**Data Feminism**
*by* ***Catherine D'Ignazio* and *Lauren Klein***
**Open Sourced Pocket Version**
*by* The Grafoscopio Community
!!!
This is a draft. Read this page for more details.
# Opening...
[Repo][datafem-repo]
Every book is a conversation waiting to happen between authors and readers.
And because books are enablers of conversations and other actions, they can be thought as
infrastructure too, layered on top of and intertwined with other infrastructures, which
also enable and extend such conversations and actions: from the word processor, where the
book drafts were written, to the book itself, to the web platform where it gets published
and commented.
This is the case of the [Data Feminism open book][datafem-pub], by *Catherine D’Ignazio*
and *Lauren Klein* and the MIT's [PubPub][pub] platform for "collaboratively draft, review,
and publish in an integrated, iterative process."
We, at the [Grafoscopio][grafoscopio-en]'s community, share a lot of intereses with Data
Feminism book and its platform, particularly as researchers and data activists, located in
the Global South (mostly in Colombia, with a small diaspora overseas), who are developing
their own [pocket infrastructures][pocket-i] for open reproducible research & publishing,
interactive documentation, and agile data storytelling and visualizacion and the community
practices around them.
This is why we take a long weekend in our vacations and before the review process deadline
call for the book, to meet at the [HackBo][hackbo] hackerspace and in the cyberspace, and
we transported the Data Feminism Book from MIT's PubPub to our own pocket infrastructures
and with our own agile processes.
It is our way to make a (meta)comment on the book, by using alternative infrastructures and
processes, developed for/from the Global South, and build on top of software that is mostly
done in the Global North but not trendy, hyped, Big Data, crypto or artificial intelligence
powered or buzz worded.
(They could be used for those shinny trendy things, but that was not the prime factor for us
to choose them).
[Grafoscopio][grafoscopio-en] is a prime example of this alternative approach, but we also
use it and combine it with [Fossil][fossil], [CodiMD][codimd], [Pharo][pharo],
[Markdeep][markdeep], [Pandoc][pandoc] and others, as you will see in detail in the memories
below.
[fossil]: http://fossil-scm.org/
[codimd]: demo.codimd.org/
[pharo]: http://pharo.org/
[markdeep]: https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/
[pandoc]: http://pandoc.org/
 ](https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/26117c58-7df7-4019-97b3-96edb359864c.png width="35%")
Because infrastructures are enablers (or not), by moving the book from PubPub to our own
pocket infrastructures and open sourcing it in the process, we hope to increase participation
and make it happen more accordingly to the conditions in Global South, where connectivity
(band width or other), huge computing resources or even proper leisure time are not a given.
In the transportation and opening process for the book, we documented and learnt, drinked
coffee and beer, celebrated and laugh, as usual.
So, you are going to see not only The Book contents section, but also a
Grafoscopio Community Meetings and Memories section, that shows the process and tools behind
scenes so far (mostly done in Spanish), but also will contain blog posts related with where
we find possibilities and difficulties in this process and about the scaffolding to support
open publications to connect what is happening on that front here, in Latin America, but
also elsewhere.
The result of what started on that community's long weekend work is the site you are seeing
now (but is build over the agile practices and infrastructures that we have making since 2014).
You will see that this is an ongoing process, with some disparities, gaps and the maturity
will be achived progressively, because we do this on a voluntary basis, counting mostly on
free time, and with the classical slow year end and begining in Colombia.
Also not having the source code for the book content required to reverse engineer it, which
took us a fair amount of time and work (PubPub seems to be working on that).
But we thought that January 7, 2019 was a good moment to share what we have done so far,
and begin that readers and authors conversation, and as you can see in the lateral picture,
we have been lucky enough to count with authors ready to listen and enage, which make us, as
readers citizens, activists and coders, really glad.
Hopefully this open sourced and pocket infrastructure powered version of the Data Feminism
book will be a enabler of many conversations to come about digital technology and power,
where many voices, subjectivities, infrastructures, from South and North and beyond enter
in a constructive and diverse dialogue.
# The Book
## Autors' Presentantion for the community review site.
Welcome to the community review site for Data Feminism. Thank you for your generosity and
time in choosing to read and comment on this manuscript draft. The review period for this
draft will close on **January 7, 2019**, although the ability to leave comments will still
be available after that point.
We have chosen to put this draft online because of a foundational principle of this
project: that all knowledge is incomplete, and that the best knowledge is gained by
bringing together multiple partial perspectives. A corollary to this principle is that our
own perspectives are limited, especially with respect to the topics and issues that we have
not personally experienced. As we describe more fully in our values statement, we recognize
that the people who are most directly affected by specific topics and issues are the ones
who know the most about them. In our book, we have attempted to elevate their voices, and
amplify their ideas. In our attempt to do so, we have also likely made mistakes. We strive
to be reflexive and accountable in our work, and we hope to learn from you about places
where we’ve gotten things wrong, and about how we can do better.
This is a book that aspires to speak to multiple audiences. These include professionals
such as data scientists, data journalists, visualization designers, and software
developers, as well as activists and organizers who work with data. Additional audiences
include students and scholars from a range of academic fields, including digital
humanities, women's and gender studies, critical race studies, media studies, information
science/studies, STS, HCI, and information visualization, among others. We also welcome
your help in pointing out any places that may require additional explanation, or that may
not be accessible to newcomers in those professions and fields.
We are grateful to those who have shown us generosity in giving us their feedback up to
this point. To readers of this manuscript—our future teachers—we commit to being open
listeners. We recognize direct and critical words as generosity, and as a vote of
confidence in our ability to hear and be transformed by you.
Below you will find the complete draft of the manuscript, as well as our values statement,
and a code of conduct for commenting. Please feel free to email Catherine and/or Lauren
with any comments that you would rather not publicly disclose.
Thank you, once again, for your generosity and time. We look forward to learning from you.
**Catherine D’Ignazio**, Assistant Professor, Emerson College
**Lauren Klein**, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
## Download the book
!!! Tip
You can [download the book here in ePub or PDF](https://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/datafem/uv). You can also [get the files in markdown and HTML in our repo](https://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/datafem/dir?ci=tip).
Or you can navigate by chapters above.
## Chapters
**Introduction**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/roibrgh3/21539605852792.png width="55%")
Intersectional feminism isn't just about women nor even just about gender. Feminism is
about power – who has it and who doesn’t. And in a world in which data is power, and
that power is wielded unequally, data feminism can help us understand how it can be
challenged and changed.
[**Read > **](./chapters/intro-dgv16l22.md.html)
**Chapter One: Bring Back the Bodies**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/lywm6sji/71540818221324.png width="55%")
Why do data science and visualization need feminism? Because bodies are missing from the
data we collect, from the decisions made about their analysis and display, and from the
field of data science as a whole. Bringing back the bodies is how we can right this power
imbalance.
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch1-zrlj0jqb.md.html)
**Chapter Two: On Rational, Scientific, Objective Viewpoints from Mythical, Imaginary,
Impossible Standpoints**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/twptzheq/11541064806432.png width="55%")
Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins describes an ideal knowledge situation as one in which
"neither ethics nor emotions are subordinated to reason." So why has emotion been so
systematically excluded from data visualization? What happens when we bring back emotion
and embodiment?
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch2-8tjbs2x5.md.html)
**Chapter Three: “What Gets Counted Counts”**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/tasrvwiv/51541078815057.png width="55%")
Feminists have spent a lot of time thinking about categories, since “male” and
“female” are binary categories, and limited categories too. How we count matters as
much as what we count. But we don't always count-- or account for-- what is most important
to the questions at hand.
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch3-rykaknh1.md.html)
**Chapter Four: Unicorns, Janitors, Ninjas, Wizards, and Rock Stars**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/o51s2ynt/71541185813224.jpg width="55%")
Unicorns, wizards, ninjas, rock stars and janitors all have something in common: they all
work alone. But what might be gained if we understood data work not as a solitary
undertaking, but as one that embraced multiple voices and forms of expertise at all phases
of the process?
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch4-fcshwhq6.md.html)
**Chapter Five: The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/16n0sjkx/01541077838709.png width="55%")
The products of data science are the work of many hands. Unfortunately, though, we tend not
to credit the many hands who perform this work. Sometimes, it's because we can't see the
people who performed it, but other times, it's because the work itself is invisible to the
eye.
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch5-6ui5n4vo.md.html)
**Chapter Six: Show Your Work**
![](https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/2d8f61ae-5e11-4b6f-b31f-27a8093ee13b.png width="55%")
The products of data science are the work of many hands. Unfortunately, though, we tend not
to credit the many hands who perform this work. Sometimes, it's because we can't see the
people who performed it, but other times, it's because the work itself is invisible to the
eye.
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch6-9m0tiz66.md.html)
**Chapter Seven: The Power Chapter**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/y08mpieo/71541077874235.png width="55%")
Examining how power is wielded through data means participating in projects that wield it
back. The projects we discuss in this chapter deal openly and explicitly with questions
about power, and name the structural forces like sexism and racism that lead to power
imbalances.
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch7-7ruegkt6.md.html)
**Chapter Eight: Teach Data Like an Intersectional Feminist!**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/u62y4099/51541185432570.png
width="55%")
Much of current data science education functions as a "Man Factory", focused on reproducing
data work that is abstract, individual, & led by elite men. But what if we imagined
teaching data as a place to start creating the connected, collective, caring world that we
want to see?
[**Read > **](./chapters/ch8-c5vkehnm.md.html)
**Conclusion: Now Let’s Multiply**
![](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/570yhlvl/71541078152478.jpg width="55%")
A feminist approach to data science, to visualization, or to anything else in the world,
cannot account for all perspectives on inequality. Here we point to some additional bodies
of work that can help inform our understanding, action and activism around power and data.
[**Read > **](./chapters/conclusion-mravy434.md.html)
## Additional Reading
**](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/atnb9t8l/01541182913095.jpg width="150px" ) **](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/xwncwt5q/61541182062337.JPG width="200px")
**](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/uz279jwe/41541183211643.jpg width="150px") **](https://resize.pubpub.org/fit-in/800x0/unjvjkt0/01541182679145.jpg width="200px")
[values+metrics]:
Data Feminism cover image: Digital visualizations by Christopher Pietsch and Siqi Zhu from
[Art of the March](http://artofthemarch.boston/container/visualisation), an archival
project led by Alessandra Renzi, Dietmar Offenhuber, and Nathan Felde, based on posters
collected from the 2017 Boston Women's March.
# Grafoscopio Community Meetings and Memories
## Data Weeks, Data Rodas y Casa Abierta
We organize regular meetings that are of three kinds, so far:
- ![](https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/b460a7ee-4421-43a1-bdc7-70c8a0782483.png width="55%")
*[Data Weeks](http://is.gd/dataweek)*: a week long (anti)hackathon + workshop (split in two weekends),
for novices and experts, to teach, learn and practice digital citizenship and data activism, from a
critical perspective.
- *Data Rodas*: A half day meetings connecting the Data Weeks and giving continuity to projects.
The name is kind of a friendly [joke on coding dojos](https://is.gd/dataroda_mail1) and about having
a more inclusive, critical and festive approach to (de)constructing code and data together.
- *[Casa Abierta](https://is.gd/casa_abierta)*: (Open House) A half day welcoming event to showcase and
practice what we do as community.
Also we gather at cyberspace, mainly in our two main public spaces:
- [Mailing list](https://is.gd/grafoscopio_coreo).
- [Telegram Channel](https://t.me/grafoscopio).
## This project memories
![](https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/41b00695-e171-412b-a0b3-fe663c4379b1.png width="35%")
Usually we build two kind of memories: a chronological one, listing a sequence of
Data Rodas or Data Weeks where we develop a particular project, and a thematic one,
which explains and refers to topics that are deployed over several days and/or projects.
Here there are the memories for this project:
- Chronological:
- [Day 1](./process/dataroda29.html) (Data Roda 29).
- [Day 2](./process/dataroda30.html) (Data Roda 30).
- [Day 3](./process/dataroda31.html) (Data Roda 31).
- [Repository timeline](../../timeline): For a more detailed view of what happened
several days while opening this book.
- Thematic:
- [Project Kanban](https://docutopia.tupale.co/datafem:kanban): Used to sync. work and
participation.
- [Scraping the book and cleaning its source code](https://docutopia.tupale.co/datafem:scraping#).
- [PDF and ePub exportation](https://docutopia.tupale.co/datafem:edicion-digital).
- [Cover Design](https://docutopia.tupale.co/datafem:portada).
(insert license.md.html here)
[casa-abierta]: http://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/dataweek/doc/tip/wiki/casa-abierta.md.html
[datafem-pub]: https://bookbook.pubpub.org/data-feminism
[datafem-scrap]: https://is.gd/datafem_scrap
[datafem-repo]: https://is.gd/datafem
[dataroda]: https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/grafoscopio/2016-07/msg00000.html
[dataweek]: https://mutabit.com/dataweek/
[fossil]: http://fossil-scm.org/
[grafoscopio-en]: https://mutabit.com/grafoscopio/index.en.html
[grafoscopio-mail]: https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/grafoscopio
[hackbo]: http://hackbo.co/
[pocket-i]: http://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/dataweek/doc/tip/wiki/infraestructuras-de-bolsillo.md
[pub]: https://www.pubpub.org/