Harmonization Sprint
20-22 September 2019, Tunis, Tunisia


Goal

Nine Wikimedia 2030 working groups have developed sets of recommendations for structural changes that will enable the movement to successfully advance in its strategic direction. The goal of harmonization sprint is to converge these nine sets of recommendations into one coherent set. During the event, higher level groups of recommendations covering multiple thematic areas were to be formed, and plans were to be collaboratively set for how to further develop these new groups or clusters, in consultation with different movement stakeholders.

Rationale

Amongst the thematic area recommendations, there are many overlaps and synergies, as well as gaps. However, they collectively strive to reach for the equity, inclusivity, diversity, transformation, and updated structures that align us with our Movement's strategic direction. The harmonization sprint presents a chance to bring these recommendations together and form new crosscutting groups of recommendations that can be further developed and later implemented.

Pre-Sprint versions of draft Recommendations


Venue

The Sprint took place in El Mouradi Gammarth, Les côtes de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia.

Participants

Name Representing Region Role
Alice Wiegand Advocacy WG Europe Volunteer
Isla Haddow-Flood Africa Volunteer
Anna Mazgal Europe Staff
Nicola Zeuner Capacity Building WG Europe Staff
Michal Lester Asia Staff
Sailesh Patnaik Asia Volunteer
Philip Kopetzky Community Health WG Europe Volunteer
Sandra Rientjes Europe Staff
Mervat Salam Asia Volunteer
Marc Miquel-Ribé Diversity WG Europe Volunteer
Jorge Vargas Latin America Staff
Camelia Boban Europe Volunteer
Andrea Patricia Kleiman Partnerships WG Latin America Volunteer
Alek Tarkowski Europe Volunteer
John Cummings Europe Volunteer
Gergő Tisza Product & Technology WG North America Volunteer
Matanya Moses Asia Volunteer
Franziska Heine Europe Staff
Daria Cybulska Resource Allocation WG Europe Staff
Felix Nartey Africa Volunteer
John Andersson Europe Staff
Erina Mukuta Roles & Responsibilities WG Africa Volunteer
Chris Keating Europe Volunteer
Anna Torres Latin America Staff
Caitlin Virtue Revenue Streams WG North America Staff
Katherine Maher Wikimedia Foundation North America Staff
Ryan Merkley North America Staff
Valerie D'Costa North America Staff
Delphine Menard Europe Staff
María Sefidari Europe Chair, Board of Trustees
Abraham Taherivand Wikimedia Deutschland Europe Staff
Chuck Roslof Wikimedia Foundation (Legal Team) North America Staff
Nicole Ebber Core Team Europe Staff
Kaarel Vaidla Europe Staff
Tanveer Hasan Asia Staff
Mehrdad Pourzaki North America Staff
Abbad Diraneyya Asia Staff
Bhavesh Patel Europe Staff
Jonathan Dudding Facilitators Europe ICA:UK
Orla Cronin Europe ICA:UK
Ann Lukens Europe ICA:UK
Broad clusters or "meta-recommendations" wre to be formed.


Between underlying ideas and daily activities.

Daily activities and notes

Below is a brief overview of daily activities, an extended report has been published on a separate subpage.

Day 1

Day 1 of the sprint was spent looking at and discussing the topics that are most predominant in the second iteration of the draft recommendations: building of capacity; roles and responsibilities; and diversity and inclusion, areas with the most input from across all recommendations. Groups representing one member from each working group were formed around each topic to review all related recommendations across thematic areas. They then looked at whether the recommendations were on a “principles” level, a “structures” level, or a “results” level. This was going to be taken forward to make a draft set of synthesized recommendations. However, it became apparent that even if recommendations were talking about a similar topic, aligning them at the level of structures is much more complicated than anticipated.

Day 2

On day 2, participants continued the focus on structures and what needs to be in place to deliver the Wikimedia 2030 vision and direction. But there was still a lack of clarity about this and no common agreement on structures. This led to discussions about principles and the fundamental concepts that should drive the recommendations before creating one coherent set could even begin.

Day 3

The work on day 3 centred on the need to have some serious conversations, based on the previous two days' events and process. The priority became discussing principles across the working groups and creating a sense that the recommendations are heading in the right direction, to bring about the structural changes that we envision for our inclusive and diverse movement. Like any event with Wikimedians, discussions didn't cease and there was no shortage of input :-) Passion was running high as well as alignment on principles that underlie the draft recommendations. Before the event ended, participants explored possible next steps, including how to shift the current structure of the working groups to a model with different roles that collaborate on developing a coherent set of recommendations.


The Movement Strategy core team is currently processing the large amount of information that was generated at the sprint and will be sharing outputs with the greater community soon.