Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey/Reports/2017
Summary
Between January - April, WMTR members visited academic and non-academic institutions for presentations on Wikipedia/Wikidata, organized edit-a-thons, and held online-offline meetings within the group. With the block of Wikipedia in April 29, planned events had to be canceled. Face-to-face meetings and events could not be made for a long time while the partnering institutions preferred waiting for the unblocking of Wikipedia and community members preferred anonymity. WMTR focused on retaining its active community members, supporting the image of Wikipedia on social media and maintaining communication with WMF to provide support in their efforts to have the block removed. WMTR also organized acted as local organizers of international editing contests and supported the participation of community members. The members of the user group represented the community in international Wikimedia events. Only after the first 6 months of the block and upon invitations from some universities, some presentations/Wikipedia trainings could be held. Please find more information below.
WEP and trainings in universities
edit- February 4 - Visited a graudate level course of Sezen Özeke, PhD at Uludağ University's Department of Fine Arts Education.
- February 25 - Presented Wikipedia and Wikidata at Üsküdar University (Istanbul) at an event organized under the title of Free Encylopedia Day
- March 14 - Visited Uludağ University's (Bursa) Department of Psychology for the Social Behaviour and Technological Communication course.
- April 10 - Visited Boğaziçi University's (Istanbul) Department of History for the Byzantine Art and Architecture course.
- November 21 - Visited Uludağ University's Faculty of Education for the Computer and Teaching Technologies course.
Presentations at non-academic institutions
edit- January 4 - Appeared on a morning TV program on Olay TV, a local TV channel, as a guest to answer questions on Wikipedia.
- Febrıary 22 - Gave a presentation on Wikipedia at an information technology summit for university students (Genç Beyin, Genç Bakış, Genç Bilişim Zirvesi).
- February 28 - Gave a talk on editing Wikipedia in the Görükle facility of Bursa branch of the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life.
- March 19 - Gave a talk at the Bigenç Youth Society in Istanbul.
Edit-a-thons
edit- March 4 - Supported Art+Feminism edit-a-thon organized in Istanbul Women's Library. A user group member gave a talk on Wikipedia for the participants and supported them while they did their first edits.
- March 8 - Supported Art+Feminism edit-a-thon in Ankara. A user group member joined the event at Cer Modern and trained participants on editing Wikipedia.
Editing contests
edit- Organized the local competition for Vikibahar 2017 Wikimedia CEE Spring between March 21 - May 31 2017.
- Organized the local competition for Bridges across Cultures contest between October 15 - November 15.
Representation at Wikimedia events
edit- March 31 - April 2 - User group members participated in WMCON in Berlin.
- October 22 - 25 - One member represented the group at the Wikimedia CEE meeting in Warsaw.
User group meetings
edit- April 12 - Online Usergroup meeting
- April 19 - Online Usergroup meeting
- April 21 - In-person meeting in Istanbul
Social Media
edit- Wikimedia User Group Turkey Facebook and Twitter accounts has been used more actively for inviting authorities to remove the block and supporting the image of Wikipedia in public opinion.