Wikidata:WikiProject iNaturalist/Event 20190416 Where iNaturalist meets Wiki
Notified participants of WikiProject iNaturalist
On the 16th April, [Meise Botanic Garden] together with the Groene Pioniers Project (green pioneers) are holding an event in the Garden on iNaturalist & Wikimedia. The event will be themed around invasive plants, though not necessarily those invasive to Belgium. During this event, we will be photographing plants in the Garden, learning how to load them into iNaturalist, Wikidata and Wikicommons, then learning how to make use of these pictures in Wikipedia and Wikidata. We will also edit Wikipedia and Wikidata, particularly to enrich the information on invasive species.
Background[edit]
iNaturalist.org began as a Master's final project in 2008 and grew to a very popular app to help identify plants and animals. The community behind Inaturalist consists of 750.000 scientists. Content created by the iNaturalist community can be very valuable to the Wikimedia community. First, observations stored on iNaturalist with an open and compatible license to the different wiki projects can provide valuable illustrations. Wikipedia articles can be enriched with already approx. 900k photos of observations. Furthermore, the assertions made by the iNaturalist community can act as references in various Wikidata claims or Wikipedia articles. In many cases, we have to rely on personal annotations by a picture taker. iNaturalist provides images of organisms with stronger - peer-reviewed - assertions on the subject in the picture. Wikidata is the linked database of the Wikimedia Foundation. What Wikipedia is to text, Wikidata is to data. Anyone can add and edit data in Wikidata. During Wikimania 2018, the annual Wikimedia conference, in Cape Town South Africa, a group of enthusiasts met at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden adjacent to the Table mountain. Next, of being avid participants in the Wiki community, most also turned out to be active in the iNaturalist community. This Wikiproject was one of the results of this (informal) meeting. The meeting in the Botanical Garden in Meisse will continue on this path
Program[edit]
On April 16th we will gather with a group of enthusiasts to explore the potential of the combination of iNaturalist and Wikidata/commons/Wikipedia. With a theme of (invasive) species, We will start with a set of introductions on the different platforms, i.e. getting everyone ready to go on Wiki and iNaturalist. Next, spend some time on learning what invasive plants are and how they are modelled in both Wikidata and iNaturalist. After the introductions, we will observe and try to “capture” as many observations as possible. The objective is to inventorize what is part of the botanical garden and use iNaturalist as evidence. If time permits we will use those observations to create a Wikidata scheme that allows us to list the observed species, create quality photo content for future Wikipedia articles and extract translations from the many Wikipedias for each observation. Each participant should have a camera, an iNaturalist account, a wiki account and preferably a laptop/iPad to do some post-processing The event will start at 10:00 am and end at 16:00 on Plantentuin Meise. [directions see here| ]
Registration[edit]
The event is free, but there are limited places available. (first come, first served). Therefore registration is mandatory. If you would like to join us please let us know below by leaving your name. You will have to bring your own gear (e.g. laptop, smartphone and camera. The event will be all day, but we will provide the refreshments.