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Wikipedia:Meetup/Ann Arbor/Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library Edit-A-Thon/How-to

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An edit-a-thon at the British Library.

Note: the majority of this page is quoted or adapted from Wikipedia:How to run an edit-a-thon.

On Wikipedia, an edit-a-thon is an event that is focused on "building the encyclopedia and teaching new Wikipedians how to edit". Etymologically, it is derived from the word hackathon, an event with which it shares many similarities. An edit-a-thon is defined by the following three elements:

  1. a scheduled time where people edit Wikipedia together (whether offline, online, or a mix of both: in this case, certainly offline, but maybe both),
  2. typically focused on a specific topic (in this case Gerald Ford, his life, career, presidency, and/or family), and
  3. a way to recruit new Wikipedians and teach them how to contribute.

The goals of the edit-a-thon are twofold: to both improve Wikipedia's coverage of Gerald Ford and to help teach new Wikipedians how to edit. It is not a conference with speakers and panels (like Wikimania), nor is is a regular meetup (which typically are more oriented toward socializing and lack the concrete goals of an edit-a-thon).

What we need beforehand

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The location of this edit-a-thon, NARA's Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
  • A Wikipedia namespace page for the edit-a-thon: see here.
  • A date, time, and a venue: the even will be held on Thursday, February 7, 2013 from 5pm to 7pm at NARA's Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
  • A way for people to sign up to attend: for those who already have a Wikipedia account, sign-up is on the Wikipedia page for the edit-a-thon. For those who do not, we have created a Facebook group that people can join in lieu of signing up.
  • A clear set of goals: the edit-a-thon will have two primary goals: 1) helping new Wikipedians learn the basics of editing and 2) improving content about the life, career, and presidency of Gerald Ford. Regarding the second, we are considering a number of articles to focus our efforts on, including the following:
  1. Electoral history of Gerald Ford
  2. Inauguration of Gerald Ford
  3. Betty Ford
  • Keep conflict of interest in mind: while staff members are more than welcome to come and participate, they need to be aware of the restrictions concerning writing about their employer.

Ways to advertise this edit-a-thon

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A screenshot of the Wikimedia Foundation's blog.

Before advertising our edit-a-thon, we need to determine exactly what audience we are trying to reach. In this case, it will probably be a mix of experienced Wikipedians and newcomers, many of whom have an interest in Gerald Ford.

In rough order of effectiveness, the best ways to advertise include the following...

  • Ask people to help promote it to their friends and colleagues.
  • Use a software notice, the more geographically-specific the better.
  • Email relevant mailing lists (in this case, University of Michigan and Ford Presidential Library listservs will probably be the best places to reach potential editors).
  • Ask for help and participation from the relevant WikiProject, in this case WikiProject Gerald Ford.
  • Suggest a tidbit in the Signpost.
  • Talk about it on social media.
  • Write a blog post. If you don't have one, ask someone who has an active blog in Planet Wikimedia. (Yes, that includes the Wikimedia Foundation blog! Contact Mdennis (WMF) about that.)

What to do during this edit-a-thon

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It is usually a good idea to have "stations" for different activities, including the basics such as account creation.
  • Be prepared with a list of things that need work: it is always a good idea to have a concrete idea about what needs our attention during the edit-a-thon.
  • Start with a round of introductions: we probably won't all know each other, so it makes sense to get to know each other before the editing begins in earnest. Also, nametags may be a good idea.
  • Consider having someone volunteer to be a "greeter": this is especially useful if the group is on the larger side.
  • Have an appropriate ratio of experienced editors to newbies: ideally, the ratio of new-to-experienced Wikipedians would be 1:1, but past experience indicates that a ratio of 10:1 is manageable (though exceeding it is not a good idea).
  • Take time to help new editors get started: remember to give them time to create an account and learn the basics of editing. It may also be a good idea to create "stations" where they can be taught various skills (such as "Creating an account and making your first edit", "Starting a new article", "Improving existing articles", etc.). Also, make sure they know who to ask when they need help and provide them with resources like Wikipedia:Cheatsheet (it may be a good idea to print out a few copies beforehand).
  • Take some photos: remember that even one shot is better than nothing.
  • Hand out some Wikipedia merchandise: if we can obtain it before the event, that is.

What to do afterwards

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  • Thank everyone who attended, especially anyone else who helped organize the event. (A talk page message works great!)
  • Try to get a list of all the articles edited or created, as well as the usernames of participants and anything else produced at the event.
  • Upload event photos to Wikimedia Commons in "Category:Wikimedia editathons" (or a subcategory of that).
  • Write a blog post or op-ed for the Signpost talking about who attended, what got done, and how it went generally.

List of previous edit-a-thons

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In chronological order:

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