GLAM/Newsletter/July 2024/Contents/New Zealand report
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WikiProject International Botanical Congress 2024, a presentation to the Natural History Museum, London & Kew Gardens staff and a Research expeditions edit-a-thon
Recently two New Zealand editors Ambrosia10 and Stitchbird2, as well as their two Wikidata WikiProject collaborators S.v.Mering and JoaquimSantos78, attended the International Botanical Congress in Madrid. The group successfully delivered a Wikidata workshop at the Congress to 22 new and emerging Wikidata editors, presented a Wikidata related presentation on a research into women after who flowering plant genera have been named and presented a poster on the benefits to botanists in engaging more with Wikidata.
This poster generated much interest during the conference and led to two editors of the prestigious botany journal the Annals of Botany inviting the group to submit a paper on the benefits of Wikidata to that journal. A digital copy of the Wikidata poster has been uploaded into Wikimedia Commons and can be found at this link.
The informal engagement efforts by the Wikidata WikiProject IBC organisers were assisted by bookmarks created by the ground and funded by Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand. Organisers were able to hand out the bookmarks which contained a QR code to the project page which contained a copy of not only the Wikidata poster but also contained links to help interested attendees begin their Wikidata editing journey.
During the run up to the Congress the organisers of the project attempted to "wikify" the conference with their efforts covered by a German publication. While at the Congress these efforts continued with the organisers taking photos of notable botanists and creating and enriching Wikidata items for the same.
Wikidata Presentation to the Natural History Museum, London and Kew Gardens
Ambrosia10, while in London prior to attending Wikimania, had the opportunity to give a Wikidata presentation to both the Natural History Museum, London and Kew Gardens staff on the benefits of engaging with Wikidata. This presentation was well attended with approximately 30 staff present in the lecture room and 70 staff attending virtually. A recording was also made of the presentation to share with staff who were unable to be present on the day. The slides and script of the presentation can be found at this link.
Research expeditions edit-a-thon at Te Papa
Following up on Ambrosia10's work as Wikipedian in Residence earlier this year, Te Papa hosted a public edit-a-thon using the material she'd collated on research expeditions.
The topic let participants work on the expeditions or dive deep into species, people, locations, ships - wherever their interests took them.
13 editors ranging from old hands to almost-newbies got an amazing amount done in just 6 hours, including 570 edits to 121 articles, 45 brand new articles, and 692 added references.
Some of the feedback:
"It was great to meet others and to learn more technical things about adding Wikipedia pages on species - that was very useful to me, and will definitely come in handy in the future."
"I was surprised how invested I became in the 1908 Expedition to the Kermadec Islands by five NZ scientists. From knowing absolutely nothing about them, I sort of felt like I was a great nephew (or similar relation), bringing back to life the contributions they made to our understanding of New Zealand's wider ecosystems."
"I came along up to the Wikimedia Editathon on Research Expeditions without very much interest in the topic. By the end of the day, though, I was hooked. I spent the day researching and writing about an early 20th-century expedition in collaboration with someone I'd never met before."
