Wikipedia:Meetup/Wellington/Women in Design

This Women+Art+Design editathon social session is aimed at raising the profile of creative women on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the dominant source of information for members of the public, but is has a male bias, both in the composition of its editors and the sorts of topics it covers. It reflects societal biases too: 43 DINZ black pins that have been given to men, and only three to women, despite about 70 per cent of creative students being female. We'll be trying to redress that; we'll learn how to edit Wikipedia pages and what we can do to improve the coverage of NZ women in art and design. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided.

• Wednesday 12 December 2018
• 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm NZST Mike Dickison, NZ Wikipedian at Large, will give an introduction to Wikipedia editing
• Te Whare Pukaka, Block 1, Massey University College of Creative Arts, Wellington
• More info here
• The shortcut for this page is bit.ly/NZdesign

Editors who can't make it are of course welcome to join in remotely. Email Mike at mikegiantflightlessbirds.com if you would like to Skype in and meet participants.

The workshop is free and open to all. You don't need to be an experienced Wikipedia editor to take part, nor do you need to be a subject expert (though you're welcome to work on articles in your area of expertise).

• Laptop if you can (tablets aren't as good).
• Cakes. Everybody likes cakes.
• Photos you've taken that could illustrate articles; you'll learn how to donate these to the Commons so other Wikipedia articles can use them.
• Resources that could be cited in Wikipedia: journal articles, news stories, magazine articles, and official publications. Some resources might be available online, and some won't: it doesn't matter.

1. If you're coming, try to create a Wikipedia account beforehand: don't wait until the day to do it! Here's a form you can use if you like. Creating an account makes editing much easier (here's more info on why you should). You'll need to pick a "handle" for your username; you could use your real name, but it's nice to have the option to be a bit anonymous if you want. Here's some advice on picking a username.
2. Read up on Wikipedia. Wikipedia Basics is a nice step-by-step tutorial that walks you through editing and preparing for your first edit-a-thon. Less overwhelming than the official Help pages!
3. If you add photos to Commons so they can be used Wikipedia, they'll need to be free of any copyright or released under a Creative Commons license that lets anyone use them. If you're not familiar with Creative Commons, see Useful Links below. If you've taken photos and are happy to donate them, great! Bring them along. If you know of anyone who has good photos, approach them and ask them if they'd like their work to be seen and used by people all over the world (with them credited, of course).

• This workshop will be following "friendly space" guidelines; check them out. Harassment and disruption won't be tolerated, online or offline.
• A nice explanation of Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, and crowdsourced photos by Harry Chapman

Many thanks to Jo Bailey for organising this workshop. This event is indirectly supported by the Wikimedia Foundation through the NZ Wikipedian at Large Project Grant.