Projekt:Podcast/Avsnitt 261
Avsnitt 261
Inspelningsdatum: 29 April 2024
Publiceringsdatum: 29 April 2024
Lyssna:
Extern länk: https://wikipediapodden.se/userciell-mcdc-wikimedia-summit-2024-261/
Programanteckningar
Programledare är Jan Ainali.
Special episode
This is the second episode in a series of short interviews related to the Wikimedia Summit 2024 in Berlin and the draft of the Movement Charter. In this episode, we'll meet User:Ciell from the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, the MCDC, who explains more about the Movement Charter.
Transcript
This is the second episode in a series of interviews related to the Wikimedia Summit and the draft of the Movement Charter. In our last episode we heard from Eva Martin about the summit itself, and in this episode we'll meet User:Ciell from the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, the MCDC, who will explain more about the Movement Charter.
This is Wikipediapodden and I'm your host Jan Ainali. This episode is recorded just after the Wikimedia Summit as it was such a busy time we didn't manage to record there. With me today I have User:Ciell who is in the Movement Charter drafting committee. Welcome Ciell!
Thank you Jan, very happy to be here with you.
So in our previous episode we heard Eva Martin from the organizing team explain how the latest Movement Charter draft was sort of like the core focus of the summit. For listeners that might not be in the know, could you briefly explain what the Movement Charter, what it is and what purpose is it meant to serve?
That's a very good question because I can imagine all listeners might have that question. The Wikimedia Movement Charter will capture the roles and responsibilities that have grown organically over the 23 years that our movement is already in the works. We never had one place where we just wrote down who is responsible for what, and that's actually exactly what the Movement Charter will do. So the Charter is about governance and at the same time in these 23 years inequities have risen. And while we are working on this Movement Charter we also try to make it more equitable, again our movement. So the Movement Charter introduces new concepts. One of them is hubs. Hubs are sort of like chapters and user groups that we all already know. But hubs will be less about governing and more about capacity building, support on the most lowest level, community support and collaboration between affiliates that already exist. Another concept is the Global Council. And while hubs will function on those low lowest level, the Global Council actually will improve representation on the highest decision making levels. So with both of them together we hope it will be a better balanced governance model that we'll have in the movement.
I have struggled a little bit trying to translate the word Charter to Swedish, because it's a common word. But I think it's sort of like what you can say it is, and you can correct me if I'm wrong here. Like it's a very foundational document, almost like for a non-profit you might have bylaws, but even almost more foundational than that. Am I right?
That's correct. I know it's difficult to translate into Dutch as well, so I recognize the problem. In Dutch we use the word Handfest. I know that some other languages use Constitution. So it's something like that, just laying out who is the final one accountable. But yes, Creative Commons has a Charter, Mozilla has a Charter. So maybe it is worth looking into how those communities did their translations to see what translation for your language fits best.
And this has been developing for a time and we have the drafting committee working on it. Where in the process are we now?
Well, the Movement Charter Drafting Committee has presented the pre-ultimate version, as we call it, at the beginning of April. It is up for consultation still on Meta for this month, so just a few more days, hours. And then we as Movement Charter Drafting Committee have another three weeks to take in all the feedback and change the draft and address all concerns and incorporate all proposals for improvement that we received. And then we'll start a vote to get community and affiliate support throughout the movement if this was good enough and if indeed this will be the Charter for the Wikimedia Movement.
Now, recording this after the Wikimedia Summit and I had a question, what your hopes were, what the outcomes of it would be. And maybe also a little bit with seeing what has been produced. Are you happy with the amount of feedback and the kind of feedback that the affiliates provided to the committee?
Oh yes, I'm definitely very pleased to see the amount of feedback that we received. I think the feedback we received at the summit for Movement Charter Drafting Committee perspective is twofold. One is to surface things that we as Movement Charter Drafting Committee did not think of yet. Considerations and things that have to be in the Charter, in the core Charter text, because let me be explicit, the Charter is meant to be a high level and concise document. Everything that we think that might need to change in the next three years or the next six years. So, for instance, membership policy of the Global Council might not be suitable as core Charter text. We want to have that in a membership policy that will be easier to change, you know, but everything that has to be in that core Charter text, maybe we overlooked something. So we're very happy to hear that. And the second thing that was very interesting for our perspective is if affiliates had the same questions and were deep diving into the same problems, and if they ended on a different solution, why? Not so much the solution itself, but what was the reasoning behind it? Why did they land on a different outcome than we as MCDC did? That's interesting. Maybe a new perspective, new considerations, things that we did not weigh as that important that were very important to the affiliates.
All right. I think that summarizes very well both the basics of the Charter and what we did at the summit. And you already mentioned that it's still going to be for the rest of April. Time for comments. And then it's going to be a vote later in June or early May or late May already.
No, no, no, no, no, June, June. Yeah, don't underestimate the whole process. Because once we finish, legal still has to do the thing. Readability has to be done. Translations have to be done. I wish we could just click publish and it would be done. But no, it's a more difficult process. But June, yes. End of June, we'll be having a ratification vote.
All right. Well, thank you very much, Ciell, for taking the time to explain the Movement Charter for us.
You're very much welcome, Jan. Thank you for having me.
In the coming episodes, we will hear the perspectives of Wikimedia affiliates at the Wikimedia Summit. In the next episode, first out is User:NANöR from Wiki World Heritage User Group.