#GenderGap - The Gineta Sagan Award (and others)

The Ginetta Sagan award is conferred by Amnesty International USA. It is an annual award, the last recipient according to Wikidata when I looked at it received it in 2014, English Wikipedia has the award as part of the article on Ginetta Sagan and has information including 2017 (when you read the texts, you will find how notable these people are and, by inference the people without an article).

Arguably, there is a lack of balance between the number of men and the number of women having an article in any Wikipedia. This is known as the "gender gap" and the "women in red" project works to great effect to improve that balance. There is no lack of fine notable ladies who have no article.

I am really happy to present two queries. The first query shows women who won an award with no article at all (2502 results). The second shows women who won an award with no article in the English language (29083 results).

Let these women be an inspiration to you.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#BRAVEedit - Lessons learned at the Amsterdam editathon

The Amsterdam editathon for female civil rights activists was a success. This Listeria list shows it well. All the articles not cursive now have an article in Dutch. It may be that some Dutch articles were written in Brussels. The request to those who joined was to write or translate articles in English or Dutch. This is the same Listeria list for English..

Editathons happened in twenty countries concurrently. Organising such an event is a mammoth task, it is easy for things to go wrong, not to be clear. With 20 countries many languages are involved producing sufficient information for all of them is not easy. The question is how to do this optimally.

Information is to be available for all the languages a particular person or organisation is targetted for. Care needs to be taken that people are uniquely identified; this to prevent the creation of duplicate articles (this happened for Fartuun Abdisalaan Adan aka Fartuun Adan). Now you can make lists in a spreadsheet, you can write texts with the sources but the challenge is to maintain this for twenty languages!

Enter a Wikidata property: "on focus list of Wikimedia project". As you research a person that is to be on the focus list for the "Amnesty International Editathon", you either append it to an existing item or a new item. You can add the location as a "qualifier", this has been done for Amsterdam enabling a list specific for this editathon.

Articles that are to be written will be in italic on a Wikipedia and, this helps prevent duplicate articles. Sources can be added as qualifiers as well and with a small change they show in a list. Images and all kinds of other information can be added and this shows really well in Reasonator.. The family of Fartuun Adan for instance was already known and, she did win the International Women of Courage Award in 2013.

So the editathons happened and, for all the people and organisations the "on focus list" property can still be added. This will make it easier to analyse the impact of all the work; queries can be made to learn how many articles exist and, it makes it easy to learn how many of these articles are actually read.

One of the things these list also show is that for many people we do not have an illustration. I think that when Amnesty makes images available for all of them, the articles become more attractive and are likely to gain more attention.

For me the Amsterdam was wonderful. I enjoyed seeing people grapple with the idiosyncrasies of Wikipedia editing. I had it confirmed again that I am not a Wikipedian.. I do not edit really but being there had me experiment and think about organising multi lingual projects and find confirmation for my understanding how this could be done efficiently.

PS I do think that the people at the English chapter and the people at Amnesty did a great job.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikipedia - Bias and the King #Faisal International #Prize

The King Faisal International Prize is an international award recognising five distinct areas. They are: Service to Islam, Islamic Studies, Arabic language and literature, Medicine and Science.

When a Wikipedia is to write in a NPOV way about the King Faisal International Prize, all five categories need to be included. Just listing Medicine and Science and having the article as a "science award" ignores the scientific realities in the other three categories or prevents the inclusion of other theological or literature awards.

This is an unfounded bias and remediation is needed in order to achieve NPOV.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - the Panama Papers

The Panama Papers brings to light how the rich and famous hide their wealth. Arguably this is typically a criminal activity because it prevents them to be liable for their possessions according to the law of the country they live in. Liability comes in many ways; it is recognition what it is you own, what you are taxed and also what conflicts of interests exist. In an interview for Amnesty International, Mr Snowden says it well; "Privacy is for the powerless. Transparency is for the powerful."

The Panama Papers brings much needed transparency and there is one big difference with the unwanted intrusions on their privacy they suffer. They are in the limelight because of their lack of transparency in their actions and the resulting negative effect on society. It would be good when organisations that spy publish any and all of these transgressions. A change of focus like this would ensure a much more equitable society and it is easy to argue that it will make us all more secure.

The English Wikipedia has a list of people who are implicated by these Panama Papers. The information has been included in Wikidata. It is therefore easy to have the information in any Wikipedia. The ListeriaBot will perform updates on a regular basis. The only manual maintenance is including the necessary labels.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Mian Ghulam Jilani, who is he?

According to a Wikidata description Mr Jilani is a "British Indian general". The highest rank he achieved in the British Indian army was actually lieutenant, he did become a major general but that was in the Pakistani army.

Mr Jilani was also a Pakistani politician. He was a prisoner of war during the second world war and tortured by the Japanese and a prisoner of conscience according to Amnesty International. He escaped prison and died in the USA.

Mr Jilani was never an Indian citizen in fact he fought against India in several battles and was decorated several times. He served as a diplomat for Pakistan in the USA, became a politician, became on outspoken critic of the Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was imprisoned, escaped to the USA and died as a refugee in Fairfax, Virginia.

In conclusion, Mr Jiliani was never British, Indian nor a general for either country. The automated description has him as: Indian-pakistani politician, military personnel, and diplomat (1913–2004); Legion of Merit, Imtiazi Sanad, and Sitara-e-Quaid-i-Azam ♂. This is not perfect but much better.

#Wikidata - Inge Genefke, and #torture

Torture is a crime where the victim is expandable, without any rights, someone who is not given much consideration. When Amnesty International asked for physicians to assist those who had been tortured, the Danish Inge Genefke responded to this request. She started locally and then founded the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.

An award was named in her honour, the Inge Genefke Award and expanding the information on all these subjects, including the award winners is easy enough.

When you care about a given subject, like torture, and you want to expose the forces of good or evil, you can at Wikidata by adding information. It is all part of sharing in the sum of all available knowledge. It is all part of caring about what information is available in our world.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - #Amnesty International and the Dr. J.P. van Praag-award

Amnesty is one of the organisations I consider essential in this world. It is known for its work on human rights and it will tell any country where it fails in its commitments or in its actions. It is a participatory organisation and it is up to anyone to choose their levels of commitment.

Organisations are awarded for their work and I have added several of them spurred on by a friend who added the Dr J.P van Praag award to Amnesty. Typically I only add awards to people. It is easier and there are fewer false positives.

Reading the Dutch article, the question arose if Amnesty was indeed the beneficiary of this award. The text says in Dutch.. "Amnesty International (afdeling Nederland) voor haar werk voor gewetensgevangenen.". It says that it is the Dutch chapter who was awarded the award.

Given that other Amnesty chapters have items in Wikidata, it was easy to add one for the Dutch chapter and make it the recipient for the award. It follows that people tagged as member of Amnesty are actually member of the local chapter ... :)

NB I would not be surprised when more awards have been given to Amnesty, much of this may be found in articles in languages I do not read.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata & #Amnesty - Razan Zaitouneh disappeared - P746

Razan Zaitoudeh disappeared December 2013 from her home. It is probably not realistic to ask or expect her release. It is more likely that she was murdered.

Earlier in her life, Razan was detained by the Syrian government. At the time Amnesty International campaigned for her release.

Razan, Samira, Wael and Nazem disappeared together. This has been documented using the P746, date of disappearance property for all of them.

Together they received the Petra Kelly award. I am sure that their loved ones would prefer them to be safe instead.

Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata & #Amnesty - Razan Zaitouneh disappeared

Razan Zaitouneh is a journalist who disappeared from her home in Douma, Syria with three other people on December 2013. Razan was very well known as a journalist documenting human rights in Syria. Razam disappeared together with Samira Khalil, Wael Hamada, and Nazem Hammadi.

Mrs Zaitouneh received several awards for her work. I was adding one of them to someone else and it is how I learned about her. It is reasonable to expect her to be dead but, how do we document the disappeared. We do not have a convenient date of death, we do not know where she died. We only know that she disappeared.. How do we register this in Wikidata?
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata & #Amnesty - Raif Badawi II

One important thing to consider with people like Mr Badawi is that they do not operate in a vacuum. He has a sister, Samar, she is married to Waleed.

All three have had their troubles and tribulations with Saudi officials. All three have spend time in jail, all three are watched by Amnesty International.

It is important to know and understand these connections. People are not only a "human rights activist", they have family, they studied, have a job. They are part of their society. When Wikipedia or for that matter Wikidata only informs about one aspect, it is not really a neutral point of view.

Yes, they are notable for their human rights activities. It is by not ignoring who they are that we provide more rounded information. In this way our information becomes more encyclopaedic and thy gain relevance as a person.
Thanks.
     GerardM

#Wikidata & #Amnesty - Raif Badawi

Mr Badawi is a blogger who is in jail in Saudi Arabia. Like so many people he got the attention of Amnesty International because he spoke out. Read the article on Wikipedia or read the information about Mr Badawi on the Amnesty website.

It is easy and obvious how to get attention for Mr Badawi on Wikidata. It is all about making statements. You will find that he was awarded many times. Those awards did not exist on Wikidata, consequently other people who were awarded the prize were not recognised either.

By adding newly these created awards to Mr Badawi, you raise his profile. By including statements on the organisations who conferred these awards you add weight. By adding the other people or organisations that were celebrated with an award, all of them get added gravitas.

It is not hard to give Mr Badawi additional visibility, Transliterate his name in the languages of India and you can find him, the awards, the other awardees searching in the Wikipedias.

The Wikimedia Foundation is all about education, about a neutral point of view. By making these statements about people like Mr Badawi it is more obvious that he will not be easily forgotten while he lingers in his cell.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - #Amnesty International; a case in point

When people are persecuted for supporting one of the rights that are considered universal, it is import for them to know that organisations like Amnesty International will support them. When Amnesty supports people, it calls on volunteers to protest their innocence. Their innocence because universal human rights are not to be denied.

Arguably, people become notable when Amnesty recognises them for expressing their human rights and being persecuted for it.

We Wikimedians are fortunate because we do express ourselves freely. We pride ourselves on our "neutral point of view" and we are quite happy to block the powers that be when they impose their point of view. Then again, it is the English Wikipedia where the whole world is looking closely

My opinion is that by bringing information with a neutral point of view, we inform whoever is interested to be informed. Given that as a rule we inform about everything, we should inform about the people, the organisations that defend our universal human rights. We should inform about the struggle, the awards, the set backs.

I am sure that all the organisations involved want to ensure that all the organisations, all the people involved are covered. In Wikidata all we need to do is cover every language and by implication every country, every organisation. This Amnesty International award is German, at this time it does not have a label in most languages including English. It is just a case in point.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - Dear Lila, it is all about the application

Three months in the job, Lila did an analysis of where we are with our projects. The way she brought it was very much traditional; Wikipedia and English Wikipedia at that. The challenges were not that traditional; much of the public will be mobile and they will not be where they are today.

Another requirement is that all the new people need to be able to contribute. Removing the existing road blocks is absolutely necessary..

When people are to contribute, they have to have a reason to contribute. They will need to benefit from the effort. This year Commons will be wikidatafied and it will become possible to search in multiple languages. The Amnesty International community may add the people on their watch list to Wikidata. In this way what we do in Wikidata gets more of an application.

When we start thinking in terms of how people will be able to use the data we have in store for them, we will find more contributors. Their data will become better connected. The value of our data will increase and we will realise the aspiration of more people in more countries being involved in what we do. We will not only share in the sum of our available information they will put it to use for us.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikimania - Mr Salil Shetty, #Amnesty International

Mr Shetty spoke at Wikimania 2014. He explained how much Amnesty International and the Wikimedia Foundation have in common. He did a good job and many of the people at the conference proved to have been involved with campaigns of Amnesty in the past. One of the things it does is ask for international attention for people who are in trouble, they are often in jail, they have been tortured and, as the record shows attention helps.

What we could do at Wikidata is decide that all the people who need attention for reasons valid to Amnesty International are notable enough to have an item. We would have all the notable information about these people, this include their profession and the fact that AI considers them at risk and links to more information for instance at the website of AI. This provides the basic information when people decide that there are too many reasons to write a Wikipedia article.

All too often the tipping point for writing an article is the death of a person on a list like this. My hope is that there will be few of these occasions when an article gets actually written.
Thanks,
     GerardM