Wikipedia:Meetup/CCCCWI
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Established in 2019, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Wikipedia Initiative proceeds from the conviction that it matters to edit Wikipedia, especially for academics committed to knowledge equity as a fundamental groundwork for social justice. We are developing skills, cultivating inclusive community, and building structures of support and recognition for scholars of writing, rhetoric, literacy, and language studies who want to engage with Wikipedia as a form of global public scholarship.
We offer two monthly workshops, coordinate collaborative editing projects, and share a growing online library of free and open help and advice resources. All our workshops and resources work to address the specific needs of academics editing Wikipedia and to highlight their essential role in addressing issues of knowledge equity. We track our events on the WikiProject Writing dashboard and CCCC Editor Activity dashboard.
Why Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is an online, multilingual, open access encyclopedia developed entirely by volunteers. Wikipedia's goal is to provide all with access to equitable understandings of "the sum of all human knowledge." Despite this goal, Wikipedia remains inequitable with issues such as content gaps, lack of diversity in editorship, and systemic bias embedded in notability criteria. Humanities scholars whose research and teaching focus on writing, rhetoric, literacy, and language studies are uniquely positioned to contribute significant and balanced content to a wide range of vital general interest articles like Communication, Grammar, Language, Literacy, and Writing along with field-specific academic topics. Additionally, contributing to Wikipedia has the power to bolster the work scholars in the humanities are already doing to produce effective curriculum revisions at all education levels.
While there is powerful alignment in the educational missions and knowledge equity goals of Wikipedia with those of the academic humanities, there remains significant misunderstanding of and skepticism toward Wikipedia among scholars in the humanities. We are working to support a strong and stable culture of scholars who feel a sense of professional responsibility for improving Wikipedia as the main public knowledge resource in the world.
WikiProject Writing is the flagship project of the CCCCWI. It is a group of Wikipedia editors focused on developing content related to the fields of rhetoric, composition, technical communication, literacy, and language studies. In addition to increasing coverage about the teaching of writing as it pertains to all forms of communication, this project seeks to represent a full scope of content about these fields’ engagement with diversity, inclusion, and equity. Participants explore and cite both canonical terms, concepts, and research, as well as scholarship and activism composed by marginalized teacher-scholars, when creating and improving Wikipedia articles. This is a great space to collaborate with other scholars on key topics.
November events
Multilingual Writers in Digital Space
This month, we are working on prioritizing accessibility in the writing classroom by improving and creating articles related to pivotal scholars and scholarship at the intersection of Disability and Writing Studies.
Date: November 1st-30th, 2022
CCCCWI Speaker Series: Multilingual Writers in Digital Space
This month, join us in discussing multilingual writers' experiences in digital space and improving knowledge equity on Wikipedia. Alexandra Krasova — a PhD Candidate in Composition and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania — will share her research on multilingual students’ writing practices and reflect on multilingual writers’ experiences in digital space. She will explain why it is important to include multilingual writers to promote digital equity and inclusivity. Finally, Alexandra will focus on multilinguals in Wikipedia and discuss the reasons why their practices vary and how it contributes to knowledge equity.
After the talk, participants will be trained on how to edit Wikipedia. After training, participants will have the opportunity to improve and create Wikipedia articles related to pivotal scholars and scholarship about multilingual writers in digital space.
Date: November 18, 2022
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm (EST)
Curious about how different people navigate editing Wikipedia? Drop-in whenever you'd like from 1:00pm-2:00pm ET on Twitch where CCCC scholars and/or the CCCC Wikipedian-in-residence will live edit Wikipedia on a different topic focus.
Date: December 2nd, 2022
Time: 1:00pm-2:00PM (EST)
CCCCWI Office Hours
If you would like to discuss something Wikipedia-related one-on-one or get help with a Wikipedia article you’re working on, please feel free to sign up for my office hours or email me to suggest another time (savannahcragin@berkeley.edu).
Press
- The Big Rhetorical Podcast's "Episode 96: Andrew Yim" (21:33)