Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (shortened OBC Transeuropa or OBCT) is a think tank focused on South-East Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus which was launched in the year 2000. Based in Trento, Italy, since 2017 it is an operational unit of the Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale - International Cooperation Centre (CCI).
This page aims at describing OBCT's various involvement with the Wikimedia projects. More information on OBCT can be found on its website.
OBCT & Wikimedia projects
editOBCT has long used a Creative Commons license for its website, and since 2015 it has been involved in dissemination and outreach activities on Wikimedia projects. Most of its activies has been related with the media freedom topic, first with a Wikipedian in residence and then with the Wiki4MediaFreedom initiative. It has also contributed to articles about the European Parliament, and with various topics with text and data from European Data Journalism Network, a platform for data-driven news on European affairs OBCT coordinates.
OBCT has also used Wikipedia in education in several projects, encouraging and assisting others in writing articles themselves. It also organised the 2020 Wikipedia birthday in the CCI headquarter in Trento.
List of projects
editWe distinguish dissemination and education projects based on the main focus, but of course dissemination projects may have an educational part, and educational projects may have a dissemination part. Short lectures and presentations have their specific section, distinguished from longer educational projects.
Dissemination projects
editWikipedian in residence (October 2015 - March 2016)
editOBCT has been active on Wikipedia since 2015, when it first hosted a Wikipedian in Residence in cooperation with Wikimedia Italia (WMI) and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).
- (English) More information on English Wikipedia
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni su Wikipedia in italiano
Wiki4MediaFreedom
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On the basis of its first experience OBCT built the Wiki4MediaFreedom initiative, creating or improving Wikipedia articles about media-related issues in several European countries.
- (English) More information on Meta
Parliament of Rights
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Between 2016 and 2018 OBCT promoted the “Parliament of rights” project which aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the role of the European Parliament in the democratic life of the Union and in the definition of European policies for fundamental rights. Among the activities of the projects 19 articles were created or improved on Italian Wikipedia.
- (English) More information on OBCT website
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni sul sito di OBCT
EDJNet
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The European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet) is a platform for data-driven news on European affairs in up to 12 languages brought by a consortium of media and data journalists from all over Europe and coordinated by OBCT and VoxEurop. Most of its content are published with a CC BY 4.0 license. As a part of our dissemination activities we upload data visualizations on Wikimedia Commons, insert them in Wikipedia articles. More rarely we also add verbatim texts in Wikipedia articles.
- (English) More information on EDJNet
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni su EDJNet
Wikipedia birthday 2020
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In January 2020 we organized a celebration for the 19th Wikipedia birthday at the CCI.
Educational projects
editThe last ones
edit“The last ones” (Gli ultimi) was a project that took place in February and March 2019 in which we helped a group of high school students writing about Serbian and Russian prisoners on the Alpine front during World War I on Italian Wikipedia as a part of the Never Again European project.
- (Italian) Project page on Italian Wikipedia
- (Italian) More information on OBCT website
- (English) More information on the Never Again website
Translating and improving Wikipedia articles on media freedom in Europe
edit“Translating and improving Wikipedia articles on media freedom in Europe” (February - April 2019) involved two “school-work alternation” students in cooperation with WMI.
Science, technology, society and Wikipedia 2019
editFrom 1 to 5 July 2019 Niccolò Caranti acted as a tutor in the third edition of “Science, technology, society and Wikipedia”, a course for PhD students of the Polytechnic University of Milan, helping them write articles on the topics of their research.
- (English) More information on English Wikipedia
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni su Wikipedia in italiano
Yugoslav Wars on Wikipedia
edit“Yugoslav Wars on Wikipedia”, an ongoing project (started January 2020) helping students of the Agricultural Institute of the Edmund Mach Foundation of San Michele all’Adige writing articles with a focus on the Bosnian conflict.
WiR Modena
editFrom May to December 2020 Niccolò Caranti is acting as Wikipedian in Residence with the Museo Civico di Modena (Civic Museum of Modena).
Science, technology, society and Wikipedia 2020
editFrom 22 to 26 June 2020 Niccolò Caranti acted as a tutor in the forth edition of “Science, technology, society and Wikipedia”, a course for PhD students of the Polytechnic University of Milan, helping them write articles on the topics of their research. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic this edition of the course is held online.
- (English) More information on English Wikipedia
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni su Wikipedia in italiano
Cooperation with the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage
editSince June 2020 Niccolò Caranti is cooperating with the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage - Archaeological properties Office of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Soprintendenza per i beni culturali - Ufficio beni archeologici della Provincia autonoma di Trento) to help them contribute to Wikimedia projects.
Science, technology, society and Wikipedia - IDEA League edition
editFrom 13 to 17 July 2020 Niccolò Caranti acted as a tutor in the IDEA League edition of the “Science, technology, society and Wikipedia” course, assisting university students to write Wikipedia articles. The course is organised by the IDEA League (an alliance among European universities of technology, including the Polytechnic University of Milan) as one of its Summer schools. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic it is held online.
- (English) More information on IDEA League website
- (English) More information on English Wikipedia
Lectures and presentations
editL’eco dell’Europa
editOn 5 November 2018 Niccolò Caranti and Rossella Vignola held a lecture about Wikipedia and education as a part of the course "L'eco dell'Europa", organised by the CCI and Fondazione Trentina Alcide De Gasperi (FTADG).
Come diventare un analista politico
editOn 12 December 2018 a part of the the academic seminar Come diventare un analista politico ("How to become a political analyst") by prof. Roberto Belloni of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence of the University of Trento Niccolò Caranti hold a tutorial on how to contribute to Wikipedia articles, focusing on European affairs. 15 articles were created or improved on Italian Wikipedia.
Presentation at the University of the Third Age and Spare Time
editOn 15 January 2019 Niccolò Caranti gave a presentation about Wikipedia at the University of the Third Age and Spare Time (UTETD) in Trento.
What do you know about Wikipedia?
editOn 22 November 2019 Niccolò Caranti held a lecture about Wikipedia (Cosa sai di Wikipedia?, "What do you know about Wikipedia?) at the University of Perugia. The lecture was organised by the Department of Political science and Communication sciences.
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni sul sito di OBCT
From fake news to Wikipedia
editOn 11 December 2019 Niccolò Caranti gave a presentation about Wikipedia at the Università dell'Età Libera in Rovereto, as a part of a 3-part course titled "From fake news to Wikipedia" (Dalle fake news a Wikipedia).
- (Italian) Maggiori informazioni sul sito di OBCT
Proposed projects
edit- itWikiCon 2019
We proposed two presentation, one about data visualizations on Wikipedia and one about OBCT's wiki projects, for ItWikiCon 2019, but the event was canceled.
- Dataviz 4 Wiki
We proposed a project, Dataviz 4 Wiki, for a project grant in 2020 (round 1) but it was not selected.
OBCT coverage of Wikipedia
editOBCT as a media sometimes covers Wikipedia. Here is a (not complete) list of articles it has published:
- Turchia, continua l'oscuramento di Wikipedia, 19 May 2017
- "Ci manchi, Turchia", 12 March 2018
- Wikipedia croata: quando l’estrema destra riscrive la storia (Croatian-language Wikipedia: when the extreme right rewrites history), 17 September 2018
- La CEDU accelera sul caso della censura di Wikipedia in Turchia, 24 July 2019
- Turchia: terminato l’oscuramento di Wikipedia, 16 January 2020
Spillovers
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- Wikipedia 4 Refugees
Wikipedia 4 Refugees aimed at involving a group of asylum seekers/refugees in Trentino in translating relevant entries from the Italian linguistic edition of Wikipedia into the languages of the participants.
While it was not a OBCT project, members of the staff of OBCT contributed in their volunteer capacity, and the project was possible because of their experience with Wikipedia, and the collaboration with the local Wikimedia community and other volunteers.
External links
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- Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa - Official website
- Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale- Official website