Ohio Wikimedians User Group/Newsletter/2017/February

Ohio Wikimedians User Group: February 2017 newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of the Ohio Wikimedians User Group newsletter!

General Updates

Things have been quiet with our User Group, though that should soon change! Please take a glance at the following updates:

This is the first monthly newsletter of the Ohio Wikimedians User Group. From here on out, each letter will detail the previous month's activities, as well as keep members informed of upcoming events in the Wikimedia community.
We'd like to get monthly virtual meetings up and running soon. If you're interested, please express your interest at the talk page.
Our homepage has been updated with a new banner, information, upcoming events, and more. Members now have markers to mark what organizational parts of the User Group they are involved with. If you'd like to get involved in newsletter drafting (see March's!), social media management, or event coordination, feel free to add a marker next to your name.

We are a new organization and there are plenty of directions for us to pursue. If you have any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions for the organization, don't hesitate to open a discussion on our talk page.

Upcoming and Ongoing Events

Offline

February 15, 2017 - Columbus - Women in Computing Edit-a-thon at The Ohio State University
March 3, 2017 - Columbus - Art+Feminism Edit-a-thon 2017 at The Ohio State University
August 9-13, 2017 - Montréal - Wikimania 2017, the annual Wikimedia conference! Scholarships are due very soon on February 20th (submit here). Several Ohio Wikimedians will potentially be carpooling to the event; this will be discussed in more detail closer to the event.

Online

The 50,000 Challenge is an English Wikipedia event organized by WikiProject United States. The aim is to improve or create 50,000 articles related to the United States. There is also a subgoal of 1,000 article improvements for each state - if interested, be sure to sign up to improve articles related to Ohio!

Recent Happenings

This section will typically summarize events and accomplishments within Ohio's Wikimedia community in the last month. Since this is the first newsletter, this section will cover some of the major happenings since October 2016.

October 2016

Three Ohio Wikimedians and Wikipedia Connection members attended and presented at WikiConference North America 2016 in San Diego, October 7 - 10. Kevin Payravi and Maria Rimmel presented on Wikipedia Connection and Wikipedia student organizations at-large (link to presentation), while Addis Wang presented on existing and potential translation efforts on Wikipedia.
United Nations Day Edit-a-thon, hosted by Wikipedia Connection at the Ohio State University: This edit-a-thon brought OSU students together to improve articles related to United Nations programs, history, and Sustainable Development Goals. 10 participants created 3 new articles and improved 15 more.

November 2016

Spanish & Portuguese Edit-A-Thon, hosted by the Department of Spanish and Wikipedia Connection at the Ohio State University: This edit-a-thon brought over 60 Spanish and Portuguese students together to translate articles on Latin American women from Spanish and Portguese into English. In doing so, students improved their Spanish and Portuguese skills for class.
Wikipedia Asian Month Edit-a-thon, hosted by Wikipedia Connection at the Ohio State University: This edit-a-thon focused on improving articles as part of Wikipedia Asian Month.
Wiki Loves Monuments 2016 in the United States has come to a close, as supported and organized in-part by several Ohio Wikimedians. The event resulted in over 11,000 photo uploads, and the winners of the national event can be viewed here. Over 700 photos of historical and cultural sites in Ohio were uploaded, which can be viewed here!

January 2017

Wikimedians James Hare and John Sadowski, longtime Wikipedia editors from San Francisco and D.C., stopped by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health building in Cincinnati to teach employees how to edit.