Innovate in Free Knowledge | UNLOCK the power of collaboration! - Wikimedia-l

17 Mar 2022

Dear Movement members,

The innovation program UNLOCK will soon enter its third edition. At UNLOCK
[1], we support people and communities who are working on new ideas,
products and services for Wikimedia and free knowledge that address gaps in
knowledge equity. Participating teams will benefit from tailored coaching
and mentoring, peer-to-peer exchange and collaboration, access to experts
from the free knowledge community and beyond, and – where required – a
scholarship.

For the 2022 edition, we are proud to announce that the program will be
implemented in a collaborative manner as Wikimedia Deutschland and
Wikimedia Serbia are joining forces. Besides this cross-regional and
cross-affiliate collaboration, we will also partner with Impact Hub
Belgrade – an organization from the innovation ecosystem [2].

We will direct our geographical focus on the German-speaking as well as on
the Western Balkan region. This means that applications are open to project
teams from the following countries: Germany and Switzerland (Austria tbc),
as well as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern
Macedonia and Serbia. The program language is English in order to enable
exchange and create synergies among the cross-regional project teams. In
April 2022 we will kick-off the application phase for UNLOCK 2022 and will
share more details about it soon.

While Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia Serbia and Impact Hub Belgrade will
jointly lead the implementation of the program, Wikimedia communities in
the Western Balkan region as well as social organizations outside of the
movement will also be involved, which will strengthen the position of
Wikimedia in the knowledge ecosystem and further increase the presence of
Wikimedia in the fields of innovation. We hope to establish a collaboration
from which all involved parties can mutually benefit and empower each
other.

Our work is driven by the Movement Strategy and there are three ways in
which UNLOCK directly contributes to the implementation of it:

   1. UNLOCK provides a support environment for innovations and innovators
   to grow, it encourages and invests in people and communities, who are
   exploring and building solutions that make knowledge accessible in various
   formats or that support diverse modes of consumption and contribution
   (recommendation 9 [3]);
   2. UNLOCK seeks to collaborate with stakeholders from regional social
   innovation ecosystems, such as innovation hubs, and integrate their
   resources. This will help to diversify and enrich the movement as well as
   to strengthen local and regional capacities of Wikimedia communities and
   leaders through sharing experiences. Forging partnerships will also provide
   learning opportunities for us as a movement, on how to collaborate with
   people and institutions that are not from the immediate open knowledge
   movement (recommendation 6 [4]);
   3. UNLOCK should evolve into something that ultimately becomes freely
   adaptable, reusable and changeable depending on the geographic, cultural
   and economic context. We seek to pilot it in an area with communities that
   are still emerging, and/or marginalized – focusing on those who ultimately
   should co-create and benefit from innovations. This process of adaptation,
   or better, contextualization – a central Movement Strategy principle [5] –
   is an area where we as a movement still have much to test and to learn.

We are more than happy to engage in conversations about how to “innovate in
free knowledge” and are eager to hear additional perspectives, insights,
and feedback from across the movement related to the contextualization of
programs like UNLOCK. Please also reach out to me directly to explore ways
to take the conversation forward.

For further questions about UNLOCK 2022, please feel free to directly
contact us – Ivana (Wikimedia Serbia) and Kannika (Wikimedia Deutschland).

All the best

Kannika & Ivana

[1] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/

[2] https://belgrade.impacthub.net/

[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…

[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…

[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
-- 

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

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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.