturity, as they
grow into adulthood.
5. Nevertheless, we are concerned about the possibility of people being
exposed to objectionable material that they did not seek out. This may
include material that is violent, sexually explicit, or otherwise
disturbing; culturally offensive depictions; profane or vulgar language;
depictions of potentially dangerous activities; and exposure of children
to material that may be inappropriate for them. We believe that the
Wikimedia projects are a valuable educational resource, and we do not
want these issues to interfere in sharing knowledge with present or
future readers.
6. The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees believe that the Wikimedia
projects have a serious responsibility to carefully balance these
interests to the best of their ability. This includes considering the
interests of both adults and children, as well as understanding
different cultural perspectives about what material may be offensive. It
is a difficult challenge, and we do not take it lightly.
WE THEREFORE RESOLVE THAT:
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees hereby requests its Executive
Director to undertake a project studying this issue, and to develop a
set of recommendations for the Board. In this work, we ask that she
consult with a variety of stakeholders and experts, including Wikimedia
editors, other organizations which have grappled with the same or
similar issues, and thought leaders including relevant members of our
Advisory Board. We ask that she make an effort to include non-Western
perspectives. The purpose of this work is to develop recommendations to
enable the Wikimedia projects to appropriately and effectively serve all
audiences, including both adults and children, and including readers
both current and prospective.
The scope of this work should be broad, and might include recommended
changes to editorial policies, technical solutions, the development of
new projects that are appropriate for children, and so forth. In an
effort to allow sufficient time for thoughtful investigation, but also
to bring closure to this issue within a reasonable period, we ask the
Executive Director to deliver preliminary recommendations to the Board
at its fall meeting, and we encourage her to consult with the Board as
required in the intervening months.
--Michael Snow
And, another punctual update from Wikimedia Germany about their activities. :-)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pavel Richter <pavel.richter(a)wikimedia.de>
Date: 2010/6/15
Subject: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] Chapter Report WMDE May 2010
To: chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Dear friends of free knowledge,
== General Meeting ==
The annual general meeting of Wikimedia Germany took place in Berlin on May
8, 2010. Because we are organized as an association, the general meeting is
the highest committee of ruling. The current board gives an account for the
past year and is released, the executive reports about the main activities
of the past year, a new board is elected, and important petitions are
discussed and decided. The preparation and the work after the meeting was
our main focus in April and May. You can already find some information here
[1] and here [2], applications as well as the minutes of the meeting are on
our homepage [3].
== Berlin School of Economics and Law ==
Our fundraiser Till Mletzko and I were invited by Professor Bettina Hohn
from the Berlin School of Economics and Law. She occupies the Chair of
Public Management specialized on Business Management in the field of Public
and Non-profit Management. We had the opportunity to introduce and discuss
the work of Wikimedia Germany, the concept of fundraising and the focus on
our work to the students in two hours. Maybe we motivated a few students to
apply for an internship or as a working student, or even for a job at
Wikimedia Germany.
== School Project ==
We made a lot of progress on the school project. The opportunity to organize
two events in Brandenburg and one in Rhineland-Palatinate made it possible
again to inform teachers as well as students about Wikipedia and the use of
it for school purposes. With this in mind, we supported another training in
Brandenburg with the help of a spin doctor. The experiences we made are
particularly important for the forthcoming realization of the school
project. Furthermore, we established contacts with all federal states for
future purposes.
As we experienced the content of the school events being strongly requested,
we are convinced to predict a seminal development for the project. At the
moment, we are looking for potential referees from the Community (as it
could be read here [4]) to meet at a summer camp in order to organize and
expand the school project on a higher and wider level. More referees and
more events – that means we draw more attention to our concern within the
scope of secondary education. In the meantime, the respective description of
the project [5] was updated.
== Literature Scholarship ==
It was time to celebrate the literature scholarship this month: the genesis
of the thousandth article of the literature scholarship. Consistent with the
first article on literature scholarship, the last article was written by the
user Griensteidl, who - as a scholarship holder himself - was also
responsible for writing the very first article on the topic of literature
scholarship. The article on serenoa is one part of his project on palm
trees, which was made possible by his second literature scholarship.
Wikimedia Germany and all its authors who contributed to this great success
want to say thank you. We are looking forward to the next projects (“The Art
of the Ancient World” and “British Nobility”), and there are present
applications on the topics “Großpilze (German for fungi with a macroscopic
fruiting body) and “Bavarian Monuments of Art”. To the next thousand
articles, may they be written even faster!
== Renewable Resources ==
After a successful three years, the project “Renewable Resources in
Wikipedia” has come to an end at due date on April 30, 2010. This is the one
and only project financially supported by the public to establish a new
content-related subject on Wikipedia. The goal was to systematically prepare
and fix the current knowledge on the subject of renewable resources in the
German Wikipedia. The result of the cooperation of Wikimedia Germany, the
nova-Institute and the FNR (Agency for Renewable Resources) is satisfactory:
the aim was achieved, 557 tags were edited by either creating 434 new
articles or fundamentally updating them.
However, there was a bitter pill to swallow: there was no chance to involve
external experts. Then again we are glad for the participation and
commitment of the Wkipedia-Community. The project team is confident that
active community members on this topic will push the further construction
and development in the field of “Renewable Resources”. In our opinion the
results of this projects will lay a great foundation.
== “Mitteldeutsche Medientage” ==
Matthias Schindler participated in the panel discussion of copyright issues
in the “Mitteldeutsche Medientage” (Event of Media Discussion in
Mid-Germany) in Leipzig on May 4, 2010. The event was well attended and
triggered a lively discussion.
=== Lex Wikipedia ===
You should memorize P/2273/18. In terms of this printed matter, the Israeli
Knesset is discussing the changes on national copyright issues, which should
make governmental and administrative documents available and appropriable to
the general public. Unfortunately the original concept has some unuseful
restrictions for Wikimedia - however, the Israeli press calls it “Lex
Wikipedia”. If they are successful, Israel will be a role model for other
countries including Germany.
=== Standard Data ===
There is not that much progress at the German National Library after the
great release of bibliographical data by the hbz (the center for academic
libraries). After all, the German National Library has published a copy of
the standard data here [6], but it is not really clear what you are allowed
to do with this data. Further queries brought some clarity: you are not
allowed to do anything. However, there is some movement outside of the old
library scene, Open Knowledge Foundation has a new project called
“Bibliographica”[7].
=== Zedler Medal and Wikipedia Academy ===
After the Wikimedia Conference there are two big events coming up: the award
of the Zedler Medal [8] which is followed by the Wikipedia Academy [9]. We
discussed goals, target groups, and actions at the general meeting in teams,
and talked about proposals how to optimize both events. Participants of the
Academy should tackle the problem of theory and practice with Wikipedia; it
is themed by the Scientific Year “Future of Energy” [10]. The goal of the
Academy is to feature energy-related subjects in the encyclopedia Wikipedia
to reach a wide audience and to acquire a way to optimize the quality of
this area. Most likely the award of the Zedler Medal will take place at the
Academy, we are convinced that both events complete each other which will
fuse synergy effects.
Meetings with potential supporters and partners were already held,
additional meetings will follow the next weeks. In June there will be more
tangible results: concepts and drafts of the project, a schedule, and budget
projections will be developed and there will be the call for a proposal for
the Zedler Medal.
=== Topics in the Media ===
In early May, Jimmy Wales deleted pornographic pictures on Commons which
triggered a great interest by the press asking for background information
and queries. Interviews were mainly requested for the Foundation, they were
forwarded and coordinated.
=== Wikimedium ===
Wikimedium [11] was finished and produced at due date in early May and was
released at the general meeting in time. We gained a lot more subscribers by
the announcement and application on wikipedia.de.
=== Knowledge in Form of a Clip ===
Further meetings with media partners and TV productions took place to
develop ideas and to find more partners for integrating Wikipedia contents
into newspaper, radio, and television. The executives planned an agreement,
a foundation for the cooperation, which is now checked for legal and tax
issues.
=== Grimme Online-Award ===
This year we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Grimme Online-Award. In
2004, the award went to Wikipedia and because of this we published an
article in the anniversary publication of the Alfred-Grimme-Institute
(Gesellschaft für Medien, Bildung und Kultur mbH) with a statement and a
picture of the first chairman Sebastian Moleski. It will be published at the
next presentation of awards on June 30, 2010.
=== Members ===
In May we gained four new members as well as we received four cancellations,
latter ones unfortunately without any reason. As the data base should be
reliable and up to date, we wrote to 17 members who had no valid e-mail
address or none at all. We want to use this as an informal call to all
members: in case your contact details change (mail or e-mail address, phone
number, banking details), please e-mail us to office(a)wikimedia.de. Thank
you!
=== Wikisource ===
We ordered a digitalized version at the Berlin State Library of the book:
„Lustige Naturgeschichte oder zoologia Comica: das ist eine genaue
Beschreibung aller in diesem Buche vorkommenden lebendigen Tiere der Welt
mit 86 naturgetreuen Abbildungen” (English: Funny Nature Stories or the
Zoologica Comica: A Detailed Description of Every Living Animal on Earth
Mentioned in this Book Including 86 Lifelike Images) by Franz Bonn written
in 1877. This book will be an excellent supplement to two other books by
Franz Bonn, which were already corrected and put on Wikisource [12].
=== Community ===
In terms of Community events, the last month was rather quiet: We were able
to make it possible for a participant to travel to a meeting of the
editorial office of Biology (you can find the impressive enumeration of all
detected, observed and specified species here [13]) and we granted a sum of
money for the editorial office of Chemistry for their annual meeting [14].
=== Fundraising ===
Fundraising achieved some tangible results in May. Four areas are to
mention. The first one involves the text message donation, which was
eventually established with the help of a stronger communication in the
fundraising mix of the WMDE. WMDE is financed by small donations and the
text message idea is the perfect way for this, we decided to use it
intensively in the weeks to come.
The connection of the donors is mentioned as the second area. At the end of
May, e-mails were sent out to about 800 first-time donors with information
about Wikimedium and additional material. WMDE hopes, after strengthening
the information policy, for a closer connection and identification with our
work and projects.
The third sector covers the instrument of monetary conditions. We produced
information material for judges and county attorneys. Provincial high courts
and courts of appeal were contacted for including us to the “Bußgeldliste”
(catalog listing monetary fines). As soon as Wikimedia Germany is
registered, we will contact judges and attorneys. This is planned for June.
Finally we like to mention the Fundraising-Summit in Bristol which took
place from May 14 to 16. WMF and many representatives from different
chapters came together to talk about fundraising in general and the upcoming
campaign in fall. Pavel Richter and Till Mletzko attended the meeting
representing WMDE. After having constructive dialogs we decided to intensify
the support of the campaign.
=== IT ===
In the field of technics we focus on the preparation of new projects. We
started to plan the design and use of a central data base of bibliography
with the Open Knowledge Foundation. In the future, data from
bibliographica.org should make it easier for the indicating quotations in
Wikimedia projects. More work was also done on data processing from the
info-boxes of Wikipedia – that is the place where we and the teams from
Semantic MediaWiki and DBpedia exchange information about which software to
use to manage the data.
=== Monthly Report ===
>From this month on, we translated the report into English to keep the other
chapters updated about our projects and activities. The next report will be
published on June 30, 2010. Switch back to German version here.
Kind regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Pavel Richter
Executive Director
-------------------------------------
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Eisenacher Straße 2
10777 Berlin
Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0
www.wikimedia.de
Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen
Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
**** Unterstützen Sie Freies Wissen mit einer SMS. Senden Sie einfach WIKI
an 81190. Mit 5 Euro sichern Sie so die Verfügbarkeit und Weiterentwicklung
der Wikipedia. ****
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
[1]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/05/09/zwei-verlangerungen-kein-elfmeterschiese
n/
[2]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/05/11/wissenswertes-von-einer-mitgliederversam
mlung/
[3] http://wikimedia.de/index.php?id=132
[4]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/05/27/referenten-fur-unser-schulprojekt-gesuch
t/
[5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia-Schulprojekt
[6]
https://wiki.d-nb.de/display/LDS/Dokumentation+des+Linked+Data+Services+der+
DNB
[7] http://bibliographica.org/
[8] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Zedler-Medaille
[9] http://www.wikipedia-academy.de/
[10] http://blog.wikimedia.de/www.zukunft-der-energie.de
[11]
http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/images/Downloads/Wikimedium_2010-02.pdf
[12]
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Popul%C3%A4r-wissenschaftlicher%20Vortrag%20de
s%20Dr.%20Sulphurius%20%C3%BCber%20Schule%20und%20Erziehung
[13]
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Redaktion_Biologie/Treffen#Protokoll
[14]
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Redaktion_Chemie/PlanungTreffen2010
_______________________________________________
Chapters-reports mailing list
Chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters-reports
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
(See previous email for context.)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pavel Richter <pavel.richter(a)wikimedia.de>
Date: 2010/6/10
Subject: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] Chapter Report WMDE April 2010
To: chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Dear friends of free knowledge,
== Wikimedia Conference ==
The Wikimedia Conference, which took place in Berlin from the 14th until the
18th of April, dominated the activities of this month. As host of the event,
in which more than 120 people from over 30 countries took part, Wikimedia
Germany was responsible for all of the organisation. Again Nicole focused in
April on the planning, execution and debriefing of the Wikimedia Conference.
For example in the first week of April information materials for the
participants were composed, technical and culinary supplies were secured and
the planning of the program of the event was concreted. After multiple phone
calls and countless emails with the Ministry of foreign affairs and the
German Embassy almost all required visas were acquired and delivered by the
weekend. Also hotels and flights were booked for the chapter
representatives. Then on Tuesday night the start signal was given and the
first developers were welcomed on the hotel boat, which for the next five
days was repeatedly a meeting point for gatherings in the evening and
communal activities. About 80 developers from all over the world met and
besides the planned presentations numerous spontaneous work- and discussion
groups formed. The two most important topics were “Our Experience” and
“Structured Data”.
In the Area “Our Experience”, the user-friendliness or rather its
improvements, new developments of “Usability Initiative” were presented and
a preview of developments, which are expected in the near future, were
given. The medium term targets are the introduction of a Rich-text Editor
for Wiki-Contents, as well as an improvement of the accessibility especially
for the visually impaired. Further the project for the integration of
interactive maps of OpenStreetMap was revived.
In “Structured Data”, which focuses on integration, maintenance, and export
of automatically readable information, the presentation and maintenance of
such data in Wiki-sites via connection of external “Data-Wikis” was
discussed, for example for bibliographic data, such as Open Knowledge
Foundation is currently creating.
The Colleagues of Wikimedia Foundation also used the workshop, to discuss
organisational topics. Amongst others, the focus was on how contributions
from volunteers could be used in a better fashion but at the same time the
quality of the Media Wiki-Software could be guaranteed.
On Thursday we received first information about delayed and later cancelled
flights. A few participants were able to take the train for the last
distance, however unfortunately a few participants were unable to come to
Berlin due to the Ash cloud. When during the course of the weekend it became
clear that all flights were cancelled until further notice, restlessness and
uncertainty occurred. Fortunately the social solidarity of the “castaways”
was great from the beginning. Accommodation and lifts were offered, and our
travel agency's emergency service supplied the latest news about the flight
situation and organised train ticked for the participants from Moscow, Kiev
and Belgrade.
Unfortunately some Chapter- and Foundation representatives were unable to
partake in the Chapter Conference from Friday due to flight cancellations;
but obviously this did not stop the remaining attendants to fulfil the
schedule of the Conference [1]. The topics were manifold: The main focus of
the first day were the first results of the strategic planning process [2]
of the Wikimedia Foundation. Sue Gardner, CEO of the Trust, presented the
corner stones, which were met with interest by the chapter representatives.
The rest of the meeting focused on the development of local Chapters and
their role in creating and distributing free contents. Work groups occupied
themselves with the following topics "professionalisation", "Outreach", the
recruitment of voluntary employees, as well as cooperation of the Chapters
with other Organisations, mainly with cultural institutions. Who wants more
in depth information about the discussions and results, can find the
provisional documentation of the topics here [3].
However on Sunday the work was not yet over, because about 20 in Berlin
stranded Wikimedians needed to be attended to: Fortunately the extension of
the visa was uncomplicated [4] and quick and on Monday all “castaways” were
accommodated together in a hotel near the branch office. There we were able
to give them the daily updates, help with the orientation within the city
and deal with questions and worries. A positive side effect was, that during
the week the branch office became a meeting point for many international
guests and the opportunity for an exchange of knowledge occurred. When in
the middle of the week new flight dates were established, the delight about
the forthcoming return was great. Since one week all participants have
returned to their home country, and the days in Berlin will surely
remembered as a special event.
With a week's delay the final bill was calculated, the documentation further
completed and a satisfaction survey analysed. A final report is due to come.
== Topics of the Media ==
Some press inquiries in April were about the Court decision [5] of the
County Court of Hamburg, which concluded that, Wikimedia Germany is not
responsible for contents of Wikipedia. But only few online-media picked the
topic up and the inquiries focused almost exclusively on the Foundation. We
as branch office dealt with the inquiries. One Billion edits and the
development of the article about the Vulcano eruption was worth a press
release, which were picked up by a few media or were copied completely.
== Press Conference ==
In the context of the Wikimedia-Conference a press conference for the 16. of
April was organised. The content were aligned and prepared by participants
of the Foundation, the Board of Trustees and Jimmy Wales. Editorial
departments were invited via telephone and email. Additional interviews with
Pavel Richter were conducted beforehand. Jimmy Wales and members of the
board of trustees were unfortunately unable to partake the press conference
due to the Vulcan eruption- interviews had to be cancelled, topics and order
of the conference had to be changed or aligned. The following people took
part in the press conference: Sue Gardner, CEO of Wikimedia Foundation,
Jan-Bart de Vreede, Vice President of the Board of Trustees, and Sebastian
Moleski. Among others the ddp, rbb Abendschau, Heise Online and
Deutschlandfunk took part in the press conference. A compilation of the
resonance from the press and topics of the on which Catrin focused in April
can be found in the press review of Wikipedia [6] and the Union [7].
== Wikimedium & Co. ==
The creation of Wikimedium, including the topic selection, research, text
creation and editing, Layout development and production consumed a fair
amount of time in April. The new issue will be published in the next couple
of days. Due to this, the information leaflets for Wikimedia Commons,
Wikisource and Wikiversity were unfortunately not further edited. The
advancement of the layouts and contents will be continued in May.
== Knowledge in Clip format ==
A few appointments with media partners and tv productions took place, to
discuss ideas to integrate Wikipedia-content in newspapers-, radio- and tv-
formats and to develop further. The production company of Galileo and other
knowledge magazines (e.g. Spiegel) indicated interest to start a pilot
project and to develop Wikipedia knowledge in Clipformat. Further
discussions will take place in May.
In April a three day pilot phase of Wikipedia took place,
“Did-you-know-Clips” were shown in the Underground tv [8] in Berlin. The
positive reaction showed, that we are on the right path and the project will
be able to start in May after final clearance of sources and licensing.
== Members ==
During the course of April we received 11 applications and only one notice
of termination. Thus the number of member in Wikimedia Germany increased to
575 members.
The preparations for the member conference [9] (it is taking place on the 8.
and 9. of May 2010 in Berlin) are running as planned: We send the voting by
mail documents on the 22nd of April. By now everyone, who asked for the
documents within the deadline, should have received them. If the documents
have not yet arrived please send us a mail as soon as possible to
mv2010(at)wikimedia.de, so that we can send them immediately.
As announced, we offer various workshops on Sunday the 9. of May from 10:30
am until 15:00 pm about executive resorts. Additionally there will be a
workshop about “Fundraising” and one about “Events 2010 (Academy & Zedler)”.
The aim is, with other members together, to discuss the plan for the year,
develop new ideas and to start a continuous exchange between Branch office
and members. We are hoping for numerous participation of the workshop, for
which you can register here [10].
An important appeal: You would be helping us a lot with the planning if you,
even provisionally, informed us with a short mail to mv2010(a)wikimedia.de
about your attendance, because planning of this is needed: For example the
number of drinks, Tables, chairs or supplies for voting need to be
considered. And we don't want you to be empty handed, hungry or thirsty.
== Wikisource ==
As already mention last month, we ordered a digital version of the
Schwäbisch Gmünder Passionsspiel, which not only arrived, but also completed
the second editing. It is now available for the interested reader in
Wikisource. [11]
After a waiting time of almost three quarters of a year, the digitalisation
of a series of chronicles about villages in the Zittau area have now
arrived, which was composed in the 30s of the 18. Century by Gotthelf
Traugott Eckarth [12]. The work on these texts will begin shortly.
With orders from the Berlin State Library we were finally able to close a
gap: the digitalisation of the until now missing volumes of the 2nd and 3rd
edition of the issue of the "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" [13] of the Grimm
Brothers from the year 1837 was ordered by us.
== Community ==
In April we supported the following events and workshops of community
members with travel and conference expenses: The, by Ralp and Prolineserver
coordinated, photoworkshop, which took place from the 2. to the 5. of April
2010 in Nyköping/Sweden and the from Martin Bahmann organised meeting of the
Judges of the 12. Writing contest, which took place on the 30th of April/1st
of May in Geisenheim near Mainz.
To expand the Wikipedia-artciles by another Multimedia component, was the
aim of another supported project: On the 11. April in context of the 65.
anniversary of the liberation of the Concentrationcamp Buchenwald, one day
was documented with videos and photos under the direction of JCS; Movie and
pictures are planned to be places in the Wiki Commons.
== Collaboratory ==
Due to initiative of Google Germany there is now a "Collaboratory" [14], a
round table discussion of internet-politics interested people, on which from
our side Mathias and me took part (the other particiapnts can be found here
[15]) The first big initiative is a currently still running survey to
inovationsculture in Germany, in which you can take part here [16].
== Generation 50+ ==
Here are some good news: In April we received the results of a
preexamination in March. Content editing is not necessary. However some
formal points need to be added. They are easy to solve. To answer the
question of all involved project partners we require the help of the Swiss
project manager.
How will it continue? We will complete our task in the short term. The begin
of the Project depends mainly on the Swiss partners, and is still not fully
resolved. Because of this we decided to apply for funding in parallel. This
will be different in the key points from the aims of the international joint
team aims. The work on this has already started.
== Schoolproject ==
As reported last months, the workshops of the last months of the initiative
D21 resulted in some follow up events, the first dates of this took place
this month in Brandenburg. In Cooperation with the Ministry of Education of
Brandenburg 30 teachers from schools of the whole county were introduced to
interactive blackboards and the basics of Wikipedia as well as quality
guaranteeing structures. This took place in Gransee or rather Eberswalde.
The event series will continue in May with four additional dates in
Brandenburg as well as one event in Reihnland-Pfalz. We'll start
immediately, but a bit delayed, with the planning for the, in last month's
report mentioned, extension of the school-project. At the end of July
Wikimedia Germany will hold a workshop lasting several days, in which we
want to train volunteers from Wikipedia as consultants and develop content
for future events. Additionally in the middle of May further information
will follow, so who is interested in becoming a consultant, should keep an
eye on the date.
== Literature Scholarship ==
In the Wikipedia literature scholarship we were able to consider some new
applications and even fulfil some. The continuous updating of the
Statistics, i.e. the question of how many articles received a literature
scholarship indicates that in May or June the 1000th article, which received
a scholarship, will be written. A great success for the program, for which
we want to thank all authors.
== On duty for free Knowledge ==
>From the 13. to the 17. of April the “Museum and the web” [17] Conference
took place in Denver, Colorado, the conference administration allowed a big
space for Wikipedia and funded a whole day of workshop about Wikipedia in
the context of museums, in which numerous Wikipedians (such as Phoebe Ayers,
Samuel Klein, Erik Möller, Liam Whyatt und Mathias Schindler) took part.
Fortunately the workshop itself was well visited, an in-depth report will be
published in Wikipedia Signpost as well as other sources. Due to a certain
Vulcano, the journey home was a small adventure in its own right, analogue
to the stranded Wikimedians in Berlin, Germany.
On the 26. to the 29. of April, organised by the University of Sao Paulo und
the Brasillian Ministry of Education, the “International Symposium of Public
Policies for Digital collections” took place to which Mathias was invited to
report in the panel “Great Digitization Projects” about Cooperation with
German State Archives. The participant selection is much in favour of free
contents, for example Larry Lessig (Creative Commons, Brewster Kahle
(Internet Archive), Beatriz Busaniche (Wikimedia Argentinien).
== Wahlprüfsteine ==
"Wahlprüfsteine" (election touch-stones) are questions regarding the
advancment of free knowledge, which we send out to the political parties
prior the state-election in North Rhine-Westphalia [18]. The responses
will be published consolidated and collected before the date of elections.
== Softwareprojects ==
For April we have to announce results for two long term software-projects:
First the extension for displaying TIFF-images [19], which was developed by
the Hallo Welt Medienwerkstadt, is finished. The extension only needs to be
examined by the Server-Admins before it can be activated. Secondly WikiPics,
a multilingual search engine for commons: here [20] the (still a bit slow)
alpha-version can be tested. Shortly a revised version is planned to go
online, which can be used for the daily use in the commons.
The next office report will be published on the 31th of May 2010.
Kind regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Pavel Richter
Executive Director
-------------------------------------
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Eisenacher Straße 2
10777 Berlin
Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0
www.wikimedia.de
Links:
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_meeting_2010/Schedule
[2] http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_meeting_2010/Documentation
[4] http://www.taz.de/1/berlin/artikel/1/illegal-durch-die-aschewolke/
[5]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/04/13/landgericht-hamburg-entscheidet-fur-wiki
media-deutschland/
[6] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pressespiegel#April_2010
[7] http://wikimedia.de/index.php?id=85
[8] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/04/19/gutes-beispiel/
[9] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mitgliederversammlung_2010
[10]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mitgliederversammlung_2010/Workshops_auf_der_
MV
[11]
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Das_Passionsspiel_in_Schw%C3%A4bisch-Gm%C3%BCn
d
[12] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Gotthelf_Traugott_Eckarth
[13] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Kinder-_und_Hausm%C3%A4rchen
[14]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/05/04/bericht-aus-der-geschaftsstelle-april-20
10/%5C%5Cwww.collaboratory.de
[15] http://sites.google.com/site/igcollaboratory/home/expertenliste
[16]
http://sites.google.com/site/igcollaboratory/home/umfrage-zu-internet-gesell
schaft-und-innovationskultur
[17] http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/
[18]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/04/12/wahlprufsteine-zur-landtagswahl-in-nrw/
[19] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/04/08/tiff-bilder-bald-direkt-im-wiki/
[20] http://toolserver.org/~daniel/wikiword-trunk/search/wikipics.php
_______________________________________________
Chapters-reports mailing list
Chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters-reports
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Hello all,
as most of you know, the Wikimedia Foundation is supported by a
network of 28 international chapter organizations. These are
independent organizations advocating and acting on behalf of the
Wikimedia mission in their respective geographies. See:
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters>. Chapters provide
their own reports about their activities. Our objective is to
consolidate movement-wide news and announcements on this mailing list,
so we'll be sharing English language chapter reports and major
announcements here from now on.
Please see below for the March 2010 report from Wikimedia Germany
provided by its Executive Director, Pavel Richter; April will follow
in a bit.
All best,
Erik
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pavel Richter <pavel.richter(a)wikimedia.de>
Date: 2010/6/10
Subject: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] Chapter Report WMDE March 2010
To: chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hi all,
for some time now, Wikimedia Germany is publishing a monthly report about
our activities and main projects to the german mailinglist, as well as on
our blog. Starting with the March 2010 report below, we will publish these
reports in english as well, to give our friends outside of Germany the
opportunity to catch up with what we do as well.
I will publish the March and April reports today, and the one for May in the
next couple of days. I aim to publish the report in German on the last day
of the months, and the translation will take usually about a week or so, so
you can expect the new report for June around the 7. July 2010.
If you have any questions regarding of the the projects or topics discussed,
please let me know.
Happy reading!
Dear friends of free knowledge,
Easter is coming, also the beginning of the month is a time to reflect on
the last month.
== Open data ==
There were some great positive advances in the area of open data. The hbz
and for example the university library of Cologne have published their
catalogue data under [1] and [2] respectively (Creative Commons Zero - CC0).
By many journalists Wikipedia/Wikimedia was named as possible consumer and
user. There is a first tentative approach to show the data [3] with the
Apper-Persondata-Tool. Fortunately even political parties showed interest in
the opening [4]. We are hoping for other libraries to follow this example.
== School project ==
Again, this month the school project was a central issue. In the context of
the Initiative D21 some workshops took place and resulted in requests for
participation in further events. Except for one all requests could be
granted, and planning is currently taking place. Immediately after the
Wikimedia Conference (see below) more effort will go towards planning of the
School-project again. We want to significantly increase the workshops for
teachers in the second half. For this we plan to gather and train a pool of
volunteers, develop appropriate teaching material etc. There will be an
in-depth update on this in the blog entry in April.
== Wiki4enterprise ==
For a while now we are involved in the project wiki4enterprise [4], a
collection of Businesses, which use MediaWiki in their company. This is a
good opportunity for us to form contacts to businesses which use the
software; together we can talk about further development, exchange
experiences and give tips to one another. Here a meeting occurred in
Frankenthal [5] in which Daniel participated.
== DPG ==
Wikimedia Germany was approached during partaking of the Springconference of
the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physical Association) [6],
on 16th Denis Barthel gave a presentation on Wikipedia. There has been broad
interest and again the specific questions and needs of academics became
apparent. Unfortunately not as successful was the booth we were given. It
was only able to work properly for one day and even then the interest was
limited. A special thanks for their help goes to Zipferlak and Raymond.
== Wikisource ==
We initiated an interesting order: A print of the Schwaebisch Gmuender
Passionsspiel [7], which was already appreciated in 1867.
== Wikimedia Conference ==
Nicole's first month in the branch office was dominated by the preparations
of the Wikimedia conference [8]. The developer meeting will take place on
the 14. and 15. of April with approximately 80 attendants and from the 16.
until the 18. approx. 80 representatives of the international Wikimedia
Chapter and employees of the Wikimedia foundation as well as the Board of
Trustees will meet. With the Zanox Campus [9] - directly near the
Oberbaumbruecke and with view of the Spree between Kreuzberg and
Friedrichshain- we have found an excellent venue with sympathetic and open
atmosphere.
Accommodation of attendants is also sorted: One group will stay in the
Cabins of the traditional hotel boat Eastern-Comfort [10], the rest will
stay in a Hotel in Friedrichshain on the Warschauer Strasse. Attendants
travel from more than 20 different countries to Berlin, so another of our/
Nicole's task was to help with Visa and coordinate the journeys via plane,
train or car. The search for a moderator of the chapter meeting was also
successfully concluded and we are happy to have found two competent forces
with Anja Krieger [11] and Don Dahlman [12]. Applications for both events
are now closed and it was very interesting for Nicole to help Wikipedians
from all over the world with all kinds of questions. Still remaining are
negotiations with the catering firm, the planning of the evening as well as
coordination of the volunteers. Additionally comprehensive information
leaflets are planned for the attendants.
== Topics in the media ==
The questions from the press in March were not remarkable, only general
questions such as numbers and statistics about access and users etc.
A few contracts to the media were initiated with regard to the planned
Wikimedia Conference, namly: Zeit-online, Brandeins, Spiegel Magazin, rbb,
ZDF, and others. Additionally Catrin helped with the following articles:
* Berliner Morgenpost, Artikel published on the 24.3.10 here [13].
* MDR INFO about Wikis and Wikimedia (Interview on television on the 25.3.
in total four times around midday)
* Westfaelische Rundschau: in the Wiki-World (article is currently in
progress)
* Stuttgarter Zeitung: Wikipedianer Portrait (Editorial journalist will
visit the regular's table on the 1.4. in Stuttgart, article in progress)
Further the new fundraising employee Till Mletzko became more reknown:
Newsletter of the Fundraisingverband in March and Fundraiser-Magazine /
April issue.
== Information material, progress report & others ==
The information leaflets for Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource and Wikiversity
are in the layout phase. Single community members are currently supporting
Catrin with the development of the layouts and the content. The production
of the progress report (PDF) required a lot of time in March: the tasks
consisted of the structure planning , text development and editing, pictures
and graphics formatting, layout- and text adjustment and production.
Relatively small, but nonetheless appreciable, was the provision of material
for the library congress in Leipzig. Quickly 100 flyers were produced, which
Mathias Schindler and Jakob Voss were able to distribute in libraries, in
order to support the BEACON-Format. The next Wikimedium is planned, first
structure and content are composed. Editorial deadline is the 9. of April
and everyone who has ideas, topics or suggestions can, as usual, contact us
at redaktion(a)wikimedium.de.
== Software projects ==
A status report on the advertised [15] software projects, which as known was
delayed a bit: The "complete support of TIFF files" [16] is currently in
the final stage, here the code is currently approved by Daniel; the renewal
of CatScan [17] has developed a first prototype, which also is currently
under evaluation; last but not least the analysis of flagged revisions will
now also proceed quickly, for this there will be a blog update in the next
few days.
In parallel a prototype for the multilingual picture search is currently
under development, which should be completed in time for the Wikimedia
Conference. Additionally during the conference the XMLRX-project is planned
to be started and finished.
== Future events ==
a quick overview of events, in which representatives of WMDE will partake.:
1. re:publica [18], on the 15th of April in Berlin, 14.00 pm; a "Zeit online
track" to the issue Processjournalism is planed.
2. Mitteldeutsche Medientage [19], 4th of May in Leipzig; Coordination and
Preparation of participation Mathias Schindler. Theme: Copyrights in a
revolutionised Mediaworld. A short presentation (10 min) followed by
discussions. Guests: Data privacy protection experts, Boersenverein des dt.
Buchhandels, Justitiar DJV, and specialists solicitors Internet
3. Buchtage Berlin [20], 10th/11th June in Berlin Congress Centre;
Discussion round "The markets of tomorrow". The participation of Pavel
Richter is planned.
4. Conference in Limassol on Cypress [21]: Euromed 2010, Digital Cultural
Heritage and Digital Libraries from 8.-13.11.2010; Still a bit time- but the
preparations for the program are already fully running. A keynote speaker is
enquired.
== Fundraising ==
On the 1. of March Till took the newly created position of fundraiser. With
this Wikimedia concreted the wish to more actively seek donations and care
for donors, as well as position itself as a strong fund raising organisation
in the medium term. Aim of the systematic development of the fundraising for
this year is a stronger autonomy of the autumn campaign. After
familiarisation with the donation administration, the conclusion of numerous
donor enquiries as well as introduction into the current fundraising
activities, new fundraising projects were started. As part of this the
optimisation of current funrdraising methods via inclusion of donor
communication as well as preparation for the introduction of new methods
such as the monetary fine marketing. However, the core piece is a
professional database, which is planned to replace the current data base in
the short or middle term. A catalogue of requirements, which covered
content/functioning as well as technical and security relevant aspects, was
produced. The new data base is not only planned to optimise and help with
administration of and communication with new donors, but also to provide the
most important basis for the conduction of systematic fundraising
activities. However, not only the gain of new donors, but also the increase
of commitment of current donors is a central issue. In the next few weeks it
is planned to conceptualise first ideas and execute first activities.
== Members ==
Some fortunate developments occurred here, between February and March 45 new
members were gained, but only one member quit. This means the current number
of members of Wikimedia in Germany is currently at 564 members. On the 25.
of March, in due time, we sent all members invitations to the member
conference [22]which is due to take place on the 08/09 May in Berlin; who
didn't supply an email address received the invitation via post.
Here an appeal: You would be helping us a lot with the planning if you, even
provisionally, informed us with a short mail to mv2010(a)wikimedia.de about
your attendance, because planning of this is needed: For example the number
of drinks, Tables, chairs or supplies for voting need to be considered.
== Community ==
In March we have supported the following events and workshops of community
members with journey and conference expenses: In Berlin the meeting of the
arbitral court of the German-speaking Wikipedia took place, in Cologne the
since 2006 occurring Wikipedia Workshop [23], in Kaufbeuren the meeting of
the editorial office of film and television. [24] The Chemnitzer Linuxdays,
as it is now tradition, were supported with materials; we want to especially
mention the idea of Kolossus, to use an interactive donor box: Great ideas
and thank you to the local Wikipedians, which faced the discussions and
questions of the audience! Here [25] are a few impressions of the event.
The next office report will be published on the 4th of May 2010.
Kind regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Pavel Richter
Executive Director
-------------------------------------
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Eisenacher Straße 2
10777 Berlin
Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0
www.wikimedia.de
Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen
Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
**** Unterstützen Sie Freies Wissen mit einer SMS. Senden Sie einfach WIKI
an 81190. Mit 5 Euro sichern Sie so die Verfügbarkeit und Weiterentwicklung
der Wikipedia. ****
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
Links:
[1] http://www.hbznrw.de/projekte/linked_open_data/
[2] http://opendata.ub.uni-koeln.de/
[3] http://toolserver.org/~apper/pd/person/Konrad_Adenauer
[4] http://www.wiki4enterprise.org/index.php/Hauptseite
[5] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenthal
[6] http://www.dpg-physik.de/
[7]
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Sitten,_Gebr%C3%A4uche,_Aberglauben,_Sagen_%28
Gm%C3%BCnd%29#Das_Passionsspiel
[8] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2010
[9] http://www.zanox.com/us/zanox/campus/berlin/
[10] http://www.eastern-comfort.com/
[11] http://www.anjakrieger.com/
[12] http://www.dondahlmann.de/
[13]
http://www.morgenpost.de/familie/article1280261/Generation-Copy-amp-Paste.ht
ml
[14] http://wikimedia.de/files/Taetigkeitsbericht_2009.pdf
[15] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2009/04/07/softwareprojekte-ausgeschrieben/
[16]
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Implement_full_support_fo
r_TIFF_files
[17]
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMDE_contract_offers/Evaluate_the_impact_of_us
ing_flagged_revisions
[18] http://re-publica.de/10/
[19] http://www.medientreffpunkt.de/
[20] http://www.boersenverein.de/de/portal/Buchtage_Berlin_2010/310446
[21] http://www.euromed2010.eu/
[22]
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/03/23/mitgliederversammlung-2010-informationen
-fur-vorstandskandidaten/
[23] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Workshop_K%C3%B6ln
[24]
http://de.wikipedia.or/wiki/Wikipedia:Redaktion_Film_und_Fernsehen/Redaktion
streffen
[25] http://de.wikipedia.org/wi
_______________________________________________
Chapters-reports mailing list
Chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters-reports
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
The Wikimedia Foundation has hired four new staff members to guide the new Public Policy Initiative. Annie Lin, LiAnna Davis, Sage Ross, and Amy Roth will work with public policy programs at universities across the United States to incorporate improvements to Wikipedia articles into the professors' curriculum. The Public Policy Initiative will recruit Wikipedia volunteers to work with professors and students to identify topics needing attention and give professors the tools they need to incorporate Wikipedia editing into their classrooms. This pilot project will continue through the 2010-11 academic year and is funded by a grant from the Stanton Foundation.
As the Campus Team Coordinator, Annie Lin will work closely with university professors, students, and Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors to facilitate our outreach and in-classroom training efforts. Annie has a degree in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, and brings her teaching and team development experiences to her new Public Policy Initiative role.
LiAnna Davis steps into the Communications Associate role with a background in online writing and editing, including experience in university communications and nonprofit issue advocacy. LiAnna will be the voice of the Public Policy Initiative, responsible for communication with professors and the Wikipedia community. She has an undergraduate degree in Communication Studies from the University of Puget Sound and a master's degree in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University.
As the former editor in chief of Signpost and a longstanding contributor to Wikipedia, Sage Ross joins the team as the Online Facilitator. He has been campaigning for academic experts to get more involved with Wikipedia since joining, and he has led several Wikipedia assignments for courses at Yale University. He is an avid photographer and Wikimedia Commons contributor as well. Sage is bringing his extensive knowledge of the platform and community to recruit volunteers and facilitate communication between the existing editors and stakeholders in the project. He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Oklahoma and master's degrees in History and in the History of Science and Medicine from Yale University.
As the Research Analyst, Amy Roth will take the lead role in evaluating the process and outcomes of the project, suggesting areas for improvement along the way. Amy's extensive experience in data analysis will enable her to ensure the initiative develops best practices through feedback from students, professors, and Wikipedia's volunteer community. She received her bachelor's degree in Biology and Animal Science from California Polytechnic State University and her master's in Public Policy and Administration from California State University at Sacramento.
We welcome Annie, LiAnna, Sage, and Amy to the Wikimedia Foundation and the Public Policy Initiative.
-Daniel Phelps
Human Resources
Zack Exley and Barry Newstead join the Wikimedia Foundation executive management team
San Francisco, CA June 3, 2010 -- The Wikimedia Foundation today announced two important new hires. Barry Newstead will join as Chief Global Development Officer (CGDO), and Zack Exley will join as Chief Community Officer (CCO). Both are new positions, hired to fill out Wikimedia's senior team as it prepares to launch its new strategy, which calls for growing readership and new editors, particularly in the Global South.
As CGDO, Barry Newstead will be responsible for increasing readership and supporting editor self-organization in the Global South, for overseeing communications with the general public and the media, and activities aimed at supporting and developing chapters.
Newstead joins the Foundation from The Bridgespan Group, where he spent the past year helping the Wikimedia Foundation develop its five-year strategic plan. Previously, he worked with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for eight years and in 2004 he joined the Bridgespan Group, the nonprofit consulting organization created in partnership with Bain & Company. While at BCG, Newstead worked extensively in southeast Asia, greater China, South Korea and western Europe. At Bridgespan, he led work in education innovation and social technology, which mainly consisted of working with CEOs on strategy development, organizational development and leadership issues.
Newstead was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and raised in Toronto, Canada. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario, and a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Barry has been married to P. K. Lee for 12 years.
"It is an honor to be joining the Wikimedia Foundation," offered Newstead. "The Wikimedia movement has achieved unbelievable feats to date and I am excited to work with the community to help realize Wikimedia's vision: to reach every single human being."
"I am thrilled that Barry's agreed to join us," said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "His extensive international experience and his background in organizational development will be hugely valuable as Wikimedia shifts its attention towards the Global South, and towards accelerating development of our international network of chapters."
As Chief Community Officer, Zack Exley will be responsible for developing the Wikimedia Foundation's relationships with key constituencies including readers, editors and donors.
"Zack will be a terrific addition to the Wikimedia Foundation," said Gardner. "He's spent his whole career helping people self-organize to achieve their goals, and he has a track record of helping mission-driven organizations run effective online fundraising campaigns. It's a very rare mix of skills, and I'm delighted we found him."
Exley brings to Wikimedia a wealth of experience in serving communities of online volunteers. He joins Wikimedia from the Chicago-based firm Thoughtworks where, as principal consultant, he oversaw strategy and technology projects for organizations like Obama For America, Rock the Vote, and Global Zero. Prior to that he served in senior campaign leadership roles with the UK Labor Party, John Kerry 2004, and MoveOn.org. With the Washington DC-based communications firm OMP, he has worked as a strategist and advisor helping many of the largest mission-driven organizations in the U.S. advance their fundraising and volunteer mobilization goals. He has also worked as a labor organizer and software developer.
Exley grew up in Connecticut and has also lived in Kenya, China and the United Kingdom. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts.
"Wikimedia is the most incredible thing on the Internet: hundreds of thousands of individuals working collaboratively to produce a resource on which a significant portion of humanity relies -- overseen by an emergent, organic, voluntary community and funded by readers and editors," said Exley. "It's amazing and I'm ecstatic about this opportunity to be involved."
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 374 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property worldwide (April 2010). Available in more than 270 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 15 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.
Press inquiries
Jay Walsh
WikimediaFoundation.orgblog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 609
jwalshwikimedia.org
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Hi folks,
I am really happy to announce two important new Wikimedia Foundation
hires. Zack Exley will be Wikimedia's new Chief Community Officer,
and Barry Newstead will be our Chief Global Development Officer. Both
will start just before Wikimania, and will join us in Gdansk.
There will be a press release going out tomorrow, but the news isn't
confidential: please feel free to tell whoever you like.
Zack Exley will be our new Chief Community Officer. Zack joins
Wikimedia from the Chicago-based firm Thoughtworks where he oversaw
strategy and technology projects for organizations like Obama For
America, Rock the Vote, and Global Zero.
Zack has a long history of mobilizing people and facilitating them
reaching their goals. During the nineties, he worked as a labour
organizer and software developer. In 2002, he joined MoveOn.org as
director of organizing, where he ran mobilization and fundraising
campaigns – and in the same period, helped the Howard Dean campaign
with its online fundraising. Zack left MoveOn.org to become online
communications and organizing director for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards U.S.
presidential campaign, where he ran the team that raised $125 million
online for Kerry, and also oversaw online-to-offline organizing
efforts responsible for mobilizing hundreds of thousands of field
volunteers. In 2005, he led internet strategy and online fundraising
for the UK Labour Party's 2005 election campaign, and since 2005 he
has acted as a senior strategist and advisor helping many
mission-driven organizations advance their fundraising and
mobilization goals, including the American Civil Liberties Union,
Amnesty International, the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), the International Rescue Committee and
Greenpeace USA.
Zack grew up in Connecticut and has also lived in Kenya, China and the
United Kingdom. He has an BA in Economics from the University of
Massachusetts.
As Chief Community Officer, Zack will be responsible for developing
the Wikimedia Foundation's relationships with key constituencies
including readers, editors and donors. This will include our work
aimed at recruiting new editors (including the public policy project)
and supporting community health, as well as fundraising. The people
who will report to Zack are Philippe, Cary, Frank, Rand, Rebecca and
Sara, plus their direct reports.
Zack currently lives in Kansas City: he'll be relocating to the Bay
Area in July.
Barry Newstead will be our Chief Global Development Officer. Some of
you know Barry from Buenos Aires or Berlin, where he attended
Wikimania and the chapters meeting, respectively. He comes to us from
the strategy consultancy firm The Bridgespan Group, where he has spent
the past year leading the Bridgespan team supporting Wikimedia with
its strategic planning process. For the past six years, Barry has led
Bridgespan's work in education innovation and social technology, which
mainly consisted of working with CEOs on strategy development,
organizational development and leadership issues. Prior to joining
Bridgespan, he spent eight years at The Boston Consulting Group, where
he worked with global clients in the financial services, media and
energy sectors on global strategy, organizational restructuring,
change management and post-merger integration.
Barry was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and raised in Toronto,
Canada. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Western
Ontario, and a master's degree in public policy from the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
In this new role with us, Barry will be our Chief Global Development
Officer (CGDO), the position formerly known as the Chief (Global)
Programs Officer. As CGDO, Barry will be responsible for our
activities focused specifically on increasing readership and
supporting editor self-organization in the Global South, for our
messaging to the general public and the media, and for our activities
aimed at supporting and developing chapters. The people who will
report to him are Jay and his direct report Moka, plus Kul, plus a
number of new hires dedicated to supporting new activities that have
come out of the strategic plan. You'll hear more about that in coming
months, once Barry has joined us.
We are really lucky that Barry got engaged in our work, and is willing
to now join us. His extensive background in organizational
development particularly will be useful to us, as we all collectively
further evolve our thinking about how to structure Wikimedia as an
international movement. He'll also be terrific with the global
development work due to his extensive international background. And,
his background as a consultant has trained him to be a great listener
and facilitator, which is important in our work.
I want to take a minute to offer my thanks to everyone who helped with
the process of bringing in both Zack and Barry, which has been ongoing
for many months. Dozens of people –including board members, advisory
board members, editors, friends and supporters-- helped us source
candidates for these roles. Our board members spoke at length with
the recruiting firm m|Oppenheim, gave me good feedback on potential
candidates, and helped with the interviewing. Several staff
participating in the interviewing as well, including Erik, Veronique,
Daniel, Rebecca, Rand, Sara and Jay.
And of course, a big thanks to m|Oppenheim. In recruiting for these
roles, m|Oppenheim spoke with hundreds of people over a period of
about six months, to develop a midlist of 65 candidates, of whom eight
reached a “final interview” stage. m|Oppenheim did really great work
and I'm very pleased with this outcome.
This completes the C-level hiring, with the exception of the Chief
Human Resources Officer, which we're in the middle of recruiting for.
That's is currently underway with m|Oppenheim, with support from our
friends at Omidyar Network. I expect we'll be able to announce the
new CHRO within six weeks or so.
Before closing – I wanted to talk a little about how these roles have
evolved through the hiring process. Originally, as you may remember,
we had set out to hire a Chief Program Officer and a Chief Development
Officer – however, during the hiring process, those roles morphed into
a Chief Global Development Officer and a Chief Community Officer.
It's not unusual for that kind of thing to happen: it's normal for
thinking to evolve, and it's normal for roles to be customized a
little to suit people's particular skills and experiences. But I did
want to call out one particular aspect of my thinking that might be
interesting for people here on this list.
Setting out to hire a Chief Development Officer is a “normal” thing
for a non-profit organization to do: in most non-profits, fundraising
is structured as a distinct department, separate from the rest of the
work of the organization. As we went through the hiring process
though, it became increasingly obvious to me that that conventional
structure doesn't really suit us. Most non-profits provide special
access and privileges to donors, and pay them special attention,
because they are the fuel that powers the organization. Donors are of
course our fuel too, and we're deeply grateful for their help. But
--unusually in the world of non-profits-- we have an additional group
of supporters without whom the work couldn't be done --- which is you:
the volunteers who build and maintain the projects. And our readers
are another special group, in part because we hope to persuade them to
join us as editors and donors.
Given the importance of all three groups to our work, I believe it
doesn't make sense for us to treat donors as distinct: rather, we
should invite them into our larger community, and treat them as a part
of that greater whole. This means, among other things, speaking with
donors in the same tone and style, and with the same substance and the
same type of information, as we speak with readers and editors.
During the hiring process, Zack pointed out to me that the CDO job as
then-structured didn't support that vision. He argued that by siloing
off donors into a separate department, we were making it more
difficult to achieve the level of authenticity I wanted. That was an
important observation, and I took it seriously. I believe that
restructuring the CDO job to create a department that includes all our
key relationships is an unusual thing to do, and it's arguably a bit
risky. But I think it's the right structure for us, given who we are,
and the unique nature of our work.
I'd be happy to talk further about Zack and Barry, and I'm sure they
–and other staff-- would be too. This is an important moment for
Wikimedia: please join me in welcoming them officially to our world.
Thanks,
Sue
--
Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
415 839 6885 office
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Hello all,
I'm sorry to tell you that Naoko Komura, Wikimedia's Head of User
Experience Programs, has decided to leave the Wikimedia Foundation.
Naoko has just wrapped up the Stanton Wikipedia Usability Project for
us, so this is a natural moment for her to decide to leave. The
Wikipedia Usability Project is a major accomplishment, and one Naoko
should be deeply proud of.
As many of you know, last year, the Stanton Foundation generously
funded a project to improve Wikipedia's usability and user experience.
Naoko ran that project -- building the team from scratch, initially
working from a satellite office because we had run out of space. She
instituted project management and QA processes, user experience
research as part of the development cycle, regular reports and blog
updates, and so forth: it was the first project of this scale that the
Wikimedia Foundation had ever undertaken, and it required her to
create new processes for communicating and collaborating with
Wikimedia editors, and for assessing user acceptance. Naoko worked
long days and nights, and ensured that the project was successfully
completed.
Two weeks ago, the project resulted in English Wikipedia changing its
user experience significantly for the first time in many years. We are
confident that these and further upcoming changes will make Wikipedia
easier to contribute to for its millions of users. This historic
change is the direct result of Naoko's passionate commitment to see
the project through to success, and I am grateful to her.
I'm sad to see Naoko leave, but she's assured me that she will
continue to stay involved as a volunteer. She's also open to
discussing future project opportunities, and I'll certainly take her
up on that offer.
Naoko's last day with us will be June 17. Please join me in
thanking Naoko for her many contributions to the Wikimedia
movement.
Erik
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate