 |
| Jimmy Wales, wikipedia founder |
Wikipedia, the world largest encyclopedia says it will increase Nigerian women visibility on the internet through its affiliate, Wikimedia Nigeria.
Mr Olaniyan Olushola, the President of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria (WUGN), said this in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos.
Olushola said that the group had partnered with the Radio WFM 91.7 to give visibility to Nigerian women.
He said that WFM 91.7 was Nigeriaโs only radio station for women and their families therefore it would be used to boost the needed visibility of women.
He said that as part of the partnership, a project tagged: โWiki Loves Womenโ, which was conceptualised in 2015 to give visibility to African women on Wikipedia would be aired on the station.
According to him, being a Pan African initiative โWiki Loves Womenโ started in four African countries โ Nigeria, Ghana, Cote dโIvoire and Cameroon.
โThe project seeks to encourage the contribution of quality information on African women to be published and made widely available via Wikipedia.
โThis will correct gender inequalities on Wikipedia, the world largest encylopedia as statistics show only 16 per cent of African women biographies are available in contrast to their female counterparts globally.
โWe plan to engage female students in our various tertiary institutions across the country to create contents on Wikipedia to increase our local contents and to create awareness for Wikipedia in Nigeria.
โThe core objectives of the project is to give visibility to Nigerian women using Wikipedia through Wiki Loves Women programmes and create awareness about Wikimedia and related projects,โ he said.
Olushola said that the objectives would be achieved with a 30 minutes per week of 13 weeks phone-in live broadcast with focus on Nigerian women on Wikipedia.
He said that the radio programme was also to identify women that were supposed to have articles on Wikipedia but not yet there.
According to him, suggestion will be collated from callers on the radio programme about who they think should be on Wikipedia but not yet there.
โIt will also serve as providing answers to series of questions from readers and contributors on Wikipedia in Nigeria.
โThere will be monthly Edit-a-thorn with participation from female students in tertiary institutions across the nation and each month will focus on a unique theme.
โMost reports about women in Nigeria focus mainly on works of such individuals but not on their personalities. We tend to use this medium to change this attitude,โ he said.
