Grants:PEG/User:MMelvaer/Just for the record

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statusFunded

Just for the record

is a series of editing workshops in which guest lecturers and organizations are invited to do a presentation on a predefined gender-equality-related topic, bringing a selection of reference documents and analyzing the state of the Wikipedia page(s) linked to the topic, paving the way for editing sessions of the concerned page(s) with all the participants!

targetplease add a target wiki

strategic priorityplease add a strategic priority

start dateSeptember 1

start year2015

end dateSeptember 1

end year2016

budget (local currency)5000€

budget (USD)5,560 USD

grant typeindividual

creator• Lfurter• MMelvaer• Sarah magnan• Léonie Butler

contact(s)• info@justfortherecord.space

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created on21:23, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

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Just for the record is a series of editing workshops in which guest lecturers and organizations are invited to do a presentation on a predefined gender-equality-related topic, bringing a selection of reference documents and analyzing the state of the Wikipedia page(s) linked to the topic, paving the way for editing sessions of the concerned page(s) with all the participants!

The project started with an Art+Feminism wikipedia edit-a-thon in Brussels in 2015, after which it became clear that more gatherings like that were needed.

Just for the record aims at addressing gender-equality issues, connecting already existing organisations and reaching toward a broader audience to break down the taboos around gender roles. Without dismissing our heritage, how can we address issues of feminism now, in an inventive and inclusive way?

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

Inequalities and taboos around gender roles
The never-neutral recording and writing of history
The lack of female representation in editing-related and programming-related fields
The lack of connections between specialized groups

What is your solution?

After the initial wikipedia edit-a-thon in Brussels was met with enthusiasm, it seemed evident that there was a need for events supporting engagement with gender and feminism-related subjects, reflecting and taking actions on how history is written. We propose to create a project inviting both professionals and a broader audience to participate in collective gatherings of knowledge around gender issues, analyze their representation on Wikipedia and edit the concerned articles.

Documentation will be a central issue, and every event will round off by looking to wikipedia as an instrument to improve the knowledge available online. We aim to make Wikipedia-editing accessible to people who already have expertise on the subjects and access to existing analogue research, including those of another generation. Wikipedia's “No original research policy” is a sensitive question since the gender gap also means that historically there has been less documentation and publications made for and by women and other marginalized groups.

That is why we propose to create a series of events in which guest lecturers or organizations are invited to do a presentation on a predefined gender-equality-related topic, bringing a selection of reference documents and analyzing the state of the Wikipedia page(s) linked to the topic. This will be followed by an edit-a-thon of the concerned page(s) with all the participants.

The topics will be chosen in discussion between Just for the Record’s team and the guest speakers, and will range from women artists and initiatives from the past to the present, but also universal questions related to (gender) equality from perspectives as diverse as the poetical, political, sociological and philosophical point of view.

The choice of a precise topic and the participation of guests speakers will play a crucial role in these events:

they will attract a wider public, not necessarily interested in editing on wikipedia at the first place,
they will introduce the participants to a subject, giving key elements to understand it, triggering their curiosity for it,
they will guide the participants amongst the reference texts so that they can use it during the edit-a-thon,
they will analyze wikipedia pages related to the topic and point at parts that can be improved,
the guest speakers will themselves be introduced to wikipedia editing and to the interests of this type of events, and they might repeat it in other contexts!!

Goals

Bring together people around gender gap issues in the recording and writing of history.
Find creative and inclusive ways of dealing with these issues.
Encourage more diversity on wikipedia by introducing and training collaborators (focusing on the presence of women).
Document this process and publish articles on wikipedia.

Get Involved

Participants

Researcher I would like to assist this project as a researcher and collaboration partner helping to connect the already existing gender equality organizations in Brussels. Furthermore in developing a visual profile that communicates the inclusive and open vision of the program and to create a transparent, open source structure that makes it easy for other groups to arrange similar events in the future. MMelvaer (talk) 07:42, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
Researcher being involved in the event reflection + organisation Sarah magnan (talk) 11:42, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
Researcher Create a panoramic view and bring people together. Léonie Butler (talk) 12:35, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
Advisor Help brainstorming ways to raise awareness for the issue and to develop events, text and (visual)tools to change the gender inequality. Interested in providing foord for thought based on legal and artistic research and presentations, discussions on the topic. Thecopyriots (talk) 14:57, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Endorsements

F/LAT (Free/Libre Art and Technology) [1] association, based in Brussels, is supporting these events, to host and help on the organisation and diffusion.

Pictures of the Brussels Art+Feminism wikipedia edit-a-thon, held on the 7th and 8th March 2015 at F/LAT

Brussels was a well organized node of the Art+Feminism campaign. I have confidence they will be able to pull this off. Theredproject (talk) 01:48, 31 March 2015 (UTC)
this strongens existing projects and shift them to be more known in public Messerjokke79 (talk) 11:43, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

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Project plan

Activities

The project Just for the record will propose meetings on a series of precise themes around gender issues and the way knowledge is constructed and shared. The events will last a whole day each and happen on a quarterly basis (4 times over the year), mainly in Brussels. They will ideally be held in different places, as a way to embody and highlight this network of organisations active in gender, feminist and media issues. Quite a few organisations already exist in Brussels, with very specific fields of action and publics. They offer a multiplicity of points of view, but it is not really easy to have a good overview of their activities. We would like to throw bridges between them and get them to share their knowledge on wikipedia.

To do so, we will need a strong communication not only to invite people to the events (advertisement in local magazines, flyers, posters), but also to document the ideas developed through a specific wikipedia event page (with meta info: organisational tools, recipes, cheat sheets, etc).

For each event, we will invite a person or an organization to give a lecture on a specific topic. This will include a presentation of reference texts and documentation related to the topic and will be the starting point to question its representation on Wikipedia. This will help the participants to identify articles that need to be created or modified, and introduce them to wikipedia editing before starting the editing session!

Outline of the events:

Introduction of Just for the record and the gender gap on Wikipedia
Introduction of the guest(s) and the session’s topic
Talk and presentation of the published reference materials brought on the topic
Analysis of the topic's representation on wikipedia page(s): What should be modified? What is missing?
Edit-a-thon

A core group of four volunteers will share the tasks of organizing this year-long program!

Budget

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
1	Documentation and technical material	Reference materials that cannot be found in the partner libraries but needed for the edit-a-thons, beamer rental, sound equipment, etc.	Per event	4	125	500	EUR	Estimation of the needs, as it will also depend on what is available in different venues
2	Fee for the space	Donation	Per event	4	300	1200	EUR	The events will be held in different places, often non-profit/very low budget organisations, but very important for such topics and wikipedia-enthusiasts, so we think it is important to also show even a symbolic support for these places
3	Food and beverages	Snacks for a day	Per person	120	25	3000	EUR	We would like to encourage bio,vegan, women/gender-linked cooking initiatives. We expect an average of 30 people per event for a total of 4 events.
4	Wikipedia-editing material (print) budget	Print costs for wikipedia material (cheatsheets and posters): photocopies and paper	Per event	4	25	100	EUR	Estimation of the printing and paper costs
5	Communication budget	Posters, flyers and eventual add in local magazine	Per event	4	50	200	EUR	We believe it is still important to have a visual/physical communication to touch a wider public and make publicity for our events in agendsa distributed in cultural organizations throughout Brussels

Community engagement

We would like to invite people from existing Brussels-based organizations specifically working with collecting documentation on gender equality issues and research such as: RoSaDoc (Documentation Centre and Archives on Feminism, Equal Opportunities and Women's Studies), the European Womens Lobby, CREW (Centre for Research on European Women), Amazone (Archive Center for Women's History), Bibliothèque Leonie La Fontaine and professors teaching gender studies the University of Leuven. To make this project a tool that can be re-used by others (in education, etc), and shared, we will focus on multi-format publications (wikipedia web, audio, paper…) and the project as a whole is publicly available online. A scheme of action will be made as the project becomes concrete to keep track of the experience, highlighting key moves and usual mistakes. We are already in contact with Wikimedia Belgium since the art+feminism edit-a-thon in March 2015, and we are very enthusiasts to collaborate with them on this project!

Sustainability

We hope that the partnerships will help sustain the project after the grant, raise awareness about the need for these kind of events, and we really hope that it will be appropriated and multiplied by other people! (that’s also why we want it to document it well and spread it through multiple channels)

Measures of success

Improve participation (online and at the events) of people with diverse profiles, with a specific effort on the un-represented ones (all the not “white male of 30 years old with a degree in higher education”), and probably play/engage in a creative way with these very sensitive issues. We estimate 4 events per year, scheduled quarterly. We think this number ensures quality and avoids over saturating our target audience at the same time as it gives continuity to the program. Our goal is to introduce both the public and key actors and organizations in the field of gender-issue-documentation to Wikipedia as a tool. We can roughly estimate that if we have 30 participants on each event, at least half of them will stay active after the event. We believe that these users can be very valuable for Wikipedia, and our experience is that some of the participants are even interested in organizing edit-a-thons themselves!

Project team

MMelvaer - Norwegian artist based in Brussels.
Sarah magnan - French graphic designer working with the Brussels based collective OSP (Open Source Publishing), organised several workshops and events around Free and Open Source software.
Léonie Butler - Canadian artist based in Brussels.
LFurter - Swiss graphic designer, organised the Brussels node of the international Art+Feminism edit-a-thon on the 7-8th of March 2015 and worked during one year as the coordinator of a book-related event in Brussels (Prix Fernand Baudin Prijs), has skills in collaborative publishing (booksprints, participative editing and experimental approaches), in graphic design (initial background and education) and tools development.
Wikimedia Belgium fully endorses and supports this project. It will use its knowledge and resources to help the organising team and deliver all support it can. We consider this project a high priority initiative for Wikimedia in Belgium. Dimi z (talk) 03:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Community notification

9 May at 02:40, Art+Feminism posted on Facebook the link to blog.wikimedia.org’s article Meet the inspire grantees “Congrats to all the Inspire grantees, working to close the gender gap on Wikipedia! And special felicitations to The Dowse Art Museum, our friends in Brussels, and our friends at the Berkeley Center for New Media.” ♥

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