Programa Catalisador do Brasil/Planejamento 2012-2013/Parcerias/Ação Educativa/Proposal/Brazil Catalyst Project Background
October 2013 - July 2014
Brazil Catalyst Project Background edit
In 2010, the Wikimedia Foundation decided to catalyze the Wikimedia Movement in some strategic regions in the world. The regions targeted by Wikimedia Foundation comprised Brazil, India and the Arab speaking regions.
In these two years, Wikimedia Foundation established the basis for the development of these projects in India and Brazil, by defining the principles and objectives, hiring consultants and building a plan to catalyse Wikimedia projects in those areas. It was opened a participatory process to build a plan to kick off the Brazil Catalyst Project. The targets included increasing collaboration and readership as well as improving the content in the lusophone Wikimedia projects, especially in the Portuguese Wikipedia.
To address that, the Wikimedia Foundation hired an education program contractor in late 2011 and, in 2012, hired a team of consultants to develop the project on the ground.
Also in 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation improved and strengthened its grants system through the formation of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) and the development of different grants programs, supporting various needs of the Wikimedia community. The Narrowing Focus document stated the need for WMF to focus on the technological improvement of its websites as well as on becoming a grantmaking organization. It therefore defined 4 highest priorities for the organization:
- Visual editor — creating a first-rate editing experience for users that no longer requires complex document markup
- Editor engagement — finding and developing ways to engage new users
- Mobile (Wikipedia Zero + mobile engineering) — enhancing the user experience for users who use mobile devices
- Grantmaking — improving the dissemination of funds throughout the movement, making it more transparent, democratic, and accountable
Based on those priorities, WMF decided to change the approach towards the catalyst projects and build partnerships with local organizations to run the programs. In India, the Center for Internet and Society became a local partner of Wikimedia Foundation in July 2012.