Hello,
First, I am of course very happy about the attention and support from Mr. Newmark.
But I am wondering about the special focus to "tools"; harassment is a problem on the social level, not the technical one. Also, after all those years in which we talk about harassment, I find it difficult to trust our Wikimedia institutions to come with an effective approach...
Kind regards
2017-01-27 3:47 GMT+01:00 Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com:
These are all very nice sentiments. But they're phrased in very vague ways.
Is there anywhere we can see the actual concrete plan for the use of these funds?
Todd
On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 7:30 PM, Samantha Lien slien@wikimedia.org wrote:
This press release is also available online here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/ Wikimedia_Foundation_receives_$500,000_from_the_Craig_ Newmark_Foundation_and_craigslist_Charitable_Fund_to_ support_a_healthy_and_inclusive_Wikimedia_community <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/
Wikimedia_Foundation_receives_$500,000_from_the_Craig_ Newmark_Foundation_and_craigslist_Charitable_Fund_to_ support_a_healthy_and_inclusive_Wikimedia_community>
And as a blog post on the Wikimedia blog here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/01/26/community-health-initiative-grant/
Wikimedia Foundation receives $500,000 from the Craig Newmark Foundation and craigslist Charitable Fund to support a healthy and inclusive
Wikimedia
community
Grant supports development of more advanced tools for volunteers and
staff
to reduce harassing behavior on Wikipedia and block harassers from the
site
SAN FRANCISCO — January 26, 2017 — Today, the Wikimedia Foundation announced the launch of a community health initiative to address
harassment
and toxic behavior on Wikipedia, with initial funding of US$500,000 from the Craig Newmark Foundation and craigslist Charitable Fund. The two seed grants, each US$250,000, will support the development of tools for volunteer editors and staff to reduce harassment on Wikipedia and block harassers.
Approximately 40% of internet users http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/online-harassment/, and as many as 70% of younger users have personally experienced harassment online,
with
regional studies showing rates as high as 76% <https://www.symantec.com/en/au/about/newsroom/press-
releases/2016/symantec_0309_01>
for young women. While harassment differs across the internet, on
Wikipedia
and other Wikimedia projects, harassment has been shown to reduce participation on the sites. More than 50% <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/
Harassment_Survey_2015_-_Results_Report.pdf>
of people who reported experiencing harassment also reported decreasing their participation in the Wikimedia community.
Volunteer editors on Wikipedia are often the first line of response for finding and addressing harassment on Wikipedia. "Trolling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll," "doxxing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing," and other menacing behaviors
are
burdens to Wikipedia's contributors, impeding their ability to do the writing and editing that makes Wikipedia so comprehensive and useful.
This
program seeks to respond to requests from editors over the years for
better
tools and support for responding to harassment and toxic behavior.
“To ensure Wikipedia’s vitality, people of good will need to work
together
to prevent trolling, harassment and cyber-bullying from interfering with the common good,” said Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist. “To that
end,
I'm supporting the work of the Wikimedia Foundation towards the
prevention
of harassment.”
The initiative is part of a commitment to community health at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that supports Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, in collaboration with the global community of volunteer editors. In 2015, the Foundation published its
first
Harassment Survey https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Harassment_survey_2015 about the nature of the issue in order to identify key areas of concern. In November 2016, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees issued a statement of support <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
Board_noticeboard/November_2016_-_Statement_on_Healthy_Community_Culture,_ Inclusivity,_and_Safe_Spaces>
calling for a more “proactive” approach to addressing harassment as a barrier to healthy, inclusive communities on Wikipedia.
"If we want everyone to share in the sum of all knowledge, we need to
make
sure everyone feels welcome,” said Katherine Maher, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “This grant supports a healthy culture for the volunteer editors of Wikipedia, so that more people can take part in sharing knowledge with the world."
The generous funding from the Craig Newmark Foundation and craigslist Charitable Fund will support the initial phase of a program https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_health_initiative to strengthen existing tools and develop additional tools to more quickly identify potentially harassing behavior, and help volunteer
administrators
evaluate harassment reports and respond effectively. These improvements will be made in close collaboration with the Wikimedia community to evaluate, test, and give feedback on the tools as they are developed.
This initiative addresses the major forms of harassment reported on the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2015 Harassment Survey <https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:
Harassment_Survey_2015_-_Results_Report.pdf&page=17>,
which covers a wide range of different behaviors: content vandalism, stalking, name-calling, trolling, doxxing, discrimination—anything that targets individuals for unfair and harmful attention. From research and community feedback, four areas have been identified where new tools could be beneficial in addressing and responding to harassment:
- Detection and prevention - making it easier and faster for editors to
identify and flag harassing behavior
- Reporting - providing victims and respondents of harassment improved
ways to report instances that offer a clearer, more streamlined approach
- Evaluating - supporting tools that help volunteers better evaluate
harassing behavior and inform the best way to respond
- Blocking - making it more difficult for someone who is blocked from the
site to return
For more information, please visit: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Community_health_initiative
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports and operates Wikipedia and its sister projects. More than a billion unique devices access the Wikimedia sites each month. Roughly 75,000 people edit Wikipedia and its sister projects every month, collectively creating and improving its more than 40 million articles across hundreds of languages
–
this all makes Wikipedia one of the most popular web properties in the world. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.
About Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the world’s free knowledge resource. It is a collaborative creation that has been added to and edited by millions of people from around the globe since it was created in 2001: anyone can edit it, at any time. Wikipedia is offered in hundreds of languages containing more than
40
million articles. Wikimedia and its sister projects are collectively visited by more than a billion unique devices each month.
Harassment takes different forms on Wikipedia than it does on other major websites. Unlike other platforms, Wikipedia editors generally don’t write about their personal lives. Instead, on Wikipedia, harassment usually begins as a content dispute between editors that results in an attack on
an
editor’s personal attributes—their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation—based on something that they’ve
shared,
or an assumption based on the user’s edit history.
About the Craig Newmark Foundation
The Craig Newmark Foundation (CNF) is a private foundation created by craigslist founder Craig Newmark in 2016 to support and connect nonprofit communities and drive powerful civic engagement. The Foundation’s priorities include Trustworthy Journalism, Veterans and Military
Families,
Voter Protection and Education, Consumer Protection and Education, Public Diplomacy, Government Transparency, Micro-Lending to Alleviate Poverty,
and
Women in Tech.
About craigslist Charitable Fund
The craigslist Charitable Fund (CCF) provides millions of dollars each year in one-time and recurring grants to hundreds of partner
organizations
addressing four broad areas of interest including Environment and Transportation; Education, Rights, Justice, and Reason; Nonviolence, Veterans and Peace; and Journalism, Open Source, and Internet.
Press contacts
Craig Newmark Foundation
Bruce Bonafede
press@craigconnects.org
Wikimedia Foundation
Juliet Barbara
jbarbara@wikimedia.org
(415) 839-6885
-- *Samantha Lien* Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105
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