Seniors belong on Wikipedia! This has been confirmed for many years by the successful Seniors Write Wikipedia programme in Czech Republic. We welcomed new active seniors to Wikipedia, introduced several new features and had many successes.
Courses as a shop window
As every year, the senior activities in 2023 revolved primarily around the flagship of the entire Seniors Write Wikipedia programme, i.e. courses for seniors. The time-tested six-week scenario of courses for seniors-beginners took Wikipedia to Prague, Ostrava, Plzeň, České Budějovice, Olomouc and through online courses to other parts of the country. As every year, the graduates of the beginners’ courses could further improve their skills. This is thanks to the offer of follow-up courses for advanced editors and for those who want to delve deeper into Wikimedia Commons.
In 2023, we opened 14 Senior Write Wikipedia courses with 83 participants. Of these courses, ten were for beginners and four were for advanced learners. These courses were taught by a total of 10 tutors from the Wikimedia CZ tutoring team, to whom we are very grateful for their excellent work.
Would you like a Wikipedia Night School?
A senior Wikipedian can take a beginner’s course and two different follow-up courses. But what next? For the most active of the most active, we’ve launched a Wikipedia Night School course! This offers the opportunity to focus on developing specific skills that active Wikipedians need to do their job. This allows participants to focus on techniques and tweaks that can be used in editing practice and that are not covered in detail in Senior Write Wikipedia courses. It is important to note, however, that the online Wikipedia Night School is popular not only among seniors.
Last year, Wikipedians had the chance to visit nine such Wikipedia Night Schools. The range of topics was varied and everyone could choose. Some of the Night Schools topics included infoboxes, uploading images to Wikimedia Commons, Wikicests, and basic information about Wikidata. However, editors and photographers were also in the mix.
Senior Wikipedians Day – Senior WikiTown!
The real reward for active senior Wikipedians is traditionally the September Senior WikiTown. With a group of seniors we visited Lysá nad Labem in 2023, where participants could enjoy sightseeing, excursions and Wikipedia work. Wikipedians took home valuable documentation of places, people and historical context from the town and its surroundings. They documented in detail the Lysá Castle, the historical archive, the Bon Repos Chateau or the power plant on the Elbe.
On the basis of our detective work, we have published rare photographs of the interior of Benies’ villa, which document the unique movement of Czech architectural cubism and thus expanded the article about this monument. In total, 583 photographs that were taken during the Senior WikiTown in Lysá nad Labem were published under a free license. A dozen articles were created and another 32 were expanded or corrected.
One of the participants, Mrs. Eva Mžourková, was at the Senior WikiTown in Lysá lad Labem for the first time and she left excited.
“Thank you for opening up a space of Wikipedia that I had no idea about. I observe that there is a community of Wikipedians where there are specific rules – sympathetic. I hope to make progress on Wikipedia, it’s been fun so far.”
However, it’s important to note that it’s not just senior events where you can meet our senior Wikipedians. At every editathon, every reunion, and in Wikimedia Czech Republic itself, WikiSeniors are one of the most active and appreciative groups of Wikipedia users and contributors.
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WikiSeniors were heard and seen
The Seniors Write Wikipedia programme is not just about working and enriching Wikipedia. The senior program is all about the people, their stories and valuable experiences that active seniors can pass on, not only by working on Wikipedia. It was with this message that we launched Wikipedia Senior Month last year. The whole month of December was dedicated to the most active WikiSeniors.
As every year, we also showed up with booths and the opportunity to try editing for yourself at the Prague Fresh Senior Festival and the Elpida Centre Open Day, where visitors could learn more about our activities for seniors, but also talk to our alumni. Our active WikiSeniors were able to chat not only with festival visitors but also with the editor of Czech Radio!
Conclusion
In 2023, we dedicated the year to the most active WikiSeniors, for whom we introduced a brand new format of education – Wikipedia Night School. Thanks to this, seniors can improve their skills on Wikipedia every month and become an even more prominent editorial group. We dedicated the whole month of December to this group. With the large number of courses, the Senior WikiTown and all the other events, we can say with a calm heart and full of joy that in 2023 the seniors were definitely not bored with us!
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