[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, May 2012
Tilman Bayer
tbayer at wikimedia.org
Fri Jun 15 23:56:42 UTC 2012
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for May 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version is on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_May_2012
and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary.
Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay
updated, by providing a translation:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_May_2012
Many thanks to those who translated last month's "Highlights" into
Arabic, Danish, Japanese, Macedonian, Russian, Swahili, Tamil,
Turkish and (partially) Italian and Dutch.
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 June issue are welcome at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_items_for_June_2012
(until July
5). Many thanks to those who suggested items for the May issue.
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, May 2012
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_June_7,_2012.ogv
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of May (June 7, 2012)>
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 New Wikimedia fellows working on dispute resolution and
small language wikis
o 3.2 1 million media files uploaded using Upload Wizard
o 3.3 Wikipedia Zero launches in Asia
* 4 Technology
o 4.1 Operations
o 4.2 Features Engineering
o 4.3 Internationalization and Editor Engagement Experiments
o 4.4 Mobile Engineering
o 4.5 Platform Engineering
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Fundraiser
* 6 Global Development
o 6.1 Global Development Highlights
o 6.2 Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) design
o 6.3 Grants Program Updates
+ 6.3.1 Grants Awarded and Executed
o 6.4 Global South Relationships
o 6.5 Fellowships
o 6.6 Editor Growth and Contribution Program
o 6.7 Brazil Catalyst
+ 6.7.1 Brazil Media coverage
o 6.8 Arabic Language Initiative
o 6.9 US Cultural Partnerships
o 6.10 Mobile and Business Development
o 6.11 Wikipedia Education Program
+ 6.11.1 India
+ 6.11.2 Brazil
o 6.12 India Programs
+ 6.12.1 Indic Languages
+ 6.12.2 India Outreach
+ 6.12.3 India Communications
+ 6.12.4 India Community Support
o 6.13 Communications
+ 6.13.1 Major announcements
+ 6.13.2 Major Storylines through March
+ 6.13.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 6.13.4 Wikipedia Signpost
+ 6.13.5 WMF Blog posts
+ 6.13.6 Media Contact
* 7 Human Resources
o 7.1 Staff Changes
o 7.2 Statistics
o 7.3 Department Updates
* 8 Finance and Administration
* 9 Legal and Community Advocacy
* 10 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for April:
*473.38 million* (-3.27% compared with March; +24.34% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will
release May data later in June)
Page requests for May:
*18.0 billion* (3.9% compared with April; 19.0% compared with the
previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access)
Active Registered Editors for April 2012 (>= 5 edits/month):
*78,519* (-1.71% compared with March / -1.60% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects except for Wikimedia Commons)
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects) for April 2012:
http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/
== Financials ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Financial_Revenue_Metrics_Apr_2012.png
Wikimedia Foundation YTD revenue as of April 30, 2012>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Financial_Metrics_Expenses_Apr_2012.png
Wikimedia Foundation YTD expenses by department as of April 30, 2012>
(Financial information is only available for April 2012 at the time of
this report.)
All financial information presented is for the period of July 1, 2011 -
April 30, 2012.
Revenue $34,904,252
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $9,295,397
Community/Fundraiser Group $3,429,034
Global Development Group $3,342,651
Governance Group $809,714
Finance/Legal/HR/Admin Group $5,225,408
Total Expenses $22,102,204
Total surplus/(loss) $12,802.047
* Year-to-date Revenue is $34.9MM vs plan of $28.8MM, approximately
$6.1MM or 21% over plan.
* Year-to-date is $22.1MM vs plan of $23.5MM, approximately $1.4MM or
6% lower than plan.
* Cash position is $31.6MM as of April 30, 2012 – approximately 13.6
months of expenses.
== Highlights ==
=== New Wikimedia fellows working on dispute resolution and small
language wikis ===
The Wikimedia Fellows Program
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships> added two
Community Fellows
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/16/announcing-community-fellows-tanvir-rahman-and-steven-zhang/>:
Steven Zhang <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Steven_Zhang> (a
Wikipedian since 2008) is
analyzing dispute resolution on the English Wikipedia. Tanvir Rahman
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wikitanvir> (active on the
Bengali Wikipedia since 2009, and
elected as a steward by the global community in 2011) is experimenting
with on-wiki strategies for growing the number of editors on
small-language wikis, with an initial focus on the Bengali Wikipedia.
Another Fellowship project, the Teahouse
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse> (where experienced
Wikipedians are helping new editors), concluded its 3 month pilot phase
on the English Wikipedia and was preparing a full analysis. Initial
results indicated that it had a positive impact on new editors. The
Teahouse concept is already being adapted to Arabic and Indic language
projects.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Commons_uploader_statistics_2011-2012.png
Upload Wizard usage statistics on Commons for January 2011 to April 2012
(September 2011 spike coincides with Wiki Loves Monuments)>
=== 1 million media files uploaded using Upload Wizard ===
One year after it was announced, the Upload Wizard
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Upload_Wizard> has been used to
upload more than 1 million freely licensed media files
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/29/1-million-media-files-uploaded-using-upload-wizard/>
to Wikimedia Commons, and has contributed to an acceleration of its
community's growth. Developers are working on a more reliable upload of
large files (up to 500MB), on a mobile upload application to support the
Wiki Loves Monuments contest
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application> in
September, and on improving Flickr integration and geolocation support
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Drecodeam/GSoC_2012_Application> in the
Upload Wizard.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Zero_Landing_Page_on_Digi.png
Wikipedia Zero landing page for Digi users in Malaysia>
=== Wikipedia Zero launches in Asia ===
Wikipedia Zero <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero>, the
Foundation's initiative to enable free mobile access to Wikipedia,
became available in Asia for the first time on May 21: Malaysian mobile
operator Digi started offering
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/26/wikipedia-zero-launches-in-malaysia-with-digi/>
the lightweight, text-only version of Wikipedia free of data charges to
its 10 million customers. The program is already live in Tunisia and
Uganda, and will launch in many other countries in the coming months.
== Technology ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for May 2012 can
be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/May
Department Highlights
Major news in May include:
* the publication of the Architecture of Open-Source Applications book
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/11/book-architecture-mediawiki-open-source-applications/>,
which contains a chapter on MediaWiki;
* initial designs for a universal language selector
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/21/introducing-designs-for-the-universal-language-selector/>;
* a new and easier way to view a wiki's interwiki map
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/29/wikimedia-wikis-reveal-interwiki-map/>;
* 1 million files
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/29/1-million-media-files-uploaded-using-upload-wizard/>
uploaded with our UploadWizard;
* the Wikidata/RENDER summit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/31/wikidata-summit-kicks-off-in-berlin/>
in Berlin, followed by the hackathon
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/06/02/diverse-wikimedia-tech-crowd-gathers-in-berlin/>.
=== Operations ===
*Data Centers*
May has been a busy month for racking, stacking and provisioning of
newly purchased servers. Recently, we purchased new hardware for
server refresh, adding capacity and redundancy, and for new
projects, including servers for Search, Analytics, Fundraising,
OpenStreetMap, databases, Varnish, Memcached and backups. Much
effort was put into OS installation and servers network; they are
now ready for the various system and application deployments. With
Ubuntu 12.4 /(Precise Pangolin)/ available, we have packaged and
started using it selectively in some of our systems, including
Search at Tampa and half of the LVS servers. Next, we will be
setting up the Apache servers at Ashburn data center using /Precise/
as well.
*Wikimedia Labs <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Labs>*
The Labs infrastructure had a couple outages, due to excess load and
the GlusterFS system. Long-term mitigation plans include
investigating Ceph and possibly writing a new filesystem mode in
OpenStack to use DRBD in a way similar to Ganeti. We implemented a
new way of managing puppet
<https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:SelfHostedPuppet> that
allows users to test all of their changes locally before pushing
them in for review.
*Data Dumps <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMF_Projects/Data_Dumps>*
We've been creating bundles of media in use per project and the
first set of files is almost complete. For each wiki, there is now
one or more files containing all media uploaded locally to the wiki,
and one or more files containing all media used by the wiki but
uploaded to Commons.
=== Features Engineering ===
*Article feedback <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>*
This month, the team deployed a new look and feel for the article
feedback page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ArticleFeedbackv5/San_Francisco> as
well as a central feedback page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ArticleFeedbackv5>, where editors
can monitor posts from all articles on Wikipedia. We also developed
a final feedback form, which gradually engages users to contribute
to the encyclopedia. We collected and analyzed data on how posting
feedback impacts both conversion and newcomer quality
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Article_feedback/Stage_3/Conversion_and_newcomer_quality>.
Based on this analysis, we now project over 2 million feedback posts
per month on the English encyclopedia when the tool is widely
deployed later this year (on par with the total number of edits per
month). Our research suggests that posting feedback encourages a
substantial number of users to productively edit articles on
Wikipedia, which is expected to help reverse the recent decline in
both new and existing editors.
*Page Triage <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Triage>*
We deployed the first prototype of a list view for Page Triage on
the English Wikipedia, called New Pages Feed
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:NewPagesFeed>. It provides an
enhanced list of pages for review by community patrollers. The team
started work on a new curation toolbar to appear on article pages,
enabling patrollers to get more article info, mark pages as
reviewed, tag them or nominate them for deletion.
=== Internationalization and Editor Engagement Experiments ===
*Internationalization and localization tools
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization_tools>*
The team continued integrating the first round of UI design for the
Universal Language Selector
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector> (ULS) for
desktop and mobile browsers. The prototype to showcase the first
version of ULS was completed and demonstrated. The team completed
development and deployed enhancements to the Translate extension
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate> with notification
support, added more language support to the Narayam extension
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Narayam>, fixed bugs, reviewed
code for i18n support in Mediawiki, and completed a first draft for
language impact metrics.
=== Mobile Engineering ===
*Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application>*
We spent the month defining specifications, prototyping, and
implementing the first version of the Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM)
app. In particular, we worked with various members of the WLM
community to better understand the requirements of the contest.
*Wikimedia Apps <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps>*
The mobile team spent the month of May converting the Wikipedia app
to use the API, increasing the amount of supported platforms, and
porting it to the latest PhoneGap codebase. We used the new mobile
API to fully decouple the Wikipedia app and started beta testing. By
using the new mobile API, the Wikipedia app no longer has to
screen-scrape the site, allowing us to make design changes that
don't break the app experience. We also released the Windows 8
version
<http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/wikipedia/6b80bf54-1a31-4651-acce-59a5b5c2b7c8>
of the Wikipedia app. This new Wikipedia app is built following the
Windows 8 Metro Style guidelines and only uses CSS, HTML5, and
Javascript.
*Mobile support in MediaWiki core
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_support_in_MediaWiki_core>*
We worked on the very ambitious project of moving MobileFrontend
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend> to MediaWiki
core. We now have a dedicated set of tasks for the project and have
started to process them. We added modular device detection support
to core, and migrated HTMLForm.
=== Platform Engineering ===
*MediaWiki 1.20 <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.20/Roadmap>*
In May, MediaWiki 1.20wmf2
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.20/wmf2> and 1.20wmf3
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.20/wmf3> were rolled out to
all Wikimedia wikis. MediaWiki 1.20wmf4
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.20/wmf4> has been deployed to
mediawiki.org, as well as the test wikis (test.wikipedia.org and
test2.wikipedia.org).
*SwiftMedia <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/SwiftMedia>*
We deployed a new version of the thumbnail handler to Commons, test,
test2, and mediawiki.org, that uses our Swift FileBackend code. It
should provide us with useful production testing prior to using
Swift FileBackend for handling original files. Cleanup of corrupted
thumbnails is now finished.
*Report card <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Reportcard>*
The team updated the datasets to include April's data, and improved
the graphs' appearance. We've also been working behind the scenes to
make the framework behind the Reportcard, named "Limn", a
best-of-breed project for general use. While not ready for public
consumption, we implemented a GUI for selecting and manipulating
datasets, and began work to support multiple visualization types.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Secured a $100,000 grant from the Qatar Foundation for our work in MENA.
* Worked to renew past mid-range donors.
=== Fundraiser ===
* New Payment Service Providers were recommended and Tech, Legal and
Finance departments did their due diligence. One of them got vetoed
by Tech and one of them is currently in the process of negotiation.
* Coordinated with the German chapter to perform donor research in
early June.
* Weekly testing continued in May. Please see the meta page for more
information:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough
== Global Development ==
=== Global Development Highlights ===
* Global Development Team week in May focused on program reviews and
planning for India, Brazil, Arabic Language Initiative, Education
and new Editor Growth and Contribution program.
* Global Development welcomes Tilman Bayer to the team and introduces
two new Community Fellows - Tanvir Rahman and Steven Zhang.
* Offical launch of Wikipedia Zero in Malaysia
* The Funds Dissemination Advisory Group met for the first time in
early May.
* Members of the U.S./Canada Education Program working group are
announced.
=== Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) design ===
* Work on the FDC design process accelerated with the development of
draft recommendations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Draft_FDC_Proposal_for_the_Board>
(which are to be finalized by the end of June) and vibrant
discussion
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Draft_FDC_Proposal_for_the_Board>
of open issues by the FDC Advisory Group
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/FDC_Advisory_Group>,
interested
community members and WMF staff.
=== Grants Program Updates ===
* Participation Support Program name change implemented and announced:
this name change will better reflect the nature of this program as a
travel reimbursement program rather than a grants program
* Efforts to localize information about Grants Program and
Participation Support Program are underway: we are calling for
translation of key pages on Meta, including the instructions for
applying for grants or support through both of these programs in
order to make them more accessible
=== Grants Awarded and Executed ===
1. Grant to Wikimedia Austria
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:German-speaking_Wikipedia_Community/WikiCon_2012>
to
fund the German-speaking Wikimedians' conference WikiCon 2012
2. Grant to Wikimedia New York City
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_US-NYC/Short_term_funding_program>
to supplement
program costs until an annual grant is awarded
3. Grant to Wikimedia Philippines
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Philippine_WikiCon_2012>
to support Philippine
WikiCon 2012
4. Grant to Wikimedia Finland
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_FI/Tervetuloa_Wikipediaan!>
to fund printing
outreach materials in Finnish
5. Grant to Patricio Molina
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Patricio_Molina/Bylaws_translation>
to lay the
groundwork for the development of a Bolivian chapter by translating
some key documents
=== Global South Relationships ===
* Asaf <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ijon> visited Turkey to
keynote a two-day Wikipedia
outreach event at Bilkent University, organized by Turkish
Wikipedian Nazif İlbek and the Bilkent IT club, with help from the
Turkish Wikipedia community.
* Asaf and Turkish Wikipedian Nazif İlbek gave outreach talks at three
other universities (Galatasaray, Atılım, and Işık), and met with
members of the Turkish editing community in Istanbul and in Ankara.
=== Fellowships ===
* New Fellowships - Tanvir Rahman and Steven Zhang were announced
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/16/announcing-community-fellows-tanvir-rahman-and-steven-zhang/>
and started work as Wikimedia Community Fellows, bringing the
fellows count to 6. Steven is analyzing and sharing learnings from
Dispute Resolution on English Wikipedia, and Tanvir is experimenting
with online engagement strategies for growing the number of editors
on small-language wikis, with an initial focus on Bangla Wikipedia.
(See also "Highlights" section)
* Teahouse Project - As we come to the end of the 3 month pilot phase
of the Teahouse <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse>, the
team is analyzing pilot outcomes. The full pilot report and
recommendations for the project’s future is in progress, meanwhile
some relevant metrics
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Metrics> from May’s
report include:
o On May 24th, the Teahouse Q&A board celebrated its 500th question.
o In a survey of over 120 Teahouse visitors, 70% of both new and
experienced Wikipedians report being "Satisfied" or "Very
satisfied" with their Teahouse experience, versus only 5% who
said they were "Dissatisfied" or "Very dissatisfied".
o A new analytics report confirms earlier findings on retention
and impact. Compared to other new editors, Teahouse guests go on
to edit more articles, edit more frequently and contribute more
content, and have less of their contributions reverted or deleted.
* Help Project - Peter Coombe visited WMF to engage with WMF staff and
fellows about the Help page redesign project
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_Project/Community_fellowship>.
Research is complete on Help page stats
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_Project/page_statistics> and
a content analysis of questions asked at Teahouse and Help Desk
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_Project/Community_fellowship/Report_2012-05-15#Questions_survey>
to help prioritize topics and pages to focus on. A survey is in
progress to determine how new and experienced editors find and use
current help documentation.
* Translations Project - Jon Harald Soby updated the Meta translation
portal with simplified pages for coordinating translations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_translation> and
requesting a new translation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_a_new_translation>.
Fundraiser Translators are being
encouraged to move over to the new notification system for
translators <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:TranslatorSignup>.
=== Editor Growth and Contribution Program ===
In ongoing discussion with the Arabic community, we’re laying plans for
a contribution portal to experiment with ways to recruit and get new
editors started on Arabic Wikipedia. Phase one of these experiments is
under construction: The Teahouse is being localized for Arabic and a
basic portal layout
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/ar:%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3:%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83%D8%A9>
and registration page is under development.
=== Brazil Catalyst
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Catalyst_Project> ===
* May was a month with lots of travel focused on planning and on the
Education Program.
* Jessie and Oona analyzed history of debates on Brazil Catalyst
Program and revised and created data and structured the content for
opening the debate.
* Engaged with community through online meetings on IRC, face to face
meetings, telephone calls and talk pages.
* Finalized and published page with draft of the
Revitalization/Catalyst Program for open debate with the community
and published it on Meta: the debate started more actively in June.
* Meeting in the Brazilian National Library with 3 departments:
digital library, international relations and Book and Readership
Program staff.
* Oona and Jessie worked on planning, management and institutional
relations.
=== Brazil Media coverage ===
*UOL* (Brazil's largest news website):
* http://tecnologia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2012/05/24/wikipedia-quer-1-bilhao-de-leitores.htm
* http://tecnologia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2012/05/24/wikipedia-prepara-abertura-de-escritorio-no-brasil.htm
* http://tecnologia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2012/05/24/wikipedia-os-desafios-de-viver-de-doacoes.htm
* http://tecnologia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2012/05/24/wikipedia-aceita-autores-anonimos.htm
* http://tecnologia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2012/05/24/fundador-da-wikipedia-fez-site-adulto-e-tentou-fazer-enciclopedia-profissional.htm
*Veja Website* (Veja is the largest weekly magazine in Brazil. Its
website had 7.3 million unique visitors
<http://www.publiabril.com.br/noticias/920> in May):
* http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/vida-digital/com-parceria-academica-wikipedia-quer-mais-brasileiros
*Piauí* (New Journalism <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Journalism>):
* Journalist Bernardo Esteves wrote a very long article about
Wikipedia which will probably be published in July.
=== Arabic Language Initiative
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Arabic_Language_Initiative> ===
* Shared draft of our strategic plan
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Development/Arabic_Language_Initiative_strategic_plan>
and getting ready to announce it for public discussion with the
Wikipedia community, for a call for partnerships and initiative
vacancies .
* Planning further online-based work with Taghreedat initiative after
Dubai workshop
<http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/05/30/taghreedat-launches-arabic-wikipedia-editors-program-in-cooperation-with-the-wikimedia-foundation>.
* Working with regional NGOs on finalizing their plans for grant
requests to support the Arabic Language Initiative strategy.
* Planning the second pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program, with
expansion in Egypt and regionally.
=== US Cultural Partnerships ===
* Presented at the Association of Museums conference
<http://www.aam-us.org/am12/American> April 29 - May 2. Networked
with museum professionals and followed up with interested parties.
Contributed to blog coverage for Wikimedia
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/07/glam-wiki-aam/> and the New
Media Consortium
<http://midea.nmc.org/2012/05/glam-wiki-takes-the-aam/>.
* Ongoing coordination with US cultural organizations and support and
advisement for early stages of planning processes, including support
for GLAM OTRS queue and other email inquiries.
* Assistance with Monmouthpedia coverage and other GLAM-Wiki social
media promotion.
* Coordinated New Mexico Museum Association proposal for US GLAM-Wiki
presentation.
* Prepared for and presented at the MuseumNext
<http://www.museumnext.org/conference/conference.html> conference in
Barcelona, which included a Wikipedia Lounge and a QRpedia
presentation. Promoted GLAM-Wiki US network and followed up with
interested parties.
=== Mobile and Business Development ===
* Officially Launched Wikipedia Zero in Malaysia with Digi:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/26/wikipedia-zero-launches-in-malaysia-with-digi/
* Continued monitoring and bug fixes on soft launches in Uganda and
Tunisa on Orange's networks.
* Began testing in five new African countries for Orange: Kenya,
Congo, Niger, Ivory Coast and Cameroon.
* Building out the Wikipedia Zero project page on mediawiki.org
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero>
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
* *Czech Republic program reflects after one year*: Volunteers from
Wikimedia Czech Republic kicked off their Wikipedia Ambassador
program one year ago, with great success. Students have created
hundreds of articles on the Czech Wikipedia as part of their
coursework, assisted by volunteer Ambassadors, and the Czech team is
gearing up for more articles in the future. Read more about the
progress of the Wikipedia Ambassadors in the Czech Republic.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/22/the-czech-ambassador-program-at-one-year/>
* *Cairo outreach event encourages students to edit*: Campus
Ambassadors in Cairo, Egypt, led an outreach event on May 2 to
encourage students to edit the Arabic Wikipedia. Ambassadors and
students from the British Engineering Institution in Egypt taught
Cairo University engineering students to contribute to
engineering-related articles. Students who are participating in the
Cairo Pilot joined the event as well.
<https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7:%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1_%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A9_2_%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%88_2012>
* *Cairo Pilot nears end of academic term*: The first term of the
Cairo Pilot has gone extraordinarily well. Students are making final
edits to Wikipedia now as they finish their last month of courses,
but already the students have had a noticeable impact on the content
on the Arabic Wikipedia. Students have enhanced articles related to
the 2012 French presidential elections, events that happened in
Egypt in 2011, and more. In some classes, students are translating
articles, whereas in others they are writing original content.
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/25/cairo-pilot-update/>
* *U.S./Canada Education Program*: Members of the Working Group that
will prepare the spin-out of the U.S. and Canada branch of the
Wikipedia Education Program have been announced. The Working Group
comprises of seven Wikipedia editors and Ambassadors, seven members
of higher education institutions, and two Wikimedia Foundation staff
members. It will meet for the first time right after Wikimania in
Washington D.C. to discuss the future picture of what the new
structure will look like that will be in charge of running the
program from May 2013 on. After this meeting, Working Group members
will work in task forces to come up with an action plan for how to
get to that future picture. Mike Cline — a Wikipedia editor, Campus
Ambassador, and professional strategy consultant —agreed to act as a
facilitator for the group. Wikimedia Foundation staff member Annie
Lin will support the group in an advisory role.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group/Working_Group_Members>
* *Upcoming end-of-term conference in Egypt*: Wikipedians, students,
instructors and volunteer Ambassadors are getting ready for the
first end-of-term conference in Cairo. Participants of the two-day
conference will celebrate the successes of the Cairo pilot and talk
about best practices and lessons learned. It is the first event of
its kind in the Arabic-speaking world and will largely follow the
example set by the "Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit" held in
Boston last year. We expect more than 60 participants to join the
conference.
==== India ====
* Conducting one-on-one discussions with Indian community members to
hear their opinions on how we should implement the program in the
next semster
* Going through various talk and program pages associated with the
Pune pilot to collate the suggestions and ideas of community members.
==== Brazil ====
Details on the 2 partial reports below:
* May 15:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Program/Reports/wep-20120515
* June 2:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Program/Reports/wep-20120602
A general report on the WEP in Brazil is underway and will be the result
of all learning points of the pilot:
* We are going to improve the professors selection who will join the
program, which is going to be done through an open call before next
semester starts
* Discussions on institutionalizationare under way in an important
university.
* Outreach in two important universities we are working with (one with
great support of ambassadors).
* Lots of learning from students editing and their interaction with
the community:
o How to improve online and campus ambassadors interaction among
themselves
o Some deletion cases when students haven't used a draft page or
even in the draft
* Gathering feedback from professors and ambassadors who joined the
program, planning for the coming semester (still under
construction), discussing a workshop about the WEP with ambassadors
and professors at the beginning of next semester (August)
=== India Programs ===
==== Indic Languages ====
* Discussing the education program in Indic languages with IT @
School, prepared proposal for Indic GLAM and education projects
* Malayalam conference and community meetings, met with the Hindi
Wikipedians in Delhi
* Supported 10th anniversary celebrations in the Kannada, Assamese,
Nepali communities
* Getting the Bengali and Telegu Wikisource ready for proofread
extension and other required support
* Initiated discussions for Assamese Wikisource
* Blog post on the numeral issue of Hindi Wikipedia: India
Program/Indic Languages/Numerals in Indic Languages & Indic language
Wikipedias#The Debate in Hindi
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Numerals_in_Indic_Languages_%26_Indic_language_Wikipedias#The_Debate_in_Hindi>
==== India Outreach ====
* Capacity building or 'train the trainer' pilot
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Train_the_trainer>
to train
community members on how to conduct effective outreach session and
increase the number of community members currently helping.
* Partnered with British Council to incorporate Wikipedia editing as a
part of their regular activity for their library group members:
first in-class session planned for 23rd June.
* Supporting translation of documents for outreach translated into
various languages with other Indic Wikipedians : India
Program/Outreach Programs/Handbook#Repository of Documents in Indic
languages
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Handbook#Repository_of_Documents_in_Indic_languages>
==== India Communications ====
* Social media pilot: Created social media mentor note/guidelines
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media#Process>
with
comprehensive learnings and insights from the first month
experiences on two groups (en and or), Skype calls with mentors -
spoke to 6 en mentors and 3 or mentors, explained, guided and
redesigned messaging for groups.
* Successfully published third issue of Wikipatrika
<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News> in May.
* Press: Medianama story on Wikisource
<http://www.medianama.com/2012/05/223-wikipedians-digitizing-out-of-copyright-text-in-eight-indian-languages/>
* Supported Odia press story, Times of India story on Internet
freedom, media contacts to support Assamese, Kannada, Nepali
Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebrations
==== India Community Support ====
* *Buddy system*: Worked on a new offline program called "Buddy
system" which will function to support new editors offline by the
local experienced editors as mentors
* *Teahouse/Chatasabha*: An onwiki new editor support system called
"Chatasabha
<https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86:%E0%AC%9A%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%9F%E0%AC%B8%E0%AC%AD%E0%AC%BE>"
was initiated on the Odia Wikipedia, taking the lessons from the
Teahouse project on the English Wikipedia. Based on lessons from the
English Teahouse and Chatasabha, similar systems will be implemented
on other Indic Wikipedias with the help of community members.
* Planning support of Delhi-Hindi community
* *Meta updates*: Updated FAQ (in PDF), translated Outreach letter,
press release and translated Prezi
* *Sugar customization*: A CRM Package called SugarCRM is being
customized for the use of India Program for several works related to
reaching out to existing wikipedians, managing contacts, etc.
* *India project tracker*: Worked on preparing an analysis of Indic
Wikipedia projects, their current community progress, growth in the
number of active editors, new editors, content growth, and readership
* Supported engagement of more than 30 new editors
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediasupport/ ) and 12 new
editors in the Odia group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki/ )
* *Media support*: Supported a press release
<http://www.orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=33852> and a
newspaper story
<http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=34007> on the
Odia Wikipedia
=== Communications ===
In May Global Development officially welcomed Tilman Bayer, who will be
helping out with research analytics and also bringing his considerable
background in blogging and reporting to help the communications team. In
May we also watched our communications colleagues in the UK draw
considerable attention to the first-ever Wikipedia town with the
Monmouthpedia initiative.
Communications has also been working closely with Wikimedia DC on
preparations for Wikimania 2012 in July.
The blog team made strides in opening up the blog for more community
involvement, moving the calendar of planned blog posts
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Blog/Calendar> from the
internal Office wiki to the
public Meta wiki, starting to experiment with drafting posts in public
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Blog/Drafts> and holding
its first ever IRC office hour
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2012-05-09>.
The Shop <http://shop.wikimedia.org/> took part in the 2012 MakerFaire,
gaining valuable feedback and helping to boost monthly sales to a new
high as we prepare for a more public launch.
==== Major announcements ====
Announcing Wikimania 2012 (May 30, 2012)
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimania_comes_to_Washington_DC
Our only major announcement in May was an updated media advisory
highlighting speakers and sessions for this year's Wikimania in DC. The
advisory is primarily an effort to draw media attention and increase
media registration for the event.
==== Major Storylines through March ====
Google knowledge graph increases Wikipedia viz in search (May 16, 2012)
Global press were generally supportive of Google's major announcement of
the 'knowledge graph' in May. The new search function automatically
loads relevant info, data, or images as part of search results.
Wikipedia is one of several key information sources, and was most widely
cited in coverage of the new feature.
http://gigaom.com/2012/05/16/google-shakes-up-search-with-new-wikipedia-like-feature/
http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-knowledge-graph-121585
http://techland.time.com/2012/05/16/the-knowledge-graph-googles-next-frontier-for-search/
Monmouthpedia and the world's first wiki-town kicks off (May 18, 2012)
Monmouth, Wales, is now covered in a sea of QR codes linking noteworthy
landmarks and civic locales to Wikipedia, making it one of the world's
first 'wiki towns.' Wikipedians and townsfolk collaborated in the
massive project, which also includes free wifi access across the town.
The story resulted in hundreds of global news stories, mostly praising
the unique initiative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/MonmouthpediA
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/05/17/worlds-first-wikipedia-town-launches/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/9274591/Monmouth-to-be-worlds-first-Wikipedia-town.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/monmouthpedia-monmouth-wikipedia-town-wales_n_1524961.html
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/When-Wikipedia-Vandals-Attack-75075.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/01/wikipedia-research-jimmy-wales-online
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
* Volume 8, Issue 19, 7 May 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-05-07>
* Volume 8, Issue 20, 14 May 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-05-14>
* Volume 8, Issue 21, 21 May 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-05-07>
* Volume 8, Issue 22, 28 May 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-05-14>
==== WMF Blog posts ====
A total of 40 individual blog posts on WMF blog through May, 2012.
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/
==== Media Contact ====
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#May_2012
== Human Resources ==
* Supported work on staffing plans for the 2012-13 Annual Plan
=== Staff Changes ===
New Hires
* Vibha Bamba, Interaction Designer (Engineering)
* James Forrester, Technical Product Analyst (Engineering)
* Stephen LaPorte, Legal Counsel (Legal and Community Advocacy)
* Ori Livneh, Software Developer Frontend (Engineering)
* Praveena Maharaj, Executive Assistant (Administration)
* Subbu Sastry, Senior Software Developer Javascript (Engineering)
* Tilman Bayer, Senior Operations Analyst - Movement Communications
(Global Development)
New Contractors
* Danielle Benoit (Engineering)
* Claude Boulingui (Office IT)
* Tanvir Rahman, Community Fellow (Global Development)
* Kristie Robinson (Fundraiser)
* Sage Ross (Global Development)
* Steven Zhang, Community Fellow (Global Development)
Contract Extended
* Andrew Bogott (Engineering)
* Karen Chelini (Human Resources)
* Aaron Halfaker (Engineering)
* Mark Holmquist (Engineering)
* Angela Robeson (Human Resources)
Exit
* Mark Hershberger
Contract Ended
* Michelle Collins
* Rayne MacGeorge
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled:
Actual: 111
May Plan: 115, May Filled: 6, May Attrition: 1,
YTD Filled: 54, YTD Attrition: 17
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end: 11
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or
http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
[edit
</w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_May_2012&action=edit§ion=48>]
Finance and Administration
Projects we are working on:
* The WMF Annual Plan
* Reducing the cost and risk of foreign exchange transactions
* Providing support for the FDC advisory committee
== Legal and Community Advocacy ==
* Hired Stephen LaPorte
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Slaporte_%28WMF%29> as
junior counsel on the team. Stephen is an experienced Wikimedian and
represents a great addition to the team!
* Posted blog post on the subject of ad injectors: "If you’re seeing
ads on Wikipedia, your computer is probably infected with malware
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/14/ads-on-wikipedia-your-computer-infected-malware/>"
* Updated terms of use
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use> became effective May
25, 2012.
* Reviewing proposed fundraising agreement
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012-13_Fundraising_Agreement_(Master)>
with qualified chapters.
* New interns started. We are posting their short biographies here
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff_and_contractors#Legal_and_Community_Advocacy>.
* Strong FDC legal support
* Large workload, including about twice as many contracts than normal (32)
* Preparing for corporate governance review
* Working on drafting a policy on when WMF should affiliate with
certain legislative or regulatory issues, such as this one
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/25/wikimedia-foundation-endorses-mandates-for-free-access-to-publicly-funded-research/>.
* Wikilaw posting:
* Copyright status of MIDI files
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/MIDI_Files>,
William Hahn
* Stats:
o 32 contracts submitted
o 16 trademark requests submitted
+ Approved - 4
+ Pending - 8
+ Approval not needed - 1
+ Misc. - 3
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors to the WMF office in May 2012
1. Jocelyn Berl (NexGenEdu)
2. Faidon Laimbotis (visiting contractor)
3. Laura Lanzerotti (Bridgespan Group)
4. Libbie Landles-Dowling (Bridgespan Group)
5. Meera Chary (Bridgespan Group)
6. Kathy S.Prestigiacomo (Morgan Stanley Smith Barney)
7. Richard Triolo (Morgan Stanley Smith Barney)
8. Danielle Benoit (visiting contractor)
9. Juan Negrillo (futura networks)
10. Polkan Garcia (futura networks)
11. Sam Reed (remote staff)
12. Chris McMahon (remote staff)
13. Antoine Musso (remote staff)
14. Rufus Pollock (co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation)
15. Krisztina Radosavljevic-Szilagyi (Manager, Global Communications and
Public Affairs - Google)
16. Liam Wyatt (Creative Commons Australia)
17. Randall Benson (consultant for culture study)
18. Kim Dodson (consultant for culture study)
19. Peter Coombe (visiting staff)
20. Joy Mihara Meer (FBI)
21. Christine Moellenberndt (Wikimedian)
22. Sebastian Jacobs (Cornerstone)
23. Moushira Elamrawy (visiting contractor)
24. Hisham Mundol (visiting contractor)
25. Oona Castro (visiting contractor)
26. Haitham Shamma (visiting contractor)
27. Nitika Tandon (visiting contractor)
28. Matthias Mullie (visiting staff)
29. Diederik van Liere (visiting staff)
30. Mike Schwartz (Senior VP Engineering, Wikia) and 18 other Wikia
employees
31. Asheeshn Laroia (OpenHatch)
32. Joe Arnold (swiftstack)
33. John Dove (Credo Online Library)
34. Daniel Phifer (Social Imprints)
35. Deborah Bezona (D. Bezona & Company)
36. Jonathan Morgan (visiting research fellow)
37. Ted Nelson <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson> (brownbag
presenter/guest)
38. Roger Gregory <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Gregory_(programmer)>
(brownbag presenter/guest)
39. Jeremy Thurgood (Global Development contractor)
40. Mike Cline (Wikipedian)
41. Pete Forsyth (Wikipedian)
42. Sumana Harihareswara (remote staff)
43. Peter Youngmeister (remote staff)
44. Stu West (Treasurer - Board of Trustees)
45. Phoebe Ayers (Executive Secretary - Board of Trustees)
46. David Peters (Exbrook)
47. John Jefferson (ATT)
48. Reza Musavi (Cushman & Wakefield)
49. Georgia Collins (DEGW)
50. Sweta Vohra (Al-Jazeera English)
51. Sebastian Walker (Al-Jazeera English)
52. Peter Caparso (Adyen)
53. Roeland Prins (Adyen)
54. Lisa Groover (Accounting Principals)
55. Steve DeVetter (KPMG)
56. Sizhe Liu (KPMG)
57. Valerie Ball (KPMG)
58. Liz Williams (Collaboration Zone)
59. Brad Rissley (Digital River)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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