Hello all,
In response to the climate crisis, the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group
has joined hands with other affiliates from around the world and committed
to a cross-affiliate initiative to reduce the environmental impact of the
Wikimedia movement. The initiative can be looked at as one of the first
steps to implement Movement Strategy Recommendation #1.8
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…>-
"*While we grow and become more sustainable as a Movement, we will also
align our practices to support the environmental sustainability of our
planet.*"
The user group took part in drafting a document which we call as Wikimedia
Affiliates Environmental Sustainability Covenant
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Affiliates_Environmental_Sustaina…>
and became one of the first signatories of the agreement along with
Wikimedians for Sustainable Development, Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia
France, Wikimedia South Africa, Wikimedia Italia, Wikimedia UK and
Wikimedians of Tamazight User Group.
The agreement till now is as follows -
1. Affiliates commit to reducing their carbon footprint through a
variety of measures, including but not limited to:
- drastically limiting the number of kerosene-based flights taken by
affiliate staff and representatives and community members,
through measures
such as
- caps for flights taken on behalf of the affiliate,
- increased technical and organisational support for remote events,
- travel policies that discourage flights over other means of
transport and that encourage the use of public transportation, and/or
- travel policies that require compensation for the environmental
cost of air travel,
- switching to renewable energy for their electricity consumption,
where possible,
- divesting their financial investments from carbon-intensive
industries,
- when engaging in carbon offset programmes, supporting only the
planting of native trees in uninhabited areas and not using offsets as an
‘excuse’ for their carbon emissions,
- implementing other practices listed below.
Affiliates related to Most Affected People and Areas shall only have
limited responsibilities in this regard, and shall receive support from
other affiliates to meet them.
2. Affiliates call on other Wikimedia Movement entities, including and
especially the Wikimedia Foundation, to follow their example, specifically
concerning the sustainable operation of the Wikimedia Foundation’s data
centres.
3. Affiliates commit to supporting initiatives aimed at improving the
coverage of the climate crisis on Wikimedia projects.
4. Affiliates commit to regularly (at least yearly) sharing their
experiences adhering to this covenant to inspire each other and others
inside and outside of the Wikimedia Movement.
As an affiliate with very limited capacity and resources and from a
developing nation, the user group will have technical and infrastructural
limitations implementing many of the clauses, but during the next AGM which
is going to happen in mid January 2022, a travel policy will be formulated
in compliance with this agreement. As before and with agreement with the
covenant, the UG will also keep committing to actively promote remote
virtual events including conferences, workshops, meetups whenever a
physical event can be avoided or deemed unnecessary. The UG will also
continue to support projects which focus on digital conservation of nature
like Wiki Loves Butterfly etc. There might be some more plans which can
come up gradually as our commitment to the agreement.
You can learn about this initiative presented by different speakers at
different virtual conferences from this year.
- Wikimania 2021:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Towards_a_more_environmentally_sust…
- WikiIndaba 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch? <goog_766684395>
v=uXIVCUNoGu4 </>
- WikiArabia 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aENERdAmdAo
- CEE meeting 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oAIMDlc13M
- WikiConference North America:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJ7IO9cJYg (at 3:33:10)
- WikiConvention francophone 2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlUD8MVPsyU (at 3:53:00)
- German-language WikiCon 2021:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2021-10-01_Klimaschutz_in_der_Commu…
Many affiliates are internally discussing the document and reviewing it
right now. If you as an affiliate are also interested, you are welcome to
do the same and join this effort. We look forward to your active
participation.
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
(On behalf of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group)
Dear All,
We want to share about art4good - a year long campaign to create mental
health related images.
Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF) a Section-8 not-for-profit, has
partnered with the Wikimedia Foundation to launch art4good, an initiative
that invites professional artists, photographers, students, and amateurs to
create the world’s largest repository of mental health-related imagery. The
year-long initiative, which commences in December 2021, aims to leverage
the power of visual imagery to reframe the narrative around mental health
in an effort to increase awareness, reduce stigma, bust myths, and
encourage help-seeking.
Under this collaboration, art4good is inviting participants to curate
artwork that helps create awareness, break stigma, and promote dialogue
around mental health. SPIF will release the art4good posters under the CC-BY-SA
4.0 license and make them freely accessible on Wikimedia Commons for
volunteers to use on Mental Health/Suicide Prevention-related articles on
Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
False representations of mental health can have damaging effects.
There are numerous
studies that highlight how entertainment and news media’s
<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16478286/> representation of mental
illness and those with mental illnesses are exaggerated, dramatic and even
distorted. Worryingly, those with mental illness are presented as
dangerous, potentially criminal and socially inept. A paper by researcher
Heather Stuart noted that the media focuses on negative reactions to the
mentally ill, including fear, rejection, derision and ridicule. This
negative portrayal impairs self-esteem, reduces help-seeking behaviours,
meddles with medication adherence and overall recovery.
Individuals from across the Wikimedia movement developed the Wikimedia 2030
Movement Strategy Recommendations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…>
to enable the movement to grow sustainably and inclusively. Recommendation
#8 highlights “Identifying Topics for Impact” as a priority for the
movement. Improving Wikipedia’s coverage of suicide to better align with
the recommendations of public health experts is just one way that the
movement can focus on the impact of our projects on the public’s
understanding of suicide and suicide prevention.[1]
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/09/world-suicide-prevention-day-and-the-…>
Wikipedia's health material is the most accessed resource for health
information on the internet [2
<https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228786>].
As a result, Wikimedia communities have an opportunity to increase access
to knowledge on suicide prevention as a key impact subject.
art4good is a year-long campaign starting this month (December 2021). These
free-to-download and distribute images will seek to leverage the popularity
of memes, cartoons, illustrations, infographics, and also the enduring
power of photos to support text-based narratives. The winners will stand a
chance to win exclusive merchandise and a participation certificate.
What themes is the campaign targeting?:
The campaign will focus on 10 main themes, which have been curated to
provide direction and structure, but should not be limiting, participants
can choose their own themes.
1. I, me, myself (Self-care)
2. You are not alone (Care-giving)
3. Ssh-out - stop the silence (Reduce stigma around mental health)
4. Color your emotions (Speak up, don’t bottle your emotions)
5. Digitally connected, socially isolated (downsides of dopamine rush
from digital)
6. Work-life balance (Yin-Yang, time to seek balance)
7. Your life matters (Choose life)
8. Help-seeking is cool (We all need a little help)
9. Protective factors (Who or what are my safety nets?)
10. Neurodivergent (We maybe different but same)
How can I participate?
Pick your theme or make your own theme, spend time making something that
will change hearts and mindsets, and then log onto
https://paintyourblues.com/submission/ and hit submit. The images will be
reviewed and then uploaded to Wikimedia Commons after the end of every
month by SPIF.
We would like to invite everyone to amplify this initiative and participate
in bringing awareness to this cause through the art4good campaign.
Best,
Praveen Das
--
*Praveen Das (he/him/his)*
Senior Partnerships Manager - South Asia
M: +91 - 8951323603
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
*Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment and you can help continue to
make it a reality: * https://donate.wikimedia.org
Apologies for cross posting -- join us to Decmber 14th to learn more!
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Alex Stinson <astinson(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2021 at 2:39 PM
Subject: December 14 Conversation hour about organizing for
#WikiForHumanRights 2022
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*TL:DR --* Join us for a Conversation hour December 14 at 1500 UTC to learn
how to organize for WikiForHumanRights 2022.
Hello Everyone!
#WikiForHumanRights: Right to a Healthy Environment 2022 [1]is back!
From April
15 through to June 14 2022 we encourage local affiliates, individuals or
organizations interested in the campaign to organize activities around the
intersecting themes of human rights and the environment.
If you are interested in organizing your community for the campaign, please
join us for a conversation hour on December 14 at 1500 UTC [4] (more
details below) to learn how you can participate.
Why the Right to a Healthy Environment?
This October, the Right to a Healthy Environment was formally recognized
[1] by the United Nations Human Rights Council. According to Michelle
Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
"A safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is the foundation of
human life. But today, because of human action – and inhuman inaction – the
triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and nature loss is
directly and severely impacting a broad range of rights, including the
rights to adequate food, water, education, housing, health, development,
and even life itself."[2]
The environmental crisis is getting more complex. Humanity needs to make
thousands of big and small decisions to address it. As the UN Environmental
Program described it, we need to make “Peace with Nature”[3] and protect
the human rights of the most vulnerable.
Wikipedia and other platforms need to fill the knowledge gaps at the
intersection of sustainability and human rights in every context and
language. The world needs access to reliable information about the link
between environmental sustainability and human rights.
What can you do? Help us organize!
We need your help! The campaign will officially launch on April 15 (one
week before Earth Day), but we need your help now to begin preparing this
global call to action.
Last year we had 24 community-led editathons, workshops, webinars, and
writing contests, with contributions to over 2000 articles in more than 40
languages. To match (and hopefully exceed) these impacts, we need your help
to organize your local communities!
Activities related to human rights and sustainability are good topics for
local communities to both a) identify new partners, b) recruit enthusiastic
participants and c) fill key topics for impact in their own language or
context.
Join the Conversation to learn more!
Join us for 1.5 hours of conversation Tuesday the 14th December 2021 15:00
UTC on Zoom <https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/84871090509> [4], to learn more
about:
-
How you can participate in this campaign and organize local events in
your community or region.
-
Which topics this campaign will target, and how you can connect with
subject matter experts, partners, and other resources to support successful
content creation activities.
-
How the Wikimedia Foundation Campaigns team can support you in designing
your event and doing targeted outreach to potential contributors drawn to
these topics.
Organizers can find more information at this (still under development): page
on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights>[5]
If you want to join us as an organizer, please join our Telegram Group
<https://t.me/joinchat/k_W9SVMG5K44YjJh>[6]
If you have any questions send us an email at campaigns(a)wikimedia.org
Looking forward to hearing you in the conversation,
Ruby Damenshie-Brown and Alex Stinson
[1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102582
[2] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27443
[3] https://www.unep.org/interactive/making-peace-nature/
[4] https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/84871090509
[5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights
[6] https://t.me/joinchat/k_W9SVMG5K44YjJh
--
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter: @sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
--
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter: @sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
Dear Wikimedians,
Hope you are well! As you already know that CIS-A2K started a series of
mini edit-a-thons in 2020. This year, we had conducted Mahatma Gandhi 2021
edit-a-thon so far.
Now, we are going to be conducting Festive Season 2021 edit-a-thon which
will its second iteration.
During this event, we encourage you to create, develop, update or edit
data, upload files on Wikimedia Commons or Wikipedia articles etc.
This event will take place on 11 and 12 December 2021.
Be ready to participate and develope content on your local wikimedia
projects.
For more information, you can visit the event page :
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Festive_Season_2021_edit-a-thon
Thank you,
Nitesh Gill
Hello, Namaste, Namaskara, Assalam ‘Alaykum, Sat Srī Akāl , Vanakkam*
This is for your kind information that, after being successfully conducted
this year, CIS-A2K is planning to organize again a national level online
event in the coming year from 18 to 20 February 2022. The event will
include workshops on various topics, presentations, discussions and many
more.
You can find the link to the event page here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2022
Regards,
Jayanta Nath
On behalf of CIS-A2K
Hello,
As you might know, the Two Centuries of Indian Print (2CIP) project of
British Library and West Bengal Wikimedians User Group are having a GLAM
partnership for almost a year now. The 2CIP collection of public domain
Bengali books are getting uploaded on Wikimedia Commons and then getting
proofread on Bengali Wikisource. Details can be found here -
https://bn.wikisource.org/s/h1zc
In this regard. two long proofread contests had been organized this year to
let Bengali Wikisource volunteers focus on these books. The first contest
was held during March-April this year. (Link -
https://bn.wikisource.org/s/gwek ) The second proofread contest which ran
for 3 months from September 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021 just ended at
midnight. (Link - https://bn.wikisource.org/s/gwen .) In these two
contests, around 5500 pages were proofread in total.
We will not conduct any more proofread contests this year or early next
year giving break to our competition participants. Considering our small
workforce, we will also utilise this break to clear our maintenance
backlogs as much as possible. The GLAM partnership will go on by having
more 2CIP books uploaded on Commons, engaging with OpenRefine team to help
build a robust system for book uploads along with metadata management,
engaging with WMF community programs and machine learning teams to find
ways to negotiate with Transkribus etc. and so on. A full activity report
will be published soon in February next year by the user group.
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
(On behalf of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group)
Hello,
We are thankful for showing interest to participate in the call.
This is a reminder that this call will take place today at 1:30 pm UTC / 7
pm Indian Standard Time / 7:30 pm Bangladesh Standard Time. The call will
be hosted on Zoom Platform and it will be recorded.
Please see the event page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Maryana%E2%80%99s_Listening_Tour_%E2%80%95_…
If you have not registered yet, and are interested to join, please fill the
short form before 4 pm (IST): https://forms.gle/bDrJgdHFXTQh4otPA
Regards
Jayanta
Hello everyone,
Greetings of Wikisource's 18th Birthday! This is a reminder that this
conversation takes place in about 3.5 hours from now. Looking forward to
seeing you all there and celebrating this occasion together.
Best
Satdeep
Hello,
We are thankful for showing interest to participate in the call.
The call will take place on 26 November at 1:30 pm UTC / 7 pm Indian
Standard Time / 7:30 pm Bangladesh Standard Time.
Please see the event page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Maryana%E2%80%99s_Listening_Tour_%E2%80%95_…
If you have not registered yet, and are interested to join, please fill the
short form: https://forms.gle/bDrJgdHFXTQh4otPA
The session will be moderated by Shabab Mustafa and Tanveer Hasan.
Regards
Jayanta
Dear all,
CIS-A2K has initiated a short-term pilot research project called *Study on
Infrastructural Needs of Indian Language Wikisource Projects*, to collect
baseline data on the challenges and needs of Wikisource projects in India.
We would like to invite you to share your valuable feedback on the research
design. For more details on this, including the objective and process, you
may see:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Research/Study_on_Infrastructural_N…
We request you to kindly give your feedback on the following points which
would be very useful to refine the study before we commence our research
work:
1. Are the objectives of the research clear?
2. What do you think of the process outlined for this research?
3. Kindly give us your general opinion/suggestions/comments about this
study.
For any queries, kindly reply to this thread, or write to
sneha(a)cis-india.org.
Best,
Jayanta Nath
Centre for Internet and Society