#success

"Women are just as competent in technology as men; it’s just that we’re not socialized to believe so... On English Wikipedia, for example, 18 percent of our biographies are about women... One of the reasons for the imbalance...is that men outnumber women roughly 9 to 1 among the site’s unpaid contributors... Another part of the problem is that if you actually look at representation of women in the broader public sphere, Wikipedia is a tertiary source... It requires secondary sources for an article to exist, which means that in order to write about a notable woman, you need to actually be able to find a newspaper article or a book or something that talks about her accomplishments and achievements. And we know that gender representation of women in all forms of media is actually not great. Women are less likely to be quoted in articles; women are less likely to be covered as the subjects of articles, even really notable women..."

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“Yeah, this is 100% BS. California, the most fire-prone state in the country, contracts prisons to fight our deadly wildfires. When prisoners are released, their firefighting experience does not usually qualify them for salaried work... Furthermore... it is our imprisoned fellow citizens who are at high risk of Covid-19 exposure. They're 40% of CA firefighters, and they’re fighting for basic preventative care... As I’ve said before, my much-bigger little brother is a firefighter in CA. He sits with the weight of 60lbs of gear and fear and frustration with the multitudinous ways his profession is our society’s last resort for everything from addiction to policing to climate change... It doesn’t work. We cannot stop our lands from burning by exploiting a burning injustice of our nation. We cannot douse our apathy by sending in the engines.”

“We must work together to create a safe, inclusive culture, where everyone feels welcome, that their contributions are valued, and that their perspective matters.”

“A month ago, we were planning for the future. Today, we still are — just a different future than any of us expected... At Wikimedia, we live by a mantra: everything that happens in the world happens on Wikipedia. And when things happen, the world looks our way.”

“In 8 hours I’ll put on a mask, leave my home, head to the airport, fly for 6 hours, quarantine for 14 days, and hopefully by mid-July I’ll be able to see my mom. I would not be going if there were not urgent family issues, but I won’t lie: I am afraid.”

“In mid-March, Katherine Maher, the CEO of Wikimedia Foundation, sent an email to her organization outlining changes to mitigate stress, including: “If you need to dial back , that’s okay.” She also committed to paying contractors and hourly staff on the basis of their typical hours, regardless of their ability to work. When you make changes, be explicit that you are doing so to support the mental health of your employees, if that is the goal.”

“Til that LBJ telling MLK to “make me do it” on civil rights is apocryphal. Funny, because I’ve definitely said that in my work at Wikimedia, though I was encouraging community activists to keep the pressure on for change at a movement level.”