Join Project Continua for our 2^nd Annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in celebration of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2015, a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

History  In February 2014, Art+Feminism organized an edit-a-thon at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York City. More than 30 satellite events were organized in Australia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The campaign attracted an estimated 600 participants, resulting in more than 100 new Wikipedia articles focused on women and the arts.

The Brooklyn Museum satellite event, hosted by The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and co-hosted by Project Continua, was a huge success, garnering praise from BuzzFeed which proclaimed the event organizers “18 Badass Women You Probably Didn’t Hear About in 2014”.

Why this is necessary  Wikipedia has a gender gap. In a 2011 survey, Wikimedia found that less than 13% of its contributors are female. The reasons for the gender gap are up for debate: suggestions include leisure inequality, how gender socialization shapes public comportment, and the contentious nature of Wikipedia’s talk pages. Content is skewed by the lack of female participation. Many articles on notable women in history and art are absent on Wikipedia. This alarming deficit in an increasingly important repository of shared knowledge must be repaired.[i]

Event Details  On Sunday March 8th, from 1-5pm, participants will create and edit articles about female artists and feminist art scholarship. The event aspires to improve female representation among editors so that articles about female artists will receive further exposure.

This online-only event will be based on the Project Continua website.

We will provide tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian; a real-time online space to engage, ask questions, and get advice; and reference materials.

Seasoned Wikipedians will be on hand to assist during the event.

In Preparation To join the event, go to our Wikipedia Meetup page to register.

Review our shared Google Documents folder.  Revisit this folder before and during the event for updates.

 

 

[i] See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/ArtAndFeminism#2015_Satellites