World War I edit-a-thons/Belgium

WWI edit-a-thon in E. Van Evenstraat 4, B-3000 Leuven
Organizing team	Name: Romaine dimi_z	e-mail: wmbe@wikimedia.org dimitar.dimitrov@wikipedia.at
Participating organizations	Wikimedia Belgium (in founding process)
Location	KU Leuven - AGORA Leercentrum	E. Van Evenstraat 4, B-3000 Leuven	Belgium
Target group	New WP editors and local affectionados
Activities	Edit WWI articles
Europeana Challenge	n/a
Budget	possibly a small grant from WMNL
Number of attendees
File usage
Media
Lessons learned

Let us organize an edit-a-thon in Belgium, yes we can!

On Saturday 29 June there are European edit-a-thon planned in several countries with the subject World War I. This World War had Belgium as chess board so it would be great and a good idea to organize a an edit-a-thon in Belgium.

The edit-a-thon shall take place at

Agora learning center

E. Van Evenstraat 4

B-3000 Leuven

Saturday June 29, 2013 from 10am to 16pm

If you want to participate, it is necessary to subscribe. Please, send a mail with your official name and surname before thursday, June 27th, 12pm to wmbe@wikimedia.org.

What is an edit-a-thon?

An edit-a-thon is a (small) event where people come together and work on articles on a particular topic. Often such edit-a-thon is organized for people relatively new to Wikipedia and held at an organization.

What are the needed ingredients?

• At least two users from Wikipedia being there (I am prepared to)
• A short explanation/presentation about Wikipedia (encyclopaedia), the principles: a neutral point of view, free licensing, no original research, mentioning available sources.
• Cheatsheets/antisèche/spiekbriefjes <d:Q8613381> (can be printed or ordered with a chapter, files are here: nl version, fr version, en version)
• A list of subjects which are missing in each language
• An organization with knowledge/library (preferable) or other location, must have internet connection
  • Organization can also publish a press release to attract interested people and people from that organization

Conclusion: the only work is in finding the organization.

What are possible organizations?

• Brussels: Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History d:Q1395176 in Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark, Brussels

• Overview of museums: http://www.euro-t-guide.com/See_Type/WWI_1.htm

I am not aware of other museums/etc, anyone? Another possibility is a university with a history faculty. Which universities have such?

Some proposals (Kameraad Pjotr (talk) 20:57, 24 May 2013 (UTC)):

• Ypres: In Flanders Fields Museum
• Brussels: SOMA documentation centre for both World Wars
• History department of Ghent University (Ghent) - you should probably contact Bruno De Wever or Gita Deneckere.

Other idea (Afernand74 (talk) 16:16, 29 May 2013 (UTC))

• KULeuven library could also be a nice symbol. Carnegie donated funds to rebuild the main libraries of these three "front-line" cities after WWI: Leuven, Reims and Belgrade. - I have no personal contacts with them

Questions

• Who wants to contact organizations in Belgium to ask if they are prepared to participate? (We have a Wikimedia e-mail address if you like: wmbe@wikimedia.org.)
  • dimi_z
  • Jos Punie
  • Romaine
  • ...

• Who wants to help out on the day itself to help users edit Wikipedia?

  (You only need to know how to edit Wikipedia and know what a neutral point of view is.)

  • Romaine
  • dimi_z
  • amphicoelias
  • M0tty
  • Jos Punie
  • Warddr _questions? (not 100% sure yet, but if it's in the afternoon there is a good chance I'll be there)
  • Afernand74 (talk) 10:49, 9 June 2013 (UTC) (available from 9h-16h)
  • ...

• Who is willing to help with the rest of the organizing of this edit-a-thon in Belgium? (like creating a list of missing articles about World War I, etc)
  • Romaine
  • ...

Participants

Yes, I would like to be present and write about the first World War...

• Dimi z (talk) 08:56, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
• Amphicoelias (talk) 18:16, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
• Afernand74 (talk) 10:50, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
• ...

Log of done activities for the event

• E-mailed the Belgian e-mail list about World War I edit-a-thons, put a message about this on the Dutch Wikipedia, French Wikipedia, English Wikipedia (also + [1]) Romaine (talk) 20:07, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
• I have send e-mail to http://www.be14-18.be/nl and http://www.vlaanderen.be/int/100-jaar-groote-oorlog-2014-18 - Romaine (talk) 20:08, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
• I have send e-mail to www.klm-mra.be asking them to host or co-organise the event --Dimi z (talk) 18:13, 26 May 2013 (UTC)
• I send another e-mail to www.klm-mra.be Romaine (talk) 20:08, 2 June 2013 (UTC)
• I send an other e-mail to the director of www.klm.mra.be --M0tty (talk) 10:16, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
• I send an e-mail to Cristina Ceulemans, director of KIK-IRPA --M0tty (talk) 10:16, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
• I send an e-mail to Chris de Loof, Head ICT, Multimedia and Digitization at Royal Museums of Art and History, involved with Europeana-related Belgian projects Afernand74 (talk) 11:27, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
• I have send an e-mail to KADiest, to the department of history of KULeuven and to SOMA Jos Punie (talk) 07:20, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
• I send out some e-mails in Dutch and English about the edit-a-thon, also published at nl-wiki central discussion page, [2], on en-wiki (here, here, here, here and here), on serveral user pages who might be interesed. Romaine (talk) 02:39, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Location

The KULeuven is offering us a location at Agora learning center. It's even free. However, there is a condition. We have to pass in advance a list of the participants. Do you see this as a problem?Jos Punie (talk) 07:17, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Great news! It is not ideal but it is what we've got. Thanks for your efforts. --Afernand74 (talk) 07:54, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The edit-a-thon shall take place at

Agora learning center

E. Van Evenstraat 4,

B-3000 Leuven

Saturday June 29, 2013 from 10am to 16pm

If you want to participate, it is necessary to subscribe. Please, send a mail with your official name and surname before thursday, June 27th, 12pm to wmbe@wikimedia.org. Jos Punie (talk) 10:04, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Articles to work on

1. Commission for Relief in Belgium
2. Krijgsgevangenenkamp Soltau
3. Zeppelin LZ 37, WWI German Zeppelin that crashed in Sint-Amandsberg, next to Ghent.