2020 CONCORDIA ANNUAL SUMMIT

Knowledge Equity in a Digital World

Main Stage

• Earlier this year, the Wikimedia Foundation—the organization responsible for hosting all Wiki products—released a statement that affirmed its commitment to racial justice. The statement outlined nine measurable, cross-departmental actions that the Foundation plans to take to promote racial equity. 
• Internally, revealed Janeen Uzzell, the Wikimedia Foundation has designed an in-house equity counsel task force dedicated to applying an equity lens to the organization’s objectives and key results. Externally, the Foundation is supporting affiliates that are doing equity-focused work on the Wikipedia platform, including Women in Red and Black Lives Table.  
• As a free encyclopedic resource that anyone can access, advancing knowledge equity is Wikipedia’s raison d’etre. The Wikipedia community consists of hundreds of thousands of volunteers dedicated to making information as powerful and accurate as possible. Uzzell highlighted the fact that what happens on Wikipedia reflects what happens in the world—on June 19, for example, over 2.1 million people visited the Wikipedia page on Juneteenth to learn more about the holiday.
• When the Black Lives Matter movement first gained global prominence, Uzzell was working at General Electric (GE). She recalled that GE had quickly mobilized to discuss diversity issues and ensure that BIPOC employees were being supported.

“I challenge those of us in every sector to put on these big shoes and to walk in them and to go shoulder-to-shoulder with your staff, your community, your board, and your customers,” Janeen Uzzell