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اطرح سؤالا/الأسئلة الشائعة

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اطرح سؤالا

العمل

أين يمكنني التعرف أكثر على الإعلان في مشاريع مؤسسة ويكيميديا؟

لا تقبل مؤسسة ويكيميمديا الإعلانات.

مؤسسة ويكيميديا ليست ضد عالم الإعلان عبر الإنترنت أو ضد المنظمات الأخرى التي تستضيف الإعلانات، لكنها لا تعتقد أن الإعلان ينتمي إلى مشروع مخصص للتعليم، لا سيما المشروع الذي تحركه القيم المتوافقة مع موسوعة متوازنة ومحايدة. لطالما شعر مجتمع المتطوعين العالمي أن الإعلان سيكون له تأثير كبير على قدرتنا على البقاء بحياد وأن الإعلانات ستضعف في النهاية ثقة القراء الكلية بالمقالات التي يقرؤونها. حتى لو لم يمارس المعلنون أي ضغط علينا لتحريف المقالات لصالحهم، فقد يخشى القراء أن يمارسوا تأثيرًا، بوعي أو بطريقة أخرى.

إضافة إلى أن المؤسسة لديها وجهات نظر قوية حول خصوصية القراء. النماذج الحالية للإعلان على الويب غير متوافقة مع هذه النماذج، خاصة الإعلان السياقي، الذي يقرأ المحتوى الذي تشاهده. تعتقد المؤسسة أيضًا أن تقديم الإعلانات للقراء بناءً على جغرافيتهم أمر تدخلي.

إذا كنت ترغب في قراءة المزيد حول تاريخ المناقشات حول الإعلان عن ويكيبيديا -بما في ذلك الإيجابيات والسلبيات- فقد كتب مجتمع المتطوعين صفحة حول هذا الموضوع تجدها هنا.

كيف يمكن طلب دعم ويكيميديا لعملي الخيري؟

كما تعلم، فإن مؤسسة ويكيميديا هي منظمة خيرية غير ربحية ذات هدف محدد للغاية، وهو تطوير وصيانة مجموعتنا من الموارد التعليمية مفتوحة المحتوى عبر الإنترنت بجميع لغات العالم، ليتم توزيعها مجانًا على الجمهور. نظرًا لأننا منظمة غير ربحية تأسست في فلوريدا بالولايات المتحدة، فإن القوانين المحلية والوطنية تمنعنا من استخدام أموالنا لأي شيء سوى هذا الغرض.

إذا كان طلبك متعلقًا بـ مهمة، فقد ترغب في مراجعة صفحة "بدء" المنح لمزيد من المعلومات حول طلب الدعم.

كيف يمكنني اقتراح مشروع جديد أو طريقة جديدة لعمل شيء في مشروع قائم؟

نُقدِّر إنشغالك بالتفكير في طُرق لتحسين ويكيميديا.

نظرًا لأن مؤسسة ويكيميديا لا تنشئ أو ترعى المحتويات على ويكيبيديا أو المواقع الأخرى التي نديرها -هذا العمل يقوم به مجتمع كبير من المتطوعين- لا يمكننا تنفيذ معظم الاقتراحات مباشرة عن طريق طلب البريد الإلكتروني. التغييرات على المشاريع الموجودة، مثل ويكيبيديا، والموافقة على مشروع جديد (مثل اللغات الجديدة للمشاريع الحالية "أو" مفاهيم جديدة تمامًا للمواقع) تأتي من مجتمع المتطوعين.

إذا كنت ترغب في اقتراح مشروع جديد تمامًا، يرجى زيارة مقترحات المشروع. إذا كنت ترغب في اقتراح إنشاء نسخة لغة جديدة لمشروع قائم، يرجى زيارة صفحة "طلبات اللغات الجديدة" في ميتا. إذا كنت ترغب في اقتراح ميزة جديدة لأحد مشاريعنا الحالية، فيرجى مشاركة أفكارك مع المتطوعين في هذا المشروع. هناك منتديات مجتمعية للأفكار والاقتراحات. تحتوي معظم مشاريعنا على رابط على الجانب الأيمن لنقاط المناقشة المجتمعية، وأحيانًا يتم إعطاء عناوين مثل "الميدان" أو "المقهى" أو "خانة المسافرين". على سبيل المثال، تناقش ويكيبيديا العربية الأفكار والمقترحات هنا.

مثلما يمكن تحرير صفحات المقالات بواسطة أي شخص، كذلك يمكن تحرير صفحات المناقشة. إذا لم تكن على دراية بكيفية تحرير صفحاتنا، يمكن أن يكون دليل ميدياويكي حول التحرير مفيدًا. إذا كنت بحاجة إلى مزيد من المساعدة، إما في التحرير أو في العثور على مكان مناسب لمناقشتك، فإن المجتمع به فريق متطةع للرد على البريد الإلكتروني، قادرًا على المساعدة. يمكن الوصول إليهم على info wikimedia org. يرجى التأكد من إخبارهم على وجه التحديد بالمشروع واللغة التي تعمل عليها؛ إذا كنت تشعر براحة أكبر في التواصل بلغات أخرى غير الإنجليزية، فيمكنهم في كثير من الحالات التواصل معك بلغتك الأم.

نأمل أن يتقبل المجتمع فكرتك.

إذا كان لديك اقتراح عمل "ليس" مشروعًا جديدًا، أو إصدارًا بلغة جديدة لمشروع قائم، أو تعديل الممارسات في مشروع قائم، يرجى الاتصال

هل يمكنني استخدام شعاركم أو علامتكم التجارية؟

لمعرفة المزيد حول استخدام العلامات التجارية لويكيميديا، بما في ذلك ما إذا كان الاستخدام المقصود مسموحًا به، يرجى الاطلاع على سياسة العلامات التجارية.

‎يرجى عدم التردد في الاتصال بنا على $trademarksemail إذا كنت غير متأكد مما إذا كان استخدامك يتوافق مع هذه السياسة أو قوانين العلامات التجارية المحلية أم لا.

هل يمكنني استخدام برنامجكم على موقعي الخاص؟

نحن نرحب بك ونشجعك على القيام بذلك! ميدياويكي هو برنامج مجاني قائم على الخادم ومرخص بموجب ترخيص جنو للمشاع العام (GPL). ميدياويكي هو برنامج قوي للغاية وقابل للتطوير وتطبيق ويكي غني بالمميزات يستخدم PHP لمعالجة وعرض البيانات المخزنة في قاعدة بيانات، مثل MySQL.

The MediaWiki homepage should have all the information you need to install and use the software for your own purposes. While the Wikimedia Foundation encourages people to use the software for their own purposes, we are not able to provide training in the use of the software or answer questions about it, but the volunteer community is frequently able to help. If you cannot find the answer you seek about using MediaWiki software at the help page on the website, there is a support desk where you can ask specific usage questions at the Support Desk. You can also reach assistance through IRC or email at the avenues listed at The "Communication" page.

May I reuse text or images from your sites?

Note: If you are interested in hosting a mirror or downloading considerable content from one or more of our projects, see "May I mirror or copy your sites? instead.

The Wikimedia Foundation actually does not own copyright to most of the content on Wikipedia. This material is generally owned by the volunteers who create content on the site who liberally license it so that it can be used on our sites and elsewhere. In principle, most of the text on our sites is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC-By-SA) and can be used free of charge for any purpose. A specific permission for use is not necessary, as long as the license conditions are observed. Some text is also available under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).

Images are identified as being subject to any of several licenses. Therefore, if you want to use an image, it is advisable to check the image information page for the source and/or licensing information. Clicking on the image will lead you to the image information page. Most images are free to use as long as you give the proper credits and follow the terms of the license indicated on the image description page.

For more information please see our Terms of Use -- Licensing of Content, section 7(g). There is another page on our websites that may also be of us. While written by the volunteers who create and curate content on our sites, Commons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia may offer more information specifically related to media.

Please note: Neither the Wikimedia Foundation nor the contributors of content to Wikimedia sites are able to provide legal advice. We wish we could give you specific feedback on the content you would like to use, but - unless it is one of our logos or rare content generated by our staff - we cannot. It is your responsibility, if you intend to reuse content from Wikimedia sites, to determine how the licenses of the content that we host apply to your intended uses. If in doubt, you may wish to contact an attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction who has familiarity with intellectual property law.

May I mirror or copy your sites?

Note: If you are interested in using only a small amount of content from one or more of our projects, see "May I reuse text or images from your sites?" instead.

Since sharing information is a key part of our mission, we welcome and try to facilitate the spread of our content. You are, of course, welcome to link to our website in the traditional sense that you inform your readers of its existence and offer them the option to visit our website for further information. However, we do not support live mirroring (remote loading or hotlinking) of our websites. Given our unique copyright situation, it's actually better for you to host a text dump of earlier versions or locally hosted copies of our articles (see this section). For downloadable dumps of Wikipedia article database, see the database downloads page. You may also be interested in the Mediawiki API.

Please note: Neither the Wikimedia Foundation nor the contributors of content to Wikimedia sites are able to provide legal advice. We wish we could give you specific feedback on the content you would like to use, but - unless it is one of our logos or rare content generated by our staff - we cannot. It is your responsibility, if you intend to reuse content from Wikimedia sites, to determine how the licenses of the content that we host apply to your intended uses. If in doubt, you may wish to contact an attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction who has familiarity with intellectual property law.


مؤسسة ويكيميديا

How can I tell if a "wiki" or other website belongs to you?

Because "wiki" is a generic term that may be used by anyone, there is sometimes confusion about which websites the Wikimedia Foundation hosts. Beyond this, other sites may use MediaWiki software—which is free and open for anyone—and therefore look similar to our projects. The only projects which are part of the Wikimedia Foundation are those listed at the "Our Projects" page.

If you're trying to identify who owns a website that does not belong to us, you may need to look for a link on the site that indicates it is "About" the site or use a WHOIS tool.

If you should happen upon a website that uses the Wikimedia Foundation's marks or indicates it is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation but that is not on the list, we would appreciate you letting us know at answers wikimedia org.

How can I learn more about job opportunities at the Wikimedia Foundation?

Thank you for your interest in working for the Wikimedia Foundation!

Job openings are listed here. If you see a job that looks like a good match for you, please click on it to read a more complete description. Information on where to send your resume will be included in the description. Usually, there is a link at the bottom that says "Apply Now."

If none of the jobs currently listed there seem suitable to you, please keep an eye on that page. New job openings are listed there routinely as they become available.

What are the Wikimedia Foundation's major values and beliefs?

The Wikimedia Foundation believes that all people everywhere should be afforded equal access to information. It supports network neutrality and the free culture movement. It believes in the need to conquer the digital divide, which results in the economic or cultural marginalization of individuals with limited access to technology. It respects the rights of human beings to basic privacy and dignity. The Wikimedia Foundation also believes that the environment is important; it strives for sustainable business practices.

The Foundation holds that censorship is incompatible with its mission. In May 2011, when the Board of Trustees passed its resolution on dealing with controversial content, it affirmed that "Wikimedia projects are not censored." Curating knowledge for an international community of all ages will certainly mean the display of materials that some may find offensive or upsetting. The Board supported the principle that users should be able to choose what content to access and encouraged the responsible curating of content so users might reasonably expect what they will encounter when viewing a page or using a feature, but continued in its explicit support of access to information for all.


المحتوى

How do I contact the people or entities that are written about on your sites?

While the websites we maintain host articles about a wide number of people, companies and corporations, we do not hold contact details for them. Contact details may be included in the article about the subject or in links provided within the article. If not, you may wish to use a search engine or other resource to try to locate this information. As an organization that relies almost entirely on the good will of volunteers, we do not have the resources to research inquiries of this nature.

How do I find out more information about subjects on your sites?

Since content on our educational projects is not created, reviewed, or controlled by a central authority, but by members of the public volunteering to help out, we are not able to offer more information about the subjects on our sites via email. As an organization that relies almost entirely on the good will of volunteers, we do not have the resources to research such material.

However, you may be able to get additional information on the site itself. Many languages of Wikipedia host a "reference desk"—an online resource where various volunteers do try to answer knowledge-based questions. The English Wikipedia's, for instance, is located here. You can find a long list of reference desks in other languages in the bottom of the toolbar on the left side of the page. Though there is no guarantee that they can provide an answer, they are often able. Please be specific in your question so that others can better assist you.

Anything you post to the Reference Desk will become public. Therefore, we do not recommend that you post personal information such as email addresses or phone numbers. Generally, once you post your question you can check back on the webpage in a day or two to see if volunteers have been able to answer you.

How can I report misuse of my copyrighted content on your sites?

We're sorry to hear that you've encountered this problem on our site. Unfortunately, the Community Advocacy team, which answers questions here at the Hub, cannot assist directly in content takedowns. The Wikimedia Foundation does not create or curate content on our sites; rather, this work is done by a vast community of volunteers.

There are several approaches to having content removed if it infringes your copyright.

First, you can reach out to our designated agent for a DMCA takedown request (see this page for more details). You can reach our designated agent via email at legal wikimedia org. If you'd like to review our DMCA policy, it is located here.

Alternatively, you can reach out to the community of volunteers directly to request content removal. They are available via email at info-en-c wikimedia org. Wikimedia sites, including Wikimedia Commons, do not have a central authority, but the volunteers who work at these email addresses are experienced users who know policies and processes and can assist you with such requests.

Please do not send requests to both addresses, as this may delay handling of your request. You should either process your request through the legal team at the first address or through the courtesy queue staffed by volunteers.

How do I report inaccuracies in content on one of your projects?

Our projects are "wikis", which means that anyone visiting the site can edit or add to most pages. In most cases, if you believe that content could be improved, we ask you to address it on the site yourself.

First, you can edit almost any page directly. You don't need to apply or get special permission to join us. At the top of each page is an "edit" label. Try it for example at the sandbox on the English Wikipedia. You don't even need to log in to edit, although creating an account gives you more options and helps you keep track of your contributions. You can create an account on our educational projects by pressing "create account" in the top right corner.

Our projects are open to volunteers and encourage people to pitch in. You can generally find information on how in the sidebar of each project. The English Wikipedia's Introduction and Tutorial are useful reading for how to edit MediaWiki software, if you choose to contribute directly.

Please note that while contributions are welcome, the volunteer communities who create and curate content do have policies and guidelines which they have crafted to which content must adhere. These will vary according to the project you are editing and can generally be read by following the links on the left side of the page on a given project. For instance, the policies that govern Wikipedia ask that you remain neutral in your prose and provide reliable sources to substantiate the information you add. Content that does not meet local policies may be modified or removed.

If you do not wish to correct the issue yourself, you can raise your concern for review by members of the community. Each page on our projects has an associated "discussion page" or "talk page"; you can access this by clicking the "discussion" link at the top of the page. You can then voice your concerns by selecting the "new section" link in the tabs at the top of the page. You will see two text boxes for you to write in: one for a title for your note and one for the note itself. (See the MediaWiki help page on talk pages if you would like more information on using them).

If other contributors are not receptive to your note or edits, there are dispute resolution processes you can follow on the sites. You can frequently find more information about these by pressing the "help" link found on most projects in the sidebar on the left. If you cannot find the dispute resolution processes on a given project, you should be able visit the help desk or community portal to ask local volunteers on that project how to proceed.

In addition to dispute resolution processes within a specific project (like the Wikipedia project that is concerning you), there is a cross-wiki discussion point called "Meta" which is intended to coordinate work across projects. If a particular project is having internal issues that the local community cannot overcome, it may be possible to reach out to other Wikimedians around the world for assistance there. The process used for this is called "Requests for Comment". We recommend being as concise possible in explaining the issue and offering clear "diffs" or "links" to pages and edits that exemplify the issue. It will be helpful to show the Meta community where members of the local community have tried to resolve the problem and failed.

In some cases, it may be appropriate to reach out for information or assistance to the volunteer email response team at info wikimedia org. The volunteer email response team receives a large number of emails every day, and they do not have the capacity or the mandate to help with most minor corrections or standard content disputes. They may be able to assist people in special circumstances, however. Before writing, it's a good idea to check on the project where you are encountering difficulties to see if there are specific instructions for contacting volunteers on that project or specific information on how they may be able to help. For instance, the Dutch Wikipedia page on their volunteer email response system includes specific details for what to do in various circumstances. (You may be able to locate this information on other projects by pressing the magnifying glass in the search bar, typing "OTRS" in the box, and pressing "Help and Project Pages" beneath the box.) Some projects include that information in the link on the left labeled "Contact page". (See, for example,the English Wikipedia's "Contact us" page.)

If you do choose to reach out to the volunteer email response team, please keep in mind that our projects have no central editorial board. While volunteer responders are chosen from among the volunteer community by other volunteers for their experience on the projects, they can only act in accordance with the community-created policies and processes of the projects they serve. In some very exceptional circumstances, they may be able to help you directly, but, if not, should often be able to help you determine the best way to proceed.

If contacting the volunteer email response team, please clearly explain the issues you are encountering and, if you are writing the general address, please specify the language and project where you are experiencing the issue (for example, French Wiktionary; Russian Wikipedia).


المشاركة

How can I donate my own copyrighted content to your sites?

Thank you for your interest in donating content to our projects!

In accordance with our Terms of Use, our projects are able to accept previously published content that is compatibly licensed with the project to which you wish to add it. (See, specifically, section 7, "Licensing of Content").

The volunteer community who create and curate the bulk of the content on our projects have crafted processes for facilitating such donations. Recommended steps on the English Wikipedia can be found at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. Several other language Wikipedias have pages describing the process; you can see the list of languages in which it is available and access those by clicking "languages" in the left toolbar. Specific information on donating images and other media files can be found at Commons:Email templates. If you have any questions on donating copyrighted content not answered at those pages, you may wish to consult the web-based "help desk" on Commons or use the "Help" link in the left toolbar to locate a help forum on the project to which you wish to donate. You can also write to permission wikimedia org.

How can I help with translating content to other languages?

Wikipedia relies on volunteers who generate and maintain all content as well as creating policies and guidelines to govern the site. It is a collaborative project, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone, everywhere, free of charge. The other projects we maintain are also collaborative, crowd-sourced projects that rely on volunteers. Translation is a volunteer-driven activity on our websites, just like content creation.

A general approach to translation from English Wikipedia to other projects is provided here. This approach is likely to succeed on most projects with most languages. If you want specific advice from other volunteers, you can reach out to the "help" or community discussion forum on the project where you want to place the translation. These are generally linked from the side of every page. If you can't find it, you can write to info wikimedia org for more information. Please, in that case, specify the language project where you want to work (for instance, Italian Wiktionary; French Wikipedia).

If you are interested in helping to translate official documents used for management of Wikimedia projects, this work is also done by volunteers. Meta's "Babylon" page is a good place to begin. There is a section there on getting started which includes some important links, and there is also a section on communication that tells you some of the best places to get in touch with other translators, who may be able to give you specifics about the work. We recommend reading the tutorial linked from the "getting started" section before beginning, if you choose to pitch in, as the system actually looks more complex than it is.


الأبحاث

The following information is transcluded from Research FAQ page.

I want to understand the Wikimedia research community

Who manages the research community?

No single person or entity manages or directs the Wikimedia research community. Much like the Wikipedia community, the research community is composed of many different, self-directed entities with a common interest in better understanding the Wikimedia movement and its projects.

Even within the Wikimedia Foundation, the largest organization in the Wikimedia movement, no single person or team has primary responsibility for all research.

Who is involved in the research community?

Participants in the research community include:

How do I communicate with the research community?

The best way to communicate with the research community as a whole is to use the wiki-research-l lists wikimedia org mailing list. You can also use the #wikimedia-researchاتصل IRC channel, but you may not get an answer to a general question because IRC is meant for live conversations.

Where can I meet members of the research community?

The Wikimedia Foundation Research team hosts a monthly office hour using video chat.

Wikimania, the yearly Wikimedia movement conference, is attended by many members of the research community and usually has many sessions related to research. Many other Wikimedia conferences exists; some may include members of the research community or research-related session.

There are several scholarly conferences with dedicated tracks on Wikimedia research or a long record of publications in the field. The best research on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects today happens at conferences such as CSCW, ICWSM, OpenSym, WWW.

What does the Wikimedia Foundation Research team do? Can it support my team’s data analysis needs?

The Wikimedia Research's mandate is to help design and test technology informed by qualitative and quantitative research methods and produce scientifically rigorous knowledge about Wikimedia's users and projects. Examples of projects led by the Research team include:

The team can provide guidance on metric definitions, experimental design, statistical and methodological support on an ad hoc basis. Individual Audiences teams are responsible for data analysis and metric definition for their corresponding audiences. You can contact the R&D team via our (internal) department mailing list research-wmf lists wikimedia org.

What does the Wikimedia Foundation Design Research team do?

The Design Research team (DR) supports iteration of concepts and functionality toward a usable and intuitive experience for users. It also provides guidance to other WMF teams via a range of qualitative methods including, but not limited to, usability testing. See the team page how to submit requests for the team. The team also conducts generative research and collaborates with Research and Data and other teams in order to help define what products and user experiences at a high level should be built (and why) for specific types of users, based on their needs. You can contact the DR team via our (internal) department mailing list research-wmf lists wikimedia org.

I have a question about Wikimedia projects that I want answered

Where do I find Wikimedia statistics and metrics?

Wikistats is the best location for learning about high-level statistics like the number of active editors or unique devices. The numbers in Wikistats are the most vetted and "official" ones available.

Many other dashboards and reports are also available. For a list, see Statistics. Note that these dashboards may not be closely vetted as Wikistats and should be used with care in high-profile situations.

A journalist has asked me for some data. Who can I talk to?

If you need help handling a question from a journalist, please contact the Wikimedia Foundation's Communications team at talktocomms wikimedia org. If necessary, the team knows how request support from the various researchers at the Foundation.

How can I recruit a researcher to investigate my question?

Realistically, there are far more questions than there is time to answer them, so it's likely that you will not be able to find anyone willing to take up your question.

If you would still like to try, you can email the wiki-research-l lists wikimedia org mailing list. You can also add your idea to the research ideas board on Phabricator; students and volunteers looking for projects to work on sometimes look there for ideas.

If you want to try investigating the question yourself, check out the section of this page on help with your own research.

I want to pitch a new project to Research and Data, what should I do?

The Research and Data team partners with other teams in the organization, community members and academic researchers to design and run projects that typically span multiple months of work. In order to engage with the team, your project will likely be:

  • a minimum of one or two quarters in projected time frame
  • ahead of specific products or interventions being designed or tested

If you think your project meets these requirements, you can contact the team via this mailing list: research-wmf lists wikimedia org or by creating a Phabricator task in the backlog of the Research board. If you are looking for audience-specific metrics and statistics, please get in touch with the respective team's product owner.

I want to conduct my own research on Wikimedia projects

What data is available for my research?

There is a vast array of publicly-available data about the Wikimedia projects. A detailed list can be found at Research:Data.

Additionally, the Wikimedia Foundation collects some data for private use by highly-trusted researchers who have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). In general, this category only includes staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, staff of other approved organizations such as Wikimedia Deutschland, and formal collaborators of the Wikimedia Foundation Research team. For more details on this private data, see Analytics data access policy. For details on how to propose a collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation Research team, see their page on formal collaborations.

Does my project need approval?

Most research is conducted independently, without knowledge by or approval from the Wikimedia Foundation. Rarely, the Wikimedia Foundation will provide practical support for certain research projects, such as projects that require access to non-public data. Researchers may not claim any support, approval, or special privileges from the Wikimedia Foundation unless they have a signed, written agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation that says they do.

Observational research generally does not require approval from anyone. Interventional research projects may require cooperation from the affected communities. Before beginning an interventional research project, we recommend disclosing it at a community forum, such as the local community's village pump. You should be prepared to engage in discussion with community members and, if necessary, to modify your research plan based on their feedback. Some communities require such disclosure and discussion.

Can the Wikimedia Foundation financially support my research?

The Wikimedia Foundation sponsors research projects of strategic importance in the form of grants. Grants can be issued to individuals and organizations alike and can be awarded via calls for participation or directly allocated in the case of research commissioned by the Foundation. More information on different types of grant, and the corresponding requirements, can be found on this page. Research sponsored by a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is subject to the terms of our open access policy.

Can the Wikimedia Foundation write a letter of support for my grant proposal?

The Wikimedia Foundation does not directly participate, unless in exceptional circumstances, in grant applications or research consortia as a partner institution, due to legal and financial constraints that come with restricted funding. However, we are happy to support individual research projects of particular strategic importance by providing formal endorsements. Letters of endorsement are signed by a C-level or by their delegate, they form part of a formal collaboration and are subject to the terms of the Wikimedia Foundation's open access policy.

Can the Wikimedia Foundation help me collect data for my study?

As a general rule, researchers at the Wikimedia Foundation have little bandwidth to provide data collection / data analysis as a service, outside of the scope of formal collaborations. We are always happy to provide guidance and recommend the appropriate tools, data sources and libraries for a given study on an informal basis. The best way to get support is to post a request to wiki-research-l (for anything related to research design, methods, state of the art on a specific research topic) or to analytics-l (for data sources and APIs maintained by the Wikimedia Analytics Engineering team). You can also get support via the corresponding IRC channels, irc:wikimedia-research and irc:wikimedia-analytics. If your request is about recruiting participants for a survey or study, see the corresponding question.

How do I get special API privileges for my research?

You can access the MediaWiki API to retrieve data from Wikimedia projects with the standard permissions that are granted to your registered username. For most types of data you will not need any kind of special privilege. In some cases the Wikimedia Foundation can grant special permissions (such as high API request limits) on a temporary basis to individual users for research purposes. When these privileges are granted by WMF staff, they form part of a formal collaboration and are subject to the terms of the Wikimedia Foundation's open access policy.

How do I release a dataset?

Releasing open data about Wikimedia projects for research purposes, while respecting our privacy and data retention policies, is in line with Wikimedia's values and mission to disseminate open knowledge. The Wikimedia Research team maintains an open data repository via the DataHub that anyone can contribute to. We also register and host open datasets for research purposes on Figshare, for citability and discoverability. If you are in a team at WMF dealing with sensitive data, before releasing a new dataset, particularly data obtained from private sources and/or containing personally identifiable information, it is mandatory to consult with the Legal and Security teams. The Research and Data team can provide best practices on how to publish and document the dataset, once its publication has been cleared by these two teams. The release of data from Fundraising is subject to additional restrictions due to our donor policies: before publishing any reports including anonymized or aggregate data from Online Fundraising, please review these guidelines and obtain explicit approval from the team.

I want to run a survey, how do I get started?

The Learning and Evaluation team maintains the Survey Support Desk – a one-stop shop for anything related to surveys in the Wikimedia context for Wikimedia Foundation staff, Wikimedia affiliates, and volunteers. The team also maintains and provides access to survey platforms used by WMF. The Design Research team can provide overall guidance and support to other teams at WMF on survey design. The Research and Data team can provide guidance on best practices on strategies for participant recruitment on-wiki. All WMF-run surveys must be reviewed by the Legal team -- see this internal page for more information.

Surveys run by academic researchers need to meet community expectations before participant recruitment can begin. Creating a research project and discussing the proposed recruitment strategy on wiki-research-l are good, preliminary steps towards successful recruitment of participants for a study. There aren't any global policies regulating third-party research or mechanisms for large-scale subject recruitment, but best practices have been discussed in a number of contexts. en:WP:Research and en:WP:SRAG are the product of the joint efforts of the research community and the English Wikipedia community to try and satisfy two goals:

  • Create a mechanism for mass subject recruitment
  • Protect the community (and individuals) from the disruption that mass recruitment could cause

Along with these two documents, a few essays are available as tools for educating Wikipedians about research:

Do I need to acknowledge WMF in publications?

If your work has been supported in some way by the Wikimedia Foundation, a Wikimedia affiliate, or a Wikimedia community member, we encourage you to consider acknowledging them in your publications referring to specific usernames, groups or organizations for their specific contributions to your research.

If your work was supported by the WMF Research Fund we suggest using the following acknowledgement (Grant IDs can be found in the respective project's Grant or Research Meta page):

This research is supported [in part] by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Research Fund under Grant No. [grant ID]. The authors would like to thank [specific individuals or teams] at [the Wikimedia Foundation, another Wikimedia affiliate, or the Wikimedia community] for [help provided].

Where can I learn about current research projects at WMF?

We run a weekly, cross-departmental research group every Thursday at 9:30am PT to discuss research in progress, present early results or get feedback on the design of new projects. The meeting is regularly attended by members of the Research and Data and Design Research teams, analysts with various Product teams and from Learning and Evaluation but it's open to anyone in the organization interested in participating. We also host more formal, public presentations on a monthly basis via our Research Showcase and at Monthly Metrics meetings, which you can attend in person if you're in the SF office or watch online via YouTube.

Where can I learn about existing research on a specific topic?

There are several places where you can learn about previous and current research. The most comprehensive resource covering research on Wikimedia projects is the Research Newsletter. The newsletter is a collaboratively maintained monthly overview of new research, edited by Tilman Bayer and Dario Taraborelli with contributions by several volunteer reviewers. It has been published monthly since 2011 and has a fully searchable archive. You can also follow the latest research updates hot off the press via the @WikiResearch handle on Twitter, by subscribing to wiki-research-l or by attending the Wikimedia Research monthly newscase (also available on YouTube). The Wikimedia Research Codex is a complementary effort to summarize past research by organizing it by topic instead of by date; it in currently in progress, and topics are prioritized depending on team needs.

I want a job researching Wikimedia projects

Are there any research and analytics jobs at the Wikimedia Foundation?

Current openings for part-time and full-time positions in Research, Analytics Engineering and Product are listed on the Wikimedia Foundation's jobs website.

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