The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) are hosted an introductory webinar on how to contribute climate change information to Wikipedia.
With more than 20 billion pageviews every month and as one of the most visited websites on the internet, Wikipedia has significantly more reach and impact than any other climate change website or knowledge portal. However, it is generally under-utilised by the climate change community.
With this webinar, CDKN and FCFA aimed to raise awareness of the power of Wikipedia as a communication tool. We launched a new guide for climate change professionals on how Wikipedia works, how to get started with editing and creating articles , and how to get involved in the wider Wikipedia community.
Participants heard directly from seasoned editors already contributing climate change information to Wikipedia and learnt about:
- The climate change information that already exists on the platform, as well as gaps and opportunities for sharing new content
- How Wikipedia, in an era of fake news, is a powerful vehicle for sharing more robust, verified climate change information, and making climate knowledge and the latest scientific findings more freely available to the public
- Significant challenges Wikipedia faces in ensuring diversity both in terms of editors and contributions – with a notable lack of women editors and editors from the Global South
- How climate change specialists and researchers can use Wikipedia to boost the impact of their work
We particularly encouraged women, new editors and participants from the Global South to attend, as well as those who have access to climate-related content, research, projects and references relevant to the Global South.
Panelists
- Rudolph Ampofo: Partnerships Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Wikimedia Foundation: What is Wikimedia and what are Wikipedia’s most notable gaps?
- Alex Stinson: Senior Programme Strategist, Wikimedia Foundation: Why contribute climate change to Wikipedia
- Fatou Jeng: Climate youth activist: Why do climate youth activists need platforms like Wikipedia?
- Katharine Vincent: Director, Kulima Integrated Development Solutions: Why should researchers edit Wikipedia?
This post was sponsored by Future Climate for Africa. See our editorial guidelines for what this means.