Diversity Strategy Meeting in Paris (25 June 2019)

Report for the Diversity Strategy Meeting on 25 June 2019 in Paris.

Information

• Date : 25 juin 2019 (7pm-9pm)
• Place : Wikimedia France (Paris)
• Participants : Rémy, Diane, Hatonjan, Pyb, Ambre Troizat, Adélaïde, Pamputt (7)

Scoping questions :

• What privileges and power structures are hindering our progress towards our strategic direction and vision ?
• What do we need to do to support change and respond to community concerns?
• How can we become allies to underrepresented groups to counter the structures of power and privilege and move towards knowledge equity?
• How do we extend the Wikimedia presence globally, with a special focus on underserved and emerging communities, like indigenous peoples of industrialized nations, and regions of the world, such as Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America?
• How do we bring in those who are not yet part of the movement?

Definition of the thematic area

What is "diversity" ?

In short :

• gender
• ethnic origin
• handicap
• geography (francophony = center / periphery)
• regional languages
• LGBTQI+
• social origin

> All categories that are little represented on Wikimedia projects

One participant notes before starting : « Our opinion will be biased because we are not really the persons targetted by this subject ». [Note is made that, yes, among 7 people, 4 are thirsty-ish white males, but 3 are female, one of which is mixed-race and over the usual average age – plus, invisible things like social origin, sexual origin or mental handicap have not been evoked]. [Report writer decides to mention this point to underline the bias it reveals, people thinking that their priviledged situation is universally shared in the room – which is problematic, despite good faith].

State of things / issues

On WP:FR

• 9000 active editors
• Mainly in mainland France
• The community is largely masculine, little inclusive, with a lot of inertia.
• This community fears phenomens they qualify as « militancy »

Francophone area (seen from France)

• WM France is at the center (biggest chapter, biggest community)
• WM Belgium and WMCH (Switzerland) are small (no or little employees) and the countries are multilingual
• There is no chapter in Francophone Africa (but many User Groups) > strong ties through « WikiFranca » (alliance of French-speacking affiliates)
• In France, regional languages have long been marginalized (Occitan, Breton...)
• Regional languages are also an issue in many French speaking African country, where French is the language of school and elites
• WM France does support African User Groups and regional languages (funding, project partnerships)
• Some volunteer-lead projects are oriented towards Diversity : « Les sans pagEs » (Gender Gap) ; « Noircir Wikipédia » (afro-descendants) => these projects are supported by WMFr and/or WMCH

In the Wikimedia movement in general

• The « Anglo-Saxonism » of the Wikimedia movement prevents many people from participating > the obligation of speaking English re-creates social biases
• Technology and automatic translation might help us understand each other better and have a more inclusive movement (including on Meta)

Solutions

On-wiki

• We can't directly correct the content's bias but we must create the appropriate conditions to foster the participation of all  : contents and rules will change if the communities change.
• Wikimedia projects should become more intuitive to use (rules and ways to contribute)
• Rethink sources criteria (include oral sources, social media...)
• Rethink admissibility criteria (notability criteria are culturally situated)
• Raise awareness among current contributors about welcoming newcomers (safe spaces, welcome spaces, newbies forum...)
• Have newcomers start contributing on sister projects firsts : these projects are younger, smaller, so oftentimes more accessible, open and safe.
• Support development of encyclopedias in local languages
• Better inform contributors of the means they have at hand

Offline

• Encourage initiatives coming from concerned communities. Use affiliates to help structure initiatives.
• Support production of new sources (written, oral...) about marginalized subjects
• Support digitalization of existing but unaccessible sources (for example PhD research made in African universities)
• Encourage open access culture (universities)
• Support digital literacy of excluded populations (seniors, women, emerging countries)
• (France) Organize IRL workshops for the community (especially for administrators etc) in order to create a common culture of openness and inclusivity
• (France) We have a culture of centralization so WMFr must take on this role and be initiator in these matters (i.e. create a culture of inclusivity through in-person meeting)
• We could develop partnerships with associations, scholars or newspapers who produce content about marginalized subjects
• Internet access is still an issue (in Africa in particular) : Kiwix can be a solution. Africans also lack computer equipment, so european affiliates could be responsible for supplying African countries with equipment (for example gathering second-hand computers or phone-chips from big companies)

At the level of the movement

• Taking political sides (WMF) can help progress in some regions of the world... but maybe it will damage the image of neutrality that the Foundation benefits from ? => in some countries, contributing to wikimedia projects can put people in danger > so anyway, we need to do activism to protect these people and thus ensure our mission (knowledge equity)
• Beware : some actions or statements we take in one country can have impact (positive or negative) in another country (for example in terms of images) => maybe the Foundation could remain more neutral, centered on free knowledge values, while Chapters would be in charge of taking precise political positions ? => complicated because it is the Foundation, precisely, that has symbolic and politic weight (plus, support needs to come from outside).

Pending questions or remarks

• Should Chapters start projects or just support spontaneous initiatives ? Probably both ?
• Can we just « laisser-faire » and hope for spontaneous re-balancing (for ex, about Africa) ? Probably not.
• How can we create safe spaces that allow quiet contribution without it being a dead-end ? (ex : drafts spaces > we wonder if there is a study about the way WP:EN works on this point)
• Note : often, marginalized groups don't contribute because they are caught up in more urgent issues (raise kids, face systemic discrimination or violence, etc) : maybe these categories of people will never have the same contributing behavior than the current community (i.e. contributing as a geeky lonely hobby), maybe they will contribute in different contexts (at work, in an activist context linked to more urgent issues (for example « Write for the rights » campaign), during well-defined sessions with nursery-option, etc) => we might need to invent and support the emergence of these different contributing behaviors