Highlighting individuals involved with Wikimedia & Education

[SPatnaik_WMF]

Dear Wikimedia & Education community,

Thank you for championing the idea that Wikimedia projects belong in education. The work you do in your local communities is so important–and so are the people you work with: educators, students, families, volunteers, school leaders, policy makers, and more.

Starting next month, in every Education newsletter we would like to highlight at least one person who is impacting or who has been impacted by Wikimedia & Education work. This person can be a movement organiser, volunteer, teacher, student, school leader, policy maker, anyone you think we should know about!

Please nominate someone other than yourself, to nominate someone please write an email to spatnaik (at) wikimedia (dot) org and include the following information:

• Who do you want to nominate?
• How has this person impacted or been impacted by Wikimedia in education?
• A photo if you have one
• Any other relevant information

Best!
Sailesh

[Sms2sms]

Sorry, but I do not think that’s a good idea.

When wonderful personalities are highlighted, the toxic personalities are not far away. The goal 2030.wikimedia.org is inclusion, not exclusion.

We should not celebrate people, but wonderful contributions. (These can also be done by bots ;-)

WIKIPEDIA IS NOT PAPER

[NSaadWMF]

Hello @Sms2sms,

We respectfully disagree. This is not about highlighting contributions on the Wikimedia projects themselves, but on the people who are involved with Wikimedia & Education work. Hiding from “toxic personalities” doesn’t feel like inclusion to me, but I’m happy to hear what others think. Our Wikimedia & Education Community is a space where we celebrate each other and the people who make this work possible, including those we reach out to–students, educators, families, etc.

Please read about the Movement Organizers research, contributions include more than just edits. https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/10/04/who-are-the-organizers-that-grow-wikimedias-communities-new-research-on-actors-that-bring-energy-to-the-wikimedia-movement/

[Sms2sms]

big thanks.

[Slowking4]

yeah, i think it is great to give positive feedback telling stories of individuals making a difference. have to tell and show how it is done. cannot allow the fear of “what if we reward a vandal” prevent rewarding productive people. need to have a pathway with psychological safety to pivot from the bad behavior to productive behavior.