Task force/Recommendations/Expanding Content


In order to help you develop well thought out strategic recommendations, we are providing you with a template to guide your strategy formation process. The template provides a framework you can use to lay out the logic behind your strategy recommendation. It is essentially a logic tree with the main point at the highest level followed by supporting points in the middle and the details at the lowest level. It starts at the top with the question or problem your strategy is intended to address. The next level presents the strategic recommendation. Below that it provides space for you to lay out the assertions, and sub assertions that explain why you believe the strategy will work. At the lowest level sit the facts and data from your analysis that demonstrate why you believe your assertions are true. Below the blank template is a made up example to illustrate how the template can be used. We recommend that you start filling this template out as soon as possible and iterate on it as your task force’s work progresses. Even if you only have a hypothesis as to what your strategic recommendation might be it is a great exercise to start to fill out the template in order to identify what data or analysis you might want to perform to prove your key assertions. Additionally, it will enable other members of the community to follow your thought process and provide feedback on your recommendations early in the process.

Outline

Question/Problem

Define the goal that your strategy is attempting to accomplish

Strategy

recommendation of how the Wikimedia movement can achieve it the goal

Assertion: <insert here>

The strategy should be supported by several assertions that explain why you believe the strategy will work. The assertions are broad statements that lay out the key points that support your strategy

Sub assertion

The sub assertion is the next level of detail that fleshes out the logic behind your assertion

Fact

The facts are the key pieces of analysis or data that demonstrate why you believe your sub-assertion and assertion to be true

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Sub assertion

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Sub assertion

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In order to help you develop well thought out strategic recommendations, we are providing you with a template to guide your strategy formation process. The template provides a framework you can use to lay out the logic behind your strategy recommendation. It is essentially a logic tree with the main point at the highest level followed by supporting points in the middle and the details at the lowest level. It starts at the top with the question or problem your strategy is intended to address. The next level presents the strategic recommendation. Below that it provides space for you to lay out the assertions, and sub assertions that explain why you believe the strategy will work. At the lowest level sit the facts and data from your analysis that demonstrate why you believe your assertions are true. Below the blank template is a made up example to illustrate how the template can be used. We recommend that you start filling this template out as soon as possible and iterate on it as your task force’s work progresses. Even if you only have a hypothesis as to what your strategic recommendation might be it is a great exercise to start to fill out the template in order to identify what data or analysis you might want to perform to prove your key assertions. Additionally, it will enable other members of the community to follow your thought process and provide feedback on your recommendations early in the process.

Outline

Question/Problem

Define the goal that your strategy is attempting to accomplish

Strategy

recommendation of how the Wikimedia movement can achieve it the goal

Assertion: <insert here>

The strategy should be supported by several assertions that explain why you believe the strategy will work. The assertions are broad statements that lay out the key points that support your strategy

Sub assertion

The sub assertion is the next level of detail that fleshes out the logic behind your assertion

Fact

The facts are the key pieces of analysis or data that demonstrate why you believe your sub-assertion and assertion to be true

Fact

Fact

Sub assertion

Fact

Fact

Fact

Assertion

Sub assertion

Fact

Fact

Fact

Sub assertion

Fact

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Assertion

Sub assertion

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Fact

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Sub assertion

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In order to help you develop well thought out strategic recommendations, we are providing you with a template to guide your strategy formation process. The template provides a framework you can use to lay out the logic behind your strategy recommendation. It is essentially a logic tree with the main point at the highest level followed by supporting points in the middle and the details at the lowest level. It starts at the top with the question or problem your strategy is intended to address. The next level presents the strategic recommendation. Below that it provides space for you to lay out the assertions, and sub assertions that explain why you believe the strategy will work. At the lowest level sit the facts and data from your analysis that demonstrate why you believe your assertions are true. Below the blank template is a made up example to illustrate how the template can be used. We recommend that you start filling this template out as soon as possible and iterate on it as your task force’s work progresses. Even if you only have a hypothesis as to what your strategic recommendation might be it is a great exercise to start to fill out the template in order to identify what data or analysis you might want to perform to prove your key assertions. Additionally, it will enable other members of the community to follow your thought process and provide feedback on your recommendations early in the process.

Outline

Question/Problem

Define the goal that your strategy is attempting to accomplish

Strategy

recommendation of how the Wikimedia movement can achieve it the goal

Assertion: <insert here>

The strategy should be supported by several assertions that explain why you believe the strategy will work. The assertions are broad statements that lay out the key points that support your strategy

Sub assertion

The sub assertion is the next level of detail that fleshes out the logic behind your assertion

Fact

The facts are the key pieces of analysis or data that demonstrate why you believe your sub-assertion and assertion to be true

Fact

Fact

Sub assertion

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Assertion

Sub assertion

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Strategic Recommendation Example

Below is a fake example to illustrate how the template can be used. It is for the made up Freedonia task force that is trying to increase the use of Wikipedia in the made-up country of Freedonia. Please note that this in no way represents an actual strategy recommendation from an actual task force.

Question/Problem: How can Wikimedia increased use of Wikipedia in Freedonia

Strategy: Wikimedia should focus resources on increasing participation by Freedonians on English Wikipedia

Assertion: English Wikipedia is the best Wikipedia to reach the online Freedonian population

Sub assertion: English is the dominant language used by Freedonians online

Fact: The cost of Internet access is prohibitively high for Freedonians with less than a high school education level

Fact: Freedonian educational standards require high school students to study and obtain proficiency in the English language

Fact: 80% of websites based in Freedonia are in English

Sub assertion: As more Freedonians gain access to the Internet, English will remain the dominant language

Fact: Much of the increase in Internet use in Freedonia will come from cell phones

Fact: Cell phone platforms are not designed with Freedonian language script inputs

Fact: The percent of the population with high school diplomas is increasing rapidly

Assertion: More participation by Freedonians on English Wikipedia will lead to increased use of English Wikipedia by Freedonians

Sub assertion: English Wikipedia lacks content relevant to Freedonians

Fact: Spot check of English Wikipedia by task force of the 50 topics relevant to Freedonian (ex. Freedonian history, culture, geography) revealed that 15% of the topics lack an article and 45% had articles of less than 500 words

Sub assertion: If more Freedonians participate in English Wikipedia, they will create content relevant to Freedonians

Fact: Interviews with Wikipedians show that they write about topics they are interested in

Fact: Spot check of articles shows that 75% of the most active contributors of articles relevant to Freedonian are Freedonians

Sub assertion: If the English Wikipedia has content Freedonians want they will use English Wikipedia more often

Assertion: Wikimedia has the ability to increase participation by Freedonians on English Wikipedia

Sub assertion: There are proven tactics to increase participation in a specific geographic area

Fact: A case study of Thai Wikipedia showed that newspaper articles in Thailand about Thai Wikipedia lead to an increase in participation

Fact: Outreach to university students by Freedonian language Wikipedians has increased by contributions to Freedonia Wikipedia

Sub assertion: Wikimedia can implement these tactics

Fact: Freedonian Wikipedians have done outreach before

Fact: The Wikimedia bookshelf project supports outreach

Fact: Communications staff at the Wikimedia Foundation can work with journalists to get articles published

Fact: Freedonian Wikipedians can reach out to prominent Freedonian bloggers and encourage them to write articles about the importance of contributing to Wikipedia