A word from the president
Wikipedia turned 20 in 2021. It’s almost impossible to imagine our lives without it – and the dimensions of its existence are overwhelming: in Swiss official languages alone, Wikipedia is more than 6.8 million articles strong. And together with its sister projects like Wikidata or Wikimedia Commons, it has become an essential infrastructure.
On an organizational level, Wikimedia CH reached another milestone in 2021 by becoming financially independent – meaning we are no longer relying on the support of the Wikimedia Foundation. With this important step, we were able to “release” funds from the foundation to go elsewhere and support other Wikimedia chapters, groups or individuals worldwide – who are not based in a wealthy country with generous individuals and a great local funding infrastructure.
With this newfound freedom, we dare to dream and start to envision our future together – by working hard on our five-year strategy. This strategy aligns with the Wikimedia Movement Strategy 2030 and guides us in how to focus our resources in the areas we aim for the greatest impact. Preferably, it will also help us flourish as a learning organization that continuously builds, experiments, adjusts and learns.
In 2022 and beyond, Wikimedia CH will continue to serve our communities and our mission – and do everything in our power to advocate for free knowledge.
From the bottom of our hearts, we say: Thank you to all the people out there who make these things possible. Thank you to the Wikipedians and Wikimedians, to this community, the Movement, the donors and partners – and to the team, the board and the members of Wikimedia CH. Merci, Grazie, Danke for your dedication, tenacity and passion for free knowledge and for extending Swiss heritage, culture and innovation throughout our country and worldwide.
Let’s keep taking good care of Wikipedia and all projects fostering free knowledge.
And let’s be kind and take good care of each other.
Muriel Staub
Wikimedia CH Board President
A word from the executive director
Despite the continuing pandemic and the challenges it presented, 2021 was a successful year for Wikimedia CH. Our programmatic activities centered around three main focal points: Wikipedia’s 20th anniversary, 50 years of women’s suffrage in Switzerland and our new five-year strategy.
Our celebration of women’s suffrage attracted new partners and volunteers and developed and strengthened existing bonds. It was the first year we linked many events to a common theme, and we discovered that it built momentum and engagement. So too did flagship events such as the 20th-anniversary celebrations and the inaugural in-person WikiSwiss Awards.
Our first-ever bilingual workshop responded to the needs of today’s community members, while our work establishing an Innovation Lab laid the necessary foundation to support tomorrow’s members. Plus, our chapter’s new strategy for 2022-2026 will guide us in making substantial impacts over the next five years and learning from our work so that we continually evolve.
Looking to 2022, we will capitalize on the lessons learned in 2021. We will begin implementing the new five-year strategy while continuing to adapt our activities and organization to the ever-changing environment and Switzerland’s multilingual needs. As the pandemic enters its third year, we aim to leverage our team’s flexible, virtual nature and expertise, navigating the digital landscape to continue to build our reputation as a trustworthy partner in online knowledge.
I am exceedingly proud to serve alongside the chapter’s staff and board members and to be surrounded by a community, partners and stakeholders devoted to a concept as deeply fundamental as open knowledge. We contribute to the foundations underpinning not only our own work but the lives and livelihoods of millions worldwide. As we enter 2022, I look forward to working together to advance free knowledge for an informed and open society in Switzerland and beyond. And to close with the words of Thích Nhất Hạnh: “The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.”
Jenny Ebermann
Wikimedia CH Executive Director
Strategy at a glance
Our mission
Wikimedia CH’s mission is to:
- Collect, curate and disseminate free knowledge.
- Promote the work of contributors.
- Help Swiss memory institutions share their knowledge, collections and curatorial resources digitally with a global community through a global platform – all this to make the (Swiss) cultural heritage and its diversity more accessible to the world.
- Sensitize all education levels to sustainable use of digital information.
- Advocate for free knowledge, also at the political level.
Our strategy
The Wikimedia Foundation officially recognizes Wikimedia CH as the Swiss chapter of the global Wikimedia Movement. We support and advance free knowledge, focusing on four impact directions:
- Program GLAM – We collaborate with galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) throughout Switzerland to provide digital access to memory institutions’ collections and artifacts. We aim to share the country’s culture and history in a sustainable format and across all borders.
- Program Education – We deliver and collaborate on education programs that advance learning for children and adults at every level. Our work supports lifelong learning as well as teachers and trainers at schools, universities and other higher education institutions.
- Program Community – We help the community of Wikipedians in Switzerland grow by supporting existing contributors and cultivating new ones. Among other activities, we train and mentor Wikipedia editors and support our community’s diverse and multicultural interests with targeted programming.
- Partnership & Outreach – We believe in using our unique position in the field of information exchange to be an influencer on national and international issues concerning open access and open knowledge. We offer our viewpoints on copyright, technology and more.
2021 snapshot:
Key metrics for the year
1.5 million people reached in Switzerland
300 newly registered users among 1,200 total participants
30,000+ content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects
10,000 items of content reused by other Wikimedia projects, showing we focused on quality impacts over mass uploading
GLAM
(Galleries, libraries, archives and museums)
In 2021, Program GLAM partnered with GLAM institutions in and outside Switzerland and collaborated with fellow chapters. The program built digital competence and technologies to improve access to cultural heritage and diversity. This year’s GLAM program was also packed with events celebrating 50 years of women’s suffrage in Switzerland. We strengthened and developed partnerships around the women’s suffrage celebration. And at the same time, we ensured a holistic Program GLAM and investigated ways to sustainably scale the program and build team capacity.
Education
Program Education supported education for all age levels in 2021, particularly around tools for educators, digital innovation and access to education. We continued building and supporting scalable, reusable partnership models and free platforms for educational content. We also explored how to build the team to manage both educational activities and a new innovation space starting in 2022. Last, we helped teach learners how to write Wikipedia articles and evaluate an article’s quality to build digital skills and literacy.
Community
Program Community focused its activities on community health, community building, recruitment and international collaboration. Our 2021 activities were dominated by the 20th anniversary of Wikipedia, 50 years of women’s suffrage in Switzerland and the WikiSwiss Awards, a flagship event with our first-ever awards ceremony to honor key volunteers throughout Switzerland. We hope the WikiSwiss Awards and all our activities will continue to build connections and show our gratitude for years to come.
Partnerships & Outreach
Wikimedia CH believes in using its unique position in the field of information exchange to be an influencer on issues concerning open access and open knowledge — in Switzerland, throughout Europe and across the globe. We offer our viewpoints on copyright, digital sustainability, technology and more, creating partnerships and reaching out to other actors in the various fields wherever possible. In 2021, our activities focused on national advocacy to influence policy while building upon existing relationships and starting new ones with like-minded organizations.
Looking ahead as a chapter
Our four impact directions – GLAM, Education, Community and Partnership & Outreach – intertwine with and support one another. And just as each program makes Wikimedia CH more than a sum of its parts, we strive to grow together to enhance the chapter as a whole. Beginning in 2022, Wikimedia CH plans to pursue a new five-year strategy, which includes the new Experimentation & Innovation impact direction. We also aim to become a learning organization that advances continuous, collective learning within our organization and with partners.
Specific to our programming, we will capitalize on our 2021 lessons learned by offering our community a theme around which we can build common interests, partnerships and engagement. To celebrate 100 years of radio in Switzerland, we will highlight 2022’s theme, Year of Sound, throughout many of our activities.
Beyond thematic activities, we’ll remain committed to scaling and leveraging past success rather than “recreating the wheel.” These include activities like the GLAM on Tour series, Lernfeld Wikipedia, the WikiSwiss Awards and our advocacy work with Parldigi. Similarly, we’ll continue advancing successful technologies, including the GLAM Statistical Tool, WMCH Map Service and openedu.ch.
Finally, we plan to build capacity in several areas, which is key to enabling our team. We recognize that with our chapter’s success comes more responsibility to follow through with similar programming. So, we will explore how to build the team’s capacity to expand Program GLAM’s activities, support Program Education’s work in the Innovation Lab and advance Program Community’s recruitment efforts. We’ll also foster more co-sponsorship opportunities and explore compensation for our train-the-trainer program(s) to extend our reach in partner organizations.
Finances 2021
Operational expenses
Revenues, total: CHF 3,200,756.54
Membership fees (CHF)
Budgetary distribution in Switzerland, total: CHF 1,514,344.38
Distribution of total funds (WMCH & Wikimedia Movement), total: CHF 4,335,999.33
Support free knowledge!
Join us in supporting access to free and unbiased knowledge. Besides being an active member in Wikimedia CH, or a contributor to Wikipedia and its sister projects, you can give tax-deductible financial support. Wikimedia CH is an independent non-profit. Your donations directly support some of the most popular collaborative reference projects in the world.
Wikimedia CH would like to thank the staff, community, board, partners and donors for making these projects possible. Together, we are working towards a diverse, open and, above all, knowledgeable society in Switzerland and beyond.
Photo credits
- The Matterhorn, a Swiss icon. Photo by Alma Chen, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- A wooden bridge over the Little Emme River in Hasle, Entlebuch. Photo by Gabrielle Merk, own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Muriel Staub, Wikimedia CH Board President. Photo by Wikimedia CH.
- Shore of Lake Zug near Cham. Photo by Gabrielle Merk, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Jenny Ebermann, Wikimedia CH Executive Director. Photo by Wikimedia CH.
- Sunrise at Lake Neuchatel on the Neuchatel side from the area of Bevaix, Neuchatel. Photo by Cembre, own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Longines manual winding pocket watch, Model 4 Grand Prix, silver casing, manufactured approximately 1900. Rear view with wear marks and clockwork visible. Enhanced resolution. Photo by Franz van Duns, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. Photo by Fedon Bouzbas, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- On the edge of Lake Geneva. Photo by Olivierk14, own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Wikimedia CH celebrates 20 years of Wikipedia and premieres the WikiSwiss Awards at Neubad Luzern in Lucerne. Photo by Kerstin Sonnekalb (WMCH), own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Château de Chillon and Dents du Midi at nightfall. Photo by Giles Laurent, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- The arm of Lake Lucerne in Uri Canton from Sisikon. Photo by Gabrielle Merk, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Lake Thun and Niesen, a mountain peak in the Bernese Alps. Photo by Gabrielle Merk, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.