Black History Month Crowdsourcing Event – Edit Wikipedia

Women in Red (WiR) is dedicated to addressing the gender gap in wikipedia entries, turning red links to blue. (Only 17.78% of the English Wikipedia’s biographies are about women). In February 2019, Women in Red is focusing on black women in conjunction with Black History Month. We hope both inexperienced and seasoned editors will join us in creating biographies and other articles about black women, as well as their achievements, writings, organizations, and awards. This virtual editathon allows enthusiasts from around the globe to participate in our initiative.

Register

Before you start editing, make sure you sign up for a Wikipedia account. (From Wikipedia homepage, click “Create account” in upper right).

How to Edit Wikipedia: WikiProject Women in Red

Finding a Topic

1. Navigate to the Wikipedia: WikiProject Women in Red page highlighting the Black Women | February 2019 initiative.
2.  If you’ve never edited before, you may benefit from the essay on creating women’s biographies or Wikipedia’s Ten Simple Rules for first first-time editors.
3. Scroll down to the “Redlists” and select a topic of interest to you. This month’s topics include:
   1. Black women in the visual arts (created automatically from Wikidata)
   2. Black history (crowd sourced list)
   3. Black women in the US (crowd sourced list)
   4. Indigenous black women in Australia (crowd sourced list)
4. Once you’ve selected a topic, select an entry you would either like to edit or create from the list of names provided. Blue names signify pre-existing entries you may help edit, and red names denote women who still need Wikipedia entries created in their honor.

   Help Edit Existing Wikipedia Entries

   • For newer editors, you may want to select a pre-existing entry you can help edit by providing citations, images, and other content. These entries will include suggestions on how its quality might be improved, which include:
   • Editing and Adding Content. Simply click “Edit” on the top right toolbar, or next to the heading of the paragraph you wish to edit and add content to the entry in the appropriate space.

   

   

   • Providing Citations. If an entry includes the phrase “citation needed,” you can help edit by finding a valid citation to verify the statement cited.
   • Adding Images. You may also search Wikimedia Commons or other reputable sources to provide an image for the entry.
   • Save Your Work. When you are done with you edits, click “Publish Changes” on the top right side of the toolbar.

   Create a New Article

   • First, review this guide to writing your first article. 
   • Then select a red name from the list and start gathering research for your entry. Use the guidelines in the creating women’s biographies resource for help. For best practices, a biography page should include a lede (short introduction), followed by a biographical section and references. You may find it useful to organize your entry in a word document until you are ready to post.
   • When you are ready to set up your page, go to the “Wikipedia Article Wizard” and start the process by entering your draft name.
   • Click through and set up your entry. Click “Publish Page” when complete.