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Women in Science Oxford Editathon: Ada Lovelace Day 2013

About the Event

The University of Oxford’s IT Services and Bodleian Libraries organised an editathon focused on women in science to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day on 15 October 2013. The editathon took place at IT Services on Banbury Road, Oxford, and included some basic training by Martin Poulter, the Jisc Wikimedian Ambassador supported by Jisc and Wikimedia UK.

Ada Lovelace is widely held to have been the first computer programmer, and Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire. This international day of celebration helps people learn about the achievements of women in STEM, inspiring others and creating new role models for young and old alike.

This Wikipedia editathon celebrated the spirit of Ada Lovelace Day by helping people learn about the contribution of individual women to the world of science, with the aim to add to and improve the coverage of individuals, events and resources related to women in science.

Our idea for the event was: 'Come along to learn about how Wikipedia works and contribute a greater understanding of the role of women in science!'

  • Date: 2-5pm, Tuesday 15 October 2013
  • Venue: IT Services, University of Oxford (directions)
  • Participants: All were welcome! The event was open to anyone who wishes to help preserve women’s science history. No Wiki editing experience was necessary, female editors particularly encouraged to attend.
  • Registration: was captured at http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/detail/TWOE.
  • Cost: Free!
  • More info: http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/.

On the day

We were based in a computer lab, wifi also available.

Approximate Timetable

  • 1.50-2.00pm Registration, housekeeping
  • 2.00-2.15pm Introduction by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and welcome to IT Services, Professor Anne Trefethen, Head of IT Services
  • 2.15pm Introduction from Martin Poulter and team
  • 2.30pm-4.30pm Edit, research, basic training
  • 4.30pm-4.40pm Summary and closedown
  • 4.40pm-5.00pm Cake and refreshments

Participants

All apart from one were female.

Most participants (around 18 or so) had not edited Wikipedia before the event. A few (again around 3 or 4) had already made a few edits prior or were involved in open culture (two people were from Europeana so knew about CC licensing, etc).

Trainers

For preparation

Wikipedia:TutorialHelp:Editing - traditional wiki mark up help • Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide - new Visual Editor help

Suggestions for editing

The following was a small sample of topics and women to work on that we presented to the participants. Our suggestions for improvements were: Making sure reference links are still appropriate and functional; Adding new inline citations/references; Adding a photo; Adding an infobox; Adding data to more fields in an existing infobox; Creating headings; Adding categories; etc.

Articles needing creation
Articles for expansion and/or cleanup

Plenty of opportunity for new articles and expansion at List of female Fellows of the Royal Society. As of 6 October 2013, there were 15 Fellows and 3 foreign members without articles.

Tools

Outcomes

Coverage

Articles created

Biographies improved

Evaluation

See wmuk:File:Ada_Lovelace_Day_2013_15_10_13_Melissa_Highton.pdf (PDF of participant survey carried out by Oxford University IT Services)

Women in STEM resources

  • variety of reference books, access to some University of Oxford e-resources, including the Dictionary of National Biography.
  • selection of Women in Science podcasts [1]
  • Some of these women's papers are in the Bodleian Library - Bodleian Reader's Card needed (see Bodleian Admissions for information).

Note: Wikipedia pages that include lists of important women are all missing plenty of key people, so feel free to add to those lists

Lists on Wikipedia
External resources

Last year, a similar event in Oxford attracted contributions to expand or improve Mary Somerville, Bertha Swirles, The Million Women Study, Cynthia Longfield, Thekla Resvoll, Sydney Mary Thompson, Edith Bülbring, Marthe Vogt, Ida Mann, Joyce Lambert, Rosalind Pitt-Rivers, and June Almeida, and create Julia Bodmer.