Info (en)

NOTES ON THE MARGINS  (2024-2025)

a research popularization project focusing on Wikipedia

Notes on the Margins (“Marginaalimerkintöjä” in Finnish) is a research popularization project funded by the Kone Foundation. It started in January 2024 and will last for two years through 2025. 

Why do we want to focus on Wikipedia? 

Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world with millions of users. Its content is created by volunteer editors. The freely accessible encyclopedia is also one of the most important sources of everyday information. Wikipedia has a high visibility in Google searches, and it is used by Alexa, ChatGPT, Facebook, and Siri, among others. However, its content is also subject to various regional, gender, and language biases. According to the statistics, only 21% of the biographies in the Finnish Wikipedia in 2023 were about women. The paucity of information about women and minorities in Wikipedia is a major problem, as it shapes its users’ worldviews and ways of thinking. Lately, researchers and activists have raised concerns about the impacts of Wikipedia’s biases. 

What do we do?

Notes on the Margins project addresses the problem with concrete actions and critical awareness-raising. The two-year interdisciplinary project concentrates on adding research-based information to Wikipedia to address and rectify some of its gender biases. The members of the working group will write new articles about marginalized artists, authors, and cultural workers as well as expand the already existing articles. 

In addition, we organize a series of workshops for researchers, artists, informaticians, and students to familiarize them with the biases and help them tackle the problem. We also write a Finnish-language book related to similar issues. 

Who are we? 

Our interdisciplinary working group consists of three researchers, Tiina Käpylä who holds a PhD in musicology,  Riikka Niemelä who holds a PhD in art history, and Aura Sevón who holds a PhD in comparative literature and gender and sexuality studies. Our Wikipedia specialist is entrepreneur, MSc Johanna Janhonen. Each member of the group focuses on their own area of expertise in Wikipedia as well as on our collective work, including the workshops. 

For more information: 

Tiina Käpylä, Project Director: tiina.kapyla@gmail.com.