Wikimedia Foundation Annual Report 2009–2010 Imagine a World in Which Every Single Person on the Planet Is Given Free Access to the Sum of All Human
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Wikimedia Foundation annual report 2009–2010 Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105 USA Phone: +1 415-839-6885 Email: [email protected] knowledge. Fax: +1 415-882-0495 wikimediafoundation.org FOUNDATION blog.wikimedia.org It started with a dream But our challenges are also clear. Not enough new editors are joining our ranks, which puts a heavy workload on veteran editors. Our core community is men in their mid-twenties, Ten years after Wikipedia®’s launch, the mainly in Europe and North America, so now original vision captured in our mission we are aggressively recruiting others to join our work, particularly women and people in statement continues to inspire those of us the Global South. In the upcoming year, our working at the Wikimedia Foundation. particular emphasis will be on India, Brazil, the Middle East and North Africa. Our great accomplishment of 2010 was We also need to adapt our the finalization of a strategic plan for the technology to better serve the Wikimedia movement. It was an extraordinary millions of people who access our projects on all types of devices effort—over a thousand volunteers worked and platforms, including smartphones, low-end feature phones, collaboratively to develop the priorities that tablets, as well as in offline settings. will help chart our course through 2015. We could never hope to meet these and other challenges The plan focuses on five areas: stabilize our without your support. In 2010, people like you made more than organizational and technical infrastructure, 177 million edits, and donated more than $9 million dollars. increase participation in our projects, improve ndy the quality of the information in our projects, Thank you for all of the work and generosity. : A increase the global reach of our projects, ser , U and encourage innovation to better enable We also thank those who served the movement for the past year PORTRAITS CC-BY-SA, BY LANE HARTWELL as Trustees. Michael Snow served as Chair of the Board of Trustees lliston collaborative information sharing in the future. E from early 2008 until the summer of 2010. Michael, a long-time Meanwhile, by practically every measure, ndrew Wikipedian, continues to be a source of inspiration and wisdom for A Wikimedia’s projects are flourishing. Readership continues to increase—we by our community. We thank him for his leadership and support. are now serving more than 400 million people every month. The total number of articles, and the quality of those articles, continues to increase. In addition, We welcomed new faces to our Board of Trustees. Matt Halprin, more people are donating to Wikimedia than ever before. Our material continues Arne Klempert, Bishakha Datta, Samuel Klein, and Phoebe Ayers to find new venues—it’s now visible in maps and social networks; it’s available joined in the past year. And we welcomed Craig Newmark, Jing on mobile phones, tablets and e-readers; and it’s copied by countless other sites Wang, Mimi Ito, and Nhlanhla Mabaso to our Advisory Board. Our for many different purposes. thanks to you all. That’s all good news. Ting Chen Sue Gardner Chair of Wikimedia Board Executive Director (COVER) MILKY AND ANDROMEDA WAY GALAXY, CC-BY-SA, 1 Imagine a world... 2 encyclopedia theencyclopedia world has ever seen. free largest the to languages 270 of one in edit anew makes avolunteer second, every times three planet, the on Somewhere can and does come true. come does and can improbable where the wildly Welcome to our world, to Wikipedia every month. people400 turn million than more now and did, it Well, areality. become ever would thought one no almost that just was — that idea an this wildly improbable idea Just ten years ago, however, however, ago, years ten Just 3 AUrora Borealis, Bear Lake, Alaska; PUblic domain, by JoshUA Strang the planet... on person single every which in 4 committed global community of volunteers. deeply this to thanks expand, and evolve to continues It Wikipedia. edit and write month— every people—100,000 Real as many local languages as possible. as languages local many as in versions launch helping are we accessible, truly it make To does. Wikipedia way existed, to serve everybody everywhere the ever has or exists, resource living other No 5 SPUren im Sand / Nordholland; PUblic domain, by User: S. MÖller is given free access... is given 6 greatest museums, libraries, and archives. and libraries, museums, greatest our in resides currently that knowledge the all to access has poor, or rich earth, on person every where afuture Envision improve their own lives. to able better and educated opportunity to become the have will children all where future, that to path abright lights Wikipedia 7 One Laptop Per Child program in Nepal; CC-BY-SA, LICENSED UNDER CC ATTRIBUTION 2.0 generic, by OLE Nepal / OLPC human knowledge. all of sum the to 8 —libraries and museums. great repositories of knowledge world’s the for reverence a deep in rooted is vision Wikimedia’s our common future, but more work remains. remains. work more but future, common our brighten partnerships These all. to available treasures its of versions digital make to somewhere on the movement thejoins planet Almost every institution week, anothermajor 9 Stockholm city library; PUblic domain, by User: Bermax How do we get there? Five strategic priorities Improve quality During the past two years, the Foundation developed its Wikipedia has succeeded largely because of the breadth and depth of its content. But first-ever strategic plan. More than 1,000 volunteers from many gaps remain, and the quality of entries all over the world collaborated in a transparent process is inconsistent. Our first priority is to ensure that we give readers better information that resulted in priorities to guide us through 2015. about article quality, by developing better assessment and labeling tools. We will also help increase the movement’s capacity to develop new and lasting partnerships with cultural and educational institutions. Stabilize infrastructure Increase reach We operate the fifth most popular web Today, Wikimedia’s sites reach roughly property world-wide, and we need to a third of all Internet users around the ensure our operating infrastructure world. The majority of humanity is now matches our global impact. We will coming online using mobile phones. We continue to expand our community of need to improve our platform to serve hundreds of thousands of donors, work audiences on all devices well. We will to safeguard our business operations also optimize site performance globally, globally, and build a permanent data and explore solutions to disseminate center to reduce downtime and mitigate content to people with no or intermittent risks of catastrophic failure. connectivity. Increase participation Encourage innovation oldberg Wikipedia’s “boom years” of The wiki was invented in 1995. At that G participation are behind us. Now we time, using it collaboratively to create icolas face the challenge presented by a slowly an encyclopedia was a social innovation. N decreasing number of editors. To gain Through our history, our community has by new editors, we must adapt our editing been the source of most of our technical technology to the changing web, improve and social innovation, and this is where the social experience for new users, and the next “big idea” will come from. 2009, CC-BY-SA, grow participation in the Global South by We will create an environment that offers catalyzing on-the-ground work by volunteers social space and technical ikimania the community. resources to innovate, experiment W at and learn. ales W immy J 10 11 Inside the The Hoxne Hoard article has been designated a ‘featured article,’ which means it is of the Hoxne Hoard highest quality. Currently, only one tenth of one percent of Wikipedia’s content has achieved Together article this status. Photography: Not just Hoxne Hoard Partnering with institutions any image will do. Wikipedians appreciate Over the past year, the British Museum® the need for well- and the Wikipedia community have been lit, high-resolution, photography that’s up working cooperatively to develop high- to the standards of how the British Museum quality articles about many fascinating SER FÆ artifacts in the museum’s collections. One U displays the works. example is the Hoxne Hoard. The story goes that one day outside the English village of Hoxne, in Suffolk, Display case reconstructing the arrangement a farmer named Peter Whatling lost a of the hoard treasure when excavated. Material Gold, silver, bronze, iron, hammer in his field, so he asked Eric and organic material Lawes, an amateur metal detectorist, to Created 4th or 5th century help him look for it. Lawes brought over Period/culture Roman Empire Discovered Hoxne, Suffolk by Eric his metal detector and proceeded to find Lawes in 1992 not only the hammer but a large number Present location Room 49, British Museum, Despite being a London of ancient silver spoons, gold jewelry, and gold and silver coins. broken-off handle from The following day, a team of archeologists arrived at the an unknown object, the field, and dated the cache to the late Roman Empire period, in silver “Hoxne Tigress” has become the best- the fourth and fifth century A.D. They surmised that the items SER: HAM; WIKIPEDIANS WORK BY MIKE AT PEEL U known single piece out had originally been buried in a oak box or chest, perhaps by a of over 15,000 objects M BY wealthy family during the chaos of the empire’s collapse.