Wikimedia MKD/Reports/2024-06
Memorandum for collaboration with 'Goce Delchev' University
editCreating new partnerships and maintaining strong relations with institutions with whom Wikimedia MKD has already signed a memorandum for collaboration are one of the key factors for reaching the goals of the movement itself. Creating new partnerships expands the scope of the work of Wikimedia MKD, provides new potential for new activities and projects and what is more important, finding new sources for obtaining free knowledge and materials for benefits of Wikipedia and its related project.
Wikimedia MKD continues to establish partnerships and signing memorandums for collaboration with various GLAM and education institutions in Macedonia. The newest established collaboration is the signing of Memorandum for Collaboration with the University of Goce Delchev in Shtip. The Memorandum was signed on 4 June 2024 at the University's offices, where Wikimedia MKD's delegation was received by the University's leading personnel. This memorandum formalizes the longer collaboration that existed between the University and Wikimedia MKD. The mutual goals of the collaboration are creating free access to data, free Wikipedia content, improving Wikipedia's sister projects and involving a larger number of people, educational workers and volunteers, into Wikimedia activities.
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Signing the Memorandum for collaboration -
Signing the Memorandum for collaboration
Editing contest: Right to Housing
editTaking initiatives and creating opportunities for creating new content and contributing Wikipedia are one of the top priorities of Wikimedia MKD. Very often the organization organizes theme-oriented editing competitions and edit-a-thons due to two main reasons; decreasing the content gap and raising awareness of some major issues that we all are facing.
The beginning of June 2024 was marked by the successful organization of the one-week editing contest. The contest started on 3 June 2024 and ended on 9 June 2024. The call was named ‘Right to Housing’ and it was the organization's attempt for creating new articles on the given topic while being part of the international initiative ‘Wiki for Human Rights 2024’.
The contestants were expected to create new and improve the existing articles on the given topic. The contest itself foresaw awards for the three most productive participants, who at the same time have more than 20 newly created articles or improved existing ones.
After one week of editing and contributing, the Macedonian Wikipedia got 195 articles and the awarded participants are as follows:
- First Award to Тиверполник, with total 45 articles
- Second Award to Lili Arsova, with total 36 articles
- Third Award to Dandarmkd, with total 32 articles
Once again the organized events by Wikimedia MKD proved to be very productive, effective and useful for Wikipedia and its related projects.
Climate Changes Workshop in Ohrid
editSince this year’s GLAM programme and activities are topic-oriented, that is writing, contributing, acting and promoting the ‘Climate and Climate Changes’, Wikimedia MKD continues organizing topic-oriented GLAM events and activities. This topic is very important today in Macedonia and in the world and our Macedonian community on Wikipedia is giving its own contribution to this cause.
On 26th June 2024 the members of Wiki club Ohrid organized a workshop on this subject. The workshop started at 9:00 am at ‘Pirustija Nedanovski’ in the village of Ramne, Ohrid. The workshop was opened by Natasha Nedanoska who talked about this important subject, the climate changes and how to make contributions and decrease the consequences and the negative impact of the climate changes. After the lecture, members of Wiki club Ohrid wrote articles on this subject on the Macedonian Wikipedia.
The workshop ended at 12:00 pm. The participants wrote 5 articles on the spot, but the members of Wiki club also continued editing and contributing from home.
Wikimedia MKD continues with the workshops from the GLAM program in the future and we hope that we are going to raise awareness on this subject and make more articles about climate changes on Wikipedia.
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Editing articles -
Editing articles
Wikimedia MKD's second Wikiexpedition for 2024
edit"Wikiexpeditions" continue exploring Macedonia and enriching the contents of Wikipedia in Macedonian. The project's goal is to help improve existing and create new articles about cities, villages, geographical areas and peculiarities in areas throughout the territory of Macedonia.
In the period from 7 June to 9 June 2024, our team of Wikipedians held the second Wikiexpedition for 2024. This time, the Babuna and Topolka River valleys were the subject of research.
On the first day, the expedition started in the village of Oreše, where the cemetery church "St. John" was visited. Then the team headed to the neighboring village of Papradiste, where Markovo Stopalo and the small church "St. Nikola". Then the village of Nezhilovo, which is almost an abandoned village and only a few houses and the main village church "St. Ilija." After these three mountain villages, the team went down to the former municipal seat of Bogomila, from there to the village of Bistrica, where the railway station "Bistrica" was photographed. A wonderful experience was the visit to the village of Sogle and the famous monastery of Sogle, where the Wikipedians were welcomed by the nun Veronika, who walked them through the entire monastery, which is currently being renovated. On the same day, the following villages were visited: Teovo, Gabrovnik and Omorani.
On the second day, the team first went to the village of Izvor, and then to the village of Vladilovci, where the village church and the monastery of "St. George" above the village were seen. At the same time, the team was also in the historical village of Jasenovo, where beautiful photos were taken. At the end of this expedition, the villages of Gorno and Dolno Jabolcishte were visited, which are the largest in the municipality of Čaška. On the way back from them, the team went to the village of Drenovo, as well as to the historically famous village of Gorno Vranovci, where they spent a lot of time photographing all the sights, the preserved memorial houses, the old hotel and the village mosque.
The end result of this Wikiexpedition was visiting and photographing 9 new villages, 10 revisited, 1 historical village and traveled over 600 kilometers. You can see the full gallery of the event on Commons, but also some of the photos are bellow:
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Sogle monastery -
Church "St. Elijah"-village Kapinovo
Editing Days
editEditing days is an activity that lasts for the whole year in organization of Wikimedia MKD. Each Tuesday and Thursday different topics are given and the participants create or improve existing articles. In June 2024 there were in total 8 editing days, where participants edited on different topics in order to enrich the content of Wikipedia. The editing days and the topics were:
- 4.6.2024 - Landscape paintings
- 6.6.2024 - Education
- 11.6.2024 - Ethnic Slovene people
- 13.6.2024 - Television channels in North Macedonia
- 18.6.2024 - Communism
- 20.6.2024 - Churches in Greece
- 25.6.2024 - Windmills
- 27.6.2024 - Government ministries of Spain
Cumulatively, 8 different users took part in these calls and edited. In total, 70 new articles were created during the editing days in June 2024.
Editing Weekends
editEditing weekends is another project that is organized during the whole year. During weekends (Saturday and Sunday) user are welcomed to take part in this project activity and improve or enrich Macedonian Wikipedia content. During these weekends, the participants are expected to edit articles on given topics. In June 2024 the following editing weekends were organized:
- 1-2 June 2024 - Electronics
- 8-9 June 2024 - Anthropology
- 15-16 June 2024 - Museums
- 22-23 June 2024 - South Africa
- 29-30 June 2024 - Gardening
In total, during these weekends there were 7 different users editing on the given topics and they created 84 new articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia.