Wikipedia:University of Edinburgh/10th Month Report

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Institution Resident's Name Period Covered Date of Report
University of Edinburgh Ewan McAndrew 12 October - 11 November 2016 (Tenth month of residency) 17 November 2016

Running total of staff & student engagement[edit]

Institution Resident's Name Number of students trained Number of staff trained Members of the public trained
University of Edinburgh Ewan McAndrew 117 137 38

Projects delivered[edit]

Strategic Goal 1[edit]

Increase the quality and quantity of coverage of subjects that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, with a particular focus on cultural content.

Outcomes[edit]

  • Held phonecalls with Bria Mason, Gaelic Officer at the University, and Ruairidh Graham the Gaelic Language and Policy officer at Historic Environment Scotland about potential future collaborations (in particular a Gaelic Wikimedia at the National Library of Scotland and a small Languages of Britain Wikipedia conference idea).
  • Led a two-day editathon for Halloween celebrating Samhuinn: the Gaelic Festival of the Dead and remembering notable lives through setting a place for them on Wikipedia. 17 new articles created plus 300 images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
  • Held a Women and Religion Wikipedia editathon at the School of Divinity which featured Roger Bamkin at WikiProject Women in Red and the historian, writer & activist, Dr. Lesley Orr. (Audio clips of these talks is being edited together). 13 articles created and 4 improved.

Samhuinn editathon outcomes[edit]

  1. Sethu Vijayakumar page created. Sethu Vijayakumar is Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh and a judge on the BBC2 show Robot Wars. He was instrumental in bringing the first Valkyrie humanoid robot out of the United States of America, and to Europe.
  2. Honor Fell, British scientist and zoologist, translated onto Swedish Wikipedia. Her contributions to science included the development of experimental methods in organ culture, tissue culture, and cell biology.
  3. Brenda Moon - Librarian to the University of Edinburgh from 1980 to 1996. She was the first female chief of a university library in Scotland, and one of the first female librarian chiefs of a major UK research university.
  4. Janet Anne Galloway(1841–1909) promoted higher education for women in Scotland. As a result of the limited educational opportunities open to women, Janet became an active supporter of the movement for higher education provision for women. In 1877 Janet was appointed as the honorary secretary of the new Glasgow Association for the Higher Education of Women, founded by Jessie Campbell and financed by Isabella Elder. John Caird, principal of Glasgow University at the time, was the first Chairman of its General Committee.
  5. Katherine Clerk Maxwell - a Scottish physical scientist best known for her observations which supported and contributed to the discoveries of her husband, James Clerk Maxwell. She born Katherine Dewar in 1824 In Glasgow and married Clerk Maxwell in 1859. Her contributions are largely recorded in writings on her husband, partly due to a fire at the Maxwell family estate which destroyed many of the family papers.
  6. James MacLagan - a Church of Scotland minister and collector of Scottish Gaelic poetry and song. He was the creator of the McLagan Manuscripts, a collection of some 250 manuscripts containing 630 items of primarily Gaelic song and poetry collected in the second half of the eighteenth century including many of the most well-known 17th- and 18th-century Gaelic poets such as Iain Lom, Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh and Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair.
  7. Jeffery Collins - prolific electrical engineer who directed and researched experimental physics, robotics, microelectronics, communications technologies and parallel computing.
  8. David Houston (zoologist) - Demonstrated Sex Allocation in lesser black-backed gulls in a practical study with Pat Monaghan in 1999.
  9. Susan Manning (professor) - Scottish academic born in Glasgow, Scotland[1]. She specialized in Scottish studies and English literature. Before her untimely death in 2013 at the age of 59 years, she was the Grierson Professor in English literature in the University of Edinburgh and the Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities (IASH) an institute under the University of Edinburgh. Prof. Manning's work on Scottish enlightenment and transatlantic literature got her international acclaim. Due to her intellectual and academic expertise, Susan was a fellow in the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, Edinburgh. Susan Manning after completing her Bachelors of Arts from Newnham College, University of Cambridge in 1976 went to do her doctorate under Prof. David Levin, a literary scholar and the Commonwealth Professor of English in the University of Viriginia, USA.
  10. Joan Brown (potter) - British potter. She setup her pottery workshop in 1967 in Richmond and exhibited widely in Britain. She was born in Aberdeen and was the daughter of Gerda and Walter Bruford. She was married to the landscape architect Michael Brown and worked on several projects for architects, including creating a water sculpture for her husband's sunken roof garden design for the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She was an associate member of the Craft Potters Association and exhibited several times in the Royal Scottish Academy Christmas Show.
  11. Magdalena Midgley - former Professor of the European Neolithic at the University of Edinburgh (2013-4), dedicated her archaeological career to teaching and researching early farming cultures of Continental Europe. She became renowned for her survey of the TRB culture (Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture), the first farming culture of the North European Plain and southern Scandinavia which was published by Edinburgh University Press.
  12. Ernest Francis Bashford - influential oncologist who pioneered the biological approach to the study of cancer. At Edinburgh he was Vans Dunlop Scholar in anatomy, chemistry, zoology and botany, Mackenzie Bursar in practical anatomy, and won the Whitman prize for clinical medicine, the Patterson prize in clinical surgery, was appointed to the Houldsworth research scholarship in experimental pharmacology and won the Stark scholarship in clinical medicine and pathology. He established the modern practice of experimental investigation of cancer in Britain, asserting that it was a biological problem and not confined to human pathology. From 1915 he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, initially with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and then in France, where he held the post of adviser in pathology in the Army of Occupation. He was appointed OBE in 1919 and died from heart failure in Germany on 23 August 1923.
  13. Christian Kay - Emeritus Professor of English Language and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in English Language at the University of Glasgow. She was co-editor with scholar Michael Samuels, for the world's largest and first historical dictionary Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (HTOED), a project she dedicated 40 years to (1969 - 2009). Kay also founded the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech and published work on historical semantics and lexicography, and contributed metaphor and semantic annotation based projects on the Historical Thesaurus of English dataset (HTOED). Kay was educated at The Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh. She completed a MA in English Language and Literature at the University of Edinburgh, before continuing on to Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA. Retiring in 2005, then Professor of English Language, Kay remained active in the facilitation and research in Thesaurus-derived projects. Kay is credited to have created the first computer laboratory for English studies in the world, developing cutting-edge teaching software, and first of its kind research-led courses in literary and linguistic computing. The result of 44 years of work, the HTOED received critical acclaim and was awarded the Saltire Society Research Book of the Year Award in 2009. The Christian Kay Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate Research into Modern English Language and Linguistics was set up in the Professor's memory.
  14. Anne Strachan Robertson - archeologist, numismatist and writer who was a professor of archeology at the University of Glasgow.
  15. George Robin Henderson (mathematician) - Scots mathematician with a flair for music. Noted as an inspirational character in his field, he taught at Boroughmuir High School, lectured at Napier College, played cornet and tuba, and through the 1980s and 90s as a member of the MacTaggart Scott Works Band he revived the band and pushed them to have a "positive impact on the community".
  16. William Lindsay Renwick - Professor of English Literature at the University of Durham from 1921 to 1945 and Regis Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University from 1945-1959. William was educated at the local Woodside School. He then went on to enrol at the University of Glasgow in October 1907. In 1912, he was awarded the George A. Clark Scholarship which allowed him to study French & Italian at the Sorbonne, Toulouse and the British School in Rome. Upon the outbreak of war, William joined the tenth battalion of the Cameronians (The Royal Scottish Rifles) on 27th September 1914. He experienced trench warfare with this regiment & rose quickly in the ranks to become a Captain, serving at home and in France where his battalion took part in the Battle of Loos. After experiencing this particularly devastating attack, according to his entry on Glasgow University’s Roll of Honour, he felt ‘like a ghost, an old ghost, sceptical and disillusioned.’”William returned to civilian life in 1919 and enrolled at Merton College at Oxford University where he completed a thesis on the renaissance poet, Edmund Spenser. William moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to become Professor of English Literature at the University of Durham in 1921. He remained in this role for the next twenty-four years. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, William joined the Home Guard where he was made a commander. Following the end of the war in 1945, William was appointed Regis Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University. Moving to a new home in Edinburgh overlooking Arthur’s Seat, he was to remain in this role until he retired in 1959.
  17. Isabella Elder - article improved.
  18. Queen Margaret College (Glasgow) - article improved.
  19. Galoshin section added to Mummers_play#galoshin
  20. 294 openly-licensed images of the #Somme100 'We are here' soldiers commemoration uploaded to WikiCommons.
  21. 7 openly-licensed images of carved pumpkins and turnips uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
  22. Evelyn Gillan - Champion of women’s rights, co-founder of the Zero Tolerance campaign and the main proponent in bringing about a minimum alcohol pricing law in Scotland.

Women and Religion editathon outcomes[edit]

Activities delivered in the past month with stats:[edit]

Event Name Date Location Attendees New Users Gender breakdown
Women and Religion 2016 Wikipedia editathon 2 November 2016 University of Edinburgh Baillie Room, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh. 14 10 85.7% female
Between the worlds of the living and the dead: Wikipedia editathon for the Gaelic festival of Samhuinn. 1 November 2016 University of EdinburghThe Raeburn Room, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh 8 0 62.5% female
Between the worlds of the living and the dead: Wikipedia editathon for the Gaelic festival of Samhuinn. 31 October 2016 University of EdinburghProject Room, 50 George Square, Edinburgh 14 4 85.7% female

Image statistics[edit]

Strategic Goal 2[edit]

Support the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing the understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level.

Outcomes[edit]

  • Held initial discussions with Sophie Nicholl, Lecturer in Creative Writing MA at Teeside University, about an initial two-day training session & editathon in late April 2017.
  • Continuing discussions about the 12 new Wikimedia Ambassadors at the university can feasibly contribute to ensuring a sustained relationship with Wikimedia during the residency and post the residency.
  • Held discussions with Melissa Highton (Assistant Principal) and Richard Nevell (Wikimedia UK) which resulted in a submission to the LILAC Conference on 10-12 April 2017.
  • Held discussions with colleagues which resulted in submitting 4 proposals for sessions to the OER17 Conference on 5-6 April 2017.
  • Continuing discussions with Edinburgh University Student Association about an International Women's Day event in March 2017.
  • Arranged a meeting with Edinburgh University Translation Society (student society) to discuss collaborating.
  • Conducted a lunchtime Google Hangouts session with ALT staff (Martin Hawksey, Maren Deepwell) to discuss the work Wikimedia is involved in.
  • Wrote 5 blog articles on the Wikimedian in Residence blog:

Activities delivered in the past month with stats:[edit]

Strategic Goal 3[edit]

To support the use of the Wikimedia projects as important tools for education and learning in the UK.

Outcomes[edit]

  • Continued discussions & support for the Reproductive Biomedicine assignment for 4th year undergraduates - the intention is to video interview students on their experiences creating the 8 new Reproductive Biology articles and continue the assignment next year. Only this time as a summative assessment. Written feedback in the form of comments and 1 short blog article has now been received from the students which will now be pulled into a Wikimedian in Residence blog article.
  • Continued discussions on the Wikipedia in the Classroom assignment in World Christianity MSc where students conduct a literature review to create unrepresented terms on World Christianity on Wikipedia. Follow-up meetings are being arranged to dissect best practice and how to improve for next time.
  • Continued to support the Translation Studies MSc where students translate 4000 word articles from one language Wikipedia to another by the end of the semester (deadline 8th December) as part of their independent study module. Students are being supported by email with a date being arranged for a further drop-in clinic. The intention is to continue this assignment next semester too.
  • Held a training session at the School of Veterinary Medicine on 26th October 2016 where one of our new Wikimedia Ambassadors, Eoghan Clarkson, led the training for the first time. Discussions are ongoing about a student research project in Veterinary Medicine to be held in January 2017 which Eoghan Clarkson and Brian Mathers will lead. New article created: James McCall (veterinarian) and further research conducted which has resulted in a hitlist for further sessions.

Activities delivered in the past month with stats:[edit]

Event Name Date Location Attendees New Users Gender breakdown
History of Veterinary Medicine editathon 26 October 2016 University of Edinburgh Royal Dick School of Veterinary Medicine, Easter Bush campus, Edinburgh. 5 2 80% female

Digitisation[edit]

Collections identified for potential future upload:

  • A request has been made to upload handpicked CC-BY images from the images.is.ed.ac.uk website. The request will be considered by the Centre for Research Collections senior management upon receipt of a completed proposal.
  • Lothian Health Service Archives blog pics images. The licensing of pics already uploaded to the LHSA blog was queried last month but the end result has been that the images cannot be openly licensed.

Projects/events in development[edit]

  • Continued planning arrangements with Gill Hamilton at the National Library of Scotland for the Edinburgh Gothic editathon on 12 November 2016 and early discussions on a Moving Image Archive editathon at new Kelvinhall site in Spring 2017.
  • Continuing discussions with Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), Lothian Health Service Archives, Surgeons' Hall Museum, colleagues in Information Services and the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine; and now the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons (Glasgow) regarding the History of Medicine editathon on 23 & 24 February.
  • Continuing planning arrangements with Blythe Day of the Student Association at Edinburgh University ways in which Wikimedia can support diversity at the university through a proposed event during Gather Festival 2017.
  • Continued planning arrangements with colleagues in Veterinary Medicine to run their first student Wikipedia editing session (utilising Dr. Chris Harlow's Reproductive Medicine sessions as their guideline).
  • Continued planning arrangements for the Edu Wiki Conference at Middlesex University on 20 February 2016 and OER17 Conference.
  • Arranged meeting to discuss with Simon Fokt and Emma Gordon at the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences about embedding a Wikipedia editing assignment to a MOOC on the topic is ‘Intellectual Humility: Theory’.

Upcoming events[edit]

  • November 12th - Edinburgh Gothic event at the National Library of Scotland for Robert Louis Stevenson Day 2016
  • November 15th - Discussion with Sophie Nicholl at Teeside University about an editathon there in late April 2017.
  • November 16th – Festival of Architecture 2016 editathon
  • November 18th - Moving office to Argyle House. Meeting with the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons (Glasgow) about their involvement in the History of Medicine 2017 editathon.
  • November 21st - Meeting to discuss embedding a Wikipedia activity as part of a MOOC.
  • November 23rd – Meeting with Edinburgh University Translation Society (student society) to discuss a collaboration.
  • November 24th – Wikimedian in Residence summit at Wellcome Trust in London.
  • November 25th - Last day for OER17 submissions.
  • November 29th - Wikipedia session for Centre for Research Collections staff.
  • November 30th - Wikipedia training session for staff & students. Meeting at the Royal College of Physicians to discuss History of Medicine 2017.
  • December 6th - Wikipedia training session at Argyle House.
  • December 7th - Wikipedia training session at Kings Buildings.
  • December 8th - 'BBC 100 Women' campaign

Media[edit]

Photos from Samhuinn editathon - 31 October 2016[edit]

Photos from Women and Religion editathon - 2 November 2016[edit]

Videos[edit]

  1. The Wikimedian in Residence channel on Media Hopper now has 76 videos.
  2. The Wikimedian in Residence channel on Youtube has 28 videos and 27 subscribers.

Press about the residency[edit]

  1. Edinburgh University searches for 'Wikimedians' - Edinburgh Evening News, 8th October 2015.
  2. University of Edinburgh to employ ‘Wikimedian in Residence’ web editor - The Student Newspaper.org, October 13th 2015.
  3. The History of Medicine gets mentioned in the ILW Awards 2016
  4. The OER16 Conference, co-chaired by Melissa Highton and Lorna M. Campbell, won Wikimedia UK’s Partnership of the Year Award
  5. 'Wikidata and Wikisource Showcase' mentioned on IS News site.
  6. The Wikimedia Residency, as part of the University Of Edinburgh's Open Education team, won 3rd place in ALT's Learning Technologist of the Year awards.
  7. Open Education team (including Wikimedia residency) come third in ALT Learning Technologist of the Year awards - story on the IS News site.
  8. Wikipedia's women problem - Melissa Highton writes for the Dangerous Women project 10th October 2016
  9. STV News 'Live at Five' covers the Ada Lovelace Day - Women in STEM Wikipedia editathon.
  10. New College take on Wikipedia edit-a-thon - Women and Religion 2 November 2016.