Wikipedia:Meetup/San Francisco/WikiLovesALA15

Wiki Loves ALA Editathon (at the Wikimedia Office 3 blocks from Moscone)


 * When: Friday, June 26, 2015 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (PDT)
 * Where: Wikimedia Foundation, 149 New Montgomery Street, 5th Floor Collab & Lounge San Francisco , CA 94105
 * Access: You need to register on eventbrite and bring a photo id to get in
 * Contact: Jake Orlowitz, Head of The Wikipedia Library -- twitter: @JakeOrlowitz, email:  jorlowitz@undefinedwikimedia.org, wikipedia: Ocaasi (WMF)
 * Directions: To and from Moscone Center to Wikimedia Foundation, 5 minute walk
 * Hashtag: #wikilovesala

Why Wikipedia
Wikipedia, the world's 5th most visited website in the world with 500 million monthly visitors and 8000 people eyeing its pages every second, is a true wonder of human ingenuity and collaboration. It is also a ubiquitous starting point for students, professionals, and the general public as they seek out information.

An editathon is a fun and easy way to learn about how Wikipedia works and then to try it out yourself surrounded by friendly helpers and colleagues experimenting alongside you. Just 3 blocks from Moscone Center, Wikipedia's nonprofit headquarters of the Wikimedia Foundation is the perfect place to learn, experiment, talk, write, and share knowledge.

Why #WikiLovesALA

 * Great way to meet people and kick off ALA with an interactive, participatory, educational visit to Wikipedia's headquarters
 * Easy, facilitated introduction and 30-minute instructional tutorial about how to edit and get started no matter your level of experience
 * Help finding topics to write about, creating an account, learning to navigate the website, and guidance for making your 1st (or 1,000th) edit
 * Tons of support and troubleshooting from experienced contributors who can answer your most basic or complicated questions
 * Unique chance to meet and speak with expert Wikipedia editors and open knowledge movement leaders
 * Opportunity to learn about the growing importance of Wikipedia to knowledge professionals in libraries, academia, and publishing
 * Hosted in a historical brick building converted into a high-tech global networking hub with a brand new sprawling 5th floor collab & lounge space full of tables, chairs, couches, benches, desks--and great wifi
 * Fun pre-event transition to the Exhibition Hall Grand Opening party at 5:30 in Moscone, which we'll walk over to as a group

What to edit at #WikiLovesALA
We'll have several lists of articles that need creation or improvement in case you aren't sure what to write about. If you know what you want to write about, bring (or list) some sources that will help you research. We'll also help you find sources online.
 * Come and write about your institution or your organization's history and collections
 * Come and write about San Francisco's women writers, artists, and scientists
 * Come and write about the LGBT movement
 * Pick your favorite subject and we'll help you contribute to it

To find suggested topics, visit: the suggested topics section below

What you need to know

 * Guests should arrive between 12:30 and 1:00pm (but we'll keep the doors open until 1:30).
 * Please bring a photo id with you so you can get into the building! (note: only registered attendees can enter).
 * Bring a laptop and power cord--it will be much more fun if you do.
 * We'll have coffee, water, bathrooms, and light snacks (so grab lunch first).
 * You're invited, and please tell your ALA friends and colleagues!

What else Wikipedia is doing at ALA

 * Drop by our Exhibit booth for free merchandise (Fri-Mon, Booth 2828 across from OCLC and between OUP and JSTOR)
 * Join our 'Ask a Wikipedian' office hours hosted by OCLC (Sat 3:00-4:00, Marriot Marquis, Juniper 7890 Mission St, Blue room)
 * Attend our talk "Resource Discovery in the Age of Wikipedia" (Sun 1:00-2:00pm, 3010 W Moscone)

Schedule
12:30-1:00 - Arrive and check in to the Wikimedia Foundation

1:00-1:40 - User:Sadads and User:The Interior, run an introduction to editing workshop

1:40- 2:00 break out into editing groups, introduce eachother, and work with experienced editors to pick topics

2:00- 4:30 - Try to break up into groups, and buddy edit: the experienced editor helping the new editor with content, and the new editor helping the experienced editor with research questions.

4:30- 5:00 - Share what you worked on, and cleanup of the space.

About The Wikipedia Library
The Wikipedia Library (TWL) is a Wikimedia project aimed towards helping Wikipedia's volunteer community of 80,000 editors do better, more authoritative research, and helping the world of knowledge professionals expose their collections to the public on Wikipedia. TWL has helped give editors access to 4000 research accounts from 30+ partners including JSTOR, Elsevier, Oxford University Press, Sage, and Project Muse.

Our motivation is addressing the biggest challenges facing information professionals today: discovery and access. For libraries and publishers, the challenge today is having their resources found and used when many students and the public start their research on Wikipedia. This puts us in a unique position where collaboration just makes sense. There’s a saying in the reference world that discovery happens elsewhere. What is less often specified is that, these days, elsewhere is Wikipedia.

For our readers who often do not have free, direct, or easy access to major paywalled journals or niche archives, Wikipedia has become a ubiquitous gateway for access. Not all information is free, but most information can (and hopefully will soon be) at least summarized and cited on Wikipedia. For libraries and publishers, Wikipedia’s wealth of eyeballs means that it is an unparalleled opportunity for exposure and dissemination of content.

The question we then ask is how to get the highest quality information on Wikipedia and to get our readers to dig deeply into it. After all, our goal is to make Wikipedia not an end point for research but a starting point for deeper learning.

We want Wikipedia to be a major component of a circle of research and dissemination: where librarians, academics, and publishers contribute their sources and expertise--and where Wikipedia leads its massive 500 million monthly readership back to information professionals, scholarly resources, and full texts.

Sign in
Once you have arrived at the event, make sure to sign your username here: #~


 * 1) LibraryGurl (talk) 20:01, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 2) Thumy (talk) 20:09, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 3) Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 20:33, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 4) Anarchyshake (talk) 20:37, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 5) Shelldoljack (talk) 20:56, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 6) Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 20:57, 26 June 2015 (UTC) (observing, sat quietly in the corner doing his work)
 * 7) Msannakoval (talk) 21:00, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 8) Sarahcmorgan (talk) 21:00, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 9) whenmostaway (talk) 14:04, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 10) Kayhones (talk) 21:07, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * 11) Chwms 22:05, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Resources

 * Cheatsheet for WikiMarkup
 * Verifiability and Notability video
 * The Wikipedia Adventure - a fun game-like introduction to the Wikimedia community
 * Getting started on Wikipedia -getting started guide for editing Wikipedia
 * A link to your preferences, so that you can turn on the Visual Editor

Recommended topics
Below are resources some topic ideas to help you decide what to work on for the editathon. Of course, we didn't create an exhaustive list of what is missing from Wikipedia: after all, Wikipedia is not paper and Wikipedia is a work in progress, thus there are tons of opportunities for you to bring topics you specialize in into Wikipedia. Remember to work with one of the experienced Wikipedians in the room to figure out if the topics are notable enough.