Grants:Simple/Applications/Macedonian User Groups/2021

Application or grant stage: in progress

Applicant or grantee: Macedonian User Groups (Shared Knowledge and GLAM Macedonia)

Amount requested: EUR€54,448.00

Amount granted: 54,448.00 EUR

Funding period: 1 January 2021 - 31 December 2021

Midpoint report due: 15 July 2021

Final report due: 30 January 2022

Application

Background

Annual Plan

• GLAM Macedonia annual plan 2021
• Shared Knowledge annual plan 2021

Budget Plan

• Budget 2021 for both organisations

Staffing Plan

• Staffing plan 2021 for both organisations

Strategic plan

• GLAM Macedonia strategic plan
• Shared Knowledge strategic plan

Introduction

Both Shared Knowledge and GLAM Macedonia are the two recognized wiki representatives in Macedonia, who are working on promoting Wikipedia and other related projects in the Republic. Since 2020, both Wiki braches share a common grant and budget. They have different annual plan and programs but periodically organise to full extent mutual Wikipedian projects.

• GLAM Macedonia is a user group registered as NGO under the Macedonian law, with more than 150 signed members, and more than 25 active members, who mainly work with GLAM and EDU programs. The organizational body of organization is as this: president, five board members, ten coordinators of education and one GLAM coordinator. Members of GLAM Macedonia run 7 Wiki Clubs, organize many workshops and at least one Wiki Camp for underage students, work with GLAM institutions in the country, etc. Activities are noted on the web page and blog and here on Meta.

• Shared Knowledge is an organisation of Wikimedians established in March 2014. We completed six annual plans from 2015 to 2020 so far, and our main work is are of Community, Partnerships and Education. From 2015 we have at least one employee, governed by five members of Executive Board of the organisation. All our reports you can here on Meta.

Programs

COMMUNITY

Human Rights edit-a-thon held in February 2020

Community Service edit-a-thon organized in October 2020

The community program is to a degree mutual program for GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge, as the aim of both user groups is to increase the number of active and involved editors which are not included in other specific programs. The editing challenges are there to enrich the quality of the articles and fill any kind of content gaps on the Wikimedia project, but also to reach out to specialist groups of people and boost more productive editing by the experienced editors. Just like last year, the editing challenges in 2021 will be: edit-a-thons, editing contests, editing days, editing weekends, photograph contest, workshops, Wikipedia Day, the newly established wiki-stands and the 2021 CEE Conference.

Program Objectives

• To increase the number of involved volunteers;
• Increase visibility of the user groups in society, whether by followers on social medias, websites, radio and TV networks.

Measure of success:

1. at least 15 organized events
2. at least 10 media and press interviews or mentions to introduce Wikipedia and user groups work to the audience

Why are we doing this?

Hence the informations 'grow' in the human world, more and more content gaps are 'brought to light' on the Macedonian Wikipedia, and Wikipedia in general. With these subprojects, we as a Wiki community can focus towards some lacking topics on our Encyclopedia, but also the ordinary editor could express a certain desire of what article they would edit, no matter if it is about creating or improving.

EDUCATION AND LECTURES

Wiki Club Veles in February 2020

Editing at physics at Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

The Education program is a successful way for engaging new users, pre and post COVID19 pandemic. The participants-students contribute to the Macedonian Wikipedia and eventually the content gaps are as much smaller. They edit on certain topics by collaboration with their respective educational institutions. This means running workshops on the process of editing Wikipedia articles intended for teachers and students (whether they are elementary, highschool or college students) who are going to use this knowledge to create or improve Wikipedia articles as an tasks in the schooling process and assignment of the grading process.

Program Objectives

• recruit new editors and contributors that will improve Wikimedia projects' content through education program activities;
• add or improve the content (articles, multimedia content, references) of the existing Wikimedia projects
• familiarise and introduce new Wikimedia editors with the basic concept of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, as well as with the Wikimedia Movement.
• To educate and train teachers on how to use Wikipedia in classroom and implement Wikimedia projects as teaching tools;
• To increase the number of content pages on Wikipedia in Macedonian (articles, references and multimedia files).

Why are we doing this?

For better education, all the language Wikipedias have to stride higher usage of our content that can be used in the educational instituions, from the bottom ones to the top ones in the schooling hierarchy. By partnering up with students, teachers and professors, they can provide their own style of editing, better understandable for their fellow colleagues.

Program metrics and targets

• Number of newly participants from the education program: 100
• Number of trained teachers: 150
• Number of newly registered users that will be recruited: 50
• Number of content pages improved or created: 3000

PARTNERSHIPS

Partnerships is Shared Knowledge project, which includes: Wikistreet and exhibitions. More about them could be found in Shared Knowledge annual plan for 2021.

GLAM

GLAM program is solely of GLAM Macedonia, which includes collaboration with GLAM institutions and sending Wikipedian in Residence. More about activities could be found in GLAM Macedonia annual plan for 2021.

Reports

Midpoint Report

For the realization of the goals and metrics achieved during the midpoint period see SAPG/Metrics worksheet SK and SAPG/Metrics worksheet GM

For the financial report for the midpoint period see Financial Reports for Shared Knowledge and Financial Reports for GLAM Macedonia.

COMMUNITY

When it comes to Shared Knowledge and his Annual plan, the activities consisted in this Community program were: three edit-a-thons, two editing competitions, 50 editing days, 26 editing days, one week-a-thon. These five part activities are part of the editing challenges segment. Independent activity in the Community Program are the Wikisketch Lessons which were consisted of 53 lectures. Another projects are the Expeditions that were divided into Wikiexpeditions (two being organized), Geoexpeditions (one checked), and the Archaeoexpeditions (one finished).

Program story: Edit-a-thons - Shared Knowledge

Shared Knoledge has managed to organize four edit-a-thons in the period of these six months. The edit-a-thons are traditionally the highest participation activity, so they represent our greatest strength. This is a collage of four installments that held in January, two in February, and the last one in mid April. The first and third event were co-organized with MladiHub - a national youth organization which has been partnering with SK since the second half of 2020. The other two editing events were with totally new organizations/collaborators such as Neci NMK and renowned Megjashi, respectively. Out of these activities, there were 44 overall participations, 37 users of which 24 were new ones, and contributing in 163 new articles and three improved articles.

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  Mladi Hub - first event
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  MladiHub - second event
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  The edition with NECINMK
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  Collaboration with Megjashi

Program story: Edit-a-thons - GLAM Macedonia

Just like last year's edition, we again organized an edit-a-thon held and themed on the International Roma Day. The goal was to honor, acknowledge and embrace the Roma people, their culture, tradition, history, customs etc. by contributing on articles on our Wikipedia. The outcome of this engagement was 36 new articles in one day, by participation of 19 people. Another edit-a-thon was held on April 23rd, this time about the International English and Spanish Language Day. This editing event was comprised of 20 users which created 27 articles.

Media Outreach - GLAM Macedonia

One of our objectives is not just gathering people and/or organizations to contribute on our platforms, but also to advocate the goals and work, to the media, of our wiki community and our user group. Several posts and mentions occured on the Internet and the TV screens such as national wide TV networks. The first media outreach was an article at the "Nova Makedonija" daily newspaper. This article was about our long-standing coordinator of the Wiki Club Ohrid and teacher, of whom she had explain about her beginnings on Wikipedia and her experience as Wikimedian. The other Internet articles are noted on their respective activity section (see Wiki Clubs at Education Program).

Wikipedia 20 Birthday - GLAM Macedonia

Wikipedia 20 logo.

Traditionally, as this 2021 is the third time, an editing event has been held at January 15 - the Wikipedia Anniversary - for 20 years of existence. The participants of this were mostly from the Wiki Clubs, but there were also some active users, totaling 22 user berths. They honored the Wikipedia anniversary with "presents" of 25 new articles at this editing day-like event.

Wikisketch Lessons - Shared Knowledge

This activity serves as mentorship for all people that want to edit on Wikipedia, no matter of their expertise, just for the people that have time and will to learn using Wikipedia and contributing in it. When the participants got mentored, for the most part, they chose what to edit i.e. what to cover. The lessons were held both in physical presence or being online, whether in was due to COVID precautions or distance between the participant and the Shared Knowledge's mentor. Eleven new subjects were part of this of which seven were new registrations. 42 new articles and another five improved articles.

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Photohunts - Shared Knowledge

A macaque from the 1st PH at the Skopje Zoo.

Three photohunts got carried in the first half of 2021. The first two were thematically the same, at the Skopje Zoo, with time distance of two weeks. The Skopje Zoo photohunts served as prearrangement in the future project in the second half of 2021 - Skopje QR Coding. This means we got to know all the species at the Zoo, updated with all the old and new habbitants of the Zoo. These photohunts got held in early Spring by two men, the first being in late March, and the second in mid April.

The village of Crn Vrv.

At the very end of the first half of 2021, the third photohunt was made. This time three new people went to photograph remote villages in the Municipality of Studeničani. These places are about 20-25 km off by air, of the capital Skopje, but due to their mountainous terrain, the got generally left off by the Wikipedian community.

By engaging these outdoor activities, 190 images got uploaded, with all being implemented in articles at Wikipedia. The overall outcome is five participants (two of them being registered), 25 new and 74 improved articles, 190 uploaded images with 100 percent usage on Wikipedia.

Week-a-thons / Wiki for Human Rights 2021 - Shared Knowledge

Initiative's logo.

The week editing competition was part of the overall international initiative that lasted from April 15 to May 15. During those 30 days, we also held three editing days, one editing day themed and dedicated to this global initiative. Returning at the weekly contest, 59 articles were created.

Editing Competition for High School Students - both groups

From April 19 to May 9, it was time dedicated for the EC titled "Biosphere Reserves of the World". GLAM Macedonian and Shared Knowledge, according to the their annual plans, needed to organize this kind of contest. The chosen topic was due to the low number of biosphere reserves articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia. Unlike the previous 2020 edition, this time after the end of every week, the best ranked article was elected and was prized (three prizes of this kind in total). Also, after the end of the three-week competition, the participants were ranked based on quantity and quality combined, when the top three participants were prized in this manner. Seven students were part of this activity and they achieved numbers of 121 new articles were and 2 improved ones.

PARTNERSHIPS

By searching and providing new partners organization/institution for the first half of the year, successful efforts has been made with three brand new collaborating institutions in order to photograph it's quarters and belongings. The first institution was the National Institution "Goce Delčev" based in Štip, when we made an editing event at the library within the "Visiting Museums and Libraries". The next organizations were two in unified project - "Saray of Resen and House of Tatarčev Visit". At the visit in the town of Resen we collaborated with the House of Culture "Dragi Tozija" and the Museum of Bitola that has the jurisdiction over the memorial house of the revolutionary Hristo Tatarčev.

Visiting Museums and Libraries

An editing moment in the "Goce Delčev" Library.

During the preparations of this assignment, we proposed and preliminary chosed the town of Štip and it's national-level "Goce Delčev" Library. The Library was eager to collaborate and provided us with their book material, and their quarters so we can hold an editing workshop. The event hence was part of cultural heritage, we decided the book materials to be related about the history, religion, sport, and other about the town of Štip and it's wider region. So on March 12, alonside the library workers that participated in the editing event, we also got joined with few members of the organization NECI NMK, an organization that collaborated with us at an edit-a-thon in early February.

Saray of Resen and House of Tatarčev Visit

A group photo with the staff stationed in the Resen Saray.

At May 21, in the town of Resen, located in the southern mid-west of the Macedonian Republic, we visited the notable neoclassical Saray of Resen and the family house of the one of the founders of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO) - Hristo Tatarčev. The Saray, built in the first decade of the 20 century, now houses the House of Culture "Dragi Tozija" and the Resen division of the Museum of Macedonia. The places and it's notable things got photographed and uploaded on Commons, and then properly placed on their respective articles for better illustration. Most of the institutions got their new article on the Macedonian Wikipedia, alongside with other related such as the patron of the House of Culture - Dragi Tozija - who was a Macedonian WWII partisan and later politicia

Skopje Zoo QR-coding

Even thou the whole project, about installing QR coded plaques leading to Wikipedia, is not finished, a much progress has been made when it comes to improving and especially creating articles about the animal species inhabiting the Skopje Zoo. Because the plaques will be consisted of three QR codes, in Macedonian and Albanian as national level languages, and English as international, all three Wikipedias needed to have an article about the certain specie. Hence the English Wikipedia already had all the species, efforts had to be made on the Macedonian and Albanian Wikipedia. Most of lacking articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia got covered by the two Skopje Photohunts (mentioned above) and just few articles were created within this activity. The biggest issue was the great number in lacking articles in the Albanian Wikipedia. In order to shrink the gap, we contacted the Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group that with no problem help us by creating 20+ articles.

GLAM

As one of the main programmes of GLAM Macedonia, the GLAM programme is one the most successful set of activities resulting with excellent outcome for the benefit of the wider Macedonian-language Wikimedia community and Wikipedia's final users. Having in mind the role of this programme of GLAM Macedonia's goals and vision, the expectations of achieving excellent results were justified. As one of the most productive and resultative programme, its outreach was even on a higher level compared to the previous years. The old collaboration memoranda, agreements and contacts are regularly maintained, even in case where active activities are not held between GLAM Macedonia and GLAM institution for some period due to refocusing on a wider spectre of spheres for covering up. In addition to that, new collaboration memorandum signed this year further enrich the already rich GLAM Macedonia portfolio.

The relations are beneficial for the user group's programs and for the institutions themselves, especially in terms of collaboration with NGO sector and expending the fields of work with non-employees. GLAM Macedonia maintenance regular contacts with the Institute for the National History of Macedonia, The Archives of the Republic of Macedonia, Citi Library 'Braka Miladinovci', Writers' Association of Macedonia and the Museum of Natural Sciences in Skopje. These are institutions that GLAM Macedonia has signed memorandum for collaboration, has successfully completed several projects and activities. Due to the pandemics, this years workshops and WikiTours in these institutions were held only where the COVID-19 measures allow such a thing.

Wikimedian in Residence - Museum of Natural History of Macedonia

Just like last year, cooperation with Museum of Natural History based in Skopje was again established with GLAM Macedonia, and we again sent a Wikimedian in Residence. The tasks of the Wikimedian are to gather materials such as books, encyclopedias, and other literature, so the Resident can create and/or improve authentic articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia, which he started back in January. As a result, more than 100 new articles were created about insects in Macedonia.

Wikimedian in Residence - Writers' Association of Macedonia

This year our collaboration with the Writers' Association of Macedonia continue. The Wikipedian in residence find out that many of contemporary Macedonian writers do not have a photo in the article about them. The negotiations with the officials of Writers' Association of Macedonia resulted with agreement to take photos of writers during the September. In the meantime, the WiR continue to create and improve the articles on Wikipedia about the Macedonian writers.

National Park Galičica

A brand new cooperation got established when in June was signed a memorandum with National Park Galičica. NP Galičica is located in the South-West of the Republic, right between the Ohrid and Prespa Lakes. The goals are to enrich Wikipedia in the Macedonian Language with articles about the rich endemic flora and fauna of Galičica. Already in June, after the 'memo' signing, editing activities were established at the local Wiki Club Ohrid and their efforts were mentioned in a local based website. On 10 June 2021 the group of Wiki Club Ohrid members had a Wikitour and workshop in the National Park Galičica.

More than 50 new articles about flora and fauna of Galičica were created so far. These activities will continue in the second half of 2021.

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  Wikitour in the National Park Galičica
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  Wikitour in the National Park Galičica
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  Wikitour in the National Park Galičica
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  Wikitour and workshop in the National Park Galičica

EDUCATION

When it somes to the educational activities, Shared Knowledge's main goals were to complete the objectives in the Wikiexperiments, and proffesors mentorship. From the opinions from the university professors/participants in Wikiexperiments, they said that the experiments are a huge plus, not just because it's easier to teach on a certain experiment or saves time and materials, because in this "COVID era" of online teaching, it only takes the video to be played.

On the 'other side', when it comes to numbers and productivity, the Wiki Clubs are our 'flagship' of GLAM Macedonia. As part of the Clubs, we also conducted the Rare Disease Project and the first time edition of "Meet Russia" Editing Competition. The brand new project we started in January 2021 is Wiki Senior.

Professors teaching - Shared Knowledge

The goal of the activity is to introduce Wikipedia to a new set of professors who are going to learn on using, editing, spreading the Wikimedia's knowledge and usage at their pupils, no matter of the demographics. Also, after the teaching at Wikipedia, the professors would use their knowledge on editing in Wikipedia. In this period, three people got heavily interested. The first participant who was being mentored in late February, while the two other got mentored in the course of June.

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  A university professor
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  An elementary school professors and art pedagogues
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  An art pedagogue

Wikiexperiments - Shared Knowledge

On May 25 and 26, the 2021 season of Wikiexperiments has been initiated. Physics experiments were on our two day agenda, filmed again with the renowned professor Oliver Zajkov at the laboratory of the Institute of Physics, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, Skopje. The experiments were related to light reflection, optics, air pressure, magnetics, weight action, sound resonance.

Moments of the two-day filming:

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• Optical lens experiment

Wiki Clubs - GLAM Macedonia

The regular Wiki Club session were held from time to time due to COVID restrictions, and online trainings were held in April. On the other hand, in the entire period of February, the editing competition titled "Meet Russia" was held, aimed for the members of the Wiki Clubs. This event was in collaboration with the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Macedonia. The goal was to cover Russia related articles, for better illustration of overall Russia on the Macedonian Wikipedia. For greater vocation and higher participation number, the competition was mentioned online (at Kanal 5 and Večer)The outcome of this monthly and prized engagement was 625 covered articles (new or improved) by 20 users. The ceremony of giving the rewards to the top five participants, took place on March 17, 2021 at the Museum of Macedonian Struggle. The ambassador of the Russian Federation in Skopje gave the earned awards to high ranked participants.

Continuing since 2019, the "Rare Disease Project" coordinated by the Wiki Club Ohrid, it is completing it's objectives of covering articles related about many rare diseases. In February, its's members got engaged during the entire month. The February activities got media coverage and their contributions were published at a local website and the Disease Day Organization, where the goals and Club's contributions were publicly mentioned.

In numbers: 373 editors edited more than 2,500 articles. 12 new editors were trained online this year.

Moments of giving the awards and prizes for Meet Russia:

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Wiki Senior - GLAM Macedonia

"Wiki Senior" is the new project that started in January 2021. The goal is to educate seniors to edit and create new articles.

As a direct outcome of the general meeting of GLAM Macedonia's members, and as a result of the feedback and proposals from the User Group members, the new project was officially initiated in January 2021. The idea of GLAM Macedonia members was to involve senior people in the GLAM Macedonia's activities in a similar manner as the youth population is covered by the user group's activities. Among the few proposals, the general meeting participants decided that found a Wiki Club for senior members of the Wiki Community, and for that matter senior members of the general population in the country, will suit the needs. The goal of the club is to actively involve the seniors into activities that result with enriching, improving and referencing Macedonian-language articles. At the initial stage the number of this club is low (as expected, since generally the youth population is more familiar with Wikipedia), resulting with a number of newly created articles and improved Wikipedia contents. In numbers, so far we have 5 senior editors, who edited more than 50 articles.

GLAM Macedonia's goal is to further enlarge the club, increase the number of this club's members and achieving even higher results in terms of new and improved contents.

Final report

The following sections gives a general overview of the work carried out by GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge for the entire grant period. It breaks down into organizations' four program areas (Education, Community, GLAM and Partnerships) and it portrays the organizations' successes in this period. For further details, please see our activity reports per months (detailed reports & detailed reports).

Program story

WikiVillage by Shared Knowledge

This project included QR-coding of cultural heritage sites. The chosen location was the village of Galičnik which itself is listed as cultural as Cultural Heritage of Macedonia. After checking the official List of Cultural Heritage, in cooperation with people who originate from the village and the Local Community of Galičnik, we were able to locate the houses. Also we were provided with literature about Galičnik, to be used as refferrences in the eventual articles of the sites. This phase occurred in late spring-early summer. After creating the 31 Macedonian articles about the sites/houses, we designed and made 31 QR-coded plaques leading to an article of the respective house. Also, the houses have QR codes of the English article. In the village center, we installed the bulletin board that shows the map of Galičnik indicating the locations of the houses of cultural heritage. The montage of the plaques and the bulletin was done in late October. After the installation, the remaining 31 articles in the English Wikipedia were created. With our engagement, the houses now are highlighted and we brought the dwellers of Galičnik and tourists closer to Wikipedia. Depending of the available literature, which varies at each CH site, the articles contain content of the house characteristics, history of the family/it's owners and they also have coordinates of each house.

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Programs Impact

Community

This diverse program is consisted in the annual plans of GLAM Macedonia user group and Shared Knowledge each. Shared Knowledge has worked on several types of activities: Editing Challenges such as Editing Days, Editing Weekends, Editing Competitions, Edit-a-thons, Week-a-thons; Community Support which is divided to Photohunts, WikiSketch Lessons, WikiStands, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photographs (shared organization by both groups), Expeditions and its branches. Most of this activities were held online, as planned or forced into, and only when the general health situation in our country was better, we had physical presence. GLAM Macedonia this year (particular in the second half of 2021) included taking part in the online Wikimania 2021, organized the Wiki Team Building event, and held Edit-a-thons. On 15 August GLAM Macedonia members held an annual meeting, according pandemic restrictions in our country.

GLAM Macedonia members and the organization's goals and activities were featured in local media. Moreover, the FB page and two websites operated by GLAM Macedonia (glammacedonia.mk and wikicamp.mk) are constantly being used to outreach its members, activities and general public in Macedonia. It would be worth mentioning our appearance in media, 17 interviews, special on the web site of Nova Makedonija newspaper an interview of Natasa Nedanoska, and the media coverage about On kulart.mk Wiki team building. Our members took part in the Wikimania 2021 and CEE Online Meeting 2021 with presentations about the work and success of GLAM and Education programs of GLAM Macedonia.

1. Editing Challenges - Shared Knowledge

This subprogram is online according its nature. Its subdivisions vary in period, voluntary or competitive/prize character. The overall general topics were were intentionally selected as they were lacking in the Macedonian Wikipedia such as art, literature, geography, history, science, technology, archaeology, music, culture, religion, etc. Starting with the Editing Days (ED), we held a total of 102 editions, almost every Tuesday and Thursday in 2021. 901 new articles, 28 improved articles, 17 new templates were covered by 17 people trough out the year. The longer Editing Weekends (EW) had 52 installments, meaning every weekend was reserved for some certain topic. The outcome of this challenge was 642 new articles, 19 improved articles, 2 new templates and 1 improved template out of 21 Wikipedians. The Edit-a-thons, for the most part are reported above in the Midterm report, so here we will put an accent to the latest October-held WikiGap Skopje, made with partnership with our two traditional collaborators - Swedish Embassy in Macedonia and UN Women. That concludes five Edit-a-thons in 2021. The Editing Competitions (EC) are the prized events, lasting for 30 days. The number of EC was four. Within these four competitive activities, 884 articles were created and 17 were improved from contributions of 14 competitors. Week-a-thons are the 'smaller brother' of the EC. Three installments were made, of which two were part of international wiki initiatives such as "Activism for Healthy Environment" and "Wiki Loves Fashion", respectively. The third week-a-thon was collaboration with Swedish Embassy in Macedonia and UN Women.

2. Community Support - Shared Knowledge

2.1. Photohunts - Shared Knowledge

A house that is listed as Cultural Heritage of Macedonia. Photohunt "Galičnik".

Photohunts are part of the Community Support subprogram (the following other objectives also belong to CS). Another two were made in the second half of 2021. Overall that makes five photohunts in the entire year. Generally, the subject of the covered photohunts was villages and their countryside, neighborhoods and zoos. When it comes to statistics, 279 photographs were uploaded on Commons, with 30 new articles and another 80 improved articles.

2.2. WikiSketch Lessons - Shared Knowledge

A WikiSketch at the office of the Megjashi children's organization.

WikiSketch Lessons are an all time open objective which was several times held in 2021. It was engaged when an interested Wikipedian, with no skills or rather minor ones, wanted to contribute, spend some time, and learn few new things on our encyclopedia. The covered topic vary, but generally were about geography, literature, people, children's rights, associations and societies, church organizations, museums, and other. It should be noted that many of the covered articles were local content. The amount of lessons in 2021 was 25, with some lasting for more than an hour. Depending on the participant, some lessons were carried online, or were with physical presence at our office or at their location.

2.3. WikiStands - Shared Knowledge

A SK staff member during the second day/event of WikiStands.

This was our newest project which was implemented in the second half of 2021, particular in September. This activity, which to a degree in very similar with the WikiSketch Lessons, consisted of going to public places such as malls, squares and busy pedestrian streets, introducing Wikipedia at the interested pedestrians, having quick training on how to use Wikipedia, and finally editing and publishing new articles. The average time we spent with an individual was 20-25 minutes. The number of WikiStands held was two, that were a week apart. The covered topics, generally a participant's choice, were about geography, association football and music.

2.4. Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos - joint activity by the two user groups

Just like last year with the inaugural edition, GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge together continued with Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photographs (WPWP). Again, it was part of the international initiative Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos. WPWP has a great over all benefit due to using images from Commons that were not present on a certain language Wikipedia's article, and by that the Commons uploaded image is finding it's purpose. With this engagement, many image-less articles (4654) were enriched with 5,145 images, whether they were about coat of arms, flags, people, astronomy, science subjects, geographical places, objects. Out of 13 contesters, the top five ones earned prizes.

3. Expeditions - Shared Knowledge

This subprogram, as the title says, consists of organizing and making various kinds of expeditions which Shared Knowledge divides them to Wikiexpeditions, Veloexpeditions, Archaeoexpeditions, and Astroexpeditions. These activities contain a lot of 'field work', content coverage, and as local content, they are always on our primary focus.

3.1. Wikiexpeditions

Wikiеxpeditions' members during the third engagement.

The two-day Wikiexpeditions, that have a goal to visit villages and other rural places, are the largest by its kind and they are the most productive ones. Four expeditions of this kind were held with a SUV, successfully completing this objective according to the Annual plan. Wikiexpeditions were held in late May, mid June, late August and late September. The first one (May 21-23) visited the region called Povardarie (Municipalities of Negotino, Demir Kapija and Gevgelija). A month later (June 18-20) was scheduled for another southern mountainous region(s) of our country - Mariovo and Selečka Planina. Those regions belong to the Municipality of Novaci. Then on August 27 to 29, our four participants managed to visit Buševa Planina and Prilepsko Pole (Prilep Plain) which fall under the municipalities of Kruševo, Dolneni, and Krivogaštani. The last one was in the period of September 25-26. This time the location was more eastern, in the Municipality of Radoviš.

The outcome of these four expeditions is 356 covered articles and 2,250 files of images were uploaded on Wikipedia Commons.

3.2. Veloexpeditions

The four cyclists in the Municipality of Jegunovce.

Veloexpeditions are the bicycle driven expeditions and they are smaller in impact due to logistics, compared to the above mentioned Wikiexpeditions, but still have efficient numbers of success and productivity. 2021 was fulfilled with two editions: one in the region called Poreče located in the Municipality of Makedonski Brod, about 30 km away from the Skopje, and the second in the Municipality of Jegunovce, about 25 km away from the capital. The participants had the chance to visit and photograph villages and it's notable landscapes, landmarks, buildings and other. The Poreče Veloexpedition was made in second quarter of the year, while the Jegunovce Veloexpedition was in October. Out of these two activities, 151 photographs were taken and 98 articles were covered.

3.3. Geoexpeditions

The Canyon Kamnik 'Geo'.

This type covers geographical features and landmarks, starting ever since 2016. During 2021, two 'geos' were made. In May, the participants managed to go to mountain of Bogoslovec and it's Gjavolski Dzid (lit. Devil's Wall) Formation that are located in the region of Ovče Pole. Later in October, four wiki explorers got the chance to head to Canyon of Kamnik located in the Municipality of Štip. In this two time activities, the participants were able to upload 78 images and to create and improve a total of 62 articles.

3.3. Archeoexpeditions

Group photo south of the town of Demir Kapija.

Archaeoexpeditions were reactivated in 2021, after being absent in 2020. Due to need of expertise, we reached to MD Ordanče Petrov - archaeologist who is expert in the Demir Kapija region's archaeology. Four men (two SK members, a photographer, and the previously mentioned archaeologist) headed to the town of Demir Kapija, located in Southern Republic of Macedonia. This area is very rich with history and four archaeological sites were photographed. The most notable was the medieval town/fortress of Prosek which is very difficult to reach because is located on the Demir Kapija Canyon. Out of this edition, we managed to improve 8 and to create 1 article, not just covering the archaeolical sites, but the town of Demir Kapija's article, a local river's article, and articles of some road infrastructure in proximity of the town and the sites. 30 images were taken and all of them are being used on the Macedonian Wikipedia.

4. Wikimania 2021 - GLAM Macedonia

Wikimania 2021 logo.

GLAM Macedonia and some of its members attended Wikimania 2021 which was held from August 14 to August 17. This was different held Wikimania because it was not live, nor with physical presence, but it was online, with some presentations recorded. GLAM Macedonia organized 4 events in 4 days: 3 of them in Skopje, and 1 in Ohrid. The Skopje events were held in the office of GLAM Macedonia, and Ohrid event was held in Ramne, village on Galichica Mountain. In this period of 4 days, 33 participants altogether were part of those 4 events in 4 days, 24 participants were part of Skopje events and 9 participants were part of Ohrid event. Wiki Clubs members, along with the other members of GLAM Macedonia, participated at the events and listened the experience from the world wide experienced Wikimedians. GLAM Macedonia members had their presentation on Wikimania, talking about success of GLAM and Education programs.

Moments of Wikimania 2021

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5. Wiki Team Building - GLAM Macedonia

In order to strengthen the ties between the members and the employees of GLAM Macedonia, our user group organized a team building event held in the town of Ohrid on October 22 to 24. The first day was scheduled for opening the event and self introducing the members and talks were made about the upcoming and future activities of GLAM Macedonia. The second was for presentations about the recent activities in which Valentina Trajkoska - a principal in a local high school, and Nataša Nedanoska - coordinator of the Wiki Club Ohrid, had a word to say to the present public. To make a bigger contribution, at evening on the same day, there was a mini editing event and uploading media on Commons. Along side uploading, there was presentation on the subject public domain photos and copyright. The last day was opened by Stojna Arsovska-Donevska with her discussion related to problems coordinators met after pandemic started. Each of the participants gave their ideas and discussed what can be changed, handled differently or improved.

Moments of Wikimania 2021

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  Group photo on opening day
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  The second day
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  The finale day
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  Working hours
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  Working hours
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  Working hours

6. Edit-a-thons - GLAM Macedonia

In the second half of 2021, GLAM Macedonia managed to organize two edit-a-thons. The first one was held on October 30 by Wiki Club Staro Nagoricane, parallel to the main Meet Srpska 2021 which is organized by the Wikimedians from Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The outcome was 5 participants who produced 9 new articles. The latter edit-a-thon, titled Women in Climate Change 2021 , was part of initiative Women in Climate Change 2021. It was held on December 10 and 33 articles were created out of 15 participants. So, over the 2021, a total of 4 edit-a-thons were made, with 105 new articles created altogether.

Metrics of the activities of Shared Knowledge and the shared activities with GLAM Macedonia

Objective	Projected participants	Total participants	Projected total content pages	Achieved total content pages	Projected used media files	Achieved used media files
Edit-a-thons	56	55	288	432	―	―
Editing Competitions	30	17	840	1274	―	―
CEE Spring (stand alone EC)	9	0	280	512	―	―
Editing Days	18	25	2000	1892	―	―
Editing Weekends	13	25	1500	1328	―	―
Week-a-thons	14	16	560	2096	―	―
Photohunts	9	10	480	778	294	279
WikiSketch Lessons	51	15	204	138	―	5
WikiStands	33	13	70	28	―	―
Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos	25	14	2000	9128	―	―
Wikiexpeditions	5	4	2080	2959	960	2025
Geoexpeditions	6	8	150	124	168	78
Veloexpeditions	6	4	380	277	240	37
Archaeoexpeditions	6	4	150	78	120	30

GLAM

Making the outreach and cooperating with national institutions, such as GLAM ones, is one the key essences of GLAM Macedonia user group. This year we have send several volunteers to serve as Wikipedian in Residence. Also, other activities with GLAM institutions were held, some of them being in the previously partnered institutions of the past years.

Wikipedian in Residence

Despite the pandemic times, the Wikipedians in Residence managed to fulfill their obligations of collecting materials, literature and other data, related within the respective institution, and to enrich the Macedonian articles. As for new agreements for collaboration, we signed with the National Park Galičica in Ohrid, and continue our work with the The State Archives of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Writers' Association of Macedonia, Museum of Macedonian Struggle, and with the Museum of Natural History of Macedonia.

In this year, GLAM Macedonia members and Wikipedian in Residence managed to edit (new or existing) articles more than 320 articles on specific topics: about insects in Macedonia, about Macedonian writers and books, and about flora and fauna of the National Park Galičica.

On 10 June 2021 Wikitour was held in the National Park Galičica.

On the 21st of July is celebration of the day of national parks, Wiki Club Ohrid members under the leadership of Natasa Nedanoska created 11 new articles to enrich Wikipedia in the Macedonian language on the subject of reptiles, including the following: Fire salamander, European tree frog, European green toad.

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  Wikitour
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  Wikitour
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  Wikitour
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  Wikitour
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  Editing workshop
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  Editing workshop
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  Editing workshop
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  Editing workshop

Partnerships

This program of Shared Knowledge traditionally is divided Cultural Heritage, Exhibits, and QR-pedia. According to the SK's Annual plan of 2021, Cultural Heritage subprogram included the Visiting Museums/Libraries, Visiting Resen Saray and Tatarčev House, and the photographic contest "Wiki Loves Monuments 2021". Exhibits are a stand alone, while QR-pedia consisted of Skopje ZOO, Dinopedia, and WikiVillage. Hence the objectives Visiting Museums/Libraries, Visiting Resen Saray and Tatarčev House from the Cultural Heritage subprogram were completed in the first half, and already explained in the Midpoint Report, here we will put an accent on the photo competition.

1. Wiki Loves Monuments 2021

WLM in Macedonia 2021 logo

"Wiki Loves Monuments 2021" lasted the entire period of September and was part of the international project that occured in the same period. As the title says, the competitors should photograph and upload images, monuments in general, but our decision was to put an accent and to adapt it at the sites that are listed as cultural heritage of Macedonia. Those sites includes houses, religious buildings, commercial and administrative buildings, archaeological sites, etc. The focus was sites (about 1,200) that did not have any images on Commons. Twelve contesters were part of the WLM in Macedonia and they achieved a number of 800 images. The top three rated images were prized and also the most contributing participant with most covered sites got a prize.

The top three photographs

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  1st place
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  2nd place
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  3rd place

2. Exhibits

Traditionally, the members of Shared Knowledge choose some country which would be portrayed at some gallery or other suitable place. After the exhibits about Poland and Brazil in the previous years, it was decided this time to be about Japan considering that the people, especially the young folks, have sympathies towards this East Asian country. Making the objective is divided in two parts: the first being preparations, and the latter the opening of the exhibit and the helding the editing event.

In its early phase, we contacted some Japanese Wikimedians affiate in Wikimedia Asian Month user group. Those Wikimedians were eager to help provided us with 50 Commons images. These images portrayed Japan's culture, history, cuisine, geography and architecture. After filtering, we selected 30 images of them. As planned, all the photographs portrayed at the "Japan Trough Photographs" Exhibit needed to have QR code in order to lead to a respective article. Due to lacking articles, 21 articles were created for this purpose, in the period of August.

On November 22, we organized the exhibit titled "Japan Through Photographs" at the gallery of Cinematheque of Macedonia and Children's Art Center. The number of participants during the opening was 25. Several people out of this number were from the Embassy of Japan, with the presence of the Japanese ambassador itself. Also, the president of the Macedonian-Japanese Cooperation was present, as well other guests who are interested in Japan and their culture. The Japan exhibit was open for a week. The day later, we held an "Japan" Edit-a-thon themed about Japan related articles. The editing workshop was made in the quarters of the national youth organization MladiHub. During the editing event, he were honored to be visited by the deputy ambassador of Japan and his spouse who were delighted of our engagement about their home country. So, eight people attended the event and out of them, 4 people participated in creating content about geography and culture of Japan. The outcome was 9 new articles.

Moments from the grand opening of the exhibition and the edit-a-thon

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3. Skopje Zoo

This activity falls in the QR-pedia subprogram. In 2015, about 30 QR-coded plates were made, all for purpose to lead to a specific animal article in the Macedonian (for local use), Albanian (for local use) and English Wikipedia (for foreigners). Hence the 2015 plates did not stood the test of time, this year we engaged to make 89 plates for all species within Skopje Zoo. Starting from March and up to October 1, 67 articles were created on the Macedonian and mostly on the Albanian Wikipedia. Those articles needed and were essential for making the QR codes. Our biggest challenge was making articles on the Albanian Wikipedia that uses a language not native to us. For that purpose, we to a degree got help from some fellow Wikimedians of the Albanian Language User Group, two Macedonian graduates that studied Albanian language in college. Also we got help from two Macedonian Albanians that are biologists, at providing us with proper names of the animals in Albanians. The plates have the name of the animal in the three languages, plus the scientific name. In November, the plates were given to the Zoo staff, as they previously agreed to install the plates at their respective animal habitats.

Metrics

Objective	Projected participants	Total participants	Projected total content pages	Achieved total content pages	Projected used media files	Achieved used media files
Visiting Museums and Libraries	32	6	80	40	―	7
Resen Saray and Tatarčev House	20	5	50	38	50	14
Wiki Loves Monuments	53	15	2000	1600	800	800
Exhibits	50	39	70	60	30	0
Skopje Zoo	10	9	50	138	―	2
WikiVillage	10	6	480	126	―	1

Education

GLAM Macedonia's objective includes Teachers Seminars, brand new project we started on January 2021, Wiki Senior, maintaining of Wiki Clubs throughout the country, then Editing Competition for High School Students (shared activity by GLAM Macedonia and Shared Knowledge; explained in the Midpoint Report) and Editing Competitions named Meet Russia and Meet Sweden, organized with the collaboration of the respective embassies in Skopje.

When it comes to Shared Knowledge's Education program, it is divided in two parts: Education as the first one, and Science being the other. The (proper) Education subprogram of 2021 included the objectives Mentorship of professors, then Editing Competition for High School Students (shared activity by GLAM Macedonia and SK; explained in the Midpoint Report), Wiki Data Lectures. The Science subprogram consisted of the traditional Wikiexperiments, and Wiki Loves Science 2021 Photo Competition.

1. Wiki Clubs - GLAM Macedonia

The Wiki Clubs meetings were rare this years due to pandemic. Several Wiki Clubs gathering have been made, mostly being online due to safety reasons, but more than 10 meetings were held in person, most of them in order to train newcomers on how to edit Wikipedia. Skopje, Ohrid and Veles have proven to be the leading Wiki Clubs in the country, as their members were highly active on events and editing articles. We managed to train 109 new members of Wiki Clubs in Macedonia, who altogether created and improved more than 4500 articles, and 29 uploads on commons.

New Wiki Club was established on 24 of September in Demir Hisar. Wiki Club Demir Hisar started with 11 new members.

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  Introducing newcomers with editing
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  Introducing newcomers with editing
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  Introducing newcomers with editing
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  Introducing newcomers with editing
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  Opening Day of WC Demir Hisar
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  Opening Day of WC Demir Hisar

1.1. Editing Competition for Wiki Clubs members With the support of the Embassy of Sweden, the entire month of November was scheduled for the editing competition titled Meet Sweden. The goal was to reduce the lack of Swedish-themed articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia. As subject all articles were accepted related to Sweden, with an emphasis on the history, geography and culture of Sweden. 31 competitors, which are members of the Wiki Clubs, were part of the engaged and they created 670 articles. The top five competitors were prized on ceremony held in the Macedonian National Opera and Ballet House on Saint Lucy's Day.

Meet Sweden was the second one of this kind in the 2021, the first was Meet Russia, explained in the Midpoint report.

This kind of editing competitions for Wiki Club members proved to be very successful. In the Meet Russia and the Meet Sweden competitions, 76 young participants created 1,295 new articles altogether.

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2. Teacher Seminars - GLAM Macedonia

Two Teachers Seminars were held in the months of September and December. At these seminars the professors-participants were introduced to the formalities of how to use and edit on Wikipedia articles, as well as the activities and contributions of GLAM Macedonia. The first seminar was in the town of Veles on September 28 and on that event, 16 teachers were participants. The second seminar was held in December in the Lazo Trpovski Secondary School, located in the Municipality of Karposh. This time, 10 people were participants. The main theme of the seminar was "Media literacy and Wikipedia". About this topic the keynote speaker was Tatjana Gogoska, Master of Communication Sciences. Overall, 26 people were part of the seminars.

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  September seminar
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  September seminar
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  December seminar
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  December seminar
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  December seminar
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  December seminar

3. Wiki Senior - GLAM Macedonia "Wiki Senior" is the new project that started this year. The goal is to educate seniors to edit Wikipedia and create new articles, by involving senior people in the GLAM Macedonia's activities in a similar manner as the youth population is covered by the user group's activities. Actively involved seniors into activities and editing Wikipedia, resulted with enriching, improving and referencing Macedonian-language articles. At the initial stage the number of this club is low (as expected, since generally the youth population is more familiar with Wikipedia), resulting with a number of newly created articles and improved Wikipedia contents. In numbers, in 2021 we had 27 senior editors, who edited more than 706 articles.

GLAM Macedonia's goal is to further enlarge the number of trained senior people, keep them active in the future, and achieve even higher results in terms of new and improved contents created by seniors.

4. Mentorship of professors - Shared Knowledge

As the name clearly says, through this activity we gave mentoring lessons on Wikipedia of people who are university level or high school level professors. Depending of the individuals, additionally few articles got created. In the second half of the year, another three professors were part of this activity. So, suma sumarum, 6 professor got mentorships, of which four are university professors, one is elementary school teacher, and one is high school professor. The mentorship lessons were made in February, June, September and December, and were made on various locations.

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  An university professor of history
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  An university professor of art
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  An university professor of Macedonian language
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  An university professor of music

As an addition within this activity, we had two editing events in a high school in Skopje. This was done with the collaboration with the high school professor mentioned above. The training lessons and editing events on the students that study at the Mathematical-Computer Science Gymnasium, the newest high school in Macedonia. Three classes on December 13, and two classes on December 20, were part of the training that included intro of Wikipedia and its goals, skills using the wiki tool to translate existing articles into other language Wikipedias, as well as source editing where they can improve but also create articles. A total of 76 high school students listened to the training, along side the professor and two of our SK mentors, and 39 articles were created, while one was improved. The covered articles were mostly about geography, history, music, movies, automobiles, wild life, sports.

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5. Wikiexperiments - Shared Knowledge

Amiloid reaction biology experiment.

The second half of 2021 was for more fulfilled with filming experiments at the Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics. The collaboration with prof. Oliver Zajkov continued in October and four more physics videos were made. In July we filmed several videos with the chemists Vladimir Petruševski, Marina Stojanovska and Miha Bukleski. Another two chemistry sessions were made in October and November, this time only with Vladimir Petruševski and Marina Stojanovska. Our biggest achievement in Wikiexperiments 2021 was making a collaboration with the Institute of Biology of the already mentioned faculty. 20 biology videos were made that showed experiments from the fields of mycology, animal physiology, microbiology, botany, and ecology of plants performed by several docents and assistant in coordination with their respective superior professors. A total of 63 experiments were recorded.

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  Chemistry filming in July
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  Biology filming in September
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  Biology filming in September
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  Chemistry filming in October
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  Physics filming in October
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  Chemistry filming in November

6. Wiki Science Competition 2021 - Shared Knowledge

The Macedonian logo of WSC.

This photographic competition on international level is held every two years and had several editions that aims to encourage the public to take science-themed images and upload them on Wikimedia Commons, enriching it with content of this kind and bringing people closer to science. For 2021 edition, Shared Knowledge joined as a representative from Macedonia. The Macedonian edition of "Wiki Science Competition 2021" (locally named Натпревар за научна фотографија) was part of the international competition. This competition lasted from November 1 to December 15, generally following the period of the other national level competitions. 21 competitors were part of this contest and they contributed by uploading 127 files, more specific 126 images and one video, media that was divided into the seven categories of microscopic images, images sets, wild life and nature, general category, people in science, non-photographic media, and astronomy. The best four rated images were prized.

The top four photographs

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  1st place
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  2nd place
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  3rd place
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  4th place

Metrics of the activities of Shared Knowledge and the shared activities with GLAM Macedonia

Objective	Projected participants	Total participants	Projected total content pages	Achieved total content pages	Projected used media files	Achieved used media files
Professors Mentorship	15	85	40	94	―	4
High School Students Editing Competition	18	10	150	246	―	―
Wikiexperiments	17	15	200	282	―	40
Wiki Science Competition 2021	18	24	450	254	―	―

Spending update Final

GLAM MACEDONIA

• Financial report 2021

Total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period:

• 21.664 Euro

SHARED KNOWLEDGE

• Financial report 2021

Total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period:

• 31,957.07 USD

Grant Metrics Reporting

Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.