Celebrating 25 Years of Wikipedia in Slovakia

Though some might wish for it, Slovakia is not immune to the passing of time and Wikipedia became 25 years old in here too. Such an occasion called for a proper celebration and so we at Wikimedians of Slovakia hosted a party for the Slovak Wikipedia and Wikimedia community.

As a community project, the biggest asset of Wikipedia are the editors that contribute to its development and upkeep. The idea was that the party would be a get-together for community members rather than an outreach event for the general public. In most cases these were editors that achieved a certain level of engagement and edits. They either remain active or used to be active in the past. We invited over 200 such people. Sadly, one response noted that the editor is no longer alive but his son was certain that his father would have appreciated the invitation and been happy to join his colleagues. We wish to recognize and thank the colleagues who are no longer among us. In the end, 17 people registered for the in-person event and 15 people came. It might not sound like big numbers but we have not had this type of turn in a while, over a decade most likely.

It was great to see that as people arrived, they already started interacting with each other and the ice-breaking activity that we had planned was not even necessary. Some time into the event, Matej Grochal, the chairperson of the user group, gave a short, slightly formal welcome message. Matej also hosted two rounds of a small quiz. Its questions included obvious facts, obscure trivia and many other bits of information mostly about Slovak Wikipedia but also the Wikimedian universe. The winners were editors: Peko and Eryn Blaireová. Jan Michael Kormaník presented a talk about Wikipedia and its sister projects that included their history but also recent developments. During the event, Fillos X also entertained the guests by his trivia.

Additionally, our space at the Bratislava City Library became a gallery: the walls featured an exhibition of photographs that were submitted during competitions or content drives that Wikimedians of Slovakia organized, such as Wiki Loves Monuments or Wiki Loves Earth. The exhibition was curated by Radoslava Semanová. Our hope was to inspire more people to document Slovakia by contributing media to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license.

As with most celebrations, there was cake …

… actually two wiki-cakes.

Time passed fast (almost as fast as those 25 years) but there was enough time for a group photo:

Wikimedians of Slovakia wish to thank the Wikimedia Foundation for the grant to support this event. We are also thankful to the Bratislava City Library for its support. More photos are available on Wikimedia Commons.

We hope to see each other in even bigger numbers when Slovak Wikipedia turns 25 in 2028 🙂