2024:Program/Equitable hybrid approaches for all Wikimedia events

Session title: Equitable hybrid approaches for all Wikimedia events

Session type: Demonstration

Track: Diversity & Inclusion

Language: en

Remote and hybrid events have demonstrated their ability to increase access to Wikimedia events over the last few years, shown particularly through recent Wikimanias. However, this has not been universal across all Wikimedia events, and online attendees have not always been able to gain the same benefits as in-person interactions. This session will highlight the available tools, design, and social approaches that can be taken to make any event more effectively hybrid, with equitable access online and in-person, and how they can be scaled appropriately to match different event sizes while simultaneously reducing environmental impact.

Description

This session will highlight the importance of making in-person events hybrid to foster equality, which is a key part of the Wikimedia movement's 2030 Strategic Direction. A culture of inclusion is vital to ensure this, with hybrid approaches being used to foster engagement and equitable participation both in a meeting room and online (rather than just streaming). Hybrid approaches (rather than all-online or all-in-person) automatically create two-tier environments that require cultural changes to overcome, which are often simple changes like always using microphones, alternating online/in-person questions, and welcoming online speakers. The session will demonstrate some of the tools that can be used to do hybrid well, going beyond simple Zoom connections to consider different platforms and mechanisms, such as virtual reality, including time set aside for audience participation and trying the different demoed tools. It will also cover some of the accessibility needs of a good hybrid solution, and the benefits of reduced emissions and travel costs (particularly for attendees based in different regions from the meeting location) that is intrinsic in enabling a good online experience.

• Session recording

How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?

Inclusive online engagement at Wikimedia events is vital to ensure global collaboration in movement-wide discussions

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Resources

• Presentation slides

Speakers

• Mike Peel

Astronomer, Photographer, Wikimedian. WMF Trustee.

• Mayur Paul

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MPaul_(WMF)

I am the Senior Director of Movement Communications at the Wikimedia Foundation. I am building our movement communications whilst being in awe of the amazing work Wikimedians from all over the world do.

The Movement Communications team works to build bridges. Some of our work includes:

* Movement communications insights

* Diff

* Wikimania

* Wikimedian of the Year

* WikiCelebrate

* Maryana's listening tour, Talking: 2024

* Community Affairs Committee hosted conversations, Afrika Baraza, CEE Connect etc

* Making our movement communications more equitable and inclusive across all regions.

* Engaging the movement with the Foundation's annual plan

* Communicating about Product & Tech developments.

* ComCom

and more..

• Andrew Lih

Andrew Lih has been a Wikipedia editor since 2003 and that year was one of the first academics to use Wikipedia in the classroom as student assigned work. He is the author of the 2009 book The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia. He currently serves as the Wikimedian at Large at the Smithsonian Institution and Wikimedia Strategist at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He is an administrator on English Wikipedia and Wikidata. In 2022, he was named a Wikimedia Laureate for his lifetime work with Wikipedia, and in 2016, he was named the U.S. National Archives Citizen Archivist of the Year.

• Elizabeth Tasker