[Wikimedia-l] Nine Month Update & Foundation Leadership Team

[Maryana Iskander]

This message is being translated into other languages on Meta-wiki. ‎You
can help with more languages.




Hi everyone,



I’ve started my ninth official month as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Based on feedback from this list and elsewhere, I am trying to proactively
communicate every few months on my priorities and what I continue to learn.



I regularly return to the five ‘puzzles’

I identified in my original letter to you. For me, these continue to pose
big questions about our role in the world and our ways of working with each
other. I’ve mentioned that one highlight of the year so far has been
bringing colleagues together – volunteers, editors, affiliates, Foundation
staff, board members – to reconnect at a human level. Many of you have
shared with me the need for more spaces that can help us build (and
rebuild) relationships and trust.



As more communities return to in-person events, I have benefitted from
spending time with volunteers at WikiCon Brasil and at the Wikimania meetup
hosted in Cape Town. I look forward to participating in-person and
virtually at many more regional gatherings in the months ahead.



I am writing today to provide you with an update on the three priorities I
identified in January.

Priority 1: Strategy and Planning

My first priority remains focused on strategy and planning. In June, we
shared the successful adoption of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Plan
.
It is now anchored in the strategic direction of our movement – knowledge
equity and knowledge as a service – and it identifies the Foundation’s
strengthened focus on regions and on projects. This plan benefited from the
contributions and feedback of hundreds of volunteers who provided input
on-wiki and through other multilingual channels of communication. We’ll
share updates on progress before the end of the calendar year on the Annual
Plan meta page and in other forums. Our intention is to continue asking for
guidance and input from volunteers, affiliates, and communities.

I mentioned in my April message that the Wikimedia Foundation has grown
very rapidly over the past 3 years as part of its medium term plan – increasing
its budget by more than 30% in the past year with the addition of more than
200 new people since 2020. This growth will not continue as we stabilize
and make sure that new resources are delivering maximum impact for our
mission. The Foundation’s approved budget represents a 17% increase, most
of this is inflationary and other year-on-year costs. Funding to other
movement entities (individual and affiliate) grew by 24% percent.

While the annual plan is an important start, it does not address all of the
significant strategic issues facing Wikimedia – none of which can be solved
in a single year. Within the framework of our movement strategy and
emerging charter, I plan to continue partnering with Foundation
stakeholders and communities in co-planning approaches to tackle strategic
issues that an annual plan cannot fully address. The Board of Trustees will
help kick this off with strategic planning engagements at the board’s
upcoming meeting in Berlin. This will be followed by important
conversations about strategy implementation at the Wikimedia Summit
 (returning for the
first time since 2019).

Priority 2: Leadership

I highlighted in January that CEO transitions are disruptive for most
organisations and change often continues after a new leader has arrived. I
have been trying to build a broader leadership team at the Wikimedia
Foundation as I focus on successfully onboarding new hires, investing more
in internal talent management, undertaking succession planning for key
roles, and providing stronger communications support for the Foundation’s
senior team.

Product/Technology

My top priority when I joined was to actively step in and support the
Foundation’s product and technology teams while we recruited executive
leadership of these mission critical functions with a new Chief Product and
Technology Officer. This goal has been achieved

as Selena Deckelmann is now officially on board at the Wikimedia Foundation
after a successful nine-year career at Mozilla, most recently as the head
of Firefox. She is reaching out to learn from our technical contributors
and volunteers, and can be contacted directly at sdeckelm...@wikimedia.org.

Advancement

Having assessed the Wikimedia Foundation’s leadership structure, I have
decided not to create or resurrect any additional C-level roles at this
time. Instead, we will add more organization-wide 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Nine Month Update & Foundation Leadership Team

[Samuel Klein]

Seconded — thank you for these continuing updates, and for always inviting
conversation. Essential, even when it takes time for those seeds to sprout.



On Tue., Sep. 6, 2022, 7:11 p.m. Craig Newmark, 
wrote:

> Maryana, much appreciated!
>
> Craig Newmark, craigslist founder
> craignewmarkphilanthropies.org
>
> On Tue, Sep 6, 2022, 9:53 AM Maryana Iskander 
> wrote:
>
>> This message is being translated into other languages on Meta-wiki. ‎You
>> can help with more languages.
>> 
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>>
>>
>> I’ve started my ninth official month as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.
>> Based on feedback from this list and elsewhere, I am trying to proactively
>> communicate every few months on my priorities and what I continue to learn.
>>
>>
>>
>> I regularly return to the five ‘puzzles’
>> 
>> I identified in my original letter to you. For me, these continue to pose
>> big questions about our role in the world and our ways of working with each
>> other. I’ve mentioned that one highlight of the year so far has been
>> bringing colleagues together – volunteers, editors, affiliates, Foundation
>> staff, board members – to reconnect at a human level. Many of you have
>> shared with me the need for more spaces that can help us build (and
>> rebuild) relationships and trust.
>>
>>
>>
>> As more communities return to in-person events, I have benefitted from
>> spending time with volunteers at WikiCon Brasil and at the Wikimania meetup
>> hosted in Cape Town. I look forward to participating in-person and
>> virtually at many more regional gatherings in the months ahead.
>>
>>
>>
>> I am writing today to provide you with an update on the three priorities
>> I identified in January.
>>
>> Priority 1: Strategy and Planning
>>
>> My first priority remains focused on strategy and planning. In June, we
>> shared the successful adoption of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Plan
>> .
>> It is now anchored in the strategic direction of our movement – knowledge
>> equity and knowledge as a service – and it identifies the Foundation’s
>> strengthened focus on regions and on projects. This plan benefited from the
>> contributions and feedback of hundreds of volunteers who provided input
>> on-wiki and through other multilingual channels of communication. We’ll
>> share updates on progress before the end of the calendar year on the Annual
>> Plan meta page and in other forums. Our intention is to continue asking for
>> guidance and input from volunteers, affiliates, and communities.
>>
>> I mentioned in my April message that the Wikimedia Foundation has grown
>> very rapidly over the past 3 years as part of its medium term plan – 
>> increasing
>> its budget by more than 30% in the past year with the addition of more than
>> 200 new people since 2020. This growth will not continue as we stabilize
>> and make sure that new resources are delivering maximum impact for our
>> mission. The Foundation’s approved budget represents a 17% increase, most
>> of this is inflationary and other year-on-year costs. Funding to other
>> movement entities (individual and affiliate) grew by 24% percent.
>>
>> While the annual plan is an important start, it does not address all of
>> the significant strategic issues facing Wikimedia – none of which can be
>> solved in a single year. Within the framework of our movement strategy and
>> emerging charter, I plan to continue partnering with Foundation
>> stakeholders and communities in co-planning approaches to tackle strategic
>> issues that an annual plan cannot fully address. The Board of Trustees will
>> help kick this off with strategic planning engagements at the board’s
>> upcoming meeting in Berlin. This will be followed by important
>> conversations about strategy implementation at the Wikimedia Summit
>>  (returning for
>> the first time since 2019).
>>
>> Priority 2: Leadership
>>
>> I highlighted in January that CEO transitions are disruptive for most
>> organisations and change often continues after a new leader has arrived. I
>> have been trying to build a broader leadership team at the Wikimedia
>> Foundation as I focus on successfully onboarding new hires, investing
>> more in internal talent management, undertaking succession planning for key
>> roles, and providing stronger communications support for the Foundation’s
>> senior team.
>>
>> Product/Technology
>>
>> My top priority when I joined was to actively step in and support the
>> Foundation’s product and technology teams while we recruited executive
>> leadership of these mission critical functions with a new Chief Product and
>> Technology Officer. This goal has 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Nine Month Update & Foundation Leadership Team

[Craig Newmark]

Maryana, much appreciated!

Craig Newmark, craigslist founder
craignewmarkphilanthropies.org

On Tue, Sep 6, 2022, 9:53 AM Maryana Iskander 
wrote:

> This message is being translated into other languages on Meta-wiki. ‎You
> can help with more languages.
> 
>
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
>
>
> I’ve started my ninth official month as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.
> Based on feedback from this list and elsewhere, I am trying to proactively
> communicate every few months on my priorities and what I continue to learn.
>
>
>
> I regularly return to the five ‘puzzles’
> 
> I identified in my original letter to you. For me, these continue to pose
> big questions about our role in the world and our ways of working with each
> other. I’ve mentioned that one highlight of the year so far has been
> bringing colleagues together – volunteers, editors, affiliates, Foundation
> staff, board members – to reconnect at a human level. Many of you have
> shared with me the need for more spaces that can help us build (and
> rebuild) relationships and trust.
>
>
>
> As more communities return to in-person events, I have benefitted from
> spending time with volunteers at WikiCon Brasil and at the Wikimania meetup
> hosted in Cape Town. I look forward to participating in-person and
> virtually at many more regional gatherings in the months ahead.
>
>
>
> I am writing today to provide you with an update on the three priorities I
> identified in January.
>
> Priority 1: Strategy and Planning
>
> My first priority remains focused on strategy and planning. In June, we
> shared the successful adoption of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Plan
> .
> It is now anchored in the strategic direction of our movement – knowledge
> equity and knowledge as a service – and it identifies the Foundation’s
> strengthened focus on regions and on projects. This plan benefited from the
> contributions and feedback of hundreds of volunteers who provided input
> on-wiki and through other multilingual channels of communication. We’ll
> share updates on progress before the end of the calendar year on the Annual
> Plan meta page and in other forums. Our intention is to continue asking for
> guidance and input from volunteers, affiliates, and communities.
>
> I mentioned in my April message that the Wikimedia Foundation has grown
> very rapidly over the past 3 years as part of its medium term plan – 
> increasing
> its budget by more than 30% in the past year with the addition of more than
> 200 new people since 2020. This growth will not continue as we stabilize
> and make sure that new resources are delivering maximum impact for our
> mission. The Foundation’s approved budget represents a 17% increase, most
> of this is inflationary and other year-on-year costs. Funding to other
> movement entities (individual and affiliate) grew by 24% percent.
>
> While the annual plan is an important start, it does not address all of
> the significant strategic issues facing Wikimedia – none of which can be
> solved in a single year. Within the framework of our movement strategy and
> emerging charter, I plan to continue partnering with Foundation
> stakeholders and communities in co-planning approaches to tackle strategic
> issues that an annual plan cannot fully address. The Board of Trustees will
> help kick this off with strategic planning engagements at the board’s
> upcoming meeting in Berlin. This will be followed by important
> conversations about strategy implementation at the Wikimedia Summit
>  (returning for
> the first time since 2019).
>
> Priority 2: Leadership
>
> I highlighted in January that CEO transitions are disruptive for most
> organisations and change often continues after a new leader has arrived. I
> have been trying to build a broader leadership team at the Wikimedia
> Foundation as I focus on successfully onboarding new hires, investing
> more in internal talent management, undertaking succession planning for key
> roles, and providing stronger communications support for the Foundation’s
> senior team.
>
> Product/Technology
>
> My top priority when I joined was to actively step in and support the
> Foundation’s product and technology teams while we recruited executive
> leadership of these mission critical functions with a new Chief Product and
> Technology Officer. This goal has been achieved
> 
> as Selena Deckelmann is now officially on board at the Wikimedia
> Foundation after a successful nine-year career at Mozilla, most recently as
> the head of Firefox. She is reaching out to learn from 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Nine Month Update & Foundation Leadership Team

[Florence Devouard]

Thank you for the update Maryana :)

Flo

Le 06/09/2022 à 21:16, Samuel Klein a écrit :
Seconded — thank you for these continuing updates, and for always 
inviting conversation. Essential, even when it takes time for those 
seeds to sprout.




On Tue., Sep. 6, 2022, 7:11 p.m. Craig Newmark, 
 wrote:


Maryana, much appreciated!

Craig Newmark, craigslist founder
craignewmarkphilanthropies.org 

On Tue, Sep 6, 2022, 9:53 AM Maryana Iskander
 wrote:

This message is being translated into other languages on
Meta-wiki. ‎You can help with more languages.



Hi everyone,

I’ve started my ninth official month as CEO of the Wikimedia
Foundation. Based on feedback from this list and elsewhere, I
am trying to proactively communicate every few months on my
priorities and what I continue to learn.

I regularly return to the five ‘puzzles’

I
identified in my original letter to you. For me, these
continue to pose big questions about our role in the world and
our ways of working with each other. I’ve mentioned that one
highlight of the year so far has been bringing colleagues
together – volunteers, editors, affiliates, Foundation staff,
board members – to reconnect at a human level. Many of you
have shared with me the need for more spaces that can help us
build (and rebuild) relationships and trust.

As more communities return to in-person events, I have
benefitted from spending time with volunteers at WikiCon
Brasil and at the Wikimania meetup hosted in Cape Town. I look
forward to participating in-person and virtually at many more
regional gatherings in the months ahead.

I am writing today to provide you with an update on the three
priorities I identified in January.


Priority 1: Strategy and Planning

My first priority remains focused on strategy and planning. In
June, we shared the successful adoption of the Wikimedia
Foundation’s Annual Plan

.
It is now anchored in the strategic direction of our movement
– knowledge equity and knowledge as a service – and it
identifies the Foundation’s strengthened focus on regions and
on projects. This plan benefited from the contributions and
feedback of hundreds of volunteers who provided input on-wiki
and through other multilingual channels of communication.
We’ll share updates on progress before the end of the calendar
year on the Annual Plan meta page and in other forums. Our
intention is to continue asking for guidance and input from
volunteers, affiliates, and communities.


I mentioned in my April message that the Wikimedia Foundation
has grown very rapidly over the past 3 years as part of its
medium term plan – increasing its budget by more than 30% in
the past year with the addition of more than 200 new people
since 2020.This growth will not continue as we stabilize and
make sure that new resources are delivering maximum impact for
our mission. The Foundation’s approved budget represents a 17%
increase, most of this is inflationary and other year-on-year
costs. Funding to other movement entities (individual and
affiliate) grew by 24% percent.


While the annual plan is an important start, it does not
address all of the significant strategic issues facing
Wikimedia – none of which can be solved in a single year.
Within the framework of our movement strategy and emerging
charter, I plan to continue partnering with Foundation
stakeholders and communities in co-planning approaches to
tackle strategic issues that an annual plan cannot fully
address. The Board of Trustees will help kick this off with
strategic planning engagements at the board’s upcoming meeting
in Berlin. This will be followed by important conversations
about strategy implementation at the Wikimedia Summit
(returning
for the first time since 2019).


Priority 2: Leadership

I highlighted in January that CEO transitions are disruptive
for most organisations and change often continues after a new
leader has arrived. I have been trying to build a broader
leadership team at the Wikimedia Foundation as I focus on
successfully onboarding new hires, 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Nine Month Update & Foundation Leadership Team

[Olushola Olaniyan]

Thank you, Maryana for the highlights, they came very handy.
I will continue to resonate on them. Cheers

On Tue, Sep 6, 2022, 5:52 PM Maryana Iskander 
wrote:

> This message is being translated into other languages on Meta-wiki. ‎You
> can help with more languages.
> 
>
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
>
>
> I’ve started my ninth official month as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.
> Based on feedback from this list and elsewhere, I am trying to proactively
> communicate every few months on my priorities and what I continue to learn.
>
>
>
> I regularly return to the five ‘puzzles’
> 
> I identified in my original letter to you. For me, these continue to pose
> big questions about our role in the world and our ways of working with each
> other. I’ve mentioned that one highlight of the year so far has been
> bringing colleagues together – volunteers, editors, affiliates, Foundation
> staff, board members – to reconnect at a human level. Many of you have
> shared with me the need for more spaces that can help us build (and
> rebuild) relationships and trust.
>
>
>
> As more communities return to in-person events, I have benefitted from
> spending time with volunteers at WikiCon Brasil and at the Wikimania meetup
> hosted in Cape Town. I look forward to participating in-person and
> virtually at many more regional gatherings in the months ahead.
>
>
>
> I am writing today to provide you with an update on the three priorities I
> identified in January.
>
> Priority 1: Strategy and Planning
>
> My first priority remains focused on strategy and planning. In June, we
> shared the successful adoption of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Plan
> .
> It is now anchored in the strategic direction of our movement – knowledge
> equity and knowledge as a service – and it identifies the Foundation’s
> strengthened focus on regions and on projects. This plan benefited from the
> contributions and feedback of hundreds of volunteers who provided input
> on-wiki and through other multilingual channels of communication. We’ll
> share updates on progress before the end of the calendar year on the Annual
> Plan meta page and in other forums. Our intention is to continue asking for
> guidance and input from volunteers, affiliates, and communities.
>
> I mentioned in my April message that the Wikimedia Foundation has grown
> very rapidly over the past 3 years as part of its medium term plan – 
> increasing
> its budget by more than 30% in the past year with the addition of more than
> 200 new people since 2020. This growth will not continue as we stabilize
> and make sure that new resources are delivering maximum impact for our
> mission. The Foundation’s approved budget represents a 17% increase, most
> of this is inflationary and other year-on-year costs. Funding to other
> movement entities (individual and affiliate) grew by 24% percent.
>
> While the annual plan is an important start, it does not address all of
> the significant strategic issues facing Wikimedia – none of which can be
> solved in a single year. Within the framework of our movement strategy and
> emerging charter, I plan to continue partnering with Foundation
> stakeholders and communities in co-planning approaches to tackle strategic
> issues that an annual plan cannot fully address. The Board of Trustees will
> help kick this off with strategic planning engagements at the board’s
> upcoming meeting in Berlin. This will be followed by important
> conversations about strategy implementation at the Wikimedia Summit
>  (returning for
> the first time since 2019).
>
> Priority 2: Leadership
>
> I highlighted in January that CEO transitions are disruptive for most
> organisations and change often continues after a new leader has arrived. I
> have been trying to build a broader leadership team at the Wikimedia
> Foundation as I focus on successfully onboarding new hires, investing
> more in internal talent management, undertaking succession planning for key
> roles, and providing stronger communications support for the Foundation’s
> senior team.
>
> Product/Technology
>
> My top priority when I joined was to actively step in and support the
> Foundation’s product and technology teams while we recruited executive
> leadership of these mission critical functions with a new Chief Product and
> Technology Officer. This goal has been achieved
> 
> as Selena Deckelmann is now officially on board at the Wikimedia
> Foundation after a successful nine-year career at Mozilla, most recently as
> the head of Firefox. She is reaching out to 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] Outreachy Round 25–call for projects and mentors now open!

[Slavina Stefanova]

Hello all,

I am looking for someone to join me as a co-mentor for the Outreachy 2022
December cohort. I’m a former Outreachy intern and currently working as a
software engineer with the Technical Engagement team at WMF.

The project is detailed in this Phabricator task[0]. It will be a web app
similar to the tool Citation Hunt[1]. If you have some experience
developing web applications, this could be a good opportunity to get
involved on the mentoring side. You don’t have to know everything, as long
as you have sufficient skills in either frontend, backend, or design. New
mentors are welcome!

The time commitment is around 5h/week from December to March, and during
the contribution and applicant selection phase in October.

You are welcome to email me with any questions, or ask them directly in
this thread.

Also, if you aren’t interested yourself but know someone who might be,
please spread the word <3


Thanks,
Slavina

[0] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T317083
[1] https://citationhunt.toolforge.org/


--
Slavina Stefanova (she/her)
Software Engineer - Technical Engagement

Wikimedia Foundation


On Wed, Aug 17, 2022 at 2:46 PM Srishti Sethi  wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Wikimedia is participating in the winter edition of this year's Outreachy <
> https://www.outreachy.org/> [1] (December 2022–March 2023)! The deadline
> to submit projects on the Outreachy website is September 30th, 2022. We are
> currently working on a list of interesting project ideas. If you have some
> ideas for coding or non-coding (design, documentation, translation,
> outreach, research) projects, share them here: <
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T313361> [2].
>
>
> *About the Outreachy program*
> Outreachy offers three-month internships to work remotely in Free and Open
> Source Software (FOSS), coding, and non-coding projects with experienced
> mentors. These internships run twice a year–from May to August and December
> to March. Interns are paid a stipend of USD 7000 for the three months of
> work. Interns often find employment after their internship with Outreachy
> sponsors or jobs that use the skills they learned during their internship.
> This program is open to both students and non-students. Outreachy expressly
> invites the following people to apply:
> * Women (both cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people.
> * Anyone who faces under-representation, systematic bias, or
> discrimination in the technology industry in their country of residence.
> * Residents and nationals of the United States of any gender who are
> Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American/American Indian,
> Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander.
>
> See a blog post highlighting the experiences and outcomes of interns who
> participated in a previous round of Outreachy with Wikimedia <
> https://techblog.wikimedia.org/2021/06/02/outreachy-round-21-experiences-and-outcomes/>
> [3]
>
>
> *Tips for mentors for proposing projects*
> * Follow this task description template when you propose a project in
> Phabricator: <
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/outreach-programs-projects> [4].
> Add #Outreachy-Round-25 tag.
> * Project should require an experienced developer ~15 days and a newcomer
> ~3 months to complete.
> * Each project should have at least two mentors, with one of them holding
> a technical background.
> * Ideally, the project has no tight deadlines, a moderate learning curve,
> and fewer dependencies on Wikimedia's core infrastructure. Projects
> addressing the needs of a language community are most welcome.
> * If you don't have an idea in mind and would like to pick one from an
> existing list, check out these projects: <
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/outreach-programs-projects/> [4]
> * To learn more about the roles and responsibilities of mentors, visit our
> resources on MediaWiki.org: <
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Mentors> [5].
>
> We look forward to your participation!
>
> Cheers,
> Srishti
>
>
> [1] https://www.outreachy.org/
>
> [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T313361
>
> [3]
> https://techblog.wikimedia.org/2021/06/02/outreachy-round-21-experiences-and-outcomes/
>
> [4] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/outreach-programs-projects/
>
> [5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Mentors
>
>
> *Srishti Sethi*
> Senior Developer Advocate
> Wikimedia Foundation 
>
> ___
> Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at