[Foundation-l] strategic planning process update

[Samuel J Klein]

On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 9:35 PM, Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> 2009/9/22 Eugene Eric Kim <eekim at blueoxen.com>:
>> On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Pavlo Shevelo <pavlo.shevelo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> "Who will decide what the strategy will be, and what will be the
>>> decision-making process?"
>>>
>>> this page explains nothing about (or explains in no detail if somebody
>>> prefers) how main stakeholder - Foundation will make decision about

Sue put this well.  There is more than one 'main' stakeholder here,
depending on your perspective.

> Essentially, the purpose of the project is to develop a strategy for
> the Wikimedia movement, not just for the Wikimedia Foundation.  What
> that means is that no single entity will be able to approve and drive
> forward the whole thing: individual players will drive forward the
> pieces that compel and engage and inspire them.

I will add two comments.

One difficult piece will be suggestions that aren't at the right
timescale or level of granularity.   And each major stakeholder will
have to choose their short-term efforts aligned with that longer-term
strategy.

For instance, the Foundation's Annual Plan is essentially a one-year
strategy plan.  The 2010 plan will have to be finalized before the
final report of the strategy process, but will pay attention to its
intermediate results.


And when there are mutually incompatible suggestions which have to be
reconciled *for each party*, it will often be possible for different
parts of the community and movement to pursue each idea.  I think of
projects such as Omegawiki that way - it is incompatible with what is
currently implemented as Wiktionary, and is supported outside of WMF,
but clearly pursuing the goals of the movement.

Mike writes:
> http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Read_the_Proposals_as_Videos_on_youtube

Now that is simply delightful.

SJ