[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, August 2013
Tilman Bayer
tbayer at wikimedia.org
Sun Oct 6 08:31:04 UTC 2013
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for August 2013, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_August_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 (this time with a focus on topics from Wikimania), by
providing a translation:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_August_2013
Many thanks to those who have translated the July "Highlights" into
Spanish, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Portuguese
and Chinese (and partly into some other languages like German,
Galician, Turkish and Ukrainian)!
The September WMF report is already in the works, and is planned to be
published next week.
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, August 2013
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_September_5,_2013.webm>
Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting
covering the month of August
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2013-09-05>
(September 5, 2013)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends
* 2 Financials
* 3 Highlights
o 3.1 Foundation staff report on their work at Wikimania
o 3.2 Wikipedia Education Program in the Arab World completes its
third term
o 3.3 HTTPS by default for logged-in users
* 4 Engineering
o 4.1 VisualEditor
o 4.2 Editor engagement
o 4.3 Mobile
* 5 Fundraising
o 5.1 Major Gifts and Foundations
o 5.2 Online Fundraising
* 6 Grantmaking
o 6.1 Annual Plan Grants (FDC)
o 6.2 Project and Event Grants
+ 6.2.1 Grants funded in August 2013
+ 6.2.2 Reports accepted in August 2013
o 6.3 Participation Support
+ 6.3.1 Grants funded in August 2013
+ 6.3.2 Reports accepted in August 2013
o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants
+ 6.4.1 Reports accepted in August 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 Catalyzing Wikipedia - support community on online
acitivites
+ 6.6.4 Education
+ 6.6.5 Meet-ups and events
* 7 Program Development
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 Contract Metrics
o 10.2 Trademark Metrics
o 10.3 Domains Obtained
o 10.4 Coming & Going
o 10.5 Other Activities
o 10.6 Communications Report, August 2013
+ 10.6.1 Major announcements
+ 10.6.2 Major Storylines through August
+ 10.6.3 Other worthwhile reads
+ 10.6.4 WMF Blog posts
+ 10.6.5 Media Contact
+ 10.6.6 Wikipedia Signpost
* 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for July:
*492 million* (-1.50% compared with June; +8.92% compared with the
previous year)
(comScore data
<http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors> for all
Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release August data
later in September)
Page requests for August:
*23.91 billion* (+12.29% compared with July; +31.47% compared with
the previous year)
(Server log data <http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/pageviews>,
all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access, Wikidata
<http://www.wikidata.org/> and the Wikipedia portal page
<http://www.wikipedia.org/>)
Active Registered Editors for July 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_July_2013_-_Actual_vs_Plan.png>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of July 31, 2013
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_July_2013.png>
Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of July 31, 2013
(Financial information is only available through July 2013 at the time
of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and
Year-To-Date July 31, 2013.
Revenue $3,246,242
*Expenses:*
Engineering Group $1,206,978
Fundraiser Group $276,719
Grantmaking & Programs Group $233,032
Grants $151,787
Governance Group $50,035
Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group $262,471
Finance/HR/IT/Admin Group $541,604
Total Expenses $2,722,626
Total surplus $523,616
* Revenue for the month and year to date July is $3.24M versus plan of
$1.00M, approximately $2.24M or 223% over plan.
* Expenses for the month and year to date July is $2.72M versus plan
of $3.43M, approximately $706K or 21% under plan, primarily due to
lower personnel expenses, capital expenditures, internet hosting,
legal fees, grant expenses, and travel expenses partially offset by
higher payment processing fees that resulted from higher fundraising
revenue.
* Cash position is $39.78MM as of July 31, 2013.
== Highlights ==
=== Foundation staff report on their work at Wikimania ===
From August 7 to August 11, Wikimedians from around the world came
together in Hong Kong for this year's annual Wikimania conference,
organized by Wikimedia Hong Kong in partnership with the Wikimedia
Foundation and Wikimedia Switzerland (see also this month's movement
highlights
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_August_2013>).
The keynote of Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner was
titled "*The Year in Review and the Year Ahead*" (slides
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:SG_WM_presentation2013.pdf>, video
<http://new.livestream.com/socreclive/wikimania/videos/26943362>), and
the schedule <https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/schedule> included many
other presentations by WMF staff and contractors:
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_HK_ZvD_25.JPG>
WMF Executive Director Sue Gardner presenting her Wikimania keynote
* Steven Walling, Siebrand Mazeland, Diederik van Liere, Maryana
Pinchuk, Howie Fung, Fabrice Florin, James Forrester (with Denny
Vrandečić): "*What is a product manager, and why does Wikimedia need
them?*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/What_is_a_product_manager,_and_why_does_Wikimedia_need_them%3F>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Product_Manager_Panel_Intro.pdf>)
* Philippe Beaudette: "*Working together, but separately: a gathering
of functionaries*" (workshop; abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Working_together,_but_separately:_a_gathering_of_functionaries>)
* Arthur Richards; Siebrand Mazeland; James Forrester; Diederik van
Liere: "*Hacking our teams: Flexible ‘agile’ development at the
WMF*" (panel; abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Hacking_our_teams:_Flexible_%E2%80%98agile%E2%80%99_development_at_the_WMF>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_-_Hacking_our_teams.pdf>)
* Tilman Bayer: "*Editor surveys: Taking the pulse of the community*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Editor_surveys:_Taking_the_pulse_of_the_community>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Editor_surveys_(Wikimania_Hong_Kong,_August_9,_2013).pdf>)
* Siebrand Mazeland and others: "*Ask the developers*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Ask_the_developers>)
* Santhosh Thottingal, Niklas Laxström: "*MediaWiki i18n getting
data-driven and world-reusable*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/MediaWiki_i18n_getting_data-driven_and_world-reusable>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MediaWiki_i18n_getting_data-driven_and_world-reusable.pdf>)
* Niklas Laxström, Amir Aharoni: "*Multilingual Wikimedia Commons -
What can we do about it?*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Multilingual_Wikimedia_Commons_-_What_can_we_do_about_it>)
* Sumana Harihareswara, Guillaume Paumier, Quim Gil, Andre Klapper:
"*Transparency and collaboration in Wikimedia engineering*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Transparency_and_collaboration_in_Wikimedia_engineering>,
notes
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Submissions/Transparency_and_collaboration_in_Wikimedia_engineering>)
* Dario Taraborelli (submitted with Ryan Faulkner): "*The UserMetrics
API: Measuring participation in Wikimedia projects*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_UserMetrics_API:_Measuring_participation_in_Wikimedia_projects>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UserMetrics_Wikimania_2013.pdf>)
* James Forrester, Roan Kattouw, Ed Sanders, Timo Tijhof (with Inez
Korczyński): "*VisualEditor: The present and future of editing
wikis*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/VisualEditor:_The_present_and_future_of_editing_our_wikis>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_-_VisualEditor_-_The_present_and_future_of_editing_our_wikis.pdf>,
extended slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_-_VisualEditor_-_The_present_and_future_of_editing_our_wikis_-_Full_build.pdf>,
video
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_-_VisualEditor_-_The_present_and_future_of_editing_our_wikis.webm>)
* Siko Bouterse, Heather Walls (with Jake Orlowitz): "*Fun user
experience is SRS BZNSS, and so can you*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Fun_user_experience_is_srs_bznss,_and_so_can_you>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fun_is_srs_bznss.pdf>)
* Katy Love, Anasuya Sengupta (with FDC members): "*Nobody knows, but
everyone cares: How to submit an awesome application to the Funds
Dissemination Committee*" (panel and round-table discussion;
abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Nobody_knows,_but_everyone_cares:_How-to_submit_an_awesome_application_to_the_FDC>)
* Asaf Bartov: "*WMF's New Global South Strategy*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/WMF%27s_New_Global_South_Strategy>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF%27s_New_Global_South_Strategy.pdf>)
* Diederik van Liere, Dario Taraborelli: "*Datafying Wikimedia: Data
products and services to empower our communities*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Datafying_Wikimedia>)
* Brandon Harris: "*Flow: The future of collaboration*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Flow:_The_future_of_collaboration>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flow_-_the_Future_of_Collaboration.pdf>)
* Maryana Pinchuk: "*Roundtable on Messaging and Discussions*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Roundtable_on_Messaging_and_Discussions>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flow_roundtable_slides.pdf>)
* Jessie Wild (with Martin Rulsch): "*Wikimania scholarships*"
(discussion; abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimania_scholarships>)
* Geoff Brigham, with the WMF legal team: "*Discussing Our Legal
Strategy Going Forward: A Talk with the WMF General Counsel*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Discussing_Our_Legal_Strategy_Going_Forward:_A_Talk_with_the_WMF_General_Counsel>)
* Luis Villa, Stephen LaPorte: "*Licensing Trends in Open Culture,
Open Data, and Open Source*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Open_Culture,_Open_Data,_Open_Source>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Licensing-Culture,_Data,_Software-Wikimania2013.pdf>)
* Pau Giner: "*Improving the user experience of language tools*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Improving_the_user_experience_of_language_tools>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_-_Improving_the_user_experience_of_Language_Tools.pdf>)
* James Forrester: "*Improving 'admin tools'*" - workshop (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Improving_%22admin_tools%22_workshop>)
* Matthew Roth, Victor Grigas, Tilman Bayer (with Eddie Erhart):
"*Wikimedia storytelling: how we show the movement to the world*"
(panel; abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_storytelling:_how_we_show_the_movement_to_the_world>)
* Steven Walling and others from the E3
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Engagement_Experiments>
team: "*Forget the tutorials,
be bold! How one feature has attracted thousands of new editors*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Forget_the_tutorials,_be_bold!_How_one_feature_has_attracted_thousands_of_new_editors>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GettingStarted-Wikimania2013.pdf>)
* Fabrice Florin: "*Notifications: A new editor engagement tool*"
(abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Notifications>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notifications_Slides_-_08-10-2013.pdf>)
* Ryan Kaldari, Benny Situ: "*How to enhance your MediaWiki extensions
with Echo notifications*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/How_to_enhance_your_MediaWiki_extensions_with_Echo_notifications>)
* Marc-André Pelletier: "*Presenting the Tool Labs*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Presenting_the_Tool_Labs>)
* Erik Moeller: "*Ghosts of Wikis Yet to Come: Three Stories of
Wikimedia's Future*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Ghosts_of_Wikis_Yet_to_Come:_Three_Stories_of_Wikimedia%27s_Future>)
* Jon Robson, Maryana Pinchuk: "*Wikipedia Mobile - The Trojan Horse.
Why MediaWiki has a separate mobile site*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikipedia_Mobile_The_Trojan_Horse_-_Why_MediaWiki_has_a_separate_mobile_site>)
* Fabrice Florin: "*Engaging users on Wikipedia*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Engaging_users_on_Wikipedia>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Engaging_users_on_Wikipedia_-_08-11-2013.pdf>)
* Matthew Flaschen and the E3 team: "*Make your user experience easy
to learn: a guided tour*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Make_your_user_experience_easy_to_learn:_a_guided_tour>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_GuidedTour.pdf>)
* Andre Klapper: "*Improving MediaWiki quality: How everybody can help
with bug report triaging*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Improving_MediaWiki_quality:_How_everybody_can_help_with_bug_report_triaging>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania2013-Improving_MediaWiki_Quality_Bug_Management.pdf>)
* Fabrice Florin: "*Article Feedback: New forms of collaboration
between readers and editors*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Article_Feedback>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Article_Feedback_Slides_-_08-11-2013.pdf>)
* LiAnna Davis (with Mohammed Ouda and Aya Mahfouz): "*Growing the
Arabic Wikipedia through the Wikipedia Education Program*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Growing_the_Arabic_Wikipedia_through_the_Wikipedia_Education_Program>,
slides
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_Wikipedia_Education_Program_Arab_World_slides.pdf>)
* Howie Fung: "*A look into next year: WMF Product Roadmap*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Britannica_to_Wikipedia_to_%3F_Technology_disruption_and_how_we_organize_for_the_future>)
Pre-conference:
* Various WMF Engineering staff took part in the Wikimania DevCamp
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/DevCamp> (hacking days)
* Rod Dunican, LiAnna Davis, Sophie Österberg, Frank Schulenburg:
Various sessions at the Education Program Pre-Conference
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Program_Pre-Conference>
* Siko Bouterse, Heather Walls: "*IdeaLab Brainstorm*" (workshop;
abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/IdeaLab_Brainstorm>)
* Fabrice Florin, Rob Lanphier, Erik Moeller, Ryan Kaldari (with
Andrew Lih): "*Multimedia Roundtable*" (abstract
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Multimedia_Roundtable>,
slides <Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Multimedia_Roundtable_3.pdf>)
Beyond these, Wikimedia Foundation staff and contractors also
participated in various other panels and workshops, and gave lightning
talks <https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/lightning_talks>.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Student_contributions_to_Arabic_Wikipedia,_2012-13.png>
Students contributions to the Arabic Wikipedia, 2012-13
=== Wikipedia Education Program in the Arab World completes its third term ===
The third term of the Wikipedia Education Program in the Arab World
ended with strong results
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/wikipedia-education-program-arab-world-spring-2013/>.
The program began with a small pilot project at two universities in
Egypt in spring 2012. It has now turned into a force on the Arabic
Wikipedia, with students participating in the program in three
countries, adding content to Wikipedia as part of their university
coursework. Last term, students in Egypt, Algeria, and Jordan
contributed 12.79 million bytes of content to the Arabic Wikipedia.
That’s more than double the 5.97 million bytes of the fall 2012 term.
=== HTTPS by default for logged-in users ===
Following concerns over the privacy and security of Wikimedia users due
to recent revelations about surveillance on the Internet, on August 28
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/https-default-logged-in-users-wikimedia-sites/>
the Foundation made changes so that now all logged-in users are, by
default, accessing Wikimedia sites over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
Users can turn this off in their preferences. More information can be
found on Meta-wiki <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/HTTPS>, in various
languages.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for August 2013
can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/August
Department Highlights
Major news in August include:
* A discussion about using the secure HTTP protocol
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/01/future-https-wikimedia-projects/>
on Wikimedia sites, followed by a switch to that protocol for all
registered users
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/https-default-logged-in-users-wikimedia-sites/>;
* The launch of the Notifications feature
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/30/notifications-launch-on-mobile/>
on the mobile site;
* A discussion about how security issues are handled
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/30/team-wikimedia-security-has-a-spot-for-you/>
in our community;
* The Wikimania conference, which was notably an opportunity for the
Language engineering team
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/02/join-the-language-engineer-team-at-wikimania-in-hong-kong-next-week/>
to meet with users and improve language support, particularly for
the Javanese language
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/23/restoring-the-forgotten-javanese-script-through-wikimedia/>;
* A much-anticipated upgrade of the software used by our volunteer
e-mail response team
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/09/wikimedias-email-response-upgrade/>,
OTRS.
=== VisualEditor
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal>
===
In August, the VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor> team
continued to work on this visual interface to edit wiki pages without
markup, and met with the Wikimedia community at Wikimania in Hong Kong
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013> to discuss how to best
improve it. The software saw three major updates this month, with other
smaller updates to fix urgent issues. The focus of this work was on
improving the stability and performance of the system, fixing a number
of bugs uncovered by the community, and making some usability improvements.
Work also continued on Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid>, the
software that converts wikitext to annotated HTML behind the scenes of
VisualEditor. The team continued to improve the compatibility with
existing wiki markup, thanks to the feedback provided by users after
VisualEditor was released in July. The infrastructure used for the
conversion between formats received a much-needed overhaul, notably to
improve performance by changing the storage back-end. Performance
statistics are now recorded, which will make it easier to identify
performance bottlenecks and catch regressions.
=== Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> ===
In August, the Notifications
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications)> feature was
added to Wikipedia in French, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish.
It was well received, particularly the ability to notify people by
mentioning them in a discussion, and the ability to thank users for an
edit. Notifications should be added to all Wikimedia sites in the coming
months.
Development continued on the upcoming discussion system ("Flow
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow_Portal>"). New features were added to the
prototype, notably the revision history and a moderation tool.
A few changes were made to the Article Feedback Tool
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback/Version_5> on the English and
French Wikipedias, like improvements to the opt-out tool. Feedback
notifications have also been added, to let users know when useful
feedback is given for a page they monitor. The article feedback tool
will be made available to other wiki projects interested in testing it
later this year.
This month, the Editor Engagement Experiments
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Editor_engagement_experiments> team (E3)
primarily focused on development for its next and final test of the
Getting Started <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted> task
suggestion system, a part of a project aimed at onboarding new
Wikipedians. The team also worked on enhancements and bug fixes for the
GuidedTour feature, such as adding the ability to customize default tour
actions and better integration with VisualEditor.
=== Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> ===
In August, the Mobile Apps team released a new version of the Commons
photo uploader app <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Commons> for
iOS and Android. The interface of the iOS version was improved, while
the Android version received incremental updates, such as better support
for upload campaigns (like Wiki Loves Monuments). The team also started
making plans for the next generation of the Wikipedia reader app, which
will be more closely integrated with the mobile web site, to ensure that
new features are always available through a web view, even where there
isn't specific native support.
The team continued to plan the re-architecture of Wikipedia Zero, the
program that allows free mobile access to Wikipedia on select carriers.
They also analyzed HTTPS requirements in support of a push for greater
usage of HTTPS across Wikimedia projects.
Last, the mobile editing feature on the mobile site
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects> continued to be improved.
Bugs were fixed, and the feature show at the section level of articles
was expanded. The first iteration of mobile notifications was also
activated on wikis projects where Notifications are enabled.
== Fundraising ==
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* ICANN donated $58,000.
* We concluded our grant with the Stanton Foundation for VisualEditor
and sent our final report to them.
* We have a NYC fundraiser with Jimmy Wales on October 1st.
=== Online Fundraising ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013_Chapters_Village_27.jpg>
Victor Grigas interviewing a Wikipedian at Wikimania
* The fundraising team ran campaigns worldwide throughout August.
Banners were displayed to 5% of readers for 1 impression per reader.
The team continued to run A/B tests of banner messages, designs, and
payment flows. In the month of August, approximately USD 1.8 million
was raised from 130,000 donors. For more information on testing,
please see the 2013 fundraising
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013> page on
Meta-wiki.
* The fundraising team completed the handover of the Wikimedia Shop
<https://shop.wikimedia.org/>, now managed by contractor Juli
Matthews, and is streamlining processes for order, fulfillment, and
branding design.
* Victor Grigas conducted several video interviews with Wikipedians at
Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong.
== Grantmaking ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF%27s_New_Global_South_Strategy.pdf?page=17>
Slides from the Global South Strategy presentation at Wikimania
Highlights
* WMF's New Global South Strategy
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF%27s_New_Global_South_Strategy.pdf>
presented at Wikimania. Annotated presentation now on Commons.
* Hosted successful first Grantmaking Learning Day
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking_and_Programs/Learning_%26_Evaluation_portal/Learning_day_August_2013>
with grantmaking stakeholders from all grantmaking streams:
committee members, grantees, WMF grantmaking staff, WMF program
evaluation staff.
* Posted results and proposed process changes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuous_improvement_of_the_FDC_process/Process_Survey/2012-13_Round_2>
for the Annual Plan Grants process, responding to feedback about
2012-2013 Round 2.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2012-13_FDC_Round_2_Survey_Results.pdf>
FDC Round 2 survey results (PDF)
=== Annual Plan Grants (FDC) ===
* At *Wikimania 2013*, Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) members
hosted a session
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Nobody_knows,_but_everyone_cares:_How-to_submit_an_awesome_application_to_the_FDC>
with entities considering an annual grant and other interested
volunteers to discuss what makes a good proposal for an Annual Plan
Grant.
* Results of the 2012-2013 Round 2 *process and cost-benefit surveys*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuous_improvement_of_the_FDC_process/Process_Survey/2012-13_Round_2>
are published, and complement the 2012-2013 Review
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuous_improvement_of_the_FDC_process/Process_Survey/2012-13_Year_Review>,
and process improvements are being made in response to these
results. Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute to
the surveys and process improvements.
* *FDC eligibility* for 2013-2014 Round 1 continued during the month
of August as entities who have submitted an LOI prepared to meet any
outstanding or potential eligibility gaps listed on the eligibility
status table
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/2013-2014_round1>
and eligibility checklist
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_checklist/2013-2014_round1>
in
preparation of the upcoming due date for confirming eligibility on
15 September 2013. To prepare, FDC staff have held several IRC
meetings and have reached out to each potentially eligible entity
regarding next steps for achieving their positive eligibility steps.
* The 2013-2014 Round 1 *Proposal Form* is now available on the FDC
portal <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal> in preparation
for the upcoming proposal
submission due date on 1 October 2013.
* FDC Staff *visited several entities* now receiving Annual Plan
Grants: Wikimedia Österreich, Wikimedia Sverige, and Wikimedia
Nederland. Thank you to all chapters, volunteers, staff, and
community members who participated in these meetings or supported them.
* The second quarter *progress reports*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals>
and one impact report were received and reviewed by FDC staff for
completeness; a summary of these reports will be published in
mid-September.
=== Project and Event Grants ===
* In numbers: 8 grants approved and 2 reports accepted
* Guidelines around documenting car travel for grantees have been
updated: Grants:Index/Documenting_project_expenses
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index/Documenting_project_expenses>.
==== Grants funded in August 2013 ====
* Grants:WM_CL/Annual_Program_Plan_2013-2014
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CL/Annual_Program_Plan_2013-2014>
* Grants:WM_EE/2013 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_EE/2013>
* Grants:WM_RS/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Serbia_-_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Serbia_-_2013>
* Grants:WM_MX/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_MX/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013>
* Grants:Alhen/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Bolivia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Alhen/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Bolivia>
* Grants:Wikimedia_Slovakia/Start-up
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wikimedia_Slovakia/Start-up>
* Grants:WM_IN/Program_Grant_April_December_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/Program_Grant_April_December_2013>
* Grants:WM_MK/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_–_Macedonia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_MK/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_%E2%80%93_Macedonia>
==== Reports accepted in August 2013 ====
* Grants:WM_CA/Start_Up/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_CA/Start_Up/Report>
* Grants:WM_UA/Wiki_Loves_Earth/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_UA/Wiki_Loves_Earth/Report>
=== Participation Support ===
* Plans are moving forward with the Learning & Evaluation team to
gather *feedback on this program and conduct analysis* in September.
The learnings will be used to make data-driven decisions about
programmatic improvements; a redesign of the program based on the
findings will begin in October.
==== Grants funded in August 2013 ====
* Participation:OrenBochman/WikiSym_2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:OrenBochman/WikiSym_2013>
* Participation:Vantharith/BarcampKampongCham2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Vantharith/BarcampKampongCham2013>
==== Reports accepted in August 2013 ====
* Participation:Iopensa/WikiSym_2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Iopensa/WikiSym_2013/Report>
* Participation:Paulproteus/OSCON_and_Community_Leadership_Summit/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Paulproteus/OSCON_and_Community_Leadership_Summit/Report>
* Participation:Sucheta_Ghoshal/Open_Source_Bridge_2013/Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Sucheta_Ghoshal/Open_Source_Bridge_2013/Report>
=== Individual Engagement Grants ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2013,_idea_lab_02.jpg>
IdeaLab Brainstorm workshop at Wikimania
* We launched
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/01/ieg-learnings-call-new-proposals/>
an open *call for round 2 proposals and new committee members*. 11
volunteers have submitted their candidacy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Committee#ieg-candidates> for
the committee, and are currently being vetted for membership. Most
round 1 members will also be returning to serve. The finalized round
2 committee will be announced in early September, and IEG proposals
are due 30 September.
* 7 IEGrantees attended *Wikimania*, sharing their experiences in
talks like:
* wikiArS, involving art and design schools
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/wikiArS,_involving_art_and_design_schools>
* Javanese Wikipedia
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Javanese_Wikipedia>
* Fun user experience in srs bznss, and so can you
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Fun_user_experience_is_srs_bznss,_and_so_can_you>
* Making page edits easier to view
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lightning_talks#Lightning_Talks_I>
* An *IdeaLab Brainstorm
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2013_IdeaLab_Brainstorm>*
session was held at Wikimania, generating lots of conversation and
connections between attendees. 7 new ideas have been documented in
the IdeaLab <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab> so
far as a result.
* Grantee Jeph Paul released
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/visualising-edits/> the first
live demo of his *tool for visualizing edits*.
==== Reports accepted in August 2013 ====
* Grants:IEG/Build_an_effective_method_of_publicity_in_PRChina/Midpoint
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Build_an_effective_method_of_publicity_in_PRChina/Midpoint>
=== Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_grantmaking_session_15.jpg>
Wikimania grantmaking session
*Welcome new team member: Jonathan Morgan
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Jtmorgan>!*
* Jonathan has had a rich history working with the Wikimedia
Foundation on various fronts, starting back in 2011 during the
Wikimedia Summer of Research
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_Summer_of_Research_2011>.
Since then, he
has been actively engaged in the broader Wikimedia research
community through his own PhD research on WikiProjects as complex
systems, and developing tools to support WikiProject-based
collaboration. He participated in the former WMF Fellowships
program, helping design and launch the Wikipedia:Teahouse
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse>.
* We are thrilled to have Jonathan working with us on the /Grantmaking
Learning & Evaluation team,/ where he will use his research
expertise to guide the fostering of an online grantmaking learning
community and to evaluate the effectiveness of grantmaking streams.
A successful first grantee Learning Day
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking_and_Programs/Learning_%26_Evaluation_portal/Learning_day_August_2013>
was hosted after Wikimania in Hong Kong.
* The Monday following Wikimania in Hong Kong, we *hosted around 35
individuals from different grantmaking streams* (including
Individual Engagement, Annual Plan, Travel & Participation, and
Project & Event) and each grantmaking committee, as well as staff
from the Grantmaking and Program Evaluation teams at WMF.
Conversation highlighted the ideals of the movement work that we
should fund. We spent significant time working through a Annual Plan
grant proposal case study in which we engaged from the perspectives
of different stakeholders in the proposal process: WMF staff, FDC
members, leadership of the submitting entity, and the broader
Wikimedia community.
* We left the time together with lots of interesting ideas for how to
go forward as a learning community. We are working with our
*grantmaking partners* on ways to encourage an online sharing
community and plan similar useful events in the upcoming year.
* Read the full summary of feedback from event.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking_and_Programs/Learning_%26_Evaluation_portal/Learning_day_August_2013/Feedback#Feedback_from_the_event>
Self-evaluation for grantmaking streams
* *Annual Plan Grants*: Process feedback posted from FDC process
2012-2013 Round 2
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuous_improvement_of_the_FDC_process/Process_Survey/2012-13_Round_2>.
Process changes resulting from the feedback received:
o Revamping the *FDC portal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal>* - /Planned revamp
before 2013-2014 Round 1/
o Clarifying *eligibility requirements
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility>* -
/requiring Letter of Intent
from all entities submitting proposals; ongoing monitoring of
the eligibility of applicants and compliance with current grants
and agreements throughout the eligibility process/
o Simplifying *language* - /using less jargon and including more
definitions on proposal form, working with Program Evaluation &
Design team on a glossary of terms/
* Created *surveys for internal evaluation* of Project & Event grants
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking_and_Programs/Learning_%26_Evaluation_portal/Survey_drafts>.
* In progress: developing first *Travel & Participation grants program
analysis*
* In progress: developing *IEG experience survey*
Overview of Learning & Evaluation for WMF grantmaking
* Updated *public-facing information* about Learning & Evaluation for
Grantmaking
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking_and_Programs/Learning_%26_Evaluation_portal/About>
-
landscape of different programs and our evaluation methods in place.
* Close work with WMF Analytics to get the best *WikiMetrics* project
possible and to get geo-data that our entire movement can use! (see
Analytics update and Program Development updates)
=== Brazil Catalyst Project ===
==== Institutional Partnerships ====
* The project proposal for a partnership between the Wikimedia
Foundation and *Ação Educativa*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programa_Catalisador_do_Brasil/Planejamento_2012-2013/Parcerias/A%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Educativa/Projeto>
is almost finalized, and is to be submitted for community review in
September. The Brazil Catalyst Program team and Ação Educativa have
been working on a proposal to be submitted to the community and the
Wikimedia Foundation vis-a-vis the fact the Catalyst Programs are
moving to a grantee model.
==== Data & Experiments ====
* *Timeline*: released a tool on Tool labs
<https://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/Linha_do_tempo> that connects
events to data on the PT-WP (such as editors' growth, articles
metrics growth, etc.). This timeline is intended to help the
community visualize how certain events (such as changes to the
software, changes to the Wikipedia policies/rules, campaigns,
changes to features, etc.) may have impacted the overall picture of
the community.
* *Geolocated edits* data
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):HAndrade_(WMF)/A%C3%A7%C3%B5es_Geolocalizadas>
updated to July (showing the provenance of IP edits on PT-WP per
country).
* Published *Monthly stats
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):HAndrade_(WMF)/Estat%C3%ADsticas_Mensais>*
with month-to-month and last-year-month variations of the numbers of
active and new editors on PT-WP.
* Wikipedia Education Program *students activity
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio(a):HAndrade_(WMF)/Dados_Wikip%C3%A9dia_na_Universidade>*
on PT-WP analysed.
* In progress: Configuration of Portuguese Wikipedia data for
automatic update on Tool labs (ptwikis)
<http://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/>, instead of on Limn, in order to
faciliate regular updates and the work in partnership with the
community.
* In progress: *Localization of Snuggle
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Snuggle>* for the PT-WP.
* In progress: *Timeline
<https://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/Linha_do_tempo>: development of
an on-wiki interface* for adding events (such as software or policy
changes) to the timeline, through the original events' page
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Arqueologia/Linha_do_tempo>,
facilitating changes to the timeline made by any editor (not
requiring technological expertise). The feature is meant to allow
automatic change on the timeline by including new events on the
Wikipedia page.
* In progress: Improvement and evaluation of *Abuse Filters
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Especial:Filtro_de_abusos>*. This is part
of the Antivandalism project and we've been supporting the community
in enhancing tools to be used when emergency mode of CAPTCHA is
definitely removed.
* In progress: *Bot for WikiProjeto Medicina
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Usu%C3%A1rio(a):Wikiprojetosbot>*: The
bot to engage newcomers in specific WikiProjects has been approved.
The first version of if is meant to be used for the Medicine/Health
Wikiproject in a partnership with the Ministry of Health, bringing
professionals from the Brazilian health system to edit Wikipedia.
==== Catalyzing Wikipedia - support community on online acitivites ====
* Supported the community and the Editor Engagement (E2) Team in the
*release of the Notifications Tool (Echo)* on the Portuguese
Wikipedia
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Esplanada/an%C3%BAncios#Nova_ferramenta_de_notifica.C3.A7.C3.B5es>,
including translation of the tool and of the FAQ
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Notifica%C3%A7%C3%B5es>
* *IRC office hours* with community - proposing prorities for the
semester, discussing data on reverts, discussing new projects,
sharing the status of the institutional partnership. A meeting
report is available
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Projetos/Wikip%C3%A9dia/Reuni%C3%B5es/Reuni%C3%A3o_IRC_30-08-2013>.
* Writing for Wikipedia community newsletter "Correio da Wikipédia"-
sharing news of WMF and the Brazil Catalyst Program in the September
1
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Correio_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia/Arquivo/01-09-2013>
and August 17
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Correio_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia/Arquivo/17-08-2013>
issues.
==== Education ====
* Installation and Translation of the *education extension* (and its
documentation) for the education program submitted at Bugzilla
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52870>
* Configuration of a *mailing list* to support the creation of the
network of professors, and exchange of experiences
* Meetings with *potential partners*:
o Meeting with *Abril Educação*: detailing the proposal for the
Wikimedia Foundation, finalizing budget and discussing further
agreements with other Brazilian organizations.
o Meeting with the *Ministry of Education*: presenting the
education program to the Brazilian government to discuss future
support
o Meeting with *SERPRO (government IT company)*: presenting the
education program and discussing the possibility of including
modules of Wikimedia projects tutorials in Digital Inclusion
distance learning courses coordinated by SERPRO.
o Meeting with *Bandtec/Colegio Bandeirantes*: discussed
partnership with a secondary school, through the School's
technology project
o Meeting with *Universidade de Passo Fundo*: discussed joining
the program Wikipédia na Universidade, engaging in class
assignments activities
o Meeting with *Universidade do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)*. There
is a group of more than 5 professors willing to work with
Wikimedia projects. Four of them are already collaborating with
class assignments on Physics, Maths, German (translation) and
Educational software. They are wiling to develop more activities
as a university group with the support of WMF and the Brazil
Catalyst program.
o Meeting with *Piraí Digital* (a project in the first Brazilian
city to deploy public wifi all over the city) coordinators to
define and realize a workshop in September with teachers and
local coordinators
==== Meet-ups and events ====
* Oona, Henrique and Celio attended *Wikimania 2013* in Hong Kong.
* Rodrigo attended the *CONSEGI* IT conference in Brasilia, where some
meetings with members of goverment ministries members and of other
IT departments took place.
== Program Development ==
Highlights
* One month after the first launch in India, *Wikipedia Zero reports
an increase of 12 million pageviews*. The launch, which has been
achieved with our partner Aircel in July, has been the biggest
launch for the Wikipedia Zero team so far. Overall, Wikpedia Zero
has shown a tremendous growth over the last six months, with monthly
pageviews increasing from *3 million in February to 35 million in
August*.
* In August, the Program Evaluation and Design Team designed and
executed its first *Evaluation Capacity Survey*. Over 70 program
leaders from different parts of world reported back on the current
state of their evaluation capacity. The results, which will be
published in September, will give an overview of how chapters,
thematic organizations and unaffiliated volunteers across countries
evaluated their programmatic activities in the past and how they're
planning to grow their capacity in this area.
* The third term of the *Wikipedia Education Program in the Arab
World* wrapped up with strong results. What began with a small pilot
at two universities in Egypt in spring 2012 has now turned into a
force on the Arabic Wikipedia, with students participating in the
program in three countries adding content to Wikipedia as part of
their university coursework. Last term, students in Egypt, Algeria,
and Jordan contributed 12.79 million bytes of content to the Arabic
Wikipedia. That’s more than double the 5.97 million bytes added by
students in the fall 2012 term. Samir I. El-Sharbaty, one of the
Wikipedia Ambassadors and former student of the program, achieved
Featured Article status for the article George I of Great Britain.
* Thanks to the Analytics Team's new *WikiMetrics* tool, we now have
data on the *performance of students in the Wikipedia Education
Program U.S. and Canada* from spring 2013. They added 7.4 million
bytes of content. That brings the total amount of high-quality
content added by the U.S. and Canada program to the English
Wikipedia after six terms to 43.4 million bytes – or the equivalent
of 17 /War and Peaces/.
=== Wikipedia Zero ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Zero_Update_-_Metrics_Meeting_09.05.13.pdf?page=2>
Slides from the Wikipedia Zero update at the September 5 metrics meeting
* The impact of the Wikipedia Zero launch with Aircel in India is the
largest to date. It *added 12.0 million pageviews* to the overall
pageviews of Wikipedia Zero, which grew from 19.6 million in July to
34.9 million in August. Pageviews also grew strongly in Saudi Arabia
(from 4.6 million to 7.3 million), and Pakistan (from 2.1 to 3.1
million).
* Overall *pageview growth is more than 1000% over the last six
months*, driven by new operator launches (3 million to over 35
million pageviews per month). We're now in 17 countries through six
group level carrier partnerships covering 490M mobile subscribers
(290M launched) – and growing.
* *Carolynne Schloeder joined as Director, Mobile Programs*. Carolynne
has more than 20 years of experience in the mobile and online
business. Her hiring is part of an increased investment in Wikipedia
Zero and mobile in general. Carolynne will be responsible for
coordinating all phases and aspects of product development, the
launch process and ongoing management of Wikipedia Zero. She will
create a strategy for mobile programs and then lead and execute this
strategy through strong collaboration with internal stakeholders and
external partners.
* At *Wikimania* in Hong Kong, Kul reviewed Wikipedia Zero's growth in
Africa and initial findings from primary research conducted in
Africa. Dan presented our Wikipedia via Text (USSD/SMS) solution to
reach more people in Africa that use feature phones.
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_metrics_meeting_2013-09-05_Education_Program_update.pdf>
Presentation slides about the Education Program from the metrics meeting
for August
Global
* Nearly 30 Wikimedians gathered for a *pre-conference at Wikimania
<http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Program_Pre-Conference>*
focused on developing educational programs. Representing more than
20 countries, the participants discussed challenges, solutions, and
plans for educational efforts in their countries. Representatives
from Namibia, the U.K., Germany, and the Wikimedia Foundation led
sessions on fears, best practices, challenges, working with
institutions, reaching out to different target groups, and program
evaluation, among other topics.
* We squashed some bugs and made minor improvements to the *Education
Program extension*.
* Talks are currently being executed and planned with the 53
educational efforts going on around the world, to *gather deeper and
more accurate information* about their efforts.
* Steps are being taken towards a *global education cooperative* by
initiating and keeping dialouges with global partners who are
undertaking educational programs and who are capable of having this
on their agenda.
* General information of the global situation of education has been
collected through *meetings with UNESCO and WWF*.
* More specific academic information of the *status of academics in
Sweden, Europe and the rest of the world* has also been collected as
to take into account when looking at the education programs around
the world.
United States/Canada Program
* *Professors* who will be teaching with Wikipedia in the Fall 2013
semester have begun *preparing their Wikipedia assignments* and
creating Course Pages.
* *Ambassadors* have been working with professors to consult on their
assignment design and help them create Course Pages.
* We released the numbers
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/26/wikipedia-education-program-us-canada-spring2013/>
for the program over the past 3 years: students have *added 43.4
million bytes to English Wikipedia*.
* Students have begun completing the *online training for students
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Training/For_students>* for
the Fall 2013 semester.
* We continued verifying and analyzing data for our *English Wikipedia
plagiarism research project*.
Arab World Program
* Tighe and LiAnna traveled to Amman after Wikimania for the
*Wikipedia Education Program Arab World meeting* in Amman, hosted by
Isra University. Six volunteers from Egypt (two professors and four
students) and Faris participated in the two day meeting and end of
term celebration at Isra University. Two Jordanian Wikipedians also
joined the group. Photos: Commons:Category:First Celebration
Conference, Jordan-August 2013
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:First_Celebration_Conference,_Jordan-August_2013>
* The *Arabic version of the Online Training* for Professors,
Ambassadors and students should be available before the start of the
term in late September.
* *New Arabic brochures* are being finalized and will be printed in
Egypt for the new term. These resources will complement the "Welcome
to Wikipedia" brochures that are already available in Arabic.
* The *Education Extension is being translated* and should be
available for the upcoming term on the Arabic Wikipedia.
* Tighe and Faris are planning a *visit to King Saud University* in
late October to formalize their participation in the Wikipedia
Educaiton Program. A visit is also planned to the *King Saud bin
Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences* to see about potential
contributioons with a medical/health focus.
* Tighe and Faris are planning a week long *visit to Jordan* following
Saudi Arabia to do a workshop for new professors and Wikipedia
Ambassadors. They will also meet with professors individually to
discuss their plans for the semester. Additional meetings with other
professors and organizations will be arranged to discuss future
participation and strategy.
* Tighe and Faris are speaking with two *contacts in Algeria* to look
at options for continuing Wikipedia Education Program efforts in the
country.
Communications
* We released source files for the *"Illustrating Wikipedia" Commons
brochure* in InDesign and Scribus, and the text is set up for
on-wiki translation (see blog post link below for more details).
* Four *blog posts*:
o Students learn about history as a living, changing thing
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/20/student-learning-wikipedia-education-program/>
o US, Canada students contribute massive amount of quality content
to Wikipedia
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/26/wikipedia-education-program-us-canada-spring2013/>
o Third term of Wikipedia Education Program Arab World wraps up
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/wikipedia-education-program-arab-world-spring-2013/>
o A guide to getting started on Wikimedia Commons
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/29/wikimedia-commons-brochure/>
* Two *newsletters*:
o 6 August
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/6_August_2013>
o 20 August
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/News/20_August_2013>
=== Program Evaluation and Design ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Program_Evaluation_Wikimania_2013_dinner_8.jpg>
Dinner after the Program Evaluation & Design Meetup at Wikimania
* PE&D participated in a number of *events at Wikimania 2013*, which
was the first time the PE&D team had appeared at Wikimania since the
team formed:
o At the *Education Program Pre-Conference
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Program_Pre-Conference>*
(see also above), Frank gave a presentation about the PE&D team
and concept, and our missions and how we can support community
members and chapters doing the education program.
o A *Program Evaluation & Design Meetup* was held in the evening
during Wikimania. The team hosted over 20 community members from
around the world, including many who were at the Budapest
workshop, to provide them updates, deliverables, and to touch
base about evaluation. Dinner was sponsored by WMF afterwards,
which allowed for continued community building.
o *Learning Day post-conference event
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetups#Program_Evaluation_.26_Design_Q.26A_session_-_Sunday_13:00-14:00>*.
The entire team attended, participating as support for the
Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation team who organized the
inspiring day of learning. The team also participated in
facilitating break out sessions and were able to share their
team mission and goals with program leaders from around the
world who attended the day.
o PE&D *shared a table with Learning & Evaluation at Wikimania*,
fielding questions and concerns from community members from
around the world and spreading the news of the teams formation
and team mission through postcards, social media, networking and
session participation.
* Facebook group launched
o After an informal community survey, PE&D launched a *Facebook
group <https://www.facebook.com/groups/programevaluation/>*
which has over 70 members and an active community being formed
around program evaluation. Anyone can join!
* First Google Hangout Held
o The team held their *first Google Hangout
<https://plus.google.com/events/chv4s9tqh2mrb29nlc4bn3kk2h4>*,
and participants were guided through a step by step process of
how to use WikiMetrics as an evaluation tool. A follow-up
Hangout is scheduled for September 6.
* Program Evaluation Portal progresses to October 1 launch.
o Sarah, Community Coordinator, has been taking the lead alongside
Jonathan Morgan, from Grantmaking Learning & Evaluation, to
create a *shared portal space* which will launch in October on
Meta, replacing the current Meta page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs>
maintained by the team.
* *Evaluation Capacity Survey* closes; results are next
o PE&D designed and executed a survey, which ran for two weeks,
and surveyed over 70 program leaders from the movement regarding
their capacity to evaluate – what they have done, what they
haven't done, why, and wht they want to do regarding evaluation.
Results will be shared publicly in the upcoming weeks, and will
allow PE&D to have a better understanding of where the movement
is at regarding evaluation, and will also allow the team to see
how they can support the movement with tools, resources and
communications.
* PE&D was covered in the *Journal on Meta* and on the *Wikimedia
blog* this past month:
o A general overview about PE&D team and recent news: "Program
Evaluation & Design team releases evaluation capacity survey,
seeks WikiMetrics testers; related updates
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Journal_on_Meta#Program_Evaluation_.26_Design_team_releases_evaluation_capacity_survey.2C_seeks_WikiMetrics_testers.3B_related_updates>"
(Journal on Meta)
o A community written blog by Amical about bringing evaluation
into their organization: "Drafting a strategy plan with the
community
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/26/drafting-a-strategy-plan-with-the-community/>"
== Human Resources ==
HR has continued to work on bringing on new employees and contractors,
and supporting the search for the Executive Director of the Wikimedia
Foundation. It's been a busy month in terms of moving to the 6th floor,
planning for the AllHands meeting in September, and participating at
Wikimania. We launched a new commuter flex plan and benefits website,
and filed our second round of required government filings that describe
our demographics to them.
=== Staff Changes ===
New Requisition Filled
* Carolynne Schloeder, Director of Mobile Programs (Programs)
Conversions
* Jonathan Morgan, Evaluation Analyst (Grantmaking)
* Timo Tijhof, Software Engineer – Features (Engineering)
New Legal Intern
* Manprit Brar
New Contractors
* Renee Bracey Sherman (continuing as Contractor for Fundraising)
* Akshata Metha (Human Resources)
* Sucheta Ghoshal (Engineering)
Contracts Extended
* Amir Aharoni (Engineering)
* Michael Guss (Administration)
* Limayli Huguet (Administration)
* Faidon Liambotis (Engineering)
* Kirsten Menger-Anderson (Engineering)
* Stefan Petrea (Engineering)
* Michael Ray (Administration)
* Sam Reed (Engineering)
* Janet Renteria (Administration)
* Santhosh Thottingal (Engineering)
Departures
* Renee Bracey Sherman (continuing as Contractor for Fundraising)
* Zack Exley
* Amit Kapoor
* CT Woo
* Peter Youngmeister
Contracts Ended
* Jennifer Bloom
* Matthew Collins
* Timothy Sandole
* Brian Wolff
New Postings
* Software Engineer - Editor Engagement
* Software Engineer - Editor Engagement Experimentation
* Legal Intern (Spring)
* RFP - VP of Engineering (Search Firm Engagement)
* User Experience Designer
* Senior Software Engineer | Multimedia
=== Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled
August Actual: 150
August Total Plan: 174
August Filled: 3, Month Attrition: 5,
YTD Filled: 12, YTD Attrition: 7
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end
43
=== Department Updates ===
Real-time feed for HR updates
http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork
== Finance and Administration ==
* The Business Office has begun work with KPMG on our annual audit.
The audit report is scheduled to be presented to the Audit Committee
at its September 19th meeting.
* Completed financial review of FDC Q2 reports.
* Consolidated Engineering on the 3rd floor of the New Montgomery
building with a new space layout to accomodate the growth in
Engineering.
== Legal, Community Advocacy, and Communications Department ==
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 14
* Completed : 19
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 11
* Approved : 2
* Pending : 8
* Approval not needed: 2
==== Domains Obtained ====
(none)
==== Coming & Going ====
* We welcomed Manprit Brar (Michigan State Law) as a new intern on the
team.
* Intern Matthew Collins (Columbia) left us - we wish him luck in his
last year at CLS!
==== Other Activities ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikivoyage-Logo-v3-en.svg>
The new Wikivoyage logo
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Privacy_suite_rollout_presentation_2013.pdf>
Presentation slides about the privacy policy draft rollout
* The *Wikivoyage Logo Election 2013
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage/Logo_2013>* wrapped up,
and selected a new logo for the Wikivoyage projects. LCA assisted
with the discussion and vote as well as with trademark clearance. We
are grateful to the community for their hard work on this and
pleased to have been able to help.
* The legal team completed an agreement recognizing the *first
thematic organization
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Thematic_Organization>, Amical
Wikimedia <http://www.wikimedia.cat/>*, a volunteer-driven,
independent organization for Catalan language and culture.
* Community advocacy continues to collaborate with the tech department
on *VisualEditor*, with a focus on supporting the projects where
VisualEditor is already in use, and on helping the community prepare
for deployment in other language projects.
* LCA continued the community discussion on trademarks
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trademark_practices_discussion>,
and also discussed
trademark policy with many chapters and individual community members
at Wikimania. We have started preparing a new draft trademark policy
based on the comments that we have received.
* LCA is working closely with the *Wikipedia Zero* team to negotiate
additional partnerships with mobile providers.
* LCA gave *three talks at Wikimania 2013*: “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>”,
“Open Culture, Open Data, Open Source
<http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Open_Culture,_Open_Data,_Open_Source>”,
and "Working together, alone: A gathering of functionaries
<http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Working_together,_but_separately:_a_gathering_of_functionaries>".
* We created and prepared to announce
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/03/wikimedia-privacy-policy-community-input/>
a *new draft of the privacy policy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy>*, with a
request for comment
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy> that will be
open
through early January, 2014.
* LCA worked with engineering to discuss and plan for *the HTTPS
rollout
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/https-default-logged-in-users-wikimedia-sites/>*.
* Deputy GC Luis Villa attended the *Creative Commons Global Summit
<http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Global_Summit_2013>*, where he
briefly presented on how Wikimedians create and consume databases,
and extensively discussed the Creative Commons 4.0 license process
with the CC community, including discussions of database rights and
license compatibility.
=== Communications Report, August 2013 ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_metrics_meeting_2013-09-05_-_editor_survey_WMF_satisfaction.pdf?page=2>
Slides from the metrics meeting presentation about some results from the
2012 editor survey
*Wikimania 2013* took place in August - the major communications effort
of the year. This year's Wikimania in Hong Kong was a major success from
a media and visibility standpoint. The WMF communications team worked
closely with the local organizing team to manage dozens of media visits
and interviews. The team also showcased their work in four events at
Wikimania, at a panel on Wikimedia storytelling
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikimedia_storytelling:_how_we_show_the_movement_to_the_world.>,
a presentation on designing fun user experiences
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Fun_user_experience_is_srs_bznss,_and_so_can_you>,
a presentation on editor surveys
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Editor_surveys:_Taking_the_pulse_of_the_community>
and a workshop about the IdeaLab
<https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/IdeaLab_Brainstorm>.
==== Major announcements ====
*Wikimedia Foundation announces 2013–14 Board of Trustees and
elected officers at Wikimania in Hong Kong
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_Board_Election_August_2013>*
(8 August 2013)
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met immediately before the
kick-off of Wikimania, carrying out an important selection process and
naming new officers.
*Wikimania Hong Kong 2013 press conference announcement
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimania_Hong_Kong_2013_press_conference_announcement>*
(5 August 2013)
An invitation to local and international press to take part in the
opening ceremonies and press conference of Wikimania 2013.
==== Major Storylines through August ====
Wikimania brings global Wikimedians together in Hong Kong (August 9 to 11)
The annual Wikimania conference brought together nearly a thousand
Wikimedians from all over the world to meet, discuss, and build the
Wikimedia projects. This year's event garnered major coverage from
outlets around the world. Global and regional media based in Hong Kong
covered the event, providing mostly positive-tone coverage. This
Wikimania also saw some of the first major involvement from China-based
media outlets. Coverage ranged from stories about Jimmy Wales' keynote
and comments about Edward Snowden/PRISM and issues around censorship in
China, to the gender gap on Wikipedia, the history of Wikimedians in
Hong Kong, and the wide range of topics presented in sessions.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1295545/jimmy-wales-calls-wikimedians-fix-broken-journalism
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/08/09/wikipedia-co-founder-urges-vigilant-journalism/
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/498601/20130813/wikipedia-china-censorship-tiananmen-massacre.htm
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/wikimania-2013-whats-next-wikipedia
http://www.hkej.com/template/dailynews/jsp/detail.jsp?dnews_id=3783&cat_id=3&title_id=619748
'Listen to Wikipedia' continues to gain attention (early to late August)
WMF staffer Stephen LaPorte's 'Listen to Wikipedia'
(http://blog.hatnote.com/post/56856315107/listen-to-wikipedia) gathered
significant attention on blogs and mainstream media in July and August
of this year. The tool produces a musical analysis of live activity on
Wikipedia. Media and bloggers have enjoyed writing about and promoting
the service, frequently suggesting it's a highly meditative way to
immerse oneself into our global knowledge project.
http://www.techtree.com/content/news/4382/listen-wikipedia-turns-edits-music.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/listen-to-wikipedia-make-music-in-real-time
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/9/4607240/fall-asleep-to-the-sound-of-wikipedia
==== Other worthwhile reads ====
India’s Indigenous Languages Drive Wikipedia’s Growth
<http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/06/indian-languages-drive-wikipedia-growth/>
| TechCrunch | August 6
ROM gathers ‘e-volunteers’ for a Wikipedia edit-a-thon Friday
<http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/08/14/rom_gathers_evolunteers_for_a_wikipedia_editathon_friday.html>
| August 14
Israel’s latest invention: Free hi-res aerial photos for all
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-latest-invention-free-hi-res-aerial-photos-for-all/>
| August 18
==== WMF Blog posts ====
Blog.wikimedia.org ran 25 posts in August 2013.
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/> Six posts were multilingual
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/>, including Arabic,
Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Japanese, Kazakh, Russian, Spanish.
Some highlights:
* *HTTPS by default for logged-in users
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/28/https-default-logged-in-users-wikimedia-sites/>
| August 8, 2013*
* *Wikimedia’s OTRS email response system gets an upgrade
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/09/wikimedias-email-response-upgrade/>
| August 9, 2013*
* *Illustrating Wikipedia from the air in Israel
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/15/illustrating-wikipedia-wikiair-israel/>
| August 15, 2013*
* *Notifications launch on mobile
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/08/30/notifications-launch-on-mobile/>
| August 30, 2013*
==== Media Contact ====
Media contact through August 2013
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#August_2013
==== Wikipedia Signpost ====
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the
community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for August 2013:
* Volume 9, Issue 31
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-08-07>,
7 August 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 32
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-08-14>,
14 August 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 33
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-08-21>,
21 August 2013
* Volume 9, Issue 34
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2013-08-28>,
28 August 2013
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in August 2013:
1. Matthew Gaba (Google Payments)
2. Linda Lam (Johnson & Dugan)
3. Monica Ortega (Johnson & Dugan)
4. Joe Sutherland (Volunteer: User:foxj)
5. Jim Cubinar (Sports Club LA/SF)
6. Ohad Gilberg (KPMG)
7. Linda Lam (J&D)
8. Angela Hill (Bay Area News Group)
9. Peter Meyer (WMPC)
10. Wendy Wilson (ADP)
11. Leslie Lipari (BDE)
12. Chris Cavanaugh (CCS Consulting)
13. Lipo Ching (Mercury New)
14. Leila Zia (Stanford University)
15. Kelly Kolstad (KPMG)
16. Sizhe Liu (KPMG)
17. Valerie Aurora (TAI)
18. Frank Jiang (CCTV1)
19. Sun Zengtian (Chief Director, CCTV2)
20. Li Yahui (Director, CCTV2)
21. Liang Meng (Director, CCTV2)
22. Yu Chen (Consultant of Interview, CCTV2)
23. Nancy Rose (KPMG)
24. Karen Cordero (KPMG)
25. Robert Brownstone (Fenwick & West)
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
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