Ask women that they know if they know anyone who might have interest. 

I get emails on a regular basis like that. They rarely say "I'm looking for women or non-males," for the record, but... I always try to make my suggestions with a mix of people, male and female, and sometimes it ends up being a bunch of males with one female suggestion just because that's how it goes (boo!). 

I make the concerted effort to reach out to people I know in the community. It might not have to involve emailing a mailing list, but, it's a start until you find a community of people with same interests. 

I'm lucky enough at this point where I know people directly I can reach out towards if I'm going to do a session about the gender gap, GLAM, whatever, but, that wasn't always the case. 

For example: I'm on a mailing list for GLAM people, involved in "open culture," a colleague send an email out asking if anyone wanted to be involved in implementing a workshop about best practices for a conference. I responded, and it turns out the other person who responded was a woman. Now we have a submission - a man and two women - waiting for review - and we could very well be the only panel at the entire conference like that. And plenty of men could have responded with interest! 

So anything is possible! :) 

-Sarah


On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 5:08 PM, Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth@gmail.com> wrote:
There are 516 submissions for Wikimania. I don't know how many are panels -- conservatively, maybe 100?

In an ideal world, do we really want 100 people to email this list to seek panelists? How about Wikipedia-related submissions for hundreds of other conferences?

My answer would be no -- actually I would go further, I think in many cases (but not all) it's desirable to have an individual gather a panel in private, according to his or her own vision for the topic.

If we assume that Max (or somebody like him) wants to explore putting together a panel without putting out a public call, are there some specific practices he or she can employ to improve the chances of attracting non-men?

Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]] on Wikipedia


On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 4:46 PM, Sarah Stierch <sarah.stierch@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes...I must say..this is the first I have heard about this panel and the outreach seeking women panelists. Including my involvement in numerous open culture mailing lists...(but, perhaps I missed an email seeking participants in my crazy life!). 

I know a few women who might or might not be in London, but who might have interested in this (from academia and the open culture/knowledge world internationally)...   all it would take is a few chances to send a call to action to mailing lists. 

Not really sure what to say regarding how to deal with having an all male panel. I'm sure it won't be the only one. This is Wikimania after all...and based on our gender ratio.... 

But, for humor's sake there is always this: http://whiteguysdoingitbythemselves.tumblr.com/

:) 

Sarah




On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Heather Walls <hwalls@wikimedia.org> wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean by "qualified speakers", but you did you ask on this list?

-h



On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 3:40 PM, Maximilian Klein <isalix@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Gender Gap,

With some collaborators, I submitted this panel for Wikimania 2014 "Reform of citation structure for all Wikimedia project" [1]. Despite my best efforts (and continuing efforts), I couldn't find any non-men to be on the panel. I asked each of the potential panelists if they knew any other qualified speakers (not specifically women, just other people), asked my old colleagues, put a call out on social media. But it just ended up being all-men.

Is it desirable to write something to the effect of "we are cognizant this is an all-male panel, and would like to change the underlying factors" as a preamble to the submissions? And if so, what is the right way?

Best,

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Heather Walls
Communications Design Manager
WikimediaFoundation.org
heather@wikimedia.org

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Diverse and engaging consulting for your organization.

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_______________________________________________
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--

Sarah Stierch

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Diverse and engaging consulting for your organization.

www.sarahstierch.com