The Signpost

News and notes

Money! WMF fundraising, Wikimedia strategy, WMF new office!

Donation totals by continent for fiscal year 2016–2017

Fundraising report

The WMF have published the fundraising report for 2016–2017. US$91 million was raised from 6.1 million donations – an increase of $13.8 million over the 2015–2016 total. The designated place for public discussion of the report, clarifications of finance, conspiracy theories, or calls for the Wikimedia Foundation or wiki community to attract or repel donors is at Meta-Wiki. Comments or rants about spending rather than the income are accepted annually on the latest page for the annual plans; 2017-18 is closed but watch Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan to comment in the next round. Other opportunities to inspect finances and speak up include reviewing Wikimedia community grant applications, overseeing the activities and finances of Wikimedia chapters and usergroups, or doing your own investigative journalism and writing for The Signpost.

Strategic direction

After many months and cycles of discussions, a strategic direction has emerged from the 2017 Movement strategy:

Our strategic direction: Service and Equity

By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us.

We, the Wikimedia contributors, communities and organizations, will advance our world by collecting knowledge that fully represents human diversity, and by building the services and structures that enable others to do the same.

We will carry on our mission of developing content as we have done in the past, and we will go further.

Knowledge as a service: To serve our users, we will become a platform that serves open knowledge to the world across interfaces and communities. We will build tools for allies and partners to organize and exchange free knowledge beyond Wikimedia. Our infrastructure will enable us and others to collect and use different forms of free, trusted knowledge.

Knowledge equity: As a social movement, we will focus our efforts on the knowledge and communities that have been left out by structures of power and privilege. We will welcome people from every background to build strong and diverse communities. We will break down the social, political, and technical barriers preventing people from accessing and contributing to free knowledge.


— Meta:Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Direction

Comments and criticisms, on the final and previous versions, proliferate the talk page.

Endorsements will be sought on 26 October, with discussions on implementation to begin in November.

New office for Wikimedia Foundation headquarters

On Friday 20 October 2017 Katherine Maher announced that the Wikimedia Foundation had shifted location. The current Wikimedia Foundation headquarters is at One Montgomery Tower in the Financial District of San Francisco, a 10-minute walk from the previous location. One reason for the new location was to move into a smaller space.

Brief notes

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I'm very impressed by Wikiproject Military History's recent one thousandth featured article milestone. Well done, guys. Abyssal (talk) 17:04, 23 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Fundraising

It would be very helpful if someone could update Wikipedia:Fundraising statistics, a page which currently includes no post-2015 data. – Athaenara 22:44, 28 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the message is getting across, clearing the goal in quicker and quicker times... I still find myself pointing out to people that it wikipedia is in the top ten sites and yet no adverts ... all thanks to the good nature of donors, great job fellow humans!

:) 09:35, 31 October 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leevanjackson (talkcontribs) 

Oh, really?

"One reason for the new location was to move into a smaller space." Income escalating, size of the bureaucracy growing at a cancerous rate, and we're supposed to believe that WMF is trying to move into a smaller space? Uh, that I seriously doubt. Very, very seriously, I doubt. How much was the old rent? How much is the new rent? Which space is more trendy? Did WMF try to get more space at the new site and get put on a waiting list? There is absolutely something missing from this picture... Carrite (talk) 15:27, 21 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

















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