Wikimedia Czech Republic – future & past

The year 2023 was a period of significant growth and success for us, especially in collaboration and community engagement. We reached a record number of activities and new partnerships, allowing us to expand our activities and strengthen engagement from both the community and institutions. The strategic plan for 2025–2027 builds on these foundations, focusing on even more intensive collaboration with the community and partners while reflecting our international connections and trends within the Wikimedia movement. We look forward to further growth in the coming years as we continue to strengthen openness, equal opportunity, and efficiency in our activities.

Our Strategy for the Future

This year, we created our third strategic plan. The first, for 2017–2020, was developed by a few active members when the association, after a decade of volunteer-based operations, was hiring its first employees. The plan set objectives for the future professionalization of the association, reflecting the members’ desires regarding its direction.

The second strategic plan, for 2021–2024, already mirrored the association’s ongoing professionalization and was created collaboratively by members and employees. However, we faced some challenges during its development. We were not able to ideally engage all voices from the community at that time. Fortunately, I believe we learned from this and focused more on building relationships across the Czech community. Our openness and capacity in this regard have gradually grown.

The strategic plan for 2025–2027 was developed from November 2023 through May 2024. For this plan, we could rely on the already-established structure of the Czech community. We utilized insights from an internal survey that provided valuable insights into the community’s structure and needs. We focused on how to reach all of its 15 subgroups and engage them in the preparation. Part of the development was facilitated externally. This alignment of diverse perspectives is consistent with international processes within the Wikimedia movement. The decision to shorten the plan to three years also allows us to plan more effectively and respond to feedback more efficiently.

Looking Back at 2023

To plan the future of the association accurately, it is essential to be able to analyze the present and reflect on the past. Let us look back at 2023 – the context in which the new strategic plan builds directly. This allows us to assess the impact of our activities and plan them strategically. A detailed overview of all activities and efforts within educational programs, community programs, and partnerships can be found in the 2023 Annual Report.

I am grateful to everyone who helped us realize such a large number of quality activities in 2023. We organized or supported a total of 330 activities – a historic high – engaging nearly 4,000 participants. I am especially pleased that more than 1,500 women and almost 1,800 newcomers were among them, proving that we are successfully opening doors to new faces and promoting equal opportunities. We expanded our community of editors by 697 newly registered users, fulfilling our role in building the Czech wiki community.

Our partners also play an essential role – we collaborated with them in 239 partnerships, 51 of whom collaborated with us for the first time. Additionally, 213 organizers from our community participated in events. Collaboration within the GLAM program with institutions (galleries, libraries, museums), schools, and non-profit organizations helped us fulfill our vision and expand our reach across the country. Together, we edited more than 4,100 articles, of which over 1,500 were new. Moreover, we uploaded nearly 12,000 files to Wikimedia Commons and created or connected more than 408,000 items on Wikidata.

Among our key activities were 12 association events attended by 243 people, including 98 women and 29 community organizers. One of our international efforts was the November youth gathering of Central and Eastern European regions, which we organized in Prague with support from the Wikimedia CEE Hub. Seeing young people from different countries connect fills us with great joy.

Quarterly Challenges: Women, Human Rights, Czechoslovakia, and Czech Wiki Photo

Strategically, we focused on three key topics: women, the broad topic of human rights, and Czechoslovakia. Through projects like Wikipedia Women’s Month, we can work specifically on increasing the involvement of women editors and adding more women’s biographies. Human Rights on Wikipedia opened space for collaboration with experts and institutions working in these areas, and the Czechoslovakia challenge allowed us to reach students and establish new collaborations with institutions like the Military History Institute. Our quarterly thematic challenges are complemented by the Czech Wiki Photo contest. All these challenges and contests link various programs and activities, greatly benefiting our long-term planning.

Developing Partnerships and the Community

One of the milestones of last year was signing cooperation agreements with Charles University and the National Library of the Czech Republic, which will support our further strategic development. In both cases, we built upon longstanding partnerships. The overlap in our objectives will lead to greater efficiency in our joint work. We meet with our partners annually at the Free Culture Night, where we not only announce the winners of the Czech Wiki Photo contest but also hold a public discussion with partners on the topic of free culture – the last one was titled “How Do We Share? Free Culture in the Practice of Public Cultural and Memory Institutions.”

The community research results, led by Jana Landsingerová with support from Jan Spousta, provided valuable insights into the community’s structure and needs. This enables us to plan more effectively and respond to feedback more efficiently.

Another key project was measuring the impact of our activities. In collaboration with CTU student Ivo Kořínek, we began developing the Wikinside tool, which already significantly facilitates ongoing measurement and reporting of the outcomes of our challenges. Supported by the OSF Foundation, this project opens doors to more effective operations.

The area of community microgrants, which we strategically focused on in 2023, has seen significant growth. We are thus creating more space for implementing activities according to community and local needs.

Another way to build relationships within the community is by supporting the Community WikiConference. In this way, members of the association are directly involved in our program activities and implement ideas they consider essential for the development of our organization.

Strengthening International Collaboration

The year 2023 was also a year of strengthening our position within the international Wikimedia movement. We contributed to implementing the international movement strategy for 2030 and actively built regional cooperation, particularly as members of the Wikimedia CEE Hub. I had the honor of being selected again for its steering committee, which I see as a great recognition of our work. We also initiated the formation of the CEE Youth Group, connecting young Wikimedians from across Central and Eastern Europe. I continue to see significant potential for developing young leaders in our movement.

I am also pleased that we co-hosted the Wikimedia Europe annual meeting in Prague for the first time, where we were one of the founding organizations. These opportunities strengthen us and give us the chance to contribute to building an open and cooperative space not only in the Czech Republic but globally.

I am looking forward to what the rest of 2024 will bring. I believe we are on the right path, and that we will continue to collaborate and achieve great results – thanks to all of you who support or directly participate in our activities.

Klára Joklová
Executive Director, Wikimedia Czech Republic