Newsletters/July 2020
July 2020[edit]
| Happy Canada Day! |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
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| COVID-19 |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a global network of volunteers created, updated and translated thousands of Wikipedia articles about COVID-19. Those articles have been read more than 424 million times throughout the world. The Wikimedia Foundation published some data about COVID-19 on Wikipedia.
Dr James Heilman, or "Doc James", a Canadian physician and Wikipedian, is one of the contributors of the WikiProject Medicine that edit and review articles about medicine on Wikipedia.
For its part, Slate has published an article on how future historians will use the COVID-19 coverage on Wikipedia for their research.
Wikipedia contributors have also adapted to this new reality by implementing more online collaboration tools. For example, a video conference platform, called Wikimedia Meet, has been created to allow Wikimedians to meet online without having to use commercial platforms.
A volunteer from the French Wikipedia has written two blog posts in French about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of readers and on the number of contributors on the French Wikipedia.
Learn more >
| Call for participation |
| by Viola-Ness, 1 July 2020. |
Since 2018, the Chapter has funder over 58 requests, ranging from community-based edit-a-thons to photo walks. Given the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, all Wikimedia Foundation affiliated in-person event have been cancelled or postponed until further notice. To learn more about how Wikimedia is responding to the pandemic, visit https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19.
With all our community activities going online for the near future, Wikimedia Canada is putting out a renewed call for community projects, events, and activities that help support the priorities outlined in WMCA 2020 Annual Plan.
What kinds of projects can you propose?
- Equipment funds to purchase a mobile digitisation/documentation kit for use in creating and adding more content to Wikimedia Commons
- Expenses for the creation of Canadian focused training resources like presentation slide decks or videos
- Expenses to write or translate documentation around specific projects like Wikidata
- Prizes for contests that encourage participation
| New communication channels |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
- A new public group on Facebook (bilingual)
- A new announcement channel on Telegram (bilingual)
- A new discussion group on Telegram (bilingual)
- A new Discord channel in English
- A new Discord channel in French
We would also like to invite you, if you don't already, to follow Wikimedia Canada's Twitter accounts where we are now sharing daily insights about Wikimedia projects in English and in French.
You can see all Wikimedia Canada's social media accounts on our wiki. If you would like us to share any announcements on our wiki, our social media, our mailing lists, on in this newsletter, do not hesitate to contact us at info
wikimedia.ca.
| #WPWPCA |
| by Benjamenta, 1 July 2020. |
Wikimedia Commons is a multimedia library of over 62 million multimedia files, most of them being photographs. Right now, only a small portion of those pictures are used in Wikipedia articles.
Adding pictures to Wikipedia is a great way to contribute to the free encyclopedia. Doing so, you make articles more attractive and informational for all readers.
How can you participate?
When you add a photograph to an article, simply add the hashtag used in Canada to the edit summary: #WPWPCA. That's all!
At the end of the international WPWP competition encompassing various language versions of Wikipedia, participants who contributed the most have a chance to win prizes offered by the international team.
Note that Wikimedia Canada will offer two $100 gift cards from an independant bookstore in your community to participants from Canada who added the most hashtags #WPWPCA.
You want to organize an online #WPWPCA activity?
Not everybody knows how to add pictures to Wikipedia articles, or how to upload them on Wikimedia Commons.
If you want to organize a contribution or training activity as part of this competition, or if you want to include your WikiClub, do no hesitate to contact us. It could be interesting to host a thematic activity about your city or your region to improve a series of articles that are important for you. Because of COVID-19, please not that all our activities must be online only. A programme of activities will be pubhlished soon.
Learn more >
| Wiki Loves Earth |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
To participate, you only need to take pictures of recognized protected natural areas in Canada and to upload them on Wikimedia Commons under a free licence. Those pictures can then be used, among other things, to illustrate Wikipedia. Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of multimedia content under free licences.
In July, you can upload as many pictures as you want of recognized protected natural areas in Canada that you have visited. Pictures don't need to be taken in July, but must be uploaded during that month in order to be considered for the contest.
In August, a Canadian jury will begin evaluating the photographs to select the 10 best from Canada to be sent to the international jury. This internationa ljury will then evaluate the 10 best pictures from the 32 participating countries this year. The international winner will win a full scholarship to attend Wikimania 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand or an Amazon gift card of an equivalent value. Other prizes will also be given.
To participate, make sure to use the upload wizard for the Wiki Loves Earth in Canada campaign on Wikimedia Commons. In particular, you need to insert the Wikidata "Q-item" code (QID) of the photographed protected natural area in order to allow its identification. To make it easier, all federally-recognized protected natural areas are listed on WMCA's wiki with direct upload links that automatically add the Wikidata QID to the upload wizard.
Learn more >
| Lingua Libre |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
This project was created in 2016 to respond to the needs of regional languages and allow their oral documentation on Wikimedia projects. Last month, a new interface for this recording tool was launched, putting a focus on ease of use and making the project more international.
Wikimedia Canada uses Lingua Libre to record Indigenous languages in Canada. In particular, volunteers have recorded more than 500 words in Atikamekw language, a First Nation in Quebec.
Learn more >
| French Wiktionary |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
In contrary to printed dictionaries, Wiktionaries are constantly evolving. Each year, traditional dictionaries propose a small update called "millésime" in French. This year, the contributors to the French Wiktionary (called Wiktionnaire) undertook a similar project and have produced a "millésime 2019-2020 du Wiktionnaire".
Between May 1st, 2019 and April 30, 2020, 14 970 new entries in French were added to the French Wiktionary, not including the additional definitions added to already existing entries.
Learn more >
| Contribution from communication agencies on Wikipedia |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
An article was published in Le Monde about this. The Wikipedia Signpost, a monthly community-written and edited newspaper covering the English Wikipedia and other related projects, also published an article about this.
Learn more >
| Picture of the year of Wikimedia Commons |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
| Universal Code of Conduct |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
The Wikipedia Signpot published an article about this. The Verge also published an article about this.
Learn more >
| WikiConcours lycéen |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
This year, for the 7th edition of the WikiConcours lycéen, the prize for contribution went to Lycée Louis-Pasteur in Calgary, Alberta for a a set of articles about Calgary and Francophonie as well as contributions to Wikidata.
Learn more >
| A few news from the Wikimedia Movement |
| by JP Béland (WMCA), 1 July 2020. |
The Celtic Knot Wikimedia Language Conference, the international conference that brings together people working with minority languages on Wikimedia projects, is happening on July 9 and 10, 2020. This year, the conference is organized by Wikimedia Community Ireland and Wikimedia United Kingdom. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's event is entirely online. You can see the programme and satellite events on the conference's website. Register on Eventbrite.
The Wikipedia Library, a project to give access to active Wikipedia editors to reliable sources needed to improve the free encyclopedia, recently announced that they have launched a new EZProxy platform allowing to directly search various databases and that they have new partners giving free access to their databases.
WikiCite published its 2019-2020 Annual Report. WikiCite is an initiative aiming at building a knowledge base on references that can serve the sum of all human knowledge. This report analyzes the results of this intiative.
A report on the usage of Wikimedia projects in education titled "Understanding the Evaluation Practices of Wikimedia Affiliates in Education" has been published.
A new user group, WikiBlind User Group, was officially recognized by the Wikimedia Affiliate Committee. This is an international group dedicated to serve as a network for blind and low-vision people to discover how they can participate in the Wikimedia Movement.