Southbank Centre and Heather Roche are teaming up to host a Wikipedia edit-a-thon on September 2nd, with the aim of adding more Women Composers to Wikipedia's database. If you're in London, grab your laptop and come and join us at the The Royal Festival Hall, where we'll provide support and socialising for fledgling editors. Or: set your laptop up and participate remotely; we'll be live streaming the event via Facebook and tweeting throughout the day with the hashtag #ComposingWikipedia.
Currently, only 17% of Wikipedia's entries about people are about women and only 10% of Wikipedia's contributing editors are women. Creating a Wikipedia entry is a simple and effective way to raise the profile of a composer. It's also not difficult to do: Wikipedia has become easy to use with a Visual Editor and lots of clear resources.
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Thank you for your interest in #ComposingWikipedia and your support of diversity in new music!
To sign up for this project, sign up here (especially if you'd like to attend one of the live events in London), but please also register using your Wikipedia username (free to make one if you haven't already got one) here:
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Southbank_Centre/ComposingWikipedia?enroll=snjeiryvThis will help us track the progress of everyone who participates, so we can see how much of a dent we make on the day.
The live session will be held at London's Southbank Centre, in the Level 3 Function Room, on Level 3 Blue Side of the Royal Festival Hall. Due to limited capacity of the room, there are morning and afternoon sessions available. We will also have free coffee, tea and snacks on hand to fuel our editing session.
I (Heather Roche) am asking for your e-mail addresses so that I can send you more information for the day (how to select composers, how to avoid double-editing someone else's choice, location information, live streaming information, advice on how to use Wikipedia, etc.), but your data will ONLY be used for this and will be kept safe, secure and won't be sold. This information is only being sent to me (Heather Roche).
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch at
heather.roche@gmail.com 