A project to publish information on notable Ghanaian women has been created on Wikipedia as a step to bridgebring to an end the insignificant information gap on African women on Wikipedia.

The project, dubbed: “Wiki Loves Women”,  which is being implemented in collaboration with Goethe-Institute, is a content liberation initiative aimed at increasing content about women by women on Wikipedia and its other sister projects on the Internet.

The content on women on the Wiki Loves Women page on Wikipedia would specifically focus on Ghanaian women’s contribution and achievement in the areas of politics, economics, science, agriculture and culture.

In addition, the project would support  new and existing female Wikipedian editors in the implementing countries to increase content about women on the internet.

Countries

The project is currently being implemented in four countries in West Africa, namely; Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroun, and Cote d’Ivoire.

The primary objective of the project is to solicit information from civil society organisations, institutions, research firms and gender-based organisations about notable Ghanaian women on the Wiki Loves Women page.

Articles created

So far, more than 70 articles on notable Ghanaian women have been created on Wikipedia as part of the initiative, while more than 100 existing articles are being improved for upload.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Wikipedian-in-Residence, Mr Raphael Berchie, said “there is a systematic bias with respect to the contents about women on Wikipedia because there are a few women who edit information on Wikipedia”.

He said since the project was launched in January this year, more than 30 women had been trained on how to edit information on Wikipedia.

He said the project had been designed to address the systematic biases of content on women in the implementing countries.

Mr Berchie said the Ghanaian team, which is being led by Mr Felix Nartey, included Miss Stella Agbley and Miss Zita Ursula Zaga.

Source: graphic.com