Source: Radio New Zealand
Anjuli Selvadurai is Auckland Museum’s Wikimedian-in-Residence. Supplied
If you’ve ever fancied a go at editing one of the world’s largest-ever sources of knowledge, you’ve got a chance this weekend at the Auckland Museum.
Three years ago, it started running a summer programme for students, teaching them how to use Wikipedia as a tool to help support local history in Tāmaki Makaurau.
This year’s cohort is focused on the Women in Red movement – a global effort to make sure women don’t get left behind in Wikipedia references.
This weekend’s event at the museum is focused on boosting Wikipedia entries about New Zealand women in the arts, STEM, politics and law.
Anjuli Selvadurai is Auckland Museum’s Wikimedian-in-residence and oversees the students running the event.
Selvadurai told Nine to Noon that people can a long to the event, they just need to bring their laptop and “good vibes”.
“We are hoping to encourage young people to get engaged with Wikipedia and also engage with learning about their own local history,” Selvadurai said.
When Women in Red started in 2014, just 15 percent of biographies were about women. Now, it sits at about 20 percent.
“If you think of Wikipedia as just like a reflection of a wider knowledge system, it basically holds a mirror up at our society and tells us what we deem important,” Selvadurai said.
So, the great thing about the Women in Red movement is it’s a bunch of people that have decided that women, and women’s histories, are important and so they should be better represented online.”
Selvadurai said there are perceptions of Wikipedia not being reliable, but in this day and age, she said it is one of the more reliable platforms because you can see the paper trail of information and sources.
“One of the things I love about Wikimedia platforms is they really are collaborative, crowdsourced and all about people creating content and having discussions. There are really wonderful admins in place to make sure that content stays unbiased, and everything is sourced correctly.”
The event welcomes anyone whose ever wondered about Wikipedia or is interested in uplifting women, especially in New Zealand, to come along and bring a laptop, make an account, and the event will teach you the basics of editing.
“It’s a really nice collaborative experience learning to edit, and it can be quite addictive, actually, once you get the bug.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
