Movement Strategy/Recommendations/Glossary

Overview

Recommendations

Implementation

Reports

FAQ

Home • Summary • Introduction • Principles • Recommendations • Glossary • People

Direct links to each recommendation: 1. Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement 2. Improve User Experience 3. Provide for Safety and Inclusion 4. Ensure Equity in Decision-making 5. Coordinate Across Stakeholders 6. Invest in Skills and Leadership Development 7. Manage Internal Knowledge 8. Identify Topics for Impact 9. Innovate in Free Knowledge 10. Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Glossary

The Movement Strategy recommendations present ideas at a structural and cultural level for the development of our Movement; they are pathways towards achieving our Strategic Direction. The following glossary has been prepared to provide definition and explanation for terms used in the recommendations, especially those that are not regularly used in our Movement. They offer perspectives from other domains and establish a connection between our present practices and ongoing global discussions.

Some terms are difficult to translate and might lead to misinterpretation of their meaning and intention. For this reason, definitions have been provided from accepted sources in each field. When terms have a specific meaning in our context, internal definitions are provided to offer clarity regarding the usage and of the multiple meanings and connotations terms might have.

Definitions reflect the thinking and discussions of the people involved in the drafting of the recommendations. Where there is agreement and existing practice, examples have been provided for how terms might be used, understood, and discussed in our communities. These examples are indicators, practices, and programs that manifest the idea behind the terms.

Term	Definition / discussion	Source / link
Accessibility	Accessibility here refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments so as to be usable by people without regard to their abilities or achievement. In our Movement, there exist discussion pages and Wikiprojects to make the software more compliant with Accessibility Guidelines for Wikipedia, so everyone can perceive, understand, navigate, interact with, and contribute to free knowledge.	Henry, Shawn Lawton; Abou-Zahra, Shadi; Brewer, Judy (2014). The Role of Accessibility in a Universal Web. Proceeding W4A '14 Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference Article No. 17. ISBN 978-1-4503-2651-3. Retrieved 2014-12-17.
Adaptability	Adaptability captures the capacity of a stakeholder to learn, combine experience and knowledge, adjust its responses to changing external drivers and internal processes, and continue developing steadily. In our Movement, there is adaptability when decision-makers need to take into consideration the political and social circumstances from their context in order to plan their budgets and activities.	Walker, B., C. S. Holling, S. R. Carpenter, and A. Kinzig. 2004. Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society 9(2): 5
Capacity building	Capacity building (or capacity development) is the process by which individuals and organizations obtain, improve, and retain the skills, knowledge, tools, equipment and other resources needed to do their activities competently or to a greater capacity (larger scale, larger audience, larger impact, etc). In our Movement, there are efforts in building capacity especially in the context of emerging communities. Conferences like WikiIndaba play such a role for the African-based communities to learn new skills and exchange knowledge. Wikidata training workshops are also an example of the capacity building of volunteers.	en:Capacity building
Community	In this document, community refers not only to content contributor communities but rather to all members of our Movement. It must be acknowledged that the Movement in its diversity comprises many communities and there is not one community that every single person subscribes to. An example of Community is the sum of contributors to any Wikimedia project about a specific theme.	“Community” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Contextualization	Contextualization in this document means that tools, policies, and decisions are made taking into account the specific socio-economic, political, and cultural circumstances and needs of impacted communities and collaborating with them to ensure decisions and solutions are adapted to their context. An example of contextualization is the localization of our software and tools by developers who make it compatible with more languages and translate its different resources and spaces.	“Contextualization” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Contributor	In this document, a contributor is anyone who contributes to the mission of the Movement. It can be an editor, Mediawiki developer, a curator, an organizer, staff, partner, or anyone else who invests time in Movement activities.	“Contributor” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Cultural change	Cultural change is a concept from the sociology of organizations. It designates the modification of the values and habits of an organization (i.e. processes, implicit culture, communication channels, roles and goals). Changing an organization’s culture can be required if the current culture does not allow it to achieve its vision.	Denning, Steve (23 July 2011). “How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?“ Forbes. Jersey City, New Jersey: Forbes Media. ISSN 0015-6914.
Equity	Equity is achieved by treating everyone justly based upon their circumstances and with consideration of the barriers that prevent them from having the same level of achievement. It cannot be accomplished by treating everyone equally.	Dressel, Paula (26 March 2014). “Racial Equality or Racial Equity? The Difference It Makes”. Race Matters Institute. Roswell, Georgia: JustPartners, Inc. Kuttner, Paul (29 October 2016) “The problem with that equity vs. equality graphic you’re using”. Cultural Organizing. Salt Lake City, Utah: Cultural Organizing Organization
External	In this document, external refers to participants, entities, events, and conditions outside the Wikimedia Movement. An example is a partner organization that supports the vision and mission of our Movement. E.g. Amnesty International’s collaboration with Wikimedia chapters in Argentina, Netherlands, Indonesia, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, and the UK.	“External” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Hubs	Hubs are a type of support structure to enable a common space for coordinating activities and identifying and advocating for the needs of the communities and organizations they serve. They can focus on supporting a specific region or a global thematic area.	“Hub” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Impact	The impact of something is all the consequences it has on the world (both intended and unintended). Evaluating impact means looking at how the world would be different if that thing did not exist/happen. Impact evaluation is a common tool for maximizing the good that can be done, given limited resources.	White, Howard (June 2009) “Theory-Based Impact Evaluation: Principles and Practice” 3ieimpact.org. New Delhi, India: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation.
Inclusion	The act of reducing exclusion and discrimination (e.g., regarding age, social class, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) by both individuals and groups through modifying settings, policies, cultures, and structures to create the proper conditions for the emergence of diversity.	Ainscow, Mel; Booth, Tony; Dyson, Alan (2004). Improving Schools, Developing Inclusion. London: Routledge. ISBN 0–415–37236–4
Internal	In this document, internal refers to people, systems, processes, and other resources that are within the Wikimedia Movement. An example of internal is a partnership between two or more Movement organizations, including the close collaboration between affiliates in Ibercoop, WikiFranca, WikiIndaba, or projects like Wikidata.	“Internal” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Knowledge management	A system of administering, creating, curating, sharing, and using knowledge that is critical to an organization and the people who participate in its activities, ensuring that information is on hand and readily available. In our Movement, knowledge management should be done in every project and by every stakeholder. The generated internal knowledge is currently spread across different affiliate websites, internal shared documents and common global spaces such as the platform Meta-Wiki.	Servin, Géraud; De Brún, Caroline (July 2005). “ABC of Knowledge Management”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Wigan, UK: NHS National Library for Health.
Mentorship	A learning and development partnership between someone with in-depth experience and someone who wants to learn. While the mentor may be older or younger than the person being mentored, both mentor and mentee benefit from the exchange within the relationship. In our Movement, mentorship happens both in an informal and formal way, across many communities and between members of the affiliates. e.g. mentorship programs taken up by Wikimedia Argentina, CIS-A2K.	Farren, C. (2006). Eight types of mentors: Which ones do you need. PDF). MasteryWorks. Inc.
Movement	In this document, “Movement” refers to any and all stakeholders in affiliates, projects and communities, the Wikimedia Foundation, and partners who are aligned with free-knowledge values.	en:Wikimedia Movement
Principle	A principle is a fundamental proposition that serves as the foundation for systematic change.	“Principle” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Resilience	The ability to recover from sudden changes, disruptions, and disturbances. In our Movement, an example of resilience is the ability of the communities to spring back from lawsuits, censorship, and blocks on projects.	Almedom, A. M.; O’Byrne, D.; Jerneck, A. Jerneck (2015). “Principles of Epistemological Accountability with Methodological Implications for Measuring, Assessing, and Profiling Human Resilience”. Ecology and Society 20(3): 9. [1]
Resources	An economic or productive factor, such as people, materials, revenue, technology, and other assets required to accomplish an activity and achieve the desired outcome. In our Movement, an example of resources is the monetary and human capacity of a community or affiliate.	“Resources” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Scalability	Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system. In our Movement, examples of scalability are cross-wiki features for Commons or Wikidata, or the ability to upload media/data once instead of separately for all the wikis.	Bondi, André B. (2000). Characteristics of scalability and their impact on performance. Proceedings of the second international workshop on Software and performance – WOSP '00. p. 195. doi:10.1145/350391.350432. ISBN 158113195X.
Self-management	Self-management replaces the hierarchical pyramid in organizations by interdependent networks of small, autonomous teams. Thus, power and decision-making is no longer concentrated on the top but distributed.	Laloux, Frederic (2015). “Self Management”. Reinventing Organizations Wiki.
Stakeholders	Any individual or group, whether volunteer or not, having invested human, financial, or other capital in an organization, who can affect the realization of organizational objectives or is affected by the realization of those objectives. In this document, a stakeholder is everyone who has a stake in fulfilling the Movement’s vision. More precisely, the term includes online and offline communities, organized groups like affiliates and the Wikimedia Foundation, and members from our broader ecosystem, like partners and allies.	Definition from Cambridge Dictionary
Subsidiarity	The principle of subsidiarity holds that decision-making authority is best placed (a) where responsibility for outcomes will occur; and (b) in the closest appropriate proximity to where the actions will be taken that will produce the outcomes.	Wolf, P. J. (2001). “Principle of Subsidiarity” in Smelser, Neil J.; Baltes, Paul B. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Ltd. ISBN 978-0-08-043076-8 via Science Direct.
Support	To give or be prepared to give help to someone if necessary. In this document is understood as people in the Movement being able to help each other with the necessary resources.	“Support” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Sustainability	In this document, sustainability refers to the viability of maintaining a system or process over time and at scale. An example of sustainability is the organization of Wiki Loves initiatives with the support of volunteer communities and affiliates. These initiatives have grown multiple times and succeeded in having a high contribution ratio.	“Sustainability” (2020). Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Third-party	Third parties are people who interact with a system but are not the ones creating it (the first party) nor the ones it is created for (the second party). In the Wikimedia context, it usually refers to those who use or develop Wikimedia software but are not part of the Wikimedia movement themselves - for example, GLAM partners using Wikibase, businesses running MediaWiki-based websites, or MediaWiki consultants working for such businesses. All the third parties together are usually referred to as an ecosystem, since they are not aligned as a single actor, nor share an intent or common strategy, but the shared platform they use gives rise to shared goals and interests with the Wikimedia movement.
Underrepresented	A group of people who are omitted or not represented in a given situation at the same level as they are represented in the larger population. Eg: In our Movement, examples of underrepresented or unrepresented people are women in all language communities, members of indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities, among others. Any group of humans is underrepresented in the measure that it does not participate in the creation of knowledge.	DeSutter, K. L. (2013). “Minority Students in Teacher Education: Diversifying America’s K-12 Teaching Force” (pp. 501-516). In Wang, Victor X. (ed.) Handbook of Research on Teaching and Learning in K-20 Education. Hershey, Pennsylvania: Information Science Reference. ISBN 978-1-466-64250-8
Usability	An attribute of quality that assesses how easy user interfaces are to learn and use by those who need to use them. This involves effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. In our Movement, and particularly in the MediaWiki software, the VisualEditor interface is more usable than typing Wikitext and the Content translation tool also gives a good example of how the task of translating articles becomes easier to manage.	Nielsen, J. (2003). Usability 101: Introduction to usability. NNGroup.com. Fremont, California: Neilsen Norman Group. Jokela, T., Iivari, N., Matero, J., & Karukka, M. (August 2003). “The standard of user-centered design and the standard definition of usability: analyzing ISO 13407 against ISO 9241-11”. In Proceedings of the Latin American conference on Human-computer interaction (pp. 53-60). ACM.
User Experience	A consequence of a user’s internal state (predispositions, expectations, needs, motivation, mood, etc.), the characteristics of the designed system (complexity, purpose, usability, functionality, etc.) and the context (or the environment) within which the interaction occurs (organizational/social setting, the meaningfulness of the activity, the voluntariness of use, etc.). In our Movement, User Experience depends on the type of engagement — either as a reader, editor, or any other type of contributor. The online dimension of it is influenced by the platform design, the policies and rules, and interactions with others. The offline dimension is in relation to the structures, roles, and processes that govern them.	Hassenzahl, M., & Tractinsky, N. (2006). User experience-a research agenda. Behaviour & information technology, 25(2), 91-97.
We	The word “we” in this document always stands for “we, the Wikimedia movement”. This “we” contains volunteers, groups, staff, and organizations who contribute to the Wikimedia vision alike.