#VisibleWikiWomen 2020 Edit-a-thon

(This was supposed to be an offline event. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be held online. Details below.)

Hello everyone! Just like last year, this year too we are supporting the #VisibleWikiWomen campaign run by the good folks at Whose Knowledge?. If you think our Internet should be diverse, then this event if for you.

What is it about?
It’s the #VisibleWikiWomen 2020 Campaign!

Why?
Women’s knowledge and contributions to the world are invisible in so many ways. When we look at women’s invisibility online, Wikipedia is a good proxy to explain why this is such a critical issue. Less than ¼ of Wikipedia biographies represent women. Many biographies of notable women don’t exist or are incomplete.

More often than not, women biographies don’t have images. We estimate that less than 20% of Wikipedia articles of important women have pictures. And, when women’s faces are missing from Wikipedia, that invisibility spreads. Half a billion people read Wikipedia every month, and it is the 5th most visited website in the world, so gaps in Wikipedia have a big impact on the broader internet. (Courtesy: Whose Knowledge?)

Who
Co Media Lab and The Centre for Internet and Society are very happy to contribute to Whose Knowledge‘s Visible Women Wiki campaign- 2020.

Where
Centre for Internet and Society, 194, 2nd C Cross Road, 2nd Stage, Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560071. Google Maps This is a remote event now.

When?
14 March, 2020

What will we do during the editathon? (Info courtesy: Whose Knowledge)

Since this is a remote event, this is what you can do sitting at the comfortable confines of your home.

1. Search for images of notable women who are (or must be) on Wikipedia. 
2. Select images that are in the public domain or have a free and open license.
3. Upload them to the #VisibleWikiWomen campaign here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaign:VisibleWikiWomen 

What you need to have:

• A laptop (you can use your mobile phone too, but it’s less convenient).
• A user account on Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons. Log in, or create an account. 
• If you don’t know where to start, check out this list with the names of the women who don’t have an image on Wikipedia. Before you choose a name, please make sure to search on Wikimedia Commons if they have an image or not. 

What you need to learn:

• How to find images on the internet for illustrating Wikipedia
• How to upload images to Wikimedia Commons
• Getting and giving consent for images on Wikipedia
• How to find images on the internet to illustrate Wikipedia
• Dos and Dont’s for adding images to Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia
• How to create drawing for Wikipedia
• How to ask for image donations

And don’t forget…

• Use the Upload Wizard and add the VisibleWikiWomen 2020 category to your uploads.
• Creative Commons licenses allowed: CC BY and CC BY-SA
• The image is usually in the public domain if the author of that creative work (the artist, photographer, etc) died more than 70 years ago. 

Extra tips:

• If you use Google Images refine your search results with this option : Tools > Usage rights > Labeled for reuse with modification
• If you search on Flickr refine your results with: Commercial use and mods allowed
• When you find a source with many free images, use it! Browse that image collection looking for other women who are missing on Wikipedia.
• Do you need to upload many Flickr images at once? Do it with this useful tool: Flickr2Commons.

If you have any doubts, please feel free to write to us at lead@comedialab.in or contact Whose Knowledge on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or email them at visiblewikiwomen[at]whoseknowledge[dot]org.

More information about the campaign: https://whoseknowledge.org/initiatives/visiblewikiwomen-2020/

Event details can be found here as well.