Dear all,
I am happy to share with you that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees has passed a new resolution on the topic of branding [1].
Some context
As you may remember, last year the Board paused all work under the 2030
Movement Brand Project, in order to rethink and improve the Foundation’s
approach to community participation and decision making around renaming.
After year-long work, attentive listening and thoughtful conversation
between the Board, Wikimedia Foundation staff, and community advisors, the
committee has come up with a recommendation for next steps. The
recommendation was unanimously approved by the Board and captured in the
above mentioned resolution. The Wikimedia Foundation will therefore be
resuming its role to steward and protect Wikimedia brands, in partnership
with our broader movement, and the ad hoc Brand Committee concludes its
work .
What are the main aspects of the resolution?
Importantly, this resolution extends the Board’s decision that the
Wikimedia Foundation should not pursue renaming work for this fiscal year
(until at least July 2022). Instead, it directs the Foundation to support
the Wikimedia movement through three main areas of brand work that protect
and support Wikimedia’s reputation throughout the world. Please read more
about this decision on the Diff Blog [2].
Next steps?
Wikimedia Foundation teams intend to share more information on new
projects, including their plans for engaging our community, in the coming
weeks. In the meantime, Foundation staff and I are available to answer
clarifying questions on the Wikimedia brand / 2030 movement brand project
talk page on Meta [3]. You are also welcome to join the Board’s Open
Meeting on October 20th, where you will be able to ask questions and hear
from the team directly [4].
Special thanks
On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank the community advisors to the
Brand Committee. This group has worked with us since February 2021, lending
their time and expertise. Their input to the process has been invaluable
and we appreciate their commitment to help us find a productive way
forward. Thank you -- Lucy Crompton-Reid, Joao Alexandre Peschanski, Megan
Wacha, Justice Okai-Allotey, Rachmat Wahidi, Erlan Vega Rios, Richard
Knipel, Phoebe Ayers and Jeffrey Keefer!
I would also like to thank our Brand Studio team at the Wikimedia Foundation
for their hard work, dedication, professionalism, flexibility, openness,
and vision they brought to our joint work on the future of branding.
Together, we made sure that the next steps for brand work are closely
connected to our 2030 strategic goals and we have no doubt they will be an
important service to the Wikimedia movement. I look forward to watching
these plans come to life and invite the community to actively participate
in these discussions and decisions as they unfold.
Sincerely,
Shani Evenstein Sigalov
Chair, Brand Committee
Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation
[1]:
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Next_Steps_for_Brand_Work,…
[2]:
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/10/14/wikimedia-foundation-board-of-trustee…
[3]:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_m…
<https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030…>
[4]:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…
Dear all,
Today I learned that, despite having $100 million in the Endowment fund, we can't have a design team big enough to make our websites not look like they're stuck in 2001. I don't know if anyone is behind the wheel, but the car is expensive.
Sincerely,
Galder
Hello there,
This is a reminder that UCoC conversation hour will be happening right now,
to collect the last minute feedback about Enforcement Draft Guideline
We are online until 15:30 UTC.
Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/yxd-eaza-gpf
Feel free to drop by
Thanks,
--
*Youngjin Ko *(he/him)
Movement Strategy and Governance facilitator
Wikimedia Foundation
Dear all,
The Board has appointed the three new community-selected trustees, so
please join me in welcoming Victoria Doronina [1], Lorenzo Losa, and Rosie
Stephenson-Goodknight to the Board of Trustees [2] [3] [4]. I would also
like to congratulate Dariusz Jemielniak on his re-appointment to the Board
[5]. Their terms will run from October 13, 2021 -- November 1, 2024. You
can read more about the new trustees in a blog post here [6].
I thank all of those who participated in the most recent selection process
-- the candidates
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Candida…>,
the election volunteers, the Elections Committee, Foundation staff and the
thousands of Wikimedians who voted.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the trustees who are
rotating off the Board, James Heilman and Lisa Lewin. Serving on the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is deeply fulfilling but it is also
challenging. I am appreciative of all of the work James and Lisa have done
over the years -- the late nights, the weekends, and countless emails and
calls. Thank you for your time and dedication.
James, who has served for five years, has been Chair of the Special
Projects Committee, and under his lead, for example, the Onboarding plan
for Incoming Trustees was developed. He has also been a liaison to the
Language and the Affiliations Committees, and has served on other Board
committees such as the Audit, Board Governance, Product, and Community
Affairs. James’s term ended today, October 13, 2021.
Lisa, who has been on the Board for three years, has been Chair of the
Board Governance Committee and has also served on the Human Resources
Committee. Lisa’s governance experience has helped to strengthen the
Board’s operating procedures and she has kept the board focused at the
strategic level, under her lead, for example, the board has started to
implement recommendations from the Governance Review [7]. Lisa’s term ends
November 1, 2021.
On a personal note: getting off the Board also means having more free time,
and to fight the withdrawal symptoms of volunteering one’s time to
Wikimedia (even though mostly to governance work in practice as a trustee),
I cannot recommend enough to just embark on a journey of #100wikidays [8]
in a wikiproject -- it can definitely help!
On a more serious note: many thanks to the Trustees -- incoming,
continuing, and outgoing -- for their work and commitment.
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
[1] Due to some background checks still not being completed, Victoria’s
term officially will start in a few days. The Board resolution on
appointment will be effective as soon as the full background check is
complete and clean. But the end term will be the same for everyone.
[2]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_Victoria_Doroni…
[3]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_Lorenzo_Losa_to…
[4]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_Rosie_Stephenso…
[5]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Dariusz_Jemielnia…
[6]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/10/13/wikimedia-foundation-welcomes-new-tru…
[7]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Board_Veritas_Governance_Recomme…
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/100wikidays
Hi folks,
I wanted to share the link to a report covering grants given out by the
Wikimedia Foundation during the 2020−2021 fiscal year. This is the second
annual grantmaking report, inspired last year by the Fundraising reports
that fundraising teams have prepared for many years.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grantmaking/Reports/2020-2021
I would like to thank Janice Tud for all her help in making sense of our
grants database, and Kassia Echavarri-Queen, Jessica Stephenson, and the
rest of the Community Resources team for contributing additional context
and narrative to the report beyond the charts and numbers.
Questions and comments are welcome, preferably on the talk page. Minor
edits, typo fixes, etc. are appreciated on the page itself.
--
Guillaume Paumier
(he/him)
Hi all,
I’m writing to share that I’ve decided to step down as Chief Product
Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation and my last day will be November 1.
I’ve said before that I believe this is the most interesting job in the
world. After all, what happens in the world happens on Wikipedia. I have
felt incredibly fortunate to be a part of this movement, working on some of
the most urgent problems around knowledge and access that we face today.
I first joined the Foundation in 2013 as the Director of Analytics, and if
you had told me back then that I would end up staying for eight years, I
would never have believed you. Eight years is a long time. I am proud of
the work that this department has done, and I will take many lessons with
me. And at the same time, I’ve also realized I’m ready for the next chapter
in my career.
As I leave the Foundation, I want to express my deep gratitude to all of
you - the volunteers who have built these projects into what they are
today. Your contributions, your knowledge and your time have created these
projects that have become the largest collection of open knowledge in human
history. Every technology leader seeks passionate, engaged users who are
actively sharing feedback on the platforms they build. This community has
never let us down in that regard. Our work together between the communities
and the Product department wasn’t always easy, but on the whole we operated
under an assumption of good faith[1] and with a recognition of our
respective roles in helping improve the reading and editing experience of
our projects. I’m immensely proud of the work that we’ve accomplished and
the chance to work alongside so many talented people.
The Wikimedia Foundation was the first nonprofit of my career. At the time,
it was a welcome change and a chance to use my skills for good. I have seen
the Foundation go through many iterations and transitions. I’m proud to
have been part of its incredible growth and the increasing impact we are
making in the world. There have been many successes and many challenges
too, as we have tackled the new realities of the internet, and sought to
make our projects truly global and inclusive. In considering all of this,
now feels like the right time for me to step back and get closer to why I
became an engineer in the first place — being a builder and a developer.
I’ve been energized by the work of this department and this movement,
bringing values of privacy, respect for users, inclusion and safety to
building on the open web. I hope to carry these forward as I take on a more
hands-on role in technology innovation in my next chapter.
Thank you to everyone that I’ve had the chance to work with on powering
some of the most innovative work on the open web. I cannot wait to see what
you all achieve next.
Cheers,
Toby
--
Toby Negrin (he/his)
Chief Product Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith
Hello Chris and thank you for your feedback,
I do agree with you that there will be many challenging areas that will
need to be discussed per community/region. During the different interviews
and survey, it was clear that community members were not happy about having
all Middle East and Africa considered as one region, and it was also clear
that the Arabic Wikipedia was considered as the center of the community,
although many voices expressed a wish to separate North Africa from the
Middle East, given several aspects.
As Philip mentioned in his comment, it is very important to consider how
the next steps will happen, mainly who will "start" this, and not to
overwhelm volunteers by giving them the full responsibility to start this
organizational work. There should be a discussion about how a professional
support, or coordination can happen, in order to drive the regional (and
thematic) hubs discussion and implementation forward. (Otherwise what will
happen, or is already happening, is that big chapters with staff already
work on that during their work time, while user groups with volunteers
cannot keep up at the same peace, creating a huge gap in our movement...)
Best regards,
--
-----------------------------------------------------
*Anass SEDRATI*
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2021 09:22:27 +0100
From: Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki(a)gmail.com>
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Report about Regional Hubs Ready
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Message-ID:
<CAFche1rKOBL+PnVtQjtc=WnBfHvZ4KhkLbXTPZV5UgYO8MxRLA(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="000000000000322f3a05ce37aacd"
Hi Anass,
Thank you very much for this report! It really highlights both the strength
of the demand/need for hubs, and the many challenges that we will face in
setting them up.
The list of areas where there is and isn't a consensus among the people you
spoke to is very useful and clearly highlights some questions which need
answers from a movement level.
I was also interested to read that Arabic-speakers firmly wanted an Arabic
hub (or possibly two, depending on what scale the hubs end up as) - and not
a "Middle East and North Africa" hub, let alone a "Middle East and Whole of
Africa" hub. Given what you say in the report regarding the communities
feeling they have little in common and different needs, this is
understandable. But it does also raise the question of which hubs would
cover/support the Turkish and Farsi communities. We are probably going to
encounter many more questions of scope like this one as more areas take
steps to define what they want from hubs.
Thanks,
Chris
Hello all,
I would like to inform you that I have published a report related to
Wikimedia Regional Hubs
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hubs/Implementation/Regional_Hubs_Draft_Plan>
from the perspective of the Arabic speaking community. The report is ready,
and complies background of the region, as well as different opinions and
analysis of the community views on hubs, before providing recommendations
on the way forward. It was funded by a rapid grant from the Wikimedia
strategy & governance team.
I believe that this report can be useful for all of you interested in the
implementation of Wikimedia hubs, and in the Wikimedia strategy in general.
I am also encouraging those who can to create similar reports for their
regions, so that experiences and insights are shared.
If anyone has a question, please feel free to contact me (through email or
on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Anass_Sedrati>), and I will
be happy to discuss this further.
Have a good evening/day everyone!
Best regards,
--
-----------------------------------------------------
*Anass SEDRATI*
Wikimedia MA User Group