Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey/Reports/2016

Annual Report 2016 Türkçe versiyon

Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey was officially recognised by the Affiliations Committee on Februbary 9th, 2016.

WikiProject: VikiPera

One of the most important event of the year was the collaborative project with Pera Museum in Istanbul. The project consisted of several steps.

1. WikiProject: VikiPera. The internet users were invited to create articles in Turkish Wikipedia about the paintings in two collections of the museum (Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters and Osman Hamdi Bey collections). A contest was held between July 13th and August 15. Pera Museum provided awards for the winners of the contest. The contest was promoted by using social media channels and press. Here is the list of 32 articles created:The list

2. Vikipera: Vikimaraton. We had a great response to the invitation and many new editors have contributed to the articles about about the paintings in Pera Museum. However, we saw that it's required that some experienced wikipedians should work on the layout and style of those articles. Therfore, we have called the experienced wikipedians to meet in the Museum on August 13th. The participants had a guided tour and could see the paintings closely. After that they could go to the close by Library of Istanbul Resaarch Institute, the sister institution of the Museum and collectively work on the articles. Wikipedians from Eskişehir, Bursa, Tekirdağ, Istanbul have participated and worked together.

3. VKod-Pera. The museum have placed QRcode plagues by the painting to enable visitors plug into related Wikipedia articles.

Vikimaraton
Vikimaraton
Wikipedians visiting Pera Museum
QR Code in the entrance the Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters exhibition

WEP and seminars in the universites

The Wikipedia Education Program was at the core of the WMTR activities in 2016. The Department of Psychology at Uludag University has served like a pilot institution for the program in Turkey. We have started the program first in a graduate level course, then in larger undergraduate level courses. We have received very positive feedbacks from the students. They have reported that they have enjoyed contributing to Wikipedia, it made them feel important and helpful to society; it was exciting to know that their work will be read not only by the instructor but by other internet users as well. Uludag University has more than 70.000 students in 14 faculties and still there are many students and instructors not introduced with Wikipedia as an education tool yet. After the psychology department, we have tried to spread the program in other faculties as well as other universities in different cities.

As we approach to academic instituions, we observed that the world of academia is not familiar with how Wikipedia works and does not know how they can use it in their classes in different ways. Therefore they hesitate to integrate it to their classes but rather they ask us to make a general presentation and introduction about Wikipedia for their students. We have visited universities for such presentations in events organized either by the instructors or by student clubs. One of the instructors we have contacted was from Faculty of Education of Yuzunciyıl Universitesi, in the eastern city of Van. It was exciting to talk to the teachers-to-be who are studying at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology about how they might use Wikipedia in their classes in the future. It was also exciting because We didn't have the opportunity to go to Van, therefore for the first time we have experienced to make an online conference. It was successful and later we have continued to use online conferencing. When possible we prefer one wikipedian to go to the university for giving the presentation face to face and some other experienced Wikipedians participate online either just to say hello or answering questions in Q&A sessions and share their own experiences. We have made one such seminar in Department of Geography at Sakarya University followed by a workshop. We have also made a seminar for students of the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at Uludag University.

We have reached to 380 unversity students as a result of those activities so far. After every activity the group member who gave the presentation has prepared a detailed report about it to inform the community and serve as a guide for future programs.

December 2015, SPGY (2015)
March 9th, PSI-3004
April 8th, PSİ 6114
October, 12th BOTE
November 1st, PSİ2007 2016
November 2nd, BBT (2016)

Research on Wikipedia use

WMTR approched to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Leman Pınar Tosun from Psychology Department of Uludag University for conducting a research on university students' attitudes and usage of Wikipedia. Dr. Tosun has designed an interview study to collect data on this topic. The interviews are being carried by the sophomore students as a an assigment for research methods course. At the begining of fall term a wikipedian has attended the course to speak about Wikipedia to aknowledge the students that will carry out the interviews. Data collection is expected to finish at the end of December 2016. It will abe analyzed and the findings will be reported in the spring term.

Seminars in non-academic institutions

We have mostly collaborated with the world of academia and have tried to reach university students but we also search for other venues and platforms to attract volunteers from different segments of the society. We want to make workshops and edit-a-thons but again we are asked rather to make a general presentation about Wikipedia. One example of such activity was in Bursa. A wikipedian has been invited to talk about the philosophy of Wikipedia to a group of philosophy lovers on November 29th. As a second step, a workshop is being planned to work on the articles of antic philosphers on Turkish Wikipedia. Another presentation for a philosphy discussion group was made in Izmitin Decembber 13th. There is also a plan to make a workshop with poetry lovers in Poetry Library in Bursa.

Our group members also gave an introductory Wikipedia training at Pera Museum on Ocotber 7th. After visiting the exhibition titled as Katherine Behar:Data’s Entry, the participants were introduced with Wikipedia editorship and trained on how to create a Wikipedia article

Visiting the exhibition at Pera Museum before the seminar, October 7th, 2016
Discussing philosphy of Wikipedia, Nov 29, 2016

Edit-a-thons

The first edit-a-thon of WMTR was related to Art+Feminism. It was held in Istanbul at March 5th. It received a large media coverage in the press. The initiative of the event has come from a radio programmer in Istanbul and her connections helped a lot get the event announced in many online and offline channels. Thanks to this event, community members could meet face-to-face in Istanbul again. Event page is here

A similar organization was held in the same week by Embassy of Finland in Ankara as a woman's day activity. This organisation was supported by the WMTR members through online participation.

Another edit-a-thon for creating articles on woman was organized by BBC Turkish in İstanbul on December 8th. This was an event organized as a result of the partnership between BBC 100 Women 2016 and Wikimedia UK. During the event, the participants needed help and WMTR members supported.

March 5th, Art+Feminism
March 5th, Art+Feminism

In-person meetings

During the formation process WMTR members has madde 3 meetings in Istanbul and one offline meeting in October-November 2015. After the formally formation group, another meeting was held on February 19th. In March some group members came together for Art+Feminism event; and lastly an online group meeting was held on August 8th. Some group members who come from different cities had oppurtunity to come together in August 13th at Pera Museum for Vikimaraton event.

Later, the activites were planned by small online meetings or corresponding with e-mails. Another face-to-face meeting was held on November 23rd, when a visitor from Wikimedia Uk (Jwslubbock) came to Istanbul.

October 10th 2015, Istanbul
February 19th, Istanbul meeting
November 23rd, Istanbul meeting

Participation in International Events

Wikimedia CEE Spring:Local competition of Wikimedia CEE Spring was organised by WMTR members. 134 articles were cereaed by 20 participants. Here is the local page: CEE Spring 2016 Turkey
Wikimania 2016:One member of WMTR was participant in Wikimania 2016 on June 21st–28th. Here is the notes of the participant: Wikimania 2016 Notes
Wikimedia CEE Meeting:Two members of WMTR has participated Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2016 between 27-29 August. Here are the notes of the participants. Notes 1, Notes 2

Social Networks

After the formation of the Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey, Facebook and Twitter accounts have been created for the group. Mainly news about wikipedia events and educational videos are being shared on those accounts.

Facebook: /WikimediaTurkey
Twitter: /WikimediaTurkey