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Wikimedians of Moscow User Group

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Wikimedians of the Moscow region at the constituent meeting in the Central Universal Science Nekrasov Library

Wikimedians of Moscow (рус. Викимедийцы Москвы) — is a group of Wikimedia Movement participants who are interested in the Moscow region in various aspects: its history, geography, culture, biographies of prominent figures, etc., as well as focusing their efforts to disseminate free knowledge in the Moscow region.

The Moscow region (also the Moscow metropolitan area) is the largest urban agglomeration of Russia and Europe, one of the largest in the world. In addition to Moscow, it includes more than 70 cities, 14 of them with a population of over 100 thousand people, including regional centers: Vladimir, Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tver, Tula, Yaroslavl. In total, the Moscow metropolitan area is inhabited by up to 20 million people, united by economic ties, a common infrastructure, common history and culture (at least since the 15th century: since the expansion of the Moscow principality and the accession of Ryazan to it).

We decided to create a user group at the meeting of activists in the Moscow library named after N.A. Nekrasov on November 29, 2019. The reason was the long-term active and consistent work of the region’s activists; a number of events were held, among them were the contests “Discover Moscow with Wikipedia” and “We are writing about Moscow”, wiki expeditions to Kaluga, Tula, Vladimir and Suzdal, Zvenigorod, Arkhangelskoye, Zhostovo, excursions to the districts of Moscow, to various museums, companies and enterprises. The result was the appearance of about 2,000 articles on Wikipedia and the upload of more than 5,000 free photoes on Wikimedia Commons.

During the meeting, it became clear that the creation of a regional user group can help more effectively solve the tasks of the Wikimedia Movement offline and disseminate free knowledge among a wide range of Internet users.

The initiators of the creation of the user group:

Goals

  • Grouth of the Moscow region Wikimedia community for the development and implementation of projects of free local history knowledge.
  • Promotion of the Wikimedia Movement ideals in the Moscow region.
  • Creation of high-quality free content about the Moscow region.
  • Dissemination of the information about the activities of the Wikimedia Movement and attraction of new volunteers.
  • Provition of information about the history and culture of the Moscow region in different language sections of Wikimedia projects.

Activity

Andreykor conducts a wiki tour of Pyatnitskaya Street in Moscow, September 14, 2014
Logo of the “Discover Moscow with Wikipedia” contest, 2015
Dmitry Rozhkov at the GLAM forum in Yerevan, May 11, 2018
Юлия 70 at a meeting of the Wiki Club at the Nekrasov Library on March 17, 2019
  • Organization and holding of wiki competitions (writing wiki articles and wiki news about the Moscow region, thematic photo contests, etc.).
  • Conducting lectures, seminars and master classes on the basics of working on wiki projects.
  • Organization and conduct of wiki excursions and wiki expeditions related to the production of free content and the search for sources for it.
  • GLAM: work with libraries, archives, museums and galleries in the Moscow region.
  • Photo-portraits of significant Russian and foreign figures in the Moscow region.
  • Support for the Wiki club based on the Nekrasov Library, scaling up this experience in the region.

You can also check the user group activity list.

History

In 2008, a Moscow Wikimedian, Dmitry Rozhkov, started an unlimited one-person photo project: shooting documentary portraits of cultural, scientific, political and other media figures and uploading these photo portraits on Wikimedia Commons with further illustrating Wikipedia biographical articles. Most photo shoots take place at public events: meetings in bookstores, fairs and presentations. For 12 years, Dmitry Rozhkov made photographs of hundreds of people in Moscow, a small select part are in this category. Also during this time Dmitry Rozhkov made several original reports and recorded a number of exclusive interviews for Russian Wikinews.

Since 2009, we have been conducting wiki excursions in Moscow and Moscow Region, the first one took place in 2009 at the Ostankino TV tower. From the current composition of our user group, Ctac took part in it. Since then, the excursions are held regularly, and the last 2-3 years — several times a year (see section below). In addition, we conduct one-day wiki expeditions by the region: by public transport, buses or private cars. The routes of such expeditions are usually compiled and offered by experienced guide and local historian Andreykor, as well as public relations specialist Niklitov.

Since November 2013, the Library project has been active on Russian Wikipedia. The project brings together Wikipedia participants, facilitates the exchange of authoritative sources and assistance in finding them. One of the founders of the project and its most active participant is Юлия 70. Over the 7 years, she completed hundreds of requests, visiting the largest Moscow libraries every week, searching sources for Wikipedia articles. Also, Юлия 70 made presentations at All-Russian WikConferences 2015—2019. In 2015, she first spoke about the Library project at the conference in Kostroma.

From March to July 2015, the large-scale “Discover Moscow with Wikipedia” contest was organized in the Russian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. It was conducted by Wikimedia RU and the «Discover Moscow» project of the Moscow City Information Technology Department. The competition was made possible thanks to the agreements reached by Ctac. Andreykor took part as a coordinator and a chairman of the jury. The competition was held in 6 nominations (“Sights”, “Geography”, “Organizations”, “History”, “Biographies”, “Illustrating”), 3 winners per each. “Discover Moscow with Wikipedia” has become one of the most successful and productive competitions in the history of Russian Wikipedia: contestants wrote 1,700 articles and uploaded 2,200 photos. 18 winners received valuable prizes: laptops, tablets and smartphones.

In May 2018, Dmitry Rozhkov received an invitation to the GLAM forum in Yerevan (Armenia). He prepared a presentation about Wikimedia RU activities in GLAM direction in Russia. In particular, he spoke about Wikimedia tours by the Moscow region. Dmitry Rozhkov made a similar report on July 20, 2019 at the IT BILER FORUM for schoolchildren in Tatarstan. He also received Wikimedia Foundation scholarships to visit Wikimania in 2018 and 2019.

Since March 2019, the Wiki Club has been launched at the Nekrasov Library, with Dmitry Rozhkov, Юлия 70 and Natalia Senatorova leading. Among the visitors of the club are residents of Moscow and the Moscow Region: students, middle-aged and older visitors, journalists, creative and public figures. All of them receive the basic knowledge about the principles of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and other Wikimedia projects, share experience with each other. Photos from Wiki Club meetings.

From September to November 2019, the “We are writing about Moscow” contest, organized jointly with the Nekrasov Library, was held on Russian Wikipedia. Actually, the competition was organized by our user group: Natalia Senatorova, Dmitry Rozhkov, Andreykor, Юлия 70. The contestants wrote more than 170 articles and were encouraged by a books from the library, and by a tours of Moscow as well.

Contacts

Interested in participating

  1. --Ctac (talk) 08:47, 29 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  2. — Niklitov (talk) 16:33, 29 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  3. АААЙошкар-Ола — aaasufes@list.ru
  4. --Just (talk) 09:13, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  5. AndyVolykhov (talk) 12:32, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Natalia Senatorova (talk) 14:11, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Lesless (talk) 14:24, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Dr Bug (Vladimir V. Medeyko) 14:51, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  9. --Brateevsky (talk) 06:29, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  10. JukoFF (talk) 23:36, 13 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  11. — Soul Train (talk) 18:00, 25 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  12. — Rajeeb (talk) 18:31, 27 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  13. — Соколрус (talk) 17:23, 19 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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