Wikiesfera/Reports/2018

Wikiesfera Grupo de Usuarixs was officially recognized by the Affiliations Committee on May 9, 2018. During 2018 and the first months of 2019, the group has continued to establish and expand its permanent learning community in Madrid with weekly editing activities and other specific events of greater affluence. In all of them, new editors have been incorporated and dozens of new articles have been published on Wikipedia. In addition, Wikiesfera has been part of the six-month project "Nos Tomamos La Wiki" in Ecuador, which has worked with people from indigenous peoples and nationalities helping them in the publication of relevant articles about their communities that were not present in Wikipedia. In the following report, the most relevant achievements made by Wikiesfera during the last year are presented, although a detailed list of activities can also be consulted in this link.

Workgroup

Since its inception in 2015, Wikiesfera has had a permanent working space at the Medialab Prado culture centre in Madrid (Spain). All kinds of people interested in learning how to edit in Wikipedia come to this place on a weekly basis. These meetings, some 40 in 2018 and the first months of 2019 and with an average attendance of 8 people, do not have previously established objectives, but are designed so that each person who comes works on those aspects they want:

first steps into the visual editor environment,
improvement of articles,
translations of articles from other languages into Spanish,
creation of articles from scratch,...

People who already know how to edit keep coming back because it's a playful meeting place where we share ideas and reflections as we edit. In these meetings, doubts are resolved and personal ties are also created that have helped to establish a solid community and permanent growth. It is a relaxed space open to anyone in which music is played and sweets are brought to share.

Those who have come to these weekly meetings have joined the mailing list that already has 220 people, and which resolves doubts, shares new articles for others to verify and improve, and provides information on activities related to Wikiesfera. Due to the high activity of this list, we decided not to open other communication tools such as WhatsApp or Telegram.

Activities

Editatonas

Since its birth at the beginning of 2015, Wikiesfera has been aware of the gender gap in Wikipedia and has been making editatonas on different topics: photographers, scientists, film directors ... To these marathons of edition in Wikipedia, developed for 5 or 6 hours, the gender perspective is applied to try to combat the biases so far detected in the free encyclopedia.

The editatonas have a playful character and make visible the lack of women of a specific theme in Wikipedia. In addition to inviting an expert on each occasion who explains the situation of women in this area, the people who attend learn to create a biography from scratch. They get together in groups of 2 and 3 people and distribute the search for information, so that later, by means of collaborative pads, they write the article. Afterwards, each one from her workshops works with the visual editor to include references and internal links, and is formatted and uploaded to Wikipedia's main space. The experience is very satisfying as everyone publishes their first article and, with that positive feeling of being able to contribute, many people end up coming to really learn the tool at the weekly meetings of the working group.

During 2018, editatonas were made on film directors, comic authors, human rights defenders, scientists, philosophers and women in animation, with an average attendance of 25 people and the creation of about 100 articles in total.

Editatona de directoras de cine 28E
Fiesta del 17 cumpleaños de Wikipedia
Editatona de autoras de cómic 20A
Editatona sobre animadoras 1D
Editatona de científicas 29J
Editatona de defensoras de derechos humanos de Amnistía Internacional

Meet ups

Apart from the editatonas, on other occasions we have organised more informal meetings to work on a specific theme, taking advantage of the dates indicated. Thus, we have worked with NGOs, grassroots social organizations or local businesses, and we have created and improved content on comics, terrorists, human rights defenders, scientists and lesbian artists.

Quedada para editar sobre cómics
Quedada para editar a defensoras de los derechos humanos
Quedada pare editar a artistas lesbianas

Conferences

During 2018, Wikiesfera has been present in talks and round tables of various kinds, conveying the importance of more people contributing to Wikipedia and other spaces of the Wikimedia movement to make them more diverse. Some of the institutions that have invited us are the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Women Techmakers (Gran Canaria), the Gobierno del País Vasco (San Sebastián), the Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer (Jaén), the Universidad Carlos III (Madrid) or Google Campus (Madrid).

Despite the GU's involvement in the community, Wikiesfera has not been awarded a scholarship to attend any of the movement's conferences. Not even in the case of Iberoconf held last February in Santiago de Chile despite having requested its inclusion in the group months before.

Charla en el Google Campus
Foto de grupo en el Google Campus
Charla en Women Techmakers Gran Canaria
Foto de grupo en Women Techmakers Gran Canaria

Nos Tomamos La Wiki

In June 2018, the German international cooperation agency Deutsche Welle Akademie América Latina contacted Wikiesfera to discuss the development of a project in Ecuador. The aim was to train editors from indigenous peoples and nationalities linked to a local partner: the Coordinadora de Medios Comunitarios Populares y Educativos del Ecuador (CORAPE). Thus began the project "Nos Tomamos La Wiki" which was developed over 6 months (between September 2018 and March 2019) with excellent results in terms of participation and content production. In addition, an alliance was also established with Wikimedistas de Ecuador who participated as a local User Group.

The objective of "Nos Tomamos La Wiki" has been to make visible the culture, identity, history, gastronomy, music of the peoples and nationalities in digital platforms such as the Centro de Documentación Virtual de CORAPE and Wikipedia in Spanish. The first as a source of research and production of journalistic pieces elaborated by the same representatives of the original peoples; and the second as a platform for the construction of collaborative knowledge to correct the erroneous contents that describe their cultures and narrate their identity from the voice of the protagonists.

During the months of this pilot project, Wikiesfera was present at the introductory talks and workshops in different locations in Ecuador. In addition, there were several editathons (of Ecuadorian women, local gastronomy...) and a final uphill marathon of topics that the participants had investigated during the months of the project. In total, the 47 participating editors created more than 50 new articles, modified content in an additional 80 articles, and uploaded more than 60 files to Commons. The project had a great repercussion in the media of the country that were very interested in the visibility of all these own contents in Wikipedia.

Foto de grupo del ideatón en Quito (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo del ideatón en Quito (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo en Ríobamba (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo en el colegio de Cotundo (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo en Archidona (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo del encuentro en Cuenca (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo en Saraguro (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo del encuentro en Ibarra (Ecuador)
Foto de grupo del encuentro en Quito (Ecuador)

Publications

At the beginning of 2018, as part of the Didactic Guides project from La Aventura de Aprender (finance by the Ministry of Education of the Government of Spain), the guide Cómo hacer una editatona was created. The document, freely downloadable and with a CC-BY-SA licence, covers the production process of an editing marathon with a gender perspective on Wikipedia, following the successful experience of Wikiesfera organizing these activities since 2015. A few months later, at the suggestion of María Cruz (MCruz), this guide was also moved to Meta. For the moment, it is only in Spanish but hopefully would be translated into other languages.

Within the project "Nos Tomamos La Wiki", Wikiesfera designed a first step guide on Cómo editar en Wikipedia at the request of Deutsche Welle Akademie América Latina. This document was delivered in digital format and on paper to the people who participated in the Wikipedia editing workshops. Subsequently, a similar document was created to be shared in the user group environment through the mailing list. The same document was translated by Tila Cappelletto (Contaminadas) into Portuguese to be used in an edition that will take place at the Festival Feminista de Lisboa (Portugal) at the end of May 2019.

Guía Cómo hacer una editatona (PDF)
Guía Cómo editar en Wikipedia (PDF)
Guia Como editar na Wikipedia PT (PDF)

Collaborations

In 2018, Wikiesfera has established occasional, medium- and long-term collaborations with various public and private institutions and organizations. Due to its permanent working space, the most important alliance is with Medialab Prado (Madrid), a cultural centre that depends on the Madrid City Council (Spain).

In addition, since the first editatonas, the NGO Oxfam Intermon has supported these activities financially and with diffusion from its domestic program. It has also worked with Amnesty International on an edition on women human rights defenders developed simultaneously from several countries and in coordination with Wikimedia UK.

With the project "Nos Tomamos La Wiki", the collaborations have been, on the one hand, with the international cooperation agency Deutsche Welle Akademie América Latina and its partner in Ecuador the Coordinadora de Medios Comunitarios Populares y Educativos del Ecuador (CORAPE), and on the other with Wikimedistas de Ecuador as a local group.

In June 2018, Wikiesfera was officially presented through the Wikimedia Iberocoop mailing list and asked for its support by sharing its objectives. However, due to a lack of clear indications, their inclusion remains ineffective.

Social Media

Wikiesfera has an official Facebook page that currently has 130 followers. It also has a Twitter account which is followed by 274 people.

Media

Many of the events we have celebrated had strong media repercussion. A selected list of meaningful media mentions and interviews follows:

14/01/2018 | El Confidencial | Wikipedia es machista: por qué las científicas no tienen página y los futbolistas sí.
05/02/2018 | Cadena SER | Radio interview Patricia Horrillo.
06/02/2018 | Agencia SINC | Un pulso global para cerrar la brecha de género en ciencia y tecnología.
09/02/2018 | Pikara Magazine | ‘Editatona’ por una Wikipedia sin ausencias.
18/02/2018 | Agencia EFE | Press interview Patricia Horrillo.
26/02/2018 | Cadena SER | Radio interview Patricia Horrillo.
25/03/2018 | CTXT | Press interview Patricia Horrillo.
16/04/2018 | eldiario.es | La brecha de género en Wikipedia.
20/04/2018 | Cuarto Poder | Press interview Patricia Horrillo.
21/04/2018 | El País | Lo mejor de la Noche de los Libros de Madrid 2018.
02/05/2018 | SModa | Más acción y menos palabras: 44 mujeres que luchan por la igualdad.
31/05/2018 | Avianca en revista | A editar la historia, mujeres.
14/06/2018 | Diario de Sevilla | 21Grados presenta una programación volcada en la mujer y los refugiados.
25/06/2018 | Nokton Magazine | Vuelve el Festival de Cultura Feminista La Tribu.
02/07/2018 | ABC | Press article about editatona in Sevilla.
14/07/2018 | Públicol | Las mujeres toman las calles... y el callejero.
04/10/2018 | Público | ¿Por qué la Premio Nobel de Física no tenía un perfil en la Wikipedia?
13/10/2018 | TICbeat | Este mapa recoge 300 colectivos de cultura y tecnologías libres en España.
29/10/2018 | Somos Malasaña | Halloween: Quedada para editar Wikipedia sobre cómics de terror.
02/11/2018 | Telemadrid | El callejero desigual de Madrid.
28/11/2018 | WatMag | Lula Gómez participará en una editatona sobre “mujeres en la animación”.
30/11/2018 | Newtral | Vivir para editarlo. ¿Quién soy yo para escribir la historia?
04/12/2018 | Radio 3 | Periodismo ilustrado, Señoras de la animación y los límites éticos de los juegos de mesa.
21/02/2019 | Ruda FM | Press interview in [Edito], luego existo.
05/03/2019 | RTVE | Siete de las 300 estaciones del metro de Madrid llevan nombre de mujer.
12/03/2019 | CORAPE | Press interview with Patricia Horrillo for the project "Nos tomamos la Wiki".
12/03/2019 | Radio Pichincha Universal | Press interview with Patricia Horrillo for the project "Nos tomamos la Wiki".
13/03/2019 | Ecuador TV | Press interview with Patricia Horrillo for the project "Nos tomamos la Wiki".
14/03/2019 | FM Mundo | Press interview with Patricia Horrillo for the project "Nos tomamos la Wiki".
24/03/2019 | El Comercio | Los saberes ancestrales se difunden en la Internet.