Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2013-08

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Wikimania 2013[edit]

3 Wikimedia Armenia members and wikieditors participated in Wikimania 2013 which was held in Hong Kong. Vachagan Gratian to Wikimedia Foundation applied for scholarship and got it. Mher Bekaryan applied for Wikimedia Poland which provides its own scholarships each year for Wikimedians willing to attend Wikimania. There were up to 10 scholarships for Wikimedians from Poland and 4 scholarships for Wikimedians from CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) countries. The scholarship covered travel and accommodation expenses, as well as conference fee. Mher Bekaryan got the scholarship. Susanna Mkrtchyan participated in Wikimania 2013 on her own.

During Wikimania 2013 participants from Wikimedia Armenia exchanged their knowledge, experience and presentations of ongoing work with other participants.

Preparations for Wiki loves Monuments 2013[edit]

T-shirt for Wiki loves Monuments Armenia 2013

Wiki loves Monuments contest was first organized in 2010 by a Dutch student and is considered the largest photo contest in the world. The goal of the contest is to take photos of monuments and upload them to Wikimedia Commons wherefrom they can be used in Wikipedia and its sister projects.

Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh decided to join the contest for the first time. The contest was organized and coordinated in Armenia by Wikimedia Armenia. The coordinator of the contest - Vachagan Gratian, organization team - Vachagan Gratian, Mher Bekaryan, Alexey Chalabyan.

There are about 25000 state-registered monuments in Armenia and 2983 monuments in total in Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia has freedom of panorama (FoP). Earlier Armenian Parliament had already amended Armenian law on copyright to allow freedom of panorama in Armenia by the initiative of WMAM[1] It means that participants could shoot any monument they could find. But in Nagorno-Karabakh there is no FoP. It means that the participants could upload photos of monuments if the architect died before 1944.[2]

A wiki page of the list of the Armenian and Nagorno Karabakh monumnets in Armenian Wikipedia was created with the help of wiki community.

As a way to support the contest, Wikimedia Armenia published a video announcing the contest. By one of the wikieditors' - Siranuysh Ohanyan's efforts and initiative a second video was created showing quickly how to participate in the contest.

Wiki loves Monuments Armenia T-shirts, cups, booklets and certificates were printed.

An official website and a page on Wikimedia Commons were launched.

It was planned to organize photowalks in Yerevan, Goris, Gyumri, Shushi, Vanadzor and a flash-mob in Yerevan. The planned events schedule was the following:

  • 4th September - to send invitations to press conference
  • 5th September - press conference
  • 7th September - flash-mob, photo walking and upload workshop in Yerevan
  • 14th September - photo walking & upload workshop in Goris
  • 15th September - photo walking & upload workshop in Shushi
  • 22th September - photo walking & upload workshop in Vanadzor
  • 29th September - photo walking & upload workshop in Gyumri
WLM Armenia logo

Wiki loves Monumnets organization team arranged with well-known artists of RA to include them in the contest jury who would choose the winners and the best photos to send to the international contest on October. The list of the jury: Poghos Poghosyan (meritorious photographer), Karen Mirzoyan (photographer), Arsen Karapetyan (architect), Hayk Tamanyan (director of Alexander Tamanyan Museum-Institute), Arthur Barseghyan (photographer), Naira Muradyan (animator), Eduard Ayanyan (director of Yerevan magazine).

See more details on WLM2013 Armenia grant report

Gallery[edit]

Achievements in Wikipedia[edit]

Armenian Wikipedia editors meetup, 2013

Wikimedia Armenia organized various meetups and workshops for several months to encourage wikicommunity and to envolve more editors. As a result Armenian Wikipedia articles grew from 50 000-70 000.

  • 1st August, 2013 - Wikipedia reached 50 000 article threshold
  • 3rd August, 2013 - Wikipedia reached 60 000 article threshold
  • 8th August, 2013 - Wikipedia reached 70 000 article threshold

Digitization of SAE[edit]

Digitization of SAE, which started in July 2013, was still in process. During August digitization of the volume 3 and 4 were completed.

References[edit]

  1. "Legislation: National Assembly of RA". Parliament.am. Retrieved 2013-04-26. 
  2. Nagorno-Karabakh is de jure part of Azerbaijan, but it is de facto independent republic. Azerbaijan has also no FoP. Read more about Nagorno-Karabakh in English Wikipedia