Kompass 2020/Freiwilligenförderung/en

This page contains the strategic and operational objectives and associated activities of the Volunteer Promotion department, as part of Kompass 2020, the strategic plan for Wikimedia Deutschland.

Strategic objectives

Participation in Wikimedia projects is attractive for specialist writers.

What is to be achieved, by when?

Specialist writers are still underrepresented in Wikimedia projects. The attractiveness of projects must be enhanced, so that professionals, recognized in their area of specialty, participate to a greater degree. In each of the Wikipedia WikiProjects or any project or portal, at least two specialist writers will contribute as of 2014.

How is success or failure measured?

The anonymity of the authors prevents clear identification. Therefore, as indicators only the number of professional articles and their quality that can be identified by internal project awards and external references can be used. Another sign of success is the enhanced perception of Wikipedia as a high-quality source of knowledge in professional circles, which can be measured by references or citations.

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

This objective works directly towards fulfillment of statement 7 (Content is of good quality, sound and unsurpassed) and indirectly towards the statements 10 (The community is open to anyone who can and wants to be a part of it) and 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated). Specialist writers are still underrepresented in Wikimedia projects. We must try to increase the attractiveness of the projects in a way that will increase participation of specialist writers.

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The authorship reflects the diversity of society.

What is to be achieved, by when?

Making available the entirety of the knowledge of humankind to all is a declared objective of the Wikimedia projects. This objective can only be achieved when the diversity of society is reflected in the authorship, thus encompassing the entirety of knowledge. Participation in Wikipedia and its sister projects, therefore, must be attractive and of interest to all social groups. By 2014, underrepresented groups in Wikimedia projects must be identified and their contribution level must reflect their statistical proportion of the population.

How is success or failure measured?

Success of this objective can be measured, for example, through surveys and analysis of the volunteers in the projects. These results must be based on the percentage of different groups in society (e.g. women, people with disabilities, age structure).

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

This objective works also directly towards fulfillment of statement 7 (Content is of good quality, sound and unsurpassed) and indirectly towards the statements 10 (The community is open to anyone who can and wants to be a part of it) and 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated).

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Authors contribute continuously

What is to be achieved, by when?

"Authors who write an article once are good, authors who regularly write or revise an article are better." The appeal to participate actively in Wikipedia or its sister projects must be so great that as many beginners as possible decide to become involved as regular participants. Specifically, the goal is for 10% of all newly registered users to continue to be active in Wikimedia projects after one year and for the number of regularly contributing authors to be increased 20%.

How is success or failure measured?

A clear sign for the successful implementation of this target is a large, active community that is constantly working to expand and improve the collection of articles. Failure is identified by a decrease in the size of the community, a decrease in the number of new articles or a decrease in article quality. Statistical analysis can evaluate success.

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

This objective works directly towards fulfillment of statement 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated) and indirectly towards statement 7 (Content is of good quality, sound and unsurpassed).

Comments

Involvement in the association is especially attractive for active members of the community.

What is to be achieved, by when?

When someone regularly works on one of the Wikimedia projects, after a period of time this person often takes on responsibility in an elected position, such as admin or bureaucrat. Therefore, often even more time is contributed by the volunteer. Involvement in the association must be designed to be particularly interesting and rewarding for these especially committed volunteers.

How is success or failure measured?

Success of this objective can be determined indirectly from the member numbers, another measures is the participation of target group-oriented activities and taking on voluntary positions within the association.

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

The objective works directly toward fulfillment of statement 9 (The community finds, uses and appreciates support and assistance in the association).

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The Wikimedia support team is competent and appreciated.

What is to be achieved, by when?

The support team is an important representative for Wikimedia and Wikimedia projects. Answering questions posed there and notes or processing of approvals for texts and images must be performed quickly and as professionally as possible. To achieve this goal, the employees of the support team are to be supported to the greatest degree possible. By 2014, the reaction time to a query must be no more than 24 hours; the number of unanswered queries should be close to zero.

How is success or failure measured?

Success can be measured directly by the number answered e-mails ("tickets") and by the average processing time.

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

This objective works directly toward fulfilling statements 9 (The community finds, uses and appreciates support and assistance in the association) and 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated) and indirectly towards statement 4 (Free content can be found everywhere and is easy to use).

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The association has a broad membership base.

What is to be achieved, by when?

While Wikipedia is known to a large portion of the population, many do not know about Wikimedia Deutschland. However, this association has played an important role in making Wikipedia and its sister projects into what they are today. It is important for the public to be aware of the work of the association with respect to the promotion of free knowledge and for this to be reflected in willingness to become a member. This will also ensure that in the long term the plurality of the stakeholders to be addressed influence the observations and activities of the association. The target number of members is 10,000 by 2014.

How is success or failure measured?

Success is measured by whether the stated number of members is achieved, with a balanced composition of these members (similar to objective 2).

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

This objective works directly towards fulfillment of statement 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated) and indirectly towards statement 12 (Wide acceptance and use of free knowledge in education – we encourage collaborative work processes).

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Volunteers are supported professionally and effectively.

What is to be achieved, by when?

Wikipedia and its sister projects would never have become what they are today without the work of volunteers. Whoever wishes to become involved as a volunteer in a Wikimedia project must therefore receive all imaginable support. This also applies for all volunteers who wish to become involved in work related to the association. Our objective for 2014 is to have an address pool of at least 100 volunteers with a wide range of expertise and fixed contacts for each project. Additionally, volunteers should have significant involvement in the planning and execution of events and projects.

How is success or failure measured?

The willingness of volunteers to contribute to association projects can be determined by the increase in the address pool. Another measure is the quantity of volunteer work performed, within the association or supported by the association.

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision?

This objective works directly toward fulfilling statements 9 (The community finds, uses and appreciates support and assistance in the association) and 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated).

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The contributions of volunteers are appreciated by the association.

What is to be achieved, by when?

Those who volunteer in their free time must also be appreciated for this commitment. By 2014, a fixed event is to be established, at which particularly involved volunteers are appreciated or receive an award for their volunteer work in a Wikimedia project or in the association itself.

How is success or failure measured?

The realization of the event, its perception and awareness by the public are measures of success. Additionally, success is also measured by the repeat involvement of volunteers.

How does achieving this objective help fulfill the vision? This objective also works directly toward fulfilling statements 9 (The community finds, uses and appreciates support and assistance in the association.) and 11 (Commitment to free knowledge is attractive and is valued and appreciated).

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Operative objectives

Will be prepared by the planning team

Operative measures

Will be prepared by the planning team

Department heads

• 6th Board (starting March 2009): Jürgen Lüdeke and Jenny Grabe
• 7th Board (starting May 2010): Jürgen Lüdeke and Ulli Purwin

Participation

From the board, Jürgen Lüdeke is responsible for the strategic planning of the department. The planning team of the department will be coordinated by Henriette Fiebig, an employee (community assistant) of the administrative office. Within this team, the objectives to be achieved by 2014 should be broken down into sub-objectives by 2010/2011 and concrete measures to achieve the objectives should be developed.

You would like to participate on the work in the area of volunteer promotion? Then please send me an e-mail at freiwillige@vorstand.wikimedia.de. You can also add comments on the objectives and measures on the page or put them up for discussion on the discussion page. Your opinion, contribution and participation are needed!