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The WikiGap Challenge is a writing competition aimed at improving the coverage of people identifying as women on Wikipedia. It runs from March 8th to April 8th, 2019. It is an opportunity for you to keep the participants in your event engaged after the event has finished – and hopefully for a long time to come. The first prize is a scholarship for Wikimania, the main annual conference of the Wikimedia movement (August 14th–18th, 2019 in Stockholm) and a personal diploma signed by the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Improve Wikipedia and take part in Wikimania
The winner will be awarded a scholarship to travel to Stockholm and attend Wikimania, an international conference of the Wikimedia movement. This year, the theme of the conference is Strengthening Each Other: Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals, and the focus will be on our role in building sustainable societies – a goal that cannot be achieved without a concerted effort to eradicate gender inequalities.
The conference is a great opportunity to get an introduction to the Wikimedia movement and meet people involved in all of its aspects, from article writing to strategic planning. Among the many planned activities, there will be a meetup for WikiGap volunteers and staff to look back at what we have achieved and discuss the future of our initiative.
What can I do to help my participants enter the Challenge?
Prepare a list of articles you think need special attention
All articles about women, in any language, whether you write or add appropriate images, make you earn points in the challenge. Additionally, the organizers of WikiGap events around the world have prepared a list of articles that need particular attention, which will earn you extra points.
Can you think of any women who are important to your local community and deserve to be better described on Wikipedia?
You can e-mail the suggestion list to mia.jacobsson@wikimedia.se, with CC to info@wikimedia.se.
Invite participants
Invite only people who have experience editing Wikipedia. This includes people who have participated in this or the previous year's event, or people who registered a Wikipedia account and made productive edits before March 8th. We prefer not to have inexperienced people start editing without preparation in order to win the prizes. This could risk damaging Wikipedia and anger the Wikipedia communities due to low quality of the edits. We also believe that the main prize is mostly interesting for people who already have a connection to Wikipedia or its sister projects.
Put your event in a context
Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Wikipedia. Those who continue editing after today's event will be joining a global community of like-minded volunteers who make the world's fifth most read website possible. While helping the world learn about women’s achievements, they will improve their research and writing skills, as well as get an opportunity to cooperate with other editors around the world. And the main prize, a scholarship for Wikimania in Stockholm, is a unique chance to learn more about the Wikimedia movement.
We have prepared an informational handout for those interested in the Challenge. You can also find all the information on the website: http://bit.ly/WikiGap_Challenge.
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