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In October, I traveled to the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio to attend Wiki Conference North America. I had never been to the Ohio State University campus. It is a beautiful campus surrounded with a variety of old and new. There are residential street lined with brick multi-family flats, brick sidewalks, and, of course, a long street of fraternity houses.
Wiki Conference always is a great experience. I meet new wiki-friends, reconnect with old friends, and find out about the incredible activities everyone is working on. It’s really an uplifting and supportive community.
Before this WikiConference, I submitted 2 proposals: Implicit Bias: The Damage Report and Wiki Loves Your Community. I was fortunate to receive a scholarship to attend WikiConference and be able to give my presentations!
I started working on Wiki Loves Your Community at the Wiki Leadership Bootcamp in the summer of 2018. This was something I mentioned and another Bootcamp attendee and contributor said he felt passionate about the same project. We connected and developed a framework. He was terribly busy and I ended up doing the presentation by myself. The topic was well received but it needs some hands-on support to get started. Since the presentation I have been terribly busy with other wiki work as well. Hopefully we will pick this project back up in the near future.
I could not have been more excited to give my report on implicit bias on English Wikipedia. I hoped to do a bigger study, and may still do so in the future. Implicit bias is something we have seen mentioned anecdotally lately, as it has been somewhat of a buzz word, but it has deep impact. Recent studies show how bias lives in the programs society trains, the policies society develops, and so much more. I really hope bias gets more attention in the Wikimedia movement.
For WikiConference 2018, I was asked to serve as the Volunteer Coordinator for the conference. I love organizing and connecting with others who want to help make the conference a success. I met so many great folks – I really have to give a shout out to the photographers. They took the imitative and organized to provide a broad coverage to the conference. The room minders were also incredible – providing feedback, facilitation, and tracking down tech support. While at the conference, more people offered to volunteer and just jumped in to help where needed. It really is a great community! I cannot wait to organize volunteers at the next WikiConference.
If you have not attended Wiki Conference North America before, I really hope to see you at the next event. Let me know if you plan to come!