Gendergap June 2013

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24 participants
21 discussions

[Commons] "Flag this image" prototype
by Erik Moeller 08 Jul '13

08 Jul '13

Sorry to those who are tired of the image/consent discussions, but just wanted to bring this to this list's attention as well. I'm tagging this thread with "[Commons]" and suggest others do the same in future to make it easier for people who do not want to discuss Commons or who feel inundated with the subject matter to filter these messages. Also, if you're using Google Mail, you can "mute" a thread (under the "More" options after you open the thread) and you won't see any future responses in your inbox -- other email clients have similar features. Quick notes about an interesting development: * User:Rillke on Commons has started prototyping a gadget that could be used to simplify reporting of various issues with images with a simple "Flag this image" workflow. This discussion is on the Commons Village Pump. I've brought that discussion to the attention of WMF legal. Note: It's not like the current workflow is completely broken -- the Commons:Contact_us flow is actually pretty good -- but a nicer UI and more prominent placement could help. The current workflow also does not provide an option for consent issues. * I've summarized the current state of his prototype here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reporting_abuse On the talk page I've also recommended that consent to be displayed in an image be considered in the reporting options. I'm sure Rillke would appreciate any active development help with the feature, as well as continued feedback and encouragement (WikiLove?) which is crucial for volunteer motivation. Cheers, Erik -- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation

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AfD #3 Binders Full of Women
by Carol Moore DC 29 Jun '13

29 Jun '13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Binders_full_o… FYI CM Note: There's still no consensus at En.WP:Canvass on what the protocol should be for Wiki Foundation lists.

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Re: [Gendergap] On how to make women feel welcome
by Pete Forsyth 28 Jun '13

28 Jun '13

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 10:59 AM, Heather Walls <hwalls(a)wikimedia.org>wrote: > > On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 10:48 AM, Carol Moore DC <carolmooredc(a)verizon.net > > wrote: > >> On 6/28/2013 5:09 AM, Lennart Guldbrandsson wrote: >> >> On a wiki meetup in Gothenburg (where there for some unexplained reason >> are always more women present than at the ones in Stockholm - different >> women, not just the same), I mentioned the gendergap issue to one of the >> female newcomers. She was not interested at all in the issue, since she >> felt that her edits should stand on their own merit, not be based on her >> gender. (Which made me feel like a creep for bringing the issue up.) >> >> > I don't really understand how "merit of edits" is necessarily connected to > issues of the gender gap (they aren't to me). Is there a way to frame > speaking of this that helps assuage that? Perhaps I'm missing something. > Heather, let me take a crack at this, because I think it's a really imporant issue to keep in mind. When this list started (and since), I have reached out to a number of women encouraging them to join. Some have and some haven't, but there's a pretty common view that I believe is greatly under-represented on this list -- some of these people have subscribed, but of those who did, I think it's safe to say that *none* participate in the discussion. Several women (including my longest-standing Wikipedia colleague, with about 100,000 edits to date; two WMF board members, a close work colleague, and my mother) responded to the emergence of this list as follows. (I hope I've reflected this accurately; I've BCC'd these individuals to invite feedback in case I've gotten it wrong.) - While the gender gap on Wikipedia is a significant problem, it is better regarded as a *symptom* of an environment that is not welcoming in general, than as a distinct problem in itself. The gender gap is best addressed by advancing the general health of our community, rather than trying to target gender issues specifically. - Individual responsibility is an important component, and not everything that appears gender-driven is actually gender-driven. In some cases where a woman is having a bad experience, it results in part from her own actions. Being called a victim-blamer is not appealing, so staying away from a forum like this might be the safest bet. I find this perspective compelling, and sometimes find myself concerned at how little we hear from/about it on this list. I think it is a somewhat nuanced position that often gets summarized in ways that are incomplete; "letting my editing stand on its own merit" is, I think, a summary of the second bullet point. Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]]

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On how to make women feel welcome
by Adrianne Wadewitz 28 Jun '13

28 Jun '13

I'm not sure that registering and having enclosed spaces is the best way to make women feel welcome. I'm sure that might make some women feel that way, but at the Wiknic we had in LA, for example, far more women who had never edited and not signed up for the event just dropped by because we were in a park and looked inviting. Yes, Wikipedians can look inviting! (I don't think it hurt that there were other women there, either.) I think there is room for both approaches. Adrianne -- Dr. Adrianne Wadewitz Mellon Digital Scholarship Fellow Center for Digital Learning + Research Occidental College http://www.oxy.edu/center-digital-learning-research/about https://sites.google.com/site/wadewitz/

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Chapter meetups and friendly spaces for all genders
by Katherine Casey 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

So, to spin off from the post to this list this morning about women being heckled at a Wikimedia NYC meetup, I want to see if I can get a discussion started about chapter meetups and friendly spaces. This is long, but advice is desperately needed, so I'd appreciate people taking the time to read and offer any insight they have. I've been discussing the Medium.com story<https://medium.com/better-humans/11acd4a7f44c> with some members of WMNYC tonight, and it's becoming apparent that the heckling *did *happen, pretty much as described, and that while no one thinks what happened that day was right, no one knows what to do about it, either. Wikimedia NYC has had some ongoing problems with women being treated oddly at their events (men staring/leering at women, and now men heckling women), and the chapter seems to be at a loss about how to deal with these issues at an institutional level. The best solution that's been tried so far has been targeted only at a particular person, with another man following the known ogler intending to intervene if he's noticed ogling, but of course men tend to quite understandably not be attuned to what behaviors make women uncomfortable, and people who are being watched tend to behave while being watched. At best, anyway, this solution can only address the behavior of a single person, and then only if a) we have the manpower to supervise the person and b) the watcher notices the behavior and c) the water actively intervenes to stop the behavior before it impacts an innocent meetup-goer or goers. This can't even begin to touch the issue of heckling or aggression toward women at a room- or meetup-level. It's not enough. Wikimedia NYC is struggling with a lack of manpower at the best of times that makes it hard to have active moderation of events to prevent behavior like the heckling described in the Medium.com story and the unwanted attention I, among others, have been subjected to. There is also, in my personal view, a fair amount of institutional apathy from some - and only some, I want to make clear - of the chapter board and members which has made it difficult for anything to get done about this issues. I can't speak for other women in the chapter, but I've started staying away from events because I come away from them feeling...slimed. Does anyone have experience implementing friendly space policies, especially in situations where volunteers numbers are extremely limited? How can we make these chapter meetups less offputting to women? If a chapter either can't or won't enforce friendly spaces for itself, is there any recourse above the chapter level? -Fluff

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fyi: story: Taking On Wikipedia’s Bias
by Joseph Reagle 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Interesting take/story on medium.com : https://medium.com/better-humans/11acd4a7f44c

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Know any women who might make good Trustees for Wikimedia UK?
by Chris Keating 24 Jun '13

24 Jun '13

We had the Wikimedia UK Board elections two weekends ago, and regrettably continue to have an all-male Board - pretty much an inevitable consequence of having no female candidates. Interestingly, we'd had expressions of interest from a number of women who didn't end up standing, even though they had great experience and could have been strong candidates. That kind of accords with what I've heard from people who work on increasing the gender balance of British politics, who say men are much more likely to assume they should stand for election, even if they actually aren't very good. However, all is not lost, as we can co-opt up to three further Trustees, and co-opting three men isn't an option. If you know any women who you think would be good please invite them to get in touch; chris.keating(a)wikimedia.org.uk There's a bit more information about our current Board here: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_meetings> - and also the skills and characteristics we are looking for in a balanced Board, here: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board/Characteristics Many thanks, Chris

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Wikipedia’s Bias
by Kathleen McCook 24 Jun '13

24 Jun '13

I am teaching a class this fall on the history of knowledge management and will include this article. Thank you. --Kathleen McCook School of Information-USF (usded to be library science) On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 8:46 AM, Joseph Reagle <joseph.2011(a)reagle.org>wrote: > > Interesting take/story on medium.com : > > https://medium.com/better-**humans/11acd4a7f44c<https://medium.com/better-humans/11acd4a7f44c> > > ______________________________**_________________ > Gendergap mailing list > Gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/gendergap<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap> >

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Commons review of scope
by Chris Keating 23 Jun '13

23 Jun '13

Just wanted to make sure people had seen that there is currently a RFC on the scope of Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Project_scope/Update_2013/Main Chris

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feminist paranoia - or is it just funny how that happens?
by Sarah Stierch 19 Jun '13

19 Jun '13

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson was photographed by paparazzi this weekend being choked by her husband, Charle Saatchi, in public recently. IP's bombarded his article, and her articles, adding content, images, etc. I checked out Charle's article tonight - one IP edit includes changing his lead to say "he's a businessman" to "he's a prick" (paraphrasing). His article was protected due to vandalism. Nigella's article was bombarded with content, images, and so forth of what happened. It has Good Article status. No one page protected it. I protected it tonight. I was really shocked to see that it wasn't protected, but Charles' article was. Perhaps it's paranoia? I just had to get this off my chest. Sarah -- -- *Sarah Stierch* *Museumist, open culture advocate, and Wikimedian* *www.sarahstierch.com*

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Gendergap June 2013