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Info about the event

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Interested in information activism? Want to learn how you can help fill knowledge gaps and rectify inequalities and silences online? Join us on Friday the 1st of July to hear about our student-led project to promote greater representation of women, LGBTQ history, Black History and Scotland's links to slavery and the slave trade on Wikipedia.

After hearing about our project, participants will learn how to edit Wikipedia pages themselves. You will be supported over the afternoon to help create new pages, or edit existing ones in order to improve Wikipedia. No prior knowledge or experience of editing is required. Wikipedia is the 5th most visited website in the world and is often the first page to come up when conducting Google searches, however it lacks diversity in its editors and its articles, let's change that! At this in person event you'll learn a new digital skill in a social & supportive setting and meet like-minded event participants all passionate about improving representation and rectifying knowledge gaps online.

Your 1,2,3 to get started!

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  1. Create your Wikipedia account
  2. Once you have created your account join the Wiki dashboard - this is important as we need to confirm you as new editors to be able to publish new pages by end of afternoon.
  3. Once you have decided, add your chosen page(s) to work on here

The Wikipedia training

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  • Please visit My personal sandbox page
  • Copy the text
  • Click on your username link at the op of the screen.
  • Click the Create tab to open the userpage up in Visual Editor mode if your link is in red. This is next to the search bar on Wikipedia. Please click the Edit tab if your page is in blue.
  • Once into your userpage and the dropdown menus are available, paste the copied text into your userpage.
  • Then click the blue Publish page button to save the page with an edit summary of added text to my user page.
  • More advice is in the pdfs and Resources section below.

Schedule

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Please arrive at 50 George Square with your laptop for editing between 12.45 - 1.00pm, for a prompt 1.00pm start.

  • 1:00pm - 1.15pm: Welcome & introduction to the project
  • 1.15 pm - 2. 15pm: Wikipedia training from Ewan McAndrew.
  • 2.15pm - 2.30pm: Tea Break (Refreshments provided)
  • 2:30pm - 4.15pm: Editing/creating pages
  • 4.15pm - 4.30pm: Publishing your edits
  • 4.30pm - 5.30pm: Panel discussion/Q&A (Drinks provided)

Join us as we help make Wikipedia better!

Editing

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We Can Edit
Building a Biography - simplified
Creating a Wikipedia Userpage

Questions about editing? Read the Wiki-editing FAQ!

Things to remember - anyone can edit BUT cite what you write!

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  1. Wikipedia is a tertiary source. Articles are backed up by facts from reliable, published secondary sources. Primary sources tend not to be used. A breadth & depth of quality sources helps demonstrates notability which is an important yardstick for articles staying on Wikipedia.
  2. Write with encyclopedic content in mind. Not academic essay. Strip back your writing to the facts.
  3. Write accessibly with a lay audience in mind. Any jargon needs explained the first time it is mentioned.
  4. Write with a neutral point of view. Split text up into sections with headings.
  5. Cite everything you write. Keep a note of urls (open access if possible), Journal articles DOI identifiers, Book ISBN numbers. Page numbers, volume numbers and book chapters should be included in your citation information too.
  6. Draft content in your sandbox draft space first. Wikipedia is a work in progress for sure but you can prepare articles or new sections for articles in peace in your personal draft space (the sandbox) and migrate it when ready.
  7. Write in your own words as much as possible. Even close paraphrasing counts as copyright violation. Short quotes can be included but need to be attributed.
  8. Links in the main body of the article should only be to other Wikipedia pages. You only need to add links when the term is first mentioned in the article. Linking every time is considered overlinking. Sites outside of Wikipedia should be linked in a separate section at the foot of the page with an External links heading. No more than 5-8 links to websites outside of Wikipedia - we are not a link farm!
  9. Images have to open-licensed to be allowed on Wikipedia. CC-0, Public domain, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA licensed images are allowed and are hosted on sister project, Wikimedia Commons. Open images can be searched for using search aggregator tools such as CC Search.
Want a headstart on learning more about Wikipedia? Go to our website. Email me at ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk with any questions.

LGBTQ+ History worklist

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New records to be created

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Existing articles to be improved

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Lists

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  • Template featuring missing figures from HIV and AIDs activism in Scotland:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:HIV/AIDS_in_Scotland

Useful Pages and Lists to Explore

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Work list with sources

New records to be created

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  • Lothian Black Forum - Anti-racist organisation active in Edinburgh 1989-92]]
  • William Mackenzie & Co. - Scottish slave trading firm
  • Alexander Campbell - Scottish planter and lobbyist.
  • Thomas Cuming - Scottish, leading figure in the Britain's colonial rule of Demerara, owned sugar plantations and enslaved people.
  • James Fraser younger of Belladrum - James Fraser, younger of Belladrum, was active in Demerara and Berbice from at least the early 1790s. Can this be expanded?
  • Leith Sugar House - Leith sugar house, hive of activity in 18th and 19th century, demonstrates Edinburgh's involvement in slave and sugar trade. Painting of Leith Quay from National Gallery to be included. Can this article be expanded and de-orphaned??

Existing articles to be improved

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  • William Wright (botanist) - Doctor and botanist, born Crieff, Perthshire, trained at U of E, spent 13 years in Jamaica, fellow of Royal Society Edinburgh, owned sugar plantation and enslaved people, add in ownership of plantations and enslaved people.
  • Alexander Crichton - Scottish physician and author, add in details about slavery and compensation.
  • Bunce Island - Island in Sierra Leone, with significant role in slave trade, add in that the 'London-based firm' of Grant, Oswald and Co which took it over in 1748 had strong Scottish connections, or the significance role of Scots working there. NB also spelled 'Bance Island'.
  • Robert Cunningham Graham - Scottish politician and poet. Add information about enslaved descendants and connections to plantations.
  • William Forbes of Callendar - Prosperous coppersmith and landowner who lived in Falkirk, Scotland. Add in details about his connection to slavery through the production of copper sugar boiling pans. Needs more citations and expanded.
  • Robert Moffat (missionary) - Scottish missionary, add in image of painting with him alongside John Mokoteri and Sarah Roby, add in details about John and Sarah, who were adopted by Moffat but treated as though they were in servitude.
  • Bute House - Official residence of Scottish first minister. Add information on slave-owning residents including John Innes Crawford and Sir John Sinclair. Add information on slave-owning residents including John Innes Crawford and Sir John Sinclair.

Gender History worklist

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New records to create

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Edinburgh University alumni
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Scottish sports women
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  • Sophia Green - Professional triathlete and commonwealth reserve athlete
  • Iona Miller - Professional GB triathlete and Super League athlete

Existing articles to be improved

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Articles where women could be noted further

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Lists with Women in Red

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Useful pages and lists to explore

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Accused witches and witch prickers

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Some men could also be added. A few suggestions:

Resources

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I train people every month and essentially say much the same thing. Here is one such recording but don’t worry we will make sure you get full training tomorrow

Main training tutorial: How to begin editing Wikipedia (53 mins)

Some short video tutorials

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  1. Exploring the main page of Wikipedia (4 mins)
  2. How to create an account on Wikipedia (1 min 30 secs)
  3. How to switch on the (easier to use) Visual Editor interface (1 min 20secs)
  4. How to create a user page and play around with formatting (4 mins)
  5. How to create an article on Wikipedia (7 mins)
  6. How to move your drafted article to the main article space on Wikipedia (2 mins)
  7. How to add bold, headings, links, italics to a Wikipedia page (3 mins)
  8. How to add citations and references to a Wikipedia page (3 mins)
  9. How to upload an image to Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia’s sister project) - 4 mins
  10. How to insert an image from Wikimedia Commons onto a Wikipedia page (3 mins)
  11. How to edit existing pages on Wikipedia (4 mins)
  12. Some printable resources are here.

These are all embedded in our student-created website here to make the how & why of editing Wikipedia much easier to engage with. Undergraduate student Hannah Rothmann’s work creating this website and the video resources above in lockdown Summer 2020 won an Open Education Global award recently. Because we felt that students, educators and everyone should be able to do this much more simply and have this ‘need to know’ information readily and openly available so I hope this is of use to you.

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Here are some useful links to help you with your editing:

  • Read up to find out more about sources and verifiability.
  • Check out the notability guidelines and what topics can be written about on Wikipedia.
  • Consider whether you have any conflicts of interest.
  • You can find advice on how to search for relevant sources on any scientist here.
  • All sorts of helpful guides and online resources can be found below:
  • A speedy guide on where to find the different buttons on Wikipedia, and explaining what they do - useful for complete beginners!
    A speedy guide on where to find the different buttons on Wikipedia, and explaining what they do - useful for complete beginners!
  • Very straightforward step-by-step instructions on how to add a piece of information to an existing Wikipedia page - useful for complete beginners!
    Very straightforward step-by-step instructions on how to add a piece of information to an existing Wikipedia page - useful for complete beginners!
  • A guide to elements to include in a wiki-biography, with a checklist to ensure you include as many as you can when editing.
    A guide to elements to include in a wiki-biography, with a checklist to ensure you include as many as you can when editing.
  • A guide to adding infoboxes (those handy things on the right side of a page with a summary of key info).
    A guide to adding infoboxes (those handy things on the right side of a page with a summary of key info).
  • A complete beginner's introduction to adding information onto Wikidata. If in doubt, take a look at someone else's Wikidata entry for inspiration!
    A complete beginner's introduction to adding information onto Wikidata. If in doubt, take a look at someone else's Wikidata entry for inspiration!
  • Steps to adding a photograph to Wikimedia Commons so you can use it in a Wikipedia article - the picture has to be your own for you to add it.
    Steps to adding a photograph to Wikimedia Commons so you can use it in a Wikipedia article - the picture has to be your own for you to add it.
  • Guide to creating your Wikipedia userpage to introduce yourself to other editors.
    Guide to creating your Wikipedia userpage to introduce yourself to other editors.
  • Using talk pages
    Using talk pages
  • Citing your sources
    Citing your sources
  • Avoiding plagiarism
    Avoiding plagiarism
  • Classroom handout - moving out of your sandbox
    Classroom handout - moving out of your sandbox
  • Polishing your articles
    Polishing your articles
  • You can add pictures for use on Wiki-pages and beyond on Wikimedia Commons. Your Wikipedia account will work on Commons too - as well as all the other Wiki-projects and different language versions of Wikipedia.

Here are some ways to keep track of your edits:

  • You can view all your contributions to Wikipedia by clicking "Contributions" (in the top right of this page).
  • The Pageviews tool is a great way of measuring how many people are looking at the page you created/edited. You can even export the data if you'd like it for reports, etc.

After today

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Once you've learned the basics of editing using Wikipedia’s Visual Editor, I hope that you'll stay logged in and edit or create more articles. As a first step you may like to check out what What Wikipedia is not along with its 5 guiding principles: The 5 pillars.

  • Please sign your messages on talk pages with four tildes (~~~~). This will automatically insert your "signature" (your username and a date stamp). The or button, on the tool bar above Wikipedia's text editing window, also does this.
  • If you would like to play around with your new Wiki skills without changing the mainspace, the Sandbox is for you.
  • Check out upcoming Wikimedia in Scotland editing events.
  • Check out upcoming Wikimedia UK editing events.

Video guides to editing Wikipedia

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