[Foundation-l] Swedish Week on Russian Wikipedia

[Pharos]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 8:58 AM, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
> All of April, the Swedish Wikipedia has been active with merging
> "substubs" into larger units.  As a result, the over all size of
> the Swedish Wikipedia has been flat around 282,000 articles, while
> the Russian Wikipedia has continued to grow at a healthy pace.
> The difference in size is now only 5000 articles. Any day or week
> soon, Russian will capture the 10th place.  This will be a great
> event, but what about the timing?
>
> The Russian wikipedians already missed the 200th anniversary of
> the conquest of Sveaborg (May 3, 1808). I don't think they will
> time today's final in the ice hockey world championships.  But I
> also think they will be too early for the 299th anniversary of the
> battle of Poltava (July 8, 1709).  So we will have to find some
> other way to mark the Russian victory for a place around the
> puzzle globe (http://www.wikipedia.org/).
>
> As part of WikiProject Sweden (Википедия:Проект:Швеция), they
> started yesterday a subpage "Swedish Week" (Шведская неделя). The
> idea is to fill these last days of Swedish dominance with writing
> new articles about Sweden.  Yesterday, Saturday May 17, was
> Norway's independence day but this didn't stop the Russians from
> creating an article about the National holiday of Sweden, as well
> as 50 other new articles pertaining to Sweden.
>
> From a Swedish perspective, this isn't too bad.  To quote ABBA:
> "I feel like I win, when I lose" (Waterloo, 1974).
>
> http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Википедия:Проект:Швеция/Шведская_неделя

I must congratulate the Russian (and Swedish) Wikipedians on their
good humor.  It is something heartening to see amid the nationalist
conflicts one sometimes encounters.

I wish I could think of a good excuse for proposing a "Swedish Week"
or "Russian Week" or something similar on the English Wikipedia.

> It is surprising how well hockey-playing nations (Russia, Finland,
> Sweden, Norway, Canada, USA, Germany, Poland, Czech Replublic) are
> doing in Wikipedia.  Maybe this is what the Arabs should try.

Clearly, the best way now for the WMF to promote free content in the
Arab world is to sponsor an ice rink at Alexandria.  Pick-up contests
between Russian and Swedish Wikipedians could only demonstrate the
fine qualities of this game to our Egyptian hosts, and encourage its
broader adoption as an educational tool.

Thanks,
Pharos