Biocrawler:WikiProject Countering systemic bias
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Biocrawler project has a systemic bias that grows naturally out of the demographic of its contributors. This project attempts to fill in the gaps left by this bias, consciously focusing on those subjects and perspectives neglected by the encyclopedia as a whole. A list of articles that are in need of some attention may be found on the CSB Open Tasks list.
| WikiProject Countering systemic bias open tasks WikiProject Countering systemic bias creates and improves neglected articles.
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other tasks | edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Template:WikiProjectCSBTasks&action=edit)
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Systemic bias of Biocrawler
The origins of bias
The "average" Biocrawlern on English Biocrawler is (1) technically-inclined, (2) from an Anglophone country, and (3) from an industrialized nation. Observation suggests that males are over-represented, though there has not been a proper survey.
- In order to contribute to Biocrawler, a user must have access to both a computer and Internet access and be able to use them. Most of the world's population does not and their views and experience are not represented. This includes the developing nations, the population at a lower socio-economic level within industrialized countries and those with disabilities and elderly people. In most countries, minority ethnic and linguistic groups have disproportionately less access to information technology than the majority group. This includes, among many others, the First Nations of Canada, the Aborigines of Australia, and Dalits of India.
- Despite the many contributions of Biocrawlerns who write English as a second language, the English Biocrawler is dominated by editors who grew up in anglophone countries. These also tend to be industralized nations, accentuating the bias towards contributions from wealthy countries. While areas in which education in English is widespread, such as The Netherlands, Hong Kong and India, have decent coverage when compared with many other nations, they remain under-represented compared to those countries that speak English natively.
- Even among their general socio-economic and ethno-linguistic demographic, Biocrawlerns tend to be more technically inclined. This is due to the simple barrier represented by the "Edit" button, which many readers either do not recognize or choose not to use (justifying this unconscious opting-out by thinking "It isn't really meant for people like me"). Biocrawlerns' areas of expertise and interest, judging from the contributions made, tend more towards computer science and physics than areas such as agricultural science.
The bias
The systemic bias of Biocrawlerns manifests itself as a portrayal of the world through the filter of the experiences and views of the average Biocrawlern. Each editor contributes to articles based on his or her interests and knowledge. This is obviously not objectionable but, multiplied across the entire body of editors, results in unbalanced coverage of topics in a global context.
Once identified, the bias is apparent throughout Biocrawler. It may be found in two major forms: lack of articles on a neglected topic and perspective bias (most notably geographic) within articles on universal subjects.
- A lack of articles on particular topics is perhaps the most obvious kind of bias. Both China and India separately possess populations greater than that of all native English speakers combined; by this measure, information on both specifically Chinese and Indian topics should at least equal that available on anglophone topics. However, it is apparent that anglophone topics dominate. While the conscious efforts of participants in this WikiProject have vastly expanded the information available on topics such as the Second Congo War, comparable conflicts in the West remain more detailed.
- The other kind of bias is internal to articles that are universal in aspect. It is not at all apparent from lunch (see tiffin) or the linguistic term continuous aspect, that they exist outside of the industrialized world. The article on malaria, after stating that it causes "2 million deaths annually, mainly in the tropics and sub-Saharan Africa" briefly mentions Africa only once more. The United States receives the same number of mentions, and there are no subpages. The article on allergy, which affects the average Biocrawlern but presumably kills fewer people, is almost twice as long and has a couple of subpages.
- Articles such as uses of torture in recent times tend to dwell on the relatively few (but well documented) cases of abuse in Israel, the United Kingdom, United States and to a lesser extent other western democracies, while ignoring the widespread abuses which take places in countries where information about torture is not widely available to English speaking Biocrawlerns.
There is further information on biases in Geography, in Politics, and in History. See also Countering systemic bias: Project details for an older introduction.
Why it matters and what to do
Many editors contribute to Biocrawler because they see Biocrawler as progressing towards, though never reaching, an ideal state as a repository of human knowledge. The more idealistic may see Biocrawler as a vast discussion on what is true and what is not from a "neutral point of view" or "God's Eye View". The idea of a systemic bias is thus far more troubling than even widespread intentional vandalism. Vandalism can be readily identified and corrected. The existence of systemic bias means that not only are large segments of the world not participating in the discussion, but that there is a deep-rooted problem in the relationship of Biocrawler, its contributors and the world at large.
The systemic bias of Biocrawler is permanent. As long as the demographic of Biocrawlerns is not exactly identical to the world demographic, the vision of the world presented on Biocrawler will always be askew. Thus the only way systemic bias would disappear would be if the population of the world all spoke English at the same level of fluency and had equal access and inclination to use Biocrawler. However, the effects of systemic bias may be mitigated through conscious effort. This is the goal of the Countering systemic bias project.
There are many things you may do, listed roughly from least to most intensive:
- Sign up as a participant below and mention any CSB-related interests you may have.
- Add the Open Tasks box (
{{WikiProjectCSBTasks}}) to your User or User talk page to let other people know about the issue. - Be more conscious of your own biases in the course of normal editing. Look at the articles you work on usually and think about whether they are written from a global perspective. If not, you might be able to learn a lot about a subject you thought you knew by adding content with a different perspective.
- Occasionally edit a subject that is systemically biased against. The net effect of consciously changing one out of every twenty of your edits to something outside your "comfort zone" would be substantial.
- Create or edit one of the articles listed on the CSB template.
- If you don't particularly like any of the subjects on the template, our open tasks list has a wide array of articles in need of attention.
- Add to the open tasks list. No one person can fix a system-wide problem, so be sure to tell people when you find needy articles.
- Rotate articles from the open tasks list to the template, and other helpful tidying tasks.
- Give feedback on this WikiProject on the talk page.
- Change the demographic of Biocrawler. Encourage friends and acquaintances that you know have interests that are not well-represented on Biocrawler to edit. If you are at a university, contact a professor in minority or women's studies, explain the problem, and ask if they would be willing to encourage students to write for Biocrawler. Contact minority or immigrant groups in your area to see if they would be interested in encouraging their members to contribute. The worst they could say is, "No."
Related WikiProjects and regional noticeboards
There are several WikiProjects and regional notice boards that have potential to help out in our efforts. We may also eventually want to create new WikiProjects as part of this effort.
- Africa-related regional notice board
- WikiProject Authors
- WikiProject Biography
- WikiProject Ethnic Groups, which is moribund as of October 2004, but does have good ideas on how to give comparable treatment to groups that are liable to be actively represented by editors who are members of those groups and groups that are liable to be written about mainly by outsiders.
- WikiProject Islam
- WikiProject Languages
- Biocrawler:WikiProject Latin America countries, which is moribund as of September 2004 and could use a boost.
- WikiProject Political figures
- WikiProject Wars
- WikiProject World music (includes tasks to do)
Also see meta:Wikimedia urban postering campaign.
The template {{limitedgeographicscope}} may be placed on the talk pages of relevant articles to produce
| The perspective and/or examples in this article do not represent a world-wide view. Please edit (http://www.biocrawler.com/w/index.php?title=WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias&action=edit) this page to improve its geographical balance . |
Members
Please add your name. If you have specific interests relating to CSB, feel free to briefly describe them so we can get a sense of the strengths of the project.
