Dave Palfrey
@01factory.bsky.social
Ex-historian of social and political thought (Cambridge, Birkbeck). Ex-Amazon (Alexa and AGI). Chief scientist at Mind Mage. LRB reader. 2025 side-mission: fighting global bias on Wikidata & Wikipedia.
"Only that which has no history can be defined"
"Only that which has no history can be defined"
#Wikimania2025 keynote: Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende, Vukasi Marivate, Selena Deckelmann and Job Meaura keynote panel on #AI: how should Wikimedia projects adapt, respond to and shape the AI landscape?
August 7, 2025 at 8:44 AM
#Wikimania2025 keynote: Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende, Vukasi Marivate, Selena Deckelmann and Job Meaura keynote panel on #AI: how should Wikimedia projects adapt, respond to and shape the AI landscape?
At Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi! A fantastic welter of conference activity here. Listening to Ruby D. brown and Nwonwu Uchechukwu Pascaline present their research on barriers to African women contributing to Wikipedia #AfricanWikiWomen
August 6, 2025 at 8:21 AM
At Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi! A fantastic welter of conference activity here. Listening to Ruby D. brown and Nwonwu Uchechukwu Pascaline present their research on barriers to African women contributing to Wikipedia #AfricanWikiWomen
Most of these women aren't yet in any of the different language wikipedias. Only 237 Malawian women have a wikipedia page (31% of all Malawians who do). But some exciting plans are brewing in Scotland & Malawi to generate more English, Chichewa and Chitumbuka pages about Malawian women.
July 2, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Most of these women aren't yet in any of the different language wikipedias. Only 237 Malawian women have a wikipedia page (31% of all Malawians who do). But some exciting plans are brewing in Scotland & Malawi to generate more English, Chichewa and Chitumbuka pages about Malawian women.
Short 🧵today on Malawi: population 20.3 million. Wikidata currently knows of 1541 Libyans. 739 (50.93%) of them are women, including one trans woman. This high percentage of women is the result of some recent work, but it takes the long-running 50:50 campaign in Malawi as inspiration.
July 2, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Short 🧵today on Malawi: population 20.3 million. Wikidata currently knows of 1541 Libyans. 739 (50.93%) of them are women, including one trans woman. This high percentage of women is the result of some recent work, but it takes the long-running 50:50 campaign in Malawi as inspiration.
Each day this July I'll survey Wikidata's coverage of women in a different country. I'll focus on 30 countries, amounting to half the global population, where women are under-represented relative to the country's population. Just Wikidata? Or a more general digital problem? #1Day1WikidataCountry
July 1, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Each day this July I'll survey Wikidata's coverage of women in a different country. I'll focus on 30 countries, amounting to half the global population, where women are under-represented relative to the country's population. Just Wikidata? Or a more general digital problem? #1Day1WikidataCountry
Similarly. the writer Kawthar Al-Jahmi (كوثر الجهمي) is only there in Arabic Wikipedia, and not yet in any other language wikipedias.
July 1, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Similarly. the writer Kawthar Al-Jahmi (كوثر الجهمي) is only there in Arabic Wikipedia, and not yet in any other language wikipedias.
The actress Khadija Sabri (خدوجة صبري) is another Libyan woman who has her own page on Arabic Wikipedia, but doesn't yet have one in English.
July 1, 2025 at 8:53 PM
The actress Khadija Sabri (خدوجة صبري) is another Libyan woman who has her own page on Arabic Wikipedia, but doesn't yet have one in English.
For example, the politician Saniya Ghouma (سنية غومة) has a page in both the Arabic wikipedia and the French wikipedia. But there's not yet a page about her on the English wikipedia.
July 1, 2025 at 8:48 PM
For example, the politician Saniya Ghouma (سنية غومة) has a page in both the Arabic wikipedia and the French wikipedia. But there's not yet a page about her on the English wikipedia.
All kinds of remarkable Libyan women are on this redlist, from peacebuilders to powerlifters: academics, activists, actors, athletes, chess players, deminers, doctors, fashion designers, filmmakers, journalists, judges, karatekas, lawyers, local politicians, marine biologists...
July 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
All kinds of remarkable Libyan women are on this redlist, from peacebuilders to powerlifters: academics, activists, actors, athletes, chess players, deminers, doctors, fashion designers, filmmakers, journalists, judges, karatekas, lawyers, local politicians, marine biologists...
🧵today on Libya (ليبيا) : population 7.3 million. Wikidata currently knows of 1096 Libyans, of whom 306 (29.5%) are women. Unfortunately, most of these women aren't yet in any of the different language wikipedias. Only 91 Libyan women have a wikipedia page (12.3% of all those Libyans who do).
July 1, 2025 at 8:40 PM
🧵today on Libya (ليبيا) : population 7.3 million. Wikidata currently knows of 1096 Libyans, of whom 306 (29.5%) are women. Unfortunately, most of these women aren't yet in any of the different language wikipedias. Only 91 Libyan women have a wikipedia page (12.3% of all those Libyans who do).
Here's a bubble chart of Malawians in Wikidata by gender and occupation. (Men in orange, women & other genders in purple.) Not quite 50-50, but getting there! #Malawi #50-50Campaign #DigitalRepresentation
May 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Here's a bubble chart of Malawians in Wikidata by gender and occupation. (Men in orange, women & other genders in purple.) Not quite 50-50, but getting there! #Malawi #50-50Campaign #DigitalRepresentation
Yay! I've reached my first #Wikidata global representation goal! Women from the countries shaded red are 25% of global population, but in Dec '24 were only 0.83% of Wikidata bios. I set a target to increase this to 1%. Four months later, with 10,000 women added, they're now 1.01% of Wikidata bios!
May 2, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Yay! I've reached my first #Wikidata global representation goal! Women from the countries shaded red are 25% of global population, but in Dec '24 were only 0.83% of Wikidata bios. I set a target to increase this to 1%. Four months later, with 10,000 women added, they're now 1.01% of Wikidata bios!
🧵reporting February progress in improving #Wikidata global representation. Women from the countries shaded red are 25% of global population. In Dec '24 they were 0.83% of Wikidata bios. This February I added almost 2000 more women, mostly from Pakistan, Yemen, Chad & Bangladesh.
March 2, 2025 at 2:15 PM
🧵reporting February progress in improving #Wikidata global representation. Women from the countries shaded red are 25% of global population. In Dec '24 they were 0.83% of Wikidata bios. This February I added almost 2000 more women, mostly from Pakistan, Yemen, Chad & Bangladesh.
🧵on global digital representation. Countries marked in red on this map contain 50% of global population. But people, especially women, from these countries are digitally under-represented. Women from these countries - a quarter of humanity - were just 0.87% of #Wikidata biographies in Dec 2024.
February 1, 2025 at 5:45 PM
🧵on global digital representation. Countries marked in red on this map contain 50% of global population. But people, especially women, from these countries are digitally under-represented. Women from these countries - a quarter of humanity - were just 0.87% of #Wikidata biographies in Dec 2024.
I've read people alleging that this cybertruck is on fire. Even in the heat of the moment, let's not rush to hasty conclusions! All I can see here is an awkwardly expansive exuberance, an impossible warmth of heart, an oddly dramatic gesture of oxidization.
January 22, 2025 at 2:14 AM
I've read people alleging that this cybertruck is on fire. Even in the heat of the moment, let's not rush to hasty conclusions! All I can see here is an awkwardly expansive exuberance, an impossible warmth of heart, an oddly dramatic gesture of oxidization.
The Levi-Strauss remark btw (in case anyone else was wondering) is within a sequence of paragraphs where he's trying to rebut imagining criticisms in the introductory 'Overture' to The Raw and the Cooked (p7 of my 1970 Harper Torchbook paperback edition)
January 16, 2025 at 9:13 PM
The Levi-Strauss remark btw (in case anyone else was wondering) is within a sequence of paragraphs where he's trying to rebut imagining criticisms in the introductory 'Overture' to The Raw and the Cooked (p7 of my 1970 Harper Torchbook paperback edition)
I did wonder how old this sense of 'riveting' was, though - so here's the OED. Start's with Dibdin's Complete History of the English Stage, and ends with Law and Justice As Seen on TV...
January 16, 2025 at 6:07 PM
I did wonder how old this sense of 'riveting' was, though - so here's the OED. Start's with Dibdin's Complete History of the English Stage, and ends with Law and Justice As Seen on TV...
At the other extreme, 19 countries have fewer than one per 100,000 population. Together, these countries amount to 46.9% of the world's population. But they only provide 3.3% of Wikidata's women. We're a long way from #WorldWideWikidataWomen
December 22, 2024 at 1:11 PM
At the other extreme, 19 countries have fewer than one per 100,000 population. Together, these countries amount to 46.9% of the world's population. But they only provide 3.3% of Wikidata's women. We're a long way from #WorldWideWikidataWomen
Looking at the uneven global distribution of women on #Wikidata, comparing wikidata numbers by country to population. Some European countries (Iceland, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark) have more than one woman in Wikidata per 500 population. humaniki.wmcloud.org/gender-by-co...
December 22, 2024 at 1:06 PM
Looking at the uneven global distribution of women on #Wikidata, comparing wikidata numbers by country to population. Some European countries (Iceland, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark) have more than one woman in Wikidata per 500 population. humaniki.wmcloud.org/gender-by-co...
After a few evenings work, I've increased the # of Libyan women in Wikidata from 91 to 260 :)
Here's a query to visualize Libyans in Wikidata by gender (men in green; women & others in purple) & occupation.
(Hard to stop. Anyone have a list of the 33 women elected as GNC members in 2012?)
Here's a query to visualize Libyans in Wikidata by gender (men in green; women & others in purple) & occupation.
(Hard to stop. Anyone have a list of the 33 women elected as GNC members in 2012?)
December 21, 2024 at 1:00 AM
After a few evenings work, I've increased the # of Libyan women in Wikidata from 91 to 260 :)
Here's a query to visualize Libyans in Wikidata by gender (men in green; women & others in purple) & occupation.
(Hard to stop. Anyone have a list of the 33 women elected as GNC members in 2012?)
Here's a query to visualize Libyans in Wikidata by gender (men in green; women & others in purple) & occupation.
(Hard to stop. Anyone have a list of the 33 women elected as GNC members in 2012?)
Yay! English Wikipedia has finally made it! 20.003%!
At long last, over 20% of biographies on the English Wikipedia are for women. It may not seem much of a milestone, but a decade ago, that proportion was down at 15.53%
At long last, over 20% of biographies on the English Wikipedia are for women. It may not seem much of a milestone, but a decade ago, that proportion was down at 15.53%
December 19, 2024 at 9:20 PM
Yay! English Wikipedia has finally made it! 20.003%!
At long last, over 20% of biographies on the English Wikipedia are for women. It may not seem much of a milestone, but a decade ago, that proportion was down at 15.53%
At long last, over 20% of biographies on the English Wikipedia are for women. It may not seem much of a milestone, but a decade ago, that proportion was down at 15.53%
No reason why you should! Global differences in representation are fairly stark, as one might perhaps expect. humaniki.wmcloud.org/gender-by-co... has stats on biographies broken down by country. Here are the numbers for MENA regions:
December 15, 2024 at 11:55 PM
No reason why you should! Global differences in representation are fairly stark, as one might perhaps expect. humaniki.wmcloud.org/gender-by-co... has stats on biographies broken down by country. Here are the numbers for MENA regions:
When you load the page of an item who is marked researcher or who has an ORCID id then it looks for papers to match them to, e.g.
December 15, 2024 at 5:54 PM
When you load the page of an item who is marked researcher or who has an ORCID id then it looks for papers to match them to, e.g.
Barr picks up the pace, met by some very blanket denial from Lambert. And here's a rather nice poster.
December 6, 2024 at 2:25 PM
Barr picks up the pace, met by some very blanket denial from Lambert. And here's a rather nice poster.
Hasn't there been a spate of recent scholarship on gender, kinship & colonial trade? Looks as if Susan Broomhall, & the novelist Samantha Rajaram, aren't on here. But hopefully together we can stop this page being such a weirdly concentrated little patriarchial hub in the wikigraph.
September 10, 2024 at 8:59 PM
Hasn't there been a spate of recent scholarship on gender, kinship & colonial trade? Looks as if Susan Broomhall, & the novelist Samantha Rajaram, aren't on here. But hopefully together we can stop this page being such a weirdly concentrated little patriarchial hub in the wikigraph.