Projekt:Podcast/Avsnitt 264
Avsnitt 264
Inspelningsdatum: 20 april 2024
Publiceringsdatum: 2 maj 2024
Lyssna:
Extern länk: https://wikipediapodden.se/mali-konstad-brodreskift-language-diversity-hub-wikimedia-summit-2024-264/
Programanteckningar
Programledare är Jan Ainali.
Special episode
This is the fourth episode in a series of short interviews recorded at the Wikimedia Summit 2024 in Berlin. Here we meet Mali Konstad Brødreskift from the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub.
Transcript
This is the fourth episode in a series of interviews from the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin 2024. In the first episode we heard about the Wikimedia Summit itself and in the second episode about the movement charter and in the coming episodes we will hear the perspectives from some of the affiliates attending the summit.
Hello and welcome to Wikipediapodden. This is a special episode recorded at the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin 20th of April 2024. I'm your host Jan Ainali and I'm here with Mali Konstad Brødreskift from the Language Diversity Hub. Hello Mali.
Hello Jan, thank you for inviting me.
Nice to have you here. So can you tell me a little bit what the Language Diversity Hub does and like what is your purpose?
That is a very good question. So the Language Diversity Hub was created as a way of providing an organization for all the new languages that is coming in and a place that can support them and also help them bring their concerns, their problems, their issues upwards in a more easy way because we all know it can be hard to find your way inside this movement. So that was the beginning. We began it when I was working for Wikimedia Norway. So I guess a big reason why Wikimedia Norway took that role is because of Jon-Harald Søby that is a person a lot of people in this movement know and that is very involved in this language diversity work. So that is how we came into it and of course he and many others are doing a lot of work to support all the new languages. The Hub is a way to try to organize it, make it more sustainable for the future so that it is easier to onboard the new ones so we can get more language diversity and that is where we are.
And that's very admirable but also to be a little bit more clear perhaps when you say new languages coming in what more concretely do you like an example perhaps?
Yeah so if you have a new language that want to create a Wikipedia I mean these days all the main majority languages has a Wikipedia right so it is most likely a minority language, it's an indigenous language, it is a language that is not that is not very well represented digitally so their challenges are I mean first we started out like the incubator in itself is complicated so that is a challenge it was the first one we kind of wanted to solve and then we did our research project and discovered that you know hey we are talking to communities that has struggled with access to internet that doesn't have keyboards that fit them they don't have standardized written language many other challenges that we just maybe weren't aware of so we want to help a bit with all of those things yes also sources of course very many of these are oral cultures yeah so we are not the only one doing this but we want to maybe also connect those that are working on this so we can help each other and get more effect yeah.
Thank you that makes it a little bit more clear and tangible so you're here now at the Wikimedia summit in Berlin and representative for the hub but what do you do when you're not here in the hub how what are you what are you sort of like what are the fun things do or the important things that you like to contribute to?
Yeah I when I'm not you know when my paid job is at the University of Oslo where I just last year started a PhD and my topic of research is information systems and I am looking at the gender how we organize on a digital platform to solve a big problem a global problem so I'm studying Wikimedia as a researcher so when I'm here at the summit I am also observing our how we are shaping our governance which is so interesting and it's really nice to come from inside and then now also take a role from the outside to understand it better because you know I bring can bring that back inside and say hey but we are doing great here we are doing so many interesting things we can always get better but I hope I can contribute to that it's ambitious.
One should have ambitious projects that brings us forward. And what are your expectations of the Wikimedia summit sort of like in in your hub perspective?
Hmm for the hub it is to meet more people and tell what we're doing and get some feedback to what people would want from this kind of hub because it is that is something we are working on it's also yeah the networking is really important and then getting a clearer image of what the hubs are should be how other people understand the hubs I mean that it has been really interesting so far yeah networking I guess it's.
And we're about halfway in when we're recording this through the summit do you already have some something that was really good some highlight something that you will remember or bring home?
Yes! Obviously and I bet everyone you talk with will have the Oxfam representative high on the list here his quote like we have to take risk to make a better world and we have to gaze inwards to make changes outside I mean thank you so much for the organizers too for inviting him I think he was really impactful great person and my other highlight was last night the last thing I did I think was joining the Wiki women camp they had a little meetup where they discussed kind of what had happened and how to move forward and that is interesting for two reasons one is that it's it is such a good work they're doing and it was very inspirational for how we can continue building our hub so it was like great for like the Wiki women development to see what they're doing but that is a fine piece of work that is being done there.
That sounds fun, really really fun and finally what are your some plans that your hub the the language diversity are planning like in the future is there something that other affiliates or contributors volunteers should look out for or maybe even like oh here's an opportunity for people to come help?
Yes we are definitely wanting to be in Wikimania being the conferences that are relevant to reach out to people to meet more people basically I have met this weekend met many people that are somehow working with documenting some languages or there is so many people working on that I really just would love them to come to our meta page and register just write what you're doing just so we can start building that network connection because I'm not going to start mentioning because I'm going to forget but so many people have similar idea and the wheel is invented again and again and again in this movement and and you know that is maybe one of the prime motivations for the whole hub idea so you know share more and we can help you share.
That is such a crucial but important and yet simple first steps I really encourage everyone who's listening if you're anything interested in the languages and the diversity hub go to their Meta page there will be a link in the show notes. Thank you Mali for joining us and good luck in the rest of the conference
Thank you so much for being here.
In the coming episodes we will continue to hear the perspectives from the different affiliates attending the Wikimedia summit. In the next one we will have a guest host because the interviewee is yours truly the representative for Wikimedians for Sustainable Development.