Wikimedia v. NSA: Wikimedia Foundation files suit against NSA to challenge upstream mass surveillance
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation is filing suit against the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the United States. The lawsuit challenges the NSA’s mass surveillance program. (..)
Taking a stand for free knowledge in the European Union
When the European Commission held an official hearing on copyright reform, a representative of the European Wikimedia chapters participated (...)
Who links to Wikipedia?
To learn more about who links to Wikipedia, University of Sheffield researchers analyzed the structure of links that point to Wikipedia pages from external websites. Here's what they found. (...)
How we made editing Wikipedia twice as fast
The creator of the wiki, Ward Cunningham, wanted to make it fast and easy to edit web pages. Cunningham named his software after a Hawaiian word for “quick.” That’s why the Wikimedia Foundation is happy to report that editing Wikipedia is now twice as quick. Over the last six months we deployed a new technology that speeds up MediaWiki, Wikipedia’s underlying PHP-based code. HipHop Virtual Machine, or HHVM, reduces [...]
Using Licenses in an easy (and legal) way
[...] “Open Content – A Practical Guide to Using Creative Commons Licences” is a publication by the German Commission for UNESCO, the North Rhine-Westphalian Library Service Centre and Wikimedia Deutschland. [...]
Welcome to Phabricator, Wikimedia’s new collaboration platform
Wikimedia launches a space for collaboration open to all contributors: phabricator.wikimedia.org. Primarily devoted to software development, this platform also welcomes non-technical projects. Wikimedia Phabricator has been available since September for early adopters. Its prime time starts this week, after having incorporated 73,681 reports migrated from Bugzilla, the bug management tool that has served our projects….
Wikimedia supports the Lyon Declaration and Access to Knowledge
The Wikimedia Foundation is proud to join the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development which calls for United Nations member states to provide all people the ability to access and share knowledge. After all, this speaks to the ambition of the Wikimedia movement: sharing the sum of all human knowledge to all people around the world. [...]
European court decision punches holes in free knowledge
A recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision is undermining the world’s ability to freely access accurate and verifiable records about individuals and events. The impact on Wikipedia is direct and critical.
Making a change to our Terms of Use: Requirements for disclosure
This change will clarify and strengthen the prohibition against concealing paid editing on all Wikimedia projects.
Donating His Estate to the Wikimedia Foundation: The Story of Jim Pacha
As he reflected on his life in a video interview with the Wikimedia Foundation on April 29, Jim Pacha beamed and smiled a lot. During the talk, Pacha was reminded of all the remarkable things that happened to him, including highlights in learning and career advancement. Pacha became a senior software engineer at a prestigious aerospace company, even though he never graduated from college. He entered his profession at one of its lowest ranks and through the years mastered the necessary skills through study and hard work.