Don Wikimedians User Group
Don Wikimedians User Group (Донская группа викимедийцев) is a group of people participating in Wikimedia Movement, interested in the Don region and Don Cossack culture. Don region is a historical and geographical region in the South of Russia.
Based on the intention to participate fully in the global Wikimovement and contributes to the main objectives - the free dissemination of knowledge of all languages of the world - the initiative group of editors of Don region decided to register this initiative group.
Don Region
Objectives
- Promotion and dissemination of free knowledge about Don region and Cossack culture.
- Promotion of Wikimedia projects in Don region.
- Engagement of new people into the Wikimedia Movement.
- Cooperation with local authorities, organizations and individuals to receive grants and other materials to promote free knowledge.
Activities
- To promote Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects within Don region;
- To organize article and photo contests, marathons and thematic weeks;
- To collaboratively improve the quality of Wikimedia project content through edit-a-thons, workshops, educational programs, wiki-seminars, wiki-clubs and more;
- To support any Wikimedia-oriented events or organizations operating within Don Region;
- To establish a sense of community within our group.
History
In 2009 in Russin Wikipedia has appeared a group of users, who wished to promote Wikipedia in Don region. To achieve this, they agreed with Wikimedia RU to organize the all-Russia WikiConference in Rostov-on-Don. In May 2010 the WikiConference was hosted in Rostov-on-Don, here were more than 40 attendees.
In 2011 the Don wikipedians participated next WikiConference in Voronezh, and all other WikiConferences since then.
In 2013 Wikimedia RU in partnership with Rostov-on-Don regional educational organization Association of Honorable Citizens, Mentors and Talented Youth, with participation of Don wikimedians, organized a contest devoted to Don region - «Gallery of Fame».
Due to the contest about 1700 articles were created and more than 400 free media files were uploaded.
In 2014 this experience was used to organize a second stage of the contest, that resulted in more 6000 articles and more than 4000 media files.
In 2016 there was organized a large geographical contest devoted to Don region - «Know Russia. Start with Don»; more than 3000 articles were written and more than 2000 photos of the region were uploaded. A distinctive feature of the contest was translation of the contest page in 8 languages, to help wikimedians from all over the world to participate the contest.
In 2017 there was a second stage on this contest, and the geographic component was supplemented with a new nomination devoted to literature of Don, there were more than 2000 articles created in different languages. A distinctive feature of the contest was translation of the contest page in 8 languages, to help wikimedians from all over the world to participate the contest.
In 2017 there was a round table «Information volunteering: a factor for rise of human capital and increase of tourist appeal of the territories» with Don wikimedians. During the event the guests summarized series of educational projects: "Know Russia. Start with Don" (1st and 2nd stages) and discussed a role of information volunteering as a factor or rise of human capital.
Also in 2017 there was a seminar in Rostov-on-Don under Open Library project, which was devoted to promotion of free knowledge, open access, free licenses and WikiSource and Wikimedia Commons projects.
This 8-year experience led to decision of creation of Don user group in order to make this work more systematic and effective. The decision was formalized at Wiki meetup in Rostov-on-Don on 26 November 2017.
