I wanted to throw in another potential way to measure systemic bias… I find it interesting to see which international award-winners have Wikipedia profiles (note credit to this idea should go as much to http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Jayvdb as we were discussing it when I was creating an article about Preecha Siri).
For example, I created the page about Aleta Baun only recently, linked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Environmental_Prize It's interesting to note that with this award: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Heroes_Awards only the husband of the 2011 couple who received the special award has a profile, though his wife was joint recipient. For anyone seeking new biographies to contribute to, the red links in those two pages could be good places to start :) Cheers, Cobi On Oct 24, 2556 BE, at 4:20 PM, Jane Darnell wrote: > Sydney, > I love your definition of measurement standards as an "evaluation > process that is hearty but not too burdensome for volunteers"! I think > the most basic problem that I, Nora, and most people have in > comprehending the extent of the gendergap problem is that we tend to > assume that there are a few measurements already in place, and there > are not. It is very difficult to make estimations that can be used for > budgeting and tracking purposes that are not related to hard numbers > such as "30%". Our problem is that we don't even have a proper > "null-line" where we can say "this is where we are starting from". > > Because I tend to edit in a niche corner of Wikipedia projects > concerning Dutch painters of the 17th-century, I am familiar with all > of the problematic gendergap areas related to this niche. If you look > at this category: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Painters_by_nationality > > Only 151 categories are listed and fewer countries represented, with > most of the entries for those countries with higher internet access > rates in the general population. There are lots of painters left to > categorize! Within this work-in-progress, user "Ser Amantio di > Nicolao" decided to help track women painters by setting up the > following subcategory back in February: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_painters_by_nationality > > You will see the following subcategories (working down the alphabet, > exhaustion for Ser Amantio di Nicolao apparently kicked in at "I" for > Italy): > American women painters (484 P) > Australian women painters (58 P) > Austrian women painters (13 P) > British women painters (3 C, 118 P) > Canadian women painters (84 P) > Dutch women painters (59 P) > French women painters (94 P) > German women painters (8 P) > Italian women painters (53 P) > > I think it would be great to have an overview of female painters > across the world and across centuries, but how can we expand such > efforts so that more people contribute and more people become aware of > this small effort? I decided to add in the women in my dataset, but > it's not a priority for me, and never will be. That said, I only > started to add women into this category, because I noticed it was > there. You can't just go and create empty categories, nor can you > create categories for one or two items, so it's a lot of work to add > the categories for other countries. Who is ever going to do this? Is > it valuable? Would we ever want to pay for it? Recently we had a > "kerfuffle" about women novelists being ghettoized - such categories > should not remove painters from their main category, but be a tracking > category only. > > Coming back to the subject of estimations for work planned, it's > always a useful experience to state 10 things on Monday that you are > 100% positive you will get done by Saturday (because you already have > them planned). Each Saturday revisit the list and score (1) for done > and (0) for not done. If you do this each week for 10 weeks, add up > your score and be prepared to eat humble pie. > > In answer to the question of who decides what goals we need to > establish -- well, that answer is "we do!"; and the answer to the > question of who decides what estimates we need to make of work we want > to do -- same thing. > > Nora, your tracking idea sounds great when you say "From an operations > standpoint the sign-in sheets should be sent to the Main office after > every workshop, the results tabulated and reported to the appropriate > constituents. At minimum, the board and the sponsoring group should > receive feedback on goals on a quarterly basis." Unfortunately, this > will not work in our volunteer context, because no one is going to > volunteer to do this tabulation and send the reports. Categories are a > great way of showing a snapshot of work-in-progress, but they don't > roll up and are not automatically created. Somehow though, this is the > type of dashboard that we need, with the extra stipulation that we > want a dashboard that doesn't require a lot of volunteer tweaking. > That is very hard to achieve on Wikipedia. Hopefully WikiData will > become the answer, but any and all suggestions are welcome! > > Jane > > 2013/10/22, Sydney <sydney.po...@gmail.com>: >> Hello Nora, >> >> One of the key roles of the FDC is focusing the Wikimedia movement on >> developing sound measurable goals that match the mission of the movement, >> and to then have the organizations use a evaluation process that is hearty >> but not too burdensome for volunteers who are likely to be heavily involved >> with projects. >> >> The Wikimedia movement as a whole is in an infancy stage of figuring out how >> organizations can achieve the right balance between time spend on >> administrative and bureaucratic activities and the time spent creating >> content for the various Wikimedia Foundation projects. >> >> In my opinion every organization in the movement, small or large, can >> benefit from the type of comments that you shared in your email. I encourage >> you and other interested people to push up your sleeves and help the >> organizations develop meaningful measurable goals around the topic of the >> gender gap (or anything else.) >> >> It would be really useful for a group of interested people to review the >> organization various activities and make suggestions about how goals related >> to increasing the diversity of the movement can be added. >> >> If you or anyone else is interested, I will help you figure out the best way >> to accomplish this task. The Wikimedia Foundation had staff dedicated to >> assisting the movement with the general evaluations of projects and >> programs. But their numbers are few and the task is large!!! Plus the >> involvement of volunteers is an important ethos of the movement. So the >> involvement of volunteers is key to getting this done in a meaningful and >> timely way. >> >> Regards, >> Sydney >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On Oct 22, 2013, at 13:38, "trueself56 ." <truesel...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> I reviewed some of the proposals that have been submitted for funding from >>> the aspects of concrete goals. I have a background in United States Human >>> Service charities as an Operations Manager and database administrator. One >>> of the most challenging activities for an agency is to identify goals in a >>> manner that is meaningful to all constituents and can be tracked. If a >>> goal cannot be defined with an action statement and specific target >>> numbers and the result that proves the target numbers, then the goal >>> language must be modified and/or the result that proves the goal changed. >>> At the time of goal identification the tracking methods should be >>> determined and reviewed for feasibility. >>> >>> A goal should be so clearly written that anyone who is a member of the >>> organization understands how to collect the data that proves the goal. A >>> common failing is creating goals that sound really impressive but are so >>> vague that the people responsible for doing the work and collecting the >>> data don't know which activity proves the goal and what form or question >>> or whatever, they have to do to get the information back to the Main >>> Office. (And "don't they understand that I am very busy and who reads >>> this, and oh lord, what did I do last time I filled out this form and >>> ...") >>> >>> For example: Efforts will be made to increase the participation of women >>> and other minorities in monthly workshops by 30%. This goal will be >>> verified by sign-in sheets that ask for gender and (ethnicity, cultural >>> group or whatever concrete statistic defines the goal). >>> >>> From an operations standpoint the sign-in sheets should be sent to the >>> Main office after every workshop, the results tabulated and reported to >>> the appropriate constituents. At minimum, the board and the sponsoring >>> group should receive feedback on goals on a quarterly basis. This keeps >>> the goals in front of everybody and lets everyone know what progress is >>> being is being towards achieving those goals while there is still time to >>> improve their methods. >>> >>> The most effective grants I worked with tied achievable goals to monetary >>> rewards. If quarterly goals weren't met, future financial allocations were >>> jeopardized and indeed, in cases of egregious inactivity, programs lost >>> funding mid-fiscal year. >>> >>> The preceeding goal language was created in a vacuum without consultation >>> with any constituents in the space of approx. one hour and is to be used >>> only as an example. >>> >>> Organizations tend to use too many words to describe what they are trying >>> to accomplish. Grant language must be straight-forward and easily >>> understood. If the average user/volunteer/staff member doesn't understand >>> the goals at first reading then further refining is of the highest >>> importance >>> >>> Please let me know if there is anything I can do to be of service. >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Nora (Norawashere) >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Gendergap mailing list >>> Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap >> > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
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