Grants:Project/Effie Kapsalis/Smithsonian Wikimedian-in-Residence for Gender Representation

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statusselected
Smithsonian Wikimedian-in-Residence for Gender Representation
summaryEstablish a Wikimedian-in-Residence for the Smithsonian Women's History Initiative to catalyze the cultural heritage sector to increase the representation of women on Wikimedia projects while also developing evidence for Smithsonian senior leadership to make an Open Knowledge Coordinator role permanent.
targetEnglish Wikipedia and Wikidata. Desired partnerships with WikiProject Women in Red, Black Lunch Table, Whose Knowledge, WikiProject: Women in Science, Art & Feminism
amount$46,750
nonprofityes
granteeDigitaleffie
contact• kapsalise(_AT_)si.edu• cavanaghs@si.edu
organization• Smithsonian Institution, Office of the Under Secretary for Museums and Research
this project needs...
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created on23:21, 30 November 2018 (UTC)


Project idea[edit]

What is the problem you're trying to solve?[edit]

What problem are you trying to solve by doing this project? This problem should be small enough that you expect it to be completely or mostly resolved by the end of this project. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.


According to WikiProject Women in Red, 17.73% of biographies on English Wikipedia are about women[1]. Unfortunately this gender imbalance reflects the resources available, including those held in cultural heritage organizations. At this moment when the Smithsonian is embarking on a major, ongoing initiative to raise the profile of women across the organization with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative (AWHI), it needs a more sustained engagement model with the world's largest crowdsourcing platform and volunteer community.

What is your solution to this problem?[edit]

For the problem you identified in the previous section, briefly describe your how you would like to address this problem. We recognize that there are many ways to solve a problem. We’d like to understand why you chose this particular solution, and why you think it is worth pursuing. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

The Smithsonian recognizes it can do better in representing the stories of American women, and in particular, diverse American women. As the world’s largest museum complex with nineteen museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and a zoo, the Smithsonian is a microcosm of the larger cultural heritage world. The Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative (AWHI) is mobilizing significant numbers of staff and resources across its interdisciplinary divisions to raise the profile of women in everything it does. Through a diverse range of projects and programs that cut across curatorial, educational, and digital efforts, the Smithsonian will be creating new scholarship to reframe the presentation of history to include the experiences and stories of women irrespective of race, gender identification or background

The Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative was launched under the Smithsonian’s new strategic plan which has as a goal to “Reach 1 billion people a year with a digital-first strategy.” One of the digital goals in the AWHI strategy is to employ a variety of methods including data visualization, machine learning, and crowdsourcing to assess, understand, and improve-at-scale the trusted resources the Smithsonian holds on American women in order to share them with open knowledge systems to improve the gender imbalance found online.

However, the Smithsonian has not been able to convince its leadership to provide ongoing support for a permanent Wikimedian-in-Residence. The Smithsonian would like support to hire a full-time Wikimedian-in-Residence for a year to demonstrate the benefit of sustained engagement with the Wikipedia community.

Second, since the problem of gender representation in Wikipedia is influenced by the volunteer-base, we’ve identified Kelly Doyle as our desired WIR candidate due to her depth of experience in building communities around gender equity. As we'd like to work with the communities represented in the knowledge the Smithsonian holds, Kelly will be instrumental in identifying strategies for increasing the women and diverse populations who volunteer with the Smithsonian on Wikimedia projects.

Finally, given the Smithsonian's need to focus on American women as directed by the U.S. Congress, we would like the new WIR to help us collaborate with international gender equity WikiProjects to amplify the call-to-action for better gender representation worldwide.

Project goals[edit]

What are your goals for this project? Your goals should describe the top two or three benefits that will come out of your project. These should be benefits to the Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia communities. They should not be benefits to you individually. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

  • GOAL 1 Capitalize on the Smithsonian's American Women's History Initiative to increase the representation of women on Wikimedia projects in partnership with other GLAM organizations and gender equity WikiProjects.
  • GOAL 2 Demonstrate the benefit of sustained engagement with open knowledge projects to Smithsonian leadership to make an open knowledge coordinator position a permanent role in order to help it achieve its “Reach 1 billion people a year with a digital-first strategy” goal.
  • GOAL 3 Develop and test micro-crowdsourcing tasks in Wikipedia and Wikidata to lower barriers to entry for new volunteers, and evaluate if those types of activities increase participation from communities with less free time and Wikipedia-savvy. (similar to #1Lib1Ref, previous experiments at the Smithsonian[2], and the Wiki Art Depiction Explorer[3] project underway with Wikimedia DC)

Project impact[edit]

How will you know if you have met your goals?[edit]

For each of your goals, we’d like you to answer the following questions:

  1. During your project, what will you do to achieve this goal? (These are your outputs.)
  2. Once your project is over, how will it continue to positively impact the Wikimedia community or projects? (These are your outcomes.)

For each of your answers, think about how you will capture this information. Will you capture it with a survey? With a story? Will you measure it with a number? Remember, if you plan to measure a number, you will need to set a numeric target in your proposal (i.e. 45 people, 10 articles, 100 scanned documents). Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.


  • GOAL 1 Capitalize on the Smithsonian's American Women's History Initiative to increase the representation of women on Wikimedia projects in partnership with other GLAM organizations and gender equity WikiProjects.
    1. Create 3 new Smithsonian partnerships with Wikimedia Chapters, User Groups, and WikiProjects to increase participation and contributions around gender.
    2. As the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative is an ongoing effort, these partnerships will continue to be instrumental in strategizing and facilitating activities geared towards increasing gender representation on Wikipedia.
  • GOAL 2 Demonstrate the benefit of sustained engagement with open knowledge projects to Smithsonian leadership to make an open knowledge coordinator position a permanent role to help it achieve its “Reach 1 billion people a year with a digital-first strategy” goal.
    1. Establish a permanent Open Knowledge Coordinator position at the Smithsonian
    2. Ongoing, the Open Knowledge Coordinator will continue to grow partnerships between the Smithsonian, Wikimedia projects, and the volunteer community.
  • GOAL 3 Develop and test micro-crowdsourcing tasks in Wikipedia and Wikidata, as well as community recruitment techniques, to lower barriers to entry for new volunteers, and evaluate if these activities increase participation from communities with less free time and Wikipedia-savvy. (similar to #1Lib1Ref, previous experiments at the Smithsonian, and the Wiki Art Depiction Explorer project underway with Wikimedia DC)
    1. Test 4 new micro-crowdsourcing models and collect data on resulting community engagement and content creation to share online.
    2. Ongoing if some of these micro-crowdsourcing models are successful, the Smithsonian and other organizations that partner with Wikimedia can use them for their own projects.

Do you have any goals around participation or content?[edit]

Are any of your goals related to increasing participation within the Wikimedia movement, or increasing/improving the content on Wikimedia projects? If so, we ask that you look through these three metrics, and include any that are relevant to your project. Please set a numeric target against the metrics, if applicable.
Register 50 new Wikipedia/Wikidata volunteers.

Recruit 2-3 new staff members who will partner more closely with the Wikimedia community.

Project plan[edit]

Activities[edit]

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing? What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

Effie Kapsalis, Smithsonian

  • Coordinate administrative work for hiring Wikimedian-in-Residence at the Smithsonian
  • Identify metrics important to building an impact case for senior leadership on the value of an Open Knowledge Coordinator
  • Identify partners in Washington DC area GLAM organizations for hosting women and girl-focused edit-a-thons
  • Identify Smithsonian marketing resources and partners to raise awareness for Wikimedia campaigns
  • Introduce WIR to key content stakeholders across the Smithsonian for list-building and crowdsourcing activities
  • Document processes, experiments, and results to share with the GLAM and Wikimedia communities


Kelly Doyle, Wikimedian-in-Residence

  • Help identify key 3-5 new partnerships with Wikimedia Chapters, User Groups and WikiProjects to increase participation and content around gender
  • Identify and test methods for recruiting female and diverse volunteers
  • Coordinate 4 in-person events hosted by the Smithsonian with a gender focus while identifying
  • Help Smithsonian strategize a major campaign with international partners on gender equity
  • Create and test 3-5 micro-crowdsourcing tasks

Budget[edit]

How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. (You can create a table later if needed.) Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!

  • $40,000 - A contract, full-time Wikimedian-in-Residence at the equivalent of the salary and benefits of an IS grade 9 step 1
  • $2500 - Food and coffee for four in-person events with volunteer events and two coordinating meetings for Metropolitan D.C. area women's organizations, cultural heritage organizations, universities, etc.
  • $4250 - 10% administrative cost for the Smithsonian's Office of Sponsored Projects

TOTAL = $46,750

Community engagement[edit]

How will you let others in your community know about your project? Why are you targeting a specific audience? How will you engage the community you’re aiming to serve at various points during your project? Community input and participation helps make projects successful.

We will establish a project page on Wikipedia. We will work with Wikimedia DC to plan a series of women-focused edit-a-thons both at the Smithsonian and at other area GLAM institutions, universities, and women-focused government agencies and non-profits. We will reach out to key Wiki Projects and User Groups interested in gender equity to plan a large online campaign as well as a series of smaller online crowdsourcing "calls to action". Finally team members will share their process and results of the work on Medium and Smithsonian blogs and social media.

Get involved[edit]

Participants[edit]

Please use this section to tell us more about who is working on this project. For each member of the team, please describe any project-related skills, experience, or other background you have that might help contribute to making this idea a success.


Kelly Doyle, Wikimedia DC

Kelly Doyle is the Wikimedia Community Manager for mySociety, UK-based charity which focuses on providing online tools to increase democratic participation. For three years she served as the Wikipedian in Residence for Gender Equity at West Virginia University, where she led a pioneering effort to engage campus groups and institutions in increasing representation of women and gender issues on Wikipedia. She joined the Wikimedia DC Board in 2017. As the Smithsonian formally partners with universities throughout the U.S., and is co-located with several in the Metropolitan D.C. area including HBCU Howard University, her prior experience will inform these partnerships.

Effie Kapsalis, Senior Digital Program Officer, Smithsonian

Effie Kapsalis has worked with the Wikimedia community since 2010 and organized Smithsonian staff for the first meeting between Wikimedia DC and the Smithsonian.[4] Kapsalis organized several edit-a-thons on women in science and wrote a paper evaluating the impact of open access policies in cultural heritage organizations released in 2016[5]. She received a grant from the Knight Foundation along with Wikimedia DC members, Rob Fernandez and Andrew Lih, to develop a tool to make it easier for the public to enhance data about artworks in Wikipedia[6]. She is currently leading a project to leverage the Smithsonian's metadata in Wikidata[7]. She is a Wikimedia DC member and is leading the digital strategy for the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.

Andrew Lih, Wikimedia DC
Andrew Lih is a digital media strategist, author of The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia and a noted expert in online collaboration, digital news innovation and linked open data. Lih is a leader in increasing GLAM participation with the Wikimedia communities and projects and has helped GLAM staff strategize making Wikimedia work core to their mission. Most recently he taught a series of Wikidata workshops with Smithsonian staff which was well-received. He was the recipient of the U.S. National Archives Citizen Archivist of the Year award and a Knight Foundation grant for his work with Wikipedia and cultural institutions. He was the inaugural Wiki Education Foundation research fellow in 2015.

Community notification[edit]

You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a Village Pump, talk page, mailing list, etc.--> Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips? Kapsalis reached out to several partners at the 2018 WikiConference North America in Columbus, Ohio.

Endorsements[edit]

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 Support Gamaliel (talk) 14:42, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support Rosiestep (talk) 17:32, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support Raystorm (talk) 19:17, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support Slowking4 (talk) 16:10, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support This is a critical time and corresponding project to increase the representation of women within the Wikimedia platform. Effie's proposal is sound and well defined. Todrobbins (talk) 16:17, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support Abbe98 (talk) 17:57, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support - PKM (talk) 02:33, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support Scann (talk) 13:28, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support Siko (talk) 17:31, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support 13ab37 (talk) 10:25, 12 December 2018 (EST)
  • failed projects 14:57, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
  • Support Support ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 11:21, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Notes[edit]