A journey from Odisha to Wikimania Poland

My name is Aliva Sahoo from Odia Wikimedians User Group. Participating in Wikimania 2024 in Katowice was my first on-site participation in a Wikimania. This year I received this scholarship from WMDE. I would especially like to thanks Sandro, Mandy, Kritzolina (my Tandem Partner) and Chinmayee Mishra (Odia Wikimedians User Group) for their great support. In the following I would like to look back on Wikimania 2024.

Travelling from Odisha to Katowice

This is my first ever solo international trip from Odisha to Katowice, Poland. First of all, my flight from Odisha to krakow was convenient. But my flight was also changed due to some technical reasons. As a result I had to arrived late in krakow. Then I had to travel by flix bus from krakow to Katowice. Later I reached my hotel Qubus with the help of my colleague Chinmayee Mishra.

Kick-off meeting

Later I had joined a WMDE kick-off meeting together with all scholarship holders, staff and board members of Wikimedia Deutschland. In this meeting I met lots of WMDE in person wikimedians and interacted with them about my work and my Indian cultures also.

What did I personally gain from participating in Wikimania and was I able to pass something on to others?

In addition to attending some very interesting sessions, I was able to met with lot of wikimedians (many of them for the first time in person) and had a good time with friends. I gained new knowledge through conversations and lectures in order to make my everyday work in the Wikimedia projects easier and to conquer of some new areas.

Wikimania was a success for me. I was able to get to know katowice. I love to capture some various photos by my phone and upload in wikimedia Commons. So that, I was able to achieve clicked some beautiful photos of Katowice & Wikimania 2024 and upload in Commons.

Day 1

In the 1st day it all started with Wikimania in the Internationalen Kongresszentrum , an impressive building with a great front that was completely covered with the Wikimania logo.

Day 1 was supposed to be all about women:“WikiWomen Summit”. This was conducted at Room- 19+25+26 (Voore). The goal of the sessions was co-create a collaborative engagement plan that redefines representation of women in Wikimedia projects. The purpose of the engagement plan had to be raised awareness and consciousness about the gender gap. Then I had joined in a group discussion about top 3 goals and top 3 priorities and some one wikimedian in my group stood up in the last and summarized the goals and priorities and their contribution in the future vision identification. In my group I also shared about the education system with women about wikipedia and raise awareness about gender gap. I have also share a name for the education system project is Wiki Love Women Education.

Looking towards the Future

In this last session of wiki women summit this was welcome a panel discussion with Board of trusty and board of trustees candidates including Rosey, Crystal, Victoria, Tesleemah & the seassion lead by Chinmayee.

In the last complete after panel discussion announcement Wiki women Summit at Wikimania East Africa – 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Event Night

Wikimania event night followed later , beginning with the entrance of the “Polish Miners Association Orchestra” in miner’s costume, which made the historical reference to the mining in Katowice.

End after the event night we an Indian community member and Odia wikimedians user group clicked some group photos on the stage of Wikimania 2024.

Day 2

The second day in the 1st session I joined Communicating as human beings. An introduction to nonviolent communication. This session was conducted at “Room- 11 (Modra)”. In this session I learnt, how to able to communicate and interact in positive way with other people in critical situation of all parts of life. It is aimed to understanding non-violent communication and learning how to use ?. Some participant also shared some real life cases of difficult or frustrating conversation they have feel or experienced.

Then I also joined Meetup: Commons Categorisers. This session conducted at “Room – 7 (Tbilisi)”. In this session discussion about Current Challenges in Categorization, Structure data on Commons, Tools and Gadgets, Strengthening Commons Community.

Later I also joined Let’s Connect Open Connections: Relax and lets connect together. This session conducted at “Room – 8 (Belgrade)”. In this session the connectathone also provided us with an open, enjoyable and safe space to share interests, ideas and stories, embodying the let’s connect spirit of peer connections, inclusion and collaboration. We just have played some game for connecting each other as for the more over interaction.

Later we visited to the Katowice sights and historical landmarks Nikiszowiec Settlement in Katowice, heard the story of coal mine laborers, then saw some Bebok statues and collected some photos from that beautiful place.

Day 3

The third day in the 1st session I joined Barnraising – from the Temperance Movement to the WikiWomen Movement which one conducted at “Room – 3 (Dilijan)”. In this session provides an overview of women’s involvement in the temperance movement of the “long nineteenth century”. The historical learnings provided a basis for a compare-and-contrast with the modern-day WikiWomen Movement. This session aims to provided an awareness of how historical women in different countries navigated the complexities of their era to achieve specific goals. This historical lens provided a road map for today’s WikiWomen as we plot out our future.

Later I had joined Let’s Connect Learning Clinic: Managing difficult conversations as Wikimedians which one conducted “Room – 8 (Belgrade)”. In this workshop seeks to introduce Wikimedians to some tools to manage difficult conversations on and offline. Conversation that can often lead to misunderstandings, burnout or even conflict. They had been introducing participants to a few concepts taken from Non-Violent Communication and adding to this the importance of cultural awareness. It will be a hands-on workshop to practice this through a hypothetical case study. This session was also popular at last year’s Wikimania Singapore, and they had added to the session resources with greater emphasis on the need to be aware of cultural diversity in a Global Movement. In this workshop addressed the theme of “Collaboration of the Open” by providing Wikimedians with the skills to navigate challenging conversations, reinforcing communication on all topics to be led with compassion and empathy while understanding difficult conversations that should be need more support than others.

Then I had joined Let’s Connect Learning Clinic: Keeping volunteers onboard – how to profile, match and motivate volunteers session. This session also conducted at “Room – 8 (Belgrade)”. Through this series of interactive exercises, we had learned about volunteer profiles and how we can be matched to the right volunteering activities. Then we learnt as a volunteer journey and got some ideas on how to best onboard, support and motivate us.

Later I had completed the Wiki Women Social Lunch with all over beautiful women.

Later I had joined the another session Let’s Connect and Capacity Exchange: a live demo of tools for peer exchanges which one conducted at “Room – 8 (Belgrade)”. CapX is a web application under development that seeks to facilitates peer connections across diverse communities, fostering collaboration. Let’s Connect is a program that offers support for peer learning in a fun and safe environment. By the end of the workshop, I also understand how I can participate in the Capacity Exchange and Let’s Connect and some good practices to find good peer connections and prepare to make these types of exchanges successful. In this session directly aligns with the event with us to “Collaboration of the Open” by highlighting the essential role of open collaboration within peer learning initiatives in the Wikimedia movement. By presenting of the Capacity Exchange project, focusing on the framework of the Let’s Connect Peer learning program, two initiatives promoting open collaboration and knowledge sharing. Collaboration of the open means not only sharing but also exchanging capacity: skills, knowledge, services, etc. Through engaging in practical exercises, and participating in interactive discussions I also gained my collaboration with other communities. First of all I profiled my skill. Then I 3 skills to learn and share.

• Skills that are important for managing terms and volunteers
• Documenting knowledge
• Basic Wikidata

Later in Step-2 to be find my Peer. Later with my Peer partner I Filled out the exchange template. I also learnt some thing through my Peer.

• Proposal writing for funding
• Defining learning and evaluation plan
• Building your organization’s plan and strategy

In the last Step-3 preparing for an exchange with my peer.

Day 4

In the 4th day of 1st session I joined Meetup: Wiki Loves Monuments organisers meetup/lunch which one conducted at “Room – 20+24 (interpretation)”. In this session Catching up with each other, Eating & sharing experiences or plans and Updates from Wikimedia Italy about the new Wiki Loves Monuments app which is now potentially international.

Later joined the next session Map Up, Rise Up : Outcomes and Next Steps from WikiWomen Camp 2023 which one conducted at “Room – 10 (Istanbul)”. The aim of this session was initial outcomes from the WikiWomen Summit & Wikimania in Poland 2024, aiming to foster widespread participation and engagement from the Wikimedia communities on how to work together to close the gender gap. Through this work of the community, the gender gap has been slowly closing. This session is designed to facilitate open collaboration on the gender gap. Following WikiWomen Camp, this session will help us to shared more information on how we can contribute to the strategic efforts at closing the gender gap and making the movement a welcoming and inclusive space for all.

Regards

Thank you, Katowice, for your openness, your friendly people, the pleasant mood and atmosphere. It was a good initiatives to be achieve overall things and carry in my future life. My main focus to be reduce the gender gap. Wikimania 2024 was the great platform to be gain my knowledge and gave me such some ideas to work in my future projects.

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