Edit-a-thon

An edit-a-thon (sometimes written editathon) is an event where some editors of online communities such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap (also known as a "mapathon"), and LocalWiki edit and improve a specific topic or type of content. The events typically include basic editing training for new editors and may be combined with a more general social meetup. The word is a portmanteau of "edit" and "marathon". An edit-a-thon can either be "in-person" or online or a blended version of both. If it is not in-person, it is usually called a "virtual edit-a-thon" or "online edit-a-thon".

Locations (in-person events)

Wikipedia edit-a-thons have taken place at Wikimedia chapter headquarters; accredited educational institutions, including Sonoma State University, Arizona State University, Middlebury College,^[2] and the University of Victoria; scientific research institutions such as the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences;^[3] and cultural institutions, such as museums or archives.

Online/remote events

Several Wikipedia edit-a-thons have been held during the COVID-19 pandemic adhering to social distancing measures. These events have been held online using synchronous voice and video chat as well as asynchronous text-based platforms and discussion forums.^[4]^[5]

Topics

The events have included topics such as cultural heritage sites, museum collections, women's history, art, feminism, narrowing Wikipedia's gender gap, and social justice issues.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Women, African Americans, and members of the LGBT community are using edit-a-thons to bridge the gap in Wikipedia's sexual and racial makeup^[12] and to challenge the under-representation of Africa-related topics.^[13]

Organizers

Some Wikipedia edit-a-thons have been organized by Wikipedians in residence. The OpenStreetMap community has also hosted several edit-a-thons.^[14]^[15]

Examples

The "Wiki loves SDGs" initiative held a week-long online edit-a-thon on topics around the Sustainable Development Goals. The event took place online in September 2020 during Global Goals Week. It was organized by Project Everyone, an NGO in the UK, and had around 300 registered participants, 108 active contributors and 64 new editors. Most of the participants were from developing countries and seven out of the nine prize winners were from Africa. The event focused on improving SDG-related content on the English Wikipedia (some improvements were also made to the Spanish, Macedonian,^[16] Catalan and Portuguese Wikipedias). About 500 articles were improved.^[17]^{[circular reference]} Jimmy Wales attended the closing ceremony and presented the nine awards to the most engaged volunteers.^[18]
In August 2018, Future Climate for Africa and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network convened the first African Wikipedia edit-a-thon on climate change in Cape Town South Africa.
The longest edit-a-thon recognized by Guinness World Records took place first in 2016 (from June 9 to 12) at the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City where Wikimedia Mexico volunteers and museum's staff edited during 72 continuous hours.^[19]^[20] In 2023, this record was broken by Polish wikipedians (see below).
Since 2014, Art+Feminism has held world-wide edit-a-thons annually to expand the histories of women, feminism, and arts found on Wikipedia, and to dismantle the biases on how women are represented online. 2019 marks the expansion of the movement to include "gender non-binary activists and artists".^[21]
The global Ada Lovelace Day Edit-a-thon, an initiative to improve the diversity of Wikipedia articles, was co-created by Carol Ann Whitehead and Google Expert, Susan Dolan. It took place on October 9, 2019,^[22] in Manchester at The Pankhurst Centre.^[23]^[24]^[25]
In 2023 the first 100-hour-long edit-a-thon, recognized by Guinness World Records, was organized in Warsaw, Poland, from September 26 to 30, to celebrate Polish Wikipedia's 22nd birthday. It took place at the Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of the Masovian Voivodeship, and 127 editors participated in the event, but additional volunteers also helped to support it.^[26]

Gallery

The 72 horas con Rodin edit-a-thon in Mexico City was the longest ever until the Warsaw edit-a-thon overtook it.
Cross section of participants at the Igbo Wiktionary virtual edit-a-thon in August 2020
Attendees at the 2013 Women in the Arts Edit-a-thon in Washington, DC
An edit-a-thon in São Paulo, Brazil, aimed at creating and improving Wikipedia articles relating to feminism, women's rights and notable women
AfroCrowd Manager Sherry Antoine explaining edit-a-thons
Virtual workroom for the online edit-a-thon on SDG topics in September 2020 (using Workplace by Facebook)
"Wiki4Climate" opening session group photo in November 2020

References

↑ "Longest edit-a-thon". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
↑ "Feminists Strengthen Wikipedia's Content about Women". Middlebury College. April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
↑ "Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon - September 7, 2019". Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Archived from the original on 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
↑ Beth Mackay (8 December 2020). "Wiki4Climate – improving the global knowledge on climate change through Wikipedia". Future Climate for Africa. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
↑ Miranda038 (August 2020). "Wikivoyage edit-a-thon – Editing Albania and Kosovo's travel destinations". This Month in GLAM. Wikimedia community. Retrieved 30 July 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ Lavin, Talia (2016-03-11). "A Feminist Edit-a-Thon Seeks to Reshape Wikipedia". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
↑ Boboltz, Sara; Post, The Huffington (2015-04-15). "Editors Are Trying To Fix Wikipedia's Gender And Racial Bias Problem". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
↑ "Social Justice Wikipedia Edit-a-thon workshop - University of Victoria". www.uvic.ca. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
↑ Smith, Michelle R. (16 October 2013). "Female scientists getting their due on Wikipedia". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2017-01-12. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
↑ Katzner, Ben (1 February 2014). "SCSU group participates in edit-a-thon for Wikipedia website". St. Cloud Times. Retrieved 5 February 2014.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
↑ Koh, Adeline (30 May 2013). "How to Organize Your Own Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
↑ Reynosa, Peter (3 December 2015). "Why Don't More Latinos Contribute to Wikipedia?". El Tecolote. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
↑ Wexelbaum, Rachel S., Katie Herzog, and Lane Rasberry. "Queering Wiki." (2015).
↑ Villeda, Ian (12 April 2013). "OpenStreetMap #Editathon at MapBox". Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
↑ Foster, Mike (18 October 2013). "Fall 2013 OpenStreetMap Editathon". Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
↑ Kiril Simeonovski (2020) Wikipedia and Sustainable Development Goals: Engaging smaller Wikipedias, Diff (blog hosted by Wikimedia Foundation)
↑ ""Wiki loves SDGs" - Global Goals Week online edit-a-thon on SDG topics in September 2020". Wikipedia. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
↑ "Wiki Loves SDGs Closing Ceremony on 25 September 2020". The Global Goals (Youtube channel). 30 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-11-17. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
↑ "México ganó un nuevo récord Guinness y seguro te va a ser útil". Dinero en Imagen.com (in Mexican Spanish). 13 June 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
↑ Cruz y Corro, Andrés; Fernanda López, María (22 July 2016). "Wikipedia edit-a-thon, 72 hours long, is recognized with a Guinness World Record". Wikimedia Blog. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
↑ "ART+FEMINISM — Announcing Our Year 6 Campaign: Gender + The..." ART+FEMINISM. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
↑ "Wiki-edit-a-thon: Writing Women Back into History – UNYA Denmark". 19 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-06.^{[dead link]}
↑ "Global Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon (#Wikieditathon) 2019 – Manchester". Archived from the original on 2019-10-15.
↑ "Wiki Edit-a-Thon". Digital Science. 20 September 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
↑ "Ada Lovelace Day at The Pankhurst Centre". Archived from the original on 2019-10-15.
↑ "100 hours of continuous Wikipedia editing". Poznań University of Economics and Business (in Polish). Retrieved 2026-01-07.

External links

OpenStreetMap 'Mapathons'

[1] "Longest edit-a-thon". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 30 July 2026.

[2] "Feminists Strengthen Wikipedia's Content about Women". Middlebury College. April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2018.

[3] "Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon - September 7, 2019". Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Archived from the original on 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2019-09-09.

[4] Beth Mackay (8 December 2020). "Wiki4Climate – improving the global knowledge on climate change through Wikipedia". Future Climate for Africa. Retrieved 30 July 2026.

[5] Miranda038 (August 2020). "Wikivoyage edit-a-thon – Editing Albania and Kosovo's travel destinations". This Month in GLAM. Wikimedia community. Retrieved 30 July 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[6] Lavin, Talia (2016-03-11). "A Feminist Edit-a-Thon Seeks to Reshape Wikipedia". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

[7] Boboltz, Sara; Post, The Huffington (2015-04-15). "Editors Are Trying To Fix Wikipedia's Gender And Racial Bias Problem". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

[8] "Social Justice Wikipedia Edit-a-thon workshop - University of Victoria". www.uvic.ca. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

[9] Smith, Michelle R. (16 October 2013). "Female scientists getting their due on Wikipedia". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2017-01-12. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

[10] Katzner, Ben (1 February 2014). "SCSU group participates in edit-a-thon for Wikipedia website". St. Cloud Times. Retrieved 5 February 2014.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)

[11] Koh, Adeline (30 May 2013). "How to Organize Your Own Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 5 February 2014.

[12] Reynosa, Peter (3 December 2015). "Why Don't More Latinos Contribute to Wikipedia?". El Tecolote. Retrieved December 4, 2015.

[13] Wexelbaum, Rachel S., Katie Herzog, and Lane Rasberry. "Queering Wiki." (2015).

[14] Villeda, Ian (12 April 2013). "OpenStreetMap #Editathon at MapBox". Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2014.

[15] Foster, Mike (18 October 2013). "Fall 2013 OpenStreetMap Editathon". Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2014.

[16] Kiril Simeonovski (2020) Wikipedia and Sustainable Development Goals: Engaging smaller Wikipedias, Diff (blog hosted by Wikimedia Foundation)

[17] ""Wiki loves SDGs" - Global Goals Week online edit-a-thon on SDG topics in September 2020". Wikipedia. Retrieved 14 October 2020.

[18] "Wiki Loves SDGs Closing Ceremony on 25 September 2020". The Global Goals (Youtube channel). 30 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-11-17. Retrieved 14 October 2020.

[19] "México ganó un nuevo récord Guinness y seguro te va a ser útil". Dinero en Imagen.com (in Mexican Spanish). 13 June 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-13.

[20] Cruz y Corro, Andrés; Fernanda López, María (22 July 2016). "Wikipedia edit-a-thon, 72 hours long, is recognized with a Guinness World Record". Wikimedia Blog. Retrieved 2016-07-30.

[21] "ART+FEMINISM — Announcing Our Year 6 Campaign: Gender + The..." ART+FEMINISM. Retrieved 2019-03-08.

[22] "Wiki-edit-a-thon: Writing Women Back into History – UNYA Denmark". 19 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-06.^{[dead link]}

[23] "Global Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon (#Wikieditathon) 2019 – Manchester". Archived from the original on 2019-10-15.

[24] "Wiki Edit-a-Thon". Digital Science. 20 September 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2019-11-06.

[25] "Ada Lovelace Day at The Pankhurst Centre". Archived from the original on 2019-10-15.

[26] "100 hours of continuous Wikipedia editing". Poznań University of Economics and Business (in Polish). Retrieved 2026-01-07.

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