Wikimedia LGBT/2022-01-04

This online videoconference is open to all participants of the LGBT+ User Group, and is intended as an opportunity to discuss shared opportunities, challenges, and issues.

Date: Tuesday 4 January 1700 UTC (1700 UK, 1800 DE, 0900 PDT, 1200 EST)
Google Cal: link
Location: Zoom Meeting ID: 895 9210 2163 Passcode: orange!3 ---- The meeting will have an entry lobby, please reach out on the Telegram group if you are left waiting.

Wikimedia LGBT+
Communications
Talk page Telegram: @wmlgbt LGBTlists.wikimedia.org Twitter: @WikiLGBT Mastodon: @wmlgbt@tech.lgbt Bluesky: @wmlgbt.org Wiki99: Wiki99/LGBT+
Other links
Wikimedia thematic organizations Wikimedia user groups

An etherpad link will be shared during the meeting, please help us take rolling notes.

The Wikimedia Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct will be followed for this meeting.

Agenda

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Please feel free to add to the agenda!

Intro
QW Planning team status

Attendees

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Lane Rasberry
Owen Blacker
attendee wants privacy
attendee wants privacy
attendee wants privacy

Notes

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We are planning the Queering Wikipedia 2022 conference

Promoting the survey for conference
1. the Wikimedia Foundation requests a user survey before funding any conference
2. this is routine; many of the people who are organizing this conference have participated in other conference organization, and know how this works
3. few responses to the survey - we need a few more responses
4. there have been no responses outside of English language, so additional notices in non-English projects may help
5. the Wikimedia Foundation grants team will value evidence of non-English engagement in the survey
6. It was estimated to aim for 20 responses, which is reasonable based on interest to surveys in previous Wikimedia conferences
  1. plan to close in 2 weeks
  2. how do we interpret this data? what do other wiki community groups do with survey data?
  3. the survey is open to abuse from bad actors; there are ways to detect this; wiki community organizers have dealt with this in the past
7. should we mass-message users to attract more survey responses?
8. some users are sharing responses in their social circle
9. the survey is posted on telegram
10. Lane to post on English Wikipedia WikiProject LGBT+ Studies
asked for meeting with the WMF grants team
1. our contact is Davit Saroyan
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:DSaroyan_(WMF)
3. we are asking for the maximum request amount without an exemption
4. the Wikimedia Foundation is asking a lot of us that we feel they do not ask of other groups
  1. one inherent burden is that our community is particularly vulnerable and subject to harassment in Wikipedia and in their home communities just by affiliating with LGBT+ interests
  2. additionally we have no regional home, and rather, there are a few LGBT+ people in each region around the wiki world
  3. We think the survey might just be a very new requirement, as Celtic Knot have just sent around a survey too
5. regarding video access, we proposed to have in-person recording nodes/hubs in certain places with multiple attendees. This would pay for a community center to provide video conference access to 2+ people who wished to meet in person and join online also, which is a community request
need to get more volunteers engaged to have a diverse and multinational conference team
1. how do we promote and select people for the conference team?
2. Wiki LGBT+ participation and organization and wiki experience is heavy in United States, UK, certain European countries, and scant elsewhere
3. Wikimania 2022 has an organizer application and selection process - this process is complicated and beyond our ability to organize, but it would be useful if we had a selection process
4. we do have a complicated conference which will require dedicated organization
5. the Wikimedia Movement has no recommended online conference platform
  1. use of platforms is expensive
  2. there are many choices
  3. Wikimedia Norway and Wikimedia Ireland have hosted the Arctic Knot conferences online and are of comparable size to the conference we are planning https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Knot_Conference_2021
  4. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2020
6. we have had the conference platform talk several times since COVID both for LGBT+ and for other wiki organizations
reflections on 2021 Queering Wikipedia working days
1. the organizers of this were mostly the regulars; this was the first Wikimedia LGBT+ conference so that was expected
2. for that conference much of the planning happened late as people knew or knew of each other, and there was trust
3. this conference is difference because we want to include new and inexperienced Wikimedia organizers who may be unknown to the Western World's wiki organization, and who themselves may not be part of an organized Wikipedia community
4. it is hard to know how to engage people in Wikimedia organization when they have never participated in such organization
5. we do want the various aspects of the conference to be a team effort, and not run by one particular person per activity
hard to convert available money into labor
1. there is a wiki community taboo on touching money from the WMF
2. at the same time, the Wikimedia Foundation is now a multi-billion dollar organization, and has money available
3. money goes further in countries other than US / UK / wealthier European countries
4. there are a series of tasks we need which seem like projects which could be funded, such as...
  1. testing conference websites
  2. setting up communication planning
  3. assisting with drafting announcements
  4. translation
  5. the usual set of administration tasks
Wikimedia Foundation fundraising seeks money on behalf of LGBT+ editors
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom/Archive_21#WMF_pauses_fundraising_banners
2. no one at the Wikimedia Foundation coordinated with Wikimedia LGBT+ in this fundraising campaign
3. Wiki LGBT+ hardly has money and even scarcely gets protection from harassment in the Wikimedia Movement
4. see also WMF Comms comment at 2326 UTC on 17 Dec at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Rosiestep/Archive_58#WMF_needs_money_for_Women_in_Red
Universal Code of Conduct
1. there are Wikimedia community roles which get extra trust, such as administrators
2. in general, wiki communities are more tolerant of hate behavior than Wikimedia LGBT+ members. For example, Wiki LGBT+ highly opposes homophobia, transphobia, etc. whereas non-community members object to this behavior less
3. since the Universal Code of Conduct adopts existing power structures, its existence further entrenches existing discrimination against LGBT+ people
4. Wiki LGBT+ does not have the labor capacity to organize community discussions, draft community positions, or put out voter guides for community elections and similar when users with a history of hate behavior campaign
talking to journalists
1. some journalists have asked for us to tell stories about Wiki LGBT+
2. what are our biggest stories?
3. harassment
4. 10 years of Wikimedia LGBT+ as of 2022
5. diversity / internationalism