Europeana Fashion Publishes Edit-a-Thon Handbook

In an effort to improve fashion knowledge online, Europeana Fashion organises a series of “edit-a-thons” with Wikimedia, during which fashion enthusiasts and professionals get together to improve fashion knowledge on Wikipedia. In order to help other organisations also set up an edit-a-thon, we created the Europeana Fashion Edit-a-thon Handbook.

Europeana Fashion has already organised several successful edit-a-thons over the past year. The project has held edit-a-thons in Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands, Israel, Italy and France and will continue to do so in the next year, because Wikipedia still needs more and better articles on fashion.

In an effort to connect the world of Wikipedia to the fashion world, The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision started to set up collaborations between local Wikimedia chapters and partner institutions at the beginning of the Europeana Fashion project. Since then, even institutions outside the project got interested in working with Wikimedia.

Fashion edit-a-thon at Centraal Museum in Utrecht. Photo: Sebastiaan ter Burg. CC-BY.

One challenge, however, for anyone new to the Wiki world is understanding the terminology. Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that everyone knows, but there are numerous variations,  like Wikivoyage for travel or Wikibooks for books. Wikimedia is the organisation that oversees all these subsets and Wikimedians are volunteers who write, edit and program on Wikipedia.

To build a bridge between the Wikimedia community and cultural institutions, Europeana Fashion wrote a handbook that supports institutions who want to organise an edit-a-thon. The handbook gives an overview of Wikimedia, Wikipedia, ways to ensure a successful edit-a-thon, how to measure success, tips for getting content on Wikimedia, event promotion, as well as a suggested day programme, a 3 month preparation agenda, and an abundance of relevant links.

Fashion edit-a-thon at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Photo: Jesse de Vos. CC-BY-SA.

The handbook is based on Europeana Fashion’s own experience in organising edit-a-thons, but also on external research and direct input from Wikimedians. These different perspectives make it a valuable resource for any institution interested in setting up its own edit-a-thon. We invite anyone to share their experiences in the survey included in the handbook.

You can download the fashion edit-a-thon handbook here
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