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Knowledge is power,but a leadingsource of instant information, Wikipedia, has a well-known problem with female empowerment.

The overwhelming majority of volunteereditors for the free online encyclopedia are men. That raises the potential for incomplete, male-skewing content. As the New Yorker noted last year, the compiled history for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Wikipeida is double thesize of what exists for renowned American female author Toni Morrison.

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On Saturday, people will gatherin Detroit and Ann Arbor to try to bring a little more gender equity to the world of Wikipedia,specifically on the topic of women and the arts.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the University of Michigan will each be hosting aWikipedia edit-a-thon. The eventsare part of an internationalcampaign launchedby a group calledArt + Feminism.Since 2014, theseedit-a-thons have drawn almost 5,000 participants to nearly 300 events across the globe.

MOCAD's edit-a-thon will run 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, while thethe University of Michigan Library's edit-a-thon at the Shapiro Design Labof the Shapiro Undergraduate Library will be noon-5 p.m. Saturday.

Both sessions are free and open to the public and will feature training for newcomers to the Wikipedia editing process. Those interested in participating need to bring their own laptops.

"A lot of this, it'sabout learning how to participate in that (Wikipedia) community," says Meghan Sitar, director of connected scholarship at the U-Mlibrary,who participated in an edit-a-thon at New York's Cornell University in 2016.

Sitar is coordinating what's believed to be the first event of its kind in Ann Arbor for these Art + Feminism efforts tied to Women's History Month."People tend to know it can be edited, but not how it can be edited."

The U-Mgathering is expected to draw a diverse mix of people from the community, including peopleinterested in learning more about Wikipedia,arts experts and college students."It definitely brings together a learning community," says Sitar.

In Detroit, the focus will be starting the process of establishing entries for fiveprominent women and one female collective in the local arts scene: philanthropistMaggie Allesee; former dancer and dance historianHarriet Berg;writerMarsha Music; filmmaker Rola Nashef; the late gallery owner Suzanne Hilberry, who played a vital part in the creation of MOCAD,and Corazon del Pueblo, asouthwest Detroit dance company focused on Mexican dance and culture.

MOCAD education associate Augusta Morrison, who's organizing the Motor City edit-a-thon, stresses thatanyone from "all gender identities and expressions" can come to the event.It will feature a training session with Morrison and Angela T. Jones of Super Woman Productions, who ran a2014 edit-a-thon in Detroit.

There are several factorsthat are thought tocontributeto the lackof female Wikipedia editors, including the lack of free time for women juggling many responsibilities and the culture of the Wikipedia editing process. A 2015 exploration of Wikipedia's gender bias inAtlantic magazine posed the challenge this way: "Wikipedia is suffering from a cyclical kind of sexism: A lack of female editors means that its content can be hostile to women, which in turn drives away potential female editors."

The Saturday events won't fix the Wikipedia gender gaps. But they will be a step toward that goal. Says Morrison:"The idea is not that we'll have these polished essays at the end of the day, but we'll have started the process."

If you're interested in attending a session,RSVP to the Detroit event on the MOCADFacebook pageorregister for the Ann Arbor event at the U-Michigan library site.

Contact Detroit Free Press writer Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.

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Detroit, Ann Arbor to participate in Wikipedia edit-a-thon - Detroit Free Press

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Celtics Fans Will Enjoy Latest 'Update' To Oracle Arena's Wikipedia Page NESN.com Wikipedia is a wonderful source of free information. It also can be edited by anyone, making it a wonderful source of Grade-A troll jobs. We received a great example of the latter Wednesday night after the Boston Celtics downed the mighty Golden State ...

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Celtics Fans Will Enjoy Latest 'Update' To Oracle Arena's Wikipedia Page - NESN.com

The College of Southern Nevada is celebrating Womens History Month by dishing up some extra schoolwork.

Students, staff, and faculty were invited to participate in a two-day Wikipedia edit-a-thon to bolster the information about Nevada women in the online encyclopedia.

Building public knowledge via the Wikipedia platform is a critical component of centering the often marginalized women, as Wikipedia is the worlds seventh most-read website, the college said in announcing the project.

The event is sponsored by the CSN Libraries, CSN Womens Alliance and the colleges office of community relations, diversity and multicultural affairs.

The edit-a-thon started last week at the colleges Henderson campus and continues on Friday at the West Charleston Boulevard campus.

CSN Libraries Director Beth Schuck and history Professor Sondra Cosgrove, who helped organize the effort, plan for it to be an annual event.

While Wikipedia is looked down upon as a good source of information by most academics, Schuck and Cosgrove admit it is the first stop for information by many people.

Which is why they saw it as a great way to fill in blanks in Nevada's history, especially around women who helped and continue to help build the state.

While there maybe more rich articles about men politicians in Nevada, the ones on women politicians in Nevada either dont exist or are just very short, Schuck said.

Cosgrove said the project allows students to find Nevada women who are not found in many official state records, but they can be found in other records like those belonging tochurches, ministries, women's clubs andorphanages

Theres all kinds of ways you can bring women in, doing what we would consider to be womens work but its important so that you dont think that the only women in Nevada in the early days were prostitutes, she said.

Schuck hopes the event will get students excited about becoming experts on a person or an historic event and maintain that Wikipedia article.

Find more information here.

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CSN Marks Women's History Month With Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon - KNPR

Image credit: Azeira via Wikimedia Commons

On International Women's Day, Wednesday 8 March, Newnham College hosted a so-called "Wikipedia Edit-a-thon" with a view to raising the online profiles of notable women.

There are many notable women of history and of modern society who do not have Wikipedia profiles and over 70 people from acrossCambridge, from University staff to schoolchildren, gathered in Newnham from 12pm-6pmto create these Wikipedia pages. Each person chose a woman of note and was then tasked with creating or updating the Wikipedia entry for them.

Speaking to Cambridge News,Newnham College's principal, Dame Carol Black, said "We wanted to do our bit to help close the gender gap because we know from experience as a womens college how many eminent and talented women there are in the world".

The event was part of Wikipedia's "Women in Red" campaign, which seeks to create a page for all notable women. The campaign bears that name as when a person without their own profile is mentioned on Wikipedia, their name appears in red.

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Newnham holds "Wikipedia Edit-a-thon" for International Women's Day - The Cambridge Student

By Julia Breakey on 9 March, 2017 Share

For the last six years of my life, I have had teachers, lecturers and tutors drill into my brain: Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.

And for six whole years I have steered clear of the tomes of knowledge Wikipedia offers me.

No longer.

Wikipedia has a knack for distracting me from the anxieties of daily life, and there is no better distraction than its carefully curated lists.

So, for your consideration, here are the nine best lists on Wikipedia right now.

This list mostly looks at albums and songs that critics have declared the worst ever written. On it youll find classics like Justin BiebersBabyand Black Eyed PeasMy Humps.And while critics are definitely wrong about 4 Non BlondesWhats Up, the rest of the list is pretty spot on, and the critiques are hilarious.

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The lyrics, most notably F**king magnets, how do they work? And I dont wanna talk to a scientist / Yall motherf**kers lying, and getting me pissed have been noted as the worst lyrics of all time

Image: brewbooks via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)

Wikipedia is spilling hottea withthis list, outing all popes who havetaken their rogers out for an unholy swim. And if you think its just wives and women the dear popes of yore were into, think again. A few popes have been embroiled in scandals of the homosexual nature, and its all on Wikipedia for you to see.

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thought to have diedof indigestion from eating a melon, though detractors insisted he died while engaging in sodomy with a page

Former US President George W. Bush was notorious for his difficulty withthe English language,but one thing he seemed to be very good at was doling out nicknames. Whether it was nicknamingAssistant Secretary of Commerce for International Trade and Promotion Altoid Boy or the Prime Minister of Italy Shoes, Bush really had a knack for not taking the most important job in the world seriously.

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Pootie-Poot, Ostrich Legs Vladimir Putin, Presidentand Prime Minister of Russia

Yip, thats right. There are people who sat down and recorded absolutely nothing and got noted for it. Follow your dreams, kids!

Pieces listed here include works from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, The All-American Rejects and Korn. Whod have thought those three acts would be listed in one sentence together?

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The band was going through all the motions: the swart, longish-haired leader led away; the brasses, the saxophones, the clarinets made a great show of fingering and blowing, but the only sound from the stage was a rhythmic swish-swish from the trap-drummer, a froggy slap-slap from the bull-fiddler, a soft plunk-plunk from the pianist.

Image: Ergsap via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)

You may think you know stuff I know I did but this list will have you feeling like Jon Snow in no time. How sure are you that Adam and Eves forbidden fruit was an apple? Orthat evolution explains the origin of life? Or that humans only have five senses?If you answered anything stronger than relatively sure, you world is about to change forever.

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The term Immaculate Conception was not coined to refer to the virgin birth of Jesus,nor does it reference a supposed belief in the virgin birth of Mary, his mother. Instead, it denotes a Roman Catholic belief that Mary was not in a state of original sin from the moment of her own conception.

Talkabout being a good boy! Some of these animals have done tremendous things with their lives, despite being born into a society that told them they couldnt. And, sure, maybe the degrees arelegallyfraudulent, but these badassanimals prefer not to let semantics get them down.

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Ben Goldacre, a UK-based physician and science journalist, wrote in 2004 that his cat, Henrietta, had obtained a diploma in nutrition from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants; Goldacre had been investigating allegations about the qualifications claimed by Gillian McKeith.Goldacre said, its a particular honour since dear, sweet, little Hettie died about a year ago.

If a dead cat can reach its dreams, so too can the rest of us.

While erroneous reporting of famous deaths are more common in the internet age (how often have Betty White and Rowan Atkinson died?), there are some great stories on this list predating the world wide web of lies.

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On 2 October 1571, a pallbearer dropped his coffin on the way to the funeral, waking him up. His resurrection is still celebrated each year in Braughing, Hertfordshire.

Stiglers Law refers to scientific discoveries named after people who didnt discover them. Alison Bechdel didnt invent the Bechdel test, Indians discovered the Fibonacci sequence before him and not even Sir Isaac Newton discovered his first two laws. Who can we even trust anymore?

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Stiglers Law, attributed by Stephen Stigler himself to Robert K. Merton

Exactly what it says on the tin. All links here take you to another list. Endless procrastination abounds. Youre welcome.

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lists about skepticism

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9 ridiculous Wikipedia lists to waste away the work day - Memeburn