User:Misosoof/Endorsement of Wikimedia2030

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Today, Thursday the 26th of October 2017, is an exciting day - this is the endorsement day for Wikimedia movement strategic direction, which ends the 3 cycles of Phase 1 in our joint effort to build Wikimedia 2030 movement strategy.

Actually for me this whole process has been really exciting and that mainly for 3 reasons: Firstly, for the ambition to try to create inclusive global movement strategy with bottom-up approach in a rather restricted timeline. Secondly, having a chance to volunteer in positions that have helped me to have a closer look on the processes and developments. Having worked with nonprofits and their strategies for ten years now, I can actually say that this is by far the most exciting strategic experience I have ever and this also makes this endorsement day a pretty special occasion.

I did not mention my third reason and that is actually that I am quite happy with the direction that we now have in our hands and I will present 10 of my personal reasons why it is so:

  1. Blank page start - we started of with genuinely thinking about what should be our future and there were no prescriptions nor restrictions given. This is excellent and bold and in my opinion a good way to build an inspirational 15 year direction.
  2. Movement-wide process - there was a genuine try to bring in voices from all over the Wikimedia world, including affiliates, community members and individuals. This has been indeed time consuming and extremely difficult to cluster all the information and ideas and even to make sense of all of it, but in building long-term direction, this pays off.
  3. Beyond Wikimedia - I really like that there was work done beyond Wikimedia. If we want to be relevant in 15 years, we have to think further and understand our social relevance and be on the same page with possible partners. Bringing in new voices has been a really exciting thing for me in this process.
  4. Constant reporting - A nice feature of the process has been the pace in which the reports of cycles and advancements have been produced. This has helped me to easily follow-up on what has been happening and understand what is going on.
  5. Clear structure - From the beginning I have liked structure of the strategy process., i.e. logically aligned cycles, clear structures of tracks and updated timelines. Having a clear understanding on how we progress has made this process rather enjoyable.
  6. Feedback - People have taken time to speak their hearts about the process and also its outcomes. This means that the process matters to them. Even now we have people bringing their concerns to the table and this is great! Having personal discussions with people, reading comments on meta or wikimedia-l has been amazing and expanded my understanding on Wikimedia movement and strategy.
  7. Iterations - After extensive feedback on Wikimania and after that, strategic direction went through heavy editing and we had a completely new iteration. For me this depicts responsiveness of the drafting group and core team to the feedback and I really like it. We cannot please everyone, but we have to listen what they bring on table and iterate, if needed. Well done!
  8. Open result - We now have a direction which clearly states openness of Wikimedia. Everyone who is aligned with our vision is expected to share in and even though this is what our vision already says, as a partnerships enthusiast I am really happy that this is stated also in our direction
  9. Equity - I have loved this term from the beginning and this even as I have understood that it will be hard to translate and interpret. I believe that the power of Wikimedia lies in participatory knowledge and information curation processes and equity is the key in that. Also I like its connotations with financial world, which for me means that the value of our movement is created by every share of knowledge or information.
  10. Endorsement - I think that it is really important that we end this Phase 1 with endorsement of strategic direction. In order to move on we need the mandate of affiliates, communities and individuals worldwide and I really like that an effort has been made, even after all this work that has been done to have this inclusive process, to have a reality check. I think it describes well the participatory bottom-up essence of this strategy process and also is a needed step to start off well with the Phase 2.

Possibly, I could give many more reasons why I have enjoyed the Phase 1 of our movement strategy process. Probably, I could also add at least 10 aspects that I have not liked. Nevertheless, the key take-away for me is that I am happy with the strategic direction and I support and endorse that. Also I am thankful for all the people in our movement who have made this happen!

And now, on to the next phase! I am really excited to see how discussion about roles, responsibilities and resources will go and to have a chapters dialogue or multilogue happen again. It does not matter if I will have the opportunity to be as close to the phase 2 process as I had as a volunteer in phase 1, but I know for sure that there are many exciting discussions still to come!