Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Direction/Appendix

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Introduction

In 2001, we started with a simple, ambitious idea: to build a truly free, global encyclopedia. None of us could have predicted how vast and useful it would become today. Wikipedia started as an experiment enabled by what the internet was becoming at the time. We didn’t set out to make the print encyclopedia obsolete—it was simply the natural progression of marrying knowledge sharing with this new network of inputs and outputs.

But the world is changing, rapidly. The old internet is no longer how most people share information, and we need to adapt to where knowledge sharing is going. Wikimedia will only thrive if it meets the real needs of its contributors and readers. The role of the drafting committee[1] is simply to share its perspective on the opportunities it sees for Wikimedia to evolve in a changing world. How it can become more useful. More trustworthy. More engaging and dynamic. And more accessible by anyone, whoever they are, wherever they are, whatever they’re curious about.

Today, we envision a world in which every human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. This vision challenges us to consider what we must strengthen in the Wikimedia movement, and what we need to change. It urges us to engage with the world, to continue to add to our vast network of knowledge, and to empower people to participate in its creation, curation, and dissemination.

Background and process

In January 2017, we began to consider our collective future. Our global community was asked to imagine the impact we could have in the world in the next decades. Our aim has been to define a common strategic direction that would unite and inspire people across our movement on our way to 2030. We intend to use this direction as the basis to strengthen our work, challenge our assumptions, experiment with the future, build clear plans, and set priorities around resources and allocation.

The process has been exhaustive, delightful, messy and fascinating. More than 80 Wikimedia groups and communities from across our movement have held strategy discussions in the past seven months. Strategy conversations at Wikimedia Conference in Berlin in March 2017 included 350 people from 70 countries, representatives of around 90 affiliates, organizations, committees and other groups.

We also complemented our own discussions with perspectives from those outside of our existing communities. Conversations with more than 250 experts have taken place in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and Latin America. Research on readers across the globe has provided a clearer look into new ways people are accessing information. We reviewed secondary research on issues that will affect our mission on our way to 2030, such as the future of the global population, technology, misinformation, and more. Together, these findings are helping us identify global trends and some key opportunities for our movement in this changing world.

It didn’t take long for us to see that our greatest strength is our volunteer community. Any successful strategic direction must accommodate the diversity of the people in our communities, including their particular interests, motivations, and contributions. Some of us write encyclopedia articles. Some of us develop software. Some of us donate money, time, or expertise. Some curate data, sources, or media. Some organize events, advocate for copyright reform, or remix artwork. Some are community organizers, educators, or researchers. Some are just very curious people. And some are wikignomes. Some of us do all of the above, and more.

What brings us together is not what we do; it’s why we do it. And any successful strategic direction must celebrate this intention, and elevate it to draw even more people into our movement who care about the same thing.

We are all part of this movement because we share a belief that free knowledge makes the world a better place. Every human being deserves access to information, and has innate capacity to participate in its creation, curation, and sharing. That is non-negotiable. Sharing knowledge is how, in 2001, we started to make our mark in the world. We are a part of the biggest collaborative open information sharing experiment in human history. Let’s see how far we can take it.

Where we stand today

The sum of all knowledge

Why create free, reliable knowledge?

Our collective adventure started as an experiment: to create a drafting space where anyone could contribute information for inclusion in a free encyclopedia reviewed by experts. Wikipedia soon became much more than its origin story, and today it is considered by many as a hub for information whose role is to preserve knowledge. Wikimedia communities now stand for ideals of freedom of information and social progress fueled by free knowledge for everyone.^{[citation needed]} As such, Wikimedia's evolution reminds of that of the World Wide Web of which it has become emblematic:^{[citation needed]} originally an internal information system proposed to "allow a pool of information to develop which could grow and evolve", it is now described by its inventor as "one that empowers all of us to achieve our dignity, rights and potential as humans." shorten / rewrite / clean up

Our success in creating and sharing free knowledge has placed our communities and platform in the spotlight, and with great power there must also come great responsibility. It is with our collective impact in mind that we strive for quality, neutrality, and verifiability as we build out the sum of all knowledge.^{[citation needed]} expand / rewrite / clean up

Communities of knowledge

The original premise of Wikimedia is that knowledge is built by communities. Good-faith collaboration is the best way we know to create and curate accurate, reliable, and neutral knowledge.^{[citation needed]} The high standards held by Wikimedia communities is what drives us to constantly improve the quality of our content. Our commitment to reliability is what drives us to seek reliable sources.^{[citation needed]} Our ideal of objectivity is what drives us to write from a neutral point of view. It is our responsibility, and what we have accomplished in our first 16 years of existence is a testament to the success of this approach.^{[citation needed]}

It is an uncommon model, though, and one that leads readers to question the reliability of what we create, particularly in a world where misinformation has become more prevalent In order for our content to be trusted, readers need to better understand how it is produced, and by whom.^{[citation needed]} Accountability becomes especially relevant as trust in established, "reputable" institutions is eroding,^{[citation needed]} leading people to share knowledge through social media and entrust their friends instead. The knowledge that we create cannot be separated from the communities creating it.

This relationship between knowledge and communities is also where our limits are now showing. Our current communities are not representative of the human population,^{[citation needed]} which has created gaps of knowledge^{[citation needed]} and systemic biases.^{[citation needed]} If we aim to truly offer "the sum of all knowledge", then we, as communities, must actively seek those whose voices are missing.^{[citation needed]} We must invite them to share in their knowledge and points of views to complement ours.^{[citation needed]}

The lack of diversity in our communities has led to a narrow definition of knowledge^{[citation needed]}, primarily based on European and Northern American concepts.^{[citation needed]} Creating the sum of all knowledge mandates that we expand our definitions and accept new forms of knowledge from other geographies.

Fortunately, Wikimedia communities aren't alone in this endeavor. We are part of a larger community of individuals and organizations dedicated to free knowledge,^{[citation needed]} including memory institutions. With them, we can join forces and achieve more in integrating, developing, and verifying content, if we can align our efforts.

Infrastructure for reliable knowledge

The freedom afforded by the wiki platform has served us well in the past 16 years. Wikimedia communities have been able to go from nothing to millions of pages and media files,^{[citation needed]} in hundreds of languages.^{[citation needed]} Our technical infrastructure has evolved and adapted to the needs of Wikimedia communities, to an extent.^{[citation needed]}

Still, most of the content we have created is in the form of long-text encyclopedia articles and still images.^{[citation needed]} Focusing on text leaves out whole swaths of the sum of all knowledge. Many readers now expect multimedia formats that have become more accessible through technological advances. To be true to our vision, we must adapt our platform to support types of knowledge that better represent the diversity of languages and human creativity.^{[citation needed]}

As we adapt our platform to support new forms of knowledge (in collaboration with partners), we have an opportunity to reinforce our position as the champion of free, reliable, neutral information. Many organizations have expressed interest in using our infrastructure and platform to organize their own knowledge,[like Creative Commons]^{[citation needed]} thereby advancing the digital commons. Similarly, our commitment to facts and verifiability is leading us to build out an infrastructure to organize citations that could become a driving force for information quality not just on Wikimedia projects, but across the world.

Participation: Freely sharing in

Why radically open participation?

In progress

Collaboration and the wiki spirit Openness, inclusion and diversity "Inclusivity, diversity, and representation are crucial across ideological, gender, and ethnic divides". Distributed governance, equity Also going back to the "revolutionary ideas" produced by the early web community: decentralization, non-discrimination, bottom-up design ("encouraging maximum participation and experimentation"), universality ("[breaking down] down silos while still allowing diversity to flourish"), and consensus ("giving everyone a say [...] through a transparent, participatory process").

Communities of participants

Good faith collaboration is core to the Wikimedia culture, to the extent that it is sometimes considered more fascinating than the knowledge we have created through it. Opening up participation to anyone is such a radical model that we joke that in can only work in practice, not in theory. And yet, it does: expand on achievements^{[citation needed]}

Joining and participating in Wikimedia communities can be challenging, though. The low barrier of entry from our early years has now become insurmountable for many newcomers. Our success has generated an overwhelming amount of maintenance and monitoring,^{[citation needed]} and we have addressed them with tools and practices that have turned good-faith community members away.^{[citation needed]} We agree that a healthy environment is a necessary condition for everything we do. Therefore, we must make changes to provide a welcoming space for new members of our communities, and a culture of safety, productive dissent^{[citation needed]}, and respectful discourse for everyone,^{[citation needed]} whether new or experienced.^{[citation needed]} We need a stronger sense of shared identity among contributors and across communities, one built on trust, emotion, and human connection.

Some communities, cultures, and minorities have suffered from this exclusion more than others.^{[citation needed]} Our lack of diversity doesn't just bias our content: it also biases who we welcome, who we reach out to, and how we treat each other.^{[citation needed]} Sometimes we have little agency, but in many cases we can take action towards more diversity and inclusion.^{[citation needed]} In order to increase human representation in our communities, we need to direct resources where they are needed most, while protecting each other from those trying to abuse our trust.

Nurturing close-knit, supportive, diverse communities is an endeavor that we don't have to undertake alone. We can partner with other organizations to ensure unhindered participation, to include hard-to-get knowledge, and to support underserved communities,^{[citation needed]} notably through academia and education programs.

Infrastructure for participation

expand on current strengths: online, offline (active network of affiliates and partners)

We can't solve all social problems with technology,^{[citation needed]} but there are ways we can lower some of those barriers, both online and offline. We can support online communities by developing better tools for participation, collaboration, and mentoring.^{[citation needed]} We can take advantage of technological progress, like translation tools, automation, and artificial intelligence, to lower the maintenance burden and free up the time of communities, within reason.

We can also support offline communities by further developing local opportunities for participation through a decentralized approach.^{[citation needed]} In both cases, there ought to be a low barrier to participation in developing the infrastructure itself, through experiments and pilots.^{[citation needed]} There also ought to be many different ways to participate^{[citation needed]} beyond editing content online, across generational, ideological, gender, and ethnic divides.

Reach: Every single human being

In progress

Why reach every single human being? "formal education system" Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) Freedom Threats to information, copyright reform, censorship "Wikimedia should be an influencer in shaping world policy for access to knowledge.". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) "We need to be prepared for the risk of major  societal and political changes  in the future.". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) Communities to reach Our vision mandates us to reach "every single human being". Few other organizations have an audience of 7.5 billion people.[citation needed] Communities Wikimedia is reaching And yet, despite our overwhelming success, there are many communities that Wikimedia is not yet reaching "Access, awareness, and affordability". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) Local relevance Changing behaviors in terms of information access and use "Youth will drive these changes". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) Partners for reach: unhindered access, policy, advocacy Infrastructure for reach Interfaces, APIs, and experiences "Future information technology could radically change how knowledge is created, processed and shared.". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) mobile devices "all knowledge needs to be consumable". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) "Technology can act as a tool in the experience of exploring knowledge". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) platform for learning, not simply a repository of knowledge user experience "Teacher training is vital to changing the educational system". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) "Partnerships should be forged with media companies". Cycle 2 synthesis report (draft) more dynamic and interactive formats of knowledge, beyond text, Access & accessibility Beyond the website and the connected world

Where the world is going (In progress; needs to be summarized)

NOTE: CITATIONS ARE STILL BEING ADDED

REACH: Every single human being

Pattern 1: In the next 15 years, the greatest population growth is expected in regions (e.g. Africa, Oceania) where Wikimedia currently has the lowest reach. To serve every human, the movement must pay greater attention to how it serves these regions.

The global population is expected to reach 8.4 billion by 2030, a 15% jump from 2015. The rate of growth of low-income regions will far outpace that of high/middle-income regions over this period, with a projected 35% increase.

Africa will have the highest projected growth rate (40% from 2015-30) followed by Oceania (20%), whereas the Americas and Asia will have moderate growth (13% and 11%, respectively), and Europe is expected to plateau then decrease. Currently, however, Africa and Oceania only comprise 2.1% and 1.9% of total Wikimedia traffic, respectively.

Pattern 2: In many low-reach regions, trends indicate that people will have better technology infrastructure, more digital access, and improved skills (e.g. literacy) to benefit from Wikimedia’s offerings.

And although Africa and Asia are the least urbanized regions in 2015, they are expected to experience the fastest rates of urbanization. Urban-dwelling populations tend to have access to greater infrastructure and services, including IT, which would decrease the barriers to internet access and use.

In general, the number of global internet users are growing, with the fastest growth in the Middle East and North Africa and Asia Pacific. The percentage of the global population who are internet users will rise from 44% to 58% from 2016 to 2021. Not only will more people be connected, it will also be easier to access the internet. Devices and connections per capita, average speeds, and average traffic per capita per month are all expected to rise globally.

Global trends in education also suggest that levels of education and literacy are increasing, so investments in lower-awareness regions (which correlate to lower educational attainment and literacy rates at present) will likely have greater impact. The proportion of adults globally (i.e., between the ages of 15 and 64) that possesses no education is diminishing. (Europe and the Americas will remain highly educated. SSA expects a 10% decrease in the percentage of the population with no education, from 26% in 2015 to 16% by 2030. MENA and AsiaPac also expect reductions of 5% and 8%, respectively.) The proportion of the global population that is literate will increase from 83% to 90% between 2015 and 2030. Africa scores the highest improvement, from 62% to 80%.

Pattern 3: The dominant languages of the future are, for the most part, not those where Wikimedia currently leads in content volume or size of community. See the following comparison:

Most Widely Spoken Languages, Projected by 2050	Article Rank by Language, 2017	Contributor Rank by Language, 2017
1. Mandarin Chinese	15	8
2. Spanish	9	3
3. English	1	1
4. Hindi	53	42
5. Arabic	19	16

This means that if Wikimedia is truly to reach every single human being, and to provide information that can help them improve their lives, it will need to invest more in developing content and nurturing communities in the languages that are growing in use.

Pattern 4: In many regions (especially where Wikimedia awareness is lower), people greatly desire and value content that speak to their local realities, but struggle to find it both online and offline.  To support the development of this content, the movement needs to refine or expand its definitions of knowledge.

Lack of local relevant content is a major challenge in Africa. With over 2,000 languages, first-time internet users with limited digital literacy skills are forced to consume information in the major colonial languages. There is a general lack of exposure and access to indigenous content. There is also an infrastructure deficit (e.g. internet access) that hinders people from creating and accessing the content.

Globally, a key barrier to the adoption of mobile internet is a lack of local content. “In trying to connect the unconnected to the internet, content has for many years been the forgotten ingredient, with efforts prioritised in expanding coverage and lowering the cost of ownership. These are, of course, fundamental, but so too is the question: is the internet relevant for me?”

There is a lack of online news and quality content in local languages. Research in low-awareness regions showed that many people in these countries use translation tools to make the most of their online experience. People are looking for local-language content on local events, movements, and perspectives and see a gap in the availability of this content on the internet.

To improve the relevance of Wikipedia content for people everyone, in their own languages, experts believe that the movement needs to expand its definition of knowledge. This expanded definition should include cultural sources of knowledge outside the west to reduce bias in developing the world’s encyclopedia. Currently, there is a gap between Wikimedia’s verifiability policies and cultural preservations systems in historically marginalized communities. The movement needs to evolve how it defines and enforces standards of notability, significance, and verifiability, to ensure that Wikimedia goes beyond current, Western-dominated models of knowledge definition and preservation.

Pattern 5: Behaviors, preferences, and expectations for content are changing. People increasingly want content that is real-time and visual, and that supports social sharing and conversation.

Young people are reshaping how we use technology—they expect content that is more real-time, visual, and social. Technology experts suggest that enabling people to access Wikipedia content on third-party platforms (e.g. the Google knowledge panel( or curating channels by content area on widely-used instant messaging apps (e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Instagram) will allow the content to have greater reach and therefore impact.

The rise of messaging-based networks has profoundly impacted how people gather, share, and determine the value of information in their daily lives. The rapid growth of messaging apps has blurred the line between online and offline information-seeking and -consumption. Today, WhatsApp has 1.2 billion active monthly users that send 42 billion messages a day. Beyond the hard numbers, its growth has been unprecedented. Gmail took 11 years to grow its userbase to the same scale, and Facebook took 8 years to get to its current 800 million active monthly users.

Moving forward, successful information sources will be integrated with these channels (rather than getting people to come to them), providing people with content when and where they need it.

Participation: Can freely share in

Pattern 6: Movements are built on emotion and human connection. Trust is crucial to creating community.

(In progress)

Pattern 7: Many new to the movement feel that the current barriers to entry are too high. The perceived culture of exclusivity and lack of support for newcomers is demotivating.

(In progress)

Pattern 8: Current norms around contribution are geared towards a narrow set of functions (e.g. editing dominates). People with varied backgrounds and skills wish to add value in diverse ways, and the movement would benefit by supporting them in doing so.

In some regions, cultural norms are not conducive to participating in the movement simply through content creation.

Further, people have diverse motivations for participating in a movement; as such, the movement should offer diverse incentives and ways to engage. This will allow the movement to benefit from the full range of human interests, perspectives, capabilities, and skills to advance its mission.

People are drawn to the idea of telling the stories of their cultures and communities. There are ways to do this that go beyond editing.

Pattern 9: Technology may be able to assist in many of the functions editors currently do. Automation (especially related to machine learning and translation) is rapidly changing how content is being produced. This opens up opportunities for current community members to find other ways to contribute.

(In progress)

Pattern 10: Wikimedia has the opportunity to build a community passionate about not just producing knowledge, but about helping people learn. by working with diverse partners and niche content experts, curators, and ambassadors.

Wikimedia should consider attracting and investing in allies and community members that focus not on just generating content (which is the focus of the community today), but on getting it out to people in the forums and channels in which they learn. This may be programs to support digital influencers in using Wikimedia content and integrating it into their work. It may be ambassadors in schools that empower students to teach their peers about how to access and appropriately use Wikipedia for school assignments. Cultivating allies and champions within the education sector—and particularly in institutions of higher education—can have outsize pay-offs, given the negative impact of skepticism generated within this sector.

Collaboration with local content providers will also greatly enhance quality of content in emerging markets.

Knowledge: The sum of all knowledge

Pattern 11: Mistrust of Wikipedia is a learned perception. It stems from a lack of clarity about what the product(s) are and how their content is developed.

Most people have no idea about the processes Wikimedia puts in place to increase the quality of content on its platforms. Those affiliated with institutions of higher education tend to be more skeptical of Wikipedia, stating that professors would not accept Wikipedia as a source. Having an authority figure saying definitively that a source should not be trusted obviously impacts perceptions.

Wikipedia’s open contribution model is poorly understood, and therefore viewed as a weakness. Although many people know Wikipedia is an editable platform, they do not think of the actual content as adaptable and expandable. People spoke about the content of Wikipedia as if it was static. The platform is seen as a final rather than an ever changing resource. When they see mistakes on Wikipedia, they judge it harshly, noting that it is a sign of Wikipedia’s lack of professionalism.

[Pull in other materials from New Readers & AAU, and refine content above.]

Pattern 12: There is a widespread loss of faith in the trustworthiness of information sources, particular news media and online platforms. But people only need a baseline level of trust in a particular information source to use its content.

Many factors have contributed to a loss of faith in the trustworthiness of news sources. These include: historical patterns of state control of media, concentrated ownership of modern media systems, the prevalence of sensational and untrue content on the internet, growing popularity of the term fake news, and other factors.

More and more people increasingly view online information to be biased, and adapt how they seek, validate, and use information accordingly. Young people in particular tend to assume bias in news sources (online or offline) and online information sources in general—the degree to which they are comfortable with bias depends on the extent to which the bias serves their interests. When bias aligns with their worldview, it’s recognized but unquestioned. When the bias may not align with their worldview, they seek to discuss it within their networks. Recognizing that news information can’t be trusted, they tend to scan the headlines—taking in many shallow data points—then fill in details of stories through peer conversations with people they trust, as means of passively finding “truth.”

Pattern 13: People are decreasingly going to websites, and finding information via social media, infomediaries, or other channels. They increasingly look to trusted individuals, not institutions for information and learning.

People are increasingly interested in getting information from the right people, rather than the right organizations. This has led to the sense that you should follow the right people—for those less digitally literate, via messaging groups; for those more digitally literate, in the form of specialist social media accounts—to get the information that you need. Information on websites is increasingly becoming a supplemental source of information—not to learn, but to verify or deepen knowledge.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly rare, especially among younger and more digitally savvy users, to browse the internet or go to specific websites. When people—especially those younger and/or more digitally connected—do initiate searches for information, it is typically either i) to verify or learn more about something they have learned about from their peers, typically through messaging apps, or ii) to learn about something that is directly and immediately relevant to their personal needs. To learn new topics, people are increasingly looking to content curators or presenters—whether via niche blogs or YouTube channels—to help them learn.

For these knowledge creators or curators, Wikimedia can empower their development of content. Through features that enable greater modularity and portability of its content, Wikimedia can enable individuals and organizations to develop custom content packages for diverse use-cases.

Online, trust is often a badge bestowed by the crowd—in the form of high volumes of likes or followers—on individual experts or influencers for a particular content area, who may not be associated with institutions. Experts, however, warn of the limits of individual content curators.

Wikimedia has an opportunity to pioneer a hybrid model that marries the best of individual curation with the brand trust of an institution. It can explore partnerships with local content creators as a way to increase local language content and improve quality, trustworthiness, and comprehensiveness.

Pattern 14: Underperforming education systems worldwide have led people to seek alternative ways to learn. As a result, many innovative information and learning platforms have emerged; they all still need a base of quality content.

In many parts of the world, underperforming education systems mean people are seeking new ways to learn. In the last 20 years, the rapid democratization of both knowledge and content creation and publishing has led to a mushrooming of learning platforms previously unprecedented in scale or depth.

Users, for their part, are enthusiastically learning in diverse ways, from how-to videos on YouTube to homework-help communities such as Brainly.com. In this environment, Wikipedia has the potential to be a primary source of learning, by providing relevant, trusted, and customizable content to other content providers.

Experts also believe that integration with major web properties will be increasingly important. This will help increase the reach, and therefore the impact, of Wikimedia’s content.

Pattern 15: Emerging technologies are revolutionizing how platforms are defined and used. The most impactful technologies will be those that make the shift from technical infrastructure to ecosystem-enabling platforms.

History shows us that even the most innovative technologies need to evolve. After decades of digital disruption, we are learning that often older communications technologies do not vanish. Instead they linger and sometimes become more targeted to adjust to shifting consumer habits. These habits differ by generation. Hybrid platforms are adapting to gradually shifting information behaviors by combining analog and digital technologies.

Emerging technologies are revolutionizing the concepts of how platforms are defined and used. The shift from technical infrastructure to ecosystem-enabling platforms is laying the foundations for entirely new business models that are forming the bridge between humans and technology. Within these dynamic ecosystems, organizations must proactively understand and redefine their strategy to create platform-based business models, and to exploit internal and external algorithms in order to generate value.

Pattern 16: Information-seeking is increasingly task-driven and search-led. Wikipedia should consider stronger collaborations with search engines and other content platforms.

Information-seeking is becoming increasingly task- and search-led, and less discovery- and browsing-oriented. When internet users want to find information online, they think of Google first: on average, about 9 times more often than Wikipedia (64% mentioned Google and 8% mentioned Wikipedia first).

This means that on Wikipedia, people often find the articles ill-suited for their specific needs: “too long” and “too hard to find / learn what I need” were common challenges cited by respondents. For articles, people tend to scan the article quickly until they arrive at the exact content they are looking for.

To address this in the near-term, Wikimedia can improve its usability by helping people navigate its content, find exactly what they need, and present content in easy-to-understand language. But in the long-term, the  movement should consider stronger collaborations with search engines such as Google and visual content creators/providers such as YouTube.

Pattern 17: Evolving the Wikipedia product to be more useful and accessible to ‘knowledge brokers’ such as teachers, journalists and civil society will dramatically increase the reach and influence of Wikimedia content.

Wikimedia should consider attracting and investing in allies and community members that focus not on just generating content (which is the focus of the community today), but on getting it out to people in the forums and channels in which they learn. This may be programs to support digital influencers in using Wikimedia content and integrating it into their work. It may be ambassadors in schools that empower students to teach their peers about how to access and appropriately use Wikipedia for school assignments. Cultivating allies and champions within the education sector—and particularly in institutions of higher education—can have outsize pay-offs, given the negative impact of skepticism generated within this sector.

Pattern 18: Technological innovations (e.g. AI, machine translation, structured data) can help curate and deliver relevant, personalized, reliable content.

Experts recommend that Wikimedia use technology to better meet users’ needs. Machine translation, AI and structured data are some ways to curate and deliver relevant, reliable and local relevant content. Research also showed improvements in AI could drive the rise of real-time, personalized education, information and entertainment services, including machine-generated music, news and storytelling.

Visual forms of augmented reality (AR)—which superimposes computer-generated images on users’ view of the world through devices such as mobile phones, tablets, eyewear or projections—have already proven to be popular. Both the viral sensation of Pokemon Go and the runaway popularity of Snapchat filters that allow users to virtually don various props and masks have served as proofs-of-concept that AR has the potential for widespread popularity. These technologies could also transform education, vocational training, healthcare, real estate, retail, military, and other realms. AR applications and devices could help support Wikimedia’s mission—serving up relevant definitions and location information when users point their phones at an object or landmark.

Pattern 19: Developing and harnessing technology in socially equitable and constructive ways—and preventing unintended negative consequences—requires thoughtful leadership and technical vigilance.

New approaches and models are required to ensure equitable access to information, and to realize the full potential of free and open knowledge. In pursuing these approaches and models, it's important to keep in mind potential negative consequences of technological innovations, such as:

• Embedded bias: As AI continues to shape news and knowledge, algorithms might encode deeply held prejudices.
• Loss of a shared public space: The continued fragmentation of media platforms and content could further deepen polarization and drive people ever more deeply into only consuming information that matches their own preferences.
• Overload: As new forms of media continue to colonize every available moment of our days—as well as the spaces where we live, work and play—people might become less able to critically process new information and more prone to avoid it.
• Digital divide: The gap between information haves and have-nots may further widen as fiber to the home and 5G wireless become more commonplace in developed markets, and corporations prioritize associated content.
• The loss of the open web: New devices for VR, AR and personal assistants may accelerate the creation of paid and proprietary content and platforms, and shift users away from an expectation of content creation and back into the role of passive consumers.
• Digital frailty: Archivists, educators and historians may find it more and more difficult to maintain and access these many different types of knowledge and content.

As Wikimedia continues to leverage technological innovations, it should consider how it might address these challenges through policy, programs, product, and partnerships. It may also consider how expand / complete

Our Role in the Changing Landscape

The world is changing and so, too, must Wikimedia. But beyond our products and programs, what should our role be in the world of 2030?

Many believe that Wikimedia should take a leadership role in the open ecosystem. Experts want Wikimedia to play a leadership role in the open ecosystem — and there is a particular need for a shared platform for the open knowledge community.[5]They believe we can be a better partner in building a digital knowledge base for cultural institutions (GLAMs) and work with other institutions invested in the future of information (media, academia, reference fields).[24]  In doing so, Wikimedia can provide the source knowledge that powers other institutions and platforms for information and learning.

Experts see the potential of Wikimedia to become a platform for underserved audiences to access, create and preserve knowledge.[23][5][24][15] Some go as far as to argue for a stronger political approach, noting that ["Neutrality and silence is actually taking a political position"[23].

Many believe that Wikimedia should be a platform for learning, not just knowledge. Other apps are fundamentally changing the way we learn; tools like Google take much of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to search results. In order to maximize the potential of Wikipedia, more must be done to curate an accessible learning “journey”[4] and to help users meet their learning needs, in all the ways that they currently learn. This may require partnerships with other learning platforms or initiatives, or increasing the modularity and portability of its content.

Drafting materials

Table to organize concepts

Table to organize concepts in this section (may not be in the final document, or may be in a different form)

Goals / Impact → ↓ Unique value propositions	Knowledge: The sum of all knowledge	Participation: Freely sharing in	Reach: By every single human being
Motivations (Why)	Why create free, reliable knowledge? The original promise of the internet Quality, verifiability, neutrality	Why radically open participation? Collaboration and the wiki spirit Openness, inclusion and diversity Distributed governance, equity	Why reach every single human being? Freedom Threats to information, copyright reform, censorship
Communities (Who)	Communities of knowledge Micro-SWOT: Knowledge is built by communities The makeup of Wikimedia communities and its influence on knowledge: Representation, knowledge gaps, systemic biases Narrow definition of knowledge Personal and timely relevance; discovery Partners for integrating, developing, verifying content	Communities of participants Micro-SWOT: Congenial collaboration is core to who we are The need for vibrant, close-knit, supported communities Micro-communities (e.g. wikiprojects) Communities of contributors (roles) Community challenges that are preventing more people from contributing: Hedgehog syndrome; isolationism Toxicity, harassment, safety Partners for unhindered participation, hard-to-get knowledge, underserved communities	Communities to reach Micro-SWOT: An audience of 7.5 billion people Communities Wikimedia is reaching Communities Wikimedia is not yet reaching: Awareness Changing behaviors in terms of information access and use Local relevance Partners for reach: unhindered access, policy, advocacy
Infrastructure (How)	Infrastructure for reliable knowledge Micro-SWOT: Technological platform & innovation Knowledge formats, multimedia Beyond the encyclopedia Becoming the essential infrastructure for free knowledge, verifiable information, and learning Language support	Infrastructure for participation Micro-SWOT: Local opportunities and presence everywhere; paths to participation (beyond editing) Decentralization Infrastructure and tools for participation (UX, AI) Low barrier to participation in infrastructure; experiments and pilots	Infrastructure for reach Micro-SWOT: Interfaces, APIs, and experiences Access & accessibility Beyond the website and the connected world

How members of the strategy team understand pieces of the strategic direction

Framing 1

Framing 1

Community Health / Participation / Share In By 2030, the Wikimedia projects will be welcoming, inclusive, and offer diverse opportunities for volunteer participation. Welcoming: Participatory, non-toxic Wikimedia culture will be enjoyable, rewarding, and inclusive for all. We will welcome new volunteers to our movement with enabling and conducive environments for participation. We will develop products, interfaces, and services that support positive experiences. We will emphasize healthy and respectful interactions, great user experiences, and support for sustained engagement. As a result, our movement will grow both in size and in nature, as our projects flourish under our collective care. Robust: diverse possibilities for participation: Our movement will recognize and create opportunities for people to contribute in different, meaningful ways. Community will be more broadly defined to recognize all forms of contribution, from editors to donors to advocacy. This participation will be more than a contribution to the online projects - we want people everywhere to feel as though they have a role to play in advancing open and accessible knowledge. We will develop a model of engagement that recognizes these forms of contribution as interrelated and of independent value. Inclusive: welcoming of all. We will welcome participants to our community from a wide variety of backgrounds, including language, geography, socio-economic status, gender identity, religion, age, and more. We will celebrate and embrace this diversity of participation. People from every background will feel welcome, with the opportunity to contribute as individuals or as part of a network of groups and organizations. Global Movement / Reach / Every Single Human By 2030, our global presence will be our greatest source of strength, relevance, and sustainability. Global: present wherever there are people. We will extend the Wikimedia presence globally. We will continue to serve our existing communities, while balancing support for underserved regions and communities. We will commit to the equitable participation and representation of the needs of communities from all regions and experiences in movement and project governance. We will design programmatic and product approaches according to local contexts in order to engage new communities and readers, and continuously evaluate our approaches. Relevant: adaptable to local needs. Our local communities will advance the principles and values of our movement. We will encourage local organizational development and leadership. We will embrace the translation - in linguistic, cultural, programmatic, product, and other means - into the context of individual communities, reinterpreting and reintegrating our mission and mandate for the needs of those they serve.  In turn, they will inform our global discourse, priorities, and programming. We will not lose sight of our overarching values or global mission. Sustainable: Distributed, independent. We will encourage the distribution and development of movement organizing globally. We will recognizing the strength of distributed and diverse local presences as powerful tools for adaptation and innovation, and as counters to undue influence on our projects neutrality. We will embrace local partnership and sustainable resourcing opportunities, and allocate global resources in transparent, equitable ways that support participation of all voices.. We will balance self sufficiency and autonomy with intention and values we all share. Platform / Knowledge / Sum of All Knowledge By 2030, we will realize the potential of Wikimedia, serving as the essential infrastructure for advancing free knowledge. More than Wikipedia: It will be a part of us, but we will understand our first priority as free knowledge. We will adapt to the needs of the audiences we serve. We will embrace the cause of increasing its quality, depth, breadth, and diversity, in all forms. Integrity of information: We will integrate and embrace technologies that enable greater insight, accuracy, integrity, and scale. Infrastructure for open:. We will center around participatory quality free knowledge creation and dissemination, regardless of form or structure. We will be the leading advocate and partner for increasing the creation, curation, dissemination, distribution, and participation in free and open knowledge. We will empower individuals and institutions to participate and share, through open standards, platforms, and datasets, by hosting, brokering, sharing, and exchanging free knowledge across institutions and communities. We will support institutions and individuals on the journey to openness and collaboration. Adaptable and diffuse: We will integrate, represent, curate, create, and render free knowledge across a variety of interfaces, media, and experiences. We will adapt to the needs of the audiences we serve. View-independent Something about model-view-controller paradigm, structure to succeed the post-open web era.

Framing 2

Primary goal as framed by Phills. The substance is mostly the same as in version 1, but structured differently and in a somewhat simpler language. The more abstract, strategic goal is presented first, followed by more practical subgoals that provide some more details without prescribing their implementation.

Framing 2

Our goal for 2030: Establishing Wikimedia as humanity's main platform for creating and accessing reliable knowledge Our common goal, by 2030, is to make Wikimedia the primary platform through which human communities freely create and access reliable knowledge relevant to them. We aim to become the hub where all communities freely share their histories and experiences in a transparent and trustworthy manner. In a world where some try to limit, control, or manipulate information, we seek to be a beacon of facts, openness, and good faith. We will provide an equitable access to representative knowledge; in doing so, we will contribute to human progress and to a better understanding of the world and of ourselves. By 2030, we won't yet reach "the sum of all knowledge", but we will make it possible and desirable for anyone to join us in this effort. simplify the language We will accomplish this vision of 2030 by focusing on the strengths that have brought us this far: communities, and infrastructures. Knowledge by communities, for communities The knowledge that we create is only as complete, accurate, and unbiased as our communities of editors can make it. We will identify the gaps and biases in the knowledge we create, and we will welcome the people who can help us see beyond our worldviews. We will look at the gaps and biases in our communities, and we will welcome those whose voices are missing or not heard. Our collective objective is a Wikimedia community that represents the diversity of humanity across language, geography, income, education, gender identity, religion, age, and more. For our knowledge to grow and stay relevant, we need strong communities where contributors support each other. We need communities that people want to join and where they want to stay. Therefore, we will develop a culture where those who want to join in good faith are welcomed in their first steps. We will develop a culture where supporting others is rewarded and, when we disagree, we stay committed to solving problems together. We will ensure that each one of us has communities they can relate to and count on, notably by having local groups in all regions. Many different skills are needed to run a project as large and ambitious as ours. We need communities of editors, and we need communities playing many other roles as well. In a community based on volunteer participation, anyone who gives their time in service of the project is valued. As a consequence, we will recognize and appreciate different ways to participate beyond online editing, whether it is through donation, training, social work, education, administration, or other contributions. We will build bridges across Wikimedia communities and beyond, with friends and partners who share our goals. Many communities face barriers preventing them from becoming users and contributors. They may not know about us, or they may not trust the open process we use to create knowledge. Therefore, we will remove social barriers wherever we can, and we will increase people's understanding of how our communities create reliable, high-quality knowledge. In all our efforts, we will make sure to distribute our collective resources equitably, so that those who need the most receive the most. We will give priority to communities who face barriers in accessing our platform and sharing their knowledge. Infrastructures for knowledge and communities We will develop the tools and processes that communities need to create reliable knowledge. We will adapt our platforms to the many forms of knowledge created by humans beyond the encyclopedia, hoping that they can reach the success of Wikipedia. We will ensure that our platforms support all languages equally. We will create the infrastructure for different types of citations, to improve the reliability of knowledge within and beyond our platforms. We will develop our platforms to lower the burden of maintenance on communities, and encourage positive communication. Our goal requires us to stay relevant in a world where technology and user needs change rapidly. We will therefore make our platforms and knowledge more flexible, so that they can be accessed through many devices, media, and interfaces. We will break down the technical barriers preventing communities from accessing and contributing to our vision. In the offline world too, we will need to adapt to a changing environment. We will develop an infrastructure of strong local communities everywhere. We will model the original principles of our communities in how we make decisions together. We will find strength in the number of our friends, partners, and communities around the world. We will encourage local initiative and experiments adapted to local situations. We will learn from our collective successes and failures. In all our efforts, whether online or offline, we will make sure that infrastructures are developed in partnership with communities.

Framing 3

Framing 3

By 2030, Wikimedia will become a universal foundation for free, participatory knowledge. An encyclopedia, and so much more: In its 16 years of existence, Wikipedia has become one of the world’s most loved and used sources of knowledge. As we adapt our platforms to many other forms of free knowledge, we will aim for them to reach the success of Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. We will adapt our communities and technology to the needs of the people we serve. We will embrace the effort of increasing the quality, depth, breadth, and diversity of free knowledge, in all forms. Reliable, relevant information: We will continue our commitment to providing useful information that it is reliable, accurate, and relevant to users. We will integrate technologies that support accuracy at scale and enable greater insight into how knowledge is produced and shared. We will adapt to our changing world to offer knowledge in the most relevant ways, across digital formats, devices, and experiences. We will develop structured ways to organize knowledge and flexible ways to present it, so that it can be improved, accessed, and embedded more easily. Infrastructure for open: We will empower individuals and institutions to participate and share, through open standards, platforms, and datasets. We will host, broker, share, and exchange free knowledge across institutions and communities. We will be a leading advocate and partner for increasing the creation, curation, and dissemination in free and open knowledge. We will support institutions and individuals on the journey to openness and collaboration. By 2030, the Wikimedia communities will be supportive, inclusive, and offer diverse opportunities for participation. Supportive: For our knowledge to grow and stay relevant, we need to support the people who make Wikimedia possible. We will create a participatory culture that is enjoyable, rewarding, and supportive of anyone who wants to contribute in good faith. We will practice and encourage respectful collaboration and healthy debate. We will develop services that support positive experiences and lower the burden of maintenance so that people can focus on enjoyable and creative work. Different forms of participation: Many different skills are needed to advance a vision as aspirational as ours. In a movement based on volunteer participation, anyone who gives their time in service of our vision is part of our community. Our movement will recognize and create opportunities for people to contribute in different, meaningful ways. Community will be more broadly defined to include many forms of contributors, from editors to donors to organizers. We want people everywhere to feel as though they have a role to play in advancing free and open knowledge. Inclusive: To represent the sum of all knowledge, we need to reflect the diversity of our world. We will welcome and include people into our movement from a wide variety of backgrounds, across language, geography, income, education, gender identity, religion, age, and more. We will celebrate and embrace our differences to avoid knowledge gaps and bias. We will have equitable opportunities for leadership and representation in movement governances. People from every background will be able to find a home in our movement feel welcome and at home, with the opportunity to contribute as individuals or as part of a network of groups and organizations. By 2030, our movement will be stronger by being distributed around the world and adapted to local contexts. Everywhere: We will work to ensure free knowledge is available wherever there are people. We will extend the Wikimedia presence globally by supporting both existing communities and communities in underserved regions of the world, such as Asia, Africa, and South America. We will adapt to different needs and situations in order to meet the needs of users and communities. We will break down the social and technical barriers preventing people from accessing and contributing to our shared knowledge. We will design programs and products to match local contexts in order to engage new communities and readers, while continuously (re)evaluating our approaches. Locally relevant: As a movement that serves the entire world, local action and representation advance our mission and increase our relevance. Our communities are the local ambassadors of the principles and values we have in common. We will better understand local context and meet people’s needs. through our communities. We will embrace local partnerships and sustainable resourcing opportunities, and allocate global resources in transparent, equitable ways that support participation of all voices. We will share our local experiences and learn from each other to inform our global activities. Sustainable: By strengthening our movement locally, we gain global sustainability. We will recognize the strength of distributed and diverse local presences as powerful tools for adaptation and innovation, and as counters to influence on our neutrality. We will embrace local partnerships and sustainable resourcing opportunities, and allocate global resources in transparent, equitable ways that support participation of all voices. We will balance self sufficiency and autonomy with intention and values we all share.

Previous documents

The following documents are very early drafts written very quickly based on individual understandings of what has emerged in community discussions and research. As such, they are subject to all sorts of cognitive biases. They contain very few references and their content is likely to change as more sources are reviewed and integrated; imagine that every sentence is followed by a {{citation needed}} tag. They also heavily borrow from each other.

• Draft /Drafts/A
• Draft /Drafts/G1, /Drafts/G2
• Draft /Drafts/K1, /Drafts/K2, /Drafts/K3
• Outline /Drafts/T1

See also

• /Sources