[Wikimedia-l] Board vote on narrowing focus

[Bishakha Datta]

On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 4:35 PM, Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org>wrote:

> Thanks Bishakha,
>
> while I can understand the move of the WMF to do what they are best at, for
> me it is always a bit confusing when the Board (or Sue) is talking about
> the Foundation, and when about the movement. I hope I'm correct in my
> assumption that this narrowed focus is mostly a Foundation thing.
>
> Yes, this narrowed focus relates to Foundation programs.


> I do hope that freeing up
> these resources does mean that chapters and other groups will be supported
> more in taking over these tasks and where necessary, a transition process
> is considered.
>
> As I see it, the intention of re-allocating or re-prioritizing resources
(rather than freeing it up) is to make it easier for the Foundation to
focus on two key priorities: engineering and grantmaking, and to move
towards more impactful execution of each.

I don't think the re-prioritization can be seen either as supporting or not
supporting other groups to take over these tasks; many of these decisions
are upto other groups themselves. For instance, there is scope for chapters
to fund fellowships, but that is a decision that each chapter needs to make
for itself.

A narrower focus by the Foundation does leave room for other community
entities to step up, but whether they do so or not is also dependent on
each entity's annual plans, its vision, and how it sees its own role in the
movement now and going forward in the future. As slides 13 and 16 say,
there is scope to support the growth and build the eco-system of entities
via the grants process.

Best
Bishakha