Communications committee

The Communications committee (ComCom) is one of several committees within the Wikimedia Foundation. The aim of the committee is to facilitate communication between the Wikimedia Foundation and the public. This includes the general public, the media, and the "internal" public comprising the communities of the various Wikimedia projects. It functions as a general discussion space for communications throughout the Wikimedia movement and specifically among the Foundation, Wikimedia Chapters, and other interested communications spokespersons.

The committee is designated as a staff committee working with the Chief Communications Officer for the Wikimedia Foundation, Katherine Maher, and the communciations team. Participants in chapters who act as press contacts or spokespersons should be part of the committee and request to be added to the mailing list. Additional members representing other affiliated roles may be added as it seems helpful.

Historically, ComCom was authorized by a resolution of the Wikimedia Board of Trustees in January 2006, and its initial members were confirmed in February of that year; it was confirmed as a staff committee in January 2009. As of 2014, the committee communicates primarily through the "ComCom" mailing list (see below).

Statement of scope

The original statement of scope and areas of responsibility below was approved by the Board of Trustees (see May 2006 resolution).

Coordinating communications with the press, including press releases, interviews, and inquiries.
Supporting communication between the Wikimedia Foundation and project communities, particularly spokespersons within the Wikimedia Chapters.
Organizing and coordinating publicity and outreach.
Supporting and overseeing communication with the general public.
Maintaining a Wikimedia style guide.
Reporting on core Wikimedia statistics.

Function

Wikimedia Foundation

Communications & Press

Visual guidelines

Events – VRT

Marketing

Leaflet – Cheatsheet

Exhibitions – Presentations

Translation (requests)

Current responsibilities

Coordinating the work of local press teams and production of press releases on Wikimedia projects as well as helping draft and distribute Wikimedia Foundation press releases (mainly the Chief Communications Officer's task now).
Maintaining a list of people willing to be contacted by the media for interviews.
Contacting editors and publishers of Wikipedia press coverage to request that corrections be published as needed.^[unclear]

Contacting the committee

The committee can be reached by sending email to its private mailing list: wmfcc-llists.wikimedia.org (note that to deal with spam, posts by non-members to the list are moderated). Messages may also be left for the committee on the "Notifications" subpage.

Subcommittees

To best focus on specific elements of Communications for the Wikimedia Foundation, Communications subcommittees are formed around tasks and needs. The individual subcommittee workspaces may be found there.

Membership

A list of current press liaisons can be found on the Wikimedia Foundation press room page. Official chapter spokespeople and other regional contacts by language are also listed there.

Working tools

The committee has a private mailing list where media coverage and responses are discussed. Other tools used by the committee include:

The press & translation queues in OTRS
The press release distribution and archive software on wikimedia.de

At its inception, the committee held IRC meetings; agendas are archived.

Press Clippings

The communications team collates press coverage of Wikimedia Foundation activities at the press clippings page.