Thanks Ben.
Just a few comments:
* The WMF Board has limited bandwidth, and they have a lot on their agenda
right now. I'm not sure how much of strategic work they can do while also
handling their other priorities, so some dependence on the ED is likely
necessary.
* Some members of the WMF Board have voiced the feeling that they would
like the Board to have a leading role rather than a reactionary one. It
looks to me like the governance review could be considered a step in this
direction. Having the Board take a public and leading role in developing
strategy with a transparent and thoughtful approach would be great to see,
so +1 to your comments on this topic.
* I get the sense that both the current Board and Katherine are trying to
take a responsive and cooperative approach to community input, so I am
cautiously optimistic that in the big picture WMF is heading in a good
direction.
Comments about specifics of strategic planning:
* One of my current concerns is the usability of Wikimedia sites for both
readers and contributors; we have some powerful tools but our usability
leaves much to be desired, and fixing an approximately 10 to 15 year design
and features deficit might require a lot more design and engineering
resources than WMF can recruit with its current income streams. I am
hopeful that WMF can boost its design and engineering capacity while
maintaining good relations with the community, and also while investing
more resources in developing GLAM+STEM and other offline support of
affiliate programs that have good cost-benefit ratios.
* WMF remains a single point of failure in the Wikimedia network of
affiliates. I am hoping that mitigating the community and affiliate
dependencies on WMF will be addressed in the strategic plan, so that if we
have another mess like we had prior to Katherine, the affiliates and
community will have a plan that can be executed that ensures the viability
of the Wikimedia sites and affiliates without WMF. WMF can fail in many
ways; besides governance meltdowns, lawsuits and hostile political
environments are also risks. The sites and affiliates need to endure even
if WMF weakens, loses its way, or dissolves. I hope that we never again
have a repeat of last year and that WMF is healthy in the future, but it
would be prudent to have a strategty for the affiliates and community to
continue whether or not WMF is with us.
Thanks again for your post.
Regards,
Pine