Hello, all.
This email gives a brief update on the current structure of the Community
Engagement department of the WMF. :)
As many of you are aware, through over the last few months the Community
Engagement department has been undergoing further reorganization and
transition. While the core work that our teams are doing has been
uninterrupted, we’ve been reviewing the department from the perspective of
reporting structures to make sure that those make sense. One of my goals as
the interim head of Community Engagement is to provide lean, targeted
management support to staff while focusing department resources on
programmatic activities.
Program Capacity & Learning (PC&L)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Capacity_and_Learning> has been
divided into two groups: Learning & Evaluation (L&E) and Programs. These
groups will continue to deliver on their 2016-17 annual plan commitments,
with cross-team goals being reported at the department rather than team
level.
The Learning & Evaluation team will continue to support learning and
sharing tools for connecting community leaders to one another, to learning
resources, and to capacity development opportunities. L&E also works with
other CE teams and across departments within the Wikimedia Foundation to
support good practices, such as improving survey report standards and in
building out the annual planning process. I’m delighted to say that Jaime
Anstee, who has been with the Wikimedia Foundation since 2013 and has been
leading that group since Rosemary Rein’s leave, has agreed to manage that
team permanently. She will report directly to the head of the Community
Engagement department.
The Programs group consists of our team members supporting the Wikipedia
Education Program <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education>, GLAM
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM> and the Wikipedia Library
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library>. Their goal is to
provide community and affiliated groups with the non-monetary resources
they need to succeed in running these core programs, whether those
resources are access to free scholarly reference works, building program
tools, or connecting across communities. The Programs team, with team
managers Tighe Flanagan and Jake Orlowitz, will report to the director of
the expanded Support, Safety and Programs team, which includes the
existing Support
and Safety team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Support_and_Safety>.
Support and Safety retains the specialized Trust and Safety subteam managed
by James Alexander. Their work remains unchanged. Combining these teams
aligns reporting structures for many of our activities focused on
supporting targeted non-technical communities and initiatives. We believe a
closer connection between them will help integrate best practices for all
involved.
Two of CE’s other teams are currently untouched: Technical Collaboration
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Technical_Collaboration> and Community
Resources <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources>. There may
be further small adjustments in coming weeks as we settle into the new
fiscal year, but I’m not anticipating any other major restructuring. We’ll
be updating our Meta pages in the next few weeks, but I wanted to let you
know where we are with that at the moment. :)
Also, we'll schedule another CE office hour after the dust settles from
Wikimania. We'll let you know as soon as a date and time are set.
Best regards,
Maggie
--
Maggie Dennis
Interim Sr. Director of Community Engagement
Director, Support, Safety and Programs
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Hi everyone,
The Wikimedia Foundation Project Grants program will launch its first open
call on July 1. We will be accepting proposals through August 2nd for new
ideas to improve Wikimedia projects. <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project>.
Funds are available to support individuals, groups and organizations to
implement new experiments and proven ideas, whether focused on building a
new tool or gadget, organizing a better process on your wiki, researching
an important issue, coordinating an editathon series or providing other
support for community-building.
Ideas from the current Inspire Campaign on addressing harassment are very
welcome. <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Inspire>
Do you have have a good idea, but would like some feedback before applying?
Put it into the IdeaLab, where volunteers and staff can give you advice and
guidance on how to bring it to life. <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab> Once your idea is ready,
it can be easily migrated into a grant request.
Marti Johnson and I will also be hosting weekly proposals clinics via
Hangouts and IRC for real-time discussions about the Project Grants Open
Call. We’ll answer questions and help you make your proposal better. Dates
and times are as follows:
* Tuesday, July 5 - 16:00 UTC
* Thursday, July 14 - 02:00 UTC
* Wednesday, July 20 - 15:00 UTC
* Friday, July 29 - 02:00 UTC
* Tuesday, August 2 - 01:30 UTC
* Tuesday, August 2 - 16:00 UTC
Links for Hangouts and the IRC channel are available here: <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Events#Upcoming_events>
We are excited to see your grant ideas that will support our community and
make an impact on the future of Wikimedia projects. Put your idea into
motion, and submit your proposal between July 1 and August 2! <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Apply>
Please feel free to get in touch with me (awang(a)wikimedia.org) or Marti
Johnson (mjohnson(a)wikimedia.org) with questions about getting started with
your project!
Warm regards,
Alex & Marti
--
Alexandra Wang
Program Officer
Community Resources
Wikimedia Foundation <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home>
+1 415-839-6885
Skype: alexvwang