Hey all,
Nice to meet many of you for the first time! Thanks for your feedback and for raising larger concerns around resource allocation at the Foundation. These concerns are extremely valid-- especially the ones around allocating resources for less supported platforms such as Commons and broken infrastructure. The wishlist process will begin next week with the proposal phase starting Jan 10.
In the email thread, I identified some open questions about the Wishlist process so I am answering them here.
Can we vote/focus on the maintenance of tools rather than new tools?
Yes. The wishes that we work on do not have to be associated with a new tool. In the past we’ve taken on projects that were maintenance related. For example, in the last year, we took on improvement projects for Wikisource Export and Wikisource OCR tools, among other initiatives. We also maintain and fix all the tools we’ve built in the past. Check out the fresh documentation about what qualifies as a proposal here. <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey/FAQ#How_to_create…>
Gnangarra, your points about the issues with bulk uploads in Commons would make a sound proposal-- a proposal does not have to be a new tool in the least. The part about uploading large files is out of scope for our team though (see link above about our areas of focus, the issue is infrastructural <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T86436> and too large for what we can take on). I still believe there is value in suggesting it, though.
We have Talk to Us <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey/Updates/Talk_to_Us> hours on January 19-- where the entire team will be available for a video call to help folks who want to write proposals and polish them so that they may get selected.
What if what we want fixed is larger than what the Community Tech team can accomplish?
This year, we will be talking directly with leadership about larger wishes that we can't fulfill ourselves. To make this possible, we will no longer be formally 'Archiving' ideas. One improvement we are implementing from conversations with all of you at past Talk to Us Hours and other places, is that we will place projects that are too large for us into a new category called “Larger Suggestions'' because we still want people to be able to voice those needs. We plan to share this with the Foundation's leadership during the WMF's annual planning, which takes place in the spring.
This being said, if you have an idea that may be too large for us to take on, I would also encourage you to come to Talk to Us Hours (link above) and see if we can help you workshop the proposal into something we can help with. If we can’t then I would still highly encourage you to propose, by all means! Chances are if you think it’s an important problem, many other members do as well.
Finally, the wishlist isn't just for Community Tech. Volunteer developers and other Wikimedia Foundation teams have taken on wishes from the wishlist. For this reason, there is a chance that a wish may not be appropriate for our team, but it can be addressed by someone else.
Why isn’t the WMF fixing what we feel are be the most urgently needed fixes in functionality?
This is a larger question that gets answered at the board and C-leadership levels. There are also some relatively new teams at the Foundation, such as Architecture and Platform Engineering, that aim to improve the technical infrastructure overall in the years to come. However, every team can help with the answer and Community Tech can help with communication of technical needs. This “Larger Suggestions” collection of wishes I mentioned in the previous answer will not be a silver bullet that fixes all of the problems, but I believe in the power of incremental steps to steer us in that direction.
How can we communicate the urgency of the fixes that we need?
I don’t believe there is any lack of documentation of concerns about functionality that is broken. Folks are right to point out that it’s about synthesizing what is most urgently broken, the maintenance that is really necessary, and surfacing it to leadership. We, the Community Tech team, had a lot of hard conversations about how to handle this because we never want to mislead anyone into thinking we are going to work on ideas that are too large for our team. However, we all collectively came to the conclusion that we should still be the team that gives people the space to voice what they need from a technical perspective.
The wishlist itself can communicate urgency. If you submit a detailed wish (the more details, the better!), and if the wish receives a high number of votes, we definitively know as a team that it's urgent and high-priority. From there, we have the information we need to take next steps. This may involve taking on the wish ourselves or communicating the wish to leadership.
Does the Community Tech team work in isolation?
No, we constantly collaborate with other teams at the Foundation and most importantly, with all of you. This year our goal is to share the top wishes with other product managers who are responsible for products related to the categories in the wishlist. This way, they may incorporate relevant wishes into their team's roadmap, or they will at least consider community requests as they plan upcoming work. We always check to see if other teams are already working on solutions related to what is asked inside of the Wishlist. We plan to do more and are energized that the conversation is already beginning to happen in this thread.
Why is the Community Tech team so small? Why can't more people be hired, or why can't a second Community Tech team be formed?
As a team, we deeply believe in our work, and we hope to keep growing. We know how important it is to work directly with community members and fulfill community requests. If you want our team to grow, one of the best ways you can champion us is to participate in the wishlist. As participation rates grow (and they have!), the more effectively we can advocate for our team and its resources.
P.S. We are still welcoming help to promote the survey and to translate the updated documentation. Thanks for reading.
Best,
Natalia Rodriguez
Senior Product Manager, Community Tech
Dear all,
I am pleased to announce that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
has appointed Maryana Iskander as the new CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation
[1] [2].
Since 2013, Maryana has served as the CEO of Harambee Youth Employment
Accelerator [3], a South African non-profit social enterprise focused on
building African solutions for the global challenge of youth unemployment.
Prior to this, she spent six years as Chief Operating Officer of Planned
Parenthood Federation of America [4], a volunteer-led social movement
focused on access to women’s healthcare. Maryana has also worked in
academia as the Advisor to the President of Rice University [5], an
international research university based in the United States.
Her professional career has been motivated by breaking down systemic
barriers, creating opportunities for collaborative solution-building, and
community empowerment. She has a proven track record for leading complex
organisations shaped by shared decision-making.
In looking for the next CEO, we on the Board convened a Transition
Committee [6], primarily to guide us in finding the right person for this
critical role and secondly to oversee the executive Transition Team. The
Transition Committee conducted a far-reaching and competitive global
search, receiving around 400 recommendations and speaking to about 50
potential candidates. Throughout this selection process, Maryana impressed
us as someone who is deeply inspired by the Wikimedia vision and who
embodies the values of equity and community that inform all Wikimedia work.
She has extensive leadership experience working with volunteer-led
initiatives and building partnerships across public, private and social
sectors. Maryana also brings expertise in technology-led innovation to
accelerate meaningful social change. She does this with a global
perspective: Maryana was born in the Middle East, educated in the United
States and the United Kingdom, and has spent the last decade living and
working on the African continent.
Maryana joins the Wikimedia Foundation at a crucial time. The movement is
larger than ever, and it has never been more relevant or more trusted. This
is an inflection point, as decisions need to be made to execute a shared
vision for where the Movement wants to be in 2030. We believe that Maryana
is the right person to help lead the Foundation at this moment.
As Maryana begins, her priorities will include supporting movement efforts
to implement the Wikimedia 2030 recommendations, such as the development of
a Movement Charter and the finalization of a Universal Code of Conduct. She
will continue the Foundation’s focus on knowledge equity and exploring ways
to address the gaps in content and the diversity of contributors to
Wikimedia projects. She will be supported by the Board in this journey.
Maryana will officially start at the Wikimedia Foundation on January 5,
2022, as she transitions from her current job. Until then, the Foundation
will continue to be led by the Transition Team, with guidance from the
Board. In my conversations with her, I have seen that Maryana is a fan of
direct communication and excited to learn from the movement. In the coming
weeks, she will share ways to connect. Please join me in welcoming Maryana
(CCed) to the Foundation!
PS. For translations of this message, or to help translate it into more
languages, please visit Meta-Wiki [7]
*[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2021/09/14/wikimedia-foundation-appoin…
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2021/09/14/wikimedia-foundation-appoin…>*
*[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryana_Iskander
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryana_Iskander> *
*[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harambee_Youth_Employment_Accelerator
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harambee_Youth_Employment_Accelerator>*
*[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_Parenthood
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_Parenthood>*
*[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_University
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_University> *
*[6]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Creating_a_CEO_Transition_…
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Creating_a_CEO_Transition_…>
*
*[7]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/14_S…
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/14_S…>*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/14_S…>
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!*
_______________________________________________
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
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(Forwarding on behalf of Diane Ranville)
Hello dear Wikimedia community,
We are very happy to present you the latest annual report of Wikimedia
France (attached).
We would also like to introduce you to our new board, elected at our last
general meeting, with 4 new members and a new directing committee:
- Capucine-Marin Dubroca Voisin, Chairperson *(newly elected)*
- Jonathan Mouton, Vice-Chairperson *(newly elected in this role)*
- Pascal Radigue, Treasurer
- Diane Ranville, Secretary *(newly elected in this role)*
- Julien Gardet
- Agnes Lafourcade *(newly elected)*
- Roger Gotlib
- Nadine Le Lirzin
- Pierre-Yves Beaudouin
- Carole Renard
- Antoine Srun *(newly elected)*
- Cédric Tarbouriech *(newly elected)*
We would like to thank Pascale Camus-Walter and Benoît Soubeyran, whose
mandate ended on this occasion, for their commitment to the movement. We
would also like to extend our thanks to Pierre-Yves Beaudouin who, after 5
years of intense dedication as a chairperson, left his role to
Capucine-Marin, while remaining in the board to ensure continuity.
The board now includes new faces from all around France, including from
overseas territory La Réunion. It is also composed of 7 men and 5 women,
among which we are very proud to welcome our first non-binary chairperson,
Capucine-Marin (she/they), a seasoned wikimedian whose deep commitment
to free knowledge and equity will continue to show with this new role in
the movement.
Please feel free to reach out to the new board if you would like to discuss
projects or ideas.
With wikilove,
*Diane Ranville*
Secretary of Wikimédia France
Hi all,
Join the Research Team at the Wikimedia Foundation [1] for their monthly
Office hours this Wednesday, 2022-02-02 at 00:00-1:00 UTC (16:00 PT 02-01 /
19:00 ET 02-01 / 1:00 CET 02-02). Find your local date and time here
<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1643760056>.
To participate, join the video-call via this link [2]. There is no set
agenda - feel free to add your item to the list of topics in the etherpad
[3]. If you do not have a specific agenda item, you are welcome to hang out
and enjoy the conversation. More detailed information (e.g., about how to
attend) can be found here [4].
Through these office hours, we aim to make ourselves more available to
answer research related questions that you as Wikimedia volunteer editors,
organizers, affiliates, staff, and researchers face in your projects and
initiatives. Here are some example cases we hope to be able to support you
with:
-
You have a specific research related question that you suspect you
should be able to answer with the publicly available data and you don’t
know how to find an answer for it, or you just need some more help with it.
For example, how can I compute the ratio of anonymous to registered editors
in my wiki?
-
You run into repetitive or very manual work as part of your Wikimedia
contributions and you wish to find out if there are ways to use machines to
improve your workflows. These types of conversations can sometimes be
harder to find an answer for during an office hour. However, discussing
them can help us understand your challenges better and we may find ways to
work with each other to support you in addressing it in the future.
-
You want to learn what the Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation
does and how we can potentially support you. Specifically for affiliates:
if you are interested in building relationships with the academic
institutions in your country, we would love to talk with you and learn
more. We have a series of programs that aim to expand the network of
Wikimedia researchers globally and we would love to collaborate with those
of you interested more closely in this space.
-
You want to talk with us about one of our existing programs [5].
Hope to see many of you,
Emily on behalf of the WMF Research Team
[1] https://research.wikimedia.org
[2] https://meet.jit.si/WMF-Research-Office-Hours
[3] https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Research-Analytics-Office-hours
[4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Office_hours
[5] https://research.wikimedia.org/projects.html
--
Emily Lescak (she / her)
Senior Research Community Officer
The Wikimedia Foundation
Hello dear Wikimedia community,
We are very happy to present you the
latest annual report of Wikimedia France (attached).
We would also
like to introduce you to our new board, elected at our last general
meeting, with 4 new members and a new directing committee:
*
Capucine-Marin Dubroca Voisin, Chairperson _(newly elected)_
*
Jonathan Mouton, Vice-Chairperson _(newly elected in this role)_
*
Pascal Radigue, Treasurer
* Diane Ranville, Secretary _(newly elected
in this role)_
* Julien Gardet
* Agnes Lafourcade _(newly elected)_
* Roger Gotlib
* Nadine Le Lirzin
* Pierre-Yves Beaudouin
*
Carole Renard
* Antoine Srun _(newly elected)_
* Cédric Tarbouriech
_(newly elected)_
We would like to thank Pascale Camus-Walter and
Benoît Soubeyran, whose mandate ended on this occasion, for their
commitment to the movement. We would also like to extend our thanks to
Pierre-Yves Beaudouin who, after 5 years of intense dedication as a
chairperson, left his role to Capucine-Marin, while remaining in the
board to ensure continuity.
The board now includes new faces from all
around France, including from overseas territory La Réunion. It is also
composed of 7 men and 5 women, among which we are very proud to welcome
our first non-binary chairperson, Capucine-Marin (she/they), a seasoned
wikimedian whose deep commitment to free knowledge and equity will
continue to show with this new role in the movement.
Please feel free
to reach out to the new board if you would like to discuss projects or
ideas.
With wikilove,
DIANE RANVILLE
Secretary of Wikimédia France
Hi all,
I’m writing to share the latest update on the Equity Fund, a pilot program
created by the Wikimedia Foundation to address the barriers to free
knowledge experienced by Black, Indigenous, and communities of color around
the world.
As we've shared on Diff today [1], based on feedback from the first round
of Equity Fund grants we are continuing to iterate on our process for
choosing grantees and increasing community participation. Today, we are
opening up the second round of Equity Fund grantees and are seeking
community recommendations. We know that many of you work closely with and
are aware of external organizations that can help advance the movement’s
goals and address equity gaps. We invite recommendations from current
Wikimedia volunteers and communities through an intake form available on
Google survey [2] and LimeSurvey [3]. We’ll be taking your suggestions for
Round 2 through February 18. Thank you to those that have already submitted
recommendations!
You can read more about the current status of the Equity Fund, criteria for
grantees, as well as other updates around community participation with the
Equity Fund on Diff [1]. We invite your questions and feedback on Meta [4].
Thank you,
Nadee Gunasena, on behalf of the Equity Fund Committee
[1]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/20/next-steps-for-the-equity-fund-and-ho…
[2]
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctHahuVnJQQNG2eo_3F7aB1Z2jQi1JxhN…
[3] https://equity-fund.limesurvey.net/162641
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund
--
*Nadee Gunasena*
Executive Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
ᐧ
Dear Wikimedians,
Today I am excited to share a document [1] with you that I hope will help
initiate the conversation around how to ‘innovate in free knowledge’.
This document directly refers to recommendation 9 “Innovate in Free
Knowledge” [2] of the Movement Strategy that calls for the exploration and
expansion of free knowledge projects. The aim is to stay relevant and to
serve our movement’s vision to give access to the sum of human knowledge.
Building upon this recommendation, our team at Wikimedia Deutschland
outlined different stages of innovation – taking into account the different
structures, people, processes of support that innovators and innovations
might require at each stage in order to grow. The paper maps out how each
innovation stage is or isn’t existent within our movement. And uncovers
what is still clearly lacking: While it is not surprising to see structures
and processes in place to support the development of existing Wikimedia
projects, there are only few support structures and resources to promote
new free knowledge projects that are equally needed for the movement to
evolve, grow and to become sustainable.
The outlined examples are far from exhaustive, so don’t see this as the
final and absolute version of the mapping. This map is one way to raise
awareness and make ‘innovate in free knowledge’ become more relevant in our
movement.
Please have a look, and leave your comments and/or questions on the talk
page. We are more than happy to engage in conversations and eager to hear
additional perspectives, insights, and feedback from across the movement
related to this topic. Please also reach out to me directly to explore ways
to take the conversation forward.
All the best
Kannika
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Innovation_Engine/Bui…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/innovationengine/unlo…
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/innovationengine/unlo…>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/innovationengine/unlo…>
---
Kannika Thaimai (she/her)*Innovation Engine - Strategy Lead*>> WMDE
innovation engine strategy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Innovation_Engine>
>> UNLOCK Accelerator <https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/>
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 219 158 26-0
https://wikimedia.de
Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia,
Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German):
https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/
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.