Talk:WikiWomen's User Group

Worklists

Could we please have additional opinions at en:Wikipedia talk:Community portal#Highly cited women scientists without articles? EllenCT (talk) 12:13, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

i would suggest a list of work lists here, since there is a systemic attempt to disrupt workflows at english wikipedia. Slowking4 (talk) 15:39, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

That first one seems to be okay, for now. I nominate en:Talk:United States#RFC on relative wealth of Americans and the other discussions on that very highly read and influential article's talk page for further attention. EllenCT (talk) 13:31, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Does anyone here even care what is happening at en:Talk:United States#RFC on relative wealth of Americans? As long as patriarchical trickle downers participate in content control discussions while feminists exclude themselves, no substantial progress on wider issues is likely. The idea that someone reading a general article about a country wouldn't ordinarily want to learn about the relative wealth of minority women is absurd. It's the summary measure of their de facto racist and sexist outcomes. The idea that it is biased is manufactured to try to hide the bias of censoring it. EllenCT (talk) 12:06, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Executive Director

I would like to be your first Executive Director. I've been talking about creating this user group for months in preparation for my presentation on content gender gap at Wikimania 2015. When I arrived at Wikimania, I spoke informally with some members of AffCom regarding my thoughts on this user group, and felt supported in the quest. To my delight, we got the user group created and approved in hours. I think I'm well qualified for the task to be the first WikiWomen's User Group ED (learn about me here: en:user:Rosiestep). I hope you agree and I hope I have your support. --Rosiestep (talk) 00:34, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Hi Rosiestep, I'm pleased to see your strong interest in helping WikiWomen be successful. I've had quite a bit of experience studying the different types of organizations in the Wikimedia movement. Typically User groups have a simple structure. I encourage this group to focus on finding its legs by doing simple projects and events with volunteers being funded (as needed) with Project and Event Grants or Individual Engagement Grants. After WikiWomen group out grows this type of structure then the organization can have a more formal organizational structure and decide which position would be the best one to have. For example, it could be a volunteer coordinator or project manager. I would discourage having an Executive Director as a first position. I can go into more detail later and give you examples of how current user groups are working well. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 01:10, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Hey Rosie, I think having a "go-to person" to start with is a good idea - I definitely don't think we need a large formal organizational structure right now, just someone in a leadership role who can take questions and help to coordinate. You are awesome and I would be really happy to see you take on that role, which I suspect will grow into something more formal as we grow as an organization. :) (To that end, I'm starting a discussion about events and grants and projects and such that people would like to see us start on!) Keilana|^{Parlez ici} 02:27, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

All sounds reasonable. I'll start another discussion about membership. I'm hopeful editors from other language Wikipedias will want to be a part of this group. --Rosiestep (talk) 02:55, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Membership

I'd like editors from around the world to know about and to consider joining the user group. It seems to me from the convos I had over the last week that not everyone is subscribed to or reads the posts on the various mailing lists. Do you have thoughts about how to reach out to other language editors, i.e. start with the chapters/affiliates? --Rosiestep (talk) 03:01, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Chapters and other affiliated organization can help spread the word. Also, reaching out to the people interested in the gender gap who were not at Wikimania and not following on Facebook. Several chapters and groups have been working on the Gernder Gap, plus we know people got funded through Inspire grants would likely be interested in connecting with people by joining this group. Also, we can give reminders to people who expressed interest but have not joined yet. But I think direct invitations are important. I suggest we individually write to people who are good candidates to join. It doesn't matter if they get several invites from several of us. Additionally, we can make a list of organizations to contact and write to them by email. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 03:13, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Excellent idea! I have posted a link on the gender gap mailing list and will start contacting people individually. I am also working on getting a mailing list set up. Keilana|^{Parlez ici} 03:38, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

I'd like to comment that there are a lot of people (myself included) that live nowhere near a chapter and even if we do follow a group on facebook, there are multiple "women's wiki" groups on FB and I'm not even sure if I'm following the right one - and if notices are posted, frankly, they get lost in the flurry of other junk that haunts a facebook feed (10 memes on cats an hour... :-P ) Posting on-wiki and the individual invites are both good ideas. Montanabw (talk) 23:05, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Watchlist notices

FloNight, continuing from the discussion on GGTF about watchlist notices, I'm unsure how we go about creating watchlist notices on all the wikis, but it would be a great way to inform people if they would let us do it. Is Help:CentralNotice the place to ask? Sarah (SV) ^talk 16:41, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

SlimVirginI agree that this would be an especially good way. I added a section to discuss a list of ways to notify and invite people. Let's see if someone who knows how joins the discussion. :-) Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 16:45, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

I see Peter Coombe edited that page recently, so I'm pinging him in case he can advise. Peter, we're wondering whether we'd be allowed to put up a watchlist notice on several (all?) wikis to invite interested parties to the WikiWomen's User Group. Do you happen to know how and whether that could be arranged? Sarah (SV) ^talk 17:13, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

@SlimVirgin and FloNight: CentralNotice is for banners which appear on every page (like the ones we use for fundraising). I don't think there is a centralised way to create watchlist notices. Peter Coombe (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 17:29, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Okay, thank you for the quick reply, Peter. Would it be inappropriate to use that system to tell people about this user group? We're trying to make sure people from all wikis get to hear about it. Sarah (SV) ^talk 17:42, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

@SlimVirgin: A small message via CentralNotice might be appropriate at some point. Personally I would recommend sticking to watchlist notices if you're after engaged contributors, or at least waiting until the group is a bit more fleshed out and organised. Peter Coombe (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 20:14, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Be aware that a watchlist notice is also going to attract trolls. Montanabw (talk) 23:06, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Any mention of this, anywhere, in any manner, is going to attract trolls, if past history of initiatives like this is any indication. It sucks and it shouldn't be the way things are, but I'm not sure we should be letting the threat (surety...) of trolls prevent us from reaching out to people who might find the group useful/supportive. Fluffernutter (talk) 23:10, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Get a Friendly-space policy right now and enforce it. Smallbones (talk) 00:31, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

See the example at Grants:IdeaLab/Friendly space. Smallbones (talk) 00:41, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

@Smallbones: According to the eligibility requirements for Wikimedia user groups, "Your group must agree to the Wikimedia user group agreement and code of conduct", which contains the statement "You should strive to run a friendly and respectful group, and you should ensure your group's events are consistent with the Wikimedia Friendly Spaces Policy." So, there is already a safe space policy in effect for this page. It is here. Regards, —Neotarf (talk) 20:16, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Notifications and invitations

Hi everyone,

In this section let's collect ideas about where and how to make notifications and invitations for members to this group. I started by adding a few that came to mind. Add more. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 16:42, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Notifications

On WMF projects:

• Watchlist notifications cross wiki- (does someone know how to do this?)
• Gender gap related groups on different wikis
• Global message delivery to the village pumps/admins' noticeboards

Off wiki:

• Facebook groups
• Twitter
• WMF affiliated groups methods of disseminating news

Direct invitations

• Inspire campaign (committee members, creator of ideas, people assisting with funded projects...)
• Gender gap project leaders on and off wiki
• Individual editors we think might be interested. Perhaps we could create an invitation template to post on talk pages.

Translation of the group's main page, and use of languages other than English on the group's talk page

Key to getting more active members from around the world will be getting the group's main page translated to as many languages as possible, and to make it clear that people can use other languages besides English on this page and other pages associated with this user group.

Could someone who is familiar with translation on meta mark the main page for translations? Also, could someone help me think of wording for a talk page notice that makes it clear that discussions and questions can happen in languages other than English on this talk page. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 17:32, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Great idea! Done --Varnent (talk)^(COI) 19:18, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, Varnent, I appreciate your help. :-) Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 19:30, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Geographic reach

What is the intended geographic reach of the user group? I realise the glib answer is "everywhere". But how pragmatically will that be supported? I am looking at running a women's edit-a-thon but past events have had a real shortage of Wikipedians as volunteers. How will this group help with such an event (which is described as one of the group's primary purposes)? Kerry Raymond (talk) 23:28, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

I think the group can help out in several ways. (a) If members live in the immediate vicinity, they may want to participate in person; (b) Other members might want to participate remotely (I, for example, want to participate remotely in the "editonas" of Mexico City, which I learned about this last week). (c) Seasoned editors might make themselves available for tips/support/encouragement before/during/after the edit-a-thon. Seasoned editors might be available to Skype in if the edit-a-thon facilitator would like someone to speak on, say the use of Reliable Sources; (d) The user group may eventually have grant money to support things such as buying pizza, or offer some promotional materials, such as T-shirts; (e) Members could be an extra set of eyes on articles created at an edit-a-thon and/or help with getting some edit-a-thon articles through the DYK? nomination process. Is there a certain type of assistance you'd like this group provide with edit-a-thons? --Rosiestep (talk) 02:45, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Most of the work in edit training and edit-a-thons is "one-on-one" as new people have questions "how do I do ..." or "I did that but it didn't work". Plus the inevitable process of explaining why that image they are about to upload probably has licensing issues (the Copyright 101 conversation). That's the big need and if you can drum up more members in the vicinity, I'd be very grateful indeed. As far as I know, I am the only female volunteer in Brisbane; The on-wiki help is somewhat useful in terms of running interference with the newbie-unfriendly members of the community, but less so in terms of assisting the participants as they generally won't understand Talk or possess the jargon to phrase their question meaningfully - there would need to be some shared screen capability I think for remote people to support complete newbies so they could see what the newbie sees. I'd like to see some extension of time for the use of {{inuse}} negotiated to provide some "space" for new editors to make their early mistakes. Having an administrator to do user confirmation as new accounts are created would be very useful; the CAPCHAs are a pain and people who come to edit training and edit-a-thons aren't vandals in my experience. Kerry Raymond (talk) 07:31, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Regarding meetups, can we use rolling timeslots so everyone gets an opportunity to participate? Kerry Raymond (talk) 07:31, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Calendar of events

The second WikiConference USA will be held in Washington, D.C. on October 9–11. Please consider attending. It'll be a great opportunity for us to meet-up as a group; and, like other user groups, we'll have a presence at the event. --Rosiestep (talk) 02:52, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Any financial support available for those further afield? Kerry Raymond (talk) 09:14, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Scholarships. I'll also suggest that somebody submit a session or presentation for the agenda to make the User group's presence official. Smallbones (talk) 23:32, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

I started a subsection -- Calendar of events -- on our mainpage; and posted WikiConference USA plus this weekend's editathon in Mexico City to the subsection. It may not be in an optimal place so please do move it if would work better somewhere else. --Rosiestep (talk) 03:16, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Different from WikiWomen Collaboratives?

I'm always excited to see and participate in any venture that is intended to close the gendergap and promote women's wiki participation. I'm not very clear on how this is different than, or how (if) it relates to the various WikiWomen Collaboratives? I run a group in Tel Aviv (for the Hebrew Wikipedia) and share some of our activities with the collaborative page on Facebook, but other than that, haven't seen much international cooperation or communication, and I'm frankly not sure whether or not to promote this group to my members (fear of spamming with information not directly relevant to them). I'd like to understand more about the vision for this group. Thanks :) TMagen (talk) 09:02, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Great question! WikiWomen's User Group is, well, a brand new Wikimedia-approved User Group. With that, it shares the rights and responsibilities associated with other approved User Groups. WikiWomen's Collaborative is?/was? something else: a project. Its efforts were the precursor for this User Group and many members of WWC are members of WWUG. Where we go from here, well, we're just sorting that out ourselves. Right? There is a lot we can do, and together, I expect we'll be very active doing it -- supporting women-related/Wikimania-related areas within our User Group scope. Addressing your question about an international reach, I believe our success hinges on being an international group, working together, learning from each other. And already we have members from non-English-speaking parts of the world. I am a polyglot, as are other members, and being an inclusive membership across all languages falls within our scope's purview; I cannot fathom real success without it. --Rosiestep (talk) 14:01, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

WikiProject Women

I'm seeking ideas about a new WikiProject: Women. The scope of WPW is to act as an umbrella for coordinating content/listing events/documenting scholarly articles, etc. regarding women. It coordinates "things" across other women's Wikiprojects, such as artists, history, scientists, and so on; it is not a replacement for them. I've started a section on the WPW talkpage regarding choosing a logo/image. I'm thinking it would be good to merge WikiProject Women in Red (whose scope is article creation) with WPW, but, again, I seek community consensus. Thank you for your thoughts. --Rosiestep (talk) 21:15, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Mailing list

Hi Rosiestep, I was wondering whether there's any news about the mailing list. Sarah ^talk 20:19, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

Good question, @Sarah. We have to get the mailing list sorted out/started up!

Anyone have experience with starting up a mailing list? If not, I was going to ask for help with it at WikiConference USA in October. --Rosiestep (talk) 01:20, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

In general, yes I have. In the case of a Wikimedia list, no I haven't. But the starting point for creating a Wikimedia list appears to be here but it looks like you need authorisation which I think you obtain by emailing mailman@lists.wikimedia.org Kerry Raymond (talk) 02:12, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

We are working on this now. --Rosiestep (talk) 19:17, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi Rosie, sorry, I didn't see your earlier response. I'm hoping the mailing list can go ahead. I think it might help to invigorate people. Sarah ^talk 01:53, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
Hi again Rosie, Sydney, Keilana, Montana, Kerry, what can be done to get a mailing list going? The gg mailing list is not very active for various reasons (that I could expand on if wanted, but this might not be the best place to do it). As things stand, it's not clear how active the user group is, if at all. A mailing list would certainly help. Sarah ^talk 23:15, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Also pinging EllenCT, Neotarf, Slowking4. Sarah ^talk 23:18, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

We are close to launching the mailing list. The past few day we have actively worked on getting it set up and going. Should be up in running within the next week. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 23:49, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

"WikiWomen's User Group: next steps"

Hello, members, I have great news! We received word this morning that the proposed submission,"WikiWomen's User Group: next steps", has been accepted by WikiConference USA's Program Committee. It's a unique opportunity for us so let's make the most of it. Please share your ideas regarding what you'd like the panel to discuss: questions... comments... local/international events... grants... collaborations with other UGs, Chapters, international organizations... adding additional WWUG members to the panel, such as a facilitator, etc. For those of you who will be attending the conference, let's plan to have a meetup on Friday, October 9th, time TBD. Thank you. --Rosiestep (talk) 03:53, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

Draft agenda - UG meeting - 10/9/15 - Washington D.C.

Please add other items which you'd like to discuss. If you'd like to Skype into the meeting, please let me know. rosiestep[dot]wiki[at]gmail. --Rosiestep (talk) 02:11, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

1. Develop a safe space policy, or incorporate one that already exists such as this one.
2. Create a mailing list
3. Develop Annual Plan
4. Apply for a grant based on Annual Plan
5. Logo
6. Reach out to other language Chapters

#FreeThe20 human rights campaign

Twenty women who are political prisoners are being profiled by a "free the 20" social media campaign. The campaign was launched by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. Their profiles are here. Already there is some publicity. [1][2][3]. The names are:

   Wang Yu, China
   Khadija Ismayilova, Azerbaijan
   Bahareh Hedayat, Iran
   Blen Mesfin, Ethiopia
   Meron Alemayehu, Ethiopia
   and Nigist Wondifraw, Ethiopia
   Gao Yu, China
   Aster Yohannes, Eritrea
   Matlyuba Kamilova, Uzbekistan
   Leyla Yunus, Azerbaijan
   Phyoe Phyoe Aung, Burma
   Liu Xia, China
   Bui Thi Minh Hang, Vietnam
   Judge María Lourdes Afiuni Mora, Venezuela
   Sanaa Seif, Egypt (released September 24, 2015) See note.
   Naw Ohn Hla, Burma
   Nadiya Savchenko, Ukraine/Russia
   Anonymous, North Korea
   Bui Thi Minh Hang, Vietnam
   Rasha Chorbaji, Syria

Sanaa Seif has now been released, along with 100 other prisoners, including two male al-Jazeera reporters, Mohamed Fahmy of Canada and Baher Mohamed of Egypt. The Wikipedia articles of Fahmy and Mohamed have both been updated. The Wikipedia article of Seif has not. —Neotarf (talk) 20:40, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia's 15th birthday - get involved!

Apologies for cross-posting the below! Read in more languages here

The 15th birthday of Wikipedia, and the Wikimedia movement, is coming soon! We’re eager to make plans to celebrate on January 15, 2016.

As a way to kickstart planning around the 15th, there is a page on Meta for Wikipedia 15. Eventually, we plan for the page to have resources including:

1. Resources to plan events and meetups locally to celebrate the 15th.
2. More information on sharing birthday photos, videos, stories, Wikipedia content, and other media.
3. Tips for pitching to local media to cover your event.

Many of the sections on the meta page are blank for now, but we’ll be working with you to add more information to the page over the next few months leading up to the birthday celebration in January. Please feel free to add, edit, and discuss what you’d like to see for Wikipedia’s 15th birthday!

We look forward to celebrating with you!

-for the Wikimedia Foundation Communications team, JSutherland (WMF) (talk) 01:31, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

Friendly space expectations

Hi everyone, Here is a link to the Friendly space expectations used in the grants name space on meta.

• Grants:Friendly space expectations

As noted above, we discussed creating Friendly space expectations at WikiConference USA in DC. This wording can be tweaked to be used in the WikiWomen's Group space. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 20:06, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Logo

Proposed logo1

This proposed logo was designed by Montanabw! Please provide feedback. Other logo ideas are also welcome. --Rosiestep (talk) 02:08, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

This is a rough design, someone with more professional software will have to redo it before it can become "final." I'm also not wedded to the design, it's just my playing with the colors and the logo concept of the affiliates... Montanabw (talk) 15:09, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

It looks good, Montana, thank you for doing it! Sarah ^talk 21:09, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

I like the logo and the colors. They show a link to the movement which I think is good. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 22:40, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

ENWP's upcoming arbcom elections - please vote if you are eligible and have an opinion

Hi all -

I'll be circulating this to multiple lists, in part to ensure that everyone is aware of both the importance and ability of ENWP's arbitration committee, and in part to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote is aware that they are eligible to vote, and aware that their votes are anonymous - and aware of how significantly they can count. Although oppose votes do carry more weight than neutral votes or support votes, in our last tranche of elections (which had a steep decline in voters from previous elections,) an arbitrator was elected with only 227 support votes, and a total of only 593 votes cast in relation to that arb in general.

The arbitration committee has, for all practical purposes, binding decision making ability on all matter that come before the English Wikipedia. For members of that committee to have been elected on the basis of only 227 support votes seems (sorry to the arb in question for using him as an example) absolutely bizarre to me. The arbitration committee is the body ultimately responsible for ensuring the health of ENWP's community, including on issues of gender, harrassment, and everything else. I'm not going to suggest who you vote for (especially because another three weeks of nominations are coming in,) but if you are concerned about the state of ENWP's community, please take the minimal time necessary to scrutinize candidate statements and cast your anonymous votes according to those candidates who you believe are most likely to represent your interests.

In comparison with the 227 positive votes and the 593 total votes that an arbitrator was actually elected with last year, the GG-L list alone has over 400 members, most of whom are eligible to vote in arbcom elections, many of whom have not done so before, and I'd expect the same to be true of people involved in the WikiWomen's usergroup. Again, I'll be circulating this (or a very similar message) around to multiple other lists, and won't be making direct suggestions or endorsements of candidates on-list, although I may compile a voter candidate guide on-wiki when all nominations are in.

If you meet the fairly minimal requirements to vote, please take the fairly minimal time out of your day once elections start to cast your anonymous votes in favor of the candidates who best supports your interests and the interests of the community - and I know that even on this list, there are certainly people who will disagree with me about what candidates will be represent the interests of the community, and am totally fine with that - vote how you want to vote. But vote! ENWP's final ruling body shouldn't be determined by a small fraction of eligible voters who will all be effected by the decisions our next arbcom makes:

These are literally the only requirements to vote in the English Arbcom's upcoming elections: "(i) has registered an account before 28 October 2015 (ii) has made at least 150 mainspace edits before 1 November 2015 and,(iii) is not blocked from the English Wikipedia at the time of their vote. (iii) is not blocked from the English Wikipedia at the time of their vote."

If you meet those requirements, please consider the candidates and their position statements and their answers to questions, and vote for whatever candidates best think represent how you would like the future of ENWP's community to be.

If you're interested in running yourself, but not sure what it entails, please contact me offlist, and I can walk you through a lot of what you'll be dealing with. Also of note, even though we've never had an arb who has not yet been an admin, there's no actual requirement that arbitrators be admins.

P.S. Apologies for all the references to "on-list" above - I'm distributing this in a variety of places, most of whom are lists, but WWUG doesn't have a functioning listserve yet, and didn't change all references. Best, Kevin (talk) 00:32, 21 October 2015 (UTC)