Wikimedia Conference 2012/Documentation/Day 2/Future

Strategic plans and the future of Wikimedia work

Do chapters feel that they will have enough to do in ten years time?

There's always creative ideas and plenty of good examples for new concepts or cooperations.
Ideas beget ideas.

Will chapters do drastically different things ten years from now? Meaning, could movement goals change drastically in ten years?

Maybe the movement is underusing social media so far. People could be directed from Facebook and other social media to Wikipedia.
Things change pretty quickly. Wikipedia was made fun of six years ago. Look at its reputation now. What if Wikimedia groups played a major role in content liberation? Partnerships are key.
Create new content from archived material (like a large-scale index of scientific publication).
Chapter should grow the other Wikimedia projects. Development work.
Maybe new projects need to be developed. Wikimedia labs is the place for this.
connecting databases in a humanly curated library
Wikidata will be a huge step forward.
Video material will increasingly dominate data on Wikimedia Commons in ten years.

It should be taken into account that movement organisations will go separate ways, there could be completely new movement roles. e.g.: "Association of Wikipedian mathematicians". Thematically linked organisations could be a major force in 2022.

If we succeed in making data more easily available outside of Wikipedia, the chances of a fork happening or other projects competing with Wikipedia will rise. Is this a problem or even positive?

Craig Franklin on strategic planning

There are many chapters that don't have a strategic plan. WMAU asked themselves what they should spend their money on. It was a tough question to answer. Going through strategic planning gave a clear direction where there only was a plethora of great ideas, but no priorities and structure. WMAU's plan.

WMUK published a Wiki version of their annual plan.

Community people were involved in drafting, discussing or commenting on the stragic plans by WMAU, WMUK and WMDE. However, the benefits are there for every chapter, be it big or small. It's about strategic thinking.

*Where are whe coming from?
*Where do we want to go?
*How can we get there?

Please feel free to contact Philippe Beaudette for help with strategic planning!

Wikimedia Foundation Strategic Plan