{"id":1440,"date":"2024-05-02T12:50:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T12:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2024-05-03T13:33:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:33:36","slug":"wikipedia-inclusive-practice-and-improving-representation-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wikipedia-inclusive-practice-and-improving-representation-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia, inclusive practice and improving representation online"},"content":{"rendered":"
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International Women’s Day at the University of Edinburgh. CC-BY-SA by Ewan McAndrew<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Since January 2016, I have worked as Wikimedian in Residence<\/a> with the University of Edinburgh\u2019s course teams to quickly generate real examples of technology-enhanced learning activities appropriate to the curriculum. As a result, students from diverse learning communities and a variety of disciplines benefit from learning new digital and information literacy skills appropriate for the modern graduate. The published outputs of their learning have an immediate public impact in addressing the diversity of editors and diversity of content shared online. For example, World Christianity MSc students wrote new pages about women in religion and on topics such as Asian Feminist Theology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many of the training workshops and in-curriculum assignments I have lead and facilitated focused on addressing under-representation of topics on Wikipedia and encouraging more women to become editors. Over the course of the last eight years, I have designed and lead edit-a-thon events focused on such topics as Women in STEM, LGBTQ+ History Month, Black History Month, Mental Health Week, and Edinburgh\u2019s global alumni.<\/p>\n

Through my work within the DLAM (Digital Learning Applications and Media) and and Digital Skills departments within Information Services<\/a>, I have worked with, taught on and helped design learning activities on over 15-20 course programmes as the University\u2019s Wikimedian in Residence. I have also created and shared hundreds of learning resources (video tutorials, webpages, blogs, pdfs, powerpoints, word docs), organised and hosted conferences & seminars, facilitated and lead over 360 training workshops along
\nand 150 edit-a-thon events celebrating: International Women\u2019s Day; Ada Lovelace Day; Gothic Writers; Feminist Writers; Women Architects; Contemporary Scottish Artists, Scottish women authors; Women in Anthropology, Women in Chemistry, Women in Law and Global Health; Women in Engineering; and Women in Espionage. Over two thousand students and 660 staff have now been trained to edit Wikipedia, with a (conservatively) estimated ~16,000 articles created and improved. Stories that may not have been shared otherwise are now discoverable and being read, added to and improved, as OERs shared with the world for the benefit of all.<\/p>\n

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Editathon attendees, CC-BY-SA via Ewan McAndrew<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Wikipedia has a gender problem. In considering the diversity of editors and content, \u201cthe \u201coverwhelming majority of contributors are male<\/em>\u201d and the vast majority of biographies (81 percent on English Wikipedia) are about men (Ford & Wajcman, 2017). This means there is clear gender bias in terms of the stories being disseminated online, the choices being made in their creation and curation and who is writing these stories (Allen, 2020).<\/p>\n

Yet, 69 percent of participating editors at the University of Edinburgh have been women, demonstrating that Wikipedia editing does not have to be the preserve of \u201cwhite, college-educated males\u201d<\/em> (Wikimedia, 2011). Addressing systemic bias and under-representation online has consistently been a key motivator for staff and students at the University\u2014working toward building a fairer, more inclusive internet and society.<\/p>\n

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Changing the \u201cpale, male,stale\u201d nature of our physical spaces at the University with more diverse heroes on display like Brenda Moon, our 1st female Chief Librarian. CC-BY-SA via Ewan McAndrew<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The residency has facilitated monthly \u201cWikipedia Women in Red\u201d workshops<\/a> for the last eight years and created a supportive setting where students and staff can come together to learn a new digital skill. As a result of the success of this approach, the residency now sits on the Gender@Ed<\/a> Steering Committee and the Wikipedia Women in Red edit-a-thons are included in the University\u2019s Athena Scientific Women\u2019s Academic Network (SWAN)<\/a> charter plan to highlight female achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to encourage and inspire new STEM careers and help encourage new role models by changing the online and physical world around them by surfacing the brilliant lives and contributions of women to be where they can be visible and help inspire.<\/p>\n

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Imagine a gender equal world, IWD2024 event poster by E. McAndrew, all images CC-BY-SA<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Global Activism and Women\u2019s Rights- International Women\u2019s Day 2024<\/h3>\n
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International Women’s Day 2024. CC-BY-SA via the Global Justice Academy<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Our most recent Wikipedia editathon event took place on the 8th March, between 13:00-16:30 in the Digital Scholarship Centre of the Main Library and was in collaboration with the University’s Global Justice Academy<\/a>. It was lead by Assistant Wikimedian in Residence Ellie Whitehead for International Women’s Day 2024<\/strong>. It celebrated the lives and contributions of all the inspiring women the world, past and present, who have dedicated themselves to fighting for women\u2019s rights and global justice, by adding those missing from Wikipedia \u2013 the world’s go-to site for information.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Kasey McCall-Smith, Senior Lecturer in Public International Law at the International Women’s Day 2024 event. CC-BY-SA via the Global Justice Academy<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The session began by welcoming Dr Kasey McCall-Smith<\/a> from the Global Justice Academy and Senior Lecturer in Public International Law who spoke to us about women in justice at local, national, and global levels. Dr McCall-Smith spoke about some incredible things being done by female colleagues in the field and helped to set the supportive and inclusive tone of the event.<\/p>\n

Together, the attendees created some amazing new pages, including:<\/p>\n