Hi folks,
Several people have asked whether the Ally Skills Workshop will be an unpleasant experience for women attending - specifically, whether men will dominate the conversation, dismiss what women say, etc. We spend the first 20 minutes of the workshop setting up discussion rules so that this doesn't happen - in fact, the workshop is real-world practice in how to have a discussion in ways that give women an equal chance to be respectfully heard.
Another question is whether people can find out who else will be attending the workshop. I can't release the attendee list, but I can tell you that I have a 5-person review committee looking at each application and checking people's wiki contributions and online output. We reject anyone who seems unlikely to contribute positively to the workshop, whether that's because they don't have much experience in contributing to Wikimedia projects, they don't have the background to contribute to the workshop right away, or they seem like trolls. I have kicked people out of the workshop in the past and will do it at this workshop if necessary (but I'm pretty sure it won't be).
All that being said, the workshop already has enough people registered that if we closed applications today we'd have a fantastic workshop. Applications are still open for now but we will probably close them soon.
And I'm working on getting it on the official programme! Sorry for the trouble there.
https://adainitiative.org/2015/06/apply-now-for-the-ally-skills-workshop-at-...
Thanks everyone for their helpful comments and suggestions and see y'all in Mexico City!
-VAL
On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 1:35 PM, Valerie Aurora valerie@adainitiative.org wrote:
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/