User:MCruz (WMF)/Sandbox/Newsletter/2017/4/13
The Movement Strategy discussion is adding new voices outside of the Wikimedia movement (experts, partners, thought leaders, readers, and donor across the globe) making the process as inclusive as possible. We want to learn from *everyone* to draft the best routemap for our movement's future.
Over the past 6 months, we have carried out over 96 interviews with experts in Africa, Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, conducted in collaboration with third party design research partners in Brazil and Indonesia, survey and desk research in USA, Russia, Japan, Spain, France, Germany, and the UK. We've also have organized workshops & salons in India, Mexico, Nigeria, USA, Germany, and Belgium with partners and experts. And even more exciting, many Wikimedia Chapters and User Groups (including Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, Poland, Egypt, and others) have organized their own meetups, workshops, and salons to discuss with local experts and partners the future of our movement.
All of the new voices are speaking to us, and teaching us an incredible amount of insights and findings that are currently being integrated in the discussion. One of the things we learned is that there’s a tradeoff between credibility and inclusivity. As far as our knowledge ecosystem goes, we now know that, movements are built on emotion and human connection, which raised the question: what motivates people to contribute? Another interesting finding is that knowledge sharing is highly social, which prompts our movement to think how do we adapt for the younger generations? These findings offer interesting insights in the current and future cycles of the strategy process, so we hope Wikimedians involved in the conversation find them informative. We cannot wait to hear more thoughts and discussion from our movement as Wikimania approaches!
More info:
What do we want to build or achieve together over the next 15 years? The Wikimedia movement strategy has engaged community members, for the last seven months, in conversations about the future of our movement. August represented a milestone for these conversations.
As a movement, we are coming closer to having a shared strategic direction. A shared direction which will, in time, help us to define priority projects and areas to fund, design, and implement programs that to advance free knowledge through Wikimedia. This past month brought a close of the first phase on the Movement Strategy conversations held over the last half a year. Throughout a series of consultations we identified top themes, developed those ideas, and integrated insights from New Voices. The top five themes presented in cycle two are as follows:
- Healthy, inclusive communities
- The augmented age (Advancing with technology)
- A truly global movement
- The most respected source of knowledge
- Engaging the knowledge ecosystem (Participating in the knowledge network)
More than a thousand participants contributed their ideas; which generated over 2,700 unique statements, 40% of which were Organized Groups Statements, leaving 60% to Individual Contributors Statements, from 55 different Discussion Groups, 32 Organized Groups (58%), 22 Individual Contributors discussion pages.
The focus on incorporating insights from New Voices, which took place during July, had a clear goal: to seek input from constituencies that have not yet had a chance to contribute to the Wikimedia movement, but have a stake in our mission because of the work they do. There were five challenges drafted around different questions, like How do our communities and content stay relevant in a changing world, As Wikimedia looks toward 2030, how can we counteract the increasing levels of misinformation?, How does Wikimedia meet our current and future readers’ needs as the world undergoes significant population shifts in the next 15 years?, among others.
The number one theme discussed across all groups (both online and organized) was Healthy Communities. The number two theme for the online group was augmented age, and the number two theme for the organized group was the global movement. The third most discussed theme by the online group was being a quality source, while organized groups discussed the knowledge ecosystem.
During August, the team presented a draft strategic direction for discussion and input for finalization. Feedback is being gathered online and offline and across several special sessions during Wikimania. The next step will be to finalize the direction and, in September, people around the movement will be able to sign on to show support. The draft strategic direction will be discussed online through the end of August. Join the conversation! As this first phase of the movement strategy process comes to a close, we will settled on the strategic direction statement, and in the months to come, we will work to create a draft strategic plan.
More information:
blogs, events & more!
Every month, we share knowledge with a focus on programs, process or tools on Wikimedia Foundation's blog. Find all our entries on the Wikimedia blog
Featured blog posts:
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Writing Wikipedia articles teaches information literacy skills, study finds.
As educators worldwide grapple with how to teach information literacy in the digital age, Wikipedia has emerged as one answer to the post-truth era. New research results confirm that writing Wikipedia articles as a class assignment can be a key part of teaching students critical information literacy skills. Today, the Wiki Education Foundation (Wiki Ed) is releasing the results from the most comprehensive study ever undertaken to evaluate student learning outcomes from Wikipedia assignments.
Read More
At the Wikimedia Hackathon last month, we wanted to create a warm, welcoming environment for newcomers—while also making it really easy for both new and experienced participants to learn from each other and work on their technical projects.
The mentoring program started with an introductory session on the first day, where mentors introduced themselves and pitched project ideas. This posts highlights a few things we did to make both newcomers and experienced developers feel connected and engaged before, during, and after the event.
Read More
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August 9-10: Learning Days at Wikimania Montreal 2017
August 11-13: Wikimania Montreal 2017
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September 22-25: CEE Meeting Warsaw Poland
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October 14: WikiConference Seoul
October 19-21: Francophone Wiki Convention 2017
October 23-25: WikiArabia 2017 Conference
October 28-29: WikiData Con
Iberoconf 2017: How to shape Iberocoop as a space for learning
On June 10 through 12, Iberoconf 2017 was organized in Buenos Aires City, and it was a space of encounter, meeting and sharing for local affiliates in the Iberoamerican region.
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The event was set up to be a space for learning and strategic planning, as a way to better leverage the network’s impact in the movement. At Iberoconf 2017, we designed a meeting which main goal was to acquire relevant knowledge and skills through practice, and applying knowledge together to generate more impact at the regional level.
We carried out this goal through the following shared lessons
Involving all participants, from the beginning, in the organization of the conference helps to define goals in a more strategic way.
Wikimedia organizations were more than just participants in the conference, playing an active role as counterparts. Through virtual and in-person meetups, we agreed on the state of the network until 2017. Further, we defined the roles and outcomes of the regional meetup in a participatory way, by means of a survey. This allowed us to create a program that was relevant for the needs and demands of the participating organizations.
We designed participatory learning spaces to promote the construction of a support and cooperation network that is stronger and more professionalized.
We avoided session formats like lectures and one-sided presentations. We promoted hands-on workshops, where working in groups could guarantee a similar learning outcome.
We created broad and flexible debate spaces, some created on the spot during the event, to guarantee concrete outcomes.
We organized a structured conference, with flexible slots in its debate spaces. These spaces defined their content according to the needs and wishes expressed by members of the network; openness and coordination were key to make this happen. As a result, we managed to achieve concrete outcomes, especially in relation to Iberocoop’s stance in the movement strategy for 2030.
We made the event into a meeting space to empower the local community and invite new participants to join.
Engaging the local community in international events allows for them to have a better understanding of the movement they belong to. The community played a key part in the organization of the event, and they were involved as mentors of the meeting to incorporate newcomers.
This practice in conference design allowed us to focus in what makes us unique and understand how we are stronger together, so we can best support affiliates in the network in the years to come.
Read more:
IdeaLab is a space where wikimedians all over the world share their inspiration with others.
IdeaLab is an incubator for people to share ideas to improve Wikimedia projects and to collaboratively develop them into plans and grant proposals. These are two selected ideas this quarter:
English Wiktionary doesn't include biographies or entries for individuals, so the scope for adding female biographies is limited. However it does include scientific names. Creating and improving these eponymous scientific names would both improve Wiktionary's coverage and also play a small role in acknowledging the contribution of women in the biological sciences. Learn more.
Often infoboxes and wikidata facts have information without sources cited. It may be possible to make a bot that will search for sources and propose that they be added on the talk page. Learn more.
Join the IdeaLab community. You can help develop ideas in many ways: with technical skills, translating, networking and more. Share your own!
The Program Evaluation & Design portal has tools to learn about your activities and measure their success.
The Learning Pattern Library is a hub to share learning around certain challenges that are common across Wikimedia programs and projects. Featured Learning Patterns in this issue:
Are you a medical educator? Want to work with your students on adding quality medical content to Wikipedia and don't know how to get started? This learning pattern will provide some links that will give you an idea on how to get started. Learn more.
Reach out to your students as individuals and discover what makes their clock tick. Here are some ideas to help you bring out the best in them as they add value to the Wikimedia projects and their own lives as well. Learn more.