Wikipedia is the place people go to get information, and anyone Googling New Zealand artists will see a Wikipedia link in the first few results. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia coverage of our artists is slim or non-existent compared to overseas. Images of art are hard to find, and many artists, especially women and Māori, are invisible. Why? Wikipedia articles are all written and curated by volunteers, and there are only about 250 regular editors in this country; simply not enough to cover everything that needs work. The good news: we can change this. It's not hard. We just need people who care about art to learn how to edit Wikipedia and commit to improving it.
Dr Mike Dickison is currently New Zealand Wikipedian at Large, on a one-year grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to help people and institutions better engage with Wikipedia. He is giving a talk and running a Wikipedia editing workshop for the Christchurch arts community to help increase the visibility of NZ artists. These free events are hosted by the Christchurch Art Gallery. You don't need to be a Wikipedia editor or an expert on NZ art: anyone can help with editing, researching, proofreading, and adding photos.
This is an informal evening talk covering practical steps the arts community can take to make New Zealand art more visible to the world. It will cover:
An edit-a-thon is an event where volunteers tackle a part of Wikipedia that needs improvement. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop! After Tuesday's presentation, allowing enough time for attendees to compile materials and photographs, Mike will run a daytime edit-a-thon at the Art Gallery with the aim of getting as many contemporary New Zealand artists and galleries online as possible.
http://bit.ly/NZartists
if you want a short, shareable link to this page.
Many thanks to Tim Jones at the Christchurch Art Gallery for making this event possible.
Wikipedia is the place people go to get information, and anyone Googling New Zealand artists will see a Wikipedia link in the first few results. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia coverage of our artists is slim or non-existent compared to overseas. Images of art are hard to find, and many artists, especially women and Māori, are invisible. Why? Wikipedia articles are all written and curated by volunteers, and there are only about 250 regular editors in this country; simply not enough to cover everything that needs work. The good news: we can change this. It's not hard. We just need people who care about art to learn how to edit Wikipedia and commit to improving it.
Dr Mike Dickison is currently New Zealand Wikipedian at Large, on a one-year grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to help people and institutions better engage with Wikipedia. He is giving a talk and running a Wikipedia editing workshop for the Christchurch arts community to help increase the visibility of NZ artists. These free events are hosted by the Christchurch Art Gallery. You don't need to be a Wikipedia editor or an expert on NZ art: anyone can help with editing, researching, proofreading, and adding photos.
This is an informal evening talk covering practical steps the arts community can take to make New Zealand art more visible to the world. It will cover:
An edit-a-thon is an event where volunteers tackle a part of Wikipedia that needs improvement. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop! After Tuesday's presentation, allowing enough time for attendees to compile materials and photographs, Mike will run a daytime edit-a-thon at the Art Gallery with the aim of getting as many contemporary New Zealand artists and galleries online as possible.
http://bit.ly/NZartists
if you want a short, shareable link to this page.
Many thanks to Tim Jones at the Christchurch Art Gallery for making this event possible.