Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska/Annual plan/2021-2022

Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska

Annual plan 2021–2022

Introduction

This is the annual work plan of the Wikimedia Community and the Republic of Srpska and it represents the basis on which activities will be implemented during the period from July 2021 to July 2022 by volunteers and the organizing team of the Community.

The plan is divided into two areas - organizational and program. The plan of the activities is based on experience gained so far, researching, the wishes of the Community, and Community feedback occurred during the implementation of previous projects.

The main objective of the organizational activities is to ensure the smooth operation and functioning of the Community. Organizational activities are support to program activities that should ensure their smooth and efficient performance. Likewise, organizational activities, in addition to the reasons mentioned above, aim to maintain and increase the network of users within the Community through the constant promotion of open knowledge.

Program activities are specific activities that will be implemented to improve the quality and quantity of Wikimedia content. The main objective is to expand the network of users for Wikimedia projects and create unique programs that will enable the implementation of the Wikimedia projects in as many relevant institutions, organizations, and will also have a positive effect on individuals. Activities should be a quality base for long-term upgrading and improvement in the work of the Community.

Program activities are divided into three categories, namely: Community activities, educational activities and GLAM activities.

Organizational activities

Organizational activities are related to work aimed at ensuring the smooth functioning of the Community, as well as activities aimed at supporting the growth and development of the Community through the establishment of clear structures within the Community, development of the Community policies, training of members of the organizing team, planning and analysis, communication with third parties, training volunteers and mutual education.

The main objective of the organizational activities is to provide constant and smooth operation of the Community.

Tasks related with the outlined goal are:

• everyday functioning of the organization;
• conducting activities of the organization in accordance with local laws and regulations, and other various framework agreements;
• coordination of activities of the organizational team and volunteers;
• relevant and timely reporting on Community activities, on local and international level.

These tasks will ensure the harmonious functioning of the Community and contribute to the ranking of the organization as a desirable partner for cooperation, both at local and international level.

Organizational Team

Organizing team, in addition to constituting a special governing body equivalent to the Management Board, has responsibilities to consider ideas for projects, make decisions, and the like. It is also a working group of Wikimedians that has task to plan and develop the strategy, monitor and coordinate the activities of volunteers and conduct mentorship. Organizing team communicates at least twice a month through Skype, Google Meet or mailing lists. Each member of the Organizing Team has its own sphere of responsibility.

Goals:

1. each member of the Organizing team works on improvement and efficient functioning of their sphere of responsibility;
2. Organizing team, in addition to daily communication has meetings at least twice a month through Skype, Google Meet, mail, mailing list or live, depending on the situation;
3. the organizing team works on micro and macro work planning;
4. Organizing team is working on coordination during the implementation of projects;
5. Organizing team is engaged in mentoring;
6. members of the Organizing Team communicate with third parties in accordance with their authority;
7. Organizing team brings decisions needed for more efficient functioning of the Community in the near future.

Work with volunteers and new members

Volunteers are one of the most important resources of the Community. During the specified period, efforts will be made to expand the Community to include new volunteers in planned activities. In addition, existing volunteers, who have shown a willingness and enthusiasm for work will receive mentoring and members of the Organizing Team will train them in the field of work organization, planning at the macro and micro level, as well as project realization coordination.

Work with third parties

In addition to communication within the Community, communication with third parties, such as partners, the media, the public, as well as with people interested in joining the Community is taking place in parallel. During the designated period, the Community will continue to communicate with external entities in order to maintain and expand the existing network of associates and partners and to preserve public trust in its work.

Transparency in work and reporting

Timely and regular reporting on activities of the Community are necessary and important in more ways than one. In addition to providing transparency and insight into the work of the Community, they provide Community recognition as a serious partner by potential institutions or organizations that wish to cooperate, at both the local and international level, and strengthen ties within the Community itself. Reporting is performed via a website, blog, social networking, collaboration and communication with the media, mail and mailing list, depending on the moment of the implementation phase of the project and relevance of the topic. Also, Community conducts training in the field of mass communication, so that the news of importance was placed in the right way and at the right time.

Goals:

1. creation and development of Community reputation;
2. increasing confidence of the public in work of the Community;
3. learning and sharing experience.

Program activities

Program activities are those activities which Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska will conduct during the specified period in order to improve the quality and quantity of Wikimedia content.

To accomplish our set goal, the following tasks are set:

1. improvement and expansion of the educational program which will support networks of the educational institutions;
2. improvement and enlargement of partnerships in the area of GLAM program;
3. further development and upgrade of gender gap program through work with already formed female editor group within Republic of Srpska;
4. expanding the Wiki Women program in Republic of Srpska;
5. promotion and improvement of free content accessibility through different photo activities;
6. support, motivation and expansion of the existing Community through different Community manifestations;
7. promotion of free knowledge in the Republic of Srpska through public manifestations, lectures and cooperation with media.

Educational activities

Expansion of activities

During last period Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska made significant progress in Edu sphere in terms of creating better partnerships and involving new faculties in partnerships. Cooperation with 19 state educational institutions has been established, of which 8 are faculties. Beside it the Community has established cooperation with one University in state in order to promote our activities from the domain of the educational program. Thanks to the efforts of the Community, educational institutions have recognized our organization as a desirable partner and opened the door to our volunteers and our mission.

Previous experience has shown the necessity of involving professors and teachers in cooperation. In order to ensure further sustainability of the education program, it is necessary to educate teachers of targeted institutions (faculties, secondary schools) for working on Wikimedia projects. Also, it is necessary to provide support from the competent Ministry in order to ensure the response of professors and teachers.

During the indicated period, the Community will be focused on the improvement of educational program through the increasing number of professors (represents of new educational institutions and institutions with which cooperation has already been established) involved in cooperation. The accent will be on the training of professors to work on Wikimedia projects.

Goals:

1. at least 10 educational institutions - colleges and high schools will be included in the educational program of the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska;
2. 20 professors will take part in educational activities of Community in indicated period;
3. agreed and defined 10 future thematic activities.

Network Improvement

In order to achieve sustainability of the educational program an existing cooperation network of associates from educational institutions - teachers and professors - will be maintained and further upgraded. In addition to communications being thus improved and organization of further activities simplified, one more goal will be accomplished and that is to share the positive experience of the professors involved as collaborators in the education program with educators from other institutions. All this will help us achieve long-term goals, such as creating unique, sustainable and quality educational program.

Goals:

1. work of the team for coordination and maintenance of communication with educational institutions;
2. at least 20 professors included in cooperation in educational activities;
3. once a year gathering and meet up of collaborators from the sphere of education will be held, to create a sense of belonging and Community and for purpose of experience sharing.

GLAM activities

Improvement of GLAM program

The GLAM program of Wikimedia Community of Republic of Srpska has been significantly improved over the last few years. A network of partners across the Republic of Srpska has been created, including the most important GLAM institutions in the country. In addition to museums and libraries with which most cooperate, the list of partners there are different organizations that have a major impact on the public. A special step was made in establishing cooperation with more prestigious institutions that recognized the Wikimedia Community of Republic of Srpska as an equal partner. Thanks to the professionalism of the Community, all previous GLAM partnerships have the status of sustainable.

In the following period, the Community will have the goal of expanding and improving the GLAM program through establishing cooperation with as many of these institutions as possible. A special accent will be placed on institutions of importance and establishing cooperation with them. Also, the existing network of partner GLAM institutions will be maintained in parallel.

In accordance with the previous experience and interest of the partners for cooperation, our Community will through the project model of Wiki Ambassador work on improving the GLAM program by cooperating with different GLAM institutions in the Republic of Srpska. Apart from the fact that these partnerships will contribute to strengthening the reputation of the Community, the quality content will be created through this cooperation, due to the fact these institutions possess valuable materials for creating free content that will have high-quality sources and references.

In addition, the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska will through photo activities seek to attain new partners, both in the field of GLAM, as well as other institutions, organizations or associations that share the same goals. Within GLAM program two photo contests will be held (WLE+WLM) at Wikimedia Commons whose focus will be natural, cultural and historical monuments of the Republic of Srpska. During the competition, a series of activities will be conducted which will include editing workshops and photo tours in different cities of the Republic of Srpska. The community will for the first time take part in WLE and WLM projects that are held at the international level, which will have a positive impact on learning and training in terms of organizing such projects.

In order to increase the number of activities under the GLAM program and to involve the Community in as many international cooperation projects as possible, during the indicated period, participation in the international project 1Lib1Ref will be undertaken for the second time.In addition to the ultimate goal of complementing Wikimedia projects with quality references, this activity will have a positive impact on the learning of Community members through collaboration with members of other Wiki organizations.

Also, in 2022 The Community will take an active part in the international event Museum Night through the promotion of GLAM program and open knowledge, in cooperation with relevant GLAM institutions.

Goals:

1. 5 editing workshops will be organized;
2. 8 working visits to the Old Herzegovina museum;
3. 5 new GLAM institutions will be involved in cooperation;
4. 10 new associates in front of GLAM institutions will be involved in activities and cooperation;
5. release and digitization of materials of national importance;
6. popularization of the projects Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons;
7. increase the number of quality articles;
8. one photo competition;
9. increase in the number of free photos of the monuments from Republic of Srpska monuments on Wikimedia Commons;
10. increase in the number of articles on the monuments of the Republic of Srpska on Wikipedia;
11. popularization of the Wikimedia vision in the Republic of Srpska;
12. taking part in one international project;
13. taking part in one international event;
14. spreading the idea of free knowledge;
15. attracting new volunteers and members of the Community.

Network Improvement

In order to establish lasting and sustainable cooperation to GLAM institutions, particularly libraries, with which we will deal the most during the coming period, a special network will be created consisting out of representatives of GLAM institutions and members of the Community and Organizational team responsible for developing GLAM program for the Community. In addition to working on the implementation of current activities through this network it will also serve the purpose of new ideas generation and creating an analysis of needs and opportunities, based on which our future projects and activities will be created.

Goals:

1. spreading of a group dedicated to the coordination of GLAM activities within the Community;
2. at least 15 representatives of GLAM institutions will be included in GLAM activities and communication with the Community.

Community activities

Community events

The Community is the foundation and starting point for implementation of the Wikimedia projects locally, hence it is essential that it works harmoniously and remains strong. In addition to a clearly defined and constructively designed structure within the Community, it is necessary to constantly maintain the motivation of participants through a variety of events, meetings, discussions. In the next period, the Community will take into account the motivation of members and the maintenance of positive communication in order to ensure the functionality of the Community as a basic initiator. This will be an important prerequisite for the success of projects.

Goals:

1. 1 local conference will be held in the period from May 2021 to May 2022 with a minimum of 30 participants.

Competitions

In order to strengthen ties within the Community and to establish a sustainable relationship with users and editors of Wikimedia projects and cooperation with potential new partners, the Community will organize a competition in which the focus will be on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. On this occasion, will strive to establish correlations with the educational and GLAM program as well as the Gender gap movement.

Goals:

1. 4 competition will be organized on Wikipedia;
2. overall number of created articles will be 400;
3. overall number of participants will be 60;
4. overall number of gathered photographs will be 400;
5. 6 partners will be included in activities.

Participation on Wikimedia conferences

In order to ensure the progress and growth of the Community in terms of learning, training and communication with other Wikimedia organizations, Community will seek to participate in the annual meetings of the Wikimedia (Wikimania, GLAM Conference, CEE Conference, WikiLive). In addition, it aims to create, start or participate in joint projects of international character, in cooperation with other Wikimedia organizations.

Goals:

1. the community will take part in 2 annual Wikimedia meetings;
2. the community will participate in at least 2 common projects, in cooperation with some of the Wikimedia organizations.

Gender Gap activities - Wiki Women

In order to further contribute to overcoming the gender gap within the Wikimedia projects and in general, within the Community at the local level, the Community will continue to expand and upgrade the Gender Gap program in Republika Srpska. In particular, the existing activities will be improved in terms of involving new editors in terms of covering a wider geographic area. In the already established program we will include editors from one other city. The Community will work on gaining and establishing cooperation with local women's organizations.

Goals:

1. expanding geographical focus
2. contribution to overcoming the Gender gap;
3. promotion of open knowledge in certain target groups - women organizations;
4. gaining new partners;
5. upgrading of the Gender gap program in the Republic of Srpska;
6. expansions of the Community - inclusion of new female members;
7. work on less represented themes;
8. 1 project will have 2 workshops;
9. 1 edit-a-thon will be held;
10. 1 photo tour;
11. at least 4 partner - women organizations.

CEE Spring

In order to contribute to the multilingual availability of content on Wikipedia, the Community will participate in an international Wikipedia article writing competition - CEE Spring. Thanks to the cooperation with more experienced competition organizers, members of the Community will have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills in terms of planning and implementation of international competition.

Goals:

1. participation in one international competition;
2. increase the number of quality articles on Serbian Wikipedia;
3. knowledge transfer.

Public activities

Media activities

Cooperation with the media is very important to create a positive image of the Community at the local level. In addition, clearly influence the creation of awareness about the importance of spreading free knowledge in general. As before, the Community will continue the good practice and maintain regular communication with the media through the organization of press conferences, sending press releases and participation in radio and TV shows. In addition, the Community will continue reporting regularly to the public on Community activities and news from the world via Wikimedia blog, website and social networks.

Goals:

1. at least 100 mentions in printed and electronic media during the designated period;
2. at least 2 press conferences;
3. at least 4 TV reports;
4. at least 1 blog post per month.

Public events

The Community will work to spread the vision of an open knowledge through participation in various events, public lectures and participation in seminars in a function of a lecturer. This will contribute to attracting new partners and potential members of the Community and promote Wikimedia goals and projects in general.

Goals:

1. participation in at least 2 public events.