GLAM Macedonia User Group/Annual plan 2018

The logo of GLAM Macedonia

This is the annual plan of the activities of GLAM Macedonia User Group for 2018.

SMART objectives[edit]

GLAM[edit]

Wikipedian in Residence

The SMART objectives of the GLAM program, i.e. Wikipedian in Residence sub-programme are:

to deepen of GLAM collaboration in Macedonia
to educate the GLAM employees on Wikimedia projects, educate them to add references into articles, and create new articles or improve the existing ones;
implementation of WIkimedia projects within WiR work;
establishing connections and starting cooperation with new GLAM institutions;
improving the cooperation which already exists;
organize special events in collaboration with GLAM institutions, such as edit-a-thons; workshops and Wikipedian tours, which will bring Wikipedians on-site to work with staff on content creation and improvement;
enriching Wikipedia with new content.

Photo contest

The SMART objectives of the photo contest sub-programme are:

to increase a number of free photos
to involve the community

Education[edit]

Wiki Clubs

The SMART objectives of the education sub-programme are:

establish new Wiki Clubs or Wiki sections;
recruit new editors and contributors;
add or improve the content of the existing Wikimedia projects in Macedonian.
spread the word about Wikipedia among the students

Teachers' conferences

The SMART objectives of the conferences for teachers sub-programme are:

To educate teachers on how to use Wikipedia in the classroom;
To recruit a new Wiki coordinators for education;
To establish new collaboration with schools.

Wiki Camp

The SMART objectives of the Wiki Camp sub-programme are:

Build connections between experienced and new participants;
Engage new editors and members;
To increase the number of content pages.

Community[edit]

The SMART objectives of the user group regarding the community sub-programme are:

To increase the number of involved volunteers;
Increase membership from 67 to 100;
Increase visibility of the user group in society, by followers on social media (Facebook), number of blog posts and visits to them, and number of media and press mentions.

Edit-a-thon

The SMART objectives of the edit-a-thon sub-programme are:

To increase the number of new articles;
To improve the existing articles;
To increase the number of free photos.

Editing competition

The SMART objectives of the editing competition sub-programme are:

To increase the number of new articles;
To enrich mk.wiki with articles about women;
To improve the existing articles;
To increase the number of free photos.

Plan[edit]

Activities[edit]

GLAM[edit]

Our GLAM activities and collaborations are successful and they are in the process of growing. We have signed memorandum for collaboration with three GLAM institutions in Macedonia: with the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia, the Museum of Macedonian Struggle in Skopje and the City Library “Braḱa Miladinovci” in Skopje. Our collaboration is mainly, but not exclusively, about sending Wikipedian in residence. On 4 June 2017 we held Wiki Tour in the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje for Wikipedians and supporters of Wikimedia projects, but taking photos was forbidden at the time. The Wiki tour was free of charge for our group of Wikipedians.

GLAM Macedonia has sent Wikipedians in residence in two GLAM institutions in Macedonia: three months in the City Library “Braḱa Miladinovci” and six months in the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia. Both Wikipedians had good and productive months in the calendar year 2017. The best thing was the collaboration with the employees of both Institutions. The employees of both, the State Archives and City Library, provided the necessary help for easier and successful accomplishment of the Wikipedian's tasks. They have shown great interest in Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects and did not hesitate to provide both Wikipedians with the needed materials. Some of the employees showed interest and willingness to be part of Wikipedia and Commons (as contributors) and they took part in the edit-a-thons and workshops held by the Wikipedians. GLAM institutions in the Republic of Macedonia are closed ones, which means that we have to send Wikipedian in Residence in order to get closer to them.

The benefit of collaboration with GLAM institutions are many. We want to deepen of GLAM collaboration in Macedonia in order to educate the GLAM employees on Wikimedia projects; to educate them to add references into articles, and create new articles or improve the existing ones as the GLAM employees are high educated professionals. The implementation of WIkimedia projects within WiR's work is giving us chance to organize special events in collaboration with GLAM institutions, such as edit-a-thons, workshops and Wikipedian tours, which will bring Wikipedians on-site to work with staff on content creation and improvement. The GLAM institutions collaboration with us is opportunity to them to be more open to the public, to understand the need of digitization, as well as the need of sharing the knowledge, documents, historic photos and materials with the public.

Wikipedian in Residence

Plan for activities in 2018 is to send WiR in at least two GLAM institutions. We plan to deepen our cooperation with the City Library “Braḱa Miladinovci” in Skopje by sending Wikipedian in Residence for additional six months in the 2018, divided into periods of three months: from January till March and from September till November 2018. In 2018 we want to avoid the summer period, because of the high temperatures in Skopje. Usually, the GLAM employees and volunteers are not willing to give their best in the summer time. Another Wikipedian in Residence will be sent to new GLAM institution (negotiation in progress), in the period of six months, again divided into periods of three months: March - May and September - November 2018.

Our strengths are experienced Wikipedian in Residence, and good established collaboration with the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia as well with the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje. We don't need to send WiR in those two institutions, as collaboration is already set on high level. We have an offer for collaboration with the several other GLAM institutions in Republic of Macedonia, and at the moment we are in negotiation of the future collaboration. Once when we will fix the nature of collaboration, the memorandum of collaboration will be signed. GLAM Macedonia has to sign Agreement with the WiR in order to be clear the activities the WiR is required to do: to serve as liaison between the GLAM institution and community, to engage the GLAM employees into Wikimedia activities, to establish a good collaboration and to build a sustainable platform that ensures outcomes long after the WiR has completed their service. We don't have a weakness in this area of activities, but the threat could be lack of interest of GLAM employees to edit Wikipedia in the future, or after WiR's task is done. To avoid this, we plan to engage them in edit-a-thons, in Wiki Tours, and most important, to provide the material for articles.

Photo contest

Our members were organizers of several photo contests in Macedonia in the past years. Photo contest is a good practice to obtain free photos. In 2018 we plan to organize one photo contest in collaboration with one of the museums in the Republic of Macedonia. The main goal of the contest is to call competitors to come up with free photos on a given topic and to upload them on Commons. We expect to have a photo tour in the chosen museum, and this project will require involvement of the GLAM institution and their consent to photograph their artifacts. On that way we expect to enrich Commons with new free images and decrease the gap that exists for the topic and museum artifacts that will be chosen.

The timeline of the photo competition is middle of April till middle of May 2018.

Good collaboration with the GLAM institutions in the Republic of Macedonia is our strength, and experienced Wikimedians who are capable of performing the project in all stages. With this activity we will have the opportunity to establish new connection with museums in Skopje, and to bring the collaboration into a new level. Lаck of interest of Wikipedians to participate could be the problem, and we plan to avoid this threat with the wide advertising of the contest: on village pump on mk.wiki, on several Facebook pages and as well in media. Other threat is if we have to postponed the dates according to the museum's plan of activities, but this is not a big problem.

Education[edit]

Education program this year included education of students and education of teachers. Students are educated mostly in the Wiki Clubs. On the other side, for teachers we organized a conference. We have signed Memorandum for collaboration with three schools in Macedonia so far.

Wiki Clubs

The first Wiki Club in Macedonia was established in the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje. The first working day of the Wiki Club was on 19 October 2016. We have students coming from at least six schools from Skopje, all coming from different part of the city, most of them by bus, using their free time. The opening day of the second Wiki Club in Macedonia was on 1 March 2017, in the local elementary school in Staro Nagoričane. The volunteer members of GLAM Macedonia maintain two Wiki Clubs and one Wiki section (members of one Wiki Club asked us to send a Wikipedian to work with them in their own school because they live far away to come once in a week, we called them Wiki section of the Wiki Club in the Museum of Macedonian Struggle). 96 students and 2 adults passed the training about Wikipedia, 7 edit-a-thons were held, two meetings with the Municipality officials (Karposh Municipality and Staro Nagorichane Municipality), more than 240 new articles were created by the members of Wiki Clubs, and more than 500 existing articles were improved. The big success of the Wiki Clubs was an award which we received at the international day of the Museums, 18 May. ICOM awards the best projects which are active in the Museums in Macedonia. This year, the first Wiki Club received this award.

In 2018 we plan to start at least one new Wiki Club. The regular meetings at the first Wiki Club are happening at least once a week. The regular meetings in the other Wiki Club is at least twice a month.

Our strength in this project so far is the reputation of the Wiki Clubs. We signed memorandum of collaboration with several schools, and many others want to participate in existing Wiki Clubs or are interested to open Wiki sections in their schools. We already had offers for collaboration with several schools out of the capitol city. We have opportunity to educate many students about Wikipedia, and we hope that a good number of them will continue to edit Wikipedia. The weakness is that we are not capable to answer all calls for collaboration with schools, as the volunteers will be overloaded with too many tasks. We plan to hire an employee one day, in order to avoid this problem.

Teachers' conferences

We had two Wiki conferences for teachers in 2017, the first one was held on 20 April 2017, and the second one on 19 October 2017. There was a big interest for this conference. There were 130 participants, 8 speakers and 20 Wikipedians volunteers involved. After the conference was announced, we were unable to accept all the interested teacher. In 2018 we plan to have two conferences for teachers, again in April and October.

The strength of this project are GLAM Macedonia members, Wikimedians who are teachers in the same time. The big interest of teachers in the Republic of Macedonia is giving us the strength also, as the great interest points that with such conferences we are on the right track to reach them. We teach the teachers on how to use Wikipedia in the classroom, and the opportunities are big for us: we can establish collaboration with the schools; we can start Wiki Club or Wiki section in their school; we can spread the word about Wikipedia, and involve the teachers and students into editing Wikipedia articles. We cannot list any problem which may appear one day, as for now everything is smooth: teachers are interested to participate and after the conference to collaborate with us; we have volunteers who are happy to organize or to help organizing the conference; the media covered the event.

Wiki Camp

Wiki Camp is a three-day camp for students and members of Wiki Clubs. We plan to organize one Wiki Camp for 50 Wiki Club active members and new participants, plus 12 volunteers, teachers and Wikipedians. Adults have to be present in order to maintain the Wiki Camp. The first day, there will be session for beginners on how to edit Wikipedia. All three days we will have edit-a-thons, workshops, one wiki expedition around the event place, workshop about Commons, etc. We expect more than 150 new articles created by the participants at the end of the event. One of our team members is an amateur athlete, and she will be responsible to organize sport activities for the participants.

The Wiki Camp is planed for November 2018.

Strength: Our big strength for this project are our volunteers, who are ready to organize the Wiki Camp. We already have teachers ready to lead a group of students at the Wiki Camp, and also, the interest between the students is big for this kind of activity. The opportunity for us after this event is that we will be able to build connections between experienced and new participants, and also to engage new editors and future members of Wiki Clubs. The only problem we could faced with is not enough lap top computers for every student at the Wiki Camp. To avoid this, we plan to divide students into several groups while they will edit Wikipedia, using the available lap top computers.

Community[edit]

GLAM Macedonia user group is registered non-profit organization, and it is a user group of contributors, teachers and researchers who are interested to generate and organize projects and events including participation of Wikimedia volunteers, and employees from GLAM and educational institutions. At the moment, we have 88 members. The Board members and other GLAM Macedonia members have several meetings in person a month, in order to plan and strategize on new activities. Many times there is a need to discuss the ongoing projects or projects we plan to organize in person.

As community projects we include edit-a-thons and editing competition.

Edit-a-thon

Our edit-a-thons were organized with Wiki Club members. The first edit-a-thon was held on 1 of December 2016. Seven students took part in the edit-a-thon. The topic of the edit-a-thon was: Karpoš Municipality. The texts for this edit-a-thon was provided by Karpoš Municipality officials. Over the year 2017, we had 7 thematic edit-a-thons, 38 editors were participants, 40 new articles were created, 10 free photos were uploaded on Commons. We planed to hold 12 edit-a-thons during 2018 (once a month), most of them with the Wiki Club members.

Strength on this project are our volunteers and a big number of Wiki Clubs members who are trained to edit Wikipedia. The collaboration with the GLAM institutions in the Republic of Macedonia is on a high level, which is good as we hold edit-a-thons usually in collaboration with one of them: in order to get materials for articles, or to use their working room. The opportunities are many: organizing edit-a-thons with Wiki Club members proved to be a good way to engage the students to be more active during regular club meetings. Why? We invited only six students to be part of the edit-a-thon. They are selected from the most active in the previous period of time. At edit-a-thons, the students are asked to create new articles from the books and materials provided by the Museum educators or other GLAM institution employees, and usually on historical themes. We give them certificates after the edit-a-thon. The students want to come, because the editing is fun on edit-a-thon. We cannot list any problem which may appear during the future edit-a-thons, as we didn't have any in 2017.

Editing competition

We took part in the international editing contest: The women you have never met, which took place in March 2017. 13 editors were involved, and they created 35 new articles about biographies of women. The success of this contest is enriched by the fact that our local winner was international contest winner as well, Marija Andovska.

In 2018, we plan to organize one editing competition in March. Our idea for the editing competition is to dedicate this competition to the gender gap and decreasing it to a level suitable to our capacities. By this primarily is understood creating articles about female biographies and improving the existing ones.

The strength of this project lies in the great number of Wikipedians who are willing to participate in. The content offers an opportunity to decrease the content gap, in particular regarding the biographies of women. We plan to advertise the content via Facebook pages and media, in order to get more involved participants, which could avoid a problem of lack of interested Wikipedians.

Metrics[edit]

Metrics sheet

Priority levels[edit]

Level	Programmes/ Sub-programmes
High	WiR, Wiki Clubs, Teachers'conferences, Wiki camp
Mid	photo competition, editing competition, edit-a-thon, book, science experiments.
Low	none