Wow, this is really an amazing idea to implement as per my observation. This will give an amazing output as the best painting with an extraordinary colors. I would love to follow the same and post it on my https://topcvwritersuk.com/cvwritings-couk-review/ blogs. This will bring the best look to my blog.
Underrepresented? Even societies with a mid-level attainments in social
development find it difficult to access space on the Wikipedia, especially
if they are (i) poorly digitised (ii) digitised in non-English languages
(which might not be well trawled by search engines) (iii) don't have
printing presses, academia and journalists anywhere nearby to write about
them. In our times, they too simply "don't exist". We need to recognise
this as a systemic problem, one which is unlikely to be fixed with
band-aids. Sharing an earlier comment. FN
An Open Letter to Maryana Iskander
[image: Frederick Noronha]
<https://www.opensourceforu.com/author/frederick-noronha/>
By Frederick Noronha
<https://www.opensourceforu.com/author/frederick-noronha/>
January 28, 2022
0
<https://www.opensourceforu.com/2022/01/an-open-letter-to-maryana-iskander/#…>
531
Without a doubt, the Wikipedia is at the top of the most successful of the
open, sharable, crowdsourced initiatives that emerged on the online scene
some two decades back.
If Free Software and Open Source changed the world of how software gets
produced and distributed, and who could access it, then the Wikipedia
drastically revolutionized knowledge sharing.
It altered the universe of encyclopedias, our ability to access them, while
it also brought about changes to a much wider knowledge ecosystem
altogether.
It also opened space for knowledge to emerge from (and be shared with) over
300 language groups. This could hardly have been possible if left to
market forces alone.
Maryana Iskander, of Egyptian-origin US-based social entrepreneur and
lawyer, takes over as the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation in early 2022.
OPEN SOURCE contributor FREDERICK NORONHA, a Wikipedian for the past
decade-and-half, who was selected Editor of the Week in March 2020, takes
the opportunity to sound a note of caution.
Ms Iskander also spoke to Wikipedians in India at the end of November,
during her global online “Listening Tour”, prior to taking over:
* * *
Dear Maryana,
A warm welcome on assuming the slot at the helm of the Wikipedia, and
wishing you all the best and a meaningful sojourn there. At the same time,
to make the most of this exchange, permit me to raise some issues which
have been drawing my concern for some time now. My intention is to help
build a better, more encouraging, and diverse Wikipedia.
(1) Once upon a time, not a very long time ago, the Wikipedia used to be a
very interesting place to be a part of. Over the past few years, there has
been a marked decrease in the possibilities of participation there. It
could be that the Wikipedia has become a victim of its own successes.
While maintaining quality is important, but we could just be sweeping out
the baby with the bathwater.
(2) It has now become extremely difficult to create a new article related
to our parts of the world. This is true especially for the larger
Wikipedias, from languages like English. Most of the gatekeepers
(administrators or bureaucrats, to use Wikipedia lingo) seem to be unable
to understand issues outside of the affluent world and big cities. I could
examples, some ludicrous. One of the most prominent singers of my region,
a noted editor of a literary journal and the precursor institution of our
university, were all seen as not worthy of inclusion in a crowd-sourced
encyclopedia. We have to face barriers to share what we see as our
delightful music or create space for it. This is sad.
(3) “Deletionism” seems to be getting the upper hand on the Wikipedia.
This pushes some of us to want to stop contributing. When a deserving
article you create gets speedily deleted, that acts as a major
disincentive. This blocks the Wikipedia from playing the role intended for
it.
Sometimes, articles increasingly get pushed to the ‘draft space’, which is
another route to discourage participation. If decisions are taken halfway
round the world on these issues, obviously the result will turn out
skewed. Together with this, there seems to be a genuine difficulty in
understanding the diversity of our planet.
(4) There seem to be other unaddressed problems of systemic bias. This
could stem from a one-size-fits-all approach. Like, for example, a
stringent need for print-based or online citations, especially for entry
into the bigger Wikipedias. (The smaller Wikipedias, fortunately, have
less stringent entry barriers. But these Wikipedias are also not that much
noticed. So these simply cannot change the situation of global information
flows.)
(5) It might seem like the rules are fair and equal to all. Citations,
reliable sources, notable topics, or individuals — all these are crucial to
maintaining “standards”. But how does the bulk of the planet come up with
citations, print references, or online entries to back up its knowledge,
when the information dirt-track has just passed them by? Most of humankind
hasn’t even seen a reporter enter their village, doesn’t have a printing
press for maybe a hundred or more kilometers, and has never been
“researched’ men and women from the ivory towers — global, national or
local — in all their history?
Ours is a complex world. How is it understood in often monolingual distant
parts of the planet, which themselves indulge in so much navel-gazing?
(6) To argue that “oral sources” will bridge this knowledge gap — as has
been done in recent times — isn’t very realistic, These sources would again
need to be “mediated” and “curated” through some intermediaries,
infomediaries, and other third parties. This again makes things unworkable.
Instead, it might be more practical to simply accept that knowledge comes
up in different shapes and forms in diverse parts of the globe. It doesn’t
become credible only once it goes through a lab, a peer-reviewed journal,
or a dominant newspaper.
(7) The balance of control of global knowledge flows is getting
increasingly skewed on the Wikipedia as well. If decisions are primarily
taken through the eyes of North America and Western Europe, the result as a
whole is not going to be very globally representative.
(8) This is not to lobby merely for more decision-makers from the so-called
“Global South”. They could be a privileged lot themselves. But the whole
process through which information flows are mediated and controlled needs
to be made more neutral, free, and open. Give it a rethought, please.
(9) The WIkipedia movement also seems to be shifting away from its
volunteer model. This is what gave it its strength and vitality. We seem
to be moving to an NGO/funded or even corporate model of operations.
Wikipedia may well have the resources to afford this. But could such an
approach actually demoralise volunteers who have, and continue to, put in a
lot of their labour of love?
(10) Issues have been raised about censorship and government manipulation
of the Wikipedia in economies like China. But why stop there? Elsewhere
too, campaigners, dissidents, and oppositional figures are being targeted
on the Wikipedia.
On the recent 20th anniversary of the Wikipedia, I share an article titled
‘Twenty Wiki Regrets’. See ‘Twenty Wiki Regrets’:
*https://www.navhindtimes.in/2021/01/17/magazines/panorama/20-wiki-regrets-2/
<https://www.navhindtimes.in/2021/01/17/magazines/panorama/20-wiki-regrets-2/>*
It voices regret over the inability to extend a great idea like the
Wikipedia to more volunteers across the planet. Yes, there are issues that
need to be addressed. Urgently.
It doesn’t worry me that people from the so-called “Global South” are
struggling to get elected to Wikipedia posts, or that those chosen come
from a small area of the globe.
But at the very least, we need a system that is fair to all, doesn’t take
on simplistic approaches towards enforced uniformity, and starts looking at
all forms of knowledge as potentially useful.
Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia’s co-founder, told everyone: “”Imagine a world
in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum
of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” Indeed a laudable
dream. But that simply can’t happen without the many, thoughtless or
careless roadblocks that are first removed. Please give it a thought.
Regards and good wishes,
Frederick
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[image: Frederick Noronha]
<https://www.opensourceforu.com/author/frederick-noronha/>
Frederick Noronha <https://www.opensourceforu.com/author/frederick-noronha/>
The author is a journalist and FOSS advocate since the end of the last
century. He co-founded BytesForAll, and set up the alternative book
publishing venture Goa, 1556. He has been closely associated with FSUG Goa
and ILUG Goa. He can be contacted at fredericknoronha2(a)gmail.com.
On Wed, 1 Mar 2023 at 16:36, Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <
galder158(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Euphemia,
> This is a great addition to Wikimedia! Thanks for sharing! I wonder how
> you worked on the copyright of the audio files, as I can find it on Commons
> and I'm really interested on that. If you could share the process, it would
> be a great learning path.
>
> Thanks
>
> Galder
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Euphemia Uwandu <sharpay136(a)gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, February 26, 2023 10:00 PM
> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>; Mailing
> list for African Wikimedians <african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>;
> glam(a)lists.wikimedia <glam(a)lists.wikimedia>
> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] [AID Project] Contributing to intangible
> cultural heritage on Wikimedia Projects
>
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
>
> How is underrepresented knowledge on wikimedia projects addressed through
> new ways of contributions? Intangible cultural heritage of different tribes
> in Africa is one such knowledge facing underrepresentation on wikimedia
> projects. As indigenous people migrate to cities; face an aging population
> of cultural guardians and a strong tradition of oral storytelling, it is
> important to save the voices of knowledge at the brink of extinction.
>
> See how
> <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PLcKx0IEGrBKnp455hFAxxv5AFNz5GeY?us…>
> the Wikimedia Foundation is supporting community efforts to digitize
> endangered igbo dances in Nigeria through the AID project
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Audiovisuals_of_Igbo_Dances_(AID)_Project>.
>
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Euphemia Uwandu,
>
> On behalf of the Project Team
>
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