[Upd-discuss] Strategic plan for Wikimedia movement

[Andrius Kulikauskas]

I was using Wikipedia today and saw a link to the letter which I share 
below. 

Wikipedia is certainly a wonderful resource.  I'm always a bit sad that 
it's not in the Public Domain and so I can't and won't invest myself 
much in it, its community or its content.  Instead, I'm working in the 
Public Domain. 

I'm glad that they are inviting everybody to think about its future.  I 
find that encouraging.  Perhaps we might think of what resources we 
would like, share that with them but, in any event, create that ourselves?

Andrius Kulikauskas, Minciu Sodas, http://www.ms.lt, ms@ms.lt, +370 699 
30003

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Letter from Michael Snow and Jimmy Wales
http://volunteer.wikimedia.org
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It is hard to believe that less than a decade ago, Wikipedia didn't 
exist. Now, 330 million people use Wikipedia every month, making it the 
world's most frequently used online knowledge resource. Hundreds of 
thousands of volunteers have built and maintained the different 
Wikimedia projects in the last eight years.

Although we have accomplished a lot, we still have far to go to achieve 
our vision of a world in which every single person can freely share in 
the sum of all human knowledge. How can we build on our success to 
overcome the challenges that lie ahead? Less than a fifth of the world's 
population has access to the Internet. While hundreds of thousands of 
volunteers have contributed to Wikimedia projects today, they are not 
fully representative of the diversity of the world. Many choices lie 
ahead as we work to build a world wide movement to create and share free 
knowledge.

We are starting a year-long process to develop a strategic plan for the 
Wikimedia movement. Specifically, we are trying to understand:

    * Where are we now?
    * Where do we want to be in five years?
    * How do we get from here to there?

Help us find the answers to these questions. Explore them, break them 
down, reflect on what they mean for our vision and our values. Here are 
five ways you can help:

    * Join a task force. We are organizing task forces that will explore 
different topics and produce a set of recommendations related to them. 
Apply to participate, or form your own ad-hoc groups.
    * Let us know how you can help. If you are an expert in one of the 
subjects we are dealing with, add yourself to our expert database. This 
will allow task forces and other volunteers to reach you with questions, 
and you can respond when you have time.
    * Publish your ideas. Write a proposal on the strategy wiki, and 
help organize and improve the proposals that are already there. Post 
ideas on your blog, on mailing lists, and on social networks like 
Identi.ca, Twitter, and Facebook. Tag those posts with #wikimedia or 
link to them on the strategy wiki so that others can see them.
    * Host conversations about strategy. In order to develop good plans, 
we need broad participation. There is no way that the task forces can 
talk to everyone who has ideas about Wikimedia's future. This is where 
you can help: host your own conversations about strategy, in person or 
online, and publish the results on the strategy wiki. There are 
templates and tools for hosting strategy sessions on the strategy wiki.
    * Talk to us. Give feedback to the strategy team. Tell us your 
ideas, your hopes, your fears, your goals for the projects. Add feedback 
to the strategy wiki, or send an email to strategy@wikimedia.org.

If you cannot participate, will you consider making a donation to 
support Wikimedia? A donation will directly support our global free 
knowledge programs. We also need volunteers to contribute to our 
projects, improve our technology, and support our work in other ways.

This century has presented us with an amazing opportunity to transform 
our civilization, and to create equal opportunities for all human 
beings. We hope you can join us in our work of sharing knowledge with 
every person on the planet.

Yours,
Michael Snow
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation
Jimmy Wales
Founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation