[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, September 2012
Tilman Bayer
tbayer at wikimedia.org
Thu Nov 1 01:44:05 UTC 2012
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for September 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_September_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,_September_2012
Many thanks those who have translated the August "Highlights" into
Arabic, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Korean,
Dutch, Russian, Swedish and Swahili!
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the soon to be published October issue are welcome
until tonight (UTC) at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_items_for_October_2012
Regards, Tilman
PS: As a reminder, later today (UTC, 5:30pm on November 1), the very
first publicly streamed WMF metrics and activities meeting is going to
take place. For details on how to join remotely, see
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, September 2012
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 "Page Curation" tools make it easier to review new Wikipedia
articles
o 3.2 New volunteer-based model for distributing donation money
launched
o 3.3 New travel project site, and legal activities
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
o 4.4 Other news
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Annual Fundraiser
* 6 Global Development
o 6.1 Global Development Highlights
o 6.2 Mobile, Global Growth
o 6.3 Global Learning and Grantmaking
+ 6.3.1 Learning and Evaluation
+ 6.3.2 Funds Dissemination
+ 6.3.3 Grants Awarded and Executed
+ 6.3.4 US Cultural Partnerships
o 6.4 Catalyst Programs
+ 6.4.1 Brazil Catalyst Project>
# 6.4.1.1 Brazil Education program
# 6.4.1.2 National Program, Brazil
+ 6.4.2 Arabic Language Project
o 6.5 Education Program
o 6.6 Fellowships
o 6.7 Editor Growth and Contribution Program
* 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
o 9.1 Communications report
+ 9.1.1 Major announcements
+ 9.1.2 Major Storylines through September
+ 9.1.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 9.1.4 WMF Blog posts
o 9.2 Media Contact, September 2012
o 9.3 Wikipedia Signpost
* 10 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for August:
*456.25 million* (+0.98% compared with July; +7.92% compared with
the previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release September data
later in October)
Page requests for September:
*19.1 billion* (+5.3% compared with August; +20.9% 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 August 2012 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
*79,572* (-0.74% compared with July / -0.81% compared with the
previous year)
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects. Note: We recently refined this metric
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/31/improving-the-accuracy-of-the-active-editors-metric/>
to take into account Wikimedia Commons and activity across several
projects.)
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects) for August 2012:
http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/
(Definitions <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Metric_definitions>)
== Financials ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Financial_Metrics_August_2012_Actual_vs_Plan.png>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of August 31, 2012>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Financial_Metrics_August_2012_Exp_by_Functions.png
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of August 31, 2012>
(Financial information is only available for August 2012 at the time of
this report.)
All financial information presented is for the period July 1, 2012 -
August 31, 2012.
Revenue $1,758,126
*Expenses:*
Technology Group $2,286,158
Fundraiser Group $417,387
Global Development Group $1,110,627
Governance Group $144,825
Finance/HR/Admin Group $864,207
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications $377,572
Total Expenses $5,200,776
Total surplus/(loss) ($3,442,650)
* Revenue for the month of August is $1.4MM vs plan of $465K,
approximately $946K or 203% over plan, primarily due to the $1.0MM
received from the Sloan Foundation.
* Year-to-date revenue is $1.8MM vs plan of $1.9MM, approximately
$0.1MM or 9% under plan.
* Expenses for the month of August is $2.6MM vs plan of $2.7MM,
approximately $0.1MM or 3% under plan, primarily due personnel
expenses, internet hosting expenses, travel expenses, capital
expenses, and legal expenses partially offset by a grant for the
India catalyst program and higher recruiting expenses.
* Year-to-date expenses is $5.2MM vs plan of $5.9MM, approximately
$0.7MM or 12% under plan, primarily due to personnel expenses,
internet hosting, travel expenses, capital expenses, legal expenses.
* Cash position is $21.8MM as of August 31, 2012 which is
approximately 6.2 months of expenses.
== Highlights ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curation_Toolbar_Message_Aug_10_2012.png
The Curation Toolbar, here being used to mark a new article as reviewed
and send its author a message>
=== "Page Curation" tools make it easier to review new Wikipedia articles ===
Every day, thousands of new pages are created on Wikipedia, requiring
hundreds of volunteer editors to check them for quality. To make their
work easier, the Editor Engagement Team has developed the *"Page
Curation" feature
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/25/page-curation-launch/>*. It
includes two tools:
* The New Pages Feed
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation#New_Pages_Feed>, an
overview of new pages, annotated with information that helps
reviewing them
* The Curation Toolbar
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation#Curation_Toolbar>
appears next to a new page, offering autoconfirmed editors easy
access to various actions, e.g. to mark the new page as reviewed,
tag it for quality problems, or nominate it for deletion.
Page Curation was deployed on the English Wikipedia on September 20, and
is planned to become available on other projects as well.
Many new Wikipedia editors experience frustration when they start an
article that does not meet community expectations and gets deleted. It
is hoped that the Page Curation feature will also lead to better
feedback for page creators.
=== New volunteer-based model for distributing donation money launched ===
Over the last half year, a new model has been established for
distributing the donation money raised via Wikimedia project sites. More
than $10 million of it will now be allocated based on the
recommendations of the new Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), which
consists entirely of volunteers.
Following a public nomination process, the seven voting *members of the
first FDC <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/2012/FDC_members>*
have been announced:
Arjuna Rao Chavala (India), Dariusz Jemielniak (Poland), Ali Haidar Khan
(Bangladesh), Mike Peel (United Kingdom), Yuri Perohanych (Ukraine),
Sydney Poore (United States), and Anders Wennersten (Sweden). They are
joined by Jan-Bart de Vreede (Netherlands) and Patricio Lorente
(Argentina) as non-voting representatives of the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees. Susana Moraes (Portugal) was appointed as
ombudsperson for the FDC process.
The FDC is now reviewing funding requests by 12 organizations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals>, which are open
for public comment until
October 22.
=== New travel project site, and legal activities ===
The Wikimedia Foundation has agreed to host a new travel project site at
the request of the Wikimedia community
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide>.
Unfortunately, on August 29, 2012, Internet Brands, the owner of the
Wikitravel website, sued two Wikitravel volunteers, alleging various
legal claims. In response, one of the volunteers filed
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/27/update-on-recent-legal-activities/>
an anti-SLAPP
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation>
motion, arguing that Internet Brands’s lawsuit sought to suppress his
right to discuss the new Wikimedia travel project. The Wikimedia
Foundation has also filed a suit
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/05/wikimedia-foundation-seeks-declaratory-relief-in-response-to-legal-threats-from-internet-brands/>
against Internet Brands, claiming that it has no right to impede the
creation of the new travel project.
=== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Engineering Department's activities for
September 2012 can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/September
=== VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> ===
In September, the VisualEditor team continued its focus on
re-engineering the code of VisualEditor so that it is more modular and
easier to extend. This involves creating and documenting a number of
formal APIs <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface>
at each point in the architecture, that means a developer does not have
to understand the entire code base to be able to add new features. The
early version of the VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor:Welcome> on mediawiki.org was
updated twice, fixing a number of bugs and building out better support
for language and key concepts like categories, language links and other
"magic words <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words>".
Critical to the VisualEditor is Parsoid
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>, a parsing program
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing> that translates plain wikitext into
annotated HTML for easy editing
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/HTML5_DOM_with_RDFa>, and vice-versa.
The Parsoid team spent September improving their prototype in JavaScript
to get it ready for a release in December, and improving the (faster)
C++ version of Parsoid for longer-term deployment. The original plan to
finish the C++ version before the December release looks very risky with
the limited resources available, so the current plan is to release the
JavaScript prototype instead.
On the JavaScript side, the focus was on round-tripping of templates,
i.e. the process of appropriately converting templates from wikitext to
annotated HTML, and back to wikitext (thus completing a "round-trip").
They also worked on the Cite extension
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite>, support for category links
and "magic words". Many parser tests (which allow to measure the
parser's ability to correctly translate wikitext) were added, and a new
milestone of 603 passing round-trip tests (with 218 to go) was reached.
First steps towards round-trip testing on a full copy of a wiki's
content were taken.
In the C++ version, the tokenizer
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_analysis#Tokenizer> (the program that
demarcates strings of characters input in wikitext) can now support very
simple content, and use it to populate the internal data structures.
Basic interfaces for asynchronous and parallel processing were defined
to improve performance and thus increase responsiveness for users.
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
This month, the Features team deployed more new features
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requirements#More_Features>
for Article Feedback
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5>, a quality
assessment tool currently being tested on 10% of articles on the English
Wikipedia. Improvements include iPad support, special abuse filters
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requirements#Abuse.2FSpam_Filters>
to automatically disallow swear words and common vandalism, as well as
automated filtering to reduce the workload for editors and
administrators. The team is now in the process of re-factoring the code,
making it more scalable, prototyping a mobile web interface
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requirements/Mobile>,
as well as collecting more data to track how many readers who post
feedback end up becoming editors as a result. A full release to 100% of
English Wikipedia is expected in coming weeks, with other wiki projects
starting later this year.
The team also deployed the first version
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/25/page-curation-launch/> of Page
Curation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation> on the
English Wikipedia, a feature that aims to help Wikipedia patrollers
review new pages faster and easier, as well as provide better feedback
to page creators (see also general "Highlights" section <#Highlights>).
It includes two tools: the New Pages Feed
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation#New_Pages_Feed> (a
dynamic list of new pages for review by community patrollers) and the
Curation Toolbar
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation#Curation_Toolbar> (an
optional panel on article pages). The Curation Toolbar provides a
variety of tools that let users get page info, mark a page as reviewed,
tag it, mark it for deletion, send WikiLove to page creators, or jump to
the next page on the list.
The first project of the Micro Design Improvements team
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Micro_Design_Improvements>, which consisted in
simplifying the "edit" window
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Micro_Design_Improvements#Current_project:_Improve_the_organization_of_information_in_the_edit_mode>,
has now been deployed on the English-language Wikipedia. The current
priority is to fully productize these changes and fix associated bugs
before moving forward.
Last, the Editor engagement experiments
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments> team (E3)
announced the results of the first iteration of the post-edit feedback
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/post-edit_feedback> experiment, and worked on
productization of the most successful confirmation message
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/confirmation_message> in a new MediaWiki
extension <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PostEdit>, as well as
through collaboration with the VisualEditor team. In addition, the team
deployed the second iteration of experimental post-edit feedback, which
lets new editors know when they reach important editing milestones early
in their participation on Wikipedia. E3 also continued readying work on
account creation user experience
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/account_creation_user_experience>, and the new
analytics infrastructure to support feature experimentation.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
The mobile team continued to work on new feature for the mobile view,
like a new navigation menu, currently a beta feature. Preliminary
support for sharper images on high-density displays
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2012-September/thread.html#63260>
(such as the iPhone 4/4S/5 and many Android phones) is being worked on;
this will apply also to the desktop view on suitable tablets (iPad 3,
Nexus 7, Kindle HD) and laptops (Retina MacBook Pro, Windows laptops
with desktop zoom at 150% or 200%).
A new version
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/11/using-the-wiki-loves-monuments-app-as-a-travel-log/>
of the Wiki Loves Monuments App
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application> was
released, that allows users to use it in combination with a separate
camera. Over 3,000 pictures have now been uploaded from mobile devices.
In collaboration with the Product team, the Mobile team will next
analyze data from the competition, to better understand how to proceed
with a dedicated Commons upload tool. The team has received positive
feedback about the app, which has been a big hit with new Commons users
from early data analysis.
Regarding mobile access in less-developed countries, the Wikipedia Zero
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> program (an initiative to
enable free mobile access to Wikipedia) continued to expand, with
several additional mobile carriers now in the testing phase (see also
below <#Mobile.2C_Global_Growth>). The mobile team is also putting the
final touches to the Wikipedia S40 J2ME app
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_S40_J2ME_app>, a mobile application
for the Java Platform
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Platform,_Micro_Edition>, still used by
many phones in the Global South. Users without a smartphone and a data
plan won't be left out: access to Wikipedia over SMS
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD> or USSD
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data> (e.g.
WAP) is being worked in collaboration with the Praekelt Foundation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praekelt_Foundation>. This tool uses the
open-source software vumi <http://vumi.org/>.
Last, a new EPUB export feature
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/17/new-e-book-export-feature-enabled-on-wikipedia/>
was enabled on the English Wikipedia. It can be used to collate a
personal collection of Wikipedia articles and generate free e-books that
can be read on a broad range of devices, like mobile phones, tablets and
e-ink-based e-book readers.
=== Other news ===
* The Wikimedia Language engineering
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_engineering> worked on
a broad range of features and initiatives. They added translation
memory
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/06/language-teams-plan-translation-memory-uls/>
to Wikimedia wikis that use the Translate extension
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate>, in order to help
translators by providing suggestions from past translations of
similar text. They also unveiled a plan for Language support teams
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization_tools/Language_Team_Plan>
to act as liaisons with communities using various languages and
scripts. Last, they continued to improve the upcoming Universal
Language Selector
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector>, as well as
JavaScript tools for language support
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Milkshake> that can be reused by
third-party developers.
* Development was disrupted around September 7th due to a serious
breakage of Wikimedia's Gerrit repositories
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/07/recovery-of-broken-gerrit-repositories/>,
the platform used by developers to share code and collaboratively
review each other's contributions. All repositories were subsequent
repaired, and the cause of the issue was investigated to avoid
future problems of this type.
* The Operations team announced that they were donating decommissioned
(but still working) Wikimedia servers
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/18/server-decommissioning-donations-sept2012/>,
accepting applications from US-based nonprofits (schools, libraries,
NGOs etc.).
* Students who worked on MediaWiki-related projects as part of Google
Summer of Code 2012
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/28/gsoc-students-reach-milestones/>
(GSoC) reached their final milestone. Projects include a feature to
easily translate annotated SVG files, a tool to manage conferences
in MediaWiki, and improvements to the Incubator platform
<https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/>.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Completed our report to the Stanton Foundation and received our
second grant installment of $1.8 million
* Held a thank you event at Google for employees who give to the WMF
* Named a finalist in the Africa News Challenge grant competition
=== Annual Fundraiser ===
Prepared for a fundraising test on Italian Wikipedia in October
Continued weekly fundraising tests
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough>
in English.
Added Adyen as a payment processor.
Continued to research donation rejection rates/reasons for the
countries we are testing.
Canada donor groups
Began hiring and training a core team of customer service agents to
ensure we have a 99% response rate during the annual fundraiser.
This will also allow us to get important data necessary to improve
our donor experience.
Storytelling interviews conducted at Wikimania 2012 are currently
being edited with the goal of creating a short educational video
about Wikipedia. Soon, we plan to conduct a test incorporating video
into fundraising appeals.
== Global Development ==
=== Global Development Highlights ===
Inaugural FDC membership announced
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/2012/FDC_members>
Arabic Wikipedia seeing strong growth after year 1 of the Arabic
Language Initiative
Research confirms students significantly improve English Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Zero rolls out in Ivory Coast.
=== Mobile, Global Growth ===
* The Mobile Team deployed *free access to Wikipedia on mobile* in its
eighth country: *Ivory Coast*. This is the sixth country in Orange's
Middle East/Africa footprint. It will be available in all languages.
See also the *up-to-date status report
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_Partnerships_Q_and_A#Scope>*
about where Wikipedia is freely available on mobile.
=== Global Learning and Grantmaking ===
==== Learning and Evaluation ====
* *Jonathan Morgan <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Jtmorgan>*
joins the Learning and Evaluation team to help with analytics
requests. Jonathan has been involved with the foundation for some
time as part of the fellowship program where he focused on the
Teahouse project <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse>.
* We're pleased to release version 0.1.0 of the |userstats|
<https://github.com/embr/userstats> Python library and command-line
tool for computing *user-centric metrics on Wikipedia users*. The
goal of the software is to make it easy for project owners to track
the contributions and status of users involved in their project. It
is also intended to be easily extensible so that custom metrics can
be added using only a few lines of Python code.
==== Funds Dissemination ====
* Inaugural FDC membership
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/2012_FDC_members> of 7
FDC members and 1 Ombudsperson selected by Board and announced on 15
September (see general "Highlights" section <#Highlights> above)
* Preparation for proposal submission deadline
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals> on 1 October
==== Grants Awarded and Executed ====
4 WMF Grants were awarded during September 2012:
* Wikimedia Serbia's grant for the CEE Conference 2012
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wikimedia_CEE_Conference_2012>
approved:
This conference is organized to bring as many people from the
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries as possible in one
place and encourage them to raise their questions and
participate in the creation of further mutual cooperation among
the communities from the region.
* Wikimedia US-DC's Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 USA
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_US-DC/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012_USA>
approved:
Wiki Loves Monuments, the international Wikipedia photo contest,
came to the United States for the first time; the grant supports
incidentals and administrative costs for Wiki Loves Monuments
events.
* Wikimedia Serbia's Wikipedia in Schools 2012-2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wikipedia_in_Schools_2012-2013>
approved:
The continuation of cooperation with educational institutions
will enhance Wikimedia Serbia's education programs, attract new
users, and increase the quality and quantity of articles on
Wikipedia.
* Wikimedia Venezuela's start up grant
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_VE/Start-Up>
approved:
Includes funds for equipment, administrative costs, and project
activities over the next year.
10 grant reports were accepted by WMF during September 2012:
* Grants:WM CL/Ibero-American Wikimedia Summit 2012/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CL/Ibero-American_Wikimedia_Summit_2012/Report>
* Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Sverige/2012Q1
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Sverige/2012Q1>
* Wikimedia Sweden: Wikimedia Foundation reports/2012-06
<http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_reports/2012-06>
* Grants:WM AR/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report Q1
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_AR/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report_Q1>
* Grants:WM AR/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report Q2
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_AR/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report_Q2>
* Grants:WM HU/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report Q1
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_HU/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report_Q1>
* Grants:WMHU/Annual Program Plan 2012/Report Q2
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WMHU/Annual_Program_Plan_2012/Report_Q2>
* Grants:GLAM-WIKI US/GLAMcamp DC/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:GLAM-WIKI_US/GLAMcamp_DC/Report>
* Grants:WM DE/Capacity Building 2010-2011/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_DE/Capacity_Building_2010-2011/Report>
* Grants:WM AR/Ibero-American Wikimedia Summit 2011/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_AR/Ibero-American_Wikimedia_Summit_2011/Report>
1 Participation Support reimbursement was approved this month through
the Participation Support Program (a joint program of WMF and Wikimedia
Germany):
* Participation:Wotancito/Encuentro Latinoamericano de Bibliotecarios,
Archivistas y Museólogos
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Wotancito/Encuentro_Latinoamericano_de_Bibliotecarios,_Archivistas_y_Muse%C3%B3logos>
==== US Cultural Partnerships ====
* Launched the GLAM-Wiki US blog <http://blog.us.glamwiki.org/> as a
form of broadcast for GLAM professionals and Wikimedians.
* Formalized and continued dialogue with the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium
advisory group
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:GLAM/US/Consortium#Advisory_Group_Members>,
specifically in regards to establishing the Consortium’s core
principles and platforms for communication.
* Attended GLAMcamp London
<https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLAMcamp_London/September_2012> with the
global GLAM-Wiki community. Led discussion on establishing a
GLAM-Wiki global thematic organization. Participated in the
formulation of the GLAM Bootcamp
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM_Bootcamp> concept.
* Coordination of upcoming Wikipedian in Residence positions and GLAM
partnerships
=== Catalyst Programs ===
* The India team transitioned to the Centre for Internet and Society
<http://cis-india.org> based in Bangalore, India, under their Access
To Knowledge <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge>
program; this is being
supported through a grant from WMF.
==== Brazil Catalyst Project ====
===== Brazil Education program =====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oficina_em_PoA.jpg
Workshop for professors>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P%C3%BAblico_da_palestra_em_PoA.jpg
Audience at Oona Castro's talk>
* Organized the Education Program Workshop in Rio de Janeiro
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Oficina/Rio_de_Janeiro>
(September 22) with the participation of about 20 people, including
experienced Wikipedians that taught new campus ambassadors and
professors how to edit.
* Training at FGV Rio
* Sebrae - IV Seminário de Educação Empreendedora - Porto Alegre - Rio
Grande do Sul
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Oficina/Porto_Alegre>:
one lecture by Oona Castro to about 300 people and three workshops
on how to edit Wikipedia for about 15 professors and interested
people held by Everton Alvarenga. Successful brand exposure took place.
* Distributed print versions of the pre semester survey
<https://dc-viawest.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cGy0cwveG0hB4Y5&Preview=Survey&BrandID=wikimedia>
for students
* Follow up with professors (phone calls, visits at universities
etc.): Wikipédia na Universidade/Cursos
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Cursos>
* Debate with community on criteria for recruiting online ambassadors
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia_Discuss%C3%A3o:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Embaixadores_online>
* Development of tutorial materials and videos
o Guia do Embaixador
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Guia_do_Embaixador>
o Guia do Estudante
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Guia_do_Estudante>
o Guia do Professor
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Guia_do_Professor>
o Menu Wikipédia na Universidade
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predefini%C3%A7%C3%A3o:Menu_Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade>
o Guia de Edição
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade/Guia_de_Edi%C3%A7%C3%A3o>
o Vídeos tutoriais sobre o uso da Wikipédia (6set2012)
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/geral/V%C3%ADdeos_tutoriais_sobre_o_uso_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia_(6set2012)>
===== National Program, Brazil =====
Brazil Catalyst Program management
* Started public hiring process for Data Analyst consultant position
for the Brazil Catalyst Program (Jobvite
<http://hire.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs/Careers.aspx?c=qSa9VfwQ&s=Wikimedia_Blog&nl=1&page=Job%20Description&j=otMJWfwE>
and village pump
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/an%C3%BAncios#Vaga_na_WMF_no_Brasil_-_Data_and_experiments_consultant>
postings)
* Created a committee
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013/Data_analyst_consultant>
to handle the hiring process with Oona
* General debate on proposals
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013>
Ongoing Debates on the Portuguese Wikipedia
* Brazilian Catalyst Program local partnership debate on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013#Estrutura_e_Modelo_de_Gest.C3.A3o_do_Programa_Catalisado_do_Brasil>
and holding chat on IRC
* CAPTCHA
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013/CAPTCHA_-_Teste>
* Engaged in the debate about prohibiting IPs to create articles
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/geral/An%C3%A1lise_dos_novos_artigos_criados_por_IP%27s_(1set2012)>
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiAlgre3.jpg
Meetup in Porto Allegre>
Community engagement
* Wiki meet-up in Porto Alegre
* Note: Brazilian community will hold WikiBrasil
<https://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiBrasil_2012> on October 12-14
* Debates on the Brazil Catalyst Program proposals
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013>
Media Coverage
Helped handling media coverage on the Gibraltarpedia case and couldn’t
handle in time the Philip Roth case (but coverage was not bad at all)
* Gibraltarpedia
http://oglobo.globo.com/tecnologia/escandalo-sobre-artigos-pagos-abalou-wikipedia-6242816
http://oglobo.globo.com/tecnologia/muito-cuidado-com-boca-boca-virtual-6242804
* Philip Roth
http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/prosa/posts/2012/09/14/e-tudo-in-verdade-465428.asp
(we have been contacted but couldn’t answer in time)
http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/roth-a-wikipedia-6129149 (no contact)
http://revistaepoca.globo.com/cultura/luis-antonio-giron/noticia/2012/09/wikipedia-para-que.html
(no contact)
Visit to SF
* Oona and Everton attended the All Hands meeting
* Cross team meetings to discuss how to deploy tests on CAPTCHA on the
Portuguese Wikipedia
* Education program meetings for planning 2013
* Meeting with Sue and Anasuya about the Brazil Catalyst Program
==== Arabic Language Project ====
* We observed through an analysis of the first 12 months of the Arabic
Language Initiative (ALI) a reversal of the declining trends, with
an 28% increase in the number of new editors and an 31% increase in
active editors. See the Sep 2011 - Aug 2012 ALI report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Arabic_Language_Initiative/blogs/Impact_Report_August_2012>
* Community discussion on the criteria for selecting articles for the
QCRI <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCRI> translation project was
concluded by generating lists of the most vital articles
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vital_articles> which are missing
from Arabic Wikipedia.
=== Education Program ===
New training module available for students on wiki
Students can learn the basics of English Wikipedia policies and editing
tips through a new on-wiki tutorial. The four training modules cover an
introduction, Wikipedia's core principles, basics of editing, and
advanced editing. In total, it should take about one hour to complete.
Learn more about the training
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Training/For_students>
Courses kick off in U.S., Canada
More than 60 courses are participating in the U.S. and Canada Wikipedia
Education Program this term, and many students are starting to make
their first edits now. For example, Dr. Chad Tew's mass communications
course is creating articles about journalists who have been killed, and
the students have already selected topics and are starting to do
research. See their work by checking out the course page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Introduction_to_Mass_Communications_(Chad_Tew)>
Research confirms students significantly improve English Wikipedia
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spring2012USCanArtQuality.svg
Spring 2012 U.S. and Canada article quality improvement>
Research data released this month shows that Spring 2012 students in the
U.S. and Canada programs improved the quality of articles by an average
of 6.5 points on a 26-point assessment scale, with 87.9 percent of
articles showing noticeable improvement after student edits. That's a
0.7 point improvement over student work from the Public Policy
Initiative pilot. The new research is part of our ongoing efforts to
determine success factors for future classes in the U.S. and Canada
Education Programs. See the results
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Research/Article_quality/Results>
Professor argues for Wikipedia's use in class
Wikipedia belongs in university classrooms, argued Michigan State
University professor Jonathan Obar in a piece posted on ReadWriteWeb.
The highly informative article walks people through why Wikipedia is a
valuable tool for both teaching and research, and explains the benefits
for each in terms of student learning. Read the article
<http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why-wikipedia-does-belong-in-the-classroom.php>
Cairo students' translation work featured
The Wikimedia Foundation blog featured a post highlighting the work of
two students from the Cairo Pilot, Helana Fola and Mina Saber. Helana
and Mina are both French literature students at Ain Shams University,
and they discovered a skill for French to Arabic translation through
their work with the Cairo Pilot. Learn more about their experiences with
the program
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/24/wikipedia-education-program-cairo-students/>
Professor from Brazil profiled on blog
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EdivaldoMouraSantos.jpg
Edivaldo Moura Santos>
Edivaldo Moura Santos, a professor of physics at the Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro, started using Wikipedia in his classroom in
spring 2012 as part of the Wikipedia Education Program. His students
improved articles on electromagnetism, and he was thrilled with the
unique experience it afforded them, especially in regard to student
learning and engagement. His work was featured in a blog post on the
Wikimedia Foundation blog. Read the post
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/27/edivaldo-moura-santos-brazil-professor/>
=== Fellowships ===
* *Program*: We’re in ongoing conversations about the future of the
Fellowships Program as WMF looks at narrowing focus. Meanwhile,
fellows worked on 5 projects that support editor engagement by
connecting editors to clear information and supportive community:
* *Dispute Resolution*: Results of the August trial
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dispute_Resolution_Improvement_Project>
at the Dispute Resolution Noticeboard have been compiled, and we’re
seeing a 67% decrease in response times and a 16.6% increase in case
resolution rate as a result of the changes. A Request for Comment
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:DRREFORM> on an easier way to file
dispute resolution requests across English Wikipedia is underway.
* *WikiWomen's Collaborative*: In partnership with volunteer WikiWomen
around the world, we launched the WikiWomen's Collaborative
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative>, a
social media initiative connecting women who currently edit or
aspire to edit Wikipedia. The project is engaging experienced and
hopeful new editors via Facebook, Twitter and the new Wikimedia
Foundation blog channel, WikiWomen
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wikiwomen>.
* *Help Pages Redesign*: A redesign
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents/B> of English Wikipedia's
main help page <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents> is complete
and usability tests have been run to compare users' experiences with
it. Results are being compiled for community review in October, when
a redesign proposal for replacing the old page will be brought to
the community for discussion.
* *Small Wiki Editor Engagement*: A new help page system was launched
on Bangla Wikipedia with pages that teach editors about new article
creation
<https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE:%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%87_%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BF_%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7_%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%81_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8%3F>
and other popular editing activities
<https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE:%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%B0_%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF_%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AF%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF>.
Metrics are still being collected, but it appears article creation
has already nearly doubled.
* *Teahouse*: The team has been finishing tasks to wrap up Phase 2
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Phase_2_plan> of the
project, including continuing to refine automated invitations based
on community feedback, and showcasing host activity and easy ways to
get involved with the Teahouse. The main Teahouse
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:Teahouse> pages are going
through a usability redesign to simplify interactions for new
editors. Next steps for the project include automating monthly
metrics
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host_lounge/Metrics> so
that volunteers can continue to track activity in the space, the
creation of a rotating Teahouse maitre d' role
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Teahouse/Maitre_d%27_role> to
empower volunteer ownership over the remaining maintenance tasks,
and improving calls to action that encourage acknowledgement of
positive contributions in the project. A full phase 2 report,
including updated editor retention metrics, will be released next month.
=== Editor Growth and Contribution Program ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Editor_Growth_and_Contribution_Program_logo.png
Logo of the Editor Growth and Contribution Program>
* Following the concept of Teahouse project
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse>, a new page to enable
asking question was added to the design of the *contribution portal
on Arabic Wikipedia*. The feedback of the existing community members
was very positive when they were invited to answer new users'
questions on the newly created page.
* Plans to run the editor growth and contribution program
<http://cis-india.org/openness/editor-growth-and-contribution-on-telegu-wikipedia>
on *Telugu and other Indic languages Wikipedias* were drafted to
explain the program to each language community.
* *Taghreedat <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghreedat> project on training
new Wikipedia editors* is off to a good start. The project runs by
mailing registered volunteers with certain tasks to be performed on
Wikipedia, as a part of a learning cycle to teach them various
Wikipedia editing skills. More than 700 registered volunteers worked
on tasks such as creating their user pages, wikifing and
categorizing existing articles, which resulted in contributing more
than 2500 edits on Arabic Wikipedia so far.
== Human Resources ==
HR supported two major events for the WMF staff. The first was a
Strategy Retreat where Sue, the C-level team, and Directors with
programmatic WMF responsibilities came together to discuss 2012-2013
initiatives, focus, and prioritization. Sue will be taking the output of
this meeting to the board during their October board retreat.
The second was the AllHands, where all WMF staff come together to
discuss current priorities and culturally relevant organizational
issues, such as improving our practices for interacting with staff all
over the world.
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Dan Andreescu, Javascript/UI Engineer (Engineering)
* Mark Holmquist, Software Engineer – Features (Engineering)
Conversion
* Diederik Van Liere, Product Manager - Analytics (Engineering)
New Interns
* Alec Bogossian (Administration)
* William Kelly (Legal)
* Rubina Kwon (Legal)
* Karina Pulec (Legal)
* Julie Trias (Office IT)
New Contractor
* Stefan Petrea (Engineering)
Contracts Extended
* Amir Aharoni, Software Engineer – Internationalization (Engineering)
* Everton Alvarenga, Brazil Education Program Consultant (Global
Development)
* Pau Giner, Interaction Designer (Engineering)
* Heather O’Malley (Fundraiser)
* Max Semenik, Software Engineer – Mobile (Engineering)
* Santhosh Thottingal, Software Engineer – Internationalization
(Engineering)
Departure
* Phil Chang
Contracts Ended
* Shiju Alex
* John Grande
* Subhashish Panigrahi
* Martin Parry
* Noopur Raval
* Sara Smollett
* Nitika Tandon
Department Changes
* James Alexander, Tilman Bayer, Matt Roth and Jay Walsh joined Legal
and Community Advocacy
New Postings
* Data and Experiments Consultant
* Global Education Program Senior Manager
* IT Intern (Spring)
* IT Technician – Tampa, FL
* Software Developer General (Mobile)
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
September Actual: 122
September Total Plan: 145
September Filled: 7, Month Attrition: 5
YTD Filled: 21, YTD Attrition: 11
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
52
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates:
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* We are working on a new design for the Engineering space to
accomodate the growth in the team and to improve the functionality
of the space. This project is schedule to be implemented during this
calendar year.
* We had a successful visit with the Wikimania 2013 team and we
appreciated both the dedication of the team and commitment of their
partners to having a successful Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong.
* We have completed a review of our foreign exchange practice of
converting all donations to USD and look forward to presenting a new
foreign exchange policy and process to the Audit Committee of the
Board of Trustees.
* As part of this new foreign exchange process we have setup a new
muti-currency account in the UK in order to avoid converting some of
our most active currencies to USD when the Wikimedia Foundation will
need them for payments or grant making in those currencies, thus
avoiding transaction cost and limiting currency exchanges.
* The Wikimedia Foundation audit was completed and accepted by the
Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees. The audit will be on the
Wikimedia Foundation web
site after the October Board of Trustees meeting.
== Legal and Community Advocacy ==
* The Legal Fees Assistance Program Request for Comment (RfC)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/Announcement>
is ongoing and is expected to close October 10, 2012.
* Prepared and managed the straw poll regarding the potential name of
the new Travel Project which resulted in the Travel Guide Naming
process poll/vote
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide/Naming_Process>.
* Evaluated multiple names and domains proposed by the community for
inclusion in the naming poll, made necessary preliminary filings to
protect names, and continue to monitor and support process.
* The Wikimedia Foundation has agreed to host a new travel project
site at the request of the Wikimedia community. Unfortunately, on
August 29, Internet Brands, the owner of another travel site called
Wikitravel, sued
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_Brands_v_William_Ryan_Holliday.pdf>
two Wikitravel volunteers. On September 26th, one of the volunteers
filed an anti-SLAPP motion, arguing that Internet Brands’s lawsuit
was a strategic lawsuit against public participation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation>
(“SLAPP”). The motion seeks dismissal of all claims and an award
of attorneys’
fees to cover legal fees incurred in defending the SLAPP. Internet
Brands will have an opportunity to respond to the motion prior to
the court hearing it on November 5, 2012. The motion
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2012-09-26_Notice_of_Defendants%27_Special_Motion_to_Strike.pdf>
is now posted for community review. In other developments, the Wikimedia
Foundation filed its own lawsuit against Internet Brands in San
Francisco, seeking a judicial declaration that Internet Brands has
no lawful right to impede the creation of a new travel website that
will be hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. That filing
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF_complaint_for_declaratory_judgement_September_2012.pdf>
is posted for community review. (see also general "Highlights" section)
* Support planning activities around the new travel project including
reviewing attribution requirements under CC-BY-SA and other issues.
* Preparing staff onboarding modules to acclimate new staff in
community mores and standards
* Provided training to new FDC members on fiduciary duties and
committee processes
* Coordinated with OfficeIT to schedule trainings for
blocking/userrights, etc.
* Contract Metrics:
o 16 - submitted
o 15 - completed
* Trademark Metrics:
o 12 - submitted
o 5 - approved
o 5 - pending
o 1 - denied
o 1 - approval not needed
=== Communications report ===
Much of September was spent focussing on media relations and strategy
efforts around alleged governance and COI issues arising out of the UK.
The team also dedicated time to work around issues resulting from the
legal lawsuits relating to Internet Brands. This month we also restarted
our communications internship programming and we’ll welcome four new
interns who will work on a rotating schedule in and out of the office
over the next six months.
We also directed some support to the month-long Wiki Loves Monuments
festivities, driving some multinational media coverage around the effort.
==== Major announcements ====
No major announcements in September.
==== Major Storylines through September ====
WMUK and allegations of COI (September 28, 2012 - and earlier)
Much of September’s media coverage gravitated around allegations of
conflict of interest, specifically as they related to the Monmouthpedia
and Gibraltarpedia projects. Coverage has been largely negative,
frequently incorrect, and nervously speculative about the impact the
situation has on the reliability of the projects. Corrections and
outreach to journalists continues.
Joint statement from WMF/WMUK
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/28/joint-statement-from-wikimedia-foundation-and-wikimedia-uk/
Further coverage
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57514677-93/corruption-in-wikiland-paid-pr-scandal-erupts-at-wikipedia/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/20/wikimedia_uk_scandal/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/09/20/roger_bamkin_gibraltor_s_repeated_appearance_on_did_you_know_provkes_existential_crisis_for_wikipedia_.html
Internet Brands takes on two Wikimedians (September 5, 2012)
The Wikimedia Foundation has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against
Internet Brands seeking a judicial declaration that Internet Brands has
no lawful right to impede the creation of a new travel website that will
be hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Internet Brands, the owner of the
Wikitravel website, had earlier filed a lawsuit against two Wikitravel
volunteers who had expressed support for the new website. The legal
actions have generated considerable media coverage in what may be the
first lawsuit to address the forking of content governed by a copyleft
license. Media coverage has also focused on WMF and the community’s
efforts to kick off the new travel guide project.
Original blog post from the Wikimedia Foundation
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/05/wikimedia-foundation-seeks-declaratory-relief-in-response-to-legal-threats-from-internet-brands/
Further coverage
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/business/media/once-a-profit-dream-wikitravel-now-bedevils-owner.html
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/09/06/news/wikitravel-drama-wikimedia-and-internet-brands-let-the-lawsuits-fly/
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/7/3299891/wikimedia-internet-brands-lawsuit
http://skift.com/2012/09/06/wikimedia-sues-internet-brands-to-clear-way-for-new-travel-wiki/
Wiki Loves Monuments (September 4, 2012)
Coverage of the events throughout the month was largely upbeat and
positive. Covering the inclusion of the accompanying WLM Android app
facilitated more detailed stories.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/29/wikipedia-launches-worlds-largest-photo-contest/
http://allthingsd.com/20120904/wikipedia-mounts-massive-monthlong-photo-competition/
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/08/help-illustrate-the-internet-with-wikipedias-photo-contest/
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
The Next Web | Wikimedia enables EPUB export feature on Wikipedia for
your offline reading pleasure (September 17)
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/09/18/wikimedia-enables-ebook-export-feature-wikipedia-offline-reading-pleasures/
Gizmodo | Create custom ebook encyclopedias from Wikipedia (September 18)
http://gizmodo.com/5944107/create-custom-ebook-encyclopaedias-from-wikipedia
Guardian | Why Philip Roth needs a secondary source (September 19)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/sep/19/why-philip-roth-needs-secondary-source
Read Write Web | Why Wikipedia does belong in the classroom (September
20) (Response to an earlier RWW editorial questioning WP’s use in the
classroom, written by a WEP faculty)
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why-wikipedia-does-belong-in-the-classroom.php
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Twenty-two blog posts through September.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/
A few highlights
Internationalisation team introduces translation memory and plan for
language teams (September 6)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/06/language-teams-plan-translation-memory-uls/
Donating decommissioned servers (September 18)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/18/server-decommissioning-donations-sept2012/
French literature students in Cairo discover translation skills through
Wikipedia project (September 24)
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/24/wikipedia-education-program-cairo-students/
==== Media Contact, September 2012 ===
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#September_2012
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for September 2012:
* Volume 8, Issue 37, 6 September 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-09-03>
* Volume 8, Issue 38, 10 September 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-09-10>
* Volume 8, Issue 39, 17 September 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-09-17>
* Volume 8, Issue 40, 24 September 2012
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-09-24>
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in September 2012:
1. Jan-Christoph Borchardt (Unhosted e.V.)
2. Valerie Aurora (ADA Initiative)
3. Kim Dodson (Consultant for culture study)
4. Randall Benson (Consultant for culture study)
5. Mark S. Bach (CB2 Builders)
6. Tony Campagna (CB2 Builders)
7. Mark McGregor (LaCube)
8. Taylor Keep (VITAL Environments)
9. Nash Hurley (VITAL Environments)
10. Nate Clinton (Cooper Interactive)
11. Stefan Klocek (Cooper Interactive)
12. Trevor Bolliger (Wikia)
13. Claudia Spencer (BDO Seidman)
14. Andrea Spangrud (BDO Seidman)
15. Kelly Reid (BDO Seidman)
16. Dr. Sal Humphreys (University of Adelaide)
17. Benjamin Mako Hill (Speaker for All Hands Event)
18. Dr. Sal Humphries (Researcher - University of Adelaide)
19. Joe Detrane (Grant Thornton)
20. Kim McCormick (Grant Thornton)
21. Nancy Rose (KPMG)
22. William Pietri (NeedFeed)
23. Assad Waathis (Citibank)
24. Debra Haney (Citibank)
25. Ciny Yawley (Gallagher)
26. Christina Draswidge (Gallagher)
27. Brendan Quinlen (Gallagher)
28. Aaron Dunn (Unhosted e.V.)
29. Stephen Joseph (CCS)
30. Philippe Sion (Unhosted e.V.)
31. Sarayn Ramanan (Unhosted e.V.)
32. Aakash Desai (Mozilla)
33. Athanasios Mazarakis (Forschungszentrum Informatik)
34. Katherine Krug (Everest)
35. Simon Turkalj (CCS)
36. Chris Cavanaugh (CCS)
37. Pete Forsyth (WikiStrategies)
38. Stella Yu (WikiStrategies)
39. Kathy Ramsey (TAI)
40. David Pierce (Axiom Law)
41. Alan Wun (Axiom Law)
42. Owen Davis (Wikia)
43. Tomasz Odrobny (Wikia)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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