Wikimedia Taiwan/Projects/Youth Strategy Salon - Diversity

Date and place

Day : 8 September 2019
Time : 10:00am-12:15pm
Place : Rolling in Life

Participants

The session started with participants presenting themselves.

Jamie Lin, Wikimedia Taiwan
Aaron Huang, Wikimedia Taiwan
reke, Wikimedia Taiwan
ffaar, Wikimedia Taiwan
Liang-chih ShangKuan, Wikimedia Taiwan
Allen Wang, Wikidata Taiwan
Aries Cs, Wikidata Taiwan
Monica Mu, Wikidata Taiwan
Jamie Tu, Wikidata Taiwan
Helen Chiu, Wikidata Taiwan
shibasalmon Wikidata Taiwan
Tsuna Lu, MoWiki Community(Taichung)
Ulysses Yang, NTU WIKI CLUB
FireFeather, NTU WIKI CLUB
Jimi zhang, Art Creator Union
Chien-Yu Lin, Taiwan Art Gallery Association
Pinhua, artist
David Ho, volunteer
Tony Kuo, volunteer
Yan, volunteer
KOKUYO, volunteer

Local Context

Wikimedia Taiwan, is the local Wikimedia chapter in Taiwan. The organization was founded on February 11, 2007 in Taipei and was recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation on July 4, 2007. Not just being an official wikimedia organization in Taiwan, Wikimedia Taiwan also put lots of effort on different topics from women's rights, medicine and public health to regional development of wikimedia movement in Asia.

Right now, there are 9 board members(Male ：Female = 5：4) and 1 executive manager in Wikimedia Taiwan. We support lectures and activities to promote wikimedia movement and various projects, locally and internationally. Editathon about female scientists and activists, human anatomy and disease were held every year. We also work with various groups, government officials, universities and museums. But how to build and sustain a team with diversity, and in a manner, respond to different team cultures, remains a big challenge to Wikimedia Taiwan and local communities in the near future.

Presentation about Wikimedia movement in Taiwan

	Jamie Lin Jamie Lin, behalf Wikimedia Taiwan, gave a brief introduction to participants about the Wikimedia movement and communities development in Taiwan recently.		Liang-Chih ShangKuan Liang-Chih ShangKuan, Members of Wikimedia Taiwan, share his thoughts and experiences about the strategy process of Wikimedia 2030 to the audiences, as an icebreaker of Youth strategy salon.

Embedding diversity and inclusion

Why do we need to build a diverse environment within wikimedia communities ?

We are living in a world with diversity from the beginning, the same in our communities. Ignore all those differences, not just a simplification of the reality, it also would be very dangerous, especially in this “post-truth” world.

We could expect the benefits of diversity in the communities：

Higher engagement
Reduced turnover rate
Increased creativity and innovations
Better reputation of organization

People from different backgrounds can offer a diverse profile of talents and experiences, that may be of benefit to the project and organization, and bring out different aspects of the same topic. Though some crossover of expertise can be beneficial when it comes to assisting each other, it’s important to make people with the appropriate skills to fit each of the roles within the communities. A variety of skills and experiences among the team also means that members can learn from each other.

How do we embed the value of diversity in the communities while working together as a community leader ? What should we expect？

Communities with diversity include individuals with a variety of different characteristics, such as gender, age, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity, political views and cultural backgrounds.

Community diversity starts with recruitment. If you want to build diversity in an open knowledge community, you first need to engage with diverse candidates as community leaders. And respect is always an essential value while you want to include everyone.

Reviewing the existing community management policies with a diversity lens. Develop and implement diversity-friendly and inclusive ones. Offer flexible schedules, various choices of modern digital communication tools, meal choices, recreational activities, etc. Build an environment that allow everyone feel relaxed and welcomed to express themselves. And other feedback from discussion：

Do communication in a new way

Finding novel places or topics where people feel safe and confident is a great way to start a real conversation in the community. Real eye contact and open attitude is important while talking. Try to list all the conclusion during the meeting to make sure everyone is on the same page and publish it on an open platform.

Encourage cross-over teamwork

People would be so competitive sometimes, and it occurs across all cultures and ages. But cooperate with people from different backgrounds is important to creativity. Organize teams by projects or the same time arrangement, rather than age and expertise, or pair people together who normally don't interact to work on something never have been done before. The teamwork will follow.

Show how to offer honest feedback if you are a community leader

Making friendly rules and post it on top in community’s fan page. Zero-tolerance to improperly expressions and discrimination. Keep every discussion open, organised and searchable. Help the new members to learn from education materials and guide them to find answers by themselves, then always encourage them to speak out their thoughts anytime. Finally, delicious foods are always a useful way to connect everyone.

We always face lots of differences on management style. How to create and manage a safe environment for community members to speak up ？

Creating an environment where members can feel psychologically safe and can speak up is important in a diverse community.

Increase self-disclosure – make people feel free to express themselves

Members in this forum all agree that people stay open and ready to share anytime, plays an important role in community management. All the members need to know they would not face harsh comments from others in any discussion.

Be interested in your team - Include everyone in the meeting

Notice subtle hints that people are anxious or fearful, check in with them, be interested in them, and support each other. Take turns in conversation – listen, ask questions. Don’t dominate the conversation always. Rather than focusing on blame someone for the mistake, focus on what we could learn from it. Figure out how to fix the system and rules together is also a good way to build a diverse team.

How could we integrate the value of diversity in Chinese Wikimedia Movement ecosystem ?

The Chinese Wikimedia Communities involve a huge number of members and a variety of cultural backgrounds. Editors from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Malaysia and Singapore are all using Chinese Wikipedia, for instance. But the direct and indirect, verbal and non-verbal insulting is more and more common now.

To make some improvement of this situation, we think we need to reveal the truth and speak up to the global communities more often. Wikipedia projects should not become tools for people who want to manipulate the truth. We should encourage minority groups edit Wikipedia and introduce their culture in their mother language as soon as possible. Try to record different views on tech, environment issues, rather drag the whole movement in the political mud.

Group Pictures

Eating, communicating and thinking

Useful documentation

Statement on your budget

This figure shows the total amount of the budget and spending on three strategy salons Wikimedia Taiwan held.

Budget	Amount (USD)
Grants	1990.00
Deducted: Bank charges	0
Net income	1990.00

Expenses	Amount (USD)
Space	381.7
Equipment	0
Meal and Refreshment	540.81
Facilitator	0
Transportation fee	18.71
Net Expenses	946.41

Unused funds (USD)	1043.39