GLAM/Newsletter/January 2019/Contents/Belgium report

This Month in GLAM – Volume IX, Issue I, January 2019

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Belgium report

Public domain day edit-a-thon; Hack The Gender Gap edit-a-thon

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Public domain day edit-a-thon

Logo Public Domain Day 2019

Each year on 1 January we celebrate Public Domain Day. On this day thousands of works of authors that died 70 years ago enter the public domain and can be used in Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia platforms.

To celebrate this day and to be sure public domain authors have an article in Wikipedia, we organised together with the Royal Library of Belgium an edit-a-thon to write about the authors. Based on Wikidata we created an overview of authors that entered the public domain. This formed the basis for articles that are still missing in de Dutch, French or English Wikipedia or can use some expansion.

After the participants arrived, they got a guided tour through the Librarium of the Royal Library. After the tour, we gave an introduction to Wikipedia, introduction to public domain (day), and after that we started editing in the newspaper reading room (Krantenleeszaal/Salle de lecture Journaux). At lunchtime, a fresh made lunch was provided to the participants.

During the edit-a-thon the participants have worked on at least 18 articles related to public domain authors.

Location of edit-a-thon: Krantenleeszaal/Salle de lecture Journaux
Guided tour through Librarium

Hack The Gender Gap edit-a-thon

In October 2018 we organised the Women in Tech edit-a-thon to write about women in the tech industry that are listed in the Forbes list for top 50 women in tech. A lot of them were missing in Wikipedia, will there are in the top of their profession. After the edit-a-thon it was concluded that writing only once about this theme, the impact is limited and we like to have more results. This resulted in the start of the Wiki Club Brussels that organises in the center of Brussels (in BeCentral) every two weeks on Tuesday evening a Wikipedia session for a (stable) group of participants. This works very well and we will continue during 2019.

The organisers of the Wiki Club Brussels received in January 2019 some budget to organise a larger edit-a-thon: the Hack The Gender Gap edit-a-thon. This edit-a-thon was organised on 29 January 2019 in BeCentral where over 70 people participated in it, motivated to come as this was an opportunity to help improve the world a little bit themselves. The edit-a-thon got media attention by some major news networks in both sides of the language border of Belgium.

After a speech by someone from the regional government of Belgium, an introduction was given to all the participants. After the introduction the participants were divided in four groups that started editing in four of the large rooms of BeCentral. Each group was guided by an experienced Wikipedian, supported by two or three helpers so that all questions of participants got answered.

All together it was a good event with great atmosphere, this tasted for more!