Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

North Carolina Wikipedians

North Carolina Wikipedians (formally North Carolina Triangle Wikipedians) is a statewide Wikimedia user group approved by the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee in May 2015.

Our mission is to:

  • Connect with and educate fellow North Carolinians about the value of Wikimedia projects
  • Increase and improve Wikipedia coverage of currently underrepresented groups (with a scope not limited to North Carolina-related topics)
  • Support the integration of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Commons into K-12 and university instruction
  • Serve as a regional base of organizing, strategizing, and decision-making for the global Wikimedia movement

We're always open to new ideas, new collaborations, and new members. If you’re interested and want to know more, please sign up for our e-mail mailing list.

We hope you'll connect with us soon!

What is a user group? edit

If you think of Wikipedia as solely an online encyclopedia, the idea of a Wikipedia user group can be confusing. (Do they just sit around editing Wikipedia?)

In reality, the power of Wikimedia (the broader term encompassing a variety of Wiki-based projects) is in its people.

Wikimedia is a global movement with a shared set of values, including freedom of speech; free, universal access to knowledge; and community sharing.

The Wikimedia movement is just as much about the people who drive it as it is about the projects it creates.

One of the ways people drive the Wikimedia movement is by organizing into regional user groups and other affiliate groups (e.g. chapters). Organizing in affiliate groups makes it more efficient to do things like make decisions, set strategy, and agree on governance.

It’s also a way we connect regionally in order to collaborate with other Wikimedians all over the globe.

So, our user group, the North Carolina Wikipedians, is a local network of Wikimedians committed to – and helping work toward – the larger, global Wikimedia mission.

What do we do? edit

Our work is both local and global.

On the local side, our work includes outreach and education, sharing our knowledge about the value of Wikimedia projects, and the benefits of participating.

Some examples include:

  • Edit-a-thons – virtual, in-person, or hybrid events where we teach how to edit Wikipedia and work together on an editing theme for a dedicated amount of time. (You can see a list of past local edit-a-thons here.)
  • Classroom instruction sessions – invited lectures or instruction and editing sessions in K-12 or university classrooms
  • Photo projects – crowdsourced campaigns inviting contributions to the Wikimedia Commons, such as NC WikiPix 2022

On the global side, our work includes coordinating with other Wikimedia movement participants on shared governance, decision-making, and strategy setting.

Some examples include:

  • Participating in discussions on governance documents (such as the Universal Code of Conduct)
  • Voting in movement-wide elections
  • Participating in the global Wikimedia Summit, an annual gathering of representatives from all over the world

Who are we? edit

Our group’s active members are a diverse group of people who really, really care about providing free access to accurate information.

Some, but not all of us, have connections to universities across the state, as librarians, faculty, students, and recent alumni.

Some, but not all of us, are editors of Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.

In August of 2022, The Raleigh News & Observer, ran a story about the North Carolina Wikipedians: "How NC Wikipedia Editors Keep the Site Humming," by Brian Gordon. You can read more about us there.

How can you get involved? edit

We always welcome new members, with any level of experience on the Wikimedia projects. The best way to connect with us is by signing up for our e-mail mailing list, where you’ll learn about our monthly meetings.

You don’t need to be a seasoned Wikipedian/Wikimedian to join the user group. People who join tend to be interested in free and open culture, providing widespread access to knowledge, and the value of putting accurate information where people are most likely to seek it.

And you don’t need to join to participate in our activities. You can:

Activities edit

Previous versions of this page included an exhaustive list of our activities. Now that we've been around for a while, that approach is no longer useful or sustainable.

But you can see most of our previous activities by reviewing our annual reports.

And you can find out about upcoming activities by keeping an eye here on this page!

Related edit

  • List of local edit-a-thons – we've organized some, but not all of these
  • WikiProject North Carolina – a project NOT created/maintained by our group consisting of Wikipedia topics related to North Carolina
  • Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Planning Toolkit: Published by the Society of North Carolina Archivists and created by some of this group's members and supporters in 2016, this toolkit provides resources for cultural heritage professionals interested in planning and hosting Wikipedia edit-a-thons. (Note that some of the information may be outdated. Get in touch if you're interested in hosting an edit-a-thon!)

Local Events edit

Check out our local meetup landing page for information about upcoming edit-a-thons and other events and activities.

And see the general Scheduled Future Meetups page to find area events that should be shared with our group.

2023 edit

2021 edit

2020 edit

2019 edit

2018 edit

2017 edit

2016 edit

Reports edit

Participants and Supporters edit

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