Abstract

ZUBIMENDI, Miguel Ángel; CUETO, Julián; BEGUELIN, Marien  and  ARCHUBY, Fernando M.. Digging Wikipedia. Notes on the public communication of archaeology in a free and collaborative encyclopaedia. Rev. Mus. Antropol. [online]. 2024, vol.17, n.1, pp.189-206.  Epub Apr 30, 2024. ISSN 1852-060X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v17.n1.43539.

We present and reflect on the potentialities of public communication about archaology through Wikipedia encyclopaedia, based on our experience as the Equipo de Wikimedistas de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (WikiUNLP). Wikipedia is a multilingual, online, free, and open encyclopaedia, which contains which contains knownledge biases, both geopolitical and gender that mirrors the communities that edit it. We set out to reduce these biases by editing content, understanding that improving content on Wikipedia is a powerful way to communicate science. In this work, we analyse some edits made on this encyclopaedia related to archaeological content, such as the creation of biographies of women archaeologist and academic journals, and some articles articles on archaeological topics. In general, we identify a lack of information in articles about archaeologists and journals, as well as frictions that they must overcome to be considered relevant by editors from the Global North. We also observe that the incorporation of references and the improvement of articles increase the average monthly visits. Finally, we discuss the challenges posed by Open Science and Public Communication of Science from the collaborative perspective proposed by Wikimedia Projects, as well as the commonalities and tensions between the scientific and Wikimedia communities.

Keywords : Wikipedia; Public knowledge of science; University; Editathons.

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