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We present here the Activity report of Wikimedia Belgium over 2024. We give an overview of our activities of Wikimedia Belgium (WMBE), and our collaboration with partners with whom we have completed diverse activities.

Affiliate activities

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General Assembly

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The general assembly on 8 June 2024 at Amazone unanimously approved the 2023 financial year. There were 8 members present, 5 proxies and 1 non-voting volunteer. A detailed discussion of the balance sheet followed, as well as the audit committee's report. We welcomed two new women board members: Griet and Inge. Dominique and Geert were reelected. Norbert continues his second year. Please read the meeting report and the financial statements.

Board activities

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The new board in 2024

We have regular board meetings.

We organised two Board planning days on 18-19 September 2024 to discuss and review:

  • our projects and ongoing activities;
  • strategy for the coming years;
  • prepare budget 2024.

Freelance activities

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We hired a freelancer for communication- and project management.

  • Job description and vacancy
  • 21 November - WMBE Job interviews for Freelancer; 30 resumes, 5 interviews.
  • 18-19 December - Introducing and training of our new Freelance

Four Photo Contests Wiki Loves campaigns

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The summer of 2024 was very busy in terms of photography. From July to September, no less than four photo contests went under the motto "Wiki Loves", on the subject of heritage and monuments. The Wiki Loves Monuments Belgium and Luxembourg were part of the worldwide campaign. The two other campaigns were an extension, also allowing non-building heritage subjects.

Two contests were part of the international campaign Wiki Loves Monuments. We initiated the campaign Wiki Loves Monuments Luxembourg, so that volunteers from Luxembourg could also participate. There was a national photo competition Wiki Loves Heritage, and a regional Wiki Loves Denderland 2024, an initiative of the Erfgoedcel Denderland.

The Wiki Loves Living Heritage, Wiki Loves Heritage and Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei events run from July to September, while Wiki Loves Monuments takes place in September only.

We judged the photos during the month of October. We used the Montage tool, which is straightforward and doesn't require formal training. More information on the way of judging. For each of the four campaigns ten winners were selected by a jury with 8 native members and 3 from other countries. Jury members were attracted via our monthly newsletter. Two jury members were winners of previous contests. The judges evaluated the photos independently. The jury collaborately prepared a motivation report for the 10 winners. The 10 winners for Wiki Loves Monuments Belgium and Luxembourg were nominated to the international compitition.

Campaigns

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Please find here the 10 prize winners, one from Switserland, one from Hungary. One user was completely new to Wikimedia. One winner did only upload one single picture, once! Other participants were well-known contributors; several already obtained prizes the previous years.

Some winners and Jury members of Wiki Loves Heritage 2024

Wiki Loves Heritage awards ceremony

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On 9 January 2025, the prizes of the Wiki Loves Heritage Belgium 2024 photo competition were awarded at the Royal Library in Brussels, as part of the public domain day, organised by meemoo in collaboration with a number of Flemish museums, archives, universities and libraries.

Collaboration with museums and libraries

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City archive of Sint-Truiden

Wikimedia Belgium collaborates with multiple museums. This is a good opportunity to encourage volunteers to help document museum collections. We have multiple partnerships:

Wikimedia Belgium collaborates with several GLAM organisations. This is an excellent opportunity to encourage volunteers to help document collections and archives.

Industriemuseum Gent

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Distill-a-thon Industriemuseum

Jenevermuseum Hasselt

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The Jenevermuseum Hasselt finished their project to document the gin distilleries on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.

  • Filliers Deinze
    Filliers Deinze
  • Distill-a-thon in Antwerpen
    Distill-a-thon in Antwerpen
  • Jenevermuseum
    Jenevermuseum
  • Working steam engine in the Jenevermuseum

Vrouwen van papier

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Edit-a-thon 28 September 2023

The Guido Gezelle archief finished their project to archive Guido Gezelle's letters.

Heritage institutions and archives

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Erfgoedcel Voorkempen

We realised multiple projects with heritage organisations:

  • 16 March - ErfgoedWerf (Loenhout)
  • 7 November - Upload music sheets in Wikisource with KBR
  • 20 November - Meeting with Histories
  • 22 November - Meeting with Legermuseum in Brussel
  • 28 November - Vergadering West-Vlaanderen in Brugge

Visual name authority

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Local currency in Germany

A project about linking external databases with Wikidata, to register person names, and pictures.

  • 27 February - Meeting Visual name authority (meemoo, Gent)
  • 21 May - Meeting Visual name authority at meemoo, Gent
  • 18 June - Meeting Visual name authority at meemoo, Gent
  • 26 November - Meeting Visual name authority at meemoo, Gent

Gemeenschapsmunten

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Edit-a-thons about citizen currencies:

Wikipedia in education

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Energy saving in the Cement industry
Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis Gent

More and more universities, colleges and humanities schools contact us to teach their students how to write a solid article for Wikipedia. It helps students do research on a topic, look up sources, and make their knowledge available to the public. Some concrete examples from the past few months:

List of major activities

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The following list is only a summary. Small meetings are not included. For the complete list, see Activity list 2024. Events mentioned above are not repeated.

January 2024
March 2024
April 2024
May 2024
The Book of Names (Auschwitz, 2024)
June 2024
Catering op Wikimania 2024 in Katowice
  • 29 June - Wikithon Femmes en résistence
July 2024
August 2024
Wikimania 2024
September 2024
November 2024

Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund Projects

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Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund

The Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund exists since December 2019. On 23 February 2024, the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund Committee held a meeting, where new plans were reviewed. These projects are supported by tax donations through the King Baudouin Foundation. New projects are welcome via friends@wikimedia.be.

Donations to the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund

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We would like to warmly thank our generous donors. A tax certificate is made available by the King Baudouin Foundation for donations of at least €40. Support the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund. Through the Friends Fund we have a yearly budget of more than €10.000, available for external projects, completely independent from the WMF Grant.

We have a new QR code available that allows you to donate directly via Payconiq. Scan the code with your smartphone, enter the amount and confirm the payment. Never has transferring a donation been so easy. The King Baudouin Foundation provides Belgian tax certificates for donations of at least € 40. A classic structured bank transfer remains possible at any time.

Website: https://friendswikimedia.be

Partnerships

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Wikimedia:

Community activity

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Dutch Wikipedia writing contest

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As usual every year, the Dutch Wikipedia is once again organising a writing contest. Get motivated and join in to write a great article! You can participate from 1 August onwards. Articles must be finished by October 31. You can participate here and find more information.

Leading writing sessions

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As we get more and more requests for writing sessions, we are in greater need of good and enthusiastic facilitators. We are aware of this. There are an estimated 350 volunteers in Flanders who write on Wikipedia (about 1 per 20000 language users). If we can pick 3% supervisors out of those, we will be 10... two per province. We are also looking for volunteers for Wallonia and Brussels, where we have an estimated 250 volunteers. Candidates can apply at writing@wikimedia.be.

Diverse activities

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For those wishing to view the presentations from Wikimania 2024.

On 7 September, Wikimedia Commons celebrated its 20th anniversary. Wikimedia Commons is based on Creative Commons (founded on 15 January 2001 -- on the same day as Wikipedia). All Wikimedia projects use free licences based on Creative Commons. Wikipedia adopted the CC BY‑SA licence from 2009.

Active volunteers who would like to purchase a Museum Pass, valid for one year of free museum visits, can submit an expense report for this purpose. A precondition is that the volunteer uploads photos, or creates Wikipedia pages in return. More information on submitting a expense note.

Press about Wikipedia and Wikimedia

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Standaard Solidariteitsprijs 2024

We participated again with https://be.wikimedia.org/wiki/Standaard_Solidariteitsprijs, but did not win a prize.

Share your knowledge with Wikipedia; an interview and article in De Standaard on how Wikipedia articles are written and how the Wikimedia community is organised.

Project support

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Project management

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See Integrated project environment.

Software development

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We develop multiple Pywikibot scripts to support Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia platforms.

  • Reciproque 1:1 relation Wikidata P18 - SDC depicts P180 (both ways)
  • Register heritage in Wikimedia Commons SDC
  • Add pictures, categories, authority, and infoboxes to Wikipedia articles
  • Creating ISBN edition items

Wikidata queries

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Development of Wikidata queries that can be used for project implementation.

Communication

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Publications

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Second edition Vrije kennis ontsluiten met Wikidata, Wikipedia en Wikimedia Commons; printed on 600 copies, and distributed to the participants during our edit-a-thons.

Public relations

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We answered hundreds e-mails from new Wikipedians, people asking more information about fundraising, and institutions that wanted to conduct a project with WMBE.

In 2024 we attracted new editors via the numerous writing sessions, and 10 new members. Wikimedia Belgium has statutory voting and non voting members.

Newsletters

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Wikimedia platforms

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Wikimedia Belgium

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New websites

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See also

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