Diffquote Volume 2 (16 September 2023)

In this weekly series, I quote some impressive Diff posts which were recently published.

WikiWomenCamp 2023

Gender equality in Wikimedia Movement is crucial. One of the activities to achieve the goal is WikiWomenCamp. WWC2023 and Shreya Dwivedi introduce it in a post titled “Unveiling the Wiki Women Camp and its Cohorts for Strategic Advancement and Capacity Development.”

The WikiWomenCamp 2023 (WWC 2023) is a highly anticipated event that celebrates and empowers women contributors within the Wikimedia Movement. After a gap of six years, the WWC returns, and this time, WWC 2023 is happening in India – a country known for its rich cultural diversity and immense potential in fostering gender equality. 

As WWC 2023 expands its reach globally, hosting this event in India signifies its commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion on a global scale. 

Considering the changed scenario and strategic advancement, the camp is designed with a renewed vigor and focus, under the theme “Map Up, Rise Up.” Acknowledging the need for a more targeted approach, WWC 2023 has organized its program under two cohorts:

1. Strategic Cohort: This cohort is dedicated to analyzing the current status of women within the Wikimedia Movement and devising comprehensive plans to foster their growth. Discussions on gender disparities, strategic initiatives, and long-term goals will be the focus.
2. Capacity Cohort: The capacity cohort will equip participants with the skills and knowledge to translate the strategies formulated by the strategic cohort into action. With a two-year plan in place, this cohort will work diligently to carry forward the initiatives and effect positive change.

WWC2023 and Shreya Dwivedi (14 September 2023) “Unveiling the Wiki Women Camp and its Cohorts for Strategic Advancement and Capacity Development” Diff.

Wikimedians’ storytellings

In a post titled “Bringing WikiForHumanRights into focus: Climate storytelling from around the Wikimedia Movement,” Euphemia Uwandu introduces various storytellings of Wikimedians.

Wikimedia communities often deploy a variety of communication tactics to share their participation in movement campaigns. In 2023, during the WikiForHumanRights Campaign, we witnessed new and inspiring communication strategies used by organizers in the movement.

The 2023 Senior Content Campaign Organizing Fellow, Euphemia Uwanduaccompanied by Wikimedia communities, adopted a regular weekly storytelling practice on LinkedIn.

……Beyond this, some communities leveraged radio shows for elevating the campaign work. For example, the WAFTAI community in Cameroon engaged in a talk show on Nkwalla radio and the Algeria community on the Mostaganem radio. 

Inspired by these innovative storytelling practices and campaign activities, Romeo Lomara, a 2022 Organizer Lab participant initiated the WikiForHumanRights 2023 Podcast to feature stories of implementing communities. 

Eugine Masiku, the communications officer at Open Foundation West Africa and podcast participant, shared their strategy and motivation in organizing a local campaign photowalk in the Walewale community in Ghana.

Euphemia Uwandu (13 September 2023) “Bringing WikiForHumanRights into focus: Climate storytelling from around the Wikimedia Movement” Diff.

The value of Movement Strategy

Did you know there is a strategy of Wikimedia Movement? Nada kareem22 explains the value of Movement Strategy in a post titled “Your first interactive session: How to overcome the challenges.”

I observed that our Arabic-speaking community is reluctant to engage in conversations, discussions, and activities related to movement strategy. To enhance their involvement, I applied for a MS grant to launch and activate Movement Strategy’s Arabic educational material and deliver the material in interactive sessions. 

The movement strategy 2030 has been a dream and a challenge. The movement community had set 10 recommendations, 10 principles, 8 prioritized clusters, and a very ambitious 47 initiatives (currently) to achieve. To push these initiatives forward into action, we need to work together and merge our skills, diversities, and previous experiences and knowledge.

The highlight of the movement strategy is inclusivity and specificity. All members and affiliates are invited to participate. You can take one initiative and push it a step forward.

The movement strategy 2030 has been a dream and a challenge. The movement community had set 10 recommendations, 10 principles, 8 prioritized clusters, and a very ambitious 47 initiatives (currently) to achieve. To push these initiatives forward into action, we need to work together and merge our skills, diversities, and previous experiences and knowledge.

The highlight of the movement strategy is inclusivity and specificity. All members and affiliates are invited to participate. You can take one initiative and push it a step forward.

Nada kareem22 (11 September 2023) “Your first interactive session: How to overcome the challenges” Diff.

Adding information based on their experiences

In a post titled “SAAB Veterans Shared Their Knowledge at Metadata Workshop,” you can learn about a unique event which Wikimedia Sweden held. It gathered people with connections to SAAB’s aircraft manufacturing and asked them to add information to images on Wikimedia Commons.

The photos uploaded often have minimal information, or metadata, associated with them. Typically, they only have a title and a year, information obtained from the labels on the physical folders in the photo archive. We wanted to gather people with strong connections to SAAB, those who have worked or currently work there, to provide insights into what the images depicted. This way, we could add structured data to Commons through Wikidata tags and captions and descriptions directly in Wikimedia Commons.

The highlight of the event was that a man featured in one of the photographs was present! He could provide many details about what he was doing when the photo was taken and why. Other participants added information about both that image and others. They shared details about the locations, aircraft models, equipment, purposes, which photos depicted actual activities, and which ones were staged.

Josefine Hellroth Larsson WMSE (11 September 2023) “SAAB Veterans Shared Their Knowledge at Metadata Workshop” Diff.

Acknowledgement

First of all, I appreciate my friend Caner (User:Kurmanbek), who created a fantastic logo for Diffquote. I’m really happy to collaborate with such a talented designer and Wikimedian under the Wikimedia Japan-Türkiye Friendship project. Of course, I also appreciate all the contributors, organizers, and readers of Diff. It’s a great pleasure for me to know Wikimedia Movement around the world through Diff.