Annual plan 2024

Summary of the year's operations

Our activities are expected to decrease slightly in 2024 compared to 2023. This conservative starting point is due to the fact that long-term funding has become increasingly uncertain and financial prudence is therefore essential. The reorganization that we decided on in 2023 and implemented in 2024 focuses on improving our long-term financial conditions.

This is a planned change that has been brought forward and accelerated due to the economic challenges. However, the organizational changes took a significant amount of time in late 2023 and early 2024, delaying some of the preparations for the new year that are usually worked on during this period.

The changes that have taken place will mainly have a negative impact on our work with workshops and presentations; the staff will travel to do these types of outreach activities less often. This affects the introductory presentations that we do to create awareness of our work and the Wikimedia platforms.

Until know, this sort of educational outreach was deemed necessary to establish a necessary knowledge base in the Swedish GLAM sector, so that our partner organizations are aware of the value of working with the Wikimedia platforms, as well as to lay a foundation for designing collaborative projects. However, we can see that this knowledge base is now sufficient in relation to our current capacity for collaboration. The work on getting GLAM experts to systematically contribute to Wikipedia articles has been shown in evaluations to be very limited in scope and is not sufficient to justify the relatively high costs right now. However, we have seen that training GLAM experts to systematically contribute to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata has resulted in them continuing to contribute larger amounts of data.

If we had more resources at our disposal, similar training activities could have been provided to other smaller institutions, or in other areas such as folk high school or civil society – both of which have shown great potential. Some of the training activities may be picked up in the future if additional funding can be secured.

To compensate for this reduction, more resources will be devoted to developing online training courses adapted to different target groups, as well as an increased focus on digital communication. Our staff will, however, continue providing training on more complex technical topics, mainly as integrated parts of larger projects.

We will put a lot of effort into increasing the association's visibility and several fundraising campaigns will be carried out to raise more financial resources in the medium and long term. We will also continue to invest heavily in our work on project applications.

Most of the resources in 2024 will be spent on ensuring that several of the major initiatives that have been worked on for several years can continue to be developed and established on a more permanent basis. Moreover, this year will be devoted mainly to establishing the chapter as a Thematic Hub for Content Partnerships, helping to ensure that both Swedish and international legislation is in line with the needs of the Wikimedia movement, and taking important steps to launch both speech synthesis and the speech resource collector for Wikispeech. All these projects are expected to continue in 2025 and beyond.

We will be working to further develop or refocus campaigns run by the association – such as WikiGap, Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth. Steps will be taken to try to develop a concept that builds on the three campaigns, with a focus on creating opportunities and engagement to help digitize threatened cultural and natural heritage through crowdsourcing.

Introduction

Wikimedia Sverige is a non-profit association working to ensure that all people have free access to humanity's collected knowledge.

Among other things, we contribute by helping teachers and librarians to use Wikipedia, as well as archives and museums to reach out with their material. We also support the volunteers who improve Wikipedia to be able to do it more easily and with higher quality. As it is of central importance to us that more people with different backgrounds can participate and share knowledge, we work actively with diversity in several ways.

Above all, we work together with others, for example public agencies, museums, other associations and volunteers. Our organization changes society: experimenting is central to us as there is no ready-made success template.

The association is a local, legally independent chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs some of the world's largest knowledge repositories, including Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. The goal of our work is to work to spread copyright-free knowledge to as many people as possible. Our members direct our work.

The association also contributes to the development of the software behind Wikipedia. For example, we have developed a speech synthesizer for Wikipedia, making it possible for those who search for knowledge in it to also listen to the articles. Better digital accessibility and the ability to consume knowledge in different ways is essential for our platforms to stay relevant. We are also building and improving various tools to make it easier for volunteers and partner organizations alike to contribute.

We work to ensure that the internet continues to evolve to make free knowledge possible. This includes working on legislation and contributing to ethical AI.

All our work aims to achieve our vision: "Free knowledge for a better world. To help people and organizations create and support free knowledge, and make it easily accessible for all."

The 2024 Annual Plan is based on these priorities and constraints. It also describes what is required in terms of supporting resources, systems and practices to meet these high goals. The objectives, milestones and tactical priorities that will guide our work in 2024 are presented below.

The year's main objectives

Overview of the year's main objectives

Strategic area	The year's main objectives	Activities
Access	Concept development in the Thematic Content Partnerships Hub and its governance, as well as political advocacy work.	During the year, we will increase our efforts around the strategic issues of how the Hub should be governed and how other Wikimedia organizations can be engaged in the work, as well as how Wikimedia affiliates can work on software development for content partnerships. The practical work in 2024 focuses on capacity building, linked to our efforts around the Helpdesk, work with intergovernmental organizations and Metabase. We also continue to contribute in a limited way to maintaining key tools and uploading strategic datasets. There are several important legislative processes underway in 2024, and we will do active work to maximize the opportunities for open knowledge, including legislation around copyright, open educational resources, open access to research material and AI.
Use	AI development and increased accessibility through Wikispeech and the speech data collector.	Developing tools for speech data collection, adding more languages, adding more features, preparing and possibly piloting speech data collection events, exploring other possible uses. Datasets for AI development are prepared and collaborations around this are initiated. The project is also linked to language preservation for further engagement. Broad launch of the tools and start-up of the Wikimedia Accessibility Academy for increased digital accessibility. Several collaborations are developed and materials for education, training and communication are produced.
Community	Restructuring of support forms, launch of online training to increase engagement and restructured campaigns.	Our work with providing the community with different forms of support will be restructured so that our members will be given the responsibility to manage parts of the work but, above all, to make different decisions themselves. New learning modules (online courses) will be launched on the learn.wiki learning platform to provide training for existing communities and to engage new people. A new campaign with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, possibly focusing on endangered cultural heritage, will be developed based on experiences from WikiGap, and linked to Wiki Loves.
Enabling	Fundraising and member recruitment.	Review of our communication and further development of different channels. Major work on fundraising and membership recruitment via social media. Implementation of a new CRM system. Experimentation with banners on our websites. Further development of face-to-face fundraising (F2F) and bequeathed funds.

Experiments under the umbrella of the Content Partnerships Hub initiative.

The activities to establish Wikimedia Sverige as a Thematic hub for content partnerships continues during the year. Through experiments, we can establish routines, demonstrate the real value and get a realistic estimate of the costs, as well as connect other organizations and volunteers to the project. In parallel with the continued experiments and concept development, we are starting initiatives regarding how the future hub will be controlled. It is becoming increasingly clear that a future decision-making model will require the hub to be co-managed with at least one additional Wikimedia organization. It is also obvious that further delays are to be expected, as donations to the Wikimedia Foundation have decreased and the movement's financial development is facing major financial challenges. Unfortunately, the necessary investments required are therefore expected to be delayed, and we will have to work actively with external financing and push our own funds to cover the costs in the coming years.

The work with the thematic hub is part of the association's contribution to fulfilling the global strategy recommendations for the Wikimedia movement. The recommendations were drawn up between 2017 and 2020, including in-depth analyses on how the movement would develop up to and including 2030. One of the most important results from the process was the intention to develop different hubs all over the world. Two types of hubs were described: Regional hubs that support organizations and volunteers in a certain geographical area (for example, a European hub), and Thematic hubs that support organizations and volunteers in a certain area of expertise (for example, a content partnership hub).

During the development of the 2030 recommendations, the idea of a hub was strongly advocated by Wikimedia Sverige's representatives. Hubs, as we see them, are a key to organizing the Wikimedia movement, as they are needed to address many of the issues identified. We urgently must find a structure where the responsibility for coordinating and guiding work and resources is distributed more evenly across the Wikimedia movement. Thematic hubs are meant to, together with Regional hubs, take over a lot of the coordinating and strategic work from the Wikimedia Foundation and together shoulder challenges from different perspectives. Decisions become decentralized and moved closer to the various communities by volunteers and professionals within the movement. Wikimedia Sverige immediately started its work on establishing the new organizational structure of Thematic hubs, and is now partly waiting for the rest of the movement to catch on. The work has therefore proceeded at a slower pace during 2023 and is also expected to be limited in scope in 2024.

Wikimedia Sverige has been working on developing the Content Partnerships Hub (often referred to as the GLAM Hub) that can provide the infrastructure needed for the Wikimedia movement to collaborate effectively with organizations that have valuable material for educational purposes, and want to share their knowledge with the public through the Wikimedia platforms. This includes, for example, museums, archives, libraries, academia, public agencies and intergovernmental organizations such as UN agencies.

Our hope is that, as a well-organized medium-sized Wikimedia affiliate, this groundbreaking initiative will make it cheaper and easier for other affiliates to implement effective content partnerships. The work of the hub focuses exclusively on international activities that will contribute to the Wikimedia movement globally, rather than in Sweden. The priorities implemented have this as a focus; in some cases it can also benefit our work in Sweden, but as a positive side effect rather than as the goal.

In the process of becoming a hub, we have been fully aware that there is no clear definition of what a hub actually consists of and that the exact scope is likely to change. We have also been aware that in the end we may not be formally designated as a hub. It is therefore important to organize the work so that the experiments themselves can also create real value.

We want to show our intention and make a serious attempt to develop the organization to enable us to take more responsibility for international coordination and provide a service to the Wikimedia movement. We believe we can fill a currently existing gap around technology and capacity building in our international movement. The preparatory work we have been doing since 2019 has given us a good starting point for a successful organizational development in the coming years.

Focus in 2024

We have secured project funding from the Wikimedia Foundation for intensive work until mid-2024. Within the framework of this project, we can, to a limited extent, continue our concept development of the work we envision will take place within the framework of the thematic hub. The focus is on capacity building based on questions received from the Helpdesk and in our work with UN agencies and other intergovernmental organizations. The material will also be compiled on our experimental platform Metabase.

We have had to make this restriction as the Wikimedia Foundation has decided to fund only minor experiments and not maintenance, despite the fact that we are ready for it. To supplement this limited funding, we will actively seek project funding from external funders. Parts of the work will also be included in our operating grant. If necessary, resources may also be drawn from our financial reserves.

Over the year, we will invest these resources in continuous work to prepare ourselves for how the future hub will be managed. We will organize workshops and working groups for this purpose and, based on the concepts we have developed, develop detailed plans and establish the necessary structures. We can say that we have several relatively well-developed concepts for what a thematic hub could and should focus on. These serve as a basis for developing a vision, mission and goals as well as how the management of the hub should be done. It includes decisions on how the distribution of power should look like, how we should design a democratic engagement/decision-making system, what funding for various tasks should look like (how money should flow to and from the hub from other Wikimedia organizations and external funding sources) and how we should cooperate with other hub initiatives, around developing policies, etc.

In the recent years, we have developed concepts for work in five different areas. These concepts have been discussed with hundreds of people over the years. These five areas, which we're still working in in full or partial capacity, are:

1. Provide practical support with content partnerships to other Wikimedia organizations and volunteers. We have launched a service function, what we call a Helpdesk, where people can request our staff's help with implementing successful content partnerships. The Helpdesk is supported by an international expert committee that provides guidance and helps us decide what to prioritize. In 2024, we will establish working groups with experts from other Wikimedia affiliates.
2. Develop materials to enable capacity building focused on content partnerships. We are building a stronger movement by developing and compiling resources that support Wikimedia communities, especially those that are new and still developing. Requests to the Helpdesk are guiding our priorities. A digital learning platform is being developed, as well as the ability to compile existing material in a structured way on our experimental platform Metabase. For this, external funding for a new staff member has been secured. We will also seek funding from the EU and from Nordic support funds to establish the Grand Tour of Wikimedia exchange program.
3. Support the development of several central technical tools. Better tools allow us to work with content partners more effectively. This includes supporting existing tools with developer time, solving long-term problems and helping with maintenance. During the year, we will contribute to the maintenance or further development of a few selected tools. In addition, we plan to help set up a network of Wikimedia communities that are actively contributing to technical development, or intend to start doing so, and within that network regularly consult with communities that have an interest in the functioning of the tools.
4. Develop content partnerships with UN agencies and other intergovernmental organizations. We support global collaboration and content partnerships with international organizations, such as the United Nations. Many of the organizations have enormous amounts of highly valuable content and knowledge. We choose to focus on so-called high impact topics to create interest and link the work to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals: biological diversity, gender and crises. An important part of the work in 2024 will be to find the forms for how so-called Wikimedians in Residence can be engaged at UN agencies, including by developing a training program together with other Wikimedia affiliates. We will also work to link more affiliates to local efforts with UN agencies and to raise the possibilities of collaborating on various Wikimedia events.
5. Strategic data uploads. We're developing collaborations and lowering thresholds for sharing data that makes it easier to create or maintain content partnerships of high quality. What is particularly strategically valuable is data that enables the movement to discover cultural heritage and GLAM institutions around the world that they can work with, as well as efforts that show how images can be made more searchable through structured data. In 2024, we will link this work to digital preservation of threatened cultural heritage. We hope that in the coming year, the data we have uploaded that contains basic information about the locations of cultural heritage will be supplemented with different types of risk evaluations so that crowdsourcing efforts can be carried out as strategically as possible.

Political advocacy

At the moment, there's extensive work going on around several legislative matters in Sweden, which is of utmost interest to us. Wikimedia Sverige has established a clear profile and has been recognized for its efforts, and is receiving more and more frequent invitations to participate in various legislative contexts.

Over the past decade, and especially since the implementation process of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, our representatives have strategically engaged in advocacy work to try to represent the voices of internet users. This is a group that is often underrepresented in the Swedish legislative process. This distinctive approach has positioned us as a respected and unique voice in Sweden.

Our input to government agencies, policy makers and politicians has been valued and significantly influenced various legislative issues, especially in the area of copyright. Fortunately, Wikimedia Sverige was one of only 14 organizations that were trusted to nominate an expert to a governmental public inquiry on this issue. We were the only organization from civil society. The inquiry focused on exceptions and limitations to copyright, a topic we have prioritized. This marks a significant step towards increasing the flexibility of Swedish copyright law, one of the most important since the turn of the millennium.

The final report was submitted to the Swedish government on January 19, 2024. This marks the beginning of the next phase: the government's process of turning the report into a bill. With the experience, deep understanding and insights into the arguments of both allies and opponents that we have gained through the investigative process, Wikimedia Sverige is once again in a unique position when it comes to the opportunity to influence the legislative process. In particular, this applies to the possibility of coordinating with allies and like-minded actors. The report is roughly 400 pages long, written in heavy, legal language, and contains complex proposals. We will thus have a decisive opportunity, almost a responsibility, to share our insights and experiences with others. In this way, we can lower the barriers for other like-minded organizations to make their voices heard in the legislative process, to ensure a user-friendly, research-focused law.

There is a need to write reports, drafts, briefings and training materials to explain why certain aspects of the issue are very important and others highly problematic. As we have already done a lot of work and preparations in this area, further investment will allow us to build on it and create significant added value.

Focus in 2024

During the beginning of the year, the focus is on completing the work with the copyright investigation. Directly after this, however, advocacy work is required towards legislators throughout the year to ensure that the new laws that are adopted create as good opportunities as possible for free knowledge, and are easily understood by the general public so that crowdsourcing efforts are possible. The investigation is also limited to exceptions and limitations of the legislation, and there are other aspects we believe need to be dealt with when the law is now updated for the first time in many years. We will work with events aimed at legislators and personal contacts with legislators, as well as active communication work in the media to create opinion. This will be done together with a network of like-minded organizations which we have created and continues to expand.

We will collaborate with Creative Commons to build engagement around a new UNESCO recommendation on cultural heritage. Among other things we will explore whether we can use our established contacts within UNESCO to put this on the agenda. We hope to secure additional external funding in order to continue the work on improving copyright law also internationally, such as through participation in WIPO.

Together with the Swedish Library Association and the Institute for Intellectual Property and Market Law at Stockholm University, we will also organize a seminar on AI where legislation around AI and text and data mining (TDM) will be discussed. This is part of the work to deepen our engagement in these highly relevant issues that have already had an impact on both our activities and the Wikimedia platforms.

This work is taking place in a year with particularly many elections, and there is a need to actively follow the various issues raised in this context through extensive external monitoring.

More people can contribute to and use Wikispeech

The work on Wikispeech that was originally planned for 2022 and 2023 was postponed as no external funding was secured during the year. We now hope to secure the necessary funds in 2024 and continue the work.

The work is partly focused on making the Wikimedia platforms more accessible, especially for people who for some reason cannot read. We will therefore continue developing the speech synthesis tool, not least in order to make it possible to include new open language models to make the voice sound better and simplify learning.

European public agencies are required by law to ensure accessibility on the intranet and extranet platforms they use, and Wikispeech will help us offer an alternative to commercial solutions (for example, an institution deciding to use its own MediaWiki installation).

This year's work will also contribute to making Wikimedia the "essential infrastructure of the free knowledge ecosystem", providing tools, services and materials that organizations around the world can benefit from and build on. Our contribution to this consists largely of further development of the speech data collection tools linked to the Wikispeech extension, which will create a valuable dataset of speech recordings and annotations needed for developing free and open-source software (FOSS) solutions around text-to-speech and speech-to-text solutions, as well as a dataset for various AI solutions. For the AI datasets, we plan to develop methods to secure data from underrepresented groups.

Furthermore, the Wikispeech – Speech Resource Collector can lay the foundation for a specific set of tools which are necessary to be able to collect and structure knowledge from oral sources (so-called Oral Citations). This is something that the Wikimedia community has been discussing at least since 2012, but has not yet made any progress. Wikimedia Sverige does not intend to lead the work on oral citations, but we hope to initiate discussions with other Wikimedia affiliates and hopefully provide some of the technical solutions needed.

By working with Lexemes as a basis for lexical resources, the initiative may also be linked to the Wikimedia Foundation's new platform Abstract Wikipedia.

The different types of speech resources brought together can also become important tools for language preservation and the possibilities around this will be explored.

All of this will be done under as part of the new Wikimedia Accessibility Academy initiative, which we will start establishing in 2024. Within this framework, we will implement actions to raise awareness and engagement around digital inclusion – starting with the Wikimedia platforms.

Focus in 2024

In 2024, we plan to continue developing the speech synthesis so that it works in more parts of Wikipedia than the main text, can be enabled in more languages and becomes both more user-friendly and resource efficient. The development of the Wikispeech Speech Resource Collector will continue to engage the community and start contributing speech data in 2025. This will not only allow us to improve the Wikispeech extension, also to improve lexicographical data on Wikidata, as well as add pronunciation info to Wikipedia articles. The first step in 2024 will be producing a number of reports, and after that more functions in the speech synthesis will be completed. Afterwards, the focus will shift to speech data collection tools with the goal of soft-launching them at the end of the year or in early 2025.

During the year, we will coordinate with initiatives of several organizations with complementary goals and communities. This includes, for example, Lingua Libre, Mozilla's Common Voice as well as Språkbanken Tal – which collects language data in Sweden, mainly for research purposes. The European Commission, which is interested in language data for its internal translation and interpreting projects, will also be contacted about various issues and cooperation opportunities. In collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation, we have also started discussions with Google about releasing speech resources that can contribute to Wikispeech. In addition, collaborations with, for example, various interest organizations for people with disabilities and cultural associations will be deepened and in some cases established from scratch. We will discuss the development opportunities and priorities with the Wikimedia Foundation product team.

Once the tools are activated, we will organize speech data collection events and develop a toolkit for other Wikimedia affiliates to run similar events. The focus in 2024 will be on preparatory work: developing our network and producing documentation and training materials.

However, the technical work is part of a bigger picture where we plan to work actively to create engagement around issues related to digital accessibility. This work will take place within the framework of the Wikimedia Accessibility Academy which will be launched as part of the project. Our methods and tools will be implemented and used to engage the public in the collection of speech and language data and other accessibility issues. Through training and activities, we will increase the understanding and engagement of the general public and experts alike on these issues and how they can contribute to making the internet more accessible. All this work will be linked to the Wikimedia platforms in various ways.

It should be noted that the bulk of this initiative is based on receiving funding from a grant application that has not yet been confirmed. Because of this, the year's focus may change based on the requirements of the funder.

Towards becoming a people's movement

Wikimedia Sverige strives to become a people's movement. Such a movement is built by its members and consists of their commitment. It is built from the bottom up, and enables engagement regardless of who you are. Wikimedia Sverige will become a people's movement both digitally and physically, with a community that gives meaning to those involved. It should be easy to get in, and fun to stay. We will work actively to improve our communication and organize various engagement-building activities for our members as well as recruit new members. This work will lead to increasing our social visibility and making us better known among the public.

The work of developing the association into a people's movement requires putting effort into our ways of recruiting new members, engaging them and creating opportunities for them to develop and enrich their lives so that they choose to remain members and engage with open knowledge. We need to find ways to add value to the initiatives we already have, as well as open up to new innovative ideas and initiatives from our members.

The Wikimedia movement is nothing without the volunteers who are active on the platforms. Ensuring continued support to and from the active volunteers, both online (the Wikimedia contributors) and offline (people active in our association), as well as engaging new volunteers of both sorts, is thus a strategic priority for us, not least to improve diversity. We will increase the support for our online and offline volunteers, and work to grow the volunteer communities. The work on increasing volunteer engagement will help us to get extra reinforcement both for the hub and for the projects we run in Sweden.

The Wikimedia movement is by its nature internationally oriented and revolves around borderless, often language-based free knowledge platforms. Therefore, it is important that the steps we take towards becoming a people's movement also enable and support international involvement. These steps also have the chance to increase our ability to create interest and commitment among immigrant groups, who are currently underrepresented in our association.

Focus in 2024

Despite intensive work in 2022 and 2023, we are currently lacking a great deal of the organizational capacity and maturity needed to handle a larger member base well. We are actively continuing to work on this in 2024 and strive to find the forms for how we establish, support and maintain local engagement, in different parts of the country as well as internationally.

During the year, we are going to work on investigating and defining which groups are underrepresented in our association. Based on the available data we have, we will continuously adapt our work to increase the participation of underrepresented groups. These insights are important for the priorities we make during the year. In order to achieve this, we will continue working on our diversity report.

A strategic change is that staff training will focus on supporting volunteers and members with training to develop and strengthen their roles. In 2023, extensive work was done to establish a digital, modular training program. The modules can be combined to suit different types of volunteer engagement in the association (both offline and online) as well as for the training of staff and elected representatives. Some 20 modules have been drafted and will be launched in the second half of 2024.

Our support for the active community will change form. In the past, a large part of the support has been managed and implemented by our staff. This arrangement has many advantages and has been much appreciated over the years. However, the office-heavy setup has limited scalability and has not benefited from the commitment that exists among the association's members. As available resources have been limited and are expected to decrease even further in coming years, we need to develop alternative structures. Starting in 2024, a shift will take place where volunteers will be given the opportunity to organize, lead and develop the work with the Community's projects, technology pool and reference library (with continuous support from the staff). The staff provides administrative support and follow-up. The staff contribution will focus on providing support with press accreditation, expert support where within the staff's expertise, competency development through training initiatives, development support of digital tools, providing technical solutions/services and organizing events for the members.

Volunteers from the global movement will be given clearer entry points for involvement in the projects run by us, including the establishment of the thematic hub for content partnerships, various international campaigns, and work on events and training with international partners such as UN agencies.

The ​online​ volunteers will be encouraged to actively engage with the material we are making available through our content partnerships. We will provide them with support in a number of forms, such as addressing technical needs and through grants, training programs to enhance their skills etc.

We will also continue developing different strategies, methods and organizational structures to support the volunteers who contribute to software development. However, this work will have a more limited focus in 2024 because we see fewer opportunities around this in the near future.

Fundraising and member recruitment in Sweden

We're continuing our work with the association's long-term financial and organizational sustainability. As our projects get more ambitious and are directed more towards becoming part of the digital infrastructure, it becomes increasingly important that they are financially sustainable in the long term. Infrastructure cannot be allowed to fail.

Sweden is a prosperous country with great opportunities to secure funding for both national and international work. Therefore, national fundraising work has great potential both for operations in Sweden and as support for Wikimedia organizations internationally. Having said that, this is a change that will take time to fully implement, and support from the Wikimedia Foundation and other Wikimedia organizations is essential for it to happen. This work will be accelerated and significantly prioritized as the financial challenges are expected to increase in the future and the association needs to secure sources of income other than the Wikimedia Foundation to continue our important work with free knowledge. The Wikimedia Foundation has clearly communicated that possible funding from them will be limited in the coming years due to the uncertainty about how effective their fundraising campaigns on Wikipedia will be.

The fundraising work is guided by the financial plan that the staff and the board update twice a year. We have identified ten main areas to work in, so that the association's financial situation can continue to improve. For several years, Wikimedia Sverige has used some of the funding from the Wikimedia Foundation to apply for project grants and do some experimental activities around fundraising.

Membership recruitment is not mainly focused on the economic aspects in the short term, but on establishing a popular movement. In the longer term, however, the assessment is that a large and committed member base will open new opportunities and lead to more and larger donations. It has been identified that one possibility a larger member base can help to achieve, is that the association can be appointed to become a so-called "förmånstagare" (i.e., beneficiary) of the Postkodlotteriet.

Focus in 2024

The association continues its historically very successful work of applying for project funding from various funds. Here, there's an increased focus on international projects where a large part of the funds are channeled to Wikimedia affiliates in other countries. We will also look at opportunities to apply for funding from international funders.

The work with our partners that we have been doing for many years to increase their understanding of the possibilities of working with the Wikimedia platforms has borne fruit; their understanding of the value of working with Wikimedia Sverige is good, especially in the GLAM sector. We can see that the predominant interest from partner organizations is in more technical matters rather than basic training and workshops. We will, to a limited extent, provide contractors who work with mass uploads and linked open data. We will only accept such tasks if they also help us fulfill other parts of our strategy. We will continue developing a clearer value for organizations to become members of the association.

For the first time since the pandemic, we have managed to reverse the declining trend of the number of members; at the end of the year, the association had 468 members. During 2024, we hope to increase the number of members to a new record level. However, the work on this will span over several years. In 2024, the main focus is still on establishing the organizational conditions for a many times larger organization where not only the numbers, but also the commitment and democratic participation increase.

In order to successfully increase both the number of members and donations in the coming years, we are planning a targeted approach in the first half of 2024. In addition to continuing the work with face-to-face recruitment (F2F), we will implement a digital fundraising campaign. A communications officer has been hired to work on this. In addition to social media fundraising, we are investigating how to best fundraise via our websites, which includes experimenting with fundraising banners. We're coordinating our fundraising work with other Wikimedia affiliates to reduce costs and simplify collaborations and knowledge transfer. We're hoping that this work will increase our visibility and number of followers as well as a large number of new members. The goal of membership recruitment is not only collecting more money, but also offering our members the opportunity for a deeper engagement and creating a number that increases our opportunities to influence the issues around openness and free knowledge that we are pushing. Increased visibility and followers are also of central importance for us so that we can become beneficiaries of the Swedish Postcode Lottery in the future. We're setting aside resources in 2024 to train volunteers in how they can best work with membership recruitment.

Concerning membership recruitment, we will do a six-week long campaign where we will inform passers-by about both our work and the possibility of joining us as members (a so-called Face-to-Face campaign). If it's successful, additional Face-to-Face campaigns may take place later in the year. We have long-term expectations for this work, and we expect a net negative financial result for the year.

An important piece of this puzzle in 2024 is that a new system for member and donor care (a so-called CRM system) should be in place with information about our members, donors and volunteers. It will enable us to can communicate effectively and reach the right people. In 2023, we specified the requirements and compared several different systems. However, the purchase and implementation of the new system was paused due to a lack of financial resources. We plan to implement it in the first half of 2024 – hopefully with dedicated funding from the Wikimedia Foundation to cover a higher implementation cost which will mean a lower operating cost.

The association began work around the possibility of receiving bequests in 2022 and basic information was compiled. During 2024, we will continue to develop the material and during the second half, alternatively during 2025, information about this possibility will go out to the association's members. It is central that the communication about such an opportunity takes place in a very thoughtful and respectful way, as it is a sensitive subject for many.

Within the framework of the Wikipedia for all of Sweden project, we will start looking at how a so-called openness certification can be developed. We will examine the possibility of designing a process and criteria for organizations to be able to receive a "quality stamp", like the KRAV or LGBTQ certifications, for their openness work. The criteria could be, for example, how much material is released under a free license, whether the systems for the dissemination of knowledge are open and accessible, and that they use freely licensed image material in their publications. We have identified some areas that will require both technical development and extensive communication work.

Program

Wikimedia Sverige has adopted a new strategic direction in 2021, which spans over the period from 2021 to 2025. Our four programs were kept intact in this new strategy:

Program	Access	Use	Community	Enabling
Description	Where more material is being shared on the Wikimedia platforms.	Where we work to get more people to use the material and to gain knowledge about it.	Where we support our active volunteers and grow and diversify the group.	Where we ensure that our association is working well and keeps developing in a number of areas.

Strategy

Wikimedia Sverigeʼs four-year strategy was adopted at the Annual General Assembly on 24 April 2021 and the chapter's work has since shifted towards fulfilling the new strategic direction. The programs are divided into 11 strategic areas. How much focus each strategic area gets will vary from year to year and is determined, among other things, by how the different strategic areas contribute to and build on each other; what financial resources have been secured; what skills our staff, board members, volunteers and association members members have; what partnerships have been established, etc. The intention is to gradually expand the work to more areas each year.

Access		Use
The chapter shall work to ensure that information that is of broad interest is made open and easily accessible, linked together and refined.	The chapter shall work towards a societal change, where increased access to free knowledge is facilitated by practical means and thus becomes the norm.	The chapter shall provide volunteers and users with tools and opportunities to contribute to and ensure qualitative information.	The chapter shall contribute to improving the user experience on the Wikimedia platforms.	The chapter shall work towards giving all volunteers equal opportunities to contribute to the Wikimedia platforms.

Community		Enabling
The chapter shall support existing communities.	The chapter shall help create new communities.	The chapter's work shall be operationally sustainable.	The chapter's work shall be financially sustainable.	The chapter shall collaborate with new partners and actors.	The chapter's work shall be based on and contribute to learning and monitoring what's happening in the world.

Goals

The association's strategy for 2021–2025 establishes four programmatic areas. These are divided into 11 strategy areas that have 45 "We achieve this by" statements. Based on this, goals are developed for both individual projects and for some cross-operational efforts. It is important that the goals meet several criteria. They shall:

• Clearly guide the work for everyone involved;
• Be ambitious, but not impossible to achieve.
• Be understandable to elected officials, staff, members and volunteers;
• Be possible to report against and comparable over time.

Targets reported within the Wikimedia movement

The association has a number of goals and metrics which are reported to the Wikimedia Foundation, allowing comparisons between different initiatives within the Wikimedia movement.

Program	Participants	Contributors	Organizers	Content pages	Comments
Access	1,005	80	87	Wikipedia: 290 Wikimedia Commons: 151,000 Wikidata: 63,350	Through the various international activities, we expect to be able to do large number of SDC edits as well as uploads to Wikimedia Commons. Most of the remaining edits are expected to come via "A network of places" and other GLAM collaborations, including a focus on library data and improving information about previous uploads. Participants will be reached both through seminars and other information initiatives linked to our advocacy work, as well as in connection with discussions and presentations about our initiatives around the hub.
Use	60	5	10	Wikipedia: 0 Wikimedia Commons: 0 Wikidata: 0	None of the projects in this program have a focus on content production this year. Our work in the project Wikispeech in 2024 is expected to focus mostly on internal and technical issues, with speech data collection events planned only for 2025.
Community	1,460	120	48	Wikipedia: 400 Wikimedia Commons: 5,000 Wikidata: 5,150	A new concept for WikiGap is being developed during the year, but is not expected to produce results until 2025. Existing communities are expected to perform similarly to last year, with a slight increase in Wikidata content as older data relevant to the Wiki Loves competitions is being updated. Wikipedia for all of Sweden is moving to focus on visibility and engagement via social media during the year, participation numbers that are excluded from the metrics reported here.
Enabling	175	0	20	Wikipedia: 0 Wikimedia Commons: 0 Wikidata: 0	This program does not aim to produce content. The participants are involved partly through presentations for the rest of the free knowledge movement and partly in connection with events developed by the association.
Totally for all programs	2,700	205	165	Wikipedia: 690 Wikimedia Commons: 156,600 Wikidata: 70,500

Projects

The projects that we're planning to work on during the year are described below. They have been grouped by program and the strategic goal (or goals) they mainly contribute to. Naturally, a project can also contribute to other strategic goals, including goals within other programs.

Keep in mind that some of the projects outlined here are based on funding from a grant application that has not yet been confirmed. The focus of these projects may therefore change based on the requirements of the funder; they can also be cancelled altogether if they do not receive funding. If the project has not yet been funded, the project description names this.

New projects may also be added if funding opportunities arise and we have the capacity to do them.

The document Budget 2024 specifies how much resources each project has allocated as planned.

Access

The Access program includes 14 different projects in 2024. In March 2024, 11 of them had financing, and one of them had already been concluded. Access is our largest thematic program both in terms of budget (over 3.3 million SEK) and the number of projects.

Several of the projects have as their full or partial focus supporting increased access to free knowledge internationally. These are listed separately.

Access 1: The chapter shall work to ensure that information that is of broad interest is made open and easily accessible, linked together and refined.

Content partners 2024

The main target group in the project is content partners in Sweden, i.e. the organizations that have, for example, data, media files, documents or the like, with whom we work to jointly make material available and useful. This includes, for example, museums, archives and libraries, which we often call GLAM institutions. In the draft of the Swedish National Heritage Board, the starting point is that "interlinking of data sets is a prerequisite for meeting user needs. It is therefore ideal for cultural heritage institutions to use semantic links to assemble their data sets at the metadata level, so that different user services can retrieve the information requested by users.” This is in line with the association's strategy in this area and operations are adapted to meet this focus. This technical work is a further development of the multi-year partnerships we have had with Swedish GLAM institutions where their digitization work has become increasingly strategic.

Work with linked open data, mass uploads of media files and enrichment of previous mass uploads with structured data is a main focus for the year. The focus is on material related to democracy, official minorities in Sweden, a strategically prioritized area and audio files, which contributes to insights for externally funded projects we are investigating.

The project will also include participation and presentations at various conferences and events. A number of meetings will also be organized to explain and anchor the impact of the changes in copyright legislation on the activities of cultural heritage institutions, for example on Article 14.

The project also includes smaller consultancy projects funded by individual GLAM institutions, where they want help with a certain task within a limited period of time, which is preferably expected to be various mass uploads of material they focus on in particular for various reasons (for example, if they have exhibitions or received targeted funds from a funder).

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on Wikimedia Sverige's wiki: Project:Content partners 2024.

A network of places

The project runs from 2024 to 2025 and will investigate whether geographical information as linked data stimulates new data-driven research on collections from different institutions. By linking the collections' data using controlled vocabularies, a method will be developed to make information about geographical locations and buildings from different institutions compatible, opening up the collections to new research and new questions.

The project will make it easier for researchers and the general public to find, understand, analyze and use relevant information across institutional collections. This will be achieved by transforming institution-specific information into linked open data. The linking takes place via the platforms Kulturnav, K-samsök and Wikidata. By compiling case studies, the value of the new links as a basis for historical research will be tested. The project includes using visualizations of connections between places and buildings from different periods to facilitate our understanding of otherwise intangible and abstract datasets. A further goal is to raise awareness of linked data and its potential in the cultural heritage sector. In October 2023, the application was submitted to the Swedish National Heritage Board by the the main applicant, the National Center for Architecture and Design. An decision on whether the project receives funding is expected in the first half of 2024.

In 2024, the project focuses on preparations for large scale uploads, with uploads starting at the end of the year or in early 2025. The work will be described in case studies that will be actively communicated to the GLAM sector and preparatory work for these takes place during the year. Training will also be organized for the project group in how they can work with the Wikimedia platforms, with a particular focus on the OpenRefine tool.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Ett nätverk av platser.

Access 2: The chapter shall work towards a societal change, where increased access to free knowledge is facilitated by practical means and thus becomes the norm.

Political decision makers 2024

The main target group of this project is politicians who can influence the legislative process. The main focus is on the Swedish legislative process. However, efforts also take place regarding coordination around European legislation, as well as various international agreements. It may also apply to initiatives to produce various resources of particular importance to the Wikimedia movement, such as copyright issues which are dealt with by a special standing committee at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The focus for the year is to continue the work with the report on copyright restrictions, where Wikimedia Sverige has been one of thirteen organizations represented by experts in the investigation. The report has reviewed the second chapter of the Swedish copyright law, in the light of several judgments from the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice, the technological development, as well as the continuous need to incorporate EU directives (such as the infosoc directive and the copyright directive). The work builds on the association's active work with the implementation of the copyright directive, where extensive changes to the law came into force on January 1st 2023. After the report is handed over to the government, it goes to referral and then political discussion and negotiation. The association's efforts include direct contacts with politicians at various levels, input to the Ministry of Justice as well as building and maintaining networks to increase visibility and focus on the association's issues. Work is also being done on open learning resources in the second half of the year and on issues relating to AI legislation.

In addition, we will continue (within the project) to coordinate our national work with Wikimedia Europe (WMEU) and also contribute to WMEU in various areas where the association has special expertise or interest. The project also includes the negotiation of the size of the association's annual financial contribution to Wikimedia Europe. We expect to continue the work of being accredited to WIPO's Standing Committee on Copyright Matters (SCCR) this year as China repeatedly blocked our participation. In addition, there is a participation within the project in several different networks, such as in Europeana's task force for Article 14, the Wikimedia Foundation's network for Wikimedia associations that work with advocacy work, as well as OGP consultations and the like. The project may also carry the work with possible consultation responses/proactive political interventions outside the KR21 framework.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Politiska beslutsfattare 2024.

The right to knowledge in Sweden

The project is led by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), with funding from the Arcadia Fund, and aims to create national networks to promote the right to knowledge on both national and European level. This is done through lobbying and activities to raise public awareness and interest in copyright issues, as well as reports and awareness-raising activities. The role of Wikimedia Sverige is to take the lead in developing the network in Sweden and to investigate the possibility of developing training materials and organizing national events.

In 2024, the project focuses on producing reports on, among other things, technical protection measures, parallel publishing and open standards. A separate sub-project, "A flexible copyright" (see below), will allow for extensive preparatory work for consultation responses and political work around the report on copyright restrictions. Within the framework of the main project, there is thus an opportunity to start looking at the issues that are likely to be on the table after the report moves on to a political process, which likely concerns technical protection measures and parallel/secondary publication rights in particular.

The project was launched in 2023. You can see the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Rätten till kunskap i Sverige.

Seminar on AI and copyright

The project takes place as a separate sub-project, with dedicated project funding, within the framework of the project Knowledge rights in Sweden. Through the targeted effort, the association's knowledge and understanding of the latest findings and impact on our work from copyright and other related aspects of AI increases, then we gain visibility and build a network in a particularly relevant area, and we position ourselves as a key player in the field. All this opens up opportunities for us to effectively exert influence when major work in the legislative area is expected to take place in the coming years.

In the first half of 2024, the project will focus on planning, preparing and running a seminar on AI, text and data mining (TDM) and copyright. The seminar will take place at Stockholm University in June 2024, in collaboration with the Swedish Library Association and the Institute for Intellectual Property and Market Law at Stockholm University. The seminar will be preceded by a private discussion with invited speakers and politicians.

You can see the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Rätten till kunskap i Sverige.

A flexible copyright

The project takes place as a separate sub-project, with dedicated project funding, within the framework of the The Right to Knowledge in Sweden project. The project provides a significant opportunity for the association to prepare for the consultation response to the report on copyright restrictions, and for the following political process. It also opens up for Wikimedia Sweden to take a coordinating responsibility among like-minded organizations, which often lack the resources for comprehensive analysis, to coordinate and exchange ideas, and problems with the proposal on the table.

During the first half of 2024, the project will produce three reports on areas that are central to the main report, and will ensure that the conclusions from these reports reach as widely as possible. Based on these reports, consultation responses will be coordinated and politicians will be contacted to share the conclusions.

You can see the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Rätten till kunskap i Sverige.

International copyright 2

A planned continuation of an earlier project which ran from 2021–2023. Funding is currently being sought by the American University from the Arcadia Fund. The exact focus and extent of our involvement is not yet clear.

Increased access to free knowledge internationally

The projects under this heading focus on supporting increased access to free knowledge on an international level. They mainly contribute to fulfilling one or both of the strategic goals of the Access program.

International content partners 2024

Within the framework of the project, preparations continue to establish a number of support structures for content partnerships, which are needed to achieve the strategic recommendations adopted by the Wikimedia movement. Some or all of these structures may be integrated into a future thematic hub for content partnerships. The project will have a particular focus on international partnerships, development of decision-making and governance in the hub, and software support. The project complements the work of externally funded projects concerning the hub. The project builds on the lessons learned from the previous experiments.

In 2024, the project focuses, mainly in the second half of the year, on: (1) the Hub's decision-making, and (2) maintaining a selection of critical tools used in content partnerships – mainly tools for uploads. In addition, (1) collaborations with IGOs and (2) work to further develop the Helpdesk may take place under this project if additional funding from the Wikimedia Foundation cannot be secured for a new hub project.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Internationella innehållspartner 2024.

Capacity building in the Content Partnerships Hub

The project aims to explore how to support the Wikimedia movement around content partnerships (where, for example, data or media files are being shared on the Wikimedia projects) through different types of service and coordination functions, within the framework of a future thematic hub. This continues some of the experiments started in previous years. The work is mainly done under the track "Developing materials to enable capacity building for content partnerships".

The focus of the project is on how the thematic hub can contribute to capacity building in the movement. It is not that the thematic hub should produce all the educational material; it can be done by Wikimedia affiliates. What we aim to investigate in the project is how the thematic hub can contribute to capacity building in these three strategic areas:

• How do we identify which materials we need to invest in to benefit as many chapters and user groups as possible?
• How do we find the material that is already out there? We do not want to duplicate work or be unaware of the knowledge that already exists.
• How do we effectively share the knowledge we have? Both personally through exchange programs, events and networks, but also asynchronously.

This project is part of our efforts to increase access to free knowledge internationally.

In 2024, the project focuses on continuing the work of establishing working groups for the Helpdesk and, through the Helpdesk, both identifying and developing capacity-building materials – materials actively sought by the community. In addition, we will work actively with the CEE Hub to develop the material linked to threatened cultural heritage and work with them to ensure translations and further development of the material. We will also, in cooperation with other Wikimedia affiliates, develop a concept and a first version of a training program for Wikimedians in Residence (WiR) at UN agencies. All the material we produce, and a large amount of the material previously developed, will be documented on Metabase - a platform we launched in 2023. Other Wikimedia organizations will be invited to to test and further develop Metabase with us.

In 2024, we will seek funds for a continuation project, which at the earliest might start in the second half of the year, and then most likely only to a limited extent. The majority of the work on that project will take place in 2025.

The project was launched in 2023. You can see the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Kapacitetsbyggnad i Innehållspartnerskapshubben.

Cultural heritage at risk and crowdsourcing

The pilot project is funded by the Swedish Institute and aims to explore how the Wikimedia movement can work together to gather knowledge, share insights and iteratively explore ways in which the public can be engaged, through crowdsourcing, to document and describe endangered cultural heritage in Central and Eastern Europe. The project deepens the collaborations between the Content Partnership Hub and Wikimedia organizations in Eastern Europe and the planned regional CEE Hub.

In 2024, the project will focus on establishing an international network that will initially develop four case studies. These case studies will form the basis for further work in the area, as well as for larger applications. A key aspect is also to better understand the opportunities and limitations that can arise when thematic and regional hubs within the Wikimedia movement work together.

We also hope that the preparations for a possible new campaign with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Swedish embassies and consulates can be taken forward and launched. The campaign will organize events that digitize and spread knowledge about threatened cultural and natural heritage in different ways.

In 2024, we will seek funds for a continuation project, which at the earliest might start in the second half of the year, and then most likely only to a limited extent. The majority of the work on that project will take place in 2025.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Hotat kulturarv och crowdsourcing.

Use

The Use project includes 3 different projects in 2024. In March 2024, one of them had financing and one had an application submitted. This is our second largest program in terms of budget (slightly over 1.3 million SEK totally).

Use 1: The chapter shall provide volunteers and users with tools and opportunities to contribute to and ensure qualitative information.

Qualitative environmental information

Within the framework of the very large research initiative Mistra Environmental Communication (MEC), we, as a project partner, can apply for funds for smaller sub-projects during the four-year project period of M-EC. Researchers and expert organizations participate in these targeted efforts and contribute in various ways to improving the environmental information on the Wikimedia platforms. Within the framework of various smaller research projects, experimental methods, processes or tools around environmental communication are developed. These are developed, tested and evaluated together with the various universities and other project parties. The scope and focus of each sub-project will be developed together with the project group and the scope and frequency of the sub-projects is currently unknown.

In 2024, only a first sub-project is expected to be designed. We will also submit proposals for research and student tasks to the universities involved in this project.

Use 2–3: The chapter shall contribute to improving the user experience on the Wikimedia platforms and The chapter shall work to ensure that all volunteers have equal opportunities to contribute to the Wikimedia platforms.

New users 2024

The main target group is people who have not previously, or only to a limited extent, consumed content on the Wikimedia platforms. The tools created in the project to improve the user experience focus on serving these on the assumption that what makes it difficult to use has a greater effect on those who are not currently comfortable with the Wikimedia platforms. The work includes maintaining previously developed tools aimed at these users, as well as developing new technical solutions.

In 2024, the focus is to continue developing Wikispeech ahead of the launch of the larger project A Wikispeech for all (see below). In addition, we will hire an intern to translate instructional pages, technical messages, and other materials that help people understand how the Wikimedia platforms and movement work. To make it easier for beginners to add source material, we will do some limited development work with Zotero and Citoid with a focus on Swedish source material.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Nya användare 2024.

A Wikispeech for all

Within the framework of a new project, for which we're seeking funding from the Swedish Inheritance Fund, we want to continue working with Wikispeech on several fronts.

We will use the new funds to run and develop the speech synthesis even further; we will develop the functionalities needed for Wikispeech to be enabled with all parts of Wikipedia, so that editors can fully benefit from it as well. The different components of the speech resource collector will be completed to enable an active collection of speech data, lexical resources and various types of enrichment of existing data.

We will also work on tying this effort closer to the initiatives that the Wikimedia Foundation runs, e.g. Abstract Wikipedia, by working with lexemes, and possibly Oral Citations. We are also investigating how we can contribute to or benefit from initiatives run by Google, Mozilla, KTH, the European Commission and others. A large number of collaborations with other organizations, not least interest organizations for people with disabilities, will be initiated to engage volunteers in the collection of speech data.

We will actively communicate the service to a wider audience and organize events to create awareness and engagement. This will take place within the framework of the planned Wikimedia accessibility academy. Within this framework, we will work more broadly and highlight digital accessibility from different points of view, with a focus on the Wikimedia platforms.

The projects starts in 2024. The new constellation of organizations will have to establish their work and concretize their plans. From an organizational perspective we will start by hiring new staff (developers) and initiating the work to establish the Wikimedia accessibility academy. From a technical perspective, the project focuses on further developing our speech synthesis tool and integrating new types of large language models (LLMs). In parallel with this, work is being done to complete prototypes of the speech data collector in order to be able to start doing various tests and collection events next year.

This project has not yet been granted funding and the exact design of the project will be developed as we're developing the application. If funded, the project will run into 2027.

Community

The Community program includes 4 different projects in 2024. In March 2024, 3 of them had financing. This is our second smallest program in terms of budget (over 1.2 million SEK totally).

Community 1: The chapter shall support existing communities.

Existing communities 2024

The main target group is the existing Sweden-based Wikimedia community. Within this project, they are provided support to do their work and realize their ideas. This is achieved through grants, practical support, documentation and by developing and supporting various networks of people in the community.

In 2024, despite staff changes, the project focuses on continuing to provide active support to the community through project and conference grants, loans of equipment and reference materials, support for media accreditation, organizing events for members, organizing events for Wikimedians from other countries who have moved to Sweden, etc. A priority this year is establishing a member-driven decision-making process where priorities are made by a committee, rather than by the staff.

Within the framework of this project, we will run the photo competitions Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments. We will update of the data on which the competitions is based. The plan is that we will take a new approach to the competitions in 2025 when they will be included as a central part of a planned, larger, externally funded project, with a focus on engaging volunteers to digitally document and describe cultural and natural heritage under threat as effectively as possible through crowdsourcing.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Befintliga gemenskaper 2024.

Community 2: The chapter shall help create new communities.

New communities 2024

The main target group is groups that are currently underrepresented on the Wikimedia platforms. The project aims to improve a diversified participation in Wikimedia activities and on its platforms through special efforts towards underrepresented groups to lower the thresholds for them to be able and willing to get involved.

From September to December, plans are being developed around relaunching WikiGap in collaboration with new partners, such as several UN agencies.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Nya gemenskaper 2024.

Wikipedia for all of Sweden

The project is funded by the Swedish Postcode Foundation and aims to lay the foundation for Wikimedia Sverige to operate nationwide, increase our visibility and recruit more members. We are starting the activities in four counties (Skåne, Östergötland, Uppsala, Västerbotten) and will scale up to the whole country after the end of the project.

The special target groups in this project are youngsters, senior citizens and people who are not men, as these groups are underrepresented both as members of the association and on the Wikimedia platforms. The project relies heavily on national and local collaborations with actors where potential members gather.

In 2024, the project focuses on developing educational modules on the learn.wiki platform for different target groups. A greater amount of work will take place around rounding up, reporting and analyzing the partnerships included and the events organized during the year. This will be compiled into a series of concept papers aimed at making it easier for volunteers to carry out local activities. The biggest investments, however, are made based on increased communication work with a focus on increasing our visibility on social media as well as member recruitment and communication. A basis for the communication work is that the documents Ideas program are completed and adopted by the annual meeting, as well as that the document Guidelines for Association Engagement is completed and decided on by the executive director. Subsequently, the documents will form the basis for work in the organization to increase the number of members and their commitment. The final report for the multiannual project is being completed.

The project was launched in 2022 and continues into 2024. You can see the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Wikipedia för hela Sverige.

Activation of the Ukrainian diaspora

This project aims to activate the Ukrainian diaspora in Europe by finding ways and activities for them to share their language and culture on Wikimedia platforms. The exact scope of the project will be developed once the application is completed.

Enabling

The Enabling program includes 2 different projects in 2024. In March 2024, both of them had financing. This is our smallest program in terms of both budget (just under 1 million SEK totally) and the number of projects.

Enabling 1–3: The chapter's work shall be operationally sustainable, and The chapter's work shall be financially sustainable, and The chapter shall collaborate with new partners and actors.

Development of the association 2024

The main target group is the association itself and those who get involved in it either as donors, members or volunteers. The project aims to develop and improve the association in terms of function, size, financial strength, diversity and innovativeness. To achieve this, the association will:

• Streamline work with targeted efforts to identify bottlenecks and increase transparency.
• Increase the number of members, donors and volunteers, as well as their commitment.
• Broaden the types of collaborations the it participates in.

The project is also looking at new technical solutions such as a CRM system and Wikibase to structure our internal knowledge.

In 2024, the project mainly focuses on preparing the association for an increased number of members: a CRM system will be acquired and implemented, the risk analysis will be further developed, various types of governing documents, reports and guiding materials will be adopted or further developed to explain the association's activities and create commitment. The staff will also be provided opportunities to train and actively work to see how different AI tools can facilitate and streamline their work.

Our work in this project connects to the communication and member recruitment work that takes place within the framework of Wikipedia for all of Sweden, where, for instance, the Idea Program and Guidelines for Association Engagement are finalized and adopted during the year and where a series of campaigns on social media are carried out.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Föreningsutveckling 2024.

Enabling 4: The association's work shall be based on and contribute to learning and monitoring what's happening in the world.

International free knowledge movement 2024

The main target group is Wikimedia affiliates and organizations in the free knowledge movement. The project aims to share our experience with, and learn from, these organizations by participating in events and contributing to various collaboration platforms.

In 2024, the project focuses on securing participation in a couple of international expert events organized by the Wikimedia movement. Within the framework of various external project grants, we are also planning to participate in several other events, such as conferences organized by the Wikimedia movement or other free knowledge organizations (e.g. Creative Commons). In addition, the project will fund external monitoring in the form of reading what other Wikimedia affiliates are working on (their operational plans and reports). This reading will be done by both the management to benefit the development of our operations, as well as by the communication staff so that they are able to convey relevant interesting news to a Swedish audience.

You can read the details of the project and follow the ongoing work on our wiki: Projekt:Internationella fri kunskapsrörelsen 2024.

External analysis and how it affects our work

Societal trends and changes in the Wikimedia movement

Here, we describe the context in which we operate and major events in the world that we believe may have an impact on our work and our priorities.

Implementing the strategic recommendations

The strategic recommendations for the Wikimedia movement were drafted in 2017-2020. In 2021, work started on implementing them, with the hope of rapid and comprehensive changes. Not surprisingly, hopes were crushed when they met reality. Now, only six years remain to implement the strategy and few of the central structures needed for long-term change have been established. As Wikimedia Sverige quickly reorganized large parts of the business to contribute to the implementation of the strategic recommendations, it may feel like we are waiting for the rest of the movement. But we are not standing still, we continue to refine and further develop our plans and structures and carry out a large number of experiments .

The Wikimedia Foundation chose to prioritize the rapid development and subsequent implementation of the so-called Universella uppförandekoden (Universal Code of Conduct – UCoC) for the Wikimedia movement. In 2022, it continued to be developed and clarified and guidelines for application were drawn up. In early 2023, a vote took place where the guidelines were approved by a ⅔ majority. Among other things, educational material will now be produced which needs to be taken into account when preparing our learning modules as well as the policy documents we produce or update.

The work of establishing a policy document for the Wikimedia movement that clarifies responsibilies, etc. has continued and the so-called Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) has started to present various parts of the text for discussion. It is important that the association has an active role in the work and shares insights gained through our work to develop a so-called Thematic hub, a new organizational structure in the Wikimedia movement that will coordinate the work globally within a certain theme.

In March 2024, work has been initiated with 17 Thematic hubs or Regional hubs in the Wikimedia movement. Of these, 11 are thematic and 6 are regional. As it stands now, however, some will remain at the concept stage. All of these are potentially relevant for us to interact with as there will be an overlap of interests and work that needs to be coordinated and distributed. There are also good reasons to share experiences and resources to speed up the work of establishing hubs, as well as to speak together with one voice in discussions with the Wikimedia Foundation. Parts of our work with the hub, including our work with Metabase, also have a direct connection to other initiatives adopted, most notably initiative 36 to develop a knowledge base for the entire Wikimedia movement.

Progress is very slow as the resources allocated by the Wikimedia Foundation to the various hub initiatives are very limited. From the information we received, it is likely that this will be the case also during the next fiscal year of the Wikimedia Foundation from July 2024 to June 2025.

Uncertain funding in the Wikimedia movement

The results of the fundraising campaigns carried out by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2023 have deteriorated. The financial situation has led to cost-cutting measures, with the Wikimedia Foundation cutting back on its planned spending and putting various initiatives on hold. This means a reduced risk propensity for the Wikimedia Foundation, which may slow down some more experimental efforts and the implementation of the strategic recommendations. As a result, the Wikimedia Foundation has announced that the Wikimedia associations worldwide can expect stagnant or reduced contributions in the coming years and that the promised multi-year funding will be paused.

The Wikimedia Foundation's biggest concern at the moment is how the rapid development of AI might affect the use of Wikipedia and, by extension, the number of donations. The logic is that if fewer people find the information on Wikipedia and instead get their questions answered via ChatGPT and the like, they won't see the value in donating via banner campaigns on Wikipedia - this despite the AI ​​services relying largely on Wikimedia's extensive, updated, well-structured and multilingual materials to be able to answer the questions.

For Wikimedia Sverige, this means greatly increased financial risks as our very important basic funding may be affected. This also means that larger initiatives, for example with the Thematic hub, may have to be reduced in scope or completely canceled if the Wikimedia Foundation chooses to cut back on those investments. This means an increased need for the association to further invest in national fundraising to ensure financial stability and that planned activities can continue. This is reflected in the association's reorganization in 2023 and planned initiatives for 2024 and 2025.

An updated copyright law and regulation of the tech industry

A major review of copyright legislation has been underway in Sweden and other European countries for some years, as the Copyright Directive is to be implemented in national legislation. The association has assumed a coordinating role in Sweden and also contributes to international efforts. An opportunity to also support other Nordic countries in their implementation work is being investigated.

The copyright investigation, where the association is the only representative of civil society, handed over its report in January 2024. Next, our elected officials will debate new bills, not least around Freedom of Panorama. The new legislation is expected to create both new opportunities and limitations in the fulfillment of the association's vision. It is also expected to affect how our various content partners work, and there is a clear need to inform them about the impact of the new legislation.

The report will be sent out for consultation in 2024 and will then be processed further within the Government Office. There is a great need to explain the report to potential allies and create the conditions for them to respond to the consultation. The investigation proposes that the changes to the law shall enter into force on September 1, 2025, which means that it is crucial that the association has extensive communication with elected representatives at various levels over the next 18 months and conducts active advocacy.

Intensive legislative work is also underway in Europe regarding the tech sector, not least regarding AI regulation. As highlighted above regarding the economy, AI can have a large direct and indirect impact on the Wikimedia platforms and the association. It can affect revenue and visits to the platforms, but also how material is created, translated, enriched or distributed. It can create opportunities and new efforts where crowdsourcing can contribute in a unique way, but it can also create strong limitations. For several years, the association has had technical projects in which AI is an integral part and thus keeps up to date with technological developments. Now it is more relevant than ever to both continue that work but also look at how we can contribute to legislation that takes the needs of the Wikimedia movement into account.

The work on how the tech sector should be regulated will be coordinated with Wikimedia Europe, a regional hub for the Wikimedia movement that has been established in Brussels. The work that takes place there will be of great importance to our work and the association will therefore continue to co-finance their activities. The association's advocacy efforts are more extensive this year than ever before, and we are better positioned.

War close to us, civil defense and threats

The ongoing war in Ukraine has had a major impact on the public debate and affects the association's activities in a number of different ways. Wikimedia Sverige has for several years had a good collaboration with the local Wikimedia association in Ukraine, Wikimedia Ukraina, and has, among other things, collaborated on the international initiatives WikiGap and Wiki Loves Earth. In 2023, we implemented several major initiatives together, including data on Ukraine's cultural heritage and we successfully designed an application for project grants together. Several joint projects will be developed in 2024.

The association's work with Ukraine, which made visible Wikimedians who have become political prisoners in Saudi Arabia and the fact that 2024 is a so-called super election year, where various stakeholders want to influence Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia platforms to their benefit, at the expense of the public, increases the risks. This may be reflected in an increase in advocacy campaigns and digital attacks. The association's risk analysis continues to evolve and active preventive measures are taken in a large number of areas.

The association's strategy focuses on the need to work with source criticism, which ties in well with the increased focus on civil preparedness in society. This is an area where we need to be more active in communicating our work and challenges. The success of the Wikimedia movement in terms of content moderation needs to be highlighted.

Global warming continues to be an area of ​​focus for policy makers and the public. The association is taking active steps to minimize our own environmental impact. Our focus on this is also reflected in the collaborations we have initiated where the availability of information linked to global warming and other environmental impacts has been prioritized, not least with various UN agencies.

A year with many elections

Never before have so many people voted as in 2024. More than half the world's population lives in countries where elections are held. Many turn to Wikipedia to find facts about various political issues, elected officials or parties, or the election process itself. In many countries, including Sweden, Wikipedia has a very high reputation and trust in the information on the platform is solid. Wikimedia platforms thereby have the potential to contribute to a common perception of reality in the population through their source-based dissemination of facts. Something that is central to democracy. However, it requires the commitment of expert organizations that contribute their material and time, and above all that the public contributes their volunteer time to keep the information up-to-date, well-sourced and complete.

The association will work to create conditions for various expert organizations, to support volunteers with resources and to inform about how the information on Wikipedia can be used source-critically and how the public can contribute (through volunteering, membership and gifts). We will also work to simplify and enrich source information linked to democracy, politics and elected officials by working with linked open data linked to source material.

Technical trends

Here, we describe the technical achievements and limitations that we believe may have an impact on our work and our priorities during the year.

Global access to satellite internet

Large parts of the world can now get relatively affordable access to a fast internet connection via satellite. For example, the Starlink satellite system has recently been launched in over 70 countries and its coverage is growing fast. The coverage is global and the speed is expected to increase gradually over the next few years. In addition, several new smartphone models include hardware that allows satellite connectivity, enabling global telephony coverage, which creates the opportunity for free knowledge to be disseminated through text messages, complementing Internet browsing. When parts of the world's population that previously had limited or non-existent access to the Internet now have that possibility through satellite Internet, interesting opportunities can be created, for example, for the work of the thematic hub. Our work of collecting knowledge from content owners all over the world is significantly simplified when these have better internet connections. More institutions will be able to contribute content once the connection is stable as well as to see more clearly how valuable digitization is when a larger part of the world's population can use the material.

Other parts of our work can also benefit from this development. For example, we would have more access to speech data in other languages ​​as we reach more language groups, which would allow us to develop Wikispeech in more languages more quickly. The association will need to discuss, plan and develop strategies around this.

Artificial intelligence takes off

The development of products based on so-called machine learning, such as ChatGPT, has continued at a tremendously fast pace in 2023. This is what is most often meant when the broader concept of artificial intelligence (AI) is used. The possibility of using these models to generate more qualitative texts, images, video, sound and 3D models creates enormous opportunities but also challenges for society in general and for the Wikimedia movement.

Understanding as well as concern has increased in society and this is something that is also intensively debated in the Wikimedia movement. The association needs to clarify its positions and also actively see what opportunities we have in the area. Discussions about how ethical AI can be ensured and how crowdsourcing can contribute to this are important to initiate. Not least how quality control and source references can be improved in the AI-generated material.

There is also a larger discussion about "open source AI", where proponents argue that the source code of AI software should be freely available for all others to view, modify and distribute. This includes both normative discussions in society, new mandatory or guiding legislation as well as what public funds should be used for. It is likely that regulation will be an important piece of the puzzle to achieve a democratized AI. The association needs to discuss and refine its positions in order to be able to participate effectively.

The association will organize events and activities highlighting the ongoing discussions around AI legislation and ethical issues related to it, from the perspective of Wikimedia and how it may affect free knowledge in a broader sense.

As the association actively develops tools such as Wikispeech, where speech data is collected or ISA Tool where machine learning for image recognition becomes an integrated part, the rapid technological development has an impact on the investments we make. The association needs to allocate the necessary resources so that the technological advances that have also been made with open software can be implemented in the tools we develop and maintain.

Linked open data connects more and more information

We see an increasing interest and understanding of the opportunities and difficulties around linked open data (LOD) among Swedish authorities and organizations. However, most of them are still at an early stage where they experiment and test which tools to use or develop. The Wikimedia movement's experiences from Wikidata have therefore become increasingly important to share. There are also great benefits for society if the public authorities, instead of developing their own systems from scratch, contribute to the further development of Wikibase, or other open software solutions. The association has undergone a reorganization to enable continued work on linked open data, which according to the association's adopted strategy is a priority area for the Access program.

Appendix 1: Applications planned for 2024

The list below is extracted from the Annual Report (Förvaltningsberättelse) 2023, and can be found on pages 9-10 of the Årsredovisning 2023, and describes the applications planned for 2024. These affect both this year's business plan and also the coming year's activities. For convenience, it is provided here separately.

The Association plans to seek project funding from a number of funders in 2024, including, but not limited to, the following:

• An application to the Swedish Inheritance Fund for work on Wikispeech and other efforts to reach out to underrepresented groups on the Wikimedia platforms and in the association. Maximum amount: 10 million, for a project of up to three years.
• At the end of 2023, funding was confirmed for the multiannual, multi-million initiative “Mistra Environmental Communication (MEC)”, in which the Association is a project partner (but without a fixed budget). In January and February, funding was discussed for the Associations future activities within the framework of MEC. As a project partner, the Association will be able to apply for funding for targeted initiatives on a number of occasions up to 2027. Maximum amount: Approximately 250,000 Kr per targeted initiative with 1-3 initiatives per year.
• An application to the Wikimedia Foundation for funding to cover the implementation cost of a new CRM system (customer relationship management) will be submitted in January 2024. Maximum amount: 630,000 kr.
• An application to the Swedish Institute to work together with Wikimedia associations in Eastern Europe and, based on our pilot project, build a network around crowdsourcing of endangered cultural and natural heritage. Maximum amount: 1 million kr, for a project of up to two years.
• An application to the Swedish Institute to work with organizations in Ukraine. Maximum amount: 3 million kr, for a project of up to two years.
• As the project The right to free knowledge in Sweden has been extended until December 2024, it will be possible to apply for additional project funds for special initiatives within the framework of the project during the second half of 2024. Maximum amount: Unknown, but for comparison, the association successfully applied for a total of 550,000 kr for special initiatives during the first half of 2024.
• The Association may participate in a continuation project to International Copyright, if the Arcadia Foundation chooses to fund it. The application is led by American University, Washington D.C. Maximum amount: Unknown.
• A new application to the Wikimedia Foundation for further experimentation with the Thematic Hub will be finalized. Possible project start is in the second half of 2024. Maximum amount: Estimated at 500,000 kr in total.
• The Association will most likely join a targeted development effort with 'OpenRefine'. Maximum amount: Approximately 100,000 kr (USD 10,000).
• The Administration Office has initiated discussions with a number of institutions about various types of consultancy assignments in 2024. This includes work with, among others, the Swedish Music Agency and the Nordic Museum around mass uploads and events. Possible Wikimedian in Residence positions are being discussed with several UN agencies and with various GLAM institutions in Sweden.

In addition to the above, the following applications are also planned for 2024, with actual implementation starting in 2025 at the earliest.

• The Association may participate in a continuation project to The right to free knowledge in Sweden, if the Arcadia Foundation chooses to fund it. The application is led by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Maximum amount: Unknown.
• The first steps are taken for an Erasmus+ application, to cover part of the costs of the “Grand Tour of Wikimedia” exchange initiative. Maximum amount: 4 million kr, for a project of up to three years.
• An application for work during the second year will be prepared for the project “A network of places”. Maximum amount: Unknown.

Please note that this is an estimated maximum amount and that the association may apply for significantly smaller amounts and/or share the amount with several co-applicant organizations, but even then the money goes to projects that benefit free knowledge.