How the #wikinobel Nobel Peace Prize collaboration came to be

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Bente Erichsen, Executive Director at the Nobel Peace Center, and Atrid Carlsen of Wikimedia Norway, edit after the announcement. “Edit-a-thon Nobel Peace Prize 04” by WMNOastrid, under CC-BY-SA-4.0

In April 2013, the Nobel Peace Center and Wikimedia Norway came together for their first collaboration: an edit-a-thon to enhance the quality of Wikipedia articles on the Nobel Peace Prize, various Peace Prize laureates, and other related articles on war, peace and conflict resolution.
Both groups agreed it was a great experience, and were looking for opportunities to continue working together. Last week, they came together again at the Nobel Peace Center for the announcement of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. On Friday, 10th October, a group of Wikipedians from Wikimedia Norway converged at the Peace Center, in order to follow the announcement. There, they made updates to Wikipedia in real time as the winners — girl’s education activist Malala Yousafzai, of Pakistan, and childhood rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, of India — were made public.
At the same time, 500km away in the northern Norwegian city of Trondheim, Wikimedian Jon Harald Søby followed remotely, supporting updates to other language versions of Wikipedia by Wikimedians all around the world. Throughout the day we kept in contact via Skype, and Jon Harald was even interviewed about the experience on Norwegian national radio.
Knowledge and education of young and old alike is pivotal to all activities at the Nobel Peace Center, which is visited by 220,000 people every year, one third of whom are children and young people. The Nobel Peace Center works to increase the knowledge of the Nobel Peace Prize and its history, its laureates and topics within the fields of war, peace, and conflict resolution. The Nobel Peace Center and Wikimedia Norway both want this collaboration to contribute to even more quality and fact-based knowledge to Wikipedia, to enhance public conversation on these important issues. We greatly appreciate all the efforts and feedback from community members around the world in connection with the event.
Kirsti Svenning at The Nobel Peace Center sums up: “The way a Wikipedia article is made, the fact that several people co-write it, bringing a joint pool of knowledge and facts together and continuously enhancing the quality of the final output, is very much in keeping with the Nobel Peace Center’s mission: to increase the knowledge and reflection about the Nobel Peace Prize. The collaboration with Wikimedia Norway is much appreciated and there are new events already being planned.”
Wikimedia Norway looks forward to a continued collaboration with the Nobel Peace Center. If there are any community members, Wikimedia chapters, or institutions with ideas or thoughts on an international collaboration, please contact astrid@wikimedia.no.
Astrid Carlsen
Prosjektleder, Wikimedia Norge

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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