2025:Program/Weaving Memory: Co-creating Open Historical Data and Archives in Colombia

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Session title: Weaving Memory: Co-creating Open Historical Data and Archives in Colombia

Session type: Poster

Track: Community Engagement

Language: en

This session explores two community-led projects born in Colombia’s Historical Memory Co-Lab: the 6402+ Project, a digital memorial for victims of extrajudicial executions, and the Minga de Datos, where participants transform legal rulings from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) into structured open data for Wikidata. Together, these efforts ask how Wikimedia platforms can support resilient, collective memory in a country still facing denialist narratives about the armed conflict.

Description

This session shares the journey of the Historical Memory Co-Lab (Colaboratorio de Memoria Histórica), a collaborative space launched in Wikimedia Colombia in late 2024 to explore how Wikimedia platforms can be used for historical memory work in contexts marked by violence, resistance, and collective grief.

Rooted in community dialogue, creative experimentation, and civic data practices, the Co-Lab has given rise to two ongoing projects. The first is the 6402+ Project, a digital memorial (under development) that aims to honor the 6,402 victims of extrajudicial executions recognized by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). The second is the Minga de Datos (Data gatherings), a series of data gatherings where participants collectively structure information extracted from JEP’s public rulings. While the rulings are official, they were not published as open structured data—so this project builds an ontology and prepares datasets for Wikidata to safeguard this information from erasure or manipulation.

Rather than offering a finished product, this talk reflects on the process of designing memory infrastructure with communities—navigating between legal documents and lived stories, structured data and collective care. We’ll discuss the challenges of representing complex and painful histories in open platforms, the importance of building with affected communities, and how Wikimedia can help make historical memory more resilient.

Aims and Objectives: Share how the Historical Memory Co-Lab emerged as a collaborative and interdisciplinary lab for working with memory on Wikimedia platforms. Present the 6402+ Project as an attempt to create a minimal, respectful digital memorial that blends structured data and narrative using Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. Introduce the Minga de Datos (Data gatherings) as a hands-on response to the absence of open data in transitional justice processes. Reflect on the role of Wikidata and Commons in preserving memory in politically fragile environments. Offer practical lessons and ethical reflections for others doing memory and data work in Wikimedia and beyond.

How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?

This session speaks directly to all three pillars of the theme. It centers inclusivity by involving communities historically excluded from digital platforms—such as victims’ organizations and grassroots memory groups—in co-creating knowledge and data. It demonstrates impact by transforming public, but inaccessible, legal information into structured data on Wikidata, creating tools for visibility, remembrance, and resistance. It explores sustainability by using open, decentralized infrastructures to preserve memory beyond institutional cycles, ensuring that collective histories remain accessible and resilient over time.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Speakers

• Bernardo Caycedo

I love learning and teaching. My background is in philosophy, but I am passionate about inter- and transdisciplinary projects. I like collaborative work and open prototyping processes, in which our diverse intelligences create in common. For almost two decades, I have been accompanying individual and collective processes of learning, research and creation. I am passionate about teaching; this is why I have been a university professor (undergraduate and graduate), and a teacher at the International Baccalaureate (IB). I am committed to education and research to democratize our society, promoting the critical and responsible exercise of citizenship.

From the Coordination of Social Appropriation of Knowledge in Wikimedia Colombia, I will promote the implementation of the strategy Disoñar Futuros Posibles of Wikimedia Colombia 2025-2027.

• Johana Botero

Passionate about free knowledge and free software, with a special enthusiasm for Wikimedia projects, particularly the Wikidata knowledge base. I love to contribute and deepen my understanding of how wiki projects operate.

I'm also a project manager, curator, and filmmaker with expertise in coordinating initiatives at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Currently working with Wikimedia Colombia, as Communities and Technologies coordinator. I'm contributing to projects focused on historical memory, justice, and reconciliation. My passion lies in fostering learning experiences through innovative and inclusive methodologies.