WikiLearn - Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - video: Mission statement example: Wikimedia Foundation

@metadata	sourceLanguage "en" priorityLanguages "es" "fr" "ar" "ru" "zh" allowOnlyPriorityLanguages true description "video in Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - Basics of partnership building for Wikimedia volunteers, with computer-graded exercises." label "WikiLearn - Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - video: Mission statement example: Wikimedia Foundation"
display_name	"Mission statement example: Wikimedia Foundation"
subtitle-480-2250-1	"That you may have heard of."
subtitle-3330-7860-2	"The mission statement of the Wikimedia Foundation; the mission statement, not the"
subtitle-7860-9480-3	"vision. We've already discussed the vision, right?"
subtitle-9780-11190-4	"Imagine a world, etc."
subtitle-11760-15090-5	"but this is the mission statement and it's available on Meta."
subtitle-15090-17940-6	"In a page called Mission, which is also linked here."
subtitle-18150-21120-7	"I'm going to read it to you and then we will discuss it."
subtitle-21120-26640-8	"But I want you to listen to this text as I read it with the elements that I discussed in"
subtitle-26640-33540-9	"mind. "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people"
subtitle-33540-39870-10	"around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or"
subtitle-39870-46890-11	"in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally." And it continues:"
subtitle-48650-52850-12	""In coordination with a network of individual volunteers and our independent"
subtitle-52850-58130-13	"movement organizations, including recognized chapters, thematic organizations, user groups"
subtitle-58130-59240-14	"and partners."
subtitle-59330-64250-15	"The Foundation provides the essential infrastructure and an organizational"
subtitle-64250-71270-16	"framework for the support and development of multilingual wiki projects and other"
subtitle-71270-73680-17	"endeavors which serve this mission."
subtitle-73700-78740-18	"The foundation will make and keep useful information from its projects available on"
subtitle-78740-87740-19	"the Internet, free of charge, in perpetuity." Well, that was long."
subtitle-87750-89580-20	"Right? Remember I said it should be very short."
subtitle-90450-93300-21	"That was actually a long mission statement."
subtitle-93300-98730-22	"It's certainly on the longer end of the scale, as mission statements go."
subtitle-101210-105660-23	"Do you have any thoughts to share about this mission statement before I Share my own?"
subtitle-105660-107270-24	"Would anyone like to say something now?"
subtitle-107270-112370-25	"Now that you are hearing this mission statement after we discussed the elements."
subtitle-113300-114760-26	"Are you surprised?"
subtitle-114770-116360-27	"Are you inspired?"
subtitle-118290-120720-28	"Does it contain everything it should contain?"
subtitle-127380-133560-29	"So let me offer some thoughts: Let's take a closer look at this mission statement."
subtitle-134280-138390-30	"And to be clear, I am not presenting this as a perfect example."
subtitle-138780-143280-31	"I'm just taking this, because it's a mission statement that's relevant to us and that you"
subtitle-143280-144810-32	"maybe know."
subtitle-145230-153630-33	"So I have color coded the language here with the same colors that I used when I described"
subtitle-153630-156750-34	"the parts. So what's what."
subtitle-157620-159300-35	"On a green background here:"
subtitle-159300-164700-36	""To empower and engage, to collect and develop educational content and to"
subtitle-164700-170560-37	"disseminate it effectively and globally." This part is which part?"
subtitle-171290-172550-38	"Of the four elements."
subtitle-178490-180350-39	"This is the WHAT part, right?"
subtitle-180380-181820-40	"This is the what we do."
subtitle-182000-188570-41	"What the Wikimedia Foundation does is empower and engage to collect and develop"
subtitle-188570-190670-42	"educational content, to disseminate, etc."
subtitle-190670-199250-43	"etc.. And I want to call out to you one important nuance here, important detail here,"
subtitle-199250-205640-44	"of the language: You notice that the Mission of the Foundation is not to collect and"
subtitle-205640-213000-45	"develop educational content; It is to empower and engage people around the world to"
subtitle-213000-215130-46	"collect and develop educational content."
subtitle-216900-218550-47	"That's a big difference, right?"
subtitle-218850-224310-48	"In other words, if we read this carefully, and it was written carefully, we can see that"
subtitle-224310-228450-49	"the people who wrote this mission, and it was, by the way, it was written wiki style"
subtitle-228450-230430-50	"with a lot of people contributing, many years ago."
subtitle-232710-238860-51	"It is explicitly calling out that we, the Foundation, aren't doing the actual"
subtitle-238860-240720-52	"developing of educational content."
subtitle-240870-247110-53	"We are empowering people and engaging and encouraging people to collect and develop"
subtitle-247110-252680-54	"educational content. In other words, the Foundation is an enabler and encourager, a"
subtitle-252720-258150-55	"platform, it says later, but not the actual producer of the knowledge."
subtitle-258150-259910-56	"And that is, of course, as we know, true."
subtitle-260400-265200-57	"The volunteers of the communities are the producers of the actual educational content"
subtitle-265200-267660-58	"on the projects and the free media and everything else."
subtitle-267900-272700-59	"So this is an example of how getting it JUST right is actually quite important."
subtitle-273750-278730-60	"It would even be upsetting, if the Foundation said "we are in charge of"
subtitle-278730-282840-61	"producing free knowledge", because that's not actually what the Foundation does, not"
subtitle-282840-283920-62	"what it should do, even."
subtitle-287790-289190-63	"So there are some comments here."
subtitle-289200-290940-64	"Not everybody is a fan of this mission statement."
subtitle-291330-292510-65	"Which is absolutely okay."
subtitle-292530-294990-66	"Like I said, I don't think it's a perfect mission statement."
subtitle-298610-303170-67	"[someone] says she doesn't see how sustainable what the foundation is trying to"
subtitle-303680-305300-68	"achieve may be."
subtitle-307220-313850-69	"You're right, there isn't any particular language here around sustainability, in the"
subtitle-313850-316040-70	"mission. And that may be okay."
subtitle-316070-321080-71	"Now, I want to mention: This purple bit here, the violet background."
subtitle-321080-324290-72	"This is, of course, for WHOM we're doing this."
subtitle-325100-326840-73	"This is the part about the for whom."
subtitle-326840-331010-74	"And we are explicitly saying people around the world."
subtitle-331900-336490-75	"Right. So unlike the scope that I mentioned that most of your groups will have, which"
subtitle-336490-341290-76	"will be usually on a country level, a language level, the Foundation is a truly"
subtitle-341290-342430-77	"global organization."
subtitle-342430-349030-78	"The Foundation is explicitly trying to serve and empower and engage everyone, all the"
subtitle-349030-350070-79	"people around the world."
subtitle-350090-356410-80	"Now, most groups, again, most groups don't and can't actually engage with the entire"
subtitle-356410-362920-81	"world. But the Foundation, at least aspirationally, certainly wants to."
subtitle-363430-369250-82	"And in the second part, we have these bits: Oh, and by the way, the bits that I didn't"
subtitle-369250-372070-83	"cover at all, these are like details, right?"
subtitle-372070-373870-84	"I mean, there are important details."
subtitle-373870-377740-85	"The free license, as we know, is very important for the Wikimedia movement."
subtitle-377740-382630-86	"But still, it is a detail, it is an implementation detail of how we develop"
subtitle-382630-383920-87	"educational content."
subtitle-384190-385810-88	"So I left it kind of uncovered."
subtitle-385810-389110-89	"It's the less substantive part of the sentence."
subtitle-389440-390700-90	"I'm not saying it shouldn't be there."
subtitle-390700-394480-91	"It should be there because, again, free licenses are core to what we do."
subtitle-394870-399000-92	"But it's the less substantive in terms of the mission, of the what."
subtitle-399000-401650-93	"Now these parts in light blue."
subtitle-402460-404050-94	"These are the HOW."
subtitle-405020-406630-95	"Right. These are the how part."
subtitle-407640-413040-96	"How do we do it, in coordination with a network of individual volunteers and our"
subtitle-413040-414330-97	"movement organizations."
subtitle-414330-416680-98	"And then there's kind of a breaking down of that, right?"
subtitle-416700-423210-99	"Including this and this and this, "and that provides the essential infrastructure and an"
subtitle-423210-427830-100	"organizational framework" for the support of the multi-lingual projects."
subtitle-427830-430380-101	"Right. This is the heart of the how."
subtitle-430380-440030-102	"How does the Foundation empower and engage free knowledge?"
subtitle-440240-443690-103	"By providing essential infrastructure,"
subtitle-443720-446500-104	"the servers, the platform, the fundraising."
subtitle-446510-450350-105	"These are all parts of the essential infrastructure and an organizational"
subtitle-450350-452910-106	"framework for the support and development, blah, blah, blah."
subtitle-453170-460950-107	"This is the core of the how: what this foundation actually does to achieve the what."
subtitle-461240-463430-108	"How it achieves the what."
subtitle-463700-469730-109	"I hope you see how these words are indeed cashing that check of the how."
subtitle-470660-475250-110	"And then at the end, there's a little bit of extra what?"
subtitle-475700-479780-111	"Right. We'll "make and keep useful information from its projects available on"
subtitle-479780-484380-112	"the Internet free of charge in perpetuity", meaning forever."
subtitle-484400-487520-113	"That's again, part of the what, it's, like, what we do."
subtitle-487640-489020-114	"We're not saying how we do it."
subtitle-489020-490430-115	"How do we keep it free of charge."
subtitle-491150-492400-116	"We rely on fundraising."
subtitle-492410-493520-117	"That's not mentioned here."
subtitle-493580-497690-118	"It's the what, that we keep it free of charge, etc.."
subtitle-498050-504590-119	"So again, as many of you say, it is long and this bit in particular has a lot of detail in"
subtitle-504590-508110-120	"it. And again, the detail was important politically, right."
subtitle-508130-513050-121	"Because it used to say, a few years ago, it used to say "together with its network of"
subtitle-513050-517010-122	"chapters", because back then, when the mission was written, there were only"
subtitle-517010-518690-123	"chapters. There were no user groups."
subtitle-518690-524540-124	"User groups were introduced in 2013, so it had to be amended so that it explicitly also"
subtitle-524540-526430-125	"includes these other kinds of partners."
subtitle-526430-528110-126	"And that, of course, made it longer."
subtitle-528110-531650-127	"And again, I'm not defending this mission statement as perfect."
subtitle-531650-537800-128	"It can certainly use improvement, but I think it's a good example from a field that"
subtitle-537800-544400-129	"we all understand as Wikipedians, of how we draft the mission statement, that I think,"
subtitle-544400-550070-130	"with all of its imperfections, is appropriate for the Wikimedia Foundation as a"
subtitle-550070-555920-131	"global organization, whose job really is mostly to provide infrastructure, not to"
subtitle-555920-560990-132	"produce knowledge, not to partner with museums, but to enable the volunteers,"
subtitle-560990-563720-133	"everybody around the world to do that work."
subtitle-566510-569270-134	"What is missing from this mission statement?"
subtitle-569270-571430-135	"Can anyone suggest?"
subtitle-577060-578710-136	"The WHY. Very good."
subtitle-579010-587520-137	"The why; it doesn't actually explicitly say why it's important to do all this, right."
subtitle-587560-592180-138	"Why are we empowering and engaging people around the world to collect and develop"
subtitle-592180-596290-139	"educational content? Now again, to us as Wikipedians, maybe it's very obviously a good"
subtitle-596290-598630-140	"thing or we wouldn't be here, of course."
subtitle-598630-600280-141	"Right. We're all very passionate about free knowledge."
subtitle-600790-604990-142	"But again, it would have been better to actually say that."
subtitle-605380-610750-143	"I think this mission statement, personally, would be better if it included an explicit"
subtitle-610750-613000-144	"assertion about the why."
subtitle-613390-617890-145	"Maybe something to do with the right to knowledge, maybe the importance of knowledge"
subtitle-617890-622270-146	"to all other forms of human thriving and dignity, etc.."
subtitle-622420-628150-147	"Again, we can talk a whole lot about how exactly to phrase that line, but I think it"
subtitle-628150-633310-148	"is definitely an element that is missing from the foundation's own mission statement."
subtitle-634940-644570-149	"Okay. So I hope this was a useful example in that it was familiar and yet also shows room"
subtitle-644570-645620-150	"for improvement."
subtitle-646010-652910-151	"And this means that unless you have questions about mission statements, you are"
subtitle-652910-654830-152	"ready for assignment number two."