[Wikimedia-l] Call for members for new Communications committee

[Gregory Varnum]

Tl;dr: We are launching a new Communications Committee (ComCom) and
replacing the existing ComCom list with a new Movement Communications mailing
list.

Hello!

After much discussion and brainstorming with the members of the current
Communications committee, the Wikimedia Communications department is
implementing changes to the Communications committee and how we
collectively support each other's communications efforts.

*Specifically, we are:*
Putting out a call for members of a new Communications committee (ComCom)
which will work on more focused and long-term projects together.

Replacing the current list with a new Movement Communications (MoveCom)
mailing list to continue to facilitate wider discussions.

*What does that mean exactly?*
This new Communications committee will be composed of 10-15 volunteers
serving 3-year terms, work closely with the Wikimedia Foundation
Communications department, and be empowered to support communications
efforts across the movement. Over the coming weeks, the Communications
department will seek out and select potential members who will work with us
to further establish the group's initial plans, scope, and activities. See
below for more information on this selection process.

The new Movement Communications mailing list will allow the 200+ people on
this current mailing list to engage in new and more transparent
discussions. Current members will be asked to rejoin using a new process
which allows us to publicly display who is involved with the mailing list
discussions. More information on how to join the new list will be shared in
coming weeks.

*What will these new groups do?*
The new Communications committee will work with the Communications
department on implementation of movement-wide communications projects and
support the development of communications capacities within movement groups
and affiliates. How the group does that and what specifically that includes
is something we are hoping to discuss with the inaugural committee.

The new Movement Communications mailing list, which will be facilitated by
the new Communications committee, will be able to discuss topics brought up
by members of the mailing list, Foundation's Communications department, or
Communications committee. These topics may range from brainstorming
solutions to a problem faced by a specific group on the list to
coordinating communications efforts across groups on major events.

*How do I join the new groups?*
We will be sharing information on joining the new Movement communications
group mailing list when it is fully setup and ready.

If you are interested in joining the new 10-15 person Communications
committee, please send an email to gvarnum[image: @]wikimedia.org by 17
April 2019 and include:

1. Acknowledgement that this is a three-year appointment and you are indeed
interested and able to serve.

2. Your community and staff (if you have any) usernames which you use on
Wikimedia projects. Also any information on other roles you may have within
the movement (please include both staff and volunteer roles). Please note
that you must be in good standing (ie. not blocked) on the wikis to
participate.

3. A brief statement on why you would like to serve on the Communications
committee, and in particular what you believe you can bring to the group
and what you hope to gain from the experience.

4. A brief statement on what ideas, if any, you have for what the new
Communications committee could do or how the Foundation could help support
its efforts.

The inaugural committee will be selected by the Communications department.
Additional and future members will be selected by the committee, with
support from the Communications department.


If you have any questions about these changes, the new groups, or the
selection process for the new Communications committee, please feel free to
reach out to me.

Thank you!
-greg

PS. Please help us with translating and sharing this update and call for
members:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications_committee/Call_for_members_-_March_2019

-- 

Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)

Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on the Wikimedia Foundation’s planning process

[Janeen Uzzell]

Pine - thanks for your email and I do hope to meet you at some
pointresponding inline.

On Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 1:37 PM Pine W  wrote:

> Hi Janeen,
>
> Thanks very much for the update. I like the sound of these goals.
>
> I have a question regarding the first goal. Does growing participation
> refer to growing human readership, or to both growing human readership and
> growing data reuse such as from Wikidata, or to growing human readership
> and data reuse and contributorship?
>
> We are referring to all aspects: readership, the WIki projects, not just
increasing readers but where are readers are globally. We want to expand
access to knowledge globally through all of our projects, languages and
increase our diversity of users.


> Contributorship seems to be very low as a percentage of Internet users in
> many languages including English and German, while readership levels are
> relatively high in some languages and geographies and relatively low in
> others. I hope that WMF tries to grow contributorship in all languages and
> geographies, while also trying to grow readership and data reuse in
> languages where Wikimedia readership and data reuse seem to have
> significant opportunities for growth.
>
> Absolutely agree. We need editors that reflect the world we are serving
and this is inline with our growth as well as our plan for a thriving
community...we need to ensure that everyone that participates feels welcome
and able to contribute.


> I would also like to know how WMF plans to become more nimble. I think that
> increasing agility is a good goal. Can you share more specifics?
>
> In terms of nimbleness, I can certainly say this is a priority - which is
why I was hired. None of the work we want to deliver externally will be
possible until we improve our organizational effectiveness. That will be
the first order of business and I look forward to sharing more as we
finalize the plan and begin execution.

Thanks,
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 11:37 AM Janeen Uzzell  wrote:
>
> > Greetings! I'm excited to be the new Chief Operating Officer at the
> > Wikimedia Foundation and look forward to meeting many of you as I grow in
> > this role. Until then, feel free to reach out to me at
> > jan...@wikimedia.org.
> >
> >
> > I've been busy supporting the Medium Term Planning team and wanted to
> send
> > an update on our process.
> >
> >
> > The Wikimedia Foundation is currently engaged in the process of creating
> a
> > medium-term plan that will support our 2030 Strategic Direction. This
> plan
> > is a representation of how we will lead, build, design and serve the
> global
> > world and provide access to free knowledge.
> >
> > In the process, we are setting up the Foundation to be more nimble so we
> > can adapt to recommendations coming out of movement strategy. In the
> past,
> > we have typically planned one year at a time. This new process that we
> are
> > using will allow us to plan for longer-term goals aligned to knowledge
> > equity and knowledge as a service.
> >
> > For the next three to five years, the Wikimedia Foundation will focus on
> > these two goals that will support our strategic direction to become the
> > infrastructure of free knowledge:
> >
> >-
> >
> >Grow participation globally, focusing on emerging markets
> >-
> >
> >   Grow the use of Wikipedia and Wikimedia across the globe. Focus on
> >   increasing Wikipedia use in low-awareness or low-use geographies
> and
> >   languages, in order to bring Wikipedia’s use in line with rates
> > of overall
> >   internet usage.
> >   -
> >
> >Modernize our product experience
> >-
> >
> >   Make contributor and reader experiences useful and joyful. Move
> from
> >   viewing Wikipedia as solely a website, to viewing the Wikimedia
> > ecosystem
> >   as a collection of knowledge, information, and insights with
> infinite
> >   possible product experiences and applications.
> >
> >
> > To create our medium-term plan, we have been conducting a collaborative
> > process to gather ideas and input from across the Foundation to help us
> > narrow in on a set of key priorities and outcomes that we need to
> > accomplish to achieve our two goals.
> >
> > The medium-term plan is intended to stay at the strategic level so that
> it
> > describes what we want to accomplish, without going into great detail
> about
> > how we are going to accomplish it.  This level of focus will allow us to
> be
> > clear about what the Foundation will achieve in the next several years,
> > while giving ourselves the flexibility to adapt to recommendations from
> the
> > Movement Strategy process, take advantage of emergent opportunities, and
> > experiment with tactics and strategies.
> >
> > We will soon be finishing a draft of the medium-term plan to present to
> the
> > Board of Trustees at their next meeting on March 28th, 2019. After we
> share
> >