Feminist SF Wiki:Wikipedia

The feministSF wiki is not wikipedia and it's not an attempt to replace it or to ghettoize feminist SF.

1. The feministSF wiki uses the mediawiki software which was developed by and for and in conjunction with WikiPedia, but we use it for our own ends.

1. The feministSF wiki is a reference resource, like Wikipedia, but it can be much deeper and much broader than a general encyclopedia (even the world's best) encyclopedia is intended to be. For instance, while Wikipedia only wants to include entires on people or events of general significance, the feministSF wiki will include things of general significance to feminist SF — and that is already a good deal more specific than a general encyclopedia could be. The feministSF wiki is

1. But the feministSF wiki can also include things that would never be in any encyclopedia, because they are not of "general interest". For instance, every single fan and writer can be of interest, because they are part of the overall community. With tagging and categories and search, we can still structure information in such a way to make it easy to find book authors, new authors, fans, wanna-be filmmakers, and so on, but we don't need to mandate and create a separation that is, in the feminist SF community, rather artificial. We all know that our writers are also fans and that fans are creators and that creators includes writing and jewelry-making and beading and software coding and graphic design and feminist processes and organizing perfectly organized pocket programs for conferences. And all of these

1. The feministSF is not written from a "neutral POV". At Wikipedia, and in a general reference encyclopedia, the assumption is that the articles should be written from a neutral point of view. At feministSF wiki, the assumption is that articles will be written from a feminist point of view. We may want to understand and describe other perspectives, but as feminists we also want to critique and deconstruct hierarchies of oppression, stereotyped thinking, problems that skew along axes of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, age, marital status or relational affiliation, language, and other forms of privilege or hierarchy.

1. an experiment in feminist process & community-building ... could it become a 24/7 feminist think tank? an online version of a WisCon workshop, in which everyone works madly together -- but not just for 75 minutes, but at any moment ... coming together asynchronously through the discussion pages and other community aspects of the mediaWiki software?

1. "A wiki of our own" - "sandbox" - place for women particularly who have been socialized NOT to correct others, to be polite, etc., and to not "geek out"--a place for all those folk to explore and experiment with the technology, get proficient with it, then take their skills out in the world to use with their own collaborative software, engaging in wikipedia editing & processes, and bringing more feminist presences and perspectives to wikis, and ultimately other tech-based communities, everywhere.

1. exploring & pushing the technology options offered by the mediawiki software as a collaborative medium in the way that only feminists dedicated to process can do.