[[image:International2.png|left|40px]]<small>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests/WMF Help translation]</small>
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'''Wikimania'''<br>
[http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikimania 2006] is currently on at Harvard University in Boston. The [http://wikimania2005.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page inaugural] Wikimania was held in Germany. Wikimedia Chair Jimmy Wales' opening speech is available in [http://www.supload.com/listen?s=SI0OG2vN04i streaming form].
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an international non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the 20 most visited websites.
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Wikimania Wikimania 2006 is currently on at Harvard University in Boston. The inaugural Wikimania was held in Germany. Wikimedia Chair Jimmy Wales' opening speech is available in streaming form.
We caught up with the father of the wiki movement before breakfast on an early Oregon morning, while he was recovering from the recent Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP) conference held in Illinois. In between cans of Moxie, we picked his brain about the evolution of wiki, copyright, and the Wikipedia community. Afterward, he came onto IRC to hang out in #wikipedia for a while, where he was duly lauded. See our interview with Ward Cunningham.
We also tracked down Lawrence Lessig, Stanford law professor, founder and chairman of Creative Commons, and free culturesmith, in a lull at the end of a long December day. In a whirlwind session, he talked to us about copyright, copyleft, barriers to free culture, legal pitfalls for Wikipedia, and fighting the good fight. read more.
This is a free area, with reports by various people on various issues :-) For example, a report on Wikinews, or Wikicommons; a text on a new arbitration committee, a wikijunior publication, a new grassroots initiative to develop a project, etc. Please feel free to add participate and add reports yourself, by following the link above.
Information on prizes and awards are collected in our Trophy box.
Quote of the month
"When I visited the offices in March, the walls were bare, the furniture
battered. With the addition of a dead plant, the suite could pass for a
graduate-student lounge." -- impression of the WMF world headquarters by Stacy
Schiff, journalist.
The Wikimedia Board of Trustees is the ultimate corporate authority in the Wikimedia Foundation Inc., and has the power to direct the activities of the Foundation. The Foundation bylaws may be seen at Wikimedia Foundation bylaws.
The Foundation manages the Budget, which pays primarily for computer equipment and hosting. Other costs include human resources necessary to the running of the Wikimedia projects, though most people are volunteers. This site includes a complete list of notes from Board meetings.
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