Susan will talk about lessons she has learned about the sitter in the world of the psychic mediums AND she will update on the vital importance of Wikipedia as a weapon for Science Communication.
Susan Gerbic founded and runs the crowd-sourced project Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) which has written over 2 thousand Wikipedia articles concerning science, pseudoscience and people of science. With over a hundred editors from all over the world, located in a private Facebook group called The Secret Cabal they work in many languages and are always looking for more people to train for the team. Susan will explain the project as well as remind us of the importance of one of the most visited websites in the world. Bring your questions!
Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world, but how accurate are the articles? In a groundbreaking effort to increase information accuracy, a crowd-sourced project – Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) – has written over 2000 Wikipedia articles concerning science, pseudoscience, and the people of science.
Affectionately called the Wikipediatrician, Susan Gerbic is the founder of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW). A Center for Inquiry (CFI) Ambassador, Gerbic is a fellow of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and winner of the CFI’s Balles Award for Critical Thinking as well as the James Randi Foundation Award. Gerbic founded and manages About Time, a non-profit organization focusing on scientific skepticism and activism. While her particular focus has been “Grief Vampires” (psychic mediums), her activism encompasses all areas of skepticism.
In 2019 the New York Times featured Gerbic’s involvement in two psychic stings (Operation Bumblebee & Operation Onion Ring. GSoW is a unique Wikipedia editing team as it focuses on training and mentoring team members and works in many languages.
To date the team has written over 2,200 articles that have been viewed over 185 million times, over 45% of the articles written are in languages other than English.
Gerbic maintains two YouTube channels. PsychicsExplains breaks down psychic readings into detailed bits in order to best understand what causes people to fool themselves into believing in after-death communication. www.youtube.com/@PsychicsExplained
Her second YouTube channel is AboutTimeProject which features various videos from past conferences, workshops, interviews and a playlist that explains what goes on behind the scenes with Wikipedia https://www.youtube.com/@AboutTimeProject
Follow up information and reading on Susan Gerbic
Location: Salinas, CA – but she often travels worldwide giving talks to groups small and large. Also open to online talks in all time zones.
Contact – [email protected]
Facebook – Susan Gerbic
YouTube – @PsychicsExplained
Twitter – SusanGerbic
NCAS lecture May 2022 – Grief Vampires, Wikipedia and More
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