Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
When: Tuesday March 7th 2017 from 6:00pm to 9:30pm
Where: CoMotion on King at 115 King St East, Hamilton, Ontario
Organizer: Ladies Learning Code (@llchamont)
Register: eventbrite.ca/e/hamilton-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-march-7th-tickets-32001568553
Details:
Long gone are the days of Encyclopedia Britannica on the shelves of homes or trips to the library to complete a book report. Generations young and old are turning to the internet and resources like Wikipedia to discover important information about the world around them. The benefits are endless – technology has increased access and ease while minimizing many barriers that previously existed. Information now transcends rooms and borders turning anyone into an author or historian. But, women still remain underrepresented.
Wikipedia has a gender bias problem. Their own surveys have indicated that only about 8–16 percent of Wikipedia editors are female and a 2009 Wikimedia Foundation survey showed only six percent of super editors (more than 500 edits) were female. This is an issue for many reasons, including reports of harassment of female editors on Wikipedia forums.
The lack of female editors on Wikipedia also creates a bias in the content generated by their editor community. We need more women participating to ensure that women are represented equally in the massive fabric of human history that is Wikipedia. One approach to address this bias is running female edit-a-thons, which are growing in popularity and have taken place across the globe.
We are proud to be hosting a feminist edit-a-thon in partnership with Art + Feminism (http://www.artandfeminism.org/) to bring together our incredible community of women in Hamilton and bring some much-needed new knowledge to Wikipedia!
No experience necessary with editing or wikipedia but, you will need to bring a laptop (or let us know if you’ll need access to an extra one – we can facilitate that too!). All feminists welcome – men included!
The event is free but please register to indicate that you plan to attend. Organizers will email all registrants with important ahead-of-time preparation (just a few easy steps!) that you need in order to start editing right away at the event.