Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Eesti/2013

Below is the Wikimedia Eesti annual report for the year 2013.

Divisions 1-4 contain information concerning the structure and divisions 5-11 present the activities of Wikimedia Eesti in the year 2013.

As an addendum a link directing to the overview of the media coverage of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Eesti in Estonian media has been added to present report.

General information

Wikimedia Eesti is a registered non-profit charitable association run in accordance with Estonian law and legislature and its own Bylaws.

Wikimedia Eesti was founded on the 25th of July 2010 and officially registered on the 6th of October 2010.

Subsequent to the decision of Estonian Tax and Customs Board on the 27th of March 2012, Wikimedia Eesti was declared a tax deductible non-profit organization retroactively from the 1st January 2012.

Chapter structure

General structure

Wikimedia Eesti chapter consists of members, who have the highest decisive power through the general assembly. The number of the members of the association is not limited. The general assembly has a quorum if more than one-half of the members or their representatives participate in the general assembly.

General assembly appoints the members of the executive board of Wikimedia Eesti for 2-year term. The board consists of at least 3 members. At least 3 members of Wikimedia Eesti can form a regional department, i.e. a division. Wikimedia Eesti has its own bookkeeping.

General assembly appoints at least 2 members of the organisation, who do not participate in the executive board, to carry out the auditing of the organisation.

Executive Board

Board members

We started the year 2013 with an executive board consisting of 3 members.

During the year there were no changes in board membership and as of the 31st of December 2013, Wikimedia Eesti has 3 board members.

Board meetings

The board held 36 meetings altogether (9th January, 16th January, 23rd January, 30-31st January, 5th February, 12th February, 19th February, 25th February, 20th March, 26th March, 3rd April, 24th april, 27th april, 2nd May, 28th May, 3rd June, 14th June, 27th June, 23rd July, 27th August, 3rd September, 10th September, 17th September, 24th September, 26th September, 8th October, 15th October, 22nd October, 29th October, 5th November, 12th November, 19th November, 26th November, 3rd December, 11th December, 17th December).

Important board discussions

During the year 2013 the board of Wikimedia Eesti discussed:

1. issues related to documentation and reporting, including the questions regarding the translation of documents (English to Estonian and vice versa),
2. questions related to grant applications and grant reporting and other funding-related topics,
3. possible process of professionalization,
4. ongoing and future programs, including introducing program leads,
5. measurement of the success of the projects, including carrying out of different types of surveys for informational purposes,
6. different policies to be adopted,
7. exclusion of non-active members,
8. 2014 annual agenda and budget.

Important board decisions

In the end of January, it was decided that Wikipedia Visionconference that was to be held on the 15th March would be cancelled.

In June, it was decided that the seminar of Fenno-Ugric Wikipedias will be postponed to the summer of 2014.

On the 17th of September, the personal strategy of Wikimedia Eesti was approved.

On the 24th of September, the travel policy of Wikimedia Eesti was approved.

On the 14th of October, the board of Wikimedia Eesti signed contracts with its first employees: board assistant and project writer.

On the 19th of November, it was decided that Estonian NGO code of ethics will be followed in the actions of Wikimedia Eesti.

Members

Number of members

Wikimedia Eesti started the year 2013 with 31 members and 2 new members joined the organization during the year. As of the 31st of December 2013, Wikimedia Eesti has 33 members.

General assemblies

In total, 2 general assemblies were held in 2013.

The first took place on the 2nd of March in Tallinn in the rooms of Estonian Maritime Museum. 14 members were present and 7 members were represented. The financial report of fiscal year 2012 was approved, the annual report of 2012 and the annual plan for 2013 was revisioned. It was decided that the auditing division will continue with 2 members and one of them was replaced.

For further information see the page in Estonian.

The second general assembly gathered on the 17th of August in Tallinn in the rooms of University of Tallinn. 11 members were present and 6 members were represented. The general assembly discussed the activities of the year 2013, strategic planning of Wikimedia Eesti, the professionalization process and news of the Wikimedia movement. For further information see the page in Estonian.

Meetings

End of the year meeting of members from Tartu on the 19th of December.

End of the year meeting of members from Tallinn on the 20th of December.

Employees

In April, the decision was made to begin with the professionalization process of Wikimedia Eesti. This decision was approved by the general assembly on the 17th of August. On the 7th of September, Wikimedia Eesti publicly announced the opening of two positions in the organization. 70 candidates applied and on the 14th of October, Wikimedia Eesti signed its first employees: board assistant and project writer.

In November 2013 Estonian Ministry of Education and Science approached Wikimedia Eesti to initiate a pilot of wikipedization of the research writings of the students of Estonian secondary schools. On the 30th of November Wikimedia Eesti signed temporary contracts with a trainer (full-time) and coordinator (half-time) for this project.

As of 31st of December, Wikimedia Eesti still employed the above-named employees.

Throughout the year 2013, Wikimedia Eesti contracted professional bookkeeping services.

Infrastructure

Office

In the beginning of the year 2013, Wikimedia Eesti rented an office space in Domus Dorpatensis, a local NPO hub in Tartu with an aim to have the space for weekly board meetings as well as our assets. During the renting process, it became clear that the office space was not suitable for the needs of the organization and the contract was cancelled in the end of March. From April, Wikimedia Eesti has no office and the board meetings are being held and the assets are being stored where possible. Nevertheless, the official post address of Wikimedia Eesti is still Domus Dorpatensis.

As of the 31st of December 2013, Wikimedia Eesti has no permanent office.

Financial report

The financial year of Wikimedia Eesti starts on the 1st of January and ends on the 31st of December.

The financial report of Wikimedia Eesti for the year 2013 can be found here.

Long-term projects

Digitization of Estonian literature for Wikisource

The objective of the project is to digitize copyright-free Estonian literature in Estonian Wikisource(Vikitekstid)

In the year 2013, we concentrated on the work and especially translations of the renowned Estonian writer Anton Hansen (pseud. Tammsaare).

Tartupe(e)dia

Tartupeedia is a project shaped after the example of Monmouthpedia and has as its object a profound and diverse representation of the city of Tartu in Wikipedia.

During the year, several content-related competitions were held, including a big Tartupedia photo competition with smaller sub-competitions on the anniversary of Estonian Republic and in October and two article competitions concerning the literary history and theatre history of the city of Tartu. For further information regarding the competitions, see the relevant sub-section below.

Wikimedia Eesti also held meetings with the mayor of Tartu, the management of the Sports Museum, Tartu City Library, and community associations of Karlova and Supilinn (districts of Tartu) to discuss possible co-operation in the Tartupedia project.

Wikimedia Eesti also operated a mirror site http://www.tartupeedia.ee.

Co-operation of Fenno-Ugric Wikipedias

Fenno-Ugric cooperation is a project aiming to find solutions to small Fenno-Ugric Wikipedia's problems in a joint effort and to ameliorate the content concerning lesser Fenno-Ugric cultures and languages in Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian, as well as in major Wikipedias.

A joint seminar with Wikimédia Magyarország and Wikimedia Suomi and the representatives of small Fenno-Ugric Wikipedias was planned to take place in summer of 2013 but was postponed to the summer of 2014 by a board decision in June 2013.

Covering Latvia in Estonian Wikipedia

Latvia 100 is a project which consists of two stages: first, creating a list of 100 most important articles on Latvia that Estonian Wikipedia should definitely have, and second, to write and improve those articles to some decent, informative level.

In the year 2013, one expedition was made from the 31st of August to the 1st of September. For further information see the blog post in Estonian and relative category in the Commons.

Bringing Estonian science to Wikipedia

Bringing Estonian science to Wikipedia is a project for creating in Estonian Wikipedia biographical articles about most of Estonian scientists.

Though in several other countries it is not unusual to have the content of lexicons donates to Wikipedia, in the end of 2012 we had our first donation in Estonia: by our agreement with the Estonian Association for History and Philosophy of Science, we organize the transfer and melding of the contents of four-volume "Biographical Lexicon of Estonian Science" into Wikipedia. This includes about 8000 articles, 6000 of which will be new.

QRpedia

QRpedia project debuted with the joint exhibition of winning photos of Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 competitions of Estonia and Petersburg, exposed from the 16th of April to 16th of May 2012 in the Museum of Narva.

On the 8th of June 2012 Estonian Sports Museum started using QRpedia system in their permanent exhibition, being the first institution to use QRpedia system in Estonia. During the year 2013, no QR-codes were installed, but the plan is to continue the project with the aid of the City of Tartu and local enterprises.

Education

Wikipedia in schools

Several meetings were held with the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Estonia, and on the 18th of December, a contract was signed to carry out a pilot of wikipedization of the research writings of the students of Estonian secondary schools. Two employees, a trainer and coordinator, were hired by Wikimedia Eesti to carry out the project activities. Pilot includes quality work, creation of learning materials and building-up a school network for future projects. The end date for the pilot project is the 30th of June 2014.

Wikipedia in universities

In the framework of the biggest lecture course in the Department of Natural Sciences and Technology in University of Tartu, run from September to December 2013, students wrote more than 300 articles with a minimal length of 8000 characters. Also about 170 articles on the languages of the world were edited in November during a course of general linguistics in the University of Tartu. Volunteers of Wikimedia Eesti have been editing those articles constantly and giving feedback to the authors.

Cooperation

Educational cooperation

University of Tartu

Cooperation continued with the University of Tartu. There were several meetings with lectors of the University and several presentations of the possibilities of Wikipedia related collaboration were made for students and lectors of the university. For further information regarding content related activities, see the long-term project Education and its subdivision Wikipedia in universities.

University of Tartu also provided a special prize for WLM (for a photo of the ruins of Tartu Cathedral).

University of Tallinn

Several meetings with the representatives of the University of Tallinn were held discussing the introduction of Wikipedia into the lectures and subjects of the university.

Ministry of Education and Science

On the 26th of March, a meeting was held with the Minister of Education and Science to discuss the possibilities to include Wikipedia-related activities in Estonian school programs. This meeting was followed by a meeting with sceptical specialists of the Ministry on the 26th of June.

At a meeting on the 13th of November with the chancellor and councillor of the Ministry, it was decided that Wikimedia Eesti will get an allocation of 27,000 euros to carry out a pilot of wikipedization of the research writings of the students of Estonian secondary schools. The contract was signed on the 18th of December.

Tartu Art School

Possible cooperation with Tartu Art School was discussed with the representatives of the school and it was decided that in the year 2014 the school will actively participate in the activities of the illustration project of Wikimedia Eesti.

GLAM cooperation

Libraries

Several trainings for libraries were held, including a bigger workshop on the 18th of October in Tallinn Central Library. There is also continued collaboration with the Tartu City Library.

Archives

On the 25th of October, a contract was signed with the theatre of Vanemuine in Tartu for transferring the photos from the photo archive of the theatre to the Commons and integrate them into related Wikipedia articles.

Museums

A collaboration with the Tartu Art Museum was started in the September and several meetings were held to discuss the transfer of the photos of the resources of the museum to the Commons. On the 14th of November, a joint letter was submitted to the Ministry of Culture of Estonia to begin a dialogue concerning the free publication of museum materials.

On the 26th of September, a workshop was held in the Printing museum of Tartu.

International cooperation

Estonian-Armenian Wikipedia cooperation

December of 2013 was a cooperation month of Estonian and Armenian Wikipedias (See the project page in Estonian and the project page in Armenian).

In the Estonian Wikipedia, 15 participants created 77 new articles and improved 28 articles. In the Armenian Wikipedia, 17 users created or edited 422 articles.

NPO Fenno-Ugria

Meeting with the representatives of NPO FennoUgria on the 27th of July to discuss the organization of the seminar of Fenno-Ugric Wikipedias.

Wikimaps

On the 8th of August, the OpenStreetMap actives from Estonia, Finland, Russia, Belarus and Poland were gathered in the main building of Tartu University (See the blog post of Wikimedia Suomi) . Wikimedia Eesti will continue its participation in the Wikimaps Nordic project of Wikimedia Suomi (WM FI) in 2014.

Other cooperation

Estonian Association for History and Philosophy of Science

Based on the agreement between Wikimedia Eesti and the Estonian Association for History and Philosophy of Science, we will transfer and integrate the contents of the four-volume "Biographical Lexicon of Estonian Science" into Wikipedia. For more information, see the long-term project Bringing Estonian Science to Wikipedia.

In the framework of this cooperation, a representative of Wikimedia Eesti participated in the board meeting of the association and also in a round table with the representatives of NPO Entsüklopeedia, Estonian Association for History and Philosophy of Science and Estonian Academy of Sciences on the 25th of March.

City of Tartu

Several meetings were held with the representatives of the City of Tartu to discuss the future of the Tartupedia project and related competitions.

Eesti Loodus

Wikimedia Eesti continued with its own category “Protected Areas of Estonia” in the 2013 Eesti Loodus (Estonian Nature) magazine photo competition. A total of 20 photos were submitted to the category.

On the 17th of September, a meeting was held with the chief editor of Eesti Loodus to discuss future collaboration regarding the Wiki Loves Earth photo competition and digitization together with the Estonian Naturalists Society.

Cultural Heritage Year team

The year 2013 was Cultural Heritage Year in Estonia and on the 10th of May, possible cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Year team was discussed regarding the Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 photo competition.

Competitions

Photo competitions

Wiki Loves Monuments

The competition was open from the 1st to the 30th of September 2013 and it had 66 participants contributing 1563 photos. This year, the competition was organized with the help of the Cultural Heritage Year Team, the City of Tartu, and the National Heritage Board of Estonia. There were various prizes from the State Forest Management Center, Sports Center of Tabasalu, Maaleht and Sangaste Rye House.

The Prize ceremony was held on the 16th of November in the Estonian Museum of Architecture, together with the opening of the itinerant exhibition of the winning photos of the Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 competition.

For further information see the blog post in Estonian and the project page on Estonian Wikipedia.

Wikimedia Eesti operates also public domain http://wikilovesmonuments.ee/.

Science photo competition 2013

Wikimedia Eesti’s annual science photo competition ran from the 1st October to the 14th of November 2013. A total of 130 photos were contributed. The organization of the competition was sponsored by Estonian Ministry of Education and Science. Prizes included annual journal subscriptions, kayak hike and different publications.

The prize ceremony took place in AHHAA center in Tartu on the 14th of December.

For further information see the project page in Estonian.

HELP 4

The fourth annual Wikimedia Eesti nature photo competition was held from the 1st to 30th of November 2013. Results: 540 photos from 21 participants.

For further information see the project page on Estonian Wikipedia and also the blog post in Estonian.

Tartupe(e)dia photo competitions

On the 23rd and the 24th of February, a photo competition to celebrate the 95th anniversary of Estonian Republic was held. 6 authors participated with 52 photos.

From the 29th of April to the 5th May, the Tartu Student Days photo competition took place. 18 photos were contributed.

From the 19th of July to the 28th of July, the photo competition of Tartu Hanseatic Days took place. A total of 125 photos were contributed.

Until the 31st October, the big Tartu photo competition was open. A total of 611 photos were added to the Wikimedia Commons.

For further information see the project page in Estonian Wikipedia and also the category in Commons.

Eesti Loodus photo competition

One of the best-known annual nature photo competitions in Estonia is run by Eesti Loodus, the oldest and largest nature and wildlife journal in Estonia. Wikimedia Eesti provided a prize for pictures of nature reserves. The competition was held from the 1st of September to the 1st of October, resulting in 20 photos added to the Wikimedia Commons.

Article competitions

From the 22nd of February to the 21st of April, the annual translation bee was held in cooperation with the European Commission. 38 translators translated a total of 150 articles from 10 languages.

For further information see the project page in Estonian.

From the 1st of March to the 31st of March, a theatre history of Tartu article competition was organized in cooperation with theatres in Tartu as part of the Tartupedia project. A total of 9 participants contributed 16 articles.

For further information see the project page in Estonian.

From the 21st of March to the 10th May, a competition for Denmark-related articles took place. 30 users participated and created or improved a total of 135 articles. The prize ceremony took place on the 29th of May in the framework of Kierkegaard conference in Tartu.

For further information see the project page in Estonian.

From the 1st to the 30th of April, a literary history of Tartu article competition was held as part of the Tartupedia project. 5 participants contributed a total of 11 articles. The prize ceremony took place on the 11th of May as part of the Prima Vista literature festival.

For further information see the project page in Estonian.

An article competition in Võro language in the Võro Vikipeediä was held from the 2nd May to the 2nd June. During this period 9 users contributed 14 articles.

For further information see the project page in Estonian and the blog post in Estonian.

Together with the Tammsaare Museum in Kadriorg and the Tammsaare Museum in Vargamäe, Wikimedia Eesti organized an article competition related to the Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare that took place from 30th of August to 12th of November. 4 users created or edited 13 Tammsaare-related articles during the competition.

For further information see the project page in Estonian.

Itinerant exhibitions

Wiki Loves Monuments 2012

A traveling exhibition of winning and honorably mentioned photos of the Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 contest of Estonia was exhibited in 5 locations in the first half of the year 2013, namely:

In the beginning of January, the exhibition travelled to the Võrumaa Museum.

From the 15th of January to the 17th of February, the photos were exhibited in Tasku center in Tartu.

From the 18th of February to the 8th of March, the exhibition was presented in Põltsamaa Cultural Center.

On the 11th of March, the exhibition was opened in University of Tallinn, where it stayed until 14th of April.

From the 18th of April to the 16th of May, the exhibition was exhibited in Narva fortress.

From the 11th of July to the 31st of August, the exhibition was showcased in Alatskivi castle.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2013

On the 16th of November, the itinerant exhibition of Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 moved to the Museum of Architecture in Tallinn for the prize ceremony. The exhibition ended on the 25th of November and moved to the Tasku center in Tartu with an opening on the 1st of December.

Wikipedia and Wikimedia community events

International

Wikimedia conference

From the 18th of April to the 21st of April 2013, the Wikimedia Conference was held in Milan. Two representatives from Wikimedia Eesti were present. Useful information was acquired and contacts made.

For further information see the conference page on meta.

Wikimania

From the 7th to 11th of August, Wikimania took place in HongKong. There were two representatives from WMEE. We gained a lot of useful contacts, acquired new information and maintained our presence in WCA.

For further information see the homepage of Wikimania 2013.

WMCEE conference

From the 14th to the 17th of October, two representatives from Wikimedia Eesti participated in the WMCEE Conference in Modra. A presentation was made and collaboration possibilities and common problems were discussed.

For further information see the conference page on meta.

Other international participation

From the 6th to the 7th of April, one member of Wikimedia Eesti participated in the conference dealing with the question of possible EU participation of the chapters. See also related blog post in Estonian.

From the 14th to the 16th of June, a board member of Wikimedia Eesti took part in a visit of Estonian NPOs to the European Commission in Brussels. Cooperation with other NPOs and institutions of European Union was discussed. See also the related blog post in Estonian-

From the 21st of June to the 24th of June, a board member of Wikimedia Eesti participated in the international seminar in Budapest, concerning the design and evaluation of Wikimedia programs.

A board member of Wikimedia Eesti visited Ukraine from the 1st to the 3rd November to discuss possible cooperation and to acquire know-how of certain projects (Wiki Loves Earth, audio-video projects).

Local

From the 10th to the 11th of August, the Summer Days of the Estonian Wikipedia community were held on the Isle of Aegna in Estonia with 12 Wikipedians participating. For further information see the project page on Estonian Wikipedia.

Miscellaneous

In April, Wikimedia UK prepared a peer review for Wikimedia Eesti. See the review page on meta.

There were several strategy meetings held throughout the year. Hopefully, the strategic plan of Estonian chapter will be completed in the year of 2014.

After a long quiet period, the newsletter of the chapter (MTÜ Teataja) returned to its regular weekly publication in December 2013.

On the 8th of November, a meeting of Wikimedia Eesti board, employees and volunteers was held to prepare new projects, funding applications.and annual plan for 2014. For further information see the blog post in Estonian.

On the 28th of November, 2 representatives of Wikimedia Eesti were present at the “Voluntary Thursday” in Tartu with the aim of increasing voluntary participation in the activities of the organization.

Addendum: Media coverage

See an overview of the coverage of Wikipedia and the activities of Wikimedia Eesti in Estonian media.