I'm Phoebe Ayers. I've been involved as a an editor on enwp since
2003, and have been involved in various Foundation projects, most
notably planning the international Wikimania conference. I am
currently serving a term on the Wikimedia Foundation board (I was
selected for a chapter-appointed seat in 2010). In my day job, I'm an
academic reference librarian at the University of California (still a
female-dominated field!), where I specialize in engineering
information.
I've also been involved in a number of wiki research projects, and
co-authored a book about the English Wikipedia in 2008 ("How Wikipedia
Works"); I also talk about the projects a fair amount in public.
Because of this, I've been in the business of trying to observe the
projects from a high level for a long time.
One thing I have found that is quite difficult when trying to get a
sense of Wikipedia is the fact that individual experience is so varied
-- because the site is so big and so complex, and so dependent on
individual encounters, it's possible and even likely for two similar
people to have wildly different experiences as editors (if one
encounters a troll and the other doesn't, if one subject area has
belligerent people working on it but another doesn't, etc). On the
other hand, there are several ideas that seem to have had a good deal
of consensus over a long period of time: that the project culture is
hostile and a bit dysfunctional; that it can be difficult to get work
done; that women have bad experiences, and so on. I am less interested
in making this a question only of gender than finding out why these
things happen on our projects, and how to stop them.
I was warmly welcomed back in 2003, female username and then real
name, and never really had any bad experiences because of it. I've
certainly had my share of fights with editors, and have been trolled a
bit on IRC (and had more than my share of fights on the mailing
lists), but nothing I'd write home about. (I also have never deeply
invested myself in working on controversial areas). I have however
certainly seen people I know suffer indignities at the hands of
off-site forums, and get into protracted arguments on the site, and
have experiences like some of the ones listed on this thread -- both
men and women.
At the same time I've seen some extraordinarily good things happen
too, and I am equally interested in finding and modeling good
interactions -- either good responses to bad behavior, or in general
examples of being a great Wikipedian, and celebrating those. This is
not an area where I think we can flip a setting and expect things to
change overnight (well, we could lock the database, but other than
that...), but we can work hard on norms-setting.
I am also interested in Foundation culture -- especially for those of
you who have been involved as Meta-pedians for a long time, knowing
what you think of it. (The Foundation's community of volunteers --
people who work on "meta" work -- is even smaller than the community
behind the projects, but is in many ways more balanced). I am also
particularly interested in experiences from projects other than the
English Wikipedia.
best,
-- phoebe
--
* I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers
<at>
gmail.com *