Deoband Community Wikimedia/Leadership Development and Skills Infrastructure Plan/Draft

Wikimedia, a globally recognized movement, is supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, which provides it with infrastructures such as Wikipedia and also allocates resources to advance the movement on a global scale. International communities collaborate and unite in their dedication to the cause of Free Knowledge. The vast network of Wikimedia organisations share a collective mission: to empower people worldwide with unrestricted access to the sum of all human knowledge. Together, they navigate uncharted territory, confronting challenges that shape society and foster global transformation.

With such trailblazing ideas the entities within the movement—including Wikimedia Foundation, affiliates, and other organisations—have made significant contributions to advocacy, leadership, and skills infrastructure through their initiatives. These endevours typically align with the larger Wikimedia Movement Strategy Initiatives further enriching the collective effort.

Leadership is the cornerstone of any successful group, driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and steering teams toward shared goals. In today's dynamic landscape, effective leadership is not merely a desirable trait but an essential component for sustained growth and adaptability. In response to the Movement Strategy recommendation “Invest in Skills and Leadership Development,” the DCW convened an LDSI Program in early April 2023.

The program includes a research project aimed at formulating a comprehensive leadership and skills infrastructure plan for the DCW's longer-run growth, sustainability, and institutional partnerships. The research endevours to further the directives outlined in the Movement Strategy Initiatives regarding Leadership Development and Skill Development Infrastructure. Simultaneously, the study aimed to tailor specific courses for the DCW’s needs based assessment. Its objectives are multifaceted, seeking to identify and cultivate leadership potential within the broader community of volunteers in close touch with the DCW.

The process of preliminary research and various methods used for the data extraction and collection was in the form of stories, conversations, one-on-one meetings, conferences, and workshops. The conversations with various entities from within and outside the movement produced significant insights for the plan. Numerous questions arose in the process of formulating the appropriate methodology for its implementation. It was evident from the outset that qualitative research is essential for this project. Instead of solely focusing on numerical data, multiple efforts were undertaken to collect information on leadership development and skills infrastructure with the intention of unveiling personal narratives. Design thinking served as the methodological framework for the qualitative research (interviews, conversations, readings, workshops, etc.) that was done and collected throughout the course of the plan formation.

Methodologically, the program integrated a variety of platforms and interactions. Meetings, conferences, and workshops provided direct engagement opportunities, while interviews and surveys offered valuable insights into participants' experiences and perceptions. Bi-weekly one-on-one meetings that happened in person for the discussion of various parts of the project and its progress. The monthly online Progress Prism meetings were also helpful in the formulation of the ideas for the project. DCW Progress Prism is the Deoband Community Wikimedia's engagement call, which focuses on fostering sustainable growth within the affiliate as part of the global Wikimedia movement. Moreover, in pursuit of engaging individuals involved in the Leadership Development and Skills Infrastructure program, the research scholar and the program lead held an insightful meeting with Beverly Jiang, the Learning and Development Strategist at the Wikimedia Foundation, who is also a core member of the Leadership Development Working Group. Recognizing the value of direct interaction, it was imperative to conduct face-to-face interviews with a wide range of individuals to successfully complete the initial phase of the plan. Thus, we capitalized on numerous opportunities that came our way in the form of gatherings, conferences, workshop, and other events throughout the planning process.

The program also utilizes a data-driven approach, utilizing surveys and Google Forms to collect feedback on various aspects. Although the findings maintain a broad perspective, they present a nuanced understanding of participants' preferences and areas of improvement. Graphs generated through Google Forms highlight trends and provide visual insights into what aspects participants responses. Additionally, several surveys especially tailored for the Wikimedians while another targeted the Indian Students and teachers.

Wikimedia Vision 2030

Vision 2030 in the movement refers to a set of ten recommendations consisting of 47 initiatives and goals that the movement aims to achieve by 2030. The recommendations include:

• Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
• Improve User Experience
• Provide Safety and Inclusion
• Ensure Equity in Decision-Making
• Coordinate Across Stakeholders
• Invest in Skills and Leadership Development
• Manage Internal Knowledge
• Identify Topics for Impact
• Innovate in Free Knowledge
• Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

These recommendations are part of a strategic direction which was created to guide the movement’s future by 2030. Each recommendation has a specific direction and is grouped with several initiatives.

Current scenario of leadership in Wikimedia movement

Leadership within Wikimedia is distinctive for its decentralized and organic nature, devoid of traditional organizational structures. Previous efforts to define and enhance this leadership have been limited. The Leadership Development Working Group (LDWG) undertook the task of documenting a generalized pattern of leadership within the movement, recognizing its varied manifestations across different cultural, linguistic, and organizational contexts within Wikimedia. The LDWG's initiative sought to establish a framework for local groups and projects to further develop and refine Wikimedia leadership according to their unique needs and circumstances.

A survey was conducted to understand the needs and requirements of Wikimedians with respect to leadership and skills infrastructure within the movement. It received responses from 71 Wikimedians. The majority of responses came from editors who were associated with user-groups while a few from those associated with chapters. Analysis of collected data shows 39.4% of respondents had over five years of experience, with Wikipedia being the primary site they edited, followed by Commons and then Wikidata. Furthermore, 70.4% had previously participated in leadership related activities prev, while 42.3% were satisfied with the leadership development opportunities they had experienced within the Wikimedia movement. Conversely, 29.6% held a neutal stance, and 2.8% were dissatisfied, and 1.4% expressed immense dissatisfaction regarding the same.

The general leadership activities in which Wikimedians participated are:

• Mentorship programs (36.6%)
• Leadership workshops (26.8%)
• Conferences or events (50.7%)
• Online courses or webinars (42.3%)
• Nothing (14.1%)

After assessing the outcomes of these leadership opportunities, it indicates that they contribute to the stabilisation and improvement of leadership skills, ability, confidence, and network connections.

Regarding skills infrastructure, we observed that 38% of respondents rated the current availability of resources and support for acquiring and improving skills related to Wikimedia projects and leadership roles as "Good" while 38% rated it as "Fair". However, 9.9% felt it was very poor, and 14.1% regarded it as excellent.

Different regions, different needs

Recognizing the diverse needs and requirements across different regions, it was clear that a one-size-fits-all approach to resource allocation wouldn't be appropriate. Instead, equitable distribution is essential and as such, the coommon issues observed address the same. The identified issues include:

• Supporting local language Wikimedia communities (Localized support)
• Organising monthly leadership, development, and skills training for all language leads to enhance their skills to train their respective community members
• Providing occasional trainings.
• Increase funding
• Regular online and offline workshops
• Funding for building alliances in Latin America
• Offering regular practical training
• More leadership training which should be free for volunteers, and not dependent on the affiliate willingness and not be reliant on inaccessible international events
• Mentorship programs
• Engagement with communities and community leaders
• Structured Leadership Programs
• Global Collaboration Initiatives
• Physical workshop, in-service training, bootcamps
• Project management and proper planning
• Interactive learning sessions
• Providing assistance and clear, realistic goals for the contributors especially newcomers
• Offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and improving communication and facilitation by the foundation and affiliates for emerging leaders
• Conducting tailored leadership training programs annually
• Increasing attention to diversifying learning opportunities regarding Wiki Tools as many tools are hardly utilized
• Ensuring continuous community engagement
• Organizing hands-on training workshops bi- or triannually to foster learning and collaboration among communities
• Objective training
• Facilitating conferences with interactive approaches to learning
• Establishing mentorship to provide guidance and support to emerging leaders in the Wikimedia movement
• Developing a leadership progression plan to accomodate new leaders in a timely manner
• Providing resources for technical skills development including prompt addressal of patches and bugs
• Data analysis and interpretation
• Implementing decentralized conflict management
• Strengthening the support system and enhancing leadership workshops for grassroots Wikimedia trainers, as well as improving mentorship programs
• Introduction of courses or workshops on engaging newcomers
• Please help us promoting Wikipedagogy, the usage of Wikipedia in classrooms, OER, and broader culture, even for those that do not edit it.

Needs of communities differ and should be addressed accordingly. These could be addressed by a diverse range of aspects such as regular conversations, workshops, precise and to-the-point training sessions, and events which aim at helping new contributors and leaders grow. In this regard, the initiatives such as Leadership Development Working Group and the Let's Connect have been praised.

Recommendations

More local conversations

"It is always wonderful to see people talk and interact and exchange ideas because that seems to be the source of almost all of the communities around the world that are not ingested with capital if you remove Capital the only other important aspect that the community works with is the way that a conversation happens", was a statement made by Tanveer Hasan in our December 2023 Conversation Hour. We have observed that localised conversations contribute not only to fostering leadership in the movement, but also help retaining new users.

Wikipedia in the classroom

Integrating Wikipedia in classrooms is beneficial in several ways. Our observation indicates that students are passionate to explore new aspects of knowledge, often expressing dissatisfcation with the standards of their courses as revealed by our survey. Creating partnerships with their institutions and schools or helping establish a local Wiki Club could prove helpful.

Wiki Clubs: Wiki Club Jamia

Institute of Technology and Science, Ghaziabad emphasises the importance of being associated with clubs and societies that are established within a university or a college campus. According to their website, "By taking part in the activities of clubs and societies you'll build long-lasting friendships and connections, meet students from different streams, and gain transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, organization, problem solving and time management. It will also improve your confidence. If you want to go a step further you could become President or Secretary of your club or society to develop your leadership abilities. Having held positions of authority will really impress graduate recruiters." This explicitly establishes the fact that how these clubs foster leadership, academic, and other important skills.

Extracurricular Wikimedia organizations lists some of the Wikimedia mission-aligned clubs that exist around the world. As a part of our Leadership Program, we helped establish Wiki Club Jamia on 29 October 2023 at Jamia Millia Islamia, one of the premier universities in India.

Wiki Club Jamia founding members

500 edit challenge

At the Wiki Club Jamia, a new edit-challenge was introduced to help with two primary issues: contributions and retention. 17 members of the club signed up to participate in the challenge. The club members are majorly students and research scholars who aim to make knowledge free, and The Wikipedia Library was a very good motiviation to keep them connected. We recommend that such motivations be found and created which could help bring and retain new people in the movement.

Internships are worth a try

Wikimedia entities, particularly those in the affiliate structure, could introduce internships. Young people and students often find a barrier when contributing to Wikipedia without incentives. Our observation suggests that internship programs can be the solution. Wikimedia affiliates and organisations could introduce internship programs and similar initiatives in which students are specifically appreciated, taught, and issued internship certificates.

Our programs of such nature include DCW Conversation Hour (hosts normally come from the student background), Heritage Lens Fellowship, the recent iteration of which helped bring 130+ images to Wikimedia Commons, and our graphics internship program.

The CBCS course bundle

The CBCS bundle is a set of courses which we plan our Wiki Club members to go through, and also offer to Muslim minority institutions as additional skill enhancements courses. This bundle is based on the survey and conversations that we had with students and several academicians. The survey received responses from students and teachers coming from a wide range of institions such as Aligarh Muslim University, IIT Kanpur, Al Falah University, DIT University, and the Ramjas College. The students that responded to the survey were either enrolled or had graduated from programs in subjects such as Islamic students, Education, Computer Science, Mass Communication, and Mathematics.

Our online survey received responses from 37 participants among whom 48.6% expressed dissatisfied with the current education system in India. A meagre percentation of 8.1% is satisfied, and 29.7% stay neutral, whilst 13.5% is just satisifed. 86.5% of our respondents had already engaged in skill development programs or courses outside of their regular academic curriculum, and we observed that everyone wanted to participate in any skill enhancement or leadership development program or course if given a chance. The prominent motivations include:

• Enhance career prospects (64.9%)
• Personal interest and passion (64.9%)
• Addressing gaps in the traditional education system (40.5%)
• Keeping up with industry trends (27%)
• It was a requirement of the course (5.4%)
• I know I'm made for this. (5.4%)

Evaluation, Iteration, and Adaptation

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Wikimedia entities have made significant contributions to leadership programs and infrastructure. However, we believe that there is a necessity for localization, and we reccomend the development of more local projects and programs aligned with the Movement Strategy Recommendation.

DCW's further plans

Subject to this LDSI draft plan, its recommendations and the strategic trajectory, DCW will be focusing on the development of Wiki Clubs in Muslim minority institutions in India and also initiate localised conversation hours on the pattern of its own, DCW Conversation Hour, following the Wikimedia Summit 2024, and it will also streamline the Heritage Lens Fellowship program. Localised events aim to develop leadership skills among students, alongside collaboration with movement partners such as the Centre for Internet and Society, to foster inclusive and hands-on kind of ecosystem.