Similar Gaps, Different Origins? Women Readers and Editors at Greek Wikipedia

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2016): The Workshops of the Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media

Volume

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2016): The Workshops of the Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media

Wiki

As a global, multilingual project, Wikipedia could serve as a repository for the world's knowledge on an astounding range of topics. However, questions of participation and diversity among editors continue to be burning issues. We present the first targeted study of participants at Greek Wikipedia, with the goal of better understanding their motivations. Smaller Wikipedias play a key role in fostering the project's global character, but typically receive little attention from researchers. We developed two survey instruments, administered in Greek, based on the 2011 Wikipedia Readership and Editors Surveys. Consistent with previous studies, we found a gender gap, with women making up only 38% and 15% of readers and editors, respectively, and with men editors being much more active. Our data suggest two salient explanations: 1) women readers more often lack confidence with respect to their knowledge and technical skills as compared to men, and 2) women's behaviors may be driven by personal motivations such as enjoyment and learning, rather than by "leaving their mark'' on the community, a concern more common among men. Interestingly, while similar proportions of men and women readers use multiple language editions, more women contribute to English Wikipedia in addition to the Greek language community. Future research should consider how this impacts their participation at Greek Wikipedia.

10.1609/icwsm.v10i2.14827