Strategy

Strategy can relate to strategy for the Wikimedia movement, strategy for entities such as the WMF and Chapters, and roadmaps for individual Projects (e.g., Wikidata or Wiktionary or Wiki Loves Monumints).

Current strategy documents

Movement strategy

The Wikimedia movement strategy 2010-2015 was developed on the now-archived strategy wiki, from 2009-2010. This was the first strategy for the entire movement.

This covered for instance how effectively the movement is reaching and empowering new people around the world, how well it is providing knowledge, and how balanced its contributors are. See the Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary for details. Some key Questions about our strategy were also developed.

No separate long-term strategy was developed for the WMF, so there was confusion about whether this was a strategy for the movement or just for the Foundation. The work on the strategy wiki was later largely migrated back to Meta.

Strategy of Wikimedia organizations

WMHK	Development Plan, from 2009
WMDE	Kompass 2020 (en, de), from 2009
WMAU	Strategic Plan, endorsed by members at 2011 AGM.
AmicalWM	Strategic plan 2011-2013 (ca) for the Catalan projects community with support of Amical Viquipèdia. See also the discussion page (ca).
WMAT	Strategie 2012-2014 (de, en), from 2012
WMNL	Strategie 2013-2015 (en, nl), from 2012
WMUK	2013–18 five year plan
WMPL	Plan for 2013/2014 (not yet approved); Plans for 2013 - a part of the WMF/WMPL fundrising agreement, older plans: Plans for 2012 - a part of the WMF/WMPL fundrising agreement, General list of documents regarding plans and strategies,
WMHU	2013 Programme Plan
WMF	Annual plan discussion 2013-14. Currently planning to develop a longer-term strategy, in parallel with a movement-wide review and update to the five-year plan.

Tech strategy and roadmaps

Project strategy and roadmaps

WP 1.0, WLM, Wikivoyage discussions...
Wiktionary:News_for_editors (en.wikt)
en.wp roadmap (new)

History

The Wikimedia Foundation was formed in 2003, when it became clear that Wikipedia was becoming an important online project, too big to reside on Bomis' servers. Previous to this, most "strategic planning" discussions revolved around the evolving Wikis; many decisions (additional languages, additional projects, core policies) that helped shape future organizational development were boldly made by community members and leaders through the wiki process. Most "Foundation-level" work was done by volunteers, from financial planning to technical scaling. The Foundation was a convenient organizational structure for the projects, not envisioned as an end unto itself. At the same time, Wikimedia Deutschland became the first chapter, planning its own national strategy - from publicity and politics to publishing.

When the first elected community member Trustees took their seats on the WMF Board, there were a variety of discussions about where the Foundation and the movement should be heading.

Early discussions: mailing list threads from Anthere and Angela from late 2004 were often about related topics
Strategic goals: a few open meetings about goals, and some discussions on the wiki (1), ensued
The Mission and Vision statements were revisited in 2006/2007 to help lay uniform foundations for future work. (The idea was for this to happen regularly, though the next revisit was in 2009)
In late 2006 there was an internal discussion of strategy with facilitated meetings of Board members and others, resulting in a few one-year planning documents. These do not seem to be public, though many resulting conversations are.

Most discussions about project and Foundation-wide planning have been held on mailing lists (first wikipedia-l, then foundation-l); or on Meta.

Global strategy evolution

2004 : the Board holds its first elections. There was strategic planning before and after

one-year plan, three-year_plan, Five-year_plan

a few open meetings were held to discuss the needs of the Projects with the Board.

2006 : reflection and review; Angela and Anthere had been on the board since the beginning.

There were committees formed

A Board retreat and SWOT analysis was undertaken

A special projects committee was formed and shared some brainstorming ideas related to the above

Note the various resolutions passed by the SPC.

An email discussion thread about "where do you see Wikimedia in 10 years" meets with interest

2009

A year-long project, Strategic planning 2009, was announced in May and planned for the coming year. Threads about how to proceed were floated on foundation-l, and three one-year contracts to facilitate the process were posted.

Mission and Vision

The mission (editable version) and vision (editable version) attempt to formalize the shared goals of the projects. However, they are wordy in places and leave out goals in others.

In 2006 they were rewritten once, and there was a Board/Chapters/Other meeting at which they were discussed along with a general discussion of where the projects should be heading. The idea then was that they would be regularly revised and revisited -- but this has not happened since.

Choosing new projects

New project proposals aren't always given the attention they deserves, considering that how we view ourselves as a collection of sister projects is determined in part by what Projects we support. Newcomers are drawn to the projects by the promise of one or the other environment to work; and expect to find a functioning local society and receptive soil for planting new ideas.

Major projects that have been considered but not accepted so far include : Wikikids, Wikifamily, and Wikicite; other major friendly projects include AboutUs.org and Rodovid/WeRelate.

Strategy proposals, projects, discussions

OWPP
Planning for the future
Suggestions and proposals
Strategic plan/2009
Individual engagement grants (and related project ideas)

Discussion as part of WMF governance

Board candidate statements throughout the years:

Project initiatives

There have been many projects over the years related to the topics likely to be addressed in strategic planning efforts. These are some of their current and future pages. Please help build this out.

initiatives

the mother of meta-project pages.

outreach

a beautiful page for public outreach

distribution, offline content

static content

partnerships

languages, translation

tech, scaling

quality, content

chapters, events

new projects

Discussions on large wikis

The largest wikis have their own strategy discussions, leading to project strategy and roadmaps for each of them. For instance, in en:wp this includes WP:1.0 and w:WP:WikiProject Council (for quality and participation).

Many discussions about global policy (privacy, BLPs, civility, language incubation) started with discussions on a single large wiki about its own vision and future.