Grants:Project/Whose Knowledge/VisibleWikiWomen2019

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Project Grants

VisibleWikiWomen2019

summary2019 #VisibleWikiWomen campaign to add more images of women to Commons and Wikipedia

targetWikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia in multiple languages

amount32,390 USD

nonprofitYes, with fiscal sponsor

grantee• Seeeko• Aadele• Anasuyas

contact• sikowhoseknowledge.org• adelewhoseknowledge.org

community organizer• Señoritaleona

designer• Tinaral

organization• Whose Knowledge?

this project needs...

volunteer

advisor

created on18:50, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Friendly space expectations

This Wikimedia Foundation grant has a fiscal sponsor. Peace Development Fund administered the grant on behalf of Whose Knowledge?.

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

We estimate that less than 20% of Wikipedia articles of notable women have pictures. When women’s faces are missing from Wikipedia, that invisibility spreads. Half a billion people read Wikipedia every month, and it is the 5th most visited website in the world, so gaps in Wikipedia have a big impact on the broader internet.

Women’s knowledge and contributions to the world are invisible in so many ways. And although less than 1/4 of all Wikipedia biographies represent women in nearly every language version of Wikipedia, Wikipedians are already making collective progress at adding and improving text about women to the encyclopedia. What’s missing is a similarly sustained and concerted effort to improve visible representations of women on Commons and Wikipedia.

The way in which women (and other oppressed groups) are shown online, through image and video searches, is often stereotyped and sexualized. These decontextualized images perpetuate prejudices about the roles that women can play in society. The impact of shared images on Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia illustrations can help change the way and context that women of diverse colors and social origins are seen and represented.

What is your solution to this problem?

Whose Knowledge?, in partnership with Wikimedians and women’s and feminist organizations around the world, is organizing a campaign to add more diverse and quality images of women to Commons and Wikipedia throughout March 2019 to celebrate International Women’s Month. We organize and collaborate with women’s and feminist organizations, Wikipedia editors, user groups, chapters, and other partners around the world to encourage people to upload images of women to Commons, and add them to Wikipedia articles.

In the 2018 pilot campaign, participants added over 800 images to Commons, and by May, over 500 of them were being used across Wikipedia. The Commons photography community also got into the spirit of the campaign, with a March/April 2018 "Portraits of influential women" photo challenge suggested by Whose Knowledge? user group members and allies. 17 partners, many of them Wikimedia groups, joined the pilot campaign (thanks to: Women in Red, Art + Feminism, Mujeres latinoamericanas en Wikimedia, Wikimedia Tunisie, Association CLibre, Wikimedia Israel , The Black Lunch Table, Global Fund for Women, AfroCROWD, Wikimujeres, Wikimedia Community User Group Brazil, Wikimedia Uruguay, Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedia Bolivia, WikiDonne, O Foundation, and Open Foundation West Africa!)

This year we plan to take what we learned from 2018 #VisibleWikiWomen and grow the campaign, creating more materials and connections that will be useful for this year’s campaign and many more years to come. We especially want to involve more partners from outside the Wikimedia movement who have access to images of women that would be great additions to Commons and Wikipedia (many expressed interest last year, but these types of partnerships and institutional donations can take a bit more time to bear fruit), and incorporate our efforts more systematically into existing March and April edit-a-thons where images can be added to Wikipedia articles.

We’ll be working with partners around the world for this global campaign. As with most Whose Knowledge? projects, participation from and content about women, especially women of color and from Global South and indigenous communities, is a particular focus. With a Spanish-speaking coordinator and communications lead, we plan to give extra focus to supporting Latin American and Spanish-speaking participation this year.

Project goals

We aim to source a diverse range of quality images focused on women, donated and curated by a plural network of people and organizations:

1. Add more diverse and quality images Add 1600 images of women to Wikimedia Commons, with at least ⅓ used on Wikipedia, in at least 3 different languages, within 6 months.
2. Grow the network of non-Wikimedian partners Engage at least 5 partners from outside Wikimedia in donating images, from at least 4 different countries.
3. Incorporate images into more edit-a-thons Engage at least 5 edit-a-thons organizers with the commitment of uploading images and/or editing about images already updated in the 2018 and 2019 campaigns, in at least 5 events in 4 different countries.

Project impact

How will you know if you have met your goals?

Outputs:

• At least 5 partners from outside Wikimedia, located in at least 4 different countries, donate images during the campaign
• At least 5 edit-a-thons organizers incorporate VisibleWikiWomen into their existing International Women’s Month plans. Images and/or editing about images already updated in the 2018 and 2019 campaigns, should happen in at least 5 events in 4 different countries.

Outcomes:

• At least 1600 images of women are added to Wikimedia Commons during the campaign
• At least ⅓ of the images get used on Wikipedia, in at least 3 different languages, within 6 months of the campaign

Do you have any goals around participation or content?

Number of content pages created or improved: 2133

Project plan

Activities

This is a 6-month project, which includes 2 months set-up, 2 months for the campaign, and 2 months for wrap-up. We will:

• Conduct and facilitate partner outreach to build connections between Wikimedians and external organizations
• Improve materials, resources and calls to action for groups and individuals uploading images, making easier and more obvious for how different segments should get involved (for e.g. we might build out a better ask of VWW allies to attend events and take photos)
• Build and share social media materials, including graphics and blog posts, focusing on more collaborative coverage
• Create a call and workflow for partners to write blog posts and other content to promote the campaign, share stories, and raise visibility of women during the campaign
• Translate between English and Spanish, and coordinate volunteer translations of campaign pages and other materials into additional languages
• Setup image donation workflows, including an upload wizard, categories, etc
• Coordinate with Wikimedia Commons community, including around a photo challenge
• Generate worklists and curate articles that need images
• Support partners and edit-a-thon organisers to add images to the campaign, helping provide advice, workflows, and trouble-shooting
• Monitor image donations on Wikimedia Commons, engaging other Wikimedians to help curate as needed.
• Coordinate with Wikidata community to create items for women whose images have been added, explore data visualization potential
• Give postcards and gratitude to thank participants
• Track and share metrics and stories from the campaign all along the way

Budget

VisibleWikiWomen Coordinator	14400 USD	1 person’s time at 30.00 USD per hour, 20 hours per week for 24 weeks
Communications Lead	7200 USD	1 person’s time at 30.00 USD per hour, 20 hours per week for 12 weeks
Swag	800 USD	postcards and other gratitude
Edit-a-thon support	800 USD	for local event organizers who may need materials at their events
Travel	3000 USD	for coordinator to attend 2 international events to promote or share learning from the project and connect with partners, for e.g. at a women and tech event, CC Summit, or Wikimedia event
Project management	3930 USD	15 % on top to cover some of Whose Knowledge?’s project support overhead
Fiscal sponsor fee	2260 USD	Our fiscal sponsor Peace Development Fund charges 7.5% for administration
TOTAL	32390 USD

Community engagement

Throughout the project, we will:

• Contact partners via email, virtual meetings, or at relevant events
• Contact Wikimedia chapters and User Groups via email and projects pages, with the aim to get together in virtual meetings and establish mutual collaboration commitments
• Spread the word using the Whose Knowledge? blog and newsletter, Decolonizing the Internet mailing list, VisibleWikiWomen social media channels, etc
• Create written and visual materials in order to raise public awareness around the visibility gap as a diversity issue on Wikipedia
• Create content for feminist media and blogs, to get attention of the feminist movement
• Look for collaboration and feedback on the Commons Village Pump
• Using all of these channels, we’ll disseminate calls to actions and share updates and milestones in order to create a common sense of shared mission

Get involved

Participants

Mariana Fossatti - VisibleWikiWomen Coordinator

Mariana will be returning as campaign coordinator from last year’s pilot. She’s a Wikimedian with experience working with partners both inside and outside the movement, and is involved in user groups that work to reduce the gender gap in Wikipedia in Spanish, such as Wikimujeres and Muj(lh)eres Latinoamericanas in Wikimedia. Mariana is a sociologist, visual artist, and activist in free culture, digital rights, and feminism from Uruguay. She’s involved in projects like the digital cultural center Ártica, the Uruguayan research group Laboratorio Datos y Sociedad (Datysoc), Wikimedia Uruguay (where, among other things, she’s coordinated several edit-a-thons about women), Creative Commons, GenderIT Blog and Ella - Encuentro Latinoamericano de Feminismos. She'll be organizing, facilitating, building and scheming to make the project successful from start to finish.

Claudia Pozo - Communications Lead

Claudia has been working with Whose Knowledge? since April 2018, bringing her design skills and communications expertise to the team. Claudia is a Bolivian ciberfeminist and digital rights activist devoted to bridging tech communities know-how with grassroots movements’ necessities. She holds a BA in Social Communications and a Master’s Degree in Development Management from the University of Agder in Norway. She’ll be managing social media and other communications for the campaign, and designing campaign materials.

Siko Bouterse, Adele Vrana, Anasuya Sengupta - Project Support and General Rabble-Rousing

The co-directors of Whose Knowledge? have been rabble-rousing around Wikimedia projects regarding pluralism and equity in some form or another since about 2011, and started Whose Knowledge? in 2016. They will be managing the grant, supporting the project team, and generally scheming and cheerleading for VisibleWikiWomen every step of the way once again this year.

Community notification

(Note: We'll update these links over the coming weeks)

• Sharing on the Decolonizing the Internet mailing list, and VisibleWikiWomen and Whose Knowledge social media channels, and updating our campaign Meta/Commons pages
• Posting on talk pages of local edit-a-thons and individual collaborators from last year's campaign
• Notifications to partners and other connected groups via email, Telegram groups and talk pages, for e.g.: Gender Diversity Visibility Community User Group, Art+Feminism User Group, Women in Red, AfroCROWD User Group, Wikimujeres, WikiDonne, Wikiesfera, Mujeres latinoamericanas en Wikimedia, Wikimedia Community User Group Brazil, Wikimedia Uruguay, Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedia Bolivia, Wikimedia Mexico, Wikimedia España, Wikimedia Tunisie, Wikimedia Israel

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for a Project Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project below! (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the discussion page).

•  Support Scann (talk) 18:12, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support TitiNicola (talk) 18:23, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
•  SupportAmeliaEvans35 (talk) 18:24, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Raystorm (talk) 19:16, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Rosiestep (talk) 15:33, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
• Diversifying the content of wikipedia will make it more reliable, inclusive and true to its vision. Mandsey (talk) 23:34, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
• Women belong on Wikipedia and it's important that a space as diverse as wikipedia includes as many representatives of women's realities as possible. Women continue to change history and it's important to note them! Shugdugs (talk) 23:56, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support. --Joalpe (talk) 19:42, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support --Pepe piton (talk) 20:39, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Thank you for this work. Ixocactus (talk) 02:43, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
• I worked last year on this project! The idea is important. Many women were brought to life through this project. We even exceeded the target we set, the idea was widely welcomed and engaged many Wikimedian and non Wikimedian communities to work together on this goal. I fully support it! I cannot wait to see the impact of the project for this year! May Hachem93 (talk) 08:02, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support It is a great and very reliable project.Tiputini (talk) 09:52, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support. This project addresses an actual problem of Wikimedia. For the equity, this is something we all should endorse.—Teles «Talk to me ˱_{C L @ S}˲» 01:51, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support. This is a very important project run by a committed team who have global reach. Petermr (talk) 18:05, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Pablísima (talk) 21:54, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support Splendid idea. Not only I endorse, but would like to help with it as well.- Darwin ^Ahoy! 16:41, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Kellyjeanne9 (talk) 21:52, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Chinmayisk (talk) 04:05, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Sami Mlouhi (talk) 14:55, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Support DeuxPlusQuatre (talk) 17:16, 22 December 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support WikiDonne worked together on the pilot project last year and we are happy to do it again on 2019. Camelia (talk) 14:00, 2 January 2019 (UTC)