Planting Wiki seeds
Heidi M. Meudt, Curator Botany, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Siobhan Leachman, Wikimedian, Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, are two very experienced Wiki contributors who intend to present a talk titled Botanists in the Wikiverse – planting the seeds of open data enrichment and reuse at the upcoming ASBS 2025 “Next Generation Botany” Conference in Armidale. This presentation will include coverage of their outreach undertaken at the XX International Botanical Congress (IBC) held in Madrid in 2024.
During the IBC Heidi and Siobhan, along with colleagues Sabine von Mering and Joaquim Santos, formed the WikiProject IBC 2024; a collaborative project to engage with and upskill the attendees. During the conference they delivered a free, full-day, multilingual Wikidata workshop to botanists, aiming at improving their knowledge and use of Wikidata. They “wikified” the conference, boosting the richness of open data in Wikidata about IBC organisers and presenters and also presented a Wikidata related poster.
Heidi and Siobhan are now providing a similar opportunity to a limited number of participants attending ASBS 2025.
Workshop - Sunday 2 November
Are you interested in expanding your own digital outreach skills by engaging with Wiki platforms? If so, Heidi and Siobhan will be presenting a full-day workshop at the ASBS 2025 Conference.
The free in-person “Wiki for Botanists” workshop will be held on Sunday 2 November from 9am to 5pm. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea is included, and only 25 spots are available.
The Wiki for Botanists workshop is open and relevant to anyone attending the ASBS 2025 Conference. During the workshop, attendees will improve their digital outreach skills by researching, writing, and editing about botany using Australasian examples in Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
Register now for this free, full-day in-person workshop.
Free virtual introductory Wiki webinar - Tuesday 14 October
Prior to the ASBS conference workshop a free virtual introductory one-hour Wiki webinar will be presented that is open to anyone who wants to improve their digital outreach and communication skills by learning how to enrich Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. This online session will be held on Tuesday 14th of October at 3pm NZST (i.e. 10am Perth, 12pm Papua New Guinea and 1pm Sydney). The webinar is free, but please register to get the Zoom link.
During this webinar, the organisers will convince you how impactful your engagement with the Wikiverse can be, particularly in the area of plant biodiversity. Please spread the word to your students, colleagues and friends – everyone is invited from any country, and you don’t have to attend the conference or the conference workshop to attend this online webinar!
References
von Mering, Sabine, Siobhan Leachman, Joaquim Santos, and Heidi M. Meudt. 2025. “Wikidata for botanists: Benefits of collaborating and sharing linked open data.” Annals of Botany: mcaf062.
Meudt, Heidi M. and Siobhan Leachman. 2025. Botanists in the Wikiverse. ASBS Newsletter 202: 42–44.
Licensing
This blog was written by Heidi M. Meudt ([email protected]), Curator Botany, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington and Siobhan Leachman ([email protected]), Wikimedian, Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, and is licensed as CC BY 4.0.
