Submissions/Get inspired for activity revolution

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2015 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this July.

Submission no.: 2040

Title of the submission: Get inspired for activity revolution

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop): presentation

Author of the submission: Kiril Simeonovski

E-mail address: kiril.simeonovskigmail.com

Username: Kiril Simeonovski

Country of origin: Macedonia

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Shared Knowledge

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

Wikimedia Macedonia was approved as a local chapter by the Wikimedia Foindation in September 2009 and it was legally established in February 2010 with the main goal of implementing mission-aligned projects and activities. Its main expectations for every fiscal year were to adopt an annual plan, request funding, increase its memberships and run its programmes with various projects and activities. However, this simple process has never been fully completed and most of the the activities done within the chapter were presentations and workshops in dfferent educational institutions. In 2013, a group of members of Wikimedia Macedonia attempted to revive the chapter by significantly increasing the amount of its activities but unfortunately got refuted by its president who was the only person with access to the bank account and to the official bylaws and statues of the organisation. The crisis culminated when the organising team of Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 in Macedonia was prevented from running it as a chapter's project since the president was reluctant on fullfiling the requirements requested from the Wikimedia Foundation in order to wire the mney from the grant. Yet, the organising team persisted in its wish to carry out the project and did it independently from the chapter. In the meantime, the group of disappointed members hold an unsuccessful general assembly which was the last attempt to implement some changes and increase the activity level of the chapter.

After successfully completing the photographic competition Wiki Loves Cultural Heritage 2013 in Macedonia (spin-off of Wiki Loves Monuments), the community on the Macedonian Wikipedia voted no confidence to the current Wikimedia Macedonia and encouraged the group to establish a new organisation that will have to replace Wikimedia Macedonia. The general assembly of the founding members of the new organisation took place in January 2014 and it was legally established in March 2014 with the name Shared Knowledge. Considering the problems within Wikimedia Macedonia, the members of Shared Knowlwedge implemented the lessons learned to set a functuonal and collaborative environment with prospects for future growth. The activities of Shared Knowledge have started with organising Wiki Loves Earth 2014 and continued with the adoption of its annual plan with three programmes and a dozen of projects. The number of active members of the organisation has also grown to more than 15. In other words, the main expectations of Wikimedia Macedonia that could not have been met for 4 years were met by Shared Knowledge in less than a year. Currently, the new organisation is running the activities from its annual plan with the intend of programmatic expansion for the following year. There are ongoing negotiations of Shared Knowledge with the members of the Affiliations Committee in recognising it as successor to Wikimedia Macedonia as a local chapter. As part of this process, Shared Knowledge was recognised as a user group in February 2014 in order to become an official affiliate in the Wikimedia movement.

The main goal of this presentation is to present the crisis in Wikimedia Macedonia and all lessons learned from it to the global community. The enthusiasm of the disappointed members of Wikimedia Macedonia, who left the organisation to found a new one and eventually initiate an activity revolution can be a good inspiration for many other people within the movement to never give up. The main questions that this presentation will answer are the following:

What were the reasons for the crisis in Wikimedia Macedonia?
What are the lessons learned from the crisis?
What were the prerequisites for initiating the activity revolution?
How was the collaborative environment created within Shared Knowledge?
How are ideas generated and adopted within Shared Knowledge?

Track: WikiCulture & Community

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: probably yes

Slides or further information (optional)

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Ocaasi (talk) 18:00, 3 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Trans Goat (talk) 10:16, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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