Developing an Evolving Technology Vision and Strategy

Q 1 What is your Recommendation?

Build a role and a function in WMF board that has a product and technology background Have a governance structure that is tasked with overseeing Technology vision and strategy for the movement.

Q 2-1 What assumptions are you making about the future context that led you to make this Recommendation?

The software stack that is used to power our operations has evolved organically, now we must have a clear understanding how to stay current and have a future looking around technical requirements and product needs, allowing our technology to be an asset instead of a liability. In addition, if we continue neglecting our technology vision, it will end up in having a hard to maintain stack, and be late to deliver needed changes and features. We will also be unable to harness new and evolving technical opportunities to improve our products. The lack of product and technology strategic capacity and direction from the board and down will affect the ability to execute transitions and technological changes. The current governance structures tend to react to changes, versus leading them, or guiding the strategic directions needed, we are hoping that the suggested body will change that tendency.

Q 2-2 What is your thinking and logic behind this recommendation?

Currently the Wikimedia movement does not have a long-term strategy to evolve our technology for it to remain modern and relevant. The movement technology is dependent on libraries, programming languages and other components that are maintained by other communities and organizations. This provides great efficiencies, but also risks and missing strategic opportunities as the vision and future of those pieces can change. Technology that was relevant in 2001 is not necessarily relevant today and is even less likely to be relevant in 2030. It is important to develop a capacity of product and technology background within the WMF Board of Directors and within the movement as a whole to be able to anticipate these changes and provide a vision of where the architecture of the technology is going to guide this work. Without a clear vision the goal of decentralizing would be difficult or impossible to do effectively.

Q 3-1 What will change because of the Recommendation?

By developing capacity for architectural strategy vision within the movement it will be possible to better assess risks and react accordingly in addition to recognizing opportunities while better planning resources to make needed changes.

Q 3-2 Who specifically will be influenced by this recommendation?

The WMF will be influenced by this to develop strategic capacities within its board of directors. Affiliates and developers will have a more clear technical vision to align with through the development of strategic technical capacities. Technical contributors in the movement may be tapped to help contribute on an on-going basis to the vision.

Q 4-1 Could this Recommendation have a negative impact/change?

If the right balance between ensuring the sustainability of our technology stack and developing new features is not balanced there could be a negative impact of not being able to respond to new user needs effectively.

Q 4-2 What could be done to mitigate this risk?

Appropriately resourcing technology improvements and architecture development.

Q 5 How does this Recommendation relate to the current structural reality?

Currently the WMF is positioned to execute on this vision but is not resourced appropriately for it to happen. The current composition of the board does not require technical expertise in specific backgrounds, so that should change, as the largest segment of the foundation is product and technology workforce.

Q 6-1 Does this Recommendation connect or depend on another of your Recommendations? If yes, how?

How this recommendation would be executed would be dependent on what is decentralized and over what timeframe, thus it is dependent on Evaluate and Decentralize Technology Components.

The technology vision and strategy must be grounded in movement values and have wide acceptance within the movement; thus, this recommendation is supported by the Movement Technology Ethics Advisory Panel and Open Product Proposal Process (or rather an expanded version or replica of that process).

Q 7 How is this Recommendation connected to other WGs?

The recommendation is to build longer-term technology planning capacity within the WMF and its board; as such, it is within the scope of Capacity Building as well.

This recommendation may be influenced by Resource Allocation’s recommendations, because to act on this it would require adequate resources. Roles and Responsibilities also could influence the execution.

The Partnerships recommendation “Partnership framework for harnessing modern technological developments” would probably be hard to implement without having a more coherent long-term tech strategy.

v t e Movement Strategy Working Group recommendations (September 2019) Now merged into the final 10 recommendations
Advocacy	1. Transparency 2. Diversity 3. Global conversation 4. Knowledge management 5. Advocacy Hub 6. Common positioning 7. Partnerships 8. Empowerment of advocates 9. Self-Determination 10. Protection of Advocates
Capacity Building	1. Building Capacity for Capacity Building 2. Matching human assets and online knowledge resources with capacity building needs 3. Capacity Building Should Occur in Context 4. Provide Capacity Building for Organizational Development 5. Resources for Capacity Building 6. Evaluating Capacity Building 7. Online Training 8. Mentoring and leadership development 9. Recognizing Individuals 10. Independently governed Capacity Building ‘Unit’
Community Health	1. A joint set of rules we all agree to live by (a.k.a. Code of Conduct) 2. Redefining power structures to better serve the communities 3. Building the leadership of the future 4. Structure for handling conflicts- before, during and after 5. Investing in building an inclusive global community 6. Newcomers are a key indicator to the success of the movement 7. “Democratizing” participation (making Wikipedia/Wikimedia everyone’s responsibility) and reducing barriers for participation 8. Privacy and security for everyone 9. Opening the circle: All terrain readiness 10. Network to continually support community health 11. Aligning resource allocation with community health goals 12. Investing in equity-centered technologies
Diversity	1. Introducing people-centered principles within the Wikimedia movement 2. Reaching a self-aware and dynamic structure aimed at community diversity and health 3. Redesigning the platforms for more diversity of people and content experiences 4. Planned community diversification 5. Reflective policies for participation and governance 6. Establishing partnerships in order to represent and protect worlds’ cultural diversity 7. Decentralized administrative structure for resource allocation 8. Bridging different local contexts and Wikimedia projects' notability and verifiability policies
Partnerships	1. Provide the knowledge needed for understanding and solving global issues 2. Wikimedia as steward of the Free Knowledge Ecosystem 3. Shared ecosystem of services and tools for content partnerships 4. Data partnerships approach to fulfill the vision of knowledge as a service for our partners 5. Focus on knowledge equity when determining priorities for Partnerships 6. Partnerships as part of a Distributed Vision 7. Partnerships as a shared and equitable resource and activity 8. Prioritise documentation 9. Invest in sharing knowledge about partnerships across the movement 10. Support the skills development of people working on partnerships 11. Invest in the leadership potential of community members 12. Establish recognition principles for new partners for attribution and content donation 13. Additional research for areas where we have identified issues but haven’t made recommendations
Product & Technology	1. Evaluate and Decentralize Technology Components 2. Support Community Decision-making 3. Open Product Proposal Process 4. Deployment Council 5. Disseminate Product Knowledge 6A. Improve Technical Contributor Engagement 6B. Modernize Technical Contributor Tooling 7. Realize the Potential of the Third-Party Ecosystem 8. Movement Technology Ethics Review Process 9. Monitoring Product Trust and Availability 10. Developing an Evolving Technology Vision and Strategy
Resource Allocation	A. Set Common Framework of Principles for Resource Allocation B. Design participatory decision making for Resource Allocation C. Recognize privileges / Design for equity D. Distribute existing structures E. Build Thematic hubs – to provide services to the free knowledge movement long term F. Ensure flexible approach to resource allocation in a complex, fast moving and changeable space G. Allocate resources for capacity and sustainability H. Allocate resources to new types of partners/organisations (essential infrastructure of the free knowledge ecosystem) I. Include knowledge consumers
Revenue Streams	1. Turn the Wikimedia API into a revenue source 2. Provide Paid Wiki-related Services 3. Monetize merchandise 4. Expand global fundraising 5. Develop non-fundraising revenue streams for affiliates 6. Set a goal of financial sustainability for all movement actors 7. Diversification of revenue channels
Roles & Responsibilities	0. Scenario 1. All of this exists to support our primary purpose: free knowledge and its distribution (Original) 2&3. Decentralisation and self-management 4&5. Establish a Movement Charter 6. Wikimedia movement organisations will be governed by inclusive, diverse, and accountable boards 7. Capacity building