'Leading Global Thinker' Michael Mandiberg Leads Wikipedia Editing Workshop

On Monday, December 8, the Graduate Center hosted a Wikipedia editing workshop aimed at encouraging more women to contribute to the site. Offering lab-style tutorials for new and more experienced Wikipedia editors, the free event was held ahead of the second annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, designed to promote a balanced and empowering representation of women's and LGBTQ issues on Wikipedia.

Co-facilitating the workshop was Professor Michael Mandiberg (Staten Island, Interactive Technology and Pedagogy), an interdisciplinary artist and scholar recently recognized as one of the '100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2014' by Foreign Policy magazine.

Mandiberg was honored for his work organizing the first Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, which generated about 100 new Wikipedia articles and revised 90 existing entries in February.

Women are significantly underrepresented among Wikipedia's editors, with some surveys indicating that women account for less than 15 percent of the site's contributors.

"Given that Wikipedia is the content backbone of the Internet, we want it to better reflect the world," Mandiberg says.

Next year, Mandiberg will serve as interim Coordinator of the GC's Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Certificate program, which promotes the creative and constructive use of technology in learning and research. He will temporarily replace Professor Stephen Brier (Urban Education), who will be taking a sabbatical leave.

"Michael has been an exceptional ITP faculty member and a wonderful teacher and mentor to students," Brier says. "We have taught the program's two core courses together several times, and several years ago he revamped the certificate's Core 2 class to give ITP students a deeper immersion into digital technology planning and pedagogy as they develop their capstone projects. He has also helped us retool the program's critical skills workshops and has recruited a number of current and former students to lead those workshops."