The New York-based organization Art+Feminism will be hosting all-day Wikipedia edit-a-thons around the world next weekend, specifically focused on updating articles related to art and feminism. In New York, the central event will take place on Saturday, March 7, at MoMA. Art+Feminism has also helped to coordinate dozens of satellite edit-a-thons happening around the world; listings can be found here.
An edit-a-thon is exactly what it sounds like: when a bunch of folks get together in a space for an entire day to work on editing Wikipedia articles together. If you have never edited Wikipedia before, no worries: the hosts of the event will teach you everything you need to know, providing tutorials and reference materials as well as childcare and refreshments. Participants are only asked to bring their laptops and ideas for entries to update or create.
“Wikimedia’s gender trouble is well-documented,” write the organizers. “In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors identify as female. While the reasons for the gender gap are up for debate, the practical effect of this disparity, however, is not. Content is skewed by the lack of female participation. This represents an alarming absence in an increasingly important repository of shared knowledge.”
The 2015 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is organized in collaboration with POWarts and The Museum of Modern Art by Dorothy Howard, Michael Mandiberg, Jacqueline Mabey of failed projects, and Siân Evans of the Art Libraries Society of North America’s Women and Art Special Interest Group. More information at art.plusfeminism.org.
