A Wikipedia workshop is an all-day event where people improve Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic. Led by an experienced Wikipedia editor, participants learn to create and edit pages, correct mistakes, add references, and upload photos. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. This edit-a-thon was hosted by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and focussed on adding and improving articles on women in New Zealand science.
This event is free and open to all!
Lunch and childcare are provided; you'll need to register so we know numbers attending. Register here. (Update: all 40 tickets were sold, though two participants cancelled on the day.)
Stuartyeates has created a
Google list of New Zealand women professors. All of these women meet the minimum requirements for inclusion in Wikipedia, but whether it will be easy to find good, relevant sources will vary from person to person. If you find a blank page a bit intimidating, there is a template at
User:Stuartyeates/sandbox/academicbio of things that should go in an academic's biography: it's a helpful starting point.
There are many "stub" articles on notable women scientists that are in need of improvement. See the category New Zealand women scientists. Examples include:
Appropriately licensed images of women scientists need to be discovered and added to their Wikipedia articles. It is worth checking Auckland War Memorial Museum's Collections Online for images as these are appropriately licensed for uploading into Wikicommons and then for reuse in Wikipedia. Help will be given to those who want to learn how to load images into Wikicommons and then add them to articles.
Any images taken of the actual workshop can be added to Wikicommons under the following category: Category:Women in Science, Wellington.
Please add your Wikipedia username once you've registered and created an account.
Participants from outside Wellington are welcome to register and add themselves and their time zone here. We can Skype you in to chat with other participants and talk about what you're doing. We can't promise you lunch though!
There were 35 people at the workshop, including two organisers and four experienced editors who helped newcomers. The majority of those attending were complete beginners, never having edited Wikipedia before. Workshop participants made 1144 edits, created 114 Wiki pages including 22 new biographies of women in science, and substantially improved 15 other articles. When surveyed, almost all participants said they would be more or much more likely to keep editing, and 25 out of 28 said they now have a more positive feeling towards Wikipedia. All 28 surveyed said they would definitely come to another workshop, and 21 said they would also be interested in being part of regular informal editing meetups.
“ | I knew nothing about Wikipedia before so found this workshop fascinating – both for learning technical skills but also the "history" of Wikipedia, how much voluntary work goes into it, how to address bias. A great day, and very motivating, thank you. | ” |
A "Wikibrunch" for participants was organised by Giantflightlessbirds on Sunday 5 November at Loretta's Cafe, Wellington. Ambrosia10, Pippipip, Susan Tol, Rosalindaymes, and Emilyc15 attended, and we discussed amongst other things creating a page on anti-nuclear protests in the Pacific and the possibility of an Edit-a-thon at Otari-Wilton's Bush.
We're very grateful for the support of Nancy de Bueger at the Royal Society Te Apārangi for hosting this event, and Rebecca Priestley at Victoria University of Wellington for funding lunch and childcare. The organisers and participants are all volunteers who believe that there are far worse things to spend our precious free time on than improving a free information resource used daily by millions. The woman pictured on our banner is theoretical astrophysicist Beatrice Tinsley, one of New Zealand's leading scientists and the inspiration for this workshop.
A Wikipedia workshop is an all-day event where people improve Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic. Led by an experienced Wikipedia editor, participants learn to create and edit pages, correct mistakes, add references, and upload photos. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. This edit-a-thon was hosted by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and focussed on adding and improving articles on women in New Zealand science.
This event is free and open to all!
Lunch and childcare are provided; you'll need to register so we know numbers attending. Register here. (Update: all 40 tickets were sold, though two participants cancelled on the day.)
Stuartyeates has created a
Google list of New Zealand women professors. All of these women meet the minimum requirements for inclusion in Wikipedia, but whether it will be easy to find good, relevant sources will vary from person to person. If you find a blank page a bit intimidating, there is a template at
User:Stuartyeates/sandbox/academicbio of things that should go in an academic's biography: it's a helpful starting point.
There are many "stub" articles on notable women scientists that are in need of improvement. See the category New Zealand women scientists. Examples include:
Appropriately licensed images of women scientists need to be discovered and added to their Wikipedia articles. It is worth checking Auckland War Memorial Museum's Collections Online for images as these are appropriately licensed for uploading into Wikicommons and then for reuse in Wikipedia. Help will be given to those who want to learn how to load images into Wikicommons and then add them to articles.
Any images taken of the actual workshop can be added to Wikicommons under the following category: Category:Women in Science, Wellington.
Please add your Wikipedia username once you've registered and created an account.
Participants from outside Wellington are welcome to register and add themselves and their time zone here. We can Skype you in to chat with other participants and talk about what you're doing. We can't promise you lunch though!
There were 35 people at the workshop, including two organisers and four experienced editors who helped newcomers. The majority of those attending were complete beginners, never having edited Wikipedia before. Workshop participants made 1144 edits, created 114 Wiki pages including 22 new biographies of women in science, and substantially improved 15 other articles. When surveyed, almost all participants said they would be more or much more likely to keep editing, and 25 out of 28 said they now have a more positive feeling towards Wikipedia. All 28 surveyed said they would definitely come to another workshop, and 21 said they would also be interested in being part of regular informal editing meetups.
“ | I knew nothing about Wikipedia before so found this workshop fascinating – both for learning technical skills but also the "history" of Wikipedia, how much voluntary work goes into it, how to address bias. A great day, and very motivating, thank you. | ” |
A "Wikibrunch" for participants was organised by Giantflightlessbirds on Sunday 5 November at Loretta's Cafe, Wellington. Ambrosia10, Pippipip, Susan Tol, Rosalindaymes, and Emilyc15 attended, and we discussed amongst other things creating a page on anti-nuclear protests in the Pacific and the possibility of an Edit-a-thon at Otari-Wilton's Bush.
We're very grateful for the support of Nancy de Bueger at the Royal Society Te Apārangi for hosting this event, and Rebecca Priestley at Victoria University of Wellington for funding lunch and childcare. The organisers and participants are all volunteers who believe that there are far worse things to spend our precious free time on than improving a free information resource used daily by millions. The woman pictured on our banner is theoretical astrophysicist Beatrice Tinsley, one of New Zealand's leading scientists and the inspiration for this workshop.