Hi all,
Today the Wikimedia Foundation published a report on its activities in
calendar year 2014.
This State of the Wikimedia Foundation
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.pdf>
report
provides a snapshot view of the Foundation’s major initiatives and
considerations during that period. It also offers a baseline assessment of
key efforts made by internal Foundation departments, with an emphasis on
data-based results, project impact, challenges, and how our work supports
our mission.
Last December, the Wikimedia Foundation entered into the beginning of a
strategy planning exercise. As we progressed, we found people had differing
familiarities with the work, needs, and concerns of other departments --
the proverbial Blind Men and an Elephant.[1] In response, we began pulling
together information as a baseline reference so we would better understand
each others’ work. This report is the outcome of that research.[2]
Although the information in the report was originally gathered in response
to an internal Foundation need, we planned to make it public as a report
from the very beginning. It is intended to be relatively candid, sharing
insight into where teams feel they have strengths and where they feel there
are development areas.
The report also offers the first look at the Foundation’s internal Call to
Action for 2015
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation#2015_Call_to_Action>.
The Call to Action is a set of actions for the 2015 calendar year to focus
the staff of the Foundation on our core functions. These include improving
the processes by which we do our work, building stronger community
relationships, and exploring new ways to expand free knowledge. Terry, our
new COO <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/20/wmf-welcomes-coo/>, will
manage its implementation over the coming year.
Finally, a note: the report is a standalone product designed to aide the
strategy development process, and does not substitute for the Quarterly
Reports, Annual Report, or Annual Plan process. It is scoped only against
the Foundation’s existing workflows in 2014, and not against the work of
the Wikimedia movement overall. We have not committed to making it an
annual exercise.
The full State of the Wikimedia Foundation report is available as a wiki
here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation>
and as a PDF on Wikimedia Commons here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.pdf>
. You can also find more information in our blog post:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/04/02/new-wikimedia-foundation-report/.
We hope you find it interesting, and welcome your feedback.
Thanks,
Katherine
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
[2] Thanks to everyone at the Foundation who contributed so much great
information to their various teams sections. And a special thanks to Juliet
Barbara and Heather Walls who wrote and produced the whole thing!
--
Katherine Maher
Chief Communications Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
+1 (415) 712 4873
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org