Wikipedia:Meetup/Palmerston North/Godwits

Massey University Godwit Edit-a-thon

What's it about?
An edit-a-thon is an event where volunteer editors tackle a part of Wikipedia that needs improvement. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop!

This edit-a-thon is being hosted by Massey University to coincide with the late-March departure of bar-tailed godwits from the Manawatū estuary, a research topic for Dr Phil Battley from Massey University’s Ecology Group. You don't need to be an bird migration expert to take part, though: anyone can help with editing, researching, proofreading, and adding or improving photos.

When and where



 * Thursday 19 March 2020, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm NZST: people are welcome to drop in any time of the day. (This event happened six days before New Zealand entered a total lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
 * Large Group Discussion Space, Level 2, Massey University Library, Palmerston North
 * This will be a social-distancing-friendly event. There is plenty of room to spread out, and if you are participating remotely feel free to Skype Adzebill 11:00–12:30 or 1:30–5:00 NZST.
 * Wikipedians from anywhere in the world or stuck in quarantine are of course welcome to join in. Please feel free to hashtag edits with #godwits and add yourselves to the participants list below.

Timetable
We'll learn how Wikipedia works and how to improve, create, and reference articles. People are welcome to attend, then come and go during the day. We'll all head down to the Library cafe space for refreshments and a chat. Tidying up of the work everyone has done today and a summary of everything achieved.
 * 9:00: Wikipedia tutorial
 * 12.30: Lunch
 * 16.30: Finishing up

To attend

 * The Edit-a-thon is free and open to all, Massey staff, students, and interested members of the public are welcome.
 * The format of this edit-a-thon is drop in, drop out. People are welcome to turn up when they have some time, learn a little about how Wikipedia works, and make some improvements.
 * This workshop will be following "friendly space" guidelines; check them out. Harassment and disruption won't be tolerated, online or offline.

Media

 * Use the link  if you want a short, shareable link to this page

In person

 * Giantflightlessbirds (Mike Dickison, Massey R&E, assisting newcomers)
 * Six librarians and a researcher attended the introductory session on Wikipedia and had lots of questions. Half a dozen others popped in and out over the course of the day.

What to bring

 * Laptop and power cord; the venue is a nice collaborative space, with good wifi, but doesn't have computers. Laptops are definitely easier to edit on than tablets.
 * Any snacks or drink you want. There are vending machines and a good cafe on the ground floor.
 * Any resources such as books, journals, magazine or newspaper articles relevant to the theme of the event.
 * Photos you've taken that could illustrate articles; you'll learn how to donate these to Wikimedia Commons so other Wikipedia articles can use them.

Preparation

 * 1) If you're coming, try to create a Wikipedia account beforehand: don't wait until the day to do it! Here's a form you can use if you like. Creating an account makes editing much easier (here's more info on why you should). You'll need to pick a "handle" for your username; you could use your real name, but it's nice to have the option to be a bit more anonymous if you want. Here's some advice on picking a username.
 * 2) You may want to read up on avoiding common mistakes, but Wikipedia has a "don't bite the newbies" policy, and there'll be an experienced editor there to troubleshoot.
 * 3) You don't have to be an expert; anyone who can do library research and write clearly can help improve Wikipedia. If you want to create a new Wikipedia article it's important to make sure your subject is "notable". In Wikipedia terms, "notable" people or things are those who've been covered in a number of reliable independent sources, such as news, books, authoritative websites, or magazine interviews, so dig out a half-dozen good references.
 * 4) If you want to bring photos along and add them to Commons and Wikipedia, they need to be free of any copyright or released under a Creative Commons license that lets anyone use them. (What's Creative Commons?) If they aren't, you must be the copyright owner – which means you took the photo, not someone else.

Useful

 * How to edit pages using the Visual Editor: for when you click Edit

Resources

 * New Zealand Birds Online entry, including lots of images we could approach photographers about donating

Outcomes
Document what you do! If you add or improve something, note it down here

Wikipedia

 * Phil Battley dropped in 3 theses and 18 printed references for the bar-tailed godwit article
 * Katherine Chisholm expanded diet section of bar-tailed article, added to the Protection section, adding citations.
 * Added two more subspecies to article, and numerous references
 * Brenda facts and newspaper citation to Nurses' Memorial Chapel
 * Joanna added to Early Years sections in Aunt Daisy and Marie Clay

Wikidata

 * Improved, added six of his publications to Wikidata, and linked his name to ten using Author Disambiguator
 * Created and added him to seven publications
 * Created and added him to five publications

Wikimedia Commons

 * Cropped down a Commons photo to chow tail barring, and rearranged and improved the image gallery
 * Modified a Spanish-language distribution map for the English article.

Media
We'll be taking photos for the record.

Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the Massey University Library for supporting this event, and Research and Enterprise for bringing Wikipedian Mike Dickison to Massey.