January 15 is Wikipedia’s 21st birthday. Happy birthday, Wikipedia! In honor of the occasion, we at Wiki Education are reflecting on 21 ways our organization’s work has made Wikipedia better (in no particular order). 1. We’ve added a LOT of content to Wikipedia. In 2018, Wiki Education reached a milestone: Student editors in our Wikipedia Student Program … Continued
Chemist Maggie Tam had never edited Wikipedia before taking one of our recent 500 Wiki Women Scientists courses — in fact, she didn’t even know you could. “I used to think that each Wikipedia article was written by a single author,” Maggie admits. “I didn’t realize that anyone can edit and make changes to articles. … Continued
Tristan Fehr has a deep interest in science policy, and particularly science communication. As a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience, Tristan knows how important it is to be able to clearly convey scientific information to the general population. So when a colleague recommended he take a National Science Policy Network Wiki Scientists course, he signed right … Continued
As the Exhibit & Program Coordinator for the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Deborah Krieger organizes the museum’s changing exhibitions, develops programming to accompany those exhibitions, and works on the museum’s permanent exhibits. She also has a master’s degree in Public Humanities from Brown University. In both her academic and professional … Continued
In spring 2018, Mike Benjamin was in his third year of graduate school for Occupational Hygiene at the University of Cincinnati. As an assignment for one of his classes, Mike was asked to edit Wikipedia through Wiki Education’s Wikipedia Student Program. Mike enjoyed the experience so much that he knew he wanted to stay engaged … Continued
Earlier this year, a Wikipedia editor approached the Hagley Museum and Library with a rights and reproductions request: could they have images of the patent models Hagley had in their collection for inventor William E. Sawyer? Hagley Registrar Jennifer Johns immediately saw Wikipedia as another way to generate interest in their collection. Hagley is a … Continued
As a fourth generation Japanese American, Nina Nakao says she was drawn to study more about the history of her family and community. As a college student, she studied intergenerational trauma within the Japanese American community, and upon graduation, began to work at the Japanese American National Museum. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted her role to … Continued
Joseph Wahba’s interest in health sciences was sparked in high school — but it wasn’t until he was in his third year of his Health Sciences program at McMaster University that he began to question how we know and understand topics of health. That line of inquiry was prompted by a course he took, taught … Continued
As a cataloguer for the University of Toronto Scarborough Library, Thami Jothilingam sees infinite possibilities for Wikidata. That’s why she signed up to take Wiki Education’s Wikidata Institute course. “Metadata is foundational to knowledge creation, as it forms the building blocks of knowledge infrastructure,” Thami says. “Historically, the form and process of this knowledge creation … Continued
