Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-01-23/News and notes

SOPA blackout
On 18 January (from 05:00 UTC) the English Wikipedia joined thousands of other web sites in protesting SOPA and PIPA by blacking out its own content for 24 hours. Exceptions from the blackout were made for read-only access to pages about the protest and articles relating to SOPA and PIPA. The purpose of the blackout was twofold: to raise public awareness, and to encourage people to share their views with their elected representatives.




 * During the blackout:
 * The Wikipedia page about SOPA and PIPA was accessed more than 162 million times during the 24 hour period.
 * More than 12,000 people commented on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog post announcing the blackout. Most supported the blackout.
 * More than eight million looked up their elected representatives' contact information via the Wikipedia tool. The Senate's web site was unable to accommodate the number of citizens attempting to use its contact forms.
 * Anti-SOPA and PIPA topics began trending globally on Twitter immediately after the blackout began. Hashtags included #factswithoutwikipedia, #SOPAstrike, and #wikipediablackout. At one point, 1% of all tweets carried the #wikipediablackout tag, and the term SOPA was used in a quarter-million tweets hourly during the blackout.
 * A quick search of SOPA blackout on Google News yielded 9,500 links as of 13:30 Pacific standard time, January 19.

English Wikipedia's blackout was supported by dozens of other Wikimedia communities, typically with a blackout banner, as recorded at SOPA initiative/Actions by other communities. Many other websites participated in the protests against SOPA and PIPA on 18 January, but English Wikipedia's blackout featured prominently in media coverage (SOPA initiative/Media) – see "In the News" in this issue of the Signpost.

After the blackout the Wikimedia Foundation's Brandon Harris posted a blog entry on the blackout implementation process, focussing on the blackout screen and banner design considerations.

Wikipedia available data-charge free on Orange
Mobile service provider Orange has made a three-year commitment, in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, to provide access to Wikipedia without data charges to customers in 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa. The service will initially be offered in Tunisia and Cote d'Ivoire, beginning in a few months. The partnership between Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation is service-based and does not involve money.

Wikipedia access is provided via a lightweight "Wikipedia Zero", developed by the Wikimedia Foundation; however, the Orange service is not being branded as "Wikipedia Zero", as that may cause confusion with Facebook Zero. Wikipedia is provided as text-only, reducing bandwidth loads, and if a user clicks on an image, they will incur data charges (with warning).


 * Orange Partnership: Q and A

Brief notes

 * Featured article leadership: A request for comment has been initiated to discuss the structure of the leadership for the featured article forums at the English Wikipedia.
 * Wikimedia UK recruiting Communications Organiser: Wikimedia's UK chapter is recruiting a Communications Organiser. Applications are open until February 10.
 * Wikimania 2012: Registration has opened for Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC. The registration for Wikimedia contributors (and students) is $35, and travel scholarships are available (deadline February 16).