I think Wikipedia editors should be a higher priority than technical
contributors. If one looks at most of the STEM community, it appears to be
a systematic problem in underrepresentation. On the other hand, in the
editing environment, there is an underrepresentation of women identifying
editors but at the same time there is a much more gender equal proportion
of women writers in the wider world.
The problem of women editors is a Wikipedia-centric problem, while women
technical staff is one within the wider world and will take a lot more than
just a Wikimedia drive.
On 07 Aug 2017 9:31 AM, "Fluffernutter wiki" <fluffernutter.w...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> This is a topic of much interest to me. Thank you for bringing it up!
>
> First, though, I want to tease apart two of the points you make here,
> Pine: increasing technical contributions/participation by non-majority
> demographics, and increasing the number of people from non-majority
> demographics who get technical degrees or take technical jobs. The two are
> related, but not the same, and I would encourage us to think about both
> when we think about how to increase our movement's diversity. For instance,
> I do not have a STEM degree, and I will almost certainly never be the
> person who applies for or wins technical/programming jobs. But I *am *a
> person who is interested in making some technical contributions where I
> think they could be useful. What you could do to get me to step into that
> space is not necessarily what you should do to get another young woman to
> take a Computer Science degree.
>
> The rest of this email will focus on my thoughts as someone in the first
> group - someone who is not a vocational technical contributor, but has very
> tentatively been easing a toe into the waters of technical contributions in
> the past year in my spare time.
>
> On an individual level, what I have found extremely helpful on the part of
> other people/communities has been to for them to let me *know that there
> is a particular person or venue I can approach for help with my
> probably-stupid questions when I get stuck, who not only won't judge me
> harshly, but will enjoy the experience of helping me learn*. And it's not
> enough for that person/venue to exist in a conceptual way - a lot of the
> time I need to be explicitly invited to approach them (and maybe even later
> reassured that "no, really, approach them! they like helping!"), because
> otherwise I will assume what is true of many other technical spaces/people:
> they do not welcome those who are not already up to speed.[1]
>
> In the case of the contributions I've been working on thus far, I was
> lucky enough to already be acquainted with a community-oriented technical
> contributor who enjoys helping people who want to solve technical problems
> but who need a little support in figuring out the implementation. *I
> can't overstate how much further I have gotten in building my scripts, etc
> simply because I know I can reach out to this particular person when I get
> stuck, and they will not only help me figure out how to get un-stuck, but
> they will give me a digestible explanation for how the un-sticking works*,
> so that I am one more step forward for the next time I try. Knowing that
> the support is there gives me the guts to try new things without worrying
> too much about it being "wasted time" when I hit the limits of my own
> knowledge. In my case, my helper happens to be male and someone I already
> knew, but I can easily imagine that for many non-majority people coming
> into technical contributions who don't already have connections to anyone,
> it would be even better if they knew there was someone of a particular
> gender, etc that they felt at ease with who was basically wearing a sign
> that said "Ask me your stupid questions! I want to help!"
>
> Similarly, I haven't yet attended any technical events like hackathons,
> but I'm very curious about them. I like the idea of going in with an idea
> and coming out with a thing I built. However, I have the (possibly
> incorrect?) impression right now that hackathons are for people who are
> already capable of building their thing, not for people who are working on
> learning to build their thing, and so I feel that if I were to attend one,
> I would either be a bother to everyone else who feels forced to help me
> when I ask question after question, or I would simply spend the weekend
> watching everyone else capably build things while I sat on the sidelines.
> *What
> would get me over that hill of anxiety and into a hackathon? Basically
> being told ahead of time and explicitly that help would not only be
> available, but also easily found and enthusiastically given*. Perhaps
> something like a program that says "Room C will be staffed all weekend by
> experienced technical contributors who are available to help beginners or
> those who need another opinion", or a system of "people wearing the orange
> lanyards are happy to answer beginner questions; approach them whenever you
> need", or a separate track that was a "so you want to build something?
> Let's get you started!" introductory workshop. Maybe those things already
> exist at hackathons - but if they do, they're not being advertised loudly
> enough, because I don't know about them (and I'm pretty well-versed in
> movement stuff, so if I don't know about them, it's even less likely that
> a, say, random WOC who's interested in joining the movement would be).
>
> Anyway, I'm really glad this issue has been brought up, and I'm looking
> forward to reading other people's takes on it!
>
>
> *[1]* I want to clarify here that when I say people/spaces "do not
> welcome" beginners, I don't necessarily mean that they go around wearing
> signs that say "no beginners allowed"; more often it is a matter of a
> person being easily frustrated by people who don't "get it", or a space
> being run in a way that a certain baseline of knowledge is expected in
> order for one to be able to participate meaningfully
>
>
> -Karen/Fluffernutter
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 1:31 AM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I read the unofficial Google internal memo that has been the subject of
>> some controversy, and upon reading it my Wikipedian-trained instincts were
>> to wonder where the citations were that should, if they were available,
>> have supported numerous assertions that were made in that memo. I'm not an
>> expert in diversity -- and I suspect that the author of that memo isn't,
>> either. In the absence of verifiable and reliable sources, I'm skeptical of
>> numerous assertions that were made in that document.
>>
>> This leads me a question that I've had in mind for awhile. How can we
>> increase the diversity of Wikimedia technical contributors and staff? I'm
>> referring both to gender diversity and racial diversity (people of African
>> descent appear to be significantly under-represented).
>>
>> My unscientific hunch is that what would help is increasing people at
>> young ages to consider a career in a science, technology, engineering, or
>> math ("STEM") field, and then continuing to support their interest from
>> elementary school through college.
>>
>> (Personal story: I was a poor performer at math in middle school and at
>> one point I emotionally gave up on the subject, yet I did significantly
>> better when I reached college and (a) had instructors whose styles were
>> more compatible with how I learn and (b) had classroom environments that
>> were more supportive of learning.)
>>
>> I don't know to what extent Wikimedia should be involved in encouraging
>> people at early ages to become interested and stay involved with STEM, and
>> I think that we should ask ourselves if perhaps this is an area in which we
>> should make some financial and time investments, with the goal of
>> facilitating development of diverse candidates into engineering and
>> technical roles for the community as well as organizations like WMDE and
>> WMF. We probably shouldn't be steering people at young ages to make
>> long-term commitments to STEM or the Wikimedia ecosystem, but perhaps we
>> could take some actions that would at least encourage them if they seem to
>> be interested in STEM to continue their academic growth in those domains. I
>> don't know if there is data that explains how gender and racial disparities
>> develop and how to address them, but my hunch is that the earlier that the
>> issues are addressed, the better.
>>
>> I don't know what other options to suggest; perhaps people here will have
>> some ideas. I'd particularly like to invite Victoria to the conversation;
>> perhaps she can comment sometime in the next several days (probably not for
>> several hours, since this is still Sunday evening on the US west coast).
>>
>> Hoping to hear some thoughtful discussion,
>>
>> Pine
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Karen Brown
> user:Fluffernutter
>
> *Unless otherwise specified, any email sent from this address is in my
> volunteer capacity and does not represent the views or wishes of the
> Wikimedia Foundation*
>
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