On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stierch@gmail.comwrote:
Andreas - when you say "until the Foundation does something," what are you looking for them to do?
You can always directly write the legal team and ask them for input on what "they" could do regarding your concerns. That's what I would do if I was you.
As you very well know, grantmaking and technical aren't able to do much of anything, due to our new focus. However, community members are welcome to develop Individual Engagement Grants and chapters are able to acquire funding for programs and projects, and the gender gap is something everyone loves to talk about over and over and over again but no one seems to be willing to step up as individuals or as chapters to make large scale changes outside of outreach activities. (And I am grateful for all people do on this list, but..I'm just sayin...it seems to be the same people over and over again bringing this up, however, all people seem to do to about it is complain and talk about it, and take no action, and it's really tiring and depressing to watch and puts the burden on those of us who have limited time and are already burnt out).
-Sarah
Andreas is one of the few editors who does a lot to try to counter these
things, but a group of volunteers can't turn this around on our own. And until the atmosphere changes, we're unlikely to attract good new editors, especially women, so we're in a chicken-and-egg situation. The argument is that the Foundation is the only structure in a position to change things in the kind of radical way that's needed.
For example, the Foundation did a lot of good by backing the need for good BLP policies, even though their statement didn't say anything new. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Biographies_of_living_peopleB... it offered moral support to the editors who were trying to change attitudes toward BLP, and that did make a difference on the ground. We still have BLP problems, but they're better than they used to be, and easier to change when we find them.
A similar statement from the Foundation about the need to reject racism, sexism and homophobia among editors -- and to remember that this is an educational project -- might go a long way to adjusting attitudes.
Sarah