GLAM/Newsletter/February 2016/Contents/USA report

This Month in GLAM – Volume VI, Issue II, February 2016

USA report

One month, dozens of events: Black History Month, Art+Feminism and more

Black WikiHistory Month

On February 27, 2016, Wikimedia NYC joined with AfroCROWD for a Black Life Matters Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, and on February 6, 2016 with Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for another Black Life Matters Wikipedia Edit-a-thon as a part of the national Black WikiHistory Month.

There were many editations for Black History month, including the 2nd Annual Howard University Edit-a-Thon, and African American Artists 2016.

Experimenting with Objective Revision Scoring at Edit-a-thons

At the February 16, 2016, Smithsonian American Art Museum Edit-a-thon, American University professor Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) experimented with inspecting and evaluating articles of Black artists using the new m:Objective Revision Evaluation Service.

Example output of ORES, predicting a Start class article

Lih worked with students to input a list of 54 Harlem Renaissance artists, curated by the museum for a 2012 exhibition. Students determined whether a biographical article existed in English Wikipedia, and if it had a traditional article rating (ie. whether it was hand-assessed and noted on the Talk page). The students then used the new ORES/Revscore machine learning model, created by Aaron Halfaker and his research team, to note its evaluation - stub, start, C, B, good or featured status. For example, the ORES score for the article Joseph Delaney can be determined with the URL: http://ores.wmflabs.org/scores/enwiki/wp10/706034373/

With all this info, they created a table (with the aid of Magnus Manske's tab2wiki) to give an overall view of the quality of the articles on the artists. The table is sortable by column, so people can rank them by quality, and concentrate on the missing/weakest articles first. At the followup February 20, edit-a-thon, a number of the articles identified in this effort were worked on, such as James Van Der Zee, Joseph Delaney, Frederick J. Brown, Horace Pippin, James A. Porter and Sargent Claude Johnson.

Some observations from this approach to the edit-a-thon:

English Wikipedia's hand-assessed article ratings are looking quite stale. People may be skeptical of whether a machine learning algorithm like ORES can do a decent job of properly assessing articles. However, in just two weeks of experimenting with ORES, it seems to be far more preferable than seeing stub/start/C human-assessed ratings that may be months or years old.
This was a nice alternative edit-a-thon activity compared to straight editing of articles, which can be intimidating for newcomers. It also gives some insight into article coverage in things that may or may not be WikiProjects. This kind of exploratory work can help set up easier low-hanging fruit tasks for the next set of editors, as was seen in the February 20 followup edit-a-thon when others used the list and evaluation matrix as a way to approach the subject.
You cannot go two steps in Wikipedia without hitting YAUMMT - Yet Another Useful Magnus Manske Tool. Maybe Magnus will make a tool to automate all this.

American University students at the Edit-a-thon

Wikipedia Space traveling posters launched

In October 2015 at Wikiconference USA, a banner-based exhibit called Wikipedia Space was launched at the US National Archives and Records Administration to help promote Wikipedia in NARA's new Innovation Hub. One version of the exhibit was designed to stay at NARA, while other traveling versions could be used temporarily at edit-a-thons and for outreach.

On February 20, 2016, the traveling version debuted at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's African American Artists Edit-a-Thon. The five panels explain the origins of Wikipedia, basic editing operations, the basics of Wikimedia Commons, the trustworthiness of content and a description of GLAM initiatives over the years, including case studies of the British Museum, Smithsonian and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Feedback from Smithsonian organizer Ryan Linthicum was positive, saying the posters provided an immediate focal point for attendees as they arrived, and allowed for conversation and mingling with other participants. The full-color vinyl posters, roughly two meters tall and 80cm wide, are supported by a lightweight bamboo X-frame. This allows for easy transport, setup and teardown, with the entire exhibit fitting into two FedEx shipping tubes for delivery. Ideally, two people can setup the five banners quickly, though it is possible with one person as well. The poster set is available for other events or chapters, or a duplicate set can be printed for groups and chapters that expect to use them more often.

The project was initiated by Andrew Lih, and is partially funded by a 2015 Knight Foundation Prototype Grant. Please find more info or leave suggestions at Wikipedia:WikipediaSpace.

Wikipedia Space posters
Andrew Lih, Ryan Linthicum, Jim Hayes
Banner setup at Smithsonian
Banner setup at Smithsonian
Banner setup at Smithsonian
Banner setup at Smithsonian
Banners at the Florida Library Association 2016 conference (credit:Rob Fernandez)
Banner exhibit at the National Archives

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Many events are underway, including Women in the Arts 2016, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

For more events, please see Wikipedia:Meetup/ArtAndFeminism.

TED Wikipedians in Residence

TED, the New York-based organisation behind the TED conference, TED talks, TEDx and more, has appointed Jane Darnell and Andy Mabbett as Wikipedians in Residence.

AAAS Convention

Wiki Education Foundation, the Simons Foundation, and Wikimedia DC teamed to provide demonstrations and an editathon at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual convention, in Washington, D. C.