> --- On Sat, 2/7/11, carolmoor...@verizon.net <carolmoor...@verizon.net> > wrote: > > From: carolmoor...@verizon.net <carolmoor...@verizon.net> > Subject: [Gendergap] New Survey: 9% female editors > To: "Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects" > <gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org> > Date: Saturday, 2 July, 2011, 15:52
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/06/10/wikipedia-editors-do-it-for-fun-first-results-of-our-2011-editor-survey/ > > > > Also, interesting statistics on ages, with 30 plus almost as large > as 12-29 year olds. > Children and teenagers create lots of accounts, but the general run of them can't contribute much any more, and we've blocked lots of schools. > > > If the median age has crept up into the late twenties, that seems like a > good sign. In the > 2009 survey, it stood at 22: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WMFstratplanSurvey1.png > > > I have said this before, but we seem to lack African-American editors, > and it's my > impression we don't cover African-American culture well. I wonder if we > could get an article > out on theroot.com > There are a few really good and prolific African-American editors, but mass participation is not there, but that kind of fits the demographic. American Hispanics even more so > > One thing I missed in the recent survey was a specific question about > which race and religion editors belonged to. It would be good to have > such data, and compare it to > > general demographics, both in the English-speaking core countries, and > the world > population in general to identify demographics that are over- or > underrepresented. > > > Andreas American Indians barely edit. I edit articles on American Indian history and I don't think I've ever run into an Indian editor. My strategy with any of these groups, and women too, is to generally support them strongly, but not to support any particular campaign they engage in. For example, the idea that Egyptians are "Black", which one young African-American woman was promoting strongly, against considerable opposition. So that is the first premise, the door has to be open for everyone and they should be able to depend on strong support by others. Whether they will come in the door is another matter. And how we handle particular strongly held points of view is another. For example, we had a Ute chief come and give a talk in Crestone. Very smart, wise man, an elder, but he made a point of maintaining that the Utes have always lived in the Rocky Mountain west and that any theory about crossing the Bering Strait was just nonsense. That sort of attitude can be documented, of course, but I doubt he could do that if he decided to edit. This guy was about my age so I know he could if he thought it mattered. And that, I guess, is the missing piece, believing, or knowing, that editing matters in shaping global knowledge and consciousness. That is kind of the story of academia, they thought they had a monopoly. Fred _______________________________________________ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
