Hoi,
In information I read the WMF intends to spend less. However, given that
there is a huge technical debt in maintenance, including software that is
currently not functional. I wonder why we intend to spend less when our
technical house is not in order.
For just one example of technical debt .. Collection / Special:Book usage
is broken.
So when will we address broken and missing functionality particularly when
it is not Wikipedia?
Thanks,
GerardM
Hi everyone,
The annual *#1Lib1Ref* campaign is inviting librarians, researchers, book
lovers, wikimedians, and any other knowledge enthusiasts to add missing
references to articles, in order to make Wikipedia (and, as a consequence,
all other Wikimedia projects) more reliable, complete, and useful!
The May edition of the 2022 #1Lib1Ref campaign will happen from May 15th to
June 5th and is an opportunity for people in the southern hemisphere
(Africa, Asia, Latin America & Oceania) to participate.
This year we are experimenting with new contribution methods and expanding
the languages on Citation Hunt <https://citationhunt.toolforge.org/>.
During the January campaign, we encouraged contributions on Wikisource and
Wikidata and added 9 new languages from CEE. In this round, we are hoping
to add a new contribution method focused on thematic or topical
contributions (for example: adding references written by people who
identify as women) and adding some more languages from Africa, Asia, and
Latin America. We will keep you updated on how things shape up!
Are you excited about the May edition of #1Lib1Ref? Do you have any ideas
or suggestions on how to invite more people to participate? Would you like
to help organize and promote the campaign in your communities? If your
answer is “yes” to any of the previous questions, you can share your
thoughts with the 1Lib1Ref community via the Libraries (
libraries(a)lists.wikimedia.org) and 1Lib1Ref mailing list (
1lib1ref(a)lists.wikimedia.org), by joining the Wikimedia + Libraries User
Group <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_and_Libraries_User_Group>
on Facebook or by reaching out directly to me at gfontenelle(a)wikimedia.org.
If you're planning to organize an event, join the campaign on Outreach
Dashboard:
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/1lib1ref_may_2022/overview. And
don’t forget to check the Meta-Wiki page for more information:
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/1Lib1Ref
Best,
Giovanna Fontenelle (she/her)
Program Officer; GLAM and Culture
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hi everyone,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met between March 23-24 for our
first in-person meeting in over two years. It was an opportunity to welcome
our new CEO and several new trustees who have recently joined the Board.
Further updates from the meeting will be shared soon, I am writing now to
report on resolutions that the Board made regarding the upcoming 2022
elections:
1.
We resolved to adopt recommendations related to the elections process
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Apri…>.
These recommendations have been developed as a result of feedback
from the community
Call for Feedback
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>
that happened in January and further discussions by a Board Selection Task
Force. They will be implemented on a trial basis for the 2022 election.
2.
In service of maintaining continuity and stability in our leadership, we
resolved to make some modifications to our plans to expand the Board
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Apri…>
.
You can read about the details of these resolutions on Meta. We are happy
to discuss and answer any questions on the corresponding talk pages.
Best,
Dariusz on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
--
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dariusz.jemielniak(a)fulbrightmail.org
<dariusz.jemielniak(a)fulbrightmail.org> as a more permanent contact
address. *
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Dear Wikimedians,
Volunteer Supporters Network would like to invite you to another
skillsharing meeting. This time it will be an event around requesting
CentralNotice banner campaigns.
The event will happen at *April 21st at 2 PM UTC on Zoom.* During the
training conducted by Martin Rulsch from Wikimedia Deutschland you will
learn:
- what CentralNotice banner campaigns are generally useful for
- what functions can the banners have to target audiences
- how to request banner campaigns step by step
If you want, you can bring your own banner campaign ideas and discuss them!
You can learn more about the event and register here (registration is
required to get the link do meeting)
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_Supporters_Network/VSN_Training:_…
The event is a part of a series of open skill-share events organized by the
Volunteer Supporters Network - you can check other upcoming events here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_Supporters_Network/Meetings
(keep looking out for May events - some amazing things around Wikidata will
be happening then!)
As always - we are looking forward to seeing you all!
--
Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska
*Movement Strategy and Governance News*
*Issue 6, April 2022**Read the full newsletter*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
------------------------------
Welcome to the sixth issue of Movement Strategy and Governance News! This
revamped newsletter distributes relevant news and events about the Movement
Charter, Universal Code of Conduct, Movement Strategy Implementation
grants, Board of trustees elections and other relevant MSG topics.
This Newsletter will be distributed quarterly, while the more frequent
Updates will also be delivered weekly. Please remember to subscribe here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Global_message_delivery/…>
if you would like to receive future issues of this newsletter.
- *Leadership Development - A Working Group is Forming! - * The
application to join the Leadership Development Working Group closed on
April 10th, 2022, and up to 12 community members will be selected to
participate in the working group. (continue reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
- *Universal Code of Conduct Ratification Results are out -* The global
decision process on the enforcement of the UCoC via SecurePoll was held
from 7 to 21 March. Over 2,300 eligible voters from at least 128 different
home projects submitted their opinions and comments. (continue reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
- *Movement Discussions on Hubs -* The Global Conversation event on
Regional and Thematic Hubs was held on Saturday, March 12, and was attended
by 84 diverse Wikimedians from across the movement. (continue reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
- *Movement Strategy Grants Remain Open -* Since the start of the year,
six proposals with a total value of about $80,000 USD have been approved.
Do you have a movement strategy project idea? Reach out to us! (continue
reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
- *The Movement Charter Drafting Committee is All Set -* The Committee
of fifteen members which was elected in October 2021, has agreed on the
essential values and methods for its work, and has started to create the
outline of the Movement Charter draft. (continue reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
- *Introducing Movement Strategy Weekly - Contribute and Subscribe!* -
The MSG team has just launched the updates portal, which is connected to
the various Movement Strategy pages on Meta-wiki. Subscriber to get
up-to-date news about the various ongoing projects. (continue reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
- *Diff Blogs -* Check out the most recent publications about Movement
Strategy on Wikimedia Diff. (continue reading
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…>
)
Thank you for reading,
Sam.
--
Sam Oyeyele
Facilitator, Movement Strategy & Governance
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hi everyone;
We´re happy to share with you the highlights of our past activities, you
can see the reporte of our community here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedistas_de_Bolivia/Reports/2020-2021
Hugs,
Olga Lidia
--
*Olga Lidia Paredes Alcoreza, Arq.*
*COORDINACIÓN WIKIMEDISTAS DE BOLIVIA*
This message is being translated into other languages on Meta-wiki.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chief_Executive_Office…>
العربية • español • français • Русский • 中文 • Português bosanski
You can help with more languages.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chief_Executive_Office…>
Hi everyone,
It’s my third time writing to you in this format. My first note was on
September 14 last year when my appointment was announced [1], then on
January 14 when I shared what I heard from many of you on the listening
tour [2], and now on April 14 to reflect on my first three months as CEO of
the Wikimedia Foundation. I am home in South Africa after a few months in
the United States, where the highlight of joining Wikimedia has been
bringing colleagues together – volunteers, editors, affiliates, Foundation
staff, board members – to reconnect at a human level. I sense that
gathering in person again, where it is safe and practical to do so, may
help us all build and rebuild relationships.
Reinforcing connections to each other, and to the world beyond us, is some
of what I reflected on in my “Puzzles and Priorities” letter, which
followed from conversations with hundreds of Wikimedians. [2] Three months
later, I wanted to share some of the progress we’ve started to make on the
priorities.
Priority 1: Foundation’s Annual Plan
My top priority was reimagining the way we approached planning at the
Wikimedia Foundation. Since January, we have done the following:
-
We started by asking what the world needs from us now - a question I
heard from many of you last year. One starting point for this year’s
planning was to look at some (not all) of the key trends shaping the world
around us: from the rise of government regulation to the increased threats
of misinformation and disinformation, the changing nature of search, and
growing global demands for content. We hosted a staff conversation in
January and
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/28/what-does-the-world-need-from-us-now-…>asked
communities for their additional insights. [3]
-
We then tried to answer – in two ways – the question of how the
Foundation’s current resources were being allocated now: (1) an
organizational overview looking at how the Foundation collectively supports
Wikimedia projects, regions, language communities and audiences; and (2)
department overviews to help our staff understand all of the current work.
These processes have gone through 2-3 iterations since January based on
suggestions for further improvement from our teams.
-
We also provided guidance on slower budget growth. The Wikimedia
Foundation has grown very rapidly over the past 3 years – increasing its
budget by more than 30% in the past year with the addition of more than 200
new people since 2020. [4] This will not continue as we stabilize this
expansion and make sure that new resources are delivering maximum impact
for our mission. We anticipate a 17% increase in our 2022−2023 budget, most
of this representing inflationary and other year-on-year costs. Funding to
other movement entities (individual and affiliate) will increase for next
year by at least the same 17% percent, if not more. Because the vast
majority of the Foundation’s own budget is allocated to staffing costs, our
most important resource decisions are about the time and performance of our
people and teams.
-
We spent time reflecting on the strategic direction that should guide
our annual planning. The Wikimedia Foundation’s recent annual plans have
identified important high-level goals and medium-term objectives
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019>.
[5] Historically, it has not always been clear how these related to the
movement strategy, a multi-year process to provide clarity of direction to
2030. We have adopted the strategic direction of our Movement Strategy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strate…>
[6] to guide this annual plan and our organizational objectives – to
clarify how “knowledge as a service” and “knowledge equity” can guide the
implementation of current and future work at the Foundation.
-
Finally, the Wikimedia Foundation’s annual plan has often been presented
as primarily one-way information sharing. As we more explicitly focus on
movement strategy through this annual plan, we aspire to more deliberate
two-way planning by asking what others who share similar goals are also
doing. For those who are interested in trying this with us, we hope that
more deliberate two-way planning can help better visualize the collective
needs, efforts, and opportunities across communities and to identify
further collaborations that could be developed or deepened by region, by
project, or by another area of interest.
Inspired by our projects, the Foundation’s draft plan is on Meta as a
long-form text document in multiple languages. [7] We hope this format will
allow for more (and multilingual) engagement on substance and ideas, while
also communicating complexity and nuance that may be difficult to achieve
only through slides and spreadsheets. We have identified some thematic
areas, not an exhaustive list of every Foundation initiative underway now.
In some areas, we have described challenges with proposed solutions, and in
other areas we have defined experiments to simply provide a concrete
starting point for new ways of working.
Over the next month, we invite input from those who are interested on the
Meta talk page or by joining open calls being hosted in different time
zones. [8] We’ll track comments on Meta and from the calls to shape a final
document that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will approve in
June.
Priority 2: Leadership for our product and technology teams
I highlighted in January that CEO transitions are disruptive for most
organisations and change often continues after a new leader has arrived. One
of my most immediate tasks has been to actively step in and support the
Foundation’s Product and Technology departments while we recruit for
executive leadership of these mission critical functions. I have spent most
of my time in the first quarter with these teams, looking for opportunities
to improve our ways of working even during a period of leadership
transition.
I have also studied the history and evolution of the Foundation’s Product
and Technology departments, which were first separated in 2015. Despite
excellent work in both areas, the distance between Product and Technology
has grown in recent years. At this moment in time, we will be best served
by a single leader serving as the Wikimedia Foundation’s Chief Product &
Technology Officer to share accountability with me for how we plan and
execute our work end-to-end across product and engineering.
Hiring the right talent at this level is both art and science. So far, we
have sourced hundreds of candidates in a global search spanning the world,
although it will remain a rolling process until we find the right leader. I
hope to share more soon.
Priority 3: Our Values
My final priority has been seeking to understand how the Wikimedia
Foundation’s organizational values are lived in practice. [9] This process
remains ongoing. Over the past three months I have started by engaging the
diverse employee resource groups at the Foundation, as well as our Board of
Trustees.
Alongside this, I continue to support movement governance processes, meet
with some of our most important collaborators in the free knowledge
ecosystem, and invest in building a stronger partnership with our Trustees,
many of whom are also new to their roles. And I am still listening and
learning - thank you to those who have offered time for conversations and
to share varying perspectives. Since my arrival, I have been communicating
on a weekly basis with all Wikimedia Foundation staff and also with the
board. I welcome feedback on how often you also want to hear from me -
probably not every week!
Wishing a peaceful holiday weekend ahead for those who may be celebrating,
Maryana
Maryana Iskander
Wikimedia Foundation CEO
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/14_S…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chief_Executive_Office…
[3]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/28/what-does-the-world-need-from-us-now-…
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019/…
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strate…
[7]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2022-2023/…
[8]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2022-2023/…
[9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Values