Hi all!
As I write this, I feel almost like a student returning to school. With
Wikimania behind us and autumnal weather starting outside it feels like the
start of a new year - and a return to serious things after the last days of
summer sunshine, storms, and socializing at Wikimedia in Montreal. But I
was always the sort of kid who loved the return of the school season as
much as I regretted the end of summer holidays: it meant it was time to
return to learning, exploring, and doing substantive things.
And we have many substantive things to do! Phase I of the strategy is
drawing to a close, and Phase II will start in November. A reminder that
Phase I was about collectively developing a shared strategic direction, and
Phase II will be about developing plans for how we make the direction a
reality. We’re nearly halfway there!
*Draft strategic direction*. Throughout the past few weeks community
members have been reviewing the draft strategic movement direction[1] which
was presented shortly before Wikimania. Thank you to everyone who has
already shared feedback. For those who haven’t yet, I encourage you to join
the discussion on the talk page. Because of the high volume of feedback
collected at Wikimania, we are extending the timeline to ensure the draft
incorporates the feedback appropriately. We expect to publish draft 2
sometime in early to mid September. Then we will have a 2-week period for
community review. If all goes according to plan, the final draft will post
by the end of September.
*Wikimania movement strategy space*. At Wikimania in Montreal, we welcomed
the community to learn more about the strategy process and discuss the
draft direction in the movement strategy space. We held three feedback
sessions, five facilitated sessions, and two presentation-oriented sessions
over four days. They focused on sharing insights from New Voices (experts,
attitudes and usage research in high awareness regions, research in low
awareness regions, and key global trends), insights from discussions for
organized groups and individual contributors, and exploring considerations
for Phase II (roles, responsibilities, and resources). The feedback from
those sessions has been collected in a report available on Meta.[2]
*Strategy keynote and session materials*. At Wikimania, our Wikimedia
Foundation Board Chair, Christophe Henner, and I discussed the strategic
direction during the opening keynote [3], and held a panel discussion with
fellow community members Ivan Martinez, Mervat Salman, Magnus Manske, and
Anasuya Sengupta, where they shared their perspectives on the strategic
direction. I also joined the heads of Creative Commons (Ryan Merkley) and
the Mozilla Foundation (Mark Surman) for a discussion about “The Big Open”
and how open culture organizations can join forces to strengthen our
movement. In other sessions and events, the strategy team presented insight
from this process. Many of those session presentations and notes are posted
on Meta, and more materials will be published in the coming days.[4]
I’ll be sure to send an update as soon as the new draft direction is ready,
but for those who are watching as we go, keep an eye on Meta - we’ll be
making changes there over the next few days as we continue to integrate
your feedback. In the meantime, thank you for your insights and
participation!
مع أطيب التحيات (Arabic translation: “Best regards”)
Katherine
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Direction#…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Sources/Wi…
[3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdr2F8aB9y0
[4]
https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/All_Session_Notes
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities…
--
Katherine Maher
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
+1 (415) 712 4873
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org
https://annual.wikimedia.org