As a non-profit organization and a social movement, it’s our core mission to give free knowledge away to everyone. All the text content of Wikipedia is available for free download, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. The point of offering these downloadable archives is not just to make it possible to read Wikipedia while you’re on a plane or without Wi-Fi — it’s to enable people without Internet connectivity to use our content in ways that make sense. In particular, using these copies, it becomes very straightforward to set up a copy of Wikipedia for a school or university with no or limited Internet access. And, if you’re clever, you can use the dump as a starting point to create a version running on DVDs or USB sticks. (As the download page notes, if you create a product using the “Wikipedia” trademark or logo, you need official permission from the Wikimedia Foundation.)

For the technically inclined: The static HTML dumps are an alternative offering to our XML dumps in the original wiki syntax. The key advantage is that they don’t require any additional software to be useful: You can literally simply download them (provided you can handle the amount of data) and open them in your web browser. The wiki syntax format, on the other hand, offers third party users more flexibility in the ways they want to render the output.

Go ahead and download the data while it’s fresh. And if you have interesting stories about the ways in which you’re using your static copy, please drop a note to our Head of Communications, jwalsh(at)wikimedia(dot)org.

Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Posting our plan and (hopefully) answering some of your questions in advance is part of our commitment to providing transparent information about the Foundation’s goals and spending.

The Annual Plan lays out projected spending through the next fiscal year (which for us starts today and runs the rest of the year).  The plan describes spending in our three main operational areas: technology, programming, and finance and administration.  We also introduce our 2008/2009 organizational goals, which we hope to discuss in more detail in the coming months.

For your information and awareness!

Jay Walsh
Head of Communications

Members of the German Wikipedia community assume that the Hamburg municipality, by explicitly citing Wikipedia, wanted to express its esteem for the Wikimedia project, which is in Germany comparably high. Others raised the question if the usage of the text complies the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). One participant of the discussion joked that the GFDL had perhaps been printed on the backside of the sign which can not be seen on the photo.

Frank Schulenburg
Head of Public outreach

On 25th June, around 12:36 UTC (21:36 in the Japan Standard Time), Japanese Wikipedia has reached its 500,000 article milestone and has become the first non-European and non-Latin script Wikipedia to pass
over this milestone. The exact 500,000th article is unknown but is very likely one of the following:

フランク・ラザフォード (Frank Rutherford),

国際チャレンジデー (International Challenge Day),

ウエストバージニアの水運 (West Virginia Waterways) or

南阿蘇鉄道MT-2000形気動車 (South Aso Rail Line MT-2000 Diesel Engine).

While this wiki was set up in mid 2001 already, its activities began substantially years later, late 2002, and has steadily been growing. Now it is the 5th biggest Wikipedia and still one of fastest growing Wikimedia projects. In Japan, where the most Japanese speakers dwell, Japanese Wikipedia is known as one of major online references. In 2007  2.7 million people in Japan, roughly over 20% of the whole population of the nation, used Wikipedia from their home, and the number of users has steadily growing since 2005 when the first research was done,  CNET Japan reports.

With a degree of friendly rivalry, the Japanese Wikipedia chases sibling project, Polish Wikipedia, which is 4th largest and reached half a million articles in May. Both projects continue to show steady growth.

The Polish Wikipedia is 9th of the most popular sites in Poland (April 2008). New stats (look on the graph):

http://www.webinside.pl/news/5001

Every day volunteers write ~300 new articles, with average size 1,5 kb

pl wiki (the Polish Wikipedia) has 340 featured articles and more than 200 good articles.

In the beginning of 2008 the Polish Wikipedia started schools and university projects. The first 4 ended with good results (interview with prof. Czachorowski - Polish entomologist, who started 2 projects).

01.07. 2008 will be started new initiative “Holidays with Wikipedia” Wikipedians will work for better quality and they will invite (by sitenotice) readers to collaboration.

—

Congratulations to the Polish and Japanese Wikipedia editors!  May the friendly rivalry continue, and here’s to doubling this milestone in the next few years.

Rebecca most recently consulted with the Branson School providing fundraising recommendations, training Alumni in donation solicitation and writing fundraising materials.  Prior to the Branson School, Rebecca worked for the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco where she implemented a comprehensive fundraising plan for the new $83MM community center, managed a portfolio of Major Donor relationships and directed an Annual Plan for the Center’s preschools. Her previous experience included work for the Lighthouse for the Blind & Visually Impaired and Project Bread, a program raising money for emergency food
programs. Rebecca has an M.B.A from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Rand has over 10 years experience working in the non-profit sector and is an experienced development professional.  He comes to us from the American Red Cross (Bay Area Chapter) where he served as the Development Services Manager.  In that role, he directed a $3MM per year fundraising program.  Prior to that, Rand was with the Alta Bates Foundation as the Information Systems Coordinator. Rand also spent 5 years with Hospice of Marin where he worked in various database and fundraising capacities. Rand holds a degree in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley.

Rebecca and Rand are thrilled to be joining us and garnering further support for the Foundation’s mission.

–
Veronique Kessler
Chief Financial and Operating Officer

Wikimania

This year’s Wikimania is being held in Alexandria, Egypt, in the prestigious Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  The venue chosen was built both as a tribute to the Library of Alexandria of antiquity and as a center of knowledge and learning, which nicely compliments the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation.   The event, featuring a variety of presentations, panels, and workshops from wide ranging topics of interest to Wikimedians, educators, the free-culture community at large, tech geeks, and the public at large, runs from Thursday, July 17 and continues to Saturday, July 19, 2008.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator

Earlier today a small consortium of wiki-developers, including our own Brion Vibber here at the Foundation, put the finishing touches on the Universal Edit Button.  With this little Firefox 3 extension users will be able to click one button, located conveniently in the Firefox address bar, to instantly access the ‘edit’ page for an increasing number of participating wikis, including Wikipedia.  A MediaWiki extension has been created so other wiki operators can implement the button into their own site.

At this time the button is exclusively available on FireFox (get help with the install), but there’s no reason we shouldn’t expect to see similar functionality in other browsers down the road.  Further proof that that the web is quickly shifting to become an ‘edit this page’ kind of place.  The power of public collaboration at work!

The Universal Edit Button was first discussed at the 2007 Recent Changes Camp, and again explored at the recent Recent Changes Camp in Palo Alto.  The button is a great example of the product of open-source collaboration and the mutual commitment of wiki developers to foster a community of interoperability and interconnectedness.

Here’s to the new age of the edit-powered web!

Jay Walsh, Head of Communications

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.

On Monday the Wikimedia Foundation started a qualification program to train senior citizens of the 50-plus age group as “Wikipedia trainers”. The future Wikipedia trainers shall be enabled to run their own Wikipedia workshops in internet cafés for older people. The long-term goal is to raise contributions from older people, who are still underrepresented in the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects.

The course will last six weeks. During the first weeks the participants will learn the basics of how to edit Wikipedia articles. In a second phase the participants will collaboratively develop a concept for Wikipedia courses for senior citizens. Subsequently, the participants should be able to act as Wikipedia evangelists and motivate other people of their age to contribute to Wikipedia.

The qualification program is part of the Foundation’s attempt to encourage contributions from targeted underrepresented groups.

Frank Schulenburg

Public outreach coordinator

UPDATE: Frank has written up some additional information about this program here.

• demographics (gender, profession, etc.)
• factors which influence whether people contribute or not
• topic and activity areas of interest for readers and contributors
• awareness of Wikipedia sister projects and the Wikimedia Foundation

The more languages we can present this survey in, the better! It will give us invaluable information about who our audience and our contributors are to different language Wikimedia projects, allowing for comparisons across languages and cultures. The anonymized data from this survey will be freely licensed.

If you speak and write languages other than English fluently, please help us to translate the survey.

Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation