Wikimedia CH/Newsletter/06/2019

Please find below Wikimedia CH's 6th newsletter for 2019.
If you would like to publish an event or activity through this newsletter, feel free to send us a message at info@wikimedia.ch. We wish you a good reading!

Association

Wiki Loves Monuments in Switzerland

This year Wikimedia Switzerland will support again the Swiss participation to international contest Wiki Loves Monuments. The list of monuments include all cultural properties of regional and national significance. A special attention will be given to the pictures of castles, including ruins, towers and fortified buildings.

Take time to have a look at the page of the project: Wiki Loves Monuments Switzerland, look for monuments in your surroundings and upload pictures! Even if you are not a professional photographer consider that a picture of a monument which at the moment doesn't have any picture is really of great value.

New staff member

Since October Kerstin Sonnekalb has joined the WMCH team as Outreach & Communication Manager. She has succeeded Andy Treichler on this job. Kerstin has a professional background in public administration, journalism and international communication management. Her user name is Kerstin Sonnekalb (WMCH). [1]

What happened in the past month?

Microhistory – a student experiment

Until end of August, 19 students were required to pour their term paper into Wikipedia articles. From June 9th to August 31st, this action ran. During the semester they dealt with the topic of microhistory and got to know many historians who had written scientific papers about it. They should each write a biography and an oeuvre article about their author. Some of them even wrote two work items, resulting in a total (up to now; who knows, perhaps they go on writing?) at least of 43 new articles.

We from Wikimedia CH supported the Faculty of Theology in Zurich who conducted this experiment with an initial workshop where students could learn what is important in community writing. It was very important to us to make sure that this flood of new authors does not disturb the community. One of the resources was info boxes we provided, which the New Wikipedians were able to place on both their user page and the discussion page of the new article to indicate the status of this experiment.

On the whole, everything worked well. In the next newsletter we will try to give a first evaluation and to hear opinions. Maybe you feel like reading one or the other article; here is the project page (in German).

Archeology in Neuchâtel on Wikipedia

Menhir exhibited at the Latenium

Geneva workshop, 27.07.2019

A group of archeology students was trained by Amandine to edit Wikipedia in order to update knowledge about local archeology on the French language Wikipedia. They improved 50 articles and created 13 others, uploaded images such as the menhir seen on the right. The whole list of their contributions can be consulted here.

Workshop+Wiknic in Geneva, 27.07.2019

Eight Wikimedians gathered in Geneva to edit Wikipedia and Wikidata on the topic of local plants and animals (and one participated from afar due to a cold!), including 3 France-based ones, who crossed the border to help us contribute. Crataegus077 brought a suitcase full of valuable sources, helping participants create 44 articles and improve 140, counting Wikidata and Wikipedia edits. Among others, they crafted this beautifully illustrated list of local species of dragonflies, and vastly improved the article about this bat species and this small Valais village. Due to rain, the wiknic took place indoors.

Wiki-encounters in Neuchâtel, NE, 26.08

This first informal Wiki-encounter in Neuchâtel was organized by Amandine and Géraldine in Neuchâtel, on Monday 26th, during lunchtime. The encounter was attended by one relatively recent Wikipedian, and two complete beginners. All three asked questions, shared ideas, and even found time to contribute during this lunch break. Wikimedia CH offered the meal. We hope to meet them again for the next encounter, on October 28th!

Announcements

WikiConvention francophone and WikiCon in Germany

The French-language convention is approaching soon (Brussels, Belgium, 6.-8. Sept.). Six Wikimedia CH grant recipients are attending. Several Swiss contributors are giving presentations: Gabriel, Gilliane, Baptiste, Mourad will be giving presentations and leading discussions on topics ranging from how to teach pupils to edit on a smartphone, Swiss GLAMs on Wikimedia projects, the issue of good quality articles, and contribution in Senegal. Many Romand contributors have asked for trainings on SPARQL: if that is your case, save a moment to attend this Sunday morning workshop.

Four weeks later, the WikiCon will take place in Wuppertal (4.-6. Oct.), to which several scholarships are also available. Also this year there will be "Lightning Talks" again and the format "Forum of Free Knowledge" which has been popular for years. If you feel that you belong to the community, regularly contribute and like to exchange ideas with other German-speaking Wikipedians, you should study the program and sign up. The travel and accommodation costs will be refunded on request.

Noircir Wikipédia, Geneva, GE, 14.09

Noircir Wikipédia workshop in May

The next workshop to bring more people and cultures from Africa or of African descent on Wikipedia will take place on Saturday 14th, from 1PM to 5PM. You can find more info on the project on this page. Beginners are welcome, as well as Wikipedians of all levels.

GLAM-on-tour @ Fonoteca, 25.-27.10

With great pleasure, we announce our new cooperation with the Swiss National Sound Archives. Besides an ongoing project on Wikidata, we will organize our GLAM on Tour event this year in fall, together with the 'Fonoteca nazionale svizzera'. The Swiss National Sound Archives with its headquarters in Lugano is the sound archives of Switzerland and is responsible for safeguarding the sound heritage of our country. Twenty Wikimedians will be creating content with the sources generously provided by the Fonoteca, you can check the entire program on this page.

Who writes his_tory? in Hamburg

From September 27th to 29th, the next who writes his_tory network meeting will take place in the Bildwechsel Hamburg. This joint project is about the continuing discrimination of women on the Internet, which is also reflected in the number of female Wikipedia authors and the presence of women-specific topics. Wikimedia CH supports this project to specifically call women to collaborate on Edit-a-thons and similar events.

List of coming events

This table contains the upcoming events until the delivery of our next newsletter and some important events later this year. You will also find some more events - also from like-minded organisations - directly in the WMCH calendar.


Start Date	End Date	Event	Where	Link	Type
2019-09-06 14:00	2019-09-08 23:00	mix’n’hack, 5th Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon	Sion	opendata.ch	TBD
2019-09-06 00:00	2019-09-08 00:00	WikiConvention francophone	Bruxelles, Belgium	WikiConvention francophone/2019
2019-09-15 00:00	2019-09-15 00:00	Noircir Wikipédia	Genève, GE	Noircir Wikipédia project page
2019-09-21 09:00	2019-09-23 17:00	State of the Map 2019	Heidelberg	State of the Map 2019
2019-09-27 00:00	2019-09-29 00:00	Network Meeting in Hamburg (Germany)	Hamburg (DE)	Project page - [page]
2019-09-28 18:00	2019-09-28 23:00	Stammtisch	TBD	Wikipedia:Zürich
2019-10-04 14:00	2019-10-06 16:00	WikiCon German speaking WP	Wuppertal	de:Wikipedia:WikiCon_2019
2019-10-12 10:00	2019-10-12 16:00	Wikipedia-Atelier im Museum für Kommunikation	Bern	WikiProjekt_Schweiz/Atelier
2019-10-14 00:00	2019-10-14 00:00	Noircir Wikipédia	Genève, GE	Noircir Wikipédia project page
2019-10-24 00:00	2019-10-25 00:00	Media in Piazza	Lugano
2019-10-25 00:00	2019-10-26 00:00	Wikidatacon	Berlin	Wikidata:WikidataCon 2019