[ANU Pacific.Institute] Improving knowledge about the Pacific on wikipedia

[Hedvig Skirgård]

Hi,

I much enjoy reading papers by fellow researchers who work on the pacific,
go to conferences and follow email threads on ASAONET and at other venues.
I also believe that when possible we who do work on the region should also
do more to improve the state of knowledge about the pacific in open places
that the public accesses - like wikipedia and google.

For example, if you google "who discovered the pacific ocean" right now,
Google deduces based on the information on Wikipedia (and elsewhere) that
the best answer is Balboa of Spain. That's not ideal, and this is the same
for Australia, Americas etc. Similarly, I think many of you will find
the wikipedia
page on the Exploration of the Pacific lacking.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_the_Pacific> The state of
pages on the history of Micronesian islands is also rather depressing.
Often, the pages are dominated by bombs, wars and ship wrecks and there is
little said of any other history or context.

Complaining about google and wikipedia won't help, but editing and
uploading better information will. Please, if you have the time and
knowledge -* edit wikipedia.* Some researchers also make students edit
wikipedia as a part of course assessment (under supervision). Here's a
simple guide on how to editing wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contributing_to_Wikipedia#How_to_edit

I've introduced you to my better Pacific maps project before
<https://sites.google.com/site/hedvigskirgard/pacific-maps#h.p_ayQbuSHCC0M2>,
and when they have been finalised, I'm looking forward to uploading them to
all the relevant wiki-articles and replacing the less than ideal maps that
are there now. Through consulting you and incorporating your advice, I've
actually already made you a part of improving wikipedia in the near future
(hurray, go you!).

Why not keep that up by looking up the wiki for an area or time-period of
the Pacific that you are knowledgable about and see what possible
improvements you can make :)? You can do it!

*Med vänliga hälsningar**,*

*Hedvig Skirgård*


PhD Candidate

The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity

ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language

School of Culture, History and Language
College of Asia and the Pacific

The Australian National University

Website <https://sites.google.com/site/hedvigskirgard/>


P.S. If you have multiple email addresses, I kindly ask you to just use one
with corresponding with me. Email threads and invites to get confusing
otherwise. I will only email you from my gmail, even if other email
addresses re-direct emails to them to my gmail (ANU etc).
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