Education/News/September 2022/Senior Citizens WikiTown 2022: Exploring Olomouc and its heritage

Senior Citizens WikiTown 2022: Exploring Olomouc and its heritage

Summary: Wikimedia CZ organized Senior WikiTown where participants explored various cultural locations together and wrote a good number of articles on Czech Wikipedia and extended the existing ones.

Social Media channels or hashtags: #seniorskewikimesto, #seniorcitizenswikitown, #olomouc, #edu, #wikimediaczechrepublic, #seniorcitizenswritewikipedia

During a weekend between the 9th and 11th of September 2022, Wikimedia CZ organized another traditional event called Senior WikiTown. This time participants visited Moravian Regional Centre Olomouc, where they joined a rich programme consisting of exploration of cultural sites and venues.

The main base for Senior Wikipedists from all over the Czech Republic was a local Olomouc Research Library (Vědecká knihovna v Olomouci) which provided not only room for editing, but also guide through their rich collections of manuscripts, maps, and other rare documents not available to the general public. Participants enjoyed both this inspiring insight and other visits, such as unique steam waterworks in the Chvalkovice district built in the 19th century, renaissance town hall or the Art Centre of Palacky University renovated from the original Jesuit College.

During the busy weekend, which was also boosted by Days of European Heritage, Seniors took several hundreds of photographs and wrote several new articles on Czech Wikipedia, as well as they extended some existing ones. Participants were guided and supervised by senior Wikipedists, who were keen to help with any difficulties.

Not only visits and guided tours were part of this meet-up. Good food, drinks, and inspirational lectures were part of the joyful event. Senior WikiTown is only one of the activities for Czech seniors. Throughout the year Wikimedia CZ also organizes beginners and advanced courses and provides meetings and workshops as well as online counseling for the general public including seniors.

This event is always very enthusiastic and cheerful because it brings together Wiki editors who know each other only from an online environment. They have the motivation to edit and upload and they get to know each other well. We are really excited and looking forward to organizing such a successful event again.