Projekte/Strategie 2030 (english)

Wikimedia Austria has set itself several strategic goals for 2026-2030. We aim to support our communities in times of accelerated change, promote cultural heritage in the digital age, and strengthen the relevance of openness during multiple crises.

This multi-year strategy, together with the values ​​defined in our mission statement and the resources available to us, forms the basis for our annual planning and decisions regarding activities.

Supporting Wikimedia communities in times of social, technological and political change

• We maintain our high standards in the low-threshold and appreciative support of the online and offline activities of our volunteer communities in Austria.
• We focus on the German-language Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and the AustriaWiki. Depending on the platform, we also consider the impact on communities throughout the German-speaking world or worldwide.
• We continue to attract and retain new contributors, especially in digital volunteering. We are increasingly focusing on greater diversity, knowledge equity, and young people between the ages of 18 and 30.
• We promote the safety and well-being of all participants in our activities. To this end, we ensure clear, policy-based processes and pay attention to acute problematic situations.
• We meet people where they are, both digitally and regionally. We offer opportunities for exchange and networking, even outside of Wikipedia and the capital city of Vienna.
• We involve people from the communities and those with fresh perspectives in our idea-making and decision-making processes. We are building on the experiences we have with our previous committees and surveys and are increasingly focusing on situation-specific models of engagement.
• We are making our experience available to other Wikimedia organizations.

Promoting cultural heritage in the digital age

• We are particularly dedicated to digital open knowledge about Austria's cultural heritage in its diverse forms. We also collaborate with partner organizations.
• We strive for collaborations that encourage volunteer engagement in our communities and impart new knowledge and skills to them.
• We maintain, create, and evaluate long-term strategic partnerships with cultural institutions. We are also open to occasional collaborations.
• We carefully select our partnerships and ensure that both sides can win.

Emphasizing the relevance of openness during multiple crises

• In our external communications, we confidently position Wikimedia Austria as a central institution for free knowledge in Austria. We emphasize our appreciation for digital volunteerism and our positive role in the face of major societal crises such as disinformation, the erosion of democracy, and climate change.
• We specifically target young audiences to convey the value of open culture. Open culture encompasses free knowledge and other concepts of free access in the information society.
• We find answers to technological developments and changing cultural practices relevant to our activities, such as artificial intelligence and changing user habits in knowledge transfer.
• We actively support online policy discourses in Austria and Europe. We prepare to respond to political developments that are negative for us.
• Through Wikimedia Europe, we actively contribute to shaping the political framework at the European level.

Securing Resources and Living Our Strategy

• By consciously placing our resources and networks at the center of our planning, we actively shape our future.
• We are committed to continued investment in our organizational culture and to regularly reviewing our processes and practices. Measures for personnel resilience include actively avoiding internal knowledge monopolies and, in the event of potential overload, having the courage to orderly suspend planned activities.
• We base our funding primarily on international fundraising, as well as direct donations and membership fees.
• We explore the possibility of strategic partnerships across our fields of activity with a view to expanding our resources and available expertise. This includes, in particular, collaboration with other Wikimedia organizations and strengthening regional and thematic cooperation within the Wikiverse.
• We do not strive to generate the broadest possible resources as an end in itself. Their use for strategic goals is dynamic, depending on availability.
• We use our resources in a results-oriented manner. They may serve different strategic goals than predicted. Our planning therefore does not follow rigid, linear specifications, but is adapted to changing conditions with agile methods, enabling us to seize new opportunities along the way.
• We implement our strategy in annual budget and program planning cycles. It is also subject to a semi-annual review and can be adapted during this or other times.
• In our annual planning, we define target metrics across all activities. The evaluation of these target metrics helps us understand the impact of our activities, ensure the stability of our organization, and identify new dynamics.