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Zie het Wikimedia Foundation Board Handboek Deze pagina is verouderd. Het wordt bewaard uit historisch belang. We zullen alleen updates aanbrengen in het hierboven genoemde handboek. |
Deze pagina geeft een introductie van de missie, projecten en activiteiten van de Wikimedia Foundation, evenals de rollen en verantwoordelijkheden van de Raad van Bestuur, het personeel van de Foundation en onze gemeenschap. Het is voornamelijk bedoeld als bron voor potentiële en nieuwe beheerders, maar kan ook dienen als referentie voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in het leren over de organisatie en het bestuur van de Foundation.
Algemene informatie
De Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) biedt infrastructuur, juridische, fondsenwervende en administratieve ondersteuning aan Wikipedia en andere vrije kennisprojecten. De Foundation, gevestigd in San Francisco, Californië, is een liefdadigheidsorganisatie zonder winstoogmerk opgericht in 2003 met 501(c)(3) belastingvrije status in de Verenigde Staten. De Foundation publiceert haar jaarverslag, statuten, financiële overzichten en jaarlijkse IRS-openbaarmakingen op wikimediafoundation.org.
Visie
- Zie Visie (Engels) (vertaling)
De visie van de Foundation in hoofdlijnen is: "Vind een wereld waarin ieder mens vrij kan delen van de som van alle kennis. Dat is onze verplichting".
Projecten
De Foundation ondersteunt Wikipedia, de online encyclopedie. Vanaf de oprichting van Wikipedia in januari 2001 en de oprichting van de Wikimedia Foundation in juni 2003 is onze groei zeer snel gegaan. De Engelstalige Wikipedia, ons eerste project, is gegroeid van 135.000 artikelen ten tijde van de oprichting van de Foundation tot meer dan 4 miljoen artikelen vandaag. Wikipedia's bestaan in 285 talen, variërend in grootte van miljoenen artikelen tot minder dan 10.
De Foundation voert ook andere projecten uit, waaronder Wikimedia Commons (een opslagplaats van gratis afbeeldingen en andere media), Wiktionary (een woordenboek), Wikisource (een originele bronrepository), Wikiquote (citaten), Wikibooks (gezamenlijk geschreven boeken), Wikinews (burgerjournalistiek), Wikispecies (taxonomische soorteninformatie), en Wikiversiteit (curriculumontwikkeling). Al deze projecten zijn beschikbaar in verschillende taalversies, behalve Commons (dat alle talen bedient) en Wikispecies (dat Latijnse namen gebruikt). Van de meeste projecten worden nieuwe taalversies ontwikkeld in de Wikimedia Incubator, maar Beta Wikiversity en Oude Wikisource worden gebruikt als meertalige hubs en nieuwe projectontwikkelingsruimtes voor respectievelijk Wikiversity en Wikisource.
Impact
Een van de grootste bedrijven voor online publieksmeting, comScore, Inc., schat dat elke maand meer dan 400 miljoen mensen onze projecten bekijken, wat naar schatting een bereik is van ongeveer 30% van de wereldwijde pc-gebaseerde internetgebruikers. comScore vermeldt ons als de #5 webeigendom na Google, Microsoft, Yahoo en Facebook.
Technologie
We gebruiken open source software en een zeer efficiënte technologische infrastructuur om onze projecten uit te voeren tegen een fractie van de kosten van andere grote webgebruikers. De primaire applicatie voor onze projecten is MediaWiki, een open source wiki-softwaretoepassing die de Foundation actief ontwikkelt en ondersteunt via een handvol ontwikkelaars in dienst en ongeveer 180 leden van de gemeenschap die rechtstreeks code kunnen bijdragen aan de versie beheer repository. We gebruiken de LAMP stack (Linux-besturingssysteem, Apache webserver, MySQL-database, en PHP), aangevuld met extra open source technologie, waaronder PowerDNS, memcached, Lucene, Linux Virtuele Servers en Inktvis caches. Onze database en applicatieservers bevinden zich in Tampa, Florida en we hebben ook lokale caches in Amsterdam, Nederland.
Financiën
Financiering voor de Foundation komt voornamelijk uit kleine donaties van particulieren. Tijdens de 8 weken durende jaarlijkse inzamelingsactie van 2009 hebben meer dan 230.000 donateurs van over de hele wereld bijdragen geleverd van gemiddeld $35 per stuk, waarmee meer dan $8 miljoen werd opgehaald. Ook ontvangen wij een beperkt aantal grote giften van particulieren en instellingen. Ons jaarplan voor het fiscale jaar dat eindigt in juni 2010 is iets meer dan $10 miljoen aan uitgaven, waaronder serverhardware, bandbreedte, software-engineering, handelsmerken en andere juridische kwesties, boekhoudkundige en financiële zaken, administratieve ondersteuning en fondsenwerving. KPMG is onze onafhankelijke auditor.
Juridische omgeving
De Wikimedia Foundation en onze projecten behandelen een breed scala aan juridische kwesties, waaronder:
- Licenties voor inhoud. Het algemene principe is dat inhoud op onze projecten kan worden hergebruikt, ook voor commerciële doeleinden, zolang afgeleide werken worden toegeschreven aan de oorspronkelijke auteurs (meestal gedaan via een link naar de geschiedenispagina van een artikel) en zolang afgeleide werken worden verspreid onder dezelfde licentie als het origineel. Specifieke vrije kennis licenties die onze projecten gebruiken zijn onder andere de Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licentie.
- Auteursrechten. Onze community is doorgaans sterk zelfregulerend als het gaat om kwesties met betrekking tot auteursrechtschendingen. We beschouwen onze projecten als opererend onder de veilige havenbescherming van de Digital Millennium Copyright Act in de VS en soortgelijke wetten in Europa en wereldwijd.
- Handelsmerken. Wij werken actief aan de registratie en bescherming van onze commercieel belangrijke handelsmerken wereldwijd, bijvoorbeeld de naam "Wikipedia" en de bijbehorende grafische merken.
- Juridische ondersteuning. We krijgen hulp van de Electronic Frontier Foundation, advocatenkantoren, waaronder Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, de juridische academische gemeenschap en anderen.
Nieuws krijgen
Er zijn verschillende bronnen voor nieuws over de projecten. Binnen de gemeenschap zijn er onder meer:
- De Foundation, verschillende groepen en de Wikimedia-verenigingen brengen rapporten uit; Deze worden hier verzameld
- http://blog.wikimedia.org/, de blog van de Foundation
- Wikipedia Signpost, een langlopende wekelijkse door de gemeenschap geschreven krant, gebaseerd op de Engelstalige Wikipedia, maar met betrekking tot alle projecten. Soortgelijke nieuwsbriefprojecten bestaan in verschillende talen, bijvoorbeeld Duits.
- Planet Wikimedia, een verzameling van blogs van deelnemers aan het Wikimedia-project.
Aanvullende achtergrond
- Geschiedenis van Wikipedia (Engels)
- Kritiek op Wikipedia (Engels)
- Wikistats, een van de centrale clearinghouses van gegevens over onze projecten.
- Er zijn een handvol boeken gepubliceerd over Wikipedia en MediaWiki, inclusief tutorials en over de vroege geschiedenis van Wikipedia.
Informatie over Bestuur
Samenstelling
- Zie de officiële lijst van huidige leden van het Bestuur of deze pagina voor informatie over voormalige bestuursleden
De meerderheid van de tien zetels in de Raad van Bestuur komt uit de gemeenschap:
- Drie trustees worden in oneven jaren door de gemeenschap gekozen voor een termijn van twee jaar. Verkiezingen worden op internet gehouden door een directe stemming van leden van de gemeenschap. Zie de Verkiezingen site voor informatie over verkiezingen, inclusief kandidatenpresentaties.
- Twee worden in even jaren door de verenigingen benoemd voor een termijn van twee jaar
- Een daarvan is de oprichter van onze gemeenschap. Onze oprichter zal worden benoemd voor een termijn van twee jaar, te beginnen in 2012.
- Vier worden door de beheerders van de gemeenschap benoemd voor een termijn van twee jaar om alle nodige expertise te bieden. Twee zullen worden benoemd voor een termijn van twee jaar in oneven jaren (beginnend in 2011) en twee in even jaren (beginnend in 2012) om deze zetels te spreiden.
De ideale Raad heeft een mix van vaardigheden: het bestaat uit grote denkers en leiders, publieke figuren, non-profit veteranen en experts op gebieden als fondsbevordering, boekhoudkundige of juridische zaken. Het is cultureel divers, wat de diversiteit weerspiegelt die zich in de projectgemeenschappen van de Foundation bevindt. Het neemt het bedrijfsleven ernstig en inspireert tegelijkertijd het personeel en de gemeenschap om te streven naar ambitieuze maar realistische langetermijndoelen.
De rol van een bestuurslid is vrijwillig en onbetaald. Het is niet altijd de meest opwindende of lonende positie die men zich kan voorstellen. Veel van het werk gaat onopgemerkt; sommige zijn zeer vertrouwelijk en sommige puur administratief. Aan de andere kant is het een unieke kans om een verschil te maken in een van de meest culturele belangrijke organisaties op de planeet.
Rollen en verantwoordelijkheden
- Uit Rol bestuurslid
De Raad van Bestuur is de bestuursinstantie van de Wikimedia Foundation. De verantwoordelijkheden van de Raad zijn onder meer:
- het bepalen van de missie, doelen, langetermijnplannen en beleid op hoog niveau van de WMF en haar projecten
- het selecteren van de uitvoerend directeur van de WMF, die toezicht houdt op de dagelijkse activiteiten, en het evalueren van zijn of haar prestaties
- het waarborgen van de duurzaamheid van de organisatie door het definiëren van een aantal onafhankelijke inkomstenbronnen
- communiceren over de richting en de activiteiten van de WMF naar de gemeenschap
- Toezicht houden op het personeel met betrekking tot boekhouding, budgettering en programma's
- het handhaven van juridische en ethische integriteit
- Werven en oriënteren van nieuwe bestuursleden
- het verwoorden in het openbaar van de missie van de WMF
De verantwoordelijkheden van de raad zijn niet:
- interfereren in de dagelijkse activiteiten, behalve in noodsituaties
- het vaststellen van redactioneel beleid op projectniveau van Wikimedia
- het oplossen van fundamentele gemeenschapsgeschillen
- vrijwilligerswerk op specifieke gebieden van het reguliere organisatiewerk van de WMF
Kenmerken van effectieve bestuursleden:
Zie ook Eigenschappen van een goed WMF-bestuurslid
- Strategic – .e.g., to provide long term direction
- Thoughtful – e.g., to avoid being reactionary to controversial issues
- High integrity – e.g., to put the interests of the foundation as a whole over personal or specific constituent interests
- Responsive – e.g., to email requests from other trustees
- Follow through – e.g., to complete tasks such as committee assignments as committed.
- Respectful – e.g., to listen carefully to other trustees' points-of-view even as they may differ from one's own
- Collaborative – e.g., to partner with other trustees and the Executive Director on the Board's work
We have provided our 2010 Trustee evaluation questionnaire to further explain the characteristics of effective trustees.
The Board has four officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer). Typically, the Chair and Vice-Chair are positions held by Board members while the Secretary and Treasurer roles might be held by staff members. Each year, the Board also appoints trustees to assume roles on the Board's three committees, including chairs of each committee.
Meetings and operations
The trustees now meet face-to-face three-four times a year, approximately in January, March (at the Chapters Meeting), July/August (at Wikimania), and October. Meetings typically last two days on a Friday and Saturday including evening activities. Some trustees arrive early or stay late to hold additional meetings (e.g. Committee meetings, meetings with Foundation staff). Some in-person meetings are held at the Foundation's headquarters in San Francisco, while others are held in various locations worldwide. Trustees may request reimbursement of expenses, per the Travel policy and the Travel Approval Policy. In addition to the in-person meetings, the board occasionally holds IRC and/or teleconference meetings if issues require attention prior to an in-person meeting.
Minutes are typically kept when the trustees meet, are drafted/reviewed at the Board wiki Meetings page, and then published on the Foundation website minutes page. Resolutions are drafted/reviewed on the Board wiki resolutions page and published on the Foundation website resolutions page. Policies are drafted/reviewed on the Board wiki Policies page and then published on the Foundation website Policies page.
The Foundation has Directors and officers liability insurance from Ace American Insurance Company.
Resolutions and voting
Once a Trustee proposes a resolution for consideration, a 2-week discussion and revision period begins. This can be extended one week at a time if enough Trustees request it, or at the discretion of the Chair. At the end of the discussion period, once a second Trustee moves to vote, a 1-week voting period begins. This can also be extended by a week if needed. As of 2012, and sporadically before then, how each Trustee voted is noted on the published resolution.
Completed resolutions are published promptly after the vote's conclusion, though there is sometimes an embargo period while groups affected by the resolution are informed. For details, see the policy on Board deliberations.
Expectations of trustees
Time commitment
Being a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation is a significant time commitment. The three to four annual in-person board meetings are held on weekends, in various international locations, resulting in a commitment of at least 10–12 days a year (including travel). The Board also communicates intensively via e-mail, wiki, and IRC, typically requiring at least a few hours each week in addition to in-person meetings and travel. Individual trustees sometimes participate in strategic meetings with other organizations and companies. Individual trustees typically also get involved in Board committees or task forces on certain issues (e.g. Wikimania, audit, fundraising, legal, etc.) and help draft policies, charters and resolutions.
Confidentiality
To support the open exchange of information and ideas, trustees are encouraged to speak frankly to one another. Additionally, trustees are in a privileged position with regard to private information about donors as well as other confidential information. For these reasons, in addition to the general confidentiality clause in the Foundation Code of Conduct (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct_Policy), trustees agree that during or after their terms on the Board they will not disclose confidential information or use confidential information for their own benefit or the benefit of others, unless the Foundation has given express written permission.
Conflicts of interest
Because trustees are in a privileged position with regard to the Foundation and its projects, they are expected to carry out their responsibilities with the highest degree of integrity and to avoid all real and perceived conflicts of interest. Trustees are expected to adhere to the general Foundation Conflict of Interest policy (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest_policy). Additionally, trustees fill out and maintain Conflict of Interest questionnaires, which can be found on the Board wiki Policies page.
Fiduciary duties
Like a trustee of any organization, the trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation have fiduciary duties:
- The duty of care requires that trustees act honestly, in good faith and with a reasonable amount of diligence and care, on a fully informed basis and in a deliberative manner. It generally requires that trustees exercise the care of an ordinarily prudent person in similar circumstances.
- The duty of loyalty requires that trustees act in the best interest of the Foundation without the influence of any conflicting interest, including any personal interest or any interest of any other person or organization, including Wikimedia chapters. This duty requires that trustees be both independent and disinterested. To be independent, trustee decisions must be based solely on the merits of the issue rather than on extraneous considerations or influences. To be disinterested, trustees must neither appear on both sides of the transaction nor expect to derive any personal financial benefit.
Trustees must act in the best interests of the Foundation and its projects. Under the Board selection procedures, trustees are elected or appointed by different communities or appointed by the Board directly. Nevertheless, a trustee's fiduciary duties are owed to all of the Foundation, not to the specific group that elected or appointed the trustee.
Other expectations
- Trustees are expected to know the Foundation bylaws and policies and to be familiar with all projects and initiatives so that they can play an effective oversight role.
- Trustees are expected to participate fully in all Board activities.
- Trustees are expected to miss no more than one of the planned in-person Board meetings and are expected to participate in at least two-thirds of online Board meetings in any calendar year.
- Trustees are expected to communicate promptly to the Board Chair if, for any reason, they cannot continue serving on the Board.
- Because the identity of trustees is a matter of public record, it is not possible to hold a position on the Board of Trustees anonymously or under a pseudonym.
- In contrast to many U.S. foundations, trustees are not expected to bring personal money to the organization though they are welcome to help raise funds.
- Occasionally, a trustee will need to resign her/his position on the board. In this situation, it is desirable that the trustee provide as much notice as possible (3–6 months) to allow sufficient time for a search to occur to replace the trustee. While desirable, circumstances will not always enable such notice (e.g. Health, family, job change). In these circumstances the board will appreciate whatever notice the trustee is able to provide.
Board committees
There are currently three formal Board committees. See below for additional staff and community committees that may receive counsel from the Board.
Audit Committee
- See Audit committee
The Audit Committee represents the Board in its oversight of financial and accounting issues, providing advice and counsel based on the experience of Committee members in business, financial and accounting matters. It also serves as Board-level oversight of the relationship with the independent auditor (currently KPMG). Audit Committee members serve one-year terms, typically beginning in May or June each year. The Audit Committee is typically chaired by a trustee who has financial expertise and may include other trustees, representatives from the community, the advisory board, or other outside advisers.
Human Resource Committee
The Human Resource Committee evaluates the overall performance of the Executive Director and conducts a year-end evaluation. It also administers the Executive Director's salary and any performance-related compensation. Finally, it works with the Executive Director to set overall compensation philosophy for Foundation staff. It consists of three trustees, including the Chair.
Board Governance Committee
- See WMF Board Governance Committee (BCG) and BGC charter
The Board Governance Committee (BGC) is responsible for ensuring that the Board effectively fulfills its responsibilities. The BGC administers officer elections, Board committee appointments, Board needs (skills, experience) and trustee evaluations (via a 3rd party), trustee appointment process (for appointed trustees) and other activities relating to general Board effectiveness.
- Note: A Nominating Committee previously assisted the Board in filling out its membership with additional expertise to better oversee the Foundation. The Board decided to replace the Nominating Committee with a new process to locate and vet potential appointed trustees. The new process includes the administration (by a third party) of an annual trustee survey to assess board needs and individual trustee performance. If the survey suggests a need for one or more new appointed trustees (new skills or experiences), a search firm will be engaged to assist in writing the specification for the desired trustee, solicit recommendations for trustees that meet this specification (from the Community, Foundation staff, Advisory Board, Governing Board, and other sources), screen potential candidates and manage the interview process.
How the trustees communicate
Email and mailing lists
Email is the primary way that trustees stay in touch. New trustees can use an "@wikimedia.org" email address to help manage Wikimedia messages. New trustees should be automatically added to the private board list. Other mailing lists that a trustee may consider joining include:
- WikimediaAnnounce-l, a moderated public email list for notable updates and reports from representatives of the world-wide Wikimedia movement. WikimediaAnnounce-l Sign-up, WikimediaAnnounce-l Archive
- Wikimedia-l, a public list focused on foundation and cross-project issues with frequently impassioned participation from the more vocal members of our community. This is "the list of record" for communicating news about the Foundation to the community. Wikimedia-l Sign-up, Wikimedia-l Archive, Wikimedia-l list summary (erratic)
- Wikitech-l, a public list for discussion of technical matters across the projects. Wikitech-l Sign-up, Wikitech-l Archive.
- Internal-l, a private list for chapter leadership and staff to coordinate chapter-related activities. Talk to one of the other trustees for access.
- The Communications Committee's private list for discussion and alerts of press and public inquiries. Talk to one of the other trustees for access.
- In addition, there are many mailing lists for specific projects, local groups, etc; a full list can be found at Mailing lists or at https://lists.wikimedia.org.
Wikis
We use a variety of wikis as a community and as a Board including:
- a public Meta-Wiki, where much of the discussion around community-wide cross-project issues occurs. There is a lot of information and discussion throughout Meta and it's worth exploring.
- a private internal wiki, used by chapter leadership and staff to coordinate chapter-related activities.
- a private Board wiki.
- the Foundation's website, http://wikimediafoundation.org, typically used for publishing final versions of documents, with discussion/drafting happening on Meta or the board wiki.
Blogs
We use blogs including:
- Wikimedia Blog, the Foundation's official blog.
- Planet Wikimedia, an aggregation of blogs by Wikimedia project participants.
IRC
We communicate over IRC, a multi-user chat program (more at the IRC article on Wikipedia). Because many people can converse in IRC at once, and it is free and easily accessible, the WMF uses it for both informal communication (such as the social channels) and occasionally for formal meetings. You can find more information about WMF IRC channels on Meta. The two channels most likely to interest trustees are #wikimedia and #wikimedia-internal. To use IRC, you have to install a client; Chatzilla is an easy IRC program to install for the Firefox browser.
Foundation organization
The Staff
- See Staff listing
The Wikimedia Foundation has a small paid staff working in San Francisco, California. Several staff also work from Florida and overseas. Everyone else involved with the projects is a volunteer. You can find job descriptions of current staff members and open jobs on the Foundation website. All staff members are under the authority of an Executive Director.
Our current Executive Director is Sue Gardner. She started working for the Foundation in June 2007. She regularly reports to the board of trustees, the staff, and the community; an archive of these reports (now monthly Foundation reports) is available here. She also regularly provides more detailed reports to the Board (typically during Board meetings). The Executive Director is not a trustee.
Staff committees
The Foundation staff may create committees, which are typically led by a member of the staff and may include representatives from the community, advisory board, staff, board, or outside advisers. Past committees include the Technical Committee and Fundraising Committee, which are not currently active. The following are the currently active Staff Committees:
Communications Committee
The ComCom's tasks are:
- Coordinating communications with the press, including press releases, interviews, and inquiries.
- Supporting communication between the Wikimedia Foundation and project communities.
- Organizing and coordinating publicity and outreach.
- Supporting and overseeing communication with the general public.
- Maintaining a Wikimedia style guide.
- Reporting on core Wikimedia statistics.
The comcom uses a private mailing list to communicate.
Research Committee
Created on August 25, 2010 by the WMF staff.
Grant Advisory Committee
Founded in June 2011.
Advisory Board
- See Advisory Board
The Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation was approved in 2006, and formed at the start of 2007. It is an international network of experts who have agreed to give the Foundation meaningful help on a regular basis in many areas, including law, organizational development, technology, policy, and outreach. Their abilities, experience, and knowledge were selected for how they complement a particular Foundation project, or the organization as a whole. The Board appoints people to the Advisory Board and confirms re-appointments.
Community
The "community", as defined within Wikimedia, are those people that put time into working on Wikimedia projects. This means that everyone from article editors to MediaWiki developers are community members. Many community members only participate in online activities, such as working on Wikipedia, while a handful participate in both real-life and online activities around the projects. There is a wide diversity in the types of activities people take on; while some may only work on articles, others concern themselves with the policies and processes governing the projects, while others may engage in "Foundation-level" work such as outreach and publicity (or a combination of all of these). References to the "core community" tend to mean those people who are also interested in Foundation and governance issues and are thus visible in discussions about same. There is no formal definition of who makes up the community, though "asking the community" about proposals generally means posting on wiki village pumps, posting to the mailing lists (e.g. wikimedia-l), posting on Meta, etc. Many community members have been around since the early days of Wikipedia and have weathered nearly endless debates about how the organization should be run. The most vocal community members, however (such as those who post on mailing lists, etc.) do not necessarily represent the more quiet majority of editors and volunteers, so it is important to solicit feedback in a wide variety of places. "Joining the community" is as simple as lending a hand, whether by editing or doing other work, and being inclusive to new participants is a core Wikimedia value.
Wikimedia local chapters
The Wikimedia projects have an international scope, and their outreach has already made a significant impact throughout the world. To continue this success on an organizational level, Wikimedia is building an international network of associated organizations. Local chapters are self-dependent organizations that share the goals of the Wikimedia Foundation and support them within a specified geographical region. They support the Wikimedia Foundation, the Wikimedia community and the Wikimedia projects in different ways – by collecting donations, organizing local events and projects and spreading the word of Wikimedia, Free Content and Wiki culture. They also provide the community and potential partners with a point of contact capable of fulfilling specific local needs. The chapters share a private mailing list (internal-l) and a wiki (http://internal.wikimedia.org).
Active Community Committees
The Board recognizes certain Community Committees, which are typically led by a community member and may include representatives from the community, advisory board, staff, board, or outside advisers. The following are currently recognized Community Committees:
Affiliations Committee
Affiliations Committee (formerly known as Chapters Committee or ChapCom, colloquially AffCom) is a Wikimedia community committee entrusted with advising the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees on the approval of new movement affiliates: national or subnational chapters, thematic organisations and user groups. It operates with a private mailing list (affcom) and a wiki (http://chapcom.wikimedia.org).
Language Committee
The Language Committee is charged with developing a clear policy and documentation for new language projects and their proposal, processing those requests, and supporting and coordinating new projects to optimize their success. Reading this email might provide additional insights.
Elections Committee
During community elections, the Board typically appoints committees to manage the election process.
Ombudsman Commission
The Ombudsman Commission is tasked with investigating complaints about violations of the privacy policy on any Wikimedia project.
Annual conference
Wikimania is the Wikimedia community's annual international conference, typically held in July or August. It is run and organized by local volunteers in the host city, with the support of volunteers around the world, and organizational and fiscal support from the Wikimedia Foundation and other sponsors.
The first Wikimania was held in Frankfurt, Germany; subsequent events have been held in the U.S., Taiwan, Egypt, Argentina, Poland, and Israel. The conference location is chosen by a team of volunteers known as a Wikimania jury, which evaluates community bids from various locations. See Wikimania venue selection for an overview of the process.
Meetups and events
There are also a large number of Wikimedia-related events that happen across the globe, and many less-formal meetups among editors and community members. A very incomplete list of events can be found on Meta, while a (similarly incomplete) list of meetups may be found on the English Wikipedia; the interwiki links from that page lead to meetup pages in other languages.