Wikimedia CEE Spring 2015

A fragment from picture of Savrasov (A Spring Day), cropped and transformed to a WMCEE Spring header

Idea

.

Plan

Timeframe

Budget

FAQ

Structure

Meetings

Contacts

Local pages

Results

Idea

Oh, spring without end and without limit – Without end and without limit a dream!

— Alexander Blok

Wikimedians of CEE region at Wikimania 2014 at Barbican Centre, London, UK.

Wikimedia CEE Spring 2015 is an event organised by Wikimedians and Wikipedians from the region of Central and Eastern Europe with an aim to support article creation about every country in the region on every Wikipedia in the region.

In contemporary times the CEE region has experienced several unfortunate Springs that have resulted in misunderstandings, conflicts and disappointment (exempli gratia the replacement of Dubček in April of 1969 to reverse the Prague Spring, escalating conflicts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Spring of 1988, intensification of Transnistrian conflict in March of 1992, the beginning of the Siege of Sarajevo in April of 1992 and most recently the Spring of 2014, which marks the beginning of the War in Donbass).

The idea of Wikimedia CEE Spring is to join local forces of free knowledge to accumulate and distribute information about history, culture, traditions and people in every corner of the region to support mutual acknowledgment and understanding and to increase the quantity and quality of free knowledge available about the CEE region globally.

Hopefully this supports sprouting of positive feelings and actions in future Springs and increases collaboration in the region. Without end and without limit!

Event

Wikimedia CEE Spring logo by Aktron

The event itself will take place from the 21st of March to the 31st of May, as to provide a compromise between astronomical and meteorological Springs. During this time period there will be an individual article competition on every related Wikipedia concentrating on writing articles about history, culture and notable people of each and every country in the region. For more information about article topics, please consult structure page.

Local competitions will be organized by local teams and in every country the competition will have a bit different face to take into account local context. Contacts of the local coordinators can be found on the contacts page.

There is an idea to organize a WikiCamp-like event for notable contributors of local competitors and thus nurture collaboration between Wikipedians in the region in order to guarantee sustainability of Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe group also on the level of content contribution. The dates and location of the final event are still to be decided.

Goals

General goals of the competition align with the goals of Wikimedia movement in general and are related to quantity and quality of Wikimedia content, as well as to sustainability of the collaboration:

1. Increase quantity and quality of Wikimedia content on numerous projects and in numerous languages.
2. Increase participation and local outreach levels with an attractive international event.
3. Support further collaborative initiatives in the region.

For further information about specific targets, please consult the plan page