Contributing to the Portuguese Wikipedia with the Wikipedia Translation Project at Brown University

Abstract

Providing equitable access to the consumption and creation of knowledge is at the core of organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia, which is part of the ecosystem of open knowledge projects under the umbrella of Wikimedia, is available in over 300 languages. However, having this reach doesn’t mean all languages have the same coverage. With efforts underway carried out by the global community of users to try and mitigate the prevalent gender gap in the online encyclopedia, at Brown University, we have taken a step toward helping bridge the content and gender gap in the Portuguese-language version of Wikipedia. This is how the Wikipedia Translation Project was developed and has been implemented in the POBS 0400 course on Writing and Speaking Portuguese. The project mainly focuses on improving the coverage of those who lack representation, for example, women biographies in the Portuguese-language version of Wikipedia given that women biographies account for 20% of all biographies. In this presentation, we will share our experience in conceptualizing and implementing this project as well as its outcomes.