The role of scholars in contributing to Wikipedia, Paris, ECAS, 09/06/2015. http://www.ecas2015.fr

1. Iolanda Pensa, SUPSI Switzerland - iolanda.pensa@supsi.ch - http://iopensa.it
The role of scholars in contributing to Wikipedia, Paris, ECAS, 09/06/2015
The license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

2. DoYOU edit Wikipedia?

3. You should.

4. Wikimania 2012. Foto Helpameout, 2012, cc by-sa.
Iolanda Pensa, iopensa.
I am part of the Wikimedia community. I have been editing Wikipedia as a volunteer since 2006.
Professionally I have been scientific director of the project WikiAfrica between 2007 and 2012 and I
am now researcher at SUPSI Switzerland. I am currently the lead of Wikimania 2016 Esino Lario, the
Wikipedia world gathering in Italy, in a mountain village over Lake Como.

5. 1.Why
2. Open licenses
3.Wikipedia Primary School

6. 1.Why

7. Marc Augé’s non-placesAchille Mbembe’s borders
Jean-Loup Amselle’s connections
Homi K. Bhabha’s location of culture
Arjun Appadurai’s cultural dimensions of globalization
Saskia Sassen’s global city
Yochai Benkler’s networked social production and open collaboration
Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams’s Wikinomics
Maja van derVelden’s contact zone on Wikipedia
Mathieu O’Neil’s cyberchiefs
Heather Ford’s missing Wikipedians
Sarat Maharaj’s art and knowledge production
Tirdad Zolghadr’s approach to art and exhibitions
Steven Weber’s open source production
V.Y. Mudimbe’s invention of Africa
Michel Foucault’s power and knowledge
Edward Said’s Orientalism
Mark Graham’s Africa on Wikipedia
Frantz Fanon’s colonial violence and weight
We need to rewrite historyRasheed Araeen

8. Representations of Africa
Africa in public domain content (-early XX century) uploaded on Wikipedia
Self-representation
Sources
Licenses
Restitution
Sharing knowledge and problematic content which it is not easy to share (art
from secret societies, human remains, content not contextualized…)
Dissemination of academic knowledge
Reaching the public
Background knowledge
Historiography
Oral sources
Availability of sources
Access to sources
Access to data
Languages
Colonial and post-colonial archives
Niche
Power Control
Research ethics
Relationships with institutions and governments
Academic credits
Intercultural dialogueContemporary society
Geographic dynamics
History
GeographyAnthropology
Culture
Authorship
Internet
Mobile phones
ICTConnectivity

9. © Information Architects,Web Trand Map 2007/V2, 2007.

10. Wikipedia as a new continent, participating with a growing role in shaping culture and local cultures, and contributing to cultural processes.

11. Distribution of offline Wikipedia on DVD, USB key and in classrooms. Credits:Wikimedia Commons, cc by-sa.
Wikipedia Zero. Access to Wikipedia on mobile phones for free.

12. Wikipedia editors. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

13. 2. Open licenses

14. Creative Commons licenses.

15. “The big opportunity with open licenses is far more practical:
it has the potential to dramatically increase the impact, reach
and scale of the ideas we invest in…”
The Shuttleworth Foundation, 2008

17. Chimurenga Library, 2007-2008. A project promoted by Chimurenga and supported by lettera27/WikiAfrica, GNU GPL / cc by-sa.

18. Far usare le licenze a istituzioni

19. Raccolte Extraeuropee del Castello Sforzesco, Milano, 2012,Wikimedia Commons, cc by-sa.Raccolte civiche Extraeuropee, Castello Sforzesco, Milano. Images and catalogue on Wikimedia Commons while the collection was not online nor exhibited, 2012, cc by-sa.

20. The National Archives UK,Wikimedia Commons, cc by-sa.

21. WikiAfrica/ShareYour Knowledge 2006-2012. Status report, 2013, cc by-sa. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Case_studies/WikiAfrica/Share_Your_Knowledge/Institutions
Event: conference/training/workshop
Research
Archives
Wiki Loves Monuments
Notebooks (Detour, myDetour,WikiAfrica special editions)
Presentations and events
Creative Commons affiliate
Orange and Orange Foundation (free Wikipedia on mobile phones)
Brooklyn Museum
Feed My Starving Children
International Institute for
Communication and Development
Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
AfricaFilms.tv
Western Province Government – Department of museums - 28
museums in Western Cape Province, South Africa, Bartolomeu Dias
Museum, Beaufort-West Museum, Caledon Museum, Cango Caves
Museum, Cape Medical Museum, CP Nel Museum, Drostdy Museum,
Fransie Pienaar Museum, Genadendal Mission Museum, George
Museum, Groot-Brakrivier Museum, Hout Bay Museum, Huguenot
Memorial Museum, Jan Dankaert Museum, Koopmans De Wet House
Museum, Montagu Museum, Old Harbour Museum, Paarl Museum,
Robertson Museum, SA Fisheries Museum,
Sendinggestig(Missionary)Museum, Shipwreck Museum, Simon's Town
Museum, Stellenbosch Museum, Transport Riders Museum, Wellington
Museum, Wheat Industry Museum, Worcester Museum
Gambia National Museum
Sungani Zakwathu Cultural Heritage Promotions
Postal Museum, Matengatenga, Malawi
Zanzibar National Museum
Phuthidikabo Museum,
Mochudi, BotswanaSeychelles People Defense
Forces Museum (SPDF)
Uganda National Museum
Dataset of administrations in Botswana

22. The Africa Centre in Cape Town South Africa promoting “WikiAfrica: Increasing the the quality and quantity of African content on Wikipedia”.

23. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Primary_School - April 2014
WIKIPEDIA PRIMARY SCHOOL
Providing on Wikipedia the information necessary to complete the cycle of primary
education in the languages used by the different education systems.
RESEARCH PROBLEM
The research is developed within a Swiss-South African
cooperation lead by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts
of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) and the University of Cape
Town, in partnership with Wikimedia Switzerland and the Africa
Centre based in Cape Town, and with the support of SNF and
the South African National Research Foundation (NRF).!
Iolanda Pensa (principal investigator Switzerland), Tobias
Schönwetter (principal investigator South Africa), Luca Botturi,
Davide Fornari, Giancarlo Gianocca, Isla Haddow-Flood, Erica
Litrenta, Giovanni Profeta, Kelsey Wiens.
Wikipedia is meant to be an educational tool and it is currently
available online, via mobile phones and offline. Experiences
have shown that, once accessible, Wikipedia does not provide
information that responds directly to curriculum-based questions.
The project relies on Wikipedia as an existing and growing
resource, it solves the need for an encyclopedia capable of
responding to curriculum-based questions, and it fosters
Wikipedia content, quality and outreach.
THE PROJECT RESEARCH TEAM
The research project developed within a Swiss-South African
cooperation (2014-2017) focuses on the theoretical frame of
Wikipedia Primary School and in developing and evaluating a
system to assess Wikipedia articles for primary education and to
involve a wide network of scholars and contributors in their
production. !
More specifically the project aims at:!
1. Bridging Wikipedia and primary education. This objective
implies to move the Wikipedia community towards a focus on
primary education, and at the same time to strengthen the
capacity of the education ecosystem to contribute to
Wikipedia, and in general to open collaborative knowledge.
2. Enriching Wikipedia with new content relevant to primary
education. This objective implies an assessment of the
articles produced.
3. Fostering the development of translations and new content in
different Wikipedia linguistic editions. This objective implies
the release of existing educational resources (OER in cc by
or cc by-sa), the production of datasets and the involvement
of the Wikimedia movement.
4. Verifying and evaluating the use of Wikipedia as a source of
information for primary education. This objective implies the
involvement of stakeholders and data analysis.
Wikipedia Primary School contributes to universal primary
education and to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG2:
Achieve Universal Primary Education). Even if it is scalable and
international, the project is conceived primarily to address African
countries and languages.
3

25. 1. Edit Wikipedia.
2. Use the open license cc by-sa on your content (photos, articles, your bachelor thesis…).
3. Review articles related to your expertise and suggest bibliography and improvements.
4.Ask your students to contribute to Wikipedia as an assignment.
5. Involve scientific journals in creating “Wikipedia sessions”.
ShareYour Knowledge

26. cc by-sa, 2015.
Iolanda Pensa, SUPSI Switzerland - iolanda.pensa@supsi.ch - http://iopensa.it
DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

27. Iolanda Pensa (SUPSI)
The role of scholars in contributing to Wikipedia
The role of scholars in contributing directly or indirectly to Wikipedia is extremely important. Scholars can
write, share and review content related to Africa with a specific expertise which is not largely available at
present among the Wikipedia community.They can suggest how to improve articles, they can involve students
in writing and translating content as an assignment (which avoids plagiarism from Wikipedia and teaches
students how Wikipedia works), they can produce articles for Wikipedia sessions of scientific journals and
releasing content under the open license Creative Commons attribution or Creative Commons attribution
share alike. Acknowledging Wikipedia articles as contribution to scientific journals is an increasing approach
among academic publications; a well structured and complete article is not an original research, but it is more
and more widely recognized as a complex and valuable contribution supporting original research, making it
understandable to hundreds of thousands of readers, and facilitating further studies with relevant references;
articles on scientific journals (commonly published in a specific journal session) attribute the article to its
authors whereas the article on Wikipedia attributes the role to the publication and its reviewers (https://
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Scientific_Journal/References).
This presentation is based on the experience of WikiAfrica (http://www.wikiafrica.net), ShareYour Knowledge
(a project involving 100 institutions in contributing to African content on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia
projects by releasing documentation under open licenses), "Mobile A2K: Culture and Safety in Africa" (with
research documentation such as 4000 images of public art in Douala between 1991 and 2013 made available
on the Wikimedia projects (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Mobile_A2K), of 4 years of
teaching experience and Wikipedia assignments at NABA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/
NABA) and on the research project Wikipedia Primary School (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/
Research:Wikipedia_Primary_School_SSAJRP_programme).

28. Extra

29. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Europeana_Fashion_Editathon_2013_Stra_03.JPG

30. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glam_Wiki_meeting_at_Museum_of_Lodz_3.jpg

31. Writing an article on Wikipedia. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

32. Correcting a mistake on Wikipedia. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

33. Adding text to an article on Wikipedia. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

34. © Chacho Pueble, his great-aunt and photos by his sister Lula, http://www.behance.net/gallery/Grandmother-Tips/2392946.

35. © Bili Bidjocka, Ecriture Infinie, http://www.ecritureinfinie.org.

38. Spacial distribution of edits for Wikipedia in English. Erik Zachte, May 2011, cc by-sa.

39. Artwork: ©Yinka Shonibare, Scramble for Africa, 2000 in Looking BothWays:Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora. Commissioned by and courtesy Museum for African Art NY.

41. Chris Harrison,WikiViz, 2006.
3

42. © Tsesler &Voichenko,Welcome, Minsk, Road sign.

43. Contemporary African art

44. Permissions - Wikimedia Commons <permissions-commons@wikimedia.org>
I hereby assert that I am the creator and/or sole owner of the exclusive
copyright of WORK [ insert link ].
I agree to publish that work under the free license Creative Commons
attribution share-alike 3.0.
I acknowledge that I grant anyone the right to use the work in a commercial
product, and to modify it according to their needs.
I am aware that I always retain copyright of my work, and retain the right to be
attributed in accordance with the license chosen. Modifications others make to
the work will not be attributed to me.
I am aware that the free license only concerns copyright, and I reserve the
option to take action against anyone who uses this work in a libelous way, or in
violation of personality rights, trademark restrictions, etc.
I acknowledge that I cannot withdraw this agreement, and that the work may or
may not be kept permanently on a Wikimedia project.
DATE, NAME OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER

45. The license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.
People and institutions do not need to become
Wikipedias to contribute.

47. Chimurenga Library, 2007-2008. A project promoted by Chimurenga and supported by lettera27/WikiAfrica, GNU GPL / cc by-sa.

48. Raccolte Extraeuropee del Castello Sforzesco, Milano, 2012,Wikimedia Commons, cc by-sa.Raccolte civiche Extraeuropee, Castello Sforzesco, Milano. Images and catalogue on Wikimedia Commons while the collection was not online nor exhibited, 2012, cc by-sa.

49. The National Archives UK,Wikimedia Commons, cc by-sa.

50. National Gallery of Zimbabwe,Wikimedia Commons, cc by-sa.

51. “The big opportunity with open licenses is far more practical:
it has the potential to dramatically increase the impact, reach
and scale of the ideas we invest in…”
The Shuttleworth Foundation, 2008

52. Reviews

53. Mounir Fatmi, Les connexions, 2003-2004, installation

57. © Tsesler &Voichenko,Welcome, Minsk, Road sign.

58. © Mounir Fatmi, G8 Les balais, 2004, installation.

59. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Segundo_Editatón_Soumaya_Abierto_-_Dia_dos_-_35.JPG

60. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QRpedia_codes_in_Silesian_Museum_Opava_03.JPG

61. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Archeowiki_-_Raccolte_Extraeuropee_01.JPG

62. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QR_Code,_Museum_für_Hamburgische_Geschichte_IMG_1607_original.jpg

63. L’Herbarium di Neuchâtel e Wikipedia
Jason Grant, conservatore degli erbari, Università di Neuchâtel

64. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, ShareYour Knowledge, 2011-2012, cc by-sa.

65. DensityDesign Research Lab-INDACO Department Politecnico di Milano, Fondazione Cariplo onWikipedia in Italian, 09/2011, CC BY-SA.

66. 2006 Harvard University
2012 George Washington
University
2009 Centro Cultural San
Martín, Buenos Aires
2015Vasconcelos
Library, Mexico City
2008 Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, Egypt
2011 Haifa Auditorium
Complex, Israel
2013 Hong Kong
Polytechnic University
2007Youth CenterTaipei
2016The entire village of Esino Lario,
Lake Como area, Italy
2014 Barbican Centre in
London
2010 Polish Baltic
Philharmonic, Gdańsk
2005Youth Hostel
Frankfurt, Germany

67. 600300
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Esino Lario, un comune montano delle Alpi in Provincia di Lecco, Regione Lombardia, Italia.
MeetupsPanels Support
Il raduno mondiale di Wikipedia nel 2016 è a
Esino Lario.

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14
12
8
5
3
21
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Il numero corrisponde alla fotografia. Foto https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Esino_Lario
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Villa Clotilde
Primary school
Multimedia room museum Bar restaurant 58 Theatre of the Kindergarten Former Hotel Italia
Bar restaurant Oasi
Bar restaurant Centrale
Meeting
Bar restaurant Montanina
Collaborative space
City hall
Montecodeno
Former cinema
Bar La sosta
Sport Hall
MeetupsPanels Support
Valorizzare gli spazi e le risorse del territorio.