[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, January 2012

Tilman Bayer tbayer at wikimedia.org
Sat Feb 11 03:48:32 UTC 2012


Hi all,

please find below the WMF report for January 2012, in plain text.

As always, the editable and formatted version is on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_January_2012

and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/

Since a few months,  we have been publishing a separate "Highlights"
summary. Please consider helping non-English-language communities to
stay updated, by providing a translation:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_January_2012

Many thanks to those who translated last month's "Highlights" into
Danish, German, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian
(Bokmål), Dutch, Polish, and Vietnamese!

While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights"  include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the upcoming Febuary issue are welcome at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights (until March 1).

Regards, Tilman

--

= Wikimedia Foundation Report, January 2012 =

<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_February_2,_2012.theora.ogv
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities
meeting covering the month of January (February 2, 2012)>

  * 1 Data and Trends
  * 2 Financials
  * 3 Highlights
      o 3.1 Foundation supports historic anti-SOPA Wikipedia blackout
      o 3.2 San Francisco Hackathon
      o 3.3 Mobile announcements: Official Android app, and Orange
        partnership for free Wikipedia access in Africa/Middle East
  * 4 Technology
      o 4.1 Events
      o 4.2 Operations
      o 4.3 Features Engineering
      o 4.4 Mobile
      o 4.5 Platform Engineering
  * 5 Research
  * 6 Community
      o 6.1 Projects
          + 6.1.1 Editor Retention
      o 6.2 Fundraising
          + 6.2.1 Fundraiser
          + 6.2.2 Major Gifts and Foundations
      o 6.3 Fellowship Program
          + 6.3.1 Program Activities
          + 6.3.2 Fellowship Projects
      o 6.4 Community relations
  * 7 Global Development
      o 7.1 Announcements
      o 7.2 Grants
          + 7.2.1 Policy Discussions
          + 7.2.2 Wikimedia Grants Approved
          + 7.2.3 Participation Grants Approved
      o 7.3 US Cultural Partnerships
      o 7.4 Research
      o 7.5 India Programs
      o 7.6 Brazil Catalyst
      o 7.7 Arabic Language Initiative
      o 7.8 Global Education Program
      o 7.9 Mobile
      o 7.10 Communications
          + 7.10.1 Major news
      o 7.11 Press releases
      o 7.12 Blog posts
      o 7.13 Wikipedia Signpost
      o 7.14 Media contact
  * 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 December:

    457 million (-3.7% compared with November; +15.6% compared with the
    previous year)
    (comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will
    release January data later in February)

Page requests for January:

    18.0 billion (+10.4% compared with December; 16.4% compared with the
    previous year)
    (Server log data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile
    access)

Active Registered Editors for December 2011 (>= 5 edits/month):

    83,293 (+0.1% compared with November / +1.6% compared with the
    previous year)

(Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects except for Wikimedia
Commons) Report Card for December 2011:
http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/RC_2011_12_detailed.html

    The report card is currently undergoing a redesign as a more
    fully-featured dashboard (integrating various statistical data and
    trends about WMF projects).


== Financials ==

(Financial information is only available for December 2011 at the time
of this report.)

All financial information presented is for the period of July 1, 2011 -
December 31, 2011

Revenue: $25.6 million

Expenses:

  * Technology Group: $4,801,082
  * Community/Fundraiser Group: $2,501,444
  * Global Development Group: $2,154,912
  * Governance Group: $464,533
  * Finance/Legal/HR/Admin Group: $2,916,686

Total Expenses: $12,838,657

Total surplus/(loss): $12,784,247

Revenue was ahead of plan due to grants of $2.8 million and additional
donations ahead of plan of $2 million.

Expenses for the month is $2.9MM vs plan of $2.6MM, approximately 11%
higher than plan. Year-to-date is $12.8MM vs plan of $14.2MM,
approximately 10% lower than plan.

Underspending YTD is due to timing of capital expenditures ($989K -
budget was spread evenly over 12 months), internet hosting ($64K),
volunteer development ($142K), travel and conference expenses ($233K),
personnel expenses ($584K), recruiting expenses ($124K), and IT desk
equipment ($77K) offset by higher awards and grants ($261K) budget was
spread evenly over 12 months), legal and accounting fees ($81K),
professional services ($293K), and bank fees ($248K).

Cash of $30.6 million, which is thirteen months of cash reserves at
current spending levels and fourteen months of cash per the annual plan.


== Highlights ==

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_SOPA_War_Room_Meeting_1-17-2012-1-9.jpg
WMF staff preparing for the anti-SOPA blackout>

=== Foundation supports historic anti-SOPA Wikipedia blackout ===

On January 18, the community of the English Wikipedia made history
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/20/the-message-from-the-wikipedia-blackout-please-leave-the-internet-alone/>
with its decision
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-sopa-blackout-january-18/>
to black out its entire project for 24 hours in protest of two proposed
US laws — SOPA and PIPA — that would have seriously damaged the free and
open Internet, including Wikipedia. The communities of over 30 other
Wikimedia projects supported the protest
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Actions_by_other_communities>.
Many Foundation staff assisted in the effort, handling the technical
side of the blackout as requested by the community, providing code and
design, facilitating discussions, contributing legal analysis and
handling an unprecedented amount of press coverage.

During the blackout, more than eight million US-based readers used the
CongressLookup tool to find their political representatives. A blog post
by Sue Gardner received more than 13,000 comments, with the overwhelming
majority supporting the blackout. Google News listed over 11,000 media
stories about the Wikipedia blackout and the other Internet protests of
January 18, and #wikipediablackout was tweeted almost 1 million times.
Support for both SOPA and PIPA has since dwindled. Observers expect that
they will not become law in their proposed form.


=== San Francisco Hackathon ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Hackathon_2012-1-16.jpg
Participants at the San Francisco Hackathon>

The first San Francisco Hackathon was attended by 92 participants, many
of them complete newcomers. They attended training sessions about
Wikimedia technology, followed by team work on demo projects which were
then presented in a showcase session and judged by a jury. The first
prize went to "SMSpedia", which allows the user to text a page title to
a phone number, who is then called back by the service and can listen to
the Wikipedia entry read aloud.


=== Mobile announcements: Official Android app, and Orange partnership
      for free Wikipedia access in Africa/Middle East ===

In the first partnership of its kind, mobile operator Orange and the
Wikimedia Foundation will provide more than 70 million Orange customers
from 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East (AMEA) with mobile
access to Wikipedia
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/24/free-mobile-for-wikipedia-starts-with-orange/>
— without incurring data usage charges. Also in January, the official
Wikipedia Android app was announced
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/26/announcing-the-official-wikipedia-android-app/>.
It was installed more than half a million times within the first two weeks.


== Technology ==

A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for January 2012
can be found at:

    https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/January
Department Highlights

Major news in January include:

  * Tech support for the black-out protesting SOPA & PIPA
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-sopa-blackout-january-18/>;
  * The release of the official Wikipedia Android app
    <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/26/announcing-the-official-wikipedia-android-app/>;
  * A new beta cluster
    <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/28/beta-cluster-test-software-before-deployment/>
    for Wikimedians to test upcoming software before it's deployed to
    production.


=== Events ===

  * *English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout
    <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout>*
— The engineering team
    supported this online protest by developing and deploying the
    blackout code and design, including the CongressLookup extension for
    helping people find and contact their representative. The Operations
    team disabled editing during the 24 hour time period, and helped
    keep other systems up and running, including the temporarily
    overloaded Wikimedia blog.

  * *San Francisco hackathon
    <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/January_2012_San_Francisco_Hackathon>* —
    More than 90 participants learned and hacked during this
    outreach-focused developers week-end. The teams of participants
    demonstrated more than a dozen projects.

  * *October 2011 Coding Challenge
    <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/October_2011_Coding_Challenge>* — The
    winners of the coding challenge
    <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/30/october-2011-coding-challenge-winners/>
    were announced. They include an Android app
    <https://market.android.com/details?id=nl.michiel1972.main> for
    uploading to Wikimedia Commons, a user script
    <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Schnark/mostEdited> for surfacing
    pages with a lot of recent editing activity, and a user script
    <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Phiarc/October2011/> for displaying
    relevant images in an article as a lightbox slideshow.


=== Operations ===

  * *Data Centers* — Work continued on building up the EQIAD datacenter
    in Virginia. We added new servers and upgraded the database servers
    with a new chained replication topology and a heartbeat-based
    replication monitoring. We have also successfully tested the new
    thumbnail system and the text squid implementation, that we'll start
    rolling out fully in February. At the same time, we have retired 40
    old servers from our Tampa datacenter, which will be available for
    donation soon.

  * *Wikimedia Labs* — To keep up with project growth, we doubled the
    filesystem storage available and allowed Labs to grow by up to
    another 30 instances. A number of projects were added or moved to
    Labs, including incubator, ganglia, deployment-prep,
    globaleducation, a number of mobile projects, and a bunch more. A
    number of projects were also created, implemented, and demoed using
    Labs during the San Francisco hackathon.


=== Features Engineering ===

  * *Visual editor* — Plans for the second phase of the editor project
    were formulated. The team investigated a possible use of
    contenteditable to help with input methods and text selections on
    mobile devices. The parser was also extended with the ability to
    fetch and expand templates in a parallel and asynchronous fashion.
    The parser now supports most parts of the English Wikipedia Main Page.

  * *Article feedback* — The next round of Article Feedback Tool v5
    features was developed, including a new feedback page. The teal
    continued to collect valuable data from the community about the
    usefulness of comments coming in from each of the three forms
    launched in December. A survey to get comments from readers about
    the effectiveness and attractiveness of each design was also
    launched. The target date for the full feedback page is Feb. 15 for
    pre-deployment testing on en-labs, then full deployment on Feb. 22.

  * *Feedback Dashboard* — We implemented a leaderboard of recent top
    responders on the feedback dashboard. New editor feedback is now
    added to a dedicated log. When feedback is marked as helpful, that
    fact is displayed on the feedback dashboard itself. Other than a few
    other smaller changes, we're now moving the project into maintenance
    mode to focus on article creation workflow
    <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_creation_workflow> and New Page
    Triage <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Page_Triage>.


=== Mobile ===

  * *Android Wikipedia App* — The Mobile team released the first version
    of the Wikipedia Android application
    <https://market.android.com/details?id=org.wikipedia> into the
    Android Market. In just over three weeks, we've had over 900,000
    downloads, became the #1 search result for "Wikipedia", became the
    #1 trending app, and received a consistent 4/5 stars in the Android
    Market. We released two minor updates to fix bugs, and are
    processing user feedback to guide our next version.

  * *FeaturedFeeds* — We deployed the first version of FeaturedFeeds
    <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/26/featuredfeeds-brings-syndication-feeds-of-featured-wikimedia-content/>
    to production. Wikimedia communities can now make use of these RSS
    feeds to better surface their content to other applications.


=== Platform Engineering ===

  * *MediaWiki 1.19* — A new Beta cluster, replicating the production
    environment, was set up to allow Wikimedians to test upcoming
    software (including MediaWiki 1.19) on Wikimedia Labs before
    deployment. A preliminary schedule was drafted, according to which
    deployment of MediaWiki 1.19 will start on February 13th and
    complete on March 1st.

  * *Volunteer coordination and outreach* — In preparation for the San
    Francisco hackathon, the team prepared training materials and
    documentation on gadgets and the MediaWiki API. Nine developers got
    commit access in January, among which seven volunteers.

  * *Wikimedia blog maintenance* — The new WMBlog plugin (which brings
    functionality specific to the Wikimedia blog independently of the
    theme) was deployed in January, as well as tweaks to the theme. Due
    to the SOPA/PIPA blackout-related traffic, the Operations team moved
    the blog to a newer, more powerful server and added caching layers
    (Varnish & Memcached).


== Research ==

  * Daniel Mietchen lead the drafting and submission of a response
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Committee/Areas_of_interest/Open-access_policy/Request_for_Information_on_Public_Access_to_Peer-Reviewed_Scholarly_Publications_Resulting_From_Federally_Funded_Research>
    to the White House RFI on Public Access to Scholarly Publications.
  * The open data consultation
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGNBSGFUcTdJLUxLcGpoWUNoQXM0SGc6MQ>
    we launched in December closed with 100 responses. The results will
    be published this month.
  * Several Research Committee and community members worked on the
    English Wikipedia article for the Research Works Act
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Works_Act>, a proposed bill that
    would undermine open access mandates for publicly funded research in
    the US. The bill would affect our research policy as it would make
    it hard for RCom to enforce any OA and open data requirements for
    research collaborations. The article made it to DYK on January 15, 2012.
  * Dario Taraborelli gave a podcast interview
    <http://futurejournalismproject.org/post/16028914688/wikimedia-data-and-peer-production-with-dario-taraborell>
    with Michael Cervieri for the Future Journalism Project, discussing
    what Wikipedia can do to support data journalism.
  * Dario Taraborelli co-hosted with APS cognitive psychology professor
    Greta Munger a session on Scientists and Wikipedia
    <http://scienceonline2012.sched.org/event/db96864b9ce76d4792a7f0f21f7611aa>
    at Science Online 2012 <http://scienceonline2012.com/> in Raleigh,
    NC (slides
    <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venues_for_expert_participation_in_Wikipedia.pdf>).
  * We set up a Wikimedia group <http://thedatahub.org/group/wikimedia>
    on the /DataHub/, an open data repository powered by CKAN
    <http://ckan.net>. The repository is for testing purposes but all
    data deposited will be preserved and migrated once we've finalized
    the configuration of the repository.
  * Mayo Fuster Morell circulated a call for papers
    <http://www.onlinecreation.info/?p=474> calling for contributions on
    "Academic research into Wikipedia: Beyond English Wikipedia and
    towards comparative perspectives". The submission deadline is March
    1, 2012.
  * Tilman Bayer led the publication of the first 2012 issue
    <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2012-01-30> of the
    Wikimedia Research Newsletter.


== Community ==

Department Highlights

  * Lots of clean up/ wrap up work from the fundraiser; Lots of planning
    work already done for the 2012 fundraiser
  * 23 fellowship project proposals and suggestions received for the
    Fellowship program.
  * Community & reader relations team supported SOPA work and
    fundraising and funds dissemination discussion.
  * Wrapping up template testing pilot project, beginning analysis of
    results


=== Projects ===


==== Editor Retention ====

  * Other than new community requests to test on the Wikimedia Incubator
    and Commons, the majority of template A/B tests have been wrapped
    up. Ryan Faulkner, formerly part of the fundraising team, has joined
    our group as the Community Research Analyst to further understand
    template testing results, and the group is now publishing test
    results on Meta as they come in.[1]
  * The Community Dept. is hosting the first 2012 meet-up of California
    Wikipedians at the Foundation offices on Saturday, Feb 4 —
    coinciding with the Board of Trustees meeting. [2]
  * We are planning a series of meet-ups with Brazilian editors in early
    March to better understand their community and its dynamics, and
    give those authors a place to voice issues that the Foundation may
    be able to assist with. [3]
  * Collecting resumes and scheduling preliminary screenings of
    candidates for the 2012 Community Summer Analysts, whose work will
    focus on providing working data and actionable recommendations for
    community change programs. [4]
  * Wrapping up a proof-of-concept analytic project with Odiago, who has
    provided some insight into authorship questions with big data
    analysis of our diff data.

1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testing

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/San_Francisco_17

3.
https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Convenings/Portuguese_Wikipedia

4.
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Summer_Community_Analytics


=== Fundraising ===

==== Fundraiser ====

  * Gathered all fundraising staff and contractors in San Francisco for
    the 2011 Fundraiser Retrospective. We recapped accomplishments, and
    identified pain points and successes in communications and process
    so that the next fundraiser can be run more smoothly with a leaner team.
  * Began writing the 2011 Fundraiser Report which will be publicly
    posted in 2012.
  * Held a planning session for the 2012 Fundraiser. Over two days, the
    team set priorities for this year and focused on mapping out a
    division of responsibility, communication and tracking processes,
    ways to improve localization, testing, donor experience, and
    analytics systems.
  * In conjunction with the Brazilian author meet-ups, we are planning
    focus groups and storyteller interviews in both Brazil and Argentina.
  * Created a testing calendar to plan out regional tests throughout the
    year. These tests will focus on the localization of our forms and
    appeals in different countries.
  * Started our global research on currencies, payment methods and
    personal information fields to integrate to the regional tests.
  * Began researching new payment methods requested by Wikipedia users
    during the 2011 fundraiser.


==== Major Gifts and Foundations ====

  * Received a 3-year grant from the Teterev Foundation
  * Completed a new grant proposal for our mobile work


=== Fellowship Program ===

==== Program Activities ====

  * Fellowship recruiting continues - the community generated 23
    fellowship project ideas [1] in January and applications have been
    submitted by candidates from 18 countries. The deadline to apply for
    this round of fellowships has been extended until February 15th, and
    review of existing applications is underway.

==== Fellowship Projects ====

  * The fundraising translation project report is complete,[2] and Jon
    Harald Søby hosted a brown bag presentation at WMF to discuss
    lessons learned. A survey of the fundraiser translators is also in
    progress, with nearly 300 responses so far. Feedback will be
    incorporated into future fundraisers as well as an upcoming project
    to improve the meta translation request process, which is in the
    planning stages.
  * The Teahouse project has recruited 23 Wikipedians to serve as
    Teahouse hosts - they'll be inviting new editors to the space,
    answering questions, and facilitating discussions during the
    pilot.[3] Design of the space is in progress.

1.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships/Process#Open_project_ideas

2.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Translation/Project_Report

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Hosts


=== Community relations ===

  * Supported the Fundraising/Funds Dissemination discussions on meta [1].
  * Actively supported SOPA, and all the madness that came with it (see
    also general "Highlights" section. More SOPA pictures:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Victorgrigas#SOPA )
  * Developed job descriptions for new hires (new "Maggies") from around
    the world to support our global capacity.

1.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_and_Funds_Dissemination/Recommendations


== Global Development ==

Department highlights

  * Communications supports WMF's blackout on 18 January (see also
    general "Highlights" section)
  * Mobile: Partnership with Orange was announced on 24 January to
    supply free access to Wikipedia to more than 70 million customers
    across 20 countries in the middle east and Africa.
  * Arabic-speaking Initaitive: Arabic-speaking Wikipedians met in
    Tunisia this month beginning a regional outreach effort to create
    new connections in the Arabic Wikimedia community..
  * India program: Six outreach workshops in January in partnership with
    the community as part of an effort to increase outreach and improve
    conversion to editing
  * Education Program: Published program plan for Cairo pilot and new
    standards for participation in the global education program are put
    in place
  * The Global Development team midyear report is now available:
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Development_Midyear_report_2011-12


=== Announcements ===

  * Wikimania Scholarships are open! *Encourage your networks to apply!*
    https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships


=== Grants ===

==== Policy Discussions ====

  * Ongoing discussion of proposed procedure and criteria for
    unrestricted operating grants based on annual plans
    <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Annual/Draft>.
  * Ongoing discussion of Grant Advisory Committee's membership terms,
    appointment procedures, and form of review
    <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Grant_Advisory_Committee>.

==== Wikimedia Grants Approved ====

  * Grants:WM_PH/Open_Web_Day
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Open_Web_Day>
  * Additional $1000 for scholarships for
    Grants:WM_RS/Open_Wiki_GLAM_of_Serbia#Scholarship
    <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Open_Wiki_GLAM_of_Serbia#Scholarship>
  * Grants:WM_CL/Start-up
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CL/Start-up>

==== Participation Grants Approved ====

  * Grants:Jonas_Xavier/Campus_Party_2012
    <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Jonas_Xavier/Campus_Party_2012>

	
=== US Cultural Partnerships ====

  * US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator begins work
  * Preparation has continued for the Wikipedia session and table at the
    *American Association of Museums conference
    <http://www.aam-us.org/am12/>* in April. The Wikipedia session will
    now also be part of the exclusive online conference as well.
  * *GLAMcamp DC <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAMcamp_DC>*, which
will take place in early
    February, is in its final stages of preparation. This has included
    establishing a proposed framework for GLAM:US collaboration, which
    will be presented at GLAMcamp and finalized as a goal of the event
    alongside other documentation and tool development.
  * Initial coordination talks have begun with Europeana and others who
    will be collaborating on GLAM tools over the coming year.
  * There has been ongoing follow-up on leads and expressions of
    interest from GLAM institutions, as well as consolidation of
    interested parties and contacts into a single, master list. This
    streamlining of information will continue at GLAMcamp DC.
  * In February, the US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator will be
    publishing a number of GLAM-related blog posts for various
    organizations , including the Center for the Future of Museums
    <http://www.futureofmuseums.org/>, the Open Knowledge Foundation
    <http://okfn.org/>, and the New Media Consortium <http://www.nmc.org/>.


=== Research ===

  * Kicked off work on the outreach tool. Further details can be found
    at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Outreach_evaluation
    (early-stage UI mockups will be added soon)
  * Read more about the mobile readers survey analysis here:
    http://prezi.com/foyok1qpfxqa/wikipedia-mobile-readers-survey-2011/
  * Successfully completed the second editor survey, data cleaning to
    start soon.
    <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMFMobilePageviewsApril2011ToNovember2011.png
    Mobile page views across the last few months>
  * Completed work on getting a more reliable estimate of mobile page
    views. Work to get reliable estimates of mobile page views by
    geography is continuing.
  * Continued blogging about the readers survey:
    http://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/readers-survey/
  * Find the wiki version of the India-Brazil user experience research
    here:
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Mobile_User_Research
  * Read about India Education Program quantitative analysis here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Analysis/Quantitative_Analysis


=== India Programs ===

  * We concluded an exercise on distilling learnings from all Indic
    communities and started the process of seeding ideas with
    communities. All ideas are centred around community building (and
    not content creation or improvement), the rationale being that
    content will follow community.
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages
      o Ideas have been customised by the community and are a
        combination of what individual volunteers or volunteer groups
        can do indepedently as well as potentail pilots that the India
        Program team can build and run collaboratively with local
        communities.
      o There appears to be interesting progress in at least 6
        languages : Hindi, Odia, Assamese, Kannada, Tamil & Malayalam.
  * The India team is supporting outreach by sharing best practises as
    well as making a central repository of outreach material. In
    addition, the team is personally taking part in out outreach
    sessions to provide additional momentum to existing community
    efforts. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs
  * The team is analyzing the findings of the study and quantitative
    analysis of the India Education Program and listening to additional
    feedback from the community.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Analysis/Independent_Report_from_Tory_Read
    ,
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Analysis/Quantitative_Analysis
  * We are finalizing a contract for Communications consultancy, which
    closes the loop on the India consultancy team.


=== Brazil Catalyst ===

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiSampa11_-_4.jpg
"Wikisampa 11" meetup in São Paulo>

  * We have been working hand and hand with the community to hire the
    Brazil National Program Director. The recruiting process has been
    innovative in that we have engaged with an unprecedented level of
    community involvement.
    http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/11/brazil-recruiting-and-partnership-with-the-community-moves-forward/

     1. We posted the role in November, and in parallel with an
        executive search firm which was screening applicants, we asked
        the Brazilian community to nominate two community members to
        participate in the interviews with us. They selected two great
        folks - Everton and Castelo - to interview 10 finalists on a
        panel with Barry in Sao Paulo.
     2. The next phase for the top 4 finalists was a unique assignment
        to be done on the br.wikimedia.org wiki: /engage the Brazilian
        community and your fellow candidates on the wiki to address the
        question of how to grow the PT:WP community/? The assignment
        went well and was a great learning experience for the candidates
        and for us.
     3. Following the assignment skype and interviews with Jessie, we
        brought in a top candidate to SF at the end of the month and are
        in the final stages of of the process.
  * We are also starting a small *Brazil Education Pilot*
    (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_Brazil_programs/Education_program)
    in March 2012. We are targeting about 5 professors (one of whom -
    Juliana - pioneered this program in Brazil in 2011). Contractor
    Everton Zanella Alvarenga is leading this effort from Sao Paulo.


=== Arabic Language Initiative ===

  * Visited Tunisia as part of our outreach regional program, more
    details are found here: [1]
    <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/01/wikimedia-in-tunisia/>
  * Updated and localized some of our bookshelf material. (Printing is
    currently in process.)
  * Preparing for upcoming events in Egypt and Jordan
  * Helped develop the Cairo education pilot - see Global Education
    Program section


=== Global Education Program ===

  * Frank Schulenburg published the program plan for the Cairo pilot to
    start in spring 2012. The document outlines the core design elements
    as well as the success criteria and the questions the pilot project
    is supposed to answer:
    https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Pilot_program_plan
  * Frank Schulenburg and Annie Lin documented the measures put in place
    based on the learnings from the pilot project in Pune, India. (More
    than 10 different actions have been taken in order to immediately
    apply the learning points to the Cairo pilot. Among others, these
    include a longer preparation phase, a heavy involvement of the local
    community of Wikipedians, a strict limit on the number of
    participating students, and mandatory professor orientations. More
    differences on
    https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Comparing_the_Pune_and_the_Cairo_Pilot_%E2%80%93_what_we_are_doing_differently
    )
  * Professors joining the Wikipedia Education Program in the spring
    2012 term are finding a new set of participation requirements in
    place, designed to ensure that all participating professors and
    students receive adequate support on Wikipedia.
      o These new participation requirements are largely based on the
        feedback given by members of the English Wikipedia community.
      o The requirements set standards for the maximum number of
        students per Wikipedia Ambassador and the number of Wikipedians
        involved in the program, and they require instructors to go
        through a faculty orientation.
      o Currently, the requirements affect the programs in the U.S., in
        Canada, and in Egypt during spring 2012, although individual
        programs may enact stricter requirements as well (for example,
        the Cairo Pilot will have an even smaller ambassador to student
        ratio).
      o So far, community reactions to these new requirements have been
        very positive. More information:
        https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Participation_Requirements

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cairo_faculty_workshop6.jpg
Faculty workshop for the Cairo pilot (more photos on Wikimedia Commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_Education_Program_%E2%80%93_Cairo_Pilot>)>

  * Volunteers from the Arabic Wikipedia - supported by Education team
    members Frank Schulenburg, Annie Lin and Georgetown University
    professor Rochelle Davis - kicked off the Cairo pilot with workshops
    for faculty members and Campus Ambassadors. These workshops were
    almost 100% in Arabic.
  * In late January, seven community members of the Arabic Wikipedia
    completed an Online Ambassador orientation organized by other
    Arabic-speaking Wikipedians and supported by Annie Lin.
  * LiAnna Davis worked with Leigh Thelmadatter, who is an English as a
    foreign language teacher in central Mexico, to document her
    learnings with advanced English students who edited Wikipedia as
    part of their class. Read more:
    https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/27/wikipedia-as-a-foreign-culture/
  * Rod Dunican published three online training modules for instructors
    who are planning to participate in the Wikipedia Education Program:
      o (1) Global Education Program Overview:
        https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Professor_Orientation/Module_One
      o (2) About Wikipedia:
        https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Professor_Orientation/Module_Two
      o (3) Syllabus and Assignment Design:
        https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Professor_Orientation/Module_Three


=== Mobile ===

  * We announced a partnership with Orange on January 24 — free
    Wikipedia access (i.e. no mobile data fees) for 70+ million
    customers across 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa
    https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/24/free-mobile-for-wikipedia-starts-with-orange/

      o The announcement of the partnership got a lot of positive press
        attention: 50+ articles including Mashable, GigaOM, Wired UK,
        and Guardian
      o There is much work ahead to implement these partnerships from a
        technical and marketing standpoint: helping define how the
        service is marketed by operators and how we measure it.
  * "Selling in" free Wikipedia continues to be the main objective, and
    we plan to announce another big partner — and new countries — in
    Feburary.
  * Project planning on further USSD/SMS testing in Africa with the
    Praekelt Foundation began.


=== Communications ===

The Wikipedia blackout is January 2012's standout story, possibly the
story of the year for WMF and Wikipedia, and maybe the most important
story in our history. The days before and after January 18, 2012 were
almost exclusively focussed on supporting WMF's work around the
community mandate to bring about a blackout, including consulting on
messaging, design, implementation, community outreach and media
relations. January also saw the cap-off of our most successful
fundraising campaign ever, and saw the introduction of Matthew Roth to
the Communications team as Manager, Global Communications.


==== Major news ====

<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:History_Wikipedia_English_SOPA_2012_Blackout2.jpg
The English Wikipedia as seen by readers during the blackout>

Wikipedia blackout (January 18)

Undoubtedly one of the biggest stories in the US and the world in
January 2012 was the Internet protests on January 18, which largely
centered around the Wikipedia community decision to blackout English
Wikipedia internationally for one day. Aside from publishing three
separate press releases leading up to and after the blackout, the
Communications team worked closely with Jimmy Wales on both advance
press interviews and a deluge of interview requests the week of January 16.

In total, WMF responded to over *260 separate media inquiries* from
around the world. News.google.com reports over *11,000 media stories* on
the topic of our blackout and the Internet protests, many of which
focussed primarily on Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales had over a dozen television
appearances, effectively positioning the blackout story as the leading
story around the world on January 18. Major newswire stories were
syndicated interntaionally and in dozens of languages.

*Social media* activity around the blackout was extraordinary. Users
followed the CongressLookup system and tweeted their Representatives to
urge action around SOPA/PIPA. #WikipediaBlackout and #SOPA were trending
topics for the day. #wikipediablackout was tweeted almost 1 million
times, and SOPA was mentioned 2.3 million times.

Media interest continued well after the week of January 16 and
Communications continues to support inquiries. We're also working on a
series of feature stories about the blackout in major magazines and
placed OpEd stories in either the NY Times or Washington Post.

Wikimedia's global network of chapters also fielded dozens of requests
in their own regions and languages, further augmenting the world-wide
footprint of the blackout. Media coverage was largely positive and
supportive of the efforts of Wikipedia's community. The bill supporters
have since withdrawn both SOPA and PIPA, shelving them indefinitely,
based largely on a historic level of constituent reaction and
Congressional contact in the US.

Meta-wiki consolidation of the major coverage:

    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout/Media

(and great quotes about the blackout)

    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout/Quotes

Social media stats:

    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SOPA_social_media

Wikipedia Signpost:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-01-23/In_the_news
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-01-23/News_and_notes

Orange/WMF partnership for free Wikipedia mobile (January 24)

WMF returned to one of its early business partners in January,
announcing a major partnership to make Wikipedia available at no charge
to mobile subscribers in dozens of their territories throughout Africa
and the Middle East. This was the first major partnership announced
regarding WMF's efforts to dramatically increase access to Wikipedia
through mobile channels around the world. Coverage was largely positive
and supportive of the effort.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/24/orange-wikipedia-mobile-devices-free
    http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2012/01/orange-to-provide-free-access-to-mobile-wikipedia/
    http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/01/how-will-free-wikipedia-access.php


==== Press releases ====

Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation partner to offer Wikipedia in Africa
and the Middle East at no extra cost, 24 January 2012

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Orange_and_WMF_partner_on_Wikipedia_mobile

Statement from the Wikimedia Foundation regarding developments in
Washington on SOPA and PIPA, 20 January 2012

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Statement_on_Jan_20_events_in_Washington

Wikipedia blackout affirms overwhelming support for free and open
Internet, 18 January 2012

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_blackout_supports_free_and_open_internet

English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA, 16
January 2012

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_dark

Wikimedia Foundation Rings In New Year With Record-breaking Fundraiser,
2 January 2012

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Foundation_Rings_In_New_Year_With_Record-breaking_Fundraiser


==== Blog posts ====

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/


==== Wikipedia Signpost ====

  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01-02
  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01-09
  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01-16
  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01-23
  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-01-30


==== Media contact ====

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#January_2012


== Human Resources ==

=== Staff Changes ===

New Hires

  * Fabrice Florin, Product Manager – New Editor Engagement (VP of
    Engineering & Prod Development)
  * Joady Lohr, Director of Human Resources (Human Resources)
  * Christopher McMahon, Quality Assurance Lead Engineer (Engineering)
  * Gayle Karen Young, Chief Talent and Culture Officer (Human Resources)

New Other Roles Filled/Conversion

  * Subhashish Panigrahi, Consultant Community & Program Support (India)
  * Jon Robson, Contractor Software Developer-Mobile (Engineering)
  * Matthew Roth, Global Communications Manager (Global Development)

New Contractors

  * Christian Aistleitner
  * Andreas Engels
  * Andrew Otto
  * Lori Phillips
  * Sarah Stierch

Contract Extended

  * Pavel Andreev
  * Jeroen de Dauw
  * Erek Dyskant
  * Roan Kattouw
  * Niklas Laxstrom
  * Yusuke Matsubara
  * Diederik Van Liere
  * Susan Walling

Departed

  * Neil Kandalgoankar
  * Cyn Skyberg

Contract Ended

  * Farhan Chaudhary
  * Aislinn Dewey
  * Tracey Fleming
  * Stacey Merrick
  * Heather O'Malley
  * Neel Punatar

New Postings

  * Senior Software Engineer Frontend
  * Operations Engineer (Labs)

RFP

  * Recruiting Engineer
  * Mobile QA


=== Statistics ===

Total Employee Count

    Actual: 95
    January Plan: 110, January Filled: 7, January Attrition: 2
    YTD Filled: 29, YTD Attrition: 10

Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 22


=== Department Updates ===

Joady Lohr has joined us as the new Director of Human Resources. Joady
handles aspects of human resources as related to compensation, benefits,
policies, etc. and is already an indispensible part of our team. She
comes to us with years of experience at IDEO and Business for Social
Responsibility (BSR), both of which speak to her experiences working in
HR with global organizations.

In recruiting, we are iterating changes to http://jobs.wikimedia.org ,
and hosting a focus group with community members to ensure that the page
communicates that we welcome community members applying for roles with
the Foundation. Feedback on the page is welcome. We are also rolling out
Jobvite as our recruitment and applicant tracking software to streamline
our recruiting process.

We have also begun redesigning some of our internal processes, such as
onboarding and hiring, including a revision of our hiring contracts and
agreements with heavy and wonderful support from Legal.

Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or
http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork


== Finance and Administration ===

Chip Deubner joined our Office IT team and Nathan D’Annibale joined our
accounting team.

We are continuing our search for a Head of Office Administration and
will begin interviews next week.

Work was completed on an update to conference room R 33 to improve its
usability for the Tech team. Our thanks to Leslie for facilitating this
project.


== Legal ==

  * New proposed terms of use have been sent to the Board for review and
    potential approval.
    https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Terms_of_use#The_terms_of_use_are_now_before_the_WMF_Board_of_Trustees_for_consideration

  * Like the rest of the WMF office and community, Legal provided strong
    support to the SOPA/PIPA blackout strategy, including advising the
    community on the SOPA Initiative page, helping coordinate
    cross-functional issues, and reviewing various legal issues
    associated with the blackout. We are now engaged in post-blackout
    strategy with other departments. Our present thinking is to leverage
    the positive response following the blackout to support messages
    that explain and advocate the open and free knowledge movement as it
    applies to Wikimedia values.

  * White paper on ACTA ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/ACTA )
    and OPEN ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/OPEN_Act )

  * Filed challenge against German Loriot injunction, which we will post
    shortly.
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Loriot_Signature_Background#Conclusion

  * Reviewing present privacy policy for possible revision and review
    with community.

  * Strong support of global development: India and Brazil.

  * Strong daily contract, trademark, community, governance,
    international, and content-defense support.

  * Stats
      o # contracts signed - 10
      o # trademark requests - 11
          + approved - 4
          + denied - 2
          + approval not needed - 1
          + pending - 4


== Visitors and Guests ==

 1. Daniel Long (Community member)
 2. Wendy Hanamura, Cassie Gruenstein, Merin Mathew, Taylor Hadfield,
    Andrea Jones, Lili Polastri (Link TV)
 3. Philip Neustrom (LocalWiki)
 4. Julian Nachtigal (pariSoma)
 5. Victor Lobo and two colleagues (ADP)
 6. 30 Harvard/Stanford students for cross dept talk
 7. Steve Devetter (KPMG)
 8. Daniel Kinzler (Wikimedia Germany)
 9. MetaMarkets CEO Mike Driscoll and team, for a brown bag presentation
    on analytics
10. Product Design Guild (hosted meet-up)
11. Derk-Jan Hartman
12. Various visiting engineering contractors

-- 
Tilman Bayer
Movement Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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