Newsletter September 2023

Gevaert photo paper

On 9 September, a writing session took place at the Photomuseum of Antwerp about Gevaert photopaper.

Photo contests

Four photo contests on heritage and monuments are running in Belgium under the motto "Wiki Loves" until the end of September. As there are no photo competitions in Luxembourg, photos from Luxembourg can also be uploaded.

Two contests are going international (Wiki Loves Living Heritage and Wiki Loves Monuments). There is one national photo competition (Wiki Loves Heritage), and a regional one (Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei) as an initiative of the Erfgoedcel Pajottenland Zennevallei.

• Wiki Loves Monuments, September only
• Wiki Loves Living Heritage, from July to September
• Wiki Loves Heritage, from July to September
• Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei, from July to September

Jury

We would like to recruit some more jury members. This will make it easier to judge the photos during the month of October. Candidates for judges can apply at jury@wikimedia.be. More information on the way of judging.

Wikipedia writing sessions in museums and archives

Wikimedia Belgium collaborates with several GLAM organisations. This is an excellent opportunity to encourage volunteers to help document collections and archives.

From September till December 2023 Wikimedia Belgium runs multiple writing sessions in collaboration with Flemish museums, archives, heritage organisations, and archives. You can find here a list, with detailed session descriptions, and possibility to register. You can participate physically on-site, but you can as well participate online. Read about the sessions, and how you can join.

• Erfgoedlijnen - Roeselare (21 Sep 2023)
• Vrouwen van papier (Guido Gezelle-archief) - Brugge (28 Sep 2023)
• Jenevermuseum - Hasselt (4 Oct 2023; a lot of other sessions in diverse provinces)
• Industriemuseum - Gent (5 Oct 2023; every first Thursday of the month)
• Iedereen Leest - Antwerpen (18, 29 Nov 2023)
• Bibliotheek Beveren (Waas) (20, 27 Nov 2023)

Leading writing sessions

As we get more and more requests for writing sessions, we are in greater need of good and enthusiastic facilitators. We are aware of this. There are an estimated 350 volunteers in Flanders who write on Wikipedia (about 1 per 20000 language users). If we can pick 3% supervisors out of those, we will be 10... two per province. We are also looking for volunteers for Wallonia and Brussels, where we have an estimated 250 volunteers. Candidates can apply at writing@wikimedia.be.

Describing Photos at KOERS

KOERS. The Museum of Cycling in Roeselare will again describe photos of cyclists on Saturday 30 September. The the programme and registration link. Participation is possible also online.

Botanic Garden Transcribathon

On 12 October, collaborative transcribing of botanical records will take place at Meise Botanical Garden, via the www.doedat.be application. This application was also used by KOERS. The data will be axed at www.botanicalcollections.be. Registration is possible via this link. More info is available at wedigbio.org. Participating can be done physically or online.

Festival for Afrikaans

A Festival voor het Afrikaans is going on in The Hague on 24-26 November. More information also at Wikipedia.

Recently in the news

Wikimania presentations

For those wishing to view the presentations from Wikimania 2023.

Wikimedia Commons

On 7 September, Wikimedia Commons celebrated its 19th anniversary. Wikimedia Commons is based on Creative Commons (founded on 15 January 2001 -- on the same day as Wikipedia). All Wikimedia projects use free licences based on Creative Commons. Wikipedia adopted the CC BY‑SA licence from 2009.

Tropical institute

The Tropical Institute of Antwerp has a new website, WikiTropica, under a CC BY‑SA licence. Information could be reproduced, subject to attribution, by Wikipedia. More information.

Museum pass

Active volunteers who would like to purchase a Museum Pass, valid for one year of free museum visits, can submit an expense report for this purpose. A precondition is that the volunteer uploads photos, or creates Wikipedia pages in return. More information on submitting a expense note.

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