WikiOutdoor Training 2024: Developing skills for conducting expeditions

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WikiOutdoor Training 2024 logo (Credit: Kiril Simeonovski, CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Wikimedians from Central and Eastern Europe gathered in the Prespa Region of Macedonia at the first-ever WikiOutdoor Training that took place in the period 78 September 2024. A total of 23 selected trainees from 12 countries had the opportunity to learn skills and competences on how to implement outdoor activities from the four-man team that has been in charge of the Macedonian Wikiexpeditions since 2015. The primary goal of the training was to support the conduct of expeditions aimed at documenting places in other countries as well as to encourage organising events on developing universal skills.

Participation and format

The training was planned for a total of 28 participants—24 selected trainees and 4 trainers. Trainees were selected through a call for applications, which was open from 22 April to 20 May 2024, based on the answers provided in an application form. Of the selected trainees, 20 received a scholarship and 4 were self-funded participants. Participants (trainees and trainers) were divided into seven teams of four members, and each members had a pre-determined role—a driver, a researcher, a photographer and a drone operator. Drivers were transporting the teams during the training, researchers were responsible for exploring the target area of the expedition, photographers were taking pictures during the training and drone operators were taking aerial pictures and filming videos using a drone. One of the teams did not have a researcher because the selected trainee was unable to arrive for the event due to visa problems.

A brief recap of the training

The training began with an opening address by the trainers and a roundtable introduction in which trainees shared their background, interest to take part in the event and future plans on how to use the new skills and knowledge within their respective countries and communities. After the opening session, the event continued with an introductory presentation on outdoor activities in which trainees learnt about the pros and cons of outdoor compared to indoor activities, as well as about the different types of outdoor activities that can be implemented in the Wikimedia movement. A workshop followed on expeditionary planning and research, which presented the six-step process of organising expeditions in greater detail. This session was particularly notable for researchers and drivers as it helped better understand the activities that need to be carried out and all logistical needs that have to be met in order to successfully conduct expeditions. The next workshop dealt with photography for expeditions in which the trainees in the roles of photographers and drone operators had the chance to gain knowledge on how to take documentary images of places and objects, why aerial photography is sometimes superior to ground photography and what is the photographic equipment required for it. During the course of this workshop, the trainees in the roles of researchers worked together to plan the route and places of interest for the expedition the following day. The last session was a workshop in which the expedition in the Prespa Region was introduced, and the expeditionary teams were formed by drawing of lots.

In the second half of the first day, a casual exploring was organised on the nearby mountain Galičica. A total of four stops were made during the exploring. At the beginning, the group stopped at a viewpoint on the eastern slopes of the mountain, which offered a nice view of Lake Prespa. Then, a stop was made in the locality of Asan Ǵura, which is deeply in the mountain and has an abandoned ski lift. Afterwards, the group visited the mountain pass of Lipova Livada, which separates the Prespa and Ohrid regions. This was the longest stop as it offered a beautiful aerial view of Prespa and Ohrid lakes from a drone. Finally, a stop was made on the western slopes of the mountain, near a small Orthodox Christian chapel dedicated to Saint George, with a sunset view of Lake Ohrid. After the casual exploring, participants had a dinner in a restaurant at the Monastery of Saint Naum on Lake Ohrid. The first day concluded with an astroexpedition that took place on the mountain pass of Lipova Livada during which participants could observe a sky full of stars thanks to the favourable weather conditions.

The second day was marked by the expedition in the northernmost part of the Prespa Region, which was deliberately chosen because of its poor coverage with content on the Wikimedia projects. A total of six villages—Gorno Krušje, Leva Reka, Izbišta, Jankovec, Kriveni and Zlatari—were visited and documented. Each researcher’s team was responsible for one village, and their vehicle led the convoy to all the places of interest in that village. The first village was fully covered by the team of trainers in which they practically explained all necessary activities, such as navigating the vehicle through the village, understanding the architectural elements of an Orthodox Christian church that are worth documenting and operating a drone over the village in order to take documentary aerial pictures. In addition to the six villages, one team continued the expedition by visiting and documenting the village of Bolno. The documentation included searching for places of interest (e.g. churches and monasteries, cultural monuments, schools etc.) based on the information about the villages prepared by researchers the day before and taking pictures of those places. As with the first day, the second day concluded with a dinner in a local restaurant.

Participants were also instructed on how to upload the images taken during the different activities in order to complete the documentation of the training.

A group photo of participants at WikiOutdoor Training 2024 (Credit: Dean Lazarevski, CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Lessons learnt

The main lessons learnt from the training are presented in turn:

  • Lesson 1: Providing logistics for the event is difficult and tiresome. The event had high logistical demands as six sport utility vehicles carrying the participants had to be transported to and from the Prespa Region. This required a careful and detailed plan in advance, and some of the organisers had to travel back and forth a couple of times.
  • Lesson 2: Presentations and workshops are a useful introduction. Despite the fact that this was an outdoor training, the presentations and workshops that took place indoors were a very good introduction for participants to the training and what should be borne in mind for each of the participatory roles.
  • Lesson 3: Casual exploring is perfect to get to know each other. As the training aimed at bringing people to work together as teams in an outdoor setting, it was of crucial importance to give some time and space for socialising before the expedition. The outdoor activities in the second half of the first day truly contributed to achieving this goal.
  • Lesson 4: More teams slow down the pace of the expedition. One caveat when having more teams moving in a convoy during an expedition is that things substantially slow down. As a consequence, the number of visited and documented villages was only a half of that in the preliminary plan. This proved that one team whose members have clearly defined roles is optimal for conducting an expedition.
  • Lesson 5: Weather is an important factor as it is unpredictable. Since the dates for this event were set several months in advance, it was uncertain if the weather conditions would be favourable for the outdoor activities to take place. Therefore, it is important to plan such events in a period of the year with less precipitation and higher amount of sunshine hours.

Future plans

The main plan in the near future is to guide and help trainees to use the skills and knowledge acquired during the training to initiate expeditions and other outdoor activities within their countries and communities. Furthermore, this event will hopefully inspire communities from other regions to consider organising similar trainings that offer universal practical skills. Finally, it is important to keep consistency in developing skills on conducting expeditions, so a long-term plan is to make this training a recurrent event in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.

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Thank you for report. What was the gender balance and distribution of newbie vs. usual suspects in the event?