Research:Women and Wikipedia: Contributions in a Collaborative Online Space
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This project page documents a research project currently planned. Information may be incomplete and change before the project starts. |
| Women and Wikipedia: Contributions in an Online Collaborative Space | |
|---|---|
| main contact | |
| WMF contact | Melanie Kill |
| start | 2012-March |
| end | 2014-May |
| status | planned  |
| fields | other multidisciplinary |
| WMF support | |
 Wikimedia research projects |
|
Contents |
[edit] Key Personnel
[edit] Project Summary
I am a doctoral student in the English Department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. My studies focus on writing and digital technologies, and I am especially interested in the relationship between gender and contributions to online spaces such as Wikipedia.
As one of the world’s largest and most successful writing projects, Wikipedia is of tremendous interest to researchers of writing. However, while many composition scholars have celebrated the collaborative and technological affordances of Wikipedia, little work has been done to understand why, as this 2010 survey found, only 13% of contributors are women.
Thus, I am beginning a research project focused on female contributors to Wikipedia. I want learn more about their experiences as contributors to understand what enables and hinders their participation. For my dissertation study, I’d like to send an open-ended survey to Wikipedia’s female contributors and to then conduct interviews via phone, email, chat, or Skype to gather in-depth perspectives.
With this research, the results of which I would share with the Wikimedia Foundation, I hope to foster female contributions to Wikipedia and to help Wikipedia reach the goal expressed by Sue Gardner who aims to raise the rate of female contributors to Wikipedia to 25% by 2015 .
[edit] Methods
For this study, I hope to survey at least 50 women who contribute to Wikipedia, and to obtain at least 10 interviews. I want to fairly represent the experiences of women who write on Wikipedia, but first I will need to gain access to these women. I do not know the best way to identify female contributors, so here I ask for the Research Committee’s suggestions and support. Perhaps you have a listserv of all contributors, and you could send out a recruitment notice for me, and/or I could post my recruitment notice somewhere on the Community Portal.
This project seeks to interview women who contribute to Wikipedia. It is nearly impossible to “validate” a participant’s gender in online research such as this, but essentializing gender using a strict formula is problematic in any situation. Thus, I seek to interview users who self-identify as women: I will not provide any criteria to define what “counts” as a woman.
For your reference, here is a draft of the recruitment message I propose to use:
| Greetings [user name],
If you are interested in participating, you may access the survey here [link]. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete, and participation involves minimum risk. You may also choose to participate in an interview with me. These interviews would last about 30-45 minutes and would be conducted via Skype, telephone, IM, or email. Participation involves minimal risk. I value your privacy and will take every precaution ensure confidentiality. My university does require that participants sign a consent form, but real names (or Wikipedia user names) will never be used in my research unless you would like to be identified. If you are interested in participating in an interview, please email me (gruwellc@muohio.edu) or send me as message on Wikipedia (my username is Lcg04c). [I would add this upon approval] This study has been reviewed and approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Research Committee. For more information about my study including the informed consent document, please visit this page. You may also feel free to contact me with any additional questions. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Leigh Gruwell
English Department Miami University, Oxford Ohio gruwellc@muohio.edu |
[edit] Dissemination
It is important that I share my research with Wikipedians. I will share drafts of my interview questions here (and welcome any input), and I will be sure to make the results of my study available here as well.
My research is also of interest to teachers and scholars of writing, thus I will present my work in relevant venues, such as:
Journals:
Conferences:
[edit] Wikimedia Policies, Ethics, and Human Subjects Protection
My first priority is the ethical, responsible treatment of participants. My institution's IRB board approved this project as exempt in March 2012, but I will work with my dissertation committee to ensure the protection of participants. In addition to securing informed consent, I will share my motivations and methods with participants, and participants may withdraw at any time with no negative consequences. I will also provide participants the opportunity to review (and contest) any representation of them or their ideas in drafts of my findings. Raw data (including interview recordings and transcripts) will be stored securely and confidentially.
[edit] Benefits for the Wikimedia community
Wikipedia has already announced its intention to raise its share of female contributors to 25% by 2015. In addition to understanding more about the women who already contribute to Wikipedia, my research will help to identify what currently prevents other women from contributing. This will allow me to theorize about how Wikipedia might go about fostering additional female participation. Wikipedia gets its strength from the collaborative efforts of a diverse group of people, and inviting more contributors will only make Wikipedia stronger.
[edit] Time Line
The (flexible) timeline for this study is as follows:
- February-March 2012: Obtain IRB approval
- March-April 2012: Recruit and interview initial participants
- April-May 2012: Draft initial findings. Share results with participants.
- May-June 2012: Conduct more interviews
- Fall 2012: Begin Dissertation Work (see below)
- January-March 2013: Write dissertation prospectus, obtain approval for project modifications via IRB (if necessary)
- April-May 2013: Recruit additional participants (*if needed)
- May-August 2013: Conduct additional interviews (*if needed)
- August-December 2013: Transcribe interviews, analyze results
- January-April 2014: Draft and revise dissertation. Share results with participants.
- April-May 2014: Defend dissertation. Explore publication/presentation options, and share findings with Wikipedia community.
[edit] References
Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of background references:
- Day, Michael, Randall McClure, and Mike Palmquist. “Composition in the Freeware Age: Assessing the Impact and Value of the Web 2.0 Movement in the Teaching of Writing.” Computers and Composition Online (Fall 2009)
- Glott, Ruediger, Philipp Schmidt, and Rishab Ghosh. “Wikipedia Survey—Overview of Results.” Wikipedia Survey. Collaborative Creative Group. March 2010. Web. 8 Oct 2011.
- Hawisher, Gail and Patricia Sullivan. “Women on the Network: Searching for E-Spaces of Their Own.” Feminism and Composition: In Other Words. Eds. Susan Jarratt and Lynn Worsham. 172-197. 1998.
- Jarratt, Susan C. “Feminism and Composition: The Case for Conflict.” Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age. Eds. Patricia Harkin and John Schilb. New York: MLA, 1991: 105-23.
- LeCourt, Donna and LuAnn Barnes. “Writing Multiplicity: Hypertext and Feminist Textual Politics.” Computers and Composition 16 (1999): 55-71.
- Purdy, James P. “When the Tenets of Composition Go Public: A Study of Writing in Wikipedia.” College Composition and Communication 61.2 (Dec 2009): 351-373.
- Selfe, Cynthia L. and Richard J. Selfe. “The Politics of the Interface: Power and Its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones.” College Composition and Communication 45.4 (Dec 1994): 480-504.
- Wysocki, Anne and Julia I. Jasken. “What should be an unforgettable face...” Computers and Composition 21 (2004) 29-48.
- Zickuhr, Kathryn and Lee Rainie. “Wikipedia: Past and Present.” Pew Internet. Pew Research Center. 13 Jan 2011. Web. 8 Oct 2011.
[edit] Contacts
I welcome any and all feedback from participants as well as the wider Wikipedia community. Please feel free to contact me with any suggestions or questions on the discussion page, or email me at gruwellc@muohio.edu.
