A look at the survey results from the Movement Strategy Forum

In February of this year, the Wikimedia Foundation surveyed Wikimedians interested or involved in Movement Strategy implementation about their experiences with the Movement Strategy Forum and what other spaces they use to follow or participate in Movement Strategy conversations.

Key Takeaways

• Based on survey results and administrative data, the MS Forum has been utilized more heavily by newer Wikimedians and those living in sub-Saharan Africa than Meta-Wiki for Movement Strategy implementation work.
• However, despite the availability of machine translation on the MS Forum, there are no big differences in English fluency between Meta and MS Forum users.

The Survey

The survey was conducted using Qualtrics via an anonymous link posted on different community channels between February 12 and 26, 2023. 117 people responded:

• 32% said they serve on-wiki administrative functions, and 60% do movement organizing work.
• Regions: Most respondents live in sub-Saharan Africa (32%), followed by Northern & Western Europe (23%), then North America (16.9%).
• The majority (79%) reported fluency in English, and 75% completed the survey in English despite availability in 14 other languages.
• Half (49%) have participated in the Wikimedia movement for at least 10 years, and 30% joined within the last 3 years.
• 19% of respondents currently work for the Wikimedia Foundation, and any analysis that follows will specify whether these responses are included.

MS Forum and Meta-Wiki

While the comparison of MS Forum users to meta users is imperfect, as Meta-Wiki is used for many purposes other than movement strategy implementation, the greater proportion of users living in underrepresented regions among MS Forum users is notable, particularly in the context of survey responses received.

Safety and user-friendliness

Respondents living in underrepresented regions and those newer to the movement were more likely to report a positive forum experience across the board, but notably those not fluent in English were less likely to indicate ease of use. While a very small number of respondents indicated that they were not fluent in English, notably only 44% agreed that they could understand discussions clearly in their own language.

Respondents using the MS Forum were also more likely to be newcomers (42% of 50 respondents) than those using Meta-Wiki (29% of 52). 80% of both the MS Forum (N=45) and Meta-Wiki (N=44) users reported fluency in English.

Around half of the respondents found that the MS Forum was a space that engaged a diversity of movement strategy topics (54%) and was useful for collaborations (48%). Fewer users agreed that this discussion led to solutions (36%) and that they had developed concrete grant ideas in the space (29%).

Should the Movement Strategy Forum continue?

“Should the Movement Strategy Forum continue?” includes only those responders who selected “Yes” or “No” in response to the question.

Out of the 117 total respondents, 24 selected “I’m not sure,” and 22 did not respond to the question. Additionally, 44 respondents did not indicate their location. The survey included overrepresented region respondents (living in North America or Northern and Western Europe) and underrepresented region respondents (living in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa).