Anybody else going to be at WisCon next weekend? It's where I learned
of Wikipedia (it's Laura Quilter's fault), and certainly one of the
best places on the planet to discuss Gendergap-related issues.
--
Michael J. "Orange Mike" Lowrey
"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food
and clothes."
-- Desiderius Erasmus
I've been creating articles about "Feminism in..." different countries, so far Germany and the Netherlands, and expanding Feminism in Italy. My ambition is to get through a few of these over the Summer. I'm enjoying the research, the history is always so different from country to country.
Audrey
(aka OttawaAC)
Please see a bit below. A bit lengthy, but, in the end, WMF is looking to
hire more community liaisons, preferably bi/multi-lingual.
-Sarah
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Howie Fung <hfung(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:58 PM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Hiring Community Liaisons (Contract)
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*
Hey all,
For the last 18 months, the Engineering & Product Development department
has been experimenting with the role of “Community Liaison, Product
Development” - a staff member embedded in the Product team and tasked with
factoring community concerns into our software development process, keeping
editors informed about what we’re doing, and maintaining a dialogue between
those who write code and those who write articles.
While there is always room for improvement, I think this role has shown a
lot of promise. We have a number of large projects coming down the
pipeline (e.g., visual editor, discussion systems) and we need more help
reaching out to our contributor communities, especially our non-English
speaking projects, as our outreach there has traditionally been challenged.
We’d like to recruit a small number of English-speaking or multilingual
editors to do the Community Liaison job with different development teams
and focuses.
In particular we’re looking for people with a strong history of
contributions to our projects who can provide sound and reasoned judgment
and are trusted to do so by their community. Speaking other languages in
addition to English is a major plus, as one of the objectives here is to
ensure we can properly interact with and support non-English projects.
I’ve included the full job description below.
Our immediate need is for help with the Visual Editor. We’d like to hire a
few community liaisons to help inform different Wikipedia language
communities of the upcoming launch, create spaces for feedback and
discussion, synthesize feedback for the Visual Editor team, and other
activities required to support the Visual Editor launch later this year.
If this is a role that would interest you, please e-mail Philippe Beaudette
at pbeaudette(a)wikimedia.org<
https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=pbeaudette@wikimedia.org
>.
And if you know someone else who might fit the role, let them know about
it :-). We’re provisionally interested in hiring 2-3 liaisons, at an hourly
rate commensurate with experience. This can be a part-time role, but we’ll
need at least 15 hours/week for the length of the engagement (minimum 3
months). Please do apply if you think it’s a role that suits you, and if
you find places we haven’t notified, spread the word!
Thanks.
Howie
*
_________________________
Howie Fung
Director of Product Development
Wikimedia Foundation
*
Community Liaison Job Description
Background Information and Statement of Purpose
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Engineering & Product Development Department is
looking at ways to more effectively incorporate broad community
perspectives in decisions and hold dialogues with our editors about the
scope, pace and features of upcoming changes to Wikimedia projects. As part
of this, it is hiring additional Community Liaisons from our volunteer
community.
Scope of Work
Support and improve our ongoing software development projects, in
particular:
-
Building up a network of volunteers from both English language and
non-English language wikis, increasing the number of projects we can
interact with;
-
Engaging the community in the software development process, by acting as
a conduit for community questions, bugs and and feature requests, talking
to editors about our work and how they can participate in it effectively,
and recruiting them for workgroups and studies;
-
Being available from time to time to provide expertise and knowledge
about our projects, including but not limited to training
externally-sourced staff in the way our projects work, answering their
questions, and providing expert advice on an ad-hoc basis;
-
Ensuring that our community is represented in the decision-making
process and that our planned software adequately reflects user needs;
-
Monitoring Wikimedia projects, with the assistance of a network of
volunteers, for emerging issues that have an impact on Engineering
programmes; and
-
Other duties as needed.
Requirements
Effective Community Liaisons will be:
-
Experienced users of Wikimedia projects, capable of representing our
community within the Foundation and vice-versa.
-
Strong communicators (both verbally and with the written word), able to
explain our products to different groups of users with different levels
of
technical understanding.
-
Able to focus on the larger picture, understanding which concerns and
views are widespread and which are marginal or individual.
-
Approachable, as both users and product developers must be able to trust
these people for the relationship to function.
-
Self-motivated - they will be given important projects and expected to
execute with little to no supervision.
-
Strongly empathetic - they excel at understanding the perspectives of
others and bridging the gap between different approaches to the world.
-
Willing and able to remain resilient in the face of frustration from our
users, in order to get the job done.
Pluses
Other positive attributes or areas of knowledge include:
-
Diverse language skills. While the Wikimedia Foundation communicates
internally in English, we aim to be able to talk to our different
communities natively.
-
Experience with the software development process. You will be thrown
into teams that are actively working on new features; having a background
that reduces the slope of your learning curve is a plus.
- Familiarity with multiple Wikimedia projects is a major plus; we are
about more than just Wikipedia.
*
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--
--
*Sarah Stierch*
*Museumist, open culture advocate, and Wikimedian*
*www.sarahstierch.com*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/2013-May/thread.html
shows me that "Topless image retention -don't give up" has stretched on
pretty long, and it seems to me like it might be better suited to onwiki
discussion instead. Maybe the posters who are very interested in
engaging in that conversation could hash this out on Commons or Meta and
send this list an update when you have a solid proposal or conclusion?
A few things I'd love to see more of on the gendergap list: sharing
useful or inspiring blog posts and best practice documentation,
promoting the School of Open's Wikipedia-editing course
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/05/10/school-of-open-offers-free-wikipedia-…
and similar courses to women, and learning from case studies of
Wikimedia projects (or other free culture/free software communities)
that have improved gender equity.
-Sumana
Hi all,
Can someone please explain to me why Category:Nude portrayals of computer technology (NSFW) even exists? How is a category like this, whatever about the image, remotely encyclopedic or useful to the project? It is populated entirely with sexualized images of women - almost all naked or semi-naked - with only tangential references to computer technology.
I'm a computer engineer myself, and a paid-up member of SWE. Given the drive to get more women involved in STEM fields, I see stuff like this as being really damaging. And this is just one single example.
-- Allie
Hi
This news story is doing the rounds in the news but I don't know if
everyone has seen the original NY times op-ed by Angelina Jolie[1]. She
talks about her preemptive and precautionary double-mastectomy because she
found out she was at a higher risk for breast cancer after genetic
screening. I saw the news about this earlier but didn't read her op-ed
until now, it's helpful to see her perspective on this.
This might be a bit personal, but a relative passed away last year who had
breast cancer and the cancer had metastasized after a mastectomy and
several rounds of chemo. She was a mother of 3 and a fiercely strong woman
who faced it head-on, and even made preparation for her own death when the
doctors said there wasn't a lot to do near the end. Anyway, It occurred to
me, what her reaction or choice would have been in this case. I've also
seen this issue brought up again a few times among my friends and family,
it's a scary thought and a decision most women said they wouldn't want to
think about until they have to - but they all would have wanted more
information to make the most informed choice possible.
It is safe to say that most people today use Wikipedia as the front line of
information and resource for issues like these. Now, In Ms. Jolie's case
I'm sure this was a very personal decision but she prob. also had access to
the best medical resources and information about the risk and the tests. I
suppose with all the charities and promotion breast cancer awareness
already has - with marathons, television ads, and benefits - the true value
of a resource like Wikipedia might be under-utilized. Once someone hears
they are at risk or they should get tested, they most likely go to
Wikipedia before a doctor to read up about it.
Anyway, I wanted to do something in this regard. I suppose it's needless to
say that this is a bit personal for me. I have lurked on this list since it
was founded, and besides occasional interrupts, just observed. This seems
like a worthy issue to devote time to if anyone wants to join me. I still
can't think of a proper way to organize this - a wikiproject doesn't seem
right or if something like this already exists, but I'm not sure. I saw the
related articles about the subject, some of them need cleaning up and
revising the hard medical facts in to a coherent voice - generally
simplifying the language. I also wanted to see if I can organize things
better and put all the resources on a single page, with pictures and
templates on the articles to guide people directly to a centralized
resource point. I thought maybe more veteran editors here like Risker,
SlimVirgin or PeteF can give some advice on how to go about organizing the
information and making a start.
Kind regards
Theo
[1]http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html?hp&_r=0&_r…>
On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 2:24 PM, Mary Mark Ockerbloom <
celebration.women(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Regarding the question of "what can you do",
> I had the experience last week of starting a new job.
> I had to read through the guidelines for the organization,
> which included a section on Equal Opportunity and Freedom from Harassment.
> Prominent on the first page:
>
> "Harassment Defined
> 1. Hostile Environment
> Harassment prohibited under this policy includes verbal, visual, or
> physical conduct relating to matters of race, national origin, sex, sexual
> preference, religion, age or disability which is unwelcome to the
> reasonable person, and
> a. has the purpose or effect of interfering with a person's work
> performance
> b. has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile
> or offensive working environment. "
>
> Item 2 goes on to deal with more direct incidents such as "unwelcome
> sexual attention, sexual advances," etc.
>
> I also looked at the relevant page on Wikipedia, to see what Wikipedia's
> policy is.
> (Sorry I don't have the link to hand to include.) It covered item 2.
> But "Hostile environment", item 1 on my workplace's guidelines,
> is not included.
>
> Note too that item 1 is not limited to sexual materials;
> this is not identified as a "feminist problem" but as a type of behavior
> potentially relevant and unacceptable to anyone.
>
> I would suggest that one reason that it's hard to get people to address
> this sort of situation is that it's not clearly identified at a high level
> as unacceptable
> behavior which creates a "hostile environment"
A very interesting point, which reminded me of "The Benevolent Dictator
Incident":
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_incident
Wikimedia has a "friendly space" policy for physical meetings, but
apparently no exact equivalent for its online environment.
To give an example, Commons has a "hot sex barnstar", present on a number
of user talk pages, which does not appear to have violated any Wikimedia
policy, judging by its existence for more than a year now. The imagery is
grossly pornographic, and would be unacceptable in almost any workplace
outside of the adult entertainment industry:
NSFW: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hot_sex_barnstar.png
Similar imagery is sometimes found on user pages.
It is widely accepted that the open display of pornographic photographs or
drawings is a key contributor to a sexually hostile workplace. This is
something that could have been addressed as part of the Foundation's terms
of use:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use#4._Refraining_from_Certai…
However, the present terms of use appear to permit anything that is not
outright illegal. If the Wikimedia Foundation is serious about addressing
the gender gap, why does it not apply customary workplace standards to its
online environment?
[pardon the cross-post]
Hello everyone,
*This is a reminder that there are 2 days left to apply to attend the first
Program Evaluation & Design Workshop, which will take place in Budapest,
June 22-23. Applications close at 12 AM PST May 17.*
Please review this recent blog announcing the event:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/05/09/program-evaluation-workshop-budapest/
*Wikimedia community members, chapter staff/volunteers, solitary volunteers
- anyone who is a program leader is encouraged to apply. Please note, we
have only 20 slots available and limited funding to support attendees. If
you do apply, you must email me at sarah(a)wikimedia.org if you are
requesting funding before/after you apply. *
We will be filming our workshop, so don't fret if you cannot attend this
first one, or aren't accepted to attend this time.
*You can get a better taste for the event through our evolving Meta Event
page: *
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/June_2013_Work…
Thank you Wikimedia Magyarország for your support and assistance.
-Sarah
--
--
*Sarah Stierch*
*Museumist, open culture advocate, and Wikimedian*
*www.sarahstierch.com*
