Dear fellow Wikimedians, I have been closely following the developments of the previous weeks. A lot of things have been said, concerns and frustration have been raised, hope has been voiced, and many many questions have been brought up. It’s hard to keep up with all the voices on all the different digital channels these days, and hard to find solutions and agreement in an unfacilitated stream.
The first chance for many of us to personally meet, vent, and look ahead will be the the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin. Wikimedia Deutschland is hosting the event, and welcoming movement affiliates, committees and board and staff of the Wikimedia Foundation from April 20-24. The movement is standing at a crossroad, but I am confident we can find the best path if we work together. Wikimedia Deutschland has gone through turbulent times in the past as well, and we would like to offer our experience and full support as host and facilitator of an essential part of this process. With your participation and contribution, Wikimedia Conference can be a platform for exchange and progress. Let us use this opportunity to jointly figure out how we want to move forward as a network of partners. The conference is the ideal platform to discuss and define next steps to find answers to questions like: How do we imagine a movement striving for free knowledge and what structure and framework best serve these needs? How do the WMF and affiliates define their role and responsibilities on a global and local level? How shall an revamped search process for a new executive leadership of the WMF look like, and what are the main qualifications new candidates should bring? How will the strategy process for the WMF evolve and how can affiliates contribute? How do we involve our stakeholders from within and outside of the movement in this process? How do we manage to look ahead rather than repeating the old narratives? How do we create consensus on all these questions? In light of the current situation, we would like to dedicate a whole conference track to these issues. Of course, the initial conference topics of impact and capacity building are still important and will be covered as well. We have set up a page on meta and encourage you to share your questions, ideas, and concerns[1]. We intend to work closely with WMF and affiliate representatives in the coming eight weeks and create the program along their input. Looking forward to seeing you in Berlin in April, Tim Moritz Hector [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Program_Design_Process/Track: How to move forward -- Tim Moritz Hector Chair of the Board Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | D-10963 Berlin http://www.wikimedia.de _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
