Hi everyone,
It is my pleasure to announce Sarah as our first Community Fellow for 2012,
and our first fellowship specifically focused on the gender gap.
I'm sure she'll be keeping this list updated on her work, but meanwhile you
can read the full announcement on the Wikimedia blog:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/20/announcing-community-fellow-sarah-stie…
Congratulations, Sarah, it's great to have you
onboard!<gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
--
Siko Bouterse
Head of Community Fellowships
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
sbouterse(a)wikimedia.org
Hi folks,
I'm going to be a little selfish here, so pardon me. But, yesterday I
coordinated a "fine art" themed edit-a-thon at our local downtown
library, here in Washington, DC, followed by a meet-up at a local pub.
I'm proud to say we had 13 people at the edit-a-thon, and six were
women. The meetup? We had 16 people and 9 were women!! These numbers
might seem small compared to larger events, but, to have an event like
this, and have such a healthy mix, made me so happy.
User:Aude, the President of Wikimedia DC joked "I remember when it'd be
just me and Mindspillage, as the only women," and we gushed about having
such a healthy group of "all genders" at the event. I noticed, when
saying goodbye to people, that I got a bit emotional - not only did we
have a gender-mixed Wiki-event, but, we also actually wrote new articles
and expanded articles - and anyone who attends an edit-a-thon knows -
it's often chaos and just socializing, not actual editing.
You can see our outcomes here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_26/To-do_list#OUTCOMES
Which includes new articles or expanded articles about seven women
artists!!!
Obviously, I'm on a bit of a high from this, as I love outreach and
coordinating things like this; I do believe the power of invitation
helped with the success of this event. I don't use bots for invitations,
and I do my best to individually reach out to people "I hope you'll be
there." I genuinely do believe that invitation is one of the strongest
keys in making sure that events, participation, and programs succeed in
regards to closing the gender gap.
Thanks for letting me gush =) One event, for me, leads to one more woman
feeling inspired to continue participating. It also shows that offline
events make for such a rewarding experience - we get to come together,
put our differences aside, and work together for the common cause of
providing free knowledge to the world. One woman who came had never
written a new article - and this was her first time - and she really was
proud. That just made me so happy.
I also got to meet Carol Moore, which was rather epic, I must say. :)
-Sarah
--
Sarah Stierch Consulting
--
Historical, cultural, new media & artistic research & advising.
http://www.sarahstierch.com
Hi,
As part of our work with the WikiWomenCamp, we're trying to develop a list
of different perspectives regarding the state of the gender gap for
Wikimedia chapters by country or region. This can be found at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomenCamp/FAQ#Perspectives
We'd really be happy if people could add sections about the movement in
terms of women from their own countries. :)
Sincerely,
Laura Hale
WikiWomenCamp came out of conversations between women around the world who
are involved with Wikimedia's Chapters and GLAM efforts. Soon, other women
involved with other Wikimedia Foundation projects and non-WMF wikis were
involved as we started planning the conference. We wanted an opportunity
for women (by gender or sex) to get together, learn from each other's
experience, network with other women who can assist us in meeting our
goals, feel like we are part of the Wiki Ohana, discuss issues related to
being women involved in the wider wiki community, and share our passions
with similar, like minded women.
Unlike a conventional conference, where everything's pre-planned and
structured, WikiWomenCamp is a gathering where we decide for ourselves what
we're going to get out of it by offering sessions each morning on whatever
we want (and of course ad hoc sessions can form at any time). There's no
agenda until we make it up! Now, that might sound a bit chaotic if you're
never been to this type of gathering, but be prepared to be surprised at
how much people can learn and create when they collaborate spontaneously.
With an emergent agenda, it can be hard to describe specifically what you
will get from participating in WikiWomenCamp. In large part, that is up to
you to be responsible for. At similar events, participants often say they
have gained a greater sense of wiki community, broader sense of wiki way
and wiki tools, or more excitement about our future together as well as
inspiration and discovery.
At WikiWomenCamp, all women involved with the wiki community is welcome!
You do not need be an expert at editing wikis, in running chapters or work
for a wiki related organization. Collaboration thrives on diversity. All
you need to bring is an open mind, and a willingness to participate,
whether by teaching, taking an active role in discussions, helping people
to connect to those who can assist them, or sharing your own . And, don't
forget, WikiWomenCamp is what we make it, so let's make it enlightening,
productive and fun.
The conference will be on 23, 24, 25 May 2012 in Buenos Aires. Details can
be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomenCamp
Sincerely,
Laura Hale
Hi everyone - this is the announcement for WIki Loves Monuments. The US
will be participating (in some capacity) for the 2012 event, and we're
of course looking for participants around the world. And since this is
gender gap - perhaps you know some cool women's groups, or yourself -
who would like to step up and help lead a group or your
country/state/chapter into the WLM event.
See below! It's an awesome experience - I participated (Despite living
in the US) in the Belgian WLM, and it was really awesome.
-Sarah
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Wiki Loves Monuments] Fwd: [cultural-partners] Wiki Loves
Monuments... 2012!
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:56:12 +0100
From: Maarten Dammers <maarten(a)mdammers.nl>
Reply-To: Wiki Loves Monuments Photograph Competition
<wikilovesmonuments(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: Wiki Loves Monuments Photograph Competition
<wikilovesmonuments(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
FYI, we send out the following email to several lists. Please spread the
word :-)
---------------
Hello everyone,
As you may have heard, a little while ago some organizers of Wiki Loves
Monuments 2011 came together in a rainy and cold Amsterdam to evaluate
the 2011 edition, and kick off documentation for 2012. We would like to
share some of the results of our meeting with you.
The first and most important information is:
* There is going to be a Wiki Loves Monuments in 2012 -- and if there is
interest, we are going global!
We would like to get a feeling of in how many countries there would be
people potentially interested in organizing a Wiki Loves Monuments
nationally; but firstly, let us start with the basics.
Wiki Loves Monuments is a photo contest organized in 2010 and 2011 in,
respectively, the Netherlands and in Europe. The contest asks the
general audience to upload pictures of monumental/historical sites and
buildings during September. It has a federal structure and is organised
seperately in every participating country by the local people who know
how things work in their area; best photos from all countries are
nominated for an international contest.
In 2011 this contest was very successful, with more than 165.000 photos
of monuments in 18 participating countries submitted in total. This was
possible thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers in those
countries who helped organise Wiki Loves Monuments in one way or
another. The winning pictures have been published on
<http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu> and on Wikimedia Commons:
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011_winners>.
Besides the wonderful direct impact on the overall quality and coverage
of heritage and culture topics, Wiki Loves Monuments is a fantastic
opportunity to reach some of our important goals: we had a participation
of over 4.000 new users who created the first ever community-driven
contribution peak on Wikimedia Commons
(<_http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/#new_editors_per_month_>); we
have also helped in establishing cooperation between Wikimedia groups &
chapters and some of their local cultural institutions and organisations
in several countries.
Would you be interested in organizing a Wiki Loves Monuments in 2012 in
your country? Would you like to know more? Find all the details at
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012>.
We have put together some information there for you -- and much more
will follow soon.
We would also like you to join our public mailing list where everyone is
welcome to ask any questions about the details on how to organise a Wiki
Loves Monuments in your country. This is a place where many organizers
of 2011 are already on and we will use that as our main channel for
communications and information dispersion in 2012. Be bold and sign up
for the list at
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments>.
So, please speak up if you're interested!
Best regards,
Lodewijk, Maarten & Tomasz (on behalf of so many others)
Trevor Owens, a colleague of mine in the DC GLAM world has written a
nice and honest blog about open source and feminism. It talks about the
fear women have of representing themselves or writing like "themselves"
online, the experiences of Skud her ideas about harassment, and Trevor
stating why he is a feminist.
http://www.trevorowens.org/2011/12/techies-you-decide-you’re-either-a-femin…
Nice to see a man in tech express himself like this - it's a rare thing
to see, especially in the tech field.
Sarah
--
Sarah Stierch Consulting
--
Historical, cultural, new media & artistic research & advising.
http://www.sarahstierch.com
Dear Colleagues,
I have just completed (teaching) a (California - Bay Area) college Wikipedia 'workshop' class, intended to: 1) encourage women and more culturally diverse communities to engage with Wikipedia, and 2) to help us all better understand participation disparity among females and more culturally diverse groups.
Data are qualitative and quantitative, taken from direct feedback and participation. I will also make use of formal student evaluations. While students faced challenges in deletions and process, I believe they came away wiser, and most of us agree overseeing Wikipedians accomplish the goal aimed at high quality contributing. We all gradually learn how that is defined, it is iterative, and holds promise. The Ambassador Program, generally, works well too.
I welcome correspondence on relevant topics,
Karen Sue Rolph, PhD
Dear all,
I recently joined this list as I am one of the persons in charge of
the community-oriented goals which Wikimedia Deutschland has set for
itself for the coming year, one of which is to increase female
participation in Wikimedia activities & projects by 50% until the end
of 2012, I am well aware that this is a very ambitious target, and I
feel that in order to maximise the chances of meeting it, we will have
to be as clear as we can about what are the main deterrents,
preventing Wikimedia from developing the same way as the rest of the
Internet in terms of narrowing the Gender gap. What is it that makes
Wikipedia so different, that the seemingly natural disappearance of
the gender gap which we have seen in the Blogosphere and in social
media, seems to completely pass by the Wikiverse?
I have seen a number of quantitative studies, which unambiguously
confirm the existence of the gender gap as such, but I have seen very
little on what causes it to be so persistent in the Wikiverse. There
is a number of commonly proposed explanations such as the discussion
culture and the poor usability. However I have at least not come
across any studies which have tested their veracity. If anything of
that kind exists, I would be extremely happy for a pointer. I would
also be extremely curious whether any attempts have been undertaken to
weight the importance of each individual cause. Is there any
particular factors which can be clearly identified as the one or two
main showstoppers, which should thus be treated as the top priorities
or is there a whole array of causes which have more or less equal
weight?
Looking forward to any feedback,
Johannes
--
Johannes Rohr
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Eisenacher Straße 2
10777 Berlin
Tel.: +49 30 219158260
http://wikimedia.de
Helfen Sie mit, dass WIKIPEDIA von der UNESCO als erstes digitales
Weltkulturerbe anerkannt wird. Unterzeichnen Sie die Online-Petition:
http://wikipedia.de/wke/.
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt
für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
