This chapter analyses Wikipedia in India as an informative ICT in which equity constitutes the central challenge of informativeness. Applying the two-tier framework of informative ICTs, the chapter analyses how community-driven rules of verifiability, neutrality, and open participation operate across multiple Indian-language editions within a deeply stratified social context. Drawing on interviews with Indian Wikipedians, focus group discussions, and long-term field engagement, the chapter shows how linguistic inequities, uneven editorial capacity, and gendered and intersectional constraints shape who participates and what knowledge becomes visible. Rather than treating equity as an input condition, the analysis demonstrates how stringent reliability and transparency norms, while essential for information integrity, can produce uneven inclusion when applied across societies marked by linguistic plurality and social inequality. The chapter argues that Wikipedia’s informativeness lies in its ongoing negotiation between equity, reliability, and transparency, offering critical lessons for designing ICTs that seek information integrity without reproducing structural exclusions.

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Being Equitable on the Largest Global Platform for Free Information: Field Notes from the World’s Largest Democracy

  • Anwesha Chakraborty

摘要

This chapter analyses Wikipedia in India as an informative ICT in which equity constitutes the central challenge of informativeness. Applying the two-tier framework of informative ICTs, the chapter analyses how community-driven rules of verifiability, neutrality, and open participation operate across multiple Indian-language editions within a deeply stratified social context. Drawing on interviews with Indian Wikipedians, focus group discussions, and long-term field engagement, the chapter shows how linguistic inequities, uneven editorial capacity, and gendered and intersectional constraints shape who participates and what knowledge becomes visible. Rather than treating equity as an input condition, the analysis demonstrates how stringent reliability and transparency norms, while essential for information integrity, can produce uneven inclusion when applied across societies marked by linguistic plurality and social inequality. The chapter argues that Wikipedia’s informativeness lies in its ongoing negotiation between equity, reliability, and transparency, offering critical lessons for designing ICTs that seek information integrity without reproducing structural exclusions.