Wikimania

2019:Thriving in Safety/OTRS agents and Volunteer Email Response Team meetup

< 2019:Thriving in Safety
Thriving in Safety/OTRS agents and Volunteer Email Response Team meetup

Please have a look at the topics that people want to see in this space before making a submission and describe how your submission connects with those topics.

Description

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This is the meetup for meta:OTRS agents, also called the Volunteer Email Response team.

While most Wikimedia users make edits through Wikimedia platforms, every day there are about 500 confidential communications in various languages by email. Some of these contain requests which could be made public. In many cases, the user either shares private information or wants to make a private request.

The activity in the email lists is as diverse and varied as Wikimedia engagement in general. Sometimes people write in over safety concerns, sometimes they share personally identifying information, and with some regularity they seek to share controversial journalism.

This meeting has 3 parts -

  1. Introduction among response agents to meet in person and network
  2. A presentation to the public of what response agents do and why it matters, in the words of attendees
  3. A channel for publicly stating and documenting challenges and planned development in the Volunteer Email Response Process

Relationship to the theme

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

5 - "gender equality" - Wikipedia's email support gets little acknowledgement, yet it is a primary vehicle for privately sorting gender-based harassment among other sensitive issues
10 - "reduced inequalities" - email support fills the gap to bring edits to Wikimedia projects from people who can use email, but not access the website editing interface
16 - "peace, justice, and strong institutions" - email support is the start of many institutional partnerships between knowledge centers and the Wikimedia community

Session outcomes

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

  1. Public discussion of the activities of a team of ~500 wiki volunteers doing off-wiki communication
  2. Teaching what to do with safety reports, journalist persecution, legal threats, and reports of governmental or corporate espionage
  3. Raise awareness of the untapped potential of email tickets and growing challenges in the current system

Session leader(s)

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Session type

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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:

  • Roundtable discussion forum
  • Other
  • meetup

Requirements

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The session will work best with these conditions:

  • Room (Please be aware that the main room available will be a 30 person board room. We can try and arrange for other rooms, but cannot guarantee success):
  • small classroom or round table
  • projector useful but not required
  • Audience:
  • Volunteer Email Response Team / OTRS agents please join
  • Nothing private discussed publicly - anyone welcome without prior knowledge
  • Recording:
  • text notes taken
  • photograph will be taken
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