Wikimedia Highlights, September 2013
Highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation Report and the Wikimedia engineering report for September 2013, with a selection of other important events from the Wikimedia movement
Wikimedia Foundation highlights
22 proposals for Individual Engagement Grants submitted
The Foundation's Individual Engagement Grants support individuals or small teams working on projects that help Wikimedia's volunteers do their work. The program was started in early 2013 and its second round of proposals closed on September 30. 22 complete proposals were submitted, totaling $297,575 in requested funding. The requested sums range from $10 to $30,000. Via online community organizing, offline outreach, tool-building and research, the proposals aim to impact at least 15 different Wikimedia projects. Examples include a project for "Reimagining Mentorship on Wikipedia" and work on ensuring that gadgets that support editing are updated to be compatible with the new VisualEditor. In October, proposals are being checked for eligibility while community discussion continues, before the committee's formal review begins on 23 October.
FDC receives 11 proposals for annual plan grants, looks back on first year of operation
The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) process is another component of WMF grantmaking, where organizations in the Wikimedia movement can request larger grants to support their annual plans. This committee, which reviews the requests and makes recommendations to the Board of Trustees consists, entirely of volunteers, supported by WMF staff. The second FDC round of 2013 was concluding in September, with 11 Wikimedia organizations requesting a total of almost 6 million US dollars. Until October 31, Wikimedians are invited to participate in the community review period of the proposals
FDC staff also worked on preparing the 2012–2013 annual report looking back at the first year of operation since the FDC was established in 2012. It includes reflections from WMF Executive Director Sue Gardner about the FDC process.
Community consultation about new privacy policy begins
The Foundation's Legal and Community Advocacy team announced the launch of the 4.5 month-long community consultation and feedback period (scheduled to conclude on 15 January 2014) for the new privacy policy draft. Feedback and discussion has been very fruitful thus far and have already helped improve the draft.
Data and Trends
Global unique visitors for August:
- 497 million (+0.97% compared with July; +8.90% compared with the previous year)
- (comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release September data later in October)
Page requests for September:
- 25.90 billion (+8.6% compared with August; +30.8% compared with the previous year)
- (Server log data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access)
Active Registered Editors for August 2013 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots):
- 76,612 (-0.34% compared with July / -2.94% 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 August 2013 at the time of this report.)
All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date August 31, 2013.
| Revenue | $5,408,836 |
|---|---|
| Expenses: | |
| Engineering Group | $2,515,199 |
| Fundraiser Group | $573,336 |
| Grantmaking & Programs Group | $607,306 |
| Grants | $502,420 |
| Governance Group | $130,722 |
| Legal/Community Advocacy/Communications Group | $533,787 |
| Finance/HR/Admin Group | $1,201,542 |
| Total Expenses | $6,064,312 |
| Total (loss) | ($655,476) |
Revenue for the month of August is $2.29MM versus plan of $0.99MM, approximately $1.3MM or 133% over plan.
Year-to-date revenue is $5.41MM versus plan of $1.99MM, approximately $3.42MM or 172% over plan.
Expenses for the month of August is $3.34MM versus plan of $4.26MM, approximately $919K or 25% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees, grants, and travel expenses partially offset by higher payment processing fees.
Year-to-date expenses is $6.06MM versus plan of $7.69MM, approximately $1.63MM or 21% under plan, primarily due to lower personnel expenses, capital expenses, internet hosting, legal fees, grants, and travel expenses partially offset by higher payment processing fees.
Cash position is $38.75MM as of August 31, 2013.
Other movement highlights
Wiki Loves Monuments 2013
The fourth edition of Wiki Loves Monuments took place from September 1 to September 30. The competition to upload freely licensed images of national monuments to Wikimedia Commons has become the world's largest photo contest. In November, an international jury will review the finalists from each country, and the global winning picture is expected to be announced in early December.
Indian Wikimedians and German university collaborate to digitize works of 19th century scholar
Community members from the Malayalam Wikipedia and Wikisource have formed a partnership with the University of Tübingen, Germany. The university holds an archive of the works of Hermann Gundert (1814–1893), a German missionary, scholar, and linguist (as well as the grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse). Gundert published numerous books in Malayalam, including a grammar for the language, and a Malayalam-English dictionary. The Malayalam Wikimedians will help to typeset scanned copies of these books, provided by the university.
Australian government agency supports Wikimedia cooperation with Paralympic Movement
A collaboration between the Australian Wikimedia chapter, the University of Queensland and the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) has been awarded funding from the Australian Research Council, a government agency. The project concerns the history of the paralympic movement and disabled sport in Australia, and aims to improve the coverage of these topics on Wikimedia projects.