Hola!
Greetings from Buenos Aires!
I am User: Netha Hussain (1), writing from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was lucky to represent India in the WikiWomenCamp (2) and WikiGenero held here from 23-26 May 2012. My travel and accommodation were sponsored by Wikimedia Germany and Wikimedia Austria. The past four days had been fabulous, and I enjoyed being in the company of amazing women from different parts of the world.
The conference was held in open space format with no agenda. Open space technology is called the 'wiki-way' of conducting conference as ideas are created by the way of discussing in groups and accepting contributions from all participants. I loved this, and I think we must try and use this methodology in Indian conferences too. We discussed about many issues which are primarily of concern to women, including mapping gender issues, edit-wars, GLAM, attracting women to Wikiprojects etc (3). We learned about the many projects launched in different countries for the increasing the participation of women in administration.
I could present the Indian perspective of issues at the conference. Most participants were amazed to know about the diversity of Indian languages. I also spoke about the WikiConf-Mumbai 2011 and the results of the gendergap session organized in the conference. The working of the chapter was also explained, but it was disappointing to reveal that we did not have had any women member in the chapter ever since.
We created a private mailing list for women to get support when dealing with harassment, took steps to create WikiChix, decided to print books on perspectives of women in various countries and discussed about conducting a WikiWomencamp with more participants the coming year.
At WikiGenero which happened on 26th May, Sue Gardner delivered a keynote address which was very inspiring. The news about the camp was published in local newspapers. The notes are available on meta and photos on commons(4). At the conference, I could build contacts with many women from different parts of the world. I could learn many new things could also share my knowledge. It was a highly rewarding experience.
(1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain(2)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomenCamp
(3)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomenCamp/Agenda(4)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:WikiWomenCamp_2012
Gracias!
Sincerely
Netha Hussain
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Netha Hussain
Student of Medicine and Surgery
Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode
Blogs : nethahussain.blogspot.com
swethaambari.wordpress.com