Wikipedia:WLL at Harvard

WLL at Harvard is a page to coordinate Wikipedia Loves Libraries events at Harvard University. An "Intro to Wikipedia" event will be held at Harvard's Lamont Library on November 17, 2011.

The page on the Harvard Library site reviewing the event (including a recording) is available.

Mailing list

A mailing list has been created to discuss collaboration between the Harvard and Wikipedia communities. The Harvard-side organization is happening there. The mailing list is public and can be subscribed to here.

Intro Event

This event targets members of the Harvard community who are interested in Wikipedia but who don't know how it works behind the scenes. Someone who understands Wikipedia's inner-workings is better equipped to use Wikipedia as a reference than someone who doesn't. On the flip-side, Wikipedia benefits from reaching out to academic communities and breaking down the barriers that prevent members of these communities from contributing to Wikipedia. Thus this event.

The format of the event:

• Begins at 4pm on Thursday November 17, 2011
• Located in Harvard's Lamont Library: Directions at Harvard's website
• The schedule:
  • 3:30 pm, location TBD: Reception. A chance to chat with members of Harvard's library community before things get rolling.
  • 4:00 pm, Forum Room: Intro to Wikipedia talk. Details below.
  • 4:45 pm, Forum Room: Q&A. Pizza is served, sponsored by Harvard Libraries
  • 5:30 pm, Room B30: Editing workshop. Details below.

Attending (you should attend!)

The event is targeting people who are not yet Wikipedians. But experienced Wikipedians should come bring their passion. The editing workshop, in particular, will be a chance for Wikipedians to share their knowledge, chat with attendees, and hang out with each other. Wikipedians who attend are coming as volunteers rather than attendees!

The event is held in a Harvard library that typically requires a Harvard ID to enter. To attend, contact User:Canderson7 with your full name so that he can give a guest-list to the library staff. You will be asked for photo ID when you arrive at the library. Yes, this probably goes against the spirit of a Wikipedia event. But the goal is to meet the Harvard community "where it's at". If you have objections but want to attend, then please say so.

If you're a Wikipedian who is coming, you can RSVP on the wiki. RSVP-list:

• User:Canderson7

There is also an Eventbrite page for the event: [1].

The intro talk

This will be held in the Lamont Forum room. The goal is to give a succinct picture of how Wikipedia works behind-the-scenes: to convey Wikipedia's editing mechanisms, principles, and community structure. The talk will be given by User:Canderson7 who will post his outline, slides, etc. to this page as he develops them. The topics that have been proposed and are being advertised within Harvard are:

• Everything you need to know to edit Wikipedia in 5 minutes
• An overview of the culture and 'governance' of Wikipedia
• How Wikipedia handles external sources (citing sources, "reliable sources" policy, etc.)
• Wikipedia's content inclusion policies (why some content gets deleted)
• How academic communities can use their resources to improve Wikipedia

The editing workshop

This will take place in the Lamont "Collaborative Learning Space": it's a great room with lots of tables and power. Ideal for hosting many laptop users. The idea is for people to take a stab at improving Wikipedia articles while experienced Wikipedians are hanging around to offer guidance. To give someone something to dig their teeth into, we should make a list (pulled from Category:Wikipedia backlog) of pages that can be improved using resources in Lamont Library. That list will be assembled here.

Note that there is no food allowed in the room that hosts the workshop, so attendees shouldn't plan to eat dinner while editing (even though it would probably improve your score on the Wikipediholism test).