The Europeana Fashion Challenge
Rich as it is, Wikipedia will be enriched some more, specifically with knowledge about shoes and all things fashion. Europeana Fashion is organising three consecutive edit-a-thons this November and presents the first online month-long Europeana Fashion challenge.
Fashion edit-a-thon at Centraal Museum in Utrecht. Photo: Sebastiaan Terburg. Image used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
After the success of the previous fashion edit-a-thons, organized by European Fashion and a variety of like-minded partners, we’re working on a series of three new edit-a-thons this November.
On the 12th of November Swedish fashion fanatics, Wikipedians and our colleagues from Europeana Awareness will come together at Nordiska Museet in Stockholm to share knowledge and write articles about fashion on Wikipedia. The Nordiska Museet was host to the first edit-a-thon we held and is opening its doors and collections once again. Museum curators provided brand new images of eighteenth century shoes to Wikimedia Commons for your inspiration.
Hosting a stunning collection of shoes is the Italian Europeana Fashion partner Museo Rossimoda della Calzatura in a beautifully located villa outside of Padova. The museum is joining forces with Wikimedia Italy and the Universities of Venice and Padova to teach eighty students what editing on Wikimedia entails and how shoe history can be explained in an open, neutral way on the collaborative encyclopedia. The edit-a-thon at Rossimoda will take place on 14 November. Take a look at the shoes the museum has uploaded onto Wikimedia.
The third edit-a-thon will take place in Israel, where museum specialists from all over the world are coming together at the annual EVA/Minerva conference. Specialists from Wikimedia Israel and Europeana Fashion’s technical coordinator Marco Rendina will present the edit-a-thon series and give an introductory session on how to become a contributor to Wikipedia. A local edit-a-thon event will be held on the 20th of November at the Holon Institute of Technology.
But you do not have to physically present at the edit-a-thons to participate. To get people all over the world to share their knowledge about fashion we are holding an online competition: the Europeana Fashion Challenge. From 12 November until 12 December anybody can join the competition and write Wikipedia articles, either at one of the edit-a-thons or from home.
You will receive points for creating new articles and expanding existing articles that contain one or many Europeana Fashion images. You have a month to gain as many points as possible. The Europeana Fashion Challenge is not only a fun and educational experience, you also have the chance to win some nice prizes. Keep an eye on this page to join the challenge!
Do you want more information or join one of the edit-a-thons?
12 November – Stockholm – at Nordiska Museet (in English)
14 November – Padova – at Museo Rossimoda della Calzatura (in Italian)
20 November – Tel Aviv - at the Design Faculty of the Holon Institute of Technology (a prepatory session will take place on 14 November from 18h00 until 21h00 at the same location)
If you want to find out how to edit on Wikipedia, check out this guide.
By Brigitte Jansen, Sound and Vision
Invitation for the fashion edit-a-thon from Museo Rossimoda della Calzatura
Invitation for the fashion edit-a-thon from Wikimedia Israel