Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/From the editors
It's July 4 weekend and on this list that means only one thing: Wimbledon. Sure, the American Independence Day gets noticed too, but it can't hold a candle to that staggeringly British sporting event. This week, however, Wimbledon had to share the glory with two other major sporting events: the Copa America and the FIFA Women's World Cup, both of which reached their finals.
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of June 28 to July 4, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terminator Genisys | 
|
1,043,888 | This film marks the fourth attempt in 12 years to restart the dormant Terminator franchise without the aid of its creator, James Cameron. To date, if Metacritic and IMDb are anything to go by, the only remotely successful of these resuscitations was the hugely underrated TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. One wonders if audiences are wishing they'd made that a hit when they had the chance, because the numbers for this film's opening weekend are bad. Really bad. As in, "made as much in its first five days as Terminator Salvation made in its first weekend" bad. And Salvation, mind you, was the black sheep of the series until now. All this is rather perplexing, since the two things that usually drive movies up this list are box office and controversy, and so far the only controversy over this film is from the few scattered critics who don't consider it utterly terrible. Perhaps it was the presence of Emilia Clarke (currently the second Game of Thrones star to take on the role of Sarah Connor). Or perhaps, if this aging Terminator fan could be wistful for a moment, the critics are wrong when they say the Millennial generation has no love for this franchise. Perhaps they rushed to their tablets incensed at the terrible reviews; determined to learn who and what was responsible for vandalising the legacy of this landmark work of science fiction. Or perhaps it means nothing at all. Who am I to guess? | |
| 2 | Independence Day (United States) | 
|
904,001 |  |
The American celebration of its Declaration of Independence from Britain on July 4, 1776 (although technically American independence was declared on July 2, by which time the American Revolutionary War had already been going for more than a year, and not actually attained until February 3, 1783) is arguably the biggest summer festival in the English-speaking world, with the possible exception of Christmas in Australia. Numbers are up 50 percent on last year, but still not near 2013. Perhaps a slight surge of patriotism ahead of next year's election? |
| 3 | Flags of the Confederate States of America |
|
900,354 | .svg) |
It took the horrific act of the Charleston church shooting on June 17 to refocus the attention of South Carolina politicians and public at large to the fact that South Carolina was still flying the battle flag of the Confederate States of America at their state capitol. This flag causes a lot of controversy in the United States, though its general modern use as a symbol of racist oppression of blacks is undeniable. Will the flag of ISIS/ISIL be similarly used in the Middle East one hundred years hence? In any event, on June 22, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and other politicians called for the flag to be taken down, so it appears that the flag will be officially lowered soon. |
| 4 | Jurassic World | 
|
869,045 |  |
In this era of dueling gargantuas, when Hollywood risks $200 million budgets on a whim and triple-digit opening weekends are a seasonal event, the financial achievements of the first Jurassic Park can seem somewhat pallid. And yet, it was for a time the most successful film ever made, and more importantly, formed the prototype for the modern blockbuster; massive, frontloaded opening weekend, brushfire earnings, and supercharged ancillaries. And now, after Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron made substantial dents in the US GDP, Jurassic World has arrived to show that its aging franchise is perfectly capable of holding its own in today's hostile environment. Its $208 million opening weekend was the biggest of all time, though at just $1 million above the previous record set by Marvel's The Avengers back in 2012, it wasn't exactly a killing blow. Still, it managed to claim the highest second weekend gross of all time as well, showing that it may well be on the way to repeating the performance of its ancestor. Today, the Jurassic franchise is just one monster among many, but it has shown that it still has the right to reign. |
| 5 | 2015 Copa América |
|
869,045 |  |
This week saw The final of South America's quadrennial international soccer competition, in which Chile beat Argentina in a penalty shoot out. |
| 6 | Dustin Brown (tennis) |
|
780,378 |  |
This German tennis player shocked pretty much everyone when he beat 14-times champion Rafael Nadal at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships, only to be knocked out in straight sets by Viktor Troicki. |
| 7 | Ruby Rose |
|
551,379 |  |
The Australian model and actress has been in the media thanks to her role in the new series of Orange is the New Black and her public challenging of traditional gender roles. She came out as a lesbian at the age of 12 and identifies as genderfluid. Her androgynous appearance has led many straight women to declare an attraction to her, which has angered some gay activists, who argue that homosexuality is not a choice. |
| 8 | Deaths in 2015 | 
|
531,666 |  |
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died. |
| 9 | 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup |
|
492,610 |  |
The final of this increasingly popular competition was held this week, and saw the United States clinch its third title (something their male equivalent has never managed even once) in a stomping 5-2 victory over holders Japan. Meanwhile, the English side clinched third place by beating arch-rivals Germany, something the home crowd may consider better than actually winning. |
| 10 | Heather Watson |
|
484,341 | .jpg) |
It's a rare athlete, let alone tennis player, who enters this list on a loss, but the British no 1's grueling 3-set defeat to Serena Williams may well have been a career-defining moment. She held firm against the world no. 1, pushing her against the wall, until finally caving in a 7-5 slugfest. |
A week before the start of the 2015 Wikimania conference in Mexico City comes troubling news about next year's conference. Esino Lario, a small village of only 750 people in northern Italy, was selected earlier this year as the site of the 2016 Wikimania conference, to the surprise of many (see previous Signpost coverage). To host the event, the town needed hundreds of thousands of Euros from the Wikimedia Foundation and the Fondazione Cariplo, significant improvements to infrastructure, including buildings and internet connectivity, and the labor of a raft of volunteers. Despite this, the mayor of the town, Pietro Pensa, warns The Local Italy that the event is "at risk of disappearing".
At issue is a new group of migrants the town has been ordered to absorb. The European Union is currently struggling with a huge influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East—a 149% increase in numbers from last year. Many are fleeing armed conflicts in Syria and the Libyan crisis. Due to its ample coastline and location in the Mediterranean, Italy is one of the European countries most affected by being the destination of numerous maritime asylum seekers. The largest influx of people seeking asylum in Italy come from Eritrea then Somalia, Nigeria and Syria.
The new group of refugees located in Esino Lario numbers 60, adding to the population of 41 refugees already living there. Their numbers are small, but altogether would become more than ten percent of the town's population. Pensa worries that the volunteers needed for Wikimedia will instead be diverted to assist the new arrivals. He said, "They are not so independent and need a lot of help. Each migrant will have a volunteer with them for two or three hours a day." Pensa also complained that a nearby town, Lecco, with a population 100 times as large, has absorbed no migrants.
Whether this is a legitimate concern that threatens Wikimania or merely a way to complain about an unfavorable decision remains to be seen. However, Pensa promised the town will still try to make Wikimania a success. "We'll do everything we can to host the convention. We want to show everybody how great Esino is by hosting the best and craziest Wikimania convention possible." (June 8)
Vocativ reports on what it calls "Wikipedia's greatest mystery", namely why the article March 27 lists more births and deaths than any of the other articles on other dates on the calendar. Vocativ consulted "12 scholars" who mostly dismissed the matter, though one noted "the gaps between maximum and next maximum in both your series [of dates for births and deaths] suggest that this coincidence does have some deeper, though mysterious explanation." The explanation is not mysterious, nor is it a "loophole", as Vocativ describes it. Lists of births and deaths in these articles are not assembled from data taken from Wikipedia or Wikidata, they are created manually by editors, and thus any data taken from these articles will be skewed by the biases and interests (or disinterests) of those editors. The data spike for March 27 can be attributed to the edits of a single editor, 86.5.161.217. Wikimedia Foundation data analyst Erik Zachte explained to Vocativ that "Maybe that person was born on March 27, and took pleasure in finding many famous people with some link to that date." A similar spike for March 4 can be attributed to Acumen76, who for the last several years seems to have mostly edited only that article, and mostly only during the month of March. (June 7)
Next week's Signpost will feature a Special Report on the European Union freedom of panorama issue.
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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/Opinion
Executive director Lila Tretikov this week posted an email to the wikimedia-l mailing list announcing the final publication of the Wikimedia Foundation's 2015 annual plan. It contained a succinct summary of her organizational thinking at the moment, and so is worthy of being replicated below:
All,
I want to provide an update on the Annual Plan. I am happy to let you know that the Board of Trustees has approved the proposed 2015-16 Wikimedia Foundation annual plan. Thank you for your patience as we have worked to incorporate your feedback and review with the Board.
The approved plan includes $68.2 million in revenue, with $65 million of spending and $3.2 million for the reserve. In addition, we will raise $5 million for our endowment, which will help secure long-term support for our mission. In total, this accounts for a 17% growth in total budget. The plan also includes a stretch goal of exceeding the fundraising target by 20% to contribute additional funds to the reserve. The approved and updated plan is now available here <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2015-2016_Annual_Plan>.
In our last Metrics Meeting, I presented an emerging strategy for the Wikimedia Foundation that focused on building a strong core in the near-term, allowing for innovation in the long-term toward our mission of ubiquitous shared knowledge. Strengthening our core has been our focus over this past year. We published the Call to Action <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation#2015_Call_to_Action>, which refocused us on community and technology, introducing new thinking and skills to the WMF, and improved products for the world.
We have made significant changes this past year that are showing early results. But this is just a start. The world is changing rapidly in areas like mobile, user behavior, media formats, and access to knowledge. In order to make free knowledge available for generations to come, we need to continually improve our work and challenge our thinking. The Annual Plan for this year is focused on building our capabilities as a springboard for future innovation.
In this year's plan, budget adjustments are designed to fill in the gaps in current user needs, in particular in the areas of community (including affiliates and partners), technology, and communication. The plan builds on the foundational work from this past year, when we set up team structures and introduced new focus to align our organization with communities and demands for knowledge. For the first time, this year's plan also introduces a Quarterly Metrics Scorecard to track our progress on delivering on our commitments. We will use both top-level and departmental metrics to measure our progress and report back.
I also want to acknowledge some of the issues with this year's Annual Plan process. We shared the first draft with you late, giving you limited time to provide feedback. We introduced a new, lighter weight format in the first iteration that left some of you with questions about proposed changes. This final, approved version has been updated to clarify our rationale, incorporate the feedback we did receive, link our plans to success metrics, and orient the next year within a broader strategy. As always, we continue to iterate toward a better process. Going forward we plan to have an extended window for your review and comments so we can refine our plan with your valuable feedback in mind.
Thank you. I look forward to working together as we continue to strengthen our core capabilities to support our mission and prepare for our emerging strategy.
For a fuller Signpost report see our coverage of the release of the draft version of this plan two months ago—the final version is broadly the same, with minor differences and addendums. For further details refer to our summary of the comprehensive State of the WMF report published earlier this year. It is worth highlighting the contrast between this year's slim 13-page brief metrics with last year's effort, which the Signpost reported at the time as being "indigestible"; most of the non-monetary and non-metric content of these reports has been spun off into the State of the WMF report.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/In focus Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/Arbitration report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-08/Humour
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