Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-02-06/In focus
WMF strategy consultant brings background in crisis reputation management; Team behind popular WMF software put "on pause"
Firm hired for strategic planning also brings background in reputation management
On January 11, the consulting firm Williamsworks was announced as part of the core team that will run the Wikimedia Foundation's US$2.5 million strategic planning process. Williamsworks was founded in 2003 by Whitney Williams, a member of a prominent political family in the U.S. state of Montana. While the firm's international and philanthropic experience clearly align with the WMF's criteria for the role, it is also known for previously advising at least one organization with an ongoing leadership and public relations crisis—a skillset that may prove valuable to the WMF.
The firm—whose website advertises expertise in "public policy, politics, philanthropy, communications and global development"—was noted in August 2016 for having crafted an ambitious public relations plan for the University of California, Berkeley, one of the world's elite universities. UC Berkeley's chancellor, Nicholas Dirks, announced his resignation that month following sustained criticism over financial matters and over his reponse to a string of sexual misconduct cases. One widely reported example was the university's construction of a $700,000 fence around Dirks' residence, as well as an "emergency exit"—reported as a manifestation of mutual mistrust between university leadership and its students and community. Williamsworks crafted a plan to "improve the Chancellor’s strategic profile nationally and internationally", and aimed to secure speaking engagements at prominent venues like TED Talks and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Like UC Berkeley, the WMF had substantial difficulties in 2016, and has since sought to rebuild trust in its community, in part through its promotion of former WMF communications director Katherine Maher to the post of executive director. Introducing his March 2016 Signpost interview with Maher, reporter Tony1 observed: "Getting people to trust each other and work together appears to be a hallmark of her style." Subsequent Signpost interviews with several Wikimedia volunteers echoed the theme of trust.
Whether or not Williamsworks pursues top-tier speaking engagements for WMF leadership, it does appear to bring experience in one critical area beyond those explicitly identified in the WMF's published criteria, which centered more on the international Wikimedia movement than the organization.
Williamsworks was one of several small organizations considered for the role by the WMF, starting in late 2016. Lisa Seitz-Gruwell, the WMF's chief advancement officer, responded to a Signpost inquiry, confirming it was she who initially proposed the firm, along with several others, for consideration. Gruwell, who shares roots in Montana politics with Williams, said "Whitney is in my professional network", but added that they have no family relationship, nor has she worked for Williamsworks.
Maher published her fifth update on the strategic planning process on February 2. In addition to Williamsworks personnel, the core strategy team will include Suzie Nussel, an executive marketing consultant initially retained by former WMF executive Lila Tretikov in her previous strategic planning effort, and Guillaume Paumier, a Wikimedian since 2005 and WMF staff member since 2009. The update also describes the core team's initial plan for engaging Wikimedia community members.
The WMF has advertised for 17 language specialist strategy coordinators who are bilingual in English and at least one of a list of other languages. Interim chief of community engagement Maggie Dennis announced that these Wikimedians will be expected to:
- conduct deep outreach to the specified non-English communities;
- liaise between these communities and others to maximize participation of their communities in the movement strategy process;
- monitor and summarise discussions about strategy topics; and
- produce a summary report at the end of their contract.
Three further positions are available for Meta Wiki strategy coordinators, who will work alongside the language specialist coordinators and others to facilitate the Foundation's inclusive strategy processes. Successful applicants will take up a three-month contract for up to 20 hours per week, beginning in early March 2017. PF & T
WMF's Interactive team put "on pause" following popular software releases
The Wikimedia Foundation's Interactive team has been put "on pause" pending further determinations about its future, according to an announcement initially published on the Discovery email list on January 20. A subsequent discussion on the more widely read Wikimedia-L email list revealed concern from a number of Wikimedia volunteers, who—in contrast to extensively covered pushback on a number of WMF software rollouts over the years—expressed enthusiasm for the team's recent offerings.
 | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
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The Interactive team is part of the WMF's Discovery department, which may be best known for its origin as the team charged with executing the ill-fated Knowledge Engine project in 2016. But the Interactive team's work bears little resemblance to the Knowledge Engine. The team's two most recent outputs enable interactive maps and data-driven graphics on Wikimedia sites. The latter, built on data sets that can be stored on Wikimedia Commons, appears to have the strongest readership of any Signpost Technology Report in the last year Technology report, driven in part by unusually popular Facebook and Twitter posts illustrating an interactive graphic. Social media responses praised the feature, its origins in a readership survey that found especially strong interest in "rich content", and the lead developer's sustained focus on addressing that interest.
Posts on the email list expressed dismay over the news and the manner of its announcement, which was initially explained by a Discovery product manager in a discussion on the Phabricator site for bug reports: "There were expectations that were set regarding things such as team goals, working collaboratively with stakeholders, and advance notice to communities, that were repeatedly not met by the [Interactive] team." Wikimedia volunteer TheDJ, who first brought up the incident on Wikimedia-L, described the team's work as "more productive and groundbreaking than many other teams have been able to do in 5 years". However, progress in the discussion was gradual, due in part to the absence of the person responsible for the central decision; Katie Horn, Director of Discovery and Fundraising Technology, was out on a scheduled vacation. As the discussion evolved, speculation emerged—later confirmed by Wes Moran, WMF's vice president of Product, in an email to the Signpost—that the Interactive team's lead developer had left the organization.
Responding to a request from the Signpost, Moran addressed the various concerns raised. He said he was "happy that there was respect and enthusiasm for [Interactive's] work." His department is "reviewing how this work is done," and has not made a decision to end it entirely. The immediate focus, he told us, will be to complete work toward goals in the 2016-17 Annual Plan, which runs through June 2017. A review of the annual plan, as well as the Product department's Funds Dissemination Committee application for funding, suggests that the remaining work for the present fiscal year may consist of ways to "connect Wikimedia projects" and enable users to "interlink interactive content across projects." He also pointed to successful projects by other teams in the Product division, noting that Discovery plans to improve the successful search suggestion capability.
A Signpost review of the Discovery department's meeting notes from fiscal year 16–17 (see update below) revealed no obvious related goals for Interactive; the justification for the claim that Interactive had missed goals and expectations remains somewhat opaque. One email from a team member added some context, with the following introductory remarks:
Work on Interactive was led by very energetic and talented technical folks for a good chunk of time without a lot structure around the work. Then,
about a quarter ago, the team tried to start with more planning—a roadmap, team roles, checklists for deployment—the usual stuff. It didn't go well.
Moran expressed confidence that volunteer developers involved in the work of the Interactive team would remain engaged, and stated that further information about work in the Discovery department would be forthcoming: "Wikitech-L and team lists will remain the standard for updates about Wikimedia engineering. We will also be adding a FAQ on MediaWiki.org about the pause and changes to help with the communication." Watch the comment thread below for an update. PF
- Update: Chris Koerner, community liaison for the Discovery department, emailed us following publication, to point out that we missed important meeting notes in our review. He suggested these two additional collections of notes. Indeed, some of these notes—particularly those from a December 2016 meeting—do appear to inform the questions raised in the discussions covered here. We regret missing these messages, and thank Chris for the update. -PF, Feb. 6, 2017
Discuss this story
First! (to comment) @Peteforsyth: @Tony1: I appreciate your effort in reporting this story. Perhaps the most overlooked report of the year. Not as sexy as cancer research, I suppose. wbm1058 (talk) 01:26, 12 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]