Chief Global Program Officer

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Revision as of 18:37, 13 July 2010 by Church of emacs (talk | contribs) (typo, style, update)

Located in San Francisco, the Chief Global Program Officer position has a central role in the Wikimedia management team. He reports to the Executive Director and works intimately with the senior management team, as well as with leaders in the Wikimedia editing community.

Success in this role will be defined by three things:

  • Growth in number of Wikimedia project editors, also known as “Wikimedians”, with a special emphasis on priority characteristics and geographies. This will be accomplished through funding and other support of volunteer-organized outreach, events and “meetups”; improvements to the editing experience on-wiki; and the development and launch of various kinds of rewards, incentives, and support for editors.
  • Growth in number of Wikimedia project readers, with a particular emphasis on priority geographies. This will be accomplished through improvements to the readers' experience on-wiki, as well as the development and launch of partnerships for expanding reach to offline audiences. The CGPO will also work with other members of the Wikimedia team to resolve significant barriers to usage related to internationalization/localization, accessibility, cultural issues, technical performance or other issues.
  • Continued evolution of structures, systems and group/individual volunteer roles that support the Wikimedia movement. This will be encouraged by training and facilitation activities where necessary, and might include working with Wikimedians, Wikimedia project readers and Wikimedia staff to define new roles for chapters, develop mentoring programs for new editors, designate spokespeople, the development of "customer service" roles, and other functions.

A young organization, the Wikimedia Foundation is currently building out its management team. It is on the cusp of completing its first-ever strategic plan which will provide high-level direction for the coming five years. The strategic plan will call for investment in growing readership of the Wikimedia projects in the Global South, as well as investment in strengthening the size, health and engagement of the Wikimedia editing community.

Currently, the Wikimedia Foundation has approximately 50 paid staff. That number is expected to grow in coming years consistent with the Wikimedia Foundation's scope and impact. Much of that growth will occur in the program team, which is currently very small. This is a roll up your sleeves, participatory organization, and teams of staff and volunteers tend to form flexibly around projects. The CGPO should expect to act as a collaborator, manager, strategist and tactical implementer.