Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/2019 Community Conversations/Strategy Salons/Reports/Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong
Date and location[edit]
- Date: 20 July 2019
- Time: 17:00 - 22:00
- Location: Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Participant List[edit]
Organisers (2):
- WhisperToMe (Strategy Liaison)
- 無聊龍
Participants (8):
What happened[edit]
The Strategy Salon was held in a seminar-over-dinner format. At the beginning of the salon, the faciliators led a short icebreaker activity, to prepare everybody for the coming programmes. Then we started the discussion by introducing the movement strategy process and the 2 thematic areas in the programme - namely Diversity and Community Health. During the discussion, participants were encouraged to raise their personal experiences (good or not-so-good) and recommendations related to the thematic areas. Sticky notes were provided for sharing individual's ideas with the whole group. We spent about 1 to 1.5 hours in each thematic area.
Summary of the discussion points[edit]
Diversity[edit]
- Attracting more women
- The group members strongly agreed that the user group needs to focus on attracting additional female and female-identifying contributors. One roadblock is that some male editors have not had strong friendships or contacts with women, so they don’t have a strong potential pool of women who they know who may be interested in attending. One important step in doing this is strictly enforcing the safe space policy as many women are concerned for their personal safety and comfort. In addition, occasionally asking women to speak first may have a positive effect on contributions from women.
- Attracting expatriates
- The idea of recruiting expatriates was raised. Users identified some possible roadblocks: Some of them may not have many contacts with expatriates and are not sufficiently acquainted with them. In addition, some expatriates may be especially busy with work. I (WhisperToMe) personally identified another roadblock: many expatriates are only in Hong Kong for a short period of time and may leave after work contracts expire.
- Additional safe space considerations
- Some people are particularly shy and/or do not want their photographs taken. Diversity also means accommodating other personality types and those with different habits, so enforcement of the safe space policy helps include them.
Community Health[edit]
- What are the things within your community or project that create barriers to involvement for you or for other people due to personal identity?
- Older and more-experienced Wikimedians tends to prejudice against newer Wikimedians. Some of them showed intolerance to newbies who are not yet familiar with project policies and rules.
- Tension among Wikimedians from different geographical regions, or holding different political stance can build up quickly in larger projects. Incivility and clashes often occurs in community discussions hindering further involvement.
- Many offline meetups and events are dominated by males. Female Wikimedians can find the atmosphere too hostile and would be hesitant to show up in offline events.
- What do you think would improve participation in your community?
- Establish a universal code of conduct and universal friendly space expectation governing all on-wiki and off-wiki community interactions.
- Provide resources to affiliates on understanding and catering various community members each having different needs.
- Create more opportunities for online engagement (IM channels, discussion boards, etc) rather than offline (meetups, conferences, etc). Having to show up face-to-face can be a significant barrier to participation.
- Who is responsible for taking action against bad behaviour now? Who should be responsible for taking action against bad behaviour?
- Taking action against bad behaviour is currently done by individuals such as project admins or event organisers. The current model can be sub-optimal, as these individuals are typically not trained to deal with these incidents. Affiliates should receive more resources and training on tackling bad behaviour and incidents. A possible model to this would be to establish volunteer Trust and Safety teams at affiliate level to better respond to incidents within their respective communities.
- What do you think would improve civility in your community? What prevents contributors from taking action against bad behaviour?
- Code of Conduct and Friendly Space Expectation can provide guidelines on dealing with incivility. However such policies can be inconsistent from place to place, and it can be difficult to enact in real-world situations. (Example: How can you remove a event-banned person from a event held in an open area? As the organising team does not have full control on the venue, the laws regarding trespassing can not be applied.)
- Who is responsible for the individual health of contributors in your community?
- Currently, few mechanisms are dedicated to the individual health of contributors. Individual contributors may find helpless when they encounter individual difficulties arising from Wikimedia or non-Wikimedia affairs.
- What do you think would improve the individual health of contributors in your community?
- Provide resources to affiliates on individual crisis management (one idea is to develop a "mental/emotional first aid kit" for affiliates and their members).
- What else do you suggest to improve overall community health in the Wikimedia community?
- Strengthen the cooperation and mutual trust among individual Wikimedians, various groups, and affiliates.
- Encourage projects to set up and maintain effective dispute resolution means.
Reflections from participants or partners[edit]
The community agreed that the event is generally well-presented; however most of the participants are experienced users within the community, and the representation of women's and newcomers' voices are under our expectation.
Photographs or videos[edit]
Statement on your budget[edit]
| Income | Amount(USD) |
|---|---|
| Grants | 600.00 |
| Deducted: Bank charges | (27.69) |
| Net income | 572.31 |
| Expenses | Amount(USD) |
| Food + Beverages | 145.21 |
| Transportation | 31.69 |
| Accommodation / Venue | 211.29 |
| Materials + Supplies | 31.91 |
| Net Expenses | 420.11 |
| Unused funds (USD) | 152.20 |