[Gendergap] Gender Gap discussion at Recent Changes Camp 2011

[Nicole Willson]

Hello,

As one of the organizers/attendees for Recent Changes Camp Boston 2011, I
just wanted to share what happened during the Gender Gap session through
pictures taken by wikiHow admin ttrimm. This was the most popular session,
followed by a session about Wiki Politics:

Gender Gap session
attendees<http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttrimm/5527798069/in/set-72157626144598891/#/photos/ttrimm/5527798069/in/set-72157626144598891/lightbox/>.
(I am the woman in purple next to the easel on the right who is scratching
her head.)

Notes<http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttrimm/5527798201/in/set-72157626144598891/>.
- If you have any questions about the notes, please feel free to ask me
either here or off-list.

40% of the conference attendees were female. Most of these women were
wikiHow admis, but also Anne Goldenberg (the facilitator and one of the
co-organizers), a woman who created websites using Tiki as well as a woman
who was just getting started editing Appropedia.

I think the conclusion that we came to was that making it easier for people
to become part of the community (for example, being less argumentative with
newbies), would help to lower the barriers to entry and get more people
involved. Basically, anything that would help the newbies like clearer
documentation and being super gentle with people who are editing wikis for
the first time. While newbie friendliness, may not be specific to women, we
felt that it would help get more new editors on Wikipedia and the other WMF
projects, including more women.
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