Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2024-02

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2024

February

Statistics for February

Preferable Topics, stage 5

In February, the 5th stage of the multi-staged “Preferable Topics” project, specifically designed for Wikiclub members, was held. 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. The project is a contest. The winner receives a prize and a certificate from Wikimedia Armenia and 4 more participants receive certificates. On February 1-29, the 5th and final stage took place and 23 Wikiclub members created 108 articles with a volume of 2,812,109 bytes. The 11 topics are the following (archived ones excluded):

Writers
Literary works
World-renowned people
Monuments
Geographical objects (cities, seas, waterfalls, mountains, departments (administrative division))
Animated movies
Sports
Chess
Football players, football clubs
Songs, albums
Interesting articles

During the five months of the project 743 articles with a volume of 14,167,505 bytes were created. A new contest-type project was launched for Wikiclub members in March, 2024.

Wikiclubs

As of February 29, there are 166 registered members in all 7 active Wikiclubs (Goris, Ddmashen, Lernapat, Kirants, Koghb, Hatsik, and Jermuk). Compared to the previous month the number of Wikiclub members increased by 15. 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 44 articles with a volume of 113,444 bytes were created in February. Since the launch of the project 410 articles, 1,066,299 bytes have been contributed to Armenian Wikipedia. The project will continue in March, as well. The multi-staged project called “Preferable topics” launched specifically for Wikiclubs continued in February 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 5th stage, 108 articles with a volume of 2,812,109 bytes were created. This is the final stage of the contest.

Wikiedits

Throughout February, out of 166 Wikiclub members 75 contributed to Wikipedia. In total, they have created 217 articles and made 1164 edits with a volume of 3,977,803 bytes. During the month of February, 47 Wikiclub members contributed to Wikidata, by making 290 edits in total.

Other events

Besides editing, the following events were organized in Wikiclubs:

On February 19, the Book Giving Day, which has become a tradition in the country, was celebrated in the Koghb Wikiclub. On the occasion of that day, Wikiclub members drew random names, after which the children gave books to each other. Certificates prepared by Wikimedia Armenia were awarded to those Wikiclub members who showed good results in the "Preferred Topics" competition.

At Hatsik Wikiclub, a small party was held dedicated to famous Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan's birthday and Book Giving Day, at the end of which the editors also gifted books to each other, and the Wikiclub coordinator also gave a book to one of the editors. After a long break, "Our Wikiworld" corner has been updated with new photos of the editors.

On the occasion of the Book Giving Day, an edit-a-thon was organized in Lernapat Wikiclub. Ahead of the Book Giving Day, Wikiclub cooperated with Lernapat secondary school, within the framework of which the students, with the help of the club members, edited the articles dedicated to Hovhannes Tumanyan's fairy tales in the Armenian Wikipedia.

On February 24, a discussion was held in the Kirants Wikiclub about popular Armenians Paruyr Sevak, Sergey Parajanov, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Komitas and others. The club found out that there are anniversaries for 14 famous Armenians in 2024.The Wikiclub members edited the article about Hovhannes Tumanyan and wrote about the songs created with the poet's poems.

Collaborations with universities/internships

From February 8, Wikimedia Armenia started the internship of the senior students of three Armenian universities. Students from two faculties of the Brusov State University, faculty of English Language, German Language and Communication of Yerevan State University, as well as students from three departments of the Faculty of Humanities of YSU Ijevan Branch began their internship under the guidance and help of Wikimedia Armenia employees. 146 students registered on Wikipedia, then they learned to create articles on Armenian Wikipedia, and afterwards began creating new articles by translating from different foreign languages or using sources. Internships will end in March, and the results will be summarized that month

Brusov State University

The internship with this university started on February 12. In total, 86 students from Translation and Intercultural Communication, as well as seniors of the faculties of Russian and Foreign Languages visited the office of Wikimedia Armenia twice a week and participated in the course (each session lasted 2 hours). During the first two meetings, the staff introduced them to Wikipedia's basics, editing tools, and from the third meeting, the students started writing articles on the Armenian Wikipedia. They do translations from English, Chinese and Korean Wikipedias. The most important articles are translated from English. The internship with students continues

Faculty of English Language, German Language and Communication, Yerevan State University

The internship of students from this university also started on February 12. The 5 students in their senior year attended the course with the same frequency and workload as the students of the Brusov State University. They do translations from English Wikipedia. They translate from the list of vital articles. This internship also continues.

Yerevan State University Ijevan Branch

The internship with this university was launched on February 8 in Ijevan, Tavush region. The employees of Wikimedia Armenia NGO had a two-day visit in Ijevan, where they held 4 classes with students, introducing them to the basics, editing tools and guidelines of Wikipedia. In the following weeks, online meetings were held, during which students presented their work, and changes were made to published sandboxes and articles. A total of 55 students of the Departments of Armenian History and Social Sciences, Armenian Language and Literature, and Foreign Languages of the Faculty of Humanities are participating in the internship. They do their translations from English, Russian and French Wikipedias, as well as create and improve articles using Armenian printed sources. The internship will end on March 21.

Creating astronomical articles

In February, following the proposal of a number of newcomer Wikipedians, "Wikimedia Armenia" held an online course for new and inexperienced Wikipedians. The goal was to introduce Wikipedia's editing tools in order to create and improve articles on astronomy in the future.

In order to coordinate the work space of the course, a page was created on Armenian Wikipedia with a list of English-language astronomical articles proposed for translation and a registration page for participants.

The astronomical terminology and scientific part of about 20 articles created in February and the future articles will be checked by two volunteer specialists. The project is ongoing.

Wikimedia Armenia’s events on media outlets

On January 21-28, Wikimedia Armenia organized a Youth Winter Wikicamp in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia. An article was published on Wikimedia Diff Blog telling about the Wikicamp and its results.