Wikipedia:Meetup/Aotearoa New Zealand Editor Support

What's it about?

The Wikipedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand wants to support new and new-ish Wikipedia editors. This series of online support sessions is a trial, intended to provide opportunities:

to talk with more experienced editors and get help with specific queries
to have the opportunity to learn about things relevant to beginning editors
to give new editors a greater sense of engagement with the Aotearoa New Zealand Wikipedia community

At the end of the series an evaluation will be carried out.

Who's it for?

Participants will be new or new-ish editors who already have Wikipedia accounts. Or perhaps editors who may have taken a break and would like to get going again. They will be interested in writing articles and need a bit of help with editing and research. (If you need help setting up your account on Wikipedia before the session, check out the first five minutes of this YouTube video.)

When and where

Dates: 26 October 2020; 9 November 2020; 23 November 2020; 7 December 2020; 18 January 2021; 1 February 2021
Time: 7.30pm - 9pm
Outline of sessions: Introductions, resolving queries or logging unresolved queries, 5 minute topic from guest contributor. No question is too basic. If the convenors are unable to answer a specific query, the topic will be referred to someone in the Wikipedia community who can help. There'll be a 5 minute topic from guest contributor.
Cost : Free

How to attend:

This is an online session using jitsi. Join by clicking on this link: https://meet.jit.si/OnlineSupport

Note: this video conferencing software link will ask permission to use your computer camera and microphone. You will need to agree to get full functionality. Google Chrome or Chromium is recommended for the best experience (not all aspects work correctly with other browsers). The jitsi meet video conferencing platform is 100% open source and fully encrypted. No account is needed and it's free.

Friendly Space

If you want to find out more about the session before attending check out the Session Notes below or leave a message on the talk pages of the convenor Noracrentiss (talk) who will be happy to chat with you and answer your questions.

Online Meetings Conduct, and Anonymity when Meeting Via Video Conference

All attendees are expected to understand and abide by the Draft Universal Code of Conduct for the Wikimedia Movement.

This video conferencing meetup is a replacement for an in-person meetup. While attending and remaining anonymous is supported by the group, lurking is not supported and will be actively discouraged. All attendees are expected to use their User name as an identifier on the video conference call and to introduce themselves and their interest in joining the call on the chat channel of the call as a minimum. Participation using video and / or voice in addition to Chat is encouraged but not required.

These measures are intended to support creating a safe space for collaboration.

If a new attendee joins the group with video and voice disabled, they will be encouraged to participate by the facilitator, using this script:

"Welcome new attendee. This group respects your right to remain anonymous. This group has a policy of discouraging lurking as it makes some of us uncomfortable. If you are happy to introduce yourself over voice, please let us know what you've been working on and what help you need with editing.

If you're not comfortable updating the group by voice, then that's okay. You have the option of introducing yourself and adding your user page link into the chat feature. The chat is deleted once the video conference finishes.

If you want to remain completely anonymous and not chat, then this session is not for you. We make comprehensive and extensive notes of the meetup that will be included in the meetup page afterwards. That's the best way to catch up with what this meetup has been doing if you don't want to contribute during the video call.

If you're not sure how to use the chat feature you can access it by clicking on the icon that looks like a speech bubble in the bottom left corner."

If, after an appropriate length of time, the new attendee does not participate by video, voice, or chat, the convenor of the group will remove the attendee from the video call.

If the attendee persists in logging in, the group will consider abandoning the session.

Session Notes

26 October 2020

Agenda

Introductions
Round table - participant introductions; discuss queries

Queries: 1) How to cite a law of New Zealand? Some templates exists for legal citation. Linking to a website with the law on it should suffice. Include reference to New Zealand if the context requires it 2) What to do when valid sources give conflicting information? Options include: trying to find a further source which may make it clear which is correct; making reference to the fact that sources disagree; omitting the information if of low relevance 3) Is a reference to an item found on Papers Past best cited as a Newspaper or a website? Suggest Newspaper is better but click on the link "Research Info" found above the newspaper article and use the Permanent Link to this Item as the URL. Will still need to complete or amend other fields in the citation.

Five minute Guest Spot - Guest Contributor Giantflightlessbirds Unable to attend

9 November 2020

Agenda

Introduction
Round table - participant introductions; discuss queries
Five minute Guest Spot: Guest Contributor Giantflightlessbirds

Notes made of any unresolved queries here along with ideas on who to refer to for solutions. Attended by Gertrude206,(WLG) Noracrentiss,(WLG) Quiltphase,(WLG) Giantflightlessbirds,(DND) David Nind,(WLG) John (Nelson) and Mark (Blenheim). Topics covered: Stub articles, Info boxes, introduction to "edit source" what is a stub. Difference between Wikipedia Commons and Creative Commons, licensing of images. Difference between "See also" and External References. Checking ratings of other similar articles to ones in draft and adopting the style and layout of a well-rated article. VIAF explanation and demo. Text to use when referring to a film. Mecodema article used as an exemplar. Giantflightless birds topic: Critter of the Week.

23 November 2020

Agenda

Introduction
Round table - participant introductions; discuss queries
Five minute Guest Spot: Guest Contributor David Nind

David Nind demonstrated how to upload a photo to WikiCommons using the Upload Wizard, and how to add a gallery.

Topics covered: Creative Commons licences and {{PD-New Zealand}} licensing. Adding categories: go as far "down" the broader category tree as you can. Talked about how much material to add to an article concluding that if reasonably relevant and well-referenced, it may enhance the subject matter. Advice given on writing the article, adding all the references and citations and at that point writing the Lead (the introductory summary of what the article is about as that should have no references in it - unless about a living person where there may be controversial aspects.)

7 December 2020

Agenda

Introduction
Round table - participant introductions; discuss queries
Five minute Guest Spot: Gertude206: Referencing and Citations

Notes made of any queries here along with ideas on who to refer to for solutions of unresolved queries. Attended by Gertrude206, David Nind, Schwede66, DrThneed, Realitylink

Topics covered:

Gertrude206 showed some resources used for writing articles: Index New Zealand (INNZ), PapersPast, Te Puna, DigitalNZ, NZOnScreen, academic databases via Wikipedia Library Card Platform
Heritage buildings. Lists on Heritage New Zealand and council websites.
Conflicts of Interest. Can be difficult to determine but refer to relevant Help page. Best to be transparent and to declare anything on the Talk page.
Schwede66 demonstrated working on several drafts and once and how to move to mainspace.
Red links can be good to indicate articles that need to be written. See relevant Help page.

18 January 2021

Agenda

Introduction
Round table - participant introductions; discuss queries
Guest Spot: Ambrosia10 will talk about adding the "Citation Needed" template and other warning notices above articles

Citation needed template page

Topics covered: Suggestions of where to start with a brand new editor, used https://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Khandallah Wikipedia article as an exemplar (adding, correcting and improving content). Ambrosia10 explained how to insert use dmy date and use NZ English templates; how and when to add and remove Citation Needed template and other warning notices; showed how to add 1Lib1Ref; Demo of CitationHunt; looked at Wikipedia Cleanup (https://bambots.brucemyers.com/cwb/index.html); ran through Wikisource (transcription and proof-reading opportunities); described role of Wikipedia Admins.

1 February 2021

Agenda

Introduction
Round table - participant introductions; discuss queries

Topics covered: Assigning categories, using HotCat, navigating Wikipedia Help, using the Style Manual, locating introductory tutorials for complete beginners.

Resources

Add any good links to resources for new and new-ish editors here:

Other Wikipedia meetings and communication channels

Anyone can join the Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand which meets online on a monthly basis. All welcome see: Aotearoa New Zealand Online Meetups

Regular Meet Ups are held in Wellington and Christchurch, and occasional Meet Ups are held in other centres. Details can be found here.

Wikipedia:New Zealand Wikipedians' notice board for discussion relevant to New Zealand Wikipedians.

Wikipedia NZ Facebook group

Evaluation

What worked well?

Guest spots and topics were excellent
Small numbers of participants, which meant all could get very specific help
Time and topics shared equitably
No technology issues
Broad-ranging content but still focussed on research and writing articles in Wikipedia (as intended)
Kept to time and on topic
A light touch structure
Friendly atmosphere
Two co-leaders to support each other

What didn't work so well?

Small numbers of new editor participants meant the key purpose (online support for new editors) was not achieved

What to do differently (or the same) if hosting another series of online editor support sessions?

Collect User names of participants for follow up
Get information about new editors' preferred follow up channels
Get more publicity for the sessions
Maintain a supportive environment
Keep some structure and potentially develop a programme or plan for the block of sessions
Fortnightly cycle ok