Content Partnerships Hub/White paper/2. Purpose and structure of the White Paper

Developing a Thematic Hub in the Wikimedia Movement

Insights from Wikimedia Sverige's exploratory work to form a first thematic hub

White Paper

1. Why Wikimedia Sverige initiated the work to become a Thematic hub	2. Purpose and structure of the White Paper	3. Growing and reorganizing the current organization
4. Finding support internally and externally	5. Ensuring financial sustainability for the work	6. Final remarks

Purpose and structure of the White Paper

This White Paper outlines what was done by Wikimedia Sverige in preparation of becoming a Thematic hub, and what lessons can be drawn from that process. The intended reader is decision makers within the Wikimedia affiliates and the Wikimedia Foundation. The purpose is to provide insights of the challenges and opportunities that should be accounted for when working to form hubs in the Wikimedia movement.

The authors fully acknowledge that each context is different. Everything we have done might not be relevant to another context, and in some contexts the process would have to be significantly changed. However, we still hope that some insights can be gained by other affiliates who are interested in developing their organizations into Thematic hubs. It is worth noting that there are other possible models on how to organize thematic hubs, something which should be experimented with. This White Paper should be viewed as an attempt to explain what has been experimented with in this case, and not a final answer. By sharing the outcome of our experiments, others can hopefully save some time and effort by reusing methods and material we have developed.

We present some identified benefits, values, dangers, difficulties and risks associated with becoming a hub which we hope will help others to prepare and plan better. However, we do not attempt to provide complete answers on how they can be handled. We hope that together we can build upon this work to ensure a continuously lowered cost to organize hubs and to create interest to engage different Wikimedia organizations in international efforts.

This White Paper is a complementary document to the Center of Excellence – Blueprinting 2019 – Final project report, which focuses on the practical steps that were taken as part of the project.

Each section of the White Paper consists of four parts:

1. Background and context – explains what the situation was when the work was initiated and how the environment affects the work.
2. Current status – covers the work that took place during the first part of the initiative.
3. Future work – outlines the efforts, adjustments and improvements needed to take the initiative further.
4. Lessons learned and key takeaways – captures first what the initiative has taught us and then what other organizations should keep in mind.

The focus of this document

The document has been created to help reduce the risks and costs associated with reforming an organization into a more internationally oriented organization with a much larger role.

We hope that this will help leaders to take decisions that transform their own organization as fast as possible. We know that this is much needed and valuable for the Wikimedia movement's ability to deliver free knowledge to the world. The rationale for it can be found in all parts of the recommendations developed for the 2030 Strategy.

As such the focus of this White paper is on the issues and struggles, and what we did to mitigate them, rather than on the many, and very interesting, opportunities and possibilities that this type of change also creates.