Wikimedia CEE Spring 2023
Wikimedia CEE Spring 2023 continues as an annual event organised by Wikimedians and Wikipedians who joined the Central and Eastern Europe collaboration with an aim to support article creation about every country in the region on every Wikipedia.
Wikimedia CEE Spring aims to join local forces of free knowledge to accumulate and distribute information about history, culture, traditions and people in every corner of the region to support mutual acknowledgement and understanding and to increase the quantity and quality of free knowledge available about the CEE region globally.
Context and Contest
editIn contemporary times the CEE region has experienced several unfortunate en:Spring (season) that have resulted in misunderstandings, conflicts and disappointment (exempli gratia the replacement of en:Alexander Dubček in April of 1969 to reverse the Prague Spring, escalating conflicts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Spring of 1988, intensification of Transnistrian conflict in March of 1992, the beginning of the Siege of Sarajevo in April of 1992, the Spring of 2014 that marked the beginning of the war in Donbass, the revolution in Armenia in the spring of 2018, as well as the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022.
The event itself takes place traditionally from the 21 March until 31 May, but local contests can be shorter depending on the plans of the local organisers. During this time period there will be an individual article competition on hopefully all Wikipedias in the region and many outside of it, concentrating on creating and significantly improving articles in different categories like history, culture and notable people of each and every participating country or region. For more information about article topics, please consult the pages on the article lists.
Local competitions are organised by local teams and in every community the competition will be slightly different in order to take local context into account. Contact data of the local coordinators can be found on the contacts page. Local teams present lists of articles on their country or region which they would like to see in every possible language and editors from all other countries create and significantly edit those articles, whereby participants can write about any topic, connected with the other participating countries in the region.
The more participants, the merrier! If new communities from Central and Eastern Europe join during the spring, local organisers should work on the list of tasks — and have fun!
International organisers
editIf you are interested in joining the international team, please contact one of the volunteers below! We're always happy to welcome new volunteers to team! :-)
| Name | Username | Country | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiril Simeonovski | Kiril Simeonovski | Macedonia | Shared Knowledge |
| Mārtiņš Bruņenieks | Papuass | Latvia | Wikimedians of Latvia User Group |
| Philip Kopetzky | Philip Kopetzky | Austria | Wikimedia CEE Hub |
| Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska | Magalia | Poland | Wikimedia Foundation |
| Masti | Masti | Poland | Wikimedia Polska |
| Z. Blace | Zblace | Croatia, Bosnia&Herzegovina | HBS & multi-lingual projects |
| Farhad Fatkullin | frhdkazan | Russia | Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community, Wikimedia Russia, Tatar Community (WUG TAT) & Turkic Languages Community (WUG TRK) |
Support staff
editStaff members of affiliates or projects that are supporting the international project team in managing the project this year:
- Grant handling and prize funds
- Project planning and communication