Expert Opinions
Here are insights from interviewees consulted for the Wikimedia 2030 report, identified by their country of origin and area of expertise. This report was commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation. Read more about the authors. You can read a PDF version of this report here, as well as the forward and introductory notes here.
From the foreword:
“Wikipedia is the last poster child for commons-based peer production. The free software movement and various projects under it were important demonstrations but they are facing a crisis now because either they have been taken over by corporations, or there is the tragedy of the commons where many people use open projects but do not contribute money to fix or improve them. The Wikipedia movement is the only movement about true blue volunteer energy that is delivering results. Today Wikipedia is the inspiration for openness.” —Policy/Government, South Asia
“Knowledge poverty is a serious issue. Wikipedia should build a knowledge ladder to see who it is reaching and who [is] left out. And then make Wikipedia available to ones at the bottom.” —Media, India
“In a better future, people who are digitally literate [will become] fluent in organizing and vice versa.” —Technology, United States
“Wikimedia should work closely with policy makers and internet regulators.” — Media, Mexico
“Wikipedia can join the current advocacy to connect the unconnected. They are the ones that need Wikipedia. ” —Media, Nigeria
“Look at places with organic internet revolutions and making Wikimedia a player at the party, as opposed to lone ranger starting from scratch.” —Media, United States
“The world of media monopoly is the challenge of our time. Where Wikimedia could come in in the future is as a counter-force to monopoly.” —Media, United States
“We all can make a change and contribute to it. It’s really an idea. How do you see the world? What kind of world do you want? A power-centered world or a power-distributed world.” —Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museum (GLAM), China
On demographics:
“The biggest issue for Wikimedia moving into the future is ultimately the education and wealth gap. You can have this conversation in a place that’s information rich and Wikipedia already seems utopian. But look at the trends and numbers. …The gaps are becoming too big between the opportunities that different people have.” —GLAM, United States
“Senior citizens would play an important role in online knowledge management. They have time, experience, and knowledge to share with the online community.” —Policy/government, Thailand
“Indian language content is not tagged or indexed well; hence, search does not find it. Wikipedia has a long way to go.” —Technology, India
“In terms of access to knowledge . . . most content you find online in text is in English. There is very little in Indian languages.” —Media, India
“Our population pyramid is bottom heavy: 50 percent of the population is under 18. This is important. We are already a country that has more mobile devices than mature adults in this country. This is truly a mobile first country and will continue to be because so many people who are accessing information for the first time are doing so via mobile.” —Media, Nigeria
“Crowdsourcing for Arabic content is weak and challenging. Expanding it will be the best way to increase local content.Growing the local communities is the key.” —Education, Egypt
“One of my favorite things [about Wikipedia] is how much local control there is. There are two sides of the coin. One is really good: awesome people in different countries can get access to crowd-sourced information in their own language edited by their own people toward their own viewpoints
and mindsets.” —GLAM, United States
On emerging platforms:
“One thing that makes it difficult — the platform itself. [Facebook] is a very good platform that people want to go back to again and again. So how do you take into account how people behave and build toward that, rather than design the interface that do-gooders think will work?” —Technology, United States
“What are the questions developers in the movement should be asking themselves? How to build platforms that serve people most at the margins? If this works and everyone uses it, how will it affect society? How do we earn the trust of users on platforms rather than coerce their usage? For for-profit entities: how to structure on value exchange rather than surveillance and emotional manipulation?” —Technology, United States
“Wikipedia should go beyond [the] written format. We live in an audio-visual world now, so Wikipedia should not miss this opportunity and responsibility to make its content orally available.” —Technology, United States
“The biggest app usage in all markets is Snapchat and WhatsApp, so these then become a viable platform for delivering content. Start figuring out how to
deliver content directly through these chat streams.” —Technology, South Africa
On misinformation and verification:
“The interesting role that Wikimedia plays is the branding that it does — that
the notion of accurate information is both possible and desirable.”
—GLAM, United States
“Wikipedia’s responsibility is greater than any other time in history. The role of Wikimedia being a neutral broker of reliable information should/could be incredibly powerful.” —Technology, United States
“The more the content can be viewed as local and locally driven, the greater the comfort and confidence. Hence the importance of more local volunteers and local contribution. There is a degree of skepticism and paranoia by the people from this part of the world about information that is perceived as foreign, as people wonder that the agenda is. But it is less applicable when you are talking about news coming from civil society or private source locally.” —Business, Egypt
“With people feeling that the truth is so under attack, there’s no greater statement about the resilience of truth than Wikipedia being relatively unaffected by this and continuing to scale. You can’t afford to fail.”
—Policy/Government, United States
“The power of Wikipedia is in its references. It has credibility.”
—Business, Nigeria
“Because of your digital real estate, brand, and utility … you’ll become a battlefield. You’ll see a lot of what tampering looks like and Wikipedia will fight those digital battles. You guys legitimately are defenders of the truth.”
—Policy/Government, United States
“Wikipedia should play a role in an age where polarization is a thing in many countries. This should be done without being political.”
—Policy/Government, Brazil
“I know that Wikipedia is looking at image content and other kinds of things. In the same way, libraries are trying to figure out beyond text-based literacy, understanding the other containers that information is going to come in will be critical.” —GLAM, United States
“Future roles: If someone is willing to learn, how do you create other avenues for someone beyond written knowledge? Get young people into the Wikipedia movement and building soft and life skills through that volunteer work, so contribution becomes a credential in itself.” —Education, Nigeria
“This information flood will continue, as we know that humans are creatures that love to share. These sharing activities can never be stopped. So what we need to do is educate people with media literacy, so they can pick the right source.” —Policy/Government, Indonesia
“Currently, Indians are huge consumers of information but not producers. In the future, this will get more bi-directional and interactive. Knowledge that is more tacit now will be documented. Knowledge gaps in formal organisations like the government will be filled by informal initiatives like citizen activism.” —Policy/Government, India
“Digital literacy is unbelievably important now. Take email for example. My mother can’t tell spam from an email. You have to look very closely at the address of everything! Where can people go to learn this (digital literacy)? Universities assume that kids already have it. But they don’t.” —Education, United States
On open knowledge:
“It is becoming more obvious that you don’t need all the really expensive infrastructure that the university provides (sports teams, facilities), and it is much cheaper to do just the learning on its own. Historically, we’ve been lazy with pursuing our own knowledge path and have outsourced the learning process to universities because it was easier. Pursuing self-enrichment or learning on one’s own is more feasible for the future.” —Business, Brazil
“It’s important for organizations like libraries, museums, and civic institutions to bring people together for civic discourse. How might this societal function become important to Wikimedia?” —GLAM, United States
“What Wikipedia needs to do is have something like a platform to learn the ropes, learn how to be a Wikipedian and, with time, learn and graduate to be able to post material on the Wikipedia platform.” —Technology, Nigeria
“Wikimedia could do fun competitions for university students to get people engaged and contributing.” —Technology, Indonesia
“Wikimedia is something you have to go to. But Wikimedia could be the one that goes. They could go to people and teach what is vitally important.”
—Education, United States
“Wikipedia, in 2030, should play a key role in providing pedagogical tools and platforms. There is no other free and open source provider filling this gap.”
—Education, India
On expecting the unexpected:
“The promise is that Wikimedia, as much as anything else, is emblematic of what’s possible in terms of collaborative online democracy, as anarchistic as it may be and as messy as it may be, its visibility and the promise of its structure… and the geographic breadth.” —Technology, United States
“Wikipedia was a radical idea, stuck in past radicalism. It needs to move out of the textual mode. As the leader in free knowledge, can it take its leadership to the whole world? It’s a small type of movement right now. Needs to become big and slip in and out of other ecosystems.” —Media, India
“If I think 15 years forward … we will know whether we made it to avoid catastrophic climate change or if we are dealing with the consequences of catastrophic climate change. Either we have avoided civilization-disturbing mass migrations or we will be in the middle of them and dealing with consequences of them.” —Technology, United States
