Hey,

Here is Wikimedia Israel report for June 2013:

Fifth Wikipedia Academy Conference 

The fifth Wikipedia Academy conference in Israel was held on June 2, 2013 in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. The central theme of this year's conference, which attracted an audience of 150—among them Wikipedians, members of the academia and the business world—was "Why are there fewer women editors on Wikipedia".

We were honored to welcome the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees member Bishakha Datta , as our keynote speaker. We also had a women's panel with some of our Wikipedia Israel community members, and several professional researchers.

• Follow this link to see our latest update on Wikimedia blog
• Watch the video clip summary of the conference: 
• All the sessions are available on our YouTubechannel:
• Photos on Flickr and Commons: 

Wikimedia Israel Survey

On June 2013, Wikimedia Israel conducted a survey, according to which 23% of Israeli Wikipedians are women (compared to 10–15% in other parts of the world), 57% of Wikipedians are single and have a bachelor's or master's degree, 15% are under the age of 15 and 5% are over 60. Only 29% of the editors said they wrote new articles; the others engaged in adding content to existing articles, correcting mistakes and adding media.

You will find the exact statistics on this press release.

Program activities 

GLAM

• On June 13, Wikimedia Israel celebrated the Hebrew Book Week in a joint event with the National Library in Jerusalem. The event, run by Wikimedia Israel volunteers, began with an editing workshop for librarians and other library employees. It continued with a "behind-the-scenes" tour at the library’s ancient text archives, where we learned about the various collections and about the historical value of the library. The tour was open to both Wikipedians and the general public. After the tour we gave a lecture about Wikipedia to the general public, while wikipedians were engaged in an edit-a-thon. The event marked the beginning of a second pilot project with the NLI, which includes a "Wikipedian-in-Residence" Program for 6 months.
• On June 24, a presentation about GLAM-Wiki, focusing on collaboration with Libraries, was given to about 20 librarians from central Israel.

Africa Center Project

• On June 23, a lecture and editing workshop was held in the Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in partnership with the university’s Africa Center. Eighteen BGU students will travel to Ghana in the coming month and will be installing an offline copy of Wikipedia there.

Lectures and Academic Partnerships

• A new partnership with the Faculty of Biblical and Jewish Studies at the Bar-Ilan University has started and on June 13th, an editing workshop was held for the students of the" "Lamentation in the Bible" course. The partnership will involve students writing Wikipedia articles as a mandatory course assignment. It was the first the "Education Extension" was used in an academic course in Israel.
• In addition, a “What is Wikipedia” talk was given at the Department of Molecular Biology in the Ariel University. The talk was attended by about 70 students, researchers and faculty.

Press coverage

Media coverage regarding Wikipedia Academy:

• 30/6 - נשים, ויקיפדיה צריכה אתכן - ראיון עם בישאקה דאטה (Mammon, Yedioth Achoronot - Exclusive interview with Bishakha datta)
• 2/6 - מועדון הבנים הסגור של ויקיפדיה בעברית (Haaretz - Written and online version)
• 2/6 - על גברים, נשים וויקיפדיה - סיון: "אבל התקדמנו!" שלומית ליר: "כנראה שלא כל כך..." (Radio 103FM Ben Caspit).
• 3/6 - למה יש כל כך הרבה נשים בלוגריות, אבל כל כך מעט נשים כותבות בוויקיפדיה? (Saloona Blog).
• העולם הסודי של כותבי הערכים בוויקיפדיה העברית (PC news).
• 2/6 - בישאקה דאטה, חברת הוועד המנהל של קרן ויקימדיה: "אנחנו לא מעריכים מספיק את הידע שנשים יכולות לספק, ולא, לא מדובר רק באופנה ובאוכל" (Telecom News)
• 3/6 - איך זה שוויקיפדיה מלאה סקסיסטים (Haaretz)
• 3/6 - על מי כותבים בוויקיפדיה (Haaretz)

Wikipedia general:

• 16/6 -  – "Editorial Wars – That’s how a Right Wing organization employee revised Wikipedia articles" (Haaretz)
• 19/6 -  – "The history of Wikipedia edit wars" (Haaretz)

Blog posts this month

·     June 2 - The fifth Wikipedia Academy conference – "Why are there fewer women editors on Wikipedia". This post was written by Chen Davidi, Activity Coordinator of Wikimedia Israel, and was published on Wikimedia Israel blog, as well on the Wikimedia international blog.

 

Upcoming activities

July:

• 4.7- A “What is Wikipedia”  Lecture.
• 7.7- A “What is Wikipedia”  Lecture.
• 8.7 - Board meeting.
• 9.7 - General Assembly
• 10.7 – Lecture at the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
• 12.7 – Ten years to Hebrew Wikipedia meetup.
• 19.7 -  A Thousand words tour in Petah Tikva.
• 19.7 -  WikiAir Flight.
• 21 - A “What is Wikipedia”  Lecture.
• 23- Editathon for the National Library staff and the general public.

August:

• 1- Editathon at the National Library in Jerusalem.
• 2 - A Thousand words tour in Jerusalem.
• 7-10- Wikimania Hong Kong.
• 16 - A Thousand words tour at the 'City of David'.
• 20 – Wikicommons Workshop for the Israeli Navy personnel at the University of Haifa.
• 28 – Wikicommons Workshop for the general public.

Administrative activities: 
We are currently at the end of a procedure towards recruiting a new Executive Director.

Regards,
Chen Davidi
Activity Coordinator
Wikimedia Israel