Wikimedia Community User Group Albania/2023 Report

Note: This is work on progress for the 2023 WCUG Albania yearly report.

Summary

During these 12 months we focused our efforts on the following activities

• establishing the core team behind our user group with
• a collaboration with organizations in the Cultural Herritage field
• monthly meetings of our User Group team members to share knowledge with each other and plan for activities
• working with the CEE Hub and seek their support to reach our goals
• planning for the next year.

Activities for May 2023 - May 2024

Community Sprints and meetups Done

• When: during September 2023
• Location: Open Labs hackerspace, Tirana
• Organized by: WCUGA
• Description of the activity: these activities during September 2023 were focused in exposing newcommers that did not have any previous experience in Wikipedia or other Wikimedia project.
• https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwwlq4YNDXN/?igsh=MWh3M2dyb2NubWIzaQ%3D%3D

Events: Solid presence at Open Source Conference Albania - 2023 edition Done

• Date: 02.09.2023 - 03.09.2023
• Location: Ambasada e Paqes, Tirana, Albania
• Organized by: Wikimedia related presence was organised by WCUGA members
• Description of the activity: with the support from CEE Hub we managed to have a member of the Greek Wikimedia community in Tirana that hosted a wikidata workshop and a presentation about Wikidata. We hosted [an info booth] as well and also facilitated the workshop. OSCAL is the largest gathering of Open Source and Open Knowledge contributors in Albania and is a well established conference.
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CwWycUeNM0r/?igsh=MXhiZmp0YTVwZzJlbQ==

Project implementation: documenting the archives or Cultural Heritage without Borders Albania in the commons Done

• Date: Q3 2023
• Location: events hosted at Open Labs hackerspace, Tirana
• Organized by: WCUGA
• Description of the activity: in collaboration with CHwB Albania, Wikimedia Community User Group Albania started documenting important architectural sites, before and after the restoration. Cultural Heritage without Borders Albania (CHwB) is an Albanian-based international NGO dedicated to the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. The project aimed at enriching Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and SQ Wikipedia with materials that were part of the CHwB Albania archives and not being used. This comprehensive initiative involved a series of informative lectures designed to educate both newcomers and long time editors about the intricacies of SQ Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons. Participants were offered hands-on training to navigate and contribute effectively to these platforms. Additionally, the project featured an edit-a-thon component, where dedicated individuals passionately worked to digitize and disseminate invaluable materials sourced from CHwB's archives into Wikimedia projects. By bridging the gap between cultural preservation and digital dissemination, this project not only empowered its participants but also contributed significantly to the global effort of preserving and sharing Albania's rich cultural heritage with a broader audience in the commons.
• Links: project page with all the details can be found here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Documenting_CHwB_Albania_archives_in_commons

Regional Community Engagement: CEE Hub Meeting 2023 Done

• Date: 15-17 September 2023
• Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
• Organized by: Wikimedia UG Georgia featuring two participants from WCUGA
• Description of the activity: Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2023 (#WMCEE) is an annual conference centered on Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia and other related projects) in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (more recently, also in Central Asia). It features presentations on Wikimedia projects, other wikis, free/open source software, free knowledge and free content, and the social and technical aspects of these topics. The 2023 meeting was held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in the period 15-17 September. Sonia, a core team member of our user group also presented our work on adding women architects info on SQ Wikipedia.
• Link: https:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2023

Documenting DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art archives in commons - application status Done

• Date: Q4 2023 - Q1 2024
• Location: Tirana
• Organized by: WCUGA
• Description of the activity: We managed to have an agreement with the team behind the Albania-based contemporary art collective DebatikCenter. Our primary objective has been for a while to document a previously overlooked aspect of Albanian culture in the commons: the contemporary art scene. This represents a fundamental shift as, for the first time, we aim to add information and knowledge related to contemporary art in Albania in EN and SQ Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. After quite a lot of back and forth during the end of 2023 and early 2024 we managed to work together with DebatikCenter and work on the preliminary work and research and are now ready to implement the project in 2024. The preparatory work took a while with lots of meetings and emails, but worth it.
• Link: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Documenting_DebatikCenter_of_Contemporary_Art_archives_in_commons_(ID:_22374601)

Other activities

Below is a list of additional activities where members of our user group were involved.

CEE Hub coordination

Our coordination with the CEE Hub team has helped us a lot to answer any questions we have had in terms of implementing our projects. This started during the previous year and we plan to participate on office hours calls, regional project implementations and CEE Hub meetings also in 2024.

Preliminary meetings with GLAM and Education related institutions

During 2023 we have been in talks with the following entities and have already defined scope of work for some of these:

• Debatic Center of Contemporary Art (this has already becoming a grant funded application after the talks we had for quite some time.
• Lëvizja për Universitetin (there is a verbal agreement to implement this in 2024 - formalization of the collab is expected to follow the same year).
• Pika pa Sipërfaqe publishing house (there is a verbal agreement to implement this in 2024 - formalization of the collab is expected to follow the same year).