Hi everyone,
We recently held the harmonization sprint in Tunis [1], where representatives from each working group met in person to continue bringing nine separate sets of draft recommendations into one set. The event also brought together staff members from the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland, the WMF Chair of the Board of Trustees, and members of the core team. A longer narrative report will be published in the coming weeks; in the meantime, see a short day-by-day report on Meta, photos on commons [2], and check out the hashtag #hs2030 on Twitter [3].
In the lead up to the meeting, the working groups were busy refining their draft recommendations based on feedback received at in person events from Wikimedians across the movement as well as on wiki, via email, and on social media since March of this year. They had also begun identifying overlaps in each other’s recommendations and content. A second iteration of draft recommendations [4] was published on Meta just before the sprint for the communities’ information.
At the sprint, we continued to group recommendations based on commonalities. From there, we looked at what kinds of structures would need to be in place to deliver the Wikimedia 2030 vision. A first, rough grouping of recommendations came together at the sprint. But what became clear during the event was that before it’s possible to create a coherent and actionable set of recommendations, fundamental principles that underpin the path towards 2030 need to be formalized.
The core team is currently processing the discussion materials and outcomes. Analysis of the current draft recommendations will continue so as to create one unified set. The timeline will shift and we are looking into options for another round of community input.
I would like to make clear that the reason we were not able to achieve our initial goal in Tunis was due to a lack of clarity and guidance on the core team’s part. Still, the time was not wasted and important, honest conversations were had. The working group members, as ever, devoted an enormous amount of energy and care in the lead up to and during the event, and demonstrated their deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in our movement. We are extremely grateful for all their effort. In short, the harmonization sprint underlined the high level of work and dedication every single working group member has put into getting the movement strategy to its current point, and the passion to shape the future of the diverse and inclusive movement we envision.
We have valuable lessons to take from this event and incorporate into the overall process and the next steps. We will share these with you all as soon as possible. If you have questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me.
Best regards, Nicole
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen... [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_2030_Harmonization_Spr... [3] https://twitter.com/search?q=%23hs2030 [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommen...