Wikimedia Australia’s September 2022 update
This month’s news and happenings include several in-person events and celebrations. Details below.
News
Welcome Belinda Spry
Wikimedia Australia is proud to welcome our new Executive Officer, Belinda Spry. Belinda has worked across Australia and the UK in training, libraries, and education, including projects on digital learning resources for the Australian Curriculum, eLearning support for teachers, and metadata and taxonomy knowledge management. She will be joining Wikimedia Australia fulltime in October.
Wikidata Turns 10!
Wikidata will be turning 10 years old in October. Launched in 2012, Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others. You can share in the celebration with the hashtag #WikidataBirthday and see how others are celebrating around the world on the Wikidata Tenth Birthday page here.
Wikimedia is looking for a sound logo
The Wikimedia movement is searching for a sound logo that will identify content from all of our projects, like Wikipedia, when visual logos are not an option — for example, when virtual voice assistants answer queries. Submissions are open until 10 October 2022. See the Wikimedia Sound Logo page for further information on how to contribute.
Wikipedia and Education Symposium wrap up
In September, Wikimedia Australia attended a symposium bringing together academics who use Wikipedia as part of their teaching practice. The sessions brought up discussions on whether Wikipedia should be used in classrooms, and how educators can help students use Wikipedia as a resource. Thank you to all who attended the sessions, and thank you to the University of Canberra for hosting. You can read more about the event here.
Events
October Drop In Sessions - Thursday 6 October - Thursday 27
This October we are hosting online drop-in sessions each Thursday morning. Are you interested in learning how to edit Wikipedia? Or need help adding a reference? Would you like some tips on using Visual Editor? Our volunteers will be available to answer any questions you have. Feel free to drop in at any time between 11:00am–1:00pm AEDT. Further details are available here.
Wikimedians in Perth Meetup - Saturday 8 October
Everyone is welcome to join this casual meetup to celebrate ten years of Wikidata with friendly conversation, coffee and cake, and much discussion of Wikidata. The meetup will be held at Robert Harper Building, 49 Phillimore Street, Fremantle, between 9am-12pm. Add yourself to the list of attendees here.
Women in STEM Edit-a-Thon and Q&A Panel - Friday 21 October
Did you know only 19% of biographies on Wikipedia are about women? Research has shown Women in STEM are particularly underrepresented compared to male counterparts. Time to take some action! Join us for a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to create profiles on Wikipedia to highlight the achievements of women and non-binary people in STEM and help reduce the bias in content online. This event begins 11:45am, Friday 21 October, at The Quantum Terminal, Haymarket, NSW. Bookings can be made here.
An introduction to Wikidata - Saturday 22 October
Discover how the worlds of Wikimedia link together at Darling Square Library, Sydney. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Our facilitators will introduce you to Wikidata and how it can link with Wikipedia and other projects. No experience needed. This event begins 11:00am, Saturday 22 October, at Darling Square Library, Sydney. Bookings can be made here.
Open Access Week 2022: Open for Climate Justice - Tuesday 25 October - Friday 28
Registrations are now open for a fantastic series of online events during this year’s Open Access Week. These sessions seek to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Events will be held online, and include a panel on Wikimedia collaborations for climate research knowledge sharing. Open Access week runs Tuesday 25 October until Friday 28. Registrations and more information are available here.
More events will be announced soon. Keep up to date on our website.
#Wikimedia
Other things from around the web:
- How Wikipedia’s ‘Deaditors’ Sprang Into Action on Queen Elizabeth II’s Page After Her Death, Gizmodo
- India summons Wikipedia officials over edits to cricketer’s page, TechCrunch
- A ragtag community is keeping this aughts Wikipedia gadget alive, Input
- Horopedia: new Wikipedia-style website will simplify the world of watches, The National News
- Living Legends: Roger McGuinn On The History Of The Byrds, His One-Man Show And Editing His Own Wikipedia Page, Grammy
WMAU on Social Media
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