leonardomichilena / flip-the-script

Flip the script is a team Web/App project developed by students from TechLabs Berlin.

flip-the-script

About us

We are Stephanie, Leticia, Leonardo and Luciana, a team of four motivated and engaged participants of TechLabs Berlin. We started Flip The Script because we recognized an issue in the way society sees gender. The way language works in our conscious and subconscious mind is often underestimated, and so is the way it affects how we perceive gender.

Flip The Script is aimed to be used as a tool for change and education about our language use by offering users the option to consciously decide for a fairer language. Furthermore, we want to offer visitors the option to learn more about language use and patters and why it is important. You can find, on the statistics page, our results from collecting and analyzing news articles from various sources across the web.

What can you expect from our app?

Our app presents itself as a text converter or, perhaps even, a text translator. A user can submit a text, whether this is a news article you found on the web, a paper you wrote yourself, and anything else that involves text. The text is then returned back to the user in the possibility of two different forms. One, the user can choose to reverse all the pronouns. Two, the user can choose to change all pronouns to gender neutral.

As well as the text conversion, you can explore our statistics page, which includes a deep look into the data we collected from Dec 2020 to Feb 2021. In this data, we explore how gendered language is represented in news articles from various sources across the web.

Build Setup

This guide requires a BASH shell. If you are using Windows, please visit the documentation for all linked dependencies for Windows commands.

For the Flask app:

Working with python3

Use package manager pip to install Flask, numpy, and Sklearn

First, cd into the python_app folder to activate your environment.

python3 -m venv venv

Next install the packages:

pip install requests

pip install scikit-learn

pip install numpy

pip install Flask

To run the flask server:

Make sure you are in the python_app directory.

Begin by activating your environment:

source venv/bin/activate

Next, run run the Flask server:

export FLASK_APP=app.py
export FLASK_ENV=development
flask run

For express app:

Use package manager npm to install:
express
axios
ejs
method-override

First, cd into the node_app folder set up your dependencies.

npm install express axios ejs method-override

To run the Express server:

Make sure you are in the node_app directory.

npm node index.js

How to use:

The site is hosted locally on your localhost:3000 and localhost:5000
Open two different consoles to get your servers running.

Refer to Build setup

Now that your servers are running, open your browser to http://localhost:3000/

Usage

Our text translator will convert your text in two ways.

1. Gender binary=> from male to female, female to male.
   
2. Gender neutral => gender neutral inclusive language.
   

Authors and acknowledgment

1. UX: Luciana Wills
2. DS: Leticia Valladares
3. WD: Stephanie Mennear
4. WD: Leo Michilena

Project status

We would all like to continue working on the project. We would like to build our database, extend our language dictionaries, and add features such as a google extension. Any help for collecting data and collaboration is welcome!