[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming the first round of grants from the Equity Fund

[Yair Rand]

I haven't yet had time to look over the grantee organizations, and the
general issue of funding non-Wikimedia efforts has been fairly well-covered
by statements from all four recently-elected trustees, so I'm just going to
take a moment to bring up some points about the specific process used here:
* This was not participatory. Neither the community nor any
community-elected group were invited to look these over even to give
advance feedback, much less make a decision.
* This was not transparent. Even after the fact, no notes were given on
what the WMF used to judge the options; no metrics, no pros-and-cons
analysis of each, no general review. Nor was a list of rejected applicants
made public, as far as I can see.
* COI concerns: Given the lack of any mentioned standards about this (I
haven't seen anything resembling the FDC's COI rules, and the WMF's general
COI policy seems quite lacking for something like this), and given the
problematic history this Fund in particular has in this area, I must ask:
Did any staff, trustees, or committee members involved in this process have
any personal associations to any of the grantee organizations, and if so,
were they (/would they have been) required to recuse themselves from the
relevant decisions?
* The Committee appears to have committed to sharing "terms of each grant
and updates on their progress" on Meta, per the FAQ. I don't see any links
to the grant terms. Should we still expect these things?

(A few excerpts from answers given by the recently elected, at the Q on
the topic of funding non-Wikimedia efforts in general:
"I don’t think WF has any money to spare for any other causes irrespective
of their worth. There’s an NGO or 100 for any cause, and WF cause is
exclusively Wikimedia movement support." - Victoria
"At this time, I'd be reluctant to start funding projects entirely
unrelated to Wikimedia projects." - Pundit
"The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to support and empower the
communities of the Wikimedia projects and the projects themselves. Among
the many worthy goals that one can set, we choose to pursue this one. [...]
The Wikimedia Foundation looks relatively big and well-resourced (in terms
of money, people, etc.), and it is tempting to use some of them for other
purposes. However, the truth is that the Wikimedia Foundation is not so
big, and the resources are very limited. If we scatter them in too many
different places, we will end up achieving nothing - and the Wikimedia
projects will be the first to pay the price." - Laurentius
I'm not going to try to clip Rosiestep's answer because I feel like a
clipped version would risk being misrepresentative of her position. I
recommend reading the full versions of all four (quite interesting and
nuanced) answers at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Candidates/CandidateQ%26A/Question11
)

(There are, of course, more fundamental problems with the Fund, but let's
leave that for another time.)

Thank you.

-- Yair Rand

‫בתאריך יום ד׳, 8 בספט׳ 2021 ב-10:09 מאת ‪Lisa Gruwell‬‏ <‪
lgruw...@wikimedia.org‬‏>:‬

> Hi everyone,
>
> We are excited to share that we have chosen the first round of grantees
> for the Knowledge Equity Fund pilot. The Equity Fund Committee selected six
> grantees across the Middle East, Africa, and North and South America who
> focus on issues of access, education and equity within the regions they
> support. You can read an overview of the six grantees and their work on
> Diff[1]. We’ve also added information about the grantees and what’s next
> for this pilot program to our Meta page[2].
>
> We are happy to welcome these new grantees, and look forward to their work
> as movement partners to support the free knowledge ecosystem. Let us know
> if you have questions on the Talk Page[3].
>
> Thank you,
>
> Lisa Gruwell and the Equity Fund Committee
>
> [1]
> https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/08/welcome-to-the-first-grantees-of-the-knowledge-equity-fund/
>
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund
> [3]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Knowledge_Equity_Fund=edit=1
>
> --
>
> Lisa Seitz Gruwell
>
> Chief Advancement Officer
>
> Wikimedia Foundation 
>
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/IQOLEVBEAE65IM6TSK3MLYRTMFUSANZE/
> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming the first round of grants from the Equity Fund

[Nadee Gunasena]

Gnangarra, the first round of grantees with this pilot fund was based on
suggestions from the Equity Fund Committee itself, as the Equity Fund was
being created. However, we recognize that, for example, this round does not
include any grantees based in Asia, and our goal is to concentrate in those
regions in our next round of funding. We are also hoping to expand the
diversity of grantees by asking the movement to share suggestions of
grantees for the next round through this form [1]. Alongside those steps,
we are continuing to evolve the Equity Fund Committee and open it up for
more community participation as the Equity Fund evolves. We'll be sharing
more details about that later this year.

For other questions, we’ll be answering questions on the Talk page [2] so
happy to address additional questions there.

Thanks,
Nadee Gunasena
Communications
Wikimedia Foundation

[1]
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctHahuVnJQQNG2eo_3F7aB1Z2jQi1JxhNMRuzPCWLU4dJSig/viewform
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Knowledge_Equity_Fund

ᐧ

On Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 3:59 PM Gnangarra  wrote:

> Adding to Andys observation of distribution being majority US centric
> projects. How we can learn if there isnt diverse cultural experiences, is
> there any information as to why the equity fund wasn't distributed  across
> all regions?
>
> On Thu, 9 Sept 2021 at 00:12, Andy Mabbett 
> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 8 Sept 2021 at 15:09, Lisa Gruwell 
>> wrote:
>>
>> > We are excited to share that we have chosen the first round of grantees
>> for
>> > the Knowledge Equity Fund pilot. The Equity Fund Committee selected six
>> > grantees across the Middle East, Africa, and North and South America who
>> > focus on issues of access, education and equity within the regions they
>> > support.
>>
>> The press release [1] mentioned further down the thread lists:
>>
>> * Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), Jordan ($250,000):
>> * Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, United
>> States ($250,000)
>> * Howard University School of Law and the Institute for Intellectual
>> Property and Social Justice (IIPSJ), United States ($260,000):
>> * InternetLab, Brazil ($200,000)
>> * Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Ghana ($150,000)
>> * STEM en Route to Change (SeRCH) Foundation, United States ($250,000)
>>
>> so three of the six recipients  - receiving $760,000 of $1,360,000; or
>> more than half - are in the United States.
>>
>>
>> [1]
>> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2021/09/08/wikimedia-foundation-announces-first-grant-recipients-of-new-4-5-million-equity-fund/
>>
>> --
>> Andy Mabbett
>> @pigsonthewing
>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>> ___
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
>> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>> Public archives at
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/FEBPDFGOYWVEDMZP352UVJDXC5U7IR5E/
>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
>
>
>
> --
> GN.
>
> *Wikimania 2021*
> *Celebrating 20 years of Wikipedia*
> *Acknowledging everyone who made it a great event*
>
> Wikimania: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnangarra
> Noongarpedia: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Main_Page
> My print shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Gnangarra/shop?asc=u
>
>
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/LVQQQ3HB4H6SGHRT6ZEWYXHRLXLN7NYO/
> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org



-- 
*Nadee Gunasena*
Executive Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation 
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/YD72BJ2A35XVFCGEAUZE6V32ZLBMELWX/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org

[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Research Showcase] September 15, 2021: Socialization on Wikipedia

[Janna Layton]

Hello all,

The September Wikimedia Research Showcase will be on September 15 at 16:30
UTC (9:30am PT/ 12:30pm ET/ 18:30pm CEST). The theme will be "socialization
on Wikipedia" with speakers Rosta Farzan and J. Nathan Matias.

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVqabVvLIZU

Talk 1

Speaker: Rosta Farzan (School of Computing and Information, University of
Pittsburgh)

Title: Unlocking the Wikipedia clubhouse to newcomers: results from two
studies

Abstract: It is no news to any of us that success of online production
communities such as Wikipedia highly relies on a continuous stream of
newcomers to replace the inevitable high turnover and to bring on board new
sources of ideas and workforce. However, these communities have been
struggling with attracting newcomers, especially from a diverse population
of users, and further retention of newcomers. In this talk, I will present
about two different approaches in engaging new editors in Wikipedia: (1)
newcomers joining through the Wiki Ed program, an online program in which
college students edit Wikipedia articles as class assignments; (2)
newcomers joining through a Wikipedia Art+Feminism edit-a-thon.  I present
how each approach incorporated techniques in engaging newcomers and how
they succeed in attracting and retention of newcomers.

More information:

   - Bring on Board New Enthusiasts! A Case Study of Impact of Wikipedia
   Art + Feminism Edit-A-Thon Events on Newcomers
   , SocInfo
   2016 (pdf
   )
   - Successful Online Socialization: Lessons from the Wikipedia Education
   Program , CSCW 2020 (pdf
   )


Talk 2

Speaker: J. Nathan Matias  (Citizens and Technology
Lab , Cornell University Departments of
Communication and Information Science)

Title: The Effect of Receiving Appreciation on Wikipedias. A Community
Co-Designed Field Experiment

Abstract: Can saying “thank you” make online communities stronger & more
inclusive? Or does thanking others for their voluntary efforts have little
effect? To ask this question, the Citizens and Technology Lab (CAT Lab)
organized 344 volunteers to send thanks to Wikipedia contributors across
the Arabic, German, Polish, and Persian languages. We then observed the
behavior of 15,558 newcomers and experienced contributors to Wikipedia. On
average, we found that organizing volunteers to thank others increases
two-week retention of newcomers and experienced accounts. It also caused
people to send more thanks to others. This study was a field experiment, a
randomized trial that sent thanks to some people and not to others. These
experiments can help answer questions about the impact of community
practices and platform design. But they can sometimes face community
mistrust, especially when researchers conduct them without community
consent. In this talk, learn more about CAT Lab's approach to community-led
research and discuss open questions about best practices.

More information:

   -

   Volunteers Thanked Thousands of Wikipedia Editors to Learn the Effects
   of Receiving Thanks
   ,
   blogpost (in EN, DE, AR, PL, FA) 
   -

   The Diffusion and Influence of Gratitude Expressions in Large-Scale
   Cooperation: A Field Experiment in Four Knowledge Networks
   , paper preprint


More information: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase

-- 
Janna Layton (she/her)
Administrative Associate - Product & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation 
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/TXPUKQWK7CWXYSAKBFPMLTV56ANIKHEI/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Results for the most contended Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election

[Ad Huikeshoven]

For starters, I would like to thank outgoing board members DocJames and
Raystorm for their service to the community by dedicating a lot of time on
board meetings, processing tons of mail, and so on.

Mario, you are right. An increase in the number of seats will increase the
diversity given a representative election system such as (Meek) STV.
On meta you can find a table of the outcome of the election when varying
the available seats from 1 to 8.[1]

In case 8 seats were available both Elina en Iván would have also been
elected, adding to the much wanted increase in diversity, in whatever way
you look at these two people. Electing 4 seats now, and 4 seats next year
doesn't help in increasing the diversity using a representative election
system. Against electing all seats at once is the argument for continuity
and to limit board turnover. Maybe we should lean more on appointed seats
for continuity, or as Chris Keating has suggested, select community sourced
board members from this year's election. However Nat and Shani didn't run
this year, and they might seek reelection next year. I wish the board a lot
of wisdom and strength regarding balancing multiple values.

This is good news for what is next. What is next? Election of 7 seats in
the Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC). Given the analysis of the
board election and the availability of 7 seats in the election, I am
confident the election outcome will show a lot of diversity. Later 6
persons will be appointed by affiliates, and another 2 by the WMF. The
elections and the appointments will come from the same pool of
self-nominations.[2] The MCDC will most likely institute a Global Council
with a lot of room at the table - some say 40 to 60 seats, others over a
100, we will see -  to accommodate the diversity of our movement.

There are already over 40 candidates for the MCDC. Compliments to the
people who have recruited so many nominations from the continent of Africa.
So far no one nominated themselves from East Asia. How can we recruit
nominations from that region? Without any of them in the pool, it is hard
to elect or appoint someone.

The period of self-nomination closes in 5 days!

Regards,

Ad Huikeshoven

[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Votes
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee/Candidates

On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 1:22 PM Mario Gómez  wrote:

Also, rather than focusing on how different voting schemes would have
> affected some candidates to be one position up or down, wider diversity and
> representativity could be achieved by just electing 8 seats from community
> elections.
>
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/5SQWFARQHJ5JLOKNZYZSGC3NH4QFIA76/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Campaigns Product Team Office Hour: September 9 2021

[Alex Stinson]

A reminder that our office hours are upcoming, in a little less than three
hours at 3PM UTC.


On Thu, Sep 2, 2021 at 5:47 PM Alex Stinson  wrote:

> Hi Movement Organizers,
>
> The Wikimedia Foundation Campaign Product team will be hosting our first
> Campaigns Product Office hour on September 9, 2021 at 3 PM UTC (join us
> on Zoom: https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/87427100681) . The Office hour will
> focus on an introduction to the Product team and the choice of a first
> feature focused on Event Registration. [1]
>
> For more information about our focus on Event Registration, see:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns/Foundation_Product_Team/Registration
>
>
>
> For more information about the Campaigns Product Team, see:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns/Foundation_Product_Team
>
> If you would like to subscribe for further updates from the Campaigns
> Product team, we invite you to subscribe for newsletter updates at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns/Foundation_Product_Team/Subcribers
>
>
> Looking forward to your participation!
>
> The Campaigns Product team
>
> [1] For a full list of previous WMF Campaigns office hours see:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns/Foundation_Programs_Team#Office_Hours
>
>
>
> --
> Alex Stinson
> Senior Program Strategist
> Wikimedia Foundation
> Twitter: @sadads
>
> Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
> Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
> through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
>


-- 
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter: @sadads

Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
___
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/JJCJBAEODZXIN6E2P3CWFELCKZDAPFUH/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Results for the most contended Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election

[Mario Gómez]

Fully agree with Mike.

Also, rather than focusing on how different voting schemes would have
affected some candidates to be one position up or down, wider diversity and
representativity could be achieved by just electing 8 seats from community
elections.

On Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 7:47 PM Mike Peel  wrote:

> I don't get these kinds of arguments.
>
> I'm pretty much equally very active on enwiki + Wikidata + Commons -
> which should I chose as my 'resident' project? Most bytes (Commons),
> most edits (Wikidata), longest editing time (enwiki) - or something
> else? Or language for that matter - most of my editing right now is
> multilingual.
>
> I've lived in UK + Brazil + Spain (islands - off the coast of Africa) -
> am I global north or south?
>
> I've worked with two small affiliates: Wikimedia UK (back when it was
> founded), and Wiki Movimento Brasil - does that count as developed or
> emerging?
>
> What happens to others that fall on both sides of these arbitrary lines?
>
> Obrigado,
> Mike
> P.S., huge congrats to Rosie, Victoria, Dariusz and Lorenzo, who I know
> will do great jobs!
>
> On 8/9/21 05:36:41, Anupam Dutta wrote:
> > Congratulations to the winners and the participants also !
> >
> > Further to the ongoing discussions, my idea is as follows :
> >
> > In this Wikimedia land, a person is the resident of the project
> > s/he/they have most contributed No arguments
> >
> > Now the person can chose to be a worker in 'n' number of projects.
> > The definition of worker must be clearly defined as per certain number
> > of contributions made.
> >
> > Below that you a tourist..
> >
> > In this way elections can have votes from residents and tourists
> >
> > Anupamdutta73
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 09:16 Butch Bustria  > > wrote:
> >
> > Congratulations to the 4 winners.
> >
> > I saw that the STV system unveiled how the 4th and 5th positions
> > (appears to be from a G7 country and a non G7 country) had switched.
> > I am interested to know from which sector/s or Wikimedia project
> > brought the switch of those two positions (starting from the 8th
> > iteration).
> >
> > I also observed that I have no option to choose which wiki I will
> > represent. It appears that the system only allows which wiki I first
> > clicked the central notice link. I tried to go to the other projects
> > and vote, it allowed me to change my vote (still one eligible
> > ballot) but it did not change the project I will represent. I am
> > saying this because it would allow people reading the statistics
> > which project the eligible voter truly represents.
> >
> > Despite all the consultations made prior to the elections to bring
> > the emerging communities/ global south to the board it had not
> > accurately painted the picture. I would personally suggest in the
> > future not all candidates vie for the same set of seats. So for
> > instance, there are 4 seats up for grabs, two seats must be reserved
> > for sector A and two seats for sector B. Candidates must select
> > which sector they represent and cannot be both. Then the whole
> > electorate votes for candidates for Sector A board seats and Sector
> > B board seats using the same STV system. Qualifications for Sector A
> > and Sector B seats shall be different and will be decided by the
> > board of trustees with consent from an advisory/ electoral
> > committee. I personally suggest developed communities (from big
> > chapters and wiki projects with large edit participation) and
> > emerging communities (small to medium sized affiliates and wiki
> > projects with medium to small edit participation).
> >
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> > Butch
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 5:52 AM Alice Wiegand  > > wrote:
> >
> > Thanks, Jackie!
> > That is indeed different from what I understood and I’m glad
> > about the change :-)
> >
> > Alice.
> >
> >
> >
> >> Am 07.09.2021 um 23:42 schrieb Jackie Koerner
> >> mailto:jkoerner-...@wikimedia.org
> >>:
> >>
> >> Hi Alice,
> >>
> >> Thanks for asking! The way we are intending "contended" is
> >> that it was the election everyone was waiting for. :) It was
> >> "pushed for" by the community for more than a year and now we
> >> gladly announce: it happened and here are the results!
> >>
> >> Best,
> >>
> >> Jackie
> >>
> >> On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 4:29 PM Alice Wiegand
> >> mailto:me.ly...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi all,
> >> congrats to the elected Board members. It’s great to see
> >> people stepping up and taking responsibility, especially
> >> in times where leadership is needed.
> >>
> >> Jackie, may I ask for some elaboration on the