Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia/Reports/2017

2017
Report

Report of activities: 2017

Wikimedia CEE Spring 2017

Project leader: David Asriashvili.
- Project page on Georgian Wikipedia.

Wikimedia CEE Spring 2017 is an annual event organised by Wikimedians and Wikipedians who joined the Central and Eastern Europe collaboration with an aim to support article creation about every country in the region on every Wikipedia.

Wikimedia CEE Spring aims at joining local forces of free knowledge to accumulate and distribute information about history, culture, traditions and people in every corner of the region to support mutual acknowledgement and understanding and to increase the quantity and quality of free knowledge available about the CEE region globally.

The event was held traditionally from the 21st of March to the 31st of May. Local competitions are organised by local teams and in every community the competition will have a bit different face to take local context into account. In the Georgian Wikipedia, the competition was facilitated by Wikimedia UG Georgia.

During the competition in the Georgian Wikipedia, 13 participants created 154 new articles. All new articles can be seen on this page.

Edit-a-thon in Public School №2 of Abkhazia

Project leader: Jaba Labadze.

Edit-a-thon was organized on March 13, 2017, by Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia and Georgian Association of History Educators in Public School №2 of Abkhazia, in Tbilisi. 31 new articles about Cultural heritage of Abkhazia was created by students in Georgian and English Wikipedia.

Wiki-Lessons in Khashuri and Surami library

Project leader: Jaba Labadze.

On April-June, 2017, a board member of the Wikimedia UG Georgia and an active editor of the Georgian Wikipedia — Jaba Labadze conducted a wiki-training for young people in Khashuri central Library and Surami Library. During the training, young people were presented with the specifics of working on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

Wiki Loves Earth 2017

Main article: Grants:Project/Rapid/UG GE/Wiki Loves Earth 2017 in Georgia/Report

Project leaders: Giorgi Balakhadze, Mehman Ibragimov & Mikheil Chabukashvili.
- Project page on Wikimedia Commons.

This year, by organisation of Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia's members, Georgia took part in the competition for the first time. Wiki Loves Earth is an annual international photographic competition held during the months of May or June, organised worldwide by the Wikipedia community members with the help of local Wikimedia affiliates across the globe. Participants take pictures of local natural heritage sites in their region and upload them to Wikimedia Commons. The aim of event is to highlight the natural heritage sites of the participating countries with the goal to encourage people to capture pictures of these sites and to put them under a free licence which can then be re-used not only in Wikipedia but everywhere by everyone.

During the contest, a total of 24 participants participated, who uploaded 861 images. You can review the contest statistics here.

Tskneti WikiCamp

Project leaders: Jaba Labadze and Mikheil Chkhikvadze.

From 22 to 27 July 2017, WikiCamp was organised by Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia and Georgian Association of History Educators, Tskneti, Tbilisi. Wikipedia editing lessons and Edit-a-thon for 20 secondary school students from around Georgia. 29 new articles about Cultural heritage of Abkhazia was created by students in Georgian and Abkhazian Wikipedia.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2017

Main article: Grants:Project/Rapid/UG GE/Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 in Georgia/Report

Project leaders: Mehman Ibragimov, Beqa Baiashvili & Mikheil Chabukashvili.
- Project page on Wikimedia Commons.

In September 2017, the second edition of the WLM was held in Georgia. Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual international photographic competition held during the month of September, organised worldwide by the Wikipedia community members with the help of local Wikimedia affiliates across the globe. Participants take pictures of local historical monuments and heritage sites in their region and upload them to Wikimedia Commons. The aim of event is to highlight the heritage sites of the participating countries with the goal to encourage people to capture pictures of these monuments and to put them under a free licence which can then be re-used not only in Wikipedia but everywhere by everyone.

During the contest, a total of 33 participants participated, who uploaded 2053 images. You can review the contest statistics here.

UG-GE & School of Civic Activism joint project

Project leaders: Mikheil Chabukashvili & George Melashvili.
- Project page on Georgian Wikipedia.

From 18 to 24 December 2017, a competition was held in the Georgian Wikipedia to create articles that were related to social sciences. the contest was organized by Wikimedia UG Georgia and School of Civic Activism.

Participation in regional and global Wikimedia events

WikiCamp Aghveran

From January 5 to January 10, 2017, in the city of Aghveran, in Armenia, was held WikiCamp for young Wikipedians. From Georgia, four editors of the Georgian Wikipedia — NaswKai, Nina1009, Rgeti15, Nika chareqishvili, led by a representative of Wikimedia UG Georgia — Jaba1977, participated in the camp.

Wikimedia Conference 2017

The Wikimedia Conference 2017 took place in Berlin from 31 March to 2 April, 2017. It is the annual meeting of all Wikimedia organizations (Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, user groups, and the Wikimedia Foundation), as well as other committees to discuss the future of the Wikimedia movement in terms of collaboration, structures and organizational development. This conference is hosted and organized by Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). From Wikimedia UG Georgia in the conference participated Board Members Mikheil Chabukashvili & David Asriashvili.

Summer WikiCamp Aghveran

From June 26 to July 5, 2017, in the city of Aghveran, in Armenia, was held WikiCamp for young Wikipedians. From Georgia, four editors of the Georgian Wikipedia — NaswKai, Nina1009, ნიკოლოზ ზივზივაძე, Chinchaladze, led by a representative of Wikimedia UG Georgia — Jaba1977, participated in the camp.

Wikimania 2017

Wikimania is the annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and its sister free knowledge projects with three days of conferences, discussions, meetups, training, and workshops. Hundreds of volunteers and Free Knowledge leaders from around the world gather to discuss issues, report on new projects and approaches, and exchange ideas.

Themes of the 2017 conference included the advancement of Free Knowledge, the role of academic and cultural institutions within the movement, privacy and rights, and the role of technology to further those objectives. Wikimania 2017 also featured a deeper look at the role of the Movement within the Francophonie, and a number of program elements focusing on advancement of French within the projects.

The event was held in and around the Centre Sheraton Montréal, in Montréal, Canada from August 9 to August 13, 2017. From Wikimedia UG Georgia in the Wikimania participated Board Member Mikheil Chabukashvili.

Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2017

Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2017 was the sixth annual meeting of Wikimedians from Central and Eastern Europe centered on the Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia and similar projects) in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting took place in Warsaw, Poland, from September 22nd until September 25th 2017.

The main goal of the meeting is to promote, support and develop cross-border collaboration between various Wikimedia chapters, thematic organisations, user groups, projects and other communities in the region.

From Wikimedia UG Georgia in the Meeting participated Board Members Jaba Labadze and Sandro Gambashidze.