Wikimédia France/Strategic plan

The Strategic Plan

Our vision

Assessment of the social, organizational, legislative, economical, and technical environment

Wikimedia France falls in line with collaborative and community-oriented Wikimedia projects (Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikipedia, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikivoyage, Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies, et Wikidata). These projects aim to share knowledge for everyone, freely.

Our association would like to assist in the development of these projects, with actions chosen by volunteers. Wikimedia France is also a key player in digital discussions: accessibility of participation, OpenContent in France…

We therefore hope to promote the freedom of sharing of knowledge, preferring the use of free and open systems, and defending the common good. This is why we must maintain our presence in the free ecosystem by initiating fitting collaborations.

Growth

Our association is growing, especially in regards to paid staff, in order to accommodate growth in activity. However, this growth remains slow and steady. In fact, the paid staff is positioned to support volunteer initiatives and our organization has been designed to allow volunteers to take a central place in the organization.

As these Wikimedia projects constitute important factors in terms of social transformation, we hope that our actions will have a significant political and social impact. Number of Wikimedia France's members have to increase in order to become correspondent to Wikimedia France's impact in France.

Diversification of activities

Wikimedia France’s activities consist mostly of:

Outreach
Communication
Recruitment and training of new contributors
Actions to allow for the formation of groups of editors and members of the association
Actions to assist in the release and online availability of preexisting content
Actions to facilitate the dissemination of free content
Actions to support Wikimedia projects communities and users

Anyone who shares our ultimate goal of freely sharing knowledge may join us in these activities. Such partnerships are found in domains as varied as:

Cultural institutions or associations
The realms of education and research
Athletic organizations
Regional authorities
Social and solidarity economy organizations...

Wikimedia France continues and intensifies cooperation with actors from these domains, in order to accompany them to become independents. Wikimedia France also offers direct support to communities, especially French-speaking ones and languages-of-France speakers.

The Board of Trustees’ thoughts and actions are fed by the work of local groups – whose creation and activities we support throughout France – as well as thematic groups. As our association is a key player in the Wikimedia movement, we cooperate with all organizations that share our goals abroad.

Collaboration of key players and the decision-making process

Wikimedia France is organized around three groups of participants: the Board of Trustees, other volunteers, and the team of paid employees.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for all strategic decisions. It delegates operational decisions – especially human resources – to the Executive Director.

The General Assembly approves the association’s actions, including the "rapport moral" (report specific to a French non-profit organization), the financial report, and the guidance report. It also selects the members of the Board of Trustees. The team of paid employees executes the corresponding actions to the strategy determined by the Board, facilitating the involvement of volunteers. In the spirit of Wikimedia projects, the aforementioned step is at the heart of our association’s activities. Our operations revolve around the idea of capitalizing on and featuring the skill sets of our participants.

All of our participants, whether paid or volunteer, are invited to make proposals that have an impact on our decisions. They are especially involved in strategic planning and formulating our course of action.

Resources for quality control

Wikimedia France implements a quality approach in order to assess its actions and to gain a better understanding of its operations.

A common standard is defined in order to measure the effect of each project in relation to our strategic priorities:

the impact on Wikimedia projects,
the impact on our association,
the project’s social impact.

General operations are also assessed, especially best governance practices.

Our Association’s Charter

"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."

Sharing knowledge: Wikimedia France’s mission is to build an environment that encourages the sharing of knowledge. Our organization is fueled by the open-source culture and open-source software movements. Therefore, every time it is possible, its intellectual output is published under an open license, using open formats and open-source software.

Volunteerism: Wikimedia France is a non-profit organization in accordance with the French law of 1901. Membership is open to all, starting at 13 years old. Volunteerism is the foundation of our organization, and volunteer involvement is the focal point of our operations. Our association’s employee structure is intended to support our volunteers rather than replace them.; Furthermore, our members have the opportunity to take on leadership roles throughout our organization. Our governing bodies are also influenced by the input of our members, who may freely discuss any important operations.

Transparency: Wikimedia France communicates its activities openly and publicly. In addition, our governing bodies share their decisions and actions with members as soon as possible, except in specific cases where they are prevented from doing so: legal and contractual obligations, respect for privacy, etc.

Community support: Wikimédia France is a Wikimedia chapter. Our main mission is to support the Wikimedia projects on the French territory, in French language or in the languages of France. This requires continuous and as direct as possible support to the community of contributors. The chapter does not interfere in editorial decision-making activities concerning Wikimedia projects. We strive to involve the community in the building of our programs, and empower them to stay informed about the progress of such programs.

Part of a global movement: Wikimedia France is part of a global movement to advance Wikimedia’s goals − to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. We consider other entities that take part in this movement to be our partners. For this reason, Wikimédia France strives to make its work accessible to an international audience.

Responsibility: Wikimedia France is an organization that is essentially financed by donations, calling on public generosity. We strive to use these donations responsibly, and always in the interest of the goals of the association and those of the Wikimedia movement.