Wikimedia CH/Newsletter/07/2019

Please find below Wikimedia CH's 7th newsletter for 2019.
If you would like to publish an event or activity through this newsletter, feel free to send us a message at info@wikimedia.ch. We wish you a good reading!

Association

New employees

Kerstin Sonnekalb

Since October, Kerstin Sonnekalb has joined the WMCH team as Outreach & Communication Manager. She has succeeded Andy Treichler on this job. Kerstin has a professional background in public administration, journalism and international communication management. Her user name: Kerstin Sonnekalb (WMCH) or contact: kerstin.sonnekalb@wikimedia.ch.

Catrin Vimercati
Catrin Vimercati has joined the WMCH team taking care of Fundraising and Administration. She has succeeded Oliver Rölli on this job. She has previous experience in that role both professionally and as a volunteer in different NGOs. Her contact: catrin.vimercati@wikimedia.ch.

What happened in the past months?

Geneva-based AfricanadeCuba giving a concert at the WikiConvention francophone
Group photo at the German-language WikiCon

WikiConvention francophone 06-08.09.2019

The French language annual reunion took place outside of France for the first time: in Brussels. The usual three days of presentations and workshops included an extraordinary event: Switzerland-based contributor and founder of Noircir Wikipedia, AfricanadeCuba gave a concert. Gilliane and Baptiste gave a presentation on how GLAM projects are evolving here, and Gabriel explained how to teach teenager pupils to edit on smartphone emulators.

German language WikiCon

Ten German-speaking Wikipedians traveled to Wuppertal to exchange ideas with their colleagues from neighboring countries at the WikiCon 2019. There was a lack of the splendor and generosity of the previous Wikicon in St. Gallen, but here, too, it was well positioned to present the current status of the various projects to nearly 300 interested people of the Free Knowledge with lectures, discussions and workshops. In addition to many specific topics, the main focus was on Strategy 2030. Wikidata, which was at the center of attention last year, is now used and appreciated by many Wikipedians, that was, in fact, not so much felt in 2018. Also featured was the Wikidata Bridge, a recently developed tool.

Noircir Wikipédia, 12.10.2019, 09.11.2019 and 07.12.2019

These series of workshops led by AfricanadeCuba and Galahmm aim at editing Wikipedia mainly in French, but not only, to include more people and culture elements of Africa and African descent. The first workshop date, October 12th, had special significance: on October 12th, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the American continent, a date that has long been celebrated as an encounter between Europe and the Americas, but is now considered the starting day of the colonization process of the continent, with the emergence of decolonial reflection. Since october, a few beginners have been trained, many articles created and improved, and on in November, we worked on Wikisource, with a special guest from France, You can read more about it and access the metrics on the project page Noircir Wikipedia.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2019

A Wiki Loves Monuments' finalist: the ruin of San Gaudenzio

Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 is completed and the contest received 1'799 wonderful photos.

You can check the shortlisted pictures on this link. Be prepared to loose some time: they are all gorgeous. The jury now has the difficult task of combing through to decide which ones will be awarded. We will announce the winners in January during the New Year's Brunch and Wikipedia's birthday.

Wikimedia CH invited Volunteer Supporters Network

Twelve employees or volunteers from nine European chapters supporting voluntary work exchanged their work in Wallisellen, canton of Zurich, in mid-November. For the third time since 2017, the round met to develop a strategy to learn from each other's experiences and to learn tools that would facilitate work with heterogeneous volunteer groups. Here you can read their report. In the pre-program there was a small city tour through Zurich, which was led by Freelecture, a local volunteer. From Zürisee to ETH, examples of facets of the city's history and culture were presented.

WikiNeocomensia stamms in Neuchâtel, 28.10.2019 and 02.12.2019

Amandine organized these meetings in Neuchâtel which took place during lunchtime, between 12h15 and 14h. Wikimedia CH invited participants for lunch, so that they could discuss about their contribution to Wikimedia projects, with a focus on local heritage. On this short time period, 3 beginners got a taste of Wikipedia thanks to the presence of 3 more seasoned Wikipedians, and six articles were either created or improved. The entire archive of the event can be seen here.

Edit-a-thon "Women for Wikipedia" at the RTS in Zurich

With more than 40 local participants in Zurich plus other volunteers in the branch offices of the Radio Télévision suisse in Berlin, London, Washington, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Ontario and Moscow, and an output of nearly 90 new women's biographies, this edit-a-thon on November 7 (Frauen für Wikipedia (3. Anlass)) was probably one of the largest in Switzerland. Within four hours, a concentrated working atmosphere prevailed in the afternoon and early evening of 7 November. With each newly completed article, little bell rang that motivated the other writers to finish their own article soon. A handful of experienced Wikipedians supported the new authors, all of them journalists with laptop assistance. The long-time Wikipedian Grizma wrote a nice report in Kurier (Bericht vom Edit-a-thon; here soon in the archive) (German). After the first two similar events caused the community's displeasure by many beginner's mistakes, this time the event went off without any significant criticism. The feedback was rather positive (Diskussion:Kurier «Frauen für Wikipedia», German). The series will continue on April 30th. At this point a big thank you to Muriel WMCH for the perfect organization!

Education

Wikidata training in Zürich, 01-02.11.2019 and Wikidata Datathon 23-24.11.2019

The first and second November Wikimedia CH organized the first Wikidata training in collaboration with Wikimedia DE, the University of Zurich, the Statistical Office of the town of Zurich and the Canton of Zurich. 60 participants had the opportunity to learn how develop tools to use consult, integrate, populate, modify Wikidata. The selection of trainers was very careful and brought experts from Germany or Poland to Switzerland.

The event has been followed by the Datathon the 23th and the 24th November where the organizers and the participants proposed 11 challenges which were adopted by 40 participants.

Ludopaedia in Fribourg, 23.10.2019

Wikimedia CH was invited by an archeologist to give a Wikipedia workshop to her fellow researchers in the context of an Open Knowledge event. All worked in the field of games and play in Mediterranean Antiquity, a topic with little coverage in Wikipedia. Nineteen researchers were taught how to edit Wikipedia, and they created and improved articles in their own languages, ranging from French to Greek and Lithuanian. The complete results of the day can be found on the project page Ludopaedia. The local Wikimedians are now organizing themselves to organize regular meetings at the University of Fribourg, or nearby.

Announcements

Wiki Science Competition: 15th November - 15th December 2019

Wiki Science Competition is taking place in Switzerland during November and December 2019, with the support of Wikimedia volunteers around the world. Similarly to the 2017 edition, it will be one of the biggest scientific photo challenges ever organized.

Switzerland is taking part for the first time with its own national jury and the page of the project can be found here and the first photos are in the related Commons category.

If you are interested about the current and next edition, please don't hesitate to contact us for further questions. We welcome new jurors and organizers for the next editions.

Wikipedia birthday brunch, 12.01.2019

Our traditional birthday brunch will be held on Sunday, 12.01.2019. Please save the date, if you want to take a moment "away from keyboard" with Wikimedians (WMCH members and non-members are both welcome). Ilario, Ulrich, and Flor are looking forward to seeing you there!

Wikimedia CH will be offering the brunch for Wikimedians and members, but the event is open to non-Wikipedians that would like to join and find out more about Wikimedia projects.

Human rights on Wikipedia 2020, Geneva, 27.02.2020

In the wake of Wikimedia Foundation signing a memorandum of understanding with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Léa submitted to WMCH a plan for a campaign on Human rights. We accepted it, and are glad to announce the first event of the campaign, which will take place at the OHCHR on February, 27th, from 5PM to 9PM. Save the date if you are interested to join.

Meanwhile, the Foundation organized a shorter campaign that started this past November and will last until the end of January. You will find their campaign on this page, and start editing on the lists they prepared: one is on UN Human rights history and bodies, the other on youth activists. Quite a few pages are missing both in French, German, or Italian!

List of coming events

This table contains the upcoming events until the delivery of our next newsletter and some important events later this year. You will also find some more events - also from like-minded organizations - directly in the WMCH calendar.


Start Date	End Date	Event	Where	Link
2020-01-12 11:00	2020-01-12 16:00	Wikipedia birthday brunch	TBA
2020-02-08 00:00	2019-02-08 00:00	Noircir Wikipédia	Genève, GE	Noircir Wikipédia project page
2020-02-22 10:00	2020-02-22 17:00	Wikipedia-Atelier bei den Winterthurer Bibliothek	Winterthur	WikiProjekt_Schweiz/Atelier
2020-02-27 17:00	2020-02-27 21:00	Human Rights on Wikipedia launch event	OHCHR, Geneva
2020-02-29 10:00	2020-02-29 16:00	5 Years Anniversary Event Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon (GLAMhack)	Bern	opendata.ch