Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Process/Steering Committee

The Community Process Steering Committee comprises volunteers selected for their Wikimedia knowledge and experience as contributors and community organizers as well as their demonstrated skills in strategic planning and process design, cross-cultural communication, and international coordination. There are currently eleven members of the committee.

Committee Members

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Name Affiliations Location
Andrea Zanni Wikimedia Italia; Wikisource leader Italy
Bishakha Datta Former Board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, Current member of the FDC India
Florence Devouard Former Board member of the Wikimedia Foundation,/Individual contributor France
Lucy Crompton-Reid Executive Director of Wikimedia UK United Kingdom
Dumisani Ndubane Wikimedia South Africa, former member of the FDC South Africa
Kaarel Vaidla Former Executive Director of Wikimedia Eesti Estonia
Liam Wyatt Individual contributor, GLAM pioneer, member of the FDC Italy
Mykola Kozlenko Member of the Board of Wikimedia Ukraine Ukraine
Nicole Ebber Staff member of Wikimedia Deutschland Germany
Risker Individual contributor, Functionary, member of the Election Committee, member of the FDC Canada
Sandra Rientjes Executive Director of Wikimedia Nederland Netherlands

Note: One potential committee member has not been able to participate in the calls and is not listed for that reason.

Staff & Contractor Support

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Name Affiliation Role
Jaime Anstee Wikimedia Foundation Coordinator/Facilitator
Karen Brown Wikimedia Foundation Note-taker
Nick Wilson Wikimedia Foundation Note-taker
Delphine Ménard Wikimedia Foundation Note-taker
Suzie Nussel Independent Contractor Core strategy team
Shannon Keith williamsworks Core strategy team
Ed Bland williamsworks Core strategy team
Guillaume Paumier Wikimedia Foundation Core strategy team

Charter: Community Process Steering Committee

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As Katherine Maher announced in a January 2017 email on wikimedia-l, the Wikimedia Foundation has brought together a group of staff and external individuals (the “core strategy team”) to support the process that will help us, as a movement, work collaboratively towards a shared direction. Now we need to determine what kind of process this will be: how people will work together, where and when, and to what outcome. The community process steering committee will work with us to co-design the process of the movement strategy discussion with organized groups and individual contributors.

What participation in the community process steering committee entails

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  • WMF staff will convene a series of 3−4 calls or videoconferences between January 20 and February 10, roughly for an hour each. The first call will be on Friday, January 20.
  • We will convene these calls at two times in order to accommodate the largest possible participation.
  • On those calls, we will ask for your recommendations and discussion on good, achievable approaches to meaningful community discussion and development.
  • We expect to provide some information or questions in advance of those calls and expect to provide anonymized summaries of these calls on Meta-wiki.
  • We will work with you to prototype a process, using each weekly call to advance the design.
  • We will also solicit additional thoughts through public on-wiki discussions of the process incrementally as it emerges.
  • We may ask this committee to do some outreach to other community members, particularly in underrepresented communities, and will provide support in doing so.
  • We are committed to working with you to build the best process that we can to serve all our communities.
  • It is entirely possible that the work of this committee could continue past the initial design phase, but that may be partially up to the committee and the process that is designed. At this point, we are only asking for this specific commitment.

Timeline

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Involves Committee:

  • January 20: The Committee holds the first call meeting to discuss design parameters and share ideas on process with the core strategy team.
  • January 27: The core strategy team shares a first draft process for discussion with the Committee and iteratively improves it based on comments.
  • February 3: Post Draft #1 of process on Meta for comments
  • February 9: Post Draft #2 of process on Meta for comments
  • February 13: Post Final Process on Meta
  • March 31: For those committee members attending the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, potential voluntary participation in an overview session about the process.

Does not involve Committee:

  • March 1: Target launch of on-wiki consultation (running through March 30)
  • March 29−April 2: Share initial findings from community discussions at the Affiliates Conference in Berlin
  • August 9: Develop a strategic direction by Wikimania

Roles & Responsibilities

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  • Convene the committee (Jaime)
  • Core movement strategy team (Ed, Guillaume, Suzie, Shannon): Facilitate Committee sessions and take responsibility for final movement strategy consultation process
  • Community Process Steering Committee: Co-design process for movement strategy, participate in series of rapid prototyping, and provide recommendations to core team on approaches to meaningful community consultation
  • Online conversation support: In addition to existing CE staff, we have budget to hire part-time contractors to support the conversations on-wiki in Meta and a number of other language projects. This will be an early point of discussion with the Community Process Steering Committee.
  • Information stream “tracks”: Currently there are four “tracks,” or channels for input from specific communities. They are:
    • Track A: organized groups, including affiliates
    • Track B: on-wiki individual contributors
    • Track C: High reach markets (new and potential readers and partners in areas where there is higher awareness and higher internet access)
    • Track D: Low reach markets (new and potential readers and partners where there is less awareness but increasing internet access)
    • Note: this Committee is concerned primarily with the process for tracks A and B.

Design Considerations

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  • Engages our global communities with a process that is diverse, inclusive and robust, within the overall timeline and constraints.
  • Process is highly participatory across languages, geographies and projects, with active facilitation through a variety of methods, potentially including online (synchronously and asynchronously) and in face-to-face discussions, which includes significant data to drive ultimate decision-making.
  • Facilitates inclusive representation of all voices, without the loudest voices dominating.