The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 31 to 45.
Networked Economies and Gender Action Learning
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/networked-economies-and-gender-action-learning
<b>Elonnai Hickok, Sunil Abraham and Ambika Tandon participated in a meeting organized by IDRC for grantees under their networked economies programme to discuss gender-based outputs and development outcomes in their work. The event was held in Ottawa on September 20 - 21, 2018, facilitated by Gender at Work.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sunil Abraham, Swaraj Paul Barooah and Ambika Tandon also attended a workshop on Gender Action Learning on September 24 - 25, 2018, which discussed strategies to work on gender under a grant for Cyber Policy Centres. Other organizations present at the workshop were Research ICT Africa, Lirne Asia, and Centre Latam Digital at CIDE, Mexico. Gender at Work facilitated this workshop as well, and will be working with all the grantees over a period of 18 months.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/networked-economies-and-gender-action-learning'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/networked-economies-and-gender-action-learning</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminGenderInternet GovernancePrivacy2018-10-02T03:10:02ZNews ItemJapleen Pasricha - Gendered Spaces in Digital Rights (Delhi, June 02, 5 pm)
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-japleen-pasricha-gendered-spaces-in-digital-rights-delhi-june-02
<b>It is our priviledge to annouce that Japleen Pasricha will be the speaker for the June #FirstFridayAtCIS event. Japleen smashes the patriarchy for a living, and is Founder & Editor-in-chief of Feminism in India. The talk will focus on her experience of working on gender and digital rights in India, the ways in which "gender" functions as a critical lens in digital rights discourse and practice in India (or not), and the gendered nature of digital rights spaces in India. If you are joining us, please RSVP at the soonest as we have only limited space in our office.</b>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Japleen Pasricha</strong></h3>
<h4>Founder & Editor-in-chief, <a href="https://feminisminindia.com/" target="_blank">Feminism in India</a></h4>
<p>Japleen smashes the patriarchy for a living. Founder & Editor-in-chief of Feminism in India, she is a feminist activist based in New Delhi, India. She is a writer, educator, campaigner and researcher. She has vast experience in digital media and online publishing. Her interest lies in women’s studies, global feminism, gender, sexuality, VAW, SRHR, feminist praxis and internet as a space. Currently she is working on online violence against women and media representation of gender and gender-based violence. She’d like to use skills to intersect gender and sexuality with digital & social media and develop safe online spaces for women and marginalized communities.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>RSVP</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdp_ZWWOWsQxvM2IctUiQdPJwo9UYNCS-rn038qysmnzxeaIg/viewform?embedded=true" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" height="666" width="600">Loading...</iframe>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Location</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d876.157470894426!2d77.20553462919722!3d28.550842498903158!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x834072df81ffcb39!2sCentre+for+Internet+and+Society!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sin!4v1493818109951" frameborder="0" height="450" width="600"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-japleen-pasricha-gendered-spaces-in-digital-rights-delhi-june-02'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-japleen-pasricha-gendered-spaces-in-digital-rights-delhi-june-02</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroGenderResearchers at Work#FirstFridayAtCISDigital Rights2017-05-31T03:49:26ZEventPreliminary research result on Wikipedia gender gap in India
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india
<b>Since June 2016, Ting-Yi Chang from the University of Toronto has worked with the CIS-A2K team to conduct action research on the Wikipedia gender gap in India. The research aims to improve the understanding of the gender gap (imbalance) issue in the Indian Wikipedia communities while examining local interventions.
</b>
<p dir="ltr"><em><br /></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><br /></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>This post is an extraction from the Wikipedia Gender Gap Bridging Toolkit - South Asia Edition which will be published on Wiki (Commons and meta) in late May 2017. The toolkit is a derivative of the gender gap research initiative.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"> Wikipedia has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">wide gender gap</a> in participation and content coverage. The <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AEditor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf&page=1">editor survey in 2011</a> showed that among the active editors worldwide only 9% identified themselves as female. While research and initiatives have been proposed and conducted to “bridge the gender gap,” mass majority of these studies are done in the Western context (English/European language Wikipedias and communities). The movement dynamics and situation of other Wikipedian communities are not well explored or documented. Of the few studies that did focus on non-Western contexts, this action research is one of the few to look at the issue in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Due to the timeline of the research and the limitation of space in this post, we will only discuss the preliminary findings of the study, specifically for the following questions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q1:</strong> What are existing female Wikipedians’ (regardless of one’s activeness in editing) experience in the Wikimedian communities?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q2:</strong> What are new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in gender gap bridging events) attitude and preference toward these gender gap bridging activities?</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">In Q1, we used<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_coding"> open coding</a> to find recurring themes in the qualitative data collected through 18 semi-structured interviews with 21 female Wikipedians, and label them to find certain patterns of answers. To answer question 2, discussion and infographics will be presented to summarize the 64 survey responses we have gathered.</p>
<div>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q1: What are existing female Wikipedians’ experience in the Wikimedian communities?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Western-based research and survey has shown that a plausible reason behind the gender gap on Wikipedia is the discriminatory and unwelcoming environment within the editor communities. Research was much needed to explore the reasons in the Indian context as we cannot simply apply the same results or rule out the possibility of the same situation. Among the 9 reasons that Sue Gardner, the former Executive Director of WMF, had pointed out in her <a href="https://suegardner.org/2011/02/19/nine-reasons-why-women-dont-edit-wikipedia-in-their-own-words/">2011 blog post</a>, we deem the “misogynist atmosphere” as the most problematic - it signals an unhealthy environment and structure for diversity and long term growth.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thus, 18 private interviews were held to understand the positive and negative experience that existing female (Indian) Wikipedians have faced in the communities. In this question we are specifically looking at the interaction and interpersonal relationship between community members (editors), hence it does not include experiences like discouragement from speedy deletion or technical difficulty in editing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In each of the two categories (positive and negative), we use three labels to cover the recurring themes mentioned. In “positive experience,” these are (a) emotional support and respect, (b) bonding and friendship, and (c) other support. In “negative experience,” the three labels are (a) neglected or belittled, (b) sexist comments, and (c) safety concern. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tableofexperience.png/image_large" alt="Table of female editor experience" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Table of female editor experience" /></p>
<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fca-eba8-dce1-2d751b901fe5">
<p dir="ltr">It is interesting to note that although in most (Western-based) research, the positive and negative experiences were in the online context, our interviewees (Indian female Wikipedians) had mostly pointed out experiences that were either offline or in non-specified context. Comments on the online interaction dynamics were fairly rare and neutral, while negative experiences mostly occurred in the offline settings.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This can indicate that the communities’ offline interaction dynamics leaves a much more significant impression (sadly, especially when it is negative) to female Wikipedians on their overall community experience. Additionally, it seems that compared to the Western/English context, Indian Wikipedian communities are more close-knit and active offline, that is, the editors are more likely to know each other personally. This dynamic is a great plus to create positive experience such as strong bonding and emotional support. However, it may also be more toxic when the experience is negative as compared to if the experience was online and anonymous. In other words, sexist comments, deliberate neglect, and safety concerns can have an aggravated effect when faced personally.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr">In numbers, more positive experiences were mentioned than negative ones when a neutral question was asked (such as “How do you think about the community?” / ”what is your experience in the editor community so far?”). Most negative experience were only revealed when a negative-oriented question was asked (such as “Have you had any negative or uncomfortable experience so far?”). This may be interpreted that the interviewees’ overall experiences are positive with only occasional negative encounters. However, this interpretation can still be biased if we consider the possibility that:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">There is a lack of trust between the researcher and the interviewees (i.e. Interviewees may have the intention to provide a more pleasing/non-controversial answer), or</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">the selection of our interviewees was already biased since “existing” female Wikipedians can be those that have not experienced much negative experience (i.e. the female editors who were upset by more negative experiences and had already quit editing were not reachable when the interviews were conducted, or they might simply be uninterested in participating in the research).</p>
</li></ol>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q2: What are new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in gender gap bridging events) attitude and preference toward these gender gap bridging activities? </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">As indicated in our last question, the offline interaction and activities seem to be very crucial in determining a female Wikipedian’s overall experience in the community. In other questions throughout the semi-structured interview, we had asked existing female Wikipedians - who had been active in gender gap bridging event conduct - to discuss what can make an event more welcoming to women. Below are some of the answers given:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">A women-only event (although some also criticized that this approach often made the gender gap a “women-only” discussion)</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Female tutor’s presence</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Offline events where women can meet others face to face (although some had mention that they prefer to participate online - which makes them feel safer and more comfortable)</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The chance for participants to socialize and make friends</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Write about women-related topics (although some had argued that a gender gap bridging event should not promote the tokenizing logic that (only) women should (only) edit on women-related topics)</p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<p dir="ltr">As you may notice, there are divergence of ideas regarding the points A, C, and E. In order to cross-check all these ideas, a survey of 11 scale-rating questions was developed to understand the new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in a gender gap bridging event) attitude and preferences. Three clusters of questions were formed - general experience, cross-checking questions, and attitude.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/surveyquestions.png/image_large" alt="Survey questions and cross-checking factors" class="image-left image-inline" title="Survey questions and cross-checking factors" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-479f8e7a-2fda-b92a-f0fb-be9ceef5f207">Below is an infographics on the 64 responses we had collected: (You may click on the image at the top of this page (under the blog title) to zoom in)</span></p>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fcb-7754-97f1-a59c8f3093a9">
<div> </div>
<div><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/SurveyResults.png/image_large" alt="Survey results infographics" class="image-left" title="Survey results infographics" /></div>
</span></div>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fce-aa68-d243-c4b03b1426c6">
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">From the infographics above we can see that event participants’ overall experience are positive. However, it may still be far from perfect as there were 2 respondents who “fully disagreed” with the statement “I find the event environment safe, friendly, and welcoming.” There are still more than 40% of the respondents who thought editing is difficult (or somewhat difficult), which means improvement is needed in our event tutorship or a re-estimation participants’ skill levels is needed. Participants’ attitude towards the events was also mostly positive as indicated in the last two questions.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (A): Do women prefer a women-only event?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">During the events, the presenters and resource persons usually encouraged male participation in the initiatives and stressed that the gender gap bridging efforts cannot be a further segregation between men and women editors. Hence, we do expect this to influence the answers given to the statement “I still prefer a women-only event.” Still, more than one-third of the participants indicated their preference in women-only events; we expect the actual rate to be even higher if the said factor was not present.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (B): Is the presence of female tutor(s) important? (Does a tutor’s gender matter?)</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Question 5 and 6 show very interesting results. In the offline (in real life) event context, there seem to be more disagreement on the statement “I would prefer a woman to be my tutor.” These responses can be affected by the fact that majority of the tutors in Wikipedia events were still men, and if a participant had generally positive experience throughout the event, they might not be against the idea of having a male tutor again. Nonetheless, interestingly, the answer turned the other way around when the scenario changed to an “online” setting. More respondents then agreed that they would prefer a women as their tutor. This may be a sign that women are more alert and defensive when it comes to online interaction with people in the opposite sex.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (C) : Do women prefer offline (in-real-life) events over online ones?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Over 50% of the respondents chose “fully agree” to the statement while only 5 respondents chose either fully or partially disagree. We can conclude that women who had experience in an offline (in-real-life) event would still prefer the same setting in the future. However, of course, we cannot be sure how many women may have turned down this first event experience because it was offline. In other words, we do not know if the preference of women who had never attended any events. However, what we know is that mass majority of those who had one offline event experience would prefer the offline setting over an online participation.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (D): Does socializing matter to women?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Majority of the respondents fully agreed with the statement “I would like to socialize with and know more Wikipedians.” This is one of the very few questions where no one disagreed to. Although we cannot calculate the personal utility of socializing or conclude that socializing is “necessary” to make women feel more comfortable, we can assume that it will be a positive addition to the events if women can make new friends in the communities.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (E): Are women interested in women-related topics? Or would they have preferred to write about their expertise areas?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">From the survey, we found that more women actually showed interest in writing on women-related topics than on their domain knowledge subjects. Over 80% of the respondents agreed that they were interested in writing more about women (and related topics) while slightly fewer women said the same about their expertise knowledge. Only 8 out of 64 respondents expressed a preference for writing on their domain knowledge topics over women-related topics. Hence, it seems that women-related topics are a good place to start (for one’s first Wikipedia event experience) as most women enjoyed it. One thing we are not able to estimate is how long can this interest be sustained.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-34fe-fe1e-4cf5-84dc39b46457"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/AplHkWcumhKQK6sQErL9uY4CbD9GAMSPKEYLyM3jRjRF88IR3ucn3sJO7SqFsVjiLNHabLOEs5zqRfcqbiFgTIXoxaJkHBsvZqQ77SEFHsUpoDM30EkxmX7S-FXorT9gHkyZnn-O" alt="In a nutshell- research result.jpg" height="432" width="602" /></span></p>
</span></div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderwomen and internetSexual HarassmentWikipedia gender gapResearch2017-05-23T11:09:23ZBlog EntryConference on Safety Against Online Child Sexual Abuse
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse
<b>Japreet Grewal was a speaker at a conference on safety against online child sexual abuse which was jointly organized by CID, Telangana and the Department for Women Development and Child Welfare, Telangana on March 16 and 17, 2017 in Hyderabad.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Japreet spoke about the existing legal framework in India on online child sexual abuse and the challenges in implementing the preventive and response mechanisms to address this problem. Various stakeholders including media, police, school educators and child protection organisations attended this event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/agenda-of-the-conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse">Read the agenda here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGenderInternet Governance2017-03-29T04:10:16ZNews ItemEvaluating Safety Buttons on Mobile Devices: Preview
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview
<b>Much technological innovation for women is aimed at addressing violence against women. One such ubiquitous intervention is mobile device-based safety applications, also known as emergency applications. Several police departments in India, public transport services, and commercial services such as taxi-hailing apps deploy a mobile device-based “panic button” for the safety of citizens or customers, especially women. However, the proliferation of safety apps through both public and private players raises several concerns, which will be studied through this study by Rohini Lakshané of the CIS and Chinmayi S.K. of The Bachchao Project. Research assistance for this report was provided by CIS intern Harish R.S.K. Visualisations by Saumyaa Naidu.</b>
<h4>Download the preview document: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/docs/CIS-TBP_SafetyButtonsMobileDevices_Preview_201703.pdf">PDF</a></h4>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is currently a deluge of mobile safety apps in India: Apps run or supported by police departments, apps run by public transport services, apps endorsed by celebrities and politicians, an app developed by an entertainment television channel, and apps by NGOs and private developers. Through a public notification made in April 2016, the Ministry of Women and Child Development in India announced that every phone sold in the country from January 2017 should come equipped with a physical panic button and a GPS module 2. An international innovation award for USD 1 million was instituted in late 2016 for innovators to build an emergency alert app.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Preliminary user-testing conducted by us shows that many of these apps lack in technical quality and are prone to failure of one kind or another. There are no defined policies of privacy or terms of use, which could lead to possible data and identity theft and egregious surveillance of users.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This study will evaluate a total of 26 different apps operational in India, the permissions they use, the privacy policies and end user agreements on their websites, and will also undertake qualitative case studies of the use and deployment of some of these apps.</p>
<p>The questions framing this evaluation are:</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What are the technical concerns (including those of accessibility and literacy) with user experience of these safety button applications being developed and deployed by both government and private agencies, especially at a moment of crisis?</li>
<li>How well do the widely used safety button applications in India protect the data shared by the user and the user’s privacy?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What technical and other solutions can be implemented to ensure more effective, accessible, secure, and responsible modes of communication in such a context?</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p><img alt="Permissions used by safety applications for mobile devices." src="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/img/CIS-TBP_SafetyButtonsMobileDevices_Permissions.png" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>We are releasing one of the datasets that logs all the different permissions sought by selected “safety applications” available on the Google Play store in India. It was compiled in November 2016.</b><b><br /> </b><b><br /> </b><b>The dataset has been released under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. All uses of the accompanying data or parts thereof must contain the following attribution: "Data provided by Rohini Lakshané (Centre for Internet and Society) and Chinmayi S K (2018)”. To request a waiver, email rohini [at] cis-india [dot] org. Data are provided AS-IS, without warranty as to accuracy or completeness.</b></p>
<p><b>Zenodo record: </b><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://zenodo.org/record/3630585">https://zenodo.org/record/3630585</a></b><b><br /> </b></p>
<hr />
<p>Click to download:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/files/google-play-safety-app-permissions" class="external-link">List of permissions sought by safety applications on the Google Play Store</a> (Excel File)</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/files/google-play-safety-app-permissions.ods" class="external-link">List of permissions sought by safety applications on the Google Play Store</a> (Open File)</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/evaluating-safety-buttons-on-mobile-devices-preview</a>
</p>
No publisherRohini Lakshané and Chinmayi S.K.Safety ButtonsGenderResearchSafetySafety AppsResearchers at Work2023-03-18T04:40:15ZBlog EntryOnly 8.5pc of Wikipedia Editors are Women. How do we fix the Gender Gap on the Internet?
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet
<b>Women-related articles are generally shorter, more prone to deletion, and more likely to be peripheral pieces under male-centric articles.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://yourstory.com/2017/02/wikipedia-and-women/">Your Story</a> on February 7, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I was beginning an introduction session at a college in Vijayawada. While my audience (mostly female students) was giggling, I wrote down a simple question on the whiteboard:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><i>“I see more men than women in _____”</i></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The response was some more shy giggling until some students slowly raised their hands. “Sports!” “Technology companies!” “Conferences!” “In governments!” “…When I am in my class.” There is no denying that we all observe the underrepresentation of women at some points and occasions in our lives. However, it is much harder to imagine and notice that Wikipedia, the most used online encyclopaedia and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the 7<sup>th</sup> most visited website worldwide</a>, also poses a problematic imbalance in its content and editor demographics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-253705" height="400" src="https://d25medu75j19j3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Women-in-tecchnology-01.jpg" width="800" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2011<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Editor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">, a survey</a> carried out by the Wikimedia Foundation found that only 8.5 percent of Wikipedia editors were female. Since then, the awareness has risen; many have found the editor demographic imbalance is a strong reflection of what the encyclopaedia does or does not cover, how the written language and discourse were constructed on the pages, and how discussion flows on article talk pages<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[1]</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For example, scholars discovered that women-related articles are generally shorter, more prone to deletion, and more likely to be peripheral pieces under male-centric articles. To elaborate, in the network structure of Wikipedia articles, women’s pages lack centrality as they often provide links and mention related male figures in their writing but not the other way around. A glass ceiling also exists for the notability criteria. The threshold for a woman to be “notable enough” (from the perspective of a male-dominant community) to deserve a Wikipedia page is higher than that of male figures. Thus, the lack of women editors and an already male-centric structure pose a threat not only to the diversity of content but also to the very definition of knowledge.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">But why?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For years, the foundation and local communities have tried to discover the reasons behind the gender gap and solutions to it. Former Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner posted on her <a href="https://suegardner.org/2011/02/19/nine-reasons-why-women-dont-edit-wikipedia-in-their-own-words/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blog</a> nine reasons that are off-putting for women when they edit Wikipedia.</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The non-beginner-friendly editing interface</li>
<li>Lack of personal free time</li>
<li>Lack of confidence and self-efficacy</li>
<li>Unwillingness to stir up or participate in conflicts and edit wars</li>
<li>Feeling that their edits are “too likely to be reverted or deleted”</li>
<li>Misogynistic environment</li>
<li>“Wikipedia culture is sexual”</li>
<li>Being addressed as male in languages that have grammatical gender</li>
<li>Wikipedia is not as socialising or as welcoming as other websites</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In India and other parts of the world, various reasons can also contribute to the problem. Awareness, for example, is the first barrier to be tackled. Many women did not know that Wikipedia is editable or that there are Indian language versions that they can contribute to. Internet access and facilities are a couple more reasons. In case someone does not have a personal computer, a woman is usually more cautious and skeptical when using a public internet café and staying out late. Similarly, families of young women editors can be more concerned about their daughters’ participation in men-organised/male-dominant communities, especially when there are offline (on-site) activities. The roots of the issue are not merely at the community level, but also sociopolitical and cultural.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many events and initiatives have been carried out from local to global community levels. ‘Women in Red (WiR)’, for example, is a global initiative to bring more women-related articles online. It encourages editors to turn ‘red links’ (non-existing pages) into ‘blue links’ (existing Wikipedia page). The project has helped increase female biographies from 15 percent (November 2014) of total biographies on English Wikipedia to 16.75 percent (November 2016)<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[2]</a>. In March, Wikipedia communities around the globe also celebrate ‘Women’s History Month’, when edit-a-thons (marathons for Wikipedia editing) are held to help create more women’s articles online as well as to recruit more female volunteers and spread awareness. However, is this enough?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-253704" height="401" src="https://d25medu75j19j3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Women-in-tecchnology-02.jpg" width="801" /></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">“A new debate: what matters?”</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As we are raising more awareness, integrating gender gap issues into the community’s strategy plans and coming up with more intervention ideas to reach more potential women editors, it is time to revisit the meaning behind the work. In my early research time, I was to believe that ‘retention rate’ (whether female participants will stay active after an event), ‘number of articles created’, and the ‘event continuation potentials’ are the key factors in determining whether an event can be called successful. But the ideas have slowly changed as I have got to reach more female participants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a matter of fact, Wikipedia is about voluntary contribution and negotiating for consensus in quality knowledge creation as well as maintaining a friendly and open environment for all. In other words, we can ‘nudge’ people into Wikipedia editing but we should not (and need not to) ‘push’ them to do it. Especially in the situation of a wide gender gap, we should not make women feel like they are tokenised in the process — that we are targeting them due to their gender and that they should contribute more because they are female, the minority. When asked about the existing problems in the current gender gap interventions, an active Wikipedian once explained to me:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Say if you are writing the biography of someone then you should be familiar with and interested in that person’s work. That’s why sometimes those gender-specific edit workshops backfire... If you are creating a bio just because this person is a woman, then I think it is missing the whole point of Wikipedia.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In my opinion and through discussions with several female Wikipedians, I have realised that there should be a new debate and investigation on how intervention goals should be set and what these actions’ long-term results would be. While focusing on the retention rate of a new Wikipedian after an intervention, we limit ourselves in the frame of time and numbers. We should, instead, understand more about new members’ experiences and feedback to pinpoint the good motivations and expected barriers for them. With this information, we should help establish the motivation in event follow-ups and to minimise their barriers as much as the community can. Secondly, article quality should be stressed upon —even if it takes more time to publish her/his first article, it is a much more fruitful learning experience to understand the responsibility of a Wikipedian. After all, low-quality articles not only do not contribute to Wikipedia content but also lead to more deletion, which can be a discouraging experience for those who are new.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For event continuation, we should guide the participants to community engagement and support them to carry out more event ideas that can suit their interests and goals. In short, it is about creating involvement, discussion, and a sense of community instead of continuously pushing events on our end and have the women be passive participants. When asked about how one can define a “successful gender gap-bridging event,” one of the active organisers told me:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“For me, it is when conversations are happening. It is when we have both men and women, and that we can openly have a discussion about the issue and the difficulties and how we want to see changes.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To put it simply, I believe that we should look at experiences more than numbers, focus on quality more than quantity, and try to reach people (both men and women) to stimulate discussion more than being fixated on the contents needed to balance out the asymmetry.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">How to fix the Wikipedia gender gap is never an easy question to ask, but what I am sure about is that Wikipedia and its communities should be empowering rather than result-oriented and that our learning still has a long way to go.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[1]</a> A “talk page” is attached to each Wikipedia article (found on the top-left corner of an article), where editors can hold discussions and debates or leave comments during the editing process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[2]</a> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikimedia2017-02-09T02:49:47ZBlog EntryBridging the gap: Tech giants bring the internet to women in rural India
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-october-28-2016-kumkum-dasgupta-bridging-the-gap
<b>This Diwali is going to be a cracker of a festival for Nisha Chanderwal, a second year BA student.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by KumKum Dasgupta was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bridging-the-gap-tech-giants-bring-the-internet-to-women-in-rural-india/story-8ZGqNnNArjbWFQCiJ3sSgJ.html">published in the Hindustan Times</a> on October 28, 2016. Pranesh Prakash and Rohini Lakshané were quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“I bought a bright red kurta with gold-colour zari dupatta from Snapdeal, my first online purchase,” the 19-year-old resident of Alwar’s Umren village told HT recently.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“No courier service reaches my village. So I gave my aunt’s home address in Alwar. They paid in cash…I paid her when I picked up the parcel,” she added, explaining the circuitous delivery and payment process that is common in rural India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nisha is elated for one more reason: She has finally got even with her 20-year-old brother, Ashok. “He has a smartphone, but doesn’t even let me touch it, saying girls should not use the Internet. But now thanks to Google’s Internet Saathi Programme (ISP), I don’t need his phone or his help,” said an elated Nisha.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In July 2015, technology giant Google launched ISP in partnership with Tata Trusts, one of the country’s oldest philanthropic organisations, to bring rural women online in India. Today, the initiative is live in 25,000 villages across 10 states with 1,900 saathis. The final mission is to reach 300,000 villages. Google is adding up to 500 additional ‘saathis’ per week. More than 100,000 women have been trained so far.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google started this programme because Internet usage by women in rural areas is low.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Only one in 10 Internet users in rural India is a woman,” Sapna Chadha, marketing head, Google India, told HT. “With ISP, we are creating an enabling environment that empowers them while also bridging the technology gender divide. We believe that easy access to information can transform lives. Our mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Along with access to information, getting more and more women online has other benefits: “If women are a minority online, they become vulnerable to harassment and violence. Women can’t only be consumers of the Internet but must contribute their views, and make the space equitable,” said Rohini Lakshané of the Bangalore-based The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), which is funded by the Kusuma Trust.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google and Tata Trusts are leveraging their core strengths for ISP. While Google provides the hardware (phones and tablets), training and Internet connectivity. Tata Trusts does the identification of saathis and the monitoring.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We tie up with government departments to roll out the project. For example, in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, we are working with the rural livelihood mission. The government helps us to identify villages, set selection criteria and logistics such as venues,” explained Prabhat Pani, project director, Tata Trusts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The programme first chooses a few women and trains them on how to use a mobile phone, shoot photos and videos and the basics of Internet. Then the women are sent out on bicycles with a smartphone and a tablet to teach others in their villages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The programme has opened a new world for many. “Google is like a book. You can get whatever information you need. I am illiterate but I use voice search for information,” said Phoolwati, a 45-year-old resident of Nangli Jamawat, Umren.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Her friend Manju is now the village’s undisputed ‘selfie queen’. “I love taking videos and photos,” she said, adding that she also searches for information on MGNREGA or education loans for her children.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">According to Google, the new online entrants are searching for news, recipes, designs for clothes, images and information on pilgrimages, farming and cattle-related information and government schemes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For Google, it makes immense sense to get more people online. “The company is targeting huge and untapped demographics who are entry-level users. Going forward, they will have a huge first-mover advantage if there is scope to monetise Google’s services,” explained Lakshané.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">By 2020, about 315 million rural Indians will be connected to the Internet, compared to around 120 million now. That’s about 36% of the country’s online population. By 2020, this share of rural India will jump to 48%, creating a huge opportunity for brands and marketers in places where establishing stores is a challenge,” says a study by the Boston Consulting Group, The Rising Connected Consumer in Rural India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first signs of this market potential were evident during the pre-Diwali online festival season sale. E-tailers posted growth in sales compared to last year thanks to growing smartphone penetration in small towns and villages, cheaper data tariffs and free hotspots. While Google did not divulge the exact revenues that it is spending on ISP, Chadha said it has helped the company to understand the needs of users in rural areas and what role the Internet can play.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Along with ISP, Google is also working with the Indian government on two projects that aims to give more people access to the Internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">First, the Project Loon, which uses high-altitude balloons to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G speeds for providing Internet access to rural and remote areas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Second, the company is partnering with RailTel to provide free wi-fi access in stations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The ISP has no immediate profits for Google. The average revenue Indian per user is less than say a user in US. But getting more people online helps Google because its search engine is most used,” Pranesh Prakash, policy director, CIS, told HT. “In the long run, the company will earn when people access its services and also from advertising revenue.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nevertheless, the ISP is addressing a major problem. “Many are afraid to go online because they don’t know how they can benefit. While the Saathi programme is not a philanthropic effort, it’s good that Google is addressing this issue through its training programmes,” Prakash said.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-october-28-2016-kumkum-dasgupta-bridging-the-gap'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-october-28-2016-kumkum-dasgupta-bridging-the-gap</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGenderInternet Governance2016-10-30T07:23:05ZNews ItemNot Everyone Plays by the Rules in the Digital Playground: Addressing Online Child Sexual Exploitation
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/not-everyone-plays-by-the-rules-in-the-digital-playground-addressing-online-child-sexual-exploitation
<b>Japreet Grewal spoke at a panel on 'Prevention through Awareness and Education' at a meeting titled 'Not Everyone Plays by the Rules in the Digital Playground:Addressing Online Child Sexual Exploitation' that was organised by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Singapore (ICMEC) and TULIR - Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse, India on October 3-4, 2016 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.</b>
<p>Click the links below to access:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/agenda-for-icmec-tulir-india-round-table.pdf">Agenda</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/india-round-table-icmec-background-note.pdf">Background Note</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/icmec-speaking-notes.pdf">Speaker's Notes</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/not-everyone-plays-by-the-rules-in-the-digital-playground-addressing-online-child-sexual-exploitation'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/not-everyone-plays-by-the-rules-in-the-digital-playground-addressing-online-child-sexual-exploitation</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGenderInternet Governance2016-10-05T15:08:40ZNews ItemAnother 5 Years: What Have We Learned about the Wikipedia Gender Gap and What Has Been Done? (Part 3.)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3
<b>Five years after Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011 editor survey was conducted and revealed the gender gap issue, scholars, practitioners, and communities around the globe have come a long way to address the gender imbalance of the online encyclopedia. This blog post series (of three parts) serve as a summary of movements and discoveries in Wikipedia gender gap narrowing on both local (India) and global scales.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is the third
(last) part of the blog series, please see <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1">Part 1 </a>and <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2">Part 2</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Responding to the
Wikipedia gender gap problem, former WMF Executive Director Sue Gardner set a
target in 2011 to raise the female editor percentage <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html">to 25%</a> by 2015. In an <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28701772">interview</a> in August 2014, Jimmy Wales declared that “<em>we’ve completely failed,</em>” Gardner also
noted that the solutions should come from local Wikipedian communities rather
than from the Foundation on a macro scale.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Although the
target was not met, initiatives and reforms taken places globally and locally in
the past five years are not fruitless. And as mentioned in Part 2, we should
not define this movement as merely pursuing a goal towards certain percentage
or number. As for now dialogue has been created to include the issue into more strategic
plans; collectives are established to cumulate and share resources across
communities. There has been abundance of learning (and definitely much more to
learn) in the issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What has been done?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Be it ongoing or spontaneous, international or local, there have been
many interventions trying to address the gender gap in Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Intervention events<em></em></u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In July 2015, WikiProject
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red">Women in Red</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> (WiR)</span> was launched to <em>“turn "<a title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Redlist index" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red/Redlist_indexhttps:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red/Redlist_index">redlinks</a>
(non-existing pages) into <a title="Wikilink" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikilink">blue ones</a> (existing pages).” </em> The project encourages editors worldwide to
create (or expand) female-related pages (biographies, women’s work,
contribution, issues, etc.) that fit the notability criteria of Wikipedia. WiR
also picks monthly and annual topics to feature. Currently in September, 2016,
edit-a-thons on Women in nursing and women labour activists are happening
online. And “Women scientists” edit-a-thon is a year-long featured topic for
2016. Although WiR is still primarily an English-WP project, some communities
have expanded and localized it to local initiatives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Coincidentally, in
2013, Indian Wikipedian communities have carried out one of the biggest and
most well-known gender gap intervention – <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lilavati%27s_Daughters_Edit-a-thon">Lilavatis’
Daughters</a>. “Lilavati’s Daughters” is <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-literaryreview/forgotten-daughters/article662225.ece">a
book</a> of essay collections featuring nearly one hundred women scientists in Indian
since the Victorian Era. The 2013 edit-a-thon was hence to create Wikipedia
pages for these biographies in different Indian languages. Collaborating with
institutions and colleges, the event was greeted with high popularity and
success. Similar events were also carried out afterwards, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Indian_Women_in_Science_Edit-a-thon">Indian
Women in Science Edit-a-thon</a> which has been held annually since 2014; the
last event was held in July, 2016 at the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Another
significant initiative across the globe and in Indian communities is the annual
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiWomen%27s_History_Month">Wikiwomen’s history
month</a> in March along with the celebration of International Women’s Day on March
8<sup>th</sup>. The initiative started in 2012, edit-a-thons, photo-thons
(updating photos onto Wikimedia Commons), and meetups have been held to raise
the awareness of the gender gap online, create female-related content available
on Wikipedia, and to strengthen the bonding between local Wikiwomen.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Recently,
Wikimedia Foundation collaborated with the United Nations to launch the one-day
<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/UN_Women_Her_Story">Her Story project</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> Edit-a-thon</span> on August 12<sup>th</sup>, 2016 to celebrate International Youth Day
globally. Cities in India like <a href="https://www.empowerwomen.org/en/campaigns/herstory">Chennai and Delhi
also held local edit-a-thons</a> on the day of in response to the event. With
the opportunity to work alongside the UN, it is a good sign that the Wikipedia
gender gap issue is drawing global attention, not just in the Wikipedian
community level, but also in global institution level.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Collaborative</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative">Wikiwomen’s
Collaborative</a> is a global platform for female Wikipedians to share
projects, insights, and support. The Collaborative also encourages participants
to write blog post on the <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wikiwomen/">Wikiwomen’s Blog</a>
to spread more words about the gender gap issue and initiatives. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias/Gender_gap_task_force">Gender
Gap Task Force (GGTF)</a> was founded in 2013 aiming to challenge the
patriarchal culture of knowledge and Wikipedia. GGTF tries to fix the
encyclopedia’s imbalance power structure by initiating discussion and
examination on its policies and editor interaction. It has also been a place to
cumulate research studies and resources on the gender gap topic. A (global) <a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap">gender gap
mailing list</a> is also created to spread the news and words with more
communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Improvement in the
Interface</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Aside from events and
collectives organized by respective communities, the Wikipedia platform itself
has also been under constant transition in the last few years, trying to create
a friendlier place for women and newcomers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since June 2012,
the new prototype <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor">Visual
Editor</a> has become available in more and more language versions of Wikimedia
projects – including most Indian languages. Visual Editor enables editor to
contribute without learning the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_markup">Wiki markups</a>, as it
creates the “write-as-how-you-will-see-it” feature requiring only basic typing
skills. Nevertheless, Visual Editor does have several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor#Limitations">limitations</a>
comparing to the traditional edit source option, including slower speed, unavailable
in talk and discussion namespaces, limited template editing options, and so on.
While a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:VisualEditor%27s_effect_on_newly_registered_editors/June_2013_study">research</a>
in 2013 on Visual Editor’s use in English Wikipedia showed low effectiveness of
the new feature in attracting and encouraging new editors, more research should
also be done in the non-English (especially Global South) context. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Marathi_Wikipedia_Tutorials">Online
tutorial resources</a> about editing are also becoming available in Indian
communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimarkup.png/image_large" alt="Traditional wiki markup editing screenshot" class="image-inline" title="Traditional wiki markup editing screenshot" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Traditional Wiki
markup editing screenshot</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/visualeditor.png/image_large" alt="visual editor of wikipedia screenshot" class="image-inline" title="visual editor of wikipedia screenshot" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Visual Editor
screenshot</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editing_on_mobile_devices">mobile
apps of Wikipedia</a> has been improved in its editing function. Although the
apps are still in constant development to make the function smoother and easier
for mobile users, it is a great breakthrough for those who do not have personal
computers to contribute in small ways (or even in great ways – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cullen328/Smartphone_editing#Why_I_edit_by_smartphone">some</a>
have created pages and denied the statement that mobile editing is
impractical). </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What’s more to be learned?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is no
denying that our Indian language communities have been putting efforts to
highlight and address the gender gap issue on Wikipedia. The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016">Wikiconference
India 2016</a> in August also had a panel responding to this topic where
panelists from both outreach and research threads proposed localized
perspective and strategies to fix the problem.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However, there are
still much more to be learned. First of all, we need a more organized feedback
loop (a cycle of planning-executing-evaluating-sharing learning) for local
interventions to learn from our success and mistakes. Secondly, the issue has
to become more “public” in a sense that we are not just promoting within our
own circles. Awareness-building through media coverage and institutional
collaboration can bring in greater public opinions and volunteers to help the
online encyclopedia become a more inclusive place. The third point is a change
of mindset: women's feeling and experience should be put forward into the
central of our initiatives and interventions.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“We made it clear
that we were focusing on the (female) participants and their experience, the
content they created online are of course important too, but that’s just the
by-product.</em>” -<span style="text-align: right;">Wikiconference Indian 2016 Gender Gap panel presenter</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, as
we are engaging more and more women, the focus should not be numbers but the
humans. At the same time, we should always encourage women to stand out and
speak out. As mentioned in the previous part, gender discrimination cases have
not yet been reported in our communities, but we also have to ensure if it does
happen both the female editors and the community should have a certain level of
awareness (what constitutes harassment/discrimination/sexism; when and how to
call out) and a report and support mechanism to the problem.</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The road to a real
equalized knowledge system is not easy. As many have noticed and pointed out
“This is not just a Wikipedia problem!” Indeed, similar gender imbalance exists
in our academies, IT industries, free and open-source software (FOSS) workplace,
to name a few. Nonetheless, with the flexibility and the strong bond that Indian
Wikipedian communities possess, we can be one of the pioneers in positive
changes. After all, the knowledge created and action taken today will shape
what our tomorrow can be like.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikipedia gender gapWikimedia2016-09-22T07:54:47ZBlog EntryAnother 5 Years: What Have We Learned about the Wikipedia Gender Gap and What Has Been Done? (Part 2)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2
<b>Five years after Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011 editor survey was conducted and revealed the gender gap issue, scholars, practitioners, and communities around the globe have come a long way to address the gender imbalance of the online encyclopedia. This blog post series (of three parts) serve as a summary of movements and discoveries about Wikipedia gender gap on both local (India) and global scales.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1">last part</a> of the blog series, we examined the
definition and danger of the Wikipedia gender gap. This issue has been puzzling
for many – why is there such a wide gap globally?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Why is there a gender gap?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The
reasons behind the Wikipedia gender gap are complex and culturally-sensitive. Two
main types of barriers are discussed as “inside of Wikipedia (internal)” and
“outside of Wikipedia (external).” </p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Internal</th>
<th>External</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td> Challenges using Wiki mark-up and its interface</td>
<td>Limited access to internet and facilities</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(rare in India) Challenges in getting help from community members</td>
<td>Lack of skills</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(rare in India) Being discriminated as a newcomer</td>
<td>Lack of confidence</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(rare in India) Experience of discriminative behavior/conflicts</td>
<td>Limited time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The fear of becoming “visible” as one of the few female in the community</td>
<td>Preference to more socially interactive online activities (Lack of interest)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Awareness - not knowing Wikipedia is editable</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">(From
Jadine Lannon (2013), <em>Same Gaps Different Experience</em>)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>India
v.s. the World</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately,
most studies have been done in English Wikipedia and rarely in other smaller
language communities, despite the fact that these barriers can vary a lot in
different cultural, political, and economic context. In India, practitioners
and researchers have identified a few potential causes of low female participation
rate on Wikipedia. Contrary to what was discovered in the English Wikipedia,
researchers have found that Indian female Wikipedians are generally more active
and willing to participate in both online and offline interactions compared to
those in the English Wikipedia community. Reports of gender discrimination
cases are also fewer than those in the Western context. A possible explanation
to both phenomena is that Indian Wikipedian communities are rather small and
close-knitted which encourage more interpersonal networking and prevent
anonymous attacks<a name="_ftnref1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Awareness</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However,
recruiting and keeping female Wikipedians in India do have its own barriers to
overcome. “Awareness” is discovered as one of the very primary barriers for most
to start editing Wikipedia. Many did not know that the online encyclopedia is easily
editable, and even more have not heard of (or are unfamiliar with the use of)
Wikipedia. Outreach events are important portals for both men and women to
discover and join local Wikipedia communities. And this is where weakness can
be turned into strength; as most newcomers are brought in through community
outreach events or personal connection, it creates a strong bond within the members
and a more welcoming culture featuring collectivism rather than individualism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>On the
societal level?</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Although
the binary categorization of inside and outside of Wikipedia is widely used, it
can easily lead us to believe that we can draw a clear line in between
Wikipedia and the offline world, but neglect the big picture which shapes both
sides of the table. Ignoring the fundamental (societal) level of the issue and
its linkage to other factors poses the risk of nurturing a symptom-fixing
solution instead of a system-questioning culture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For
example, societal factors such as expectation on women’s/girls’ role and priority
in her family can prevent them from the access to required facilities,
internet, training, and personal leisure time for joining (or continuing
editing) Wikipedia. On the psychological experience side, some women reported
that they do not feel comfortable when being so “visible” online and in the
community<a name="_ftnref2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a>; and this has a lot to do
with how our online (and offline) society has been constructed and
conceptualized as an “unsafe” space for women.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In
fact, Wagner et al. (2015)<a name="_ftnref3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a> have found that a nation’s
Gender Inequality Index (GII) is associated to the country’s editor gender bias
on Wikipedia. Although it was a study focusing on Global North samples, the
logic behind is most likely applicable in India (which ranked <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/2015-report">130 out of 188 countries’ GII in 2014</a>)
– as the more unequally women is treated in the society, the less likely that
she can reach the pre-requisite to be a Wikipedian, or even be online. For
example, in India there is a much lower literacy rate for female than male – 53.7%
to 75.3% as reported in the <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/glance.aspx">2011
Census</a>. At the same time, population (above the age of 25) with at least
some secondary education is 56.6% for male and only 27% for female in India
based on the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII#c">UN Human
Development Report</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">All
these societal factors and nuances feed into the gaps we see today – in higher
academic positions, in industries, and eventually in Wikipedia. It is
definitely not easy to address the macro-scale problems, but what we can do is
to change it from the community level to influence individuals and the society.
Hence, we are not just battling against an online phenomenon created by
individuals’ unwillingness to participate, but challenging and redressing the patriarchal
power while transforming the traditions of how knowledge flows. After all, bridging
the gender gap should not be merely a target of “We will reach X% female
participation rate by Y years,” it has much greater potential and
responsibility in the long run for our generations and societies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pyramid.png/image_large" alt="pyramid graph of statements and explanations on wpgg" class="image-inline" title="pyramid graph of statements and explanations on wpgg" /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the
next part of the blog series, we talk about: <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3"><strong>What has been
done? </strong>& <strong>What’s more to be
learned?</strong></a></p>
<p> </p>
<div><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a> From
Jadine Lannon (2013), <em>Same Gaps Different Experience</em> and from WCI 2016
presentation:</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p><a name="_ftn2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a> Jadine, L., (2013). <em>Same Gaps
Different Experience</em></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p><a name="_ftn3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a>
Wagner, Garcia, Jadidi,
& Strohmaier, (2015). It’s a man’s Wikipedia? Assessing gender inequality
in an online encyclopedia. From the Wikipedia editor community is sensible to
gender in Proceedings of the Ninth International AAAI Conference on Web and
Social Media 454. URL:
https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/viewFile/10585/10528 </p>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikipedia gender gapWikimedia2016-09-22T07:55:39ZBlog EntryAnother 5 Years: What Have We Learned about the Wikipedia Gender Gap and What Has Been Done? (Part 1)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1
<b>Five years after Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011 editor survey was conducted and revealed the gender gap issue, scholars, practitioners, and communities around the globe have come a long way to address the gender imbalance of the online encyclopedia. This blog post series (of three parts) serve as a summary of movements and discoveries about Wikipedia gender gap on both local (India) and global scales.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“Our editing community continues to suffer
from a lack of women editors…. only 8.5% of editors are women.</em>”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Probably
the most cited statement for Wikipedia gender gap studies, the <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Editor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf">editor
survey</a> conducted by Wikimedia Foundation in April 2011 revealed
the alarming imbalance within the online encyclopedia community(s). In the same
survey, the percentage of female Wikipedians in India is reported as only 3%. When
we have repeatedly emphasized on the development and changes the internet can
bring to our societies, how do we ensure that behind our computer screen it is
not just another mirror reflecting what has been silenced and forgotten?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What is the Wikipedia gender gap?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There
are two main focus on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">gender
gap within Wikipedia</a> – the editor demographic and the coverage of
topics – which are essentially flip sides of a coin. With fewer female
contributors, we are losing a more diverse knowledge platform for all. But the
issue is far more complex than simply having less information about “friendship
bracelets” than “baseball cards.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Looking
at the biography pages on Wikipedia, researchers found that not only is the number of
female biographies much lower than males’ (due to historical factors, availability
of firsthand sources, and editors’ interest), but the linguistic and topical
bias within also presents <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_about_women#cite_note-1">a male-centered discourse</a>. For example, on women’s
biography pages, words related to one’s gender such as “women,” “female,”
“lady” will be used more commonly than the counterpart words in men’s pages;
and that a women’s biography will have more information about her marriage and
family life than her male counterpart’s. Studies also found that female-related
articles are more likely to be linked to male-related ones but not the other
way around<a name="_ftnref1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a>. This
demonstrates that the editing preference, styles, and content
are closely related to the editors’ genders and how they see the world. In
other words, language and knowledge cannot be separated from one’s gender – the
Internet may be bodiless but it can never become genderless<a name="_ftnref2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wagner et al.’s paper<a name="_ftnref3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a> in early
2016 also confirmed the existence of a “glass ceiling” for female figures to be
considered “notable” enough to have a Wikipedia bio page (or for the page not
to be deleted). Who gets to decide what is “notable enough” becomes
questionable when we understand the gender bias. As a matter of fact, while the
difference in male and female biography numbers is narrower for globally known
figures, a larger gender gap exists for “local hero(ine)s” because of the
notability threshold applied. That is to say, many women and female-related
topics are underrepresented (and underappreciated) on Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The danger and why it matters</strong><strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><u>Low awareness</u></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The
Wikipedia gender gap is problematic and deserves more attention than ever not
only because gender imbalance should be tackled both online and offline, but
also that this imbalance is so prevalent and has been taken for granted by most.
Little do people consider, that with every single “click” on one’s google
search, we can be provided with an answer from a single-gender narration. This
imbalance and its problems are behind the scene – the share of male and female
editors are never on the surface without a holistic survey. While gender
balance has been pushed in our business, education, and government sectors, the
online encyclopedia feeding <a href="http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/">billions</a> of
internet users (and <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PIRReport/Documents/Indicator_Reports.pdf">over
300 million in India</a> itself) is
still constructed in a male-dominant culture with little questioning from the
public.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><u>Legacy
and influence</u></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There
is the saying that Internet is changing the human default from “forgetting”
into “remembering.” Wikipedia can serve as a great tool for digitization of
knowledge and the preservation of languages. What is to be recorded now will
become parts of (perhaps the most accessible) history in the future, and we
cannot afford a history without women’s voices and knowledge. Hence, to include
more women editors and women-related content is not simply out of a concern of
diversity, it is to ensure that this time we can pass on the legacy in a better
and more equitable fashion for the whole population.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><u>The vicious
circle</u></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“We’ve to participate in meet ups
and workshops, then question (from family members) arises like how many guys
are there, is there any girl or not. In one sentence we're discouraged by our
surrounding</em>.”</p>
<p align="right" style="text-align: right;">– Female editor from local community</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The urgency of this problem is that
the lesser women are presented in the communities, the harder a motivation can
be established for new female editors to join. Now that we have made this issue
visible, the core mission we have is to ensure a change in the system and
environment that helps women feel more welcomed and comfortable – even when
they are aware that they are the minority.</p>
<div>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the next part
of this blog series:<a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2"> <strong>Why is
there a Gender Gap?</strong></a></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
<div><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a> Wagner, Graells-Garrido,
Garcia, & Menczer, (2016). Women through the glass ceiling: gender
asymmetries in Wikipedia. <em>EPJ Data Science</em>. (5)1. Pp 1-24.</p>
<p>Graells-Garrido,
Lalmas, & Menczer, (2015). First women second sex: gender bias in Wikipedia.
In <em>Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext & Social Media </em>(pp165)<em>.</em></p>
<p>Wagner, Garcia, Jadidi, & Strohmaier, (2015). It’s a man’s
Wikipedia? Assessing
gender inequality in an online encyclopedia. From the Wikipedia editor
community is sensible to gender in <em>Proceedings of the Ninth International
AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 454.</em> URL: https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/viewFile/10585/10528</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p><a name="_ftn2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a> Code, L. (2000). Encyclopedia
of feminist theories. London: Routledge</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p><a name="_ftn3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a> Wagner, Graells-Garrido,
Garcia, & Menczer, (2016). Women through the glass ceiling: gender
asymmetries in Wikipedia. <em>EPJ Data Science</em>. (5)1. Pp 1-24.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikimedia2016-09-21T10:13:59ZBlog EntryWikiwomen’s Meetup at St. Agnes College Explores Potentials and Plans of Women Editors in Mangalore, Karnataka
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikiwomen2019s-meetup-at-st-agnes-college-explores-potentials-and-plans-of-women-editors-in-mangalore-karnataka
<b>Karnataka is known for its diverse linguistic cultures. Aside from Kannada, many are native speakers of Konkani, Tulu, and other languages. A small Wikiwomen's meetup was held on Saturday, August 27th at St. Agnes College, Mangalore, to invite female Wikipedians from the region. Many of them were new to the online encyclopedia but demonstrated strong interest in learning and contributing more Indic language content online.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Mangaluru/WikiWomen/1">Wikiwomen’s meetup</a> was held at St. Agnes College on August 27<sup>th</sup> in the hope to strengthen the bonding and communication between female Wikipedians in Mangalore. Attendees of the meetup on Saturday included five Kannada Wikipedian, one Konkani Wikipedian, one from the recently gone live Tulu Wikipedia, and Ting-Yi Chang from the CIS A2K team. Two of the Kannada Wikipedians are staff and faculty members of the College’s library and Department of Kannada respectively. Both were brought into Wikipedia by <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/kannada-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-in-st-agnes-college-mangaluru-to-bridge-gender-gap-in-wikipedia">edit-a-thons</a> held on the college campus in the last few months</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The meetup started off with a round of brief self-introduction and an inspiring introductory presentation by Dhanalakshimi K T, a St. Agnes commerce student who had successfully organized the last two women’s edit-a-thons on her campus.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“<i>Wikipedia is a great tool for knowledge sharing. When we edit in our own languages, people from outside of the city who don’t speak English can learn things more easily online.... It is the respect and passion I have for my language."</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The presentation also touched upon some feasible benefits that editors gains through participating in Wikipedia/media projects: improvement in writing and research skills, nurturing a critical thinking habit when reading texts and doing research, learnings from collaborative work experience, improvement in language and communication skills, etc. One of the participants later mentioned that with the hobby of editing Wikipedia, she began actively researching in her interested topics. Even in occasions when she had no time to actually update the content onto Wikipedia, the knowledge she gained throughout the research process has already enriched her and broadened her horizon of the subject.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second half of the presentation consists of an introduction to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars">5 pillars rules</a> and some other advice of Wikipedia editing. Participants who were newcomers showed great interest and actively raised questions surrounding the use of different editing tools including the infobox templates, translation tools, useful markups, and personal sandboxes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When being asked about the barriers they have faced so far in editing Wikipedia, most agreed that time issues do prevent them sometimes as their offline commitments (work, family, school) can take priority over it. However, most participants also concluded that “those who are truly interested will eventually find the time.” On the other hand, access to internet and facilities has not been reported as a barrier in their cases, but all agreed that it can be for many other women. Awareness was emphasized as a crucial factor when trying to bring in more women to Wikipedia. One of the student participants shared her experience,</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>“Some people may have never heard of Wikipedia before; some misunderstood its use and potential… when I talked about Kannada Wikipedia with my peers, first they thought it was some website for Kannada stories writing…. But when I explained to them what it is and how we can edit, they were all very excited and very much wanted to try."</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the latter discussion of the meetup, participants talked about the tentative event plans for the next few months. Two sessions were suggested to be held by November, 2016. One as a workshop for the newcomers and the other as an editing event for more experienced female Wikipedians. All participants, old and new, are really excited to strengthen the bonding between Wikiwomens in Mangalore. Some suggested there should be more casual meetups every few weeks to help them communicate more and plan upcoming community events, including an ongoing event that can be held in March, 2017 for the International Women’s Day and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiWomen%27s_History_Month">Wikiwomen’s History Month</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The meetup continued with more discussion on various language Wikipedias’ development. As an experienced Wikipedian and an actively outreaching community member, participant Harriet Vidyasagar explained the complexity in Konkani Wikipedia, which contains five scripts, and the importance of those scripts in Konkani language’s history and culture. All participants agreed that seeing their mother tongues’ scripts online and creating more content to make their culture and language visible are a great source of happiness and a motivation for them to continue editing. The session ended with exchange of contacts and group pictures.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikiwomen2019s-meetup-at-st-agnes-college-explores-potentials-and-plans-of-women-editors-in-mangalore-karnataka'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikiwomen2019s-meetup-at-st-agnes-college-explores-potentials-and-plans-of-women-editors-in-mangalore-karnataka</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderKonkani WikipediaKannada WikipediaEvent2016-09-01T14:39:53ZBlog EntryThe Gay Pride Charade
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-nishant-shah-july-3-2016-gay-pride-charade
<b>For most of the milllenials, news is formed by trends, what goes viral, and often open to speculation, projection, manipulation and deceit.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/the-gay-pride-charade-2889743/">published in Indian Express</a> on July 3, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The world of social media can be a minefield of misinformation, and it does get difficult to verify facts and ensure the veracity of the information that comes to us on the winged notifications of our apps. This becomes starkly clear in times of crises. Hence, when the historic and heinous shootout at a gay night club in Orlando, USA, shook the world with horror and grief a couple of weeks ago, when the first tweets appeared on my timeline, my initial reaction was denial. Instead of believing those first responders, I was already searching for more credible news lines that could confirm — or hopefully deny — the massacre. It took only a few minutes, though, to realise that #StandWithOrlando was a reality that we will have to accommodate in the story of continued violence and abuse of sexual minorities around the world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, not all deception is bad. One of the most fantastic responses to the shoot-out was from a Quebec-based satirical website called JournalDemourreal.com that published a photoshopped image showing the Canadian PM Justin Trudeau kissing the leader of the Canadian opposition party Tom Mulcair, with a headline that the two, despite their differences, are “united against homophobia”. I know that I liked this fake story four times on different newsfeeds, half-believing, half-wishing that it was true, before I realised that it is a hoax. Morphed as it might be, the doctored image enabled people to talk about the tragedy as demanding a personal and a policy-level action, ranging from acceptance and freedom, to control of guns and protecting the rights of life and dignity for the sexual minorities who continue to remain persecuted in the world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The image also allowed many queer people in different parts of the world — especially in the countries where homosexuality continues to be criminalised and severely punished — to participate not only in the global grief but also to demand that their governments take more responsibility towards its queer population.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While this photoshopped picture was making the rounds, another tweet showed up on my timeline. This time it was a tweet from our media-savvy PM, <a href="http://indianexpress.com/profile/politician/narendra-modi/">Narendra Modi</a>, who claimed that he was “shocked at the shootout in Orlando.”And further added that his “thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families and the injured”. When I saw this tweet, my reaction again, was that this must be another joke. Because even as queer rights activists in the country struggle to fight for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, through their curative petitions in the Supreme Court in India, PM Modi’s government has continued its hateful diatribe against queer people in the country. His party has called homosexuality “anti-Indian” and “anti-family”. The party’s favourite, Baba Ramdev, continues his hate speech, offering to cure homosexuality through yoga.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ever since the current government took power, documented hate crimes against queer people have more than doubled in the country. So when the PM decided to offer his condolences to those in Orlando, I figured that either it was a fake Twitter account masquerading as the PM or it was some kind of a hacker troll — maybe Anonymous, the online guerrilla activists, who recently took over ISIS- friendly websites and filled them up with information about male homosexuality as a response to the shoot-out — had taken control of the Twitter account. But it turned out that this piece of information was not photoshopped or hacked. It was actually true, and we were to believe in earnest that while the government doesn’t care about the millions of queer people being denied their rights to live and love in their country, it is heartbroken about what happened in the USA.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It does make you wonder about the world we live in, where a photoshopped image sounded more plausible than an undoctored tweet. It emphasises why Orlando cannot be treated as one isolated instance in another country, but that #WeAreOrlando. For right now, Orlando is also in India. It is a reminder that while we have been fortunate not to have such an instance of dramatic violence, there are millions of people in the country who are forced to live and die in deception for their sexual orientation.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-nishant-shah-july-3-2016-gay-pride-charade'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-nishant-shah-july-3-2016-gay-pride-charade</a>
</p>
No publishernishantGenderInternet Governance2016-07-25T01:10:28ZBlog EntryFlashpoint #TrollControl: Maneka versus NCW
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-now-july-8-2016-flashpoint-troll-control-maneka-versus-ncw
<b>Amidst the debate over controlling online trolls - the proposal by Union Women and Child Development Minister to curb violence against women on the internet has triggered a fight between the minister and the National Commission for Women (NCW). </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While Maneka Gandhi asked the NCW to monitor the internet to control trolls against women - NCW Chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam questioning the feasibility of the Minister's proposal, saying the internet is too big a space to be monitored. Sunil Abraham was interviewed. Times Now Television interviewed Sunil Abraham on this. <strong><a class="external-link" href="http://www.timesnow.tv/videoshow/4491210.cms">Watch the video here</a></strong>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-now-july-8-2016-flashpoint-troll-control-maneka-versus-ncw'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-now-july-8-2016-flashpoint-troll-control-maneka-versus-ncw</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaGenderInternet Governance2016-07-09T02:11:59ZNews ItemWomen's Safety? There is an App for That
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/gender-it-rohini-lakshane-may-19-2016-womens-safety-there-is-an-app-for-that
<b>“After locking ourselves in a room for more than 6 days, this is what we came out [sic] with. Join us in helping make WOMEN feel SAFE,” read a gloating press release about a smartphone app for women to notify their near ones that they were in distress. It was one among many such PRs frequently landing in my mailbox after the rape and murder of a young student on board a private bus in Delhi in 2012.
</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Rohini Lakshané was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.genderit.org/node/4744/">published in Gender IT.org</a> on May 19, 2016. This was also mirrored by <a class="external-link" href="http://feminisminindia.com/2017/01/09/womens-safety-mobile-apps/">Feminism in India</a> on January 9, 2017.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The incident had spurred protests across the country and made international headlines. Along with all this came a slew of new “women’s safety” apps. Existing ones, many of which had fizzled out, were conveniently relaunched. My own experience of user-testing such apps in India back then was that they were unreliable at best and dangerously counterproductive at worst. Some of them were endorsed by governments and celebrities and ended up being glorified despite their flaws, their technical and systemic handicaps never acknowledged at all.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are myriad mobile phone apps meant to be deployed for personal safety, but their basic functioning is more or less the same: the user activates the app (by pressing a button, shaking the device or similar cue), which sends a distress message containing the users’ location to pre-defined contacts. Some apps include additional artefacts such as a short audio or video recording of the situation. Some others augment this mechanism by alerting the police and other agencies best placed to respond to the emergency. For example, the Companion app for students living on campus notifies the university along with police. The <a href="https://newsroom.uber.com/india/introducing-an-integrated-sos-alert-solution-for-law-enforcement/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">SOS buttons in taxi-hailing apps such as Uber</span></a> enable the user’s contacts to follow the cab’s GPS trail and notify them and the cab company’s “incident response team” of emergencies. Apps such as Kitestring would treat the lack of the user’s response within a time-window as the trigger for a distress message. All their technical wizardry perhaps makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that technology is not a saviour but a tool or an enabler, that technology alone cannot be the panacea of a problem that is deeply complex and, in reality, rooted in society and governance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian government announced last month that every phone sold in the country from January 2017 should be equipped with a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36139985"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">panic button that sends distress flares to the police and a trusted set of contacts</span></a>. Nearly half the phones sold in India <a href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prSG25827215"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">cost USD 100 or less</span></a>. Prices are kept so low by sacrificing features and the quality of the hardware; there are a lot of phones with substandard GPS modules, poor touchscreens, slow processors, bad cameras, tiny memory, and dismal battery life. They run on different versions of different operating systems, some of them outdated. All of these factors would determine if someone is able to use the app at all and how quickly they and their phone would be able to respond to an emergency. Additionally, mobile phone signals become thin or shaky in areas with a high number of users and buildings located cheek-by-jowl. Even when the mobile hardware is good and the mobile signal usable, GPS accuracy can be spotty and constant location tracking would hog battery. These issues would affect the efficacy of any app. Besides, there is too much uncertainty for an app developer to factor in. (Two years ago, I learnt about an app called Pukar, then operational in collaboration with police departments in four cities in India. Pukar solved the problem of potential inaccuracy of the GPS location by getting the user’s contacts to tell the police where the person in distress might be.) Designing a one-size-fits-all safety app is almost impossible. The app that rings a loud alarm when triggered may save someone’s life or spoil the chances of someone who is trying to get help while hiding. Different people may be vulnerable to different kinds of distress situations and an app can at best be optimised for some target user groups.</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>An app that does not work in tandem with existing machinery for law enforcement and public safety is a bad idea.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the end, the “technical” problems may actually be problems of economic disparity. Making it mandatory for people to own phones equipped with certain hardware or requiring them to upgrade to more reliable devices would drive the phones out of the financial reach of many. Indian manufacturers have expressed concerns that the proposed <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Panic-button-GPS-feasible-within-the-deadline-but-will-raise-costs/articleshow/51998103.cms"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">panic button would raise costs for them as well the end buyers</span></a>. Popularising a downloadable app and informing its target users how to install and work it correctly needs a marketing blitzkrieg, which is something only the state or well-funded developers can afford. The New Delhi police department runs a dedicated control room for reports arriving from its safety app, Himmat (the word for courage in many Indian languages). It’s an expensive affair.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An app that does not work in tandem with existing machinery for law enforcement and public safety is a bad idea. It puts the onus of “keeping women safe” on members of their social circles or on intermediaries and private parties such as cab companies, while absolving law enforcement agencies of their failing to provide security. It opens doors to victim blaming in case someone is unable to use the app at the right time in the right way, or if the app fails.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On the contrary, an app that does loop in the police raises concerns about surveillance and protection of data available to the police, which is especially problematic in places such as India where there is no law for privacy or data protection. Alwar, one of the cities where Pukar was implemented, is super-populated with a large geographical area and a high crime rate. Police departments in such places tend to be overworked and understaffed. Without significant policing reforms, it is questionable whether they will be able to respond in time. A sting operation done by two media outlets on 30 senior officials of the New Delhi police department in 2012 showed the <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-and-around-delhi-cops-blame-rapes-on-women-tehelka-investigation-with-ndtv-475442"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">cops blaming victims of sexual violence with gay abandon</span></a>. “If girls don't stay within their boundaries, if they don't wear appropriate clothes, then naturally there is attraction. This attraction makes men aggressive, prompting them to just do it [sexual assault]," reads one of their nuggets. “It's never easy for the victim [to complain to the police]. Everyone is scared of humiliation. Everyone's wary of media and society. In reality, the ones who complain are only those who have turned rape into a business," goes another. An app that lets known people monitor someone’s location also poses the risk of abuse, coercion and surveillance by intimate partners or members of the family.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Unfortunately, there is no app for reforming a morass in law enforcement or dismantling patriarchy.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/gender-it-rohini-lakshane-may-19-2016-womens-safety-there-is-an-app-for-that'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/gender-it-rohini-lakshane-may-19-2016-womens-safety-there-is-an-app-for-that</a>
</p>
No publisherrohiniGenderInternet Governance2017-01-10T02:48:34ZBlog Entry