Women’s International Day Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

The Gladys Marcus Library is proud to be hosting FIT’s Second Annual International Women’s Day Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on March 8, 2017 as an Art+Feminism and AfroCrowd satellite event. As such, it will be one of over one hundred events taking place at museums and libraries worldwide during the Women’s History Month.

The event’s mission is improve the poor coverage and quality of Wikipedia articles of women in the arts that is the largely result of the gender imbalance of editors on Wikipedia. Fewer than 10 percent of Wikipedia editors are women and there is a well-documented lack participation by non-whites and non-westerners, as well. As a result, the coverage of notable women, people of color, and of entire feminized areas of knowledge are underrepresented on Wikipedia, which is the sixth most visited website in the world. Because of efforts like those of Art+Feminism and AfroCROWD, gender and racial bias and its repercussions on Wikipedia are starting to improve, but there is still much work to be done.

In the areas of fashion design, clothing history, textiles design and related fields there is much room for improvement. This is where the Fashion Institute of Technology comes into the picture; the college community has resources and the knowledge that are required to make Wikipedia better.

Sheri Antoine, project manager for AfroCROWD—Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia—will be on hand to help #editthestatistic and speak briefly about her organization’s work with Wikipedia and beyond.

This event part of the Gladys Marcus Library’s Love Your Library series.

The edit-a-thon is open to all FIT students, staff, and faculty, of all gender identities and expressions; register here.