Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/2019 Community Conversations/Strategy Salons/Reports/Abidjan Youth Salon/EN
This report is available in French here.
Ce rapport est disponible en français ici.
Date and location[edit]
- Friday 2nd of August 2019
- MediaLab of Internews in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire).
Participants list[edit]
- Kod_b
- TOURE Lamagnigui
- Mognissan
- Modjou
- Olivier Yao
- Papischou
- Kctzch
- Kanga Jean-Claude
- BOKO Yolande
- IVCOM
- Emmanuel DABO
- ELIDJE Nick
- Koffi.noel
- Petrus yh
- ÉBLIN Laure-Karell
- DASSI Estelle
- N’DJA Aya Blassony
- ABLÉ Ablé Jerome C
- GONDO ÉLiézer N.
- CAMARA Aminata
- BAMBA A. Madogna
- Ericoul
- Pauleric01
What happened?[edit]
This salon was about discussing and collecting thoughts from young people about the "Diversity" thematic area within the frame of the new strategic direction of the Wikimedia Movement. The salon gathered 23 participants, 16 men and 7 women. They were in majority pupils and students, aged from 17 to 28, and members of wiki clubs (of UVCI and ISTC universities).
Discussions points[edit]
Two main questions were discussed:
- Q1 - How can we increase awareness about our movement to ensure sufficient and adequate participation of younger people?
- Q2 - What efficient measures should be taken about the future so that Wikimedia as a whole can use languages other than English in its decision making processes, avoiding the obligation to master English?
After discussing all together, two groups answered various questions with the following answers:
Q 1 : How can we increase awareness about our movement to ensure sufficient and adequate participation of younger people?[edit]
- Partner with Youth institutions and organizations in order to benefit from their visibility.
- Sponsor youth's activities, to make Wikimedia's name and image popular with young people.
- Create competitions to encourage hard work and create emulation inside the movement.
- Partner with celebrities followed by youth and associate them with Wiki activities. This would boost communication around our brand and movement towards youth.
- Communicate more about "success stories" inside the Wiki movement. With a focus on women's. Indeed, our movement is full of young men and women who excel at what they do and are successful in their professional lives. So the movement should better highlight their stories and benefit from their success.
- Better cover Wiki activities in the media (TV, radio), which continue to be the best channels to reach the population, to have movement's activities better known to the broader public.
- Organize projects targeting (young) women in order to encourage them to appropriate the movement and engage more in its activities.
Q 2 : What efficient measures should be taken about the future so that Wikimedia as a whole can use languages other than English in its decision making processes, avoiding the obligation to master English?[edit]
- Use instant translation applications during international meetings. This tool should allow participants to understand each other easily.
- Document languages to facilitate translations.
- Create a "language" and codes for Wikimedians, using terms that will allow Wikimedians to understand each other without needing a translator or an application.
- Use interprets for big international gatherings, to break language barriers during these events.
- Establish a system of "turning languages" for international events. E.g.: Wikimania 2020 in German, Wikimania 2021 in English, then Spanish, etc.
- Organize capacity building programs about languages used for the events.
- How to chose languages: popularity, survey/vote, number of articles on Wikipedia (minimum of 2 millions)
Main points of agreement or disagreement[edit]
Gender promotion[edit]
To some participants, creating projects specifically targeted at young women, while they are by default included in the other projects, could constitute discrimination against men. Others believe it is necessary to focus on women to attract them to the movement and make they feel more engaged. Also, to avoid giving the impression of discriminating men, a participant suggested that such projects should not be labeled "women projects" but "projects about women's activities", so they can include male participation.
English monopoly over international events[edit]
One participant says she thinks creating a tool for instant translation could help with language barriers in international events.
Create a specific ‘language’ and codes for Wikimedians[edit]
According to the participants who made this suggestions, we could find "expressions" or "codes with images and colors". For example, in Wiki events, someone who does not want to be photographed has a specific badge color. Following this principle, we could create signs or symbols which meaning are known to all wikimedians.
"Turning language for international events[edit]
While one participant thinks this idea will not resolve the language barrier problem, others feel that it could avoid English's monopoly and encourage Wikimedians to get interested in other languages, making the effort to understand them. Also, this would allow some emulation between the members who want to participate in international events: indeed, because of English's dominance, people who know this language are privileged during the selection process. Yet, many Wikimedians who master other languages are eager to share their expertise, which would be valuable to the community.
Stand up for national (african) languages[edit]
One participant was concerned that african languages remain essentially oral, despite their undeniable cultural richness. Another responded that one solution could be intensifying production of documentary resources, with projects like Wiki Kouman (content production about local languages of Côte d'Ivoire on the Wiktionary and related projects like Lingua Libre).
Photographies[edit]
