Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Working Groups/Diversity
Movement strategy working groups are currently undergoing a transition as the process moves from drafting recommendations to synthesizing those recommendations into one coherent set. We are not in an open consultation phase at the moment, but you can review the draft recommendations below. |
Overview
Keywords
Reach, bridging the gaps, privilege, allyship
Focus
- to map the current areas of diversity and the diversity gaps within the movement as well as projects that have been concentrating on bridging these gaps;
- finding ways to increase awareness of privilege and to overcome related cultural, institutional, technological and behavioral barriers to inclusion and to knowledge equity;
- ways to include missing voices and bridge gaps in content, reach, and users (in terms of both access and contributions).
Rationale
Wikimedia projects have provided the world with a new collaborative way for collecting and sharing knowledge and with that an opportunity to collect and share knowledge in more diverse ways than ever before in the history of humankind. With our vision and strategic direction we aspire to advance “collecting knowledge that fully represents human diversity”.
At the same time we are struggling with defining what diversity means for our movement – and indeed, in different contexts it means different things. It can be inclusion of all voices; bringing the marginalized to the center to increase equity; ensuring representation of people who perceive themselves as different; finding ways to better support underserved and underrepresented regions and languages, knowledge and communities that have been left out by structures of power and privilege; bridging the gender gap in contributions as well as in the knowledge and information content.
Although Wikimedia’s vision statement intrinsically includes diversity and many stakeholders in the movement have been advocating for diversity in many ways, these efforts have often been met with pushback from other members of our community. One of our strategic priorities is knowledge equity, and to move us in this direction, we need remedy strategies to manage the change in this regard, become allies and support the voices that keep us in motion.
The Diversity Working Group will work towards understanding what different conceptions of diversity look like, how Wikimedians can become allies to underrepresented groups, and what we need to change in our structures so we can “welcome people from every background to build strong and diverse communities.” This will help us to understand what programs, priorities and support systems we will put into place to address this.
Guiding Questions
These questions are not meant to be answered one-to-one but should help the group frame their own conversations and their consultations with movement stakeholders.
- 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?
Mailing list
wg2030-diversity wikimedia.org
Members
Name | Organization / project | Role | Geography |
---|---|---|---|
Afifa Afrin | Wikimedia Bangladesh | Volunteer | South Asia |
Amir Aharoni | Volunteer | North America, Western Asia, Central and Eastern Europe | |
Astrid Carlsen | Wikimedia Norge | Staff member | Northern Europe |
Camelia Boban | WikiDonne User Group, Affiliations Committee | Board member | Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe |
Esra'a Al Shafei | Wikimedia Foundation | Board member | Western Asia |
Galder Gonzalez | Basque Wikimedians User Group | Staff member | Western Europe |
imacat | Wikimedia Taiwan | Board member | East Asia |
Jorge Vargas | Wikimedia Foundation | Staff member | North America, South America |
Iván Martínez | Wikimedia México, Wikimania Committee | Volunteer | North America, South America |
Marc Miquel-Ribé | Amical Wikimedia | Volunteer | Western Europe |
Sam Oyeyele | Wikimedia User Group Nigeria | Board member | West Africa |
SusunW | Women in Red | Volunteer | North America, Latin America & the Caribbean |
Walaa Abdel Manaem | Egypt Wikimedians User Group | Volunteer | North Africa, Western Europe |
Reports and documents
Recommendations
Please take a look at the draft recommendations (September 2019):
- Introducing people-centered principles within the Wikimedia movement
- Reaching a self-aware and dynamic structure aimed at community diversity and health
- Redesigning the platforms for more diversity of people and content experiences
- Planned community diversification
- Reflective policies for participation and governance
- Establishing partnerships in order to represent and protect worlds’ cultural diversity
- Decentralized administrative structure for resource allocation
- Bridging different local contexts and Wikimedia projects' notability and verifiability policies
First draft recommendations are available as well (August 2019).
There is also an abbreviated, translated version prepared for easier engagement.
Scoping document
- Scoping document (March 2019)
Activities and reports
Wikimedia Conference Working Group Report (2018)
This is an overview of the outputs from the discussion about Diversity and Inclusion at the Wikimedia Conference 2018. The group discussed 1. What the scope of this thematic area should be, 2. Who should be in the Working Group, and 3. How the Working Group should work.
- Focus of the conversation
The Diversity and Inclusion group at the Wikimedia Conference 2018 emphasised that an action plan for the topic of diversity already has been discussed and developed during Wikimedia Diversity Conference 2017. All ideas remain relevant. The group explicitly mentioned that thematic area of this Working Group will overlap with other Working Groups, especially Partnerships, Community Health, Capacity Building and Technology.
What? | Who? | How? |
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If you would like to know more details about the WMCON discussions on this theme, please consult the documentation.
Resources
Existing materials
This is a non-exhaustive list. Please add more sources that provide context, background information and insights related to the thematic area.
- Phase I, Cycle 2: A Truly Global Movement
- Wikimedia Diversity Conference 2017
- Diversity conversation at WM Diversity Conference 2017
- Gender Diversity Mapping
- Charting diversity
- m:Category:Diversity learning patterns
- Inviting Diversity
- en:Wikipedia:Wiki Loves Pride
- Defining Emerging Communities
- en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias
- Whose Knowledge?
- WikiDonne slides
- LinguaLibre
- Wikitongues
- ...