Wikimedia UG Georgia/Annual Plan for 2021
Annual Plan for 2021
Tbilisi, Georgia
2020
Introduction
Annual Plan for 2021 of Wikimedia UG Georgia is an annual action plan that builds on the organization’s strategic plan for 2021-2023.
Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia is a user group of the Wikimedia Foundation, an U.S.-based non-profit organization that operates and manages the Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia (Georgian: ვიკიმედიის მომხმარებელთა საქართველოს ჯგუფი) created in 2015 by active members of Wikimedia contributors living in Georgia, who are interested in organizing and participating in outreach activities on a national level.
Our all programs are aimed at increasing the potential of the human resource for the development of Wikimedia projects, taking into account the following values: accessibility, collaboration, community, diversity, education, gender equality, independence, volunteerism and etc.
Strategy
This Strategic Plan defines the programs of Wikimedia UG Georgia divided into five main goals: 1) Content Gap, 2) Increasing Participation, 3) Community Support, Development and Promoting Wikimedia, 4) Collaborate with GLAM, Universities and Educational Institutions, 5) Collaborate with Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations. All of these programs are designed to develop Wikimedia projects in Georgian and other Wikimedia languages.
Over the past three years (since 2017), Wikimedia UG Georgia has begun to actively promote Wikimedia projects in Georgia and to develop community wikis in Georgia. We believe that with the help of the programs listed below we will be able to more actively develop Wikimedia projects in Georgia and the region (Caucasus), as well as attract more volunteers to Wikimedia.
Since 2020, after we received our first APG, we continued to actively and intensively work in all areas, which is given in our strategic document. Based on our experience in 2020, we understood which programs and projects are working well and which should be improved. Taking these facts into account, we made specific adjustments to this document.
Annual Plan
The annual plan is based on three programs, which are as follows:
- Content Gap.
- Increasing Participation.
- Community Support, Development and Promoting Wikimedia.
- Collaborate with GLAM, Universities and Educational Institutions.
- Collaborate with Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations
Content Gap
Through various projects and programs, including through article contests, photography contests, contests aimed to improving the content of projects and marathons, Wikimedia UG Georgia tries to improve and develop Wikimedia projects in Georgian and other regional languages of the Caucasus. Contests and projects are both international and local. In 2020, Wikimedia UG Georgia held 8 such contests and marathon. Our experience for this year gives us the opportunity to assess the success we have received and plan such programs and projects for the future.
This programm is focused on bringing new content into Wikimedia projects. Both, new projects and long-standing contests, such as CEE Spring, Wiki Loves Caucasus and Wikipedia Asian Month, are given here.
Article Contests
Various thematic contests in Wikimedia projects (mainly Wikipedia) in the direction of creating and improving the content of projects, one of the best ways to develop and increase content in projects, as well as a successful way to attract new contributors. Wikimedia UG Georgia has been conducting such thematic contests for 3 years in a row and very successfully. Until the end of October 2020, Wikimedia UG Georgia held 6 article contests at the local and international level, in total 1649 new articles were created and more than 200 articles in the Georgian Wikipedia were improved. In addition to this, over 767 new articles have been created internationally. In the first six months (January-June) 51 contributors took part in the contests, of which 20 were new contributors. These figures show the success of such projects.
In 2021, Wikimedia UG Georgia will add new thematic contests to existing long-standing contests such as CEE Spring, Wikipedia Asian Month and Wiki Loves Caucasus, as it was in 2020 (when thematic contests were held around gender, gastronomy, science, Nobel Prize, etc.). At the moment it's planned to hold a total of 8 contests, at the local and international level together.
Enhancing quality of content
Improving the content of Wikimedia projects and especially Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons is a strategic task and challenge for us. It's very important to increase the quality of the content of Wikimedia projects. But to improve the content in projects such as Wikidata, you need to have the appropriate knowledge, so we aim, in addition to improving the content of the project, also improving the skills of contributors and those who are interested in working on the project. For this, we will conduct trainings and workshops with the help of experts and administrators of the projects themselves.
This project will run throughout the year and will contribute to both improving the content and improving the skills of contributors.
Program Objectives:
- Conducting and facilitating edit-a-thons and other types of contribution workshops to Wikimedia projects.
- To improve Wikipedia's coverage of topics that were prioritized by the community.
- Enhancing quality of content in Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons.
- Organizing and participating in the International projects.
- Increasing the skills of editors of Wikimedia projects in Georgian language.
Program Metrics:
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Number of contest | 8 |
| Number of workshops | 4 |
| Total participants | 80 |
| Number of newly registered users | 30 |
| New articles | 1000 |
| Articles improved | 300 |
Timeline:
| Program | Time |
|---|---|
| Women in Wikipedia | 8 February - 8 March |
| CEE Spring | 21 March - 31 May |
| Georgia Democratic Republic 103 | 1-30 June |
| Tematic contest | July - August |
| Wiki Loves Caucasus 2021 | 1-31 October |
| Wikipedia Asian Month | 1-30 November |
| Workshops for enhancing quality of content | all the year round |
Increasing Participation
A key activity of Wikimedia UG Georgia is to attract new volunteers, editors and people to the initiative of the Wikimedia movement, to develop and improve Wikimedia projects. The increase of the number of participants in Wikimedia projects, primarily in the Georgian language, is strategic for us, since the growth of the Wikimedia content and the quality of the content created depend on the number of participants.
We seek to different groups and individuals, including under-represented in our community by supporting and organizing trainings aimed at increasing participation in the Wikimedia movement. We are working with our community to find opportunities to increase participation and improve the climate for newbies in Wikimedia projects. We will facilitate this with two main projects (WikiCamp and WikiClubs) and training sessions.
Wikicamp
Our experience of past projects tells us that one of the best ways to attract participants to Wikimedia project is to conduct WikiCamps. In March, 2019 we held the first such WikiCamp and its result prompted us to conduct such a WikiCamp in future. Also, the experience of our colleagues from Wikimedia Armenia and from other chapters of Wikimedia confirms this. The main goal of the camp, to attract more people to work in Wikimedia projects, which will contribute to the development of Wikimedia projects. During WikiCamp we will contribute to the diversity of the participants, where we want to contribute to the gender balance of volunteers and contributors, as it was in 2019 (where the gender of the participants was 50/50).
In 2020, we planned to hold two camps (local and regional), but unfortunately, due to the current situation caused by the pandemic, we had to cancel both camps. We hope that this year everything will pass without obstacles, which will be facilitated by a favorable state in the fight against the pandemic of Georgia.
During WikiCamp young people to acquire skills in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. Young people will study the wiki-technology and then under the supervision of experienced WikiMedians will independently create and translate articles in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. Both beginners and people who have minimal knowledge of working in Wikimedia projects will participate in the camp.
WikiClubs
One of the most important aspects of our activity is the development of regional WikiClubs throughout Georgia. Wikimedia UG Georgia currently has two active WikiClubs created in two regions of the country, from where one is also a tool for integrating national minorities of Georgia into the community, since it was created in the region of Georgia, where the sensible part of the population is an ethnic minority.
Clubs are a reliable tool for the acquisition and development of human potential for Wikimedia projects. In this way, we attract people to projects, give them the right resource to work on them, and set up a stable platform for developing their skills and for developing Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia community.
We can also be proud that with these projects we are attracting more female contributors and by this we develop and increase the diversity in our community. We are going to increase the network of such clubs throughout Georgia and in 2021 we are going to open 3 more such WikiClubs, which we will help in the technical aspect and will also conduct trainings and workshops for them.
Training sessions
Wikimedia UG Georgia will conduct open training courses and workshops for all interested parties who want to contribute to the development of Wikimedia projects in Georgian. Trainings and workshops will be held both online (using remote channels) and in person.
Most people who use Wikipedia, and then show interest in working on Wikimedia projects, don't have sufficient knowledge and experience for this, and we also don't have enough online material for newcomers to work in Wikimedia projects. Therefore we decided to create a platform for training and workshops for such beginners. In addition, we will record our webinars and upload them to online resources so that everyone can use it, which will facilitate the work for beginners.
Program Objectives:
- Organizing offline and online training sessions to attract new editors to Wikipedia and its sister projects.
- Using contemporary online technologies to teach the general public how to edit Wikipedia.
- Conducting and enabling training sessions (physical or online) to contribute to Wikimedia projects.
- To engage more students by organising trainings & Camp.
- Development of WikiClub networks in Georgia.
Program Metrics:
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Number of trainigs | 10 |
| Number of workshops | 10 |
| Total participants | 60 |
| Number of new WikiClubs | 3 |
| Number of WikiCamps | 1 |
Timeline:
| Program | Time |
|---|---|
| WikiCamp | July 2021 |
| Workshops and Trainigs | all the year round |
Community Support, Development and Promoting Wikimedia
Community development, support and preservation of community sustainability is one of the most important goals of Wikimedia UG Georgia. Self-organized community of Wikimedia in Georgia continues to develop and Wikimedia UG Georgia helps them in their development and sustainable existence. This direction has long been part of the Organization's programmatic activities, and we will continue to use the proven ways of working with the WikiCommunity.
The support of the Wikimedia community in Georgia is important for us, as the community creates and develops the content of Wikimedia projects in Georgian and not only. Community support means sustainable development Wikimedia movement in Georgia.
Promoting, popularization and outreach of Wikimedia and Wikimedia projects is very important for Wikimedia UG Georgia and is an important aspect of the work of affiliation, since in Georgia Wikimedia and Wikipedia projects are not very popular and people know little about it.
One of our main goals is organizational development. At the moment, our organization is a User Group and our goal is to become an official Wikimedia chapter, which will also promote Wikimedia projects in Georgia on a larger scale. To achieve this, we will use different paths.
Community Events
Face-to-face meetings remain the best tool for discussions around Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia movement. Such meetings are the best way to eliminate all misunderstandings and conflicts within projects and movements. Also, such meetings contribute to the establishment of close ties between contributors, which creates the basis for the sustainable development of the Wikimedia community.
We are going to conduct three types of such events:
- Georgian WikiConference: and the Annual General Meeting are two main annual community events. The first such meeting was held in December 2018 and second in 2019. Besides this, Wikimedia UG Georgia will hold annual General Meetings with the participation of all members of our organization to address important issues of our organization. Such an annual event promotes the gathering of all contributors and enthusiasts to meet and exchange ideas. Also, Wikimedia UG Georgia informs everyone with its programs and news from the entire Wikimedia movement. On this event, we also create and develop a development direction for the future.
- Periodic meetings: these are small meetings of the editors of Wikimedia projects, which began back in 2010 and we want to develop them.
- Wikimedia Strategy workshops: this is a meeting of Wikimedia UG Georgia representatives with contributors and representatives of the Wikimedia community in Georgia, which is intended to discuss the development of the Wikimedia movement based on the recommendations developed by the Working Groups for the movement.
Outreach
An important part of our work will be the promotion of Wikimedia projects using media (Social, Online media and etc.). To achieve this, we will use social media as well as Wikimedia UG Georgia blogs. Our experience in 2020 has shown that social networks are a good tool for attracting new faces to Wikimedia projects, since the majority of the population of Georgia and our oriented audience actively use the network.
Also to popularize Wikimedia movement and projects, we will hold orientation meetings for the public and the media, which we are already actively conducting.
Scholarships
Providing scholarships for international events is an important part of community and organizational development and the promotion of knowledge sharing. Attending conferences and other events provides members of the local community with an opportunity to build and strengthen connections, gain new knowledge, and share it through their reports, notes, articles, photos, and social media posts. Since it is difficult for economic reasons for most Georgian citizens to afford expensive international travel, UG-GE scholarships are especially important to the community.
Unfortunately, due to the current situation, all Wikimedia events were canceled in 2020 and we hope that in 2021 we will be able to hold and attend them.
Program Objectives:
- To increase the community participation and skill level.
- To popularize Wikimedia projects and increase the number of volunteers in Wikimedia projects.
- Holding events for sharing experience between editors.
- Supporting participation of community representatives in international Wikimedia events for sharing experience and acquiring skills.
- Highlighting high quality work of Georgian contributors on the UG website, blog and social media.
Program Metrics:
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Number of Community Events | 6 |
| Number of promotions | 10 |
| Total participants | 30 |
| Number of international events | 3 |
Timeline:
| Program | Time |
|---|---|
| Community Events | all the year round |
| Wikimania | August 2021 |
| Outreach Events | all the year round |
Collaborate with GLAM, Universities and Educational Institutions
Wikimedia UG Georgia began to actively cooperate with GLAM, Universities and various educational institutions and will continue to develop these ties and network of cooperation. We actively cooperate with various educational institutions such as schools and universities, where we try to create a network of WikiClubs. We will continue to cooperate in this area and develop our network of cooperation with other institutions to develop Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia movement in Georgia, as well as to create a sustainable Wikimedia community in Georgia.
We have also already started to cooperate with the National Parliament Library of Georgia and with other institutions working in this area. We will conduct active trainings and workshops for employees of these institutions on working on Wikimedia projects, and we will also integrate their resources into Wikimedia projects.
Program Objectives:
- Developing the relationship with GLAM in Georgia.
- Helping libraries and archives to integrate Wikimedia projects within their business and processes.
- Training personnel from different GLAM, Universities and Educational institutions to work in Wikimedia projects.
Program Metrics:
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Number of Events | 5 |
| Total participants | 20 |
Timeline:
| Program | Time |
|---|---|
| Orientation meetings | all the year round |
| Trainings and workshops for employees | all the year round |
Collaborate with Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations
Wikimedia UG Georgia actively cooperates and establishes close ties with organizations within Georgia, that have similar goals and objectives as Wikimedia UG Georgia. Wikimedia UG Georgia also closely cooperates with the affiliations of the Wikimedia Foundation in the region (Caucasus) and not only, with which to carry out various joint projects, which increases the potential of all parties to cooperation, as well as increases the potential of Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia community.
In itself, this program includes two directions:
- We are actively cooperating and will continue to cooperate with other NGO's in Georgia to advance the goals we have. At the moment, one of the most important goals is to promote the bill on Freedom of Panorama and the bill on Copyright. We will work with our partners to seek the adoption of the relevant reforms and laws by the Georgian parliament.
- We are already carrying out joint projects together with regional affiliations in Caucasus. Our future goal is to develop a bilateral and multilateral relationship with existing and new Wikimedia affiliations, which will contribute to the development of Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia community in the region.
Program Objectives:
- Collaborate with other WM affiliations and Non-Wikimedia organizations.
- Carry out joint projects with other Wikimedia affiliations and Non-Wikimedia organizations.
- To promote Freedom of Panorama in Georgia.
Organizational development
Wikimedia UG Georgia, which is trying to develop organizationally, will continue to make efforts towards the formation of the chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in Georgia. We will strengthen our base of programs and projects, as well as increase human potential.
Risks
At the moment we are facing risks in some areas. These risks:
- Significant decline in volunteer culture in Georgia.
- Complication of the situation in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, possible lockdowns and restrictions on travel.
- Possible political instability in the country after the 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia.
- Economic instability due to the pandemic and the political situation.
- Instability in the rate of the Georgian currency (Georgian Lari; GEL).
- Restrictions on international travel due to the pandemic.
- Possible military conflicts in the region.
Below is a table showing how likely each risk is.
| Low-impact | Low-impact, likely | High-impact, unlikely | High-impact, likely |
| Possible political instability in the country after the 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia | Complication of the situation in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, possible lockdowns and restrictions on travel | Significant decline in volunteer culture in Georgia | |
| Instability in the rate of the Georgian currency (Georgian Lari; GEL) | Economic instability due to the pandemic and the political situation | Restrictions on international travel due to the pandemic | |
| Possible military conflicts in the region |