Movement Strategy/Principles
Principles are the fundamental beliefs that guide work across our Movement. The Movement Strategy recommendations are built and will be implemented based upon these ten principles. They are integrally connected and together speak to what it means to be a Wikimedian.
People-Centeredness
People-centeredness means that every aspect of our Movement must address the needs and challenges of the people who power it and whom it serves, so that each one can contribute in their best way to the sum of human knowledge. Our Movement is powered by individuals and groups, the majority volunteers, and partners working across cultures and geographies. These stakeholders have unique needs, which technology, policies, practices, and structures must address for them to be empowered and able to contribute free from barriers. For our Movement to grow rich in diversity, it is necessary to raise awareness about those who are absent. To welcome them, we need to collectively and inclusively take responsibility and encourage change.
Safety & Security
The well-being, security, and safety of all participants is a prerequisite for sustaining and growing our projects and communities. Without the foundational development of a safe environment, it will be impossible to be inclusive, grow diverse, provide knowledge equity, develop partnerships, and become the essential support system of the free knowledge ecosystem. Participants should feel safe in both online and offline spaces, and achieving this will require changes to the current culture throughout our Movement. Rather than merely advocating for safety, we will invest in making our environment safe by adopting policies and providing technology, resources, and infrastructures to protect the privacy and security of our Movement participants.
Inclusivity & Participatory Decision-Making
Inclusivity is at the root of the development of processes, practices, and structures for the Wikimedia Movement to grow rich in diversity of perspectives and identities. We aim to build our infrastructure based upon intentional community development and by addressing existing privileges as well as barriers to participation. By empowering and developing the skills of those within, we increase the accessibility, usability, localization, and dynamism of our ecosystem (technological platforms, processes, and organizational structures). Structures and platforms need to be adaptable to not only empower those who are already in our Movement, but to embrace those yet to join and others who were previously excluded or overlooked. This is needed to help address gaps in our representation of people, genders, and content. Intentional effort must be made to ensure all voices are included and have a clear role in decision-making processes that impact them and our Movement.
Equity & Empowerment
Striving for equity requires Wikimedia stakeholders to treat everyone fairly and based upon their circumstances. The merits of a truly open movement are based upon a constantly evolving process of overcoming capacity challenges (technical, administrative, linguistic, financial, etc.) for people to be empowered and reach their utmost realized potential. Equitable representation and participation are not the same as equal opportunity and access for empowerment. A policy that applies equally to everyone may result in inequity if it disproportionately advantages one group compared to another. Equality requires providing the same thing to all; equity requires providing opportunities at appropriate levels for each community and context, recognizing that some people are starting at a disadvantage.
Subsidiarity & Self-Management
Our Movement will make decisions at the most immediate or local level wherever possible and will open pathways for more participatory decision-making. Subsidiarity means that our online and offline communities across the world should make decisions for themselves whenever possible. It is based on the notion that they are capable of identifying their own capacities, opportunities, needs, and barriers to represent the sum of human knowledge in their areas of work. With accountability and transparency, they will self-manage their resources and activities and provide for their needs to overcome obstacles.
Contextualization
Contextualization allows us to recognize that there is not a single set of processes that are efficient and effective everywhere. Given the diversity of our Movement, our work and engagement must be evaluated and adapted to various geographic, cultural, socio-political, and economic contexts as we adapt to changes in our world. We recognize that what works in one community may not apply to another. To ensure the continued growth and sustainability of our Movement, we must appreciate our differences and ensure that our ecosystem is designed with flexibility and local ownership. This ensures that we have a diverse base of Movement participants and contributors supported by localized resources, technology, and best processes.
Collaboration & Cooperation
Collaboration and cooperation guide our Movement as we draw on our collective knowledge, experiences, and distributed expertise to improve our effectiveness and response to challenges. Much of our strength and impact lies in developing collaborative relationships and strengthening partnerships with stakeholders in the free knowledge ecosystem and beyond who have knowledge and resources that can help us innovate, adapt, and grow. In our Movement, we thrive on learning from each other and exchanging skills, knowledge, tools, equipment, and other resources so we all gain competency and are able to expand our impact, involvement, and contribution to the whole Movement. Collaboration and cooperation are fostered when contributors and organizations at all levels are empowered to work together, partner, or support each other in developing and attaining goals. The experience and expertise on how to grow and strengthen our Movement lie with the reciprocal exchange of knowledge among its people.
Transparency & Accountability
Transparency is fundamental to ensure everyone can clearly understand how our systems, governance, and collaborations work, and it enables participation and accountability to one another. Our actions will be made with deliberate commitment to transparency and accountability to and for one another. A system built by the collaboration of participants requires everyone to be accountable for its continued health, resilience, and success. This means that each individual shares proportional responsibility for the success or failure of the actions they take (or fail to take) on behalf of the Movement. A transparent culture enables everyone to share in the same strategic direction, builds confidence in our projects, and promotes trust among participants.
Efficiency
Efficiency guides the design of our processes, practices, and structures so that our efforts and resources are used to reach their utmost potential for impact. Efficiency is the ability to prevent wasting resources to produce a desired result. As we implement the Movement Strategy recommendations, we will build on our expertise and share our knowledge, as well as adapt to specific contexts where a general approach cannot apply, and meaningfully involve those impacted. Efficiency in a widely distributed and decentralized structure like the Wikimedia Movement can only be reached through accountability, transparency, coordination, and contextualization. It needs continuous and periodic evaluations to allow for learning and adaptation.
Resilience
Resilience ensures our Movement is flexible, adaptable to internal and external forces, and sustainable over time. A resilient system has the capacity to recover and rebound quickly from difficulties and to evolve in the process of progressing towards its goals. Anchored in transparency and accountability, we can progress towards deploying the processes, practices, and structures resulting from this set of Movement Strategy recommendations. Likewise, through evaluation and participative decision-making processes, we can be dynamic, adapt quickly to different contexts, and learn from every situation.