WikiWomen

[EricBarbour]

Sieging the Servers
Worldwide Feminist Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to Take Over the Web This Weekend
The Link, 27 January 2014 link

On Feb. 1, Wikipedia is getting a makeover—or is it a reality check? At 22 locations across the globe, from Wisconsin to Australia, individuals across the net will tackle the lack of feminist content as well as the lapses in art pages on Wikipedia, and Montreal will be one of these hotspots of Internet activism. [...] The event will be a gathering of editors who will update Wikipedia’s current art and feminist content, which, according to its organizers, is seriously lacking. “You’ll have five pages of text on a Lord Of The Rings costume and then you won’t be able to find a famous artist’s page because it just isn’t there,” said Amber Berson, in charge of organizing Montreal’s Edit-a-thon, citing artist Adrian Piper as an example. Piper’s Wikipedia page was just recently built. [...]

And speaking of Adrian Piper:

Wikipedia Becomes a Battleground for Art Activism
LA Weekly, 6 February.

[Tippi Hadron]

Sieging the Servers
Worldwide Feminist Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to Take Over the Web This Weekend
The Link, 27 January 2014 link

On Feb. 1, Wikipedia is getting a makeover—or is it a reality check? At 22 locations across the globe, from Wisconsin to Australia, individuals across the net will tackle the lack of feminist content as well as the lapses in art pages on Wikipedia, and Montreal will be one of these hotspots of Internet activism. [...] The event will be a gathering of editors who will update Wikipedia’s current art and feminist content, which, according to its organizers, is seriously lacking. “You’ll have five pages of text on a Lord Of The Rings costume and then you won’t be able to find a famous artist’s page because it just isn’t there,” said Amber Berson, in charge of organizing Montreal’s Edit-a-thon, citing artist Adrian Piper as an example. Piper’s Wikipedia page was just recently built. [...]

And speaking of Adrian Piper:

Wikipedia Becomes a Battleground for Art Activism
LA Weekly, 6 February.

Ah, yes, Adrian Piper (T-H-L). I last had a look at her Brobdingnagian hagiography on WP about a year ago. At the time, it was mostly written by "New apra wiki master", someone who claimed to be her personal assistant on the talk page of her article, if memory serves. Mr. APRA Master also uploaded a number of Frau Piper's works to Commons (APRA stands for Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation [sic]). Shame all that history got lost when her biography was recently recreated by someone using actual sources. Let's just hope she paid him more for his troubles than what she's willing to shell out for prospective interns with her "foundation". Last time I looked, Berlin wasn't a cheap city to live in.

3. Hours:
The initial term of the internship is three months minimum. The internship can be extended beyond the three-month limit by explicit written agreement. The intern is on call and available for work at APRAF roughly 40 hours/week on average, Monday through Friday and, when necessary, Saturday by explicit agreement.

4. Remuneration:
The first six weeks of internship activity constitute a trial period during which the intern receives no financial compensation. During this period, either party can terminate the arrangement without prejudice, and with five workdays’ notice. Thereafter the compensation is €300.00/month, payable by direct transfer according to invoiced bank details.

Oh, and Frau Piper's "true" WP biography is preserved here. Of course.

[EricBarbour]

Ah, yes, Adrian Piper (T-H-L). I last had a look at her Brobdingnagian hagiography on WP about a year ago.

If you run across any more bios like this, please tell me, or someone. Especially in this case. As far as I can tell, it was created in 2010 and lasted until 2013, but I can't tell for certain because the old edit histories were obliterated, probably thanks to her legal threats leading to WP:OFFICE. Another little piece of Wikipedia history is lost.

[The Adversary]

If you run across any more bios like this, please tell me, or someone.

Do you know about the Alan Dershowitz (T-C-L)-article? It looks as if it was started by Jimbo himself, back in 2005.

Except it wasn´t: the earlier version was deleted, after what I assume would be termed "legal threats" if you or I made them.

See logs.

Mr Dershowitz got his way: today the article looks like an advertisement for him.

[EricBarbour]

Do you know about the Alan Dershowitz (T-C-L)-article?

Thanks, we covered that two years ago. If you come across a more obscure character with a manic bio, please post it.

[Mancunium]

A Growing Army Of Women Are Taking On Wikipedia's Sexism Problem
Business Insider, 15 February 2014 link

[...] there's a growing army of women who are trying to end Wikipedia's well-documented gender gap – fewer than 15% of Wikipedia editors around the world, it acknowledges – which has given the crowdsourced information site an arguably sexist bent. Instead of complaining about it, various groups of women have begun organizing edit-a-thons, days set aside where people (women and men) gather, write and edit articles about women for Wikipedia. Writing an article isn't always enough. Regular Wikipedia editors, called administrators, can delete articles and changes. So, these groups first get trained on Wikipedia's rules to ensure their articles and edits stick. One of the earliest women-in-tech edit-a-thons happened about two years ago, when the Wikimedia offices in San Francisco held a Women's History Month Edit-a-Thon. About 40 people showed up. They learned the rules of making changes that would stick and edited over 20 articles and created 11 new ones, according to the Wikipedia article on the event.

Flash forward to two weeks ago, when a New York group that calls itself Art+Feminism organized an edit-a-thon to focus on Wikipedia pages for female artists. It drew 600 participants, in 6 countries, at 61 locations, and created 101 new articles and improved another 90. And that group has already got more edit-a-thons scheduled for later in February and in March. The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that supports Wikipedia, couldn't be happier. Wikimedia spokesperson Jay Walsh told Business Insider: "This recent example of edit-a-thons aimed at bringing in more women has been really impressive - dozens of groups around the US and Canada (and I believe Europe and beyond) got involved and carried out these day-long sessions, which included both men and women. It's a really important way for people who have knowledge to share, but no experienced editing Wikipedia, to get comfortable with the process."

Instead of complaining about it, some have decided to become part of the problem

[thekohser]

They learned the rules of making changes that would stick...

In other words, brainwashed.

[Mancunium]

Sweet Briar College students add a woman's touch to Wikipedia
Lynchburg News and Advance, 16 February 2014 link

Women like famous Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi and contemporary Scottish painter Pat Douthwaite are now on Wikipedia, thanks to a handful of students at Sweet Briar College. On Saturday, about a dozen students joined what has become an international effort to ensure that the work of female artists is documented in the digital encyclopedia known as Wikipedia. “Rather than just talk about the scholarship on them, they’re engaging in the scholarship on them,” said Kimberly Morse Jones Saturday afternoon, as students searched Wikipedia for the artists whose work is on display at the college. [...] "When we discovered that Adrian Piper didn’t have a Wikipedia page, they were shocked. I was glad to see that they were shocked by that,” said Jones. “To be part of rectifying that is exciting.“It’s surprising just because this is a contemporary way of looking up information and I felt like it should be more equal,” she said. The fact that a female artist is not acknowledged with a page of her own on Wikipedia would lead an average user to believe that they are not noteworthy and that isn’t true, said 25-year-old art history major Elizabeth Wise. “I was shocked at how little (information) is out there,” said Wise. [...] The next feminist Wikipedia edit-a-thon takes place March 18 at Columbia University, where organizers aim to make sure famous female historical figures are recorded. [...]

[enwikibadscience]

Do you know about the Alan Dershowitz (T-C-L)-article?

Thanks, we covered that two years ago. If you come across a more obscure character with a manic bio, please post it.

Alan Dershowitz is not an "obscure character." Admit his fluffed up bio make it seem like he is self-selling on en.Wikipedia, but he's not "obscure."

[Zoloft]

Do you know about the Alan Dershowitz (T-C-L)-article?

Thanks, we covered that two years ago. If you come across a more obscure character with a manic bio, please post it.

Alan Dershowitz is not an "obscure character." Admit his fluffed up bio make it seem like he is self-selling on en.Wikipedia, but he's not "obscure."

Dershowitz is a very famous attorney, controversial, always in the public eye, and I've read lots about him in books and magazines, and seen him on television.

Books:

• Dershowitz, Alan M. Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways (W.W. Norton & Company 2006).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. The Case for Peace (John Wiley & Sons 2005).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. America on Trial: Inside the legal battles that transformed our nation -from the Salem witches to the Guantanamo Detainees (Warner Books 2004).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. America Declares Independence (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. The Case for Israel (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age (Little Brown 2002).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (Yale University Press 2002).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. Letters to a Young Lawyer (Basic Books 2001).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (Oxford University Press 2001).
• Dershowitz, Alan M. The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law (Warner Books 2000).

[Poetlister]

[*]Dershowitz, Alan M. Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (Oxford University Press 2001).

I think most people would agree with that book.

[Zoloft]

[*]Dershowitz, Alan M. Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (Oxford University Press 2001).

I think most people would agree with that book.

Well, maybe 48.38% would.

[EricBarbour]

Alan Dershowitz is not an "obscure character." Admit his fluffed up bio make it seem like he is self-selling on en.Wikipedia, but he's not "obscure."

[tarantino]

Ally Crockford (ACrockford (T-C-L)) is the Susan Manning Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh and wikimedian-in-residence at the National Library of Scotland since July 2013. It's interesting that she only started editing wp when she got the NLS gig.

Her research interests are unusual and probably unique among wikipedians. Too bad she has only made 29 edits to articles.

Ally’s doctoral research considered the relationship between the child-figure and re-considerations of death (un-death) in late nineteenth-century fiction, specifically that of Walter Pater, Vernon Lee, George MacDonald, and Henry James. She pairs this research with an interest in the medical humanities and disability history, focusing on nineteenth-century teratological reports.

Ally is currently looking at the role of child’s play in the construction of the monstrous child in literature and is also researching the history of literature and medicine in Edinburgh. She has previously worked on nineteenth-century women writers, feminist and gender theory, Joseph Merrick - the Elephant Man - and diphallicism.

In addition to a recent book chapter on George MacDonald and a forthcoming chapter on the monstrous child figure in literature, Ally is developing an edited collection stemming from the Sensualising Deformity conference, and is co-guest editor with Lena Wånggren of a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies entitled 'Writing Bodies: Gender and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century' (July 2013).

Diphallicism is a neologism she apparently coined to describe someone born with two penises.

[thekohser]

Too bad she has only made 29 edits to articles.

To be more fair, she has done extensive editing to create and update various "Project" pages, to entice other people to do the actual editing work, I suppose... which is rather a smart way of going about a Wikipedian-in-Residence fellowship.

[Mancunium]

Ally Crockford (ACrockford (T-C-L)) is the Susan Manning Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh and wikimedian-in-residence at the National Library of Scotland since July 2013. It's interesting that she only started editing wp when she got the NLS gig.

Her research interests are unusual and probably unique among wikipedians. Too bad she has only made 29 edits to articles.

Ally’s doctoral research considered the relationship between the child-figure and re-considerations of death (un-death) in late nineteenth-century fiction, specifically that of Walter Pater, Vernon Lee, George MacDonald, and Henry James. She pairs this research with an interest in the medical humanities and disability history, focusing on nineteenth-century teratological reports.

Ally is currently looking at the role of child’s play in the construction of the monstrous child in literature and is also researching the history of literature and medicine in Edinburgh. She has previously worked on nineteenth-century women writers, feminist and gender theory, Joseph Merrick - the Elephant Man - and diphallicism.

In addition to a recent book chapter on George MacDonald and a forthcoming chapter on the monstrous child figure in literature, Ally is developing an edited collection stemming from the Sensualising Deformity conference, and is co-guest editor with Lena Wånggren of a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies entitled 'Writing Bodies: Gender and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century' (July 2013).

Diphallicism is a neologism she apparently coined to describe someone born with two penises.

Your link is a 404.

Talk%3ADiphallia (T-H-L)

I do believe there were some selfies recently posted on reddit by a person claiming to suffer from this congenital defect.

The Third Leg: Masculinity and 'True' Diphallicism in 19th Century Medical Narratives
by Ally Crockford link

Medical History, Medical Myth: Diphallicism, Masculinity, and Authority in 19th-Century Medical Narratives
by Ally Crockford link

[tarantino]

Your link is a 404.

I left a w out of my www. It's fixed now. There's also the NSFW article Bifid penis (T-H-L).

[Cla68]

Alice Schwarzer (T-H-L)

Alice Schwarzer (born December 3, 1942 in Wuppertal) is the most prominent contemporary German tax evader.[1] and contemporary antisemite[2]. She is founder and publisher of the German gutter press journal EMMA.

Good grief, looks like WP's feminist editors still have their work cut out for them.

[EricBarbour]

Alice Schwarzer (T-H-L)

Nice find! Disgusting!

[Alison]

Alice Schwarzer (T-H-L)

Nice find! Disgusting!

Good grief Some anonymous editor added it earlier today as "correct date", which it clearly isn't. I had to go remove it; it's grossly unfair to that person.

[Mancunium]

Adrian Piper was mentioned here on 13 February 2014: link

Ah, yes, Adrian Piper (T-H-L). I last had a look at her Brobdingnagian hagiography on WP about a year ago.

and here on 16 February 2014: link

"When we discovered that Adrian Piper didn’t have a Wikipedia page, they were shocked. I was glad to see that they were shocked by that,” said Jones. “To be part of rectifying that is exciting.“

I had overlooked this story:

Wikipedia Becomes a Battleground for Art Activism
LA Weekly, 6 February 2014 link

Artist-philosopher Adrian Piper wants her Wikipedia page gone. She finds its portrayal of her inaccurate, and she has never cared to compromise about anything. Early in her career, following the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State protests, she pulled artwork from a show at New York Cultural Center, asking that it be replaced by a sign citing "the inability of art expression to have a meaningful existence under conditions other than those of peace, equality, truth, trust and freedom." &c. [... funny story ...]

Her BLP should replaced with an otherwise-blank page citing the inability of biographies to have a meaningful existence under conditions other than the subject's total control of the text.

[Zoloft]

Adrian Piper (T-H-L)
Hrmmm.
Nice article. Makes her sound like a poseur with no street cred who became a crazy bag lady.

Photo from 2005. Marital status from 1999.

Quaaaaaality.

[Mancunium]

What I found amusing about the LA Weekly story's lede (I guess I can live with that spelling) was:

she has never cared to compromise about anything.

and

"the inability of art expression to have a meaningful existence under conditions other than those of peace, equality, truth, trust and freedom."

So she has either:
1) compromised her belief that art can exist only under conditions of peace, equality, truth, trust and freedom, or
2) she believes these conditions have been met, or
3) she believes her art has no meaningful existence.

[Poetlister]

Adrian Piper (T-H-L)
Hrmmm.
Nice article. Makes her sound like a poseur with no street cred who became a crazy bag lady.

Photo from 2005. Marital status from 1999.

Quaaaaaality.

To be fair, maybe there is no more recent photo with a free licence. On the Shirley Temple (T-H-L) article, the most recent photo was from 1990.

[Zoloft]

Adrian Piper (T-H-L)
Hrmmm.
Nice article. Makes her sound like a poseur with no street cred who became a crazy bag lady.

Photo from 2005. Marital status from 1999.

Quaaaaaality.

To be fair, maybe there is no more recent photo with a free licence. On the Shirley Temple (T-H-L) article, the most recent photo was from 1990.

The staccato listing of her background and her work is the greater sin. Needs better backstory.

[Mancunium]

Hong Kong women artists have Wikipedia entries compiled
Group at City University compiles Wikipedia entries for 11 female arts figures
South China Morning Post, 9 March 2014 link

Hong Kong's women artists have been given their place in history thanks to an enthusiastic group of volunteer Wikipedia editors at City University, who marked International Women's Day yesterday. Based on concerns that women and art history were both under-represented in the popular online encyclopedia, a group of about 20 volunteers came together to create and edit 11 entries for female artists who have made their mark on the local arts scene. "The history is already there. You're just digitising it," said Vennesa Yung Chi-wei of the school of creative media.

The group worked off a list of significant artists compiled by art historian David Clarke, gleaning information from CVs, artist and gallery websites and books. "The female artists I know prefer to remain low-profile. But if you're not recorded, you're not going to change what's going to happen in the future," said Ruby Lin Ka-tung, a human resources consultant. [...] "It's as though if you're not on Wikipedia you don't exist," said Shannon Walsh, filmmaker and assistant professor at the school. [...] Yesterday's editing session formed part of the Arts Futures Project, an initiative looking at new ways to present and record art history at City University organised by Charlotte Frost, a visiting assistant professor. "The way we write about art is changing, with Twitter, Tumblr and other platforms. We as art historians need to be better prepared," Frost said. "As an art historian my job is to look forward at the future, not just the past." Lin agreed that the event was an opportunity to promote change. "People here complain a lot, but with the internet it's so easy to make a difference," she said.

"It's as though if you're not in Wikipedia you don't exist"

[Mancunium]

Indian Wikimedian community coordinates Women’s History Month
Daily News & Analysis, 9 March 2014 link

The Indian Wikimedia community invites everyone to participate in Women’s History Month events, 2014. We started off with a pre-event Wikipedia workshop at Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work, in Mangalore on February 26. We have planned events all through this month. The events aim at creating new articles, expanding existing stubs and translating English articles to various Indian languages.The schedule includes Wikipedia workshops, online edit-a-thons and wikiparties. You could edit articles, translate them, blog about the events or even be an enthusiast. Visit this page [link] to learn more about getting involved.

Offline Wikipedia workshops will be conducted in different parts of India. Two online edit-a-thons have been planned. One on March 8 and 9 focuses on women parliamentarians and another March 15 and 16 aims to expand the work done during last year's "Lilavati's Daughters edit-a-thon" on women scientists in India. Participants of the Women’s History Month events in India are requested to fill out this opt-in form [link] to help organisers evaluate the quantum and quality of edits made. The Centre for Internet and Society (Access to Knowledge) team and the Wikimedia Chapter (India) have extended their support to the Women’s History Month events this year. These events are being conducted as a part of the global event supported by the WikiWomen’s Collaborative. We look forward to welcoming all participants at this year’s event.

Facebook group: WikiWomen's Collaborative India

Facebook page: Women's History Month, India 2014

Cross posted from the Wikimedia Foundation blog. Edited by Rohini Lakshané: rohini at wikimedia dot in. Rohini serves as the Chairperson of the Gender gap Special Interest Group at Wikimedia Chapter (India). The Gender gap project aim to increase the participation of women in Wikipedia.

"Are You a boy or are You a girl?" - The Barbarians, 1965

[Mancunium]

Global Women Wikipedia Write-In expands entries of underrepresented people, topics
Emory University News and Events, 11 March 2014 link

Wikipedia, the mammoth online encyclopedia, is a global font of information but its millions of articles frequently lack content and guidance from some key sources – women and underrepresented populations. The Global Women Wikipedia Write-In (GWWI) will be held at Emory on March 18 to try and put a dent in the many needed Wikipedia entries about everything from women leaders, artists and historical figures to topics such as Latin-American folklore and international historical events relating to women’s rights. [...]

Truth versus verifiability

Wikipedia’s Editors Survey from 2011 found that the average Wikipedia contributor was a white, tech-savvy 30-year-old male. [...] The backgrounds of editors, combined with Wikipedia’s reliance on secondary sources such as media coverage to verify articles, result in far fewer entries about topics, individuals and cultures not already recognized by the Western mainstream. "The principal of Wikipedia ballyhoos verifiability over truth. That creates problems for underrepresented peoples of the world," says Allison Adams, associate director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. Recent Emory alumna Roopika Risam, Ph.D. '13, assistant professor of English at Salem State University, and Adeline Koh, assistant professor of literature at Richard Stockton College, created the Global Women Wikipedia Write-In last year as part of their Rewriting Wikipedia Project. "The event is an outgrowth of my research in the postcolonial digital humanities, which explores global issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and disability within cultures of technology," says Risam. "Although digital spaces are often perceived as a democratic and neutral, existing outside of dynamics of power, this is far from the truth. The GWWI raises awareness and helps train new editors to rewrite Wikipedia." [...]

Internationalizing entries

Yanna Yannakakis, associate professor of history at Emory, says students from her course on gender and sexuality in Latin America researched topics and possible entries in teams and then prepared their submissions for the GWWI. Students are ready to upload articles about La Patasola, a female jungle monster from South American folklore; Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva, a Venezuelan poet; and several other Latin American and Carribean-related people and topics. In order to participate in the event, students must become registered Wikipedia contributors, a process that makes it possible for students to continue to build on the project after the event. "The students were creative and resourceful in identifying entries," says Yannakakis. "I’m interested in the contemporary applications of historical knowledge, and online publishing and digital humanities are important new directions. If Wikipedia is lop-sided, I think it’s important to round that out."

Patasola (T-H-L)

Patasola
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008)

The Patasola or "one foot" is one of many myths in South American folklore about female monsters from the jungle, appearing to male hunters or loggers in the middle of the wilderness when they think about women. The Patasola appears in the form of beautiful and seductive women, often in the likeness of a loved one, that would ultimately lure them away from their partners deep into the jungle to reveal their true, hideous appearance as one-legged freaks with ferocious vampire-like lust for human flesh and blood, attacking and devouring the flesh or sucking the blood of their victims. More common in Colombian folklore, they are similar to the Sayona (Venezuela), the Tunda (Colombian Pacific), and the Madremonte or Marimonda (Colombia). They are usually regarded as protective of nature and the forest animals and unforgiving when humans enter their domains to alter or destroy them.

If patasolas were male one-legged freaks with ferocious vampire-like lust for
human flesh and blood, attacking and devouring the flesh or sucking the blood
of their victims, they would have a better Wikipedia article. And I don't have
to "verify" that fact, because it's the truth. Check your privilege, crackers.

[Mancunium]

Former Squalicum grad working to bring women's contributions to Wikipedia articles
The News Tribune, 13 March 2014 link

[...] [Taylor] Ulrich, a senior, and Susie Ferrell, a junior from Palo Alto, Calif., were among the five winners of MIT's Open Learning Innovation Contest, a competition devoted to promoting online education. They received a $2,000 honorarium, which they used to help create a "distributed open collaborative course," online instruction involving "feminist dialogues on technology" now used by 18 colleges. [...] I'll be working full time as a financial advisor based in Pasadena with Morgan Stanley. Eventually, I'm hoping I'll be working to advise wealthy philanthropic families who want to give back and do good in the world." [...]

Squalicum grad working to bring women's contributions to Wikipedia articles
Bellingham Herald, 14 March 2014 link

When Bellingham's Taylor Ulrich and her Scripps College teammate walked into a conference with the other four winning teams of a contest conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they were stunned to find the others were all professors. [...] The course emerged through FemTechNet, an organization Ulrich and Ferrell joined at its beginning less than two years ago. Scripps is a women's college and one of five Claremont Colleges that share a campus near Los Angeles. The personable Ulrich, who goes by her middle name, Jade, at Scripps, is on schedule to graduate in May with a double major in media studies and feminist, gender and sexuality studies.

Taylor Ulrich wants to advise wealthy philanthropic families

[Mancunium]

Putting the W in Wikipedia
The Times of India , 16 march 2014 link

[...] [Parul] Thakur is among a small group of women participating in Wikimedia's edita-thon , a global initiative aimed at encouraging more women to contribute to Wikipedia , the world's largest, free-content online encyclopedia run entirely by volunteers , and increase representation of articles related to women. [...] "There are so many great women out there who have no articles," says Thakur, who has created 25 articles this month and edited/expanded nine. The statistics bear her out —Wiki editors are largely male with just 9% women on average worldwide; India has 3%, the US 14% and the Middle-East has about 6%, according to various studies done since 2011.

Bishakha Datta, member of the Wikimedia Foundation board, says, "The full sum of human knowledge is not the full sum of male knowledge. The most important reason for getting women to contribute is the same reason as wanting Africans to contribute or Malayalees to contribute —we need everybody. [...] This month's edit-a-thons focused on Indian women parliamentarians. Coming up is one on women scientists on March 15-16 . During these specific theme weekends, certain pages that need to be written are identified and women from across the country source information and send it out into the world. Netha Hussain, a 22-year-old medical student from Calicut and a Wiki editor, says, "Last weekend, we had 30 women write 70 articles. We expect to get at least 500 articles by the end of the month. "

While such edit-a-thons help increase content, it doesn't mean it will increase women editors overall. Hussain and other Wikipedians visit and host workshops in schools and colleges in order to recruit more young women but even with sustained efforts it is difficult to get female contributors. From lack of time to difficulties with technology , women cite various reasons for not volunteering. Hussain says. "Women have time for a job because they get paid for it but they don't have the luxury of volunteering. There is also the problem of accessibility — in most households, the computer is likely to be in the boy's room than in the girl's room. The girl will use it if she needs it for school work but not otherwise. "Also, at present, editing on Wikipedia does involve some code-writing , which Datta and Thakur admit can be a bit user-unfriendly. "We are working on the editing interface," says Datta.

[Mancunium]

Global Women Wikipedia Write-In expands entries of underrepresented people, topics
Emory University News and Events, 11 March 2014 link

Wikipedia, the mammoth online encyclopedia, is a global font of information but its millions of articles frequently lack content and guidance from some key sources – women and underrepresented populations. The Global Women Wikipedia Write-In (GWWI) will be held at Emory on March 18 to try and put a dent in the many needed Wikipedia entries about everything from women leaders, artists and historical figures to topics such as Latin-American folklore and international historical events relating to women’s rights. [...]

Truth versus verifiability

Wikipedia’s Editors Survey from 2011 found that the average Wikipedia contributor was a white, tech-savvy 30-year-old male. [...] The backgrounds of editors, combined with Wikipedia’s reliance on secondary sources such as media coverage to verify articles, result in far fewer entries about topics, individuals and cultures not already recognized by the Western mainstream. "The principal of Wikipedia ballyhoos verifiability over truth. That creates problems for underrepresented peoples of the world," says Allison Adams, associate director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. Recent Emory alumna Roopika Risam, Ph.D. '13, assistant professor of English at Salem State University, and Adeline Koh, assistant professor of literature at Richard Stockton College, created the Global Women Wikipedia Write-In last year as part of their Rewriting Wikipedia Project. "The event is an outgrowth of my research in the postcolonial digital humanities, which explores global issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and disability within cultures of technology," says Risam. "Although digital spaces are often perceived as a democratic and neutral, existing outside of dynamics of power, this is far from the truth. The GWWI raises awareness and helps train new editors to rewrite Wikipedia." [...]

Internationalizing entries

Yanna Yannakakis, associate professor of history at Emory, says students from her course on gender and sexuality in Latin America researched topics and possible entries in teams and then prepared their submissions for the GWWI. Students are ready to upload articles about La Patasola, a female jungle monster from South American folklore; Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva, a Venezuelan poet; and several other Latin American and Carribean-related people and topics. In order to participate in the event, students must become registered Wikipedia contributors, a process that makes it possible for students to continue to build on the project after the event. "The students were creative and resourceful in identifying entries," says Yannakakis. "I’m interested in the contemporary applications of historical knowledge, and online publishing and digital humanities are important new directions. If Wikipedia is lop-sided, I think it’s important to round that out."

Emory students, faculty expand Wikipedia entries for underrepresented people, topics

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 17 May 2014 link

Emory University students and faculty will contribute articles and entries they’ve researched and written to improve Wikipedia entries about women leaders, Latin-American folklore and international historical events relating to women’s rights. Emory will host the Global Women Wikipedia Write-In on Tuesday in the university’s Woodruff Library. Students are expected to upload articles about La Patasola, a female jungle monster from South American folklore; Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva, a Venezuelan poet; and several other Latin American and Caribbean-related people and topics. To participate, students must become registered Wikipedia contributors, which allows them to continue the project after Tuesday’s event.

Again with the Patasola (T-H-L). That better be one of the Wikipedia:Good_articles (T-H-L) by Wednesday. I'll be checking.

[Midsize Jake]

I hope this doesn't come off as sexist, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that these people are operating under a counterintuitive, if not actually absurd, theory that increasing the number of biographies of women will increase the number of female Wikipedia users, as if one logically follows the other. And that’s being charitable, because the other explanation is that they’re all just running a scam, by convincing gullible grant-making institutions that they have a cheap and easy way to “empower" women by having all these get-togethers where they write a bunch of WP biographies, when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

The aforementioned female jungle monster is actually the first article subject I've seen mentioned in the context of these events that isn't strictly a biography. I guess that's a good sign, at least.

[Notvelty]

... because the other explanation is that they’re all just running a scam, by convincing gullible grant-making institutions that they have a cheap and easy way to “empower" women by having all these get-togethers where they write a bunch of WP biographies, when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

But, but... such behaviour is only ever the realm of [Big Oil/Big Pharma/Murdoch/Abbott666/Bush666/Your bogey-man of choice]. It's totally not at all a human condition that occurs whenever benefit (be it money or other) is on offer.

[Zoloft]

I hope this doesn't come off as sexist, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that these people are operating under a counterintuitive, if not actually absurd, theory that increasing the number of biographies of women will increase the number of female Wikipedia users, as if one logically follows the other. And that’s being charitable, because the other explanation is that they’re all just running a scam, by convincing gullible grant-making institutions that they have a cheap and easy way to “empower" women by having all these get-togethers where they write a bunch of WP biographies, when in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

The aforementioned female jungle monster is actually the first article subject I've seen mentioned in the context of these events that isn't strictly a biography. I guess that's a good sign, at least.

Hmm... Nobody has actually made a significant edit to that article since *blows off dust*
October, 2006.

[Midsize Jake]

But, but... such behaviour is only ever the realm of [Big Oil/Big Pharma/Murdoch/Abbott666/Bush666/Your bogey-man of choice].

But, but... none of those people apply for grants from academic institutions and educational foundations, I have no idea who "Abbott" is, and for all we know, everyone applying for these grants could be a right-wing sociopath. (The fact that Jade Ulrich now works for Morgan Stanley might be a strong indicator of sociopathic tendencies.) This sardonic comment of yours seems a little gratuitous to me, though I suppose I can't really argue with it.

One other thing I should mention is that if you look at Jade Ulrich's Twitter feed, she never once mentions Wikipedia, not in one single tweet. If she even has a Wikipedia account at all, she doesn't let on what it is - which I suppose is understandable, what with all the ginned-up Wikipedian scare-mongering about stalkers and what-not. But I suspect she doesn't spend much time on WP, if any - and while I personally don't believe anyone should ever participate on Wikipedia for any reason whatsoever, the fact remains that if this is something they really think is important, then they're doing it wrong. The women who are coming to these "Wikistorming" and "Write-in" events don't need a plate of hors d'oeuvres and a crash course in Wiki markup. They need allies on the site; they need numbers. They need actual people to back them up, and the people running these events aren't providing that; they're just throwing them into the fray like so much cannon-fodder.

[Cla68]

They need allies on the site; they need numbers. They need actual people to back them up, and the people running these events aren't providing that; they're just throwing them into the fray like so much cannon-fodder.

That's it exactly. Any group, activist or otherwise, that decides to use Wikipedia to further their agenda needs to understand that trying to play by the rules is a tremendous waste of time. So far, the only activist groups I've seen openly declare that they're going to use numbers and allies to control content on Wikipedia were that Israeli group and those Science Skeptics (or whatever they're called).

[thekohser]

I guess I need to cut off my donations to my alma mater Emory now.

[Poetlister]

I hope this doesn't come off as sexist, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that these people are operating under a counterintuitive, if not actually absurd, theory that increasing the number of biographies of women will increase the number of female Wikipedia users, as if one logically follows the other.

Maybe they believe that somehow, somehow it will make the site seem less intimidating to women. Wikilogic can come to strange conclusions.

[Mancunium]

How Women Are Trying to Make Wikipedia Less Sexist
Care2, 18 March 2014 link

While theoretically anyone can help create content on Wikipedia, the truth is that fewer than 15% of the site’s editors are women. As a result, sexism, both intentional and otherwise, inevitably pervades the pages. Fortunately, women are now taking proactive steps to make one of the internet’s most popular destinations more equitable. Last year, Care2 discussed how author Amanda Filipacchi noticed the sexism when browsing Wikipedia’s page for “American Novelists.” She and hundreds of others had had their names removed and put on a separate page, “American Women Novelists.” Male writers, on the other hand, stayed on the main page, regardless of their level of fame and accomplishments. [...] Anyone visiting the site might get the impression that there aren’t women novelists in the United States because of this unnecessary sub-categorization. After Filipacchi spoke out about the problem, she witnessed her personal Wikipedia page sabotaged by Wiki editors. They removed the citations from her page and then labeled the page unreliable for lacking sources. In just one day after speaking out, Filipacchi’s page was altered as many times as it had been in the previous four years, in what appeared to be an act of retaliation.

Meanwhile, Wikipediocracy, a site devoted to tracking the inherent problems of the web giant, reported on a trend where famous women in a variety of fields don’t have pages created for them until after they have died. The implication is that a woman cannot be considered important while still alive, perhaps because acknowledging so threatens male dominance. [...]

Since Wikipedia has strict rules in place, many of these women-led changes would be erased for not following procedures. The meet-ups include detailed instructions on how to have entries and edits approved so that the female interventions can remain intact. Last month, a group named Art+Feminist put together an “edit-a-thon” to improve Wikipedia’s existing art content. Around the world, about 600 partakers added more than 100 new entries on notable female artists that Wikipedia’s male-dominated editors had previously not added. [...] For what it’s worth, Wikipedia seems excited at the progress made and hopes that a diverse editor group emerges from these events. Spokesperson Jay Walsh said, “It’s a really important way for people who have knowledge to share, but no experience editing Wikipedia, to get comfortable with the process.” Hopefully, these women will continue contributing to the community to help make Wikipedia less sexist one entry at a time.

At this moment there are 38 excellent comments on this story.

[Mancunium]

Activists Add Female Heroines to Wikipedia in Macedonian
Global Voices, 18 March 2014 link

The informal citizens’ group “Fight Like a Woman”, (@borisezenski), organized a mini marathon with the purpose of adding articles about notable women from Macedonia to Wikipedia in Macedonian to raise awareness about women's rights and gender equality. The campaign involved activists working within the site of International Women's Day celebrations titled “Firstborn, and a girl” [mk] (wordplay on a popular Balkan saying expounding the importance of firstborn male children, usually expressed as “Firstborn, and a boy!”), and from home, coordinated using the hashtags #ЖенскаАрхива (Female Archive) and #WikiFem. The activists who were, as they put it, “defying oblivion”, managed to create 40 articles during the short campaign, with short biographies of important women, from early 20th century feminists and human rights activists to World War 2 freedom fighters, contemporary academics and artists.

The Macedonian Basic Female Archive team

[thekohser]

Those Macedonian editors (including Irena Dimitrovska) are certainly breaking new ground for Wikipedians. That'll sure break that sexist mold!

[Mancunium]

I came across this while browsing:

(Re)triggering Backlash: Responses to News About Wikipedia’s Gender Gap
Journal of Communication Inquiry, October 2013 link

Abstract
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, has been enormously successful. But while it is read nearly equally by women and men, women are only 8.5 to 12.6% of those who edit or write Wikipedia articles. We analyzed coverage of Wikipedia’s gender gap by 42 U.S. news organizations and blogs as well as 1,336 comments posted online by readers. We also interviewed Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner. Commentators questioned Wikipedia’s epistemology and culture and associated the gap with societal issues and/or (perceived) gender differences regarding time management, self-confidence, and expertise, as well as personality and interests. Yet, many commentators denied the gap was a problem; they blamed women for not joining, suggested it was women’s choice, or mocked girly interests. The belittling of the disparity as feminist ideology arguably betrays an antifeminist backlash.

You may purchase this article for US$30.00. You must download your purchase, which is yours to keep, within 24 hours.

[Mancunium]

Wikipedia Holds An Edit-A-Thon To Draw Women Editors
NPR, 29 March 2014 link

A Wikipedia edit-a-thon is designed to encourage women to contribute to the online encyclopedia. Sara Snyder of the Smithsonian American Art Museum tells NPR's Scott Simon why.

Audio discussion embedded. You may wish to take an antiemetic before listening.

[Hex]

How can Wikipedia woo women editors?, Lynsea Garrison, BBC News Magazine.

"[A] lot of perspectives are being left out," says Adrianne Wadewitz, a fellow at Occidental College who also serves on the board of the Wiki Education Foundation.

When Wadewitz showed Wikipedia's main page to her class one day, she found that the women featured were largely sexualised or portrayed as victims of a crime, while people of colour were represented as perpetrators of a crime.

For example, the list of pornographic actresses from the 1950s to the present is more than three times longer than the list of notable Native American women. It also has more names on it than the list of female poets and "sports women" combined.

Adrianne Wadewitz is Awadewit (T-C-L).

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Depression-era artist Natalie Smith Henry's vivid depiction of a farm family hangs high on the wall.

But until recently, Henry didn't exist, at least not according to Wikipedia. Then Chelsea Tufarolo, a student at American University, decided to write her an article about her.

...

Minutes after Tufarolo posted her article on Henry, a Wikipedia editor nominated it for "speedy deletion" because the artist didn't appear to be significant, despite her work being on display at the Smithsonian.

Tufarolo gathered more references and proved why Henry deserved a page, but she said the experience was intimidating and discouraging.

Chelsea Tufarolo is Ctufarolo (T-C-L).

The article Natalie Smith Henry (T-H-L) was tagged for speedy deletion by BiH (T-C-L), who helpfully tells us that he is a left-handed 26-year-old heterosexual male from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This user has been on Wikipedia for 8 years, 7 months and 5 days.
This user uses Wikipedia as a primary point of reference.
This user is a Mechanical Engineer.

[Hex]

Oh dear God but don't read the comments on that article. Ugh.

[Mancunium]

Trent Oshawa project adds women’s voice to digital world
Wikibook by seven students gets international recognition
Northumberland News, 8 April 2014 link

A group of students at Trent University Oshawa has pushed some boundaries in the digital world through a unique project on Wikipedia. Under the leadership of English professor Dr. Sara Humphreys, students in her modern Irish literature course are sharing their literacy research through a unique Wikibook, a free content textbook available through Wikipedia. “I wanted to give the students an opportunity to do something collaborative,” said Dr. Humphreys. While Wikipedia, a collaboratively edited, free Internet encyclopedia, values collaboration, the professor finds a need for more diverse voices to the entries on the website, so the students worked to elevate the female editorial voice. Dr. Humphreys served as a guide as the students researched and wrote about topics such as Irish feminism and nationalism. “Just by identifying as female and adding their voices to Wikibooks, they worked to further women’s rights and represent female and male Irish authors and issues,” said Dr. Humphreys. [...] The project, which has made each student a published author, gave the students experience not only in collaboration, but in Wikipedia coding and research as well. [...]

I would like to further women's rights, and was happy to learn that I could do so "just by identifying as female": call me "Mancunia". I was also thrilled to realize that simply hitting Wikipediocracy's "Submit" button makes me "a published author".


Published authors furthering women's rights by identifying as female

[thekohser]

Trent Oshawa project adds women’s voice to digital world
Wikibook by seven students gets international recognition
Northumberland News, 8 April 2014 link

Note, though, that it took a man -- some guy named Trent Oshawa -- to lead these women to success!

[iii]

Adrianne Wadewitz is Awadewit (T-C-L).

Rather sadly, news has come that Adrianne has died tragically while rock climbing.

She was the rare combination of critic and teacher active on Wikipedia. She was someone over to whom, I would argue, the reigns of Wikipedia's editorial control could have and perhaps should have been given.

She will be missed.

[The Joy]

Adrianne Wadewitz is Awadewit (T-C-L).

Rather sadly, news has come that Adrianne has died tragically while rock climbing.

She was the rare combination of critic and teacher active on Wikipedia. She was someone over to whom, I would argue, the reigns of Wikipedia's editorial control could have and perhaps should have been given.

She will be missed.

She was one of my favorite Wikipedians. I enjoyed her articles and her kind spirit.

http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html

[Mancunium]

Adrianne Wadewitz is Awadewit (T-C-L).

Rather sadly, news has come that Adrianne has died tragically while rock climbing.

She was the rare combination of critic and teacher active on Wikipedia. She was someone over to whom, I would argue, the reigns of Wikipedia's editorial control could have and perhaps should have been given.

She will be missed.

She was one of my favorite Wikipedians. I enjoyed her articles and her kind spirit.

http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html

Wikimedian activist Adrianne Wadewitz dies
Wikinews, 10 April 2014 link

My condolences.