[Gendergap] Stubs, task forces, etc.

[Sydney Poore]

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 5:38 PM, Sarah Stierch <sarah at sarahstierch.com>wrote:

>
>
>> --
>>
>
> I second Sarah's proposal to research why women don't contribute to
> Wikipedia. I have some ideas as to how we can do this using social media to
> branch out and evaluating email threads to look for repetitive themes.
> Because the opposite of the negative does not necessarily equal the
> positive, it is also important to look at the converse of that question, so
> we ask:
> What makes women contribute to Wikipedia?
>
>
> Yeah, we really need a Task Force for this. We can utilize online survey
> systems, analysis, and I do like your idea of using social media as well.
> Give people a platform, they'll give you their opinions :)
>
>
>  I have a second thought to chime in here. We have strong evidence to
> believe that the limited diversity of WP editors limits the content of
> Wikipedia and we know that new articles are not being created at the rate
> they were 3-4 years ago. Is it possible that the limited content has an
> effect on the editors who participate? For example, suppose a potential
> woman editor wants to work on an article about Charlotte Ray, the first
> black woman lawyer. But there is not even a stub for Charlotte, so our
> editor tries to create the article, but it is immediately tagged for
> deletion for notability reasons. Having heard from many new editors, it is
> incredibly common that the initial contact with Wikipedia is that their
> article is deleted. I'm proposing that existing content is limited by the
> ideas of what the majority of the current community believes is notable, and
> it is difficult for new editors to earn the reputation within Wikipedia to
> influence this. So in effect the current content is limiting what new
> editors can contribute, and I suspect this is a major stumbling block for
> new women editors
>
>
> I TOTALLY agree. If you search on Wikipedia and don't find the person or
> thing you're looking for, it's easy to just give up and move along. The
> "Stub" idea is one direction we have taken WikiProject: Public Art. I am a
> firm believer in "if you build it, they will come." And it happens - when I
> write an article or a stub about a public art sculpture people start to get
> involved, they claim it. I use Twitter and Facebook to post about my new
> articles, sharing them with neighborhoods and those involved in the
> community or museum or institution that might have some value put into the
> work of art - and it starts flying. Viewership goes up, people ask how they
> can contribute, and it encourages just what we want - expansion of
> information and sharing of knowledge.
>
>


> I also notice that the project we did with the Indiana Statehouse, which we
> asked students in a museum collections management class to research, locate,
> and photograph every work of art in the Indiana Statehouse. The majority of
> those contributors were women, I'd love to find out how many will continue
> to contribute - especially now that they were recognized by the State for
> their work! (
> http://richardmccoy.tumblr.com/post/3093430185/today-at-the-indiana-state-house-i-was-honored-to
> )
>
> I don't see any reason why we can't start reaching out to the University
> Ambassadorship programs to perhaps invoke more female involvement. "Women
> Who Wiki" (and this can be extended of course to individuals who identify as
> women in any way)
>
> If we have interest in expanding on "women's topics"  we can work with
> classes that focus on women's studies, GLBT issues, history, etc - why not
> build a Task Force to focus entirely on broadening the WOMAN on Wikipedia?
> If everyone on this mailing list created one stub about a woman, a woman's
> issue, etc, we'd sure make an impact :)
>

I have a list of  "first_United_States_female_state_legislators " stared in
my user space. I would love to have this adopted by one or more other people
who are interested in seeing have an article about each of these women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FloNight/List_of_the_first_United_States_female_state_legislators

We need to check to see if they already have an article and if so link to
it. If not then we need to write a stub or a short article.

I spend time writing articles about interesting women because I think that
we are not doing a good job with content about remarkable women. Durng March
March 2010 Women's History Month (United State) I exclusively worked on
articles about historically significant women. You can see my list on my
user page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FloNight

Maybe we could organize some editing initiatives around a month or day when
outside organizations honor women. It would be great if we could collaborate
with some of these outside groups if they are researching notable wormen. In
the United States most states have a Women's Hall of Fame that has a list of
interesting women from that state. It would be a good place to start.

Sydney





> Sarah
>
>
>  -Amy
>
>
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> Historical, cultural & artistic research, advising & event planning.
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