10:30am-12:30pm on Saturday 23 March
Times shown are in GMT (UTC +0) up to the 26th March. For events on or after 27th March times are in BST (UTC +1).
Alison Richard Building, SG2, Sidgwick Site 7 West Road, CB3 9DT
How do we learn about the world around us, and what sources do we trust for information? We may turn to teachers and books, but we also turn to collective knowledge online. Each month, Wikipedia and Wikimedia entries are viewed over 20 billion times. And those pages are fed into AI tools like ChatGPT to share answers to more directed queries.
Although Wikipedia has relatively robust citation and source verification protocols, it is a free, volunteer-led project. Wikipedia is only as robust and balanced as its contributors make it, yet there is an imbalance in who the editors are: as many as 90% of Wikipedia editors are male. How might that influence the knowledge and perspectives that are amplified?
This edit-a-thon will give you a chance to share information about topics that you know and care about. We are aiming to provide an accessible space to help new and returning Wikipedians share their expertise. Although organisers will present a list of articles that could benefit from expansion, it’s entirely up to participants what information they’d like to add.
We’ll begin the workshop with a brief presentation on objectivity, neutrality and critical reading before diving into Wikipedia best practices and protocols. Some potential edits that participants could make include:
• Translating pages between languages that you are fluent in.
• Adding quotes by women on any topic to Wikiquotes as part of the #SheSaid campaign.
• Expanding the synopsis or context on books or films that you enjoy.
• Sharing local history that you think deserves more recognition.
The goal of this workshop is to improve young adults’ media literacy, and also to help all participants share their expertise to diversify knowledge in our global community.
