Diversity of Wikipedia

Wikipedia
Diversity

PROMOTING (GENDER) DIVERSITY IN WIKIPEDIA
ILONA BUCHEM, Professor for DIGITAL MEDIA & DIVERSITY
GENDER AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER
BEUTH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES BERLIN, GERMANY
in cooperation with WIKIMEDIA DEUTSCHLAND e.V.
DIVERSITY CONFERENCE 2013 // WIKIMEDIA DEUTSCHLAND E.V. // 09-11-2013 // CC BY-SA
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Honeybee_landing_on_milkthistle02.jpg

Saturday, November 9, 13

WHAT IS DIVERSITY?
Diversity means:

• variety
• variation
• plurality
• multiplicity
WIKIPEDIA-DIVERSITY, CC BY-SA

2

DIVERSITY IN NATURE
BIODIVERSITY (GENETIC, SPECIES, ECOSYSTEM VARIATION) MAKES LIFE ON EARTH

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Fungi_of_Saskatchewan.JPG/768px-Fungi_of_Saskatchewan.JPG


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Forest_fruits_from_Barro_Colorado.png

MONOCULTURES
MONOCULTURES MAY BE EFFICIENT BUT DESTROY THE NATURAL BALANCE

http://www.nue.okstate.edu/Hand_Held/DCP_0803.JPG


GLOBAL LOSS
BEE DIE-OFF HAS REACHED 30-50% IN 2013 > 70 OUT OF 100 CROPS ARE POLLINATED BY BEES

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/genetic-engineering/Bees-in-Crisis/


POLYCULTURES
POLYCULTURES IMPROVE BEE POLLINATION WHICH IMPROVES CROP YIELDS

http://mighkrophone.ﬁles.wordpress.com/2010/03/dsc02543.jpg


WHY WIKIPEDIA MAY
NEED DIVERSITY?


REASON #1
The editor base is declining ...


POOR RETENTION
“Post-2007, lots of people were still trying to
become Wikipedia editors. What had
changed, though, is that they were
increasingly failing to integrate into the
Wikipedia community, and failing
increasingly quickly.”
Sue Gardner http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/
March_2011_Update


9

HIGH WORKLOAD
“That's a problem for everyone, because it
means that experienced editors are
needing to shoulder an ever-increasing
workload, and bureaucrat and
administrator positions are growing
ever-harder to ﬁll.”
Sue Gardner, http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/
March_2011_Update


REASON #2
Perspective bias in articles ...


CONTENT COVERAGE

http://mashable.com/2012/08/08/wikipedia-gender-graphic/

“Table 1 shows our results, which indicate that males and females are
focused on disparate content areas within Wikipedia. There is a
greater concentration of females in the People and Arts areas, while
males focus more on Geography and Science.” In: “WP: Clubhouse?”

12

WOMEN BIOGRAPHIES
SYSTEMIC BIAS = KNOWLEDGE IS PORTRAYED IN A DISTORTED WAY
BECAUSE SOME GROUPS MAY BE UNDERREPRESENTED

http://www.webpronews.com/wikipedia-editors-are-basically-all-dudes-should-that-matter-2012-04


13

REASON #3
The image of free & open ...


REPUTATION LOSS
Ghe t t o

izing

EN
Wikise
xism

PL
Exclusi

DE

on

DIVERSITY HAS
MANY DIMENSIONS


DIVERSITY TYPES
Socio-demographic diversity
> gender, age, citizenship ...
Cognitive-affective diversity
> intelligence, reasoning, attitudes ...
Role/Position-related diversity
> editor, admin, steward ...
Epistemic diversity
> topics, arguments, references ...

17

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC
DIVERSITY IN WIKIPEDIA


18

age
http://www.educaging.com


45% are 22-39 year old


global


58% among top 10
reside in USA & EU


education


61% have a degree


language


76% editing in English


gender


91% are male


WIKIPEDIA DIVERSITY (WiDi)

•
•
•
•

Wikimedia Deutschland & Beuth University Berlin
Gender & Technology Center
One of 5 annual projects on “Enhancing knowledge
diversity in Wikipedia” run by Wikimedia Deutschland
Focus on gender diversity, later other diversity aspects


OPEN INNOVATION
dge
owle
kn
rces
esou
r
kills
s
eas
id


Inside-out
Outside-in

fuzzy

open innovation process

well-deﬁned


OPEN INNOVATION
Stage I
CLOSED CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
LEARNING : ANALYSIS : HYPOTHESIS

Stage II
SELECTED CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
INVITED EXPERTS : PRIORITIES : ACTION POINTS

Stage III
OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
CROWD CONTRIBUTION : IDEA CREATION : EMERGENT ACTIONS

WIKIPEDIA-DIVERSITY, CC BY-NC-SA

33

STAGE 1
LEARNING : ANALYSIS : HYPOTHESIS

•
•
•
•

UNU-MERIT Survey (2009): United Nations University (UNU-MERIT)

•
•
•
•

Explorative interviews with German Wikipedians


WMF Editor Survey (2011): Wikimedia Foundation Editor Survey
Clubhouse study (2011): University of Minnesota (US)
MIT/NU Survey (2013): Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
Northwestern University

Literature review e.g. book written by German Wikipedians
National and international press
Gender gap mailing list

STAGE 1I
INVITED EXPERTS : PRIORITIES : ACTION POINTS

• Student projects
• Workshops, discussions, events
• Wikimedians & Wikipedians
•


gender imbalance

AWARENESS

#1

welcoming culture
priorities

GENDER
DIVERSITY

WELCOME

#2

respectful communication

RESPECT

#3

diversity & knowledge quality

QUALITY

#4

diversity & motivation

PARTICIPATION

#5

I. AWARENESS
have no idea
under-/overestimate
hidden good practice

• diversity guide
• diversity portal
• diversity scouting

gender gap awareness

II. WELCOMING
nitpicking
power battles
little recognition

problems with an attitude


• newcomers
• local heros
• save spaces

III. SUPPORTIVE
no support
insider jargon
unfriendly tone

• declaration
• learning resources
• conﬂict mediation
• reputation

problems with communication


IV. QUALITY
perspectives
missing content
categorisations

• research
• mapping effects
• existing tools

problems with systemic bias


V. MOTIVATION
have no time
enjoy social media
prefer other activities

• reasons & drivers
• building networks
• editing events

problems with participation

PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY
A. Resource perspective:
Socio-demographic diversity is regarded as a valuable
resource, since, compared to homogenous teams,
heterogeneous teams are likely to possess greater
potential for expert knowledge and decision-making.

B. Process perspective:
Socio-demographic diversity can be a cause of
dysfunctions in groups and organisational processes.
Those who see each other as similar may build in-groups
an marginalise “others” in the out-groups.


DIVERSITY COMPETENCE

• Knowledge about differences, inequalities

and how they are constructed in societies.

• Mindset oriented towards promoting
diversity.

• Conciously contributing to more equality in
every-day situations.


THE SYNOPSIS IN OUR WORKING PAPER:


fuzzy

open innovation process

well-deﬁned

stage II
selected participation
workshops with Wikipedians

SHORT LIST OF
ACTION POINTS
•

Open seminars in web
(MOOC, Massive Open Online Courses)

•

Research on diversity & quality
(Participatory research with Wikipedians)

•

Diversity Charter
(Charta of Diversity for Wikipedia)

STAGE III: OPEN CALL

OPEN QUESTIONS
• Open call organisation - where
can we organise this? do we
need a diversity site?

• Open call communication - how

can we moderate this process?
Who can help?

• Open call participation - how can
we stimulate and award diverse
participation?


VISION OF WIKIPEDIA?

http://christianblackburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Dead-Bees.jpg

DISTOPIAN

UTOPIAN

JOIN US!
Workshop // Saturday // 13:30 - 15:30
Ilona Buchem (DE) & Netha Hussain (India)


Diversity of Wikipedia

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