This year Women’s History Scotland are pleased to be collaborating with the University of Edinburgh‘s Information Services in a Wikipedia edit-a-thon on the theme of ‘Women of Edinburgh‘.
The event will celebrate the lives and contributions that Edinburgh women have made which are currently missing from Wikipedia.
The University’s Information Services team will help volunteers focus on improving the quality of articles about notable women; particularly women associated with Edinburgh. As organiser Ewan McAndrew asks:
Have you ever wondered why the information in Wikipedia is extensive for some topics and scarce for others?
As of 7 January 2019 only about 17.83% of the English Wikipedia’s biographies are about women. Not impressed?
No prior knowledge is required. You’ll learn how to edit Wikipedia and participate in an open knowledge community. Participants will be supported to develop articles of their choice related to notable women missing from Wikipedia. NB: Please bring a laptop along to the event or email me at ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk if you require to borrow one for the event.
Programme for the day:
- 11am-11.15am – Housekeeping and Welcome.
- 11:15am-11:30am – Gender and Equality PhD Intern, Francesca Vavotici (tbc).
- 11:30am-12:45pm– Wikipedia training.
- 12:45am-1pm – Room shuffle.
- 1pm-2pm Lunch and naming ceremony for the Brenda Moon room.
- 2pm-4:30pm – EDIT (and badge making).
- 4:30pm-5pm – Publish.
- 5pm – Close.
We plan to improve the following stub entries on Wikipedia based on our very own the New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women:
- Lily Bell
- Catherine Blair
- Nannie Brown
- Griselda Cheape
- Rachel Cook (suffragist) educational campaigner and editorial collaborator on the Manchester Guardian.[56][57][58][59][60][61]
- May Grant
- Mabel Jones[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]
- Lavinia Malcolm[72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82]
- Flora Masson
- Maggie Moffat
- Frances Murray (suffragist)
- Sylvia Murray
- Margaret Mylne
- Emily Orme
- Isabella Pearce
- Marion Reid (author)
- Jane Taylour – Suffrage and women’s movement campaigner. [83][84][85][86][87]
- Annot Wilkie – Suffragette and labour activist from Montrose.
- Helen Wilkie – Teacher, women’s rights campaigner from Montrose.
- Frances Gordon
- Maude Edwards
More information is available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh/International_Women%27s_Day_2019
Sign up for free here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/register?orderid=04056c3c3c2311e9a4f412218dbf3332&client_token=73b5fe9049484e4595bdb6f88800cffc&eid=56573877992
Other events happening in Scotland for International Women’s Day:
https://twitter.com/VAWright10/status/1101463770386317312
https://twitter.com/Lynncabrams/status/1101051884813668352
https://twitter.com/EdinburghUni/status/1100040973827145728
https://twitter.com/ZTScotland/status/1102895941286354945
https://twitter.com/TheWallaceMon/status/1102582611778723840
https://twitter.com/thelistmagazine/status/1102977480384757760
But remember as Talat Yaqoob reminds us ‘feminism is for life not just the 8th of March!:
https://twitter.com/talatyaqoob/status/1102605559952535553