Board unanimously appoints Katherine Maher as new WMF executive director; Wikimedia lawsuits in France and Germany
Board unanimously appoints Katherine Maher as new WMF executive director
In his opening address to Wikimania 2016, co-founder Jimmy Wales announced that Katherine Maher will be the new executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation:
| “ | Katherine has been a steady force of leadership and joy and commitment to Wikimedia values since joining the Foundation in 2014. She's been a long-time advocate, even before joining us, of global open communities. As you probably are aware, she's been our head of communications before she took on the executive director role. ... Katherine has something that many in the tech world find easy to lose—what I call "intuitive empathy". She truly understands that our community is about people, and that people come before technology. She fosters the human connections through communication and astute governance ...
I have a big, big announcement. Yesterday in our Board meeting, in a unanimous vote, we appointed Katherine as ED of the Wikimedia Foundation [rapturous applause, asks Katherine to come forward]. This ended her time as interim, it ended our search for an executive director. This is not just a surprise decision to all of you; it was a surprise decision to those of us on the Board. We came into the meeting, we heard a report from the staff engagement survey, we had all been talking to staff, ... the level of engagement, excitement, positive feelings about coming to work every day, has been absolutely astonishing since Katherine took the reins, and we all looked at each other in the Board meeting [to] discuss the executive search, and we [said to each other] what are we looking for? Here we are! This is what we wanted all along. So, here's Katherine. |
” |
The Foundation published a press release on 24 June announcing the appointment, which has come after the tumultuous events surrounding the early departure of the previous ED, Lila Tretikov, after less than 18 months in the job. Maher was appointed interim ED starting 14 March, largely on the basis of advice from the WMF's "C-level" executive team, and shortly after was interviewed by the Signpost. A search to fill the post in a permanent capacity began in May.
Soon after Maher's permanent appointment, the Signpost asked seven prominent Wikimedians what, in their view, are the most urgent priorities for her to pursue over the next 12–18 months. Luis Villa (LuisVilla) is a lawyer and programmer who worked as deputy general counsel and then senior director of community engagement at the WMF for three years until his departure in early 2016. We approached him explicitly because of his close experience within the organisation, from which he now has a little distance:
| “ | Katherine will be an excellent ED, but her job is very difficult: the movement faces many challenges, and WMF has relatively limited resources. So I won't second-guess her by picking any immediate priorities. The board, however, has clear urgent priorities:
|
” |
In the same address at Wikimania, Jimmy Wales announced Emily Temple-Woods (Keilana) as joint Wikipedian of the Year, along with Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (Rosiestep) (separately covered in this edition). Their concerns were shared by a number of the respondents. Temple-Woods told us: "I think the most important thing Katherine will need to do at the beginning of her tenure is to rebuild trust between the WMF and the community. Everything else can come from that." Stephenson-Goodknight believes "Katherine's most urgent priority is assuring there's a healthy workplace environment for staff and movement environment for the community."
Josh Lim (Sky Harbor) is the president of Wikimedia Philippines: "I feel that her main priority at this time should be to rebuild trust in the WMF and reaffirming that it is on the community's side. We've seen what happens when change comes from above and is "dictated" to communities; let's hope Katherine's leadership will see more empowering leadership coming from the ground up, and will in turn lead to meaningful outcomes that will allow the WMF to be more responsive to the changing needs of our movement, especially as it pertains to communities in developing countries where the WMF continues to do poorly."
The two runners-up for Wikipedian of the Year were Vassia Atanassova (Spiritia), a member of the Wikimedians of Bulgaria user group, and Mardetanha, a long-time steward and Farsi-speaker. Atanassova said: "one of the urgent priorities should be returning the community's trust in the capability of the Board and the ED to be transparent and engaging the community in the process of decision and policy making." Mardetanha told us: "I think the ED has to work on lost trust [between the] WMF and community, and to have better connection with local groups. The ED needs to pay a lot of attention to the communities from weaker countries—to be reachable to community members, to have better oversight on WMF expenses, and to make the hiring process more transparent."
Risker currently serves on the Wikimedia Foundation's Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), which scrutinises and recommends funding for large bids by eligible WMF affiliates. She is a former member of the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee:
| “ | In the first 12–18 months, I'd say a very early priority is for Katherine to fill in the gaps at the executive level, especially the CTO role. The newly constituted Board has already made it clear in public comments that the development of a strategy and some longer range planning is a significant priority—one that other communities can depend on in order to establish their plans. From my own perspective, I think the full appointment will allow for stabilization and then progressive, considered changes as movement priorities are re-examined and modified. | ” |
Wikimedia lawsuits in France and Germany
There were important developments in two Wikimedia lawsuits in June: a victory in France, and a defeat in Germany.
As reported on the Wikimedia blog, the Paris Court of Appeals has ruled in favour of the Wikimedia Foundation in a right-of-response suit, defending the Foundation’s status as a hosting provider:
The Court acknowledged that the Foundation merely hosts user-uploaded content and does not have knowledge or control over the data stored as it merely provides, free of charge, “the infrastructures and the organization framework allowing internet users wishing to do so, to build projects by contributing and editing content themselves” without playing any active role.
As a result, the Foundation does not have an obligation to allow the complainant, Élizabeth Teissier, a French astrologer, to make her own posting on Wikipedia in response to an article about her.
The defeat in the German case does not seem to have been reported on the Wikimedia Foundation blog. As described in a WMF blog post last November, the suit brought by the Reiss Engelhorn Museum against both the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland “concerned copyright claims related to 17 images of the museum’s public-domain works of art, which have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.”
The Reiss Engelhorn Museum pointed out that the images were created by its in-house photographer and demanded the removal of the images from Wikimedia Commons, as their presence on the site—where they were marked as being in the public domain—had led to multiple cases of unapproved re-use, including commercial re-use.
The Wikimedia Foundation argued that as the works photographed were in the public domain, the resulting photographs, aimed merely at creating a faithful reproduction of the underlying work, should also be in the public domain. The court disagreed, ruling that the work of the museum's photographer is protected regardless of the public-domain status of the photographed work, and justified its decision by pointing out that creating faithful reproductions of art is a far from trivial task, requiring special effort and expertise to set up and light the shot in order to arrive at an image that correctly represents the colour hues and details of the original, and that freedom of information does not include the right to appropriate and profit from the skilled work of others without asking permission.
In a statement posted on the Wikimedia Deutschland blog, the Wikimedia Foundation expresses the view that the German court’s decision is erroneous, that even if the photographs were subject to copyright, they would not be subject to copyright in the United States, and that the decision whether the images—presently housed in a special category on Commons—should or should not remain on Wikimedia Commons thus lies with the volunteer community. While the Wikimedia Foundation was found liable as a contributor to copyright infringement (“Störer”), the suit against Wikimedia Deutschland was dismissed, as Wikimedia Deutschland does not manage the Wikimedia Commons site.
Reiss Engelhorn Museum general director Alfried Wieczorek welcomed the court's decision and explained that the suit was not motivated by any ill-will towards Wikipedia:
As far as we are concerned this case is not about harming Wikipedia, or of us fundamentally disagreeing with this project. On the contrary: we have great sympathy for the Wikipedia project, and share with Wikipedia the object of spreading knowledge. But in this case, the question for us is who should decide whether and especially how our holdings should be made available. Even if one supports the free public accessibility of cultural items on Wikipedia, it is difficult for us to comprehend that a single Wikipedia author claims the right to decide on their own to release to everybody the results of work created with public funds on Wikipedia for free and thus also for commercial use.
The Wikimedia Deutschland blog post asserts that the museum forbids visitors from taking pictures of the artworks in question; German press reports say that while photography in the museum's public display areas is forbidden, permissions to photograph artwork are granted upon request.
The Wikimedia Foundation has said that it will appeal; judging by comments from the media, it seems likely that the case will eventually end up at the German Federal Court of Justice.
- Reiss Engelhorn Museum press release
- Wikimedia Deutschland blog post
- Court judgement
- German-language report in Heise
- English-language report in Ars Technica
- English-language report in Techdirt
Brief notes
- Fortnightly Signpost: Given the present shortage of contributors, the Signpost is moving to a fortnightly publication schedule.
- Wikimedia UK: Wikimedia UK has released its annual report 2015–16 and announced that Chris Keating has stepped down from the board after five years of service.
- Wikistudies: Announced on Wiki-Research-L: “Wiki Studies is an interdisciplinary, open access, peer-reviewed journal focusing on the intersection of Wikipedia and higher education. We are interested in most all of the same topics hosted on the research listserv and the newsletter, including articles about pedagogical practices, epistemology, bias, mission, and reliability. We will not charge for submission or publication, and will offer open access to readers. We will host on Open Journal Systems. We are just getting started. We are recruiting editors, and plan to have a presence at the upcoming Wiki Conference North America in San Diego 7-10 October 2016. We hope to publish our first volume in March of 2017, consisting of submissions received by 31 December 2016.” The website is: Wikistudies.org.
- Archive.is removed from spam blacklist: Following a recent Request for comment, archiving site archive.is has been removed from the English Wikipedia's spam blacklist.
- Dutch minister starts article to open Writing week on Cultural Heritage: On 29 June Dutch minister Jet Bussemaker of Education, Culture and Science opened the Writing week on Cultural Heritage by posting the Dutch version of the article whose English version is Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels. Flemish minister Sven Gatz of Culture and Brussels minister-president Rudi Vervoort are participating as well and will send a certificate of participation to a Wikipedian who writes about Cultural Heritage in their respective regions. See Commons:Category:Writing weeks cultural heritage 2016.
Two policies in conflict?
Over the past week the English Wikipedia has seen a reactivation of the controversy surrounding the intersection of two key policies: those for paid-contribution disclosure and outing. It began on 27 June 2016 with the blocking by arbitrator GorillaWarfare of Jytdog, with “outing” being the justification. Jytdog is a long-standing editor on medical topics who also works in the area of conflict of interest. The aftermath has raised a number of issues that the community is struggling to address including: who gets to decide policy, what is and is not “outing”, and whether it is permissible for Wikipedia volunteers to discuss and link to publicly posted job offers for Wikipedia PR work and the public professional profiles of writers undertaking such work.
Who gets to decide?
The first issue raised is who gets to decide policy. Many editors view the decision of GorillaWarfare to indefinitely block Jytdog and ArbCom not unblocking as of publication as a misapplication of our outing policy, or borderline at best. The discussion of what the policy actually is and where we draw the line between "outing" and "not outing" has been closed by Mike V, a checkuser, with claims that these discussions are outside the community's remit.
The functionaries have gained a head start in the discussion through their use of private channels. Two of them—DoRD and Thryduulf—tried to remove important wording from the harassment policy: "posting links to other accounts on other websites is allowable on a case-by-case basis", apparently with the intention to leave the impression that posting links to other accounts is never allowed. The clause in question has been in the policy in one form or another since early 2015.
The removal was without community consensus, and it appears that the majority of the functionaries have decided that their interpretation of WP:OUTING trumps that of everyone else.
On the question of who gets to decide, my objective is to stand up for the community. When I was on the board of the WMF, I pushed hard for broad community involvement in determining our long-term strategy; I saw it as inappropriate for a small group of individuals to make decisions behind closed doors. The same applies in this case: I believe transparency and community involvement is vital in determining policy as it is in determining strategy.
Legal perspective
Some editors have argued that a very strict interpretation of WP:OUTING is a requirement coming from the WMF. However, the Foundation's legal department has published a statement on this question, indicating that this is not the case:
I've been asked to clarify how this discussion fits with the Wikimedia privacy policy. It is not a violation of the Wikimedia privacy policy for editors to post links to public information about other editors. The privacy policy applies to how the Foundation collects and handles personal information, as well as users who have access to nonpublic information. The underlying principle in our privacy policy is that respecting and protecting anonymity and pseudonymity is essential for encouraging free expression. Posting links to public information on other sites is a question of balancing this underlying principle, not a direct violation of the privacy policy. It's up to community consensus here to decide when the harassment policy should allow editors to reasonably link to public information on other sites. Thanks, Stephen LaPorte (WMF) 20:50, 30 June 2016 (UTC)
It appears people are taking a policy that applies to non-public information and attempting to force it onto all information contained in personal and corporate accounts outside Wikipedia.
Our purpose: stating the obvious
Jimmy Wales summarized the purpose of our efforts well: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing."
Our purpose is not to create an anonymous online utopia but to create sources of knowledge, and our rules need to be created and maintained to achieve this end. To the degree that anonymity achieves our goals, it should be supported—but this does not mean it should be supported absolutely and in all situations.
Just address content and ignore the terms of use
The Wikimedia Foundation’s terms of use, and the English Wikipedia's paid-contribution disclosure policy derived from them, disallow undisclosed paid editing. Some wish that we exclusively concentrate on content and in essence ignore the terms of use. While this might seem perfectly reasonable in theory, we simply don't have the volunteers interested in following around obviously paid editors and addressing the concerns they create.
Our readers expect our content to be written by people independent of the topic in question. By making it exceedingly hard to address undisclosed paid editing we put our shared brand at significant risk. By allowing promotional or unbalanced material to persist in Wikipedia, we put our readers at risk. This is evidenced for example by the Wifione arbitration case, as reported by Newsweek. The promotional editing in that case negatively affected thousands of students' lives. There is no point in having terms of use if we do not enforce them. They need to be more than simply a public relations measure.
Others have stated that we should never need to use links to justify concerns of undisclosed paid editing. They feel that we can simply express the concerns on a person's talk page without providing evidence; but what we end up with is the casting of aspersions. Our essay on the topic in fact states, “An editor must not accuse another of misbehavior without evidence ... If accusations must be made, they should be raised, with evidence, on the user-talk page.” Those accused also deserve the right to defend or justify themselves openly and transparently.
Specific cases
We currently have an open RfC regarding a statement I posted to WP:COIN in September 2015, and whether we feel this type of comment should be allowed or disallowed. In part, it concerns a job offer for Wikipedia editing publicly posted on Elance, a website frequented by those intending to commission and those willing to undertake paid online PR work:
Checking Elance
[...] Here, we have someone who is buying an article on Anthony LaPine. They have already bought an article on HipLink, created by a sock account, User:Juliecameo3, that is already blocked. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 04:36, 4 September 2015 (UTC)
Most of the functionaries who have weighed in appear to believe that posting a link to a public Wikipedia-related Elance job offer should not be allowed and is a potentially blockable offense. This is despite the fact that the company behind Elance is willing to collaborate with us and doing this sort of work is an effective method of enforcing our terms of use with respect to undisclosed paid promotional editing.
By extension are we going to say that linking to pubmed, a well-known database of biomedical abstracts, is disallowed because such links could have the real names, employment, or location of Wikipedia editors which those editors may not have disclosed previously on our sites? This link, for example, contains comments from Wikipedians with personal details. Not only will such an extreme stance of “no linking to any accounts outside of Wikipedia” make enforcement of our terms of use nearly impossible, it will interfere with our policy on verifiability.
Public and private domains
The privacy of volunteer contributors is a vitally important value. But public-relations work is, as the very name implies, public, not private. The LinkedIn profiles of marketing managers as well as the job and service advertisements on freelance PR writers' sites like Elance are posted there with the explicit intent to catch the eyes of the world.
Many editors may conclude that it is wrong that the entire world should be free to review, discuss and use that information, except for the unpaid volunteers whose work is directly affected and not infrequently compromised by the efforts of PR writers—people whose primary allegiance is not to the Wikimedia project but to those who pay them.
James Heilman
MD, CCFP(EM), Wikipedian
Terrorism database cites Wikipedia as a source
A leak publicised on Reddit has revealed that "Thomson Reuters' terrorism database cites Wikipedia as a source", Motherboard reports.
On Tuesday, a security researcher obtained a mid-2014 copy of Thomson Reuters' controversial financial crime and terrorism database—a huge cache of publicly sourced information used by banks, lawyers, and governments to research individuals and organisations.
Just like your tutor might discover dodgy references in that late-night essay hastily cobbled together, Motherboard has found that a chunk of profiles in the database use Wikipedia as a source.
Using Wikipedia as a source for such claims can be problematic, given how attractive the crowdsourced project has proved to political activists, who frequently edit anonymously.
Motherboard found that more than 15,000 entries in the "World-Check" database referenced wikipedia.org as a source, including 6,500 profiles of political individuals, 624 profiles of people marked as being involved in some form of crime, and 178 profiles of people suspected of involvement in terrorism. Some of the Wikipedia articles concerned were stubs, or had flagged quality problems.
It's a potential worry to people like scholar Taner Akçam, who in 2007 was detained in Canada on the strength of an inaccurate version of his Wikipedia biography designating him a terrorist. And Motherboard notes that a number of well-known charities, activists, and religious institutions were reportedly listed in the database under the "terrorism" label—sometimes in part due to information found on blogs—despite facing no related charges.
However, a Thomson Reuters spokesperson sought to reassure Motherboard that the database:
uses only reliable and reputable public domain sources (such as official sanctions lists, law and regulatory enforcement lists, government sources and trustworthy media publications) for risk-based information or allegations about an individual or entity. We also provide secondary identifying information on individuals, such as dates and place of birth, and this will be similarly verified with reputable and official sources. If blog content appears, it is only as a supporting source for that secondary information, and is clearly identified as such.
(July 1) AK
In brief
- Wikipedia apps: Mac Stories has a round-up of Wikipedia apps. (On a related theme, see also the recent Wikiplorer.) (June 30) AK
- Devouring the web: In the wake of an agreement enabling Google to display "full song lyrics for millions of artists in a 'knowledge box' module at the top of the search page", Caitlin Dewey in the Washington Post likens the impending fate of lyrics websites, who are bound to see massive page view losses as a result, to similar losses reportedly experienced by Wikipedia and others when Google started displaying related content on its own pages. (June 28) AK
- "Anyone who believes Wikipedia is an idiot": Television New Zealand notes that Wikipedia claimed New Zealand rugby union player Elliot Dixon is a "cosplayer for his favourite character, Tintin" and that he is "the Chairman of Southland Cheese Appreciation Club and is known as the Brie King in those parts." The false claims, inserted by two IPs in July 2015 ([1], [2]), stood unchallenged for almost a year, being deleted only after the TVNZ piece appeared. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen commented: "Anyone who believes Wikipedia is an idiot." (June 23) AK
- Wikimedia Foundation loses lawsuit: Ars Technica and Techdirt report on the Wikimedia Foundation's loss in a lawsuit brought by the Reiss Engelhorn Museum. For further details see this week's News and notes. (June 23) AK
- The lopsided geography of Wikipedia: In The Atlantic, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales discusses Wikipedia's geographical and linguistic imbalance, and barriers to the project's expansion. (June 21) AK
- Wikipedia documents twerking: The New York Times Magazine presents Wikipedia as the publication of record for documenting the cultural significance of twerking and other matters. The piece touches on Wikipedia's gender gap and Kyraocity's comments from a March 2016 Art+Feminism event in the context of online archiving. (June 21) B
- Wikipedia in the classroom: In a piece published in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times and widely picked up elsewhere, Caitlin Dewey reports on the work of the Wiki Education Foundation, funded in part by the Stanton Foundation and Google, which has seen Wikipedia editing become a part of students' coursework. (June 20) AK
- Share price collapse: The Times reports on the ongoing share price collapse of Jimmy Wales' "ethical telecoms company", The People's Operator, titling its piece "Investors hang up on Wikipedia founder". (June 15) AK
Triple fun of featured content
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
Six featured articles were promoted these weeks.
- Antlia (nominated by Casliber) is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means "pump" in Latin; it represents an air pump. Originally Antlia Pneumatica, the constellation was established by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century, though its name was later abbreviated by John Herschel. Located close to the stars forming the old constellation of the ship Argo Navis, Antlia is completely visible from latitudes south of 49 degrees north.
- Blast Corps (nominated by Czar) is a 1997 action video game for the Nintendo 64 in which the player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 levels, the player solves puzzles by transferring between vehicles to move objects and bridge gaps. It was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. It was released to universal acclaim and received Metacritic's second highest Nintendo 64 ratings of 1997. Reviewers highly praised its originality, variety, and graphics, but some critiqued its controls and repetition.
- Kalki Koechlin (nominated by Numerounovedant) (born 1984) is an Indian actress and screenwriter of French ethnicity, who predominantly works in Bollywood. Apart from acting in films, she is also a regular presence in theatre productions in India. Koechlin is the recipient of a National Film Award, a Filmfare Award and two Screen Awards. She is also an activist and promotes various causes ranging from health and education to women's empowerment and gender equality.
- Max Reger's 1915 Requiem (nominated by Gerda Arendt) is a late Romantic setting of Friedrich Hebbel's eponymous poem for alto or baritone solo, chorus and orchestra. It is Reger's last completed work for chorus and orchestra, dedicated in the autograph as Dem Andenken der im Kriege 1914/15 gefallenen deutschen Helden. It was published by Fritz Simrock in 1916, after the composer's death. Reger provided a piano transcription of the orchestral parts, and Max Beckschäfer arranged the work for voice, chorus and organ in 1985.
- The English Benedictine Reform (nominated by Dudley Miles) of the English church in the late tenth century was the most important religious and intellectual movement in the later Anglo-Saxon period. In the mid-tenth century almost all monasteries were staffed by secular clergy, who were often married. The reformers sought to replace them with celibate contemplative monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict. The movement was inspired by European monastic reforms, and the leading figures were Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and Oswald, Archbishop of York.
- Amazing Stories Quarterly (nominated by Mike Christie) was a science fiction pulp magazine published from 1928 to 1934. It was launched by Hugo Gernsback as a companion to his Amazing Stories. The first issue of Amazing Stories Quarterly was dated Winter 1928 and carried a reprint of H.G. Wells' When the Sleeper Wakes. Gernsback's policy of running a novel in each issue was popular with his readership, though the choice of Wells' novel was less so. Gernsback went bankrupt in early 1929, and lost control of both magazines; his assistant, T. O'Conor Sloane, took over as editor. The magazine began to run into financial difficulties in 1932, and the schedule became irregular; the last issue was dated Fall 1934.
Featured lists
Nine featured lists were promoted these weeks.
- Mani Ratnam (born 1955) is an Indian filmmaker who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. He is credited with redefining the "range and depth of Tamil cinema", and is regarded as one of the greatest Indian filmmakers. As of 2016, he has directed 24 films, and produced over 15 (nominated by Vensatry) under his production company Madras Talkies.
- A hat-trick in rugby union, the scoring of three tries or three drop goals in a single match, has been achieved 52 times in the history of the Six Nations Championship (nominated by NapHit). The first player to achieve the feat was Charles Wade. George Lindsay scored five tries, the most tries scored by a single player in a Championship match. Besides Lindsay, six players have scored more than three tries in a Championship match; of these Ian Smith is the only player to achieve the feat twice. Four players have scored a hat-trick of drop goals.
- Arsenal F.C., an association football club based in Holloway, London, was founded in 1886. They became the first southern member admitted into the Football League in 1893. Despite finishing fifth in the Second Division in 1914–15, Arsenal rejoined the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur when football resumed after the First World War. Since that time, they have not fallen below the first tier of the English football league system and hold the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the top flight. The club's first team have competed in numerous nationally and internationally organised competitions, and 219 players have played between 25 and 99 such matches (nominated by Lemonade51), either as a member of the starting eleven or as a substitute. Two of these players, Tom Whittaker and Don Howe, went on to manage Arsenal. Bernard Joy moved into journalism following his football career, and authored the club's first detailed history book, Forward, Arsenal!. Ronnie Rooke made 94 appearances for Arsenal and scored 70 goals; he is the club's second-most prolific goalscorer.
- Winston Churchill, in addition to his careers of soldier and politician, was a prolific writer under the pen name "Winston S. Churchill" (nominated by SchroCat). After being commissioned into the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1895, Churchill gained permission to observe the Cuban War of Independence, and sent war reports to The Daily Graphic. He continued his war journalism during the Siege of Malakand, the Mahdist War and the Second Boer War. Churchill's fictional output included one novel and a short story, but his main output comprised non-fiction. After he was elected as an MP over 130 of his speeches or parliamentary answers were also published in pamphlets or booklets; many were subsequently published in collected editions. Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
- Bajirao Mastani is a 2015 Indian epic historical romance film directed and scored by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Based on the Marathi novel Raau by Nagnath S. Inamdar, the film narrates the story of the Maratha Peshwa Bajirao and his second wife Mastani. Made on a budget of ₹1.25 billion (US$15 million), the film was released to positive reviews from critics. As of May 2016, it has grossed over ₹3.6 billion (US$43 million) at the box-office, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. The film garnered awards and nominations (nominated by Krish!) in a variety of categories with particular praise for Bhansali's direction and music, the performances of Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh, its cinematography, art direction, and costume design.
- The US Highways in Michigan (nominated by Imzadi1979) are the segments of the national United States Numbered Highway System that are owned and maintained by the US state of Michigan, totaling about 2,300 miles (3,701 km). The longest of these is US Highway 23 at around 362 miles (583 km). On a national level, the standards and numbering for the system are handled by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, while the highways in Michigan are maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation.
- Manisha Koirala (born 1970) is a Nepalese actress known for her work in Bollywood films. Her filmography (nominated by Cowlibob) includes 78 films, with Dear Maya currently in production. She also appeared in a documentary, hosted a television reality game show and was a judge of a beauty pageant.
- The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award of India. Instituted in 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order", without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. The recipients receive a certificate signed by the President of India and a circular-shaped medallion with no monetary association. The recipients are announced every year on Republic Day and registered in The Gazette of India. A total of 205 awards were presented in the 1970s (nominated by Dharmadhyaksha), including eight foreign recipients.
- Bruno Mars (born 1985) is an American singer and songwriter. He has received 71 awards from 235 nominations (nominated by MarioSoulTruthFan), including three Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards, and an American Music Award.
Featured topics
One featured topic was promoted these weeks.
- The World Fantasy Awards (nominated by PresN) are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous annual convention as the central focus of the event. They were first given in 1975, and have been awarded annually since. Over the years the categories presented have changed; currently World Fantasy Awards are given in five written categories, one category for artists, and four special categories for individuals to honor their general work in the field of fantasy.
Featured pictures
Thirteen featured pictures were promoted these weeks.
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Goalposts; Oy vexit
Your Traffic Reports for the weeks of June 12-18 and June 19-25, 2016.
Goalposts (June 12-18, 2016): It is football time in Europe, with UEFA Euro 2016 rising to #1 this week, and also in the New World, with Copa América Centenario (#6) being hosted in the United States. The killing of Christina Grimmie continued near the top of the chart for another week, this time at #2, and the theme of death continued with the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting (#6) (though the weapon used was not an AR-15 (#8)), as well as Jo Cox (#7). Well outside the Top 10, the new movie Finding Dory is a blockbuster in movie theatres, but only #19 on our chart, because young kids don't visit Wikipedia about movies as much as adults do. Their older siblings do, however, putting The Conjuring 2 at #3, and two other topics related to the film in the WP:TOP25 this week.
For the full top-25 lists (and our archives back to January 2013), see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles every week, see WP:MOSTEDITED. For the most popular articles that ORES models predict are low quality, see WP:POPULARLOWQUALITY.
For the week of June 12 to 19, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 UEFA Euro 2016 
2,332,785 
Up from #4 last week, with almost 900,000 more views. For the latest go-round, held in France, the European international football tournament has been expanded from 16 to 24 teams, which means that most of the British Isles (bar Scotland) are competing together for the first time in decades. Of course, England's fans marked the occasion with a bit of hooliganism, as if the "Brexit" referendum weren't enough of a snub to Europe. 2 Christina Grimmie
2,264,084 
Up 700,000 views from last week. Some things are difficult to talk about. It is a sad fact of American life that, just as people's lives can rise on a dime, so too can they end. That a minor singing celebrity who had built her entire career on her relationship with her fans could be brought down by a single, random member of her fandom who happened to have a gun is both tragic and infuriating. That it happened in Orlando, Florida, now feels like a strange prelude to the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. 3 The Conjuring 2 
1,474,929 
Up from #7 last week with twice as many views. Fans of the supernatural may take some issue with the veracity of demonologist ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren (#13), but there's no denying that The Conjuring (#22), the first film based on their case files, was a highly effective (and highly successful) spookfest. The sequel, which reunites stars Vera Farmiga (pictured) and Patrick Wilson, has proven just as popular, with a solid 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and $91 million worldwide grossed in just three days—and $186 million through June 19. 4 Karl Landsteiner
1,310,447 
A Google Doodle celebrated the 148th birthday of the biologist and physician who discovered the ABO blood group system in 1901. For this discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930. 5 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting
1,216,345 
On June 12, 29-year-old Omar Mateen went to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and killed 49 people. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history. It seems pretty apparent these mass killings will continue occur unless the United States takes strong action of some sort, but no unified solution seems possible in the current political climate. 6 Copa América Centenario
1,175,857 
The exhibition tournament between all ten members of CONMEBOL (the South American football federation) and six members of CONCACAF (the North American football federation) to celebrate 100 years of the South American international cup, the Copa America, kicked off on June 3. 7 Jo Cox
1,065,668 Cox was a British Labour Party politician, a rising star in British politics, and Member of Parliament (MP). On June 16, Cox was shot and stabbed to death in Birstall by a 52-year-old man who self-identified as a British nationalist. So much hate. 8 AR-15 
921,319 
Apparently this was not the weapon used in the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting (#5), though it was initially reported to be. That weapon was actually a SIG Sauer MCX. The use of AR-15s in mass shootings used to have a section at AR-15, but at the moment it appears to have been removed—is its effectiveness in mass shootings not notable?[3]. 9 O. J. Simpson
909,514 
At first I assumed that American Crime Story, which put Simpson on this chart a few months ago, had restarted. Apparently not. Instead it was the network debut of O.J.: Made in America, a five part miniseries. It seems O.J. Simpson stories could soon rival the status World War II movies once had as a television time-filler. 10 Game of Thrones (season 6)
861,883 
The latest season of this eternally popular TV series premiered on HBO on 24 April. With only a few episodes left in this season, we can expect it stay up on the chart.
Oy vexit* (June 19-25, 2016): I would get this week. I have been told many times that I should be more politically impartial. Well if you want that from me this week, tough. I am a British citizen and a Londoner, and as such have borne witness to the venomous campaign that the EU referendum has created. I voted to remain, and I still believe that was the right choice. But the British people saw differently, and now we must live with the consequences. Already the politicians, like Boris Johnson, who spearheaded this vile spectacle and fed off the fumes, are now backtracking much of the grandiose promises and claims that they made, so it will be interesting to see if any of the hate they dredged up gets thrown back on them.
For the full top-25 lists (and our archives back to January 2013), see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles every week, see WP:MOSTEDITED. For the most popular articles that ORES models predict are low quality, see WP:POPULARLOWQUALITY.
For the week of June 19 to 26, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the TopViews, were:
(*"Oy vey" is a Yiddish expression of dismay and Milo apologizes in advance to anyone who wants to rightfully kvetch at his adding this title to Serendipodous's fine commentary.)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 UEFA Euro 2016
3,406,686 Holding steady for a second week, with a jump of 700,000 views. This has been a wild week, with all the laws of the sport seemingly upended. Tiny Wales beat giant Russia 3-0, while Ireland beat former World Cup winners Italy. Iceland, a country with a population smaller than Coventry, England, beat Austria 2-1, while Hungary held imploding former giants Portugal to a 3-3 draw, and Croatia beat cup holders Spain. 2 Anton Yelchin
1,997,309 
As if the list of tragic deaths this year wasn't long enough, 2016 had to take yet another talent before his time. Perhaps best known for playing Pavel Chekov in the revamped Star Trek film series, Anton Yelchin was a fixture in the independent film scene before a car accident ended what stood to be a stellar career. 3 European Union 
1,974,203 
The world's largest trading bloc got hit with an axe this week when the UK decided to leave in a referendum. No one knows where we go from here; perhaps the EU will be able to contain the damage, or it may lead to ever more referendums, and the Union's ultimate disintegration. Some may cheer this, Vladimir Putin in particular. But the potential undermining of the post-World War II global order has put many on edge. 4 LeBron James
1,764,059 
LeBron, as everyone calls him, led the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first ever NBA championship on June 20, scoring 27 of his team's 93 points and securing the MVP. 5 United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
1,193,830 
To be clear, this hasn't actually happened yet; the Referendum was only advisory and Parliament could still overturn it, though that is admittedly unlikely. Even if it does pass, however, it is unlikely to accomplish what those who voted for it wanted: immigrants are still likely to come in, and most of the EU's rules will still apply, since the UK wants to trade with Europe. But the shockwave its mere suggestion has sent through the markets has had many Brexiteers rethinking their vote. 6 Game of Thrones (season 6)
1,038,832 Numbers are up by over 100,000 this week, and it's not hard to see why. Silly title aside, this week's episode, The Battle of the Bastards, was a full-on Braveheart-style mediaeval war epic with cinematic production values. 7 Finding Dory
970,801 
When it was released in 2003, Finding Nemo quickly became Pixar's most financially successful film up to that time, launching the cinemagoing careers of millions of children. 13 years later, most of those kids are in college, and they are rushing back to relive their childhoods with this long-awaited sequel which, with the help of a new generation of children, will likely soon be Pixar's most financially successful film ever. 8 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016
906,451 
What's fascinating about that map is how little overlap it reveals: Scotland voted to stay; England and Wales (outside the London commuter belt) voted to leave. Catholic Northern Ireland voted to stay; Protestant Northern Ireland voted to leave. This referendum wasn't about politics; it was about identity. It was about who you were, where you were and which society you belonged to. Which is why I don't think the wounds will easily heal. 9 Money in the Bank (2016)
855,492 
WWE's latest pay-per-view pantomime was held at the T-Mobile Arena (pictured) on 19 June. 10 The Conjuring 2
833,756 Fans of the supernatural may take some issue with the veracity of demonologist ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren, but there's no denying that The Conjuring, the first film based on their case files, was a highly effective (and highly successful) spookfest. The sequel, which reunites stars Vera Farmiga (pictured) and Patrick Wilson, has proven just as popular, with a solid 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and $242 million grossed worldwide through June 25.
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Jimmy Wales names Emily Temple-Wood and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight as Wikipedians of the Year
Temple-Wood, who edits as Keilana (“Kay-lah-nah”), has been an editor on the English Wikipedia since 2007. Her work and direct impact on the site is vast: she has created nearly 400 articles and improved hundreds of others, including on Barbara McClintock—1983 winner of the Nobel Prize.
A first-year medical student, Temple-Wood focuses on female scientists and LBGT+ and women’s health, and runs frequent edit-a-thons near her hometown of Chicago when not editing or working as the Wikipedian in Residence at the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
According to Stephenson-Goodknight, Temple-Wood is the “poster child of the efforts to address Wikipedia’s scientific gender gap,” and she has an ongoing effort to match every harassing email she receives with a new biography on a women scientist.
For her part, Stephenson-Goodknight, who edits as Rosiestep, has significantly contributed to over 3,000 articles, including 1,300 “did you knows” on Wikipedia’s main page. In addition to her content work, she was a core founding member of the Teahouse, a page that helps acclimate new Wikipedians into the site’s culture and basic practices. Stephenson-Goodknight has inspired women editors through co-founding the WikiWomen’s User Group and Wikipedia:WikiProject Women, along with coordinating and co-founding the Women in Red campaign.
| “ | “Some of you know that I am a cultural anthropologist at heart. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Mead and study cultural anthropology at Barnard (my mom’s alma mater), like Margaret did. I wanted to travel to Papua New Guinea and do research on its people, like Margaret did. But my dad said ‘no’ to majoring in anthropology—he wanted something more practical for my university studies. So now, years later, I get to live the life of an armchair cultural anthropologist, writing articles about Goaribari Island and its cannibals. To all the girls out there with impractical dreams, this article is dedicated to you.” | ” |
Also named by Wales were two honorable mentions: User:Mardetanha and Vassia Atanassova, from the Farsi- and Bulgarian-language communities, respectively. Mardetanha started the Farsi-language branch of the Wikipedia Library, which helps connect Wikipedia editors to the sources they need to improve the site. Despite several obstacles, he found three publishers to donate research access to Wikipedians; he has committed huge chunks of time and energy into making resources and communications channels.
Atanassova created the #100wikidays competition, which has inspired editors new and old to create at least one Wikipedia article each day for 100 days. 120 editors from 42 projects (and nearly as many languages) accepted the challenge; about a third of them have already completed it.
Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, gave out the award during Wikimania, the annual conference that celebrates the Wikimedia movement. It has been given out every year since 2011; past honorees have included Rémi Mathis, who was pressured by the French government into deleting an article on a military radio station, and Ihor Kostenko, a Wikipedian who perished in the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine.
Ed Erhart, Editorial Associate
Wikimedia Foundation