Grants:TPS/Spiritia/Wikimania/2014/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2014!

Participant

Your username goes here

Spiritia

Your home wiki goes here

bg.wikipedia.org

Outcome

Option 3: New Creation: What was one useful outcome that was created at the event for the Wikimedia movement?

Education

Before attending the Education pre-conference and many of the lectures in the area of education during Wikimania 2014, I wasn't aware of WMF efforts to collect information about all countries where Wikimedia-related educational initiatives exist. This gave me the impetus to "place Bulgaria on the map" and provide information about the efforts in this direction, which we have made locally . During Wikimania'2014 I understood about the WikiMatrix tool, and in the near future I will use it to provide statistics about the performance of students in the various wikiprojects in Bulgarian universities. I was pleased to have several people interested in my elective lecture course "Wikipedia and Wiki Technologies" (Plovidv University), and asked to start translating the materials from Bulgarian to English, as well as share my own "learning patterns" and teaching tips and tricks.

CEE

Another useful outcome was that during Wikimania'2014 we had the Central and East European Meetup, giving us the possibility to meet fellow Wikimedians from the region and discuss possibilities for collaboration. An idea which I offered was the establishment of a Facebook group for the editors in CEE Wikipedias, who are interested in promoting their local Wikipedias, and Wikipedia in general, through non-wiki channels like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, other local social networks, as well as for the organization of local and regional events, teaching, GLAM initiatives, etc. This idea was prompted from our positive experience with the Facebook official page and official group of Bulgarian Wikipedia, which can be expanded to a regional scale. I was asked by the meetup moderator Anna Koval to write it in details.

Wikimedians of Bulgaria

I had some fruitful discussions with fellow Wikimedians regarding the establishment of the "Wikimedians of Bulgaria" user group, as well as specific problems, which already established chapters in the region have faced. Although the page was started back in April, it was during Wikimania when I contributed with many details concerning the past and ongoing Wikimedian activities in Bulgaria in the areas of education, GLAM, public lectures, legal initiatives, promotion over the social networks, etc.

Connections

I was really happy to meet so many people whom I first met at Wikimania'2011 and have been in touch ever since, and even happier to meet new friends, especially from the Education and GLAM programmes, as well as from the Wikimedia chapters and communities in Central and East Europe. Wikimania'2014 enriched me with the contacts with Anna Koval, Floor Koudjis, LiAnna Davis, Kavya Manohar, Leigh Thelmadatter, Roger Bamkin and many more.

Anything else

Meetup

A local meetup in Sofia is being organized for the beginning of September, when we will speak about Wikimania, about the user group and the CEE Meetings.

Photos

Soon!