Are you interested in contributing to Wikipedia, but don’t know how? Does your institution have climate change content to share, but has never considered using Wikipedia as an outreach channel?

If so, this webinar is for you. CDKN and Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) hosted an introductory webinar on how to contribute climate change information to Wikipedia on 29 October 2020.

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 learned more 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?

Webinar recording

Webinar presentations and Q&A

Download the CDKN/FCFA presentation

Download the Wikimedia Foundation presentation

Download the Q&A report

Photo: UN Women/Emad Karim, via Flickr