Sunday, February 6, 2011

Women not Wikipedia-ing?

Since it's inception 10 years ago, Wikipedia has had hundreds of thousands of contributors producing over 3.5 million articles on a various range of topics. The "free Encyclopedia that anyone can edit" is usually the top page on any search from "apples" to "zebras". Though the research site can celebrate it's effectiveness in it's contribution to our vast thirst for immediate condensed knowledge, the contributors themselves are not quite reflecting the diversity of the readers who frequent the site.

This first article opens ups the question, "Why are there so few female contributors to Wikipedia?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html?_r=2&hp


Reading on a few days later, a follow up post was made. This article by Susan Herring, a professor in Information Science and Linguistics contends that the differences between men and women's communication styles, and the culture of Wikipedia, may be contributing factors to why so few women are jumping at the opportunity to publish their "facts" on Wikipedia.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/02/02/where-are-the-women-in-wikipedia/communication-styles-make-a-difference

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