Editing Wikipedia to celebrate Black History Month
Last month, NPR staff celebrated Black History Month through a variety of events. There was music, food, books, a movie, and lots of discussion. Each day we recognized a different trailblazer through features in the internal NPR newsletter, each one illustrated by Justin Lucas.
Our Black History Month Edit-a-thon
We used that same list of trailblazers for another event: a Black History Month Wikipedia edit-a-thon.
Somewhere on the edge of your mind, you may be aware that people — anyone — can edit Wikipedia. At edit-a-thons, people get together to edit articles on Wikipedia that center on a theme.
Like many edit-a-thons, our event focused on improving portions of the encyclopedia with low coverage due to its systemic bias. We also aimed to enable new editors to make their first Wikipedia edit in a short period of time. As you can see from our event page, we succeeded in each goal.
Hosting your own Edit-a-thon
If this sounds like a fun idea to you, go out and make one happen! You’ll need three things: experienced editors, folks willing to do a bit of research ahead of time, and a place to meet.
We have a great resource right here in DC: Wikimedia DC. They’re a large chapter in the Wikipedia universe, and are very welcoming of newcomers wanting to organize events. That’s how I got in contact with James Hare, who helped our participants learn about Wikipedia processes and culture.
After I created a to-do list based on the twenty trailblazers, the librarians of NPR did the needed research and beyond. Sarah Knight, Ayda Pourasad, and Jane Gilvin helped prepare for the event by finding resources about each of the twenty trailblazers. Jane Gilvin and Candice Kortkamp attended the event and helped folks use databases and create high-quality citations.
And the final piece, where we met, was easily accommodated by the first floor NPR conference spaces and help from fellow NPR Black History Month organizers, Erin McIntyre and Darlene Barkley.
Attend one coming up soon
This was the second edit-a-thon I’ve organized and the third I’ve attended, and I plan to keep on going.
If your interest is piqued but aren’t quite ready to host your own, check out upcoming Wikimedia DC events and others across the globe.
Originally published at nprdesigngroup.tumblr.com.
