ABC-ANZORS Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
4/12/2025 3:33 pm
Wikipedia is Earth's most widely read knowledge repository, with approximately two billion unique device visits per month. Despite this, less than 20% of Wikipedia biographies are about women, and in 2023, a search of 'Women in Biomechanics' on Wikipedia by Emeritus Professor Julie Steele returned no results.
Throughout 2024, Drs. Celeste Coltman and Fraje Watson have co-led the Women in Biomechanics Wikibomb, an initiative of the International Society of Biomechanics. As part of the initiative they have been working with a team of volunteers to create and update Wikipedia biographies of notable women in biomechanics.
In December 2024, as part of the ABC-ANZORS conference, an in-person women in biomechanics edit-a-thon event was held, sponsored by IWB. The event was also supported by Wikimedia Australia. They sent a full-time Wikimedia staff member to co-lead the event with Celeste Coltman and recruited four Wikipedians (i.e., Wikipedia volunteers) from the local area to help attendees edit and upload new pages. Approximately 25 delegates attended the event, and the buzz in the room was evident. It was so great to see everyone busy researching and writing about notable women in biomechanics! Nine new articles were created and over 200 edits were made. The new pages have had more than 5 million views to date, with more metrics available on the event dashboard.
Given the success of our first in-person edit-a-thon, we are holding two more in-person women in biomechanics edit-a-thon events in 2025: one at ISB in Stockholm, Sweden on July 27th and another at ASB in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA on August 13th. Information about how to register for these events will be provided to all delegates of these congresses closer to the event date – but for now, if you are attending these conferences, mark these dates in your calendar and join us! It’s highly addictive.
In the meantime, we have just announced our second online round of the Wikibomb. If you are interested in participating, please sign up to create or update a page for a woman in biomechanics here. When you sign up, you will be given access to the Public Google Drive supported by IWB. This folder will contain a list of women in biomechanics who meet the Wikipedia notability criteria and clear instructions on how to write biographies and upload them. Once you sign up, we request you publish your biography by the end of May so that it can be edited and approved before ISB 2025 in Stockholm. For any further questions, please contact Fraje Watson.
Check out this great group photo from the event!
Written by: Celeste Coltman, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Exercise Science at the University of Canberra
