Wikimedia Summit 2024/Documentation

Wikimedia Summit 2024

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This is the report for the Wikimedia Summit 2024 taking place in Berlin from 19 to 21 April.

• Below is the summary of the key elements of each day of the event.
• On the following subpages (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3) you can find the details for each session of each day.
• You can download the full report in English as a pdf file
• You can watch all the recordings on Commons

Summary

Group photo of participants of the Wikimedia Summit.

Day 1: Welcoming Participants, Keynote and Initial Feedback on Movement Charter

The first day was dedicated entirely to Movement Governance. It began with welcoming and onboarding participants into the Summit’s workflow, followed by a deep dive into the current version of the Movement Charter.

Opening Ceremony

The Summit opened with welcoming statements from:

• Franziska Heine (Executive Director), on behalf of Wikimedia Deutschland
• Dr. Tobias Lindner (Minister of State) on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office
• Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International addressed the Summit participants with a keynote on leading change in international organisations.

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee introduced the last version of the Charter and their expectations for the event.

Gallery Walk I: Giving feedback on the Charter

Participants at the venue and online gave feedback on selected discussion topics related to the Movement Charter, and the last version of the Movement Charter itself. Feedback was categorised as “celebrations”, “suggestions for improvement”, “potential deal breakers”, and “ideas beyond the charter”.

List of topic groups:

• Global Council: Purpose & Resource (GC1)
• Global Council: Global Council and WMF (GC2)
• Global Council: Representation and Composition (GC3)
• Affiliates and Hubs: Purpose (AH1)
• Affiliates and Hubs: Rights, responsibilities, roles and types (AH2)
• Affiliates and Hubs: Collaborations and Capacity Building (AH3)
• Financial resources: Resource development (fundraising) (FR1)
• Financial resources: Resource distribution (grant making) (FR2)

Work Session 1: Understanding the Charter

Participants were divided into pre-selected topic groups to start imagining the Movement Charter’s implications through a role playing activity devised by the MCDC. You can read the role-plays here (1 & 2).

Work Session 2: Discussing the plenary feedback on the Charter

Participants clustered the feedback gathered from the Gallery Walk I into thematic sub-themes. These were used to form smaller working groups that discussed the topic content in depth. You can find the thematic clusters here.

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Day 2: Producing initial Summit Outputs and envisioning Future Affiliate Gatherings

The second day was dedicated to improving and refining the outputs of the Summit, and started a parallel activity track dedicated to Future Affiliate Gatherings.

Session 3: Drafting Initial Outputs

Small thematic working groups (within each topic group) shared and consolidated their proposals into the first set of recommendations to improve the Movement Charter and beyond.

Gallery Walk II: Giving Feedback on the Initial Outputs

In the plenary and online, the Summit attendants gave feedback on the initial outputs produced by each of the topic groups.

Session 4: Two Parallel Tracks

(A) Movement Governance: Discussing Feedback on the Initial Outputs Topic posters with sticky notes were brought back to their respective groups for analysis and refinement. During this session, two measures were introduced to support coherence within and across topics. Two volunteer roles: one looking for connections between content and another making sure there was coherence across topic discussions. For this session only, participants were allowed to join other topic groups of their choice to cross-pollinate the discussions. (B) Future Affiliate Gatherings: Prioritising Purposes & Learning Nicole Ebber (WMDE) explained why the 2024 Summit was the “last of its kind” and emphasized the importance of finding another format. Nikki Zeuner (WMDE) shared the results from the Affiliate Survey on Future Gatherings, providing insights on what drives and hinders attendance, and what participants would like to experience in terms of content and format. Organisers of three different formats of affiliate gatherings shared their experience as case studies: Wikimedia Summit, Wiki-Indaba Conference, and Wikimedia Central Eastern European Meeting. The key considerations raised by participants about hosting an affiliate gatherings were:

1. Logistic and Support
2. Location
3. Organisers
4. Knowledge Transfer / Capacity Building
5. Purpose & Programme
6. Inclusion & Representation

Session 5: Two Parallel Tracks

(A) Movement Governance: Integrating Feedback to improve Outputs Topic Groups consolidated all the proposals made by the smaller working groups and prepared their posters with improved outputs to share in the next plenary for a Gallery Walk. (B) Future of Affiliate Gatherings: Develop Vision & Define Characteristics The session started with an exercise of envisioning a future gathering, and followed by an activity in which attendants could share arguments for opposing choices concerning location, frequency and hybridity. The group then voted on their preference. Below are the results:

• Location: Same location: 5 / Rotating location: 24 / 1 non-response
• Frequency: Every year: 19 / Every 2 years: 10 / Every 3 years: 1
• Hybridity: Hybrid: 5 / With livestream: 15 / No hybrid, only onsite: 10

Gallery Walk III: Feedback on Improved Outputs

In the last Gallery Walk, online and in-person participants gave feedback on the improved outputs produced by the topic groups.

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Day 3: Appraisal of the Summit’s Outputs, taking ownership of Affiliate Gatherings, and open space

On the last day, the Movement Governance track worked on creating coherence across all Summit outputs to share them for appraisal. The Future of Affiliate Gatherings track took ownership of the next steps, while an open space session facilitated emerging conversations.

Work Session 6: Three Parallel Tracks

(A) Movement Governance A “coherence team”, with two volunteers from each of the Topic groups, worked on streamlining all the outputs into a coherent set that can be shared in plenary for appraisal. (B) Future of Affiliate Gatherings: Describe Governance & Create Task Force In its last session, participants discussed the priority purposes of affiliate gatherings. They identified the following:

• Governance
• Share best practices
• Learning, Connecting, Networking, Training

The session ended with a group of volunteers signing up to form a committee dedicated to working on a concept for future affiliate gatherings after the Wikimedia Summit. (C) Open Space Participants led self-organised conversations on the topics of their choice. Below are the titles of the sessions:

• Global approach to Capacity building and Skill Exchange + Capacity Exchange Project: How to learn things in this movement?
• Movement Charter: Ratification and Amendment Section
• What would you like the Wikimedia Foundation to stop doing?
• Kickoff a glossary of terms in Movement Charter with diverse languages
• Opportunities in Governance conversations for those engaging only online (not in meetings)
• Movement Charter: Implementation after Ratification: What and Who?
• Building Affiliate Fundraising Capacity
• Movement Governance protecting Marginalised Communities (incl. LGBT+)
• Movement Charter: First Section on Values and Definitions

Plenary: Assessing Agreement on the Final Summit Outputs

46 outputs of the Summit were submitted for appraisal to the summit attendants, who could choose between “support”, “oppose” or “no response”. Members of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, as well as Wikimedia Foundation staff and Board of Trustees present at the Summit, did not participate in the poll.

Closing Ceremony

The results from the on-site participants' appraisal of the final outputs of the Summit were revealed, showing that the percentage of support was above 50% on all recommendations. The percentage was calculated as a total of those who responded either “Support” or “Oppose”; respondents who selected 'No Response' were excluded. Different survey links were provided for on-site and online participants. The Wikimedia Summit concluded with statements from:

• The Movement Charter Drafting Committee emphasized the importance of the Movement Charter to the movement and announced the timeline for ratifying the Charter.
• The recently formed committee, tasked with working on Affiliate Gatherings, talked about the next steps.
• Maryana Iskander, on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, emphasizing the urgency of global issues and the need for change.
• Nicole Ebber, recalling Wikimedia events since 2010, praising the collaborative efforts of the Summit and expressing enthusiasm for future gatherings.

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