UKLFI Charitable Trust invites you to a webinar on “The Rules and Practices of Wikipedia” with Alan Sohn and Natasha Hausdorff on Wednesday 28 October at 4pm UK time (6pm Israel, 5pm Europe, 12.00 ET)
Wikipedia is the world’s largest reference website, hosting over 68 million articles in more than 300 languages and attracting billions of monthly views. As well as providing information directly to the public, it is accessed by search engines and used to train AI large language models. Its influence on knowledge and thought can hardly be overstated.
Anyone can volunteer as an editor of Wikipedia and amend existing articles or create new ones. Volunteer editors can thus contribute constructively and make a meaningful difference in developing and shaping the world’s largest reference work.
Wikipedia has a system of rules which editors are expected to observe and procedures to resolve differences between them. Substantial bodies of precedents and practices have developed in their interpretation and application.
Wikipedia editors need to understand these rules, procedures, precedents and practices, particularly if they wish to contribute in controversial areas such as the Middle East. This webinar will serve as an introduction to this important subject.
To register PRESS HERE
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Alan Sohn is a New Jersey-based systems consultant, AI analyst and Wikipedia editor. In the 20-plus years since creating his account, he has updated Wikipedia with more than 500,000 edits, consistently adding material and detailed references. He has written more than 2,500 new articles, including a thousand that have been peer-reviewed for inclusion on the encyclopedia’s main page in its Did You Know? section.
In addition to editing extensively about New York City and virtually every aspect of his home state of New Jersey, Sohn has edited thousands of articles in depth on a wide range of topics related to Jews, Judaism, Jewish history, the Holocaust, Israel and its history. He has been widely consulted for his expertise and experience in Wikipedia.
Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister at 6 Pump Court Chambers and a frequent speaker on International Law. She has a law degree from Oxford University, qualified as a solicitor at Skadden, and gained an LLM from Tel Aviv University, focussing on public international law and the law of armed conflict. She clerked for Miriam Naor, President of Israel’s Supreme Court, and was a fellow at Columbia Law School’s National Security programme. Natasha is legal director of UKLFI Charitable Trust.
Natasha’s work explaining legal issues relating to Israel has been recognised by the American Jewish Committee’s award for moral courage and by the honour of lighting one of the torches on Har Herzl to mark Israel’s Independence Day.