Presenter: Michael Barera, University and Labor Archivist, UTA Libraries

Wikipedia’s often-quoted mission and purpose is a quote from co-founder Jimmy Wales: “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.” Almost twenty years since the creation of English Wikipedia, which now has more than six million articles, there are over 54 million articles on more than 300 different language Wikipedias. However, there are still major gaps in content: some topics are covered incredibly well, others barely at all. In this presentation, Michael Barera will discuss some of the content gaps on Wikipedia that relate directly to issues of structural equity and inclusion or, as Wikipedia often refers to it, “systemic bias.” Two of the best known are the gender gap and the gap between the global south and the global north. Michael will discuss Wikipedia-wide initiatives to address these and similar gaps in content as well as discuss how work is being done here at UTA to engage with these issues. He will also discuss the issues surrounding recruitment and retention of a more diverse user community on Wikipedia, which is likewise directly related to equity and inclusion on the site. Note: this will not be recorded.