From Slovenia to Armenia: A WikiCamp, a Peer Exchange, and New Connections

The Wikimedia movement is built on collaboration, sharing experiences, and learning from one another. So when the CEE Hub announced its Peer Learning Exchange, Wikimedia Armenia was excited to take part.

The idea of the exchange was simple: bring a developing Wikimedia community closer to a more established one, creating an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences, share best practices, and build connections that could continue beyond the exchange itself.

Our exchange brought us together with Nal Mencin from the Wikipedians of Slovenia User Group. Once we started discussing what the exchange could look like, one activity immediately stood out: Wikimedia Armenia’s Summer Youth WikiCamp.

The WikiCamp seemed like the perfect opportunity for Nal to experience our community from the inside. Rather than simply observing how we work, we wanted him to become part of it. So, the exchange combined meetings and discussions with the Wikimedia Armenia team with something much more hands-on: becoming a WikiCamp participant.

Welcoming Nal to the WikiCamp

From the very beginning, we wanted Nal to experience the WikiCamp not as an observer, but as a real participant.

During the first two days, he joined one of the participant groups and took part in editing workshops, sports, cultural activities, and all the informal conversations that happen in between. He contributed to articles about Armenian topics, made new friends, and even learned an Armenian song – something that certainly wasn’t included in our official Peer Exchange plan!

We had initially been a little worried about communication. Not everyone at the WikiCamp was comfortable speaking English, and we wondered how easily Nal would be able to connect with the participants. In reality, those concerns disappeared very quickly.

People simply found ways to communicate. Nal even discovered participants who could speak German with him, which came as a pleasant surprise. Language turned out to be much less of a barrier than we had expected.

What was especially wonderful was how naturally Nal became part of the community. Participants were curious about Slovenia, happy to share their own experiences, and eager to include him in activities and conversations. Very quickly, he was no longer simply “the participant from Slovenia” – he was Nal, one of the WikiCamp people.

And the feeling seemed to be mutual. Several participants told us that this was their best WikiCamp yet, with the presence of international participants being one of the things that made the experience particularly memorable.

For us, this was one of the most rewarding outcomes of the exchange. We wanted Nal to learn from Wikimedia Armenia, but the WikiCamp also gained something from having him there. A peer exchange became a two-way exchange of knowledge, cultures, languages, friendships – and a few Armenian songs.

Behind the scenes

After experiencing the WikiCamp as a participant, Nal had the opportunity to take a closer look at what happens behind the scenes. 

He met with different members of Wikimedia Armenia’s team to learn what goes into organising our activities – from logistics and planning to identifying risks and challenges before an event even begins. We also discussed working with different age groups and adapting activities to the needs of participants.

Another important part of the discussions was communication. We talked about how Wikimedia Armenia approaches strategic communication before and after events, how we present our activities to wider audiences, and, perhaps most importantly, how we try to keep people engaged after their first Wikimedia experience.

Nal came with plenty of questions, which made the conversations much more than one-way knowledge sharing. They became discussions about what works, what does not, and what could be adapted to different community contexts.

More than an exchange

One of the most valuable things about a peer exchange is that it does not have to end when the visit is over

We hope that the experiences and ideas shared during these days will help the Slovenian community develop its activities and approach new initiatives with greater confidence. At the same time, Wikimedia Armenia also gained new perspectives by looking at our own work through the eyes of someone from another community.

And we did not want the exchange to end when Nal left Armenia.

As one of the outcomes of the Peer Learning Exchange, we came up with the idea of a collaborative edit-a-thon focusing on Armenian and Slovenian topics. It will be a first practical step toward bringing our communities even closer and creating opportunities for Wikimedians from both countries to work together.

A peer exchange may last only a few days, but the connections created through it can last much longer.

We are grateful to Nal for joining us, asking thoughtful questions, sharing his own perspectives, and becoming part of our WikiCamp community for a few days. We are looking forward to seeing where this new connection takes both communities – and, hopefully, welcoming more Wikimedians from different communities to Armenia in the future!