It is important to have great ideas,
but it is even more important to implement these ideas. While I am
typing these very lines, I have young people chanting the slogans of
Aam Aadmi Party outside my house.
My first ever tryst with technology
came in the form of 91 Springboard on the weekend in Delhi. Let me
confess; I am struggling to maintain my life prior cellphones and I
do not prefer to have a smartphone. I am only 25 years old. I have
detested technology in my own way and I have never ever thought of
technology to be my ally.
So I knew I was walking into my enemy's
territory when I walked into the world of hackersforchange. I had my
reservations about technology but I was also fully aware of the
benefits of this new thing. And I wanted to learn about this tool. I
just did not want to be a consumer of this tool, I wanted to use this
tool for creation.
Hackathon organized by hackersforchange
and breakthrough was an excellent assemblage of ideas and developers.
The theme for the workshop was safety for women. It was great to see
the journalists, coders, designers and researchers all under the same
roof. I had no idea how we would all develop a common product however
I could sense everyone wanted to contribute.
I chose to join the Wikipedia editing
session conducted by Noopur. I have always believed in the power of
knowledge. I myself coming from a researcher background , was fully
aware of power of information. So I was in for a rude shock when
Noopur informed us about how there was no Wikipedia page on India
Saare. We did not have a page on Vina Mazumdar until a year ago on
Wikipedia. 90% of the demography of Wikipedia editor was white male
from Northern America. And we were talking about the so called
revolutionary wikipedia!
Where the women and And how were
stories/information being created?
As part of an exercise Noopur made us
read the personal section on Vina Mazumdar on her Wikipedia page. It
had mentioned about how she had 4 daughters and all 4 were divorced.
Now, if we go by the logic of factual information about a
personality, how her daughters being divorced in any way is important
to the reader?
Was there a hint of voyeurism, or a
sense of tarnishing of an eminent feminist or sheer misogyny? Was there
a need to admit that even knowledge/information out there had to be
gender sensitized or atleast made gender neutral?
This was the power of technology for
me: to contribute correct information to the world, to curate stories
of Global south in our own words, to be able to counter misogyny and
sexism prevalent in the virtual world, and to provide the truth to an
audience out there. W ikipedia was one step towards it.
Narration becomes the truth only
when it finds a true story teller.
It was wonderful learning the
techniques of Wikipedia editing in this session. She not only shared her
expertise and talent but also made us edit an existing page on
Wikipedia. This was where I felt like a creator. I was no more just
consuming technology but I in my limited understanding and space
was producing something useful for an audience out there.
I still have a love-hate relationship
with technology however thank you for organizing for such an event.
It was truly worth it. Big thanks to Noopur.
