"Women in Red" - a Wikipedia editathon celebrating the lives and contributions of all the inspiring women of Scotland (and around the world) missing from the world's go-to site for information.
Wikipedia is the 8th most visited website in the world but lacks diversity in its editors and its articles. Only 20.20% of biographies on English Wikipedia, the world's go-to source of information, are about women. Women are not a minority and we can #ChooseToChallenge the paucity of stories currently shared on the open web and #InspireInclusion.
Participants will learn how to edit Wikipedia pages during a hybrid event (online webinar AND in person meetup in the University of Edinburgh Main Library on 1st floor in training room 1.07) and will be supported over the afternoon to help create new pages for notable individuals who are not currently on Wikipedia and/or help improve already existing Wikipedia pages.
There are certainly some pages which could be developed more but all ideas are welcome:
- John Edmonstone (taxidermist who was formerly enslaved)
- Clara Marguerite Christian (Edinburgh’s first black female student)
- Suffragette bombing of Royal Observatory (maybe a new page)
No prior knowledge required as training will be provided for those with no Wikipedia editing experience.
You'll learn a new digital skill in a social & supportive setting and meet like-minded event participants all passionate about improving representation online to help close the gender gap for the benefit of millions of readers all around the world. And this event is a pre Christmas get together too. So mince pies and festive spirit is more than welcome!
- 1:00 pm – 1:15pm: Welcome and Tea/Coffee
- 1:15pm – 2:15pm: Wikipedia training from Ewan McAndrew.
- 2:15pm - 2:30pm: Tea and Coffee break
- 2:30 pm – 4:30pm: Research and Editing with aim to publish by 4:30pm.
- 4:30pm – 5:00pm: Publishing your edits, recap and event close.
Contact @emcandre on Twitter, ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk for help.
Join us as we help make Wikipedia better!
Then you can check how long it takes for it to appear in Google's top ten results!
Have a look at the event page to see if there are pages you would like to help edit/create and if you fancy learning more about Wikipedia ahead of time then you can view the Wiki Basics site.
