Wikimedia user groups/Reports/Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska/Annual 2020

Annual 2020
Report

Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska

Welcome to the 2020 Annual Report of the Wikimedia Community of Republic of Srpska!

In front of you is the annual report of the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska for 2020. The report identifies activities implemented in the Republic of Srpska organized by the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska from January 1st to December 31st, 2020.

As before, our organization has sought to contribute to the global Wikimedia movement by expanding the mission and vision of the Wikimedia movement in the Republic of Srpska, in accordance with its capabilities and capacities. All activities are implemented in accordance with the annual work plan and strategy of our organization.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that our work is only possible thanks to the support of our members who contribute to building community and financiers through which our work and our ideas find their way to the final implementation and realization. Thanks to all who are in one way or another who was with us in 2020!

GLAM program

Wiki Ambassador in the National and University Library of Republika Srpska

In the period from February 10 to April 30, 2020*, in cooperation with the National and University Library of Republika Srpska, the project Wiki Ambassador in the National and University Library of Republika Srpska was realized, which is part of the GLAM wiki program in Republika Srpska. The Wiki Ambassador delegated by the Wikimedia Community of Republika Srpska spent five working days in the National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska and in cooperation with employees who were collaborators on the project worked on the digitization of catalogs - historical catalogs of great importance for the Banja Luka region and the entire region of Republic of Srpska. On that occasion, 574 pages of historical content were digitized and placed on the Wikimedia repository within 7 catalogs that were published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. In addition, our volunteer presented the GLAM program to the employees of the institution and during his stay in this institution, in addition to digitizing the content, he worked on training employees to use and work on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

Catalogs:

In addition to the above, special pages and categories have been created on the Wikimedia Commons intended for cooperation with the National and University Library of Republika Srpska - the most important institution of its kind in the country, with which an agreement on further cooperation has been reached.

*Note: After March 10, 2020, the mentioned activities were realized online due to the declaration of a state of emergency and a coronavirus pandemic.

Trace of Soul 2020 - photo-contest

In the period from August 1 to September 30, 2020, a competition in collecting photographs of protected natural and immovable cultural and historical assets of the Republic of Srpska (WLE + WLM) was held. In an effort to maintain continuity in the work and for the Community, despite the collapse caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, to offer various contents to the public, editors, and members, it was decided that the competition be held and adapted to the emergency situation. All activities were realized online. The planned photo tours and the ceremony of announcing the winner were missed due to the security situation.

The competition lasted for two months, and during that time, 666 photographs of protected natural and immovable cultural and historical assets of the Republic of Srpska were uploaded. 47 photographers took part in the competition. This year's competition was marked by an increase in the number of participants - professional photographers, as well as an increase in the number of protected areas and monuments whose photos have not been available on Wikimedia projects so far.

The Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska, as before, provided all the necessary technical support necessary for the smooth implementation of the competition - from the preparatory to the final phase of the project. In addition to the above, the project has attracted a lot of public attention and, thanks to good cooperation with the media, has taken a satisfactory position in the media space. In addition, all tourist organizations in the country have on several occasions, sharing information about the competition, invited the public to take part in the photo competition Trace of Soul 2020.

An expert jury composed of the most eminent experts from relevant fields selected the 20 most beautiful photos of the photo competition Trace of Soul 2020. The photos were divided into two categories - Natural and Stationary Cultural Heritage.

Top 10: Cultural heritage

Top 10: Natural heritage

Community activities

Wikipedia birthday celebration

On January 15, 2020, in Višegrad, the Wikipedia birthday was organized by the Wikimedia community of Republic of Srpska. In addition to the members of the community, the ceremony was attended by representatives of the institutions from the area of Višegrad and Foča with which we had realized cooperation - professors and assistants from the faculties with whom we cooperated, as well as representatives of GLAM institutions. In addition to thematic conversations in the pleasant atmosphere, we have agreed on the future cooperation and our relations with the representatives of the mentioned institutions have been strengthened.

Meet Srpska

Meet Srpska 2019 - Photo tour

The photo tour planned by the project Meet Srpska 2019 has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the declaration of a state of emergency in the country. Instead, we adapted the planned activities to the situation. Through a public call, we have invited those interested to upload photos of the sights of Republika Srpska to Wikimedia Commons. In addition, an agreement was reached on cooperation with the Tourist Organization of the municipality of Rogatica and Tourist Organization of the city of Doboj, which in cooperation with the photo club Doboj uploaded photos of different parts of the Republic of Srpska, which are available on Wikimedia Commons. A total of 155 photos were posted.

Meet Srpska 2020

In the period from October 15 to November 15, 2020, a competition in writing articles was held on Wikipedia in the Serbian language - Meet Srpska 2020.

Meet Srpska 2020 is a project of the Wikimedia Community of Republic of Srpska on Wikipedia in the Serbian language on topics related to the Republic of Srpska. The main goals of the competition are to expand and enrich Wikipedia with content related to the Republic of Srpska.

In addition to activities on Wikipedia in Serbian, activities in writing articles are organized on Wikipedia in Arabic, Macedonian and Greek, through cooperation with local Wikimedia organizations - Wikimedia User group of Greece, Edu team of Hashemite University, GLAM Macedonia.

During the first part of the realized activities, 90 new articles were created and supplemented on the Serbian Wikipedia. As part of the editorial workshop, 14 new articles were created on the Macedonian Wikipedia and 4 articles in Arabic.

In addition to the above, the project plans an editorial workshop that will be implemented in January 2021 in accordance with the recommendations regarding the covid-19 pandemic.

World War II… 75 Years After

The worsening of the epidemiological situation caused changes in the planned activities. The community was faced with great challenges on how to continue continuity in work and to adapt to numerous limitations. In July, the community proposed the project named World War II… 75 Years After. The project is all about 75 years since the end of the deadliest episodes in human history. Over 60 countries took part in the 6-years long military conflict. World War II took over 50.000.000 lives, and more than 35.000.000 were wounded. Many of them lost their lives after the war. Hundreds of battles were fought on dozens of fronts. Thousands of buildings were demolished and hundreds of new ones built. Despite that, life was renewed and continued after this catastrophe of global proportions. New ideas, new movements - new history were born. We have proposed an initiative to the global community to get involved and to use the month of September for marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with a series of Edit-a-Thons and competitions dedicated to this topic. This project was not originally planned in our Annual play. It was the ad-hoc initiative, with no spent, and the results are great! The initiative was accepted by GLAM Macedonia, Wikimedia Armenia, Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, Wikimedians of Bashkortostan User Group, Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska, Wikipedia Education program at the Hashemite University, and Women in Red. The results of the initiative are: 7 local organizers (chapters, user groups, etc..), 519 new articles, 91 participants, 477 photos of monuments dedicated to the victims of World War II to Wikimedia Commons, and two GLAM collaborations in which one book of 224 pages was digitized, 18 photographs were released and one lecture was held to the staff.

Globally, we have provided logistics and support to interested organizers. In addition to the initiative itself, we launched a page dedicated to the project and created templates on Meta. Also, we proposed several models of project implementation and offered logistical support. We also monitored the course of project implementation and summarized the results. In addition to regular communication on the mailing list, we also wrote blog posts.

At the local level, we organized several activities with the limits due to the pandemic. Activities were directed in three directions: Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, GLAMs, and internal things. On Serbian Wikipedia, we launched the edit-a-thon (including all preparations, monitoring, and reporting). We managed to organize cooperation with two GLAM institutions. Our GLAM coordinator organized online lectures to the staff of the National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska and the Museum of Old Herzegovina. Employees are informed of the concept of our projects and Wikimedia projects. Thanks to these actions, we achieved two symbolic cooperation and agreed to continue cooperation in future projects. From the Museum of Old Herzegovina, we got 28 photos of WWII and with the National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska, we worked on the digitization of the book and its uploading on Commons. Last but not least, our third area of activity was reporting, writing community blog posts, communicating with the community, analyzing data, monitoring activities, and so on.

Competitions on Wikipedia

After the declaration of a state of emergency in the country and the COVID-19 pandemic, the community, in cooperation with volunteers, revised the work plan in order to maintain continuity in work and avoid stagnation. In agreement with the WMF, a redistribution plan was made and approved. Competitions on Serbian Wikipedia are part of a new, revised plan.

In the period from 22.4 to 30.6.2020, five competitions in writing and supplementing articles were held on the Serbian Wikipedia, organized by the Wikimedia community of the Republic of Srpska. The competitions were organized after the approval of the request for redistribution of funds due to the declaration of an emergency situation caused by the coronavirus. The community tried to maintain continuity in its work, so all the planned activities were adjusted to the situation and as such realized online.

In an effort to attract as many editors as possible to participate in the competitions, we tried to diversify the thematic frameworks, which had a positive impact on the editors of Wikipedia and the Wikipedia community. The realized competitions were focused on the following: Biographies of famous women, Living world of waters, Cities of the world, Theater and Sports. A total of 494 new ones were written, 74 supplemented by 77 participants.

The competitions were well received by the Wikipedian community, which showed a willingness to respond to new challenges and continue working.

Competitions on Wikipedia - Tradition and customs

During December Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska organized a competition on Wikipedia.

It was a competition that aimed to enrich Wikipedia with content related to tradition and customs. Competition in writing articles - Tradition and customs is a competition that aims to enrich Wikipedia with content related to tradition and customs. Preservation of tradition is reflected through the nurturing of old crafts, traditional cuisine, folk customs, written words, songs, games, and music. The thematic scope of the competition refers to traditions and customs from all parts of the world.

12 competitors took part in the competition. 71 articles were created, and 11 articles were added. The second part of the project - the online workshop will be realized by February 10 in cooperation with local partners.

Action - DID YOU KNOW?

After declaring a global pandemic and the impossibility to implement the planned activities live, the Community tried to adapt its activities to the situation and adapt all activities to another format - online work. In addition to the realized competitions and activities on Wikipedia, we focused on the promotion of free knowledge through our social networks. An action was organized under the symbolic name - "Did you know ...?" within which we shared various interesting things in the form of posters with the public on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) every day for a month, noting that the complete content on this topic is available on Wikipedia - on the given link that we also shared with posters. The range of topics was different - from medicine to astronomy. Thanks to this action, the followers were able to read various interesting things - when and how the first blood transfusion was performed, what Leonardo da Vinci was known for, what a termination shock is, and the like. The action was well-received by the target group. According to our statistics, the number of views of selected pages on the Serbian Wikipedia was increased, as well as the interaction with followers on social networks.

1Ref1Lib

For the first time, the Wikimedia community of Republika Srpska will take part in the 1Ref1Lib project. During December, preparations for the beginning of the project were made, which will last on the Serbian Wikipedia from January 15 to February 5. In addition to local partners - libraries from the Republic of Srpska, cooperation has been agreed with Serbian Wikimedia. The project will be realized in cooperation with the mentioned Wiki organization on Wikipedia in the Serbian language.

Meetings

During the designated period, 89 meetings were held within the Wikimedia community of the Republic of Srpska. All meetings were held online, via the Zoom and Google Meet platforms. In addition to planning and working on project organization, the meetings aimed to build community capacity and maintain existing ones in unenviable circumstances - online. It can be said that the Wikimedia community of the Republic of Srpska managed to withstand the difficult conditions, keep its members together, adjust the program and work plan, and ensure the functionality of the community. In addition to regular meetings, 15 mentoring meetings were held during which new members were trained to work on Wikimedia projects, as well as community projects. In the specified period, three members, with the provision of appropriate support, independently organized and implemented their first projects.

Media

During the specified period, cooperation with the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as before, was at a satisfactory level. The projects of the Wikimedia community of Republic of Srpska have found themselves in the media space 117 times through the written media, guest appearances on radio and TV shows of various formats.