Wikipedia:Meetup/Colorado/Fort Collins/2014

Colorado State University Libraries is hosting the Water Editathon. This is our first-ever Wikipedia Editathon, and our goal is to create and improve Wikipedia articles about water in Colorado, or for those out-of-state institutions participating remotely, water in their own states. No specialized knowledge of the subject is needed; we'll have librarians, subject experts and library and archival resources on hand as well as a list of suggested topics.

There will be free food and refreshments available to give you the energy you need for all your research breakthroughs.

We hope you’ll join us!

Details

WHEN: Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Come when you can, stay as long as you like.

WHERE: At CSU: Morgan Library, Event Hall (first floor), on the Colorado State University campus. Click the following link for an indoor map to the Event Hall: http://lib.colostate.edu/about/maps/first/event-hall Every participating institution will have additional meeting places.

WHO: Anyone! Everyone! All are welcome, including...

Experienced or new Wikipedians (We will provide assistance with Wikipedia formatting and syntax).
Anyone with an interest in water issues, improving public information or democratic discourse.
Amateur historians or research pros (We will have a selection of CSU resources and a mini reference desk available for your use. We can also pull additional materials from the Collection as needed).
CSU faculty, staff, and students.
Members of the community.

What you need to know before you arrive

Enter Morgan Library through the main front entrance and follow the signs to the Event Hall on the first floor. Volunteers will be there to greet you. Please bring your own laptop if possible. We will have some library laptops available for those without a computer and will help you access the University's wireless network. For directions to CSU click here: http://lib.colostate.edu/about/directions For parking information click here: http://parking.colostate.edu/pages/WhereCanIPark.aspx

WILL THERE BE FOOD? The most important question! Yes, we will provide free food and drinks.

Participating Remotely

We'll have a video conference session open to every concurrent Editathon which will be projected onto the walls in the Event Hall. Questions and ideas can be exchanged between groups and editing efforts can be coordinated. We'll be updating the Topic Page in real time, with editors signing next to articles they're working on, so anyone with a Wikipedia account can log on and do the same. So far, Wikipedians from

Montana State University

Washington State University

University of California Riverside

Colorado Mesa University

University of Denver

have all agreed to have their own meetups at their locations to work on this project!

Online Research Sources

CSU Water Libguide Check this one out first, its a great resource.

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Free access to online climate and weather data from the U.S. federal government.

SNOTEL Data & Products The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) installs, operates, and maintains an extensive, automated system to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States called SNOTEL (for SNOwpack TELemetry).

IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library From Columbia University, a climate data library of over 300 datasets.

National Snow and Ice Data Center The National Snow and Ice Data Center encompasses several data centers, data management programs, and data projects. Specialized data managers lead these programs and projects, and provide shared services and infrastructure to all constituents of NSIDC.

Library Databases

Click on the 'Articles and Databases' tab to navigate to these databases:

Wikipedia Help

RSVP

Please add your name (or Wikipedia username, if you have one) below if you are planning to attend:

Shea Swauger, Bibliophage01 (talk) 16:04, 23 July 2014 (UTC)bibliophage01[reply]
Patty Rettig
Joe Kraus jokrausdu
Rhonda Neugebauer
Q Undead q (talk) 22:50, 23 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Linda Meyer

Maybe

Can't make it

Gaurav (talk) 23:29, 23 July 2014 (UTC) -- Sorry![reply]

Mikepascoe (talk) -- Bummrd I found out about it just after it finished. Looking forward to participating in the next one!

Outcomes

This is where we post all the pages we've either edited or created together and we'll look back and be so inspired.

Deliverables

Stuff that goes beyond the scope of the event, i.e., policy, how-to's, etc.
The greatest number of attendees were students who were receiving extra credit from their professors for editing, followed by students who's class was brought to the editathon during scheduled meeting times by their professor, and lastly, students who came for the pizza and stayed to edit. This means that faculty outreach and buy in is of primary importance for student participation. Also, free food really helps.

By the Numbers

Total attendees:62
CSU undergraduates: 55
Usernames created: 58
Extra-Large pizzas consumed: 10

Articles Expanded

Articles Created

Media Uploaded

Pictures or other media for use in articles

Social Media

Used hashtag #Opentober
Blog posts?

To Do

Plan Future CSU edit-a-thons!