CEE/Newsletter/October 2017/Contents/Poland report
Poland report: Conferences, contests and collaborations - from CEE Meeting 2017 to Digital Cultures
editWikipedian in Residence in Museum of The City of Łódź
editThis month we welcomed a new GLAM partnership in Poland - this time with the Museum of The City of Łódź. During the project experienced Wikimedians and students will work hand in hand to create and improve Wikipedia articles around the city history and the every day life, the streets, monuments and buildings and the biographies of notable Łódź residents. The Museum will upload more than 500 unique old photos of the city and it's residents. And during the project there will be a number of Wiki-events organised in the institution - workshops and meetups built around the topic of free culture and Wikipedia.
The work will be curated by museum staff and the newly selected Wikipedian in Residence. The resident position is held by Gytha, who has already worked with The National Museum in Warsaw. The Wikipedia in Faras project she curated there was shortlisted for the Sybilla 2017 prize for the best museum event.
Polish Wiktionary and Wikisource conference - Źródłosłów 2017
editOn the last weekend of October the editors from Polish Wikisource and Wiktionary will meet in Poznań on Źródłosłów 2017 conference. It will be the first time after many years that Polish sister projects will have a separate conference. Last time it was the Sabat meetup in 2010 also in Poznań. This year 18 people (11 Wikisource editors, 4 Wiktionary creators and 3 people who are engaged in both projects) will work together for 2 days. During that time they will work on such issues as working with Wikidata, categorization, word and text recordings etc.
WikiVacations 2017 comes to an end
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Wikimedia Polska photo contest - WikiVacations 2017 - came to an end. The aim of the contest was to gather photographs of Polish monuments, nature and art exhibited in public spaces. Overall 5213 photos were uploaded (which is a slightly better result of 4216 files). The contestants were mostly interested of monuments (more than 4000 files).
The contest was held together with the National Heritage Institute of Poland.
Now the jury consisting of Polish photographers, journalists and Wikimedians starts their work. They will select the 3 best pictures of the whole contest and up to 3 best photos in every category (Monuments, Art and Nature). The winners will receive photographic equipment and acessories of their choice. The jury will also choose 10 best pictures of monuments wich will take part in the international finale of the Wiki Loves Monuments contest.
The results will be known in November
Digital Cultures Conference
editWikimedia were one of the principal guests of the Digital Cultures conference that took place in Warsaw between 25th and 27th September. Hosted by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a state-sponsored institution is tasked with promoting Polish language and culture abroad, the conference offered a rare insight into the digital landscape of Poland and Europe. Most importantly, the panels, presentations and workshops revolved around computer games, digitisation of cultural heritage, modern museums and all things interactive.
During the conference Wikimedia Poland had a chance to present our GLAM projects to representatives of museums, art galleries and archives from all around the world. A team of Wikimedians and WMPL employees organised two lengthy workshops teaching how to start a GLAM cooperation project (complete, with info on how to edit Wikipedia). We also presented one of our most dashing initiatives: the Carpathian Ethnography Project, run jointly by Wikimedia Polska and the State Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw.
Community archives on Wikipedia
editWikimedia and their GLAM projects were one of the main topics of the 2nd Congress of Community Archives organised in Warsaw on 9 September by KARTA Centre (Ośrodek KARTA). It is one of the oldest NGOs in Poland, one of its principal activities is documentation and preservation of documents related to the struggle against dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe. It’s also one of the largest community archives and as such has took on itself the role of leader of such organisations in Poland and in neighbouring countries. The 2nd Congress of Community Archives hosted hundreds of representatives of community archives, often run by NGOs, local public libraries, factories or private persons.
During the event we presented our existing GLAM projects and tried to encourage forming new ones. We also formed a permanent wikiproject devoted to social archives on Polish Wikipedia, and held a series of webinars for those archivists, who could not attend the congress. Our cooperation with KARTA has gained much publicity and was covered by a number of national radio stations, the public television and a couple of journals.
Polish Wikipedia Birthday
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On September 26th Polish Wikipedia had it’s 16th birthday. And because this special day happened during CEE Meeting 2017 we had an opportunity to celebrate this date with the international community of Wikimedians. A birthday party was held on September 22th. It was an open event for which we invited the CEE delegates, local Wikipedians and anyone else who would be interested in singing Happy Birthday for Polish Wikipedia. There were speeches and wishes and a traditional wiki-cake. And all who wanted to pass their wishes to the future generations of Polish Wikipedians could write them in a special wiki-birthday album. And as expected - it’s page was quickly filled with many touching words.
Another celebration took place in Poznań on October 22th where 16 local wikipedians met to have a wiki-cake and some wiki-conversations. The Poznań community has long been the most active local community in Poland, meeting regularly 3 times a year (for Wikipedia Day, Polish Wikipedia birthday and a summer wiki-barbecue).