Wikipedia:Meetup/Westport/Wikipedia Workshop

What's it about?

This is a free workshop run by Dr Mike Dickison as part of the West Coast Wikipedian at Large project. Participants will learn how Wikipedia works, how to improve and create articles, tips and tricks for formatting, referencing, and adding photos, and the wider issues of the reliability and bias of Wikipedia. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop!

The event is hosted by Development West Coast and EPIC Westport.

When and where

Sat 19 September 2020, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm NZST
EPIC Westport, 10a Lyndhurst Street, Westport
Wikipedians from anywhere in the world are of course welcome to join in remotely. Please feel free to add yourselves to the participants list below.

Timetable

10.00: Meet and greet
Introductions, name lanyards, and account creation if needed
10.15: Wikipedia tutorial
We'll learn how Wikipedia works and how to improve, create, and reference articles.
11.00: Editing
We'll try out editing an article together, and add information from a reference. You can improve existing articles, try uploading an out-of-copyright photo, or improve information in Wikidata.
12.30: Lunch/coffee break. Tea and biscuits provided. Participants will be assigned a nearby building to photograph from WikiShootMe.
14.00: Photo uploading
We'll go through the process of adding our photos to Commons, to Wikidata, to a Wikipedia article, and a new Commons category.
13.30: Editing
16.00: Finishing up
Make sure you fill out an evaluation form and add your contributions to the list below.

To attend

The workshop is free and open to all, thanks to the support of Development West Coast.
There are limited spaces, so register here to be sure of a place.
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 https://w.wiki/YtG if you want a short, shareable link to this page

People attending

In person

Giantflightlessbirds
PDXMaria
Cherrynook
NZ Owen
Nic Petty
Jonathan Petty
Ben Crawford

Remotely

What to bring

Laptop and power cord. Laptops are definitely easier to edit on than tablets! The venue has good wifi.
Any snacks or drink you want. Coffee and tea are provided.
Any resources such as books, journals, magazine or newspaper articles relevant to Wikipedia articles you're interested in.
Photos you've taken or art that could illustrate articles; you'll learn how to donate these to Wikimedia Commons so other Wikipedia articles can use them.

Preparation

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 anonymous if you want. Here's some advice on picking a username.
The more you prepare, the more you'll be able to get done. You may want to read up on avoiding common mistakes, but Wikipedia has a "don't bite the newbies" policy, and we'll have experienced Wikipedians present and helping remotely to troubleshoot.
Have a think about topics you'd like to work on; 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 help improve Wikipedia. The best candidates for Wikipedia articles are people, places, or things that are "notable". In Wikipedia terms, "notable" people are those who've been covered in a number of reliable independent sources, such as news, books, authoritative websites, or magazine interviews. If you're proposing to create to Wikipedia article it's important to make sure your subject is "notable"; talk to us if you're not sure – we can help.
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 not, you must be the creator/copyright holder – ask us if you're not certain what's allowed, and we'll help.

Useful

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

Resources

West Coast New Zealand History: we'll be looking at this as a possible source of images, but it has copyright problems
Digital NZ, which lets you filter by copyright status

Media

We'll be taking photos for the record. If you don't want to be in a photo, just choose a red name lanyard; if you don't mind, pick a green one.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to EPIC Westport and Development West Coast for supporting the West Coast Wikipedian at Large project.