Wikipedia:Meetup/Nelson/Buller's Birds

Bush wren and rock wren
Tūī
Kākāpō
Huia

What's it about?

An edit-a-thon is an event where volunteer editors tackle a part of Wikipedia that needs improvement. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop!

This edit-a-thon is being hosted by Nelson Provincial Museum, and will support their current exhibition Buller's Birds - The Art of Keulemans and Buchanan. It will focus on improving the coverage of the birds featured in Walter Buller's A History of the Birds of New Zealand (1873/1888), and the paintings by John Gerrard Keulemans. You don't need to be an expert on bird illustration to take part, though: anyone can help with editing, researching, proofreading, and adding or improving photos.

When and where

Sat 15 June 2019, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm NZST
Elma Turner Library, Activity Room, 27 Halifax St E, Nelson
Wikipedians from anywhere in the world are of course welcome to join in remotely. Please feel free to hashtag edits with #bullerbirds and 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. Experienced editors present will be buddied up with newcomers.
11.00: Editing
Our goal is to improve Wikipedia's coverage of NZ birds, and especially the Keulemans paintings. You can improve existing articles or add artwork or species information to Wikidata.
12.30: Lunch/coffee break. Tea and biscuits provided.
14.00: Q&A tutorial
A chance to go over any problems or questions you have as a group.
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 Edit-a-thon is free and open to all, thanks to the support of Nelson Provisional Museum and the Wikimedia Foundation.
There are limited spaces, so please RSVP by emailing rosamund.feeney@ncc.govt.nz
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/3jz if you want a short, shareable link to this page

People attending

In person

Remotely

Ambrosia10

What to bring

Laptop and power cord. Laptops are definitely easier to edit on than iPads. The venue has good wifi. There may be a spare laptop for people to use, but bring your own computer if you can.
Any snacks or drink you want. There's a kitchen space in the building, and a light lunch, coffee, and tea are provided.
Any resources such as books, journals, magazine or newspaper articles relevant to 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 be there 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

History of the Birds of New Zealand: the Commons page which nicely organises the paintings by edition

Outcomes

Last updated 2019-06-23 21:32 (Pacific/Auckland) • About these figures

Participants	10
Bytes changed	+4,562
Pages created	1
Views to pages created	33
Pages improved	13
Avg. daily views to pages improved	704
Uploaded files	6
Unique pages with uploaded files	2
Avg. daily views to uploaded files	9
Wikidata items created	3
Wikidata items improved	1

Wikipedia

Astelia weevil
Improvements to New Zealand fantail, Swamp harrier, Blue duck, Appo Hocton, Yellowhead (bird), Hoheria populnea, North Island robin, Theodore Rigg, Hebe (plant), and Griselinia lucida.

Photos added to Commons

Wikidata

Created wikidata items for digitised books in the Biodiversity Heritage Library including the Smithsonian Libraries copy of Bullers Birds and Darwin's copy of the book.

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 the Nelson Public Library, the Nelson Provincial Museum, and the Wikimedia Foundation for supporting the New Zealand Wikipedian at Large project.