Grants:Project/Rapid/AWM/Symposium 2019

statusFunded

Rapid Grants

AWM/Symposium 2019

We will hold a women in mathematics edit-a-thon at the 2019 Association for Women in Mathematics Research Symposium. We will expand Wikipedia's coverage of women in mathematics and their accomplishments, and recruit new mathematics subject experts.

targeten.wikipedia

start dateMarch 15

end dateApril 30

budget (USD)$1760

grant typeOrganization

non-profit statusyes

grantee• LittleDart

contact(s)• denise.rangel.tracygmail.com

organization (if applicable)• Association for Women in Mathematics

website (if applicable)• Association for Women in Mathematics

friendly space expectations

ucc

privacystatement

Review your report

We will hold a women in mathematics edit-a-thon at the 2019 Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Research Symposium. This will be the second time an edit-a-thon is held at the symposium. We plan to continue the goals of the previous event which were the expand Wikipedia's representation of women in mathematics and recruit new editors with mathematical expertise.

Project Goal

Recruit new editors

The attendees at the symposium are mathematicians who can provide expertise on articles about math and women in math. This is an opportunity to bring more women onto Wikipedia as editors.

Increase skills for existing editors

Some of our members and attendees have contributed to Wikipedia before, including two Wikipedia Fellows from the Summer 2018 class. However, with so much information about policies and procedures, learning how to edit Wikipedia can be daunting. This event will bring experienced Wikipedians together with novices, creating an opportunity to re-engage new editors with in-person support.

Add or improve content about women in mathematics

This event can help us begin to close the Wikipedia content gender gap by giving AWM members, who are especially interested in representation of women in math, the tools they need to participate in the Wikimedia community. We will be focusing on both biographies for female mathematicians and pages about contributions to mathematics.

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

We will hold an edit-a-thon at Rice University during the 2019 AWM Research Symposium. The previous 2017 Symposium held one as well. The report from that event can be found here.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

The edit-a-thon is promoted on the AWM Research symposium webpage. We plan to promote it on Twitter and Facebook accounts, in particular through the Women in Math and Math Mamas Facebook pages. In addition, we will contact local (to Houston) AWM student chapters to invite them and their faculty members to the event. We also will promote the event at the Symposium before the event takes place.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

The two organizers of this event recently participate in the Wikipedia Fellowships program where they gained experience and guidance in editing Wikipedia. They are currently in contact with Will Kent at wikiedu who is connecting them with other Wikipedia fellows in mathematics. In addition, some past participates of the 2017 Symposium edit-a-thon will be present. We hope to continue to grow this network of editors in the AWM organization.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

Participants will bring their own laptop and there will be internet available to them. Symposium participants are research mathematicians and typically have experience writing about technical subjects and using mark-up languages. We will update and build on the previous edit-a-thon's list of potential articles as well as ones found on the WikiProjects Women in Red. We will provide participants with a template for biographies of women mathematicians, which currently resides on Vitulli's sandbox.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

We will encourage participants to join the WikiProjects Women in Red and Women Scientists to continue adding and improving content on women in mathematics. We hope this event encourages other experienced editors to run their own edit-a-thon at their local university.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

This project is consistent with Women in Red's goals of adding to the content and improving the quality of information about women on Wikipedia, in particular, about women in mathematics.

We are working with Symposium organizers to address concerns raised in the previous project report, namely having a more central location within the conference to encourage casual participants.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

We hope to increase the number of participates and new articles created from the 2017 Symposium edit-a-thon.

1. Number of events:
   • 1
2. Number of participants:
   • 20
3. Number of new editors:
   • 15
4. Number of of articles created or improved:
   • 15
5. Number of repeat participants (for projects that include a series of events)
   • Not applicable

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

The organizers have prior experience creating new Wikipedia articles and improving existing articles through Wikipedia Fellows. They also have the resources of the past AWM symposium, including Marie A. Vitulli's template for creating a biography for women mathematicians. In addition, the AWM and the Rice University math department will arrange meeting space and internet access for participants as part of its Symposium planning. There is also funding available from the AWM for early career mathematicians.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

• Air travel: $1100 Two round trip tickets to Houston, TX for the organizers.
• Hotel: $310 A hotel room for the organizers for two nights.
• Ground Transportation: $150 Transportation to/from airport.
• Food: $200 Coffee and snack for participates.

TOTAL: $1760

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

The Association of Women in Mathematics endorses this project and is working to make this a regular event at the AWM Symposia

 Strong support Too underrated topic. Support. --Marco Ciaramella (talk) 10:01, 6 March 2019 (UTC)