WikiConference India 2023/Discussions and Feedback

28 – 30 April, 2023
Hyderabad, India

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Wikimedia India Mailing list Discussion

We are following up with our commitment of sharing our thinking around the conceptualisation, execution, and evaluation of WikiConference India 2023 (WCI 2023). It has been made clear on the email threads/questions were not directed towards the organisers of the conference but towards Wikimedia Foundation. We hear you, but we also acknowledge the fact that WCI 2023 has been brought in to quote examples several times. As the organisers of the conference, we want to clarify any misconceptions related to the conference. Hence, this is a reflection of the emails on the mailing list.

Our responses henceforth will be only towards direct questions that are related to WCI 2023.

Our responses are grouped across different areas:

• Necessity of the Conference

• WikiConference India 2023 was aimed to provide a space for Indic language Wikimedia communities to meet, connect, and share stories, learnings, best practices, and challenges and discuss the future strategy as a region. It is well recognized in the Wikimedia Movement that building connections among communities and community leaders is very important to further collaboration.
• We had two initial discussions with Indian Wikimedia Communities in 2019 and 2022 regarding WikiConference India. Over 100 individual community members and 14 communities expressed their support for the idea in 2019. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented us from holding the event in 2020. However, in 2022, new volunteer leads took responsibility for the conference and restarted discussions again with good support from community., ultimately making the conference possible.
• A community member recently raised a point that investing in local affiliates and communities is more important than spending money on conferences. However, we believe that both strategies have different goals and outcomes, and both are necessary. Conferences can facilitate meaningful dialogue between affiliates, communities, and volunteers. One of the key outcomes of any conference is the connections that form across communities and regions.

• Transparency

• The decision to prioritise the safety and privacy of participants and organisers over publicity at WCI 2023 was a conscious one. To achieve this, we made several choices, including avoiding press publicity, not inviting local media personalities/politicians, and not having an ongoing social media campaign. We instead provided opportunities for community members to participate by applying for scholarships or registering as self-funded participants (the announcements for which were extensively made on mailing lists). We were clear that unregistered walk-ins or on-ground registrations would not be allowed. A simple registration, which we did through self-funded participation, is a requirement for any conference. What is perceived as secrecy around the WCI 2023 is in-fact a conscious strategy for ensuring safety of the participating Wikimedians.
• Rather than relying on social media campaigns, we communicated and updated the community through community channels. We conducted multiple open community calls from December 2022 to April 2023, where conference leads and CoT members addressed various questions from community members. By prioritising the safety and privacy of participants and organisers, we are creating a safer and more connected community. It is also important to note that the calls were extensively promoted on national and regional/language mailing lists and were made open to all community members, not just participants of the conference. During the calls, updates were provided and questions were answered. The last open call was conducted ten days before the conference, which was again open to all community members.
• An obvious step, which we will be doing is to document all our learnings and how the event went along with the budget in a full detailed grant report (expected to be published by mid-July at max). It would be very helpful if community members engage with the report and provide feedback, which can be used as learnings for the next conference.

• Financial cost

• WikiConference India 2023 prioritised safety and inclusivity, building on past experiences from WikiConference India 2016 and 2011, external organisations (such as universities) offering accommodation or venue support for major conferences can cause logistical issues (for a scale of 200 participants) and pose a threat to participant safety, a concern that was raised by Indian community members during a community call. The organisers took this into account from the outset and the budget was planned accordingly, resulting in a significant impact on the event's financial cost. The participation of 120+ volunteers was supported from the budget.
• The theme of the event was "Strengthening bonds", aimed at facilitating reconnection, idea-sharing, and collaboration among community members from select South Asian regions. To support this goal, 132 volunteer members, including 15 international participants (from SAARC countries and beyond), were awarded scholarships.
• Despite these costs, we took steps to minimise unnecessary expenses. This was reflected in areas such as hospitality and well-planned logistics.

• Inclusion and engagement of communities in participation and decision-making

• WikiConference India 2023 organising team and sub-committees have various volunteer Wikimedia community members. We made a thorough outreach effort for bringing Indian Wikimedia Community members into various committees including the Core organising committee. This includes efforts of “expression of interested volunteers” (which we extended for 15 more days after the deadline), and outreach to various community members.
• We invited various members of the community who showed interest, among which some of them contributed to the conference with great enthusiasm and helpful skills whereas some others could not. Some of the volunteers could not contribute committed time and efforts due to personal reasons. This resulted in existing members taking up more responsibilities.

• Involvement of Wikimedia Foundation staff in the conference

• The committees of WikiConference India 2023 were coordinated by volunteer community members. It is important to acknowledge the support provided by WMF staff members did not undermine the agency of the Core team of WCI 2023. In one of the emails, it was alleged that WMF staff “hijacked” the conference, which is completely unfounded. No one took control “forcibly” from the volunteer organisers, it was a conscious and collaborative effort. In several instances, WMF staff invested their volunteer time to support WCI 2023. This has been crucial for the conference’s success.
• We would like to provide a rough estimate of various categories of programs and the number of participants with different affiliations appeared on stage in the following table:

Category	Community Members	WMF Staff & Contractors	WMF Board members	A2K Staff	External partners	Total
Showcases	25	5	2	1		31
Workshops / Learning activities	6	4				6
Panellists	10	8			1	7 (Panel Discussions)
Facilitators	2	3

• Programs often differ from their initial intentions and planning. The program's team had initially planned to have two community panellists and two external partner panellists in two panels. However, due to some people being unable to attend the event, the programs team had to make on-site decisions which resulted in requesting 4 WMF staff into those panels.
• Programs committee made efforts to

1. Provide opportunity to more Indian community members to share their learnings, best practices, achievements, and issues.
2. Design programs in a way that will help participants to learn and collaborate.

• Active WMF participation

• WMF Staff involvement in official capacity is limited to Operations, Communications, and partly Partnerships committees. During the 2020 grant proposal, we knew that there needed to be professional expertise and commitment to coordinate the conference smoothly.
• Furthermore, we made genuine efforts to assess whether we, as community members, could effectively manage the operations and logistics in our volunteer roles. However, we soon recognized the enormity of the task, which demanded full-time dedication. In the past conferences, heavy lifting logistics (such as travel bookings) by volunteers has led to burnout, which we wanted to consciously avoid from the beginning. We had a full-time conference coordinator and took support from involved WMF staff to handle logistics. Even in such cases, staff members were collaborating with volunteers by helping them learn and lead, against trying to take over. As mentioned, in several instances, the involvement demanded volunteer time from the involved staff. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the WMF staff members who actively participated in the conference and contributed their time and effort. Their commitment and hard work resembled that of dedicated volunteers who genuinely cared about the success of the conference.

We are happy to engage in further conversations with community members, however, it would be better if separate conversations happen in detail across specific areas/points, rather than general messages. We look forward to the conversation and discussion on the Discussion and Feedback talk page on Meta-Wiki, and the report’s talk page when it is published.