Hubs/Hub Piloting Guidelines

Overview

Participate

Ongoing projects

(If you prefer, you can read this text on the Movement Strategy Forum, and comment there.)

Overview of key changes (change log)

• Change of general setting from criteria to guidelines
• Substantial changes in the proposal of validation accounting for the subsidiarity principle
• Extended elaboration of the support set up
• Note regarding financial support and use of trademark added
• Categories of “must”, “should”, and “could” added for the guidelines
• “Success criteria” embedded in the “stated goal” and “off-ramp plan” changed to “alternative plan”

Hub Piloting Guidelines

The document is a draft of the guidelines for implementing Regional and Thematic Hub pilots. It includes general guidance for ensuring high quality, transparent, and connected work on hub pilots across the movement.

Hubs are structures recommended by the Movement Strategy. Their plans need to be transparent, visible, and accountable to the movement. This also helps to create collaboration and coordination between different hub projects and avoid unnecessary duplication or conflicts. The guidelines support aforementioned aspects of work for hub pilots and also provide a common ground for implementing the recommendation.

The draft document includes feedback from prior conversations and is available for further movement-wide review.

Proposal for a process to advance hub pilots

This is a proposed, decentralized process to advance aspiring hub pilots. In the absence of a Movement Charter defining hubs or any process officially established to approve hub projects, it is important that the hub pilot proposals advance with strong movement support. As a movement, advancing the pilots is useful to experiment and learn about this new type of organization. However, we need to collectively agree upon the common ground and guidance for such projects, to avoid possible future problems.

Set up

Regional and Thematic Hub pilots are set up by the communities they will serve. It is an instance of implementation of the subsidiarity principle.

To qualify as a movement strategy hub pilot project, it must meet the requirements of:

• A stated goal
• Public documentation
• Needs assessment
• Clear plan
• Connection to Movement Strategy implementation

Support

The project team of a hub pilot will arrange for needed support independently. They can reach out to the Wikimedia Foundation and other affiliates for the support that will be beneficial in advancing the project.

Existing movement structures and committees are available to provide advisory support in advancing the hub pilots.

• The Movement Strategy and Governance team of the Wikimedia Foundation is available to allocate its time and resources to:
  • Provide support in formalizing or starting up the hubs
  • Foster exchange between hub pilots
  • Provide information in relation to overall Movement Strategy implementation
• Other Wikimedia Foundation teams will be available for consultation on specific topics in relation to their area of expertise
• Movement Committees (Affiliations Committee, Regional Grant Committees) may be available in an advisory role.
• Support to the hub pilots is not limited to Wikimedia Foundation and committees. Other movement groups and organizations can state their availability to support hub piloting across the movement in their specific expertise areas.

Funding

While not all hub pilots require funding to advance their work, in many cases financial resources are essential in advancing the project. There are some implications related to the aspect of funding:

• IF the hub pilot is capable of finding its own funding, there are no additional requirements.
• IF the hub pilot needs funding from the Wikimedia Foundation, its staff and Regional Grant Committee will assess the proposal and may suggest improvements to the proposed project, as per the Community Fund process.

Trademark

While not all hub pilots require the use of Wikimedia trademark, it is beneficial in some cases to meet the goal of the project:

• If the use of Wikimedia trademarks is needed, the usual process of setting up trademark agreements will apply.

Guidelines to hub pilots

This section outlines the guidelines proposed on different levels of a hub pilot. These levels are:

1. must - guidelines that every hub pilot needs to follow to ensure accountability, transparency, and be truly a Movement Strategy project;
2. should - operational guidelines for improving the projects to make them more sustainable and impactful;
3. could - guidelines not strictly related to the project itself yet helping to position them better on the overall landscape.

MUST

• A stated goal - Clear explanation of the goal of the hub with clearly defined success criteria, including why this goal needs a hub structure or cannot be achieved with existing Wikimedia structures.
• Public documentation - For transparency and accountability, a hub pilot must have a continuously updated project page on Meta. (Creation of a topic about the hub proposal on the Movement Strategy Forum is strongly recommended for multilingual communication.)
• Needs assessment - Hub pilots would need to be based on research to understand the needs of communities related to the region or the theme. All the communities in the region or in the thematic topic area must be invited to participate in the needs assessment process.
• Clear plan - Description of how the pilot will begin and continue to address the needs identified in the needs assessment. What actions will the pilot focus on in the first months and years (including which ones, how prioritized, why prioritized)?
• Connection to the Movement Strategy implementation process - Hub pilot work must align with the Movement Strategy recommendations and the implementation process.

SHOULD

• Multiple entities - List of entities involved in the set up and oversight of the project. A hub project must not be overseen by only one entity, as we already have an affiliate model and the Wikimedia Foundation for such projects.
• Diverse & Inclusive leadership - The hub pilot demonstrates a continuous effort made to ensure diversity of leadership (representation of gender, age, languages, regions, and others.)
• Monitoring and Evaluation - Clear plan on how the progress of a hub will be monitored and evaluated. Including clear definition of objectives and key results for the pilot.
• Community engagement - Plan for how the communities supported by the hub pilot can inform the work of the pilot, engage in its activities, and participate in the decision-making.
• Shared governance model - Description of how the pilot will be overseen, including clear description of roles and responsibilities, and process for managing community feedback and input.

COULD

• Endorsement - Clear community endorsement, particularly clear endorsement of the pilot from the communities to be supported by the hub.
• Overlap Mitigation Plan - Clear mapping of hub pilot’s mandate in comparison to existing structures and a plan for mitigating potential overlaps.
• Alternative Plan - Process for reshaping the pilot if it doesn't satisfy the success criteria.

Open Questions

Here is a list of questions that need further conversation to ensure better guidance for the hub pilots:

• How are potential overlaps and conflicts between hub pilots managed in a “bottom-up” process?
• What is needed to avoid duplications and redundancies among Hubs?
• How will the risk assessment and mitigation take place?

Appendix: Planning Template

Click to expand that content.

This is a suggested template for documenting your plan. Make sure your plan covers these questions.

Plan

Why? What? How?

WHY? - GOAL

Goal – What will the hub pilot achieve?

• What existing problems will the hub pilot solve?
• Who will benefit from the hub pilot and how?
• Why is a new hub pilot needed? Why are the current structures not sufficient?

WHAT? - SCOPE

Scope and scale – What services will the hub pilot provide?

• Clear description of the functions of the hub pilot.
• Clear description of the services provided by the hub pilot.

HOW? - SET UP

Set up – How will the hub pilot be set up to effectively achieve its goal.

• Description of steps and activities for setting up the hub pilot.
• How will the hub pilot connect to other movement entities (existing Affiliates, project communities, Wikimedia Foundation, other hubs, etc.)?

Governance – What will be the governance structure of the hub pilot?

• List of entities involved.
• Short description of the governance structure (can be an organogram).

Resourcing – What are the human and/or financial resources needed for the hub pilot?

• Funding
  • Provide an estimated budget for the first four quarters, and then a basic financial forecast for the first three years. The point is to identify the main costs and funding sources expected, not to create an exhaustive budget.
  • What is your plan for acquiring the funding?
• Human resources
  • Who will be running the hub pilot?
  • Are these roles filled by volunteers, existing staff or new staff positions?

Alternate plan – How will the project be closed down, if unsuccessful?

• Description of steps and activities for closing down the hub pilot.

People

Who?

WHO? - PEOPLE

Governance – Who will oversee the set up of the hub pilot?

• List of people involved.
• Short description of the role of each person involved.
• Short “movement CV” for each person involved.

Execution (core team) – Who will be coordinating the set up of the hub pilot?

• List of people involved
• Short description of the role of each person involved
• Short CV for each person involved

Community Engagement

ACCOUNTABILITY

Public notice – Where can the hub pilot concept be discussed publicly? (link)

Evidence of support – Who is supporting the idea of the hub pilot?

• Proof of needs assessment in the relevant communities.
• Proof of community discussions regarding the idea.
• Direct endorsement on the hub pilot or grant page.

Evaluation – How will the progress of the hub pilot be tracked and evaluated? How often?

• What are the criteria of success for the hub pilot? How will this be evaluated? How often?

Public reporting – How will the activities related to the hub pilot be reported?