WikiGap 8 March 2019
WikiGap is an initiative taken to close the gender gap and other gaps
relevant for diversity of Wikipedia. The initiative is made possible by a
cooperation between Wikimedia Sverige, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, Swedish embassies and Wikimedia affiliates, volunteers and local
organizations around the world. WikiGap was first organized in March 2018
and now we would like to do it again. We are planning to organize several
Wikipedia edit-a-thons during 8 March 2019. The purpose of the edit-a-thons
is to create more articles about women to achieve a more gender-equal
Internet – and a more gender-equal world and by doing so reduce the gender
gap a bit.
The 8 March is just the starting point of the campaign. If the embassy,
your local partner and you finds a better date to cooperate and implement a
WikiGap event during 2019 then that also works.
Main page on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap
The background to WikiGap 2019
The initiative started in March 2017 with a sister edit-a-thon in four
languages between the Swedish embassy in New Delhi and Stockholm
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India-Sweden_edit-a-thon.
During 2017 the Swedish embassies in Pretoria and Washington DC also
successfully hosted Wikipedia edit-a-thons with Wikimedia chapters. In 2018
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to increase outreach and the number
of partnering Wikimedia affiliates and we decided to implement WikiGap 2018
together.
Together with the Ministry we have developed a toolkit for how embassies
should organise Wikipedia edit-a-thons, and they are committed to surfacing
the achievements of women in the world’s largest encyclopedia, in
partnership with Wikimedia affiliates and other local organisations.
Changes from previous year
This year we’re also going to have an online-competition which is called
the WikiGap Challenge during the first month of WikiGap.
The WikiGap Challenge is an attempt to connect the individual events with
each other. It is also a possibility for the organizing Wikimedia
organizations and volunteers to highlight important women from their
context that they believe deserve articles on multiple languages.
More information about the contest will be shared with local organizers
shortly
and on the WikiGap Campaign portal on Meta.
How you can join?
The WikiGap invites broad and diverse participation, just like last year,
and allows for local adaptations to the theme. If you think that you have
an interest in taking part of WikiGap but have any questions about the
implementation you can either contact the Swedish embassy in your country,
they have all the material that you need to make this event a success, or
you can send me a question – I’m more than happy to help you sort out some
question marks.I will be out of office February 25 to March 4 so please
send a copy of your request to info(a)wikimedia.se and someone at the office
will get back to you as soon as possible.
If you don’t think that you will be the main organizer of WikiGap in your
country or if you are a part of a larger team, I, as part of coordinating
the WikiGap, would like you to please help share this information with the
right individuals.
Are you interested in taking part of WikiGap 2019?
Please send me an email to confirm your interest. At the WikiGap portal
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap> on Meta you can find a list of
WikiGap events <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap/Events>. Use this
space to find events and share details of your own WikiGap event, such as
user name of the organizer(s), your local theme and if you’re merging the
event with other wiki initiatives.
Here you will find some more information about WikiGap:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap/Events
Join WikiGap on Programs & Events Dashboard to show impact
We also have a WikiGap campaign 2019
<https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/campaign_wikigap_2019/overview>
up on Programs & Events dashboard
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs_%26_Events_Dashboard> to
facilitate running and keeping track of all events on various language
version. Please go in there and register your event as soon as possible.
Please help us spread the word about WikiGap.
Best Regards,
Mia Jacobsson
Wikimedia Sverige
Coordinator for WikiGap 2019
--
*Mia Jacobsson*
Projektledare utbildning och lärande
Wikimedia Sverige
Phone: +46(0)73-383 26 70
Email: mia.jacobsson(a)wikimedia.se
Visiting address: Goto10, Hammarby Kaj 10D, 120 32 Stockholm