What You Need to Know About Editing Wikipedia

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 14:48:39 -0400
baltimore, baltimore-city, critical-social-justice, csj, csj-ignite, history, public-history, social-justice, wikipedia

Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Ignite with our What You Need to Know series. Written by Courtney Hobson, Coordinator in the Dresher Center for the Humanities.

When you need to look up information on the internet, Google is the number one site we typically go to. If you type in “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” or “Aretha Franklin,” the first result will likely be an article on Wikipedia.

For those of you not in the know, Wikipedia is a free open-source encyclopedia which means that anyone can edit it. Most of the editors consist of academics or hobbyists who, with time, a computer and a steady internet connection, are generating informative articles that are viewed by millions all over the world.
Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2015, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Wikimedia Commons
As one of the top ten visited internet sites in the world, Wikipedia is not merely a tool to record facts; it is helping to shape our collective knowledge. Winston Churchill once remarked that, “history is written by the victors.” Knowing our history is important, but knowing the authors is even moreso. This brings us to editing articles on Wikipedia.

Less than 10% of Wikipedia’s editors identify as cis or trans women and the editors that do identify as women are more likely than men to have their edits reverted.

What does this mean? This means that women are not seen or valued as notable contributors to our society. The statistics are similarly dismal for POC.

Editing Wikipedia is a step towards challenging systemic structures that tell us what information is important enough to know. It is a step that I realized that anyone could take when I attended my first edit-a-thon in 2016 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The edit-a-thon focused on expanding or creating articles about Black artists. With just 30 minutes of writing and research, I was able to create an short article or stub. I am now one of those hobbyists who edit articles for fun, but I focus on adding content about people from Baltimore, especially Black women.
2016 AfroCROWD Elected Officials Wikipedia editathon/Wikimedia Commons
For the CSJ: Ignite Wikipedia edit-a-thon, we will have a chance to discuss these issues in greater depth, as well as explore resources available through our library. But most importantly, we will inject Wikipedia with a bit of Baltimore and shine a light on figures and events who have shaped our city.

Further reading below:

Gender bias on Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation releases gender bias report

Why didn’t Wikipedia have an article on Donna Strickland, a Nobel Prize winner?

Doing the work: Editing Wikipedia as an act of reconciliation

How Does Political Wikipedia Stay Apolitical?

Why I’m making it My Feminist Mission to End Wikipedia’s Notability Policy

Art and Feminism

afroCROWD

Women in Red Wikiproject