Submissions/Wikipedia and Cultural Norms: Cases involving image uploads

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2015 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this July.

Submission no.

2143

Title of the submission

Wikipedia and Cultural Norms: Cases involving image uploads

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Presentation

Author of the submission

Keeyong Eom

E-mail address

daffy12@naver.com

Username

Daffy123

Country of origin

South Korea

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

College student (University of Oxford)

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

It is no doubt that Wikipedia is a global project involving members from all parts of the world. Because of that international nature, there might be conflicts between members caused by a clash between different cultural norms and customs. My presentation is intended to address that issue and my case study involves a personal dialogue I had with other Wikipedia users involving the image of a Japanese politician that I uploaded a few years ago. I uploaded the image of Mr. Koichiro Gemba, who has served as Foreign Minister of Japan from 2011 to 2012. I flipped and uploaded the image of minister to face leftwards to make it seem more “natural” for the viewer of his Wikipedia page. But soon enough I received complaints from Japanese users who argued that in Japan, facing leftwards are only allowed for the deceased. My presentation is intended to address the cultural dimension of the Wikipedia more broadly using this anecdote. My presentation also involves not only the cultural dimension involved in uploading images on Wikipedia but the how these cultural norms manifest themselves in copyright regulations, photo regulations, openness of government copyright projects among others. Some nations have more accessible photo viewing policies and some countries have more lax copyright regulations that other nations do. I believe that the differences in regulations stem not only from legal differences per se but also from a more fundamental issue of cultural differences. In the end, my presentation will suggest possible outlets for discussing different cultural customs, for example but not limited to the idea a community page in which users can address possible problems and issues related to uploading images, editing pages, and launching both online and offline projects to better understand and address the cultural dimension manifested in being involved with Wikipedia in general.

Track

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

15 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

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