Wikipedia:Meetup/World Soil Day 2017 Edit-a-thon

To celebrate World Soil Day on December 5, 2017, we invite you to join us in a World Soil Day Edit-a-thon. The goal is to work simultaneously to edit and update soil science information on Wikipedia, particularly where information gaps currently exist. This will expand accessible public information about soil and provide an opportunity to further interconnect and grow the soil science community. One main opportunity is to enhance the presence of Canadian soil science content on Wikipedia.

Event Details

 * Date: December 5th, 2017
 * Time: 1 to 4pm Pacific (an orientation and training session will happen 1pm to 1:30pm)
 * Location: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC - Orchard Commons Study Lounge, 6363 Agronomy Rd

The World Soil Day Wikipedia edit-a-thon will include an event hosted by the University of British Columbia (UBC) soil science community in conjunction with Wikipedia experts from the UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, in Vancouver on Tuesday, Dec 5, 2017, 1:00 – 4:00 pm, (PDT). This will be the headquarters of the edit-a-thon, where people can edit together. Snacks and beverages will be provided. In addition, soil scientists from across the globe are invited to participate online or to organize a co-event at their location.

How to Participate
Planning on attending the event? Here's some steps you may want to take beforehand:
 * 1) Don't have a Wikipedia Account? Create one!
 * 2) Register for the event via the dashboard.
 * If you get prompted for a passcode, please use the following: tyguoawi
 * 1) Look at the resources below
 * 2) Join us on December 5th!

If you are not at UBC - you can still join virtually! Connect via the Video Conference.

Important: Do not worry if you’ve never edited a Wikipedia entry before! There will be training and support, and a range of different kinds of edits available for you to work on (ranging from very simple to more complex in the list below):
 * Minor edits - typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc.
 * Major edits – adding/deleting page content, new sections, etc.
 * Add references – inline citations and footnotes
 * Add images, sounds, videos (this is a great opportunity for those of you with great photo libraries)
 * Add an infobox to a page
 * Create a new page from scratch

Edit-a-thons improve the encyclopedia and can be a great way to help new “Wikipedians” learn to edit and give them insight in to how Wikipedia works.

Participant List

 * You will be able to see who else has registered by clicking on "editors" in Outreach Dashboard here. Editors are shown in alphabetical order.
 * If your Wikipedia user name is not yet in that list but should be then you still need to register here.

About World Soil Day
The World Soil Day (Dec 5th) was established in 2012 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, as a global awareness raising platform. The World Soil Day allows us to celebrate the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to human wellbeing.

To build on initiatives started during the 2015 International Year of Soils and to continue with raising awareness about importance of soil, we are organizing a coordinated World Soil Day edit-a-thon on Dec 5, 2017, where scientists, professionals and students work simultaneously to edit and update soil science information on Wikipedia.

Possible Articles for Improvement/Creation
A review of gaps is currently underway. Please add any potential articles below:
 * List of Soil Science Stubs (pages) that need to be expanded
 * Soil quality
 * Soil texture - could elaborate hand texturing
 * Canadian system of soil classification – add media, maps of orders across Canada, link to other pages (e.g., Podzolic order – Podzol), name equivalents in other classification systems, link keywords in descriptions to other pages (e.g., parent material); could create pages for Great Groups, Subgroups, etc.
 * Soil – add link to Canadian system of soil classification here
 * Soil monolith
 * Soil test – elaborate on different groups of tests (used/approved in Canada), link to appropriate pages; add media, videos
 * Parent material – needs elaboration and citations; Canadian examples could be added (where different types of parent materials are found)
 * Peat – add Canadian examples and context for organic soils
 * The Canadian Society of Soil Science
 * Cation-exchange capacity – needs attention from an expert in soil
 * Additional pages to edit