Wikimedia Highlights, August 2014

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Highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation Report and the Wikimedia engineering report for August 2014, with a selection of other important events from the Wikimedia movement

Wikimedia Foundation highlights

Lightweight version of VisualEditor becomes available for tablets

In August, a mobile-friendly opt-in version of VisualEditor was launched for users of the mobile site on tablets. Tablet users can now choose to switch from the default editing experience (wikitext editor) to a lightweight version of VisualEditor, which offers some common formatting tools (for bold and italic text, and for adding/editing links and references).

First transparency report on requests for user information and demands for alteration or deletion of content

The Wikimedia Foundation announced the launch of its first ever transparency report, which included two years of data about third-party requests for user information and for the alteration or deletion of Wikimedia content, as well as information on how WMF responded to such requests.

Global metrics for grants

The Grantmaking team introduced Global metrics, a small required set of metrics to be used in grant reporting form (e.g. the “Number of articles added or improved on Wikimedia project” as part of a grant project). They are meant to help achieving a a shared understanding of how successful programs are in expanding participation and improving content on Wikimedia projects. The team also launched a new Evaluation portal and a new Project & Event Grants (PEG) portal.

WMF Executive Director Lila Tretikov presenting her Wikimania keynote

Foundation staff report on their work at Wikimania

From August 6 to August 10, around 2000 Wikimedians from around the world came together in London on the occasion of this year’s annual Wikimania conference (see also this month’s movement highlights). The keynote of Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Lila Tretikov was titled “Facing the Now” (slides), and the schedule included many other presentations by WMF staff and contractors (frequently captured on video):

Data and Trends

Presentation slides about unique visitor numbers from the metrics meeting

Global unique visitors for July:

413 million (-4.38% compared with June; -16.1% compared with the previous year)
(comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects, not including mobile devices; comScore will release August data later in September)

Page requests for August:

21.138 billion (+2.7% compared with July; +15.3% 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 July 2014 (>= 5 mainspace edits/month, excluding bots):

76,543 (+2.67% compared with June / +1.07% compared with the previous year)
(Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects.)

Report Card (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects):

http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/

(Definitions)

Financials

Wikimedia Foundation YTD Revenue and Expenses vs Plan as of July 31, 2014

Wikimedia Foundation YTD Expenses by Functions as of July 31, 2014

(Financial information is only available through July 2014 at the time of this report.)

All financial information presented is for the Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date July 31, 2014.

Revenue 2,977,739
Expenses:
 Engineering Group 1,668,690
 Fundraising Group 244,409
 Grantmaking Group 183,722
 Grants 23,152
 Governance Group 63,301
 Communications Group 91,933
 Legal/Community Advocacy Group 162,117
 Finance/HR/Admin Group 547,811
Total Expenses 2,985,135
Total deficit (-7,396)
in US dollars
  • Revenue for the month-to-date and year-to-date of July is $2.98MM versus plan of $2.01MM, approximately $0.97MM or 49% over plan.
  • Expenses for the month-to-date and year-to-date of July is $2.99MM versus plan of $3.87MM, approximately $0.88MM or 23% under plan, primarily due to lower legal fees, capital expenditures, grants, outside contract services, personnel expenses, and travel & conference expenses.
  • Cash and Investments – $48.27MM as of July 31, 2014.

Other highlights from the Wikimedia movement

Wikimania 2014 group photograph

Wikimania

Wikimania 2014, the tenth and so far largest annual global conference of Wikimedians, drew around 2000 Wikimedians from around the world to the Barbican Centre in London, accompanied by satellite events such as the pre-conference hackathon. (See also the schedule and the coverage in the English Wikipedia’s “Signpost” newsletter.)

Video documentary on GLAM activities in the UK

A 20-minute documentary titled “The GLAM-Wiki Revolution” interviewed Wikimedians-in-Residence in various cultural institutions (GLAMs) in the UK, giving an overview of the GLAM project in the country.

“The GLAM-Wiki Revolution”

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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