A wiki space that eases migrants access to the Italian job market
The second easyRights hackathon in Palermo has successfully come to an end. After 8 days since they received the introduction to the challenge, the participating teams presented their solutions. In order to improve the job search processes for migrants in the city of Palermo, they have generated 5 wiki spaces; that is, a digital space collaboratively nurtured with information on a topic. In this case, the wiki spaces are aimed at collecting the information, links and necessary knowledge to respond to the main challenges migrants face along the difficult process of finding a job.
The hackathon explored the wikispaces not just in relation to the information it should include, but also in regard to its whole ecosystem. This implies a reflection upon the structure of the information included, the structure of the organisation that should support it (the administrator, the contributors, those who have the authority to validate new contributions), the way new contributions are provided, the nature of the stakeholders (public authorities, support organisations, individual migrants, job agencies) and the nature of the interaction between different stakeholders, the way to manage the wikispace in sustainable conditions and to scale up the wikispace structure to other municipalities.
Despite the short time given, we were amazed to see that all presented solutions proposed solid responses to common problems such as finding information about the job market, accessing supporting organisations or listing the necessary documentation for applying for an internship. Moreover, it proved to us that the hackathon in the presence has added values in terms of activating the creative spirit and the intensity of engagement.
Diverse team members of the jury from the Palermo municipality representatives, special immigration office of the Sicilian region, migration experts, migrants and designers evaluated the solutions. Due to the high quality of solutions in addressing the challenge and their compliance with the identified problem demands, the panel of experts announced a winning team that developed the solution with the best potential in terms of scalability, information structure, easy navigation as well as technical development. However, aware of the importance of the content in a wiki space, the Municipality of Palermo has decided to fund another of the participating teams with a strongly informed proposal to support the awarded team in the development of the wiki space.
Photos by Filippo Mancuso.