Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Transition/Office Hours

This page contains minutes from office hours held by the Strategy Core Team to answer questions about the Design Team of transition into the Implementation Phase.

1 October 2020

Video recording of a ten-minute presentation about Transition events, from the office hours.

Summary

Some points from general discussions:

More awareness about Transition and the online events is needed, especially on social media platforms.
More online editors need to be involved in the discussions.
The COVID-19 situation is different from place to place and has impacted communities in different ways. In some communities there is time and appetite for more work. In others, people are struggling with home and work situations.

Is prioritization just for affiliates?

Online meetings are not limited to affiliates, everyone is encouraged to look at the Movement Strategy recommendations to see what changes and actions would address their community needs if implemented in 2021.

What is the role of regional discussions?

Regional events can provide guidance and create alignment, they are great for sharing ideas. It’s ideal to receive lists of priorities from individual communities and affiliates. Regional events to start the discussions and then go local.

What resources are available to communities?

An easy rapid grant system for communities to organize Strategy-related discussions is being explored. Funds (for example for translations, data support if needed, facilitation, and documentation) can also be reallocated in the APG and sAPG grants from un(der)spent from in-person events. Facilitation and documentation are important for making sure everyone can participate and to capture the relevant information. Translations are great for getting more people involved.

What will happen at the global events?

The global discussions are for sharing results from local and regional discussions. Even if prioritization is not finalized, it’ll be good to create connections between affiliates and to get together after a long time. We anticipate that more people will want to get involved after the first global events and that is totally ok.

Could local discussions be in person?

It depends on the time and location, following local and national public health guidelines. The Foundation has also provided guidance, especially for meetings above 10 people (see events risk assessment during covid-19)

June 2020

Time & Date

These minutes comes from the following office hour calls:

Thursday, June 11, 08:00 UTC: 15 participants
Wednesday, June 10, 17:00 UTC: 6 participants

Objectives

To provide information and answer questions relating to the co-design of transition for the implementation of Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy recommendations
Specifically, to answer questions regarding the calls for nominations for the transition design group

Minutes

What are your priorities for this call? What brings you here today?

Curious about what’s happening in the Strategy process.
Excited to see what we can do together. What are the next steps for Strategy, especially under current circumstances? Priority: how to ensure inclusion in the process.
How will the design process be put together? How will it include others from outside the process?
How are “thematic communities” involved in design?
Share more information about the implementation phase.
How will implementation play out in our region? Iberocoop
What’s going on and what’s going forward?
Strategy is different from what I expected, looking to learn more.

Slides presentation (to the left)

In the next step of the Movement Strategy process, we will be preparing an implementation plan together over a series of open online events starting from September 2020, in lieu of the cancelled Wikimedia Summit.
We quickly realized that there would be many nuances to consider for hosting these virtual events, from access to technology to differences in timezones to languages and the need for translation. We have to make sure this process empowers the movement to take on implementation of the recommendations and leaves no one behind. Otherwise, those with power and privilege will continue to dominate conversations.
- Co-design has proved more successful in the past and especially during phase II of Movement Strategy.
The design of the series of online events will be put forward by a Design Group supported by a small support team. The aim is that the design team would be able to better surface varying needs in the movement and bring our attention to key dynamics we need to consider for the virtual events.
As this is a design group for the design of the events, we had to balance representation with efficiency as we know many people are eager to transition to implementation and many affiliates have asked us for clarity around what is next.
The design group would meet a few times online over late June and July to design the virtual events.
We decided to go with existing structures in the movement and balance for diversity and representation, including underrepresented groups, tech contributor communities, and online communities.
We’re looking for representation by the wider Movement, including online communities.
Nominations were requested from Chairpersons and EDs groups of affiliates, WMF staff, the writers of the recommendations, the movement strategy core team, and representatives from regional communities: CEE, Iberocoop, ESEAP, South Asia, WikiArabia, WikiFranca and North America.
Attempting to include missing voices, rather than an exhaustive list
Feel free to self-nominate or nominate others
The call for nominees highlighted the need for diversity, asking ideally for active contributors from underrepresented communities
- Some knowledge of movement strategy would be helpful although we are planning for orientation and onboarding calls for the design group
- Familiarity with the movement is needed so design discussions can be fruitful and considerate of the varying needs across communities
The next step, which would be the virtual events of September and October, is intended to sequence, prioritize and launch the various initiatives proposed by the recommendations and with resourcing and support infrastructures in place to implement.
The implementation plan should produce clarity on who in the movement will be responsible for carrying forward which initiatives and for resourcing them.

Questions:

What are your thoughts for including online editors?
- Response: Communities are being asked to provide ideally representatives who are active online as we know this community felt left out, particularly in phase II of movement strategy, which became more focused on the organized part of the movement and the affiliate structure.
- Online editors, tech developer communities, and underrepresented groups are a priority for us in the design and implementation of the online events.
Why is there a specific focus on regional collaborations, most of which still lack processes and representation?
- Response: We’re looking at how to collaborate across projects and thematic work. It’s not ideal, but the existing regional communities gave us something structured to work with. We’re also piloting and monitoring the calls for nominations and would like to balance the representation of voices and diversity amongst the nominees. Hoping to achieve different perspectives for the design group.
How many people from each regional collaboration? What happens if the regional representative is no longer able to carry on their role?
- Response: It’s being done in an emergent manner, adjusting according to the received nominations. At the moment, each regional community would have 1 seat, along with 3 seats for the EDs of affiliates and 1 for the chairpersons. Regional representatives are intended to connect with their respective communities, it’s more about networking, surfacing needs, and sharing out information so the virtual events can be inclusive and open.
- A key aspect of the design group discussions is that it will be fully open. We plan on uploading summaries of discussions on Meta, so community members and those who would like to provide input into the design conversations, can do so in parallel. Normally we present a plan and ask communities to react and provide feedback. This time, we would like this effort to be concurrent and in parallel.
Is it necessary for the representative to have a prior involvement in Strategy?
- Response: Thinking was how to include diversity in a 6-week “sprint”. Familiarity with the region’s community is needed, familiarity with strategy is extra.
Is it possible to get a perspective from participants outside calls, to mitigate the language barrier?
- Response: Design conversations will have to happen in English due to time restraints, but the events themselves will be multilingual.
What’s the purpose of the lengthy “5 month planning” for another plan on implementation? The Global Council is clearly supposed to lead on ** Implementation, and it’s clear how it needs to be constituted.
- Response: There’s a fair bit of contextualization, sequencing and prioritization before implementation of the recommendations can happen. There are about 50 initiatives in the recommendations and it would be impossible to implement all of them at the same time. The movement needs to do the prioritization and sequencing of the initiatives. Then the Global Council is intended to have an oversight role for the implementation all together.
Don’t sacrifice people’s willingness to participate and support just for the sake of diversity: representation may not be the highest priority for this specific group, but design.
- Response: Past experience shows we need more diversity of perspectives, but we would not let goodwill and enthusiasm go untapped. We would consider this in the selection of the design group.
- As well, input can be provided concurrently on Meta as the design progresses. This is our intention to create a parallel reviewer group amongst willing Wikimedians and strategy enthusiasts.
Has there been a stakeholder analysis for the design phase?
- Response: There has not been a proper or thorough stakeholder analysis so far. It may need to happen through the Transition events, but the task should be really precise.
Does the implementation start with the Interim Global Council?
- Response: We cannot rush putting the Global Council together. The Interim Council will be acting on certain areas until the creation of the Charter and the stable GC. The online events will be looking at this execution.

We intend to have governance and resourcing of the initiatives moving forward together.

Can a community member nominate themselves, or are you only looking for organized groups?
- Response: We’re welcoming nominations from the community organized along existing regional structures.

There is overlap between the regions and language communities, the affiliates, EDs and chairpersons. So we are hopeful that we can have a representative, productive and diverse group come together. The design will be shared openly on Meta, so community members can openly comment and provide feedback.

Suggestions to simplify the process more:

Use more imagery and visuals
Follow the example of Wiki Loves Monuments with very clear imagery and instructions of how to get involved and what are the steps (LINK).
- Response: This is very much the plan for the virtual events and we are hoping that such needs and suggestions are surfaced in the design group discussions.