Talk:Academic Dress editathon

GLAM?

Why is this event tagged GLAM? Am I missing something? If anything I'd have thought it should be tagged Education. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 12:55, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

I've changed the navbox from {{Cultural partnerships}} to {{Education}}. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 13:11, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Ah, the power of experience. Thanks! --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 13:44, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Useful images for academic dress and specific universities

• Cardiff University Graduation - 82.132.233.99 14:06, 25 May 2013 (UTC) (User:Aliceruth5954 on en.wp)
• Cardiff students in academic dress - 82.132.233.99 14:25, 25 May 2013 (UTC) (User:Aliceruth5954 on en.wp)
• LSE female academic in ?? in DSC(Econ) gown 82.132.233.99 14:25, 25 May 2013 (UTC) (User:Aliceruth5954 on en.wp)
• Univ of Durham Chancellor Bill Bryson (User: aliceruth5954 on en.wp)

Report

Attendees hard at work

The intense focus of Wikipedians writing articles

This event came about after one of the regulars at the Coventry meetup (who is also a trustee of the Burgon Society) approached Rock drum and myself. It was planned to be similar in structure to the Coventry History Editathon held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in March 2012. The society's chairman very kindly arranged for us to use the facilities at Deloitte for the event. Approximately 14 people were present, divided almost equally between newbies and those with some previous editing experience.

The first hour or so was given over to general discussion and thumbing through Welcome to Wikipedia booklets as we were unable to access Deloitte's WiFi. As it became clear that the WiFi would not be available in time for a productive editathon, those with smartphones enabled them as mobile hotspots, and between three smartphones there was sufficient capacity for everybody to connect. With Internet access established, we began in earnest by discussing articles that attendees wished to work on and showing several of these on a projector. Most attendees were keen to work on articles related to the academic dress at particular institutions, often those they had attended, and the articles for academic dress at the universities of, inter alia, Newcastle, Durham, Westminster, Exeter, and Warwick were mentioned. After a comparison and discussion of several articles, we demonstrated some basic edits and discussed encyclopaedic writing and attendees were encouraged to find an article to work on with an experienced Wikipedian in the afternoon session.

After lunch, we set about editing. The attendees worked individually or in groups of two or three, in each case assisted by a more experienced Wikipedian, to improve articles using resources provided or that they had accessed online. One group was assisted by Toni and Nicholas, who tidied the article while the others continued to work on it. Improvements were made to:

• Academic dress of the University of London
• Academic dress of the University of Exeter (which was truly atrocious before this event)
• Groves classification system with the addition of images
• George Shaw (academic dress scholar)‎
• Academic dress of the University of Nottingham‎
• Several images were uploaded to Commons

Several attendees said they were inspired to continue working on articles after the event and that they felt the event made the prospect of editing less daunting. I distributed my contact details and invited attendees to get in touch with any questions, and I will encourage at least one attendee who lives near an existing meetup to come to the next one. Discussion of similar events in the future has already begun in principle.

The sole recommendation of this report for Wikimedia UK would be that the charity purchase a "MiFi" device or similar for future events where WiFi may be problematic. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 20:24, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Excellent stuff Harry and Rockdrum and Nicholas. Any idea of the gender split as we try and collect numbers.gender.newbies etc for our stats Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 08:10, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

I think it's slightly demeaning that the focus is on "how many women did we get" rather than on "at least half a dozen people who are experts in their field now feel able to contribute to Wikipedia". We had one woman, whom I believe was new both to us and to the Burgon Society.

To answer a question Richard N asked in an email about structure: I had planned to get some editing done before lunch, but the faff with the WiFi meant we got down to business later than hoped. In the event, we spent a little over an hour (plus the first hour of informal discussions while we waited for news on the WiFi) discussing general principles and doing demonstrations. The after-lunch session was almost entirely given over to editing. Essentially people picked an institution to work on (some on their own, some in twos or threes) and were given a mentor. RD took some photos (Commons:Category:Burgon Society editathon) so you can see what the room looked like. File:Burgon Society editathon 1.JPG and File:Burgon Society editathon 7.JPG are my favourites (though my hands seem to be suspended in mid-air in the latter!). Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 14:32, 29 May 2013 (UTC)