[WikiEN-l] NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors

[Nathan]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 1:23 PM, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have no idea what the board members are saying on the internal-L mailing
> list; however, if they're expressing concerns about behaviour there,
> they might want to actually mention it onwiki on the projects  where there
> are concerns.  Themselves. Wearing their Board hat, rather than their "I'm
> just an editor" hat. They're actually selected to be leaders of the WMF, and
> it would make it a darn sight easier to change community practices if the
> Trustees would be much more public in their pronouncements and sharing their
> experiences and observations.  Internal-L is the last place where that will
> be helpful, with its extremely restrictive distribution and chapter-heavy
> membership.
>
> Risker/Anne
> _______________________________________________


Risker has pinned the issue; what the English Wikipedia suffers from
is a lack of leadership. The global, decentralised, community
self-managed nature of Wikipedia has allowed for many great things...
but it has its drawbacks, among them the complete inability to enforce
social norms.