Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/2019 Community Conversations/Strategy Salons/Reports/UG Georgia

Wikimedia Strategy Salon in Tbilisi, September 8, 2019

The Strategy Salon of the Wikimedia Foundation was held in the capital of Georgia, in Tbilisi, September 8, 2019. Experienced Wikimedia project participants from Georgia, active Georgian Wikipedia editors and experienced Community participants was participated in the Strategy Salon. During the Salon, we discussed the future of the Wikimedia movement and the Wikimedia Foundation. The discussion focused on developing recommendations for the Wikimedia movement, in particular regarding partnerships and capacity building.

The recommendations developed during the Strategy Salon will be taken into account by Wikimedia UG Georgia for the organizationally developed, as well as for the development and promotion of the Wikimedia Movement in Georgia.

Date and location

Day : 8 September 2019
Time : 11:00 – 17:00
Place : Tiflis Palace, 3 Gorgasali Str., 0105, Tbilisi, Georgia

Participant List

Organizers and Facilitators:

Wikimedia UG Georgia
Mehman Ibragimov Chairman of Wikimedia UG Georgia

About UG Georgia

More photos of Wikimedia UG Georgia.

Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia or Wikimedia UG Georgia, is a Wikimedia User Group created by active members of Wikimedia contributors living in Georgia, who are interested in organizing and participating in outreach activities on a national level. It aims to promote and participate in the projects offered by the Wikimedia Foundation and to organize the Georgian community. One of our core missions is to aid and encourage people to collect, develop and disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in the public domain or other licenses that allows everyone to freely use the knowledge, and to distribute and modify said content for free.

What were we talking about

The WMF Strategy Salon, which was organized in the capital of Georgia on September 8, 2019, was attended by active Wikipedians and Wikimedians from Georgia, representatives of the community from regions of Georgia were also present. The salon began with a small presentation, in which the first part briefly talked about the user group (UG-GE) itself and his current situation, and in the second part, Mehman Ibragimov spoke about his trip to Wikimania 2019. Later we switched to the main program of the salon, as it was said before, the salon consisted of two parts, in the first part we discussed Partnership and made recommendations for the Wikimedia Foundation, and in the second part we talked and made recommendations on Capacity Building. Between program transitions, we had a coffee break, where participants were able to relax and discuss other aspects of our program. Cafe break took place in the same building where the Strategy Salon itself took place, which saved us time.

Strategy Salon was held in a discussion format where everyone could express their opinion on specific topics and issues. In addition to the recommendations for the Wikimedia Foundation, the Strategy Salon also developed recommendations for the Wikimedia UG Georgia, important key organizational issues were also resolved.

Summary of the Discussions

As I wrote above, our Strategy Salon consisted of two parts, where in the first part we discussed and made recommendations for the Wikimedia Foundation for Partnership, and in the second part we discussed and made recommendations for Capacity Building. In addition to the topics already indicated, we also discussed and made recommendations on other topics, which I will indicate in particular below.

Partnerships

Wikimedia Foundation should make more efforts to start partnerships with institutions such as universities, libraries, government agencies, educational institutions, museums, galleries, etc.
The Wikimedia Foundation should also help and encourage the foundation’s affiliations to start partnerships with various institutions, especially libraries, museums and educational institutions.
WMF should have a clear strategy for building partnerships, it should also give this strategy to its affiliates, especially user groups that don't have bureaucratic apparatus and professionals to create partnerships.
A closer partnership of the WMF with universities and educational institutions will help increase the popularity of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in response to the anti-PR campaign of Wikipedia.
The WMF should help establish partnerships between its affiliations, which will strengthen relations within the Wikimedia movement, as well as the sustainable development of the entire movement.

Capacity Building

Wikimedia Foundation should make more efforts to conduct trainings in educational institutions, including universities and schools, both for students and relevant staff. This will help the Wikimedia Foundation to attract more people to the Wikimedia movement.
Wikimedia Foundation should hold meetings, organize conferences in educational institutions to more popularize Wikimedia projects in educational institutions.
The Wikimedia Foundation should prepare the appropriate personnel to work with new members of the Wikimedia movement, which will help attract more people to the movement. This can be through the organization of meetings and trainings, as well as through online projects.
The Wikimedia Foundation should facilitate the retraining of existing Wikimedia movement volunteers, so that they acquire new skills, which will facilitate the development and sustainability of the movement.
The Wikimedia Foundation should provide more funds to its affiliates (chapters, user groups and thematic groups) so that they can organize and conduct events for the development of the Wikimedia movement, including through the organization of trainings, regular meetings and WikiCamps.

Marketing

The Wikimedia Foundation should put more effort into advertising the Wikimedia projects and the Wikipedia movement on online platforms, especially on social networks where a very large audience interested in Wikimedia, this will give us the advantage to attract more volunteers to Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia movement.
The Wikimedia Foundation should provide enough funds for its affiliation, so that they can independently finance online advertising to attract volunteers in Wikimedia movement and to promote Wikimedia projects.

Community Health

The Wikimedia Foundation must create the necessary friendly community within Wikimedia projects to attract new volunteers to the Wikimedia movement and for their comfortable work there. This can be through the creation of new regulation, as well as trainings and regular meetings within the community.
The main regulation within Wikimedia projects should be as follows: "Do not bite newcomers!".

Financial Report

#	Purchase	cost (GEL)	cost total (USD)
1	Stationery items	70 ₾ (GEL)	24 $ (USD)
2	Renting a place and meals	725 ₾ (GEL)	248 $ (USD)
3	Transport service	30 ₾ (GEL)	11 $ (USD)
4	Bank service fees	200 ₾ (GEL)	69 $ (USD)
5	Telecommunication service	30 ₾ (GEL)	11 $ (USD)
6	Bank commissions	2 ₾ (GEL)	1 $ (USD)
Actual cost grand total			364 $ (USD)

Received Funds : 740 $ (USD)
Remaining Funds : 376 $ (USD)

Images from Strategy Salon

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Mehman Ibragimov during Strategy Salon
During Strategy Salon
During Strategy Salon
During Strategy Salon
During Strategy Salon
Mikheil Chabukashvili during Strategy Salon
Group Photo from Strategy Salon