From f420a0edf7ab066fab9fc7eaf32806b5664b0e7e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Olexandr Konovalov Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2024 23:53:06 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] My personal digital decolonisation --- ...4-02-24-personal-digital-decolonisation.md | 283 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 283 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2024-02-24-personal-digital-decolonisation.md diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-24-personal-digital-decolonisation.md b/_posts/2024-02-24-personal-digital-decolonisation.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000..548f83a040b97 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2024-02-24-personal-digital-decolonisation.md @@ -0,0 +1,283 @@ +--- +title: 'My personal digital decolonisation' +date: 2024-02-24 +permalink: /posts/2024/02/24/personal-digital-decolonisation/ +--- + +# My personal digital decolonisation + +A year ago, I have asked my colleagues to stop calling me "Alex" +and use only "Olexandr", sharing with them an earlier version +of this post. Today, I would like to share this story with you. + +## Part 1: Historical background + +I grew up in Zaporizhzhia, a regional centre on the Dnipro river, about +500 km South-East of Kyiv, and 50 km from the Enerhodar Nuclear Power +Plant, the largest in Europe. In this region Zaporizhian Cossacks +established their Sich in the 16th-18th centuries. But in my childhood +it was very much a Russian-speaking industrial city (however, you would +meet more Ukrainian speakers if you move just some 30 km into the +countryside). + +My parents were born in Donetsk region. Although having no Russian +ancestry at all, we were a predominantly Russian-speaking family, even +although before the Second World War, my Grandmother worked as a school +teacher of Ukrainian. She used many Ukrainian words when she spoke +Russian, and she fluently spoke Ukrainian when she chose to. + +I studied Ukrainian language at school. Ukrainian was introduced from +Primary 2. The textbook was called "Ukrainian language". The Russian +language textbook for Primary 1 was called "Mother tongue". The teaching +in the majority of schools in Zaporizhzhia was in Russian. There were +only a couple of schools in the city with population about 800,000 in +which all teaching was in Ukrainian. + +It was also possible to be completely exempt from studying Ukrainian. +In my class, half of the pupils were exempt. My parents strongly +believed that if one lives in Ukraine, one must learn Ukrainian, +full stop. Once my Father said that at a parent council meeting. +Apparently, after that he was never invited to the parent council again. + +Eventually, after Ukraine gained independence, we became bilingual. In the +early 90s, we subscribed to several newspapers to read more texts in +Ukrainian. We watched TV in both languages. And now I can't even remember +whether we had some movies on videotapes in one language or another. We +started to insert some phrases or movie quotes in Ukrainian into a +conversation in Russian, just because they are more expressive and +better fit into the context. And although in the Zaporizhzhia National +University, where I worked after getting PhD, the majority of teaching +was still in Russian (only the official paperwork had to be in Ukrainian), +at some point I taught several undergraduate modules in Ukrainian. + +But now let's go back to my school years. First English lesson. Pupils +need to label their notebooks (or "copybooks", as they were called then) +with their personal details. I was told by the teacher to write my name +on it in English as "Alexander", and so did I. That sounded good enough. +So later in the 90s, when I started to use English to publish, communicate +with other researchers by email or at conferences, I continued to use +"Alexander", even though I already had "Olexandr" in my Ukrainian +documents. That eventually shortened to "Alex", mainly for informal +communication - and it was faster to sign emails like that. + +Eventually this started to slightly bother me. Why did I do that? What +am I trying to tell or to hide by this? If I have an original national +name, do I really need to adapt it to match a well known English +equivalent? But it seemed that it's too cumbersome and inconvenient to +change this back, and so I preferred to not to worry much about that. + +But eventually I was becoming more and more concerned about this. +I did not want to have a name which prompts false assumptions about my +background. For example, like assuming that one can see me for the first +time and try to talk to me in Russian without asking if I agree to that. +And then Russia started its full-scale invasion into Ukraine on February 24th, 2022. +I switched to "Olexandr" as my official name on that very day, starting +to change all email display settings and signatures. Next day, +Human Resources amended my "known as" name in their records. Within a few +hours, Pure – the Current Research Information System +([CRIS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_research_information_system)) used in St Andrews – +and [the University of St Andrews Research Portal](https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/), +both drawing from Human Resources database, were updated too. +I have updated my display name +on a number of other accounts, such as e.g. [ORCID](https://orcid.org/), +[GitHub](https://github.com/), [Stackoverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/), +several Wordpress-based websites hosted at the University (e.g. research +groups of which I am a member), a dozen of [Slack](https://slack.com/) +workspaces, and also the office door. +From time to time, I was discovering and updating other +relics such as e.g. my entries in bibliographic databases, professional +societies, journal editorial boards, etc. I have also eventually updated +my teaching materials, and never reused past lecture recordings +containing my old name ever since. + +For a while it still seemed acceptable to keep using "Alex" +in informal communication. Although the name is derived from "Alexander", +nobody would ever call me "Alex" in Ukrainian or Russian. Thus, +I thought of it as of a kind of my British name, without negative +connotations. But then... Kharkiv. Enerhodar. Mariupol. Azovstal. +Bucha. Irpin. Kramatorsk. Kremenchuk. Izyum. Zaporizhzhia. Kyiv. +Bakhmut. Dnipro. Just impossible everything here. And after +each next missile strike, after each new Russian atrocity, I was less +and less keen to use the name "Alex" as a reminder that it is derived +from "Alexander". + +Finally, I've accidentally met a colleague from another school, +who knew me as "Alex" for about eight years, and discovered +that they didn't even realise all this time that I came to +St Andrews from Ukraine. That was the tipping point. Shortly +after, upon inspecting my technical options, I've decided that +I've had enough, and I need to fix this once and forever. + +That's what I have called **"my personal digital decolonisation"**. + +## Part 2: Implementation details + +First, I have fixed an annoying inconsistency with my usernames. +My departmental username at work was `alexk`. My GitHub username +was `alex-konovalov`. Thus, whenever I demonstrated something on my +computer while teaching, `alex` was popping up. To fix that, a new +account was created for me in the School of Computer Science, with the +name matching my University username. All content was moved over from +old account to new, and I had to deal with a few minor issues arising +from that change (updating some scripts; rebuilding some software; +generating new SSH keys to get rid of old email address included in +the old public key. After completely deleting the `alexk` account, +I've realised that I've accidentally lost access to several Wordpress +websites hosted by the School of Computer Science, what was quickly +restored thanks to our school's system administrators. + +Then I changed my username on my computer. One of the colleagues suggested to +either create a new account and gradually move things over, or rename +it following the instructions provided [here](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201548). +After ensuring that I have two latest backups on two external drives, +I took a chance of doing the latter - it was a matter of minutes, and worked +seamlessly, with none of the standard apps broken! Some things that +needed a slight adjustment were paths to ignore for the time machine, +paths to VirtualBox VMs, some symbolic links and software builds, such +as e.g. GAP installation - but nothing was fundamentally broken. +While configuring this, I have also removed Russian keyboard layout +from all my devices. + +I have continued efforts to change my name from "Alexander" to "Olexandr" +on preprint servers, bibliographic databases and other scientific services. +There is no standard way of doing that, and in each case it was a +a unique experience, for example: + +- [zbMATH](https://zbmath.org/) had to disambiguate a number of records +for people with the same surname as mine, previously attributed to the +same person (even with different full names or initials!). + +- [Scopus](https://www.scopus.com/) happened to pick up two papers of +someone else named "Alexander Konovalov" and added them to my profile, +inferring wrong affiliation from their details in an offending way. +This was reported to Scopus, and was fixed by them within a couple of days. + +- Association for Computing Machinery ([ACM](https://www.acm.org/) +was the only service that asked me to fill in and sign the official +name change form. After that, they have put this in the queue for +manual updates of their database. It took them nine months to update +my name, however, not only on my profile itself, but also on each +of the papers that I have published with ACM. In the meantime I +have published another paper under my real name, and they accidentally +created another profile with that one new paper. Thus, now they had +to merge both profiles, and set up a redirect from the new one to the +old one. Luckily, it took just a few hours for them to fix this. + +- [DBLP](https://dblp.org/) still displays both my old and new name, +because "persons are identified in DBLP on basis of the persons name +string (optionally followed by a four digit number in case of several +authors in DBLP with the same name)". + +- [MathSciNet](https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/) +had never replied to me, but swiftly updated my name as requested. + +- Changing my name on [arXiv](https://arxiv.org/) did not update my +identifier `konovalov_a`, but at least arXiv allows me to hide that +by using an ORCID-based profile link, which does not include the name at all. + +- [Figshare](https://figshare.com/) allowed me to update my account details. +That changed my name on each publication, but not in the list of +publications shown under my profile. The problem was reported to +Figshare and thanks to them, it was fixed within less than 12 hours after my report. + +- For the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences ([OEIS](https://oeis.org/)), +I had to create a new account and then ask them to merge it with my old one. +After that, I had to manually edit the metadata for my mentions in the +OEIS entries to update the name. + +Also, different things may happen with the names shown on the papers in +my profiles: they may be fully updated, or not updated at all, or only +updated for papers they publish themselves (like ACM), or not consistently +updated (like DBLP, who did this, but only for the most recent papers). + +The rest of this post is related to my use of [GitHub](https://github.com/) +and [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/) for developing and publishing research +software, and includes a lot of technical details. If you are not using +these platforms, please feel free to proceed to the last paragraph. +Otherwise, for [GitHub](https://github.com/), I've discovered that one +can actually change their GitHub username: see e.g. +[GitHub documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/setting-up-and-managing- +your-personal-account-on-github/managing-personal-account-settings/ +changing-your-github-username) and [another page here](https://mskelton.medium.com/my-experience-changing-my-github-username- +8414e1baa113). Most of my content was migrated seamlessly, including +all the repositories, submitted issues and pull requests, organisation +membership, and even unread notifications and gists. However, while +links to the repositories are automatically redirected, this is not +the case for links to `@username` mentions, and for websites hosted +on GitHub pages. + +The next step was to update remotes in all repository clones which I +have locally. Since I have a dedicated directory to keep repository +clones, it was possible to do this in one go, with some shell scripting +and `sed` calls to find and fix all `.git/config` files. Another fix +required for the repositories which used the Git worktree extension: +some clones had a `.git` file setting up a `gitdir` variable with an +absolute path to the directory and had to be updated. + +Of course, it is not possible to update everything. What's said on the +Internet, stays on the Internet. For example, old repository commits are +signed using my old name and email. I can possibly rewrite revision +history for private repositories, but it's too late to do this for +public repositories that may have forks and clones. Also, username change +distorts contributor statistics, showing two contributors instead of one. +GitHub instructions say "To attribute past commits to the new account, +add the email address you used to author the commits to the account you're +keeping", but one can't do that with old commits signed with +`alex-konovalov@users.noreply.github.com`. But I can live with that, and +using `.mailmap` file helped to fix this to some extent (it updates +reports by `git shortlog` but not the way how contributors are reported +on GitHub). On the other hand, following good software engineering practices, +such as making the code portable, avoiding full paths in the code +(as well as in the demos and documentation) paid off: there were only +several fixes of this kind necessary so far. + +My GitHub username was then updated in the [Carpentries](https://carpentries.org/) +instructor database, and in the Journal of Open Source Software +([JOSS](https://joss.theoj.org/)) editorial system, both integrated +with GitHub. I have also updated the URL of my personal website, hosted on +GitHub pages, in multiple places, including GAP packages and other +projects to which I had contributed in the past. The GitHub search +functionality was very useful to discover occurrences of my old +username, about which I didn't even know in the past - for example, in +the repositories of Carpentries instructors with whom we were at some +point teaching together. + +Then I looked at my software published on [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/). +Because I mostly publish the software hosted in the accounts belonging +to GitHub organisations, and not in my personal one, that required only +two new releases to be made urgently (one of which from a repository +already migrated to another organisation, but never released from there). +The other projects were dealt with gradually. By now I have also re-released +all of the [GAP](https://www.gap-system.org/) packages to which I have +contributed, except one. In some cases, I had to fix contributor names +manually through the Zenodo interface, to avoid my name being duplicated +because of the new and old GitHub username. + +I am determined to eventually update my details in as many places as I +can (certainly, some things are beyond reach, such as past conferences +and journal publications, posts in various forums, etc.). It's a tedious +process, but I am getting there. + +## Conclusions + +I have started with some historical background details. +If you are well informed about Ukraine, perhaps you haven't +read anything new - yet another personal story illustrating and +confirming what was already said many times by others (if you +haven't read it yet, I recommend this article by Sasha Dovzhyk: +[Mother Tongue: The Story of a Ukrainian Language Convert](https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/mother-tongue-the-story-of-a-ukrainian-language-convert/)). +Still, while we read about the increasing use of Ukrainian in +everyday life, I haven't seen anything specifically focused +on digital communications, especially in the context of academia. +This is why I have decided to give a detailed technical account +of what is involved in restoring Ukrainian spelling of my name +in various digital resources. I am also trying to argue that +using good research software engineering practices helped me +to reduce some efforts required. Finally, we can see that the +design limitations of various bibliographic databases, and the +lack of widespread adoption of persistent digital identifiers +provided to researchers by [ORCID](https://orcid.org/) makes +this process more complicated. + +I hope that this post demonstrates what _is_ possible, and may +be useful to anyone who changes their name in academia.