Grants:Project/Rapid/Matthewvetter/Reckoning with Wikipedia

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Rapid Grants

Reckoning with Wikipedia

Designed to reckon with Wikipedia’s reputation and flaws, this project will engage Cultural Studies researchers, students, and teachers in dispelling false narratives about Wikipedia, help to understand its deeper concerns, and encourage its utilization as a way to enact, teach, and engage social justice through knowledge equity.

targetEnglish Wikipedia

start dateMay 20

end dateAugust 1

budget (local currency)$1633.00

budget (USD)$1633.00

grant typeindividual

grantee• Matthewvetter

contact(s)• mvetter@iup.edu

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Project Goal

Briefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".

This project, Reckoning with Wikipedia, is designed to promote increased understanding of Wikipedia policy and practice among academics at the 2022 Cultural Studies Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

The grantee will lead two sessions at the conference in order to work toward this goal.

• Session 1 “Reckoning with Wikipedia: Information Equity, Access, and Getting Involved.” Cultural Studies Association. June, 2022. [Accepted]
• Session 2 “Meet the Author: Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality.” Cultural Studies Association. June, 2022. [Accepted]

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?

Two conference sessions will work to engage audiences and participants in gaining an increased understanding of Wikipedia policies and practices. Zach McDowell will also help facilitate but will not require any funding, as he has access to financial support from his institution. My own University has withdrawn all funding for research-related activities.

Session 1: Reckoning with Wikipedia: Information Equity, Access, and Getting Involved. This session will begin by inviting participants to share with us both their current understanding of how Wikipedia operates as well as some of the misconceptions they may have been exposed to over the last decade or so. Following the audience’s lead, we will engage them in an in-depth explanation of the encyclopedia’s policies and practices to help participants understand processes around reliability, notability, verifiability, and participation. Our ultimate goal in this session is to help clear up misconceptions about the encyclopedia in order to better prepare participants as potential future contributors, educators, and participants in the pursuit of knowledge equity and representation.

Session 2: Meet the Authors: Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality

Author and educator Matt Vetter, with co-author Zach McDowell, will provide an overview and Q&A related to their recently published book Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality. Acknowledging Wikipedia’s status as the world’s foremost knowledge repository, the book explores the disconnect between the encyclopedia's formalized policy and the often-unspoken norms that govern its knowledge-making processes. Applying theoretical concepts relevant to the encyclopedias “culture-of-use” (Thorne) and the archeology of knowledge (Foucault), McDowell and Vetter explore how epistemological practices in Wikipedia are shaped by historically-situated norms and ideologies at once past and present in the encyclopedia’s development. While the authors ultimately celebrate the community's ambitions for free and open knowledge, they balance praise with critique through an honest evaluation of Wikipedia's many problems related to diversity and inclusion. By means of this critique, the book illustrates Wikipedia's struggle to combat systemic biases and lack of representation of marginalized topics and identities as it becomes the standard bearer for equitable and accessible representation of reality in an age of digital disinformation and fake news.

Like their book, this session will leverage Vetter and McDowell's experience researching and teaching Wikipedia over the past decade to cover topics related to how Wikipedia, as the largest repository of information in the world, shapes perceptions of reality through reliability and verifiability policies and guidelines; notability, knowledge gaps, and exclusionary practices; and Wikipedia’s community and challenges related to participation.

How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?

This project will engage attendees of the Cultural Studies Association 2022 Conference, and will be advertised on social media outlets leading up to that event. This specific audience is being targeted because of the grantee's work as an educator/academic, and their knowledge of the ways that academic's typically misunderstand and misperceive how Wikipedia works. This project works from the understanding that academics need to first understand the Wikipedia community in order to become better advocates and participants in the Wikimedia movement.

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

At each session, attendees names and emails will be collected, as will their responses to general questions regarding their initial understandings and confusion about Wikipedia. After the conference is over, attendees will be emailed a brief assessment survey to gather information about what they learned/their new understanding of Wikipedia.

Are you running any in-person events or activities? If so, you will need to complete the steps outlined on the Risk Assessment protocol related to COVID-19. When you have completed these steps, please provide a link to your completed copy of the risk assessment tool below:

Hybrid. Some participants will be in person, based on the conference decision. More information at the CFP, https://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/conference-960395.html

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:

1. Number of total participants - 50-75 attendees across both events;
2. 30 survey responses post-event

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

The grantee is a long-time Wikipedia educator and advocate. With his co-organizer and co-author, Zach McDowell, he has recently published an open access book, Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality, which serves as a free resource for understanding the encyclopedia's policy and practice.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:

• Airfare, $400.00
• Conference registration, $183.00
• Per diem, $300.00
• 3 nights Lodging, $750.00