CEE/Newsletter/October 2018/Contents/Russia report

Russia report: Wikimedians of Russia reporting about own participation @ CEEM2018

By Frhdkazan

This is English translation of a multilingual report from Russian Wikinews

Conference logo

On the 13-15th October 2018, Ukrainian city of Lviv hosted Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018. This year's conference of Wikimedians from Central and Eastern Europe region was 7th in a row, and 2nd in Ukraine. Main events were taking place at the Ukrainian Catholic University's center named after metropolitan bishop Andrey Sheptytsky. The conference program contained various presentations, thematic round-table discussions, lightning talks, trainings & workshops, informal meetings, opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the tour of the city. The conference brought 127 delegates from over 30 countries.

Pre-conference program on the 12th of October featuring trainings by Asaf Bartov was organized at the «Communa» co-work in the downtown, whilst on the 16th and 17th of October Wikimedia Ukraine's local organizing team volunteers offered Wiki-trips to Carpathian Mountains and the city of Vinnytsia.

Wiki-conference's participants were using any opportunity for in-person discussions of variety of topics to the point that some could even be found in the cafes and restaurants around the hotel in the early hours of the morning. The diversity of languages used in the process forced Viktor Semeniuk of the organizer's team to admit he hardly believes this is indeed taking place in Ukraine.

Russian Federation delegation at this annual regional forum consisted of nine Wikimedians:

Denis Kaftajev (Wikimedians of Erzya language User Group, Voronezh)
Dmitry Rozhkov (Wikimedia Russia, Moscow)
Dmitry Zhukov (Wikimedia Russia, Moscow & Don Wikimedians User Group, Rostov-on-Don)
Farkhad Fatkullin (Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community, Wikimedia Russia, Wikimedian of the Year 2018 and Wikimedians of Tatar Language User Group, Kazan)
Saria Kagarmanova (Wikimedians of Bashkortostan User Group, Beloretsk)
Tatiana Sviatkina (Wikimedians of Erzya language User Group, St.Petersburg)
Viačeslav Černev (Bashkir Wikipedia bureaucrat, originally from Orenburg, last 4 years in Warsaw).
Vladimir Medeyko (Wikimedia Russia director, St.Petersburg)
Zaytuna Nigamatyanova (Wikimedians of Bashkortostan User Group, Shamonino)

In the course of the event, Russians made 5 official & 2 additional lightning talks (under 5 minutes: Denis, Dmitry Zhukov, Farkhad, Tatiana, Viačeslav, Zaytuna) and two full-scale presentations — on Open Library and Open Heritage projects by Vladimir and Dmitry Rozhkov, as well as Wikipedias in the languages of Russia: Growing multilingualism online by Farkhad.

Principle working language of the conference was English, but in the course of contributions by the Wikimedians from Russia one could also hear Bashkir, Russian and Tatar (in Farkhad's interpretation), as well as Erzya (interpreted by Tatyana). In the course of Asaf's pre-conference trainings, opening & closing ceremonies, a few plenary sessions and working groups, as well as downtown Lviv guided tour on the 15th of October, Farkhad was interpreting into Russian and Tatar (the latter being very close to the mother tongue of Bashkir Wiki-grandmas, who now have an international fan-club).

The audience was impressed by the amount of on & off-wiki organizing activities conducted by Wikimedians of Russia without any grant support from the Wikimedia Foundation and their achievements in promoting Wikimedia movement in the regions of Russia. International colleagues recommended to bring forth Russia's Wiki-multilingualism, reporting on Wikimedia projects in the languages of Russia and their communities at the Annual Celtic Knot Conference about Wikipedia language (UK: 2017, 2018). Russia's Wikimedians were also invited to take active part in the ongoing English-speaking discussions of Wikimedia movement strategy, which beginning now would be the focus of the Annual Spring Wikimedia Conference in Berlin (2019 event will bring together one representative from every affiliate that meets annual reporting requirements as of 1 December 2018).

All photo and video materials of the event will eventually be available at the dedicated category on Commons. Video of livecasts from the the main hall, as well as sessions in Auditorium 1 might also be seen on YouTube. Closing ceremony recording is available at Wikimedia.Ukraina@Facebook (20:00-32:30)

Asaf Bartov's presentation «COMMUNA» cowork. Dmitry Zhukov listening to Farkhad's interpretation into Russian, sitting by the table on the left.
Bashir Wikipedia bureaucrat Viačeslav Černev.
Tatiana Sviatkina.
Dmitry Zhukov at work.
Zaytuna's lightning talk in Bashkir being interpreted into English.
Vladimir Medeyko on Open Library and Open Heritage projects.
Large hall.
Farkhad interpreting into Tatar for Bashkir Wiki-grandma's delegates: Saria (left, red hair) and Zaytuna (right, green sleeves).
Denis Kaftajev (back right, white T-shirt).
Group photo.
Local organizers' team.