The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development, and distribution of free, multilingual, educational content, managing 11 free knowledge projects built and maintained by a community of thousands of active volunteers.

The volunteers who contribute to Wikimedia projects can find themselves in disagreements over a variety of topics, including article content, project policy, and behavioral problems. WMF has engaged HNMCP to analyze disputes and make recommendations towards the design of a dispute resolution system effective for the Wikimedia volunteer community, which spans many countries, levels of time commitment, expertise, language skills, and understandings of what consitutes appropriate online behavior.

Activities & Deliverables

• Identification of stakeholders necessary to create an effective dispute resolution process and recommendations for getting their buy-in to a revised process;
• Assessment of stakeholder needs, capacities, and ideals in a dispute resolution system;
• Assessment of effective dispute resolution systems for online communities with an eye towards best practices;
• Recommendations for next steps.