CEE/Newsletter/February 2019/Contents/Russia report
Tatarstan pilot of «Smart Region» initiative presented to the Russian Federation Deputy Prime-Minister edit
- By Frhdkazan
Translated from the Russian Wikinews article Татарстанский пилот вики-инициативы «Умный регион» представлен Вице-премьеру РФ; also see Tatar version
Wikimedians of Russia made first short public presentation of Tatarstan pilot of «Smart Region» initiative in Innopolis on the 5th of February 2019. It was the first time the leadership of the Republic and accompanying public heard about the project, as well as about Wikimedia movement and its projects.
The presentation originally planned to last 7 minutes, with slides and be delivered in Tatar during the End-of-the-year public report meeting of Tatarstan regional InfoComm ministry (covered by simultaneous interpretation into Russian), but ended up given under 1 minute during the tour of the IT-exhibit prior to the event, was in Russian and without visual materials. The program of events in the Technopark named after Alexander Stepanovich Popov was quite packed and already heavy, so responsible staff of the regional InfoComm ministry, as well as Department for State Protocol of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan decided it is better to take form of a short intro mode this time.
Founding leader of the project was given a chance to speak between the stands, dedicated to Centre of information technologies of the Republic of Tatarstan and Regional Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Services projects. The audience included Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Government Maxim Akimov (responsible for communications, transportation and digital economy), Republic of Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov, Speaker of the Republic of Tatarstan General Assembly Farid Mukhametshin, Republic of Tatarstan and later Russian Federation ex-minister for communications Nikolay Nikiforov, representatives of current officers from Federal Departmental Ministry and many others.
Tatarstan minister for InfoComm Roman Shaykhutdinov underlined socio-economic importance of developing and implementing the project on transferring Wiki-skills and competencies to the population of the Republic and engaging volunteers from across all social groups into collaborative content development work describing past and present of the Republic within the leading reference source on the web. Maxim Akimov and accompanying Federal officials welcomed this initiative, whilst Rustam Minnikhanov requested Roman to provide him with additional information on the project and necessary support measures in writing.
Among other upcoming measures on Tatarstan project, Farhad is to take part in the International Mother Language Day dedicated discussion at BalaCity International Multilingual School on February 21, whilst Selet WikiSchool project coordinator, representative of Wikimedia Community of Tatar language User Group Timerkhan Shaykhutdinov and «Wikimedia Russia» executive director Stanislav Kozlovsky are to present within «General Education» sections of EDU RUSSIA 2019 forum, taking place at Kazan EXPO International Exhibition Center from February 27th through March 1st, 2019.
Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia RU & WUG TAT activities presented at «EDU RUSSIA 2019» Forum edit
- By Frhdkazan
Translated from the Russian Wikinews article Википедия и образование в России: Чего не хватает для системной дружбы?; also see Tatar version
On the 28th of February and the 1st of March 2019 Kazan was once again the host of Annual EDU RUSSIA forum. This time main events were taking place at the newly opened Kazan EXPO Exhibit Center by Kazan International Airport with a a larger program. Due to previous local recognition of Tatar Wikimedians' contribution into educational topics, the organizers were interested in Wikipedia Education Program and were interested in showcasing examples of how this can contribute into educational process.
Wikimedia Russia Executive Director Mr. Stanislav Kozlovsky of Moscow and Wikimedia Community of Tatar language User Group member Timerkhan Shaykhutdinov of Zelenodolsk (Tatarstan) were invited to join other speakers of "General Education" section. Stanislaw, as an internationally active Wikimedian also coordinating «Wikipedia in Education Program within Moscow State University», was to introduce Wikimedia movement, give examples of Education projects run by volunteer Wikimedians in various countries, as well as describing what best practices are already being used or could be introduced in Russia. Timerkhan, as a coordinator of «Selet WikiSchool» project, was to demonstrate related experience already available in Tatarstan. The latter is especially valuable, as it is the project run by the youth for themselves and peers outside of classroom hours.
The panel was not being filmed, so we only have a low-quality smartphone video of Timerkhan's presentation (in Russian). The recording starts at the moment when Stanislaw passes the baton to the representative of younger Wikimedians and ends after a Q&A on the topics of Wikipedia in Education. Timerkhan did not limit himself to WikiSchool aspects, extensively using materials, compiled for the introductory presentation to the President of Tatarstan and Russia's Federal Deputy Prime Minister, as well as other interesting information that is being accumulated in the framework of Smart region project, as well as in the «Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community» Facebook-group. Most cases, as well as questions from the audience were related to the most famous of Wikimedia projects — the free encyclopedia. Stanislav's and Timerkhan's presentations caught the attention of the audience — teachers were asking questions to assess the possibility of landing Tatarstan case into education and supplementary education institutions of their regions: what skills and competencies were developed by project participants, what is the program and other documents setting the framework of the WikiSchool operation, what is its legal status, the type of educational activities it is licensed for, etc.
During the Wiki-meetup with Farhad Fatkullin and Abdulla Khamidullin in the evening of the same day, Stanislav reported that a number of session participants later expressed their interest in introducing Wikimedia in Education in secondary schools of Moscow and Chelyabinsk. The event can be seen as the first focus-group with participation of secondary school teachers from various regions of Russia - it highlighted the interest, as well as a number of aspects that have to be addressed additionally. For the purposes of successful piloting of «Smart region» on a regional scale, it is important that Wiki-Clubs, such as Selet WikiSchool, as well as programs of organized extracurricular supplementary education (Bashkir colleagues from Ufa seem to be testing this aspect) will be run in all secondary education and vocational training centers, as well as in universities, libraries, cultural and other social centers.
Forum organizers are interested in inviting next year international speakers from among Wikimedia in Education project participants, with Russian-speaking member of the «Wikipedia & Education User Group» board Susanna Mkrtchan of Wikimedia Armenia having expressed her preliminary agreement. Tatarstan Wikimedians are confident that Timerkhan's participation in Wikimedia+Education Conference 2019 will strengthen the outcomes of the upcoming Selet WikiSchool 2019 Spring session, as well as previous session participants' activity level in the Tatar language part of Wikimedia CEE Spring 2019.
- By Тимерхан
Trip to Bilyar museum-reserve edit
Tatar 4.0 edit
Trip to Old Kazan museum-reserve edit