Cohort 2024
Project Curate
Transforming Justice Narratives Using Wikipedia
Harris County, TX
Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia, promotes transparency through free and easy access to information. Many people turn to Wikipedia to explore their communities’ institutions and issues. But many of Houston’s criminal legal institutions lack up-to-date Wikipedia pages documenting their practices. In 2023, the Houston Police Department’s English Wikipedia article received a quarter of the monthly views and had half of the editors of the Chicago Police Department’s Wikipedia article, although both cities are roughly comparable in population. The Chicago Police Department’s page also had 50% more content.
With Catalyst Grant funding, Project Curate and ImagiNoir/BLMHTX aim to increase transparency and accountability by organizing Wikipedia editing workshops to shift justice narratives in Houston. These workshops will empower community members by inviting them to create and update Wikipedia articles to shape the descriptions of local actors, institutions, and initiatives related to the criminal legal system. Through this campaign, Project Curate seeks to inform the public’s understanding of contentious debates about critical issues, such as overcrowding in Harris County’s local jail, so they can encourage policymakers’ consideration of non-carceral approaches to public safety. To prepare for these workshops, Project Curate will gather source materials to create reference lists for participants. Using various tools provided by the Wikimedia Foundation, Project Curate will track key metrics, such as global views of project-related articles, over time to assess the project’s impact.
Project Curate was also a Catalyst Grant awardee in 2023. Read about its 2023 project, Advancing Noncarceral Public Safety Policies through Data-Driven Advocacy.
