Grants talk:APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round1/Wikimedia Deutschland e.V./Impact report form

Herr Richter, Dear Pavel,

Thanks for the impact. Compliments all over. Great job. Keep up the good the work, and so on, and so on. (Time constraints limit me to read only the summary of your report.) Best wishes, Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 08:24, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedia Nederland is impacted by the Chapters Dialogue initiated by Wikimedia Deutschland. In my capacity as board member responsible for International Affairs, I read your report carefully. In the summary is mentioned:

• "For the first time, the International Affairs Unit was in a position to draw up a review of the movement’s current situation thanks to the Chapters Dialogue. This project provides a methodical approach to bringing together the different points of view of various stakeholders (i.e. chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation, the Affiliations Committee, and the Funds Dissemination Committee) in an impressive body of knowledge that can be used by all entities within the Wikimedia movement."

Further on I read, with my questions added:

• "we create a synthesis [...] and thereby prepare map of the Wikimedia world"

  Could you provide a pointer to that map (or provide a date when such a map will be available"? Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 08:24, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

• "The insights can lead to recommendations for action in 2014 and are intended to lay a foundation for various international movement processes and decisions."

  Could you provide a pointer to the list of recommendations for action in 2014 (or provide a date when such a map will be available"? Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 08:24, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi Ad. I am currently working on the written report. It still takes time, but as mentioned at the conference, it will be available in the coming months (May/June). I will let you know as soon as it is published. Thank you very much for your patience. --Nicole Ebber (WMDE) (talk) 11:46, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Changes for state-owned works

This whole section is impressive, especially because I finally see some serious movement with lightweight glocal initiatives like motions and interpellations. (I hope that will work well where the environment is less friendly than in Schleswig Holstein; I would have no idea who to ask in Italy.) Also very nice the partnership with govdata.de and EDRI. --Nemo 09:49, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Comments on WMDE’s impact report from FDC staff

Thank you for submitting this detailed report, which offered much learning to the movement from your work this year!

The organizational Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats analysis you provided in this report is insightful and reflective. We appreciate learning about your organization’s strengths (the evaluation unit, your fundraising, and the strong processes and systems you have developed) and weaknesses (governance, outdated strategy, tensions between staff and volunteers, and lack of member involvement). The opportunities and threats identified in your analysis were also well thought-out, and we look forward to understanding how you work to address these threats.

Programmatically, we see that you focused on education programs this year. WMDE acknowledged that one-off and individual workshops were not working, so you have shifted your focus to editing series (which had the effect of creating multipliers, if not long-term editors) and developing curricula and learning modules for OER. We are interested in your work on the cultural policy landscape in Germany and on the European level. We understand the early work in this area has been to build momentum and establish yourself as a credible stakeholder, as well as in the state-owned works advocacy you are doing (lobbying to make state-owned works accessible and change federal copyright law). Your teams have learned a lot this year in these areas of work in terms of the challenges in getting volunteer commitments and the usefulness of economic arguments in pushing for change, and we encourage you to keep documenting that learning so the movement can learn from it more broadly.

WikiData has been a success for WMDE, and you have strengthened the capacity of the software development team, which allowed you to tackle EU-funded Render, the development of tools to visualize knowledge and Article Monitor. We were pleased to see the metrics you included in this project: 92.5 million edits, 24 million statements, 3,900 active editors and 600 very active editors--and noted the high participation of editors.

Your work in GLAM has continued to be an area of focus with a focus on creating a shift towards an open culture mindset. We were pleased to know the number of volunteers involved has doubled in this work. However we also encourage WMDE to have stronger metrics than the number of people on tours, people reached by a mailing, etc.

We learned about your investments in the community support structures as well as your work to deepen your understanding of the community. We understand 56,859 photos and videos were created with your support. We wonder what your target was, and how you will plan for next year, and hope you will explain your baselines and targets in your next annual plan.

We appreciate your transparency with challenges in the “Changing the Working Climate program” and the Teahouse. While the story you shared about the failure in the movement communications that led to the creation of the Chapter’s Dialogue, we would ask you to share more of your own failures in order to better understand your organization and your work. We do look forward to seeing the report from the Chapter's Dialogue, as well.

From a financial perspective, we appreciated the details on under and overspends, as they help us to understand how you changed your plans as you went along. You overspent on staff, fundraising, diversity, policy advocacy work, and Improved support for communities costs, while you underspent on the House of Free Knowledge, Events, and Evaluation.

2013 was a year of consolidating units and programs for WMDE, as you have deepened technical expertise as well as organizational systems. You also moved into a new office space! We have enjoyed learning about the work of your Evaluation Unit, which has given you a strong focus on outcomes and pushed an outcomes-focused approach forward in your current annual plan.

Best regards, and with thanks, KLove (WMF) (talk) 23:22, 22 July 2014 (UTC)