Hello colleagues,
For this month's Wikimedia Café online video meeting we will continue last
month's discussion regarding Wikimedia activities and organizations in
India. Additional topics may be added to the agenda.
Please see the page on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Caf%C3%A9> for more information,
and watch the page for any updates particularly to the schedule or the
agenda. Signing up for the meeting is optional, but is helpful to the
organizers so that we can estimate how many people will attend. Signing up
for the meeting also informs us who we should notify individually if there
are significant changes, such as to the schedule for the meeting.
The meeting style will emphasize discussion rather than presentation.
People are welcome to participate as listeners only if they prefer.
If there are any problems with connecting to the meeting or if you have any
questions or comments then please write on the Meta talk page.
Regards,
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
I find the disbanding of the Community Engagement department at WMF to be
quite concerning. I will go so far as to say that I view it as a mistake
that will have negative impacts well into the future.
For one thing, the structure of an organization is in some sense a
statement of priorities. I believe this move does indeed say to employees,
the community, allied organization, and the rest of the world that the WMF
is now placing less value on engaging the community. Given that many in the
community have been feeling this already, this is not an opportune time to
make this transition, even if it were a good idea for other reasons.
Another issue is the specific placement of individual teams. For example,
you say that returning the Trust & Safety team to the Legal department is
intuitive. It certainly is not to me, and that move in particular is
concerning. The team's homepage on Meta states that it "identifies, builds
and – as appropriate – staffs processes which keep our users safe; design,
develop, and execute on a strategy that integrates legal, product,
research, and learning & evaluation to proactively mitigate risk as well as
manage the overall safety of our online and offline communities when
incidents happen." The legal aspect is only one of many in the team's
purview, and hopefully not a large one.
In my experience, units within legal departments take a very legalistic
view of their work. As one example, many colleges and universities have an
office for students with disabilities. In the US, those that are in legal
or policy departments tend to focus very much on doing the minimum they
have to do under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), rather than
being student-centered. (This is the case here at the University of
Washington.) Compare this to the focus of units for women, students of
color, etc., often hierarchically under student services, who are much more
proactive and supportive.
I definitely do not want Trust & Safety to narrow its focus to ensuring
enforcement & reducing liability. As you know, legal but negative behavior
is a significant threat to the future of Wikipedia and sister projects. The
team needs to be organizationally placed to maximize, not minimize, its
access to resources, the community, and other staff as well as its impact.
Placing it in Legal could, for example, decrease significantly contact and
trust from our community members whose experience with laws is that they
are used as weapons and tools to oppress rather than engendering fairness
and cooperation.
Please, please carefully consider the all ramifications of this
reorganization before it is implemented.
Thank you,
Paul Weiss
Libcub on en.wp
--------- Original Message ---------
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation Chief of Community Engagement
to leave the Foundation
From: 'Katherine Maher' <kmaher(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: 11/15/19 3:36 pm
To: 'Wikimedia Mailing List' <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hello everyone,
I am writing to let you know that Val D’Costa, Chief Community Engagement
Officer, is leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. I also want to share some
changes we’re making around how the Foundation organizes staff in the
Community Engagement department.
Val joined us last January, bringing nearly three decades of experience
launching and growing international initiatives in emerging markets. With
the Wikimedia 2030 movement strategy as a guide, Val and her team drafted
an ambitious new vision for the work of Community Engagement—focused on
decentralization of power and resources, safe and welcoming spaces,
equitable collaboration, increased language and cultural fluency, dedicated
programs for groups such as women and young people, and expansive
partnerships in service of free knowledge.
With this vision in hand, Val and I both see this as the right juncture for
her to move on to her next professional challenge. While she will be
leaving the position of Chief of Community Engagement, she will remain on
as a consultant to me for a brief period.
I am deeply appreciative of Val’s time with us at the Foundation and want
to thank her for the contributions she has made to the Wikimedia movement.
She has been a passionate and persuasive advocate for our mission and
pushed us to expand our vision of what could be possible for our movement.
I wish her the absolute best in what she does next.
*== What comes next for Community Engagement ==*
I'll be direct -- we are making changes to the CE department structure.
We will not be starting a search for a new Chief of Community Engagement.
Instead, over the course of the next few weeks, the seven teams currently
within the Community Engagement (CE) department will be integrated into the
Foundation’s other departments. By January, all of the teams will have
joined their new departments, and “Community Engagement” will no longer be
a standalone department.
The teams currently in CE will be integrated with other Foundation
departments aligned with executive leadership goals and based on their
scope and focus, as well as how they might grow in the future. Some of
these alignments are intuitive, such as Trust & Safety returning to the
Legal department; others might not be immediately apparent.
*== What does this mean for your work? ==*
Although we have a good sense of which teams will integrate with which
departments, we are still meeting with the individual teams to work on the
specific details of the transition. Our focus is on continuity for existing
community programs and support for Foundation staff in making this change.
You may hear from staff seeking input on those arrangements, and I want to
thank you in advance for any feedback you may have.
We expect to wrap up these conversations in early December, to begin
transitions in mid-December, and for the transitions to be completed by the
beginning of January, at which point we’ll be able to share an overview of
the new arrangements in full.
The work of the Community Engagement teams will remain the same throughout
this period of transition. For example, if you need something from Trust &
Safety or Community Resources, they’ll continue to be here to work with
you. If you have a project or program underway with a CE team or staff
member, that work will also continue. If you have any questions, please
feel free to reach out to Greg Varnum at gvarnum(a)wikimedia.org or leave
your question in Wikimedia Space [1] and we’ll make sure we find an answer
to your question.
*== Why are we making this change? ==*
The Community Engagement department has grown and evolved since it was
created in 2015. We have brought in people with an increasingly diverse set
of skills and backgrounds and introduced new support for additional
languages, geographies, and areas of work, such as community health.
While this has helped the Foundation come a long way in addressing the
needs of the movement, it has also created complexity. The breadth of
activities and competencies now supported by the department is quite
large—today, we have people working on issues as diverse as GLAM collection
management, participatory grantmaking, and contributor safety—and
increasingly, across many geographies, cultures, and languages.
This has created challenges for how we effectively coordinate such a range
of specializations, how we assess their efficacy and impact against our
mission. At the same time, as the Foundation has grown, we have developed
capacities in other departments who will be good partners to those serving
our community mission.
In making these changes, we see an opportunity to align the functions of
the Foundation with the future of the mission and movement, and better
serve long-time contributors and emerging communities alike. Over time, we
anticipate these new arrangements will deepen the understanding of
community efforts among all Foundation staff and programs, integrate
community perspective across program design and support, and open up space
for bold and fresh thinking about how to move our movement forward.
*== What about the future? ==*
Some people may be wondering, what does this mean for the proposed work in
the Annual or Medium Term plans, or the planned restructure of the
Community Engagement department to a new regional approach?
We remain fully committed to the work and goals of the Medium Term Plan.
For example, although Val was not able to attend Indaba to celebrate with
the African community, our COO and Deputy General Counsel, Janeen Uzzell
and Tony Sebro, both attended.
The planned restructure and expansion of CE was intended to help us support
the community in achieving these goals. This includes the MTP’s focus on
building a thriving movement, increasing community health and diversity,
and growing among new languages, regions, and audiences. We set these goals
as part of our interpretation of the Movement Strategy, and they will
remain our focus for the medium term.
I still believe we need to make many of these changes, as well as be
prepared for further changes that may arise from the recommendations of the
Movement Strategy Working Groups. We see a future that could include
improved regional support, and expanded programmatic support for emerging
communities, whether those are new languages, geographies, or areas of
practice.
However, we are putting those plans on hold for the next few weeks, while
we focus is on supporting the existing teams through this transition. I
want us to make sure that goes well, before turning our attention to the
future. That said, I fully expect to resume work on how we expand our
support for these critical new areas in the first quarter of the new
calendar year.
== Final thoughts ==
I want to be absolutely clear that these changes are in no way an
indication that the Foundation is decreasing our commitment to support for
the movement. I hope you see how this offers an opportunity to do the exact
opposite—to set us up to support the movement in the best way we can.
For those with an interest in Wikimedia history, it’s worth noting that the
Foundation has taken many different shapes over the years. In 2014, teams
focused on community support were embedded in other departments. At the
time, we were much smaller, and our ability to truly engage with the full
breadth of the movement was more limited. In 2019, the community engagement
teams are better resourced, more global, and more representative of the
movement (although there’s always space for continued improvement).
We see this as the right moment to integrate the perspectives, experiences,
and skills of these teams across the Foundation, ensuring that support for
the movement is woven into all the Foundation’s work. As Wikimedians, we
know change is a constant—and it is through change that we often do our
best work, solve our hardest problems, and find our new path forward. Thank
you in advance as we take this next step to support the future of our
movement.
Sincerely,
Katherine
[1]
https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/wikimedia-foundation-chief-of-community…
Katherine Maher (she/her)
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hello all!
I want to give a brief update on the WikiForHumanRights Campaign which
began its soft launch last Friday! We are already seeing multiple online
events starting and several in person editathons. Special thank you to the
communities in Argentina and Armenia who are already editing! Looking
forward to more activities being shared at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Organize
Also, Wikimedia Argentina created a kit for working with partners to run in
person events for Human Rights! Check it out:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Organize#Sensitive
Additionally, we updated the communications toolkit for the campaign at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Share .
We are going to begin increasing Social Media starting around December
10th! As you see the campaign being talked about from @Wikimedia and on the
hashtag #WikiForHumanRights -- we need your help to share it.
If you have any questions or are considering organizing an event, please
let us know.
Cheers,
Alex Stinson
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Alex Stinson <astinson(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 2:36 PM
Subject: WikiForHumanRights: Help us Organize the Campaign, November
15-January 30
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia &
GLAM collaboration [Public] <glam(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Mailing list for
African Wikimedians <african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia
India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia &
Libraries <libraries(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimania 2019 <
wikimania19(a)wikimedia.org>
Cc: Luisina Ferrante <educacion(a)wikimedia.org.ar>
Hello all, and apologies for crossposting!
I hope you are doing well!
As you may have noticed when we announced the partnership in August [1]:
the Wikimedia Foundation is working with the UN Human Rights to help expand
the availability of knowledge about human rights online.
As one of our first collaborations, we are going to be running a campaign
from November 15 - January 30 to add and improve knowledge about human
rights on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects. The initial focus of the
campaign will be on improving articles about topics related to the UN
Declaration of Human Rights and youth standing up for human rights. More
information about the campaign is also available here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights
We would like to invite you to get involved in the campaign in one of
several ways:
Help us build the list!
-
We need your help identifying more topics related to youth involved in
human rights that don’t have articles on Wikipedia or could use further
improvement. We would like to represent many different languages and
geographies in the campaign. To propose topics for the list, see
instructions at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/List#Adding_a_topic_to_t…
Organize an online or offline event!
We need your help finding community leaders from throughout the Wikimedia
to:
-
Host an online campaign on your language Wikipedia! To learn more about
hosting a local topical campaign see the kit here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Organize#Campaign
-
Hold an in person editathon with local human rights organizations or
partners! To learn more, check out the kit here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Organize#Editathon
Promote the campaign starting Dec. 10 for International Human Rights Day!
Help us amplify your efforts around the campaign and publicize it to wide
audiences. We’ll be sharing a communications toolkit (including graphics)
soon with suggestions on reaching out to folks about the campaign.
-
Reach out to local media and supporters: Journalists and the public
can help add momentum to the campaign through storytelling and spreading
the word.
-
Promote the campaign on social media: We’ll be using
#WikiForHumanRights to promote the campaign on social media, when we
increase the communication to the public on 10 December
If you want to help in other ways, let us know on the discuss space
#human-rights tag
<https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/do-you-have-questions-about-organizing-…>
or by emailing Alex Stinson <astinson(a)wikimedia.org and Luisina Ferrante <
educacion(a)wikimedia.org.ar>
If you are interested, let us know by indicating your interest to organize
in the Organize sections linked above!
Note: We are still updating the communications assets for the campaign! To
watch for those materials, add
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Share to your meta
watchlist.
Have questions?
If you have questions, we are going to be hosting an office hour next
Tuesday
<https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/community-office-hour-wikiforhumanright…>,
or you can ask questions on the discuss space #human-rights tag
<https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/do-you-have-questions-about-organizing-…>
.
Looking forward to your engagement with the campaign!
Alex Stinson, Wikimedia Foundation
Luisina Ferrante, Wikimedia Argentina
[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/08/16/wikimedia-and-un-human-righ…
--
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter:@glamwiki/@sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects partner with cultural heritage organizations:
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM
--
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter:@glamwiki/@sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects partner with cultural heritage organizations:
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share some updates about movement strategy with you all.
The core team has spent the last few weeks developing and finalizing a
plan to take forward the work that the nine working groups have done
and, from this, create one set of recommendations.
To ensure enough time to do this effectively and to facilitate
community input on the synthesized recommendations as well as
endorsement, we have adapted the movement strategy timeline.[1]
== What’s next for working groups ==
The nine working groups are currently putting any remaining finishing
touches on the current, second iteration of their recommendations[2].
This version reflects inputs and perspectives that were shared by the
movement online and in person prior to, during, and after Wikimania,
including at many strategy salons and the two regional summits.
Any final bits of relevant research will be integrated, and some
groups may make small refinements to their work. They are also in the
process of ranking their recommendations to indicate which ones, in
their perspective, are the most foundational for driving change in our
movement.
Following this, working group members will conclude the duty that they
signed up for by 1 November. We are incredibly grateful to each
working group member for their tireless efforts and engagement.
In the meantime, the core team and contracted strategy liaisons will
also be working to share back information with online and offline
communities about how their feedback has been reviewed and
incorporated into the existing drafts of recommendations.
== Synthesizing recommendations ==
The focus over the next few months will be on synthesizing the 89
recommendations to develop one set. To help create a product that is
concise and clear, overlaps in the content will be identified to see
where certain recommendations could be merged. Others may be forwarded
for consideration to the implementation process. Others might conflict
and need to be reconciled.
To do this work, a new working group will be formed, comprised of
existing working group members who are interested in continuing to
contribute. This new group will consist of:
* Writers who will synthesize the recommendations and develop one coherent set.
* Connectors who will help writers make sense and further integrate
existing material, research, and input from community conversations,
both past and upcoming.
* Reviewers who will bring in specific additional perspectives,
expertise, contexts, advise at different times of the process.
The sign up process for this new group is currently underway, and best
ways to support the content creation are being assessed. We will
provide updates here soon.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Best wishes,
Nicole
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Overvie…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
--
Nicole Ebber
Adviser International Relations
Program Manager Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
https://wikimedia.de
Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der
Menschheit teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns
dabei! https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.
V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts
Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig
anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
Dear Wikimedia Affiliates,
It’s with great pleasure that we invite movement Affiliates to join us at
the Wikimedia Summit 2020, which will be held at Seminaris Conference
Center in Berlin from 3-5 April.[1]
With the Wikimedia Summit 2019, we refocused the event entirely on Movement
Strategy and Wikimedia’s path towards 2030. Building upon this concept,
next year’s Summit will again be designed around the needs and
opportunities of “Wikimedia 2030”.[2]
In spring 2020, the recommendations for change will be finalized and we
will have clarity on how to adapt to move strongly and successfully in the
movement’s Strategic Direction. The Wikimedia Summit 2020 will be an
important transition away from strategy development and into the long
awaited implementation of the recommended changes. The event will first aim
to create clarity and shared understanding of the recommendations, and then
initiate the implementation across movement organizations in a
collaborative way. The main part of that conversation is to discuss
prioritization and sequencing of the recommendations, and agree upon
responsibilities in bringing each recommendation to life – globally,
regionally, and on the local level. This will have to be a deeply
collaborative process, engaging all parts of the movement together.
We invite all eligible Wikimedia affiliates to be part of this
conversation. To ensure that we use the in-person time as best as possible,
we ask Affiliates to only send delegates who will come with a good
understanding of the movement strategy process and the draft
recommendations, and are ready to take agency and responsibility to design
and implement the recommendations in collaboration with every part of the
Movement and our partners. We will ensure these criteria are met by asking
targeted questions in the registration form.
As the recommendations affect every part of the movement, from WMF to
affiliates and beyond, we will need all the right people at the table to
design the implementation. A number of Board and staff members of the
Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland will take part at the event,
and we are also looking forward to invite of some members of the final
writing group and of the Affiliations Committee to join us in Berlin.
The registration to the event will open tomorrow, so watch out for the
email with all logistical information around the event including contact
details.
On behalf of our organizations, we are looking forward to welcoming you in
Berlin in April!
Best regards,
Abraham Taherivand, Wikimedia Deutschland
Katherine Maher, Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Summit_2020
[2] https://2030.wikimedia.org
--
Geschäftsführender Vorstand / Executive Director
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
http://wikimedia.de
(I'm not the most technical person, so feel free to correct imprecisions or
add better suggestions)
It feels like a blast from the past, but it turns out there's still a fair
amount of Yahoo/AOL users that are part of our community.
Just a fair warning: as has been known for a while now (at least 2013
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T58414>), yahoo (and AOL?) emails
through mailman lists are often treated as spam by gmail email recipients.
This has gotten worse: I understand Yahoo may have blacklisted
lists.wikimedia.org altogether, and emails are bouncing. I noticed for some
50-100 email Yahoo and AOL addresses on the Wiki Loves Monuments mailing
list that they bounced back, and eventually got automatically unsubscribed.
So if you or a friend has a Yahoo or AOL email address - you/they may be at
risk of being unsubscribed from (some?) Wikimedia mailing lists without
notification. The only 'fix' that you can do, that I'm aware of, is slowly
moving to a different provider, if you want to be active on these lists.
The issue is being tracked without much visible activity here:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T232417 (there may be more relevant
tickets).
Best,
Lodewijk
Hi all,
Daniel (user: bogreudell) from Wikitongues here. Our User Group’s annual report is now available. In summary, the Wikitongues User Group was recognized as a Wikimedia user group in May 10, 2018. Between May 3rd, 2018 and May 2nd, 2019, Wikitongues contributed 220 language videos to the Wikimedia Commons, representing 189 unique languages. To promote multilingualism on Wikipedia projects, we organized translate-a-thons and worked with other User Groups and Wikimedia affiliates to develop the record-a-thon event model.
Thank you,
Daniel
Hello colleagues,
I have resumed work on my video tutorial project for Wikipedia and the
sister sites. I am hoping that eventually there will be video tutorials
and/or interactive tutorials in multiple languages, but for now I am
focusing on producing a small number of videos for English Wikipedia to
test the process and to get feedback from the community. These videos will
be designed for "organic" new users who become active on Wikipedia without
first being involved in a formal program that provides guidance for new
contributors, but I think that the videos may also be useful for formal
Wikimedia program organizers to share with their participants.
A project space is live on Outreach Wiki:
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/NavWiki. I invite you to look at the
organization of the space and let me know if you have any feedback.
Comments and questions may be left on the project talk page
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:NavWiki>.
I am hoping to publish two videos for English Wikipedia by the end of 2019,
and to collect feedback on them until at least January 2020 before deciding
on significant next steps. If the feedback is positive then then I hope to
produce more videos in the future and/or to adapt the videos for additional
languages.
If you would like to sign up for the project newsletter, you can do that at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tutorials_N….
Regards,
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Hello everyone,
I am writing to let you know that Val D’Costa, Chief Community Engagement
Officer, is leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. I also want to share some
changes we’re making around how the Foundation organizes staff in the
Community Engagement department.
Val joined us last January, bringing nearly three decades of experience
launching and growing international initiatives in emerging markets. With
the Wikimedia 2030 movement strategy as a guide, Val and her team drafted
an ambitious new vision for the work of Community Engagement—focused on
decentralization of power and resources, safe and welcoming spaces,
equitable collaboration, increased language and cultural fluency, dedicated
programs for groups such as women and young people, and expansive
partnerships in service of free knowledge.
With this vision in hand, Val and I both see this as the right juncture for
her to move on to her next professional challenge. While she will be
leaving the position of Chief of Community Engagement, she will remain on
as a consultant to me for a brief period.
I am deeply appreciative of Val’s time with us at the Foundation and want
to thank her for the contributions she has made to the Wikimedia movement.
She has been a passionate and persuasive advocate for our mission and
pushed us to expand our vision of what could be possible for our movement.
I wish her the absolute best in what she does next.
*== What comes next for Community Engagement ==*
I'll be direct -- we are making changes to the CE department structure.
We will not be starting a search for a new Chief of Community Engagement.
Instead, over the course of the next few weeks, the seven teams currently
within the Community Engagement (CE) department will be integrated into the
Foundation’s other departments. By January, all of the teams will have
joined their new departments, and “Community Engagement” will no longer be
a standalone department.
The teams currently in CE will be integrated with other Foundation
departments aligned with executive leadership goals and based on their
scope and focus, as well as how they might grow in the future. Some of
these alignments are intuitive, such as Trust & Safety returning to the
Legal department; others might not be immediately apparent.
*== What does this mean for your work? ==*
Although we have a good sense of which teams will integrate with which
departments, we are still meeting with the individual teams to work on the
specific details of the transition. Our focus is on continuity for existing
community programs and support for Foundation staff in making this change.
You may hear from staff seeking input on those arrangements, and I want to
thank you in advance for any feedback you may have.
We expect to wrap up these conversations in early December, to begin
transitions in mid-December, and for the transitions to be completed by the
beginning of January, at which point we’ll be able to share an overview of
the new arrangements in full.
The work of the Community Engagement teams will remain the same throughout
this period of transition. For example, if you need something from Trust &
Safety or Community Resources, they’ll continue to be here to work with
you. If you have a project or program underway with a CE team or staff
member, that work will also continue. If you have any questions, please
feel free to reach out to Greg Varnum at gvarnum(a)wikimedia.org or leave
your question in Wikimedia Space [1] and we’ll make sure we find an answer
to your question.
*== Why are we making this change? ==*
The Community Engagement department has grown and evolved since it was
created in 2015. We have brought in people with an increasingly diverse set
of skills and backgrounds and introduced new support for additional
languages, geographies, and areas of work, such as community health.
While this has helped the Foundation come a long way in addressing the
needs of the movement, it has also created complexity. The breadth of
activities and competencies now supported by the department is quite
large—today, we have people working on issues as diverse as GLAM collection
management, participatory grantmaking, and contributor safety—and
increasingly, across many geographies, cultures, and languages.
This has created challenges for how we effectively coordinate such a range
of specializations, how we assess their efficacy and impact against our
mission. At the same time, as the Foundation has grown, we have developed
capacities in other departments who will be good partners to those serving
our community mission.
In making these changes, we see an opportunity to align the functions of
the Foundation with the future of the mission and movement, and better
serve long-time contributors and emerging communities alike. Over time, we
anticipate these new arrangements will deepen the understanding of
community efforts among all Foundation staff and programs, integrate
community perspective across program design and support, and open up space
for bold and fresh thinking about how to move our movement forward.
*== What about the future? ==*
Some people may be wondering, what does this mean for the proposed work in
the Annual or Medium Term plans, or the planned restructure of the
Community Engagement department to a new regional approach?
We remain fully committed to the work and goals of the Medium Term Plan.
For example, although Val was not able to attend Indaba to celebrate with
the African community, our COO and Deputy General Counsel, Janeen Uzzell
and Tony Sebro, both attended.
The planned restructure and expansion of CE was intended to help us support
the community in achieving these goals. This includes the MTP’s focus on
building a thriving movement, increasing community health and diversity,
and growing among new languages, regions, and audiences. We set these goals
as part of our interpretation of the Movement Strategy, and they will
remain our focus for the medium term.
I still believe we need to make many of these changes, as well as be
prepared for further changes that may arise from the recommendations of the
Movement Strategy Working Groups. We see a future that could include
improved regional support, and expanded programmatic support for emerging
communities, whether those are new languages, geographies, or areas of
practice.
However, we are putting those plans on hold for the next few weeks, while
we focus is on supporting the existing teams through this transition. I
want us to make sure that goes well, before turning our attention to the
future. That said, I fully expect to resume work on how we expand our
support for these critical new areas in the first quarter of the new
calendar year.
== Final thoughts ==
I want to be absolutely clear that these changes are in no way an
indication that the Foundation is decreasing our commitment to support for
the movement. I hope you see how this offers an opportunity to do the exact
opposite—to set us up to support the movement in the best way we can.
For those with an interest in Wikimedia history, it’s worth noting that the
Foundation has taken many different shapes over the years. In 2014, teams
focused on community support were embedded in other departments. At the
time, we were much smaller, and our ability to truly engage with the full
breadth of the movement was more limited. In 2019, the community engagement
teams are better resourced, more global, and more representative of the
movement (although there’s always space for continued improvement).
We see this as the right moment to integrate the perspectives, experiences,
and skills of these teams across the Foundation, ensuring that support for
the movement is woven into all the Foundation’s work. As Wikimedians, we
know change is a constant—and it is through change that we often do our
best work, solve our hardest problems, and find our new path forward. Thank
you in advance as we take this next step to support the future of our
movement.
Sincerely,
Katherine
[1]
https://discuss-space.wmflabs.org/t/wikimedia-foundation-chief-of-community…
Katherine Maher (she/her)
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
