Nathan, you mentioned hiring a contractor or a staff member. I was a fellow
last year, and I did all of that (speaking at conference, media outlets,
generate initiatives, etc.) but the focus of WMF changed so my contract
wasn't extended and a position was not formed. And some of us - Adrianne,
Netha, myself - spend a large portion of our volunteer time devoted to
this. I've stopped sending press coverage to this mailing list - but, we
just got done with a big push for Ada Lovelace Day events, which was
covered in everything from the BBC to Al Jazeera. I also speak at
conferences, as do many other women on this list. We just don't post it
here.
WMF also pulled out of GLAM-Wiki work - so I see it as this: a chance for
the community to lead the fight. And get money as needed from WMF as
possible. That's what the GLAM-wiki community has done. And that's sort of
what we have to do, and find specific people at WMF who can provide support
as needed (Siko, Anasuya, me, etc) and find money as needed (WMF has it)
and organize a bit more and get going.
that's what WWC was formed for - a grass roots effort inspired by the
women's movements of the past (and kinda present but not really these
days), it's just been next to impossible to find people to take WWC to the
next level (a user group).
But, it's frustrating as hell, for me, at least.
-Sarah
On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It just seems like there is a lot of sort of
low-hanging fruit
opportunity that the WMF could take advantage of if its serious about
really addressing the issue. Why not hire an activist of sorts to be
either a WMF employee or a grant funded contractor, who can develop
initiatives, speak at conferences and to media outlets, etc.? Generate
attention by participating in general tech communities and
tech/education conferences open to gender panels and speakers, solicit
reporting from news outlets and blogs, literally even place advertised
invitations to edit in venues with high visibility to women.
That's the thing, imho, that's been missing from this list and from
the WMF since the gender gap was identified as a serious (data
supported) problem: big picture activism and effort. One thing we've
realized as a community is that a lot of the small-bore outreach
efforts don't work well, so why not devote more resources to
large-bore recruitment? I'm not saying nothing has been done - indeed,
Sarah and Sue and others have put a ton of effort out, but it appears
to me that the WMF could be a lot more dedicated to it than it has
been.
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*Sarah Stierch*
*Museumist, open culture advocate, and Wikimedian*
*www.sarahstierch.com*