Wikimedia Blog/Drafts/The first “Women in Science edit-a-thon" managed to give visibility to twenty-one Venezuelan scientific women

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Title ideas[edit]

  • The first “Women in Science edit-a-thon" managed to give visibility to twenty-one Venezuelan scientific women.
  • The first "edit-a-thon of Scientific Women in Venezuela" managed to give visibility to twenty-one Venezuelan scientific women.

Summary[edit]

With the participation of 22 volunteers were made 21 articles, it was managed to add 60.500 bytes in pure text information and were edited 250 articles of scientific women.

Body[edit]

The first "edit-a-thon of Scientific Women in Venezuela” Image by Dennis Pierri, CC-BY-SA 4.0.
The first "edit-a-thon of Scientific Women in Venezuela. Image by Dennis Pierri, CC-BY-SA 4.0.
The first "edit-a-thon of Scientific Women in Venezuela. Image by Dennis Pierri, CC-BY-SA 4.0.

The past march 10th, “Wikimedia Venezuela” In an alliance with “L´Oréal Venezuela”, was held in the Wayra Academy’s headquarters in Caracas, the first "edit-a-thon of Scientific Women in Venezuela”, in which it was managed to give visibility to approximately 20 scientific women profiles, all of them corresponding to biographies of scientific women that weren't present in Wikipedia.

The edition marathon begun with the words of Roberto Andueza, President of “L´Oréal Venezuela”, He explained that for L'Oréal the “edit-a-thon” represented the possibility to give shape to the corporative values of passion, innovation, enterprising spirit, opening, search for the excellency and sense of responsibility. And added:

{{quote|In L’Oréal we believe in beauty for everyone, in a beauty capable of changing lives; The science’s role of making better lives’ quality is now more prominent than ever and in L’Oréal we are willing to give it the space that it deserves|Roberto Andueza, President of “L´Oréal Venezuela}}

Andueza ended offering a welcoming words for the guests, and alongside Gustavo Reyes, the Director of the Wayra Academy, thanking the volunteers for their participation in this meaningful cause.

Then, Inés Quintero, The Director of the History’s Nacional Academy, offered a short speech about the evolution of the scientific women role in the Venezuelan society.

This way, more than 20 volunteers, most of them having a relationship with the scientific area and without previous experience in Wikipedia’s articles edition, started editing the content of the Venezuelan scientific women, which were previously selected, because for being encyclopedic articles, it was required having references in order to link sources of reliable information, checked by Wikipedia.

During the day the participants were advised by Wikimedia Venezuela’s members, and by their own president Oscar Costero, Who answered questions and helped in the edition of the information.

At the closure of the event, twenty-one Venezuelan Scientist became part of Wikipedia, having an insight of their history, investigations and accomplishments, in the free encyclopedia, being this the first step to reduce the gender gap in Wikipedia. During the edit-a-thon the participants were able to create 21 articles, adding 60.500 bytes of pure text and editing other 250 articles.

Lourdes Herrera, software engineer, was the volunteer that created the biggest amount of articles, adding a total of five articles about the life and work of the following scientist: Jeannette Abouhamad, Nelly Arvelo, Angelina Pollak, Sara Bendahan and Virginia Pereira Álvarez. Lourdes said:

{{quote|I feel satisfied, not only for the amount of articles created, but because I learned information about women that were pioneer in some areas managed by men and they gave an important contribution to society|Lourdes Herrera, volunteer}}

Meanwhile the participant that made the biggest amount of content was Enrique Cubero, IVIC’s worker (“Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas” in English “Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigation), who added the profile of the sociologist and historian Yajaira Freites.

The closure of the edit-a-thon was made by Gioconda San Blas, The president of the Academy of Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Venezuela, who gave her perspective as a Venezuelan scientist and spoke with the presents about the challenges of the release of science in our country Venezuela.


Press release, translated by Cristhian Da Silva, volunteer of Wikimedia Venezuela

Notes[edit]