Movement communications insights/Report/Prior research

Connecting the Movement
Communications Insights for the Wikimedia Foundation

• Overview
• Introduction
• Recommendations from movement participants
• Prior research

Summary of Prior Research

Many topics related to Movement Communications appear in the Movement Strategy and several Wikimedia studies. We have compiled insights from this documentation as a complement to the focus groups and online discussion. Wherever possible, topics are organized by the same themes highlighted in the recommendations.

Movement Strategy

Why it is relevant

Built as a collaborative process, the 2030 Movement Strategy provides deep insights into what the community values, and expectations for the future.

Summary of insights

The Movement Strategy puts a particular emphasis on creating a more welcoming, diverse movement. It follows that Movement Communications should focus on expanding Foundation messages to diverse groups and identifying places where conversations are happening but where the Foundation currently has no footprint.

Strategic direction

Why it is relevant

In 2017, the Wikimedia movement endorsed a new strategic direction. This is a very important document. It is high level too. Many points don’t focus explicitly on communications, but set direction in areas and goals that require improvements to our communications. For this reason, we are treating this document in more detail.

Summary of insights

The push for equity and diversity, including a special focus on under-served communities, puts at the forefront a series of insights communications needs to support these goals.

• As a movement, we need to learn about ourselves, about our communities and activities, about the multiple volunteer roles, covering all our diversity. We have become a big movement that is not possible to know and follow just by being an active contributor. There is a need for a conscious effort to inform and to cover all areas equitably.
• Although the most predominant and best known volunteer role in our movement is the editor, several other roles are identified as key for the growth of our movement. Communications support is needed to promote these roles and their impact through stories.
• Many community processes are considered opaque, even unknown, and this is identified as a problem for the growth of our movement. We need better communications about these processes, how they work, how to participate, calls to action, stories about successful collaboration and campaigns.
• In order to participate in our movement in equal terms, access to information needs to be equitable too. There is a need to promote sources of news across the movement and make them easy to find and easy to understand.
• The focus on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America increases the already known need to produce communications in multiple languages. There is an opportunity to better support multilingualism with resources dedicated to paid translation, and the use of machine translation.
• This regional focus also points to the need to review approaches to traditional media and social media based on paradigms and platforms popular in North America and Europe. Are they equally effective supporting our communities in the regions where we expect most growth?
• Probably nobody in our movement wants to keep “perpetuating structural inequalities”. However, a problem of structural inequalities is that they tend to be invisible for those not suffering their effects. How unequal is our status quo for accessing and producing movement communications? We need to listen especially to those who are left out by structures of power and privilege in our movement, and focus on their communications needs.
• The gender gap in our movement is identified as a main problem. Solving this problem requires introducing a gender perspective in all our strategic areas. There is a need to introduce a gender perspective and gender diversity to the access to and production of movement communications.
• There is a strategic need to support new formats, new interfaces and new types of knowledge in order to follow global trends and meet the expectations of the regions and generations we want to serve. This idea is equally applicable to our movement communications, largely based on a paradigm of text, still images and desktop display. What would it take to support our communicators producing more audiovisual and more mobile stories?

Movement Strategy recommendations

Why it is relevant

The endorsement of the Strategic Direction was followed by two years of conversations and activities that concluded with the publication of the Movement Strategy Recommendations.

Summary of insights

Implementing the strategy recommendations requires communications support to the volunteers, communities and projects expected to drive the growth of the movement. A heavy investment in communications training and infrastructure is needed.

Use humans.

• “Develop a systematic approach to improve the satisfaction and productivity of people engaged in the Movement by: Assessing the needs of groups and volunteers, taking into account their local contexts for effective support and recognition of efforts.”
• “The most effective approaches are respectful of local cultures and conditions, and empower participants to develop, test, and share their own practices.”
• “We will enhance existing and establish new organizational structures and practices that ensure comprehensive information exchange, learning, knowledge transfer, and networking opportunities with all Movement stakeholders as well as partners who share our vision.”

From broadcast to on-demand.

• “These [skills and leadership development] activities include (...), and communication, among others.”
• “Developing skills is also a matter of internal knowledge management. The platform MetaWiki has to date not been effective in allowing everyone access to high-quality learning materials and for connecting peers across the Movement for mutual learning and support.”
• “We will make the internal knowledge of our Movement easy to capture, discover, consume, and adapt by all contributors to facilitate sustainability and resilience, individual and organizational skill development, and growth in an equitable way across all communities.”
• “We will establish a base for internal knowledge (whether new or building on existing), dedicated staff for content curation (including discoverability and quality assurance), and user support, supplemented with a service/database of peers for matchmaking.”

Co-ordinate, then communicate.

• “To achieve our strategic direction, stakeholders and systems across our Movement must function together as a collaborative, supportive ecosystem and avoid confusion over authority and repetition of work.”
• “Many significant software changes are approached without consultation and therefore lack buy-in and understanding across projects. This lack of coordination is worsened by inadequate support and ineffective communication with volunteers, technical contributors, partners, and developers in the community.”

Telling our shared Movement story.

• “Develop a systematic approach...: Continuously engaging and supporting publicly diverse types of online and offline contributors.“
• “Increase awareness about the Wikimedia Movement, its values, achievements, projects, and communities worldwide – to secure the attention, trust, and interest of knowledge consumers, volunteers, partners, and donors.“
• “To create the space for sustainable growth and resilience in our Movement, we need to take a more proactive approach in reaching out to those who are not yet represented in our communities.“
• “Despite our Movement’s success in creating an open and collaborative encyclopedia, we have not been very successful at managing our own internal knowledge. Internal knowledge to understand and measure progress towards our goals, to acquire new skills, share best practices, or to be more accountable to each other. “
• “Members of the Movement (especially volunteers) often document their activities and knowledge insufficiently or not at all. This leads to a lack of institutional memory, as their undocumented experiences, knowledge, and contacts are lost if they leave our Movement. “
• “Our Movement achieves impact any time someone’s life is enriched by using the content on Wikimedia projects or by participating in those projects. However, at present, we do not understand this impact well or have tools to measure it.“
• “The strategic direction sets out the need to develop and increase access to content that has historically been left out by structures of power and privilege. Alongside this, there are other areas that are likely to have high impact – for instance, content on major topics regarding humanity and its future, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.“
• “We will encourage improving coverage of collectively-identified priority topics that impact our world and improve people’s lives.“

Movement Learning and Leadership Development

Why it is relevant

Leadership development in our movement is a strategic priority. The Community Development team produced the Movement Learning and Leadership Development study in 2020 to inform their plans.

Summary of insights

The leadership ladder, leadership retention and the attempts to consolidate communities of practice for movement leaders are all seriously hampered due to difficult access to information and a lack of public knowledge and recognition about their work.

Build a better front door.

• “Learning and engagement is often stunted when volunteers are not sure what to do and which skills to develop, not invited into or made aware of learning and networking opportunities“
• “The primary themes that emerged from our conversations with participants were related to the need for access and awareness of information and opportunities...“

Use humans.

• “Volunteers feel like they are not recognized by the foundation for their work.“
• “Newcomers feel alone and left behind when no one is responding to their online needs and questions.“
• “Many feel lonely and isolated and don’t know who to ask for help.“
• “[A key theme] Design for Access - by addressing context, language, and resource needs as well as making opportunities and resources more visible and accessible to all Wikimedia volunteers.“

From broadcast to on-demand.

• “Things like grants, scholarships and other resources are difficult to find and often only in English. This leaves Non- English speaking communities feeling less resourced and unacknowledged.“
• “Mentorship pages that do exist are not easily found by newcomers.“
• “[Best Practices of Analogous Organizations] Develop a central repository of accessible learning resources that offer easy to use guides for skill development, training, best practices, etc.“

Telling our shared Movement story.

• “Communities around the world feel disconnected and have a hard time knowing what other communities and projects are doing.“
• “[A key theme] Create opportunities for skill development - (...), and creating spaces for more knowledge sharing between communities.“

Movement Organizers

Why it is relevant

Movement organizers are a key agent of growth. A research project from 2018-19 studies the different types of organizers in our movement and their needs.

Summary of insights

Communications support for movement organizers is vital to support the growth of our movement. Except for a small group of veteran organizers growing old and exhausted, most organizers are in fact quite isolated and detached from the direct sources of information and knowledge. Due to our weak communications infrastructure and processes, experienced organizers are the actual connectors. This approach doesn’t scale and the risks of burnout are high.

Build a better front door.

• “Recommendation – Invite and support the integration of activists. Recruiting Organizers with social activism identities is a win-win: they are activists in equity issues aligned with Wikimedia’s mission and can bring other organizing or communications skills to the movement. Invite activists and surround them with a community of practice that supports their participation in the Wikimedia movement.“
• “Support. Organizers do not know what kind of help is available from the Foundation, or whom to contact if they need help. Without clear information about support, they make assumptions about the Foundation and what is available.“
• “Lack of clear online assistance. Organizers told us that while online help was available, it was not accessible. Online Wikimedia resources for Organizers are difficult to find, and Organizers rely on other Organizers to direct them to needed resources. Organizers lean heavily on informal off-wiki communications channels, or difficult-to-access busy metaOrganizers, to find assistance.“
• “Strategy 3. Retain Organizers by increasing motivation and decreasing challenges.
  • Clarity - Foundation. Provide clear and transparent information about Foundation strategy and processes. Make it easy to find where to direct questions. Acknowledge that communications have been received
  • Clarity - Network. Clarify the movement structure. Build tools for visibility into the movement and network, especially for inexperienced Organizers.
  • Clarity - online information. Make online organizing tools and information more accessible.“

Use humans.

• “Professional representation communications. Many Organizers described either greatly benefiting from or wanting materials that improve the consistency and professionalism of their work with outside communities. Some Organizers provided things like business cards or press passes to increase motivation within their community, giving members a greater sense of importance. Organizers sought easier access to “official” and well-designed slide decks and other communication tools to increase the professional design of their communications-- local production of high quality communications materials can be quite hard or expensive. “
• “When it comes to equity challenges, there is only one guiding principle: listen to local Organizers and their communities, and collaborate to find appropriate solutions. The global nonprofit sector has seen repeated, expensive failures when trying to quickly scale solutions in developing countries.[23] This mindset sets global efforts up for failure by refusing to see the nuance and context that determines success.“
• “We strongly recommend that the Wikimedia Foundation recognize and work collaboratively with Organizers and communities to find appropriate solutions to equity challenges.“
• “Human Movement Organizer roles identified:
  • Connectors. Communicate and publicise. Publicist. Create and share communications about Wikimedia activities and events with the general public.
  • Supporters. Coach. Wikimedia facilitator. Help less experienced Wikimedians navigate norms, connect to resources and documentation, and get unstuck on Wikimedia issues.
  • Supporters. Interpret. Cultural translator. Take existing resources from the global Wikimedia community, and make it relevant for local context
  • Supporters. Interpret. Language translator. Help community understand other language resources.“

Wikimedia knowledge & capacity.

• “Recommendation – Expand Supporter roles within the movement. Currently, some Supporter roles are fulfilled by paid staff at the Foundation or affiliates, who are overwhelmed by the amount of need from the community, leaving many Supporter functions unprovided. Volunteer Organizers describe not getting enough of this kind of help to advance their work. When these roles are fulfilled by volunteer Organizers, they often need capacity-building help and long-term support to provide reliable and regular support to their communities.“
• “Organizers who reach out to help channels often fail to find the help they need. Paid Organizers at the Foundation and affiliates feel overwhelmed with the guidance requests from the community. They triage the need they see, leading to unfulfilled help request from unprioritized organizers. As a result, the Wikimedia movement does not fully leverage the volunteer will and time available: Organizers in need of help stall or become discouraged waiting for answers.“

Co-ordinate, then communicate.

• “Strategy. Organizers, particularly meta-Organizers, found it difficult to deliver on a strategy from the Foundation that has not been well articulated to the community. “It is difficult to deliver on a strategy when there is none,” said one meta-Organizer. Organizers also try to interpret small signals from the Foundation, such as metrics reporting requirements, to infer the strategy that the Foundation wants in an attempt to better align with the larger movement. “

Telling our shared Movement story.

• “Seeing impact. Impact is perceived by Organizers in both measurable and immeasurable ways. Most Organizers described wanting to see a) the broader public impact of the work they are doing in Wikimedia, b) the effects their work had on participant and other Organizers’ lives, or c) the progress the Organizer is making towards personal goals. “
• “Being Acknowledged. Organizers value moments of acknowledgement both within the Wikimedia community (i.e. when other Organizers thanked them for their work, getting scholarships to movement events, or getting awards from their local Wikimedia groups) or by external communities (i.e. an article or photo getting picked up on social media or the news, or partners or collaborators praising their work in public). At the same time, a number of Organizers described feeling that much of their work goes unnoticed -- especially from established movement organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation but also from editing communities and among their peers in their regional contexts.“
• “Belonging. The Wikimedia community’s strong social network encourages people to stay engaged. A number of Organizers described deep social bonds or feelings of belonging and shared identity with the group of people who form their community“
• “Recognition of the value that all roles bring to the movement, and helping communities identify gaps in the type of people they have to fill roles, can provide a more robust approach to building strong organizing communities.“

“Recommendation – Identify organizing talent separately from edit contribution. While there is a path from editing into organizing, the Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t provide clear tools for recognizing other paths and talents beyond editing as equally valid entry points into the community. Developing ways to signal these talents would help the Wikimedia community bring diversity and equity into the movement. “

• “(4) Community Awareness. At some point, some people gain awareness that there are communities of people on the Wikimedia platforms, rather than just a collection of individual contributors. They also discover that there are many forms of contribution to the communities. Having this knowledge kept people engaged. Many Organizers had been stuck in solo editing, or had gone dormant before being reactivated because they lacked the support of a community that could support their engagement.“
• “[Catalyzing experience] Wikimedia news and information. Inspiration or understanding from broadcast communications by other Organizers. Reading about activities being implemented by others in the global community. Hearing calls to action for campaigns like Wiki Loves Monuments or Art + Feminism. Circulate targeted story telling or calls to action.“
• “The need for volunteer networks to have their efforts noted, their challenges heard, and their existence recognized was an important component of community engagement. In the informal and unstructured Wikimedia environment, volunteers struggle for attention and recognition, feeling like they are “speaking into the silence” of Wikimedia. An unevenness about who gets recognized creates tensions between volunteers and communities. Paid Wikimedia staff told us that over time, volunteers will quit from the frustration of never being acknowledged or heard.“
• “Volunteer acknowledgement in analogous organizations. In learning from analogous volunteer organizations, we found innovative approaches to address the need for recognition. From having regular open “office hours” to transparent systems of receiving feedback to annual acknowledgement ceremonies, successful organizations have developed ways to recognize and validate volunteer experiences.“
• “Strategy 3. Retain Organizers by increasing motivation and decreasing challenges.
  • Seeing impact. Help Organizers see how their organizing work is achieving the goals of their community. Elevate local success stories that can inspire Organizers to know they are making a difference.
  • Belonging. Deepen relationships between people. Give official recognition to local teams and organized groups when possible to increase the sense of identity and their feeling that they “belong” in the movement.
  • Insularity of Wikimedia culture. Reduce the power of the meritocracy. Increase the visibility and credit given for off-wiki and non-editing contributions to the movement.“

Wikipedia Education Program survey report

Why it is relevant

The Wikipedia Education Program serves as a point of collaboration with dozens of schools and universities and becomes the point of entry for many young newcomers. This team produced a report during 2017-18 to inform the redesign of their activities in the light of the new Movement Strategy.

Summary of insights

This report shows the special communications needs of Foundation teams working with external partners and very specific audiences: a dedicated website fulfilling “normal” Internet users expectations, clear channels of information and collaboration, brand and design support, and production of pamphlets and other materials.

Build a better front door.

• “The Education Team’s main communication channels include the Education Portal on Outreach Wiki, the Wikipedia & Education facebook group, the monthly newsletter, and Twitter. Overall, 58% of respondents have visited the Education Portal on Outreach Wiki. 92% of Program Leaders have visited the Portal, while only 46% of staff have visited the portal“

Speak human.

• “(...) the global nature of the Wikipedia Education Program is a point that can be better communicated.“
• “Recommendation 3. Develop communications materials that are accurate, up to date, and user friendly for non-Wikimedians. (...) The most salient finding from the survey was the need for the Education program to revise our branding, materials and resources. Users who visit our web portal should feel welcomed and inspired.“

From broadcast to on-demand.

• “(...) when asked what resources they would like to see added or revised, stakeholders listed localized content, case studies, brochures, documentation of best practices, and curricula as their top priorities“
• “(...) it is important that users be able to easily find the information that they need, and that the information presented is an accurate representation of the program.“

Telling our shared Movement story.

• “Overall, data suggests that there is a gap in awareness about the role that the Education Team plays at the foundation and within the movement. The largest awareness gap is internal, with WMF staff being the least aware of the work that the Education team does.“
• “(...) stakeholders somewhat lack an understanding of the Education Team’s goals, priorities and activities. The stakeholder group with the most reported understanding were program leaders, and the group with the least reported understanding were WMF staff.“
• “Recommendation 1 Improve communication both internally and externally about how using Wikimedia projects in education benefits the Wikimedia movement and contributes to global goals for education:
  • Seek out and create opportunities to share impact and collaborate with internal stakeholders • Develop communications materials and resources that make it easier for educators to become contributors.
  • External stakeholders made it clear that they need more communication about how using Wikimedia projects in education helps achieve global education goals--like helping students acquire digital literacy and other 21st century skills.“

Community Insights 2020 Report

Why it is relevant

The Community Insights survey is the main resource to obtain general data and trends about our movement. It contains data about awareness of the Foundation, feelings of belonging to the movement, and demographic data, among many other data points.

Summary of insights

Feelings of empowerment and belonging can differ significantly, as well as levels of awareness about the Foundation.

From broadcast to on-demand.

• “They agreed less frequently that they had access to the documentation or training materials, communication materials, and tools or software to implement their programs, (...).“

Telling our shared Movement story.

• “Contributor awareness of the Wikimedia Foundation is high, but varies geographically. 84% of all contributors have heard of the Wikimedia Foundation, but awareness is particularly high in Northern America (96%) and lower in South America (82%), Eastern Europe (83%), and Central America (65%).1 Overall awareness among contributors was slightly higher than in 2018 (81%).“
• “Contributors indicated a high level of alignment with the Foundation’s vision of “a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge,” with 84% indicating that this vision mostly or completely represented their values and/or Wikimedia-related work. A smaller majority indicated confidence in the Foundation, as 69% agreed that the Foundation has the right programs and strategies to achieve its vision, and 65% that the Foundation is able to support the global movement.“
• “On average, contributors felt a moderate level of belonging, and somewhat higher feelings of engagement (see Figure 15). (...) Contributors who had attended movement events, however, displayed greater feelings of both engagement and belonging than contributors who had not attended any movement events, as did movement organizers and those living in Africa, when compared to others. “
• “Across the nine Collaborative Engagement factors, the strongest were Engagement itself, Collaborative Intention, Feelings of Belonging, and for many, Fairness; the lowest were perceptions of Self-Awareness and Movement Strategy.“
• “There is a year-over-year trend of declining perceptions of Fairness, Feelings of Belonging, Movement Leadership, Non-Discrimination, and Inclusive Culture; while there is an opposite trend for Inclusive Interactions.“

Wikimedia Product Guidance

Why it is relevant

In 2018 the Product and Community Engagement departments set out to document best practices on managing projects and community awareness and participation. The goal was to better understand the process the Foundation product department uses to develop software and the movement's involvement in said development.

Summary of insights

Through the general guidance and practical recommendations, it becomes evident how complex it is for volunteers and professionals to perform even the most basic communications tasks. Providing consistent communication across Foundation projects while at the same time giving flexibility to each team is hard.

Build a better front door

• Some communities congregate mostly off-wiki, so it's important to be familiar with these channels as well.

Speak human

• Write short, simple sentences. This helps translators, English language learners, and people who rely on machine translation. Tools like readability indicators, the Hemingway app, the SimpleWriter and the Up-Goer 6 check for complex and rare words. The website SimplyPut.ie gathers useful resources on how to write in plain English and provides a handy list of words and phrases to avoid.

The Common community questions page contains a good guide for frequent questions that can be prevented by addressing them already in announcements.

From broadcast to on-demand

• “Knowing where to ask for feedback or to post your message is tough. Do you do it on a private wiki or mailing list? Do you do it in public on Meta or on a project's village pump? Or do you have a graduated strategy, where you float it on a small, private forum first (this wiki, for example), then start asking for more feedback in more public places? There are no hard-and-fast rules.”
• “In general, if you're stuck on "Where should I post my announcement?" or "Where do I find the people I'm looking for?" try thinking in these terms:
  • Who is your target audience?
  • When do you need to notify the audience and how often?
  • What is the content of the communication?”

Telling our shared Movement story.

• Telling the story of how the Foundation builds products reinforces the narrative of the foundation working alongside communities to bring new features to life. It provides transparency to our work and reassurance that our work is mission-aligned.

Notes