Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Mexico/June 2014


June 2014

Journal

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Jun 2

Jun 3

  • Review of articles from Wikipedia Education Program in the class of the teacher Monica Quijano, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, UNAM.

Jun 4

  • Review of articles from Wikipedia Education Program in the class of the teacher Francisco Barrón, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, UNAM.

Jun 7

Jun 9

 
Sign of Letter of Intention between Biblioteca Vasconcelos and Wikimedia Foundation
  • Meeting held by and between the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Mexico to coordinate Wikimania 2015 tasks

Jun 10

  • Meeting with the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico, before the First Editaton of Spanish Republican Exile in Mexico.

Jun 11

  • Tour for some hotels at Mexico City with Garfield Byrd and Ellie Young as part of the organization of Wikimanía 2015. Meeting with Daniel Goldin, head of Biblioteca Vasconcelos and sign of Letter of Intention between library and Wikimedia Foundation.

June 14

June 21

  • Moebius radio program, retransmission of 14/01 episode.

June 27

June 28

  • Moebius radio program 14/18: "Del concretismo al berimbau" (From concrete art to berimbau)
  • Wikipedia talk within Campus Party 2014
  • Wikipedia Essay Challenge in Campus Party (in Spanish)
  • Participation at Cumbre de Innovación Ciudadana e Innovación Iberoamérica (Citizen Innovation and Iberoamerican Innovation Summit) within Campus Party 2014

Highlights

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Edit-a-thon at Museo Soumaya

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On June 6th, we performed our first Edit-a-thon in Museo Soumaya, a private museographic institution belonging to Fundación Carlos Slim, at its Plaza Carso venue, previously planned jointly with the museum's curators about topics related to their collections.

As the first activity, the Wikimedia México community attendees received a special backstage guided tour with the museum closed. At 10 a.m. we began the edition marathon and a workshop for beginners attending the event who do not have any previous experience in Wiki edition. The event was held at the lobby of the museum, a plain and blank area surrounded by master workshops as an exact replica of Michelangelo's Pietà and Rodin's Kiss, plus murals by Mexican masters Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera. The event generated awareness among the visitors of the museum, some of whom received explanations offered b the volunteers of the Mexican chapter about the activity we had been performing.

Wikimedia Mexico's volunteers, jointly with the museum, created 9 new articles in Spanish Wikipedia and one in Wikivoyage. Rufino Tamayo's works such as Naturaleza muerta and El día y la noche, or Edgar Degas's Woman Bathing have now an article on the main Internet reference. This event was actively supported by the director of the museum, Alfonso Miranda, as well as by his research and outreach staff, who provided the information necessary to give depth to the writing and verifiability. Officialy the event ended at 3 pm, but some of the members of the chapter remained at the museum discussing and improving the contents written with the support of Soumaya staff until 10 pm.

This event was part of the GLAM initiative between the Mexican chapter and Museo Soumaya.

First Spanish Republican Exile Edit-a-thon

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Francisco Franco's dictatorship and the Civil War in Spain forced hundreds of Spanish citizens to exile: they left their country as one of the aftermaths of the persecution period. Nearly 220 thousand supporters of the Second Republic left Spain to other countries such as Argentina and Mexico, who welcomed him differently.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of Sinaia vessel to the Mexican port of Veracruz, three Wikimedia chapters (Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedia Spain and Wikimedia Mexico) ran the First Spanish Republican Exile Edit-a-thon of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource about the historical facts, biographies and testimonials related to this process.

The coordination of this event, performed under Iberocoop's initiative, meant that the work would be done at different times on June 16th. Articles were written in Spanish and Catalan. Several original texts and photographs of documents of those years were downloaded to both Wikisource and Commons either during the event or during the days following. The event was simultaneously held at Centro Cultural de España en México, in Mexico City, and at Casal de Catalunya in Buenos Aires, Argentina; editors from Spain participated from their home computers in the Spanish territory.

>>Watch the video about the event in Mexico City.

Campus Party 2014

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This year Campus Party took place in Zapopan, Jalisco in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, western Mexico. Wikimedia Mexico participated through our members Alan Lazalde, Omar Sandoval and Salvador Alcántar. During the event was diffused Wikimedia Mexico activities and sought new contacts within the technological environment. Also the team gave two talks, one about Wikipedia and other about Wikipedia Education Program in Mexico, but also was given last minute talks within the event. Near 300 stickers of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Mexico were distributed. Due to some acts of sexism and misogyny occurred during the event, the chapter members demonstrate his oppose against that kind of doings in technology events. The board of Wikimedia Mexico drafted and approved a special position on the situation, which was widely shared on social media.

New GLAM friends on board

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View of the cultural center at night, showing the Xipe Totec art installation.

Wikimedia Mexico has a new cultural partner: the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco (CCUT), who belongs to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). This center, housed within a former venue of the Foreign Affairs Secretariat of Mexico, is placed near the Plaza de las Tres Culturas ("Square of the Three Cultures"), a place with a historical richness due to the significative episodes occured here: it was a prominent prehispanic city and the scenary of one of the final battles between the Spanish and Aztec armies in 1521. In 1967, the Treaty of Tlatelolco was signed here. On October 2, 1968, ten days before the start of the 1968 Summer Olympic Games, the plaza was the scene of the Tlatelolco massacre in which more than 300 student protesters were killed by the army and police who were trying to suppress the protests, and on September 19, 1985, the zone was one of the more damaged areas as a consequence of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, causing a strong self-organization that led to future civil organizations who led major changes in the democracy of the Mexican capital. This cultural center is one of the most dynamic emerging venues in recent years, hosting a wide range of cultural activities trough their Artistic Linkage Unit as well four museums: Memorial del 68 (about 1968 events), Sala de Colecciones Universitarias, Museo de Sitio Tlatelolco (related to the archaeological site next to the center) and Colección Stavenhagen.

This new alliance of the Mexican chapter adds to those previously made with other two important cultural centers in the north of the historic downtown of Mexico City, also leaders in their respective fields: the Museo Universitario del Chopo and Biblioteca Vasconcelos, venue of Wikimania 2015.