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March 2005

  • On 20 March MediaWiki 1.4.0 was released in a stable version (Download). MediaWiki is a Web-based collaborative editing environment, designed for Wikimedia projects. The new version is expected to improve performance. It has some new features including an image gallery display. Currently all Wikimedia projects are powered by this version... read more: Michel Snow* & Brion Vibber*
  • The second issue of the Wikimedia Quarto, the official newsletter of the Wikimedia Foundation, was released on Saturday, March 19, covering the last quarter of 2004. For this issue, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, founder and chairman of Creative Commons was tracked down for an exclusive interview. Florence Devouard*, Wikimedia Trustee, Wikimedia Quarto Executive Editor.
  • On 17 March there was read only service for several hours after a disk drive used for logging on the master database server became full. Monitoring tools showed combined space for all drives and the last human check of that drive alone showed apparently sufficient space available. Improved montoring and larger disk drives are being obtained. James Day
  • Wikimédia France, the French chapter, is now officially created. The chapter can now open bank accounts, be brought to courts by disgruntled trolls, and all the fun that arises from that. The vote for membership fees is complete. Bylaws complements are being written, for next month's assemblée générale after a transitory period of 6 months. Nicolas Weeger.
  • Jimmy Wales asks for more developers at FOSDEM. As the opening speaker at the FOSDEM 2005 conference in Brussels, Jimmy Wales appealed to the development community for support on the technical side of running Wikipedia, and coverage of his remarks was published in several places last week... read more... Michael Snow
  • First fund drive of 2005 resulted into a phenomenal success. After all sources were added together, we had brought in the equivalent of 94,648.70 USD (26% more than our goal of 75.000 USD). Donations reached this amount in 11 days. 21% of the total (15,254.66 Euros, or 20,046.15 USD) was via Wikimedia Deutschland. For detailed fund drive statistics, see Fund drives/2005/Q1. Thank you for your generosity. Daniel Mayer, Wikimedia CFO.

February 2005

  • On February 22, two circuit breakers activating removed power from the Wikimedia servers and led to loss of all service for several hours, loss of editing ability for most of a day and slowness for a week. Uninterruptible power supplies could have reduced the effect of this incident but not all power incidents, because law requires an emergency power off switch and that has caused outages for other sites, most notably a recent one at LiveJournal. UPS systems for key systems will be used, if local law allows them. James Day
  • The foundation began its second grobal fundraising drive on February 18. It would continue till March 11 or when we reach 75,000 USD - whichever comes first after the first week. The donations exceeded its goal by 26% in 11 days. Thanks to all who donated! Details in Fund drives/2005/Q1.

January 2005

  • Wikipedia celebrated its 4th birthday.
  • Dutch, French, Spanish and Swedish Wikinews were created.

See also m:Wikimedia News and past events.