A friend of mine posted a blog item recently, commenting on a news article that pointed out that 85% (or so) of Wikipedia contributors were men. He also had a link to a third party comment about this. I read both with considerable interest, and it started me doing some very interesting self-examination about why it had never occured to me to contribute to Wikipedia. Both the friend and the third party commenter are men. I hereby offer up a purely subjective female perspective.
Both my friend and the third party commenter looked at contributing to Wikipedia as a selfless, altruistic, service oriented kind of activity. I don't know the 3rd party person, but I know my friend, and I totally believe him when he talks about the satisfaction of being part of something "larger". However, I was completely surprised by this motivation. If I had been asked a few days ago why a person would be motivated to contribute to Wikipedia, I would have said by an enormous ego...setting himself/herself up as the world's foremost authority on whatever. Obviously, I was wrong. That's not what is going on here. I had no idea my friend contributed to Wikipedia. I never would have guessed that, given that he is NOT an egotistical jerk.
I do disagree with the 3rd party gentlemen about one thing. He says women don't care about Wikipedia. I can't speak for all women, but I AM interested in Wikipedia. I use it all the time, as a reader, not a writer. I can't believe I am that unusual. Are there any stats on the genders of Wikipedia readers?
I do know that in general, females have less self-confidence than males. I don't know why. I know computers better than people. I do know, however, that I will never, ever, write an entry for Wikipedia because I would never have the confidence to do so. Yes, I have a Ph.D. in computer science, but that only persuades me that I know enough to teach my classes. Not to pose as an expert on Wikipedia. Can't go there. Is this right or wrong? I don't know.
If you want to play around with Wikipedia, it's easy to get started: if you're reading an article and spot an error or think of a better way to rewrite a line or two, just do it. The worst that can happen is that someone will remove (or rework) your edits. In all the years I've been editing articles I've only been barked at once, and that was for an improperly-formatted reference which was easily fixed. You would be GREAT in history of computing!
ReplyDelete