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GLAM/Newsletter/March 2024/Contents/New Zealand report

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New Zealand report

Update on Wikidata:WikiProject Te Papa research expeditions and the Wikipedian at Large

Update on WikiProject Te Papa research expeditions

This 12 week project is now a third of the way complete. Multiple Wikidata items for research expeditions related to the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa have been created and more are likely to be brought into being after Ambrosia10 has completed interviews with interested staff. The work being undertaken during this project continues to inform and improve the WikiProject Research Expedition Wikidata schema for research expeditions and will, in turn, feed into the best practice documentation currently being worked on by the Biodiversity Information Standards Association (TDWG) research expeditions working group. At the end of the project it is intended that documentation will be produced to report back on the challenges and successes of the project and to give guidance to other natural history institutions on how to replicate this type of project. Planning is also underway to provide at least one, possibly two, Wikipedia editathons to be held at Te Papa on Te Papa research expeditions. It is intended that editathon attendees will create or improve articles on the research expeditions, their participants, locations visited, specimens collected and species described as a result of those collections.

Aotearoa Wikipedian at Large

We had our first official meetup in Christchurch, New Zealand this year, the beginning of a monthly series in the central library Tūranga. Edit-a-thons are also being planned: the first will be on May 18th in the Christchurch Art Gallery, focussed on the Ink on Paper exhibition artists and works. Collaboration with the Biology Department of the University of Canterbury to release historic photos of the Cass area is ongoing, and in April collaborations begin with Christchurch Libraries and the Canterbury Museum entomology collection. The Critter of the Week project was reorganised after an online meeting of volunteers with the creation of a list of weekly tasks. Giantflightlessbirds presented at Auckland Wikicon on 24 March on "How to be a Wikipedian in Residence/at Large" (slides). He also gave a presentation to the Entomological Society of New Zealand on entomology and Wikipedia, which turned out to be relevant to the next item.

Titanomis sisyrota photographed by Pav Johnsson on the balcony of the South Sea Hotel, Oban, March 2024

A front-page New Zealand news story in March was the rediscovery after 65 years of the moth known as the Frosted Phoenix (Titanomis sisyrota) by a Swedish tourist in Stewart Island / Rakiura. After uploading his photographs to iNaturalist on returning home, the unidentified large moth was confirmed as T. sisyrota by a New Zealand lepidopterist, and garnered newspaper and TV coverage. Giantflightlessbirds contacted the photographer and (after explaining copyright law, Creative Commons, and iNaturalist's incompatible default settings), convinced him to change his photo license so the image could be used on the moth's Wikipedia page. This is the beginning of an education project working with iNaturalist NZ to show citizen scientists the advantages of using a truly open licence.


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