Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Just to be clear, this means that the Charter will not take effect even if, hypothetically, the community and the affiliates voted to approve it?
Newyorkbrad/IBM
On Thursday, July 11, 2024, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_ Movement_Charter_and_next_steps
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_ proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_ Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_ the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Yes, that's exactly that.
Newyorkbrad newyorkbrad@gmail.com escreveu (quinta, 11/07/2024 à(s) 13:14):
Just to be clear, this means that the Charter will not take effect even if, hypothetically, the community and the affiliates voted to approve it?
Newyorkbrad/IBM
On Thursday, July 11, 2024, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Yes. It basically means that all effort to rally editors to vote is in vain and a (technical) waste of time.
William/1233
On Thu, 11 Jul 2024, 20:14 Newyorkbrad, newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
Just to be clear, this means that the Charter will not take effect even if, hypothetically, the community and the affiliates voted to approve it?
Newyorkbrad/IBM
On Thursday, July 11, 2024, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Though all inputs and comments are not, the waste here means only the rectify part.
William.
On Thu, 11 Jul 2024, 20:17 William Chan, william@wchan.hk wrote:
Yes. It basically means that all effort to rally editors to vote is in vain and a (technical) waste of time.
William/1233
On Thu, 11 Jul 2024, 20:14 Newyorkbrad, newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
Just to be clear, this means that the Charter will not take effect even if, hypothetically, the community and the affiliates voted to approve it?
Newyorkbrad/IBM
On Thursday, July 11, 2024, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Not a waste of time
We have shown there is general support for something different from BoT.
Anders
Den 2024-07-11 kl. 14:17, skrev William Chan:
Yes. It basically means that all effort to rally editors to vote is in vain and a (technical) waste of time.
William/1233
On Thu, 11 Jul 2024, 20:14 Newyorkbrad, newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
Just to be clear, this means that the Charter will not take effect even if, hypothetically, the community and the affiliates voted to approve it? Newyorkbrad/IBM On Thursday, July 11, 2024, Nataliia Tymkiv <ntymkiv@wikimedia.org> wrote: Dear all, As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote. *On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.* * * *==Draft Movement Charter== * ** The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee>, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation. At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025>, strategic planning priorities <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update>, and elsewhere <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update>. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model>as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism. It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task. Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form. *==Board resolution==* Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter.You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2]. The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in theappendix[3]with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more. *==What’s next==* ** As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps. Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work. To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024>. You can also use the Let’s Talk <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk> feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees. [1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_next_steps <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_next_steps> [2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08 <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix> [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix> Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!/ _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/HW75XO3RBB6AYX45H6DTTSSIP4PWTHHY/ To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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Thank you, Nat and all, for the clarity. I appreciate that the resolution directly addresses work to be taken on by a future Global Council, and ways to start delegating that work. A complementary change that we've needed for some time is a community process for mediating conflict resolution across the movement. The first test could be resolving conflicts around the charter: a) aligning the expectations and concerns of all parties b) sorting out how to iterate on a charter, and to explore an interim Council [before ... *(checks notes)* ... 2027]
A Charter and Council are not only among our 2030 goals, they are a prerequisite for many more. We should not delay. It's good to see foundation-led progress on the delegation front; let's also use the momentum from this vote to progress on the other fronts.
Maciej wrote:
*When we asked for the Board to accelerate their process so we could save
the community *
*from going through the costly process that would bring no fruit, we were
ignored.*
I thought this sounded plausible at first, to conserve time and energy. But it was pointed out that most of the cost was in the leadup to the vote; the process was defined by the MCDC, so revising the timeline wasn't the board's call; and by the time of the SWAN meetings many participants were looking forward to voting and wanted that to continue regardless.
The charter is certainly mature enough for a widely broadcast and translated public vote. Without that, we had only the input of WMF liaisons, the affiliates and staff who showed up to this year's WM Summit, and the few hundred who found their way to Meta to weigh in.
–Sam.
Nat,
I am strongly disappointed. Not even mad, just disappointed.
Through the Board's and the Wikimedia Foundation's series of decisions [1], we have just spent a lot of community attention (*which should be treated as a limited resource*) on a ratification vote that is now without standing. The vote gave the community another chance to speak on the matter (and the feedback will hopefully be used going forward) but I don't think it was worth the sacrifice of resources (yet another global engagement of thousands); it was within the BoT's power to end this. So much for the Movement_Charter/Glossary#Care_Responsibility https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Glossary#Care_Responsibility ...
I have raised that after the Liaisons' initial statements: if someone wanted to sabotage the process (this is not a word I am using lightly), this is how they would do it. We had a lot of confusion created by a statement of just two people (and we were repeatedly told that they were not speaking for the Board). I am willing to argue that it has been partially responsible for the problems with reaching the quorum (which was eventually reached, but barely and at a great expense). We had two global meetings with 90+ people devoted to this https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network/2024_06. When we asked for the Board to accelerate their process so we could save the community from going through the costly process that would bring no fruit, we were ignored.
The Liaisons' statement promised us "*concrete, time-bound next steps on a more practical scale." *Meanwhile, the minutes from the discussion and the resolution itself could not be further away from the above sentence. There are many non-statements, vague sentences, and very few* "concrete"* things. My absolutely favourite (not really) statement is:
- "Foundation will move forward on some of its components, including experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations"
I like to think of myself as quite proficient in English. However, for the love of gods, I could not decipher this corporate dialect. There is nothing concrete in this. Sentences like this are an affront to the community, most of which are not first-language English speakers.
*To be fair, there are a couple of things worth mentioning as positives:*
- The executive summary https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix is an excellent step toward transparency and better communication, but the rest of the document and statements linked above are still very legal and exclusive. - I would also like to use this occasion to thank *Mike Peel* for his vote of support on the Charter. He had the courage to be the only dissenting Board member, only one of the six current community-sourced Trustees https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees#Current_members . - Lastly, I'd like to thank the Movement Charter Drafting Committee for their work. We have sometimes disagreed, but their work was hard, and they never crumbled. Kudos!
My disappointment is not with the final decision of the Board; after all, you are independent stakeholders in this ratification. The disappointment comes from the lack of grace in this process. I worked as a facilitator at the beginning of the Movement Charter process. I am sad that this is how it ended. I hope that another two years, as decided in your letter [2], will bring some fruition :)
[1] – "Because the Board of Trustees holds ultimate financial and fiduciary obligations, they are ultimately responsible [...] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix ". [2] – "timeline for this work will involve a preparation phase (to begin immediately), an implementation phase (from January 2025 to December 2026, with the Board committed to ongoing monitoring), and an evaluation phase (to be completed by April 2027) https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_next_steps "
Sad cheers, --
Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz (He/him)
Wikimania 2024 Katowice – Team Lead
Wikimedia Europe Board Member
Wikipedia Administrator
User:Nadzik https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nadzik
czw., 11 lip 2024 o 12:35 Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org napisał(a):
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
+1 to practically everything Nadzik said, in particular as concerns the "corporate dialect". As for this comment:
- I would also like to use this occasion to thank *Mike Peel* for his vote of support on the Charter. He had the courage to be the only dissenting Board member, only one of the six current community-sourced Trustees https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees#Current_members .
It will be interesting to see how the community and affiliates voted on the charter. Until we have seen that, it is hard to determine to what extent the community-and-affiliate representatives' votes were actually representative of the movement.
Still, it seems worth mentioning at this point that the terms of four of the current community-and-affiliate-sourced board members are expiring this year.
Of those who voted for this Resolution, three are up for re-election in a few weeks' time:[1]
Lorenzo Losa Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight Victoria Doronina
So mark the board vote timeline[2] in your calendar. The vote launches on 3 September 2024 and ends on 17 September.
Finally, it strikes me that even if the community-and-affiliate vote had been reversed – five in favour of ratification, and one opposed – the Board Resolution *not* to ratify a charter calling for greater power sharing with the wider movement might still have passed 7:5 (unless Jimmy Wales would have decided to endorse the majority view of the community-and-affiliate members, in which case the board would have been merely tied on the matter).
The whole system is actually stacked against the movement.
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2024-07-04/News_a... [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2024#Timeline
On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 1:29 PM Wikipedysta Nadzik < pl.wikipedia.nadzik@gmail.com> wrote:
Nat,
I am strongly disappointed. Not even mad, just disappointed.
Through the Board's and the Wikimedia Foundation's series of decisions [1], we have just spent a lot of community attention (*which should be treated as a limited resource*) on a ratification vote that is now without standing. The vote gave the community another chance to speak on the matter (and the feedback will hopefully be used going forward) but I don't think it was worth the sacrifice of resources (yet another global engagement of thousands); it was within the BoT's power to end this. So much for the Movement_Charter/Glossary#Care_Responsibility https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Glossary#Care_Responsibility ...
I have raised that after the Liaisons' initial statements: if someone wanted to sabotage the process (this is not a word I am using lightly), this is how they would do it. We had a lot of confusion created by a statement of just two people (and we were repeatedly told that they were not speaking for the Board). I am willing to argue that it has been partially responsible for the problems with reaching the quorum (which was eventually reached, but barely and at a great expense). We had two global meetings with 90+ people devoted to this https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network/2024_06. When we asked for the Board to accelerate their process so we could save the community from going through the costly process that would bring no fruit, we were ignored.
The Liaisons' statement promised us "*concrete, time-bound next steps on a more practical scale." *Meanwhile, the minutes from the discussion and the resolution itself could not be further away from the above sentence. There are many non-statements, vague sentences, and very few* "concrete"* things. My absolutely favourite (not really) statement is:
- "Foundation will move forward on some of its components, including
experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations"
I like to think of myself as quite proficient in English. However, for the love of gods, I could not decipher this corporate dialect. There is nothing concrete in this. Sentences like this are an affront to the community, most of which are not first-language English speakers.
*To be fair, there are a couple of things worth mentioning as positives:*
- The executive summary
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix is an excellent step toward transparency and better communication, but the rest of the document and statements linked above are still very legal and exclusive.
- I would also like to use this occasion to thank *Mike Peel* for his
vote of support on the Charter. He had the courage to be the only dissenting Board member, only one of the six current community-sourced Trustees https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees#Current_members .
- Lastly, I'd like to thank the Movement Charter Drafting Committee
for their work. We have sometimes disagreed, but their work was hard, and they never crumbled. Kudos!
My disappointment is not with the final decision of the Board; after all, you are independent stakeholders in this ratification. The disappointment comes from the lack of grace in this process. I worked as a facilitator at the beginning of the Movement Charter process. I am sad that this is how it ended. I hope that another two years, as decided in your letter [2], will bring some fruition :)
[1] – "Because the Board of Trustees holds ultimate financial and fiduciary obligations, they are ultimately responsible [...] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix ". [2] – "timeline for this work will involve a preparation phase (to begin immediately), an implementation phase (from January 2025 to December 2026, with the Board committed to ongoing monitoring), and an evaluation phase (to be completed by April 2027) https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_next_steps "
Sad cheers,
Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz (He/him)
Wikimania 2024 Katowice – Team Lead
Wikimedia Europe Board Member
Wikipedia Administrator
User:Nadzik https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nadzik
czw., 11 lip 2024 o 12:35 Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org napisał(a):
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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A Rake's Progress:
Community decides based on consensus -----> Community decides based on raw votes ----> Community doesn't decide but everyone kinda pretends it has a real say ----> Community doesn't decide and nobody pretends it does.
I think we'll have the final painting done by the end of the year if we really try.
Dan
On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 9:59 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
+1 to practically everything Nadzik said, in particular as concerns the "corporate dialect". As for this comment:
- I would also like to use this occasion to thank *Mike Peel* for his
vote of support on the Charter. He had the courage to be the only dissenting Board member, only one of the six current community-sourced Trustees https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees#Current_members .
It will be interesting to see how the community and affiliates voted on the charter. Until we have seen that, it is hard to determine to what extent the community-and-affiliate representatives' votes were actually representative of the movement.
Still, it seems worth mentioning at this point that the terms of four of the current community-and-affiliate-sourced board members are expiring this year.
Of those who voted for this Resolution, three are up for re-election in a few weeks' time:[1]
Lorenzo Losa Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight Victoria Doronina
So mark the board vote timeline[2] in your calendar. The vote launches on 3 September 2024 and ends on 17 September.
Finally, it strikes me that even if the community-and-affiliate vote had been reversed – five in favour of ratification, and one opposed – the Board Resolution *not* to ratify a charter calling for greater power sharing with the wider movement might still have passed 7:5 (unless Jimmy Wales would have decided to endorse the majority view of the community-and-affiliate members, in which case the board would have been merely tied on the matter).
The whole system is actually stacked against the movement.
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2024-07-04/News_a... [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2024#Timeline
On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 1:29 PM Wikipedysta Nadzik < pl.wikipedia.nadzik@gmail.com> wrote:
Nat,
I am strongly disappointed. Not even mad, just disappointed.
Through the Board's and the Wikimedia Foundation's series of decisions [1], we have just spent a lot of community attention (*which should be treated as a limited resource*) on a ratification vote that is now without standing. The vote gave the community another chance to speak on the matter (and the feedback will hopefully be used going forward) but I don't think it was worth the sacrifice of resources (yet another global engagement of thousands); it was within the BoT's power to end this. So much for the Movement_Charter/Glossary#Care_Responsibility https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Glossary#Care_Responsibility ...
I have raised that after the Liaisons' initial statements: if someone wanted to sabotage the process (this is not a word I am using lightly), this is how they would do it. We had a lot of confusion created by a statement of just two people (and we were repeatedly told that they were not speaking for the Board). I am willing to argue that it has been partially responsible for the problems with reaching the quorum (which was eventually reached, but barely and at a great expense). We had two global meetings with 90+ people devoted to this https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network/2024_06. When we asked for the Board to accelerate their process so we could save the community from going through the costly process that would bring no fruit, we were ignored.
The Liaisons' statement promised us "*concrete, time-bound next steps on a more practical scale." *Meanwhile, the minutes from the discussion and the resolution itself could not be further away from the above sentence. There are many non-statements, vague sentences, and very few* "concrete"* things. My absolutely favourite (not really) statement is:
- "Foundation will move forward on some of its components, including
experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations"
I like to think of myself as quite proficient in English. However, for the love of gods, I could not decipher this corporate dialect. There is nothing concrete in this. Sentences like this are an affront to the community, most of which are not first-language English speakers.
*To be fair, there are a couple of things worth mentioning as positives:*
- The executive summary
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix is an excellent step toward transparency and better communication, but the rest of the document and statements linked above are still very legal and exclusive.
- I would also like to use this occasion to thank *Mike Peel* for his
vote of support on the Charter. He had the courage to be the only dissenting Board member, only one of the six current community-sourced Trustees https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees#Current_members .
- Lastly, I'd like to thank the Movement Charter Drafting Committee
for their work. We have sometimes disagreed, but their work was hard, and they never crumbled. Kudos!
My disappointment is not with the final decision of the Board; after all, you are independent stakeholders in this ratification. The disappointment comes from the lack of grace in this process. I worked as a facilitator at the beginning of the Movement Charter process. I am sad that this is how it ended. I hope that another two years, as decided in your letter [2], will bring some fruition :)
[1] – "Because the Board of Trustees holds ultimate financial and fiduciary obligations, they are ultimately responsible [...] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board_resolution_and_vote_on_the_proposed_Movement_Charter/Appendix ". [2] – "timeline for this work will involve a preparation phase (to begin immediately), an implementation phase (from January 2025 to December 2026, with the Board committed to ongoing monitoring), and an evaluation phase (to be completed by April 2027) https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_next_steps "
Sad cheers,
Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz (He/him)
Wikimania 2024 Katowice – Team Lead
Wikimedia Europe Board Member
Wikipedia Administrator
User:Nadzik https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nadzik
czw., 11 lip 2024 o 12:35 Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org napisał(a):
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
*On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.*
*==Draft Movement Charter== *
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committee https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning priorities https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewhere https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
*==Board resolution==*
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
*==What’s next==*
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talk https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!*
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Well, the minutes also revealed interesting facts about the different positions of the individual trustees:
"The Board felt it was important for all Trustees to be given time to voice their concerns and agreed the minutes should reflect the voices of those who dissented. Mike Peel stated his support for the draft movement charter. But he also stated his support for the next steps described in the proposed resolution. Mike made a motion, seconded by Victoria Doronina, to separate the resolution into two parts so that a vote on ratification could be made separately from a vote on the next steps. The amendment was not approved.
After a motion made by Shani Evenstein Sigalov and seconded by Kathy Collins, the Board approved the Resolution on the Draft Movement Charter. "
Regards, SCP-2000 https://w.wiki/_zgcU ________________________________ From: Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2024 6:34 PM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation Board resolution and vote on the proposed Movement Charter
Dear all,
As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.
On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.
==Draft Movement Charter==
The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Movement Charter Drafting Committeehttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.
At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual planhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025, strategic planning prioritieshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/April_2024_Update, and elsewherehttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Chief_Executive_Officer/Updates/February_2024_Update. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quicklyhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Financial_Model as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.
It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.
Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.
==Board resolution==
Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution [1] and minutes of the meeting [2].
The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the appendix [3] with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.
==What’s next==
As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.
Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.
To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta [4]. Alternatively, you can request a conversation with Foundation leadership as a part of Talking:2024https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024. You can also use the Let’s Talkhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Committee/Talking:_2024#Let%27s_talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Draft_Movement_Charter_and_...
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2024-07-08
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Board...
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/...
Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv 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!
Thank you very much, Maciej, for expressing my thoughts and feelings so clear. This is a sad day. There never was a process so extensively executed with all stakeholders, so much effort, so much hope for a redesign of the powers in the movement, so much work and energy and self-sacrifice beautifully put in the process. So many community members put their hopes in it. All the work of years now drowned in a meager and cold letter of corporate vagueness, cementing the status quo for years to come. And after that move of shattering hopes even daring to ask for "input/feedback", of those who just have been disappointed.... "What's next?" you ask? Board Elections are next. Have fun.
The MC has been a very long process, I think in some ways it was tiring and draining the community with slow progress. While I was disappointed in how the last few weeks have played out I'm not entirely sure that was going to ever achieve what was envisaged when we started. This is not the first plan that I have seen over the last 19-20 years where too much time spent trying to make everything all things to all people rather than just getting small steps done quicker, though I'm sure somewhere in there time was lost due Covid too.
I feel for the people over the last 6 years that have acted in good faith working on getting us to this point. I welcome the Boards decision to continue the process but in smaller pieces. As someone who has been around so long I recognise that so many people have come and gone over the years, priorities do change, combined with so many new perspectives, ideas, and thoughts on how to do something different.
Just looking at the community now there have been so many changes, greater diversity, efforts to bring previously unheard voices into the room. When we sat in Berlin starting the strategy process all the Chapter Presidents were men, and there were no Usergroups, just chapters and one thematic organisation. In our meeting we took a vote to make a conscious effort to ensure that there would be more Women in the room from then on. We are so much more now than we have ever been, the movement has changed for the better it will keep changing. Once the dust settles we will learn from this, Wikimedians are always at the cutting edge of doing what has been said to be impossible. We dont need to right every time, we just need to keep going.
On Fri, 12 Jul 2024 at 18:50, denisobarthel@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you very much, Maciej, for expressing my thoughts and feelings so clear. This is a sad day. There never was a process so extensively executed with all stakeholders, so much effort, so much hope for a redesign of the powers in the movement, so much work and energy and self-sacrifice beautifully put in the process. So many community members put their hopes in it. All the work of years now drowned in a meager and cold letter of corporate vagueness, cementing the status quo for years to come. And after that move of shattering hopes even daring to ask for "input/feedback", of those who just have been disappointed.... "What's next?" you ask? Board Elections are next. Have fun. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear Wikimedia Community
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each of you for your tireless participation in the strategic planning process over the years. I also want to applaud the individuals who have dedicated nearly five years of their lives to serving our community, meticulously crafting a vision for a more inclusive, diverse, and collaboratively built movement.
During the recent Wikimedia Summit, I posed the question "What happens if ratification fails?" during my last panel. An uncomfortable silence filled the room. It seemed that this possibility had never been considered, at least not by the MCDC, as there was no apprehension that the collective will could falter.
I am not disappointed with the Wikimedia Foundation's BoT resolution; rather, I am concerned that the dedicated volunteers who spent countless hours debating, even traveling to far-off countries to meet in person, to craft a charter that establishes minimum standards, were essentially replaced by a decision to simply assume that "experiments" are the best approach for our community. This undermines the credibility of future processes for those of us who have been involved in the movement for a long time: it alienates those of us who have spent years talking, discussing, and advocating, using our free time to build the movement, instead of dedicating it to Wikimedia projects or our personal lives.
The Wikimedia Summit has been discontinued this year, leaving us without a dedicated space for affiliated groups to discuss the future of our movement. Wikimania, on the other hand, is not a suitable forum for community-wide discussions, as it primarily serves as a celebratory event. We are now devoid of space for such discussions, and I urge the Wikimedia Foundation to establish mechanisms for bringing communities together. It is not enough to claim to be a global movement if we are unable to unite in one place. Even the UN convenes annually, and we have lost this opportunity. Organizations like ours also require face-to-face interactions to address our concerns, challenges, and aspirations for the movement's future. I vividly recall being inspired by the CEE and the Romanian community's work in challenging circumstances at the last Wikimedia Summit, learning about the progress of colleagues in my region, and feeling saddened by the changes in far-off countries that jeopardize the movement's existence there. This is what we have lost, and we no longer have it, nor will we have this forum for discussion.
Therefore, I leave you with lingering questions arising from this process: Can we maintain trust when the WMF calls for another community consultation process?, How can we be certain that the measures being taken by the WMF are the right path to ensure that we can think beyond 2030? What observable criteria will be used to determine the success of the plan? Many questions arise in my mind, but I do not expect answers. I am simply appealing to the fact that the community has invested nearly six years (not counting other parallel processes) in an effort that is now being reduced to the implementation of the Foundation's interpretation of the resulting documents.
These are my thoughts and ideas, and they do not represent any affiliated organization.
Thank you for your attention. I sincerely hope that the community will be actively involved in future strategy exercises, perhaps with the next generation of the movement already in place (there is still a long way to go until 2030).
Kindly
(PS: I used IA to translate the message: seems curious a diverse movement where your voice isn't heard if it isn't written in English)
On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 7:32 AM Gnangarra gnangarra@gmail.com wrote:
The MC has been a very long process, I think in some ways it was tiring and draining the community with slow progress. While I was disappointed in how the last few weeks have played out I'm not entirely sure that was going to ever achieve what was envisaged when we started. This is not the first plan that I have seen over the last 19-20 years where too much time spent trying to make everything all things to all people rather than just getting small steps done quicker, though I'm sure somewhere in there time was lost due Covid too.
I feel for the people over the last 6 years that have acted in good faith working on getting us to this point. I welcome the Boards decision to continue the process but in smaller pieces. As someone who has been around so long I recognise that so many people have come and gone over the years, priorities do change, combined with so many new perspectives, ideas, and thoughts on how to do something different.
Just looking at the community now there have been so many changes, greater diversity, efforts to bring previously unheard voices into the room. When we sat in Berlin starting the strategy process all the Chapter Presidents were men, and there were no Usergroups, just chapters and one thematic organisation. In our meeting we took a vote to make a conscious effort to ensure that there would be more Women in the room from then on. We are so much more now than we have ever been, the movement has changed for the better it will keep changing. Once the dust settles we will learn from this, Wikimedians are always at the cutting edge of doing what has been said to be impossible. We dont need to right every time, we just need to keep going.
On Fri, 12 Jul 2024 at 18:50, denisobarthel@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you very much, Maciej, for expressing my thoughts and feelings so clear. This is a sad day. There never was a process so extensively executed with all stakeholders, so much effort, so much hope for a redesign of the powers in the movement, so much work and energy and self-sacrifice beautifully put in the process. So many community members put their hopes in it. All the work of years now drowned in a meager and cold letter of corporate vagueness, cementing the status quo for years to come. And after that move of shattering hopes even daring to ask for "input/feedback", of those who just have been disappointed.... "What's next?" you ask? Board Elections are next. Have fun. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Boodarwun Gnangarra 'ngany dabakarn koorliny arn boodjera dardon nlangan Nyungar koortabodjar'
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear all, I echo the words Dennis said, in a personal capacity.
I remember that we took the first steps on the strategy in 2018, but we had already started talking in July 2017 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Direction/Appendix, 7 years ago. During the two years of Diversity Working Group discussions - which then led to the 10 recommendations - 5 children were born in our group. Something that struck me a lot and a measure that I give of the time and life that flowed outside, while inside we discussed the movement. And I think it gives a great idea of the effort that community volunteers have already made back then, I can't imagine how much this effort has increased in recent times.
To remain on the subject of the commitment that the community of volunteers has put into this process, I also remember that at first I had decided not to vote the UCoC ratification, given that it remained and still remains a good thing on paper, which on a concrete has little margin for action in cases of harassment and abuse. But not ratifying it meant not being grateful and nullifying all the work of those who had worked.
I don't like corporate language, which we have to accept in our work off wifi and not here, and it has little to do with who believes in this movement. Without making financial calculations, if the community agreed to spend 7 years of its life, as Dennis says, dedicating them to discussions on strategy, instead of enjoying life out there or creating wiki events or creating content, it is because they believed in it. We believed we could change the things from inside, we believed that there was a point in "sitting at the table" of discussions, we thought the words "we are listening to you" and "every voice counts" were genuine and powerful at the same time.
Now I'm no longer so certain and I wonder what the personal or affiliate motivations could be to move forward, if not just forget about the thousands of useless discussions, good intentions that bring few concrete things and strategy, and focus on advocacy, projects and creating open content.
Sincerely, Camelia
-- *Camelia Boban (she/her)*
*| Java EE Developer |*
camelia.boban@gmail.com M. +39 3383385545 WikiDonne Chair & Founder | WMF Gender & Climate Change Certified Organizer | NW Europe Grants Committee
*Wikipedia https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Camelia.boban **| **WikiDonne Project https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:WikiDonne *| *WikiDonne UG https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiDonne* | *WikiDonne APS https://wikidonne.org/* WMIT - WMSE - WMCH - WMDC - WMBE - WCS-UG - WGR-UG Member
On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 2:46 PM Dennis Tobar dennis.tobar@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Wikimedia Community
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each of you for your tireless participation in the strategic planning process over the years. I also want to applaud the individuals who have dedicated nearly five years of their lives to serving our community, meticulously crafting a vision for a more inclusive, diverse, and collaboratively built movement.
During the recent Wikimedia Summit, I posed the question "What happens if ratification fails?" during my last panel. An uncomfortable silence filled the room. It seemed that this possibility had never been considered, at least not by the MCDC, as there was no apprehension that the collective will could falter.
I am not disappointed with the Wikimedia Foundation's BoT resolution; rather, I am concerned that the dedicated volunteers who spent countless hours debating, even traveling to far-off countries to meet in person, to craft a charter that establishes minimum standards, were essentially replaced by a decision to simply assume that "experiments" are the best approach for our community. This undermines the credibility of future processes for those of us who have been involved in the movement for a long time: it alienates those of us who have spent years talking, discussing, and advocating, using our free time to build the movement, instead of dedicating it to Wikimedia projects or our personal lives.
The Wikimedia Summit has been discontinued this year, leaving us without a dedicated space for affiliated groups to discuss the future of our movement. Wikimania, on the other hand, is not a suitable forum for community-wide discussions, as it primarily serves as a celebratory event. We are now devoid of space for such discussions, and I urge the Wikimedia Foundation to establish mechanisms for bringing communities together. It is not enough to claim to be a global movement if we are unable to unite in one place. Even the UN convenes annually, and we have lost this opportunity. Organizations like ours also require face-to-face interactions to address our concerns, challenges, and aspirations for the movement's future. I vividly recall being inspired by the CEE and the Romanian community's work in challenging circumstances at the last Wikimedia Summit, learning about the progress of colleagues in my region, and feeling saddened by the changes in far-off countries that jeopardize the movement's existence there. This is what we have lost, and we no longer have it, nor will we have this forum for discussion.
Therefore, I leave you with lingering questions arising from this process: Can we maintain trust when the WMF calls for another community consultation process?, How can we be certain that the measures being taken by the WMF are the right path to ensure that we can think beyond 2030? What observable criteria will be used to determine the success of the plan? Many questions arise in my mind, but I do not expect answers. I am simply appealing to the fact that the community has invested nearly six years (not counting other parallel processes) in an effort that is now being reduced to the implementation of the Foundation's interpretation of the resulting documents.
These are my thoughts and ideas, and they do not represent any affiliated organization.
Thank you for your attention. I sincerely hope that the community will be actively involved in future strategy exercises, perhaps with the next generation of the movement already in place (there is still a long way to go until 2030).
Kindly
(PS: I used IA to translate the message: seems curious a diverse movement where your voice isn't heard if it isn't written in English)
On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 7:32 AM Gnangarra gnangarra@gmail.com wrote:
The MC has been a very long process, I think in some ways it was tiring and draining the community with slow progress. While I was disappointed in how the last few weeks have played out I'm not entirely sure that was going to ever achieve what was envisaged when we started. This is not the first plan that I have seen over the last 19-20 years where too much time spent trying to make everything all things to all people rather than just getting small steps done quicker, though I'm sure somewhere in there time was lost due Covid too.
I feel for the people over the last 6 years that have acted in good faith working on getting us to this point. I welcome the Boards decision to continue the process but in smaller pieces. As someone who has been around so long I recognise that so many people have come and gone over the years, priorities do change, combined with so many new perspectives, ideas, and thoughts on how to do something different.
Just looking at the community now there have been so many changes, greater diversity, efforts to bring previously unheard voices into the room. When we sat in Berlin starting the strategy process all the Chapter Presidents were men, and there were no Usergroups, just chapters and one thematic organisation. In our meeting we took a vote to make a conscious effort to ensure that there would be more Women in the room from then on. We are so much more now than we have ever been, the movement has changed for the better it will keep changing. Once the dust settles we will learn from this, Wikimedians are always at the cutting edge of doing what has been said to be impossible. We dont need to right every time, we just need to keep going.
On Fri, 12 Jul 2024 at 18:50, denisobarthel@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you very much, Maciej, for expressing my thoughts and feelings so clear. This is a sad day. There never was a process so extensively executed with all stakeholders, so much effort, so much hope for a redesign of the powers in the movement, so much work and energy and self-sacrifice beautifully put in the process. So many community members put their hopes in it. All the work of years now drowned in a meager and cold letter of corporate vagueness, cementing the status quo for years to come. And after that move of shattering hopes even daring to ask for "input/feedback", of those who just have been disappointed.... "What's next?" you ask? Board Elections are next. Have fun. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Boodarwun Gnangarra 'ngany dabakarn koorliny arn boodjera dardon nlangan Nyungar koortabodjar'
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