Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2023-10

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2023

October

Statistics for October

Wiki Loves Monuments

In October 2023, Wikimedia Armenia joined the "Wiki Loves Monuments" international photo contest, which aims to collect photos of historical monuments and cultural heritage objects in Wikimedia Commons and use them in the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.

In October, 68 participants of the "Wiki Loves Monuments" Armenian contest, 22 of whom were newly registered ones, uploaded 8118 photos of monuments from the list of monuments of Armenian history and culture to Wikimedia Commons.

In order to attract new photographers to the competition, Wikimedia Armenia organized three photo walks in October. 47 participants took part in these photo walks and visited 12 historical and cultural places.

About 10 participants with no experience in uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons, who expressed their desire to participate in the project, took part in a course on uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons held at the Wikimedia Armenia office. During the course, the participants learned to upload photos and fill in the data correctly.

Photo uploading workshops and Photo walks

In order to improve the results of the "Wiki Loves Monuments" international photo contest organized in October 2023, workshops for uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons and three excursions were organized in October, during which 47 participants visited 15 historical and cultural places in 4 regions of Armenia. 20 of the participants were newcomers. The workshops were attended by 10 participants who learned how to upload photos to Wikicommons.

The first wiki excursion took place on October 7. The direction was the following: Hayravank, Noratus Cemetery, Saint Astvatsatsin Church of Noratus in Gegharkunik Province, and Orbelian's Caravanserai, Tanahat Monastery and Surb Khach Monastery in Vayots Dzor Province. The second wiki excursion took place on October 21 and the direction was Kobayr Monastery, Dsegh, Hovhannes Tumanyan House-Museum, Bardzrakash Surb Grigor Monastery, Sirun Khach. Within the frames of “Wiki Loves Monuments 2023”, the last photo walk was organized on October 29 and the trip included the Castle of Aruch, Surb Grigor Church of Aruch, Cathedral of Talin, and Dashtadem Fortress.

During the “photo walks” participants shared their experiences, took pictures of historical-cultural monuments, and then uploaded them to Wikicommons.

Wikiclubs’ report

In October, there were 151 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 47 articles with a volume of 138,264 bytes were created in October. The project will continue in November, as well.

On October 1, a special multi-staged project called “Preferable topics” was launched during which Wikiclub members translated articles on various topics from other language Wikipedias. The most important factor here is that the topics were pre-decided by Wikiclub members through a survey. On the first stage, 155 articles with a volume of 2,716,546 bytes were created.

14 Wikiclub members took part in the “Wiki Loves Monuments 2023” photo contest which was happening during the month. They uploaded 1459 images to Wikimedia Commons.

Wikiedits

Throughout October, out of 151 Wikiclub members 74 contributed to Wikipedia. In total, they have created 273 articles and made 1234 edits with a volume of  4,023,664 bytes.

During the month of October, 69 Wikiclub members contributed to Wikidata, by making 1604 edits in total. 7 Wikiclub members contributed to Wikisource by making 20 edits and 38,208 bytes. They created 14 pages in total and proofread another 14 pages.

Other events

On October 28, 6 Wikiclubs members from Kirants visited Koghb Wikiclub wit their coordinator. The participants created 3 groups, shared their editing experience, created articles and played intellectual games, including the “Structure of an article” quiz. After the meeting, the group visited the cultural historical monuments of Koghb.

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As a tradition in Koghb Wikiclub, this month as well an award ceremony took place in Koghb Wikiclub. This time, the editor who contributed the most bytes received a prize.

• On October 15, Hatsik Wikiclub welcomed the President of Wikimedia Armenia Arshak Shahenyan, staff member Davit Sargsyan, as well as the participants of the excursion organized for the winning teams of the 2023 Youth Wikicamp.

On October 27, the editors and the coordinator of the club visited Gyumri, walked around the city and took photos of the monuments of history and culture, some of which were uploaded to Wikicommons within the framework of the "Wiki Loves Monuments 2023" contest. Editors also learned how to upload photos to Wikicommons as part of the contest.

In Lernapat Wikiclub, the Teachers’ Day was celebrated on October 5, and on October 24, club members played a game and the questions mainly were about Wikiprojects.

In Goris Wikiclub there were newcomers with whom the coordinator worked both offline and online. On 27 October, the Wikiclub coordinator organized a training at the “Quizzer” training center.

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Preferable Topics, stage 1

Since October 1, Wikimedia Armenia initiated a new multistage project called “Preferable Topics” specifically for Wikiclub members. Within the frames of the project Wikiclub members translate articles about various topics from other language Wikipedias. The distinguishing characteristic of this project is that the topics are chosen by Wikiclub members.

During summer months Wikimedia Armenia organized a survey among Wikiclub members in order to find out their main interests. As a result 10 topics were separated around which articles are being created or improved. Meanwhile, the scope can be enlarged because the club members may suggest new ones on the project's discussion page.

On October 1-31, the first stage was launched and 36 Wikiclub members created 155 articles with a volume of  2,716,546 bytes. The topics were the following:

• Geographical objects (cities, seas, waterfalls, mountains, departments (administrative division))
• Movies
• Animated movies
• Actors
• Football players, football clubs

• Painters
• Singers, bands
• Songs, albums
• Terms
• Interesting articles

The second stage of the project will continue in November.

Wiki Loves Earth summary

In June 2023, Wikimedia Armenia joined the “Wiki Loves Earth 2023” international photo contest. There are 232 natural monuments in Armenia, and the list separated by regions of Armenia, was posted on the page of the event beforehand. In order to help participants to easily find some natural monuments, links to articles about all nature reserves and national parks in Armenia were also posted on the contest page. During the month of June, 37 participants from the Armenian wiki community, 10 of whom were newly registered, uploaded 3039 photos of natural monuments of the Republic of Armenia to the Wikimedia Commons. On October 27, the award ceremony of the Armenian “Wiki Loves Earth 2023” photo contest took place at the Wikimedia Armenia office. During the event, the top ten photos of the Armenian contest and their photographers were presented. They received prizes and souvenirs awarded by the "Caucasus Nature Fund".

• Ընտրված լավագույն տասը լուսանկարները
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  Old platane tree Photograph: Lernain Bro
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  Impregnable fortress. Photograph: Sevak Asryan
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  Merops persicus at Armash IBA lakes. Photograph: Xelgen
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  Aragacotn. Photograph: Elena Arakelova - arle
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  Kechut Reservoir. Photograph: Dav Sargsyan
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  Aparan Reservoir. Photograph ՎԱՍ
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  Boat on lake Sevan. Photograph: Vladimir Pankratov
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  Common kestrel in flight, in Yerevan. Photograph: Xelgen
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  Aragatsotn Province. Photograph: Elena Arakelova - arle
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  Al lake. Photograph: Lernain Bro

Community meet-up

On October 4, 2023 organization members, staff and interested members of the Armenian community gathered together to discuss ongoing projects and future plans. The meet-up was organized offline at the Wikimedia Armenia office, as well as online with the help of Zoom platform. There were 10 offline and 17 online participants.

During the meetup, the staff presented the projects implemented by Wikimedia Armenia, talked about the latest CEE Meeting 2023 which took place in Tbilisi, Georgia, as well as some of the participants made suggestions for future projects, and an agreement was reached on some of the points.

Wiki excursion to Shirak Province

As a prize for the winners of Wiki editing, intellectual and sports games of the Youth Wikicamp which took place on August 17-24, Wikimedia Armenia organized an excursion. The excursion took place on October 15 and the following direction was chosen - Harichavank, Sev Berd, Marmashen Monastery, and Gyumri. The participants of the winning teams had chosen the direction by voting. During the excursion, the participants visited historical and cultural places, got acquainted with their history and took photos. The total number of participants was 21.