We tested Kartika earlier this week, and it did very very well. So we're putting together a campaign based around editor appeals, and many of the folks we have are not ... well, people who look like me. So I'm very happy about that.
pb _______________________ Philippe Beaudette Head of Reader Relations Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. [email protected] Imagine a world in which every human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! http://donate.wikimedia.org On Nov 17, 2010, at 3:28 PM, George Herbert wrote: > Thanks, Sue. > > Obligatory current event tie-in - > > Could we get a more multi-ethnic "I am a Wikipedian" campaign going > for the fundraising drive? > > As attractive looking as Jimmy is, the community isn't a million > clones of him. Seeing more of the variety would certainly help > attract attention, I think. > > > > On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Sue Gardner <[email protected]> wrote: >> On 17 November 2010 13:35, phoebe ayers <[email protected]> wrote: >>> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Milos Rancic <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> For some time I am a bit puzzled by the fact that I don't know any >>>> African American Wikimedian. For some time just because I am living in >>>> a European country without African population, so everything seemed to >>>> me quite normal for a long time. >> >> Oh gosh, I want to jump in here too, super-fast. Good question, Milos :-) >> >> I think the answer to this question is complicated, but known/knowable. >> >> Essentially I think it's fairly obvious that US Wikimedians are >> disproportionately male and disproportionately white -- like Phoebe, >> that's definitely been my own anecdotal experience in meeting >> Wikipedians, and although the people we meet face-to-face may not be >> perfectly representative of all Wikipedians, we don't have any reason >> to think the actual US Wikimedia editor population is dramatically >> different from the people we happen to meet. >> >> I would attribute the maleness and whiteness mostly to the >> tech-centricity of the Wikimedia community. We know it's a >> tech-centric group, presumably because editors were in the beginning >> early adopter types, and continuing because the editing interface is >> still relatively non-user-friendly. >> >> And we know that the tech community in general (in the United States) >> skews male, white and Asian ... And that that is self-reinforcing over >> time. In fact, this research >> http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_14383730?nclick_check=1&forced=true >> found that blacks, Latinos and women are losing ground in (Silicon >> Valley) tech, not gaining it. >> >> I would expect that all the factors that skew tech community >> demographics, have a big overlap with the factors that skew Wikimedia >> community demographics. There's lots of good research and thinking >> about that. (For example, the book Unlocking the Clubhouse has lots of >> good thinking about gender, and some about African-Americans and >> Latino-Americans.) There is lots of available information. >> >>> We *do* know -- both anecdotally and statistically, based on the >>> readership to editorship conversion rates -- that all Wikipedians are >>> outliers: we are all unusual in some way. It is not common to both >>> want to participate in a wiki project and then to expend significant >>> amounts of time doing so, and we more or less know the general reasons >>> why someone does become a Wikipedian. These motivations, from what I >>> can tell, cut across nationality and gender and all other possible >>> categories: and I've been wondering if we've been going about this >>> diversity discussion rather the wrong way for a long time -- if we >>> should focus not on why so few people out of the general population >>> participate, but rather who is likely to make a good Wikipedian and >>> how we can encourage them, in all circumstances.***** >> >> I agree with Phoebe. Wikimedians are unusual in many ways. There's >> probably no point in Wikimedia trying to recruit general-population >> "women" or "African-Americans" or "Latino-Americans." We are likelier >> to succeed if we aim to recruit women, African-Americans and >> Latino-Americans who share some of the common Wikimedia >> characteristics -- like, a base level of good comfort with technology, >> a passion for learning, love of language/words/text, unusually high >> intelligence, a good base level of self-confidence, sufficient leisure >> time and inclination to volunteer, and so forth. >> >> My two cents, written fast :-) >> Sue >> >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >> > > > > -- > -george william herbert > [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
