Grants:Simple/Applications/GLAM Macedonia/2019

Application or grant stage: in progress

Applicant or grantee: grantee

Amount requested: 11,000 Euro

Amount granted: 1,526 Euro (includes 10% contingency of 138 Euro)

Funding period: ~~1 January 2019 - 31 December 2019~~ 1 March 2019 - 31 December 2019

Application created: 1 November 2018

Recommended application date: 1 November 2018

Midpoint report due: requirement waived

Final report due: 30 January 2020

Application

Programs

GLAM program

Our GLAM activities and collaborations are successful and they are in the process of growing. We have signed memorandum for collaboration with five GLAM institutions in Macedonia: with the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia, the Museum of Macedonian Struggle in Skopje and the City Library “Braḱa Miladinovci” in Skopje, the Institute of National History and the Archeological Museum of Macedonia. Our collaboration is mainly, but not exclusively, about sending Wikipedian in residence. On 17 April 2018 we held Wiki Tour in the Military Museum for Wiki Club’s members; On 4th of June 2018 we held Wiki Tour in the City Library "Braka Miladinovci" in Skopje, and on 28 September we held Wiki Tour for Wikipedians and supporters of Wikimedia projects at the Archaeology Museum in Skopje. The Wiki tours were free of charge for our group of Wikipedians.

GLAM Macedonia has sent Wikipedians in residence in two GLAM institutions in Macedonia: three months in the City Library “Braḱa Miladinovci” and three months in the Institute of National History. Both Wikipedians had good and productive months in the calendar year 2018. The best thing was the collaboration with the employees of both Institutions. The employees of both, the Institute and City Library, provided the necessary help for easier and successful accomplishment of the Wikipedian's tasks. They have shown great interest in Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects and did not hesitate to provide both Wikipedians with the needed materials. Some of the employees showed interest and willingness to be part of Wikipedia and Commons (as contributors) and they took part in the edit-a-thons and workshops held by the Wikipedians. GLAM institutions in the Republic of Macedonia are closed ones, which means that we have to send Wikipedian in Residence in order to get closer to them.

The benefit of collaboration with GLAM institutions are many. We want to deepen of GLAM collaboration in Macedonia in order to educate the GLAM employees on Wikimedia projects; to educate them to add references into articles, and create new articles or improve the existing ones as the GLAM employees are high educated professionals. The implementation of WIkimedia projects within WiR's work is giving us chance to organize special events in collaboration with GLAM institutions, such as edit-a-thons, workshops and Wikipedian tours, which will bring Wikipedians on-site to work with staff on content creation and improvement. The GLAM institutions collaboration with us is opportunity to them to be more open to the public, to understand the need of digitization, as well as the need of sharing the knowledge, documents, historic photos and materials with the public.

Wikipedian in Residence

The plan for activities in 2019 is to send WiR in at least two GLAM institutions. We plan to deepen our collaboration with the Institute of National History in Skopje by sending Wikipedian in Residence for additional three months in the 2019, avoiding the summer period, because of the high temperatures in Skopje. Usually, the GLAM employees and volunteers are not willing to give their best in the summer time. Another Wikipedian in Residence will be sent to new GLAM institution (negotiation in progress), in the period of three months, again avoiding the summer period.

Our strengths are experienced Wikipedian in Residence, and good established collaboration and mutual understanding with the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia as well with the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje. We don't need to send WiR in those two institutions, as collaboration is already set on high level. We have an offer for collaboration with the several other GLAM institutions in Republic of Macedonia, and at the moment we are in negotiation of the future collaboration. Once when we fix the nature of collaboration, the memorandum of collaboration will be signed. GLAM Macedonia has to sign Agreement with the WiR in order to be emphasise and guide the activities the WiR is required to do: to serve as liaison between the GLAM institution and community, to engage the GLAM employees into Wikimedia activities, to establish a good collaboration and to build a sustainable platform that ensures outcomes long after the WiR has completed their service. We don't have a weakness in this area of activities, but the threat could be lack of interest of GLAM employees to edit Wikipedia in the future, or after WiR's task is done. To avoid this, we plan to engage them in edit-a-thons, in Wiki Tours, and most important, to provide the material for articles.

The objectives of the GLAM program are:

to deepen of GLAM collaboration in Macedonia
to educate the GLAM employees on Wikimedia projects, educate them to add references into articles, and create new articles or improve the existing ones;
implementation of WIkimedia projects within WiR work;
establishing connections and starting cooperation with new GLAM institutions;
improving the cooperation which already exists;
organize special events in collaboration with GLAM institutions, such as edit-a-thons; workshops and Wikipedian tours, which will bring Wikipedians on-site to work with staff on # content creation and improvement;
enriching Wikipedia with new content.

Measure of success:

two WiR in two different GLAM institutions;
10 organized events with GLAM partners
10 newly trained employees of GLAM institutions and at least 50 new articles edited by them
new agreements for collaboration with 2 new GLAM institutions
expected number of created or edited articles, files or Wikidata items for 2019 as a result of GLAM collaboration is 1000

EDUCATION program

Education program this year included education of students and education of teachers. Students are educated mostly in the Wiki Clubs. On the other side, for teachers we organised a conference. We have 86 new students (out of 253 trained students) engaged in 4 Wiki Clubs, coming from at least 12 schools from the Republic of Macedonia. Also at the moment we have 10 coordinators of education. As a result, more than 2,500 articles were created or improved in 2018. Almost all of the Wiki Clubs members are using Content Translation tool. Wiki Clubs activities can be followed at this link.

Wiki Clubs

The first Wiki Club in Macedonia was established in the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje. The first working day of the Wiki Club was on 19 October 2016. We have students coming from at least ten schools from Skopje, all coming from different part of the city, most of them by bus, using their free time. The opening day of the second Wiki Club in Macedonia was on 1 March 2017, in the local elementary school in Staro Nagoričane. The third Wiki Club was established in Ohrid, and started from February 2018. The fourth Wiki Club was established in Štip, and started on 29 September 2018. The volunteer members of GLAM Macedonia maintain four Wiki Clubs. More than 250 students and more than 30 adults passed the training about Wikipedia in the Wiki Clubs, more than 4,000 articles were created or improved. The big success of the Wiki Clubs was an award which we received at the international day of the Museums, 18 May 2017.

In 2019 we plan to start at least two new Wiki Clubs. The regular meetings at the first Wiki Club are happening at least once a week. The regular meetings in the other Wiki Clubs are at least twice a month.

Our strength in this project so far is the reputation of the Wiki Clubs. We signed memorandum of collaboration with five schools, and students from many others schools participate in existing Wiki Clubs. We already had offers for collaboration with several schools out of the capitol city. We have opportunity to educate many students about Wikipedia, and we hope that a good number of them will continue to edit Wikipedia. The weakness is that we are not capable to answer all calls for collaboration with schools, as the volunteers will be overloaded with too many tasks. We plan to hire an honorarium person, in order to avoid this problem.

Teachers' conferences

We had one Wiki conference for teachers in 2018. There is always a big interest for these conferences. There were 65 participants, 4 speakers and 10 Wikipedians volunteers involved. After the conference was announced, we were unable to accept all the interested teachers. In 2019 we plan to organize two teaches' conferences, one in spring and one in autumn. Taking look at the past experience and success, we expect each conference to be visited by at least 65 teachers which will be trained, theoretically and practically, on using Wikipedia in classroom and also editing and improving Wikipedia.

The strength of this project are GLAM Macedonia members, Wikimedians who are teachers in the same time. The big interest of teachers in the Republic of Macedonia is giving us the strength also, as the great interest points that with such conferences we are on the right track to reach them. We teach the teachers on how to use Wikipedia in the classroom, and the opportunities are big for us: we can establish collaboration with the schools; we can start Wiki Club or Wiki section in their school; we can spread the word about Wikipedia, and involve the teachers and students into editing Wikipedia articles. We cannot list any problem which may appear one day, as for now everything is smooth: teachers are interested to participate and after the conference to collaborate with us; we have volunteers who are happy to organize or to help organizing the conference; the media covered the event.

Wiki Camp

Wiki Camp is a three-day camp for students and members of Wiki Clubs. We plan to organize one Wiki Camp for 50 Wiki Club active members and new participants, plus 12 volunteers, teachers and Wikipedians. Adults have to be present in order to maintain the Wiki Camp. The first day, there will be session for beginners on how to edit Wikipedia. All three days we will have edit-a-thons, workshops, one wiki expedition around the event place, workshop about Commons, etc. Wiki Camp in 2018 was held from 7-9 September in Doyran. There were 300 new articles created by the participants at the end of the event. One of our team members is an amateur athlete, and he was responsible to organize morning sport activities for the participants.

Strength: Our big strength for this project are our volunteers, who are ready to organize the Wiki Camp. We already have teachers ready to lead a group of students at the Wiki Camp, and also, the interest between the students is big for this kind of activity. The opportunity for us after this event is that we will be able to build connections between experienced and new participants, and also to engage new editors and future members of Wiki Clubs. The only problem we could faced with is not enough lap top computers for every student at the Wiki Camp. To avoid this, we plan to divide students into several groups while they will edit Wikipedia, using the available lap top computers.

Objectives of the education program are:

establish new Wiki Clubs or Wiki sections;
recruit new editors and contributors;
add or improve the content of the existing Wikimedia projects in Macedonian.
spread the word about Wikipedia among the students
build connections between experienced and new participants;

Measure of success:

at least 2 new Wiki Clubs in 2019 and engaging students from at least additionally 5 different schools (in addition to the existing ones)
at least 3000 new articles as a result of the education program in 2019
to train 100 new editors
to recruit at least 50 of them
at least 150 trained teachers regarding using and editing Wikipedia and involving at least 20 of them into existing or new Wiki Clubs

COMMUNITY

GLAM Macedonia user group is registered non-profit organization, and it is a user group of contributors, teachers and researchers who are interested to generate and organize projects and events including participation of Wikimedia volunteers, and employees from GLAM and educational institutions. At the moment, we have 100 members who signed the form for membership. The Board members and other GLAM Macedonia members have several meetings in person a month, in order to plan and outline new activities. Many times there is a need to discuss the ongoing projects or projects we plan to organize in person. As community projects we include workshops, media appearance and other public events.

On 18 January 2018 GLAM Macedonia organized open discussion "Importance of digitization in 21 century" in collaboration with the City Library "Braka Miladinovci" in Skopje. This event was organized to celebrate Wikipedia 17 in Macedonia, and also to support #1Lib1Ref campaign. Four speakers had their presentation on importance of digitization in the GLAM institution they work for:

Jasmina Najdovska, advisor for archiving material, a new period, from The State Archives of Republic of Macedonia,
Daniela Mitevska, historian educator from the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje,
Gordana Andreeva, program manager from the City Library and
Gordana Joviḱ Stojkovska, Wikipedian in Residence in the City Library.

The event itself was announced on national TV channel.

On 17 March 2018, the members of the Mixed choir "Artizan" together with members of GLAM Macedonia, and the members of Wiki Clubs in Macedonia lead by GLAM Macedonia, created 20 new articles about music, 15 existing articles were improved and two photos regarding performance of the Macedonian choirs were uploaded on Commons. This collaboration on the theme music come after we received an invitation by several musicians in order to improve the music articles on mkwiki. The main editing together event took part at the evening hours in Public Room in Skopje. In collaboration with the Military Museum of the Republic of Macedonia, on 17 April 2018 we held one day workshop with the members of Wiki Club Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje. During the three hours of the editing workshop, eight new articles on Wikipedia were created, all biographies of people who were the General Secretaries of NATO. The selection and contents of the texts were selected by Viki Taseva from the Military Museum in cooperation with the two educators from the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, Anna Višinova and Daniela Mitevska.

On 28 July we organized Assembly meeting. We discuss for upcoming activities and projects, as well for engaging external people for collecting donations. In 2019 we plan to organize several public events, as well as workshops, Wiki tours and an Assembly meeting.

On 24 October we organized workshop in the honor of Hungarian National day - 23 October. The event took place in the office of the Association of Hungarians in the Republic of Macedonia, and all participants were members of Wiki Club in the Museum of Macedonian struggle in Skopje. During the three hours of the editing workshop, 14 new articles on Wikipedia were created, all biographies of people who were involved in the Hungarian Revolution from 1956. Bilingual book and certificates were given to the participants.

Strength on this project are our volunteers and a big number of Wiki Clubs members who are trained to edit Wikipedia. The collaboration with the GLAM institutions in the Republic of Macedonia is on a high level, which is good as we hold events usually in collaboration with one of them: in order to get materials for articles, or to use their working room. The opportunities are many: organizing workshops for Wiki Club members proved to be a good way to engage the students to be more active during regular club meetings. Also collaboration with the media is on high level. We cannot list any problem which may appear during the future events.

Objectives are:

To increase the number of involved volunteers;
Increase visibility of the user group in society, by followers on social media (Facebook), number of blog posts and visits to them, and number of media and press mentions.

Measure of success:

At least once in a month member meetings;
One annual Assembly with program and activities;
at least 10 media and press interviews or mentions to introduce Wikipedia and user group work to the audience;

Please link to or provide your annual program plan and annual budget here, and add your targets to the grants metrics worksheet.

Results

COMMUNITY

At the moment, we have 140 members who signed the form for membership. The Board members and other GLAM Macedonia members have several meetings in person a month, in order to plan and outline new activities. Many times there is a need to discuss the ongoing projects or projects we plan to organize in person. As community projects we include Strategy Salons, media appearance and other public events. This year we started a campaign to celebrate Wikipedia 18 by creating or editing articles. 30 Wikipedians created or edited 51 articles on 15 January. The participants and articles could be found on this link: Wikipedia 18.

In July, we organized our first Strategy Salon in Skopje. Twenty persons come from all over Macedonia, all members of GLAM Macedonia. The salon started at 7 pm on 27 July 2019 in Taftalidže, Skopje. The participants shared stories and experiences, that is, sharing ideas and visions. They were divided into small working groups, made of two or three people and they were given two sets of questions or discussion topics. One was about Partnership and the other one about Capacity Building. The whole report could be found on this link

A Youth Strategy Salon took place on 10 September. The participants were 33 students form more than 10 different schools, and all members of Wiki Clubs, and five senior Wikipedians and active GLAM Macedonia members who took part in the organization process as well. The main topics were: Community Health and Diversity, as those topics are among the most important factors for productive and effective collaboration. The report is on this link.

GLAM Macedonia members participated in the three conferences in 2019: Wikimedia Summit in Berlin, Wikimedia+Education Conference in Donostia, Wiki Live in Belgrade and CEEM 2019 in Belgrade. At Wikimania 2019, held in Stockholm, Sweden, two members of GLAM Macedonia participated at the conference.

In 2019, members and friends of GLAM Macedonia were active in giving interviews in media. In April, chair of GLAM Macedonia Snezana Strkovska was at TV interview to present Wikipedia and GLAM Macedonia activities among the viewers, but almost every activity and every project we held, was presented in media.

Some of the GLAM Macedonia activities presented in media:

EDUCATION

Education program was successful in 2019. As planed, we started two new Wiki Clubs this year, Wiki Club Gevgelija and Wiki Club Struga. The Wiki Clubs members were active all year long, participated in one Wiki Camp, at least 5 workshops, and two editing challenges. More than 4000 articles were edited, created or improved, in the year 2019, which could be checked in dashboard page.

Wiki Clubs

In the town of Gevgelija, a Wiki Club was created which was the fifth one Wiki Club in Macedonia. The Wiki Club Gevgelija was founded with help from Apollonia Foundation. The supervisor and teacher of Wiki Club Gevgelija also became new member of GLAM Macedonia. Another new Wiki Club in Struga started on 30 May 2019.

In January and February, a monthly editing challenge was organised by the project name Meet Hungary. The project was in collaboration with the Association of Hungarians in the Republic of Macedonia "Teledom" who had the support of the Hungarian Embassy in Skopje. At the end, a total of 28 participants created 408 articles about Hungarian related themes on Macedonian Wikipedia. For the best participants, the ambassador of Hungary in Skopje gave the rewards. Related on Hungarian theme projects, on 25 October, we held workshop with Wiki Club members. 8 new articles about touristic places in Budapest were created. This event was organized in collaboration with NGO Teledom.

From 15th October till 15th November 2019 Wiki Clubs members were in Wiki editing competition on various topics, trying to win award for best article. 29 participants created 75 new articles, 31 of them 5000 bites and more.

On 29 October, GLAM Macedonia held workshop with our Wiki Club members about organic food. The results were 8 new articles. This event was organized in collaboration with NGO Biovita.

In December Wiki Clubs Skopje, Ohrid, and Staro Nagorichane were very active. The Ohrid Wiki Club researched, edited articles, wrote completely new ones, and uploaded to Macedonian Wikipedia about rare diseases. Wiki Club Ohrid project was joint work with the Movement for Rare Diseases in Macedonia and the Life with Challenges association in Macedonia, and had the support of Red Cross of Ohrid. The members of Wiki Club Skopje created articles about Osten magazine, which also contributed, and articles related to art. The members of Wiki Club Staro Nagorichane created 14 new articles about Republic Srpska.

Ceremony of giving rewards to the best participants
Group photo with the ambassador of Hungary in Skopje
Group photo after organic food workshop
Workshop about rare diseases
Group photo after Osten workshop

Wiki Camp

In the period from May 3 to May 5 2019, a three-day Wiki Camp called Meet Germany was organized and held by GLAM Macedonia and Goethe Institute Skopje. The members of the Macedonian Wiki Clubs were gathered to take part in this Wiki Camp titles ‘Meet Germany’. The camp was held in the hotel ‘Romantik’, on the shore of Lake Mladost, near Veles. The participants of the Wiki Camp, 31 altogether, were students from different elementary and high schools in Macedonia. The Camp was opened by the Goethe Institute representative, Kristina Velkovska. The special guest of the camp was Gereon K., an administrator on the German Wikipedia. During these three days, the students created more than 500 new articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia. The articles are connected to the German history, sports, culture, geography, film and music. This was the third successfully organized Wiki Camp by GLAM Macedonia, and first in collaboration with Goethe Institute.

Lecturing the Wiki Camp participants.
Presentation on Wikipedia
Outdoor activties
Free time.
Giving presents to the hard-working students.

GLAM

This year we had lack of funds for GLAM activities. Although, we sent several volunteers to serve as Wikipedian in Residence in the Archeological Museum of Macedonia in Skopje. Other activities with GLAM institutions were held in the course of 2019, some of them: existing of Wiki Club in the Museum of Macedonian Struggle in Skopje, and several workshops held in the Museum's space.

GLAM activities

In March, a Board meeting was held in order to establish Wikipedian in Residence in the Archeological Museum of Macedonia in Skopje, where we have agreement with. This position was not paid, because lack of funds, and was from volunteer nature this year. It was decided to engage not one but many Wikipedians who will have time and knowledge to accomplish this task. In April, the first group of two Wikipedians started to serve as Wikipedian in Residence at Archeological Museum of Macedonia. Next months the activities were held according to the signed agreement with Archeological Museum: taking photos of the regular setting in the Museum; editing articles using the materials from the Archaeological Museum. Those activities finished in September. As a result, 31 photos were uploaded in this category, and 23 articles were edited.

Spending

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Final financial report for 2019

Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period.

1,390 EUR