For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using#HerStoryand#BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of theCreative Commons Global Networkand the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.”Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces toFine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rightschallenge.
我们希望这些对话能激发你反思自己的故事和想法。我们也希望它能激励您思考如何帮助使开放共享更加包容、公平和可持续。Put simply, we want tomake sharing better—to do that, we need your help.
在这个系列的第一部分，参与者回答了以下问题:是什么促使你加入开放运动，并成为知识和文化开放获取的倡导者?
- Florence Devouard| Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation
J’ai rejoint le mouvement libre il y a 19 ans, lorsque j’ai découvert l’encyclopédie Wikipédia. Je n’avais pas la moindre idée du fait que je rejoignais le mouvement libre ! Je n’en avais en fait jamais entendu parler.Wikipedia m’a séduite par sa vision, l’accès à la connaissance au plus grand nombre, ainsi que par les valeurs que professent sa communauté, en particulier le fait que tout le monde puisse y participer et le positionnement éditorial ferme que nous appelons “la neutralité de point de vue”. Mais tout comme Mr Jourdain faisait de la prose sans le savoir, je faisais la promotion du mouvement libre sans le savoir. Par exemple, je n’ai commencé à vraiment comprendre les particularités des “licence libre” qu’au bout de 2 ans de contribution.
EN: I joined the free movement 19 years ago when I discovered the Wikipedia encyclopedia. I had no idea that I was joining the free movement! I had never actually heard of it. Wikipedia seduced me with its vision, access to knowledge to as many people as possible, as well as the values professed by its community. In particular, I like the fact that everyone can participate and the firm editorial positioning that we call “point of view neutrality.” But, just as Mr Jourdain was doing prose without knowing it, I was promoting the open movement without knowing it. For example, I only started to really understand the specifics of “open licenses” after two years of contribution.
- Hildah Nyakwaka|Community Coordinator, Center for Digital Resilience
My long time friend Simeon Oriko encouraged me to find a way of sharing the knowledge and skills I had accrued with students from less-fortunate backgrounds here in Kenya and who aspired to the same things in life as I did. While building on this work, I realized that a lot of the content we consume erases the work done by women—especially Black women—and did not encourage learners to create projects that would preserve their communities’ histories, culture, and knowledge.
- İlkay Holt| Representative to the CC Global Network Council, CC Turkey
I joined the open movement a long time ago. Although I can’t remember my initial motivation, what keeps me in it is the public good. It doesn’t matter which area of “open” that you work in or advocate for, doing something good for the public and acting like it are the most rewarding aspects. Acting collectively for the public good motivates me to do more.
- Irene Soria Guzmán| Representative to the Global Network Council,CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre
Me motiva que todas las personas del mundo puedan acceder al conocimiento y la cultura para tomar las mejores decisiones en su proyecto de vida, sobre todo a quienes menos acceso tienen, y no solo unas cuantas personas privilegiadas.
EN: That all people in the world can access knowledge and culture to make the best decisions in their life—especially for those who have less access, not just a few privileged people.
- Isla Haddow-Flood| Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women
I was first introduced to the open movement when working in the arts and culture scene in Cape Town. It just felt right. It encapsulated all the ideals I hadn’t yet given a voice to: sharing, collaboration, equity, openness, transparency. These were all incorporated within the movement and were easy to contribute and benefit from.My main contribution has been to activate, drive and support theWikiAfrica，确保非洲的声音、文化和知识在维基媒体运动中得到平等的机会。所以，我想这是一种个人信仰和热情的结合，以确保非洲的声音、文化和知识被听到——不仅是全球，更重要的是被非洲人听到。This passion led toWiki Loves Africa,Wiki Loves Womenand multiple education projects and offline tools through Wiki In Africa.
- Mariana Valente| Director, InternetLab; Professor, Insper University; 2019-2020 CC Brazil lead
I was a law student at the University of São Paulo when I first learned about Creative Commons in 2009. I was thrilled! I was interested in cultural policies, had begun studying copyright law on my own and was developing a critical perspective. I remember quite well how it felt to find that there were people all around the world actually using the law to produce very concrete, transforming results in access to culture and knowledge.
The thrill never left me. I became more interested and wrote my master’s dissertation about Free Software and Creative Commons at the University of São Paulo. When I was finished in 2012, I had the chance to join the team that then represented CC Brazil—the Center for Technology and Society at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. I jumped right in, started joining CC international meetings, developed several collaborations, and made good friends in the community. Over the years, my interest only grew for the other subjects CC introduced me to, including internet policy and human rights. Both of which I currently work on.
- Primah Kwagala| Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by limited access to knowledge goods and resources. Finances are traditionally in the hands of men in our society. There are more men than women on the internet. The inability to access resources for women and girls intersects with the inability to access knowledge and culture outside their traditional environment. The desire to bring knowledge goods closer to women who cannot otherwise afford them when copyrighted spurred me to become an advocate for open access to knowledge and culture in Uganda and Africa as a whole.
There’s more! You can nowread the next part of our “Her Story” blog series here. Part three, four, and five will be published Monday mornings (EST) throughout the month of March. Stay tuned!
