REFLECTION
editWikipedia:
editWikipedia is such an important online platform in the 21st century, which started on the 15th January 2001. It is Classified as a "multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia". [1] It is a constantly growing media platform both in uploaded content and users on its database. Within the last few months our module of Media and Participation has helped in extending our knowledge of Wikipedia and how much of an impact it has become. On the 8th of March our class was part of an Edit-a-thon, “an edit-a-thon is an event that teaches people how to edit and create articles on Wikipedia and encourages them to take on the role of an editor” [2] We learnt to use and include Wikipedia in our topic of The Women of Bletchley Park, extending the information, which has already been placed on the Wikipedia platform but extending it in more depth, this Edit-a-thon helped us with those editing skills.
Bletchley Park:
editOn the 19th February 2018, our class took a trip to Bletchley Park to help us in preparing for our assignment and finding out exactly what lay behind the history of the mansion.
Why was it such a well-known location? What was the history behind it? Who where the Women of Bletchley Park? Through the in depth exploration of cypher disks, and how it was a very important British location for code breaking during World War ll.
The five important women I had chose to expand information on where;
Just a small selection of just some of the important women who worked at Bletchley Park helping decode and decrypt enemies messages.
Jean Valentine:
editThe first Wikipedia entry I chose to do was on the page Jean Valentine (bombe operator) When choosing the five women of Bletchley Park to do my Wikipedia entries on, I made sure to choose Wikipedia pages which did not appear to have a lot of articles with background information, as I knew this would help in expanding my research and knowledge about The Women of Bletchley Park. On Valentines Wikipedia Page the author only had the basic background information, barely any knowledge on Valentines time at Bletchley Park. This allowed me to expand the Bletchley Park information, using sources such as ‘Smithsonian’[3] and the ‘BBC/YouTube’[4]. Also on Valentines Wikipedia page I uploaded a picture of the Bletchley Park Mansion, as there where no images up on the Wikipedia page showing the location of the Mansion, which I thought would help put in visual context what these women would call there place of work during the War Time.
Christine Brooke-Rose:
editThe author of the Christine Brooke-Rose Wikipedia page had already added a section dedicated to talking about Brooke-Rose’s Novel, so I mainly concentrated in gathering quality sources such as ‘The Guardian’[5] for my edit for this Wikipedia page. “Its voluntary editors define the rules and maintain the quality”[6] Quality is extremely important when it comes to choosing your sources, especially when you are editing Wikipedia pages which have already been created but need expanding, as an editor you want to make sure that your making that page more valuable and adding to its credit not worsening it.
Rozanne Colchester and Joy Tamblin:
editBoth Rozanne Colchester and Joy Tamblin Wikipedia pages I found to be similar in the sense that they did not have a lot of valuable sources to help investigate their background at Bletchley Park which was one of the main downfalls I ran into a couple of times. But saying this I did find a few specific website which was solely dedicated to the research into some of the women of Bletchley Park, which helped immensely when researching Colchester and Tamblin along with other women.[7] [8]
Cicely Mayhew:
editI did find through out these Wikipedia pages they did touched on several important topics such as Gender Equality, which was just one of the main issues these women came across during there time at Bletchley Park. Wikipedia has encouraged and helped immensely in finding out more about those issues and topics whilst writing these Wikipedia entries, which has lead me into exploring other Wikipedia pages. Mayhew was one of those women who was being paid lower and also being ranked lower at Bletchley Park then the men who worked there, which sadly in this day and age still happens even with all the growth society has made, which was one of the topics which got me to edit Mayhew’s article, as I wanted to find out more about Mayhew overcoming her hardest encounters during her time working at Bletchley Park.
'“Wikipedia has numerous good–faith norms, yet some argue that to focus on gender is beside the point. Kat Walsh, longtime Wikipedian and Wikimedia Foundation board member, wrote that we should be careful of generalizations and instead focus on behavior and culture” [9]'
'“I think the disproportionate lack of women in the community isn’t about gender so much as it is about a culture that rewards certain traits and discourages others. And we’re not getting people who don’t have those other traits, male or female; more of the people who do fit the current culture are male. But the focus should be on becoming more open and diverse in general — becoming more inclusive to everyone, which will naturally bring in more women (Walsh, 2011)” [10]'
This is an extremely important point to make, we possibly need to look at the ways in which we can get more women to become a part of the Wikipedia community. Before starting this assignment, I felt it would be beyond my skills and would take me a long time to fully understand how Wikipedia works. But in fact after only one session with the Edit-a-Thon Group, my mind had been opened up to the possibilities of what I was actually capable of, which made me understand a lot more about Wikipedia and how we use it, as well as making me feel as a women I was capable of using the platform.
Conclusion:
edit“Wikipedia did not arise spontaneously, it arose through people interacting and, as a result of that interaction, finding ways that worked” [11] Interaction and Participation is precisely what our module is about. Through the trip to Bletchley Park interacting with the workers who know the history about the mansion, through attending the Edit-a-Thon networking with our members of the group, along with finding out about the individual women of Bletchley Park through online articles and sources, all adding to our interaction and participation with the Topic.
REFERENCES:
edit- ^ "Wikipedia". 9 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via Wikipedia.
- ^ Welshans, Olivia. "Edit-a-thon seeks to decrease gender gap on Wikipedia - The Daily Illini". dailyillini.com. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
- ^ Fessenden, Marissa. "Women Were Key to WWII Code-Breaking at Bletchley Park". Retrieved 13 March 2018.
- ^ computingheritage (14 March 2013). "Operating the Bombe: Jean Valentine's story". Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via YouTube.
- ^ Jeffries, Stuart (23 March 2012). "Christine Brooke-Rose obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
- ^ Yasseri, Taha; Sumi, Robert; Rung, András; Kornai, András; Kertész, János (20 June 2012). "Dynamics of Conflicts in Wikipedia". PLOS ONE. 7 (6): e38869. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038869. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via PLoS Journals.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ "An Unlikely Asset - Dangerous Women Project". 9 April 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
- ^ "Women Codebreakers". 3 October 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
- ^ Reagle, Joseph (30 December 2012). ""Free as in sexist?" Free culture and the gender gap". First Monday. 18 (1). Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via journals.uic.edu.
- ^ Walsh, Kat (2011). "Women on Wikipedia". Retrieved 13 March 2018.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Forte, Andrea; Larco, Vanessa; Bruckman, Amy (2009). "Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance" (PDF). Journal of Management Information Systems. Retrieved 13 March 2018.