WikidataCon 2021: 5 Questions for Érica Azzellini
Community Manager Wiki Movimento Brasil
What is the significance of Open Data in Brazil?
Right now, Open Data represents a powerful resource against structures that promote misinformation in Brazil.
What is Wiki Movimento Brazil doing with Wikidata?
WMB uses Wikidata as its backbone infrastructure for GLAM-Wiki partnerships and projects such as Wiki Loves Monuments. We develop tools based on Wikidata and do scholarly research on it. We are also constantly providing Wikidata trainings for our community.
What was the highlight for Wiki Movimento Brazil at WikidataCon?
The main highlight of the conference was to hold a serious discussion around diversity and decolonization of Wikidata with the active participation of community members. This was about envisaging the future of Wikidata beyond its technical issues. Also, we want to highlight how we were able to make a remote event meaningful and empowering for people who usually can’t attend international in-person events.
Why does the international Wikimedia movement need “Reimagining Wikidata from the margins”?
Wikidata is rapidly growing, but it still does not represent the full breadth of diversity of human knowledge, as many communities from the Global South are marginalized in how they and their knowledge are represented in it. This is about collectively discussing where we want to be as a community in the future and about imagining ways of reframing what knowledge looks like.
How was the collaboration with the global movement and Wikimedia Deuzschland while organizing WikidataCon?
Although we couldn’t organize a hybrid event as we had initially planned, we were lucky to connect with several communities across the globe (especially in Latin America and the Caribbean) while organizing the WikidataCon in partnership with Wikimedia Deutschland. The collaboration provided an exchange of knowledge and experiences throughout the entire process.
