Franklin Women is proud to be part of a global movement to increase the online visibility of women on Wikipedia (with an exciting milestone recently passed … women now account for 20% of all biographies!). However, people with disability are also underrepresented on this platform. Here Wikimedian Ross Mallett shares his experience as a Wikipedian in Residence with Paralympics Australia.
I have been involved with the Wikipedia’s Paralympic Project since 2011. Paralympic sport was not something I knew much about then – I just happened to be in the right place at the right time! Since then, I have travelled the world, attending various Paralympic competitions – especially those of my favourites, the Aussie women’s wheelchair basketball team (the Gliders).
As part of the collaboration between Paralympics Australia and Wikimedia Australia, thousands of Wikipedia articles have been written that garner millions of page views each year.
My role as Wikipedian in Residence with Paralympics Australia has evolved over time. Our initial priority was to create articles on every Australian Paralympian, past and present. We were then asked to create articles on Paralympic classification. These turned out to be more popular, as they have an international audience. With each successive Paralympic Games, we create articles on the newest Paralympians. Paralympics Australia organised workshops in each capital city, so we could connect with the local athletes and Wikipedians.
Paris 2024 was my third Paralympic Games! Media accreditation means that you have access to the media tribunes at the venues (some of the best seats in the house) and can attend any game, even when the event is sold out (as is usually the case).
Each day, we would criss-cross Paris, getting from one venue to another (the locals told us that the Metro had never been so efficient or, with the enhanced police presence, so safe!). Whether in the tribunes, the Main Press Centre or the Venue Media Centre, I was hard at work on my laptop. Results of competitions were entered as they became available; many people were following the progress of their teams on Wikipedia. Athlete articles were updated to add medals won, which might result in their being moved into different categories. I could meet with the athletes in the mixed zone. This allows journalists to do interviews and get quotes. I cannot use these, so I usually just chat with the athletes. They talk to me because they know who I am, and they know about our Wikipedia project. One athlete in London told me that the International Paralympic Committee website did not list all her medals. Wikipedians managed to track them all down so our page is correct.
Olympic and Paralympic websites go dark a few months after the games, so it is vital that we capture as much material as possible while we can! Wikipedia references get archived by the Internet Archive (the Wayback machine) but they have to be on Wikipedia first! To do this, I have a library of computer scripts written in the Perl language that convert the results into the Mediawiki markup used on our Wikipedia pages. Since the websites get more sophisticated each time, the scripts must be updated. If I had the time, I would translate articles from foreign languages into English. Back in Australia, these articles go through our usual peer processes, becoming what we call ‘Good Articles’ and, in one case, ‘Featured Article’, our highest quality level.
After two exhausting weeks, everybody packed up and started preparing for Los Angeles 2028…