Owning being a nerd at Wikimedia governance meetings in Brazil

I recently enjoyed attending a small scientific event, followed by Wikimedia governance meetings held in-person in Brazil. I usually like such events, but I surprised myself by the impact these days had on me. Let me tell you how it went.

Wikimedia and Science: potentialities in scholarly extension and scientific dissemination

First, I attended the one-day event Wikimedia and Science: potentialities in scholarly extension and scientific organized by the Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB), the Dental School of Bauru of the University of São Paulo (FOB-USP) and the Center for Audiological Research (CPA- USP). It was held in Bauru, Brazil on October 30^th 2024.  Speakers were from the WMB, Brazilian research agencies and 2 universities. Presentations covered topics of great relevance such as the role of scientific outreach projects and funding opportunities from a research agency from the State of São Paulo, Brazil (FAPESP); the urgency of digital university extension; automatic reference verification in knowledge graphs; challenges and responsibilities: ethics in the era of Artificial Intelligence; and technology as a frontier for research. Myself, a public health researcher based in the US, presented on Wikimedia and science. I provided an update on a wide range of activities within Wikimedia conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). These were previously introduced in several NIOSH Science Blogs including Expanding and Improving Occupational Safety and Health Content in Wikipedia. It Matters and The Powerhouse: Students’ contributions towards expanding and improving occupational safety and health content in Wikipedia, as well as in the 2019 Wikimania presentation Multi-component strategy to improve public health content on Wikipedia.  Activities take place in several Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, Wikidata, Wikiversity, Wiki Edu) and in several languages. 

My presentation was followed by the launch of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Introduction to Basic Audiology in Brazilian Portuguese with Dr. Lilian Jacob, program officer of the Hearing Health project (see also previous Diff blog). Open access training and education in hearing health are critical for facilitating remote and virtual care in areas that lack hearing health services. Anyone from Portuguese-speaking countries (Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde,  Angola, Mozambique, Guinea- Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau) can also benefit from this resource as supporting material.  

As a researcher I often attend this type of meeting, but I particularly enjoyed it because of its focus on approaches to make open science a reality. Then came the part of the program that is not so typical for me.

Wikimedia governance meetings in Brazil

The WMB governance meetings took place on November 2-3, 2024 also at USP, in Bauru.  On the first day we discussed ongoing steps towards the development of the WMB strategy for 2026-2028. A Diff blog published on January 4 2023, described a previous one-year collaborative process used by  the WMB to complete its Strategy for 2023-2025. This year I felt lucky to participate in-person of the discussions and in the block-by-block revision and vote of its framework, the Theory of Change.  

The conversations centered on WMB’s Theory of Change developed and adopted in 2021, which served as the basis for the Strategy 2023-2025, and other plans (Communication Strategy, Friendly Space and for the creation of operational committees). It also describes a System for the Evaluation of Results and Learnings (Sistema de Avaliação de Resultados e Aprendizados or SARA). The  upcoming document  includes Guiding principles, Objectives, Expected Impact, Analysis of context or ecosystem, Method, Focal Groups and a report of the SARA evaluation.  The document Theory of Change 2024 was voted and approved the next day.

Also on the second day, WMB’s General Assembly covered its diversity plan, recruitment plan, absenteeism measures,  main project and activities, plans for WikiCon 2025 (to be held in Salvador, Brazil in July 2025), and the process for WMB to become a chapter. The General Assembly is the organizational higher decision-making infrastructure and is formed by open-knowledge advocates who join either onsite or remotely. I presented on the intersection of Wikimedia, education and health. I highlighted the 2024 publication Strategies for crowdsourcing hearing health information: a comparative study of educational programs and volunteer-based campaigns on Wikimedia which exemplifies education and health joint activities. I also described an ongoing project “Leveraging Wikipedia to advance occupational health equity for immigrant workers.”  The specific aim of this project is to expand and expedite the global reach of occupational safety and health resources to immigrant and non-English speaking worker populations and, ultimately, the general public. This is being accomplished by expanding the availability of occupational health content in English, Portuguese and Spanish in Wikimedia’s public digital knowledge archives. This aligns with the Wikimedia Foundation goals of supporting knowledge equity and making multilingual and intercultural information freely accessible to everyone. 

The surprise

One might be like me a bit surprised to read that I considered myself lucky to be in a long meeting on this type of activity. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, knowing of the challenge of running meetings with a large number of participants. What made it enjoyable for me was that the discussions were not restricted to the plans and documents reviewed, but towards their implementation. The group was engaged and the conversations brought to mind the concept of realistic utopia, which blends the idealism of utopia with the pragmatic constraints of reality. Unlike traditional utopias, which often describe an idealized and perfect society that may be unattainable, a realistic utopia seeks to outline a society that, while highly aspirational and positive, remains within the bounds of what is feasible given current context and challenges, human limitations, social dynamics, and technological capabilities. At the meeting we covered achievable goals, practical solutions, need for flexibility, sustainability, equity and inclusivity. 

As expressed in the 2023 Blog, Wiki Movimento Brasil remains an agent of activation, coordination and social transformation for open knowledge (re)imagining and contributing to the sociotechnical infrastructure of the Wikimedia Movement, coordinating actions with Brazilian Wikimedia agencies, fostering partnerships for open knowledge in Portuguese-speaking countries, and promoting knowledge equity.

I conclude saying that the process left me inspired and confident of the implementation of the Strategy. Ok, by now it is obvious I am a nerd who is really into all things Wikimedia. Still, disclaimer apart, the beauty of the process and the plan lies in its balance between hope and pragmatism, offering a vision of what could be possible if we harness our collective ingenuity and willpower to create a better world.

The drafting of the Wiki Movement Brazil Theory of Change (ToC) was produced between April and September 2024 by Miréia Arruda and João Alexandre Peschanski, respectively in the role of researcher and advisor. The writing of this ToC was supported by Bukola James and Érica Azzellini. The document was presented to the WMB team on September 24 and to the WMB membership on October 7, 2024. It was further analyzed and revised by the strategic subcommittees of Wikimedia in Brazil on November 1, 2024. It was voted on and approved at the General Assembly on November 2, 2024.

Photo: Some of the participants of the event Wikimedia and Science: potentialities in scholarly extension and scientific dissemination held in Bauru, Brazil on October 30 2024.