Wikimedia, Essential Infrastructure For Open Knowledge with Florence Devouard

Wikimedia, the Essential Infrastructure For Open Knowledge

Florence Devouard has been a major player in the Wikimedia world for 22 years. She was the second Chairperson following founder Jimmy Wales. Today, the Wikipedia is one of the top 5 websites used in the world. Florence talks about how they achieved this, becoming a trustworthy source of verified and referenced information.

The 2030 mission is ambitious and inclusive – way beyond the online encyclopedia we all know. The most striking ideas in our conversation are  her thoughts about the challenges that lie ahead:

• Finances –making information available free for everyone costs money
• New user habits – sharing in a media that fits today’s world of video and audio, chunked, short pieces
• AI – the current spread of generative AI, and how people are using chat GPT to get info, decreasing the use of the Wikipedia that has actually been scraped by AI providers
• Freedom in the world in particular what has been happening with the Wikipedia in Russia the last few years
• Getting data about climate change out into the open

Photo credit: Bijay Chaurasia. CC BY SA 4.0

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The Podcast

The Transcript (In Depth version)

Setting the stage

The Wikimedia world

No gender gap

Country chapters

Wikipedians in Residence

Criticism

Partners bring credibility

Birth of Wikipedia Africa

Wiki loves Africa Photo Contest

Wiki in Global South important for future

Youth hungry to be connected

Measurement is needed

The future for Wikimedia

2030: Be essential infrastructure for open knowledge

New ways of learning

New media replacing old

Short better than long

AI already being used

User experience primordial

Need new ways for financial stability

Will AI, scraping Wikipedia, replace authentic verified content

Unseen costs need financing

Wikipedia in Russia

Closed internet systems

Contribute to open knowledge

Real information cross-checked, about climate change is rare

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