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Mike Dickison

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Mike Dickison
Dickison in the Auckland Museum in 2018
NationalityNew 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 grew up in Christchurch. His father was an apprentice boilermaker, and his mother was a homemaker.[1] His father encouraged his interest in curating and collecting.[1]

Dickison has a PhD from Duke University in zoology, which looked at giant flightless birds.[2][3]

Career

He was curator of natural history at the Whanganui Regional Museum, after moving there in 2013.[4][5]

He became interested in Wikipedia in 2009.[4] 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.[2]

He has advocated for museums to engage with Wikipedia to get their collections accessible to the public.[6] 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.[6]

Wikipedian-at-large 2018

Dickison (front, left) at a Wikipedia edit-a-thon in Auckland Museum, July 2018

In 2018, he received a $61,000 grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to become New Zealand's first "Wikipedian-at-large".[2] The grant will pay his salary, travel costs and conference registration fees.[5] He aims to address the gaps in New Zealand-related content on Wikipedia, such as the lack of articles on Māori and women.[4] He is also hoping to attract more women editors to Wikipedia to address the gender bias of article topics.[3] He is currently travelling around New Zealand in his 4WD, which acts as a mobile office and entomology field station.[2]

In July 2018, his first stop was Auckland Museum.[4]

In October 2018 he was in Northland, hosted by Heritage New Zealand in Kerikeri. He recorded Maori-language pronunciations to add to Wikipedia articles,[3] and called for locals to share their stories.[7]

Critter of the Week

Mike presented about the Critter of the Week radio program in Bali, Indonesia at ESEAP 2018, [8] An updated presentation was given at the Wikimedia Australia Melbourne meetup in November 2018.[9] Critter of the Week was discussed as an example of a museum outreach at the 2018 SPNHC conference in Dunedin.[10]

Personal life

His favourite dinosaur is the styracosaurus.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Graham-McLay, Charlotte (16 November 2018). "From Encyclopedic Collector to 'Wikipedian-at-Large'". New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  2. ^ 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)
  3. ^ 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)
  4. ^ a b c d "Wikipedian in Residence: Mike Dickison". Auckland Museum. 25 July 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ a b Wilson, Zaryd (2018-05-22). "Mike Dickison gets grant to become travelling Wikipedian". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  6. ^ a b Hancock, Farah (2018-02-16). "New Zealand's own Wikipedian-at-large". Newsroom. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  7. ^ "Wikipedia wants to hear your Northland stories". NZ Herald. 2018-10-02. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  8. ^ "Wikipedia in Science". ESEAP Conference 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  9. ^ "Melbourne Meetup 37". Wikipedia: Melbourne Meetup. 11 November 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  10. ^ Dickison, Mike (15 June 2018). ""Critter of the Week": Wikipedia as a Museum Outreach Tool". Biodiversity Information Science and Standards. 2: e25798. doi:10.3897/biss.2.25798.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
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