On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hey folks,
I've always thought that Val Henson's HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux is a
terrific document: it's well-researched, carefully-written and
comprehensive, and I think it works really well as an iconic, permanent
document. I've pointed lots of people towards it, and it's saved me saying
the same thing over and over again, many times.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/
Thanks for the compliments! While I coordinated the HOWTO and wrote
most of the text, the HOWTO was an extremely collaborative work
written with the contribution of dozens of people from the Linux
community, and I blame them for its success.
It occurred to me the other day that we could make
something similar for
Wikipedia. So I wrote Val a note (Val may be on this list, I can't remember.
If so, hi Val!) asking how she'd feel about that, and she's completely
Hi, Sue! Yes, I'm on this list. (For those who are wondering, I'm Val
Henson, I just changed my name since I wrote that HOWTO.)
supportive. So I wonder: does anyone here want to
volunteer to facilitate
the creation of a version of Val's HOWTO, adapted and customized for
Wikipedia? I'd be really happy to help, but I don't want its development to
be perceived as a Wikimedia Foundation initiative; I'd rather it be
understood as coming out of the Wikimedia community.
I agree, these kinds of documents can only come from the community,
and writing one has to be led and coordinated by someone who has
direct and long-term experience with the subject at hand. (In other
words, a woman who has edited Wikipedia for several years and has a
wide contact network with other women editors.)
If you're thinking about leading this but not sure you can do it on
your own, I would be thrilled to mentor, advise, review, etc. I
learned a lot from writing HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux and I'd be
glad to pass it on. Also, keep in mind that you can copy or slightly
edit the parts of the Linux HOWTO that apply to Wikipedia, so you
won't have to write the entire thing from scratch. Feel free to
contact me privately if you are on the fence.
Thanks,
-VAL