Grants:TPS/Sky Harbor/Open Source Bridge 2017

This Wikimedia Participation Support request was not funded. Reasons have been communicated with the request submitter on the Discussion page.

statusnot funded

Travel & Participation Support

Open Source Bridge 2017

summaryI plan to deliver a presentation on the cultural memory of tech communities, or how the specific cultural influences of early adopters influence future community behavior and the growth direction of those communities, using Wikipedia as a primary example.

event locationPortland, Oregon

event websitehttp://www.opensourcebridge.org

event date(s)June 20-23, 2017

amount requestedUSD 870

home countryPhilippines

creator• Sky Harbor

submitted on09:56, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

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Proposed participation

Hi, my name is Josh Lim (Sky Harbor), and I have been an active Wikimedian for the last twelve years. This year, I intend to present Outside Looking In: Working to Reshape the Cultural Memory of Tech at this year's Open Source Bridge, which has already been accepted.

More than half of my active life as a Wikipedian has been spent analyzing and studying the social dynamics and power relations between communities, especially our own, and in the process of exploring those intersections I have also expanded into looking into the cultural dynamics of tech in general. Last year, I successfully delivered this presentation at AlterConf San Francisco, with over 100 people in attendance and a lot of interesting conversation generated about how the Wikimedia community works and how other communities can benefit from what we do right.

In this presentation, I'll be looking into the cultural imprints of online communities, and especially our own. More specifically, I'll be sharing with the wider open source community how our community history and the outsized influence of core users in the early days of Wikipedia affect how our community has grown over the years and the culture that is built around that community. I will also be presenting ways for us to better improve community health, both from the Wikimedia movement and beyond, and how we can build friendlier, more sustainable user communities in the long run.

Goal and expected impact

One of my long-term projects is to develop a more effective mechanism for disseminating best practices between tech communities for developing our respective communities. As a result of this talk, I want to lay down the foundation for that through reaching out to them and coming up with a framework for making that happen, especially as I feel this is an opportune time to do so given that this will be my fifth Open Source Bridge. While I don't have the clout of more influential people in this space (something that I try to build through the conferences I attend, among other activities both here in the Philippines and abroad), I feel that this will be a positive step for both our community and other communities as well.

For the Wikimedia movement at large, I strongly believe that there has been benefits from attending Open Source Bridge. These include enhanced exposure for the practices we do as a community (something that other communities, in my experience, are not always aware of) and, for the Filipino community at large, a better understanding of how other communities do things so we can better reorient our projects. The Cultural Heritage Mapping Project, for example, benefited from the experiences shared during Open Source Bridge 2015, which allowed us to better design the Encyclopedia of Philippine Heritage successor project. While the goals and impact for my participation at Open Source Bridge 2017 are markedly different from previous years, I still believe the Wikimedia movement will benefit from our participation in the event.

Budget breakdown

• Airfare: $870
  • This is for a round-trip ticket from Manila to Portland on Asiana Airlines and Alaska Airlines. This is the cheapest ticket I found for the dates in question.

I may be able to reduce the cost significantly (by around $300) by purchasing a ticket from Manila to Los Angeles on China Eastern Airlines, then redeeming miles to fly between Los Angeles and Portland. However, this depends on availability. While tickets are currently available, I cannot guarantee availability by the time I need to make arrangements should this be approved.

Similar to previous years, I intend to make my own arrangements for accommodation during the conference.

Other instructions

Unlike previous years, I will be asking for reimbursement of expenses incurred. I'm aware that I have been negligent in submitting grant reports in a timely manner, and I strongly feel that absorbing the initial cost will be a strong incentive to ensure I submit my reports on time.