Talk:Managing conflict on Wikipedia and internationally

User:DavidMCEddy: I've minimally edited your summary of my talk to take out typos and remove one unnecessary reference to a certain historical dictatorship (trying to resist Godwin's law). Other than that I like reading how others hear my words and then interpret the focuses differently, thanks. Deryck Chan (discuss • contribs) 08:31, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

Documenting abuse by law enforcement in Wikiversity, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata?
What do you think about inviting people concerned about abuse of power by law enforcement to document details in Wikiversity, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata?

This seems to me to be an application of some of what is recommended in this article and in the article on "International Conflict Observatory". I've submitted a proposal to discuss this at WikiConference North America:

Wikiconference:Submissions:2021/Wikimedia reducing major conflicts.

Draft slides for that presentation are available by clicking here.

I'm about to suggest just this to the executive director of an organization that has sent to US Attorney General Garland a a 15-page letter documenting 18 allegations of abuse of power by the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department in the past 8 years. Next Tuesday, Oct. 5, 6 PM Central time (US), KKFI radio will broadcast an interview I recently did with her. In 8 of those cases, police allegedly killed men who were not threatening any police officer. Many if not most of the other 18 have permanent disabilities as a result of brutal beatings they received from the police. Click here for a description of that episode with a link to the said 15-page letter.

Might we, for example, get some improvement in Israeli-Palestinian relations by training Palestinians and their sympathizers to document their concerns better in Wikimedia Foundation projects?

I'm mentioning this to you now, because if successful, it would also likely increase stress on Wikiversity bureaucrats and administrators -- while also likely making major contributions to world peace, democracy, and broadly shared economic growth.

Thanks, DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 15:08, 3 October 2021 (UTC)


 * I think it needs to be consistent with the Mission, meaning it must be in the form of a learning project. The structure of the pages in the project would need to be clearly defined. The proposal so far appears to be one-sided, expressing the concerns of the abused (or accused law-breakers?) and their supporters, without consideration for responses by those in power and their supporters. The goals would need to be clearly defined. Is this a collection of stories? A truth and reconciliation effort? A peace and conflict study? How well would the stories need to be documented to be accepted? How would we separate fiction from historical revision from alternate realities from "truth", etc?
 * Separately, I have some concerns regarding the potential impact on Wikiversity. We don't currently have the administrative capacity to manage our own anti-vandalism efforts. Most of the vandalism cleanup is now managed by the Small Wiki Monitoring Team. The SWMT doesn't have the ability to block. That would require custodian and/or steward involvement. So, there are multiple communities that would need to support this effort. And that's before we get into personal risk. Wikiversity is the only community I'm aware of where most of the administrators edit using their real-life identities. Some of us have been harassed personally and professionally in real life in response to our wiki administration efforts. We don't have enough anonymous administrators to address any type of viral attack.
 * Several years ago we instituted a policy whereby controversial learning projects needed to be approved by the community. This seems like it would be one of those projects. If your presentation is well-received, a more formal proposal to the community and follow-up discussion will be necessary. Thanks for asking! -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 16:46, 3 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply.
 * I will try to connect with the WikiForHumanRights efforts. DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 00:38, 4 October 2021 (UTC)