[Foundation-l] Wikipedia Invades La Plata Natural History Museum

[Patricio Lorente]

Wikipedia Invades La Plata Natural History Museum

Saturday, May 2nd, from 10 am, a group of wikipedians - members of
Wikimedia Argentina - will visit the La Plata Natural History Museum
to gather information to flush out and complete articles in the
renowned online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

The group will be composed of editors and photographers and will be
led through the museum by tour guides during their visit. The
wikipedians hope to broaden articles which cover the themes that the
museum includes and take photographs of the exhibitions to help
illustrate the text of the encyclopedia. The photographs will not only
be used in the Spanish articles, but also in articles in over 250
languages that are available in Wikipedia. The photographs will be
published with a free license in Wikimedia Commons
(http://commons.wikimedia.org).

The La Plata Natural History Museum is a natural science museum which
houses a vast collection of archeological, anthropological and
ethnographic information. Founded by Francisco Pascisio Moreno in
1884, the museum is unique in its scope in South America with over
3,000,000 objects in its collection and over 130 years of history.

The museum is renowned for its collection of large fossilized mammals
of the pampas from the Cenozoic and Quaternary eras as well as
collections of trilobite fossils of the Cambrian period and graptolite
fossils from the Silurian period in Argentina. Also, Argentina and
Peru archeological and ethnographic collections are on exhibition, as
well as showing the broader landscape of the Americas. There is also
an Egyptian room where an original temple (the temple of Aksha, from
Nubia) is on display. The archeological collection shows cultural
development of Latin America from 12,800 BC through to the Inca empire
and the arrival of the Europeans. More information can be found
online: http://www.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar/museo/

Wikimedia Argentina is a non-profit membership group which has been
recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation as a local chapter of our
country. The Wikimedia Foundation maintains a global projects such as
Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikiversidad, Wikiquotes, etc.

Currently, Wikimedia Argentina is organizing Wikimania 2009, the
international conference of Wikimedia projects to be held in late
August. The city of Buenos Aires was selected for this annual meeting,
which in years prior has taken place in the United States of America,
Germany, Taiwan and Egypt. More information can be found online:
http://www.wikimedia.org.ar

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Patricio Lorente
Mensajería Instantánea: patricio_lorente en jabber.org
Blog: http://www.patriciolorente.com.ar