Hi Federico,
Thanks for the clarification! I also think that it is very difficult to
understand bias--where it is coming from and what is contributing to
it--when it has not been measured. I originally came here looking for
information about the existing gender balance of citations on Wikipedia so
that I could begin to understand what is happening. My concerns have
unfolded over the course of this conversation.
I am cc'ing Gerard here because I received his note via digest but wanted
to say thank you. I am curious about how best to approach using wikidata to
generate useful information about gender balance and if there are any
issues around doing this.
Thanks all,
Greg
On Sat, Aug 31, 2019 at 12:43 AM Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Greg, 31/08/19 05:17:
Thanks, Federico. Do you mean that examining
gender bias is more
relevant to google than wikipedia? Or necessary before any work can be
done here?
I'm saying that any gender bias of citations on Wikipedia articles will
compound a number of factors, including the underlying bias in the
literature, bias in how it's presented in discovery tools, etc. As long
as we don't know the size of such underlying biases, I suspect an
attempt to measure Wikipedia's specific contribution would be futile.
It's also a standard research practice to break down a problem into
smaller parts, easier to manage. Google Scholar or similar tools are
already large enough. Millions of Wikipedia authors and all their
background and methods are however significantly larger.
Federico