[Gendergap] Webinar on editing for Wikipedia Women

[Christine Moellenberndt]

I hoped to write this yesterday, just didn't get there.  I attended this 
webinar, and I have to say I thought it was very well done.  Deanna 
spent the first half of the session talking about some of the culture of 
Wikipedia; things like neutral point of view, collaboration, the dangers 
of edit warring, and the like.  She also touched on the various roles 
you can fill on Wikipedia, not just article creation but 
"wikignome"-ing, copyediting, mediating, fomatting, etc. out of the 
Welcome to Wikipedia booklet available on the Bookshelf 
(http://outreach.wikimedia.org/Bookshelf).  She did caution us, though, 
about spending all of our efforts in wikignoming and copyediting, "We 
don't want to be the secretaries of Wikipedia!"

(that being said, my Not-WMF-opinion is that copyediting and the like 
are GREAT ways to get one's feet wet on Wikipedia.  It allows you to 
learn how Wiki-markup works, start learning how articles are formulated, 
and can help introduce all the concepts that make a good article that 
can prepare you for writing your own first article.)

The second half was a real how-to, showing how to create an account and 
then taking us into her sandbox on the English Wikipedia and showing how 
to use the text editor there on basic things like italic and bold text, 
creating links (both links to other WP articles, and to outside sites), 
and references.  There were lots of spots for questions along the way, 
and I got to help Deanna out a bit with questions.

I can't give a good estimate on how many attendees there were; the 
platform they used didn't give a full participants list, but I'd wager 
it was around the 20-25 person range which seemed about right.  Deanna 
hopes that once everyone who attends the seminars gets a chance to 
create an account and play around a bit that all the participants can 
get together and start working together on women related Wikipedia 
articles.  I think that would be a really great activity and a great way 
to get more women involved in Wikipedia.

I'd say if you're looking to do something similar, Deanna's webinar 
would be a good template to follow, especially the idea of a reconvening 
at a later date to begin working together on an article that needs some 
extra help.  Again, my Not-Official-Opinion is that having a mentor 
would be a big help to learning one's way around the projects, and what 
better way than to do it with a bunch of like-minded folks?

The session was recorded, and once I find out where it is being housed, 
I'll let everyone know so you can see how it worked out.

Thank you,  Frances for telling us about the webinar, and thanks to 
Deanna and the folks at WAM! for putting it on!

(fyi, there's another one on Sunday; I'm not sure if there's space left 
but there may be if you're interested in attending! I'll be at that one 
as well.)

-Christine

---------
Christine Moellenberndt
Anthropologist/Community Associate
Wikimedia Foundation

christine at wikimedia.org


On 3/21/11 9:05 AM, Frances Kissling wrote:
>
> Thought you'd all like o see this effort
>
>
>     Women Write Wikipedia: A How-To Webinar
>
> Have you ever looked something up in the Wikipedia? Obviously, right? 
> But: have you ever /edited/ anything in the Wikipedia? Bet the answer 
> is "no," and that's a crying shame! Wikipedia, as you know, is quickly 
> becoming the go-to reference point for our collective history. But, 
> over 80% of Wikipedia's editors are men--which means that women's 
> opportunities to document history and knowledge are passing us by.
>
> In this hour-long online workshop, WAM!Bassador of Technology Deanna 
> Zandt <http://www.deannazandt.com/> will teach you the basics of 
> editing a Wikipedia page, as well as the cultural norms that you'll 
> need to know to be a good Wikipedian. It's time to make sure that all 
> genders are represented in our brave new history!
>
> FREE. Choose from either
>
>
>     Wednesday, March 23 at 2PM ET
>
> or
>
>
>     Sunday, March 27 at 2PM ET
>
> To register, email Rachel <mailto:rachel at womenactionmedia.org>.
>
>
>
> -- 
>
> Frances Kissling, visiting scholar
>
> Center for Bioethics, UPenn
>
> 202 368 3954
>
>
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> Gendergap at lists.wikimedia.org
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