Wikimedia Czech Republic report 9/2012 - 10/2012

Main events

Community meetings

There were 3 community meetings. One in Brno (11th October 2012) and two in Prague (17th September 2012, 15th October 2012).

The first community meeting on 17th September in Prague was attended by cca 10 wikipedians. They talked mostly about general Wikipedia stuff, the main topic of the evening was the emerging Wikidata project.
The second meeting in Brno (11th October) took place shortly after the "Experts Block" workshop, where Wikipedia was presented by our chairman. The community of cca 10 wikipedians met in the evening. They spoke mostly about the usage of QR codes in Czech Wikipedia and photographic projects of WMCZ.
The third meeting took place in Prague (15th October). 7 wikipedians attended the activity, but no serious topics were discussed.

Board meetings

The board of WMCZ met twice: on 11th September 2012 and 23rd October 2012.

During the first meeting in September 2012 the board tried primarily to solve internal issues in the chapter. Presence of WMCZ representatives on GLAM Camp London and CEE Meeting in Belgrade was also an issue the Board talked about. Preparations for the 2013 budget started. The board also talked about the following Wikiconference and the future of Wikimedium Magazine.
The second board meeting in October 2012 tried to solve several issues, many of which had already been talked in the previous month. Members of the board presented progress in the activities they are responsible for. The board talked about the Wikimedium magazine and its future, the Wikiconference, finished Wiki Loves Monuments and also the summarization of our promotional materials (leaflets etc).

GLAM

Wikimedia Czech Republic started to cooperate with Prague 10 District in order to put infomative plates with QR codes on selected monuments. Thus the qrpeda made its way to WMCZ. This project was inspired by the MonmouthpediA and it drew attention from other municipalities. Prague 3 District is already interested and preparations are underway with the city of České Budějovice.

In October 2012 Czech Television (Česká televize) aired a news report about QR codes and Czech Wikipedia.

A cooperation between Wikimedia Czech Republic and the Geographical Library and Map Collection of the Czech Faculty of Science (CUNI) was initiated. Digitalization of cca 3,000 images (reversal films) from the beginning of the 20th century is about to start.

Students Write Wikipedia

For the 2012/2013 winter semester new activities were initiated. A cooperation with the National Heritage Institute (Národní památkový ústav) commenced. Wiki Loves Monuments was a good start, thanks to the previous cooperation with this institution a education-like programm could follow.

Two ambassadors undertook a projects on the Science faculty of the Charles university (cuni). A cooperation with the University Palackého (upol) in Olomouc is underway. Students are supposed to write theses related to physical education.

Last but not least is the Higher Professional School of Restauration. The cooperation between Students Write Wikipedia and the school aims at the history of crafts.

The Students Write Wikipedia project was presented at the CEE Meeting in Belgrade on 14th October 2012.

Grants (Mediagrant and P&O)

Czech Protected Areas continued in their "Nature Experts" (Experti na přírodu) campaign which is partly hold on Youtube. The campaign was presented in the Respekt, Příroda and Naše Příroda magazines. The CPA project was also mentioned in the Kiss Radio broadcasting.
Czech Municipalities Photo Grant continued in operation during September and October 2012. Several trips to rural areas were made and several hundreds of pictures were taken.
Jewish monuments project continued to operate
Acquisition of scientific photographs project continued in operation

There were some activities of the P&O grant in September and October:

The Students Write Wikipedia project was presented in Olomouc at the Slavic Studies department of the Philosophic Faculty of UPOL, in September.
Wikipedia as a standalone project was presented both in Brno (Expert Block) and Ostrava (City Library) in October 2012 by our chairman.

Other activities

Wiki Loves Monuments

Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 started on 1st September and ended 30th the same month. During the contest more than 15 000 pictures were uploaded to Commons. On 20th October 20 finalist photographs were chosen by a committee (wikipedians + photographers + representatives from the heritage institutions). The winners will be announced on the 4th Czech Wikiconference in November 2012. There was a significant media activity related to the WLM. 2 press releases were published.

Wiki Loves Monuments Czech Republic were fully financed by a grant provided by Česká spořitelna (a local bank of the Erste Bank Group).

Financial literacy day

8th September was the Financial Literacy Day in the Czech Republic. Therefore, a contest aiming to improve Czech Wikipedia articles related to financial topics was scheduled. Starting on the above mentioned day, it continued till November 8. Volunteers had to improve articles from the list (50 articles). It is financially supported by the Partners company.

23rd Book Fair in Havlíčkův Brod

Wikimedia Czech Republic presented Wikipedia and free knowledge at the 23rd Book Fair in Havlíčkův Brod (19-20 October). Wikimedia Czech Republic was present there for the 4th time since 2009. Four members of WMCZ represented our chapter and projects of the WMF.