Thanks to Punya for alerting me to the The Global Women Wikipedia Write-In #GWWI happening this coming Friday!
The event is organized by By Adeline Koh and Roopika Risam and the following quotes are from their blog:
Why “global women”? If you’ve ever tried doing a Wikipedia search for important women theorists around the world, you might be surprised to note how short the entries are, particularly on their work and their ideas (for example: Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Gayatri Spivak, bell hooks, Gloria Anzaldua, Vandana Shiva, and Sara Ahmed). Many important women of color, such as Oyeronke Oyewumi and Frieda Ekotto, lack entries or stubs in Wikipedia. Additionally, coverage of international events involving women is brief or nonexistent (for example: the 1929 Aba Women’s Riots in Nigeria; Domitila Barrios de Chúngara; and Angkatan Wanita Sedar or “Force of Awakened Women,” an important feminist group in Malaysian history).
For the past 3 years I have been participating in the Ada Lovelace Day blog initiative where we are asked to write about technical women who inspire us. The organizers have also started a collection of “heroines” – this is a great place to start if you’re looking for someone to post to Wikipedia! The #GWWI is not just for technical women. How can you get involved?
How can you participate?
- Contribute to the list of Wikipedia entries that we should edit or improve. Add your ideas to the working list here or in the comments below. You can find ‘stub’ articles — those that have been marked as needing further information — by searching various categories.
- Sign up for a Wikipedia account (we recommend using a pseudonym).
- Watch this video to learn how to edit Wikipedia. Be sure to set aside some time for this video. It’s an hour long, and we recommend clicking on FLASH – it tends to play better that way. If you don’t have time to do this, join the hashtag on Twitter or our designated chatroom to ask questions or share your experiences.
- Review our resources for writing Wikipedia entries that stick and our useful links.
- Don’t want to write? Add images to feminist articles. Here is the image use policy for Wikipedia.
- Track our work and tweet your own using the Twitter hashtag #GWWI.
- Join us on Friday, April 26th from 1-3PM EST from your own computer!
(Quoted from original blog post by Adeline Koh and Roopika Risam)
Time to get thinking and writing!