Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Shared Knowledge/December 2018

SHARED KNOWLEDGE Activity report

November 2018

Editing contest: Islands

During the entire month of December we have organized the fourth editing competition this year which was dedicated to the topic about Islands. The topic was chosen as the Wikipedia in Macedonian language lacked a large number of articles about the islands in the world which considering their huge number and our strategic aim set to reach the number od 100.000 articles on Macedonian Wikipedia and improving their quality this topic enabled creation of several hundreds of articles on Macedonian Wikipedia. The editing contest was attended by 6 participants out of which 2 different users who have created 124 new and improved 12 already existing articles.

Wikiexpedition in Raec region

The sixth and the last Wikiexpedition this year was conducted on 1^st of December on a sunny day in the small region of Raec in the central part of Macedonia, located between the cities of Kavadarci and Prilep. As with each expedition, the group first headed towards the most remote village in the area, and this was the village of Pletvar, where we quickly found their beautiful village church dedicated to St. Kuzman and Damjan. Although the initial plan was to immediately descend to the village of Belovodica and visit the other villages in the area, а decision was taken to leave this village in the end and first visit the villages on the left and right of the regional road Gradsko-Prilep. Except for Belovodica, all the other villages in the area have only dirt roads, which also reflected the overall success of the villages visited. All the villages of the Raec region are characterized as deserted, which is due to the lack of suitable roads, old churches and they have only few residents. In the village Nikodin we managed to photograph the monastery "St. Mother of God ", as well as the village church, where the participants of the Wikiexpedition had a wonderful conversation with a resident. On returning from that village the group met with a priest who went to the monastery and told that St. Nicodin's saint also came from the village Nikodin, died during the fighting with the Turks in Romania. At the end of the expedition the group went to the village of Belovodica, where the monastery "St. Gorge "and the village church have been photographed, from where a beautiful view of the whole village was provided. At the same time, intrigued by the Marble Lake, the group headed towards it, but they found that the lake no longer exists and that the marble excavating mine is again activated in the same place. On returning to Skopje, we visited the last two villages, Raec and Farish, part of the region and administratively in the Municipality of Kavadarci, to which luckily led an asphalt road. Although with poor conditions in the road infrastructure and many earth roads, but also on the much smaller day light, we managed to photograph nine villages and cross 360 kilometers.

Editing weekends:Museums, Poland & Bodies of Water

The increased pace of organizing editing weekends continued in December. In the last month of the year we have held 2 editing weekends. The first editing weekend was organized on 1^st and 2^nd of December on the topic about Museums which ended with an outcome of 9 newly created and 3 improved articles edited by 4 users who have participated. This was the 18^th editing weekend organized in this year so far by which the total number of newly created articles reached 274 with 12 improved articles. On 8^th and 9 ^th of December within the broader activities dedicated to Poland such as the Exhibition of Photographs from Poland and the edit-a-thon with students of Polish language about Poland, we have also organized the nineteenth editing weekend about topics related with Poland where 7 members of the Macedonian wikipedian community participated contributing with 13 newly created and 10 improved articles. The third and the last editing weekend that was organized in this month which has also been the last in this year was on the topic of bodies of water. Only two users have participated with creating 3 new and improving 1 existing article. The overall result in this year is 20 organized editing weekends with participation of 16 different users who have contributed with an outcome of 290 newly created and 26 improved articles and 7 created templates.

Wikipedia lectures with children at social risk

After a month of negotiations and talks with the Macedonian minister of Labor and Social Work Mrs. Mila Carovska, the director of the Institution of children at social risk "25 of May" Violeta Masevska and the chief tutor and teacher of the house in Vlae neighborhood of Skopje, Gabriela Jovanovska, on 7^th of December we have started with the first Wikipedia lecture with the children at social risk who are living in groups of 5 children in six private houses in Skopje since September 2018 as a new reform in the child care system for this category of children. The first activity included one and a half hour of basic instruction and working on computer where the 5 children have created 6 new articles about items of school kit such as eraser, pencil sharpener, paperclips etc. This activity fit in the regular daily activities program of the houses which have computer with internet used by the children who are doing homework, reading books, doing sports, play games and learn handcrafts under surveillance and with help of 5 tutors in the house. At the end of the activity which was really enthusiastically accepted by the children all of them were given gifts consisted of the items of school kit. This successfully conducted pilot activity will be used as a pattern for the broader project of Wikipedia lectures intended for the children in social living in the other houses which will be implemented throughout the next year. The partnership with the ministry of labor in this activity will have a multiple benefit not just in expanding the knowledge of Wikipedia and enlarging the community but also providing help to many categories of people in the society who can be provided with help, support and benefit by having been introduced to this kind of knowledge and skill which is very useful in the modern information society. Moreover, this would be of benefit towards the trustworthiness of Wikipedia as a socially aware, caring and contributing brand in the society.

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Exhibition:"Poland through photographs"

On 7^th of December 2018, as a result of the cooperation between "Shared Knowledge" - Wikimedia Macedonia and "Wikimedia Poland" and after a months of preparations and establishing contacts with the embassy of Poland, was opened the exhibition of photographs titled "Poland through photographs - in front of the eyes of the Macedonian public ". The celebration of the 100 years anniversary of the re-establishment of Polish independent statehood was another reason for organizing this photographic exhibition in late autumn in 2018. Over 30 visitors who attended the opening ceremony were briefly introduced about the Wikipedia its significance and meaning, the photographic and the general project collaboration between Wikimedia Macedonia and Wikimedia Poland and there was an opening address given by Mrs. Weronika Staniec-Porczyk deputy chief of the diplomatic mission of Poland in Macedonia, after which the audience had the opportunity to see the 20 images of nature landscapes and buildings of the cultural and historical heritage in Poland, which have been chosen as the best qualified pictures on the contest "Wiki Loves Earth" and "Wiki Loves Monument" held in Poland. All of the images have been printed with QR-codes of links of the articles on Macedonian Wikipedia, which have previously created by the Shared Knowledge employees and members of the Macedonian Wikipedia community. The next day, on 8^th of December, in the morning the exhibition was attended by 10 students of Polish language on the Faculty of philology in Skopje who have afterwards participated on the edit-a-thon which was organized on the topics related with Poland. Exhibition of the images lasted for a week in the center for culture "Kočo Racin" in Skopje.

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Edit-a-thon about Poland

On 8^th of December we have held the edit-a-thon on the topics about Poland which is the sixth edit-a-thon in this year regular annual program, excluding two more jointly organized such events. The edit-a-thon was attended by the students of Polish language on the Faculty of Philology "Blaže Koneski" in Skopje who together with their lecturer Natalia Łukomska firstly visited the exhibition "Poland through photographs" and then participated on the edit-a-thon which was organized at the nearby cafe Piazza Liberta. Firstly, the participants whose primary field of study and work is translation have started to created articles about personalities such as writers, historical figures and places and institutions in Poland through the translation tool from the Polish Wikipedia into Macedonian. However, due to the technical difficulties in the use of the translation tool the participants upon a short instruction have shifted and proceed to create and edit content and articles through the visual and source (coding) editor. In the time frame of more than two and a half hours 10 participants have created 21 new articles, which is the second best result of the edit-a-thons regularly held by the annual plan this year that by this ended up with 116 newly created and 13 improved articles by 55 participants in total.

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Editing class at Krume Kepeski Primary School

On 11^th of December we have organized the second editing class within the educational program in the upper classes in Krume Kepeski Primary School in Skopje. The class was held on the optional subject "Research of the Homeland" with the teacher Slobodan Trajkovski who have previously given homework research tasks to the students. This second class was dedicated to archaeological sites in different regions of Macedonia. Due to technical difficulties with computer equipment and internet connection within one hour 8 students have created 10 new articles and improved one which is a considerably good outcome.

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Editing day: Lines of the Skopje Public Transport

On 16^th of December we have held the sixteenth editing day which was attended by 5 users 2 of whom have participated for the first time in such editing activity. This editing day was dedicated on the topic of the bus lines of the Public Transport in the city of Skopje and resulted with 11 newly created articles and 8 newly created templates which makes this editing day the one with the most templates created not just in this year but at general in the entire editing days that have been organized so far.