2019:Wikimedia 2030/Constructive discussions that recognise emotions

Wikimedia 2030/Constructive discussions that recognise emotions

Description

Hostility to truth, polarised discourse, sound bites in the media and social media. Everyone can observe these with regrettable ease.

In my personal experiences, when I've stopped and listened to people rather than forcing the "logical" argument, and when I've done so without my ego and trying to help others discuss and share past their own, the emotions that come out are often raw. To have a constructive (logical) discussion about anything we first need to form bonds, human connections, trust. From that place, we can move to better places together. The hostility to truth starts to disintegrate, the discourse is more holistic, the sound bites start to connect and take on their appropriate nuances, we start to share the same base line of facts.

The questions I would like to explore with anyone interested are:

• can we do this repeatedly face to face, when might we fail
• can we do this with our existing technologies, remotely via the web. What would the eco system look like?
  

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:

I hope this will aid in the addition of new material to wikimedia (chiefly wikidata and wikipedia) where the issues are contentious and complex. I hope this might shed light on how to reduce some of the hostility to truth and to build deserved trust in wikimedia.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

To be able to enumerate some the experiences of those who have participated in the session. The background of where they found themselves. How the might have initially engaged in the conversation with someone else. How various conversation attributes impeded finding common ground, a shared base line of facts. What approaches and techniques they have found, or after reflection from the discussion might think could work. Where these conversations might still become blocked, remain divisive.

Secondly to reflect upon our existing global infrastructure and institutions. How these aid or limit such holistic and shared conversations. What might (if anything) need to be changed, added or "removed" to aid building a better future for everyone.

Session leader(s)

Alexander James Phillips

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

Facilitator-led workshop open to all (Workshop to identify and try to solve problem. Roundtable discussion forum)

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

A room with chairs around the edges. Double row near the exit to allow those less comfortable to join in initially to take an actual back row seat until they chose to step into the conversation. Or to retire to a "sheltered" place.

• Audience:

How many people would be appropriate to attend/participate in this session? 2 to 20. If more we might be able to split into multiple groups but facilitators of the discussions would need to be found to support this.

Would they need to have prior knowledge/skills? No.

• Recording:

This would have to be by permission of all those attending. As the conversation would need to be as inclusive as possible, as the facilitator of the conversation I aim to help those who might like to contribute to do so. This would mean that filming it might also be incredibly hard to do without getting motion sickness from the resulting "tennis" conversation.