Wikimedia’s mission is to provide the sum of human knowledge through different ways and platforms that people can access. In the current context, many groups are left behind by the actual way Wikimedia projects are presented and made available.Ways of sourcing and archiving such as oral traditions are not accepted, and a number of information is not present in the encyclopedia. To bridge these gaps, community members are asking to investigate different inclusive ways to add free knowledge, either by making more outreach to left-out communities, or by reviewing the current rules and guidelines to allow more flexibility and free knowledge to be included in our framework.
Include all groups of contributors that want to be part of all our projects
More efforts and ways to make Wikip(m)edia known for those who do not know it
Raising awareness in different regions and groups about Wikimedia projects.[2]
Advertise Wikimedia projects as practical platforms for minorities to promote their culture.
Create attractive platforms to “hook” new contributors.[3]
Engage with partners helping to include different groups of contributors , especially minorities.[4]
Allocate specific funds to bridge gaps (eg. indigenous knowledge).[5]
Identify content gaps and encourage the editors to bridge them[6] through different initiatives.[7]
Implement technical support allowing more people to join the movement and add new content:
Offer more products for marginalized communities (Kiwix,[8] language-specific keyboards,[9] devices...)
Make the platforms compatible with all languages, types of devices[10] and bandwidth.[11]
Adapt to local customs, cultures and ways of working
Content diversity
Content should be available in different forms, such as audio, video[12] or oral citations.
Advocate and encourage using sister projects that help to add new knowledge.[13]
Encourage Language Diversity in all projects, by providing tools making editing easier in all languages.[14]
Notability, Admissibility, Reliability
Community wants to discuss notability criteria and create variations that are relevant to various cultural contexts.[15]
Empower and build capacity for marginalized groups to participate in decision-making for notability and be able to change them.[16]
Sources:
Include oral sources[17] (need to establish authentication procedures + educate the West).
Encourage the creation of new sources (collection, digitization, interviews) about subjects lacking them.[18]
Footnotes
↑“Better cover Wiki activities in the media (TV, radio) because they are the most attended in the African context” Ivory Coast Youth Salon - August 2019.
↑“people and language communities that are still not part of wiki, such as, the indigenous languages that have no online presence or cannot be documented in written form (...) Resources should be allocated towards such communities” Hindi Speaking Community - March / April 2019.
↑“WMF has to publish regular statistics and guidelines for content diversity, run initiatives to decrease the gaps and ask editors to make more efforts towards unlisted elements to focus more on them.” Granada/Cairo Strategy Salons - June/July 2019.
↑“Issues from minority language contexts are erased in majority languages wikis saying "local sources / not relevant". A campaign similar to the gender gap but aimed at Cultural Diversity is suggested.” Spanish Speaking Community - March/April 2019.
↑“Internet access is still an issue, for example in Africa. European Affiliates could pretty easily have access to second-hand equipment such as Kiwix and provide them to local User Groups.” Paris Strategy Salon - June 2019.
↑“Data bandwidth on getting content must be taken into account. In locations with low network speeds, a lighter version of Wikimedia projects can be in place.” Philippines Community members - May 2019.
↑“Preserve and document oral languages with projects like Wiki Kouman (content production about local languages of Côte d'Ivoire on the Wiktionary and Lingua Libre).” Ivory Coast Youth Strategy Salon - August 2019.
↑“Notability and reliability standards should not be lowered, but be made more relevant for all topics and more inclusive.” French Speaking Community - July 2019.
↑“The movement should improve capacities of African contributors so they have a stronger presence on wikipedias (even become admins, gain responsibility) and can better advocate for their views.” Cameroon Community - May 2019.
