Wikimedia Armenia/Western Armenian program/Reports/August-October

Western Armenian Program Report
August-October

Western Armenian articles

Western Armenian Wikipedia logo which is used in templates.

During these months 1298 article were written. Most of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2015 in Beirut and the rest by new subscribers.

These all new articles were reviewed and wikified by experienced editors. The Western Armenian project coordinator always works on finding reliable sources which help to improve the existing articles as well as they will serve as sources for new articles.

At this moment we have 3087 Western Armenian articles and in addition to this we have 146 articles which will be reviewed in the following months.

Translator's corner

"Translator's corner" project logo

In this period we have also enriched the "Translator's corner" project by adding new articles to be translated from Eastern Armenian to Western Armenian.

In this period 163 sections were translated from Eastern Armenian. Until now we have 4 translators who edit in this project each month. Like previous months this time as well the translators' work is guided and coordinated by the project coordinator who reviews the translations, wikifies them and adds reliable sources to them periodically.

We also work on involving new translators to the project who will enrich Western Armenian Wikipedia program with essential high quality content.

WikiCamp in Lebanon

Group photo of WikCamp Beirut, Lebanon.

On August 3-12, 41 students from 11 Lebanese-Armenian secondary schools participated in WikiCamp 2015 Beirut and 4 high school students from Armenia joined the camp.

During the camp the students learned wiki editing tools, how to create and edit articles. In the beginning they edited from the lists that were provided to them and then by their own preferences they chose and translated articles from other Wikipedias.

WikiCamp activities

3 workshops per day, total workshop hours - 5
daily morning exercise
cultural moments - national songs and dance lessons, music, pantomime

Lebanese students at Yerevan WikiCamp

proofreading of articles, summarizing the results once in two days, giving points
choosing the best group, article & editor
daily meetings of organization team
sharing each day activities in social networks
during the 10-day of WikiCamp a tour to the beach and Bzommar Monastery Complex and Museum were organized

Lebanese students visit the Orbeli brothers' museum, Tsakhkadzor, Armenia

Results

The original project goal

WikiCamp Beirut 2015 main goal was the education, deepening of wiki editing and translation skills of participants through contributing in Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Projects. It encouraged and attracted many students from different 11 Lebanese-Armenian secondary schools which increased the reach of wiki movement and "Wikipedia in Western Armenian" Program in the Diaspora. Due to the camp Western Armenian section of hy.wikipedia was enriched with quality content.

Students work

The students learned and worked with great pleasure․ Afer the camp they expressed their enthusiasm and feelings in the Camp page which can be found here.

At the end of the camp 8 participants were chosen who participated in the second term of WikiCamp in Armenia and 4 members were chosen to participate in Winter WikiCamp Armenia.

The closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of WikiCamp Beirut was held at "Erjo Samuelian Yeraguyn" hall. The community leader, heads, teachers of Armenian schools and campers' parents attended.

The opening ceremony began with opening speeches and was followed by musical performance. At the end all the participants received certificates, wiki mugs, Wiki loves monuments calendar.

After the camp

After the students returned to Beirut they continued editing. A page was created for coordinating their editing process and for making it easier and more effective․ A list of articles are provided through this page which need to be created in Wikipedia. The translations should be done from English and Eastern Armenian. Besides, with the help of this page the students' activities are shown․

Each month we make a statistics of the students' contributions (bytes, created pages and edits) and post it in social networks. Seeing their results of the previous month they are encouraged to continue editing with enthusiasm.

In August we had 15 students created 43 articles, made 89 edits and contributed 239668 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In September we had 15 students created 180 articles, made 729 edits and contributed 1469827 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
In October we had 7 students created 92 articles, made 369 edits and contributed 544341 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.

Lebanon camp video

The Lebanon camp was widely covered in social networks. We opened a Ուիքի ճամբար (WikiCamp in Western Armenian) page in Facebook where the page coordinator shared the students' activities every day. A number of small videos where shot in the camp based on which a video was montaged in Armenia.

Wikiclubs

Yeghishe Manoukian's WikiClub Wikipedians

In order to involve schoolchildren and adults in the editing process of Wikipedia and its sister projects, WM AM establishes Wiki clubs all over Beirut where people study and edit Western Armenian articles in their free time with the help of experienced wikipedians.

Establishing Wiki clubs is especially vital in schools, where the students can create and edit articles at their free hours thus acquiring knowledge.

This kind of clubs keep them active as well as link them with each other to develop and disseminate wiki movement and Western Armenian language. After the camp the active students offered to open wikiclubs in their schools promising to keep it active by involving new students. As a result 2 wikiclubs were opened in 2 Armenian colleges of Beirut:

Yeghishe Manukian national college.
M. & H. Arslanian Djemaran college.

The opening works of the third wikiclub are underway. It is planned to open it in Armenian Catholic St. Cross-Harpoian college.

In these clubs active wikipedians conduct regular workshops, where the students learn wikiediting tools, create or improve already existing Western Armenian articles by translating them or by using different Western Armenian sources.

Other positive activities

Shahen Araboghlian, one of the event organizers, who presented the opening speech

On Friday October the 23rd, Yeghishe Manoukian College, the high school section, commemorated the feast of the Holy Translators the creation/discovery of the Armenian alphabet, organized by the school’s WikiClub.

The opening speech was presented by Shahen Araboghlian (User:Shahen Books), a previous WikiCamp participant, wiki editor, who after emphasizing on the importance of having the discovery of our alphabet, our dearest translators throughout history and their outstanding roles in our language. At the end of his speech, he noted how the Armenian wiki movement, the editing in our native language and the typing in Armenian is helping the language develop in our minds, adding a pinch of information, article by article, for the better of our future.

The event was wrapped up by school principle Zohrab Ghazarian, who saw the Armenian school as the defending wall of the language, without which the language would crumble. He also reminded everyone how the WikiClub plays an important role in the development of language digitization.