Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary
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0:08 - 0:11Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
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0:11 - 0:13the chair of Wikimania 2012,
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0:13 - 0:15James Hare.
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0:15 - 0:24[applause]
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0:24 - 0:26Good morning everyone.
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0:26 - 0:28On behalf of Wikimedia District of Columbia
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0:28 - 0:30I would like to welcome all of you
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0:30 - 0:32to Wikimania 2012.
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0:32 - 0:42[applause]
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0:42 - 0:45I would like to thank our partners and collaborators:
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0:45 - 0:48the US Department of State Office of E-Diplomacy,
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0:48 - 0:49the Library of Congress,
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0:49 - 0:51the Wikimedia Foundation,
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0:51 - 0:53Wikimedia Deutschland,
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0:53 - 0:55the National Archives and Records Administration,
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0:55 - 0:58OpenHatch, the Broadcasting Board of Governors,
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0:58 - 0:59for working with us to make
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0:59 - 1:01this conference possible.
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1:01 - 1:09[applause]
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1:09 - 1:11I would also like to thank our sponsors:
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1:11 - 1:15Google, Ask.com, Zoomph, the Encyclopedia of Life,
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1:15 - 1:18the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Wikia,
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1:18 - 1:20the Saylor Foundation and wikiHow
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1:20 - 1:22for their generous contributions.
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1:22 - 1:28[applause]
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1:28 - 1:29Finally, I would like to thank
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1:29 - 1:31our incredible conference organizing team
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1:31 - 1:33which has been working in one way or another
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1:33 - 1:37since January 22nd 2011 to make
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1:37 - 1:39this conference possible.
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1:39 - 1:42Nicholas Bashour, Katie Filbert, Tiffany Smith,
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1:42 - 1:45Orsolya Virág, Deror Lin, Sage Ross,
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1:45 - 1:48Chad Horohoe, and our legion of volunteers
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1:48 - 1:50all led by Danny B.
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1:50 - 1:58[cheers and applause]
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1:58 - 1:59I would also like to point out
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1:59 - 2:00that during this conference there will be
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2:00 - 2:03many side events taking place during the evening.
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2:03 - 2:05Tonight we have GLAM Night Out at the Newseum
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2:05 - 2:06and the official Wikimania Happy Hour
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2:06 - 2:09sponsored by Zoomph at Tonic.
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2:09 - 2:10Check out the information desk on the
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2:10 - 2:11third floor of the Marvin Center if you'd
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2:11 - 2:17like to learn more about our side events.
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2:17 - 2:18I'm glad you could join us this morning
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2:18 - 2:19with this excellent weather.
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2:19 - 2:22You see, I edited the Wikipedia article
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2:22 - 2:23on DC summers to say that
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2:23 - 2:26we don't have 100 degree heat waves
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2:26 - 2:28and apparently it worked!
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2:28 - 2:33[laughter and applause]
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2:33 - 2:35If you have attended a previous Wikimania
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2:35 - 2:36welcome back!
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2:36 - 2:37If this is your first Wikimania,
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2:37 - 2:39I'd like to introduce you to the
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2:39 - 2:41events of the next few days.
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2:41 - 2:43Wikimania is where you go to meet the people
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2:43 - 2:45who work on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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2:45 - 2:47which is maintained by volunteers
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2:47 - 2:50and operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
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2:50 - 2:53That's Wikimedia with an "M".
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2:53 - 2:57The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization
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2:57 - 3:00that runs Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote,
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3:00 - 3:04Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikinews, Wikiversity,
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3:04 - 3:06Wikispecies, the MediaWiki software project,
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3:06 - 3:09Wikimedia Commons, and I'd like to introduce
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3:09 - 3:13our latest project under development, WikiData.
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3:13 - 3:19[applause]
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3:19 - 3:21Volunteers for all these projects and more
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3:21 - 3:23will be here today, discussing their latest findings,
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3:23 - 3:26and pondering the future of the Wikimedia projects.
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3:26 - 3:30It is going to be an exciting four days.
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3:30 - 3:32But first I would like to introduce our first speaker
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3:32 - 3:34Dawn Nunziato.
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3:34 - 3:36Professor Nunziato is an internationally recognized
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3:36 - 3:39expert in the area of free speech and the Internet.
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3:39 - 3:42Her primary teaching and scholarship interests
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3:42 - 3:45are in the areas of Internet law, free speech and digital copyright.
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3:45 - 3:47She recently published her book
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3:47 - 3:50"Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age"
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3:50 - 3:52and has lectured and written extensively on
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3:52 - 3:54issues involving free speech and the Internet.
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3:54 - 3:57Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Dawn Nunziato.
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3:57 - 4:01[applause]
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4:07 - 4:10Good morning and thank you for that kind welcome.
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4:10 - 4:13On behalf of GW Law School
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4:13 - 4:17I'd like to welcome you all to our Lisner auditorium.
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4:17 - 4:19It's a great honor for GW Law School
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4:19 - 4:22to partner with the Department of State
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4:22 - 4:25on important and exciting events like this one.
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4:25 - 4:29And GW Law School, under our relatively new dean,
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4:29 - 4:32Paul Berman, is particularly committed to
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4:32 - 4:37bridging the gap between the ivory tower of academia
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4:37 - 4:43and the real world of law and policy and practice.
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4:43 - 4:45We're particularly committed to capitalizing
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4:45 - 4:49on our location in the nation's capital
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4:49 - 4:52and are very honored to sponsor and support
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4:52 - 4:54events like this.
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4:54 - 4:58As we said, at GW Law, professors like myself
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4:58 - 5:02are particularly focused on cyberlaw issues.
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5:02 - 5:07I teach in the area of Internet law, digital copyright
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5:07 - 5:09and free speech.
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5:09 - 5:13And toward that end with Microsoft's generous support
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5:13 - 5:16my colleague Artuno Carrillo and I created
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5:16 - 5:19a program and a speaker series
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5:19 - 5:22on global Internet freedom and human rights.
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5:22 - 5:24We're very excited to be sponsoring
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5:24 - 5:26a number of speakers in connection with
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5:26 - 5:27that speaker series:
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5:27 - 5:30Vint Cerf is going to come and speak to us
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5:30 - 5:32in a couple of months;
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5:32 - 5:35Ai Weiwei, Chinese human rights activist,
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5:35 - 5:39is hopefully going to be let out of China
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5:39 - 5:42to come speak to us on global Internet freedom issues;
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5:42 - 5:44we sponsored Rebecca MacKinnon,
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5:44 - 5:47the author of "Consent of the Networked",
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5:47 - 5:50an Internet free speech activist,
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5:50 - 5:53last year as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series,
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5:53 - 5:55so we're really excited about that.
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5:55 - 5:59GW Law was recently chosen to be the new home
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5:59 - 6:03of the Federal Communications Law Journal,
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6:03 - 6:04we look forward to working with the
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6:04 - 6:06Federal Communications Bar here in DC
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6:06 - 6:09on cutting-edge issues of communications law.
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6:09 - 6:14And in connection with that, FCC Chairman Genachowski
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6:14 - 6:15is going to come to speak to us
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6:15 - 6:19to launch that new journal in a few months.
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6:19 - 6:22So we're very active on these types of issues
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6:22 - 6:25and we're very exciting to be sponsoring
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6:25 - 6:28and supporting events like these.
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6:28 - 6:31I'm also very proud of the work of my colleagues
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6:31 - 6:34Dan Solove and Orin Kerr,
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6:34 - 6:35who you may be familiar with,
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6:35 - 6:37who are leaders in the areas of
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6:37 - 6:40Internet privacy and cybercrime.
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6:40 - 6:41So we've got a lot going on here
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6:41 - 6:45at GW Law, and in particular our new dean,
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6:45 - 6:50Paul Berman, is a world-reknowned expert in Internet law issues
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6:50 - 6:52and the author of a well-regarded casebook
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6:52 - 6:54on the subject.
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6:54 - 6:58So once again welcome to all of you
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6:58 - 7:00and on with the show!
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7:00 - 7:05[applause]
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7:05 - 7:07At Wikimania we have the great privilege
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7:07 - 7:10of working with the US Department of State
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7:10 - 7:11for our Tech@State track.
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7:11 - 7:14Our next speaker Richard Boly is a career US diplomat
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7:14 - 7:17and the current Director of the Office of eDiplomacy
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7:17 - 7:21an applied technology think tank for the US Department of State.
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7:21 - 7:23Previously he was a National Security Affairs Fellow
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7:23 - 7:26at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University
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7:26 - 7:28where he launched a global entrepreneurship program.
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7:28 - 7:30Ladies and gentlemen, Richard Boly.
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7:30 - 7:38[applause]
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7:38 - 7:42Good morning Wikipedians and Wikimedians!
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7:42 - 7:47[applause]
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7:47 - 7:48My name's Richard Boly and
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7:48 - 7:51I am part of the Office of eDiplomacy
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7:51 - 7:54at the State Department, despite the suit,
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7:54 - 7:58we feel that we are kindred spirits with you!
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7:58 - 8:00Uh, actually I would like to ask
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8:00 - 8:04all the people from eDiplomacy here to stand up briefly
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8:04 - 8:07just stand up so you can search them out
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8:07 - 8:09and find out more about what we're doing.
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8:09 - 8:14[applause]
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8:14 - 8:16We're so excited about being able to partner
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8:16 - 8:19with you and with GW Law School
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8:19 - 8:23and we will have as part of our Tech@State track
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8:23 - 8:25some really interesting presentations
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8:25 - 8:28which dovetail perfectly with the conference.
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8:28 - 8:32Actually one of the two best known platforms
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8:32 - 8:34that we have or products that we offer
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8:34 - 8:37in eDiplomacy are Tech@State,
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8:37 - 8:39this quarterly conference on the convergence
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8:39 - 8:42of technology, foreign policy and development; and
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8:42 - 8:46the other is Diplopedia, built on MediaWiki.
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8:46 - 8:48And you'll get a chance tomorrow morning to hear
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8:48 - 8:50from Tiffany Smith and Chris Bronk
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8:50 - 8:52who will be talking about that as part of
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8:52 - 8:56the Tech@State track.
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8:56 - 8:57I also wanted to give a shout out to Tim Hayes
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8:57 - 9:00who has been curating these Tech@States,
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9:00 - 9:01and I think he's still over at the Marvin Center
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9:01 - 9:02checking people in.
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9:02 - 9:04Tim has been a huge driver in making
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9:04 - 9:07this collaboration possible.
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9:07 - 9:12But really, my goal here is to bring the words
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9:12 - 9:15of our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
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9:15 - 9:17The Secretary of State would have loved to have been here
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9:17 - 9:19but unfortunately is travelling.
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9:19 - 9:22And she did pen a letter that she asked me
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9:22 - 9:25to share with you and we will scan the signed letter
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9:25 - 9:30and make it available obviously on the wiki website.
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9:30 - 9:33So here goes.
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9:33 - 9:34Dear friends,
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9:34 - 9:37On behalf of the US Department of State,
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9:37 - 9:40I am delighted to extend my heartfelt congratulations
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9:40 - 9:44on the opening of Wikimania 2012
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9:44 - 9:47and the Tech@State Wiki.gov.
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9:47 - 9:49I commend each of you for your dedication
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9:49 - 9:51to enhancing global understanding
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9:51 - 9:54through the many projects and initiatives
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9:54 - 9:58that the Wikimedia Foundation supports.
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9:58 - 10:00Wikimania 2012 highlights the intersection
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10:00 - 10:03of government and community goals.
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10:03 - 10:06It demonstrates how we are breaking down the barriers
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10:06 - 10:09between governments and the citizens they serve
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10:09 - 10:12by making readily available critical information
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10:12 - 10:15that is often difficult to find.
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10:15 - 10:17The US Department of State supports these
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10:17 - 10:20endeavours in technology, knowledge sharing,
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10:20 - 10:23and community building, as they are important
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10:23 - 10:27pillars of our 21st century state-craft agenda.
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10:27 - 10:30I am a staunch advocate of bringing technology
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10:30 - 10:33and knowledge to citizens around the world
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10:33 - 10:35and I believe it is vitally important that
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10:35 - 10:38our diplomats understand the huge potential
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10:38 - 10:40of using connection technologies
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10:40 - 10:44as a way to reach foreign audiences.
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10:44 - 10:46The world is more connected now
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10:46 - 10:47than ever before.
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10:47 - 10:50But there is still much work to be done
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10:50 - 10:53to fully capitalize on the potential of
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10:53 - 10:55this interconnection.
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10:55 - 10:56There are many people who are
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10:56 - 11:00disenfranchised because they lack access to information.
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11:00 - 11:01There are others whose contribution would
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11:01 - 11:05make our collective knowledge richer
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11:05 - 11:08but they face risks and difficulties in doing so.
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11:08 - 11:10Your work in the Wikimedia Foundation
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11:10 - 11:13contributes greatly to achieving our shared goal
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11:13 - 11:18of making information more open and accessible.
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11:18 - 11:19Thank you for your efforts
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11:19 - 11:21and please know you have my best wishes
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11:21 - 11:26for a productive and enjoyable Wikimania 2012.
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11:26 - 11:28With appreciation and best regards,
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11:28 - 11:31I am, sincerely yours, signed,
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11:31 - 11:33Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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11:33 - 11:34Thank you.
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11:34 - 11:46[applause]
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11:46 - 11:47Now I would like to introduce
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11:47 - 11:51our keynote speaker for Wikimania 2012,
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11:51 - 11:52Mary Gardiner.
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11:52 - 11:53She is an open source developer,
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11:53 - 11:55computer science graduate student,
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11:55 - 11:57and women in open source advocate
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11:57 - 11:59with over 10 years of experience.
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11:59 - 12:01Mary's research is in lexical semantics
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12:01 - 12:04and concentrates on how changes in word choice
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12:04 - 12:06can affect meaning and tone.
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12:06 - 12:08Before entering graduate school she worked
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12:08 - 12:10as a senior software engineer for a year
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12:10 - 12:12and contributed code to the Python-based
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12:12 - 12:14Twisted project.
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12:14 - 12:16In 2011, she co-founded the Ada Initiative,
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12:16 - 12:19supporting women in open technology and culture.
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12:19 - 12:21Ladies and gentlemen, Mary Gardiner.
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12:21 - 12:25[applause]
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12:35 - 12:36Good morning Wikimanians,
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12:36 - 12:39good morning Tech@State attendees.
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12:39 - 12:46[laughter]
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12:46 - 12:49So as interesting as computational lexical semantics
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12:49 - 12:53and computational sentiment analysis are
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12:53 - 12:55I am not going to talk about my PhD work today
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12:55 - 12:57I am talking about my new project,
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12:57 - 12:59work with my new project, the Ada Initiative,
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12:59 - 13:02which is a US-based non-profit
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13:02 - 13:04supporting women in open technology and culture,
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13:04 - 13:07which very much includes wiki projects
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13:07 - 13:08and other open knowledge projects,
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13:08 - 13:13also open source, remix culture, open government,
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13:13 - 13:15open data projects and similar.
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13:15 - 13:17And what I'm going to talk about specifically
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13:17 - 13:20is fostering diversity in these kinds of projects.
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13:20 - 13:23Broadly, uh, not only gender diversity
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13:23 - 13:26but diversity across different economic backgrounds,
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13:26 - 13:29different geographic origins, different ethnic origins,
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13:29 - 13:32and so on.
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13:32 - 13:34Ah, so I subtitled my talk maybe
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13:34 - 13:36in a slightly inflammatory way,
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13:36 - 13:40I wrote "not a boring chore, a criticial opportunity"
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13:40 - 13:42because there can this temptation
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13:42 - 13:45hopefully not succumbed to too much within this room
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13:45 - 13:49to view diversity as essentially a PR exercise
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13:49 - 13:55that a more diverse project looks better.
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13:55 - 13:59It is however of course crucial in a project
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13:59 - 14:03with a mission like that of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
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14:03 - 14:09to encompass some, in the case of Wikipedia
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14:09 - 14:13an encyclopedia covering the um, the sum of human knowledge
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14:13 - 14:17ultimately, obviously to incorporate the sum of human knowledge
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14:17 - 14:21you need to incorporate the sum of humans in some crucial way.
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14:21 - 14:26So it should be fairly obvious that therefore
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14:26 - 14:36diversity is one of the key goals of Wikimania projects.
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14:36 - 14:39OK, so first of all I just want to talk a little bit about
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14:39 - 14:41wiki projects as social change.
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14:41 - 14:45Uh, it's not what everyone involved in wiki projects
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14:45 - 14:48is aiming for, uh, I mean there are different
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14:48 - 14:50reasons you want to build the sum of human knowledge
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14:50 - 14:53and creating social change is only one of them.
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14:53 - 14:56But it is something that happens as we build these projects
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14:56 - 14:59and make them freely available, that things change
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14:59 - 15:01both because of the project and ah,
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15:01 - 15:06with the momentum of the projects.
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15:06 - 15:09So just ah as a very narrow example,
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15:09 - 15:12this is from Joseph Reagle's keynote last year,
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15:12 - 15:13he mentioned the Aardwolf article
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15:13 - 15:16back in 2001 on Wikipedia,
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15:16 - 15:18back when each Wikipedia title had to
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15:18 - 15:20contain at least two captial letters,
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15:20 - 15:24which is why it's AardwolF with a captial F.
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15:24 - 15:31And South AfricA, yes, so it has a terminal A and so forth.
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15:31 - 15:35Anyway so apparently the article read in total
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15:35 - 15:37"Aardwolf, small animal from South Africa,
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15:37 - 15:39related to the hyena, lives in the ground,
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15:39 - 15:41nocturnal hunter."
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15:41 - 15:46And now you have the typical Wikipedia zoological article
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15:46 - 15:50with zoological classifications, behavior characteristics,
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15:50 - 15:51geographic distribution and so on.
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15:51 - 15:53So, OK, so that's not social change,
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15:53 - 15:56that's Wikipedia changing.
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15:56 - 16:02Stepping out to one particular individual.
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16:02 - 16:08That, that's me when I was fourteen years old.
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16:08 - 16:10The reason this is not the most flattering
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16:10 - 16:12photo of me at fourteen years old is that
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16:12 - 16:14I mean I was pretty sort of awkward and gawky and so on
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16:14 - 16:15but it's not the most flattering photo
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16:15 - 16:18and the reason is that I asked my father to scan these
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16:18 - 16:19and this was the most flattering photo
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16:19 - 16:20of the ones he sent.
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16:20 - 16:24[laughter]
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16:24 - 16:27So the Wikipedia related point here is that
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16:27 - 16:31I was a pretty nerdy teenager, um, I would have been
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16:31 - 16:32about fourteen.
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16:32 - 16:33For my fourteenth birthday I got
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16:33 - 16:35a reference work for my birthday.
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16:35 - 16:37It was "The Penguin Book of Curious Interesting Numbers".
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16:37 - 16:39It goes from minus one up to Graham's number
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16:39 - 16:43skipping some numbers in between.
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16:43 - 16:47Ah, and I read it in numerical order.
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16:47 - 16:49And this is a person who really needed Wikipedia,
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16:49 - 16:53but it didn't exist.
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16:54 - 16:58OK, so now that person, when I wrote these slides
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16:58 - 17:01these were the last fifteen or so Wikipedia pages
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17:01 - 17:03that showed up in my browser history
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17:03 - 17:05skipping all articles I read on individual
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17:05 - 17:07members of the Beatles, because
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17:07 - 17:08that wouldn't be very interesting.
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17:08 - 17:11[laughter]
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17:11 - 17:13So, you know, OK, that's not social —
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17:13 - 17:15I mean that's social change in that it affected me
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17:15 - 17:19but it's important to note that like,
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17:19 - 17:22I am in my early thirties
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17:22 - 17:24I've been taken from this thing of you know
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17:24 - 17:26having my one book, my one precious book
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17:26 - 17:27of numbers that you know
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17:27 - 17:31I read to death, through to be able to
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17:31 - 17:34read about colorectal cancer and T-Mobile USA
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17:34 - 17:40in the same two day period.
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17:40 - 17:43OK. Uh, again social change that Wikipedians
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17:43 - 17:45are very familiar with.
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17:45 - 17:49In 1990 Encyclopedia Britannica sold, had their
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17:49 - 17:50highest sales volume before or since of
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17:50 - 17:53120 000 printed copies of the encyclopedia.
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17:53 - 17:56I never had one, I spent most of my—
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17:56 - 17:57maybe not when I was fourteen
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17:57 - 18:02but I spent most of my pre-teen years wishing that I did.
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18:02 - 18:05OK, well, a couple of years ago as you know
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18:05 - 18:07they sold around 8500 copies and they closed
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18:07 - 18:09their printed edition down
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18:09 - 18:10but they did report that they had
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18:10 - 18:12450 million visits to their website.
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18:12 - 18:16That does include the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
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18:16 - 18:21Way back in 2006, practically pre-history,
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18:21 - 18:2418% of the world's population was using the Internet
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18:24 - 18:27only 3% of the, of the two continents listed here
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18:27 - 18:30are the two smallest percentages reported on
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18:30 - 18:33that Wikipedia page that I'm using as a reference.
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18:33 - 18:34And I'm told you're not meant to do that,
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18:34 - 18:36I'm not sure if that's true in this crowd.
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18:36 - 18:38[laughter]
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18:38 - 18:413% of the African population using the Internet
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18:41 - 18:43and 11% of the Asia-Pacific population
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18:43 - 18:45using the Internet.
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18:45 - 18:49OK, again using Wikipedia as a reference
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18:49 - 18:5335% of the world's population using the Internet,
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18:53 - 18:5813% of the African population, a four times increase.
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18:58 - 19:0027% of the Asia-Pacific population, more than doubled
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19:00 - 19:02using the Internet.
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19:02 - 19:04So here we have real social change.
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19:04 - 19:08And Encyclopedia Britannica has gone away
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19:08 - 19:11and 35% of the world's population is using the Internet.
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19:11 - 19:13So this is the kind of story that as you know
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19:13 - 19:16Wikimedia projects are part of.
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19:16 - 19:18The mooted at least death of print,
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19:18 - 19:23open access, e-books, ultimately the Internet.
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19:23 - 19:29OK, so we get to the topic of diversity
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19:29 - 19:31and how that relates.
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19:31 - 19:37So, the good news with Wikipedia is that
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19:37 - 19:45as Internet projects go it's definitely a very diverse project
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19:45 - 19:47along many dimensions.
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19:47 - 19:50At the end of May there were 285 Wikipedias,
-
19:50 - 19:52four of them had over a million articles,
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19:52 - 19:57forty including that four — English, German, French, Dutch —
-
19:57 - 19:59I think are the four,
-
19:59 - 20:01have a hundred thousand articles,
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20:01 - 20:03112 have at least ten thousand articles.
-
20:03 - 20:05So that's 112 different languages
-
20:05 - 20:07you can read ten thousand articles
-
20:07 - 20:10about human knowledge in.
-
20:10 - 20:12That's extremely diverse.
-
20:12 - 20:15There are of course somewhere between
-
20:15 - 20:17it depends on what you define as a language
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20:17 - 20:22somewhere between 3000 and 8000 languages spoken worldwide
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20:22 - 20:24of which the vast majority have no written form
-
20:24 - 20:30but maybe that ultimately that won't stop Wikimedia projects.
-
20:30 - 20:33But I'm not here today to argue that
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20:33 - 20:36there's a linguistic diversity problem at least with,
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20:36 - 20:40as compared with your competitors.
-
20:40 - 20:43OK, again. some figures from the Wikipedia survey of 2010
-
20:43 - 20:45of editors and contributors.
-
20:45 - 20:46The pie chart shows every country
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20:46 - 20:50that constituted more than 1% of respondants.
-
20:50 - 20:53A great number of diverse countries represented here.
-
20:53 - 20:59Poland, the Czech Republic, China, the USA, Russia, and so on,
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20:59 - 21:02India is in there, although as a share of
-
21:02 - 21:06its world population it's vastly underrepresented.
-
21:06 - 21:09OK, so less good news again as many people here will know
-
21:09 - 21:14is that about a third of Wikipedia readers
-
21:14 - 21:16who responded to this survey
-
21:16 - 21:18reported being women.
-
21:18 - 21:20And even less good news is that
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21:20 - 21:23slightly less than a tenth of the editors
-
21:23 - 21:24reported being women despite
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21:24 - 21:30women comprising 51% of the world's population.
-
21:30 - 21:36Ah, which, one is inclined to suspect that there is a link.
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21:36 - 21:38That if women are not using Wikipedia,
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21:38 - 21:39if they are not finding it useful
-
21:39 - 21:41in the same numbers that men do,
-
21:41 - 21:47they find it even less interesting to contribute to.
-
21:47 - 21:49So in addition to other factors
-
21:49 - 21:52the usefulness and representativeness
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21:52 - 21:56of the knowledge contained within Wikimedia projects
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21:56 - 21:58will affect the willingness of diverse people
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21:58 - 22:02to contribute to them.
-
22:02 - 22:05Okay. So having made this argument that
-
22:05 - 22:12Wikimedia projects are part of social change
-
22:12 - 22:16whether or not Wikimedia projects are always
-
22:16 - 22:20intending to drive social change, they are in some way part of social change
-
22:20 - 22:22and sometimes they are intending to be part of
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22:22 - 22:25driving social change, giving people like my
-
22:25 - 22:28fourteen-year-old self more information about
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22:28 - 22:30colo-rectal cancer.
-
22:30 - 22:36I want to talk a little bit about the general
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22:36 - 22:39principles of diversity. So if we wish to increase diversity
-
22:39 - 22:41in the project, well, why do you want to do that?
-
22:41 - 22:44And then I'll say a little something about 'how'.
-
22:44 - 22:48Okay. So the term used a little bit in some of
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22:48 - 22:51the literature about instrumental diversity
-
22:51 - 22:54in particular: so, instrumental diversity is essentially
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22:54 - 22:59the question of how diverse participation make
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22:59 - 23:02Wikimedia projects better.
-
23:02 - 23:06So, the argument would be: we have people
-
23:06 - 23:08with different perspectives and different knowledges
-
23:08 - 23:11coming in - their knowledge might make Wikipedia
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23:11 - 23:14more comprehensive, more representative
-
23:14 - 23:15Okay, that's instrumental
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23:15 - 23:17because you are primarily arguing for diversity
-
23:17 - 23:21in order to help Wikipedia rather than the other way around
-
23:21 - 23:24You can argue the other way around:
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23:24 - 23:27that a more representative Wikimedia project
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23:27 - 23:32with knowledge to more people will benefit those people
-
23:32 - 23:35At the extreme end, the instrumental argument
-
23:35 - 23:39is sort of the PR argument - that is one of the instrumental arguments.
-
23:39 - 23:42It makes us look better to have diversity
-
23:42 - 23:46so that helps us. It also makes the actual product better.
-
23:46 - 23:48So you have to balance these arguments.
-
23:48 - 23:50You can't think entirely in terms of instrumental diversity
-
23:50 - 23:53because it's not fair to the people you are asking
-
23:53 - 23:55to give to you.
-
23:55 - 23:57It has to be an exchange where
-
23:57 - 24:01in order to ask people to make the Wikimedia
-
24:01 - 24:04projects better, there has to be some
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24:04 - 24:10way the Wikimedia projects plan to serve those people.
-
24:10 - 24:18We have here one of the more difficult things
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24:18 - 24:20to accept about diversity:
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24:20 - 24:22this slogan, "nothing about us without us"
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24:22 - 24:25comes out of the disability activist community
-
24:25 - 24:30which in turn adopted it from the foreign affairs community
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24:30 - 24:40What this is is essentially you cannot dictate
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24:40 - 24:42to people with a particular interest:
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24:42 - 24:44you cannot tell women, you cannot tell people
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24:44 - 24:46with different ethnic backgrounds and so on
-
24:46 - 24:48"this is how we are making things better for you"
-
24:48 - 24:52"This is good, we have done this"
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24:52 - 24:55If you choose not to accept this, you are
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24:55 - 24:58being ungrateful and diversity is no longer our problem
-
24:58 - 25:00it is yours.
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25:00 - 25:02This is difficult, right, because you have a vicious
-
25:02 - 25:05cycle. Well, you don't have any people from
-
25:05 - 25:07a certain background participating
-
25:07 - 25:12but then there's nobody to ask to participate
-
25:12 - 25:16so you end up spinning your wheels.
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25:16 - 25:18So the question then is outreach.
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25:18 - 25:20You simply have to identify your failings
-
25:20 - 25:23and reach out to people.
-
25:23 - 25:28Essentially, keep the project, keep the discussions
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25:28 - 25:31open to criticism which says
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25:31 - 25:34this would make it easier for you to participate,
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25:34 - 25:38this would make it beneficial for me to participate.
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25:38 - 25:41Constantly asking, constantly listening to their
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25:41 - 25:43responses and believing them.
-
25:43 - 25:50Talking just quickly about the rationale for diversity:
-
25:50 - 25:55in the Western liberal philosophical tradition,
-
25:55 - 25:57the traditional argument is it promotes oneness
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25:57 - 25:59and harmony, essentially.
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25:59 - 26:03That as people talk more, we will converge
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26:03 - 26:07on one point of view, converge on one culture
-
26:07 - 26:10and one way of thinking.
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26:10 - 26:13As I expect you know, that's not a very popular
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26:13 - 26:14view at present.
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26:14 - 26:20A more contemporary argument is that it
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26:20 - 26:22enables all people to change and grow.
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26:22 - 26:26To integrate contact between diverse peoples
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26:26 - 26:30allows them to borrow from each other while
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26:30 - 26:32continuing to maintain some of their differences
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26:32 - 26:34both in points of view and cultural traditions
-
26:34 - 26:35and so on.
-
26:35 - 26:38So, very quickly, an example of this discussed
-
26:38 - 26:41by Peter Emberley in a 2011 book chapter
-
26:41 - 26:45is two Indian art cultures that are both affiliated
-
26:45 - 26:48with religious practice.
-
26:48 - 26:58The Docra(?) of India are sculptors traditionally
-
26:58 - 27:02sculpting the divine forms.
-
27:02 - 27:05And Emberley argues that as they have had more
-
27:05 - 27:08contact with Western culture in particular,
-
27:08 - 27:11that their art forms, especially in the younger artists,
-
27:11 - 27:16while continuing to maintain artist-driven,
-
27:16 - 27:20culture-driven integrity to themselves
-
27:20 - 27:24are moving away from divine forms to secular forms
-
27:24 - 27:29and moving into 2D rather than 3D representations,
-
27:29 - 27:31but at the same time, not moving to actually
-
27:31 - 27:33produce Western art.
-
27:33 - 27:40Likewise, the Baul people who are Bengali musicians,
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27:40 - 27:47Emberley argues in the music produced by the
-
27:47 - 27:52younger people now, they are starting to move
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27:52 - 27:56again towards some representation of less
-
27:56 - 28:01eternal, more ephemeral aspects of human nature
-
28:01 - 28:03and they are utilising things like musical notation,
-
28:03 - 28:08musical recording, anthropological recordings of their own culture
-
28:08 - 28:11in order to maintain it. But at the same time,
-
28:11 - 28:14viewing themselves as continuing in their own
-
28:14 - 28:16traditions, integrating the aspects of Western
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28:16 - 28:20modernity that they can use but without moving
-
28:20 - 28:24their music towards a more mainstream Indian
-
28:24 - 28:29or Anglo style of music, but allowing them to
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28:29 - 28:33access the audience through modern means.
-
28:33 - 28:36So in terms of Wikimedia projects, you may have
-
28:36 - 28:39the same effect, part of the contribution of
-
28:39 - 28:41Wikimedia projects in documenting the sum of
-
28:41 - 28:43human knowledge is allowing people to preserve
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28:43 - 28:46their own traditions and ways of thinking
-
28:46 - 28:52for themselves rather than necessarily only
-
28:52 - 28:55benefiting me as a person who wants to learn
-
28:55 - 28:56more about Indian art.
-
28:56 - 29:01Okay, I wanted to talk about, well, this has been
-
29:01 - 29:02very abstract. What do we do
-
29:02 - 29:05if we want to recruit diverse peoples?
-
29:05 - 29:07And I just wanted to talk about some
-
29:07 - 29:08general principles there.
-
29:08 - 29:12The first is, so Sue Gardner has mentioned this
-
29:12 - 29:14in conversations about various things, is the
-
29:14 - 29:17power of invitation is one way of talking about this.
-
29:17 - 29:21So there's a story about this that I know fairly well.
-
29:21 - 29:25In 2006, the GNOME free desktop project,
-
29:25 - 29:28they ran Google Summer of Code.
-
29:28 - 29:31It's a programming project - Google
-
29:31 - 29:34Summer of Code invites university students
-
29:34 - 29:40working on the project with a stipend.
-
29:40 - 29:44They got 200 applications and there were zero from women.
-
29:44 - 29:46You know, zero with an '0'.
-
29:46 - 29:55Two GNOME developers - Chris Ball and Hannah Wallach - created what
-
29:55 - 29:57they called the GNOME Women's Outreach Project,
-
29:57 - 30:00which was almost - they were paid slightly less money
-
30:00 - 30:05- almost identical to the Google Summer of Code
-
30:05 - 30:08except it was the GNOME Women's Outreach Project.
-
30:08 - 30:11They received 186 applications, I believe,
-
30:11 - 30:14all of them from women.
-
30:14 - 30:16There was some question: why didn't they apply
-
30:16 - 30:18for the other one, which was the same except
-
30:18 - 30:21paying slightly more money and slightly more
-
30:21 - 30:23prestigious in that you were selected from
-
30:23 - 30:25a wider field.
-
30:25 - 30:27The answer seems to be somewhere between
-
30:27 - 30:30two things:
-
30:30 - 30:32you have a picture of a woman computing student
-
30:32 - 30:34and you read a thing saying "spend your summer
-
30:34 - 30:36working on a coding project", you have a picture
-
30:36 - 30:39in your head of someone who's not necessarily
-
30:39 - 30:43you working on a summer coding project.
-
30:43 - 30:45It's usually that guy, you know, "that guy".
-
30:45 - 30:50The one you think of as spending all his time
-
30:50 - 30:52in front of a computer.
-
30:52 - 30:54So by saying "for women", the picture automatically
-
30:54 - 30:59changes: "well, I'm the woman in my classes
-
30:59 - 31:02who spends all her time in front of a computer."
-
31:02 - 31:05The other thing is that other women were really
-
31:05 - 31:08keen: other computer science professors in this case
-
31:08 - 31:11were really keen to do outreach for them
-
31:11 - 31:13once they had explicitly said that this is for
-
31:13 - 31:16women, it welcomed women, it was in order
-
31:16 - 31:18to promote women.
-
31:18 - 31:21Women computer scientists were forwarding it
-
31:21 - 31:24to each other, some were encouraging 10 or 15
-
31:24 - 31:27of their students to apply, so you had this
-
31:27 - 31:31double effect of encouraging people, tapping
-
31:31 - 31:34into networks of people who specifically want to
-
31:34 - 31:36mentor women.
-
31:36 - 31:38Saying "oh, this is for us, I've set up a network
-
31:38 - 31:41waiting to give women opportunities, here's
-
31:41 - 31:43a woman opportunity coming along".
-
31:43 - 31:45So you have this double invitation.
-
31:45 - 31:47The second one is simply reaching out to groups.
-
31:47 - 31:55What that means is you find more than one:
-
31:55 - 31:58to use women as an example, if you invite one
-
31:58 - 32:03woman into your editathon or hackfest, and
-
32:03 - 32:06suddenly she is THE woman.
-
32:06 - 32:09There's some statistical figure, it is around 20% or 30%
-
32:09 - 32:13where women stop feeling like "the woman".
-
32:13 - 32:16They stop feeling like everything they do will
-
32:16 - 32:17be read as "well she only says that because
-
32:17 - 32:20she's a woman", or "she only does that because
-
32:20 - 32:22she's a woman" or "we'll ask her opinion about
-
32:22 - 32:25women".
-
32:25 - 32:27If you can bring in more than person at a time
-
32:27 - 32:29by identifying existing groups of diverse people
-
32:29 - 32:32that reduces that effect.
-
32:32 - 32:39The final thing is: once you've recruited diverse
-
32:39 - 32:41people, there's a tendency to say...
-
32:41 - 32:44Say I identify as a woman Wikipedia editor
-
32:44 - 32:47(actually, I do, I do edit Wikipedia)
-
32:47 - 32:49there's a tendency to believe the two identities are
-
32:49 - 32:52in conflict: the more I identify as a woman
-
32:52 - 32:54Wikipedia editor, it becomes more like:
-
32:54 - 32:58WOMAN (Wikipedia editor).
-
32:58 - 32:59And that the only way to get me to identify
-
32:59 - 33:02as a Wikipedia editor is to discourage my
-
33:02 - 33:06woman identification.
-
33:06 - 33:12Now that's not actually true. Identity is
-
33:12 - 33:14not a zero-sum game like that.
-
33:14 - 33:17It turns out the more you encourage people to
-
33:17 - 33:20retain parts of their identity that are important
-
33:20 - 33:21to them: in my case, being a woman is important
-
33:21 - 33:24to me in that way.
-
33:24 - 33:30To retain and enhance my ability to continue
-
33:30 - 33:33as a woman, that also increases my identification
-
33:33 - 33:36as a Wikipedia editor.
-
33:36 - 33:38So you get this false problem sometimes,
-
33:38 - 33:45people will argue that having the groups for
-
33:45 - 33:48women or the groups for diverse participants
-
33:48 - 33:52discourages them, an isolationist kind of thing.
-
33:52 - 33:54It actually encourages both identities.
-
33:54 - 33:56That's a very important principle of diversity
-
33:56 - 34:00too, that you allow people to acknowledge
-
34:00 - 34:04that they are part of a minority within a larger culture
-
34:04 - 34:10and to embrace being part of a minority within a larger culture.
-
34:10 - 34:14To conclude my talk, I want to give a couple of
-
34:14 - 34:18specific examples of possible outreach avenues
-
34:18 - 34:20for diversity.
-
34:20 - 34:27I have had the pleasure of meeting people over
-
34:27 - 34:29the last week who work with Wikimedia on diversity
-
34:29 - 34:33and outreach, and outreach to different groups
-
34:33 - 34:37and educational projects, so not to say that
-
34:37 - 34:40none of this has occurred to people in the room
-
34:40 - 34:45so a couple examples of how outreach might happen:
-
34:45 - 34:49first, let's use an example of primarily technological
-
34:49 - 34:51outreach which I didn't really expect.
-
34:51 - 34:56I talked a little bit to Andy Gunn at the Open Technology Institute
-
34:56 - 35:07which is in turn part of the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition here in the United States
-
35:07 - 35:09working with people in Detroit in particular.
-
35:09 - 35:15Non-white people who are young, building up
-
35:15 - 35:22communication and access to media and technology.
-
35:22 - 35:27Their overall mission statement is that people and
-
35:27 - 35:29organisations in Detroit who believe that communication
-
35:29 - 35:35is a fundamental human right.
-
35:35 - 35:42This is an excerpt: they have the principles of digital justice on their website.
-
35:42 - 35:46The webpage is quite long, there are 20 principles;
-
35:46 - 35:49I recommend having a look at the web page
-
35:49 - 35:50for all of them.
-
35:50 - 35:52You'll notice, I have an excerpt here: equal access
-
35:52 - 35:56to media and technology as producers as well as consumers.
-
35:56 - 36:00Prioritising participation of people who have traditionally been excluded.
-
36:00 - 36:03Advancing our ability to tell our own stories:
-
36:03 - 36:07again referring to people who have traditionally been excluded.
-
36:07 - 36:11The creation of tools and technologies that are freely shared.
-
36:11 - 36:13Now, points 1 and 4 are very compatible with
-
36:13 - 36:17the broader open movement, open access,
-
36:17 - 36:22open knowledge, wiki culture and so on.
-
36:22 - 36:26Points 2 and 3 relate more to diversity concerns.
-
36:26 - 36:30So I emailed them and Andy, what immediately
-
36:30 - 36:33leapt to mind, was technological outreach.
-
36:33 - 36:38He sees the problem with getting his community
-
36:38 - 36:40to participate in Wikimedia projects is technological.
-
36:40 - 36:44They are very focussed on mesh networking,
-
36:44 - 36:45community, neighbourhood mesh networking
-
36:45 - 36:48setting up ad-hoc wifi networks that have a
-
36:48 - 36:52flaky, not-always-on uplink to the Internet
-
36:52 - 36:55so you primarily exchange information within
-
36:55 - 36:58your mesh network.
-
36:58 - 37:01So what he said was "well, in order for
-
37:01 - 37:03Wikipedia to be useful, we would have to
-
37:03 - 37:06cater for those uses", which is of course
-
37:06 - 37:08possible under the license but it wasn't
-
37:08 - 37:15in fact immediately obvious to him
-
37:15 - 37:19that there was something now that could be
- Title:
- Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary
- Description:
-
Originally on Thursday July 12, 2012 at George Washington University for Wikimania 2012.
Speakers:
- James Hare, conference director
- Dawn Nunziato, GW Law School
- Richard Boly, Office of eDiplomacyThe Opening keynote speaker is Mary Gardiner, Co-founder of Ada Initiative "Fostering diversity: not a boring chore, a critical opportunity" which starts at 11:45.
The Opening plenary speech is by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia on "The State of the Wiki"; this starts at 1:06:40.
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 01:56:06
Tom Morris edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
Tom Morris edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
puzzlement edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
puzzlement edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
puzzlement edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
puzzlement edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
puzzlement edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary | ||
puzzlement edited English subtitles for Wikimania 2012: Opening Plenary |