Pete Forsyth made what I think is an interesting point on the Gendergap list.
Reproduced below, with his permission. > --- On Mon, 16/5/11, Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> From: Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com> >> Subject: Re: [Gendergap] [Commons-l] Fwd: Photo of the Day on Wikimedia >> Commons >> To: "Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects" >> <gender...@lists.wikimedia.org> >> Date: Monday, 16 May, 2011, 16:49 >> In my opinion there's a large and >> pervasive problem behind today's controversy: in striking >> contrast to our core value of openness, it is very difficult >> to even *perceive* how important decisions like this are >> made. Both the technical and the editorial processes are >> pretty opaque to the average main page visitor. >> >> I suspect there are ways the Commons pages relating to >> Picture of the Day could be improved to make it clearer to >> the reader how decisions are made, and how to meaningfully >> participate in those processes. >> >> For instance, main page content could have a link named >> something like "how did this get here?" that would permit >> the reader to view the discussion that led to its inclusion >> on the main page. (This is just an off-the-cuff idea, to >> illustrate the general kind of usability changes I would >> like to explore.) >> >> To put it another way, the issue behind today's controversy >> that interests me most is access. Increasing the ability of >> a large and diverse group to participate in important >> decisions (like what gets featured on the main Commons page) >> is something that would both honor the basic values of our >> project, and (I believe) support better content decisions in >> the future. >> >> Anybody interested in tackling this issue? >> -Pete >> _______________________________________________ Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
