- Type
- Civil Society
- Years
- 2018
- Countries
- México
Editatona, a women’s editathon, was born at the end of 2014 with the aim of reducing the gender divide in Wikipedia. As many other technological projects, the online encyclopedia suffers from an unacceptable gender divide which is reflected in the number of collaborators (only 1 out of 10 wikipedians is a woman) as well as in the content created for Wikipedia – only 16% of all biographies available in Spanish on Wikipedia are women’s blogographies, and many articles have a sexist bias.
Based on an idea proposed by a group of female wikipedians working on Wikimedia Mexico (the Mexican Wikimedia chapter) and supported by several civil society organizations such as Luchadoras, Social Tic, Impetú and others, Editantona is an event exclusively for women that allows them to learn about Wikipedia and digital skills in general, within an environment free of prejudice and ridicule.
An edithathon is an event where participants edit, create and improve Wikipedia entries, using reliable and verifiable sources on a specific topic. It is a participatory activity that adds an in-person dimension to the voluntary online work of men and women which, in addition to helping the community socialize, increases its visibility in the eyes of the general public.
The first Editatona was held in January 2015 and was attended by a broad audience: 84 women registered for this event. Now that the event is international, more than 50 Editatonas have been held in different Latin American cities and have resulted in more than 200 new articles and more than 1,000 edited entries. A safe, friendly space has been created where women can participate without encountering any barriers.
