Wikimedia CEE Hub

The Wikimedia CEE Hub is a network of communities and Wikimedia affiliates that have been organised in the Wikimedia CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) group since 2011. The goal of this regional hub is to formalise the ongoing collaboration within the CEE region and provide services for communities that support them in their work and enable them to grow how they see fit.

Background

Wikimedia CEE

The CEE Hub is mostly the formalisation of a process that started in 2011, when communities from Central and Eastern Europe agreed to work closer together, because we face similar challenges. The informal network we have built since then now needs a new step - formalizing these efforts in a way that creates a stable and sustainable structure and guarantees fair access to knowledge and resources for everyone in the region. It is also partly an effort to address aspirations and opportunities around Wikimedia Movement 2030 Strategy, that among many includes Subsidiarity and Self-Management.

The CEE region has seen its share of conflicts, exemplified by the naming of the joint article writing contest CEE Spring, which highlights the many tumultous events in the region over the past three decades. The CEE Hub should be a place that connects everyone interested in the Wikimedia communities, providing services that everyone can access and where everyone contributing to free knowledge can participate.

The process of designing a CEE Hub was started at the Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting 2020, in close alignment with the 2030 strategy recommendations. The initial group of volunteers and staff members of Wikimedia affiliates from Poland, Czechia, Austria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Armenia and later also Russia, have worked since 2020 on a concept that will provide services to support especially the less well organised parts of the region. This concept and research phase was also done partly with the support of the initial rapid funds strategy grant CEE Needs Research, which through WMPL conducted interviews with 21 different communities and affiliates in the region. At the CEE Meeting 2022 the first Steering Committee was agreed upon by the participants of the conference.

This page is initially dedicated to the network foundations of this network of affiliates, initiatives, communities and individuals, but will probably change over time according to better describe the current status of the hub.

Documentation and review of the process listing participation model, context and concept development is still to be made as Wikimedia_CEE_Hub/History_and_process.

Principles

This is currently an incomplete list of tendencies and notions that are derived from previous discussions and the CEE Research interviews conducted in the last year

• The CEE Hub is the formalisation of the structures and connections we have built in the region since 2011
• The CEE Hub is owned by the communities, with equal access for everyone
• The CEE Hub is a network of non-profit organisations and Wikimedia communities
• The CEE Hub is a knowledge network
• The CEE Hub is not a political network

Pillars

Presentation of the hub proposal from February 28th, 2022

The initial programme of the CEE Hub will focus on the following programmatical pillars. More information on these pillars will become available as the discussions within the CEE region have been conducted and the tenor of the focus has been established. In general, the following pillars have been identified.

• Administrative
  • Simplify and pool bureaucratic processes
    • Especially relevant for areas of the region that have not been included in these processes so far
    • Supporting communities in writing applications for funds, be it WMF, EU or other funds
  • Proximity to the communities makes it easier to set up support structures for various endeavours in collaboration with the thematic hubs and affiliates (Education, GLAM, Wikidata, … )
• Programmatic
  • Support structures for programmatic work, be it administrative, research, technological or outreach (graphic design, social media, texts, …)
    • Acting as a place where people can also connect to other regional projects (for example TechSoup)
  • Developing initiatives for capacity development of volunteers, affiliates and communities in general
    • Supporting and maintaining the participation of smaller communities in regional/global projects like CEE Spring, WLM and WLE, WikiScience Competition, …
    • Support the running of regional meetings, foremost the annual CEE Meeting, setting up meetings in areas where an annual meeting would help galvanize the local community
  • Facilitate the adoption of technical innovations and features (volunteer tools and those developed by WMF)
  • Support region-wide efforts of topics that are of interest to volunteers that might not or can not tackle these topics locally for various reasons
• Communication
  • Establish and maintain connections between individuals, initiatives and communities within and outside of the CEE Hub
  • Support knowledge and information exchange between communities, be it by visiting other affiliates, using the Capacity Exchange platform (cXc), or connecting people with the right information on the Wikimedia projects
  • Support the information flow between wider global initiatives and interested people in the CEE communities, for example FKAGEU or Wikimedia Europe, but also beyond Wikimedia (especially in regional-local FLOSS and academic field)
  • The CEE Hub's job is to enhance and enable connections, not to monopolise these connections
  • Support global conversations by providing information in a form that is easily understandable for volunteers and communities who may have limited previous overview, knowledge or capacity to follow all the global conversations in English
  • Streamline and structure communication channels in the CEE region
  • Onboarding and leadership training for volunteers, board members and staff within the CEE region

Governance

Presentation from the last session at the CEE Meeting 2022

The CEE Hub is governed by an interim Steering Committee that mainly consists of the members of the CEE Hub Group described above. The current Steering Committee was agreed upon at the CEE Meeting 2022 in October in Ohrid, North Macedonia.

The Steering Committee currently consists of the following nine members:

• Anton Protsiuk (Wikimedia Ukraine)
• Tisza Gergő (Hungary)
• Käbi Laan (Wikimedia Estonia)
• Kiril Simeonovski (North Macedonia)
• Klára Joklová (Wikimedia Czech Republic) (Portfolio: HR, Wikimedia Europe and ED Group liaison)
• Michał Buczyński (Wikimedia Poland) (Portfolio: Fiscal sponsor liaison, financial management)
• Philip Kopetzky (Austria) (Portfolio: CEE Hub Grant responsible)
• Toni Sant (Malta)
• Wojciech Pędzich (Poland) (Portfolio: AffCom liaison)

Special advisers:

• Delphine Ménard (Expertise: Onboarding, Grants, HR)
• Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (Expertise: Volunteer Support, CEE Research)

Staff

Barbara Klen

Toni Ristovski

• CEE Hub Coordinator: Barbara Klen
• Programme and Administrative support: Toni Ristovski

Meetings

Two meetings were held and the contents of the proposal were discussed and feedback included in the proposal:

1. CEE Talks/CEE meetup February 2022 on 28 February 2022
2. CEE Talks/CEE meetup March 2022 on 5 March 2022

Updates were held in September 2022

1. CEE Talks/Update CEE Hub / Outlook CEE Meeting 2022 on 26 September 2022

The Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2022 functioned as the decision-making event for the first year plan of the CEE Hub

1. Introduction to CEE Hub on Friday, October 14
2. CEE Hub Workshop - Programme Focus on Saturday, October 15
3. Closing Session of the CEE Hub on Sunday, October 16

Endorsements

You can also read the information outlined in the 2022/23 grant proposal for further information.

• Eligibility: Anyone who supports the Wikimedia CEE Hub (not only from the CEE communities) as an individual or on behalf of a community affiliate.
• Format: Signatures on behalf of a community affiliate have to contain the name of the affiliate that the signatory represents, name of the signatory and username in parentheses.

Example: Wikimedia Antarctica, Peng Wynn (User:Penguin)

Wikimedia community affiliates

• Wikimedia Hungary, Tamás Mészöly – Samat (talk) 21:20, 6 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Community User Group CEE Spring, Kiril Simeonovski – Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 21:41, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Czech Republic, Tadeáš Bednarz --T.Bednarz (talk) 18:06, 15 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Polska, Szymon Grabarczuk (Tar Lócesilion)
• Wikimedia Armenia, Susanna Mkrtchyan --WikiTatik (talk) 07:42, 20 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia UG Georgia fully supports the idea of creating a hub in the CEE region, which will allow communities to interact more closely. This will enable the development of affiliation and the Wikimedia movement in the region, as well as to allow us to solve existing issues for all of us. --Mehman (WMGE) (talk) 15:52, 22 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group On behalf of WoALUG I would like to endorse Wikimedia CEE Hub. Thank you to everyone who made it possible! Margott (talk) 17:40, 22 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Serbia, Miroslav Loci --Mickey Mystique (talk) 07:59, 24 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Österreich, Claudia Garád (Executive Director) --CDG (WMAT staff) (talk) 10:01, 24 March 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Community Malta, Toni Sant (board member) --ToniSant (talk) 09:56, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova User Group --Strainu (talk) 17:27, 13 April 2022 (UTC)
• Shared Knowledge (Macedonia), Toni Ristovski --Ehrlich91 (talk) 09:22, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
• GLAM Macedonia, Zana Shtrkovska -- Виолетова (talk) 11:12, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
• Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, Z. Blace --Zblace (talk) 06:37, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Community User Group Albania, Irdiism --Irdiism (talk) 15:23, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
• Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, Nikos Likomitros. I fully support the initiative because it can connect better the CEE community, increase cooperation between the communities of the region, and help facilitate knowledge exchange between the communities which will surely help community growth. NikosLikomitros (talk) 01:22, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

Wikimedia community members

• Tgr (talk) 23:00, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
• Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 21:41, 13 March 2022 (UTC)
• As a recipient of several WMF grants I see a benefit of having more institutional knowledge gathered an developed in regional hubs. Papuass (talk) 16:07, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
• Same as Papuass, I see benefits in developing regional administrative support framework.--62.217.251.153 16:33, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
• Nice! Good luck. :) —DerHexer (Talk) 21:30, 28 March 2022 (UTC)
• Bachounda (talk) 13:21, 12 April 2022 (UTC) Good Initiative! for a deep collaboration in the continent
• V0lkanic (talk) 19:07, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
• Kurmanbek ^💬 13:32, 1 September 2023 (UTC) I'm supporting CEE Hub idea. It is very useful for further strengthening our regional cooperation and inter-community communication.
• Egezort (talk) 01:12, 20 September 2023 (UTC)