Wikimedia Armenia/Western Armenian program/Reports 2017/July-December

Western Armenian Program Report
July-December

Article Overview

In the past months 517 articles were written and edited in Western Armenian. Most of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2015 in Beirut and Armenia, small part of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2016 in Portugal and in the Summer Wikicamp in France, and the rest by other editors. All these new articles were reviewed, edited and wikified by experienced editors, including the teachers of the above mentioned students. At this moment we have 6261 Western Armenian articles.

Wikipedia Education program stats

In July we had 17 students who created 66 articles, made 345 edits and contributed 872095 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In August we had 46 students who created 212 articles, made 801 edits and contributed 1198134 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In Sebdemper we had 17 students who created 35 articles, made 226 edits and contributed 688549 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In October we had 16 students who created 35 articles, made 226 edits and contributed 688549 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In November we had 11 students who created 27 articles, made 116 edits and contributed 259256 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In December we had 14 students who created 88 articles, made 458 edits and contributed 1328319 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.

Western Armenian articles on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia

During the last 6 months featured articles were selected per week. These articles were reviewed and corrected by Wikipedia Education program member teachers and we decided to place them on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia. As usual we share these articles on various social platforms and strive to make them available to the wider audience.

WikiClubs

The WikiClubs activities are still ongoing in the schools of Beirut and in Istanbul National Central College. Students study and edit Western Armenian articles during their free time and are being assisted by experienced Wikipedians. We started collaborating with Bezjian School in Istanbul during the course of November. We have had a chat via the Skype and explained to them the methods of work with students. The main emphasis was on learning to edit and teaching students how to edit.

Wikisource

The Armenian community is currently continuing its collaboration with a group of selected WikiClub members from Istanbul National Central College. We also formed a group in Beirut that is currently working on a book by Toros Toranyan titled «Մելգոնեացի մը երկու մելգոնիացիներու մասին».

As a result of numerous meetings with Toros Toronian we have agreed to work together to obtain his books which were digitized, so they are freely available in the Wikisource.

Visitors

On August 22, 2017, Wikimedia Armenia had the pleasure of welcoming Mr.Sevag Hagopian to Wikimedia offices in Yerevan. Mr. Hagopian is the editor in chief of Zartonk newspaper which was founded in 1937, a daily newspaper in Lebanon. We were interviewed by Mr. Hagopian regarding a recent trip to attend a Wikicamp in France. We shared memories of this wonderful trip and the success stories as well. This interview was published in the Ragmamoul newspaper.

ISO Code

Wikimedia Armenia and the Gulbenkian Foundation have worked on using ISO code to separate and distinguish Western Armenian from Eastern Armenian. This proposal was presented to International Organization for Standardization in August 2017 for assigning a language code and we are awaiting a final response.

Summer WikiCamp 2017 France

WikiCamp Summer 2017 was held on the 12th of August through 20th of August in La Bourboule, at François et Suzon, France. There were a total of 43 participants from 6 different countries, including USA, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Armenia and France. The goal of this camp was to train Western Armenian speakers to edit Wikipedia, Wikisource, and encourage them to join the global Wikipedia movement. Campers also had an opportunity to read and discuss various books, analyze linguistic issues and address challenges of translating process.

WikiCamp activities

2 workshops per day, total workshop hours - 4,5 hours per day Translation corner which included fun translating activities Reading corner that allowed participants to read the assigned literature (three titles) Sharing each day activities on social networks Writing corner where kids could sit and write and let their imagination flow A trip to the lake Pavin and La Besse was organized for the participants as an exciting outing Student's opinions and their suggestions A questionnaire was prepared by some of the participants and distributed among all attendees so they could make comments on the camp itself, provide suggestions, recommendations and challenges. These comments will be taken into consideration and used where applicable during the next camp.

During 7 days of the WikiCamp, 206 articles were edited thanks to the efforts of Western Armenian students (see stats below).

More photos in WikiCamp FB page.

See WikiCamp metrics here

Gallery

Wiki Training in Armenia

The second WikiWeek was held from 10th till 17th of July, in Aghveran, Armenia. Training was organized for 10 participants from different countries and professional backgrounds including teachers, journalists, school principals, skilled professionals and others interested in the field of Wikipedia.

During the WikiWeek the participants were introduced all wikiediting tools and learned to create their own articles in Western Armenian. We wanted to share a success story after the Wikiweek: one of the school principals from an Armenian school in Istanbul has already introduced wikiediting skills passing on and sharing her own experience with the teachers. During 7 days of the WikiWeek, 253 articles were edited thanks to the efforts of Western Armenian language.

Gallery

Meeting in Cairo, Egypt

Azniv Stepanian, Wikimedia Western Armenia Program Coordinator has attended the WikiArabia 2017 conference during which she had an opportunity to talk about and present the Wikicamps in Armenia. She particularly stressed the importance of Wikicamps and their role in bringing ethnic and religious minorities together in terms of language preservation by the Diaspora communities from all over the world. It is important to note that this is the first time that WikiArabia conference had a guest speaker from Armenia!

You can see more pictures here.

It was a wonderful opportunity to also present Wikimedia Armenia programs to the Armenian community in Cairo since there was little or no awareness about the actual projects implemented by Wikimedia Armenia.

Meeting in Aleppo

On the 29th of November Azniv Stepanian, Wikimedia Armenia Western Armenia Program Coordinator met with Vahe Ghazarian and Hakob Kilejian, Principals of Kare Jeppe Armenian College (Aleppo, Syria). They have discussed the following: What is Wikimedia? What is Wikimedia Armenia? Wikimedia vision, purpose and projects Role of volunteers (what they gain from volunteering for Wikimedia) Editing and editors Editing techniques

On the 1st of December (as a result of this discussion) Azniv was invited by Kare Jeppe Armenian College (Aleppo, Syria) to introduce Western Armenian Programs to 10 and 11 grade students and to share her working knowledge and experience. She also presented a Powerpoint slide show about Wikipedia and Wikimedia Armenia projects and spoke in detail about Western Armenian clubs and Wikicamps. College teachers, moderators and administrative assistants have also attended the presentation. Several participants have also approached Azniv individually expressing a great interest in their areas of expertise.

Overall this was a very exciting and informative event which laid foundation for further collaboration and cooperation between Kare Jeppe Armenian College and the Wikimedia Armenia.