Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for April 2014, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_April_2014
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,_April_2014
Many thanks to those who have translated the March "Highlights" into Bosnian, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Malaysian, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Sardinian, Ukrainian and Chinese (and partially into some other languages like Norwegian Bokmål and Polish)!
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 May issue are welcome until June 4 at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights#Movement_news_item... .
Regards, Tilman
--
Wikimedia Foundation Report, April 2014
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_May_1,_2... Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of April https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2014-05-01 (May 1, 2014)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Wikimedia Labs migrated to the new data center o 3.2 New MediaViewer starts getting released on Wikimedia sites o 3.3 New Executive Director and Chief Communications Officer * 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 (Funds Dissemination Committee) o 6.2 Project and Event Grants + 6.2.1 Grants funded in April 2014 + 6.2.2 Reports accepted in April 2014 o 6.3 Travel and Participation Support + 6.3.1 Request awarded in April 2014 + 6.3.2 Reports accepted in April 2014 o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants + 6.4.1 Reports accepted in April 2014 o 6.5 Wikimania o 6.6 Learning and Evaluation + 6.6.1 Program Evaluation o 6.7 Wikipedia Education Program + 6.7.1 Global programs + 6.7.2 Arab world programs + 6.7.3 Communications * 7 Human Resources o 7.1 April Staff Changes o 7.2 April Statistics * 8 Finance and Administration * 9 Legal and Community Advocacy o 9.1 LCA Report, April 2014 + 9.1.1 Contract Metrics + 9.1.2 Trademark Metrics + 9.1.3 Domains Obtained + 9.1.4 Coming & Going + 9.1.5 Other Activities * 10 Communications Report, April 2014 o 10.1 Major Announcements o 10.2 Major Storylines through April o 10.3 Other worthwhile reads o 10.4 WMF Blog posts o 10.5 Media Contact o 10.6 Wikipedia Signpost o 10.7 Communications Design * 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for March:
*495 million* (+4.44% compared with February; -4.33% compared with the previous year) (comScore data http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release April data later in May)
Page requests for April:
*20.697 billion* (-1.6% compared with March; -0.6% 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 March 2014 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots):
*79,352* (+4.59% compared with February / -2.84% compared with the previous year) (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_March_2014.... Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of March 31, 2014 <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_March_2014... Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of March 31, 2014
(Financial information is only available through March 2014 at the time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date March 31, 2014.
Revenue 40,957,259 *Expenses:* Engineering Group 12,358,813 Fundraising Group 2,989,855 Grantmaking Group 1,198,163 Programs Group 1,358,725 Grants 3,961,161 Governance Group 582,854 Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group 2,831,941 Finance/HR/Admin Group 5,034,754 Total Expenses 30,316,266 Total surplus (10,640,993) /in US dollars/
* Revenue for the month of March is $1.71MM versus plan of $0.01MM, approximately $1.70MM or 29,215% over plan. * Year-to-date revenue is $40.96MM versus plan of $45.05MM, approximately $4.09MM or 9% under plan. * Expenses for the month of March is $3.22MM versus plan of $4.57MM, approximately $1.35MM or 30% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, internet hosting, FDC grants, payment processing fees, and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal fees and outside contract services. * Year-to-date expenses is $30.32MM versus plan of $36.37MM, approximately $6.05MM or 17% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees, payment processing fees, staff development expenses, grants and travel expenses partially offset by higher outside contract services. * Cash and Investments - $50.69MM as of March 31, 2014.
== Highlights ==
=== Wikimedia Labs migrated to the new data center ===
The Wikimedia Labs https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Labs platform enables volunteers to host software tools to support the community's work, and to get involved in the technical operations of Wikimedia servers. As part of the Foundation's ongoing work to reduce reliance on the old data center in Tampa, Florida (USA), Labs was moved to the new data center https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/04/migrating-wikimedia-labs-to-a-new-data-center/ in Ashburn, Virginia in April, completing several months of work by WMF staff and by volunteers who operate Labs projects. Among the advantages is the switch to a new file system (NFS) which is much more reliable that the one used used for Labs in the old data center (GlusterFS, which had caused most of the Labs failures and downtime in the preceding months). Also, in the new data center, many Labs projects are now using the internal Labs web proxy, which provides several benefits including HTTPS access and increased user data privacy. The Toolserver, the predecessor of the "Tool Labs" part of Wikimedia Labs, is planned to shut down on June 30.
=== New MediaViewer starts getting released on Wikimedia sites ===
The Foundation's multimedia team released Media Viewer v0.2 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer on 14 pilot sites in April, in preparation for a wider deployment https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Media_Viewer/Release_Plan in May. The overall response was favorable, and a growing majority of survey respondents https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Media_Viewer/Survey was finding this new multimedia browser useful. The team also developed a set of metrics dashboards http://multimedia-metrics.wmflabs.org/dashboards/mmv to track how often MediaViewer and its various features are used, and how fast it performs over the Internet, as well as local metrics dashboards https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Metrics for selected sites: first results showed a decline in image load time http://multimedia-metrics.wmflabs.org/dashboards/mmv#overall_network_performance-graphs-tab, and suggest that Media Viewer loads faster http://multimedia-metrics.wmflabs.org/dashboards/mmv#media_viewer_vs_file_page-graphs-tab than the old file description pages.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lila_Tretikov_16_April_2014_(1).jpg%... Lila Tretikov
=== New Executive Director and Chief Communications Officer ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maher,_Katherine_April_2014.jpg%3E Katherine Maher
In April, preparations took place to welcome the Foundation's incoming executive director Lila Tretikov https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:LilaTretikov, who was announced on May 1 https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/01/wmf_announces_new_ed_lila_tretikov/. She will succeed Sue Gardner on June 1, who will move into a new role as special adviser. Lila Tretikov was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the United States as a teenager. She has been working for technology companies, primarily in open source, in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 15 years, most recently at SugarCRM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SugarCRM.
Also in April, Katherine Maher was announced https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/15/katherine-maher-joins-foundation-chief-communications-officer/ as the Foundation's new Chief Communications Officer.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for April 2014 can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2014/April
Department Highlights
Major news in April include:
* the change of format https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/10/mediawiki-localization-file-format-changed-from-php-to-json/ of MediaWiki localization files from PHP to JSON, and the associated modernization of the LocalisationUpdate extension https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/03/modernising-mediawikis-localisation-update/; * the move of Wikimedia Labs https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/04/migrating-wikimedia-labs-to-a-new-data-center/ to a new data center (see also general "Highlights" section ); * the “Heartbleed” security vulnerability https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/10/wikimedias-response-to-the-heartbleed-security-vulnerability/ and how the Wikimedia Foundation's team responded to it; * an explanation of how the Mobile team uses Trello https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/15/agile-and-trello-the-planning-cycle/ to plan their development sprints.
=== VisualEditor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal ===
In April, the VisualEditor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor team worked to improve the *stability* of the editor, adding some *new features* and improving *usability* so that users can create and edit pages more swiftly and intuitively with VisualEditor than before. When users edit *templates*, only a few parameters are now shown at first rather than all possible ones (some often-used templates like those for citations or infoboxes can have dozens of parameters). It now also feels more natural to set the *size of images*, and the *page settings* tool includes the complete set of page options. The next version of the *citation dialog* was tested and simplified; "suggested" parameters are now always added, like "required" ones. Finally, a careful audit of all Wikimedia wikis led to fixing broken *local community-written code*, to ensure that VisualEditor runs on all of them.
The Parsoid https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid team continued to fix bugs and tweak code; Parsoid is the parsing program that works behind the scenes of VisualEditor to convert wikitext to annotated HTML, and vice versa. Two areas in particular received a lot of attention: *templates encapsulation* and *link handling*. Template encapsulation refers to how content generated by wiki templates is tagged as such, in order for the post-editing wikitext to be consistent; this is particularly important for templates that interact with tables. We fixed many issues with how links are handled, notably image links and their edge cases. In addition to bug fixes, we also improved Parsoid's *performance*: some pages like /Barack Obama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama/ should now parse 30% faster than before. Last, April saw additional progress providing support for visual editing of transclusion parameters.
=== Editor engagement https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement ===
This month, the Flow https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow team focused on behind-the-scenes changes to improve *moderation* and *history viewing*, as well as implementing new JavaScript interface templates to make Flow *more responsive* and *easier to add new features* onto. We released the ability to *close and summarize topics*, which will allow users to manage active discussions and end ones that have come to a resolution. Flow is now the *default discussion tool* for many Beta Features discussions on mediawiki.org, and the team is accepting requests to enable Flow on more pages on that wiki to test complex multi-user discussions.
The Growth https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth team started to focus on a new experimental area: *anonymous editor acquisition https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/anonymous_editor_acquisition*. The team prepared its first two experimental interface changes, aimed at asking anonymous editors to register accounts https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anonymous_editor_acquisition/Signup_invites (expected to be launched in early May). The team also will be conducting basic research into the role anonymous editors play in Wikipedia − more at Research:Anonymous phenomena https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Anonymous_phenomena and Research:Anonymous editor acquisition https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Anonymous_editor_acquisition.
=== Mobile https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014-05-01_Mobile_Metrics.pdf?page=1... Presentation slides on mobile usage (by the Analytics team, from the monthly metrics meeting)
The Mobile Apps https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps team continued to work on the *rebooted Wikipedia App for Android and iOS*. The team focused on bug fixes, editing refinements, and interface improvements. Several issues related to keyboard, navigation bar, edit summary, and abuse filter were fixed. The app now uses the newly-created Wikifont, which reduced the size of the app and the number of images used Articles should now look even closer to their mobile web counterparts.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_new_user_profile_page_gives_you_... The new user profile page gives a quick summary of the user's edit history
The Mobile web https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects team added *history and contributions pages*, as well as an updated *watchlist* view, for all users. We also released two new features geared toward "humanizing" Wikipedia for readers and new editors: a prominent "last modified" banner that indicates when articles haven't been edited in a while and may need some attention, and a user profile feature to provide a mobile-friendly snapshot of users' contributions and activity. For *tablets*, we updated typography and layout and worked on adding the ability to add and modify links via VisualEditor in beta, in preparation for redirecting tablets to the mobile site later this quarter.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Zero_Update_Metrics_May_20... Presentation slides on Wikipedia Zero from the monthly metrics meeting
The Wikipedia Zero https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero team continued to set up the *Partners portal* and work on graceful reduction of *image quality*. We continued analytics work on data from the *SMS/USSD pilot* program, and generated custom *pageview analyses* for an operator to distinguish traffic by high level device access characteristics.
Additionally, the team worked on the alpha version of the Android Wikipedia app, as well as on the URL format for the forthcoming iOS Wikipedia app to ensure pageview logging.
Mobile carrier IPKO joined the Wikipedia Zero program in *Kosovo*, bringing us to a total of *28 partners in 26 countries*. We delivered *68 million free page views* in April. We *visited South Africa* to meet with MTN (current Wikipedia Zero partner), prospective partners, members of Wikimedia South Africa and the Singenjongo High School. This trip was part of a broader strategy to promote Wikipedia in our partners' corporate social responsibility (CSR) and education initiatives, increasing awareness and impact locally. We are identifying new collaboration opportunities with MTN and local organizations, including the Wikimedia chapter in South Africa and other mission-aligned nonprofits. Additionally, we will continue to support the local initiative created by Sinenjongo High School teachers and students.
== Fundraising ==
Department Highlights
* Members of the fundraising team responded to questions regarding the WMF's FDC proposal on Meta-wiki https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikimedia_Foundation/Proposal_form.
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* The Foundations and Major Gifts Team raised *over $1 million* in April. * Begun planning for a London *event for Wikimania sponsors*, scheduled for June 25th.
=== Online Fundraising ===
* The online fundraising team ran *banner tests in the Netherlands and Austria*. Approximately $700,000 USD was raised in April (preliminary numbers as donations are still settling). * The team prepared *translations* of fundraising messages into multiple languages for upcoming international banner campaigns. If you would like to help with the translation process, please get involved https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/Translation. * The Wikimedia Merchandise team launched a redesign of the *Wikimedia Shop* https://shop.wikimedia.org/.
== Grantmaking ==
Department highlights
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grantmaking_Quarterly_Review,_Apr_20... Slides from the Grantmaking Quarterly Review, Apr 2014.
* Held quarterly review. See the *quarterly review minutes and slides https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Grantmaking/April_2014*. * *4 proposals for annual plan grants were submitted* by the 1 April 2014 deadline and reviewed by the community until 30 April.
=== Annual Plan Grants (Funds Dissemination Committee) ===
* *4 proposals https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2* for annual plan grants are submitted by the 1 April 2014 deadline for 2013-2014 Round 2; reviewed by the community until 30 April: o The Centre for Internet and Society, ~US$297,831 requested <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GWikimedia Foundation Report, April 2014
<Video: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_May_1,_2... Video of the monthly Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting covering the month of April https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/2014-05-01 (May 1, 2014)
Contents
* 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Wikimedia Labs migrated to the new data center o 3.2 New MediaViewer starts getting released on Wikimedia sites o 3.3 New Executive Director and Chief Communications Officer * 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 (Funds Dissemination Committee) o 6.2 Project and Event Grants + 6.2.1 Grants funded in April 2014 + 6.2.2 Reports accepted in April 2014 o 6.3 Travel and Participation Support + 6.3.1 Request awarded in April 2014 + 6.3.2 Reports accepted in April 2014 o 6.4 Individual Engagement Grants + 6.4.1 Reports accepted in April 2014 o 6.5 Wikimania o 6.6 Learning and Evaluation + 6.6.1 Program Evaluation o 6.7 Wikipedia Education Program + 6.7.1 Global programs + 6.7.2 Arab world programs + 6.7.3 Communications * 7 Human Resources o 7.1 April Staff Changes o 7.2 April Statistics * 8 Finance and Administration * 9 Legal and Community Advocacy o 9.1 LCA Report, April 2014 + 9.1.1 Contract Metrics + 9.1.2 Trademark Metrics + 9.1.3 Domains Obtained + 9.1.4 Coming & Going + 9.1.5 Other Activities * 10 Communications Report, April 2014 o 10.1 Major Announcements o 10.2 Major Storylines through April o 10.3 Other worthwhile reads o 10.4 WMF Blog posts o 10.5 Media Contact o 10.6 Wikipedia Signpost o 10.7 Communications Design * 11 Visitors and Guests
== Data and Trends ==
Global unique visitors for March:
*495 million* (+4.44% compared with February; -4.33% compared with the previous year) (comScore data http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/unique_visitors for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release April data later in May)
Page requests for April:
*20.697 billion* (-1.6% compared with March; -0.6% 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 March 2014 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots):
*79,352* (+4.59% compared with February / -2.84% compared with the previous year) (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_March_2014.... Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of March 31, 2014 <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Expenses_by_Functions_March_2014... Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of March 31, 2014
(Financial information is only available through March 2014 at the time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date March 31, 2014.
Revenue 40,957,259 *Expenses:* Engineering Group 12,358,813 Fundraising Group 2,989,855 Grantmaking Group 1,198,163 Programs Group 1,358,725 Grants 3,961,161 Governance Group 582,854 Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group 2,831,941 Finance/HR/Admin Group 5,034,754 Total Expenses 30,316,266 Total surplus (10,640,993) /in US dollars/
* Revenue for the month of March is $1.71MM versus plan of $0.01MM, approximately $1.70MM or 29,215% over plan. * Year-to-date revenue is $40.96MM versus plan of $45.05MM, approximately $4.09MM or 9% under plan. * Expenses for the month of March is $3.22MM versus plan of $4.57MM, approximately $1.35MM or 30% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, internet hosting, FDC grants, payment processing fees, and travel expenses partially offset by higher legal fees and outside contract services. * Year-to-date expenses is $30.32MM versus plan of $36.37MM, approximately $6.05MM or 17% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees, payment processing fees, staff development expenses, grants and travel expenses partially offset by higher outside contract services. * Cash and Investments - $50.69MM as of March 31, 2014.
== Highlights ==
=== Wikimedia Labs migrated to the new data center ===
The Wikimedia Labs https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Labs platform enables volunteers to host software tools to support the community's work, and to get involved in the technical operations of Wikimedia servers. As part of the Foundation's ongoing work to reduce reliance on the old data center in Tampa, Florida (USA), Labs was moved to the new data center https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/04/migrating-wikimedia-labs-to-a-new-data-center/ in Ashburn, Virginia in April, completing several months of work by WMF staff and by volunteers who operate Labs projects. Among the advantages is the switch to a new file system (NFS) which is much more reliable that the one used used for Labs in the old data center (GlusterFS, which had caused most of the Labs failures and downtime in the preceding months). Also, in the new data center, many Labs projects are now using the internal Labs web proxy, which provides several benefits including HTTPS access and increased user data privacy. The Toolserver, the predecessor of the "Tool Labs" part of Wikimedia Labs, is planned to shut down on June 30.
=== New MediaViewer starts getting released on Wikimedia sites ===
The Foundation's multimedia team released Media Viewer v0.2 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer on 14 pilot sites in April, in preparation for a wider deployment https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Media_Viewer/Release_Plan in May. The overall response was favorable, and a growing majority of survey respondents https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Media_Viewer/Survey was finding this new multimedia browser useful. The team also developed a set of metrics dashboards http://multimedia-metrics.wmflabs.org/dashboards/mmv to track how often MediaViewer and its various features are used, and how fast it performs over the Internet, as well as local metrics dashboards https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/Metrics for selected sites: first results showed a decline in image load time http://multimedia-metrics.wmflabs.org/dashboards/mmv#overall_network_performance-graphs-tab, and suggest that Media Viewer loads faster http://multimedia-metrics.wmflabs.org/dashboards/mmv#media_viewer_vs_file_page-graphs-tab than the old file description pages.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lila_Tretikov_16_April_2014_(1).jpg%... Lila Tretikov
=== New Executive Director and Chief Communications Officer ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maher,_Katherine_April_2014.jpg%3E Katherine Maher
In April, preparations took place to welcome the Foundation's incoming executive director Lila Tretikov https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:LilaTretikov, who was announced on May 1 https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/05/01/wmf_announces_new_ed_lila_tretikov/. She will succeed Sue Gardner on June 1, who will move into a new role as special adviser. Lila Tretikov was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the United States as a teenager. She has been working for technology companies, primarily in open source, in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 15 years, most recently at SugarCRM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SugarCRM.
Also in April, Katherine Maher was announced https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/15/katherine-maher-joins-foundation-chief-communications-officer/ as the Foundation's new Chief Communications Officer.
== Engineering ==
A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for April 2014 can be found at:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2014/April
Department Highlights
Major news in April include:
* the change of format https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/10/mediawiki-localization-file-format-changed-from-php-to-json/ of MediaWiki localization files from PHP to JSON, and the associated modernization of the LocalisationUpdate extension https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/03/modernising-mediawikis-localisation-update/; * the move of Wikimedia Labs https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/04/migrating-wikimedia-labs-to-a-new-data-center/ to a new data center (see also general "Highlights" section ); * the “Heartbleed” security vulnerability https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/10/wikimedias-response-to-the-heartbleed-security-vulnerability/ and how the Wikimedia Foundation's team responded to it; * an explanation of how the Mobile team uses Trello https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/15/agile-and-trello-the-planning-cycle/ to plan their development sprints.
=== VisualEditor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal ===
In April, the VisualEditor https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor team worked to improve the *stability* of the editor, adding some *new features* and improving *usability* so that users can create and edit pages more swiftly and intuitively with VisualEditor than before. When users edit *templates*, only a few parameters are now shown at first rather than all possible ones (some often-used templates like those for citations or infoboxes can have dozens of parameters). It now also feels more natural to set the *size of images*, and the *page settings* tool includes the complete set of page options. The next version of the *citation dialog* was tested and simplified; "suggested" parameters are now always added, like "required" ones. Finally, a careful audit of all Wikimedia wikis led to fixing broken *local community-written code*, to ensure that VisualEditor runs on all of them.
The Parsoid https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid team continued to fix bugs and tweak code; Parsoid is the parsing program that works behind the scenes of VisualEditor to convert wikitext to annotated HTML, and vice versa. Two areas in particular received a lot of attention: *templates encapsulation* and *link handling*. Template encapsulation refers to how content generated by wiki templates is tagged as such, in order for the post-editing wikitext to be consistent; this is particularly important for templates that interact with tables. We fixed many issues with how links are handled, notably image links and their edge cases. In addition to bug fixes, we also improved Parsoid's *performance*: some pages like /Barack Obama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama/ should now parse 30% faster than before. Last, April saw additional progress providing support for visual editing of transclusion parameters.
=== Editor engagement https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement ===
This month, the Flow https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow team focused on behind-the-scenes changes to improve *moderation* and *history viewing*, as well as implementing new JavaScript interface templates to make Flow *more responsive* and *easier to add new features* onto. We released the ability to *close and summarize topics*, which will allow users to manage active discussions and end ones that have come to a resolution. Flow is now the *default discussion tool* for many Beta Features discussions on mediawiki.org, and the team is accepting requests to enable Flow on more pages on that wiki to test complex multi-user discussions.
The Growth https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth team started to focus on a new experimental area: *anonymous editor acquisition https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/anonymous_editor_acquisition*. The team prepared its first two experimental interface changes, aimed at asking anonymous editors to register accounts https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anonymous_editor_acquisition/Signup_invites (expected to be launched in early May). The team also will be conducting basic research into the role anonymous editors play in Wikipedia − more at Research:Anonymous phenomena https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Anonymous_phenomena and Research:Anonymous editor acquisition https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Anonymous_editor_acquisition.
=== Mobile https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering ===
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014-05-01_Mobile_Metrics.pdf?page=1... Presentation slides on mobile usage (by the Analytics team, from the monthly metrics meeting)
The Mobile Apps https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps team continued to work on the *rebooted Wikipedia App for Android and iOS*. The team focused on bug fixes, editing refinements, and interface improvements. Several issues related to keyboard, navigation bar, edit summary, and abuse filter were fixed. The app now uses the newly-created Wikifont, which reduced the size of the app and the number of images used Articles should now look even closer to their mobile web counterparts.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_new_user_profile_page_gives_you_... The new user profile page gives a quick summary of the user's edit history
The Mobile web https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects team added *history and contributions pages*, as well as an updated *watchlist* view, for all users. We also released two new features geared toward "humanizing" Wikipedia for readers and new editors: a prominent "last modified" banner that indicates when articles haven't been edited in a while and may need some attention, and a user profile feature to provide a mobile-friendly snapshot of users' contributions and activity. For *tablets*, we updated typography and layout and worked on adding the ability to add and modify links via VisualEditor in beta, in preparation for redirecting tablets to the mobile site later this quarter.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Zero_Update_Metrics_May_20... Presentation slides on Wikipedia Zero from the monthly metrics meeting
The Wikipedia Zero https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero team continued to set up the *Partners portal* and work on graceful reduction of *image quality*. We continued analytics work on data from the *SMS/USSD pilot* program, and generated custom *pageview analyses* for an operator to distinguish traffic by high level device access characteristics.
Additionally, the team worked on the alpha version of the Android Wikipedia app, as well as on the URL format for the forthcoming iOS Wikipedia app to ensure pageview logging.
Mobile carrier IPKO joined the Wikipedia Zero program in *Kosovo*, bringing us to a total of *28 partners in 26 countries*. We delivered *68 million free page views* in April. We *visited South Africa* to meet with MTN (current Wikipedia Zero partner), prospective partners, members of Wikimedia South Africa and the Singenjongo High School. This trip was part of a broader strategy to promote Wikipedia in our partners' corporate social responsibility (CSR) and education initiatives, increasing awareness and impact locally. We are identifying new collaboration opportunities with MTN and local organizations, including the Wikimedia chapter in South Africa and other mission-aligned nonprofits. Additionally, we will continue to support the local initiative created by Sinenjongo High School teachers and students.
== Fundraising ==
Department Highlights
* Members of the fundraising team responded to questions regarding the WMF's FDC proposal on Meta-wiki https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikimedia_Foundation/Proposal_form.
=== Major Gifts and Foundations ===
* The Foundations and Major Gifts Team raised *over $1 million* in April. * Begun planning for a London *event for Wikimania sponsors*, scheduled for June 25th.
=== Online Fundraising ===
* The online fundraising team ran *banner tests in the Netherlands and Austria*. Approximately $700,000 USD was raised in April (preliminary numbers as donations are still settling). * The team prepared *translations* of fundraising messages into multiple languages for upcoming international banner campaigns. If you would like to help with the translation process, please get involved https://meta.wikimedia.org/wrants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/The_Centre_for_Internet_and_Society/Proposal_form o Wikimedia Foundation, No dollar amount requested https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikimedia_Foundation/Proposal_form o Wikimédia France, ~US$826,062 requested https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Proposal_form o Wikimedia Norge, ~US$432,060 requested https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikimedia_Norge/Proposal_form * *Progress reports* for 2013-2014 Round 1 Quarter 1 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Annual_plan_grant_progress_report_forms_for_2013-2014_Round_1_Q1 were submitted by 30 April. * WMDE and WMUK submitted *impact reports* for 2012-2013 Round 1: o WMUK https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/WMUK/Impact_report_form o Wikimedia Deutschland https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013_round1/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Impact_report_form * Results from *survey* on 2013-2014 Round 1 of the FDC process are published (see [[#Learning and Evaluation|]] for more information). * FDC members attend the *Wikimedia Conference* in Berlin, Germany and offer an information session and a session to share feedback. * WMDE, chapters, and other community members were invited to assess *WMF's annual plan* as part of the proposal process.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Indaba_2014.jpeg%3E Logo of the "Wiki Indaba" conference ("Under the Baobab")
=== Project and Event Grants ===
* *5 new members* joined the Grant Advisory Committee. * *4 new requests* were funded and *4 reports* were accepted in April 2014.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_Catholic_church_of_municipalit... A Roman Catholic church in the municipality of Loon which was destroyed in the Bohol earthquake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Bohol_earthquake less than three weeks after this photo was uploaded as part of Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines
==== Grants funded in April 2014 ====
* Wiki-Indaba-2014 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WM_ZA/Wiki-Indaba-2014: To support the first conference of Wikimedians across Africa to discuss strategy, best practices, and promote community building. * Wikipedia:Rintis https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Wiki-ID/Wikipedia:Rintis: To support Wiki-ID to conduct a series of outreach workshops and edit-a-thons in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia. * Wiki Loves Earth 2014 in Macedonia https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Shared_Knowledge/Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014_in_Macedonia: To support the implementation of Wiki Loves Earth 2014 in Macedonia. * Wiki Camp https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_AM/Wiki_Camp: To support a summer Wiki Camp for active high school editors in Armenia.
==== Reports accepted in April 2014 ====
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Volontaires_-_Wikimedia_Stall_-_38th... Volunteers at the 38th International Kolkata Book Fair (said to be Asia's largest book fair)
* Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 - Philippines https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_PH/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013 * Turkic speaking wikimedians conference https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/WikiBilim/Turkic_speaking_wikimedians_conference/Report * Kolkata Book Fair 2014 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Jayanta_Nath_-_Kolkata_Wiki_Community/Kolkata_Book_Fair_2014/Report * Wiki Loves Monuments international team https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_international_team/2013_coordination/report
=== Travel and Participation Support ===
* *1 new request* was funded and *2 reports* were accepted in April 2014. * A worksprint https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Build/Spring_2014_sprint has begun to improve the program's pages and workflows. The aim of the sprint is to *improve the applicant experience* based on learning https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Analysis from the program's first 2 years, making it easier for more people to get involved. Dustin York joined the sprint team in April as a temporary design contractor who hopes to bring more joy to the program's interactions. The redesign sprint is expected to run April - July.
==== Request awarded in April 2014 ====
* OpenStack Summit Atlanta https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Ryan_lane/OpenStack_Summit_Atlanta: a request to fund Ryan Lane’s representation of Wikimedia at the design summit in order for OpenStack to continue giving Wikimedia’s software use and interests continued consideration, especially with regard to the future direction of the software. OpenStack is the base infrastructure for Wikimedia Labs.
==== Reports accepted in April 2014 ====
* OSGEO Cluj https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Strainu/OSGEO_Cluj/Report * Free Minds free People and IDEC 2013 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Futureimperfect/_Free_Minds_free_People_and_IDEC_2013/Report
=== Individual Engagement Grants ===
* We completed *eligibility checks* on round 1 2014 proposals, and 18 proposals https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-join moved forward into a 2 weeks comment period in which input was solicited from the community and other stakeholders. The IEG committee is now scoring proposals, according to a newly updated rubric https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Committee/Workroom#review-rubric. Committee scores and qualitative feedback will be shared back on proposals in early May, while WMF due diligence on recommended proposals begins. * A worksprint https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Build/March-June_2014_sprint_plan is underway on *IdeaLab*, to make it easier to engage in this space. As of April 1, Jeph Paul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jeph_paul joined the sprint team as a short-term contractor, to build gadgets and other tools for use in IdeaLab, other grantmaking spaces, and beyond. The worksprint is expected to continue through July. * In other individual grants news, 2 Arabic Wikipedians joined the *Arabic pilot* team to serve as volunteer coordinators in the Arabic Wikipedia Library https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/wp:%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7:%D9%85%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A9_%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7. The Library build was completed in April from a kit on Meta-wiki https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/Kit, and we're nearly ready to begin processing Arabic Wikipedians' requests for books and journals. Although we'd expected to launch the pilot program in April, payments methods for the countries we aim to serve with this pilot have been an ongoing challenge. We hope to have this resolved soon and launch in early May instead. * IEG program head Siko Bouterse is laying plans to *travel to Jordan* in May as part of an Education Program Hackathon, in order to attend a meet-up with Arabic Wikipedians to discuss the pilot and other opportunities for supporting individual contributors through grants and other resources.
==== Reports accepted in April 2014 ====
* Visual editor-gadgets compatibility - Midpoint https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Visual_editor-_gadgets_compatibility/Midpoint (blog post https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/22/visualeditor-gadgets/) * Women Scientists Workshop Development - Midpoint https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Women_Scientists_Workshop_Development/Midpoint * What is about - C'est quoi. A series of communication tools about Wikipedia. Cameroon pilot project - Midpoint https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/What_is_about_-_C%27est_quoi._A_series_of_communication_tools_about_Wikipedia._Cameroon_pilot_project/Midpoint
=== Wikimania ===
* Wikimedia Mexico's proposal https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015_bids/Mexico_City to host *Wikimania in 2015* has been accepted. The conference is expected to be held in Mexico City in summer 2013. * The Wikimania scholarships committee finished scoring the hundreds of *scholarship* applications from Wikimedians hoping to attend Wikimania in London in August 2014. The list of over 100 selected scholars has been finalized and recipients will soon be notified.
=== Learning and Evaluation ===
* *Grantmaking Evaluation*: o Overall Grantmaking: Held Quarterly Review on January - March https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Grantmaking/April_2014. Key *focus areas*: + Increase support to individuals + Publish program evaluation reports + Optimize grantmaking requirements + Integrate new team o Annual Plan Grants: Round 1 2013-14 *Process review* published https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/Feedback_and_continuous_improvement_of_the_FDC_process/Process_Survey/2013-14_Round_1. o Pilot Experiment: Arabic Wikipedia Library https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/wp:%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7:%D9%85%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A9_%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A7 (see IEG section) * Grantmaking Operations: o Fluxx https://wmf.fluxx.io/, the *grant management platform*, was launched and new grant requests are being processed using it. o Created a prototype to visualize the number of users from top 10 countries that contribute to target Wikipedias in the *Global South*. o IdeaLab sprint ongoing https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Build/March-June_2014_sprint_plan (see IEG section)
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Visualizing_Wikipedia_Communities_us... Slides of the "Visualizing Wikipedia Communities using Gephi" presentation
* *Capacity building*: Led several presentation at the *Wikimedia Conference* in Berlin, including those listed below in Program Evaluation, as well as: o Presented at the WMF *Research&Data showcase* for April 2014 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Analytics/Research_and_Data/Showcase#April_2014 o "Ideas to Experiments https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Documentation/22": Session on process of *ideas to solve problems*, and how to experiment with them. o "Your organization and hiring staff https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Documentation/10": talking through current research on the *hiring of first employees* within Wikimedia, as well as why a group should or should not consider it * External Grantmaking Outreach: o Participated in *Network Evaluation Convening* at Packard Foundation. Part of brainstorming group discussing preliminary methods of evaluating networks of contributors funded through grants. o Participated in the *"Embrace Complexity" meeting* http://www.geofunders.org/events/upcoming-events/event/24 hosted by GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) * *Governance* o With Legal, organized a workshop on *COI guidelines* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Documentation/12 o With Legal, compiled research around *purchasing power* parity and regulations around *transfering funds* into certain countries * *Organizational effectiveness and development* o Gave presentation at the Berlin *Wikimedia Conference* (see above) o Launch of organizational *effectiveness survey* work alongside members of WMF Board, some Wikimedia Chapters, and AffCom. Survey on governance to be distributed in early May o Final report delivered from consultancy TCC, working on benchmarking the way *other organizations think about organizational effectiveness* and design. Public report forthcoming.
==== Program Evaluation ====
In addition to participating with the full Learning and Evaluation team in a *strategy session* related to our integration under Grantmaking, the program evaluation and design team members:
* Completed, and posted, the *Wikipedia Education Program report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Library/WEP* on Meta as the final one in the Program Evaluation Reports beta series. * Attended the *Wikimedia Conference* 2014 in Berlin and presented pre-conference and conference sessions on program evaluation: o A full-day https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/News/Wikimedia_Conference_2014_Pre-conference_Program_Evaluation_and_Design_Workshop workshop facilitating dialogue about *evaluation fears and hopes, roles and responsibilities*, and program leader strategies as well as presenting content on the Stages and Types of Program Evaluation (slides: PDF https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stages_and_Types_of_Evaluation.pdf/GDoc https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1CJE9lm3wkOUsWch_I065ySLrdROCN6mq4MVEphgEyn0/edit#slide=id.p); Theory of Change and Logic Models (slides: PDF https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theory_of_Change_and_Logic_Models_-_The_Logic_Model_as_an_Evaluation_Planning_Tool.pdf/GDoc https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1mOZvUjX6AACDX1x9gigICYmjFhletFPtu_ax162TYx4/edit#slide=id.p), and Data Sources (slides: PDF https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Data_Sources_-_Gathering_Evidence_of_your_Program_Story.pdf/GDoc https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1yJiCFVCRtY0BZuI1jJDfeHCFbg-IJPxotjOdPn3rMIs/edit#slide=id.g26907f763_0174), including a brief overview of Wikimetrics (slides: PDF https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimetrics_Overview.pdf/GDoc https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xfDMMvZjTkUVf4VS8t2zJaHqrf6T5NvU7Wjnd-pACbA/edit?usp=sharing); o A half-day https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/News/Wikimedia_Conference_2014_Open_Thursday_Sessions of pre-conference workshop sessions on program evaluation: first a workshop on *designing effective questions* (workshop slides: PDF Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Designing_Effective_Questions.pdf/GDoc https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1__RUpU0IHnqWnyyC6O8lDmwZ7xoRME8Co3e8psmTo4w/edit?usp=sharing) followed by a brainstorming session on the current metrics and gaps. o Two Wikimedia Conference sessions: a presentation and conversation session, titled *"How to measure blood, sweat, and tears?"* (session documentation https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Documentation/18) and a demonstration session on evaluation data and tracking tools, titled *"An Overview of tracking and reporting points and Wikimetrics"*. (session documentation https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014/Documentation/19) * Participated in reviewing the round II *annual plan grant proposals* related to program evaluation strategy as well as the measures and targets presented. * Developed and added a *learning module* on Designing Effective Questions https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs:Evaluation_portal/Learning_modules/3Welcome to the learning modules library (this is an expanded version of the workshop presentation) * Hired Edward Galvez as staff in the position of *Program Evaluation Associate*.
* Program Evaluation session slides from the Wikimedia Conference * Stages and Types of Evaluation.pdf <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stages_and_Types_of_Evaluation.pdf%3... * Theory of Change and Logic Models - The Logic Model as an Evaluation Planning Tool.pdf <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theory_of_Change_and_Logic_Models_-_... * Data Sources - Gathering Evidence of your Program Story.pdf <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Data_Sources_-_Gathering_Evidence_of... * Wikimetrics Overview.pdf Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimetrics_Overview.pdf * Designing Effective Questions.pdf <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Designing_Effective_Questions.pdf%3E
=== Wikipedia Education Program ===
* Floor Koudijs, *Global Education Program Manager*, transitioned from contractor to employee of the Wikimedia Foundation.
==== Global programs ====
* The Wikipedia Education Program continues its support for the *Education Cooperative https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Portal/Newsletter/March_2014/Education_Cooperative_Kickoff_Meeting_in_Prague*, a group of program leaders with experience in using Wikipedia in education. Coop members, together with the Wikipedia Education Program team, are currently working on four initial areas for the Coop: Communications, Resources, Recognition and Mentoring. * The Program team is establishing a *baseline of Wikipedia in education initiatives* worldwide. The team is conducting a large outreach effort to more than 60 programs worldwide that are using Wikipedia in education. Currently, the outreach consists of one-on-one talks with all program leaders to understand their educational initiatives, activities, goals, and potential support needs. * Rod Dunican, Director of the Wikipedia Education Program, traveled to the *Wikimedia Conference* in Berlin to meet with several educational program leaders who are interested and active in education.
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cairo_4th_56.jpg%3E Students celebrate their contributions to the Arabic Wikipedia on April 27, 2014 at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt
==== Arab world programs ====
* Tighe Flanagan, Wikipedia Education Program Manger for the Arab world, conducted a working visit to *King Saud University* in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, emphasizing a need to move student translation work online. * Dr. Mohammed Alghbban, Regional Ambassador for the Wikipedia Education Program in Saudi Arabia, organized a meeting with Dr. Mansour M. Alghamdi, head of digital content and publishing http://publications.kacst.edu.sa/ at the *King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology*, to see how they can support local efforts for Arabic content on Wikipedia. * Led by Samir Sharbaty, students and professors put on a *celebration conference* for the Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt hosted by Ain Shams University on April 27, celebrating 7.3 million bytes of new Arabic content from 98 students. See photos on Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fourth_Celebration_Conference,_Egypt-_April_2014. * WEP Ambassadors are actively working to get a version of the *Wikipedia Training https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Training* up on Arabic Wikipedia, as well as continuing to improve the usage of the *education extension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ar:Special:Courses:* to track courses and student activity. * A new *mailing list* was created to discuss ideas and coordinate efforts around Wikipedia and education in Saudi Arabia https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education-sa.
==== Communications ====
* Sage Ross posted an update on recent improvements to the *course page system* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/technical_updates/April_2014. * The Education Coop sent out the April 2014 edition https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter/April_2014 of the This Month in Education *newsletter*.
== Human Resources ==
<Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:May_2014_WMF_HR_Metrics_Slides.pdf%3... HR presentation slides from the May 1 metrics meeting
April continued to be about supporting the *ED and VPE searches*, as well as the *annual plan* and staff planning. We also *on-boarded* nine FT staff, and are working now on over six for May. We launched the next round of the WikiLead program for *leadership development*, including a three-day training offsite. We continued to work on *staff handbook* edits, to reduce the legal speak and increase the core, cultural aspects. The team began the prep work for the annual staff *performance reviews*, which will take place in June. The team is also excitedly wrapping up recruiting for our *Benefits and Wellness Coordinator* and the *Recruiting Coordinator*, with ongoing recruiting for the *Recruiting Manager*. And of course, ongoing work around benefits and immigration.
=== April Staff Changes ===
New Requisitions Filled
* Katherine Maher (Communications) * Dmitry Brant (Engineering) * Danny Horn (Engineering) * Giuseppe Lavagetto (Engineering) * Sarah Rodlund (F&A)
Conversions (Contractor to Requisition)
* Edward Galvez (Grants) * Floor Koudjis (Grants) * Patrick Earley (LCA)
Requisition Department Changes
* (none)
Requisition Departures
* Kenan Wang (Engineering) * Sara Lasner (Fundraising) * Ingrid Flores (Grants)
New Interns
* (none)
New Contractors
* Jeph Alapat (Grants) * Dustin York (Grants)
Contracts Ended
* Ryan Lane * Donna Peterson
=== April Statistics ===
Total Requisitions Filled April Actual: 168 (was 163) April Total Plan: 187 April Filled: 8, Month Attrition: 3, FYTD Filled: 49, FYTD Attrition: 26
Remaining Open positions to fiscal year end 28 → reflects 4 total out of plan req#s 193-196 (for finance)
== Finance and Administration ==
* Funds being held in the *short term reserve fund* total $21.4 million. Estimated annual income on the short term reserve fund is $756,045 or 3.5% per year gross of fees. * An RFP for *investment advisory services* will be released in May. * WMF has signed a contract with the HUB (a *coworking space*) to provide staff, based in New York, London and other locations, as an option for a space outside of their home to work, meet and collaborate.
== Legal and Community Advocacy ==
=== LCA Report, April 2014 ===
Throughout April LCA continued its support of the Wikimedia projects through ongoing *litigation and community support*.
* Michelle, Yana, Stephen, and Luis attended the *Wikimedia Conference* in Berlin https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2014 to discuss topics surrounding COIs, trademarks, movement roles, advocacy and privacy. * Michelle published a blog http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/25/what-when-someone-asks-your-information/ announcing the release of our *Requests for User Information Guidelines and Procedures https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Requests_for_user_information_procedures_%26_guidelines*. These guidelines inform third parties who seek our users' nonpublic information of the stringent requirements they must meet before the Wikimedia Foundation will consider releasing any user's nonpublic information. It's worth noting that most organizations refer to these kinds of guidelines as "law enforcement guidelines". However, our guidelines are broader -- they are directed not just at law enforcement, but any third party who attempts to compel user information from the Foundation, so our process and requirements are transparent and consistent for all. * Our deputy legal counsel, *Luis Villa*, was also featured in a Wikimedia blog post ("Luis Villa: I wanted to be an internet lawyer https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/16/luis-villa-i-wanted-to-be-an-internet-lawyer/") that highlighted his substantial internet experience.
==== Contract Metrics ====
* Submitted : 34 * Completed : 36
==== Trademark Metrics ====
* Submitted : 14 * Approved: 1 * Pending : 6 * Denied: 2 * Approval not needed : 5
==== Domains Obtained ====
wikipedia.expert, wiki-pedia.net, wikimedia.community, wikipedia.community, wiktionary.community, wikiversity.community, wikipedia.community, wikimediacommons.community, wikinews.community, wikisource.community, wiki.community, wiki-pedia.org, wekipedia.com, wikkipedia.org, wikimediacommons.uk, wikimediauk.uk
==== Coming & Going ====
* *Anna Koval* left the LCA team to join the Wikipedia Education Program team. * *Patrick Earley* transitioned from the Community Liaison team to Community Advocacy.
==== Other Activities ====
* Manprit Brar, a fellow in the legal team, published a blog post entitled *Supporting innovation beyond the traditional IP regime: Using Wikipedia as a model http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/11/supporting-innovation-beyond-the-traditional-ip-regime-using-wikipedia-as-a-model/*. This blog post highlighted the ideas discussed during Yale's Innovation Law Beyond IP conference, which Manprit attended, and how Wikimedia projects already incorporate some of those ideas successfully.
== Communications Report, April 2014 ==
April started with the *Belfer Center* still in the news, as Sue issued a statement on April 1st addressing concerns about this 2012 program. On April 10th, WMF responded to the OpenSSL *Heartbleed* vulnerability with a statement on the blog that was translated into 19 different languages by volunteers with the support of the Communications team. The sudden death of Wikipedian *Adrianne Wadewitz* on April on 8th after a climbing accident was covered extensively by the media, with obituaries appearing in the New York Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, among others. Katherine Maher, the *new Chief Communications Officer*, started on April 14th. The Foundation *hosted a camera crew* from CBS National News to film b-roll for a future segment on Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia, and the movement. We supported the *community review of the 2013/14 round 2 FDC proposals* with banner messages on all projects that were translated by volunteers into over 50 languages, and assisted the Fundraising department in organizing responses to questions about the *Foundation's own FDC proposal*. The team spent significant time preparing communications documents for the May 1st announcement of the new *incoming executive director*, Lila Tretikov.
=== Major Announcements ===
No major announcements in April.
=== Major Storylines through April ===
Adrianne Wadewitz Adrianne Wadewitz, 37, prolific Wikipedia editor, dies after rock climbing accident. The New York Times (19 April, 2014). [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/business/media/adrianne-wadewitz-37-wikipedia-editor-and-academic-dies.html?_r=0 BuzzFeed (21 April, 2014). [2] http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/prolific-wikipedia-editor-adrianne-wadewitz-dies-after-rock Washington Post (25 April, 2014). [3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/adrianne-wadewitz-wikipedia-contributor-dies-at-37/2014/04/25/42ceecd8-cc95-11e3-a75e-463587891b57_story.html
Hillsborough vandalism Wikipedia edits (vandalism) performed from U.K. government computers. Daily Mail (24 April, 2014). [4] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2612727/Hillsborough-slurs-sent-Whitehall-computers-Inquiry-launched-anonymous-Wikipedia-modifications.html The Huffington Post - United Kingdom (25 April, 2014). [5] http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/24/hillsborough-disaster-wikipedia-page-altered-by-government-computers_n_5209854.html BBC (25 April, 2014) [6] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27165732 The Telegraph (26 April, 2014). [7] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/10790012/Wikipedia-edits-performed-on-government-computers-extends-beyond-Hillsborough-disaster.html
Bitcoin Jimmy Wales reveals he is “cautious” about accepting Bitcoin donations. CoinDesk (14 April, 2014). [8] http://www.coindesk.com/jimmy-wales-reveals-wikimedia-cautious-accepting-bitcoin/ PFhub (14 April, 2014). [9] http://www.pfhub.com/wikimedias-jimmy-wales-reveals-he-is-cautious-about-bitcoin-537/ CoinReport (14 April, 2014) [10] https://coinreport.net/jimmy-wales-bitcoin-drive-back-cautious/
Heartbleed security bug The Heartbleed bug made headlines when it affected many top websites including Wikipedia. International Business Times (28 April, 2014). [11] http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/549813/20140428/heartbleed-bug-vulnerability.htm#.U2FXB2RzmRI RedOrbit (30 April, 2014). [12] http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1113134201/security-patches-not-enough-stop-heartbleed-security-threat-043014/
=== Other worthwhile reads ===
Wikipedia seems more useful at tracking flu trends than Google. BusinessWeek (17 April, 2014) [13] http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-17/the-flu-tricked-google-dot-can-wikipedia-do-better Yahoo (17 April, 2014) [14] https://news.yahoo.com/big-data-flu-wikipedia-track-influenza-215029183.html Popular Mechanics (17 April, 2014) [15] http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/med-tech/wikipedia-searches-trace-the-spread-of-the-flu-16706395
=== WMF Blog posts ===
Blog.wikimedia.org published 27 posts in April 2014 https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/4/. Four posts were multilingual https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/multilingual-post/, with translations in Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Ukranian, Dutch, Asturian, German, Indonesian, Russian, Hungarian, Malay, Tamil, Japanese, Korean, Czech, Chinese, Catalan and Odia.
Some highlights from the blog include:
*Wikimedia’s response to the Heartbleed security vulnerability https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/10/wikimedias-response-to-the-heartbleed-security-vulnerability/* (April 10, 2014).
*Katherine Maher joins the Wikimedia Foundation as Chief Communications Officer https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/15/katherine-maher-joins-foundation-chief-communications-officer/* (April 15, 2014)
*Luis Villa: I wanted to be an internet lawyer https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/16/luis-villa-i-wanted-to-be-an-internet-lawyer/* (April 16, 2014).
*What happens when someone asks us for your information? https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/25/what-when-someone-asks-your-information/* (WMF releases the Requests for User Information Procedures Guidelines) (April 25, 2014).
*Are you the next Wikipedia visiting scholar? https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/25/are-you-the-next-wikipedia-visiting-scholar/* (April 25, 2014).
=== Media Contact ===
Media contact through April 2014: wmf:Press room/Media Contact#April 2014 https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#April_2014
=== Wikipedia Signpost ===
For lots of detailed coverage and news summaries, see the community-edited newsletter “Wikipedia Signpost” for April 2014:
* Volume 10, Issue 13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-04-02, 02 April 2014 * Volume 10, Issue 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-04-09, 09 April 2014 * Volume 10, Issue 15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-04-23, 23 April 2014 * Volume 10, Issue 16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2014-04-30, 30 April 2014
=== Communications Design ===
We began work with a contractor to redesign the *Travel and Participation Support application* experience with Grantmaking. We also created a new gadget for Meta-wiki to make it easier for people to endorse *learning patterns, ideas and grant projects*.
We are redesigning the *Wikipedia Zero* landing page for more focus and a clear message - to coincide with an upcoming petition.
Communications, Design and Legal are preparing for a community discussion around new *visual links* for all of the projects.
== Visitors and Guests ==
Visitors and guests to the WMF office in April 2014:
1. Elizabeth Crampton (ReachOut) 2. Christine Cavanaugh (CCSC Inc.) 3. Marieke Spence (TCC Group) 4. Julie Simpson (TCC Group) 5. Tom Hehir (CCSC Inc.) 6. Toni Maraviglia (Eneza) 7. Camille Preston (Aim Leadership) 8. Roger Gu (Coinbase) 9. Adam White (Coinbase) 10. Wilson Fang (Sari.PH) 11. Ibrahim Bernardo (Sari.PH) 12. Owen Davis (Wikia Inc.) 13. Mike Schwartz (Wikia Inc.) 14. Elie Chidiak (Brazilian State Government) 15. Jean Paul Brzezinski (Brazilian State Government) 16. Bryan Van Dyk (Getty Images) 17. David Browning (CBS News) 18. Jonathan Schienberg (CBS News) 19. Simon Phipps (TIS Bolzano) 20. Patrick Ohivewein (TIS Bolzano) 21. Sandy Kirchlechner (TIS Bolzano) 22. Cecilia Doliana (TIS Bolzano) 23. Daniela Di Iulio (TIS Bolzano) 24. Lucia Granziol (TIS Bolzano) 25. Giorgia Pallaro (TIS Bolzano) 26. Eaven Horter (JP Morgan) 27. Dan Ohgi (JP Morgan) 28. Rich Slinn (JP Morgan) 29. Alexis Rossi (Internet Archive) 30. Aalok Patel (Lever) 31. Sarah Nahm (Lever) 32. Wayne Mackintosh (OER Foundation) 33. Katherine Kuhns (SVIC) 34. Lisa Jacobs (SF Law) 35. Didem Ersoz (Mozilla)