CEE/Newsletter/January 2018/Contents/Armenia report

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Armenia report: Wikipedia 17th Birthday celebration and collaboration with Wikimedia Austria

By Lilit Tarkhanyan, Davit Saroyan (Wikimedia Armenia)

Wikipedia 17th Birthday celebration

It has already become a tradition to celebrate Wikipedia Day at the Wikimedia Armenia office.

On January 15, the Wikipedia ‘17 celebration brought together more than 70 participants eager to share the joy and happiness of being a part of collaboratively created free encyclopedia - Wikipedia, and Wikimedia Movement.

The event was held at the renovated and cozy new space of the Wikimedia Armenia office. The celebration began with greetings from Wikimedia Armenia Board and Staff. Susanna Mkrtchyan, the President of Board, thanked all for being so passionate about the Wikipedia and Wikimedia Movement which spreads the free knowledge and makes it accessible for everyone.

Wikimedia Armenia Staff Member Mher Bekaryan, began his speech by presenting the achievements of both Armenian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Armenia in 2017. Mher emphasized the role of Wikimedia Armenia events and volunteers in the development of Wikimedia projects in Armenia. He followed this with summarizing the results of the contests and joint projects of 2017. Several nominations were made for CEE Spring 2017, Europeana 1914-18 and Austrian-Armenian writing contests, as well as for the Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 Armenian participants. The best 17 contributors of CEE Spring 2017 and Europeana 1914-18 were awarded books related to the WWI and CEE countries. The winner of Austrian-Armenian writing contest was given a chance to visit Austria and get acquainted with its culture and daily life. The authors of the 10 best photos of the WLS 2017 Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh photo contest received certificates and various presents.

The presentation was finalized with the announcement of the Armenian Wikipedian of the year by Wikimedia Armenia. Throughout the year Wikimedia Armenia follows the activity of Armenian Wikipedians and awards an editor with the most contribution for the development of the Armenian Wikipedia. Wikimedia Armenia has nominated User:Sigma'am for his outstanding service, commitment and dedication to the Armenian Wikimedia Movement. For those who could not attend the event, WMAM had organized a live streaming on social media.

After the award ceremony, the evening was completed with the cutting of the traditional Wikipedia cake. The Wikipedians had a great time socializing and sharing the joy of the day.

Wikipedia cake
Cutting of the Wikipedia cake
Wikipedia sweets
The Armenian Wikipedian of Year with Susanna Mkrtchyan

More photos on Wikimedia Commons.

Armenian-Austrian collaboration

By Lilit Tarkhanyan (Wikimedia Armenia)

Wikimedia Armenia in collaboration with Wikimedia Austria has launched an article writing contest on Armenian and German Wikipedia from 1-30th of November. The aim of this contest was to create and improve articles about Armenia and Austria on both Wikipedias. Wikimedia Armenia modified the criteria of the articles thus guaranteeing better quality. The editors were informed that only those articles which had at least 8000 bytes size and 5 references would be given points.

Wikimedia Armenia and Wikimedia Austria have finalized the results of the contest and announced the winners. In Armenian Wikipedia we had 19 participants who have created 270 articles and improved 2. In German Wikipedia the contest had 7 participants who created 49 articles and improved 2. From the Armenian side the winner was user:Gardmanahay who alone has created around 150 high quality articles. User:Matthias Süßen who participated in Wikimedia Austria contest has been announced as the winner. The winners will be given a wonderful chance to travel to the country they created an article about!

Wikimedia Armenia has organized several contests like this in the past. These initiatives help to foster relationships between different Wikimedia chapters and to create diverse quality content.