Wikimedia Diversity Conference 2013/Documentation/Ilona Buchem Promoting gender diversity through open innovation

Session: Ilona Buchem // Promoting gender diversity through open innovation

Abstract

The presentation focuses on outlining the approach, development steps and preliminary results of the project "Wikipedia Diversity" conducted by Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin and Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. The project focuses on enhancing gender diversity in the German Wikipedia and follows the principles of open innovation. Its aim is to engage the Wikipedia community in devising new, creative and effective ways of approaching gender diversity, especially related to such questions as: How can we establish a welcome culture which is inviting to female contributors? How can we communicate in an inclusive way and solve conflicts constructively? How can we develop awareness of gender issues without provoking gender wars?

Starting point / Insights

• Welcome words, introduction: what means diversity?
• Variety of species etcetera, different types of things very natural
• Example: bees
• Compares Wikipedia researchers with bee cultures: doing agricultural work, cultivating, pollinating the Wikipedia

Challenges

• Poor retention
• High workload
• Bias
• Reputation loss (sexism etc.)
• Some topics are very poorly covered -> women biographies etc.
• Different diversity types: socio-demographic, role-related etc., age, place of residence
• 61% of contributors have a degree -> distortion to overall population

Ideas

• Open innovation process
• WMDE cooperates with Beuth University of Applied Sciences
• Research on bias, reasons for different types of distortion, studies, surveys
• "Think outside the bowl" -> watching and talking to other people, organizations -> see what concepts might be useful
• Defining problem areas
• Gender_gap mailing list, workshops, discussions between wikimedians and wikipedians
• Create awareness about the problem, creating welcoming culture
• Respectful communication
• Developed diversity guides, portals, scouting, safe spaces for new editors

Perspectives:

• Diversity is regarded as a valuable resource
• Awareness for the fact that socio-demographic diversity can be cause of dysfuntions in groups
• Knowledge about differences

Stage 2 outcome > 5 priorities of GENDER DIVERSITY

• Awareness - gender imbalance
• Welcome - many often do not feel welcome > LOCAL HEROES
• Respect - communication
• Quality - diversity and knowledge quality
• Participation - what motivates different people

Groups - We are OK with groups, but when they get exclusive there are "problems" (interesting) Diversity Competence

Action points:

• Massive Open Online Course (Webinars)
• Research on diversity and quality of articles on WIkipedia
• In Germany, companies sign up to a Diversity Charter to commit to promoting diversity: Wikipedians that were surveyed agree that that would be useful.

Where do we organise this?

Dystopian vision or utopian version? (Bee metaphor) Will we have a complete loss of diversity, or will we have increased pollination?

Questions / Next steps recommendations

Gerard: Nothing related with content? What is the gender ratio in the actual articles? We can split the articles up by language, etc. Answer: Add this question: it's about how we measure things. We didn't set this goal of increasing the ratio of females, for example, but that's a long-term goal. Response: "Talk to me later".

David: Newbies think the Visual Editor makes it easier. The community thinks different. Visual editor - how does that influence accessbility and difference?

Question: Wikiversity, Commons, etc. also important to the diversity discussion? (i.e., don't just focus on Wikipedia) Some people are not interested in editing articles; rather want to work on pictures etc.