2019:Advocacy/What the world can learn from Wikipedia

Advocacy/What the world can learn from Wikipedia

Title

What the world can learn from Wikipedia

Description

I often ask participants in my workshops: ”How long will you stay relevant if you are Encyclopedia Brittanica rather than Wikipedia?”

There is a meta layer of the how and why wikipedia works that's not talked enough about. People tend to belive that Wikipedia ”won” because it's free, but that's just a small part of the story. Rather it's about how the community totally redefined the idea of what an encyclopedia is and what the process looks like. Everything works in that direction, from the mission statement; ”imagine a world...”, thru the technical platform that enables trust and accountability (with ”talk” and ”history”), to the openness in terms of content (CC), connections (API) and to the open source code that everything runs on. It's just a beautiful example of true collaboration.

As an example, many belive that digitalization is about ”going from paper to pdf”. Wikipedia is THE best proof as to why that's not enough. Substitution is never enough to create new, redefinition is where it all happens.

I'm convinced that the ideas and mechanics behind Wikipedia has in it self a story to tell, and that many stakeholders outside the community would benefit from those learnings. I have told that story for the last ten years and seen public sector, private companies and other organisations adapt with success. I'm sure a session on this theme would be valuable for both our community and the world around us.

NB: I talk about Wikipedia since that's the ”easy sell” outside of the community, but of course this session will encompass all the projects in the family.

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:

Since this topic is foundational to all transformation you might say it a fit for all SDGs. But more specifically I'm aiming at

• 16.6.2 (Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services) : a public sector run as a platform designed with the wikipedia principles in mind will increase engagement - and thereby satisfaction
• 16.7.2 (Proportion of population who believe decision-making is inclusive and responsive, by sex, age, disability and population group) : if we all build it together, everyone is included.
• 16.10.2 (Number of countries that adopt and implement constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information) : Big change happens when we do many small things. Together.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

Participants will know why Wikipedia works and feel inspired to move their own organisations in that direction. They are also empowered to both learn more and engage deeper in working and understanding inside the community, but also to actually start building outside the community.

Session leader(s)

• Joakim Jardenberg, facilitator/speaker
• Other members from both Wikimedia and from other organisations.

Usernames

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jardenberg

Affiliation/country (if any)

• ...

E-mail contact (optional)

• joakim@jardenberg.com

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

• Lecture (with interactive elements)
• (Maybe also a) Panel with audience Question & Answer session

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

Projector with sound, otherwise totally flexible. Small tables (cabaret seating) preferred.

• Audience:

Anywhere from 10-1000. No need for prior skills.

• Recording:

It will be designed to work perfectly with a fixed single camera broadcast/recording.