Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round1/Wikimedia Deutschland e.V./Proposal form
Community review has ended. You are still welcome to comment on these proposals, but the FDC and the applicants may not be able to respond to your feedback or consider it during the deliberations.
Please do not edit this proposal form directly. If changes are needed, applicants can request them on the proposal form's discussion page. Thank you!
Proposal by Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. to support its annual plan with ~US$1.6 million.
Program focus: Supporting Volunteers, Software Development (includes Wikidata), Institutions (partnerships aimed at liberating content), Legal and Social Framework
The WMDE volunteer support team will reach out to more volunteers in more efficient ways, enabling them to create more content, and to connect with each other.
With Wikidata WMDE has developed the fastest growing Wiki project, sparking the creation of a whole new online community. In 2015 we will build on this asset - the WMDE software development team - and develop Berlin into a movement software engineering hub. Here we will address community technological needs and further develop Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
In 2015 we will develop additional strong partnerships with institutions in the GLAM, science and education sectors. This will create opportunities for releasing content and for promoting the use of Open Educational Resources. Last but not least, WMDE will maintain a strong focus on advocacy, in order to create favorable conditions for free and open knowledge to unfold its potential.
As an organization, WMDE in 2015 moves from years of rapid growth into a period of consolidation. We are strengthening our internal structures and systems by planning programs and projects across departmental lines, and by merging two teams. We are strengthening our internal program support systems by integrating evaluation and institutional fundraising into one team working on organizational advancement. The Executive Director’s Office is supported by three Advisors, International Relations, Policy Matters, and Executive Matters.
Finally, after ten years of growth and in the midst of an executive transition, we take the opportunity to conduct an external governance review. We will learn how our current governance structures can be improved to assure transparency and community engagement while ensuring an efficient, lean, adaptive and collaborative organization. More on our leadership transition and governance review can be found below in the added section titled “Governance and Leadership”.
If you need to review the edit instructions you will find them in the editintro.
Eligible organizations may complete this form to request an Annual Plan Grant from the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) in the current round. This complete proposal form must be published in English on Meta by the proposal submission date for each round for your organization's application to be considered. No changes should be made to this proposal form and supplementary documents after these proposal submission date without written approval from FDC staff, and any proposal forms created will be considered 'submitted' after the proposal submission deadline unless the applying organization withdraws the application in writing.
The purpose of this document is to provide the FDC with an overview of your organization's annual plan, the alignment of the plan with the Wikimedia movement’s strategic priorities, and the potential impact of the plan. This proposal should complement any annual planning documents your organization may have such as your organization's annual plan and strategic plan: please complete all fields and add links to supporting documents where relevant. If any documents are submitted in draft form (e.g. an annual plan that has not yet been approved by the organization's General Assembly), please link to the final version of the document once it has been approved, even if it is approved after the deadline. If you are a representative of the applicant organization, you may request permission to add information to this proposal form on the proposal form discussion page. All requested changes will be reviewed by FDC staff.
Please review the documents describing the Annual Plan Grants process, including the FDC Framework, Guidancefor the FDC from the Board, and the FDC's past funding recommendations: FDC recommendations. These documents include critical information for applicants.
If you have any questions about the form, please contact FDCSupport@Wikimedia.org. If you have general suggestions or comments about the form itself, please leave them on the discussion page for this form.
A few terms used in the form:
FDC proposal form terms Wikimedia terms Learning & Evaluation terms
Basic information
edit- 1. In order to support community review, please provide a brief description of your organization's work in the upcoming year that can be used as a summary of your proposal. (This should be about 200 words, and should be easy for anyone to understand.)
Wikimedia Deutschland’s (WMDE) work in 2015 will continue to focus on supporting the German speaking communities as they create knowledge accessible to everyone.Three foci summarize our continued approach:
| 2015 |
| 1. Technical and logistical support for communities |
| 2. Free content release via partnerships |
| 3. Advocacy for open education and copyright reform |
The WMDE volunteer support team will reach out to more volunteers in more efficient ways, enabling them to create more content, and to connect with each other.
With Wikidata WMDE has developed the fastest growing Wiki project, sparking the creation of a whole new online community. In 2015 we will build on this asset - the WMDE software development team - and develop Berlin into a movement software engineering hub. Here we will address community technological needs and further develop Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
In 2015 we will develop additional strong partnerships with institutions in the GLAM, science and education sectors. This will create opportunities for releasing content and for promoting the use of Open Educational Resources. Last but not least, WMDE will maintain a strong focus on advocacy, in order to create favorable conditions for free and open knowledge to unfold its potential.
As an organization, WMDE in 2015 moves from years of rapid growth into a period of consolidation. We are strengthening our internal structures and systems by planning programs and projects across departmental lines, and by merging two teams. We are strengthening our internal program support systems by integrating evaluation and institutional fundraising into one team working on organizational advancement. The Executive Director’s Office is supported by three Advisors, International Relations, Policy Matters, and Executive Matters.
Finally, after ten years of growth and in the midst of an executive transition, we take the opportunity to conduct an external governance review. We will learn how our current governance structures can be improved to assure transparency and community engagement while ensuring an efficient, lean, adaptive and collaborative organization. More on our leadership transition and governance review can be found below in the added section titled “Governance and Leadership”.
- 2. Contact information.
- Legal name of organization: Wikimedia Deutschland – Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
- Organization's fiscal year (mm/dd–mm/dd): 01/01/–12/31
- 12-month funding period requested (mm/dd/yy–mm/dd/yy): 01/01/15–12/31/15
- Primary contact name and position in organization: Jan Engelmann, Interim CEO
- Primary contact username or Email: jan.engelmann@wikimedia.de
- Secondary contact name and position in organization: Nicola Zeuner, Partnerships and Grants
- Secondary contact username or Email: nicola.zeuner@wikimedia.de
- 3. Amount requested.
Table 1
| Currency requested () | US$ () | |
| Total annual expenses of organization | 4.680.000,00 | 6.144.840,00 |
| Amount requested from the FDC for the upcoming year's annual plan | 1.200.000,00 | 1.575.600,00 |
| Amount to be raised from non-FDC sources (total from Table 5) | 3.480.000,00 | 4.569.240,00 |
| Amount to be drawn from reserves for the upcoming year's annual plan | 0,00 | 0,00 |
| Amount of FDC funds allocated for the current year's annual plan | 1.296.000,00 | 1.701.648,00 |
- 4. What is your organization's proposed rate of growth in total budget since last year? Please explain your organization's rationale if your proposed budget will increase this year.
- For 2015 WMDE leadership has made a conscious decision to consolidate operations, and to focus on our core activity: supporting volunteers. In addition, we will focus on program quality improvement, effective governance and strong internal capacity. As a result, the rate of growth in budget is actually negative: -0,4%
Community engagement
editThis section provides the FDC an overview of your organization's work with volunteers and online contributors.
- 1. Which Wikimedia community or communities does your organization work with most closely, and which online Wikimedia project or projects does your organization's work support?
WMDE supports volunteers working within the following Wikimedia projects: Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, as well as Wiktionary and Wikisource.
For the purposes of structuring our work with these volunteers, the Volunteer Support Team distinguishes between two groups of community members, which often overlap in terms of the participating individuals: 1., those who are straightforward contributors, and are supported with short-term, situational supports, such as travel funds and equipment rentals; and 2., those who are initiators and leaders of projects, and are supported with a variety of services, incl. project planning and management assistance, grants, and technical assistance. Projects may be content generating activities, as well as activities that further movement cohesion, such as the mere volunteer-driven WikiCon conference.
The contributors to Wikidata are a younger, relatively new, but fast growing community. They are supported by WMDE in many ways, most importantly with the direct software development activity that improves the project and its usability. They are supported by developers, the Wikidata product manager as well as tools and guides. We also support contributors very actively through community building activities. We work with them through IRC, mailing lists as well as direct communication on gatherings and hackathons. In addition we mentored two women for the Free Software Outreach Program for Women, working on outreach tasks around Wikidata. We support teams from international universities to work and develop on Wikidata. The community also creates innovative tools to grow in reach, numbers and content created, including the Wikidata Game.
- 2. How does your organization know what community members / contributors to online projects need or want? Does your organization conduct needs assessments? How else does your organization consult the contributors and volunteers most involved with its work?
For the purposes of understanding our interactions with community members, it is helpful to distinguish between several communities.
Project Volunteers/Contributors: At the center of our community support activities is the notion that volunteers should be empowered and enabled to conduct their activities and complete their projects independently. WMDE staff will only provide supportive services that cannot be done by community members and that complement the volunteers’ work.
A formal needs assessment or survey would not give us the qualitative data we need to design adaptive and empowering community support services. Instead, we learn about the needs and interests of the German Wikimedia communities directly through the daily work of our volunteer support program. On a daily basis we address volunteer requests and ideas, and staff consults volunteer contributors through structures such as working committees, online talks, and workshops.
Volunteer contributors and project leaders are at the heart of all Wikimedia projects we support. The task of staff is to provide the supportive resources that cannot be found within the communities, and that act complementary to the hours of volunteer time provided. Therefore it is the job of the staff members of the volunteer support team and the software development team to assure communication around specific areas and to run support programs. Each team is entrusted with specific groups of issues, all of them are based on our staff members’ strong existing ties with the communities:
- Essential volunteer support:
- items on loan (video, photo and computer equipment and accessories, literature, etc.)
- software, research and travel grants
- basic project management assistance
- Community liaison for software innovations
- Promoting social events and processes, to support and motivate volunteers
- Empowering female community members and newbies (Women Edit Project)
- Assisting with large community events (e.g. WikiCon, AdminCon, Parliament projects Bundestag, Landtag)
- Supporting GLAM-centered community-activities
As we gather more knowledge on specific support needs and on barriers to project success, we design service packages, how-tos, and tool kits in an iterative way and improve them as they get deployed and tested. We closely consult with project leaders throughout a project’s lifecycle and document the learnings. In 2015, we will standardize these processes, enabling us to track service types, number of services provided, and the rate of success of projects in reaching their goals. By documenting best practices and publishing learnings, we will begin to facilitate the knowledge transfer among movement volunteers, rather than just providing staff support.
The process and guidelines used to support volunteers today have been developed in an intensive participatory, community-driven process. This involved intensive face to face discussions and online drafting of guidelines. Community members determined for what activities they wish to receive what types of support, as well as how they want to apply for support and how it should be delivered. Our support system today, both for small assistance as well as for project grants, is the result of this community-driven process.
The Förderprogramm Freies Wissen (FFW, Free Knowledge Support Program), designed for larger scope community-initiated projects, is also the result of a participatory process. At the end of this extensive consultation, pages and pages of wikibased community input had been transformed into the FFW beta site. In November 2013 the General Assembly approved the project with significant grant funding attached. The FFW Idea Portal is now actively used to pitch ideas and gather community momentum. The stand-alone website has been specifically designed to recruit new contributors of ideas, beyond the ‘traditional’ community. FFW has become yet another way for WMDE to listen closely to the innovative pulse of the community and the future communities-to-be. Community members submit their project ideas through the website, and others can favorite ideas, contribute to ideas and get together for the planning, funding and implementation of projects – much like WMF’s Idea Lab, but tailored to the German-speaking communities and beyond.
Finally, whenever we make mistakes, the German community with its rather frank communication style will let us know right away. Much constructive criticism happens this way: through direct contact with our volunteers, as well as through discussions online in the Forum, the mailing list and the Wikipedia Kurier.
Wikidata Contributors and Open Source Developers: We offer a variety of ways for contributors to express wishes and get in contact with the development team and provide input on important topics. The most important ones are:
- Main community page of the project
- Dedicated page to get in contact with the developers
- dedicated pages for specific topics we require input on:
- discussions at meetups, conferences, hackathons
- social networks Twitter and Facebook
- IRC channels
- mailing lists
- bug tracker
- various discussion pages on other Wikimedia projects dedicated to Wikidata topics
We have a very close and healthy relationship with the Wikidata community. We maintain and foster this relationship through lively and respectful exchange. We open the conversation about software changes and new features at a very early stage of development and always strive for highly participatory decision making processes.
Members and Donors: Our 2013 donor survey revealed that this community, while it overlaps with that of volunteer contributors, is rather representative of the readers of Wikipedia. Although our 2013 donor community grew to 330,000 from 160,000 in 2011, the demographics and the survey responses did not change significantly, when compared to the 2011 survey. The recent survey was conducted in September of 2013 with 942 respondents. Only 17% were female, and the average age was 52, while the age span was 15 to 89. Our donors have a higher than average income and feature a high percentage of post-graduate degree holders. 34% of respondents use Wikipedia on a daily basis, and 18% have contributed content. However, 86% of respondents edit Wikipedia less than once a month. So there is only a small overlap between the community of Wikipedians and the community of donors. We were interested in finding out if the donor community may be a target group to recruit new editors. 59% stated that they could imagine contributing. When asked about barriers, the main reason selected for not editing Wikipedia was lack of confidence in one’s own competence (43%).
The learnings that are most important from the donor survey for the question “how do we know what they want?” can be found in the set of answers on use of the donated funds. Respondents were asked which programs they found worthy of donor support, using a Likert scale. It is notable that all listed programs were valued highly, with ‘Software Development’ and ‘Work with GLAM Institutions’ at the top of the list, and no significant difference between the average value given to each program. This leads us to believe that our donor community is largely in agreement with our programs and our work, as of course evidenced also by the fact that this community is growing, as are their donations.
The results of the survey were published in August of 2014. We are currently developing ideas on how to involve more donors and members as contributors, based on this data.
A core group of members is actively involved in shaping the direction of the organization. Through the Member Forum Wiki and mailing list, discussion on many important developments and decisions is enabled. This pertains to the board strategy, the annual plan, the annual budget and any budget revisions. In addition, all Board meeting minutes, by-laws and financial information are posted here.
The WMDE General Assembly takes place twice annually. Attendance has been consistent (albeit small as a percentage of our total members, which consist of two groups; active and sustaining members), and those who attend are to a large degree extremely active volunteers in Wikimedia projects. The meetings and elections are advertised through the Forum, the blog, the WMDE member mailing list and postal mailings. At the November assembly the membership elects the WMDE Supervisory Board and discusses and approves the annual plan. The draft plan is posted to the WMDE Forum and to Meta-Wiki for community discussion as soon as the board approves it in September. Until four weeks before the WMDE General Assembly our members give feedback via talkpages and submit written motions in case they want to introduce changes to the annual plan. These motions may be discussed online by the community until the assembly and are then being discussed and voted upon at the assembly. WMDE is fortunate to have a very active and engaged core of members who contribute not only to the Wikimedia projects, but also to the strategic direction of the organization.
Organization planning and reports
editPlease provide links to your organization’s planning documents and reports. All of these documents are required unless otherwise indicated.
Your organization's strategic planning documents, past reports, and current annual planning documents, are essential to our understanding of your organization's proposal. If you think you will have difficulty submitting any of these documents with your organization's proposal form by the proposal submission deadline, you should contact FDC staff right away. You may also provide notes to this table here, as well as links to any supplementary documents to this proposal form.
WMDE’s annual planning process begins in July, and continues up to the submission of the APG proposal. This year, the WMDE Board began the process by providing its strategy document, after which staff began reviewing the 2014 annual plan in terms of accomplishments, failures and next steps. In 2014, it was important for us to critically review the work done to date, and also to plan our 2015 goals and objectives with a mid- and longer-term view in mind. We resolved to focus 2015 on our strengths, and eliminate ineffective projects and structures. Many of the objectives in the 2015 plan are direct results of stakeholder conversations – with communities and external partners, and within the movement. The objectives were shared with the board during the drafting stage.
A new factor influencing the planning process as well as the annual plan itself, is the role of third-party funds and collaborations that increasingly support our activities. We are embarking on a new journey here, and are working to improve ourselves in terms of our leadership and collaborative capacities, as well as adjusting our internal systems to an organization with diverse funding and with goals and projects shared with our partners. Internal decision-making tools are currently developed which will provide strong criteria screens to assure partnerships are aligned with movement priorities.
The draft WMDE Annual Plan was presented to the WMDE Board in early September, and subsequently board revisions and suggestions were incorporated. Next, the draft plan will be reviewed publicly on Meta. The community feedback is then summarized, published on the talkpage and incorporated into the draft as appropriate. The member assembly will discuss and formally approve the plan in November.
Table 2
Completed fiscal year Current year Upcoming year Annual plan (including budget) 2013 WMDE annual plan 2014 WMDE annual plan 2015 WMDE draft annual plan Community discussion around annual plan 2013 discussion (English), (German) 2014 discussion (German, no contributions to the English talk page) 2015 discussion Annual report (including financial report) WMDE 2013 annual report Not required. Not required. Strategic plan Kompass 2020 2014-2018 strategic plan (replaces Kompass 2020) 2014-2018 strategic plan
Financials: year-to-date progress
editThe purpose of this section is to give the FDC an idea of how your organization is spending on your current grant, or during your current annual plan. The period defined as year-to-date should be the start date of your fiscal year you defined in Contact information, until 1 September 2014. Your projected amount should be the amount your organization expects to spend by the end of the current fiscal year you defined in Contact information.
Table 3
Current funding period planned / budgeted Year-to-date funding period actuals Projected end of current funding period In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US Revenues (from all sources) 4.870.000,00 6.394.310,00 4.479.934,00 5.882.153,34 4.700.000,00 6.171.100,00 Expenses 4.870.000,00 6.394.310,00 3.067.953,07 4.028.222,38 4.700.000,00 6.171.100,00
Table 3 notes: We have adjusted the budget in Q3. You can find the adjusted numbers in "projected final amount".
Programs: upcoming year's annual plan
editThis section is about your organization's programs. A program is a group of activities that share the same objectives. Please do not include information about your organization's operating activities in this section. You are welcome to provide information about activities like administration, staff and board training, fundraising, governance, and internal IT in another section of this proposal form or in a supplementary document. Please answer all four questions for each program.
Introduction
Wikimedia Deutschland’s activities are organized along the lines of four broad programs: Volunteers, Software Development, Institutions, and Legal and Social Framework. The focus of all four are our communities – our role as a Chapter is to create conditions, relationships and systems that enable our volunteers to collaboratively create content. Our programs have one or more goals, and all of them have many objectives. In an effort to prevent organizational silos from forming, our programs do not align with the departments of the organization – most of them are linked across departments, and all of them are supported by strategic organizational functions such as communication, evaluation, capacity building, development and international relations, which are described below under Program Support.
Note: For better logical flow in our program descriptions, we integrated the targets (originally question 3.) with goals and objectives (question 1.) for each program.
Program 1: Supporting Volunteers
The focus of all WMDE programs is on our communities and our volunteer contributors. This program specifically addresses the direct support mechanisms WMDE provides to encourage and facilitate volunteer contribution through small and large content-generating projects.
Since we are working with all German-speaking communities, in 2015 we plan to increasingly collaborate with WMAT and WMCH by better coordinating our volunteer support strategies, programs and processes (see also APG proposals of WMAT and WMCH). This will provide more clarity for volunteers, and facilitate their collaboration. In cooperation with these partnering Chapters we plan to further the exchange among volunteer-supporting Wikimedia organizations globally, and to identify promising practices and share learning patterns.
Background: Over the past few years we have streamlined the application process and support services for community activities. The improvements have been well received and in 2014 the programs have been widely accessed. Small project supports include travel grants, literature stipends and rental of technical equipment. Requests for support have doubled over the last 12 months, to a total of over 2000 requests. Supports for larger scale, collaborative projects include grants, technical assistance, project management consulting and addressing any other areas that help make a project successful.
Through our daily interactions with the communities, and in the process of supporting their activities and projects from idea stage to proposal writing, through implementation to completion, we have identified specific needs that we will address in 2015: First, the need for support around project planning and implementation, and second, the need to promote project successes and share experiences, lessons learned and promising practices. Rather than staff providing case by case technical assistance only, we would like to foster knowledge transfer among project volunteers and across the movement through communication and documentation. The latter will improve our own understanding of what makes community projects work, improve our systems for tracking and evaluating volunteer work, and further improve our own support systems.
- 1. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Enable and empower volunteers to achieve their goals as they create free knowledge within the movement projects.
– We do this by supporting volunteers and their projects through grants and technical assistance, from the very first idea stage all the way to project completion and evaluation. With these comprehensive services, we will recruit and activate new contributors.
In 2015, WMDE plans to expand and improve the Wikimedia communication structures utilized by volunteers, incl. those with other German-speaking chapters, with a strong focus on facilitating shared learning.
Objective 1.1. Project Support
edit- Support to medium- and larger-sized community projects has been improved with practical project management tools and technical assistance, and community knowledge transfer is assured through documentation and dissemination of promising project practices.
| Targets | |
| 1.1.1. | By the end of 2015, 75% of the volunteers who have initiated community projects report that WMDE support packages (e.g. project management assistance, event support, technical assistance) were helpful for managing their project and for making it a success. |
| 1.1.2. | Fostered by the WMDE volunteer support team, the number of collaboratively created learning patterns that describe promising community project practices rises up to 10 until the end of 2015. (Learning patterns will be translated and posted to Meta) |
Objective 1.2. Small Project Support
edit- The efficiency and accessibility of our support services for small community projects has been further improved. This leads to an increase in content (provided by volunteers supported by WMDE) and its global usage in the Wikimedia projects.
| Targets | |
| 1.2.1 | The number of new media items added to Wikimedia Commons in 2015 which are marked as ‘supported by WMDE’ continues at the high levels of 2014 (46K new items to date in 2014, projected 2014 baseline: 60K). |
| 1.2.2 | Global usage of media items (improving articles in global Wikimedia projects) ‘supported by WMDE’ increases by 20% to ~65K (2014: ~50K to date, projected 2014 baseline 54K ). |
| 1.2.3 | Metrics and ways to measure them are established for monitoring the number of articles created or edited as a result of WMDE’s small project support. |
The following two objectives will be collaboratively addressed by our Volunteer Support team and our Software Development Team:
Objective 1.3. Community Technical Support
edit- A mechanism has been established that will enable volunteers to submit software/technical suggestions and ideas, and the Volunteer Support/Software Development teams respond efficiently to these suggestions.
| Targets | |
| 1.3.1. | Passing through the new iterative mechanism, by end of 2015, at least 5 suggestions/ideas/tools will be rolled-out. |
| 1.3.2. | Continuous monitoring and documentation of community feedback shows predominantly positive assessments of software/technical features and of the process of community participation through the end of 2015. |
Objective 1.4. Liason
edit- The exchange between the German-speaking communities and the WMF Software Development Team is actively promoted and supported towards transparent and meaningful community engagement around new software development initiatives of both WMF and WMDE.
| Target | |
| 1.4.1. | Throughout 2015, there is a lively, respectful exchange on software development activities facilitated through the WMDE Community Liaison position (measured by # of contacts, # of conversations, # of consultations of WMDE liaison/German speaking community by WMF) and a decrease in controversies upon implementation of software-related changes. |
- 2. Strategic Priorities
This program, its objectives and its activities directly address the WMF Strategic Priority “Increase participation”. The small and large projects support services are important to retain and gain new contributors and enable them to complete high quality projects. The Tech Community Liaison position will help mediate community concerns with software changes, as WMF and WMDE software development departments implement new tech features and tools that attract new editors by making contributing easier.
The objectives listed above represent new and continued activities we have prioritized for 2015. Other activities that occur within this program, address the strategic priority, and are part of the day-to-day business of the Volunteer Support Team include:
- Encourage Diversity: WMDE’s recently published study, Charting Diversity, deals with diversity and its importance to Wikipedia, documenting our current knowledge on the matter, setting out fields of action and concluding with a catalogue of measures to serve as motivation for our future work. The study identifies instruments and fields of actions that could have a positive effect on promoting gender diversity in editors. Two approaches are key: Developing an understanding and awareness on the subject of “diversity” within the community as well as nurturing and enhancing an open and a welcoming culture. The report has certainly raised the awareness of diversity issues at WMDE, and we have begun adopting its recommendations. The research and development learnings from the study now inform the planning and implementation of all WMDE projects and initiatives. Changes to community culture will not happen overnight, and will not happen only as result of specific diversity projects. Rather, a gradual change in culture will occur through self-awareness, developing communication tools that encourage respectful interaction, and through creating supportive sub-communities.
- As a consequence of the study “Charting Diversity,” In 2014 WMDE developed a tool in collaboration with male and female Wikipedians: a cMOOCs (connectivist Massive Open Online Course) titled Wiki Dialog, which gives Wikipedians and Wikipedia enthusiasts the opportunity to address problematic issues on cooperation within the community and discuss them in a structured, time-restricted, respectful and solution-oriented way.
- A specific activity following the recommendations from Diversity report has begun in 2014, and will continue to evolve in 2015: The volunteer-led Women Edit project encourages women to contribute through social events, edit-a-thons, a mentorship program and WikiWomen knowledge transfer. The first results are the Women in Science edit-a-thon and the WikiWomen meetings. In 2014 we funded a facilitator to get all these activities off the ground. In 2015, the Women Edit group is expected to continue independently, based on the community momentum and initiative of the participants created in 2014. Monthly meetings take place at the Berlin office and locations in other German cities.
- Support off-line and social events: We understand the importance of face-to face interaction for increasing participation and building social capital. The office in Berlin continues to serve the communities by providing space and logistical support for meetings. We award scholarships for community members to attend Wikimania, and provide logistical support for the planning of the annual WikiCon community conference. WMDE has also financially supported the establishment of community spaces in Cologne, Hannover and Hamburg. The office in Berlin has extensive community meeting facilities, which are frequently used for editing, collaborating and for volunteer social events.
- Rewarding excellent contributions: We do this through the annual Zedler Awards, celebrated in May.
All these activities serve to increase participation and motivation. More on our work with communities in the Community Engagement section above.
- 3. For Targets, see above under 1.
- 4. Logic Models
Global Metrics: For the objectives referring to direct volunteer support, some global metrics (e.g. “Number of active editors involved” or “Number of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages”) may apply. For the objectives focusing on facilitating innovation and participation in tech development, we will rather rely on measures such as “individuals continuously involved” and “quality of cooperation/communication”.
Program 2: Software Development
Note: Our Annual Plan for 2014 represented software development as a separate activity somewhat external to programs. We now regard Software Development as a program. Over the past year we have connected and integrated the main software development projects – Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons – with our communities and the Volunteer Program (Program 1 above) that serves the communities directly. In the same manner we are striving to connect all four programs horizontally, based on their common focus: supporting communities.
Background: Wikidata is currently the most important software infrastructure development effort for the movement, evidenced by the large and continuously growing number of new contributors and edits. Wikimedia Commons has the potential to enable much community activity, but it has been hampered by its inadequate searchability. In 2014 our software developers created the first building blocks for integrating Commons and Wikidata, which will lead to a better search function, easier data access and data usability for Wikimedia Commons files. The related development activities in 2015 will occur in close collaboration with the WMF engineering team.
Our focus for software development in 2015 will be threefold: Further strengthening Wikidata, with an emphasis on quality and user experience, secondly, improving Wikimedia Commons in the field of “structured data” through integration with Wikidata, and thirdly, further developing the software development center in Berlin. This center will enable us to sustain the development activities that complement the work of WMF development team, and that are our contribution to stabilizing and innovating the tech infrastructure of the movement. However, a strong emphasis in 2015 will be to serve the German-speaking communities’ technological needs, as well as to recruit and engage more volunteer developers from the open source community, and to create support and learning opportunities for these volunteers.
The software development program has three distinct, but interconnected goals for 2015: (Note: Due to the nature of software engineering work, objectives/targets here are mostly outputs focused on the rolling out of software features.)
- 1. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Improve Wikidata user experience and increase the quality of Wikidata content.
Objective 1.1. References
editUsers of Wikidata are enabled to add references to statements quickly and easily.
| Target | |
| 1.1.1. | The improved “Edit References” feature is available for users of Wikidata by the end of 2015 and allows for quick and easy referencing (as indicated by an increase in references to 15 % statements that have non-Wikimedia references by six months after feature roll-out). |
Objective 1.2. Enhanced changes
editUsers of Wikimedia ‘sister’ projects are enabled to easily track and review changes to their content that were caused by changes to data on Wikidata.
| Target | |
| 1.2.1. | The new feature “Enhanced Changes List” is available for users of ‘sister’ projects no later than by the end of 2015. |
Objective 1.3. Constraint reports
editWikidata editors are enabled to easily and quickly identify inconsistencies of data on Wikidata.
| Target | |
| 1.3.1. | The Wikidata feature “Constraint Reports” is improved/ enhanced and made available for users of Wikidata by the end of 2015. |
- 2. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Simplify the re-use of Wikimedia Commons content by continuing to integrate Wikimedia Commons with Wikidata.
Objective 2.1 Topic Categorization
editUsers of Wikimedia Commons are able to use a topic category function, and additional tools can be built upon this (i.e. integration of the Upload Wizard).
| Target | |
| 2.1.1. | A topic category function is made available for editors of Wikimedia Commons by the end of Q2 2015. |
Objective 2.2. Searchability
editSearching media files in Commons has been simplified and the further usability of files has been improved.
| Target | |
| 2.2.1. | Users of Wikimedia Commons are enabled to search media content by searching for topics and other media data by end of 2015. |
Objective 2.3. Data types
editUsers have access to specific data types, enabling them to specify, e.g., institutions, authors or licenses.
| Target | |
| 2.3.1. | Data types to specify e.g. institutions, authors or licenses are made available by end of 2015. |
Objective 2.4. User functions
editThe representation of user functions on Wikimedia Commons has been optimized to the specific requirements of media data.
| Target | |
| 2.4.1. | By the end of 2015 optimized user functions (e.g. for ‘new entry’ or ‘edit’) are made available to users of Wikimedia Commons. |
- 3. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Assure the innovative software development capacity of the movement by expanding the Berlin-based team to a permanent software development center.
Objective 3.1. Community Technical Support
editWMDE Software Development has established an additional team, the new Community Project Team, which is uniquely deployed to support the technical needs of community initiated projects.
| Target | |
| 3.1.1. | The Community Project Team is established, is working according to agile processes of software deployment, and starts to support the technical needs of community-initiated projects by end of 2015. |
Objective 3.2. Outreach and Visibility
editActivities and projects of WMDE Software Development are increasingly noticed and acknowledged by the free and open source software community.
| Target | |
| 3.2.1. | Monthly audio podcasts and videos of technical talks are published, resulting in at least 200+ downloads per episode by the end of Q3. Two hands-on, output-oriented tech events are attended by at least 60 community members. |
Objective 3.3. Mentoring
editVolunteer open source developers contributing to MediaWiki, Wikidata and other movement projects have access to a mentoring and support program.
| Target | |
| 3.2.1. | By end of 2015 the mentoring program is made publicly accessible and volunteer open source developers receive first support (e.g. scholarships for hack-a-thons or other events, co-working space at WMDE office etc.) |
- 2. Strategic Priorities
The WMDE Software Development Program addresses almost all WMF Strategic priorities. It contributes to stabilizing infrastructure by investing in technology that further strengthens and improves the Wikimedia projects Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. It increases participation through Wikidata, which has been the single largest source of new contributors to a Wikimedia project in many years. While the community of active Wikipedia editors has stagnated or shrunk in numbers, Wikidata has spawned an entire new community of editors, as evidenced by 153 million edits, ~16 million data items with ~40 million statements, and around 8000 active editors (data as of Aug 2014). At the same time, WMDE actively invests in improving the integration of communities and technological advances, in order to retain experienced editors, while allowing innovations that will make contributing more attractive to next generations of editors. The program improves quality by developing new tools for tracking and assessing content changes, and thus facilitating the quality improvement work of Wikidata contributors. Finally, the program encourages innovation by reaching out to volunteer developers and supporting them directly in our offices. Innovation is also spurred by providing Wikidata as a basis for open source development of new applications in and outside of the Wikimedia world, many of which are already in use, and continue to appear.
- 3. For Targets, see above under 1.
- 4. Logic Models
Global Metrics: Global metrics only partially apply to this program, as its targets are mainly directed at innovative software outputs. Nevertheless, especially improvements in user experience and data quality will form the base for contributor engagement and contributor motivation. Wikidata affects Global Metric “Number of active editors involved” and “Number of individuals involved” on a daily basis. Wikidata’s benefit for sister projects addresses the quality issue in Wikimedia projects rather directly (Global Metric “Number of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects”). For our planned FOSS outreach and mentoring activities, we will indicate “individuals involved”, “attendees”, “access rates” and other measures of reach/ involvement.
Program 3: Institutions
This program seeks to have a long-term impact on institutions in the areas of culture, education and science, specifically to increase their contribution to Free and Open Knowledge. Our main strategic focus lies in facilitating the collaboration between institutions, movement communities, and volunteers, complemented by practical information and consultation offered to institutional partners. Background: In 2014, WMDE has provided leadership, funding and support for a number of collaborative projects that have raised awareness of Open Knowledge, have initiated dialogue and demonstrated the potential of freeing up content. This year, we plan to build upon the partnerships we initiated in 2014, as well as establish additional ones, especially in the area of science, and then to sustain and expand joint projects. In addition, we plan to provide structured, modular information and consultation support to institutions, that will assist them with methods and processes for releasing their content. Looking into 2015 and beyond, we will engage our partners in longer-term collaborative planning and resource development.
Our 2015 activities will be guided by two goals:
- 1. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Solidify and scale up the collaboration between institutions and the Wikimedia movement for the creation and provision of new content.
Objective 1.1. Toolbox
editVolunteers have access to a set of tools enabling them to independently conduct projects in partnership with institutions.
| Target | |
| 1.1.1. | Volunteers participating in our training workshops and using WMDE’s cooperation guidelines report this support as helpful for establishing sustainable cooperation with institutions (number of workshop participants, feedback of participants). |
Objective 1.2. Events
editSeries of focused events serves to gain additional allies and to grow the network of partnering institutions.
| Target | |
| 1.2.1. | Additional high priority institutions participate and ten potential partners engage in follow-up communication and continuous interaction with WMDE. |
Objective 1.3 Model Project
editA pilot project in collaboration with a science institution of excellence serves to introduce open knowledge to the scientific community.
| Target | |
| 1.3.1. | Until end of 2015 a renowned science institution commits itself to partner with WMDE in a pilot project regarding open knowledge in the scientific community. |
Objective 1.4. Liberating Content
editThe amount of content liberated by GLAM institutions increases as a result of increased collaboration with Wikimedia communities.
| Target | |
| 1.4.1. | Of our existing GLAM partnerships (Baseline: 21 in 2014), at least eight institutions will continue contributing to our content-liberation activities in 2015. We strive to activate at least ten new GLAM institutions to provide access to their data/content. |
- 2. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Provide Institutions with technical and expert support, enabling them to liberate content more independently.
Objective 2.1. Technical Assistance Plan
editThe analysis of specific target group needs and available related materials (begun in 2014) is completed and informs a comprehensive, modular plan for institutional technical assistance, comprised of information materials and consultation modules.
| Target | |
| 2.1.1 | See below (2.3.). |
Objective 2.2. Materials
editA resource library of materials, tailored to specific target institution types, (covering topics such as licensing, metadata, Wikimedia Commons) is available by Q4 2015.
| Target | |
| 2.2.1 | See below (2.3.). |
Objective 2.3. Consultation
editA menu of consultation modules is deployed, tailored to specific target institution types (covering topics such as collaborative content creation and release, licenses, technical implementation, working with volunteer communities).
| Target | |
| 2.1.1/2.2.1/2.3.1 | Deployed technical assistance package (info & consultation modules) shared with the movement through publishing on Meta and as learning patterns with practice examples. |
- 2. Strategic Priorities
This program increases participation by fostering new linkages between existing communities, new contributors and GLAM institutions. It improves quality by building institutional partnerships that over the mid- and long-term will insert expertise into the Wikimedia projects and raise the quality of content. It encourages innovation by introducing new partners to the idea of open knowledge, and showing them the potential of sharing their content. Partners are supported technologically, as they strive to release content, make it usable for Wikimedia projects, and learn to collaborate with community members. All these are innovative processes. By showcasing these innovations, for example through our Coding da Vinci Hackathon, and through creating learning patterns on institutional support and collective impact, we will share innovative ideas with the movement and the world.
- 3. For Targets, see above under 1.
- 4. Logic Model
Global Metrics: For our activities directly aimed at content liberation by GLAM or science institutions we will report on “amount/ type of content made available” and its use in Wikimedia projects (Global Metric “Number of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages”). As it is generally challenging to characterize the output of GLAM activities, we will work on ways to categorize GLAM datasets and evaluate their usefulness for Wikimedia projects. For our efforts to establish sustainable partnerships with institutions we will instead rely on markers for “quality of relationships”, “joint initiatives” and other network metrics. As far as this work involves volunteers we will include markers of participation, attendance and “Number of individuals involved” (Global Metric).
Program 4: Legal and Social Framework
We believe that societal and political decision-makers should contribute to improving the legal and political environment for Free and Open Knowledge. We work with volunteer contributors and communities to improve the conditions that enable them to collaboratively create and improve content. In 2015 we will focus on two policy environments:
First, we will work to improve education policy as it relates to Open Educational Resources (OER). Educational resources that are freely accessible and reusable by educators and learners have much potential for increasing the amount of knowledge available to all humans. By introducing and applying Wikimedia principles and tools such as open licences and collaborative creation of content to the German-speaking education sectors, WMDE intends to help unfold the potential of OER.
Our OER work in 2015 will target the the “Länder”- level (these are the German federal states, which have the authority over education policy) and at the federal level, where larger policy developments are discussed and coordinated. In 2014 we have begun forming the Open Knowledge Coalition (Bündnis Freie Bildung), have raised visibility for OER and their potential for education, and have initiated pilot projects around OER. In 2015, we will expand and strengthen the Open Knowledge Coalition, which will then develop and disseminate policy recommendations.
Second, we will contribute to the policy process around copyright reform at the European Union level. Most of the important decisions about copyright law will be made at the EU level, addressing the current chaos of different copyright laws in EU countries. In 2014, we united 13 European Wikimedia Chapters in the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group (FKAGEU), and began to formulate policy priorities and positions. We also established a permanent presence and working relationships with allies and EU institutions in Brussels. This year, we aim to strengthen relationships with non-movement net policy groups, involve many more Wikimedia community members in the policy process, and jointly affect the current copyright reform process towards improved legal conditions, with a focus on public domain for public works (incl. all government publications) and freedom of panorama.
We are aware of the restrictions on legislative and policy activities that apply to the APG funds. Our advocacy activities are fully supported by WMDE revenue and third-party funds. We list these activities in the FDC proposal, despite the fact that they will not be supported by APG funds, because they are part of the comprehensive annual plan. Without creating favorable policy conditions for Free Knowledge, much of our other work supporting volunteers and content creation may be less effective.
- 1. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Provide leadership for growing the network of important OER actors, foster the development of OER related projects,
and engage in collaborative OER advocacy at the state level.
Objective 1.1. Open Education Coalition
editWMDE expands the coalition by five additional partners and additional volunteers.
| Target | |
| 1.1.1. | By the end of 2015, five new partners (organisations or individuals) have joined the coalition. Additionally, the diversity of the coalition in terms of type and scope of our coalition partners is increased. |
Objective 1.2. Policy Positions
editWMDE participates in all relevant open education policy consultations and hearings, and provides policy positions.
| Target | |
| 1.2.1. | WMDE continues to be regularly invited to crucial state level open education consultations and hearings in 2015 in Germany and plays an active role (provide own position papers, add new agenda points etc.) in most of them. |
Objective 1.3. OER Model Project
editWMDE initiates a collaborative OER initiative with one state level political entity.
| Target | |
| 1.3.1. | By the end of 2015, one state level political entity commits itself to partner in an OER pilot project with WMDE. |
- 2. Goal, Objectives and Targets
Engage in collaborative advocacy around EU copyright reform, involving additional Wikimedia contributors and volunteers,
and working closely with the Wikimedia Chapters organized in the FKAGEU and other net policy allies.
Objective 2.1. Tools
editWMDE provides advocacy tools and materials to volunteers.
| Target | |
| 2.1.1. | An EU advocacy contact database is available for Wikimedians, and policy issue brochures in at least three different languages are shared with the Wikimedia movement. |
Objective 2.2. EU Members of Parliament
editBy the end of 2015, additional volunteer Wikimedians have established contact with MEPs and are actively consulting them on Free Knowledge issues.
| Target | |
| 2.2.1. | Ten new working contacts to MEPs are established in 2015, which result in ongoing consultations by volunteer Wikimedians (as qualified by meetings, email conversations, phone calls). |
Objective 2.3. Participation
editWMDE participates in all EU level dialogues, meetings and consultations that may affect the Copyright Dossier of the European Commission.
| Target | |
| 2.3.1. | WMDE/FKAGEU participates in all relevant EU copyright dialogues, meetings and consultations in 2015 (measured by # of consultations, baseline 2014 TBD) and plays an active role in all opportunities. |
Objective 2.4. Wikimedian in Brussels
editWikimedians from EU Chapters have the opportunity to spend time at the FKAGEU Brussels desk, supported by a scholarship, to engage in hands-on advocacy activities.
| Target | |
| 2.4.1. | By end of 2015 at least two volunteer Wikimedians have participated in the “Wikimedian in Brussels” work scholarship and our EU advocacy activities. |
Objective 2.5. Partnerships
editWMDE develops additional partnerships with like-minded open source and free knowledge organizations active in EU net policy advocacy, and works with them on joint positioning and projects.
| Target | |
| 2.5.1. | Additional working partnerships are established and existing ones are deepened (as qualified by shared vision and goals, joint projects, joint policy statements, collaboratively organized events, # of additional volunteers engaged in advocacy activities) in 2015. |
- 2. Strategic Priorities
Advocacy is a crucial role of Wikimedia Chapters. By advocating on behalf of free knowledge at strategically selected levels of decision-making in Europe and Germany, WMDE strives to create the policy environment that will enable volunteers and Chapters to effectively work towards all five movement priorities. WMDE has specifically taken the role of building collaborative capacity among EU Chapters and their communities to actively engage in the EU policy making process, which is where many movement sensitive decisions are going to be made in the near future. With our EU level activities, we are building agreement, collaborative capacity and unity among EU Chapters, we develop partnerships with allied organizations, and we find new ways of involving our contributors in advocacy. While our OER advocacy activities are currently focused on Germany, they will introduce the concept of free knowledge to new stakeholders, and thus hopefully encourage innovation while building a favorable policy environment at the state level.
On all advocacy activities, we are eager to share our learnings with the movement, and to contribute to building movement and volunteer advocacy capacity overall.
- 3. For Targets, see above under 1.
- 4. Logic Model
Global Metrics: Global metrics mostly do not apply to the advocacy activities of this program as it is mainly targeted at affecting the policy environment that enables volunteer and content creation. Nevertheless, any progress in building coalitions and partnerships of course will be a crucial part of our reporting and contribution to shared learning. At the EU level our work is essentially built upon cooperation of Wikimedia Chapters and Wikimedia volunteers from all over Europe. Markers that measure participation, networking and engagement will be important indicators for our success.
Program Support Services
editWMDE has learned that strong internal support systems make our program work more effective. The teams that develop and manage these support systems are not part of our administrative structure, (as opposed to Operations 'finance department, office management and HR', as well as Board and Executive Office). Instead, they have distinct, program-related functions: They directly advance the program work, by supporting staff and volunteers as they plan, seek funding for, develop partnerships for, implement, communicate about, monitor and evaluate projects and programs and engage in constant exchange with the movement.
- Communications
This team is charged with supporting WMDE as the organization communicates its goals and activities. This includes communicating specific news and information items as well as the big picture, both internally and externally. In 2015, the WMDE Communications Team has set two priorities: First, to engage in regular communication with the larger membership about the mission of WMDE and about practical ways to get involved. This, among other things, includes informing members about interesting developments and activities, locally and nationally. Second, in 2015 the team will focus on ensuring clear, convincing and comprehensive messaging and public relations. This includes working with media, reviewing the means of communication we use, as well as providing continuous capacity building for program staff around communication. Our messages will strongly transmit the appreciation of volunteers and their contributions, will highlight the different aspects and potential of Free Knowledge (from editing Wikipedia to cultural hackathons), and will promote opportunities to participate in Wikimedia projects.
- International Relations Advisor
WMDE is part of the global movement that advances access to free and open knowledge. All our actions have a global dimension and all global decisions directly affect our program work. In 2015 the WMDE Advisor on International Relations will work directly with the office of the Executive Director and the Supervisory Board to assure that all our actions and strategic decisions are embedded in the global context. Many of our programs involve international partners or target groups, whether it is our EU advocacy work, the WMDE paper Charting Diversity, the collaboration among volunteer supporting organizations that we initiated at Wikimania 2014, knowledge transfer about GLAM activities, and of course our software development.
We want to assure continuous communication, shared learning on program objectives and relationships of trust with our global partners – the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as chapters and affiliates. As the oldest and largest chapter, WMDE is often looked at as an example of a successful, strong organization that others can learn from. While we are eager to share our challenges and successes, we are equally interested in learning from others, and in creating a culture and a framework for shared learning and mutual organisational support for the movement. The Chapters Dialogue, led by WMDE in 2013-14, provides much data about what such a framework could address, but less how this could be structured. WMDE’s Advisor on International Relations is looking forward to shaping a continued dialogue and engaging in capacity building for the movement.
- Policy Advisor
Our goal is to create a favorable policy environment for free knowledge. WMDE’s advocacy work has shifted onto the international stage with the set-up of the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group in 2013, a policy consortium of volunteers and Wikimedia chapters in Brussels which is constant exchange with the WMF legal team. In order to be effective at the EU level, WMDE needs a continued presence at the national policy level as well – especially since the leading commissioner for the Digital Agenda is a high-ranking politician from Germany.
Developments related to Internet policy and copyright deserve our attention at both EU and national levels. We will contribute to these processes, by taking part in consultations, launching parliamentary initiatives and monitoring the new federal Digital Agenda Committee. The WMDE Policy Advisor will directly consult with the Executive Director and the WMDE Board on these issues that are strategically crucial to the movement, the Wikimedia projects and the WMDE programs.
- Partnerships and Development
As a strong partner in multi-stakeholder coalitions, WMDE will have a more sustained and significant impact on achieving movement goals. In order to achieve collective impact, WMDE strives to be effective internally and externally. The new Partnerships and Development team combines our development staff with our evaluation staff to advance the organization’s programs and build capacity. The team supports our program staff throughout the phases of their work, from the generation of an idea, to building partnerships, to developing financial resources, to project planning, monitoring, evaluation, and finally ensuring sustainability of partnerships and strategy. In our programmatic partnerships we aim to be mindful of the characteristics of successful collective impact initiatives: Shared vision, continuous communication, mutually aligned activities, joint metrics and strong backbone functions. Our evaluation approach is focused on planning with impact in mind, strong monitoring systems, and ultimately, being able to tell the story and share our learnings with the movement. In particular, the team will support program staff in the creation and translation of learning patterns to be posted to the Wikimedia Evaluation Portal. Externally, the team will continue to provide input and help shape the movement wide conversations around evaluation, metrics, collective impact, organizational effectiveness and capacity building. Internally, the team takes on crucial day-to-day program support functions: consulting during the annual planning process, setting up tracking systems to collect program metrics, including Global Metrics, researching partners and funding sources, proposal writing, developing and maintaining partnerships, and continuously building staff and organizational capacities that will strengthen our programs’ impact.
Governance and Leadership
edit- Introduction
We have added this section because we feel that the organizational context is important to understanding WMDE’s programmatic work. As we write this proposal, WMDE celebrates its 10th anniversary, looks back at years of rapid development and growth, and is undergoing an executive transition. This is also a time of self-reflection, listening to our communities as well as to local and global stakeholders, and carefully making the necessary adjustments that will enable WMDE to be a strong, innovative organization and an effective movement partner for the next decade.
- Executive Transition
WMDE’s executive transition process is well under way, and being conducted in an orderly, deliberate manner, with very few disruptions to the work of the organization. The interim Executive Director, Jan Engelmann, previously head of the WMDE Politics and Society department, conducts the daily business of the organization while the former ED, Pavel Richter, continues to work in an advisory function. The [|Wikimedia_Deutschland/Transition_Team|WMDE Transition Team]] was established in June, comprised of five board members, three staff members, a community representative and a membership representative. The committee supports and advises the WMDE Board on filling the position of the Executive Director for the organization and independently carries out a series of other related tasks. These include hiring of a recruitment agency and developing the job description, reviewing and interviewing candidates, and finally making a recommendation to the board. A timeline of the executive transition process, as it unfolds, is posted at the WMDE Transition Team’s Meta-Wiki page.
- Governance Review
In November, WMDE will elect several new board members, and a new ED is expected to come in next year. Current leadership suffered from persistent disagreement on how to implement the organizational strategy, which ultimately resulted in separation from our ED of many years, Pavel Richter. To assure smooth, effective working relationships across the levels of governance in the future, WMDE is currently undergoing a governance review. This will enable WMDE to start with a clear, freshly reviewed understanding of the roles and responsibilities of board and the executive director. As an organization having undergone rapid growth in size and expansion in programs, WMDE’s current division of responsibilities, as well as by-laws, policies and the culture of interaction may have to be adjusted to our new position and size. The governance review will be conducted by an external consultant group with more than two decades of experience in supporting nonprofit change processes. The review will consist of the following elements:
- Review of organizational documents (by-laws and governance policies), as well as comparison with the organizing documents of similar organizations
- Diagnostic workshop with WMDE leadership
- Interviews and focus groups with board and leadership team members, as well as external stakeholders, incl. WMF and other chapters
- Written and orally presented recommendations
The review will be completed by the end of the year and recommendations will be provided in early 2015.
Staff and contractors: upcoming year's annual plan
edit- 1. Please describe your organization's staffing plan or strategy here, or provide a link to your organization's staffing plan or organogram.
The organization's phase of rapid growth will come to an end in 2015. For 2015, we are planning to have a total of around 55 FTE. We also have capacity for up to 13 student trainees. We aim to achieve significant growth in the Software Development Department only, the structure of which is increasingly geared towards the requirements of developing tools complementary to the work of the WMF Development Team. Decentralization of Software Development for the movement has proven to be a successful strategy. A Community Liaison will transfer here from the Volunteer Support Department in order to support communication between German volunteers and Software Development. Furthermore, the consolidation of the previously separate Politics & Society and Education & Knowledge departments will create synergy effects, which will also relieve the personnel structure. A small amount of growth is unavoidable in the HR & Administration department, particularly in order to ease the burden on bookkeeping and improve internal financial controlling. Software developers who previously acted as stand-ins will now provide support to the Fundraising Team. The ambitious member recruitment goals make it necessary to boost the effectiveness of this area. In a multi-year comparison, the overall balance shows that we have entered into a phase of personnel consolidation.
Furthermore, since September 2014 Wikimedia Deutschland has an institutionalized form of workers' representation (works council consisting of five members elected from among the employees) entitled to information and co-determination in staff-related decision making. To find out more about the role of the works council and how it can influence the staffing strategy, see the relevant Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_council, as well as this detailed information about work councils
Please refer to the organigram for 2015 here.
- 2. List of staff by department or function.
- Numbers for current staff should include staff your organization has hired or plans to hire in this current funding period, and proposed staff should include staff your organization will hire in the upcoming funding period. You should include both permanent staff and longterm contractors in this table and list the number of fulltime equivalents, where one fulltime staff person would be 1.0 (for example, if your organization has 2 part-time staff working at 50% each in a department then you would list the number of fulltime equivalents (FTEs) as 1.0, while if your organization has 1 full-time staff person working at 100% then you would also list the number of fulltime equivalents as 1.0).
Table 4
| Department or function | Current FTEs | Proposed FTEs | Reason for hiring new staff | What overall percentage of staff time is spent directly on programs and which ones? |
| Software Development | 13,5 | 4,75 | To support the planned expansion and the goals set for 2015 we will hire a project manager, an administrative assistant and two developers.
In addition, one position (0,75 FTE Community Liaison) will move from Volunteer Support Department to Software Development Department (for more detailed explanation see below). |
96% of time on Program 2: Software Development (17,5 FTE) 4% of time on Program 1: Volunteer Support (0,75 FTE) |
| Volunteer Support | 5,825 |
-1,325: |
Instead of hiring new staff, we are planning to move 0,75 FTE (Community Liaison position responsible for technical communication) to the Software Development Department, as it became clear that due to this role's explicit technical focus, it will be more effective if located within the SE team. Furthermore we will have to reduce one position (0,825 FTE) in order to re-focus efficiently on core activities and we will increase another from 0,75 up to 1 FTE. | 100% of time on Program 1: Volunteer Support |
| Education, Science & Culture | 7,1 | -0,1 | This department will result from the merger of two departments (Politics & Society and Education & Science). This will lead to increased efficiency in program planning and implementation. For 2015 we are planning a minimal change regarding the FTEs. | 30% of time on Program 1: Volunteer Support 50% of time on Program 3: Institutions |
| Communications | 3 | 0 | No changes planned. | 25% of time on Program 1: Volunteer Support 25% of time on Program 2: Software Development |
| Partnerships & Development | 2,8 |
0,65: |
While we are planning minimal hours reductions in exisiting positions, the position responsible mainly for partnerships and grants will be relocated from Wikimedia Fördergesellschaft (Fundraising) to the Development and Partnerships department, which results in a slight growth of FTEs. We will exchange one evaluation position with a part-time assistant position (0,75 FTE) responsible for central project controlling, monitoring and reporting. | 25 % of time on Program 1: Volunteer Support 25 % of time on Program 2: Software Development |
| Event management | 3 | -1 | Due to budget cuts we need to consolidate the event team and reduce one position. | 100% of time on event administration |
| Finance | 1,5625 | 0,5 | In order to improve our financial controlling system we will add 0,5 FTE in this area. | 100% of time on financial administration |
| Administration & HR | 3,5 | 0,5 | The Head of HR and Operation will be supported with an additional 0,5 FTE in managing the daily operative work. | 100% of time on administration and HR |
| IT | 1,75 | 0 | No changes planned. | 100% of time on IT administration |
| Executive Director's Office | 3,55 |
-0,05: |
In addition to the ED, the Executive Director's office includes: an Executive Advisor, an Advisor on International Relations and a (planned hire in 2015) Policy Advisor (0,5 FTE). In 2014 there is an additional, temporary 0,55 FTE filled by the former ED in his role as special consultant to the Interim ED to ensure a smooth transition. His contract will expire in January 2015. | 30% of time of the ED and Executive Advisor on all four programs 70% of time of ED and Executive Advisor on administration |
| Supervisory Board | 0,925 | 0 | No changes planned. | 100% of time on administration |
| Fundraising (WMFG) | 4,6 |
0,5: |
Due to an increased workload we are planning to hire at least two developers (1,5FTE) for WMFG im order to fullfill the requirements of the upcoming campaign.The existing software systems and infrastructure have to be maintained. With the new developers we are planning to ensure capacity to react to the changes planned by third-party-software servie providers, system extensions and changeovers. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the position responsible for partnerships and grants will be relocated to the Development & Partnerships Team in 2015 (-1 FTE) | 100% of time on fundraising-related administration |
| Working students and interns (WMDE + WMFG) | 5,125 (WMDE)
1,25 (WMFG) |
-0,5 (WMDE) | Due to the overall consolidation we are planning a small reduction in this area. We are reviewing the efficiency and the criteria for work study student placement. | 1,5 FTE will work on Program 2: Software Development 0,375 FTE will work together with the Chief Advisor International Relations supporting all four programs |
| Total (should equal the sum of the rows): | 51,6375 (WMDE)
5,85 (WMFG) |
3,425 (WMDE)
0,5 (WMFG) |
- | - |
| Total staff expenses (currency requested) | 2.439.960,00 | 450.040,00 | In addition to costs for new employees, these amounts (proposed FTEs) include the cost for potential salary increases, funds for unexpected staff expenses, as well as additional costs resulting from hiring more high salary staff in software development. | - |
| Total staff expenses ($US) | 3.203.667,48 | 590.902,52 | - | - |
| WMFG Total staff expenses (currency requested) | 236.160,00 | 33.840,00 | - | - |
| WMFG Total staff expenses ($US) | 310.078,08 | 44.431,92 | - | - |
- 3. Did your organization made any significant changes to your staffing plan since publishing your organization's most current annual plan at the beginning of the funding period, such as hiring more or fewer staff than planned or hiring staff on a different schedule than planned? Please describe any significant changes here.
In the publication of the current annual plan 2014, we planned for 44,225 FTE for WMDE and an additional 3,4 for the WMFG. At the end of 2014, WMDE will employ 46,5125 FTE and the WMFG 4,6. Main derivations are in the event management (+1), due to the success of our new event space concept;in addition, we created one additional position each at our Software Development Team and the Team Communitys. Some positions that were planned with less than 40 hours were filled as full-time positions, which increased the FTE count as well. In summary, we made no significant changes to our staffing plan since publishing our 2014 annual plan.
- 4. What overall percentage of staff time is spent directly on programs?
In 2015: 69% (38,3 FTE) is spent directly on programs and 31% (17,23 FTE) is spent on administration (calculation doesn't include working students). Administration includes finance, administration and HR, IT, fundrasing, event management, Supervisory Board and 70% of the time of the Executive Director and Executive Advisor.
Financials: upcoming year's annual plan
editDetailed budget: upcoming year's annual plan
edit- Please link to your organization's detailed budget. This may be a document included on this Wiki (Meta) or as a publicly available spreadsheet.
Revenues: upcoming year's annual plan
editPlease use this table to list your organization's anticipated revenues by revenue source in the upcoming year. Use the status column to indicate if this funding is guaranteed, whether you are in the process of requesting funding, or whether you are planning to request funding later. Please feel free to include in-kind donations and resources, as applicable.
Table 5
Anticipated revenues for the upcoming funding period Revenue source Currency requested US dollars Status (e.g. guaranteed, application)
Donations - transfers from Wikimedia Fördergesellschaft 2.010.000,00 2.639.130,00 expected
FDC funds 1.200.000,00 1.575.600,00 expected
Membership fees 900.000,00 1.181.700,00 expected
External grants/ Third-Party-Funds 340.000,00 446.420,00 estimate
Other 100.000,00 131.300,00 expected
Fundraising Management Overhead 130.000,00 170.690,00 expected
Carry forward from 2014 0,00 0,00 expected
Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 4.680.000,00 6.144.840,00 expected
Table 5 notes: If your organization has significant funding other than FDC funds, please note how those funds will be used.
All unrestricted funds (e.g. FDC-funds, membership fees, donations) will be used for the implementation of the overall annual plan. As third-party-funds are usually restricted and therefore granted under the condition to be used for certain projects or initiatives, we will use these funds for these very specific purposes.
Operating reserves: upcoming year's annual plan
editPlease use this table to report information about your organization's planned operating reserves. Since this information is included here, you should not include it as part of your planned program or operational expenses. There are some restrictions about how much FDC funding your organization can use to build up your reserves.
Table 6
Local currency $US Total anticipated amount in operating reserves (by the end of the current fiscal year) 0 0 Total existing reserves from the current year to be carried over as reserves in the upcoming year 0 0 Total to be added to reserves in the upcoming year (excluding FDC funding) 0 0 Total to be added to reserves in the upcoming year from FDC funding only 0 0 Total planned reserves in the upcoming year (should equal the sum of the rows except the first): 0 0
Table 6 notes:
Currently, WMDE does not hold an operating reserve. WMDE leadership is aware of the associated risks. One of the tasks of new leadership In 2015 will be to develop fund diversification strategies for 2016 and beyond. These will include a policy for building operating reserves, looking into the possiblity of endowment funds, and exploring other innovative fiscal strategies to sustain our programs and organization.
Expenses: upcoming year's annual plan
edit- 1. Expenses by program (excludes staff and operations).
- Program expenses are the costs associated specifically with your organization's programs. These costs do not include operating expenses or staff salaries, which will be described in separate tables. For example, program expenses may be the costs of an event, the costs of outreach materials specific to a program, budgets for microgrants and reimbursements, or technical costs associated with specific programs. The programs listed in this table should correspond to the programs you have listed in the programs section of this proposal form.
Table 7
| Program / initiative | Program costs in currency requested | Program costs in $US | Program staff costs in currency requested | Program staff costs in $US |
| Software Development | 70.000,00 | 91.910,00 | 1.090.000,00 | 1.431.170,00 |
| Volunteer Support | 500.000,00 | 656.500,00 | 210.000,00 | 275.730,00 |
| Institutions | 176.000,00 | 231.088,00 | 296.000,00 | 388.648,00 |
| Legal and Social Framework | 44.000,00 | 57.772,00 | 74.000,00 | 97.162,00 |
| Programm support: Communications | 100.000,00 | 131.300,00 | 150.000,00 | 196.950,00 |
| Programm support: International Relations* | 20.000,00 | 26.260,00 | 80.000,00 | 105.040,00 |
| Programm support: Policy Advisor* | 30.000,00 | 39.390,00 | - | - |
| Programm support: Partnerships and Development | 20.000,00 | 26.260,00 | 200.000,00 | 262.600,00 |
| Programm support: Executive Director's Office
(30% of the overall costs of the Executive Director and the Executive Advisor) |
12.000,00 | 15.756,00 | 69.000,00 | 90.597,00 |
| Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) | 972.000,00 | 1.276.236,00 | 2.169.000,00 | 2.847.897,00 |
| Working Students and Interns | - | - | 120.000,00 | 157.560,00 |
Table 7 notes: If your organization has significant funding other than FDC funds, please note how those funds will be used.
* The staff costs for International Relations and Policy Advisor are added up in this table. All unrestricted funds (e.g. FDC funds, membership fees, donations) will be used for the implementation of the overall annual plan. As third-party-funds are usually restricted and therefore granted under the condition to be used for certain projects or initiatives, we will use these funds for these very specific purposes.
Please note that at this phase of annual planning, the detailed project planning is not completed yet. This is why we can only provide you with program-related costs at the moment. However we will provide the more detailed goal-related costs allocation by the time of the first grant report, as the detailed planning will be completed by then and we will be able to make precise and reliable allocations for goals and projects within the programs.
- 2. Total expenses. Please use this table to summarize your organization's total expenses overall.
- These are divided into three expenses categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including staff expenses for both staff working on programs and operations), (2) expenses for programs from Table 7 (does not include staff expenses or operations expenses), and (3) expenses for operations (does not include staff expenses or program expenses). Be sure to check the totals in this table to make sure they are consistent with the totals in the other tables you have submitted with this form. For example, your total program expenses excluding staff will be equal to the total in Table 7, while your total staff expenses will be equal to the total in Table 4 and your total expenses will be equal to the total in Table 1.
Table 8
Expense type In currency requested In $US Program expenses (total from Table 7, excludes staff) 972.000,00 1.276.236,00 Operations (excludes staff and programs) 808.000,00 (see detailed sheet here) 1.060.904,00 (see detailed sheet here) Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 2.900.000,00 3.807.700,00 Amount to be added to reserves in the upcoming year (from Table 6) 0,00 0,00 Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 4.680.000,00 6.144.840,00
Table 8 notes:
- These are divided into three expenses categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including staff expenses for both staff working on programs and operations), (2) expenses for programs from Table 7 (does not include staff expenses or operations expenses), and (3) expenses for operations (does not include staff expenses or program expenses)
DESCRIPTION SUBJECT TO CHANGE: During 2014-2015 Round 1 we will be launching a multi-year funding pilot program where APG applicants can request a two-year funding commitment from the FDC. Participating organizations will provide the FDC with information about milestones for two-year programs during the next year's proposal cycle (2015-2016 Round 1), as well as with their annual plans and budgets for the second year.
Not all organizations will be participating in this program since it is a pilot, and a list of organizations eligible to apply for multi-year funding will be announced soon. This section is included in the current version of the proposal form, to ensure that it is available to any organizations that might need it if they are participating in the pilot. Please do not complete this section unless you know your organization is eligible to participate in this pilot program.
- 1. Will your organization be seeking a two-year funding commitment from the FDC during this proposal cycle?
- NO.
The FDC or FDC staff may reach out to you for more information about your two-year plans as part of this pilot program, or may need to make changes to this section of the proposal form based on early learnings from this pilot. Participating organizations, please bear with us.
Verification that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities
editPlease enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.
- The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. Grants for such activities (when permitted under U.S. law and IRS regulations) should be sought from the Wikimedia Foundation Project and Event Grants Program.
I verify that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities yes
Once this proposal is complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.
Jan Engelmann (WMDE) (talk) 11:00, 1 October 2014 (UTC)
Please do not make any changes to this proposal form after the proposal submission deadline for this round. If a change that is essential to an understanding of your organization's proposal is needed, please request the change on the discussion page of this form so it may be reviewed by FDC staff. Once submitted, complete and valid proposal forms submitted on time by eligible organizations will be considered unless an organization withdraws its application in writing.