Open Source for Indigenous Peoples

[mozfest-bot]

[ UUID ] 8a4cd412-d033-4419-b593-3d017524c056

[ Session Name ] Open Source for Indigenous Peoples [ Primary Space ] Openness [ Secondary Space ] Digital Inclusion

[ Submitter's Name ] Keoni Mahelona [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika (Te Hiku Media) [ Submitter's GitHub ] @kmahelona

[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Peter Lucas Jones

[ Other Facilitator 2's Name ] Taimania Jones

What will happen in your session?

This session will start with a brief introduction on indigenous knowledge & data sovereignty, and how open source can evolve to include indigenous peoples. This could be done as a clever activity, failing that our Kōrero Māori project is a great, living example to start with.

We'll then engage in discussion and debate around the issues of open source in an indigenous context. We want to take a step back and think about what open source needs to be today taking into account indigenous peoples and other minority groups values. Open source is great when we're all equal, but many are still disadvantaged and don't (yet) have the privilege to gain from open source.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

We hope to come out of this session with ideas and pointers on how we can create an open source license that works in an indigenous context. We've already started drafting a license, so depending on session size we could take this further.

We also hope that people who attend the session who aren't necessarily indigenous can get a better understanding of how the internet might affect indigenous peoples and other minorities. It's not always easy communicating indigenous world views and values to non-indigenous peoples, so we hope that using an open source license as an example could help communicate why, for example, we might not want Google to be able to provide our language as a service to us.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

Projector, pens, post-its, large "poster" paper for writing on and sticking post-its to.

Time needed

60 mins

[Saallen]

Looping myself into this session to follow the progression

[chadsansing]

Likewise.

[kmahelona]

Guidebook Details

Session Name

Open Source from an Indigenous Perspective

History

We implemented automatic speech recognition for te reo Māori using Mozilla's DeepSpeech. We quickly realised that our tikanga (cultural customs) around protecting indigenous knowledge needed to be documented in a way that would allow us to embrace digital technologies while preserving our cultural integrity and preventing digital colonisation; hence, our Kaitiakitanga License was born.

The Session

This session will start with a brief introduction on indigenous knowledge and data sovereignty and on the risks of digitising indigenous languages and cultures. We'll also talk about our Kaitiakitanga License, which focuses on guardianship of data and knowledge rather than ownership.

We'll then engage in discussion and debate around the issues of open source in an indigenous context. We want to take a step back and think about what open source needs to be today taking into account indigenous people's and other minority groups' values. Open source is great when we're all equal, but many are still disadvantaged and don't (yet) have the privilege to gain from open source.