Strategy/multigenerational

Multi-generational pillars for Wikimedia Foundation implementation of Movement Strategy

The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation calls on us to “make and keep useful information from its projects available on the internet free of charge, in perpetuity.” In order for the Wikimedia projects to endure in perpetuity, we must build together on the Movement Strategy process to specify an approach that sustains four of the most crucial aspects of the Wikimedia projects for generations to come: volunteers, content, readers, and funding.

In addition to the need to attract new generations of volunteers, the movement’s strategic direction also calls for broad commitments to serving Wikimedia content to more people and doing it equitably. If we are to become the “essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge,” we must explore ways of responding to changing needs in how readers find information, and we must ensure equitable inclusion of people from all backgrounds who wish to support our strategic direction.

How can we ensure that the Wikimedia projects are multi-generational?

This is a question that has informed the work of the Wikimedia Foundation over the past year. Chief Product and Technology Officer Selena Deckelmann spoke about the need for a multi-generational approach in several community talks in 2023. Welcoming new wikimedians repeatedly came up in feedback from volunteers in Talking: 2024 and planning across generations has also informed the Foundation’s Annual Plan.

Here, we will begin laying out some of our initial thinking on a multi-generational approach that answers the combination of the ‘in perpetuity’ mandate of our mission and the strategic direction of our movement. We invite you to help co-create with us how this thinking develops. The approach includes four pillars (or building blocks) that we want to build out with more clarity to support the direction of the Wikimedia Foundation through 2030 and beyond. These are developing thoughts, and we welcome feedback and iteration.

Why take a multi-generational focus now?

• Changes in search, social media and AI. A new generation uses new platforms to pursue information, and they particularly prefer information aggregated by people and personalities they trust. Search platforms are reacting by investing in AI-driven experiences, which is both an opportunity and a threat.
• Competition for contributors. People have many new rewarding, potent ways to share knowledge online easily and at scale – they can post videos, tweets, and photos in many places. The Wikimedia projects are not adding contributors at a sustainable rate.
• Contested content. Truth is more contested than ever before, and AI will be weaponized in fights to define truth online.
• Growing regulation. New laws and challenges to those laws pose threats to our model in jurisdictions of our current (e.g. US/EU) and growing (e.g. India) audiences.

Multi-generational pillars to meet the ‘in perpetuity’ mandate and the knowledge as a service and knowledge equity directions from Movement Strategy

To meet our mission, we must make Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects multi-generational – meaning that people for decades to come will contribute to and benefit from this corpus of knowledge. To meet this multi-generational approach, here are four pillars that we’ll need to invest in:

• Fuel volunteer growth. Nurture multiple generations of volunteers. For both experienced and new volunteers, answer the question: “Why should I volunteer?”
• Deliver trustworthy encyclopedic content above all. Enable the internet’s fundamental source of knowledge by addressing disinformation, misinformation and missing information in our ecosystem. Ensure that the Mediawiki software is sustainable into the future.
• Shape a changing internet. Bring encyclopedic content and volunteering to an internet driven by AI and rich experiences.
• Fund the future of ‘free.’ Sustainably fund our movement through unified Product and Revenue strategies. Align initiatives in our planning and development processes for long term resilience.

These pillars reflect that no matter how the Wikimedia movement and Wikipedia evolve in the coming years, it will remain a volunteer-driven effort to assemble trustworthy encyclopedic content. Those two elements are fundamental. And the biggest question is how those two fundamentals will translate into a rapidly changing internet – how will the world continue to access this volunteer-built encyclopedia? And finally, how will these efforts continue to be funded?

Our next step is to get more specific in terms of how we invest in those four pillars so that our efforts fit together to steward the Wikimedia movement to a successful future.