Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-02-20/News and notes

A Swedish Wikimania
In 2019, Wikimania will be held in Sweden, although the exact location is yet to be determined. Announcing the decision, Ellie Young of the Wikimania Committee said:

The Swedish proposal beat out three other proposals from teams in Armenia, Perth, and Prague. –E

Zeroing out Wikipedia Zero
The WMF is ending the Wikipedia Zero program, which has provided more than 800 million people with access to Wikipedia free of mobile data charges. The reasons given by WMF for ending the program were "drop off in adoption and interest... due, in part, to the rapidly shifting mobile industry, as well as changes in mobile data costs". Zero had been critiqued by Vice magazine as embodying "digital colonialism" and for serving free porn and pirated movies. Early comments on the post brought up the issue of net neutrality. –B, E

Shaping the future
The Wikimedia Foundation has released a research report on "Wikimedia's role in shaping the future of the information commons", available or on Medium. The report, based on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy discussions held last year, presents insights, recommendations, and discussion points from the WMF's staff and consultants. –E

Wandering in the RfA desert of 2018
With zero RfAs in January, this year looks more like 2016 than 2017 according to RFA by month. If we have another year of under 20 successful RfAs, things will not look good. Commentary to June 2017 Signpost's News and notes by said 50 is a replacement number.

In the great 2011 RfA Reform debate, it was noted by "August 2011 saw only one promotion, a monthly low that has only been reached one other time in RfA history". So, a phenomenon that was alarming or even worth reconsidering the whole RfA process then, seems to be getting barely any attention at all at this time. Or is it? Your comments are invited below. –B

Brief notes

 * Steward elections: Voting is now open for the 2018 Steward elections, and will remain open until 28 February 2018, 13:59 (UTC).
 * New user-groups: The Affiliations Committee announced the approval of the newest Wikimedia movement affiliates: the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova User Group, the Don Wikimedians User Group, the Wikimedians of North American Indigenous Languages User Group, and the Wikibase Community User Group.