Wikipedia Day: a year in review
Every year on January 15, we celebrate Wikipedia’s birthday. It takes thousands all around the world to make Wikipedia the resource that it is; Wikipedia Day is a great time to recognize all that hard work and successful collaboration. It’s also a day to speak to the importance of freely available knowledge and to continue conversations about … Continued
Why a student wrote “oat milk” into Wikipedia
The current cultural buzz around oat milk weaves together conversations around food sustainability, plant science, health, pop culture, and new industry growth. But before December 10, 2018, you couldn’t find anything about oat milk on Wikipedia. Now, thanks to a student in Yin-long Qiu’s Plants and Human Health course at the University of Michigan, the … Continued
Learn about Mesoamerican deities on Wikipedia thanks to students
No creature as horrible as Tlaltecuhtli – the “embodiment of the chaos that raged before Earth’s creation” – should be allowed to roam the world, decided Mesoamerican gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. So, the two powerful deities tore the great sea monster in half in a terrific battle. But Tlaltecuhtli survived (although in pieces) and demanded human sacrifice evermore … Continued
Welcome, Wes!
I’m pleased to announced that Wes Reid has joined the Wiki Education team as a Software Developer. In his new role, he’ll be working with me to maintain the Wiki Education Dashboard — our open source web app built with React and Ruby on Rails that empowers thousands of instructors, librarians, and others across the globe to … Continued
WikiCite offers inspiration for future Wikidata projects
At the end of November, I attended the 2018 edition of WikiCite, an annual gathering of librarians, Wikimedians, and others in the open knowledge space dedicated to creating an open repository of bibliographic data. While this was the third edition of WikiCite, it was the first that anyone from Wiki Education had attended, and it was … Continued
Accurately representing trans identities on Wikipedia
Sometimes making an improvement to a Wikipedia article isn’t about words added. Sometimes a seemingly simple addition to a biography article, like the uploading of a new photo, can make a world of difference. That’s what Cassius Adair of the National Women’s Studies Association found since he’s learned how to edit Wikipedia in our professional … Continued
Campus visit to Wayne State kicks off Wikidata collaboration
Earlier this month, I visited Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, to delve into planning a collaboration with their School of Information Sciences around integrating Wikidata assignments into the curriculum. Wikidata is a Wikimedia project that is an open structured data repository; Wiki Education is eager to get started on improving the quality, quantity, and … Continued
Three Things I Learned as a Wiki Scholar
Dr. Rachel Boyle is a public historian who recently completed our professional development course and contributed to Wikipedia articles relating to women’s suffrage in the United States. This is a republishing of her reflection about the experience. Over the course of the last eleven weeks, I had the honor of joining a cohort of historians, librarians, and other scholars … Continued
Practical solutions for supporting open science
At the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting this year, scientists gathering from all around the world were asked to ponder one question. What does science stand for? AGU proposed their own answer to be discussed over the course of the meeting: science stands for inclusion, creativity, and thinking bigger. Director of Partnerships Jami Mathewson and … Continued
Monthly Report, October 2018
Highlights During October, we had a wonderful opportunity to interact with the North American Wikimedia community at WikiConference North America. In attendance were several of our instructors, including Matthew Vetter, Zach McDowell, Megan Osterbur, Bob Cummings, Wynnie Lamour, Carwil Bjork-James, Anne Nelson, Ximena Gallardo, Ann Matsuuchi, Laurel Stvan, and Jeffrey Keefer. Both Wiki Education staff … Continued