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The collaboration between the Madri+D Knowledge Foundation and Wikimedia Spain is reflected in the execution of different activities and academic training throughout the course, aimed at creating and improving scientific content on Wikipedia in Spanish, based on the model developed during the course. academic year 2022-23.
At the URJC, the professor José María García de Madariaga is the coordinator for the improvement of scientific content in Spanish at the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+I) of the Vice-Rector's Office for Research, Innovation and Transfer. Under the mentorship of Professor García de Madariaga, the URJC developed an in-person workshop with its doctoral students at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024. The program offered the students a tour in four two-hour sessions of the keys that determine the processes of scientific communication in the digital age, and an exploration of some of the challenges that any science professional who wants to communicate and disseminate science must face. The workshop had a total participation of 17 students, eleven male and six female students. This activity is part of the annual program of the UCC+I and has the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
In addition, at the beginning of 2024, this university developed the course "Wikipedia in the classroom: Tools for teaching innovation", aimed at teachers, in which 24 people participated (13 men and 11 women). The course was designed by Florence Claes, professor and president of Wikimedia Spain, who also taught it, together with Professor José María García de Madariaga. It lasted 10 hours divided into four synchronous meetings and an individual tutorial for each participant. The course offered training on Wikipedia and its free knowledge ecosystem from an educational perspective, with the aim of raising awareness of the possibilities that this tool for collective construction of knowledge and memory harbors for use as a resource for teaching innovation in projects with students. .
For its part, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UCM, through its Scientific Dissemination and Transfer Unit (UdcVet), implemented in his Doctoral School (EDUCM) the course “Learning to disseminate and transfer scientific knowledge through Wikipedia.” The course lasted 10 hours, was taught online and a total of 16 students participated, 8 women and 8 men.
Its coordination was in charge of the Vice-Dean of Research, Transfer and Library of the Faculty, María Arias, and was mentored by Eva Ramos and Rosa María García, together with Ana Casado of the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of the UCM (UCC+I) and Florence Claes; in addition to the support given by Rubén Ojeda, project manager at Wikimedia Spain.
The objective of this training activity was to make science visible in Spanish and increase the quality of the information available, in addition to improving user trust in Wikipedia by publishing scientific terms that have been created by experts in the field.
How was the Wikipedia Club born?
The collaboration between Wikimedia Spain and the madri+d Knowledge Foundation was born in 2021 with the educational project Madridmasd, based on the creation and design proposed by Florencia Claes.
Its main objective was to reverse the lack of content on science and innovation in Spanish within Wikipedia. This collaboration was carried out through the figure of the itinerant Wikipedian, represented at that time by professors Elios Mendieta Rodríguez and Rafael Ruiz.
After the good results achieved during this first period, in spring 2022 the creation of the Wikipedia Club was proposed, for the 2022-23 academic year, and thus, continue the collaboration between both entities with the aim of continuing to promote the creation of scientific content on Wikipedia in Spanish with the involvement of universities.
In accordance with this, the development of Wikipedia Clubs was proposed in each university, energized by one or several people from the same institution, previously formed by Wikimedia Spain. The objective was to involve the students and teachers in an active and interdisciplinary way, leaving the classroom and opening it up to the rest of the university.
This is how the development of each club began. In total four of them were formed: one at the URJC, another at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and two at the UCM (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Chemical Sciences).
At the UAM it was developed under the mentorship of Professor Concepción Torres Navas, supported by other people from the scientific culture unit, such as Rosa Alvarado and Iván Narváez. At the URJC the tutoring was carried out by Professor José María García de Madariaga; while, at the Faculty of Chemistry of the UCM, it was under the coordination of Ángel Gutiérrez Alonso and Raquel Cortés Gil; and at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, under the coordination of María Arias Álvarez, Rosa Mª García García and Eva Ramos Alonso.