Wikipedia:Meetup/Christchurch May 2016

What's it about?
An Edit-a-thon is an attempt to improve the Wikipedia pages on a particular topic. Led by an experienced Wikipedia editor, participants learn to edit pages, correct mistakes, add references, and upload photos. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. The goal of this meetup is to introduce women to Wikipedia writing, and to increase the amount of content by and about women in the encyclopaedia.

When and where

 * Sunday 29 May 2016, 2p.m. - 5p.m.
 * In conjunction with Herstory's photographic exhibition at InSitu Photo Project - 120 Hereford Street, Christchurch

What to bring

 * Laptop and power cord. There is wifi you can use.
 * Any snacks and drink you want, but refreshments are supplied.
 * Any books, journals, magazine or newspaper articles relevant to pages you're interested in. There will be a supply of library books on women's biographies and history books.
 * Children are welcome - there will be a kids' corner with toys and books.

How to sign up
The Edit-a-thon is free; we just ask that you sign up and make a commitment to coming, so we can plan catering. | Register here.

Preparation
If you're coming, try to create a Wikipedia account beforehand! Here's a form you can use. Creating an account makes editing much easier (more info). You'll need to pick a "handle" for your username; you could use your real name, but it's nicer to have the option to be a bit anonymous if you want.

Have a think about topics you'd like to work on. Check out their pages and see if there are obvious mistakes or problems. Maybe even do a little research first so you're prepared. Bring along references for information you want to add. If the topic you're interested in doesn't have a Wikipedia page, we could even create one. If you're stuck, there are lots of pages that need work: search in the Wikipedia search box for "Category:New Zealand people stubs" for example and you'll see all the pages of NZ people that are just one line and a reference. A lot of these are women - pick anyone, read the reference about them, look for other online or offline resources, and start editing!

Other lists of stub articles are listed in categories such as "Category:Stub-class Women writers articles" or "Category:Stub-class Women scientists articles" or "Category:Stub-class Women artists articles" or "Category:Stub-class Women's cricket articles" and so on.

Useful Stuff

 * How to edit pages using the Visual Editor: for when you go Edit
 * A cheatsheet for wiki markup: for when you go Edit Source
 * Guideline for notability of New Zealand people

Attendees
Add your Wikipedia username if you have one. Tip: you can just type asterisk-space-three tildes ( * )
 * MurielMary (talk) (organiser)
 *  Schwede 66  (helper)

Outcomes
Two experienced editors helped ten new editors to learn the basics of WP editing. Some new pages were created during the meetup, including:
 * Sherryl Jordan
 * Florence Akins
 * Women of Wonder

Other pages were expanded or updated, including:
 * Yvonne Todd
 * Jan Evans-Freeman
 * New Zealand Association of Counsellors
 * Rineke Dijkstra