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I second Sarah's proposal to research why women don't contribute to
Wikipedia. I have some ideas as to how we can do this using social
media to branch out and evaluating email threads to look for
repetitive themes. Because the opposite of the negative does not
necessarily equal the positive, it is also important to look at the
converse of that question, so we ask:
What makes women contribute to Wikipedia?
Yeah, we really need a Task Force for this. We can utilize online survey
systems, analysis, and I do like your idea of using social media as
well. Give people a platform, they'll give you their opinions :)
I have a second thought to chime in here. We have
strong evidence to
believe that the limited diversity of WP editors limits the content of
Wikipedia and we know that new articles are not being created at the
rate they were 3-4 years ago. Is it possible that the limited content
has an effect on the editors who participate? For example, suppose a
potential woman editor wants to work on an article about Charlotte
Ray, the first black woman lawyer. But there is not even a stub for
Charlotte, so our editor tries to create the article, but it is
immediately tagged for deletion for notability reasons. Having heard
from many new editors, it is incredibly common that the initial
contact with Wikipedia is that their article is deleted. I'm proposing
that existing content is limited by the ideas of what the majority of
the current community believes is notable, and it is difficult for new
editors to earn the reputation within Wikipedia to influence this. So
in effect the current content is limiting what new editors can
contribute, and I suspect this is a major stumbling block for new
women editors
I TOTALLY agree. If you search on Wikipedia and don't find the person or
thing you're looking for, it's easy to just give up and move along. The
"Stub" idea is one direction we have taken WikiProject: Public Art. I am
a firm believer in "if you build it, they will come." And it happens -
when I write an article or a stub about a public art sculpture people
start to get involved, they claim it. I use Twitter and Facebook to post
about my new articles, sharing them with neighborhoods and those
involved in the community or museum or institution that might have some
value put into the work of art - and it starts flying. Viewership goes
up, people ask how they can contribute, and it encourages just what we
want - expansion of information and sharing of knowledge.
I also notice that the project we did with the Indiana Statehouse, which
we asked students in a museum collections management class to research,
locate, and photograph every work of art in the Indiana Statehouse. The
majority of those contributors were women, I'd love to find out how many
will continue to contribute - especially now that they were recognized
by the State for their work!
(
http://richardmccoy.tumblr.com/post/3093430185/today-at-the-indiana-state-h…)
I don't see any reason why we can't start reaching out to the University
Ambassadorship programs to perhaps invoke more female involvement.
"Women Who Wiki" (and this can be extended of course to individuals who
identify as women in any way)
If we have interest in expanding on "women's topics" we can work with
classes that focus on women's studies, GLBT issues, history, etc - why
not build a Task Force to focus entirely on broadening the WOMAN on
Wikipedia? If everyone on this mailing list created one stub about a
woman, a woman's issue, etc, we'd sure make an impact :)
Sarah
-Amy
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Sarah Stierch Consulting
Historical, cultural & artistic research, advising & event planning.
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