Wikipedia:Meetup/Wellington/2016 Edit-a-thon

What's it about?
An Edit-a-thon is an all-day attempt to improve Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic. Led by an experienced Wikipedia editor, participants learn to create and edit pages, correct mistakes, add references, and upload photos. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. This edit-a-thon is being hosted by the Friends of Te Papa, and will focus on adding New Zealand plant and animal species to Wikipedia.

When and where

 * Sunday 29 May, 2016
 * 10:00–17:00 NZST
 * Te Aka Matua Reading Room, lvl 4 mezzanine, Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand. Take the stairs behind the enormous hanging Treaty of Waitangi to get to the mezzanine.
 * Participants from anywhere in the world are welcome to join in remotely, using #NZspecies in tweets and edit summaries (Wikipedia can search for the #NZspecies hashtag now).

Timetable

 * 10:00: Meet and greet, setup, account creation if needed
 * 10:15–12:00: Intro: how to create and edit species articles on Wikipedia. This will be live-streamed on Periscope (get the app from Periscope site, or watch via @adzebill's twitter feed; Link to Periscope broadcast).
 * Lunch break (Level 4 Espresso cafe is nearby)
 * 12:30–17:00: Wikipedia editing. Our goal is to beginners to create stub articles on New Zealand species, and to improve existing species pages. Experienced Wikipedia editors will be available to help and troubleshoot.

What to bring

 * Laptop and power cord. Te Papa has free wifi.
 * Any snacks and drink you want.
 * Spare name tag or lanyard if you have one (we'll have extras), with your name and Wikipedia username.
 * Any books, journals, magazine or newspaper articles relevant to pages you're interested in. Te Papa's library has made sure there will be a selection of reference books on NZ flora and fauna available.
 * Photos you've taken that could illustrate species articles; you'll learn how to donate these to the Commons so other Wikipedia articles can use them.

How to sign up
The Edit-a-thon is free and open to all; we would love you to register and make a commitment to coming, so we can make sure the venue will house everybody. Book at the Friends of Te Papa site; both members and non-members of the Friends are welcome.

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. Creating an account make 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 anonymous if you want. See the list of attendees below for the format.
 * 2) Read up on Wikipedia: there are lots of tutorials, like the Wikipedia Adventure, and useful guides, like the Editing Wikipedia brochure.
 * 3) Have a think about any species you'd like to work on. Check to see if their pages exist yet, and if they do look for any obvious mistakes or problems. Maybe even do a little research first so you're prepared. You don't have to be an expert; anyone who can do library research and write clearly can contribute to Wikipedia. The best candidates for Wikipedia articles are species that are notable in some way: that is, they're mentioned in print in various places, especially in news stories, textbooks, or magazine articles.

Some notable species that need articles

 * Extinct mistletoe Trilepidea adamsii, and some other extinct New Zealand plants
 * Marine spider Desis marina done
 * Newly-described stick insect Clitarchus rakauwhakanekeneke done
 * Tepakiphasma, and in fact all the NZ stick insects seem to be in a pretty dire state, worthy of an edit-a-thon in themselves.
 * The caddisfly Edpercivalia harrisoni
 * The giant fossil oyster Crassostrea ingens, with GNS illustration if possible done
 * The self-introduced ant Amblyopone australis, perhaps referencing Warwick Don's book. done
 * Species depicted in the images that Auckland Museum has made available here.
 * A list of a variety of New Zealand plant species discussed in Flora of New Zealand and illustrated by Matilda Smith
 * New Zealand cicada species in the following genera: Maoricicada, Amphipsalta, Kikihia and Rhodopsalta
 * Weevils in the genus Didymus
 * New Zealand endemic species listed in the Department of Conservation NZ Threat Classification Lists
 * Solanderia ericopsis (and other Solanderia), recently highlighted in NIWA's Critter of the Week blog done
 * How is it that not a single species of tree wētā (genus Hemideina) has a Wikipedia page?
 * Freshwater invertebrate indicator species
 * Missing Coccinellidae of New Zealand (Wikipedia category) articles, as a result of this recent sighting in Auckland of invasive ladybird species
 * Two native mushrooms now endangered and in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Radio New Zealand story on 7 May 2016 http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303302/two-native-mushrooms-now-endangered links to the red list pages. Relevant wikipedia pages: Boletopsis nothofagi and Claustula. There's not a lot written about Claustula fischeri. Perhaps content can be found via references listed in the IUCN page on Claustula fischeri. www.iucnredlist.org.

Other editing tasks

 * New Zealand skink articles. Practising or aspiring herpetologists to the bridge! Cyclodina spp. have been merged into the Oligosoma genus, following a 2009 molecular phylogenetics study; articles could do with a spring-clean and some CC images.
 * New Zealand freshwater fish. There are pages for all of the species but most are brief, uninformative stubs.

Useful links

 * How to create a species stub article in Wikipedia: notes for this editathon
 * Editing Wikipedia Species Articles guide (aimed at students, but still useful)
 * How to edit pages using the Visual Editor: for when you click Edit
 * Google spreadsheet of Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora in the Biology Heritage Library's Flickr Album
 * Information about Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, and crowdsourced photos, harrychapman.nz

Media

 * "New Zealand's Wikipedia Edit-a-thon" on RNZ Afternoons 19 May 2016
 * Journalists: use the URL  http://bit.ly/NZspecies  in print; it'll take people to this page. (Note: bit.ly URLs are case sensitive.)
 * PDF of the flier
 * Shareable web graphic version of the flier
 * There's a public Facebook event you can share

Attended

 * Giantflightlessbirds (organiser)
 * Ambrosia10 (organiser)
 * StellaMcQ (native fish geek)
 * ParquetParquet
 * Ballofstring (until about 2pm)
 * User:Stuartyeates
 * ReedWade
 * Thorium90
 * Grayfion
 * Tanifa
 * Stephenhartley (ecologist, VUW)
 * Emilyc15 (paleontology, marine)
 * Oxlennon (PhD student VUW)
 * Pohutukawa63 (Tree Geek)
 * Xylvy
 * Arapawa

Attended remotely

 * Ejo33 – along withsome other students from the UC Marine Ecology Research Group!
 * Icey28
 * TFostBio
 * Troutpout
 * Valerovi4
 * Islandbaygardener
 * Markanderson72

Outcomes
The meetup was a great success, although the wifi was a little dodgy. We certainly appreciated the reference books from Te Papa, and the more-experienced Wikipedians who showed up to help the newbies. Thank you all! Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 06:04, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Hennessey, Kelly. (2 June 2016). "Editing in the Gaps". Cook Strait News, p12.

New pages

 * Lophomyrtus obcordata
 * Camptochaete arbuscula
 * Crassostrea ingens
 * Desis marina
 * Dicksonia lanata (needs images)
 * Amblyopone australis
 * Kikihia ochrina
 * Buller's moth
 * Carmichaelia petriei
 * Cerius otagensis
 * Acrothamnus colensoi
 * Amychus granulatus
 * Solanderia ericopsis
 * Clitarchus rakauwhakanekeneke
 * Vulcanolepas osheai
 * Gandalfus puia
 * Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum (moved from Trichomanes reniforme)
 * Notheia anomala
 * Clematis cunninghamii
 * Sargassum johnsonii

Pages improved

 * Red-crowned parakeet - added caption, wikilinks and culture section
 * Karaka (tree)
 * Prolasius advenus
 * Kermadec Islands
 * Cyathea dealbata
 * Lophomyrtus
 * Common galaxias
 * Monomorium antarcticum
 * Spelungula
 * Giant kokopu - added photo
 * Shortjaw kokopu - replaced taxobox photo with a better one
 * Gobiomorphus hubbsi - added photo
 * Gobiomorphus basalis - added photo
 * Climbing galaxias - added two photos
 * Spiders of New Zealand - added photo of Dolomedes dondalei
 * Weka
 * Talk:Australian pied cormorant
 * Hoplodactylus pacificus - photo
 * Wellington green gecko