Dear all, Thank you for your engagement and input. It’s been great seeing so much attention on movement strategy and collaborative efforts for building our future. Here are a couple of follow up responses and clarifications.
DRAFTS As pointed out in my previous email, the documents we recently shared are recommendation drafts. They are not final, and not complete, but working documents that are currently being refined by the working groups. Some answers still read like stubs that are longing for further development, others are very detailed and will become more focused over the next few weeks. We still decided to publish everything at once, to give everyone a full picture of the variety of topics and offer an insight into multiple progress levels. I would also like to reiterate that movement values, priorities and community conversation processes are high on our radar. A recommendation to change the existing license model, for example, will not just go through a quick approval process, but lead to a deeper exploration into the reasoning behind it: What problems are we trying to tackle, and what could be ways to mitigate them? Such recommendation would then rather suggest to look into different measures to ensure indigenous knowledge is included in the Wikimedia ecosystem, deploy research and further consultation, instead of rushing to a quick fix. INTEGRATION The working groups are taking input that they gathered at Wikimania and via different movement channels and incorporating it into the next iteration of their recommendations. These documents will then serve as a basis for harmonization across working groups. The input that we are gathering comes in on different levels. Some of it targets structural level changes or emphasizes specific principles or values, while other feedback is more on the programmatic side or already addressing implementation. Structural input will continue to be considered in forthcoming iterations of the recommendations. Programmatic input will be documented and taken forward to inform the implementation. TIMELINE We wanted to get the English drafts out as soon as possible and the translations on a rolling basis, so that Wikimania participants could read and prepare to engage in person. Over the next few weeks, we will do targeted, public outreach to online project communities in multiple languages. We are soliciting feedback to shape the overall direction of the recommendations through mid-September. Working Groups are already working on identifying gaps and overlaps with other groups to prepare for harmonization. At the harmonization sprint in Tunis on 20-22 September, we will bring 3 representatives from each Working Group together to work to develop a more coherent set of recommendations. The group will be supported by facilitators and external advice, as well as the core team. We have also invited María Sefidari, Katherine Maher, Ryan Merkley, Valerie D’Costa (Wikimedia Foundation) and Abraham Taherivand (Wikimedia Deutschland) to the sprint. They contribute expertise and experience from their work and leadership in the movement and beyond. They will be active listeners and can challenge recommendations by pointing out risks and consequences on the organizational and movement level. They also participate as the representatives of organizations that may be impacted by the recommendations. Involving them early is important so they can anticipate any possible changes for their staff and programs, and plan for implementation. Our aim is to release recommendations in November 2019, and present them to the Board of Trustees for approval in December. We will need the legal authority of the board for some of the recommendations, while others will then be further delegated to other community mechanisms and structures for approval or further consultation.[1] There will be additional public consultation activities around implementation that will be discussed and owned across the movement. WORKING GROUPS We have chosen the working group model to ensure that the process that embarks to make significant changes to our movement structures is owned by the community. Members of the nine working group were selected by a steering committee and the groups were established in July 2019.[2] Group members come from different parts of the movement, e.g. from different regions and languages, from individual contributors and organized groups, and with different volunteer and staff roles, incl. Wikimedia Foundation staff and board. The groups are doing an amazing job. With many of them being volunteers, or doing this work on top of their regular jobs, creating the draft recommendations is a huge achievement. They first needed to form, storm and norm as a group and figure out how to best work together across time zones, languages, and contexts. They then took a deep dive into the substance and identified the scope of their work and the specific questions to tackle for us as a movement to advance in our strategic direction. The development of recommendations has started in spring this year, and – aside from many online calls, asynchronous work and scarce in-person meetings – included incorporating community conversations and external expertise. It is only to the hard work of these groups that we finally have something tangible in front of us that we can all react to and help further improve to build our future together. Please join us in thanking, celebrating and supporting them, rather than rushing to conclusions or arguing over details. Please contribute in good faith, and in a constructive way. Let me know if you have further questions. Best wishes, Nicole [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/July_2018_-_Board_of_Trustees_participation_in_the_Movement_Strategy_Process [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Working_Groups/Procedures On Wed, 21 Aug 2019 at 13:13, Yaroslav Blanter <ymb...@gmail.com> wrote: > And this is the core problem of the whole process (which has been pointed > out by multiple people from the very beginning) > > Cheers > Yaroslav > > On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 12:27 PM Jeff Hawke <geoffey.ha...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > Andy > > > > On Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 7:41 PM Andy Mabbett <a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> > > wrote: > > > > > On Mon, 19 Aug 2019 at 09:55, Jeff Hawke <geoffey.ha...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > > > > the WG then collate them and decide the final form of the > > > > recommendations, to be implemented by the WMF > > > > > > This seems to be missing a rather crucial intermediate step; the one > > > where the recommendations are accepted, or not, by the wider Wikimedia > > > community. > > > > > > > That step is not mentioned at > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Frequently_asked_questions#What_steps_will_take_place_in_the_next_few_months_to_put_a_decision-making_process_in_place > > ? > > > > Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > 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> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > 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> -- Nicole Ebber Adviser International Relations Program Manager Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0 https://wikimedia.de Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der Menschheit teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei! https://spenden.wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l 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>
