[Foundation-l] Usability grant

Wed Dec 3 07:02:16 UTC 2008

I'm happy to mention that the board has authorized the foundation to 
accept a significant grant, for which we just recently received the 
funds. This is a restricted grant specifically for use on a project to 
improve the MediaWiki software and the experience for new contributors. 
Not that this is a direct result of recent discussions here, plenty of 
people have mentioned the issue before, including Delphine as Ting 
points out. As you may know, grants take more than a day or two to put 
together, but it's relevant to mention anyway. I understand a press 
release with more details will be going out in the next day or so.

While grants with restrictions should be considered with care (one 
reason for the board to be involved), we've indicated for some time that 
this is an issue the foundation feels strongly about addressing. As a 
result, any hesitation was really more about the challenges involved in 
executing the project. I don't know just how far this will carry us, but 
since it focuses on the underlying software, I hope it will benefit more 
than just "80% of our projects" - even the ones that don't need help, or 
don't think they do. I encourage volunteers to get involved in 
supporting the effort as the project moves forward.

This grant is also from a source that has provided a smaller amount of 
funding before. It's gratifying when donors recognize the impact they 
are having and decide they want to add to it.

--Michael Snow