Wikimedia CEE Hub/News

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This page aims to collect updates about the activities and work of the CEE Hub in one central place to make it easier to follow the developments. The Steering Committee members (SC) present at bi-weekly status meetings are listed with their first names.

Short updates[edit]

July 2023[edit]

  • CEE Hub meetings with communities and affiliates
    • CEE Hub staff along with Steering Committee members held a meetings with delegates to the CEE Meeting 2023 and/or other persons from the affiliates and communities informing them about proposed governance models of the CEE Hub in the future, along with informing them about planning of the second year of the CEE Hub and grant proposal for 2024.
  • Second issue of the CEE Newsletter is published! After good start of the first edition of the newsletter, editorial team work to publish second issue in 2023. In the second edition, we keep similar categories as in the first edition of the newsletter, but we add one new category, reader’s digest. Also, all proposals from the communities were divided into three main categories. And if you happen to have a spark for Wikimedia journalism or just want to share an interesting Wikimedia story, you are invited to contribute and to apply to be a member in the editorial team of the CEE Newsletter.
  • On 3rd of July, 2023 CEE Hub held fifth Office hour.
  • On 31st of July, 2023, CEE Hub staff along with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Movement Communications regional specialist Natalia Szafran-Kozakovska, held third meeting of the initiative CEE Catch Up, which this time was dedicated to the supporting community health. We had three different sharers from Human Rights Team, Poland, and Ukraine, which share different topics, such as planning of the creating Mental Health Resource Center, creating a new internal policy to develop and implement an anti-mobbing, anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy and procedure, and impact of the employees and contractors of the Wikimedia Ukraine after Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  • Biyan-to from Indonesia started on 10th July 2023 to work as a freelancer for Wikimedia CEE Hub with a task to do a research on communities and to mapped them. CEE Hub will use this research in the future to have a more contacts from the communities, to have an overview of the level of activity of the communities and to explore underrepresented and minority language communities in the region, which was not contacted so far.
  • CEE Hub staff and some of the Steering Committee members had a workshop with a Brand Studio from Wikimedia Foundation, on which they explore symbols, icons, colours and designs for the future visual identity of the CEE Hub.
  • On 25th of July, 2023, it was organised meeting between members of Let’s Connect (Gorana Gomirac and Jessica Stephenson), along with the Senior Program Officer for the CEECA Region Chris Schilling. Purpose of the meeting it was planned report Collective learning from reports in the CEECA region and learning session dedicated to the report, which will happen at the end of August 2023.
  • CEE Hub published results of the received responses of the survey about usage of the calendars in the work of the affiliates/communities in the CEE Region.

June 2023[edit]

  • CEE Hub meetings with communities and affiliates
  • CEE Hub meetings with other stakeholders
    • CEE Hub meet with possible candidates which will work as freelancers on several topics during this year. It is expected first freelancer to start working during July 2023 on community mapping of all language Wikimedia projects in the Central and Eastern Europe.
  • On 5th of June, 2023 CEE Hub held fourth Office hour.
  • CEE Hub coordinator and some of the Steering Committee members were present during General Assembly of Wikimedia Europe in Prague, which was held on 9-10 June 2023.
    • Using the opportunity, CEE Hub held own small working hybrid Steering Committee meeting, on which some of the SC members and the employees were present offline and online.
  • CEE Hub coordinator was part of the General Assembly of Wikimedia Poland, where Barbara presented about the CEE Hub, its purpose and ongoing activities. She explained what Hub is for and for which services individuals and CEE communities can turn to the Hub.
  • With the help from the CEE Hub staff and SC members, a page about CEE Meeting 2024 was created. There, the next host will be decided through bidding process in case more than one application is received.
  • CEE Hub sent a survey to the communities about their usage of the calendar during their work, as we aim to renew a previous CEE Calendar, which existed in period of 2015-2017.
  • CEE Hub had a meeting with a Brand Studio from Wikimedia Foundation, as we can explore option to create a visual identity for the CEE Hub.
  • Second issue of the CEE Newsletter was announced and final deadline for submission was 25th June 2023.
  • CEE Hub awarded three scholarships for the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia, one for female participant from Azerbaijan and two for young Wikimedians from the CEE Region.
  • CEE Hub staff started to prepare third meeting of the initiative Catch Up, which this time will be dedicated to community mental health.

May 2023[edit]

  • CEE Hub meetings with communities and affiliates
  • CEE Hub meetings with other stakeholders
    • First meeting with Human Rights Team from the Wikimedia Foundation, where we introduce ourselves and we explore what is their scope of work. In the upcoming month, it is planned to evolve this meeting into something more concrete, determining next steps in working with this team for our CEE region.
  • On 2nd of May, 2023 CEE Hub held third Office hour, where we have only one participant, Ivo from Wikimedia Estonia, where we initially agree that CEE Hub should help him in promoting the Wiki Science Competition, which will happen once again during 2023.
  • The CEE Newsletter is back! Finally, CEE Newsletter is revived and it is published first issue in 2023, after long pause since November 2018. In the first edition, you can find CEE Hub updates, regional reports, international updates and CEE in the News sections. Also, all proposals were divided into three main categories, such as updated from the communities, opinions and campaigns. And if you happen to have a spark for Wikimedia journalism or just want to share an interesting Wikimedia story, you are invited to contribute!
  • On 16th of May, 2023, CEE Hub staff along with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Movement Communications regional specialist Natalia Szafran-Kozakovska, held second meeting of the initiative CEE Catch Up, which this time was dedicated to the young people in the CEE Region. We had four different sharers from Armenia, Poland, Denmark and Türkiye, which share their experience on Wikipedia, and how they started their journey in the Wikipedia/Wikimedia world and movement.
  • On 17th of May, 2023, CEE Hub staff along with the responsible staff from Wikimedia Foundation (Yop Rwang Pam and Aida Akhmedova) organised second learning clinic, this time dedicated to the Movement Strategy Implementation Grants (MSIG), where we have more then 25 participants from the CEE Region, but also outside of the region. During the session, our sharers from Shared Knowledge, Wikimedia Serbia and Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda talked about their MSIG projects and how they implemented in their communities, sharing interesting moments and challenges that they faced during the implementation of their projects. Session ended with the Q&A from the participants.
  • CEE Hub continues to follow situation with the Montenegrin Wikipedia Incubator (project page). Project is still under discussion, which can be followed here.
  • CEE Hub staff is involved in reminding affiliates and communities about registration process and submissions for the upcoming CEE Meeting 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
  • During this month, CEE Hub gets an approval from the Wikimedia Foundation to make a reallocation in the budget for this year.

April 2023[edit]

  • CEE Hub meetings with communities and affiliates
  • CEE Hub announced the CEE Newsletter, publishing through various communication channels first call for proposals of the renew CEE Newsletter, which will be published at the beginning of the May.
    • First call for proposals in the first issue of the renew CEE Newsletter was extended up to 25th of April.
    • After closing the call for proposals, CEE Hub Staff along with the temporary editor-in-chief Wojciech Pędzich worked on the reviewing sent proposals and categorising them into several categories.
  • CEE Hub through their communication channels also announced call for on-demand promotional materials for all communities and affiliates from the CEE Region.
    • CEE Hub received five different requests for printing various promotional materials.
  • On 13th of April, 2023, CEE Hub staff along with the members of Working group of Let’s Connect (Gorana Gomirac and Jessica Stephenson) organised first Learning Clinic: practices to support Wiki Loves Earth, where we have more than 25 participants from the CEE Region, but also outside of the region. On the session, participants from Shared Knowledge, Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey and Wikimedia Ukraine share their practices in organising the campaign in their countries. Additionally, Olesia Lukaniuk from the International team of Wiki Loves Earth, share the information about international scope of the campaign.
  • CEE Hub started working on the second Learning Clinic, which will be done in collaboration with Aida Akhmedova during May 2023 dedicated to Movement Strategy Implementation Grants.
  • CEE Hub staff started to prepare second meeting of the initiative Catch Up, which this time will be dedicated to the young people in the CEE Region.
  • CEE Hub started to communicate with the Language committee regarding status of the Montenegrin Wikipedia Incubator (project page), as we received a request from Montenegrin community, that the committee planned to close the incubator and that the incubator is locked for editing long time.
  • Barbara Klen have a three minute introduction for the CEE Hub and our work in a call for consultation regarding Wikimedia Foundation Annual plan 2023/24, which was organised for the CEE Region and Africa. The invitation to the hub came after the CEE Hub was mentioned in the Annual plan under regional goals.
  • CEE Hub held second Office hour on the beginning of April, where we have smaller participation.
  • After Zagreb Meeting, CEE Hub continue to work on the future governance model of the CEE Hub.

March 2023[edit]

  • CEE Hub meetings with communities and affiliates
  • CEE Hub meetings with other stakeholders
  • Preparation for first one of the series CEE Catch Up, bi-monthly meetings organized by CEE Hub and Wikimedia Foundation’s Movement Communications regional specialist
    • First meeting dedicated to this initiative was held on 21st of March, 2023 with over 27 participants from the whole CEE Region.
    • You can read written report about first meeting of this initiative on the Meta page.
  • CEE Hub introduces their office hours, which will happen monthly (at the beginning of the month).
    • First open hour was held on 12th of March 2023, 2023 with seven participants from the whole CEE Region.
  • Initial meeting with International team for Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) of Wikimedia Ukraina about support from the CEE Hub regarding this campaign.
    • CEE Hub was included in creating Rapid Fund guidelines for WLE, which is now incorporated in the general page of WLE on Wikimedia Commons.
    • Preparation for a learning session dedicated to WLE will be organized during April 2023 with support from the International team, and Working group of Let's Connect, where we will offer knowledge exchange sessions for communities that want to organize or have already organized.
    • Provide support writing rapid grant applications.
  • CEE Spring 2023 started officially on 21st of March, 2023, where we welcomed two new communities (Aromanian and Western Armenian) and Sakha return as a guest community of the CEE Region.
  • CEE Hub started working on preparation for renewal of the CEE Newsletter.
  • Setting up an agenda and defining scope of the Zagreb Meeting.

February 2023[edit]

January 2023[edit]

December 2022[edit]

  • CEE Hub representatives (Barbara and Klara) attended the Big Fat Brussels Meeting in Brussels on December 2/3, 2022
  • Steering Committee is planning to have an in-person meeting in Zagreb, around March/April 2023 (see more Zagreb 2023)
  • The hiring process for the second staff person has started
  • CEE Hub started contacting communities and affiliates for meetings

News[edit]

December 21st, 2022 (Status meeting)[edit]

  • SC members present: Anton, Gergö, Käbi, Kiril, Klára

In the collapsed table you can find summary of this status meeting.

December 21st, 2022 (Status meeting)
  • The hiring process for the 2nd staff person has been started - preliminary conversations have been held with potential candidates. Because the 2nd staffing position requires a lot of knowledge about Wikimedia governance and application processes, the search initially focusses on candidates that have that kind of expertise
    • Anton, Klára and Philip will conduct interviews together with Barbara over the Christmas break
  • Contacting the affiliates
    • Barbara has written to the communities about their time and availability for a first meeting with her
    • A meeting with the Turkish community has already happened - some questions will be submitted to the community in writing to enable a more detailed response
  • There was a discussion about the annual budget increases for 2023/2024 that the WMF had initially promissed. While in Western Europe adapting the budgets to inflation seems more difficult, there are less such issues in the CEE region (also because the budgets are generally a lot smaller)
  • There are currently two cities in the CEE region that have signalled interested in hosting Wikimania 2024, Kraków and Istanbul.

December 7th, 2022 (Status meeting)[edit]

  • SC members present:
    • Steering Committee members: Anton, Gergö, Kiril, Klara, Michał, Philip
    • others: Delphine, Z. Blace
December 21st, 2022 (Status meeting)
  • Barbara and Klara attended the Big Fat Brussels Meeting in Brussels on December 2/3 2022, which is primarily focused on EU advocacy work but also offers the opportunity to meet representatives from the European affiliates involved in that work
    • On Saturday, December 3, there was a meeting between Wikimedia Europe, the WMF strategy team and the CEE Hub representatives Barbara and Klara
      • The meeting involved getting to know each other better and what the possible joint tasks could be in terms of informing the movement charter
      • It was agreed that both projects will document the tools and processes used to establish both networks in one document to be published early next year (the WMF strategy team will provide the questions/framework to write this document first)
  • The CEE Hub will start contacting affiliates and communities starting before Christmas via email, to establish a line of communication with Barbara before the programmatic work starts
  • The SC is planning an in-person meeting in Zagreb in March/April 2023 to take stock of the status at that point and work on the mid- to long-term strategy of the project
  • A Telegram group was set up for the wider CEE Hub group for Barbara to have a pool of people to help with onboarding and general questions