<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 5:38 PM, Sarah Stierch <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sarah@sarahstierch.com">sarah@sarahstierch.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><font color="#888888"> <br>
<div>-- </div>
</font></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div>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: <br>
What makes women contribute to Wikipedia?<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
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 :) <br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>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<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
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. <br>
<br></div></blockquote><div><br> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
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! (<a href="http://richardmccoy.tumblr.com/post/3093430185/today-at-the-indiana-state-house-i-was-honored-to" target="_blank">http://richardmccoy.tumblr.com/post/3093430185/today-at-the-indiana-state-house-i-was-honored-to</a>)<br>
<br>
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)<br>
<br>
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
:) <br></div></blockquote><div><br>I have a list of "first_United_States_female_state_legislators " stared in my user space. I would love to have this adopted by one or more other people who are interested in seeing have an article about each of these women. <br>
<br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FloNight/List_of_the_first_United_States_female_state_legislators">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FloNight/List_of_the_first_United_States_female_state_legislators</a> <br>
<br>We need to check to see if they already have an article and if so link to it. If not then we need to write a stub or a short article.<br><br>I spend time writing articles about interesting women because I think that we are not doing a good job with content about remarkable women. Durng March March 2010 Women's History Month (United State) I exclusively worked on articles about historically significant women. You can see my list on my user page. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FloNight">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FloNight</a><br>
<br>Maybe we could organize some editing initiatives around a month or day when outside organizations honor women. It would be great if we could collaborate with some of these outside groups if they are researching notable wormen. In the United States most states have a Women's Hall of Fame that has a list of interesting women from that state. It would be a good place to start.<br>
<br>Sydney<br><br><br><br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<br>
Sarah<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>-Amy<br>
</div>
</div>
<pre><fieldset></fieldset>
_______________________________________________
Gendergap mailing list
<a href="mailto:Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org" target="_blank">Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org</a>
<a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap" target="_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div>-- <br>
<div><span style="color: rgb(39, 153, 128);">Sarah Stierch
Consulting</span></div>
<div><span style="color: rgb(39, 153, 128);">Historical, cultural
& artistic research, advising & event planning.</span></div>
<div><span style="color: rgb(39, 153, 128);">------------------------------------------------------</span></div>
<div><a href="http://www.sarahstierch.com" style="color: rgb(39, 153, 128);" target="_blank">http://www.sarahstierch.com/</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
Gendergap mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org">Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap" target="_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br>