Five years of supporting Wikipedia editing in Aotearoa

Aotearoa New Zealand’s connection to the international world of Wikipedia is celebrating its five-year anniversary.

Wikipedia is the seventh most visited website worldwide, and is maintained by around 260,000 volunteer editors across the globe. Aotearoa does their bit too – there are thought to be around 250 regular editors throughout the country. Motivated by the goal of making knowledge freely available for everyone, editors spend their time reviewing and improving content, correcting typos, updating facts, and monitoring vandalism.

Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, or WANZ, formed as an official affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation in December 2019. Based in San Francisco, the Wikimedia Foundation hosts Wikipedia along with its many sister projects. 

As an affiliate, WANZ supports people and organisations to contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects through events, training and partnerships. This includes providing training to new editors, supporting experienced editors to continue to grow and develop their skills, running workshops and events, developing projects to address gaps and bias, and advocating for open access of knowledge.

Since establishing five years ago, WANZ has run multiple community events to bring new editors on board, and supported projects such as the Wikipedian at Large; experienced editor Dr. Mike Dickison has worked with organisations such as museums and libraries across the country to improve their Wikipedia engagement. This year, the affiliate has funded a Wikimedian in Residence position at Auckland Museum to continue the museum’s successful engagement with Wikimedia projects, including their efforts to increase coverage of local knowledge as a resource for the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum.

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