Activity Report 2016

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  Summary

TO COMPLETE In 2016 Wikimedia Canada began a process of bringing the chapter to a more mature level by developing and putting into place necessary policies and generally improving its corporate standards, including the election of a new board of directors with fresher energy and motivations and the donation of an office space by Bibilothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) in Montreal, Quebec. The goal of the chapter is to support and promote the distribution of free educational material within Canada, mainly through Wikimedia projects. To achieve that, the chapter engages in a range of activities such as outreach events, community-building activities, content-creation projects, partnerships with cultural and knowledge institutions, collaborations with Aboriginal communities and training sessions. 2016 saw the concretization of a partnership with the Atikamekw community of Manawan, Quebec that started in 2012 with the goal to create a Wikipedia in the Atikamekw language. In 2016, the chapter had two main priorities: to develop and disseminate free knowledge, and to achieve and sustain a high level of corporate maturity.

  Contribution Workshops

TO COMPLETE The aim of the contribution workshops is to increase free knowledge through the contribution to Wikimedia projects. Throughout the year 2016, an average of two contribution workshops were organized every month in Canada. Those were mainly concentrated in Montreal, Quebec where regular workshops are organized every month in partnership with Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), but there were also workshops held in different cities across the country. Most workshops were edit-a-thons, but a large part were also training sessions. A particular emphasis was put on worskhops aiming at closing the gender gap on Wikipdia by supporting workhops as part of Art+Feminism.

International Francophone Contribution Month

International Francophone Contribution Month at Université de MontréalInternational Francophone Contribution Month at Université de Montréal
Read the full story on Wikimedia Foundation's blog
Read the full story on Wikimedia Foundation's blog
As part of the International Francophone Contribution Month 2016 (French) organized through la Francophonie, a series of contribution workshops on Wikipedia and Wikisource and a photographic march were organized in Montreal. Five of the ten workshops were broadcast live on the Internet, allowing a few people to attend distance training. Of all the countries since the Month of contribution exist, the year 2016 in Canada is by far the one where the number of workshops is superior, with ten workshops organized in the metropolitan community of Montreal.
Number of participants132
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Free Knowledge Café

The Free Knowledge Café is a formation workshop to Wikipedia and OpenStreetMaps held at the library of the Ahuntsic neighbourhood of Montreal. In addition to the two organizers, eight people participated in the workshop, including two representative from the Ahuntsic-Cartierville History Society and citizens of the Ahuntisc-Cartierville neighbourhood. At the end of the one hour training, the article Bibliothèque d'Ahuntsic was created on the French Wikipedia and some related articles were improved. This was followed by a formation to OpenStreetMaps (OSM) given by Christophe Lefrançois during which the library was geolocalized and the Wikipedia article was linked in OSM.

Number of participants~50
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Training at the Université du Québec à Montréal

For two days, a professor from UQAM and a volunteer from Wikimedia Canada gave training to university students and teachers. The objective was to make the participants autonomous in order to organize in turn workshops for contributions to Wikipedia and brother projects.

During this training, the organizers were able to observe some participants not from the Université du Québec à Montréal, but also from other Montreal universities.

Number of participants24
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WikiPhys returns

For the third consecutive year, FAECUM (Federation of Student Associations of the Université de Montréal Campus) and librarians of the Université de Montréal Physics Library, are organizing a workshop to contribute and translate articles on physics. The organizers noted that the recurrence of the annual event and short personalized training sessions had allowed participants to be more independent throughout the day of the event but also several months after the workshop.
Number of participants27New articles created 11
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Art+Feminism

Two events took place for the third annual contributing day for art and feminism in Montreal at the Concordia University's Canadian Artist History Network (CWAHI) and at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. The objective was to contribute articles dealing with women artists in Montreal (although it was not compulsory). A SPARQL query was created in Wikidata for the occasion; It has allowed to highlight women artists. To help the contributor, a childcare service was offered free of charge by the Childcare Collective of QPIRG Concordia. All workshops and presentations were in French and English.

Sociologist Anne Goldenberg offered a workshop on anti-oppressive approaches in Wikipedia. She has been interested in the political, epistemic and poetic aspects of collaborative platforms and participatory mechanisms.

Number of participants21New articles created 2Number of edits 72Number of bytes added 13,391Number of images uploaded 36
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  Aboriginal languages

SUMMARY

Atikamekw Project

Read the full story on Wikimedia Foundation's blog
Read the full story on Wikimedia Foundation's blog
As part of the project The Atikamekw Knowledge, Culture and Language on Wikimedia Projects (French), two Wikimedians of Wikimedia Canada and two teachers of the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) went to Manawan, an Atikamekw reserve in Quebec, to present the project to the community. After meeting with the key people involved in the project, the experienced Wikimedians gave a formation to contribute to the Wikipedia in Atikamekw to around 20 people from the community.

In the news: Hugo Lavoie, Le défi de faire exister l'atikamekw à l'ère du web, Radio-Canada, 30 mai 2016 (French).

See also Projects/Aboriginal communities outreach.

Number of participants25
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  Strategy and partnership building

SUMMARY

Québec's Digital Strategy

The Free Knowledge Café (in French) invited around 15 organizations of Quebec that are preoccupied by the "digital common good" to discuss a Quebec Digital Strategy : Wikimedia Canada, FACiL, OpenStreetMap Montreal, Communautique, Crypto.Québec, Open Knowledge Foundation Canada, Association science et bien commun, Union des consommateurs, Fab Labs Québec, Design et démocratie, Association pour le développement technologique en éducation, Remix Bien Communs, OuiShare Québec et Percolab. The goal of the event was to support the cocreation of a document about our common vision of the digital and the Quebec Digital Strategy. In the spirit of the approach took in France, the goal is to gather all organizations interested by the digital common goods.

Pad Quebec Digital Strategy (in French)
All the pictures of the event
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Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

BAnQ and Wikimedia Canada, Award of Excellence International OutreachBAnQ and Wikimedia Canada, Award of Excellence International Outreach
Wikimedia Canada is now now located in Gilles-Hocquart buildingWikimedia Canada is now now located in Gilles-Hocquart building

October 2015, Wikimedia Canada and BAnQ Vieux-Montréal discuss a new archive project and March 2016 begins the massive upload of files; After the Conrad Poirier (2014) and Champlain Marcil (2015) funds, it was the turn of the Félix Barrière Collection (circa 1900-1940). More than a thousand files are made available to wikimedians and potentially place the images in Wikipedia articles or other brother projects.

On December 1, 2016, the agreement signed between Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and Wikimedia Canada takes effect. Located in the mythical Gilles-Hocquart building, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal generously offers an office space to Wikimedia Canada, and the association becomes domiciled at 535 Viger Avenue East, Montreal, Quebec H2L 2P3. The signed agreement is for a five-year term, renewable.

Coincidence, on the same day that the agreement comes into effect, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec wins an award at the Excellence ceremony 2016 of the Institute of Public Administration of Quebec: International Outreach Award. Pictured from left to right: Michel Lafleur, Assistant Deputy Minister for Bilateral Affairs, Department of International Relations and La Francophonie; Sophie Montreuil, BAnQ; Florian Daveau, BAnQ; Maureen Clapperton, BAnQ; Frédéric Giuliano, BAnQ; Claire Séguin, BAnQ; Christiane Barbe, President and CEO, BAnQ; Hélène Laverdure, BAnQ; Benoit Rochon, President, Wikimedia Canada; Jean-Stéphane Bernard, Deputy Minister, Department of International Relations and La Francophonie; Hélène Cadieux, BAnQ.

Number of participants7Number of images uploaded 1011
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Rendez-vous des bibliothèques publiques du Québec

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  Cartography

SUMMARY

"Add Wikidata to Africa" Challenge


This was the first meeting between Wikimedia Canada and OpenStreetMap Ottawa with the goal of establishing a collaboration between the two communities in the Canadian National Capital Region. The meeting started with a presentation by Steve Coast, the founder of OSM, who presented the OpenStreetView project. This was followed by a challenge to add the Wikidata tags to all cities and towns in Africa on OSM using a semi-automated tool developed for this purpose by a member of OSM Ottawa (see on github). 7 people participated in this challenge and added more than 5000 Wikidata's IDs to OSM in Africa in only one day (see the results).

Number of participants20
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Month of art and funeral rites

Participants share tricks, mobile apps and online tools to contribute more effectively.Participants share tricks, mobile apps and online tools to contribute more effectively.

As part of the month of art and funeral rites, Wikimedia Canada, the Free Knowledge Café and OpenStreetMap Montreal joined forces to document one of Canada's important cemeteries from a historical perspective. The month of art and funeral rites is an activity that takes place throughout the Francophonie and aims to photograph and geolocate the elements of interests inside a cemetery. So we were able to take about a hundred photos and as many geolocation point of the Mount Royal Cemetery.

Wikipédia:Mois de l'art et des rites funéraires
Number of participants11Number of images uploaded ~100
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