Wikimedia Foundation diversity and inclusion information about our workers—2019 by the numbers

Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects form the largest collaborative collection of free knowledge – written in roughly 300 languages, and built by and for the world. At the Wikimedia Foundation, the U.S.-based nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, we strive to reflect the communities we currently work with, and those we hope to work with in….

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What we learned about closing Wikipedia’s gender gap using a classroom assignment

Assigning Wikipedia as a classroom assignment is a difficult proposition. The idea of integrating the encyclopedia into a curriculum has been stigmatized for many years, and it can be complicated to ensure that students’ work fits into Wikipedia’s extensive policies and guidelines. Over the last decade, however, a brave cadre of professors and teachers have….

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Thanks for the thanks! Examining the efficacy of Wikipedia’s thanks feature

Much like Asgard, Wikipedia is not a place but a people. Specifically, an extensive community of volunteers from around the world who donate their time each day to building, curating, and watching over the largest collection of knowledge ever assembled. Unlike Asgard, the people who contribute to Wikipedia often only rarely meet outside of the….

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Do Europeans have a right to be globally delisted? The Court of Justice of the European Union says no.

Update (May 6, 2020): In 2016, the Wikimedia Foundation intervened in support of Google’s efforts to define the scope of the “right to be forgotten” in France. Faced with an order from the French data protection authority (“CNIL”) to delist information worldwide in response to a right to be forgotten request, Google challenged the order….

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Content translation tool helps create over half a million Wikipedia articles

In science fiction, the Encyclopedia Galactica is a compendium of a galaxy’s worth of knowledge. Wikipedia isn’t quite there yet—for one, we’ve barely left Earth. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t trying to put together a planet’s worth of knowledge and ensure that all of its inhabitants can learn from it in their own languages.….

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How the Wikimedia Foundation is making efforts to go green

Update: The Wikimedia Foundation’s most recent sustainability assessment from 2019 was published on 13 August, 2020. Learn more here. We at the Wikimedia Foundation strive to ensure that our work and mission support a sustainable world. Today, we are releasing a sustainability assessment that chronicles the total carbon footprint of the Foundation’s work and commits….

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Grant Ingersoll

Wikimedia Foundation welcomes Grant Ingersoll as Chief Technology Officer

The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to announce the appointment of Grant Ingersoll as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Grant brings two decades of experience in open source software development and natural language processing engineering to the Foundation. He will join the Foundation on 23 September. The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and….

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Bodil Biørn

Norway and Armenia come together to bring Bodil Biørn’s historic photographs online

Over 180 memories of Armenian history are now available to everyone in the world, free of charge, thanks to a collaborative project between Wikimedia Norge (Norway), Wikimedia Armenia—both independent Wikimedia affiliate organizations—and the National Archives of Norway. All of the photographs were taken by Norwegian missionary and nurse Bodil Biørn (1871–1960), who proselytized within modern-day….

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Your weekly photo from the world’s free media repository: 13 September

Boats moored in Zoebigker Harbor on Lake Cospuden, located near Markkleeberg, Saxony, Germany. This photo comes to us from Wikimedia Commons, the freely licensed media repository whose holdings are extensively used on Wikimedia’s many projects, including Wikipedia. You can use the photo for just about any purpose as long as you credit the author (Ansgar….

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Wikimedia Foundation announces $2.5 million in support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies for security of Wikipedia and organization’s other free knowledge projects

The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to announce $2.5 million in support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies that will help to ensure the security of Wikipedia, as well as the organization’s other sites and global community of volunteers. At a time of increased cybersecurity threats, this philanthropic investment from the organization of craigslist founder Craig Newmark will….

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