Writing for Wikipedia: an introductory workshop

An event by John Cummings - our Wikimedian in Residence at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum.

Originally posted at Physics and Maths info @ Imperial College London Library: Writing for Wikipedia: an introductory workshop

This 90 minute workshop, led by John Cummings (Wikimedian in Residence at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum) and other Wikimedia trainers will involve a short general introduction to the Wikipedia projects and a discussion of how they are created and developed, followed by a more in-depth practical session involving learning the basics of editing and engaging with other contributors.
During the session, Dr Steve Cook (Senior Teaching Fellow, Biology, Imperial College London) will talk about how he uses Wikipedia with undergraduate students and Professor Henry Rzepa (Professor of Computational Chemistry, Imperial College London) will also talk about his work with Wikipedia.

This workshop is aimed at academic staff, researchers, postdocs, teaching fellows, learning technologists and postgraduate research students.

Details:
Thursday 6 June 2013
10.00am – 11.30am
Central Library, South Kensington campus, Training Room 1

To book:
If you would like to attend please email Andrew Day to book your place. Joining instructions will be sent on booking.
For further information email Jenny Evans.

John Cummings begins work as Wikimedian in Residence at Natural History Museum and Science Museum

John Cummings radio interview

Reposted from the Wikimedia UK Blog:John Cummings begins work as Wikimedian in Residence

Wikimedia UK is very happy to report that John Cummings, a long-standing and well known Wikimedian, has begun his work as Wikimedian in Residence at the Science Museum and Natural History Museum.

This is a ground-breaking partnership between two of the UK’s most prestigious cultural institutions and the charity that promotes and supports Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in the UK. His role with the museums will last for four months.

John said: “It’s a real privilege to work with institutions with such important places in the history and public understanding of science. I hope I will be able to help the museums in their goals.”

John is the co-founder and project leader for MonmouthpediA and Gibraltarpedia, the world’s first Wikipedia town and city, and he is a Wikimedia UK accredited trainer for communities and institutions.

He is also technical lead for Leaderwiki, a collaborative education resource for emerging leaders from all over the world who want to make a positive contribution in their communities.

John will be working with myself and the rest of the Biodiversity Informatics team at the NHM, as well as other staff from the across the museum. You can see what's happening here.

Formula 1 at the Science Museum

I quite like Formula 1. It's a sport, but there's more to it than that. To win a race you need to a skilled sportsman, but you need a team of skilled managers, mechanics, engineers, scientists and so on. It's a sport that pushes the capabilities of us as a species in so many different directions.

I have argued with people about how important F1 is in the grand scheme of things (outside of the realms of sport and general rapidness). Thankfully I ill shortly have a new weapon up my sleeve - the Science Museum is putting on an exhibition about how the technological innovations of Formula 1 filter down to us mere mortals.

Formula 1 is also far superior to football in that it doesn't turn pubs into rowdy idiot halls that interfere with good beer and good conversation*.

*Both of these are sadly becoming harder to find if your choice of pub is the Black Horse, Dedworth Road, Windsor.