Hi all,
Thanks to and Sarah for pointing out the success we've seen in the
Wikipedia Education Program in the Arab world with female participation. I
just wanted to share some numbers and also mention retention, which has
some good numbers as well even if that's not the program's main goal.
The current term is winding down in Egypt this week, and we've seen
especially high female participation yet again with 88% female and 12% male
participants (108 total students). In Jordan this term we've had 70% female
participation and 30% male (99 total students) -- significantly more female
participants in both cases.
The interesting thing to me is that in Egypt our students are mostly part
of the foreign language faculty, whereas our Jordan program runs almost
exclusively in IT classes and faculties (for now), which may be part of why
the numbers vary.
While the explicit focus of the WEP has always been content, we have seen
some notable retention numbers from the program's alumni in the region.
Looking at students from all previous terms and excluding the latest one
(spring 2012, fall 2012 and spring 2013, 464 students), 5.8% of these
students made at least one edit this month. More notably, 5.2% qualified as
active editors and (5+ edits) 1.9% qualified as very active editors (100+
edits) this month so far. This is all the more notable when you look at the
monthly stats for the Arabic Wikipedia with 637 active editors and 97
active editors in December (last month available from
).
I hope to write a blog about this soon which should give more context to
the gender and retention numbers we're seeing in the WEP in the Arab world.
Best,
Tighe
On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Amanda Menking <amenking(a)uw.edu> wrote:
Hi,
Laura has posted about her informal research at
http://wikinewsreporter.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/the-role-of-english-wikipe…
.
I'm currently working on a largely qualitative study w/r/t women and
English language Wikipedia, which I'll make available as soon as it's
finished. (See
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Women_and_Wikipedia.)
Lennart--I'd love to read your paper and include it as a source.
Best,
Amanda
*From:* gendergap-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:
gendergap-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *Lika Tika
*Sent:* Wednesday, February 26, 2014 11:38 AM
*To:* Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects
*Subject:* Re: [Gendergap] Help: Research on whether we have made any
difference?
I'd love to see the final paper. Does Laura Hale have any published
results available?
On Feb 26, 2014 12:26 PM, "Jane Darnell" <jane023(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Lennart,
That is interesting, because I thought there were at least a few
editor surveys to compare results, but apparently not. The only thing
I could find was a page on meta that points to the 2011 survey here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Survey
The Dutch Wikimedia chapter subcontracted a survey last year but those
results can be used against the English Wikipedia one I don't think.
It's too bad that conducting surveys is so expensive, because this
could be a useful tool for all sorts of key performance indicators.
Good luck, and I am looking forward to whatever you come up with.
Jane
2014-02-26 17:11 GMT+01:00, Lennart Guldbrandsson <
l_guldbrandsson(a)hotmail.com>gt;:
Totally agree, Sarah, with your final point, and
thanks for all the other
tips.
It seems my initial point, which can be stated as "little effect so far"
stands, but needs to be qualified somewhat. I'll get right on it, and
give
you guys and gals a link when the whole text is
published.
Thanks, everybody for your help.
Best wishes,
Lennart Guldbrandsson
070 - 207 80 05
http://www.elementx.se - arbete
http://www.mrchapel.wordpress.com - personlig blogg
Presentation
@aliasHannibal - på Twitter
"Tänk dig en värld där varje människa på den här planeten får fri
tillgång
till världens samlade kunskap. Det är vårt
mål."
Jimmy Wales
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 08:06:16 -0800
From: sarah.stierch(a)gmail.com
To: gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Help: Research on whether we have made
any difference?
Yes, the Teahouse project has some data to back it up. You can talk to
Jonathan Morgan, who co-build the space and was the lead in pulling data
if
you need to: jmorgan(a)wikimedia.org
Laura Hale has been doing some interesting research about the top
contributors to English Wikipedia and who write about women's subjects.
It's
rather depressing, of course.
laura(a)fanhistory.com
The research work the Program Evaluation and Design team did about
edit-a-thons and workshops shows little to no retention, which is no
surprise, really. But, that was not gender specific. My own personal
research showed the same, with womencentric events.
But, that doesn't mean a dent hasn't been made. Yes, the Education
program
happens to have a lot of women who contribute,
especially successes in
Arabic Wikipedia, but, outside of that specific program, the goal isn't
to
retain, it's to improve content.
I suggest people look at the improvement of "women centric" content
versus
the retention of women editors. The nut still
hasn't been cracked (puns
so
not intended) on user retention through events,
etc.
We did discover that a lot of content gets created via edit-a-thons and
such
events, versus the amount of people who stay on
as editors.
Don't rule out press and the attention the movement has received on the
subject. If you look at the partnerships - hell, the UK government
basically
said "uh hello, we need more women in
science on Wikipedia," last week.
Awareness is just one component of "making a difference."
-Sarah
On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 6:00 AM, Lennart Guldbrandsson
<l_guldbrandsson(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
Thank you, Pete,
I will take a look at those also. They seem to concur with other studies
of
percentage of the sexes studying.
Best wishes,
Lennart Guldbrandsson
070 - 207 80 05
http://www.elementx.se - arbete
http://www.mrchapel.wordpress.com - personlig blogg
Presentation
@aliasHannibal - på Twitter
"Tänk dig en värld där varje människa på den här planeten får fri
tillgång
till världens samlade kunskap. Det är vårt
mål."
Jimmy Wales
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 05:43:02 -0800
From: peteforsyth(a)gmail.com
To: gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Help: Research on whether we have made
any difference?
Lennart,
You should look at the Education Program, which after the first year
appeared to have a strong impact (i.e. more participation from women than
men).
It's also been my experience (anecdotal but strong) that the Writing
Wikipedia Articles course I teach has attracted and retained more women
than
men. (This would not impact the general numbers
in a signiificant way,
but
might offer insights into what kinds of activity
*would* impact the
numbers.)
Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
www.wikistrategies.net
On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 5:37 AM, Risker <risker.wp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I do not think it will be possible to accurately assess any impact of
specific actions, for multiple reasons. The most relevant one, however,
is
the fact that the WMF itself has not done any
broad-scale editor surveys
in
a very long time, nor have individual communities
to the best of my
knowledge.
Risker/Anne
On 26 February 2014 05:37, Lennart Guldbrandsson
<l_guldbrandsson(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
I am writing a short (1500 word) text for the journal of current cultural
research, Culture Unbound (
http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/index.html),
to be published in April. The topic touches quite
heavily on the
gendergap
issue. I have tried to find any numbers on
whether the initiatives -
editathons, Teahouse, etc - have made any dent in the numbers. Are there
any
such numbers or have I simply fantasized about
it?
Since they want the text soon, please respond soon. Any assistance is
greatly appreciated.
Best wishes,
Lennart Guldbrandsson
070 - 207 80 05
http://www.elementx.se - arbete
http://www.mrchapel.wordpress.com - personlig blogg
Presentation
@aliasHannibal - på Twitter
"Tänk dig en värld där varje människa på den här planeten får fri
tillgång
till världens samlade kunskap. Det är vårt
mål."
Jimmy Wales
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-----
Diverse and engaging consulting for your organization.
www.sarahstierch.com
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Tighe Flanagan
Arab World Education Program Manger
Wikimedia Foundation