[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, July 2013
Tilman Bayer
tbayer at wikimedia.org
Fri Aug 30 23:45:09 UTC 2013
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for July 2013, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_July_2013
and the reports are being 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,_July_2013
Many thanks to those who have translated the June "Highlights" into
Japanese, Korean, Dutch and Chinese (and partly into some other
languages like Malay, Norwegian Bokmål and Portuguese)!
While still focusing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
Suggestions for the upcoming August issue are welcome until next
Wednesday (September 4) at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_items_for_August_2013
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, July 2013
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_August_1,_2013.webm>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of July
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2013-08-01>
(August 1, 2013)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Mobile editing
o 3.2 Wikipedia Zero comes to India
o 3.3 VisualEditor beta launch
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 Editor engagement
o 4.2 Language Engineering
o 4.3 Platform
o 4.4 Multimedia
o 4.5 Mobile
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Online Fundraising
* 6 Grantmaking
o 6.1 Funds Dissemination Committee
o 6.2 WMF Grants
+ 6.2.1 Grants funded in July 2013
+ 6.2.2 Reports accepted in July 2013
o 6.3 Participation Support
+ 6.3.1 Grants funded in July 2013
+ 6.3.2 Reports accepted in July 2013
o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants
+ 6.4.1 Midpoint reports accepted in July 2013
o 6.5 Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation
o 6.6 Brazil Catalyst Project
+ 6.6.1 Institutional Partnerships
+ 6.6.2 Data & Experiments
+ 6.6.3 Education
+ 6.6.4 Meet-ups and events
* 7 Programs
o 7.1 Wikipedia Zero
o 7.2 Wikipedia Education Program
o 7.3 Program Evaluation and Design
* 8 Human Resources
o 8.1 Staff Changes
o 8.2 Statistics
o 8.3 Department Updates
* 9 Finance and Administration
* 10 Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department
o 10.1 LCA Report, July 2013
+ 10.1.1 Contract Metrics
+ 10.1.2 Trademark Metrics
+ 10.1.3 Domains Obtained
+ 10.1.4 Coming & Going
+ 10.1.5 Other Activities
o 10.2 Communications Report, July 2013
+ 10.2.1 Major announcements
+ 10.2.2 Major Storylines through July
+ 10.2.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 10.2.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 10.2.5 Media Contact
+ 10.2.6 Wikipedia Signpost
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for June:
*500 million* (-4.25% compared with May; +6.37% compared with the
previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release July data later
in August)
Page requests for July:
*21.2 billion* (+0.4% compared with June; +19.8% compared with the
previous year)
(Server log data
<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>,
all Wikimedia Foundation content projects including mobile access,
but excluding Wikidata <https://www.wikidata.org> and the Wikipedia
main portal page <https://www.wikipedia.org/>.)
Active Registered Editors for June 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month,
excluding bots):
/data currently under review/
(Database data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors>, all Wikimedia
Foundation projects.)
*Report Card* (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF
projects):
http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/
(Definitions <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Metric_definitions>)
== Financials ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Revenue_%26_Expenses_June_2013_-_Actual_vs_Plan.png>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of June 30, 2013
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_June_2013.png>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of June 30, 2013
(Financial information is only available through June 2013 at the time
of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date June 30, 2013.
Revenue $51,040,795
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $15,224,438
Fundraiser Group $3,463,128
Grantmaking & Programs Group $8,830,248
Governance Group $742,435
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $3,090,563
Finance/HR/Admin Group $5,865,595
Total Expenses $37,216,407
Total surplus $13,824,388
* Revenue for the month of June is $0.48MM versus plan of $0.28MM,
approximately $205K or 74% over plan.
* Year-to-date revenue is $51.04MM versus plan of $46.07MM,
approximately $4.97MM or 11% over plan.
* Expenses for the month of June is $3.39MM versus plan of $3.99MM,
approximately $598K or 15% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, internet hosting, and grant expenses (FDC
grants) partially offset by higher capital expenses, outside
contract services, legal fees, and travel expenses.
* Year-to-date expenses is $37.22MM versus plan of $42.07MM,
approximately $4.85MM or 12% under plan, primarily due to lower
personnel expenses, internet hosting, grant expenses (FDC grants),
and travel expenses partially offset by higher capital expenses,
legal expenses, bank fees, outside contract services, and personal
property tax expenses.
* Cash position is $39.75MM as of June 30, 2013.
== Highlights ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIkipedia_mobile_editor.png>
The new mobile editing interface
=== Mobile editing ===
This month, the mobile web team released new navigation features for
contributors
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/edit-wikipedia-on-the-go/> to all
Wikimedia mobile sites, including the existing upload and watchlist star
features, as well as an edit button. This means that editing (in the
form of section-level markup editing) is now enabled on all mobile
Wikimedia sites for logged-in users. The users of our "beta" channel
will soon see redesigned mobile notifications, as well as guides for
first-time editors and uploaders. (More about the beta channel
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/11/mobile-beta-a-sandbox-for-new-experimental-features/>
and how you can opt in.
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/27/wikimedia-mobile-opt-in-beta/>)
=== Wikipedia Zero comes to India ===
The first Wikipedia Zero launch in India
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/aircel-partnership-brings-wikipedia-zero-to-india/>
gives 60 million mobile phone subscribers free-of-charge access to
Wikipedia on their mobile phones. The promotional campaign around this
launch, led by our partner Aircel, received broad coverage in print and
was accompanied by Twitter and blogging events. Aircel customers now
have free access to Wikipedia in English, as well as to the 19 Indic
language Wikipedias.
=== VisualEditor beta launch ===
In July we enabled the new editing interface on several Wikipedias
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/visualeditor-beta-rollout/> as
the default editor, first for logged-in editors and then for anonymous
users as well. This resulted in a great deal of feedback, and the team
responded with several hundred improvements to fix urgent issues. In
addition, the team deployed user interface improvements, most notably to
the references insertion dialog. Currently, users are making
approximately 800 edits per hour using the VisualEditor on Wikimedia sites.
There are continuing discussions with different language communities
about the positioning of the VisualEditor beta in the user interface and
appropriate notices indicating its beta status. The Wikimedia Foundation
is using the beta period to collect and analyze bug reports, feature
enhancements, and data, to observe actual user behavior, and to improve
the editing experience continuously. Our eventual objective is for
VisualEditor to be the default editor for all Wikipedia users, capable
of letting them edit the majority of content without needing to use the
wikitext editor.
Please help translate the user interface
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/31/translate-ui-wikipedias-visual-editor/>
of VisualEditor.
== Engineering ==
(see also general "Highlights" section)
=== Editor engagement ===
In July, we deployed a few last features and bug fixes for the Article
Feedback Tool <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5>
(AFT5) on the English
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ArticleFeedbackv5> and French
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fr:Sp%C3%A9cial:ArticleFeedbackv5> Wikipedias.
Matthias Mullie released the auto-archive
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Feature_Requirements#Auto-archive_comments>
feature, as well as this list of articles with feedback enabled on
enwiki
<http://ee-prototype.wmflabs.org/metrics/aftv5_enabled_pages.php?wiki=enwiki>
and on frwiki
<http://ee-prototype.wmflabs.org/metrics/aftv5_enabled_pages.php?wiki=frwiki>.
At the request of the French Wikipedia community, Mullie also developed
new feedback notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Watched_Page_-_Feedback>
to let users know when feedback is marked as useful for a page they
watch (or for a comment they posted). The team plans to make the AFT5
tool available to other wiki projects interested in testing this tool,
provided that no new development is required to support their needs, as
outlined in the release plan
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5/Release_Plan_2013>.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notifications_Update_-_Metrics_Meeting_(8-1-2013).pdf?page=3>
Presentation slides about Notifications
Regarding Notifications
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications)>, in July we
released our final features on the English Wikipedia and mediawiki.org
and meta.wikipedia.org. Benny Situ completed development of HTML Email
notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#HTML_single_email_notifications>,
as well as improved notifications
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Feature_requirements#Improved_Notification_Structure>,
based on designs by Vibha Bamba. Fabrice Florin managed the release of
these final features, and prepared this release plan
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo/Release_Plan_2013> to deploy
Notifications on more Wikimedia projects, starting with French and
Polish Wikipedias in August. Dario Taraborelli and Matthias Mullie
updated our new metrics dashboards
<http://ee-dashboard.wmflabs.org/dashboards/enwiki-features>, while
Aaron Halfaker completed his report on our A/B test of new user activity
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Notifications/Experiment_1/Results>.
To learn more,
visit the project portal
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notifications>, read the FAQ page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notifications/FAQ> and join the
discussion on the talk page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notifications>.
=== Language Engineering ===
The language team deployed Universal Language Selector (ULS)
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector> to most Wikimedia
wikis to provide easier configuration options
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/universal-language-selector-uls-deployed-on-more-than-150-wikis/>
to readers and contributors. ULS provides a flexible way to configure
and deliver language settings like interface language, fonts, and input
methods (keyboard mappings). Also, ULS allows users to type text in
different languages not directly supported by their keyboard, read
content in a script for which fonts are not available locally, or
customise the language in which menus are displayed. For more
information, please see the FAQ
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector/FAQ>.
The Language engineering team also mentored summer interns' projects
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/23/updates-from-the-language-engineering-google-summer-of-code-projects/>
to improve language support on our sites, and asked
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/31/translate-ui-wikipedias-visual-editor/>
for volunteer help translating the VisualEditor interface.
=== Platform ===
*Git migration complete*: Now that we've helped move the pywikipediabot
codebase
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/23/pywikipediabot-moving-to-git-on-july-26/>
from our old Subversion repository to our new Git repository, we have
been able to switch svn.wikimedia.org to read-only mode. This ends a
migration that began in 2012
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/15/wikimedia-engineering-moving-from-subversion-to-git/>,
motivated by a desire to enable more participation by volunteers, and to
get improvements to users faster.
=== Multimedia ===
In July, we continued to expand our multimedia team
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia>: Mark Holmquist joined as
front-end software developer, working with product manager Fabrice
Florin and engineering director Rob Lanphier, as well as contractors
Brian Wolff and Jan Gerber. We prepared a first multimedia plan for the
coming year <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/2013-14_Goals> and
discussed our goals with community members in two separate events: a
multimedia roundtable
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Roundtables/Roundtable_2> and an IRC
chat
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2013-07-18b>.
Based on community feedback, we identified five main areas of activity
2013-2014: improving the viewing experience and upload pipeline in the
first half of the year, then focusing on file curation, discovery and
placement in articles for the second half of the year. Our overall goals
for this year are to increase both the number of contributions and files
used in Wikipedia articles. For now, we have started work on a new media
viewer <https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects/multimedia/cards/8>
to display images in larger size when you click on a thumbnail, as well
as display file information and a full-screen viewing option, right on
the same page. We plan to have a first version of that feature next
month, and will be testing it as part of a beta experiment
<https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects/multimedia/cards/2> on a few
pilot sites. We will also be hosting more community planning
discussions, such as this multimedia roundtable at Wikimania 2013
<http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Multimedia_Roundtable>.
To participate in these discussions and keep up with our work, we invite
you to join this new multimedia mailing list
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/multimedia>. Last but not
least, we are also recruiting for two more positions for our team: a
multimedia systems engineer
<http://hire.jobvite.com/Jobvite/Job.aspx?j=oj40Wfw3&c=qSa9VfwQ> and a
senior software engineer
<http://hire.jobvite.com/Jobvite/Job.aspx?j=ouLnWfwi&c=qSa9VfwQ>. Please
spread the word about this unique opportunity to create a richer
multimedia experience for Wikipedia and MediaWiki sites!
=== Mobile ===
July brought mobile editing to logged in users on all Wikimedia mobile
sites, and saw the first Wikipedia Zero launch in India
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/aircel-partnership-brings-wikipedia-zero-to-india/>
(see general "Highlights" section for both).
The Wikipedia Zero engineering team also completed our first automated
testing work, started implementing the Wikipedia Zero software
re-architecture, and fixed problems. During July, we planned for the
upcoming year in Wikipedia Zero. Our engineers are first focusing on
automating testing of our infrastructure and re-architecting our
systems, and will then focus on making Wikipedia Zero easier to use for
both the telecom carriers and for the people reading articles via Zero,
so as to support the continued growth of the program.
The engineering department also worked on:
* Improving language support on our sites via summer interns' projects
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/23/updates-from-the-language-engineering-google-summer-of-code-projects/>
and easier configuration options
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/universal-language-selector-uls-deployed-on-more-than-150-wikis/>,
and asking
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/31/translate-ui-wikipedias-visual-editor/>
for help translating the VisualEditor interface
* Announcing
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/31/cooper-ux-bootcamp-wikipedia-mobile-editing/>
a future user experience bootcamp focusing on mobile editing
* Updating
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/01/future-https-wikimedia-projects/>
the Wikimedia movement on how we intend to protect our users'
privacy with HTTPS
* Signing
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/26/future-third-party-releases-mediawiki/>
a contract with longtime MediaWiki contributors to manage MediaWiki
releases for the open source community
* Explaining
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/03/wikimedia-foundation-fixes-software-bugs/>
how we find and gather software problems and deliver the fixes to users
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for July 2013 can
be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/July
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_Banner_1.png>
Mobile fundraising banner
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mobile_banner_2.png>
Mobile fundraising banner
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* Rosie Lewis joined the team as the new Development Research Analyst.
* Zack Exley has stepped down of his Chief Revenue Officer position
and Lisa Seitz Gruwell was promoted to Chief Revenue Officer.
* Sara Lasner is the new Development Director, leading the foundations
and major gifts team.
* Completed annual reports for the Sloan Foundation and the Stanton
Foundation.
=== Online Fundraising ===
* The fundraising team began running banners worldwide at the start of
the 2013-2014 fiscal year on July 1, 2013. Banners were displayed to
5% of Wikipedia readers for just one impression per reader. The team
ran approximately 20 A/B tests of banner messages, designs, and
payment flows. In the month of July, we raised approximately USD
$2.9 million from 200,000 donors. For more information on testing,
please see the fundraising 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013> page on
Meta-wiki.
* Integrated and tested Adyen, our additional payment processor. Adyen
will enable new payment options and redundancy for card donation
processing.
* We completed the system upgrades required to display mobile banners
and ran a short test of our first mobile fundraising banners (see
screenshots).
* Megan Hernandez was promoted to Director of Online Fundraising.
== Grantmaking ==
Department highlights
* The eligibility status for Wikimedia entities interested in applying
for Round 1 of the FDC process in 2013-14 (proposals due October 1)
was announced. Gaps in eligibility need to be closed by September 15.
* The IdeaLab redesign is complete, and will showcase dynamic content,
highlighting recent and active collaboration on ideas and people in
the lab. Use IdeaLab <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab> to
test out your ideas for grants!
=== Funds Dissemination Committee ===
* FDC eligibility is announced for 2013-2014 Round 1.
o Potentially eligible entities must meet all eligibility gaps
before eligibility is confirmed on 15 September 2013 in order to
be eligible for 2013-2014 Round 1 of the FDC process.
o Proposals for that round are due by 1 October 2013.
o All potentially eligible entities have been contacted by the WMF
to discuss their eligibility status. Two IRCs were hosted to
answer any questions about this process, and support all
interested entities.
o To improve clarify around eligibility status, the WMF has added
a column to both checklists to indicate potential eligibility
gaps that are ongoing requirements to maintain eligibility
throughout the FDC process.
o See FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round>
and
FDC_portal/Eligibility_checklist/Current_round
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_checklist/Current_round>
for details.
* FDC Q2 progress reports are all submitted by entities receiving
funding in 2012-2013 Round 1 of the FDC process by 30 July 2013. A
staff summary of these reports will be available in the first half
of September.
=== WMF Grants ===
* 6 grants funded in July 2013
* 3 grants not funded in July 2013
* 8 grant requests currently open
==== Grants funded in July 2013 ====
* The conference to disseminate Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
in regions of Armenia and diaspora (in Armenian and local language
Wikipedias): Grants:Susanna_Mkrtchyan/WikiConference_Yerevan_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Susanna_Mkrtchyan/WikiConference_Yerevan_2013>.
* Organisation of the yearly WikiLovesMonuments competition in Belgium
and Luxembourg: Grants:MADe_-_WM_BE/WLM_BeLux_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:MADe_-_WM_BE/WLM_BeLux_2013>.
* Over the next six months, community members in Nepal are attempting
to gain WMF recognition of their national chapter. They will conduct
a series of outreach programs, mentoring programs to encourage
university students and junior college students to contribute
content to Nepali-, Newari-, Bhojpuri-, Pali-, Sanskrit- and
English-language Wikipedias:
Grants:User:Ganesh_Paudel_-_Wikipedia_Expansion_Program_in_Nepal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:User:Ganesh_Paudel_-_Wikipedia_Expansion_Program_in_Nepal>.
* Wiki Loves Monuments is an international photography competition,
organized since 2010. The aim of Wiki Loves Monuments international
is to provide support for national organizers and organize the
international layer of WLM:
Grants:WM_NL/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_international_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_NL/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_international_2013>.
* A project to encourage and facilitate the capturing and upload of
photographs of South African heritage sites or monuments under free
licensing during the heritage month: Grants:WM_ZA/WLM-ZA-2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_ZA/WLM-ZA-2013>.
* During the last months of 2013, Amical will continue working with
GLAM institutions (specially with Catalan network of libraries), and
also with education cen.ters, mainly universities:
Grants:Amical/GLAM_&_outreach_(II)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Amical/GLAM_%26_outreach_(II)>
* The United States and Canada Wikipedia Education Program is a
project currently supported by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and
volunteers across the two countries, and is transitioning to an
independent
organization.Grants:User:Pjthepiano_-_Wiki_Education_Foundation/US_and_Canada_Wikipedia_Education_Program
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:User:Pjthepiano_-_Wiki_Education_Foundation/US_and_Canada_Wikipedia_Education_Program>.
==== Reports accepted in July 2013 ====
* Grants:WM_UA/Free_Vocal_Music_concert
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_UA/Free_Vocal_Music_concert>
* Grants:WM_IT/Wikimedia_Conference_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IT/Wikimedia_Conference_2013>
* Grants:WM_IN/Program_Grant_Quarter_1_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/Program_Grant_Quarter_1_2013>
* Grants:Wikimedia_Slovakia/Wikipedia_workshop_within_KAEST
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wikimedia_Slovakia/Wikipedia_workshop_within_KAEST>
=== Participation Support ===
Some changes were made to the program pages to reflect changes to the
operation of the participation support committee and the administration
of this program: Participation:Support
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Support>.
==== Grants funded in July 2013 ====
* Participation:Paulproteus/OSCON_and_Community_Leadership_Summit
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Paulproteus/OSCON_and_Community_Leadership_Summit>
* Participation:Ragesoss/History_of_Science_Society_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Ragesoss/History_of_Science_Society_2013>
==== Reports accepted in July 2013 ====
* Participation:Noopur28/OpenSourceBridge13
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Noopur28/OpenSourceBridge13>
* Participation:Paulproteus/Open_Source_Bridge_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Paulproteus/Open_Source_Bridge_2013>
* Participation:Sky_Harbor/OpenSourceBridge13
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Sky_Harbor/OpenSourceBridge13>
* Participation:Ocaasi,_Valeriej,_The_wub/Open_Help_Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Ocaasi,_Valeriej,_The_wub/Open_Help_Conference>
* Participation:Ocaasi,_Valeriej,_The_wub/Open_Help_Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Ocaasi,_Valeriej,_The_wub/Open_Help_Conference>
* Participation:Ocaasi,_Valeriej,_The_wub/Open_Help_Conference
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Ocaasi,_Valeriej,_The_wub/Open_Help_Conference>
=== Individual Engagement Grants ===
* We launched and are currently testing a redesign of the IdeaLab
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab>, to showcase
dynamic content, highlighting
recent and active collaboration on ideas and people in the lab. The
Lab is powered by Percolate
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking_and_Programs/Learning_%26_Evaluation_portal/Surfacing_activity>,
a system of scripts and modules for working with bot-updated
templates, which was developed by Jonathan Morgan to meet the needs
of this project.
* The first 5 IEGs
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-engaging> have reached
their
midpoints - all 5 reports were accepted and the projects will
continue for another 3 months.
* Preparations are underway for an open call for Round 2 of IEG
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG>, which begins Aug 1.
New committee members will
be accepted by 31 Aug, and the deadline for new proposals is 30
September.
* Staff facilitated a small meeting of WMF staffers and Wikipedia
community members to discuss the gender gap and brainstorm ideas for
how grantmaking may support increased diversity. A writeup on meta
is forthcoming.
==== Midpoint reports accepted in July 2013 ====
* Grants:IEG/Consolidate_wikiArS_to_involve_art_schools/Midpoint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Consolidate_wikiArS_to_involve_art_schools/Midpoint>
* Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Adventure/Midpoint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Adventure/Midpoint>
* Grants:IEG/Replay_Edits/Midpoint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Replay_Edits/Midpoint>
* Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_data_browser/Midpoint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/MediaWiki_data_browser/Midpoint>
* Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_vision/Midpoint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_vision/Midpoint>
=== Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation ===
* Evan Rosen left the organization to pursue his interests in machine
learning and pure research; we wish him all the best.
* At the same time, Jonathan Morgan joined the team full time as
Learning Strategist, and will be working remotely. Haitham Shammaa
also joined the team as Global South Learning Strategist.
* The team now consists of Jessie Wild (Senior Manager), Haitham and
Jonathan, and will support the Grantmaking department's research,
reporting and learning needs, in partnership with Program Evaluation
and Design.
* The team worked on Wikimetrics, and analysis for the FDC annual report.
=== Brazil Catalyst Project ===
==== Institutional Partnerships ====
* Advanced in detailing a project proposal with Ação Educativa
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013/Parcerias/A%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Educativa/Projeto>
* Getting together and carrying on meetings at Ação Educativa has been
helpful for working together, aiming at the partnership dynamics.
==== Data & Experiments ====
* data collection on CAPTCHA
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):HAndrade_(WMF)/Pesquisa_Vandalismo/Segunda_Fase>
for June published.
* Translation of pages with technical documentation -
* Supported the community in evaluating and improving the filters for
the Portuguese Wikipedia
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Filtro_de_edi%C3%A7%C3%B5es/Estat%C3%ADsticas#Detec.C3.A7.C3.B5es_realizadas>
* Created graph monitor for mobile edits
<http://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/Interface_Movel:ptwiki>
* Under development:
o Configuration of Portuguese Wikipedia data for automatic update
on ptwikis <http://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/>, instead of on Limn.
o localization of Snuggle for the PT-WP
o Timeline: advancements on timeline prototype connecting events
to data on the PT-WP
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):JXavier_(WMF)/Linha_do_tempo>.
o Improvement and evaluation of Abuse Filters
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Especial:Filtro_de_abusos>
o WikiProjeto Medicina: Bot’s bug fixing, and a series of tests
for approval
==== Education ====
* Onboarding of the new team
* Planning meetings to define the future of the program and best
approches to generate more results in middle/long terms
* Contacts and meetings with current partners (introducing some of our
partners and discussing continuity).
* Contacts and meetings with potential partners for the program
* Staff meeting to replan specific objectives and strategies
* Revision and localization of tutorial materials being done by
Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palestra_Hackeie_a_Wikip%C3%A9dia_-_FISL_14.jpg>
Presentation "Hackeie a Wikipédia!" at FISL14
==== Meet-ups and events ====
* Henrique Andrade, Oona Castro and Rodrigo Padula gave presentations
at the Free Software International Forum to reach different
audiences (developers, researchers, educators, potential editors).
Presentations at FISL
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Correio_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia/18-07-2013/Eventos>
/ English-language blog post
<http://softwarelivre.org/fisl14/blog/wikimedia-multiple-ways-to-collaborate-and-cooperate>
at softwarelivre.org
* Wikisampa 18
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Encontros/WikiSampa/WikiSampa_18>
- Meetup in São Paulo with volunteers. Main ideas that came out of
it include keeping regular meetings taking place, organizing
Hackathons and a national meetup (WikiBrasil 2013)
* Contacts to organize Hackathons - Hacklab and Garoa Hacker Club
* Rodrigo Padula also spoke in the regional Free Software forum in Rio.
== Programs ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustrating_Wikipedia_brochure.pdf>
The Wikimedia Commons brochure
Department highlights
* The first Wikipedia Zero launch in India, giving 60 million mobile
phone subscribers free of charge access to Wikipedia on their mobile
phones (see general "Highlights" section and below)
* A new brochure, "Illustrating Wikipedia: A guide to contributing
content to Wikimedia Commons"
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustrating_Wikipedia_brochure.pdf>,
has been
finalized. The brochure walks new Commons contributors through the
basics of what Commons is, how to upload files, how to use files on
Wikimedia projects and in other applications, and what free licenses
are. It is available both on Commons and in print. The document has
been created in cooperation with the global Wikimedia Commons community.
=== Wikipedia Zero ===
* We had our first official Wikipedia Zero launch in India, with
Aircel. Aircel gives us access to 60 million mobile phone
subscribers. English and all of the Indic languages that are on
Wikipedia are available for free through Aircel. There are currently
19 Indic language Wikipedias: Hindi (hi), Bengali (bn), Marathi
(mr), Telugu (te), Tamil (ta), Urdu (ur), Kannada (kn), Gujarati
(gu), Sindhi (sd), Bhojpuri (bho), Malayalam (ml), Oriya (or),
Punjabi (pa), Assamese (as), Nepali (ne), Kashmiri (ks), Newari
(new), Bishnupriya Manipuri (bpy), and Sanskrit (sa).
o The awareness campaign was the largest and most proactive by a
Zero mobile partner to date, and included a Twitter campaign and
promotion, a blogging event, creative online and offline
marketing and a video quote from Kul Wadhwa.
o We also received the most launch press coverage to date:
+ Print Coverage 156
# Cat A: 59
# Cat B: 90
# Cat C: 7
+ Online Coverage 90
+ Total Coverage 246
o A few examples:
+ *The Economic Times
<http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/aircel-to-offer-free-mobile-wikipedia-access/articleshow/21334289.cms>*
+ *Livemint & The Wall Street Journal
<http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/3xbhFkgJnxKKK896WqGauK/Aircel-to-offer-free-access-to-Wikipedia.html>*
+ *The Times of India
<http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-25/telecom/40792681_1_telecom-operator-aircel-today-aircel-customers-anupam-vasudev>*
o Blog post by Amit Kapoor about bringing Wikipedia Zero to India
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/aircel-partnership-brings-wikipedia-zero-to-india/>
* We completed our first cut of automation testing, started the
implementation of the Wikipedia Zero software re-architecture, and
patched bugs.
* We are currently focusing on test automation and re-architecture
concurrent with SMS/USSD and J2ME releases, and afterward will be
focusing efforts on end user UX and carrier-oriented enhancements
that will support the continued growth of the program.
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
Global
* Sophie Österberg joined the Wikimedia Foundation as the Global
Education Program Manager. Sophie previously ran educational efforts
for Wikimedia Sweden.
* Gathering and sorting information about various educational efforts
globally. In total, as we know of at the moment, 50 educational
efforts around the world, led by chapters and individual volunteers.
* Conversations with professors, chapter members, and others working
in education from Ireland, the Philippines, Bangladesh, the United
Kingdom, and Brazil.
* Outreach to various countries who previously have shown interest in
running a Wikipedia Education Program who are now getting initial
support by being directed to material, training and possibility to
talk to others running successful Wikipedia Education Programs.
US/Canada Program
* Preparing classes for Fall 2013 term, beginning August-September.
o Recruiting/training new Ambassadors for Fall 2013 term.
o On-boarding new professors for Fall 2013 term.
* Ambassadors have been hosting workshops for professors and other
volunteers at various universities.
* Began verifying data for English Wikipedia plagiarism research project.
Arab World Program
* Tighe Flanagan joined the Wikimedia Foundation as Wikipedia
Educaiton Program Arab World Program Manager. Tighe took three
classes that participated in the pilot of the Wikipedia Education
Program in the United States, and he looks forward to using the
Wikipedia editing skills he gained from that, his background serving
in the Peace Corps in Jordan, and his Arabic language skills to
encourage the expansion of the program in the Arab World.
* Students in Egypt and Jordan continued to contribute to Wikipedia,
as the end of their terms wraps up in early August.
* Faris, Tighe, and LiAnna planned a Wikipedia Education Program Arab
World meeting, to be held in Amman, Jordan, in August and attended
by volunteer leaders from the program.
Communications
* Finalized introductory the Wikimedia Commons brochure: "Illustrating
Wikipedia: A guide to contributing content to Wikimedia Commons"
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustrating_Wikipedia_brochure.pdf>
(see also above)
* Three blog posts:
o Writing about a parasite? Yes, welcome to Wikipedia education
programme in Sweden
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/sweden-linnaeus-university/>
o Using rural school computer labs for Wikipedia
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/11/namibia-education-update/>
o The humming teachers
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/17/the-humming-teachers/>
* Two newsletters:
o 2 July
<http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/2_July_2013>
o 16 July
<http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/16_July_2013>
=== Program Evaluation and Design ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PE%26D_August_Metrics_2013.pdf?page=3>
Program Evaluation and Design (PE&D) presentation slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PED_Understanding_pre_and_post_survey_results_June_2013.png>
Evaluation of the Budapest workshop: Pre/post event survey results
* Budapest Workshop follow-ups
o Blog post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/11/finding-out-what-works-first-workshop-program-evaluation/>
o Pre and Post Workshop Survey results posted
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/News/Budapest_Pilot_PRE-POST_Survey_Results>
* New UserMetrics Opt-In Forms
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/Resources/UserMetrics/Forms>
developed by legal with input from Budapest workshop participants
and PE&D team
* First IRC Office Hours hosted. A great group of participants
interested in PE&D showed up and the entire team participated in the
session. Details here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/Events#Past_office_hours>
* PE&D space <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Index> launched on Meta
o Includes an FAQ, a crowdsourced Q&A space, and an extensive
growing list of resources about program evaluation and design.
* Portal development
o PE&D will be partnering with Learning & Evaluation to develop
The Workshop, an all-evaluation encompassing space where
Wikimedia community members can come together and discover a
"one stop shop" about all things evaluation - program and
organizational. This space will be housed on meta.
o Portal will be launched on October 1.
* Announcement list launched. Anyone interested in PE&D can sign up here:
o https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-ped
== Human Resources ==
HR has worked to wrap up the *annual review* cycle and implement annual
merit and cost-of-living increases. With F&A, we co-hosted a *Wikimania
travel brown bag*, bringing in guests from the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (https://www.eff.org ) to talk about internet security while
traveling to Asia. We also hosted a 1-day WMF *leadership team retreat*
with all directors and managers to walk through guiding principles
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Wikimedia_Foundation_Guiding_Principles>
and organizational values, and how they are operationalized. In addition
to supporting many new hires and creating a *new Careers page on
LinkedIn
<http://www.linkedin.com/company/wikimedia-foundation/careers>*, we
implemented PlanSource, a new *benefits* website which should roll out
this month, added a FlexiPass for ease of use for those in the US using
the pre-tax commuter benefit, and Benecards that allows payment like a
credit card for those in the US using the pre-tax cafeteria plan. The
*401k committee* met again to improve existing funds, with new index
fund selections now available.
The CTCO role was highlighted by Inc magazine online ("The
Cat-Herding-est Job on the Planet
<http://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan/wikimedia.html>").
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* C. Scott Ananian, Software Engineer – Parsoid (Engineering)
* Runa Bhattacharjee, Language Outreach & QA Coordinator (Engineering)
* Bryan Davis, Senior Software Engineer (Engineering)
* Rosalind Lewis, Development Associate (Fundraiser)
* Anna Koval, Community Advocate (Legal & Community Advocacy)
* Lisa Martinez, Executive Assistant to the Executive Director (ED)
* Sophie Österberg, Global Education Program International Contractor
(Grantmaking & Programs)
* Dennis Porter, AP Clerk (Finance)
* Kenan Wang, Product Manager, Mobile (Engineering)
* Sean Pringle, Database Administrator (DBA, Technical Operations)
New Interns
* Saumya Chopra (Human Resources)
New Contractors
* KaMan Bhattacharya (Fundraiser)
* Arlo Breault (Engineering)
* David Chan (Engineering)
* Tighe Flanagan (Grantmaking & Programs)
* Bryony Jones (continuing as an International contractor for Fundraiser)
* Marc Ordinas (Engineering)
* Rebecca Neumann (Communications)
Contracts Extended
* Christian Aistleitner
* Emily Blanchard (Human Resources)
* Andrew Garrett (Engineering)
* Jan Gerber (Engineering)
* Michelle Grover (Engineering)
* Jami Mathewson (Grantmaking & Programs)
* Heather McAndrew (Human Resources)
* Kirsten Menger-Anderson
* Michael Ray (Administration)
* Max Semenik (Engineering)
Departures
* Bryony Jones (continuing as an International contractor for Fundraiser)
* Evan Rosen
Contracts Ended
* Jeroen DeDauw
* Tiffany Li
* Adrian Rounce
* Jonas Xavier
New Postings
* Development Outreach Manager
* Front-End Developer- Analytics
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
July Actual: 152
July Total Plan: 174
July Filled: 9, Month Attrition: 2
YTD Filled: 9, YTD Attrition: 2
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
41
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* Finance and Fundraising have significantly lowered the cost of
*foreign exchange* for payments, grants and donations.
* Completed *financial review site visits*, with the grants team, to
Wikimedia Nederland, Wikimedia Österreich, and Wikimedia Sverige. A
report on the site visits will be presented to the Audit Committee
at its fall meeting.
* CFA and the Event Coordinator met with the *Wikimania 2014*
organizing team to begin the process of Wikimania 2014. The meeting
inculded working on the contract for the venue and making a decision
on the who will be the fiscal sponsor for Wikimania 2014. At this
point, it has been decided that the Wikimedia Foundation will serve
as fiscal sponsor for Wikimania 2014.
* The *2013-14 Annual Plan
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:2013-2014_WMF_Plan_As_Published.pdf>*
and the Annual Plan Questions and Answers
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2013-2014_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers>
were posted on the Wikimania Foundation web site.
* The Finance *eligibility review of chapters* who submitted letters
of intent to apply for an *FDC* grant has been completed and posted
on the FDC Portal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round>.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
=== LCA Report, July 2013 ===
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 22
* Completed : 14
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 18
* Approved : 1
* Pending : 14
* Denied : 1
* Approval not needed: 1
==== Domains Obtained ====
wikimedia.is, wikimedia.ae, wikipedia.ae
==== Coming & Going ====
* LCA says goodbye to one of our summer legal interns, Jenny Bloom
(Harvard), and wishes her all the best!
==== Other Activities ====
* LCA worked hard with the rest of the *Wikipedia Zero* team to close
the partnership agreement with Aircel to offer 60 million mobile
users in India free access to Wikipedia (free as in beer, as well as
in speech!).
* LCA is engaging in a *community discussion on trademarks
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trademark_practices_discussion>*
to get the community’s
thoughts on our trademark policy and practice. So far, we have
received around 100 comments, based on which we have started
preparing a new trademark policy draft.
* The month-long initial *community consultation about privacy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_(2013)>*
and what we can
do to improve our current privacy policy ended. We got a lot of
great ideas and suggestions from the community and have been working
on crafting a first draft of a new privacy policy that embodies that
feedback. We hope to present drafts of this new privacy policy as
well as a draft of a new access to nonpublic information policy to
the community for feedback in early September.
* The selection procedure for deciding the *new Wikivoyage logo*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_selection_procedure> was
finalized by the community and
the submission period (10-24 July 2013) resulted in lots of great
ideas. The first round of voting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage/Logo/2013/R1/Gallery>
began on 26 July 2013 and
ended today, 01 August 2013.
* LCA has continued monitoring of the *PRISM
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PRISM>* situation,
including signing a letter
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/18/wikimedia-foundation-letter-transparency-nsa-prism/>
with CDT, EFF, etc., and kept in contact with activist groups.
* Geoff will give a *Wikimania talk* titled *“Our Legal Strategy Going
Forward: A Talk with the WMF General Counsel”
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Discussing_Our_Legal_Strategy_Going_Forward:_A_Talk_with_the_WMF_General_Counsel>*.
It will include the entire legal team on a panel, to discuss our
work with the community. We welcome you to join this and the other
Wikimania talks given by LCA.
* Luis and Stephen will present a Wikimania talk titled *"Open
Culture, Open Data, Open Source"
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Open_Culture,_Open_Data,_Open_Source>*.
* Philippe will give a Wikimania talk titled *"Working together,
alone: A gathering of functionaries"
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Working_together,_but_separately:_a_gathering_of_functionaries>*.
=== Communications Report, July 2013 ===
July was a busy month for the communications team, with three major
announcements, preparations for Wikimania 2013, and an increase in
communications support for launches in the month, including the beta
roll out of VisualEditor. The team also prepared several presentations
to be held at Wikimania 2013, which you are welcome to attend:
* "Wikimedia storytelling: how we show the movement to the world
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_storytelling:_how_we_show_the_movement_to_the_world.>"
(panel, Matthew and Tilman with Victor Grigas and User:The ed17)
* "Fun user experience is SRS BZNSS, and so can you
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Fun_user_experience_is_srs_bznss,_and_so_can_you>
(Heather, with Siko Bouterse and Jake Orlowitz/User:Ocaasi)
* "Editor surveys: Taking the pulse of the community
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Editor_surveys:_Taking_the_pulse_of_the_community>"
(Tilman)
* "IdeaLab Brainstorm
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/IdeaLab_Brainstorm>"
- share ideas to improve Wikimedia projects, websites, and
communities. (Heather, with Siko Bouterse and hopefully many others!)
==== Major announcements ====
*/Aircel partners with Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile
Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero/
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Aircel_partners_with_Wikimedia_Foundation>*
(25 July 2013)
Aircel subscribers to be the first in India to have free access to
Wikipedia on their mobile phones.
*/Wikimania 2013 comes to Hong Kong, August 9–11/
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimania_2013_Hong_Kong_Announcement>*
(16 July 2013)
Wikimania 2013 is coming to Hong Kong this August 9–11. Wikimania has
been, since 2005, the premier annual international gathering of the
Wikimedia community, with participation from experts, academics, and
Wikimedia enthusiasts.
/Ana Toni Announced as New Wikimedia Foundation Board Member/
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Ana_Toni_Announced_as_New_Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Member>
(8 July 2013)
Ana is currently the CEO for GIP (Public Interest Management), a
consultancy firm based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which works for
foundations, non-profit organizations and businesses on social and
environmental issues.
==== Major Storylines through July ====
Wikimedia Foundation and Aircel launch first Wikipedia Zero partnership
in India (July 25)
WMF launched its first major Wikipedia Zero partnership in India in
July, partnering with Aircel to bring free access to Wikipedia to 60
million customers. The launch received immediate and positive response
on Twitter, where Aircel announced an #IwikiWhen
<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23IwikiWhen> promotion. More than 150
media outlets in India published almost all positive-tone stories.
http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/07/25/wikipedia-zero-arrives-in-india-dropping-mobile-data-charges-for-60m-aircel-subscribers/
http://www.themobileindian.com/news/13297_Aircel-users-can-now-access-Wikipedia-for-free-on-mobiles
http://www.medianama.com/2013/07/223-wikipedia-partners-aircel-to-offer-free-access/
Editing on Mobile Wikipedia launched (July 25)
WMF's Mobile Web team enabled editing on mobile Wikipedia in late July,
resulting in a large number of positive-tone coverage in tech and media
blogs. Almost all of the coverage was triggered by a single tweet from
the mobile team, followed by a detailed blog post.
(related blog post:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/edit-wikipedia-on-the-go/ )
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/25/wikipedia-mobile-editing/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57595593-93/wikipedia-rolls-out-editing-tool-for-mobile-devices/
http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/technology/34871-wikipedia-mobile-editing-wikimedia-foundation
Most controversial topics on Wikipedia study (July 18)
A research paper ("The most controversial topics in Wikipedia: A
multilingual and geographical analysis") released in May and widely
circulated in July received considerable international coverage. The
paper studied edit wars from 10 different language versions of
Wikipedia, and aimed to understand "convergent and divergent
social-spatial priorities, interests and preferences." Global media
mostly relayed the English top 10 list of the articles most susceptible
to edit warring, with a neutral tone.
(link to original study: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.5566)
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517101/edit-wars-reveal-the-10-most-controversial-topics-on-wikipedia/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23354613
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/491979/20130718/wikipedia-edited-articles-9-11-israel-hitler.htm
VisualEditor beta launch garners media attention (July 2)
VisualEditor's big July beta roll-out wasn't driven by a major press
push, but the blog post and overall increased visibility of the
interface resulted in important coverage in mostly tech blogs. Media
coverage has been mostly positive, generally highlighting the historic
importance of the roll-out.
(related blog post:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/01/visualeditor-beta-rollout/)
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/02/wikipedia-visualeditor/
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/07/02/wikimedia-rolls-out-its-wysiwyg-visual-editor-for-logged-in-users-accessing-wikipedia-articles-in-english/
http://tech2.in.com/news/web-services/visualeditor-rolling-out-to-all-loggedin-english-wikipedia-editors/906680
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
Is This the Most Interesting Opening Paragraph Wikipedia's Ever
Published?
<http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/11/is_this_the_most_interesting_opening_paragraph_wikipedia_s_ever_published>
| Foreign Policy | July 11
Hebrew Wikipedia Celebrates 10th Anniversary
<http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/272003> | Arutz Sheva
7 | July 9
(also in Globes.co.il
<http://www.globes.co.il/serve/globes/printwindow.asp?did=1000860581>)
With a Prized Base of 80,000 Global Volunteers, Wikipedia Looks Ahead
Cautiously
<http://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/22553-with-a-prized-base-of-80-000-global-volunteers-wikipedia-looks-ahead-cautiously.html>
| Nonprofit Quarterly | July 2
Internet account believed to be Adam Lanza's shows early obsession with
mass murder
<http://boingboing.net/2013/07/01/internet-account-believed-to-b.html> |
BoingBoing.net | July 1
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Blog.wikimedia.org ran 52 posts in July 2013.
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/> Twelve posts were multilingual
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>, including French,
Swedish, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, Italian, Dutch, French, Catalan. Some
highlights:
* *Working to improve smaller language Wikipedias: Viatcheslav Ivanov
profile
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/05/viatcheslav-ivanov-profile/>
| July 5, 2013*
* *Wikisource vision development and open access
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/09/wikisource-vision-development-and-open-access/>
| July 9, 2013*
* *Call for input on the new Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy-policy/>
| June 18, 2013*
* *Researching collaboration for a better world: John T. Riedl (1962 –
2013)
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/18/researching-collaboration-better-world-john-riedl-1962-2013/>
| July 18, 2013*
* *Edit Wikipedia on the go
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/25/edit-wikipedia-on-the-go/> |
July 25, 2013*
==== Media Contact ====
Media contact through July 2013:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#July_2013
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for July 2013:
* Volume 9, Issue 26
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-07-03>,
3 July 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 27
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-07-10>,
10 July 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 28
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-07-17>,
17 July 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 29
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-07-24>,
24 July 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 30
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-07-31>,
31 July 2013
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in July 2013:
1. Simon Knight (PhD candidate, Open University's Knowledge Media
Institute in UK)
2. Holger Müller (German counsel, Schlüschen Müller Rechtsanwalte)
3. Mark Matta (Pager Duty)
4. Scott Anderson (Pager Duty)
5. Jason Asbahr (Monstrous)
6. Mike Meighan (CB2)
7. Sarah Pearson (Creative Commons)
8. Brett Somers (Education Transformation Through Technology)
9. Lee Eckert (Vital)
10. Nancy Rose (KPMG)
11. Monica Opoku (KPMG)
12. Jared Lopiccola (Noble)
13. Bill Drendorff (PPT)
14. Randall Benson (Benson Consulting)
15. Marco Berliri (Hogan Lovells)
16. Neal Katyal (Solicitor General)
17. Virginia Sutton (J & D)
18. Valerie Aurora (TAI)
19. David Peters (Exbrook)
20. Alex List (Domo)
21. Kent Phelpy (CB2 Builders)
22. Adam Abeles (TalentBin)
23. K. Adam White (Bocoup)
24. Lopez Hugo (Wikipedia: Map Lab)
25. K McCormick (Brown-Bigelow)
26. Greg Brown (Automattic)
27. Marco Berliri (Hogan Lovells)
28. Neal Katyal (Hogan Lovells)
29. Adrian Dogar (Yuzz)
30. Courtney O'Callaghan (TAI)
31. Jane Park (Creative Commons)
32. Chandra Agarud (Walk SF)
33. Paul Cabral (Integrated Services)
34. Hannah Song (LiNK)
35. Sokeel Park (LiNK)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB
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