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Wikipedia:Meetup/Sydney/USyd2018

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Women in Wikipedia 2018 Edit-a-thon

Quick links

Wiki editing cheatsheet List of suggested subjects The five pillars of contributing to Wikipedia

To celebrate Women's History Month, the University of Sydney Library and Sydney University Press will host a Women in Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Tuesday 20 March.

This Meetup page is where we'll share information about the event and compile suggestions for things to work on. It will also serve as a record of what we get done.

If you are coming to the event, please be sure to RSVP via Eventbrite, so that we can reserve a space for you.

When and where edit

When: Tuesday 20 March 2018, 10am to 3pm At 10am we'll hear from Frances di Lauro, chair of the University of Sydney's Writing Studies Department, about her experiences as a Wikipedia editor and using Wikipedia in teaching and research. From about 10.15 we'll be running training for new Wikipedia editors, and then getting stuck into some editing. Please feel free to drop in any time until 3pm.

Where: Fisher Library, the University of Sydney, Rooms 213 and 214 (downstairs on Level 2).

Social media edit

We'll be tweeting on the day using #womeninwiki #art+feminism and #wikibomb. Please join in!

Participants edit

Please add your Wiki username to the list  :-)

Before the event edit

  1. Please RSVP via the Eventbrite page so that we can reserve a spot for you.
  2. If you don't already have a Wikipedia account, please create one (you don't need to use your real name!)
  3. Take a look at the suggested tasks below and our list of suggested subjects, and have a think about what you'd like to work on on the day. If you know what you plan to work on, please add your Wiki username to the "editor" column in the spreadsheet.
  4. If you would like to try your hand at editing before the event, we would encourage you to do some online training before you come. Our training session will assume no prior knowledge, but if you’ve had a go beforehand you’ll be ready to hit the ground running. We recommend:
  • For University of Sydney students and staff, OLET2127 is an online unit that takes you through the basics of writing for Wikipedia.
  • For others, Art+Feminism have created some good short training videos.

What should I work on? edit

There are many ways to contribute to Wikipedia, whether you have a little time or a lot. Below are some suggestions.

We've prepared this list of suggested subjects, including existing articles in need of improvement and notable women without Wikipedia pages. Once you have decided what to work on, please put your Wikipedia username next to it in the spreadsheet, to avoid accidental doubling-up.

Or, please feel free to choose something else to work on. If you work on something else, please add it to the list, so that we have a record of what we achieve today.

Expand a stub edit

Stubs are very short articles that are waiting for someone to expand them.

Fix spelling and grammar edit

Copy-editing a poorly written article makes Wikipedia more useful, credible and accessible.

Add references to articles that need it edit

Articles can be deleted if they aren't adequately referenced, so finding good, reliable sources for an article may save it from oblivion.

  • Citation Hunt: if you search for a topic you are interested in, this tool will give you a missing citation to track down.
  • List of all articles in need of better citations.

Improve a list edit

By expanding an incomplete list you will make the list more useful, and make the articles you add to it more visible. You could:

  • Expand a list of women in a particular field
  • Expand incomplete or out-of-date lists within a particular article, e.g. by updating a musician's discography or bringing an out-of-date list of winners of a literary prize up to date (eg, from our list of suggested subjects, the bibliographies of writers Joan London, Delia Falconer, Linda Jaivin and Susan Hawthorne are out of date).
  • Make sure women in your area of interest appear in relevant general lists for their field (e.g. check that women physicists are included in general lists of physicists)
  • For help, see Wikipedia's guide to editing lists.

Note that when you expand a list, you're adding existing Wikipedia articles to it, rather than creating new articles for subjects that don't yet appear in Wikipedia. The articles already exist -- by adding them to appropriate lists, you're making it easier for people to discover them.

Create a new article edit

The Wikipedia:Article wizard will take you through the steps of preparing and submitting a new article.

We have compiled a list of some notable women without Wikipedia entries.

The Women in Red Project also lists many women without a Wikipedia page, grouped by occupation, nationality, time period and more.

If you're creating a new article, be sure to read Wikipedia's guidelines regarding notability, verifiability and conflict of interest before you start. Pages that don't meet these criteria may be deleted. If you're not sure about any of the guidelines, bring your questions along on the day and we can look at them together.

Join a project edit

WikiProjects are working groups dedicated to improving a particular aspect of Wikipedia. They're a great source of advice, resources and camaraderie.

Finding sources edit

The University of Sydney library has access to lots of great resources. Some quick links to get you started:

  • Libguides: subject-specific guides to databases and other resources, prepared by University of Sydney librarians.

Other useful resources:

It can sometimes be difficult to find adequate references, especially if your subject is not well documented in reliable, independent secondary sources. For women and other under-represented groups, this can be a circular problem: they're not recognised on Wikipedia because they're not recognised in other mainstream sources. If you need help finding reliable sources, please bring your questions along to the event and we can look at them together.

Wikipedia guidelines edit

Here are some of Wikipedia's key guidelines and useful resources:

A note for USyd staff members edit

The terms of use for Wikimedia Foundation websites, including Wikipedia, include the prohibition of:

Many of us participating are employees of the University of Sydney, and so indirectly receive compensation for our contributions. It's prudent to disclose our employer and our participation in this event on our userpages.

If you are writing about an employee of the university, or a personal friend or a colleague, please also read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, and add the {{Connected contributor}} template the article's talk page along with a declaration of the connection.

Last year's event edit

We didn't create a Wiki Meetup for our 2017 event, but you can read about it here.

The Wikipedia cheat sheet we used at last year's event is over here.

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