Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Transition/Discuss/Cluster C

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Discussion of priorities: Cluster A - 22. Movement Charter + 23. Interim Global Council + 24. Global Council • Cluster B - 9. Methodology to improve the Wikimedia platform UX + 11. Resources for newcomers • Cluster C - 31-33: Invest in Skills and Leadership Development • Cluster D - 25. Regional & thematic hubs • Cluster E - 2. Funding for underrepresented communities • Cluster F - 3. Increased awareness about the Wikimedia Movement • Cluster G - 8. Align with environmental sustainability initiatives • Cluster H - 36-38: Identify Topics for Impact

This page contains a summary of discussions from the Movement Strategy 5-6 December Global Conversations regarding the implementation of the initiatives: 31-33: Invest in Skills and Leadership Development. Feel free to continue the conversation on Meta by adding your thoughts and comments in the talk page.

Join the follow-up event[edit]

The Follow up event for discussing the implementation of the Skill Development cluster will take place on February 6, between 15:00 to 17:00 UTC (LINK to join). If you would like to join the event, kindly sign your name below:

  1. --Wilson Oluoha (talk) 22:57, 22 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  2. --Zblace (talk) 08:52, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  3. --Ilario (talk) 22:32, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  4. --Nicola Zeuner (WMDE) (talk) 09:51, 26 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Manuel (WMDE) (talk) 19:10, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  6. --Christoph Jackel (WMDE) 20:10, 30 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  7. --Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 04:15, 2 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  8. --Tiputini (talk) 19:02, 2 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  9. -- Megs (talk) 15:25, 4 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  10. -- User:Ms Kabintie --Ms Kabintie (talk) 06:07, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  11. -- Jan-Bart (talk)
  12. -- DaSupremo (talk) 15:22, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  13. -- Osps7 (talk) 15:42, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  14. --NANöR (talk) 16:18, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  15. —-DrMel (talk) 20:13, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  16. —- BVershbow (WMF) (talk) 04:21, 6 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  17. aegis maelstrom δ 14:19, 6 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Events summary[edit]

5 December[edit]

Video summary of the discussion (same as the written points, recorded during the events).

Round 1 Key actions (full notes on Etherpad):

  1. Collect the knowledge that no doubt exists in all the communities around the world, and make it available globally distributed. This includes tutorials, and other materials that people already produced, to make these materials searchable, findable and translated.
  2. Provide translation, childcare support and bandwidth support at global meetings, so that underrepresented groups and smaller user groups (not unnecessarily underrepresented but also under resourced groups) can better participate and exchange with each other
  3. Start leadership development regionally. Possibly using regional hubs (or other regional associations) to organize leadership programs, mentoring, tutoring coaching and connecting people with each other.
Video summary of the discussion (same as the written points, recorded during the events).

Round 2 Key actions (full notes on Etherpad):

  1. Set up a platform where people can ask for the skills they need to learn, and also to find other people from other communities who are knowledgeable in certain skills and can help in providing training or exchanging them.
  2. Resources should be collected and presented to people who need help, and who would like to give a favor to other community members.
  3. Improve different aspects of skill development. It's not only about sharing skills and helping people to develop their skills, but we also have to look after people who need some sort of a guidance or a service.

6 December[edit]

Video summary of the discussion (same as the written points, recorded during the events).

Round 1 Key actions (full notes on Etherpad):

  1. Map out capacity building needs depending on local context. What kind of skills are needed: soft skills, technical skills, wiki skills, others?
  2. Dedicate efforts, funds and capacity to skill development. We expect a concentrated dedication of efforts on skill development.
  3. The people that we expect to be involved in skill development would be: the Foundation in close collaboration with communities that wish to be involved.
Video summary of the discussion (same as the written points, recorded during the events).

Round 2 Key actions (full notes on Etherpad):

  1. Hold a skill sharing event in the new year. The event would be particularly focused on exchanging skills around Wikidata, which was identified as a very useful topic across different regions and communities, especially for training the trainer purposes.
  2. Facilitate mentorship swapping (during or after the event) so that people can share skills. For example, if someone is really good at Wikidata, but not so good at other wiki-related skills, then that would be an opportunity for them to exchange skills and knowledge through mentorship.
  3. Launch a needs assessment survey, throughout the next 18 months, oriented towards different regional communities. Such surveys can help identify the needs of both leaders and organizers, for training purposes. For example, a few people mentioned they would like to know how to do outreach how to do project management.

Detailed input[edit]

The rich input from the December Global Conversations, in addition to feedback from other discussions has been further organized by the Support Team into a more coherent template. The objective of this template is to clarify the proposals that have already emerged in the discussions, and to serve as a basis to continue the conversation around the implementation of the Movement Strategy recommendations. The eventual goal is to develop it into a “draft implementation plan” that will be presented to the whole movement and the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees in February 2021. The current template is put forward to serve as the baseline for the upcoming follow-up discussions in January.

The information below has been directly taken from the minutes of the Global Conversations and occasionally edited or rephrased for clarity, so it is not necessarily verbatim.

Defining the scope[edit]

Skill learning and sharing:

  • We need a place where we can FIND and SHARE the following:
  1. skills    
  2. Guidance
  3. Services for one time things
  • We should have several ways to know what people really need: surveys, meta pages and focus groups.
  • Separation of learning/teaching skills on the one hand, and receiving/providing guidance (such as helping with a strategic process). The latter would be harder to do on a volunteer-basis: members of our movement (or outside experts) should be allowed to invest the time necessary to guide/assist/share their knowledge with others.
  • Align with the initiative 11 (Resources for newcomers) in implementation so that it will support skill development infrastructures

Contextualization:

  • * Skill development has to happen in the local context, with mentorship and other tools.
  • * Need for different approaches to skill development in third world countries, like the support in terms of broadband subsidies and child care.
    • * Implementing regionally or locally would be better because of cultural similarities.
  • * A lot of skills are local but we need to identify the global issues such as "how do the different organizations tackle the challenge of teaching skills?”.
    • * The challenge is also connecting people, different sizes affiliates,  or connecting individuals with entities such as user groups.

Categories of skills

  • Individual: On-wiki editing and related skills.
  • Organizational: Help other people contribute to the movement.
  • Technical: Tools that will help people make their wiki work easier.
  • Governance: How to run organizations.

What are the skills people want to learn?

  • WikiCite
  • WikiData
  • Board training
  • Technical skills * how to make presentations, project management
  • Storytelling
  • Lessons for new users
  • In-depth leadership training
  • Partnership and collaboration skills
  • Strategic planning
  • Adaptability, collaboration, connection

Who should be involved[edit]

  • Newcomers and community members * Involve more people who otherwise lack organizational backing.
  • What independent users developed in terms of their skills should be published as widely as possible.
  • Not everyone has the needed background to start * ensure that the basics are brought to new people.

Immediate steps for the next 18 months[edit]

  • Map out capacities to help see where people/orgs are (example: Asaf's map).
    • Identify the communities that need support, and see where they can get support from (regionally or globally).
    • Take community surveys on skill needs of both organizers and members on communities (regional and thematic areas/ linguistic).
  • Set up a single place in the movement where people can find resources and connect with others who can help them with their needs.
    • Gather the best tutorials from the movement and make a copy that is in a centralised place
    • Provide an attractive way to find people. Underlying meta pages can give more background, but it can be quite difficult to know who to talk to and who might be willing to offer guidance.
  • There should be coordination and upscaling from a local/regional processes to a global level when the whole infrastructure is more sophisticated
  • Provide recognition with badges and certificates.
  • Support partnerships with museums/archives/libraries.

Mentorship

  • Set up a skillshare where more experienced people can work with newer people.
    • Connect people with similar interests and issues quickly so they can exchange knowledge. Wikimedia spaces are not amazing at doing this. MediaWiki software is not made for this.
  • Establish a mentorship program or knowledge exchange between user groups
    • Mentorship swap (connect everyone interested with a mentor on specific skills)
    • Deal with professionals among us who can prepare courses for the skills we need. Give people the opportunity to develop the skills and encourage them by groups in Wikimedia.
    • Take turns in the positions that need leadership.

Needs for resources and support[edit]

  • Providing internet connection cards for organizers in need or better connection for their events in low bandwidth areas holding events/ participating in skillshares events.

-Translating tutorials into local languages

  • Dedicated funds to be disseminated among the hubs which would be able to be disseminated further to the communities.
  • Grant system to cover mentorship to support foth for example Wikidata, etc.
  • Deploying more tools that can be used to monitor contributions (like event metrics, xtools, but more detailed and can be used to track several contributors at the same time).

Standing questions[edit]

  • Who will do the content development, how is it coordinated (globally/locally?).
  • What is going to be the medium to transfer the skills?

Interested communities and affiliates[edit]

Based on local, regional, and thematic priorities (please see table and map):

WMDC, WP.Kiswahili, Santali UG, Philippine Community, WM Nigeria, WM Israel, WM Norway, UG Senegal, UG Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon UG, West Bengal, Malaysia, West Africa , WMNZ Aotearoa, AfroCROWD, WM Levant, Guinea Conakry, CIS A2K, Tanzania, Myanmar, Wikimedia LGBT+, Nederland, Wikipedia & Education UG, Igbo UG, UG Kenya, WikiDonne, wikiBlind, Wikisul

Interested in implementation[edit]

Sign below (in whatever capacity or affiliation you like) if you are interested in contributing to the implementation of this cluster:

  1. DaSupremo (talk) 22:26, 25 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Nicola Zeuner (WMDE) (talk) 10:46, 11 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Subodh (CIS-A2K) (talk) 04:58, 20 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Zblace (talk) 08:50, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Ilario (talk) 22:31, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Ms Kabintie --Ms Kabintie (talk) 06:22, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  7. DrMel (talk) 05:07, 6 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  8. --NANöR (talk) 14:26, 6 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  9. --Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 20:37, 16 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  10. --Haylad (talk) 13:36, 31 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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