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“Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia” – the Edinburgh Award

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“Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia” – the Edinburgh Award

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"Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia" - the Edinburgh Award

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We know that many students are involved in activities alongside their studies such as volunteering, part-time work, and getting involved in the University community.

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Finding the ‘Impossible Witches’ in Wikidata's linked open data and the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

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Finding the ‘Impossible Witches’ in Wikidata's linked open data and the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

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https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/

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Hi! I'm Claire, a 4 th year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who've worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in a Microsoft Access Database by academics in the early 2000's. Since then, key information from the database has been added to Wikidata, allowing for greater accessibility as well as editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. People have done lots of great things with this data, including all the visualisations put together by the previous data visualisation interns, but now that the data is stored across several different platforms, it's important to make sure that these versions are reconciled.

My role is to find the 'Impossible Witches'; those entries which don't m atch between Wikidata and the original Access database.
Checking against the database item by item
My initial approach to this was to use R to compare between csv files exported from the Access database, and csv files accessed by querying Wikidata. This required downloading both files, checking to make sure variable labels matched, combining the datasets, and isolating the cases where the information didn't match iso I could look through and see where the issues were.

For some features, like gender, a lot of information h as been added to Wikidata that isn't present in the survey, but there are very few cases where Wikidata and the survey have conflicting information.

In others, like Name, the situation is a bit more complicated. Sometimes the spellings vary between Wikidata and the Survey - this could be for a few reasons, and to add to the complications, both data sources have multiple name categories - the survey includes both modern and historical first and last names, while Wikidata includes both an Item Identifier and aliases. I've also looked for exact matches between the text from each source, so some inconsistencies just have to do with capitalisation and spacing. Really, it's impressive there are only 23 anomalies!

My goal now is to come up with a solid procedure to check wikidata entri es against the survey so we can be sure we're consistent and accurate in which data changes we keep. After that, I'll work on a methodology to pass on to whomever the next 'Witchfinder General' is so that we can keep track of data changes as the project continues to grow and evolve.

As I look for a method to continuously check for differences between the original survey data and the most up to date version of Wikidata, I've turned to the Wikidata community for help. Ewan reached out to his contacts, and I reached out via Project Chat as well as a Slack channel for libraries using Wikidata. Different users have responded with various suggestions. One Wikidata user suggested a library I could use to efficiently link R with SPARQL queries, and some of Ewan's contacts gave suggestions for the general workflow I could follow in creating a shareable methodology. One of the most helpful suggestions was that I use a tool called prompter, which would allow me to compare the results of a SPARQL query to a stable csv and store anomalies as a table on the Wikidata project page. While this looks like a great idea, it has led us to run into another of the common problems involved in working with Wikidata - not all of the tools are maintained. The tool was designed by the Every Politician Project, which was placed on indefinite pause in June 2019. This means that while the documentation for the tool still exists, it no longer works as a template in Wikidata. For me, this has been a valuable lesson on the pros and cons of working with a platform run and maintained by volunteers. Still, we are continuing to get great advice from Wikimedians around the world. A new goal of mine for the end of this project is to create a workable and well documented method that I can easily share, so I have something to give back to the community that has helped me so much throughout this project.

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Finding Impossible Witches: Part One The Search Begins

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Hi! I'm Claire, a 4 th year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who've worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in a Microsoft Access Database by academics in the early 2000's.

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Student Experience Grant project and Wikipedia: 3 x @EdinburghUni students co-authored and applied for a student experience project to research and improve LGBTQ+ History, Gender History and Black History online. 

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Student Experience Grant project and Wikipedia: 3 x @EdinburghUni students co-authored and applied for a student experience project to research and improve LGBTQ+ History, Gender History and Black History online. 

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Three students co-authored an application to take part in a Student Experience Grant project over a 14-week time period, learning how to edit Wikipedia and how to fill in diversity gaps on the website:

Eleanor- PhD Student researching LGBTQ+ History.

Sian - PhD student researching Black History.

Kirsty - Undergraduate student researching Gender History.

Each student specialised in a particular aspect of diversity which Wikipedia was lacking coverage on. These were black history, LGBTQ+ history and women's history. Through these three specialisations each student was able to increase their knowledge in their specialised area, digging through Edinburgh's history in the matter. For example, Kirsty, one of the students, was able to delve into the University's rich sporting history and learn about the impressive sportswomen that spent time at Edinburgh University. Kirsty also showed off a poster presentation on the Student Experience Grant project at the University's GenderEd a nnual showcase & networking event.

Through the project the students developed knowledge of the gaps on Wikipedia and created worklists of pages in need of creation or updating to improve diversity of representation on Wikipedia. These worklists were utilised in a final end of project event, with 50-60 signups. The hybrid event was held in the Project Room of 50 George Square with students, staff and members of the public taking part in learning new digital and information literacy skills and contributing their scholarship openly to improve coverage of, and understanding about, LGBTQ+ History, Gender History and Black History in Scotland.

This event included many University of Edinburgh students who were introduced to editing Wikipedia, through a led tutorial, and given the aforementioned pre-researched worklists to help contribute to Wikipedia as a whole. The event featured a panel discussion and display of the work of the three primary students involved in the project, educating those in attendance about the disparities within Wikipedia and how they can help improve this as information activists.

The event also included representatives from University of Edinburgh, University of Dundee, Wikimedia UK, the Devil's Porridge Museum, Sussex University, University of Cape Town, Swansea University, Birkbeck University London, UCL, University of Leeds, the National Gallery of Ireland, Victoria University of Wellington, Kiel University, ZBW Leibniz, Manchester Metropolitan University, Staffordshire University, National Galleries Scotland, Arts University Bournemouth, University of Kent, Lothian Health Service Archives.

In addition, the structure of the project allowed all three students to specialise in their interests. This allowed each student to delve further into an area of interest/specialisation which was rewarding for all involved. They each created a poster which was printed out to display in the final end of project editing event for all to see.
Event page with worklists created: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh/Recovering_Histories Main learning points

Gained professional experience using their research skills outside of their main study.

Expanded awareness of information activism as a whole and the role of information in dictating awareness of those often ignored by society.

Had the opportunity to expand their network by making connections with the Scottish Portrait Gallery.

Organised and hosted an edit-a-thon at the University.

Eleanor has subsequently organised her own editathon on LGBTQ+ art on Wikipedia and been in discussions about presenting at the Queering Wikipedia conference 2023.

Reflections from Sian:
"I have been looking at Black history, specifically focusing on Scotland's links to transatlantic slavery to try to address the silences on Wikipedia related to this topic. By adding in information to existing pages as well as creating new ones, I hope this work, however marginally, contributes to public understanding of the varied and widespread connections between Caribbean slavery and the making of modern Britain. Examples include adding in details such as William Wright's, a renowned Scottish Botanist, ownership of enslaved people and how he developed an interest in botany while in the Caribbean, and adding in William Forbes of Callandar's, a Scottish industrialists, connection to transatlantic slavery through his production of sugar boiling pans sold to planters in the Caribbean. I also developed a new page for Leith Sugar House, to show how some of built environment of Scotland is also connected the Caribbean and the profits made from slavery. "
Reflections from Kirsty:
"Higher Education Institutions, and the student bodies within them, are heavily involved within diversity-based research and movements throughout society. However all too often work fails to extend beyond the reach of the university community. Information activism is an often unappreciated but vital part of diversity and equality movements. Work to increase representation of marginalised communities online helps to make the histories, achievements and movements of communities suppressed in mainstream media available to all. Wikipedia is the perfect website for Firstly it does not occur to many that they themselves can, and should, contribute their knowledge to Wikipedia. Before entering this project two out of three of the students had not contributed to Wikipedia before. This is often the first, and primary, hurdle to many in being part of the Wikipedia editing community. Herein, raising awareness of the ease at which one can contribute to Wikipedia is vital alongside providing a space in which to edit with support. Wikipedia is a very large website, and as such the breadth of information that can be added to or edited it never ending. This can be a daunting prospect to many. As such it is much simpler, and more manageable to focus particularly on one area. From here you can create a related a worklist of pages to be added/edited, including details of what is missing. Often half the job on Wikipedia is establishing the gap in Wikipedia as there is often the incorrect presumption that everything is already there. If creating a worklist is untenable there are many project pages/worklists already available that you can work through with students. Examples of this include Women in Red which aims to create pages for women of note." Through this project Ewan McAndrew assisted the students in entering Wikipedia as editing and taught them the basic understandings and rules necessary to contribute. Although these can be easily learnt online, live teaching can be invaluable in quickly setting up students to edit Wikipedia. Running events on specific topics which include mini tutorials on how to edit are invaluable to adding information on Wikipedia. This is as they target those who are not currently engaged. The more people that are taught to edit Wikipedia, the more who can contribute their wealth of knowledge to Wikipedia. such work. Further Wikipedia involvement can be vital in transforming this information to a wider community.
Reflections from Eleanor:

"The strand I've been exploring on this project is diversifying LGBTQ+ records. These could be of individuals, organisations, projects, either historical or contemporary. Filling in the gaps of LGBTQ+ history is necessary to reflect the diversity of society over time, and to readdress inequalities that have seen these identities suppressed or erased in record. Doing so also has a role to play in validating LGBTQ+ communities as being connected to something larger, this history partly acting as defence against suggestions that being LGBTQ+ is new, and therefore temporary, to be changed. It's a way to say - we've always been here. Given that the historical landscape regarding sexuality and gender has evolved over time, from the law to language, it can sometimes prove challenging to attribute LGBTQ+ identities, even when there are indications. It is a catch-22 - to be accessible on a site like Wikipedia where there needs to be evidence, but for LGBTQ+ lives such evidence may have been erased, or alternatively exist, but as a result of primary sources like oral histories, rather than secondary.
That said there are valuable records that have been created and contributed to, and research projects and efforts to establish and expand LGBTQ+ sources that do exist, and they are increasing all the time. Given Wikipedia's prominence, their inclusion matters. As such, I've been exploring the history of the Lothian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, the first such telephone support service in the whole of the UK, which didn't have a Wikipedia entry until it was developed as part of this project. Through researching this organisation, in collaboration with Archivist Louise Neilson at the University of Edinburgh (who hold the Switchboard archives and have recently received Welcome Trust funding to catalogue its contents), it has opened up so many avenues of people and events that were connected to a significant and important part of LGBTQ+ history in Scotland. It is a privilege to be able to contribute in even a small way to place this piece of Scottish LGBTQ+ history into the Wikipedia puzzle. "
New Wikipedia pages about: Improved pages also include:
In terms of challenges, due to the secondary source nature of Wikipedia there were issues encountered with getting archival information on to Wikipedia, which requires a step in between. Had there been a larger project timeframe there would have been more time to do this. However, due to the short nature of the project archival information was simply used less as it would have been too time consuming to use more.
The legacy of the project
The worklist, gaps and resources identified, still exist and the work will have a further legacy as the work will be continued with other student editors contributing to it either through the student Edinburgh Award for 'Digital Volunteering with Wikipedia' (Oct-March each year) topics or through the monthly Wikipedia editing workshops run by the University's Digital Skills team. This project has been a source of inspiration for students taking part in the aforementioned Edinburgh Award for the kind of 'knowledge activism' and the agency it demonstrates students can have.

Moreover, the three students involved in the project dictated the strands of their research according to interests found along the way, and lines of success in research. As such there was always interesting work to be done and it allowed the opportunity to have conversations with, meet and work with people inside and outside of the University; to raise awareness and provoke ideas of what more could, and should be, done in future.

(Recovering Histories event)

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Recovering Histories - Improving Equality and Diversity Online

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Three students co-authored an application to take part in a Student Experience Grant project over a 14-week time period, learning how to edit Wikipedia and how to fill in diversity gaps on the website: Eleanor- PhD Student researching LGBTQ+ History. Sian - PhD student researching Black History.

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Student feedback on Wikimedia in the Curriculum

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Student feedback on Wikimedia in the Curriculum

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Wikimedian in Residence - University of Edinburgh

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OER23 - Student feedback on Wikipedia in the Curriculum assignments

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Visit Open.Ed, the University of Edinburgh's OER Service, to explore a wealth of open educational resources created by staff and students across the University, along with advice and guidance on engaging with and supporting open education.

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“In a year that brought pervasive systemic injustices into stark relief, our experiment in applying our knowledge outside the classroom gave us a sense that we were creating something positive, something that mattered. As one student commented, “Really love the Wikipedia project. It feels like my knowledge is actually making a difference in the wider world, if in a small way.”

~ Dr Glaire Anderson, course leader, Stars, Robots, and Talismans: Science, Magic, and Medieval Islamic Visual Culture course

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This booklet, Wikimedia in Education, has been produced by Wikimedia UK and the University of Edinburgh, bringing together a collection of case studies from across the UK in order to provide insight into the use of the Wikimedia projects in education.

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Reproductive Biology Wikipedia Assignment 

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Reproductive Biology Wikipedia Assignment 

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Wikipedia in the Classroom - Interview with Aine Kavanagh (Reproductive Biology Hons. student)

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In Autumn 2016, Reproductive Biology (Hons.) students at the University of Edinburgh researched and wrote eight new Wikipedia articles on reproductive health. 4th year student Aine Kavanagh took part in the assignment and was interviewed in January 2017 about her experience working with Wikipedia.The assignment page is located here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh/Events_and_Workshops/Reproductive_Bi...A blog article about the assignment is here: http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/2017/01/15/reflections-on-a-wikipedia-assignment/An interview with Course Organiser, Dr. Chris Harlow, is located here: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Teaching+with+Wikipedia+-+A+University+of+Edinburgh+case+studyA+Dr.+Chr...

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“You’ve contributed to public knowledge in some way even if it’s just repackaging what’s already there, but you’re making it accessible. It’s a really good exercise in critical thinking and that’s the ultimate skill you learn in an undergraduate degree … Finally, as a student, it’s a really good opportunity and a really motivating thing to do, to relay the knowledge you’ve learnt from lectures and exams, that hasn’t been really relevant outside of lectures and exams, but to see how it is relevant to the real world and to see how you can contribute and how you can use your knowledge... I suppose the other thing was how satisfying it was when it was done. Comparing again to academic essays, you send them off, you get the grade back, you look at the feedback and you never really read them again. Whereas knowing people are coming back to this article and finding it useful is really gratifying.”

~ Áine Kavanagh, Reproductive Biology student, talking about her Wikipedia in the Curriculum assignment. Áine authored the Wikipedia article on High-Grade Serous Carcinoma which has been viewed

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Creating Edinburgh: The Interdisciplinary City

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Creating Edinburgh: The Interdisciplinary City

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Creating Edinburgh: The Interdisciplinary City is an Edinburgh Futures Institute course led by Dr David Overend that sets out from the seminar room to explore the city of Edinburgh, on foot and online.  It offers a unique opportunity to engage with the contemporary city as a site for new ideas, designs, and methods, by responding creatively to Edinburgh’s various sites and routes. These collections of OER were created by both staff and students.

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Creating Edinburgh: The Interdisciplinary City is an Edinburgh Futures Institute course led by Dr David Overend that sets out from the seminar room to [...]

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“Open education has played such an integral part of my life so far, and has given me access to knowledge that would otherwise have been totally inaccessible to me. It has genuinely changed my life, and likely the lives of many others. This freedom of knowledge can allow us to tear down the barriers that hold people back from getting a world class education – be those barriers class, gender or race. Open education is the future, and I am both proud of my university for embracing it, and glad that I can contribute even in a small way. Because every resource we release could be a life changed. And that makes it all worth it.”

~ Martin Tasker, Physics student and Open Content Curation Intern.

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“The history that people access on Wikipedia is often very different from the history that you would access in a University department; there’s very little social history, very little women’s history, gender history, history of people of colour or queer history, and the only way that’s going to be overcome is if people from those disciplines start actively engaging in Wikipedia and trying to correct those imbalances. I feel the social potential of Wikipedia to inform people’s perspectives on the world really lies in correcting imbalances in the representation of that world. People should try to make Wikipedia accurately represent the diversity of the world around us, the diversity of history, and the diversity of historical scholarship.”

~ Tomas Sanders, History student and Open Content Curation Intern.

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These Digital Futures for Learning OERs have been created by students as part of the MSc in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, led by Dr Jen Ross.

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After attending Vicki and Lilinaz’s workshop on Equality and Diversity Inclusion (EDI) and then Vicki and Amy’s focus group, it […]

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“In terms of the quality of teaching and learning that these students have received, I believe that they’ve had great benefit from the reflective cycle behind this etextbook project, where the student interns’ input and development of my original teaching materials has brought about further teaching and learning enhancement. I also expect this etextbook to be an important asset in the future for on-site students.”

~ Dr Nikki Moran, Senior Lecturer, Reid School of Music and Open eTextbooks for Access to Music Education Project.

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Open Media Bank is a collection of high quality media resources originally created for The University of Edinburgh's MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and free short online courses. These media resources have been made available under Creative Commons licence for sharing, reuse and remixing.

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GeoScience Outreach OERs on TES Resources 

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GeoScience Outreach OERs on TES Resources 

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This collection of OERs for school teachers was co-created by staff and students from the GeoScience Outreach course, supported by Open Content Curation Interns working with the OER Service. These resources have been downloaded 133K times and the collection won Open Education Global's Open Curation Repository Award in 2021.

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Free open educational resources from the University of Edinburgh to download and adapt for primary and secondary teaching.

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Open Education Awards for Excellence: Open Curation / Repository - University of Edinburgh

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The OER Services video submission for the Open Education Awards for Excellence: Open Curation / Repository.

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Fundamentals of Music Theory is an open textbook was co-created by staff and students from the Reid School of Music using content originally created for a MOOC, and repurposed for an on-campus course.  The book is published on Edinburgh Diamond, the University of Edinburgh's ebook hosting platform.

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“OER means opportunity to me. The opportunity to share knowledge of a subject in a more accessible format that is mostly not bound by financial capability to access the material. Hereby, creating a channel that facilitates equal educational opportunity for all.

Through this project, I have developed a better understanding that OER present flexibility for students, teachers, content creators and end users to have access to, modify, and adapt materials in a way that is not usually permissible via traditional textbooks.”

~ Ifeanyichukwu Enzinmadu, Open Textbook Student Intern, Reid School of Music.