Florence Devouard

Wiki technology& human rights

February 2009Florence Nibart Devouardfdevouard@anthere.org

Florence Devouard

Right to Information / Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech used to be mostly about Freedom of the Press

Freedom of the Press mattered to most people because it helped ensure adiversity of sources of information

And most people did not actually have the means to publish directly

Shift: Democratization of computer access, internet access,and new easy-to-use, low-cost tools, to read and write.

”Think for yourselvesand let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Voltaire

Florence Devouard

Stroking the story-telling nature of all of usStroking the story-telling nature of all of us

Source: WiktionaryLicense: GFDL

• wiki (plural wikis)

• A collaborative website which can be directly edited byanyone with access to it.

• The simplest online database

• Only requires a computer and an internet connection

• Original goal: making exchanges of ideas, easier

Florence Devouard

Wikipediaradical idea

Imagine a world…

in which every single person

is given access to the sum ofhuman knowledge

My daughter, unknown artist,before I bought her a real computer

Florence Devouard

Wikipedia, the basics

1. An online encyclopedia created in january 2001

2. Available in 250+ languages

3. 11,000,000+ articles

4. Free of charge, free of advertising

5. Free to reuse and redistribute

6. Freely editable; written by thousand of volunteers

7. Operated by a charity

Florence Devouard

Imagine a bookshelf…

Wikimedia commons

Wikisource

Wikinews

Wiktionary

Wikibooks

Wikiquote

Wikipedia

Florence Devouard

1st lever: learning from others1st lever: learning from others

Right to information

Florence Devouard

2nd lever: teaching others

Nobody knowseverything

but everyone knowssomething

Becoming an active voiceRight to participate in culture

Florence Devouard

3rd lever: nurturing a respectful & critical mind

• Readers and writers are from diverse political,religious, cultural backgrounds

• Content represent all significant views fairly andwithout bias (NPOV)

• Skills for creation, but also working on …negotiation,consensus building, conflict resolution

• Respecting other people copyrights

• Building together the rules and values of a community

• Checking and citing sources

Path for a global peace

Florence Devouard

4th lever: reduce, re-use and recycle

• Open source maximizes progress through cooperation• Free licence prevents restrictions to dissemination

Selection of children-safeWikipedia contentdistributed in UK, Pakistan, SA

Wikipedia oncellphones

Wikipedia contentdistributed on the OneLaptop Per Childproject

Florence Devouard

English Wikipedia article on Human Rights

Florence Devouard

Invitation to improve Wikipedia content on HR

Florence Devouard

Thematic portals

Florence Devouard

How can Wikipedia help human rights?

• Wikipedia culture is about free access to high qualityinformation

• Neutrality, openness and multilingualism

• Building this culture builds a culture of tolerance of ideas, aculture of willingness to examine bad ideas rather thanfoolishly attempt to suppress them

• Avoid duplication and fragmentation ! Create a central pointof access

I’m available for demos

Florence Devouard

Wikipedia, a global top 10 website

ReachLatin America -- 34%North America -- 31%Middle East/Africa -- 25%Asia Pacific -- 17%Europe – 32%

Age of readers15-24: 26%25-34: 22%35-44: 25%45-54: 30%55+: 29%

Florence Devouard

Wikis are suited for

• Easily create simple websites (eg, dissemination of info)

• Group authoring (eg, assignment, report)

• Data collection / documentation / archiving

• Project planning and management

• E-learning platform

Empowering individuals and communitiesSimple tools, mostly free, wikis reduce the digital gap

Florence Devouard

Human Rights wiki on Amnesty Intl

Florence Devouard

Wiki projectfrom Stanford Univ Journalism HR reporting course