Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2019-09

2019
September

New Wikiclubs in Tavush region edit

According to a memorandum signed by the President of Wikimedia Armenia and the governor of Tavush region in March, the number of Wikiclubs already opened in Tavush has been increased by four becoming eleven overall. To engage schoolchildren and teachers from different communities of Tavush region in the Wikimedia movement and to publicize free knowledge and make it more accessible for everyone, new Wikiclubs were founded in town Berd, Verin Karmiraghbyur, Aygedzor and Gandzakar villages. The opening ceremony was attended by the President of Wikimedia Armenia and the Head of Education Department of Tavush Regional Administration. It is planned to continue the process of opening Wikiclubs in Tavush region.

Editathon within the framework of the “Article 3” Law Festival edit

On September 17, within the framework of the “Article 3” Law Festival, an editathon dedicated to human rights took place at the office of Wikimedia Armenia. Thematic articles have been created using reliable sources and authentic information.

Several volunteers participated in the editathon who, with the guidance of consulting specialists, carried out research and published 15 articles on human rights in Armenian Wikipedia.

“Wiki Loves Monuments 2019” edit

This year Wikimedia Armenia once again took part in the annual "Wiki Loves Monuments 2019" photo contest after a one year break. Various social media platforms were used to disperse information about the competition.

This year Wikimedia Armenia decided to take the “Wiki Loves Monuments” competition to a new level by organizing a lot more expeditions to different parts of Armenia and Artsakh. The expeditions were made up of the members of Wikimedia Armenia and Wikicommunity representatives. The purpose of such an approach was to engage the community in the event. Expedition groups consisting of four or five people went to different parts of the country to take pictures of the monuments they have visited. Later all the pictures were uploaded in the Wikicommons. At the same time, continuing the experience of previous years, Wikiclub members with their coordinators also organized an expedition to their surrounding settlements to take photos of the monuments located there.

Overall, 138 people from Armenia participated in the “Wiki Loves Monuments” photo contest by uploading 21,100 photos. Six contestants uploaded more than 10,000 photos together. The winners of this year's competition will be announced during the award ceremony in December.

Western Armenian Wikipedia Edit-a-thon edit

 

On September 20-22, Western Armenian Wikipedia edit-a-thon was organized. This editathon focused on creating new articles on music and the political life in Armenia, as well as on improving a series of already existing articles. Overall, 22 articles were created and 3 articles were improved.

Implementing the project “New Community, New Talents”: Training in Athens edit

In 2018 Wikimedia Armenia announced a call for proposals for the project “New Communities, New Talents”, however, due to time limitations no community applied and the project was postponed to the following year. In the early 2019 Armenian community in Athens expressed interest in the implementation of the project and in creating the local Armenian community of Wikimedians. Therefore, a week-long training was organized in Athens to present Western Armenian Wikipedia to various groups of the local Armenian community, as well as provide them the knowledge and skills to edit Wikipedia articles and contribute to the Western Armenian Wikisource.

The main group that we worked with during the workshop consisted of 12 participants of different ages and with different professions were. Training sessions were also conducted for the 7th and 8th-grade students of Levon and Sofi Hakobyan Armenian School in Athens (approximately 25 students), and for the 6th-grade and the graduate students (approximately 10 students) the Armenian Zavarian School in Athens who are already active in editing and contributing to Wikisource.

It is worth mentioning that during the training week in Athens, project coordinator Azniv Stepanian had an interview on the development and goals of Western Armenian Wikipedia with the local Armenian newspaper “Azad Or”.

Wikiclubs report edit

Community population New users Active users male/female ratio Edits on Wikipedia and Wiktionary Proofread pages in Wikisource Uploaded files
Alaverdi Wikiclub 13100 2 30 54/26 485 2
Arevatsag Wikiclub 821 0 29 72/54 736 0
Gyumri Wikiclub 121976 0 55
Goris Wikiclub 20300 11 20 51/16 325 442
Ddmashen Wikiclub 2806 3 33 50/39 712 5
Lernapat Wikiclub 1661 5 32 133/151 2099 437
Koghb Wikiclub 4530 3 21 49/27 32 46
Hatsik Wikiclub 1044 3 19 27/21 487 1116
Mrgavan Wikiclub 1606 0 30/28 299 13
Spitak Wikiclub 13100 4 28 52/39 90 51
Stevanakert Wikiclub 55309 2 32 175/63 26 0
Vanashen Wikiclub 2364 0 15 34/10 1413 52
Vardenik Wikiclub 9880 6 30 47/25 530 400
Togh Wikiclub 700 2 25 48/31 60 208
Karvachar Wikiclub 500 3 35 54/54 1843 65
Total 249697 44 349 9192 2837

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.