Wikimedia Community Belarus Activity

2015

Done Organised local Wiki Spring 2015 campaign in both Belarusian Wikipedias (classical and academical)
Done User Group founding meetup on the 21th of June 2015
Done Local OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia communities partnership - to foster Minsk map with link to Wikipedia articles (July, 2015)
Done Participation in the CEE WikiCamp 2015, 31 July - 2 August, in Macedonia
Done Wiki workshop with the Belarusian Association of Journalists (August, 2015).
Done Participation in the WMCEE 2015 annual conference, 10-13 September, in Estonia
Done Holding seminar "How to Become Wiki-Editor" for 'Pramova' club of the Belarusian Language Society on 30 September 2015
Done Wiki Helper elaboration and publishing (July-October 2015) (sandbox, project description, result)
Done 19th of december To make a half-day meeting with guys who would like to discuss further Wiki community development, December 2015

2016

Done Community survey for understanding common vision of development, December 2015 - January 2016
Not done Extend and establish volunteer list for new projects next year, 2016 - winter 2015-2016
Done Wiki Spring 2016 campaign in both Belarusian Wikipedias (classical and academical)
(JUST PILOT DONE) Start local challenge 10wikidays - from 28th of February by Mr. Zabej
Done Support and development of User Group public in FB - throughout 2016
Done Planning collaboration activity with HRs activists - throughout 2016
Done Developing idea and planning the Wiki expedition with different communities - summer 2016 and fundrising activity.

In addition, we created a table with wiki workshops, expedition that we planned and done during 2016 year.

Here is our educational

Narrative

There were five main achievements in 2016:

Implementation of project with communities, which we began this summer 2017 and complete in early January 2017 fucosed on spreading knowledge about wiki-technologies among local and topic communities. For accelerating this activity we could win a grant from Wikimedia. This grant helped us to improve our opportunity for working and seeding wiki knowledge around country more rapid than it was in last years. We was active in 8 cities and towns (Harodnia, Baranavichy, Zditava, Babrujsk, Maladziechna, Krulieuschyna, Minsk, Hodasy, London) with workshops and wiki walks where to provide not only essentials of wikipedia but foster interest in schools and libraries administration.
Outreach dashboard translation (into belarusian language) and piloting wikipedia tasks in university curriculum. During two courses (mechanics, nuclear physic) students assigned to make new articleы or improve existing for have credit.
Different wiki communities members participated in the regional (WCEE2016) and global (Wikimania206) event where they had intensive experience exchange and knowledge collection.
Participation in the WikiSpring'2016 contest. And the circle of volunteers who help to organize was bigger than in WikiSpring'2015.
Issue Wiki-helper (1-st edition) in different mediums was released and became accessible in paper, PDF and wikipedia. This manual was created by wiki community and aggregated best training practices we used in number of workshops with different communities in 2015.

Work inside of wiki-community core had strong and weak points. One of the achievement we update group in Facebook regularly (2-3 times a week) so people from community has an opportunity to be in the loop by their networks. the weak part we had just 4 offline meet-ups (one a season). What did not help in the organization development. Other weak point that tarask. (classical grammar) wiki community become non-reflexive for any off-line activities.

It is important to stress that many resources (funds, venues, technical equipment, media coverage) for this activities were provided by NGO Falanster.

Further challenges

Lack of understanding and as a result responsibility in the national Wikimedia community offline work.
Regional wiki activists are not engaged in the offline community life at all.
Tacit successes are not represented for the rest of the community what creates an atmosphere that nothing happens.
Lack of hardware for work in rural area during workshops (laptops, Internet), especially poor and under-equipped schools.
Content organization of the community programs and routine.

The community needs to have one annual gathering where participants can define common needs, generate ideas, shape plans and projects, coordinate crucial points and vision, to develop self-governance.

Pictures

Wiki expeditions in Hodasy (East part of Belarus)
Esino Lario, Wikimania, Wikificators crew.
Wiki workshop in London, March, 2016.
Gift for WikiSpring 2016 winners
WCEE, 2016 in Armenia
Wiki meet-up in Falanster, Minsk, 2016
Wiki Helper, cover of printing version
Local newspaper report about wiki expedition in Kruleuschyna, Belarus, December, 2016
Participants of Wikification in Baranavichy (South-West part of Belarus), October, 2016
Lecture in Haradenski University, October, 2016
Workshop participators, Kruleuschyna, Belarus, December, 2016

2017

Objectives for 2017

Done Wikicamp-2017 (Belarus) - gathering with most active new activists and trainning them about how Wikimedia community works.^[1]
Done Obtain 130 users in wiki user group in FB (now it is 90 146) - with organic growth^[1]
Done Participation in Wikimedia Conference 2017 and WMCEE 2017^[1]
Done 3 community building meetups.^[1]

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d These are Mr. Zabej's propositions for 2017. Please add your own in the list.

Outcomes

Wikicamp-2017 in July

The first Belarusian Wikicamp (Belarusian: Wikiletnik) was successfully held in Kapyl town (Belarus) on 11-17 July 2017. The event was organized by the Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus and NGO ‘Falanster’ and sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikicamp gathered about 25 people from 4 countries. All three major goals of the Wikicamp were achieved, namely:

Build connections between experienced and new participants of the wiki-movement.
Discuss future online and offline community self-governance.
Increase and foster technical and humanitarian knowledge of participants.

The Wikicamp participants had two small wiki expeditions (excursions):

The Nesvizh Castle (35 km from Kapyl), which is the UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Kapyl District Local History Museum and the other historical objects in the town

Wiki statistics:

New articles on Kapyl area (total in be, be-tarask, uk wikis): 11
Improved articles on Kapyl area (total in be & uk wikis): 13
New templates (total in be & uk wikis): 6
Photos uploaded to the Commons: more than 400
New elements in Wikidata and new entries in Wiktionary

**Event coverage in media**
No.	Article name	Media
1	Wikiletnik-2017 in Kapyl	Website of the nationwide ‘Novy Chas’ (‘New Time’) newspaper
2	Wikiletnik-2017 in Kapyl (reprint)	NGO ‘Falanster’ website
3	About 150 thousand articles in the Belarusian language in Wikipedia	Euroradio website
4	About 150 thousand articles in the Belarusian language in Wikipedia (reprint)	‘Budzma’ website
5	Ukrainian wikipedians took part in the Belarusian Wikiletnik	Wikimedia Ukraine website

Featured links:

Postmortem: The following week the Wikicamp was finished, the organizing team gathered to analyze the event and process the feedback which the participants left at the final day of the camp. It was a fruitful reflection meeting where each person shared their opinion. The outcome of the Wikicamp was considered as positive.

Participation in the Wikimedia CEE Meeting, 22-25 September 2017

The most active contributors to the Wikicamp (namely, DobryBrat, KarlKori, Mr. Zabej & Svetit) were rewarded by the scholarship to take part in the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2017 held in Warsaw on 22-25 Sep. 2017. On returning to Belarus, the participants shared their impressions with the others.

Wikiexpedition to Vietka and Gomel in November

On 5-6 November 2017, the first wikiexpedition to Vietka and Gomel was successfully held. Is was the first standalone wikiexpedition (Belarusian: Wikivandrouka) of the Belarusian wikimedians (3 editors plus one supporter of the Wikimedia movement from Gomel).

The core moment of the expedition was the visit to the Vietka museum of the Old Belief and Belarusian traditions named after F.R. Shkliarau. Here by the Old Belief the specific branch of Christianity is meant.

Wikiexpedition to Maladzechna in December

On 2 December 2017, the wikiexpedition to Maladzechna was successfully held.
Visited: Maladzechna city, Vyazynka and Krasnae villages
Participants: 3 Wikimedians from Minsk

Wiki Meetups

Regular meetings of the Belarusian wikimedians were held before and after the first Belarusian Wikicamp-2017. The main objective of the spring and summer meetings was organisation of the Wikicamp.
Meetings after the Wikicamp-2017:

29 September
13 October
27 October
10 November
24 November
8 December
22 December

Outcomes of the meetings are summed up on the regular Wikimeetings page (in the Belarusian language).

2018

OpenData Day in Minsk, March 16, 2018

A Wikimedia activist Mr. Zabej (Mikhail Volchak) made a presentation on Wikidata opportunities to process and visualize opendata on the OpenData day in Minsk. The lecture was attended by almost 20 people.

Wiki Workshop at Smaliavičy Secondary School

In January 2018, a Wikimedia activist Svetit held the workshop for about 10 students of the secondary school in the Smaliavičy town, Minsk region.

Some information and photos about Smoljavichi town and its famous people was added.

A good contact with local teacher Hanna Seviarynets was established.

Wiki Meetups

File:Wikimeetup in Minsk (April 1, 2018) 2.jpg

Meeting of Belarusian and Ukrainian wikimedians in Minsk, 1 April 2018

Regular meetings of the Belarusian wikimedians stopped in 2018. Known meetings in 2018:

1 April (7 participants, 2 of them were from Ukraine) (link at be-tarask)
5 November (4 participants) (link at be-tarask) (link at be)
6 December (6 participants) (link at be-tarask) (link at be)

At the meeting on the 5th of November, the absence of Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus annual reports was discussed. There was a short training on Wikidata queries. The wikiexpedition to the Paliessie region was planned for December 2018.

Wikimedia CEE Spring 2018, 21 March – 31 May

Both branches of the Belarusian Wikipedia took part in the Wikimedia CEE Spring 2018 article contest.
9 contest participants from be-tarask-wiki (Classical Orthography) generated 427 new articles and 51 templates.
7 contest participants from be-wiki created 65 new articles and 2 templates.
Joining this event brought about 344 new articles on Belarus in sister Wikipedias.

Wikiexpedition to Pinsk district

The wikiexpedition to Pinsk city and Pinsk district villages was held on 30 April 2018. Four wikimedians from Minsk organised and took a ride. On arrival to Pinsk, they rented bicycles and moved out of the city.
The main objective was snapshooting villages to the south of Pinsk, as well as nature and cultural objects in this area. Besides, some buildings and streets of the Pinsk city were photographed.
The participants visited historical places of the Pinsk city, 6 villages, 3 rivers and 1 reservoir.
As a result, about 150 images of the Belarusian Paliessie were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a few articles and categories were created, many articles were improved.

Participation in Wikimedia CEE Meeting, 13-15 October 2018

Two participants from Belarus (Ihar Dorinel and Renessaince) represented the Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus. After the event held in Lviv they shared their observations with other Belarusian wikimedians.

Wiki education on the Faculty of Radiophysics and Computer Technologies

A Wikimedia activist Svetit has been carrying out the wiki education project at the Belarusian State University since 2016.

That year (2018), more than 30 students edited Belarusian Wikipedia on topics of molecular and atomic physics. (They added a small article or improved the existed one.)
About 5 workshops for students were held.
Each student received mentoring from Svetit when performing the wiki task. Each student was engaged to the wiki community from the first edit.

Map of Tomorrow/The Civic Activities Map (during 2018)

The Civic Activities Map (further, The Map) is called to increase transparency, collaboration and visibility of NGOs for the Belarusian society. At the same time, the Map provides citizens with more opportunities to participate in these organisations and increase mutual trust. The project initiator is Wikimedia activist Mr. Zabej (Mikhail Volchak).

A Concept of the Map of Tomorrow

This is a cross-sectional project of

free software
openstreetmap.org
Wikidata communities

In 2018:

the idea was presented to the Belarusian civic society organisations (winter 2018)
a research among two stakeholders groups (activists and NGOs) were conducted (spring 2018)
a coordination meeting of the project author with the Wikimedia of Germany was held (autumn 2018)
cooperation with opensource projects and Wechange.de and Kartevonmorgen.org communities started and was continued during the year.

2019

Plans

To launch a pilot and add more than 200 points on the map first.
Result: there was a hackathon but no wikidata activists. To organize a hackathon with Wikidata specialists and IT-volunteers in Belarus.
To develop around 100 articles on the Belarusian NGOs.

Wiki Meetups

10 January (8 participants; link at be-tarask-wiki)
7 February (3 attendees; link at be-tarask-wiki)
11 April (5 attendees; link at be-wiki)
2 May (3 attendees; link at be-wiki)
19 September (3 attendees; link at be-wiki)
28 November (8 attendees; link at be-wiki)

Participation in CEE Spring (Wiki Viasna) 2019, 21 March - 31 May 2019

Both branches of the Belarusian Wikipedia took part in the Wikimedia CEE Spring 2019 article contest.
14 contest participants from be-tarask-wiki (Classical Orthography) generated 382 new articles and 32 templates. 16 articles were improved.
5 contest participants from be-wiki created 40 new articles and 1 template.

Participation in Wikimedia Summit 2019, 29-31 March 2019, in Berlin

One participant from Belarus (Mr. Zabej) represented the Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus at the Summit. After the event, Mr. Zabej shared the Summit results with other Belarusian wikimedians.

'Millennium of Brest City' Project

On 13 May 2019, the thematic marathon to commemorate the millennium of the Brest city of Belarus was launched. During the short period, about 80 articles about Brest was created or improved.

Participation in Wikimania 2019, 14-18 August 2019, in Stockholm

One participant from Belarus (DobryBrat) represented the Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus at Wikimania. After the event, DobryBrat shared the impressions with other Belarusian wikimedians.

Weekly Contest "505 years since the Battle of Orsha"

15 August - 15 September at be-tarask branch
Refer to: https://be-tarask.wikipedia.org/wiki/Вікіпэдыя:Праект:Тэматычны_тыдзень/Аршанская_бітва

Participation in CEE Meeting 2019, 11-13 October 2019, in Belgrade

One participant from Belarus (W) represented the Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus and took part in the Meeting as a contributor. In November, User W shared the story on his contribution to the CEE Meeting and general impressions about the event with other Belarusian wikimedians.

Wiki Expedition to Masiukoŭščyna (Stalag 352 Extermination Camp), 17 November 2019

Output: Commons category.

Collaboration with 'Mapping for Good' Project

Refer to: w:Wikidata:WikiProject_Map_of_Tomorrow_(Mapa)/Hackathon

2020

Wiki meetups

27 Feb (7 participants) be-tarask, Commons category
24 Sep (4 participants) be-tarask, Commons category

Contests

Wikimedia CEE Spring 2020 (21 March - 31 May), 10 participants created 857 articles & 32 templates, & improved 52 articles (be-tarask);
Wiki Loves Earth 2020 in Belarus (1 June - 31 July), 68 participants uploaded 516 photos & created 11 articles (Grant Report, be-tarask).

2021

Wiki meetups

15 Jan (15 participants): Wikipedia 20/Events/Minsk, be-tarask, Commons category;
5 May (11 participants): WikiGap Challenge Awards, be-tarask.

Contests

Belarusian literature (15 January - 15 February; linked to "Wikipedia 20"): 11 participants created 401 articles & 2 templates, & improved 72 articles (Grant Report, be-tarask);
WikiGap Challenge in Belarus (8 March - 8 April): 18 participants created 597 articles in Belarusian Official Wikipedia (be), & 12 participants created 98 & improved 22 articles in Belarusian Classical Wikipedia (be-tarask); following the WikiGap Challenge, a group of the Belarusian diaspora-based editors initiated by the Belarusian Library in London continued working together and created 30 pages in the Belarusian Classical Wikipedia (be-tarask:Вікіпэдыя) and 53 — in the English Wikipedia mostly covering the Belarus-related topics;
Wikimedia CEE Spring 2021 (21 March - 31 May): 14 participants created 554 articles & 3 templates, & improved 23 articles in Belarusian Classical Wikipedia (be-tarask), & 7 participants created 91 articles & 3 templates, & improved 2 articles in Belarusian Official Wikipedia (be);
Wiki Loves Earth 2021 in Belarus (1 June - 31 July): 37 participants uploaded 202 photos, created 46 & improved 6 articles (Commons category, be-tarask).

2022

Jubilee month (15 January - 15 February): 9 participants created 80 articles & a template, & improved 18 articles & uploaded 4 images (be-tarask);
WikiGap Challenge in Belarus (8 March - 8 April): 8 participants created 211 articles in Belarusian Official Wikipedia (be), & 2 participants created 60 & improved 3 articles in Belarusian Classical Wikipedia (be-tarask);
Wikimedia CEE Spring 2022 (21 March - 31 May): 12 participants created 342 articles & 20 templates, & improved 73 articles in Belarusian Classical Wikipedia (be-tarask), & 5 participants created 67 articles & a template, & improved an article in Belarusian Official Wikipedia (be);
Wikipedia Asian Month 2022 (16 November - 15 December): 6 participants created 29 articles (outreach dashboard, be-tarask).

2023

Wikimedia CEE Spring 2023 (21 March - 31 May): 19 participants created 396 articles & 6 templates, & improved 28 articles in Belarusian Classical Wikipedia (be-tarask), & 3 participants created 89 articles & improved 4 articles in Belarusian Official Wikipedia (be);
Wiki meetup (October 12th, 4 participants): be-tarask.

Useful links

[“ref1”-1] These are Mr. Zabej's propositions for 2017. Please add your own in the list.

[1]