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WikiWomenCamp/FAQ/Perspectives/United States

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United States

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group of people holding up ten fingers
West Coast WikiConference in San Francisco, CA to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia. Holding up ten fingers.

English Wikipedia is the fifth most popular website in the United States.[1]

Chapters

The United States has two active Wikimedia chapters: Wikimedia NYC and Wikimedia DC. Wikimedia NYC is active in regional outreach, and has successfully brought new female editors to Wikipedia through these programs. Wikimedia DC has also found success with outreach events and activities, and has the distinction of having three female Wikimedians on the Board of Directors. [2]

Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation president is Sue Gardner (who is actually Canadian!). The Foundation employees 34 female staff and contractors (2 not listed currently), making them a unique leader in the open source technical community. Many are active Wikimedians as well, and/or have long standing histories within education, science and open source technology. [3]

The US serves as the home-base for the Wikimedia Foundation, in San Francisco, California. Phoebe Ayers and Kat Walsh are members of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Ayers lives and works in California, while Walsh, in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Both also have long histories of contributing to Wikipedia and related projects.

The 2011 Wikimedia Fundraiser is known for its unique tool of using written appeals to attract donors. While a number of women were featured, four women who live in the United States were featured on the front pages of Wikimedia projects around the world.[4]

The Wikimedia Foundation developed the 2011 Summer of Research, and had one female participant, researcher Melanie Kill, in the program. The leading team for the project had three staff members, including Maryana.

Wikimedia contributors

Wikimedia has a number of active female contributors, some which hold administrator, arbitration, and related titles. Highly active female contributors include, but are not limited too (please add yourself or someone you know!):

  • FloNight; an administrator who has also served on Arbcom. She's been mentioned on the The Colbert Report due to her contributions!
  • LoriLee; the second Wikipedian in Residence and the longest serving resident, she was recently appointed as the first US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator.
  • Jgmikulay; is a college professor from Wisconsin who was one of the first professors to embrace the ambassador program in the US. She was a co-founder of WikiProject Public art and has worked with students at her women's college to develop WikiProject Lights Camera Wiki, which has had numerous videos created by female contributors uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
  • Dvortygirl is an admin and a bureaucrat on Wiktionary.
  • Awadeit has contributed to a whopping 35 featured articles on English Wikipedia, and numerous good articles, mainly related to women's literature. She was also a guest on English Wikipedia's podcast, Wikipedia Weekly.
  • Cindamuse is a part of Global Education's Ambassador Steering Committee, and is also an online ambassador for the program. She also has often overlooked Wikipedia powers such as rollback, reviewer, and file mover rights.
  • Fluffernutter is a highly active administrator on English Wikipedia and is also an online ambassador. She's active offline as well and is a member of WM NY and attends events when time permits. She also has been a guest on Wikipedia Weekly.
  • Aude is the president of Wikimedia DC. She's an admin on English Wikipedia, and is highly active in GLAM Outreach, helping to develop relationships between Wikimedia and the Smithsonian Institution. When not editing, she's serving as sponsorship director for Wikimania 2012 and an active leader in the OpenStreetMap project.
  • Carolmooredc has been editing English Wikipedia since 2006, she's a 60+ year old editor active in politically charged subjects; both as a Wikipedia writer and an offline activist.
  • Moonriddengirl has been an English Wikipedian since 2008 and in 2011 she became the community liaison for the Wikimedia Foundation (a temporary position). She has created over 373 Wikipedia articles.
  • Sarah Stierch has served as the Wikipedian-in-Residence at the Archives of American Art, and is currently a Community Fellow at the Wikimedia Foundation focusing on the gendergap on Wikimedia projects. She's also an active content contributor on the English Wikipedia as well as the Wikimedia Commons.

In the United States, two women served as Wikipedians in Residence at cultural organizations as part of the GLAMWIKI outreach movement. The Wikimedia Campus Ambassador program also has 29 female participants from the US[5], and has worked wonders to bring female contributors to Wikipedia; however has struggled to retain those contributors.

United States related on Wikipedia

In December 2011, according to Alexa, Wikipedia was ranked the 7th most popular site in the country.[6] In December 2011, there were 176,800 women of all ages from United States who were interested in Wikipedia on Facebook.[7] The first featured article about a woman on English Wikipedia was about the American Nella Larsen.[8] The second featured article about a woman on English Wikipedia was also about an American woman, Martha Stewart.[9]On English Wikipedia, there are articles about roller derby leagues from 42 different states, with New York and Texas having 8 roller derby league articles each. Netball is one of the most popular women's participation sports in former and current Commonwealth countries. There are 2 articles about netball in this country on English Wikipedia.

In the period between December 25, 2010 and December 25, 2011, the top 150 pages on English were recorded. Of these, 23 were biographies about women. 14 of these were about Americans, 6 were about Brits, 1 was about a Russian, 1 about someone from Barbados and 1 about someone from Trinidad and Tobago.

Article Visits/Hour Class From Total edits from top contributor Location of top contributor Gender of top contributor
Amy_Winehouse 1664 B United Kingdom 570 United States Unknown
Lady_Gaga 1236 GA United States 653 India Male
Adele_(singer) 1025 C United Kingdom 263 United States Unknown
Selena_Gomez 959 C United States 316 Unknown Unknown
Kim_Kardashian 836 B United States 136 Canada Female
Elizabeth_II 809 GA United Kingdom 565 Unknown Unknown
Nicki_Minaj 807 C Trindad and Tobago 116 Unknown Unknown
Rihanna 779 B Barbados 643 Unknown Unknown
Elizabeth_Taylor 764 B United Kingdom 126 United States Unknown
Mila_Kunis 670 B Russia 116 United States Male
Kate_Middleton 664 B United Kingdom 123 Unknown Unknown
Katy_Perry 616 GA United States 243 Philippines Unknown
Natalie_Portman 589 GA United States 136 Unknown Unknown
Jennifer_Lopez 580 B United States 472 Unknown Unknown
Rebecca_Black 574 B United States 66 Unknown Unknown
Britney_Spears 512 GA United States 648 Unknown Unknown
Miley_Cyrus 505 B United States 466 Unknown Unknown
Angelina_Jolie 492 FA United States 260 Germany Unknown
Beyoncé_Knowles 485 GA United States 671 Unknown Unknown
Death_of_Caylee_Anthony 469 B United States 337 United States Female
Diana,_Princess_of_Wales 462 B United Kingdom 168 United Kingdom Unknown
Taylor_Swift 429 C United States 129 United States Male
Jennifer_Aniston 428 B United States 202 United States Male
United States on Wikinews

In December 2011, there were 220 women of all ages from United States who were interested in Wikinews on Facebook.[10] In December 2011, according to Alexa, Wikinews was ranked the 34,262th most popular site in the country.[11] On Portuguese Wikinews, there are no women active from this country. This may be a result of several factors, including the language and because Portuguese Wikinews only has an active editing community of five people, one of whom is a woman. A December 2011 search on Spanish Wikinews for Estados Unidos mujeres found 157 articles that mentioned both words.[12] A December 2011 search on Portuguese Wikinews for mulheres Estados Unidos found 101 articles that mentioned both words.[13]

United States on Wikibooks

In December 2011, according to Alexa, Wikibooks was ranked the 5,055th most popular site in the country.[14]

United States on Wiktionary

In December 2011, there were 80 women of all ages from United States who were interested in Wiktionary on Facebook.[15] A December 2011 search on Spanish Wikinews for Estados Unidos mujeres found 157 articles that mentioned both words.[16] A December 2011 search on Portuguese Wikinews for mulheres Estados Unidos found 101 articles that mentioned both words.[17]