I hadn't thought of editing before until I saw an awful article on
myself and on a group I was involved with, so I did start as activist
promoting a cause in my first couple articles for the first year or so
til I started to understand how wikipedia works.
Another woman wrote on the facebook page a relevant comment: "So
(another chicken-and-egg problem) one way to get more women to
participate is to increase coverage of topics women are more likely to
feel they can contribute to. Whatever those are... :-)"
So increasing number of articles women in general might like helps.
Also, get people in the habit by just encouraging minor edits to start,
even just grammar or spelling or wikilinks. Frequently when I watch a
movie I search for background in the Wikipedia article. Sometimes I make
minor corrections. I'm sure others use it for similar purposes.
Maybe appeal to the "straighten this mess out" motivation many women
feel (in fact that's how I describe part of my motivation on my user
page). Little habits can become big ones.
Maybe a banner every couple hours (or during high traffic times) that
say something like: "Hello, visitor! See a spelling or grammar mistake
in an article? Feel free to jump in and correct it. Making editing
wikipedia a habit!" Or something snappier. And a certain percentage of
those will be women who otherwise would not think of editing.
CM
On 3/7/2011 11:56 PM, Collective Action wrote:
...
I think for people who are new to Wikipedia and decide to edit due to
an issue they feel strongly about, their fervour may be a double-edged
sword. These people my be at most risk of their experience not living
up to their hopes in that their strong opinion might imply that there
are other people with equally strong opinions on the same topic on
Wikipedia and facing this while also learning the syntax and
everything else can result in them feeling overwhelmed.
The most common comment to me though is that women have just not
thought to do it before. These women don't cite any concerns about
Wikipedia- one has to be informed about Wikipedia to have heard of the
reputation for conflict that has been doing the media rounds. With a
bit of help and support through learning the ropes, many women I talk
to on Twitter don't have a problem with the idea of editing Wikipedia
and of course some have alredy done so.
Just thought I'd add my feedback to the topic.
Rosie
http://women4wikipedia.net
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:15:28 -0500
From: carolmooredc(a)verizon.net
Subject: [Gendergap] What motivates women to edit??