The project
Wikidata Gender Diversity (WiGeDi) will study gender diversity in Wikidata, focusing in particular on marginalized gender identities. It will examine how the current Wikidata ontology model represents gender, and the extent to which this representation is fair and inclusive. It will analyse the data stored in the knowledge base to gather insights and identify possible gaps. Finally, it will look at how the community has handled the move towards the inclusion of a wider spectrum of gender identities. A web application will be created to share the results publicly in a user-friendly way.
Full description on our meta.wikimedia research project page.
Publications
- Metilli D. & Paolini C. (expected 2023). 'Non-binary gender representation in Wikidata'. In: Provo A., Burlingame K. & Watson B.M. Ethics in Linked Data. Litwin Books
- Melis B., Fioravanti M., Paolini C. & Metilli D. (expected 2024). 'How have you modelled my gender? Reconstructing the history of gender in Wikidata'. Abstract accepted for publication in Internet Histories Special Issue on Gender and Internet/Web History
Presentations
- Metilli D., Melis B., Paolini C. & Fioravanti M. (May 2023) ‘How does Wikidata shape gender identities? Initial findings and developments from the WiGeDi project’. Wiki Workshop, online
- Metilli D., Melis B., Fioravanti M. & Paolini C. (May 2023). ‘Queering Wikidata: Early insights from the Wikidata Gender Diversity Project’. Queering Wikipedia, online
- Metilli D., Melis B., Paolini C. & Fioravanti M. (June 2023). ‘Who cares about my gender? Analysing practices of data care and repair in Wikidata’. Nordic Science and Technology Studies Conference, Oslo, Norway
- Paolini C., Metilli D., Melis B. & Fioravanti M. (June 2023). ‘Are you discussing my gender? A corpus-based analysis of Wikidata’s community discussions around non-binary identities’. Challenging the Binary, London, United Kingdom
- Metilli D., Melis B., Fioravanti M. & Paolini C. (June 2023). ‘Can you model my gender? How the Wikidata community developed a shared ontology of gender’. Data Justice Conference, Cardiff, United Kingdom
- Metilli D., Melis B., Fioravanti M. & Paolini C. (June 2023). ‘Non-binary gender identities in Wikidata’ (provisional title). Wikimedia Research Showcase, online
- Paolini C., Metilli D., Melis B. & Fioravanti M. (July 2023). ‘Who decides my gender? A corpus-based analysis of Wikidata’s community discussions around trans and non-binary identities’. Biennial Conference of the International Gender and Language Association, Brisbane, Australia
- Metilli D., Melis B., Paolini C. & Fioravanti M. (August 2023) ‘How does Wikidata model our gender? Findings from the Wikidata Gender Diversity project’. Submitted to Wikimania 2023
Project team
-
Daniele Metilli
Daniele Metilli is a research fellow in advanced architectures for Digital Humanities at University College London. Daniele has previously contributed to Wikimedia projects as an administrator of the English Wikipedia and Wikidata (User:Mushroom), is a member of the Italian Wikimedia chapter (Wikimedia Italia), and was previously a Wikipedian in residence at a major Italian museum. Their research activity has often involved Wikimedia projects, in particular Wikidata (e.g. ‘A Wikidata-based tool for the creation of narratives’, Master’s Thesis, University of Pisa, 2016; 'A Wikidata-based tool for building and visualising narratives’, IJDL, 2019; ‘Populating narratives using Wikidata events: An initial experiment', IRCDL, 2019), but also Wikipedia user discussions (‘Talking Wikipedia: Mining the network of coordination interactions in Wikipedia discussion pages’, Bachelor’s Thesis, Milan Polytechnic University, 2010).
-
Chiara Paolini
Chiara Paolini is a PhD candidate in Linguistics, working in the Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics research group at KU Leuven. She holds a Master’s Degree in Linguistics and Translation from the University of Pisa, and has previously won two Erasmus scholarships to work as a trainee at CNRS (Toulouse, France) and Utrecht Institute of Linguistics UiL-OTS (Utrecht, The Netherlands). Starting in 2020, Daniele Metilli and Chiara Paolini have begun researching gender diversity in Wikidata, participating in the WikidataCon 2021 with the presentation titled ‘Non-binary gender identities in Wikidata’. Their first publication about the subject is ‘Non-binary gender representation in Wikidata’, to be published in Ethics in Linked Data, Litwin Books.
-
Beatrice Melis
Beatrice Melis is a Master’s student in Digital Humanities at the University of Pisa. Her study and research interests concern the use of computational methods and supports to preserve human cultural and emotional heritage — with a particular focus on the field of Italian poetry and literature. The topic of Beatrice’s BA thesis ‘La primavera hitleriana di Eugenio Montale: saggio di critica letteraria con strumenti di storytelling digitale’ (University of Pisa, 2020) was the construction of narratives using knowledge from Wikidata. The results of this study have been presented at the WikidataCon 2021, with the presentation titled ‘Wikidata-based narratives for research and education’.
-
Marta Fioravanti
Marta Fioravanti is a creative technologist with a background of Graphic Design and Digital Humanities. She builds digital tools and data visualisations to help people understand and explore complex topics. She is currently working as a developer and technology researcher at oio, a design studio based in London.