Earlier today the Foundation announced in a press release that Roger McNamee, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners (and a professional musician!) has joined the Wikimedia Advisory Board.  Roger’s been working with the Foundation since before our move to the bay area, both as an active supporter of Wikipedia and the Foundation’s project, and helping to introduce us to many new stakeholders and like-minded organizations.

Welcome, Roger!

Jay Walsh, Communications<

We’re extremely pleased to be sharing the news that the 5th annual Wikimedia on-line fundraising campaign in support of Wikipedia and our sister projects has burst past its $6million USD goal.  Today we issued a press release, and later today we should have some further correspondence to share.

We will aslo be rotating the site banners on Wikipedia and the other projects later today to point to a new thank you note from Jimmy Wales.

This is a great day for Wikipedia, and for the more than 125,000 supports of the project.  You’ve helped us raise over $6.2million – and we’re still seeing donations come in.  Thank you for showing extraordinary support, and for helping to sustain and grow Wikipedia.

Happy New Year!  What a great way to kick it off.

Jay Walsh, Communications<

Earlier today the Wikimedia Foundation, along with the UK charitable organization SOS Children’s Villages announced the 2008 edition of Wikipedia Selection for schools.  Our own Wikinews has also covered the announcement and offers a great interview with Wikipedian and SOS Children’s CEO, Andrew Cates.

David Gerard, a UK-based Wiki(m/p)edian shared the following on Slashdot later in the afternoon:

“SOS Children’s Villages has released the 2008/9 Wikipedia Selection for Schools — 5500 checked and reviewed articles matching the English National Curriculum, produced by SOS for use in their own schools in developing countries. The 2007 edition was a huge success, with distributions to schools in four countries, use by the Hole in the Wall education project, thousands of downloads and disks and around 14,000 unique IPs a day visiting the online version — the most successful end-user distribution version of Wikipedia to date.”

Update: BitTorrent link is now up! Instructions here.<

FYI, the following was sent out from the Foundation’s press office earlier today.  Still time for press registration for Wikimania:

PRESS REGISTRATION FOR WIKIMANIA 2008 IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT CLOSING JUNE 18, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, CA June 13, 2008 – Press Registration for Wikimania 2008, the annual conference for the volunteers, contributors, and stakeholders of Wikimedia’s free knowledge projects, concludes next week on Wednesday, June 18. Wikimania 2008 will take place July 17-19, 2008 in Alexandria Egypt, on and around the grounds of the new Library of Alexandria.

Wikimania is an exceptional opportunity to explore topics related to the global expansion of free knowledge and internet-based collaboration.  Hundreds of Wikimedia volunteers and software developers from around the world, as well as regional experts and enthusiasts will be in attendance.

Accredited members of the press can register on-line at:
http://wm08reg.wikimedia.org/pressRegistration/

Limited bookings for accommodations in Alexandria are available on a first-signed-up, first-offered basis.

For more information about Wikimania 2008, visit:
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/

For more information about Bibliotheca Alexandria, visit:
http://www.bibalex.org/English/index.aspx

For more information about the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects, including Wikipedia, visit:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects

For further questions, use the contact information in the Wikimedia Press room.<