The Wikimedia Movement in Canada Communities, Institutions, and Open Culture

The Wikimedia Movement in Canada examines the distinctive role Canadians have played in creating and sustaining the world’s largest free encyclopedia. Drawing on interdisciplinary case studies, this volume investigates how Wikimedia projects transform the creation, circulation, and governance of knowledge. Contributors probe the relationship between identity and contribution across English, French, and Atikamekw Wikipedias, attending to questions of diversity, representation, and inclusivity. They analyze institutional partnerships, demonstrating how collaborations extend public access to cultural knowledge and reshape institutional practices. Finally, they explore the forms of literacy required for meaningful engagement in Wikimedia environments, including digital, legal, and algorithmic literacies, and reflect on their implications for both amateur and professional contributors. A rich, multifaceted examination of open culture in practice, this volume offers a rigorous exploration of how collaboration and knowledge-sharing shape Canada’s evolving digital landscape.

About the Author

Jean-Michel Lapointe is digital education project manager at Université du Québec à Montréal. A Wikipedian since 2014 and a former academic librarian and teacher, he promotes the educational use of Wikimedia projects in higher education settings. Marie D. Martel is an associate professor at the École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information at the Université de Montréal. A specialist in libraries and open culture, she is also involved in research and outreach projects related to Wikimedia platforms. She has been a Wikipedian since 2010.

With contributions by Stacy Allison-Cassin, Gabriel Arsenault, Nathalie Casemajor, Pierre Lévy, Denise Smith, Nathalie Thibault, Miguel Tremblay, Simon Villeneuve, and Mathieu Wade.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Focus I. Identities
   1. 1. Protocols of Pluralization: Negotiating Cultural Cohabitation in Wikipedia
      Nathalie Casemajor
   2. 2. Does Wikipedia’s Acadia Portal Offer an Accurate Portrait?
      Gabriel Arsenault and Mathieu Wade
   3. 3. Using Wikidata to Quantify the Gender Gap in Biographical Resources
      Marie D. Martel and Simon Villeneuve
3. Focus II. Institutions
   1. 4. Wikidata in Canada and the Mariposa Folk Festival Linked Data Project
      Stacy Allison-Cassin
   2. 5. Wikimedia in a Québec Art Museum: Exploring an Open Cultural Institution Model
      Nathalie Thibault
   3. 6. Open Government: A Wiki to Link Them All Together
      Miguel Tremblay
4. Focus III. Literacies
   1. 7. Public Knowledge During the COVID-19 Infodemic: Health Literacy and the Effect of Wikipedia
      Denise Smith
5. Afterword: The Value of Verified Knowledge in the Age of Generative AI
   Pierre Lévy
6. List of Contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.