Interim report 15 September 2009

This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.

The convenors wrapped up Phase I: Level-setting of the strategic planning process for the Wikimedia movement;
We convened from 7 August 2009 at strategy wiki until 12 September 2009 to conclude the first phase by preparing a broad call for participation that contains a message from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Founder, Jimmy Wales.
There were some significant "wins" during the first phase of this process. For instance,

Through central notice on Wikimedia websites several thousand participants were made aware of this process, and almost 2000 user accounts were created;
The participants in the process have given preliminary answers to the question "Where is Wikimedia now?"
An enormous amount of input has been received and shared in our fact base (hence the title "level-setting") to provide context for the planning effort.
Additional knowledge was gathered through interviews with WMF staff, Board and Advisory Board members, Wikimedia Community members, and external people with expertise and/or interest in Wikimedia's mission and operations.

Project management has created and maintained the space for this conversation and work to happen (this Wiki);
Project management has developed an outreach plan to engage with as many stakeholders as possible;
The convenors have collected and discussed over 500 proposals;

At this time of transition, it's important to note the extraordinary help given by many people:

The convenors would like to thank all participants in the first phase of this process for their time, their energy, their effort and their input to this process;
The convenors would like to thank all participants in the first phase of this process for their valuable feedback;
The convenors would like to thank all participants in the first phase of this process for preparing, supplying and discussing proposals;
The convenors especially thank all those participants who profoundly supplied many, many eye openers;
The convenors especially thank Casey and all translators in helping translate key documents in this process;

There remain some key challenges, however, as we go into Phase II:

We might have involved quite a few website visitors in the process, but haven't involved all Wikimedia stakeholders yet;
We have insufficiently involved users from smaller non-English Wikimedia projects;

With a few exceptions all planned work for the first phase has been completed;
Time has come to start the second phase and have a set of task forces put to work;
We need highly motivated, qualified and diverse set of people to participate in these task force;

On or about 21 September, the appeal letter will be served by sitewide notice as prepared and translated in many languages and Phase II of the process will begin.