User:Nick Moyes/editathon

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Equipment needed for Edit-a-thons[edit]

  • Laptop
  • Charger
  • SD Card reader
  • USB Pendrive
  • Login details
  • User Guides/notes
  • Note pad and pencil/pen
  • Work Plan -Topic List
  • Attendee List
  • List of Relevant People to work on
  • Smartphone for Twitter use
  • Map to venue/Parking permit

Still Photography[edit]

  • Digital SLR
  • Spare battery (charged)
  • Charger and cable
  • Tripod x 2
  • Flashgun and batteries
  • Flashgun mount
  • AA hybrio batteries and charger
  • Spare digital camera
  • Spare SIM cards
  • Optical trigger
  • Note pad and pencil/pen

Backup:

  • Smartphone or pocket camera

Video[edit]

  • DSLR camera
  • Spare SIM cards
  • Tripod
  • Spare battery (charged)
  • Charger and mains cable
  • BOYA lapel microphone (check battery LR44/AG13)
  • Spare batteries for microphones

Backup

  • MiniDV video camera
  • battery (charged)
  • Spare tapes
  • Charger/PSU cable to camera/mains lead
  • RODE Shotgun microphone (borrow from TF) (check battery PP3)
  • Flashgun mount for mike (+washers)
  • Extension cable (mains)/double plug
  • Question notes/video plan

Video Planning[edit]

One of us will try and create a short video about the people there (& IWD, Newnham, Wikimedia and Women in Red

  • Scene setting views of Newnham College buildings
  • Setting up Wikipedia edit-a-thon equipment in Jane Harrison Room
  • Attendees arriving
  • Introduction to Wikipedia editing
  • Getting started
  • Workshops in action

Interviews

  • Organisers - purpose and hopes for the day
  • Organiser: Victuallers - re Women in Red project
  • Attendees - students, alumni, Dame Carol Black?
  • Totals for the day.

Preamble[edit]

Interview Questions[edit]

  • First, just for the record could you say your name and, if you're willing, either your date of year birth, and where you're from.
  • And would you confirm that you are agreeable for one or two of the photos we take, or maybe a short video clip of this interview to be made freely available for all to see on on Wikimedia.
  • What is your connection with Newnham College or Cambridge University?

If student:

  • What are you studying, or what parts of that subject do you find most interesting most?
  • What got you interested in this subject, and why did you choose Cambridge University and Newnham College?
  • Has it lived up to your expectations, and what do you think you're likely to go on to do from here?
  • So, today, it's International Women's Day and we're trying to help redresss the balance of articles on Wikipedia, the majority of which are either articles about men, or have been written by male Wikipedia editors.
  • When you were at school did you refer to Wikipedia a lot, and what do you think is the attitude of the University towards it now?
  • Do you think some of your lecturers might secretly use it, whilst perhaps publicly deprecating its use?
  • What motivated you to come to today's Wikipedia event on International Women's day, and are there any particular people you would like to see covered by Wikipedia that aren't at the moment?
  • Now, were going to keep these video clips on file, because maybe one day you will become one of the notable alumni from this College and someone will decide you deserve a Wikipedia page about you and your achievements - Right now, how do you feel about that, and from where you sit, what do you imagine you might most likely to be remembered for in the future?

If alumni:

  • Now, xxxx, it's a pleasure/honour to meet with you today. I suspect you've never started an interview with someone asking you whether or not you've read your own entry on Wikipedia! But could I ask just that, - whether you've seen read and what you thought of it?
  • Where do you think that Wikipedia article does you justice, and where do you think it falls short?
  • If you were to be working with someone to edit that article about yourself today, what would you want them to say about you?
  • Of course, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and so anything on there needs to be supported by third party evidence - not hearsay, and not even you just writing it about yourself is acceptable without supporting material. So after we've finished, would you be able to point me towards sources of information about you that would help others improve the article about you.
  • Have you ever seen your page containing nonsense or vandalism - did it stay there for very long?
  • etc
  • etc

If event organiser/contributor:

  • Tell me your name and what the event is today, and what your role in the event is.
  • How many people are you expecting will attend What are you hoping they will get out of it
  • How does this event compare with past editathons - do you think they make a difference to people's engagement with Wikipedia?

First thoughts[edit]

Having attended my first editathon in March 2017 (unless you exclude the very first one at GlamWikiDerby in 2011), I would observe the following: The day was enhanced by having an introductory talk every hour for all newcomers. They mostly had their own mobile devices and soon got to grips with understanding the basics of making and saving their first edits. The presenter, Doug Taylor, was enthusiastic and engaging.

The room was divided into two halves by portable partitioning, but there was quite a lot of noise, and the room was echo-ey. This made my task of video-recording a challenge, and sometimes the speaker was hard to hear for that reason, too. The room was bright, which was great for photography. College staff were amazingly supportive, and welcomed/logged all those who attended. A Wikipedia Admin was present to help a school groups create new accounts. There were just enough spare laptops to go around.

Overall[edit]

Tiring but hugely rewarding. Great to meet, photograph and help brand new editors and see their commitment to creating and editing articles. All laptops were fully in use - thank goodness most people brought their own, too. Seeing young schoolchildren attending and getting stuck in was delightful. Having a really well-presented introduction to making that first edit on Wikipedia was brilliantly done - being every hour throughout the day was worthwhile. Some people came to the introduction then stayed to edit all day long.

  • A separate room for introductory talks and for detailed editing would have reduced disturbance from sound (especially when interviews are being recorded)
  • It was difficult for attendees to know who were newcomers and who were experienced editors. - some sort of "Can I help you?" badge might have encouraged people to engage *more effectively - or for experienced editors to recognise one another.
  • Getting all attendees to write down their user names (blackboard/whiteboard?) plus the names of articles they've been working on) would allow organisers to keep tabs on the achievements of the event. They would also be able to follow up or support and encourage attendees to continue, or to monitor for any deletion proposals that followed.
  • Participants needed something to take away with them - a crib sheet with links for where to go to for help once editing on one's own. THIS was produced as a 2-sided A4 handout for a subsequent editathon, though would benefit from being much simpler if done again.

Notes for red articles[edit]

Stephanie Hilborne OBE

Stephanie Hilborne OBE - just a redirect at the Wildlife Trusts at present.

Elizabeth Hodges Dr Alycen Elizabeth Josephine Hodges first female to reach rank of Commander in the Royal Navy 1987 Lifeboats Medical Adviser

Local editors[edit]

User:Rodney Baggins Derby uni:

Draft email[edit]

Extended content

Hello xxxxx

Thank you for the details of the Editathon. I can confirm that I will be free to come and help out, if required.

Whether you need me depends very much on what xxxx plans to do, of course. (He and I both helped out at an editathon at Newnham College three years back)

I might offer a few suggestions which could be of use, though maybe xxxx have already made these. One is to suggest that you encourage attendees to try to register for a free Wikipedia account BEFORE they attend and try to start editing. It saves time, and even gives them a chance to practice a bit beforehand.

Another is to have a signing-in book or whiteboard on which you can get everyone to add their Wikipedia account name (this allows for a bit of follow-up after the event). If you can get those usernames from them before they attend, we can even make sure they get a nice welcome message, in advance, too. Like this one.

You can use the whiteboard to show any WiFi password, too.

A third is to give everyone something to take away with them to encourage them to keep going after the event. I produced a an A4 handout at one event I helped at, based on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nick_Moyes/editathon/handout1

I will await feedback from you and xxxx as to what type of assistance, if any, you feel you might like from me. I shalln't be offended if you don't feel you need me.

Regards

Nick Moyes

Train the trainers 2022[edit]

Training Guides

Growth features

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