Mike Dickison
Mike Dickison | |
|---|---|
 Dickison in the Auckland Museum in 2018 | |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Occupation(s) | Entomologist, museum curator |
Mike Dickison is an entomologist, museum curator, and New Zealand Wikipedia editor. He was New Zealand's first "Wikipedian-at-large" after he received a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.
Early life
Dickison has a PhD in zoology, which looked at giant flightless birds.[1][2]
Career
He was curator of natural history at the Whanganui Regional Museum, after moving there in 2013.[3][4]
He became interested in Wikipedia in 2009.[3] In 2012, he created a community group "Whanganui Wiki Wednesday" which met once a month to edit local pages on Wikipedia. He then began to run Wikipedia workshops around New Zealand.[1]
He has advocated for museums to engage with Wikipedia to get their collections accessible to the public.[5] He argues that Wikipedia can also be a powerful tool for governments to share information and doing public outreach, citing the example of kauri dieback.[5]
Wikipedian-at-large 2018
In 2018, he received a $61,000 grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to become New Zealand's first "Wikipedian-at-large".[1] The grant will pay his salary, travel costs and conference registration fees.[4] He aims to address the gaps in New Zealand-related content on Wikipedia, such as the lack of articles on Māori and women.[3] He is also hoping to attract more women editors to Wikipedia to address the gender bias of article topics.[2] He is currently travelling around New Zealand in his 4WD, which acts as a mobile office and entomology field station.[1]
In July 2018, his first stop was Auckland Museum.[3]
In October 2018 he was in Northland, hosted by Heritage New Zealand in Kerikeri. He recorded Maori-language pronunciations to add to Wikipedia articles,[2] and called for locals to share their stories.[6]
Personal life
His favourite dinosaur is the styracosaurus.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d Easther, Elizabeth (18 September 2018). "Mr Wiki: Mike Dickison is NZ's first Wikipedian at large". Noted. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b c d Macdonald, Nikki (20 October 2018). "National Portrait: Mike Dickison, conservationist and Wikipedian". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b c d "Wikipedian in Residence: Mike Dickison". Auckland Museum. 25 July 2018.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b Wilson, Zaryd (2018-05-22). "Mike Dickison gets grant to become travelling Wikipedian". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
- ^ a b Hancock, Farah (2018-02-16). "New Zealand's own Wikipedian-at-large". Newsroom. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
- ^ "Wikipedia wants to hear your Northland stories". NZ Herald. 2018-10-02. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
External links
