Submissions:2018/Wikimedia Infrastructure for being nice

This submission has been accepted for WikiConference North America 2018.

Title

Theme (optional)

Harassment, Civility, & Safety

Academic Peer Review option

yes

Type of submission

presentation

Authors

Lane Rasberry, Megan Wacha

E-mail address

rasberryvirginia.edu, meganwikimedianyc.org

Wikimedia username

user:bluerasberry, User:Megs

Affiliation(s) (optional)

University of Virginia, Wikimedia New York City

Abstract

Anyone may join for a beginner's introduction to the infrastructure of civility in Wikimedia projects. The focus will be on the workflow of keeping safe spaces in Wikimedia's online and in-person spaces. While individuals personally handle some tasks, many aspects of Wikimedia friendly space are a result of infrastructure built into the design of the Wikimedia user experience.

Presenter Megan Wacha will share Wikimedia NYC's new initiative to establish a model for reporting, identifying, documenting, and addressing harassment issues in the Wikimedia community that does not happen on a Wikimedia project. Wikimedia NYC programming includes edit-a-thons, lectures, course workshops, and a monthly salon and skill-share, and while most of these events provide a fun and welcoming environment, there are inevitably moments of discord. Sometimes these are minor disagreements that can be adequately handled by chapter leadership. At other times, members are subject to harassment and abuse. Wacha will provide a brief history of harassment in Wikimedia NYC, and then detail its work with an external consultant to address them, including a newly revised Code of Conduct and training for board leadership.

Presenter Lane Rasberry briefly describes some past research in Wikimedia civility. Following this, he presents "Machine learning to predict Wikimedia user blocks" an ongoing research project by graduate student researchers from the Data Science Institute at the University of Virginia. In this project students seek to use machine learning to automate the detection of civility problems to flag for further human review.

Length of presentation

30 minutes

Special requests

slides

Preferred room size

25

Have you presented on this topic previously? If yes, where/when?

no

If you will be incorporating a slidedeck during your presentation, do you agree to upload it to Commons before your session, with a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license, including suitable attribution in the slidedeck for any images used?

yes

Will you attend WikiConference North America if your submission is not accepted?

yes

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with four tildes. (~~~~).

1. Mozucat (talk) 20:16, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
2. Minh Nguyễn ^💬 06:29, 23 August 2018 (UTC)
3. Airplaneman (talk) 06:15, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
4. TBolliger (talk)
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