status Funded Project & Event Grants Gender-gap admin training Teach the Ally Skills Workshop to 30 people involved in Wikipedia, with the goals of increasing awareness of issues that affect women editors, and if successful, creating a scalable sustainable program to train admins to better moderate discussions that have gender-gap implications. target please add a target wiki strategic priority please add a strategic priority start date May 12 start year 2015 end date August 1 end year 2015 budget (USD) $9,000 grant type organization creator SlimVirgin contact(s) • contact@adainitiative.org give feedback endorse created on 23:05, 23 September 2014 (UTC) friendly space expectations view all PEG requests





Project idea [ edit ]

What is the problem you're trying to solve? [ edit ]

Discussions on the English Wikipedia can become aggressive, particularly noticeboard discussions of behavioral issues. Women's issues may be ignored or downplayed, and editors are sometimes criticized even for suggesting that there is a gender-gap angle to a discussion. Admins who moderate and close these discussions may not realize how their actions affect the way women view the conversation.

What is your solution? [ edit ]

We propose a pilot program to train admins how to be more aware of how sexism impacts Wikimedia projects and specifically to better inform their decisions as admins. The training program would be the Ally Skills Workshop from the Ada Initiative and taught to up to 30 admins from around the world at Wikimania 2015. Attendees would be selected through a competitive open applications process, choosing the people who would be most likely to benefit from the workshop and to become future workshop facilitators. After the training, attendees would answer an anonymous survey about what they learned and how they would improve the workshop for other admins. The pilot training would be conducted in English.

Depending on the results from the pilot program, we may propose a larger program to train at least 20 Wikimedians to teach the workshop to admins around the world. We would ask for a budget to translate the workshop into the most in-demand languages and adapt the cultural content to be more relevant to local communities.

The materials for the Ally Skills Workshop (attendee handout, facilitator's guide, etc.) are licensed CC BY-SA and publicly available at: https://adainitiative.org/what-we-do/workshops-and-training/.

Note on provenance: This proposal has emerged out of discussions on the English Wikipedia's gender gap task force. It also emerged out of an idea proposed in May 2014 by Sumanah. The original proposal by several Wikimedians was for 1-2 workshops and the train-the-trainers. After consultation with the original proposers, the Ada Initiative scaled it down to one pilot workshop, with any future activities to be funded by a new grant proposal.

Budget [ edit ]

$9000 for training fees and travel expenses (see below for more details).

Goals [ edit ]

Increase awareness of how sexism impacts editing and administrative decisions on Wikimedia projects and give admins the tools to make better editing and administrative decisions and effectively advocate against bias caused by sexism.

Get Involved [ edit ]

Participants [ edit ]

SlimVirgin (talk) 23:16, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

23:16, 23 September 2014 (UTC) Community organizer Getting the bandwagon to step in is the first step. This proposal needs traction. QEDK (talk) 03:55, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Getting the bandwagon to step in is the first step. This proposal needs traction. QEDK (talk) 03:55, 5 March 2015 (UTC) Volunteer Willing to help in whatever way I can to get this off the ground. ACrockford (talk) 12:05, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Willing to help in whatever way I can to get this off the ground. ACrockford (talk) 12:05, 5 March 2015 (UTC) Volunteer Happy to help in whatever capacity is needed. Data crusader (talk) 21:56, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Happy to help in whatever capacity is needed. Data crusader (talk) 21:56, 5 March 2015 (UTC) Volunteer Because this is a very good idea . Britneyfan07 (talk) 04:50, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Because this is a very good idea . Britneyfan07 (talk) 04:50, 7 March 2015 (UTC) Volunteer Being a women I think that I can contribute to bridge the Gender gap on Wikipedia Shrutisaxena75 (talk) 11:24, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Being a women I think that I can contribute to bridge the Gender gap on Wikipedia Shrutisaxena75 (talk) 11:24, 7 March 2015 (UTC) Researcher I'm a scientist and I can help with statistics and data interpretation. Xttina.Garnet (talk) 17:56, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm a scientist and I can help with statistics and data interpretation. Xttina.Garnet (talk) 17:56, 24 March 2015 (UTC) Advisor can offer some advisory support where useful Siko (WMF) (talk) 18:11, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Endorsements [ edit ]

Expand your idea [ edit ]

Project plan [ edit ]

Activities [ edit ]

Teach one Ally Skills Workshop at Wikimania 2015. The Ada Initiative is responsible for creating the application form, assisting with recruiting attendees, teaching the workshop, and analyzing the survey results after the workshop.

Budget [ edit ]

$7,000 Workshop fee

< $2,000 Travel expenses for trainer

The workshop fee includes creating the application form and screening applications, assisting with recruiting attendees, teaching the workshop, and analyzing the survey results after the workshop. Travel expenses can be more exactly estimated by WMF.

Community engagement [ edit ]

The community will assist with creating and screening the applications, recruiting attendees, and tailoring the content of the workshop. Workshop attendees will answer an anonymous survey with several open-ended free-form answers. The Ada Initiative will consult with the community members who created and supported this proposal. If the workshop is successful and the follow-on grant is approved, community members will learn to teach the workshop themselves and teach it worldwide.

Sustainability [ edit ]

If the test workshop is a success, the WMF can choose to fund train-the-trainers sessions for people from around the world, who can then teach it in their local areas. Funding for translation and localization of the content is an option.

Measures of success [ edit ]

We have a standard post-workshop survey which includes about half a dozen pair of questions such as:

BEFORE the workshop, I knew how to welcome women to my communities.

AFTER the workshop, I knew how to welcome women to my communities.

It also includes many open-ended questions. We are exploring hiring a survey designer to improve this survey and can also add questions suggested by the community and/or WMF.

The results of this survey will be used to evaluate whether this workshop is a successful intervention and the train-the-trainers should be funded.

Project team [ edit ]

The Ada Initiative: an international non-profit working to support women in open technology and culture since 2011. Our co-founders are Wikimedians and our Deputy Executive Director gave a keynote speech at Wikimania 2012.

SlimVirgin: wikipedia editor since 2004, administrator since 2005.

Xttina.Garnet: Joint Master in Neuroscience student, her work focuses on process that recruit bias and stereotyping in decision making. Occasional Wikipedia editor since 2009, contributor in the Neuroscience Project. Relevant Skills include statistical analysis in SPSS, R, and Python, survey design in Survey Monkey.

ACrockford: Wikimedian in Residence based at the National Library of Scotland, post-doctoral researcher and teaching assistant at the University of Edinburgh.

Data crusader: PhD Candidate in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory, Digital projects coordinator at Emory's Center for Digital Scholarship, assistant managing editor for the open access, peer reviewed journal Southern Spaces. They are also community + advocacy coordinator for the Open Access Button and community representative for the Digital Public Library of America.

QEDK: Editing Wikipedia for quite a while, 3 years or so. Studying in high school. Attended decision making and persuasive writing workshops. I also organized the carnival for our school (does this even count? :P) with a team of just 3 people (visitors were 3k+). I know HTML5 and CSS. Learning Java right now. I also work out at Twinkle (i.e. JS).

Britneyfan07

Shrutisa

Community notification [ edit ]

Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?