This post is written by new Assistant Wikimedian in Residence, Ellie Whitehead. 23 years ago, on 15th January 2001, Wikipedia was launched as an independent, online open-source encyclopaedia. In its first year it amassed 20, 000 articles appearing in 18 different languages. Since then, Wikipedia has grown to be an internationally known and respected symbol […]
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We know that many students are involved in activities alongside their studies such as volunteering, part-time work, and getting involved in the University community. To help these activities to stand out from the crowd, our University has a new Award for “Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia” to sit beside other available Edinburgh Awards– the Edinburgh Award […]
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Three students co-authored an application to take part in a Student Experience Grant project over a 14-week time period, learning how to edit Wikipedia and how to fill in diversity gaps on the website: Eleanor– PhD Student researching LGBTQ+ History. Sian – PhD student researching Black History. Kirsty – Undergraduate student researching Gender History. Each […]
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One of the aspects that had initially attracted me to the role was the importance of openly licensed, accessible resources […]
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Reading Time: 3 minutes This blog is cross-posted from the ISG Student Employee Blog. Programme of Study and Year: MA Fine Art, Year […]
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This was a talk presented at the LILAC 2022 Information Literacy Conference held at Manchester Metropolitan University on 11-13 April 2022. The slides will be uploaded shortly. 0) Intro slide: Video of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Wikipedia page being edited. Anyone can click “Edit” on any page on Wikipedia to improve its open-licensed information with verifiable […]
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I asked LILAC Information Literacy Conference 2022 delegates what their favourite Wikipedia pages were and here’s what they answered: Boris Johnson (It’s not flattering) The Dyatlov Pass incident Dolly Parton Cellar door High five Mary Shelley Loch_Ness_Monster The Sopranos List of Manufacturing processes Disambiguation (disambiguation) List of The Simpsons guest stars Defenestrations of Prague Marxist […]
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Globally, over 7,000 languages are spoken – only around 4% of people are native English speakers. Despite this, English holds the title of the “Language of the internet”. It dominates with Chinese almost 50% of global web traffic with the top ten languages accounting for 76.9 percent of global internet users. The majority of African […]
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A picture I shared on Wikimedia has been given by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a gift to President Joe Biden. Just goes to show that serendipitous things happen when you share openly. President Biden and Dr Biden are visiting the UK this week. In preparation for the visit the Downing Street offices began …
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As LGBT History month draws to a close this month, I wanted to pay tribute to a collaboration brought about through Siobhan Claude at the University of Edinburgh’s Staff Pride Network and my colleague, Lorna Campbell, who suggested telling the history of HIV/AIDS activism and awareness in Scotland on Wikipedia. It seemed inconceivable that Wikipedia …
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