Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2019-11

2019
November

Kagel report

edit

From October 31 to November 6, the Youth4Rememberance event was held in Kagel, Germany. There were two participants from Wikimedia Armenia in the seminar; Khazhak Drampyan and Norayr Baghdasaryan. This is a report on the seminar written by Khazhak Drampyan.

“Youth4Remembrance – Sharing tools how to encourage millennials to critically reflect on European history" was a seminar that took place from October 31-November 6 in Germany, Kagel, Elsensee and was organized by SCI.

The aim of the seminar was to share non-formal education methods, best practices and awareness-raising methods for making young people interested in remembrance, developing their skills in critical analysis of history and its connections to the present, enabling them to increase their active citizenship around remembrance, training peace and remembrance organizations in using online approaches in addition to their offline peace and remembrance work (e.g. by doing Wikipedia projects around remembrance or podcasts), and training organizations focused on social media in working with remembrance.

It was a great experience for me to take part in a seminar on the topic of remembrance. At the seminar we had interesting discussions on different remembrance topics, starting from the concept of culture of remembrance, ways to critically reflect on history, practices of remembrance and ending with commemoration of the past events and importance of monuments as means of preserving memory. These discussions were very useful for me, because they gave birth to many new ideas, answering many questions at the same time.

The seminar gave me the opportunity to get closely acquainted with different remembrance issues existing across countries and learn about common remembrance practices and share experiences. It was also a perfect platform for intercultural communication where I tried to understand and learn about different cultural backgrounds.

But most of all I appreciated the friendly and cozy atmosphere. I am happy that this seminar gave me the opportunity to know many people across the world and I am happy to keep in touch with them in the future.

During discussions and sessions on remembrance I had a chance to present Wikipedia as a tool that can help to contribute on remembrance work. Particularly, I introduced the participants with how Wikipedia works and what opportunities it provides to editors. There was a separate reference to GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) projects as tools for remembrance. As an example of Armenian GLAM project experience, I presented “Wiki Loves Yerevan” project implemented last year on the occasion of 2800th anniversary of Yerevan city and with the participation of 17 local cultural institutions. At the session the importance of collaboration with such institutions, especially those involved in remembrance work was emphasized. There was also a short discussion about “Wiki Loves Monuments” photo competition organized each year, which can also contribute to the documentation of cultural heritage sites and places of remembrance.

During the seminar we had a special session, where each participant was to think about their own follow-up projects. I had a fruitful discussion and brainstorming with Anton Protsiuk from Wikimedia Ukraine and Thomas Schallhart from Wikimedia Austria and decided to start a project in Wikipedia around the topic of remembrance, covering specific articles in English Wikipedia and translating them into Armenian, Ukrainian and German languages.

In the frameworks of the seminar we also visited specific remembrance sites, particularly former GDR prison and Nazi labor force camp, which has recently turned into a documentation center). At both centers I had personal arrangements with the representatives of those two institutions to receive special materials and to cover articles in English Wikipedia about the two important centers. These materials will then be translated into Armenian, Ukrainian and German languages.

Wikitraining for the Teachers of Tavush Region

edit

According to a memorandum signed between the president of Wikimedia Armenia and the governor of Tavush, Wikiclubs should be opened in all communities of Tavush marz. In order to make this process faster and more efficient, Wikimedia Armenia organizes Wikitrainings for teachers in the Tavush region that aims to introduce teachers to Wikimedia projects and their editing principles.

Continuing the first successful Wikitraining in August, October 23-24, another training session was held for teachers of Tavush, this time in Ijevan - Tavush regional center. Overall, there were eleven participants in this two-day training.

In general, the training was coordinated by 4 experienced Wikieditors. There were both experienced teachers and newcomers attending the training. The work with newcomers was separated from the experienced ones. The coordinator introduced the main principles of Wikipedia and its editing process. The newcomers began working on articles in order to thoroughly comprehend the editing process. As most of the teachers were experienced ones, coordinators tried to strengthen their wiki knowledge, they introduced the most common mistakes in the articles, discussed various problems and summarized the training with Q&A session.

Western Armenian Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

edit
 

On November 29-December 1, the third Western Armenian Wikipedia edit-a-thon was organized. There was no specific topic planned for the edit-a-thon and the participants had the chance to edit articles according to their preference. Overall, 14 articles were created.

Wikiclubs report

edit
Wikiclubs Participants Community population Bytes+ (Wikipedia) Bytes- Edits Articles Bytes+ (Wiktionary) Bytes- Edits Articles Bytes+ (Wikisource) Bytes- Edits Created Proofread Confirmed
Gyumri (Khrimyan Hayrik 46) 13 121976 51452 -52 4 1 0 0 0 0 67882 -251 100 30 0 99
Alaverdi Wikiclub 89 13000 805313 -95932 331 59 23333 -682 332 23 38680 -1 16 15 15 0
Arevatsag Wikiclub 127 960 46607 -75 88 13 141714 -3457 1080 248 91138 -29 54 36 11 43
Gyumri Wikiclub (KASA) 78 121976 47780 -52 3 0 0 0 0 0 2567 -2 4 3 0 4
Goris Wikiclub 67 20300 161726 -4597 446 27 6 -1 6 0 513472 -2703 460 230 251 183
Ddmashen Wikiclub 87 2876 1860406 -34303 1294 84 35000 -92 109 67 94527 -54 96 26 67 29
Lernapat Wikiclub 312 2279 1600814 -165007 1153 92 0 0 0 0 763355 -50445 672 260 609 44
Koghb Wikiclub 98 5300 140956 -5887 91 9 76611 -767 237 157 48370 -6808 93 0 82 2
Hatsik Wikiclub 44 1044 231695 -1161 135 40 9737 -15 27 15 395810 -1576 679 187 672 2
Mrgavan Wikiclub 59 1725 732945 -35894 322 90 0 0 0 0 36513 -4260 131 11 127 4
Spitak Wikiclub 88 13000 25116 -1300 41 8 0 0 0 0 93489 -335 174 28 153 19
Stepanakert Wikiclub 242 55200 126522 -533 58 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Vanashen Wikiclub 49 2573 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 434121 -226 237 168 231 6
Vardenik Wikiclub 66 9880 158694 -34960 691 40 39119 -2640 256 71 469367 -240 386 117 385 0
Togh Wikiclub 81 700 31078 -215 13 6 509 0 1 1 197724 -8140 167 51 135 32
Karvachar Wikiclub 105 500 419360 -3274 175 61 35871 -1143 391 40 309988 -1951 363 110 346 17
Aygedzor Wikiclub 13 2608 6466 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Archis Wikiclub 8 1109 35896 -165 14 6 0 0 0 0 166294 -252 98 69 45 52
Berd Wikiclub 24 7800 1438 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 301797 -4570 438 107 368 9
Gandzakar Wikiclub 6 3656 54978 -46 23 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gosh Wikiclub 12 1218 151858 -21 46 25 0 0 0 0 19382 -1 18 8 12 6
Lusahovit Wikiclub 12 390 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10944 -53 13 4 0 13
Kirants Wikiclub 12 298 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 466077 -3020 343 160 62 274
Noyemberyan Wikiclub (2-nd school) 13 5000 168450 -594 65 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Noyemberyan Wikiclub (high school) 18 5000 370157 -11883 168 41 0 0 0 0 89234 -16 45 38 43 1
Sarigyugh Wikiclub 7 1253 26049 -1546 33 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 1730 401621 7255756 -397497 5198 647 361900 -8797 2439 622 4610731 -84933 4587 1658 3614 839

Saturday workshops

edit

Every Saturday Wikimedia Armenia organizes open workshops-edit-a-thons at the WMAM office where new editors are taught how to edit different wiki projects. Anyone interested in wiki projects, Wikipedia, wiki editing and needed assistance, as well as wiki editors who want to edit in pleasant atmosphere participate in these workshops-edit-a-thons.