Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2015-06

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2015
June

WikiCamp 2015

Activities

Preparations

See WikCamp 2015 video on Youtube

Wiki Camp organization team forming, regular meetings and discussions․ The organization team was divided into 5 groups:

Financial team - Susanna Mkrtchyan was responsible for finding an appropriate camp and other sponsors for the camp․ Lilit Tarkhanyan and David Saroyan were responsible for PEG Wikicamp 2015.
Wiki team - Lilit Tarkhanyan, David Saroyan, Mher Bekaryan, Dato Abuladze, Armenuhi Voskanyan, Arevik Voskanyan, Manush Arzumanyan, Alina Movsisyan, Armine Aghayan, Jaba Labadze, users A.arpi.a, Albero, ԱշոտՏՆՂ.

Lilit Tarkhanyan, David Saroyan, Mher Bekaryan, Dato Abuladze were responsible for sources, materials, lists and the themes based on which content would be created in Armenian Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikisource and Wikimedia Commons.
Lilit Tarkhanyan and David Saroyan were also responsible for the camp document forming, application submitting, registrations, camp schedule, the division of the campers into groups and rooms.
David Saroyan created Wiki Camp main pages on Wikipedia and Wiktionary.
Jaba Labadze was responsible for Georgian editors, their arrival/departure, articles list in Georgian, campers' articles summarizing and proofreading in Georgian Wikipedia.
Mher Bekaryan was responsible for audio recording of Wiktionary words pronunciation.
The whole team was responsible for workshops during the camps, proofreading and summarizing daily relults, etc.

"Western Armenian team" - Azniv Stepanian, Raffi Demirdjian, Sevan Danielyan, Houri Ghazaryan were responsible for campers arrival/departure from Beirut, Lebanon. Azniv Stepanian prepared the lists of articles to be created or improved in Western Armenian. The whole team was responsible for workshops during the camp and proofreading of articles. Azniv Stepanian was also responsible for summarizing daily results.
Technical team - Arsen Harutyunyan, Mher Bekaryan, Hovsep Kamsaryan, Edmon Khachatryan, Sergey Janibekyan.

Mher Bekaryan was responsible for campers arrival/departure to Aghveran and for trips during the camps as well as Wiki camp various materials design and print.
Arsen Harutyunyan was responsible for group leaders team.
Edmon Khachatryan was responsible for photo coverage of the camp.
Hovsep Kamsaryan, Sergey Janibekyan were technical assistants.

Team leaders group - Nune Nadiryan, Nazeli Kamsaryan, Anna Hovsepyan, Zhenya Petrosyan, Nona Melkonyan, Nelli Kamsaryan, Diana Simonyan, Gurgen Sargsyan were responsible for the campers accommodation in rooms, intellectual, sport and leisure games, various contests organization, campers healthcare, etc.

February

Wikicamp 2015 PEG
Finding another sponsors for supporting the attendance of payable campers.

Geoteam CJSC which is an Armenian mineral exploration and development company applied to Wikimedia Armenia for sponsorship of some students whom they wanted to send to WikiCamp Aghveran. During negotiations it was decided to have 8 participants. GEO Team chose the participants from different regions of Armenia and a contract was signed. The participants sent their camp applications and their participation was approved by WikiCamp organization team^[1]^[2].

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation sponsored 7 students from Beirut, Lebanon to participate in WikiCamp Aghveran 2015. The chosen students were the best editors of the Beirut WikiCamp 2015 organized by Wikimedia Armenia and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in August. 4 students will also participate to the January WinterCamp to be organized in Armenia.

Negotiations with Voske Getak rest house

Since February WM AM was negotiating with "Voske Getak" rest house to organize WikiCamp there. After a 2 month negotiations we reached a mutual agreement to organize both terms of WikiCamp in Aghveran "Voske getak" rest house.

March

WikiCamp accessories design and print

WikiCamp accessories include polo shirts, X-banners, camp tickets, certificates, badges, mugs, magnets and stickers. All the necessary materials were designed and printed.

April

During 2 months Wiki team was busy with WikiCamp articles list creation. Sources were found based on which campers would create or improve content in Armenian Wikipedia. The themes of workshops were decided - geography, books, writers, films, music, comics characters, dog breeds, actors. Lists of articles were created for each theme.
A list of Armenian words was created based on which campers would create/improve content in Armenian Wiktionary.
A list of frequently used words was created from Armenian Wiktionary in order we could record their pronunciation with the help of campers.
Wiki team asked WM AM Digitization team volunteers to scan free required books which the campers would proofread in Wikisource. The request was completed and the books were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
Wikicamp pages were created in Armenian Wikipedia (First term, Second term) and Wiktionary (First term, Second term). The themes were devided by days.
Making changes to the preliminary schedule of the camp and application forms.

May

Acceptance of applications. We promoted the camp in social media and started the admissions of applications for the camp. The deadline was set May 31.
A list of Western Armenian articles list was created for Beirut and Aghveran camps.
Choosing team leaders.
Contacting to Jaba Labadze to choose participants from Georgian Wikipedia Education Program.

June 1-21

Wiki team selected those participants who fit the requirements of the camp. Mainly the applicants contributions in wiki projects were taken into account. Contacting the participants.
Wiki team divided the participants into groups and rooms and provided each group leader the list of campers in his/her group with their contacts.
Parents meeting on 15 June.
Group leaders contacted the participants for informing where and when to gather for the camp arrival.
Document preparation and ticket booking for Armenian participants going to Beirut Wikicamp (4 campers + 3 organization team members) (The expenses were covered by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation).
Georgian Wikipedians arrival organization
Contacting bus service for arrival/departure to "Voske Getak".
Agreement with operator, national dance and song teacher.

Special guests of WikiCamp 2015
Asaf Bartov
Anna Koval
Liam Wyatt

In Wiki camp

June 21 - July 4

3 workshops per day, 4 hours in total.
Special guests speeches from WMF who motivated the campers by their talks (Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities - Asaf Bartov, WMF Wikipedia Education Program Manager - Anna Koval and GLAMwiki Coordinator, Europeana - Liam Wyatt).
Cultural events - national sоng and dance lessons, poetry, drawing, humour.
Sport and intellectual games.
Proofreading of articles and entries in Armenian, Western Armenian and Georgian Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikisource, summarizing the results of each day, giving points.
Audio recording of Armenian Wiktionary words, uploading to Wikimedia Commons and usage in articles.
Choosing best group & editor each day.
Daily meetings of organization team.
Sharing each day activities in social networks.
4 tours organization in camp 2 terms.

See more here.

Wikipedia Conference Yerevan 2015

WikiConference Yerevan 2015 was the third international Wikipedia conference in Yerevan. It was held at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts on 19-20th of June. Its goals were the development and the promotion of wiki projects, free knowledge and open culture in Armenia and the neighboring region, as well as bringing together new and experienced wiki editors and providing an environment for them to share their experience and knowledge with each other.

Though there were 300 people registered online less came to the conference (about 100 people). Among the conference participants, there were experienced Wikipedians, Wikipedia Education Program students, participants from different WM AM projects (Wiki Loves Science, Wikipedia for Teachers, GLAM etc.), representatives from the Ministry of Culture and cultural institutions (including the Deputy Minister of Culture, Arev Samuelyan, museum representatives, etc.), other interested people.

We had guests from Wikimedia Foundation who had speeches in the conference: WMF Chair of the Board of Trustees - Jan-Bart de Vreede, Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities - Asaf Bartov, WMF Wikipedia Education Program Manager - Anna Koval and GLAMwiki Coordinator, Europeana - Liam Wyatt.^[3]

As a part of the conference a four-day seminar was organized in Aghveran for teachers of different regions of Armenia (May 27-31). The aim of the seminar was to spread wikimovement in different regions of Armenia and involve new editors and volunteers in WM AM projects. A month before an announcement was made during which 70 teachers applied to the seminar. After the interview WM AM chose 29 teachers who could participate in the event. During the seminars the teachers learned about wikimovement and wikiprojects, learned editing tools and the principles of editing in Wikipedia as well as improved and created a number of articles.

Opening of Wikimedia Armenia office

Wikimedia Armenia's new chapter office in Yerevan officially opened on 19 June 2015 with a grand ceremony. The President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, and the Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan all attended. Benefactor and Intellectual Renaissance Foundation founder Artur Janibekyan, with whom WM AM cooperates, attended as well. Also in attendance were representatives from the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia movement: Jan-Bart de Vreede (Chair of the Board of Trustees), Asaf Bartov (Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities), Anna Koval (Manager, Wikipedia Education Program), and Liam Wyatt (GLAMwiki Coordinator, Europeana).

The following core issues were discussed in the meeting:

To include the study of wiki editing tools in the national school curriculum. Similar programs have been successfully implemented in such countries education curriculum as Israel, Serbia and France. The possibility to make a similar program work in Armenia. Options and obstacles. The ways to solve existing problems.
Discussions concerning possible changes in the Copyright and Related rights law of Armenia, in particular, in terms of protection of economic rights of the author (Article 37).
Wider cooperation within the GLAMwiki program (cooperation with galleries, libraries, archives, and museums), which aims at digitizing scientific-cultural heritage, its preservation, and expansion and translation into other languages.

All these issues are very important and a possibility was created to raise them at the governmental level, which would enable Wikimedia editors to add more content to the Wikimedia projects, as well as will help involve more editors and volunteers in the wiki movement, and enlarge the scope of Wikimedia Armenia's cooperation with educational, cultural, and scientific institutions nationwide.

This event was widely covered in the Armenian media. ¹ ² ³ ⁴ It was also covered by Armenian Public Television, Armenia TV, ATV and many other TV channels.

References

[1] By the sponsorship of GEO Team 8 students have gone to WikiCamp

[2] GEO Team and the Wikimedia WikiCamp

[conference-3] Wikimedia Armenia New Office, Annual Conference, and WikiCamp 2015

[1]

[2]

[3]