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WALRUS/December 2022

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Two WALRUS-Plus meetings this month, on Monday 5 December and Mon Dec 12, each at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific

First meeting will be on the Movement Charter, the second meeting a week later will be on WikiConference North America and the possibility for a regional hub.

Dec 5 meeting

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Dec 12 meeting

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Anticipated attendees

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Agenda

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  • Review of WikiConference North America 2022
  • Wikipedia Day 2023 (Sunday, January 15)
  • Discussion of the Movement Charter
  • Establishment of a regional hub
    • concept: Wikimedia Foundation wants few points of contact, which each get more funding, and do administrative support to more sub-groups
      • We already have more than 20 regional groups - Wikimedia_United_States_Coalition#Representatives
      • What Wikimedia Foundation sponsorship should we request to increase the impact of all these?
    • example other hub grants
    • Review the history for anyone new to discussion
      • Most countries have a national chapter serving this role
      • United States is the wealthiest and most active country without one
      • US is different because 1) big 2) WMF is based here 3) European wiki people and WMF historically opposed the idea of US chapter but are now supporting the hub concept
      • Other than WikiConference North America, almost no national activity
      • If we had staff admin then there are 10 years of community consensus that we could get many times the impact for our current volunteer efforts
      • Any other comments on the current and historical context?
    • How do we establish a hub?


Strategic plans

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  • for an example from ChatGPT, see Talk

Actual attendees

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  1. Richard / Pharos - from NYC chapter, trying to establish a Museum of Open Data, I like doing NYC things
  2. Paula Marmor - user:PKM part of Wikimedians of Los Angeles, would like to do something to organize more!
  3. Peaceray - part of Cascadia Wikimedians, have been having meetups these past few months. Skipped for the recent WikiConference North America
  4. Louis Germain - French Canadian! I am executive director of Wikimedia Canada since October. I am here to observe and report back to WM Canada!
  5. Frank Schulenburg
  6. Bob Kosovsky
  7. Mary Mark Ockerbloom - WikiSalon Philadelphia co-host Annual Reviews Wikipedian in Residence; Wikiproject Craft
  8. Doreva Belfiore - Philadelphia WikiSalon (user:dorevabelfiore)
  9. JP Beland - recently hired as the Movement Strategy and Governance facilitator for USA and Canada; also a long-time supporter of Wikimedia Canada; also the founder/coordinator of the Wikimedians of North American Indigenous Languages User Group; user:Amqui
  10. Sara Snyder
  11. John P. Sadowski - Vice President of Wikimedia DC; Wikipedian-in-Residence at NIOSH
  12. Jack Glover / Xeno (WMF) / w:en:User:Xeno / You may remember me as the Movement Strategy and Governance facilitator for USA and Canada - and though I recently moved roles (and am now the Senior Committee Support Manager), I've been on this journey with you and want to support in any way I can :)
  13. Julie - Wikimedians of Los Angeles, which has been inactive lately but want to get more active. I cannot seem to work up interest in local organizing.
  14. Ben Vershbow (WMF) - Hi! I'm director of the community programs team at the Foundation, which focuses on supporting big global outreach themes in the movement like GLAM-Wiki, Education, and content campaigns. I also serve as "wrangler" for North America and am here as a general bridge into the Foundation to support your work in any way that I can. Feel free to get in touch! bvershbow@wikimedia.org
  15. Kevin Li - I am on the English Wikipedia arbitration committee. Voting just closed! I really like the idea of a regional hub! One of the historical problems with affiliates and engagement with them on English Wikipedia is that there is no singular body which covers English Wikipedia folks. Thanks everyone for your work on this.
  16. Rajene Hardeman, my first WALRUS meeting
  17. Alan Wu
  18. Jim Henderson in New York
  19. Clifford Anderson
  20. Lane Rasberry / user:bluerasberry, taking notes with others <3
  21. SJ Klein
  22. Abhishek Suryawanshi
  23. Peter Meyer, President, Wikimedia DC

Notes

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  • Introductions.
  • Review WikiConference North America
    • online only. 200 attendees.
    • partnership with OpenStreetMap
    • 200 people came
    • videos have not yet become available - several people have requested them
    • we have not been able to organize in person for some time due to COVID.
    • Toronto possible location for 2023 conference
  • JP - I am a member of Wikimedia Canada for a long time
    • I was recently hired as the facilitator for the US / Canada regional facilitator for Movement Strategy, taking over for Xeno who was previously in this role
  • Ben Vershbow WMF Staff: I am playing a bridge role in the North American community in addition to my usual role which with outreach in GLAM and Eduation and other organized spaces. I am based in Philly and my team has felt gaps in partnerships with some of the Wikimedia community. We want the North American community to organize to better support those partnerships. Beyond that I am trying to be out there and listening and sensing to some of those conversations starting. I want to help you get resourced to try things. I am coming out of WikiConference North America which had a meeting which was a prelude to this conversation. Wikimedia DC might be able to use its organizational capacity to try new things in the region. To help, encourage and support stakeholders. Ready to provide support & resources.
  • Grant options: Movement strategy: has early stage grant - up to $25,000.

Has been used for the developing Central and Eastern Europe Hub. This could help community come to agreement about what the baseline expectations are, what pilot projects should be developed to replicate in the region, and build up what organizations could be used to support the network. The path that CEE has started was to apply for a research grant to form a plan, then apply for a larger organizational development grant. There could be partnerships in this, such as Wiki Education being helpful for colaelscing a structure.

    • Rosie: Hello, I am active in lots of wiki groups and currently a WMF board member. Doing the research as a starter feels right to me. But maybe Ben you already have an answer to this - for the purposes of WMF grants, the globe is cut up into 8 regions. WMF has often done outreach to North America as US and Canada, and has often organized Wiki Mexico with Ibercoop and Spanish speaking countries. Is it all an open book for the community to sort out the organization?
    • Ben: This is a good question and has come up before. The Wikimedia Foundation has a US/Canada fund and in general manages funding by region. There are some peculiar funding situations where certain global programs do have a HQ. Sometimes the WMF translates regional funding schemes into other kinds of funding schemes. I think we have to learn about this by making a decision and doing it. Mexico is in an unusually rich position by being part of the Spanish speaking world but also near the United States and with a huge disaspora in the United States. It's up to the programmers to determine what their map of NA is going to look like, given the enormity of the countries involved. Does not exclude the possibility of groups belonging to more than a single group.
    • Richard: US, Canada, and Mexico are all big countries which can participate in many kinds of programs. 
    • Peter, tell us about the idea you have been developing with the community.  
    • SJ: We should also check in with AfroCROWD, Arf & Feminism, BLT, WP Med, Wikijournal -- all have staff or contractors or are planning to...Also check in with the 1000 Women in Religion User Group.
  • Peter's intended slides
    • Slide 1. Opportunities for a NA/US federation
    • If the WALRUS affiliates made up a federation, it could:
      • Run the WCNA annual conference
      • Support events all over (not just where affiliates are)

a museum anywhere on our continent should have our support to run training

      • Share calendars of events that is shared across the continent so that anyone can know what is happening.
      • Offer training: GLAM / Leadership wiki camps (*)
      • 4.1 As in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2018: en.wp: WP:Meetup/DC/Wikimedia_Leadership_Bootcamp_2018
      • Support software development 
      • Advocate national/international public policy

Policy advocacy is currently only done by one Wikimedia chapter.

      • Sustain bigger partnerships with professional associations, national & international, GLAMs. Achievable within a single fiscal year.
      • Sustain staff, budget, paperwork; avoid little collapses. Imagine: what would a larger staffed organization look like? Let's look at what some of the European groups (with paid staff) are doing.
    • Slide 2. Mechanisms / steps
      • WMF wants to support *us* doing these things
      • With staff support, which we would need
      • We can file for a grant to assess these opportunities
      • Focus groups, interviews, surveys of North Americans
      • Evaluate what chapters/hubs now do (e.g. WMUK)
      • Identify opportunities, risks, costs, dangers, conflicts
      • Write it down. Report. Develop consensus.
      • Align with Movement Strategy (e.g., “Hub”)
      • File for grant to offer a GLAM/leadership camp this spring
    • Richard: First stage: a study grant of $25,000
      • Context: US/Canada in unsual position in that larger populations, yet Europe has more financial support. At least 3 affiliates (2 in the US, 1 in the Canada). Maybe we can build on our paid staff strcuture - admin person connected to one affiliate, GLAM person connected to another. ***SAmounts to about 4 part-time people: GLAM, Admin, grants, community. Half time for local chapter, other half devoted to Hub.
      • We should also reach out to topical groups, including AfroCROWD, Art & Feminism, BLT, WP Med, Wikijournal, 1000 Women in Religion User Group., Whose Knowledge?, 
      • A&F expressed interest in sharing admin practices: legal things people want to keep up on, software choices, policies, &c. A shared continuity of practice and templates for new orgs would help
      • Shared list of people and expertise for help / barnraising / recurring work and events
      • Ensure multilingual support of all surveys, focus groups, etc. (network covering language as well)
      • Doreva Belfiore: Comment drawing from experience from DPLA's Pennsylvania hub for context: structure can help, with financial, educational, structural/procedural and personal support for participants.
      • Mary Mark Ockerbloom: What kind of structure for a hub makes the most sense?
      • Comment from Sara: DC can support with staff time.
      • We'll need help/$ for multilingual support for surveys, focus groups, interviews, research etc.
      • Lane notes the past practice is that WALRUS meetings are 100% in English
  • Upcoming events
    • January 14: WikiSalon - guest speaker on ORES - how to understand and interpret. online at Philadelphia WikiSalon - special guest speaker Aiko Chou from the ORES development team will speak about the function of the AI and how ratings are developed. More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Philadelphia
    • Jan 15: Wikipedia Day in NYC in person  ; maybe celebration of Public Domain Day also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Wikipedia_Day_2023

  • ARe we in agreement that we should have a North American hub and not just an American hub?
    • No, this is still to be discussed.
    • No, I think we should stick to just English language rather than try to be English and Spanish and French.
    • We have huge swaths of the United States with which we have not engaged yet, so we are not taking care of the United States yet.
  • Question: Are there other parts in the world where one country is trying to establish a hub for multiple wiki groups? Like maybe Russia, or India?
    • Ben: Nigeria and India come to my mind as places which could have hubs because of the linguistic diversity. There is going to be a WikiConference India in 2023 for the first time in a long time. 
    • WMF can help summarize the status in the rest of the world, so we can focus on answering what matters for groups in this region
    • JP (in the chat): Question for thoughts: Are the two concepts mutually exclusive, or could we imagine a US-federation and a North American hub working together?
    • Paula: Suppose that we have a disagreement about how to organize. Should we establish a decision making process? What will be the method to deal with these disagreements?
    • To be discussed in research phase!
  • Question from Rosie: are the other hubs becoming or planning to become a legal entity? Would the Wikimedia Foundation recommend that a hub in the region become a legal entity?
    • Ben: Good question but I do not have the authority to answer that, nor does anyone at the Wikimedia Foundation. I think the discussions around this will set a path to new organizational development. In the examples which I see right now I do not see any codified definition of a hub. Wikimedia Europe is organizing to address policy issues which apply to the European Union, but those are not issues which are coming up in other places like Nigeria. Questions to ask include asking what goals there are.
  • Lane: staff in wiki orgs are often greatly overworked in almost every Wikimedia community organization.
    • WMF has goals + metrics, and [smaller] orgs don't have funds for labor it takes to reach those goals
    • you can burn out staff + community, so we have to budget (time + $?) for admin.
    • Examples: Annual Reports, budget publication, central point of contact for inquiries, keeping social channels safe, keeping membership / contact lists, running elections, thanks for contribution, diversity checks, press, partner communications, harassment prevention/response, documentation ... grants for [programs] are usually for other outcomes than the above, and this admin can be very expensive.
    • Richard: Administrative support can multiply the resulting volunteer efforts. +1!
    • Paula: Documenting all the many activities that we do as Wiki-groups is extremely important and can help support the justification for administrative support.
    • Having accounting experts who understand the grant reporting and financials really can save time and ensure accuracy.
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