Hi everyone,
I’m excited to share an update from Movement Strategy. It’s been two months since the final recommendations were shared [1] and we remain indebted to numerous individuals from across our movement that brought us to this milestone. We have 10 recommendations and 10 principles to work with and collaboratively create the future that we want for our movement. This necessitates building on our strengths and creating cultural and structural changes where needed.
The recommendations and principles as well as blogs and other supporting materials have been prepared in text, audio, and video formats and in a variety of languages so they can be accessible for many. [2] Familiarize yourself with them at your own time, if you haven’t already.
The Wikimedia Foundation is planning a series of virtual events from September to November where, as a movement, we will transition to implementing the recommendations. Organizing online events at such a scale requires a lot of thinking and consideration. How to make sure everyone interested can participate? How to provide language, technical, and facilitation support to overcome participation barriers? How to allocate resources and nurture commitments for implementation? For this, we have convened a collaborative Design Group [3] that over the next two months will create a plan for the transition events. We have also assembled a small team to support this work. [4]
Design discussions are underway and will be open and shared on-wiki for concurrent input. [5] There will also be a more dedicated feedback sprint planned for the initial draft in early August. This way we can prepare for transition events that are inclusive and transparent for deciding what ideas from the recommendations will be implemented when, in what order, by whom, and with what resource and support structures. [6] All interested individuals are encouraged to participate in the design discussions as reviewers and later in the actual transition events that will shape implementation. Watch our page as we continue to share materials and updates.
Many of the ideas in the recommendations stem from longstanding discussions in the movement that predate movement strategy. It has been one of the purposes of the process to provide a clear and public platform for these conversations. These ideas include better coordination mechanisms for individuals and affiliates, organizational structures for a more equitable movement, enhanced skill building, movement-wide generation and allocation of resources, researching our impact in the world, and evaluating ourselves and our work. Advancing these complex and essential topics needs learning and experimentation. As examples, the Universal Code of Conduct [7] and OKAPI [8] [9], which are also part of the recommendations and under the umbrella of our Strategic Direction, are progressing with movement consultations. We can learn from these discussions and integrate lessons learned in the planning for the implementation of other initiatives in the recommendations during the transition.
In short, a summary from the first Design Group discussion has been uploaded. [5] and we look forward to a fruitful design period ahead and lively implementation discussions starting in September.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in our meta space or at the virtual events later this year!
On behalf of the Support Team,
Kaarel
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen...
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen...
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Tra...
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transiti...
[7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OKAPI [9] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/OKAPI