Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Questions for candidates/Question 5
What are your thoughts about systemic bias on Wikimedia projects, both in their content and their demographics, and including identity-based, language-based, economic/resource-based, ideological/worldview-based, and other forms of system bias? What measures or initiatives do you think the Board can appropriately take to address systemic bias?
Bobby Shabangu (Bobbyshabangu)
No response yet.
Deon Steyn (Oesjaar)
No response yet.
Erik Hanberg (Erikemery)
There are many forms of systemic bias that exist throughout our global society and thus, are present in Wikimedia projects as well, as cataloged on the Systemic Bias page of Wikipedia. People from the Global South, women and are often underrepresented in favor of English speakers, men, and people from the Global North. I recognize that I am one of those individuals and carry a degree of privilege because of it. Part of my work in life is to carry that recognition with me and help other privileged folks to see it as well.
One place the board might contribute to removing systemic bias from its platforms and services is through commissioning an annual or bi-annual report card on bias from a third party. This review of Wikimedia projects might help us see places for improvement, and give the community a regular snapshot of how we’re making progress on these goals, as well as resources and tools to fix these issues moving forward.
Farah Jack Mustaklem (Fjmustak)
No response yet.
Christel Steigenberger (Kritzolina)
This is a again question on a topic that is not only important for the movement as a whole, but also dear to my heart. I believe that we need a healthy and acitve community that is as diverse in all aspects of identity as possible, to bring those different biases to a shared table – the reality reflected on our projects. Only by inviting as many viewpoints in as possible, by discussing and reflecting about all the different perspectives on the world and all there is to know about it, can we continue to hold up the commitment of freely sharing the sum of all knowledge with every single human being.
I believe it is a core responsibility of the Board to develop strategies on how we can bring this diversity to our communities, where it doesn’t already exist. Strategies that encourage participation of voices that are not yet heard loud and clear. At the same time we need to plan and strategize on how to get some perspectives out of the limelight, so other viewpoints can be seen more clearly. All while making sure the knowledge publicly shared is reliable, well sourced and trustworthy. This is not an easy task, but one I have many ideas about that I would like to work on as a Board member.
Lane Rasberry (Bluerasberry)
The most important bias is financial bias, but currently the Wikimedia community has no way of reviewing Wikimedia Foundation systemic bias in our investments. We have fundraised and spent US$1,000,000,000 in the past few years, and will spend another billion dollars soon, but the Wikimedia community does not have the documentation it wants to be able to understand and discuss this spending. Part of our challenge in addressing systemic bias is that we do not have budget estimates of Wikimedia Foundation investments based on identity, language, economic status, worldview, and other biases that we identify as strategically important. An even bigger problem is that there is a taboo on asking about budgets, which is why we do not have this information already.
I do not believe that we can address bias without being aware of our financial investments, and I want to make Wikimedia Foundation budgets more accessible to the Wikimedia community, to journalists, and to university researchers. We need independent third-party research to survey and report our spending. We need to know spending by country, and spending by demographic.
Lorenzo Losa (Laurentius)
No response yet.
Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz (Nadzik)
No response yet.
Mohammed Awal Alhassan (Alhassan Mohammed Awal)
No response yet.
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (Rosiestep)
No response yet.
Tesleemah Abdulkareem (Tesleemah)
No response yet.
Victoria Doronina (Victoria)
No response yet.