Wikidia 2024: dreamsign -soñar-diseñar in spanish- possible futures for Wikimedia

Wikidía is the annual meeting of the Wikimedia movement in Colombia, which brings together volunteers from different regions of the country with the aim of strengthening ties, overcoming political-administrative boundaries and collectively building projects that promote the democratization of knowledge. At Wikimedia Colombia, aligned with our institutional principles and values, we have put people and communities at the center of our work. With the interest of expanding our reach beyond the administrative centers, in August 2024 we decided to hold the event simultaneously in four territories: Riohacha, Medellín, Bogotá and Leticia. 

This year’s version, in addition to bringing the vision of the Wikimedia movement to the four territories, also sought, together with the people of the community, to create a space to listen and desing -that is, to design and dream- the future strategy of Wikimedia Colombia. In the different venues, dreams and discussions arose on topics such as the democratization of knowledge, the challenges of connectivity in the territories, the dissemination of heritage and the recognition and appreciation of local knowledge. Of course, the environmental issue was present in the dreams of several venues, as well as the vindication of the conuntry’s linguistic diversity on the Internet. Something that surprised us at Wikidía was to see how education was positioned as a transversal component in all the discussions, together with topics such as accessibility to knowledge, and the strengthening of the community.

The routes and collective constructions of the four territories are a fundamental part of Wikimedia Colombia’s ‘Dreamsign (soñar-diseñar in spanish) posible futures’ strategy, which have been put in dialogue with the diverse realities of the territories in which we are located in Colombia. We recognize social inequities, climate change, the advance of technological developments based on artificial intelligence, as well as our linkage with the recommendations of Wikimedia Movement and its strategy for 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals and national initiatives in areas such as education, culture and their intersection with technology. We  will soon share more information about our strategy at this link.

In this publication, the Wikimedia Colombia team will collectively share what happened in each of the Wikidía 2024 venues and also the conclusions and lessons learned from the community meeting designing the future of Wikimedia Colombia. At the end we will share the graphic narratives of each venue.

Riohacha Venue

This venue brought together the Caribbean node, so the participants came from different sectors of the Department of La Guajira (Maicao, Manaure, Punta Remedios and Riohacha), from Barranquilla, and two people from the Department of Bolivar.

The initial dreams were consolidated into five dimensions linked to thematic areas such as education, culture, environment, technology and human rights. Finally, as a collective we dreamed of connectivity in intersection with culture and education, as well as the decentralization of knowledge. 

These dreams are linked to the challenges and interests of teachers, activists, members of LGBT collectives, as well as cultural managers who are in the territory, and who propose practical solutions for the integration of technology and education as drivers of change, as well as paths with an interest in the decentralization of knowledge and equity.

In short, being able to dream together with the community allowed us to approach a deeper understanding of local needs, and to consolidate a shared vision of a more connected future, in which Wikimedia Colombia has a fundamental role in the transformation of the territories

Medellín Venue

The Medellin venue focused on fostering the meeting between the long-standing community and interested people with less experience in the Ecosystem. Thanks to this, we were able to connect with other free software communities, research groups in digital sciences and humanities, among other people who contributed from their perspectives and work experiences in the Colombian Andean region.

Dreaming the future of Wikimedia Colombia together with people who are just joining the movement was a great challenge: to think the organization beyond the Wikimedia tools and adapt its principles to a local context. We dream of a country where the democratization of knowledge and free access to information strengthen the paths we can walk together.

These paths highlighted the importance of rurality and the communities that live in those areas. We focused on different strategies to build knowledge from the knowledge of these communities, proposing new conversations about the need to open spaces that amplify their voices.

The crossovers between the dreams that emerged highlighted the importance of the recognition of fundamental human rights and the urgency of conceiving media education as a solution to balance representation in digital ecosystems.

Bogota Venue

In Bogota, 23 people linked to WMCO participated with high expectations to meet, for the newer ones, and to meet again for the older ones. Reflecting on the future of the country motivates us to contribute to its development, creating tools to support children, building bridges between indigenous, rural and urban communities, and ensuring the protection of local culture. Despite the challenges ahead, we look to the future with hope and see opportunities to build together paths to overcome them. More than one hundred dreams were shared on culture, education, technology, nature and economy for this country of the future. It was a great effort, but we managed to focus on five of them.

We dream of developing digital technologies created from the needs and capacities of the territories. With sustainable food landscapes where diverse ways of seeing and being in the world can listen to each other. We imagine a country where knowledge is available in the 68 native languages that Colombia still has. We also dream of plural educational spaces, where teachers and students learn from each other and from the world, supported by technology. We dream of a country where the multiple expressions of culture are recognized with equal value and bridges are built between local, regional and national culture.

Thanks to this meeting we discovered a shared interest in influencing at the local level, favoring access to tools that meet the particular needs of regions and communities, but we also discovered that we want to influence from the local level, generating spaces of creation where these regions and communities transform epistemes, technologies and relationships based on their knowledge. We also learned that WMCO is seen as a catalyst for encounters: we are bridges that connect different social sectors, different ways of understanding the world and diverse initiatives.

Leticia Venue

The Wikidía of the Leticia branch had nine participants, who were organized into four groups respectively: environment, culture, technology, education and human rights. Within each group there was a dream rain to imagine the future of the next three years.

The dreams revolved around knowledge about the Amazon and the challenges in terms of appropriation of knowledge by children and young people in the territories; the documentation of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Amazon, as a contribution to the visibility, recognition and appreciation of the heritage we have as a country; the construction of contents that represent local knowledge and traditions, and that are aligned for the visibility of more inclusive narratives and the preservation of the linguistic diversity of the territory; finally, facing the challenges of access and high school dropout rates, we dream of developing strategies that allow us to circulate educational materials that allow access to both teachers and students of content relevant to their context.

This version of Wikidía leaves us with important reflections related to issues of access, both to the Internet in areas far from the administrative centers in the country, as well as to education, culture and technology. Developing processes in the Amazon involves management and mobilization of wills, given that in addition to the challenge of access to the territory, so is the configuration of Colombia as a centralist country. Therefore, from WMCO we identified that the realization of processes in the Amazon, requires the mobilization and establishment of alliances within and outside the Wikimedia movement, in addition to a high investment in resources, since the territorial processes in rural areas have taught us that there are no short-term results, but we need to consolidate processes that can be sustained over time and be appropriated by the communities.

We thank all the people who participated in Wikidía 2024 in its four venues, designing possible futures for the Wikimedia movement in Colombia. Click here to see the best images of Wikiday 2024 on Wikimedia Commons or on our Instagram account @wikimediaco

In Leticia: Tania Yimara, Abel, Ivonne Andrea, Andrea Claire, Yohana Alexandra, Daniela, Gory Hernando, Gabriel Bernardo, Sergio Andrés and Pilar.    

In Medellín: Carlos Alejandro, Iván Camilo, Juan Sebastian, Jhon Alexander, Juliana, Lorena, Maria Paulina, Almary, Paola, Mariana and Ana María.

In Bogota: Cristhian, Diego, María Xue, Profesora Sara, David, Juan Pablo, Nathaly, Jerson, Vladimir, John, Manuel, Luis Fernando, Hector, Karo, Leonardo, Pilar, Martha, Luis, Wilson, Margarita, Nestor, Manuel y Camilo. 

In Riohacha: Luis, José David, Leonardi, Pedro, Umut, Itan, Jaineris, Juan, Morelis, Neima, Libardo y Joander.