Queering Wikipedia 2020/Call for proposals

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Call for proposals now open until the 15th of February.

What are we looking for?

We are seeking proposals for presentations, panel discussions, capacity building workshops, strategy meetings, and team building sessions that would touch on the following themes:

●      Questioning, challenging, and disrupting cisnormativity, heteronormativity, and / or homonormativity in Wikimedia projects;

●      Making Wikimedia spaces welcoming, safe and receptive to everyone’s input through continuous education and systemic improvement;

●      Building partnerships, community engagement, and outreach to Queer communities underrepresented in the Wikimedia movement;

●      Promoting visibility of Queer content creators and Queer Wikimedia content;

●      Empowering Queer individuals to become Wikimedia contributors and leaders;

●      Linguistic, cultural, generational, ethnic, and national diversity among Queer Wikimedians;

●      Emerging Queer Wikimedia projects (ex: queer places in WikiVoyage, Wiktionary, etc);

●      Collaborations between Wikimedians and libraries, archives, museums, and community/academic/government projects;

●      Wikidata and challenges of naming and categorizing Queer people and cultures;

●      The role of the Wikimedia LGBT+ User group;

●      Safety, bullying, and harassment;

●      Peer reviewed research on any of the above topics.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS FEBRUARY 15... PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR APPLICATION AND CONFERENCE PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS OR APPLY HERE

Who should submit proposals?

We invite all Wikimedians, activists, scholars, educators, community organizers, students, librarians, archivists, record keepers, knowledge keepers, critical theorists, computer scientists, data specialists, and creative individuals to network and build partnerships to consider and use how Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects may lift up or diminish Queer populations and their cultural, historic, and scientific output. 

We invite work that offers critical reflections on access to Queer information, queering open culture, decentering the voices of privileged groups and empowering the marginalized. 

We are interested in work that suggests critical interventions into tools and traditions that oppress Queer people and Queer information within Wikimedia projects. 

We seek contributions that will describe or construct practices that challenge entrenched ideas about Wikipedia, the Queer community, the types of Queer information resources sought after around the world, cisgender heterosexual involvement in Queer Wikimedia projects and engagement, and the roles of Queer Wikimedians in regard to supporting Queer visibility, civil rights and activism. 

We are particularly interested in hearing perspectives on Queering Wikipedia from Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), the disabled, HIV+ people, sex workers, refugees, addicts in recovery, the formerly incarcerated, and people from non-English speaking, non-Western European countries.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS FEBRUARY 15...PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR APPLICATION AND CONFERENCE PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS OR APPLY HERE

Conference Program Categories

Classic conference presentations (Lectures, panels, and poster presentations)

• Traditional presentation: 45 minutes (approx 30 min for presentation and 15 min for Q+A and Discussion). Please include conference abstract (and after acceptance, a paper and/or slides for the presentation to share on the conference Wiki).
  
  
• Panel discussion: 10-15minutes each (total 1 hour includes time for Q+A and Discussion). 3 or more presenters sharing topics on a common theme, with an optional facilitator.
  
  
• Poster presentation: Casual 3-5min. presentation and discussion with visual materials. Visual materials should be made available to viewers throughout the conference. Please include abstract and copy of poster for the presentation to share on wiki. Ideally formatted to A1 (59.4 x 84.1 cm / 16.53 x 23.39 in) for print and submitted at least as .png bitmap if not .svg vector.
  

Workshops / Edit-a-thons

Brief instruction, skill share and/or guidance for a hands on activity, development of a new practice, learning how to use an emerging Wikimedia tool, or editing / creating Wikipedia content. (Workshop example: finding and choosing photos that express diversities.) Edit-a-thons should include a learning activity / experience about terminology, identities, best practices within and/or for LGBTIQ+ Wikipedia initiatives. (Edit-a-thon example: Top 100 LGBTIQ+ articles significant to LGBTIQ+ histories or rights to be available in as many languages as possible)

Lightning talks

7-10 minutes. Share your topic in 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, PechaKucha style (see https://www.pechakucha.com/ for more information on how to develop a great pekakucha presentation).

Meetings and capacity development for community engagement / strategizing

Community Engagement / Strategizing Meetings or Roundtables: 90 minutes. Facilitated discussion on how to engage local, regional, national, and/or global communities in LGBTIQ+ Wikimedia efforts. This time will be dedicated to meeting people with common goals and drafting a strategic plan for the LGBTQ+ community engagement effort.

UnConference (self organized, flexible and improvised space)

There will be a time set aside during the conference for an “UnConference,” a dedicated space for groups of people to discuss topics or issues not (sufficiently) addressed by the conference programming. This is a great opportunity for people to share emergent ideas or challenges, and to seek out more information, build new community alliances, and/or work on solutions to challenges.

Creative Works

Works that present and/or embody creative interpretation of the theme of the conference. These can take many forms, including: an artistic-creative work in digital and/or analogue media, UI prototypes, creative and critical collaboration (performative) practices that reflect on inclusion, diversity, emancipation, discrimination and similar phenomena from the realities or visions of LGBTIQ+ Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects…Limitations of work presented would be primarily related to topical relevance, urgency, resources and capacities to display it space (non-gallery) and time (extended weekend) of the Conference.

Organization Tables and Shelves

LGBTIQ+, human rights, and open culture organizations/community groups will have the opportunity to reserve a table and shelves space at Queering Wikipedia to promote their organization and its activities. Please share the mission, vision, values, and/or activities of your organization/community group in your proposal application, in addition to what materials and/or education / entertainment you will provide at your table. Organizations and community groups will have the opportunity to have a table set up with materials during all three days of the conference. Please indicate in your application whether or not the organization/community group members would represent for 1, 2, or 3 days.

Preparing your proposal

In order to ensure a strong application, we recommend that you check the questions in advance and prepare the answers:

• Type of the presentation (one or more from those listed on top)
• What do you intend to present / discuss / teach?
• What can the participants learn from this presentation?
• Language of the presentation
• Is this presentation for specific populations? If yes, who do you want to attend your program?
• Please indicate any special accommodations needed for technology, space, equipment, etc
• Will you allow your session to be recorded?

When writing your proposal, we encourage you to do the following:

• State clearly how the proposal addresses Wikimedia strategy goals (Community growth, Policy and safety, Academic content growth, Collaborations and partnerships, Capacities building, Other_____)

• State how your proposal addresses one or more of the conference themes as described above.

• Explain what you want people to learn from what you will show, teach, or demonstrate;

Example: What do you intend to present / discuss / teach? In my presentation, I will show how a small group of lesbian Wikipedians of color have had success in building a large multicultural Wikipedia community in [city X]. During this presentation, I will share the strategies that this group has used to engage the broader community in Wikimedia engagement, how they partnered with their library for support, and how they teach edit-a-thon participants in [city X] how to improve and create LGBTQ+ content in Wikipedia.

• Explain what participants can learn from this presentation;

Example: What can the participants learn from this presentation? Participants can learn the following: strategies to build Wikipedia community in places where LGBTQ+ safety or visibility may be a challenge; strategies to engage non-LGBTQ+ populations in improving or creating LGBTQ+ content; How to involve the public library in Wikipedia engagement; Teaching diverse audiences how to edit Wikipedia.

• Remember your audience and the main theme of the conference. What you intend to show, teach, or demonstrate should be grounded in LGBTQ+ existence for an international, multilingual, multicultural LGBTQ+ audience.

• While English will be the primary language used for the conference, not everyone reviewing your proposal will be a native speaker of English or an academic. Please use vocabulary that would be accessible to a broad audience.

Application form

Click here to submit your conference proposal. Good luck!