Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Shared Knowledge/September 2018

SHARED KNOWLEDGE
Activity report

September 2018

Wikicamp in Dihovo

During the holiday weekend on the occasion of the Independence Day of Macedonia from 7^th to 9^th of September in the village of Dihovo on the foothills of Baba mountain and peak Pelister near Bitola, the second Wiki-Camp was organized. The camp was attended by 20 young people from several towns in Macedonia who, through mutual acquaintance and socializing, had the opportunity to get to familiarized, instructed and be trained for editing articles on Wikipedia in Macedonian language by editing through the visual editor and source coded editing via the html code as well the new translation tool. Moreover all of the participants have been trained for creating a good quality articles by adding references, categorizing articles and formatting text in the articles. The second main focus of the training during the wikicamp was the uploading and licensing images on Commons Wikimedia. For the first time on this wikicamp has been conveyed presentation and workshop on Wikidata, whereby the participants have edited several subjects of articles. Apart from the editing activities the second main acitvity about which the participants have been trained was the manner of conducting expedition field research in the area of geography, nature, agriculture, cultural heritage, architecture and archeology through hikes on different places in the surroundings whereby the attendants have visited Dihovo with the remains of the first textile factory and an industrial building in Macedonia with all social facilities and natural landmarks such as the Kapejnci waterfall and the monastery in the vicinity on the second day and the villages of Brusnik and Nizepole in Bitola and their surroundings on the last day where over 130 photos were made available for free use. Within the editing activities during the Wikicamp in Dihovo, more than 50 new articles on Wikipedia have been created and more then a dozen were improved in Macedonian Wikipedia. Considering the success of this camp and the usefulness of using Wikipedia in everyday life, to hold more Wiki-camps during the spring and autumn in different parts of Macedonia for the next year and workshops and lectures in more cities of the state.

Veloexpedition: Exploring south from Bitola

During the holiday weekend of 8^th and 9^th September, Toni Ristovski along with two other cyclists went to Bitola region, where the second Veloexpedition was organized. On the day of the independence of Macedonia, the participants rushed with their bicycles to finally get to the Great Pelister Lake, which they tried to reach last year, but because of the cold weather the climb was canceled. This time, the participants again had bad weather, but still reached the shores of the Great Lake of Baba Mountain and thus successfully completed the first day. In the morning of 9^th of September, the group started a real campaign for photographing the villages under Baba Mountain south from Bitola, along the old regional road from Bitola to the border with Greece. Like the Wikiexpeditions, the main goal was to make panoramic photos of the villages and the countryside, to photograph important social and religious buildings, the architecture of the villages, and all other natural rarities and cultural landmarks. The tour started from the southern exit of Bitola, where in the settlement Bukovski Livadi was photographed the church "St. Trinity ". Then followed the village Bukovo, which rises just above the settlement. Of the numerous churches that are located in the village possessed, the group has photographed three of them. The villages in this area are in close proximity to each other, but each owns its own church, and several of them have monasteries among which the most known is the Krstoar Monastery. Besides Krstoar, the villages Oleveni, Barešani and Kanino were later visited, and to all of them lead asphalt roads which makes the ride more easy. Already in half of the expedition, the group decided to go to the village of Velušina, which has numerous churches and beautiful old town architecture, which is already slowly disappearing by not maintaining the old houses. The group also went to the village of Lažec, where did not oriented the best and did not find the church in the village. On returning way back to Bitola, the cyclists passed through the village of Porodin, and later have photographed the church of "St. Atanasij" in the village of Žabeni, along the regional road. In the end, the cyclists have completed the expedition with 9 villages visited and photographed, along with as many churches and other cultural and natural landmarks.

Wikisketch Lessons

Logo of Wikiskatch Lessons

From the middle of September we have started a new kind of activity intended to grow up the knowledge of Wikipedia by providing quick and fast training for working on Wikipedia by creating and editing articles, uploading images, doing a research on highly skilled individuals who are not yet contributing users on Wikipedia. The participants who have been instructed for editing and working on Wikipedia are carefully chosen primarily from the acquaintances known to have a higher degree of knowledge on a certain topic in business, sciences and professions such as economy, marketing, informational technology, banking, journalist, printing, transport etc. which lack or are scarcely covered with articles on Macedonian Wikipedia. The instructions are given directly and individually with a person in a time span between 30 minutes and hour where the participants are given a sketch of a Wikipedia articles which they follow as a pattern in creating and editing new articles by their own choice with the support of skilled editors who show them editing with the three main tool editors: coded, visual and the translation tool with mandatory embedding image, hyperlink and references. So far within a week we had attracted 10 new users who have contributed with creating 26 new articles and improving 4 already existing articles.

Editing competition: Time Periods

Third editing competition in this year was held during the entire month of September on the topic of Time Periods, whereas the editors have been editing articles for the events happened in certain time period such years and centuries. The topic was primarily chosen with the goal to improve most of the existing articles about years and centuries but which scarcely contain text and information. This editing competition was attended by 6 participants, one of whom came after attending the Wiki Camp, who have edited mostly improved over 150 articles on Macedonian Wikipedia.

Editing weekend: Volleyball

On the weekend of 15 ^th and 16 ^th of September, we have held the thirteenth editing weekend for this year dedicated on the topic of Volleyball which was chosen due to the current world cup. This editing weekend was attended by 3 participants who have created 9 new articles and improved 1 existing by which is reached the number of 226 newly created and 6 improved articles so far on the editing weekends organized this year.

Editing day: Archeological sites in Delčevo region

On 22^nd of September we had organized the tenth editing day scheduled for this year on the topic for the Archeological sites in Delčevo region. This editing day was atteneded by three participants Јасмина, Christina and Bojan who are all newcomers to the community and have been participants of the Wiki Camp in Dihovo held previously in the first weekend of this month. With the skills and knowledge for editing and creating articles acquired on the Wiki Camp the participants during this editing day have created 38 new articles and improved 1 existing articles, showing a insightful success and interest for participating by creating over 10 articles by person. This fact proves successful of the both project activities Wiki Camp and Editing Day and their positive influence to the growth of community and the content added giving reliably expectations for the future development. With the contributions of this editing day we have reached the total number of 186 newly created and 8 improved articles.

Speleological geoexpedition in Poreče region

Mario Šarevski and Darko Stojčeski in Gulabarnica cave

On 22^nd of September, following several preparations the fourth round of Geoexpeditions have started, this time dedicated to the topic of speleology and speleological objects in Poreče and the surrounding regions of Western Macedonia. In the early morning the trip started with the group comprised of Mario Šarevski and Darko Stojčeski, a teacher of geography who have studied and defended his graduation thesis on the Hydrology in Poreče region and a person with a great knowledge of the entire region. Poreče region has many might be several dozens of caves among which the longest and the largest in Macedonia and the Balkans which are often visited by domestic and foreign speleologists and tourists The first destination was the village of Belica where the participants visited 2 speleological objects a cave and a different and specific type of cliff cavern. First to visit was the big cave of Gulabarnica located above the village where more then an hour was spent in exploring and photographing the interior canals and different types of formations of stalactites and stalagmites even relics. As a second place to visit was the village of Slatina where the longest Macedonian cave "Slatinski Izvor" is located together with 2 other caves. In this village the group besides the caves of Slatinski Izvor and Puralo have also visited and photographed the Slatina's Markovski Waterfall which is a rear hydrographical feature in the entire region. After visiting the village of Grešnica the expedition proceed to the last destination in the village of Lokvica where have been visited the pit cave called Leandra and the world known and nationawide famous cave of Pešna which has the biggest cave gate on the Balkans. This first round has successfully been finished with 4 caves and speleological objects visited about which the articles and content will be added in the forthcoming period in which are planed few other visits to caves in the western part of Macedonia.

Edit-a-thon on Business administration and accounting topics

On 24^th of September we had organized an edit-a-thon on the topics about Business administration and accounting together with the employees of these sectors who are working in the private owned accounting firm "Kolčkoski" and the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Skopje. The edit-a-thon came as an idea to fulfill the lack of the articles on this topics which would be created by people who are working in this profession by which will contribute to Wikipedia with their knowledge on the topic of business administration and accounting and in the same time will acquire skills and knowledge of editing on Wikipedia. During the period of three hours the edit-a-thon took place in the both companies which offices are closely located to each other. This edit-a-thon was attended by 6 participants who have created 17 new articles.