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[ox-en] Letter from Michael Snow and Jimmy Wales



Hi!

Taken from http://volunteer.wikimedia.org/


  Letter from Michael Snow and Jimmy Wales.


It is hard to believe that less than a decade ago, Wikipedia didn't
exist. Now, 330 million people use Wikipedia every month, making it the
world's most frequently used online knowledge resource. Hundreds of
thousands of volunteers have built and maintained the different
Wikimedia projects in the last eight years.

Although we have accomplished a lot, we still have far to go to achieve
our vision of a world in which every single person can freely share in
the sum of all human knowledge. How can we build on our success to
overcome the challenges that lie ahead? Less than a fifth of the world's
population has access to the Internet. While hundreds of thousands of
volunteers have contributed to Wikimedia projects today, they are not
fully representative of the diversity of the world. Many choices lie
ahead as we work to build a world wide movement to create and share free
knowledge.

We are starting a year-long process to develop a strategic plan for the
Wikimedia movement <http://wikimedia.org/>. Specifically, we are trying
to understand:

    * Where are we now?
    * Where do we want to be in five years?
    * How do we get from here to there?

Help us find the answers to these questions. Explore them, break them
down, reflect on what they mean for our vision and our values. Here are
five ways you can help:

    * *Join a task force.* We are organizing task forces that will
      explore different topics and produce a set of recommendations
      related to them. Apply to participate </volunteer>, or form your
      own ad-hoc groups.
    * *Let us know how you can help.* If you are an expert in one of the
      subjects we are dealing with, add yourself to our expert database
      </volunteer>. This will allow task forces and other volunteers to
      reach you with questions, and you can respond when you have time.
    * *Publish your ideas.* Write a proposal
      <http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_proposals> on the
      strategy wiki <http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>, and
      help organize and improve the proposals that are already there.
      Post ideas on your blog, on mailing lists, and on social networks
      like Identi.ca, Twitter, and Facebook. Tag those posts with
      #wikimedia or link to them on the strategy wiki
      <http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> so that others can
      see them.
    * *Host conversations about strategy.* In order to develop good
      plans, we need broad participation. There is no way that the task
      forces can talk to everyone who has ideas about Wikimedia's
      future. This is where you can help: host your own conversations
      about strategy, in person or online, and publish the results on
      the strategy wiki. There are templates and tools for hosting
      strategy sessions on the strategy wiki.
    * *Talk to us*. Give feedback to the strategy team. Tell us your
      ideas, your hopes, your fears, your goals for the projects. Add
      feedback to the strategy wiki, or send an email to
      strategy wikimedia.org.

If you cannot participate, will you consider making a donation
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en> to support
Wikimedia? A donation will directly support our global free knowledge
programs. We also need volunteers to contribute to our projects, improve
our technology, and support our work in other ways.

This century has presented us with an amazing opportunity to transform
our civilization, and to create equal opportunities for all human
beings. We hope you can join us in our work of sharing knowledge with
every person on the planet.

Yours,
Michael Snow
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation
Jimmy Wales
Founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de



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