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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