Wikimedia Heilichts, Januair 2014
Highlights fae the Wikimedia Foundation Report n the Wikimedia engineerin report fer Januair 2014, wi ae selection o ither important events fae the Wikimedia muivmant
Wikimedia Foundation heilichts
New communitie-centered trademaurk policie
Efter ae seven-month lang communitie consultation, the Foundation's legal team |concluidit wairk oan the new trademaurk policie. The communitie tauk, that had mair wairds than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ootcame in ae policie that is onconventional in hou it provides liberal uiss o the Wikimedia maurks, while maintainin legal protection. The final policie wis approved bi the Buird o Trustees oan 1 Febuair, effecteeve immediatelie.
Efter yin year, Individual Engagement Grants demonstrate potential fer impact
Yin year efter the Individual Engagement Grants program wis launchit in Januair 2013, the Foundation's Learning & Evaluation team compleatit aen impact assessment o the waurks funded in the first roond. Yin o the waurks, The Wikipædia Librie, generated $279,000 worth in donations fae commercial research database providers, enablin Wikipædia eediters tae uise hei qualitie soorces fer free. At ae graunt cost o yinlie $7,500, this represents ae 37x return oan investment. Anither waurk, oan generatin publeecitie in China fer Wikipædia, gained 10,000 follaeers fer ae new Wikipædia accoont oan social netwairkin steid Weibo (25% o wham ar wimen). Appleecations fer the first roond o 2014 stairt in Mairch.
Multimedia veesion fer 2016, n request fer comment oan MP4 video
The Foundation's recyntlie formed Multimedia team presented ae multimedia veesion fer 2016. It's ae scenario descreebing possible new tuils fer collaboratin oan multimedia oan Commons, Wikipædia n ither waurks. The team invited communitie feedback oan thir ideas.
Separatelie, the multimedia team stairtit ae request fer comment (RfC) oan whather tae support video files in the MP4 format oan Wikimedia steids, in addeetion til the exeestin saffware support fer the free formats Ogg Theora n WebM. Oan the nou, yinlie aboot 0.2% o the aroond 20 million files oan Commons ar videos, n it's assumed that MP4 support wid mak uplaidin n seein videos faur easier fer monie uisers, especiallie oan some mobile devices that canna pley videos in the exeestin free formats. Houever, MP4 is ae proprietarie format covered bi patents. Maist uisers in the RfC preferred tae na support MP4, maintainin the nou practice o yinlie uisin free formats.
New rake engine
Ae new rake infrastructure is bein rowed oot til aw Wikimedia wikis. It is based oan the exeestin apen-soorce saffware "Elasticsearch", instead o the "Lucene-search" saffware that wis wrutten especiallie fer MediaWiki. "Lucene-search" haes wairked weel oan Wikimedia steids fer aboot 8 years, bit deveelipt some techneecal proablems in 2013. The new rake system fer MediaWiki is cried "CirrusSearch". Its rake ootcomes will reflect page updates faur quicker than the auld system. The tex o templates in aen airticle will nou be foond ava, n some new rake opties were eikt. CirrusSearch is first becomin available aes aen optional Beta featur (see the timeline).
Data n Trends
Global unique visitors for December:
- 490 million (-7.98% compared with November; +3.73% compared with the previous year)
- (comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release January data later in February)
Page requests for January:
- 20.678 billion (+13.2% compared with December; -7.0% compared with the previous year)
- (Server log data, all Wikimedia Foundation content projects including mobile access, but excluding Wikidata and the Wikipedia main portal page.)
Active Registered Editors for December 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots):
- 75,441 (+0.99% compared with November / -2.72% compared with the previous year)
- (Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects.)
Report Card (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects):
Financials
 |
 |
(Financial information is only available through December 2013 at the time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date December 31, 2013.
| Revenue | 34,750,758 |
|---|---|
| Expenses: | |
| Engineering Group | 7,818,380 |
| Fundraising Group | 2,267,144 |
| Grantmaking Group | 838,068 |
| Programs Group | 866,479 |
| Grants | 1,289,803 |
| Governance Group | 377,413 |
| Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group | 1,752,003 |
| Finance/HR/Admin Group | 3,566,318 |
| Total Expenses | 18,775,608 |
| Total surplus | (15,975,150) |
| in US dollars |
- Revenue for the month of December is $20.14MM versus plan of $19.61MM, approximately $535K or 3% over plan.
- Year-to-date revenue is $34.75MM versus plan of $36.32MM, approximately $1.57MM or 4% under plan.
- Expenses for the month of December is $3.65MM versus plan of $4.43MM, approximately $778K or 18% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, payment processing fees, and travel expenses partially offset by higher outside contract services.
- Year-to-date expenses is $18.78MM versus plan of $22.86MM, approximately $4.08MM or 18% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees, payment processing fees, staff development expenses, and travel expenses partially offset by higher outside contract services and recruiting fees.
- Cash position is $55.34MM as of December 31, 2013.
Other highlights from the Wikimedia movement
Project to record voices of Wikipedia subject gains support from Stephen Fry and the BBC
The Wikipedia voice intro project (WikiVIP) invites people who are the subject of a Wikipedia article to record a short sample of their voice, which is then uploaded to Commons. The recording allows a Wikipedia reader to hear who the person sounds like, and how the person's name is pronounced. Founded by UK Wikipedian Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing), the project gained the support of celebrity Stephen Fry in January. Andy Mabbett is also collaborating with the BBC to provide extracts from its audio archives for WikiVIP. Volunteers identified over 300 such clips at an event in January, which the BBC will upload to Commons - the first time that the organization releases content from its broadcast archive under a free license.
Ukrainian chapter and Wikipedia community protest laws proposed by Ukrainian government
In January, Wikimedia Ukraine protested against several laws proposed by the country's government (under the since ousted president Viktor Yanukovych). The chapter was concerned that the bill would make it obligatory for hosting providers and/or domain name registrators to block access to websites without a court order under certain conditions, such as claims of copyright infringement. After the law was passed, the Ukrainian Wikipedia decided to protest by blacking out the site for 30 minutes each day. Also in late January, the Georgian Wikipedia temporarily changed its logo to a version involving the colors of the Ukrainian flag, in support of the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests. (Later in February, Wikimedians worldwide would mourn the death of 22-year old Ukrainian Wikipedian Ihor Kostenko - User:Ig2000 -, who was shot by a sniper at a demonstration during the last days of the protests before the fall of the Yanukovych government.)