Liridon/2019/finalreport

Final report for Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group

Program story

Transitional Justice edit-a-thon

The Transitional Justice edit-a-thon was an offline edit-a-thon we had originally intended to organize in partnership with an NGO from Kosovo but since the negotiations were taking considerable time, we decided to host it on our own.

The main goal of the event was the recruitment of as many participants, preferably experts of the field, to write articles in Wikipedia on the situation of the transitional justice in Kosovo and events related to the last war that took place in the period of 1998-1999.

The edit-a-thon took place throughout December where we met with the participants who signed up through an open call that we made in social media and by asking potential partners to help us promote it.

The participants, mainly students, were beginners in Wikipedia so we first hosted a training session for them and we met again during the weekend of 14 & 15 December to start writing the articles. Over the course of this weekend, besides the process of writing, we also invited two field experts on transitional justice in Kosovo as guests to help the participants find more sources they can use as references and to give them helpful tips about what to be cautious about when writing on such sensitive topics. The discussions with the guests were really productive and we received positive feedback about them from the participants.

As per the outcomes of the edit-a-thon, our expectations for the number of the articles were not entirely met but we are still satisfied with the quality of them and plan on being more persistent with the promotion this year because it is a topic that deserves good coverage.

Transitional Justice Edit-a-thon
Transitional Justice Edit-a-thon
Transitional Justice Edit-a-thon

Wiki Loves Monuments Albania & Kosovo

As in our previous year of hosting the competition, many photographers were eager to contribute and become part of it. The call for participants was open during September and we made sure we did our most promoting it on social media, national TVs and online newspapers, our blog, etc. Many people joined and uploaded in total 202 photos of monuments from Albania and Kosovo in Commons. After the evaluation process, the jury chose 20 winning photos from both Albania and Kosovo and we held a joint ceremony in Prishtina Hackerspace where they were rewarded with gift cards and certificates.

Media coverage:

Koha.net
KTV
Wikimedia shqip

Winning photos:

WLM 2019 Albania - winner photo
WLM 2019 Kosovo - winner photo

Learning story

Our first workshop with the instructors of BONEVET makerspace

We kicked off our collaboration with BONEVET, a non-formal educational institution in Prishtina, by hosting a workshop for the instructors of the space. We met for five sessions during October and November to introduce them to Wikimedia and teach them the basics, expecting them to carry out what they learned in their activities with the students. Generally, the whole process went fine but as the sessions were coming to an end there were some minor problems we identified and we believe our observations on them might be of hand for future references.

The agenda of the sessions, the duration of which varied from 60-90 mins, consisted of a presentation we would host, answering questions about things the participants were unclear about and at the end we would assign to them a task that involved putting into practice what they learned. In the beginning, the participants seemed quite enthusiastic to learn and were engaged in asking questions but as the weeks passed it seemed as if their interest was fading. This also showed in the fact that they were neglecting or not fully completing their tasks and it was unclear to us why this is happening because during the sessions they claimed to understand our instructions.

To get feedback from the participants, we asked them to answer a few questions regarding the quality of the sessions - to get a better idea of what can be improved.

A pattern we noticed in the answers is that we were advised to keep the presentations shorter, which is understandable because the instructors in this case were also occupied during the week with their own activities. Other feedback we received was to simplify the presentations on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons because as we were suspecting they might have seemed a bit overwhelming for them as beginners.

This feedback was valuable and will surely be taken into consideration for our next similar activities.

Results

Education

As in our previous year, we are continuously working to push forward collaborations with educational institutions who share our common goals, including that of bringing to the fore digital literacy in the classroom - thus using Wikipedia as a tool to achieve it.

Throughout the year, we have conducted meetings with professors, students and people of interest in high schools, universities and non-formal educational institutions to discuss our possibilities of implementing Wikipedia in their syllabi and agenda.

Since our mid-point report, we have signed another MoU in Kosovo: with Bonevet Makerspace. Moreover, we have hosted various workshops with other partners such as RIT Kosovo and also Faculty of Science and Faculty of History in Albania.

Training on Wikimedia of BONEVET staff
Training on Wikimedia of BONEVET staff

Metrics	Goal	Description	Status
4 partnerships, 2 in Kosovo and 2 in Albania	Develop further partnerships on education	During October - November 2019 we held two workshops with the students of RIT Kosovo, part of our collaborative plan to integrate Wikipedia in their syllabus through extracurricular activities and in regular classes. We plan to continue these classes during 2020 and are keeping in touch with students and professors interested. As aforementioned, we have also successfully developed our partnership with BONEVET. On our last meeting we have agreed with the instructors who work there to encourage their students to use Commons to upload their projects from Graphic Design and 3D printing classes and will continue to have the support of WoALUG through materials and staff time. In Albania we have continued our partnerships with Faculty of Science and the Faculty of History as part of our collaboration with REC Albania.	100%
n/a	Host Wiki workshops with high schools and Universities	As part of our collaboration with REC Albania we continued our workshops in October with Faculty of Science.	100%
2 active clubs in high schools in Albania	Establish 5 Wiki Clubs in high schools	We have 2 active clubs in Berat, Albania. However, a problem we have stumbled upon is the pupils’ expectations to always have a member from our team to host the workshops. It seems that to them, it is more attractive to have an outsider presenting and not the teacher or one of the classmates. They don’t seem interested to participate if it’s just a regular class. In contrast to the clubs in Albania, regarding the establishment of new WikiClubs in Kosovo and Macedonia, we have not made much progress since our mid-point report.	40%

GLAM

For the second part of our grant, we have not been able to make as much progress as we were hoping to with our GLAM program, mainly due to the fact that institutions were not as cooperative and this was an obstacle in pushing our plans forward. Consequently, we have shifted our focus to other institutions so we can have better results this year.

Nevertheless, our members have remained active in other GLAM related projects as is the case of the collaboration between Liridon, a member of WoALUG, who helped Armenian members transfer existing data from the Armenian National Gallery into Wikidata. More on this collaboration covered in the GLAM newsletter can be found here.

Metrics	Goal	Description	Status
	GLAM at Museum of Tirana	During 2018 we had a couple of meetings with the general director of Historic Museum of Tirana. In 2019 we had 2 meetings with the director of the Archive. They look very positive to collaborate but the memorandum of collaboration is stuck at Ministry of Culture, without that they cannot give us any material. We are hoping with the new contact we have to move on and the Wikimedian in Residence to help us move on with our plan. During 2019 we had also communication with National Institution of Albanian Monuments who express their interest to collaborate and to join our GLAM activities.	20%
	GLAM at Museum of Kosovo	Several attempts and discussions for possibilities of working together were made with the Museum of Kosovo but were all unsuccessful, besides our Wikimedian in Residence project which was fulfilled in the first part of the grant. We are currently in the early stages of discussing with other GLAM institutions so we can complete our 2020 planned activities.	0%

Outreach

The offline and online campaigns organized within our Outreach program are proven to be quite effective in promoting and spreading the word about our user group, therefore engaging a wider audience for our activities and helping the community grow. Overall, the activities we were able to organize reached our expectations and we had no choice but to postpone the rest of them for next year.

As in our previous year of participation, Wiki Loves Monuments again attracted many new and experienced photographers who helped enrichen Commons with their captures of the beautiful monuments in Albania and Kosovo.

Some of our members were also part of conferences such as the CEE Meeting 2019 in Belgrade and Wikidata Con 2019 in Berlin where stories and ideas were shared with fellow Wikimedians.

Albania and Kosovo editing marathon on Wikivoyage
Albanian Wikipedia 21th Birthday
WLM 2019 Kosovo Winners
WLM 2019 Albania Winners
WLM 2019Albania and Kosovo Award Ceremony

Metrics	Goal	Description	Status
21 new articles, 76 improved articles, 106 media files uploaded to Commons	Summer of Wikivoyage	The online and joint edit-a-thon held on July resulted in being very successful and surpassed our expectations.	100%
5 new or improved articles, 4 new editors involved.	Transitional Justice	The Transitional Justice edit-a-thon was a thematic edit-a-thon held during December where the participants wrote new or improved articles related to transitional justice and events that happened during the last war in Kosovo. To make the edit-a-thon more interactive, we also invited two field experts with whom we discussed on the sensitive topics regarding transitional justice and the current situation in post-war Kosovo. Article on our blog GLAM newsletter	100%
No new media published in Commons	Illustrate Wikipedia campaign	The online campaign Illustrate Wikipedia was open during the month of November, but it didn’t gain much interest perhaps due to poor promotion which will be noted for the next year’s launch.	20%
	Crimes of communism edit-a-thon	We did not manage to organize this, because the person who proposed it left the country.	0%
	One Village - One Article mass edit campaign	We did not manage to organize this.	0%
	Albanian Wikipedia Birthday	In October we celebrate Wikipedia Birthday by improving the interface of sqWikipedia and improving mostly of the “How To Get Started With Wikipedia” Sections.	100%
In process.	Diaspora Edits Wikipedia	Due to the unavailability of the NGO Germin with whom we joined forces to make the campaign happen, we have postponed it and are currently in the process of recruiting volunteers.	30%
94 photos from Kosovo, 108 photos from Albania. In total 202 photos uploaded in Wiki Commons.	Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 - Albania & Kosovo	On September 2019, we launched the Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 campaign and promoted it throughout the month in various forms: through social media, on our blog, national TV and online newspapers. After the evaluation process, we choose 20 winning photographs from both Albania and Kosovo and held a common ceremony at Prishtina Hackerspace where we invited the winners who were rewarded with gift cards, certificates of appreciation and Wikipedia merchandise for their contributions. Media coverage: Koha.net KTV Wikimedia shqip GLAM Newsletter	100%
351 photos from Albania and 160 photos from Kosovo. In total 411 photos uploaded in Commons.	Wiki Photo Walk Albania and Kosovo	Kosovo organized the event during June of 2019 and Albania during July. The winner won a polaroid camera (each country one)	100%
20 new items were created (we counted the edits during that day from the users who were in the event)	Wikidata Bday in Tirana	In Tirana we organized Wikidata birthday and during it, except the cake we also edited items.	100%
	The end of the year meeting/workshop	Every year we do a meeting in December to see what we have done and to discuss our plans for the next year. Normally we don’t publish this event anywhere but we invited people by email. This year we had it open and we promoted it on social media. During this event we mostly talked about what we can improve and how we can present to our yearly activities to the participants.	100%

Spending

Please link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the grant period. This should be in the same format as your detailed budget from your Simple APG application.

Final spending report

Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period.

€6,289.96