Ewan McAndrew

“ Given Wikipedia’s undoubted reach and in uence, the importance of encouraging a diversity of editors to engage with Wikipedia editing is crucial in terms of increasing the visibility of female role models online to, in turn, encourage, inspire and empower the next generation of dangerous women who can continue to kick doors open and shape our world for the better. ”

“ Diversity matters because gender inequality in science and technology is all too real (Women in STEM | Percentages of Women in STEM Statistics, 2021) . Increasing the visibility and diversity of topics and inspirational role models online can not only encourage more into STEM careers but also help inform and shape our physical environments to be more inclusive spaces. ”

“ Yet, 69 percent of participating editors at the University of Edinburgh have been women, demonstrating that Wikipedia editing does not have to be the preserve of “white, college-educated males” (Wikimedia, 2011) . Addressing systemic bias and underrepresentation online has consistently been a key motivator for sta and students at the University—working toward building a fairer, more inclusive Internet and society. ”

“ The University of Edinburgh was the first UK university to employ a Wikimedian-in-Residence (WiR) to support students and staff across the whole university. Over the last five years, the project aimed to develop information literacy and digital research skills and to address the gender disparity of editors and participants in the community. The project has demonstrated the University of Edinburgh’s commitment to foster staff and student engagement as active digital citizens of the world and was awarded the 2019 Herald Higher Education Award for “Innovative Use of Technology in the Curriculum.” ”

“ In total, staff and student volunteer editors surfaced 34 new biography articles on Wikipedia about Scotland’s suffragettes and improved 220 more articles so that people could discover all about the important contributions these women made in the fight for women’s suffrage, individually and collectively. Images of these women help make their stories more impactful, more real, and more human. ”

“ Universities have privileged access to knowledge and can play a pivotal role in choosing to value this work. It is a choice after all. Work that could and should be prioritized, funded, and facilitated. These stories of pioneering women are too important to remain hidden. Search is the way we now live (Hillis, Petit and Jarrett, 2012) and what is right or wrong or missing on Wikipedia affects the entire internet (Wadewitz, 2014) . ”

“ Many of the training workshops facilitated by the residency focused on addressing underrepresentation of topics on Wikipedia and encouraging more women to become editors. Student societies have been motivated to initiate collaborations with the residency and have designed and lead edit-a-thon events focused on such topics as Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) , LGBT+ History Month, Black History Month, Mental Health Week, and Edinburgh’s global alumni. ”

“ In recognition of the centennial celebration of the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which ensured the right to vote for women who were over thirty and met minimum property qualifications, the resident facilitated three Wikipedia editing events for the university’s Festival of Creative Learning, International Women’s Day, and Processions 2018. Participants researched, published, and illustrated new Wikipedia articles about Scotland’s suffragettes. ”

“ These newly published open educational resources are an act of solidarity and celebration so that the stories of these extraordinary women’s contributions to women’s suffrage will be read, added to, and remembered. ”

“ The published outputs of their learning have an immediate public impact in addressing the diversity of editors and diversity of content shared online. For example, World Christianity postgraduate students wrote new pages about women in religion and on topics such as Asian Feminist Theology, and Reproductive Biology undergraduate students, where each year ~90 percent of the cohort are female, worked collaboratively to create missing articles related to reproductive health. ”

“ Figure 3 Screengrab of the women’s suffrage in Scotland Navbox, specially created to add at the foot of each of the Scottish suffragette’s Wikipedia pages. CC-BY-SA.
Conclusion
Representation matters. Learning about these stories matters. Gaps in our shared knowledge excludes the vitally important contributions of many within our community. Universities can help remove barriers and kick open more doors. They have access to knowledge and information and, with that, an ethical responsibility to share that knowledge for the greater good. ”

“ The resident, Ewan McAndrew, worked with course teams to quickly generate real examples of technology-enhanced learning activities appropriate to the curriculum. As a result, students in a variety of disciplines benefit from learning new digital and information literacy skills appropriate for the modern graduate. ”