2021:Submissions/Women's Biographies, beyond Wikipedia: Wikibooks!

Building 5 · Saturday August 14, 17:00 UTC

Session Notes (etherpad)

Speakers

• Camelia Boban, WikiDonne
• Luigi Catalani, Basilicata Wiki
• Lorenza Colicigno, Gender Citizenship Committee
• Daniela de Scisciolo, CIDI Potenza

Abstract

Slides

Our session is a case study that can be implemented by anyone, anywhere. The main topic is the gender gap; the session presents how the Wikimedia projects dedicated to women's biographies (Wikibooks in this case) can be a generator of ideas for a whole territory and change something inside the society.

• Past: Everything started in 2017 with a Wikipedia edit-a-thon from the Art + Feminism campaign in Potenza. During this editathon, a group of 5 people wrote 10 women biographies. But one was deleted and doubts have been raised about the notability considered local and not national as requested by the first pillar of Wikipedia.
• Present: What we learned from this experience? We know that one of our issues related to women biographies is the lack of sources which has an influence on the notability. So a way to preserve these biographies is to write them in another Wikimedia project that has no notability criteria. And this is WikiBooks. Women correct representation is an important point today and it is required by a great part of civil society: that means that other entities - especially who has experienced discrimination - are interested in collaborating to make known stories of exceptional women, increase their visibility, fight the fall into oblivion of female personalities that have changed the world. Education, women and LGBT+ associations, local administrative and political bodies by their nature are more receptive and willing to implement changes more quickly.

Future: What an alliance of this kind brings in the future? A collaboration on this front leads to a greater knowledge of Wikimedia projects, to their use as tools in education, allows to build an audience of possible partners, leads to progress through greater gender equality, it can change the physiognomy of cities through the creation of monuments, or the naming of streets after women.

Session Outcomes

• Attendees will learn about those initiatives for representing (not exclusively) Lucanian women in Wikibooks, Commons and other Projects.
• Attendees will understand the issues related to writing women's biographies in Wikipedia.
• Attendees will identify the value of other wiki projects in preserving articles which are more likely to be canceled (women's and LGBT+ biographies, underrepresented groups etc).
• Attendees will capture the synergy between Wikimedians and Librarians in order to achieve milestones on both sides.
• Attendees will understand the Wikimedia projects don't mean not only content, but keys to engage other entities on the territory.

I'm planning to attend live!

1. MGuadalupe (WMF) (talk) 16:44, 4 August 2021 (UTC)
2. Victuallers (talk) 12:40, 9 August 2021 (UTC)
3. TrudiJ (talk) 17:14, 13 August 2021 (UTC)
4. IvaBerlin (talk) 10:29, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
5. Helga Wiki (talk) 10:44, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
6. Kerrieburn (talk) 11:21, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
7. Arpitha05 (talk) 14:05, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
8. Antiqueight (talk) 09:07, 18 August 2021 (UTC)