Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2023-09

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2023

September

Statistics for September

Free Speech Wiki Gathering

Within the frames of the “Combating hate speech through spreading free knowledge” project, Wikimedia Armenia and Institute of Liberal Politics, with the financial assistance from the “Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom”, the Free Speech Wiki Gathering was organized. The gathering took place in Tsaghkadzor on 20-24 September. There were 37 participants and 6 organizers. During the gathering, participants created articles related to different topics: hate speech, discrimination, and human rights. Besides editing workshops, a visit was organized to Orbeli Brothers House-Museum, a photo walk to 11-13th century church complex Makravank, an intellectual game, movie screening and discussion. During the 4 days of the edit-a-thon, participants created 388 articles with a volume of 6,878,400 bytes.

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“Explore Philosophy” Wikiproject

“Explore Philosophy” wikiproject organized by Wikimedia Armenia in collaboration with “Ayn Rand Center Armenia” NGO ended on September 10. Experienced editors of Armenian Wikipedia and newcomers who joined the movement by participating in wiki training organized by Wikimedia Armenia took part in the project. During the edit-a-thon, 25 participants translated articles on philosophical topics from other language Wikipedias - overall, 128 articles with 3,408,176 bytes. The participants who created the largest best quality articles received certificates mentioning their contributions. At the same time, all the other participants of the edit-a-thon were also awarded certificates of participation.

Electoral rights

From September 1 to 30, an edit-a-thon on one of the political rights of a person, the electoral right, was held on Armenian Wikipedia. The goal of the project was to fill the gap related to the voting process on Armenian Wikipedia. Within a month, 7 participants created 23 articles with a volume of 652,138 related to voting.

Wikiclubs

In September, there were 149 registered members in all 7 active Wikiclubs (Goris, Ddmashen, Lernapat, Kirants, Koghb, Hatsik, and Jermuk). Wikiclub members continued the wikification of materials from the “Agricultural Encyclopedia” (“Armenian Encyclopedia” Publishing House, 2015) which was released under the Commons BY-SA 3.0 license. Wikiclub members either created the missing items of the corresponding pages in Wikidata or linked the created articles with already existing items. Within the frames of this project 45 articles with a volume of 116,187 bytes were created in September. Some of the Wikiclub members took part in various projects running during the month.

Wikiedits

Throughout September, out of 149 Wikiclub members 82 contributed to Wikipedia. In total, they have created 201 articles and made 1111 edits with a volume of 3,276,118 bytes. During the month of September, 62 Wikiclub members contributed to Wikidata, by making 4688 edits in total.

Other events

Besides editing, the following events happened in Wikiclubs:

• On September 21, the 32nd anniversary of Armenia's independence was celebrated in the Hatsik Wikiclub. The club hosted Hatsik secondary school history and social sciences teacher Anahit Baghdasaryan. During the meeting, they talked about the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, the events preceding and following it. The editors watched a video about the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, raised questions they were interested in and received comprehensive answers. Such meetings will be continuous.
• In the same club, on the 26th of the month, the 154th anniversary of the birth of Komitas was celebrated. First, the students talked about Komitas, then they watched a film and summarized what they already knew and what new knowledge they acquired about Komitas. After the film, one of the club members, Nerses, played Komitas's "Crane" with a duduk. The club members spent the rest of the time making edits under the sounds of Komitas's songs.
• An intellectual game-competition was organized in Koghb Wikiclub, which will be continuous. The club member who made the most edits in September received a certificate. At the beginning of the month, a category is announced and the best editor of the category receives a certificate. In September, that category was "Film directors". The participant who wrote the most articles on that topic also received a certificate.
• Knowledge Day was celebrated in Lernapat Wikiclub on September 1, and a discussion was organized on the occasion of Armenia's Independence Day, during which club members presented a brief history of the Third Republic of Armenia. At the end of the month, a summary of edits was made, the best club member of the month was selected.
• In September, new participants joined Goris Wikiclub, with whom online and offline training courses were held. On September 30, new and experienced participants visited Karbi and Ushi villages to take photos of historical and cultural monuments.
• An edit-a-thon on "Healthy Lifestyle" was held at Ddmashen Wikiclub. Questions related to the topic were discussed, the articles written about healthy diet and sports were studied.

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Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2023

On September 15-17, 2023, the Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) meeting was held in Tbilisi. The purpose of the meeting was to create a platform where representatives of Wikimedia organizations, User groups and wiki communities from the CEE countries will have an opportunity to share their experience in the dissemination of free knowledge, present their best projects, familiarize themselves and the others with new tools and innovative programs. This year, the delegation from Wikimedia Armenia also participated in the CEE meeting, and two representatives of the organization also had speeches. In general, the CEE meeting was quite productive for the WM AM delegation both in terms of making new acquaintances and meeting old ones as well as tangible steps taken in the direction of establishing new cooperation with other wiki communities.

The projects implemented in the CEE region and the specifics of their implementation were especially interesting in comparison with the projects organized by Wikimedia Armenia. Along with many commonalities, we also discovered a number of skills that we can adopt for project organization. We reached a preliminary agreement with several organizations of the CEE region regarding cooperation in organizing various edit-a-thons.

One of the members of the delegation, being a member of the CEE Youth Group, delivered a speech, introducing the youth of the CEE countries to the youth projects implemented by Wikimedia Armenia, their results and achievements in working with young people. At the same time, at the closed meeting of the CEE Youth Group, the future activities of the group, the possibility of the upcoming meeting in the Czech Republic, and the options of participating as a group in next year's Wikimania were discussed. We hope that the youth of the Armenian wiki community will also be engaged in this group and will have the opportunity to exchange experiences and think about and initiate new projects and collaborations.

In order to share Wikimedia Armenia’s experience on important educational projects, the President of the organization presented the adaptations of the projects introduced in 2023 and the comparative results they had.

The Armenian delegation also participated in various discussions with representatives from different countries on the Wikimedia movement’s future, new models of governance, development of the movement’s new charter, etc.

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