On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 11:52 PM, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well she no longer works. But certainly she had little use for it (and little
time for the internet at all) when she did work. I do occasionally use Wikpedia
for work to confirm chemicals being asked for (i.e. Was Muriatic Acid another
name for Hydrochloric acid or Hydrofluoric acid) Chemical names are very
non-standard on the application side. For five years an co-worker from Albania
had been asking people for where in the hardware store he might find the Calcium
Hydroxide for a special recipe. He knew it was a commonly used item but had been
completely unable to locate it in America and everyone would tell him they had
never heard of it. Finally I looked it up on Wikipedia and said "Oh you want
LIME." And that is the majority of my work-time usage of Wikipedia, figuring
out answers for the water-cooler.

Birgitte SB

----- Original Message ----
> From: Sandra <sandratordonez@gmail.com>
> To: Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects
><gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org>

> Sent: Wed, February 16, 2011 4:59:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Fwd: [PRESS] Discovery News: Is There A Gender Gap
>Online?
>
> Brigitte I bet it's also that she doesn't use for wikipedia for work.
> I think there was some study that showed that wikipedia and similar sites (in
>japan or England maybe) were accessed during work hours. I wish i could
>remember the details
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Feb 16, 2011, at 5:37 PM, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> >> From: Sue Gardner <sgardner@wikimedia.org>
> >> To: gendergap <Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org>
> >> Sent: Wed, February 16, 2011 12:51:48 PM
> >> Subject: [Gendergap] Fwd: [PRESS] Discovery News: Is There A Gender Gap
> > Online?
> > <snip>
> >>
> >> So when it comes to gender and the Internet today, the more pertinent
> >> question isn’t whether more men or women are surfing the Net, but
> >> whether they’re surfing the Net differently.
> >>
> > <snip>
> >
> > Completely anecdotal but I had an interesting conversation with my sister on
>Jan
>
> > 15. She happened to be in-town staying the weekend with me and my hosting
> > duties conflicted with the last minute WikiX meet-up so I asked her to
>come. In
>
> > talking about this she asked me, "What do people use Wikipedia for
>anyways?" I
>
> > couldn't believe she had really been unexposed to WP so I took her iPhone
>found
>
> > the Google app and went through the whole alphabet on letter at a time to
>see
>
> > her previous searches (BTW with her permission!). None of them would have
> > brought her to Wikipedia. The large majority of them were shopping
>related.
>
> > She has her BA, was a pharma rep until recently becoming a SAHM. Her
> > traditional nuclear family with 2.5 kids has two laptops, an older
>desktop,
>
> > and some kind of system that allows the TV to be a internet browser.
>Age-wise
>
> > she falls in-between GenX and the Millennials. She uses the internet daily.
>
> > Online she is really into coupons, shopping, and plans to start a cooking
>blog.
>
> > And she honestly hadn't come across Wikipedia enough to understand what it
>was.
>
> > Before this conversation I would have never believed that someone who
>considers
>
> > becoming a blogger would had no understanding of what Wikipedia was and why

> > people *used* it (i.e. as opposed to why they edited it).
> >
> >
> > In comparison, we are about the same age and spend about the same about of
>time
>
> > online in our daily lives. However, I live alone, never finished my degree,
>work
>
> > at an unremarkable office job, own a single laptop, don't even have a smart

> > phone, but I have edited Wikipedia and Wikisource since 2006. I suspect it
>is
>
> > the more basic life-style differences rather than the internet based ones
>that
>
> > fuel the gender gap.I think this study raises a good point the internet
> > participation, or likely a life-style well integrated with internet
> > technologies, has no correlation with Wikipedia editing. The internet isn't
>
> > what it was ten years ago. So while good internet access is imperative for
> > participation in the wikis, the internet is too big and ubiquitous for us to
>
> > assume any longer that everyone with good internet access will be brought to
>
> > Wikipedia. Even though that was true in the past.
> >
> >
> > Complete speculation: I think this shows up stronger with women than men,
> > because more men were early adopters back when the internet invariably led
>to
>
> > Wikipedia. I don't think that amoung populations just getting good internet
>
> > acces today that this gender gap will be quite so large. Although I still
> > believe that the fact the interesting-to-men-topics have been so
>well-covered in
>
> > Wikipedia by those male early adopters will ensure that the gender gap
>continues
>
> > without intervention. (i.e. the gap might shrink in these populations
>because we
>
> > will gain less of the men rather than gaining more women.)
> >
> > Birgitte SB
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
>
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