Talk:Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka/Archive 1

Stronger team

We need a strong (and experienced) team to get this group properly functioning. If you know anyone, please do introduce this page to them. Rehman 14:30, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Question: Can Wikiversity be included under "Wikimedia Projects"? I'm currently working on Sri Lankan History down there. --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 00:13, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Also... I can't attend any meetups... since I don't live in Colombo, or Sri Lanka itself (but my nationality is Sri Lanka). --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 00:28, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Yes, Wikiversity is a Wikimedia project. Also, there is no such requirement where members must attend meetings. :) I will add these points to the main page so others would not be confused as well. Thanks for bringing this up. Cheers, Rehman 01:16, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Great to know Rehman, thank you! --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:16, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

You're most welcome :) Rehman 15:23, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Can you add Wikiversity onto the graph please? I don't have much experience with "tables" so I might mess up hehe :p --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 22:46, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

It's not possible, as far as I know... I looked everywhere for codes for other projects, but was only able to find for Wikipedias... :( Rehman 00:24, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

It's fine! thanks! --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:33, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Stick a note

I think you have to stick a note in Sinhalese and Tamil Wikipedia's Village pump's notice board regarding this usergroup. --AntanO 09:04, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

We really should! Sadly though, I don't speak both of those languages... so I can't really do that. --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 12:14, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

You could do in English since most of them they are good in English and they do get messages in English. Here are the links: Miscellaneous and Notices --AntanO 13:54, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi AntanO, thanks for the links! I went ahead and posted a note to both pages in English. Regards, Rehman 22:15, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

 Like--AntanO 01:53, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Working committee for each language community

Hello. Anyone interested in filling any of the roles (i.e. President, etc) of each language community? The positions sounds like a big deal, but it's really not. We need friendly volunteers who can lead their respective language groups in future projects/events, and also to assist with translations if necessary. This will make things easier for each language groups while enabling a wider communication reach. Some slots (secretary, treasurer, etc) are not really required currently, but will be needed once we decide to hold offline activities. But you are still welcomed to volunteer!

Since volunteers in these positions will need to guide their communities, please consider volunteering only if you have sufficient experience in the Wikimedia projects. I don't really have a definition of "sufficient", but I'd say maybe above 1000 edits, clean block history, good understanding of copyright, good experience in writing articles, and most importantly a very friendly and welcoming personality :) Please reply here, or email me, if you have any questions. Best regards, Rehman 09:34, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Pinging currently signed-up editors: User:Azeez, User:Atcovi, User:Blackknight12, User:Dan_arndt, User:L Manju, User:மதனாஹரன், User:Shriheeran, User:Shrikarsan, User:Maathavan, User:சஞ்சீவி சிவகுமார், User:Sivakosaran, User:LionsRule125, User:පසිඳු කාවින්ද, User:UMDP, User:Sandaru. Please also do let your friends know! :-) You may also be interested in the section below. Yours, Rehman 11:56, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

OK :) Pasindu ^{( Talk / @ )} 04:39, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for volunteering, Pasindu. :) Rehman 04:48, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

First project

Hello again. While we decide on the working committee, since we now have a good number of local editors, do you have any suggestions on what should be our first project(s)? I think we should start with online projects/events first, and then move to offline once we get to know each other better. :) For a start, I know we need a lot of hands in updating the coodinates of Sri Lankan landmarks on Wikidata, and also to get pictures of various subjects around the country on Commons. But does anyone have any other suggestions?

Any projects within the scope of the three official languages are welcome. Please also feel free to start your own project in your language community... You can start by pinging/discussing with your language community members by simply creating a subpage to coordinate participants and tasks. And as always, feel free to post questions here, or email me. Best regards, Rehman 09:37, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Definitely need some improvements on WV's (English) Sri Lankan projects: wv:History of Sri Lanka. As of now in the US, school has started, so I won't be online to do a lot of Sri Lanka-related projects. But, what I'm planning on doing for the WV's page is to organize a list of prime ministers/presidents, and then biographies of the prime ministers/presidents from various sources. That's the plan, but I'm not quite sure when I will be able to act upon that plan... possibly when the breaks/holidays come? Thanks, and help on these projects are appreciated. --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:13, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Photo equipment for Usergroup Sri Lanka

Hello everyone. Please see Rapid Grant request Grants:Project/Rapid/UG LK/Photo equipment for obtaining photo equipment to be used by this usergroup. Please do endorse it if you feel it helps improve our content. Thank you, Rehman 15:26, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Supported. Dan arndt (talk) 04:18, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

Pinging currently signed-up editors: User:Azeez, User:Atcovi, User:Blackknight12, User:L Manju, User:மதனாஹரன், User:Shriheeran, User:Shrikarsan, User:Maathavan, User:சஞ்சீவி சிவகுமார், User:Sivakosaran, User:LionsRule125, User:පසිඳු කාවින්ද, User:UMDP, User:Sandaru. Your endorsement on the grant page is required to get it off the ground :-) Rehman 14:59, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Tremendous proposal, surely would accommodate a cause of bringing Sri Lanka awareness. --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 23:31, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi again. So we finally got the stuff sorted last week! Appreciate if you could help pass on the message to the Sinhala and Tamil communities. I have already posted on the WikiProject page on the English Wikipedia. Ping: User:Azeez, User:Atcovi, User:Blackknight12, User:L Manju, User:மதனாஹரன், User:Shriheeran, User:Shrikarsan, User:Maathavan, User:சஞ்சீவி சிவகுமார், User:Sivakosaran, User:LionsRule125, User:පසිඳු කාවින්ද, User:UMDP, User:Sandaru. More details about the eqipment can be found here. The grants team recommended that some level of threshold be placed in order to ensure that access to the equipments is only to safe hands. Please do review and let me know what you think. Best regards, Rehman 15:04, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia Asian Month

Is any consideration being given to participation in Wikipedia Asian Month? Dan arndt (talk) 04:18, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

For some, this would be easy... but for others like me, it wouldn't. I don't contribute to any Wikipedia as of right now. --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 13:38, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

GlobalVoices summit

Posting here, for those of you who are not subscribed to Wikimedia-LK.

Hi everyone! The Global Voices team has decided to hold their 2017 conference in Colombo, on December 2nd and 3rd. As per the email from one of the organizers, it would be great if we could have a group of representatives from our Usergroup to participate in the conference.

So far, one person has expressed interest from our group. I'm hoping we could have at least 3... I won't be able to make it, as it is a busy time for me. If you are interested, please private-email me your full name and mobile number. I will then collate and pass on the info to Eddie from the GlobalVoices team.

What we present there is up to the participants... We could talk about how the Sinhala/Tamil/English Wikimedia communities from Sri Lanka are working on selected projects, and their outcomes. Ideas are open.

If you have any comments or clarifications, feel free to reply below or post on the mailing list. Best regards! Rehman 12:55, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi all. Gentle reminder that this is still open. Rehman 15:56, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Grants:Project/Rapid/UG LK/Global Voices Conference 2017

Hi. Please see the above grant request, for obtaining funds to obtain usergroup banners and other merchandise to encourage participation. Please considering endorsing it, if you support the request. Thanks, Rehman 15:47, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Direction/Endorsement

Hello! I will be endorsing the direction on behalf of our usergroup by the weekend. Please let me know if you have any concerns :) Rehman 08:00, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Balance project funds

Hello everyone. Following the GV2017 project, we have LKR 22,000 of balance funds. If you have any projects in mind, please feel free to suggest a new project on the projects subpage, or start a discussion below. Best wishes, Rehman 02:34, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello again. As I have not received any suggestions, and as we have to urgently provide a plan to the grants team, I will suggest utilising the balance funds to obtain updated quality photographs of power stations and dams in Sri Lanka (as those are topics I am quite familiar with). I will also do my best to cover other topics enroute. If you have any suggestions, please let me know here. I will also open a new project section, so that photo requests can be accepted. Cheers, Rehman 15:04, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Inviting you to participate in the women editing contest "The women you have never met"

Dear Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka!

Hope this message finds you all well :) On behalf of Iberocoop network I want to invite you to be part of the women editing contest we are organizing along with many other chapters and user groups in the movement. You are doing an excellent work on your local context and we will be so pleased to have you on board. In this very early stage, we are asking the organizations to add their interest in the following meta page Hope to see you there soon! Hugs----Anna Torres (WMAR) --Anna Torres (WMAR) (talk) 15:31, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

Multi-language support

Hey everyone. I'm happy to let you know that I have added support for 3 languages for all pages in the usergroup. I've did my best in adding translations for the menus (via machine translation), hence there is still a lot more translations to do (to Sinhala and Tamil). Please do help if you can :-) Btw, today (17th) marks two years since the usergroup was officially recognised! Best regards, Rehman 02:51, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Share your feedback in this global Wikimedia survey

Dear Wikimedia Affiliates,
My name is María Cruz and I work for the Wikimedia Foundation on the Learning and Evaluation team. In one week or so, the Foundation is starting a global survey to learn about the experiences and feedback of Wikimedians. I am writing here, because I wanted to share with you a bit more about the project.
The survey is called "Wikimedia Communities and Contributors" and is conducted annually. We will send the survey to editors across all the Wikimedia projects, as well as Wikimedia affiliates and volunteer developers. This survey is going to be our way of making sure that we can hear feedback from a significant number of users from across the projects. This research supports editors and Wikipedia’s mission. This is our second annual CE Insights survey, and we look forward to improving it every year.
We will be contacting 2 people from each affiliate, based on the primary contact information that we have. Each affiliate will receive an additional third link which they can distribute to any leader in their chapter or user group.
Go to the project page to see the results of last year’s survey, and to see how your feedback helps the Wikimedia Foundation support communities. You can sign up to be notified about the results of the survey, or to learn how you can help with planning the survey next year.
If you have any questions or concerns about this project, please feel free to send them to Edward Galvez's talk page on Meta-Wiki or email him directly at surveyswikimedia · org in any language. You can learn more about this project and read about frequently asked questions. You can also share your feedback on Meta-Wiki.

Thank you for your time supporting this project!
María Cruz

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:42, 19 March 2018 (UTC)

Inauguration Program of Wiki Club in Sri Lanka

Dear All you will be happy to know that Sri Jayewardenepura University Srilanka are going to open a Wiki Club on 9 May 2018 and they have arranged a small inauguration Program in their campus . From the beginning i am coordinating this WEP, as they are going to Contribute in Wikimedia Movement its a very pleasure for us. I have already informed Rehman about this Program. If any other Wikimedian from UG LK joined the inauguration Program it will be great. i will Update the Full Program Schedule here. You can also sort out some info from Sri Jayewardenepura University Wiki Club. Thanks. Mohammed Galib Hasan (talk) 06:29, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Galib. Please also do post on the mailing list for a wider reach. If anyone has a way of joining this, please do. I am sure it will help and encourage the community. My RL schedules are insane these days, so I cannot guarantee my attendance unfortunately. :-( Rehman 14:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Rehman you mean to post in education mailing list? or UG LK has another mailing list? Thanks Mohammed Galib Hasan (talk) 07:24, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Rehman Ok got it, i just sent the mail to mailing list. Thanks. Mohammed Galib Hasan (talk) 07:31, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Great! Thank you :-) Rehman 07:38, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Hello again. I was able to secure a short leave from my workplace today, hence I will attend the program :-) I also have some extra Wikipedia accessories with me (stickers and usergroup tshirts); I'll be getting them so that the organisers can probably hand them out for free for some future competitions/etc. Cheers, Rehman 03:04, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

Possible spambots from AOL domain emails

Hello. A large number of email addresses from @aol.com recently subscribed to our mailing list (they all have set only first names - American names). To protect privacy, I've removed them and changed some technical mailing list rules. If you believe they are legitimate requests, let me know, and I shall do the needful. Cheers! Rehman 06:09, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Help us make Wikipedia talk pages more accessible to more participants

Hello!

Our team at the Wikimedia Foundation is working on a project to improve the ease-of-use and productivity of wiki talk pages. As an affiliate, I can imagine you’ve run into challenges explaining talk pages to first-time participants, or it is an consultation that would interest your members.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis – to ask questions, to resolve differences, to organize projects and to make decisions. Communication is essential for the depth and quality of our content, and the health of our communities.

We're currently leading a global consultation on how to improve talk pages, and we're looking for groups that can discuss and report on their experiences using (or helping other people to use) wiki talk pages. We'd like to invite you to participate, with the user groups that you belong to. You can learn more about the consultation at Mediawiki.org and if you're interested in hosting a group discussion (on-wiki or off-wiki), you can sign up at the participant sign-up group.

If you’d like to participate or if you have any questions, please contact us and let us know. The more people participate from many horizons, the better the outcome will be.

Thank you! Trizek (WMF) 15:29, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Call for complementary facilitators and more to get the ASBS 2019 process started!

Hi everyone, hope all is fine with you!

The next weeks will be intense, as affiliates figure out their participation in the process that will soon select 2 people for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Since new Bylaws established that the user groups are for the first time going to be involved in such process, a lot more support than before is certainly going to be necessary, among other things, for big and healthy conversations on the topic. Hence, please encourage members of your group to become a complementary facilitator, or sign up yourself! You can add yourself to the list on Meta or reply to me to flag availability. One person from the facilitators group should soon be selected to liaise with the Foundation Board’s Chair, María Sefidari, on behalf of all affiliates, and it may be wise to also find a deputy for them.

Finally, if you can think of any huge obstacles that would prevent your group from participating to the process (for instance, a language barrier, or lack of good decision-making mechanisms, etc.), please reach out to me directly: it is really important that we hear about them as early as possible. Thank you! Elitre (WMF) 15:23, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Update on the Affiliate-selected Board seats 2019 process

Hi all,

The Election Facilitators met on Friday, April 5. We finalized the resolution, which is now frozen. The Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation will be asked to approve the resolution.

We have made two small changes to be more inclusive. We extended the date for compliance with AffCom reporting and being in good standing to May 7 to allow time for as many Affiliates as possible to be current with these requirements. The Election Facilitators adjusted the language in case a quorum is not met during the election.

On the talk page of the resolution one issue was raised. The issue looks like to be about a possible candidate. Affiliates will have ample time to discuss the merits of candidates during nomination time, screening time, and they can cast their votes on candidates. The Election Facilitators didn't see the necessity for this change, and left the resolution on this point unchanged.

The Election Facilitators will be Abhinav Srivastava, Lane Rasberry, Jeffrey Keefer, Ad Huikeshoven, Neal McBurnett and Alessandro Marchetti. We will welcome more volunteers to assist us in this process, to reach out to the diversity in language and gender in our communities, and do so in an advisory role.

The nomination period opens on April 15. We are going to prepare nomination pages on Meta. You can expect a call for nominations. There is a draft call, including a candidates' profile section with non-binding guidelines about experience and characteristics for nominees. You are welcome to add your insights, or discuss on the talk page.

Erica Litrenta (WMF staff) supports us in this process. She will reach out to all affiliates through mail and other channels to make sure we are up to date with (user)name and contact details of your primary contact.

On behalf of the Election Facilitators, Ad Huikeshoven 10:52, 6 April 2019 (UTC)

Update about the Affiliate-selected Board seats process 2019

Hello everyone!

• The Resolution has been approved by the Board of Trustees;
• Nominations phase is now open, from April 15 00:00 UTC to April 30 23:59 UTC. See the Call for Candidates and Nominations pages;
  • Community members may ask questions of the candidates;
• Your main representative has just received an email to confirm that they are indeed the primary contact and will perform official actions on behalf of your group (such as endorsing candidates and then voting). Some groups also need to verify their eligibility status in due time, as explained in the email;
• New content is available to spread awareness around the process - the infographic on this page has clickable links and can be translated, and a primer is available, that we hope will be particularly helpful to those new to such a process;
• Finally, you are welcome to help with translations! Pick one page from the ASBS category and, in the next couple of weeks, please consider translating profiles of the candidates in particular.

Thanks for your attention! The Facilitators for ASBS 2019, 07:33, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

Hello members of UG-LK. As per the above message, I intend to continue with the default selection of being the representing voter from our usergroup. If anyone wish to take this role, please let me know asap so that I can make the necessary adjustments. Thank you! Rehman 10:54, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

Call for volunteers - Wiki Loves Earth 2019

Hello members! In May and June, the international photo competition Wiki Loves Earth will take place once again. As we now seems to have a healthy number of active online members from all 3 language groups, I am optimistic we could finally enroll Sri Lanka this time! :-) In a nutshell, WLE is a global contest to encourage volunteers from all over the world to upload high quality freely licensed photographs to Commons, so that the quality images could be reused by Wikimedia projects (and others) to improve articles and other content.

If you would like to volunteer for this international event, please express your interest or ask questions on this project page. If you have any questions or clarifications before volunteering, please feel free to ask here, or via a private email to me. Warm wishes, and looking forward our first WLE Sri Lanka! Rehman 06:42, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Affiliate-selected Board seats 2019 process: your representative

Hello. The name of the only person who will vote on behalf of this group to select the next two Board members is now at m:Affiliate-selected Board seats/2019/Eligible entities. Please contact me directly as soon as possible if you need any kind of corrections there. There's only a few hours left to endorse candidates, and only the official voter can do that. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that you can make a difference with the necessary translations.

Appreciate your attention and your support so far! Thank you! Elitre (WMF) and Facilitators of ASBS 2019, 12:15, 29 April 2019 (UTC)

Affiliate-selected Board seats/2019/Nominations

Hello. Following the call for endorsements, I would like to state here that I am considering to vote for Nataliia Tymkiv (User:Antanana) on behalf of our usergroup, for the following reasons:

• They have an extensive on-wiki experience of more that 90,000 global edits, since 2009. On-wiki experience is something that I feel is essential in official roles. As more people are hired without this exposure, I feel it creates an invisible barrier between online contributors and offline staff.
• In addition to online skills and experiences, they also have impressive offline resume, including experience in the Movement Strategy process, anti-harassment, policies and bylaws, and other areas. They also have experience in other offline areas such as Wiki Loves Earth.
• Looking at their talkpage, they seems to be adequately level-headed, friendly, and welcoming to new users.
• And finally, based on my occasional run-ins with them at various events, I feel Nataliia is more of a listener/observer, and will be diligent and patient in the decisions they make in their official capacity.

The vote will be made on May 8. If anyone would like to voice any thoughts, feel free to respond below. Best wishes, Rehman 11:34, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Call for volunteers - Jury of Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Sri Lanka

Hello volunteers!

As we're reaching the half-way mark for WLE, it is time to prepare the jury for judging the finalists.

Commons:Category:Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Sri Lanka has 1,942 files at the moment, hence assuming the same pace continues, we would probably have a maximum of 4,000 submissions at the end of the contest period.

Jury members will have to judge the best photos based on relevance, quality, creativity, uniqueness, and other factors such as effort, lighting, and so on. Judging will be done in more than one round, by at least 5 jury members.

The first round would be to eliminate all out of scope submissions, and photos that stand no chance of passing - tilted, blurred, etc. We expect about half of the submissions to be eliminated in the first round. This round would probably be done by User:Rehman, User:Azeez, and anyone else interested.

Further rounds, probably another 1 or 2, depending on volume, would be in-depth scrutiny. And this is where we need more volunteers. We have some non-Wikimedians who have expressed interest in volunteering, but of course, preference is always to experienced Wikimedians. If you wish to volunteer, please list your name here. For those of you who helped translate, please also add your name there for records :)

Photos will be judged using an online tool (Montage or WLX, to be announced), thus it would be fairly easy - unlike sorting photos manually offline. Jury members does not have to be Sri Lankans, does not have to be in Sri Lanka, and does not have to be members of UG-LK. Although, they would have to privately share their address, if they wish to received some merchandise. Preference will be given to experienced users. You are also allowed to judge with the help of your friends or family, so long as you make the final comments/votes.

Jury members will get a WLE certificate, official Wikipedia tshirts, Wikipedia pens, Wikipedia water bottles, Wikipedia pins, Wikipedia notebooks, and more.

Looking forward to hearing from you! Rehman 05:06, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

5 days for WLE judging period to begin! Pinging users with recent edits in their home wikis: User:Atcovi, User:Blackknight12, User:Dan arndt, User:L Manju, User:Shriheeran, User:Sancheevis, User:UMDP, User:Price Zero, User:Randeepa, User:Abishe, User:Yasasuru, User:Kanags, User:NaminiGunasena, User:Anish Mariathasan, User:Carptrash, User:Gihan Jayaweera, User:NandanaM. We still have slots available in the WLE Jury! For anyone concerned, this is not a full time commitment, but simply to judge the uploaded photos for the given period and volume. There are also cool Wikimedia merchandise for all volunteers!

Thanks to User:Azeez, User:Sivakosaran, User:Sandaru, for signing up so far!

P.s. If you haven't already done so, please do subscribe to the Wikimedia-LK mailing list to stay up-to-date with community discussions. Thank you! Rehman 13:35, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Introducing Wikimedia Space: A platform for movement news and organizations

Hi Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka/Archive 1,
I’m writing to let you know that the Community Engagement department at the Wikimedia Foundation is launching a new platform, Wikimedia Space. Here, you will find stories for and by contributors to the Wikimedia movement, and a space for discussions of different topics.

We know that finding information about Wikimedia activities and processes is very complicated, which makes the learning curve to enter our movement and be successful afterwards, really steep. By centralizing community stories and conversations in one shared space, we believe we are facilitating access and discoverability of topics across the movement, improving, in turn, connections among Wikimedians.

As an affiliated organization to the Wikimedia Foundation, we hope that you can share this platform with your local community, and we count on you to encourage them to add their voices. If you’d like to contribute stories, and overall, participate in the discussion section, please read our blogging guidelines and our code of conduct and join the conversation. Find more information about the project on its page on Meta.

Looking forward to seeing you at Wikimedia Space,
María Cruz, Communications and Outreach Manager, Wikimedia Foundation.
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:53, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

References

Opportunity to collaborate with Wikimedia Foundation Education Team

Greetings!

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to draw your attention to an opportunity for affiliates to collaborate on an exciting project with the Education Team at the Wikimedia Foundation.

The project is called "Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom," and aims to support teachers to use Wikipedia as a tool for teaching information literacy. We are looking for 3 affiliates to work together with us on this project. We will provide funding for a local coordinator, as well as provide on-site capacity development for affiliate staff and volunteers.

We have created a page on outreach where you can find more information about this project, including a video recording of the information session we held earlier this week. You can also find FAQ, that will hopefully answer any further questions you have.

Any affiliate able and willing to partner with us on this project should complete this application form by October 20th, 2019. We will select the 3 partners by October 31st, 2019, with work to begin in November on the information gathering stage.

If you have any further questions, do let me know. -- SPatnaik (WMF) (talk) 15:08, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

Introducing Wikimedia Diary: A memory book (notebook) for all

		Wikimedia Diary
		Hello Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka/Archive 1, I wanna share you about Wikimedia Diary, a public memory book (notebook) in which Wikimedians from all over the world are free to write any worth noting event/activities/experiences by them or community in this Wiki world. It is a more casual place to write about what one is up to. As we all know, a diary is a book in which diarist keeps a daily record of events and experiences. Likewise, the basic idea of Wikimedia Diary is that we do many activities here in wiki world which we are proud of, but unfortunately it became only the history anytime. So, It is meant to record those activities on the happened date with a signature (~~~~) which is worth noting, and letting fellow Wikimedians know about what inspirational you've did. It would motivate users from all around the world to keep on cool activities and publish a note. I hope you share your activities with all of us on the page, and please let your friends know about Wikimedia Diary. Also, your feedback is welcome on the discussion page. Thank you! Kind regards, Tulsi Bhagat, Initiator of Wikimedia Diary, Wikimedia movement communications group. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:09, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

Wikimedia 2030: Movement Strategy Community conversations are here!

Dear Affiliate Representatives and community members,

The launch of our final round of community conversation is finally here! We are excited to have the opportunity to invite you to take part. 
The recommendations have been published! Please take time over the next five weeks to review and help us understand how your organization and community would be impacted.

What Does This Mean?

The core recommendations document has now been published on Meta in Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish. This is the result of more than a year of dedicated work by our working groups, and we are pleased to share the evolution of their work for your final consideration. 
In addition to the recommendations text, you can read through key documents such as Principles, Process, and the Writer’s Reflections, which lend important context to this work and highlight the ways that the recommendations are conceptually interlinked.
We also have a brief Narrative of Change [5] which offers a summary introduction to the recommendations material. 

How Is My Input Reflected In This Work?

Community input played an important role in the drafting of these recommendations. The core recommendations document reflects this and cites community input throughout in footnotes. I also encourage you to take a look at our community input summaries. These texts show a further analysis of how all of the ideas you shared last year through online conversations, affiliate meetings, and strategy salons connect to recommendations. Many of the community notes and reports not footnoted in the core recommendations document are referenced here as evidence of the incredible convergence of ideas that have brought us this far.  

What Happens Now?

Affiliates, online communities, and other stakeholders have the next five weeks to discuss and share feedback on these recommendations. In particular, we’re hoping to better understand how you think they would impact our movement - what benefits and opportunities do you foresee for your affiliate, and why? What challenges or barriers would they pose for you? Your input at this stage is vital, and we’d like to warmly invite you to participate in this final discussion period.

We encourage volunteer discussion co-ordinators for facilitating these discussions in your local language community on-wiki, on social media, informal or formal meet ups, on-hangouts, IRC or the village pump of your project. Please collect a report from these channels or conversations and connect with me directly so that I can be sure your input is collected and used. Alternatively, you can also post the feedback on the meta talk pages of the respective recommendations.

After this five week period, the Core Team will publish a summary report of input from across affiliates, online communities, and other stakeholders for public review before the recommendations are finalized. You can view our updated timeline here as well as an updated FAQ section that addresses topics like the goal of this current period, the various components of the draft recommendations, and what’s next in more detail. 
Thank you again for taking the time to join us in community conversations, and we look forward to receiving your input. (Please help us by translating this message into your local language). Happy reading! RSharma (WMF) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:31, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Call for volunteers - Wiki Loves Earth 2020

Hello everyone. It's that time of the year again!

In May and June, the international photo competition Wiki Loves Earth will take place once again. In a nutshell, WLE is a global contest to encourage volunteers from all over the world to upload high quality freely licensed photographs to Commons, so that the quality images could be reused by Wikimedia projects (and others) to improve articles and other content.

If you would like to volunteer for this international event, please express your interest or ask questions on this project page. If you have any questions or clarifications before volunteering, please feel free to ask here, or via a private email to me. I will also send an email on our mailing list shortly. Warm wishes, Rehman 07:48, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

Hello User:Dan arndt and User:NandanaM. I noticed two IPs adding your names here. I've reverted those for now, as I'm unsure if it was really you. If it was, please do sign-in and add your names again :) Thank you! Rehman 12:48, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi User:Rehman thanks for letting us know. I have added my name with login. NandanaM (talk) 12:57, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

• My bad, thanks for the heads up. Dan arndt (talk) 13:02, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Invitation to participate in Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos

Dear Wikimedia Affiliate Community,

We are inviting you to participate in Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP), a new global contest scheduled to run from July through August 2020:

Participants will choose among Wikipedia pages without photo images, then add a suitable file from among the many thousands of photos in the Wikimedia Commons, especially those uploaded from thematic contests (Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Folklore, etc.) over the years.

WPWP offers a focused task for guiding new editors through the steps of adding content to existing pages. It can be used to organize editing workshops and edit-a-thons.

The organizing team is looking for a contact person at the Chapter, Thematic group & Wikimedia User Group level (geographically or thematically), or for a language WP, to coordinate the project locally. We’d be glad for you to sign up directly at WPWP Participating Communities

Thank you,

Deborah Schwartz Jacobs

On behalf of Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Organizing Team - 21:19, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Call for candidates - June 2020

Hi everyone,

The Affiliations Committee (AffCom) – the committee responsible for guiding volunteers in establishing and sustaining Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups – is seeking new members!

The main role of the AffCom is to guide groups of volunteers that are interested in forming Wikimedia affiliates. We review applications from new groups, answer questions and provide advice about the different Wikimedia affiliation models and processes, review affiliate bylaws for compliance with requirements and best practices, and update the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees as well as advise them on issues connected to chapters, thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups.

The committee consists of five to fifteen members, selected at least once every year, to serve two-year terms. As the committee must hold mid-year elections to replenish its members at this time, those joining the committee during the current process will serve a slightly extended term from July 2020 through December 2022.

AffCom continues to closely monitor the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy process initiated in 2016. While the affiliation models continue to be discussed as part of the broader strategy discussion, as no decisions have been made to change the current affiliation models yet, AffCom continues to work in the same manner with regard to affiliate recognitions and intervention support for affiliates with issues of non-compliance in 2020. AffCom continues to process applications for user group and chapter/thematic organization creation, while we await the strategy next steps and begin to prepare for a smooth transition of the committee and affiliates ecosystem to any changing movement structures and systems in 2021.

Being a part of the AffCom requires communication with volunteers all over the world, negotiating skills, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to understand legal texts. We look for a mix of different skill sets in our members.

Click here for further details.

James Heilman on behalf of AffCom

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:18, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

Affiliations Committee elections announcement June 2020

Hi everyone,

This is a friendly reminder that the Affiliations Committee (AffCom) – the committee responsible for guiding volunteers in establishing and sustaining Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups – is seeking new members! The deadline to post your application on the nomination page is 30 June 2020.

• Application process: Considering the anticipated changes following the Strategy recommendations, we had a limited scope to introduce changes in the process. We have made a small but impactful addition to the application process by introducing the Self Assessment survey form which will help the committee know more about your engagement as endorsements are not consistently shared, may not be representative, and often do not speak to the specific skills needed.
• Selection process: No change; see: Membership.

If you have any questions, please contact me and/or the committee as a whole. We are happy to answer questions about our work if this helps people decide to apply. Please distribute this announcement among your networks. Good luck to all the candidates!

On behalf of the committee,

--Rosiestep (talk) 00:49, 19 June 2020 (UTC) via MassMessaging

June 21 All-Affiliates Brand Meeting

All Wikimedia affiliates are invited to join an urgent All-Affiliates Brand Meeting in two sessions on Sunday June 21, regarding the most recent developments.--Pharos (talk) 20:00, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

Feedback on movement names

There are a lot of conversations happening about the future of our movement names. We hope that you are part of these discussions and that your community is represented.

Since 16 June, the Foundation Brand Team has been running a survey in 7 languages about 3 naming options. There are also community members sharing concerns about renaming in a Community Open Letter.

You should have received a separate affiliate survey via email. If you have not, feel free to email brandprojectwikimedia.org.

Our goal in this call for feedback is to hear from across the community, so we encourage you to participate in the survey, the open letter, or both. The survey will go through 7 July in all timezones. Input from the survey and discussions will be analyzed and published on Meta-Wiki.

Thanks for thinking about the future of the movement --The Brand Project team, 13:37, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Note: The survey is conducted via a third-party service, which may subject it to additional terms. For more information on privacy and data-handling, see the survey privacy statement.

Announcing a new wiki project! Welcome, Abstract Wikipedia

Hello everyone. I am posting the announcement below, which you may have missed elsewhere, and in the hope that you can share it with your local communities. Please note that it may be available in your language at m:Special:MyLanguage/Abstract Wikipedia/July 2020 announcement. Thanks for your attention! m:User:Elitre (WMF)

Hi all,

It is my honor to introduce Abstract Wikipedia, a new project that has been unanimously approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Abstract Wikipedia proposes a new way to generate baseline encyclopedic content in a multilingual fashion, allowing more contributors and more readers to share more knowledge in more languages. It is an approach that aims to make cross-lingual cooperation easier on our projects, increase the sustainability of our movement through expanding access to participation, improve the user experience for readers of all languages, and innovate in free knowledge by connecting some of the strengths of our movement to create something new.

This is our first new project in over seven years. Abstract Wikipedia was submitted as a project proposal by Denny Vrandečić in May 2020 after years of preparation and research, leading to a detailed plan and lively discussions in the Wikimedia communities. We know that the energy and the creativity of the community often runs up against language barriers, and information that is available in one language may not make it to other language Wikipedias. Abstract Wikipedia intends to look and feel like a Wikipedia, but build on the powerful, language-independent conceptual models of Wikidata, with the goal of letting volunteers create and maintain Wikipedia articles across our polyglot Wikimedia world.

The project will allow volunteers to assemble the fundamentals of an article using words and entities from Wikidata. Because Wikidata uses conceptual models that are meant to be universal across languages, it should be possible to use and extend these building blocks of knowledge to create models for articles that also have universal value. Using code, volunteers will be able to translate these abstract “articles” into their own languages. If successful, this could eventually allow everyone to read about any topic in Wikidata in their own language.

As you can imagine, this work will require a lot of software development, and a lot of cooperation among Wikimedians. In order to make this effort possible, Denny will join the Foundation as a staff member in July and lead this initiative. You may know Denny as the creator of Wikidata, a long-time community member, a former staff member at Wikimedia Deutschland, and a former Trustee at the Wikimedia Foundation . We are very excited that Denny will bring his skills and expertise to work on this project alongside the Foundation’s product, technology, and community liaison teams.

It is important to acknowledge that this is an experimental project, and that every Wikipedia community has different needs. This project may offer some communities great advantages. Other communities may engage less. Every language Wikipedia community will be free to choose and moderate whether or how they would use content from this project.

We are excited that this new wiki-project has the possibility to advance knowledge equity through increased access to knowledge. It also invites us to consider and engage with critical questions about how and by whom knowledge is constructed. We look forward to working in cooperation with the communities to think through these important questions.

There is much to do as we begin designing a plan for Abstract Wikipedia in close collaboration with our communities. I encourage you to get involved by going to the project page and joining the new mailing list . We recognize that Abstract Wikipedia is ambitious, but we also recognize its potential. We invite you all to join us on a new, unexplored path.

Yours,

Katherine Maher (Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation) -16:51, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

Sunday August 23: Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting

Strategic flock of Wikimedians heading in a new direction.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a proposed forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

The idea is to follow up on the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting and other strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates, and you are all invited to RSVP here.--Pharos (talk) 21:41, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Sunday September 20 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting

Birds of a feather flock together.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August SWAN meeting and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates, this month we are meeting on Sunday September 20, and you are all invited to RSVP here.--Pharos (talk) 01:44, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Movement Strategy - What Are Your Choices For Implementation

Hello Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka/Archive 1,

The time has come to put Strategy into work and everyone's invited to participate.

The Movement Strategy Design Group and Support Team are inviting you to organize virtual meetings with your community and colleagues before the end of October. The aim is for you to decide what ideas from the Movement Strategy recommendations respond to your needs and will have an impact in the movement. The recommendations are available in different formats and in many languages. There are 10 awesome recommendations and close to 50 recommended changes and actions or initiatives. Not everything will be implemented. The aim of prioritization is to create an 18-month implementation plan to take some of the initiatives forward starting in 2021.

Prioritization is at the level of your group, affiliate, and community. Think local and relevant! Regional and thematic platforms are great ways to prepare and share ideas. Afterwards, we will come together in November to co-create the implementation plan. More information about November’s global events will be shared soon. For now and until the end of October, organize locally and share your priorities with us.

You can find guidance for the events, the simple reporting template, and other supporting materials here on Meta. You can share your results directly on Meta, by email, or by filling out this survey. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or comments, strategy2030wikimedia.org

We will be hosting office hours to answer any questions you might have, Thursday October 1 at 14.00 UTC (Google Meet).

MPourzaki (WMF) (talk) 16:18, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

Regional Call for South Asia - Oct. 30

Hi everyone. The time has come to put Movement Strategy into work and we need your help. We are inviting South Asian communities, Indian Wikimedians, and anyone else interested to join a region-focused conversation on Movement Strategy and implementation. Please join us on Friday Oct. 30 at 19.30 / 7:30 pm IST (Google Meet).

The purpose of the meeting is to get prepared for global conversations, to identify priorities for implementation in 2021, and to plan the following steps. There are 10 recommendations and they propose multiple 45 initiatives written over two years by many Wikimedians. It is now up to communities to decide which ones we should work on together in 2021, starting with local and regional conversations. Global meetings will take place later in November when we will discuss global coordination and resources. More information about the global events will be shared soon.

• What is work you’re already doing that is aligned with Movement Strategy?
• What are priorities for you in 2021?
• What are things we should all work on globally?

We would not be able to grow and diversify as a movement if communities from South Asia are not meaningfully involved in implementing the recommendations. Join the conversation with your questions and ideas, or just come to say hi. See you on Friday October 30.

A translatable version of this message can be found on Meta.

MPourzaki (WMF) (talk) 17:24, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Sunday October 25 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting

Friendship is a movement value.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the September and August SWAN meetings, and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including the recent proposed changes to the Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws, this month we are meeting on Sunday October 25, and you are all invited to RSVP here.--Pharos (talk) 17:34, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Zoom meetings?

I scrolled past Wikimedia LGBT+ and I found out that they are doing zoom calls. I'm wondering if anyone else is interested in zoom meetings, especially noticing that not everyone part of this Wikimedia group lives in Sri Lanka. @Rehman: or @Azeez: Would you guys be interested in a zoom meeting? FYI forgive me if I've missed a major update or such, I've recently returned from a major wikibreak - so if there is something big that I've missed, I'd love an update. Looking forward to getting back into this! —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 16:34, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Hey Atcovi. Welcome back! Zoom meetings isn't a bad idea. The issue with any fixed-time meetings on the other hand, is that not everyone (i.e.e barely half) can make it. As was the case with most other Wikimedia meetings. Hence for now, the comms here are usually on-wiki or on the mailing list, so folks can attend to it at their convenience. The biggest update so far is the conclusion of this year's WLE. With work-from-home and a bundle of complex pending Wikipedia/data projects, my hands are quite full... How are things with you? Rehman 16:49, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Ah alright. I guess we should do zoom meetings when we're a bigger group and more dedicated to meetups and such and such. The pictures, on the other hand, are absolutely wonderful. What a beauty! Wish I could've participated, but I don't live in Sri Lanka sadly :-( And this year has been an absolute rollercoaster, Rehman. I'm hoping things are good with you. My life has settled now, hence why my return to Wikimedia. Good seeing you around! —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:08, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

"My life has settled now" - I'm very glad to hear that. 2019/2020 was very rough for me too, hence I can completely relate. I could say I'm on the right path to that as well. :) See you around! Rehman 08:20, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Join the Global Conversations on November 21 and 22

Hola, こんにちは, E kaabo, Ciao, ਸਤਿ ਸ਼੍ਰੀ, Hello, سلام, Halo, Salut, 你好, Nnọọ, হ্যালো, Hallo, สวัสดี, Dzień dobry, Gyebale ko, வணக்கம், Mi Kwabo, ନମସ୍କାର, приветствие, שלום, Mholo, नमस्ते, γεια, Ahoj, ഹലോ, 여보세요, مرحبا, Բարեւ Ձեզ, Xin chào, Hallå, ಹಲೋ, Sawubona, નમસ્તે, Здраво, Merhaba, Talofa, హలో, Olá, ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ

Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka/Archive 1, we would love to see you at the upcoming Movement Strategy Global Conversations. It’s been a while.

The Movement Strategy Global Conversations will take place on Saturday November 21, 11:00 to 15:00 UTC, and Sunday November 22, 17:00 to 21:00 UTC, and you are warmly invited.

The focus will be to look at priorities identified by communities and affiliates, and to begin to create a movement-wide implementation plan for 2021. The main sessions will be in English. Any group interested to support live interpretation in another language may be able to receive a rapid grant. Let us know as soon as possible.

Please register by Nov. 20 so we can share the Zoom login information with you. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Support Team via Telegram, Wikimedia Chat or by email at strategy2030wikimedia.org.

Looking forward to seeing you on November 21 or 22.

MPourzaki (WMF) (talk) 16:05, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Call for insights on ways to better communicate the work of the movement

The Movement Strategy recommendations published this year made clear the importance of establishing stronger communications within our movement. To this end, the Foundation wants to gather insights from communities, including affiliates, on ways we all might more consistently communicate about our collective work, and better highlight community contributions from across the movement. Over the coming months, we will be running focus groups and online discussions to collect these insights. We hope your affiliate will decide to share your thoughts by participating in a focus group or joining the discussion on Meta-Wiki.

ELappen (WMF) (talk) 18:54, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Sunday November 29 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting

Take flight with us.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, and October SWAN meetings, and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including the recent proposed changes to the Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws, this month we are meeting on Sunday November 29, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

(Note that the UTC times of 03:00 UTC and 19:00 UTC are the same as before, although a number of places have had daylight savings time changes since our last meeting).--Pharos (talk) 18:50, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Global Conversations continue on December 5 and 6

Hola, こんにちは, Ciao, Hello, سلام, Halo, Salut, 你好, Nnọọ, হ্যালো, Hallo, สวัสดี, Dzień dobry, வணக்கம், приветствие, שלום, Mholo, हैलो, γεια, Ahoj, ഹലോ, 여보세요, مرحبا, Բարեւ Ձեզ, Olá, Xin chào, Hallå, ಹಲೋ, Sawubona, Здраво, Merhaba, Talofa, హలో

Global Conversations Dec. 5 & 6

Hi Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka/Archive 1. 250 people participated in virtual Global Conversations that took place on November 21 and 22. The conversation continues on December 5 and 6 and we warmly invite you to take part. Registration is open until December 4. Looking forward to seeing you.

Since September, many groups have shared their local, regional, and thematic priorities for implementing the Movement Strategy recommendations. During the first set of Global Conversations on Nov. 21 and 22, we focused on initiatives that should be globally prioritized and coordinated. We invite you to read the selected global priorities. What do you like about them? What is missing? And what would make you want to play an active role in implementation? Share your thoughts in advance and continue the conversation on December 5 and 6.

Looking forward to seeing you again, or for the first time, on December 5 and 6.

MPourzaki (WMF) (talk) 20:58, 25 November 2020 (UTC)

Sunday January 10 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting

Into the blue.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, and November SWAN meetings, and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates including SWAN input on Interim Global Council and Movement Charter, this month we are meeting on Sunday January 10, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

To start the exchange of ideas on the IGC early, and to help prepare before the SWAN calls, we have set up and invite everyone to participate at this etherpad. If you like a more interactive way of discussing, we have also made a jamboard. Check here for more details.

--Pharos (talk) 18:40, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

WMF bylaws amendments and upcoming call for feedback

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has discussed and approved some governance improvements in two recent meetings, on December 9 and January 8. As the governing body for the Wikimedia Foundation, the board wants to improve its capacity, performance, and representation of the movement’s diversity. The board has amended the Bylaws in support of that goal. Please check the details in the announcement published on Meta-Wiki. There will soon be a call for feedback regarding selection of new trustees. Let me know if you have any questions related to this. KCVelaga (WMF) (talk) 11:44, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

Project Grant Open Call

This is the announcement for the Project Grants program open call that started on January 11, with the submission deadline of February 10, 2021.
This first open call will be focussed on Community Organizing proposals. A second open call focused on research and software proposals is scheduled from February 15 with a submission deadline of March 16, 2021.

For the Round 1 open call, we invite you to propose grant applications that fall under community development and organizing (offline and online) categories. Project Grant funds are available to support individuals, groups, and organizations to implement new experiments and proven ideas, from organizing a better process on your wiki, coordinating a campaign or editathon series to providing other support for community building. We offer the following resources to help you plan your project and complete a grant proposal:

Weekly proposals clinics via Zoom during the Open Call. Join us for #Upcoming_Proposal_Clinics|real-time discussions with Program Officers and select thematic experts and get live feedback about your Project Grants proposal. We’ll answer questions and help you make your proposal better.

• Video tutorials for writing a strong application
  
• General planning page for Project Grants
  
• Program guidelines and criteria
  

Program officers are also available to offer individualized proposal support upon request. Contact us at projectgrants@wikimedia.org if you would like feedback or more information.

We are excited to see your grant ideas that will support our community and make an impact on the future of Wikimedia projects. Put your idea into motion, and submit your proposal by February 10, 2021!

Please feel free to get in touch with questions about getting started with your grant application, or about serving on the Project Grants Committee. Contact us at projectgrantswikimedia.org.
RSharma (WMF)MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:56, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Call for feedback: WMF Community Board seats & Office hours tomorrow

(sorry for posting in English)

Dear Wikimedians,

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for feedback about community selection processes between February 1 and March 14. Below you will find the problem statement and various ideas from the Board to address it. We are offering multiple channels for questions and feedback. With the help of a team of community facilitators, we are organizing multiple conversations with multiple groups in multiple languages.

During this call for feedback we publish weekly reports and we draft the final report that will be delivered to the Board. With the help of this report, the Board will approve the next steps to organize the selection of six community seats in the upcoming months. Three of these seats are due for renewal and three are new, recently approved.

Participate in this call for feedback and help us form a more diverse and better performing Board of Trustees!

Problems: While the Wikimedia Foundation and the movement have grown about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s structure and processes have remained basically the same. As the Board is designed today, we have a problem of capacity, performance, and lack of representation of the movement’s diversity. This problem was identified in the Board’s 2019 governance review, along with recommendations for how to address it.

To solve the problem of capacity, we have agreed to increase the Board size to a maximum of 16 trustees (it was 10). Regarding performance and diversity, we have approved criteria to evaluate new Board candidates. What is missing is a process to promote community candidates that represent the diversity of our movement and have the skills and experience to perform well on the Board of a complex global organization.

Our current processes to select individual volunteer and affiliate seats have some limitations. Direct elections tend to favor candidates from the leading language communities, regardless of how relevant their skills and experience might be in serving as a Board member, or contributing to the ability of the Board to perform its specific responsibilities. It is also a fact that the current processes have favored volunteers from North America and Western Europe. Meanwhile, our movement has grown larger and more complex, our technical and strategic needs have increased, and we have new and more difficult policy challenges around the globe. As well, our Movement Strategy recommendations urge us to increase our diversity and promote perspectives from other regions and other social backgrounds.

In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint three more community members in the new seats. What process can we all design to promote and choose candidates that represent our movement and are prepared with the experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees?

Ideas: The Board has discussed several ideas to overcome the problems mentioned above. Some of these ideas could be taken and combined, and some discarded. Other ideas coming from the call for feedback could be considered as well. The ideas are:

• Ranked voting system. Complete the move to a single transferable vote system, already used to appoint affiliate-selected seats, which is designed to best capture voters’ preferences.
• Quotas. Explore the possibility of introducing quotas to ensure certain types of diversity in the Board (details about these quotas to be discussed in this call for feedback).
• Call for types of skills and experiences. When the Board makes a new call for candidates, they would specify types of skills and experiences especially sought.
• Vetting of candidates. Potential candidates would be assessed using the Trustee Evaluation Form and would be confirmed or not as eligible candidates.
• Board-delegated selection committee. The community would nominate candidates that this committee would assess and rank using the Trustee Evaluation Form. This committee would have community elected members and Board appointed members.
• Community-elected selection committee. The community would directly elect the committee members. The committee would assess and rank candidates using the Trustee Evaluation Form.
• Election of confirmed candidates. The community would vote for community nominated candidates that have been assessed and ranked using the Trustee Evaluation Form. The Board would appoint the most voted candidates.
• Direct appointment of confirmed candidates. After the selection committee produces a ranked list of community nominated candidates, the Board would appoint the top-ranked candidates directly.

Call for feedback: The call for feedback runs from February 1 until the end of March 14. We are looking for a broad representation of opinions. We are interested in the reasoning and the feelings behind your opinions. In a conversation like this one, details are important. We want to support good conversations where everyone can share and learn from others. We want to hear from those who understand Wikimedia governance well and are already active in movement conversations. We also want to hear from people who do not usually contribute to discussions. Especially those who are active in their own roles, topics, languages or regions, but usually not in, say, a call for feedback on Meta.

You can participate by joining the Telegram chat group, and giving feedback on any of the talk pages on Meta-Wiki. We are welcoming the organisation of conversations in any language and in any channel. If you want us to organize a conversation or a meeting for your wiki project or your affiliate, please write to me. I will also reach out to communities and affiliates to soon have focused group discussions.

An office hour is also happening tomorrow at 12 pm (UTC) to discuss this topic. Access link will be available 15 minutes before the scheduled time (please watch the office hour page for the link, and I will also share on mailing lists). In case you are not able to make it, please don't worry, there will be more discussions and meetings in the next few weeks.

Regards, KCVelaga (WMF) 16:32, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

Sunday February 21 Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network meeting

We are a mosiac.

The Strategic Wikimedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) is a developing forum for all Wikimedia movement affiliates to share ideas on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process. It expands on the model of the All-Affiliates Brand Meeting to help lay some of the groundwork for a future Global Council.

Following up on the August, September, October, November, and January SWAN meetings and June's All-Affiliates Brand Meeting, as well as strategic and outreach topics of mutual concern to all affiliates, this month we are meeting on Sunday February 21, and you are all invited to RSVP here.

To help set priorities for the SWAN agenda, and also to help manage which global conversations should be a focus in general, we have set up and invite everyone to participate at this SWAN priorities form. Possible topics include Community Board seats, Interim Global Council, Strategy prioritization follow-up events, Branding, Universal Code of Conduct, Grant strategy, and WMF CEO search. That is a lot of things, which are most important to cover in our upcoming SWAN meeting?

--Pharos (talk) 18:50, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

WMF Community Board seats: Upcoming panel discussions

As a result of the first three weeks of the call for feedback on WMF Community Board seats, three topics turned out to be the focus of the discussion. Additionally, a new idea has been introduced by a community member recently: Candidates resources. We would like to pursue these focus topics and the new idea appropriately, discussing them in depth and collecting new ideas and fresh approaches by running four panels in the next week. Every panel includes four members from the movement covering many regions, backgrounds and experiences, along with a trustee of the Board. Every panel will last 45 minutes, followed by a 45-minute open mic discussion, where everyone’s free to ask questions or to contribute to the further development of the panel's topics.

• Skills for Board work - Friday, March 12, 18:00 UTC
• Support for candidates - Saturday, March 13, 13:30 UTC
• Board - Global Council - Hubs - Saturday, March 13, 16:00 UTC
• Regional diversity - Sunday, March 14, 13:00 UTC

To counter spamming, the meeting link will be updated on the Meta-Wiki pages and also on the Telegram announcements channel, 15 minutes before the official start.

Let me know if you have any questions, KCVelaga (WMF), 08:36, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

CIS-A2K Community Needs Assessment 2021-22

Dear Wikimedians,
CIS-A2K is in a process of writing 2021–2022 work-plan. To design the programs based on the needs of the community and volunteers, we invite your valuable suggestions and thoughts. We would like to improve our working continuously taking into consideration the responses/feedback about the events conducted previously. We request you to go through the various sections in the form and respond.
Google form link - Click here to submit your plan

Please write in detail. We would like to discuss this over the phone/email also if needed. Contact tito+2020@cis-india.org if you have a question(s) or for further details or a detailed comment.
With best wishes,
Jayanta (CIS-A2K) (talk) 07:17, 13 March 2021 (UTC) behalf -
Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K)