International Mountain Conference

Wikipedia is fast becoming the public’s go-to ‘first stop shop’ for information, with many articles receiving thousands of views a day. As such, contributing to Wikipedia articles is an opportunity for highlighting the importance of mountains in the different topic areas in which we work, both through editing existing articles and creating new ones. This interactive session will: present the benefits of contributing to Wikipedia as a way of raising awareness of issues and communicating scientific research; explore existing gaps and entry-points for improving mountain- and climate-related articles in Wikipedia; and demonstrate how to get started as a Wikipedia editor. The session will include a segment for participants to start editing relevant Wikipedia articles with some easy edits (using pre-prepared materials). This session is open to everyone interested in using this exciting, readily available and impactful communication channel for highlighting existing and emerging topics and research. We will also discuss next steps as a community of mountain-experts who are editing Wikipedia articles.

• 18:30 – Welcome and session introduction
• 18:35 – Introductory presentations and questions
  • How we have used Wikipedia for communicating the SDGs
  • How you can use Wikipedia for communicating your work (and why you should!)
• 18:50 – Practical on starting your journey as a Wikipedia editor
• 19:05 – Presentation: Making your first edits
• 19:10 – Practical on making edits (individual or team based)
• 19:25 – Presentation: Connecting knowledge and interacting with other editors
• 19:30 – Practical on connecting articles, using talk pages and more
• 19:45 – Plenary discussion: next steps as a community of mountain editors
• 20:00 – Close

(Timings are approximate)