Welcome to the list Cobi. :-)
I want to talk with you more about your thoughts. We are in agreement that rewarding
existing groups or projects who demonstrate the ability to be inclusive is one way to
fight systemic bias.
I'm on the WMF's Fund Dissemination Committee that gives unrestricted grants to
fund annual plans of WMF affiliated organizations. These groups are the largest and most
complex organizations who will be receiving between $100, 000 to $2, 000, 000.
Diversity work is one of the areas that organizations can highlight in the proposal to
show that they are working on projects that advance the WMF's goals as stated in WMF
Strategic Plan.
Right now we are in the open community review part of the process. This phase gives
anyone the chance to look at the proposals and ask questions or comment.
It would be great to have people who are knowledgable about different types of programs or
activities weighing in about whether the proposal is addressing the gender gap in a
meaningful way.
The talk pages of the proposals are closely monitored by the organizations and the FDC
staff and committee members and is the best place to leave comments or questions.
The community review is open for 10 more days. Leaving your comments about the proposals
now is the best way to influence funding of WMF's largest organizations.
This page is where to begin reviewing the proposals.
Spread the word.
Cobi, let's talk more about your ideas and how we can encourage existing groups to be
more inclusive.
Regards,
Sydney Poore
from my iPhone
On Oct 21, 2013, at 0:48, Cobi <cobi(a)aippnet.org> wrote:
Hey,
this is the first time I've actually added anything to discussion on this list :)
I agree that trying to address the issue by hiring one or two activists taking on
responsiblity for talking about it/acting on it wouldn't address what I consider to be
the big problem of "environmental challenges" or systemic bias, as having people
focused specifically on the issue can mean that people who don't care or inadvertently
contribute to the problem can continue to dismiss it as a niche issue. In my experience I
find it more effective to say, for example, that I think open access is really important
and I will contribute to open access projects, but if people behave in ways that
contribute to systemic bias, I will not contribute further as I prefer to focus my
energies elsewhere.
As research about women in engineering shows, benefits-focused recruitment drives
won't work if women (or other underrepresented peoples in Wikipedia) get lost along a
leaky pipeline, when after acquiring the technical skills to contribute, they come to feel
that their contributions aren't valued and they are better off focusing energies
elsewhere. I'm working in international development - part of that often involves
disaggregating data to see which projects are involving people of diverse genders and ages
and ethnicities for example, and which aren't, and refocusing funding to value groups
that demonstrate the ability to be inclusive, or that specifically engage people who are
often left out in genuine decision-making and empowerment - rather than pushing them to
work for little return. Perhaps one strategy is to look at the composition of existing
WMF-affiliated user groups, to see what gaps exist in what WMF is endorsing (and giving
grants for. I think it would useful to have an activist involved in every single user
group, contributing there and raising awareness of issues among other editors, but
that's a burden on each of those activists to lead change in those groups. I
wouldn't be comfortable joining a group just focused on this issue, for fear of
harassment or people being more subtly difficult, knowing I'm focusing energies in
this area that they might be opposed to - I'd be more comfortable being part of a
project in which women editors contribute to other projects and that WMF works to ensure
their contributions are valued and supported, recognizing that systemic bias means value
and support is less likely to happen naturally within the system.
Perhaps they're not mutually exclusive though. I'm sharing this hoping it helps
to explain why some people, who are activists in this area, aren't necessarily active
in the way proposed right now :)
Cheers, Cobi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alixos
On Oct 18, 2556 BE, at 6:29 AM, Sydney Poore wrote:
Hi ,
Today I began the discussion about establishing a Wikimedia Foundation affiliated user
group around the topic of addressing the gender gap in Wikimedia Foundation projects. I
see this as being an international organization where people from all over the world can
work together on this common cause.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gender_gap_strategy_2013#Establishing_…
The threshold for being recognized is pretty low., only 3 people, but I would not want to
go for affiliation with less than 10 interested people. And I hope we can attract many
many more.
I plan to discuss this in Berlin at the Diversity Conference but want to make it clear
that the organization is open to every one interested in actively working on the topic. So
please spread the word.
I put a sign up space in the thread so we can capture the initial interest that came out
of this thread.
One of the key discussion will be the name of the group. So everyone put their thinking
caps on so we can make this decision within the next month of so.
Sydney Poore
On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 4:11 PM, Sydney
<sydney.poore(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, with the narrowing focus last year the
community will need to take the
lead. But from the meeting earlier this year it is clear that there
definitely is talented people on staff at WMF who are more than willing to
assist as their time permits.
That's unfortunate. I understood the narrowing focus to mean not
placing WMF offices and contractors around the world, or doing sort of
boots on the ground face to face outreach. Since usability initiatives
and some other programs are still ongoing, it seems like the gender
gap should've stayed on the table for direct involvement even if not
through the vehicle of the fellowship program. Too bad.
That said, there are chapters who receive hundreds of thousands of
dollars in funding from the FDC despite having objectively achieved
very little to date; certainly that means there is an opportunity
there for people with an interest in dedicating themselves full time
to this work to be compensated fairly through a funded WMF affiliate.
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