Dear all,
Just plucked this off WM Israel's June report on wikimedia-l posted July 15
and wanted to share here in case you'll had missed it.
*
Fifth Wikipedia Academy Conference *
The fifth Wikipedia Academy conference in Israel was held on June 2, 2013
in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. The central theme of this year's
conference, which attracted an audience of 150—among them Wikipedians,
members of the academia and the business world—was "*Why are there fewer
women editors on Wikipedia*".
We were honored to welcome the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
member *Bishakha Datta* , as our keynote speaker. We also had a women's
panel with some of our Wikipedia Israel community members, and several
professional researchers.
- Follow this link to
see<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/03/fifth-wikipedia-academy-israel/…
our
latest update on Wikimedia blog
- Watch the video clip summary <http://youtu.be/Nr9VoizX0-Q> of the
conference:
- All the sessions are available on our
YouTubechannel<http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuQcXKjU3rwLCQz-dbP…
:
- Photos on
Flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/wikimediail/sets/72157633952455042/&…
and
Commons<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_Academy_Isr…
:
Wikimedia Israel Survey
On June 2013, Wikimedia Israel conducted a survey, according to which 23%
of Israeli Wikipedians are women (compared to 10–15% in other parts of the
world), 57% of Wikipedians are single and have a bachelor's or master's
degree, 15% are under the age of 15 and 5% are over 60. Only 29% of the
editors said they wrote new articles; the others engaged in adding content
to existing articles, correcting mistakes and adding media.
You will find the exact statistics on this press
release<http://www.wikimedia.org.il/%D7%A0%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%A8-%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%95%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%AA/>
.
*-----*
Some additional comments:
While researching my presentation, I went through every single email on
this list since January and found it incredibly useful. So thank you, all.
And thanks, Sue, for your foresight in getting this up and going. (In an
aside, I also found myself comparing and contrasting the tone/s and styles
of posting on this list and on wikimedia-l, which would be worth a research
study of its own someday).
But wanted to draw your attention to the conference itself, which was
excellently organized, meaty, and buzzing with men and women from within
and outside of wikimedia (bloggers, academics, students, researchers)
engaged in productive conversations, largely in Hebrew, which I followed
via informal translations. The conference room was full and everyone
present was deeply engaged.
Apart from all that is documented in the links above, we had an interesting
micro-exchange on gender habits related to editing: some editors felt that
men will confidently place information on a wiki page, even if not totally
sure about the veracity of this information. They said that women will
hesitate many times before hitting 'save'; checking and cross-checking the
information until they are certain of it beyond doubt.
This discussion was prompted by a study of women and knowledge of politics
in the US; a survey showed that women would click 'don't know' far more
than men, who would guess an answer if they didn't know one, instead of
hitting don't know. Removing 'don't know' was suggested as an option to
get
women to change this 'uncertain' behaviour. Obviously, this doesn't hold
for all women or all men, but just wanted to put it out.
I also met the Monday Group, a small group of women, who edit every Monday
- they get together and get snacks and drinks and have fun editing
together. After the conference, we had a cozy wikichix dinner, with editors
working on Hebrew wikipedia. A lovely end to a wonderful day.
Best
Bishakha