Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Shared Knowledge/August 2018

SHARED KNOWLEDGE
Activity report

August 2018

Summer Agroexpedition

The farmer Spase Tilev in his peanut crops near the village of Koleshino in Strumica region, Macedonia

Summer is the season when most of the crops are ready or being harvested with ripe fruits, most suitable for taking images for encyclopedic purposes and quality. On 10^th of August was conducted a visit in Pelagonia which is the largest plain and the largest agricultural producing region in Macedonia, with a particular focus on cereals and industrial crops. In the fields near Bitola and Mogila have been taken dozens of photographs of bell peppers, sunflower fields, tobacco and other crops which have already been used for creation and improvement articles on Wikipedia and enriching the collection of images of the agriculture in Macedonia. On 27^th of August we had another visit of the Strumica and Dojran regions in southeastern part of Macedonia, on a previously established contact from the Spring Agroexpetition with a peanut producing farmer Spase Tilev from the village of Kolešino. This second visit was focused on the crops which are uniquely cultivated in this region such as: peanuts, black-eyed peas, melons, olives that are more common for the Mediterranean regions, but due to the warm mediterranean climate, low altitude, vicinity of the Aegean Sea and other favorable conditions are largely cultivated in this regions. With this summer Agroexpedition this project which have been conducted for two consecutive years, have been successfully concluded.

WikiCity tour in Kočani and Vinica

On 19^th of August, the first tour of the WikiCity project has been conducted in Kočani and Vinica, two close cities in the eastern part of Macedonia. Considering the main idea of this project to take photographs of the cities, their historical landmarks, important and notable buildings which are home of institutions as well as part of the cultural heritage, we came up with the idea to organize a joint tour with the bicycle crew "Milton Manaki" which regularly make tours visiting cultural and natural sites attended by cyclists who are also amateur and semi-professional photographers sharing a lot of decent quality images on the social media. On a bright sunny, although very hot day, dozen participants with four cars traveled to Kočani where the 50 kilometers long tour started firstly visiting the city of Kočani's landmarks including the municipal building, medieval (guard) tower, church of St. George, Monument of the Freedom with the well known mosaic, Center of Culture and old traditional houses in the historic city center finishing with the Railway station which is the last and easternmost train terminal in Macedonia built in the early thirties of XX century. The group then headed to the town of Vinica which is located only 10 kilometers south of Kočani. In Vinica after a several photo shoots of the new main square, municipal building, the new church, kindergarten, Center of Culture and Library, the group was welcomed by the director of the Museum of Vinica where they were given a tour in the Museum as well as on the archeological site of Viničko Kale (Vinica Fortress) on the hill at the outskirts of the town where the well known early Christian terracotta icons have been found. The tour continued through several villages on the foothills of Plačkovica mountain to the village of Morodvis where the archaeological site of the early Byzantine city of Morobizdon with the ruins of the important episcopal and basilica buildings are found. Riding through several other villages in the valley of Bregalica river on a beautiful landscape with plenty of rice fields with ripe rice ready to be harvested the tour ended up at the starting point in Kočani. Throughout the entire tour participants have been instructed about Wikipedia, uploading images on the Wikimedia Commons and also they were reading existing Wikipedia articles about the sites and places that had been visited. In the forthcoming period after they will upload all of the images they have taken on this Wikicity tour editing activities are planed for the images to be used.

Wiki Industry

Wiki Industry project continued this month with visit of the industrial plants in Skopje. In late August several factories of the pharmaceutical, brewery and chocolate products have been visited. These are among the oldest and nationwide well known factories which did not have articles on Macedonian Wikipedia. The project will continue during the autmn with specific industrial plants and processes documented.

Editing weekend „Art paintings“

On the weekend of 25^th and 26^th of August the twelfth editing weekend in this year had been held on the Macedonian Wikipedia dedicated on the topic of Art Painting, a theme that lacks articles on Macedonian language. This editing weekend was attended by 4 editors who participated by creating 22 new articles about paintings and artworks drawn by international worldwide well known artists. With this result the total number of articles that have been created on the editing weekends so far in this year rose up to 218 newly created articles.

Editing day „Churches of the Holy mother of God“

On 28^th of August, on the day of Dormition of the Mother of God which is nationwide celebrated in Macedonia as a national holiday known as Great Holy Mother of God the ninth editing day in this year had been held on the Macedonian Wikipedia on a topic for the churches dedicated to the Holy Mother of God. This editing day was attended by 6 editor among whose for the first time has participated User:Miljan Simonović from Wikimedia Serbia who can comprehend and edit on Macedonian language. On this editing day 13 new articles have been created by which the total number of articles that have been created on the editing days so far in this year rose up to 148 newly created articles.