Anasuya Sengupta, a former Wikimedia Foundation's Chief grantmaking Officer, joined Wikipedia because of a common vision: to summon the knowledge of all mankind. Her eventual choice to leave was not that Wikipedia did not do well.

"Well, three years ago, I fired myself!" "For a common big goal, sometimes you have to change your combat position."

Anasuya Sengupta, a former Chief grantmaking Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, or WMF, joined Wikipedia because she shared a vision with Wikipedia: to summon the knowledge of all mankind. However, she eventually chose to leave, not Wikipedia did not do well.

"Well, three years ago, I fired myself!" "She told me with a smile, and then slowly explained," I love working there and learning a lot, where I integrate my different faces, including feminism, nerds, researchers, and so on. "In the foundation, however, she cannot have strong feminist claims and political views to challenge the way organizations and communities operate. (Recommended reading: The internal force of the chivalrous woman!) Interview with Zhang Xiaohong: "Feminist efforts, to let feminism Die")

In order to achieve the common goal, it is necessary to expand the voice of the marginal ethnic groups, and to achieve this, sometimes, it is necessary to change the position of the fighting.

Leaving Wikimedia, practicing the possibility of a common

"I have a variety of different faces, and these different me, there is no way to be satisfied with the status quo." "She thought that although the Organization had great goals, it was not her life that kept it afloat," I wanted to be a fundamentalist feminist, challenging the existing power structure. Yes, we do a lot of incredible things on Wikipedia, and we have a great sense of purpose, but if we don't ask who exactly and what kind of mechanism, in producing this knowledge content, the mission of "summoning the knowledge of all mankind" is impossible to achieve. 」

"You can choose to make changes within your organization, and there are times when you have to act outside your organization to make change happen." "She analyzes this and chooses to practice as a member of the Wikimedia community, not as a member of the foundation."

The other two co-founders, who were also partners of the Wikimedia Foundation, worked together to create whose Knowledge, precisely because they asked the same questions when they were at the foundation. "We tried to change from within the organization and found that we still couldn't reach the target, so we thought, well, it's time to fire ourselves!" And it's best to start doing something on your own, so we started whose Knowledge. We are two years old and a very young organization, even if the members are no longer young. "She laughs like a child, as if to say that age does not prevent you from maintaining a fun and passion for life."

Now she describes her relationship with Wikipedia as a beautiful and balanced "in the bureau and outside the","I'm still in the Wikimedia community, and there are a lot of friends who still work within the foundation or the community, and I can now try a more radical approach to challenging both and working with them to find a way to work towards the same goal." 」

Indian Feminist's boiler philosophy, teach me nonlinear multi-function work

Whose Knowledge has a lot to do, what to do, how to prioritize, Anasuya says she is deeply inspired by Indian feminists and metaphor with boiler cooking.

"When you're cooking for a group of people, there will be different pots cooked on the stove at the same time, and you will think: which pots to cook, which pots can be stuffy and slow to cook." When I'm thinking about what I'm going to do and what I want to do, I'm going to use this kind of metaphor. 」

One pot, for example, is to work with Wikipedia; the second is to make a collection of sound and images; the third is to create more resources, how to work with feminists, academics, fringe communities, and so on; and Pot IV is: How to shake Silicon Valley technology companies there are ways to think about network design and management.

"We may not be able to do all of this at the same time, but we can open the dialogue between the pot and the pot, we can see the relationship between different pots, the state, adjust the fire." Of course, there are some that will remain high-temperature cooking, such as allowing the language to be visualized and accessible online, a project that we have been cooking in flames since joining Wikipedia. 」

She winked at me, "prioritization, of course, is not linear, we are feminists, from the indigenous community to learn, time is not nonlinear, work is not linear." So we have more tasks, but we are multitasking in this way, and we will continue to adjust flexibly. If anything happens, sometimes we twist the fire, or turn the fire down first. 」

Listen to Anasuya share, who said housework is not serious "small things", the kitchen has a work philosophy, in fact, every business has, as long as the senses open, to all the week to learn, you will find a lot of experience and truth can talk to each other, interactive use.

Asking for the same: from the challenge, open the dialogue and cooperation

Whose Knowledge from the challenge of the base to ask questions, there are certainly challenges to be overcome along the road. Anasuya is often saddened by the discovery that it is easy for people to automatically step into opposing thinking rather than place themselves in the position of allies.

"Some people will think of what we do as demeaning them, and I have some white male friends who will come up and question me: so you mean, you don't want us to exist, we don't matter?" I told them, no, it's not what I meant at all, I mean, there's plenty of room to accommodate all of us, and I'm challenging structures that only benefit specific ethnic groups, not individuals. (Recommended reading: feminism always demands privilege? When feminism becomes a negative volume label )

She sighed, "This is not a zero-sum game, do not think of it as a Pizza, if I take one of them, you will be less." Please think of it as water, if I take the reasonable weight of one person, then other people will also have water to drink. 」

But there is no need for disappointment, because there is always some dialogue to unfold. "Let the position show up, challenge rather than grievance, we may have a real dialogue, and cooperation." "Cooperation is important, and when the other person knows that the water resources they have separated can cause good changes, it is also a kind of self-empowerment."

"Challenge and collaborate, through emotional and data mobilization, to persuade those who have power to work together, which is an important way to build alliances and find companions." For example, we can say that you have the expertise we need, and what changes will be made if we use this expertise to serve my community. Such cooperation will make the other person feel that they are part of the community. 」

This passage is reminiscent of #MeToo predicament and hope, as well as our ability to engage in challenging partnerships with vested interests. The movement of gay rights and interests we did do it in part: Many transgender persons have also become important partners in the gay camp and see themselves as part of the gay community.

In heterosexual hegemony, non-heterosexual is relatively hard; in a world of gender dichotomy, women are relatively vulnerable; and in the post-colonial world order, non-European and American people are still vulnerable to racial discrimination. Everyone can be a relatively vulnerable person in different environments, and we deserve to be able to empathize with the predicament of weakness and the influence we can exert. Anasuya to all those involved in the tech world, "creating an environment that is friendlier and safer for people of different genders and sexual orientation, and the responsibility falls first and foremost on those of us who are transgender." 」

She used to say, "openness is not open enough, it is good enough only when different people can feel welcome and safe." "This sentence, it is worth our continuous thinking on the gender road, but also continue to remind ourselves."

Edit PostScript

Anasuya was precise about the use of words, and she told me that she did not like to use the word "minority", "if you add up all the people who are marginalized or unprivileged, you will find that the" minority "is actually the real" majority ". "So we used the word" fringe group "(The marginalised group).

She added that she didn't like the ally of the league and asked me if there was a better way to say it in Chinese. I asked her, what's wrong with the league (ally)? She tilted her head and thought, "No problem, just, I think the League (ally) sounds too stuffy and boring, I want to find more exciting words, after all, become a partner comrade, if it is very exciting thing!" "Think about it, this is not easy, but we can always, and always should find the fun way to hit the road, not just loosen the dead power framework, because the fight against boredom itself, is a counterattack to the power framework!"