Wikimedia Brazil/Report/2023/Learning/CALIBRA
First semester
Structuring the CALIBRA Steering Committee
Introduction
Calibra is a program focused on developing and training Brazilian leaders for the Wikimedia Movement. This case study explores the structure of the advisory committee that guided its activities between 2022 and 2023. This document presents how the project was planned and executed, as well as the lessons learned.
The formation of committees to guide the progress of specific projects is a well-established practice within Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB). Examples include the committees formed for WikiCon Brasil 2022, the WMB Strategy 2023-2025, and the Wikimedia for Educators course, still under development.
Among the advantages of forming a committee are:
- Ensuring dialogue with people with different experiences and perspectives;
- Participation of the community targeted by the project in the decision-making process regarding its progress and critical reflection on the process that must be implemented.
Context
The motivations for implementing Calibra arose from the demand to train the Portuguese-speaking community to develop and implement a strategic process that corresponds to their own reality, identified in a survey conducted by WMB in 2021.
Combining this demand with the interests of consulting the Brazilian community during WikiCon Brasil 2022, it is necessary to train Wikimedians to act as multipliers of cultural and educational initiatives, to consolidate a collaborative network to identify, debate, and solve problems in the daily life of Lusophone Wikimedia.
The focus on developing new leaders is reflected in the Wikimedia Movement's 2030 Strategy, particularly its recommendation no. 6, which is to invest in skills and leadership development.
Although there are other initiatives linked to capacity building in the Wikimedia Movement globally, none of them have taken the development of leaders aimed at consolidating their own strategic process as their objective.
To ensure community dialogue and participation in decisions regarding the program's development, an advisory committee was formed with six people who met the profiles and experience working in the Wikimedia Movement.
Strategic Alignment
In addition to recommendation no. 6 of the Movement's Strategy, structuring the dynamics of the Calibra advisory committee is closely linked to the second axis of the WMB Strategy for 2023-2025: activating Brazilian Wikimedia agencies.
Within this axis, the directions for actions considered were:
- Identify the needs of the Portuguese-speaking community and organize programs accordingly, seeking new ways to generate consistent engagement in Wikimedia projects;
- Encourage community health through new spaces for communication and integration between experienced volunteers, new contributors, cultural, educational and social organizations, and other open knowledge partners; and
- Create opportunities for continuous peer learning by forming new volunteer networks.
The WMB's "Theory of Change" document is based on the aim to:
- Organize activities and events to communicate and discuss the Wikimedia Movement's strategic processes with the Portuguese-speaking community;
- Awaken proactivity within the Portuguese-speaking community by fostering new leadership and collective strategic guidance processes.
And the following strategic learning questions:
- How have the principles of the Theory of Change permeated the organizational processes of Wiki Movimento Brasil?
- To what extent is a culture of mutual trust and productive and welcoming relationships established in the integration of the Portuguese-speaking community into the Wikimedia Movement, with the participation of the WMB? How has the WMB worked to build dialogue with the regional community?
Case Study
Based on the accumulated experience, the WMB executive board instructed the calibra to form a committee whose members had experience researching the Wikimedia community. This was an important characteristic due to the critical perspective and analytical approach required for the program, whose originality required a research process with the community.
Based on this guidance, the selection of people became more complex and more in-depth according to the demands and possibilities encountered.
Brazilians who hold leadership positions in the Portuguese-speaking and international communities and have experience in activities relevant to Calibra's mission were selected:
- project management;
- academic research on the Wikimedia Movement;
- participation in professional and volunteer activities in user groups;
- participation in initiatives to implement the Movement's Strategy, such as the Movement Charter and the Leadership Development Working Group.
Operationalization
- Delimitation of criteria and issues that would require broader discussions than operational meetings could offer and should go through a decision-making process;
- Identification and selection of Wikimedians with research experience who could contribute to the quality of discussions;
- Identification of the need for other profiles beyond research, with experience in project management, participation in the implementation of the Movement Strategy, training, event organization, etc.;
- Individual invitations to people chosen to join the committee.
The committee arrived at the following lineup:
- Chico Venâncio
- Érica Azzellini
- Flavia Doria
- João Peschanski
- Tila Cappelletto
- Valério Melo
The goal would be nine monthly meetings, between July 2022 and February 2023, with at least one of them focused on providing feedback on a first version of the program, the final version of which would also have to be approved by the committee.
The plan was to hold meetings lasting one hour and focusing on broad discussions, from which we would make decisions that would guide the project towards its final version.
Results
By the end of the stipulated period for the duration of this phase of the project, five meetings had been held, lasting an average of 1.5 hours to accommodate the demand for presentation and contextualization of activities related to the discussions and decisions to be made.
A feedback round was successfully conducted for a preliminary version of the program, and the committee finally approved the final version presented.
The invited individuals actively participated in the committee meetings, helping to consider the project's needs for improvement and strengths, and providing a critical perspective on the activities, objectives, and assumptions.
One example of this participation is the pilot program's feedback process. The ideas shared by committee members led to significant changes in the program's format and content, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality final product.
This quality was reflected in the approval of the Movement Strategy Implementation Grant application, which guaranteed the resources to carry out the implementation stage of the program.
Analysis
Among the difficulties encountered in this process was the irregularity of the meetings. Among the reasons: the guests were people living in Brazil, Spain, and Portugal, and the different time zones, combined with scheduling conflicts, made scheduling meetings difficult.
The methodology adopted to schedule meetings, without a fixed time and based on doodle queries, was not efficient.
The committee's critical and decision-making potential was also not utilized as planned, as at certain times a more expository, less dialogic, decision-making-focused dynamic was adopted in meetings.
The lack of planning meant that for some months there were no meetings, which took up significant time from subsequent meetings to resume activities and contextualize the project's current situation.
Possible solutions would be:
- Planning activities with the committee based on the project's activity schedule, ensuring that we have a time for discussion with each important delivery or decision;
- Setting a fixed date for meetings, based on a calendar discussed and developed jointly, allowing for reservations in advance.
- Assessing the time availability, capabilities, and interests of each member could have helped maximize their contributions to the project.
Notes
Although the committee is a voluntary activity, some of its members are professionally involved in the Wikimedia Movement.
While some of them work for Wiki Movimento Brasil, the organization responsible for the project, others are linked to the Wikimedia Foundation, its funder. In this sense, some of the questions that arise are:
- How do we establish expectations about the volunteer work of people who are also involved in the project professionally?
- What protocols should be adopted to ensure equity between volunteers and professionals?
- How to deal with potential conflicts of interest? In other words, how to coordinate the "different hats" that the same person might wear in the same space?
There is a need to prove the hypothesis that setting fixed dates for meetings would increase the chance of all committee members meeting.
Legacy
Finally, the lessons learned during this Case Study point to the following guidelines:
- Define criteria for forming the committee according to the project needs;
- Define a meeting schedule in line with project delivery expectations;
- Define the committee's performance expectations clearly, taking into account the time availability, capabilities, and interests of each member;
- Find, together with the committee, strategies for reconciling schedules and agendas and for recovering lost information;
- Bring to the committee issues that require discussion and reflection, less focused on the operational side of the project.
Documentary references
Second semester
Selection of Calibra participants
Introduction
Calibra is a training program offered by Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB) with the objective of fostering and developing Wikimedian leaders to plan and support Brazilian educational and GLAM-Wiki initiatives on Wikimedia platforms.
The process of developing the program began in 2022, following a survey of the 2030 Movement Strategy in the Portuguese-speaking community. One of the identified needs at the end of the survey was empowering the community to occupy and share leadership roles.
This case study focuses on the selection of participants for Calibra, a process that aimed to engage people from different parts of Brazil, particularly beyond São Paulo and the southern region. The selection process took place between August 7th and September 3rd, 2023.
Question
How did Calibra seek to incorporate participants from outside São Paulo and Southern Brazil? And what are the indicators of success?
Case context
The WMB Theory of Change points to the need to regionalize the Wikimedia Movement in Brazil, which the calibra sought to address when selecting its participants.
To what extent does it relate to the strategic planning and theory of change of the Wiki Movimento Brasil?
Calibra corresponds to the second axis of the WMB Strategy for 2023-2025: activating Brazilian Wikimedia agencies.
The Theory of Change is contemplated from the search to collaborate with the regionalization of the Wikimedia Movement in Brazil.
Who are the stakeholders in carrying out this case?
- The Portuguese-speaking community, especially the Brazilian community;
- The Wikimedia Movement as a whole, especially other training projects linked to recommendation 6 of the movement's strategy;
- Brazilian memory institutions;
- Professors, especially university students, in the context of the curricularization of university extension in Brazil.
What was the goal?
- Have at least 16 people registered in total;
- Of these, at least 4 people must be from outside São Paulo and southern Brazil.
Operationalization
With the approval of the Calibra Board, the registration and program start dates were set for August 7th to 27th and September 16th, respectively—a shorter timeframe than desired. Registration was conducted through a Google Forms questionnaire, and we used Twitter and Instagram as communication strategies, as well as private messages using Wikipedia's email tool.
The people we wanted to communicate with were divided into three categories:
- general audience, whom we sought to reach through social media;
- users who met the interest profile, contacted directly by email through Wikipedia;
- people who could suggest names for the program, such as teachers running educational programs with Wiki projects and members of user groups.
By the initial deadline, we had only 12 applicants. So, we extended the deadline by a week, until September 3rd, to reach our goal. While we stepped up our communication efforts to reach more people, we conducted interviews with the already selected participants to get to know them better and confirm their interest in participating in Calibra.
What are its characteristics and/or notable stages?
The most important step was the search for people who met the participation profile, as defined by the Calibra Board. Our challenge was to find people from outside the Southern region and São Paulo who already knew how to edit, since Calibra's goal is to train for a meta-organizational context, not for editing. In this context, it was important to curate information based on the edit lists and user pages of potential participants.
Results
- In total, we received 23 applications;
- Of these, 18 people were incorporated into the program;
- 9 of these 18 people were from outside São Paulo and Southern Brazil.
=Balance
The outcome of the process is positive, as the targets were easily met, especially the one for users outside São Paulo and the South, which was doubled. Furthermore, the decision to extend the deadline was correct, as the number of registrants increased from 12 to 23 in one week.
Analysis
How can the aspects of success be enhanced in other equivalent situations?
The research to find users who met the desired participation profile could have been even more effective if we had more time to carry it out.
We could also have reached a larger number of applicants with more time available for selection.
To what extent can it be said that the case was not a success? Why?
We had a very tight timeline for outreach and participant selection. This was because Calibra receives separate funding through the Movement Strategy Implementation Grants. To meet the funding requirements, we divided the program into a planning phase and an implementation phase. Therefore, the implementation phase depended on the delivery and reporting of the first phase and the approval of a new funding request. With the delay in finalizing the planning, in April, and the approval of implementation due on July 3rd, we ended up with a tight schedule for outreach and participant selection in time to begin training in September, the stipulated deadline.
More time to plan the selection and select participants would have allowed us to be more effective in this process.
Orientation
What other questions arise from the case study as presented here?
- How to keep selected candidates engaged and motivated beyond the selection process?
- How to retain candidates during and after training?
Legacy
The legacy of this case study is the importance of recognizing the motivational power of people from underrepresented areas in the Wikimedia Movement. With fewer opportunities to meet other community members in person and without seeing their regions represented in content and participation in Wikimedia projects, we believe that more opportunities for them will contribute to their ability to form a community more representative of Brazil.
Who are the individuals or groups that might be interested in this case study?
- Groups or individuals who wish to work or are working with diversity in the Wikimedia Movement;
- Groups or individuals who want to learn about the reality of the Wikimedia Movement in Brazil;
- Groups or individuals looking for ways to recruit participants for Wikimedia projects or activities.