Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Transition/Global Conversations/Report/December 2020
 | New report from the 23-24 January Global Conversations. |
More than 200 Wikimedians joined the second set of Movement Strategy Global Conversations on December 5th and 6th. The purpose of these events was to discuss the immediate steps needed to implement initiatives prioritized by the movement (initiatives are the changes and actions proposed by each recommendation).
From September to November, more than 50 affiliates, groups, and communities discussed their top priorities for implementation in 2021. During the Global Conversations on November 21 and 22, these priorities were discussed with the aim of identifying priorities for global coordination. The results of the discussions were grouped into eight “clusters”, each containing one or more initiatives that were selected as priorities for movement-wide implementation by individuals, communities, and affiliates.
Participants
[edit]Out of 349 registrations, a total of 220 people attended the Global Conversations either on December 5th or 6th (not including the event organizers and interpreters). Live interpretation and language support was provided in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Russian and Spanish during the events. Those who participated reported a diverse range of expertise within the movement, some contributing since 2002, others for only a few months. Overall, participation numbers were similar to the earlier November Global Conversations, which were also attended by about 230 people.
Discussing the top initiatives
[edit]The main activity of the December Global Conversations was a series of discussions about implementing the highly-prioritized initiatives in the Wikimedia movement (priorities were identified earlier in the November global events and previously by communities).
The “highly-prioritized” initiatives were identified as those belonging to the top quartile (top 25%), as well as initiatives that were pointed out in Meta discussions and in a registration question to be “missing areas”. Overall, the prioritized initiatives were grouped into eight “clusters” as shown in the table below (you may click on the “summary” link to learn more about the discussion of each cluster):
Each highly-prioritized initiative or cluster of related initiatives was discussed in virtual breakout rooms over two rounds of discussions, each 30-40 minutes long. The discussions were centered around the following question: “What are the immediate steps we need to take to implement this initiative cluster?”.
| Cluster | Initiatives included | Notes | Video summary Only a part of the discussion |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 22. Movement Charter + 23. Interim Global Council + 24. Global Council | Summary | |
| B | 9. Methodology to improve the Wikimedia platform UX + 11. Resources for newcomers | Summary | |
| C | 31-33: Invest in Skills and Leadership Development | Summary | |
| D | 25. Regional & thematic hubs | Summary | |
| E | 2. Funding for underrepresented communities | Summary | |
| F | 3. Increased awareness about the Wikimedia Movement | Summary | |
| G | 8. Align with environmental sustainability initiatives | Summary | |
| H | 36-38: Identify Topics for Impact | Summary |
Lightning talks
[edit]Lightning talks are brief presentations submitted by events attendees. The objective of these lightning talks was to provide a space for participants to present ideas closely related to the initiatives, including ones that may have been missed out in previous discussions. Each lightning talk was 3-5 minutes long, presented during the final hour of the meeting. Due to time limitations, ten of the proposals were accepted for the events (check out the proposals page for the full details).
| Lightning talk | Related initiative | Speaker | Video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facing the climate crisis: becoming an environmentally sustainable Movement by 2030 | 8. Align with environmental sustainability initiatives | Gnom | |
| Development of cross-wiki tools | 14. Cross-project tool development and reuse | Amire80 | |
| Decolonising Wikimedia | 37. Bridging content gaps, and 38. Content initiatives in underrepresented communities. | Lucy Crompton-Reid (WMUK) | |
| A content adapted to new generations | 41. Continuous experimentation, technology, and partnerships for content, formats, and devices. | Yamen | |
| Improve Uploader for Alt-Texts | 2. Funding for underrepresented communities
9. Adaptable UX to various devices 10. Compatibility with Accessibility Guidelines |
KH32, Conny | |
| La Mutation Wikimédienne | 24. The Global Council, and 25. Regional & thematic hubs | Bachounda | |
| Pathway to Capacity Building | 31. Global approach for local skill development, and 33. Skill development infrastructure | MsKabintie | |
| Regional language hubs | 25: Regional & thematic hubs | Jon Harald Søby (WMNO) | |
| Introducing Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) | 12. Peer-to-peer spaces
29. Enhance communication and collaboration capacity with partners and collaborators |
Fuzheado | |
| Wikimedia for the People | 9. Methodology to improve the Wikimedia platform UX research, design, testing and community
11. Resources for newcomers 16. Code of Conduct 42. Monitoring, evaluation and learning at all levels with support and mutual accountability |
marcmiquel |
Feedback form evaluation
[edit]
Overall, 219 people (excluding event staff & interpreters) attended both events on December 5 and 6. We shared an post-event feedback survey with all of them, 93 participants filled out the form between December 5th and 14th (42%). You can find the summary of the evaluation as a pdf file on Commons.
Next steps
[edit]
The 5-6 December Global Conversations started the conversation regarding How to implement the Wikimedia movement priorities in 2021-22. Interested communities and affiliates are invited to continue the discussion around each initiative cluster in a discussion space on Meta, where they would be able to take forward the discussion of implementation as well as to express their own interest in being part of it.
The next set of Global Conversations will take place in late January and early February, 2021. These upcoming events will focus on setting up the Interim Global Council, which is expected to play an important part in the implementation of the Wikimedia Movement Strategy. Additionally, the Support Team will organize follow-up discussions for the other initiatives in January and February. The focus would be to bring interested communities, affiliates, and Wikimedia Foundation teams together to define concrete steps needed to put the priority initiatives into action. Wikimedians are encouraged to share their thoughts on the discussion spaces on wiki. Help enrich the discussions with you experience and expertise.