Hi everyone!
I'm very happy to announce that the Affiliations Committee has recognized
[1] H-GAPS User Group [2] as a Wikimedia User Group. The group aims to:
helping the best information about psychological science reach the people
who would benefit. HGAPS aims to bridge the gap between students,
clinicians, researchers, and the public by creating and spreading
accessible and free resources. bringing together students and content
experts to gather and present the best information about psychological
science to the people who would benefit. We aim to link Wikipedia (and
Google) with high quality resources and information about psychological
science, improving the next generation of training, and creating tools that
help practitioners and researchers.
Please join me in congratulating the members of this new user group!
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Recognit…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/H-GAPS_User_Group
Respectfully,
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (she/her)
Chair, Affiliations Committee
Dear all,
It’s my pleasure to be writing to you about the Movement Strategy. We have come together over the past 3 years to develop our Strategic Direction [1] and then the recommendations [2] to guide our collaborations and future. So many of you contributed to the process — some for only a part, and others throughout the entire process. With the recommendations complete, our focus now shifts to implementing the recommendations in a collaborative, open, and transparent way.
Transition
To make the transition from the publication of the recommendations to their implementation, we need to do some planning. It’s a 10-year strategy, with dozens of initiatives, dependencies, and connected goals, to be delivered in a more distributed, deliberative, and open collaborative model than ever before. We’ll need to work together to define how we prioritize, sequence, resource, and support each initiative.
So much of our work is done online, but a lot of strategic work also happens in person. We can’t do that now, and so we’ve had to adapt to engage broadly, and in inclusive ways. To create this plan, movement-wide virtual events will kick off in September. We will use the Movement Strategy principles [3] as a guiding framework to ensure the planning will be inclusive and empowering for our diverse range of communities, without leaving anyone behind.
As a result of the pandemic, we lost the chance to work together in-person on the transition to implementation at the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin [4]. Yet we gained an opportunity to include a higher number and a more diverse profile of participants. Engaging with online contributors, technical developer communities, and smaller user groups throughout the process will be a key priority.
Successful virtual engagements with a high number of diverse participants are difficult to do well. Therefore, a Design Group will collaborate to prepare for the virtual transition discussions. This group will consist of community members reflecting different parts and perspectives of the movement, including representatives of regional collaboratives (CEE, ESEAP, Indaba, Iberocoop, North America, South Asia, WikiArabia, WikiFranca), the EDs and chairpersons groups, and WMF staff.
Anyone who is interested can contribute. Regular summaries of the preparation work and design discussions will be published on meta so that anyone interested will be able to share insights and help improve the process, even if not part of the Design Group itself.
Participation
I look forward to:
Working with many of you at the virtual transition events.
Ways to participate and the schedule of events will be determined by the Design Group. The current plan is to start the virtual transition discussions with the movement in September.
The virtual events is where major discussions will take place on sequencing, prioritizing, and resourcing the recommendations across the movement.
Seeing those of you interested participate in the open review of the transition preparations.
The task will be to review the work of the Design Group and share your perspective, enriching the thinking to improve the events.
Open review will happen in parallel to the work of the Design Group from the end of June to the end of July / beginning of August.
Having nominations from different movement groups and collaboratives (mentioned above) for the Design Group.
The task will be to design as a group how the transition process of online events will be set up.
Want to know more?
We have put together a placeholder meta page [5] and will keep updating it as more information becomes available.
Join office hours with the Movement Strategy core team on Wednesday. June 10 @ 17:00 UTC (Google Meet <http://meet.google.com/uun-pzmb-kti>) [6] or Thursday. June 11 @ 08:00 UTC (Google Meet <http://meet.google.com/rva-yqaq-zdk>) [7] to share any comments and ask questions.
Our email channel is always open: strategy2030(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:strategy2030@wikimedia.org>.
Best,
Ryan Merkley
Chief of Staff, Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017>
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme… <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…>
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme… <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…>
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Summit_2020/Report <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Summit_2020/Report>
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/2030 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/2030>
[6] https://meet.google.com/uun-pzmb-kti <https://meet.google.com/uun-pzmb-kti>[7] https://meet.google.com/rva-yqaq-zdk <https://meet.google.com/rva-yqaq-zdk>
_____________________________
Ryan Merkley (he/him)
Chief of Staff, Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
rmerkley(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:rmerkley@wikimedia.org>
@ryanmerkley <https://twitter.com/ryanmerkley>
Hello, all.
With the Board’s recent statement, this seems like a good time to launch
the quarterly office hours I’ve been wanting to create for people who want
to talk to me about issues involving “community resilience and
sustainability,” including the work of Trust & Safety, whom I oversee.
(after months of wanting to do this I’ve come to realize that I will always
be "too busy" to feel like it's the perfect time for this. So I’m going to
do it now anyway!)
There’ve been requests to make office hours more personal, so I will host a
Zoom hangout where people can join me, but I'll also take questions from
Telegram and IRC.[1] I know that finding an hour that works for everybody
is not going to happen, and I know from past office hours I’ve been
involved in that I may get far more questions than I can answer (or,
contrarily, nothing at all :)). Nevertheless, I will do my best to answer
questions posed to me in that hour by Wikimedians in good standing (not
Foundation or community banned) and to follow up in writing with any I
don’t have time for over the next few days or week or so, time allowing. I
might aggregate similar questions into a kind of FAQ. We’ll publish notes,
anonymizing those who’ve asked questions, after.
I do, however, have the following caveats:
-
I can’t and won’t discuss specific Trust & Safety cases. Instead, I can
discuss Trust & Safety protocols and practices and approaches as well as
some of the mistakes we’ve made, some of the things I’m proud of, and some
of the things we’re hoping to do.
-
I will not respond to comments or questions that are disrespectful to
me, to my colleagues, or to anyone in our communities. I can talk civilly
about our work even if you disagree with me or I disagree with you. I won’t
compromise on this.
I’m not sure if I will stick with Zoom as the way I do office hours
forever, but I am responding to some requests for spoken interaction while
also trying to provide text options for those who prefer. I admit to being
a little camera shy myself, so this is a challenge for me! If I embarrass
myself too badly, I may retreat to the safety of text in future.
I was hoping to have the Zoom link already, but while that’s being
expedited by our office technology team, I don’t have it yet. I wanted to
give interested people notice as soon as I knew the time. I’ll follow up
with links again at least two hours in advance.
The meeting will be on June 4th at 1800 UTC.
I hope to see you there.
Best,
Maggie
[1] Zoom link; Telegram link: https://t.me/joinchat/DOlGIB1FRLUWqW9iB3qfTQ;
directions for participating in IRC:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#How_to_participate
--
Maggie Dennis
Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Hello,
This topic has been in the back of my mind for awhile. Occasionally it
comes up in conversations, and it has been discussed as part of the
2030 strategy process (see
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20).
I have a few early thoughts that I'd like to share.
I think that a global code of conduct, and a way to enforce it, could
be good in some limited but important circumstances:
(1) Where the governance of a Wikimedia project or another WMF conduct
review organization has allegedly been compromised so extensively that
removal of all of its administrators, functionaries, and/or other
authorities should be considered for the purpose of providing a
relatively "clean start" for reforming the affected domain's
governance, or a domain is allegedly becoming so anarchic that
peacekeeping from outsiders is necessary to restore order.
In none of these cases am I suggesting that outsiders should attempt
to get involved in content disputes or allegations of misconduct by a
small proportion of a site's administrators or functionaries.
By default, a global code of conduct committee should assume good
faith regarding local consensus and/or the actions of a local
arbitration committee, if they exist, and a global code of conduct
committee should by default assume that any local consensus decisions
and the decisions of a local arbitration committee are legitimate.
These default positions may be changed if there is significant
evidence suggesting that there should be a review of the situation by
outsiders.
(2) Where a steward, global sysop, Meta administrator, or other person
in a similarly "meta" online position has allegedly misused their
position, and other options have been exhausted or would involve
publicly revealing evidence for which there is a very strong reason
for privacy.
(3) Where the current Ombudsman Commission (see
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman_commission) has found fault
with actions that are under its authority to review and recommends
that individuals be sanctioned.
(4) In the circumstances where, presently, WMF asserts a global ban.
I would oppose the use of a global code of conduct or a global code of
conduct committee for:
(1) disputes which focus on one or a relatively small number of
individuals. A global code of conduct committee could easily be
overwhelmed by the number of cases, and I think that local
administrators and functionaries who have good knowledge of a
project's policies, guidelines, and language(s) are best placed to
address these disputes.
(2) content disputes.
(3) functioning as a thin layer of cover for WMF-driven actions or
acting as an extension of WMF.
(4) silencing debates or unwelcome opinions for the purpose of making
people feel safe. The Internet is not a safe place, and no amount of
heavy policing will effectively guarantee safety on a large scale.
Also, heavy policing can have the effects of stifling uncomfortable
debates and providing cover for incompetence and corruption. This is
not to say that we should accept people trying to bully newcomers or
publish political propaganda on content pages, but I think that these
issues are best resolved locally and the norms for them are best
created locally. In some cases, problems with content may be resolved
as a secondary effect of resolving problems with conduct.
Thoughts?
Ever onward,
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Hello Wikimedians around the world
In these difficult times many of us miss the chance to connect in person
with other Wikimedians. We miss the events and meetings where we could
learn from and about each other. So we thought to use this time to learn
from each other more about the great people that make up our communities.
We would like to give some of them a bit of a spotlight in our virtual
spaces like our blogs and social media in the absence of physical
connection points.
Do you know a community member who has accomplished something new or
inspiring in the last year? Someone who you think the rest of the community
should know about? If so, please take a few minutes and nominate them in
the survey below.
Let us know about their inspiring work, whatever form it took, online or
offline. This can include but is not limited to adding important content
directly to one of our projects, encouraging and supporting others in
adding content, teaching the public about Wikipedia or other Wikimedia
projects, building partnerships, or organizing events and helping your
local community thrive. We are also curious to learn about the different
ways people enrich our movement!
Use the following link to take the survey.
-
https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0plqKWa1o1ztZ1b?target=ML-l
<https://wikimedia-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1_JszED7z9mHJlC_…>
Thank you in advance for helping us highlight more wonderful people and
accomplishments from all over the world!
Your privacy is important to us and is governed by the linked privacy
statement. In this survey, we will request your contact information and
that of the individual you are nominating. Please be sure that the person
you are nominating understands you are providing us with their information.
We will use this information to get in touch with nominees, should they
meet our selection criteria. We will retain this contact information
indefinitely unless you or the person you nominate request its deletion or
update it in a subsequent survey; please see the privacy statement
<https://wikimedia-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1_JszED7z9mHJlC_…>
for details.
Kind regards,
Chris Koerner (he/him)
Community Relations Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
[image: beacon]
Hello there,
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Wikimedia Foundation is
aware of the enormous difficulties and pressures this has on individuals as
well as affiliate organizations in general. The committee recognizes the
impact this may have on affiliates being able to submit their required
annual activity and/or financial reports on time. Should your organization
be unable to meet its reporting deadline, please reach out to us in order
to propose a revised timeline for your report.
We recognize also that, for legal entities local legal requirements may
still require your organization to meet reporting deadlines, in that case,
please attend to your local requirements and reach out if there is any
adjustment to the expectation for your submission to the reports portal on
meta.
When you are ready to submit your report on meta, you will be able to share
your report via our new Affiliates data portal [1].
We understand the Foundation’s Community Resources team is also working to
develop guidance around reporting and the impact of COVID-19 on the event
and reporting timelines. We will work to also align with these guidelines
as they become available.
Links:
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Affiliates_Data_Portal
If you have any questions or need any further guidance, please don’t
hesitate to reach out.
Kindest regards
*Wikimedia Foundation*
Dumisani Ndubane
Manavpreet Kaur
Jaime Anstee
Hi!
You are all invited to an editathon to improve COVID-19 information on
Wikipedia in collaboration with UNFPA and UN Women. Wikimedia Sverige has
been trailing a new process to make it easier for expert organisations to
share information on Wikipedia.
The editathon workshop will take place on Friday 5th June at 15:30 - 17:30
UTC (17:30 - 19:30 CET, 11:30 - 13:30 ET) and will continue remotely until
Sunday evening. To find out more and sign up please follow the link.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19/Health_and_Gender_Editathon
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19/Healt…>
The editathon will take place via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83376910798
Best,
*Eric Luth*
Projektledare engagemang och påverkan | Project Manager, Involvement and
Advocacy
Wikimedia Sverige
eric.luth(a)wikimedia.se
+46 (0) 765 55 50 95
Stöd fri kunskap, bli medlem i Wikimedia Sverige.
Läs mer på blimedlem.wikimedia.se
Hi everyone,
It’s now been three weeks since we have released the Wikimedia 2030
Movement Strategy Recommendations.
It has been a unique journey, the road has sometimes been bumpy, and every
step with all of you has been massively rewarding. For me, it still feels a
bit unreal, and the thought of having reached this milestone has not fully
sunk in yet. What helps me to understand what we have achieved together is
the appreciation and excitement that many of you are sharing.
We have many, many weeks left until we reach the year 2030, and I am
optimistic that the recommendations will enable Wikimedia to grow a better
future – for our movement, for ourselves, and for the world around us.
With the release of the recommendations, the Core Team and I will be
winding down our work by the end of June. We are now tidying up our meta
pages and are working on a summary of our work to ensure the expertise and
knowledge that we have gathered along the way will be well documented for
the movement and for the road ahead into implementation.
Our mandate to create Recommendations officially ends here, as well as the
mandate of the working groups, writers, reviewers, connectors, and
community strategy liaisons. I want to again extend my wholehearted
gratitude to all of them – for their hard work in their many roles, and of
course to them as individuals whose hearts beat for our movement's vision –
for getting us to the publication of this unique and promising product.
Thank you!
The Wikimedia Foundation is now beginning the transition from the
development of recommendations to implementation, which will be
collaborative, distributed, and movement led. In June, we will continue to
work with Ryan Merkley (Chief of Staff in the Foundation) on the
transition, and you will hear more about it this week.
On behalf of the Core Team, I am looking forward to seeing the results of
the last two years of work being implemented into Wikimedia’s path towards
becoming the support system for the whole free knowledge movement.
Onwards!
Nicole
PS. I’ve got some reading and listening tips if you want to dive deeper
into the recommendations: The community strategy liaisons have been busy
creating audio clips where they discuss or read the recommendations; there
are recordings in Arabic, French, German, and Spanish [1]. There is also a
video in Portuguese [2] providing an overview of the recommendations and
videos in English [3] that look at the whole process, the principles, and
each recommendation. Diversity working group member and writing group
member Marc Miquel-Ribé has also shared his insights into how the movement
strategy was developed and the ideas that have shaped it [4]. Find more
links and formats on Meta [5]. Happy reading and listening!
[1]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_2030_recommendations_…
[2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=3O6yKPR8t6c&feature=emb_logo
[3]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_2030_Video_Recommenda…
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Reports…
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
--
Nicole Ebber
Leiterin Internationale Beziehungen
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.