In a show of resiliency and innovation, the global COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the Wikimedia community to employ new technologies for remote virtual collaboration. The efforts have ranged from the formerWikipedia Weekly podcast being re-energized as a video-oriented show and re-launched as a network of shows with multiple languages and participants, and a broad diversity of content, sending out live streams to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter/Periscope, special programming such as theWikimedia New York City's COVID-19 Symposium from the chapter representing theepicenter of the pandemic in the United States, to setting up a new videoconferencing system on Wikimedia servers (Wikimedia Meet) to running the firstWikimedia Remote Hackathon with an international volunteer group. The community has also utilized multiple videoconferencing platforms to hold virtual edit-a-thons, meetups and events, and a new Telegram discussion group with more than 120 participants (CROW, see below) has been established to exchange experiences and ideas.
TheFrancophone Wikimedia community, and other community members, have also been prolific users of the Twitch video network (fr:Wikipédia:Twitch) to demonstrate Wikipedia and Wikidata editing to a wider audience that might be more familiar with gaming and entertainment. Efforts like #1lib1ref, Wiki Loves Earth and Women in Red have all taken to the virtual and video spaces to engage new audiences.
While live video participation in events was possible in the past, it was often de-prioritized for major in-real-life gatherings such as Wikimania or Wikimedia Hackathon. COVID-19 has created an opportunity to include audiences and community who had been previously excluded because of time and distance. The format of these early experiments is the video talk, with live streaming and automatic archiving, simultaneously broadcast to non-wiki social media with the possibility of archiving on Commons.
While commercial platforms have offeredlive streaming options for some time, the Wikipedia community has some special needs including values to promote free and open content, manage moderation, and maximize accessibility. Sorting best practices for how to run an online event requires Wikimedia community feedback.
For years,Wikipedia Weekly had focused on a maintaining a robust and active Facebook group of 1,800 members instead of podcasting, With the impact of COVID-19, the podcast was revived with a special video episode on March 18, 2020 about an "Information crisis" around the pandemic in Wikipedia. Since then, the show has had a regular series of guests, editing sessions and tutorials both in English and Swedish, and welcomes more participants with programming ideas. Contact Andrew Lih, Richard Knipel or Jan Ainali for more information.
TheSymposium on Wikipedia and COVID-19 was a Saturday May 9 2020 event in whichWikimedia New York City arranged for presenters to speak on Wikipedia's coverage of COVID-19. Wikipedia beat reporterStephen Harrisonreported on 27 May inSlate that a recurring theme of the symposium was the depth of Wikipedia's content on COVID-19, and that the extensive nature of Wikipedia makes it ideal for documenting human thought and public sentiment on a range of topics at various times. Over 300 watched it live, and several times that have watched it since.
The symposium itself was a pre-scheduled live broadcast presenting four speakers with moderatoruser:Rhododendrites, a member of the New York City Wikimedia chapter and also one of the event organizers. Behind the scenes three other Wikimedia NYC volunteers were managing the event with responsibilities including wrangling speakers when they were due to go live, fielding and queuing comments for live speaker response, wielding the ban hammer in case of uncivil commentators sending in live comments from the wilds of Facebook and YouTube live broadcast, and of course keeping time as any moderators would do in any conventional conference presentation. When asked to estimate how many labor hours the organization and presentation of the symposium took just from Wikimedia NYC volunteers, Rhododendrites said about 60 hours, "more time than I initially thought, but a bit less time than it takes to organize an in-person symposium".
The Wikipedia Weekly podcast provided some early inspiration for this event by hosting more casual conversation with Wikipedians Emily Temple-Wood and an earlier one with Netha Hussein.
Our highlight video for conferences is an introductory session to theRemote Hackathon, originally planned for Tirana, Albania. This effort is part of a larger movement towardConference Remote Options for Wikimedians, supported by a popular Telegram channel.
Our highlight video for environmental topics is a launch day interview forWiki Loves Earth 2020, a global project originally started byWikimedia Ukraine.
Supplementary videos on this topic cover Earth Day itself and theiNaturalist tool, the latter as part of the Remote Hackathon.
Our highlight video for institutional engagement coversconflict of interest and best practices forGLAMs.
A supplementary videos on this topic a session with theWikimedians in Residence Network.
Our highlight video for countering systemic bias covers the geographical underrepresentation of heritage sites in North Africa through theWikiKsour project, started byWikimedia Morocco User Group.
Supplementary videos on this topic include sessions covering gender diversity in biographies withWomen in Red and lingustic diversity with theCeltic Knot Conference.
Anyone with complements and support for this format can convey those to the video creators and event hosts, and anyone with criticism or feature requests can direct all of that to the Wikimedia Foundation.
