Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF HR and leadership questions
On 28 December 2012 07:31, Matthew Roth mr...@wikimedia.org wrote: A count of office.wikimedia.org account deactivations suggests that about 59 people left the WMF in 2012, for whatever reason. To me, that seems like a lot of people. Maybe it's occasionally good for people to leave, but so many? Does that include interns? I know my interns get access to Office Wiki, so it might skew the numbers higher. I believe LCA has had at least 8-10 (?) interns cycle through in 2012. I've had a couple. Gayle no doubt has more precise numbers, but using @wikimediaatwork I count 3 Dec, 1 Oct, 2 Sep, 3 Aug, 1 July, 4 Jun, 1 May, 2 Apr, 3 Feb, 1 Jan - twenty-one departures in a year, including fixed-term contractors (who probably shouldn't be counted in turnover discussions) Whether that result is still too high or not I leave as an exercise for the reader! -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] No access to the Uzbek Wikipedia in Uzbekistan
Thank you everyone for your help, and I especially appreciate Sumanah for setting up the bug and making the RT ticket happen. Unfortunately, I cannot track the progress of the RT ticket, but I am sure someone will keep us posted on the Bugzilla bug or on this list. Eternal gratitude to everyone involved! Regarding the discussion about the IP, here are my thoughts, but maybe I am missing a number of the technical intricacies here: I am not sure if I understand correctly, but having access through the IP does not seem to improve the situation. Remember that access through https is perfectly possible. So for anyone who really wants to access the wiki and knows about the https-access, they can. The problem are those people that do not know about it. There are no people coming to the Uzbek Wikipedia through search engines, because they link to the http-protocol version of the URLs. That is why making the https-Version canonical and thus the addresses the search engines eventually point to much more useful. One could make the IP-Adress directly canonical -- otherwise setting up this extra-IP would not bring any advantage -- and thus avoid DNS, but this is not required to resolve the current problem, and it sure would not be very pretty. Also, IP-banning a single IP through an ISP is all but hard for an ISP. And anyway, it would need to be configured to setup a canonical URL, which is the currently suggested next step anyway. Therefore I would suggest to refrain from setting up a specific IP (besides the technicality of having too few IPs around), at least for now, and concentrate on canonizing the HTTPS protocol (as summed up in the Bug). Thank you again! On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 3:05 AM, John Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com wrote: How many languages _need_ this? Is it only one language-project? If you only need one IP address, to avoid censorship by one country, it should be achievable. John Vandenberg. sent from Galaxy Note On Dec 28, 2012 4:21 AM, Leslie Carr lc...@wikimedia.org wrote: I wish that http://208.80.154.225/wiki/Bosh_Sahifa and https://208.80.154.225/wiki/Bosh_Sahifa would work, too, but the foundation apparently can't or chooses not to afford separate IP addresses for each language's Wikipedia. As one of the network folks, I will answer this. We do not have enough public IP(v4)s for an address for each language in each project, and unless someone gives us a major donation of IPv4 addresses (anyone have a spare /20 laying around?), I don't think we will be able to make this happen as we are frugal with our existing IPs and the allocating authorities (RIPE and ARIN) are being quite strict with their new IPv4 allocations. If you'd like to read more about IP allocation policies, here's a few links https://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm.html#four3 https://www.arin.net/resources/request/ipv4_depletion.html https://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-553 (see section 5.6) Leslie -- Leslie Carr Wikimedia Foundation AS 14907, 43821 http://as14907.peeringdb.com/ ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! -- Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
Hoi, Good news :) Congratulations :) Thanks, GerardM On 28 December 2012 16:39, Geoff Brigham gbrig...@wikimedia.org wrote: I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! -- Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
Hello, A week ago, as I found out now, a new association has been found in New York: Wiki Med Foundation, Inc. (!). We have the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., we have some other Wikimedias, we have MediaWiki... how is the ordinary man on the street supposed to have the slightest chance to understand the Wikimedia movement? He even confuses Wikimedia with Wikileaks... I know that that is not the case, but sometimes it even seems that Wikimedians do want to make the movement a terminogical labyrinth. The WMF came with a simple scheme for national chapters, with the formula Wikimedia X (with X being the name of the country). I wish something similar for thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups, and not the advice to even avoid the term Wikimedia. Confusing terms are a serious barrier for participation, on Wikipedia and in the larger movement. Kind regards, Ziko If I could talk to the wiki folks, just imagine it Chatting with a chick on IRC Imagine talking on a talk page, buzzing from a banner What a neat achievement that would be. If I could talk to the wiki folks, learn their languages Maybe take a data dump degree. I'd study mastodon and diesel, camel case and weasel, Interwiki, vandal and IP. I would converse in C++ and Python, And I would curse in fluent wikify. If people asked me, can you speak sock puppetry, I'd say, 'Of coursery, but why?' If I conferred with our fuzzy friends, man to editor, Think of the amazing repartee If I could talk to the wiki folks, fork to the wiki folks, Diff and rev and link with the wiki folks, And they could diff and rev and link with me. If I could speak CC-BY-SA The advantages any sandbox noob could plainly see! Discussing worldwide GLAM and drama With oh so witty llama That’s a big step forward you’ll agree! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF HR and leadership questions
Staff and contractors page includes Fellows...not sure about contractor and such but I'm pretty sure they are put on there too. Steve Zhang Sent from my iPhone On 29/12/2012, at 12:14 AM, Thehelpfulone thehelpfulonew...@gmail.com wrote: On 28 December 2012 10:59, Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk wrote: On 28 December 2012 07:31, Matthew Roth mr...@wikimedia.org wrote: A count of office.wikimedia.org account deactivations suggests that about 59 people left the WMF in 2012, for whatever reason. To me, that seems like a lot of people. Maybe it's occasionally good for people to leave, but so many? Does that include interns? I know my interns get access to Office Wiki, so it might skew the numbers higher. I believe LCA has had at least 8-10 (?) interns cycle through in 2012. I've had a couple. Gayle no doubt has more precise numbers, but using @wikimediaatwork I count 3 Dec, 1 Oct, 2 Sep, 3 Aug, 1 July, 4 Jun, 1 May, 2 Apr, 3 Feb, 1 Jan - twenty-one departures in a year, including fixed-term contractors (who probably shouldn't be counted in turnover discussions) Whether that result is still too high or not I leave as an exercise for the reader! There are a few from that page that are missing if you consider the historyhttps://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Staff_and_contractorsoffset=limit=500action=historyof the Staff and contractors page on Foundation wiki, but that could be a reasonable count as it excludes fellows/legal interns/comms interns/short-term contractors - Gayle? -- Thehelpfulone http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
Very nice! I'll expect a performance in Hong Kong! On a serious note, have you seen Geoff's comments on naming of affiliate organisations? On Dec 28, 2012 4:18 PM, Ziko van Dijk vand...@wmnederland.nl wrote: Hello, A week ago, as I found out now, a new association has been found in New York: Wiki Med Foundation, Inc. (!). We have the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., we have some other Wikimedias, we have MediaWiki... how is the ordinary man on the street supposed to have the slightest chance to understand the Wikimedia movement? He even confuses Wikimedia with Wikileaks... I know that that is not the case, but sometimes it even seems that Wikimedians do want to make the movement a terminogical labyrinth. The WMF came with a simple scheme for national chapters, with the formula Wikimedia X (with X being the name of the country). I wish something similar for thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups, and not the advice to even avoid the term Wikimedia. Confusing terms are a serious barrier for participation, on Wikipedia and in the larger movement. Kind regards, Ziko If I could talk to the wiki folks, just imagine it Chatting with a chick on IRC Imagine talking on a talk page, buzzing from a banner What a neat achievement that would be. If I could talk to the wiki folks, learn their languages Maybe take a data dump degree. I'd study mastodon and diesel, camel case and weasel, Interwiki, vandal and IP. I would converse in C++ and Python, And I would curse in fluent wikify. If people asked me, can you speak sock puppetry, I'd say, 'Of coursery, but why?' If I conferred with our fuzzy friends, man to editor, Think of the amazing repartee If I could talk to the wiki folks, fork to the wiki folks, Diff and rev and link with the wiki folks, And they could diff and rev and link with me. If I could speak CC-BY-SA The advantages any sandbox noob could plainly see! Discussing worldwide GLAM and drama With oh so witty llama That’s a big step forward you’ll agree! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Rationale for fundraising record?
people are not contributing in the English language markets this year as opposed to last What is the evidence for that? because of trends when the English Wikipedia's popularity has not significantly changed. English projects per http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/pageviews November 2010: 7.6 billion November 2011: 8.3 billion or +9% November 2012: 9.6 billion or +15% Along with my questions about lowered fundraising expectations which Zack specifically asked to re-post to this list, I would also like answers to my earlier questions about why multivariate testing can't be used to measure donations, because all of the multivariate tests published so far were used to measure donations. There is no doubt in my mind from the distribution of message performance that if we tested the remaining volunteer-submitted appeals from 2009-10, we could do twice as well per day as we did at the beginning of this month, and not just during these last days of the year when we are probably sacrificing $7 million to slashed growth rates, jettisoned Fellowships without community consultation, and salaries pegged well below that of other Bay Area technology employers. As for the reserve fund investment, I would like to point out that investment in securities which are expected to return less than inflation are a guaranteed risk that the purchasing power of donors' funds will diminish before they are spent. As far as I can tell from messages off list at Garfield's request, all reserve investments were expected to perform below the rate of inflation when they were purchased. Sincerely, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Rationale for fundraising record?
(personal capacity, for a moment) I make this the...third or fourth? currently active thread on this mailing list that has been turned into make more money, pay more money and invest it in credit unions. James, I don't think there's anything you've said here that you haven't said 2, 3, 5 or 20 times before. Regardless of if you're right or wrong - and I'm not making a judgment call on that, because things like financial investments are not in my skillset or domain knowledge - your suggestions are not being put into practise. I've seen no sign from the replies that anyone is planning on actively pursuing your (many) suggestions, for a variety of reasons. At this point the best thing to do is probably to drop the stick. On 28 December 2012 17:13, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: people are not contributing in the English language markets this year as opposed to last What is the evidence for that? because of trends when the English Wikipedia's popularity has not significantly changed. English projects per http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/pageviews November 2010: 7.6 billion November 2011: 8.3 billion or +9% November 2012: 9.6 billion or +15% Along with my questions about lowered fundraising expectations which Zack specifically asked to re-post to this list, I would also like answers to my earlier questions about why multivariate testing can't be used to measure donations, because all of the multivariate tests published so far were used to measure donations. There is no doubt in my mind from the distribution of message performance that if we tested the remaining volunteer-submitted appeals from 2009-10, we could do twice as well per day as we did at the beginning of this month, and not just during these last days of the year when we are probably sacrificing $7 million to slashed growth rates, jettisoned Fellowships without community consultation, and salaries pegged well below that of other Bay Area technology employers. As for the reserve fund investment, I would like to point out that investment in securities which are expected to return less than inflation are a guaranteed risk that the purchasing power of donors' funds will diminish before they are spent. As far as I can tell from messages off list at Garfield's request, all reserve investments were expected to perform below the rate of inflation when they were purchased. Sincerely, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Oliver Keyes Community Liaison, Product Development Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
Hi, it should probably be emphasized that this organization was founded against the advice of the Wikimedia Foundations' Affiliate Committee. It is not recognized at this point. I am also quite unhappy about the chosen name because of the obvious confusion that is to be expected. But speaking in general terms, you're indeed welcome to join the discussion about naming that has been going on for a while now, on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Thematic_Organizations . While it is not likely to be possible to have a very rigid convention (thanks to the diversity in the scopes of these organizations) I would appreciate suggestions in how clarity can be achieved. Best, Lodewijk 2012/12/28 Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com Very nice! I'll expect a performance in Hong Kong! On a serious note, have you seen Geoff's comments on naming of affiliate organisations? On Dec 28, 2012 4:18 PM, Ziko van Dijk vand...@wmnederland.nl wrote: Hello, A week ago, as I found out now, a new association has been found in New York: Wiki Med Foundation, Inc. (!). We have the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., we have some other Wikimedias, we have MediaWiki... how is the ordinary man on the street supposed to have the slightest chance to understand the Wikimedia movement? He even confuses Wikimedia with Wikileaks... I know that that is not the case, but sometimes it even seems that Wikimedians do want to make the movement a terminogical labyrinth. The WMF came with a simple scheme for national chapters, with the formula Wikimedia X (with X being the name of the country). I wish something similar for thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups, and not the advice to even avoid the term Wikimedia. Confusing terms are a serious barrier for participation, on Wikipedia and in the larger movement. Kind regards, Ziko If I could talk to the wiki folks, just imagine it Chatting with a chick on IRC Imagine talking on a talk page, buzzing from a banner What a neat achievement that would be. If I could talk to the wiki folks, learn their languages Maybe take a data dump degree. I'd study mastodon and diesel, camel case and weasel, Interwiki, vandal and IP. I would converse in C++ and Python, And I would curse in fluent wikify. If people asked me, can you speak sock puppetry, I'd say, 'Of coursery, but why?' If I conferred with our fuzzy friends, man to editor, Think of the amazing repartee If I could talk to the wiki folks, fork to the wiki folks, Diff and rev and link with the wiki folks, And they could diff and rev and link with me. If I could speak CC-BY-SA The advantages any sandbox noob could plainly see! Discussing worldwide GLAM and drama With oh so witty llama That’s a big step forward you’ll agree! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
This is great news indeed. Congratulations Bishakha!!! regards Arun On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 9:09 PM, Geoff Brigham gbrig...@wikimedia.orgwrote: I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! -- Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
Awesome news. Sydney On Dec 28, 2012 10:39 AM, Geoff Brigham gbrig...@wikimedia.org wrote: I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! -- Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF HR and leadership questions
Just a personal opinion about talent retention at the WMF. There are not many factors contributing to retention in an organization like this, in a context like ours: - Tech sector is very competitive. Not even high pays, bonuses, stocks and perks are any assurance of keeping people around for long. - SF Bay Area is especially crazy. Guess why LinkedIn or Glassdoor were founded here. - Average age of hires: young. Retaining people in their 20s is more complex than retaining people in their 40s. - High % of remote workers. I have no data but I bet this adds to the complexity. - Open source style for real is a key factor WMF has almost like no other mid sized employer. I can see why many qualified professionals may think this is cool when being interviewed, only to realize some months after that they are not really made for that. - Young fast growing organization. Lots of hiring with time pressure brings a higher risk of people leaving. Looking at the numbers is not enough. The question is: are people leaving the WMF happy about their time here or not? Is the first motivation leaving or going to a new exciting challenge? One thing is if someone leaves the WMF happy about the experience, and that experience actually helps that person getting an interesting offer. A very different thing is if someone leaves frustrated, escaping to anything else as long as it pays the rent. Both cases would count as 1 in the numbers. Do I believe we should change the factors above? Actually tech, SF, young, remote add radically open were very positive factors when I considered joining the WMF some weeks ago. I'm very happy of working in a place like this! I'd rather keep the HR department busy trying to figure out how to work in a peculiar organization like this, instead of trying to become a more standard org you can run by the book. The growth factor is another thing. I wish we were at the end of a crazy growth curve, prioritizing consolidation, sustainability and quality instead. The 'Narrowing Focus' strategy points in that direction, as well as the fact that we just ended a fundraising campaign before the planned date because we had reached the objective. I'm hopeful. PS: what if there was a parallelism with Wikipedia editors? There, like at the WMF, you can see trustful oldtimers still around and then many newcomers, but a difficulty to keep these as mid time contributors. Just another personal idea without any data to back it. :) -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] compromise?
How about for the April fundraiser, instead of setting a dollar value goal, we agree to use multivariate analysis instead of A/B testing to optimize the messaging from volunteer submissions in advance, then run the whole thing for a fixed time frame, say three weeks, and then use the actual amount raised to decide whether salaries should be competitive with area tech firms, whether Fellowships should be jettisoned, how much personell to put into the Education Program and engineering, and how much of a reserve to invest, preferably with low risk instruments which pay above the rate of inflation? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] WMF trustee activity levels
Sj, I'm addressing this question to you because you seem to be the most active trustee in the areas where I checked for trustee activity, and also because you were one of the authors of the “Building a lasting movement” workshop submission to Wikimania 2012. I would also be interested in hearing comments from other trustees. This information is from April 2012 to present, showing the number of posts and edits by each trustee. Trustee Meta usernameWikimedia-lMeta Combined Kat WalshMindspillage 8 13 21 Jan-Bart de Vreede Jan-Bart 16 47 63 Stu West Stu0 4 4 Bishakha Datta Bishdatta 30 34 64 Jimmy Wales Jimbo Wales0 3 3 Ting ChenWing 0 2 2 Samuel Klein Sj 107 751 858 Matt Halprin Mhalprin 0 5 5 Alice WeigandLyzzy 12 241 253 Patricio Lorente Patricio.lorente 7 26 33 I would appreciate hearing your comments about these statistics and about trustee activity levels in general. Do each of the trustees demonstrate a strong personal interest in the health and direction of the Foundation and the volunteer community? Do each of the trustees participate actively at Board meetings? Do each of the trustees proactively and regularly communicate with Foundation staff, volunteer contributors, and/or organizations which have significant interactions with the Foundation or the content projects? Personally, I feel that a vibrant, engaged, and proactive board is important for the health of any public nonprofit organization, and for “building a lasting movement” for the near future and for future generations. I think of Wikipedia as a digital “wonder of the world” and a remarkable work of civilization. I hope that the trustees take a strong personal interest in the health and future of Wikipedia, its sister projects, and the foundation and people that sustain and build them. Thank you, Pine ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
Excellent decision ! Flo On 12/28/12 4:39 PM, Geoff Brigham wrote I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
On Dec 28, 2012 7:12 PM, Lodewijk lodew...@effeietsanders.org wrote: Hi, it should probably be emphasized that this organization was founded against the advice of the Wikimedia Foundations' Affiliate Committee. It is not recognized at this point. Does it have a license to use the Wikimedia trademark in its name? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] compromise?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by multivariate analysis... You only seem to be talking about one variable - the message. On Dec 28, 2012 9:46 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: How about for the April fundraiser, instead of setting a dollar value goal, we agree to use multivariate analysis instead of A/B testing to optimize the messaging from volunteer submissions in advance, then run the whole thing for a fixed time frame, say three weeks, and then use the actual amount raised to decide whether salaries should be competitive with area tech firms, whether Fellowships should be jettisoned, how much personell to put into the Education Program and engineering, and how much of a reserve to invest, preferably with low risk instruments which pay above the rate of inflation? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] compromise?
That would be complex, and could be a disaster... I'd appreciate some input from folks like Tango. On Dec 28, 2012 9:46 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: How about for the April fundraiser, instead of setting a dollar value goal, we agree to use multivariate analysis instead of A/B testing to optimize the messaging from volunteer submissions in advance, then run the whole thing for a fixed time frame, say three weeks, and then use the actual amount raised to decide whether salaries should be competitive with area tech firms, whether Fellowships should be jettisoned, how much personell to put into the Education Program and engineering, and how much of a reserve to invest, preferably with low risk instruments which pay above the rate of inflation? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF trustee activity levels
The obvious point, which has been made many times on this list over the years, is that activity on mailing lists or meta is not a good proxy for measuring the activity of a member of the board. The best measure would be engagement with the duties of the board (which don't include posting on the lists or being an active editor). We'd need peer evaluations and meeting attendance records to really get to that. If we had that information, I know it would figure in my voting for board elections. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
Thank you Ziko – your post is great! ( http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Thematic_Organizations#Scope_and_names_for_movement_entities ) Best regards, Bence (P.S. AffCom is still looking for new members ready to think about the hard questions that are raised there: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Call_for_Candidates_2013 ) ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:48 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.comwrote: On Dec 28, 2012 7:12 PM, Lodewijk lodew...@effeietsanders.org wrote: Hi, it should probably be emphasized that this organization was founded against the advice of the Wikimedia Foundations' Affiliate Committee. It is not recognized at this point. Does it have a license to use the Wikimedia trademark in its name? If you mean Wiki Med, it doesn't currently have the trademark in the name. (Wiki Med Foundation Inc.) Best regards, Bence ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
Wow, I want to start a Thematic Organization just so I can call it a thorg! What a great acronym :) On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com wrote: Thank you Ziko – your post is great! ( http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Thematic_Organizations#Scope_and_names_for_movement_entities ) Best regards, Bence (P.S. AffCom is still looking for new members ready to think about the hard questions that are raised there: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Call_for_Candidates_2013 ) ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Matthew Roth Global Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation +1.415.839.6885 ext 6635 www.wikimediafoundation.org *https://donate.wikimedia.org* ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] compromise?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by multivariate analysis I mean as in the tests done May 16, September 20, and October 9 reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough without adjusting the best performing pull-down delivery combined banner/landing page from the beginning of this month (although I don't think we will need the one that follows vertical scrolling. It may produce 30% but that will be nothing if the remaining ~300 appeal messages are tested, unless they don't fit the lognormal distribution that they appear to.) That would be complex, and could be a disaster... What are the possible failure modes? On Dec 28, 2012 9:46 PM, James Salsman jsalsman at gmail.com wrote: How about for the April fundraiser, instead of setting a dollar value goal, we agree to use multivariate analysis instead of A/B testing to optimize the messaging from volunteer submissions in advance, then run the whole thing for a fixed time frame, say three weeks, and then use the actual amount raised to decide whether salaries should be competitive with area tech firms, whether Fellowships should be jettisoned, how much personnel to put into the Education Program and engineering, and how much of a reserve to invest, preferably with low risk instruments which pay above the rate of inflation? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] compromise?
On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 1:45 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: How about for the April fundraiser, instead of setting a dollar value goal, we agree to use multivariate analysis instead of A/B testing to optimize the messaging from volunteer submissions in advance, then run the whole thing for a fixed time frame, say three weeks, and then use the actual amount raised to decide whether salaries should be competitive with area tech firms, whether Fellowships should be jettisoned, how much personell to put into the Education Program and engineering, and how much of a reserve to invest, preferably with low risk instruments which pay above the rate of inflation? I would prefer all Wikimedia organizations continue to make decisions based on what we really want to get done (i.e. our strategic goals and priorities), then find the money to do those things. Not the other way around. Steven ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Multivariate Fundraising Tests (Re: compromise?)
James, On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 2:11 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: I mean as in the tests done May 16, September 20, and October 9 reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough without adjusting the best performing pull-down delivery combined banner/landing page from the beginning of this month I obviously cannot speak for what Zack will end up doing but let's talk shop for a moment on how this would be implemented. The tests you indicated play banner, landing page impressions, and donation amount against each other. It appears that everyone saw a collection of random banners (ie: the test was not bucketed.) Are these the same variables you want to test? Regardless of the answer to the above; how do you propose we normalize our tests across time of day, day of week, and day of month factors - we've seen evidence that these all play a role. I don't know how many banner variations we actually have to test but it's likely we won't be able to test them all at the same time (In fact with the current weighting setup we can only test 30 banners at a time). Do we just take each group as it stands -- find the best performers in the group and then test the winners against each other? An additional considering is that we have four buckets to play with; buckets are independent so we could potentially test 120 banners at a time to four different groups. Presumably if we did this we would want a couple of control banners in each to normalize with? An additional something to consider is how long do we have to run these tests to gain statistical significance? At least a day I'm guessing. Are we going to account for banner fatigue at all? IE: show banners during only the first 10 visits like we just did with this most recent campaign? -- ~Matt Walker ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] compromise?
I'm on a train so this will be brief... But let's say we do what you suggest, and it only raises 90% of what is needed. What then? I've had to pare back WMUKs budget in the past few weeks to what the FDC granted. It's difficult enough to do on a smaller budget, I dread to think how the WMF would do it if they had to. A large organisation lucky enough to have a good income should use that income to plan ahead, rather than using fundraising as an artificial cap. You do raise good points on some subjects though - eg workers remuneration, which is generally poor in the US - but it's very difficult to discuss that via a public mailing list. On Dec 28, 2012 10:12 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: I'm not quite sure what you mean by multivariate analysis I mean as in the tests done May 16, September 20, and October 9 reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough without adjusting the best performing pull-down delivery combined banner/landing page from the beginning of this month (although I don't think we will need the one that follows vertical scrolling. It may produce 30% but that will be nothing if the remaining ~300 appeal messages are tested, unless they don't fit the lognormal distribution that they appear to.) That would be complex, and could be a disaster... What are the possible failure modes? On Dec 28, 2012 9:46 PM, James Salsman jsalsman at gmail.com wrote: How about for the April fundraiser, instead of setting a dollar value goal, we agree to use multivariate analysis instead of A/B testing to optimize the messaging from volunteer submissions in advance, then run the whole thing for a fixed time frame, say three weeks, and then use the actual amount raised to decide whether salaries should be competitive with area tech firms, whether Fellowships should be jettisoned, how much personnel to put into the Education Program and engineering, and how much of a reserve to invest, preferably with low risk instruments which pay above the rate of inflation? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Multivariate Fundraising Tests (Re: compromise?)
Matt, I have specific answers to most of your questions, but I don't know whether others on wikimedia-l would be interested in them, and I'm not sure about the specifics of a couple terms you used relative to what I remember of the testing harness, so I'll reply in more detail off-list with some questions about the terms over the weekend. For now, I think the banner text message has aways been the most important part of any appeal, and that if you were to take all 300 of the existing volunteer submissions (and accept more -- e.g. How much you donate may help determine how much we pay our programmers would be incredibly effective, and hope you will measure it) and if you were to include all those without any javascript, pull-down, landing page, or other changes over a one week period with about 3000 impressions each at random times of day and days of week for each, you would have plenty to work with. That's about a million impressions, or a 0.3% impressions test, which I believe will give you well over 95% confidence in the results. That would not account for banner fatigue, which may be significant all the way from timezone-to-timezone up to year-to-year, but I have no ideas about how to account for that other than to do a multivariate test shortly before beginning fundraising in earnest. On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Matthew Walker mwal...@wikimedia.org wrote: James, On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 2:11 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: I mean as in the tests done May 16, September 20, and October 9 reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough without adjusting the best performing pull-down delivery combined banner/landing page from the beginning of this month I obviously cannot speak for what Zack will end up doing but let's talk shop for a moment on how this would be implemented. The tests you indicated play banner, landing page impressions, and donation amount against each other. It appears that everyone saw a collection of random banners (ie: the test was not bucketed.) Are these the same variables you want to test? Regardless of the answer to the above; how do you propose we normalize our tests across time of day, day of week, and day of month factors - we've seen evidence that these all play a role. I don't know how many banner variations we actually have to test but it's likely we won't be able to test them all at the same time (In fact with the current weighting setup we can only test 30 banners at a time). Do we just take each group as it stands -- find the best performers in the group and then test the winners against each other? An additional considering is that we have four buckets to play with; buckets are independent so we could potentially test 120 banners at a time to four different groups. Presumably if we did this we would want a couple of control banners in each to normalize with? An additional something to consider is how long do we have to run these tests to gain statistical significance? At least a day I'm guessing. Are we going to account for banner fatigue at all? IE: show banners during only the first 10 visits like we just did with this most recent campaign? -- ~Matt Walker ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] compromise?
On Dec 28, 2012 10:12 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: I'm not quite sure what you mean by multivariate analysis I mean as in the tests done May 16, September 20, and October 9 reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/We_Need_A_Breakthrough without adjusting the best performing pull-down delivery combined banner/landing page from the beginning of this month (although I don't think we will need the one that follows vertical scrolling. It may produce 30% but that will be nothing if the remaining ~300 appeal messages are tested, unless they don't fit the lognormal distribution that they appear to.) But what variables do you want to test? You've only talked about messages. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
Yes so Wiki Med Foundation Inc incorporated Dec 19, 2012 and we had our first official board meeting Dec 26, 2012. We have had expressed interest from 57 people from more than a dozen countries with a large group of interested members from India. Our 9 board members are from 7 different countries. Our first official event is being held January 7-11th at the University of California San Francisco in collaboration with Wikimedia Canada. We have been invited by the college of medicine to give a half dozen lectures on Wikipedia and Medicine and a few editing sessions where students and staff can try their hand at editing themselves. This is in preparation for an elective for 3rd and 4th year medical students which will resolve around contribution to Wikimedia projects hopefully to launch in the spring. Of course we are a new corporation, however our membership is composed of people who have extensive experience within the Wikimedia movement. Once we have had a chance to prove ourselves over the next 6 month we will re approach the aff com / Wikimedia movement to determine if an official association is desired. Currently as stated by Bence we are not officially associated. -- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine www.opentextbookofmedicine.com ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Rationale for fundraising record?
I'd really like to hear something more than a guess :) In the sense: Could it be said that we are now reasonably financially safe? On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 8:51 AM, Milos Rancic mill...@gmail.com wrote: I read the official blog [1] about it, but it doesn't have rationale. And I am too lazy to analyze it. So, may someone give us the reasons why this fundraising finished so quickly. I have to say that I'm very positively surprised by this fact, as I was much more pessimistic in relation to the future fundraising. The main question -- which could be just guessed if we have accurate rationale for this fundraising record -- is how sustainable is the growth (or even the stagnation with this amount of money)? In relation to the question above, I'd be much more happy to hear that this is the product of staff's work, than the product of some global social changes. Although it would be great if the world is changing so quickly, it's much more unpredictable variable than work inside of the organization. [1] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/27/wikimedia-foundation-raises-25-million-in-record-time-during-2012-fundraiser/ ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
On 29 December 2012 00:05, James Heilman jmh...@gmail.com wrote: Yes so Wiki Med Foundation Inc incorporated Dec 19, 2012 and we had our Isn't the name just a little prone to confusion with Wikimedia Foundation? - d. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] If I could talk to the wiki folks...
On Dec 28, 2012 9:53 PM, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:48 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote: On Dec 28, 2012 7:12 PM, Lodewijk lodew...@effeietsanders.org wrote: Hi, it should probably be emphasized that this organization was founded against the advice of the Wikimedia Foundations' Affiliate Committee. It is not recognized at this point. Does it have a license to use the Wikimedia trademark in its name? If you mean Wiki Med, it doesn't currently have the trademark in the name. Apologies, wasn't reading carefully enough! ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
Thank you, all. It's been a terrific experience, and I hope to continue to be of use to the Foundation and to the movement in my next term. Best Bishakha On Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 3:18 AM, Florence Devouard anthe...@yahoo.comwrote: Excellent decision ! Flo On 12/28/12 4:39 PM, Geoff Brigham wrote I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_** Datta_Reappointment_2012http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Reappointment of Bishakha Datta as WMF Trustee
wow..good news.. Congratulations Bishakha.. On Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Bishakha Datta bishakhada...@gmail.comwrote: Thank you, all. It's been a terrific experience, and I hope to continue to be of use to the Foundation and to the movement in my next term. Best Bishakha On Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 3:18 AM, Florence Devouard anthe...@yahoo.com wrote: Excellent decision ! Flo On 12/28/12 4:39 PM, Geoff Brigham wrote I am happy to report that Bishakha Datta has been reappointed as a Trustee on the WMF Board for another two-year term. The Board resolution may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_** Datta_Reappointment_2012 http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Bishakha_Datta_Reappointment_2012 The Board minutes may be found here: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2012-12-27 Congratulations to Bishakha! __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- *Nurunnaby Chowdhury Hasive* (নুরুন্নবী চৌধুরী হাছিব) FB http://www.facebook.com/nhasive :: Twitterhttp://www.twitter.com/nhasive:: Skype: nhasive Bangla Wikipedia User: nhasive http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Nhasive ** ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
