Inspired by Despina Stratigakos' essay "Unforgetting Women Architects: From the Pritzker to Wikipedia," ArchiteXX has launched #wikiD, a global event to coincide with International Women's Day on March 8. With the slogan of "Women. Wikipedia. Design," #wikiD prompts people to "write into Wikipedia women designers, architects and all those involved in the creation of our environment."
Learn more about the event and how to get involved after the break.
"We realized it is time to take action," said Lori A. Brown, associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture and one of the event's organizers, "After... a friend's experience this summer linguistically wrestling with Wikipedia editing trolls who were doing their utmost to un-write women out of a certain section of activism..."
This exclusion, in conjunction with the Pritzker and Scott Brown debacle and still predominantly male face of the profession, underscores architecture and design media's pervasive "bias and underrepresentation of women," Architexx seeks to rectify this imbalance by way of the #wikiD initiative, which welcomes Wikipedia entries from all areas of the globe.
Given the scale of the task at hand, it is envisioned that the March 8 event will be the first in a series of annual recurrences. Writers are encouraged to host a "wiki writing party," and must be sure to cite and information and images used in their posts. Architexx have published a sign up list here to organize posts and avoid overlaps, with more information and Wikipedia protocols available on their website.
