Magicpedia:All Things Magic Edit-a-thon 2013

A MagicPedia/Wikipedia Edit-a-thon proposal concentrating on a range of topics around magic history, inspired from reading the Washington Post article on the Washington DC edit-a-thon.

Proposal: Hold an "edit-a-thon" in 2013 at the Conjuring Arts Research Center's (CARC) library in New York City, and virtually around the world, with the goal to help assimilate MagicPedia's content (which is geared toward magicians) into Wikipedia (and vice versa). This is similar to Lee Asher's proposal to Wikipedia's WikiProject Magic back in 2008 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Leeasher#Original_Letter_to_Project_Magic ), but will now encourage a broader participation from all levels of Wikipedia users and magic history enthusiasts.

Overview

An edit-a-thon is an event in which people work together in person to build content on a wiki. They can be very informal or very structured and designed as a primarily outreach event (to draw in new contributors) or to meet the needs of longtime contributors.

Other example edit-a-thons: DC History, DC Civil War, Wiki loves Humanities, Topeka Wikipedia Day

More information:

• http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries
• http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Model_projects/Library_Edit-a-thons
• http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/theater/editing-wikipedia-at-the-new-york-public-library-for-the-performing-arts.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_run_an_edit-a-thon
• http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Introductory_edit-a-thons
• https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/23/lets-throw-more-wikipedia-editing-parties/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/New_York

Suggested tasks

• Create articles on notable magicians on MagicPedia not yet on Wikipedia
  • List of good candidates (where we left off last time) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Leeasher#Articles_I.27m_going_to_start
• Flesh out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Magic_%28illusion%29_stubs
• See if all the Genii covers on MagicPedia can be used on Wikipedia. It has lots of images of magicians we can use.
• Synchronize all the current Wikipedia articles being used in MagicPedia: Category:Reused_content_from_Wikimedia_projects
• Check for other topics requested on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Magic
• Improve and help organize the magic related categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Magic_%28illusion%29
• Suggest other ideas!:
  • ?

Proposed dates

• Will need quite a few months to prepare and advertise, so earliest chance would be in July.
• Black out dates
  • July 17-20 (IBM conv)
  • August 11-14 (Magic Live)
  • August 27 through September 3rd (Sorcerers Safari Magic Camp)
• July 27 (Sat)
• Aug 3 (Sat)
• Oct 26 (usually the beginning of "magic week")

Post on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup

Proposed places

• CARC is willing to host at their Library in NYC!
• Virtually join with others, via google hangouts, via skype

Proposed event names

• MagicPedia/Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
• Anything better? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_run_an_edit-a-thon#List_of_edit-a-thons)
  • Wiki Loves Magic or Wiki Loves Conjurors? (like http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries ,wikipedia-loves-humanities , Wiki Loves Sound, Wiki Loves Monuments)
  • Teach Wiki about Magicians

Logo/poster?

• An example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WIKILPA.jpg

Places to start advertising to magicians

• Post on forums
  • Genii
  • Magic Cafe
  • Theory11
  • Penguin Magic
  • Ellusionist
  • The Pebble (Lance Piece Forum)
  • LearnMagic.Org
  • Virtual Magie (French)
  • Singapore Magic Circle Forum
  • magibook.org
  • The Magic Way (Chinese)
• Newsletters
  • Have You Heard?… by Maria Ibâñez
  • New Zealand Newsletter... by Alan Watson
  • Asher's Announcements... by Lee Asher
  • Magicians Life... by Mel Kientz - kientz@bnproducts.com
• Tweets
  • Come up with a hashtag?
  • #WikiMagic2013?
• Weibo (Chinese Twitter)
• Facebook
  • create a page to like Wikipedia Editathon "All things International"
• Itricks
• The Magic Broadcast
• The Magic Newswire
• Organizations
  • Wikipedia's Wikiproject Magic
  • SAM and their new facebook page and compass newsletter
  • IBM
  • Magicana MCA
  • CARC
  • Alexander forum
  • NEMCA

Wikipedia resources for edit-a-thon participants

• http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bookshelf/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Starting_an_article
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/BeginnersGuide
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Introduction-to-Editing-Wikipedia-for-GLAM-professionals.pdf
• Learn all about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability

Add your name if you would like to help organize or participate

• Joe Pecore
• Lee Asher

Notes

• Bill Kalush of CARC is also offering access to Ask Alexander to users that participate.
• Emailed GLAM to see if they could be of assistance in helping to prepare and advertise.