What Wikipedia Means for Researchers

Wikipedia explained.

Do you use Wikipedia? It is a major source for most researchers so it is important to understand how articles are created by volunteers, how vandalism is corrected, and how to assess an article's reliability and edit history.

New Zealand’s first Wikipedian-at-large Dr Mike Dickison will cover all of these topics in an introduction suitable for newcomers to Wikipedia, and those who use it every day.

Wikipedia is the number-one source of information for most people today. Anyone involved in communicating with the public needs to take Wikipedia seriously, understand how articles are created by volunteers, how vandalism is corrected, and how to assess an article's reliability and edit history.

Correcting errors on Wikipedia
It's our responsibility to correct mistakes in Wikipedia, cite references correctly for every fact, and improve the coverage of New Zealand people and places. Historical researchers serious about reaching an audience should consider improving Wikipedia before they plan any other kind of publication.

Mike will cover all of these topics in an introduction suitable for newcomers to Wikipedia, and those who use it every day.

About the speaker
Dr Mike Dickison is New Zealand’s first Wikipedian-at-Large. With support from the Wikimedia Foundation he is spending a year is in organisations ranging from museums to nature reserves, from Northland to Invercargill, training staff and helping them use their expertise to improve Wikipedia and make images, text, and video freely usable by the public.

During January & February 2019 he is Wikipedian-in-Residence at the National Library. Mike has a full programme of edit-a-thons and talks for the public, staff and sector colleagues, and the Wikipedia volunteer community.