Wikimedia Eesti/Wikimedia Eesti News

This is a short summary of late activities of Wikimedia Eesti. It is updated about once a month (or a maybe little more - or less - often, but we won't promise anything.)

2017 edit

August 19th - Wikipedia's birthday celebrations edit

On the 19th of August Estonian language Wikipedia celebrated it's 15th birthday at the NO99 theatre cafe in Tallinn. Sulev Iva spoke of the ongoing collaboration between the Võro and Estonian language Wikipedia communities. He mentioned the Miljon+ campaign, which was a common keyword throughout the evening. Wikimedia Eesti board member Sven-Erik Soosaar presented Mart Noorma with the award "Friend of Wikipedia 2017" for launching the M+ campaign earlier this year. Although the goal of the campaign is highly ambitious - reaching a million Estonian language Wikipedia articles by the year 2020 - many partners have already joined the project and wish to contribute. When receiving the award, Mart Noorma stressed the importance of not only writing new articles, but raising the quality of existing ones. This is a task that students and lecturers of the University of Tartu have taken to heart.

Encouraging birthday wishes were also relayed by the ED of Wikimedia Foundation Katherine Maher and Finnish chapter board member Heikki Kastemaa. Wikipedian Andrus Kallastu made an appeal to the wiki community to help set up a platform and practice to make transparent all the legislative texts that are currently being drafted.

Eva Lepik and Raul Veede ended the reception with an introduction into Lawrence Lessig's book "Free Culture", that has recently been translated into Estonian. The Public Domain Manifesto was also presented. A discussion ensued about the difficulties of making the free knowledge community's voice heard on a bigger scale in Estonia when discussing copyright laws. The idea for Wikimedia Eesti to contact the Estonian Bar Association directly and possibly create a united front, was agreed upon.

January, 2-8 edit

  • January 2 - Board meeting to discuss hiring new executive director.
  • January 2 - The staff members met to meet with the new assistant.

January, 9-27 edit

  • January 19 - Kaarel went to Lausanne executive directors strategy meeting.
  • January 21-22 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss development and restructuring plans and the upcoming general assembly. The board decided to hire Marta Peebo as a new executive director.
  • January 23 - The staff members met with upcoming executive director.
  • January 27 - Award ceremony of Finnish-Estonian article competition in Embassy of Finland in Tallinn.

2016 edit

January, 4-11 edit

  • January 5 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the freedom of panorama project activities, Wiki 15 events and sending representatives to the upcoming international conferences.

January, 11-18 edit

  • January 12 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss Wiki 15 events, accounting issues, ESPC 2015 final event and article competitions to be held in the year 2016.

January 25 - February 1 edit

  • January 26 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the grant proposal for the freedom of panorama project, schooling of board members and the environmental awareness project.

February, 1-15 edit

  • February 2 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the accumulated in our Idea Bank, the grant proposal for the freedom of panorama project, schooling of board members, the Translation Bee and the upcoming general assembly.
  • February 9 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the upcoming general assembly and the employees' vacations schedule.

February, 15-22 edit

  • February 16 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the upcoming general assembly, the worrying situation at WMF and a local call for projects.

February, 22-29 edit

  • February 23 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the upcoming general assembly, the situation at WMF, the employees' vacations schedule and Teele's internship in Germany.
  • February 27 - WMEE's general assembly in Tallinn.

February 29 - March 21 edit

  • March 9 - Eva gave a presentation to Estonian librarians on being a Wikipedian and having insider knowledge on copyright laws.
  • March 15 - Board meeting to discuss the education project, freedom of panorama, reporting and the Finno-Ugric seminar of 2016.

March 21 - April 12 edit

  • March 21 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss everything pertaining to reports and accounting, issues with engaging volunteers and a rather convoluted cooperation idea we were approached with.
  • April 2 - WMEE's consultant met with an envoy of the EP, Julia Reda, to discuss issues related to freedom of panorama.

April 12 - May 2 edit

  • April 12 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss reporting, preparations for WMCON and the WLE competition.
  • April 22-24 - Kaarel and Sven-Erik went to WMCON in Berlin.
  • April 29 - Kaarel and Vahur had a seminar for librarians on all things Wikipedia.

May, 2-9 edit

  • May 3 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to decide who would be attending Wikimania this year, which candidate(s) will WMEE endorse to be the WMF affiliate-selected board member(s), and discuss the education project and the environmental awareness project.

May, 9-16 edit

  • May 6-9 - Sven-Erik and Tanel represented WMEE at the Finno-Ugric Wikiseminar in Russia.
  • May 13 - Sven-Erik along with Heikki Kastemaa from Wikimedia Suomi had a meeting with museum employees in Tallinn. Heikki introduced the various means of cooperation between Wikimedia Suomi and Finnish museums and suggested similar ways to develop such ties in Estonia.

May, 16-23 edit

  • May 24 - The board met to discuss its structure and responsibilities of the board members, and current financial situation.

May 23 - June 6 edit

  • May 31 - we concluded this year's WLE and CEE Spring contests.
  • June 1 - the board met to decide on the board members' division of labour and main focus points for the near future.
  • June 6 - WMEE's staff met to give an overview of past week's activities and to discuss any pertinent issues.

June, 6-13 edit

  • June 8 - the board met to plan for the upcoming WMEE general assembly, give an overview of WMCON and discuss any other questions that came up.

June, 13-27 edit

  • June 13 - the staff members met to discuss administrative issues related to reporting, communication and restructuring.
  • June 20 - the executive director and the personnel manager had a meeting to clarify a few questions related to reporting and to discuss the representation at Wikimania.
  • June 22-28 - Wikimania at Esino Lario. WMEE had five representatives present: Raul Kern, Ivo Kruusamägi, Vahur Puik, Teele Vaalma and Mari Vallik.
  • June 25 - WMEE's general assembly at Jõgeva. The general assembly discussed the activities report and the financial report of 2015, and confirmed the latter.

June 27 - July 4 edit

  • July 4 - the staff members met to discuss reporting and questions related to staff and volunteers.
  • July 4 - the board had a meeting to give an overview of the financial situation and reports.

July 4-25 edit

  • July 25 - the staff members had a meeting to talk about reporting and the exact wording of the new working arrangements document.

July 25 - August 7 edit

  • August 2 - the staff members met to discuss reports, amendments and additions to the working arrangements document, a restructuring meeting and other urgent matters.

August 7-14 edit

  • August 8 - the staff members met to discuss reports and hiring a new assistant and an education programme coordinator.
  • August 12-14 - WMEE held its summer retreat on Prangli island.

August 14-21 edit

  • August 17 - WMEE staff met to discuss hiring new employees and finding volunteers, reporting and other important questions.

August 21-28 edit

  • August 22 - the board met to discuss the financial situation, hiring new employees and an accountant. The staff met to discuss reporting and the hiring process.

August 28 - September 4 edit

  • August 27-29 - ED Kaarel Vaidla and board member Sven-Erik Soosaar attended this year's CEE Meeting in Armenia.
  • August 31 - the staff had a meeting to discuss reporting, hiring and finding new volunteers.

September 5 - October 3 edit

  • September 19 - new assistant and education programme coordinator were hired.
  • September 19 - WMEE started recruiting volunteers, campaign is active until October 9th.
  • September 26 - WMEE staff met to discuss how new employees have settled in.
  • September 29 - training new employees on the basis of Wikipedia environment by the head of personnel Teele Vaalma.
  • September 30 - training new employees on Wikimedia Foundation, personnel, projects, strategy etc. by CEO Kaarel Vaidla.
  • September - October 9th - New year's plan 2017 opinion poll.

October 4-20 edit

  • October 10 - WMEE staff met to discuss the development of the Education Programme and set next goals for meetings with educational institutions; involving volunteers to WMEE projects; new personnel planning strategy.
  • October 10 - the intensive volunteer recruiting period ended, 15 people got in contact with WMEE. Next step is to plan their activities.
  • October 13 - press release was published about Estonian new president Kersti Kaljulaid, stating that article about her on Wikipedia is available in 40 languages.

October 21-31 edit

  • October 19 - the Board had a meeting to discuss WMEE's accountancy and hiring a new accountant for the union. Also next year's development plan was discussed.
  • October 23 - the Board had a subsequent meeting to discuss next year's development plan. Decision was made to organize photo competition for villages and to strenghten the international communication.
  • October 24 - staff meeting to discuss Education Programme, hiring new CEO, and document management.
  • October 31 - WMEE's CEO Kaarel Vaidla and Education Programme coordinator Lauri Linask had a meeting with Viljandi Culture Academy's representatives.

November 1-15 edit

  • November 2 - WMEE's CEO Kaarel Vaidla and Education Programme coordinator Lauri Linask had a meeting with Tallinn University's Master students to discuss writing articles to Wikipedia on their Master's thesis topics. Also an introduction course to Wikipedia was held.
  • November 7 - staff meeting to discuss volunteer's work for Wikimedia, Education Programme developments, and hiring process of a new accountant.
  • November 1-30 - in collaboration with magazine Eesti Loodus a photo collection HELP7 is taking place to get new photos of Estonian nature.

November 16-27 edit

  • November 17 - the Board had a meeting to discuss acknowledging the volunteers, selecting the Wikipedian of the Month and selecting the Wikipedia's Friend once a year. New working order was affirmed.
  • November 19 - Education Programme Coordinator Lauri Linask had a training for participants of the translation course at the University of Tallinn.
  • November 21 - staff meeting to discuss meetings with the volunteers and training them on Wikipedia, hiring new CEO, and accountant agency, also Education Programme activities were discussed.

November 28- December 8 edit

  • November 28-29 - International Discussion of Foreign Partnerships in Berlin, WMEE was represented by executive director Kaarel Vaidla.
  • December 3 - Education Programme Coordinator Lauri Linask had another training for participants of the translation course at the University of Tallinn.
  • December 6 - Finnish-Estonian article competition took off, lasting until 5th of January.
  • December 8 - Board meeting to discuss hiring new executive director, transfer of the accounting services.

December 9-22 edit

  • December 9 - sTARTUp day in Estonian National Museum, WMEE was invited.
  • December 9 - training for mapping the development needs of the organization. Board members Tanel Pern and Sven-Erik Soosaar participated.
  • December 12 - staff meeting to discuss next year's plans, hiring new staff and transfer of work and responisbilities.
  • December 13 - Education Programme Coordinator had the last training session for translating course participans at the University of Tallinn.
  • December 15, 16 - Christmas Dinners in Tartu and Tallinn for hired staff, Board members and Community members.
  • December 19 - staff meeting to discuss Education Programme developments and next year's plans, ordering of gifts with Wikipedia's logo on them, hiring process of new executive director.
  • December 22 - University of Tartu Million+ workgroup meeting, WMEE was also invited

2015 edit

August, 21-28 edit

  • August 24, Monday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the assistant's contract, strategy, reports, the environmental awareness project and the education programme.

August 28 - September 7 edit

  • September 1, Tuesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the upcoming WMCEE conference, stratety, bills and cleaning up the office.
  • September 1 - beginning of WLM 2015.

September, 7-14 edit

  • September 10-13 - WMCEE Conference 2015 in Voore. There were participants from 26 European countries altogether.

September, 14-21 edit

  • September 16, Wednesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the feedback of WMCEE and preparations for the WMF visit.
  • September 17-18 - Garfield Byrd and Katy Love from the Wikimedia Foundation paid Wikimedia Eesti a visit to meet with some of our partners, to discuss our financial review and to make suggestions for the future.
  • September 19, Saturday - strategy meeting in WMEE's office, where the board, employees and some community members tried to map and narrow down all of our activities.

September, 21-28 edit

  • September 22, Tuesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss hiring a new accountant, changes in administrative organisation and funding, necessary policies and strategic planning.
  • September 28, Monday - education programme meeting.

September 28 - October 5 edit

  • September 29, Tuesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the results of a business consultation, plans and policies, accounting, and changes in administration.
  • September 30, Wednesday - WLM 2015 concluded.

October, 5-12 edit

  • October 7, Tuesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss accounting and the upcoming Big Fat Brussels meeting.

October, 12-19 edit

  • October 13, Tuesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the general assembly meeting, participating in an events series in Tartu, organising a meeting to discuss the future and restructuring of our organization, and possibilites for a legal consult.
  • October 18, Sunday - the board and the executive director met to discuss the restructuring of our organization.

October, 19-26 edit

  • October 20, Tuesday - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the possibilities of establishing a council in the WMEE, shortcomings in organizing and finding volunteers to make up for said shortcomings.
  • October 22, Thursday - our board member Sven-Erik Soosaar gave a presentation about Finno-Ugric wikipedias via Skype at the seminar dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Udmurt wikipedia.

October 26 - November 2 edit

  • November 1 - Beginning of the European Science Photo Competition 2015

November, 2-9 edit

  • November 3 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the budget for the year 2016, freedom of panorama, options for travel insurance and signing the conflict of interest policy.

November, 9-16 edit

  • November 10 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the budget and activities for the year 2016, personnel issues and organizing a course on Wikipedia at the University of Tartu.

November, 16-23 edit

  • November 17 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the activities for the year 2016, freedom of panorama activities, strategy document and signing the conflict of interest policy.

November, 23-30 edit

  • November 24 - Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss restructuring and the freedom of panorama project.


2014 edit

February, 10-17 edit

  • February 11, Tuesday: Wikimedia Eesti's board met to discuss the Wikimaps Nordic project, education project, Wiki Loves Earth, Tartupeedia, renting an office space, applications for funding and the Finno-Ugric project.
  • February 12, Wednesday: Wikimedia Foundation confirmed Wikimedia Eesti's grant application for 2014.
  • February 14, Friday: Wikimedia Eesti got an answer from A. le Coq, an Estonian beverage company. They agreed to support WMEE's events with 200 litres of beverages.

February, 17-24 edit

  • February 18, Tuesday: Wikimedia Eesti's board meeting to discuss the upcoming WMEE meeting, fiscal year report for 2013, the education project, Wiki Loves Earth, digitizing, funding applications and publishing Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture".
  • February 19, Wednesday: meetings regarding our cultural heritage project. Teele Vaalma (a member of the board) and Kaarel Vaidla (project manager) met with representatives from Estonian Folk Dance and Folk Music Association, Folk Culture Centre and Estonian Folk Art and Craft Union.

February, 24 - March, 3 edit

  • February 25, Tuesday - WMEE's board met to discuss funding applications, travelling exhibitions, publishing Lessig's "Free Culture", ordering memorabilia, the Tartupeedia article contest in March, the Finno-Ugric project, Wiki Loves Earth, the cultural heritage project and wiki-expeditions.
  • February 28, Friday - Vahur Puik and Raul Veede took part in the Wikimaps Nordic project meeting in Helsinki, Finland.
  • February 28 - March 2: Teele Vaalma took part in Wikimedia chapters' board members training in London.

March, 3-10 edit

  • March 4, Tuesday - WMEE's board meeting to dicuss the upcoming Finno-Ugric project meeting, publishing Lessig's "Free Culture", Wiki Loves Earth, corrections in the environmental education project, the upcoming WMEE meeting. The board accepted a new member to the NPO.
  • March 8, Saturday - Wikimedia Eesti's biannual meeting.

March, 10-17 edit

  • March 11, Tuesday - two of our board members met with representatives of the Estonian National Folklore Counsil in Tallinn to discuss the cultural heritage project. Later on the the same day, a discussion with Kadi Raudalainen from Fenno-Ugria regarding the Finno-Ugric project took place.
  • March 13, Thursday - a meeting with representatives from Fenno-Ugria, Kadi Raudalainen and Tõnu Seilenthal to discuss the Finno-Ugric project.
  • March 17, Monday - WMEE's board meeting to discuss the Finno-Ugric project application, publishing Lessig's "Free Culture", Republic of Estonia 100 project, Tartupeedia article contest and dividing responsibilities between the members of the board.

March, 17-24 edit

  • March 18, Tuesday - two of WMEE's board members had a meeting with representatives from Viljandi Culture Academy to discuss the cultural heritage project.
  • March 19 - 21 - The board's assistant and a member of WMEE took part in an educational trip to Brussels, where they learned about the European Union and its insitutions, met with representatives of Estonia in the European Council, the European Parliament and introduced Wikipedia to their travel companions.
  • March 20, Thursday - Teele Vaalma schooled the workers of the Estonian Information System's Agency.
  • March 22, Saturday - Eva Lepik, Teele Vaalma and Kaarel Vaidla met with Kristin Kuutma, professor of cultural sciences in the University of Tartu, to discuss the cultural heritage project.

March, 24-31 edit

  • March 25, Tuesday - Eva Lepik, Teele Vaalma and Kaarel Vaidla had a meeting with the manager of the ethnology department at the University of Tartu, Art Leete, regarding the cultural heritage project.

Later that day, WMEE's board met to discuss Lessig's "Free Culture", Wiki Loves Earth and the "Republic of Estonia 100" project.

  • March 26, Wednesday - Teele Vaalma schooled medical students, who will hopefully translate some articles for the Estonian Vikipeedia.
  • March 28, Friday - Teele Vaalma met with representatives from the Võru Institute to dicuss the cultural heritage project.

March 31 - April 7 edit

  • April 1, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss arranging a round table for the cultural heritage project, new contracts for WMEE's employees, Wiki Loves Earth, donations, the report of 2013 policies and the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin.

April, 7-14 edit

  • April 8, Tuesday - WMEE's board dicussed a round table for the cultural heritage project, new contracts for WMEE's employees, Wiki Loves Earth, donations, the report of 2013 and the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin.
  • April, 11-13 - Wikimedia Conference in Berlin. Eva Lepik, Teele Vaalma and Kaarel Vaidla were the representatives from WMEE.
  • April, 14 - Wikimedia Eesti rented an office in Tartu.

April, 14-21 edit

  • April 15, Tuesday - board meeting to dicuss Wiki Loves Earth, the round table for the cultural heritage project, arranging a seminar for Finno-Ugric wikipedians, publishing Lessig's "Free Culture" in Estonian, furnishing our new office and the Erasmus Plus application. Contracts for the employees were extended until the end of May, so there would be enough time to make changes for the new contracts. Wikimedia Eesti decided to join the Statement of Intent and send Siim Tuisk to the Big Fat Brussels meeting.

April, 21-28 edit

  • April 22, Tuesday - board meeting to dicuss Wiki Loves Earth, the cultural heritage project, Lessig's "Free Culture", furnishing our new office, the Erasmus Plus application, bookkeping and Tartupedia article competition.
  • April 23, Wednesday - Teele Vaalma and Kaarel Vaidla met with representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science to discuss the course of action for the education project.
  • April 24, Thursay - awarding the best from the illustrators' course of Tartu Art School, who drew illustrations (mainly portraits and buildings) for articles on the Estonian Wikipedia.
  • April 28, Monday - Teele Vaalma schooled the employees of the National Audit Office of Estonia on amending Wikipedia.

April 28 - May 5 edit

  • April 29, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss Wiki Loves Earth, the Finno-Ugric seminar, professionalization report, application for the Erasmus Plus program and the article contest for Tartupedia.
  • April 30, Wednesday - Teele Vaalma schooled students at the Young Researcher's scholarship seminar.
  • May 1, Thursday - the international photo competition "Wiki Loves Earth" started.


May, 5-12 edit

  • May 7, Wednesday - WMEE's board discussed Wiki Loves Earth, Wikimania 2014, improving communication within the WMEE, bookkeeping, professionalization report and final grant report of 2013

May, 12-19 edit

  • May 13, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss the cultural heritage project, professionalization report, final grant report of 2013, prized for the translation competition, the Finno-Ugric seminar and travelling exhibitions.
  • May 15, Thursday - Eva Lepik and Kaarel Vaidla had a meeting with the mayor of Tartu regarding the upcoming Tartupedia article competition.

May, 19-26 edit

  • May 20, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss Wiki Loves Earth, professionalization report, last additions to the final grant report of 2013, cultural heritage project and education project.
  • May 24, Kaarel Vaidla schooled photography club members of the Tallinn University of Technology, who will be going on a photo expedition for Wiki Loves Earth.

May, 26 - June, 2 edit

  • May 27, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss Wiki Loves Earth, cultural heritage project, organizing a summer school for the education project, the Finno-Ugric seminar and voting for the new WMF board member.
  • May 31, Saturday - end of the Estonian portion of Wiki Loves Earth contest.

June, 2-9 edit

  • June 3, Tuesday - board members discussed the Finno-Ugric seminar, hiring an Executive Director and the letter of intent for moving towards FDC funding.
  • June 4, Wednesday - the Environmental Investment Centre in Estonia approved WMEE's application for funding our environmental awareness project.
  • June 9, Monday - Kaarel Vaidla and Teele Vaalma were guests at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Council's meeting to introduce our cultural heritage "wikipedization" project.

June, 9-16 edit

  • June 10, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss Wiki Loves Earth, our environmental awareness project, the upcoming Wiki Loves Monuments, education project and the discussion over creating a position of an Executive Director in Meta-Wiki.

June, 16-23 edit

  • June 17, Tuesday - board meeting to dicuss creating the ED position, WMEE's strategy, Wiki Loves Earth and the environmental awareness project.

June, 23-30 edit

  • June 26, Thursday - Wikimedia Foundation confirmed the position of an Executive Director for Wikimedia Eesti. The ED starts on July 1st with a temporary contract for 6 months.

August, 18-25 edit

  • August 18, Monday - board meeting to discuss the budget for 2015, Finno-Ugric seminar and positions for the environmental awareness project.
  • August 22-24 - Seminar on Finno-Ugric Wikipedias. In addition to people from WMEE, we had people from Karelian, Erzya, Sami, Veps Hungarian and Mari Wikipedias. We had a day of conference in Tartu and two days in the countryside in Vaskna, where we spoke of problems of small Wikipedias, possible solutions and tested a new translation tool, Minority Translate.

August, 25 - September, 1 edit

  • August 26, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss Wiki Loves Monuments, Wikimedia Eesti's biannual meeting, arranging an information evening and application for the Nordplus program.
  • August 29, Friday - Archimedes Foundation's expert group rejected our project application for the Erasmus+ program.
  • September 1, Monday - Wiki Loves Monuments 2014 competition started.

September, 1-8 edit

  • September 3, Wednesday - board meeting do discuss organizing the information evening, the cultural heritage project's round table, WMEE's biannual meeting, Wikimaps Nordic project, Tartupeedia article contest, Central- and Eastern European Wikimedias Conference and filling out the Annual Grant Plan application.

September, 8-15 edit

  • September 11, Thursday - WMEE Information Evening in our office. Aside from the organizers, there were six participants. We talked about Wiki-projects in general, taught the participants to edit and write Wikipedia articles.

September, 15-22 edit

  • September 15, Monday - board meeting to discuss the upcoming cultural heritage project's round table, the biannual meeting, tasks for our new voluntary legal consultant, continuing cooperation with Tartu Art School, organizing a Greek-themed article competition and the environmental awareness project.
  • September 17, Wednesday - cultural heritage project's round table in Tallinn.
  • September 20, Saturday - WMEE's biannual meeting in Tartu.

September, 22-29 edit

  • September 22, Monday - Teele Vaalma schooled students and teachers on our education project in Tartu Tamme High School.
  • September 23, Tuesday - board meeting to discuss Tartupedia, hiring a new assistant, signing the Position Paper, diving activities between board members, APG application and continuing the cultural heritage programme.
  • September 24, Wednesday - Kaarel Vaidla schooled students and teachers on our education project in Võru Kreutzwaldi High School and Teele Vaalma did the same in Miina Härma High School.

September 29 - October 6 edit

  • September 30, Tuesday - Wiki Loves Monuments contest ended. WMEE's board met to discuss Tartupedia, APG application, and the Kindred Peoples' Programme report.
  • October 1, Wednesday - Tartupedia article contest started.

October, 6-13 edit

  • October 9, Thursday - A student from Tartu University practised editing Wikipedia in our office under the direction of Teele Vaalma.

October, 13-20 edit

  • October 14, Tuesday - WMEE's board met to discuss hiring of a new assistant, hosting the Armenian winner of the Estonian-Armenian collaboration month article contest, organizing Christmas parties for our members, Greek-themed article contest and our replies to comments under our APG proposal.

2013 edit

October, 21-27 edit

  • October 25, Friday: Wikimedia Eesti and Estonia's oldest theatre Vanemuine signed an agreement for cooperation, aimed for uploading pictures from the theatre's archive into Wikimedia Commons. By the agreement, Vanemuine takes the responsibility for providing correct metadata for the pictures (incl. copyright information) and Wikimedia Eesti will take care of the uploading process, passing the metadata onto the file pages, and adding the pictures into articles, where possible.

October 14-20 edit

  • October 14, Tuesday: After a relatively short but extremely intensive hiring process, Wikimedia Eesti got its two first employees. The half-time positions for the board's assistant and project writer were filled from the pool of 70 applicants, most of them very talented and enthusiastic students with an astonishing portfolio of experiences and skills. Honestly, they're amazing, we'd gladly take at least a dozen. Which we're actually trying to do by offering some of them positions as semi-autonomous project leaders, either as volunteers or with additional funding from Estonian sources to be determined (and applied).

...a lot of unspecified action

2012 edit

July 9-15 edit

  • Wikimedia Eesti is represented on Wikimania 2012. We are have discussions on several cooperation projects. Also, we're actively participating in the work on Wikimedia Chapters' Association.

July 2-8 edit

  • July 3, Tuesday: According to a vote conducted in Doodle, Wikimedia Eesti's summer days and general meeting will be held on the first weekend of August, on the en:Muhu:Muhu island.

June 25-July 1 edit

  • June 25, Monday: An interview with one of our board members about Tartupedia project ran on Vikerraadio, the most popular radio channel in Estonia.

June 18-June 24 edit

  • June 18, Monday: Unfortunately, the preparations for our seminar on cooperation of Finno-Ugric Wikipedias seems to take more time and effort than has been foreseen. On our board meeting, it was decided to postpone that event to 2013 so we can be sure everything will run smoothly. We're also going to recruit more volunteers for that project.
  • June 21, Thursday: An editor meetup in Tallinn's Seaplane Harbor.

June 11-June 17 edit

  • June 14, Thursday: Official prize ceremony of translation competition on Estonian Wikipedia, 2012. 139 articles, 56 translators, and 13 languages, ranging from English and Russian to Võro and Tok Pisin. Pretty good coverage in Estonian media.

June 4-June 10 edit

  • June 5, Tuesday: Editor meetup in Tallinn.
  • June 5, Tuesday: On our weekly board meeting it was decided to postpone our celebrations on 100,000th article in Estonian Wikipedia until Estonian Wikipedia's birthday on August 24. It's summer, people will be on the beach; we're going to have better coverage in the August.
  • June 8, Friday: In Estonian Sports Museum, a pilot project for QRpedia in Estonia was announced. This will also be the first actual step towards Tartupedia, a project for both covering Estonia's second-largest city in Wikipedia, and referring to that content in the actual city via QR codes.

May 28-June 3 edit

  • May 31, Thursday: Wikimedia Eesti took part in the meeting of non-profit organizations of Tartu County.
  • June 3, Sunday: Meeting with the people organizing Days of Ida-Viru County next year. We're going to have an article and photo competition, and we also might erect a Wikipedia booth on their public events. We are also establishing relations with the organizations of ethnic minorities.

May 21-May 27 edit

  • May 22, Tuesday: We participated on a high-level seminar on copyright law in Tallinn.
  • May 23, Wednesday: Wikimedia Eesti was represented on Estonian Internet Conference.
  • May 23, Wednesday: The news about launching Monmouthpedia circled Estonian media (e.g. here). If a Welsh town has made it in Estonia, it's definitely famous. Congratulations!
  • May 25, Friday: One of our board members visited a meeting of emerging Estonian Pirate Party in Tartu. We're not going to be involved, but as we have interest in common issues, we'll pretty much keep in touch.

May 14-May 20 edit

May 15, Tuesday: A meeting with the museums of University of Tartu.

May 7-May 13 edit

May 10, Thursday: We got an agreement for uploading articles from recently deceased popular science magazine "Wise Folk's Club" ("Tarkade Klubi") to Wikisources. The actual work will be conducted throughout this summer.

April 30-May 6 edit

May 4, Friday: Sad news about our visionary conference. Since two speakers (Jimmy Wales and Pavel Richter) announced they couldn't come in May, we postponed it to October 10th. There are no foreseeable additional expenses, although we might have difficulties with our venue.

April 23-29 edit

  • Apr 26, Thursday: Talks with our partners in the magazine "Estonian Nature" ("Eesti Loodus") about having a Wikipedia prize in their next nature photography contest.
  • Apr 28, Saturday: Discussions with Estonian Academical Oriental Society went well, we'll be working on future cooperation.
  • Apr 29, Sunday: Some more volunteer digitizers were found.

April 16-22 edit

  • Apr 16, Monday: In the City Museum of Narva, a joint exhibition was opened by WMEE and WMRU, showcasing the best pictures from Wiki Loves Monuments in Estonia and Russia.
  • Apr 18, Wednesday: Yet another 1st place in the quiz club. Wikimedia Eesti: Veni, vidi, vici!

April 9-15 edit

  • Apr 9, Monday: A volunteer, Mari Kirss, started digitizing books in Estonian Literary Museum. Her first book was Matthias Johann Eisen's classic "On the Estonian Folk-Belief" ("Eesti usundist"). (BTW: in English, her name would be Cherry Berry. Cool!) More on our digitization project: http://et.wikimedia.org/wiki/English/Digitizing_Estonian_Literature

April 2-8 edit

  • Apr 4, Wednesday: Another quiz in University of Tartu quiz club. Another 1st place, with a major success. Now we're bragging.

March 26-April 1 edit

  • Mar 27, Tuesday: Twenty minutes before our representatives were due to court concerning our dispute with Estonian Tax Board, we were announced that Tax Board has cancelled its earlier decision and given WMEE tax deduction retroactively, starting from Jan 1, 2012. Happy happy joy joy? Not so much. We were genuinely hoping to have a decision that would have provided some reliable precedent for other non-profits, too. Now, all they can deduce is that it is better to go to court rather than be meek and suffer. Well, that's something, too. Article

March 18-25 edit

  • Mar 21, Wednesday: Wikimedia Eesti's quiz team nailed the quiz in University of Tartu's quiz club... again! Wikipedians rule!
  • Mar 22, Thursday: One of our board members visited Tartu city government, discussing our proposal to start Tartupedia, a project not dissimilar from Monmouthpedia, also providing material for equipping tourism objects all over the town with QRpedia codes. We received a warm welcome.
  • Mar 23, Friday: The same board member happen to publish an article about our digitization efforts. We were contacted by Tartu Public Library and promised all the e-books they have digitized for publication in Estonian Wikisource. We hope for a long and fruitful partnership.
  • Mar 24, Saturday: Blog post about Võro Wikipedia
  • Mar 25, Sunday: Starting cooperation with the Office of Estonian President, we got our first batch of pictures. Also, a member of Estonian Writers' Union who is also an somewhat active Wikipedian gave us permission to use his pictures of writers, so we shall soon all see who makes all those fancy books people complain about.
  • We changed our mail address from Tallinn to Tartu, as that is where all our board resides. Our new address is "Domus Dorpatensis, Raekoja plats 1/Ülikooli 7, 51003 Tartu". It's a non-profit hub, and we seriously contemplate about registrating an office there. We don't yet have a serious need for an office, but it might become comfortable soon, as our activities widen.
  • Our wandering exhibitions are on the move again: Science Photo 2011 moved from Tartu to Tallinn University of Technology, The Best of WLM went from Tartu to Kuressaare, Saaremaa.

March 11-17 edit

  • Mar 12, Tuesday: WMEE provided an opinion (joint with another non-profit, Estonian Internet Community) on an European legal document on protection of personal data, stressing the need to make certain reservations not only for media etc, but also to open databases and encyclopedias.

March 4-10 edit

  • Mar 5, Monday: Had a meeting in Museum of Estonian Literature, concerning our project for digitizing Estonian literature. The answer was enthusiastic. After all, they have one of the largest folklore archives in the whole world, and would gladly publish it in the Internet, if they only had enough people to do it. It might just be we can provide a little help.

February 27-March 4 edit

  • Mar 3, Saturday: A blog post about recent discussion on Estonian Wikipedia's version of Village Pump: how many Wikipedians will it take to screw in a light bulb? The right answer is 34 (until it is found that EU directives forbid unauthorized electric installations by non-certified electricians). "Mitut vikipedisti on vaja lambipirni pessa keeramiseks?"
  • Mar 1, Friday: Wikimedia Eesti and European Union's local representation started a two-month translation contest for articles from other Wikipedias. By the end of March, participation is quite good, and translations are made from English, Russian, Finnish, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Võro, and Tok Pisin.
  • Feb 28, Tuesday: One of our members visited Estonian Olympics Committee to discuss the use of "Biographical Lexicon of Estonian Sport" in Wikipedia. Situation looks hopeful.

February 20-26 edit

  • Feb 21, Tuesday: Had a meeting with the nice folks in Estonian Literary Museum, discussing our digitization project. We were met with a lot of enthusiasm. There will be next meeting on March 5.
  • Feb 23, Wednesday: A quiz in the quiz series of University of Tartu Quiz Club was arranged by the Wikipedian team. In the end we were told we gave a little too harsh questions, yet it was fun. (A typical example: who was that Estonian socialist revolutionary who was sentenced to death in 1905, had to flee the country and sat in the prison while his wife died, yet later said in a speech in front the Estonian parliament: "Revolution means subverting authority, counterrevolution means reconstructing authority." - The answer.) More information on the quiz on our blog (in Estonian): "Mõnusalt ull mäng oli"
  • Feb 25, Saturday: General meeting of WMEE in Tallinn. Our annual financial report was presented and accepted, an overview of past and future activities was given, a new member was added to the board, bring gender ratio to 2:2. We have 27 members now. Further information on our wiki (in Estonian): Üldkoosolek 2012

February 13-19 edit

  • Feb 18, Saturday: Ivo started our recruitment campaign.
  • Feb 19, Sunday: A meeting was held, preparing the quiz show to be arranged by Wikimedia quiz team in Tartu.

Wikipedia on media edit

  • An article by Ivo on the photo competition of pictures of Estonian nature (HELP2) that was arranged in last December was published in the magazine Eesti Loodus (Estonian Nature). Ivo Kruusamägi: "Kuhu koguda häid Eesti looduse pilte?" Eesti Loodus, Feb 2012

February 6-12 edit

  • Feb 8, Wednesday: Quiz in University of Tartu Quiz Club (Eva, Ivo, Madis, Margus, Raul). 5th place.
  • Feb 9, Thursday: Ivo held a lecture about Wikipedia to the geography students in University of Tartu.
  • Feb 10, Friday: A blog post with the summary of last year's photo competition of pictures of Estonian nature (HELP2). Really nice pictures, forests and wetlands all over. Mushroom mushroom! "Kuhu koguda häid Eesti looduse pilte?"
  • Feb 11, Saturday: 3 million edits in Estonian Wikipedia. Hurrah! Banzai!
  • Feb 11, Saturday: Some of our members participated on the anti-ACTA meetings in Tallinn and Tartu, organizing and holding speeches.

Wikipedia on media edit

  • Feb 12, Sunday: Wikipedia was discussed in the TV show "Jüri Üdi klubi" on Estonian national TV channel ETV2, the main theme being Estonian encyclopedias. Currently, Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia in Estonian with 100,000 articles, although in cannot contest in quality yet. Last complete encyclopedia project was started in the Soviet times, and there is currently an ongoing commercial project that is lagging behind its schedule and on a somewhat shaky economic ground. In this situation, Estonian Wikipedia has obtained a unique position. Wikimedia Eesti was represented by Raul. "Jüri Üdi klubi: Uue aja lugu ehk elu pärast ENE-t"

... (to be retrofitted)