March 3rd, 2008

Seth Finkelstein has one of the better takes on the Wikipdia "sex" scandal. I wouldn't even be interested except for two things:

1. Seth and All's Wool both mention about the deep irregularities associated with the Wikipedia Foundation's money, including how Foundation money is finding it's way into founder Jimmy Wales pocket. If the organization hasn't been audited recently, I would say it's due.

2. Why is it that most of the time women and Silicon Valley or women and tech generate a lot of buzz in the tech community, it's in reference to women and clothes, women and clothes, or women as former girlfriends? Or some variation of the latter: woman as vamp, woman as bitch, woman as whore, woman as babe, etc…and this geek or that tech.

Wow, guys, we don't only dress and date. Next time you pair "women" and "technology", try writing a story about women who program, design web sites, write or speak about technology, participate in standards committees, manage companies, or generally do things that you all don't seem to notice or give a damn about until we're either stripped naked or wearing purple, or have our sex chats blasted across your front pages.

Comments
1
Bud Gibson - 1:43 pm March 3, 2008

Some observations:

1. Wales went to my high school, but only started one year after I graduated. My sister likely would have known him though.

2. Marsden sounds like a piece of work.

3. Is it possible for anyone to compete with wikipedia? Duplicating the content would be hard.

2
Bud Gibson - 2:16 pm March 3, 2008

So, continuing, I'm not sure this is the best case for discussing women in tech. Better grist for the mill might be Leah Culver who is often mentioned as Brad Fitzpatrick's girlfriend but deserves much more attention as lead developer on pownce.

3
Shelley - 3:00 pm March 3, 2008

Uncov and Valleywag are the reasons most people focus on Leah Culver in a negative "Fritzpatrick's ex girl" way. It's unfortunate, because as far as I know, she's the only developer on Pownce, and it's new API has been getting positive reviews.

4
Bud Gibson - 4:37 pm March 3, 2008

Wikipedia (!) says its Fitzpatrick not Fritzpatrick. I first heard of Leah when did the aluminum macbook pro with engraving. If you read her blog, it's clear she's a woman in a man's world. Frankly, she's kind of impressive. Brad does not overly impress me, but he has enough accomplishments.

BTW, I'm reading this on an FF nightly, and the new javascript engine screams. Plus, they've worked out a couple of the other display bugs.

5
Elaine - 6:31 pm March 3, 2008

I have this deeply cynical theory about nonprofit leadership: people who are around in most nonprofits long enough to get to/near the top are very often either burnt out or crooked, and very often, the first leads to the 2nd. Not that this would appear to be the case here, but I thought it was worth mentioning. (I worked in three smallish nonprofits over the course of about 5 years, quite a while ago, plus C's minor was nonprofit development.)

6
Shelley - 7:50 pm March 3, 2008

Well, when I heard that Wales is a "Randian libertarian", my views of his altruism took a decided step back.

People can get things other than money from popular initiatives. Regardless, perhaps it's time for Mr. Wales to think of retiring from such direct Wikipedia involvement.

7
Shelley - 7:52 pm March 3, 2008

If you read her blog, it's clear she's a woman in a man's world.

If you read her blog, Bud?

8
Bud Gibson - 9:04 pm March 3, 2008

Yes Shelley, Leah's blog used to be quite expressive.

9
Michael R. Bernstein - 9:37 pm March 3, 2008

Well, when I heard that Wales is a "Randian libertarian", my views of his altruism took a decided step back.

Now now, lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Among other things, the Randian philosophy promotes 'enlightened self-interest', ie. the recognition that improving the world for everyone can be a profoundly selfish act.

All philosophies (political or otherwise) have some adherents who are assholes. Some may in fact be more prone to attracting assholes.

But hardly anyone is equally an asshole in all areas of life, so I think conflating political beliefs and personal conduct in this way is usually unwarranted, except in those cases where some hypocrisy is thereby revealed (ie. gay-bashing public figures revealed to be in the closet).

10
Shelley - 9:49 pm March 3, 2008

Personally, I could care less about Jimmy Wales private life. However, I find his economic/political view, if he really is a Randian libertarian, casts an interesting light about his relationship to Wikipedia. I also find the use of Wikipedia foundation money for frivolities to be interesting. I expect that sort of behavior from people like televangelist Hagee.

11
Michael R. Bernstein - 10:42 pm March 3, 2008

I also find the use of Wikipedia foundation money for frivolities to be interesting.

Oh yes. Interesting is definitely the word for it. But I'm going to sit this out until the accusations flying back and forth die down a bit. And in any case, most of the alleged misconduct, while definitely unethical, seems fairly small potatoes.

Thanks to all those who have contributed to the discussion. Comments are now closed, but you can contact the author of the post directly.