Hi all,

Today the Wikimedia Foundation published a report on its activities in calendar year 2014.

This State of the Wikimedia Foundation 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. 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, 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 and as a PDF on Wikimedia Commons here.  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