Wikipedia is a worldwide collaborative encyclopedia project made up of a globalized network of volunteers who give their time to edit the site. Within this globalized network, there still lacks a diversity of voices. “In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors identify as female; more recent research puts that number at 16% globally and 23% in the United States.”  (Mandiberg, M., Prajapati, S., & Schrock, R., 2020). Who contributes to a database matters. Especially when in 2015, that database was “the 7th most visited website in the world” (Paling, E., 2015). A 2011 study from the Pew Research Center, shows that “the more educated someone is, the more likely he or she is to consult Wikipedia. Almost 70 percent of Americans with college degrees read Wikipedia” (Paling, E., 2015). If college-educated people and students are using Wikipedia as a main source of information, there is an argument for students learning how to edit and contribute to the online encyclopedia that they use.

It is increasingly important for cis and trans women, gender-non-conforming people, people of color, and Indigenous communities to be written back into history. When information systems like Wikipedia systematically exclude aspects of the human experience, our understanding of the world is incomplete. To have access to a more accurate information system that includes representation of historically marginalized groups, our understanding of success, knowledge, and of ourselves can become more whole.

VIRTUAL EVENT SCHEDULE: Friday, September 18^th

8:00 AM                               WIKI EDIT-A-THON BEGINS

8:15 AM                                OPENING REMARKS

8:30 AM                                EDITING WIKIPEDIA: TRAINING

9:15 AM                                 LIBRARY RESEARCH: ONLINE TRAINING

9:30 AM­–12:00 PM              EDITING WIKIPEDIA: FREE TIME

12:00 PM                                EDITING WIKIPEDIA: TRAINING

12:45 PM                                LIBRARY RESEARCH: ONLINE TRAINING

1:00 PM–4:00 PM                  EDITING WIKIPEDIA: FREE TIME

4:00 PM–5:00 PM                  CLOSING REMARKS

ArtNOW Art+Feminism 2020 is a Wikipedia-Edit-a-thon hosted by ArtNOW and the IDM Research Lab.

Co-sponsors: The Monmouth University Guggenheim Library and Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies (PGIS) at Monmouth University.

This event was organized with the guidance of Art+Feminism, “an intersectional feminist non-profit organization that directly addresses the information gap about gender, feminism, and the arts on the internet… ensuring that the histories of our lives and work are accessible and accurate” (Mandiberg, M., Prajapati, S., & Schrock, R., 2020).