On the Wikimedia Foundation blog this week, head of communicationsJay Walsh announced a new unrestricted grant:
The Wikimedia Foundation has received a $500,000 grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to expand its work bringing free educational content to everyone on the planet. With this grant, the Hewlett Foundation acknowledges the important role Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects play in making educational information freely accessible.
"The enormous popularity of Wikipedia and its collaborative premise make the Wikimedia Foundation an ideal vehicle for spreading the open educational resources movement," said Barbara Chow, director of the education program at Hewlett. "We look forward to a fruitful relationship."[grant 1]
Wikimedia Foundation deputy director Erik Möller, writing on thefoundation-l mailing list, said the grant was "designed to advance the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation as a whole".[grant 2]
TheAssociated Pressreported on the grant andThe Registeroffered an analysis of Foundation funding.
Wikimedians have begun reporting their first impressions—generally positive—of the city ofBuenos Aires, the site of Wikimania 2009. The conference will run Wednesday through Friday (26–28 August), with registration, theWikimania Codeathon, and apresentation by Richard Stallman kicking things off on Tuesday. Many conference attendees are activemicrobloggers, and there is likely to be considerable discussion of the goings-on under thehashtag "#wikimania" onTwitter andidenti.ca.
The winners of theWikipedia Loves Art event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK inFebruary this year wereannounced last week. The winners were:
