Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2024-06

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2024

June

Wikiclubs

Statistics for June

As of June 30, there are 192 registered members in all 8 active Wikiclubs (Goris, Ddmashen, Lernapat, Kirants, Koghb, Hatsik, Jermuk, and Kajaran). Wikiclub members continued the wikification of materials from the “Agricultural Encyclopedia” (“Armenian Encyclopedia” Publishing House, 2015) which was released under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license. Wikiclub members either created the missing items of the corresponding pages in Wikidata or linked the created articles with already existing items. Within the frames of this project 58 articles with a volume of 123,123 bytes were created in June. Since the launch of the project 580 articles, 1,446,020 bytes have been contributed to Armenian Wikipedia. The project will continue in July, as well. In June, the third stage of the “Ahead of the Euro 2024” project started. It is dedicated to the UEFA Euro 2024 to be held in Germany from June 14 to July 14. In the course of this multi-stage competition project, Wikiclub members translated articles related to the European football championships from other language Wikipedias into Armenian (it can be biographies of European champions, football players who participated in the Euros, referees, coaches, European championships, qualifying tournaments, teams, stadiums, articles related to official balls, etc.). Thanks to this project, the number of articles about European football has increased on Armenian Wikipedia. Within the framework of the 3nd stage of the project, 42 Wikiclub members created 273 articles with a volume of 5,491,922 bytes. The project will have 4 stages and will continue until the end of July. Each stage of the project is competitive. The winner receives a gift and a certificate provided by Wikimedia Armenia, and 4 other participants receive certificates.

Wikiedits

Throughout June, out of 192 Wikiclub members 84 contributed to Wikipedia. In total, they have created 559 articles and made 2917 edits with a volume of 9,213,774 bytes. During the month of June, 78 Wikiclub members contributed to Wikidata, by making 1342 edits in total.

Other events

Besides editing, the following events were organized in Wikiclubs:

On June 13, a group of Lernapat Wikiclub members visited the Wikimedia Armenia office, got acquainted with the staff and participated in the awards ceremony of the "Wiki Literary World" competition held on Armenian Wikipedia in May, receiving books and certificates. On the same day, they had a visit to Matenadaran.
Intellectual games were held at the end of the Sunday workshops in the Hatsik Wikiclub, the editors also tried to develop their logical thinking through various problems.

Wikipedia for Women

Wikimedia Armenia scientific and educational non-governmental organization jointly with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom organized the "Wikipedia for Women" wiki gathering on June 26-30, 2024. The gathering-edit-a-thon took place in Tsakhkadzor.

185 participants registered to participate in the meeting, of which 71 were experienced editors, and 114 had never edited Wikipedia. A course was organized for the latter on June 3-17 at the Wikimedia Armenia office. New participants were divided into two groups. Overall, only 21 newcomers participated in the training courses. They got acquainted with the brief history of Wikipedia, the structure of the article, the basic tools for editing, and mastered the skills of creating articles. New participants created articles from suggested lists until June 20. Based on the results, the participants of the wiki gathering were selected. In parallel, experienced wiki editors were creating articles from the same lists. Depending on their results, they were also selected as participants in the "Wikipedia for Women" wiki gathering.

34 editors participated in the wiki gathering and created 321 articles based on the topics uncovered as a result of the panel discussion held in May at the office of the Wikimedia Armenia. Within the framework of the entire project, only 517 articles of 12,039,726 bytes were written with the efforts of 53 wiki editors.

Besides the editing hours, there was also entertainment included in the agenda. On the 3rd day of the meeting, a thematic movie was screened.

On the 4th day, there was an excursion to Bjni Fortress and Saint Astvatsatsin Church in Bjni. The participants got acquainted with these historical and cultural monuments, and also photographed them in order to later upload them to Wikimedia Commons as part of the "Wiki Loves Monuments" competition that is planned to happen in September.

The excursion was sponsored by the Armenian Deposit Guarantee Fund. Afterwards a meeting was held with the representatives of the above-mentioned fund. The head of the Fund, Hermine Harutyunyan, made a speech introducing the functions of the organization in detail, and answering the questions of the attendees. The participants of the wiki gathering who created articles on the topic "Women in Finance" received the awards set by the Fund. Souvenirs provided by the Fund were distributed to all participants of the meeting. At the end of the 4th day, “Brain Ring” intellectual game was organized for the participants.

The closing ceremony of the gathering took place on June 30, during which the results were summarized, certificates were awarded to the best editors signed by Wikimedia Armenia and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

The project was financed by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

Bulletin of Armenian Libraries

The article "The National Library of Armenia on Wikipedia" was included in the first issue of the Bulletin of Armenian Libraries scientific-methodical e-journal of the National Library of Armenia.

The article talks about the cooperation of the National Library of Armenia (NLA) with Wikimedia Armenia, the purpose of which was to support the creation of articles about libraries and librarians on the Armenian Wikipedia. Wikimedia Armenia has organized a training series for NLA librarians. The goal of the NLA team was to show that Wikipedia articles on any topic should have primary and reliable sources. One goal has been to direct library users to search Wikipedia for the information they need.

The article states that libraries should develop their presence on Wikipedia to support and develop local cultural information on Wikipedia to build stronger communities.

Awards Ceremony

On June 13, at 15:00, the Awards Ceremony was held at the Wikimedia Armenia office.

The awards ceremony was intended for the winners and outstanding participants of the "CEE Spring 2024" and "Wikigrashkhar” (“Wiki Literary World”) projects. The participants of both projects received awards and certificates.

The “Wiki Literary World” project awards were provided by "Darak" publishing house.

Community meet-up

On June 7, 2024, a pre-planned meeting-discussion with the members of Wikimedia Armenia and the whole, employees and interested members of the wiki community took place at the Wikimedia Armenia office. The meeting was organized offline, at the same time, an online participation visa Zoom platform was also provided. Overall, there were 8 offline and 11 online participants at the meet-up. The president of the organization and the employees of Wikimedia Armenia presented the activities of the organization from March to May and the implemented projects. The suggestions of the participants were discussed, and feedback received on a number of points.

Collaboration among Wikimedia organization

Wikimedia Armenia president Arshak Shahenyan and event organizer Davit Sargsyan were on a business visit to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, on June 19-23. In order to exchange experience in implementation of Wikimedia projects, as well as for further cooperation in the joint organization of international projects, discussions were organized, in which representatives from Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova User Group and Wikimedia Ukraine took part. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new collaborative project among several Wikimedia affiliates