Wikimedia Product/Perspectives/Culture

Overview
In many ways, the theme of Culture synthesizes the movement’s strategic directions of Service and Equity. Knowledge as a service means enlisting allies and partners to make knowledge available outside the confines of Wikimedia - and that must include institutions and form factors in which the majority of the world’s knowledge still resides, un-digitized and unavailable to a public who might not even know it exists. This means we have to think outside the existing Wiki projects and begin acting as a platform for knowledge organization, dissemination and exchange, and as a catalyst for other organizations and institutions engaged in knowledge dissemination. This will require new cultural as well as technical competencies.

Knowledge equity means removing the barriers preventing anyone from sharing what they know, and encouraging “respectful collaboration” between people. However, it is not only “structures of power and privilege” that have prevented people from sharing knowledge, and focusing on specific forms of diversity that come from mainly an American context is likely to hinder rather than help the movement. Rather, we need to meet people where they are - in both the literal and figurative senses. A coherent culture strategy must start with awareness, for both audience and contributors. Research has indicated that awareness of Wikipedia is low in emerging markets, and that the fact that it is editable might actually work against some of our other priorities in the short-term, such as engendering trust. We need, therefore, to find an approach to people in undeserved communities that works - not assuming that they have the same values or outlook that we as a California-based tech nonprofit tend to, or that they will necessarily share in the movement’s goals right away, if ever. If we really mean all the world’s knowledge, that means stepping outside our comfort zone.

In addition to fulfilling our mission of making all the world’s knowledge available to everyone, we also have the opportunity to make a lasting positive impact on the world by pursuing (or enabling others to pursue) other societal goals, such as the preservation of endangered languages. Where we can identify areas where our movement goals overlap with potentially useful social initiatives, we should make an effort to partner with the people and institutions who are pursuing them.

Aspects

 * Inclusion
 * Language
 * Content Gaps

Examples

 * Content Translation
 * GLAM outreach and strategy
 * Structured Data on Commons

Areas of Impact

 * Most Wiki projects (but especially Wikipedia, Commons, Wiktionary, and Wikisource)
 * ORES
 * Community Relations
 * Mobile (both apps and mobile web)
 * Community policies and guidelines
 * Research

Key External Factors

 * Time and money. To get more than the low-hanging fruit in popular languages (which is arguably what we have now) will require strategic investments of both human and monetary capital. Where does the law of diminishing returns come into this?
 * Institutional inertia: cultural institutions are generally slow, and can be skeptical of partnering with tech organizations. Is it worth our time to manage such projects?
 * Sustainability of participation. The languages/content areas may be undeserved for a reason. If we get an initial influx of content, how can we maintain - and preferably grow - it organically?
 * Raising awareness. This is possibly the #1 thing holding us back from getting content in some languages and on some topics. We need to have a strategy for increasing awareness (that we exist, and that people can contribute) in communities that we may not even know exist yet.