Sunday, April 1, 2018

How Wikimedia helped me explore the world of openness (awesomeness)


For a long time I have been willing to write this, I had it all in my mind but I kinda failed to express it in words. Wikimedia, the parent organization of Wikipedia believes in

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That’s our commitment.

Us volunteers, thrive each day for the global knowledge movement. But Wikimedia is not just a knowledge movement, it's more than that. It helps you explore the world of openness. Now, what's openness? Well, if I were to define openness, it would be:

A world where everything is open for everyone and everyone has access to it.

Openness includes but not limited to Open Education, Open Web, Open Data, and Open Source. You must be wondering how Wikimedia could help someone enter the world of openness? Well, Wikipedia Community welcomes people from all the backgrounds, coders, writers, researchers, educators, etc. We have a place for everyone.

Open Source

When I started my journey with Wikipedia as a Google Code-In student in 2015, I submitted patches for MediaWiki, migrated existing articles to make them ready for translation etc. This way, Wikimedia introduced me to the world of open-source. I developed a huge interest in programming, so I continued my studies with major in Computer Science.

Open Education

Following that, I went to Wikimania, the annual Wikimedia conference as a scholarship recipient in 2016, where I learnt about Wikipedia Education Program. Being an active education leader spreading free knowledge movement in India, I really liked the idea of integrating Wikipedia in the current education infrastructure in India. With this, I started Wikipedia Education Program with schools and then in colleges nearby where I received positive feedback. This way, Wikimedia helped me enter the world of Open Education.

Wikipedia believes in the principles of Creative Commons always make sure your work is licensed and freely available at the same time by encouraging editors to license their work with Creative Commons Licensing. I have taught and raised awareness among people on why license is important and how it will help you individually.

Some other open issues I care about..

I believe in free and open internet. Being a Wikipedian myself and with its learnings, I support net neutrality, equitable access to information and freedom of speech. They all constitute to Open Internet. I personally believe that this is some movement that everyone should care about. Countries like Turkey where Wikipedia has been recently banned is a huge setback on the free knowledge movement. A lot of research on data is to be done to make sure the content on Wikipedia is free from censorship with respect to all countries and articles follow the norms of country-specific laws. At the same time, public policy must be curated from time to time to make sure there is no violation.

So, these were some of the learnings I got from Wikipedia or Wikimedia Foundation and helped me explore the beautiful world of openness. Let me know in comments what learnings you got from Wikipedia or any other organization you work for and spread the love for openness.

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