Beannachtaí an Fhómhair/ Autumnal Greetings fellow Wikipedians!🎃🍂

As the crisp autumn air sweeps through the Wikimedia landscape, we're delighted to bring you our October newsletter. Our virtual cauldron is bubbling with exciting updates and developments including the addition of our new Irish language feature! So read on to find out about recent projects, collaborations, and events.

Thank you for being a part of our community, and we hope you enjoy this October update.

Wiki Loves Monuments Judges/ Wiki Science

The entries are in and we are currently in the process of judging Wiki Loves Monuments 2023. We have some esteemed judges helping us to find a winner this year including Christine Grant archaeologist at the National Monuments Service, Lorna Elms Development Officer at the Irish Community Archive Network, and Martin Cregg, an Irish photographer and Coordinator of Photography at Pearse College of Further Education in Dublin.

If you missed this contest, don't worry Wiki Science Photography competition is coming up in November so keep an eye out for details!

A photograph of Henry Mausoleum in Galway, a small stone building in an autumnal forest

One of the Winning photographs from Wiki Loves Monuments 2022: Henry Mausoleum, by Galway Photographer Oliver Gargan. CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiki Women Erasmus+ Partners Meeting

The community has been very busy planning and prepping in anticipation of the upcoming WikiWomen Erasmus+ Partners Meeting set to take place in Dublin at the end of October.

The WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project seeks to address the underrepresentation of women on Wikipedia and to elevate minority languages in the digital space. The project brings together schools, Wikipedia foundations, and language organisations in Europe to use Wikipedia as a tool to teach digital literacy, social engagement, and language skills. The project aims to teach students in minority language communities how to write Wikipedia articles in their own languages about women who are not represented in the online encyclopedia. This means that students are actively engaging with their minority language to showcase how women have shaped the world around us.

At the meeting, the partners will discuss the educational toolkits that have been developed over the course of the project and how to use Wikipedia as a tool to teach digital literacy, social engagement, and language skills.

The meeting will be held at Dublin Port’s restored Victorian substation. The historical red-brick building is thought to have been built around 1908. We are delighted to welcome our partners from Ireland, the Basque Country, and Friesland to this incredible heritage site.

The restored Victorian-era red-brick Substation (left) at Dublin Port Centre Credit: Darmody Architects

Read more about the WikiWomen Erasmus+ project.

Irish Langage Officer

Seo í Amy, ár gcéad Oifigeach Gaeilge i bPobal Wikimedia na hÉireann!

“Táim ar bís a bheith anseo agus ag obair ar roinnt smaointe le haghaidh imeachtaí PWÉ chun an Ghaeilge agis Vicipéid a chur chun cinn. Táim ag tnúth go mór le casadh oraibh sna míonna amach romhainn agus cabhair a thabhairt leis an obair mhaith á dhéanamh agaibh ar Vicipéid a neartú.

Táim ag obair ar an dtogra Wiki na mBan freisin lenár gcomhpháirtithe san Fhreaslainn agus i dTír na mBascach. Cuirfidh an tionscnamh seo tuilleadh ailt ar Vicipéid agus laghdú a dhéanamh ar an dealú inscne. Más féidir libh smaointe a roinnt nó chun caint liom faoi himeachtaí nó feachtas a reáchtáil déan teaghmháil liom le do thoil! - seo é mo sheoladh r-post: oifigeach.gaeilge@wikimedia.ie “

Tá sé ar intinn againn níos mó Gaeilge a roinnt sa nuachtlitir gach mí - agus faoi dheireadh, sa todhchaí, beidh leagan ar fáil go hiomlán i nGaeilge againn!

//in English//

This is Amy, our first Irish Language Officer at Wikimedia Community Ireland!

“I am very excited to be on board and am working on a few ideas for events for WCI to promote the Irish language and Vicipéid. I am looking forward to meeting more of you over the coming months and helping to strengthen the work already being done on Vicipéid. I am also working on the WikiWomen project with our partners in Friesland and the Basque Country, which will be adding articles to Vicipéid and addressing the gender gap. If anyone has any ideas or to talk about running events campaigns, or collaborations please do give me a shout! My email is oifigeach.gaeilge@wikimedia.ie “

We intend to have more Irish in the newsletter every month - and eventually, in the future, we will have a full version in Irish available!

Celebrating Maths Week 2023

⚖️🧮🧩It's Maths Week! Ireland has seen some remarkable women who've made significant contributions to the world of mathematics, such as Sheila Power (later Tinney). Sheila, a UCD graduate, earned her PhD in quantum mechanics in just two years at the age of 23 under the guidance of Nobel laureate Max Born at Edinburgh.

In a pioneering move, Sheila became one of the first three resident scholars at the newly established Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, initiated by then Taoiseach Eamon de Valera.

Some incredible women have paved the way for generations of mathematicians and continue to inspire us with their achievements. Let's celebrate their contributions to the world of mathematics and encourage more young minds to follow in their footsteps. 📚🌟

Dublin-born Sophie Willock (later Bryant, 1850-1922 was the first woman in Britain and Ireland to be awarded a DSc (in mental and moral science) and the first woman to have a paper published in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. If anyone is up to the challenge she doesn't have a Wikipedia page yet! Learn how to create one here and help to fill in the gender gap on Wikipedia!

A picture says a thousand words! Sheila Tinney, Paul Dirac, and other physicists and mathematicians at DIAS in 1942, by Cecil Keaveney CC BY 3.0

Wikimedia Community Ireland was excited to launch our very own TikTok page this month. You can follow us along with our journey here as we try and navigate this fast-moving space! Expect snippets of useful information about Wikipedia, get the inside scoop on what we are up to, and dust off your Irish language skills as we hope to have some content as Gaeilge on there as well!

We are also now on Bluesky which is a great alternative to Twitter if you are interested in following us for updates there.

Is Wikipedia Reliable?

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been collaborating with Universities (UCD and UL) to train students on editing Wikipedia pages. These sessions have turned out to be a two-way knowledge exchange with some fruitful Q&A sessions. One recurring question that came up was Is Wikipedia reliable? It’s widely accepted that Wikipedia doesn't always have the best reputation here. But is this warranted? Is information inaccurate? Does vandalism happen?

This month on the Wikimedia Ireland website we attempted to discuss this question and dispel some of the myths.

Read the article to find out more, or you can even join the debate by leaving a comment on our website or social media platforms.

Monthly meetings

Want to get more involved with our group? We meet once a month on Zoom when we discuss and plan our events and campaigns. Our next meeting is on the 14th of November at 7 pm, just email info@wikimedia.ie to join.

Le dea-ghuí,