Grants:APG/Proposals/2020-2021 round 1/Wikimedia Serbia/Progress report form

Purpose of the report

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This form is for organizations receiving Annual Plan Grants to report on their progress after completing the first 6 months of their grants. The time period covered in this form will be the first 6 months of each grant (e.g. 1 January - 30 June of the current year). This form includes four sections, addressing grant metrics, program stories, financial information, and compliance. Please contact APG/FDC staff if you have questions about this form, or concerns submitting it by the deadline. After submitting the form, organizations will also meet with APG staff to discuss their progress.

Metrics and results overview - all programs

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We are trying to understand the overall outcomes of the work being funded across our grantees' programs. Please use the table below to let us know how your programs contributed to the Grant Metrics. We understand not all Grant or grantee-defined Metrics will be relevant for all programs, so feel free to put "0" where necessary. For each program include the following table and

  1. Next to each required metric, list the outcome/results achieved for all of your programs included in your proposal.
  2. Where necessary, explain the context behind your outcome.
  3. In addition to the Global Metrics as measures of success for your programs, there is another table format in which you may report on any OTHER relevant measures of your programs success

For more information and a sample, see Grant Metrics.

Overall

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Participants Newly registered Content pages Usage of multimedia files Partnerships
Education Program
Wikipedia in schools
Accredited seminars
Edu Wiki camp
577 (out of 2,200 planned for a whole year) 513 (out of 1,400 planned for a whole year) 506 (out of 4,000 planned for a whole year) 76 (out of 750 planned for a whole year) 25 (out of 50 planned for a whole year)
GLAM Program
Wiki-librarian
Wikipedian in residence
Wiki Loves GLAMers
108 (out of 250 planned for a whole year) 19 (out of 70 planned for a whole year) 6,356 (out of 2,600 planned for a whole year) 1,008 (out of 1,160 planned for a whole year) 10 (out of 20 planned for a whole year)
Community Support Program
WikiLive
Competitions on Wikipedia
Microgrants
Animation of community
319 (out of 350 planned for a whole year) 41 (out of 100 planned for a whole year) 3,305 (out of 8,500 planned for a whole year) 1,448 (out of 1,750 planned for a whole year) 15 (out of 60 planned for a whole year)
TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 1,004 (out of 2,800 planned for a whole year) 573 (out of 1,600 planned for a whole year) 10,167 (out of 19,000 planned for a whole year) 2,532 (out of 4,500 planned for a whole year) 50 (out of 150 planned for a whole year)

Telling your program stories - all programs

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Please tell the story of each of your programs included in your proposal. This is your chance to tell your story by using any additional metrics (beyond global metrics) that are relevant to your context, beyond the global metrics above. You should be reporting against the targets you set at the beginning of the year throughout the year. We have provided a template here below for you to report against your targets, but you are welcome to include this information in another way. Also, if you decided not to do a program that was included in your proposal or added a program not in the proposal, please explain this change. More resources for storytelling are at the end of this form. Here are some ways to tell your story.

  • We encourage you to share your successes and failures and what you are learning. Please also share why are these successes, failures, or learnings are important in your context. Reference learning patterns or other documentation.
  • Make clear connections between your offline activities and online results, as applicable. For example, explain how your education program activities is leading to quality content on Wikipedia.
  • We encourage you to tell your story in different ways by using videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g.), compelling quotes, and by linking directly to work you produce. You may highlight outcomes, learning, or metrics this way.
  • We encourage you to continue using dashboards, progress bars, and scorecards that you have used to illustrate your progress in the past, and to report consistently over time.
  • You are welcome to use the table below to report on any metrics or measures relevant to your program. These may or may not include the global metrics you put in the overview section above. You can also share your progress in another way if you do not find a table like this useful.
Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Example Example Example Example Example

Overview

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In the first half of the year, Wikimedia Serbia achieved the planned metrics, as well as activities, still keeping in mind the restrictions regarding the prohibition of mass gatherings and precautionary measures. Although the measures are still active, the experience from 2020 enabled us to execute most of the events virtually, via the Zoom platform. The challenge arose during the organization of accredited seminars for teachers, but with good communication, as well as the division of participants into groups, it was overcome. On the other hand, virtual events contributed to the idea of Edu webinar, as well as a series of online thematic community meet-ups, launched for the purpose of encouraging the dialogue between the Wikipedian community and Wikimedia Serbia members, for better connection and understanding, but also for clearer communication.

One of the highlights in the first part of the year is certainly the greater participation of Wikimedia Serbia in regional and international projects. This is one of the goals of the organization, and also a part of our new strategy that has been implemented since the beginning of the year. A greater role in the Wikimedia movement is present within all three programs, both through the organization of the first regional CEE EDU meeting, and through the organization of the 1lib1ref campaign and its popularization in the CEE region. As part of this campaign, the editors of the Serbian Wikipedia achieved the best results. Unprecedented results have been achieved so far with over 17 thousand references entered in a given period. In addition to this, we have participated in and supported projects such as WikiGap and Wiki4HumanRights, and we have also organized an international edit-a-thon on World Roma Day.

We also approached Wikipedia from the scientific side. Two scientific papers have been prepared and published. Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Wikipedia: A Teaching Tool and a Way to Modernize Teaching is an article that presents research on students’ attitudes towards the use of Wikipedia in teaching. The sample consisted of students from the Faculty of Pedagogy in Vranje, University of Nis. The second paper, Women’s Participation in Wikipedia: Cross-Border Balkan Perspective, addresses issues of gender equality, greater representation of women who edit Wikipedia, and more content related to women.

Live events such as Edu Wiki Camp and WikiLive Conference were not held. Having in mind last year's success, the Edu Wiki camp will be held online this year as well, while the decision to maintain WikiLive will be made in the next quarter. In Serbia, the vaccination process is very successful, which is why we hope that live gatherings will be possible in the second half of the year.

Bearing in mind Wikimedia Serbia is always improving programs and introducing innovations, a logical step in the development of GLAM is the greater presence of Wikidata in the program. That is why we worked on popularizing Wikidata through the organization of the project Cultural Heritage on Wikidata, but also through organized training for work on this Wikimedia project. In addition, the GLAM program has experienced expansion this year in terms of associates and partners. Numerous institutions are interested in cooperation in the field of Wikipedian in Residence. An important indicator of the success of this project is the fact that one of the interns got a job at the Belgrade City Library immediately after the end of her engagement in the role of Wikipedian in Residence.

The pandemic has conditioned the international Wiki conferences to be canceled or held online this year as well. Funds in the budget intended for the participation of Wikimedia Serbia representatives at international conferences were redirected to the realization of the Wikipedian in Residence program, while a smaller part was left for hiring an agency for technical maintenance of the Wikimedia Serbia site, which was previously infected with a malware.

  Education Program

Wikipedia in schools

Goal: Introducing Wiki-projects to academic circles

Description: Students write their papers on Wikipedia or other Wiki projects, and in return receive points within their subject exams in school or university.

Accredited seminars

Goal: educating teachers to work independently in order to implement Wiki-projects in their institution

Description: project involves organization of accredited seminars Application of online wiki tools as a didactic means in teaching throughout Serbia. The seminars are accredited by the Institute for Advancement of Education (State Institute for professional development of the teachers) and teachers gain 8 points for professional development by attending it. These seminars are all-day workshop on how to edit Wikipedia and implement it in class. The seminars are designed exclusively for teachers.

Edu Wiki camp

Goal: recruit new Wiki ambassadors and education volunteers and strengthen connections between them

Description: The purposes of this camp are attracting new Wiki ambassadors, additional training of current ones, as well as strengthening the network of education volunteers. Camp program has many different topics, which involves editing Wikipedia training, manners of cooperation with educational institutions, technical skills regarding realization of Education program etc…

  Wikipedia in schools

The Wikipedia in Schools project, which includes Wiki Scholar, Wiki Student, Wiki Pupil and other activities in educational institutions, involves training elementary, high school and college students to edit Wiki projects and write seminal papers on Wikipedia. Due to the nature of the project, the activities included the first semester of the 2020/2021 school year (January) and the entire second semester of the 2020/21 school year (February - June 2021). In the period from January to June 2021, a total of 20 workshops were held in primary and secondary schools, high schools and faculties. The following activities were realized during this period:

  • We continued our activities within the EWOC Community Specialist team, which was formed by the EDU team of Wikimedia Foundation, in order to encourage EDU activities in the CEE region.
  • We participated in organizing the first regional CEE EDU meeting. The aim of the meeting is to connect the region more, to support EDU projects and to exchange experiences. The EDU team has also launched an initiative for regional EDU meetings, including the CEE region.
  • Wikimedia Serbia presented its model of response in education during the coronavirus pandemic. We presented the results and possibilities of using the Educational Program for the purpose of assessing and measuring learning outcomes in secondary and primary schools. The project was presented at the State Seminar of the Mathematical Society of Serbia, in which we wanted to point out to teachers the advantages of using Wiki tools in teaching during the coronavirus pandemic, and thus increase the number of educational institutions that will be involved in our activities. The event was attended by about 50 participants.
  • Wikimedia Serbia came up with an idea to organize the EDU Wiki webinar that would bring WikiData and other Wikipedia sister projects closer to the participants of Edu Wiki camps. The idea arose after the first Online Edu Wiki camp was held, during which the participants gave positive feedback about the event and made a proposal to organize a similar one-day event.
  • We published the paper Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Wikipedia: A Teaching Tool and a Way to Modernize Teaching whose authors are Djordje Stakic, Marija Tasic, Marko Stankovic and Milena Bogdanovic. The paper was published in the monograph Wikipedia: Twenty Years of Free Knowledge, published by the University of Complutense in Madrid. This article presents research on students' attitudes towards the use of Wikipedia in teaching. The sample consisted of students from the Faculty of Pedagogy in Vranje, University of Niš. Students were given the opportunity to write articles on Wikipedia as an alternative to writing their standard seminar papers.

External projects:

  • Volunteering for a strong society - The ultimate goals of the project are to encourage teachers to develop competencies for the implementation of Wikipedia education program in Serbia and to motivate students to develop them further. The project had challenges in the first quarter due to the large number of coronavirus patients and many people were in isolation. An online meeting was attended by around 40 teachers familiar with the project. A second meeting was held in April, attended by 14 teachers. Within the project, two accredited seminars for teachers were held, after which it was agreed to continue cooperation within the Wikipedia in schools project from September 2021 and two more accredited seminars in Gornji Milanovac and Ljig. Also, a category was created on the Wikimedia Commons.
  • Literary treasury in the world of childhood - Its main goal is to enrich the content on Wikipedia related to the school course Introduction to Children's Literature, at the Academy of Educational and Medical Vocational Studies in Krusevac. The project will also develop two-way cooperation between Wikimedia Serbia and teachers and students of the Academy. A virtual lecture about Wikipedia was held, followed by a critical analysis of the existing content on Wikipedia in the field of children's literature and the identification of topics that are missing or need improvement. The project also included editing Wikimedia Commons.
  • Application of online Wiki tools in physics teaching - The ultimate goals of the project are to encourage pupils to create new content and to use the existing one on Serbian Wikipedia during the learning process, all through the implementation and popularization of project teaching, active learning and Wikipedia. A section was formed at the beginning of the second semester, pupils were given topics for the first quarter and they started working on them. A special Google classroom has been opened for each class in which experiences, suggestions and comments are exchanged, and a category has been created on the Wikimedia Commons.
  • Heritage Keepers - The idea of the project is to make secondary school pupils interested to participate in improving articles in the field of cultural heritage of Serbia. The ultimate goal of the project is a proper presentation of our cultural heritage on Wikipedia, with the motivation of future editors through the training of pupils for its practical use. Up to now, three meetings of participants were held, during which they got to know each other, discussed the project and goals, then chose topics to write about. Finally, training was held on editing articles on Wikipedia and posting photos on the Wikimedia Commons.
There is a lot of hope that students will get involved in some Wiki project in the future.
Miloš Todorović
"During 2021, the internship program for students of the Faculty of Philosophy continued, which proved to be the best way of cooperation with the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. As every year so far, a significant number of students were interested. The reason why the internship still works is that in recent years a significant number of students say that they have heard about the internship from older students or that they have seen the invitation on the website of the Faculty several times, but have not had time to participate before. Therefore, it is clear that the longevity of this practice helps us maintain it, because current interns, if they are satisfied, invite others and talk about Wikimedia Serbia and our work. In addition, as part of their internship, they not only train how to edit Wikipedia, but also have a lecture about Wikimedia Serbia, so thus become familiar with our work. There is a lot of hope that they will remember all of this and get involved in some project in the future."

Miloš Todorović, Wiki Ambassador at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade

  Аccredited seminars

In the first half of the year, 5 accredited seminars were held for teachers. Due to the current health situation, three were held online, and two offline when we estimated that the health situation allowed us to hold them respecting all epidemiological measures. Seminars were held at the Institute for Contemporary Education in Belgrade and the Elementary school "Momcilo Nastasijević" in Gornji Milanovac. Wikimedia Serbia has overcome all obstacles thanks to its reliable partnership with the Institute. Тhis cooperation was complemented by the organization of online seminars on the occasion of training teachers to assess learning outcomes in students during the coronavirus pandemic. The aim of the seminar was to promote Wikipedia for educational purposes and use it to give assignments online and to evaluate them. The seminar was followed by 148 teachers via the Internet, throughout Serbia. The result of this seminar was cooperation with the Еlementary school "Vuk Karadžić" from Kruševac.

In addition, Wikimedia Serbia continued to support teachers/professors in order to continue using Wikipedia in teaching. This helped us establish clearer criteria for what kind of target group we want in future seminars, especially in terms of informatics literacy, choice of schools etc.

  Edu Wiki camp

The planned activities on this project were not realized due to the health situation. However, Wikimedia Serbia has decided, after a successful experience from last year, to organize an online version of this event in the period October/November 2021, so specific activities on this occasion will be designed and implemented during July and August 2021.

Successful stories

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Regional integration in the CEE region contributes to better understanding and cooperation

In accordance with the initiative of the EDU team of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Serbia has accepted the invitation to participate in the organization of the first regional CEE EDU Meeting. Due to our active role in the implementation of the Education Program and the implementation of various projects over the past 15 years, we were pleased to participate in this important regional initiative. The benefits of the meeting are evidenced by the large number of associates involved, not only from the region but also beyond. Active discussion during the meeting led to exchange of experience and knowledge between the representatives of EDU programmes. What we have all learned is that regional cooperation is possible, necessary and can be carried out on projects that we are all already implementing. In that sense, this helped us understand that it does not take much for this cooperation to be realized, and that it is necessary to connect the region more. That is why we are determined to continue organizing such meetings in the future.

Continuation of the Edu Wiki camp

Last year's Online Edu Wiki camp proved to be a good enough replacement for a regular camp, which will not be able to be held this year either, due to the health situation. We decided to hold it in a changed format this year also, because we realized that this is the project that brings the most active volunteers and Wiki ambassadors. The Edu Wiki Camp program will be diverse in terms of workshops and lectures. The focus will be on getting to know the participants through various activities (energizers, team building activities, etc.) and on referring participants to the Education Program of Wikimedia Serbia and the possibility of their engagement within various projects within this program. We realized that it is crucial to strengthen the set of lecturers with Wiki Ambassadors and Edu Wiki Volunteers in order to increase the dynamics of the camp that is held over the Internet. Another lesson learned is to make extensive use of available online tools that increase interactivity, which we will continue to use this year as well. The fact that the project fulfilled its goal is also evidenced by the fact that ideas for organizing similar events have emerged, and Wikimedia Serbia plans to make an example of good practice that can be applied in other countries and environments.

Challenges and lessons learned

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Edu Wiki webinar

The idea to organize the Edu Wiki webinar came from the participants of the first online Edu Wiki camp due to their desire to get acquainted with our programs and projects, and the focus should have been on CC Licenses and Wikidata. Encouraged by the large number of expressed interests in this event, we wanted to realize it at the beginning of 2021, taking care not to overlap with other obligations that students may potentially have, such as exam deadlines. This is something that we learned from our previous experiences. However, when we entered the process of organizing and interviewing potential participants, we did not find an adequate response. Therefore, the event was postponed for another occasion. Analyzing the reasons for that, we realized that the webinar was planned close to other online events that we organized, and that there was probably an oversaturation of participants. Another potential reason was that we may have limited the target group too much by inviting only former camp participants, in our desire to reunite them and maintain contacts. We will definitely extend the invitation to all interested volunteers and students and apply the lessons learned the next time we try to organize it at the end of 2021.

 GLAM Program

Wiki Loves GLAMers

Goal: Achieving cooperation with cultural institutions in order to increase the corpus of free knowledge, to create and improve the access to the cultural and historical heritage on the Internet, i.e. on Wiki projects.

Description: Release of materials by the institutions and individuals, digitization of content, organization of edit-a-thons and other similar activities.


Edit-a-thons

Goal: Increasing the content on Wikipedia on certain topic, in collaboration with culture institutions, that provide quality literature, or sources for creating articles.

Description: Joint work of volunteers and GLAM employees who edit articles on Wikipedia on a particular topic within one or more days. Cultural institutions provide literature and release materials for the illustration of written and improved articles.


Wikipedian in Residence

Goal: Establishing various forms of cooperation with cultural institutions, digitization and release of different types of files, education of employees on free knowledge and free culture.

Description: One month engagement of a Wikipedian in one of the GLAM institutions. That person is working on digitizing, promoting the Wikimedia mission among employees, training staff for working on Wiki platforms etc.


Wiki-librarians

Goal: The goal is to motivate librarians to become successful editors of Wikipedia, to enable the expansion of a network of libraries and other cultural institutions and their acquaintance with the activities of Wikimedia Serbia, as well as the upload of quality and more informative content on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

Description: Organizing Wikipedia editing workshops designed for librarians who, for a successful course, receive legally required points for advancement in the field of librarianship.

  Wiki loves GLAMers

Wiki-librarian

The project of the University Library Svetozar Marković received the support of Wikimedia Serbia this year, for the seventh time in a row. The goal of the project is to inform and educate librarians to become successful Wikipedians, as well as to expand the network of libraries and other cultural institutions and their introduction to the activities of Wikimedia Serbia, but also posting as rich, high-quality and as informative content as possible on Wikipedia.

  • Campaign #1Lib1Ref was held and Serbian Wikipedia won first place in the competition with a total of 17,112 references entered in 3,853 articles. The campaign was organized by Wikimedia Serbia with the support of the University Library Svetozar Marković, Belgrade City Library and the Wikimedia Community of Republika Srpska.
  • The Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Literature for Children was organized for 13 days and exceptional results were achieved. With 11 Wikipedians participating, a total of 88 articles were posted, 76 new and 12 improved, and 10 files have been uploaded under fair use.
  • The librarians of the University Library were trained to work on the ZOOM platform, because the training of students of the Department of Librarianship and Informatics at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade was scheduled for April.

Cultural heritage of Serbia

The cultural heritage of Serbia is a continuation of a successful project called Heritage of southeast Serbia. Through the establishment of cooperation, mainly with cultural institutions and other institutions of importance located on the territory of Serbia, and the digitization of cultural and historical heritage in their possession, will be done, throughout the year, digitizing cultural heritage and increasing content on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. In the first part of the year, the following activities were realized:

  • Visits were made to the National Museum in Čačak, the Historical Archive in Niš and the Natural History Center in Svilajnac, as well as museums in Negotin, Zaječar and Bor in order to collect photo material. In total, 512 files have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
  • Several NGOs were contacted with which it is planned to cooperate in writing articles with topics from their fields of activity, while specific agreements were made with a few organizations regarding the articles and the date when these activities will be implemented.
  • Cooperation was established with the Stari Niš Association, the Roma Student Association, the NGO Byzantium and the Goblin Board Games Club.

1Lib1Ref campaign

Number of added references in January 1Lib1Ref 2021

Thanks to the successful results of this Campaign in the past few years, Wikimedia Serbia has been recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation and invited to be one of the organizers of the January #1Lib1Ref in the CEE region. We justified the trust shown to us and the first three places in the Campaign were taken by the language communities from the CEE region - Serbian, Polish and Macedonian Wikipedia. In 2021, Serbian Wikipedia won first place in the January #1Lib1Ref campaign globally, with 17,112 references entered in 3,853 articles, which achieved a much better result than the second-placed participant. We participated in the campaign in cooperation with the University Library Svetozar Marković, the Belgrade City Library and the Wikimedia Community of Republika Srpska. A workshop was held for organizers from the CEE region, as well as a workshop for interested editors on Serbian Wikipedia

Cultural heritage on Wikidata

From June 15th to 30th, the thematic week Cultural Heritage on Wikidata 2 was held. For the purposes of the thematic week to facilitate the editing of Wikidata, the presentations Introduction to Wikidata and Instructions for Wikidata editing were updated. The thematic week was attended by 9 editors who made 986 changes to 267 items, while 9 new items were made. Also, 203 references have been added to Wikidata.

  Edit-a-thons

In the first six months of 2021, two edit-a-thons were organized within the GLAM program. The first edit-a-thon was held in cooperation with the Jewish Digital Library, while the second edit-a-thon was held on the occasion of the International Museum Day. In total 130 new articles were written, while 4 articles were improved.

  Wikipedian in Residence

During the pandemic, project Wikipedian in residence showed us its ability to adapt, flexibility, and at the same time a great way to achieve success.

Belgrade City Library

In cooperation with the Belgrade City Library, for the first time we organized a half-year Wikipedian in residence project that lasted from October 2020 to March 2021. Wikipedian in residence, Jovana Obradović, worked on the content digitization from the Periodicals Department and the Old Rare Books department. The overall results (during all six months) are reflected in the writing of 126 new, 26 improved and and 278 articles illustrated. A total of 881 photos, 120 issues of the magazine (6 double issues) and 6 books were posted on Wikimedia Commons (during all six months). Observing the metrics of the second part of the project, ie. metrics from the first quarter of 2021, the intern wrote 46 new articles, illustrated 79 articles, and improved 26. During 2021, she also posted 270 photos, 6 books and 120 magazines on Wikimedia Commons. During the project, we overcame numerous challenges, such as the occasional shortening of the Library's working hours, non-working days of the Library due to the pandemic, and the intern being infected with COVID-19. Thanks to the successful results, quick problem solving, good communication and hard work of Jovana, the Library is interested in repeating the internship, and Jovana is now employed by the Library.

Museum of African Art in Belgrade

A one-month Wikipedian in residence project was held at the Museum of African Art in Belgrade in February. During the project, 11 articles were written and improved, while numerous articles on Serbian and English Wikipedia were illustrated. 303 files have been posted on Wikimedia Commons, including a rare video of an elephant hunt, photographs of Josip Broz Tito during his visit to Africa, as well as photographs of African peoples, political figures and cultural monuments. During this project, the first video was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

Jewish Digital Library

By signing the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Jewish Digital Library, joint activities have begun. A one-month Wikipedian in residence was held in March. Due to the difficult epidemiological situation, the project was held with the full remote work with increased communication with the Library authorities. During this project, 32 new articles were written, 8 articles were improved while 5 articles were illustrated. 53 photos and 6 books were posted on Wikimedia Commons.

Museum of Rudnik and Takovo region

A two-month Wikipedian in residence project began on June 1st at the Museum of the Rudnik and Takovo Region in Gornji Milanovac. During the first month of the project, 30 new articles were written, while 45 were improved and as many as 87 were illustrated. In total 236 files have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

In addition to the mentioned cultural institutions, negotiations are underway for the realization of the project in the DADOV Youth Theater.

Collaboration on the Wikipedian in residence project, which presents historical, artistic, archeological, ethnological etc, are important both for us and for the general public
"It is very important for the Museum of the Rudnik and Takovo Region, as an institution of protection and presentation, to participate in all projects that will present the cultural heritage of the Rudnik and Takovo Region in the right way. Collaboration on the Wikipedian in residence project, which presents historical, artistic, archeological, ethnological etc, are important both for us and for the general public, and therefore we are extremely glad to have an exceptional cooperation from the beginning with the professional team working on this project, with which we came to create a significant database with joint proposals and suggestions, which is first of all accurate and then done according to all methodological principles which present the cultural heritage of one region. In that sense, we will always be available for any future cooperation."

Aleksandar Marušić, Director of Museum of Rudnik and Takovo Region

Successful stories

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Proven quality of selection of our Wikipedians in residence

The Wikipedian in residence, Jovana Obradović, was engaged in the project in the Belgrade City Library for six months. After the expiration of six months, the Library was very satisfied with this project, ready to repeat its realization. What is a significant indicator of the success of this project and the selection of Wikipedians in residence, is the fact that Jovana got a job in the Belgrade City Library almost immediately after completing her engagement as an intern.

First place in the #1Lib1Ref campaign worldwide

This year, we have proven that with dedicated preparation of activities and joint efforts, almost certain success is achieved. In cooperation with the University Library "Svetozar Markovic", the Belgrade City Library and the Wikimedia Community of Republika Srpska, we won first place in the # 1Lib1Ref reference-editing campaign.

Challenges and lessons learned

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Custom access to Wikidata thematic weeks

The initial response to the Cultural Heritage on Wikidata 2 was weaker than expected. We motivated the editors to participate by holding editing training, updating the Wikidata editing guide and personalized access to the editors. Response has improved, but there is still a long way to go for Wikidata to be widely used.

 Community Support Program

WikiLive

Goal: Enabling members of Serbian Wikipedia community to get to know each other, networking and strengthening the connections between them by team problem-solving and new project creation.

Description: WikiLive is a local annual Wikipedian conference, which is conceived with the idea of ​​strengthening the spirit of the community, interconnecting participants and involving them in the WMRS programs. The conference consists of a two-day program covering various topics from Wikipedia.


Competitions on Wikipedia

Goal: Increasing the motivation and active participation of the community in Wiki projects.

Description: Competitions on Wikipedia are organized several times a year. They usually last for a month (except CEE Spring) during which participants write and improve articles on various topics. Members of the jury evaluate the articles, after which winners are proclaimed and rewarded. Contests are a good way to reduce the gap between Wikimedians and Wikipedians.


Community motivation

Goal: Establishing better communication with the community and reducing the gap between Wikipedians and Wikimedians.

Description: Within the project, activities such as community gatherings, microgrants, organization of Wiki stand at public events, birthday celebrations, support for individuals in relation to the realization of activities and informing the community about various events through various communication channels are being realized.

  WikiLive

Since WikiLive is the annual conference of Wikipedians and implies gathering of a larger group of people, Wikimedia Serbia has decided not to organize it in 2020. In 2021, the conditions for organizing the conference have not been met yet, so it was decided to try to organize it in the second half of the year, and if that is not possible, the conference will be held online.

  Competitions on Wikipedia

Competitions on Wikipedia aim to increase free knowledge by creating and improving Wikipedia articles in the form of competitions, but also to increase the motivation and active participation of the community on Wiki projects.

In the first half of the year, the CEE Spring 2021 competition was held. With this competition, we once again worked on strengthening regional cooperation, bearing in mind that Wikimedia Serbia and Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska participated in the project together. The cooperation concerned the planning itself, but also the selection of the jury, one of which was a Wikimedian from the Republic of Srpska. During the organization of the competition, the participation of volunteers was increased, since they worked on creating a list of topics about Serbia, in accordance with their interests and topics they edit on Wikipedia. During the competition, ten participants wrote 387 articles, and improved 12 others. Within this year's competition, participants uploaded 11,881,187 bytes. In the charts presented below, we can see that the number of articles has decreased, but that the number of bytes has increased, which continues the trend of creating articles with more content rather than smaller articles. We believe that this trend was established after the introduction of a new way of grading, a few years ago.

In addition to CEE Spring, during the second quarter, Wikimedia Serbia prepared a competition Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos. Wikimedia Serbia is joining this global competition for the second time in a row. In 2020, this competition had a very good response, so it was decided to repeat it in 2021 which will last from July 1 to August 31.

  Community Motivation

Animating the community implies numerous activities that are being organized, in order to better motivate the community, to improve networking and cooperation. These include microgrants, organization of gatherings and celebrations, edit-a-thons, as well as projects by individuals who make significant contributions to Wiki projects.

  • Thematic weeks are online events whose goal is to encourage work on certain topics on Serbian Wikipedia. Some areas on Wikipedia are less present due to lack of editors, lack of interest, or other reasons. Thematic weeks have been launched to better develop these areas and to reach a certain level of quality. In the first half of the year, Wikimedia Serbia organized three such events on Serbian Wikipedia: writing articles about China, which was also a joint project between Wikimedia Serbia and Wikimedians of Mainland China, then thematic week for writing articles about food and most recently, thematic week for writing articles about medicine. Through the mentioned weeks, 296 articles were written and improved, but it is perhaps more important to point out that through these actions, communication with the community of editors on Wikipedia is strengthened.
  • During the first half of the year, three edit-a-thons were organized: WikiGap campaign, Wiki4HumanRights (edit-a-thon on the environment) and International Roma Day. All three edit-a-thons had an international character, so Wikimedia Serbia during the first two campaigns supported diversity, but also social responsibility by writing articles about notable women and environmental topics. The third edit-a-thon (International Roma Day) was launched for the second time in the organization of Wikimedia Serbia, and it had a good response. A total of 210 articles were written and improved during these online events. It is important to note that the WikiGap campaign this year broke the record for the number of written and improved articles, as many as 115.
  • External projects:
    • WiHIV - WiHIV is a project whose goals are to create useful articles on Wikipedia on relevant concepts in the field of HIV and AIDS, youth work and the LGBT population, encouraging and empowering participants, especially young people, to create online content that they see as necessary, and the promotion of volunteerism and health education. In the first half of the year, the project was fully realized through the promotion of invitations, preparation and implementation of training for writing articles on Wikipedia, after which the participants created and uploaded the content. In addition to these activities, one part was related to the promotion of project results in the form of promo events. On the project page, you can see the activities, as well as the written articles.
    • Dragačevo Epitaphs - The project refers to the study of old tombstones and roadside memorials of the Dragačevo region, and through photographing a large number of tombstones in order to gain insight into their condition; selection of representative specimens, their measurement and transcription of inscriptions; study of professional literature and comparison of recorded epitaphs with published counterparts; uploading photos on Wikimedia Commons and writing and publishing articles on Serbian Wikipedia, on the topic of monuments, monument groups, epitaphs, biographies of Dragačevo folk builders - stonecutters; then posting quotes via other Wikimedia projects, etc. The goal of the project is to promote the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Dragačevo. During the first half of 2021, activities were mainly focused on field work - touring rural cemeteries and finding sidewalks with the aim of photographing as many old monuments as possible; selection of significant specimens (according to their historical, content or artistic value); surveying, plotting, transcribing epitaphs), etc. 15 articles were written and 800 photographs were uploaded, 100 of which were used in the articles.
    • The living world of Srem is just a click away - The goals of the project are the digitization of archival material, scientific research data and values of the Zasavica Nature Reserve and making those materials reachable through Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Within the project, volunteers’ team did the analysis of archival material and created a list of articles for Wikipedia, as well as a part of field activities during which photo material was collected. In addition, a public call for the inclusion of students and young people from the territory of the city of Sremska Mitrovica in the project has been published, and additional field activities and input of materials are expected in the next quarter.
    • Realization of cultural, educational and spiritual ties between Serbia and Belarus through Wikipedia and Wikimedia - The goals of the project are educational, cultural and spiritual connections between the two countries, encouragement to Belarusians in Serbia and Serbs in Belarus, collection of free material for Wikipedia and mutual support and promotion of material for the purpose of popularizing the mentioned topic. During the first half of the year, 28 articles and 122 photographs were uploaded. In addition to these activities, a workshop for elementary school students was arranged with the director of the Children's Cultural Center Belgrade, where they would have the opportunity to hear more about Wiki content and how to use it properly. Also, the promotion of the project was agreed with the leaders of the Rastko project, which should be held by the end of the year.
    • The Hidden World of Mountains - The goals of the project are to enrich Wikipedia with articles and photos of insects that live in the mountains of Serbia, as well as to promote their habitats. One of the goals is to raise the level of knowledge of students on a given topic and training for further independent work in the field and the development of new project ideas. In the period January-June 2021, 7 new accounts were created within the project, more precisely, 7 new editors of Wikipedia were included, 39 new articles were written, and the existing 5 were improved. A total of 286 photos were uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, and 33 were used in articles and an additional 122 were used from the Wikimedia Commons from other categories.
    • Stop marginalization! More content about women and marginalized groups! - The objectives of the project are to increase and promote content about women, gender categories and marginalized groups on Serbian Wikipedia, increase the number of Wikipedia editors, increase the number of editors from marginalized groups, increase the number of articles representing women's biographies, improve gender equality, increasing knowledge about women, gender equality and marginalized groups, as well as reducing stigma and discrimination against marginalized groups and their greater visibility online and offline. Two trainings were held within the project. It is important to point out the partnership with the Network of Organizations for Post-Penal Support of Serbia-MOPPS, which provides support for persons who have been released from serving a prison sentence. Since these people belong to marginalized groups, it was logical to include them in the project. The project has partnered with the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, to obtain photographs of the actresses. Progress can be seen on the project page on Wikipedia.
  • Celebrations - In the first quarter, Wikimedia Serbia organized two online celebrations - the birthday of English and Serbian Wikipedia, respectively.
    • Wikipedia turned 20 on Friday, January 15. Wikipedia Day was celebrated both among the editors of Serbian Wikipedia and internationally, at local video gatherings. Wikimedia Serbia organized an online celebration attended by Wikipedia editors and Wikimedia volunteers. On this date, the #1lib1ref campaign symbolically began and lasted until February 5. More details are available in the blog post.
    • On February 16, Wikimedia Serbia marked 18 years of Serbian Wikipedia. As part of this celebration, the most important statistics from Serbian Wikipedia, technical innovations, but also thematic weeks, edi-a-thons and competitions that are planned, and which significantly enrich the project, were presented.
  • The twenty-fifth regular session of the Assembly was held on February 7, 2021 via the Zoom platform. The session was attended by 12 regular members and Bojan Cvetanović in the role of office representative. At this session, the Assembly adopted the Report on the work of the Board, as well as the Financial Report for 2020.
  • The official report of Wikimedia Serbia for 2020 has been posted and is located on Meta.
  • Microgrants - During the February and March, Wikimedia Serbia opened a call for smaller volunteer projects in the field of education, cooperation with cultural institutions and volunteering. The competition was dedicated to small-scale projects for which there is the possibility of growth into long-term and sustainable projects. All interested individuals, representatives of organizations, cultural and educational institutions had the opportunity to submit ideas from January 20 to March 1, 2021. Six projects have been accepted and are being implemented during the year. The accepted projects are introduced bellow:

Centuries of the Danube and Djerdap (Darko Gajić) - The project is designed to present the rich historical, natural and cultural heritage, as well as the economic and tourist potential of the communities that are near the Danube: the City of Pozarevac and the municipalities of Veliko Gradiste, Golubac, Majdanpek, Kladovo and Negotin, in cooperation with "Djerdap National Park". In the first half of the year, contacts were made with most relevant cultural institutions (museums, cultural centers, libraries…), tourist organizations, resorts and hotels. The project was presented through a plan and program of site visits, via e-mail. Cooperation has been established with the "Djerdap National Park" regarding the creation of pages related to their jurisdiction.

Wiki Senior (Milica Buha) - This is a continuation of the Wiki Senior project from previous years. The project involves senior people of different interests, who contribute to Wikipedia in several different areas. This year's novelty is a focus on content about women. Given the majority of included participants are female, the idea is to focus on "women's topics", i.e. topics of interest to women. According to the plan given in the project, two edit-a-thons have been held so far: the first one on the topic of Women in Literature and "Women's" Literature, within which biographies of foreign and domestic female writers were written, as well as literary works about women and for women, and the second one on the topic of Intangible Cultural Heritage to the World, within which the elements of intangible cultural heritage from the UNESCO list are processed. Project members were also very active in thematic weeks and edit-a-thons organized by the Wikipedia community, as well as Wikimedia Serbia.

Dragonflies in Serbia (Marko Nikolić) - Although the topic has already been covered in previous projects, the team of volunteers in this project pays attention to correcting errors in articles, names of species and families according to the current domestic nomenclature, improving articles with new information, new references and illustrations. The focus of the project is on increasing the quality of content about dragonflies. In the first half of the year, new articles were created for all types of dragonflies for which there was no data on Wikipedia before. Two large field expeditions have been realized, and photo editing is still in progress. More can be seen on the project page.

Mountaineers on the mountains 2 (Stefan Mitić) - This is a continuation of last year's Mountaineers on the mountains project, which includes the collection of photo and textual content about the mountains and everything natural and anthropogenic that exists on them. Some of the participants in last year's project will also work on this project, with the engagement of interested new people. During the first half of the year, 10 mountains were visited, about which texts and photo material were posted.

Wiki loves ladybugs (HabiProt) - The main goal is to increase the insufficiently represented, free content of Serbian Wikipedia about ladybugs. So far, half of the activities on the project have been held, with the focus being on field research, while the next period the focus will be on upload of all the collected materials. Photos from the project can be seen in this category.

The network of organizations for post-penal support in Serbia deals with the support of persons who have been released from serving a prison sentence. As these people belong to a marginalized group and as there are no texts on Serbian Wikipedia about the post-penal system in Serbia, we decided to invite them to join this project.
"The network of organizations for post-penal support in Serbia deals with the support of persons who have been released from serving a prison sentence. As these people belong to a marginalized group and as there are no texts on Serbian Wikipedia about the post-penal system in Serbia, we decided to invite them to join this project. We are currently working on improving the existing articles on convicted persons and prisons, which we will then link to the new articles on the post-penal system and to the articles on discrimination against persons serving prison sentences. We will also link article on discrimination against persons serving prison sentences with the article on discrimination against drug users, which we are translating from English, because over 50% of persons serving prison sentences are also drug users. So we hope that with these articles we will better acquaint the Wikipedia community with discrimination against various marginalized groups and with the concept of multiple marginalization."

Tanja Dimitrijević, leader of the Stop marginalization! More content about women and marginalized groups! project

By jointly participating in these competitions, which also have an international character, we presented Serbian Wikipedia in the right way and contributed to the enrichment of its content.
Mirjana Petković
"CEE Spring 2021 is the second project (competition) this year, in which the Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska participate together with Wikimedia Serbia. As in the #1Lib1Ref competition, we are very pleased with the results, but we are especially glad that the cooperation with Wikimedia Serbia has continued. By jointly participating in these competitions, which also have an international character, we presented Serbian Wikipedia in the right way and contributed to the enrichment of its content. I believe that in the year ahead we will further strengthen our cooperation through these, but also some new projects."

Mirjana Petković, a representative of the Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska and a member of the Organizing Committee

Successful stories

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Wikimedia Serbia is increasingly present in regional and international projects

Wikimedia Serbia is implementing a strategy to increase the organization's presence in the international movement. In the first half of the year, we participated in several international projects (WikiGap, Wiki4HumanRights, CEE Spring), within which we achieved very good results, some of which we launched ourselves (International Roma Day), and in others we won first place (1Lib1Ref). The organization thus shows maturity and the ability to provide assistance to other, smaller chapters and user groups through sharing experiences. Wikimedia Serbia members are part of many networks such as Volunteer Supporters Network, Education user group, etc., so they share the knowledge they have gathered through many years of work in the organization.

The WikiGap campaign set a record, despite being online

The WikiGap campaign, which was held from March 1 to 8 on Serbian Wikipedia, broke the record in terms of the number of created women biographies - the total of 113 articles. The campaign included an edit-a-thon on the occasion of International Women's Day, which was an integral part of a global action aimed at reducing the gap in terms of content about women on Wikipedia. In Serbia, it was organized for the fourth time in a row by Wikimedia Serbia and the Embassy of Sweden. In addition to the seven-day online event, all participants were able to attend a global video gathering at which the campaign was officially opened and which announced numerous events during the year.

Having in mind the desire of Wikimedia Serbia to work on increasing diversity, the paper Women's Participation in Wikipedia: Cross-Border Balkan Perspective was prepared, which deals with issues of gender equality, greater representation of women who edit Wikipedia and more content related to women.

Thematic gatherings as a communication tool for mutual good understanding

Wikimedia Serbia has launched a series of thematic gatherings intended for a conversation between the editors of Serbian Wikipedia, but also a conversation between Wikimedia Serbia and the Wikipedia community. The gatherings are intended to discuss activities and projects implemented by Wikimedia Serbia, but also to explain the model of cooperation with partners, institutions and organizations. The goal is to establish better communication through good understanding, to increase the transparency of the organization's work, as well as to motivate Wikipedia editors to participate more in the organization of projects and decision-making processes.

Challenges and lessons learned

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In the next call for projects, pay attention when choosing the one with the smaller scope

In 2020, Wikimedia Serbia had a great response for submitting projects during the development of the annual plan. Many small projects that required small funds were accepted. It turned out that the leaders of such projects have an insufficiently serious approach and responsibility towards the undertaken obligations. Therefore, Wikimedia Serbia will keep this in mind during the annual call for projects in 2021, and will make a different selection.

Media report


Revenues received during this six-month period

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Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

  • Important note
    • the anticipated column may list revenues anticipated for the whole year instead of only the 6 months. Please make sure that this the time period clear in the table.
    • In the explanation column, always mention relevant information about the numbers: what period they refer to etc.

Table 2 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

  • Please also include any in-kind contributions or resources that you have received in this revenues table. This might include donated office space, services, prizes, food, etc. If you are to provide a monetary equivalent (e.g. $500 for food from Organization X for service Y), please include it in this table. Otherwise, please highlight the contribution, as well as the name of the partner, in the notes section.
Revenue source Currency Anticipated Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Anticipated ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Explanation of variances from plan
WMF Grant EUR 81,869.77 81,869.77 0.00 81,869.77 96,606.33 96,606.33 First Installment + remaining funds from the 2020 grant.
TOTAL EUR 81,869.77 81,869.77 0.00 81,869.77 96,606.33 96,606.33

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


In-kind donations

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Donator In-kind donation Value (in EUR)
Heliant d.o.o. Hosting service 156.00
Infinite Media Group Recovery of the Wikimedia Serbia website 250.00
Elementary School “Momčilo Nastasijević” Space for two accredited seminars for teachers 500.00
TOTAL 906.00

Spending during this six-month period

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Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

  • Important note
    • Budget can be the budget for the whole year (and thus the percentage will reflect the half year and should be around 50%, or the half year, in which case the % should be around 100%. Please make that clear in the table.
    • In the explanation column, always mention relevant information about the numbers: what period they refer to.

Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
Office EUR 11,200.00 2,123.08 2,272.95 4,396.03 13,216.00 5,187.32 39.25% Budget for the whole year.
Staff EUR 49,176.00 11,935.32 12,088.43 24,023.75 58,027.68 28,348.03 48.85% Budget for the whole year.
Services EUR 2,804.00 737.35 628.61 1,365.96 3,308.72 1,611.83 48.71% Budget for the whole year.
Contingency, Board and budget for exchange rate margins EUR 2,500.00 132.87 86.93 219.80 2,950.00 259.36 8.79% Budget for the whole year.
Participation in Events EUR 2,110.00 810.00 0.00 810.00 2,489.80 955.80 38.39% Budget for the whole year.
Education Program EUR 7,300.00 45.50 388.11 433.61 8,614.00 511.66 5.94% Budget for the whole year.
GLAM Program EUR 11,340.00 4,404.30 1,463.82 5,868.12 13,381.20 6,924.38 51.75% Budget for the whole year.
Community Support EUR 13,070.00 369.72 2,374.92 2,744.64 15,422.60 3,238.68 21.00% Budget for the whole year.
TOTAL EUR 99,500.00 20,558.14 19,303.77 39,861.91 117,410.00 47,037.05 40.06% Budget for the whole year.

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Table 3 notes:

  • Due to the infection of the Wikimedia Serbia website with malicious code and constant technical problems, part of the funds from the Participation in Events budget was spent on hiring an agency for technical maintenance of the website for a period of one year (810 EUR).
  • Since the international Wikimedia conferences will be held online (except for the canceled Wikimedia Summit), the funds from the budget provided for attending these events were redirected to the realization of the Wikipedian in Residence project.

Translated report

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Serbian version of the report is available here.

Compliance

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Is your organization compliant with the terms outlined in the grant agreement?

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As required in the grant agreement, please report any deviations from your grant proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

  • There were no significant deviations.

Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes.

Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Grant funds as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes.

Signature

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Once complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.

Resources

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Resources to plan for measurement

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Resources for storytelling

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