Don Wikimedians User Group/Report 2018
2018 Event
edit26-01-2018 Graduates and Mentors of the Rostov oblast in Wikipedia
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On 26 January 2018 a start of the international article-writing contest Learn about Russia. Graduates and Mentors was announced. The competition is dedicated to creating and improving Wikipedia biographic articles about mentors and graduates of Soviet and Russian educational institutions. Don Wikimedians User Group together with public organizations of Rostov oblast will award special prizes to 3 authors of the largest number of best articles about mentors and graduates of education institutions that were or are placed in the Don region.
30-01-2018 Members of the Don Wikimedians User Group visited the Civic Chamber of Russia
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Wikimedia projects editors met with members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for the first time in history on 30 January 2018. Participants of the meet-up discussed their activities, described to each other their projects and outlined the further ways of cooperation. Don Wikimedians User Group was represented by Dmitry Zhukov, who told to the members of the Civic Chamber about Wikipedias in various languages of Russia. He noticed the significance of the Russian Wikipedia for the post-Soviet countries: residents of these countries not only read Russian Wikipedia, but also actively contribute to it. According to Dmitry Zhukov, Russian language remains to be one of the means of international communication and is used by Wikimedians at the international level.
28-02-2018 Lecture in the Gorky Volgograd Oblast Library
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A seminar was held in the Gorky Library in Volgograd city during the Project trends: from ideas to realization conference. Representatives of the librarians community of Volgograd oblast were told about the importance of open access to information and specifics of usage of open licenses in library activities. Wikimedians told to the librarians that Russian libraries store huge amount of documents in public domain (e. g. their copyright has expired), and large regional libraries can store unique materials absent due to one or another reason in the largest national libraries of Russia. Currently, these materials are almost inaccessible to most of the Russian speakers in Russia or abroad, and their publication in open access could broaden the horizons of the Russian cultural space.
19-05 World Cup 2018 information volunteers olympics
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On May 19 2018 in Rostov-on-Don, in Southern Federal University premises (Philology and journalism faculty) there was held a first Russian olympics for pupils completely devoted to Wikipedia editing. Joint efforts by Don wikimedians user group, Ministry of Education of Rostov region, and several NGOs resulted in large-scale event, that was attended by 17 school teams from Rostov-on-Don and Rostov region. In general more than 150 new users contributed to Wikipedia. The organizes tried to reach two aims: to test a new approach to learn foreign languages by translation of Rusian Wikipedia articles into other language editions of Wikipedia with further improvements in direct contact with native speakers working in those Wikipedias, and to add as more articles about Rostov region tourist attractions into these Wikipedias, that should attract more tourists before anticipated flow of visitors to World Cup 2018. As a result, more than 200 articles were written and nore that 150 new uses joined Wikipedia.
26-05 Know Russia. Graduates and mentors contest results.
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On May 26 2018 there were decided winners in large scale Know Russia. Graduates and mentors contest, that was organized in several language editions of Wikipedia. The contest is devoted to writing and improving bio articles about mentors and graduates of Soviet and Russian universities and other institutes. It was organized by Wikimedia RU, Don wikimedias user grous and Don regional NGO "Association of citizens of honor, mentors and gifted youth". The result was 1775 biographic articles created in 5 official UN languages, plus in German and Japanese. Also educational institutions and NGOs with help of Rostov region authorities created a lot of reliable sources that was used by the contestants. Most articles – 430 – were about Don region inhabitants. The contest was supported by the Committee for science, education and culture of Council of Federations, Ministry of Foreing Affairs of Russia, governors of several Russian regions.
31-05 Don wikimedians user group participated pan-european Wikimedia CEE Spring 2018 contest
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In march 2018, Don wikimedians user group decided to participate annual pan-european Wikimedia CEE Spring 2018 contest, when durin 2 months wikimedians from Central and Eastern Europe write articles about each others' cultural and historic heritage. Hence there was formed a words list table to write articles about Don region. Also wikimedians from Don wrote articles about heritage of other contesting countires in Russian. As a result, 150 Don-related article were created. The experience was found quite positive and further cooperation within Wikimedia CEE decieded.
13-06 "How to write a Wikipedia article in English, German, or French in 8 steps" webinar for pupils
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On June 13 2018 Dmitry Zhukov of Don Wikimedians user group drove an interactive webinar how to write a Wikipedia article on Rostov region touristic attraction in English, German, or French in 8 steps. It was attended by 45 putipls from schools with enchanced studying of foreign languages from all over the Rostov region. The idea of the webinar came because some settlements are quite distant from Rostov-on-Don, 360 km and more. The webinar took about 3 hours, it was Wikipedia editing under mentorship. The result was 20 full-fledged articles in English and German. Also Pupils got practical experience of editing Wikipeda and knowledge about Wikimedia movement and projects.
30-07 Know Russia. World Cup 2018 cities and regions.
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On July 30 2018 there were decided winners in Know Russia. World Cup 2018 cities and regions contest, devoted to wring articles in all languages and downloading free images about objects and attractions of Russian regions participating in World Cup 2018. The visionaries of the contest were Don wikimedians user group and the Public chamber member Leonid Shafirov; it was organized by Wikimedia RU. There were special prizes for authors writing about Don region atrractions. The result is 2200 articles of attractions of these regions, and more 16 800 photos of these regions. 361 articles in 8 languages were written about Rostov region attractions. There were 64 authors due to information campaign, that included seminars (including one in Rostov-on-done) and webinars before the contest.
1-11 Know world. Start with twin towns
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On November 1 2018 there was started a Know world. Start with twin towns contest, devoted to articles on attractions of cities and regions for Russia and their foreign sister or partner territories. It was organized by Don Wikimedians user group and Wikimedia RU, with support of Rostov region NGOs. There is a special Rostov region prize. There will be winners who wrote most articles in two categories – one category in Russian, the second one in other languages. The contest page was translated in 9 international lagnuages. Several seminars and webinars are planned.
12-12 The digital openness of objects of Russian cultural heritage by regions rating created
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In December 2018 Don wikimedians decided to create a The digital openness of objects of Russian cultural heritage by regions rating, in which Russian regions are weighted according to their openness and participating if Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikivoyage. Its aim is to allow volunteers to work more effectively with local authorities, and should lead to signifcatnt help to Wikimedians, namely for Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves contests. Also it should help to persuade regional authorities to release the information fulfilling the law and other obligations.