Well done Netha. By seeing you contributing, I am sure many woman will come forward. :-)
Ansuman On 15 February 2013 14:35, noopur <[email protected]> wrote: > ** > > Dear all, > > I am not sure if this was forwarded to the India list but Huffington post > has a guest blog post from Netha this week. Congratulations Netha! :) > > Best, > > Noopur > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Sarah Stierch <[email protected]> > Date: Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 11:54 PM > Subject: [Wmfcc-l] [PRESS] Wikipedia: Towards Closing the Gender Gap > (Huffington Post UK - guest blog by Wikipedian Netha Hussain) > To: [email protected] > > > > http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain/wikipedia-towards-closing-gender-gap_b_2654019.html > > WikiWoman Netha Hussain wrote a guest blog for Huffington Post UK > > > - > Login with Facebook to see what your friends are reading > - Enable Social Reading > - i > > [image: Netha Hussain] <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain> > Netha Hussain <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain> > > A medical student, blogger and Wikipedian > GET UPDATES FROM NETHA HUSSAIN > > Like > 1 > Wikipedia: Towards Closing the Gender Gap > Posted: 09/02/2013 21:49 > Follow > Wikipedia <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/wikipedia>, Gender Gap > <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/gender-gap> > , Wikipedia Editors <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/wikipedia-editors> > , Ada Lovelace <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/ada-lovelace>, > Equality <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/equality>, Open Knowledge > <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/open-knowledge> > ,Women <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/women>, UK Tech > News<http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/uk-tech> > Submit this story > > Most of us know Wikipedia as the free online encyclopedia, written > collaboratively by millions of volunteers from around the world. I am > one<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain> > of those writers for the last 3 years. It was by writing articles about > medical sciences that I started contributing to Wikipedia. Later, I was > intrigued by the enormous volume of information available on Wikipedia, and > was curious to find out who actually write them - which made me delve into > the editor demographics. It really made me upset when I figured out that > only around 9%<http://grouplens.org/system/files/wp-gender-wikisym2011.pdf> > of the contributors to Wikipedia are women. In fact, I knew that so few > women write on Wikipedia, but I hadn't expected the figure to be as low as > 9 percent. > > Diversity of opinion is the essence of any encyclopedia. Having equal > representation from women will bring in wider perspectives, and increase > the neutrality of the articles on Wikipedia. With men creating most of the > content for Wikipedia, certain subjects might be covered more than a > subject that may be of interest to women. Women not writing on Wikipedia > mean that certain subjects may not be receiving the attention they > rightfully deserve. > > The Wikimedia Foundation, the not-for-profit organization that hosts > Wikipedia, had recognized this problem sooner than I did. The Wikimedia > Foundation has launched various programs to bridge the gender gap, and the > latest addition to the list is the WikiWomen's > Collaborative<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative> > . > > The WikiWomen's Collaborative was created in September 2012 by women > around the world who edit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, and want > to encourage others to do the same. The project was aimed at helping women > and transwomen to support one another and engage in programs that help the > Wikimedian community to bring in new women editors. A variety of > events<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative/Final_report>, > like edit-a-thons, interviews and wikiwomen parties were conducted as a > part of the collaborative. > > In May 2012, a WikiWomenCamp<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomenCamp> > was organized for women in the Wikimedia movement to get together and > discuss about the various issues related to being women involved in the > Wikimedia community with like-minded women. Over 20 women from different > countries participated in the camp to brainstorm solutions for existing > problems that concern women, and suggest future plans to collaborate with > one another. It is customary to conduct a WikiWomen's > luncheon<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiChix_2011_Lunch> > at Wikimania <https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/>, the global > gathering of Wikimedians, exclusively for the women participants. > > Organizations like the Ada Initiative <http://adainitiative.org/>, named > for the world's first programmer Countess Ada Lovelace, support women > working with open knowledge projects like Wikipedia by creating resources > for women in open stuff, conducting conferences and advising organizations > on supporting women. > > Many outreach programs were conducted in women's universities all over the > world to encourage students to participate in the Wikimedia movement. The > Women's History month edit-a-thons conducted every year, attracts both male > and female editors to write biographies of notable women on Wikipedia. > > The Wikimedia Foundation has set a goal to raise the share of female > contributors to 25% by 2015. Given the good response from the community to > various events conducted for women, it is likely that the foundation will > achieve its goal within the set time limit. > > *If you would like to get engaged in various activities for women in > Wikipedia, you are welcome to write to me <[email protected]> or > join us here <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative>. > * > > > > -- > *Sarah Stierch* > *Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow* > >>Mind the gap! Support Wikipedia women's outreach: donate > >>today<https://donate.wikimedia.org/> > << > > _______________________________________________ > Wmfcc-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wmfcc-l > > > > > -- > Noopur Raval > Student > Arts and Aesthetics > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi > Ph: 9650567690 > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > >
_______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
