Reimagining Wikidata from the margins | document/manifesto | June-October 2021

"Wikidata’s ecosystem has been rapidly growing over the last nine years ...[but] we’re still missing Global South and other marginalized communities from the North - both in data and in contributors....

Reimagining Wikidata from the margins is a process that precedes WikidataCon 2021 and that potentially will continue after the conference in October. This is an invitation to communities and individuals from underrepresented groups (plus good allies!) so we can better understand and envision possible ways for our meaningful and empowered agency in the broad Wikidata ecosystem!

Objectives

• Awaken the debate within a diverse range of communities from Global South and other marginalized communities
• Foment bonds between communities in similar contexts
• Identify specific and general problems/challenges/needs/expectations from those communities regarding Wikidata
• Elaborate collaboratively a strategy for decentering Wikidata from its current focus on North America and Europe
• Consolidate a document/manifesto
• Integrate to the conference program this decentering perspectives and the Global South voice...

How will it work?...After the rounds of conversations, we will gather a group of volunteers who participated in them to draft a document, summarizing the discussions and looking for possible ways to further integrate data and volunteers from marginalized communities on Wikidata. The document will be released during WikidataCon 2021, in the hope that it will be an initial step towards effectively decentering Wikidata and lifting up underrepresented voices....

Timeline:

• June/July: First round of discussions with local communities
• August: Round of thematic meetings with people from different locations
• September: A volunteer committee engaged on previous discussions gather for writing a document/manifesto
• October: Final review of the document and launching at WikidataCon 2021..."