Wikimania closing ceremony: “Civility” or “harassment”?

Free Loujain.

If you watch the Wikimania videos, the closing ceremony looked serene.  But apparently everyone was busy tweeting about the difference between civility and harassment.

Although Jimbo traditionally presents the awards, there was only one award this year, Wikipedian of the Year, to a woman wearing a Loujain t-shirt.   The time allotted to the Jimbo speech was short this year.  Wikipedia is a teenager now, and teenagers don’t like to listen to their parents.

But two things happened.  Jimbo centered his comments on “civility”, quoting his remarks from other years. And Katherine’s remarks about “harassment” received a standing ovation.

So which is it, civility or harassment.

Civility is an old world concept.  Civility is thought to be valuable because it promotes discourse and agreement.  It is a gentlemanly virtue.

Traditional lady-virtues have more to do with appearances, wearing white gloves, clutching pearls, and avoiding politicized speech. Or perhaps avoiding speech entirely.  But this is the 21st century, so not gonna happen.

So perhaps in some way this is a gendered discussion.

Framing it as “civility” is a way to gloss over what is really happening, and give dudes an excuse for behaving badly.

So let’s take away the fig leaf.

It’s harassment.