CEE/Newsletter/February 2025
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Editorial
Welcome to the newest edition of the CEE Newsletter! We are thankful of all of our communities that submit their proposals during January, which for majority of them is difficult with writing reports and also it is a month after a holiday breaks in many countries. At the end we have 19 articles from our communities and affiliates in the region.
At the heart of this newsletter, we present the new logo of the CEE Hub, along with many variations of the logotype. The logo also has a lot of alternative colours that can be used in different occasions. Additionally, we are bringing to you the announcement of the new round for this year (2025) of the regional microgrant scheme started by the CEE Hub previous year (CEE Hub Microgrant Programme). The programme will be slightly changed and will accept the applications from the next week.
In this edition, you'll find updates from our International Corner, where we feature announcements for several upcoming conferences in 2025. Apart from the already mentioned in the previous issue, this time we include the first-ever regional Youth conference Youth Conference 2025, which will happen in our region, in Prague in the period 16-18 May 2025.
As always, we bring you a selection of articles and updates from newsletters and blogs from across the region, including details on ongoing open calls and consultations.
Here are just a few of the highlights:
- Interviews: In this newsletter you can find two interviews, one with Claudia Şerbănuţă, one of the #1Lib1Ref 2025 organisers and volunteers from the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova user group and one with Annie Rauwerda, influencer, founder of Depths of Wikipedia instagram channel and future non-fiction book writer. Additionally, we have another article from Romania, where students shared their opinion after their involvement in the pilot-programme at their faculty.
- Reflections: You can learn more about involvement of the Czech seniors, to review the results of the Wiki Loves Monument in Russia for 2024, and also to read more about 5 biggest projects & 5 new initiatives for Wikimedia Ukraine in 2024.
- Announcements: We already mentioned the Youth Conference, but apart from this announcement, we had an article about the global Wiki Loves Ramadan contest, which will be held from February 25 to April 15, 2025.
And you can find even more announcements, reports from the communities and affiliates and cool stories from the region and from our communities.
Happy reading!
-- The CEE Newsletter team
- By: Wojciech Pędzich
Dear CEE Wikimedians,
in late December 2024, The Steering Committee (SC) of the CEE Hub was informed that Philip Kopetzky, one of the Hub’s founding figures, would be vacating his seat on the SC with immediate effect.
We would like to thank Philip for the years leading from the early ideamaking and research, through early development, recruiting Wikimedia-minded people to the SC, finding staff to support the Hub, liaising with the WMF to where we are now: ready to develop and be an even stronger asset to the region.
The remaining SC members decided that until the CEE Meeting, when the composition of the SC for the next year will be proposed, the SC will continue its activities in the 9-person group. We do not want to introduce a recruitment process halfway through the year, when sudden onboarding of a new colleague would slow down our progress in the current tasks. We also feel that the nine of us can safely deliver the Hub through the remainder of Year 3.
If you want to reach out with questions or comments, please feel free to do so at sc
wmceehub.org.
On behalf of the CEE Hub Steering Committee
Wojciech Pędzich
After working three years as a newly formed entity in the Wikimedia movement, CEE Hub can finally promote our new visual identity. In the summer of 2024 we published an open call to the community members in the CEE Region, and we picked the design of the member Kurmanbek, with whom we continued to work on the variations of the design. You can view the whole set of the branding materials on Commons.
Our hub is the one of the few effectively working (so far) hubs in the whole Wikimedia movement, but we do not have any specific logo until now. We used the general logo of the CEE Region, which was used by every our initiative as well.
As we wanted to change that, we opened the open call in August 2024, where we received two applications by the community members from the CEE Region.
Our Steering Committee decided that we will continue working with Y. Caner Özyayıkçı, young graphic designer from our region and awarded Media Contributor of the Year on the last Wikimania in 2024.
The chosen logo known under the name "Harmony" is designed to represent the rich diversity, strong spirit of collaboration and shared values of the Wikimedia CEE Hub.
The CEE region is like a pattern that forms a whole with its cultural richness and different identities. These differences only come together to create a unique harmony. Our logo, which we call “Harmony” and which is the main element of this brand identity, aims to transform this harmony into a visual and communicative language. This identity reflects unity around a common vision, while embracing diversity.
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CEE Hub logo
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CEE Hub microgrants programme will be open for new applications for the 2025 on 10th of February, 2025 (Monday).
CEE Hub introduced our microgrants programme for the first time in April 2024, as a first-ever regional scheme for microgrants. Our aim with this programme was to support the communities which does not have any financial support from Wikimedia Foundation through annual grants, which proved to be successful as we end the year with funding 9 projects (from 12 funded projects in total) for individuals and/or communities without General Support Fund grant.
Because of this, we would like to inform the communities that we will continue the microgrants programme once again in 2025, accepting application in two weeks time, on 10th of February, 2025 (Monday).
Some of the changes that we will introduce during this new round of grants for 2025 are following:
- upper limit of the microgrant will be moved up to 700 euros (instead of 500 euros in 2024)
- total budget for microgrants this year is increased to 12.000 euros (instead of 8.000 euros in 2024)
- accepting applications from Wikimedia community members (individuals, groups, affiliates, or organisations contributing to Wikimedia projects) in the CEE Region, Central Asia, and as well as Farsi contributors that live in these regions
Other criteria and information about the programme will remain the same and you can read it at the main page on Meta.
What will be going on in the international Wikimedia Space for the rest of the year? Let's have a look at the news and events that will happen in 2025!
- Current contests
- 1Lib1Ref (15 January-5 February 2025) - campaign for adding more references to Wikipedia, hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation and supported by the Wikipedia Library Team and Wikimedia Affiliates around the world.
- Upcoming meetings & conferences in 2025
- Central Asian WikiCon 2025 – first regional conference focused on Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia and other related projects) in Central Asian countries. The 2025 conference will take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 19-20 April 2025, organized by Wikimedians of the Uzbek Language User Group. You can submit your submissions until 22 March 2025.
- Youth Conference 2025 – first youth conference, which will be a three-day event for young Wikimedians from all over the world. The conference will take place on 16-18 May 2025 in Prague. The main focus of this conference will be How to attract young people to Wikipedia?
- Wikimania 2025 – 20th Wikimedia conference, which will be both an in-person and virtual event on 06–09 August 2025, will also celebrate Wikimania's 20th anniversary.
- Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 – an annual event that brings the global technical community together to connect and have technical discussions, hack on existing projects and explore new ideas for others. The 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon will take place in person, onsite at the Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel. The 2025 event is being organized by the Wikimedia Foundation in collaboration with local Wikimedia affiliate, Wikimedia User Group Turkey (WMTR).
What do they write about us? A summary of the articles from This month in Education and This month in GLAM.
- Wikidata birthday in Albania, 2024, November 2024, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
- Citizenship and free knowledge on Wikipedia in Albanian language, November 2024, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
- Minigrant initiative by empowering the Rrëshen community in Albania, November 2024, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
- Wikimedia MKD's new collaborations and new content, November 2024, Wikimedia MKD
- Minigrant and Photowalk Projects in Albania , November 2024, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
- deGrowth in N0vember, November 2024, Zblace & Hana Gaon (Croatia)
- Visual memory presented with collections of East Bohemia Museum in Hradec Kralove, November 2024, Wikimedia Czech Republic
- What's up in GLAM-Wiki in Poland, November 2024, Wikimedia Polska
What's going on around the globe? Check out those Diff articles to stay in the loop!
The Annual Plan is the Wikimedia Foundation’s description of what we hope to achieve in the coming year. We work hard to make the plan participatory, aspirational and achievable. Every year, we ask contributors to share their perspectives, hopes and specific requests as we shape the plan. Some of the ways we seek that input are through product team conversations with communities, the Community Wishlist, community conversations like the Commons conversation series, at conferences and through wiki pages like this one.
- > Read more about this on the blog post.
Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since December 2024. Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta.
- > Read more about this on the blog post.
10 years ago I turned up for my first day at work as a Wikipedian in Residence at the National Library of Wales. I had a 12 month contract and instructions to hold 3 Wikipedia Edit-a-thons, share some images openly to Wikimedia Commons and monitor the impact.
A decade later and I’m still here! I’ve transitioned from Wikipedian in Residence to National Wikimedian, to Open Data Manager, with Wikimedia projects still firmly at the heart of what I do at the Library. We have shared over 150,000 images to the Commons with 1.5 Billion views. I’ve held 97 workshops and edit-a-thons, delivered 10 grant funded projects and overseen the creation of thousands of new Wikipedia articles, mostly in Welsh. In this time the role has evolved dramatically but the core principles of openness, engagement and innovation have remained unchanged.
- > Read more about this on the blog post.
The Legal department at the Wikimedia Foundation has begun an initiative to review and make recommendations on updates to policies and procedures governing decisions to run project banners or make temporary logo changes. The initiative focuses on making sure that project community decisions to run a banner or temporarily change their logo in response to an “external” topic—for example, in response to a development reported on in the news or to address a legislative or regulatory proposal—are made based on criteria and values that the global Wikimedia community shares.
- > Read more about this on the blog post.
One of the perpetual tensions with efforts to fill knowledge gaps on Wikimedia projects is: How do you organize collaboration? When working with different topics, organizers and experienced on-wiki facilitators try to create more collaboration between editors, but because they are working on knowledge gaps, it’s a struggle. There would be no gap if a community was already collaborating to fill it.
- > Read more about this on the blog post.
Every year on 1 January, the Wikimedia communities celebrate Public Domain Day – the day on which artistic works become free to use once their copyright protection ends. Starting today, many new works can be freely shared and even adapted in new ways by everyone, which is why Public Domain Day is a celebration for all friends of free knowledge and culture. However, calculating copyright terms can be tricky, so Wikimedians need to carefully determine which works they can now add to Wikipedia and its sister projects. In 2025, two world-famous painters stand out from the list: The Mexican surrealist Frida Kahlo and the French fauvist Henri Matisse.
- > Read more about this on the blog post.
Voice your opinion! These topics are open to discussion. Also, please take a look at the open calls and apply!
- [from 10th of February, 2025] Ongoing open call for CEE Hub Microgrant Programme. Apply!
- [until 22nd of March, 2025] Submit your submissions for Central Asian WikiCon 2025.
- Wikipedia is turning 25: We just celebrated Wikipedia’s 24th birthday, and are already planning for next year’s big milestone! Share your thoughts on what you have in mind to mark the silver jubilee of Wikipedia.
- By: MagdaBarascu
Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova are running #1Lib1Ref 2025 campaign together with 11 libraries across Romania and Moldova. The campaign is taking place between the 15th of January and to 5th of February 2025. What is #1Lib1Ref and why is it important for Wikipedia? What does a successful #1Lib1Ref campaign mean? Claudia Şerbănuţă, one of the #1Lib1Ref 2025 organisers and volunteers from the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova user group talked in an interview for the CEE Hub about the importance of the campaign globally for the Wikipedia movement, why librarians are essential in editing Wikipedia pages and how can Wikipedia community involve more librarians.
Claudia Şerbănuţă is a PhD in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and she also holds a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the same university. She was the director of the National Library of Romania, did an internship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, worked as a researcher at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the US and is co-founder and president of Communities of the Future NGO.
1. What is #1Lib1Ref?
- 1Lib1Ref is a campaign conceived by Wikipedia volunteers, some of whom are librarians, who realized that it would be an opportunity for more of them to contribute to the articles created on Wikipedia, adding quality references, and thus improving the content of the articles. The work that librarians do in organising the collections, in knowing what is in their library, is connected to the work that Wikipedia editors do when they choose which sources to use when writing an article on Wikipedia. Several volunteers intuited this and said that it is an opportunity for librarians to contribute to the Wikipedia movement.
- The campaign was designed for 2-3 weeks for librarians around the world to enter Wikipedia in the language that is most familiar to them and make such contributions. This global movement has two periods in which it takes place: at the beginning of the year, for that part of the world that is in winter, in the northern hemisphere, and a similar period for librarians in the southern hemisphere, in June. It is among the few campaigns that try to be as inclusive as possible, to allow all librarians, regardless of where they come from, to be able to contribute to Wikipedia and learn more about the movement.
2. What is the history of the campaign at a global level? What is the history of the campaign in Romania?
- In Romania, the campaign started in 2017, Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova proposed a meeting within the campaign for librarians and promoted it publicly. The first meeting I attended was at the Bucharest Metropolitan Library. There were 2 librarians and 3 Wikipedia volunteers. That's when I met Andrei Cipu, user Strainu. I came from the National Library, where we have the national bibliography, and where we work with references a lot, and this campaign made a lot of sense.
- I proposed that in the following years, we try to do this event at the National Library with the support of the Goethe Institute and I invited librarians from all over the country to that event. It was a half-day event, which turned out to be insufficiently long because, by the time we covered the technical part, by the time we got to the practical part, the event was over. The librarians left without having a clear understanding of what Wikipedia and the #1Lib1Ref campaign entail.
- Being an event organized at a national level by the National Library, the question was “What do you mean, add only 2 references? Let's make a new page for the National Library.” The librarians went in a different direction than that of taking the first steps to contribute to a project. It could be explained by the fact that in Romania it is very appreciated to have your projects, and it is less appreciated to contribute to larger projects. And I think this discussion has not yet taken place in libraries in Romania, each library is proud of its catalogue, of its activities, more than that it contributed to a global encyclopaedia.
3. Who can participate in the #1Lib1Ref campaign?
- Anyone can participate, the target is librarians from any type of library. After the event at the National Library, we took the next step to go after small libraries, even librarians from rural communities with the idea that they can contribute with references about their community because the local bibliography is kept by librarians from public libraries.
- We had training and workshops with librarians from rural libraries who not only added references from their community but realised that in a dictionary of personalities from the respective county they were from, they could add that reference to several articles of personalities from their county. They started by adding references related to their community and expanded by contributing references related to their county. And this is something that librarians in Romania are doing in several parts of the country, all started after the #1Lib1Ref campaign.
- A follow-up to the event at the National Library was that several librarians from several countries came to Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova saying that they understood what the campaign was about but wanted to know more. And they made invitations to the volunteers in the user group to hold workshops so that librarians could better understand what the Wikipedia world is about.
4. What should a librarian know who wants to participate in #1Lib1Ref 2025 together with the library they work at?
- They should know that it is a lot of fun to participate in the #1Lib1Ref campaign, that it is an opportunity to put into practice and use the collections and knowledge that a librarian already has, and an opportunity to update your knowledge about what new technologies and data that are linked in the online environment mean automatically and wonderfully.
5. Where can a librarian find information on how to organize successful events that are part of the campaign?
- Romanian and Moldovan librarians can contact the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova group for more information. (wikiromd@gmail.com) We have a Facebook group, Librarians who love Wikipedia, we are two librarians who work with this group and have been organizing such events for some time. There are several ways in which events can be organized: events can be organized for librarians from a larger library to spend a few hours together and work in this direction, or events can be organized where librarians from several libraries can come to a specific space and organize editing activities.
- For such events, the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova group offers financial support. In addition, we have several years of experience, which helps us give the most practical advice and be by your side in bringing documents that speak as best as possible about the communities and history of the communities from which the librarians come.
6. What does organising such a national campaign involve?
- So far, #1Lib1Ref has been an echo of the global campaign in Romania, librarians in Romania have shown that they can do what librarians in other parts of the world do. There has not been a national campaign in which we could involve the most curious and innovative librarians who edit Wikipedia and try to attract them to edit because the technology still scares a lot of people. It is one thing to work with a database that you have at the library, another is to enter a global encyclopaedia whose rules you don't know, you don't know how it works.
- A lot of people, not only librarians, don't know who edits Wikipedia and what their motivation is. This open knowledge movement in Romania in general is not very well known, and then there are very few librarians who understand and have an openness towards open knowledge in doing such a campaign. However, the need for as many people as possible to contribute to open knowledge is a real need combined with the need to develop our digital skills.
- The fact that Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova organize this campaign every year at the same time gives time to those who want to be able to start a discussion, to know that we are at their disposal with knowledge, resources, support, so that any structure that works with librarians, whether it is a public institution or an association, knows that we are open to thinking about impact campaigns so that we can reach as many librarians as possible to bring as many references that talk about their communities on Wikipedia.
7. What does a successful #1Lib1Ref campaign mean from your point of view as an organizer?
- More than 90% of the employees working in libraries in Romania are women. We had to consider that the Wikipedia environment behind the screen can sometimes be very aggressive. And somehow an invitation to bring women to contribute to Wikipedia can run into this harsh reality. And we as organizers did not want to take on this responsibility, being women ourselves. So, we preferred to go towards a campaign in which we offer support to all those who want to participate without going towards a very glittery promotion of this campaign just to bring participants to the event.
- A successful campaign is one in which we find libraries with people eager to get involved more than the job description asks of them and who dare to say that they would like to try, and we come to that person with resources and support so that they can organize a successful first event and plan a second event for next year. For us, this is how success is measured and in recent years these things have happened.
- We had years with one editor who edited a lot, which was a surprise, and then we had many more local organizers who brought in people to edit Wikipedia. This year we are curious to see what the community of editors participating in the campaign will look like. We have had new editors so far organizing events for libraries other than the ones they come from, which I think is a good sign. And we want to grow by convincing larger libraries to take time out of their busy schedules to develop their skills and contribute to Wikipedia.
8. Why is the #1Lib1Ref campaign important for Wikipedia and open science in general?
- I was shocked when I met the first Wikipedian who didn't understand why the presence of librarians and this campaign is important. Because it comes very naturally to me and I can't understand how we can discuss education in general, anything related to knowledge without having a librarian at the discussion table.
- If we understand history and how the development of knowledge has proceeded, and especially this part where knowledge is not supported only for profit, we see that there are librarians everywhere, libraries with free access. Some people have made efforts, and we have this part in communism where copyrights were bypassed very easily precisely so that people could give access to some information. It is shocking that we still have this problem where we don't understand what librarians can do for Wikipedia, especially in a context where we are talking about a global movement.
- We are talking about an inclusive movement, and we leave no one behind we are trying to give everyone access to knowledge, and we need these members in the community who are already doing this. Indeed, some librarians are not so good at working online, some librarians do not know languages other than their own, and then some access points in motion are sometimes difficult to consider. If a librarian association realizes that they can contribute to Wikipedia, if some librarians become interested in giving people access to information using Wikipedia platforms and projects, everyone wins.
- But a little effort needs to be put into this direction. It seems to me that #1Lib1Ref at a global level has lost some energy precisely because the focus has shifted to databases more than to people. And you indeed have more knowledge if you import some available databases, but at the same time the level of access becomes higher and we always forget this part where people need to have a certain level of understanding of how the data is organized, where it is found, who, how has access to it and how they can use it. Pooling the people from the Wikipedia movement and the energy of librarians at this moment could lead to a gain at the level of communities and the movement.
9. How can the Wikipedia community involve as many librarians as possible in the campaign?
- 1Lib1Ref can be much more strongly organized at the regional and national levels. We have grown over time in Romania and Moldova. Even if the numbers do not show exponential growth, the number of people who understand what is happening on Wikipedia, who know how to use Wikipedia and who know how to recommend Wikipedia has increased. We do not report these numbers, they are numbers that we are working on and are actively working on.
- I think it would be a good idea to do a regional #1Lib1Ref campaign in Central and Eastern Europe. We believe that if we were better organized and involved librarians in the planning phase of the campaign, the results would be much better.
10. What do you love about this campaign?
- I like to see what type of articles librarians contribute to. That pool helps us track contributions in real time and you can see what motivates librarians. And you realize that in any profession, librarians are very different, and their interests are different. And they all lead to an openness to what they already know how to do, and they like to pass on information.
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- By: Pavel Bednařík
Interview with Annie Rauwerda, influencer, founder of Depths of Wikipedia instagram channel and future non-fiction book writer. Or neuroscientist, who knows! This interview led by Pavel Bednařík and Karel Čapka (Wikimedia Czech Republic) took place at Wikimania 2024 in Katowice on Friday August 9th, 2024.
- By: Tudor Vlădescu
Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova initiated a collaboration program with two faculties from the University of Bucharest during the fall of 2024. It consisted of a pilot program included in the university curricula of the Faculty of Letters and the Faculty of Philosophy. Nine students enrolled, and the objective was to evaluate the students’ availability to become Wikipedians. What is generally done by voluntary contributions to the world’s largest online encyclopedia was turned into an academic practical studies module and proved the willingness of academia to experiment with a type of research rarely used for scientific purposes. Also, this type of collaborative effort has never been tried before in Romania under contractual terms signed both by a university and Wikimedia.
For the last decade there have been various courses in Bucharest, Iasi and Sibiu that have included Wikipedia editorial work as mandatory requirements, some quite successful for a semester, but rarely continued the year after. The purpose of the practical studies modules that have been conducted under the supervision of George Ardelean, professor from the Faculty of Letters and Anda Zahiu from the Faculty of Philosophy was to add an IT dimension to the research work that students were already familiar with. The specific objective was to make use of the existing course material, find gaps of information among Wikipedia pages and contribute with well-written and carefully researched texts.
The project was welcomed at the Faculty of Philosophy because of an already existing precedent. From the late 1990s until 2013, one of the most important contemporary Romanian philosophers, the late professor Mihail Radu Solcan has included Wikipedia editing assignments to his students and contributed himself to the Wikipedia pages dedicated to Romanian and world philosophy. All the professors and lecturers who had once collaborated with professor Solcan welcomed this experience, which was formative as well as summative, from a pedagogical point of view.
Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova User Group has provided a specialized course for the initiative, giving a series of tailor-made advice for the students of Philosophy and Letters. The group of nine students enrolled were encouraged to delve into the course material, select their favorite author, texts or concepts and explore the availability of those items on the Romanian pages of Wikipedia. In case a favorite author was already covered, the students were to find a specific text that they would cover in detail. Given the fact that the module was part of the university curriculum, measurable in credits, the students fulfilled the requirements in due time, although the hybrid format, which included classroom discussions at the outset and continued with online meetings, was of a different type of collaboration compared to the other practical studies modules.
“Once you begin, everything will come naturally”
The enthusiasm for writing articles on topics which were already familiar to the students decreased once the Wikipedia interface requirements were explored for the first time. Silviu Craiovan, second year Philosophy student mentioned: ”I was familiar with writing academic-style articles and with the research preceding it. However, materializing these abilities into elaborating an original Wikipedia article involved learning a whole new set of information regarding, but not limited to, the principles of the platform, different ways of referencing and inoculating a neutral writing tone.” Evelin Verness, master’s student in Letters, faced the common situation when an article is being modified by an admin and ”this experience pushed me out of my comfort zone. However, I had access to all the necessary tools to create a well-documented and coherent page in Romanian.” She was referring to a course created by the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova, especially for the University of Bucharest students, a course which was refined with the help of admins and the students themselves.
Although there have been some difficult moments, such as the signing of different contracts and agreements that were changing frequently due to a reform in the university system, the entire collaboration went better than expected. Even though some pages were deleted by admins and had to be rewritten, nine out of nine students complied with the requirements, and once the students got the hang of it, they continued to write Wikipedia articles inertially. Alexandra Maria Stancu, master’s student in Letters, said: ”once you begin, everything will come naturally. And, very important, do not despair if using the tools gets a little confusing - the needed information is surely there, one simply has to search for it.”
‘Our partnership with Wikipedia put students’ research skills to work to the benefit of others’
Once the module was completed, both professors from the University of Bucharest provided their feedback. ”Our partnership with Wikipedia provided students with a uniquely visible and influential avenue of dissemination for a small part of the information they acquire during their formal training in philosophy, but also to put their research skills to work to the benefit of others. The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest has a longstanding tradition of championing the ideas of an open society for knowledge. For once, it was tremendously satisfying to translate theoretical interests into practical contributions. I can only hope that this initiative will grow with every passing year.”, said Anda Zahiu, assistant professor, at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest.
"The initiation and the unfolding of the practical course partnership between the Literary Studies Department Meeting - November 2024 of the University of Bucharest and the Făgăraș Research Institute, which happened during the first semester of 2024-2025, proved very efficient for the MA programs involved. Due to the professional conduct of Mr. Tudor Vlădescu, the three students who enlisted (Raluca Mihai, Alexandra Maria Stancu and Evelin Veress) acquired multiple research competencies and skills while writing and editing Wikipedia articles (including the harvesting of data, selection of information, the structure, and the writing of the texts). These activities are especially beneficial for those who possess a degree in philology or for MA students in the same field and may, of course, become lucrative later. Consequently, we are looking forward to the continuation of this program", concluded George Ardelean, professor at the Faculty of Letters
- By: Jan Sýkora
Seniors belong on Wikipedia! This has been confirmed for many years by the successful Seniors Write Wikipedia programme in Czech Republic. We welcomed new active seniors to Wikipedia, introduced several new features and had many successes.
Earlier this month, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group hosted our first WikiCamp in Gjakova, Kosovo, from January 5–7, 2025.
This milestone event brought together 27 participants, including students and teachers from western Kosovo (Prizren and Suhareka) and northern Albania (Has and Tropoja). Designed to reach underserved regions, the camp underscored our commitment to using Wikipedia as a platform for education and cultural preservation.
The camp centered on the theme of protecting cultural monuments, encouraging participants to enrich Albanian-language content on Wikipedia by documenting local heritage sites. Their contributions not only highlighted the importance of cultural preservation but also expanded access to valuable information. By actively engaging with their communities' history, participants fostered a stronger sense of connection to their heritage.
The program featured practical and immersive activities, including workshops on photography, guided photowalks, and collaborative writing sessions. Participants honed skills in Wikipedia editing, Creative Commons licensing, and multimedia uploads, while also developing critical competencies such as research, writing, teamwork, and digital literacy.
WikiCamp Gjakova 2025 was a testament to the power of collaboration and shared purpose. It provided a space for learning, creativity, and cultural exchange, empowering participants to become active contributors to the preservation of their heritage. This first WikiCamp has set the stage for future initiatives, and we are eager to build on this success as we continue to promote cultural preservation and knowledge-sharing through Wikipedia.
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Social media
- We have a public channel on WhatsApp Wikipedians of Albanian Language if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.
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During the Christmas and New Year holidays, the results of the Russian part of the "Wiki Loves Monuments 2024" photo contest were summed up. Since Russia has not participated in the international stage of the WLM for the second year, the jury members were not limited by the general deadline of the competition (December 1), and this allowed them to choose the winners as thoughtfully as possible. A lot of work was done, because almost 25,000 images were uploaded to the Russian contest, and the long list consisted of about one and a half thousand photos.
The photo that was included in the top ten winners of the contest. Wind turbine of the polar hydrometeorological station in Tikhaya Bay, Franz Josef Land, Arkhangelsk region. Author — Nixette
Statistics from the Russian part of WLM show that participants are still deeply interested in this competition, and despite all the difficulties (and these are not only the risks associated with participating in the international stage of the competition, but also, for example, a ban on the use of at least some normal quadrocopters in Russia, which makes it impossible to photograph hard-to-reach landmarks), the pictures are still uploaded with great enthusiasm. And there is something to photograph: at the moment, the lists of cultural heritage monuments in Russia number almost 225 thousand items! Of course, a significant part of the uploaded content consists of pictures of popular attractions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Suzdal, Rostov Veliky, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and other "tourist" locations, however, contest participants are sometimes not lazy to reach the most inaccessible corners of the country. So, among the winners there is a photo of wooden buildings located on one of the islands of Franz Josef Land, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
Yes, there are a huge number of architectural and historical monuments in Russia, but many of them are in extremely neglected condition, and some of them are real ruins. Therefore, the organizers of the Russian part of the competition appoint a special nomination "Cultural Heritage under threat" year after year, for which photographs of crumbling buildings and structures are selected from among all downloads. There are usually a lot of such photos, and the scale of the disaster can be estimated even by the long list of this special nomination: churches and manor houses, industrial and residential buildings — everything looks equally sad, if not creepy. This special nomination is one of the ways to draw attention to the appalling state of cultural heritage in all Russian regions, and if not to stop the destruction, at least to capture for history those objects that are still somehow exist.
There is another traditional special nomination on the Russian WLM. For the fifth year in a row, it has been appointed by the North-West Russia Wiki-Historians User Group. It is necessary to say that the members of this user group are also actively participating in this competition: for example, in 2024 they uploaded 5,488 images to the Russian part of WLM, which is more than 20% of all downloads (and this despite the fact that 10 people from the user group participated in WLM, and the total number of participants in the contest — 467). But, of course, they lack the strength and opportunity to visit and photograph all the locations in the regions they are interested in, so the special nomination they assign allow them to fill in many gaps. The initiative part of the user group selects the winners in this special nomination (of course, not including their own works) and awards them with their own prize. In 2024, the participants of the photo contest were invited to pay attention to the architectural details of buildings and structures in the Northwest Russia. This is an important topic, because it is the details that make each building unique and unrepeatable, and add value to it; often, it is the original architectural details that turn a building or structure into cultural heritage monument. In addition, it is not so easy to photograph an architectural detail correctly (which is why, by the way, user group members periodically give educational lectures on photography, where one of the courses is devoted to shooting architecture), and each high-quality detail is a valuable asset for Wiki projects. However, a lot of good photos were uploaded to this special nomination, so so the NW jury had to solve a difficult task by choosing the winner. As a result, the photo of the column's capital in the half-abandoned Zhernovka estate, located on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg, received the most votes — an exemplary picture that equally successfully shows both the architectural detail and the beauty of the manor's decor, and its far from ideal condition.
The organizers of the Russian part of WLM have already started making plans for the coming year. Let's hope that they will be able to carry out all their plans — or even a little more.
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- By: Anton Protsiuk
“The value of Wikimedia Ukraine is the ability to combine forces and resources, especially volunteer resources, and do something incredible”. In 2024, we once again united the volunteer community to foster free knowledge in Ukrainian and for Ukrainians despite Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. This post features Wikimedia Ukraine’s five biggest projects of 2024 and five initiatives that we organized for the first time in our history. (Note that it’s only a brief glimpse into our activity; we’ll publish a detailed annual report in February).
- Five biggest projects of 2024
- 1. Wiki Loves Monuments — 100,000 monuments in the list, 30,000+ photos
Supporting preservation of Ukraine’s cultural and natural heritage is an important strategic priority for Wikimedia Ukraine. The largest project here is Wiki Loves Monuments, an annual photo contest devoted to Ukrainian cultural monuments and a related broader project.
In early 2024, we hit an important milestone – its list of Ukraine’s monuments hit 100,000 entries. Curated by the volunteer organizing team, it’s the most comprehensive open list of cultural monuments in Ukraine. (The government doesn’t yet offer a full centralized list, so the WLM Ukraine team compiles our list using hundreds of requests to local authorities across the country).
We held the annual photo contest itself in October. 322 participants uploaded more than 30,100 photos of approximately 6,400 Ukrainian cultural heritage monuments. Ukraine took second place by the number of uploads among 56 participating countries.
- 2. Wikimarathon – almost 50 events in 10 days
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In January last year we celebrated Ukrainian Wikipedia’s 20th anniversary. Wikimedia Ukraine organized its annual Wikimarathon, a large-scale campaign to attract as many new volunteers as possible to contribute to the Ukrainian Wikipedia.
365 participants, including 108 newcomers, took part in Wikimarathon. Our community members held 36 events in 17 regions of Ukraine and 11 events for Ukrainians in 5 other European countries.
- 3. Wikiconference – 125 participants in two cities and online
In late October and early November WMUA held Wikiconference 2024, our flagship annual conference for the Ukrainian community.
The event consisted of two virtual conference days and two offline meetings. It has become the most-attended event in our history – over 122 people joined.
- 4. Wikipedia Education Program – promoting media literacy and supporting the community
We are constantly working to bring Wikipedia closer to schools and universities – and to help educators integrate Wikipedia and wikiprojects into the learning process effectively.
For example, last year we:
- launched “Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom” as a self-directed, asynchronous course on Ukraine’s biggest MOOC platform (1300 educators passed it by the end of 2024);
- supported and trained the community educators by organizing a two-day conference, an offline training session and regular online events;
- supported educators’ initiatives, such as wikischools in Lviv and Bohodukhiv;
- cooperated with various schools and universities ranging from Lviv Polytechnic National University to Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
- 5. Article contests and campaigns – advancing knowledge in Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar
Throughout 2024 we regularly organized contests and campaigns on Wikipedia and sister projects to bridge gaps on particularly important and underrepresented topics.
We organized a version of the CEE Spring contest in May and Wikipedia Asian Month in December. In March we ran WikiGap, a campaign about prominent women, and organized the “(Un)seen women on Wikipedia” contest in December. We supported the community of Ukrainian Wikisource that held regular campaigns to proofread works by prominent authors… And those are just a few examples.
What’s also important, in the summer we held a second marathon on Crimean Tatar Wikipedia to boost its growth. Participants created and improved more than 500 articles in the Crimean Tatar language.
- Five new 2024 initiatives
- 1. “Wikipedia 20” awards – celebrating volunteers who’ve made Ukrainian Wikipedia
How can we celebrate the contributions of volunteers who’ve dedicated dozens of years to making Wikipedia better? Last year Ukrainian Wikipedia marked a 20-year anniversary, and we launched a special award for people who’ve shaped this great run.
In late October, 38 volunteers across 18 categories received an award for their contribution – from the mining scientist who created 27,000 articles over 18 years to the financial manager who’s made the most edits, to the teacher who founded a wiki club in her hometown. The award ceremony took place at Ukraine’s annual Wikiconference.
- 2. Courses “Wikipedia for 55+” and for neurodivergent people
One of Wikimedia Ukraine’s goals is to engage underrepresented groups of contributors. We set up two pilot projects last year:
- Online course about Wikipedia for neurodivergent people
- Offline training course for senior citizens within our “Wikipedia for 55+” program
We are now finalising their results and will share more details soon.
- 3. Heritage Guard Network — developing international partnerships on cultural and landscape heritage preservation
In 2024 we helped build the international Heritage Guard Network, a pilot project that aims to research and build partnerships around cultural and landscape protection. The project is organized by Wikimedia Sweden, Wikimedia Poland, Wikimedia UG Georgia, Wikimedia Ukraine with support of the CEE Hub and the Content Partnerships Hub; it’s funded by the Swedish Institute.
Throughout the year we built a network of partners and conducted research, which was then presented at the final event in Warsaw in November. We hope to expand the project next year, so stay tuned!
- 4. Video course about Wikipedia for beginners
Throughout the year we created a series of short videos about basics of Wikipedia and wikiprojects.
They are valuable both for newcomers who look for information online and for trainers who organize events about Wikipedia. During the next several months we will expand the videos to form a full-fledged video course.
- 5. Online training course for Wikipedia trainers
Wikimedia Ukraine supports dozens of training sessions across Ukraine every year. To help local organizers make them more efficient, we held our first online training course for Wikipedia trainers in December 2023 and January 2024.
The course consisted of five modules: how to present Wikipedia, how to hold offline events, how to keep participants’ attention online etc. 15 people successfully completed it.
This post was originally published on Diff
- By: MarianaSenkiv
Islam and Muslims play a significant role in the lives of many countries around the world, including Europe. However, their traditions remain unfamiliar to many. That is why from February 25 to April 15, 2025, the global Wiki Loves Ramadan contest will run to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the history, traditions, cultural aspects, etc. of Islam and Ramadan in Wikimedia projects.
This year’s campaign was launched on January 19 for you to join us to write, edit, and improve articles that showcase the richness and diversity of Islamic traditions, history and culture.
Both individual contributors to Wikimedia projects and members of local communities are invited to participate. Add your local community here and organize Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 in your local language!
All necessary information, including rules and guidelines, can be found on the campaign page.
For all questions please contact us at wikimediaramadangmail.com
Also join the organizers and participants of the campaign on social networks:
- By: Klára Joklová
The first Wikimedia Youth Conference will take place in Prague on May 16–18, 2025. The main theme of the conference will be: “How to attract young people to Wikipedia?”
Eighty young people from the CEE region and the broader global Wikimedia movement will work together to find answers on how to make Wikimedia projects and activities more accessible to young people, ensure their growth and retention, and what they can do within their own communities in this regard. Rather than a traditional conference, this will be a networking event focused on developing participants’ potential through discussions and working groups.
The conference is organized primarily by Wikimedia Czech Republic, with support from the Wikimedia CEE Hub. CEE Youth Group is a CEE Hub initiative that informally connects young people from across Central and Eastern Europe, helping to develop their skills and capacity in this area.
On November 25-26, 2024, with the support of a minigrant provided by the Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group, a 2-day event was held in Rrëshen, Albania.
Organized by Arbërora Leti, an English teacher from the local community, the event gathered students and teachers to learn how to edit and improve articles on Wikipedia in Albanian.
All the participants edited 16 articles enriching the content, contributing to the growth of free knowledge, and promoting gender equality by editing content that reflects diversity and inclusion across all social groups.
This 2-day activity helped students develop new skills, and build more transferable skills to use in class and community.
By providing minigrants to small local communities, WoALUG encourages collaboration to contribute to the growth of open knowledge.
Social media
- We have a public channel on Telegram Wikipedians of Albanian Language (language used mostly Albanian) if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.
If you want to see more about our activities, you canː
- Like our Facebook page, follow us on formerly Twitter or X or Instagram.
- By: Mari Avetisyan
Wikimedia Armenia has a long history of active collaboration with other Wikimedia communities. Over the years, it has successfully organized joint projects with Wikimedia Spain (twice in 2018), Wikimedia Austria (2017), Wikimedia Norway (2016), Wikimedia Georgia (2015), Wikimedia Estonia (2013), and Wikimedia Ukraine (2013). After a brief hiatus, Wikimedia Armenia has reignited its tradition of cross-community collaboration, this time with the Iranian Wikimedians User Group. The winners' (1st and 2nd places) prize is a a visit to the neighbouring country.
In its latest initiative, Wikimedia Armenia partnered with the Iranian Wikimedians User Group to organize the “Armenian-Iranian Edit-a-thon.” This joint thematic event took place on Armenian and Persian Wikipedias from November 20 to December 10, 2024. Over 20 days, 20 participants from the Armenian Wikimedia community created 241 articles, totaling 3,773,812 bytes, on topics such as Armenian-Iranian relations, Iranian culture, sports, mythology, and monarchs. Meanwhile, 16 participants from the Iranian Wikimedia community created 282 articles.
To recognize outstanding contributions, both in quality and quantity, two editors from each community were selected as winners. Their reward includes an opportunity to visit the neighbouring country with a full scholarship. The Armenian winners were announced during Wikipedia's 24th birthday celebration on January 15, 2025.
- By: Anastasia Lvova
In the Russian-speaking community of 2024, women from Eastern Europe took leading positions in several nominations.
The Wiki Award was a tradition established by the Wikimedia RU, with ceremonies held from 2014 to 2022 during annual conferences. With the cessation of the organization’s activities, the community (particularly MBH) took over the initiative, summarizing outstanding annual achievements statistically on the project’s Village Pump.
Among the awardees are participants from the North-West Russia Wiki-Historians User Group (and many other representatives from Eastern Europe). Екатерина Борисова traditionally became the most active contributor to Wikivoyage for the seventh consecutive year, with 14,311 edits this time. Ekaterina hopes she will finally have worthy competitors in the future. Lvova was the most active Russian-speaking Wikipedian twice this year (personally and as a bot owner, with 117,691 and 272,469 edits, respectively). Furthermore, she was the most active Russian-speaking VRT participant for the third year in a row (likely, the Russian Wiki Award is the only existing recognition for VRT agents in the Wikimedia community). Unexpectedly, she also became the most active participant in the article merging and splitting project. Красный actively removed statuses from articles undeservingly listed as solid articles.
Among non-user group members, it is worth highlighting the contributions of Victoria, who finalized more quality articles status reviews than anyone else this year and in the entire history of featured articles, good articles, featured lists, and portals in the Russian Wikipedia. Additionally, Lapsy actively worked on assigning and removing solid article statuses.
The full list of awardees can be found on the Village Pump of Russian Wikipedia.
- By: Книжная пыль
In December 2024, the latest competitions to determine the best articles in Russian Wikipedia, which had achieved quality statuses (mainly "featured"), were held.
In the photo: Awarding ceremony to winners in 2021.
In the "Articles of the Year 2024" contest, the following articles won:
- In the "Biographies: Scientists, Cultural Figures, and Athletes" category: the article Evgenia Medvedeva.
- In the "Biographies: Military and Politicians" category: the article
Alexander Hamilton. - In the "Comics, Cinema, and Music" category: the article Smeshariki.
- In the "Painting" category: the article “Menshikov in Beryozovo”.
- In the "Geography, Urban Planning, Architecture, and Sculpture" category: the article Statue of Liberty.
- In the "Video Games" category: the article Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores.
- In the "History" category: the article Montenegro in World War II.
- In the "Culture and Society" category: the article Atlantis.
- In the "Lists" category: List of Heads of France.
- In the "Article Series" category: the series "History of U.S. States".
- In the "List Series" category: the series "British Monarchs" and "Awards and Nominations of Films, Cartoons, and TV Shows".
The ‘Articles of the Year’ competition has been running for fourteen years. Articles divided into thematic categories are judged by readers, who vote for a winner in each category. Any Wikipedia editor who has passed the minimum (and very low) threshold for edits can participate in the voting, with up to three votes allowed per category. This method is good as it reflects the opinions of a broad range of Wikipedia editors, but there are drawbacks: votes often go to articles on popular topics or those written by certain authors.
In 2015, some editors proposed a new competition, named "Alternative Articles of the Year", where articles are reviewed and rated on a ten-point scale by a jury of experienced editors. These jury members write "featured", "good", or "solid" articles, serve as selectors for these projects, or actively participate in reviews. The jury evaluates candidates on several parameters: use of sources, comprehensiveness of topic coverage, writing style, formatting, and more.
Winners of the "Alternative Articles of the Year" 2024 competition:
- In the "Biographies: Scientists, Cultural Figures, and Athletes" category: the article Mikhail Rostovtsev.
- In the "Biographies: Military and Politicians" category: the article Alexander Hamilton.
- In the "Comics, Cinema, and Music" category: the article Smeshariki.
- In the "Painting" category: the article “Menshikov in Beryozovo”.
- In the "Geography, Urban Planning, Architecture, and Sculpture" category: the article Statue of Liberty.
- In the "Video Games" category: the article Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores.
- In the "History" category: the articles History of Tel Aviv and Montenegro in World War II.
- In the "Culture and Society" category: the article Atlantis.
It is important to note that a jury member may also be the author of a competing article, but in this case, they are not allowed to evaluate it. In 2013, a survey was conducted regarding changes to the format of the "Articles of the Year" competition and its necessity. Most Wikipedia editors supported keeping the competition in the project. Only minor amendments were made to its rules. The most significant change was the cancellation of "against" votes, as the community felt they caused unnecessary tension in the competition. Interestingly, and perhaps predictably, despite the fundamental differences between the two competitions, their results sometimes coincide, proving that both readers and the jury choose the best of the best.
The full results of both 2024 competitions can be found on their respective summary pages: Articles of the Year 2024 Results and Alternative Articles of the Year 2024 Results.
- By: Mariana Senkiv
To mark the 17th anniversary of the Crimean Tatar Wikipedia, we held a marathon to enrich the online encyclopedia from January 12 to 27, 2025. The event has been organized by The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Wikimedia Ukraine.
In the context of Crimea’s temporary occupation and Russia’s systematic policy of repression against the Crimean Tatars, preserving cultural heritage is particularly important. Crimean Tatar Wikipedia fulfills a unique mission, serving as a tool of cultural diplomacy, a platform for education, and a medium for international dialogue.
As the only online encyclopedia in the Crimean Tatar language, it is an invaluable resource for promoting the history, culture, and language of the Crimean Tatar people. The marathon aims not only to increase the number of articles but also to enhance their quality, ensuring they meet appropriate informational content standards.
The Crimean Tatar Wikipedia currently hosts nearly 30,000 articles — a significant contribution to the preservation and promotion of the Crimean Tatar language and the creation of open access to knowledge. However, despite this achievement, many critical topics remain underrepresented, and foundational articles are either missing or provide only minimal information. This applies not only to entries on science and technology but also to those covering the history, culture, and traditions of the Crimean Tatar people. Therefore, we sincerely invite native speakers of the Crimean Tatar language to write the Crimean Tatar Wikipedia!
- For more about the current marathon, visit its page on Crimean Tatar Wikipedia
- For context about our work developing Crimean Tatar Wikipedia, read a Diff post from the last year
On December 7, 2024, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group organized the Patrolling Editathon bringing together contributors and patrollers from Tirana and Prishtina, both virtually and physically, to improve Wikipedia in the Albanian language.
With the goal of verifying unreviewed articles, patrollers reviewed roughly 200 articles on different topics for 4 hours. The editathon emphasized the importance of group work and the role of patrollers in maintaining the reliability of Wikipedia.
By collaborating across two cities, participants demonstrated the impact of joint efforts in strengthening the Albanian lagugage Wikipedia community and making sure the content is reliable and resourceful.
This project did not stop with this editathon. It is still ongoing.
Social media
- We have a public channel on Telegram Wikipedians of Albanian Language (language used mostly Albanian), and WhatsApp Wikipedians of Albanian Language if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.
If you want to see more about our activities, you canː
- Like our Facebook page, follow us on formerly Twitter or X or Instagram.
- By: Mari Avetisyan
On November 23, Wikimedia Armenia launched a new Wikiclub at the Ijevan Branch of Yerevan State University. This marks the establishment of Armenia’s 9th Wikiclub and the 3rd in the Tavush region. Notably, this Wikiclub is unique as it is the first in Armenia to be founded within a university campus.
On November 23, Wikimedia Armenia opened a Wikiclub in the Ijevan Branch of Yerevan State University. This is the 9th Wikiclub in Armenia and 3rd in the Tavush region of Armenia. The other two Wikiclubs of the region are located in Koghb village which was founded in 2018 and in Kirants village in 2019.
Wikiclubs play a crucial role in engaging the younger generation and raising awareness about the Wikimedia movement in their respective regions. To address the challenge of regional inclusion, Wikimedia Armenia, based in the capital city, has successfully expanded its outreach through the establishment of Wikiclubs. These clubs are typically hosted within schools or youth centers, ensuring their stability and long-term continuity as generations of young people pass through them.
Wikiclubs are established in communities where there is genuine interest, whether in villages, towns, or cities. Each club is managed by an experienced trainer-coordinator, prepared and supported by Wikimedia Armenia. Funding is another critical component; Wikiclubs are financed by donor organizations, making the identification and engagement of donors an essential step in the process.
Over the past three years, Wikimedia Armenia has made significant progress by opening three Wikiclubs in different regions of Armenia. Among these, the Ijevan Wikiclub stands out as the only club established within a university. For over five years, Wikimedia Armenia has collaborated with the Ijevan Branch of Yerevan State University, where students have participated in online internships with Wikimedia Armenia. As interest grew steadily, it became clear that formalizing a hub at the university was both necessary and timely.
The university administration, faculty and students, as well as Wikimedia Armenia staff from Yerevan took part in the Wikiclub opening ceremony. The president of Wikimedia Armenia, Arshak Shahenyan, delivered opening remarks. He introduced the activities and projects of the organization, the role and purpose of the Wikiclubs for Wikimedia Armenia and the movement in the country.
An opening speech was also delivered by the acting director of the Ijevan Branch of YSU, Anushavan Makaryan. He stressed the significance of the collaboration between the Ijevan Branch and Wikimedia Armenia which not only allows for the introduction of modern approaches in the field of education, enriching the creation and dissemination of quality content on Wikimedia platforms, but also provides students with the opportunity to do their internships and acquire practical skills in parallel with theoretical knowledge.
- By: Velkovski.b
November and December were months filled with activities for Wikimedia MKD. In addition to year-end activities, Wikimedia MKD also started the New Year successfully with the celebration of Wikipedia's birthday in January and with renewed enthusiasm for what awaits us in the new year.
Advanced Wikipedia Editing Training Conference in Veles, Macedonia
- On 28 November 2024, at the City Library "Goce Delchev" in Veles, a conference on advanced editing of Wikipedia was held. This conference was intended for members of the Senior Wiki Club and was attended by 10 participants. The conference took place in a pleasant and working atmosphere. The attendees, who already had some basic knowledge of Wikipedia editing, were pleased with the new things they learned.
Second Geoexpedition for 2024
- After the first geoexpedition in February, the second geoexpedition for 2024 took place on November 24, 2024, and the team of experienced Wikipedians visited the natural phenomenon "Kukulje". This locality is located in the Municipality of Delchevo and although the name natural rarity is used on the signs of the site itself, the locality has not been officially declared as such, because the municipality needs to prepare a special report for the same. This natural rarity is so unpromoted that even our Wikipedia does not have an article about it. This was an additional challenge and incentive for our team to explore this location.
Photographical competition "Makportret 2024"
- "Makportret 2024" was a photography competition that took place from October 15 to November 15, 2024, and whose main goal was to collect photographs of people from Macedonia who are involved in culture, science, education, art, music, sports, television, politics, medicine and other fields. This event was organized by Wikimedia MKD, with the aim of providing free photographs of significant Macedonian contemporary figures.This photography competition turned out to be quite successful. 14 users participated and a total of 867 photographs were uploaded.
Edit-a-thon:Mountains
- On the occasion of World Mountain Day, which is celebrated every year on December 11, Wikimedia MKD organized an editing marathon. The event included a workshop with a lecture, followed by an editing marathon on the topic of "Mountains". It was attended by members of the Wiki Club Skopje, consisting of students from the "Josip Broz - Tito" high school under the coordinator Irena Trajkovska Sterjovska. With their enthusiasm and hard work, seven students made a significant contribution to enriching the content of Wikipedia in Macedonian.
"Meet Slovenia" workshop
- On 18 December 2024, at the premises of the “Dimitar Miladinov” Primary School in Skopje, a thematic workshop entitled “Meet Slovenia” was held. The event was organized in cooperation with the Slovenian Center in Skopje. The workshop was attended by 15 students from the “Dimitar Miladinov” Primary School in Skopje, who had the opportunity not only to learn more about Slovenia, but also to actively contribute to enriching the content of Wikipedia.
Editing Competition "Cleanup"
- Wikimedia MKD recognizes the importance of well-structured and precisely edited articles, which is why this year it organized an "Clean up" article editing contest that was held from 4 November to 3 December, 2024. This contest aimed to encourage editing and improving existing articles on the Macedonian language Wikipedia, making the encyclopedia even more useful and of higher quality for use. Three users participated in the editing competition and 114 articles were edited.
Wikipedia Day 2025
- On 15 January 2025, in honor of Wikipedia’s birthday, the Macedonian wiki community organized a special celebration. The event was held in a pleasant atmosphere at the “Piazza Liberta” café in Skopje, starting at 5 p.m. This gathering was an opportunity to mark the 24th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia, one of the largest and most influential open knowledge projects in the world. The celebration was attended by active wiki editors, supporters and lovers of free knowledge, who jointly celebrated the significance of this global platform for information exchange. During the event, Lifetime Achievement Awards to two distinguished Wikipedians were given. These awards are given to editors who have been active on Wikipedia for more than 10 years and have made over 10,000 edits. Besides the event itself and the delicious cake, Wikipedia also received its own gifts. On the very day of the birthday, 15 January 2025, Wikimedia MKD announced a call for all Wikipedia users to publish articles, new or improved, as a birthday gift for Wikipedia. The call lasted throughout the day and 33 new articles were published and 19 Wikipedians gave their gift to Wikipedia and improved the content of the encyclopedia. This celebration was further proof that Wikipedia is not just a platform, but a real community of people who believe in the power of knowledge.
During November and December, Wikimedia Serbia continued successfully implementing activities within its programs. Workshops were held for students in Belgrade and Vranje, and new partnerships were established. Two important Wikipedian in Residence projects were completed at libraries in Arilje and Vranje, resulting in the digitization of hundreds of files and the creation of a substantial number of articles. An edit-a-thon was organized regarding the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, as well as the “In the World of Flora and Fauna” competition. The global #SheSaid campaign was also completed, with over 1,400 new quotes by prominent women added to the Wikiquote in Serbian. Wikimedia Serbia received accreditation from the National Library of Serbia to implement the Wiki Seniors in Libraries: Librarians as Creators of Innovative Knowledge for the Third Age in 2025. During this period, Wikimedia Serbia also celebrated its 19th anniversary, announcing the best projects of 2024 and awarding recognition to volunteers.
- Education Program
- During November and December, efforts were made to establish, renew, and expand existing partnerships within the Wikipedia in Schools project with the following institutions:
- Workshops were held for students at the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Economics at the University of Belgrade, the Faculty of Education in Vranje at the University of Niš, and the Faculty of Contemporary Arts at the University of Business Academy in Belgrade. Participants will publish their articles on Wikipedia.
- A new partnership was established and a workshop was held at the “Vuk Karadžić” Elementary School in Vranje.
- A collaboration was planned with the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade and the Wikimedia community of Algeria.
- Accreditation was obtained from the National Library of Serbia to implement the program Wiki Seniors in Libraries: Librarians as creators of innovative knowledge for the third age in 2025.
- Wikimedia Serbia got a scholarship for participation in the EduWiki Conference in Colombia.
- Wikimedia Serbia participated in the JuDig – South Slavic Languages in the Digital Environment conference and the Artificial Intelligence conference, where two research papers were presented.
- A participation in the mentorship program organized by the Wikipedia & Education user group was agreed upon, with the aim of supporting others in developing educational activities.
- GLAM Program
- The Wikipedian in Residence projects were finalized, and reports were submitted to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. During this period, two Wikipedian in Residence projects were completed:
- In collaboration with the National Library "Dobrilo Nenadić" in Arilje, a two-month project was finalized, after which the equipment was provided for use by the library for the continued digitization of content. A total of 60 new articles were written and 465 files were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
- In collaboration with the Public Library "Bora Stanković", a one-month project was carried out, and a repeat of the project is planned for 2025. A promotional event and a press conference were also held in Vranje to present the project's results. A total of 30 new articles were written and 200 files were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
- Preparations for the #1Lib1Ref campaign were realized in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Preparation activities were done for establishing partnerships for 2025 with the City Library "Vladislav Petković Dis" in Čačak and the National Library "Vuk Karadžić" in Veliko Gradište.
- An edit-a-thon was organized as part of the Wiki Librarians project, during which librarians created articles about Turkey. A total of 43 new articles were written and 2 improved by 10 librarians.
- Diversity Program
- Wikimedia Serbia has put a lot of work and effort into organizing diverse activities within the Diversity Program. During these two months, the following activities were held:
- The competition “In the World of Flora and Fauna” ran from November 4th to December 4th, aiming to improve articles on Wikipedia about plants and animal life. A total of 6 editors participated, creating 21 new articles and improving 21 existing ones.
- The global #SheSaid campaign contributed to increasing the visibility of women by creating and improving quotes on Wikiquote. A total of 1,434 quotes were added across 75 pages, and the most active participants were rewarded with book vouchers.
- An edit-a-thon regarding the International Day of Persons with Disabilities began with a workshop for representatives of AIESEC, the Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities of Serbia, and the Union of organizations for helping people with intellectual disabilities in Serbia. The edit-a-thon lasted from December 3rd to 10th, with 10 editors creating 26 new articles and improving one article on Wikipedia.
- Organizational
- Wikimedia Serbia organized a celebration to mark the 19th anniversary of its work. During the event, awards were presented for the best project, best photo project, and best newcomer project for 2024. Travel cost reimbursement was provided for participants from outside Belgrade.
- The final results of the Volunteer projects funding were published in December, with 9 projects selected for funding.
- The Extraordinary Assembly of Wikimedia Serbia was held on December 8th, 2024.
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From October to December 2024, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group hosted its second Wikimedian in Residence, Beneta Dhima, in collaboration with the Qemal Baholli Public Library in Elbasan, Albania.
During this period, Beneta created 47 new articles, edited 114 existing ones, made 337 total revisions on Wikipedia, and uploaded 51 photos to Wikimedia Commons.
She focused on enriching articles with verifiable information, content and promoting knowledge about local culture, history, and heritage specifically about Elbasan area.
The partnership with the library provided access to reliable sources from the collaboration between public institutions and the Wikimedia movement.
Below are some valuable uploads from the library.
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- Social media
- We have a public channel on WhatsApp Wikipedians of Albanian Language if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.
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