ESEAP Conference 2024/Report/Chlod

Hello! I'm Chlod, a Wikimedian from the Philippines. Many know me from technical contributions, and I do consider myself more of a technical editor than a content writer.

I'm very grateful to have been able to attend the 2024 ESEAP Conference as a scholar. This is a report of my experiences — from the conference, and from what led to this moment. Though this wasn't my first conference, nor was it my first time interacting with other ESEAP Wikimedians, this was the first conference I attended where I truly felt like a part of the community, and hopefully it won't be the last.

Background

At the time that the 2022 conference was held, I was not yet well-versed in the world of in-person meetups and mostly focused on my studies as a current college student. My only exposure to "ESEAP" as a term had been limited specifically to the funding region which I had contact with for my rapid grant related to development for a novel administration tool. It was only in March 2023 when Exec8 invited me to an ESEAP Community Meeting (the 30th; my first) where I had begun to find out just exactly what "ESEAP" and "ESEAP Hub" meant. A month prior, I had applied to be a scholar for Wikimania 2023, seeing that the location of the conference was conveniently close to the Philippines, having known little to nothing about the body which organizes it. Following that first virtual meeting, I've since read many Meta pages, attended other meetings, talked to other fellow Wikimedians in the ESEAP region, and have since gained a much better understanding for the region and its communities.

A group photo that I wasn't a part of. At the time this was taken, I was at the Hackathon main hacking room, working on projects that were discussed in the pre-conference.

At Wikimania, back in Singapore, I left the hacking room to attend the ESEAP Strategy Summit on Day 0 (pre-conference). I was in the room when the vote to hold the conference in Kota Kinabalu happened, but I sat at the rearmost set of chairs in the room, having never spoken to anybody there and being too nervous to socialize. There were familiar names, familiar faces, and familiar topics, yet I felt somewhat alien to the others in that room. These were not a fault of anyone in that room, of course, but rather a predictable situation given my lack of knowledge for the goings-on of the ESEAP community. I was a scholar from a country in the ESEAP region, yet attended more as a lone individual than a community member.

I decided that perhaps I'd come back when I felt I was more equipped to contribute to the topics discussed there. This slight feeling of alienation also dissuaded me from joining the ESEAP group photo, which I felt was more for those who had fully integrated themselves with the community. In retrospect, perhaps attending the strategy summit would have brought me much closer to the community, due to the organic way in which participants interacted in it. It was only in the succeeding days of the conference where I'd begun to talk to other ESEAP Wikimedians: Exec8, Robertsky, Seav, Buszmail, and others in smaller conversations, where I began to know more about the ESEAP community and the processes within.

Leaving Wikimania, I felt that I had somewhat missed out on meeting other Wikimedians who I share a common culture and region with. At the same time, I began to feel more inspired to start joining the community meetings, learn more about events and affiliates in the region, and interact with Wikimedians here in the region. Conversing with other Wikimedians in the Philippines online and talking about my experiences to my friends in college had only furthered that inspiration. I studied the Movement Charter, the ESEAP Hub, the committees and processes involved, and learned more about the Wikimedia movement beyond its flagship projects. I resolved myself to start becoming a more active member of the ESEAP community as an independent editor, and furthered that resolve when scholarship applications for the ESEAP Conference started.

Learning

I had hoped to learn more about running community events and inviting others into the movement as newcomer contributors. Hearing the stories of many other Wikimedians who had grown their own communities in their respective regions gave me a chance to learn.

Dody Isomoyo with a cat at the Mari Mari Cultural Village

In total, I attended 25 sessions. They were the following:

1. The Day 1 opening ceremony (notes) and introduction to the ESEAP Hub (notes)
2. The Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Plan Conversation with ESEAP
3. Regional Grants Committee (ESEAP)
4. Utilizing Let's Connect in the ESEAP Region (notes)
5. Wikisource Loves Manuscripts: A Partnership Perspective on Collaborative Efforts to Preserve Cultural Heritage
6. Bridging IPGM Campus Kent’s Collaboration Network With the Community through Wikimedia
7. Kent Wiki Club IPGM Campus Kent: Globalizing Kadazandusun Language and Culture via Wikimedia ESEAP
8. Wikimedia's role in collaborating with IPGM Campus Kent to promote and preserve the Kadazandusun Language
9. The cultural village trip at the Mari Mari Cultural Village
10. The Day 2 ESEAP Hub meetup (notes)
11. Challenges in Building Multilingual Technology Platforms
12. Trust and Safety Product - The Road Ahead
13. Collaboration Between Wikimedia ESEAP and Sweden
14. UNESCO-WMID on the Training in Ethnic (Indigenous) Languages on Mis/Disinformation and Hate Speech in the Context of Election 2024
15. Data Partnerships: 2024 and Beyond (notes)
16. Optimizing the Role of Social Media as a Learning and Collaboration Platform
17. Burn out! – Experience of Taiwan GLAM Program
18. WikiDunong: An Eduwiki Initiative in the Philippines
19. Beyond Borders, Beyond Images: The Impact of the Commons Photography User Group's Activities and Partnerships on Global Knowledge Sharing
20. Creating a Wiki Club in a University & Encouraging Students' Engagement in Wikimedia Projects
21. ESEAP Perspectives in Wikimedia Global Governance
22. Automoderator: Make Fighting Vandalism More Easier for Administrators and Patrollers
23. Free the Freedom of Panorama in ESEAP (notes)
24. Awareness of Copyright Issues in South Korea (notes)
25. ESEAP Hub Planning activites for the remainder of Day 3 and the closing ceremony

With Exec8 in front of the ESEAP Conference photo backdrop. I had a Wikipedia globe pin on my jacket, which I got from the freebie table. In hindsight, I should have gotten more than one.

Outside of the session rooms, I also learned a lot about the culture of fellow Wikimedians in the ESEAP region. From the cultural trip to conversations I had with Wikimedians, I learned much more about Southeast Asian culture than I did in the classroom setting. I had long known about the shared ancestral history of Austronesian countries, and specifically about the shared cultures of those in the southern Philippines and Malaysia, which are geographically close to each other. Being able to take in this information from the perspective of those in other countries as someone from the Philippines widened my own perspective, and has led me to a newfound appreciation for the cultural bonds which tie us together.

As a smaller goal, I tried to learn more about the Wikimedia affiliate situation in the Philippines, which many have described as "fragmented". The conversations I had with fellow Filipino Wikimedians in the conference and in social outings led me to understand more about the situation and its origins. I did my best to converse with Filipino Wikimedians from various affiliations as someone who self-identifies as an unaffiliated individual to gain a balanced and neutral of all sides of the story. This learning experience continues; I have yet to meet others and hear more from those who I have heard little from. I was unable to talk to some Filipino Wikimedians who attended; either because they were nervous to talk to me or I was nervous to talk to them. I'm definitely open to learning more about everyone else and sharing experiences with them, and even more so if I don't have to go to another country just to do so (like at Wikimania 2023).

Contributing

During the conference, I was a prolific note taker, though I chose to stay anonymous for most of the notes I wrote. Much of this is because I implicitly preferred that my notes be used for any purpose and without the need for credit. Much more explicitly, I wish to release them into the public domain under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) declaration. For many of the sessions I attended, I brought my laptop with me to document much if not all salient points of the speaker's presentation. This was a habit that I picked up from Wikimania in 2023, and at the Wikimedia Hackathon just days prior to this event; one that apparently wasn't that common in the ESEAP region, from what I've heard from others.

Besides in notes, I started conversations with speakers and provide feedback on their presentations. When it seemed relevant, I also invited them to talk to others in the event who I knew would have valuable insight on a topic. I thought that this gave a chance for speakers to know more about those who were affected by the subject of their presentation, and invite valuable discourse that otherwise wouldn't happen in a speaker-to-audience setup.

In some conversations, I myself gave my own insights as a technical contributor, discussing technical topics with other attendees who were keen to learn more about how the Wikimedia movement develops technologies for its projects. For those who were less tech-inclined, I was also happy to explain some technical concepts to them in simpler terms, something that I do well from what I've been told by others.

Taking a model shot of Robert drinking a limited-edition can of Pepsi

As a smaller aside, I was also able to make a few contributions to Wikidata and OpenStreetMap together with Seav, Supaplex, and Robertsky while waiting for our respective flights. Seav and Supaplex were very helpful in guiding us towards making correct edits; I'd like to thank them for their patience. Around the same time, I was also able to take a few photos with Robert's camera. I had left my own in the Philippines since I lacked the proper protective casing and didn't want to risk damaging my camera, even at the expense of taking what would have been some of the most beautiful natural views in my life.

Directly after the conference, I have been trying to invite other editors to join the English Wikipedia's 2024 Developing Countries WikiContest. Considering most of the countries in the ESEAP fall under the contest's definition of developing countries, I find it to be a good chance for the English Wikipedia to improve its coverage on smaller, less-maintained articles for developing countries.

Throughout the conference, I was also working on getting full test coverage for the Nuke extension when I wasn't busy listening to presentations or participating in discussions. This wasn't an activity I was doing specifically for the conference — it was just work that I was continuing from the Hackathon — but the presence of other programming professionals at the conference made for good assistance when I got stuck on some parts.

Planning

A group photo that I'm in. I'm at the back, to the left (viewer's right) of Robert and Rachit Sharma.

From what I've learned from the conference, I feel more open to be an active organizer for events in my local area. Very rarely do I hear of any editor events happening here in Metro Manila. In fact, the planned ESEAP Summit here in Manila for 2025 is the first I've heard in a long time. This is probably due to the lack of regional affiliates based specifically in Manila, which I do understand though am disappointed with. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be a hindrance to organizing events, as I can still do this as an individual.

Since the conference, I've slowly been trying to build a plan to run an edit-a-thon or similar event somewhere in Metro Manila. Nothing concrete exists as of now, as I have to balance this with college work, but I do hope to be able to run an event like this within the next year. There are plenty of libraries here in Metro Manila which have large collections of literature which would help improve our coverage of Philippine-related topics, namely those in culture and history. Being able to use those resources while training Wikimedians-to-be would be beneficial as compared to starting out purely on online sources (which, at least for Philippine topics, can sometimes be unreliable). I still have much to learn in how to organize events like this; I'll continue to learn more over the next few months.

A set of presentations which were very inspirational to me were those of IPGM Campus Kent's work in promoting Kadazandusun and preserving them through the Wikimedia projects. As someone whose hometown has native languages with little to no digitized works, it inspires me to start working towards learning these languages for myself or connecting to those who do fluently speak them, so that these languages are not lost to time nor are they underrepresented in digital text.

In presentations unrelated to technical topics, I thought about how they relate to how we develop technologies for the projects. I hope to be able to use this knowledge in representing and endorsing support for the native languages of the ESEAP region in developing our tech stack. I also hope to connect more with those I talked to at the conference about technical topics as I'd like to help out in satisfying what they see as priorities, which can (most of the time) be overshadowed by priorities of the wider Wikimedia community.

A thought that came up during social gatherings was the possibility of starting a student-oriented affiliate at my college, focused on developing tech for the movement. After some thought post-conference, I decided that this probably was not within my capabilities in the near future. However, this likely wouldn't be a hindrance for me in organizing edit-a-thons and some Wikimedia-related sessions or meetups at my college or in Metro Manila in general.

Lastly, should my assistance be required in organizing or facilitating the ESEAP Summit in 2025, if it were to be held here in Metro Manila, I would be more than willing, as long as my status as an unaffiliated individual does not disqualify me from helping in organizing or facilitating the event considering its primary focus on affiliates. I find that this may be a good chance for affiliates in the Philippines to collaborate despite their differences. After all, collaboration is what drives this movement forward; I would be happier to see Filipinos working together than pushing each other away.

Reviewing

Much of the conference went without issue. There were some rough corners, but none that weren't otherwise resolved or dealt with.

A particular issue was the technical issues encountered. The lack of a dedicated technical team sometimes made it hard to operate the sound systems, live streams, Zoom sessions, and other technical aspects. On some sessions, this led to delays which had to be compensated with by accelerating the schedule. For future events, a dedicated and trained technical team would probably help in preventing issues and also make it easier to deal with them live and on-the-fly. Of course, I'd be willing and happy to volunteer for this role in future events.

I do prefer the privacy of having individual rooms booked for each scholar. I understand this is unlikely due to budgetary constraints (and the number of accommodated scholars would have been much lower) though it would be nice to have, if it were no detriment to attendance. Nevertheless, I had no issues with my roommate; privacy is just something that I heavily prefer and value.

Though a smaller issue, I would have appreciated knowing in advance that pre-conference events were to occur. Under the false assumption that there were none, I had booked a flight that landed in Kota Kinabalu in the early morning of the first day (as there were no other direct flight routes from Manila to Kota Kinabalu), so I was unable to attend any pre-conference events.

Overall, I had a wonderful experience and made a lot of lasting connections and memories. I hope to be able to attend again in a future conference, wherever it may be, and to participate to the fullest extent. Salamat!