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Editor: –Fredddie™

2012 has drawn to a close and the project moves ahead into 2013. USRD editors have begun working in Wikimedia's newest project. Wikidata aims to be a data repository for the various Wikipedias much like Commons is a media repository. 2013 also brings back an old friend, the USRD Cup, which is set to run for three four-week-long rounds beginning in February. That and our new project goals are sure to keep our editors busy during the new year.

Editor: Rschen7754

What is Wikidata?

Wikidata's goal is to be a data repository for all Wikimedia Foundation sites.

What is a data repository?

In short, this site will hold data that is used on different language Wikipedias; it will be like Commons for data.

How will it affect the U.S. Roads WikiProject?

There's two phases so far: Phase 1 is enabling interwiki links to be handled through Wikidata, allowing for a central repository and more efficient handling of them. Phase 2 will allow for infobox data to come from Wikidata, which would affect us greatly.

How does Wikidata work?

We create an item for each article, and indicate the wikis that have an article for this item. However, the interwiki linking is not yet live. It will go live to the Hungarian Wikipedia on January 14; the English Wikipedia is fourth in line.

What needs to be done?

We are still finishing Phase 1 setup for our articles. As of this writing, we have 24 states that still need items created to enable Phase 1 when it goes live on the English Wikipedia. Phase 2 has yet to be built on the site.

How can I help?

We now have a task force at d:WD:USRD to coordinate our efforts and to discuss how phases 1 and 2 will be implemented for road articles.

Why don't we have a task force at Commons, Meta, or Wikisource?

Well, we do now! See commons:COM:USRD, m:USRD, and wikisource:WS:USRD.

Editors: Dough4872 and Fredddie

After a two year absence, the USRD Cup is returning! The USRD Cup is a contest similar to WP:CUP, but points are awarded for improving USRD articles only. Points will be awarded for improving articles enough to bump up their assessments or by taking them to WP:GAN and beyond, creating maps and shields, and taking on project tasks. The first of three rounds will begin on February 1. If you would like to participate, please sign up at Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Cup.

Editor: Dough4872

As USRD heads into a new year, it is a good time to reflect at what has happened over the past year and plan for the upcoming year. In 2012, the project saw the achievement of several goals. Among these was the reduction of the stub count, with a total of 100 stubs lost. In addition, the junction lists in all GA and better articles have been converted to the {{jctint}} templates. However, we were unable to destub all the Interstate and U.S. Route articles; work on that goal will continue this year. As of January 6, 45 stubs remain among the Interstate and U.S. Route articles. The project also has other goals set for 2013. One of the goals is to lower the relative WikiWork of the entire project to 4.400. In addition, the project is aiming to have 25 states completely destubbed by the end of the year, with 11 states destubbed so far.

Editor:

Be sure to look through Article Alerts and WT:USRD.

Write the updates below. If signatures are present, remove them before adding to the newsletter.

California

All California junction lists are now on the RJL templates. In addition to this, a drive is underway to get all San Diego County highway articles to FA. California State Route 56 is now a FA, California State Route 52 is now at FAC, and California State Route 67 is at ACR, with more on the way. --Rschen7754 22:27, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Florida

Florida's articles are slowly improving since the discovery of FDOT's straight line diagrams. At the very least, junction lists and lengths in general can now be cited to three decimal places. –Fredddie™ 04:43, 2 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Turnpike became a GA in October; that article will be going to ACR. In addition, the state gained three new GA's in December. Dough4872 03:04, 15 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Editor: –Fredddie™

This is a list of the top ten states as of January 3, 2012.

Rank	State	FA	A	GA	B	C	Start	Stub	ω	Ω
1	Michigan	14	5	176	14	4	0	0	415	1.948
2	Delaware	1	0	53	1	7	0	0	137	2.210
3	New York	12	2	168	314	147	39	0	2063	3.025
4	New Jersey	1	2	105	43	19	83	0	832	3.289
5	Maryland	4	1	54	270	73	70	0	1561	3.307
6	Utah	4	2	12	63	125	19	2	822	3.621
7	Iowa	2	0	16	8	92	14	0	494	3.742
8	Arizona	1	0	12	18	46	21	0	367	3.745
9	Washington	0	2	38	36	58	53	25	833	3.929
10	Minnesota	0	0	3	6	201	10	0	878	3.991

The same ten states are in the top ten in this issue, but Iowa has moved ahead of Arizona. For the first time ever, all of the states in the top ten have a relative WikiWork under 4.000. For complete stats updated almost daily, check out WP:USRD/A/S. Now here is the project as a whole.

Project	FA	A	GA	B	C	Start	Stub	Total	ω	Ω
USRD	46	21	801	1058	2433	4201	2391	10951	49880	4.555
IH	10	4	49	35	215	226	19	558	2311	4.142
USH	10	2	50	35	179	296	27	599	2565	4.282
Auto trail	7	0	3	1	9	27	10	57	240	4.211

Since the last issue, we have added four featured articles—M-553 (Michigan highway), H-58 (Michigan county highway), Interstate 80 in Iowa, and Interstate 696—and 24 new good articles were promoted. For the first time ever, the number of C-Class articles has surpassed the number of stubs!

Just make sure this is substituted before publication.