Strategy/Wikimedia Foundation/2016/Community consultation/Reach



One of the broad topic areas on which the Wikimedia Foundation will focus in our upcoming annual plan is reach: our ability to distribute knowledge to the largest number of people possible. We believe this is the area where the Wikimedia Foundation can make the greatest impact.

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A critical question concerning reach

While Wikimedia content has been increasingly reused by others, traffic to Wikimedia projects has been decreasing since 2013. This is a severe challenge, because fewer people will explore related content, have the chance to become contributors, or donate. Declining reach is a significant risk to the movement’s relevance, sustainability and the way we operate, and thus to our shared vision of reaching every human being.

What do you think is the best way to encourage traffic to come to our projects while also supporting free, external content reuse?

Potential strategic approaches to improve reach

Below are several approaches the Wikimedia Foundation might take towards reach. Please read through these six options and let us know by approach "number" up to two or three of the six approaches you would most support. We also invite you to share your idea.

Approach One

  • Increase frequency of use and number of users by adapting user experience to their needs (this may result in additional content formats, making more of Wikimedia content easier to find, increasing language coverage, etc.).

Approach Two

  • Improve our understanding of how and why our users come to and stay on our projects so we can better serve their needs.

Approach Three

  • Understand how Wikimedia content is reused on external platforms and explore how to encourage users of such content to go to Wikimedia projects.

Approach Four

  • Increase awareness and use of Wikimedia projects in two Global South countries.

Approach Five

  • Enable others to reuse our content and build their own products by improving and documenting our APIs (application programming interfaces).

Approach Six

  • Improve Wikipedia mobile apps to increase use.

Suggest an approach

  • Do you have another idea we should prioritize to help us improve reach? Let us know!


  Thank you for contributing your thoughts to this consultation!