WikiGap/Information to organizers

W I K I G A P

2020

Introduction email

Hi all!

As many of you probably know, WikiGap is organized annually around International Women's Day 8 March. It is an initiative aiming to close the gender gap in Wikipedia, and is organized as a cooperation between Wikimedia Sverige, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Swedish embassies and Wikimedia affiliates and volunteers around the world.

It was first organized in March 2018 and now we would like to do it for the third time! We are planning to organize several Wikipedia edit-a-thons around 8 March 2020. The purpose of the edit-a-thons is to create more articles about women, as a way of building a more gender-equal Internet and a more gender-equal world (a manual can be found here).

At this point, we have started the preparations for WikiGap 2020! I have reached out individually to previous organizers, but if there are affiliates or volunteers who haven't taken part in the initiative before but would like to – you still have the chance! Feel free to reach out to me for any questions.

If there are previous organizers who I have missed to contact, feel free to reach out then too! If you have already decided upon a date and started the preparations, please fill in the Events list at Meta. In that way, we know if you are planning an event and can reach out to you with more information.

WikiGap Challenge and Photo Exhibition

As last year, we will also initiate a WikiGap Challenge, encouraging article creation on women throughout the Spring. Last year, the winner Andriy Hrytsenko, from Ukrainian Wikipedia, got a Wikimania scholarship as a reward. The Challenge will be online and coordinated on Meta, as last year.

For the first time this year, we are aiming to produce a photo exhibition, in digital and physical form, to highlight several of the great articles that have been written. Reach out to us if you have interest in hosting it! Our preliminary idea is to produce it with A4 photos to print and text in two languages, the original and English, besides.

2019

Information about the campaign to people who did not organize a WikiGap event during 2018

WikiGap 8 March 2019 WikiGap is an initiative taken to close the gender gap and other gaps relevant for diversity of Wikipedia. The initiative is made possible by a cooperation between Wikimedia Sverige, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Swedish embassies and Wikimedia affiliates, volunteers and local organizations around the world. WikiGap was first organized in March 2018 and now we would like to do it again. We are planning to organize several Wikipedia edit-a-thons during 8 March 2019. The purpose of the edit-a-thons is to create more articles about women to achieve a more gender-equal Internet – and a more gender-equal world and by doing so reduce the gender gap a bit.

The 8 March is just the starting point of the campaign. If the embassy, your local partner and you finds a better date to cooperate and implement a WikiGap event during 2019 then that also works.

Main page on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap

The background to WikiGap 2019 The initiative started in March 2017 with a sister edit-a-thon in four languages between the Swedish embassy in New Delhi and Stockholm https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India-Sweden_edit-a-thon.

During 2017 the Swedish embassies in Pretoria and Washington DC also successfully hosted Wikipedia edit-a-thons with Wikimedia chapters. In 2018 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to increase outreach and the number of partnering Wikimedia affiliates and we decided to implement WikiGap 2018 together.

Together with the Ministry we have developed a toolkit for how embassies should organise Wikipedia edit-a-thons, and they are committed to surfacing the achievements of women in the world’s largest encyclopedia, in partnership with Wikimedia affiliates and other local organisations.

Changes from previous year This year we’re also going to have an online-competition which is called the WikiGap Challenge during the first month of WikiGap.

The WikiGap Challenge is an attempt to connect the individual events with each other. It is also a possibility for the organizing Wikimedia organizations and volunteers to highlight important women from their context that they believe deserve articles on multiple languages.

More information about the contest will be shared with local organizers shortly and on the WikiGap Campaign portal on Meta.

How you can join? The WikiGap invites broad and diverse participation, just like last year, and allows for local adaptations to the theme. If you think that you have an interest in taking part of WikiGap but have any questions about the implementation you can either contact the Swedish embassy in your country, they have all the material that you need to make this event a success, or you can send me a question – I’m more than happy to help you sort out some question marks.I will be out of office February 25 to March 4 so please send a copy of your request to info@wikimedia.se and someone at the office will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you don’t think that you will be the main organizer of WikiGap in your country or if you are a part of a larger team, I, as part of coordinating the WikiGap, would like you to please help share this information with the right individuals.

Are you interested in taking part of WikiGap 2019? Please send me an email to confirm your interest. At the WikiGap portal on Meta you can find a list of WikiGap events. Use this space to find events and share details of your own WikiGap event, such as user name of the organizer(s), your local theme and if you’re merging the event with other wiki initiatives.

Here you will find some more information about WikiGap: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap/Events

Join WikiGap on Programs & Events Dashboard to show impact We also have a WikiGap campaign 2019 up on Programs & Events dashboard to facilitate running and keeping track of all events on various language version. Please go in there and register your event as soon as possible.

Please help us spread the word about WikiGap.

Best Regards,

Mia Jacobsson Wikimedia Sverige Coordinator for WikiGap 2019

Information about the campaign to people who organized a WikiGap event during 2018

WikiGap 8 March 2019

Are you interested in taking part of WikiGap again? Please send me an email to confirm your interest. WikiGap is, as you know, an initiative taken to close the gender gap and other gaps relevant for diversity of Wikipedia. The initiative is made possible by a cooperation between Wikimedia Sverige, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Swedish embassies and Wikimedia affiliates, volunteers and local organizations around the world. Together with all of you, WikiGap was first organized in March 2018 and now we would like to do it again. We are planning to organize several Wikipedia edit-a-thons during 8 March 2019. The purpose of the edit-a-thons is to create more articles about women to achieve a more gender-equal Internet - and a more gender-equal world and by doing so reduce the gender gap a bit.

The 8 March is just the starting point of the campaign. If the embassy and you finds a better date to cooperate and implement a WikiGap event during 2019 then that also works. Main page on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap

Changes from previous year This year we’re also going to have an online-competition during the first month of WikiGap. We are in the process of developing the WikiGap Challenge and we will send you more information shortly about how you can contribute to make it a success.

How you can join? The WikiGap invites broad and diverse participation, just like last year, and allows for local adaptations to the theme. If you think that you have an interest in taking part of WikiGap but have any questions about the implementation you can either contact the Swedish embassy in your country, they have all the material that you need to make this event a success, or you can send me a question – I’m more than happy to help you sort out some question marks.

If you don’t think that you will be the main organizer of WikiGap in your country or if you are a part of a larger team, I, as part of coordinating the WikiGap, would like you to please help share this information with the right individuals.

Share your WikiGap event At the WikiGap portal on Meta you can find a list of WikiGap events. Use this space to find events and share details of your own WikiGap event, such as user name of the organizer(s), your local theme and if you’re merging the event with other wiki initiatives.

Here you will find some more information about WikiGap: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap/Events

Join WikiGap on Programs & Events Dashboard to show impact During 2018 we had a WikiGap campaign up on Programs & Events Dashboard to facilitate running and keeping track of all the events on various language versions. Of course we are going to create a new one this year and we will return with more information about this during next week.

Best Regards, Mia Jacobsson, Wikimedia Sverige, Coordinator for WikiGap 2019

A reminder to the organizer of a WikiGap event during 2019

Subject: Updates for WikiGap organizers

Hi fellow Wikimedians involved in WikiGap 2019, I hope plans for the many WikiGap events are going well. As part of coordinating the WikiGap campaign with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I’d like to share some updates with all local organizers on how you can find support in the portal pages on meta. If you are not the main organizer of WikiGap in your country or part of a larger team, please help share this with the right individuals.

Share your WikiGap event The WikiGap portal on meta has a list of WikiGap events around the world, but some events are still missing from this list. Use this space to find events and share details of your own WikiGap event, such as user name of the organizer(s), your local theme and if you’re merging the event with other wiki initiatives.

Join WikiGap on Programs & Events Dashboard to show impact There is now a WikiGap campaign up on Programs & Events Dashboard to facilitate running and keeping track of all the events on various language versions. To join the campaign, create a program for your local event, which will add all your activities to the WikiGap campaign. Set your program page on the homewiki and add a description in your language. Participants can enroll by clicking on the shared enroll link. Find out more about the Programs & Events Dashboard here and reach out to me if you want to know more about creating your program page on Dashboard, I’m more than happy to help you out with this.

Please make sure that all participants enroll on your event page on Programs & Event Dashboard.

Changes from previous year This year we’re also going to have an online-competition which is called the WikiGap Challenge during the first month of WikiGap.

The WikiGap Challenge is an attempt to connect the individual events with each other. It is also a possibility for the organizing Wikimedia organizations and volunteers to highlight important women from their context that they believe deserve articles on multiple languages.

To make this competition as good as possibly we’re now, if you are going to organize an event, asking for your help. Could you please add 10 women to the list over articles to work with. The more suggestions we get the broader and better the result will be. Please read more about the competition here. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap_Challenge

If you are going to participate in WikiGap but have questions about the implementation you can either contact the Swedish embassy in your country, they have all the material that you need to make this event a success, or you can send me a question – I’m more than happy to help you sort out some question marks. I will be out of office February 25 to March 4 so please send a copy of your request to info@wikimedia.se and someone at the office will get back to you as soon as possible.

Best Regards, Mia Jacobsson, Coordinator for WikiGap 2019

2018

Information about WikiGap sent in December 2017

WikiGap 8 March 2018 Sweden has a feminist foreign policy (http://www.government.se/government-policy/feminist-foreign-policy/) and as part of this, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to organise several Wikipedia edit-a-thons during 8 March 2018 around the world in partnership between Swedish embassies and local Wikimedia affiliates and volunteers. The government has developed a tool kit for how embassies should organise Wikipedia edit-a-thons, and they are committed to surfacing the achievements of women in the world’s largest encyclopedia, in partnership with Wikimedia affiliates and other local organisations.

Pilot of edit-a-thons at Swedish embassies The initiative started in March 2017 with a sister edit-a-thon in four languages between the Swedish embassy in New Delhi and Stockholm https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India-Sweden_edit-a-thon. The Swedish embassies in Pretoria and Washington DC have since then also successfully hosted Wikipedia edit-a-thons with Wikimedia chapters. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs now wishes to increase outreach and the number of partnering Wikimedia affiliates for 2018.

How you can join The campaign in March 2018 will take the name #WikiGap and invites broad and diverse participation, and allows for local adaptations to the theme. There will also be a main event in Sweden with participation from the Swedish minister for foreign affairs Margot Wahlström, organised by the Ministry and Wikimedia Sverige.

In December 2017, Wikimedia Sverige started reaching out to affiliates about WikiGap and partnering with the Swedish embassy in their country.

Page on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap

Information about WikiGap International sent in February 2018

Subject: Updates for WikiGap organizers

Hi fellow Wikimedians involved in WikiGap 2018,

I hope plans for the many WikiGap events are going well. As part of coordinating the WikiGap campaign with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I’d like to share some updates with all local organizers on how you can find support in the portal pages on meta. If you are not the main organizer of WikiGap in your country or part of a larger team, please help share this with the right individuals.

Share your WikiGap event The WikiGap portal on meta has a list of WikiGap events around the world, but some events are still missing from this list. Use this space to find events and share details of your own WikiGap event, such as user name of the organizer(s), your local theme and if you’re merging the event with other wiki initiatives.

Join WikiGap on Programs & Events Dashboard to show impact There is now a WikiGap campaign up on Programs & Events Dashboard to facilitate running and keeping track of all the events on various language versions. To join the campaign, create a program for your local event, which will add all your activities to the WikiGap campaign. Set your program page on the homewiki and add a description in your language. Participants can enroll by clicking on the shared enroll link. Find out more about the Programs & Events Dashboard here and reach out to me if you want to know more about creating your program page on Dashboard, I’m more than happy to help you out with this.

Please make sure that all participants enroll on your event page on Programs & Event Dashboard.

Your documentation means the world When you share posts and photos in social media, please use hashtag #WikiGap so that other organizers can see and celebrate your activities. Include other localized hashtags fitting for your event. Add photos on Wikimedia Commons to your own event categories under Category:WikiGap.

You can also add to the documentation page for WikiGap https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiGap/Documentation.

Do you need the logo for your Swedish embassy? Let me know if you need the logo for the Swedish embassy in your city, like this one https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Embassy_of_Sweden.jpg, and I can send a file to you.

Best Regards, Sara Mörtsell, Coordinator for WikiGap 2018