CEE/Newsletter/Newsroom/5 Years Later: The Wiki-Historians Who Won't Stop Editing
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- By: Екатерина Борисова, Lvova and Красный with help of other user group activists
At October 7, 2024 North-West Russia Wiki-Historians user group turned 5 years old. This point in UG history gives us a good opportunity to line up some countable and uncountable results.
User group actually gathered in the spring of 2019, and was approved in October; its further development took place during a difficult period period in history. in 2020―2021 the COVID-19 pandemics crippled all offline events and photowalks, and, afterwards, February 2022 brought even more hard times. Among other things, some participants of the user group was forced to leave Russia, opportunity to make some activities, such as drone photographing, was lost, and we faced a lot of other risks linked with content creation (mostly photographing) and participation in the Wikimedia movement. Despite all of that, UG remained its activity and now it is the most active Wikimedia group in Russia.
Now there are 35 participants in the user group members list, about 15 of them are the most active user group core. User group members note that it differs for the better from the others affiliates they know. For instance, they have no "just meetups" — all of UG offline events are aimed to a content creation and photographing of landmarks, of which our region is extremely rich. The user group is the "rare place in the Wikimedia projects where one can have a calm discussion on any topic and get a constructive answer; as a result, there's a reason to do something for the group" (do you know that Saint Petersburg is called a cultural capital of Russia?). Speaking of the discussion style common in the user group, its participants uses words as "polite kitties", "nice company" and "glad I'm not the only one in the whole world, but can do all that in a good team". At the same time we participate not only in activities related to North-West, but also try to contribute to the wide circle of Wikimedia events (for instance, "CEE Spring", "Wikipedia Asian Month", "Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos"). As we can, we do educational work both inside the user group (group members have different skills and backgrounds — we've even made a poster on that) and outside, participaing in conferences and seminars, visiting tours and traveling, explaining nuances at forums and other platforms (photographic fixation and writing about the cultural heritage is a way to protect it, because informetion leads to protection).
Despite the all circumstances, in a five years of existence user group have shown the ability to self-govern in its own interests according to a Universal Code of Conduct (in particular, two active members were expelled from the user group by communal decision though one of them still has a chance to return).
We are proud to tell you about our achivements:
Поздравляем юзер-группу Вики-краеведов Северо-Запада РФ с пятилетним юбилеем, пусть не таким большим, но очень значимым. Желаем дальнейшего процветания сообщества, много новых проектов, как своих, так и совместных.
- The total number of photos uploaded by UG participants to Wikimedia Commons cannot be counted accurately, so we will only say how many pictures we uploaded to the "Wiki Loves Monuments" photo contest: 4775 (2020), 4681 (2021), 3837 (2022), 5108 (2023), 5488 (2024). On average, in the Russian part of WLM, user group members usually upload about 15% of the total number of images (given that 400 to 600 users participate in the Russian WLM annually, and about 10 of them are the UG members). More than a thousand of out uploaded pictures got the status of Quality Images and 13 got the status of Featured Pictures. Behind the numbers is the fact that we have always paid special attention to photographing and describing little-known and insufficiently documented objects and locations such as buildings, streets, urban and rural infrastructure, monuments, natural objects, and have created several in-group projects dedicated to this.
- Over 5 years, the members of the user group have written 940 articles in Russian, one way or another dedicated to the North-West of Russia (and also wrote articles in other languages, including English and Erzya). Several dozen articles received the status of Good and Recommended ones; one article (Moscow Triumphal Gate), which was carefully worked on by Красный, received the status of Featured and became one of the best articles of 2023 in Russian Wikipedia, winning in the nomination «Architecture and Urban Planning». Our special thanks to Lvova for the impressive number of articles written about architectural monuments of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs.
- Since we create new content almost daily, we don’t really need to hold any edit-a-thons. However, we do organize them from time to time. For example, at the end of 2020, we held the "Novgorod Lands" edit-a-thon campaign, in which everyone was invited to participate. As a result, 30 participants from different countries created, translated, or significantly improved 855 articles in Wikipedia and 91 in Wikivoyage on topics related to the North-West of Russia. In February 2023 and 2024, as a kind of team building, we held our own "Winter Edit-a-thons" for the members of the user group on collectively selected narrow topics (Art Nouveau architecture, small architectural form, district capitals). During each edit-a-thon, more than fifty articles were created or significantly improved; at the same time, these edit-a-thons reveal unexpected and interesting talents of some members, so we plan to do it again.
- Every year we not only participate in the Russian part of WLM, but also make our own special nomination there: "Unknown North-West" (2020), "Industrial Heritage of the North-West" (2021), "Wooden Architecture of the North-West" (2022), "Estates of the North-West" (2023), "Architectural Elements of the North-West" (2024). The winners are chosen by the members of the user group (who, of course, do not claim prizes in this special nomination themselves). We consider these special nominations to be an important contribution to the cause of photographic recording of cultural heritage sites which our region is very rich in — but we can't physically visit all of them.
- The attached map shows our collective regional studies trips of the to the regions of our coverage, made after October 7, 2019. At the same time, we did not mark individual trips and trips outside of "our" regions, so as not to overload the map — otherwise, we would have to put dots on half of the territory of Russia and a number of countries outside of it. Of course, following each trip, photos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, articles in Wikipedia and Wikivoyage were written and improved, lists of cultural heritage sites were supplemented, and other contributions were made to Wiki projects (for example, following the collective trip to the Vologda Oblast in January 2022 — the only one, by the way, that was not carried out with our own funds, but with a grant from the Foundation — participants uploaded more than 1,100 photos and made more than 2,000 edits to Wikimedia projects; on average, after each event with the participation of two or more UG members, from 100 to 500 pictures are uploaded to Wikimedia Commons).
Dear colleagues and friends of the North-West Russia Wiki-Historians User Group,
On behalf of the Iranian Wikimedians User Group, we extend our heartfelt congratulations on your remarkable milestone of 5 years of dedicated contributions to the Wikimedia movement.
Your work has been instrumental in preserving and showcasing the diverse and rich history of North-West Russia on a global scale. Collaborations like the Russia-Iran Wiki Collaboration have shown the power of cultural exchange, bridging nations, and strengthening our shared mission to provide free knowledge to everyone.
The way you connect with communities in Central Asia and your commitment to documenting history inspires all of us in the Wikimedia movement. We are proud to count you as partners and look forward to seeing your continued success in the years to come.
- Although our main passion is the North-West, we are also interested in other countries and cultures (out of the anniversary 2 million Russian Wikipedia articles, members of our group wrote 1.79%!), so we develop international cooperation whenever possible. In particular, we have established connections with the CEE Hub (hello!), Kazakh, Uzbek and Iranian Wikimedians. With the active assistance of the members of our user group, several "Wiki Loves Earth" and "Wiki Loves Monuments" contests were launched and successfully held in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; in 2024, competitions in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were added to them. In April 2024, UG members held their first organized event outside of Russia, giving educational lectures on photography (including on the specifics of photographing for Wiki projects) in Tashkent. In addition, the four lecturers traveled to 4 cities in Uzbekistan, which resulted in the uploading of about 1,000 photographs to Wikimedia Commons and serious work on categorizing and describing the cultural and natural heritage sites of this country.
In general, we think we're doing great :) We have wishes — from ourselves and from our friends. We wish ouselves still find a time and opportunities to contribute to Wikimedia and to have good sources on hand (because there's still a lot to tell and write about). And, of course, all of us want Russia and the whole world to have a calm and peaceful life.