Wikipedia:Wikimedia Strategy 2017/Cycle 3

Welcome to the strategy conversation.

Discuss the challenges posed by the research from New Voices

In the past three months, we have all expressed opinions on what we want to build or achieve together as a movement. Simultaneously, research has been underway to give us a better understanding of the current knowledge landscape and the challenges and opportunities that we face as a movement. This global research effort includes:

• Conversations with more than 150 experts and partners from technology, knowledge, education, media, entrepreneurs, and other sectors, hosted by the Foundation and affiliates
• Research among potential readers and experts in places where Wikimedia projects are not well known or used: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Nigeria
• Research by age group in places where Wikimedia projects are well known and used: France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States

This cycle is dedicated to considering the challenges identified by the research and exploring how we may want to evolve or respond to changes in the world around us. As a way to become more familiar with the challenges, you are invited to review the documents and sources, and think about how we might address them. Each week, a new challenge and insights will be posted, so that you can share how it connects to or changes your perspective on our future direction.

During July, the cycle 2 synthesis report will be finalized. All these materials and your continuing feedback during cycle 3 will be used by the drafting group to prepare the draft strategic direction, which will be available for your review in August.

Go to the LEARN page on Meta-Wiki for the complete list of research.

Week 1 Challenge: How do our communities and content stay relevant in a changing world?

Key insights

The Western encyclopedia model is not serving the evolving needs of all people who want to learn.

According to the ethnographic research and expert interviews we conducted, existing and future readers want a platform for learning that goes beyond Wikipedia’s current encyclopedic format and its western-centric norms. Experts shared that the formal education system is not working well in many places, especially - but not only - in emerging countries. People are seeking new ways to learn to offset the resource or infrastructure challenges they face. Wikipedia and its sister projects are currently designed to be web destinations for browsing rich knowledge, but many readers are more interested in getting answers to specific questions. Many who seek knowledge online are looking for short, standalone, and/or visual ways of engaging with content and acquiring new skills. Wikipedia's current model of the long-form, in-depth, text-heavy encyclopedia article may not meet these changing needs. It also does not yet provide a space for other forms of educational knowledge.

Knowledge sharing has become highly social across the globe.

Both the ethnographic research and results from the awareness and usage study are showing that young people, enabled by smartphones, seek and share information in new ways. This is the newest group of people to reach. They are deeply involved in their use of social media and messenger tools, and they prefer to share and discuss information through platforms they already use. Experts assert that new trends are emerging. For example, many young people see querying their friends and networks for information via messaging apps as equivalent to discussing in person, just faster and through a broader group. Distrust and skepticism are becoming so widespread that “reliable sources” are often dismissed: young people increasingly place trust in individuals in their networks whose judgement and intellectual honesty they respect, rather than in traditional “respectable” institutions. These changes may threaten Wikipedia’s relevance to a large audience which we have traditionally served.

Key insights as stories

Because different minds work in different ways, some people may prefer to think of these challenges in terms of these personal stories (note these are fictional characters based on the research findings).

Meet Michael and Annisa, two teenagers from across continents and lifestyles
Michael is a teenage male living in Washington, DC, United States. He and all his friends have smartphones, and they use them to connect, share interesting content, and look up information for school. While Michael and all his friends are aware of Wikipedia, they are significantly less likely than their parents to read Wikipedia (46% vs. 72% read it weekly or more often) When they do, it’s to look up a specific topic (41% of the time) or help them study (23% of the time). YouTube is in his top 3 websites. He doesn’t remember a time without social media, and he and his friends are always online via their smartphones. “Facebook is for old people”: Snapchat is Michael’s preferred way to interact and share content with friends. He gets information from a variety of devices, from the desktop computer to listening to Siri on his phone or the Amazon Echo in his family’s living room. Like his parents, Michael values that content is useful more than if it is high quality or free and neutral.
Annisa is a 15-year-old female in the city of Bandung, Indonesia. Her family is considered wealthy, and she is lucky enough to have a smartphone (one of the 21% of the country’s whole population). Her family doesn’t have a computer, so she uses her phone to search for the information she needs for school. Mostly, though, she uses WhatsApp to connect with her friends and share information in her local language. Her family and friends are very interconnected and social, so her phone is an extension of that. She trusts the information she receives from friends and people she follows. Sometimes she uses search results in English that display content from Wikipedia, but she is unaware that this is from Wikipedia. She and her friends share snippets of information that fit on their mobile phones and give them the exact information they need. Browsing the internet for the sake of discovering new things is just not part of what she does.

Suggest a solution

Please discuss how to solve this challenge Note: Community feedback will be shared with the drafting team. They will also be used for future considerations as we face and solve these challenges.