Wikimedia España/Plan Anual/2020

Introduction

Wikimedia España is a Spanish non-profit organization, recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation as the chapter of Wikimedia in Spain. It was officially approved by the Wikimedia Foundation on February 7, 2011 and that same month was registered in the National Register of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior. In May 2011, an agreement was signed with the Valladolid City Council whereby the association's headquarters would be located in a municipal agency.

Although from the beginning of the organization the level of activity was intense, it was from 2015, the year in which Wikipedia won the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, when the demand for activities and projects throughout the country increased. Therefore, in 2016, we applied for a Simple Annual Plan Grant (APG) that included hiring our first employee, a Program Coordinator.

The following year, also within the APG, we applied for a second employee to be responsible for communications and community. All this involved a significant growth in activity and we realized the organization needed to re-define its structure and processes. For this reason, at the end of 2017 we started an internal process to define our strategy for the 2019-2021 period.

Thus, through different actions (Wikimedia Spain Conference, online survey and two weekend meetings involving board, staff and volunteers), a final document was written and approved in 2018. This strategy focuses on continuing working around the four areas we have been prioritising in recent years: diversity, education, GLAM and multimedia content, re-structured now in three new programmes and laid the foundations to reach a better and more effective management of our work.

However, throughout 2019, already with the new strategic plan implemented, we realized that with such a distribution of programs there were initiatives that did not fit them, but equally were interesting from the point of view of improving content and community participation. As a consequence some efforts could stay almost invisible. For example, this year we carried out a notable number of actions in the field of the defence of digital rights, with campaigns such as the new EU Copyright Directive, which did not fit such a strategy either; therefore, those actions were more difficult to measure and assess..

Therefore, in June 2019 we held a weekend meeting in Zaragoza, again involving board, staff and volunteers. There, after an analysis of our activity and a mapping of how other affiliates are organised, we decided to reorganize our programmes, in this same strategy, to three: content, community and institutional relations and public policy. What we are looking forward to in 2019:

Strategy

Wikimedia España envisions now a new period of growth for the organization, which includes putting in the centre of our organization the strategic concepts of Knowledge Equity and Knowledge as a Service. We are, though, limited by budget restrictions and difficulties to diversify our income beyond the Simple APG we receive from the Wikimedia Foundation. We would need to invest time and resources to support new functions such as specific chapter fundraising, community capacity building, structural changes or technological improvements and development. The truth is that we are at the limit of our capacity both in terms of human resources and budget. As things get more clear on the Movement Strategy process and the access to resources for Affiliates, we will put some efforts on trying to get external support and funding in 2020, to start an income diversifying process.

Staff

After our strategy meetings, we also saw we need to make some changes in our budget in order to being able to increase our staff salaries and other work conditions. This responds to the fact that we need to adjust salaries to labour market conditions, staff background and expertise as well as the level of responsibility and tasks staff executes. At the moment, our employees are underpaid and we don’t want to extend this situation on time any longer. Over the last few years we have prioritized increasing the impact of our programmes and activities. While we are still committed to that, we would like to focus on our HR and financial structures so we are adjusting our budget to make sure we retain our talent and apply best practices and fair salaries to our HR functions, as well as we redefine some internal and structural processes. .Regarding other conditions, we decided that one of our employees, Rubén Ojeda, who does not live in the city where the Wikimedia España headquarters is, will work in a coworking office, so that he is not forced to work from home.

Resources

Public Utility: we are working with external consultants to support us in the request of public utility statement/status and specially for bureaucratic tasks. In Spain, this status means important tax reduction for donors, and, at the same time, the social impact becomes greater. Technical tools and facilities: our staff have been working with their own laptops so far and this is another thing we would like to change ASAP as we understand we should provide them with their main working tool. As explained before, we are also renting a co-working space for one of them. Processes. As a part of the development of the organization, we plan to devote an important part of our efforts to process design, in order to optimize tasks and results.

Programs

Content

Why

Our first programme aims to develop projects and activities that favour the diversification of the contents of Wikimedia projects and improve the reliability and neutrality of existing contents. We seek to offer a more complete vision of knowledge, including voices that are usually not present in society or are under-represented, and that this knowledge is of quality to improve the experience of readers and achieve a better valuation as the main source of knowledge. Its activities are aimed at the general public, Wikimedia España members and volunteers.

Context

Since Wikimedia Spain was started in 2011, we have worked tirelessly in the implementation of projects and activities aimed at diversifying content in Wikimedia projects. We believe that such diversity is essential to aspire to collect the sum of human knowledge, in addition to enriching and complementing existing content. Initiatives such as editathons or challenges focused on reducing the content gap on women (more than 600 articles in the last two years), Wiki Takes in rural areas to obtain multimedia material (more than 12,000 images since 2015), online initiatives such as PESCAR dedicated to unusual topics (more than 700 articles in two years) or activities that promote the editing of content in languages other than Spanish (more than 500 articles in the last two years) have contributed to increase that necessary diversity.

In addition, we consider that these contents, in addition to being diverse, must be of quality. The Wikimedia projects are consulted by millions of people every day, by all sectors of society, with special emphasis on education, so it is vital that the information is reliable, neutral and relevant. Hence the work done through various initiatives and campaigns that seek to improve the quality of content.

How

In 2020 we plan to continue working on improving the diversity and quality of Wikimedia projects. Part of the existing programs in 2019 (Diversity, Multimedia, Education and GLAM) have been included in this Content program, whose work will revolve around 5 lines of work.

Gender Gap. Since we organised the first women's editathon in Spain in 2015, we have successfully worked every year to reduce the gender gap in Wikipedia, with new articles and new women contributors. In 2020 we plan to follow this line with various online writing challenges around various commemorations, such as Female Writers' Day or Women and Girls in Science Day.

In addition, given that 2020 was declared the year of nurses, we will seek to collaborate with the Official College of Nursing in order to organize sessions and activities to involve their professionals and generate content on Wikipedia on nurses.

Culture of Spain. Over the years we have seen that cultural content tends to take a back seat, receiving more prominence, for example, sports, current events or personalities. For this reason, we plan several online activities, some of them already habitual, like Wiki Loves Monuments or Wiki Loves Folk, to obtain multimedia material, and other new ones, like challenges of edition on museums, monuments and celebrations, with the objective, among others, to give use to the material obtained in the contests of photography.

We will also try to collaborate with different institutions, such as the Cervantes Institute, the Navy, the Royal Theatre or the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage to carry out initiatives related to this subject, involving both the institution and society.

Rural Heritage. For several years we have been working to make visible and increase the content on rural areas since, in the case of Spain, for decades have suffered a progressive state of abandonment and invisibilization, which affects a heritage often in danger of disappearing. Among the initiatives proposed are two online, such as the Wiki Loves Earth competition and the writing challenge on natural areas (again with the aim of using the images obtained in the competition), and two Wiki Takes, whose purpose will be to obtain multimedia material on municipalities without a previous photo in Commons. These last activities are part of the documentation project that we have been developing since 2015, No Spanish Municipality Without Photo, thanks to which we have already obtained more than 14,000 images and reduced the number of municipalities without photos from 2,295 to around 200 (end of 2019).

This work of documentation and visibility of the rural world will also seek the collaboration of institutions such as the Spanish Railways Foundation, the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing, or various museums focusing on dovecotes.

Encounter between cultures. In recent years we have carried out different initiatives focused on geographical areas not usually published in the most consulted languages in Spain, such as Asia, Africa or Oceania. Our forecast is to continue working on contents related to Asia and Africa, through online activities. In addition, the success of previous years encourages us to organize again Wiki Loves the Olympics, with the aim of increasing content on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, venues, sports, athletes, taking into account the diversity and cultural richness of these events, where different cultures are represented.

Quality. For several years we have been promoting and participating in campaigns such as 1lib1ref, with the aim of improving the quality of Wikipedia content, in this case improving its verifiability. Our aim for 2020 is to continue promoting this initiative; to this end, several sessions are planned, for example, with the Official College of Librarians and Documentalists of the Valencian Community, with whom we signed an agreement in 2019.

As well, we run sessions every two weeks in the Laboratorio Wikimedia in MediaLab Prado (Madrid) working on fact-checking data and misinformation analysis and this group is in contact with the research group of the Wikimedia Foundation.

In addition, with the aim of improving the quality of content, e.g. Wiktionary, and the diversification of files in Commons, we will continue to promote the creation of audio or video files through initiatives such as Lingua Libre.

Objectives

Decrease the knowledge gaps about Spain and geographical areas typically not well covered in the languages of Spain
Increase the diversity of multimedia content, like audio and video files in several languages and infographics, on Wikimedia Commons
Release free materials from diverse GLAM institutions

Metrics

At least 1000 Wikipedia articles related to knowledge gaps (eg. rural world, women)
At least 600 audio/video files on Wikimedia Commons
Release free material from three different GLAM institutions that was not previously available on the Wikimedia projects

Community

Why

The second program aims to strengthen our community through two aspects; on the one hand, since our members are volunteers, we consider it essential that they receive support, both financial and formative, to improve their contribution to the Wikimedia movement, both personally and collectively, as it will strengthen their local communities with the involvement of new volunteers and new projects. On the other hand, we seek to diversify our community so that different voices, coming from different contexts, can contribute their vision and experience to the growth and strengthening of the Wikimedia movement.

We consider it essential to facilitate the organization and implementation of initiatives by volunteers and institutions, without having to depend entirely on, for example, the board or staff.

Existing resources developed by other chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation are not always adapted to our local context or languages therefore the chapter should work to fix it.

Context

In the last two years, parallel to the process of redefining our strategy, and based on conversations with members and staff from institutions, we have valued the importance of working on training for members, board,members, volunteers and institutions to enable them to acquire experience and knowledge that can then be applied between their communities.

Geographical decentralization is one of the characteristics of Wikimedia Spain, which brings various advantages and opportunities, such as working directly with a larger number of institutions and collectives and reaching a wider and more diverse audience.

In the past we have explored the different resources and courses like Wikipuentes (WMAR), Green House (WMF), audiovisual material by Wikimedia Chile, Learning Days during Wikimania and board training after the Wikimedia Summit, and courses from external institutions.

How

Our 2020 plan revolves around three key axes: training, support and diversity. Training for volunteers and staff of institutions will focus on organizing capacity building sessions that will include previously developed materials on how to organize and manage activities, use of tools, communication, etc.).

Support volunteers to attend international events such as Wikimania and the various thematic meetings held throughout the year (Celtic Knot, Hackaton, education and GLAM events, etc.) like it has been done in previous years. We plan to continue the development of knowledge, maintaining the obligation of the scholarship recipients to report on how this scholarship helped them to better contribute to the Wikimedia movement and their local communities. Diversity: In our annual conference we will continue to offer different types of sessions, such as workshops, presentations, debates, in which the local community has a main role, therefore as a way of empowering those communities and offering training to members and volunteers.

Editathons and similar events are dedicated to increasing the number of collaborators from under-represented communities, with specific training and networking sessions. In previous years we have worked with women and older people, and our plan for 2020 is to continue this line, trying to attract other communities and involve them in both Wikimedia and Wikimedia España projects.

To this end, we will explore the collaboration of various institutions, such as the Colegio Oficial de Doctores y Licenciados en Filosofía y Letras de Madrid, the Swedish Embassy and the National Library, for the organisation of activities around various commemorations, such as Women's Day, Women Writers' Day or Women and girls in Science Day.

Objectives

Increase the number of contributors from under-represented communities in Wikimedia projects, like older people, women and people from rural areas.
Broaden the training and experience of members and institutions through the development of training programmes

Metrics

250 contributors from under-represented communities.
50 people participating in training sessions.
At least 70% of satisfaction after training session among participants.

Institutional Relations and Public Policy

Why

Our 3rd program aims at shaping favorable policies to boost and protect free knowledge as well as increasing the scope of our projects by getting more support and resources for our chapter and its activities. With this program we merge our advocacy and public policy efforts with our work to help partner institutions embrace free knowledge and open practices. The activities under this program targets: general public, media, partners, policy makers and potential donors.

According to some activities we have been involved in within the last one year and a half, we have understood the importance of working on digital rights, advocacy and public policies and also the positive impact this work has on our organization. It is key to raise awareness about free knowledge and the fragility of the ecosystem where it operates, which we understand as one of our major tasks as a non-profit representing the Wikimedia movement in Spain. That’s the reason why we are implementing the new Institutional Relations and Public Policy Program, which will help us follow the lead on digital rights advocacy that the Wikimedia Movement has already started.

Context

In 2018, we started allocating time (mainly from our Communications Manager) to activities such as the EU Copyright reform and the effects it will have on our projects and community. This time allocation intensified in 2019 with several EU Advocacy efforts and special focus on the final vote for the EU Copyright Directive resulting on an invitation to speak up on a debate at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg. Besides, we also got engaged on a few more actions such as:

Partnering up with other digital related non-profits and developing 46 measures for the Public Administration in Valladolid (the city our fiscal entity is based) to improve their use of technology thanks to free software, free hardware and free knowledge recommendations.
Co-hosting, together with the Foundation’s legal team, the 1st Wikimedia Workshop on Public Policy, which took place in Madrid in June 2019 and had about 15 wikimedians from across the movement.
Starting a working line to analyse how desinformation makes its way to Wikipedia and how we can identify it and neutralise it.
Taking part in the working group representing “organized population” for the Basque Country Public Administration. We are involved in the Open Government Partnership, and help to select new datasets to increase the amount of open data available for citizens.
Collaborating with CIECODE to help improve their Political Watch tool “TiPi Ciudadano”, including digital rights and Internet freedom concepts into their dictionary for political transparency in Spain.

We also realized that some GLAM and other institutions we already work with are not always sufficiently aware of free knowledge ecosystem.

How

As a result of this, we have realized that we are able to build new and stronger partnerships, at the same time as we raise awareness and gain visibility for Wikimedia and its values. With this work on advocacy we contribute to shaping public policies that allow people to access, create, share and remix free knowledge and we protect our community from eventual legal threats that compromise the objectives of the Free Knowledge Movement. This work helps us raise awareness about the Wikimedia Projects for both institutions and society, and it gives visibility to the amazing job our community is carrying out. It also helps us get closer to our mission statement while we better understand the ecosystem we work in and we are better understood by our partners. The focus of this program is not only influencing public policy to support free knowledge, as it also includes expanding our efforts when advocating for free knowledge in current and future partnerships with cultural and educational institutions.

For that reason, and having in mind actual social discussions around themes like authorship or net neutrality, we are planning to allocate more time and resources to our Public Policy and Advocacy work on 2020. Next year, we will mainly focus on the 3 following working lines:

Shaping EU Copyright Transposition in Spain and EU Advocacy work. We will continue advocating for free knowledge within the Spanish and European public policy and legislative field.

Fighting disinformation. We have created a new working group within the chapter that involves staff and volunteers that are interested in researching and finding solutions to address this issue. We plan to develop a specific working line on disinformation, which includes partnerships with organizations such as Xnet. We have also redefined our Laboratorio Wikimedia in Medialab-Prado to work in this line with a focus on verifying information in Wikipedia.

Serving as a hub for Spanish speaking content on Public Policy within the movement. After our EU Copyright work and the co-organization of the Wikimedia Public Policy Workshop in Madrid, we have been giving informal support to some Spanish-speaking chapters or user groups. We plan to better coordinate this work by sharing and adapting more Public Policy resources.

We will also continue working on supporting and enable other organisations to adopt more open policies and practices, promoting and facilitating changes towards open knowledge.

Objectives

Building partnerships with institutions, participating in major events and working on advocacy to raise awareness and dissemination of free knowledge.
Increase awareness and support for our public policy agenda.
Working in coordination with partners to identify the largest barriers to producing and accessing free knowledge and contributing to create changes in policy and practice that support the vision of the Wikimedia Movement.

Metrics

As a new program, we still need to put time into measuring, comparing and evaluating our public policy work. As a first attempt, we will measure our progress in the following areas:

Participation in at least 12 meetings with lawmakers, allies, media and other stakeholders, with the aim of enforcing Wikimedia’s values within public policy conversations or expanding free knowledge opportunities.
Setting up a Spanish coalition with at least 2 other organizations to support our work on the national transposition of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive.