Wikimedia Ukraine in 2024 – 5 biggest projects & 5 new initiatives

Translate this post

“The value of Wikimedia Ukraine is the ability to combine forces and resources, especially volunteer resources, and do something incredible”. In 2024, we once again united the volunteer community to foster free knowledge in Ukrainian and for Ukrainians.

This post features Wikimedia Ukraine’s five biggest projects of 2024 and five initiatives that we organized for the first time in our history.

The projects mentioned here are only a brief glimpse into our activity; we’ll publish a detailed annual report in February. Thanks to all the volunteers and partners who made this work possible!

Wikiconference 2024 participants
Collage: Anton Obozhyn, CC0

Five biggest projects of 2024

1. Wiki Loves Monuments — 100,000 monuments in the list, 30,000+ photos

Supporting preservation of Ukraine’s cultural and natural heritage is an important strategic priority for Wikimedia Ukraine. The largest project here is Wiki Loves Monuments, an annual photo contest devoted to Ukrainian cultural monuments and a related broader project. 

In early 2024, we hit an important milestone – its list of Ukraine’s monuments hit 100,000 entries. Curated by the volunteer organizing team, it’s the most comprehensive open list of cultural monuments in Ukraine. (The government doesn’t yet offer a full centralized list, so the WLM Ukraine team compiles our list using hundreds of requests to local authorities across the country).

We held the annual photo contest itself in October. 322 participants uploaded more than 30,100 photos of approximately 6,400 Ukrainian cultural heritage monuments. Ukraine took second place by the number of uploads among 56 participating countries.

St Andrew’s Church in Kyiv, winner of Wiki Loves Monuments in 2023
Photo: Maksym Popelniukh, CC BY-SA 4.0

2. Wikimarathon – almost 50 events in 10 days 

InJanuary last year we celebrated Ukrainian Wikipedia’s 20th anniversary. Wikimedia Ukraine organized its annual Wikimarathon, a large-scale campaign to attract as many new volunteers as possible to contribute to the Ukrainian Wikipedia. 

365 participants, including 108 newcomers, took part in Wikimarathon. Our community members held 36 events in 17 regions of Ukraine and 11 events for Ukrainians in 5 other European countries. 

Wikimarathon 2024 participants in Kharkiv
Photo: Venzz, CC BY-SA 4.0

3. Wikiconference – 125 participants in two cities and online 

In late October and early November WMUA held Wikiconference 2024, our flagship annual conference for the Ukrainian community. 

The event consisted of two virtual conference days and two offline meetings. It has become the most-attended event in our history – over 122 people joined. 

4. Wikipedia Education Program – promoting media literacy and supporting the community

We are constantly working to bring Wikipedia closer to schools and universities – and to help educators integrate Wikipedia and wikiprojects into the learning process effectively.

For example, last year we:

Participants of Wikimedia Ukraine’s offline training session for educators in November
Photo: Oleksandr Kotliar, CC0

5. Article contests and campaigns – advancing knowledge in Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar

Throughout 2024 we regularly organized contests and campaigns on Wikipedia and sister projects to bridge gaps on particularly important and underrepresented topics.

We organized a version of the CEE Spring contest in May and Wikipedia Asian Month in December. In March we ran WikiGap, a campaign about prominent women, and organized the “(Un)seen women on Wikipedia” contest in December. We supported the community of Ukrainian Wikisource that held regular campaigns to proofread works by prominent authors… And those are just a few examples.

What’s also important, in the summer we held a second marathon on Crimean Tatar Wikipedia to boost its growth. Participants created and improved more than 500 articles in the Crimean Tatar language.  

Meeting during the Crimean Tatar Wikipedia marathon at the Crimean Tatar Cultural Center in Lviv
Photo: Mariana Senkiv, CC BY-SA 4.0

Five new 2024 initiatives 

1.“Wikipedia 20” awards – celebrating volunteers who’ve made Ukrainian Wikipedia

How can we celebrate the contributions of volunteers who’ve dedicated dozens of years to making Wikipedia better? Last year Ukrainian Wikipedia marked a 20-year anniversary, and we launched a special award for people who’ve shaped this great run.

In late October, 38 volunteers across 18 categories received an award for their contribution – from the mining scientist who created 27,000 articles over 18 years to the financial manager who’s made the most edits, to the teacher who founded a wiki club in her hometown. The award ceremony took place at Ukraine’s annual Wikiconference.

Winners, jury members and organizers who were present at the award ceremony in Kyiv
Photo: Iryna Boiko, СС0

2. Courses “Wikipedia for 55+” and for neurodivergent people

One of Wikimedia Ukraine’s goals is to engage underrepresented groups of contributors. We set up two pilot projects last year: 

  • Online course about Wikipedia for neurodivergent people
  • Offline training course for senior citizens within our “Wikipedia for 55+” program

We are now finalising their results and will share more details soon.

Wikipedia training for senior citizens in Poltava
Photo: Maryna Lebid, CC BY-SA 4.0

3. Heritage Guard Network — developing international partnerships on cultural and landscape heritage preservation

In 2024 we helped build the international Heritage Guard Network, a pilot project that aims to research and build partnerships around cultural and landscape protection. The project is organized by Wikimedia Sweden, Wikimedia Poland, Wikimedia UG Georgia, Wikimedia Ukraine with support of the CEE Hub and the Content Partnerships Hub; it’s funded by the Swedish Institute.

Throughout the year we built a network of partners and conducted research, which was then presented at the final event in Warsaw in November. We hope to expand the project next year, so stay tuned! 

Participants of the final Heritage Guard Network event in Warsaw 
Photo: Jolanta Drzewakowska, CC BY-SA 4.0

4. Video course about Wikipedia for beginners

Throughout the year we created a series of short videos about basics of Wikipedia and wikiprojects.

They are valuable both for newcomers who look for information online and for trainers who organize events about Wikipedia. During the next several months we will expand the videos to form a full-fledged video course. 

Wikimedia Ukraine’s video shown at a local training during Wikimarathon 2024
Photo: Еколог Світлана, CC BY-SA 4.0

5. Online training course for Wikipedia trainers

Wikimedia Ukraine supports dozens of training sessions across Ukraine every year. To help local organizers make them more efficient, we held our first online training course for Wikipedia trainers in December 2023 and January 2024. 

The course consisted of five modules: how to present Wikipedia, how to hold offline events, how to keep participants’ attention online etc. 15 people successfully completed it. 

Screenshot: Olena Vinsent, CC0

Read also 

  • Previous years’ highlights: 2023, 2022

A version of this article was originally published on Wikimedia Ukraine’s blog in Ukrainian

Can you help us translate this article?

In order for this article to reach as many people as possible we would like your help. Can you translate this article to get the message out?