Hi,
After reading an interesting related discussion on GenderGap, I have
queried the top 10 users of the thanks feature last month, on both the
English Wikipedia and Commons. Snapshot image attached and report link
below.
Perhaps someone might think of a suitable barnstar and award these
folks for "being nice"? :-)
Link: http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:F%C3%A6/sandbox&oldid=1…
P.S. This is a long query to run, taking 20 to 30 minutes due to the
nature of the logging tables. However if someone wanted to make a
monthly summary on-wiki somewhere, part of an active "be nice"
campaign, I would be happy to set up an automated monthly report (if
someone discovers this is already reported somewhere, that's cool we
can use that).
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Hi long-suffering Gender Gap list members,
I have good news! Thanks to the hard work of many of the people on
this list, the WMF funded a grant to run a pilot Ally Skills Workshop
at Wikimania in July:
https://adainitiative.org/2015/06/apply-now-for-the-ally-skills-workshop-at…
The Ally Skills Workshop teaches men simple, everyday ways to support
women in their communities. This workshop will be laser-focused on
techniques that work specifically in Wikipedia and related projects,
including how to use existing policies and suggestions for advocating
for new policies. It will also teach people about the mindset of
trolls and what strategies work best for foiling them.
If it goes well, we'll apply for another WMF grant to run a
train-the-trainers, with the end goal of teaching the workshop to many
of the Wikipedia admins around the world. The goal is to get them
educated and wised up to the sexist tactics often used against women
editors, women's bios, and women's causes on Wikipedia.
If you are going, or if you know someone who would be a good person to
attend this workshop, please sign up or encourage them to sign up! You
can also retweet the announcement here:
https://twitter.com/adainitiative/status/613803456692793344
Thanks,
-VAL
--
Valerie Aurora
Interim Executive Director
You can help increase the participation of women in open technology and culture!
Donate today at http://adainitiative.org/donate/
The Inspire Campaign brought out a huge amount of interest in resolving the
problem of sexual harassment. There were some 14 proposals made by 26
users. Someone brought all these proposals together on one page for
discussion, but as far as I know, none of them was ever funded. The reason
for this is uncertain; perhaps anti-harassment measures are better placed
in the general budget than funded as one-time projects. I have pinged
Siko (WMF) and Luis Villa (WMF) on the discussion page, and asked for more
feedback about how to move forward with implementation on these issues.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Community_discussion_on_hara…
Got a RS for this now:
"In this environment, revenge pornography and other abusive behaviour, like
trolling, constitute a kind of gendered hate speech – designed to silence
women and other gender, sexual and racial minorities...Trolling tells women
(and others) that the digital space, a communal space, is not for their
voices. Gendered hate speech online actively restricts the free speech of
women."
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/22/revenge-porn-women-free-s…
Hello,
Slate recently published a, at least to my eyes, fairly well-balanced article about Wikipedia:
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/12/wikipedia_editing_…
The Gender Gap Task Force gets more than a shout-out:
"Last week, Wikipedia’s highest court, the Arbitration Committee,
composed of 12 elected volunteers who serve one- or two-year terms,
handed down a decision in a controversial case having to do with the
site’s self-formed Gender Gap Task Force,
the goal of which is to increase female participation on Wikipedia from
its current 10 percent to 25 percent by the end of next year. The
dispute, which involved ongoing hostility from a handful of prickly
longtime editors, had simmered for at least 18 months. In the end, the
only woman in the argument, pro-GGTF libertarian feminist Carol Moore,
was indefinitely banned from all of Wikipedia over her uncivil comments
toward a group of male editors, whom she at one point dubbed “the
Manchester Gangbangers and their cronies/minions.” Two of her chief
antagonists in that group got comparative slaps on the wrist. One was
the productive but notoriously hostile Eric “Fuck Wikipedia” Corbett, who has a milelong track record of incivility, had declared the task force a feminist “crusade ... to alienate every male editor,” and called Moore “nothing but a pain in the arse,” among less printable comments; he was handed a seemingly redundant “prohibition” on abusive language. The other editor was Sitush, who repeatedly criticized Moore for being “obsessed with an anti-male agenda” and then decided to research and write a Wikipedia biography of her;
he walked away with a mere “warning.” With the Arbitration Committee
opting only to ban the one woman in the dispute despite her behavior
being no worse than that of the men, it’s hard not to see this as a
setback to Wikipedia’s efforts to rectify its massive gender gap. (After
the decision, several editors announced their intentions to resign in protest.)
Moreover, it’s reflective of the challenges Wikipedia faces as it
attempts to retain and improve its content quality and editing force."
Also mentioned, the Chelsea Manning name controversy and the overall fall in editors.
What I miss here and in almost every article in English I've seen on these types of topics is that English Wikipedia is the only one mentioned. I grant that many readers only know English, but I for one, don't recognize the same bad language and anti-women behavior in my daily work on Swedish Wikipedia. We would simply not allow people to speak that way.
This leads me to wonder how those types of behaviors affect editors. We have a golden opportunity to A/B test this, because of all our language versions.
So, my question, stated another way, is: if the bad language and anti-women behavior on English Wikipedia deter editors, and maybe especially female editors, and we have other Wikipedias with less bad language and anti-women behavior (perhaps), do these language versions have a higher female-to-male ratio?
And stated a third way: how much do the bad language and anti-women behavior really influence the gendergap?
Best wishes,
Lennart Guldbrandsson
070 - 207 80 05
http://www.elementx.se
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Jimmy Wales
I just read the article too! I was going to tell y'all about it, then
noticed that Jane Darnell already had. Next, I rushed over to Wikipedia
and stuck an initial reference to it, right up top, as an additional source
for the 2011 (under-)estimate of female editors, see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia&type=re…
~Ellie (FeralOink)
Greetings,
Anyone on this list interested in taking part in a BBC program on women in tech?
Regards
Jonathan
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Robert Beck" <robert.beck(a)nutshelltv.co.uk>
> Subject: New BBC3 Series - Final Call for Applicants!
>
> Hi,
>
> My name is Rob and I am a Researcher on a new BBC3 programme. Our programme is offering women the chance to learn exciting new creative skills from some of the UK's leading digital companies and pioneers.
>
> I have emailed you before and just wanted to let you know we are having a final call for applications, so if you know anyone who would like to apply then tell them to email casting(a)nutshelltv.co.uk ASAP! They will be sent a few questions to answer. If anyone gets in touch for more information, there is no obligation to take part in any filming at this stage.
>
> We are currently looking for women over 18 to take part, and I wondered if you could help us circulate details to any groups in your area who might work with young people in your area? Or anyone you know personally - or anyone at all!
>
> It would also be great if you could mention our show across social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. I have attached our flyer to this email.
>
> If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me on 07941338778.
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Rob Beck
> Researcher - Nutshell TV