From campus to CAP: a Wikipedia internship in archaeology in Aotearoa

Madeline hard at work in the Underground Overground offices. Image: Mike Dickison.

Madeline Snowdon has been an intern based in the Christchurch Archaeology Project since February, part of the University of Canterbury’s Professional and Community Engagement programme that puts students into a workplace environment while they earn credits towards their degree.

While based at CAP Madeline has been working with Dr Mike Dickison, our Wikipedian in Residence, learning how to edit Wikipedia and Wikidata to improve the coverage of archaeology in Aotearoa.

She has enormously expanded the article on Palliser Bay, which had no mention of the site’s archaeology but now has a long and well-referenced section citing over a dozen sources. She also improved the articles on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Leach, Roger Green and Siân Halcrow, tracking down information in newspapers and journals. Madeline also worked with Wikidata, the open database underpinning Wikipedia, to find information on 10 different Aotearoa archaeologists, emailing each of them to confirm her work was accurate.

Madeline says there have been multiple benefits from her PACE internship: not just learning how Wikipedia works and how to edit it, but improving her typing skills, learning how to read and summarise the archaeology literature (including the 300-page Palliser Bay report), different web searching techniques, and getting experience working alongside subject matter experts in a real-world environment. She’s been a joy to work with and we’d gladly have her back.

Mike Dickison