Re: Google Zero is coming [was Re: Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call (essay)]

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TLDR: WMF has to make hard choices, but we as a community, of which WMF is
only one part, do not have to make false choices - we can try to do a lot
of things.

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 1:41=E2=80=AFAM Dimitar Zagorski <
dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:

> It seems to me that we have to make a few uncomfortable choices before we
> start solving this.
>
> Do we accept that our audience will shrink permanently and there is no wa=
y
> around it? Then we could embrace the role of a top source for LLMs and
> "ground truth". We would stop obsessing about the trends and focus on how
> to maintain a healthy community and funding.
>
> Or do we want to fight against shrinking audiences? Then, in my mind, we
> would need to be very aggressive and start using some tools and
> technologies that we have always been very sceptical of. This, I guess,
> would include things like content optimisation, an AI chat, major
> investment in versatile social media channels and various new apps that
> deliver content under our brands to specific audiences.
>

WMF, with large but finite resources, reputational concerns, etc etc will n=
eed
to make hard choices. Maybe not exactly these hard choices, but some sort
of hard choices.

**We as a broad movement with many members do not have to make this choice.
We, the movement, can do both.** We can work to become a trusted source of
ground truth; and work with new sources of traffic (like TikTok or YT or
GLAMs or arxiv or all of the above) to drive traffic. Most of the "choices"
ahead of us can be handled this way - we're tens of thousands of people,
dozens of peer movement organizations, and thousands of knowledge-oriented
fellow travelers. When someone says "we can only do one or the other" we
should, as much as possible, reject that false binary and instead seek to
find more resources, run more experiments, do more.

This will be easy, because open means we, the community, can just do stuff!
we, the community, don=E2=80=99t have to ask permission! We can experiment,=
 build,
talk to each other as peers, expanding what works and dropping what
doesn't. And we now have tooling that lets our best and most creative move
faster than ever before.

And at the same time it will be hard. Frankly, we have let that open/BOLD
habit atrophy, so we will need changes in practice and attitude.

Changes will have to include: (generalizations ahead, there are
counter-examples to everything I say below but they are exceptions):

- community members need to stop thinking =E2=80=9Cstep 0 is get funding fr=
om WMF=E2=80=9D
for every single activity. We need to get back to our roots as a scrappy,
grassroots movement, which means both creativity in getting funding
(wikicheese!) and creativity in building without funding. (I am keenly
aware that this has equity impacts, and we need to be as thoughtful as
possible about that, but we can't let that stop us from reinvigorating
volunteering.)

- WMF needs to actively tell potential partners =E2=80=9Copen knowledge is =
in an
all-hands-on-deck moment=E2=80=94so don=E2=80=99t treat WMF as the sole pla=
yer=E2=80=9D. Too many
potential funders and partners look at WMF and think =E2=80=9CWe fund Wikim=
edia by
funding WMF=E2=80=9D/=E2=80=9CWMF is the only way to partner with Wikipedia=
=E2=80=9D. (I don=E2=80=99t
think this is WMF=E2=80=99s fault, to be clear; it=E2=80=99s a natural patt=
ern for funders
to fall into.) But WMF needs to move from passively letting that happen,
and towards actively disabusing funders and partners of that habit. All
those partners need to get more comfortable partnering with chapters,
individuals, or even doing things themselves.

- We need a culture of BOLD experimentation. The choice you=E2=80=99re sayi=
ng we
need to make, Dimi, would take a year or more and never really be settled.
(It=E2=80=99s taking months just for the WMF to grapple with this internall=
y, much
less the movement as a whole.) So we need to as much as possible do =E2=80=
=9Call of
the above=E2=80=9D, and build back our muscles of sharing experiments and l=
earnings
- including failing without fear, and sharing what failed. (I sincerely
think one of the best things someone could do right now is become the Molly
of AI+wiki, doing steady, consistent news-gathering and synthesis on what
is working and what isn=E2=80=99t.)

- Scale of impact is important, but it isn=E2=80=99t everything. Sometimes =
we=E2=80=99ll
have to build things without knowing if they=E2=80=99ll scale, or even perh=
aps
knowing that they won=E2=80=99t scale (eg Depths of Wikipedia is one of the=
 best
community-builders we have even though it has =E2=80=9Conly=E2=80=9D a few =
million
followers). =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s good but it won=E2=80=99t scale to enwi=
ki=E2=80=9D can never be allowed
to be a blocker for anyone. If the experiment is actually great, then we=E2=
=80=99ll
figure out a way to get it onto enwiki. Or not! That shouldn=E2=80=99t stop=
 people.

I=E2=80=99m sure there are others, and like I said, there are plenty of
counterexamples to each of these. But they=E2=80=99re big patterns I see af=
ter a
decade on the sidelines, and we need to unlearn them.

>

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div><div dir=3D"auto">TLDR: WMF has to make hard choices,=
 but we as a community, of which WMF is only one part, do not have to make =
false choices - we can try to do a lot of things.<br><br>On Wed, Jul 8, 202=
6 at 1:41=E2=80=AFAM Dimitar Zagorski &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:dimitar.parvano=
[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org=
</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div></div><div><div dir=3D"auto"><div class=3D"gmail_q=
uote"></div></div></div><div><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"mar=
gin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1=
ex"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div>It seems to me that we have to make a few uncomfo=
rtable choices before we start solving this.</div><div><br></div><div>Do we=
 accept that our audience will shrink permanently and there is no way aroun=
d it? Then we could embrace the role of a top source for LLMs and &quot;gro=
und truth&quot;. We would stop obsessing about the trends and focus on how =
to maintain a healthy community and funding.=C2=A0<br><br></div><div dir=3D=
"auto">Or do we want to fight against shrinking audiences? Then, in my mind=
, we would need to be very aggressive and start using some tools and techno=
logies that we have always been very sceptical of. This, I guess, would inc=
lude things like content optimisation, an AI chat, major investment in vers=
atile social media channels and various new apps that deliver content under=
 our brands to specific audiences.=C2=A0</div></div></blockquote><div dir=
=3D"auto"><br></div></div><div><div dir=3D"auto"><div style=3D"font-size:in=
herit" dir=3D"auto"><span style=3D"font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font=
-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white=
-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:inli=
ne!important;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(0,0,0);color:r=
gb(0,0,0)">WMF, with large but finite resources, reputational concerns, etc=
 etc will=C2=A0</span><span style=3D"font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;fo=
nt-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;whi=
te-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;float:none;display:in=
line!important;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(0,0,0);color=
:rgb(0,0,0)">need to make hard choices. Maybe not exactly these hard choice=
s, but some sort of hard choices.=C2=A0</span></div><br></div><div dir=3D"a=
uto">**We as a broad movement with many members do not have to make this ch=
oice. We, the movement, can do both.** We can work to become a trusted sour=
ce of ground truth; and work with new sources of traffic (like TikTok or YT=
 or GLAMs or arxiv or all of the above) to drive traffic. Most of the &quot=
;choices&quot; ahead of us can be handled this way - we&#39;re tens of thou=
sands of people, dozens of peer movement organizations, and thousands of kn=
owledge-oriented fellow travelers. When someone says &quot;we can only do o=
ne or the other&quot; we should, as much as possible, reject that false bin=
ary and instead seek to find more resources, run more experiments, do more.=
</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">This will be easy, beca=
use open means we, the community, can just do stuff! we, the community, don=
=E2=80=99t have to ask permission! We can experiment, build, talk to each o=
ther as peers, expanding what works and dropping what doesn&#39;t. And we n=
ow have tooling that lets our best and most creative move faster than ever =
before.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">And at the same =
time it will be hard. Frankly, we have let that open/BOLD habit atrophy, so=
 we will need changes in practice and attitude.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br>=
</div><div dir=3D"auto">Changes will have to include: (generalizations ahea=
d, there are counter-examples to everything I say below but they are except=
ions):</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div>- community members need to st=
op thinking =E2=80=9Cstep 0 is get funding from WMF=E2=80=9D for every sing=
le activity. We need to get back to our roots as a scrappy, grassroots move=
ment, which means both creativity in getting funding (wikicheese!) and crea=
tivity in building without funding. (I am keenly aware that this has equity=
 impacts, and we need to be as thoughtful as possible about that, but we ca=
n&#39;t let that stop us from reinvigorating volunteering.)</div><div><br><=
/div><div dir=3D"auto">- WMF needs to actively tell potential partners =E2=
=80=9Copen knowledge is in an all-hands-on-deck moment=E2=80=94so don=E2=80=
=99t treat WMF as the sole player=E2=80=9D. Too many potential funders and =
partners look at WMF and think =E2=80=9CWe fund Wikimedia by funding WMF=E2=
=80=9D/=E2=80=9CWMF is the only way to partner with Wikipedia=E2=80=9D. (I =
don=E2=80=99t think this is WMF=E2=80=99s fault, to be clear; it=E2=80=99s =
a natural pattern for funders to fall into.) But WMF needs to move from pas=
sively letting that happen, and towards actively disabusing funders and par=
tners of that habit. All those partners need to get more comfortable partne=
ring with chapters, individuals, or even doing things themselves.</div><div=
 dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">- We need a culture of BOLD exper=
imentation. The choice you=E2=80=99re saying we need to make, Dimi, would t=
ake a year or more and never really be settled. (It=E2=80=99s taking months=
 just for the WMF to grapple with this internally, much less the movement a=
s a whole.) So we need to as much as possible do =E2=80=9Call of the above=
=E2=80=9D, and build back our muscles of sharing experiments and learnings =
- including failing without fear, and sharing what failed. (I sincerely thi=
nk one of the best things someone could do right now is become the Molly of=
 AI+wiki, doing steady, consistent news-gathering and synthesis on what is =
working and what isn=E2=80=99t.)</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=
=3D"auto">- Scale of impact is important, but it isn=E2=80=99t everything. =
Sometimes we=E2=80=99ll have to build things without knowing if they=E2=80=
=99ll scale, or even perhaps knowing that they won=E2=80=99t scale (eg Dept=
hs of Wikipedia is one of the best community-builders we have even though i=
t has =E2=80=9Conly=E2=80=9D a few million followers). =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=
=99s good but it won=E2=80=99t scale to enwiki=E2=80=9D can never be allowe=
d to be a blocker for anyone. If the experiment is actually great, then we=
=E2=80=99ll figure out a way to get it onto enwiki. Or not! That shouldn=E2=
=80=99t stop people.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">I=
=E2=80=99m sure there are others, and like I said, there are plenty of coun=
terexamples to each of these. But they=E2=80=99re big patterns I see after =
a decade on the sidelines, and we need to unlearn them.</div><div dir=3D"au=
to"></div><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8=
ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir=3D"ltr=
"><div dir=3D"auto"></div></div><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><blockquote clas=
s=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid r=
gb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"></blockquote></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>

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