[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Foundation in 5 years - Giant brainstorming - a game with rules.

Tue Aug 30 23:24:02 UTC 2005

==WMF in 5 years==
*Board and management
The management of the Wikimedia Foundation will show new outlines on how 
things will be managed. As many of the chapters have grown in prominence 
and as many have a legal requirement for being independent in many of 
their activities, the format of the Wikimedia Foundation is becoming 
more one of a federation. A federation of chapters and projects that 
share the same ideals and cooperate in realising the shared ideals of 
bringing information to all people of the world in all languages. The 
real strength of this federation of Wikimedians can be found in so many 
efforts on so many levels by so many people all sharing this same sense 
of purpose already now. For a federation however, we will need clear 
guidance to ensure it’s continuing existence and growth.

The board is gaining added significance because it is more and more seen 
as the glue that binds the WMF chapters, projects and communities 
together. It consists of true citizens of the world and in this it has 
not changed at all. There is still a lot of talk about how an ideal 
board should look like but in effect it has not changed much. The 
stability of the WMF is studied as a management model but it proves 
quite hard to emulate.

*Staff (the positions, the roles, whether they're paid or not)
Even though the WMF relies on its volunteers, there has been an 
increasing need for the fulfilment of requirements that need full time 
attention. Some of these roles are part of the WMF some are part of 
chapters and some are part of projects. As the importance of the role of 
the WMF as an honest and independent broker in the information society 
is growing, organisations want the WMF to fulfil roles that the WMF is 
reluctant to take on. As these roles are defined and as funding is found 
for the fulfilment of these roles more and more staff will be needed. 
There is already some discussion if a second person should be hired to 
manage the ever-increasing number of student projects relating to the 
Wikimedia Foundations and its projects.

*Budget
The budget that the WMF publishes still does not reflect the true amount 
of money that it takes to actually operate and make things work in the 
long run. As the WMF is increasingly seen as a partner that helps 
organisation realise their goals, the WMF becomes increasingly aware of 
how many costs do not materialise. Next years budget for the WMF and its 
chapters is estimated to be over 5.000.000 Euro.

*Fundraising scheme
Fundraising has two broad goals; there is the need for the continuation 
of present services and there is the need that is project specific. The 
scheme of [[Donations: putting your money where your mouth is]] proved a 
success. Many projects came into being because of this grassroots 
support. The support for the continuing service is mainly supported by 
companies, organisations and governments that share our values. There 
are some that we do not want to cooperate with and this reluctance has 
made us friends and adversaries.

*Philanthropic activity and outreach to get our content widely redistributed
As we are gaining more content in more languages, more DVD schemes like 
the one premiered for the German Wikipedia are established, these do 
prove a money spinner and the money earned is used to sponsor the 
creation of new DVD projects. The foundation is gaining ground in many 
languages through the cooperation with Universities, much content was 
realised by providing scholarships for students in return for new 
encyclopaedic and lexicological content. As the credibility of the 
Wikimedia Foundation increases, the educational content it provides is 
becoming increasingly influential. The new educational content published 
under the aegis of the WMF is characterised by a neutral point of view; 
this is something that is valued by some and reviled by others.

*Projects
The Wikispecies project is fulfilling the early promise after the 
restart as a Wikidata project, of particular importance was the 
cooperation on the taxonomy of the Caridea, where it was demonstrated 
that both the “splitters” and the “lumpers” are of an equal importance 
to taxonomy. Some projects seem to be increasingly the domain of 
professionals, however study shows that these professionals have always 
been there. Being a Wikimedia contributor proves to be increasingly 
relevant for professional standing.

*Content objectives
As we are getting more cooperation with Universities and Standard 
bodies, we gain more and more resources for inclusion in our databases. 
The importance of this was shown in the lexicological content where much 
of the initial data for the less well-known languages came from these 
sources. An increasing amount of data is available within Wikidata 
projects; these sometimes however prove divisive because some want to 
combine data projects while others want to keep them "small and beautiful".

The project that really proved a hit was the WMF version of the 1986 
"BBC Domesday Project ", it resulted in over three million pictures of 
India and some four million pictures of China alone.

*Software objectives.
With the increasing specialisation of the projects, there is an 
increasing need for developers, having a full time liaison person for 
University grade students proved extremely successful in that the 
retention rate of developers was over 5%. As the expectations of the 
look and feel have changed, the content of the projects is becoming 
increasingly a multi media experience.

*Relationship between chapters and parent organisation.
As more chapters are founded, it is increasingly difficult to hard for 
the chapters to coordinate activities. This need for coordination is 
however acutely felt. Problematic is that the chapters are not equal; 
long established chapters have different needs from the more recent 
chapters, as we assume an organic growth it is not always easy to bridge 
expectations with reality.

*Relationships with the outside world (PR, partnerships, etc.)
As the Wikimedia Foundation becomes more relevant, more organisations 
seek the cooperation on all kinds of issues. Fortunately the principle 
of having a neutral point of view was with the WMF from the beginning. 
This proves to be the guiding principle in deciding whom we want to 
partner with.

*Other (anything we did not think of)
Where to host next years Wikimania, how to find a venue for some 2500 
people attending (and press)

*Relationship between projects and the parent organisation.
As the communities of the projects outside the Western world are 
growing, the languages barrier between the WMF and the projects grows. 
Consequently there is an increasing divergence between the policies of 
the projects and it becomes more of an effort to ensure that global 
principles are adhered to.

*Relationship between projects and chapters.
Projects are not bound to one country while chapters are. This will 
result in legal problems. As the communities of projects are autonomous 
but as it is the chapters who are addressed when there are legal 
problems, it is important that the independence of the projects is 
either affirmed or denied.

Thanks,
GerardM