Making the strategy impactful

Simon KnightUser:Sjgknight

Vice chair, Wikimedia UK

Strategy process

Two senses of ‘making the strategy impactful’ 1. We wanted a strategy to help us frame, measure,

and evaluate our activities2. We also wanted the process of ‘making the

strategy’ to be impactful, we wanted to engage stakeholders and not reinvent the wheel

Strategy process

Two pressures:• Stability:– Framing our work, building a narrative– Need for clear targets against our strategy– Reporting needs (e.g. FDC, charity law)

• Flexibility:– Avoided priority setting for activities at this

stage– Less concern for investment on particular

goals – this will come with time, community engagement, & consideration of impact

By 663highland (663highland) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Horyu-ji09s3200.jpg

Model

Basic model

• We do things for a reason (we have goals)• We run activities to meet those goals• And to justify the activities, and assess their

success, we track activity outputs against our goals (we measure)

Taken by: fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.auThis file is published under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution NonCommercial Unported 3.0

Strategy process

• Looked to:– Other chapters (challenges)– Other charities (but…)– Other Open Knowledge groups– The WMF (why didn’t we just use

that?)

WMF Goals

• To stabilize Wikimedia’s technical, financial and organizational infrastructure

• To increase participation• To improve quality• To increase reach• To encourage innovation

Then sets of concrete changes

Goals

We have five Strategic Goals that fall within our Mission: • G1 Develop Open Knowledge• G2 As a volunteer-led organisation, ensuring effective use of

the resources available to us: – G2.1 Develop, involve and engage WMUK volunteers– G2.2 Use effective and high quality governance and resource

management processes• G3 Reduce barriers to accessing Open Knowledge• G4 Encourage and support technological innovation• G5 Develop, support, and engage with other Wikimedia

communities

E.g. G1 Develop Open Knowledge

• G1.1 The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase

• G1.2 The quality of Open Knowledge continues to improve

• G1.3 We are perceived as the go-to organisation by UK GLAM, educational, and other organisations who need support or advice for the development of Open Knowledge.

E.g. G1 Develop Open Knowledge

G1.1 The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase• Top down – which activities do this?• Bottom up – which outcome is this activity

aimed at?

Outcomes without activities, or activities without outcomes – a problem!

E.g. G1 Develop Open Knowledge

G1.1 The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase• General monitoring, but no goal• Need to be clear on outcomes – n. of articles

(increase in open knowledge) v longevity of diverse editors (G3/5 - thriving community), we care about them all!

Easier reporting…?

• Highlighted need for impact methods – e.g. volunteer questionnaire

• Need for tools – “increased access” via project metrics (Kiwix, digital literacy, etc.) and QRPedia scans, poor indicators

• Challenges e.g. on advocacy (e.g. ‘legislative change for open content’) indicators

Lessons

Charting the territory

Chapters dialogue raised point: Diff orgs are exploring new territory, do we share a perspective?

By NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commonshttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Satellite_image_of_Cape_peninsula.jpg

Charting the territory

Chapters dialogue raised point: Diff orgs are exploring new territory, do we share a perspective?

But, can we share our mapping methods, cartography relies on shared meaning

By U.S. Government; Uploader Zondor at en.wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Sample-national-park-service-pictographs.gif

five Strategic Goals • G1 Develop Open Knowledge

– Organisations different in each country• G2 As a volunteer-led organisation, ensuring effective use of the

resources available to us inc developing volunteers (G2.1) and using high quality governance (G2.2)– Governance ‘standards’ different, volunteer needs (and groups) also

vary• G3 Reduce barriers to accessing Open Knowledge

– Legal context and open-knowledge eco-system crucial• G4 Encourage and support technological innovation

– Ditto• G5 Develop, support, and engage with other Wikimedia

communities– Bi-relational context matters

From Strategy to Impact Measurement

Simon KnightUser:Sjgknight

Vice Chair Wikimedia UK

Model

Outcome indicators

• Input – Money, volunteer/staff time, materials• Activity - An editathon• Outputs - Attendees, articles edited, new articles• Outcomes - Community growth, quality and

quantity of content increases• Impact – Develop open knowledge

Outcome indicators

• Input teacher/student time• Activity – a lesson on subject of ‘bias’• Output – test score on ‘bias’ test• Outcome – Learning about bias• Impact – Learner confident about subject of bias

Inputs outputs challengeChallenge:• Tempting to measure “number of events doing

x”– but this is an input/activity• Or set targets to increase “number of

members” – but what does this indicate?• Outputs indicate – e.g. “n. of new articles”, “n.

of women leading events”

Outcomes and Evaluation

• Outcomes – what we want to achieve, what our impact is– Measured via output indicators

• Evaluation – an assessment of how effectively we are addressing our outcomes– Assessed via a variety of means, including outputs.

Thinking about how we run a programme more effectively and in differing contexts

Mission

WMF Goals

• To stabilize Wikimedia’s technical, financial and organizational infrastructure

• To increase participation• To improve quality• To increase reach• To encourage innovation

Goals

We have five Strategic Goals that fall within our Mission: • G1 Develop Open Knowledge• G2 As a volunteer-led organisation, ensuring effective use of

the resources available to us: – G2.1 Develop, involve and engage WMUK volunteers– G2.2 Use effective and high quality governance and resource

management processes• G3 Reduce barriers to accessing Open Knowledge• G4 Encourage and support technological innovation• G5 Develop, support, and engage with other Wikimedia

communities

E.g. G1 Develop Open Knowledge

• G1.1 The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase

• G1.2 The quality of Open Knowledge continues to improve

• G1.3 We are perceived as the go-to organisation by UK GLAM, educational, and other organisations who need support or advice for the development of Open Knowledge.

E.g. G1 Develop Open Knowledge

G1.1 The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase• Top down – which activities do this?• Bottom up – which outcome is this activity

aimed at?

Outcomes without activities, or activities without outcomes – a problem!

E.g. G1 Develop Open Knowledge

G1.1 The quantity of Open Knowledge continues to increase• Plausibility of controlled trials• Top level v activity target setting• Need to be clear on outcomes too – n. of

articles (increase in open knowledge) v longevity of diverse editors (G3/5 - thriving community)

• Highlighted need for impact methods – e.g. volunteer questionnaire

• Need for tools – “increased access” via project metrics (Kiwix, digital literacy, etc.) and QRPedia scans, poor indicators

• Challenges e.g. on advocacy (e.g. ‘legislative change for open content’) indicators

Lessons

Measuring impact – co-ordination, and localisation

Making the most of tech?

Simon KnightUser:Sjgknight

Vice chair, Wikimedia UK

Basic model

• We do things for a reason (we have goals)• We run activities to meet those goals• And to justify the activities, and assess their

success, we evaluate them against our goals (we measure)

Tenuous analogy time

• Think about a modern smart phone (device, OS, plug) • Phone – strategy• OS – activities• Plug – impact

• What we do is tied to the framing, the capabilities, restrictions, flexibility of the strategy.

• It also requires that we’re having impact – or else the strategy gets old and tired, and our activities cease (the phone dies)

• We should be free to remix as much as possible• And I wonder to what extent we need shared

phones/OS/plugs…

Public domainhttp://wikitravel.org/shared/File:Universal-plug-adaptor.jpg

WMMetrics, Wiki-Metrics, Metric-Wikis, Wiki-trust wwwwwwwwww

• WMF – Wiki Metrics• WMF – WM Metrics• Other tools to appropriate – Wiki-trust, wiki-

todo, social-tools (snuggle), etc. • Keeping track, sharing good practice, localising

– how do we do it?

e.g. WM-Metrics (France)

• List all files in category uploaded between timestamp t1 and t2

• """Wikipedia article statistics.""“ (not yet t1 and t2)

• New articles• File use• Category use

five Strategic Goals • G1 Develop Open Knowledge

– Organisations different in each country• G2 As a volunteer-led organisation, ensuring effective use of the

resources available to us inc developing volunteers (G2.1) and using high quality governance (G2.2)– Governance ‘standards’ different, volunteer needs (and groups) also

vary• G3 Reduce barriers to accessing Open Knowledge

– Legal context and open-knowledge eco-system crucial• G4 Encourage and support technological innovation

– Ditto• G5 Develop, support, and engage with other Wikimedia

communities– Bi-relational context matters