> A letter in support of the Community Fellowship program from past, > current, and prospective Fellows, > > The WMF has expanded profoundly over the past decade, and especially > in the last few years. Recently initiatives to streamline and focus > the WMF have been undertaken; while these efforts are worthy in spirit > and necessary at some level, one useful if not vital program has been > caught in that process: The Community Fellowship program. We would > like to express our strong support of this valuable and important > program. > > The Fellowship program is first and foremost a community-based > program. It selects editors to work on projects -- those which are > novel and have yet to be tried, those that have been tried but have > not been rigorously developed or tested, and those otherwise that need > financial, technical and institutional backing to succeed. It > represents a direct line of support from the WMF to > community-organized, community-driven, and community-maintained > projects. > > We strongly believe that the Fellowship program is a great way to jump > start many projects cheaply, efficiently, and with low-risk. Most > importantly, because Fellowship projects are community-organized, > there is high potential for their broad community support. > > We recognize that the Wikimedia Foundation’s allocation of funding > must reflect the priorities of the Foundation’s annual and strategic > plans, and we understand that the future of the Fellowship program is > at risk under the justification that it does not fit within those > plans. > > The Fellowship program of course has a cost, but it is one we believe > is well justified by its impact. The following reasons explain why we > think the program is a worthwhile asset to the WMF and one that will > ultimately help it succeed in its strategic goals: > > 1) The program has a track record of producing successful projects, > with promising upcoming efforts that would be interrupted by a loss of > funding. Most recently a new-editor community called the Teahouse was > developed directly through the Fellowship program. The Teahouse, as > well as other projects have targeted goals which often match up with > those identified by the Foundation as urgent, such as new editor > engagement and editor retention. Other projects besides the Teahouse > have worked on improving our dispute resolution processes, our small > language wiki development, improving the usability of help > documentation, and facilitating cross-wiki translation efforts. > GLAM/Wikipedian-in-Residence positions were pioneered under the > Fellowship program as were studies in long term editor trends through > Wikimedia Summer of Research. (See the full list of past projects). > These projects are of great value and exist in areas that the > community had or has not made sufficient advances in on its own. > > In the works are projects to create a sense of community around the > sorely lacking female demographic, to build a game which would ease > new editors through the maze of skills needed to be effective, a > Wikipedia Library initiative which would outfit our most experienced > editors with access to high quality resources through a single sign-on > portal, and a Badges experiment to employ a proven approach to > recognizing, motivating, and rewarding the efforts of our users. > Without the Community Fellowship program, those efforts may stall or > collapse. > > 2) The Fellowship program's core strength is as a laboratory of agile, > community-driven creativity and innovation. The program has nurtured > projects that require more investment and organization than the > community alone can support, but that innovate in areas of importance > to both the community and the Foundation. The Fellowship program has > the asset of targeted flexibility and cost-effective implementation. > Fellowship projects require few if any development resources, > substantially reducing their burden on the Foundation. Through its > varied portfolio of projects the Fellowship program can address any > number of key goals, and do so in a lightweight but meaningful way. > > 3) The Fellowship program is committed to demonstrating results and > making data-driven recommendations that help meet Foundation targets. > Fellowship research projects have set and maintained a high standard > for reporting results and making actionable recommendations. The > Teahouse pilot reports and metrics reports, the dispute resolution > survey results, and the template A/B testing projects are excellent > examples of this commitment to transparency and accountability. The > Foundation has benefitted from these data: results from fellowship > projects have been featured at Wikimania. Deputy Director Eric > Moeller’s presentation on supporting Wikiprojects drew extensively on > Fellowship project findings, and E3’s template testing presentation > was based substantially on Fellowship research. Fellowship research > has been a frequent feature on the Wikimedia blog, and has generated > good press for the Foundation. > > 4) The Fellowship program been instrumental to our understanding of > the editor decline, and how to stop it. Fellowship projects have > yielded many valuable & actionable insights into the editor decline: > such as the negative impact of the gradual increase in newcomer > warnings and newcomer reverts, and the recent decline in participation > in community processes by newer groups of editors. Fellowship > research has also refuted several prominent decline theories, such as > the theory that the quality of new editors has decreased over time, or > that the workload of vandal fighters has increased. In short, > Fellowship research allows Wikimedia to prioritize promising work and > make decisions about which decline theories to address based on actual > data, rather than anecdotes, accepted wisdom, or intuition. > > 5) The Fellowship program builds good will between the WMF and the > community by spotlighting and bootstrapping community-driven > initiatives. Fellowships are devised by community members, endorsed > by community members, implemented with community involvement--and the > community reaps the benefits of those initiatives. The Foundation > gets to play the vital role of supporting projects that otherwise may > have floundered, sat idle, or been ignored completely. The community > appreciates this and recognizes the Foundation’s pivotal part in > making these projects happen. Also, not continuing the program would > mean not just removing funding from the recipients of Fellowships and > their projects, but also losing the community infrastructure and > networks that have been developed as a result. The Foundation is the > keystone to continuing this progress. > > 6) The Fellowship program gives the Wikimedia Foundation one of the > only channels to directly fund individual editors. And not just any > editors but some of the most active, engaged, driven, and enthusiastic > editors Wikipedia has. Funding those editors directly enables them to > devote a degree of focus and commitment to Wikipedia that they might > not otherwise be able to balance while meeting other constraints in > their lives. The Foundation has become a recipient of a great amount > of donations, but much of that financial support is unavailable to > individual editors. There is not yet a grant-making process which > doesn't run through Chapters. The Fellowship program is one lifeline > to those editors, and it is a good one. > > 7) The Fellowship program provides a pipeline of trusted and > knowledgeable editors to contribute to the Foundation's efforts. Many > of those editors would be ideal candidates for positions within the > Foundation, and the Fellowship program is a great way to identify, > enlist, and onboard those individuals. Maryana Pinchuck and Steven > Walling were Fellows, as were Liam Wyatt, Lennart Guldbrandsson, > Stuart Geiger, Diederik van Liere, Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Melanie > Kill, Aaron Halfaker, Achal Prabhala, Jonathan Morgan, and James > Alexander. While being a training ground for future Foundation > staffers, advisors, or researchers is not the stated purpose of the > Fellowship program, it is nonetheless a positive side-effect. > > 8) The Fellowship program partners with and complements other WMF > initiatives. The fellowship program enhances programs such as Editor > Engagement Experiments by experimenting with community features rather > than just interface features. Creating new spaces for new editors to > find help and build community, identifying pain-points in existing > community processes by surveying editors, and organizing cross-wiki > translation efforts are excellent ways of improving the editor > experience on Wikipedia. Fellowship projects have also benefitted > existing WMF initiatives by providing necessary services: for > instance, the Teahouse has served the needs of students enrolled in > Global Education programs that do not have access to Classroom > Ambassadors. The impact of the Fellowship program scales and exceeds > the scope of the individual projects to numerous other forums and > facets of the community. > > For these reasons, we urge the Wikimedia Foundation to reevaluate the > worth of the Community Fellowship program and to continue it in its > original or a similar capacity. The Fellowship program is an > impactful, flexible laboratory of creativity which connects the > Foundation and the community's best and most passionate editors. > Having it has been a huge gain, and losing it would be a significant > loss. > > Sincerely, > > * Anya Shyrokova User:Anyashy, prospective Fellow > * Jake Orlowitz User:Ocaasi, prospective Fellow > * Jon Harald Søby User:Jon Harald Søby, former Community Fellow > * Jonathan Morgan User:Jtmorgan, former Research Fellow > * Liam Wyatt User:Wittylama, former Cultural Partnerships Fellow > * R. Stuart Geiger User:Staeiou, former Wikimedia Research Fellow > * Peter Coombe User:The wub, Community Fellow > * Steven Zhang User:Steven Zhang, Community Fellow > * Tanvir Rahman User:Tanvir Rahman, Community Fellow > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l