On the occasion of International Roma Day, Wikimedia Serbia organized the second online global edit-a-thon in which Wikipedia volunteers around the world wrote and improved articles on Roma people and their history and culture. This year edit-a-thon was supported by Shared Knowledge, GLAM Macedonia, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group, Wikimedia Polska, Wikimedia España, Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, WikiDonne and Wikimedia Community User Group Belarus. The goal of this campaign is to fight prejudice and discrimination against Roma people by spreading knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wiki projects.
Preparations
Like last year, the marathon itself was preceded by research on topics that could be written about. By the very beginning, a list of 277 suggested articles had been formed. The table on the Meta page showed in which language versions of Wikipedia the mentioned articles exist and which do not. This system allows participants to work on translating articles if sources and literature on a given term do not exist in their language. A lot of time has been invested in inviting Wikimedia affiliates to join and support such an event. It was primarily focused on countries and regions that have a significant Roma minority. Thanks to the good response, interest and support, this edit-a-thon has regained its international character. In Serbia, but also in some other countries, Roma organizations were invited with the aim of having as many Roma participants as possible. For those without experience, a Wikipedia editing workshop was organized. In accordance with the circumstances conditioned by the pandemic, all activities were online.
Results
The edit-a-thon lasted from April 1 to 8, when the International Roma Day took place, with some communities extending it until April 11. I am more than happy to announce that this year we had significantly more participants and new articles written compared to last year. The edit-a-thon reached 71 participants from 21 language editions of Wikipedia. In total, 236 articles were written, 1 article was improved, 20 Wikidata items were created and 1 improved. The biggest contributors were the editors from the Macedonian, Serbian and Albanian Wikipedia, who enhanced the visibility of this topic by creating more than 40 new articles per language. The final results can be viewed on this link.
Thanks to the organizers of the Wikimedia CEE Spring 2021, articles on Roma people and their culture are now an integral part of the event, so interested editors from Central and Eastern Europe can contribute to this topic and participate in their local competitions until May 31st. We certainly invite you, whenever you have time, to write an article on Wikipedia on the topic of any minority or marginalized group of people as a sign of solidarity.
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