Wikimedians celebrate International Women's Day and Women's History Month
Wikimedians around the world gathered to celebrate Women's History Month and the associated International Women's Day by holding editathons. If you lived in the United Kingdom, you had the opportunity to attend Wikimedia UK's event at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, part of University College London and host to one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese artifacts in the world.
Eleven to twelve participants gathered with five provided laptops, two trainers, and refreshments to edit Wikipedia topics related to the museums. Four articles (Margaret Stefana Drower, Violette Lafleur, Elinor Wight Gardner, and Veronica Seton-Williams) were created, and four additional articles (Winifred Brunton, Margaret Murray, Gertrude Caton-Thompson, and Hilda Petrie) were updated with information from the museum.
Email questions sent to Wikimedia UK were not returned as of publishing time.
Coming up, there will be a women in science editathon that is currently asking for more remote participants. Hosted by the Smithsonian Institution Archives on 18 March, the event has a lengthy to-do list populated by important female figures in science—many of which do not have a Wikipedia article at the present time. Individuals watching over the Internet will have access to "live stream of a behind-the-scenes tour and a discussion on the Science Service collection and the portrayal of women in the media by Archives' research fellow, Marcel LaFollette."
Chicagoans interested in the event can attend remotely with other Wikipedians at Loyola University by contacting Keilana.
On 30 March, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC will host its second annual Women in the Arts meetup and edit-a-thon.
In brief
- Wikimania submissions closing: Submissions for Wikimania 2014 in London are closing on 31 March. Wikimania is the annual conference of the Wikimedia movement; it was held in Hong Kong last year. The conference organizers are also compiling a list of specialist libraries that Wikimedians can explore while attending.
- GLAM: Wikimedia UK has a dozen tickets to the Tank Museum in Dorset, England, which has the largest amount of tanks and second-largest collection of armored vehicles in the world. The chapter is looking for editors active in the topic area to request photographs of specific vehicles, along with photographers willing to travel there.
- Google Summer of Code: The Wikimedia Foundation has put out an "urgent" call for more applicants to their Google Summer of Code program. All of the current candidates are from India or Sri Lanka, leading Quim Gil (the WMF's Technical Contributor Coordinator) to remark that "While we are very happy seeing how popular Wikimedia is among technical students in the Indian subcontinent, we are concerned about the lack of candidates from anywhere else." Last year's participants numbered 69 from eight countries.
- National Wikipedia Forum: Azerbaijni media is reporting that "Wikimedia Azerbaijan"—a non-incorporated chapter, which raises serious trademark issues for the Wikimedia Foundation—has held a "National Wikipedia Forum", with a member of parliament and administrator Aydin Mirzazade leading the first panel.
- GAC: The Grants Advisory Committee is calling for applications. According to the call, "The GAC are community volunteers who are explicitly invited to review and evaluate grant proposals made in the Wikimedia Foundation Project and Event Grants Program, and offer advice to both grant applicants and the Foundation."
- Signpost suggestions: Tips and pointers to additional news items are always welcome on the Signpost's suggestions page.
Discuss this story
Congrats to Wikimedia Azerbaijan. -- Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 07:19, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]