Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2023-12

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2023

December

Statistics for December

Preferable Topics, stage 3

In December, the 3rd stage of the “Preferable Topics” project, specifically designed for Wikiclub members, took place. 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.

The project is a contest. The winner receives a prize and a certificate from Wikimedia Armenia and 4 more participants receive certificates.

On December 1-31, the third stage took place and 28 Wikiclub members created 180 articles with a volume of 3․036․463 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

510 articles with a volume of 8,740,354 bytes were created within three months of the project.

The fourth stage of the project will continue in January, 2024.

Wikiclubs’ report

As of December 31, there are 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 Creative 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 33 articles with a volume of 106,223 bytes were created in December. Since the launch of the project 342 articles, 882,905 bytes have been contributed to Armenian Wikipedia. The project will continue in January, as well.

The multi-staged project called “Preferable topics” launched specifically for Wikiclubs continued in December 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. During the third stage, 180 articles with a volume of 2,987,345 bytes were created. A new survey was conducted, the results of which were included in the Preferable topics’ list for the 4th stage.

There were more than 900 articles on Armenian Wikipedia which had duplicate pictures in the same article: one was used in the infobox section which comes from Wikidata and the other one in the article. Such articles are automatically collected under one category and in order to clean them Wikimedia Armenia organized a special project for Wikiclubs which was aimed at deleting the duplicates. To organize the work properly a video introduction was prepared which showed how to do the work correctly. The more than 900 articles were divided among the Wikiclubs in proportion to the number of active members registered, and the work was done in a few days.

Wikiedits

Throughout December, out of 151 Wikiclub members 77 contributed to Wikipedia. In total, they have created 333 articles and made 2484 edits with a volume of 4,990,987 positive bytes and 225,117 negative bytes (this number is mentioned in order to show the result of the effectiveness of removal of duplicate pictures).

Other events

Besides editing, the following events were organized in Wikiclubs:

The Koghbi Wikiclub hosted former members Nane and Alvard, members of the media literacy group operating in Koghb secondary school No. 2. They presented their work, explained how to distinguish between true and false news, how to check the accuracy of facts, and how to avoid cybercrime. They also told the participants how editing in Wikipedia helped them in media literacy.

The members of the Hatsik Wikiclub decorated the club with their handmade decorations and made a video of how they get ready for the New Year in the Wikiclub. The video was also posted on Wikiclub's Facebook page.
A summary of achievements during the year was held on December 27 in the Lernapat Wikiclub, but the main summary is planned to be held on January 15, on the birthday of Wikipedia. The Wikiclub also joined the edit-a-thon of gift-articles for the birthday anniversary.

Gift-articles for Wikipedia’s birthday

On January 15, 2024 Wikimedia Armenia will celebrate Wikipedia’s 23rd birthday. One of the projects summarized during the birthday celebration will be the edit-a-thon of gift-articles.

Prior to the birthday on December 15, Wikimedia Armenia launched an edit-a-thon of gift-articles. Within the framework of the latter, participants create and improve a number of articles as a gift for Wikipedia's birthday.

In December, 34 editors joined the edit-a-thon. The project is ongoing, it will end on the eve of Wikipedia's birthday and on the day of celebration the winner and the outstanding participants will be announced.

Jil village students’ visit to Wikimedia Armenia office

On December 23, 8th grade students from the public school of Jil village on the border of Armenia visited the Wikimedia Armenia office. The students learned about the history of Wikipedia and its sister projects, they were introduced to editing basics and the opportunities the wiki projects will provide them.

Wikipedia course for Brusov State University students

On December 12, Wikimedia Armenia welcomed 30 students from the Translation Faculty of the Brusov State University. A special Wikipedia course was organized for the students which introduced Wikipedia and Wikimedia movement history, editing basics to them. The students registered on Wikipedia. This is a long term course which will last until April, 2024. The students have already chosen their articles from the list of articles (from English Wikipedia) provided on the project page, they will translate them and create articles with a volume of around 30.000 bytes on Armenian Wikipedia.

During the project, both offline and online workshops with the students will continue.

Community meetup

On December 7-10, Wikimedia Armenia organized a pre-planned three day community meetup in Alpina hotel, Tsaghkadzor. The meetup-discussion gathered Wikimedia Armenia members, staff and community members together. Besides the offline meetings, online meeting-discussion were organized via the Zoom platform.

There were 30 offline and 8 online participants to the meetup.

During the meetup, the projects implemented by Wikimedia Armenia and the news and activities of the international wiki movement throughout the year were presented. The participants were introduced to the new wiki tools and the statistics of Armenian Wikipedia and Wikiclubs. Through a brainstorming activity the participants presented their ideas and recommendations for Wikimedia Armenia’s next year's strategy.

An online meeting took place with the Wikimedia CEE Hub Coordinator Barbara Klen. The meeting was organized using the office hours provided by the CEE Hub without a set agenda which allows Wikimedia community members to get to know about the CEE news and raise questions and express opinions.

The second online meeting took place between the Wikimedia Armenia staff and the Wikiclub coordinators. During the meeting, organizational and editing issues of Wikiclubs were discussed. The coordinators shared their opinions and recommendations.

Decorating the Wiki Christmas tree

On December 20, around 20 community members visited the Wikimedia Armenia office in order to decorate the Christmas tree. The newly opened Jermuk Wikiclub had its own surprise for Wikimedia Armenia. The club members had sent a spruce from Jermuk which the participants planted. Afterwards, they decorated both the artificial and natural Christmas trees while listening to Christmas and New Year songs. The participants finished the decorations with a small feast and discussion on Wikimedia Armenia’s future projects.