City of Sydney

City of Sydney Archives/Patricia Baillie Collection

It has long been acknowledged there is a lack of diversity among Wikipedia contributors, and the City of Sydney has joined the movement to help remedy Wikipedia's imbalance and bias in the diversity of voices.

In 2021 the City of Sydney Library has been hosting edit-a-thons to increase and improve content relevant to their diverse communities. These have included events focused on Paralympics and First Nations, and the Picture This event which added images from the City Archives to Wikipedia.

July's First Nations edit-a-thon was led by Kirsten Thorpe, Nathan “Mudyi” Sentance, and experienced Wikipedia editors Toby Hudson and Caddie Brain. Kirsten’s professional and research interests relate to Indigenous self-determination in libraries and archives. Nathan works to ensure that the cultural and historical narratives conveyed by memory institutions are being told and controlled by First Nations people. With their help, participants improved articles of importance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on Wikipedia.

For May's Picture This edit-a-thon, city historians Dr Lisa Murray and Laila Ellmoos joined Wikimedians Toby Hudson and Ann Reynolds to improve Sydney-specific Wikipedia articles with historic images sourced from the City Archives collection. Participants learnt about copyright laws and added new images to articles relating to Sydney and its people.

Events

• Paralympics Wikipedia edit-a-thon in September 2021
• First Nations Wikipedia edit-a-thon in July 2021
• Picture This edit-a-thon in May 2021

Meet our Wikipedians

Caddie Brain - Canberra

Caddie is an independent curator, producer and audio-maker based in the Northern Territory. Recent work includes Indigemoji and A Tale of Four Cities: A Soundwalk through Darwin as well as exhibitions for the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and Northern Territory Library. She has run Wikiclub NT since 2016 to improve the representation of Northern Territory content on Wikipedia. She is currently studying a Master of Applied Cybernetics at the Australian National University's 3A Institute.

Toby Hudson - Sydney

Toby is a Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Materials Chemistry at the University of Sydney. In 2020 he co-authored a paper titled Science Forum: Wikidata as a knowledge graph for the life sciences on biomedical knowledge contained within Wikidata. His research interests span materials chemistry simulation, search & optimisation, and educational technology. He has been involved in WMF projects since 2004, especially Commons, Wikidata, and the English Wikipedia, and has participated in a wide range of Australian, Educational and Scientific projects.

Ann Reynolds - Sydney

Ann is a foundation member of the Women Write Wiki group which focuses on creating articles on women and women’s issues and meets twice a month at The Women’s Library in Newtown. Following a career in publishing and office administration and sailing in three Sydney-Hobart yacht races, Ann now spends her time researching local and family history, correcting Trove newspaper transcriptions and editing Wikipedia. With a BA in history from the Australian National University, she is co-author of “The Witches’ Houses of Annandale” published by the Annandale Urban Research Association in 2018. She is also membership officer and honorary treasurer of the Feminist Legal Clinic Inc.