Wikimedia Armenia/Reports/2020-08

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2020

August

Summer WikiCamp 2020 (II)

On August 20-25, 2020, Wikimedia Armenia launched the second summer online Wikicamp for 15-18-year-olds. The camp was attended by 45 participants, 15 members of the wiki team and 6 organizers.

This time, as in the previous camp, the camp uniforms and badges were sent to all participants in advance by the post office. In addition, a number of other items (construction materials) were sent to the participants to carry out the games anticipated by the agenda.

Like all offline Wikicamps, the online Wikicamp agenda consists of two parts: educational and cultural-entertainment. In the Wikicamp’s educational section, the young editors selected articles from a list of 50,000 vital articles and in 6 days of the camp created or improved them. According to the agenda, the editing workshops take 4 hours per day, and the editorial work ends at 18:00 in the evening. The emphasis in this camp is put on the quality of the articles. All articles were thoroughly reviewed by the wiki team members, and the campers worked on the articles with the utmost care. As a result, the 813 articles created in 6 days stand out for their high quality. This camp in particular played a significant role in creating quality content on Armenian Wikipedia.

During the camp, in addition to editing, intellectual and entertaining games were organized: puzzle gathering, sea-fight, brain ring, Wikisearch, “Be unique”, “Our version”, etc. The participants had online meetings with WikiTatik (the president of Wikimedia Armenia known as Wikigrandmother (WikiTatik)), during which she introduced the Wikimedia movement, the importance of Wikipedia, the importance of each participant, and other interesting topics.

Continuing the successful experience of cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, a meeting was organized within the framework of Wikicamp between the campers and Artsrun Hovhannisyan - the Press Secretary of the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia in 2012-2020, military analyst-expert. During the meeting, the campers asked questions about security, the cessation of hostilities, the establishment of peace in the region and in the world.

Overall, the camp was a great success. Taking into account the current situation in the world and in Armenia when a lot of programs are canceled or postponed, we were able to organize and successfully implement a wonderful online Wikicamp without eliminating anyone who did not have a computer (we provided them if it was necessary) or changing the traditional camp completely. Our organizers transformed the format of all intellectual games and activities from offline to online. And as the editing process is in itself online, the camp easily took an online form.

The vibe and success of the Wikicamp are visible in these incredible photos which display the enthusiasm and energy of every teenager.

CEE Spring 2020 and Wiki Loves Earth Awards

From March to May 2020, Wikimedia Armenia participated in two international competitions: “CEE Spring 2020” and “Wiki Loves Earth 2020”.

On August 17, Wikimedia Armenia hosted the awarding ceremony of the “Wiki Loves Earth” and “CEE Spring 2020” international competition taking into account all the warnings imposed by the Armenian government concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forty-two participants from Armenia participated in the Central Eastern European Spring 2020 project, creating 1,122 articles with a total size of 12,594,405 bytes. 183 articles were created about women; by this outcome, Armenian participants were in third place in the international competition.

Eighty-four participants from Armenia took part in the “Wiki Loves Earth” international photo contest, 25 of whom (30%) are new participants who joined the wiki movement during the contest. In total, the participants ended up in 6th place in the international competition in the number of photos uploaded - 4,848. The photos depicted the nature of Armenia and Artsakh.

The 7 participants who uploaded the top 10 photos selected by the jury received valuable prizes. The authors of the best photos of wildlife were awarded a special prize by the Armenian representation of the World Wildlife Fund.

The CEE Spring (Central and Eastern European Spring) international competition is an opportunity to present information about our country, our history, our culture in other-language Wikipedias. During the three months of the competition, participants translated the submitted articles into their own language. As a result, articles about other countries enhanced the Armenian Wikipedia; information about our country appears in about 30 other-language Wikipedias. This time the Armenian wiki editors performed effectively.

Prizes were awarded to the first three participants who wrote the most articles.

Pambak Ridge
Photograph: ՎԱՍ (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Armenian Mouflon
Photograph: Alexander Malkhasyan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Aparan Reservoir
Photograph: ՎԱՍ (CC BY-SA 4.0)
"Symphony of the Stones" basalt column formations.
Photograph: Vahag851 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wikipedia training for scholarship holders of Armenian Educational Foundation

In March 2020, Wikimedia Armenia and Armenian Educational Foundation launched the second phase of a training course with the participation of AEF scholarship holders. The first two lessons took place offline, but due to the pandemic, from March 12, 2020, the courses were moved to an online platform. The course was attended by 15 students who had to make a total contribution of at least 500,000 bytes to Wikipedia by the end of the program.

The program is divided into two phases. The first is the training phase, and the second is the practical phase. In the first phase, two lessons took place offline, during which "Wikimedia Armenia" was introduced, general knowledge about Wikipedia was given, the structure of articles was shown, as well as the basic rules. The rest of the lessons took place through the online Zoom communication platform. During the course, participants were given the knowledge to work on Wikipedia, to create articles. Other wiki projects like Wikicommons, Wikidata were also introduced.

Immediately after the end of the first phase of the course, the second one started, during which the participants created new articles on Armenian Wikipedia. The articles concerned different fields and topics (medicine, economics, sports, history, etc.). Due to the pandemic, the project was extended for one month and ended on September 3, 2020.

During the project, 15 participants jointly created 99 articles, contributing a total of 5․926,286 bytes to the Armenian Wikipedia. Within the framework of the project, 11 out of 15 participants completed the required 500,000 bytes.

Saturday workshops

In August 2020, "Wikimedia Armenia" organized and conducted 5 Saturday workshops. Remote Saturday workshops took place on August 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. As always, the workshops took place with two groups, the first one for experienced editors and the second one for beginners.

Three out of five workshops for the first group were dedicated to the two international competitions to be held in September. During the workshop on August 1, we talked about the topics of the articles and articles without sources. Besides that we discussed in detail which sources are preferable and which should be avoided. During the workshop on August 8, we talked about lists on Wikipedia and what are the differences between them and the articles. We also presented how to create tables with visual editing and source editing tools and how to work with them. During the meetings that took place on August 15 and 29, we discussed the "Wiki Loves Monuments" international contest. The participants were introduced in detail to the competition, the procedure for participating in it. On August 22, "75 Years after World War II" competition was presented which will also take place in September. Overall, 61 people were present at the first group’s workshops during the month.

The second part of the workshop, which is intended for new editors, was also full of active participants this month. Participants were introduced to the Armenian Wikipedia, how to register and create articles, structure of articles and basic rules, as well as we provided them with brief information about other wiki projects. The participants also got acquainted with the activities of "Wikimedia Armenia" organization. During the month of August, 17 newcomers participated in the workshops of this group.

In total, 78 experienced and new editors took part in Saturday workshops in August.

"Wikipedia for Peace" online Wikicamp 2

Service Civil International Switzerland, in partnership with Wikimedia Switzerland, launched the "Wikipedia for Peace" online Wikicamp from August 28 to September 4. This time the topic was Service Civil International Switzerland organization which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The participants created articles about SCI history and activists and organizations that are related to it. Two active editors from Wikimedia Armenia - Elen Harutyunyan and Vardan Mnatsakanyan - took part in the camp and below presented their impressions about it.

Elen Harutyunyan

From August 28 to September 4, I participated in the online "Wikipedia for Peace" camp organized by Service Civil International Switzerland and Wikimedia Switzerland. The camp was attended by people from different countries of the world: Switzerland, Spain, Croatia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and, of course, 2 participants from Armenia. I was very happy that I was given the opportunity to participate in the camp and represent Armenia. It was a great honor for me.

The daily life of the camp was quite full. Our day started with a little activating, fun exercise. Then we went to workshops and discussions on various topics, thanks to which we gained knowledge and new skills.

The topic of the camp was Service Civil International Switzerland, which turned 100 this year. We created articles on the activities of SCI peace activists and organizations on Armenian Wikipedia.

We had time to get acquainted with each other, to tell about ourselves, our country, and our culture. I am quite impressed, I would very much like such camps to be continuous as we would have the opportunity to have in-person meetings with the campers.

Updating Wikipedia

Wikimedia Armenia initiated a new project on Armenian Wikipedia called "Updating Wikipedia". Several editors have been participating in this initiative since June. The purpose of the project is to improve the quality of articles written years before, updating the information in those articles, and adding sources to those that should be removed as unsourced articles.

In the first stage of the project, the participants are improving articles by adding sources and updating information created in 2013-2014

Currently, 42 editors are taking part in the project and they have improved 225 articles. The project is ongoing and we want it to be continuous as they target short, unsourced, and outdated articles.

Editathon within the framework of the “Article 3” Law Festival

Wikimedia Armenia, based on the situation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, held an online Wikipedia edit-a-thon dedicated to human rights within the framework of the 3rd Law Festival of "Article 3" club. Using reliable sources and authentic information during the edit-a-thon, the participants created thematic articles touching upon various issues of human rights.

Volunteers who participated in the edit-a-thon conducted research under the guidance of consultants before creating articles. As a result, within the framework of the Law Festival, 23 new human rights articles were created and 11 articles improved on Armenian Wikipedia; the overall contribution was 1,142,659 bytes.

Wikipedia training with Enlight Public Research Center

On August 31, the Wikipedia course conducted by Wikimedia Armenia for the members of the Enlight Public Research Center was summarized. It started in May of this year. Nine people from the center took part in the course. All participants took part in intensive online training through the Zoom program for 2 months, and 3 editors stood out with their editorial activities. They not only learned about Wikipedia's editing tools and gained skills, got acquainted with sister projects, but also learned about the activities and ideas of the Wikimedia movement.

In total, during these 4 months, the participants of the Wikipedia course created 59 articles, in total 1,662,701 bytes. It is noteworthy that the created articles stood out for their quality. The 3 most active participants were awarded certificates by Wikimedia Armenia.

Newsletter articles

This month Wikimedia Armenia has submitted one article in the Educational Newsletter of Wikimedia Foundation. The article Collaboration between Karvachar Armath laboratory and Karvachar’s Wikiclub as a new educational platform for the teenagers prepared by coordinator Tamara Grigoryan from Karvachar WikiClub represents the outcomes of the collaboration of between Armath laboratory and the Wikiclub.

WikiClubs' report

In August 2020, Wikiclubs were very active, participating in several projects, among which we can single out the second summer "Online Wikicamp 2020" for 15-18-year-olds, which was attended by more than 40 Wikiclub members. The clubs continue their work online.

Hatsik Wikiclub continues to translate articles through teamwork during video calls, such as the “Nations and Traditions” project. The month was dedicated to Japan - “Sticks for food” and “History of Japanese cuisine”. The members of the club organize an interesting game during each video call. Before each video call, two participants are selected, who must suggest a game and organize it during the call.

Gyumri Wikiclub organized a training course with the volunteers of the Gyumri Youth Palace this month, during which the participants were introduced to Wikimedia Armenia and Gyumri Wikiclub, after which the participants were given the necessary knowledge to create articles on Wikipedia.

At the beginning of the month, on the initiative of Koghb Wikiclub, a joint intellectual game of Koghb-Karvachar club members took place, during which they, discussing the issues together were able to win, as one of the club members noted: "The friendship won the game."

Lernapat Wikiclub continued to participate in the "Let's Update Wikipedia" project in August. On August 12, International Youth Day, the club members co-authored two articles on the subject: International Youth Solidarity Day and the World Federation of Democratic Youth.

The Alaverdi WikiClub continued the "Alaverdi WikiClub on Wednesday" initiative this month, within the framework of which the club members themselves were responsible for organizing the workshop and conducting it in an interesting way.

On the occasion of the International Youth Day, the club members improved the article about the holiday. In August, the club had a virtual guest. This time the club was joined by Ashot Janibekyan, the administrator of the Armenian Wikipedia. After getting acquainted with the club members, he introduced a lot of tools to make the work on Wikipedia faster and easier and he shared his experience with Wikipedia.

This month, the Wikimedia educational blog published an article about the collaboration between the Karvachar Wikiclub and the Karvachar Armath Laboratory.

161 active editors were involved in the clubs during the month. Following the results of August, we prepared two graphs presenting the statistics of contributions and created articles by Wikiclubs from January 1 to August 31, 2020, to see the improvement.

WikiClubs' statistics

Wikiclubs	Participants	Community population	Bytes+ (Wikipedia)	Bytes-	Edits	Articles	Bytes+ (Wiktionary)	Bytes-	Edits	Articles	Bytes+ (Wikisource)	Bytes-	Edits	Created	Proofread	Confirmed
Alaverdi Wikiclub	35	13000	1850862	-29056	861	175	28	-1266	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Arevatsag Wikiclub	67	960	763909	-24499	790	176	0	0	1	0	0	-3	1	0	0	0
Gyumri (Khrimyan Hayrik 46)	32	121976	869388	-78	19	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Goris Wikiclub	28	20300	537955	-56335	863	67	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ddmashen Wikiclub	25	2876	2687767	-14319	1184	137	0	0	0	0	39970	-6	18	13	18	0
Lernapat Wikiclub	82	2279	2435315	-68516	3780	160	0	0	0	0	61	-51	9	0	5	4
Koghb Wikiclub	35	5300	553423	-1829	126	36	2908	0	5	5	0	0	1	0	0	1
Hatsik Wikiclub	22	1044	823512	-3295	248	64	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Spitak Wikiclub	43	13000	128349	-819	70	13	0	0	0	0	234093	-643	319	129	84	168
Stepanakert Wikiclub	22	55200	483719	-18359	440	65	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Karvachar Wikiclub	25	500	960465	-7128	242	126	1	-19	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Togh Wikiclub	40	700	139849	-935	185	32	0	0	0	0	142803	-6675	140	46	104	28
Aygedzor Wikiclub	7	2608	21	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Archis Wikiclub	11	1109	349633	-5008	262	49	0	0	0	0	2381	0	1	1	1	0
Berd Wikiclub	25	7800	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	946	0	1	0	0	0
Gandzakar Wikiclub	6	3656	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gosh Wikiclub	14	1218	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lusahovit Wikiclub	13	390	21430	-36	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	0
Noyemberyan Wikiclub (2-nd school)	15	5000	56071	-520	30	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Noyemberyan Wikiclub (high school)	16	5000	152995	-3200	71	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sarigyugh Wikiclub	7	1253	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Verin Karmiraghbyur Wikiclub	8	1837	454946	-9057	318	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kirants Wikiclub	12	298	10310	-5992	267	2	0	0	0	0	2368	0	1	1	0	0
Gyumri Wikiclub (KASA)	79	121976	292790	0	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mrgavan Wikiclub	61	1725	1624952	-44262	1376	346	0	0	0	0	3328	0	2	1	0	0
Vanashen Wikiclub	49	2573	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Vardenik Wikiclub	68	9880	569791	-1368526	3165	18	1696	-1	7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	847	403458	15767452	-1661769	14308	1509	4633	-1286	23	7	425950	-7378	497	191	216	201