Wikimania Stockholm 2019:Integrating Wiki-Menstruation to Achieve the SDGs
Knowledge is a battlefield. No one knows better than the founders and editors of Wikipedia to make the online encyclopedia as universal and comprehensive as possible.
Here’s the thing about us Africans: we have rich history, with opportunities at every turn to use our experiences to tell powerful stories, but my experience is that we often do not. We eschew the risk in telling powerful stories, so we do the bare minimum, just enough to get by and now let’s take one thing seriously as a card carrying member of the Wikipedia Family to discuss The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries — developed and developing — in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth — all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests
How does young Emmanuella know everything Mark Angel doesn’t? Wikipedia.
In this short video, Nigerian comedy star Emmanuella ruins her brother’s day at school by knowing all the answers.
Her secret weapon is WIKIPEDIA.
Watch below:
Wikimania 2018, the annual gathering focused last year on improving Wikipedia’s gender and cultural diversity in capetown. Counting down to the First ever Wikimania in sub-Saharan Africa held in Cape Town, bringing together more than 700 people to discuss how to improve the diversity of knowledge represented on Wikipedia and Wikimedia sites. I had the opportunity to join Women’s History Month at the United Nations. This event was been led by the Swedish Mission to the United Nations in coordination with the WikiGap initiative, AfroCROWD and Wikimedia NYC.
Wikimania also offered delegates the time to experience the unique culture of Cape Town and join in the celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday. The conference’s theme, “Bridging knowledge gaps — the ubuntu way forward,” captured this spirit and finds its roots in the philosophy and way of life ubuntu. I had the Centenary shirt to prove wiki love for Mandela
Independent organizations, like Wiki Africa, promote “Wikipedian Training” sessions aimed at supporting and expanding the skill sets of existing Wikipedians across the continent.
Other initiatives are aimed at increasing awareness of Wikipedia outside of North America and Europe, in countries where many people do not even know that Wikipedia exists, let alone how to use it.
Campaigns were launched in India and Nigeria to address this issue: in 2017 Wikimedia Nigeria released two videos, which received over 10 million combined views. A video in Hindi with English subtitles, published on YouTube in April 2018, has received so far more than 1,7M visualizations. On Wednesday 11th of July, Oluseun Onigbinde was recognised for his contribution to Open Data during Wikimedia Nigeria Monthly Meet up by Wikimedia Nigeria President Olaniyan Olushola and the Team during the preparations for Wikimania 2018.
Wikimedia and the No-Nonsense SDGs
According to Daniel Mietchen, In 2015, the United Nations adopted a set of 17 strategic goals for humanity to reach by 2030 (i.e. the same time frame as the current Wikimedia Strategy process), which became known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Some of these goals — e.g. Goal 4: Quality education — overlap directly with the Wikimedia mission, some — e.g. Goal 5: Gender equality — are high on Wikimedia agendas, while yet others — e.g. Goal 2: Zero Hunger — have a more indirect relationship with our activities, mainly that Wikimedia projects document relevant information. In his proposed talk, he planned to present a preliminary analysis of which Wikimedia activities map to which SDGs and how we could use that map to guide future interactions (His submission wasn’t accepted last year but hopefully we could get him this year on our panel to share more light on this)
When the email came confirming my participation in last year’s Wikimania 2018 happening for the second time in Africa first time in sub-Saharan Africa precisely Cape Town, South Africa. I was particularly excited especially because it was my first Wikimania after falling in love with the event hosted by Wikimedia NYC, Afrocrowd and Sweden Permanent Mission to the UN in NYC to mark International Women’s Day, I got support from South African Airways for my flight to Joburg but had to take care of my taxes and flights to capetown to enable me participate, the challenges were there but the takeaways were amazing.
In the evening of the first pre-conference day I attended a “Social Media One Night Stand” where Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) and Andrew Lih (@fuxheado) held a session on “How might we more effectively use social media to further Wikimedia’s mission globally and locally?.” This was a hands-on session and helped in teaching us how to use new media tools to advance the work of Wikipedia and its sister projects. Overall this was one of my best sessions during Wikimania particular because I am more inclined to the usage of social media to advance open knowledge.
I had the opportunity to share my work at Afrocrowd Panel and oral history archive project ‘The Black Lunch Table’ about our propositions for Wiki Menstruation and yes we did it; cheers to our gift for the new month was “On behalf of the Diversity Program Committee, we are glad to inform you that your submission Integrating Wiki-Menstruation to Achieve the SDGs for the Diversity Space has been accepted” the email confirmed that our submission was accepted and proud to also be volunteering with the Media Team. Persistence is key!
Wikimania Stockholm 2019
The annual conference behind Wikipedia, one of the world’s most visited and beloved websites, will take place in Stockholm from 14–18 August 2019. The event will bring together members of the global community behind Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects: volunteer editors (Wikimedians) from around the world, museum and archival experts, leaders of the free knowledge movement, academics, and more. It will be the first time the conference is held in the Nordics, with previous events being held in Cape Town, South Africa; Montreal, Canada; and Esino Lario, Italy, among other locations.
The conference theme this year is “Stronger together: Wikimedia, free knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals,” emphasizing the shared aspirations of Wikimedia, free knowledge, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the role of each in creating a more equitable world. It is not up to one or a few actors to build a better world. It is up to all of us who inhabit this planet.
Wikimania will encourage attendees to reflect on how our free knowledge movement can support and collaborate with others to address some of the world’s most challenging problems in gender diversity, environmental sustainability, quality education, and more. The conference programme will include a diverse array of speakers and presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and more. This year’s conference is co-organized by Wikimedia Sweden, the independent non-profit Wikimedia chapter dedicated to supporting Wikipedia, the other Wikimedia projects, and free knowledge in Sweden, and the Wikimedia Foundation, the international non-profit that operates Wikipedia.
“Wikimedians believe that a world that is better informed is a world that is better equipped to meet our shared challenges. This year’s Wikimania is an opportunity to come together and celebrate the accomplishments that we have made in free knowledge over the past year. It’s also a time to reflect on what’s next — how shared knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and sustainable future for all,” said Katherine Maher, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation.
An estimated 1,000 people are expected to attend this year’s conference. Among the main speakers are Michael Peter Edson, co-founder of the Museum for the United Nations — UN Live; Liv Inger Somby, journalist and associate professor at the Sami University of Applied Sciences; Karin Holmgren, Vice-Chancellor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; and Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons.
“One of Wikipedia’s greatest strengths lies in collaboration — that we can collectively achieve greater things when we collaborate together. The UN has also explicitly stated that we can only achieve greater equity and peace in the world when we openly contribute and work together. At the first ever Wikimania in the Nordics, Wikimedians from around the world will meet to discuss how we can collectively support the Sustainable Development Goals in our work with the free knowledge movement. We are also hoping to see many of our partners and users of Wikipedia join the discussions in Stockholm,” said John Andersson the Executive Director at Wikimedia Sweden.
Flash back
“In January 2017, we the constituents of Wikimedia, started an ambitious discussion about our collective future. We reflected on our past sixteen years together and imagined the impact we could have in the world in the next decades. Our aim was to identify a common strategic direction that would unite and inspire people across our movement on our way to 2030, and help us make decisions.”
