Hello everyone,
The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
March 28th, 2019 at 18:00 UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
broadcast as a live YouTube stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCFzA3PEaQ
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCFzA3PEaQ>
We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
*Agenda:*
Facilitator: Adora Svitak, Communications Fellow, Wikimedia Foundation
- Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
- Movement update - 3 minutes
- New Communications committee and Movement communications group - 5
minutes
- EU Copyright reform update - 10 minutes
- Movement strategy update - 15 minutes
- Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
- Wikilove - 5 minutes
Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
The April 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
April 25, starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up
to participate, please visit:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_…
Thank you!
Hello Everyone,
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to present our *Annual Plan Mid-Year
report for 2018-19*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2018-2019/…>,
published on Meta-Wiki.
The mid-year report represents the halfway point of our progress against
the goals we set out in the Annual Plan, it describes actions and
measurable goals for each of our 3 priorities in the Annual Plan, the
status of each of the proposed actions and what results we have achieved
against the measurable goals. *If you have any questions on the content of
the report, please leave us a note on the talk page. *
We would like to extend our appreciation to all of our teams for their hard
work through the first half of this fiscal year. Also, thank you to the *staff
and community members* for your input and support as we continue to improve
our planning and reporting practices.
Thank you,
--
------------------------------
*Janeen Uzzell*
Chief Operating Officer
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hello everyone,
The next Wikimedia Monthly Activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
February 28th, 2018 at 19:00 UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
broadcast as a live YouTube stream.[
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It66BmW1Bxo] We’ll post the video recording
publicly after the meeting.
Facilitator: Sasha Redkina, Front Office Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation
- Welcome and introduction to agenda - 2 minutes
- Movement update - 3 minutes
- Who are our Wikipedia users in India? - 10 minutes
- Wikimedia 2030 status update and opportunities to participate - 20
minutes
- Questions and discussion - 10 minutes
- Wikilove - 5 minutes
Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
The March 2019 monthly activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
March 28, starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight Time). To sign up
to participate, please visit:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings/Sign_…
Thank you!
:: Apologies for cross-posting to multiple mailing lists. We want to ensure
we spread the word about this opportunity to as many people as possible. ::
Hi all,
We are writing today to invite you to be a part of a community review on
Wikimedia brand research and strategy.
Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation set out to better understand how the
world sees Wikimedia and Wikimedia projects as brands.[1] We wanted to get
a sense of the general visibility of our different projects, and evaluate
public support of our mission to spread free knowledge.
We launched a global brand study to research these questions, as part of
our planning toward our 2030 strategic goals.[2] The study was commissioned
by the Board, carried out by the brand consultancy Wolff Olins, and
directed by the Foundation’s Communications team.[3][4] It collected
perspectives from the internet users of seven countries (India, China,
Nigeria, Egypt, Germany, Mexico and the US) on Wikimedia projects and
values.
The study revealed some interesting trends:
- Awareness of Wikipedia is above 80% in Western Europe and North America.
- Awareness of Wikipedia averages above 40% in emerging markets,[5] and is
fast growing.
- There is awareness of other projects, but was significantly lower. For
example, awareness of Wikisource was at 30%, Wiktionary at 25%, Wikidata at
20%, and Wikivoyage at 8%.
- There was significant confusion around the name Wikimedia. Respondents
reported they had either not heard of it, or extrapolated its relationship
to Wikipedia.
- In spite of lack of awareness about Wikimedia, respondents showed a high
level of support for our mission.
Following from these research insights, the Wolff Olins team also made a
strategic suggestion to refine the Wikimedia brand system.[6] The
suggestions include:
- Use Wikipedia as the central movement brand rather than Wikimedia.
- Provide clearer connections to the Movement projects from Wikipedia to
drive increased awareness, usage and contributions to smaller projects.
- Retain Wikimedia project names, with the exception of Wikimedia Commons
which is recommended to be shortened to Wikicommons to be consistent with
other projects.
- Explore new naming conventions for the Foundation and affiliate groups
that use Wikipedia rather than Wikimedia.
- Consider expository taglines and other naming conventions to reassert the
connections between projects (e.g. “______ - A Wikipedia project”).
This is not a new idea.[7][8]
By definition, Wikimedia brands are shared among the communities who give
them meaning. So in considering this change, the Wikimedia Foundation is
collecting feedback from across our communities. Our goal is to speak with
more than 80% of affiliates and as many individual contributors as possible
before May 2019, when we will offer the Board of Trustees a summary of
community response.
We invite you to look at a project summary [9], the brand research [10],
and the brand strategy suggestion [11] Wolff Olins prepared working with us.
For feedback, please add comments on the Community Review talk page [12] or
email brandproject(a)wikimedia.org with direct feedback. You can also use
either of these channels to request to join a group meeting.
We know this is big topic and we’re excited to hear from you!
- Zack McCune and the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department
[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/02/07/how-does-the-world-see-wikimedia…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20
[3] https://www.wolffolins.com/
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Engagement/Defining_Emerging_Comm…
[6]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/02/26/leading-with-wikipedia-a-brand-p…
[7] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-May/029991.html
[8]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AStrengthening_and_un…
[9]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_resear…
[10]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Wikipedia_and_Wikimedia_Bran…
[11]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Wikimedia_brand_strategy_proposal…
[12]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_r…
--
Zack McCune (he/him)
Senior Global Brand Manager
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hello all!
The Wikimedia Foundation Board has unanimously approved the changes to the
Bylaws [1] during the last Board meeting on January 30, 2019. This will be
covered in the minutes, and the resolution will be published in short order.
This change allows the participation of User Groups [2] in the
Affiliate-selected Board seats (ASBS) 2019 process [3]. The discussion
about this process should start as soon as possible in order to have these
two seats selected by Wikimania. This is why we are sending this letter
now, before the resolution is published.
There are now over 100 recognized User Groups, covering over 50 countries,
several languages and topics, many of whom represent new and emergent
communities within the Wikimedia movement. The Board believes that the
added perspectives of the User Groups, combined with the voices of Chapters
and Thematic Organizations, will lead to a richer collection of guidance
for our movement. The conversation about how User Groups may participate in
this process has been on for years, it is not a new topic [4].
Once the facilitators of the Selection process are appointed by the
affiliates, they should work with María Sefidari, who has been chosen by
the Board as the Board liaison for the ASBS process.
Given the potential complexity of organizing a process that now will
include over a hundred user groups, the Wikimedia Foundation is offering
its support to set up infrastructure and help with communications if
requested by the affiliates.
A page for translation can be found at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Wikimed…
On behalf of the Board
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair of the Board Governance Committee
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/December_2018_-…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_bylaws/January_2014_-_…
*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!*
Hello all!
I am delighted to share with you that we have added a Chief Operating
Officer to the Wikimedia Foundation leadership (c-level) team. Today, I'm
excited to introduce you to Janeen Uzzell. Janeen started on January 23rd,
in time for the Foundation's All Hands retreat late last month, and has
since been working out of our office in San Francisco.
Janeen was most recently the head of Women in Technology for GE, where she
worked with GE’s global CEOs to revise practices across their workforce of
300,000 employees, increasing the number of women in technology roles.
Previously, she was GE’s Global Director of External Affairs and Technology
Programs, and before that, she spent 5 years as Director of Healthcare
Programs for GE Africa, based in Accra, Ghana. She also served as the
Director of Global Healthcare Programs, Director of Healthcare Disparity
Programs, and Director of Service Operations for GE.
Janeen has nearly two decades of experience implementing the design and use
of technology to drive impact on global outcomes. She is a people
developer, transformational leader, storyteller, engineer and
self-proclaimed “global citizen” — with a passion for incubation and
impact. She says she is on a mission to use her influence and voice to lead
casual work that changes lives, communities and the world. She has a MBA
from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
The Chief Operating Officer is not a new role for the Foundation, although
we haven't had one recently. As the Foundation has grown in recent years,
I've been talking to both the Board and the c-team about the value of
reinstating the COO role. We all agreed this was an important addition to
the Foundation to help us become more effective.
At the end of 2018, we met Janeen while recruiting for a different
position. After completing the interview process, many people felt as
though she had the skills for the Chief Operating Officer role. While we
generally do not hire before a job is posted, we also do not like to miss
out on opportunities. So, in consultation with and support from the Board
and c-team team, we agreed to create this new role and ask Janeen to join
the Foundation.
As the Foundation continues to grow and work to meet the needs of the
Wikimedia communities, Janeen's expertise will be instrumental in helping
the organization continue to meet the needs of our growing and evolving
movement. Please join me in welcoming Janeen to the Foundation and to the
incredible Wikimedia community!
Katherine
PS. A public announcement has also been posted on our blog:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/02/12/wikimedia-foundation-appoints-ja…
--
Katherine Maher (she/her)
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear all,
When the Wikimedia Foundation was first established, the head of the
organization was assigned the title of Executive Director (ED). In the US,
this is the standard title for non-profit leaders, and made sense for the
organization at the time.
This week, at our Board meeting, we made a decision to change to this
convention. We resolved to change Katherine Maher’s title to Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director. She retains the title of
Executive Director, and is also now the CEO of the Foundation. She can use
either, or both, titles to describe her position.
This was an easy decision to make, for a number of reasons.
As our movement has grown in the world, we’ve found that the title of ED is
not as easily understood outside the United States. As a Board with many
non-US people, many of us already used the term CEO to describe Katherine’s
responsibilities. While still an English-language term, it is a very common
term for many global organizations.
The CEO title is increasingly common in US non-profits as well, especially
larger ones. This is increasingly considered best practice, as a way to
communicate that the work of non-profit organizations is as serious,
complex, and worthy of respect as that of for-profit organizations. For
example, Creative Commons, one of our closest allies, uses the title of CEO.
As the Foundation already uses the convention of “chief officer” for the
leaders of its internal departments (Chief Financial Officer, Chief
Technology Officer), it also makes sense. An executive director would be
the most senior director, whereas a chief executive officer is the most
senior of the officers.
The Board’s Human Resources Committee recommended this change and reviewed
the details. As this is an update to Katherine’s title, and not a change in
her duties as an officer, it does not require an update to the Bylaws or a
wider consultation.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees is very supportive of this
change, as we believe this title better reflects the scope of Katherine’s
duties over Executive Director alone. This will better support her work
with global partners and leaders around the world, helping to share our
vision and supporting the strategic direction of Wikimedia in new markets.
Katherine’s job is not changing in any other sense.
Kind regards,
María
--
María Sefidari Huici
Chair of the Board
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear all,
I am very happy to share news with you of our latest appointment to the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Please join me in welcoming Lisa
Lewin as our newest Trustee!
Lisa Lewin is Managing Partner at Ethical Ventures, a New York City based
management consulting firm. She has worked in strategic growth and
development her whole career, helping launch new ventures and increase the
impact and growth potential of legacy businesses. Her professional focus
has always been at the intersection of technology and learning - and we are
very fortunate to have her as a part of our team!
Below is the official announcement.[1] Welcome, Lisa, and I look forward to
working with you!
Kind regards,
María
[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/01/31/wikimedia-foundation-announces-l…
*Wikimedia Foundation announces Lisa Lewin as new Trustee*
Lisa Lewin brings to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees over two
decades of experience in leading and growing companies focused on
educational media and technology
(San Francisco, California) 31 January 2019 -- Lisa Lewin, Managing Partner
at Ethical Ventures, a New York City based management consulting firm, will
be the newest member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia
Foundation and its work, and serves as the organization’s ultimate
corporate authority. As an incoming trustee, Lisa will serve a two year
term effective immediately.
Lisa has worked in strategic growth and development her whole career,
helping launch new ventures and increase the impact and growth potential of
legacy businesses. She began her career in research and consulting with The
NPD Group and BCG before joining McGraw-Hill and rising to vice president
of their professional education group.
She founded and led Mindgate Media, an education technology consultancy,
and later joined Pearson plc as president of their teacher education group,
eventually leading their global learning technology teams spanning six
continents. In 2016 she joined The Ready, a consulting firm specializing in
organizational transformation, where she remains a senior advisor. In 2018
she founded Ethical Ventures, which advises senior executives at
corporations and large nonprofits on navigating change and building
thriving organizations with a positive impact on society.
“I am thrilled to be joining an organisation that is committed to ensuring
the world continues to support freely accessible sources of information.
This is a critical mission given the shifts in the global internet space,”
said Lisa.
Lisa's career long commitment to connecting the worlds of education and
technology matches her passion for the Wikimedia Foundation's vision of
bringing knowledge to every human being.
Lisa joins Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Board Chair María Sefidari, Vice
Chair Christophe Henner, and Board members Esra'a Al Shafei, Tanya Capuano,
Dr. James Heilman, Dr. Dariusz Jemielniak, Raju Narisetti, and Nataliia
Tymkiv.
"The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is fortunate to have Lisa Lewin
joining us as a Trustee," said María Sefidari, Board Chair. "Her capacity
to connect technology with people who desire to learn will be invaluable as
we begin to implement our Wikimedia 2030 strategic direction. I am
confident she will both make a lasting impression on the Wikimedia movement
and feel right at home in our diverse and global community of people who
share that passion."
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
-María Sefidari, Board Chair
-Christophe Henner, Vice Chair
-Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
-Esra'a Al Shafei
-Tanya Capuano
-Dr. James Heilman
-Raju Narisetti
-Dr. Dariusz Jemielniak
-Nataliia Tymkiv
-Lisa Lewin
About Lisa Lewin
Lisa Lewin is Managing Partner at Ethical Ventures, a New York City based
management consulting firm.
Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, she has worked in strategic growth and
development her whole career, helping launch new ventures and increase the
impact and growth potential of legacy businesses. She began her career in
research and consulting with The NPD Group and BCG before joining
McGraw-Hill and rising to vice president of their professional education
group. She founded and led Mindgate Media, an education technology
consultancy, and later joined Pearson plc as president of their teacher
education group, eventually leading their global learning technology team
spanning six continents. In 2016 she joined The Ready, a consulting firm
specializing in organizational transformation, where she remains a senior
advisor. In 2018 she founded Ethical Ventures, which advises senior
executives at corporations and large nonprofits on navigating change and
building thriving organizations with a positive impact on society.
Lisa is active on the boards of the Center for Responsive Politics and
DoSomething.org. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business
Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, and earned a Master
of Business Administration with honors from Harvard Business School.
Lisa lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. She enjoys
making change, sense, mischief, and knitting scarves.
--
María Sefidari Huici
Chair of the Board
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>