Dear all,
Yesterday's WMF press release https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/05/03/wikimedia-foundation-launches-open-the-knowledge-journalism-awards/ announced an African journalism award:
*Africawide – The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, is today launching the inaugural Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, this year’s awards celebrate the contributions of journalists in Africa who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in their reporting.*
This sounds great, until we come to the following line:
*Articles must have been published online and in English between January 1, 2022 and June 23, 2023.*
How is this compatible with the idea that we "prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion"? The piece starts with the word "Africawide" ... surely we are aware that about half of Africa is French-speaking?
I can understand that you might want to incentivise journalism in European rather than African languages – simply because such journalism would be more likely to find a volunteer with the time to add the information to Wikipedia, and because of a lack of staff with the language skills required to cover dozens of African languages.
But French, Portuguese and Spanish should be within the WMF's capabilities, all the more so as machine translation these days is good enough to tell even a non-French speaker whether a French article covers an interesting subject.
I hope that next year, journalists writing in other languages will not be completely excluded from consideration for this award. Relying on English will only strengthen some of the existing biases in coverage.
Andreas
Bon dia / Hi,
Thank you for pointing this out, Andreas. This is exactly why there are more and more voices against the mindset of the Wikimedia Foundation and its aims to expand its coverage beyond what should be the technical maintenance and the legal boundaries of the Wikimedia projects.
It's in these blatant things where it becomes obvious that, instead of providing more freedom of action to local chapters and volunteers, the alleged inclusion and diversity discourse of the WMF becomes too close to the white savior syndrome. "We are giving a local prize but, please, only in the language we can manage from our headquarters in the US".
Someone should also give serious explanation of why the Wikipedia logo is included in the press release as if it was a partnership. Does this award have some kind of approval of the Wikipedia communities? Has there been a request for comment so that "Wikipedia" as a project supports this award only for articles in English?
Salutacions/Kind regards,
Xavier Dengra
------- Original Message ------- El dijous, 4 de maig 2023 a les 13:10, Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com va escriure:
Dear all,
Yesterday's [WMF press release](https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/05/03/wikimedia-foundation-launche...) announced an African journalism award:
Africawide – The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, is today launching the inaugural Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, this year’s awards celebrate the contributions of journalists in Africa who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in their reporting.
This sounds great, until we come to the following line:
Articles must have been published online and in English between January 1, 2022 and June 23, 2023.
How is this compatible with the idea that we "prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion"? The piece starts with the word "Africawide" ... surely we are aware that about half of Africa is French-speaking?
I can understand that you might want to incentivise journalism in European rather than African languages – simply because such journalism would be more likely to find a volunteer with the time to add the information to Wikipedia, and because of a lack of staff with the language skills required to cover dozens of African languages.
But French, Portuguese and Spanish should be within the WMF's capabilities, all the more so as machine translation these days is good enough to tell even a non-French speaker whether a French article covers an interesting subject.
I hope that next year, journalists writing in other languages will not be completely excluded from consideration for this award. Relying on English will only strengthen some of the existing biases in coverage.
Andreas
Dear Andreas, I support your message, but I wanted to add that 100 million Africans speak Arabic. And yes, English is widely known but, even in countries with large populations (Nigeria) less than 1/5 of the population have it as first language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_populati...). This is not the first time these kind of awards are proposed by the WMF acknowledging only English language and, thus, excluding the majority of the world from it.
I would ask the Foundation to reconsider this kind of decisions that go against our diversity goal.
Sincerely,
Galder
________________________________ From: Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, May 4, 2023 1:10 PM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation launches Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards on World Press Freedom Day
Dear all,
Yesterday's WMF press releasehttps://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/05/03/wikimedia-foundation-launches-open-the-knowledge-journalism-awards/ announced an African journalism award:
Africawide – The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, is today launching the inaugural Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, this year’s awards celebrate the contributions of journalists in Africa who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in their reporting.
This sounds great, until we come to the following line:
Articles must have been published online and in English between January 1, 2022 and June 23, 2023.
How is this compatible with the idea that we "prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion"? The piece starts with the word "Africawide" ... surely we are aware that about half of Africa is French-speaking?
I can understand that you might want to incentivise journalism in European rather than African languages – simply because such journalism would be more likely to find a volunteer with the time to add the information to Wikipedia, and because of a lack of staff with the language skills required to cover dozens of African languages.
But French, Portuguese and Spanish should be within the WMF's capabilities, all the more so as machine translation these days is good enough to tell even a non-French speaker whether a French article covers an interesting subject.
I hope that next year, journalists writing in other languages will not be completely excluded from consideration for this award. Relying on English will only strengthen some of the existing biases in coverage.
Andreas
This is so close to being a good thing and then it stumbles on the cultural imperialism of English. It's like they don't understand how this is a slap in the face of many who know the WMF would never do this in their language. Had it just left out that part it would have been great. Now it's like it goes against the entire point of a global movement because those who don't speak English will always be second class members.
John S.
Den tors 4 maj 2023 kl 13:11 skrev Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com:
Dear all,
Yesterday's WMF press release https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/05/03/wikimedia-foundation-launches-open-the-knowledge-journalism-awards/ announced an African journalism award:
*Africawide – The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, is today launching the inaugural Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, this year’s awards celebrate the contributions of journalists in Africa who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in their reporting.*
This sounds great, until we come to the following line:
*Articles must have been published online and in English between January 1, 2022 and June 23, 2023.*
How is this compatible with the idea that we "prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion"? The piece starts with the word "Africawide" ... surely we are aware that about half of Africa is French-speaking?
I can understand that you might want to incentivise journalism in European rather than African languages – simply because such journalism would be more likely to find a volunteer with the time to add the information to Wikipedia, and because of a lack of staff with the language skills required to cover dozens of African languages.
But French, Portuguese and Spanish should be within the WMF's capabilities, all the more so as machine translation these days is good enough to tell even a non-French speaker whether a French article covers an interesting subject.
I hope that next year, journalists writing in other languages will not be completely excluded from consideration for this award. Relying on English will only strengthen some of the existing biases in coverage.
Andreas
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
I am still concerned that the WMF communications staff would send out this without understanding that it would cause anuproar and how sad and upset many are that they focus so much on English. I also think we Europeans in this thread need to stop lecturing the Africans about how Africa works and that the responses from the Africans in this thread have been very calm and patient.
John S.
Den tors 4 maj 2023 kl 17:43 skrev John S. johnswikipedia@gmail.com:
This is so close to being a good thing and then it stumbles on the cultural imperialism of English. It's like they don't understand how this is a slap in the face of many who know the WMF would never do this in their language. Had it just left out that part it would have been great. Now it's like it goes against the entire point of a global movement because those who don't speak English will always be second class members.
John S.
Den tors 4 maj 2023 kl 13:11 skrev Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com:
Dear all,
Yesterday's WMF press release https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/05/03/wikimedia-foundation-launches-open-the-knowledge-journalism-awards/ announced an African journalism award:
*Africawide – The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, is today launching the inaugural Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, this year’s awards celebrate the contributions of journalists in Africa who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in their reporting.*
This sounds great, until we come to the following line:
*Articles must have been published online and in English between January 1, 2022 and June 23, 2023.*
How is this compatible with the idea that we "prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion"? The piece starts with the word "Africawide" ... surely we are aware that about half of Africa is French-speaking?
I can understand that you might want to incentivise journalism in European rather than African languages – simply because such journalism would be more likely to find a volunteer with the time to add the information to Wikipedia, and because of a lack of staff with the language skills required to cover dozens of African languages.
But French, Portuguese and Spanish should be within the WMF's capabilities, all the more so as machine translation these days is good enough to tell even a non-French speaker whether a French article covers an interesting subject.
I hope that next year, journalists writing in other languages will not be completely excluded from consideration for this award. Relying on English will only strengthen some of the existing biases in coverage.
Andreas
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery * ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Hi Olushola,
thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening?
I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available.
Best, Lodewijk
On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan olaniyanshola15@gmail.com wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Hi Lodewijk,
In your reply to Olushola you said:
"I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English."
As Shola hasn't provided any clarification on this, note that the FAQ[1] for the award states:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version? A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are *not accepting translated articles*.
Best regards, Andreas
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/open-the-knowledge/journalism-award...
On Thursday, May 4, 2023, effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Olushola, thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our
African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening?
I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the
original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available.
Best, Lodewijk On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <
olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,
My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have
been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in
consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written
by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more
attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence
that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided
together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should
it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
While I share the concerns expressed, I'm personally enthusiastic about the thoughtfulness and initiative of the Working Group. It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort.
On Fri, May 5, 2023, 10:45 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Lodewijk,
In your reply to Olushola you said:
"I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English."
As Shola hasn't provided any clarification on this, note that the FAQ[1] for the award states:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version? A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are *not accepting translated articles*.
Best regards, Andreas
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/open-the-knowledge/journalism-award...
On Thursday, May 4, 2023, effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Olushola, thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our
African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening?
I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the
original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available.
Best, Lodewijk On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <
olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,
My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and
have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in
consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written
by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more
attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence
that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided
together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should
it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
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I know there are cultures in the world that regard English as a litmus test with regards to whether or not you’re educated, and was wondering if that added a layer of nuance to the conversation. However, this changed my mind:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version?
A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are not accepting translated articles.
While I share Cunctators enthusiasm about the Working Group, the decision to not accept even a translated article has an exclusionary impact regardless of intent.
From, Emily She/her
On May 5, 2023, at 8:05 AM, The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
While I share the concerns expressed, I'm personally enthusiastic about the thoughtfulness and initiative of the Working Group. It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort.
On Fri, May 5, 2023, 10:45 AM Andreas Kolbe <jayen466@gmail.com mailto:jayen466@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Lodewijk,
In your reply to Olushola you said:
"I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English."
As Shola hasn't provided any clarification on this, note that the FAQ[1] for the award states:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version? A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are not accepting translated articles.
Best regards, Andreas
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/open-the-knowledge/journalism-award...
On Thursday, May 4, 2023, effe iets anders <effeietsanders@gmail.com mailto:effeietsanders@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Olushola, thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening? I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available. Best, Lodewijk On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <olaniyanshola15@gmail.com mailto:olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,
My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org mailto:wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org mailto:wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________
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Thanks for your email and concerns about inclusion Andreas. We (Africans) were consulted.
And thanks Shola for that response. The key word here is “Pilot”. Looking forward to the results and impact of this project in future.
Best regards, Bobby Shabangu
On Fri, 05 May 2023 at 18:45, Neurodivergent Netizen < idoh.idreamofhorses@gmail.com> wrote:
I know there are cultures in the world that regard English as a litmus test with regards to whether or not you’re educated, and was wondering if that added a layer of nuance to the conversation. However, this changed my mind:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language
that is not English. Can I submit a translated version?
A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are *not accepting translated articles*.
While I share Cunctators enthusiasm about the Working Group, the decision to not accept even a translated article has an exclusionary impact regardless of intent.
From, Emily She/her
On May 5, 2023, at 8:05 AM, The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
While I share the concerns expressed, I'm personally enthusiastic about the thoughtfulness and initiative of the Working Group. It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort.
On Fri, May 5, 2023, 10:45 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Lodewijk,
In your reply to Olushola you said:
"I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English."
As Shola hasn't provided any clarification on this, note that the FAQ[1] for the award states:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version? A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are *not accepting translated articles*.
Best regards, Andreas
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/open-the-knowledge/journalism-award...
On Thursday, May 4, 2023, effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Olushola, thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our
African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening?
I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the
original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available.
Best, Lodewijk On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <
olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,
My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and
have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in
consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written
by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more
attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism
excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided
together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should
it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
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Dear Bobby, Shola and all,
You say, "We (Africans) were consulted".
According to Meta[1], the Working Group for these awards comprised four English-speaking Wikimedians (at least two of whom are themselves journalists) from Nigeria, Ghana, South Sudan and Kenya.
At the time of writing, the Meta page has been translated into German, Italian and Korean only. That's an odd assortment of languages for a pan-African award!
It doesn't create the impression that there was a signficant amount of involvement by the large African communities speaking and writing in French, Arabic, Portuguese, Swahili or Afrikaans, for example.
Another noteworthy aspect is that while Wikimedia staff are not eligible for participation, African Wikimedia volunteers are. This could potentially include members of the Working Group itself, as well as their friends and colleagues from their local Wikimedia user groups.
The documentation says very little about how the winners will be determined. All I found was this:
· *The Wikimedia Foundation (in collaboration with volunteer Wikimedia editors), through its discretion, will use these nominations to help identify journalists for this recognition.*
Could the team say a little more about how conflicts of interest will be managed?
Also, I would second what The Cunctator said earlier: "It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort." Just saying that this is a first effort and that other languages will be considered in future years would help a lot.
For example, you could commit to just having French next year, Arabic the year after that, etc.
At the moment, the incongruity between the professed emphasis on "diversity, equity and inclusion" and the restriction to English that follows immediately after is very striking.
This said, I hope you get great entries and look forward to reading the winning entries in due course.
Best, Andreas
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_the_Knowledge_Journalism_Awards
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 3:38 AM Bobby Shabangu bobbyshabangu@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for your email and concerns about inclusion Andreas. We (Africans) were consulted.
And thanks Shola for that response. The key word here is “Pilot”. Looking forward to the results and impact of this project in future.
Best regards, Bobby Shabangu
On Fri, 05 May 2023 at 18:45, Neurodivergent Netizen < idoh.idreamofhorses@gmail.com> wrote:
I know there are cultures in the world that regard English as a litmus test with regards to whether or not you’re educated, and was wondering if that added a layer of nuance to the conversation. However, this changed my mind:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language
that is not English. Can I submit a translated version?
A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are *not accepting translated articles*.
While I share Cunctators enthusiasm about the Working Group, the decision to not accept even a translated article has an exclusionary impact regardless of intent.
From, Emily She/her
On May 5, 2023, at 8:05 AM, The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
While I share the concerns expressed, I'm personally enthusiastic about the thoughtfulness and initiative of the Working Group. It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort.
On Fri, May 5, 2023, 10:45 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Lodewijk,
In your reply to Olushola you said:
"I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English."
As Shola hasn't provided any clarification on this, note that the FAQ[1] for the award states:
Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version? A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are *not accepting translated articles*.
Best regards, Andreas
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/open-the-knowledge/journalism-award...
On Thursday, May 4, 2023, effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Olushola, thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our
African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening?
I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that
the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available.
Best, Lodewijk On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <
olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,
My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and
have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in
consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially
written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to
learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more
attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism
excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided
together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers
should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
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Public archives at
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Dear Olushola,
Thank you for sharing the work that went into the initiative. I had participated as a volunteer community member with a host of others from the African communities in the community conversations to co-create the initiative. There was an acknowledgement that this is a pilot and openness to learn as well from the work that will be done in this first time. And that is what is very important to acknowledge in order to shape the initiative to better serve its purpose.
Really looking forward to the success of this initiative and how we can use it to do our work better as a community.
Kindly, Euphemia
On Thu, May 4, 2023, 9:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan olaniyanshola15@gmail.com wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Thanks a lot, Euphemia and Olushola,
As someone who was involved in the discussions about this initiative, I believe it is a positive endeavor and there is no need to be concerned about language diversity with the chosen language. This project is a trial run, and the insights gained from its execution will guide future efforts that will include other languages like Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, and more.
Best regards
On Fri, 5 May 2023 at 11:28, Euphemia Uwandu sharpay136@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Olushola,
Thank you for sharing the work that went into the initiative. I had participated as a volunteer community member with a host of others from the African communities in the community conversations to co-create the initiative. There was an acknowledgement that this is a pilot and openness to learn as well from the work that will be done in this first time. And that is what is very important to acknowledge in order to shape the initiative to better serve its purpose.
Really looking forward to the success of this initiative and how we can use it to do our work better as a community.
Kindly, Euphemia
On Thu, May 4, 2023, 9:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan olaniyanshola15@gmail.com wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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Thank you, Effe, for your feedback; I've noted that.
This initiative is entirely new, with journalists who are also not Wikimedians as the target audience. With this view in mind, we agreed to engage only African Wikimedians and those who have worked with journalists to understand their thoughts and opinions about the project and prepare us (the working group) for engaging with the target audience and the project's impact on our community. Yes, this might need to extend to all the African Wikimedians and their communities. Still, as earlier mentioned, this is the maiden edition, and we are ready to learn from its outcome through a thorough evaluation (after the end of this edition), conversations, and further engagement with our communities.
The Working Group remains accessible to the community, and we invite you to engage us, ask questions, and share your thoughts and suggestions on key things you would like us to consider in the screening phase of submissions and future editions as well.
Cheers
Shola
On Fri, May 5, 2023 at 12:43 PM Ndahiro Derrick Alter < ndahiroderric@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks a lot, Euphemia and Olushola,
As someone who was involved in the discussions about this initiative, I believe it is a positive endeavor and there is no need to be concerned about language diversity with the chosen language. This project is a trial run, and the insights gained from its execution will guide future efforts that will include other languages like Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, and more.
Best regards
On Fri, 5 May 2023 at 11:28, Euphemia Uwandu sharpay136@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Olushola,
Thank you for sharing the work that went into the initiative. I had participated as a volunteer community member with a host of others from the African communities in the community conversations to co-create the initiative. There was an acknowledgement that this is a pilot and openness to learn as well from the work that will be done in this first time. And that is what is very important to acknowledge in order to shape the initiative to better serve its purpose.
Really looking forward to the success of this initiative and how we can use it to do our work better as a community.
Kindly, Euphemia
On Thu, May 4, 2023, 9:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan olaniyanshola15@gmail.com wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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To me, this award is reaching well beyond the scope of what the Wikimedia community should be doing. It does not, to me, align with our Movement Strategy's recommendations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations nor their initiatives https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Initiatives, nor the WMF 2023-2024 Annual Plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024. Just because something might be positive for the world or our community does not mean we should do such. As a gay man, I appreciate all the literature awards for LGBT+ books, but I would not support such an award from the WMF or the community. Where would this stop? Is it in scope for us to give an award for scientific research? Social justice activism? Translation software? These could all be beneficial to our community, but I don't think it would be appropriate for us to take on those endeavors.
In addition I am concerned this award will have negative effects on our fundraising. I would expect that some donors, if they found out we are awarding $3,500 to journalists in no way connected to our wikis, might be less likely to donate. I think this kind of thing has happened to other non-profits.
We are stretched too thin enough already. I believe that we should stick to our core activities, which stem from the documents linked to above.
Thanks, Paul User:Libcub
On 2023-05-04 1:47 PM, Olushola Olaniyan wrote:
*Dear all,
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery* ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list --wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines andhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives athttps://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email towikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
+1 to Paul. I was thinking of the same thing but was confused about how to put it. Many individuals from underrepresented communities, including myself, often feel hesitant to contribute to global-level conversations in a meaningful way and raise their concerns.
The connection between Wikimedia and this initiative is too weak. While cost is not the primary concern, the potential impact on Wikimedia is significant for any Wikimedia initiative. I am not trying to discourage our fellow Wikimedians from Africa in any way. On the contrary, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible work they are doing despite facing numerous obstacles, and their contributions often go unrecognized.
This is undoubtedly a good initiative that serves the local African community. But how does this serve Wikimedia? How do we measure the direct impact of this initiative on Wikimedia? How is it aligned with MS2030? I am also slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the volunteer organizers are not recognized in any visible place. They deserve proper acknowledgment.
From a broader perspective, there's something strange happening in the movement. I fear that the focus is being shifted from community relations and support to somewhere else. In the annual planning community conversation, I expressed my concerns about the apparent reduction in direct professional support from the Foundation for the communities. Instead, it appears that the focus is shifting towards self-organized initiatives, which will never be effective for underrepresented communities. We require direct professional support from the Foundation, which has been provided quietly but effectively in recent years. Wikimedia communities need professional support from the foundation that empowers them from the core and creates the capacity to work more independently.
The foundation possesses all the linguistic expertise and the required in-depth, unique, and specialized knowledge of the local Wikimedia community dynamics to align this initiative with MS2030 and enhance its direct impact on the movement. But for some strange reason, they're not doing that—not only for this initiative but almost everywhere; they're instead fully destroying that capacity themselves through the recent layoffs (probably). The radical changes may have a very negative long-term impact on communities, specially the underrepresented ones.
I'm not sure, but I'm having the feeling that ideas like DEI and MS2030 are being misinterpreted to justify a lot of things that don't necessarily serve DEI or MS2030 in the movement. Even I had the feeling that the draft annual plan was just MS2030-washed without any visible impact. I've always supported the foundation and its staff in any of their meaningful contributions with all my enthusiasm and knowledge as a volunteer, but for the last few days, I've been hesitating. I want everyone, including the foundation, to work in such a way that it creates capacity in the local communities and, at the same time, serves our goals as a movement.
Best, Rafi
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 9:58 AM Paul J. Weiss libcub@hotmail.com wrote:
To me, this award is reaching well beyond the scope of what the Wikimedia community should be doing. It does not, to me, align with our Movement Strategy's recommendations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations nor their initiatives https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Initiatives, nor the WMF 2023-2024 Annual Plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024. Just because something might be positive for the world or our community does not mean we should do such. As a gay man, I appreciate all the literature awards for LGBT+ books, but I would not support such an award from the WMF or the community. Where would this stop? Is it in scope for us to give an award for scientific research? Social justice activism? Translation software? These could all be beneficial to our community, but I don't think it would be appropriate for us to take on those endeavors.
In addition I am concerned this award will have negative effects on our fundraising. I would expect that some donors, if they found out we are awarding $3,500 to journalists in no way connected to our wikis, might be less likely to donate. I think this kind of thing has happened to other non-profits.
We are stretched too thin enough already. I believe that we should stick to our core activities, which stem from the documents linked to above.
Thanks, Paul User:Libcub
On 2023-05-04 1:47 PM, Olushola Olaniyan wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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These are interesting viewpoints indeed.
I think the connection between these awards and Wikipedia (especially in the African continent) is clearly stated in the article. In fact, if it was me who was writing this press release I would have started that sentence with:
- Most African Wikipedians struggle with adding content on the English/French Wikipedia because of lack of reliable references, and " *the awards recognise the essential role journalists play in creating well-researched articles that volunteer editors use as source materials to develop content on Wikipedia....*"
Colleagues, you will agree with me that there's no one size fits all solution to fix our problems. We exist in a dynamic community where something that was perfectly fine a few years ago may not work today. I personally participated in the development of the MS2030 but I was also fully aware that the recommendations of the MS2030 are not a silver bullet or a formula to solve all our problems in the movement. It is our collective thinking that by implementing the recommendations, our movement will be in a better strategic position by year 2030 to address the issues stated in the MS2030.
Now does that mean we should say NO to a pilot project that the WMF consulted us to try out help close the knowledge gaps in Africa because it's not part of the MS2030 which is our silver bullet to solving all our problems? I don't know you tell me colleagues.
Best regards, Bobby Shabangu
On Sat, 6 May 2023 at 11:08, Mrb Rafi mrbrafi1971@gmail.com wrote:
+1 to Paul. I was thinking of the same thing but was confused about how to put it. Many individuals from underrepresented communities, including myself, often feel hesitant to contribute to global-level conversations in a meaningful way and raise their concerns.
The connection between Wikimedia and this initiative is too weak. While cost is not the primary concern, the potential impact on Wikimedia is significant for any Wikimedia initiative. I am not trying to discourage our fellow Wikimedians from Africa in any way. On the contrary, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible work they are doing despite facing numerous obstacles, and their contributions often go unrecognized.
This is undoubtedly a good initiative that serves the local African community. But how does this serve Wikimedia? How do we measure the direct impact of this initiative on Wikimedia? How is it aligned with MS2030? I am also slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the volunteer organizers are not recognized in any visible place. They deserve proper acknowledgment.
From a broader perspective, there's something strange happening in the movement. I fear that the focus is being shifted from community relations and support to somewhere else. In the annual planning community conversation, I expressed my concerns about the apparent reduction in direct professional support from the Foundation for the communities. Instead, it appears that the focus is shifting towards self-organized initiatives, which will never be effective for underrepresented communities. We require direct professional support from the Foundation, which has been provided quietly but effectively in recent years. Wikimedia communities need professional support from the foundation that empowers them from the core and creates the capacity to work more independently.
The foundation possesses all the linguistic expertise and the required in-depth, unique, and specialized knowledge of the local Wikimedia community dynamics to align this initiative with MS2030 and enhance its direct impact on the movement. But for some strange reason, they're not doing that—not only for this initiative but almost everywhere; they're instead fully destroying that capacity themselves through the recent layoffs (probably). The radical changes may have a very negative long-term impact on communities, specially the underrepresented ones.
I'm not sure, but I'm having the feeling that ideas like DEI and MS2030 are being misinterpreted to justify a lot of things that don't necessarily serve DEI or MS2030 in the movement. Even I had the feeling that the draft annual plan was just MS2030-washed without any visible impact. I've always supported the foundation and its staff in any of their meaningful contributions with all my enthusiasm and knowledge as a volunteer, but for the last few days, I've been hesitating. I want everyone, including the foundation, to work in such a way that it creates capacity in the local communities and, at the same time, serves our goals as a movement.
Best, Rafi
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 9:58 AM Paul J. Weiss libcub@hotmail.com wrote:
To me, this award is reaching well beyond the scope of what the Wikimedia community should be doing. It does not, to me, align with our Movement Strategy's recommendations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations nor their initiatives https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Initiatives, nor the WMF 2023-2024 Annual Plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024. Just because something might be positive for the world or our community does not mean we should do such. As a gay man, I appreciate all the literature awards for LGBT+ books, but I would not support such an award from the WMF or the community. Where would this stop? Is it in scope for us to give an award for scientific research? Social justice activism? Translation software? These could all be beneficial to our community, but I don't think it would be appropriate for us to take on those endeavors.
In addition I am concerned this award will have negative effects on our fundraising. I would expect that some donors, if they found out we are awarding $3,500 to journalists in no way connected to our wikis, might be less likely to donate. I think this kind of thing has happened to other non-profits.
We are stretched too thin enough already. I believe that we should stick to our core activities, which stem from the documents linked to above.
Thanks, Paul User:Libcub
On 2023-05-04 1:47 PM, Olushola Olaniyan wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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And by the way Andreas, I know you are very detailed oriented. We were consulted about this pilot in South Africa. I was also ask to bring this up at WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba_Steering_Committee) hence you see winners are going to be announced at the WikiIndaba conference in Morocco, and results and potential impact of this pilot (including the language issue) are further going to be discussed there. I see from this email thread that Derrick and Euphemia were also consulted too, but I see that only the working group were added there. What I'm sure about is that there's a whole lot of ground work that went into this. Maybe to inform the WMF staff to add the list of all Africans who were consulted. (I need to note that some members of our community may not agree to be published there now that this issue has come to Wikimedia Mailing List because they view this platform as a toxic place).
Which brings me to my request which is somewhat linked to this issue.
If you are an admin, steward or sysop in the English, French or Arabic language Wikipedia, kindly reach out to me. We would like to have as many admins as possible from these languages at WikiIndaba so that we can learn from you.
Best, Bobby Shabangu
On Sat, 6 May 2023 at 15:07, Bobby Shabangu bobbyshabangu@gmail.com wrote:
These are interesting viewpoints indeed.
I think the connection between these awards and Wikipedia (especially in the African continent) is clearly stated in the article. In fact, if it was me who was writing this press release I would have started that sentence with:
- Most African Wikipedians struggle with adding content on the
English/French Wikipedia because of lack of reliable references, and " *the awards recognise the essential role journalists play in creating well-researched articles that volunteer editors use as source materials to develop content on Wikipedia....*"
Colleagues, you will agree with me that there's no one size fits all solution to fix our problems. We exist in a dynamic community where something that was perfectly fine a few years ago may not work today. I personally participated in the development of the MS2030 but I was also fully aware that the recommendations of the MS2030 are not a silver bullet or a formula to solve all our problems in the movement. It is our collective thinking that by implementing the recommendations, our movement will be in a better strategic position by year 2030 to address the issues stated in the MS2030.
Now does that mean we should say NO to a pilot project that the WMF consulted us to try out help close the knowledge gaps in Africa because it's not part of the MS2030 which is our silver bullet to solving all our problems? I don't know you tell me colleagues.
Best regards, Bobby Shabangu
On Sat, 6 May 2023 at 11:08, Mrb Rafi mrbrafi1971@gmail.com wrote:
+1 to Paul. I was thinking of the same thing but was confused about how to put it. Many individuals from underrepresented communities, including myself, often feel hesitant to contribute to global-level conversations in a meaningful way and raise their concerns.
The connection between Wikimedia and this initiative is too weak. While cost is not the primary concern, the potential impact on Wikimedia is significant for any Wikimedia initiative. I am not trying to discourage our fellow Wikimedians from Africa in any way. On the contrary, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible work they are doing despite facing numerous obstacles, and their contributions often go unrecognized.
This is undoubtedly a good initiative that serves the local African community. But how does this serve Wikimedia? How do we measure the direct impact of this initiative on Wikimedia? How is it aligned with MS2030? I am also slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the volunteer organizers are not recognized in any visible place. They deserve proper acknowledgment.
From a broader perspective, there's something strange happening in the movement. I fear that the focus is being shifted from community relations and support to somewhere else. In the annual planning community conversation, I expressed my concerns about the apparent reduction in direct professional support from the Foundation for the communities. Instead, it appears that the focus is shifting towards self-organized initiatives, which will never be effective for underrepresented communities. We require direct professional support from the Foundation, which has been provided quietly but effectively in recent years. Wikimedia communities need professional support from the foundation that empowers them from the core and creates the capacity to work more independently.
The foundation possesses all the linguistic expertise and the required in-depth, unique, and specialized knowledge of the local Wikimedia community dynamics to align this initiative with MS2030 and enhance its direct impact on the movement. But for some strange reason, they're not doing that—not only for this initiative but almost everywhere; they're instead fully destroying that capacity themselves through the recent layoffs (probably). The radical changes may have a very negative long-term impact on communities, specially the underrepresented ones.
I'm not sure, but I'm having the feeling that ideas like DEI and MS2030 are being misinterpreted to justify a lot of things that don't necessarily serve DEI or MS2030 in the movement. Even I had the feeling that the draft annual plan was just MS2030-washed without any visible impact. I've always supported the foundation and its staff in any of their meaningful contributions with all my enthusiasm and knowledge as a volunteer, but for the last few days, I've been hesitating. I want everyone, including the foundation, to work in such a way that it creates capacity in the local communities and, at the same time, serves our goals as a movement.
Best, Rafi
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 9:58 AM Paul J. Weiss libcub@hotmail.com wrote:
To me, this award is reaching well beyond the scope of what the Wikimedia community should be doing. It does not, to me, align with our Movement Strategy's recommendations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations nor their initiatives https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Initiatives, nor the WMF 2023-2024 Annual Plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024. Just because something might be positive for the world or our community does not mean we should do such. As a gay man, I appreciate all the literature awards for LGBT+ books, but I would not support such an award from the WMF or the community. Where would this stop? Is it in scope for us to give an award for scientific research? Social justice activism? Translation software? These could all be beneficial to our community, but I don't think it would be appropriate for us to take on those endeavors.
In addition I am concerned this award will have negative effects on our fundraising. I would expect that some donors, if they found out we are awarding $3,500 to journalists in no way connected to our wikis, might be less likely to donate. I think this kind of thing has happened to other non-profits.
We are stretched too thin enough already. I believe that we should stick to our core activities, which stem from the documents linked to above.
Thanks, Paul User:Libcub
On 2023-05-04 1:47 PM, Olushola Olaniyan wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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I am personally fully in support of Wikimedia supporting journalism, fwiw.
On Sat, May 6, 2023, 9:08 AM Bobby Shabangu bobbyshabangu@gmail.com wrote:
These are interesting viewpoints indeed.
I think the connection between these awards and Wikipedia (especially in the African continent) is clearly stated in the article. In fact, if it was me who was writing this press release I would have started that sentence with:
- Most African Wikipedians struggle with adding content on the
English/French Wikipedia because of lack of reliable references, and " *the awards recognise the essential role journalists play in creating well-researched articles that volunteer editors use as source materials to develop content on Wikipedia....*"
Colleagues, you will agree with me that there's no one size fits all solution to fix our problems. We exist in a dynamic community where something that was perfectly fine a few years ago may not work today. I personally participated in the development of the MS2030 but I was also fully aware that the recommendations of the MS2030 are not a silver bullet or a formula to solve all our problems in the movement. It is our collective thinking that by implementing the recommendations, our movement will be in a better strategic position by year 2030 to address the issues stated in the MS2030.
Now does that mean we should say NO to a pilot project that the WMF consulted us to try out help close the knowledge gaps in Africa because it's not part of the MS2030 which is our silver bullet to solving all our problems? I don't know you tell me colleagues.
Best regards, Bobby Shabangu
On Sat, 6 May 2023 at 11:08, Mrb Rafi mrbrafi1971@gmail.com wrote:
+1 to Paul. I was thinking of the same thing but was confused about how to put it. Many individuals from underrepresented communities, including myself, often feel hesitant to contribute to global-level conversations in a meaningful way and raise their concerns.
The connection between Wikimedia and this initiative is too weak. While cost is not the primary concern, the potential impact on Wikimedia is significant for any Wikimedia initiative. I am not trying to discourage our fellow Wikimedians from Africa in any way. On the contrary, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible work they are doing despite facing numerous obstacles, and their contributions often go unrecognized.
This is undoubtedly a good initiative that serves the local African community. But how does this serve Wikimedia? How do we measure the direct impact of this initiative on Wikimedia? How is it aligned with MS2030? I am also slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the volunteer organizers are not recognized in any visible place. They deserve proper acknowledgment.
From a broader perspective, there's something strange happening in the movement. I fear that the focus is being shifted from community relations and support to somewhere else. In the annual planning community conversation, I expressed my concerns about the apparent reduction in direct professional support from the Foundation for the communities. Instead, it appears that the focus is shifting towards self-organized initiatives, which will never be effective for underrepresented communities. We require direct professional support from the Foundation, which has been provided quietly but effectively in recent years. Wikimedia communities need professional support from the foundation that empowers them from the core and creates the capacity to work more independently.
The foundation possesses all the linguistic expertise and the required in-depth, unique, and specialized knowledge of the local Wikimedia community dynamics to align this initiative with MS2030 and enhance its direct impact on the movement. But for some strange reason, they're not doing that—not only for this initiative but almost everywhere; they're instead fully destroying that capacity themselves through the recent layoffs (probably). The radical changes may have a very negative long-term impact on communities, specially the underrepresented ones.
I'm not sure, but I'm having the feeling that ideas like DEI and MS2030 are being misinterpreted to justify a lot of things that don't necessarily serve DEI or MS2030 in the movement. Even I had the feeling that the draft annual plan was just MS2030-washed without any visible impact. I've always supported the foundation and its staff in any of their meaningful contributions with all my enthusiasm and knowledge as a volunteer, but for the last few days, I've been hesitating. I want everyone, including the foundation, to work in such a way that it creates capacity in the local communities and, at the same time, serves our goals as a movement.
Best, Rafi
On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 9:58 AM Paul J. Weiss libcub@hotmail.com wrote:
To me, this award is reaching well beyond the scope of what the Wikimedia community should be doing. It does not, to me, align with our Movement Strategy's recommendations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations nor their initiatives https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Initiatives, nor the WMF 2023-2024 Annual Plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024. Just because something might be positive for the world or our community does not mean we should do such. As a gay man, I appreciate all the literature awards for LGBT+ books, but I would not support such an award from the WMF or the community. Where would this stop? Is it in scope for us to give an award for scientific research? Social justice activism? Translation software? These could all be beneficial to our community, but I don't think it would be appropriate for us to take on those endeavors.
In addition I am concerned this award will have negative effects on our fundraising. I would expect that some donors, if they found out we are awarding $3,500 to journalists in no way connected to our wikis, might be less likely to donate. I think this kind of thing has happened to other non-profits.
We are stretched too thin enough already. I believe that we should stick to our core activities, which stem from the documents linked to above.
Thanks, Paul User:Libcub
On 2023-05-04 1:47 PM, Olushola Olaniyan wrote:
*Dear all, *
*My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it **here* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Language_Oral_History_Documentation_Project/Gallery
- ). *I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism
Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet.
Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps.
One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English.
With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn.
It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia.
You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online.
The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling.
We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will.
We already have more than a hundred entries!
Thank you
Shola
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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