The Wikisource User Group looked for a fiscal sponsor to host the first international Wikisource Conference, in order to build relationships between Wikisource editors, and thus an international community of empowered volunteers who become agents of change within the international Wikisource community and within the wider Wikimedia movement.
After it became clear that WMAT would not host the 2016 MediaWiki Hackathon, we decided to be of service for the international Wikisource Community and host the conference in Vienna in late November 2015. WMAT committed to handle the PEG grant to finance the conference, the event management, and the administrative tasks around visa applications, scholarships etc. The program planning was conducted by the Wikisource User Group and only partly facilitated by us. The event comprised three full days (Friday to Sunday) and attracted 50 participants from 20 countries. The feedback from the participants was quite positive, both concerning the content and outcome of the conference as well as the organizational aspects.
From WMAT’s perspective the conference was also a success, as it created quite some publicity in Austria, unearthed new volunteers, and provided a great opportunity for Austrian community members who don’t travel a lot to connect with the international Wikimedia community. A more comprehensive report will be available on Meta in February 2016.
Wikisource Conference
Participants
Overall experience
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Wikisource communities
Individuals involved: 50 (active editors: 45, WMAT staff: 3). - WMAT support: Fiscal sponsorship, travel support for Austrian community members, event management, program support.
Official Erasmus Prize video featuring Austrian Wikimedians
A WMAT board member, community member and the Executive Director attended the Erasmus Award Ceremony in Amsterdam on November 25, 2015. It was a great honor to be present at this special moment for the movement, especially as the Austrian community was chosen to represent Wiki Loves Monuments in the official video for the Erasmus Prize, that was also presented during the ceremony. In order to make the most out of this trip to the Netherlands, the Austrian delegation also attended the Wikimedia Conferentie Nederland, which took place a few days later in Utrecht and even hosted a session on the "Future of WLM" there. The goal was to seize the opportunity to discuss the challenges in countries like Austria and the Netherlands, where the project is quite mature (96% of all Austrian monuments have been covered in the last years). The discussion covered the future of existing partnerships that emerged through WLM, the differences of mobilizing the community or a general public, and the scope of the project today and in future.
The WikiDienstag (“WikiTuesday“) is a weekly meet-up in the WMAT office. Volunteers share their knowledge and work together on improving the content of Wikimedia projects.
Topics in November:
November 4th: Editing session with Tyrolean church guidebooks
November 11th: Wikipedia introduction for newbies
November 24th: This was the Wikisource Conference in Vienna
A featured picture from the European Science Photo Competition 2015 in Austria
The European Science Photo Competition (ESPC) was held in November 2015 for the first time. Its goal was to collect fine scientific images for Wikimedia Commons. 41 countries contributed to the competition. The Austrian project leader decided to do without a local jury for Austria and to put her time and effort into high quality and participation. She used the WikiDienstag for preparatory meetings (see October Report) and initiated the Kuffner Observatory photo session (see section below).
23 users participated in ESCP 2015 in Austria. 12 (52 %) of them were new users (retention: 0).
The competition in Austria resulted in :
a total of 316 uploaded images (Austria ranked 8th among 41 participating countries)
5 featured pictures on Wikimedia Commons
70 quality images on Wikimedia Commons
30 distinct images used in the main namespace of Wikimedia projects
Selected images from the Kuffner Observatory photo session
The Kuffner Observatory is a historical astronomical observatory in Vienna. It was built in the 1880s and contains an important collection of observation equipment from the late 19th century including the largest meridian passage instrument of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a 217/3000 mm heliometer which is largest of its type that was ever built. We organized a special tour for experienced Wikimedia photographers which was dedicated to the photographic documentation of the observatory's collection. It also included the making of images of the moon through a 3500 mm refractor from 1886. The project resulted in 77 new images for Wikimedia Commons.
The Writing Competition ("Schreibwettbewerb") is a traditional contest for high-end articles in the German-language Wikipedia. WMAT supported the 23rd edition by donating two Wikipedia powerbanks as prizes. 32 editors participated in the 23rd Writing Competition. 33 articles were nominated.
After the competition, many of these were nominated as featured or good articles. Here is a list of articles which were recognised as featured or good articles (until 2015-12-31):
The Library of the University of Vienna (UB) had been a location partner for two edit-a-thons before, in April 2014 and in May 2015. Whereas these edit-a-thons had been initiated by students, this time the UB itself organized an edit-a-thon in its premises. The event consisted of a general introduction to Wikipedia in the beginning, followed by a Wikipedia writing session with the support of experienced editors.
The edit-a-thon was open to the general public, although university staff and active editors were the main target groups. The manageable amount of participants - about 35 people in 8 hours - led to an intense working atmosphere: university staff members could try out editing and ask questions about Wikipedia, and experienced editors could benefit from the vast amount of literature provided for article writing.
During Wikimania in Mexico two board members from WMNL and WMDE decided to continue the development and organization of board trainings. Chris from WMUK and Claudia from WMAT, who were mainly responsible for the last two trainings, agreed to consult Frans and Tim in order to share their learnings and experiences. During the Dutch Wikimedia Conferentje Frans met with Claudia for an exchange on this topic and it was agreed that WMAT provides more feedback on the drafts for the next board training (planned for the Wikimedia Pre-Conference in April in Berlin) in written form during the next stages planning.
Participants
Overall experience
Expenses
Wikisource communities
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