Research:Wikimedia Board Governance Survey

Contact
Jessie Wild Sneller
This page documents a completed research project.


Key Personnel

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  • Jessie Wild Sneller (WMF staff)
  • Anasuya Sengupta (WMF staff)
  • Chris Keating (WMUK board)
  • Alice Wiegand (WMF board)
  • Michał Buczyński (WMPL board)
  • Sandra Rientjes (WMNL staff)
  • Nicole Ebber (WMDE staff)
  • Claudia Garád (WMAU staff)
  • Bence Damokos (AffCom)
  • Markus Glaser (WMDE board)

Project Summary

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We hope that the results of the survey will:

  1. provide a basic mapping of board design across the Wikimedia movement
  2. identify the strengths of boards across the Wikimedia movement
  3. identify the development and resource needs of different boards/organisations

In turn, this will help us focus on what additional resources our movement organizations need to become more effective at leading our organizations and growing the Wikimedia mission.

The need for this survey was first highlighted at the Board’s Training workshop held in London in March 2014 and then again at the Wikimedia Conference in April in Berlin. Many board members present commented on the need for further development opportunities and the need for more collective knowledge on the way Wikimedia boards are currently operating. A few volunteers and staff from WMUK, WMPL, WMNL, WMDE, WMAT, AffCom and WMF came together to create the scope and structure of this survey.

Methods

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Survey. All individual results will be kept confidential, with only aggregated data publicly shared.

Dissemination

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Survey to be sent to list of board representatives from the chapters and thematic organisations globally.

Wikimedia Policies, Ethics, and Human Subjects Protection

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Benefits for the Wikimedia community

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The benefit of this project is to get a first look at the mapping of board structures across the movements, as well as a first categorization of the main challenges faced by organizations at different stages of development.

From here, concentrated capacity building work can occur.

Timeline

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