The Wikimedia blog has been around since 2008—eight years—and in that time, we’ve become a primary method of public communication for the Wikimedia Foundation to the public and Wikimedia community. As part of our ever-evolving approach, we’ve introduced a set of new guidelines, bringing them into line with our current practices.

Today, our attorneys at the ACLU filed the opening brief in our appeal of Wikimedia v. NSA, which challenges the National Security Agency’s “Upstream” mass surveillance practices. Our complaint was dismissed last fall on the grounds of standing, and the newly filed brief details the many reasons why we have the right to bring these claims. We expect the government’s response in March, and will continue to keep the community updated.

Over the past few weeks, the Wikimedia community has engaged in a discussion of the Wikimedia Foundation’s plans for search and discovery on the Wikimedia projects. More recently, there has been confusion in the press and among community members about the Foundation’s plans and intention. Although we’ve participated in those discussions in other places and other ways, we want to clarify what we are, and are not doing, at the Foundation.

Of the photo competition’s 9793 submissions, only 328 made it to the final round. What were the most interesting images that aren’t among the national finalists?

Wikimedia Commons now has more than forty musical interpretations of 19th century compositions thanks to Wikimedia Spain’s collaboration with the country’s Museum of Romanticism.

Have you ever felt the need for a more powerful way to comment on Wikipedia articles? WikiComment might be for you.

Roses are red
Divorce is contractual
We’re an encyclopedia
Let’s keep love factual.

The Wikimedia Foundation continues to support Twitter’s fight for transparency. On February 5, 2015, the Wikimedia Foundation joined Automattic, CloudFlare, CREDO Mobile, Mapbox, Medium, Reddit, and Wickr in filing a new amicus brief against the U.S. Department of Justice to permit meaningful reporting of the number of national security requests received by such organizations.

Lack of transparency plagues trade negotiations, particularly when they have copyright implications, and regularly leaves the public domain in the lurch. Transparency is not just an ideal, it’s a necessary tool for building a more democratic society.

Today, in an unfortunate example of the overreach of the United States’ current copyright law, the Wikimedia Foundation removed the Dutch-language text of The Diary of Anne Frank from Wikisource.