Wikimedia Australia’s January 2023 update
This month’s news and happenings include Wikidata fellowships, events, and videos. Details below.
News
From our recent Community Meeting…
Thank you to everyone who attended our January meeting. Sam Wilson spoke about Wikispore, Wikidata, and small wiki projects. You can rewatch his short presentation on our YouTube channel here.
Wikidata Fellowships Now Open
Wikimedia Australia and Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand have launched the 2023 Wikidata Fellowship program offering three fellowships of $1,000. Applications are now open and close Sunday 26 February. For more information and examples of previous projects, see our Wikidata Fellowships page.
Wikimania 2023 Scholarships
Wikimania is the annual conference celebrating projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. In 2023 it is in Singapore and will run from 16-19 August. We are supporting four scholarships for Australians, but applications close Sunday 5 February. For more information see the Wikimania 2023 Scholarships announcement.
Community Wishlist Survey 2023
Do you have an idea for a Wikipedia feature you wish existed? Get your wishes ready because the Community Wishlist Survey is opening now. This is an annual survey that allows contributors to the Wikimedia projects to propose and vote for tools and platform improvements. Read how you can contribute, and about some of the previous ideas, here.
Trove - A Treasure Trove of Australian Content
One of our favourite websites for research is Trove. Run by the National Library of Australia and several partner organisations. We put together a short article on why we think Trove is “A Treasure Trove of Australian Content”. Read it on the Wikimedia Australia website.
Events
Introduction to Wikidata - Tuesday 31 January 7pm AEDT
Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Learn more about what Wikidata is, explore key concepts and vocabulary, how it relates to other Wikimedia projects, and see what makes it so powerful. This free session will be held online. Bookings essential. Details here.
Next Community Meeting - Wednesday 8 February 7pm AEDT
Our monthly community meetings are open to everyone. Next month we have a member of The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria presenting on how they use Wikidata, followed by an open discussion to hear from the community. Please join us online Wednesday 8 February at 7pm AEDT. Details here.
Wellington WikiCon 2023 - Saturday 11 March - Sunday 12 March 2023
Our friends in New Zealand have announced Wellington WikiCon 2023 will run 11–12 March 2023. The full program is available now and includes sessions on the Pasifika Arts Aotearoa project, introductions to Wikidata, and discussions around creating a good article on Wikipedia. Tickets are available now. Further details can be found on the Wellington WikiCon Meta page.
More events will be announced soon. Keep up to date on our website.
#Wikimedia
Other things from around the web:
- Should ChatGPT Be Used to Write Wikipedia Articles?, Slate
- Wikipedia is twenty. It’s time to start covering it better, Columbia Journalism Review
- Why Was Cleopatra the Most-Viewed Page on Wikipedia in 2022?, Gizmodo
- Wikipedia criticises 'harsh' new Online Safety Bill plans, BBC
- Wikipedia gets its first makeover in over a decade… and it’s fairly subtle, TechCrunch
WMAU on Social Media
You can also keep up to date by following us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Don’t forget to tag us if you’ve got something interesting to share, as we love to retweet our volunteers' amazing work.
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