Dear Wikimedians,
Here is the monthly report of Wikimedia Argentina for June 2013. You can read the full report (in Spanish and English) here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Argentina/Reportes/2013-06
1. Edit-a-thon in the Legislative Palace 2. Wikimemory in Rosario 3. Wiki Loves Monuments exhibition 4. GLAM Congress in La Rioja 5. Gender-gap in Córdoba 6. Wikipedia in General Belgrano
== Edit-a-thon in the Legislative Palace ===
On Saturday, June 29, we held the First Legislative Edit-a-thon, the second editing marathon in Buenos Aires, organized jointly with the Buenos Aires City Legislature. It focused on the history and architecture of the Legislative Palace.
In this opportunity we welcomed people that were editing for the first time; amongst them, Elizabeth Kries, who had taken part as a young architect in the team that refurbished the palace in the 1970s. The activity started at 4 pm with a tour through the Palace that described the most important historic events, as well as its architectural features and basic aspects of the legislative process. Two new articles were created, one about the Esteban Echeverría Library and another one about the historic Buenos Aires City Council. On top of that, the articles about the City Legislature, its Palace and the City's coat of arms were substantially modified.
The event, which brought together over 30 people, was developed as part of the collaboration started with the City Legislature months ago, which also included the donation of 85 images of the historic building that were uploaded to Commons. In the mid-term, we hope that this framework brings new projects to the local community, as well as new books and documents with a Creative Commons licence, that are being digitalized by the staff in the Esteban Echeverría Library.
=== Wikimemory in Rosario ===
On June 6 and 7 we organized, together with the Free Faculty of Rosario, the event “Wikimemory”, where 30 high school students from the “Soldados Argentinos” School in Rosario took part of the editing workshop. They where unaware of the editing option in Wikipedia before the event.
During the first day, Osmar Valdebenito and Nicolás Georgetti made an introduction to the students about Wikipedia, the Wikimedia projects, and how the community works to improve the contents on the free encyclopedia. Some tests were carried out in the classroom, and during the second day, the students visited the Museum of Memory in Rosario. They decided together the new articles to create and divided into groups to take pictures, gather information and upload everything onto the web. On the whole, it was a very successful experience.
In this opportuniy, we also worked with an audience that does not frequently attend our events: Susana Correa made a presentation for old people. It versed on the age group difficulties to access new technologies and the use of Wikipedia. Ten people attended the event, who regularly take part in the seminars of the Free Faculty. Meanwhile, Osmar and Nicolás gave an interview for the TV show “Juntos a la par”, produced by the Argentinean Work Union of Independent Teachers, and it was broadcasted in Rosario’s regional channel. La exhibición de Wiki Loves Monuments en la Casa de la Cultura de Buenos Aires. Wiki Loves Monuments exhibition
On June 4th we held the award ceremony of Wiki Loves Monuments 2012, the first Argentinean edition of the biggest photo contest in the world. The event took place at the Buenos Aires House of Culture, and it was also the scene to officially announce the launching of the 2013 edition of the competition. At the end of the 2012 contest, 6,001 images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons from 445 participants; of the 1.881 monuments listed, 793 of them were photographed for the contest, representing 42,2%, so there are opportunities to grow for 2013.
Also, there was an exhibition in the same place until June 17 of the 10 winning photos from the Argentinean edition, together with the first prize of the global edition. We expect to organize more exhibitions in the coming months in other places in Argentina.
=== GLAM Congress in La Rioja ===
The IV Conference of Archives, Museums and Libraries in La Rioja was organized by the National University of La Rioja (UNLaR). Osmar Valdebenito made a presentation called “From shelves to Wikipedia: How to reach millions of people from our libraries?”, that showed the impact Wikipedia has as a source, being as it is the 5th most visited website in the world.
This time, Osmar highlighted the importance of encouraging local communities in the provinces of Argentina to spread their patrimony. The main objetctive is to break the current paradigm in which knowledge, in the national sphere, is generated in Buenos Aires.
This event, which took place on May 13 and 14, was developed within Wikimedia Argentina’s program to approach cultural institutions. It was our first official activity in the Northwest of Argentina.
=== Gender-gap in Córdoba ===
The workshop “Editing the gender gap in Wikipedia” was held on two different days this time: June 14 and June 28, organized jointly with the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of the National University in Córdoba, as part of the cooperation framework signed with that institution.
The workshop, coordinated by Lila Pagola and Rayentrey Tappa, was attended by 17 people on the first meeting, which lasted for three hours, and 11 people on the second meeting, which lasted for six hours. None of the participants had edited Wikipedia before, hence, the experience was also a chance for dialogue about what is the free encyclopedia and the principles in which it is inspired.
=== Wikipedia in General Belgrano ===
On Wednesday, June 26, we gave a workshop to 4th year students of the Nº 1 High School of General Belgrano (province of Buenos Aires). We adressed the questions waht Wikipedia is and how to edit it, with the aim of organizing an edit-a-thon with them in the near future. The audience, mainly secondary students, was very enthusiastic about collaborating in the Free Encyclopedia.
In this opportunity we discussed together the meaning of Wikipedia and its relevance within a community. Our mid-term goal is to organize an edit-a-thon about the city of General Belgrano and its history, together with the local Museum of History “Alfredo Enrique Múlgura”. The event intended to generate a real interest in young people to write about their own city. The activity was very highly appreciated by the authorities of the high school.
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Kind regards,
*Osmar Valdebenito G.* Director Ejecutivo A. C. Wikimedia Argentina