The Signpost

News and notes

Katherine Maher named interim head of WMF; Wales email re-sparks Heilman controversy; draft WMF strategy posted

The draft WMF strategy has been posted on Meta and is open for feedback:

The posted strategy statement focuses on three points, corresponding to the three previously defined challenges of "reach", "communities" and "knowledge":

  1. We will better understand and respond to the needs of our global users so that more people can share in free knowledge.
    • Key points: understanding whether users are looking for general or in-depth information, what hardware they are using, improving the user experience, especially in mobile (web and app) contexts, and engaging readers in countries and communities with low Wikimedia awareness.
  2. We will increase volunteer retention and engagement through improved programs, experiences, and resources.
    • Key points: investigating ways to increase volunteer retention and engagement (including mentoring, training, support and outreach programs and identifying ways to recognize volunteer contributions).
  3. We will increase and diversify knowledge by developing high-priority curation and creation tools for user needs.
    • Key points: addressing technical and experiential barriers to contributing such as complex interfaces and workflows, especially on mobile, and facilitating high-volume contributions from GLAM institutional partners.

The page on Meta contains further details and rationales relating to these three generic goals, and explains how priorities identified during the community consultation fed into them.

The draft strategy will be open for community comment and feedback until March 18th. The incorporation of this feedback is scheduled to take place between March 18th and April 1st; any major changes resulting from this feedback will be highlighted in the final draft.

The Wikimedia Foundation will use the month of March to finalize its draft 2016–2017 Annual Plan. The plan will be based on the proposed strategy, incorporating initiatives and work projects believed to have the greatest impact on these strategic approaches. The Wikimedia Foundation's draft annual plan will be submitted for comment by April 1st.

On the topic of mobile accessibility – a key point in the draft strategy – see also the Signpost's report on the new Wikipedia iOS app, in this week's "In the media" section. AK


















Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-03-09/News_and_notes