Hi folks,
I'm going to be a little selfish here, so pardon me. But, yesterday I coordinated a "fine art" themed edit-a-thon at our local downtown library, here in Washington, DC, followed by a meet-up at a local pub. I'm proud to say we had 13 people at the edit-a-thon, and six were women. The meetup? We had 16 people and 9 were women!! These numbers might seem small compared to larger events, but, to have an event like this, and have such a healthy mix, made me so happy.
User:Aude, the President of Wikimedia DC joked "I remember when it'd be just me and Mindspillage, as the only women," and we gushed about having such a healthy group of "all genders" at the event. I noticed, when saying goodbye to people, that I got a bit emotional - not only did we have a gender-mixed Wiki-event, but, we also actually wrote new articles and expanded articles - and anyone who attends an edit-a-thon knows - it's often chaos and just socializing, not actual editing.
You can see our outcomes here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_26/To-do_list#OUTCOMES
Which includes new articles or expanded articles about seven women artists!!!
Obviously, I'm on a bit of a high from this, as I love outreach and coordinating things like this; I do believe the power of invitation helped with the success of this event. I don't use bots for invitations, and I do my best to individually reach out to people "I hope you'll be there." I genuinely do believe that invitation is one of the strongest keys in making sure that events, participation, and programs succeed in regards to closing the gender gap.
Thanks for letting me gush =) One event, for me, leads to one more woman feeling inspired to continue participating. It also shows that offline events make for such a rewarding experience - we get to come together, put our differences aside, and work together for the common cause of providing free knowledge to the world. One woman who came had never written a new article - and this was her first time - and she really was proud. That just made me so happy.
I also got to meet Carol Moore, which was rather epic, I must say. :)
-Sarah
Great, Sarah! I don't know if I've said it before, but you really are one of the best Wikipedians I've known. Passionate without being unfriendly, plenty of good ideas (that you also help to realize), and a welcoming heart. Thanks for being you.
Best wishes,
Lennart
Lennart Guldbrandsson, Tfn: 031 - 12 50 48 Mobil: 070 - 207 80 05 Epost: l_guldbrandsson@hotmail.com / lennart@wikimedia.se Användarsida: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anv%C3%A4ndare:Hannibal Blogg: http://mrchapel.wordpress.com/ Wikimedia Sverige http://wikimedia.se http://www.1av3.se
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:00:12 -0500 From: sarah.stierch@gmail.com To: gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Gendergap] A nice mix - our edit-a-thon sure shook up the gender gap!
Hi folks,
I'm going to be a little selfish here, so pardon me. But, yesterday I coordinated a "fine art" themed edit-a-thon at our local downtown library, here in Washington, DC, followed by a meet-up at a local pub. I'm proud to say we had 13 people at the edit-a-thon, and six were women. The meetup? We had 16 people and 9 were women!! These numbers might seem small compared to larger events, but, to have an event like this, and have such a healthy mix, made me so happy.
User:Aude, the President of Wikimedia DC joked "I remember when it'd be just me and Mindspillage, as the only women," and we gushed about having such a healthy group of "all genders" at the event. I noticed, when saying goodbye to people, that I got a bit emotional - not only did we have a gender-mixed Wiki-event, but, we also actually wrote new articles and expanded articles - and anyone who attends an edit-a-thon knows - it's often chaos and just socializing, not actual editing.
You can see our outcomes here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_26/To-do_list#OUTCOMES
Which includes new articles or expanded articles about seven women artists!!!
Obviously, I'm on a bit of a high from this, as I love outreach and coordinating things like this; I do believe the power of invitation helped with the success of this event. I don't use bots for invitations, and I do my best to individually reach out to people "I hope you'll be there." I genuinely do believe that invitation is one of the strongest keys in making sure that events, participation, and programs succeed in regards to closing the gender gap.
Thanks for letting me gush =) One event, for me, leads to one more woman feeling inspired to continue participating. It also shows that offline events make for such a rewarding experience - we get to come together, put our differences aside, and work together for the common cause of providing free knowledge to the world. One woman who came had never written a new article - and this was her first time - and she really was proud. That just made me so happy.
I also got to meet Carol Moore, which was rather epic, I must say. :)
-Sarah
-- Sarah Stierch Consulting -- Historical, cultural, new media & artistic research & advising. http://www.sarahstierch.com
Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
Yes, it was a great event! Definitely a fun thing to do if you can get a critical mass of people. (Three in my book :-)
Forced to leave my own narrow interest ghetto, I discovered a fascinating woman artist - Rachel Feinstein- who is her own kind of libertarian and feminist whose husband John Currin (who does satirical quasi porn art) had an article but she did not, even though they are considered a "Power couple" in NY art world. Almost finished and I hope to get it up by tomorrow night, holiday housework permitting. Also will add more info about her to his article, as well as some of his very supportive comments on feminism.
Epicly yours! C.M.
On 12/18/2011 12:00 PM, Sarah Stierch wrote:
Hi folks,
I'm going to be a little selfish here, so pardon me. But, yesterday I coordinated a "fine art" themed edit-a-thon at our local downtown library, here in Washington, DC, followed by a meet-up at a local pub. I'm proud to say we had 13 people at the edit-a-thon, and six were women. The meetup? We had 16 people and 9 were women!! These numbers might seem small compared to larger events, but, to have an event like this, and have such a healthy mix, made me so happy.
User:Aude, the President of Wikimedia DC joked "I remember when it'd be just me and Mindspillage, as the only women," and we gushed about having such a healthy group of "all genders" at the event. I noticed, when saying goodbye to people, that I got a bit emotional - not only did we have a gender-mixed Wiki-event, but, we also actually wrote new articles and expanded articles - and anyone who attends an edit-a-thon knows - it's often chaos and just socializing, not actual editing.
You can see our outcomes here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_26/To-do_list#OUTCOMES
Which includes new articles or expanded articles about seven women artists!!!
Obviously, I'm on a bit of a high from this, as I love outreach and coordinating things like this; I do believe the power of invitation helped with the success of this event. I don't use bots for invitations, and I do my best to individually reach out to people "I hope you'll be there." I genuinely do believe that invitation is one of the strongest keys in making sure that events, participation, and programs succeed in regards to closing the gender gap.
Thanks for letting me gush =) One event, for me, leads to one more woman feeling inspired to continue participating. It also shows that offline events make for such a rewarding experience - we get to come together, put our differences aside, and work together for the common cause of providing free knowledge to the world. One woman who came had never written a new article - and this was her first time - and she really was proud. That just made me so happy.
I also got to meet Carol Moore, which was rather epic, I must say. :)
-Sarah
I concur with Lennart. Gillian
On 20 December 2011 11:46, Carol Moore carolmooredc@verizon.net wrote:
Yes, it was a great event! Definitely a fun thing to do if you can get a critical mass of people. (Three in my book :-)
Forced to leave my own narrow interest ghetto, I discovered a fascinating woman artist - Rachel Feinstein- who is her own kind of libertarian and feminist whose husband John Currin (who does satirical quasi porn art) had an article but she did not, even though they are considered a "Power couple" in NY art world. Almost finished and I hope to get it up by tomorrow night, holiday housework permitting. Also will add more info about her to his article, as well as some of his very supportive comments on feminism.
Epicly yours! C.M.
On 12/18/2011 12:00 PM, Sarah Stierch wrote:
Hi folks,
I'm going to be a little selfish here, so pardon me. But, yesterday I coordinated a "fine art" themed edit-a-thon at our local downtown library, here in Washington, DC, followed by a meet-up at a local pub. I'm proud to say we had 13 people at the edit-a-thon, and six were women. The meetup? We had 16 people and 9 were women!! These numbers might seem small compared to larger events, but, to have an event like this, and have such a healthy mix, made me so happy.
User:Aude, the President of Wikimedia DC joked "I remember when it'd be just me and Mindspillage, as the only women," and we gushed about having such a healthy group of "all genders" at the event. I noticed, when saying goodbye to people, that I got a bit emotional - not only did we have a gender-mixed Wiki-event, but, we also actually wrote new articles and expanded articles - and anyone who attends an edit-a-thon knows - it's often chaos and just socializing, not actual editing.
You can see our outcomes here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_26/To-do_list#OUTCOMES
Which includes new articles or expanded articles about seven women artists!!!
Obviously, I'm on a bit of a high from this, as I love outreach and coordinating things like this; I do believe the power of invitation helped with the success of this event. I don't use bots for invitations, and I do my best to individually reach out to people "I hope you'll be there." I genuinely do believe that invitation is one of the strongest keys in making sure that events, participation, and programs succeed in regards to closing the gender gap.
Thanks for letting me gush =) One event, for me, leads to one more woman feeling inspired to continue participating. It also shows that offline events make for such a rewarding experience - we get to come together, put our differences aside, and work together for the common cause of providing free knowledge to the world. One woman who came had never written a new article - and this was her first time - and she really was proud. That just made me so happy.
I also got to meet Carol Moore, which was rather epic, I must say. :)
-Sarah
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