Hello Hello!
We are pleased with the program submissions, for Wikimania 2021, that have
come through so far and even the planning discussions we’ve seen going on
in various groups.
SUBMISSION PROPOSALS DEADLINE APPROACHING: The deadline to submit your
proposals is approaching rapidly, Friday, 18th June, 12am PST and we would
not like to see anyone locked out. Please make sure you submit your session
proposals <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2021:Submissions> for the
first ever virtual Wikimania.
Office Hours
Thank you to everyone who has joined the Submission Office Hours we’ve had
last week. We have one more this week on 15th June at 12:00 UTC
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2021:Organizers>. More Office Hours
around Wikimania 2021 will become available soon… Stay tuned.
Scholarships Program Now Open
As announced last week, the scholarship program is now open until 30th
July. This year, scholarships will only be issued to Affiliates, who will
then distribute to their respective community members.
Read More about the Scholarship Program for Wikimania 2021
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2021/Scholarships> (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2021/Scholarships)
Best Wishes,
Winnie Kabintie (User:Ms_Kabintie
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ms_Kabintie>), on behalf of the
Wikimania 2021 Core Organizing Team.
Hoi,
I have put myself forward as a candidate for the board of the Wikimedia
Foundation. What I hope to achieve is that as a global community, as a
movement, foundation, we will share more of "the sum of the knowledge that
is available to us".
In my opinion this fits in perfectly with our stated objectives, what it
takes is a reflection on what we can do with what we have for the other
250+ languages. I have a notion of what success will mean: it means that
our traffic will increasingly be not for English projects and yes, I want
our traffic in English to grow as well!
In a blogpost [1] I mention a few of the easy pickings. There could be so
much more. When you have an idea post it on Meta and let me know as well.
Success has many fathers, one mother.
Thanks,
GerardM
[1]
https://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2021/06/board-member-of-wikimedia-foun…
Hi all,
you might have seen already it, but I wanted to post it here again:
On this weekend, June 12 + 13, we will host another round of our* Global
Conversations* format, *this time focusing entirely on the Movement Charter*
. We will host two 4 hour sessions covering different time zones, one on
June 12, 5:00 - 9:00 UTC (local time
<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1623474046>) and one on June 13, 16:00 -
20:00 UTC (local time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1623600046>).
For the event, we envision the following: The implementation of the
Movement Charter is the cornerstone of Movement Strategy implementation.
This charter will define roles and responsibilities in the Wikimedia
Movement, and it will lay out a new Global Council for movement governance.
How can the implementation of the Movement Charter start? Join this
conversation and help define the immediate next steps that will lead to the
creation of a Movement Charter drafting committee (name subject to change).
We will provide *interpretation *(at least in Spanish, Arabic, French, and
Russian) and provide *participation support* (as data package
top-ups/upgrades).
You can find more information here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Events
And you can register via this short form (if you do not want to use a
Google form, mail us via strategy2030(a)wikimedia.org). Please register until
June 11.
https://bit.ly/2SeD9Gk
Cheers,
Cornelius
--
Cornelius Kibelka (he/him)
Process Support Coordinator
Movement Strategy
2030.wikimedia.org
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
*Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. Donate.
<https://donate.wikimedia.org/>*
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear wikimedians
Thank you to all of you who have contributed your time so generously to
rate our WLE 2021 entries. I am hoping you will keep on to the end. If you
rate the photos just before all entries are in, you will have done the bulk
and then there will only be a few to rate between June 13 (end of
competition) and June 30 (when I hope to close the prejury. (The prejury
page indicates rating can continue to 31 July, but it needs to be closed
before that)
It would be great if you could make a final burst.
Thanks for all your help.
Regards,
Margaret
(Australian volunteer charged with running the competition)
Dear Lisa
Thank you for sharing this information about the Knowledge Equity Fund.
It's fantastic to hear about the purpose behind these funds and I'm excited
to see what projects, partnerships and initiatives emerge. Thanks also to
the staff and volunteers on the committee for the Fund for giving their
time to this.
Best wishes
Lucy
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 at 18:35, <wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to
> wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
>
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikimedia-l.lists.wikimedia.org/
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> wikimedia-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Wikimedia-l digest..."
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Sharing more details about the Equity Fund (Nataliia Tymkiv)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2021 20:34:47 +0300
> From: Nataliia Tymkiv <ntymkiv(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Sharing more details about the Equity Fund
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAKt1n5othBjjxoYtTqSwSbkyL-0QRd31hYf2ZXmu3_-FoZ-36A(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
> boundary="000000000000b0e1c705c458b1d3"
>
> Thank you Lisa, Janeen, Tony and the Equity Fund Committee for working on
> this pilot project.
>
> Some of the major barriers preventing more people from joining our movement
> are barriers of power and privilege. In many parts of the world, that
> correlates with histories of racial discrimination and inequality. The
> Board of the Wikimedia Foundation supported this idea as a way for us as a
> Movement, not only an organisation, to directly address these obstacles and
> hopefully bring new partners and newcomers into our movement.
>
> As a Wikipedian I know that having good reliable sources is crucial. As a
> Ukrainian Wikipedia volunteer I know that sometimes these good reliable
> sources are just manuscripts collecting dust in some drawers, as people who
> do research do not always get the support they need, so they do not
> publish. And thus we editors cannot use those sources. And I am positive my
> experience is not unique. I imagine that in some countries and communities
> this can be even harder because of the obstacles mentioned above.
>
> I hope that through this pilot program, Wikimedia can support work to
> improve access to knowledge where the need is great. And I am sure we
> (collectively) will learn a lot while trying something new, and that would
> influence how we pursue these issues in the future. I would like to think
> that our efforts would not be futile and that we could change things and
> (at some point) all people would be able to share in the sum of all
> knowledge, not just privileged ones.
>
>
> Best regards,
> antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
> Acting Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
>
> *NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
> hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
> should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
> advance!*
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 8:15 PM Lisa Gruwell <lgruwell(a)wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I’m excited to share more information about the Wikimedia Foundation’s
> > Knowledge Equity Fund.
> >
> > The Equity Fund is a pilot initiative that came out of the commitment the
> > Foundation’s leadership team made in June 2020 [1] in the wake of global
> > protests against racial injustice. Our goal was to create a grant-making
> > fund with an explicit focus on addressing barriers to free knowledge
> > experienced by Black, indigenous and communities of color around the
> world.
> >
> > This is a $4.5 million USD fund to address racial inequities that impact
> > the work of free knowledge. It was created to provide focused grants to
> > organizations that are advancing knowledge equity, one of two key pillars
> > of our 2030 strategic direction of becoming the essential infrastructure
> of
> > free knowledge. Specifically, the fund is meant to support organizations
> > working to address the racial injustices and barriers that prevent
> > participation in free knowledge.
> >
> > We allocated funds for the Equity Fund at the end of the Foundation’s
> > fiscal year last June. [2] It took more time than we expected to share
> our
> > plans for this pilot program, as we’ve been navigating the operational
> > and logistical issues of creating a new type of fund. Over the past
> > several months since the Equity Fund was first announced, Foundation
> staff
> > and volunteers have been meeting to discuss the goals and the details of
> > the Equity Fund, and we finally have more to share.
> >
> > The Equity Fund will be used to support local and international
> > organizations that don’t currently qualify for grants funding from the
> > Foundation, such as external organizations that can help advance our
> > mission and are not working directly on wikiprojects. We recognize that
> the
> > work of knowledge equity is work that we as a movement cannot do alone.
> Our
> > projects can only do so much when, for example, academic and mass media
> > representation of marginalized communities remains insufficient, which in
> > turn limits citations and primary sources for us to build from. Through
> > Equity Fund investments, we wish to create an ecosystem of partners,
> > collaborators, and grantees working on knowledge equity that will benefit
> > the movement. This could include journalism projects to increase content
> > about underrepresented regions of the world, or scholarship and research
> > initiatives that are focused on expanding academic understanding of
> > structural barriers to knowledge and potential solutions.
> >
> > The Equity Fund is separate from the grants that are available for
> > community groups and the ongoing Grants Relaunch [3]. It is a new pool of
> > funds that we can use to directly impact knowledge equity, and
> specifically
> > barriers due to race that prevent access and participation in free
> > knowledge.
> >
> > We are currently working to identify the first grant recipients for the
> > Equity Fund. The Meta page for the Equity Fund [4] includes more
> > information (the members of the Equity Fund Committee, the five specific
> > focus areas we will be investing in) and next steps. We are also
> currently
> > looking for recommendations on organizations for grants - you can visit
> > Meta or fill out this survey [5] if you have organizations that are
> already
> > doing this work and would be a good fit.
> >
> > Lastly, we do want to emphasize that this is a pilot. There are a lot of
> > open questions that have been raised by community members that we are
> still
> > figuring out, on topics such as ensuring investment in global
> organizations
> > and inclusive definitions of racial equity. We welcome additional
> questions
> > as the project evolves from this early stage. We’re answering questions
> on
> > Meta, so please join us there. We will also be hosting Office Hours in
> the
> > coming week:
> >
> > -
> >
> > Monday, June 13 at 0100-0200 UTC meet.google.com/myf-zcaw-ubg
> > -
> >
> > Monday, June 13 at 1500-1600 UTC meet.google.com/dzu-edej-wva
> >
> >
> > This is an active step towards addressing the barriers that perpetuate
> > knowledge gaps on our projects and prevent participation in free
> knowledge.
> > We’re excited to try this new pilot and share our progress.
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Lisa Gruwell, Janeen Uzzell, Tony Sebro and the Equity Fund Committee
> >
> >
> > [1]
> >
> https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/we-stand-for-rac…
> >
> >
> > [2]
> >
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2020-December/096022.html
> >
> >
> > [3]
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunc…
> >
> >
> > [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund
> >
> > [5] https://forms.gle/gzqRH7yMFEGgZb4e6
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Lisa Seitz Gruwell
> >
> > Chief Advancement Officer
> >
> > Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
> > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
Hi Friends, I am forwarding this message about the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees Call for Candidates.
Best,
Jackie K.
The 2021 Board of Trustees election
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>
is
coming soon. Candidates from the community are needed to fill the
available seats.
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia
Foundation's operations. Community trustees and appointed trustees make up
the Board of Trustees. Each trustee serves a three year term. The Wikimedia
community has the opportunity to vote for community trustees.
Wikimedia contributors will vote to fill four seats on the Board in 2021.
This is an opportunity to improve the representation, diversity, and
expertise of the Board as a team.
Who are potential candidates? Are you a potential candidate? Find out more
on the apply to be a candidate
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>
page.
Thank you for your support,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>
--
*Jackie Koerner*
*she/her*
Board Election Facilitator
*English language communities and Meta-Wiki*
Dear list,
Risker posed an excellent question in the AffCom thread about *review and
development of movement funding*, which could use its own dedicated
thread. Riffing on the theme, here are a dozen questions for anyone who
knows part of the answer -- particularly those who helped develop the 2019
recommendations on resource allocation
<http://Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Resource_Allocati…>
,
the 2020 approach to hubs and participatory resource allocation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…>,
and the grants strategy relaunch
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_Strategy_Relaunc…>
.
We can move this discussion to meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MSIG>
if the thread becomes unwieldy. (:
*1. Current state of movement funding*
1a. Roughly what % of global fundraising is currently allocated to
affiliates, or other entities + projects not run by the WMF? (*my poor
guess <User:Sj/wikilibrium#Timeline_of_funds_distribution>*)
1b. Roughly how much regional fundraising goes directly to major
affiliates?
1c. Which affiliates with annual plan grants have been growing over time,
and how is the expansion of existing budgets approved?
1d. Which affiliates have gotten their first APG in the past five years,
and how has that developed over time?
*2. Current review process*
2a. How is funding by WMF of movement affiliates (general operations, and
large specific projects) currently determined? Does the Board engage with
this?
2b. Is the funding of affiliate work linked to goals of increasing equity
across the world, and supporting underrepresented communities? If so, how /
how is this visualized?
2c. What other mechanisms for focusing and allocating resources are good
examples to replicate?
2d. What other bilateral projects (such as joint projects, and grant or
microgrant programs), run by large affiliates and hubs other than the WMF,
currently exist? Which seem like examples to replicate?
*3. Desired futures!*
3a. What movement bodies are expected to play any role in recommendations
about funding (extending, withdrawing, denying funding) to new and existing
affiliates, now that the FDC is inactive?
3b. Is there a possibility of the FDC returning? How do past FDC members
have about this? What was found to be good and bad about the FDC process?
3c. What elements of this is the global council expected to take up in
its first year? What elements are hubs expected to take up, now and in the
future?
3d. What roles do we envision each of {WMF, hubs, affiliates, community
members} to play in reviewing movement budgets/plans and the volume and
focus of future funding [re]allocation?