Grants:Project/ISUR/Wikipedia women and ancestral knowledge from the global south in the Colombian context/2
- Spanish Wikipedia articles
- Wikipedia Incubator on wayuunaiki
- Wikimedia Commons
- Wikictionary
- Wikisource
Project idea edit
What is the problem you're trying to solve? edit
Wikipedia promotes open access to information, research and learning production, but how do you promote it in populations that have been or are being vulnerable, such as indigenous peoples' women? Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is available in 284 languages, however, it is estimated that around 6000 languages are spoken in the world. What is happening with the rest of the languages on the Internet? What is their presence? What actions are being generated so that speakers of these languages can participate on the Internet? How can speakers of indigenous languages participate in the projects of the Wikimedia movement? Taking into account the experience in the first version of the project "Wikipedia, women, indigenous languages and ancestral knowledge from the global south in the Colombian context" we found that women are the main transmitters and protect the legacy and ancestral knowledge in indigenous contexts. However, we continue to find spaces where their participation is non-existent or a minority, and therefore we propose that we continue to direct workshops and training to them. Until recently, in Wikipedia, as in many technological projects, only one in ten editors was a woman. In addition to this, the knowledge has been transmitted through orality and is preserved in the collective memory of the grandmothers and grandfathers. It is they who in these contexts end up being the sources of information, who conserve and transmit. The format in which this information is found is not textual, books or resources are scarce, and the few that exist are in poor condition and disused. What about the sources of information? Not having textual records is a condition for not participating or sharing knowledge? What other forms and formats can be used in the movement to participate in it? What can we do with the materials that exist?
For the Colombian context, different indigenous peoples have been implementing projects for the strengthening, dissemination and vindication of linguistic and cultural rights through technological tools. The platforms that they use for these purposes vary according to the scenario, however, for the most part, these are closed and exclusive. This means that the rights of users are limited, and they end up not knowing the infrastructure, data collection mechanisms and what really happens beyond the interface. In addition, consumption models have been generated, in this case, from external and decontextualized information. In the first version of the project, we wrote and reviewed 10 Wikipedia articles in Spanish related to indigenous peoples and languages spoken in Colombia, however, there are 110 indigenous peoples living in Colombia and 68 native languages are spoken. What about the articles that have been written for the rest of the indigenous peoples? What about the articles on ancestral places and territories? In fact, what about the article on Colombia and the perspective of the indigenous peoples within the state constitution? Where is their cosmovision and history? To have a wikipedia is a monumental task, it requires effort, organization, specialized knowledge and a lot of human work. For Colombia there are two incubator projects for indigenous languages: Nasayuuwe and Wayuunaiki. In the first version of the project, we worked with the incubator project in Wayuunaiki, however, this version of Wikipedia is not yet official and the editors continue to make contributions and write articles. During the project, in meetings and editatonas, many leaders of other indigenous peoples were involved in the workshops and expressed interest in contributing to Wikipedia, writing articles in their languages and documenting some of the knowledge they want to share with the world. However, the way to contribute is to open more incubator projects? to participate through encyclopedias in other languages? to continue writing in the majority languages? what about other knowledge, for example the knowledge held by members of those communities? what actions are being generated to integrate other knowledge into the knowledge already in Wikipedia?
What is your solution to this problem? edit
Wikipedia and the ancestral knowledge of the global south in the Colombian context is a public and open social project for people to participate on the Internet, share knowledge, access knowledge, experiment, develop ideas and projects in a collaborative, free and open way through Wikipedia. The aim is for this project to benefit indigenous peoples in terms of public social development programmes (education, access to information, participation, etc.). This project aims to support the different processes that the indigenous communities have been developing; to empower the voices and participation of women through the use of Wikimedia movement projects. We will develop activities, based on a curriculum that will be found in different formats (text, audio and video) to learn what Wikipedia is, what some projects of the movement consist of and how you can contribute to them, in addition, other activities are carried out to promote the development of digital skills. In the second part of the project, we will develop some workshops in the territory. The workshops will be knowledge gathering spaces where we will edit, create and improve Wikipedia articles with reliable and trustworthy sources on a specific topic, and report on the experiences of indigenous peoples' technological empowerment exercises and their contribution to Wikipedia.
Project goals edit
- Promotion of new practices and incentives for participation, content creation and local visibility so that users can play a more contributing and informed role in Wikimedia projects
Specific goals edit
- Develop a curriculum to guide the development of indigenous women's contributions to the Wikimedia Movement's projects
- To promote the creation of articles, the evaluation and editing of existing content related to Colombian indigenous peoples and the participation of new indigenous editors in Wikipedia in Spanish and in the indigenous language incubators.
- To develop activities, integrations and workshops in which access to information technologies is democratized, and to convene and build with the Colombian indigenous peoples in the Wikimedia movement.
- To understand the motivations and interests that allow new opportunities for social and political participation of Colombian indigenous women in the projects of the Wikimedia movement.
Project impact edit
How will you know if you have met your goals? edit
There will be a phase of documentation and construction of the material that will be input for the development of activities. This material will be built by the leaders with whom we have been working.
In the second phase there will be 6 workshops for editing and creating articles for the different Wikipedias in Spanish and Wayuu in which indigenous leaders will participate. The goal is to build work plans that involve short, medium and long term objectives to build a strong community of Wikipedia contributors and editors. Throughout the activities and workshops of the project "Wikipedia, women and ancestral knowledge of the global south, in the Colombian context" materials and guidelines were developed to replicate and develop the project in other contexts. However, the work programme of the workshops will be carried out with the communities and three work plans will be developed with the communities we will work with from the beginning of the project. Within each of the agendas, topics of interest and motivation for the participation of women in the social and cultural field through digital technologies will be included.
Do you have any goals around participation or content? edit
- Creation of a curriculum to guide contribution processes to different projects of the Wikimedia Movement
- Review of articles already written in Spanish, relevant to the communities. Articles created later can be translated into other languages. This would imply that beyond writing in their language, their culture is promoted and positioned in other languages.
- Increasing 10% the content of the incubation project in Wayuu
- Creation of 20 articles in Wayuu for the incubator project.
- Editing and construction of 30 articles on the indigenous languages spoken in Colombia and the Colombian indigenous peoples.
- Compilation of 20 materials in indigenous languages: books in WikiBooks and resources in WikiResources.
- Creation of books in indigenous languages in Wikibooks for use in schools and libraries within indigenous communities
- 30 new editors for incubator projects.
- Use of Kiwix in indigenous territories of the 3 communities that will participate.
- Compilation, creation and use of educational materials in schools and community libraries.
Project plan edit
We are presenting three versions of the work plan. This is due to the circumstances in which we planned this project and, of course, the global contingencies related to the pandemic.
In principle, the project was intended to give continuity to the activities and workshops that we developed with women leaders of indigenous communities in the Colombian context. Therefore, the main component was face-to-face activities.
Taking into account the contingencies, and the guidelines of the Universidad del Rosario, and also of the Wikimedia Foundation, we decided together with the communities to propose a two-phase version of the project. In the first phase, we would work online to compile material, build a curriculum and prepare materials, methodologies and work plans to develop face-to-face workshops. The second phase was to implement the curriculum. However, the date when the public health situation will be monitored is uncertain.
Taking into account the announcements of the World Health Organization and also the guidelines of different entities that will participate in the project. We modified the whole proposal to be developed online. We have spoken to the communities and surveyed different people who express interest in us developing the activities online, so we were able to make an adaptation.
Below you can find details of the changes and also work plans that we have modified as we have become clearer about the context in which we will be working. Above all, we have planned following the guidelines but above all, respecting the life and health of all the people who are going to participate and are currently participating in this project.
Version 1.0 edit
Activities edit
The concrete results of this project will be agreed directly with the communities, however, the following activities will be carried out Knowledge transfer of the education project of Wikimedia Argentina, to apply and develop in contexts with little or no connectivity.
- 12 editing and article creation workshops with the Wayuu, Zenú and Arhuaco peoples.
- Review and editing of articles found in Spanish Wikipedia related to the Colombian indigenous communities of origin of the women involved, as well as those related to their territories and customs.
- Review of the Wikipedia articles in Wayuunaiki and adding cultural and subject knowledge.
- Production of material and resources to be uploaded on WikiCommons and WikiResources
- Development of educational activities in rural schools in Wayuu territory.
- Planning of a publication program for wikipedia in Wayuunaiki.
- Documentary review and digitalization of documents on topics of community interest for use in the workshops.
- Workshops and meetings with indigenous communities.
- Workshops to encourage local community participation through mentoring strategies, knowledge sharing and strategic support.
- Registration of activities, systematization of the experience and construction of the report and methodologies to be implemented in the workshops.
Budget edit
- 12 Workshops (site rental, refreshments, mobilization of participants, lodging)
- Workshop development materials
- Communication costs (internet connection and telephone calls)
- Project coordination
Regarding budgets and items, we present them below.
| # | Name | Amount COP |
Amount USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consulting services and project coordination | 70’000.000 | 24.138 |
| 2 | Materials and inputs for workshops | 15’000.000 | 5.172 |
| 3 | Expenses for the development of workshops
*Travel (tickets, per diem and accommodation) *Events and refreshments *Papers, utensils and office supplies |
90’000.000 | 31.034 |
| 4 | Administrative and unexpected expenses | 40’000.000 | 13.793 |
| TOTAL | 215'000.000 | 74.137 |
Version 2.0 edit
Activities edit
- Compilation and organization of information for the creation of a curriculum.
- Production of material and resources to be uploaded on WikiCommons and WikiResources.
- Development of educational activities in rural schools in Wayuu territory.
- Knowledge transfer of the education project of Wikimedia Argentina, to apply and develop in contexts with little or no connectivity.
- Documentary review and digitalization of documents on topics of community interest for use in the workshops.
- 6 Workshops and meetings offline with indigenous communities.
- 6 editing and article creation workshops online with the indigenous communities.
- Review and editing of articles found in Spanish Wikipedia related to the Colombian indigenous communities of origin of the women involved, as well as those related to their territories and customs.
- Review of the Wikipedia articles in Wayuunaiki and adding cultural and subject knowledge.
- Planning of a publication program for wikipedia in Wayuunaiki.
- Online Workshops to encourage local community participation through mentoring strategies, knowledge sharing and strategic support.
- Registration of activities, systematization of the experience and construction of the report and methodologies to be implemented in the workshops.
Budget edit
- 6 Workshops (site rental, refreshments, mobilization of participants, lodging)
- Workshop development materials
- Communication costs (internet connection and telephone calls)
- Project coordination and consultancy service
Regarding budgets and items, we present them below.
| # | Name | Amount COP |
Amount USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consulting services and project coordination | 60’000.000 | 20.000 |
| 2 | Materials and inputs for workshops | 25’000.000 | 8.334 |
| 3 | Expenses for the development of workshops
*Travel (tickets, per diem and accommodation) *Events and refreshments *Papers, utensils and office supplies |
45’000.000 | 15.000 |
| 4 | Administrative and unexpected expenses | 30’000.000 | 10.000 |
| TOTAL | 160'000.000 | 53.334 |
Version 3.0. COVID-19 planning section edit
Latest version of the project plan in which we include activities that we will carry out online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have consulted with communities and reached agreements in terms of tools, formats, dates and times of meetings. We had originally planned to develop face-to-face activities, but we have followed several of the Wikimedia movement's guidelines to turn events into online meetings. In addition to this, we find ourselves making a dizzy of people who have conditions such as connectivity, time and interest to participate in the activities. Below are the activities, budget and impact of the project within the communities.
Activities edit
- Compilation and organization of information for the creation of a curriculum.
- Production of material and resources to be uploaded on WikiCommons and WikiResources.
- Development of educational activities in rural schools in Wayuu territory.
- Knowledge transfer of the education project of Wikimedia Argentina, to apply and develop in contexts with little or no connectivity.
- Documentary review and digitalization of documents on topics of community interest for use in the workshops.
- Workshops and meetings online with indigenous communities.
- 6 editing and article creation workshops online with the indigenous communities.
- Review and editing of articles found in Spanish Wikipedia related to the Colombian indigenous communities of origin of the women involved, as well as those related to their territories and customs.
- Review of the Wikipedia articles in Wayuunaiki and adding cultural and subject knowledge.
- Planning of a publication program for wikipedia in Wayuunaiki.
- Online Workshops to encourage local community participation through mentoring strategies, knowledge sharing and strategic support.
- Registration of activities, systematization of the experience and construction of the report and methodologies to be implemented in the workshops.
Budget edit
- 12 Workshops (Hosting and use of platforms, dissemination and promotion of the event and internet connection)
- Devices to connect
- Workshop development materials
- Communication costs (internet connection and telephone calls)
- Project coordination and consultancy service
Regarding budgets and items, we present them below.
| # | Name | Amount COP |
Amount USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consulting services and project coordination | 50’000.000 | 16.670 |
| 2 | Expenses for the development of workshops
*Events *Hosting and use of virtual meeting platforms *Internet connectivity and telephone communications *Dissemination and promotion of the event *Papers, utensils and office supplies |
30’000.000 | 10.000 |
| 3 | Administrative and unexpected expenses | 25’000.000 | 8.330 |
| TOTAL | 105'000.000 | 35.000 |
Community engagement edit
These projects will have an impact because they will include the perspective of communities that have been marginalized and are not included in the Internet. We will work with women in the communities and empower them with tools and knowledge to participate in Wikipedia. In addition, some of them will take over the Wikipedia project in their own language, a project that was started but currently has no articles. The project will also be articulated with several lines of the community development plan: education, women and youth, and children. There will be full community participation in the construction of the project, in its execution and in its culmination as co-authors, however, the five principles of Wikipedia will be the pillars.
The indigenous leaders will be in charge of helping to build the methodologies that will be applied in the workshops. Likewise, given their community participation, they will be responsible for raising awareness of the project through activities and also for including the project in the lines of action and training projects.
With regard to the specific audience, first of all there are people interested in learning about the peoples who live and the indigenous languages spoken in Colombia. Taking advantage of the global celebration on linguistic diversity, together with the leaders we will make a compilation that will be public on Wikipedia and that will be built from the perspective and ancestral knowledge. The contents will also be for the average Wikipedia user, since the construction of the contents will involve the principles of Wikipedia and in the same way, will involve exercises in research, documentary compilation and academic writing.
The indigenous people have been developing different activities among which the most important are a process of formation of women and an undergraduate degree in Revitalization of Mother Earth. Within the framework of these initiatives, it is hoped to articulate activities and strengthen the construction of knowledge and stimulate the use of the projects of the Wikimedia movement for the diffusion of the knowledge of the indigenous people.
Taking into account the current public health contingency, we have conducted surveys and proposed different versions of the project together with the communities. We have identified different groups of indigenous leaders who are able to receive training and consolidate the project online. We believe that using this format at this time is the opportunity and way to also contribute to the Wikimedia movement, giving voice and participation in the information society to the communities.
Also interested people are mapping places and people with better connectivity conditions to participate and resources to inform communities, not only about their cultures and traditions, but also with questions such as what it is, how to protect themselves and what are the best practices in times of COVID-19.
Get involved edit
Participants edit
- Julio Gaitán. Professor in constitutional law at the Universidad del Rosario. During the last year he has been working to set up a Center for Internet and Society at this University. His approach is transdisciplinary and collaborative research on topics of juridical anthropology and juridical pluralism. He is interested in to address the challenges of internet and society under these lenses. He has a master degree on Public Law at the Autonoma University at Barcelona and did his PhD on juridical sociology at the University of Lecce, was Fellow at the Robbins Collection at California University at Berkeley.
- Neyma Paz. Leader of the Wikipedia project in Wayuunaiki. Wayuu linguist and member of Wikimedia Venezuela.
- Leonardi Fernandez. Leader of the Wikipedia project in Wayuunaiki. Anthropology student. Member of Wikimedia Venezuela.
- Ati Gunnara Jamioy Izquierdo. Woman and indigenous leader member of the Arhuaco and Kamentsa people Linguist, political advisor and artist.
- Dario Mejia Montalvo. Indigenous leader of the Zenú people. Former ONIC counselor, currently a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Politician.
- Diana Monsalve Morales. Bachelor of Arts in Basic Education with emphasis on Social Sciences with a Master's Degree in Social Sciences with orientation in Education and specialist in educational policies. For more than ten years she has accompanied the education processes of the indigenous peoples of Colombia. Technical Advisor, ONIC's Mojana Clima y Vida project.
- Monica Bonilla. Wikimedist (User:Mpbonillap) linguist and ISUR researcher. She has worked with indigenous communities for the past 8 years on plans for literacy, digital literacy, digital inclusion, technological empowerment, linguistic and cultural revitalization. Coordinator of Indigenous Affairs of Wikimedians of Colombia.
- Wikimedia Argentina
- Wikimedia Colombia
Community notification edit
If we've notified. Several of the people who will work on this project are leaders and spokespersons of the communities and we have taken care of making different arrangements with the members of the communities.
Endorsements edit
We believe this project deserves a grant. In the previous version, the project was accepted and developed by different communities, a reason that has led us to make alliances with other communities in Latin America. We want to continue the project and involve other communities and replicate the experience, with the aim of being able to be in other spaces where different languages are spoken, there are different world views and they are voices and knowledge that deserve to prevail in the different projects of the Wikimedia movement. In addition to this, many communities in Colombia are interested and we have worked together to make the Wikimedia projects more open spaces, for construction and where collective knowledge is shared.