CEE/Newsletter/December 2017/Contents/Armenia report

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Contents

Armenia report: Meetings, trainings and public campaigns

“I create a significant article” campaign

By Davit Saroyan, Dato Abuladze, Lilit Tarkhanyan (Wikimedia Armenia)

1000 most important articles logo

Wikimedia Armenia continues to support the creation of quality content on the Wikipedia, this time through the launching of the "I create a significant article" campaign on November 28th, 2017. The campaign aims at the improvement of the articles from "1000 articles every Wikipedia should have" list with the help of the best professionals. The campaign started on the 8th December, 2017 with a 2 day introductory workshop in Aghveran.

All the interested participants had one week to register in order to participate in the event. The announcement of the campaign was publicized using various media channels: WMAM official website, Facebook, Armenpress and Armacad. The latter became the information dissemination supporter of the initiative.

Wikimedia Armenia has received 196 applications out of which 80 applicants have been selected to participate in this campaign. Wikimedia Armenia staff has contacted all the participants in advance regarding the articles to be edited based on their individual professional background. This made the process much easier to manage as workshop participants came with their selected articles and started working on them without delay.

The campaign will be accompanied with different editathons and will end on May 14, 2018 with a 24h editathon.

To make this project happen the list of 1000 articles were refreshed and revised in order to provide it to the potential editors. The list was divided into more detailed sections taking into account the potential fields of interest. Also, the corresponding language articles were researched to find the best language to translate from. The project page was created to support the participants more effectively.

Media links

Meetings in Cairo and Aleppo

By Azniv Stepanian, Lilit Tarkhanyan (Wikimedia Armenia)

Azniv Stepanian, Wikimedia Armenia Western Armenia Program Coordinator has attended the WikiArabia/2017 conference during which she had an opportunity to talk about and present the Western Armenian Wikicamps organized in different countries (Lebanon, Portugal, France). She particularly stressed the importance of Wikicamps and their role in bringing ethnic and religious minorities together in terms of language preservation by the Diaspora communities from all over the world.

It was a wonderful opportunity to present Wikimedia Armenia programs to the Armenian community in Cairo as well since there was little or no awareness about the actual projects implemented by Wikimedia Armenia.

After Cairo Azniv Stepanian had a chance to have a meeting in Aleppo with Vahe Ghazarian and Hakob Kilejian, Principals of Kare Jeppe Armenian College (Syria), on November 29th, 2017. During the meeting a discussion was held on Wikimedia Armenia, its vision, purpose and projects, Wikipedia, role of volunteers (what they gain from volunteering for Wikimedia), Wikiediting, etc.

As a result of this discussion on December 1st, 2017, Kare Jeppe Armenian College invited Azniv to introduce Western Armenian programs to 10 and 11 grade students and to share her experience. The participants had an interesting talk on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Armenia projects, Western Armenian clubs and Wikicamps. College teachers, moderators and administrative assistants have also attended the meeting. After the meeting the participants expressed a great interest in joining the organization's programs.

Overall these two events were very exciting and informative events which laid foundation for further collaboration and cooperation between the Armenian communities of Cairo and Aleppo and the Wikimedia Armenia.

At WikiArabiaConf
At WikiArabiaConf
At WikiArabiaConf
Presentation for the Armenian community of Cairo
Presentation for the Armenian community of Cairo
Meeting with Karen Jeppe Armenian College students, Aleppo, Syria
Meeting with Karen Jeppe Armenian College students, Aleppo, Syria
Meeting with Karen Jeppe Armenian College students, Aleppo, Syria

Wikipedia learning lab at TUMO Stepanakert

By Irina Safaryan, Lilit Tarkhanyan (Wikimedia Armenia)

TUMO Stepanakert and the Stepanakert WikiClub are playing a very important role in Artsakh’s school students life in terms of becoming a very talented, creative, smart generation and responsible citizens!

TUMO center in Stepanakert has proposed to the Stepanakert WikiClub Coordinator Irina Safaryan to manage the Wikipedia learning lab for 10 TUMO students. According to Irina it is a great idea and a step forward to improve Armenian Wikipedia especially with articles about Republic of Artsakh. Irina says: “I was excited for the invitation as I was the first person from Artsakh who would lead a learning lab at TUMO and share the knowledge and skills with younger generation”.

The students decided to write articles about 10 villages of Askeran Region which are closer to Stepanakert. So it was decided that 10 TUMO students will write 10 articles about Askeran region’s 10 villages in 10 days! What do we need for that? Of course students, information about above mentioned villages, a little group of photographers who would go through the villages and would bring photos for Wikimedia Commons which would then be added into the articles.

Before the launch of Wikipedia learning lab at TUMO Stepanakert Irina started conducting her research to find more information about the above mentioned villages. She met with historians and linguists and had discussions on many topics concerning those villages. As a result she collected lots of books and materials which helped the students to write the Wikipedia articles. The students also drove through all 10 villages to gather photos which they used to illustrate the articles.

During the workshops students have learned Wikipedia editing tools, uploading media files to Wikimedia Commons, analyze facts, improve Armenian typing skills, and how to prepare a complete and final report on all the work done during the 10 days.

In the end the students who created in Armenian Wikipedia 10 articles about 10 villages of Askeran region, became Stepanakert WikiClub members.

Irina says: “Wikipedia learning lab at TUMO Stepanakert was a good chance and great opportunity both for me and for Artsakh team to discover the little but very majestic place where we live, to learn more about our history and our heroes, not only the ordinary people who every day create history. Discovering the world, the town, the place where you are living through the Wikipedia and let the others know, is a blessing for me and I try to make more people think that way”.

Workshops

By Mher Bekaryan, Dato Abuladze, Lilit Tarkhanyan (Wikimedia Armenia)

Wikimedia Armenia conducted a number of workshops in December.

Mher Bekaryan, Wikimedia Armenia staff member, attended the Engineering Faculty of the American University of Armenia (AUA) on December 6th, 2017. The purpose of his visit was to conduct a workshop to the students of the Engineering faculty (College of Science and Engineering, Introductory Level General Education Course, AUA) who are working on creation of articles in English Wikipedia focusing on Energy Sources and Distribution in Armenia. During the workshop Mher particularly stressed the importance of editing and creation of new articles in Wikipedia; uploading their own photographs in Wikimedia Commons as well as using photos from the open source; working correctly with articles without breaching the Intellectual Property and Copyright Law.

The AUA students were also given a task of translating and editing these articles in Armenian Wikipedia.

Wikimedia Armenia organized and hosted a workshop for the members of the media team of Yerevan State College of Informatics on December 21st, 2017. During the workshop moderators presented the Wikimedia Armenia as an organization and spoke about its mission, goals and objectives. The importance of the Wikimovement and the work of the Armenian Wikipedia was stressed. After the introduction the editing time came. The moderators have selected a medium size article titled “United States of Europe”, broke it down into individual sections and instructed students to translate various pieces. During the workshop the participants also learned wiki editing tools and Wikipedia editing guidelines and policies. Those who left the article unfinished will carry on working on them at home.

Every Saturday Wikimedia Armenia organizes open workshops, edit-a-thons at the WM AM office where new editors are taught how to edit different wiki projects and the experienced editors participate in edit-a-thons dedicated to different themes. Anyone interested in wiki projects, Wikipedia, wiki editing and needing assistance, as well as wiki editors, who want to edit in pleasant atmosphere participate in these workshops. We have about 15-20 participants in each workshop. Among them there are also active wiki editors of hywiki, hywiktionary, hywikisource, Wikidata who help to conduct the workshops.

One of the workshops - the one on the 23rd of December was not only a usual workshop day but also the day when wikieditors gathered together to decorate Wikimedia Armenia office and Xmas tree. Some of the editors brought ornaments which were given to WMAM office as presents!

It was a fun event that allowed people to mix, bond and feel part of the Wiki family!