Grants:Project/Rapid/Metro Atlanta Women in STEM Wikipedia Editathon

statusFunded

Metro ATL Women in STEM Wikipedia Editathon

The Metro Atlanta Women in STEM Wikipedia Editathon will engage the metro Atlanta community of women and allies for women in the STEM fields and provide an opportunity for building new skills in editing Wiki articles about women in STEM that are underrepresented on Wikipedia

targetWikiProject Women scientists and WikiProject Women in Red

start dateJanuary 13

end dateJan 29

budget (local currency)$680

budget (USD)$680

grant typeorganization

non-profit statusYES

grantee• nhboyd1

contact(s)• vicepresident@awisga.org• nboyd2@emory.edu

organization (if applicable)• Association for Women in Science Georgia Chapter (AWISGA) and 500 Women in Science ATL Pod

website (if applicable)• https://www.awisga.org and https://sites.google.com/view/atl500womenscientists

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Review your report

Please see the sample Editathon/Training application before drafting your application.

Project Goal

Recruit new editors
Increase skills for existing editors
Add or improve content
Engage the Metro Atlanta community around Women in STEM
Provide a networking opportunity for women and allies in the STEM fields

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

We are planning to host a training + editathon event focused on improving articles/creating new articles about women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This collaborative editathon is co-organized by several organizations in Atlanta, Georgia: Association for Women in Science Georgia Chapter (AWIS), Atlanta 500 Women Scientists (500WS), Agnes Scott Women’s Liberal Arts College Library, and Emory University Libraries. We will specifically focus on editing/creating pages for researchers engaged in work related to women's health & medicine, LGBTQ+ health, sexuality researchers, environmental & criminal justice, and activists in the area of reproductive freedom/justice, which coincides with an on-going initiative within 500WS.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

We have the support of both the Emory University Libraries, which have hosted successful editathons previously, as well as McCain Library and the Center for Digital & Visual Literacy at Agnes Scott College, where our event will be hosted. This editathon will be promoted through the libraries at both institutions. In addition, the partner organizations AWIS and 500WS both have large networks of scientists working in STEM fields who have both interest and expertise in this topic. Each of these organizations has its own website, email listserv, and social media with a broad reach in the local metro Atlanta community. We plan to send out flyers through listservs, post on social media, as well as at each of our respective campuses and workplaces. In addition, we will market the event to students at Agnes Scott College and the participation of students from the college will facilitate interactions between active researchers in STEM fields and undergraduate students.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

On our organizing team, we have three experienced editors, including Jennifer Sutcliffe and Nicole Baran, who have hosted a Wiki editathon in the past, as well Helen Siaw, a former Wikipedia Fellow in the Women in Science cohort. These experts have presentations, handouts, and other educational materials already prepared that were used at previous training and events. For example, Atlanta 500WS hosted a successful editathon in October 2018 in partnership with the Georgia Piedmont Wikimedians and the national 500WS organization provides extensive educational resources for organizing Wikipedia editathons.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

We will host the event in a computer lab at Agnes Scott College so that participants will not be required to bring their own laptops. Jennifer Sutcliffe, Emory Librarian, and Nicole Baran, 500WS Atlanta Pod President, are both wiki experts that have agreed to develop a list of pages from the Women in Science Wiki Project page and other sources which need work in advance of the event. As we have done at previous events, some participants will come with an assigned page that they will work on during the event, which will give them a chance to start some research beforehand. In addition, we may have preliminary research or resources available for some pages, which will enable new editors to get started right away. We also expect that a number of people may choose to work in pairs or small groups, so we can pair more experienced editors with new editors.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

We will use Google Forms to sign up participants for the event and our organizations will engage with these participants from the sign-up after the event to offer any additional help or advice and solicit ideas for additional editathons after the event. Our organizations each have a Facebook page where we can use the event page as a discussion group for advice or help wanted from participants on new edits they make after the event. In addition, both AWIS and 500WS host regular social events and meetings that can be used as places for discussion and networking regarding future Wiki-related events or advice.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

We are excited about this event as it has the potential to bring together members from multiple organizations from across metro Atlanta and bring awareness of the importance of women in science and Wikipedia as a resource for their studies, as there is an underrepresentation of female scientists on Wikipedia (and women in general) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red. The event will engage with the metro Atlanta community and will foster education about women in science as well as provide participants a new skill in terms of researching and editing encyclopedia articles on Wikipedia, which is a very important online resource that many scientists and academics use. Importantly, this project is not funded or financially supported in any way by either Emory University or Agnes Scott College, as the libraries only providing their space and research resources for this event – Both AWIS and 500WS are independent non-profit organizations that are not funded or financially supported by either academic institution.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

Number of events: 1 (potential for future follow-up events)
Number of participants: 50
Number of new editors: 40
Number of of articles created or improved: 30

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

We have 3 experienced Wikimedians who will attend the event and provide follow-up advice and support through online channels, one event planner in charge of the event with 8 members of the subcommittee for additional support. Library staff will help us with resources and are providing the venue for free.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

1. Food and drink = $500 x 1 event = $500 2. Child care = 4 hrs x $20/hr x 1 event = $80 3. Miscellaneous supplies = $100 (name tags, research handouts, flyers, paid social media advertising) Total = 680 USD

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

I will be leading Wikipedia training and editing support for this event. The organizers have put a lot of thought and effort into the planning and are enthusiastic about getting their organization involved in the Wiki movement. The event aligns with Wikipedia's goals as well as those of their own organization and would fill a gap for STEM-related editathons in the Atlanta area. I believe it will draw a good amount of people from the local community as well as engage students with Wikipedia. Additionally, this will be a much desired collaboration between two Atlanta-area universities – Agnes Scott College and Emory University – that I hope will grow into a long-term partnership that leads to more collaborations like this. Jenniferjuniper (talk) 03:30, 5 December 2019 (UTC)
I live in Atlanta and would love to attend this event! KEOLIVER86 (talk) 18:32, 5 December 2019 (UTC)
I wholeheartedly support this application! Nmbaran (talk) 15:59, 6 December 2019 (UTC)