Wikimedia Armenia/Western Armenian program/Reports 2016/October-December

Western Armenian Program Report
October-December

Article Overview

In the past 3 months 618 articles were written in Western Armenian. Most of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2015 in Beirut and Armenia, small part of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2016 in Potugal, and the rest by other editors.

All these new articles were reviewed, edited and wikified by experienced editors, including the teachers of above mentioned students.

At this moment we have 5390 Western Armenian articles.

Wikipedia Education program stats

In October we had 13 students who created 84 articles, made 511 edits and contributed 1083754 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In November we had 17 students who created 116 articles, made 616 edits and contributed 991494 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In December we had 17 students who created 78 articles, made 408 edits and contributed 615918 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.

Western Armenian articles on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia

During the last 3 months, such as done before, featured article was chosen per week, which was previously reviewed and corrected by Wikipedia Education program member teachers, and we put them on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia. We share these articles on social networks in order to make them available for more people.

With the increase in the number of Western Armenian articles, and greater attention from those interested, we are planning to put Western Armenian articles on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia twice a week

WikiClubs

The WikiClubs activities are going on well in schools in Beirut, where the students study and edit Western Armenian articles during their spare time with the help of experienced Wikipedians.

In this period we had 2 new WikiClubs.

After the Summer WikiCamp 2016 in Portugal, we had a new WikiClub in Istanbul. Some of the participants, after they returned from the camp, organized to open a WikiClub in Istanbul National Central College. On the 6th of October, 2016, began their first workshop with encouraging the students and by teaching to develop and edit Western Armenian articles.

We had a new WikiClub too in Beirut. On the 9th of November, 2016, Alicia Ishkhanian, a Wikipedia camp participant, presented to her Armenian Evangelical Central High School's, 7th till the 12th graders, the Western Armenian Wikipedia. Mentioning that the idea of the Western Armenian Wikipedia was introduced in 2014, Alicia talked about the several camps that took place to encourage the Western Armenian Wikipedia, starting from the one in Lebanon in which many Armenian Lebanese schools participated in, in order to develop the Western Armenian. Some of the minor editing rules of Wikipedia was also mentioned in the presentation, explaining the important details while writing or translating an article. Encouraged by this presentation, 10 students requested a Wikipedia club in the school so they could learn and improve furthermore the Western Armenian Wikipedia.

Each editor has understood that this activity helps to acquire knowledge, especially to improve their linguistic knowledge.

In these school clubs, regular workshops are organized and the number of involved students is growing.

Translator's corner

In this period we have also enriched the "Translator's corner" project by adding new articles to be translated from Eastern Armenian to Western Armenian, From English to to Western Armenian, and from Arabic to Western Armenian.

We also work on involving new translators to the project (for example, students) who will enrich Western Armenian Wikipedia program with essential high quality content.

Our participation in other events

On 26 November 2016, in Yerevan took place the “Western Armenian language in Armenia: Challenges, Prospects” conference. The conference was organized by the Youth Council of the Aleppo Compatriotic Charitable Organization with the support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia and the Armenian General Benevolent Union. The conference aimed at finding solutions for preservation and development issues of the Western Armenian language in Armenia.

The conference consisted of two sessions. During the conference, in the session deticated to “western Armimian in th internet”, Azniv Stepanian presented the Western Armenian section of the Wikipedia free encyclopedia.

Participants of the conference had the opportunity to address their questions to the speakers and express opinions and suggestions on issues raised during the presentations.

The summary, goals, objectives and prospects of the project

When we measured the impact, we considered that the Western Armenian free content in the Internet and number of Western Armenian editors in Wiki projects have been increased, which were measured by the number of created and improved articles on Western Armenian language, the number of Western Armenian editors and their edits.

The creation WikiClubs in the communities of Armenian Diaspora and Armenia attracted more people and organized local Wiki communities, and we will begin to attract more people with increase of the WikiClubs. Its will be a positive step by trying to integrate the usage and editing of Western Armenian Wikipedia into school curriculum. It will engage more teachers in the project and will award best wiki trainers and best wiki students. And organize different events on Armenian language, culture, Wikimedia projects and free knowledge to sustain the editors activity.

The Western Armenian Wikipedia project can be integrated in other Diaspora communities as well, this way the scope and impact of the project will be broaden. And the publicize of the project we can do it by Communications strategy Interact with the media, Armenian cultural and education institutions and church in Armenia and abroad.

Proposed project summary

Continue introducing Western Armenian as a separate language in Wikipedia.
Disseminate Wikipedia and wiki movement in the Armenian Diaspora communties of Lebanon, Turkey, France and other countries.
Involve new Western Armenian speaker participants into WM AM’s projects.
Follow up with individuals and community to maintain enthusiasm and to enlarge the number of participants from different workshops.

Project goals and objectives

Continue the process of getting an ISO code for Western Armenian language.
Establish and develop Western Armenian Wikipedia's community in Lebanon, France, Turkey etc.
Organize a Teacher training workshop in Armenia associated with the teachers and professionals from different countries.
Organize one WikiCamp to involve new local participants in Wikipedia Education Program thus creating Western Armenian Wikipedia community in a new country as well as maintain already active wikieditors from Lebanon WikiCamp.
Involve other programs, such as Wikisource, and enrich the "Translator's corner" project.

Western Armenian Program ReportOctober-December