Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Direction/Drafts/K

Preface/Purpose

In 2001, we started with an ambitious idea: to build a free encyclopedia with the world. Fifteen years later, that work is well underway. We have much more to do, but we have the essential model and elements necessary for our success. We recognize how far we have come, the health of our movement, and the contributions of Wikimedia to the world.

Today, we aspire to our future. We aspire to a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. This lofty, aspirational vision challenges us. It calls for us to consider how far we have come, and where we must go. It challenges to consider what we must strengthen, and what we must change. It encourages us to support free knowledge on the encyclopedia, and beyond the encyclopedia; on the web, and beyond the web. It urges us to maximize the amount of free knowledge available, it urges us to engage the world, it urges us to empower people to participate in the creation, curation, and dissemination of knowledge.

Background

In January 2017, we, the constituents of the Wikimedia movement, started an ambitious discussion about our collective future. We decided to reflect on our past sixteen years together and imagine the impact we could have in the world in the next decades. We aspired to define a common strategic direction that would unite and inspire us all across our movement on our way to 2030.

We aspired to a set of common principles that would align us. We aspired to a set of shared understandings that would bind us. We intended to use these principles and understandings as the basis to strengthen our work, challenge our assumptions, experiment with the future, and set priorities around resources and allocation.

We acknowledged our volunteer community is our greatest strength, and that any successful strategic direction must accommodate the diversity of their contributions and motivations. Some of us write encyclopedia articles. Some of us develop software. Some of us donate money, others their time, others their expertise. Some of us curate data, sources, or media. Some of us organize events, advocate for copyright reform, or remix artwork. Some of us are community organizers, others wikignomes, others educators. Some of us do all of the above, and more.

What brings us together is not what we do; it’s why we’re doing it. And any successful strategic direction must celebrate and elevate this intention.

We are all part of this movement because we share a visceral, unshakable belief that free knowledge makes the world a better place. Every single human being deserves the opportunity to access to unfettered knowledge and has the capacity to participate in its creation, curation, and development. That is non-negotiable. Knowledge is how, sixteen years ago, we chose to change the world.

What we agree on

We agree that we must support all contributors and provide a platform for them to contribute safely and productively amidst healthy conflict. We agree that our movement must remain open and participatory in all its aspects. We agree that we must provide opportunities for Wikimedians in the making to contribute throughout their life, beyond editing. We agree that our technology must evolve to new platforms and new interfaces. We agree that machines can multiply, but not replace, human efforts. We agree that we must address knowledge gaps and systemic biases. We agree that an encyclopedia is the first step in the path toward all knowledge.

We also agree on some of the ways we want to pursue our goals. We agree that governance must be distributed, both geographically and functionally. We agree that our greatest impact comes from local initiatives backed by global support. We agree that movement structures must adapt to our goals, not the other way around. We agree that experiments and pilots enable us to try new approaches with minimal risk. We agree that partnering with other organizations is the only way to increase our impact with limited resources.

This consensus serves to paint a picture of a future for our movement and its place in the world.

Our future

Our vision urges us to throw wide open the doors of our movement, to invite in the world, to find ways for the full diversity of experiences and people to share. It calls for the legitimacy of all knowledge.

It is a future where our movement has become self-sustaining, global, and representative of humanity. By 2030, we will have strong, localized presences in every region in the world, and this global presence will be our greatest source of strength, resilience, and sustainability. Our local communities will advance the principles and values of our movement. They will also render them into the context of their communities, reinterpreting and reintegrating our mission and mandate for the needs of those they serve. In turn, they will inform our global discourse and priorities.

We will give particular attention to emerging communities, minorities, and cultures that have been traditionally underserved, particularly in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. This commitment to the essential value of the participation of all voices is a commitment to equitable participation and representation of the needs of all cultures and experiences. Together, we will balance self sufficiency and autonomy with intention and values we all share.

It is a future where free knowledge - and being a Wikimedian - is a lifelong opportunity. By 2030, our movement will recognize and create space for diverse forms of participation and inclusion. People will have the ability to participate in our movement at every phase of their lives, as students, professionals, and retirees; as young and old. This participation will be more than a contribution to the online encyclopedia: to be a member of the Wikimedia movement is to believe in the importance of participating in free knowledge in every aspect of our lives. We will celebrate this, embrace this, and find ways to extend our identity as an aspirational commitment throughout the world.

It is a future where our movement has become indispensable to the infrastructure for advancing free knowledge and education. By 2030, we will build a global infrastructure for free, open and verifiable knowledge. Our movement will be the leading advocate and partner for increasing the creation, curation, verification, distribution, and participation in free and open knowledge. We will embrace the cause of increasing its quality, depth, and breadth, and diversity, in all forms. 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.

It is a future where free knowledge has expanded beyond the encyclopedia, beyond the website, beyond the connected world. Wikipedia will be a part of us, but we will understand our first priority as free knowledge. We will integrate, represent, curate, create, and render free knowledge across a variety of interfaces, media, and experiences. We will integrate and embrace technologies that enable greater insight, accuracy, integrity, and scale. We will adapt to the needs of the audiences we serve, and discard our outdated and exclusionary shibboleths. We will center around participatory quality free knowledge creation and dissemination, regardless of form or structure.