Whose Knowledge?
Whose Knowledge? is a 501(c)(3) non-profit running a global multilingual campaign that centers marginalized Global Majority communities' knowledge on the internet through Wikimedia-based initiatives, research reports, convenings, and feminist and Indigenous partnerships.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersSanta Cruz, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Whose Knowledge? does
Whose Knowledge? is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded around 2016 and based in Santa Cruz, California, that operates as a global, multilingual campaign to center the knowledge of marginalized communities — what the organization terms 'the Global Majority' — on the internet. Its work targets the systemic underrepresentation of women, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQIA+ communities, Dalit communities, Black communities, and other systematically excluded groups across Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and the broader digital knowledge ecosystem. The organization runs flagship campaigns including #VisibleWikiWomen (eight editions since 2018, focused on adding images of women to Wikimedia Commons), Honouring Our Guardians (Indigenous women in climate-justice knowledge sovereignty across the Pacific Islands, Great Basin, and Brazilian Amazon), and the Decolonizing the Internet convening series (Cape Town 2018, London 2019, Lusaka 2022 with FEMNET, Singapore 2023). Its research output includes the State of the Internet's Languages Report (February 2022, co-produced with the Centre for Internet and Society and the Oxford Internet Institute), the Whose Voices? Podcast (five-episode season on decolonizing structured data), and the 'Our Stories, Our Knowledges' four-part resource series, all distributed under CC BY-SA licensing via a multilingual website in seven languages.
Rather than developing proprietary technology, Whose Knowledge? leverages existing Wikimedia infrastructure and partners with 50+ organizations across the Wikimedia movement (Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedia Brazil, Wikimedia DC, WikiDonne), feminist movements (Art+Feminism, Global Fund for Women, FEMNET, AWID), research institutions (CIS, Oxford Internet Institute), and adjacent open-knowledge ecosystems (Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons, Internet Archive, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung). The organization is led by co-founders Anasuya Sengupta (Co-Founder & Co-Director) and Siko Bouterse (Co-Founder & Co-ordinator), and co-created the Numun Fund — the first dedicated fund for feminist technology in and for the Global South.
Whose Knowledge? operates as a non-profit campaign organization with no commercial revenue model. It is funded through institutional grants from foundations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Hewlett Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Shuttleworth Foundation, and Global Fund for Women, alongside individual donations processed via its fiscal sponsor, the Peace Development Fund. All resources, guides, and reports are freely distributed; the organization does not sell products or services and does not publicly disclose financial figures.
Whose Knowledge? firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Whose Knowledge?
- Legal name
- Whose Knowledge?
- Website
- https://whoseknowledge.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Whose Knowledge? is a 501(c)(3) non-profit running a global multilingual campaign that centers marginalized Global Majority communities' knowledge on the internet through Wikimedia-based initiatives, research reports, convenings, and feminist and Indigenous partnerships.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Whose Knowledge? industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Digital Advocacy and Knowledge Equity Services
- NAICS
- Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Human Rights Organizations (813311)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Rights, Privacy & Free Expression Advocacy (BPAGAFAL)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Knowledge Management & Wikis (BPAMAMAH), Open-Source & Developer Communities (BPAMABAM), Data & Information Literacy (Search, Evaluation, Misinformation) (EDAAAIAI)
Keywords
Where Whose Knowledge? is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Santa Cruz
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Whose Knowledge? business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Grants and Institutional Funding: Whose Knowledge? is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization incorporated in the State of California, funded primarily through grants from institutional funders including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Hewlett Foundation, and individual donors. The organization also receives support via its fiscal sponsor, the Peace Development Fund, which facilitates tax-deductible donations.
- Individual Donations: The organization accepts individual donations through its website and via checks made out to its fiscal sponsor, Peace Development Fund. Donors receive tax receipts and the organization maintains institutional transparency in its fundraising practices.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Whose Knowledge? product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Whose Knowledge? is a global, multilingual campaign organization that centers the knowledge of marginalized communities—particularly the Global Majority, women, and Indigenous peoples—on the internet. It runs multi-edition campaigns such as #VisibleWikiWomen to add images of women to Wikipedia, produces research reports (including the State of the Internet's Languages Report), organizes the Decolonizing the Internet convening series, and publishes free educational resources, guides, and a podcast under Creative Commons licenses. The organization operates on existing Wikimedia infrastructure (Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons) rather than building proprietary technology platforms.
Product overview
Whose Knowledge? is a global advocacy campaign organization (501(c)(3) non-profit) rather than a traditional software company. Its primary 'product' is a multilingual website platform that aggregates and distributes educational resources, initiatives, and media content. The portfolio includes the main website platform (available in 7 languages), the Whose Voices? Podcast series, the VisibleWikiWomen campaign for adding women's images to Wikipedia, the Our Stories Our Knowledges four-part resource series, and the State of the Internet's Languages Report initiative. Content is primarily informational/educational rather than software-based, focusing on decolonizing knowledge, Wikipedia editing, language justice, and feminist data practices.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- VisibleWikiWomen: A campaign to add images of women to Wikipedia and make notable women more visible online, launched in March 2018 and spanning eight editions.
- State of the Internet's Languages
- Honouring Our Guardians
- Numun Fund
- Decolonizing the Internet
- Liberatory Archives and Memory
Products and services
- VisibleWikiWomen Campaign A multi-edition campaign spanning eight editions focused on adding images of women to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, including campaign kits, resources, and collaborative editing events for feminist organizations, Wikimedians, and community contributors.
- State of the Internet's Languages Report A research initiative and report providing baseline data on linguistic representation online, with numbers and stories from various perspectives, produced with research partners CIS and Oxford Internet Institute.
- Whose Voices? Podcast A podcast series exploring themes of decolonizing knowledge and structured data, with episodes examining topics like robot epistemology and feminist data practices.
- Our Stories, Our Knowledges Resource Series A four-part knowledge collection including guides on decolonizing stories, transformative community practices, adding knowledge to Wikipedia, and allyship, written by members of marginalized communities and freely available under Creative Commons.
- Whose Knowledge? Multilingual Website A multilingual online platform serving as the primary interface for the global campaign, providing access to initiatives, resources, reports, guides, and media content in 7 languages (Arabic, Bengali, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili).
- Honouring Our Guardians An initiative centering the leadership of Indigenous women activists, policymakers, and scholars for climate justice through community pilots in the Pacific Islands, the Great Basin (USA), and the Brazilian Amazon.
- Decolonizing the Internet Convening Series A conference event series bringing together unlikely allies to bring diverse forms of knowledge onto the internet, held in Cape Town (2018), London (2019), and Lusaka (2022).
- Numun Fund The first dedicated fund for feminist technology in and for the Global South, co-created by Jac sm Kee, Esra'a Al Shafei, and Anasuya Sengupta, supporting feminist technology initiatives.
Quantifiable outcome
- The #VisibleWikiWomen campaign across 8 editions has added thousands of women's images to Wikimedia Commons, making notable women more visible on Wikipedia and the broader internet.
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Whose Knowledge?
Customer profileSegments5 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Whose Knowledge? technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Whose Knowledge? partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
18 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- Wikimedia FoundationcoreWhose Knowledge? works closely with the Wikimedia Foundation on initiatives including the VisibleWikiWomen campaign and structured data decolonization efforts. The organization produces resources and organizes events in partnership with Wikimedia affiliates and the broader Wikimedia movement.
- Wikimedia ArgentinacoreWikimedia Argentina collaborates with Whose Knowledge? on campaigns and events including the VisibleWikiWomen initiative and feminist data events. The partnership has produced joint publications and speaking engagements.
- Wikimedia Brazil User GroupcoreWikimedia Brazil participates in Whose Knowledge? campaigns and contributes to Wikipedia-related initiatives under the partnership umbrella.
- Wikimedia DCsupportingWikimedia DC (Washington DC chapter) is listed among the partner organizations collaborating with Whose Knowledge? on knowledge equity initiatives.
- Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)coreCIS (India) partnered with Whose Knowledge? and the Oxford Internet Institute to produce the landmark State of the Internet's Languages Report (2022), providing research and data analysis.
- Oxford Internet Institute (OII)coreOII served as a research partner alongside CIS in producing the State of the Internet's Languages Report, contributing academic rigor and data analysis to the landmark study.
- Numun FundcoreNumun Fund is the first dedicated fund for feminist technology in and for the Global South, co-created by Whose Knowledge? co-founder Anasuya Sengupta along with Jac sm Kee and Esra'a Al Shafei. Whose Knowledge? continues to partner with Numun Fund on feminist tech initiatives.
- Association for Progressive Communications (APC)supportingAPC is listed as a partner organization working with Whose Knowledge? on feminist technology and digital rights issues.
- African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)coreFEMNET co-convened the Decolonizing the Internet: East Africa gathering with Whose Knowledge? in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2022, bringing together nearly 40 feminists working in tech from across East Africa.
- Art and FeminismcoreArt + Feminism is a long-standing partner in the VisibleWikiWomen campaign, contributing to Wikipedia editing events focused on adding women's images and knowledge.
- Open Foundation West AfricasupportingOpen Foundation West Africa partners with Whose Knowledge? on Wikimedia-related initiatives and knowledge equity work across West Africa.
- Black Lunch TablesupportingBlack Lunch Table is listed as a partner contributing to Whose Knowledge?'s network of knowledge equity initiatives.
- Creative CommonssupportingCreative Commons is listed as a partner organization aligned with Whose Knowledge?'s commitment to open licensing and open knowledge.
- Internet ArchivesupportingInternet Archive is listed as a partner organization, sharing Whose Knowledge?'s commitment to open access and digital preservation.
- UNESCOsupportingWhose Knowledge? is referenced in the context of UNESCO's work on AI and Indigenous Peoples, indicating alignment with UNESCO's knowledge equity initiatives.
- IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations)supportingWhose Knowledge? contributed to the IFLA 2024 Trend Report, and team members have spoken at IFLA events, indicating an ongoing partnership on knowledge equity and library advocacy.
- Tate ModernsupportingWhose Knowledge? participated in 'The Archive is a Gathering Place' symposium at Tate Modern, contributing to discussions on liberatory memory work and archives.
- Heinrich-Böll-StiftungsupportingHeinrich-Böll-Stiftung collaborated with Whose Knowledge? on interviews and publications about feminist digital disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Whose Knowledge? competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Internet Archive: Non-profit digital library preserving web and cultural content. Listed as a partner of Whose Knowledge? and shares its commitment to open access, multilingual preservation, and resistance to centralized control of knowledge.
- Mozilla Foundation: Internet health and open-web advocacy foundation that is both a listed funder and an ideological peer of Whose Knowledge?, working on overlapping issues of internet equity, digital rights, and trustworthy AI from a similar non-profit, community-led model.
- Creative Commons: Global non-profit that develops open licensing infrastructure (CC BY-SA) under which Whose Knowledge? distributes its educational resources. Operates in the same open-knowledge ecosystem with overlapping funder base and similar advocacy posture on knowledge commons.
- Centre for Internet and Society (CIS): India-based digital rights and internet policy research organization. Co-produced the State of the Internet's Languages Report with Whose Knowledge? and shares its research-driven approach to digital equity and language representation.
- Open Knowledge Foundation: Global non-profit promoting open knowledge and open data across policy and infrastructure. Operates in the same knowledge-equity space with comparable advocacy posture, funder ecosystem, and open-licensing ethos.
- Association for Progressive Communications (APC): International network and non-profit focused on digital rights, gender and technology, and internet governance in the Global South. Listed as a partner of Whose Knowledge? and works on directly overlapping feminist technology and digital rights agendas.
Emerging players
- Access Now: International digital rights non-profit defending user rights online. Operates in an adjacent space to Whose Knowledge? with shared funders (OSF) and overlapping concerns about platform power, though more focused on policy and incident response than knowledge representation.
- Article 19: Global free expression organization working on digital rights, including representation of marginalized voices online. Shares Whose Knowledge?'s commitment to centring marginalized communities' expression and knowledge in digital spaces, though with a stronger freedom-of-expression and policy focus.
Broad incumbents
- Wikimedia Foundation: The foundation that operates Wikipedia and the broader Wikimedia projects. It is a core strategic partner of Whose Knowledge? and the platform on which the organization's VisibleWikiWomen and structured data campaigns are executed, making it the most directly adjacent peer in the knowledge equity space.
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): Established digital rights non-profit focused on privacy, free expression, and online civil liberties. A broader incumbent in the digital rights advocacy space that shares Whose Knowledge?'s framing on internet equity but operates at greater scale and with a more legal-policy orientation.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Whose Knowledge? social profiles
Digital presenceWhose Knowledge? financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Whose Knowledge? leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Whose Knowledge? funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Whose Knowledge? M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Whose Knowledge?
What does Whose Knowledge? do?
Whose Knowledge? is a global, multilingual campaign organization that centers the knowledge of marginalized communities—particularly the Global Majority, women, and Indigenous peoples—on the internet. It runs multi-edition campaigns such as #VisibleWikiWomen to add images of women to Wikipedia, produces research reports (including the State of the Internet's Languages Report), organizes the Decolonizing the Internet convening series, and publishes free educational resources, guides, and a podcast under Creative Commons licenses. The organization operates on existing Wikimedia infrastructure (Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons) rather than building proprietary technology platforms.
Is Whose Knowledge? a public or private company?
Whose Knowledge? is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Whose Knowledge? founded?
Whose Knowledge? was founded in 2016. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Whose Knowledge? based?
Whose Knowledge? is headquartered in Santa Cruz, United States, in the North America region.
How does Whose Knowledge? make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Grants and Institutional Funding is the primary driver. The others are individual Donations.
Who are Whose Knowledge?'s main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Internet Archive, Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Open Knowledge Foundation and Association for Progressive Communications (APC). Emerging players are Access Now and Article 19. Broad incumbents are Wikimedia Foundation and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Does Whose Knowledge? have an API?
No public API is recorded for Whose Knowledge?.
What industry is Whose Knowledge? in?
Whose Knowledge?'s product category is Digital Advocacy and Knowledge Equity Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGAFAL, Digital Rights, Privacy & Free Expression Advocacy, with a secondary code of BPAMAMAH, Knowledge Management & Wikis. Its NAICS code is 8133 and its SIC code is 8200.