Wikipedia edit-a-thon

Africa Groundwater Atlas >> Wikipedia edit-a-thon

Creating the first Hydrogeology of Africa pages in Wikipedia!!

Africa Groundwater Atlas Wikipedia edit-a-thon

At the 46th IAH Congress 2019 we ran a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to transfer content from the Africa Groundwater Atlas into Wikipedia, making hydrogeology information for Africa more visible and accessible to a wider audience.

What is an edit-a-thon?

A Wikipedia edit-a-thon is an event where people get together to edit Wikipedia - often focused on a specific topic. It is an opportunity for people with similar interests to get together to improve the content of Wikipedia, while learning how to edit the online encyclopedia and often eating snacks and drinking beer (although this is optional!).

Before this event, there were no Wikipedia pages related to the hydrogeology of Africa. This edit-a-thon aimed to start to change that by starting to create "Groundwater in..." pages for countries in Africa. These were based on the existing country pages in the Africa Groundwater Atlas, but summarised and edited to make information on African groundwater more accessible and visible to a wider audience. The Africa Groundwater Atlas is already written in Wiki software, providing a great starting point!

Where and when was the edit-a-thon?

The Africa Groundwater Atlas Wikipedia edit-a-thon took place at the 46th IAH Congress in Malaga, Spain. The Congress ran from the 22nd to 27th September at the Trade Fairs and Congress Centre of Malaga.

See the Congress Programme.

Create your own Wikipedia account

You'll need a Wikipedia account in order to start editing Wikipedia. You can create an account here - Create a Wikipedia Account.

You'll set up a Username that will be visible to everyone viewing any pages that you edit. You don't have to use your real name if you don't want to. Note that accounts (and usernames) are for individuals and not organisations.

Getting started with Wikipedia editing

In the edit-a-thon we led participants through everything they needed to know about editing Wikipedia pages! If you want to get started learning how on your own, try the Wikipedia Adventure, where you can learn to edit Wikpedia in about an hour.

Interested in getting involved?

You can find some more resources to help you create and edit new Wikipedia pages on groundwater in Africa in this Africa Groundwater Atlas Google Drive resource folder.

We'd love to hear about any Wikipedia pages made using information from the Africa Groundwater Atlas - please email us at AfricaGWAtlas@bgs.ac.uk

Return to Africa Groundwater Atlas