24th November – 1st December 2020
Did you also know that absolutely anyone can edit Wikipedia? Yet many of those in the climate change community – practitioners, researchers, communicators, community organisers – are not making use of this powerful tool to make climate change information more freely available to the general public and robust. The more specialists who contribute to Wikipedia, the more reliable its content is likely to be.
In 2015, the Wikimedia Foundation estimated that only about 20% of Wikipedia editors were from the Global South. And in a 2018 survey covering 12 language versions of Wikipedia, as little as 8.8% of contributors were women. It is critical that editors representing a diversity of genders, social and cultural perspectives, disciplines and languages contribute to the platform – linking local experiences with this global knowledge base.
The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) invite climate change professionals (practitioners, researchers, communicators) and Wikipedia volunteers to participate in an online climate change Wikipedia edit-a-thon: Wiki4Climate.
The Wiki4Climate event will be a week of editing on global and regional climate change topics from 24 November 11.00 (GMT) – 1 December 12.30 (GMT).
This edit-a-thon aims to mobilise a community of climate change professionals and existing Wikipedia editors and volunteers to edit and update climate change articles on Wikipedia.
This event has four specific goals:
– To enhance climate change related content on English Wikipedia, particularly related to the Global South
– To increase awareness amongst the climate change community of the value of contributing to the platform
– To enhance the confidence and skills of climate change professionals to edit Wikipedia
– To build a community of climate change editors, particularly women and editors from the Global South
Anyone can take part in this event provided you have a reliable internet connection, an interest in climate change, and a desire to improve Wikipedia content or share information.
We particularly encourage participants from the Global South and women to participate as editors in this event. We want to help reduce the major gaps on Wikipedia, such as the Gender Gap, and encourage voices from less-represented groups to be heard in the global knowledge commons.
Please complete and submit this form by Monday 23 November 2020.
If you have any questions email: wiki@southsouthnorth.org
Register for event at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecRvpnnpsJbSl4htub4ZpkpKew-ArgcgGNFzo2XdV-PsZFOg/viewform