Representation and erasure: new directions for Wikimedia in Australia

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Representation and erasure: new directions for Wikimedia in Australia
AEST
Wikimedia Australia's Wikimania Event
A series of presentations at Wikimania. Register here.

Representation and erasure: opportunities and risks that Wikipedia presents for First Nations knowledges - Kirsten Thorpe and Nathan “Mudyi” Sentance

It has long been acknowledged that Wikipedia has a diversity problem, among its editors and the content they write. People are meeting up across the world to help remedy this imbalance and bias. These efforts often reveal significant tensions between Wikipedia's principles and other knowledge systems, like those of First Nations people around the world. Kirsten Thorpe, a Worimi researcher from the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research at the University of Technology Sydney, will join Nathan “Mudyi” Sentance, a Wiradjuri activist, librarian and essayist currently working at the Australian Museum, in a conversation about the opportunities and risks that Wikipedia presents for First Nations people.


Bringing Australian Archaeology From Fringe to Centre - Leia Corrie, Emilie Dotte-Saurot , Emily Grey, Sven Ouzman, and the UWA Archaeology Wiki Collective

Archaeology studies all of human history in all of its aspects and is fascinating to many people. Unfortunately, Archaeology also has a 'lunatic fringe' that promote unreliable and false information. The nature of a wiki means such views are easily disseminated. Recent work between UWA Archaeology and Wikimedia Australia has focused on correcting racist, sexist, and misleading archaeologic entries. We are also identifying gaps - such as the role of female and BIPOC archaeologists. Finally, 2021 changes to the Australian school curriculum means there is a shortage of reliable archaeological information for both teachers and learners, which we will address by constructing our entries as lesson plans.

Who do we think we are? - Kelly Tall

What is the relationship between Wikipedia and the Order of Australia recipients? Who is represented and who isn’t?

In February 2021, researchers Heather Ford, Tamson Pietsch and Kelly Tall from UTS School of Communication published the results of a pilot study entitled: Producing distinction: Wikipedia and the Order of Australia. A visual essay.

The study was inspired by the work of Women in Red and the Australian Honour a Woman project which was founded in 2017 to improve gender equity by supporting nominations of women for the Order of Australia awards, highlighting structural barriers to inclusion. The Order of Australia is notorious for not recognising women at the same rate as men, but the researchers discovered that on Wikipedia, awardees at the Companions or Officer level (the highest Order awards) are represented in slightly higher numbers than men.

Thoughts on running Wiki Loves Earth in Australia - Margaret Donald

We attracted 182 entrants, 162 of whom were new to Wikipedia, and 1510 photographs were submitted with approximately 20% being ineligible for the competition. (The ineligibility rate remains a major concern.) Participants were encouraged to upload photos taken in previous years. Hence many competitors contributed photos illustrating multiple states and territories. Uploading photos is among the more difficult tasks in wikipedia and the apparent requirement to categorise images and use "depicts" statements is an unrealistic task for most people. Thus a huge amount of "back room" work needed to be done by experienced Wikimedians to allow good photographs their chance to shine. Many worthwhile images were uploaded, with 138 so far having been used on 289 pages on 32 wikis, with 42,829 file views in June 2021.This talk aims to illustrate and discuss our successes and failures, and suggest ways forward.

Region: International
Location: Online

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Keywords: Wikimania


Wikimania 2021
13 August 2021
International
ESEAP Virtual Meeting
11 September 2021
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