Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-07-22/News from the WMF

Nataliia Tymkiv (antanana or NTymkiv (WMF) on here) is the chair of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees.

Dear all,

As we await the outcome from all stakeholders who voted on the draft Movement Charter ratification, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met on Monday, July 8, to discuss and cast the Foundation’s vote.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am sharing the results of that vote, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.

The proposed charter represents a tremendous amount of work done by the Drafting Committee, alongside several others. The creation of a charter was one of several recommendations to come from the Movement Strategy process alongside the Strategic Direction that continues to guide the Wikimedia Foundation.

At the same time, the vote on the proposed charter has provided an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what has changed – and continues to change – since the original Movement Strategy process started in 2018. The Foundation has tried to consistently identify these issues in its annual plan, strategic planning priorities, and elsewhere. They include numerous and growing external threats (and some opportunities) of a rapidly changing and fragmenting internet – from the nature of search to the rise of generative AI. We have also seen an increase in global regulations of content and platforms that have an impact on our people and our projects. Furthermore, our collective resources have not been growing as quickly as we had seen in prior periods. This has required more clarity on priorities, trade-offs, and pragmatism.

It is because of these myriad challenges and complex realities that clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement is more, not less, important. That is why the Board and the Foundation have been cautiously assessing how best to move forward at this point, after providing significant support to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee in undertaking this task.

Our hope is to take solutions from the intent of the draft charter and consider where a future Global Council may be able to provide benefits to us all. We believe that this can only be done through concrete, practical, and time-bound next steps, based on the areas identified in the final draft charter text, rather than a wholesale adoption of the proposed charter in its final form.

Therefore, in the Special Board meeting this week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter. You can read the full Board resolution and minutes of the meeting.

The Board also approved a way forward, including three experiments that the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia affiliates, and community members can jointly conduct in the three areas identified in the proposed Movement Charter to be taken on by a future Global Council. The outlines of the proposals are included in the resolution in the Appendix with concrete proposals for these key areas. These include experiments designed to test the feasibility of proposals related to resource distribution, technology advancement, and support of Wikimedia movement organizations. Solutions for these collaborative experiments should be designed for co-ownership and build on the capabilities of the entire Wikimedia movement. And the comments received with the votes during the ratification would help shape these proposals more.

As of this writing, 2,451 individual voters participated and 129 affiliate votes were cast, meeting the quorum for both groups. By July 24, the outcome of these votes along with comments will be published so that any proposed next steps can benefit from the input, reflections, and recommendations of all voters. It is important to listen to the feedback that has been provided through this process before taking further steps.

Following that, we shall ask for help in the coming months designing spaces on- and off-wiki to request more feedback and improvements to the specific proposals being offered to help us now move forward together. Some of this can happen at Wikimania for those planning to attend, as we shall also be offering our formal thanks at Wikimania to the Movement Charter Drafting Committee members for their work.

To provide any comments in the meantime, please leave a comment on the main talk page of the appendix on Meta. Alternatively, you can request a conversation as a part of Talking:2024. You can use the Let's Talk to sign up for a time to speak with me and/or other trustees.

Best regards,

antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv

Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees