I'm happy to mention that the board has authorized the foundation to accept a significant grant, for which we just recently received the funds. This is a restricted grant specifically for use on a project to improve the MediaWiki software and the experience for new contributors. Not that this is a direct result of recent discussions here, plenty of people have mentioned the issue before, including Delphine as Ting points out. As you may know, grants take more than a day or two to put together, but it's relevant to mention anyway. I understand a press release with more details will be going out in the next day or so.
While grants with restrictions should be considered with care (one reason for the board to be involved), we've indicated for some time that this is an issue the foundation feels strongly about addressing. As a result, any hesitation was really more about the challenges involved in executing the project. I don't know just how far this will carry us, but since it focuses on the underlying software, I hope it will benefit more than just "80% of our projects" - even the ones that don't need help, or don't think they do. I encourage volunteers to get involved in supporting the effort as the project moves forward. This grant is also from a source that has provided a smaller amount of funding before. It's gratifying when donors recognize the impact they are having and decide they want to add to it. --Michael Snow _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
