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Wikimedia Armenia/Western Armenian program/Reports 2016/January-September

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Western Armenian Program Report
January-September

Article Overview

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Western Armenian Wikipedia logo which is used in templates.

In the past 9 months 1429 articles were written in Western Armenian. Most of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2015 in Beirut and Armenia, small part of them were written by the students who participated in the Summer Wikicamp 2016 in Potugal, and the rest by other editors.

All these new articles were reviewed, edited and wikified by experienced editors, including the teachers of above mentioned students.

At this moment we have 4772 Western Armenian articles.

Wikipedia Education program stats

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  • In January we had 19 students who created 216 articles, made 970 edits and contributed 2577733 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In February we had 19 students who created 75 articles, made 531 edits and contributed 1126717 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In March we had 21 students who created 187 articles, made 892 edits and contributed 2674490 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In April we had 27 students who created 193 articles, made 732 edits and contributed 2342853 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In May we had 17 students who created 104 articles, made 524 edits and contributed 1157672 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In June we had 12 students who created 132 articles, made 499 edits and contributed 1452500 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In July we had 22 students who created 206 articles, made 632 edits and contributed 2397838 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.
  • In August we had 20 students who created 206 articles, made 591 edits and contributed 2297632 bytes to Western Armenian Wikipedia.

Western Armenian articles on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia

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Since October 11th, one featured article was chosen per week, which was previously reviewed and corrected by Wikipedia Education program member teachers, and we put them on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia. We share these articles on social networks in order to make them available for more people.

With the increase in the number of Western Armenian articles, and greater attention from those interested, we are planning to put Western Armenian articles on the main page of Armenian Wikipedia twice a week

2016 WikiCamps

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Winter WikiCamp 2016

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Western Armenian team

The Winter WikiCamp 2016 Aghveran was a youth camp organized by Wikimedia Armenia on 6-10 January.

At the end of December, on the basis of monthly editing statistics, Lebanese-Armenian secondary schools' students were chosen to participate in the Winter WikiCamp 2016 Aghveran. 10 students were selected and invited to participate in this camp, who were accompanied by a Lebanese-Armenian teacher Vartan Tashjian. Two kinds of lists were prepared for the camp․ One was to write articles from Eastern to Western Armenian, and the second one to translate the articles from English to Western Armenian.

During 3 days of Winter WikiCamp, 115 articles were edited thanks to the efforts of Western Armenian students(see stats below).

Western Armenian participants were greatly inspired by the camp, so when they returned from the camp to their home country, they gathered around them a new group of participants who wanted to be part of this work․

Wikicamp wasn't just an ordinary event in life, but it was a new chapter for me, in which I was introduced to educational programs and most importantly it gave me confidence, great power and introduced me to many new friends, who have become not only friends but also brothers and sisters to me.

— Assadour Basmajian

WikiCamp is a new experience for it's a chance to meet other people, self-develop and enrich Western Armenian language on the Internet.

— Shahen Araboghlian
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Summer WikiCamp 2016, Portugal

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Before the camp

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The main project for this quarter is the Summer wikicamp, which is going to be held on 17-26 August 2016, in Cadaval, Lisbon.

35 participants from Armenian diaspora in Europe (age between 16 and 25 years old) were chosen to participate to WikiCamp 2016 Portugal. 14 out of 36 from France, who were accompanied by an Armenian teacher Mrs. Meline Gazarian and doctor Aram Ghazarian. 15 out of 36 from Turky, who were accompanied by an Armenian teachers Mr. Sevan Demirjian and Aras Serechoban, and 2 out of 36 from Greece participants․ From Armenia will join the camp as a present for their active editing and contribution in wiki movement, and 7 participants from Beirut were selected and invited to participate in this camp, who were accompanied by a Lebanese-Armenian teacher Mrs. Sevan Tanielian Megerian.

The main goal of this wikicamp is to train Western Armenian speakers to edit Wikipedia in Western Armenian and to encourage them join global wiki movement, thus preserving Western Armenian among youth.

Wiki Camp preparations

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Wiki Camp organization team forming and meetings each week․ The organization team was divided into 4 groups:

  • Wiki team - Sussana Mkrtchyan, Azniv Stepanian, David Saroyan. They are responsible for sources, lists and the themes based on which articles will be created in Western Armenian Wikipedia, workshops during the camp, summarizing daily relults, etc.
  • Technical team - Ani Garmirian, Vera Cunha, Mher Bekaryan. Ani Garmirian and Vera Cunha are responsible for arrival and departure to the camp (buses, tours), uninterrupted work of the connection. Mher Bekaryan is responsible for wiki camp polo shirts, badges, certificates, banner design and print in Armenia.
  • Team leaders group is responsible for the division of the campers into groups, their accommodation in rooms, intellectual, sport and leisure games, various contests organization, campers healthcare, etc.
  • Wikicamp Portugal leader - Meline Ghazarian (lyon, france).

Wikicamp main page was created in Armenian Wikipedia, which includes info, work spaces, schedule of the camp. Daily topics were chosen and arranged. There will be 7 working days in total, 4 will be concentrated on translation. Camp schedule was also created.

Sources for articles

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Digitization

In order to provide Western Armenian resources for WikiCamp, five Western Armenian books were digitized and then OCR of digitized books were made. On the base of these books we chose camp day themes and created the list of proposed articles, which later will be written by campers. These books contain biographies of famous Armenians - authors, writers, politicians, priests etc.

Translation lists

Besides the creation of articles by using sources in Western Armenian, campers will also translate articles from English, French, Turky, Arabic into Western Armenian.

Printing materials

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At the end of wikicamp all campers will get certificates. The design and the printing of certificates and banners were made in Armenia.

WikiCamp in Lesbon

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WikiCamp 2016, Portugal

On August 17-26, 50 students from France, Turky, Greece, Lebanon and Armenia participated in WikiCamp 2016 Portugal. Their age was between 16-25 years old.

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

WikiCamp activities

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  • 2 workshops per day, total workshop hours - 4
  • cultural moments - national songs and dance, music․
  • sharing each day activities on social networks
  • during the 7-day of WikiCamp a tour to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and tour in Lisbon were organized.

Student's opinions and thier suggestions

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A questionnaire was prepared by some of participants and were distributed to each of them to write their own opinion about the camp, to assesse the education method and mark the difficulties that they had faced.

They wrote their suggestions and new ideas about the activities for the next camp, which will make the camp more productive.

During 7 days of the WikiCamp, 253 articles were edited thanks to the efforts of Western Armenian students(see stats below).

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Wikiclubs

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The WikiClubs activities are going on well in schools in Beirut, where the students study and edit Western Armenian articles during their spare time with the help of experienced Wikipedians.

Each editor has understood that this activity helps to acquire knowledge, especially to improve their linguistic knowledge.

In these school clubs, regular workshops are organized and the number of involved students is growing.

Translator's corner

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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.

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 (for example, students) who will enrich Western Armenian Wikipedia program with essential high quality content.

Visitors and the workshops

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Workshops

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  • Workshop with YMCA group members

On 3 April, 2016, took place a meeting with Armenia YMCA (YMCA for Syrian-Armenians) Association of youth. During the visit they were introduced to "Wikimedia Armenia" organization, "Armenian Wikipedia" project, wiki ideology, "Wikipedia" to use methods of editorial work and especially Western "Wikipedia" the development sector.

  • Workshop with Western Armenians

On 13 April, 2016, in "Wikimedia Armenia" office took place a workshop for Syrian teachers, who graduates from National Institute of Armenian Studies in Aleppo. They were introduced "Wikipedia" to use methods of editorial work and minded their positive contribution to the "Western Wikipedia" to develop labor in western Armenian articals.

Visitors

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  • On 28 July, 2016, Cross-Harboian High School Principal, Mrs. Rita Boyajian visited "Wikimedia Armenia" office. During her visit we talked about issues related wiht the development of "Western Armenian Wikipedia" project and we exchanged ideas and proposals on the long-term perspective, to improve cooperation measures.
  • On 5 September, 2016, literary man and public figure Aram Sepetchian visited "Wikimedia Armenia" office, to get acquainted with our work.
 
  • On 16 September, 2016, Armenian teacher of Istanbul National Central School visited "Wikimedia Armenia" office to discuss the cooperation between the two institutions.
 
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