Return to Video

Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary

  • 0:08 - 0:11
    Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
  • 0:11 - 0:13
    the chair of Wikimania 2012,
  • 0:13 - 0:15
    James Hare.
  • 0:15 - 0:24
    [applause]
  • 0:24 - 0:26
    Good morning everyone.
  • 0:26 - 0:28
    On behalf of Wikimedia District of Columbia
  • 0:28 - 0:30
    I would like to welcome all of you
  • 0:30 - 0:32
    to Wikimania 2012.
  • 0:32 - 0:42
    [applause]
  • 0:42 - 0:45
    I would like to thank our partners and collaborators:
  • 0:45 - 0:48
    the US Department of State Office of E-Diplomacy,
  • 0:48 - 0:49
    the Library of Congress,
  • 0:49 - 0:51
    the Wikimedia Foundation,
  • 0:51 - 0:53
    Wikimedia Deutschland,
  • 0:53 - 0:55
    the National Archives and Records Administration,
  • 0:55 - 0:58
    OpenHatch, the Broadcasting Board of Governors,
  • 0:58 - 0:59
    for working with us to make
  • 0:59 - 1:01
    this conference possible.
  • 1:01 - 1:09
    [applause]
  • 1:09 - 1:11
    I would also like to thank our sponsors:
  • 1:11 - 1:15
    Google, Ask.com, Zoomph, the Encyclopedia of Life,
  • 1:15 - 1:18
    the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Wikia,
  • 1:18 - 1:20
    the Saylor Foundation and wikiHow
  • 1:20 - 1:22
    for their generous contributions.
  • 1:22 - 1:28
    [applause]
  • 1:28 - 1:29
    Finally, I would like to thank
  • 1:29 - 1:31
    our incredible conference organizing team
  • 1:31 - 1:33
    which has been working in one way or another
  • 1:33 - 1:37
    since January 22nd 2011 to make
  • 1:37 - 1:39
    this conference possible.
  • 1:39 - 1:42
    Nicholas Bashour, Katie Filbert, Tiffany Smith,
  • 1:42 - 1:45
    Orsolya Virág, Deror Lin, Sage Ross,
  • 1:45 - 1:48
    Chad Horohoe, and our legion of volunteers
  • 1:48 - 1:50
    all led by Danny B.
  • 1:50 - 1:58
    [cheers and applause]
  • 1:58 - 1:59
    I would also like to point out
  • 1:59 - 2:00
    that during this conference there will be
  • 2:00 - 2:03
    many side events taking place during the evening.
  • 2:03 - 2:05
    Tonight we have GLAM Night Out at the Newseum
  • 2:05 - 2:06
    and the official Wikimania Happy Hour
  • 2:06 - 2:09
    sponsored by Zoomph at Tonic.
  • 2:09 - 2:10
    Check out the information desk on the
  • 2:10 - 2:11
    third floor of the Marvin Center if you'd
  • 2:11 - 2:17
    like to learn more about our side events.
  • 2:17 - 2:18
    I'm glad you could join us this morning
  • 2:18 - 2:19
    with this excellent weather.
  • 2:19 - 2:22
    You see, I edited the Wikipedia article
  • 2:22 - 2:23
    on DC summers to say that
  • 2:23 - 2:26
    we don't have 100 degree heat waves
  • 2:26 - 2:28
    and apparently it worked!
  • 2:28 - 2:33
    [laughter and applause]
  • 2:33 - 2:35
    If you have attended a previous Wikimania
  • 2:35 - 2:36
    welcome back!
  • 2:36 - 2:37
    If this is your first Wikimania,
  • 2:37 - 2:39
    I'd like to introduce you to the
  • 2:39 - 2:41
    events of the next few days.
  • 2:41 - 2:43
    Wikimania is where you go to meet the people
  • 2:43 - 2:45
    who work on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • 2:45 - 2:47
    which is maintained by volunteers
  • 2:47 - 2:50
    and operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
  • 2:50 - 2:53
    That's Wikimedia with an "M".
  • 2:53 - 2:57
    The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization
  • 2:57 - 3:00
    that runs Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote,
  • 3:00 - 3:04
    Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikinews, Wikiversity,
  • 3:04 - 3:06
    Wikispecies, the MediaWiki software project,
  • 3:06 - 3:09
    Wikimedia Commons, and I'd like to introduce
  • 3:09 - 3:13
    our latest project under development, WikiData.
  • 3:13 - 3:19
    [applause]
  • 3:19 - 3:21
    Volunteers for all these projects and more
  • 3:21 - 3:23
    will be here today, discussing their latest findings,
  • 3:23 - 3:26
    and pondering the future of the Wikimedia projects.
  • 3:26 - 3:30
    It is going to be an exciting four days.
  • 3:30 - 3:32
    But first I would like to introduce our first speaker
  • 3:32 - 3:34
    Dawn Nunziato.
  • 3:34 - 3:36
    Professor Nunziato is an internationally recognized
  • 3:36 - 3:39
    expert in the area of free speech and the Internet.
  • 3:39 - 3:42
    Her primary teaching and scholarship interests
  • 3:42 - 3:45
    are in the areas of Internet law, free speech and digital copyright.
  • 3:45 - 3:47
    She recently published her book
  • 3:47 - 3:50
    "Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age"
  • 3:50 - 3:52
    and has lectured and written extensively on
  • 3:52 - 3:54
    issues involving free speech and the Internet.
  • 3:54 - 3:57
    Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Dawn Nunziato.
  • 3:57 - 4:01
    [applause]
  • 4:07 - 4:10
    Good morning and thank you for that kind welcome.
  • 4:10 - 4:13
    On behalf of GW Law School
  • 4:13 - 4:17
    I'd like to welcome you all to our Lisner auditorium.
  • 4:17 - 4:19
    It's a great honor for GW Law School
  • 4:19 - 4:22
    to partner with the Department of State
  • 4:22 - 4:25
    on important and exciting events like this one.
  • 4:25 - 4:29
    And GW Law School, under our relatively new dean,
  • 4:29 - 4:32
    Paul Berman, is particularly committed to
  • 4:32 - 4:37
    bridging the gap between the ivory tower of academia
  • 4:37 - 4:43
    and the real world of law and policy and practice.
  • 4:43 - 4:45
    We're particularly committed to capitalizing
  • 4:45 - 4:49
    on our location in the nation's capital
  • 4:49 - 4:52
    and are very honored to sponsor and support
  • 4:52 - 4:54
    events like this.
  • 4:54 - 4:58
    As we said, at GW Law, professors like myself
  • 4:58 - 5:02
    are particularly focused on cyberlaw issues.
  • 5:02 - 5:07
    I teach in the area of Internet law, digital copyright
  • 5:07 - 5:09
    and free speech.
  • 5:09 - 5:13
    And toward that end with Microsoft's generous support
  • 5:13 - 5:16
    my colleague Artuno Carrillo and I created
  • 5:16 - 5:19
    a program and a speaker series
  • 5:19 - 5:22
    on global Internet freedom and human rights.
  • 5:22 - 5:24
    We're very excited to be sponsoring
  • 5:24 - 5:26
    a number of speakers in connection with
  • 5:26 - 5:27
    that speaker series:
  • 5:27 - 5:30
    Vint Cerf is going to come and speak to us
  • 5:30 - 5:32
    in a couple of months;
  • 5:32 - 5:35
    Ai Weiwei, Chinese human rights activist,
  • 5:35 - 5:39
    is hopefully going to be let out of China
  • 5:39 - 5:42
    to come speak to us on global Internet freedom issues;
  • 5:42 - 5:44
    we sponsored Rebecca MacKinnon,
  • 5:44 - 5:47
    the author of "Consent of the Networked",
  • 5:47 - 5:50
    an Internet free speech activist,
  • 5:50 - 5:53
    last year as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series,
  • 5:53 - 5:55
    so we're really excited about that.
  • 5:55 - 5:59
    GW Law was recently chosen to be the new home
  • 5:59 - 6:03
    of the Federal Communications Law Journal,
  • 6:03 - 6:04
    we look forward to working with the
  • 6:04 - 6:06
    Federal Communications Bar here in DC
  • 6:06 - 6:09
    on cutting-edge issues of communications law.
  • 6:09 - 6:14
    And in connection with that, FCC Chairman Genachowski
  • 6:14 - 6:15
    is going to come to speak to us
  • 6:15 - 6:19
    to launch that new journal in a few months.
  • 6:19 - 6:22
    So we're very active on these types of issues
  • 6:22 - 6:25
    and we're very exciting to be sponsoring
  • 6:25 - 6:28
    and supporting events like these.
  • 6:28 - 6:31
    I'm also very proud of the work of my colleagues
  • 6:31 - 6:34
    Dan Solove and Orin Kerr,
  • 6:34 - 6:35
    who you may be familiar with,
  • 6:35 - 6:37
    who are leaders in the areas of
  • 6:37 - 6:40
    Internet privacy and cybercrime.
  • 6:40 - 6:41
    So we've got a lot going on here
  • 6:41 - 6:45
    at GW Law, and in particular our new dean,
  • 6:45 - 6:50
    Paul Berman, is a world-reknowned expert in Internet law issues
  • 6:50 - 6:52
    and the author of a well-regarded casebook
  • 6:52 - 6:54
    on the subject.
  • 6:54 - 6:58
    So once again welcome to all of you
  • 6:58 - 7:00
    and on with the show!
  • 7:00 - 7:05
    [applause]
  • 7:05 - 7:07
    At Wikimania we have the great privilege
  • 7:07 - 7:10
    of working with the US Department of State
  • 7:10 - 7:11
    for our Tech@State track.
  • 7:11 - 7:14
    Our next speaker Richard Boly is a career US diplomat
  • 7:14 - 7:17
    and the current Director of the Office of eDiplomacy
  • 7:17 - 7:21
    an applied technology think tank for the US Department of State.
  • 7:21 - 7:23
    Previously he was a National Security Affairs Fellow
  • 7:23 - 7:26
    at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University
  • 7:26 - 7:28
    where he launched a global entrepreneurship program.
  • 7:28 - 7:30
    Ladies and gentlemen, Richard Boly.
  • 7:30 - 7:38
    [applause]
  • 7:38 - 7:42
    Good morning Wikipedians and Wikimedians!
  • 7:42 - 7:47
    [applause]
  • 7:47 - 7:48
    My name's Richard Boly and
  • 7:48 - 7:51
    I am part of the Office of eDiplomacy
  • 7:51 - 7:54
    at the State Department, despite the suit,
  • 7:54 - 7:58
    we feel that we are kindred spirits with you!
  • 7:58 - 8:00
    Uh, actually I would like to ask
  • 8:00 - 8:04
    all the people from eDiplomacy here to stand up briefly
  • 8:04 - 8:07
    just stand up so you can search them out
  • 8:07 - 8:09
    and find out more about what we're doing.
  • 8:09 - 8:14
    [applause]
  • 8:14 - 8:16
    We're so excited about being able to partner
  • 8:16 - 8:19
    with you and with GW Law School
  • 8:19 - 8:23
    and we will have as part of our Tech@State track
  • 8:23 - 8:25
    some really interesting presentations
  • 8:25 - 8:28
    which dovetail perfectly with the conference.
  • 8:28 - 8:32
    Actually one of the two best known platforms
  • 8:32 - 8:34
    that we have or products that we offer
  • 8:34 - 8:37
    in eDiplomacy are Tech@State,
  • 8:37 - 8:39
    this quarterly conference on the convergence
  • 8:39 - 8:42
    of technology, foreign policy and development; and
  • 8:42 - 8:46
    the other is Diplopedia, built on MediaWiki.
  • 8:46 - 8:48
    And you'll get a chance tomorrow morning to hear
  • 8:48 - 8:50
    from Tiffany Smith and Chris Bronk
  • 8:50 - 8:52
    who will be talking about that as part of
  • 8:52 - 8:56
    the Tech@State track.
  • 8:56 - 8:57
    I also wanted to give a shout out to Tim Hayes
  • 8:57 - 9:00
    who has been curating these Tech@States,
  • 9:00 - 9:01
    and I think he's still over at the Marvin Center
  • 9:01 - 9:02
    checking people in.
  • 9:02 - 9:04
    Tim has been a huge driver in making
  • 9:04 - 9:07
    this collaboration possible.
  • 9:07 - 9:12
    But really, my goal here is to bring the words
  • 9:12 - 9:15
    of our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
  • 9:15 - 9:17
    The Secretary of State would have loved to have been here
  • 9:17 - 9:19
    but unfortunately is travelling.
  • 9:19 - 9:22
    And she did pen a letter that she asked me
  • 9:22 - 9:25
    to share with you and we will scan the signed letter
  • 9:25 - 9:30
    and make it available obviously on the wiki website.
  • 9:30 - 9:33
    So here goes.
  • 9:33 - 9:34
    Dear friends,
  • 9:34 - 9:37
    On behalf of the US Department of State,
  • 9:37 - 9:40
    I am delighted to extend my heartfelt congratulations
  • 9:40 - 9:44
    on the opening of Wikimania 2012
  • 9:44 - 9:47
    and the Tech@State Wiki.gov.
  • 9:47 - 9:49
    I commend each of you for your dedication
  • 9:49 - 9:51
    to enhancing global understanding
  • 9:51 - 9:54
    through the many projects and initiatives
  • 9:54 - 9:58
    that the Wikimedia Foundation supports.
  • 9:58 - 10:00
    Wikimania 2012 highlights the intersection
  • 10:00 - 10:03
    of government and community goals.
  • 10:03 - 10:06
    It demonstrates how we are breaking down the barriers
  • 10:06 - 10:09
    between governments and the citizens they serve
  • 10:09 - 10:12
    by making readily available critical information
  • 10:12 - 10:15
    that is often difficult to find.
  • 10:15 - 10:17
    The US Department of State supports these
  • 10:17 - 10:20
    endeavours in technology, knowledge sharing,
  • 10:20 - 10:23
    and community building, as they are important
  • 10:23 - 10:27
    pillars of our 21st century state-craft agenda.
  • 10:27 - 10:30
    I am a staunch advocate of bringing technology
  • 10:30 - 10:33
    and knowledge to citizens around the world
  • 10:33 - 10:35
    and I believe it is vitally important that
  • 10:35 - 10:38
    our diplomats understand the huge potential
  • 10:38 - 10:40
    of using connection technologies
  • 10:40 - 10:44
    as a way to reach foreign audiences.
  • 10:44 - 10:46
    The world is more connected now
  • 10:46 - 10:47
    than ever before.
  • 10:47 - 10:50
    But there is still much work to be done
  • 10:50 - 10:53
    to fully capitalize on the potential of
  • 10:53 - 10:55
    this interconnection.
  • 10:55 - 10:56
    There are many people who are
  • 10:56 - 11:00
    disenfranchised because they lack access to information.
  • 11:00 - 11:01
    There are others whose contribution would
  • 11:01 - 11:05
    make our collective knowledge richer
  • 11:05 - 11:08
    but they face risks and difficulties in doing so.
  • 11:08 - 11:10
    Your work in the Wikimedia Foundation
  • 11:10 - 11:13
    contributes greatly to achieving our shared goal
  • 11:13 - 11:18
    of making information more open and accessible.
  • 11:18 - 11:19
    Thank you for your efforts
  • 11:19 - 11:21
    and please know you have my best wishes
  • 11:21 - 11:26
    for a productive and enjoyable Wikimania 2012.
  • 11:26 - 11:28
    With appreciation and best regards,
  • 11:28 - 11:31
    I am, sincerely yours, signed,
  • 11:31 - 11:33
    Hillary Rodham Clinton.
  • 11:33 - 11:34
    Thank you.
  • 11:34 - 11:46
    [applause]
  • 11:46 - 11:47
    Now I would like to introduce
  • 11:47 - 11:51
    our keynote speaker for Wikimania 2012,
  • 11:51 - 11:52
    Mary Gardiner.
  • 11:52 - 11:53
    She is an open source developer,
  • 11:53 - 11:55
    computer science graduate student,
  • 11:55 - 11:57
    and women in open source advocate
  • 11:57 - 11:59
    with over 10 years of experience.
  • 11:59 - 12:01
    Mary's research is in lexical semantics
  • 12:01 - 12:04
    and concentrates on how changes in word choice
  • 12:04 - 12:06
    can affect meaning and tone.
  • 12:06 - 12:08
    Before entering graduate school she worked
  • 12:08 - 12:10
    as a senior software engineer for a year
  • 12:10 - 12:12
    and contributed code to the Python-based
  • 12:12 - 12:14
    Twisted project.
  • 12:14 - 12:16
    In 2011, she co-founded the Ada Initiative,
  • 12:16 - 12:19
    supporting women in open technology and culture.
  • 12:19 - 12:21
    Ladies and gentlemen, Mary Gardiner.
  • 12:21 - 12:25
    [applause]
  • 12:35 - 12:36
    Good morning Wikimanians,
  • 12:36 - 12:39
    good morning Tech@State attendees.
  • 12:39 - 12:46
    [laughter]
  • 12:46 - 12:49
    So as interesting as computational lexical semantics
  • 12:49 - 12:53
    and computational sentiment analysis are
  • 12:53 - 12:55
    I am not going to talk about my PhD work today
  • 12:55 - 12:57
    I am talking about my new project,
  • 12:57 - 12:59
    work with my new project, the Ada Initiative,
  • 12:59 - 13:02
    which is a US-based non-profit
  • 13:02 - 13:04
    supporting women in open technology and culture,
  • 13:04 - 13:07
    which very much includes wiki projects
  • 13:07 - 13:08
    and other open knowledge projects,
  • 13:08 - 13:13
    also open source, remix culture, open government,
  • 13:13 - 13:15
    open data projects and similar.
  • 13:15 - 13:17
    And what I'm going to talk about specifically
  • 13:17 - 13:20
    is fostering diversity in these kinds of projects.
  • 13:20 - 13:23
    Broadly, uh, not only gender diversity
  • 13:23 - 13:26
    but diversity across different economic backgrounds,
  • 13:26 - 13:29
    different geographic origins, different ethnic origins,
  • 13:29 - 13:32
    and so on.
  • 13:32 - 13:34
    Ah, so I subtitled my talk maybe
  • 13:34 - 13:36
    in a slightly inflammatory way,
  • 13:36 - 13:40
    I wrote "not a boring chore, a criticial opportunity"
  • 13:40 - 13:42
    because there can this temptation
  • 13:42 - 13:45
    hopefully not succumbed to too much within this room
  • 13:45 - 13:49
    to view diversity as essentially a PR exercise
  • 13:49 - 13:55
    that a more diverse project looks better.
  • 13:55 - 13:59
    It is however of course crucial in a project
  • 13:59 - 14:03
    with a mission like that of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
  • 14:03 - 14:09
    to encompass some, in the case of Wikipedia
  • 14:09 - 14:13
    an encyclopedia covering the um, the sum of human knowledge
  • 14:13 - 14:17
    ultimately, obviously to incorporate the sum of human knowledge
  • 14:17 - 14:21
    you need to incorporate the sum of humans in some crucial way.
  • 14:21 - 14:26
    So it should be fairly obvious that therefore
  • 14:26 - 14:36
    diversity is one of the key goals of Wikimania projects.
  • 14:36 - 14:39
    OK, so first of all I just want to talk a little bit about
  • 14:39 - 14:41
    wiki projects as social change.
  • 14:41 - 14:45
    Uh, it's not what everyone involved in wiki projects
  • 14:45 - 14:48
    is aiming for, uh, I mean there are different
  • 14:48 - 14:50
    reasons you want to build the sum of human knowledge
  • 14:50 - 14:53
    and creating social change is only one of them.
  • 14:53 - 14:56
    But it is something that happens as we build these projects
  • 14:56 - 14:59
    and make them freely available, that things change
  • 14:59 - 15:01
    both because of the project and ah,
  • 15:01 - 15:06
    with the momentum of the projects.
  • 15:06 - 15:09
    So just ah as a very narrow example,
  • 15:09 - 15:12
    this is from Joseph Reagle's keynote last year,
  • 15:12 - 15:13
    he mentioned the Aardwolf article
  • 15:13 - 15:16
    back in 2001 on Wikipedia,
  • 15:16 - 15:18
    back when each Wikipedia title had to
  • 15:18 - 15:20
    contain at least two captial letters,
  • 15:20 - 15:24
    which is why it's AardwolF with a captial F.
  • 15:24 - 15:31
    And South AfricA, yes, so it has a terminal A and so forth.
  • 15:31 - 15:35
    Anyway so apparently the article read in total
  • 15:35 - 15:37
    "Aardwolf, small animal from South Africa,
  • 15:37 - 15:39
    related to the hyena, lives in the ground,
  • 15:39 - 15:41
    nocturnal hunter."
  • 15:41 - 15:46
    And now you have the typical Wikipedia zoological article
  • 15:46 - 15:50
    with zoological classifications, behavior characteristics,
  • 15:50 - 15:51
    geographic distribution and so on.
  • 15:51 - 15:53
    So, OK, so that's not social change,
  • 15:53 - 15:56
    that's Wikipedia changing.
  • 15:56 - 16:02
    Stepping out to one particular individual.
  • 16:02 - 16:08
    That, that's me when I was fourteen years old.
  • 16:08 - 16:10
    The reason this is not the most flattering
  • 16:10 - 16:12
    photo of me at fourteen years old is that
  • 16:12 - 16:14
    I mean I was pretty sort of awkward and gawky and so on
  • 16:14 - 16:15
    but it's not the most flattering photo
  • 16:15 - 16:18
    and the reason is that I asked my father to scan these
  • 16:18 - 16:19
    and this was the most flattering photo
  • 16:19 - 16:20
    of the ones he sent.
  • 16:20 - 16:24
    [laughter]
  • 16:24 - 16:27
    So the Wikipedia related point here is that
  • 16:27 - 16:31
    I was a pretty nerdy teenager, um, I would have been
  • 16:31 - 16:32
    about fourteen.
  • 16:32 - 16:33
    For my fourteenth birthday I got
  • 16:33 - 16:35
    a reference work for my birthday.
  • 16:35 - 16:37
    It was "The Penguin Book of Curious Interesting Numbers".
  • 16:37 - 16:39
    It goes from minus one up to Graham's number
  • 16:39 - 16:43
    skipping some numbers in between.
  • 16:43 - 16:47
    Ah, and I read it in numerical order.
  • 16:47 - 16:49
    And this is a person who really needed Wikipedia,
  • 16:49 - 16:53
    but it didn't exist.
  • 16:54 - 16:58
    OK, so now that person, when I wrote these slides
  • 16:58 - 17:01
    these were the last fifteen or so Wikipedia pages
  • 17:01 - 17:03
    that showed up in my browser history
  • 17:03 - 17:05
    skipping all articles I read on individual
  • 17:05 - 17:07
    members of the Beatles, because
  • 17:07 - 17:08
    that wouldn't be very interesting.
  • 17:08 - 17:11
    [laughter]
  • 17:11 - 17:13
    So, you know, OK, that's not social —
  • 17:13 - 17:15
    I mean that's social change in that it affected me
  • 17:15 - 17:19
    but it's important to note that like,
  • 17:19 - 17:22
    I am in my early thirties
  • 17:22 - 17:24
    I've been taken from this thing of you know
  • 17:24 - 17:26
    having my one book, my one precious book
  • 17:26 - 17:27
    of numbers that you know
  • 17:27 - 17:31
    I read to death, through to be able to
  • 17:31 - 17:34
    read about colorectal cancer and T-Mobile USA
  • 17:34 - 17:40
    in the same two day period.
  • 17:40 - 17:43
    OK. Uh, again social change that Wikipedians
  • 17:43 - 17:45
    are very familiar with.
  • 17:45 - 17:49
    In 1990 Encyclopedia Britannica sold, had their
  • 17:49 - 17:50
    highest sales volume before or since of
  • 17:50 - 17:53
    120 000 printed copies of the encyclopedia.
  • 17:53 - 17:56
    I never had one, I spent most of my—
  • 17:56 - 17:57
    maybe not when I was fourteen
  • 17:57 - 18:02
    but I spent most of my pre-teen years wishing that I did.
  • 18:02 - 18:05
    OK, well, a couple of years ago as you know
  • 18:05 - 18:07
    they sold around 8500 copies and they closed
  • 18:07 - 18:09
    their printed edition down
  • 18:09 - 18:10
    but they did report that they had
  • 18:10 - 18:12
    450 million visits to their website.
  • 18:12 - 18:16
    That does include the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
  • 18:16 - 18:21
    Way back in 2006, practically pre-history,
  • 18:21 - 18:24
    18% of the world's population was using the Internet
  • 18:24 - 18:27
    only 3% of the, of the two continents listed here
  • 18:27 - 18:30
    are the two smallest percentages reported on
  • 18:30 - 18:33
    that Wikipedia page that I'm using as a reference.
  • 18:33 - 18:34
    And I'm told you're not meant to do that,
  • 18:34 - 18:36
    I'm not sure if that's true in this crowd.
  • 18:36 - 18:38
    [laughter]
  • 18:38 - 18:41
    3% of the African population using the Internet
  • 18:41 - 18:43
    and 11% of the Asia-Pacific population
  • 18:43 - 18:45
    using the Internet.
  • 18:45 - 18:49
    OK, again using Wikipedia as a reference
  • 18:49 - 18:53
    35% of the world's population using the Internet,
  • 18:53 - 18:58
    13% of the African population, a four times increase.
  • 18:58 - 19:00
    27% of the Asia-Pacific population, more than doubled
  • 19:00 - 19:02
    using the Internet.
  • 19:02 - 19:04
    So here we have real social change.
  • 19:04 - 19:08
    And Encyclopedia Britannica has gone away
  • 19:08 - 19:11
    and 35% of the world's population is using the Internet.
  • 19:11 - 19:13
    So this is the kind of story that as you know
  • 19:13 - 19:16
    Wikimedia projects are part of.
  • 19:16 - 19:18
    The mooted at least death of print,
  • 19:18 - 19:23
    open access, e-books, ultimately the Internet.
  • 19:23 - 19:29
    OK, so we get to the topic of diversity
  • 19:29 - 19:31
    and how that relates.
  • 19:31 - 19:37
    So, the good news with Wikipedia is that
  • 19:37 - 19:45
    as Internet projects go it's definitely a very diverse project
  • 19:45 - 19:47
    along many dimensions.
  • 19:47 - 19:50
    At the end of May there were 285 Wikipedias,
  • 19:50 - 19:52
    four of them had over a million articles,
  • 19:52 - 19:57
    forty including that four — English, German, French, Dutch —
  • 19:57 - 19:59
    I think are the four,
  • 19:59 - 20:01
    have a hundred thousand articles,
  • 20:01 - 20:03
    112 have at least ten thousand articles.
  • 20:03 - 20:05
    So that's 112 different languages
  • 20:05 - 20:07
    you can read ten thousand articles
  • 20:07 - 20:10
    about human knowledge in.
  • 20:10 - 20:12
    That's extremely diverse.
  • 20:12 - 20:15
    There are of course somewhere between
  • 20:15 - 20:17
    it depends on what you define as a language
  • 20:17 - 20:22
    somewhere between 3000 and 8000 languages spoken worldwide
  • 20:22 - 20:24
    of which the vast majority have no written form
  • 20:24 - 20:30
    but maybe that ultimately that won't stop Wikimedia projects.
  • 20:30 - 20:33
    But I'm not here today to argue that
  • 20:33 - 20:36
    there's a linguistic diversity problem at least with,
  • 20:36 - 20:40
    as compared with your competitors.
  • 20:40 - 20:43
    OK, again. some figures from the Wikipedia survey of 2010
  • 20:43 - 20:45
    of editors and contributors.
  • 20:45 - 20:46
    The pie chart shows every country
  • 20:46 - 20:50
    that constituted more than 1% of respondants.
  • 20:50 - 20:53
    A great number of diverse countries represented here.
  • 20:53 - 20:59
    Poland, the Czech Republic, China, the USA, Russia, and so on,
  • 20:59 - 21:02
    India is in there, although as a share of
  • 21:02 - 21:06
    its world population it's vastly underrepresented.
  • 21:06 - 21:09
    OK, so less good news again as many people here will know
  • 21:09 - 21:14
    is that about a third of Wikipedia readers
  • 21:14 - 21:16
    who responded to this survey
  • 21:16 - 21:18
    reported being women.
  • 21:18 - 21:20
    And even less good news is that
  • 21:20 - 21:23
    slightly less than a tenth of the editors
  • 21:23 - 21:24
    reported being women despite
  • 21:24 - 21:30
    women comprising 51% of the world's population.
  • 21:30 - 21:36
    Ah, which, one is inclined to suspect that there is a link.
  • 21:36 - 21:38
    That if women are not using Wikipedia,
  • 21:38 - 21:39
    if they are not finding it useful
  • 21:39 - 21:41
    in the same numbers that men do,
  • 21:41 - 21:47
    they find it even less interesting to contribute to.
  • 21:47 - 21:49
    So in addition to other factors
  • 21:49 - 21:52
    the usefulness and representativeness
  • 21:52 - 21:56
    of the knowledge contained within Wikimedia projects
  • 21:56 - 21:58
    will affect the willingness of diverse people
  • 21:58 - 22:02
    to contribute to them.
  • 22:02 - 22:05
    Okay. So having made this argument that
  • 22:05 - 22:12
    Wikimedia projects are part of social change
  • 22:12 - 22:16
    whether or not Wikimedia projects are always
  • 22:16 - 22:20
    intending to drive social change, they are in some way part of social change
  • 22:20 - 22:22
    and sometimes they are intending to be part of
  • 22:22 - 22:25
    driving social change, giving people like my
  • 22:25 - 22:28
    fourteen-year-old self more information about
  • 22:28 - 22:30
    colo-rectal cancer.
  • 22:30 - 22:36
    I want to talk a little bit about the general
  • 22:36 - 22:39
    principles of diversity. So if we wish to increase diversity
  • 22:39 - 22:41
    in the project, well, why do you want to do that?
  • 22:41 - 22:44
    And then I'll say a little something about 'how'.
  • 22:44 - 22:48
    Okay. So the term used a little bit in some of
  • 22:48 - 22:51
    the literature about instrumental diversity
  • 22:51 - 22:54
    in particular: so, instrumental diversity is essentially
  • 22:54 - 22:59
    the question of how diverse participation make
  • 22:59 - 23:02
    Wikimedia projects better.
  • 23:02 - 23:06
    So, the argument would be: we have people
  • 23:06 - 23:08
    with different perspectives and different knowledges
  • 23:08 - 23:11
    coming in - their knowledge might make Wikipedia
  • 23:11 - 23:14
    more comprehensive, more representative
  • 23:14 - 23:15
    Okay, that's instrumental
  • 23:15 - 23:17
    because you are primarily arguing for diversity
  • 23:17 - 23:21
    in order to help Wikipedia rather than the other way around
  • 23:21 - 23:24
    You can argue the other way around:
  • 23:24 - 23:27
    that a more representative Wikimedia project
  • 23:27 - 23:32
    with knowledge to more people will benefit those people
  • 23:32 - 23:35
    At the extreme end, the instrumental argument
  • 23:35 - 23:39
    is sort of the PR argument - that is one of the instrumental arguments.
  • 23:39 - 23:42
    It makes us look better to have diversity
  • 23:42 - 23:46
    so that helps us. It also makes the actual product better.
  • 23:46 - 23:48
    So you have to balance these arguments.
  • 23:48 - 23:50
    You can't think entirely in terms of instrumental diversity
  • 23:50 - 23:53
    because it's not fair to the people you are asking
  • 23:53 - 23:55
    to give to you.
  • 23:55 - 23:57
    It has to be an exchange where
  • 23:57 - 24:01
    in order to ask people to make the Wikimedia
  • 24:01 - 24:04
    projects better, there has to be some
  • 24:04 - 24:10
    way the Wikimedia projects plan to serve those people.
  • 24:10 - 24:18
    We have here one of the more difficult things
  • 24:18 - 24:20
    to accept about diversity:
  • 24:20 - 24:22
    this slogan, "nothing about us without us"
  • 24:22 - 24:25
    comes out of the disability activist community
  • 24:25 - 24:30
    which in turn adopted it from the foreign affairs community
  • 24:30 - 24:40
    What this is is essentially you cannot dictate
  • 24:40 - 24:42
    to people with a particular interest:
  • 24:42 - 24:44
    you cannot tell women, you cannot tell people
  • 24:44 - 24:46
    with different ethnic backgrounds and so on
  • 24:46 - 24:48
    "this is how we are making things better for you"
  • 24:48 - 24:52
    "This is good, we have done this"
  • 24:52 - 24:55
    If you choose not to accept this, you are
  • 24:55 - 24:58
    being ungrateful and diversity is no longer our problem
  • 24:58 - 25:00
    it is yours.
  • 25:00 - 25:02
    This is difficult, right, because you have a vicious
  • 25:02 - 25:05
    cycle. Well, you don't have any people from
  • 25:05 - 25:07
    a certain background participating
  • 25:07 - 25:12
    but then there's nobody to ask to participate
  • 25:12 - 25:16
    so you end up spinning your wheels.
  • 25:16 - 25:18
    So the question then is outreach.
  • 25:18 - 25:20
    You simply have to identify your failings
  • 25:20 - 25:23
    and reach out to people.
  • 25:23 - 25:28
    Essentially, keep the project, keep the discussions
  • 25:28 - 25:31
    open to criticism which says
  • 25:31 - 25:34
    this would make it easier for you to participate,
  • 25:34 - 25:38
    this would make it beneficial for me to participate.
  • 25:38 - 25:41
    Constantly asking, constantly listening to their
  • 25:41 - 25:43
    responses and believing them.
  • 25:43 - 25:50
    Talking just quickly about the rationale for diversity:
  • 25:50 - 25:55
    in the Western liberal philosophical tradition,
  • 25:55 - 25:57
    the traditional argument is it promotes oneness
  • 25:57 - 25:59
    and harmony, essentially.
  • 25:59 - 26:03
    That as people talk more, we will converge
  • 26:03 - 26:07
    on one point of view, converge on one culture
  • 26:07 - 26:10
    and one way of thinking.
  • 26:10 - 26:13
    As I expect you know, that's not a very popular
  • 26:13 - 26:14
    view at present.
  • 26:14 - 26:20
    A more contemporary argument is that it
  • 26:20 - 26:22
    enables all people to change and grow.
  • 26:22 - 26:26
    To integrate contact between diverse peoples
  • 26:26 - 26:30
    allows them to borrow from each other while
  • 26:30 - 26:32
    continuing to maintain some of their differences
  • 26:32 - 26:34
    both in points of view and cultural traditions
  • 26:34 - 26:35
    and so on.
  • 26:35 - 26:38
    So, very quickly, an example of this discussed
  • 26:38 - 26:41
    by Peter Emberley in a 2011 book chapter
  • 26:41 - 26:45
    is two Indian art cultures that are both affiliated
  • 26:45 - 26:48
    with religious practice.
  • 26:48 - 26:58
    The Docra(?) of India are sculptors traditionally
  • 26:58 - 27:02
    sculpting the divine forms.
  • 27:02 - 27:05
    And Emberley argues that as they have had more
  • 27:05 - 27:08
    contact with Western culture in particular,
  • 27:08 - 27:11
    that their art forms, especially in the younger artists,
  • 27:11 - 27:16
    while continuing to maintain artist-driven,
  • 27:16 - 27:20
    culture-driven integrity to themselves
  • 27:20 - 27:24
    are moving away from divine forms to secular forms
  • 27:24 - 27:29
    and moving into 2D rather than 3D representations,
  • 27:29 - 27:31
    but at the same time, not moving to actually
  • 27:31 - 27:33
    produce Western art.
  • 27:33 - 27:40
    Likewise, the Baul people who are Bengali musicians,
  • 27:40 - 27:47
    Emberley argues in the music produced by the
  • 27:47 - 27:52
    younger people now, they are starting to move
  • 27:52 - 27:56
    again towards some representation of less
  • 27:56 - 28:01
    eternal, more ephemeral aspects of human nature
  • 28:01 - 28:03
    and they are utilising things like musical notation,
  • 28:03 - 28:08
    musical recording, anthropological recordings of their own culture
  • 28:08 - 28:11
    in order to maintain it. But at the same time,
  • 28:11 - 28:14
    viewing themselves as continuing in their own
  • 28:14 - 28:16
    traditions, integrating the aspects of Western
  • 28:16 - 28:20
    modernity that they can use but without moving
  • 28:20 - 28:24
    their music towards a more mainstream Indian
  • 28:24 - 28:29
    or Anglo style of music, but allowing them to
  • 28:29 - 28:33
    access the audience through modern means.
  • 28:33 - 28:36
    So in terms of Wikimedia projects, you may have
  • 28:36 - 28:39
    the same effect, part of the contribution of
  • 28:39 - 28:41
    Wikimedia projects in documenting the sum of
  • 28:41 - 28:43
    human knowledge is allowing people to preserve
  • 28:43 - 28:46
    their own traditions and ways of thinking
  • 28:46 - 28:52
    for themselves rather than necessarily only
  • 28:52 - 28:55
    benefiting me as a person who wants to learn
  • 28:55 - 28:56
    more about Indian art.
  • 28:56 - 29:01
    Okay, I wanted to talk about, well, this has been
  • 29:01 - 29:02
    very abstract. What do we do
  • 29:02 - 29:05
    if we want to recruit diverse peoples?
  • 29:05 - 29:07
    And I just wanted to talk about some
  • 29:07 - 29:08
    general principles there.
  • 29:08 - 29:12
    The first is, so Sue Gardner has mentioned this
  • 29:12 - 29:14
    in conversations about various things, is the
  • 29:14 - 29:17
    power of invitation is one way of talking about this.
  • 29:17 - 29:21
    So there's a story about this that I know fairly well.
  • 29:21 - 29:25
    In 2006, the GNOME free desktop project,
  • 29:25 - 29:28
    they ran Google Summer of Code.
  • 29:28 - 29:31
    It's a programming project - Google
  • 29:31 - 29:34
    Summer of Code invites university students
  • 29:34 - 29:40
    working on the project with a stipend.
  • 29:40 - 29:44
    They got 200 applications and there were zero from women.
  • 29:44 - 29:46
    You know, zero with an '0'.
  • 29:46 - 29:55
    Two GNOME developers - Chris Ball and Hannah Wallach - created what
  • 29:55 - 29:57
    they called the GNOME Women's Outreach Project,
  • 29:57 - 30:00
    which was almost - they were paid slightly less money
  • 30:00 - 30:05
    - almost identical to the Google Summer of Code
  • 30:05 - 30:08
    except it was the GNOME Women's Outreach Project.
  • 30:08 - 30:11
    They received 186 applications, I believe,
  • 30:11 - 30:14
    all of them from women.
  • 30:14 - 30:16
    There was some question: why didn't they apply
  • 30:16 - 30:18
    for the other one, which was the same except
  • 30:18 - 30:21
    paying slightly more money and slightly more
  • 30:21 - 30:23
    prestigious in that you were selected from
  • 30:23 - 30:25
    a wider field.
  • 30:25 - 30:27
    The answer seems to be somewhere between
  • 30:27 - 30:30
    two things:
  • 30:30 - 30:32
    you have a picture of a woman computing student
  • 30:32 - 30:34
    and you read a thing saying "spend your summer
  • 30:34 - 30:36
    working on a coding project", you have a picture
  • 30:36 - 30:39
    in your head of someone who's not necessarily
  • 30:39 - 30:43
    you working on a summer coding project.
  • 30:43 - 30:45
    It's usually that guy, you know, "that guy".
  • 30:45 - 30:50
    The one you think of as spending all his time
  • 30:50 - 30:52
    in front of a computer.
  • 30:52 - 30:54
    So by saying "for women", the picture automatically
  • 30:54 - 30:59
    changes: "well, I'm the woman in my classes
  • 30:59 - 31:02
    who spends all her time in front of a computer."
  • 31:02 - 31:05
    The other thing is that other women were really
  • 31:05 - 31:08
    keen: other computer science professors in this case
  • 31:08 - 31:11
    were really keen to do outreach for them
  • 31:11 - 31:13
    once they had explicitly said that this is for
  • 31:13 - 31:16
    women, it welcomed women, it was in order
  • 31:16 - 31:18
    to promote women.
  • 31:18 - 31:21
    Women computer scientists were forwarding it
  • 31:21 - 31:24
    to each other, some were encouraging 10 or 15
  • 31:24 - 31:27
    of their students to apply, so you had this
  • 31:27 - 31:31
    double effect of encouraging people, tapping
  • 31:31 - 31:34
    into networks of people who specifically want to
  • 31:34 - 31:36
    mentor women.
  • 31:36 - 31:38
    Saying "oh, this is for us, I've set up a network
  • 31:38 - 31:41
    waiting to give women opportunities, here's
  • 31:41 - 31:43
    a woman opportunity coming along".
  • 31:43 - 31:45
    So you have this double invitation.
  • 31:45 - 31:47
    The second one is simply reaching out to groups.
  • 31:47 - 31:55
    What that means is you find more than one:
  • 31:55 - 31:58
    to use women as an example, if you invite one
  • 31:58 - 32:03
    woman into your editathon or hackfest, and
  • 32:03 - 32:06
    suddenly she is THE woman.
  • 32:06 - 32:09
    There's some statistical figure, it is around 20% or 30%
  • 32:09 - 32:13
    where women stop feeling like "the woman".
  • 32:13 - 32:16
    They stop feeling like everything they do will
  • 32:16 - 32:17
    be read as "well she only says that because
  • 32:17 - 32:20
    she's a woman", or "she only does that because
  • 32:20 - 32:22
    she's a woman" or "we'll ask her opinion about
  • 32:22 - 32:25
    women".
  • 32:25 - 32:27
    If you can bring in more than person at a time
  • 32:27 - 32:29
    by identifying existing groups of diverse people
  • 32:29 - 32:32
    that reduces that effect.
  • 32:32 - 32:39
    The final thing is: once you've recruited diverse
  • 32:39 - 32:41
    people, there's a tendency to say...
  • 32:41 - 32:44
    Say I identify as a woman Wikipedia editor
  • 32:44 - 32:47
    (actually, I do, I do edit Wikipedia)
  • 32:47 - 32:49
    there's a tendency to believe the two identities are
  • 32:49 - 32:52
    in conflict: the more I identify as a woman
  • 32:52 - 32:54
    Wikipedia editor, it becomes more like:
  • 32:54 - 32:58
    WOMAN (Wikipedia editor).
  • 32:58 - 32:59
    And that the only way to get me to identify
  • 32:59 - 33:02
    as a Wikipedia editor is to discourage my
  • 33:02 - 33:06
    woman identification.
  • 33:06 - 33:12
    Now that's not actually true. Identity is
  • 33:12 - 33:14
    not a zero-sum game like that.
  • 33:14 - 33:17
    It turns out the more you encourage people to
  • 33:17 - 33:20
    retain parts of their identity that are important
  • 33:20 - 33:21
    to them: in my case, being a woman is important
  • 33:21 - 33:24
    to me in that way.
  • 33:24 - 33:30
    To retain and enhance my ability to continue
  • 33:30 - 33:33
    as a woman, that also increases my identification
  • 33:33 - 33:36
    as a Wikipedia editor.
  • 33:36 - 33:38
    So you get this false problem sometimes,
  • 33:38 - 33:45
    people will argue that having the groups for
  • 33:45 - 33:48
    women or the groups for diverse participants
  • 33:48 - 33:52
    discourages them, an isolationist kind of thing.
  • 33:52 - 33:54
    It actually encourages both identities.
  • 33:54 - 33:56
    That's a very important principle of diversity
  • 33:56 - 34:00
    too, that you allow people to acknowledge
  • 34:00 - 34:04
    that they are part of a minority within a larger culture
  • 34:04 - 34:10
    and to embrace being part of a minority within a larger culture.
  • 34:10 - 34:14
    To conclude my talk, I want to give a couple of
  • 34:14 - 34:18
    specific examples of possible outreach avenues
  • 34:18 - 34:20
    for diversity.
  • 34:20 - 34:27
    I have had the pleasure of meeting people over
  • 34:27 - 34:29
    the last week who work with Wikimedia on diversity
  • 34:29 - 34:33
    and outreach, and outreach to different groups
  • 34:33 - 34:37
    and educational projects, so not to say that
  • 34:37 - 34:40
    none of this has occurred to people in the room
  • 34:40 - 34:45
    so a couple examples of how outreach might happen:
  • 34:45 - 34:49
    first, let's use an example of primarily technological
  • 34:49 - 34:51
    outreach which I didn't really expect.
  • 34:51 - 34:56
    I talked a little bit to Andy Gunn at the Open Technology Institute
  • 34:56 - 35:07
    which is in turn part of the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition here in the United States
  • 35:07 - 35:09
    working with people in Detroit in particular.
  • 35:09 - 35:15
    Non-white people who are young, building up
  • 35:15 - 35:22
    communication and access to media and technology.
  • 35:22 - 35:27
    Their overall mission statement is that people and
  • 35:27 - 35:29
    organisations in Detroit who believe that communication
  • 35:29 - 35:35
    is a fundamental human right.
  • 35:35 - 35:42
    This is an excerpt: they have the principles of digital justice on their website.
  • 35:42 - 35:46
    The webpage is quite long, there are 20 principles;
  • 35:46 - 35:49
    I recommend having a look at the web page
  • 35:49 - 35:50
    for all of them.
  • 35:50 - 35:52
    You'll notice, I have an excerpt here: equal access
  • 35:52 - 35:56
    to media and technology as producers as well as consumers.
  • 35:56 - 36:00
    Prioritising participation of people who have traditionally been excluded.
  • 36:00 - 36:03
    Advancing our ability to tell our own stories:
  • 36:03 - 36:07
    again referring to people who have traditionally been excluded.
  • 36:07 - 36:11
    The creation of tools and technologies that are freely shared.
  • 36:11 - 36:13
    Now, points 1 and 4 are very compatible with
  • 36:13 - 36:17
    the broader open movement, open access,
  • 36:17 - 36:22
    open knowledge, wiki culture and so on.
  • 36:22 - 36:26
    Points 2 and 3 relate more to diversity concerns.
  • 36:26 - 36:30
    So I emailed them and Andy, what immediately
  • 36:30 - 36:33
    leapt to mind, was technological outreach.
  • 36:33 - 36:38
    He sees the problem with getting his community
  • 36:38 - 36:40
    to participate in Wikimedia projects is technological.
  • 36:40 - 36:44
    They are very focussed on mesh networking,
  • 36:44 - 36:45
    community, neighbourhood mesh networking
  • 36:45 - 36:48
    setting up ad-hoc wifi networks that have a
  • 36:48 - 36:52
    flaky, not-always-on uplink to the Internet
  • 36:52 - 36:55
    so you primarily exchange information within
  • 36:55 - 36:58
    your mesh network.
  • 36:58 - 37:01
    So what he said was "well, in order for
  • 37:01 - 37:03
    Wikipedia to be useful, we would have to
  • 37:03 - 37:06
    cater for those uses", which is of course
  • 37:06 - 37:08
    possible under the license but it wasn't
  • 37:08 - 37:15
    in fact immediately obvious to him
  • 37:15 - 37:19
    that there was something now that could be
Title:
Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary
Description:

Originally on Thursday July 12, 2012 at George Washington University for Wikimania 2012.

Speakers:
- James Hare, conference director
- Dawn Nunziato, GW Law School
- Richard Boly, Office of eDiplomacy

The Opening keynote speaker is Mary Gardiner, Co-founder of Ada Initiative "Fostering diversity: not a boring chore, a critical opportunity" which starts at 11:45.

The Opening plenary speech is by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia on "The State of the Wiki"; this starts at 1:06:40.
more » « less
Video Language:
English
Duration:
01:56:06

English subtitles

Incomplete

Revisions

Our website uses cookies for analysis purposes.