WikiIndaba conference 2018/Program/Fostering the representation of African cultures in Wikipedia language editions with Wikipedia Cultural Diversity Observatory (WCDO)

ID: Cultural_Diversity
Speakers: Marc Miquel (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain)	Time block: saturday-morning	Start: 11:30
	Location: Great room	Duration: 10 min.
Description : While it is extremely difficult to change the conditions which would allow editors from all countries to contribute to Wikipedia and therefore improve the cultural diversity of the project, we can certainly spread the existing cultural diversity across language editions and reduce the content culture gap (articles about one culture that exists in their local language but not in others). In this presentation: I introduce the Wikipedia Cultural Diversity Observatory (WCDO). The content of each language edition of Wikipedia is skewed toward the cultural and geographic context associated with its own language. WCDO aims to correct this underrepresentation, providing focused data and strategic recommendations for cross-language collaboration so that each language edition will have a truly international representation of the world’s knowledge. I will provide detailed results for the African languages Cultural Context Content (CCC). First, we will the extent of this content in terms of number of articles and their percentage in the language editions, compared to the other Wikipedia language editions. Then, we will see which are the more rellevant topics which define them and their extent (Agriculture, Education, Events, Politics,...). This will allow us to hypothesize and debate about how African Wikimedians relate to their context - whether they are motivated to represent it and find the necessary references. As a solution, WCDO wants to provide specific lists of top priority articles for each language edition that should be in every other language editions. Finally, I want to talk to you about how I think that in the same way that the gender gap has created a united movement, the cross-language collaboration projects (the Catalan Culture Challenge, Wikimedia CEE, etc.) should do the same in order to be more effective in ensuring content diversity in each Wikipedia language edition.		Themes: Wikimedia Research, Heritage and WikiCulture & Community
		Tags: African cultures, Wikipedia Content gap
		Notes: #WikiIndaba18_Cultural_Diversity