Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey/Reports/2024

Annual Report 2024Türkçe sürüm

Summary

2024 was the year of great events for Wikimedia User Group Turkey. One of the most important event was the honor of hosting the CEE Meeting 2024 in the beloved city of Istanbul. In 2024, there was a record attendance of 195 participants from more than 40 communities and affiliates. Arhavi Wiki Camp was another great event of 2024. This event brought university students from different cities of Türkiye as well as representatives of wiki clubs at high schools of Georgia in Arhavi. Arhavi College and the people of the town were great hosts for wikimedians and participants couldn't forget those two days spent in the town.

Our Education Program continued at universities of Istanbul, Ankara, Erzurum, Adana, Bursa. We worked with museologists, urban planners, and librarians in creating awareness and disseminating knowledge about topics they are concerned about by organizing edit-a-thons on those topics. The group organized WLE Türkiye photo contest for the fifth time. We are proud that seven of the 20 best images of the year including the 1st prize winner of the Macro category in the international contest were from Turkey.

Our group started to use an office place in Kadıköy, İstanbul for hosting activities. The Youth Workshop, Wikidata Birthday Party, Earthquake, and Digital Heritage Edit-a-thon are among the events held in the office. This year there was an initiatve feeding Wikimedia Commons with high-quality photos from local basketball and volleyball matches by getting acccredition for wikipedians from sport organisations. Our group continued regular biweekly online meetups. We worked closely with Wiki Student Clubs. Please find more details about the user group activities in 2024 below.

CEE Meeting 2024

Wikimedia User Group Türkiye honored to host CEE Meeting 2024 in Istanbul. 195 participants from more than 40 communities joined the event held at Museum Gasworks. The theme of the event was A Bridge to Knowledge. This was the largest event hosted by our user group so far. User group members put their skills in work -a member even composed music for the opening video -. During the event, the organization committee was supported by young volunteers from Wiki Student Clubs. The committee is thankful to all volunteers and participants for becoming a bridge to knowledge!

More information about the event is available in those blog posts and documents: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Registration desk
Opening video
Learning Day
Istanbul cats in the conference
Sweet table
Collection Tables
Cats everywhere
Paticipants from 40 countries
Interview with participants

Arhavi Wiki Camp

One of the biggest event organized by the user group in 2024 was Arhavi Wiki Camp held in May. Arhavi Wiki Camp was a two-day event organized for bringing those university students who are either active members of current Wiki Students Clubs or has initiatives to establish one in their university.

It was organized in the small town of Arhavi at Black Sea region; close to Georgia border. Participants have left their homes/schools for spending those two days only to talk about Wikimedia projects, get to know each other and enjoy the nature. The event became an international one when we cooperated with Wikimedia Georgia and representatives from 6 Wiki Student Clubs from Georgia participated in WikiCamp with a teacher.

Arhavi College hosted the event and supported it with great enthusiasm. As the students and teachers of the college as well as some local people joined the sessions; the event turned to be a larger one than planned originally; the participants at different levels of experience in Wikimedia projects could discuss many things from Wikipedia editing to Wikidata, artificial intelligence to gender gap issues and learned a lot from each other. Find more information bout the event here: Arhavi Camp, Education Bulletin, CEE Newsletter

Teachers in the camp
Local dances during the break
Let's start editing

WLE 2024

Wiki Loves Earth local photo competition was organized in Türkiye for the fifth time this year and there was a great success in terms of results at the international contest. 1201 photos were uploaded by 250 uploaders in Türkiye. 87% of those contributors were registered after the competition started.^[1] Seven photographs the local jury sent to the international competition were selected for the list of the top-20 best images of the year.

Our group celebrated the photographers of the award-winning photographs from Türkiye by inviting them to one of the biweekly online meetings as guest speakers. The participants had the chance to learn the story behind their photos and ask their questions to the winners. Please find the story here: Photographers from Türkiye tell the story of award wining photos in Wiki Loves Earth 2024

CEE Spring

We organized the local competition for Vikibahar 2024 Wikimedia CEE Spring between March 21 - May 31. As a result of this contest, 443 new articles were produced^[2] by 13 participants.

Vikipedi 201 videos

A member of the community, Kurmanbek, prepared a 10 video-set about editing Wikipedia where five experienced users shared their editing experiences.

Topics included how to transfer photos from Flickr to Commons; adding language connections to Wikipedia articles, naming files at Commons, infoboxes, categories and HotCat Tool, Navigational boxes, discussion pages, fair use, tables. Video shooting was done at RGB Studios at Istanbul Bilgi University in Türkiye and videos published at Wikimedia Turkey's YouTube channel and at Wikimedia Commons.

Education Program

The Wikimedia Community User Group Türkiye continued the Education Program in Turkish universities in 2024. Happily, at some courses, Wikipedia assignments became a part of the course and Wikipedians visit the course every year to support students in editing (such as, MED 215 course at Bilgi University, JOU-407 course at Galatasaray University, or KHAS 110 course ad Kadir Has University).

The goal of the program is partnering with more institutions from different cities of the country and also increase the diversity of the courses and topics; therefore a search for new education partnerships continued in 2024. In March, a member went to Adana for the first time to support Wikipedia assignments of students at a course at Çukurova University. Another city visited for the first time was Tokat where a presentation about using Wikimedia projects in education was given at the INFTEC-2024 Conference held at Gaziosmanpaşa University in May. Another conference where Wikimedia projects were presented was in Antalya. In September, we presented at the National Congress of Psychology Graduate Students held at Akdeniz University and had the opportunity to discuss editing Wikipedia articles about psychology.

List of activities

February 27, Wikidata Presentation at Marmara University Digital Humanities Center
February 29, Talk about Wikipedia editing with Şehit Ömer Halisdemir Kız Anadolu İmam Hatip High School (Istanbul) students
March 4, Wikipedia and Digital Libraries presentation at Marmara University Information Document Management Department (Istanbul)
March 4, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Grave Monuments (SNT 5118) course students at Uludag University (Bursa)
March 6, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Social Responsibility Projects (PA 108) course at Yeditepe University (Istanbul)
March 7, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Social Responsibility Projects (KHAS 110) course at Kadir Has University (Istanbul)
March 11, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Communication History (RTS 102) course at Çukurova University (Adana)
March 12, Digital Literacy and Wikipedia Presentation for scholarship holders of Erguvan Gönüllüleri group (online)
March 13, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Comparative Local Government (POLS 493) course at Sabancı University (Istanbul)
April 22, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of students of Information Document Management Department at Hacettepe University
April 24, Wikipedia Presentation at Medipol University Communication Summit (İstanbul)
May 6, Wikipedia presentation Future of Media Symposium at Istinye University (online)
May 8, Wikipedia presentation at INFTEC Symposium at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa Universtiy (Tokat)
May 9, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Digital Media ve Society (JOU-407) course at Galatasaray University (Istanbul).
May 21, Support for the Wikipedia assignments of Social Responsibility (PA 108) course Yeditepe University students (Istanbul).
May 21, Presentation about Wikipedia at Career Days of Hacettepe University Department of Information Management.
May 29, presentation at Information management in museums course (BBY 430) at Ankara University Department of Information Management (online)
September 5, presentation at UPYOK Conference (Antalya)
October 4, presentation for Mehmet Rıfat Evyap MTAL Caracal Robotics Team
October 17, support for the Wikipedia assignments of Advanced Software Engineering course at Erzurum Teknik University (online)
November 4, support for the Wikipedia assignments of Advanced Digital Literacy (MED 215) course at Bilgi University (Istanbul)
November 16, presentation for students of Information Management Departpments at 4 universities in Istanbul during Librarianship School of Rami Library

Evyap Robotics Team
Uludağ University
Erzurum Technical University
UPYOK Congress
Rami Library

Edit-a-thons

Earthquake and Cultural Heritage Edit-a-thons

The first edit-a-thon of 2024 was held in February in collaboration with Digital Cultural Heritage Network. The goal was to update information at Wikimedia projects about museums, libraries, and archaeological sites in the 11 provinces of Türkiye affected by the earthquake in 2023. The event was made in the user group's office at Istanbul. During the event, participants had the opportunity to learn about Wikipedia and Wikidata, #CreativeCommons licences and OpenStreetMap's humanitarian mapping efforts. This was the first event of a series of activities organized under a project supported by WMF. In April, the second edit-a-thon was held at Ankara.

Art+Feminism 2024

The Art+Feminism Istanbul was held in Women's Library and Information Centre Foundation in March 2024. The participants worked for 4.5 hours in the library to improve and create Wikipedia articles on woman biographies.

Social Innovation Edit-a-thon

The fourth edit-a-thon of the year was held in Konya. The event was hosted by Konya Social Innovation Agency. The participants worked on Turkish wikipedia articles to make concepts related to social innovation getting better understood in the society.

Accessible Museums

During 2024 In partnership with Bongo Art, a social enterprise focusing on accessibility of museums, and TED University, we made a series of online and offline (in Ankara) edit-athons. The goal was creating /improving Wikipedia articles about 100 museums in Turkey that fulfils accessible museum criteria. In some events, there were disabled people among the participants therefore Wikimedia community membes had the opportunity to observe the problems faced by disabled people trying to contribute to Wikimedia projects.

Route created: Streets of Istanbul

Wikipedians in Istanbul got together and walked around the streets of Istanbul’s Kadıköy, Fatih and Bakırköy districts, photographing the signs of streets having name of notable people. 7 people participated in this photowalk organized by Adem. The event last 5 hours and more than 100 photos were taken and uploaded to Category:Route created: Streets of Istanbul at the end. Read the blog post about the event here: Streets of Istanbul

Beyoğlu Cultural Heritage

During the European Cultural Heritage Days in September, we organised an edit-a-thon about cultural heritage of Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. Participants familiarised themselves with the functioning of Wikipedia and its sister sites and discussed how they can contribute to carrying Beyoğlu's cultural heritage into the future by contributing the Wikimedia projects.

Placemaking Edit-a-thon

On October 5th, we met with a group of urban planners and architects in Ankara to discuss the "placemaking" culture and related conceptes and to improve related articles at Turkish Wikipedia. The event organized in collaboration with Roof Cooliving, a social enterprise based in Ankara, and 20 people participated. The group continued to work on online follow-up events.

Çinili Hammam Edit-a-thon

On October 7th, our group met with some new Wikipedia editors in Zeyrek Çinili Hamam to make contributions to Wikimedia projects about bath architecture and bath culture. The edit-a-thon was aimed at discussing and sharing information about the Turkish baths, which are not only a place for bathing but also a center for health, social and cultural activities, and the effects of Turkish baths on language, literature and daily life. Find the blog post about the event here: Wikipedians in the hammam

Beyoğlu Cultural Heritage
Accessible Museums
Social Innovation
Art&Feminism
Earthquake and Cultural Heritage
Photographying the street signs
Placemaking edit-a-thon
Editing the hammam culture

Wiki Student Clubs

In 2024 the number of Wiki Clubs in Türkiye and North Cyprus became 5 when Atatürk Teacher Training Academy Wiki Club started activities. Our user group organized Arhavi Wiki Camp to encourage the active members of Wiki Student Clubs know each other and collaborate. We were glad to see that leaders from different universities became friends and always stayed in touch. During the year, the members of Wiki Student Clubs did not only make activities; in their schools; they attended the activities of each other and organized a Youth Workshop in November. They also participated Wikimedia User Group Türkiye activities. The members of Wiki Student Clubs were particularly very helpful during Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2024 in supporting the organisation team and the participants of the conference.

Photographing Turkish sports

This year, a member of the group, Zafer, took an important step in feeding Wikimedia Commons with high-quality photos from basketball and volleyball events in the country. He got accreditation from some sports federations to take photos at the court for Wikimedia projects as a user group member. Starting with 2024 FIBA Europe SuperCup Women, he was able to take photos of more than 60 matches together with professional photographers and uploaded them on Wikimedia Commons. Those experiences helped build connections with sports teams and with the authorities; opening the way for Wikipedians in the country to get accreditation.

Wikidata Birthday & Republic Day

In 2024, the user group celebrated the Wikidata Birthday at a party held in the office of Dijital Bilgi Derneği in Kadıköy, Istanbul. This was a joint celebration of 12th birthday of Wikidata and 101st birthday of Turkish Republic. During the year wikipedians contributed Turkish Wikipedia about topics related Turkish Republic history and culture under 100th Year Project. Together with contributors of this project and the wikidata enthusiasts we met at the office. Interestingly, that day we mostly talked neither on Wikidata nor Wikipedia but rather on Commons Wikimedia. A member presented how he uploaded bulk photos and organized his contributions. Then, we cut the birthday cake.

Global and regional conferences

In 2024, hosting CEE Meeting in Istanbul allowed many user groups being a part of an international Wikimedia event for the first time. We had young wikimedians from Istanbul and other cities join the event as a member of volunteer team. In addition to Wikimedia CEE Meeting there were attendance to Wikimedia Hack-a-thon in Talin, Wikimania in Katowice, and WikiOutdoor Training in Perspa.

Year	Event	Place	Date	Participant/Delegate Notes
2024	Wikimedia Hack-a-thon	Talinn	3-5 May	HakanIST
2024	Wikimania 2024	Katowice	7-10 August	Basak, ToprakM, Kurmanbek, İsnaaa, HakanIST, Doğu
2024	WikiOutdoor Training 2024	Prespa	7-8 September 2024	Adem, İmmortalance, ToprakM

Community meetups

During the year, the group had 23 meet-ups. The meetings held bimonthly at Tuesday nights were called "VikiSalı" (WikiTuesday). Meeting notes of each meeting is available here (in Turkish).

List of activities

2024
January	02	-	16	-	30
February	-	13	-	27	-
March	-	12	-	26	-
April	-	-	16	-	30
May	-	14	-	28	-
June	-	11	-	-	-
July	2	-	-	-	23
August	-	13	-	-	-
September	03	-	-	24	-
October	08		22		-
November	-	12	-	26	-
December	-	10	-	24	-

References

[1] ttps://wikiloves.toolforge.org/earth/2024

[2] ttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Spring_2024/Statistics/Article_list#tr_new_articles

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