Women in Wikipedia 2018 Edit-a-thon

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

All welcome - no experience necessary. We'll be running training for new Wikipedia editors on the day. You can either bring your own laptop or book a library PC. Please be sure to register via Eventbrite, so that we can reserve a space for you.

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.

You can edit this page! In fact, we'd like you to: if you'd like to participate on the day or remotely, please add your username to the list of participants below, and your suggestions for pages in need of creation or improvement to the list of subjects.

When and where

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When: 10am-3pm on Tuesday 20 March 2018. The training sessions will run at 10am, but you are welcome to drop in later and just do some editing.

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

How to register

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1. Please RSVP via the Eventbrite page.

2. If you don't already have a Wikipedia account, please create one (note: you don't have to use your real name!), and add some info about yourself to your user page. (If you need help with this, you can do it at the event.)

3. Once you have an account, please add your username to the list below. This will help us to communicate before, during and after the event, and to track the work we get done on the day.

Social media

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

Getting started

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Wikipedia can be daunting if you're a new editor, but there are lots of resources to help you get started and we'll all be helping one another on the day. Be bold in your edits and you'll learn as you go.

Wikipedia guidelines and resources

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Wikipedia has some clear guidelines for contributors. Here are some of the most important, and some useful resources.

If you are planning to create a new Wikipedia entry, it will need to meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability and verifiability (pages that don't meet these criteria may be deleted). This can sometimes be difficult, especially if your subject is not well documented in reliable, independent secondary sources. If you're not sure whether your subject meets the notability criteria, or if you need help finding reliable sources, please bring your questions along to the event and we can look at them together.

Choosing a subject

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A little closer to the event, we'll post a list of potential subjects here. It'll include notable women without a Wikipedia entry, as well as existing Wikipedia pages in need of improvement, and other suggested Wiki tasks.

There are also many existing lists and projects dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of particular topics, and we'd encourage you to explore these as well. Here are a couple of places to start:

WikiProjects

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WikiProjects are like working groups dedicated to particular topic areas, created by editors who have come together to work on a shared area of interest. On project pages you'll find other editors who share your interests, lists of pages in need of improvement, and useful subject-specific editing resources.

We've compiled a list of projects that may be relevant to participants in this MeetUp.

There is also a complete directory of WikiProjects over here.

The Community Portal

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The Community Portal is an entry-point to the Wikipedia community. There are links to all kinds of forums, discussions and resources.

Under the "Help Out" heading near the top, you'll find lists of articles that need attention, grouped by what kind of work they need (eg copyediting for grammar and spelling, improving citations, expanding short articles, etc.). If you're not sure where to start, try browsing these lists and picking something that takes your fancy (or choosing something at random). This is a great way to practise editing and get a feel for how it all works, while improving Wikipedia.

Finding sources

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

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

Newspapers: a list of news databases available through the university

Trove is particularly handy for pre-1950 subjects because each newspaper article has a pre-formatted Wikipedia citation template available (once you find an article you want to refer to, click "cite" near the top left and select the Wikipedia option).

A note for USyd staff members

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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 thus indirectly receive compensation for our contributions. Thus it is 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

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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.