2024:Program/Perspectives on Multigenerational Communities

Session title: Perspectives on Multigenerational Communities

Session type: Roundtable

Track: Community Health

Language: en

What do we not yet know about being an intergenerational movement?

In this panel discussion, we will have a conversation among some experienced organizers from each generation, about how movement dynamics are changing, and what we don’t yet understand about the future of creating a thriving intergenerational community on the wikis.

Description

Panelists: Alex Stinson - Luisina Ferrante (replaced Wasiul Bahar) - Florence Devouard - Bukola James

We are going through a pretty substantial shift in terms of reader and contributor dynamics throughout the Wikimedia movement. As Selena Deckelman has pointed out, multigenerational requires us to think differently about the shift: https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/03/05/wikipedia-a-multigenerational-pursuit/. Changing dynamics of the internet (a whole generation of internet users was born after Wikipedia was created), and technological pressures mean that our on and offline communities will be experiencing challenges where we need to learn from different kinds of experiences of the internet.

Historically, the global community has gone through several major generations of contributors arriving and participating in the movement: the earliest generations of participants arrived to a Wikipedia that was a completely open to anything (before ~2008), the cohort that arrive during the surge and Wikipedia’s popularity (~2008-15), the half decade before the pandemic (~2015-2020) and our most recent cohort of newer editors and organizers (~2020-2024). Each has had its own challenges -- the first in creating the wikis entirely, the second in creating the rules and norms that allowed us to scale and produce quality, the third enforcing the on-wiki rules and behaviors against a world of increasingly complex internet, and that most recent generation in learning how to navigate Wikipedia’s aging community, while also building new spaces for diversity both online (such as smaller language Wikipedias and Gender-focused projects) and offline (such as the growing community in Africa).

In this panel discussion, we will have a conversation among some experienced organizers from each generation, about how movement dynamics are changing, and what we don’t yet understand about the future of creating a thriving intergenerational community on the wikis.

We will be exploring:

• How can we create greater understanding of the intergenerational opportunities for collaboration and training so that the movement isn’t as dependent on old-timers or the most experienced contributors?
• Why and how do new organizers and communities create new spaces that feel more open and free, such as the growing communities in Africa working on smaller language Wikipedias?
• What do medium experience editors and organizers need most from us to be the next generations of admins, meta organizers and advocates?
• What do we need to learn to better serve the most recent generations of contributors whose experience of the internet is increasingly radically different?

At the end of the panel, we will document questions from the audience through discussion and note taking to capture more ideas about: what do we need to understand to create a better intergenerational movement? How can each of us contribute to it?

The panel included the coordinators: Florence Devouard (Gen 1 )and Alex Stinson (Gen 3). Wasiul Bahar was meant to represent Gender 3 but was replaced by Luisina Ferrante from Wikimedia Argentina, and finally Bukola James from Gen 4

Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/e1PcBYNAWAo?feature=shared&t=7305

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

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

Average knowledge about Wikimedia projects or activities

Speakers

• Florence Devouard

Username:Anthere (She/her). French. Languages : FR N; EN-4.

* Co-Executive Director of Wiki in Africa

* Wikipedian-in-Residence at World Intellectual Property Rights (WIPO)

* Former Chair of Wikimedia Foundation

* Co-founder, former Vice-Chair and currently member of Wikimédia France

Key words : Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Africa, IP rights, Open Movement, Community Building, Open Source, Creative Commons, Life-long learning, accountability, Gender Gap, Equity

More info and contacts

* fdevouard//@//anthere.org

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/devouard/

• M. Wasiul Bahar Wasi

I am the project lead of Project korikath. I started my wikimedia journey as an editor in enwiki but after some time I shifted to Wikimedia commons and started to work with some projects there. I have worked with several wikimedia related organisations, programs and conferences so far.

• BUKOLA JAMES

I am a certified Nigerian librarian and the Regional Liaison Officer for the Sub-Saharan Africa on the Let's Connect working group. I am also the Community Coordinator for the Africa Wikipedian Alliance and serves as the Special Advisor for the Wikipedia + Education User Group. Additionally, I am an active member of the Creative Commons Open Culture Platform.

As the founder of the Kwara State University (KWASU) Wiki Fan Club in 2022, I promoted the use of Wikimedia projects among the university's staff and students. My role as a Content Campaign Organizer includes co-organizing the first WikiClimate Campus Tour in Nigeria and leading the inaugural Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Nigeria as a certified Trainer.

My involvement extends to various Wikimedia initiatives within and outside Nigeria. Furthermore,I have provided facilitation and mentorship support to other Wikimedians, fostering collaboration and guiding new editors in their journey to become fully integrated into the Wikimedia community, ensuring they feel safe and have a sense of belonging. My work within the Wikimedia community has been focused on fostering community engagement and promoting open knowledge.

• Alex Stinson

Alex Stinson is a Lead Program Strategist at the Wikimedia Foundation who has spent the last decade supporting communities in creating better organized activities. Before that, he was a Digitial Humanist at University and a long term volunteer editor on Wikipedia.