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Wikimedia Community User Group Malta/Reports/2019 Annual Report

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This is the third annual report for Wikimedia Community User Group Malta. The report is designed to fulfill a requirement for officially affiliated Wikimedia user groups. It covers the period from 1 August 2018 until 31 July 2019.

Overview

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Wikimedia Community User Group Malta revolves around the work of the Malta-registered non-profit voluntary organization Wikimedia Community Malta, which was originally registered with the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector in October 2015. The organization was officially recognized as an affiliated Wikimedia user group on 1 August 2016. All reports created by this affiliated user group are available here.

A general action plan for 2018 was drafted in December 2017, based on an informal evaluation of work from a previous year. For the purposes of this report, the general action plan for 2019, drafted in December 2018, should also be of interest.

The user group was administered through a series of regular meetings by the founding board held throughout 2018 and 2019.

The organisational year for this user group runs from January to December of each year, so the annual report required from it as an officially affiliated Wikimedia user group relates to work split over the latter part of one calendar year and the first half of the next year.

Activities in 2018/19

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Between 1 August 2018 and 31 July 2019:

Grants for activities

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There were no successful grant applications during the period covered by this report. There is clearly a need for better planning over the next year. Still, it should be noted that activities were made possible through in kind support by Spazju Kreattiv, Heritage Malta, the European Commission's Malta Office, and the U.S. Embassy in Malta.

Press coverage for activities

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WCM Activities received the following press coverage between 1 August 2018 and 31 July 2019

Collaborations

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Collaborations with other organisations

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We hold our close collaborators to heart as they make much of what we do possible. This is an alphabetical list of our official collaborators since 2016, indicating relevant activities in the 2018/19 period covered by this report:

  • Bioversity International first requested a Wikipedia editing workshop and a general introduction to Wikimedia projects at their head quarters in Rome, Italy, through Wiki Media Community Malta in 2016. We delivered a second workshop for Bioversity in January 2018. There was no new activity during the period covered by this report, however, the collaboration is ongoing. Details here.
  • Blitz is a Malta-registered nonprofit artists-run space in Valletta, which spearheaded Malta's first Art+Feminism edit-a-thon in February/March 2018. Blitz founder Alexandra Pace was a WLM 2018 judge. They were also invited to participate in Art+Feminism 2019 but declined.
  • Electronic Music Malta (EMM) is a nonprofit organisation active in the field of Electronic Music in Malta. An informal collaboration with EMM aims to provide EMM members with training and awareness opportunities for Wikimedia projects. Their annual conference in May 2018 included a keynote speech on editing Wikipedia in the context of histories of electronic music, especially in Malta. Keynote video available here. This point was reiterated again in May 2019 in the hope that words may turn into actions in the foreseeable future.
  • Following an initial invitation for Toni Sant to present at a Wikipedia perspective at the Digital Prospects for the Maltese Language symposium in November 2019, the European Commission's Malta Office invited WCM to organise a series of events around the 2019 European Parliament election leading to a 2019 European Parliament Election Edit-a-thon in Valletta.
  • Gabriel Caruana Foundation collaborated with WCM for Wiki Loves Art in Malta in 2017, with continued engagement towards planning for future activities. Wiki Loves Art in 2019 included an edit-a-thon associated with Gabriel Caruana, who died during the period covered by this report. Details here.
  • Heritage Malta the official agency handling cultural heritage in Malta hosted aspects of Wiki Loves Monuments in Malta 2018, including the press launch at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. They sponsored the prizes for Wiki Loves Monuments in 2019.
  • M3P Foundation is the Malta Media Memory Preservation organization, a Malta-registered non-profit VO which provides us with technical support and resources, as well as other general assistance through our shared goals.
  • Spazju Kreattiv through a formal collaboration agreement with Fondazzjoni Kreattività, Malta's national centre for creativity, since April 2016. The initial period of the agreement expired in April 2019 and discussions to renew the agreement for another five year period have been successful.
  • The U.S. Embassy in Malta supported a visit by Dr Tracy Prince from Oregon State University in Portland through the Fulbright Program to work on Art+Feminism 2019 in Malta.

Interactions with other Wikimedia affiliates

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We recognize that interactions with other Wikimedia affiliates are essential for the healthy growth of our user group. This is a list of other Wikimedia affiliates with which we had meaningful interaction during the period covered by this report:

During the period covered by this report, WCM was also represented for the first time at the annual Wikimedia Summit. Toni Sant attended the Wikimedia Summit 2019 in Berlin, Germany. At the summit, WCM was also accepted as a member of the CEE thematic group, with plans to become fully active in this area in time for CEE Spring 2020.

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