Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2017-08

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2017
August

3 Summer WikiCamps

1,451 articles created or improved in Armenian, Georgian and Polish Wikipedia.
8,603 entries created in Armenian Wiktionary.
253 new articles in Western Armenian.
1281 pages proofread in Armenian Wikisource.
27,217,557 bytes added to wiki projects.
0 files uploaded in Wikimedia Commons (Armenian words pronunciation).

Wikicamp brings together teenagers, students, youngsters, youth from 9-21 years old which come to learn to edit, contribute to the open knowledge, to develop various skills, to mingle and have fun! We have organized 5 wikicamps for this reporting period during which we have hosted 267 participants from various parts of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno- Karabakh), Georgia, Lebanon, and Poland.

We have implemented several major changes in the content and the schedules of the camps: we have diversified the schedule including more games and activities and introducing the mentoring system. We have also actively promoted Wikicamps to attract more paid participants and the new website of Wikicamps was very useful in this regard. Another major change was the implementation of the 1st Winter WikiCamp for university students which enabled us to engage more student-newcomers to the Wiki movement.

Changes in schedule, WikiTeam, mentoring system

Schedule changes

The Wikicamp team has also decided to change the content and the schedule of the Wikicamps adding new elements like personal development games, note taking, goal setting and body and mind fitness games.

Wikimedia Armenia has started collaborating with Girls of Armenia Leadership Soccer (GOALS). Their goal is to empower girls through soccer and develop leadership skills, build confidence and create a network of like-minded individuals that will support them in all aspects of life. GOALS has introduced their own games and trained Wikicamp leaders how to apply them during the Wikicamp. The games are aimed at the leadership, team building, human rights, and gender equality.

We had guest speakers who attended the camp and inspired children with their own stories. One of them was Karen Balayan, Ayas Nautical Club President and the Captain of Kilikia ship. Children had an opportunity to watch some of his films at the camp and were extremely excited to meet him and ask how he achieved his lifelong dream to build a ship and travel the whole world.

Another guest was Mamikon Hakobyan, a member, and trainer of “Armdiving” Divers Club who talked about the divers day to day lives and their experiences under the water. With the help of the divers, the campers were given an opportunity to test the diver's suits and their equipment in the underwater environment.

Mentoring

Taking into account the successful experience of the mentoring system established at the Teachers’ WikiWeek, it was decided to apply the same model for the Wikicamp with some modifications. Each group was assigned a mentor that helped and guided Wikicampers and ensured team building throughout the editing hours. A detailed guide was written by the Wiki team for the mentors In order to achieve the smooth running of the mentoring process.

A number of wiki games have been created and implemented to diversify the editing process and make it more fun and enjoyable. Here are some of them:

Article structure game is intended to build a complete article structure using the section names of the article on different topics (Biography, Geography etc).
Encyclopedic style game is aimed at campers to learn how to write Wikipedia style encyclopedic texts. Campers were given a paragraph from different sources and were asked to convert them to encyclopedic style using keywords and notable information.
Free and non-free images. Participants are being given cards with images, their descriptions, and terms of use/licenses which they have to match. After this exercise, they need to tell the mentor and the group which is the images that are or aren’t allowed to be used on the Wikipedia.
Statistics and views. Campers are learning how to utilize article views statistics and other stats-related tools through games.

	Summer WikiCamp (I)				Summer WikiCamp (II)		Summer WikiCamp (III)
	Number of participants	Wiktionary	Wikipedia	Wikisource	Number of participants	Wikipedia	Number of participants	Wiktionary	Wikipedia	Wikisource
participants	42				64		67
created/improved articles/entries		4942	17	801		233		3661	262	340
edits		5724	149	1020		2051		4107	1131	1198
bytes (net sum)		2,910,418	189,455	2,192,741		3,044,205		2,051,318	2,711,166	1,277,658

	Georgian participants at Summer WikiCamp (II)		Polish participants at Summer WikiCamp (II)
	Number of participants	Wikipedia	Number of participants	Wikipedia
participants	4		4
created/improved articles/entries		85		54
edits		892	-	299
bytes (net sum)		1,411,045		5,065,921