[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Argentina Monthly Report, December 2012

[Osmar Valdebenito]

Hi all,

Here is the report of activities of Wikimedia Argentina in December 2012.
The report is fully available in Spanish and English here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Argentina/Reportes/2012-12

== Content ==

1. Edit-a-thon in the Museum of the Bicentenary
2. «Wikipedia in the classroom» in Guarani language
3. Wikipedia editing manual
4. Future activities

== Edit-a-thon in the Museum of the Bicentenary ==

On December 8th, nearly 20 Wikipedia volunteers participated in the first
edit-a-thon organized in Buenos Aires. The event was hosted by Wikimedia
Argentina and the Museum of the Bicentenary, which was also the venue for
the activity.

After a tour in the museum, the Wikipedians edited and developed several
articles on Spanish Wikipedia related to Argentine history and the articles
of the museum’s collection. For this, the Museum of the Bicentenary
released several high-quality images of objects currently on display, works
of art from its collection and photographs of the museum itself. These 86
images were published under free licenses and can be used on Wikipedia and
by anybody else, while attributing the author of the work and keeping the
original license.

Among the published images are the official portrait of Juan Domingo Perón
and his wife Eva, made by Numa Ayrinhac, the presidential sash and baton of
Raúl Alfonsín and the first presidential chair, used by Santiago Derqui.

In only a few weeks, more than 40 images have already been used in more
than 16 languages (from Spanish to Aragonese, Arabic and Ukrainian). It is
estimated that over 2 million people per month will see the images of the
Museum that are currently in use on Wikipedia, but that number could rise
as volunteers illustrate new Wikipedia articles with these images.

The initiative was welcomed by Juan José Ganduglia, Director of the Museum,
who was actively involved in the activity, supporting attendees and
providing information about the museum and the history behind its exhibits.
The success of this first edit-a-thon will make it possible to host new
events for 2013 in the Museum and in other similar institutions within
Argentina.

* All images donated by the Museum here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_provided_by_the_Museo_del_Bicentenario
* Pictures of the edit-a-thon, here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Editat%C3%B3n_en_el_Museo_del_Bicentenario

== «Wikipedia in the classroom» in Guarani language ==

On mid-December, Wikimedia Argentina published the first edition of its
booklet “Wikipedia in the classroom” in an indigenous language, like
Guarani. “Vikipetã mbo’eha kotýpe” is also the first publication about
Wikipedia in Guarani language and any other American indigenous language.

The goal of “Wikipedia in the classroom”, both in Spanish and Guarani, is
to help teachers to understand what is Wikipedia, how it works and how they
can use it in an useful way. Most students already use Wikipedia so it is
really important that teachers know what to do.

“Wikipedia in the classroom” is an initiative launched in 2010 by Wikimedia
Argentina with the support of different institutions, including the
Education portal of the Argentine government, educ.ar. They released an
special website about the project. Wikimedia Argentina will print 500
booklets of the Guarani edition to be distributed in schools and other
educational institutions, and we expect to publish new editions in other
indigenous languages in 2013.

Guarani Wikipedia or Vikipetã was released in 2005, but lacks more active
volunteers (currently, it has less than 20). Guaraní (avañe’ẽ) is spoken by
8 million people and is the official language of Paraguay, Bolivia and
Corrientes Province in Argentina, being one of the most used indigenous
American languages currently. Wikimedia Argentina in the past years have
started different projects to increase the usage and development of the
Guarani Wikipedia, teaching its use to native speakers, something that was
recognized by the Chamber of Deputies of the Province of Buenos Aires. We
hope that this initiative can attract more speakers of that language to
participate in projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.

* File available here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vikipet%C3%A3_mbo%27eha_kot%C3%BDpe.pdf

== Wikipedia editing manual ==

During 2012, Wikimedia Argentina volunteers created a Wikipedia ''pocket
manual''. This document is an adaptation of the German manual ''Das kleine
Wikipedia-Einmaleins'', created by Elisabeth Bauer and edited by Wikimedia
Deutschland in 2006.

This ''Quick guide for Wikipedians'' has 13 pages showing the main features
of Wikipedia (with emphasis in the Spanish version). In this way, a new
volunteer will be able to read the main polices ruling the site, a simple
description of the editing process and the most used wiki syntax for
formatting text.

The manual will be printed by Wikimedia Argentina this month with the aim
of using it as the main tool to disseminate Wikipedia in new audiences,
because of its simplicity. Thus Wikimedia Argentina expects to raise
awareness of how easy is to edit an article and thus increase the number of
volunteers in Wikipedia.

* File available here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manual_de_Bolsillo_Wikipedia_-_Wikimedia_Argentina.pdf

== Future activities ==

Wikimedia Argentina is already planning activities for the upcoming months.
Among the most important projects is the design of a Master Plan for
Education that encompasses the various activities that the chapter has done
to date, which will be held in conjunction with experts in various
educational areas. A meeting to develop this project is intended for early
March.

During the month of February, the awards ceremony of the local version of
Wiki Loves Monuments is being planned. The ceremony, to be held in the San
Martín Cultural Center, will be accompanied by a photo exhibition with the
ten winners of the local contest, along with the winner of the
international edition of Wiki Loves Monuments.


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Osmar Valdebenito G.
Director Ejecutivo
A. C. Wikimedia Argentina