Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Shared Knowledge/General report 2016

This is an annual overview of the activities and achievements set out by Shared Knowledge in the annual plan for 2016, spanning from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016. The report uniformly concludes the activities conducted in 2016.

Financial overview

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You can also see our General financial report for 2016.

Aims set for the 2016 grant in general

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Area Measures of success
General
  • to increase the quantity and improve the quality of free content;
  • to raise awareness of the Wikimedia movement;
  • to extend cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation and other affiliated organisations;
  • to extend cooperation with external institutions;
  • to raise awareness about knowledge in general;
  • to release a substantial amount of knowledge held by the Macedonian GLAM institutions;
  • to promote free knowledge in the country's educational system;
  • to increase the presence of the Wikimedia projects in the country's educational system;
  • to encourage participation on Wikimedia projects.
Administration
  • to implement the assumption of going concern;
  • to promote the work done within the organisation;
  • to establish efficient and effective organisational governance;
  • to establish efficient and effective volunteer management;
  • to establish efficient and effective process of reporting;
  • to reduce the gender gap in the organisation;
  • to extend cooperation with institutions and organisations.
Education
  • to introduce and increase the presence of the Wikimedia projects in the educational institutions;
  • to extend cooperation with educational institutions;
  • to promote the Wikimedia projects as useful educational tool;
  • to raise awareness about the benefits that the editing offers to the students;
  • to increase and improve the content on different topics;
  • to get access to materials that can be used for referencing.
GLAM
  • to introduce and increase the presence of the Wikimedia projects in the GLAM institutions;
  • to extend cooperation with GLAM institutions;
  • to document country's natural and cultural heritage;
  • to document the treasure within museums;
  • to get access to valuable units in the museums;
  • to release and digitise materials from the libraries;
  • to introduce QR-pedia in the GLAM sector.
Community
  • to increase activity on the Wikimedia projects;
  • to improve the quality of content;
  • to reach out to new potential editors.

2016 activities

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See: Annual plan 2016
  • Education Programme
  • Lectures about Wikipedia
  • Wikimedian in Residence at MANU
  • Macedonianess
  • Academicians of MANU
  • Macedonian dialects
  • WIki Loves Performing Arts
  • WikiWine
  • Wikipedia 15
  • Wikiexpediotions
  • Geoexpediotions
  • Archaeoexpediotions
  • Veloexpeditions
  • Photohunts
  • Edit-a-thons
  • Editing contests
  • Editing days
  • MakStatBaza
  • Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia on Wikidata

2016 achievements

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Project metrics

Project metrics Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation

Education Programme

  • establishing cooperation with at least 2 educational institutions;
  • at least 10 lectures and workshops given in the educational institutions (including the lectures on movement-related topics);
  • at least 500 students reached;
  • at least 100 students involved;
  • at least 100 high-quality articles created or improved.
  • established cooperation with 3 educational institutions;   Achieved
  • 13 lectures and workshops given in the educational institutions;   Achieved
  • around 600 students reached;   Achieved
  • 74 students involved;   Not achieved
  • 146 high-quality articles created or improved.   Achieved
The activities of the Education Programme were carried out at the Josip Broz - Tito Grammar School and the Faculty of Philosophy of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. Twelve lectures and workshops were given to the pupils at the Josip Broz - Tito Grammar School, while one lecture was given to the students at the Faculty of Philosophy. The pupils at the Josip Broz - Tito Grammar School were given assignments to edit articles on physical topics and all of the articles created or improved as part of the programme have come from this collaboration.

Lectures about Wikipedia

  • at least 3 lectures given in collaborating or potentially collaborating institutions and also public places like cultural centres, youth centres etc.;
  • at least 200 people reached.
  • 1 educational seminar organised;   Not achieved
  • 8 people reached.   Not achieved
The concept of the project was changed from giving lectures to a large audience to organising interactive educational seminars for a smaller crowd.

Wikimedian in Residence at MANU

  • at least 30 scanned and uploaded images monthly;
  • at least 30 images used in articles;
  • at least 20 articles created or improved.
  • 475 files uploaded (97.47% used in articles with 1,100 file usages on 37 language projects as of 13 March 2017);   Achieved
  • 40 books digitised;
  • 4,618 pages digitised;
  • 341 articles created or improved;   Achieved
  • 6 projects of Shared Knowledge supported;
  • 1 edit-a-thon organised.
The outcome was achieved during the entire tenure of the Wikimedian in residence at MANU starting from 1 October 2015 to 31 December 2016, including the voluntary engagement of the Wikimedian in residence after the end of his tenure on 31 October 2016.

Macedonianess

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 7 books and newspaper articles digitised;
  • 1,651 pages digitised;
  • 7 articles created or improved.
The achieved outcome is not included in the overall outcome of the Wikimedian in residence at MANU for the sake of avoiding double-count.

Academicians of MANU

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 51 files provided;
  • 51 articles created or improved.
The achieved outcome is not included in the overall outcome of the Wikimedian in residence at MANU for the sake of avoiding double-count.

Macedonian dialects

  • at least 3 dialects recorded.
  • 25 files uploaded (100.00% used in articles with 113 file usages on 4 language projects as of 13 March 2017);
  • 16 dialects covered;   Achieved
  • 101 articles improved.

Wiki Loves Performing Arts

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 17 images uploaded (77.78% used in articles with 57 file usages on 3 language projects as of 13 March 2017);
  • 14 articles created or improved.
The project was re-scheduled from the last quarter of 2015 to 2016.

WikiWine

  • at least 3 wineries visited;
  • at least 10 sorts of wine documented;
  • at least 30 images uploaded;
  • at least 10 articles created or improved.
  • 2 wineries and 1 grape harvest visited;   Not achieved
  • 8 sorts of wine documented;   Not achieved
  • 26 images uploaded (61.54% used in articles as of 13 March 2017);   Not achieved
  • 1 article created.   Not achieved
The length of the video footage and the number of images is yet to be fully determined, as their processing is still underway. The initial plan for visiting wineries only was changed to include documenting of grape harvest.

Wikipedia 15

  • at least 5 media reporting about Wikipedia;
  • at least 20 participants in the conference day;
  • at least 50 persons attending the birthday party.
  • more than 10 media reporting about Wikipedia's 15th birthday;   Achieved
  • 8 participants in the educational seminar;   Not achieved
  • more than 50 persons attending the birthday party.   Achieved
The outcome achieved for the educational seminar is the same as the outcome achieved for the project Lectures about Wikipedia.

Wikiexpeditions

  • conducting exactly 6 two-day Wikiexpeditions;
  • at least 1,200 images uploaded;
  • at least 100 articles created or improved.
  • 6 Wikiexpeditions conducted;   Achieved
  • 1,573 images uploaded (78.39% used in articles as of 13 March 2017);   Achieved
  • 314 articles created or improved.   Achieved
The figures on the file usage and the articles created or improved might change, as the participants are still working on documenting the regions visited.

Geoexpediotions

  • at least 1,000 images uploaded;
  • at least 50 new articles created;
  • at least 100 existing articles improved.
  • 2 Geoexpeditions conducted;
  • 290 images uploaded (93.79% used in articles as of 13 March 2017);   Not achieved
  • 60 new articles created or improved.   Not achieved
The outcome was targetted unrealistically high.

Archaeoexpeditions

  • conducting exactly 6 one-day achaeoexpeditions;
  • at least 30 archaeological sites visited;
  • at least 600 images uploaded;
  • at least 40 articles created or improved.
  • 3 Archaeoexpeditions conducted;   Not achieved
  • 4 archaeological sites visited;   Not achieved
  • 102 images uploaded (77.45% used in articles as of 13 March 2017);   Not achieved
  • 7 articles created or improved.   Not achieved
The outcome was targetted unrealistically high.

Veloexpediptions

  • conducting exactly 2 Veloexpeditions;
  • at least 1,000 images uploaded;
  • at least 100 articles created or improved.
  • numerous Veloexpeditions conducted;   Achieved
  • 111 images uploaded (73.87% used in articles as of 13 March 2017);   Not achieved
  • 10 articles created or improved.   Not achieved
The outcome was targetted unrealistically high.

Photohunts

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 10 photohunts conducted;
  • 780 images uploaded (61.92% used in articles as of 13 March 2017);
  • 115 articles created or improved.

Edit-a-thons

  • organising exactly 4 edit-a-thons;
  • at least 20 participants altogether;
  • at least 120 articles created or improved.
  • 4 edit-a-thons organised;   Achieved
  • 41 participants;   Achieved
  • 99 articles created or improved.   Not achieved

Editing contests

  • organising exactly 4 editing contests;
  • at least 25 participants;
  • at least 1,000 articles created or improved.
  • 4 editing contests organised;   Achieved
  • 17 participants;   Not achieved
  • 1,042 articles created or improved.   Achieved
  • 6 templates created.
The fourth editing contest was organised from 27 December 2016 to 26 January 2017, thus spanning period beyond 31 December 2016.

Editing days

  • holding exactly 12 editing days;
  • at least 60 participants altogether;
  • at least 500 articles created or improved.
  • 8 editing days held;   Not achieved
  • 37 participants;   Not achieved
  • 127 articles created or improved.   Not achieved
The outcome was targetted unrealistically high.

Wkiexperiments

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 20 files uploaded (100.00% used in articles with 202 file usages on 30 language projects as of 13 March 2017);
  • 202 articles improved.
The project was re-scheduled from the last quarter of 2015 to 2016.

MakStatBaza

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 31 articles improved.

Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia on Wikidata

no specific outcome was targetted

  • 272 Wikidata items created or improved.
Overall assessment

Education Programme

The Education Programme included activities carried out in the Josip Broz - Tito Grammar School for the second consecutive year. The pupils studying the course in physics were trained how to edit Wikipedia and were given assignments to write articles on topics in physics. The project was satisfactory in terms of the number of lectures and workshops organised as well as in the number of participants and the quality of articles edited. These activities have significantly contributed towards reducing the content gap in physics and astronomy on the Macedonian Wikipedia and some of the articles were promoted to good or even featured articles. At the end of the year, the most prolific participants during the course of the educational programme were awarded T-shirts with the Wikipedia logo.
The other activities as part of the educational programme were conducted at the Faculty of Economics and at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.

Lectures about Wikipedia

The project was implemented as part of the Wikipedia 15 celebration in Macedonia, when the Explore Wikipedia seminar was held in the American Corner Skopje on 16 January, one day after the Wikipedia's birthday celebration. Despite the cold weather accompanied with sleet, the seminar went successfully with eight participants who were active in the discussions during the presentations and received certificates for participation. The topics covered during the seminar were about Wikipedia in general, its vision and mission, Wikipedia Zero, the basics of editing Wikipedia, free licences and copyright, the activities of Shared Knowledge and the Wikimedia movement in general. American Corners Macedonia expressed interest to generously host such educational events in the future.

Wikimedian in Residence at MANU

The Wikimedian in residence at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Art (MANU) was active during the year and managed to liberate many valuable materials in support of the other activities.
  • In January, he compiled materials for editing and organised an edit-a-thon with the employees of the Library of MANU on topics related to Aegean Macedonia. The edit-a-thon was part of the Wikipedia 15 celebration in Macedonia.
  • In February and March, the materials he provided for the edit-a-thon were re-used to support the editing of the participants in the Villages in Aegean Macedonia editing contest which took place on the Macedonian Wikipedia.
  • From February to November, he was active in identifying materials to support the expeditionary projects and the photohunts.
  • In August, he participated in the negotiations with the Božidar Vidoeski Research Centre for Areal Lingustics at MANU, which resulted in the liberation of audio files documenting Macedonian dialects. At the same time, he started a self-conducted project on editing articles about the academicians of MANU.
  • During the whole year, he was working on digitising and uploading significant books and works falling into public domain of significant books and works on the historical development of the Macedonian national awakening, the Macedonian national identity and consciousness, uniqueness and originality and the process of creation of the modern Macedonian nation through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Macedonianess

The project was implemented as a self-conducted project by the Wikimedian in Residence at MANU

Academicians of MANU

The project was conducted by the Wikimedian in Residence at MANU throughout much of the year with the goal of writing articles about the notable people in the arts and sciences of Macedonia. The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) has been the home of the most distinguished scientists, artists, writers and researches of Macedonia for nearly 50 years. The efforts of our Wikimedian in Residence resulted in systematic coverage of these notable personalities in an organised project on the Macedonian Wikipedia with images of the academicians made available on Wikimedia Commons.

Macedonian dialects

Macedonian dialects was a project in collaboration with the Božidar Vidoeeski Collection at the Institute of Areal Linguistics at MANU, resulting in the liberation of 25 recordings of 16 dialects of the Macedonian language. The negotiations were aided by the Wikimedian in Residence at MANU, who was involved in presenting the project to the employees of the Institute of Areal Linguistics. Besides the audio files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and added to articles, part of the 2000-hour recorded dialect speech held in the collection and old dialectologically annotated texts were also obtained. The project is the first successful example of the Wiki Speaks Your Language initiative, which aims at providing audio and video files of every language, language variety and dialect in the world.

Wiki Loves Performing Arts

The goal of the project was to collaborate with artistic institutions on photographing the artists, the performances and writing articles about it. Arrangements were made with the Drama Theatre in Skopje on photographing the actors working in the theatre. The photographing took place in February and the articles about the actors on the Macedonian Wikipedia were written in the following months. Open negotiations have started with the Macedonian National Theatre and the Comedy Theatre, but neither resulted in the creation of content of any sort.

Wikiwine

The Wikiwine project, which was carried out in September and October, aimed at documenting the rich history of wine production in Macedonia. The activities included organised visits to wineries across different wine-producing regions in the country with subsequent editing of articles enriched with the information provided and the images taken during the visits. One of the visits also documented the production of rakija, a traditional spirit of Macedonia, whose documentation is going to continue as part of the Wikirakija project.

Wikipedia 15

The Wikipedia 15 celebration consisted of a birthday celebration with a programme dedicated to the history of Wikipedia and the development of the Macedonian Wikipedia community held on 15 January, the Explore Wikipedia seminar held on 16 January with the goal of promoting Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement to interested participants, an editing day on 17 January, and an edit-a-thon held in the Library of MANU on 22 January.

Wikiexpeditions

Following its strong and successful start in the previous year, the project continued with six Wikiexpeditions to the Lakavica Region, Železnik, Debarca, Prespa, Zletovo-Probištip Region and Maleševija. In its second year, the project saw more detailed level of coverage and promotion on the social networks through a fan page created on Facebook.

Geoexpediotions

Geoexpeditions were organised for the first time with the goal of visiting mountainous areas and valleys aiming to cover, explore and photograph the various geographic landmarks in the relevant areas, such as peaks, ridges, topographic areas, passes, falls, forests, plateaus, rivers, brooks, streams, tributaries, waterfalls, lakes, as well as specific native (and endemic) flora and fauna. Two Geoexpeditions were conducted to Mokra and Šar Mountain.

Archaeoexpeditions

Following the successful pilot in the previous year, the project continued as a regular one with three Archaeoexpeditions to Tauresium and Baderiana, Markovo Kruvče and Tranupara-Konjuh.

Veloexpediotions

Veloexpeditions were organised for the first time with the goal of exploring geographical regions and remote areas on bicycles. There were no Veloexpeditions centred on visiting selected regions and participants were given freedom in visiting the places on their bicycles.

Photohunts

The photohunts evolved as a low-budget project from an unassigned amount of funds that the organisation was left with at the beginning of the year. The goal of the project was to support community members in taking images of places and objects that lack images on Wikimedia Commons, which could be subsequently used to illustrate Wikipedia articles. The interested participants could propose a photohunt on-wiki, where all proposals were reviewed by community members who made the final decision for their approval. This was the first project of the organisation fully delegated to and governed by the community.

Edit-a-thons

The model of the edit-a-thons was changed to engaging groups of new editors from the partnerships instead of engaging active community members. There were four edit-a-thons during the year, all of them taking place as a result of the partnerships and three of them engaging new editors.
  • In Januaru, the Aegean Macedonia edit-a-thon was held at the Library of MANU in Skopje with participation of community members who were editing on topics related to Aegean Macedonia and were facilitated with materials by the library employees.
  • In April, the Architecture edit-a-thon as part of the ArchiWiki workshop was held in collaboration with the architectural design centre Arhipunkt and architectural website MARH at the premises of the Newman's Business Accelerator in Skopje with participation of architects and architecture students who were editing on topics related to architecture and were mentored by the community members as well as facilitated with materials by the employees of the architectural design centre Arhipunkt.
  • In October and December, two Medicine edit-a-thons were held in collaboration with the European Medical Students' Association Macedonia at the premises of the Seavus Incubator with participation of medicine students who were writing articles on topics related to medicine.

Editing contests

After the successful results in filling content gaps in the previous year, five contests, including CEE Spring 2016, were organised during the course of the year. The topics of the contests covered Villages in Aegean Macedonia, Central and Easter Europe, Holy Roman Empire, Cities in Europe and French literature.

Editing days

The editing days were introduced with the goal of writing articles on a pre-selected underrepresented topic during a 24-hour period (CET) on the Macedonian Wikipedia. Unlike the edit-a-thons, A total of eight editing days were assigned during the course of the year, with some of them commemorating holidays and recent events and some of them being part of initiatives of other communities of Wikimedians. The topics that the participants in the editing days were editing on included Ottoman Grand Viziers, Roman languages, Mime, Finals of the UEFA Champions League, Religious buildings dedicated to Saints Cyril and Methodius, Telescopes, Sports at the 2016 Summer Olympics and Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Wikiexperiments

After the successful start of the project in the previous year, when 25 physics experiments were recorded, the second part consisted of the recording of 20 chemistry experiments. By the end of the year, the project was presented to the entire community of Wikimedians from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and an initiative was started to add the recorded experiments to articles on different Wikipedias.

MakStatBaza

This project incvolved exploring various statistical and demographic data available from the databases of the State Statistical Office of Macedonia with the goal of enriching articles about settlements in the country by means of creating tables, charts and other means of data visualisation.

Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia on Wikidata

The main activity of the project involved engaging community members in collecting data about works represented in the Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia, a venerable institution exhibiting a vast collection of works representing 272 artists from Macedonia and around the world, and adding them to Wikidata in a structured manner. The project was inspired by the initative was inspired by the Wikidata and GLAM workshop held at Wikimania 2016.

Established partnerships

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In 2016, Shared Knowledge has established partnerships with the following institutions and organisations:

  • National and University Library "St. Kliment of Ohrid" (NUBSK) ‒ memorandum of collaboration was signed on 10 June 2016; and
  • EMSA Macedonia ‒ memorandum of collaboration was signed on 20 December 2016.