Wikimedia UG Georgia/Strategic Plans/2020

2020 Strategic Plan


Tbilisi, Georgia
2019
UG-GE-SP №2020

Who we are

Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia is a user group of the Wikimedia Foundation, an U.S.-based non-profit organization that operates and manages the Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia (Georgian: ვიკიმედიის მომხმარებელთა საქართველოს ჯგუფი) created in 2015 by active members of Wikimedia contributors living in Georgia, who are interested in organizing and participating in outreach activities on a national level. It aims to promote and participate in the projects offered by the Wikimedia Foundation and to organize the Georgian community. One of its core missions is to aid and encourage people to collect, develop and disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in the public domain or other licenses that allows everyone to freely use the knowledge, and to distribute and modify said content for free. Since August 13, 2019, Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia is an officially registered Non-Entrepreneurial (Non-Commercial) Legal Entity in Georgia.

Vision

Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia shares the vision statement of the Wikimedia Foundation: „Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.“

Mission

The mission of Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia is to aid and encourage Georgians to collect, develop and disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in the public domain or other licenses that allows everyone to freely use the knowledge, and to distribute and modify said content for free. Also, promotion of Knowledge (initiation and stimulation of public interest in Knowledge and in means of creation, development and spreading of Knowledge and access to it), promote access to knowledge and education for all citizens, regardless of their social or other status, to organize such access, assist in the preparation of laws and other normative acts that promote knowledge creation, accumulation, development and dissemination. Our mission and goals are consistent with our organization’s Bylaws.

Values

1. Accessibility
2. Collaboration
3. Community
4. Diversity
5. Education
6. Gender equality
7. Independence
8. Transparency
9. Sharing
10. Volunteerism

Strategic Plan

This Strategic Plan defines the programs of Wikimedia UG Georgia divided into five main goals: 1) Content Gap, 2) Increasing Participation, 3) Community Support, Development & Promoting Wikimedia, 4) Collaborate with GLAM, Universities, Educational Institutions and other Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations. All of these programs are designed to develop Wikimedia projects in Georgian and other Wikimedia languages.

Goal 1: Content Gap

One of the main goals of Wikimedia UG Georgia is to increase the content of Wikimedia projects (the most important Wikipedia) in Georgian language. To achieve this goal, Wikimedia UG Georgia will hold various competitions (Article Contests, Photography Contests, Wikimarathon, Wikicamp) on the Georgian Wikipedia. Contests are both international and local. In 2019, Wikimedia UG Georgia held 5 such contests. In addition to existing projects, Wikimedia UG Georgia will carry out new projects.

Wikimedia UG Georgia will continue to participate in the International CEE & Wikipedia Asian Month a series of edit-a-thons are held across the CEE and Asia, both by supporting the international organization and the local workshops in Georgia.

The first objective of this goal is to develop and disseminate the sum of human knowledge in Georgian language and other regional languages, under a free license or in the public domain in Georgia and in Caucasus by:

1. Conducting and facilitating edit-a-thons and other types of contribution workshops to Wikimedia projects.
2. Supporting pedagogic projects in universities, colleges and schools that include contribution to Wikimedia projects in class.
3. Providing technical support for the creation and the growth of new Wikimedia projects in Georgian language.
4. Putting an emphasis on events that aims at closing the gender gap on Wikimedia projects, both in terms of contributors and content.
5. Organizing and participating in the International projects.
6. Providing resources to help contributors develop and improve content, such as access to references.

The second objective is to develop free content about Georgian cultures, languages, history, geography, sports and other fields of knowledge on Wikimedia projects by:

1. Conducting and facilitating thematic contribution workshops to the Wikimedia projects.
2. Conducting and enabling photographic events, such as photographic walks, in Georgia for Wikimedia Commons.
3. Organizing photographic contests, such as Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth for Wikimedia Commons.

Also, Wikimedia UG Georgia will contribute to the development of other important Wikimedia projects in Georgian.

Goal 2: Increasing Participation

One of the main goals of Wikimedia UG Georgia is to increase the volunteers of Wikimedia project editors. The increase of the number of participants in Wikimedia projects, primarily in the Georgian language, is strategic for us, since the growth of the Wikimedia content and the quality of the content created depend on the number of participants.

We seek to different groups and individuals, including under-represented in our community by supporting and organising trainings aimed at increasing participation in the Wikimedia movement. We are working with our community to find opportunities to increase participation and improve the climate for newbies in Wikimedia projects. This is done through outreach activities, partnerships with particular outreach institutions, on-wiki initiatives (such as Wikimarathons and Article contests). These activities have parallel aims of improving content and attracting more participation from the target groups.

To attract new volunteers and participants in the Wikimedia project in Georgia, we will carry out the following projects:

1. We will conduct active trainings and workshops in educational institutions and for interested parties.
2. We will conduct thematic competitions and wikimarathons.
3. We will create new Wiki-clubs and support existing Wiki-clubs.

Our experience of past projects tells us that one of the best ways to attract participants to Wikimedia project is to conduct WikiCamps. In March, 2019 we held the first such WikiCamp and its result prompted us to conduct such a WikiCamp for both participants from Georgia and abroad, mainly for participants in projects from our region (Caucasus). The experience of our colleagues from Wikimedia Armenia and from other chapters of Wikimedia confirms this.

During WikiCamps young people aged 16 to 25 years, to acquire skills in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. Young people will study the wiki-technology and then under the supervision of experienced WikiMedians will independently create and translate articles in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. The main goal of the camp, to attract more young people to work in Wikimedia projects.

Also, Wikimedia UG Georgia has developed a WikiCamp specifically for representatives of educational institutions (Teachers). Teachers are an important resource for us, as they are the primary agents who have direct contact with students and young people, who are the future resource of the Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia projects. For this reason, we consider it important to inform and teach teachers the Wiki-Technologies, which in turn will teach these skills to students and all interested persons. In the end, we will get a result that will help us promote and popularize Wikimedia projects in Georgia.

Goal 3: Community Support, Development & Promoting Wikimedia

In 2020, Wikimedia UG Georgia will establish a framework for the creation of regional and local groups of Wikimedia UG Georgia, called "WikiClubs", across the country. The UG will enable those groups to carry out their own projects by providing logistical, material and financial support. This goal also encompasses support to individual contributors and volunteers in Georgia.

The UG will publish a formal framework including policies and guidelines for the creation of regional and local groups of Wikimedia UG Georgia. These groups will be formed around a city, or a geographical or cultural region, but can also be formed around a specific thematic to create a thematic group inside Georgia as part of Wikimedia UG Georgia.

It should be noted that activists and Members of the Wikimedia UG Georgia have been creating such small local groups in their cities since 2016 to support Wikimedia projects in the Georgian language, but unfortunately there are no logistic and material resources for the development of these WikiClubs. We, through our program, will facilitate their support and the creation of new WikiClubs.

While supporting these groups we will do:

1. We will establish a framework for this WikiClubs.
2. We will provide logistical, material and financial support.
3. We will conduct regular trainings, workshops and meetings with WikiClub members, we will train them to work in Wikimedia projects.
4. We will help the members of Wikimedia UG Georgia to secure grants (individual) from the Wikimedia Foundation to execute their own projects.
5. We will to organizing regional and local meetups to bring contributors and volunteers together and promote the growth of local community groups.
6. Highlighting high quality work of Georgian contributors on the UG website, blog and social media.

One of our main goals is organizational development. At the moment, our organization is a User Group and our goal is to become an official Wikimedia chapter, which will also promote Wikimedia projects in Georgia as a user group. To achieve this, we will use different paths.

Organizing face-to-face meet-ups is important for both UG-GE members and the whole WikiCommunity in Georgia. They allow to enhance online cooperation, boost useful networking connections among volunteers, and facilitate knowledge sharing in the format of presentations, discussions, and personal meetings. Bringing volunteers together is especially crucial for community development in Georgia because of the geographical vastness of our country. Organizing conferences and other events in regions also helps boost and increase local communities.

The Georgian WikiConference and the Annual General Meeting are two main annual community events. The first such meeting was held in December 2018, and the second will be held in December 2019. Besides this, Wikimedia UG Georgia will hold annual General Meetings with the participation of all members of our organization to address important issues of our organization.

We will also carry out training sessions for volunteers devoted to certain specific skills, such as technical tools or conflict resolution. Organizing training events or funding volunteers’ participation in training sessions helps to develop community’s skills and, therefore, increase the quality of our contribution and address important issues within the community.

Providing scholarships for international events is an important part of community and organizational development and the promotion of knowledge sharing. Attending conferences and other events provides members of the local community with an opportunity to build and strengthen connections, gain new knowledge, and share it through their reports, notes, articles, photos, and social media posts. Since it is difficult for economic reasons for most Georgian citizens to afford expensive international travel, UG-GE scholarships are especially important to the community.

An important part of our work will be the promotion of Wikimedia projects using media. To achieve this, we will use social media as well as Wikimedia UG Georgia blogs.

Goal 4: Collaborate with GLAM, Universities, Educational Institutions and other Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations

Wikimedia UG Georgia begins to collaborate with collaborate with GLAM, Universities, Educational Institutions and other Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations. Such collaborations can take diverse shapes like uploading archives fonds to Wikimedia Commons or transcribing old manuscripts documents on Wikisource (which is now in the incubator). Wikimedia UG Georgia will mainly collaborate with all organizations that express their interest in working with Wikimedia projects rather than approaching ourselves. Memorandum of cooperation will be concluded with all parties. Today, our organization has such a memorandum with two organizations, one of them is a non-governmental organization and the second is a state agency.

Our future goal is to start cooperation with the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, which is the largest organization in its field and under its leadership is a huge database. We are going to use their database for Wikimedia projects in Georgian and other languages. Also, our organization will conduct a series of trainings and workshops for Library staff, so that subsequently the library staff themselves can independently work in Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia UG Georgia will continue to be an active affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation and part of the global Wikimedia movement. It will keep building on its relationship with Wikimedia Armenia, Wikimedia UG Azerbaijan, Wikimedia UG Turkey, Wikimedia Russia and seek other relationships with other chapters and thematic organizations in order to share lessons learned and resources, and to conduct projects in partnerships. The UG aims at increasing the involvement of Georgians in the Wikimedia movement.

Wikimedia UG Georgia in order to achieve its goal in cooperation with other Wikimedia Foundation affiliations, it will conduct joint projects with these organizations that will strengthen and develop bilateral relations, which in turn will contribute to the development of Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia UG Georgia will collaborate with non-Wikimedia organizations to attract volunteers and editors to Wikimedia projects, as well as to integrate different ethnic groups into the Georgian Wikicommunity, since diversity in movement and in Wikimedia projects in Georgian language is very important for us. We have already begun work in this area and have concluded a memorandum with a specific organization.

One of the main areas of our work is cooperation with educational institutions, including Universities and Schools. Educational institutions are the main source of volunteers for Wikimedia projects in Georgia, therefore, cooperation with them is a strategic direction for us. At the same time, there are problems in educational institutions, in particular universities, where the stereotype exists that Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information and there is a Wikipedia anti-PR, we will try to communicate to them and teach them how Wikimedia projects work and what benefits we can get from them. Along this path, we will conduct joint projects with universities and other educational institutions, including contests, trainings, workshops and meetings.

Signature

[Signature] Mehman Ibragimov Chairman of the "Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia" Round seal of the Organization

Conclusion

Non-Entrepreneurial (Non-Commercial) Legal Entity "Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia" Strategic Plan for 2020 approved at the Meeting of the Board of Trustees (Protocol №2019-01), on October 28, 2019.