Dear Christophe and all, Many of the trustees and WMF leadership have been following these threads and have had similar conversations with other community members (both on-wiki <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027> and in other spaces <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027/Collaboration#Co-created_Community_spaces>) about the change we need to deliver Wikimedia's mission with the internet at an inflection point. You yourself were present, together with many executives and Trustees, for the Wikimedia Futures Lab <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Futures_Lab/Events>.
You'll see in our annual plan <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027> that we've been tracking these global trends. Wikipedia is seeing declines in pageviews <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/03/10/engaging-and-reengaging-wikipedia-readers/> and referral traffic from Google, and unprecedented increases in bot traffic. We believe this is not a temporary phenomenon, but a structural shift and we are acting to mitigate this. The world needs us all to evolve and adapt. We are looking forward to continuing the conversation at Wikimania where the organisers have created lots of discussion spaces on the agenda <https://wikimedia.eventyay.com/wm/wikimania2026/schedule/> and on-wiki <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Board_of_Trustees/Community_and_Affiliate_Liaisons> for those not able to attend. We are also happy to meet you at the call you are organising <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:This_is_not_a_meeting>, in our continued commitment to talking to Wikimedia volunteers where they gather, not only in spaces created by the Foundation. Talk to you soon! Thanks, *Maciej Nadzikiewicz (User:Nadzik)* Community & Affiliates Liaison of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees pt., 3 lip 2026 o 21:23 Christophe Henner via Wikimedia-l < [email protected]> napisał(a): > I love this discussion, thank you all for speaking up. :) > > One note on "the community can just do it," I do think it's the right > direction, so please read the next couple of paragraphs as a friendly > amendment (just to make sure everyone's on the same page) rather than a > pushback. > > "The community can just do it," feels very appealing right now: because we > are missing ownership and leadership, self-organizing is kinda the only > option with that vacuum. It probably is the best tool we have to > rebuild/respark the ownership we are missing. > > That being said, a couple of comments: > > 1. Community means staff too, to me. Many of the people the movement pays > are also among its most committed contributors, so let us not run this as > volunteers versus the Foundation/paid staff. I know it sometimes reads > simplistic, but we're all in the same boat, or at least we should be. > > 2. At this scale the work will need people with dedicated time on it. > Because the Foundation is not taking leadership doesn't mean it doesn't > have a responsibility. The Foundation owns most of the resources in the > movement, and if we, as a movement, are to change/evolve, we need those > resources. It can't rely only on volunteers. However, I'm not saying we > need X, Y or Z, just that we will need people with dedicated time at some > point. > > Brooke, to your comment on the Foundation being a service organisation, I > would agree if the Foundation was being supportive. But it's neither > leading the change nor being supportive on that topic, in my opinion. And > don't anyone get me wrong, I do know how hard it is first hand to do either > (or both), but I also know it can happen. And I hope they'll take the first > opportunity to join in the discussion. > > Speaking of opportunities, I've started a second thread with an invitation > to meet next week. It's a bit of last minute notice, but I'd love to keep > the momentum :) > > > -- > Christophe > > > On Fri, 3 Jul 2026 at 00:10, Samuel Klein via Wikimedia-l < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear Nada, excellent framing. It is entirely in our control to fix >> outreach, build welcoming and forgiving environments, make strides with >> less-resource languages and communities. >> >> Christophe, thanks again for persisting in this thread (and planning a >> range of activities around Wikimania!) I see many people engaged with >> these topics who don't want to engage in discussion about angst over >> current problems, but are deeply enthusiastic about, and actively engaged >> in, building new things / working on new possibilities. >> >> Brooke writes: >> > Wikimedia is a participatory system... We have to put in the work >> ourselves. >> >> Absolutely. The civilized netizen's first duty is to be always prepared >> to rewrite <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco> anything truly >> important from scratch. >> >> Galder writes: >> >>> One correction: I'm not a trustee! >>> >> >> But we surely trust you, including to make the world's best Txikipedia. >> >> We have many good ideas and talented people in the community. We do >> need persistent spaces to discuss and make plans, in part because in the >> last growth spurt we fragmented communication channels across hundreds of >> pages, sites, lists, and apps. Recombining many of those streams would be >> good for coherence and continuity. >> >> But our wikis are better suited to experimenting, reverting, and >> iterating than distilling large-scale consensus. Quick decisions by >> ~sortition (or by the first few people to turn up) help polish the roughest >> edges. Having spaces that push back against the iron law >> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy> of oligarchy and >> preserve freedom to experiment is essential, even when simultaneously >> waiting for delayed consensus. >> >> Our strongest shared identity is as people committed to building >> freely-licensed knowledge together, in every language, accessible to the >> entire world. More people care about this today than ever before. We simply >> have to make space for it again. >> >> 𝐖♡, SJ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines >> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/RJV4EYFT53SYRNXZPOMP54CXTRGWLNB3/ >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/UZBRT3CYMTTGU47QIT2NKACDWIBSGRW7/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] -- *User:Nadzik <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nadzik>*
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