Wikimedia user groups/Reports/Wikimedians of Republic of Srpska/Annual 2019
In front of you is the annual report of the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska for 2019. The report identifies activities implemented in the Republic of Srpska organized by the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska from January 1st to December 31st, 2019.
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Annual 2019 |
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As before, our organization has sought to contribute to the global Wikimedia movement by expanding the mission and vision of the Wikimedia movement in the Republic of Srpska, in accordance with its capabilities and capacities. All activities are implemented in accordance with the annual work plan and strategy of our organization.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that our work is only possible thanks to the support of our members who contribute to building community and financiers through which our work and our ideas find their way to the final implementation and realization. Thanks to all who are in one way or another who was with us in 2019!
Retrospective
editDuring 2019, the Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska was actively working on improving GLAM and Edu program, as on the activities related to the improvement of the functioning of the community itself. In addition to state universities with which cooperation has been established, the Edu program is expanded, and two new secondary schools have been included in the activities. Within the GLAM sphere, the community has cooperated with two very significant cultural institutions in the country - the Museum of Old Herzegovina and the Banski Dvor Cultural Center. Thanks to the mentioned cooperation, for the first time in the Republic of Srpska, Wiki QR codes were placed on permanent exhibition in a museum. Also, cooperation with the government sector in the framework of Viki's Ambassador in the Republic of Srpska has been achieved. In addition, we have tried to equally develop all the programs, so this year we have invested a lot of work on the project Gender gap - Wiki Women in the Republic of Srpska, who came across the great response this year.
In order to improve its work, our organization, in addition to expanding the circle of the local partner, has been working on establishing communication and cooperation with international partners.
Gathered around the same idea, our members selflessly dedicated their time and work to the community this year. All activities were implemented voluntarily with funds from the APG grant intended for project implementation.
Community activities
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On January 15, 2019, in East Sarajevo, the Wikipedia birthday was organized by the Wikimedia community of Republic of Srpska. In addition to the members of the community, the ceremony was attended by representatives of the institutions from the area of East Sarajevo with which we had realized cooperation - professors and assistants from the faculties with whom we cooperated, as well as representatives of GLAM institutions. In addition to thematic conversations in the pleasant atmosphere, we have agreed on the future cooperation and our relations with the representatives of the mentioned institutions have been strengthened. This was a very productive meeting!
In order to gather the Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska, in April 2019 the annual conference of the Wikimedia community of the Republic of Srpska was held for two days. The event was held at Jahorina. The organizational team worked on the preparation of the event for two months, focusing, in particular, on creating a quality program that would provide information to the heterogeneous group of participants and activities that are in accordance with their interests. We believe we have succeeded in doing so.
Besides the active members of the Wikimedia community of the Republic of Srpska, the participants of the conference were representatives of the GLAM and Edu institutions.
The event organization covered three phases: the preparatory, the implementation phase, and the evaluation phase.
- Preparation phase
After the formation of the organizational team, in accordance with the members' interest, a preparatory phase was initiated and included the following activities:
- selecting the appropriate location
- selecting adequate space
- preparing and sending letters
- regulating accommodation
- regulating meals
- preparation of promotional material
- creating a web page
- preparation of application form
- preparing press releases
- communication with the media
- communication with participants
- selection of thematic areas for the program
- Preparing a call for lecturers
- communication with lecturers
- production of brochures, accreditations and promotional materials
- preparing symbolic gifts
- meetings of the organizational team
- work with volunteers.
Work on the preparation of such an event is always a challenge, regardless of previous experience. This year was no different. Apart from the organization of event elements that are mentioned, the organizational team showed a high degree of creativity and commitment to work, so the listed activities were carried out without problems and within the agreed time.
At this stage, among other things, we were especially concerned with the development of the program. Along with the public advertisement of the call for participation, the team also prepared a call for lecturers. Prior to the public announcement, we defined the thematic areas and several levels of knowledge, in accordance with the target group of participants, and then invoked a public call through the media, the site, and social networks. In addition, the call is, as a matter of fact, addressed to Wikipedia editors in the languages of neighboring countries - via a call on Wikipedia village pumps. The response was satisfactory. After that, the program and certain lecturers were created.
- Realization phase
The implementation phase, in addition to good preparation, required good cooperation between the organizational team and the volunteers. Jobs were divided and everyone knew his task. After the arrival of the participants, we started with the realization of program activities. On the first day, students had the opportunity, in addition to the theoretical part of the lecture, to participate in the Wikipedia editing workshops and workshops focused on the design of a project that would aim to collect and disseminate free knowledge. It is especially important to point out that one lecture was dedicated to the technical side of Wikipedia - wiki codes. The lecture was delivered by the representatives of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering from East Sarajevo, who gave support to the event. Considering the burden on the participants, after the lectures, entertaining activities for participants were prepared - Wiki quiz of knowledge and photo-tour on Jahorina.
- Evaluation phase
The evaluation phase involved summarizing the results of events by the organizational team. During the meeting, conclusions about the realized goals of the conference were made. In addition to the goals foreseen by the project, additional goals have been achieved that represent a special kind of satisfaction for our team. Upon the conclusion of the conference, the cooperation with the most important library in the Republic of Srpska - the National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska, whose representatives were participants of the event, was agreed.
In 2019, our community continued its Gender Gap program, which was widely accepted in the previous period. During the specified period we worked on the expansion and improvement of the program through the project Wiki Women in the Republic of Srpska, which has justified our expectations this time as well.
Wiki Women in the Republic of Srpska 2019
editWiki Women in the Republic of Srpska 2019 is a project of the Wikimedia community of the Republic of Srpska aimed at overcoming gender differences in Wikimedia projects. The project encompasses a series of activities related to the work on Wikimedia projects with women in the territory of the two towns of the Republic of Srpska - Trebinje and Rogatica. In addition, project activities were focused on the treatment of less represented topics, primarily women topics and then others. Within the project, four workshops, one edit-a-thon and one photo tour were realized. The activities were carried out in two towns of the Republic of Srpska - Trebinje and Rogatica.
- Wiki Women in Trebinje
Two editing workshops and one edit-a-thon were held in Trebinje in cooperation with the National Library of Trebinje. Participants of these activities were women who underwent training for work on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Commons and then participated in the writing of articles during the realization of the edit-a-thon. The number of participants from Trebinje was 6. A total of 34 articles has been written during these activities.
- Wiki Women in Rogatica
Parallel to activities in Trebinje, the same activities were held in Rogatica - two editing workshops, one edit-a-thon and one photo tour. The activities were realized at the High School "27th January" in Rogatica. Participation in the activities was 24 women. During the workshops and edit-a-thon, participants created 85 new and expanded 6 of already existing articles.
Upon completion of the competition, the jury evaluated the articles, and the winners of the marathon were announced. The three most diligent ladies were awarded with symbolic prizes.
- Photo-tour
In addition to editing workshops and edit-a-thon, a photo-tour was held in Rogatica. The activity was realized in cooperation with the Women's Association “Snop”, Gučevo and the Višegrad Photo Club. Members of the Women's Association “Snop”, who are engaged in fostering folk tradition and creation of authentic clothes, have prepared traditional folk costumes of this area that were presented by their models. Professional photographers from Visegrad photographed the models and placed the created photos on Wikimedia Commons. The photographs were used to illustrate the corresponding articles in Wikipedia.
- Project was supported by the following 10 partners:
- National Library of Trebinje
- National Library “Dr. Ljubo Mihić” Trebinje
- High School Center “27th January” Rogatica
- Municipality of Rogatica
- Women’s Association “Snop”
- Lumber Camp “Sjemeć” Rogatica
- Serbian educational and cultural society “Prosvjeta” Višegrad
- Association of women suffering and treated with breast cancer “Aska” Višegrad
- Višegrad City Gallery - Photo-club Višegrad
- Association of businesswomen 16, Višegrad.
Thanks to this project, 119 new articles were created while 6 already existing articles were expanded. 123 valuable photographs of traditional Serbian apparel from the Romanija region were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The project was also followed by media through 17 media announcements, two radio broadcasts and one broadcast on national television.
Meet Srpska is a project primarily designed to strengthen relations with the Wikipedia community. It is a project that has become recognizable and very important to us because of the many goals we achieve within its realization. This is a project that focuses on competition in writing articles about the Republic of Srpska on sr. Wikipedia.
It is a project aimed at enriching Wikipedia with content related to the Republic of Srpska through a competition in writing articles on Wikipedia that is a central part of this project, as well as related activities - a photo tour and edit-a-thon. In addition, this year the project has been significantly improved by including international partners in the implementation. The partnerships have been agreed with the following wikis: Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, Wikimedia Levant, GLAM Macedonia User Group, Wikimedia Russia and Don Wikimedians User Group. Partner organizations in their own countries, on their Wikipedia, organize various activities whose topic is the Republic of Srpska online and offline.
During the indicated period, a part of the project activities was implemented, which lasts until 31 January 2020. The following is an individual description of the activities implemented.
- Competition
In the period from November 20 to December 20, 2019, a competition in writing articles about the Republic of Srpska was held on Serbian Wikipedia. The competition was organized in such a way that all Wikimedia and Wikipedia standards were complied with: work pages were created, rules and recommendations were defined, article templates were set up, special templates and needed categories were created, ect. In addition to the Wikipedia pages, the promotion of the project is guided through our social media sites and pages as well as through communication with the media. 13 editors took part in the competition. A total of 156 have been written and 25 articles have been improved. Almost 40% of the total number of articles are articles for which it is very difficult to find literature, such as some churches and lesser-known cultural and historical monuments. A jury of three experienced, senior Wikipedia editors has rated the articles and selected the winners of the competition - three editors with the highest points. The winners were awarded symbolic merchandise awards.
- Edit-a-thon
An accompanying activity within the project was an edit-a-thon held in cooperation with the "Vuk Karadžic" Elementary School in Višegrad at the It office of this school. This activity was also correlated with the goals and objectives of our educational program. As part of the workshop, students in older classes have been trained to work on Wikipedia through the creation of new articles related to the Republic of Srpska. When organizing the workshop, we took care of the choice of topics, which had to be correlated with the curriculum of individual school subjects, such as language, informatics, history, geography and religion. 13 students took part in the workshop. In total, 13 new articles were created on topics that are underrepresented and difficult to find in literature.
- International activities and partnerships
In order to improve its work and learn more, our organization strives to co-operate with as many Wikimedia branches or user groups as possible. This time, to enrich the project, we have partnered with several Wiki organizations: Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, Wikimedia Levant, GLAM Macedonia User Group, Wikimedia Russia and Don Wikimedians User Group. Some of the activities related to content creation about the Republic of Srpska have been completed, and some of these activities will be implemented in January 2020.
GLAM Macedonia User Group held an editorial workshop with their members and students. On this occasion, 14 new articles were created about the Republic of Srpska on Macedonian Wikipedia. Wikimedia Community User Group Greece has organized a competition in writing articles about the Republika Srpska on Wikipedia. The competition was completed at the time of writing, but the results have not yet been processed. A complete statistical review follows in the annual final report. The Wikimedia Levant will, like the Macedonian editors, organize an editorial workshop at the Faculty of Medicine in Jordan, and Thematic Week of European Regions will be organized on Russian Wikipedia, with the Republic of Srpska as one of its topics. For the purpose of the mentioned activity, a special page with articles that do not exist on Russian Wikipedia was created.
- Local Partners:
- Elementary school "Vuk Karadžic" Višegrad
- Višegrad City Gallery - Višegrad Photo Club
- Serbian Educational and Cultural Society "Prosvjeta" - OO Višegrad
- Rogatica Youth Council
- Serbs in BiH portal
- Association of Citizens "Culture for Culture", Banja Luka.
Educational program
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Within the educational program, during the designated period, five editing workshops were held with students from the most important state faculties and students of the Gymnasium. The workshops were held at the following faculties:
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of East Sarajevo
- Faculty of Economics University of East Sarajevo
- Faculty of Law University of East Sarajevo
- Faculty of Philosophy University of East Sarajevo.
One workshop was held in Visegrad Gymnasium "Ivo Andrić".
Participants in the workshops were students 57 of them. Regarding articles 68 new articles were created while 5 were expanded or updated.
The realization of this program was accompanied by international cooperation. A workshop was held at Hashemite University of Jordan during which articles regarding natural, cultural and historical monuments of the Republic of Srpska in the Arabic Wikipedia were created, while our students created articles on Jordan on Serbian Wikipedia.
12 articles in Serbian and 12 in Arabic Wikipedia were written.
GLAM program
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During the specified period, the Community has significantly expanded and improved the GLAM program in the Republic of Srpska through the Wiki ambassador project in the Republic of Srpska. Cooperation with the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Searching for Missing Persons has been established. Cooperation was established the Museum of Old Herzegovina as well. In addition to good cooperation with local partners, the community was supported by individuals and representatives of wiki organizations during the implementation of projects within our GLAM program. The project was implemented in 2 cities - the regional centers of the Republic of Srpska - Banja Luka and Foča.
Wiki Ambassador in Banja Luka
editIn cooperation with the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Search for Missing Persons, 5 editing workshops were held during which employees have undergone training for work on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. On that occasion, high-quality articles were posted on Wikipedia. The significance of this collaboration and project itself is very high for both us and users of Serbian Wikipedia due to the release of otherwise inaccessible content.
The project was attended by 10 editors - three female and 7 male. 51 articles were created. More than 200 images were added to the Wikimedia Commons.
Wiki Ambassador at the Museum of Old Herzegovina in Foča
editAlong with the realization of activities in Banja Luka, the second Wiki Ambassador accomplished the goals set by the project during activities in the Museum of Old Herzegovina. Two editing workshops and three working visits to the Museum were organized.
During editing workshops, through the creation of articles about Foča and Old Herzegovina, the staff of the Museum and interested representatives of various institutions in Foca, have undergone training for work on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and QRpedia. Participants were at the same time acquainted with the Wikimedia Movement and the goals it seeks to achieve. After the workshops, our Wiki Ambassador visited the Museum of Old Herzegovina three times and in cooperation with the employees worked on creating articles that were not present on Wikipedia. Work on supplementing and expanding certain articles with relevant material and literature provided by the Serbian Central Library "Prosvjeta" Foča, as well as the Tourist Organization of the Municipality of Foča was also done.
Special time was dedicated to the introduction of new technologies into the Museum. For the creation of QR codes, necessary preparations were made: 4 permanent exhibitions from the Museum and the Foča City Theater were photographed. Photos were placed on Wikimedia Commons. After that, they were used to illustrate and supplement articles on Wikipedia. In particular, it is necessary to emphasize that during the creation of articles for the needs of QR-codes we had the support of Wikipedia editors in other languages and representatives of certain Wikimedia organizations. Thus our articles have been translated into several languages - Bahasa Melayu, English, Հայերեն, Macedonian, Russian and Ukrainian. After connecting articles via interlingual connections, the articles are linked with the QR codes that were printed and placed in the Museum of Old Herzegovina, on the permanent exhibitions. Also, the Museum has set up our logo as well as the logo of Wikipedia next to the exhibits, with the indication that the presence of QR codes is the result of cooperation with our community, which for us, besides everything else, is a great promotion. The codes were officially presented during the international cultural event Night of the Museums.
There were 10 participants in the activities - 5 men and 5 women. A total of 31 new articles were created, 14 articles completed, 150 photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and 14 QR codes were made.
For the fifth time, the project Trace of Soul 2019 project has been traditionally implemented in Republika Srpska. It is a photo competition modeled on the Wiki Love Earth and Wiki Love Monuments competitions, which has so far collected and placed over 10.000 photos of protected natural and immovable cultural monuments of Republic of Srpska on Wikimedia Commons.
The project was implemented in the period from 1 July to 30 October 2019 and, as before, the results met the set goals. In addition to the accomplished tasks stemming from the aim of the project, one of the significant confirmations of the positive ranking of the project in the local community is the list of institutions and organizations that supported the project and were our partners, which belong to the category of institutions of great importance in the country. One of them is the Cultural Center Banski Dvor, where a ceremony of declaring the winners and the exhibition of the winning photographs was held.
The realization of the project Trace of Soul 2019 has been organized in several stages: preparatory, photo-competition, realization of the editing workshop, realization of photo-tours, exhibition of winning photographs and announcement of the winners.
- Preparatory phase
For our organization, this is one of the significant stages in the realization of both this and all other projects. We are proponents of the theory that good organization is half the work done. So it is in this case. The preparatory phase in the implementation of the project Trace of Soul 2019 included, in addition to making a "to-do list", a whole series of activities - online and live.
The preparatory phase lasted one month - in the period from July 1 to August 1, 2019, and within it, the following activities were realized:
- assignment of duties within the community
- contacting the institutions responsible for protecting the country's heritage
- updating the lists of protected natural and immovable cultural and historical monuments
- communication with partner institutions and defining common goals and objectives
- communication with jury members
- creating additional pages on the site
- campaign creation
- creating templates on Commons
- updating the site
- communication with the media
- monitoring the course of the competition and supporting the competitors
- preparing photo tours
- preparing editorial workshops
- preparation of the exhibition
- data processing and report
- Photo-competition
The photo competition that is the focal point of this project was realized in the period from 1 August to 30 September 2019 on Wikimedia Commons. For the competition 2047 photos of protected natural and immovable cultural and historical monuments of the Republic of Srpska has been uploaded. It is important to note that this year's competition has received a large number of photographs of lesser-known monuments, of which there is almost no information on the Internet. This number, according to our statistics, is about 30% of the total number of photos received. In addition to participants from Republic of Srpska, there is a noticeable increase in participants from neighboring countries - Serbia and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Photo-tours
One of our tasks as project organizers was to try to animate people from less developed areas and areas about which there is no information on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons to participate in the project and raise the visibility of the monuments located in their respective municipalities. About that, 3 photo tours were implemented, which aimed at promoting the project and collecting photographs of poorly represented and lesser known monuments of Republic of Srpska. Photo tours were held in the following municipalities: Bileća, Foča and Doboj. When selecting cities, we took care about territorial diversity. Photo tours were realized in cooperation with local partners - Tourist organizations of the mentioned cities. In addition to Tourist Organizations, we have partnered with local photo clubs to ensure that the collected photos are of the best quality. Within the photo tours, a total of 570 photographs were collected, of which 358 are photographs of monuments of exceptional value to us because the photographs has not been available to the public so far. Photo tours were attended by 34 photographers.
In addition to local tourist organizations and photo clubs, the Tourist Organization of the Republic Srpska has given full support to the project.
- Editing workshop
In addition to photo tours, another follow-up activity was an editing workshop aimed at creating content on an sr. Wikipedia about the monuments of the Republic of Srpska. The editing workshop has been realized in cooperation with the Secondary School Center "Ivo Andrić" in Visegrad and at the same time represents an activity whose goals are correlated with our Edu program. Within the workshop, 10 new articles have been created and 19 articles have been supplemented. During the workshop, the students were introduced to the basics of editing Wikipedia and the environment of Wikimedia Commons. It is also important to note that the workshop was held as part of the celebration of Children's Week.
- Photo Exhibition
An expert jury of eminent experts in the field of photography selected the 20 most beautiful photographs from two categories: the category natural and the category of immovable-cultural and historical monuments, which were presented to the public at a special exhibition that was also the finale of this project. The ceremony of announcing the winners and the exhibition of the winning photographs was held on October 26 at the Gallery of the Cultural Center Banski Dvor in Banja Luka. On that occasion, the winners of the competition were announced, and photos of the participants who entered the top 20 from both categories were presented at the exhibition. This year Dis Youth Theater from Banja Luka provided support for the event and again gave its best actors who were program managers.
At the request of the Cultural Center Banski Dvor, photos remained in the gallery and were exposed for 2 weeks.
- Top 10: Cultural heritage
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- Top 10: Natural heritage
- Partners:
- Tourist Organization of Republika Srpska
- Tourist Organization of Foca
- Tourist Organization of Bileća
- Tourist Organization of Doboj
- Photo cinema club Trebinje
- Serbian Educational and Cultural Society "Prosvjeta" OO Visegrad
- Association of Serbs in BiH
- Association of Citizens "Culture for Culture", Banja Luka
- Banski Dvor Cultural Center - Banja Luka
- Dis Youth Theater Banja Luka.
Public activities
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Our community took part in one of the most prestigious events in the world of culture in the Republic of Srpska - in the Night of the Museums. Within the above-mentioned event, in cooperation with the Museum of Old Herzegovina, an exhibition of photographs from Trace of Soul project held 2017 and 2018 was prepared. On that occasion, the Museum presented the results of cooperation with our organization to the visitors, together with the QR codes that were placed on museum exhibits. These QR codes were created during the project Wiki ambassador in RS. The event caused great attention of the public and the media that followed the event.
The Wikimedia community of Republic of Srpska participated in the celebration of International Literacy Day on September 8, 2019, in Višegrad, organized by the Serbian Educational and Cultural Society of the Prosperity of OO Višegrad and the Drama Studio in Višegrad. On this occasion, our Community held a lecture and presentation presenting Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia program to students, actors and representatives of public life.
Participation in international events
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The community strives to participate in international events to aim to strengthen partnerships with the Wikimedia chapter and to acquire new knowledge and skills. During 2019 our organization participated in three international conferences: Wikimedia Summit 2019 in Berlin, Wikimania 2019 - Stockholm, CEE meeting in Belgrade. Our representatives sought to take an active part in the organized activities and to follow as many lectures and training as possible. Within the framework of Wikimania our representative attended pre-conference days - Learning days where he underwent training to improve the work of organizers and leaders.
Media and reporting
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During the designated period, during the implementation of the projects, the community regularly reported to the public on its activities through communication with the media, through its site, the blog, mailing lists and social networks (Facebook, Twiter, Instagram). During this period, community activities were promoted through 142 media releases (electronic and print media, radio and TV shows). Each activity has attracted great public and media attention.
Meetings
editIn addition to the regular online meetings held during the micro-planning and project implementation, 6 local live meetings were held. Meetings were held in three cities in Republic of Srpska with local Wikimedia and Wikipedia members which are active members of the community. The topics of the meetings were focused on plans for the improvement of community work, the exchange of ideas related to new projects and their implementation.
Partnerships
editLocal partnerships
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- Elementary school "Vuk Karadžic" Višegrad
- High School Center “27th January” Rogatica
- Gymnasium "Ivo Andrić" Višegrad
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of East Sarajevo
- Faculty of Economics University of East Sarajevo
- Faculty of Law University of East Sarajevo
- Faculty of Philosophy University of East Sarajevo
- National Library of Trebinje
- National Library “Dr. Ljubo Mihić” Trebinje
- Museum of Old Herzegovina in Foča
- Banski Dvor Cultural Center - Banja Luka
- Višegrad City Gallery - Višegrad Photo Club
- Photo cinema club Trebinje
- Tourist Organization of Republika Srpska
- Tourist Organization of Foča
- Tourist Organization of Bileća
- Tourist Organization of Doboj
- Municipality of Rogatica
- Rogatica Youth Council
- Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Searching for Missing Persons
- Serbian Educational and Cultural Society "Prosvjeta" - OO Višegrad
- Association of Citizens "Culture for Culture", Banja Luka
- Association of Serbs in BiH
- Association of women suffering and treated with breast cancer “Aska” Višegrad
- Association of businesswomen 16, Višegrad
- Women’s Association “Snop”
- Lumber Camp “Sjemeć” Rogatica
- Dis Youth Theater Banja Luka
- Drama Studio "Prosvjeta" Višegrad
International partnerships
edit- Wikimedia Community User Group Greece
- Wikimedians of the Levant User Group
- GLAM Macedonia User Group
- Wikimedia Russia
- Don Wikimedians User Group