Would you like to know how many platinum discs The Beatles’ 1967 album Magical Mystery Tour was awarded? Are you curious to find out why the Art Deco movement developed? How about understanding how cognitive behavioural therapy reduces anxiety? Or are you interested in the temperament of British shorthair cats?
When we look for answers to questions such as these, the first port of call is often the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. It can feel as though almost every fact and opinion about life, the universe and everything gets a mention among the 30 million pages of this vast electronic database, which was founded in 2001 and has gone on to be ranked among the world’s top 5 websites. After all, with an army of enthusiastic volunteers generating content, there should be no reason for any individuals or topics to be ignored.
At least that is how it might seem.
But what if Wikipedia had an unspoken bias towards men? What if, because of the makeup of that army of unseen volunteers, it tended to ignore topics more of interest to women, or to underplay their role in the world we live in?
Some of these biases are easy to spot – entries on action films tend to be longer and more detailed than those about romantic comedies. But there are others of more profound concern. In the real world, about four in 10 American sociologists are female. But woman account for only two in 10 of those listed on Wikipedia.
Prof Hannah Bruckner from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) has begun a two-year study into gender bias in Wikipedia coverage of, in particular, history, sociology and computer science.
Working with Prof Julia Adams of Yale, she has been looking at the reasons behind this apparent under-representation of female academics and their work on Wikipedia.
It matters, she says, because the online encyclopaedia has become “the first go-to place for the majority of college students today” when they research subjects.
And if there is indeed gender bias, it could therefore be affecting the essays, dissertations and examination answers of the young people who will become the academics of tomorrow.
“The students interested in computer science or sociology, they go and do some research, and they are confronted with finding mostly male academics who seem to be the prominent academics doing research in the field they are interested in,” she says.
“Scholarship done by women is very important for these fields. If women are under-represented, the work they do is under-represented. There’s going to be a lack of some topics that are very important in the disciplines, some hot debates and interesting research.”
Part of the problem is that the site is largely written by men. Research in 2011 by academics at the University of Minnesota indicated that only about one in six contributors to Wikipedia was female.
It may be, commentators have suggested, that producing articles is a “geeky” activity that appeals more to men, or that the editorial process, which sometimes becomes adversarial when editors delete material, only to see it reposted by the original contributor, and possibly deleted again, tends to put women off.
Not only that, suggests Prof Bruckner, male academics may spend more time on self-promotion on the site than their female counterparts, sometimes even having “fan clubs” of male graduate students who submit material about them.
The researchers will look at academics at leading American universities, and try to forecast by age and number of academic citations by other scholars whether each person should have a page. This can be compared with real-life data on who does have such a page.
And with Wikipedia, you aren’t limited to looking at the entries themselves. Behind each entry, and available for anyone to see, are the apparently endless – and often arcane – discussions between contributors and editor about which entries should be included, and which details within them. These entries, Prof Bruckner believes, are particularly revealing.
But they are so vast in quantity that no one could read through all of them.
Instead, the academics will employ a computer algorithm to sift through the swaths of discussions, looking for mention of issues such as the “professor test”. The rules look at, for example, whether the person holds a university chair in a subject or if he or she is the editor of a major journal.
It is easy to forget how new Wikipedia is. Its millionth English-language article was posted only in 2006, five years after it was founded (it has since added three million more). For that reason, perhaps, academic study of it remains relatively sparse despite our increasing reliance on its pages as a “go-to” source of mostly accurate information.
Prof Bruckner’s hope is that having systemic data on the extent and reasons behind bias could mobilise resources to deal with the issue. It might help, she suggests, if universities encouraged staff to become Wikipedia contributors, ensuring important academic work does not get ignored.
They could, for example, expand the programmes some of them already run for academics on writing newspaper editorial columns – another area where female writers tend to be heavily outnumbered – to cover Wikipedia contributions.
“That is not something we usually do. We’re scientists, we’re not in the business of marketing our research. We have no training to do this,” said Prof Bruckner. She admits she has never contributed to Wikipedia herself.
The apparent bias could also be partly redressed by focusing on general initiatives to improve Wikipedia’s quality.
For Prof Bruckner, the Wikipedia project may also offer pointers about how the value of academic work in general is assessed.
“There is the gender issue, but also how people think about scholarship and what’s reputable scholarship or not,” she said.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
Company%20Profile
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LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
The 12 breakaway clubs
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
Essentials
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct from the UAE to Geneva from Dh2,845 return, including taxes. The flight takes 6 hours.
The package
Clinique La Prairie offers a variety of programmes. A six-night Master Detox costs from 14,900 Swiss francs (Dh57,655), including all food, accommodation and a set schedule of medical consultations and spa treatments.
Checks continue
A High Court judge issued an interim order on Friday suspending a decision by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to direct a stop to Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports.
Mr Justice Colton said he was making the temporary direction until a judicial review of the minister's unilateral action this week to order a halt to port checks that are required under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Civil servants have yet to implement the instruction, pending legal clarity on their obligations, and checks are continuing.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
heading
Iran has sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, which is suffering shortages amid a regional blockade.
A number of nations, including Iran's major rival Saudi Arabia, last week cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding terrorism, charges it denies.
The land border with Saudi Arabia, through which 40% of Qatar's food comes, has been closed.
Meanwhile, mediators Kuwait said that Qatar was ready to listen to the "qualms" of its neighbours.
RESULTS
Bantamweight:
Zia Mashwani (PAK) bt Chris Corton (PHI)
Super lightweight:
Flavio Serafin (BRA) bt Mohammad Al Khatib (JOR)
Super lightweight:
Dwight Brooks (USA) bt Alex Nacfur (BRA)
Bantamweight:
Tariq Ismail (CAN) bt Jalal Al Daaja (JOR)
Featherweight:
Abdullatip Magomedov (RUS) bt Sulaiman Al Modhyan (KUW)
Middleweight:
Mohammad Fakhreddine (LEB) bt Christofer Silva (BRA)
Middleweight:
Rustam Chsiev (RUS) bt Tarek Suleiman (SYR)
Welterweight:
Khamzat Chimaev (SWE) bt Mzwandile Hlongwa (RSA)
Lightweight:
Alex Martinez (CAN) bt Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Welterweight:
Jarrah Al Selawi (JOR) bt Abdoul Abdouraguimov (FRA)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203S%20Money%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20London%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Zhiznevsky%2C%20Eugene%20Dugaev%20and%20Andrei%20Dikouchine%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%245.6%20million%20raised%20in%20total%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Hometown: Birchgrove, Sydney Australia
Age: 59
Favourite TV series: Outlander Netflix series
Favourite place in the UAE: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque / desert / Louvre Abu Dhabi
Favourite book: Father of our Nation: Collected Quotes of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Thing you will miss most about the UAE: My friends and family, Formula 1, having Friday's off, desert adventures, and Arabic culture and people
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Last-16 Europa League fixtures
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
How to donate
Text the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
6025 - Dh 20
2252 - Dh 50
2208 - Dh 100
6020 - Dh 200
*numbers work for both Etisalat and du
Brief scoreline:
Crystal Palace 2
Milivojevic 76' (pen), Van Aanholt 88'
Huddersfield Town 0
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Healthcare spending to double to $2.2 trillion rupees
Launched a 641billion-rupee federal health scheme
Allotted 200 billion rupees for the recapitalisation of state-run banks
Around 1.75 trillion rupees allotted for privatisation and stake sales in state-owned assets
