Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Transition/Events Outline

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The Wikimedia 2030 strategic direction was set in 2017, for us to become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge. From 2018 to 2020, close to 100 Wikimedians collaborated in nine working groups to draft recommendations to move us in that direction. After multiple iterations and consultations, 10 recommendations and 10 underlying principles were finalized and shared with the movement in May 2020. With the ongoing global pandemic, a chance to meet in person to begin implementing the recommendations was not possible. Instead, the Wikimedia Foundation will organize in collaboration with affiliates and communities a series of online events to create an inclusive transition process to start implementing some of the recommended changes and actions. A Transition Design Group was convened to create the design for the Transition events. This document contains the overview and outline of the events as well as summaries from related discussions.

Prepare →	Thematic events →	Global events →	Follow-up events →	Implement

Summary table

Event type	Objectives	Organizers	Attendees	Notes
Preparation	Allow people to meet and learn about Transition events Ensure participants are familiar with the process and relevant information (e.g. recommendations & principles) Build trust Identify local capacity and participation needs	Communities and affiliates with support from the Support Team and Design Group members	Language-based (e.g. Thai) Region-based (e.g. North America)	Provide in-advance notice for each event, so those interested are able to join.
Focused events	Identify priorities from the list of initiatives Give participants the opportunity to focus on their (or their community’s) needs and interests relating to Movement Strategy Analyze global coordination needs and emerging overlaps from focused and regional events.	Communities and affiliates with support from the Support Team and Design Group members	Language-based (e.g. Thai) Region-based (e.g. North America) Theme-based (e.g. community health)	Aim for events that are lively, interesting, engaging, and relevant to every-day matters Keep a low barrier for entry: participants should not need to have an in-depth knowledge of Movement Strategy Working between the events: Everyone is encouraged to extend the circle by reaching out and enabling others to participate. Individuals or communities will need to work on any tasks that may have come up during focused events or for participation in global events
Global events	Align, make decisions, collaborate, take ownership, and celebrate Accommodate different time zones and facilitate input in multiple languages	Support Team	All Wikimedians
Follow-up events	Share updates and decisions back with communities that took part in the previous steps (combined with on-wiki and text updates) Coordinate roles and responsibilities for the next steps and for taking implementation work forward	Communities and affiliates with support from the Support Team and Design Group members	All Wikimedians
Implementation	Create movement-wide collaborations bringing communities, affiliates and the Wikimedia Foundation together to implement the prioritized actions and changes from the Movement Strategy recommendations	Wikimedia, Foundation, affiliates and communities	All Wikimedians	Requires: Implementation plan (for 18 months) Global, regional, local action

Transition events brief

Preparation and thematic events

Objectives

To build alignment and shared understanding for the purpose and scope of events.
To introduce people to the recommendations and the work ahead.
To build momentum and excitement for participating in Transition and implementation discussions.
To bring people interested in a specific topic area together to discuss needs and priorities.
To extend the circle of people engaged with the Transition events and encourage others to participate.

Responsibility

The Support Team will organize or directly support events in major languages and regions (in collaboration with local / regional affiliates, where possible)
Affiliate and community members can apply for a WMF-grant to organize their own events for any specific theme, region or language

Agenda

Unpack the movement strategy recommendations to reduce complexity and open pathways for conversations:
- Prioritize changes and actions within each recommendation that are locally relevant.
Discuss local and topical interests to later identify where global overlaps emerge:
- Identify cross-cutting priorities: such as the Interim Global Council, content gaps, funding, etc. (whether these discussions will be small or large events will be determined based on interest and scope).

Online discussions

Reach a shared understanding for the purpose and scope of events
Anyone can join and share ideas around a topic of interest or priority, either:
- global needs for the movement, or
- local, project-based, grassroots, and programmatic needs
Can be extended into larger in-depth conversations around complex topics (Interim Global Council, securing funding, etc).
Invite work between the events
- So everyone can contribute, especially those who cannot join the virtual events
- To unpack the Movement Strategy recommendations to break down goals and define locally-relevant action(s)

Engagement

Connect with a wider range of people, in between events, to orient them and to bring them into further discussions and actions.
Can invite experts, researchers, external partners for a specific topic
Increasingly build capacity to enable greater participation for those interested
Bring people with similar interests, languages, and regions together
- Encourage mentorship, possibly through a “buddy” system
Strong communications in-between events for keeping stakeholders informed and bringing feedback back into the conversations
Openly communicate around the events and any results or decisions for: legitimacy, triggering more participation and analyses of overlaps and common interests.
Time of the events has to accommodate volunteer availability as well as international differences in weekdays and weekends, something that local communities and organizers would know best

Identification phase

Analysis and review (with professional and/or staff support) to:
- Identify which steps are dependent on each other requiring coordination and which can move forward independently
- Identify overlaps between various communities emerging from small calls
- Identify global dependencies for sequencing

Participants

Start small and local with individuals and organizations (for example from a specific language group, region, or project community)
Invite traditionally underrepresented communities.
Define “external” partners.

Outputs of thematic events

Identified priorities from Movement Strategy recommendations at varying levels, such as local, regional, and movement-wide
Turning identified priorities from Movement Strategy into objectives and actions (whether local or global)
Analysis of identified priorities and overlaps for implementation (at least a start)

Global events

A large full-day group session or multiple half-day sessions across different time zones so people can join at different times

Objectives

To share findings and results from smaller focused events.
To bring together everyone involved in the process to review the work so far and revisit the steps ahead for the implementation plan.
To ensure a shared understanding of the principles and recommendations as well as the product that is to be created.
To connect people from across the movement that share interest in a specific thematic area for prioritization and sequencing discussions.

Responsibility

The Support Team will organize or directly support events in major languages and regions (in collaboration with local / regional affiliates, where possible)
The Support Team will combine data regarding priorities, from focused events, and facilitate an open consultation around them

Agenda

Presentation and exercises to build a shared understanding of the principles, recommendations, and the product that is to be created.
Identifying a set of goals for the movement in the recommendation and collaboratively producing a starting point for implementation.
There will likely be further details to discuss and clarify locally with communities in follow-up small events to close Transition.
There should be an element of celebration in this gathering.

Participants

All individuals and organizations interested to attend.
Everyone who participated in the previous focused events.

Outputs

The event will produce a collaborative vision for implementation, grounding the work ahead
An intangible outcome could be champions of the process who can act as ambassadors for implementation

Follow-up events

Objectives

To report back to communities at a more in-depth level.
To coordinate roles and responsibilities to take implementation forward.
To identify needed human and financial resources for implementation.
To potentially sequence changes and actions on a horizontal 18-month timeline.
For transparency and shared understanding for the implementation plan.

Agenda

Similar to initial small events (but fewer in number), looping back to the initial online discussions and preparation calls.
Connect people working on the same initiative, providing opportunities for growth and movement-wide collaboration.

Responsibility

The Support Team will organize or directly support events in major languages and regions (in collaboration with local / regional affiliates, where possible)
Affiliate and community members can apply for a WMF-grant to organize their own events for any specific theme, region or language

Participants

Starting small and local: Individuals and organizations with specific knowledge and perspectives or from a specific language group, region, project community.
People who took part in the preparation and any previous events.
Defined “external” partners.

Outputs

A final implementation plan by and for the movement
- Including needed resources and capacities and check-in points for assessment.

After the follow-up event

A final implementation plan will be prepared for use by the movement. This plan will explain how actions are coordinated, resourced, and initiated and who is responsible for what. The plan should inspire and guide a great deal of independent agency within the movement on issues that do not require global coordination.

The implementation phase begins. It will last 18 months during which the Wikimedia Foundation, affiliates and communities will begin to collaborate and work on the implementation actions. A monitoring and developmental evaluation strategy will be put in place to coordinate effort, connect these actors, and keep everyone informed on what is being learned and what needs to change.

Background

The Wikimedia Movement Strategy, released in May 2020, is an ambitious document with ten recommendations and nearly fifty recommended actions and changes. For the Wikimedia movement to begin to work on activities to implement this strategy document, we need to unpack the recommendations into a set of easily understood and prioritized starting points:

movement-wide priorities requiring global coordination;
priorities specific to different contexts in the movement requiring resources; and,
work that any community could independently experiment with.

The Wikimedia Foundation convened a Transition Design Group in July 2020 to create the design for events that will transition the Wikimedia movement to implement the recommendations. The summary of discussions surfaces some of the main priorities for Transition discussed by the Design Group, as well as barriers to inclusive participation that must be tackled.

Transition events will take place through a series of small and large online events from September to December 2020, hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. During the events, project communities, affiliates, the Foundation, external experts, and partners will discuss the recommendations and related topics that are most relevant for them. This aims to surface local priorities related to Movement Strategy as well as global priorities so that a multi-stakeholder and collaborative implementation plan can be created. The result will be an 18-month implementation plan to start in January 2021. In addition to making Movement Strategy actionable for implementation, the events aim to create collaborative connections across people and organizations in our movement to take work forward.

This draft outline of the Transition events was shared with the movement for review and feedback from August 6 to 20, 2020. It will then be finalized by the Design Group and later made operational by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Summary of Design Group discussions

The Transition events will be a series of online events to begin the Transition from drafting the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy recommendations to implementing them. The Design Group has designed a process to create collaborative, movement-wide, actionable plans for implementation. Taking place from September to December 2020, the online Transition events aim to bring together communities, affiliates, the Wikimedia Foundation, and others from across the movement to create these plans. The Transition process will indicate where specific support and resources are needed for the collaborations and where responsibilities need to be shared with the Foundation for global coordination and overarching support. Below is a table summarizing key discussions from the Design Group working sessions.

Key Aspects	Key aspects of the Transition events The Design Group recommends to organize the Transition events with the Movement Strategy principles at heart. The design for Transition aims for diverse and representative participation: creating connections across projects, affiliates, online communities, languages, regions, levels of experience, etc. To enhance inclusivity and participation, everyone (not only direct participants) will be welcome to give feedback before and after any event. Event organizers should pay attention to all views and contributions to the discussions. There is a shared responsibility among the organizers of the events: To ensure that ideas are carried through by organizers, peers, and reports, even if people join one event or are able to provide offline input only. To pay attention to all views and contributions, and that even if something may not seem directly relevant to an event, it can come from someone's genuine concerns and should not be dismissed. To create connections between local contexts plus individual perspectives and the global strategy conversations.
Communication	Communication across events The Transition Support Team, in collaboration with local and external organizers, will be responsible to: Keep continuous channels of communication open between event organizers, event participants, and communities to ensure transparency of the conversations and decisions. Increase awareness in the movement that these events are for and about everyone (regardless of expertise or previous experience with strategy). Make it easy for people to decide which events to join and how to prepare. Encourage Ambassadors or Liaisons for the Transition events as communicators and connectors across languages and communities. Maintain channels for communication between events, especially on wiki. This will allow discussions to flourish and allow time for people to engage when they are able.
Participation	Participation Event organizers should: Ensure that participants do not need a deep understanding of Strategy to meaningfully participate. Provide more opportunities for smaller and newer affiliates to take action wherever possible, and for larger actors to be enablers and provide support. Provide opportunities for online communities and tech developers to share input around topics of interest, whether part of an affiliate or not. Connect people outside of their usual community or project and create opportunities for peer mentorship. Event organizers should create a combined process where: Affiliates are asked to select representatives, Online/project community members are able to self-nominate, and Anyone interested can still participate. All events should conform to the Wikimedia Friendly Space policy. Certain groups will need special focus in each context: Communities that are underrepresented (geographical, cultural, historical, etc.) in the movement Online communities and contributors Underrepresented affiliates: e.g. smaller user groups with limited resources External experts, researchers, and partners
Inclusivity	Inclusive engagement Organizers to organize events in relevant languages at global and local levels To provide translation support, where possible, to overcome language barriers. Event organizers should prepare easy to access material for preparation. They should make tasks small for participants, use simple language, and provide opportunities for support and mentorship. Create multiple opportunities for input in order to overcome participation barriers: Facilitate different levels of engagement during the events: full connection, audio only, text-only Where possible, provide multilingual, audio, and visual materials Make it possible to provide input before, during, and after the events. For example, have a 48-hour open review and commenting period after an event. Provide options to give input privately/anonymously. Implement surveys and questionnaires as options for participants in addition to calls. Surveys can be translated in many languages, as they can get to all kinds of editors and communities and provide a wide participation profile. Provide on-wiki spaces for engagement where: People can use talk pages for discussion. Pages are open for editing on a continuous, wiki basis.
Resources	Resource requirements identified by the Design Group Professional or staff support (including, the Transition Support Team) for: Facilitation, tech support, documentation, and coordination of events and activities. Analysis for identifying overlaps, common interests, and potential for collaboration. Identifying dependencies and sequencing of the recommendations. Funding by the Wikimedia Foundation for: For translations, facilitation, documentation To support participation where needed, like with data, childcare, ...
Larger global events	Rationale for Global Events Advantages: Meetings with everyone, such as common events, celebrations, … For alignment, coordination, decision-making, and transparency For zoomed-out (high-level/macro), global conversations on how changes and actions can be implemented and coordinated Challenges: Difficult for people to join continuously because of time commitment, energy, bandwidth, ... More difficulty in managing multiple languages and timezones at the same time More difficulty for in-depth conversations
Smaller focused events	Rationale for Focused Events Advantages: Better for focused thematic, topical, and regional conversations in different languages to identify priorities. Useful for people who want to join events only around certain topics of interest. Events can be dedicated to overlapping topics that emerge as important, for example, the Interim Global Council, funding, content gaps, ... A better opportunity to connect to peers and colleagues. Experts and external partners can be invited into certain events where they can play a larger role than they would in a big event. Challenges: Can take more time. More difficult to coordinate across the movement. Big effort in documentation, analysis and communication of results.

Change log

An updated draft was posted by the Support Team on August 19th, to improve the language and logical structure, per various feedback.
The final version of the events outline was posted by the Support Team on September 16th, integrating community feedback from the summary shared in late August.