Wikimedia-l November 2019

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

61 participants
55 discussions

Wikimedia Café online meeting for November 2019
by Pine W 20 Nov '19

20 Nov '19

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 )

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation Chief of Community Engagement to leave the Foundation
by Paul J. Weiss 19 Nov '19

19 Nov '19

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/>

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WikiForHumanRights Update: Communications tools and a guide for running events
by Alex Stinson 19 Nov '19

19 Nov '19

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

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Movement Strategy: Synthesizing the recommendations and next steps
by Nicole Ebber 19 Nov '19

19 Nov '19

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.

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Join us at the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin on 3-5 April 2020
by Abraham Taherivand 18 Nov '19

18 Nov '19

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

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Yahoo/AOL warning
by effe iets anders 17 Nov '19

17 Nov '19

(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

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Ce te face fericit săptămâna asta? / What's making you happy this week? (Week of 17 November 2019)
by Pine W 17 Nov '19

17 Nov '19

*"The Wait"* This is a short film <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_film> regarding wildlife photography <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_photography>. The film has scenes of European bison <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_bison> in Romania <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania>. The narration is in French, and English subtitles are available. I think that wildlife photographers for Wikimedia Commons will find this film to be relatable. https://vimeo.com/180080686 *Related images* Image 1 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cave_of_Altamira_and_Paleolithic_Ca…>: A drawing of a European bison <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_bison> in the Cave of Altamira <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Altamira>, Spain. The cave is a UNESCO World Heritage Site <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_World_Heritage_Site>. In 1879, amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcelino_Sanz_de_Sautuola> was led by his daughter María to discover the cave's drawings. One study estimates that the oldest drawings were made approximately 36,000 years ago. Image 2 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turnir.jpg>:* Bison bonasus* sparring in a nursery of the Russian Academy of Sciences <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Academy_of_Sciences> in Shebalinsky District <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebalinsky_District>, Republic of Altai <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Altai>, Russia. Closing comments * Additional translations of the subject line of this email would be appreciated on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine/WMYHTW_translations>. Thanks to User:Jmabel <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jmabel> for the Romanian <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_language> translation. * What’s making you happy this week? You are welcome to write in any language. You are also welcome to start a WMYHTW thread next week. Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )

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Wikitongues 2018-2019 User Group Report now available
by Daniel Bogre Udell 17 Nov '19

17 Nov '19

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

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Update regarding Wikipedia video tutorial project ("NavWiki")
by Pine W 16 Nov '19

16 Nov '19

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 )

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Wikimedia Foundation Chief of Community Engagement to leave the Foundation
by Katherine Maher 15 Nov '19

15 Nov '19

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/>

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