Results of the 2025 Teacher’s WikiCamp in Georgia

Wikimedia Georgia has traditionally organized a WikiCamp for teachers for three years now, which is also usually held in Borjomi. This year, we held the third consecutive camp for teachers.

For the camp, we selected teachers from private and public schools across various municipalities of Georgia based on the recommendations of the heads of active WikiClubs in the country. Some teachers were invited from regions where we have already established WikiClubs to strengthen the work of those clubs.

We invited teachers from the WikiClubs of Arali, Samtredia, Marneuli, and Rustavi to participate in the camp. In addition, we are allowed to take part in the camp for teachers from regions where we plan to open new WikiClubs in the future (including several public and private schools in Tbilisi, Kaspi, as well as schools in Kutaisi, Kvareli, and Zestaponi). The camp also included one representative from the Ilia Chavchavadze National Library of Georgia and one from the Vakhushti Bagrationi Institute of Geography.

The camp was held in Borjomi, at the “Borjomi Palace” hotel, from March 12 to March 15. On March 12, the Executive Director of Wikimedia Georgia spoke to the camp participants about the organization, the Wikimedia movement, and its future goals.

The working sessions took place on March 13, 14, and 15, with three daily sessions lasting between 1.5 and 2 hours. On March 13, camp participants were taught the skills to write Wikipedia articles. They were introduced to the functions of the editing panel buttons and given practical tasks to complete. On the same day, they also learned how to correctly insert literature, external resources, and references, insert files into an article, and add categories.

On the second working day, participants were introduced to Wikipedia’s sister projects: Wikidata, Wikisource, and Wikimedia Commons. The teachers learned about the principles of working on these platforms. By the end of the day, we taught them the basics of writing and translating articles using AI.

On the third working day, during three separate sessions, all 18 camp participants actively wrote articles on Wikipedia. With the guidance and recommendations of the camp trainers, the participants collectively created 65 new articles in Georgian Wikipedia.

Currently, Georgian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Georgia are hosting the contest “Women in Wikipedia,” which aims to increase the number of articles about women and the overall number of articles on the platform. Notably, six camp participants contributed to the ongoing contest by writing 16 articles during the camp.

It is important to highlight that this year’s camp featured Caner Özyayıkçı, an editor for the Turkish Wikipedia and Communications Officer at Wikimedia Turkey, who participated at the invitation of Wikimedia Georgia. He took the opportunity during the camp to clarify to attendees the principles behind how Wikimedia Commons functions, its licensing guidelines, and the process for uploading images to the Commons. Furthermore, throughout the duration of the camp, he captured photos of the sessions, edited them, and uploaded them on Wikimedia Commons.

The camp ended with certificates being awarded to the teachers and other participants. We remain hopeful that the majority of the camp participants will stay engaged with Georgian Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, continue writing articles, and contribute to enriching the Georgian Wikimedia projects with new resources.