Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy/Implementation/Affiliate health criteria/Reports/2024/Wikibase Community User Group
| Affiliate basic information | ||
|---|---|---|
| What is the affiliate name? | Wikibase Community User Group | |
| Please list the languages supported by this affiliate | English | |
| Please list countries where this affiliate operates | Global community | |
| Reporting timeline (e.g. January-December) | January - December | |
| Reporting year (e.g. 2024 or 2024-2025) | 2024 | |
| Primary contact (user name) | GreenReaper (Laurence Parry) | |
| Secondary contact (user name) | Loz.ross (Lozana Rossenova) | |
| Goal delivery | ||
| What is the affiliate mission? | To support and promote third-party use of Wikibase software and related projects | |
| What are the affiliate goals? Link to the strategic plan, if there is one. | WBUG's goals are to:
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| Organizational development | ||
| How does the affiliate make decisions? How are decisions communicated? | Consensus decision-making in monthly meetings, supplemented by Telegram group discussions | |
| What is the current state of the affiliate finances? Link to the latest financial report, if there is one. | WBUG applied for WMDE "Open Call" development funding provided by Arcadia for two development projects listed below, but was unsuccessful. | |
Affiliate health and resilience
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| How many people participate in the decision-making process in the affiliate? | Usually ~4-10 depending on meeting participation. | |
| Has there been any significant changes in the level of the affiliate membership body (e.g. increase/decrease of number of dues-paying members)? | The Telegram group has 358 members. Our Meta page had 108 register an interest by the end of 2024, of which 7 did so in 2024. While mailing list discussions remained level (59 vs 55), attendance at meetings decreased versus 2023 (mean 6.5 vs. 11). This may be linked to an increase in users of WMDE's Wikibase Cloud, which as a managed service reduces technical barriers to using Wikibase, and thus the number of questions asked; or a lower number of presentations organized by members to draw attendees. | |
| Are there any affiliate activities in the past year that were led by affiliate members? Please share the highlights. | Along with technical advice provided in chat and on the mailing list, which forms the core group activity, members:
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| Leadership and inclusion | ||
Diverse, skilled, and accountable leadership
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| What kind of skills does the affiliate leadership possess? | Reading the room, promoting community initiatives, advocating for resolutions of the community's problems, co-hosting and inviting people to meetings, informing about Wikimedia-related events. | |
| Is there any kind of succession plan for the affiliate leadership? | WBUG has no formal succession plan, but is considering refreshing/expanding the leadership team, likely through a processed based on the 2021 contact election. | |
| Are there any trainings that affiliate leadership undergo before they assume their leadership position? | There is no formal training, although candidates for a leadership position are encouraged to review WMF documentation on affiliate requirements. | |
| Are there any requirements for affiliate leadership to disclose their conflict(s) of interests? | There is no formal requirement to declare conflicts of interest, but leaders have actually done so. For example, when applying for grants it was documented that the primary contact (who led one application's creation) might receive compensation for subsequent project management and technical research. | |
Diversity balance (especially gender)
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| What is the diversity level of the affiliate leadership and membership body? | One WMF contact is male, one is female. Meetings are roughly 60-75% male, 25-40% female. A survey on the Telegram group asking what members consider themselves to be gave the result of 75% He/Him, 13% She/Her, 6% They/Them and 6% something else, in accordance with prior WMF research. | |
| How is the affiliate leadership encouraging gender diversity in the decision-making process(es) of the affiliate? | Most monthly meetings were convened by a female WMDE representative, who makes a point of encouraging all meeting attendees to speak up with questions and to explain the projects they are working on, regardless of sex or racial/ethnic background. | |
Universal Code of Conduct compliance
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| How does the affiliate leadership ensure, enforce, and evaluate compliance with the Universal Code of Conduct obligations? | The Wikibase Community Telegram group and Wikibase Community User Group mailing list note a requirement to follow WMF's Universal Code of Conduct in their descriptions. There was no incident requiring enforcement in 2024. | |
| Engagement and Collaboration | ||
| Please share the publicly available records of regular meetings, activities, events, or conference in the past year where the affiliate has participated. | There were eleven "Wikibase Live" video meetings, averaging one hour each. | |
| Community connection | ||
| How many affiliate members are active contributors to the Wikimedia projects? | 89% of members polled | |
| How many affiliate members are not active contributors to the Wikimedia projects? | 11% of members polled | |
| How many affiliate members are active organizers (of projects, events, conferences, initiatives, etc) within the Wikimedia movement? | 53% of members polled | |
| How many people have participated in affiliate projects, events, conferences, and/or initiatives in the past year? | 85% of members polled | |
| Partnerships and collaboration | ||
| Please list all activities/initiatives that the affiliate has organized or co-organized in past 12 months. | Members were involved in MiMoText at WikiMUC / Federated Queries Workshop, and the Wikimedia Hackathon 2024 (task T363570 and task T363562) | |
| What would affiliate leadership list as the top 3 (three) capacities of the affiliate? (e.g. evaluation, community governance, programs and events, organizational governance and resource policies, conflict management, partnerships, fundraising, communication and media relations, contributor development, on-wiki technical skills, policy advocacy, etc) | On-wiki technical skills (Wikibase, WDQS, cloud) | |
| Evaluation of Wikibase and related software/projects | ||
| Policy advocacy (primarily with regards to WMDE) | ||
| What are the 3 (three) capacities that the affiliate would like to strengthen in the next 12 months? | Organizational governance | |
| Contributor development | ||
| Fundraising (for technical development towards community goals) | ||
| What are the organizations, community projects, or groups that the affiliate had been working or seeking to work with to develop and support the 3 capacities? | The user group runs its monthly meetings in partnership with Wikimedia Deutschland, and worked with the Wikibase Stakeholder Group for advocacy and editorial assistance with our Open Call grant applications | |