Greetings,
As a community, we've talked a lot about values in the past year. The
core values of the Wikimedia Foundation were first formulated in
2007−2008 and have not really been discussed in depth since then. In
2013, we also developed Guiding principles, a list of more practical
norms and expected behaviors that guide our day-to-day work at the
Foundation. Combined with our vision and mission statements, those
documents represent the core facets of our organizational identity.
Both staff and volunteers have expressed concerns that there isn't
currently a shared understanding (among the staff and other
constituents) of what our core values are, and how we express them in
our work. We've also talked about a need to revisit or reinforce them.
A few months ago, a working group formed to organize a series of new
discussions about the WMF's values. The goal is to reflect on what is
bringing us together, identify the core beliefs that motivate our
vision, refine our list of values, and clarify our organizational
identity.
Discussions about values in nonprofit organizations are usually done
internally. Given the open and collaborative nature of the Wikimedia
movement, such a closed, internal process wouldn't make sense for the
WMF. The Foundation is part of an integrated ecosystem of individuals
and organizations that contribute to defining its identity. Input
should be collected not just from staff and Board members, but also
from volunteers, affiliates, and partners who wish to participate in
this process.
On behalf of the Values working group, I would therefore like to
invite you to this discussion on Meta. There, you will find more
information about the process, as well as a page to share your
perspective on the Wikimedia Foundation's values. The framing that
we're using for this discussion is one that considers values as the
core intrinsic beliefs that drive our participation in the movement.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Values/2016_discussion
The discussion will be open for a month, i.e. until November 20.
Comments added after that date will still be welcome, but may not be
included in the summary process.
I hope many of you take this opportunity to help define (or refine)
the Foundation's organizational identity.
--
Guillaume Paumier
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello all,
Today we opened a discussion asking for community input
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/Creative_Commons_4.0> on a
proposed change to the Wikimedia Terms of Use to upgrade to Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/>. The new license is
easier to read and more internationally friendly, so we hope it will ensure
that people can easily and freely share or remix Wikimedia content. The
amendment to our Terms of Use is currently available in German, French,
Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and we welcome further translations and
discussion in any language.
For your review, you may find the proposed amendment and background
information here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/
Creative_Commons_4.0/Legal_note
Please join the discussion on the talk page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
wiki/Talk:Terms_of_use/Creative_Commons_4.0
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and comments.
Best,
Stephen
--
Stephen LaPorte
Senior Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you
have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the
mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
Dear Wikimedia friends,
For the 9th time since the Funds Dissemination Committee was created, the
Annual Plan Grants process needs your eyes, brains and analytic skills.
Since October 1st, 11 Wikimedia affiliates have posted their proposal for
review by the FDC...and you. These consist of annual plans and budgets,
with a detail of what programs and activities those organizations are
planning for the year 2017.
This opens the time for community review, a month long process in which we
need as many people as possible giving their feedback on the proposals,
asking questions or clarifications and analyzing the initiatives that our
movement affiliates have developped for the year to come.
In November, the FDC will meet to make recommendations to Wikimedia
Foundation's Board of Trustees on how to allocate movement funds to these
affiliates in order to achieve the most impact. Your input and
participation will be valuable as they make these recommendations.
You can find the proposals linked from the Community review portal here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2016-2017_round_1
The organizations whose proposals, plans and budgets are available for your
review include:
Amical Wikimedia, Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedia CH, Wikimedia Deutschland
e.V., Wikimedia Israel, Wikimedia Nederland, Wikimedia Serbia, Wikimedia
Sverige, Wikimedia UK
Wikimedia Ukraine, Wikimedia Österreich
You can leave your feedback on the proposal discussion page.
Visit the annual plan grant portal [*] for more information about the
program, the FDC, or upcoming milestones. You can reach the FDC support
staff at FDCsupport(a)wikimedia.org. More information about past APG rounds,
recommendations, reports from organizations can be found on the proposal
page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals
*More about community review*:
The APG proposal submission date is followed by a 30-day open comment
period, when anyone is invited to provide input on and ask questions about
a specific proposal on its discussion page.
Applicants are also expected to respond to input and questions during this
period, although they are not able to change the proposal form itself after
the submission date.
The FDC will review the discussion pages during their deliberations in
November as one of many inputs to the decision-making process. While anyone
may comment on proposals after the open comment period closes on 31
October, the FDC may not be able to take comments made after this period
into consideration when reaching its decisions.
*How to review*:
Please visit the community review page to view the proposals being
considered and follow the instructions. While the proposals are only
available in English, your comments can be in any language.
*Why your feedback matters*:
We hope this open comment period will add to an in-depth and robust review
of each proposal, and help keep our grantmaking transparent and
collaborative. The FDC highly values feedback and insights from the
Wikimedia community in making its funding recommendations.
Thank you for the time you’ll take to review these proposals,
Best,
Delphine
--
Delphine Ménard
Program Officer, Annual Plan Grants
Wikimedia Foundation
Dear all,
The next WMF metrics and activities meeting will take place on Thursday,
September 29, 2016 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC channel is
#wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net, and the meeting will be broadcast as
a live YouTube stream.
Meeting agenda:
* Welcomes
* Community update
* Review of WMF top-level metrics
* Feature Presentation
* Research Update
* Product Demo
* Questions/discussions
* Wikilove
Please review
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities…>
for
further
information about the meeting and how to participate.
We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
Thank you,
--
Limayli Huguet
Front Office Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello all!
Please join us on September 28 at 16:00 UTC to review the research findings
of the New Readers project <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers>!
This 1.5 hour presentation will share findings from user research in
Mexico, India, and Nigeria.
Why should you come?
- India, Nigeria, and Mexico represent more than 1.5 billion people,
more than 20% of the world
- Current Wikipedia awareness and usage in these countries is low – less
than 25% of people in Nigeria and India have even heard of Wikipedia
- In pursuit of the Wikimedia vision to make knowledge accessible to
“every single human being”, we aim to better understand users around the
world and meet their real needs
Specifically, we will discuss:
- Information seeking habits
- Internet use, devices, and general knowledge patterns
- Wikipedia awareness and usage
- User personas developed from findings
- Potential next steps and opportunities to better serve New Readers in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America
More details on the project can be found on Meta-Wiki.[1]
Join us on September 28 at 9am PDT / 4pm UTC / 9:30pm IST through our
YouTube stream[2] or with conferencing app BlueJeans.[3]
best,
Joe Sutherland
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYymUXRzpU4
[3] https://bluejeans.com/354618595/
--
*Joe Sutherland*
Community Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation
joesutherland.rocks