Transforming Pinteresting Women into Wikipedia Editors

B A C K G R O U N D O B J E C T I V E S

This project would examine the barriers to, and the potential incentives for, women’s participation in crowdsourced online resources. Specifically, it would explore the motivations and activities of women who are actively engaged in content creation and evaluation on Pinterest yet abstain from editing Wikipedia. �

M E T H O D S

The future of the informational internet depends on crowdsourced knowledge and volunteer stewardship. It is imperative that women contribute to resources like Wikipedia, so that their knowledge is not missing from the sum of all information online. To date, however, few initiatives have been dedicated to specifically targeting women who are actively engaged in content creation and evaluation on social media and examining the appeal and feasibility of their participation in crowdsourced endeavors like Wikipedia.

Q U E S T I O N S

What forms of participation best accommodate the needs

and interests of those currently abstaining from

participation in crowdsourced resources such as Wikipedia, but who are

active contributors elsewhere online?

Would this population be more likely to

contribute to Wikipedia if they were

asked to provide or evaluate images

(similar to engagement with Pinterest), as opposed to text?

Step 1

Why do some women feel comfortable sharing personal experiences and exercising subjectivity online (via social networking platforms such as Pinterest), but stop short of

contributing objective ‘knowledge’ to resources such

as Wikimedia Commons?

Solicit feedback and support from the Wikipedia community. Originally produced for the 2015 Inspire Grants Campaign (dedicated to generating new ideas to address Wikimedia’s gender gap), a proposal for this project has been reviewed, critiqued, and praised by Wikipedians the wor ld over. Under the direct ion and with the encouragement of the Wikimedia Foundation staff, a revised proposal is currently underway for consideration in the March 2016 Individual Engagement Grants cycle.

Estimates of the percentage of Wikipedians who are female range from 8.5 to 22.7 percent. This statistic is surprising, given that elsewhere online — on social networks, such as Pinterest — women are overrepresented as content creators, sharers, commenters, and curators.

Wikipedia is perhaps the most prominent example of a crowdsourced resource, with 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month. Articles posted on this free-access, free content internet encyclopedia can be edited by the general public, yet women are severely under-represented as Wikipedia editors.

Design and implement a questionnaire for active female Pinterest users, examining socioeconomic determinants that may inform their motivations for engaging in various activities online.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4 C O N T A C T

Kayla Hammond Larkin khammond15@gmail.com @hahahammond

Select case study participants from questionnaire respondents, who will keep a two-week diary that logs their online sharing activities and experiences. During the first week they will record their normal activities on Pinterest. During the second week they will abstain from using Pinterest and instead upload images to Wikimedia Commons, recording in their diaries any hurdles they encounter during this process.

Based on the results of Steps 1-3, design, develop, and test tools (such as apps or online tutorials) intended to facilitate female Pinterest users’ contributions to Wikimedia Commons.